Paul Preaches Resurrection to Slaves and Kings

Second Sunday of Easter

April 12, 2015

Acts 26:19-29

Paul Preaches Resurrection to Slaves and Kings

In the name of the Father and of † the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Before Jesus was arrested and brought to trial, He told His disciples:

Whenever you are arrested and brought to trial, do not worry beforehand about what to say. Just say whatever is given you at the time, for it is not you speaking, but the Holy Spirit. . . . Everyone will hate you because of Me, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. (Mark 13:11, 13)

Jesus' prediction came true for Paul in Acts 26, our first lesson this morning. What you heard there was Paul's back and forth with the local king Herod Agrippa and the Roman governor Festus. Let me explain why they were in the same room.

About two years earlier Paul had returned to Jerusalem from his missionary travels. He had gone to the Temple to worship, but was spotted by Jewish pilgrims who had heard him while he had preached in Asia. They hated him because he preached Christ alone for salvation. So they stirred up the crowd and grabbed Paul at church. They would have killed him immediately, but the local Roman soldiers stepped in and took Paul away from his fellow Jews. They didn't care about Paul; they just wanted to stop a riot.

Indeed they cared so little about Paul that they were about to flog him to punish him for getting attacked by his countrymen! The only thing that saved his back was revealing that he was a Roman citizen and entitled to the Roman version of due process.

The Romans then transport Paul to the local Roman headquarters in Caesarea along the Mediterranean coast. There he confessed Christ's crucifixion, death, and resurrection to the Roman governor for two years.

Then a new governor was appointed in A.D. 60. His name was Festus and was making the rounds visiting his new posting. The local king named Herod Agrippa came to pay his respects to the new Roman headman. The topic of Paul came up and Agrippa wanted to talk to him.

And so we come to the scene today. In the first half of chapter 26, Paul explained how he was once a mortal enemy of the Christians. But that all changed when Christ appeared to him on the road to Damascus. He told them how in the days that followed Christ used His Words to kill the old Saul and to create a new man named Paul whom He sent out to proclaim His death and resurrection to forgive the sins of the world. Paul went on:

So then, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the vision from heaven. First to those in Damascus, then to those in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and to the Gentiles also, I preached that they should repent and turn to God and prove their repentance by their deeds. That is why the Jews seized me in the temple courts and tried to kill me. But I have had God's help to this very day, and so I stand here and testify to small and great alike. I am saying nothing beyond what the prophets and Moses said would happen―that the Christ would suffer and, as the first to rise from the dead, would proclaim light to His own people and to the Gentiles. (Acts 26:19-23)

Two points: first, Paul is not creating a new religion. He's not inventing a new way to believe. He's simply a prophet of the New Testament, like Moses of the Old, who spoke of the Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed One of God. Moses looked forward to Jesus' death and rising; Paul looked back and confessed that Jesus had died and was risen.

Secondly, this joyful truth was all people, both small and great. What is marvelous is that while Paul was under arrest for two years, he was preaching and singing and praying every day in prison. He was allowed to have guests. He had to have guards. His words about the risen Christ were heard. Many rejected Christ; for others the Holy Spirit created or strengthened trust in Christ through their hearing.

At this point Festus interrupted Paul's defense, shouting, "You are out of your mind, Paul! Your great learning is driving you insane." Paul replied, "I am not insane, most excellent Festus. What I am saying is true and reasonable. The king is familiar with these things, and I can speak freely to him. I am convinced that none of this has escaped his notice, because it was not done in a corner. King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know you do." Then Agrippa said to Paul, "Do you think that in such a short time you can persuade me to be a Christian?" Paul replied, "Short time or long―I pray God that not only you but all who are listening to me today may become what I am, except for these chains." (Acts 26:24-29)

The reaction of the powerful men demonstrated something useful. For those outside of faith, the resurrection of Christ is outside of reason. Though unbelievers trust many things they can't prove and haven't seen, when it comes to Christ, they demand proof. They echo Thomas' demand to see the hand and side of Jesus.

And so Paul can't persuade them through his great learning or his reasonable words. And he's doesn't try to do that. When Agrippa asked if Paul thought he could convert him, Paul prayed. And not just for Agrippa or Festus, but for all the court toadies listening. For all the soldiers and commanders listening. For all the servants and slaves listening. He prayed that they might thought insane by the world, because trust in Christ is unreasonable to the world. But to believers it is sanity because it is reality. It is truth. It is life. It is the way. And thus Paul wrote to his fellow insane believers in Corinth.

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate." Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength. (1 Corinthians 1:18-25)

Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. Alleluia! Amen!