The Apostle Paul is giving his testimony while on trial before King Agrippa.
9 “I used to believe that I ought to do everything I could to oppose the very name of Jesus the Nazarene. 10 Indeed, I did just that in Jerusalem. Authorized by the leading priests, I caused many believers there to be sent to prison. And I cast my vote against them when they were condemned to death.
11 Many times I had them punished in the synagogues to get them to curse Jesus. I was so violently opposed to them that I even chased them down in foreign cities. 12 “One day I was on such a mission to Damascus, armed with the authority and commission of the leading priests.
13 About noon, Your Majesty, as I was on the road, a light from heaven brighter than the sun shone down on me and my companions. 14 We all fell down, and I heard a voice saying to me in Aramaic, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is useless for you to fight against my will.’
“‘Who are you, Lord?’ I asked.
“And the Lord replied, ‘I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting. 16 Now get to your feet! For I have appeared to you to appoint you as my servant and witness. Tell people that you have seen me, and tell them what I will show you in the future.
17 And I will rescue you from both your own people and the Gentiles. Yes, I am sending you to the Gentiles 18 to open their eyes, so they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God. Then they will receive forgiveness for their sins and be given a place among God’s people, who are set apart by faith in me.’
19 “And so, King Agrippa, I obeyed that vision from heaven. 20 I preached first to those in Damascus, then in Jerusalem and throughout all Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that all must repent of their sins and turn to God—and prove they have changed by the good things they do.
21 Some Jews arrested me in the Temple for preaching this, and they tried to kill me. 22 But God has protected me right up to this present time so I can testify to everyone, from the least to the greatest. I teach nothing except what the prophets and Moses said would happen— 23 that the Messiah would suffer and be the first to rise from the dead, and in this way announce God’s light to Jews and Gentiles alike” (Acts 26:9-23 NLT).
Of all people, Paul would have had good reason to be discouraged by the different events that God allowed in his life. The question is, what changed Saul the persecutor of Jesus and His followers, into the Apostle Paul, who suffered so much for the sake of the gospel?
What changed his life and got him through all of the unbelievable challenges he faced? What sustained him was a revelation of:
The power of God’s grace
The purpose of God’s grace
The path of God’s grace
The Power of God’s Grace
As we read in the passage in Acts 26:9-23, we see Paul standing before King Agrippa, the king of Judea, the grandson of Herod the Great (the one who tried to kill Jesus when he was a baby).
He makes his defense against the charges brought against him by the Jewish leaders because of his commitment to the risen Christ. Paul testifies about how he met the resurrected Savior, the promised Messiah on the road to Damascus, 28 years earlier.
He had been known by all to be zealous for God, studied at the best schools under the best teacher, Gamaliel, knew and observed the OT law, and was loyal to the Jewish nation. He had been commissioned by the religious leaders to terrorize, persecute and bring harm to Christians all in God’s name.
“What was Paul resisting?”
He was going against the very purpose God created him for. He was not created to use his feet to run after and hunt down Christians, to use his hands to drag them out of their houses and throw them into jail, or his mouth to defame them. In that moment, when Paul saw the Risen Christ, he realized that all he was doing was evil, it was destructive, and all that he believed about Jesus the Nazarene was wrong and all that he had devoted his life to had been a total waste!
In reality, Paul thought he was living in the light but actually the all whole time he was living in total darkness.
Christ didn’t come to condemn Paul but to save him, forgive him, restore him, and give him a divine purpose in life. Through that encounter Paul’s life was dramatically changed from being a religious, narrow-minded zealot to becoming a caring, self-sacrificing, deeply committed follower of Christ by the power of God’s grace.
Time and time again throughout Paul’s ministry, he reflected back on that moment in time when the power of God’s grace changed his life forever. He said in his first letter to the church in Corinth:
For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect (1 Cor 15:9-10).
He wrote to Timothy,
Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst.
But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life (1 Tim 1:15).
Not only did he remember and meditate on what the power of God’s grace did in him but what the grace of God accomplished through him.
The Purpose of God’s Grace
Paul wrote:
I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength to do his work. He considered me trustworthy and appointed me to serve him, even though I used to blaspheme the name of Christ. In my insolence, I persecuted his people.
But God had mercy on me because I did it in ignorance and unbelief. Oh, how generous and gracious our Lord was! He filled me with the faith and love that come from Christ Jesus (1 Tim 1:12-14 NLT).
Paul marveled at the mercy of God. Marveled that the Lord would commission him according to His purposes, despite his resistance and violent past against Christians. Jesus would use Paul to reach the Gentiles, to stand before Jewish leaders, before governors, kings, and even Caesar as His witness. What a display of God’s incredible mercy! What an outpouring of immeasurable grace!
Because of God’s mercy and grace the one who was a persecutor of Christ would fulfill God’s purpose for him as one of the most powerful preachers of His Gospel.
God also promised Paul that he would have to endure years of unimaginable hardships, suffering and dangers for the gospel message.
He could have been deeply discouraged in his ministry because of all he endured - whipped with 39 lashes five different times, beaten with rods, imprisoned, was stoned and left for dead, shipwrecked three times, on many journeys was in danger of bandits, danger from his own countrymen, from Gentiles, and from false brothers, in cold and exposure without food or clothing, and daily faced the pressure of his concern for all the churches (2 Cor 11:23-28).
Yet Paul discovered something in those very discouraging times. He came to realize that God’s grace was sufficient for him, that the Lord’s loving kindness and mercy were more than enough, always available regardless of the circumstance.
He learned that when he was weak, God wanted him to totally depend on the power of Christ’s grace.
But he saw God’s eternal purpose for his suffering was a means to mediate, manifest, and magnify the resurrection power of his Savior to a broken and lost world around him. Time and time again Paul entered into the purpose God’s grace and could confidently say, while in prison, to the Philippian church:
And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns (Phil 1:6).
And to the church in Rome:
And we know that God works all things together for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose (Rom 8:28).
The purpose of God’s grace was fulfilled in Paul’s life. Over the 28 years of ministry, God’s sent Paul to preach the word so people’s eyes would be opened to the truth of their eternal state, so they would be delivered from the power of darkness to light and Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in Christ. And that is what Paul did.
He saw what grace of God was doing and the purpose it was accomplishing when he wrote to the church in Corinth,
That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day.
For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! (2 Cor 4:16-17 NLT)
“Why do you think God saved you?
Was it simply to give you a ticket into heaven?”
Or was it because He has a purpose for your life for the short time He has given you on this earth? Did Jesus just come to save us from our sins? What did he save you for? So you can continue to live the way you did before you were redeemed?
No, the power of God’s grace saved you and has been changing your life, has given you purpose and placed you where you are right now to manifest and magnify the resurrected Savior.
“God has a vision and a purpose for your life, and He is preparing you each step of the way. ”
The Path of God’s Grace
How did Paul end up standing before King Agrippa in Caesarea? 28 years and 3 missionary journeys later, Paul returns to Jerusalem reporting on all the great things God had done among the Gentiles and the Jews throughout his journeys. But it did not take long before Paul was falsely accused by the Jews for allegedly teaching against the law of Moses and defiling the temple by bringing Gentiles into it.
These rumors stirred up the mob and caused such a violent uproar in Jerusalem that the people tried to kill him. Eventually the Romans came and arrested him but when they found out he was a Roman citizen they sent him to Caesarea where he was interrogated by Felix and then Festus, his successor. The fact is that every time he was interrogated by any official they couldn’t find any reason to charge him of any crime.
Yet Paul was still arrested and kept under house arrest for two years in Caesarea. Surely God would allow justice to prevail and he'd be turned loose to preach the gospel again. But that was not God’s path for Paul. When he stood before the King he realized God had sovereignty orchestrated the whole thing to bring him to this place. He said,
God has protected me right up to this present time so I can testify to everyone, from the least to the greatest.
To walk in this particular path God chose for Paul seemed strange. Being imprisoned in Caesarea for two years and then later in Rome for two more years, seems like an incredible waste of time. But what did Paul do while he was in prison all that time? Did he go into deep despondency and discouragement, asking God, why did this or that happen?
No, instead of being discouraged by the circumstances, he wrote the Bible. Did he let all of his circumstances discourage him? No, instead of getting discouraged, he wrote the Bible! All the letters he wrote to the churches in Asia minor, Rome, etc., were later canonized as the Holy Scriptures.
No one’s life is beyond the grace of God, no person beyond God’s grace to save, no person beyond God’s grace to change, no situation that God’s grace can’t redeem.
Just like Paul, I believe that when you experience the transforming power of God grace, enter into the purpose God’s grace has for you, in time you will look back on the path God’s grace led you and be amazed at the way he used your life to fulfill his purpose. To the glory of God.
