Acts 26:12-23

I. WHEN HEAVEN BREAKS INTO MY ROAD (26:12–15)

Paul is traveling “with authority and a commission from the chief priests” when a midday light “brighter than the sun” engulfs him and his companions, knocking them all to the ground.​

The Lord’s question, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” and the proverb, “It is hard for you to kick against the goads,” expose his futile resistance and reveal that to attack the church is to attack Christ himself.​

Homiletical angles (application):

Religious zeal and institutional backing cannot protect a sinner from the disruptive holiness of the risen Christ; many in pews have “authority and commission” yet still need heaven to break into their road.​

Christ’s intimate repetition of the name (“Saul, Saul”) and the personal identification (“I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting”) highlight that conviction is an act of mercy, not cruelty; Jesus is rescuing Paul from self-destructive rebellion.​

II. SAVED TO SERVE, SEEN TO WITNESS (26:16–18)

Jesus raises Paul up—“get up and stand on your feet”—and states the purpose of the appearance: to appoint him “a servant and a witness” of what he has seen and will yet see, casting Paul’s apostleship in prophetic, servant language.​

The commission is missional and theological: Christ will rescue Paul “from your people and from the Gentiles” even as he sends him to them “to open their eyes,” so that by gospel preaching they turn “from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God,” receiving forgiveness and a share among the sanctified by faith in Christ.​

Homiletical angles (application):

Conversion and calling are inseparable; the same Christ who saves also drafts believers into service as witnesses, whether in formal ministry or everyday vocations.​

True evangelism is supernatural work through ordinary preaching: God opens eyes, turns hearts, breaks Satan’s grip, grants forgiveness, and brings people into the sanctified inheritance—but he does so through servants and witnesses.​

III. OBEDIENCE THAT OUTRUNS OPPOSITION (26:19–21)

Paul tells Agrippa, “I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision,” but preached first in Damascus, then Jerusalem, Judea, and to the Gentiles that they must repent, turn to God, and perform “works worthy of repentance.”​

“For this reason the Jews seized me in the temple and were trying to kill me,” showing that his sufferings stem not from lawlessness but from faithful obedience to the Christ-given message and its Gentile scope.​

Homiletical angles (application):

A heavenly vision demands earthly obedience; genuine encounter with the risen Christ produces a life of proclamation, not private spirituality.​

Faithfulness to a repentance-and-fruit gospel will provoke opposition, sometimes from religious settings (even “in the temple”), yet the pattern of Acts shows that God’s servant is preserved until the mission is complete.​

IV. ONE GOSPEL FOR SMALL AND GREAT (26:22–23)

Paul confesses ongoing divine help—“to this very day, I have had help from God”—and describes his ministry as “testifying to both small and great,” insisting he says “nothing other than what the prophets and Moses said would take place.”​

That scriptural message centers on a suffering Messiah who, as the first to rise from the dead, proclaims light “to our people and to the Gentiles,” fulfilling Isaianic expectations of light for Israel and the nations.​

Homiletical angles (application):

The gospel Paul preaches is not a novelty but the fulfillment of Moses and the prophets; faithful preaching today likewise stands under Scripture rather than beside it.​

The same risen Christ who illuminated Paul now shines “light” to both “small and great,” Jew and Gentile; in the room with Agrippa and in a Texas congregation, every hearer is summoned to repent, receive forgiveness, and join the sanctified people of God by faith in Christ.​