WWUTT 1136 Paul Testifies to the Jews?

The Apostle Paul was repeatedly beaten and persecuted by his own kinsmen for proclaiming the gospel.

Even our own family members will hate us for believing what we believe, but like Paul, we must stand firm when we understand the text.

This is When We Understand The Text, studying God's Word to reach all the riches of full assurance in Christ.

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Pastor Gabe Hughes. Thank you, Becky. We come back to our study of the book of Acts. Chapter 21 is where we're going to begin, but we'll also get into chapter 22 today.

So I'm going to start our reading in Acts 21, verse 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? 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?

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. 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, Brothers and fathers, hear the defense that I now make before you.

And when they heard that he was addressing them in the Hebrew language, they became even more quiet. And he said,

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, delivering to prison both men and women, 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.

As I was on my way, and drew near to Damascus, about noon, a great light from heaven suddenly shone around me, and I fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to me,

Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? And I answered,

Who are you, Lord? And he said, I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting.

Now those who were with me saw the light, but did not understand the voice of the one who was speaking to me, 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.

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.

And one Ananias, a devout man, according to the law well spoken of by the Jews who lived there, 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, and he said, The God of our fathers appointed you to know his will, to see the righteous one, and hear a voice from his mouth, for you will be a witness for him to everyone of what you have seen and heard.

And now why do you wait? Rise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on his name.

And when I had returned to Jerusalem and was praying in the temple, I fell into a trance and saw him saying to me,

Make haste and get out of Jerusalem quickly, because they will not accept your testimony about me.

And I said, Lord, they themselves know that in one synagogue after another I imprisoned and beat those who believed in you.

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.

And he said to me, Go, for I will send you far away to the Gentiles.

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.

And as they were shouting and throwing off their cloaks and flinging dust into the air, 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.

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? 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. So the tribune came and said to him,

Tell me, are you a Roman citizen? And Paul said, Yes. The tribune answered,

I bought this citizenship for a large sum. Paul said, But I am a citizen by birth.

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 Roman citizen and that he had bound him. So I went ahead and went all the way through chapter 22 there, save for verse 30, because that really goes into Paul standing before the council when we get to chapter 23.

So this is Paul's testimony before these in Jerusalem who wanted to put him to death.

Paul was brought into the barracks. He said to the tribune, Let me speak. And the tribune says, Do you know

Greek? Are you not the Egyptian then who recently stirred up a revolt and led the 4000 men of the assassins out into the wilderness?

Now, Josephus does talk about an Egyptian Jew. For the tribune to ask

Paul if he was an Egyptian, that wasn't an unusual question. It might seem like, isn't there quite a an ethnic difference between a a person from Judea and a person from Egypt?

Well, Paul wasn't even from Judea. He was certainly Jewish by lineage. He was of the tribe of Benjamin, but he was born in Tarsus.

So he was really of the Roman Empire. He was from Asia. So how is it that the tribune got him confused with an

Egyptian? Well, Josephus actually writes about a revolt that was led by an Egyptian Jew.

Remember that there was a Jewish settlement in Egypt at Alexandria. So there were certainly

Jews that lived there. And this Egyptian Jew had to be put down by the

Roman governor Felix, who we're going to meet in the story here in Acts in just a little bit. Josephus also spoke of the assassins or the dagger men.

That's translated here is the word assassins. But they were men with daggers who terrorized

Roman sympathizers by stabbing them in the crowds. So there'd be large crowds. They would go into the crowd, stab them and try to do this discreetly.

Of course, you stab enough people. Eventually you get noticed. So this was the guy that had led this particular revolt.

He had not yet been caught at this point in history. And when the tribune had heard about this ruckus that was being stirred up in Jerusalem, he thought that the

Egyptian Jew had returned and he was stirring up all this trouble. So the tribune had him arrested, believing that he was somebody else.

For all of these Jews to be stirred up and casting hatred at this guy, trying to kill Paul tribune thought they the tribune thought they had a legitimate reason for doing so.

So that's why he arrested Paul. And when Paul addresses him and says, may I say something to you?

The tribune says, do you know Greek? So Paul says something to him that leads the tribune to believe

Paul speaking in Greek. So this is obviously a learned man. He has reason to question whether or not he's the

Egyptian Jew coming to stir up trouble, but nevertheless asks him. And Paul replies,

I'm a Jew from Tarsus in Cilicia. So in other words, yeah, no way he's the Egyptian Jew that the that the tribune is looking for.

He is a citizen of no obscure city. So Paul could prove that he was from this place,

I beg you, permit me to speak to the people, he says, and when the tribune 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 so he's demonstrating his learnedness here. He has spoken to the tribune in Greek.

He's addressing the Jews in Hebrew, brothers and fathers here, the defense that now

I make before you. And he had raised his hand and a hush came over the crowd before he began speaking. We've seen this gesture over the course of the book of Acts.

Peter did it as well. He would raise his hand, silence the crowd, and then he would begin speaking in verse two when they heard that he was addressing them in the

Hebrew language. They became even more quiet. And he said, I am a Jew.

So he's confirming his kin, his kinship, his kinsmanship, whichever one of those words is accurate, with the

Hebrews who are there by calling himself a Jew and also speaking in their language. It's like it's almost as like there's two witnesses that he's presenting of himself as being one of them.

I was born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but I was 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 to this day, as all of you are this day.

So Paul mentioning Gamaliel, we've seen Gamaliel here in Acts. As a matter of fact, he was the guy that spoke up in defense of the apostles.

Remember, he said, if these guys are of God, then what we do against them, we would be doing against God and God's wrath would come upon us.

But if they are not of God, well, then whatever it is that they're trying to stir up is just going to fall apart on its own.

Remember, that was Gamaliel that spoke up and said that back in Chapter five, speaking up to prevent the death sentence that was otherwise going to come upon these apostles.

And Gamaliel was a Pharisee, very prominent and very influential.

The Pharisees were the minority in the Sanhedrin. The Sadducees were the majority, but Gamaliel still had considerable influence and he was a teacher of many.

So Paul is demonstrating here that he was a Pharisee himself and educated under Gamaliel according to the strict manners that you adhere to even to this day.

I persecuted this way to the death. Now, when you read that in your Bible, verse four, I persecuted this way to the death.

That's a capital W. So it's the word that's being used to describe Christianity.

I said this earlier, but that word Christian only comes up three times in the New Testament. It's twice in Acts.

We're about to come up on the second occurrence that you'll find it in Acts. And Peter mentions it also in first Peter, where he talks about being persecuted for being a

Christian. Rejoice in that name, even though that word Christian was used as a derogatory term.

When somebody says that of you, rejoice that you are being persecuted for the name of Christ, for we are sharing in the sufferings of Christ.

Christians didn't call Christianity Christianity. They referred to it as the faith or the way.

And that's how Paul describes it here. I persecuted this way to the death, meaning that those who were adherents to it, who are walking in the way, were put to death, binding and delivering to prison both men and women 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 who also were there and bring them in bonds to Jerusalem to be punished.

Now, we read all of this back in Acts nine. This is what Paul was on his way to Damascus to do, to gather up the

Christians, imprison them and punish them to death. Verse six, as I was on my way and I drew near to Damascus about noon, a great light from heaven suddenly shone around me and I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me,

Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? And I answered, who are you, Lord? And he said to me,

I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting. Just as we read the story back in Acts nine. Now, those who were with me saw the light, but did not understand the voice of the one who was speaking to me.

I think when I explained this back at Acts nine, I said that they heard the voice, but did not see the light.

I probably had that backwards, but they saw the light, but did not hear the voice. They certainly heard something, but they couldn't understand it.

Jesus nevertheless spoke to Paul in the Hebrew language, but it was only so Paul could understand it.

The men who were with him knew that something was going on, but they didn't have any understanding of it. They could nevertheless testify.

Some bright light appeared, knocked Paul down, struck him blind, and we had to lead him to Damascus because he he couldn't go there on his own.

They could testify of these things, though they could not absolutely say what it was that Jesus said to him.

So Jesus told him to go into Damascus, verse 12, and one Ananias, a devout man, according to the law, well spoken of by all the

Jews, came to me and standing by me said brother, Saul, receive your sight.

And at that very hour, I received my sight and saw him. 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.

And you will be a witness for him to everyone of what you have seen and heard.

And now why do you wait? Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name.

And that's what Paul did. Now, this was similar to what Jesus told to Ananias.

I will show him how much he must suffer for my name and that he's going to go stand before kings and governors and speak the gospel to both

Jews and Gentiles. And that's certainly what Paul has done in fulfillment of exactly what

Jesus was going to do for his name. Verse 17, when

I had returned to Jerusalem and was praying in the temple, I fell into a trance and I saw him saying to me, make haste, get out of Jerusalem quickly because they will not accept your testimony about me.

And I said, Lord, they themselves know that in one synagogue after another, I imprisoned and beat those who believed in you.

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.

This was Paul saying to Jesus, are they really going to listen to me? Share your gospel with them when they know what it is that I was doing to Christians prior to your appearance to me.

And Jesus said, go, I'm going to send you far away to the Gentiles where they don't know this thing that you have done.

Paul is going to have an opportunity to speak the gospel afresh to those ears who certainly need to hear it, to those who have been worshiping false gods and need to have their hearts turned to the one true

God. So verse 22 now says Paul has been sharing this testimony with them, it says up to this word, they listen to him, those

Jews that were there at Jerusalem, hearing Paul address them in the Hebrew language, but then they raised their voices and said away with such a fellow from the earth, for he should not be allowed to live.

Now, why is that? Why is that their response? Did they want to give Paul the death penalty because he had approved of the stoning of Stephen?

No, absolutely not. That's not what it was that they wanted to kill Paul for. They wanted to kill

Paul because he was a traitor, because he had gone from being a Pharisee who was zealously defending the

Mosaic law or believing that he was. The fact of the matter was is that that anybody who was defending the law against the

Christians and putting Christians to death because of the gospel that they proclaimed, they didn't even understand

Moses and the prophets. So when Jesus says in Luke chapter 16, if they don't listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they believe someone who rises from the dead.

The reason why they are putting Christians to death has nothing to do with their zealousness for the law, because it's misplaced.

They don't even understand the law. They don't understand the law and the prophets and what they were speaking toward and what it was pointing to.

And that was Jesus Christ, the Lord. They don't get that. So really, it's their own system.

It's their own way. It's their own idol that they have exalted, believing that they're worshiping

God. But it's really a God of their own making. That's what it is that they're defending. That's what they want to kill

Paul over because he's coming in, preaching the gospel, smashing down all these idols that the

Jews have raised up in the place of God. Now, they're not literal idols, of course. There's not idol statues that have been raised and erected in the temple.

It's the fact that they are worshiping a God other than the one who was sent by the father.

They do not worship Jesus Christ, the Lord. So therefore, they do not worship God at all.

But they believe Paul to be a traitor to his very calling, a traitor to the

Jews themselves, a traitor to the law that he was expected to teach and uphold. And so they say this man should not even be allowed to live.

And as they were shouting and throwing their cloaks and flinging dust into the air, 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.

So it's like the Tribune is going, these guys have to have a legitimate reason to be carrying on like this and be so angry at Paul.

And it can't be because they think of him as being a heretic and a blasphemer. The Tribune couldn't even conceptualize of this.

So he thinks there's some serious criminal activity going on by Paul. But really, what

Paul was guilty of was the same thing that Jesus was guilty of, if you'll pardon the expression.

Jesus proclaimed the righteousness of God. Jesus proclaimed himself to be God. Jesus said, you cannot be saved by your works.

You acknowledge me with your lips, but your heart is far from me. So repent, follow me, and you will be saved.

And they put Jesus to death for proclaiming that, who then conquered death, showing that he really was who he said he was, the son of God, the righteous one.

The Apostle Paul is sharing in the same sufferings of Christ. And remember that Jesus has said to all of us in Matthew chapter 5,

Blessed are you when people revile you and hate you and utter all kinds of false, slanderous things on my account.

Because so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. So when people lie and slander you, lie about you and slander you because you are a

Christian, because you uphold and do the righteous thing and desire to imitate and follow Christ. When people slander you because of that, because you pursue godliness and you want to live righteousness in your life.

When people make fun of you and ridicule you for that, rejoice. Because you are sharing in the sufferings of Christ.

Rejoice in knowing that great is your reward in heaven. For Jesus said so.

You remain faithful to him. You do not deny him before men. Then he will acknowledge you before his father who is in heaven.

And we have the promise of an eternal inheritance with Christ, our savior. Stand firm, my brothers and sisters.

Do not be ashamed of the gospel. Do not be ashamed of the godliness that you are called to walk in.

Walking in godliness simply means you want to be like your savior. You want to walk as Jesus walked, as we're instructed to do in 1

John 2. You might have heard the story recently of the Church of England that had recently said that marriage is between one man and one woman.

Well, then the LGBTQ agenda came out against them and started shouting them down and making fun of them and calling them names.

And so then the Church of England came back out and apologized, said we're sorry for all the feelings that we hurt.

We're sorry about this thing that we said, that marriage is between a man and a woman. They were totally ashamed of the institution of marriage as God had designed it.

If they are ashamed of Christ and his word, then Christ is going to be ashamed of them on the day of glory.

It takes more than just acknowledging the name of Christ. We must also understand his word and follow it and keep it.

To follow Jesus means that you follow his word. People will hate you for it.

Jesus said they would. But he, as he said to his disciples, when they hate you, remember they hated me first.

But Jesus is the one who conquered death. Jesus is the one who overcame the world.

So understand the words of Jesus when he said, in this world, you will have trouble. But take heart, for I have overcome the world.

And Paul remains faithful to his Savior, even here when he's being threatened with flogging.

I'm going to flog this guy and maybe I'm going to find out the truth. You know, I'm going to beat him up a little bit, and then he's going to spill the beans.

He's going to say, no, this is really what I'm guilty for. Verse 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?

When the centurion heard this, he went to the tribune and said to him, What are you about to do? This man's a

Roman citizen. So the tribune came and said to him, Tell me, are you a Roman citizen? And Paul said,

Yes. The tribune answered, Well, I bought this citizenship for a large sum.

It's as if the tribune is saying, I don't really believe you're a Roman citizen. You actually paid for your citizenship. But Paul had a more confirmed citizenship than even the tribune had.

He said, I'm a citizen by birth. 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.

Remember, the same thing happened at Paul when he was in Philippi. They became afraid because they had bound Paul and Silas and thrown them in prison when

Paul had been a Roman citizen. It was not lawful to treat a Roman citizen this way. So Paul used his

Roman citizenship for the purpose of advancing the gospel. And not to put too fine a point on it, because it really wasn't the lesson that I was attempting to come to here in chapter 22, but use the citizenship that you have in whatever country you live in.

Use the rights that are afforded to you to share the gospel of Christ. Let's pray.

Our Heavenly Father, I pray that we would not be ashamed of the gospel, for we know it is the power of God for salvation to all who believe.

And we would take it to others that they may hear and believe the good news that Jesus Christ has died for our sins and risen again from the grave.

And whoever believes in him will not perish, but will have everlasting life. Let us not be ashamed of this message, nor of any other word that Christ has spoken from his mouth through his apostles, that which we have written down for us in the word of God, the

Bible. We hold the whole thing to be true, Genesis 1 to Revelation 22, and we consider all of it and desire to keep it for the sake and glory of your name.