So Agrippa said to Paul, “You have permission to speak for yourself.” Then Paul stretched out his hand and made his defence:

2 “I consider myself fortunate that it is before you, King Agrippa, I am going to make my defence today against all the accusations of the Jews, 3 especially because you are familiar with all the customs and controversies of the Jews. Therefore I beg you to listen to me patiently.

4 “My manner of life from my youth, spent from the beginning among my own nation and in Jerusalem, is known by all the Jews. 5 They have known for a long time, if they are willing to testify, that according to the strictest party of our religion I have lived as a Pharisee. 6 And now I stand here on trial because of my hope in the promise made by God to our fathers, 7 to which our twelve tribes hope to attain, as they earnestly worship night and day. And for this hope I am accused by Jews, O king! 8 Why is it thought incredible by any of you that God raises the dead?

9 “I myself was convinced that I ought to do many things in opposing the name of Jesus of Nazareth.10 And I did so in Jerusalem. I not only locked up many of the saints in prison after receiving authority from the chief priests, but when they were put to death I cast my vote against them. 11 And I punished them often in all the synagogues and tried to make them blaspheme, and in raging fury against them I persecuted them even to foreign cities. (ESV)

You would not have wanted to meet Paul in his pre-conversion days. He was not a very nice man: at least, not to Christians! In this third, and fullest, account of his conversion in ‘Acts’ we are given more details than previously. We see the heights to which he was lifted, but also the depths from which he was hauled.

Paul’s question in verse 8 is so good. All the things we find difficult to believe In the Bible surely dissolve when we face the reality of God. If He truly exists then all things are possible.

Paul himself was (is) a visible demonstration that ‘’God raises the dead’’. One of the ways he describes conversion is as a resurrection (see, e.g. Eph.2:1-10). He had passed from death to life. This was his story, as well as his message.

‘Stretching out his hand, the Apostle began by congratulating himself on the opportunity of laying his case before the great-grandson of Herod the Great, whose elaborate training in all matters of the Jewish religion made him unusually competent to deal with the matters in debate. He asked why it should be so hard to credit the attested fact of the Lord’s resurrection. He granted that he himself had resisted the evidence when he had first heard it. Indeed, he had everything to lose if he accepted it. His fiery persecution of the Christians proved at least that he was an impartial witness. So he pleaded before that group of high and mighty potentates. What a contrast between their splendid robes and sparkling jewels, and the poor, worn, shackled prisoner! But they are remembered only because of this chance connection with Paul, while Paul has led the mightiest minds of subsequent ages.’ F.B. Meyer