Acts 26:1-23

Be still: Here I am, Lord. Please meet with me today. Amen

Read: Acts 26:1-23

Why should any of you consider it incredible that God raises the dead? (v8)

Encounter: Think of someone you cannot believe would start following Jesus.... (world leader, business tycoon, next-door neighbour, colleague, family member). 'Too far gone' in their beliefs, attitudes, behaviour; everything in their life-story making any thought of conversion laughable. Maybe they even hate Jesus and all his followers. 

Now think of Saul. Hatred for Jesus and his followers consumed him. Jesus' message threatened to upturn everything that, as a strict Jew, he'd lived for and believed in. He'd do anything to wipe Christians off the face of earth, dragging them off to prison and execution, brutally trying to make them blaspheme the name of Jesus.

And then — BANG! — on Damascus Road the Resurrected Jesus upturns him! Within days Saul has become Paul, commissioned to take the Gospel to the Gentiles. No way! Not possible? It happened!

And here he is standing trial again, this time before Governor Festus, King Agrippa and his Jewish accusers, giving his testimony. Part way through his defence, he challenges his listeners:

'Why should any of you consider it incredible that God raises the dead?'

Everything Paul is saying, his astonishing transformation, the faith he is preaching, is wholly dependent on Jesus' Resurrection. Later he would write: '...And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.' (1 Corinthians 15:14) The Resurrection is the pivotal point of our faith ­– without it everything crashes.

Why should they, or we, doubt that Almighty God, Creator of all things, Alpha and Omega, from Everlasting to Everlasting, could and did raise his Son from the dead? Jesus himself declared: '.... with God all things are possible.' (Matthew 19:26). Of course they are!

Spiritually dead Saul became spiritually alive Paul. Possible.

Apply: Your 'someone' whom you think will never turn to Christ? Pray a 'Damascus Road' experience for them – that they will encounter Jesus. Keep praying even when doubts buzz like an annoying wasp.

Devote: Almighty God, help me grasp the power of Jesus' Resurrection and live within its truth. Let my witness be bold and clear, respectful, and sensitive, rooted in love.