Acts 22

Acts 22:1-30

64. PAUL’S DEFENCE OF THE FAITH Acts 22:1-30 Acts 22 opens with Paul standing before an angry religious mob. Bound with chains like a dangerous criminal, he beckoned to the people with his hand and got their attention (Acts 21:40). Then, he gave a solemn and powerful defense of the faith. Speaking in calm, conciliatory terms in the Hebrew tongue, Paul addressed these angry Jews as brethren. Though they were not his brethren in any spiritual sense, they were in a natural sense. Paul spoke to them as he did because he wanted to calm their tempers and incline them to listen to what he had to say. In that, he was successful (Acts 22:1-2). Take special notice of the simplicity of Paul’s language as you read this chapter. Though he was a very well trained intellectual, capable of fetching arguments and illustrations from history, tradition, philosophy, literature, logic, and theological orthodoxy, though he was capable of using poetic imagery, oratorical eloquence, and stunning imagination, he carefully avoided doing so (1 Corinthians 2:4-5). In this dramatic moment, the great apostle to the Gentiles simply told the story of his conversion. He told his hearers, in the simplist language possible, what God had done for him by his almighty, free grace in the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the way the gospel ought always to be preached. And that is the way we ought to witness to men.

The very best defence of the faith is the testimony of men and women who have experienced the transforming power of God’s saving grace in Christ and know it. To be a good preacher, a man must simply tell what he knows. To be a good witness for Christ, saved sinners must simply tell other sinners what they know (John 9:25). Three spiritual lessons are clearly set before us in this chapter. First, A PERSON MAY BE VERY AND YET BE LOST (Acts 22:1-5). It is entirely possible for a person to be well learned in the letter of Holy Scripture, consecrated and devoted to the point of self-denial, and very zealous toward God without knowing God. The angry mob Paul was addressing was a mob of zealous religionists who did not know God. In Acts 22:3-5, Paul told them that before God saved him he was just like them - “As ye all are this day.” He was born and reared in a strictly orthodox Jewish family. “I am verily a man which am a Jew, born in Tarsus, a city in Cilicia.” He had a religious pedigree that was unrivalled (Philippians 3:4-6). His mother and father were respected, loyal members of the synagogue. He had been religious all his life.

But grace does not run in blood lines. Grace does not come by natural decent (John 1:11-13).

Paul was very well trained in the letter of the law too. “Brought up in this city (Jerusalem) at the feet of Gamaliel, and taught according to the perfect manner of the law.” He knew the Scriptures. He was strictly moral. His life was an example of moral and religious purity. He was a Pharisee who lived such a good life that he even made other Pharisees look impure! Paul was raised in religion and raised to be religious. But he did not know God, though he was sure he did. Faith cannot be learned. It must be given (Philippians 1:29).

Salvation is not the result of training, but of revelation (2 Corinthians 4:5-6). Moreover, Paul was devoted, consecrated, and zealous in performing his religious works. He was “zealous toward God.” He was not a sham professor of religion. He did not take the things of God lightly. He gave himself wholeheartedly to the pursuit of his religious profession (Acts 22:4-5). But grace cannot be earned by religious works (Romans 3:20; Romans 11:6; Ephesians 2:8-9). Without question, Paul was a religious man from his youth; but he was without God, without Christ, without life, lost in the world (Ephesians 2:12). In spite of his religion, Paul obtained mercy and never lost a sense of amazement at the mercy he had obtained (1 Timothy 1:12-17).

It may be that as you read these lines you are made to realize that you are like Paul - religious but lost! If you would be saved, you must have something more than religion. You must have Christ (John 17:3; Colossians 1:27; 1 John 5:11-12). Second, " IS OF THE LORD" (Acts 22:6-21). In Acts 22:3-5, Paul tells us what he was before God saved him. In Acts 22:6-21, he tells us what God did for him and in him by his almighty grace in Christ. From start to finish, the apostle ascribes the whole of his salvation to the grace of God. The essence of everything he says in these verses is - “By the grace of God I am what I am” (1 Corinthians 15:10). In these verses, the servant of God tells us four specific things in which he stands as “a pattern to them which should hereafter believe” (1 Timothy 1:16).

1. Paul was confronted in his path of rebellion by the sovereign Christ, the living Lord (Acts 22:6-11). Sooner or later, God will cross the path of every chosen sinner. Notice the words at the beginning of Act 22:6 - “And it came to pass.” What came to pass? God’s eternal purpose of grace toward Paul. How did it come to pass?

By God’s gracious hand of providence. Here again we see a marvellous display of God’s providence overruling evil for good. Paul went to Damascus full of hatred for Christ. But Christ brought him down the Damascus road because the time of love had come when Saul of Tarsus must be saved (Ezekiel 16:8). He was not seeking the Lord. The Lord was seeking him.

At the time appointed, and in the place appointed, the Lord Jesus revealed himself to this chosen, redeemed sinner in sovereign grace and saving power. Overwhelmed by the dazzling revelation of Christ’s glory, confronted with the claims of Christ’s lordship, called by the personal, particular, and effectual call of the Savior, Saul of Tarsus was broken in repentance. 2. By the instruction of a faithful, gospel preacher, Paul was granted spiritual illumination and given understanding in the gospel (Acts 22:12-15). Even in Paul’s case the rule of grace was not broken. “Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God (Romans 10:17). He had heard the gospel from the lips of Stephen (Acts 7:1-59). But now he heard it from Ananias. Though he had learned the letter of the Word at the feet of Gamaliel, Saul was as ignorant of spiritual truth as any barbarian.

Spiritual truth must be spiritually revealed and spiritually learned (1 Corinthians 2:11-16). And God’s appointed means by which the Holy Spirit teaches spiritual truth is the ministry of the gospel (Ephesians 4:11-14). The very first thing Ananias taught Paul was GOD’S GRACE. “The God of our fathers hath chosen thee.” Then he told him that THE OBJECT OF IS - “That thou shouldest know his will.” That is his revealed will, the gospel, how that through Christ’s blood atonement God can be just and the Justifier of all who trust his Son (Romans 3:24-26). Next, Ananias told Paul that COMES BY KNOWING CHRIST, the sinners’ Substitute, the only Mediator between God and men, by seeing “that Just One” (John 17:3). Next, he talked about an CALL, “and shouldest hear the voice of his mouth.” The only way any sinner can ever know Christ is by the call of his Spirit (1 Thessalonians 1:4-5; 2 Thessalonians 2:13-14; Psalms 65:4). Finally, Ananias told Paul that God had chosen him “to be HIS WITNESS.” That is the lifelong business of every saved sinner (Isaiah 44:8; John 20:21). 3. Paul then confessed Christ in public, believer’s baptism (Acts 22:16). Baptism has no saving, redeeming efficacy; but it is a symbolic picture of the washing away of the believer’s sins by the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. 4. Being a believer, Paul was led by and walked in the Spirit (Acts 22:17-21). Believers are men and women whose lives are ruled by Jesus Christ through the indwelling power and grace of God the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:9-16). Third, in Acts 22:22-30, the Holy Spirit once more shows us that THE GOSPEL OF THE GRACE OF GOD IS AN OFFENCE TO MEN. The message of grace which Paul preached to these religious people, his testimony of the grace he had experienced in Christ, enraged them. Salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone always infuriates lost, religious people, but the saints of God rejoice in it (1 Corinthians 1:22-24).

Acts 22:22-28

65. “I WAS FREE BORN” Acts 22:22-28“And they gave him audience unto this word.” Paul had been telling the Jews how that God saved him by his free grace and sovereign mercy in Christ. And they listened with relative patience until he told them how God, in his glorious sovereignty, had rejected Israel as a nation and sent the gospel to his elect among the Gentiles (Acts 22:17-21). When they heard that God has mercy on whom he will, without regard to human merit, religious rearing, family descent, or racial heritage, they were engaged. Fallen men are always enraged by the declaration of God’s sovereignty in the exercise of his grace (Luke 4:25-29). Hearing that God had rejected them and had chosen to save worthless Gentiles, these self-righteous Jews were filled with rage. They began to act like wild beasts.

They cried out, “Away with such a fellow from the earth: for it is not fit that he should live!” As they screamed for Paul’s blood, they tore off their clothes, preparing to stone him to death, and threw dust into the air. Their hatred of God’s sovereign character nearly drove them insane. They could not get their hands around God’s throat, so they tried to kill Paul. Then the chief captain commanded one of his soldiers to bring Paul into the castle to beat a confession out of him (Acts 22:24). As they were preparing to do so, Paul said, “Is it lawful for you to scourge a man that is a Roman, and uncondemned?” (Acts 22:25). Of course, it was not. The thought of beating a Roman citizen was horrifying to the soldier. He ran to tell his commanding officer, “You ordered us to beat a Roman citizen.” That scared the chief captain too. He came to Paul and said, “Art thou a Roman? He said, Yea. And the chief captain answered, with great sum obtained I this freedom. And Paul said, But I was free born” (Acts 22:27-28). He was born in Tarsus, a free city, which had been declared free by Mark Antony, long before Paul was born. For the purpose of this study, I take these words as coming, not from the mouth of Saul of Tarsus, a citizen of Rome, but as coming from the mouth of Paul the believer, a citizen of the heavenly Jerusalem. What Paul here says of himself every true believer may joyfully declare concerning himself - “I was free born.” We are citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem. The Lord Jesus Christ, the King of Heaven, has declared that City to be free by the power of his blood. And he did it long before we were born. Being free born citizens of the kingdom of heaven, we will never be brought into bondage (Galatians 5:1). Four things are clearly revealed in the New Testament about this spiritual freedom that need to be understood by every child of God. ALL MEN AND WOMEN BY NATURE ARE IN BONDAGE. Man loves to boast of freedom, independence, and liberty. But all men are, in a spiritual sense, object slaves by nature. All are in bondage to sin (Romans 6:20), the servants of “the lusts of the flesh” (Ephesians 2:3). Those who serve their own passions are slaves to the worst possible despot. Yet, by nature we are all ruled by the evil passions of our own depraved hearts.

Having broken God’s law, all are in bondage to the law and under the curse of the law (Galatians 3:10), under the sentence of death (Romans 6:23). To one degree or another, all of us are natural slaves to other men, craving their approval, acceptance, and applause. And all men and women are slaves to religious tradition custom, and superstition by nature. The maxim of the humanist is true: “Man believes what he is raised to believe.” Religion is a cultural thing. It is passed on from father to son, generation after generation. This natural, cultural, environmental religion brings people into terrible bondage.

The Lord Jesus Christ came into this world to set the captive free, to open the doors of the prison, break the iron chains and steel fetters, and bring his people into freedom and liberty, even “the glorious liberty of the sons of God” (Isaiah 61:1; Luke 4:16-20). CHRIST ALONE MAKES SINNERS FREE. No one ever comes to enjoy true liberty before God and in his own conscience, except by the blood, righteousness, and grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. But we must beware of false liberty. Every good thing is imitated by satan; and he has deceived many with a false liberty. Some are so naive that they imagine a mere profession of faith is liberty. Others presume they have found liberty when they have mended their lives by self-righteous reformation, ceasing from certain evil habits of outward behavior.

Some even substitute a spirit of licentiousness in the name of grace for spiritual freedom. But neither legalism nor antinomianism, nor empty religious profession can bring true liberty. Only Christ, the Son of God, can make sinners free (John 8:36). He purchased liberty for God’s elect by his sin-atoning death as our Substitute (Galatians 3:13). He proclaims liberty to sinners through the preaching of the gospel (Isaiah 61:1-3). And he sets his people free by the power of his sovereign grace through the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit, who causes awakened sinners to know him who is the Truth (John 8:32). ALL WHO ARE BORN OF GOD ARE BORN FREE, born into freedom (Galatians 4:1-7). The moment a person is born again he is a child of God, and is free in Christ. The moment a sinner believes on the Lord Jesus Christ he begins to enjoy a real and lasting freedom in his soul. As the believer grows and matures, he enjoys his liberty more freely and appreciates it better. But the liberty is his as soon as he trusts Christ. In Christ, we are free from sin, satan, and the law. Christ has freed us from the guilt, condemnation, and dominion of sin (Hebrews 9:14; Romans 8:1; Ephesians 2:1-5; Romans 6:11-18). Our Savior has delivered us from the power and tyranny of satan too. By nature, satan holds a usurped dominion over all men, blinding them, deceiving them, and leading them into captivity at his will. In salvation, Christ dethrones the devil by the power of his Spirit. He enters the hearts of his elect, binds the strong man and takes possession of his house (Luke 11:21-22).

And the Son of God has freed his people from the Mosaic law (Romans 5:20-21; Romans 6:15; Romans 7:4; Romans 8:1-2; Romans 10:4). The New Testament never addresses God’s saints as people under the law, but always as people free from the law: free from the statutes of Old Testament judicial law, free from the ceremonies of the law, free from the bondage of the moral law.

Believers in Christ have no covenant with the law, no condemnation by the law, no constraint from the law, and no obligation to the law. Christ satisfied all things in the law for us. The lives of God’s saints are not governed by the rules and regulations of the law, but by love and faith in Christ, and the glory of God (1 John 3:23; 2 Corinthians 5:14; 1 Corinthians 10:31). However, according to the New Testament, our freedom in Christ extends far beyond these matters of doctrine, and reaches to the common affairs of everyday life. Faith in Christ gives us freedom from all the customs, traditions, and superstitions of human religion. We are not to be the servants of self-righteous, religious traditions and customs.

We are duty bound to repudiate them (Matthew 15:1-9; Colossians 2:6-8; Colossians 2:16-17; Colossians 2:20-23). Neither the church of God nor gospel preachers have any right to develop laws and rules of conduct for God’s people.

To do so is to add to the Word of God. In Christ we are free to use every creature of God for food, happiness, satisfaction, and comfort as we seek to serve him in this world. Old Testament Levitical law made the use of some things unlawful. But in this gospel age, for the believer, there is nothing common or unclean (Acts 10:14-15; Romans 14:14; 1 Timothy 4:1-4). Use all things in moderation. Carefully avoid offending a weaker brother. Make your use of all things subservient to the glory of God and the welfare of his church. But understand that you are free to use God’s creation as his child (Romans 14:2-3; Romans 14:13-15; Romans 14:20-23; 1 Corinthians 8:9-13).

Christ has given us the freedom to worship God (Ephesians 2:18; Hebrews 4:16): freedom to call upon God in prayer, freedom to observe the ordinances of his house, and freedom to serve him. Furthermore, being born of God, in Christ, believers are made free from the fear of death (Hebrews 2:14-15). Being justified by his grace, redeemed by his blood, robed in his righteousness, and born of his Spirit, the second death has no power over God’s elect (Revelation 20:6; John 5:25). However, THERE IS A LIBERTY YET TO BE (Romans 8:21-23). In heaven we shall be totally free from sin and everything sinful. But when Christ comes and makes all things new, in our resurrected, glorified bodies, in immortality and glory, we shall be completely freed from all the consequences of sin. That will be “the glorious liberty of the sons of God!”