The Anatomy of a Testimony

INTRODUCTION

When I was in 7th grade, I did what every other public school kid did—I dissected things in science class.

Most memorably, we dissected a frog and a lamb’s eye.

I can still remember the smell of the formaldehyde they were soaked in.

I can still remember that a few kids opted to write a paper instead of participate in the dissection—which I thought was insane.

And I can still remember a kid being sent to the Principal’s Office for eating a piece of lamb’s eye.

But ultimately, what was the point?

Why did we do the dissection?

Because we wanted to understand the internal structure of these things.

We wanted to know what makes up a frog.

We wanted to know what makes up a lamb’s eye (some of us were more curious than others!)

This morning, as we turn to Acts 25 and 26, we are going to do some dissection.

But it won’t be an animal.

We are going to dissect a testimony.

What makes up a testimony?

What is taking place when someone is testifying?

Who is speaking?

What are they saying?

Who are they saying it to and what is the response?

On whose authority are they speaking?

TEXT AND CONTEXT

Now, this is going to be one of the few times in which I preach a passage and I don’t read the whole passage.

And I am going to tell you right now that I don’t like it. Not one bit.

However, it would take about 12-13 minutes for me to just read these two chapters.

In light of that, I think we are better served to read just the portion where we see the bulk of Paul’s testimony before Festus and Agrippa.

But let me summarize what is happening around what I am reading.

END OF ACTS 24

The last we saw of Paul, he was left in custody by Felix in Caesarea for two years.

He doesn’t really make judgment on Paul, but leaves him in prison as a favor to the Jews.

ACTS 25:1-12

As we get to Acts 25, we have Felix’s successor—Porcius Festus (25:1).

He is a blue-blooded Roman, born from an influential family.

He has pedigree.

And he is being brought in by the Romans as a governor for the purpose of cleaning up the chaos in Judea.

Felix had left the relationship between the Jews and the Romans in pieces.

Festus was installed to put it back together.

Festus is in Jerusalem, repairing that relationships, when chief priests and principal men of the Jews come and lay out their case against Paul and ask for Paul to be brought to Jerusalem (25:2).

They want this because once again, they are seeking to ambush him and kill him (25:3).

But Festus decides he would rather hear Paul’s case in Caesarea instead (25:4-5)

After just over a week, he goes and brings Paul before a tribunal (25:6)

The Jews from Jerusalem bring charges against him, but they can’t prove anything (25:7)

Paul makes his defense (25:8)

Acts 25:8 ESV

Paul argued in his defense, “Neither against the law of the Jews, nor against the temple, nor against Caesar have I committed any offense.”

Festus responds by essentially wanting to kick things back down to a lower court.

Let the Sanhedrin handle it (25:9).

But as a Roman citizen, Paul appeals to Caesar (25:10-11).

He is a Roman citizen standing in a Roman court being heard by a Roman governor.

Why is another court necessary?

Festus says, “To Caesar you have appealed; to Caesar you shall go” (25:12).

ACTS 25:13-22

If you scroll down to Acts 25:13, you see new characters enter the scene. It is King Agrippa II and his sister Bernice.

King Agrippa II is Herod Agrippa II. He is basically the final Herod of the Herodian Dynasty.

And he was nasty and so was his sister.

They were in a gross incestuous relationship and everyone knew about it.

It was so bad that the Emperor of Rome had ordered Bernice to marry someone else.

So she married this guy named Polemo and then pretty much left him immediately to go back to playing the role of her brother’s queen.

They have probably shown up to pay respects to their new governor, Festus.

While they are there, Festus consults Agrippa about Paul and recounts the events to him and explains why Paul is in trouble (25:14-21).

Agrippa says he wants to hear Paul for himself and Festus says it will happen (25:22).

ACTS 25:23-27

So the next day, Agrippa and his “sister” arrive with great pomp (25:23).

You have the governor, the king and queen, the military tribunes and the leaders of the city all stopping their lives to gather and hear from this man named Paul (25:23).

This really speaks to just how much Paul’s ministry has disrupted the society of Judea and even the Roman Empire.

Paul is brought in and Festus tells Agrippa that despite all the Jews wanting Paul dead, he can’t find any charge to really bring against him (24:24-25).

Paul has appealed to Caesar and to Caesar he will go.

The Caesar at that time was Nero—a brutal man who did not like there to be disturbances in the Empire.

Festus doesn’t want to send Paul to him and not have en explanation for the disturbance and disruption of this Jewish man preaching about Jesus and resurrection (25:26).

If you are going to send Nero a prisoner, you better explain why (25:27).

This brings us to chapter 26 and I will read it from here...

ACTS 26 (THESE ARE THE VERY WORDS OF GOD)

Acts 26 ESV

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. “My manner of life from my youth, spent from the beginning among my own nation and in Jerusalem, is known by all the Jews. They have known for a long time, if they are willing to testify, that according to the strictest party of our religion I have lived as a Pharisee. And now I stand here on trial because of my hope in the promise made by God to our fathers, to which our twelve tribes hope to attain, as they earnestly worship night and day. And for this hope I am accused by Jews, O king! Why is it thought incredible by any of you that God raises the dead? “I myself was convinced that I ought to do many things in opposing the name of Jesus of Nazareth. And I did so in Jerusalem. I not only locked up many of the saints in prison after receiving authority from the chief priests, but when they were put to death I cast my vote against them. And I punished them often in all the synagogues and tried to make them blaspheme, and in raging fury against them I persecuted them even to foreign cities. “In this connection I journeyed to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests. At midday, O king, I saw on the way a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, that shone around me and those who journeyed with me. And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew language, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’ And I said, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ And the Lord said, ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. But rise and stand upon your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you, delivering you from your people and from the Gentiles—to whom I am sending you to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’ “Therefore, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, but declared first to those in Damascus, then in Jerusalem and throughout all the region of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds in keeping with their repentance. For this reason the Jews seized me in the temple and tried to kill me. To this day I have had the help that comes from God, and so I stand here testifying both to small and great, saying nothing but what the prophets and Moses said would come to pass: that the Christ must suffer and that, by being the first to rise from the dead, he would proclaim light both to our people and to the Gentiles.” And as he was saying these things in his defense, Festus said with a loud voice, “Paul, you are out of your mind; your great learning is driving you out of your mind.” But Paul said, “I am not out of my mind, most excellent Festus, but I am speaking true and rational words. For the king knows about these things, and to him I speak boldly. For I am persuaded that none of these things has escaped his notice, for this has not been done in a corner. King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know that you believe.” And Agrippa said to Paul, “In a short time would you persuade me to be a Christian?” And Paul said, “Whether short or long, I would to God that not only you but also all who hear me this day might become such as I am—except for these chains.” Then the king rose, and the governor and Bernice and those who were sitting with them. And when they had withdrawn, they said to one another, “This man is doing nothing to deserve death or imprisonment.” And Agrippa said to Festus, “This man could have been set free if he had not appealed to Caesar.”

OUTLINE

As we dissect Paul’s testimony in this passage, there are four parts that I want us to observe and examine:

The Witness (26:1-20)

The Message (26:20-23)

The Audience (26:24, 28)

The Power (26:18, 22)

And then we will close by asking ourselves three hard questions:

When is the last time I was the witness sharing the message?

Who is the audience who needs to hear my testimony?

What is holding me back from trusting in the power of God?

THE WITNESS (26:1-20)

We start this morning with The Witness—the Apostle Paul.

He is given permission to speak by Agrippa in chapter 26, verse 1.

He starts with a customary honorable greeting to the person of authority that he is addressing.

What he says is not flattery.

He is grateful that Agrippa will have a better idea of what he is saying than Festus would because he understands the Jewish world (v. 2-3).

Now as we get to v. 4, Paul is really beginning his testimony proper. And as he does:

Paul testifies to who he was (v. 4-5, 9-11)

The Jews know Paul’s past. He had a reputation because of how he was raised (v. 4).

He was a homegrown talent. A strict Pharisee (v. 5).

If you go down to v. 9, you’ll see that Paul continues to explain who he was before Christ with more detail.

He opposed the name of Christ (v. 9)

He went to Jerusalem and locked up saints—believers in Christ, on the authority of the chief priests (v. 10)

He participated in their executions (v. 10)

He persecuted them in the synagogues, trying to entrap them with charges of blasphemy (v. 11)

And he persecuted them with raging fury even in Gentile cities (v. 11)

In beginning his defense in this way, Paul gives us a model for how Christian testimony is to be delivered.

It begins with who we were.

To be able to tell this part of our story, we need to be able to do two things:

1. We must understand who the Bible says we were before Christ saved us.

Ephesians 2:1-3 says we were dead in our sins, following the course of this world and Satan—the prince of the power of the air, carrying out the desires of our flesh and that by our nature we were children of wrath.

Colossians 1:13 says we were citizens of the domain of darkness

Colossians 2:13 says you were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh

Or listen to 1 Corinthians 6:9-10

1 Corinthians 6:9–10 ESV

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

And then verse 11 begins...

1 Corinthians 6:11 (ESV)

And such were some of you...

2. We must be able to connect who the Bible says we were with our story.

In other words, it is important to be able to explain who we were before we were Christians.

Paul was a man of great Jewish pedigree, who became a Christian-persecuting Pharisee who opposed the name of Christ.

That is what it looked like for him to be dead in sin.

A citizen of the domain of darkness

A reviler unworthy of the Kingdom

These were the depths that sin took him to

It is not a pretty picture. He doesn’t sugarcoat it.

It isn’t the main thing.

He isn’t seeking to glorify his sin.

But before he gets to the story’s climax as he is confronted by Christ, he wants to paint an image of himself that is starkly different than the one they see before the in the audience hall.

Paul is saying, “Before I tell you about who I am and how I got here—I want you to know who I was. I was an enemy of God.”

For some of you, you were saved out of some real drama. You were at the end of your road and Jesus found you and threw you over His shoulder and brought you back and you have a story to tell.

It may be easier for you to track with what I am saying.

For others, you were raised in the church and you barely remember a time in which you did not want to honor the name of Christ.

You have had your sins and maybe even your rebellious seasons, but the truth is—you’ve been pretty steady for the Lord for the overwhelming majority of your time on earth.

First of all—praise God.

Secondly—you were still born a sinner.

And you know that.

You know that if not for the grace of God, you would be exercising the worst of desires in the worst of ways.

And in light of that—you still have a story.

Your story is one that says, “I was born a wretched sinner and Christ saved me early in life before my dark heart could do much damage.”

And that story is just as beautiful and miraculous as Paul’s.

Salvation is salvation and it is a divine gift that should cause us to praise the God of grace.

Paul testifies to what Christ did (v. 12-18).

He recounts the story of his conversion in v. 12-18 with a level of detail that we do not get from anyone else.

He was on his way to Damascus on the authority of the chief priests and at midday there was a light from heaven that was brighter than the sun (v. 13).

He falls to the ground and Jesus speaks to him in Hebrew and says, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.” (v. 14)

This is Jesus calling Paul stubborn.

He is a man whose attention was hard to get.

After Christ identifies Himself, Paul explains how Jesus told him to stand.

And when he does, Jesus says that He has appeared to appoint Paul as a witness and as a servant.

One minute he was a persecutor of Christ, going on the authority of the chief priests of Jerusalem.

The next minute he is being appointed as a servant of Christ, going on the authority of the High Priest of Heaven.

Paul will be a witness to the Jews and the Gentiles, that their eyes would be opened and they would turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to the power of God… (v. 16-18)

…That they may be forgiven of sin and given a place among the sanctified (v. 18)

Paul’s conversion story is about as dramatic as it gets.

This is how they are sometimes.

One of the great Baptist forefathers of the 17th century was Benjamin Keach.

His son, John, moved to America and started preaching, even though he really didn’t believe in the Bible.

He just knew it was a way to make money.

One day he was preaching in Philadelphia and in the middle of the sermon, he was so moved by the truth that he became a Christian.

He was converted under his own preaching!

Again—dramatic story!

Once again, I want to safeguard against the temptation to think that only conversion stories like this are the ones that highlight the grace of God.

It is no less miraculous for a mother to sit with a 6 year and explain the Gospel and lead that 6 year old’s dead, cold, God-hating heart to Christ Jesus.

Again—grace is grace and salvation is salvation.

Paul testifies to what Christ has done in him (v. 19-20)

Paul tells Agrippa that he was not disobedient to this heavenly vision. (v. 19)

By the grace of God, Paul is that servant and witness that Jesus said he would be.

From Damascus to Jerusalem to Gentiles like Festus, Paul has been a witness for Christ.

Jew and Gentile.

Asian. Macedonian. Judean.

Didn’t matter.

He preached the Gospel to them.

So this is the first thing we have found in our dissection--

We have observed a Witness.

A Witness to who he used to be

A Witness to what Christ did

A Witness to what Christ did in Paul.

THE MESSAGE (26:20-23)

But Paul wasn’t there to ultimately talk about Paul.

And that is key.

When we are sharing our testimony with people, we are not there to talk about ourselves.

We might use the story of our life as a platform for the Gospel, but the Gospel is what gets the stage.

We tell about who we were before Christ saved us, so that we can talk about the Gospel which has saved us.

I once was blind, but now I see.

GREAT—now let me tell you the means by which I have gained sight.

It is great that people know that we see, but they also must know they are blind and in need of vision.

Therefore, we preach the Gospel.

Look at what Paul says in v. 20-23.

When he went all over the world making a declaration, he was declaring the message of salvation.

He was heralding the message of the King.

He was calling on people to repent and turn to God and live in such a way that shows God has truly saved them (v. 20)

This is why Paul was persecuted. This is why Paul has suffered.

It is simply because he has been faithful to proclaim the Gospel:

You hear it so beautifully in verse 23:

Acts 26:23 ESV

that the Christ must suffer and that, by being the first to rise from the dead, he would proclaim light both to our people and to the Gentiles.”

As a Christian, you read that and your goes, “There it is! That’s the Gospel!”

And this is what we preach when we go about our work of ministry.

We do not preach ourselves.

We do not preach our church.

We preach Christ crucified and resurrected—the light of the world—first to the Jew and then to the Gentile.

In truth, this is all we have to offer the world.

Knowing who we were apart from Christ, how could we ever offer ourselves?

The whole reason we needed saving was because we were miserably helpless.

What other name would we point people to when it comes to the salvation of their souls?

What other name would we point people to for their eternal joy?

So then we don’t just tell people of our sin, we tell them about their own.

We don’t just tell them about the wrath of God we were in danger of—we warn them that they are in danger.

And we don’t just speak of what Christ has done for us in dying and rising again—we tell them what He has done for them, if they would receive Him by faith.

As we tell people the story of God’s work in our lives, we tell declare to them the full counsel of the Gospel and we tell them of God’s work to save the world.

When it comes to preaching the Gospel in our testimony, we want the heart of Charles Spurgeon, who prayed this over his church one Sunday morning:

Prosper us in the enterprises to which we set our hands. Bless our young men that go forth from us to preach the Word. Blessed is the man that hath his quiver full of them. May there be many such reared up in this church that shall preach Christ crucified. Give to the church more and more the spirit of evangelization, and may many young men in the church, that are now sitting still and quiet, be moved to preach even in the streets, the unsearchable riches of Christ.

Charles Spurgeon

Spurgeon was praying specifically for young preachers to be raised up from his congregation, but we should have this same attitude regarding the whole church.

We should pray that we would all go and preach the Word as we tell about what Christ has done in our lives.

We should pray that the whole church would have the spirit of evangelism

We should pray that many who are now quiet would grow bold and begin to tell how Gospel of Jesus has changed their lives

So this is the second part of a testimony we have been able to examine:

We have observed a Witness.

We have observed a Message.

You might say that so far we have observed the following in this testimony:

Paul is telling HIS story.

Paul is telling GOD’S story.

So this is what we do in testimony.

We tell our story.

We tell God’s story.

THE AUDIENCE (26:24, 28)

But of course, when a testimony is being shared and the Gospel is being preached, we don’t just have a witness and a message.

There must be an audience.

There must be someone to receive the message.

In this situation, we have an audience hall full of people who were hearing the message.

There are military tribunes and prominent people and the accusers from Jerusalem and Bernice.

However, Luke means for us to view Festus and Agrippa as the main recipients in the account.

And their reactions are different but the same.

FESTUS (26:24)

First of all, we have Festus in v. 24.

He just shouts out, “Paul, you are out of your mind...”

Now this is kind of rich for a guy who is just yelling like a madman in the middle of the proceedings.

But nonetheless—Festus says that all of Paul’s studies have caused him to lose his mind.

In the case of Festus, we can say that he has a doubting disbelief.

He thinks that Paul has lost it.

He thinks the claims of the Gospel are ridiculous.

He doubts the whole thing as something that should be taken seriously.

The Christian message that Paul has gotten himself in trouble over is irrational in Festus’ mind.

And it has warped Paul into being irrational.

But Paul is not irrational and neither is the Gospel he is preaching.

He speaks true and rational words (v. 25).

AGRIPPA (26:28)

But then Paul turns his attention to Agrippa and says, “This guy knows about these things (v. 26). I mean, Agrippa—you believe the prophets, right?”

Now this puts Agrippa in a bit of a bind.

If he says he does not believe the prophets, he is undermining the word of God and he will upset every Pharisee in the room.

If he says he does believe the prophets, it will sound like he is agreeing with Paul about the Gospel.

So being a politician, he slyly dismisses Paul.

“In a short time would you persuade me to be a Christian?”

He is not saying that Paul almost converted him, as many have speculated over the years.

Instead, he is saying, “You think you are going to convince me in that short of a time?”

It is like Agrippa is letting Paul know that he won’t be able to pin him down so easily.

So while Festus has a doubting disbelief, Agrippa has a dismissive disbelief.

But in both cases, the response is a rejecting unbelief.

THE NATURE OF UNBELIEF

Sometimes this is the response that people have when we preach the Gospel.

They doubt. They dismiss. They do not believe.

It is not what we want, but it is what we get.

And then there are other times in which people believe—the way Paul believed on the Damascus Road.

In fact, Paul’s belief in his testimony stands out in contrast to the unbelief of Festus and Agrippa.

Sometimes we can be discouraged because we want people to respond like Paul in Acts 9 and not these two powerful men in Acts 26.

We get discouraged because we feel like we are climbing an uphill battle.

But this is when we need to stop and take a step back and remember the nature of unbelief.

Remember those descriptors of the lost that we pulled from Scripture earlier:

Dead in sin.

Following the course of the world

Following the Prince of the power of the air

A citizen of the domain of darkness

Those things can intimidate us or they can kind of free us.

We can look at those descriptors and say, “Who could I ever lead to Christ when they are in such a hopeless state?”

Or we can look at those descriptors and just kind of own the obvious:

“What could I ever do to in my own power to free someone from such a hopeless state?”

And when you realize the answer is NOTHING—it is freeing.

Because that is when you realize that the power is not in you.

Which leads us to the final part of our dissection:

We have observed a Witness.

We have observed a Message.

We have observed an unbelieving Audience.

THE POWER (v. 18, 22)

We cannot do a thing to spiritually raise the spiritually dead.

We cannot do a thing to save spiritual zombies who are following Satan.

We cannot do a thing to deliver people from the domain of darkness.

As those who share our testimonies and preach the Gospel like Paul, the power to convert unbelieving audiences is not natural to us.

And no one will ever be converted under a mere man’s power in a pulpit.

The power of salvation comes from on high.

And the power to preach salvation comes from on high.

And we see both in this text.

EYES ARE OPENED BY THE HELP FROM GOD (v. 18, 22)

Paul says that Jesus told him that he was being sent to “open their eyes” in v. 18—speaking of the Jews and the Gentiles.

On first glance, it would seem like Paul is the one doing the eye-opening.

However, if you keep reading in v. 22, he says that “To this day I have had the help that comes from God...”

In 28 years of ministry, God has sustained Paul.

And it is God’s Spirit who has worked through Paul to open blind eyes and resurrect dead hearts.

Just listen to the man himself talking about his own ministry:

1 Corinthians 2:4–5 ESV

and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

The power that opened eyes and the power that came down from above and sustained Paul and carried him along and saw new churches started and new disciples baptized, was the power of God.

It was the power of the Father in the Apostle that He loved.

It was the power of the Son in the Apostle that He saved and appointed.

And it was the power of the Spirit clothing the Apostle from on high.

THE POWER BEHIND THE TESTIMONY

And we have to remember that it is the same with us.

It can be daunting to stare down the sinful nature and lostness in the world around us and in our friends and family.

We can start to think that we have the power to change nothing.

Well yes—that is true.

People are born again by the power of God. Not by you.

1 Peter 1:3 ESV

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

He has caused us to be born again...

John 1:12–13 ESV

But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

Nor of the will of man, but of God...

You and I go into a world of lostness, filled with people facing a Christless eternity and we tell the story...

The story of who we were

The story of what Christ has done in our lives

The Gospel story of how Christ has made a way for people to be reconciled to God

But the response of the audience is not in our hands.

And the power for the audience to be converted and to be made a new creation lies in the hand of God.

If we ever see a single friend or family member repent, it isn’t because of us.

It is because of His power working through our witness and working through His Word.

THREE CLOSING QUESTIONS

And with that, the dissection is complete. We have examined the text.

We have observed a Witness.

We have observed a Message.

We have observed an unbelieving Audience.

We have observed the powerful help from heaven.

Sometimes when you get done in the lab, you have conclusions and sometimes you have more questions.

Today I want to leave you with more questions.

These are questions for you to ponder.

We will put them all on one slide.

Take a picture.

Write them down.

Think them over.

When is the last time I was the witness sharing the message?

Who is the audience who needs to hear my testimony?

What is holding me back from trusting in the power of God?

When is the last time I was the witness sharing the message?

When is the last time you can remember telling someone about how you became a Christian?

When is the last time you told someone about the day of your salvation?

When is the last time you told someone about who you used to be and who you are now because of Christ?

Who is the audience who needs to hear my testimony?

Who has God put in your life that needs this testimony?

Is there a Festus who doubts the claims of the Bible that God is calling you to give more of your time to?

Is there an Agrippa who dismisses the Gospel, but perhaps with more time they would not be able to deny the evidence?

A tip on this...

The people God wants you to share your testimony and His Gospel with are probably the ones closest to you at home, at work and in your personal life.

What is holding me back from trusting in the power of God?

He is with you to the end of the age. This is His promise.

The same help from heaven that sustained and empowered Paul is the help from heaven that sustains and empowers you.

The same God who opened blind eyes through Paul will open blind eyes using YOU as His mouthpiece.

So what is it?

Is it your past? What you have learned today is that our powerful God actually wants to use your past as a platform for His Gospel!

Is it not knowing what to say? We have seen what to say today.

Tell your story.

Tell His story.

Is it your fear? You have help from heaven. The highest of level of air support has been called in. There is nothing to fear.

Maybe you have no answers to the first two questions today and lots of answers for the third.

May this flip on its head.

May the spirit of evangelization be stirred up in us so that we have clear answers for the first two questions and our answer to the third is simply—NOTHING.