Daily Thought

What a scene is depicted for us at the beginning of our passage! Agrippa and his sister, Bernice, arrive with great ceremony and the great and the good of Caesarea are all gathered together. Festus explains his predicament to them: Paul has appealed to Caesar and yet there are no legitimate crimes that can be laid against him. What should he write? How can he justify sending him to be heard by the emperor? It is good when our testimony is such that the world can find nothing whatever against us. We are to be ‘blameless and harmless . . . without rebuke’, Phil. 2. 15. Such was Paul’s testimony. Such, now was Paul’s opportunity. What would he say before such an august company? What would we say if given the opportunity to speak to royalty? Before Felix he had reasoned of ‘righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come’, Acts 24. 25; here he once again tells his testimony. We may recall his determination when he came to Corinth, a place where great oratory was prized, ‘not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified’, 1 Cor. 2. 2.

When given permission by Agrippa to speak, Paul says that he counts himself ‘happy’, literally ‘blessed’, v. 2, to be able to offer his defence before him. In contrast to Festus who knew nothing of Jewish customs and laws, and Felix who, because of his length of time in office, would have been aware of some of them, he knows that Agrippa is an ‘expert’, v. 3. Here there was a starting point, a common ground on which to build. He could speak freely without fear of losing his audience. It seems to be increasingly rare in the day in which we live to find those who have any knowledge of the scriptures at all. Indeed, it is safer in our gospel preaching to assume no knowledge rather than risk losing our audience.

To Agrippa he speaks of the ‘hope of the promise made of God’, v. 6, that is, the resurrection of the dead. The nation of Israel and Paul before he was converted were dedicated in their pursuit of that hope, not apprehending that it cannot be earned, but is obtained by faith, and that, in Christ. Let us pray for the nation of Israel that their eyes may be opened.