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Acts 26:10-15  PAULS SECOND LINE OF DEFENSE BEFORE AGRIPPA

Introduction:  

	In an earlier hearing before Festus, the new governor of Judea, the 
Apostle Paul had used his right as a Roman citizen to appeal his case before the 
Caesar.  He had done this in order to avoid being carried back to Jerusalem to 
be tried by the very people who had placed charges against him before Festus.  
	Paul’s appeal to have his case tried before the Roman Caesar posed a 
problem for Festus.  The Jews had made no criminal charges against Paul.  The 
only charges which they had made involved religious matters.  They claimed that 
Paul was a ringleader of a new religious group which was teaching things which 
were contrary to the old time Jewish religion.  Festus knew that in the eyes of 
the Caesar this would not be a legitimate charge and he was afraid that the 
Caesar would be upset with him for sending him a prisoner without some 
legitimate charges against him.  
	He was still puzzling over the problem when a neighboring king, King Herod 
Agrippa II came to visit him.  He discussed his problem with King Agrippa and 
sought his advise about what kind of charge to place against Paul in the letter 
that he would have to send to the Caesar.  Agrippa was happy to try to help and 
so he asked to have Paul brought before him that he might examine Paul before 
offering any suggestions to Festus.  
	In our text last Sunday Paul was allowed to speak in his own defense 
before King Agrippa.  His first line of defense was to show that his religious 
beliefs were not in contradiction to the religious teaching of the Jewish 
prophets of old, but that what he believed was exactly what the prophets of old 
had written.  The prophets of old had proclaimed that God would send a Christ, a 
Savior to the nation of Israel.  The prophets of old had said that the Christ 
would be put to death.  They had proclaimed that He would be crucified.  They 
had further proclaimed that after His crucifixion the Christ would be raised 
back to life again.  Paul knew that King Agrippa, who was himself a member of 
the Jewish religion, was familiar with these prophecies and he knew that Paul 
was telling the truth.  
	Paul had further declared to Agrippa that he believed Jesus of Nazareth to 
be the Christ that the prophets of old had said would come.  Therefore, his 
religious beliefs were not a break from the old traditional Jewish religion, but 
rather was exactly in keeping with  old time Jewish teachings.     

I.  Paul’s persecution of Christians before his conversion

	In our text today, Paul presents his second line of defense to King 
Agrippa.  He knows that Agrippa could not proclaim him innocent of the charges 
against him and set him free.  But if he could get both Festus and Agrippa to 
say in the letter to Caesar that in their opinion Paul should be set free, this 
would go a long way in his favor when he stood before the Caesar.  
	Paul’s second line of defense which he presented to Agrippa was that prior 
to the time when he became a Christian he, himself, had rejected the idea that 
Jesus is the Christ whom the prophets had said would come.  He was bitterly 
opposed to the idea that Jesus is the Christ.  V. 9, “I verily thought with 
myself, that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of 
Nazareth.”  In fact, Paul was at that time the chief persecutor of Christians.  
He was not the “ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes,” as the Jewish leaders 
claimed, but rather he was the ringleader of the persecution of the sect of the 
Nazarenes.  
	Paul had not only been against the idea that Jesus is the Christ, but he 
sought to eleminate all who proclaimed to believe that Jesus is the Christ.  V. 
10, “Which thing I also did in Jerusalem: and many of the saints did I shut up 
in prison, having received authority from the chief priests...”  Paul not only 
spoke against the Christians, but he took action to try to rid the Jewish nation 
of all who believed that Jesus is the Christ.  He had sought and received legal 
papers which authorized him to arrest and imprison Christians and to bring them 
to trial.  He had gone to the chief priests at the Jerusalem temple to get the 
legal papers which would authorize him to make those arrests.  Paul said that he 
had arrested many of the Christians and brought them to prison.  (V. 10), 
“...and when they were put to death, I gave my voice against [them].”  Paul had 
not only arrested and imprisoned them, but Paul, himself, had testified against 
them with his own voice asking that they be put to death.  
	Paul further explained to King Agrippa the kind of actions that he took 
against the Christians at that time.  V. 11, “And I punished them oft in every 
synagogue, and compelled [them] to blaspheme...”  Paul said that he went from 
synagogue to synagogue in search for those who believed that Jesus is the 
Christ.  
	And when he found them, he showed them no mercy.  (V. 11), “...and being 
exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted [them]...”  The Greek word which here 
is translated “man” means “furious, raging, behaving like a maniac.”  Paul said 
this about himself.  He said that in his persecution against the Christians he 
had been furious.  He had raged with anger against them.  He had raged like a 
maniac as he vented his anger against them.  
	 (V. 11), “... even unto strange cities.”  Paul said that he had done this 
not only in the synagogues of the city of Jerusalem and in the synagogues 
throughout Judea, but he had even persuaded Christians into foreign nations 
imprisoning Christians and carrying them back to Jerusalem.
	  
II.  Paul’s conversion to Christianity

	It had been while Paul was on one of those trips into a foreign nation 
that he had been unexpectedly converted to Christianity.  V. 12-14, “Whereupon 
as I went to Damascus with authority and commission from the chief priests,   At 
midday, O king, I saw in the way a light from heaven, above the brightness of 
the sun, shining round about me and them which journeyed with me.”   Paul and 
those who accompanied him were very near to the city of Damascus, which is the 
capital city of Syria, when a bright light did shine down from heaven upon them.  
This happened about noon when the sun was at its brightest, but the light was 
much brighter than the noonday sun.  
	V. 15, “And when we were all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice speaking 
unto me, and saying in the Hebrew tongue, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? 
[it is] hard for thee to kick against the pricks.”   The light did suddenly 
shine down upon them and all of a sudden Paul and all who were with him were 
laying on the ground.  It appears that the light knocked them to the ground.  
	Also there was a voice that came from heaven which called Paul by his 
Gentile name.  The voice said, “...Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?...”  
Paul does not say so to Agrippa, but in Paul’s letter to the church at Corinth, 
Paul said that he saw the person who was talking to him.  He did not recognize 
Jesus by sight.  He did not know that it was Jesus until Jesus identified 
himself.  
	Paul did tell Agrippa that the person in heaven called him by name.  He 
accused Paul of persecuting Him and demanded an answer why Paul was persecuting 
Him.  This should have given Paul some indication who that person was, but 
apparently Paul was not yet sure who was talking to him.  
	The voice continued to speak to Paul.  (V. 14), “...[it is] hard for thee 
to kick against the pricks.”   People in that day who drove oxen would use a 
sharp pointed stick to prod the ox.  If the ox got stubborn and would not move 
the man would jab him with the sharp stick.  If the ox decided to try to kick at 
the man, the man would simply hold out the sharp stick and the legs of the ox 
would hit the sharp stick. The more he kicked the more it hurt.  It was hard on 
the ox that kicked against the stick.  Even so, the Lord had been dealing with 
the conscience of Paul to make him regret what he was doing by persecuting the 
Christians.  But as Paul would stubbornly resist the Holy Spirit which pricked 
his conscience, the more Paul would resist the pricking of his conscience, the 
more it would hurt.   
	V. 15, “And I said, Who art thou, Lord?...”  As I said, Paul should have 
begun by now to suspect that it was Jesus who was talking to him.  After all, it 
was Jesus whom he was persecuting.  Anybody who persecutes the people of Jesus 
persecutes Jesus.  
	Paul did not have long to wonder who was talking to him.  (V. 15), “...And 
he said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest.”  Oh, how wrong Paul had been!  Jesus 
really is the Christ!  Jesus really is the Savior of men.!  Jesus really did 
arise from the grave as His disciples had said!  Paul was guilty as charged!  He 
was  guilty of  persecuting Jesus.  According to Paul’s letter to the 
Corinthians Paul not only heard the voice of Jesus and heard Him identify 
Himself as Jesus, but he saw Jesus in heaven.  He saw Him to be alive.  There 
was no room for doubt.  There would never again be any doubt in the mind of 
Paul.  He knew beyond any shadow of doubt that Jesus is really the Christ whom 
God had promised.  No matter what others might think Paul was sure.  No matter 
what others might say.  Paul was sure.  No matter if men might persecute him as 
he had persecuted others.  Jesus is the Christ. He now accepted it as a fact.  
He now believed in Jesus.  

III.  Some things which we should learn from this passage

	One can choose not to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, 
the Savior of men.  Paul did.  He had heard the gospel message.  He had heard 
that the disciples of Jesus said that Jesus had arisen from the grave.  But he 
had closed his mind to any testimony which the disciples might give and he would 
stubbornly hold onto the idea that Jesus is not the Christ of God.  He would 
hold on to his idea that Jesus did not arise from the grave.  He would hold on 
to his belief that Jesus could not cleans a lost sinner of his sin.  He could 
and he did stubbornly hold onto his erroneous thinking for a long time.  
	A mighty lot of people do the same thing today.  They may go so far as to 
read the Bible and read what it says about Jesus coming to this world and dying 
for the sins of men.  They may read about His resurrection from the grave.  They 
may read the promise of God found in Romans 10:13 that if a lost sinner will 
call upon the name of the Lord and trust Him to save his soul that Jesus will 
save him and take him to heaven.  But a lot of people insist that they are good 
enough like they are and that they do not have to trust Jesus in order to be 
saved.  A lot of other people acknowledge that they are sinners and unworthy of 
going to heaven like they are, but they feel that they can turn over a  new leaf 
and they can become good enough to get to heaven.  Still others think that they 
can do certain good deeds like helping the poor or by joining the church and 
getting baptized that they can earn the right to stay out of the fires of hell 
and go to heaven.  
	I said that a person can do that if he so chooses, but I am here to tell 
you that he can never get to heaven if he fails to repent of his sin and trust 
his destiny into the hands of Jesus Christ.  I am here to tell you that he can 
never stay out of the fires of hell if he never trusts Jesus to save his soul.  
	Another thing that we learn is that if he does choose not to trust Jesus 
to save his soul, he is going to find it hard to kick against the pricks.  God 
wants all men to be saved.  God is Almighty and He could force all men to repent 
of their sins and call on Jesus for salvation, but God does not do business that 
way.  God is not going to force anybody to get saved, but God does make it hard 
for people to reject the gospel message and to reject Jesus as his Savior.  In 
order for one to go on down the road to hell he has got to reject the word of 
God.  God has set forth the gospel message in His Holy Bible and one will have 
to deliberately refuse to believe the word of God in order to continue to be 
lost and go to hell. 
	Furthermore, God not only sends the gospel message through the pages of 
His Book, the Bible, but He sends the gospel message by the testimony of the 
people who are already saved.  In Acts 1:8 Jesus told His people to be witnesses 
for Him in Jerusalem, in all Judea, in Samaria and in the uttermost part of the 
world.  God’s people love to tell lost souls what Jesus has done for them.  They 
love to see other people get saved.  In order for a lost person to remain lost 
and go to hell he will have to turn a deaf ear to the Christian after Christian 
who witnesses to him about the saving grace of God through Jesus Christ.  
	In order for one to remain unsaved he also has to harden himself to the 
work of the Holy Spirit of God who seeks to call him to salvation.  The Holy 
Spirit convicts lost sinners of their terrible guilt of sin and of their need to 
repent of their sin and be saved.  The Holy Spirit of God touches the heart of 
the unsaved and seeks to convince him that he should turn to God in repentance 
of his sin and place his faith in Jesus Christ to save his soul.  
	In order for a man to go into the other world unprepared to meet God he is 
going to have to kick against the pricks of warning that God sends to him.  God 
warns him that death is certain.  God warns him that hell is sure if he fails to 
trust Jesus and be saved. He is going have to shut his eyes to the danger of 
spending eternity in the Lake of  Fire and Brimstone.  
	So in order for a lost sinner to stay lost he is going to have to do a lot 
of kicking.  He is going to have to kick against the pricks.  He is going to 
have to kick against the eternal truth of God’s Holy word.  He is going to have 
to kick against the pricks of sincere testimony which comes from the loving 
hearts of Christians.  He is going to have to kick against the pricks of the 
Holy Spirit of God who prods his conscience of his need of Jesus Christ.  He is 
going to have to kick against the pricks of warning of danger ahead.