PT-1 "The Commencement of Paul's Testimony" (Acts 16:1-3)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/15/2018 9:24 AM

 

My Worship Time         Focus:  PT-1 “The Commencement of Paul’s Testimony”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                      Reference:  Acts 26:1-18

 

          Message of the verses:  In today’s SD, since there are eighteen verses to look at I will only look at verses 1-3 1 Agrippa said to Paul, "You are permitted to speak for yourself." Then Paul stretched out his hand and proceeded to make his defense: 2 “In regard to all the things of which I am accused by the Jews, I consider myself fortunate, King Agrippa, that I am about to make my defense before you today; 3 especially because you are an expert in all customs and questions among the Jews; therefore I beg you to listen to me patiently.”

 

          We move on from our last SD which spoke of Agrippa getting a chance to hear Paul, and this is where those who divided up the NT into chapters decided to move on to the next chapter, chapter 26 to hear what Paul had to say to both Festus and Agrippa. 

 

          Agrippa begins by telling Paul that he has permission to speak for himself, and this gives Paul an opportunity to talk to not only Agrippa, but to all who were in the room listening to him.  Paul’s main purpose was to give out the gospel of Jesus Christ.  As Paul begins to speak some may think that he is kind of buttering up Agrippa when he says “2 “In regard to all the things of which I am accused by the Jews, I consider myself fortunate, King Agrippa, that I am about to make my defense before you today; 3 especially because you are an expert in all customs and questions among the Jews; therefore I beg you to listen to me patiently.”  Paul is being honest in that he knows that Agrippa knows a lot about the Jews and what they believed, and he also knew about Paul before he became a believer in Jesus Christ.  Paul was a Pharisee of Pharisees who was well educated in Jerusalem as he has stated earlier in the book of Acts and other letters that he wrote.  Agrippa knew all of this, and he probably knew that Paul was going after those who believed in Jesus Christ, trying to get rid of some and put others in prison.  Paul was now different since he came to know Jesus Christ and it was his desire to tell all that he could tell about what Jesus Christ did in his life, and could also do in their lives.  Paul wrote to the Corinthians concerning this salvation “17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. 18 Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, 19 namely, that God was in

Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Corinthians 5:17-21).”

 

          We will end with a quote from John MacArthur which sets up this section for us:  “Paul’s testimony contains two main themes:  Jesus Christ’s resurrection proves Him to be the Messiah, and Paul’s transformed life proves the reality of Christ’s resurrection.  He masterfully weaves the saving gospel through this first-person account.”

 

As we look at the answer to yesterday’s SD I want to say that it is appropriate that the answer in Noah as seen from Luke 17:26.  I say this because my wife and I are planning to visit the Ark Adventure which is in Williamstown KY.  This trip was not really planned, but we did not want to get involved with the hurricane thus we changed our route home and stopped at Mammoth Cave and were forced there to listen to one of the guides spew her thoughts on evolution, something I have mentioned in my SD’s that is impossible to happen, and something that I hate as with evolution people are told that there is no God to create the earth and so they can live their life without any accountability.

 

Today’s Bible question:  “Who said “Where is he that is born King of the Jews’?”

 

Answer in our next SD.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  That the Lord will allow me to enjoy the Ark  and to do that my prayer is that my IBS will not be affected in a bad way.

 

9/15/2018 9:51 AM