I Stand and Testify
Captive to the Word
This Saturday is October thirty-first. Most know it as Halloween. The church has an older name for it… Reformation Day.
April 18, 1521, at Worms, a city in southwest Germany. A monk named Martin Luther stood before the emperor. He was charged with writing that a sinner is made right with God by faith in Christ… not by anything you can earn or buy. The most powerful men in Europe wanted him to take it back. In a packed hall Luther said: “Unless I am convicted by Scripture and plain reason… my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not recant anything… God help me. Amen.”
He did not say my courage. He said captive… to the Word of God. He was not holding on. He was being held.
Every man in that hall had the same Bible he had. They went home the same as they came. Ever done that at church? The difference was not the Bible. It was who had hold of whom. Most of us own several Bibles. The question is whether one of them owns us.
Long before Worms, the apostle Paul stood in a crowded hall too. He was a prisoner, and the king in front of him was King Agrippa, a man raised on the Scriptures, with the Roman governor Festus at his side and the leading men of the city filling the seats (Acts 25:23). Paul had nothing in his hands but God’s word… what the prophets and Moses said.
We do not stand on our nerve… we stand on a Christ who suffered for us and rose first… and he holds us.
Stand on Your Feet
Paul tells the king about his past, who he used to be. He locked believers up. He tried to make them blaspheme and recant their faith. He chased them to foreign cities (Acts 26:10-11). He was the man standing over believers saying take it back. Like Luther at Worms, but in reverse.
And then Jesus stopped him on the road. Paul was face down in the dirt.
Acts 26:16-18, But get up and stand on your feet. For I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and a witness of what you have seen and will see of me. I will rescue you from your people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a share among those who are sanctified by faith in me.
Get up and stand on your feet… Jesus stood him up. The man who had been forcing people to take back their faith in Jesus is now the one sent to tell people about him. And listen to how Jesus says the whole thing happens… by faith in me. That is the sentence Luther would not take back.
You did not open your own eyes either. He forgave your sins. He gave you a share with his people. By faith in him. That is the ground under you… not your track record. He opens the eyes, and opened eyes turn (Acts 26:18, 20). Nobody turns with his eyes shut, and nobody who sees him stays where he is.
Paul tells the king what he did, and then he tells him what Jesus did. The grace that put him on his feet changed where his feet took him (Acts 26:19-20).
Nothing Other Than What the Prophets Said
Acts 26:22-23, To this very day, I have had help from God, and I stand and testify to both small and great, saying nothing other than what the prophets and Moses said would take place… that the Messiah must suffer, and that, as the first to rise from the dead, he would proclaim light to our people and to the Gentiles.
I have had help from God… and I stand. That is what Luther meant by captive. Not a man holding on to the Word. The Word holding on to him.
The Messiah must suffer… the cross was announced before it happened. The first to rise from the dead… the empty grave was announced before it happened.
Look who is preaching in verse twenty-three. Not the man in chains. The risen Jesus proclaiming light.
Now some of you are thinking, that is fine for Paul and Luther… nobody is putting me in front of a king. Me either. But read verse twenty-two again… both small and great. The great was one king. The small is the rest of us. A coworker on break. A grandchild at your table. A neighbor over the fence.
You do not stand on your nerve. You stand on a Christ who suffered for you and rose first. And when you open your mouth about him, he is still the one proclaiming light. So this week, tell one person what the prophets said: the Messiah suffered for my sins and God raised him… and he forgave me by faith in him alone.
Not Done in a Corner
Festus cuts him off right there… at a crucified man who rose. “You’re out of your mind, Paul! Too much study is driving you mad” (Acts 26:24). He can sit through a lot of religion. Not a crucified man who rose. Paul answers with a fact: “this was not done in a corner” (Acts 26:26).
The gospel is not advice… it is news. Advice is something you still have to go do. News is something that already happened. It was done for you, and all you can do now is receive it.
Then Paul turns to the king.
Acts 26:27-28, King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know you believe.” Agrippa said to Paul, “Are you going to persuade me to become a Christian so easily?”
Say no, and he loses his people. Say yes, and the next question is whether this Jesus is the Christ the prophets promised… and whether Agrippa will stand on him. So he makes a joke.
Hear it the way Agrippa heard it. You know what the prophets said. You could say it in your sleep. And the minute the question turns to you, you have an easy answer ready. I believe all that… where are we eating.
When you turn that question into a joke to get out of the room, you are telling the Jesus who suffered for you and walked out of the grave that the room matters more to you than he does.
And if that is you this morning… you know it all and you have never bowed to him… hear this. The door Agrippa joked his way past is still open to you. Not because you finally got serious enough… because he suffered and he rose. Come to him by faith.
The Question Did Not Leave With Him
Paul answers the joke with a prayer.
Acts 26:29, “I wish before God,” replied Paul, “that whether easily or with difficulty, not only you but all who listen to me today might become as I am… except for these chains.”
All who listen to me today. The one man in a chain was the only one in the room who was free. And the man in chains prayed for the king who made a joke. That is how the risen Jesus kept after you, until your eyes were open. So this week, pray Paul’s prayer for one person by name: Lord Jesus, you suffered for my sins and you are alive… you opened my eyes… open theirs… by faith in you and nothing else.
Then the king got up. Everyone who was sitting got up with him. Only the prisoner was still standing where he had been standing all along. On the way out they agreed he deserved neither death nor prison (Acts 26:31), and the chains stayed on. I have had help from God, Paul said… and he is still in chains. God’s help did not mean an easy release. It meant a witness who could still stand.
Worms again… a hall full of people who believed the prophets, and they went home the same as they came.
The prophets said the Messiah must suffer, and he did, on a cross, for your sins. He rose first from the dead, and he is still proclaiming light. He forgives sins and gives a share with his people, by faith in him… not earned, received. You can believe the prophets the way Agrippa did, and still make a joke and walk out on Jesus.
We do not stand on our nerve… we stand on a Christ who suffered for us and rose first… and he holds us.
The king got up. The question did not leave with him. Two halls, full of people who believed the prophets, and in each one, one man held by the Word. Do you believe the prophets? Jesus is not asking for a joke. Will you stand on Jesus, who suffered for you and rose first, by faith alone?
Source: Acts 26:9-32, sermon of October 25, 2026, Red River Baptist Church