Acts 26:19-23 meaning

In Acts 26:19-23, Paul relates how he obeyed Jesus’s appointment to be His servant. He became a preacher of the gospel wherever he went. The Jewish leadership has tried to put him to death for this faith and this message.

Paul addresses King Agrippa II by name again, speaking primarily to him, since it was King Agrippa II who wanted to hear Paul’s testimony (Acts 25:22, 26). Having told the king and the crowd about the appointment to ministry given by Jesus Christ in a vision from heaven, Paul explains that he obeyed the commandment from God:

“So, King Agrippa, I did not prove disobedient to the heavenly vision (v. 19).

The heavenly vision was the light that came from heaven, brighter than the sun, which blinded Paul on the road to Damascus, accompanied by the voice of the risen Jesus (Acts 9:3).

In the vision, Jesus commanded Paul to “get up and stand on your feet” and appointed Paul to be “a minister and a witness” to the vision he had seen and the visions he would see in the future. Jesus was sending him to the Gentiles to “open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me” (Acts 26:16-18).

Paul now tells King Agrippa that he did as Jesus commanded him: I did not prove disobedient.

Paul changed completely from being a persecutor of Jesus’s followers to a follower himself, no longer disobedient to God’s calling on his life (Galatians 1:15-16). He was no longer kicking against the goads (Acts 26:14). He had repented (turned around) from what he had been pursuing to now pursuing obedience to the will of God.

Paul summarizes his years of obedient ministry preaching the gospel:

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, performing deeds appropriate to repentance (v. 20).

This covers the events of Acts 9, 11, 13-21.

After the heavenly vision, Paul was blinded and led into Damascus by the men who accompanied him. There, God restored Paul’s sight through a believer named Ananias laying hands on Paul, who then baptized Paul (Acts 9:18). Paul kept declaring unto those of Damascus first, in the synagogues to the Jews, until the local leadership plotted his death and he escaped town (Acts 9:19-20, 23-25).

He then returned to Jerusalem and preached also there, though it was only a couple of weeks before again he left town to evade a plot to kill him (Acts 9:28-30, Galatians 1:21).

Paul says he preached then throughout all the region of Judea. When he did this is not explicitly recorded in Acts. After leaving Jerusalem for the first time during his ministry years, Paul went to Cilicia for a long while, and was “still unknown by sight to the churches of Judea which were in Christ” (Galatians 1:22), before Barnabas invited him to help teach at the church of Antioch in Syria (Acts 11:25-26).

At some point during Paul’s teaching ministry in Antioch, he and Barnabas brought charitable donations south from Antioch, in Syria, to Jerusalem, at which point they may have spent time declaring Jesus’s message throughout all the region of Judea during their travels (Acts 11:29-20, 12:25).

Paul is simply demonstrating to King Agrippa II that he did not prove disobedient to the mission given him by Jesus, that he has preached the gospel everywhere he has gone.

Paul then affirms that he preached even to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds appropriate to repentance. Paul had gone on three lengthy mission trips, traveling through Cyprus, Galatia, Macedonia, Greece, and the Roman province of Asia (western modern—day Turkey) (Acts 13:4, 14, 14:1, 8, 16:11-12, 17:16, 18:1, 19, 19:1). He had preached to Gentiles all over the Roman empire.

His message was that they should repent and turn to God. To repent is to change one’s mind. They were called to change their minds from worshiping false, powerless idols and to turn to God, the one and only God, who was welcoming them into a reconciled relationship through faith in Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 5:18-21).

After they turned to God through putting their faith in Christ, Paul taught these Gentile believers to begin performing deeds appropriate to repentance. This is simply a description of sanctification, where believers grow and mature as they learn to leave behind the darkness and walk in the light, giving up sin and choosing to live righteously by faith.

Paul taught the Gentiles to walk by the Spirit, who would lead them into performing deeds appropriate to repentance, meaning deeds that corresponded to their turned—around new life. There are many lists in Paul’s letters where he contrasts sinful deeds (Galatians 5:19-21, Colossians 3:5-9, Ephesians 4:25-31, 5:3-5, Romans 1:29-31, 6:19-21, 13:13, 1 Corinthians 6:9-10) with deeds appropriate to repentance (Galatians 5:22-23, Colossians 3:12-14, Romans 12:9-21).

The Gentile cultures of the first century, both Roman and Greek—influenced, promoted and permitted many ways of exploitation. Paul’s work was cut out for him in not only teaching the Gentile believers to turn away from these socially acceptable sins, but to continually remind and correct them to live in opposition to the exploitative ways of the world. In his first letter to the Thessalonians, Paul draws their attention to how to live out God’s commandments and be sanctified:

“For you know what commandments we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality.”
(1 Thessalonians 4:2-3)

“Sexual immorality” was not much of a concept in the pagan worldview of that era. Some of the most depraved bodily acts were viewed as normal and were accepted. This was something fundamental that the Gentile believers had to learn. God designed sexuality for a specific context and a specific pairing.

The reason why sexual immorality is so foundational to sanctification is that it demonstrates the broad effects of sin versus deeds appropriate to repentance. Sexual immorality, breaking God’s design, serving appetites and doing whatever we want with our bodies, comes at the expense of others. Further, it leads to our own destruction (Romans 1:24, 26, 28). We cannot grow in spiritual maturity if we are slaves to our own desires. Sexual immorality is harmful to our neighbors, our relationships, and ourselves. This kind of exploitation is intrinsic to all varieties of sin.

Choosing sin and serving our fleshly lusts harms ourselves as well as other people. It breeds a lifestyle of using, abusing, taking advantage of, and devaluing our brothers and sisters. The same goes for any other sin. To lie to someone is an act of rejection, there is no love in telling a lie; lying is a method of mind—control and disrespect to the other person’s free will. To steal is to harm someone else’s quality of life, their own peace of mind, their future. And so it goes. Sinful acts are hateful and destructive toward others.

But deeds appropriate to repentance—deeds which correspond to the decision to reject the exploitative system of the world and sin—bring about love and harmony toward our brothers and sisters. Rather than viewing others as tools to gratify or gain whatever we want moment by moment, we are to become servants who work to increase good for others. Paul summarizes this beautifully in his letter to the Romans, that the Law of God is fulfilled most purely and simply through loving our neighbor:

“…if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.”
(Romans 13:9-10)

These deeds appropriate to repentance create relationships and community that is uplifting, safe, peaceful, and to the good of everyone.

Paul has shown Agrippa II how he obeyed Jesus’s appointment to ministry. Paul went from being a Pharisee who was jailing and endorsing the executions of believers to becoming a believer in Jesus who preached the gospel everywhere he went, even to the Gentiles, to whom Jesus specifically sent him (Acts 26:16-18).

Now Paul begins the conclusion to his defense and his testimony, tying the backstory of his life, his repentance, and his ministry to his current imprisonment:

“For this reason some Jews seized me in the temple and tried to put me to death (v. 21).

For this reason refers to Paul’s obedience to Jesus’s command that he preach the gospel, even to the Gentiles. For this reason, some Jews seized Paul in the temple. He is calling back to the moment, two years earlier, when a mob seized him in the temple courtyard during Pentecost (Acts 21:27-29). He has been in custody in Caesarea since then.

This mob was stirred up by Jews from the Roman province of Asia who knew Paul from his years in Ephesus, where he built up the church there, performed many miracles, and taught the gospel to the surrounding regions (Acts 19:10-11, 20). These Jews were hostile to the gospel, and upon seeing Paul in the temple in Jerusalem, they saw their opportunity to take him down. After seizing him, they tried to put him to death by beating him (Acts 21:20-31).

But, as Agrippa II can see, the Jews were not successful in putting him to death:

“So, having obtained help from God, I stand to this day testifying both to small and great, stating nothing but what the Prophets and Moses said was going to take place (v. 22).

Paul obtained help from God when the Roman commander in Jerusalem rescued him from the mob (Acts 21:31-32). Had the Romans acted too slowly, Paul may have died. But all that has happened and will happen is in God’s timing. God is on His throne. He permits the events that take place on the earth (Genesis 50:20, 15:16, Proverbs 16:4, Acts 4:27-28, 17:26).

Paul’s life being saved by the Romans was help from God. God would also ordain it that Paul’s nephew would learn of the plot to assassinate Paul, which would cause the Romans to smuggle Paul to Caesarea (Acts 23:16, 31-33).

God had also ordained that Paul would be born a Roman citizen, which was not something most Jews could claim, and this citizenship would help Paul escape another plot to put him to death on the road back to Jerusalem. By God’s help in preordaining Paul’s Roman citizenship, Paul was afforded the right to appeal to Caesar (Acts 25:11-12).

Jesus’s promise to Paul on the road to Damascus continued to prove true, that He would rescue him from the Jews and the Gentiles (Acts 26:17). Paul had obtained help from God and rescue by Jesus many more times than he describes here to King Agrippa II. He will continue to receive help through coming trials (Acts 27:42-44, 28:3-6).

Paul testifies to Agrippa II that it was because he obtained help from God that “I stand to this day testifying both to small and great.” He is probably referring to that literal day where he is standing in the Caesarean auditorium, testifying of all that God had shown and spoken to him, both to the small and the great, which encompassed his audience of a king, a royal sister, a Roman governor, Roman commanders, and the elite of Caesarea (Acts 25:23). Servants and attendants were probably present as well, to serve their masters, and were also hearing Paul’s testifying; they, the small, in service to the great, such as Agrippa II and Festus.

This testifying, Paul says, is rooted in the Hebrew scriptures, and nothing else: he is stating nothing but what the Prophets and Moses said was going to take place. Nothing Paul preaches is blasphemous, heretical, false, or invented by man.

Everything he teaches was predicted in the books of the Prophets and the books of Moses. The five books of Moses are the Law—the “Torah,” and the books of the Prophets are the remaining books in the Old Testament. This covers the entire canon of divinely inspired texts which the Jews study and obey. Paul is showing that he has not deviated from Jewish belief or customs. All that he preaches was prophesied by God through His servants who wrote down His words.

A notable verse from one of the books of Moses is Deuteronomy 18:18, where Moses told the Israelites that God would raise up a prophet who would speak as God directly to the people, which Jesus fulfilled (John 12:49). A notable passage from the Prophets is Isaiah 53:4-5, where Isaiah describes that the Messiah will suffer for our sins and heal us through His suffering, which Jesus certainly did (1 Peter 2:24, 1 Corinthians 15:3). There are many, many more passages and prophecies from the books of Moses and the Prophets which Jesus fulfilled (Genesis 3:15, Isaiah 43, Numbers 21:8-9, 2 Samuel 7:12-13, to name a few; Luke 24:27, 45-48). (Isaiah’s “My Servant” passages are a key example of messianic predictions; the commentary on Isaiah 42:1 introduces these, as a further reference.)

The gospel of Jesus is simply the fulfillment of these scriptures. Jesus Himself taught this to the disciples (Luke 24:27, 44). Paul claims that what the scriptures said was going to take place has indeed taken place. This was often, if not always, how Paul preached the gospel to his Jewish brethren in the synagogues; he “reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and giving evidence,” “trying to persuade,” those who would hear him (Acts 13:16-41, 17:2-3, 11, 18:4-5, 19:8). Likewise, the Apostle Peter often preached from the Old Testament to demonstrate that Jesus fulfilled God’s promises (Acts 2:14-36, 3:12-26, 4:10-12), as did Apollos (Acts 18:28).

And for this reason, Paul’s own people are trying to kill him, yet God continues to give him help so that he can keep preaching the message. And this is the message; Paul finishes his testimony with the gospel itself. This is what the Prophets and Moses said was going to take place:

that the Christ was to suffer, and that by reason of His resurrection from the dead He would be the first to proclaim light both to the Jewish people and to the Gentiles” (v. 23).

The Christ, as Agrippa II should know, is the Messiah, God’s servant who is continuously prophesied about throughout the Old Testament. God promised to send His servant to accomplish many things for Israel, primarily to redeem Israel.

The passages that prophesy that the Christ was to suffer are Isaiah 50:4-11 and Isaiah 52:13 - 53:12, passages from the “Servant Songs” of Isaiah. The “Servant” is the Christ, God’s chosen servant who will suffer for Israel. Daniel 9:26 also describes how the Messiah will “be cut off, and have nothing [no one].” Jesus suffered the rejection of His people, mockery, physical torture, and a long, excruciating death. The word “Christ” means “anointed” which is also the meaning of “Messiah.” Jesus the Christ is Jesus the anointed King of Israel.

The result of the Christ’s suffering is that He would be put to death, but would not remain dead. It was that by reason of His resurrection from the dead that the Messiah would be the first to proclaim light both to God’s holy, chosen people—the Jewish people—and also to the Gentiles, which is every other people group and nation. Here Paul is claiming that the Christ was alive, that He was not dead, but had been raised to life through resurrection (Psalm 16:10).

Throughout this testimony before Agrippa, Paul has made it clear that he believes that the Christ is Jesus of Nazareth, who spoke to him on the road to Damascus and many times since. Elsewhere in Paul’s writings, he describes Jesus as the firstborn and first fruits of resurrection, and that believers in Him will also be resurrected (Romans 8:29, 23, 1 Corinthians 15:20, 22-23). Jesus is the first person to be resurrected to eternal life, never to die again (Romans 6:9). All who believe in Him are also given life eternal (John 3:14-16).

Through His resurrection, He is the first to proclaim light. The word light is used in scripture as a metaphor for Jesus Himself (1 John 1:5, John 1:4, 9). In ancient and modern cultures (including ancient Judaism, classical Greek, and ancient Rome), light is a frequent metaphor or symbol for both truth and goodness. And through Jesus, we can enter the light because we can become part of His body through His death (Colossians 1:21-22).

Jesus’s death and resurrection proclaimed that sin was defeated, death was defeated, and Satan was defeated (Romans 6:6-7, Hebrews 2:14-15, 1 Corinthians 15:54-57, Colossians 2:15). The divide between man and God was now bridged (John 14:6, 1 Timothy 2:5). All men, whether the Jewish people or the Gentiles, could be reconciled to God through faith in the Christ and what He proclaimed.

Through faith in Christ we can live in light rather than the darkness of sin. Those who enter the light through faith also experience a spiritual resurrection from the deadness of our sin through the power of the resurrection of Christ (Romans 6:4, 2 Corinthians 5:17). Believers also receive the promise of a future resurrection: when all who hope in Jesus will be raised to eternal life to live in an eternal body which can never die (Romans 13:11, Philippians 3:20-21, 1 John 3:2, 1 Corinthians 15:42, 49, 52), in an eternal kingdom in which the Christ is King (Luke 1:32-33, Hebrews 1:8, 2 Peter 1:11, Revelation 11:15).

Jesus was the first to proclaim light both to the Jewish people and to the Gentiles (Luke 2:32). It was by reason of His resurrection from the dead that Jesus was the first to proclaim light both to Jews as well as Gentiles. In Isaiah 49:6, it was prophesied that Jesus would be a light to the Gentiles who brought them salvation. Paul is simply His minister and witness proclaiming light to the world, even now to Agrippa II and Festus.

Paul might have included this reference to Jewish people as well as Gentiles because the original charge against him was a false allegation that Paul desecrated the temple by bringing a Gentile into the court of the temple (Acts 21:27-30). Further, it is likely that the elite citizens of Caesarea were Gentile, so Paul is including them in his gospel message. The following passage records the king and governor’s response to the gospel as presented by Paul.