In 26:9 through 11 Paul admitted to Agrippa that he did many things contrary to the name of Jesus: “I therefore thought to myself that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus the Nazarene; which also I did in Jerusalem; and many of the saints I shut up in prisons, having received authority from the chief priests; and when they were being done away with, I cast a vote against them. And in all the synagogues, punishing them often, I compelled them to blaspheme; and being exceedingly enraged against them, I persecuted them even as far as foreign cities.” Literally, the Greek word translated “foreign” in verse 11 means “outside.” Paul not only opposed Jesus the Nazarene— he attacked Him. In his blindness, Paul considered the Lord Jesus nothing more than a poor Nazarene. He attacked the name of Jesus the Nazarene to such an extent that he put many of the saints in prison. Now before Agrippa he confessed his foolish deeds.
Paul then went on to tell Agrippa that while he was on the way to persecute those who called on the name of the Lord Jesus, he himself was gained by the Lord. “Engaged in which, I journeyed to Damascus with authority and a commission from the chief priests. And at midday, on the way, I saw, O king, a light from heaven beyond the brightness of the sun, shining around me and those who journeyed with me. And when we all fell to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew dialect, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads. And I said, Who are You, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom you are persecuting” (vv. 12-15). We have strongly emphasized the fact that this “Me” is corporate, comprising Jesus the Lord and all His believers. We have also seen that spontaneously Paul called Jesus Lord, even without knowing Him.
When the Lord Jesus appeared to Paul, He commissioned him, appointing him a minister and a witness. Concerning this, the Lord said to him, “Rise up and stand on your feet; for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you a minister and a witness both of the things in which you have seen Me, and the things in which I will appear to you” (v. 16). Here we see that the Lord appointed Paul both a minister and a witness. A minister is for the ministry; a witness is for the testimony. Ministry is mainly related to the work, to what the minister does. Testimony is related to the person, to what the witness is.
We need to be impressed with the fact that what the ascended Christ wants to use to carry out His heavenly ministry for the propagating of Himself so that the kingdom of God might be established for the building up of the churches for His expression is not a group of preachers trained by man’s teaching to do a preaching work. Rather, the Lord wants to use a body of His witnesses, who bear a living testimony of the incarnated, crucified, resurrected, and ascended Christ. According to the book of Acts, Satan could instigate the Jewish religionists and utilize the Gentile politicians to bind the apostles and their evangelical ministry, but he could not bind Christ’s living witnesses and their living testimony. The more the Jewish religionists and the Gentile politicians bound the apostles and their evangelical ministry, the stronger and brighter these witnesses of Christ and their living testimony became. In His appearing to Paul on the way to Damascus, the Lord clearly told him that He appointed him not only a minister but also a witness. We have seen that as a living witness of Christ, Paul had testified concerning Him in Jerusalem and would testify of Him in Rome (23:11).
In 1:8 the Lord said to the disciples, “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and unto the remotest part of the earth.” Witnesses are those who bear a living testimony of the resurrected and ascended Christ in life. They differ from preachers who merely preach doctrines in letters. As recorded in Acts, the ascended Christ carries out His ministry in the heavens through these witnesses in His resurrection life and with His ascension power and authority to spread Himself as the development of the kingdom of God unto the remotest part of the earth.
In all the trials through which he passed Paul was not merely teaching or ministering; he was continually bearing a testimony. He was a testimony before the opposing Jews and before the commander of the Roman soldiers. Paul was a testimony before Felix, the governor of Judea, and before Festus, who succeeded Felix as governor. Now in Acts 26 we see that Paul is once again a living witness, this time before Agrippa. However, Paul did not preach to Agrippa saying, “King Agrippa, you must know that I am a witness of Christ.” Instead of speaking this way, Paul testified to Agrippa that the Lord had met him and appointed him a minister and a witness.