The Centrality of the Christ Text: Acts 26:19-23
Introduction: A Reasonable Testimony
We find the Apostle Paul in chains, but as is always the case with this man, the chains are incidental. The Word of God is not chained, and Paul is not so much a prisoner on trial as he is a herald in the court of a king. He is before King Agrippa, a man steeped in the customs and controversies of the Jews, and Paul is giving his defense. But his defense is not an apology or a plea for his life. His defense is a proclamation of the gospel. It is a logical, historical, and theological summary of everything God has done in the world through His Son, Jesus.
Paul is not just recounting his personal experience on the Damascus road, though he does that. He is grounding that experience in the bedrock of public revelation. He is arguing that his entire ministry, the entire Christian enterprise, is nothing more and nothing less than the fulfillment of what every Jew with an open Old Testament should have been expecting. He is not an innovator; he is a fulfiller. He is not a revolutionary trying to burn down the old religion; he is a faithful son of Abraham pointing to the very thing the old religion was designed to produce.
In our day, we are often tempted to psychologize the faith. We talk about our personal journeys, our feelings, our experiences. These things have their place, but they are not the foundation. The foundation is objective, historical fact, predicted for centuries and accomplished in the sight of all men. Paul's defense here is a masterful demonstration of how to contend for the faith. He is respectful but bold. He is personal but objective. He appeals to his supernatural calling but immediately roots that calling in the public record of the Scriptures. This is not a private vision for a private man. This is a heavenly vision about a public Messiah for the whole world.
What Paul lays out before Agrippa is the essential, non-negotiable core of the Christian message. It is a message of radical obedience, deep repentance, observable fruit, and all of it centered on the suffering and resurrection of the Christ, just as Moses and the prophets said. This is the message that turned the world upside down, and it is the only message that can do so today.
The Text
"So, King Agrippa, I did not prove disobedient to the heavenly vision, but kept declaring both to those of Damascus first, and also at Jerusalem and then throughout all the region of Judea, and even to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, practicing deeds appropriate to repentance. For this reason some Jews seized me in the temple and were trying to put me to death. Therefore, having obtained help from God to this day, I stand here bearing witness both to small and great, stating nothing but what the Prophets and Moses said was going to take place; that the Christ was to suffer, and that as first of the resurrection from the dead, He was going to proclaim light both to the Jewish people and to the Gentiles.”
(Acts 26:19-23 LSB)
Obedience to the Vision (v. 19-20)
Paul begins his summary by framing his entire ministry as an act of obedience.
"So, King Agrippa, I did not prove disobedient to the heavenly vision, but kept declaring both to those of Damascus first, and also at Jerusalem and then throughout all the region of Judea, and even to the Gentiles..." (Acts 26:19-20a)
When God speaks, the only sane response is obedience. Paul had been given a commission directly from the risen Christ. This was not a vague spiritual prompting or a career choice. It was a command from the King of the universe. To disobey would have been madness. Notice the scope of this obedience. It was immediate, starting in Damascus. It was strategic, moving to Jerusalem and Judea. And it was global, extending "even to the Gentiles."
This was the great stumbling block for the Jews who were persecuting him. They could perhaps tolerate a reformed sect of Judaism, but this message was for everyone. The promise made to Abraham, that in him all the families of the earth would be blessed, was now coming to fruition. Paul was simply doing what God had told him to do: open the eyes of the Gentiles, turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God. This was not Paul's agenda; it was God's.
And what was the content of this declaration? Verse 20 tells us plainly.
"...that they should repent and turn to God, practicing deeds appropriate to repentance." (Acts 26:20b)
Here is the summary of Paul's gospel, and it is crucial that we get this right. It is not simply "believe and go to heaven when you die." It is a summons to a radical reorientation of life. First, repent. The Greek word is metanoia, which means a change of mind. It is a fundamental shift in your thinking about who God is, who you are, what sin is, and what righteousness is. It is seeing your rebellion for the treason it is and hating it.
Second, turn to God. Repentance is not just turning from sin; it is turning to God. It is an act of trust and surrender. You are not just leaving the kingdom of darkness; you are entering the kingdom of God and swearing fealty to its King. Faith and repentance are two sides of the same coin. You cannot have one without the other.
Third, practice deeds appropriate to repentance. This is where so much of modern evangelism falls short. Paul is not preaching a disembodied decision. True, saving repentance will always, necessarily, produce a changed life. It will bear fruit. These "deeds" are not what save you; they are the evidence that you have been saved. They are the proof of your repentance. If someone claims to have repented but their life remains unchanged, their claim is suspect. As James would say, faith without works is dead. Paul is saying the same thing: repentance without appropriate deeds is a sham.
The Reason for the Riot (v. 21-22)
Paul then explains precisely why he is in chains. It was not for any crime, but for preaching this very message.
"For this reason some Jews seized me in the temple and were trying to put me to death. Therefore, having obtained help from God to this day, I stand here bearing witness both to small and great..." (Acts 26:21-22a)
Why did they want to kill him? For preaching repentance and the inclusion of the Gentiles. The gospel is offensive. It tells the self-righteous Jew that his ethnicity and rule-keeping will not save him; he must repent just like the pagan Gentile. And it tells the pagan Gentile that he can be brought near, not by becoming a Jew, but through faith in the Jewish Messiah. It levels the playing field at the foot of the cross, and this is an intolerable affront to human pride.
But notice Paul's confidence. He was not saved from death by his own cleverness or by Roman intervention, fundamentally. He was saved because he had "obtained help from God." This is the testimony of every believer. We stand, we persevere, we endure not by our own strength, but by the sustaining grace of God. And because he is sustained by God, he continues to do the one thing he was called to do: bear witness. He speaks to "small and great," to common soldiers and to kings, without distinction. The gospel is for everyone, and Paul's witness is to everyone.
Nothing But the Old Story (v. 22-23)
Here Paul makes his central claim, the linchpin of his entire defense. He is not a heretic preaching a new religion.
"...stating nothing but what the Prophets and Moses said was going to take place; that the Christ was to suffer, and that as first of the resurrection from the dead, He was going to proclaim light both to the Jewish people and to the Gentiles.” (Acts 26:22b-23)
This is a staggering assertion. Paul says his entire message can be distilled down to the fulfillment of the Old Testament. He is not making things up as he goes. He is simply connecting the dots that were already there on the page in the scrolls of Moses and Isaiah and the Psalms. The whole Old Testament was pointing to a singular reality, and Paul identifies three key components of it.
First, "that the Christ was to suffer." This was the great scandal. The Jews were looking for a conquering Messiah, a political king who would throw off the Roman yoke. They were not looking for a suffering servant, a Messiah who would be "despised and rejected of men," as Isaiah 53 so clearly predicted. They wanted a lion, and God sent a lamb to be slain. But the cross was not plan B. The suffering of the Christ was woven into the fabric of prophecy from the beginning. It was God's plan, determined before the foundation of the world.
Second, "that as first of the resurrection from the dead." The suffering was not the end of the story. The same prophets who spoke of His suffering also spoke of His vindication and glory. His resurrection was the proof that His sacrifice was accepted. He was the "first of the resurrection," the firstfruits of a great harvest. His bodily resurrection from the grave is the guarantee of our own. A man who dies and comes back to life again in history is the absolute Lord of that history. The resurrection is God's giant exclamation point at the end of the sentence that says, "This is my Son."
Third, that this resurrected Christ "was going to proclaim light both to the Jewish people and to the Gentiles." The result of the suffering and resurrection is a global proclamation of light. Jesus is the light of the world. He dispels the darkness of sin, ignorance, and death. And this light is not just for Israel. It is for the nations. This is the great surprise of the gospel, the mystery hidden for ages but now revealed. The same light that shone on the road to Damascus is the light that shines into the hearts of all who believe, Jew or Gentile, small or great.
Conclusion: The Only Story That Matters
Paul's defense before Agrippa is a model for us. Our confidence is not in our eloquence or our personal story, but in the great, objective story of what God has done in history. Our message is not an innovation; it is the ancient hope of the world, foretold by prophets and fulfilled in Jesus Christ.
This message still demands the same things it did in the first century. It demands that we repent, that we turn from our self-rule and bow the knee to King Jesus. It demands that our lives be visibly transformed, producing deeds that are consistent with that repentance. And it demands that we see all of this as grounded in the historical suffering and resurrection of the Christ.
This is not one option among many. It is the central claim of all reality. Paul was not disobedient to the vision because the vision was from heaven. We are called to that same obedience. We are called to bear witness to this same story, a story that is nothing other than what Moses and the prophets said would come. It is the story of a suffering King, a resurrected Lord, and a light for all nations. It is the only story that can save a man, or a king, or the world.