Sermon, 2/09/03 pm

Jim Huskey, Walking Through Acts # 30

By the time we ended our study earlier, a prophet by the name of

Agabus had shown up in Caesarea, had taken Paul's girdle and bound

himself, saying, this is what the Holy Spirit says will happen to the

man who owned that girdle, if he goes to Jerusalem. As we left our

study this morning, those words of Agabus had come true. Paul was

bound and chained, being led by soldiers out of the hands of the Jews

for his own protection. We left him standing on the stairs, bound,

soldiers on either side of him. He was making a request to speak to

this mob that had him delivered into the Roman hands.

Acts 22 begins, "Men, brethren, and fathers, hear ye my defence which

I make now unto you. (And when they heard tht he spake in the Hebrew

tongue to them, they kept the more silence; and he saith)." Verses 1,2.

Remember, they had accused Paul of violating all the Jewish customs.

They accused him to taking a Gentile into the temple. The Roman

captain thought he was an Egyptian. Here he is, however, speaking in

the Hebrew tongue to the audience and that stills them, at least

temporarily. What they don't understand, and what he is about to try

to make them understand, is that between them they have a lot of

common ground. What they don't understand is that Paul once stood

exactly where they are standing now. "I am verily a man which am a

Jew, born in Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, yet brought up in this city

at the feet of Gamaliel, and taught according to the perfect manner of

the law of the fathers, and was zealous toward God, as ye all are this

day." Verse 3. Now let me back up for just a moment. It seems like

we've encountered this man before whose name is Gamaliel.

Remember earlier in Acts when we started our journey, chapter 5, there

was an uproar and the apostles are brought before the council. They

had been preaching to the council. "When they heard that, they were

cut to the heart, and took counsel to slay them. Then stood there up

one in the council, a Pharisee, named Gamaliel, a doctor of the law,

had in reputation among all the people, and commanded to put the

apostles forth a little space." Acts 5:33,34. Gamaliel spoke to them.

That gives up something of a background here for Paul. He was brought

up at the feet of Gamaliel. Well we've already been told about this

man Gamaliel. He was highly esteemed among the Jews. He was a

Pharisee and Paul had been brought up in Jerusalem at his feet.

Acts 22:4, continuing, "And I persecuted this way unto the death,

binding and delivering into prisons both men and women. As also the

high priest doth bear me witness, and all the estate of the elders;

from whom also I received letters unto the brethren, and went to

Damascus, to bring them which were there bound unto Jerusalem, for

to be punished." Verses 4,5. You see, one of the things Paul is

doing is placing the religious hierarchy of the Jews on the spot.

Remember, it was them from whom he had received authority to bind and

imprison christians. That was a matter of record!!!! Certainly,

the people were familiar with Gamaliel; they were familiar with his

reputation. Paul said he was brought up at the feet of Gamaliel.

The notoriety of Paul had been wide spread when he was called Saul of

Tarsus. It had been wide spread!!! Remember, when Ananias was

instructed to go to him, he said, 'Lord, we've heard about this fellow

before.' So the things Paul had done and the things Paul is saying

here were verifiable. Now we must remember that many of the charges

that had been brought against him were false. What he was trying to

do was get them to see from where he was coming. He was coming from

where they were standing at that time. He'd been there, done that!!!

"And it came to pass, that as I made my journey, and was come nigh

unto Damascus about noon, suddenly there shone from heaven a great

light round about me. And I fell to the ground, and heard a voice

saying unto me, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And I

answered, Who art thou, Lord? And he said unto me, I am Jesus of

Nazareth, whom thou persecutest. And they that were with me saw

indeed the light, and were afraid; but they heard not the voice of him

that spake to me. And I said, What shall I do, Lord? And the Lord

said unto me, Arise, and go into Damascus; and there it shall be told

thee of all things which are appointed for thee to do." Acts 22:6-10.

We have mentioned this in the past, but I'll mention it again. These

people you hear who get up and testify the Lord told them to this to

be saved, the Lord told them to that to be saved - let me tell you

a secret - HE DIDN'T DO ANY SUCH THING!!!!! I don't know what it was

they heard, but it "weren't the Lord". If there had ever been an

occasion where the Lord might have broken the pattern, here was a case

for it. This is the man who will be the apostle to the Gentile world,

that will perhaps during his lifetime do more for the spread of the

gospel than any other man, except the Lord himself. But God didn't

break the mold for THAT ONE. Who in the world do people think THEY

are to think God will break it for them???? Now, I know the problem.

They are not thinking - not with the brain. They're thinking with the

emotion. Things may be just as real to them, imagined, as they are in

reality and therein lies the problem. But God wouldn't tell Paul, the

Lord wouldn't tell Paul what he had to do. He had to go and find out

like anybody else. He sent him to a preacher. That's why Paul would

later write to the brethren at Rome and say, "For whosoever shall call

upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on

him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him

of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a

preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is

written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of

peace and bring glad tidings of good things!" Romans 10:13-15. So Paul

is sent into the city, told that it would be told him there of all

things appointed for him to do. "And when I could not see for the

glory of that light, being led by the hand of them that were with me,

I came into Damascus. And one Ananias, a devout man according to

the law, having a good report of all the Jews which dwelt there, came

unto me, and stood, and said unto me, Brother Saul, receive thy sight.

And the same hour I looked up upon him. And he said, The God of our

fathers hath chosen thee, that thou shouldest know his will, and see

that Just One, and shouldest hear the voice of his mouth. For thou

shalt be his witness unto all men of what thou hast seen and heard.

And now why tarriest thou? arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy

sins, calling on the name of the Lord." Acts 22:11-16. God didn't

make an exception with Saul of Tarsus. He didn't make an exception

with him who was to be the apostle to the Genile world. He had to go

to a preacher by the name of Ananias and there learn what he must do.

I have heard all sorts of tales told about Saul of Tarsus. One

preacher in debate one time talking about the conversion of Saul of

Tarsus, said he was saved when he fell off his horse before he hit the

ground. Well, I've read all the accounts of Saul's conversion several

times and I haven't found a horse in them yet. But the horse is just

as much there as that preacher's notion of how Saul was saved!!!Both

are figments of somebody's imagination. What did Ananias tell Saul

to do? "And now why tarriest thou? arise, and be baptized, and wash

away thy sins.." Verse 16. If Saul was saved on the road to

Damascus, he was saved in sin!!!! It's the only conclusion we can

reach, because when he arrived in Damascus, his sins were still with

him. So if he was saved on the road to Damascus, he was saved in

sin. Also, he was saved without knowing what the Lord would have him

do to be saved. Finally, he was saved without knowing he was saved.

Now, that's an interesting picture. Yet, that is the very picture

an awful lot of folks in the religious world, and nowdays probably

some of my brethren, would have the world see - a man saved without

knowing what to do, being saved without knowing he'd done it, being

saved in his sins. Now if you get down to the bottom line, that's a

pretty pathetic picture!!!! But that is a very real picture in the

religious world out there today. "..arise and be baptized and wash

away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord." We know that's what

Paul did. He would come back to Jerusalem again, and again.

"And it came to pass, that when I was come again to Jerusalem, even

while I prayed in the temple, I was in a trance; and saw him saying

unto me, Make haste, and get thee quickly out of Jerusalem, for they

will not receive thy testimony concerning me. And I said, Lord, they

know that I imprisoned and beat in every synagogue them that believed

on thee; and when the blood of thy martyr Stephen was shed, I also was

standing by, and consenting unto his death, and kept the raiment of

them that slew him. And he said unto me, Depart; for I will send thee

far hence unto the Gentiles." Verses 17-21. Wanna see how racial

prejudice and racial hatred works???? They listened to Paul up to

this point; they listened to him as he told them what he had seen,

what had happened to him, why he was where he was. But when he

mentioned the name of the Gentile world, the record says, "And they

gave him audience unto this word, and then lifted up their voices,

and said, Away with such a fellow from the earth; for it is not fit

that he should live. And as they cried out, and cast off their

clothes, and threw dust into the air, the chief captain commanded him

to be brought into the castle, and bade that he should be examined by

scourging; that he might know wherefore they cried so against him.

And as they bound him with thongs, Paul said unto the centurion

that stood by, Is it lawful for you to scourge a man that is a Roman,

and uncondemned? When the centurion heard that, he went and told the

chief captain saying, Take heed what thou doest; for this man is a

Roman." Acts 22:22-26. Talk about a comedy of errors!!! Course,

that's government for you - Roman government then, our government now,

sometimes. Remember, the chief captain thought he was an Egyptian

first. Then he found out he spoke Greek and Hebrew and lo and behold,

he found out, almost too late, he's a Roman.

"Then the chief captain came, and said unto him, Tell me, art thou a

Roman? He said, Yea. And the chief captain answered, With a great

sum obtained I this freedom. And Paul said, But I was free born.

(In other words Paul didn't have to buy it like the captain did; he

was BORN a Roman citizen.) Then straightway they departed from him

which should have examined him; and the chief captain also was afraid,

after he knew that he was a Roman, and because he had bound him. On

the morrow, because he would have known the certainty wherefore he was

accused of the Jews, he loosed him from his bands, and commanded the

chief priests and all their council to appear, and brought Paul down,

and set him before them." Acts 22:27-30. This is the first in a

rather lengthy series of defenses that Paul is going to have to make.

This first one is before the people, then he'll have to appear before

the council, then he will appear before a number of rulers and kings,

all as a result of false charges that had been laid against him -

that he had carried a Gentile into the temple and that he told the

Jews they could no longer observe the right of circumcision, neither of

which had happened. Based on eroneous supposition, they added one and

one together and "got five". That's happened to a lot of folks.

They weren't the first nor the last to do the same thing.

We'll stop here and get ready to hear his next defense next time, as

he goes before the council.