Acts 26:1-18

In our zeal for our beliefs...we can be misguided. It takes a relationship with Christ to change us from the inside out. 

All things are for His glory.

Through the power of the Holy Spirit we become, precept by precept, a new man. No longer in bondage to sin but in the newness of the grace the Father gives in the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus.

Paul takes on the posture of an orator, which implies he had training in classical rhetoric and was well educated. Paul is on trial for claiming that the hope of Israel is fulfilled in Jesus. Paul proclaims that the promises made to the Jewish people have now been fulfilled.The source of controversy is Jesus’ death and resurrection. Paul understands it as the fulfillment of what Jews hoped for. Like a stubborn animal attempting to fight the sticks used as prods, Paul cannot succeed in fighting against God. Faithlife Bible

Roman Citizenship

Paul was born a Roman citizen, but how his family gained that citizenship is unknown. There were several ways to become a Roman citizen: being born to a Roman parent; retiring from the Roman army; having citizenship granted by an emperor or a Roman general to an individual or to an entire group; purchasing it. A Roman citizen was guaranteed a fair trial and was protected against certain forms of harsh punishment. A citizen could even appeal to Caesar in order to be tried in Rome.

Paul was intelligent enough to know all of his rights and savvy enough to know how to use them to his and especially God’s advantage. Not only did his rights as a Roman citizen often save his life in dangerous situations, they also allowed him to carry the gospel message to jailers, shipmates, kings, and to the emperor in Rome.

He had not turned against his own Jewish heritage. Instead he fervently believed in the promises God had made to the nation of Israel: the promise of a coming Messiah and the reestablishment of the kingdom of God. Paul did not reject the hope of salvation for Israel. Instead he saw that hope fulfilled in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. The fact that Jesus had been raised from the dead confirmed to Paul that all believers would be raised from the dead to enjoy the blessings of the promised kingdom of God. The imperfect tense of the verb compelled does not tell us whether or not Paul had actually been successful in causing believers to blaspheme their faith, only that he had tried to compel them to do so. 

A young ox, when it was first yoked, usually resented the burden and tried kicking its way out. If the ox was yoked to a single-handed plow, the plowman would hold a long staff with a sharpened end close to the heels of the ox. Every time the ox kicked, it struck the spike. If the ox was yoked to a wagon, a studded bar with wooden spikes served the same purpose. The point was that the ox had to learn submission to the yoke the hard way. Before his encounter with Jesus on the Damascus road, Paul was resisting God in a similar manner.

Acts 26:1–18 (NKJV): Then Agrippa said to Paul, “You are permitted to speak for yourself.”So Paul stretched out his hand and answered for himself: “I think myself happy, King Agrippa, because today I shall answer for myself before you concerning all the things of which I am accused by the Jews, especially because you are expert in all customs and questions which have to do with the Jews. Therefore I beg you to hear me patiently.“My manner of life from my youth, which was spent from the beginning among my own nation at Jerusalem, all the Jews know. They knew me from the first, if they were willing to testify, that according to the strictest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee. And now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made by God to our fathers. To this promise our twelve tribes, earnestly serving God night and day, hope to attain. For this hope’s sake, King Agrippa, I am accused by the Jews. Why should it be thought incredible by you that God raises the dead?“Indeed, I myself thought I must do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. This I also did in Jerusalem, and many of the saints I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priests; and when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them. And I punished them often in every synagogue and compelled them to blaspheme; and being exceedingly enraged against them, I persecuted them even to foreign cities.“While thus occupied, as I journeyed to Damascus with authority and commission from the chief priests, at midday, O king, along the road I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining around me and those who journeyed with me. And when we all had fallen to the ground, I heard a voice speaking to me and saying in the Hebrew language, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’ So I said, ‘Who are You, Lord?’ And He said, ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But rise and stand on your feet; for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to make you a minister and a witness both of the things which you have seen and of the things which I will yet reveal to you. I will deliver you from the Jewish people, as well as from the Gentiles, to whom I now send you, to open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.’

Acts 8:3

As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering every house, and dragging off men and women, committing them to prison.

Acts 9:15

But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen vessel of Mine to bear My name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel.

Acts 23:6

But when Paul perceived that one part were Sadducees and the other Pharisees, he cried out in the council, “Men and brethren, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee; concerning the hope and resurrection of the dead I am being judged!”

Philippians 3:5

circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee;