Paul’s Protection
Published by Stanley Pouw in 2024 · 4 February 2024
We have been following the ministry of the apostle Paul as a free man. From Acts 21 on, he becomes a prisoner from here on out until his death. His ministry is not diminished in any sense, it’s only different. Now during the time of his being a prisoner, he gives six different defenses of himself, of his actions, of his attitudes. The first such defense is given here in Acts 21:27 – Acts 22:30.
We have also studied a principle behind the narrative, and that is the idea of giving a positive testimony in a negative situation. And, the last of the principles that we’ll be considering has to do with attitude. The attitude toward the unbeliever is going to color the kind of testimony. If I really love the unbeliever as Jesus and Paul did, it’s going to affect my testimony toward that person.
A genuine, caring, honest, deep love for the lost is basic to effective testimony. I believe that you could verify the fact that the people who are the most effective in reaching the lost are the people whose love for them is the most genuine, because we tend to do what our love motivates us to do. So another factor in a positive testimony in a negative situation is to have true concern.
In this passage, Paul displays for us the right attitude toward the unbelievers. Paul shows his love for Israel. He loves Israel so much, he could wish himself accursed, and it’s out of that that he gives them the gospel. When Paul was on these tours, positively, he won a lot of people to Jesus Christ and started a lot of churches; negatively, he alienated other Jewish people everywhere he went.
The first thing Paul would do when he went into a town was go to the synagogue, and he would preach Christ and some of the Jews would believe and the rest of them would begin to hate him. And as he went from town to town, this hatred was built up, and it was mostly the leaders who hated Paul. On this tour to Jerusalem, all the way along he faces the hostility from Jewish leaders.
Now when he arrives in Jerusalem at feast time, and all the Jewish leaders from all over the world are there too. So he arrives in an explosive situation at the same time as his enemies. Some were from Asia Minor. Paul had ministered there effectively for three years and founded no less than seven different churches. So these antagonistic Jews were creating a mob to kill Paul.
They accused Paul of being against the Jews, against the law, and against the temple. They added that Paul had taken a Gentile into the temple, and therefore he should lose his life. Those were all lies. Their purpose was to generate mob violence against him, and it worked. They took Paul, drew him out of the temple, and shut the doors and they were ready to kill him.
Immediately when the Romans saw the riot going on in the temple, their garrison was ready. Down came the centurions and their soldiers to break up the riot. Now the Romans assumed that Paul has done something awful, so they arrest him. In fact, the commander in chief thinks that this is the Egyptian revolutionary that previously had led a riot against Jerusalem. So they grab Paul, and they shackle him.
Paul does not resist. Knowing that God created that situation. God wants to bring you trials and difficult situations, for those are what make you strong. Now after Paul was arrested, he moved into principle two, which is create an opportunity. We find that in principle three, the apology of Paul, beginning in verse 37. And this is a long one; it goes from Acts 21:37 to Acts 22:21.
When he gets to the top of the stairs, he says to the commander, “Could I say a few words?” And the man wonders, because he says, “Can you speak Greek?” And then Paul said, “Yes,” he said, “I can speak Greek. I’m a Jew from Tarsus of Cilicia,” which was a high-class city. And he said, “May I speak?” And the man thought, this’ll be a great opportunity for me to find out what’s going on.
So Paul created his own opportunity. In the midst of a negative situation, he created a positive opportunity. They thought he might have spoken in Greek, but he didn’t. He spoke in Aramaic, the Hebrew language. He says, “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia but brought up in this city, educated by Gamaliel according to the strictness of our ancestral law. I was zealous for God, just as all of you are today.”
Paul says, “I persecuted this Way to the death, arresting and putting both men and women in jail, as both the high priest and the whole council of elders can testify about me. After I received letters, I traveled to Damascus to arrest those and bring them to Jerusalem to be punished. So he does everything to win your audience, establish common ground. It can be as simply as talking about what they’re interested in.
The second part is the circumstances at his conversion, verses 6 to 16. “As I was traveling and approaching Damascus, about noon an intense light from heaven suddenly flashed around me. 7 I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’8 “I answered, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ “He said to me, ‘I am Jesus of Nazareth, the one you are persecuting.’
9 Now those who were with me saw the light, but they did not hear the voice of the one who was speaking to me.” That was also confirmation of the fact that Jesus had risen from the dead. A whole lot of people with me who saw the same light, fell on the same ground. The only difference is they didn’t hear what I heard. That message was a special message from Jesus for me.”
10 “I said, ‘What should I do, Lord?’ “The Lord told me, ‘Get up and go into Damascus, and there you will be told everything that you have been assigned to do.’ 11 “Since I couldn’t see because of the brightness of the light, I was led by the hand by those who were with me, and went into Damascus. 12 Someone named Ananias, a devout man who had a good reputation with all the Jews living there,
He came and stood by me and said, ‘Brother Saul, regain your sight.’ And in that very hour I looked up and saw him. 14 And he said, ‘The God of our ancestors has appointed you to know His will, to see the Righteous One, and to hear the words from his mouth, 15 since you will be a witness for Him to all people of what you have seen and heard. Verse 16, “And now, why are you delaying?
Get up and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on his name.” Now every Jew standing there knew who the God of our fathers was. The fourth principle, to give a positive testimony in a negative situation is to exalt the Lord. If anybody rejects your testimony, they’ve got to reject God. Nobody should walk away rejecting my experience; they should walk away, either accepting or rejecting my God.
Make sure that what you’re giving testimony to is the miracle that God has wrought in your life, not the new you; not just the practical outsides of the new you, but what God has done. The clearest testimony is that testimony which leaves a man only one option: to either accept the truth about God or to reject it; not about me, not about you. And that’s what Paul did in verse 16, he acted.
There are some people who believe everything, but they never make that response. To say that God has brought about all these circumstances of knowledge and information does not preclude the fact that man has to respond to that. “Call on the name of the Lord. The result will be your sins will be washed away and be baptized.” That’s what he’s saying. And so he’s asking for a response.
Romans 10:9 says, “If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” It’s a matter of believing and stating that belief. Romans 10:13 says, “For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” The New Testament teaches that a man is saved by grace through faith, that confessing Jesus Christ is Lord.
Baptizing is the public testimony. “Since your sins have been washed away by calling on the name of the Lord, arise and make it public.” Baptism was the symbol, the outward symbol of an inward reality. Well, what has Paul done? He’s totally exonerated himself. For three years after his conversion, he was in Nabataea and Arabia. That three-year period is discussed in Galatians 1:17 and 18.
Verse 17-18, “After I returned to Jerusalem (from Arabia) and was praying in the temple, I fell into a trance 18 and saw Him telling me, ‘Hurry and get out of Jerusalem quickly, because they will not accept your testimony about Me.” Three years later after becoming a Christian, Paul still reveres Jewish customs. And since a Christian can pray to God anywhere, he prays to God in the temple.
“Paul fell in a trance.” The Greek word is ekstasei. You are being transported out of your normal senses. So sometimes God takes His choice servants and gave them a consciousness at a level beyond the normal and natural senses of man. Now Paul had many such visions and revelations. Remember the time he was taken to the third heaven and couldn’t speak about the things he saw?
It took a while for Paul to be accepted. He stayed in Jerusalem fifteen days. He didn’t think he should leave. Verse 19-20, “But I said, ‘Lord, they know that in synagogue after synagogue I had those who believed in you imprisoned and beaten. 20 And when the blood of your witness Stephen was being shed, I stood there giving approval and guarding the clothes of those who killed him.”
The Lord says to him, “No, Paul, they will not receive your testimony.” If they wouldn’t listen to Jesus after he performed miracle, after miracle, right in front of their faces, they’re not about to listen to you Paul. Circumstances are not a good way to tell God’s will. What looks to you good on the surface may not be good. And, when Paul arrived in town, everything went wrong.
Verse 21, “He said to me, ‘Go, because I will send you far away to the Gentiles.’” They hated Paul for several reasons. One was because he preached to the Gentiles. He said in effect, “You can’t blame me for this. I am what I am by the grace of God. If you don’t like it, ask Him; He did it.” A great defense, which puts all of the pressure on them to decide about the God they claim to love and worship.
They hated the Gentiles; and the thing that griped them most was that he was going around preaching equality: “The Jew and Gentile as one in Christ, and they didn’t have to become Jews, and they didn’t have to get circumcised, they didn’t have to keep the law,” and this infuriated them. So all he had to do was say the word “Gentiles,” and that brings us to point four, the action of the people.
Verse 22, “They listened to him up to this point. Then they raised their voices, shouting, “Wipe this man off the face of the earth! He should not be allowed to live!” They were angry because he offered equality to the Gentiles apart from Judaism. They couldn’t tolerate that. Verse 23, “As they were yelling and flinging aside their garments and throwing dust into the air.”
All he does is mention the word “Gentiles” and they go nuts. That’s religious prejudice. Who did they reject? God. That just confirms the unbelief of Israel at that point. We close with this one: the attitude of Paul. In the midst of all of this, with everybody throwing dirt at him and the Romans chained him up and all this going on, what’s his attitude? You know Paul’s attitude is, love for everybody.
Verse 24, “The commander ordered him to be brought into the barracks, directing that he be interrogated with the scourge to discover the reason they were shouting against him like this.” Verse 25, “As they stretched him out for the lash, Paul said to the centurion standing by, “Is it legal for you to scourge a man who is a Roman citizen and is not condemned?”
Scourging, if it didn’t kill him would cripple him for life. Paul had never been scourged. Because it was a crime to scourge a Roman. The Portion law and the Valerian law forbid any Roman from ever going through this form of punishment. Suetonius the Roman lawyer said, “Any man who violates the rights of a Roman citizen will be executed at the Esquiline Hill in Rome.”
Verse 26-28, “When the centurion heard this, he went and reported to the commander, saying, “What are you going to do? For this man is a Roman citizen. The commander came and said to him, “Tell me, are you a Roman citizen?” “Yes,” he said. 28 The commander replied, “I bought this citizenship for a large amount of money.” “But I was born a citizen, Paul said.”
Paul was a first-class citizen. And here was a second-class citizen going to flagellate a first-class citizen. How did Paul’s father become a citizen?” We don’t know, but God made sure it happened. Verse 29, “So those who were about to examine him withdrew from him immediately. The commander too was alarmed when he realized Paul was a Roman citizen and he had bound him.”
That’s the only attitude that’ll make you effective in a negative situation, when you love the people so much you’re willing to sacrifice everything you have for their sake. Verse 30, “The next day, since he wanted to find out exactly why Paul was being accused by the Jews, he released him and instructed the chief priests and all the Sanhedrin to convene. He brought Paul down and placed him before them.” Let us pray.