Fame That Lasts

Because two thousand years have passed, the significance of Paul’s testimony in Acts 25-26 is lost on us. Paul is speaking to two genuine celebrities in his day. King Agrippa was the son of King Herod, the ridiculously wealthy king who died in Acts 12 after allowing a crowd to worship him like a god. He was the great-grandson of King Herod the Great, who famously tried to kill the baby Jesus decades earlier. Bernice, who was with King Agrippa, was something like a fashion icon and sex symbol in her day. One author says “most of the first hearers or readers would raise at least one eyebrow at the thought of this fashionable and powerful woman coming into contact with Paul. It is as though, reading the story of some travelling evangelist, we were to come upon a photograph of the preacher shaking hands with Marilyn Monroe.”[i]

This explains the scene in Act 25:23—So on the next day Agrippa and Bernice came with great pomp, and they entered the audience hall with the military tribunes and the prominent men of the city. Then, at the command of Festus, Paul was brought in. 

Everyone in Paul’s day would have considered Festus, Agrippa, and Bernice as far more significant individuals than the lowly prisoner, Paul. But two thousand years later, they are only remembered because of their encounter with Paul. Christian, what you do for Christ matters! Take courage! In two thousand years the most powerful, famous, influential, wealthy people in our world today may be long forgotten. But God’s people will still be talking about people who courageously share their personal testimony and point people to Jesus.

You might feel like you don’t have much important to say, but you do. Your story matters, Christian, and God intends for you to use your story as a tool to draw others to Himself. So when you speak your testimony do it courageously.

[i] N.T. Wright, Acts For Everyone: Part 2 (London: Westminster John Knox Press, 2008), 202.