Acts 26:19-23 - Light to the Jews and the Gentiles

26:19,20

The Jews accepted visions as a normal means of Godly communication, and Paul refers here to being “obedient to the heavenly vision”. Paul then goes on to give an outline of his mission, proclaiming the gospel in Damascus, Jerusalem, Judea and then to the Gentiles. So far it is purely descriptive, then he sums up what the message is, “that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds in keeping with repentance”. There are two key things to note here. The first is the centrality of repentance. This is a point have made on numerous occasions (and don’t intend to stop making), for it is central to all the preaching in Acts, and so lacking in most of our preaching today. If you think you are proclaiming the gospel, but are never preaching repentance, then you are not preaching the gospel. But let’s look at it more positively. We are all living life wrong, living life independent of God with all the terrible consequences of that. We all need to change and we are all guilty. God has declared that if we do repent and put faith in Christ then He will forgive us our sins and through the Holy Spirit start a work of transformation in our lives. There is no other gospel.

The second key thing is “performing deeds in keeping with repentance”. The gospel expected deeds to change, it is most definitely not just about “God loving us”. This does not mean we can save ourselves, or change ourselves without God’s help, but we will make the effort, depending upon the Holy Spirit to work in us.

26:21-23

Paul then says that it is because he proclaimed the gospel that the Jews seized him. Note that in the previous couple of verses he has not mentioned Christ, but only “turning to God”. Now, they knew full well that Paul constantly preached faith in Christ, so by saying turn to God he is equating turning to Christ with turning to God, and this would greatly upset the Jews. He then goes on to say that he, Paul, was preaching the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets. Then he mention Christ explicitly, talking about his suffering and rising from the dead, and that Christ must be preached to both the Jews and the Gentiles.