Will you please turn to the book of Acts? Thank you, brothers and sisters. Acts Chapter 26. We will begin with Verse 4 and read through Verse 20.
This passage records the defense of Paul before King Agrippa.
My manner of life then from my youth up, which was from the beginning among mine own nation, and at Jerusalem, know all the Jews;
having knowledge of me from the first, if they be willing to testify, that after the straitest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee.
And now I stand here to be judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers;
unto which promise our twelve tribes, earnestly serving God night and day, hope to attain. And concerning this hope I am accused by the Jews, O king!
Why is it judged incredible with you, if God doth raise the dead?
I verily thought with myself that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus the Nazarene.
And this I also did in Jerusalem: and I both shut up many of the saints in prisons, having received authority from the chief priests, and when they were put to death, I gave my vote against them.
And punishing them oftentimes in all the synagogues, I strove to make them blaspheme; and being exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted them even unto foreign cities.
Whereupon as I journeyed to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests,
at midday, O king, I saw on the way a light from heaven, above the brightness of the sun, shining round about me and them that journeyed with me.
And when we were all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice saying unto me in the Hebrew language, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me? It is hard for thee to kick against the goad.
And I said, Who art Thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest.
But arise, and stand upon thy feet: for to this end have I appeared unto thee, to appoint thee a minister and a witness both of the things wherein thou hast seen Me, and of the things wherein I will appear unto thee;
delivering thee from the people, and from the Gentiles, unto whom I send thee,
to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive remission of sins and an inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith in Me.
Wherefore, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision:
but declared both to them of Damascus first, and 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.
Let us commit His Word to the Lord.
Dear Lord, how we pray and thank Thee that we may gather together unto Thyself.
We thank Thee for giving Thy Word to us. We pray that Thy Word will be quickened to our hearts, that we may not just hear it, but that we may really understand it.
May Thy Word really become life and spirit to us, that Thy purpose and Thy will may be fulfilled among us.
And to Thee be the glory. We ask in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
Last night we mentioned that our time together will be focused on one thing, and that is vision.
By vision, we do not mean something that we see with our naked eyes. By vision, we mean something which is of God’s heart, which we see in our spirit.
Vision does not concern something insignificant. Vision is concerned with the eternal purpose of God. It is concerned with the mystery of God.
It pleases God to reveal His vision of Himself to us. In our spirit, we see something which is eternal, something that will affect our whole life—not only our individual lives, but even our lives together.
Because the Bible says, “Where there is no vision, the people cast off restraint.” Without vision, the people disintegrate. Without vision, people will even perish.
If we do not have that vision, we will be spiritually blind. That is why it is essential that we all have that vision.
We mentioned last night the vision given to Peter. What God gave to Peter is fundamental. It is like laying a foundation for us.
To Peter, a revelation was given concerning our Lord Jesus: that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God.
This is something given by the Father in heaven. When we see that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, this is a tremendous revelation.
Naturally speaking, we will never be able to see Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God. Naturally, we can only see Him as a great man. But thank God, it pleases Him to reveal His Son in us.
That vision, that revelation, transforms us. It delivers us out of darkness into light. It enables us to become living stones.
Therefore, our Lord Jesus said, “Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church.” That rock is Christ Himself. It is the revelation of our Lord Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God.
It is the confession of Peter, and this is our confession: that our Lord Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God.
God will take hold of us and build us together to be His church. Here you find a basic vision: the vision of Christ and the vision of the church.
Christ is the foundation, the rock. The church is built up with living stones, those who confess the Lord Jesus.
Then we find in Matthew Chapter 17 that the Lord took Peter, James, and John to the mount of transfiguration.
There our Lord revealed His glory to Peter. The Lord revealed His kingdom to Peter. He is not only our Savior; He is the King. He is the Lord.
We need not only to believe in Him, but we must also obey Him. The voice from heaven said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye Him.”
Brothers and sisters, how can we, as living stones, be built together? How can rough stones become precious stones?
We need to realize that our Lord Jesus is our King, that He is supreme in our life, that we need to hear Him, and that we need to obey Him.
By doing that, we will be turned from rough stones into precious stones, and we will be able to be built up together upon Christ Jesus.
Then you find in Acts Chapter 10 that the Lord revealed another vision to Peter. He saw heaven opened, and a great sheet coming down out of heaven, held by its four corners.
When it descended before Peter, he saw that the sheet was filled with four-footed animals, creeping things, and birds of the air. The voice said to him, “Peter, rise, slay, and eat.”
Peter looked at these animals, and they were unclean animals. Being a Jew, he had been taught not to touch anything unclean. So he said, “Lord, I cannot eat.”
The voice said, “What God hath cleansed, make not thou common.” This happened three times, and then the sheet was taken back to heaven.
That great sheet represents the church. The church is in an unfinished condition, and all these unclean things were within that sheet.
To Peter at that time, they represented the Gentiles. To the Jews, the Gentiles were unclean. They could have no fellowship with the Gentiles. Salvation was only for the Jews, not for the Gentiles.
But the Lord revealed to Peter that in the church there is neither Jew nor Gentile, because we have all been cleansed by the precious blood of our Lord Jesus. We need to fellowship with one another.
Brothers and sisters, this is the vision given to Peter. It is recorded in the Word of God for our benefit. In other words, what God showed Peter is what God wants all of us to see, and that forms the foundation of our faith.
Now this afternoon, we would like to continue with the vision given to Paul. His former name was Saul.
He was named after the first king in Israel. The name Saul simply means “asked for.” He was born in Tarsus of Cilicia, a great city and a city of culture.
He was born into a Hebrew family. He said, “I am a Hebrew of Hebrews.” At that time many Jewish people were dispersed among Gentile cities. Tarsus was a Gentile city, so Paul was actually a Hellenistic Jew, but he was born of a Hebrew family.
What does it mean that he was a Hebrew of Hebrews? It means that although many Jews who lived in Gentile cities began to speak Greek, there were certain orthodox Jewish families who still spoke Hebrew in the home.
He was also of the tribe of Benjamin. That had a special meaning. First, the first king of Israel came from Benjamin. Second, when Israel was divided into two nations, ten tribes became the northern kingdom, but two tribes remained together as Judah. Benjamin was one of those tribes.
Paul was born in Tarsus, but probably when he became a son of the law, he was brought up in Jerusalem. According to Jewish tradition, when a Jewish boy was twelve or thirteen years old, he became a son of the law and a full member of the synagogue.
Most likely, when Paul was about twelve years old, he went to Jerusalem and remained there to be educated. He studied at the feet of Gamaliel.
Gamaliel was the grandson of Hillel, one of the greatest rabbis in Israel. Paul studied under Gamaliel, and he became a Pharisee.
A Pharisee is one who not only studies the Scriptures, but keeps very strictly every ordinance in the Scriptures.
Today, when we think of a Pharisee, our impression is not very good, because we have heard our Lord Jesus say, “Woe unto you, Pharisees, hypocrites.” But Paul was different.
He said, “I lived a Pharisee.” He was not only trained as a Pharisee. He studied the Old Testament, kept all the laws, and really lived as a Pharisee. He was not a hypocrite. He was genuine; he was real.
He tried his very best to keep all the laws—not only the laws written in the Word of God, but even all the traditions of the fathers.
Judaism is full of traditions. Traditions came in this way: when people studied the law, they could see the principles there, but they asked, “How are these principles to be applied in our daily life? How do you explain the Bible? How do you apply these words to your life?”
Throughout the ages, many great rabbis were raised up, and they tried to explain what was written in the Word. Then other rabbis were raised up, and they tried to explain the explanations given by the former rabbis.
So you find that here a little and there a little were added, added, and added.
For instance, the Bible says that on the Sabbath you should do no work. Now, what do you mean by doing work?
You remember one day our Lord Jesus and His disciples were passing through a field. The disciples were hungry, so they picked grain, rubbed it, and ate it.
The Pharisees said, “You violate the Sabbath.” It was not a violation to pick the grain, but according to Jewish tradition, if you rubbed it, that was work.
Paul not only kept the Word of God; he kept very carefully all the traditions of the fathers. He said himself that he was very zealous for the traditions of the fathers, and he was more advanced than his contemporaries.
Probably his greatest ambition was to be a great rabbi in Israel. Because of this, he was so zealous for Judaism and so blinded by the traditions of the fathers.
He was so zealous for God that he persecuted the Way—that is, the followers of Jesus.
According to the Jewish tradition at that time, and according to what the Pharisees considered, Jesus was an impostor because He proclaimed Himself as the Son of God. That was the reason, in their understanding, why He was crucified.
Anyone who followed Jesus was considered worthy of death. Paul took upon himself the responsibility of keeping Judaism pure, and he began to persecute the followers of Jesus.
He persecuted them not only in Jerusalem. He went into homes and arrested not only men, but women and even children. When someone was put to death, he gave his vote against them.
He forced them to blaspheme. He was so zealous that he persecuted them not only in Jerusalem and the cities of Judea, but even in Gentile cities.
One time he received documents from the chief priests, giving him authority to go to Gentile cities, seize those followers of Jesus, and bring them to Jerusalem to be punished.
But while he was on the way to Damascus, approaching that city, suddenly a light shone from heaven.
It was midday, but this light was brighter than the midday sun. It shone around him and those who were with him, and they were all stricken and fell upon the ground.
He heard a voice saying, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me? It is hard for thee to kick against the goad.”
Saul, the Pharisee, did not know who that Person was. He did not know the voice that came from heaven, and yet the One in heaven knew him.
Brothers and sisters, we may not know our Lord, and yet our Lord knows us. The Bible says that even before the foundation of the world, God had already chosen us in Christ Jesus.
Even though Saul at that time was a persecutor of the believers, later he realized that even when he was in his mother’s womb, the Lord had already set him apart.
Isn’t that a wonderful thing? Even though we did not know the Lord Jesus, even though we did not know Who He was, yet He knew every one of us. He had already chosen us before the foundation of the world.
We were not there, but He knew we would be there. Even in the mother’s womb, He had already set us apart. The knowledge of God is unlimited.
The Lord said, “It is hard for thee to kick against the goad.” Now, what does it mean?
When a farmer is plowing in the field, he may use an ox to plow the field. But sometimes the ox has its own will. Perhaps it sees something edible somewhere and tries to veer away from the straight path.
When such a thing happens, the farmer will use a sharp instrument called a goad. He will use that goad to touch the leg of the ox—not to injure it, but to give it a warning.
But the ox is ignorant. It may kick against the goad, and when it kicks, it hurts more. After this has been done repeatedly, finally the ox learns its lesson.
The farmer has a purpose for that ox. The farmer has a field to plow, and he will use that ox for that purpose. But the ox does not understand, so it has to learn the lesson of knowing its master.
The ox is not free. It is under a yoke, and it is under the control of the farmer. But Saul thought that he himself was the master. He thought he was able to do whatever he wanted to do.
As he persecuted the followers of Jesus, he did not realize that he had a Master. He did not realize that he was born with a purpose.
Brothers and sisters, every one of us came into this world with a purpose—not the purpose that we purpose. God has a purpose in each one of us, and that is the reason why we are here.
Every one of us is not free. We have a Master. Our Creator is our Master, and He created us with a reason. We are here to do His work.
But we did not understand that. We thought that we were our own masters and that we could do whatever pleased us. We said, “This is my work. This is what I want to do.”
Oftentimes, when we are doing it, we are actually acting against the will of our Master. Because of this, God sometimes touches us with the goad. God arranges our circumstances and puts us through trials.
How we kick against it! We think that we are so unfortunate to have these things happen to us. We try to fight against them, try to get over them, and perhaps have our own way.
But, brothers and sisters, after a number of times, we begin to realize that these things are not accidental. God uses these things to bring us to Himself.
The Lord said, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?” You are doing something against My will.
When Stephen was martyred, Saul was there watching the garments of those who stoned Stephen. He saw how Stephen died. He heard Stephen say, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God.”
Before Stephen died, he said, “Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.” No doubt Saul’s conscience was troubled, because he saw something that was real.
Yet he tried to silence the voice of his conscience. This is why he redoubled his effort to persecute the believers. He was kicking against the goad.
On the road to Damascus, the Lord Himself appeared to him and turned him back. Saul said, “Lord, who art Thou?”
Finally, this man Saul met his Master. Even though he did not know Who that Person was, he knew that he had met his Master. So he said, “Lord, who art Thou?”
The Lord said, “I am Jesus whom thou persecutest.” What a surprise this must have been to Saul. He thought he was serving God, but he was doing exactly the opposite.
He began to see that Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God. He began to realize that this Jesus is the Lord.
He realized that the Jesus whom he persecuted was actually his Master. Here on the road to Damascus, he saw Jesus as Lord. Jesus is his Master.
But there is something more to it. When the Lord said, “I am Jesus whom thou persecutest,” Saul had not historically persecuted Jesus Himself.
When Jesus was crucified, Saul was not there. Evidently, after he was educated at the feet of Gamaliel, he returned to his native city. He had never met Jesus because he was away.
Only after Jesus was crucified did he seem to return to Jerusalem. Historically speaking, he had never met Jesus, and he had never persecuted Jesus.
He could very well have argued, “Now You are in heaven. How can I persecute You?” But somehow a revelation was given to him.
He saw that in persecuting the followers of Jesus, he was persecuting Jesus. The Lord did not say, “Why persecutest thou My followers?” The Lord said, “Why persecutest thou Me?”
Why? Because His followers are Himself. His followers are part of Him.
Brothers and sisters, here a revelation was given to Paul. Jesus, the Head, is in heaven, but His body is on this earth. His body covers the whole earth.
Not only in Jerusalem, not only in Judea, not only in Samaria, but even in Damascus—wherever those who believe in Him are found, they are parts of Christ. They are the body of Christ.
Christ is the Head, and the Head and the body are one. If somebody touches your arm, you do not say merely, “Why do you touch my arm?” You say, “Why do you touch me?” Your arm is part of you.
Brothers and sisters, this is a tremendous revelation. On the road to Damascus, in that heavenly vision, Paul saw not only Jesus as Lord and Head, but he also saw that there is a body.
After the Lord died and rose again, He sent the Holy Spirit into this world. In one Spirit, all who believe in the Lord Jesus became one body.
In one Spirit, we were baptized into one body. This body of Christ is the church. The body and the Head are one. You cannot separate them.
This was a tremendous revelation to Paul. Later on, we find that this was really his ministry. He knew the mystery of God, and he knew the mystery of Christ.
If you read the letter to the Colossians, you can see how he knew Christ as the Head, in Whom all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily.
If you read the letter to the Ephesians, you find how he knew the mystery of Christ—the church. The church is the body of Christ, the fullness of Him Who filleth all in all.
This is the vision Paul saw on the road to Damascus. Then he asked the second question: “Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?”
Before that, Saul was his own master. He knew exactly what he would do, and he applied his whole heart to it. He wanted to be a great man in Judaism, perhaps the greatest rabbi in Judaism.
But now, as he saw the Lord, he said, “Lord, what do You want me to do? My life is finished. My own vision is finished. I do not know what to do now. What do You want me to do? I am at Your disposal.”
He surrendered himself right there to the Lord and allowed the Lord to have full control of his life.
Brothers and sisters, if we receive that revelation—seeing that Jesus is Lord, that He is our Head, and that we are members of His body—will not that revelation bring us into surrendering ourselves together?
Can we continue to live our own lives? How we need to present our bodies as a living sacrifice, that He may do whatever He wants with us.
We are not our own. We are His. He has full authority and full power to rule and use our lives.
The Lord said to Saul, “Go to Damascus, and wait until I tell thee what to do.”
He could not see anything. His eyes were blinded by the glory of that light. He had to be led into the city of Damascus, to the house of Judas on the street called Straight.
For three days and three nights, he did not eat and he did not drink. He was fasting and praying.
Now, brothers and sisters, suppose that on the road to Damascus, after he said, “Lord, what do You want me to do?” the Lord had said, “Rise up, go, and preach.”
Do you know what would have happened? Saul was such an eager person. Surely he would have gone immediately to Damascus and started to preach.
He might have preached about the body of Christ, but he would have been a very independent member. Paul was a person who needed nobody. He could do anything he wanted to do.
Even though he had received the vision of the body of Christ, he would not have been able to live as a member of the body. On the contrary, he would have harmed the body.
We hear some people say, “I do not need anybody. It is just my Lord and I.” That sounds very spiritual, but brothers and sisters, is this really spiritual?
On the road to Damascus, the Lord revealed to Paul a universal Man. The Head is in heaven, and the body fills the earth. That universal Man is invisible.
That universal Man is the Man that God wants to use to fulfill His purpose. It is a tremendous revelation.
But with such a revelation, it is very easy to become proud of what you have seen. You may see something tremendous and speak about it, but do you experience it?
Without experience, it gradually becomes a theory, and you become a visionary in the wrong sense.
Spiritual things are most practical. We often think that the more spiritual you are, the more impractical you are—that you are floating in the air and never touching the ground.
Brothers and sisters, this is not true. Our God is most practical. Spirituality is practicality.
The Lord revealed to Paul that universal Man, the body of Christ. Now the Lord wanted to teach Paul a deep lesson.
That is the reason why the Lord did not tell him immediately what to do. Paul fully expected the Lord to say, “Now, rise up and go preach.” But instead, the Lord said, “You go and wait.”
Waiting is very difficult for the flesh. Not only waiting, but being told by somebody else what to do—that is very difficult for the flesh.
While Paul was praying and fasting, he saw in a vision a man by the name of Ananias come to him, lay hands on him, and open his eyes.
At the same time, the Lord spoke to Ananias. Who was Ananias? His name is mentioned only once in the Bible.
He was a believer in Damascus. He was a very pious man, and the people in Damascus knew about his godliness. But in comparison with Paul, he was an insignificant person.
Saul at that time was well known everywhere. Even in Damascus, people knew that he was coming to seize the saints. Ananias had heard that Saul was coming to arrest the believers.
Saul was a well-known person, a great man. Ananias was a small man, known only in the city of Damascus.
Yet the Lord appeared to him and said, “Go to the street called Straight, and there is a man called Saul.”
Ananias said, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, that he has come to seize the saints. How can I go to see him?”
How could Ananias go to his persecutor and say, “Here I am. Take me and bring me to Jerusalem to be punished”?
But the Lord said, “This man is My chosen vessel. He will be My servant, My witness. He will witness for Me to the nations, and he will suffer much for Me.”
Thank God for Ananias. He knew the Lord, and he obeyed the Lord. Outwardly speaking, it was an impossible thing for Ananias to go to Saul.
But he believed the Lord. By faith, he went to the street called Straight. He laid his hands on Saul and said, “Brother Saul.”
Brothers and sisters, on the road to Damascus, Saul saw the universal Man. But in the city of Damascus, he met a small man.
That small man represented the local church. All the principles involved with the universal church must be practiced in the local church.
Here you find Ananias representing the local church, that part of the body of Christ in Damascus. He laid hands on Saul.
Laying hands in Scripture basically means identification. You remember that when the children of Israel offered a sacrifice, they laid hands on the head of the sacrifice and identified themselves with it.
When that lamb was slain, it meant that they were slain. Here Ananias laid hands on Saul, identifying himself with Saul.
Formerly they were enemies. Now, by the grace of God, they were brothers. Indeed, they were one.
Instead of Saul laying hands on Ananias, Ananias laid hands on Saul. He said, “Brother Saul.”
Brothers and sisters, I feel that Saul had never heard a sweeter word than that. How sweet is that word: brother.
We call ourselves brothers—male brothers and female brothers. Let me tell you a story.
One day in my native city of Shanghai, one brother told another brother, “Go and tell the brothers.” The other brother asked, “Do you want me to tell the male brothers or the female brothers?”
You know, we are all brothers, because the life within us is the life of the Son. In calling each other brothers, there is something precious.
People like to be called doctor, professor, or pastor. But do you know that being called brother is sweeter than that?
Ananias and Saul were brothers. Through a little member of the body, this future great member of the body had his eyes opened.
When he opened his eyes, the first one he saw was Ananias, a brother.
He began to go in and out with the brothers in Damascus, and he began to fellowship with them. He learned a very practical lesson.
We not only need Christ, the Head; we need one another as members of one another.
Oftentimes, the Head will reveal His mind to us through the members of the body of Christ. How interdependent we are. How much we are related one to another.
This is practical church life.
That is the reason why, to Paul, the church was not a theory; it was a practice.
Even though he was so gifted, he always asked the churches to pray for him. In his letters, he always had someone writing with him.
He never became an independent person. He practiced what he preached.
Therefore, he could testify before King Agrippa, “I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision.”
In other words, he not only submitted himself completely to Christ Jesus and held fast the Head, but he also joined himself together with all the other members of the body of Christ.
This was his very life and ministry.
Brothers and sisters, we need that heavenly vision. If we see Jesus as the Lord in heaven, we will surrender our lives and allow Him to be our Head.
If we really see the body of Christ, then we will learn to be related one to another.
We cannot do without the Lord. We cannot do without one another. May the Lord help us.
Dear Lord, we ask Thee to open our inner eyes. As Thou didst reveal Thyself to Thy servant Paul, give the same revelation to us.
May we really see Thee as the Lord of all, and may we really surrender our lives to Thee.
May we really see what the body of Christ is, how Thou hast joined us to our brothers and sisters, that we may learn to minister and to receive from one another.
We want to tell Thee that without Thee, we cannot live. Without our brothers and sisters, we cannot live.
We thank Thee for revealing Thyself in us. We thank Thee for giving us our brothers and sisters.
In the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.