¹⁹”So, King Agrippa, I did not prove disobedient to the heavenly vision, ²⁰but kept declaring both to those of Damascus first, and also at Jerusalem and then throughout all the region of Judea, and even to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds appropriate to repentance. ²¹For this reason some Jews seized me in the temple and tried to put me to death.”

Having finished testifying of his commissioning by Jesus, Paul now asserts to Agrippa that he has been faithful to his assignment. But he stresses that it was a “heavenly vision.” Today’s judicial minds might consider this claim subjective and of little evidentiary value. Paul could, after all, be deluded; such testimony would need corroborating testimony from someone else. But in the ancient world, people took such claims seriously. Paul’s claim put the proposition into black and white terms: either Paul did see a vision from heaven or he did not. If he did not, he was a rank liar or deluded. If he did, then the experience was authoritative not only for Paul for all others as well, for God had spoken. So Paul continues his defense on the premise that the vision was real; God had spoken! How could he be faulted for obeying God?

Circling back to the place where he saw the vision, he immediately began preaching in Damascus the message of repentance and turning to God. Then he obediently preached the same message in Judea—a universal message that included Gentiles as well. This was not simply a call to a particular theological persuasion, but a call to a changed life, a real faith in the Messiah. And this Messiah was for all people.

Paul lays out this mission as the reason the Jews want to execute him. He puts them on the same level as Gentiles, both needing the same message of repentance, turning to God with changed lives (as could be seen in “deeds appropriate to repentance”).

What rankled the Jews about Paul’s preaching was the universality of the message. The Jews saw themselves as exceptional, unique people with a special standing with God. To be sure, they were looking for the Messiah from God. But Paul was treating Gentiles just like the Jews, teaching that the Messiah came for Jews and non-Jews equally. It is true that God blessed the Jews as His people, but in their stubbornness, they bristled to think God would bless the Gentiles as much as them, the descendants of Abraham. They were to hear the message of God’s grace and blessing first, but through them the blessing was to go out to the whole world (Gen. 12:1–4). Paul was God’s chosen instrument to inaugurate the outward flow of the blessings. But the Jews needed the message just as much as the Gentiles.

Lord, I recognize that I needed Your forgiveness as much as the worst sinner.