Daily Reading: 6-3-16
Acts 26:1-11 New Living Translations (NLT)
When we meet Jesus and the Holy Spirit fills us with the ability to know Truth, it changes our perspective of what is truly important in life and drives us to articulate it. We choose our conversations more carefully, because sharing from an eternal life perspective is exalted above all things. Why? Because Christ in us wants others to know Him and the power outflowing His resurrection that is available to everyone. Christ compels us to share Love and the hope of eternity with God. Paul is an example of a compelled man with an eternal story.
Paul has made a journey to Jerusalem where he is arrested for preaching the truth about Jesus Christ by sharing the encounter he had on the road to Damascus. Paul cannot stop speaking a message of Hope—resurrection from the dead—since meeting Jesus. The Jews listen and become furious with his story, so they beat him and demand his death. The Romans step in because they do not like the disruption to the peace; they take Paul to the fortress where he awaits sentencing.
In our passage, Paul is giving his own defense before King Agrippa of the Herodians (Hellenistic Jews). Agrippa is not sitting as judge in this inquiry, but is there to give his opinion on the matter of how to present accusations against Paul to the emperor in Rome. Paul seeks to vindicate his character, articulate the facts of what happened in his life to cause a change in his understanding of Jesus, defend his own conversion, and preach a message of hope to everyone listening.