Making a Defense

What if something strange happened during lunch today? What if the people sitting at the table next to yours at the restaurant recognized that you are a church-going Christian, and what if they asked you to give them a brief description of what you believe and why? What would you say? How much of your own story would you tell? How many Bible verses would you cite?

Today we’re going to read about when the Apostle Paul gave a public defense of Christianity on the steps of building in Jerusalem that was built to house Roman soldiers. The crowd around him was a mob of Jewish men who wanted to kill him, and the only thing standing in their way was an uncompassionate tribune and his troops.

The question at hand was “Who is Paul?” and the substance of Paul’s defense was the person of Jesus Christ. Let’s consider this passage together, learning more about Paul and thinking about implications for our own efforts to live as faithful Christian witnesses today.

Acts 21:37–22:29 (ESV)

37 As Paul was about to be brought into the barracks, he said to the tribune, “May I say something to you?” And he said, “Do you know Greek? 38 Are you not the Egyptian, then, who recently stirred up a revolt and led the four thousand men of the Assassins out into the wilderness?” 39 Paul replied, “I am a Jew, from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no obscure city. I beg you, permit me to speak to the people.” 40 And when he had given him permission, Paul, standing on the steps, motioned with his hand to the people. And when there was a great hush, he addressed them in the Hebrew language, saying:

1 “Brothers and fathers, hear the defense that I now make before you.” 2 And when they heard that he was addressing them in the Hebrew language, they became even more quiet. And he said:

3 “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated at the feet of Gamaliel according to the strict manner of the law of our fathers, being zealous for God as all of you are this day. 4 I persecuted this Way to the death, binding and delivering to prison both men and women, 5 as the high priest and the whole council of elders can bear me witness. From them I received letters to the brothers, and I journeyed toward Damascus to take those also who were there and bring them in bonds to Jerusalem to be punished.

6 “As I was on my way and drew near to Damascus, about noon a great light from heaven suddenly 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 And I answered, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ And he said to me, ‘I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting.’ 9 Now those who were with me saw the light but did not understand the voice of the one who was speaking to me. 10 And I said, ‘What shall I do, Lord?’ And the Lord said to me, ‘Rise, and go into Damascus, and there you will be told all that is appointed for you to do.’ 11 And since I could not see because of the brightness of that light, I was led by the hand by those who were with me, and came into Damascus.

12 “And one Ananias, a devout man according to the law, well spoken of by all the Jews who lived there, 13 came to me, and standing by me said to me, ‘Brother Saul, receive your sight.’ And at that very hour I received my sight and saw him. 14 And he said, ‘The God of our fathers appointed you to know his will, to see the Righteous One and to hear a voice from his mouth; 15 for you will be a witness for him to everyone of what you have seen and heard. 16 And now why do you wait? Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name.’

17 “When I had returned to Jerusalem and was praying in the temple, I fell into a trance 18 and saw him saying to me, ‘Make haste and get out of Jerusalem quickly, because they will not accept your testimony about me.’ 19 And I said, ‘Lord, they themselves know that in one synagogue after another I imprisoned and beat those who believed in you. 20 And when the blood of Stephen your witness was being shed, I myself was standing by and approving and watching over the garments of those who killed him.’ 21 And he said to me, ‘Go, for I will send you far away to the Gentiles.’”

22 Up to this word they listened to him. Then they raised their voices and said, “Away with such a fellow from the earth! For he should not be allowed to live.” 23 And as they were shouting and throwing off their cloaks and flinging dust into the air, 24 the tribune ordered him to be brought into the barracks, saying that he should be examined by flogging, to find out why they were shouting against him like this.

25 But when they had stretched him out for the whips, Paul said to the centurion who was standing by, “Is it lawful for you to flog a man who is a Roman citizen and uncondemned?” 26 When the centurion heard this, he went to the tribune and said to him, “What are you about to do? For this man is a Roman citizen.” 27 So the tribune came and said to him, “Tell me, are you a Roman citizen?” And he said, “Yes.” 28 The tribune answered, “I bought this citizenship for a large sum.” Paul said, “But I am a citizen by birth.” 29 So those who were about to examine him withdrew from him immediately, and the tribune also was afraid, for he realized that Paul was a Roman citizen and that he had bound him.

Main Idea:

Jesus is the risen Lord and Christ, and those who embrace Him as such are to live as His witnesses in the world.

Sermon

1. Who is Paul? (21:37-40)

We’re really jumping into the middle of a story here. It’s scene two, but it’s part of an episode that’s already in motion. Some of you will remember that Paul and his traveling buddies had recently arrived in Jerusalem (Acts 21:17). They came to the church there, and they were warmly welcomed (Acts 21:18-20).

But the elders of the church in Jerusalem were concerned that some rumors about Paul were in circulation, and some of their church members were believing that Paul had become anti-Jewish. The fact is Paul was teaching that the law of Moses was optional, but this was being twisted into a false claim that Paul was teaching converted Jews to stop living like Jews altogether (Acts 21:21).

In order to try to show that Paul was not anti-Jewish, the elders advised Paul to observe a common Jewish tradition of personal cleansing and charity after having been around so many Gentiles (Acts 21:23-24). Paul agreed, and he did as the elders advised (Acts 21:26). And when Paul came into the temple in Jerusalem to carry out the traditional Jewish ceremony, the whole city erupted (Acts 21:27-31). Only the arrival of a Roman “tribune” and many “soldiers” stopped the crowd from “beating” and “killing” Paul (Acts 21:31-32).

It seems to me that the anchor for our passage this morning is right there in last week’s passage, Acts 21:33… “the tribune came up and arrested him [Paul] and… He inquired who he was and what he had done.” That is the question of our passage today – “Who is Paul?” and “What is he doing?”. Is he an anti-Jewish heretic? Is he a political extremist? Or is he something else altogether?

Most of the Jews thought Paul was a heretic, and they responded the same way at the end of Acts 22 as they had at the end of Acts 21… They wanted Paul dead. But the Roman tribune is also in focus in our passage today, and he thought (at least at first) that Paul was a political extremist. Look at v37-38 with me.

Luke says, in v37, that Paul spoke to the “tribune” in “Greek.” Latin was the formal language of the Roman empire, but Greek was far more commonly known and spoken (thanks to Alexander the Great and to God’s providence). Greek was also widely spoken in Egypt during that time, and that’s why the tribune thought Paul might have been a political extremist. In v38, the tribune says, “Are you not the Egyptian… who recently stirred up a revolt…?”

The Jewish historian Josephus wrote of a false prophet from Egypt who came to Jerusalem about 54 AD and led a small army of “dagger-men” or “knife-men” who were known for assassinating their targets by sneaking up on them in the midst of a crowd. The Romans had abruptly put down the revolt, but the Egyptian leader had escaped, and the tribune thought Paul might have been him.

But Paul answered in v39, “I am a Jew, from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no obscure city.” And then Paul asked the tribune to let him address the crowd, so that he might make his “defense” (or ἀπολογια)… (1) that he was a genuine Jew, (2) that he had an encounter with the risen Jesus, (3) that he believed Jesus was the Christ, and (4) that he was commissioned by God as an Apostle to the Gentiles.

Before we dive into Paul’s “defense” (or his rationale), let’s notice just a few things about the way Luke has recorded all of this. First, Luke is making a big deal of the “languages” Paul was speaking. Certainly, Paul’s ability to speak Greek and also Hebrew or Aramaic played a part in the episode, but it’s worth noting that Paul was fluent in both. Indeed, Paul was an educated man with a good understanding of each of the languages and cultures he was trying to pull together.

Second, Paul’s defense – his argument for who he was and for what he was doing – has a well-built and logical framework. Paul began by establishing his Jewish bona fides, then he recalled his encounter with the risen Christ, then he told of his own conversion as a true Christian, and finally he provided testimony of an Old Testament prophet-like calling to a ministry among the Gentiles. All of this is a fascinating and compelling case for who Paul really is… and, what’s more, it’s a fascinating and compelling case for the Christ of whom Paul was bearing witness.

Third, Paul’s defense is book-ended by two “examinations” from the Roman tribune. Both at the beginning of our passage (Acts 21:37-40) and at the end (Acts 22:22-29), the Roman tribune is trying to figure out, “Who is Paul?” And the short answer is, Paul is exactly the man God had meticulously raised up and specially commissioned to be an Apostle of the gospel of Jesus Christ to those who were once far off… to the Gentiles.

The Jews largely rejected the gospel, and they rejected Paul as an Apostle. The Roman authorities wanted civil stability, and this whole Christianity thing seemed to be causing trouble. And yet, here Paul was, standing in the midst of these two cultures, two civilizations, two peoples… with one foot grounded in each (as it were)… offering good news to anyone who would believe that Jesus is the resurrected Savior of the world… that Jesus is the “Righteous One” of God, who satisfied God’s justice against sinners and bore the sins of those He came to save in order that they may be counted righteous before God (Acts 22:14; cf. Isaiah 53:11).

Friends, there is a lot to consider already, but do you realize that Paul is the embodiment here of gospel-believers from every age? Paul was an Old Covenant Jew who had embraced the New Covenant in Jesus Christ, God’s Messiah… and Paul was a Roman citizen, cultured among the Greeks, who had decided that the revealed mystery of the gospel is better than any worldly wisdom or power.

Furthermore, Paul is a specially designed evangelist between two cultures. Paul was bearing witness to Christ in front of unbelievers from both worlds. Paul was calling religious legalists to repent of their unbelief and to leave their self-righteousness behind, and he was calling worldly pagans to repent of their unbelief and to trust their souls to an otherworldly King who really does save sinners.

2. A Real Jew (22:1-5)

Standing “on the steps” of the Roman “barracks” in Jerusalem, Paul made his “defense” before his “brothers and fathers” of Jewish ancestry (Acts 22:1). The next 21 verses are the substance of Paul’s defense, and his case has four sections (at least as I count them) that build on one another. This first section, v1-5, focuses expressly on Paul’s authentic Judaism… Paul was a real Jew.

He was “born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city,” i.e., Jerusalem (v3). Paul was “educated at the feet of Gamaliel,” who was one of the two most respected and influential Jewish thought-leaders of that period (v3). Paul was trained “according to the strict manner of the law” of Moses, and he was “zealous for God” with the same devotion as those who were accusing him (v3).

Paul was so strict and devoted, in fact, that he “persecuted” the “Way” (or those who followed Christ) “to the death” (v4). We aren’t told who or how many Paul executed, but he “bound and delivered to prison” so many in Jerusalem that he had to take his persecution-tour on the road to Damascus (v4-5). The Jewish leaders in Jerusalem were well-aware of Paul’s efforts, since they had issued the “letters” or warrants which Paul had carried out (v5).

It is impossible for us to understand just how profound was the nature of what Paul was recounting here. The nearest parallel we have in our own day is the concept of a Jihadi terrorist to those of us who were alive and aware on September 11, 2001. But even this falls short, because most Americans don’t really think of September 11th as a theological or religious conflict, only a political or maybe a cultural one. But Paul had been more than a political radical in open hostility against one nation or another; he was devoted to a religious war against all those he thought were defying and blaspheming the God of the Bible.

It's interesting and (I think) wise that Paul started here with his defense. The Jews in Jerusalem were accusing Paul of the very same things Paul had been persecuting Christians for just a short time earlier. Paul understood their mindset, and he himself had been an active participant in the fight for legalistic Judaism.

But before we proceed further through Paul’s argument, I think it’s striking to note here just how wild it is that Paul was the one standing there in Jerusalem giving this speech. Think about all that Paul was before he met the risen Christ, and think about all that Paul became afterward. This man who once arranged his whole life in opposition to Jesus was now proclaiming that Jesus is the Christ, in whom there is the forgiveness of sins… and Paul had been a traveling missionary for several years at this point… at great cost and even facing tough opposition.

This is the power of God in the gospel of Jesus Christ! Friends, is this how Christian conversion has affected your life? Do you notice radical differences between who you used to be and who you are now? And, if not, then why not?

If Jesus of Nazareth is the risen Christ, then that changes everything!

3. A Subject of the Risen Christ (22:6-11)

The second section of Paul’s argument, v6-11, turns to his encounter with the risen Lord Jesus while Paul was on his way to Damascus. And if there were tributaries to be explored further in the last several verses, there are vast lakes between the lines of the next three sections of Paul’s speech. I’m going to limit our focus to what I think is the main emphasis of what we’re reading here.

First, Paul was arguing that he’d had a miraculous encounter. Second, Paul was arguing that Jesus of Nazareth was indeed risen from the dead. And third, Paul was arguing that Jesus is the Lord of everyone, both those who believe the gospel and those who are at war against it.

First, the miraculous encounter. Paul related this event, not as a flash of light in the night, but as an overpowering invasion of his life. The risen Lord Jesus made His glory known to Paul with a brilliance brighter than the sun at “noon” (v6). Interestingly, however, it was only Paul who was struck blind by this encounter, and not “those who were with [him]” (v9). Paul also heard the voice of Jesus in a way that his companions did not. Paul said that they “did not understand the voice of the one who was speaking to me” (v9).

The point of such details was to say that Paul had a true and supernatural encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus. But this was itself a miracle, since Jesus was a guy who had been crucified a short time earlier outside of Jerusalem.

Second, Jesus had risen from the dead. On all three occasions recorded in Acts when Paul told this story (Acts 9:3-8, 22:6-11, 26:12-18), he mentioned Jesus by name. But only here, did Paul include the descriptor “of Nazareth” or “the Nazarene” (v8). This is likely because “the Nazarene” had become a derogatory label for Jesus that had been used by the Jews who opposed Him. And of the three occasions when Paul told this story, this is the one he told in front of a crowd of Jews who did in fact oppose Jesus and His people.

In no uncertain terms, then, Paul was claiming that his miraculous encounter on the road was with none other than the very Jesus who had preached and healed and died as witnessed by the people living in Jerusalem. Like Peter did before him, on the day of Pentecost, Paul was saying to the people of Israel that the Jesus whom they crucified was alive and well… and He is Lord (Acts 2:36).

Third, the risen Jesus is Lord of His people… and of those who oppose Him. This really seems to be the assertion at the heart of Paul’s argument here, and (I think) the heart of the book of Acts as well. Jesus is Lord; Paul called Him “Lord” at least twice when he encountered Jesus on the road (v8, 10). Jesus is Lord of His people, and Jesus identifies Himself so closely with His people that to “persecute” them is to “persecute” Him (v8). And Jesus is Lord even of those who oppose Him, as Jesus’s confrontation of Paul on the road to Damascus demonstrates.

But Jesus’s lordship over His people means salvation… while His lordship over those who oppose Him means judgment. And this is what Paul had come to grips with on the road to Damascus… it’s also what Paul was implying that his hearers should understand for themselves as he continued making his defense.

Friends, do you understand that the gospel is good news only for those who believe it? But it is bad news for those who neglect it or who disbelieve it.

The burning heart of the gospel is a message of God’s love and mercy for sinners… God sent His Son not to condemn sinners but to save them by His sheer grace. But this excellent news is part of an entire worldview, a real structure of true truths about what the world is and how it works.

Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world because the God of the Bible is the Creator and Sovereign of the world. And all the people in this world are not passive or uninvolved in their relationship with God. Jesus came to redeem sinners – by dying and rising from the dead – because sinners need redemption… we come into this world as rebels against God and against His good authority.

Therefore, to say that Jesus is the risen Lord, and we (like Paul) are all His subjects, is not necessarily good news. It is only good news if we are ready to embrace His lordship over us. But if we remain in our rebellion and sin, Jesus’s lordship doesn’t evaporate; it stands in judgment against us.

May God help us to receive Jesus as Lord and trust Him as Savior.

4. A Real Christian (22:12-16)

We’re looking now at Paul’s third section of his defense. He began by recounting his authentic Jewish history, and then he described his miraculous encounter with the risen Jesus. Now, Paul continued with the story, pointing next to his embrace of Christ and Christ’s embrace of him. Once again, there is so much more here for us to chew on, but let’s look at this explicit account of Paul’s conversion in light of its context.

What is Paul doing? He’s making a defense! But surely, you’re noticing by now that the defense Paul is making is not primarily for himself… He’s making the case for why the Jews in Jerusalem (gathered from all parts of the Roman empire for the celebration of Pentecost!) why they should believe that Jesus is the Christ… and why they should repent and put their faith or trust in Him… and why they should not only tolerate Gentiles as their Christian brethren, but why they should rejoice at their inclusion in the promises of God’s blessings through the Messiah.

Therefore, this third section of Paul’s defense is not merely an account of his own conversion to Christ; it is an implicit invitation for all those hearing him to believe in Jesus too… and to “be baptized” into the “name” of Christ, as Paul had, “calling” upon Jesus to “wash away” their “sins,” just as Christ had done for Paul (v16). And Paul gave testimony that “Ananias,” who was “a devout man according to the law” and “well spoken of by all the Jews” (v12), was sent by God to echo Jesus’s Damascus-road revelation to Paul and also to authenticate the whole event with yet another miracle – the restoration of Paul’s sight (v13).

The language here is striking too. Ananias said it was “the God of our fathers” (i.e., the God of the Old Testament) who “appointed” Paul to “know his will,” and to “see the Righteous One,” and to “hear a voice from his mouth” (v14). All of this “knowing” and “seeing” and “hearing” is exactly the sort of language that speaks of the full blessing of God… and all of this “knowing” and “seeing” and “hearing” was for the purpose that Paul would “be a witness” for Christ to all that he had “seen and heard” (v15).

Paul, then, was not just giving his own personal testimony of conversion! Paul was describing how any Jew, who honors the law of Moses and believes in the God of the Old Testament, can and should call upon Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah of old, who cleanses and heals sinners!

And this description of Christian conversion is not just for Jews; it’s for Gentiles too! When the Apostles and other witnesses in the book of Acts preached the gospel and gave an invitation, what did they invite their hearers to do? They invited them to repent, to believe, and to be baptized in the name of Christ, so that they too might become citizens of Christ’s kingdom, members of Christ’s Church.

Friends, this is the same invitation sinners have open to them today. What should you do to enjoy the forgiveness of sins? You should turn from your sin, you should trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as the one and only Savior, and you should be baptized into membership with a local church, wherein you should aim to follow Jesus alongside other believers, learning and growing as a disciple, and helping other disciples to do the same.

If you have questions about this, of if you’d like to talk more about what this means or what it might look like for you, then let’s get together and talk about it.

And for those of us who have gospel conversations with our friends and family, let’s understand that this is how we are to give an invitation as well. When we talk about forgiveness of sins and following Jesus as Lord and Savior, let’s invite our friends and family to repent (to turn away from sin), to believe (to trust in Christ alone as the one who can cleanse us from sin), and to become a Christian by publicly professing faith through baptism into church membership.

Let’s understand that Paul’s testimony here of Christian conversion isn’t just the way some Christians did Christianity back then. This is the consistent biblical example and instruction. Christians are those sinners who believe that Jesus is the Christ, they confess themselves as sinners, they turn away from their sin and unbelief, and they give themselves over to a life of discipleship as part of the visible kingdom of Christ in the world.

May God help us to think like this… to talk like this… to live like this… and to see many of our loved ones, our neighbors, and our friends come to do the same.

5. A Commissioned Apostle (22:17-21)

This fourth and last section of Paul’s defense is, perhaps, the part where we must not look for some way to follow Paul’s example in our own day. Instead, we must understand that this is Paul’s unique testimony of his prophetic or apostolic commission to be an authoritative New Testament or New Covenant messenger. In v17-21, Paul told of his experience when the risen Jesus Himself called Paul to a unique ministry in redemptive history. This section also repeats a common theme in Acts, which emphasizes the fact that the very people whom God had formed as a nation and to whom God gave all His covenantal promises rejected the Messiah and became a parable of warning throughout all generations.

Like the prophet Isaiah, nearly 800 years before (Is. 6:1-13), Paul was “praying in the temple” (v17) when he “saw” a miraculous vision and heard a divine call to be a witness among an unclean people (v18). Unlike Isaiah, however, Paul’s commission was not to preach God’s word among the people of Israel… Instead, God sent Paul “far away to the Gentiles” (v21).

This scene is profound. It depicts the risen Jesus as “Lord” of the “temple” (v17, 19). It places Jesus on the authoritative throne, from which God’s message of salvation and judgment is proclaimed. And it teaches us that God’s judgment against unbelieving Israel did in fact come in the form of their unwillingness to “accept” the “testimony” about the Messiah or the Christ (v18).

So too, this scene reminds us that it was exactly as God intended that the message of salvation through Jesus would come to the Gentiles (i.e., non-Jews) through the messengers of the New Covenant.

But even after Paul had received this special commission from Christ (to preach the gospel to the Gentiles), and even after Jesus revealed to Paul that the Jews would largely reject the gospel of salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone to any and all who would simply believe, here Paul was, making a defense among the Jews in Jerusalem, inviting them to embrace both the true Messiah as well as those Gentiles who believed that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ… and this whole episode was by God’s design.

It was according to God’s plan that Paul was in Jerusalem, and it was according to God’s plan that Paul was being opposed and arrested that day. We may learn from this that God’s intentions and even the preaching of the gospel are not always for the good of the hearer. Sometimes, at least we have one strong example here, the preaching of the gospel is for judgment and not for blessing.

Friends, I wonder how often we’ve measured the success of our evangelism by the number or by the apparent sincerity of those who respond positively to it. I remember one time feeling pretty discouraged when I had just had a long conversation with two people who rejected the gospel. I called a friend of mine to recap the conversation and to invite his feedback on how I could have done better.

At one point during the conversation my friend told me, “Marc, you faithfully explained the gospel… And God is glorified in that! You can’t make people believe it. Only God can change a sinner’s heart.”

I know that stuff is true, but I often get discouraged when I don’t see immediate positive results from my evangelistic or discipling efforts. Maybe you feel the same thing sometimes. And when we don’t get the results we want from preaching and teaching and explaining the gospel… and from calling people to repent and believe… we can be tempted to do something else.

We might be tempted to take something away from the gospel. Our friends get defensive when we bring up repentance, so we shy away from it. Our family members don’t like it when we talk about Jesus as Lord (not just Savior), so we emphasize grace, and we downplay holiness and obedience. One way or another, we leave out the stuff that most often seems to produce worse results.

Other times we might be tempted to add something to the gospel. Churches often do this by treating people like consumers. The community likes fun events or free childcare or anonymous entertainment, so churches host big events or churches offer programs for parents to drop off their kids or churches arrange their activities around entertainment and the absence of any real interaction or accountability. And before long, all the stuff we add to the gospel becomes more important and costs more time and money and energy than the simple day-to-day gospel conversations we all say is the purpose behind all the stuff we’re doing.

Maybe sometimes we’re tempted to stop evangelizing altogether. We probably don’t say it out loud, but we start to believe it just doesn’t work. We know we should talk to people about Jesus. We know sometimes sinners do repent and believe the gospel. But we doubt whether we will personally ever see a sinner come to saving faith. So, we just stop… We stop bringing it up. We stop calling for repentance. We stop talking like our friends are lost, and we stop telling them that our deepest hope is that they will turn to Christ before it’s too late.

Brothers and sisters, it may be that God intends to convert many souls through our gospel witness… or it may be that God intends to use our gospel witness as words of judgment on the last day against those who heard us explain the gospel so often and those who watched us strive to live in keeping with what we said we believed.

But the results are not for us to decide, nor are the results for us to produce. It is for us to simply be faithful… and God is glorified in that!

6. An Object of Providence (22:22-29)

After Paul’s defense, Luke tells us that it was “up to this word” (Paul’s word about being sent to the Gentiles) that “they listened to him” (v22). But when they heard about God’s intention to grant His covenantal blessings to the Gentiles, “they raised their voices and said, ‘Away with such a fellow from the earth! For he should not be allowed to live’” (v22).

This last section of our passage, v22-29, takes us right back to where we began… with a Roman tribune protecting Paul from a violent mob of first-century Jews who wanted to kill him. What I want us to notice in this last portion of our passage (and with this last point of my sermon today) is the reality that Paul saw himself as an object of God’s providence.

At no point did Paul call upon some earthly deliverer from the hands of persecution, and at no point did Paul ever seem surprised by suffering for the sake of the gospel. All along the way, Paul trusted himself to the wise and good providence of God, knowing that God sovereignly ordains all things according to His good purposes… for the joy of His people and for the glory of His name.

And yet, Paul’s Roman citizenship did offer him some benefits. Roman authorities stopped a violent mob, Roman laws prevented Paul from being flogged, and the Roman legal system afforded him a manner of due process. All of this too was part of the details of God’s providential arrangement.

In our own day and in our cultural and political context, we too have some benefits that come along with our citizenship. And we would be wise and good stewards to participate in our constitutional republic form of government. I, for one, want more Christians to vote and to hold various political offices.

But at the end of the day, that’s not where Christians ought to find their contentment or their hope. That’s certainly not where Paul was placing his hope for progress or justice in the world. We ought to understand that we too are objects of God’s providence, set by God in a certain place, at a certain time, and around certain people for the purpose of being a witness for Christ in this world.

Conclusion

In some ways Paul’s example here is unique. He was a capital “A” Apostle, and he was a first-century Jewish convert to Christianity. We cannot relate to these, and we certainly ought not try to mimic Paul in such things.

But in several ways, Paul does provide for us a good example of what it looks like for a Christian to “make a defense” for what we believe and why. In fact, the New Testament instructs Christians to be “prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect” (1 Pet. 3:15). The word there is the same as the one in Acts 22:1, and it means to give an answer or to make a formal case for oneself. It’s the word from which we get our word apologetic or apologetics.

Christians are to live in such a way that they are ready to offer a description of what the gospel is and why they believe it. Paul even shows us here how we can weave the gospel message into our own story of how we first came to understand it and to believe it. And Paul also shows us a great example of Christian faithfulness in witnessing in the face of hostility and even with a bad result.

Paul’s crowd wanted to kill him, but none of us are being faced down by a mob. Paul’s audience shouted him down when he said stuff they didn’t like, but none of us are likely to be heckled like that. Paul’s hearers believed he was a threat to their identity and to their way of life, but he still tried to offer them a thoughtful argument for why they should embrace Jesus as Lord and Christ.

May God help us first to embrace Jesus as Lord and Christ, and then to be His faithful witnesses… trusting ourselves to His good plans and purposes… and leaving the results up to Him.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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