Monday, May 25th

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Monday, May 25

Acts 26:1-3
So Agrippa said to Paul, "You have permission to speak for yourself." Then Paul stretched out his hand and made his defense: "I consider myself fortunate that it is before you, King Agrippa, I am going to make my defense today against all the accusations of the Jews, especially because you are familiar with all the customs and controversies of the Jews. Therefore I beg you to listen to me patiently.

The year was 1974; I was a freshman in college and my roommate had a lava lamp. The university I attended was not a Christian institution so I was exposed very quickly to a world that challenged much of what I had been taught growing up.

I had grown up in a Christian home and I had committed my life to Christ at a very young age. But as an 18 year old freshman away from home for the first time I was not terribly vocal or outward about my faith.

Late one night about two weeks into that first semester a bunch of guys on my floor were hanging out in the dorm when, out of nowhere, one guy turned to me as said, “So what makes you tick, Coffey?”

I said, “Uh, whaddaya mean?”

He said, “I mean - you don’t drink like the rest of us; you don’t swear like the rest of us; so, what makes you tick?”

I broke out in a cold sweat! No one had ever asked me something like that before. For most of my life I just assumed people knew what made me tick, because most of the people I knew were part of our church, or at least knew my Dad was a pastor. I had never been asked to explain myself before.

I remember mumbling something like, “Well, I’m a Christian and just don’t do those things.” It wasn’t exactly a moving or persuasive statement of faith in Christ!

As we begin chapter 26, Paul has been under a kind of house arrest for close to two years. He had been arrested in Jerusalem when his attempt to preach the gospel was met with a mob that tried to kill him. Paul then claimed his Roman citizenship which forced the authorities to guarantee a hearing before the Emperor. But the sitting Procurator, a man named Felix, had held Paul for two years hoping to receive a bribe from Paul’s friends. Now Festus has replaced Felix, and together with the Jewish King named Agrippa, offers Paul a hearing so he can justify to the Emperor why this man has been sent to him for examination.

Put yourself in Paul’s shoes for a moment. You have been beaten, stoned and imprisoned for preaching the gospel. You are now being held without bond and awaiting a possible court date before the Emperor of Rome. You are given permission to speak before men who have enormous power over what happens to you next. What will you say? What tone will you take?

Luke says,

Then Paul stretched out his hand and made his defense...

We can miss this because we are unfamiliar with ancient culture, but Paul assumes a posture here that was common among lawyers making their case or orators speaking before large crowds. To stretch out one’s hand meant to assume a posture of confidence and authority.

Even though Paul was, politically and economically speaking, the least powerful man in the room, when he stood to speak he took the posture of one speaking with both authority and truth.

That makes sense because Paul is the one who wrote to the believers in Rome:
 
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. Romans 1:16

I wish I had “stretched out my hand” in that dorm room so long ago. Where might you stretch out your hand and share the gospel boldly today?


Pastor Brian Coffey