Friday, January 16, 2026
Scripture Readings
- Primary Reading: Acts 26
Key Verse
Acts 26:17 — “Delivering thee from the people, and from the Gentiles, unto whom now I send thee,”
Devotional Thought
Most of us know exactly what we would say if we ever got the chance to defend ourselves. We would rehearse the wrongs done to us, list our credentials, and make our case. Paul, standing in chains before King Agrippa, Governor Festus, and Bernice in the great hall of Caesarea, does something entirely different. He tells his story — not as a defense of himself, but as a testimony to the risen Christ. He begins with his life as a Pharisee, “after the most straitest sect of our religion,” and he does not soften the ugliness of his past: imprisoning the saints, giving his voice against them when they were put to death, pursuing them “even unto strange cities.” Then he tells of the light at midday on the Damascus road, brighter than the sun, and the voice in the Hebrew tongue: “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?” Here is a man who has stopped defending himself because he has found something worth far more than his own reputation.
Notice the astonishing sentence Paul speaks in verse 2: “I think myself happy.” In chains, awaiting trial, likely to die — happy. His happiness is not denial of his circumstances but confidence in his Lord. He is happy because he has been given a platform. A prisoner’s dock has become a pulpit. And notice what he does with it: he turns to Agrippa, an expert in Jewish customs, and asks the question that cuts to the heart of everything — “Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God should raise the dead?” The resurrection is not a side issue; it is the whole case. Paul’s hope, the hope of the twelve tribes, the hope of Israel, stands or falls on whether God raises the dead.
The responses to Paul’s testimony are as varied as the hearts of men. Festus, the Roman, dismisses it with a shout: “Paul, thou art beside thyself; much learning doth make thee mad.” Agrippa, the Jew, is moved but halts at the threshold: “Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.” And Paul, with a tenderness that should stop us in our tracks, answers, “I would to God, that not only thou, but also all that hear me this day, were both almost, and altogether such as I am, except these bonds.” He wants for them everything he has in Christ and nothing of his chains. Then the officials withdraw and agree among themselves: this man has done nothing worthy of death. Agrippa says he could have been freed, had he not appealed to Caesar. Yet Paul is not angling for freedom. He is angling for souls.
In the middle of January, when the year stretches ahead and resolutions may already be fraying, this chapter asks something of us. It asks whether we will treat our trials as platforms rather than merely as burdens. It asks whether we will tell our story — the honest version, with the Damascus road in it — to the Festuses and Agrippas around our own tables. And it asks whether we will love the “almost” people enough to say, with Paul, “I would to God that you were altogether.” Almost persuaded is not yet saved. May we be the kind of witnesses who speak clearly, warmly, and without embarrassment, leaving the results to God.
Reflection
- Are you more like Festus, dismissing the gospel as madness, or Agrippa, lingering at “almost” — and what would it take for you to move from almost to altogether?
- Where in your life right now might God be turning a trial into a platform, and to whom is He asking you to tell your story?
Prayer
Lord Jesus, Thou who didst meet Saul on the Damascus road and turn a persecutor into an apostle, meet us in our own midday hours. We confess the times we have defended ourselves instead of testifying of Thee. Give us Paul’s holy happiness in hard places, his courage before the powerful, and his tender longing for those who are almost persuaded. Open our eyes and the eyes of those we love, that we may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God, receiving forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith in Thee. Amen.