Acts 26:16–18

Oh, think of that; look at the two things that come together there — "fallen to the ground," "rise." It is the man who is down that God can take up; down on the earth, down in the dust, truly, that is the man God can take up… Do you know what gives these words immense interest? Not merely the conversion of Saul of Tarsus, but that they were the last words Jesus ever spoke from heaven to earth. Acts 1 gives His last words on earth; Acts 26 gives His last words from heaven to man on earth.

The one we have in this chapter is also given by Paul himself — when standing before Agrippa. In this there are fewer details concerning his conversion, but a very full and precise account of his mission. Ananias therefore does not appear in this, for Saul's mission was from the Lord Himself, even as he says, in writing to the Galatians, "Paul, an apostle — not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised Him from the dead."

The word here translated "minister" is not the one often used in other passages, which means one who acts or waits in service. According to its use in the New Testament, it really means an appointed official servant… The Lord, who appeared to him, did give Paul an official place as His servant, because the mission He was about to send him on was personal to the apostle. No one else could carry it out.

We learn from this that he was to be a minister and a witness… the expression "witness" meaning that he was to display in himself what he ministered… I cannot imagine anything more wonderful than the testimony of a witness. Not all are called to be ministers, but I suggest that every believer is called to be a witness. And I am bold to say this: the most telling and weighty ministry today is the silent, quiet, but clear unfolding of this heavenly testimony in one's own person.

Here we find a sign from the very first that the things he had seen — this Christ in glory, and all that belonged to Him — were to be the subjects of his ministry. But not only those things. An ascended and glorified Lord would also make further revelations to this man in particular, appearing to him again and afresh to pass them on.

For this, another agent was raised up — a witness not only of resurrection life, but of ascension glory: the apostle of the Gentiles. He received no commission from Jesus on the earth, but from Jesus "taken up in glory." He was to witness above all to the glory to which Christ was exalted. The saints made alive by the Spirit were called to that same glory.

Moses had to build the tabernacle exactly to the pattern shown him on the mountain. In the same way, Paul was limited in his preaching to what he had seen and heard — to the things which he had received from the Lord… Everywhere, and at all times, he was to be faithful to his commission and its contents. He was never to let himself travel beyond it for one instant.

The word is not quite what our common Bibles give — "delivering you from the people and from the Gentiles." It is hard to see how "delivering" fits here. In this connection it was not so much a question of a rescue as of taking him out from the people and from the Gentiles. … It is also more than Peter speaks of in Acts 15, where God takes out from the Gentiles a people for His name. In the case of Saul of Tarsus the Lord speaks of taking him out from the Jew no less than the nations. It is therefore a separation to the new work of God from both Jew and Gentile.

Some have said that Paul was in fact taken out of Israel only, and not out of the nations. On that view the thought must be delivering, as in the common version. But if he were taken out from Israel, it was important to say that this was not to give him the mere position of a Gentile. You might think there are only these two places. But the Christian has another and heavenly place, and on earth is simply a pilgrim and a stranger.

The Lord's purpose was that he should be "taken out" from among the people, and the Gentiles. That is, he was to be separated from his own people, the Jews, and from the Gentiles too, so as to stand in a place distinct from both… We may perhaps say that these words were the first hint of the distinct place the church holds, called out from both Jew and Gentile. Paul was the first to be put in that place — the place into which all who believed the gospel he was commissioned to preach were brought.

"As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world." You can't send anyone into the world if he is in it already. I must be separated from it first, and then I can be sent into it. "I take you out from the people and from the Gentiles, to whom I now send you."

Separation from both best describes his position, and there is no need to stretch "to whom I send you" beyond the Gentiles. He was to be apostle of Gentiles, or of the uncircumcision, and as such he magnifies his office in Romans 11:13-14. The "I" is emphatic, and the adverb "now" is added only by inferior witnesses.

A better translation is, Taking you out from among the people and the Gentiles. The apostle had been a Jew. Now, for the purpose of his service, he was set apart from both Jews and Gentiles, taken outside of both, because he was about to be sent to both alike. His mission was from heaven, and in carrying it out he was to remember this, owning no distinction between people and people, or nation and nation. More than once Paul forgot the full force of these words; that is only too clear. His failure here led to his being taken to Rome as a prisoner instead of visiting that city as an apostle, though the Lord graciously overruled it for His own purposes. But we all know, in our smaller measure, how hard it is to remember that we have lost our nationality by being joined to Christ in His death.

The object of his mission is fully stated in verse 18. Notice first that he is distinctly sent. Every servant, whatever his service, must be both called and sent, and in this Paul is above all a pattern... But how was Paul to open blind eyes? His part was to proclaim the gospel of the glory of Christ. He was a witness of what he had seen, and he received power to carry on this blessed work. God's part was to make the light from His servant's message shine into the darkened souls of those who heard it. Man's part, for which he depended entirely on God, was to receive and accept the message. From this all blessing was to come — as the verse ends, "by faith in" Christ.

But how do we know that every man in his natural, unconverted state is blind? Because Paul's commission makes the very first thing the gospel does for him "to open his eyes." Paul was sent to the Jewish people and to the Gentiles — that is, to the whole human family — to open their eyes. This proves, by a divine demonstration, that all are blind by nature.

What do the words "to open their eyes" mean? Surely they involve discovering our own condition. A man whose eyes are opened comes to know himself, his condition and his ways. That is true repentance. It is a wonderful moment in a man's life when his eyes are opened.

The purpose of the message is "to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light." Light has come into the world. He who was its Light while He was in it has gone out of it again, rejected by it. Yet the light still streams from an open heaven, in principle as Paul saw it. So men only need to have their eyes opened to see it too. Here is their responsibility, and here too is their guilt: they love the darkness, as in our Lord's time, because their deeds are evil.

Not only is man — every man, Jew and Gentile — blind and in darkness. As if to crown it all, he is under the power of Satan. This gives a terrible idea of man's condition. He is the slave of the devil. He does not believe this. He imagines he is free. He thinks he is his own master. He supposes he can go where he pleases, do what he likes, think for himself, and speak and act as an independent being. But he is another's slave.

The power of Satan is broken, and the delivered one finds himself in the presence of God, at peace and glad. Like the man with demons in Mark 5, his chains are broken and gone. He is clothed and in his right mind, sitting at the feet of Jesus.

The first blessing named is the forgiveness of sins. Why first? Because the first need of an awakened soul is to feel God's forgiving love clearing away guilt... Notice too that souls are turned to God so that they may receive forgiveness of sins. This is pure grace. It shows that forgiveness is waiting for those who come with repentance toward God and faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, there is "a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me" — an inheritance, meaning all the blessings every believer will share with Christ and with His redeemed.

There was now a new, deeper, fuller sanctification. Israel's was outward — a matter of the body and of ritual. This one is living and genuine, through believing on Christ. It is the lasting result of a completed setting apart to God, from the Christian's starting point.