Positive Testimony
Published by Stanley Pouw in 2018 · 28 January 2018
From the beginnings of the Old Testament and the New Testament, there are always those who have been willing to give a testimony for God or for Christ against all odds. Whether it was Daniel, who would not cease to pray, and was willing to enter the lions' den; or his three friends, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who would not worship the image of Nebuchadnezzar and had to enter a fiery furnace.
Or whether you find someone like Peter, who would not follow the directives of the Sanhedrin, but rather would obey God and preach the gospel, no matter what it cost him; or Stephen who, even in dying beneath the bloody stones as they crushed the life out of his body, announced the reality of the Lord Jesus to those who were throwing the stones.
Throughout history of God's people, beginning in Old Testament times and all the way through the end of the Tribulation till Jesus raptures His church, there have been faithful people, who are willing to confront the worldly system, willing to suffer for the truth and give a positive testimony in the midst of a negative situation, because Satan will do everything he can to make the situation difficult.
Realize that it is confrontation and spiritual warfare that we're talking about. It is never easy. The more you witness for Christ, the harder Satan works against you. And the longer you do it, the closer you get to the end of the age, the worse people become. You will never give a positive testimony, without experiencing criticism and resistance. But you also experience the power of God to overcome that situation.
It is the great climax of his ministry. He has evangelized all over, from Jerusalem as far as west as Achaia, Macedonia, as far east as Seleucia, Syria, and then through Galatia, Pisidia and Asia Minor. In all of those areas, he has established churches. He has gone back, to mature those churches. And the last act, as a free missionary, is to bring this money to Jerusalem to try to bring these Jews and non-Jews of the church together.
When he arrives in Jerusalem, some of the Jewish Christians think he's anti-Jewish, that he doesn't believe in the traditions and the ceremonies of Israel. And some of those Jewish Christians, even though they had given their lives to Christ, were still used to the customs of Israel. It was hard to separate religious customs from the custom of life and culture; so some of them were still doing these very Jewish traditions.
So Paul joins in with them and goes through a Jewish ceremony in order to show these Jewish Christians that he was not against the customs and the ceremonies of cultural Judaism. But while he was in the temple, he was seen by some people who knew him from Asia Minor. When he was in Ephesus he had dramatically affected the entire province.
He had not only established the church at Ephesus, but from there he started six other churches in Asia Minor. All seven are listed in Revelation 2 and 3. Many Jews had been converted from Judaism to follow Jesus, but the rest of the Jews hated him. In fact, there was a riot in Ephesus, and they tried to kill him there. And now, here come some of the same Jews to Jerusalem.
They are there for the feast of Pentecost, and while they are there, they see Paul in the temple going through this Nazarite purification ceremony. Now they feel they have a chance to get him. In Ephesus, Gentiles saved his life; but there are no Gentiles to stop this. So he is attacked in Acts 21:27, and this becomes his arrest and first defense.
Paul was falsely accused of being anti-Semitic, against the law and anti-temple by bringing Greeks into the temple. Of course he didn't do that. But they grabbed him, and they hauled him out of there for the purpose of beating him up and killing him. To the rescue came the Romans who were stationed at Fort Antonia, which was right adjacent to the temple. The chief captain was told that all Jerusalem was in an uproar.
Immediately, he took soldiers and centurions and ran down; and when the Jews saw the chief captain and the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul. Then the chief captain took him and commanded that he be bound with chains, demanded to know who he was and what he had done. Some cry out one thing and some cry out another, and he gets no answers. So he commanded him to be taken to the barracks.
Verse 35, “When he reached the stairs, he had to be carried by the soldiers because of the violence of the mob.” Verse 36, "For the multitude of the people followed after, crying, 'Away with him!'" Instead of worshipping God, they wanted to kill Paul. Judaism was the right religion up until the cross, but after the cross, it ceased to be the right religion.
What we will study now is the defense or the apology of Paul. The word apology in Greek, apologia, means a speech in defense of something. This is apologetics, this is defending himself, not apologizing. It begins in Acts 21:37 and continues through Acts 22:21. His speech in self-defense is basically biographical and experiential. Initially the chief captain thought that Paul was the Egyptian who rebelled against Jerusalem.
Acts 21:39, “But Paul said, “I am a Jew from Tarsus, in Cilicia, a citizen of no mean city; and I implore you, permit me to speak to the people.” Verse 40, “So when he had given him permission, Paul stood on the stairs and motioned with his hand to the people. And when there was a great silence, he spoke to them in the Hebrew language,” which was really Aramaic.
Now when you share Jesus Christ with people, it is more important that you tell the truth of Christ than it is that you tell about your experience. But, along with that, you are going to explain who He is and what He has done in your life. There is power in personal testimony when the emphasis is right. When the emphasis is just on you, it's wrong. When it is on what God has done in you, it is right.
Acts 22:1-2, “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.” Now Paul defends himself on two counts: his motive and his deeds. So there he stands with chains on his hands, surrounded by Roman soldiers. And he begins by gently addressing the mob as brothers and fathers.
"He knows our language." See how God has given him all the tools to communicate with the right people in the right language. Paul was given this opportunity, and now he gives his defense. And his defense has three parts: his conduct before his conversion, verses 3 to 5; the circumstances at his conversion, verses 6 to 16; and his commission after conversion, verses 17 to 21.
Notice his conduct before conversion: verse 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.” This was an excellent beginning. He shows them that his motive was never anti-Jewish.
Paul says, "I'm as Jewish as you are.” Paul is proud of it; and he is trying to identify with them. He was brought up in Tarsus and educated in Jerusalem under the teacher Gamaliel who was a Pharisaic leader of great eminence. He was the greatest disciple of Hillel. There were two great Jewish rabbis who became the heads of two strains of Jewish interpretation, Shammai was the conservative school with a narrow interpretation, while Hillel was the liberal school with a broad interpretation.
Then he adds, “And I was taught according to the strictness of our fathers’ law." Now, the law of the fathers is simply the Old Testament Mosaic Law, as well as all the traditions, the historic faith of Judaism. What does it mean “the strictness of the law?” That meant the extreme, strict interpretation. He was a law legalist. Then he adds. "And I was zealous toward God.”
Josephus the historian says, "You could divide the philosophies of Judaism into four parts: Sadducees were the religious liberals, who didn't believe in resurrection and in miracles; Pharisees were the strict legalists; Essenes, were kind of the far outs. Then fourth, the Zealots, who were super-nationalistic, anti-Roman and extremely legalistic. Paul says, "I was one of those zealots, so don't accuse me of being anti-Jewish."
To add to this, he says at the end of verse 3, "I was zealous toward God, as you all are today.” He actually justifies their motives for beating him up. Look at verse 4, “I persecuted this Way to the death, binding and delivering into prisons both men and women.” Paul says that he had that same zeal for God that they have. I was the most orthodox character that ever was in Judaism.
See the term this Way? That represents Christianity. Jesus said in the last night before His death, "I am the Way." And Peter said, "Neither is there salvation in any other." People always say, "The thing I don't like is that you believe that Christianity is the only way." But everything that Jesus says in the Bible is the truth and anything that contradicts it is wrong. We are grateful that God provided one way of salvation by sacrificing Jesus.
Then he adds verse 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.” So now he calls in the high priest to be his witness. So he said, why don't you check with the Sanhedrin, all the council of the elders?”
Now in verse 6, he gives the circumstances at his conversion; and in this he gives all the glory to God. “Now it happened, as I journeyed and came near Damascus at about noon, suddenly a great light from heaven shone around me.” And, it adds a footnote that isn't in Acts 9; the earlier text didn't tell us it was noon. The light would have been even brighter because it was noon and the sun was bright.
This was the blazing Shekinah glory of Jesus Christ. God is light, and God reveals Himself throughout the Bible in light. At the transfiguration in Matthew 17, Jesus Christ was revealed in bright light. This glorious light of God is now revealed to Paul. Verse 7, “And I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?’
He was blinded. Not the blindness of darkness, no, this is the blindness of light. So for three days, he was only able to concentrate on the image of Jesus Christ in light that God had seared into his eyes. Verse 8, “So I answered, ‘Who are You, Lord?’ And He said to me, ‘I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting.” The despised Nazarene Jesus is actually the Lord of glory.
Verse 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.” Paul draws in more potential witnesses for the corroboration of his story. And they all fell down on the ground. And Acts 9 says that they heard the noise. Here it says they didn't hear the voice. This means that they could hear a sound like thunder, but they couldn't distinguish the articulation, the voice.
When God speaks directly, He speaks directly, which isn't for public consumption. Christ was talking to Paul but the others did not hear it. Verse 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.” This shows the sovereignty of God. If you ever doubt who initiates salvation, just remember the conversion of Paul.
God already reversed his entire life. Salvation is an act of God. You acknowledge it every time you pray for somebody's conversion. "God changed him." “You will be told all the things which are appointed for you to do." God has chosen Paul and appointed his destiny. This is God's plan.
Verse 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.” So being led he goes wandering into Damascus to hear what he has been appointed to do. Do you know he is not even converted yet? And God already is giving him this whole layout on his destiny before he has even made a statement of faith. That is sovereignty.
Verse 12 says, “Then a certain Ananias, a devout man according to the law, having a good testimony with all the Jews who dwelt there.” Paul wants the people who are hearing him to know that his Christianity was not something concocted by a bunch of anti-Jewish people. It was Jesus of Nazareth, whom they knew to be Jewish, that spoke to him. And Ananias also was a devout Jew, who was involved.
The completion of all that Judaism means is in Christ. Verse 13, “Ananias 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.” God gave him the power to announce that miracle, and God gave Paul his sight back. Ananias said a lot of things. Some are recorded in Acts 9, Acts 22 and Acts 26. If you want the total speech of Ananias, you put all three passages together.
Verse 14-15, “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.” The God of Israel chose and transformed the life of Saul. So, one of the most important things in sharing your faith is to be conciliatory. The next point in giving a positive testimony is to tell what God did when He entered your life. Let us pray.