Exploring God’s Word with Brad Thurston

What's Your Story?

Episode Summary

Acts 22:1-29 How can we share the Gospel with those who are culturally, linguistically, and traditionally different to us and the way we were brought up? This defense Paul gives is strikingly different to the evangelistic approach he took on Mars Hill in Athens.

Episode Notes

The Riot in Jerusalem and Paul’s initial response: He is at Peace. At this point he diverts from Jesus’ path since he is not going to die for the sins but yearns to see those who are his persecutors saved, even as he was saved as a persecutor of the Way.

He has been mistaken as a polluter of the temple, and as an Egyptian revolutionary. Now he has the chance to share who he is and why.  But the primary motive, is that he wants his listeners to become like him! He uses what he knows to be an attack to demonstrate God’s love others! He sees through the spiritual blindness of those he is now addressing.

First of all, what didn’t he do?

He didn’t demand a lawyer.

He didn’t accuse his tormentors.

He didn’t get angry.

He didn’t lose his peace.

See Elizabeth Elliott:  Christ in you is the secret, not me in my situation and circumstances. Circumstances change but Jesus doesn’t. Even in the midst of having been beaten he is able to give his defense.  But his defense is really a desire to see them saved, not himself!  Now he sets his witnessing in a different setting to address the people whose culture and attitudes he knows.

In Athens he uses their history, culture and beginning with creation shows the way to the resurrection. Here though, by establishing where he is is from, raised and educated, he already laid a foundation with the acceptance of resurrection (that is the basic difference of belief to the Sadducees) in their culture.  He also establishes his credibility as a Pharisee who had the best education in the law and prophets.

• Notice how Luke likes to repeat matters where something needs to be learned! Peter with Cornelius, Jesus in Luke, and Paul’s testimony. 
• Paul uses his credibility to establish that he is a witness to the resurrection of Jesus.
• Light is a recurring theme in this passage and has divine importance, as it indicates the Glory of God! The repetition in his testimony along with his credentials now demonstrates that he has the authority of God to speak. “For God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness,” is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.” 2 Corinthians 4:6 
• His time in the temple shows: a direct rebuttal of their claim against him. He shows his claim to the guiding beliefs of Judaism, his long standing devotion to the temple; his prayer life demonstrates his piety, and the temple as a place of prayer (just as Jesus had done); his Vision relates to Paul’s vision regarding the clean and unclean; and most importantly:
• When Paul sees the vision in the temple, he is now claiming the same authority of a prophet – speaking both of Jesus and of Isaiah! Isaiah was in the temple when God called him. (6:1-10) and the message is similar: “He says, “It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant To raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the protected ones of Israel; I will also make You a light of the nations So that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”” Isaiah 49:6 and  Isaiah 6:8-10 “Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?” Then I said, “Here am I. Send me!” And He said, “Go, and tell this people: ‘Keep on listening, but do not understand; And keep on looking, but do not gain knowledge.’ “Make the hearts of this people insensitive, Their ears dull, And their eyes blind, So that they will not see with their eyes, Hear with their ears, Understand with their hearts, And return and be healed.””
• The response is violent, similar to how it was with Jesus in Luke 4:28-29: “And all the people in the synagogue were filled with rage as they heard these things; and they got up and drove Him out of the city, and brought Him to the crest of the hill on which their city had been built, so that they could throw Him down from the cliff.”

Paul claims safety in Roman law to secure his passage to Rome, and fulfill his calling.

For us it is important to know that the Gospel is offensive, regardless of how lovingly we share it.  But it is required of us to love and demonstrate that love in word and in deed.  We can see how Paul identifies with the good in the people, but is uncompromising in his stand on the messianic mission.  He finds a way to share that in a context that ought to be understood, even if it is not.  I heard a woman decry on TV that Christians love sinners and hate sin.  Even if Jesus did do that.  But folks today want to be identified by what the do or have. Christians want to be identified by who they are in Christ. Who are you? What determines the values you have in life? What is your focus?