Acts 26:23

Acts 26:23. 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 unto the Gentiles. In other words, ‘Protected by a Divine and invisible Guardian, I have gone about, bearing my message to the powerful and humble alike, using as my storehouse of argument only the books of Moses and the prophets, urging that Messiah, as one of the very conditions of His office, would be capable of suffering ay more, that (after enduring the greatest sufferings of which mortals are capable) He should be the first in the domain of the resurrection, the first-born from the dead; and then should not only show light unto the people, but should be a Light to lighten the Gentiles.' Paul is here giving a summary of the usual arguments he made use of in his preaching respecting the long-expected Messiah. Now the three great questions at issue between the Jew and the Christian were touched upon by him here: 1. This expected One of Moses and the Prophets was not only a triumphant such as the Jews loved to dwell on but a suffering Messiah. 2. This One so long looked for was to be the first-begotten from the dead, the second Adam the One who (as Lange well puts it) should begin a series of developments of life and resurrection for the benefit of mankind. This grand idea is developed by the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:20 ff. and 1 Corinthians 15:45 ff., and in Romans 5:17-18; Romans 5:3. The Messiah, when He came, should be the Herald of life and light not only to the Jew, but to the despised Gentile.

Now these three several points, Paul, when he spoke before King Agrippa, without doubt proved by reference to those special Old Testament Scriptures which with a strange power supported his view the Christian view of Messiah, somewhat in the way in which he had argued in the Antioch sermon, very briefly reported in Acts 13:27-35. It was to these elaborate quotations which Festus especially referred (Acts 26:24) when he interrupted Paul with the ejaculation, ‘Why, much learning has surely turned your brain!'

The Jewish nation, trodden down during so many hopeless years first of captivity in the far East, then of grinding oppression in their own land, looked on with a passionate eagerness to the advent of the promised King Messiah, of whom their prophets wrote; watching for the triumphant King of the Great Prophet: ‘Who is this that cometh from Edom... glorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his strength?' and the voice of Messiah made answer: ‘I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save... the day of vengeance is in mine heart, and the year of mine redeemed is come' (Isaiah 63:1-4). This is what they fixed their hungry, expectant gaze upon, and forgot the other picture, which painted the same Messiah with the marred form and visage, without form or comeliness, with no beauty, despised and rejected, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; wounded for others ‘transgressions and bruised for others' iniquities; cut off out of the land of the living; stricken for the transgression of His people; making His grave with the wicked (Isaiah 52:14; Isaiah 53:2; Isaiah 53:5; Isaiah 53:8-9).

We must remember how reluctant the very disciples of Jesus were to entertain any other thoughts concerning their beloved Master than those coloured with the rich hues of glory and triumph. See, for instance, Matthew 16:22. Never until all was accomplished did even His own receive into their heart the idea of a crucified Messiah.

It was indeed for them then, in those last sad days of their national life, ‘a hard saying,' though to us now all seems so clear, and the prophecies read in the light of the Passion of Jesus so transparent.