Thursday, July 9
Let’s look again at Paul before Agrippa. The apostle Paul stands before this man, the last in the line of Jewish kings, the Maccabees, and of the house of Herod. Agrippa professed to be a Jew, but at heart he was a Roman. (See The SDA Bible Commentary, vol. 6, p. 436). The aged apostle, weary from his missionary journeys and battle — scarred in the conflict between good and evil, stands there, his heart filled with God’s love and his face radiant with God’s goodness. Whatever has happened in his life, whatever persecutions and difficulties he has experienced, he can declare that God is good.
Agrippa is cynical, skeptical, hardened, and really indifferent to any genuine value system. In contrast, Paul is filled with faith, committed to the truth, and stalwart in defense of righteousness. The contrast between the two men could not be much more evident. At his trial, Paul requests to speak and receives permission from Agrippa.
Read Acts 26:1-32. How did Paul witness to Agrippa? What can we learn from his words?
Kindness opens hearts where abrasiveness closes them. Paul is incredibly gracious to Agrippa here. He calls him an “expert in all customs and questions which are among the Jews” (Acts 26:3). He then launches into a discussion of his conversion.
Read Paul’s conversion story in Acts 26:12-18 and then carefully notice its effect on Agrippa in Acts 26:26-28. Why do you think Agrippa reacted the way he did? What impressed him about Paul’s testimony?
Paul’s testimony of how Jesus changed his life had a powerful impact on a godless king. There is no witness as effective as a changed life. The witness of a life genuinely converted has an amazing influence on others. Even godless kings are moved by lives transformed by grace. Even if we don’t have as dramatic a story as Paul, we all should be able to tell others about what it means to know Jesus and to be redeemed by His blood.
