August 24, 2012
Today’s reading from Encounter with God

Paul and His Purpose

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Opening Prayer

Father, Your love is a mystery and an amazing gift of grace to me. Startle me again with that love today.

Read Acts 25:23-26:18

[23] The next day Agrippa and Bernice came with great pomp and entered the audience room with the high-ranking military officers and the prominent men of the city. At the command of Festus, Paul was brought in. [24] Festus said: “King Agrippa, and all who are present with us, you see this man! The whole Jewish community has petitioned me about him in Jerusalem and here in Caesarea, shouting that he ought not to live any longer. [25] I found he had done nothing deserving of death, but because he made his appeal to the Emperor I decided to send him to Rome. [26] But I have nothing definite to write to His Majesty about him. Therefore I have brought him before all of you, and especially before you, King Agrippa, so that as a result of this investigation I may have something to write. [27] For I think it is unreasonable to send a prisoner on to Rome without specifying the charges against him.” [1] Then Agrippa said to Paul, “You have permission to speak for yourself.” So Paul motioned with his hand and began his defense: [2] “King Agrippa, I consider myself fortunate to stand before you today as I make my defense against all the accusations of the Jews, [3] and especially so because you are well acquainted with all the Jewish customs and controversies. Therefore, I beg you to listen to me patiently. [4] “The Jewish people all know the way I have lived ever since I was a child, from the beginning of my life in my own country, and also in Jerusalem. [5] They have known me for a long time and can testify, if they are willing, that I conformed to the strictest sect of our religion, living as a Pharisee. [6] And now it is because of my hope in what God has promised our ancestors that I am on trial today. [7] This is the promise our twelve tribes are hoping to see fulfilled as they earnestly serve God day and night. King Agrippa, it is because of this hope that these Jews are accusing me. [8] Why should any of you consider it incredible that God raises the dead? [9] “I too was convinced that I ought to do all that was possible to oppose the name of Jesus of Nazareth. [10] And that is just what I did in Jerusalem. On the authority of the chief priests I put many of the Lord’s people in prison, and when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them. [11] Many a time I went from one synagogue to another to have them punished, and I tried to force them to blaspheme. I was so obsessed with persecuting them that I even hunted them down in foreign cities. [12] “On one of these journeys I was going to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests. [13] About noon, King Agrippa, as I was on the road, I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, blazing around me and my companions. [14] We all fell to the ground, and I heard a voice saying to me in Aramaic, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’ [15] “Then I asked, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ ” ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,’ the Lord replied. [16] ‘Now get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen and will see of me. [17] I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them [18] to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’

Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. All rights reserved throughout the world. Used by permission of International Bible Society.

Reflect

“We must allow the Word of God to confront us, to disturb our security, to undermine our complacency, and to overthrow our patterns of thought and behavior” (John Stott).

In today’s reading Paul is given the opportunity to defend himself before the king as well as the Roman governor. Self-preservation is not at the top of Paul’s agenda. He is a man with a purpose. He needs to defend his actions as a Jew, as a Roman citizen, and as a Christian. To this end, he tells his story.

At other points in Acts he will debate with philosophers or do spiritual battle with idol worshipers. Here he shares the story of his conversion, but with the emphasis (as in much of his letter to the Romans) as much on the continuities between his Jewish religious zeal and his Christian convictions as on his crucial departures from it. At its heart is the constant theme of the early church’s proclamation of the resurrection (8). This is so much so that it has been argued that the principal name for God the Father in the New Testament church is “the God who raised Jesus from the dead.” This follows from the Old Testament habit of giving God names according to his actions or his particular attributes. This, now, is what defines God, and it surely should define our understanding and proclamation of him even today. 

Yet even such a change in how God is referred to is seen as the fulfillment of the promise of God to Paul’s ancestors; it’s a logical continuation rather than a radical departure from his Jewish religion. So why should they be hostile? After all, he was simply saying what Moses and the prophets had foretold (26:22). It is difficult to accept that God can do something so radically new. It triggers opposition from those who think their definition of God and his activities was given once and for all.

Apply

Is there anything that God has done, promised to do or might do that makes you uncomfortable? What “name” might you give to God?

Closing prayer

Sovereign God, You are the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. Often change frightens me. Reassure me that You are in complete control.

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