Having been brought before the royally attired King Agrippa and Bernice, Agrippa beckoned Paul to speak. Paul began to address King Agrippa, expressing thankfulness that King Agrippa was an expert of sorts with Jewish customs and matters. He then explained how strictly he had been brought as a devout Pharisee, to which many other Jews could testify (if they were being truthful).
Paul focused then on the main point of contention between him and the Pharisees, which was the hope of resurrection life. This they knew and believed in, for who could doubt that God could bring life to that which is dead? But Paul had once been like them as well, a zealot opposing the name of Jesus of Nazareth, imprisoning many Christians through authority derived from the chief priests. Paul did everything he could to antagonize Christians and to destroy their faith, so consumed with raging fury that it carried him to faraway places to persecute them.
On one such occasion, Paul traveled to Damascus, and it was there that he encountered the Light of the world (far brighter than the blazing noonday sun). As he and the men he traveled with were cast to the ground by this blazing Light, a voice spoke to him in Hebrew, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” The voice then disclosed to him that it was Jesus Himself speaking to Paul. Jesus then appointed and commissioned Paul into His service, instructing that Paul would witness of Christ and deliver him from both Jews and Gentiles so that hearers of Paul be turned 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 (cf. Acts 26:18).
And with that, Paul’s lengthy “defense” before King Agrippa was completed. How would Agrippa respond? What would he say? You can listen to this teaching on Acts 26:1-18 by clicking on the following link: O King
