Acts 22

Stott quotes

It was tantamount to saying that Jews and Gentiles
were equal, for they both needed to come to God through Christ,
and that on identical terms.

     Looking back over Paul's defence, we may perhaps say that he
made two major points. The first was that he himself was a loyal
Jew, not only by birth and education but still. True, he was now a
witness where before he had been a persecutor. But the God of his
fathers was his God still. He had not broken away from his
ancestral faith, still less apostatized; he stood in direct
continuity with it. Jesus of Nazareth was `the Righteous One' in
whom prophecy had been fulfilled. And Paul's second point was that
those features of his faith which had changed, especially his
acknowledgment of Jesus and his Gentile mission, were not his own
eccentric ideas. They had been directly revealed to him from
heaven, the one truth in Damascus and the other in Jerusalem.
Indeed, nothing but such a heavenly intervention could have so
completely transformed him.

Acts 22 early verses

1. What we learn from the language of the speech.

The Gospel empowers:

1. forgiveness


2. love


3. generosity

“I was...just as zealous for God as any of you are today”. (v.3) Look how far Paul is going to be generous. He is describing their mob action as being “zealous for God”.

I don’t think Paul is blowing smoke here.  He believes that they are sincerely zealous for God.  And Paul believes they are wrong, need to repent, and should believe what he believes.
How thick is it in our world that this is THE MOST horrible position you or I could hold.
Summarizing, Paul’s position is that the Asian Jews are:

1. Sincere in their faith


2. Wrong


3. Headed to hell (estranged from God)


4. Only going to be safe if they believe what he believes.

1. identification

everything about the early part of the testimony serves to show the crowd how much Paul is “one of them”.

1. personal experience

Paul’s defense does not consist of a reasoned discourse or even a general sermon--it is a very vivid personal testimony.

1. respect, even of their idols

Aramaic was the vernacular of Jews in Palestine, and therefore it showed deference to Jewish culture. By using it, he was essentially hiding the conversation from the Romans and foreigners present. Here he was addressing a group of Jews who felt that they were being culturally violated and overrun by unclean outsiders, and so his choice of their language was a sign of great respect.

If you come in blazing against people’s main thing, they can’t hear you.  Too much of their emotional security and identity are wrapped up in being (white, wealthy, black, homosexual, intelligent, educated, residents of that n’hood, parents, grandparents, Americans, Canadians, etc

TESTIMONY First, Paul’s defense does not consist of a reasoned discourse or even a general sermon--it is a very vivid personal testimony.

ARAMAIC  Second, Aramaic was the vernacular of Jews in Palestine, and therefore it showed deference to Jewish culture. By using it, he was essentially hiding the conversation from the Romans and foreigners present. Here he was addressing a group of Jews who felt that they were being culturally violated and overrun by unclean outsiders, and so his choice of their language was a sign of great respect.