The Mission of the Apostle – Acts 26:18

Acts 26:16-18 – “‘Now get up and stand on your feet.  I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen of me and what I will show you.  I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles.  I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.”

In this passage, Paul recounts for a few royal officials (unbelievers) how he became a messenger for Jesus Christ.  He quotes the very words that the Lord spoke to him on the day of his conversion, many years before.  The Apostle Paul had nothing to impress the worldly dignitaries.  His call was to be a mere “servant and witness,” (Acts 26:17), rather than to “be somebody important.”  Interestingly, the Lord’s only promise in this passage was to “rescue” Paul from unbelievers – there was no promise to make Paul rich, prosperous, successful, or famous.  The Lord values the things of eternity, not the things of this world.

“Now get up and stand on your feet.” (Acts 26:16) – The Lord gave the same command to Old Testament prophets when He spoke to them (see Jeremiah 1:17; Ezekiel 2:1; Daniel 10:11; Micah 6:1).  In all these passages, standing before the Lord signals both reverence and readiness to act.  (As an aside, it is strange today to see “deliverance ministries” leave church members laying on the floor for a long time after they receive prayer – in the Bible, when God visits a man, He usually tells him to stand up even if the man falls facedown involuntarily at first).

Servant – Christian leaders can avoid many problems in ministry by viewing themselves as slaves/servants of the Lord Jesus, rather than as Jesus’ campaign manager, or chief operations officer, or deputy.  The servant does not worry about his legacy, or about maintaining control, or about saving face or gaining honor.  Rather, he focuses on carrying out the Master’s wishes.

“Witness to the things I will show you” – The future tense here is significant – “will show you” not “have shown you.”  Paul still had much to learn, and the Lord would continue to reveal new things to him throughout his life.  Paul committed himself in advance to testifying faithfully about whatever the Lord would show him.

“to open their eyes” – Those who are not yet in Christ are spiritually blind (2 Corinthians 4:4), unable to perceive spiritual reality.  They see only the material things and views things through the lens of their own culture and preferences.  The first item on Paul’s list of tasks is to bring revelation, to let them see the truth.  This takes a miracle, of course, so the primary mechanism to produce this result is prayer; the secondary mechanism is to preach, teach, and live out God’s truth before others.

“turn them from darkness to light” – Turning refers to repentance; coming to Christ means a decision or choice to turn away from the darkness of sin and worldliness.  The goal here is to have people ultimately facing the light so that they receive spiritual revelation themselves directly.

“from the power of Satan to God” – There are only two sources of power, God and the Enemy.  It is a hard truth that those who are not walking entirely within God’s power are instead under the power of Satan, whether they know it or not (1 John 5:19).

“so that they may receive forgiveness of sins” – Many Western churches have inverted the order here, preaching that we receive forgiveness first and foremost (many evangelists simply stop there, in fact), and then, having received forgiveness, we can have revelation.  This passage seems to put opening the eyes and turning from darkness to light before forgiveness, as a condition for it (“so that they may receive”).  Forgiveness of sins is one of the primary benefits of our salvation in Christ.

“a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me” – This simple phrase contains three important doctrines – the body (“among those”), personal righteousness (“are sanctified”), and the means of true holiness (“by faith in” Christ).  God intends everyone he saves to become an integrated part of a fellowship of true saints (the body).  His goal in saving people is always to transform their lives, turning us all into saintly, godly people.  We attain true sanctification not by following human rules or obeying religious men, but by our personal faith in Jesus and reliance upon him.