Acts 22:1-30
1 "Brethren and fathers, hear my defense before you now." 2 And when they heard that he spoke to them in the Hebrew language, they kept all the more silent.
Then he said: 3 "I am indeed a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, taught according to the strictness of our fathers' law, and was zealous toward God as you all are today. 4 I persecuted this Way to the death, binding and delivering into prisons both men and women, 5 as also the high priest bears me witness, and all the council of the elders, from whom I also received letters to the brethren, and went to Damascus to bring in chains even those who were there to Jerusalem to be punished.
6 "Now it happened, as I journeyed and came near Damascus at about noon, suddenly a great light from heaven shone around me. 7 And I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, 'Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?' 8 So I answered, 'Who are You, Lord?' And He said to me, 'I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting.'
9 "And those who were with me indeed saw the light and were afraid, but they did not hear the voice of Him who spoke to me. 10 So I said, 'What shall I do, Lord?' And the Lord said to me, 'Arise and go into Damascus, and there you will be told all things which are appointed for you to do.' 11 And since I could not see for the glory of that light, being led by the hand of those who were with me, I came into Damascus.
12 "Then a certain Ananias, a devout man according to the law, having a good testimony with all the Jews who dwelt there, 13 came to me; and he stood and said to me, 'Brother Saul, receive your sight.' And at that same hour I looked up at him. 14 Then he said, 'The God of our fathers has chosen you that you should know His will, and see the Just One, and hear the voice of His mouth. 15 For you will be His witness to all men of what you have seen and heard. 16 And now why are you waiting? Arise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord.'
17 "Now it happened, when I returned to Jerusalem and was praying in the temple, that I was in a trance 18 and saw Him saying to me, Make haste and get out of Jerusalem quickly, for they will not receive your testimony concerning Me.' 19 So I said, 'Lord, they know that in every synagogue I imprisoned and beat those who believe on You. 20 And when the blood of Your martyr Stephen was shed, I also was standing by consenting to his death, and guarding the clothes of those who were killing him.' 21 Then He said to me, 'Depart, for I will send you far from here to the Gentiles.'"
Paul's Roman Citizenship
22 And they listened to him until this word, and then they raised their voices and said, "Away with such a fellow from the earth, for he is not fit to live!" 23 Then, as they cried out and tore off their clothes and threw dust into the air, 24 the commander ordered him to be brought into the barracks, and said that he should be examined under scourging, so that he might know why they shouted so against him. 25 And as they bound him with thongs, Paul said to the centurion who stood by, "Is it lawful for you to scourge a man who is a Roman, and uncondemned?"
26 When the centurion heard that, he went and told the commander, saying, "Take care what you do, for this man is a Roman."
27 Then the commander came and said to him, "Tell me, are you a Roman?"
He said, "Yes."
28 The commander answered, "With a large sum I obtained this citizenship."
And Paul said, "But I was born a citizen."
29 Then immediately those who were about to examine him withdrew from him; and the commander was also afraid after he found out that he was a Roman, and because he had bound him.
The Sanhedrin Divided
30 The next day, because he wanted to know for certain why he was accused by the Jews, he released him from his bonds, and commanded the chief priests and all their council to appear, and brought Paul down and set him before them.
Paul provided us the example of giving a good defense of the hope we have within Christ in us as the reason for the gospel (1 Peter 3:15), no matter the opposition or worldly consequences (1 Peter 3:16-17). Paul’s testimony began with who he had been among his people as a devout religious man full of zeal to combat the Way of Jesus Christ as an offense to the truth he believed as a Pharisee. On his way to deliver more Christians to imprisonment and death, Paul met the Lord Jesus who came to him along the way to stop the direction he was forging and to shine the light of Christ (2 Corinthians 4:6) into his heart and soul by God’s Spirit. He asked, “Who are You, Lord?” as we also ask when we are confronted with the gospel, for only by knowing who Jesus is can we understand the bad news our sin and judgment to appre the good news of deliverance from the power and punishment of our sin. He heard God tell him that he would be told all things which are appointed for him to do. We do not hear exactly like this when we are reborn and the scales of unbelief are taken from our eyes of understanding, but we find in the scriptures which we begin to read and study the purpose of our calling and the roadmap of our journey to the Celestial City of God as found laid out in Ephesians and other places. This begins as others tell us the direction of our lives will be found in following Christ as Ananias did with Paul, directing us to take the step to be baptized in identification with the death and resurrection to life as a new creation (Galatians 2:20) while Jesus washes away our sins when we call on the name of the Lord for salvation. Paul’s testimony of the acts of God’s Spirit working in him led to a warning of which war to walk to avoid danger as we find in our own lives in often lesser severity (Isaiah 30:21) along this narrow way. He leads and guides us all through life for His name’s sake (Psalm 31:3-5) because He has redeemed us to Himself. Often we find as new believers that God leads us more to keep us from evil and trouble as we develop spiritual discernment through the experience of walking with Him and through His word to give the understanding and wisdom to be well pleasing and increasing in holiness according to the image of Christ (Romans 8:29, 2 Corinthians 3:18). Paul’s testimony was listened to until he told them that God called him to speak to “those people,” the non-Jews; the Jews who were listening thought that only they themselves were worthy of God’s word and those foreigners had no right to their God. Such is the error we must also avoid in restricting the proclamation of the gospel to only people like us and not to those nations we cons ungodly like the Islamic and Hindu worlds. Jesus came to save His own sheep out of every nation and people (Revelation 5:9) and not just who we deem worthy; none of us is worthy (Romans 3:9-11, 23-24) and the call comes from God through us and not from we ourselves according to our own imaginations or judgment calls. Like Paul’s people, we may find opposition from our own as we seek to include the unworthy and unrighteous in our society in the reach of the good news of Jesus Christ, but we hold to grace in mercy anyway. Paul faced and angry self-righteous mob willing to kill him while we only face anger and judgment. This should give us courage and confidence to continue to follow the Way as we present the Truth and Life to all who hear and are called as His sheep even in the face of adversity. Paul was hauled off by the government authorities until it was ascertained that he was not the instigator of the violence, but the mob was attacking him as a citizen of that government who deserved protection. The authorities gave him the opportunity to face his accusers the following day to continue his good defense and testimony that even the officials would hear. The Lord uses opportunities like this to reach even more with the message of life and hope! We should make the most of every opportunity to give the good reason of the hope we have in us to all who hear that some may hear (1 Corinthians 9:22, 2 Peter 3:9) and turn in repentance by faith to Christ whom we present to the world.
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