 |  |
In his defence Paul rehearsed the visit of Ananias:
"The God of our fathers hath chosen thee, that thou shouldest know His will, and see
that Just One, and shouldest hear the voice of His mouth. For thou shalt be His witness
unto all men of what thou hast seen and heard" (Acts 22: 14, 15).
The whole of Paul's speech before Agrippa, recorded in Acts 26:, should be read.
Paul himself summed it up in verses 22, 23:
"Having therefore obtained help of God, I continue unto this day, witnessing both to
small and great, saying none other things than those which the prophets and Moses did
say should come: That Christ should suffer, and that He should be the first that should
rise from the dead, and should show light unto the people, and to the Gentiles."
The complete testimony of Paul to the Resurrection, as recorded in the Acts, is found
in 9: 6, 20, 22, 29; 13: 26-43; 17: 3, 18, 30, 31, 32; 22: 3-21; 23: 6-9, 11;
24: 10-21; 25: 19; 26: 4-32; 28: 20.
This witness to the resurrection is overwhelming. Not only was it preached in
synagogue and assembly, it was publicly affirmed before governors and kings, even as
the Apostle said "This thing was not done in a corner". Pilate seems to have mocked the
Pharisees when they demanded that the sepulcher be sealed, lest His disciples come by
night and steal Him away, saying to them "Ye have a watch, go your way make it as sure
as you can". When the watch reported that the stone had been rolled away and the body
of the Saviour was gone, the assembled elders bribed the soldiers to say "His disciples
came by night, and stole Him away while we slept", as if that dispirited, disheartened
little band of men and women could have attempted such a thing! Every believer since
that day can rebut all criticism by following the example of the man born blind:
"One thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see" (John 9: 25).
Peter who said "I go fishing", Thomas who said "I will not believe", Mary who stood
weeping, the five hundred brethren who saw the risen Christ at one time, Saul of Tarsus
and the thousands converted in the early Acts, could all, individually and collectively say
"We are witnesses", and use the word martus (our word "martyr"), which means a
witness ready if need be to seal his testimony with his life's blood, as many did. The
gospel preached, the reformation that followed, the epistles and the Apocalypse would
have had no existence, apart from the overwhelming conviction that Christ had risen from
the dead.