“Whereupon as I traveled to Damascus with the authority and commission from the chief priests, at noon, O king, I saw on the way a light from the sky, brighter than the sun, shining around me and those who traveled with me. When we had all fallen to the earth, 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.’
“I said, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ “He said, ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.
But 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; delivering you from the people, and from the Gentiles, to whom I send you, 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 and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’
“Therefore, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, but 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.
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv13, 16, 17, 18, 19 13. At midday, O king. The narration tendeth to…
13. At midday, O king. The narration tendeth to this end, that king Agrippa may understand that it was no vain visure or ghost, neither was it any such trance as brought him into some madness, so that he was destitute of judgment. For though he fell to the earth for fear, yet he heareth a plain voice; he asketh who it was that spake; he understandeth the answer which was made, which are signs that he was not beside himself. Hereupon it followeth that he did not rashly change his mind, but did godlily and holily obey the heavenly oracle, lest he should of set purpose proceed to strive against God.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv18–19 The end of the Gospel is to save them…
The end of the Gospel is to save them which are brought to the knowledge of Christ, and are justified and sanctified in him being laid hold on by faith.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv12–20 12 Whereupon as I went to Damascus with authority…
12 Whereupon as I went to Damascus with authority and commission from the chief priests,
Ver. 12. {See Trapp on "Act 9:2"}
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv12–20 With procuratory letters recommending him to the Jews abroad,…
With procuratory letters recommending him to the Jews abroad, and deputing him as their agent.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On vv12, 16, 19 Our apostle having declared his manner of life before…
Our apostle having declared his manner of life before conversion, proceeds next to declare the extraordinary manner of his conversion: He tells Agrippa, that as he went with a persecuting purpose towards Damascus, at mid-day, a light from heaven above the brightness of the sun, shined, round about him, and when they were all fallen prostrate on the earth, he heard a voice speaking to him in the Hebrew tongue, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.
Here note, 1. How restless and unwearied persecutors are in the execution of their bloody designs and purposes: Paul, as he thought had swept and cleansed Jerusalem of saints before; after which he resolves to ransack Damascus, and undertakes a long journey, of five or six days, in order to that end: the worst journey that ever he undertook; a journey most maliciously purposed by him, but most mercifully disposed by God; and accordingly he is met with in the way: Christ appears to him, a sudden beam of light shines round about him, and a voice is heard by him, saying, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? that is, me in my members.
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Such as persecute saints for their sanctity, persecute Christ himself, and he can no more endure to see them wronged than himself; as the honour of the head redounds to the members, so the sorrows of the members are resented by the head: Christ said not thus to his murderers on earth, "Why bind ye me? Why buffet ye me? Why scourge ye and crucify me?" But here, when his members suffer, he cries out from heaven, Saul, why persecuted thou me?
Lord, thou art more tender of thy body mystical, than thou wert of thy body natural; more sensible of thy members’ sufferings than of thine own.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v12 All who believe a God, and have a reverence…
All who believe a God, and have a reverence for his sovereignty, must acknowledge that those who speak and act by his direction, and by warrant from him, are not to be opposed; for that is fighting against God. Now Paul here, by a plain and faithful narrative of matters of fact, makes it out to this august assembly that he had an immediate call from heaven to preach the gospel of Christ to the Gentile world, which was the thing that exasperated the Jews against him. He here shows,
I. That he was made a Christian by a divine power, notwithstanding all his prejudices against that way. He was brought into it on a sudden by the hand of heaven; not compelled to confess Christ by outward force, as he had compelled others to blaspheme him, but by a divine and spiritual energy, by a revelation of Christ from above, both to him and in him: and this when he was in the full career of his sin, going to Damascus, to suppress Christianity by persecuting the Christians there, as hot as ever in the cause, his persecuting fury not in the least spent nor tired, nor was he tempted to give it up by the failing of his friends, for he had at this time as ample an authority and commission from the chief priests to persecute Christianity as ever he had, when he was obliged by a superior power to give up that, and accept another commission to preach up Christianity. Two things bring about this surprising change, a vision from heaven and a voice from heaven, which conveyed the knowledge of Christ to him by the two learning senses of seeing and hearing.
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1. He saw a heavenly vision, the circumstances of which were such that it could not be a delusion - deciptio visus, but it was without doubt a divine appearance. (1.) He saw a great light, a light from heaven, such as could not be produced by any art, for it was not in the night, but at mid day; it was not in a house where tricks might have been played with him, but it was in the way, in the open air; it was such a light as was above the brightness of the sun, outshone and eclipsed that (Isa 24:23), and this could not be the product of Paul's own fancy, for it shone round about those that journeyed with him: they were all sensible of their being surrounded with this inundation of light, which made the sun itself to be in their eyes a less light. The force and power of this light appeared in the effects of it; they all fell to the earth upon the sight of it, such a mighty consternation did it put them into; this light was lightning for its force, yet did not pass away as lightning, but continued to shine round about them. In Old Testament times God commonly manifested himself in the thick darkness, and made that his pavilion, Ch2 6:1. He spoke to Abraham in a great darkness (Gen 15:12), for that was a dispensation of darkness; but now that life and immortality were brought to light by the gospel Christ appeared in a great light. In the creation of grace, as of the world, the first thing created is light, Co2 4:6. (2.) Christ himself appeared to him (Act 26:16): I have appeared to thee for this purpose. Christ was in this light, though those that travelled with Paul saw the light only, and not Christ in the light. It is not every knowledge that will serve to make us Christians, but it must be the knowledge of Christ.
2. He heard a heavenly voice, an articulate one, speaking to him; it is here said to be in the Hebrew tongue (which was not taken notice of before), his native language, the language of his religion, to intimate to him that though he must be sent among the Gentiles, yet he must not forget that he was a Hebrew, nor make himself a stranger to the Hebrew language. In what Christ said to him we may observe, (1.) That he called him by his name, and repeated it (Saul, Saul), which would surprise and startle him; and the more because he was now in a strange place, where he thought nobody knew him. (2.) That he convinced him of sin, of that great sin which he was now in the commission of, the sin of persecuting the Christians, and showed him the absurdity of it. (3.) That he interested himself in the sufferings of his followers: Thou persecutest me (Act 26:14), and again, It is Jesus whom thou persecutest, Act 26:15. Little did Paul think, when he was trampling upon those that he looked upon as the burdens and blemishes of this earth, that he was insulting one that was so much the glory of heaven. (4.) That he checked him for his wilful resistance of those convictions: It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks, or goads, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke. Paul's spirit at first perhaps began to rise, but he is told it is at his peril, and then he yields. Or, it was spoken by way of caution: "Take heed lest thou resist these convictions, for they are designed to affect thee, not to affront thee." (5.) That, upon his enquiry, Christ made himself known to him. Paul asked (Act 26:15), "Who art thou, Lord? Let me know who it is that speaks to me from heaven, that I may answer him accordingly?" And he said, "I am Jesus; he whom thou hast despised, and hated, and vilified; I bear that name which thou hast made so odious, and the naming of it criminal." Paul thought Jesus was buried in the earth, and, though stolen out of his own sepulchre, yet laid in some other. All the Jews were taught to say so, and therefore he is amazed to hear him speak from heaven, to see him surrounded with all this glory whom he had loaded with all possible ignominy. This convinced him that the doctrine of Jesus was divine and heavenly, and not only not to be opposed, but to be cordially embraced: That Jesus is the Messiah, for he has not only risen from the dead, but he has received from God the Father honour and glory; and this is enough to make him a Christian immediately, to quit the society of the persecutors, whom the Lord from heaven thus appears against, and to join himself with the society of the persecuted, whom the Lord from heaven thus appears for.
II. That he was made a minister by a divine authority: That the same Jesus that appeared to him in that glorious light ordered him to go and preach the gospel to the Gentiles; he did not run without sending, nor was he sent by men like himself, but by him whom the Father sent, Joh 20:21. What is said of his being an apostle is here joined immediately to that which was said to him by the way, but it appears by Act 9:15, and Act 22:15, Act 22:17, etc., that it was spoken to him afterwards; but he puts the two together for brevity-sake: Rise, and stand upon thy feet. Those whom Christ, by the light of his gospel, casts down in humiliation for sin, shall find that it is in order to their rising and standing upon their feet, in spiritual grace, strength, and comfort. If Christ has torn, it is that he may heal; if he has cast down, it is that he may raise up. Rise then, and shake thyself from the dust (Isa 52:2), help thyself, and Christ shall help thee. He must stand up, for Christ shall help thee. He must stand up, for Christ has work for him to do - has an errand, and a very great errand, to send him upon: I have appeared to thee to make thee a minister. Christ has the making of his own ministers; they have both their qualifications and their commissions from him. Paul thanks Christ Jesus who put him into the ministry, Ti1 1:12. Christ appeared to him to make him a minister. One way or other, Christ will manifest himself to all those whom he makes his ministers; for how can those preach him who do not know him? And how can those know him to whom he does not by his spirit make himself known? Observe,
1. The office to which Paul is appointed: he is made a minister, to attend on Christ, and act for him, as a witness - to give evidence in his cause, and attest the truth of his doctrine. He must testify the gospel of the grace of God; Christ appeared to him that he might appear for Christ before men.
2. The matter of Paul's testimony: he must give an account to the world, (1.) Of the things which he had seen, now at this time, must tell people of Christ's manifesting himself to him by the way, and what he said to him. He saw these things that he might publish them, and he did take all occasions to publish them, as here, and before, ch. 22. (2.) Of those things in which he would appear to him. Christ now settled a correspondence with Paul, which he designed afterwards to keep up, and only told him now that he should hear further from him. Paul at first had but confused notions of the gospel, till Christ appeared to him and gave him fuller instructions. The gospel he preached he received from Christ immediately (Gal 1:12); but he received it gradually, some at one time and some at another, as there was occasion. Christ often appeared to Paul, oftener, it is likely, than is recorded, and still taught him, that he might still teach the people knowledge.
3. The spiritual protection he was taken under, while he was thus employed as Christ's witness: all the powers of darkness could not prevail against him till he had finished his testimony (Act 26:17), delivering thee from the people of the Jews and from the Gentiles. Note, Christ's witnesses are under his special care, and, though they may fall into the hands of the enemies, yet he will take care to deliver them out of their hands, and he knows how to do it. Christ had shown Paul at this time what great things he must suffer (Act 9:16), and yet tells him here he will deliver him from the people. Note, Great sufferings are reconcilable to the promise of the deliverance of God's people, for it is not promised that they shall be kept from trouble, but kept through it; and sometimes God delivers them into the hands of their persecutors that he may have the honour of delivering them out of their hands.
4. The special commission given him to go among the Gentiles, and the errand upon which he is sent to them; it was some years after Paul's conversion before he was sent to the Gentiles, or (for aught that appears) knew any thing of his being designed for that purpose (see Act 22:21); but at length he is ordered to steer his course that way.
(1.) There is great work to be done among the Gentiles, and Paul must be instrumental in doing it. Two things must be done, which their case calls for the doing of: - [1.] A world that sits in darkness must be enlightened; those must be brought to know the things that belong to their everlasting peace who are yet ignorant of them, to know God as their end, and Christ as their way, who as yet know nothing of either. He is sent to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light. His preaching shall not only make known to them those things which they had not before heard of, but shall be the vehicle of that divine grace and power by which their understandings shall be enlightened to receive those things, and bid them welcome. Thus he shall open their eyes, which before were shut against the light, and they shall be willing to understand themselves, their own case and interest. Christ opens the heart by opening the eyes, does not lead men blindfold, but gives them to see their own way. He is sent not only to open their eyes for the present, but to keep them open, to turn them from darkness to light, that is, from following false and blind guides, their oracles, divinations, and superstitious usages, received by tradition from their fathers, and the corrupt notions and ideas they had of their gods, to follow a divine revelation of unquestionable certainty and truth. This was turning them from darkness to light, from the ways of darkness to those on which the light shines. The great design of the gospel is to instruct the ignorant, and to rectify the mistakes of those who are in error, that things may be set and seen in a true light. [2.] A world that lies in wickedness, in the wicked one, must be sanctified and reformed; it is not enough for them to have their eyes opened, they must have their hearts renewed; not enough to be turned from darkness to light, but they must be turned from the power of Satan unto God, which will follow of course; for Satan rules by the power of darkness, and God by the convincing evidence of light. Sinners are under the power of Satan; idolaters were so in a special manner, they paid their homage to devils. All sinners are under the influence of his temptations, yield themselves captives to him, are at his beck; converting grace turns them from under the dominion of Satan, and brings them into subjection to God, to conform to the rules of his word and comply with the dictates and directions of his Spirit, translates them out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of his dear Son. When gracious dispositions are strong in the soul (as corrupt and sinful dispositions had been), it is then turned from the power of Satan unto God.
(2.) There is a great happiness designed for the Gentiles by this work - that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among those who are sanctified; they are turned from the darkness of sin to the light of holiness, from the slavery of Satan to the service of God; not that God may be a gainer by them, but that they may be gainers by him. [1.] That they may be restored to his favour, which by sin they have forfeited and thrown themselves out of: That they may receive forgiveness of sins. They are delivered from the dominion of sin, that they may be saved from that death which is the wages of sin. Not that they may merit forgiveness as a debt of reward, but that they may receive it as a free gift, that they may be qualified to receive the comfort of it. They are persuaded to lay down their arms, and return to their allegiance, that they may have the benefit of the act of indemnity, and may plead it in arrest of the judgment to be given against them. [2.] That they may be happy in the fruition of him; not only that they may have their sins pardoned, but that they may have an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith that is in me. Note, First, Heaven is an inheritance, it descends to all the children of God; for, if children, then heirs. That they may have, klēron - a lot (so it might be read), alluding to the inheritances of Canaan, which were appointed by lot, and that also is the act of God, the disposal thereof is of the Lord. That they may have a right, so some read it; not by merit, but purely by grace. Secondly, All that are effectually turned from sin to God are not only pardoned, but preferred - have not only their attainder reversed, but a patent of honour given to them, and a grant of a rich inheritance. And the forgiveness of sins makes way for this inheritance, by taking that out of the way which alone hindered. Thirdly, All that shall be saved hereafter are sanctified now; those that have the heavenly inheritance must have it in this way, they must be prepared and made meet for it. None can be happy that are not holy; nor shall any be saints in heaven that are not first saints on earth. Fourthly, We need no more to make us happy than to have our lot among those that are sanctified, to fare as they fare; this is having our lot among the chosen, for they are chosen to salvation through sanctification. Those who are sanctified shall be glorified. Let us therefore now cast in our lot among them, by coming into the communion of saints, and be willing to take our lot with them, and share with them in their afflictions, which (how grievous soever) our lot with them in the inheritance will abundantly make amends for. Fifthly, We are sanctified and saved by faith in Christ. Some refer it to the word next before, sanctified by faith, for faith purifies the heart, and applies to the soul those precious promises, and subjects the soul to the influence of that grace, by which we partake of a divine nature. Others refer it to the receiving of both pardon and the inheritance; it is by faith accepting the grant: it comes all to one; for it is by faith that we are justified, sanctified, and glorified. By faith, tē eis eme - that faith which is in me; it is emphatically expressed. That faith which not only receives divine revelation in general, but which in a particular manner fastens upon Jesus Christ and his mediation, by which we rely upon Christ as the Lord our righteousness, and resign ourselves to him as the Lord our ruler. This is that by which we receive the remission of sins, the gift of the Holy Ghost, and eternal life.
III. That he had discharged his ministry, pursuant to his commission, by divine aid, and under divine direction and protection. God, who called him to be an apostle, owned him in his apostolical work, and carried him on in it with enlargement and success.
1. God gave him a heart to comply with the call (Act 26:19): I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, for any one would say he ought to be obedient to it. Heavenly visions have a commanding power over earthly counsels, and it is at our peril if we be disobedient to them; yet if Paul had conferred with flesh and blood, and been swayed by his secular interest, he would have done as Jonah did, gone any where rather than upon this errand; but God opened his ear, and he was not rebellious. He accepted the commission, and, having with it received his instructions, he applied himself to act accordingly.
2. God enabled him to go through a great deal of work, though in it he grappled with a great deal of difficulty, Act 26:20. He applied himself to the preaching of the gospel with all vigour. (1.) He began at Damascus, where he was converted, for he resolved to lose no time, Act 9:20. (2.) When he came to Jerusalem, where he had his education, he there witnessed for Christ, where he had most furiously set himself against him, Act 9:29. (3.) He preached throughout all the coasts of Judea, in the country towns and villages, as Christ had done; he made the first offer of the gospel to the Jews, as Christ had appointed, and did not leave them till they had wilfully thrust the gospel from them; and laid out himself for the good of their souls, labouring more abundantly than any of the apostles, nay perhaps then all put together.
3. His preaching was all practical. He did not go about to fill people's heads with airy notions, did not amuse them with nice speculations, nor set them together by the ears with matters of doubtful disputation, but he showed them, declared it, demonstrated it, that they ought, (1.) To repent of their sins, to be sorry for them and to confess them, and enter into covenant against them; they ought to bethink themselves, so the word metanoein properly signifies; they ought to change their mind and change their way, and undo what they had done amiss. (2.) To turn to God. They must not only conceive an antipathy to sin, but they must come into a conformity to God - must not only turn from that which is evil, but turn to that which is good; they must turn to God, in love and affection, and return to God in duty and obedience, and turn and return from the world and the flesh; this is that which is required from the whole revolted degenerate race of mankind, both Jews and Gentiles; epistrephein epi ton Theon - to turn back to God, even to him: to turn to him as our chief good and highest end, as our ruler and portion, turn our eye to him, turn our heart to him, and turn our feet unto his testimonies. (3.) To do works meet for repentance. This was what John preached, who was the first gospel preacher, Mat 3:8. Those that profess repentance must practise it, must live a life of repentance, must in every thing carry it as becomes penitents. It is not enough to speak penitent words, but we must do works agreeable to those words. As true faith, so true repentance, will work. Now what fault could be found with such preaching as this? Had it not a direct tendency to reform the world, and to redress its grievances, and to revive natural religion?
4. The Jews had no quarrel with him but upon this account, that he did all he could to persuade people to be religious, and to bring them to God by bringing them to Christ (Act 26:21): It was for these causes, and no other, that the Jews caught me in the temple, and went about to kill me; and let any one judge whether these were crimes worthy of death or of bonds. He suffered ill, not only for doing well himself, but for doing good to others. They attempted to kill him; it was his precious life that they hunted for, and hated, because it was a useful life; they caught him in the temple worshipping God, and there they set upon him, as if the better place the better deed
5. He had no help but from heaven; supported and carried on by that, he went on in this great work (Act 26:22): "Having therefore obtained help of God, I continue unto this day; hestēka - I have stood, my life has been preserved, and my work continued; I have stood my ground, and have not been beaten off; I have stood to what I said, and have not been afraid nor ashamed to persist in it." It was now above twenty years since Paul was converted, and all that time he had been very busy preaching the gospel in the midst of hazards; and what was it that bore him up? Not any strength of his own resolutions, but having obtained help of God; for therefore, because the work was so great and he had so much opposition, he could not otherwise have gone on in it, but by help obtained of God. Note, Those who are employed in work for God shall obtain help from God; for he will not be wanting in necessary assistances to his servants. And our continuance to this day must be attributed to help obtained of God; we had sunk, if he had not borne us up - had fallen off, if he had not carried us on; and it must be acknowledged with thankfulness to his praise. Paul mentions it as an evidence that he had his commission from God that from him he had ability to execute it. The preachers of the gospel could never have done, and suffered, and prospered, as they did, if they had not had immediate help from heaven, which they would not have had if it had not been the cause of God that they were now pleading.
6. He preached no doctrine but what agreed with the scriptures of the Old Testament: He witnessed both to small and great, to young and old, rich and poor, learned and unlearned, obscure and illustrious, all being concerned in it. It was an evidence of the condescending grace of the gospel that it was witnessed to the meanest, and the poor were welcome to the knowledge of it; and of the incontestable truth and power of it that it was neither afraid nor ashamed to show itself to the greatest. The enemies of Paul objected against him that he preached something more than that men should repent, and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance. These indeed were but what the prophets of the old Testament had preached; but, besides these, he had preached Christ, and his death, and his resurrection, and this was what they quarrelled with him for, as appears by Act 25:19, that he affirmed Jesus to be alive: "And so I did," says Paul, "and so I do, but therein also I say no other than that which Moses and the prophets said should come; and what greater honour can be done to them than to show that what they foretold is accomplished, and in the appointed season too - that what they said should come is come, and at the time they prefixed?" Three things they prophesied, and Paul preached: - (1.) That Christ should suffer, that the Messiah should be a sufferer - pathētos; not only a man, and capable of suffering, but that, as Messiah, he should be appointed to sufferings; that his ignominious death should be not only consistent with, but pursuant of, his undertaking. The cross of Christ was a stumbling-block to the Jews, and Paul's preaching it was the great thing that exasperated them; but Paul stands to it that, in preaching that, he preached the fulfilling of the Old Testament predictions, and therefore they ought not only not to be offended at what he preached, but to embrace it, and subscribe to it. (2.) That he should be the first that should rise from the dead; not the first in time, but the first in influence - that he should be the chief of the resurrection, the head, or principal one, prōtos ex anastaseōs, in the same sense that he is called the first-begotten from the dead (Rev 1:5), and the first-born from the dead, Col 1:18. He opened the womb of the grave, as the first-born are said to do, and made way for our resurrection; and he is said to be the first-fruits of those that slept (Co1 15:20), for he sanctified the harvest. He was the first that rose from the dead to die no more; and, to show that the resurrection of all believers is in virtue of his, just when he arose many dead bodies of saints arose, and went into the holy city, Mat 27:52, Mat 27:53. (3.) That he should show light unto the people, and to the Gentiles, to the people of the Jews in the first place, for he was to be the glory of his people Israel. To them he showed light by himself, and then to the Gentiles by the ministry of his apostles, for he was to be a light to enlighten those who sat in darkness. In this Paul refers to his commission (Act 26:18), To turn them from darkness to light. He rose from the dead on purpose that he might show light to the people, that he might give a convincing proof of the truth of his doctrine, and might send it with so much the greater power, both among Jews and Gentiles. This also was foretold by the Old Testament prophets, that the Gentiles should be brought to the knowledge of God by the Messiah; and what was there in all this that the Jews could justly be displeased at?
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv12–20 Whereupon as I went to Damascus,.... Being intent, upon…
Whereupon as I went to Damascus,.... Being intent, upon the above said things, to punish the saints, compel them to blaspheme, imprison them, and even put them to death on account of these things; upon this errand and business he went to Damascus, the chief city of Syria, where he knew there were many that believed in Christ, who had removed from Jerusalem thither, on account of the persecution, or were settled there before:
with authority and commission from the chief priests; the Jewish sanhedrim, to bring those of them at Damascus bound to Jerusalem, in order to be punished, as in Act 9:2 and which the Ethiopic version adds here.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv12, 13, 14, 17, 18, 19, 20 Acts ix, 2.
Acts ix, 2.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv12, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20 Verse 12. Whereupon as I went to Damascus] See…
Verse 12. Whereupon as I went to Damascus] See the whole account of the conversion of Saul of Tarsus explained at large, in Clarke's notes on "Ac 9:2", &c.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv12, 16, 19 Act 26:12-15. Whereupon, as I went to Damascus, &c.…
Act 26:12-15. Whereupon, as I went to Damascus, &c. — See notes on Act 9:3-9, and Act 22:5-11; where the substance of this paragraph occurs, and is explained. At mid-day, O king — Most seasonably, in the height of the narration, does he thus fix the king’s attention; I saw a light from heaven, above the brightness of the sun — And no marvel, for what is the brightness of the created sun to the Son of righteousness, the brightness of the Father’s glory? I heard a voice speaking in the Hebrew tongue — Paul observes this, because he was not now speaking in Hebrew: when he was, (Act 22:7,) he did not add, in the Hebrew tongue. Christ used this tongue, both on earth and from heaven.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv12, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20 See this passage explained in the notes on Act…
See this passage explained in the notes on Act 9:5, etc.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv14, 16, 17, 18 It is generally supposed that St. Paul addresses king…
It is generally supposed that St. Paul addresses king Agrippa in the Greek language, which was the common tongue of a great part of the East. (Bible de Vence)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv16–20 But rise, &c.--Here the apostle appears to condense into…
But rise, &c.--Here the apostle appears to condense into one statement various sayings of his Lord to him in visions at different times, in order to present at one view the grandeur of the commission with which his Master had clothed him [ALFORD].
a minister . . . both of these things which thou hast seen--putting him on a footing with those "eye-witnesses and ministers of the word" mentioned in Luk 1:2.
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and of those in which I will appear to thee--referring to visions he was thereafter to be favored with; such as Act 18:9-10; Act 22:17-21; Act 23:11; Co2 12:1-10, &c. (Gal 1:12).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv12, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19 12. Whereupon—The description of the Christophany which follows is…
12. Whereupon—The description of the Christophany which follows is far more vivid and abounding in individual touches and rounded periods than either of the parallel passages.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv12–20 12. Whereupon] The Greek has “in which things,” and…
12. Whereupon] The Greek has “in which things,” and the sense is given well by the margin of R. V. “on which errand.”
with authority] Rev. Ver. “with the authority.” Saul was the commissioner sent by the Jewish magistrates, and at this particular time Damascus had been assigned as the district where he was to search for the Christians.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv12, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20 (12) With authority and commission.—The former word implies the…
(12) With authority and commission.—The former word implies the general power delegated to him, the latter the specific work assigned to him, and for the execution of which he was responsible.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv12–20 Journeyed for went, A.V.; with the authority... of for…
Journeyed for went, A.V.; with the authority... of for with authority... from, A.V. and T.R. Commission; ejpitrophv, here only in the New Testament. But ejpitropov is a "steward" (Mat_20:8; Luk_8:3) and hence the Roman procurator was called in Greek, ejpitropov, and so were governors generally, as those who acted with a delegated authority. The chief priests. in Act_9:1 Saul is said to have applied to "the chief priest" for authority. The high priest, as president of the Sanhedrim, acted with the other chief priests. (Act_9:14)
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv12, 16, 18, 19 Whereupon as I went to Damascus.
Act_26:12-18
Whereupon as I went to Damascus.
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The conversion of Saul of Tarsus
I. His character before his conversion.
1. He was a moral man (Php_3:6). Yet he needed conversion. The necessity of conversion arises from the depravity of human nature, and not from a greater or less degree of immorality.
2. He was a Pharisee. He was zealous for his religion, made long prayers, and did many deeds of charity. And have you any better religion?
3. He was a hater of Christ, notwithstanding his morals and his zeal. So still men will attach such undue merit to their own actions, that salvation through Christ alone becomes offensive.
4. He was a persecutor of the people of God. As from love to Christ springs love to His people, so from hatred to Christ springs the spirit of persecution to His people. The spirit of Saul is inherent in the human mind (Gal_4:29). Can you despise and revile the devout spirit of the true believer?
II. The evidences of the truth of his conversion.
1. Penitence. He fasted three days. What a change from the haughty Pharisee! If God the Spirit has changed our hearts, we shall have a deep sense of sin. We shall look on Him whom we have pierced and mourn.
2. Prayer. The prayer which evidences conversion is humble, sincere, fervent, and offered only in the name of Christ.
3. Humility. From this time the man who had previously said I thank God that I am not as other men, felt himself to be the chief of stoners, and less than the least of all saints.
4. Faith. Ananias was sent to baptize him--to initiate him into the Christian faith.
5. Love. We have seen his enmity to Christ and His people. Now they form the objects of his warmest affections. With regard to Christ, he could sincerely say, I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, etc. With regard to the people of God, I endure all things for the elects sake.
6. Obedience. Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?
III. The ways of God manifested in his conversion.
1. Sovereignty. Was there ever a more unlikely subject? God accounts for his conversion on this principle. He is a chosen vessel unto Me (Act_9:15).
2. Power. What but the power of an almighty arm could have wrought so wonderful a change?
3. Mercy (1Ti_1:12-17). And who shall despair of mercy when Saul of Tarsus obtained it?
4. Wisdom. How were the designs of the devil and the malice of men here defeated? Not by destroying the enemy, but by converting him.
Application:
1. Let the true convert strive to gain more adoring thoughts of Gods ways towards him, and aim to become more holy and live more to the glory of God.
2. Let the unconverted guard against mistaken notions of conversion, and seek the influences of the Spirit, to create within them a clean heart, and renew a right spirit within them.
3. Let the careless and the obstinate be sure that their damnation will be just, if they live and die in the neglect of a God so gracious, and a salvation so great.
4. Let the sceptic consider the unreasonableness of his objections to the gospel. (Essex Congregational Remembrancer.)
The conversion of Saul: its genuineness
It cannot be explained by the supposition that the account was in any way forged. What motive had St. Paul for inventing it? Was it, as has been supposed, some private pique or annoyance with the Jews, that led him to change his religious profession, and to account for the change in this kind of way? But there is no trace of any feelings of this kind in his early life. It would have been a sin against natural feeling, since the Jewish people had singled Paul out for a place of special confidence and honour; and, as a matter of fact, when the Jews were persecuting him afterwards to death he expressed in more ways than one his deep love for his countrymen. He deplores their blindness; he excuses their conduct as far as he can. Even if, in one place, he paints it in dark colours he would gladly, he says in another, were it possible, he accursed in their place. Was it the spirit of a sensitive independence which will sometimes lead men to assert their own importance at the cost of their party or their principles? That, again, is inconsistent with his advocacy of the duty of subjection to existing authority, in terms and to a degree which has exposed him to fierce criticisms from the modern advocates of social and political change. Was it, then, a refined self-interest? Did the young Jew see in the rising sect a prospect of bettering himself? But Christianity was being persecuted--persecuted, as it seemed, to the very verge of extermination. It had been crushed out by the established hierarchy in Jerusalem itself. It was doomed to destruction, every intelligent Jew would have thought, as well by the might of the forces ranged against it as by its intrinsic absurdity. It had nothing to offer, whether in the way of social eminence or of literary attraction. It was as yet, in the main, the religion of the very poor, of the very illiterate. On the other hand, the young Pharisee had, if any man had, brilliant prospects before him if he remained loyal to the synagogue. The reputation of his great master, his own learning and acuteness, his great practical ability, would have commanded success. If his object was really a selfish one, no man ever really made a greater, or more stupid mistake, to all appearance, for no Jew could have anticipated for a convert to Christianity, within a few years of the Crucifixion, such a reputation as that which now surrounds the name of St. Paul. (Canon Liddon.)
Christs remonstrances
My object is to trace the stages of the process set forth here, and to ask you if you, like Paul, have been obedient to the heavenly vision.
I. The first of these all but simultaneous and yet separable stages was the revelation of Jesus Christ. The revelation in heart and mind was the main thing of which the revelation to eye and ear were but means. The means, in his case, are different from those in ours; the end is the same. Saul! Saul! why persecutest thou Me? They used to think that they could wake sleep walkers by addressing them by name. Jesus Christ, by speaking his name to the apostle, wakes him out of his diseased slumber. What does such an address teach you and me? That Jesus Christ, the living, reigning Lord of the universe, has perfect knowledge of each of us. And more than that, He directly addresses Himself to each man and woman in this congregation. We are far too apt to hide ourselves in the crowd, and let all the messages of Gods love, the warnings of His providences, as well as the teachings and invitations and pleadings of His gospel, fly over our heads as if they were meant vaguely for anybody. And I would fain plead with each of my friends before me to believe that the gospel of Jesus Christ is meant for thee, and that Christ speaks to thee.
II. Secondly, notice, as another stage in this process, the discovery of the true character of the past. Why persecutest thou Me? Saul was brought to look at all his past life as standing in immediate connection with Jesus Christ. Of course he knew before the vision that he had no love to Him whom he thought to be a Galilean impostor. But he did not know that Jesus Christ counted every blow struck at one of His servants as being struck at Him. Above all, he did not know that the Christ whom he was persecuting was reigning in the heavens. If I could only get you, for one quiet ten minutes, to lay all your past, as far as memory brought it to your minds, right against that bright and loving face, I should have done much. One infallible way of judging of the rottenness or goodness of our actions is that we should bring them where they will all be brought one day, into the brightness of Christs countenance. If you want to find out the flaws in some thin, badly-woven piece of cloth, you hold it up against the light, do you not? and then you see all the specks and holes; and the irregular threads. Hold up your lives in like fashion. Again, this revelation of the past life disclosed its utter unreasonableness. That one question, Why persecutest thou Me? pulverised the whole thing. If you take into account what you are, and where you stand, you can find no reason, except utterly unreasonable ones, for the lives that I fear some of us are living--lives of Godlessness and Christlessness. There is nothing in all the world a tithe so stupid as sin. Wake up, my brother, to apply calm reason to your lives while yet there is time, and face the question, Why dost thou stand as thou dost to Jesus Christ? You can carry on the questions very gaily for a step or two, but then you come to a dead pause. What do I do so-and-so for? Because I like it. Why do I like it? Because it meets my needs, or my desires, or my tastes, or my intellect. Why do you make the meeting of your needs, or your desires, or your tastes, or your intellect, your sole object? Is there any answer to that? Further, this disclosure of the true character of his life revealed to Saul, as in a lightning flash, the ingratitude of it. Why persecutest thou Me? That was as much as to say, What have I done to merit thy hate? What have I not done to merit, rather, thy love? But the same appeal comes to each of us. What has Jesus Christ done for thee, my friend, for me, for every soul of man?
III. Lastly, we have here a warning of self-inflicted wounds. The metaphor is a very plain one. The ox goad was a formidable weapon, some seven or eight feet in length, shod with an iron point, and capable of being used as a spear, and of inflicting deadly wounds at a pinch. Held in the firm hand of the ploughman, it presented a sharp point to the rebellious animal in the yoke. If the ox had readily yielded to the gentle prick given, not in anger, but for guidance, it had been well. But if it lashes out with its hoofs against the point, what does it get but bleeding flanks? Paul had been striking out instead of obeying, and he had won by it only bloody hocks. There are two possible applications of that saying, which may have been a proverb in common use. One is the utter futility of lives that are spent in opposing Divine will. There is a great current running, and if you try to go against it you will only be swept away by it. Think of a man lifting himself up and saying to God, I will not! when God says, Do thou this! or Be thou this! What will be the end of that? It is hard to indulge in sensual sin. You cannot altogether dodge what people call the natural consequences. It is hard to set yourselves against Christianity. But there is another side to the proverb of my text, and that is the self-inflicted harm that comes from resisting the pricks of Gods rebukes and remonstrances, whether these be in conscience or by any other means; including, I make bold to say, even such poor words as mine tonight. For if the first little prick of conscience, a warning and a guide, be neglected, the next will go a great deal deeper. And so all wrong-doing, and neglect of right-doing of every sort, carries with it a subsequent pain. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?--
Christ and Paul
I. The question. It was personal. When I preach to you, I am obliged to address you all in the mass. But not so our Master. If He had spoken in general terms, it would have glanced off from the heart of the apostle; but when it came personally--Why persecutest thou Me?--there was no getting off it. I pray the Lord to make the question personal to some of you. There be many of us here present who have bad personal preaching to our souls. Do you not remember, dear brother in Christ, when you were first pricked in the heart, how personal the preacher was? I remember it well. It seemed to me that I was the only person in the whole place, as if a black wall were round about me, and I were shut in with the preacher, something like the prisoners at the Penitentiary, who each sit in their box and can see no one but the chaplain. I thought all he said was meant for me; I felt persuaded that someone knew my character, and had written to him and told him all, and that he had personally picked me out. Why, I thought he fixed his eyes on me; and I have reason to believe he did, but still he said he knew nothing about my ease. Oh, that men would hear the Word preached, and that God would so bless them in their hearing, that they might feel it to have a personal application to their own hearts.
2. It contained some information as to the persecuted one. If you had asked Saul who it was he persecuted, he would have said, Some poor fishermen, that had been setting up an impostor. But see in what a different light Jesus Christ puts it. He does not say, Why didst thou persecute Stephen? but Me? Inasmuch as you have done this unto one of the least of My brethren, you have done it unto Me.
3. It demanded an answer. What have I done to hurt thee? Why art thou so provoked against Me?
II. The expostulation. It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. For--
1. You do not really accomplish your purpose. When the ox kicks against the goad, it is to spite the husbandman for having goaded him onward; but instead of hurting the husbandman it hurts itself. If thou thinkest, O man, that thou canst stop the progress of Christs Church, go thou and first bid the universe stand still! Go, stand by the winds, and bid them cease their wailing, or bid the roaring sea roll back when its tide is marching on the beach; and when thou hast stopped the universe, then come forth and stop the omnipotent progress of the Church of Christ. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh, etc. But put it as a personal matter, have you ever succeeded in stopping the work of grace in the heart of anyone? Aye, young man, you may laugh at your own shop mate, but he will beat you in the long run. If Christians are but faithful, they must win the day. It is no use your kicking against them; you cannot hurt them.
2. You get no good by it. Kick as he might, the ox was never benefited by it. Suppose you say you dont like religion, what have you ever got by hating it? You have got those red eyes sometimes on the Monday morning, after the drunkenness of the Sunday night. You have got that shattered constitution, which, even if you had now turned it to the paths of virtue, must hang about you till you leave it in your grave. But you are moral. Well, have you ever got anything even then by opposing Christ? Has it made your family any the happier? Has it made you any the happier yourself? Will it quiet your conscience when you come to die that you did your best to destroy the souls of other people?
3. But kick as the ox might, it had to go forward at last. If anyone had told Saul when he was going to Damascus, that he would one day become a preacher of Christianity, he would, no doubt, have laughed at it as nonsense; but the Lord had the key of his will, and He wound it up as He pleased. Then why persecutest thou Me? Perhaps you are despising the very Saviour you will one day love; trying to knock down the very thing that you wilt one day try to build up. Mayhap you are persecuting the men you will call your brothers and sisters. It is always well for a man not to go so far that he cannot go back respectably.
III. The good news. Paul, who persecuted Christ, was forgiven. He says he was the very chief of sinners, but he obtained mercy. Nay, more, he obtained honour. He was made an honoured minister of Christ, and so may you. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.--
Kicking against the pricks
I. The conduct with which Saul was upbraided. He was involved in one continuous struggle against the will, the power and the cause of Christ. The expression does not mean striving against the convictions of his own judgment, for Saul acted upon principle, and was most conscientious when he was most bigoted. Hence he says, I verily thought with myself, that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. This expression indicates one main ground of the apostles prejudice. Like Nathanael, he was persuaded that no good thing could come out of Nazareth, and that it was his duty to seek the extirpation of the rising sect. In Act_22:8, express notice seems to be taken of this. Hence we discover, not only the amazing grace vouchsafed in the work of his conversion, but the consummate wisdom displayed in its mode. Sauls grand error had been the entertaining low thoughts of Christ; it was essential, therefore, that the new apostle should be possessed with a deep sense of the power of Christ, as risen and received into glory. The conduct thus exposed is not peculiar to Paul. We kick against the goads--
1. When we seek to stifle the convictions of conscience and strive against the constraints of Divine grace. Saul was not guilty in this respect; but are none of us?
2. When we rebel against the dispensations of Gods providence.
3. When we oppose the truth of God, or hinder the work of God.
II. The warning which he received may be considered to characterise his course as--
1. Sinful. Saul might have learned this from the counsel of his master Gamaliel.
2. Foolish; for his resistance was fruitless.
(1) His object was to extirpate the Church of Christ. Little, however, did the oppressor understand that each true disciple was a missionary. They that were scattered abroad, went everywhere preaching the Word.
(2) The apostle, at the instant when the text presents him, was made to realise this to the full. Like some rash fencer, who has provoked a stronger and more skilful than he to mortal combat, and is but instantly disarmed, and lies helpless in the dust, with his adversarys weapon pointed at his heart, the self-righteous and infuriated bigot now lay trembling and astonished, completely at the mercy of the despised Nazarene. The power which frustrated this proud Pharisee was exerted in pity; the defeat itself was love; but still, viewed as a defeat, and merely so, nothing could be more entire and abject. (C. F. Childe, M. A.)
The ox and the goad
Jesus even out of heaven speaks in parables, according to His wont. To Paul He briefly utters the parable of the rebellious ox. Note the tenderness of the appeal: it is not, Thou art harming Me by thy persecutions, bat, Thou art wounding thyself. He saith not, It is hard for Me, but hard for thee. Observe--
I. The ox. A fallen man deserves no higher type.
1. You are acting like a brute beast, in ignorance and passion. You are unspiritual, thoughtless, unreasonable.
2. Yet God values you more than a man does an ox.
3. Therefore He feeds you, and does not slay you.
4. You are useless without guidance, and yet you are unwilling to submit to your Masters hand.
5. If you were but obedient you might be useful, and might find content in your service.
6. You have no escape from the choice of either to obey or to die, and it is useless to be stubborn.
II. The ox goad. You have driven the Lord to treat you as the husbandman treats a stubborn ox.
1. The Lord has tried you with gentle means--a word, a pull of the rein, etc. by parental love, by tender admonitions of friends and teachers, and by the gentle promptings of His Spirit.
2. Now He uses the more severe means--
(1) Of solemn threatening by His law.
(2) Of terrors of conscience, and dread of judgment.
(3) Of loss of relatives, children, friends.
(4) Of sickness, and varied afflictions.
(5) Of approaching death, with a dark future beyond it.
3. You are feeling some of these pricks, and cannot deny that they are sharp. Take heed lest worse things come upon you.
III. The kicks against the goad. These are given in various ways by those who are resolved to continue in sin. There are--
1. Early childish rebellions against restraint.
2. Sneers at the gospel, at ministers, at holy things.
3. Wilful sins against conscience and light.
4. Revilings and persecutions against Gods people.
5. Questionings, infidelities, and blasphemies.
IV. The hardness of all this to the ox. It hurts itself against the goad, and suffers far more than the driver designs.
1. In the present. You are unhappy; you are full of unrest and alarm; you are increasing your chastisement, and fretting your heart.
2. In the best possible future. You will feel bitter regrets, have desperate habits to overcome, and much evil to undo. All this if you do at last repent and obey.
3. In the more probable future. You are preparing for yourself increased hardness of heart, despair and destruction. Oh, that you would know that no possible good can come of kicking against God, who grieves over your infatuations!
Conclusion:
1. Yield to the discipline of your God.
2. He pities you now, and begs you to consider your ways.
3. It is Jesus who speaks; be not so brutish as to refuse Him that speaks from heaven.
4. You may yet, like Saul of Tarsus, become grandly useful, and plough many a field for the Lord Jesus. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Striving against conviction
This sentence was one of the oldest of Greek proverbs, and being addressed to Saul in the Hebrew language, is an instance of the voice of Religion rightly using the tones of everyday life. That Christ should use a figure here was consistent with His habit, who used His parables to speak to men in figures. And doubtless the statement applied to many of Pauls recent experiences, which were finding their climax in that crisis. Doubtless the reflection of one who knew the Scriptures as Paul did, and who had the warning Gamaliel gave him, and the recollections he must have had of the martyrs he was making, and preeminently his recollection of Stephen, must have brought many misgivings like so many goad thrusts, which found their full force in the vision and voices of that hour. Anyhow, the text tells that, whether for a longer or a shorter time, Paul had been resisting conviction. This is--
I. Common. We see it--
1. In continuance in outward sin which is felt to be evil.
2. In cherishing secret evils known to be wrong.
3. In postponing allegiance to claims of religion felt to be just.
II. Painful. It is hard because a man is--
1. In collision with the best social influences--in church, in godly family, etc.
2. In conflict with his own higher nature. Reason, conscience, have been goad-thrusts.
3. In opposition to God.
III. Wrong.
1. It is fighting against God. So Gamaliel warned.
2. It is persecuting Jesus. The noblest, tenderest, best Being. (U. R. Thomas.)
The sinner his own enemy
The first glance at the words shows us a proverb. Even from heaven, God, if He speaks at all, must adapt His speech to mans usages. The risen and ascended Saviour spake not on earth only in parables. That before us is taken from the very commonest life of man. With a goad in his hand, headed by a long sharp spike of iron, the farmer drives before him the reluctant animal which would loiter or deviate from its way. In the obstinacy of an untamed will, the bullock unaccustomed to the yoke will even kick against his driver; and then the iron, otherwise harmless, enters into the recalcitrant foot. So in human life, in the affairs of the soul, there is a Hand which directs, and there is also a wilt which it seeks to guide. So long as the human will moves along the straight furrow of duty, so long the goad of punishment is unfelt. But if man will refuse the Divine influence, and stop or hedge aside, the guiding impulse must become a painful goad of discipline, and resistance must be coerced and, if necessary, punished into acquiescence.
1. The way of transgressors is hard. So speaks Solomon. He had found it so. And so speaks Christ. The young man thinks it a sign of independence to forget God that made him, and to walk in the way of his own heart. He learns to forsake the rule of his father, and to despise the law of his mother. He forms new associates; his habits become more and more such as a Christian parent would mourn over. Does he find his new life a freedom? Are his new ways ways of pleasantness? He calls them so in his hours of mirth. But somehow he feels to be more in bondage than ever. The old rules of his parents, if they were restraints, at least had no sting in them. But now, these pleasures of sin, not only are they short lived, they are anxious in the indulgence, and torturers in the retrospect. His conscience is ever warning and lashing him. And when sickness comes, when grey hairs are upon him, when death is imminent; how then? Young men--young women--be persuaded of this; that there is a God over you; if you will have it so, a God of love; if you will not have it so, then at least a God of power! It is hard for thee now, as well as dangerous eventually, to kick against the pricks.
2. There are those who are kicking against the goad of a fatherly discipline, who do not understand and love the method by which God is training them for Himself. They are denied many things which they desire: they are subjected to many things which they dislike. When they seemed to have even attained, the prize was wrenched from them. When they did attain, the coveted fruit has turned to ashes in the mouth. By these means the world was made a world of nothingness to them. Perhaps they were too eager for it. They were of that nature which would have been satisfied to sit by the fleshpots and eat bread to the full. And therefore the discipline needful for them was desert life. Sinai, with God speaking from it, was necessary to their souls safety. And yet scarcely were they in it, when they began to find fault. Their soul loathed this light bread, the bread of eternity and of the Spirit. The smitten rock yielded only a spiritual supply; and they were athirst for something more luscious, more earthly. Thus again and again they were rebellious against the hand that guided, and forced it to become a hand that drove. Why? Even because He had a favour unto them. To kick against that Hand, even if it was forced by their waywardness to hold a goad, was rebellion as much against happiness as against strength. I address some tonight who are in definite trouble. My friend, it is the Lord. I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil. Shall the thing formed say to Him that formed it, Why hast Thou made me thus? Humble yourselves rather under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time. It is hard for thee, painful now, eventually ruinous, to kick against the goad.
3. There is yet a further use of the proverb, that in which it was originally spoken. St. Paul was moral and conscientious; but be was kicking against the goad because he was refusing the revelation of Christ. He saw not his own sinfulness. He knew not his own want of a Saviour. He was not willing that others should trust in One whom he knew not. Can there be any here whose sin is that of Saul? Certainly there are those who are willing to take everything of the gospel save the very gospel itself; moral, conscientious, earnest men, yet who suffer themselves to repudiate altogether the revelation of the forgiveness of sin through the Atonement, and of renewal by the Holy Spirit. Depend upon it, you are kicking against a goad. You do want a Saviour for forgiveness, cleansing, strength, comfort and grace in daily life. Why, then, will you keep out of your heart that bright light? Why will you compel Him to drive, who would lead and guide? Conclusion: Scripture gives us examples of every kind of direction. Mark the order.
1. There is the sharp iron for the refractory. It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.
2. There is the bit and bridle for the unreasoning.
3. There is the voice of the Shepherd, known and loved by the docile flock.
4. There is the guidance, not even of voice, but of the eye only, which suits the ready, anticipating will of the entirely tractable and sympathising child.
To kick against the goad is the extreme of disobedience; to watch the guiding eye, to wait not for the word or the sign, much less for the spur of authority, is the perfection of obedience. In all senses, may that last be ours! (Dean Vaughan.)
Opposition to the truth fatal
The swordfish is a very curious creature, with a long and bony beak projecting in front of his head. It is also very fierce, attacking other fishes, and trying to pierce them with its sword. The fish has been known to dart at a ship in full sail with such violence as to pierce the solid timbers. But what has happened? The silly fish has been killed outright by the force of its own blow. The ship sails on just as before, and the angry fish falls a victim to its own rage. But how shall we describe the folly of those who, like Saul, oppose the cause of Christ? They cannot succeed: like the swordfish they only work their own destruction.
Opposition to the truth, self-destructive
Dr. John Hall compares the attacks of infidelity upon Christianity to a serpent gnawing at a file. As he kept on gnawing he was greatly encouraged by the sight of a growing pile of chips; till, feeling pain, and seeing blood, he found that he had been wearing his own teeth away against the file, but the file was unharmed.
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On vv12, 19 12–18. As I went to Damascus. Compare 9:1–9. This…
12–18. As I went to Damascus. Compare 9:1–9. This is the third account of Paul's conversion, the first being in chapter 9, and the second in 22:4–16. There are a few new details given here: (1) The over-powering glory of the Lord is specially dwelt upon here; (2) we are here told that the voice heard was in the
Hebrew tongue (he was now speaking Greek to King Agrippa). This fact that he here states is remarkable. Bengel says: “The Hebrew tongue, Christ's language when on earth; his language, too, when he spoke from heaven.” It was in the Aramaic, a Hebrew dialect, that the Savior taught when on earth, and it is a significant circumstance that Paul heard his voice in the same tongue to which Peter, James and John had listened. Not only is this true, but critics hold that the Hebraisms are so prominent in the Book of Revelation as to indicate that the revelations there recorded were made in Hebrew, and afterward translated by John into Greek. See Howson on Acts, p. 546. The proverb, It is hard for thee to kick against the goad, is here added. The mission of Paul to the Gentiles is described as being a part of the Lord's communication.
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I have appeared for this purpose. In order that he might be a minister and a witness. It was needful that the apostle of the Gentiles should see Christ. He must be a witness that the Lord had risen. He was chosen for this work before conversion, because he was honest, deeply conscientious, and possessed the great qualities that were needful to fit him for the most important work ever assigned to man.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v19 Act_26:19.—Begins the third part of Paul’s defence, and furnishes…
CRITICAL REMARKS
Act_26:19.—Begins the third part of Paul’s defence, and furnishes the reason for his Gentile mission. Whereupon.—Lit., whence, wherefore, accordingly—i.e., having been so instructed.
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Act_26:20. Showed first unto them of Damascus.—(Compare Act_9:20.) No contradiction to Gal_1:17, which does not assert that Paul’s evangelistic work did not commence till after his return from Arabia (Holtzmann).
Act_26:21. Works meet for repentance.—I.e., such works as proved repentance to be sincere. It is simply ridiculous to find in this an evidence of non-historicity, since Paul’s doctrine was that of justification by faith alone (Zeller).
Act_26:22. Witnessing.—If μαρτυρούμενος (Received Text) be correct, then the rendering should be “borne witness to” (see Act_6:3, Act_10:22, Act_22:12); but, as Paul was not witnessed to, but accused by small and great, the reading μαρτυρούμενος (Revised Text) is to be preferred, in which case “witnessing,” “testifying,” is an accurate translation.
Act_26:23. That Christ should suffer.—Better, how that, or if, or whether—εἰ presenting the points—ζητήματα questions (Act_25:19)—as Paul was wont to discuss them.
1. Whether the Messiah, not must suffer, but is capable of suffering—παθητός, passibilis (Vulgate); i.e., not whether He should have a nature capable of suffering, but whether the idea of suffering was possible to be harmonised with the conception of Messiah laid down in the Old Testament. And
2. Whether by rising from the dead (1Co_15:22; Col_1:18) He should be the first to show (or proclaim) light unto the people and to the Gentiles (Eph_2:17). As the revelation contained in the law and the prophets had been called (Isa_2:5), so was the gospel (2Co_4:4) now styled, “Light.”
HOMILETICAL ANALYSIS.—Act_26:19-23
Paul’s Subsequent Career as a Christian; or, how he turned to the Gentile Mission
I. The hidden impulse of his ministry.—The heavenly vision of the glorified Saviour who had appeared to him, pardoned, called, and appointed him to his special life-work. Captivated by that “vision” he felt himself to be no longer a freeman, but the bond-slave of Jesus Christ (Php_1:1). It remained in and with him, a memory unfading, which cheered him in solitude and depression, strengthened him in weakness and weariness, and generally rendered it an absolute necessity to preach the gospel and keep ever moving on towards regions beyond (1Co_9:16; 2Co_10:16). It accompanied him wherever he wandered, supplying him at every stage and in every time of need with fresh inspiration, zeal, and courage. Whatever he had been and done since that memorable day, he told the king, had been due to that “heavenly vision” to which he had not been disobedient. Did Christ’s people evince the like joyful submission to, and cheerful following of, the “heavenly visions” which shine in upon their souls, they might emulate, if they could not rival, the apostle in lofty characters and noble deeds.
II. The wide extent of his ministry.—
1. It commenced in Damascus. There he preached in the synagogues and confounded the Jews, proving that Jesus was the Christ (Act_9:20; Act_9:22).
2. It advanced to Jerusalem. There he spake boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus and disputed against the Grecians (Act_9:29).
3. It extended throughout Judæa. Not before or immediately after his first visit to Jerusalem, when he retired to Syria and Cilicia (see Gal_1:22). Perhaps when he repaired to the Metropolis on the occasion of the famine (Act_11:30), or when he visited the capital between his first and second missionary journeys (Act_18:22).
4. It passed to the Gentiles. First in Antioch of Pisidia (Act_13:46), and ever afterwards, as opportunity presented, in Iconium (Act_14:1), in Lystra (Act_14:15), in Philippi (Act_16:17), etc. Note the ever-widening circles of the apostle’s usefulness. First in Damascus, where he had been converted; next in Jerusalem, where he had been known from his youth up (Act_26:4); then in Judæa, among the homes and haunts of his countrymen, for whose salvation he ardently longed (Rom_9:3; Rom_10:1); and lastly in the heathen world, beyond the confines of Palestine.
III. The unvarying burden of his ministry.—
1. That the Messiah predicted by Moses and the prophets had come, as was testified by the correspondence between their writings and Christ’s sufferings, death, and resurrection. If Paul attempted to establish Christ’s Messiahship by finding in the Old Testament allusions to His death and resurrection, this cannot, with reasonable fairness, be ascribed to the apostle’s Pharisaic Bible studies and vivid imagination, but must be set down to the fact that such allusions are really in the Old Testament, although prior to the illumination shed upon these by the events in Christ’s history, they were not perceived by him any more than by the other apostles (Joh_2:22).
2. That Christ by His resurrection had brought light to both Jews and Gentiles,—light they did not possess and could not have possessed until after that event, as, e.g.,
(1) upon the personality of Christ Himself, showing Him to be both the Messiah and the Son of God (Rom_1:4);
(2) upon the purpose and plan of salvation, which had ever been through grace and by faith (Rom_3:24-26);
(3) upon the character and value of Christ’s death, which was thereby declared to have been an atonement for sin (Rom_4:25); and
(4) upon the reality of a resurrection to eternal life and glory (Rom_8:11; 2Ti_1:10).
3. That Jews and Gentiles both should repent and turn to God, doing works worthy of repentance. This had been a never-failing theme in Ephesus (Act_20:21), in Athens (Act_17:20), in Thessalonica (1Th_1:9), and elsewhere—as, indeed, it could not have been otherwise, if his mission were to be executed in accordance with instructions received (Act_26:18).
IV. The enormous difficulty of his ministry.—This arose from—
1. The severe labours it entailed in travelling from place to place, on long and arduous journeys, amidst severe bodily weakness and much infirmity.
2. The manifold dangers it involved, of which the apostle furnishes an affecting enumeration in 2Co_11:23-27. But chiefly from
3. The ferocious enemies it aroused, who were principally found amongst his own countrymen, the Jews, the Gentiles having seldom opposed him except when stirred up by these. Note.—“There are three chief points in the writings of the prophets. Christ’s sufferings, Christ’s resurrection, and the publication of them among all nations. And it was precisely these three points that the Jews were most against; they were offended at the first, denied the second, and grudged the third” (Starke). And
4. The deadly persecutions it raised against him, from the period of his first evangelistic labours in Damascus (Act_9:23) till the day when the Jews apprehended him in the temple at Jerusalem, and sought to kill him (Act_26:21). Only a man of heroic spirit could have undergone the fatigues, hardships, oppositions, and persecutions, that fell to the lot of Paul; and not even he, any more than Paul, could have done it in his own strength.
V. The secret support of his ministry.—The help of God. As he claimed to be what he was solely by the grace of God (1Co_15:10), so he arrogated to himself no credit or glory for what he had done in the ministry of the gospel, but ascribed all to God’s power, which had been graciously vouchsafed to him (Php_4:13). Never before had the nothingness of human strength in the domain of religion been realised as it was by Paul, and certainly no one has surpassed, or even rivalled, him since in the feeling of dependence upon God. Paul, in all that he became, all the soul-grandeur which he exhibited, was like plastic clay in the hands of the potter; in all that he achieved he served as a passive instrument in God’s hand. “Not I, but the grace of God which was with me,” constituted his explanation of both phenomena. “That which impels him is never caprice; egoistic, subjective interests are wholly wanting in him. What impels him is to him always something higher than himself. The objective rules over him. His personality is only the ‘vessel’ for the heavenly contents” (Hausrath, Der Apostel Paulus, p. 51). At every stage in his life’s journey Paul could have sung:—
“Here I raise my Ebenezer,
Hither by Thy help I’m come;
And I hope, by Thy good pleasure,
Safely to arrive at home.”
Learn—
1. That the first act of a converted heart is faith.
2. That the first sphere of labour for a convert should be amongst his own.
3. That the first word in the gospel message should be “repent and turn to God.”
4. That the first sign of repentance should be forsaking old sins and performing new works.
5. That the first trial which a convert will encounter will be the opposition of the unbelieving world.
6. That the first qualification requisite to constitute Christ a Saviour was His resurrection from the dead.
7. That the first thing demanded by a Christian for the successful performance of his duty is the help of God.
HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS
Act_26:19. The Heavenly Vision.
I. The highest privilege that can possibly be conferred upon a soul.—To see Christ by the eye of faith is to see God revealed as a Saviour, and is therefore the beginning of new life to the soul.
II. The most powerful force that can operate upon soul.—The soul that beholds that vision is immediately changed in its whole inner nature, lifted out of its old grooves of thought, feeling, and action, and started upon a new career, which will terminate in eternal life and glory.
III. The sublimest message that can be uttered by a soul.—Nothing greater can be told by human lips than what such a vision of the Divine love, grace, and pity, means for fallen man.
Was Paul’s Vision of Christ an Objective Reality?—“It is incontrovertible that Paul felt convinced that Jesus had there (i.e., before Damascus) stepped forth to meet him objectively, visibly, and audibly. He does not at all compare this appearance with the visions which, according to his own and others’ faith, continued even at a later time to be possible, and which he himself, along with others, actually shared—or with the wonderful subjective experiences in which, when in a condition of ecstasy, he saw and heard the Lord, or in which, without knowing whether he was in the body or out of the body, he found himself rapt up into the heavenly paradise (2Co_12:2 ff)—but exactly with those appearances of which the Evangelists have reported to us the details, and concerning which Paul clearly supposes and presupposes as generally recognised, that they are now closed, since he says that to him as the last of all (1Co_15:8) had Christ become visible. And just this appearance of the Risen One with the word addressed to him by that Risen One was the power which brought him, the persecutor of the Christian Church, to faith in Christ.”—Köstlin: Der Glaube und seine Bedeutung, etc., p. 40.
Visions of Heavenly Things.—“Wherefore, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision” (Act_26:19). “For, see, saith He, that thou make all things according to the pattern that was shewed thee in the mount” (Heb_8:5). These words bring before our minds the work of two of the very greatest men in the world’s history, and they suggest an important analogy of experience, as fitting them for their work. The work of Moses, it is true, might easily be under-estimated. We might think of him as the lawgiver of but one nation; that nation, moreover, being very restricted in its domains, and of comparatively small numbers. We have rather to think of the unique mission of Israel as a people that should ultimately pervade the world with their influence, and of the work of their lawgiver as fitting them to fulfil this mission well. It is impossible, however, to do justice to the work of Moses without taking into consideration, along with it, the work of his great successor, Paul. For it was in the mission of the apostle that the mission of Moses was continued and fulfilled. The Jews were already scattered abroad in many lands; “for Moses from generations of old hath in every city them that preach him” (Act_15:21). Thus was his law more or less penetrating the nations with its influence. And in that day, when “the fulness of the Gentiles” shall have “come in, and all Israel shall be saved” (Rom_11:25-26), it shall be more than ever manifest how great is the world’s debt to these two men of God. In either case, the work was extremely difficult. Think of the condition of Israel at the time when Moses was entrusted with his great responsibility. Think, again, of the condition of the Roman world at the time when Paul received his commission. In such work, moreover, there is one element of inspiration, one secret of strength, without which no mere enthusiasm of feeling, or power of devotion, can be effectual—viz., the inspiration and strength of a Divine Ideal.
I. Great ideals are the glory of man.—No other creatures here can have them; only men may receive an inspiration that shall raise them above themselves. This being so, whence comes the ideal? It is not of man himself, obviously, but of God. So Moses could have no inspiring ideal of what Israel might be, and should be one day, an ideal that should possess his imagination and fill his soul with a holy glow of hope, abiding with him day and night, and making him strong to endure and to do, unless the pattern had been shown him in the mount. But there God unveiled to him all the possibilities of that people of Israel, and thenceforth Moses set himself, by God’s help, to make the vision real. In like manner, Paul could not have portrayed for himself the glowing picture of a regenerate Roman world, all bowing in adoration to the Crucified, had not the glory, beyond the brightness of the sun, shone from the heavens, blinding, for a while, the natural vision, but photographing itself indelibly on the soul; so that thenceforth only “one thing” could he do—traverse city and country, land and sea, toil tired but untiringly, and endure infamy and death, if only he might reduce vision to fact, and make his high imaginations actual realities. So all man’s true ideals, of personal life and of service for man’s sake, are of God. They may come to us mediately, indeed; for they shine before us in the lives of noble men, they burn with quenchless fire in the poems of the ages, they lift their fair beauty before our view in the manifold Scriptures of God, and they show themselves as at once ideal and real in the glory of the Only-Begotten, “full of grace and truth” (Joh_1:14). But, mediately as these ideals may thus be presented to us, they must take immediate hold of our imagination, and kindle the fervours of our own soul—even as though we ourselves were in the mount, alone with God, or were struck by the sudden glory from the skies. Otherwise their Divine purpose will be unfulfilled, and our life largely unblessed.
II. It has been already partly assumed, but must now be more strongly emphasised, that the great ideals which are intended to ennoble find transfigure human life are not ideals of mere happiness, as though we were to be only dreamers dreaming of our own joy, although there shall be a supreme happiness as the inevitable result of making our life according to the pattern shown us in the mount, and of obeying the heavenly vision. But such happiness comes only when it is not sought for its own sake, its delicate bloom being spoiled, and its very essence perishing, if we snatch at it greedily. The ideal, so far as it pertains to ourselves, is an ideal of character, a revelation to ourselves of what, by the grace of God, it is possible we may become. And just in so far as it is a revelation of possibilities of character, it is a command to us that we do our utmost to make the possible an accomplished fact, saying to us ever, with a more august and sacred behest than that of more words, “Thou shalt!” Thus the true ideal of man’s life is the law of life. But human character, at its best, is possible only through service, loving and loyal service rendered to man, for man’s own sake and for God’s. For even character may be made too exclusively an end in itself, as an achievement of our own, and as meaning the ennoblement merely of our personal manhood; in which case its nobleness is tarnished, being vitiated by the selfishness of our motive and aim. Our own character cannot have true worth save in so far as it is in true relation to the characters of others, and to the one perfect character of God. And such relation implies service—the service of loyal love.
III. The ideals of life are necessarily progressive, partly on account of the material which has to be fashioned by them, and partly through their own nature.—The material will not always allow of the ideal being at first so perfect as it shall be afterwards. The pattern of what Israel was to become, as a people, did not show all the possibilities of ultimate good; nor did the heavenly vision, perhaps, reveal immediately to the apostle all that was in God’s heart for the world. Enough, if, for the present, the ideal can accomplish its present work. King Alfred’s ideal of what England might be made, as a nation, was perhaps not such as may be cherished by the successors of his spirit, discerning the needs and the possibilities of our country in the light of later history. In like manner, the ideal of our personal life will not be so full, perhaps not so imperious, in the immaturer days of life; it will rather be according to our needs and our capabilities. The ideal grows in significance as the material which is to be fashioned by it becomes more susceptible more responsive. But in its own nature the ideal is necessarily growing and progressive. It grows with all our growth; but it grows likewise because it is intrinsically infinite, and must always make larger demands on our faith and loyalty the more fully we yield to the demands already made. Let us learn, however, the solemn truth that, just as surely as our ideals will grow and live, if we believe in them and live by them, so surely will they dwindle and die, if we are untrue to their Divine claims and promises. Yes; the pattern may lose its beauty, the vision may fade; the inspirations of life may die away.—T. F. Lockyer, B. A.
Act_26:20. Works Worthy of Repentance.—Are works—
I. Springing from a spirit of repentance.
II. Attesting the sincerity of repentance.
III. Accomplishing the purpose of repentance.
IV. Disclosing the beauty of repentance.
Act_26:21. Men Whom the World Sometimes Seeks to Murder.
I. Those who would lead it into higher truths.—Too often verified in other spheres than that of religion. Prophets and preachers with new ideas have commonly had a poor reception from the world.
II. Those who decline to be partners in its wickedness.—When a man enters upon the path of holiness, all who walk in sinful ways interpret his behaviour as a silent protest against, and rebuke of, their ungodliness and dislike, if they do not hate and persecute him accordingly (1Pe_4:4).
III. Those who have conferred upon it most good.—The world has never been kind to its philanthropists and social benefactors, but for the most part has killed them, if not by open assassination by cold and cruel neglect (see Ecc_9:15).
Act_26:22. Paul a Model Witness of Gospel Truth.
I. Through whom does he witness?—Through the Lord, whose strength is perfected in his weakness.
II. Before whom does he witness?—Small and great, the people and the Gentiles—i.e., all who have ears to hear.
III. Of whom does he witness?—Of Christ, promised, manifested, crucified, raised, preached.—Gerok.
Act_26:22-23. The Glory of the Gospel of the Grace of God.—This consists in the following facts, that the Gospel is—
I. Designed for all.—
1. All ranks and conditions of men. Small and great—i.e., high and low, rich and poor, young and old.
2. All times and climes on earth. For pre-Christian ages, since it was substantially contained in the Hebrew prophets and in Moses; for the Christian centuries, since it was meant to be published among the Gentiles.
II. Adapted to all.—Proclaiming as it does—
1. An atonement for sin, which all need. This involved in the idea of a suffering Messiah (Isa_53:5-6; Isa_53:10).
2. A resurrection from the grave, which all desire. This guaranteed by the resurrection of Jesus (1Co_15:20).
III. Offered to all.—This a necessary consequence of the public proclamation of the gospel, both to the people (the Jews) and the Gentiles, since it is inconceivable that men should be called upon to accept, and punished for refusing, what was not really offered to them. Compare Mar_16:15; Rom_1:16; Rom_3:22.
IV. Bestowed on all.—All who believe without distinction become partakers of its light and life.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain On vv16–18 16. “.....For unto this I have appeared unto thee,…
16. “.....For unto this I have appeared unto thee, to make thee a minister and a martyr of the things which you see, and of which I shall appear unto thee”; i. e., Jesus continued to reveal His wonderful truth to Paul, inspiring him to write more of the same than any other man.
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On vv14, 18, 19, 20
Acts
CHRIST’S REMONSTRANCES
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Act 26:14.
‘Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots?’ No. But God can change the skin, because He can change the nature. In this story of the conversion of the Apostle Paul-the most important thing that happened that day-we have an instance how brambles may become vines; tares may become wheat; and a hater of Jesus Christ may be changed in a moment into His lover and servant, and, if need be, His martyr.
Now the very same motives and powers which were brought to bear upon the Apostle Paul by miracle are being brought to bear upon every one of us; and my object now is just to trace the stages of the process set forth here, and to ask some of you, if you, like Paul, have been ‘obedient to the heavenly vision.’ Stages, I call them, though they were all crowded into a moment, for even the lightning has to pass through the intervening space when it flashes from one side of the heavens to another, and we may divide its path into periods. Time is very elastic, as any of us whose lives have held great sorrows or great joys or great resolutions well know.
I. The first of these all but simultaneous and yet separable stages was the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Of course to the Apostle it was mediated by miracle; but real as he believed that appearance of the risen Lord in the heavens to be, and valid as he maintained that it was as the ground of his Apostleship, he himself, in one of his letters, speaks of the whole incident as being the revelation of God’s Son in him. The revelation in heart and mind was the main thing, of which the revelation to eye and ear were but means. The means, in his case, are different from those in ours; the end is the same. To Paul it came like the rush of a cataract that the Christ whom he had thought of as lying in an unknown grave was living in the heavens and ruling there. You and I, I suppose, do not need to be convinced by miracle of the resurrection of Jesus Christ; but the bare fact that Jesus was living in the heavens would have had little effect upon Saul, unless it had been accompanied with the revelation of the startling fact that between him and Jesus Christ there were close personal relations, so that he had to do with Jesus, and Jesus with him.
‘Saul, Saul! why persecutest thou Me?’ They used to think that they could wake sleep-walkers by addressing them by name. Jesus Christ, by speaking His name to the Apostle, wakes him out of his diseased slumber, and brings him to wholesome consciousness. There are stringency and solemnity of address in that double use of the name ‘Saul, Saul!’
What does such an address teach you and me? That Jesus Christ, the living, reigning Lord of the universe, has perfect knowledge of each of us, and that we each stand isolated before Him, as if all the light of omniscience were focussed upon us. He knows our characters; He knows all about us, and more than that, He directly addresses Himself to each man and woman among us.
We are far too apt to hide ourselves in the crowd, and let all the messages of God’s love, the warnings of His providences, as well as the teachings and invitations and pleadings of His gospel, fly over our heads as if they were meant vaguely for anybody. But they are all intended for thee, as directly as if thou, and thou only, wert in the world. I beseech you, lay this to heart, that although no audible sounds may rend the silent heavens, nor any blaze may blind thine eye, yet that as really, though not in the same outward fashion as Saul, when they were all fallen to the earth, felt himself to be singled out, and heard a voice ‘speaking to him in the Hebrew tongue, saying, Saul, Saul!’ thou mayest hear a voice speaking to thee in the English tongue, by thy name, and directly addressing its gracious remonstrances and its loving offers to thy listening ear. I want to sharpen the blunt ‘whosoever’ into the pointed ‘thou.’ And I would fain plead with each of my friends hearing me now to believe that the gospel of Jesus Christ is meant for thee, and that Christ speaks to thee. ‘I have a message from God unto thee,’ just as Nathan said unto David. ‘Thou art the man!’
Do not lose yourselves in the crowd or hide yourselves from the personal incidence of Christ’s offer, but feel that you stand, as you do indeed, alone the hearer of His voice, the possible recipient of His saving mercy.
II. Secondly, notice, as another stage in this process the discovery of the true character of the past.
‘Why persecutest thou Me?’ Now I am not going to be tempted from my more direct purpose in this sermon to dwell even for a moment on the beautiful, affecting, strengthening thought here, of the unity of Jesus Christ with all the humble souls that love Him, so as that, whatsoever any member suffers, the Head suffers with it. I must leave that truth untouched.
Saul was brought to look at all his past life as standing in immediate connection with Jesus Christ. Of course he knew before the vision that he had no love to Him whom he thought to be a Galilean impostor, and that the madness with which he hated the servants was only the glancing off of the arrow that he would fain have aimed at the Master. But he did not know that Jesus Christ counted every blow struck at one of His servants as being struck at Him. Above all he did not know that the Christ whom he was persecuting was reigning in the heavens. And so his whole past life stood before him in a new aspect when it was brought into close connection with Christ, and looked at as in relation to Him.
The same process would yield very remarkable results if applied to our lives. If I could only get you for one quiet ten minutes, to lay all your past, as far as memory brought it to your minds, right before that pure and loving Face, I should have done much. One infallible way of judging of the rottenness or goodness of our actions is that we should bring them where they will all be brought one day, into the brightness of Christ’s countenance. If you want to find out the flaws in some thin, badly-woven piece of cloth, you hold it up against the light, do you not? and then you see all the specks and holes, and the irregular threads. Hold up your lives in like fashion against the light, and I shall be surprised if you do not find enough there to make you very much ashamed of yourselves. Were you ever on the stage of a theatre in the daytime? Did you ever see what miserable daubs the scenes look, and how seamy it all is when the pitiless sunshine comes in? Let that great light pour on your life, and be thankful if you find out what a daub it has been, whilst yet colours and brushes and time are at your disposal, and you may paint the future fairer than the past.
Again, this revelation of Saul’s past life disclosed its utter unreasonableness. That one question, ‘Why persecutest thou Me?’ pulverised the whole thing. It was like the wondering question so unanswerable in the Psalm, ‘Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?’ If you take into account what you are, and where you stand, you can find no reason, except utterly unreasonable ones, for the lives that I fear some of us are living-lives of godlessness and Christlessness. There is nothing in all the world a tithe so stupid as sin. There is nothing so unreasonable, if there be a God at all, and if we depend upon Him, and have duties to Him, as the lives that some of you are living. You admit, most of you, that there is such a God; you admit, most of you, that you do hang upon Him; you admit, in theory, that you ought to love and serve Him. The bulk of you call yourselves Christians. That is to say, you believe, as a piece of historical fact, that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came into this world and died for men. And, believing that, you turn your back on Him, and neither love nor serve nor trust Him nor turn away from your iniquity. Is there anything outside a lunatic asylum more madlike than that? ‘Why persecutest thou?’ ‘And he was speechless,’ for no answer was possible. Why neglectest thou? Why forgettest thou? Why, admitting what thou dost, art thou not an out-and-out Christian? If we think of all our obligations and relations, and the facts of the universe, we come back to the old saying, ‘The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,’ and any man who, like many of my hearers, fails to give his heart and life to Jesus Christ will one day have to say, ‘Behold, I have played the fool, and erred exceedingly.’ Wake up, my brother, to apply calm reason to your lives while yet there is time, and face the question, Why dost thou stand as thou dost to Jesus Christ? There is nothing sadder than the small share that deliberate reason and intelligent choice have in the ordering of most men’s lives. You live by impulse, by habit, by example, by constraint of the outward necessities of your position. But I am sure that there are many amongst us now who have very seldom, if ever, sat down and said, ‘Now let me think, until I get to the ultimate grounds of the course of life that I am pursuing.’ You can carry on the questions very gaily for a step or two, but then you come to a dead pause. ‘What do I do so-and-so for?’ ‘Because I like it.’ ‘Why do I like it?’ ‘Because it meets my needs, or my desires, or my tastes, or my intellect.’ Why do you make the meeting of your needs, or your desires, or your tastes, or your intellect your sole object? Is there any answer to that? The Hindoos say that the world rests upon an elephant, and the elephant rests upon a tortoise. What does the tortoise rest on? Nothing! Then that is what the world and the elephant rest on. And so, though you may go bravely through the first stages of the examination, when you come to the last question of all, you will find out that your whole scheme of life is built upon a blunder; and the blunder is this, that anybody can be blessed without God.
Further, this disclosure of the true character of his life revealed to Saul, as in a lightning flash, the ingratitude of it.
‘Why persecutest thou Me?’ That was as much as to say, ‘What have I done to merit thy hate? What have I not done to merit rather thy love?’ Paul did not know all that Jesus Christ had done for him. It took him a lifetime to learn a little of it, and to tell his brethren something of what he had learned. And he has been learning it ever since that day when, outside the walls of Rome, they hacked off his head. He has been learning more and more of what Jesus Christ has done for him, and why he should not persecute Him but love Him.
But the same appeal comes to each of us. What has Jesus Christ done for thee, my friend, for me, for every soul of man? He has loved me better than His own life. He has given Himself for me. He has lingered beside me, seeking to draw me to Himself, and He still lingers. And this, at the best, tremulous faith, this, at the warmest, tepid love, this, at the completest, imperfect devotion and service, are all that we bring to Him; and some of us do not bring even these. Some of us have never known what it was to sacrifice one inclination for the sake of Christ, nor to do one act for His dear love’s sake, nor to lean our weakness upon Him, nor to turn to Him and say, ‘I give Thee myself, that I may possess Thee.’ ‘Do ye thus requite the Lord, O foolish people and unwise?’ I have heard of wounded soldiers striking with their bayonets at the ambulance men who came to help them. That is like what some of you do to the Lord who died for your healing, and comes as the Physician, with bandages and with balm, to bind up the brokenhearted. ‘Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?’
III. Lastly, we have here a warning against self-inflicted wounds.
That second clause of the remonstrance on the lips of Christ in my text is, according to the true reading, not found in the account of Paul’s conversion in the ninth chapter of this book. My text is from Paul’s own story; and it is interesting to notice that he adds this eminently pathetic and forcible appeal to the shorter account given by the writer of the book. It had gone deep into his heart, and he could not forget.
The metaphor is a very plain one. The ox-goad was a formidable weapon, some seven or eight feet in length, shod with an iron point, and capable of being used as a spear, and of inflicting deadly wounds at a pinch. Held in the firm hand of the ploughman, it presented a sharp point to the rebellious animal under the yoke. If the ox had readily yielded to the gentle prick, given, not in anger, but for guidance, it had been well. But if it lashes out with its hoofs against the point, what does it get but bleeding flanks? Paul had been striking out instead of obeying, and he had won by it only bloody hocks.
There are two truths deducible from this saying, which may have been a proverb in common use. One is the utter futility of lives that are spent in opposing the divine will. There is a strong current running, and if you try to go against it you will only be swept away by it. Think of some little fishing coble coming across the bow of a great ocean-going steamer. What will be the end of that? Think of a pony-chaise jogging up the line, and an express train thundering down it. What will be the end of that? Think of a man lifting himself up and saying to God, ‘I will not!’ when God says, ‘Do thou this!’ or ‘Be thou this!’ What will be the end of that? ‘The world passeth away, and the lusts thereof, but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.’ ‘It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks’-hard in regard to breaches of common morality, as some of my friends sitting quietly in these pews very well know. It is hard to indulge in sensual sin. You cannot altogether dodge what people call the ‘natural consequences’; but it was God who made Nature; and so I call them God-inflicted penalties. It is hard to set yourselves against Christianity. I am not going to speak of that at all now, only when we think of the expectations of victory with which so many antagonists of the Cross have gaily leaped into the arena, and of how the foes have been forgotten and there stands the Cross still, we may say of the whole crowd, beginning with the earliest, and coming down to the latest brand-new theory that is going to explode Christianity -’it is hard to kick against the pricks.’ Your own limbs you may wound; you will not do the goad much harm.
But there is another side to the proverb of my text, and that is the self-inflicted harm that comes from resisting the pricks of God’s rebukes and remonstrances, whether inflicted by conscience or by any other means; including, I make bold to say, even such poor words as these of mine. For if the first little prick of conscience, a warning and a guide, be neglected, the next will go a great deal deeper. The voice which, before you do the wrong thing, says to you, ‘Do not do it,’ in tones of entreaty and remonstrance, speaks, after you have done it, more severely and more bitterly. The Latin word remorse, and the old English name for conscience, ‘again-bite’-which latter is a translation of the other-teach us the same lesson, that the gnawing which comes after wrong done is far harder to bear than the touch that should have kept us from the evil. The stings of marine jelly-fish will burn for days after, if you wet them. And so all wrong-doing, and all neglect of right-doing of every sort, carries with it a subsequent pain, or else the wounded limb mortifies, and that is worse. There is no pain then; it would be better if there were. There is such a possibility as to have gone on so obstinately kicking against the pricks and leaving the wounds so unheeded, as that they mortify and feeling goes. A conscience ‘seared with a hot iron’ is ten times more dreadful than a conscience that pains and stings.
So, dear brethren, let me beseech you to listen to the pitying Christ, who says to us each, more in sorrow than in anger, ‘It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.’ It is no pleasure to Him to hold the goad, nor that we should wound ourselves upon it. He has another question to put to us, with another ‘why,’ ‘Why should ye be stricken any more? Turn ye, turn ye; why will ye die, O house of Israel?’
There is another metaphor drawn from the employment of oxen which we may set side by side with this of my text: ‘Take My yoke upon you, and ye shall find rest unto your souls.’ The yoke accepted, the goad is laid aside; and repose and healing from its wounds are granted to us. Dear brethren, if you will listen to the Christ revealed in the heavens, as knowing all about you, and remonstrating with you for your unreasonableness and ingratitude, and setting before you the miseries of rebellion and the suicide of sin, then you will have healing for all your wounds, and your lives will neither be self-tormenting, futile, nor unreasonable. The mercy of Jesus Christ lavished upon you makes your yielding yourselves to Him your only rational course. Anything else is folly beyond comparison and harm and loss beyond count.
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. W. McGarvey 1914 · Public Domain On vv12–20 12-18. (12) " Whereupon, as I was going to…
12-18. (12) " Whereupon, as I was going to Damascus, with authority and commission from the high priests, (13) at midday, O King, I saw in the way a light from heaven, above the brightness of the sun, shining around me and those who were journeying with me. (14) And when we had all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice speaking to me, and saying, in the Hebrew dialect, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads. (15) And I said, Who art thou, Lord? And he said, I am Jesus, whom you persecute. (16) But rise and stand upon your feet; for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to choose you for a minister and a witness of the things which you have seen, and of those in which I will appear to you; (17) delivering you from the people and the Gentiles, to whom I now send you (18) to open their eyes, to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive remission of sins, and inheritance among the sanctified by faith in me. " On the supposition that Paul here spoke the truth, Agrippa saw that no prophet of old, not even Moses himself, had a more authoritative or unquestionable commission than he. Moreover, the same facts, it true, demonstrated, irresistible, the resurrection and glorification of Jesus. As to the truth of the narrative, its essential features consisted in facts about which Paul could not be mistaken, and his unparalleled suffering, for more than twenty years, together with the chain even now upon his arm, bore incontestable evidence of his sincerity. But being an honest witness, and the facts such that he could not be mistaken, the facts themselves must be real. It is difficult to conceive what stronger evidence the audience could have had in favor of Jesus, or what more triumphant vindication of the change which had taken place in Paul.
J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On vv14, 18 Cf. (See Scofield "Act 9:7").
heard
Cf. (See Scofield "Act 9:7").
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv12, 19 Paul’s recital of his miraculous conversion:
Paul’s recital of his miraculous conversion:
v. 12. Whereupon, as I went to Damascus with authority and commission from the chief priests,
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v. 13. at midday, O king, I saw in the way a light from heaven, above the brightness of the sun, shining round about me and them which journeyed with me.
v. 14. and when we were all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice speaking unto me, and saying in the Hebrew tongue. Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me? It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.
v. 15. And I said, Who art Thou, Lord? and he said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest.
v. 16. But rise and stand upon thy feet; for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness both of these things which thou hast seen, and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee;
v. 17. delivering thee from the people and from the Gentiles, unto whom now I send thee,
v. 18. to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in Me.
Paul here relates the story of his conversion substantially as it has been told by Luke, chap. 9, and by himself in his speech before the Jews, chap. 22. It was on this errand, on this business of enmity against Jesus, that he was traveling to Damascus, being armed with the authority and power of the high priests themselves; he was acting as their commissioner, as their authorized representative, and was given practically free rein to show his hatred in any way he would choose. in the middle of the day, in the clear bright light of full day, he had seen a light from heaven, brighter and more dazzling than the sun that shone round about him and those that traveled with him, that enveloped them all in its blinding brilliance. And when they had all fallen to the ground, Paul first and his companions also after a few moments of dumb and rigid astonishment, he had heard a voice speaking to him in the Hebrew, that is, the Aramaic dialect, asking him why he was persecuting Him, and telling him that it would be hard for him to kick against the goads. In the Orient the ox-goad consisted, as it does today, of a long stick, into the end of which a sharp iron point was fixed. Paul was like an unruly ox, kicking when goaded, and thereby adding to his own pains while he persecuted the Church, for the worse his mad enmity became, the less satisfaction did he get out of the gratification of his lust for the blood of Christians. It was a foolish and useless effort for him to try to persecute Jesus in His followers, "an effort which only inflicted deeper wounds upon himself, an effort as idle as that described by the Psalmist, Psa 2:3-4. " Upon Paul’s anxious and fearful question as to the exact identity of the Lord that was speaking to him, he had received the answer that it was Jesus whom he was persecuting. The Lord had then given him the command to get up and to stand on his feet, since He had appeared to him for this purpose, to select and thus employ him as a man whom the hand of God had torn out of the midst of dangers threatening his soul to be His servant and witness of the things which he had seen, as well as of the things which the Lord still intended to show him. This the Lord had further explained by telling him that He was lifting him out, rescuing him, from the midst of his own people as well as from the Gentiles. And to the latter the Lord was now sending His apostle, to open their eyes, which were blind in spiritual matters, to turn them away from the darkness of their spiritual blindness and unbelief to the light of the Gospel and from the power of Satan, in whose dominion they were kept by nature, to God, their Savior, to receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance in the midst of those that are sanctified by faith in the Redeemer. Thus the Scriptures in this passage call natural man, so far as spiritual and divine matters are concerned, nothing but darkness. The way of salvation, the method by which God leads sinners to His mercy, is here plainly and explicitly taught. Through the preaching of the Gospel the eyes of the sinners are opened that they might know Christ, their Savior; through the Gospel the sinners are converted that they turn away from darkness, from the service of sin, from the power of Satan, to God and to the light and salvation in Christ, so that all heathenism and superstition is left behind, and nothing but the knowledge, worship, and service of the blessed Redeemer engages their attention. Note that the faith which has worked trust in the salvation of Jesus incidentally consecrates the believer, sets him apart, sanctifies him for the service of the Lord.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv12, 15, 19 Connecting Statement:
Connecting Statement:
While talking to King Agrippa, Paul tells about when the Lord spoke with him.
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While I was doing this
Paul uses this phrase to mark another shift in his defense. He is now telling about when he saw Jesus and became his disciple.
While
This word is used to mark two events that are happening at the same time. In this case, Paul went to Damascus during the time when he persecuted Christians.
with authority and orders
Paul had written letters from the Jewish leaders, granting him authority to persecute the Jewish believers.
I heard a voice speaking to me that said
Here "voice" stands for the person speaking. AT: "I heard someone speaking to me who said" (See: Metonymy)
It is hard for you to kick a goad
For Paul to resist Jesus and to persecute believers is spoken of as if he were an ox kicking at the sharp stick that a person uses to prod (or "goad") the animal. It means that Paul is only harming himself. AT: "You will only harm yourself like an ox kicking a goad" (See: Metaphor)
translationWords
Damascus
chief priests
king
heaven
Hebrew
Paul
persecute
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv12, 17 26:12-18 See 9:1-18.
26:12-18 See 9:1-18.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.