Acts 26:20 First to those in Damascus, then to those in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and then to the Gentiles, I preached that they should repent and turn to God and demonstrate their repentance by their deeds.
How simple is the Truth to understand? I guess that depends on the truth being discussed. I don’t understand quantum mechanics. I couldn’t stick with a discussion past the first few sentences. I just don’t have the foundation principles readily available to my mind. It isn’t in my wheelhouse of knowledge.
We all have areas of knowledge about which we have difficulty grasping the truths contained therein. We have gifts and talents, histories of knowledge acquisition and deficit, personal preferences and outright dislike. And these often last a lifetime.
But the Truth about God, the essential things we must know in order to begin a lifelong relationship with God, these things are easy to understand. Everyone can grasp them, if they are able to grasp just about anything else.
In our text, Paul is making his case before King Agrippa, the ruler of that area of the Roman Empire. He is there because, more than two years earlier, he had gone to Jerusalem. While he was there, his opposition cornered him and had him arrested. There were two plots to kill him, but he remains under the protective custody of the Roman Empire, since Paul is a Roman Citizen, carrying all the rights of that status.
Now Paul is actually making his defense before King Agrippa, who is familiar with the Christian movement. And Paul’s message is a simple one: repent, turn to God and show evidence of that turning to God by the way you live your life.
The premise of Paul’s message is that real repentance will change the way we think about life and our conduct. If we really believe that Jesus died for our sins, then that should change the way we approach life, our conduct, both person and public. If we are forgiven, then we should celebrate that freedom by being obedient to God.
This is a very simple message. And perhaps we need to return to it. “Repent and turn to God and demonstrate their repentance by their deeds.” I think, sometimes, we make things too complicated. And the Truth about God shouldn’t be so complicated that people can’t grasp the message.
There might be a tendency to make the message match the audience. Paul could have spoken in very sophisticated terms to King Agrippa. He was an intelligent man. But making it sound sophisticated would just obscure Paul’s message. He was able to share the same key message with all his audiences. Sometimes, Paul would tweak the things he shared based on the knowledge base of the people he was preaching to, but he never compromised the central message.
What do we share when we have the opportunity? Jesus Christ and Him crucified? Or does it end up being, “Come to my church. We have some great programs.”
I want to encourage you to do what Paul did. He shared the story of his conversion and the changes made in his life following that repentance. What has changed in your life since you believed? Is it visible to those around you? Do your deeds reflect God’s character, His work and mastery of the world?
The Arnold Journey 