Written by: Paul Niemiec – Church Army
Acts 26 v 1-3
Agrippa said to Paul, “You may now speak to defend yourself.”
Then Paul raised his hand and began to speak. He said, “King Agrippa, I am very
happy to stand before you and will answer all the charges the Jewish people
make against me. You know so much about all the Jewish customs and the things
the Jews argue about, so please listen to me patiently.”
Notes
If you had the chance to talk about your faith before a king, what would
you say? In fact, if you had your chance to talk to anyone about your faith,
I wonder what would you say? It’s always challenging to actually have to put
into words those things which we find really important, be it in a personal
relationship, or about something or somebody that we value.
It might be fun to take a sheet of paper and work out what those words might be for you, then practise saying them out loud, even to yourself. Also, to think of what’s not so important. It’s easy for all of us to get things out of perspective. At the same time as writing down what is important, perhaps it’s worth reflecting on what your own priorities are.
Prayer
Father God, help us to know how to speak of you. Help us to know how important
you are in our lives. Help us to see the whole of our lives in perspective,
particularly as our lives relate to other people and to you. Amen
Acts 26 v 4-8
“All the Jewish people know about my whole life, how I lived from the
beginning in my own country and later in Jerusalem. They have known me for a
long time. If they want to, they can tell you that I was a good Pharisee. And
the Pharisees obey the laws of the Jewish religion more carefully than any other
group. Now I am on trial because I hope for the promise that God made to our
ancestors. This is the promise that the twelve tribes of our people hope to
receive as they serve God day and night. My king, the Jews have accused me because
I hope for this same promise! Why do any of you people think it is impossible
for God to raise people from the dead?”
Notes
Well, today’s my birthday and just like the reading says, it is sometimes
difficult when people who’ve known us for a long time hear us say different
things and perhaps be different people.
There’s a passage in the Bible that says that it is really difficult to be a prophet in your own land. People who’ve known me for a long time know that I am a Christian, but perhaps they expect me to be the person they knew before I became a Christian. Some of my words, and some of my behaviour, and some of my expectations and values have changed, and that confuses them. Sometimes their attitudes towards me confuse me. It doesn’t matter who we are or where we are in the world, it’s always a challenge to hold fast to our faith before the people who know us best. Paul found this, and others throughout the generations have found the same.
Prayer
Father God, help me to be true to my faith wherever I am and whoever I am
with, particularly when I spend time with those who know me best. May my ordinary
life be made extraordinary through your Holy Spirit, and may all those who come
into contact with me know of my love for you, both through my words and my actions.
Amen
Acts 26 v 9-11
“I, too, thought I ought to do many things against Jesus from Nazareth.
And that is what I did in Jerusalem. The leading priests gave me the power to
put many of God’s people in jail, and when they were being killed, I agreed
it was a good thing. In every synagogue, I often punished them and tried to
make them speak against Jesus. I was so angry against them I even went to other
cities to find them and punish them.”
Notes
Do you do things in your lifestyle which are contrary to your faith? Are the
things you say, the actions you take, your behaviour or your habits contrary
to that which you say you believe? Paul, in his former incarnation prior to
meeting with God, did many many things that he went on to regret, and I’m sure
his heart was broken in retrospect by some of the things he did to believers.
But what about the things we do today? Are they reflected in the songs we sing or the prayers we say in church? It is so easy to accidentally become hypocritical. For all of us, it is a challenge to be the people that God would want us to be. We can only do it with his help.
Prayer
Father God, we remember all those who have been persecuted for their faith in
every country during the course of the last 2,000 years. Give us courage with
them to live the truth of our faith every day and help us, like Paul, to say
sorry for that which we do which hurts other people. Amen
Acts 26 v 12-14
“On one occasion the leading priests gave me permission and the power to go
to Damascus. On the way there, at noon, I saw a light from heaven. It was brighter
than the sun and flashed all around me and those who were travelling with me.
We all fell to the ground. Then I heard a voice speaking to me in the Jewish
language, saying, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? You are only hurting
yourself by fighting me.’”
Notes
This was probably one of the most significant meetings there has ever been.
How do you meet with Jesus? Do you meet on a daily basis? Do you meet regularly?
I do hope so.
But do you think about why you meet Jesus? Maybe you have a special place where you meet, or a special time when you meet. Maybe you, like me, need to have particular ways of meeting with Jesus, with particular prayers. Maybe something visual helps; maybe something to touch helps. People throughout the Christian faith meet with Jesus in all sorts of different ways, in the same way that Jesus himself met with different people in a vast variety of ways. It is important to accept that we are each made in the image of God, but at the same time, each differently so that we can learn and experience this in different ways.
I hope and pray that you will meet with Jesus today, not just in the expected but in the unexpected; not just in the extraordinary but in the ordinary and the everyday. Without a doubt, God made all things and is in all things, and all things can speak to us of him if we have ears to listen.
Prayer
Father God, give us eyes in our hearts to see you, ears in our hearts to
hear you, and love in our hearts to experience you and share you with others.
May we see, hear and experience you in the ordinary, the extraordinary and in
every person we meet. Amen
Acts 26 v 15-18
“I said, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ The Lord said, ‘I am Jesus, the one you
are persecuting. Stand up! I have chosen you to be my servant and my witness—you
will tell people the things that you have seen and the things that I will show
you. This is why I have come to you today. I will keep you safe from your own
people and also from those who are not Jewish. I am sending you to them to open
their eyes so that they may turn away from darkness to the light, away from
the power of Satan and to God. Then their sins can be forgiven, and they can
have a place with those people who have been made holy by believing in me.’”
Notes
God says the same to us today as he said to Paul all those years ago: “Stand
up! I have chosen you to be my servant and my witness - you will tell people
the things that you have seen and the things that I will show you.”
Well, is that true for you? Paul did a whole variety of things, went to different places and met different people. We are not all called to be Paul, thank goodness (I don’t think I could afford the travel bill these days), but we are called to be witnesses and servants, we are called to be true to our faith and we are called not to persecute other people. Let’s each try to be true to our calling, and if you are not sure exactly what your calling is, perhaps you should call upon the wisdom of other Christians and spend time with them, looking for the guidance of God’s Spirit to find out where you are called, where God would have you be and what God would have you do.
Prayer
Father God, you called Paul on that Damascus Road and changed his life 180o.
Instead of turning away from you and persecuting those who believed in you,
he turned towards you and loved. Help us to do the same, each and every day,
and help us to be servants and witnesses throughout our lives. Amen
Acts 26 v 19-21
“King Agrippa, after I had this vision from heaven, I obeyed it. I began
telling people that they should change their hearts and lives and turn to God
and do things to show they really had changed. I told this first to those in
Damascus, then in Jerusalem, and in every part of Judea, and also to those who
are not Jewish. This is why the Jews took me and were trying to kill me in the
Temple.
Notes
We have a joke where I live and work, because we have some fairly dour churches.
How many Christians in those churches would it take to change a lightbulb? “What
do you mean – change?” Well, change is an interesting thing. Lots and lots of
people avoid change at all costs, looking for stability and security. Unfortunately,
in so doing, they lack growth and lack vision, and they lack awareness that
God is the God of change.
God created the seasons which change constantly, the earth which changes constantly, and the Christian faith which changes and develops with creation. But we must be willing to change - change our attitudes if they have become hardened, change our heart if it has become stubborn, change our minds as we learn and grow. God would have us be a people of vision and growth and love and change and development. What, I wonder, would that mean for you?
Prayer
Father God, open my heart and my mind and my life to change and development
as guided by your Holy Spirit, that I, like Paul, might be willing to change
my life and encourage others to do the same. Amen
Acts 26 v 22-23
“But God has helped me, and so I stand here today, telling all people,
small and great, what I have seen. But I am saying only what Moses and the prophets
said would happen— that the Christ would die, and as the first to rise from
the dead, he would bring light to the Jewish and non-Jewish people.”
Notes
In what way has God helped you? Well, we know how God helped Paul, and Paul
would celebrate that with every opportunity. We must learn to celebrate how
God has helped us and encourage others to do the same. And then, because Paul
had been helped, he stood where he needed to stand and spoke and did what he
needed to do.
Where should you stand today? Having celebrated all that God has done for you, do you need to make a stand? Do you need to be somewhere in particular, saying or doing something that you need to say or do? Maybe today is not the day, but maybe in time there is somewhere or something that you could be, or could do, for God.
Whatever does happen in the future is for the future, but each day we should celebrate that which God has already done for us. There’s not nearly enough celebration in our churches throughout the world, giving thanks to God for what is. So often we are so busy looking to the future and hoping for what might be, and yet for so many of us there is so much to be thankful for. Will you look with the pessimist at the half-empty bottle, or will you celebrate with the optimist the half-full bottle?
Let’s all give thanks to God for what we have, and let’s work with him for what might be in the future.
Prayer
Father God, we give you thanks for so much that you have done for us, both
individually and corporately. We are sorry for the times when we get in the
way of what might be. Help us to celebrate that which we have and to be willing
to make a stand for you wherever you would have us be. Like Paul, help us to
journey not only on the Damascus Road but with other people on their road to
share with them that same faith which Paul delighted in. Amen
word-on-the-web uses the Scripture text taken
from the Youth Bible, New Century Version (Anglicised Edition) copyright 1993
by Word Publishing Milton Keynes