Acts 26

Yesterday, I had the undeserved privilege of attending a church planting forum under the organization Lausanne. I can’t tell you how encouraging it was to be around these other Christ-Followers heading in the same unified direction. I even met a guy whose title is “Director of Prayer” for his organization. We hit it off. We’re going to pray together whenever I’m up his way (about an hour north of here).

I’m so thankful. My heart is full.

The last session was about sharing our faith and the fact that Jesus is the Son of God. I wasn’t sure exactly how I felt about the presentation—not bad, mind you, just unsure. Then last night, the Spirit led me to read William Willimon’s commentary on Acts 26, and it gave me chills how specifically it spoke to my wrestlings. The Holy Spirit is so real and active and intimate if we just open ourselves to her.

I want to share what I highlighted from Willimon on this chapter:

Although Paul’s defense has objective content—something has happened to him to which he must be obedient—his technique for delivering his defense is a subjective account of personal experience.

…there can be no doubt that Luke believes that a personal experience of the risen Christ is the bedrock upon which faithful witness is built…there can be no denying that the witness of Paul, as we encounter it in Acts, is driven by the power of personal experience.

Until the fact of the risen Christ becomes part of our lives, something motivating and empowering us, we have little to say, even if we know the facts.

A contemporary communicator of the Christian faith (which should include everyone in the church) would do well to ponder Paul’s species in Acts 22 and Acts 26 as models of Christian testimonial.

Acts 25:18-19

“But the accusations made against him [Paul] weren’t any of the crimes I expected.

Instead, it was something about their religion and a dead man named Jesus, who Paul insists is alive.”

~Porcius Festus, governor of Palestine

May our speech never be such in which it communicates that Jesus of Nazareth is a dead guy of the past. But rather that he is a powerful Presence now, alive and well.

May indeed our very lives portray that Jesus is alive and reigning with the Father and Holy Spirit.

May our bodies be vessels through which flows freely the Holy Spirit so that those around us witness Jesus’ Life active in the world here and now.

Acts 24:16

For that reason I make it my settled aim always to have a clear conscience before God and all people.

The language here is that Paul “takes great pains” to have a clear conscience before God and people.

I’ve been thinking of this a lot this week in my own prayer of examination at the end of each day, going through all the WHYs of everything I’ve done and thought throughout the day. It can be daunting for sure, yet mercifully liberating.

As followers of Christ, it is our aim to take on the mind of Christ—to more and more think the way Jesus actually thinks. This, I believe, is to become purer and purer in heart, seeing God, others, and even ourselves, ever more clearly through the lens of God’s love.

I believe we can get to the point in which our first and dominating thought that goes through our head in every personal encounter is our desire for and the seeking to bring about the ultimate good for the person in front of us, no matter what.

This mindset will not be attained without taking great pains to rigorously examine one’s motives, conscience, actions, thought life…

If it is not your settled aim to have a clear conscience before God, and a pure heart toward all people, then the chances of it happening are extremely small.

Even Paul, who was pretty literally “zapped by the Light”, had to work diligently, intentionally to put on the mind of Christ. Yes, the Holy Spirit will assist us in this, but typically does not do all the work for us.

Here is another example of the prayer of examination.

Acts 23:1

Paul looked hard at the Sanhedrin [Jewish council].

“My brothers,” he said, “I have conducted myself before God in a completely good conscience all my life up to this day.”

The apostle Paul, as we shall see more in the next chapter, took great pains to examine his own conscience. He is very clear that he has a very clear conscience before God, and people.

How could he say this?

Well, he obviously took the time to examine himself. He had to have sat and reflected on his decisions, his actions, his thoughts–toward God and toward people–and confessed to God that which was not pure before Him, trusting in His merciful forgiveness, and thanking God for all that he had done and thought in purity of heart.

For years, I’ve advocated that if you do just one spiritual practice, the prayer of examination is a foundational one. For one, it is prayer—it is time with God in conversation, review, request, and gratitude. Five to fifteen minutes a day with God in this manner will change your life, and literally rewire your brain in the process as we now know through science.

How wonderful it is to sleep peacefully at night knowing you have done what you could this day after reviewing your day with God, examining your “whys” with Him, confessing, receiving forgiveness, thanking, resting.

Reminds me of the Emerson quote we have on our fridge:

Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities have crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day. You shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.

See an example of a prayer of examination here.

It’s interesting to note that Paul could have a clean conscience before God for his whole life as his life before conversion consisted of imprisoning and killing Christians for God’s sake. But he not only undoubtedly confessed it & repented of it, he also knew that he always acted out of zeal for God—even committing misguided heinous acts.

Acts 22:10

So I said, “What shall I do, Master?” And the Lord said to me, “Get up and go into Damascus, and there you will be informed of all the things that have been arranged for you to do.”

Encountering the risen Christ, your automatic response will be an awestruck “What shall I do, Master?”

Then we will be told to go into “Damascus”—a place in which we can hear what has been arranged for us to do. This Damascus can be a physical place. It is definitely a state of consciousness, of listening, of attunement where we can actually discern what our Master asks of us—what has been arranged for us to uniquely do that only we have been called to do since before time began.

So where might your Damascus be? Do you need to get away from the noise of life, and retreat in order to hear?

Do you need to go to a different mindset? To a place where there is no mind clutter, no lies deafening you to the Master’s voice?

This reminds of the visual aid many teachers have used to illustrate the connection between stillness and clarity. Imagine a bottle of water with some dirt in it being shaken up and moved around without a break.

What happens?

The water turns and remains cloudy.

But what about if you set the bottle down on a table for a while, say, even for just five minutes or so?

The dirt settles to the bottom causing the water to be clear and easy to see through.

It’s absolutely amazing the clarity of mind that comes if you can simply sit still without thinking for just a few minutes.

It is only in that stillness that we shall clearly hear what our task is.

~Brother David Steindl-Rast

Acts 21:19-20

He greeted them and laid out before them everything which God had done through his ministry among the Gentiles, telling it all step by step.

They praised God when they heard it.

This is the highest level of encouragement for me—hearing what God is doing in the world. It causes a praising of God to well up and spring forth from inside you, bolstering your faith.

I don’t wanna so much about hear what people are doing. I hear that a zillion times every week. I want to hear what God is doing through people. That is information not as readily available.

Hopefully this is what our Sunday gatherings are full of, just as it appears it was in these early days of Christianity. Total focus on God and what He is up to, encouraging one another through the stories which are, we pray, plentiful.

God is doing so much everyday everywhere. May we bring constant attention to it in order to drown out those loud voices of doom and gloom thrust in our faces at every turn.

Acts 20:31

Yes, even from among yourselves people will arise, saying things which will distort the truth, and they will draw the disciples away after them.

Anyone who points to themselves more than Jesus is a false teacher.

Anyone who draws people toward anything or anyone more than toward Jesus is a false teacher leading people astray.

Acts 19:1-7

“Did you receive the holy spirit when you believed?”

“We had not heard,” they replied, “that there was a ‘holy spirit.'”

…they were baptized in the name of Jesus. Paul then laid his hands upon them, and the holy spirit came upon them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied.

~Kingdom New Testament 

I only want the Real Deal.

Holy Spirit of Jesus I seek You.

To ponder, from William Willimon’s most excellent commentary on Acts:

“Luke would not have understood any conception of discipleship without the Spirit. The Spirit, as Paul assures the followers of Apollos, is not optional equipment for Christians, not some advanced degree which separates ‘Spirit-filled Christians’ from the run-of-the-mill non-spiritual proletariat. By virtue of baptism in the name of Jesus and laying-on-of-hands, all Christians are ‘charismatic’ (19:6).”

“Power is part of a relationship with the Lord who is personally known by the believer.”

“This faith is not simply about conversion nor is it only about wonder-working power; it is conversion into and power derived from a relationship with the risen Christ.”

Acts 18:5-6

When Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul was putting great energy into the task of bearing forthright witness to the Jews that the Messiah really was Jesus. 

When they opposed him, and blasphemed, he shook out his clothes. “Your blood be on your own heads!” he said. “I am innocent. From now on I shall go to the Gentiles.”

In Ezekiel, one who fails to warn people to repentance has blood on one’s head, that is, is morally responsible for the people’s judgement.

Paul had sufficiently declared to these Corinthians that Jesus was God’s anointed one to whom they must bow, and for whom they must turn away from their current practices. His conscience was clear, and he felt comfortable to move on.

Sometimes when faced with rejection, we are called to simply walk away because we have done our part, and they have refused to open themselves up in any way to the message of Jesus.

This takes courage, wisdom, and great charity to do so.

At times, we tend to feel we are to bear with someone and their excuses/rejection over and over. While this is possible of course, it is many times not likely our calling, but rather the enemy’s way of guilting us into a frivolous expenditure of time and energy that God would desire us to use toward someone else more receptive so much fruit can be borne.

Be careful. Be wise. Be discerning. Be prayerful through this.

Acts 17:27

God wanted them to ·look for [seek] him and perhaps ·search all around for [grope for; reach out to; feel their way towards] him and find him, though he is not far from any of us:

~Expanded Bible

God made us humans with the intent for us to seek after who we came from, and “find” Him, connecting ourselves to Him in such a way that we are one with Him.

His creation is testament to His existence, providence, awesomeness, and care—though finding Him in this way is a little like groping around in the dark.

But with the light of the Gospel, repentance, and belief in the resurrection of Jesus and complete trust in Him, we find Him with a much fuller comprehension of just who He is, experiencing Him at the deeper level I believe He intends for us.

Without these elements of light, we remain groping in the dark.

Let us remember this Memorial Day the many martyrs for Christ who have given their life for the sake of this Gospel light—from Stephen who was stoned to death in the first century to Dietrich Bonhoeffer who was executed in the 20th century to 85 year old priest Jacques Hamel who was murdered during Mass in 2016…