Context No. 2565 of 4322 · Acts

Acts 26:15-23: in context

15“I said, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ “He said, ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. 16But arise, and stand on your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose: to appoint you a servant and a witness both of the things which you have seen and of the things which I will reveal to you; 17delivering you from the people and from the Gentiles, to whom I send you, 18to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive remission of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’ 19“Therefore, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, 20but declared first to them of Damascus, at Jerusalem, and throughout all the country of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, doing works worthy of repentance. 21For this reason the Jews seized me in the temple and tried to kill me. 22Having therefore obtained the help that is from God, I stand to this day testifying both to small and great, saying nothing but what the prophets and Moses said would happen, 23how the Christ must suffer, and how, by the resurrection of the dead, he would be first to proclaim light both to these people and to the Gentiles.”

On trial before King Agrippa, Paul recounts his conversion and the commission Christ gave him: to open people's eyes, to turn them from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, that they might receive forgiveness and a place among God's people. And then Paul sums up his whole life since in one sentence: therefore, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision.

That sentence is a life. Everything Paul had done, the journeys, the beatings, the imprisonments, the trials, flowed from a single decision not to disobey the vision Christ had given him on the road. He organized his entire existence around obeying that call. Most of us are given some clarity from God, a call, a conviction, a sense of what he asks, and the question is whether our lives are shaped by obeying it or by explaining it away. Paul could stand before a king and say, without boasting, that he had simply not been disobedient to what heaven showed him. The vision defined the man.

Is there a heavenly vision, a call or conviction God has given me, that my life is actually organized around obeying, or one I have explained away?

Sources

Acts 26:19: Therefore, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision.
Acts 26:18: to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive remission of sins.
Acts 26:16: I have appeared to you for this purpose: to appoint you a servant and a witness.