Being Not Disobedient Saves You-Acts 26

Acts of the Apostles, New Testament, Sermons

“I was not disobedient to the vision from heaven” (Ac 26:19). [Paul used litotes, an ironic understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by the negative of its contrary, thus denying the opposite.]

  1. Why did Paul consider himself fortunate when standing before King Agrippa (Ac 26:1-3)?
  2. How had Paul lived, which the Jewish people were all aware of (Ac 26:4-5)?
  3. According to Paul, what was the hope of the promise made by God to their ancestors (Ac 26:6-8; Ps 16:8-10; 49:16; Job 19:25-27; Isa 25:6-12; 26:19; Ezek 37:1-14; Dan 12:1-3; Hos 6:2)?
  4. How aggressive and obsessed was Paul in his persecution and fierce opposition to “the name of Jesus of Nazareth” (Ac 26:9-10; 9:2; 22:5)? Why (Ac 26:14)? What was Paul’s goal (Ac 26:11; 9:1)?
  5. How did Jesus appear to Paul on the road to Damascus (Ac 26:12-15)?
    • Why is this one of the central events of the church (Ac 9:3-6; 22:6-10)?
    • What did He commission Paul to do “as a servant and as a witness” (Ac 26:16-18)?
    • How did Paul respond (Ac 26:19-20, 22-23; 20:24; 21:13; 1 Cor 9:16; Phil 3:12, 14; 2 Tim 4:7)?
    • What did the Jews do (Ac 26:21)?
    • How did Paul preach the gospel to all the dignitaries present (Ac 25:23; 26:8, 20, 23, 27, 29)?
  6. How did Paul respond to Festus’s accusation that he was out of his mind (Ac 26:24-27)?
  7. What was King Agrippa’s response to Paul’s pointed question (Ac 26:28)? What did Paul wish for Agrippa and all who heard his testimony (Ac 26:29)? How did this trial conclude (Ac 26:30-32)?
In Acts 22-26 Paul makes his defense (26:1-32), not as a defendant fending off charges but as a model evangelist, where he spoke to:
  • the Jewish people (Acts 22),
  • the Sanhedrin(Acts 23),
  • Felix(Acts 24),
  • Festus(Acts 25), and
  • King Agrippa (Acts 26), where the series of judicial hearings in Caesarea came to a climax and a conclusion. It is perhaps the most elegant of all the speeches in Acts, reflecting careful preparation and attention to elements of style. Paul’s defense was about 15% rebuttal and 85% apologetic.
Paul‘s speech, which takes up the vast majority of Acts 26, is the climax of all of Paul‘s speeches in Acts. The speech is the longest and most detailed of the Pauline speeches in Acts 22-26, indeed the longest apologetic speech in all of Acts. But Paul does not defend himself at length and in detail against specific political charges. Rather, from a strictly judicial point of view, his apologia (Ac 26:2, 24) was irrelevant in a Roman court of law, as he neither attacked his opponents nor offered rebuttals of their charges. Rather, Paul bears witness to a Jewish king by means of a rehearsal  of his own life, in the context of a judicial hearing. The speech secondarily serves Luke’s literary aims to show the fulfilment of Acts 1:8–the witness of the gospel not only to the ends of the earth but also to the great and to the small.
Paul’s story. The bulk of Paul’s speech is a simple chronicling of the events [narratio] right up to the point when he becomes a captive (Ac 26:21). He wishes to establish that he is and has been a sincere Jew who became and remains a witness for Christ. He cannot deny the salient facts of his life as a zealot for his religious convictions, but explains that in regard to his witness for Christ, which some Jews find offensive, he could do no other (Ac 26:19), for God changed his life by divine intervention (Ac 26:13-15) and entrusted him with a divine commission (Ac 26:16-18).

Power couples:

  • Felix and Drusilla (Ac 24:24).
  • King Agrippa and Bernice (Ac 25:13, 23; 26:30).
Paul appears before Herod Agrippa II (25:23-26:32). 4 generations of Herod.
I. Festus initiates the proceedings (25:23-27).
II. Paul makes his defense (26:1-23). He tells his story … again.
  1. His Jewish credentials (26:1-11).
  2. His calling and mission (26:12-23).
  1. Paul begins his defense with gratitude (26:1-3). He turns the trial into a testimony. He turns/views the opposition into/as an opportunity.
  2. Paul provides the story behind the case (26:4-18).
    1. Paul’s Pharisaic background (26:4-5). Paul describes his upbringing as a Pharisee.
    2. Paul’s hope in the resurrection (26:6-8)?
    3. Paul the persecutor (26:9-11). Paul describes his zeal and fanatical persecution of Christians.
    4. The Damascus road vision (26:12-18). Paul describes his conversion and commissioning as an apostle.
      1. Blinding light and Jesus’ voice (26:12-15). [“It’s foolish to bite the hand that feeds you.” “You can’t fight city hall.”]
      2. Commissioning as an apostle to the Gentiles (26:16-18).
        1. “I have appeared to you” (Ac 26:16).
        2. “I will rescue you” (Ac 26:17).
        3. “I am sending you” (Ac 26:18).
  3. Paul concludes his defense (26:19-23).
    1. Preaching to both Jews and Gentiles: Proclaiming repentance, faith in Jesus, and good deeds (26:19-20) and why he was seized (26:21).
    2. Faithful to the prophets and Moses that Christ would suffer and rise from the dead (26:22-23).
  4. Festus and Agrippa agree (26:24-32). Paul’s personal appeal and the outcome. The judges react to the prisoner.
    1. Festus: You’re out of your mind. Paul to Festus: I am not insane. To Agrippa: I speak the truth which the king knows. (26:24-27).
    2. Paul challenges Agrippa and all listening to him to become a Christian (26:28-29).
    3. The decision to send Paul to Caesar (26:30-32).
Paul cannot deny the salient facts of his life as a zealot for his religious convictions, indeed he rehearses them again, but Paul explains that in regard to his witness for Christ, which some Jews find offensive, he could do no other (1 Cor 9:16). God changed his life by divine intervention, and therefore ultimately Paul is suggesting “transference of responsibility to God” for what he has been and even at this moment is doing–witnessing. The rhetorical structure of the speech is as follows:
  1. Exordium (Ac 26:2-3). Introduction.
  2. Narratio (Ac 26:4-21), the part of an argument in which a speaker or writer provides a narrative account of what has happened and explains the nature of the case. This is the bulk of the speech, chronicling the events right up to the point where Paul becomes a captive (Ac 26:21). The reason for the lengthy narratio is that Paul is establishing that he is and has been a sincere Jew who became and remains a witness for Christ. Narration.
  3. Propositio (Ac 26:22-23). Proposition.
  4. Refutatio (Ac 26:25-26). Refutation.
  5. Peroratio (Ac 26:27, 29), the concluding part of a discourse and especially an oration. Conclusion.
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