The man in chains speaks...

To Open Their Eyes

(Acts 26:1-18, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, August 25, 2013)

[26:1] So Agrippa said to Paul, “You have permission to speak for yourself.” Then Paul stretched out his hand and made his defense:
[2] “I consider myself fortunate that it is before you, King Agrippa, I am going to make my defense today against all the accusations of the Jews, [3] especially because you are familiar with all the customs and controversies of the Jews. Therefore I beg you to listen to me patiently.The man in chains spoke to the king arrayed in robes. Paul had been left behind in prison by Governor Felix. The new governor, Festus, had investigated his case and found nothing worthy of capital punishment. Unable to understand the finer points of the theological debate between Paul and his accusers, he suggested moving the trial to Jerusalem. Paul had appealed to Rome as a citizen of the capital of the empire. While Festus had agreed to send him to the emperor, he needed to send him with some written record of the charges against him. This hearing before Agrippa was for the purpose of helping Festus to write those charges. Agrippa knew the religious situation far better than Festus.

[4] “My manner of life from my youth, spent from the beginning among my own nation and in Jerusalem, is known by all the Jews. [5] They have known for a long time, if they are willing to testify, that according to the strictest party of our religion I have lived as a Pharisee. [6] And now I stand here on trial because of my hope in the promise made by God to our fathers, [7] to which our twelve tribes hope to attain, as they earnestly worship night and day. And for this hope I am accused by Jews, O king! [8] Why is it thought incredible by any of you that God raises the dead?
[9] “I myself was convinced that I ought to do many things in opposing the name of Jesus of Nazareth. [10] And I did so in Jerusalem. I not only locked up many of the saints in prison after receiving authority from the chief priests, but when they were put to death I cast my vote against them. [11] And I punished them often in all the synagogues and tried to make them blaspheme, and in raging fury against them I persecuted them even to foreign cities.Paul was originally arrested because of a disturbance in the temple precincts in Jerusalem. How was it that a mob of worshipers came to hate this man so much that they wanted to see him put to death? Paul explained the relevant facts to Herod. He was brought up as a Pharisaic Jew, a group that sought to achieve good standing with God by careful observance of the religious traditions handed down to them by their fathers in the faith.

The Pharisees did not deny the reality of a life to come. The biblical hope had simply lost all its force because of the shadow of wrong thinking about what it meant to follow God well. Instead of faith, hope, and love, the Pharisees had ceremonial hand washing, man-made Sabbath customs, and strict separation from Gentile contact as their passions. The true hope of a new heavens and earth was not officially denied by this group, it was just smothered by other religious concerns that they saw as more pressing—concerns that they were ready to kill for.

Paul knew this mindset well. He had once been ready to imprison and even kill people for the threat that he believed they posed to true Judaism. For Paul prior to the change that took place on the road to Damascus the biblical hope in God's promise of a land where righteousness reigns in the full blessing of the Holy Spirit was something in which he believed, but that belief in the promise that God made to the Jews, that hope in the coming resurrection of the dead, had become effectively dormant because of the deadening leaven of murderous religious thinking.

[12] “In this connection I journeyed to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests. [13] At midday, O king, I saw on the way a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, that shone around me and those who journeyed with me. [14] And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew language, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’ [15] And I said, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ And the Lord said, ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. [16] But rise and stand upon your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you, [17] delivering you from your people and from the Gentiles—to whom I am sending you [18] to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’

It was at that point that everything changed for Paul. Paul met Jesus Christ. He was confronted by the Lord of glory, the Man who died on a cross in order to secure for His people the hope promised to us in the Bible. Our sin stood in the way of our participation in the world of resurrection. This Jesus came to die the death that we deserved and then to show us the life to come. He came to break down that deadness of wrong customs of presumed holiness and to show us the power of true holiness and love in His own resurrection from the dead. In His day He had faced the hatred of men like Paul had once been, and He confronted it with wisdom and power. On the road to Damascus He then called one man from among the persecutors of the church, Saul/Paul, and introduced Himself powerfully and personally to this man.

Saul of Tarsus had been kicking against the goads. He was not serving the purposes of God well in his religious attacks against Christians. He was fighting against the love of God. But now He was directly confronted by Jesus, the Lord of glory.

Then something shocking happened. Not the bright light. Not even the appearance of our Lord from heaven. Not the direct indictment of Saul for his abuse of Christians. The biggest shock was the pronouncement of the Lord that He would send this man, who had been so blind in the darkness of his error, to be a servant of the Light. Paul, who had persecuted Christians, would speak to Jews and to Gentiles, helping them all to see the true hope contained in the Bible.

The world is not OK. It is caught in the power of darkness. Even though people may not deny the existence of life beyond the grave, that light of lingering hope may be almost snuffed out by other passions. Resurrection just does not seem that important an issue in the face of money, sex, power, man-made righteousness, and everything else that consumes our hearts.

God has judged the coming resurrection existence to be a very important issue, one worthy of the life of Jesus. Man has disagreed—even man presuming to be servants of God. We have forgotten the purpose of life. Broken people like Paul are sent by God to open the eyes of the spiritually blind. They accomplish something that is truly beyond their power, but then they are servants of a Lord who raises the dead.

God has made a way for the blind to see. It is through faith in Jesus. Through Jesus, hopes that have been lying dormant in desperate, despised, and even murderous people are brought to life again. Through Him, sins are forgiven, life is rediscovered, and religious passion is kindly redirected.

Old Testament Passage: Psalm 19:12-14 – May the words of my mouth...

Gospel Passage: Mark 11:27-33 – By what authority are you doing these things?

Sermon Text: Acts 26:1-18 – Paul's testimony regarding his life and calling

Sermon Point: God is able to use His servant to open the eyes of people who are in darkness.