READ | ACTS CHAPTER 22
1 “Brothers and fathers, listen now to my defense.”
2 When they heard him speak to them in Aramaic, they became very quiet.
Then Paul said: 3 “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city. I studied under Gamaliel and was thoroughly trained in the law of our ancestors. I was just as zealous for God as any of you are today. 4 I persecuted the followers of this Way to their death, arresting both men and women and throwing them into prison, 5 as the high priest and all the Council can themselves testify. I even obtained letters from them to their associates in Damascus, and went there to bring these people as prisoners to Jerusalem to be punished.
6 “About noon as I came near Damascus, suddenly a bright light from heaven flashed around me. 7 I fell to the ground and heard a voice say to me, ‘Saul! Saul! Why do you persecute me?’
8 “‘Who are you, Lord?’ I asked.
“ ‘I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting,’ he replied. 9 My companions saw the light, but they did not understand the voice of him
who was speaking to me.
10 “‘What shall I do, Lord?’ I asked.
“ ‘Get up,’ the Lord said, ‘and go into Damascus. There you will be told all that you have been assigned to do.’ 11 My companions led me by the hand into Damascus, because the brilliance of the light had blinded me.
12 “A man named Ananias came to see me. He was a devout observer of the law and highly respected by all the Jews living there. 13 He stood beside me and said, ‘Brother Saul, receive your sight!’ And at that very moment I was able to see him.
14 “Then he said: ‘The God of our ancestors has chosen you to know his will and to see the Righteous One and to hear words from his mouth. 15 You will be his witness to all people of what you have seen and heard. 16 And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on his name.’
17 “When I returned to Jerusalem and was praying at the temple, I fell into a trance 18 and saw the Lord speaking to me. ‘Quick!’ he said. ‘Leave Jerusalem immediately, because the people here will not accept your testimony about me.’
19 “‘Lord,’ I replied, ‘these people know that I went from one synagogue to another to imprison and beat those who believe in you. 20 And when the blood of your martyr[a] Stephen was shed, I stood there giving my approval and guarding the clothes of those who were killing him.’
21 “Then the Lord said to me, ‘Go; I will send you far away to the Gentiles.’ ”
Paul the Roman Citizen
22 The crowd listened to Paul until he said this. Then they raised their voices and shouted, “Rid the earth of him! He’s not fit to live!”
23 As they were shouting and throwing off their cloaks and flinging dust into the air, 24 the commander ordered that Paul be taken into the barracks. He directed that he be flogged and interrogated in order to find out why the people were shouting at him like this. 25 As they stretched him out to flog him, Paul said to the centurion standing there, “Is it legal for you to flog a Roman citizen who hasn’t even been found guilty?”
“What are you going to do?” he asked. “This man is a Roman citizen.”
27 The commander went to Paul and asked, “Tell me, are you a Roman citizen?”
“Yes, I am,” he answered.
28 Then the commander said, “I had to pay a lot of money for my citizenship.”
“But I was born a citizen,” Paul replied.
29 Those who were about to interrogate him withdrew immediately. The commander himself was alarmed when he realized that he had put Paul, a Roman citizen, in chains.
Paul Before the Sanhedrin
30 The commander wanted to find out exactly why Paul was being accused by the Jews. So the next day he released him and ordered the chief priests and all the members of the Sanhedrin to assemble. Then he brought Paul and had him stand before them.
2 When they heard him speak to them in Aramaic, they became very quiet.
Then Paul said: 3 “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city. I studied under Gamaliel and was thoroughly trained in the law of our ancestors. I was just as zealous for God as any of you are today. 4 I persecuted the followers of this Way to their death, arresting both men and women and throwing them into prison, 5 as the high priest and all the Council can themselves testify. I even obtained letters from them to their associates in Damascus, and went there to bring these people as prisoners to Jerusalem to be punished.
6 “About noon as I came near Damascus, suddenly a bright light from heaven flashed around me. 7 I fell to the ground and heard a voice say to me, ‘Saul! Saul! Why do you persecute me?’
8 “‘Who are you, Lord?’ I asked.
“ ‘I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting,’ he replied. 9 My companions saw the light, but they did not understand the voice of him
who was speaking to me.
10 “‘What shall I do, Lord?’ I asked.
“ ‘Get up,’ the Lord said, ‘and go into Damascus. There you will be told all that you have been assigned to do.’ 11 My companions led me by the hand into Damascus, because the brilliance of the light had blinded me.
12 “A man named Ananias came to see me. He was a devout observer of the law and highly respected by all the Jews living there. 13 He stood beside me and said, ‘Brother Saul, receive your sight!’ And at that very moment I was able to see him.
14 “Then he said: ‘The God of our ancestors has chosen you to know his will and to see the Righteous One and to hear words from his mouth. 15 You will be his witness to all people of what you have seen and heard. 16 And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on his name.’
17 “When I returned to Jerusalem and was praying at the temple, I fell into a trance 18 and saw the Lord speaking to me. ‘Quick!’ he said. ‘Leave Jerusalem immediately, because the people here will not accept your testimony about me.’
19 “‘Lord,’ I replied, ‘these people know that I went from one synagogue to another to imprison and beat those who believe in you. 20 And when the blood of your martyr[a] Stephen was shed, I stood there giving my approval and guarding the clothes of those who were killing him.’
21 “Then the Lord said to me, ‘Go; I will send you far away to the Gentiles.’ ”
Paul the Roman Citizen
22 The crowd listened to Paul until he said this. Then they raised their voices and shouted, “Rid the earth of him! He’s not fit to live!”
23 As they were shouting and throwing off their cloaks and flinging dust into the air, 24 the commander ordered that Paul be taken into the barracks. He directed that he be flogged and interrogated in order to find out why the people were shouting at him like this. 25 As they stretched him out to flog him, Paul said to the centurion standing there, “Is it legal for you to flog a Roman citizen who hasn’t even been found guilty?”
“What are you going to do?” he asked. “This man is a Roman citizen.”
27 The commander went to Paul and asked, “Tell me, are you a Roman citizen?”
“Yes, I am,” he answered.
28 Then the commander said, “I had to pay a lot of money for my citizenship.”
“But I was born a citizen,” Paul replied.
29 Those who were about to interrogate him withdrew immediately. The commander himself was alarmed when he realized that he had put Paul, a Roman citizen, in chains.
Paul Before the Sanhedrin
30 The commander wanted to find out exactly why Paul was being accused by the Jews. So the next day he released him and ordered the chief priests and all the members of the Sanhedrin to assemble. Then he brought Paul and had him stand before them.
DEVOTIONAL
Have you ever had an opportunity to use a skill later in life you learned as a child? After decades of not riding a bike, the skill comes back to you as soon as you start peddling. Or you finally used a math formula you learned in high school; the same one you promised your math teacher you would never use. Whatever the situation, it’s amazing to think of how that ability stayed hidden away in a corner of your mind for so long. God often positions us to use what we learned or experienced early in life for situations later on. You may have experienced loss or a broken home and it’s this experience that enables you to empathize and help a friend who is experiencing something similar. You may have been taught a verse or a Bible story that comes back at the exact time you needed it. It’s amazing how what you thought would never be useful, the Holy Spirit will bring to mind at just the right moment. This is one of the gifts Jesus said the Holy Spirit would do: to allow us to recall the words of Christ at just the right time. It was through this Spirit-enabled ability to supernaturally recall crucial information that the disciples were even able to write the New Testament.
In Chapter 22 of Acts, we see one of these spirit-led moments. Paul has once again been accused by the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem. The charges leveled against him echoed the charges Stephen was tried and executed for twenty years earlier. Paul helped to preside over that hasty trial and execution, and now he is being accused in a predictably similar way. Paul would have known exactly what was about to happen, and how his life was in danger. Yet Paul had something Stephen didn’t. Paul was a Roman citizen. He was familiar with Roman, Greek, and Jewish culture, something which had come to his aid many times in his missionary journeys. After being accused, Paul quiets the crowd who wants him dead and proceeds to tell the now-familiar story of his conversion on the road to Damascus twenty years earlier. Paul spoke to the people in Aramaic, a mostly dead language that only those studied in the law would know how to speak. They stopped yelling and listened. It would be a surprise for many Jews who had been stirred up against Paul, that this man accused of blaspheming the Hebrew faith and profaning the temple would speak Aramaic. Paul spoke to the Jewish scribes and Pharisees as peers because he was their peer, trained under Gamaliel with even greater training than those who now opposed him had received. Paul had spoken Greek to the Roman officer, as a peer, and now spoke Aramaic to the Jews to meet them right where they were. Things he learned in his youth were coming in useful once again.
Paul began his defense before the Jews using the exact introductory words Stephen had used twenty years prior. He called the people his fathers and brothers, carefully building a bridge to his audience. The mob listened carefully up to the point where Paul told them he had been sent away to preach to the Gentiles. Now he had taken it too far! They didn’t mind this talk about Jesus, but they could not stand the idea that God might save Jews and Gentiles in the same way. There, existed deep-seated anger and resentment towards anyone who had adopted the culture of their Roman overlords. How could the Hebrew God send a man away from His chosen people to reach those who oppressed and occupied the land of the Jews? It must have been a strange sight for the Roman commander. He saw Paul passionately address this huge crowd in a language he didn’t know. He saw the crowd in rapt attention until suddenly, they erupted into a riot. When the situation was explained to him, he must have thought it absurd and offensive: All this rioting springing from the hatred of gentiles, people just like him. He then ordered that Paul be detained, flogged, and questioned by the Roman commander until he was informed Paul was a Roman citizen. Once again, Paul meets the commander on his level and speaks to him as a peer, a Roman citizen with great authority. It was a serious violation of Roman rights to even bind a Roman citizen without due process. Citizens of Rome had great authority within the empire, even over Roman soldiers, because many soldiers came from conquered countries and were not yet themselves citizens of Rome. It took many years of serving or a lot of money to buy Roman citizenship, but Paul had been a citizen from birth. Paul was an extremely rare individual. It was uncommon to find such an educated, intelligent, devout Jew who was also a Roman citizen. God would use this unique background to direct Paul in a special way, just as he wants to use your unique background to use you in a special way.
From now until the end of the Book of Acts, Paul will be in Roman custody. This was the end of his time as a free man, though not the end of his witness or his usefulness to God and God’s people. In one short passage, we see the culmination of a life of study, learning, hard work, and Godly providence leading Paul to where God wants him to be. Three times, Paul is able to draw upon something from his past in order to build common ground and connect with people in his present world. Think about this in your own lives. What is it from your own past, whether good or bad, that God can use in your present, and in your future, to help introduce people to Jesus?
In Chapter 22 of Acts, we see one of these spirit-led moments. Paul has once again been accused by the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem. The charges leveled against him echoed the charges Stephen was tried and executed for twenty years earlier. Paul helped to preside over that hasty trial and execution, and now he is being accused in a predictably similar way. Paul would have known exactly what was about to happen, and how his life was in danger. Yet Paul had something Stephen didn’t. Paul was a Roman citizen. He was familiar with Roman, Greek, and Jewish culture, something which had come to his aid many times in his missionary journeys. After being accused, Paul quiets the crowd who wants him dead and proceeds to tell the now-familiar story of his conversion on the road to Damascus twenty years earlier. Paul spoke to the people in Aramaic, a mostly dead language that only those studied in the law would know how to speak. They stopped yelling and listened. It would be a surprise for many Jews who had been stirred up against Paul, that this man accused of blaspheming the Hebrew faith and profaning the temple would speak Aramaic. Paul spoke to the Jewish scribes and Pharisees as peers because he was their peer, trained under Gamaliel with even greater training than those who now opposed him had received. Paul had spoken Greek to the Roman officer, as a peer, and now spoke Aramaic to the Jews to meet them right where they were. Things he learned in his youth were coming in useful once again.
Paul began his defense before the Jews using the exact introductory words Stephen had used twenty years prior. He called the people his fathers and brothers, carefully building a bridge to his audience. The mob listened carefully up to the point where Paul told them he had been sent away to preach to the Gentiles. Now he had taken it too far! They didn’t mind this talk about Jesus, but they could not stand the idea that God might save Jews and Gentiles in the same way. There, existed deep-seated anger and resentment towards anyone who had adopted the culture of their Roman overlords. How could the Hebrew God send a man away from His chosen people to reach those who oppressed and occupied the land of the Jews? It must have been a strange sight for the Roman commander. He saw Paul passionately address this huge crowd in a language he didn’t know. He saw the crowd in rapt attention until suddenly, they erupted into a riot. When the situation was explained to him, he must have thought it absurd and offensive: All this rioting springing from the hatred of gentiles, people just like him. He then ordered that Paul be detained, flogged, and questioned by the Roman commander until he was informed Paul was a Roman citizen. Once again, Paul meets the commander on his level and speaks to him as a peer, a Roman citizen with great authority. It was a serious violation of Roman rights to even bind a Roman citizen without due process. Citizens of Rome had great authority within the empire, even over Roman soldiers, because many soldiers came from conquered countries and were not yet themselves citizens of Rome. It took many years of serving or a lot of money to buy Roman citizenship, but Paul had been a citizen from birth. Paul was an extremely rare individual. It was uncommon to find such an educated, intelligent, devout Jew who was also a Roman citizen. God would use this unique background to direct Paul in a special way, just as he wants to use your unique background to use you in a special way.
From now until the end of the Book of Acts, Paul will be in Roman custody. This was the end of his time as a free man, though not the end of his witness or his usefulness to God and God’s people. In one short passage, we see the culmination of a life of study, learning, hard work, and Godly providence leading Paul to where God wants him to be. Three times, Paul is able to draw upon something from his past in order to build common ground and connect with people in his present world. Think about this in your own lives. What is it from your own past, whether good or bad, that God can use in your present, and in your future, to help introduce people to Jesus?
