2BC BIBLE STUDY NOTES
Wednesday in the Word
Second Baptist Church
April 30, 2025
Acts 26:1-32
Introduction. It is important to be prepared to share your testimony of how you came to Christ. You never know who God will place in front of you to hear how you were saved. God had divinely orchestrated an opportunity for Paul to be able to share the gospel with the King. Through a series of providential circumstances, Paul will get an audience with King Agrippa and a host of other high-ranking officials. God told Paul that he would share with the Gentiles and their kings, and now Paul is standing in a room full of high-ranking leaders. There wouldn’t have been any real way for Paul to have coordinated this by himself. A seemingly unfortunate occurrence of persecution has advanced the Gospel further than Paul could have ever dreamed of. Beloved God’s plans are often so far reaching that it is impossible to see how God might use any and every situation in our lives.
Verses 1-3 . The apostle Paul is about to share his faith with the King and other dignitaries that have assembled. Paul will not argue his case as much as he is going to present the Gospel. Paul is keenly aware that his opportunity before the king is not about his legal defense, this is his opportunity to share the good news of Jesus Christ to the king. Paul knows that Agrippa is familiar with the Jewish customs and culture. Agrippa has already shown an interest in what Paul would say, and Paul knows that he has shown a leaning to the things of God. Paul sees this as an opportunity to plant more seeds in the heart of the king. Paul could have asked to be set free, but his freedom is not on his mind, the king’s salvation is on his mind. Do you have the desire to share your faith so much, that your own personal issues can be put aside for the sake of someone’s salvation? When opportunities to share your faith arise, are you ready with a response to share the hope that lies within you (I Peter 3:15).
Verses 4-8. The Jews consistently attempted to disown Christianity in general, and Paul’s preaching in particular, as a “counterfeit Judaism,” as a sect which did not have their sanction and which was diametrically opposed to their faith. Paul chose to deal with the issues through his own example, because his life explained and illustrated the animosity between Judaism and the gospel. He was no stranger to Judaism or Jerusalem, but was, from his early days as a child, an active, dynamic, leader. And so, Paul began his defense by starting at the beginning, with his own faith and practice as a Jew, in Jerusalem. Those who represented Paul as a newcomer were willfully forgetful or dishonest about their acquaintance with him, his personal religious life, and his involvement with them in Judaism. Paul was a very public figure as a Christian, but he was also well known before his conversion. If Paul was now viewed as the enemy of Judaism and as a traitor, it was not always so. He was once their national hero. For a long time Paul was known to these Jews as a devout Jew, a Pharisee, no less. More than this, he was a “Hebrew of Hebrews” (see Philippians 3:5). Paul was a devout Jew. He is not really on trial for opposing Judaism, but rather for adhering to it. It is his opponents who have forsaken Judaism. Paul therefore claimed that he was standing trial “for the hope of the promise made by God to the fathers,” his and theirs (verse 6). Paul is guilty of hoping and believing in the promise which God gave to the twelve tribes of Israel, and which they think they are still looking for, as they go about their religious rituals of worship. It is for the same kind of hope and expectation that Paul is now being accused. Paul’s crime, for which he is being attacked by the Jews, if for being too Jewish. Paul now turns to Agrippa, a ruler, but also a Jew, and asks, “Why is it considered incredible among you people if God does raise the dead?” (verse 8). If belief in the resurrection of the dead is a fundamental premise of Judaism, how is it that the Jews condemn Paul for believing in the resurrection of Jesus? Why do they find believing in an actual instance of resurrection (namely, Jesus) so incredibly difficult? Judaism was not consistent with itself in its response to Paul’s proclamation of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.
Verses 9-11. The failure of the Jews to be consistent with their own faith was not foreign to Paul. As an unbelieving Jew, Paul found Christianity and the doctrine of the resurrection of Jesus something to be violently and rigorously opposed. Paul could understand his opponents because he had believed the same way. Before he was saved, Paul felt obliged to attack and to oppose the followers of Christ. He practiced his opposition in Jerusalem and far beyond, even to foreign cities (verse 11). With a vengeance, he sought to force Christians to renounce their faith in Jesus as Messiah. Many, he cast into prison, and others he enthusiastically voted for their execution, as heretics. In his opposition to Jesus, he worked closely with the Sanhedrin and with the cooperation and support of the chief priests, the very ones who now took the lead in opposing him. Paul understood his opponents well, and well he should. He understood them well because what they were to him, he was the same way to many other saints. His opposition to Christianity, to the gospel, was the result of his own misguided Judaism. Paul tells his audience that he was just as zealous in his persecution until he had an encounter with the risen Lord and Jesus turned his life around.
Verses 12-18. Paul will take the opportunity to share his conversion experience. He details how on the day of his conversion, he was on his way to persecute some Christians, when he encounters the Lord. This encounter changed his life. His life would now go in another direction. Instead of persecuting the church, he would promote the church. He had a new mission to take the good news of his faith to the world. His mission was to tell them about the fact that God was giving man a chance to have their sins forgiven and their souls saved. Paul places his emphasis on the fact that his life had been changed by a loving God. Paul describes how he was going in the opposite direction of God, but God showed grace and mercy on him by sparing his life and giving him a mission to spread the good news. Paul uses his “Damascus Road” experience to share his faith with the king and the others who had gathered at this social function.
Verses 19-23. Paul finishes sharing his testimony and tells the king that from that day of his encounter with the Lord, he has done what any good Jew would do, and that was obey God, and preached the good news to the world. Paul tells the king that he is on trial because he was obedient to God’s call on his life. The truth of his calling is in the fact that up till that time, in spite of the attempts on his life, the Jews could not kill him. Paul declares that his message is nothing more than the continuation of the same messages that God spoke through Moses and the prophets. Paul is declaring that he is only guilty of obeying God.
Verse 24. Governor Festus interrupts Paul because he doesn’t have the foggiest idea of what Paul is talking about, but Agrippa knows exactly what he is talking about. Festus thinks Paul must be insane for his teachings.
Verses 25-27. Paul responds by stating that he is not insane. Paul speaks to the king and declares that these things are reasonable to those who believe. Paul shares that the king is familiar with the idea of resumection. Paul asks the king if he believed the prophets, hinting that he might see that Jesus was the fulfillment of the prophets.
Verse 28. Agrippa responds to Paul by stating that Paul shouldn’t think he could persuade a king in such a short time to become a Christian. The King did not disagree with Paul, but the king was not about to admit in front of these people that the Christians were right about Jesus.
Verse 29. Paul responds by stating that he hoped that the King and all those who listened would become followers of Jesus Christ. The issue has left Paul’s so-called crimes. to matters of faith and the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Verses 30-32. Agrippa decides to leave, but on his way out, He speaks to Festus and shares that Paul has done nothing to warrant his imprisonment, and he could be released if he had not appealed to Caesar.
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