The most embarrassing moment of my life was in Junior High School when the fire alarm went off while I was in the shower after gym class.  I had, uh, matured a bit earlier than my peers so that at 13, I had the body of an 18-year-old girl. This is not a problem when one is wearing clothes. Just select clothing that covers everything that should be covered. No problem! However, I wasn’t wearing anything in the shower and the teacher only allowed me enough time to grab my towel, which did not cover me adequately, something the boys’ gym class noticed right away.

Thus, I think I understand how Paul felt on those barracks steps as he addressed the Jewish crowd. He wanted to slip away into the stone, somehow fall through the cracks. I don’t think Paul was different from other men. He would gladly have accepted being carried off by the soldiers. However, God had other plans, so Paul asked the commander if he could speak to the crowd and, amazingly, the commander gave him permission.

It had been 25 years since the stoning of Stephen, when Saul had held the cloaks for those who executed him. At the time of his conversion, God made it clear that Paul had been saved for the purpose of proclaiming the gospel, not only to his fellow-Israelites, but to Gentiles and to kings (Acts 9:15). Though there had been a long passage of years, Paul was that day faced with the same situation that Stephen had been faced with. He was falsely accused for threatening the temple by Hellenistic Jews. Unlike Stephen, Paul had a defense rather than an indictment.

“Brothers and fathers, listen to my defense that I now make to you.” (When they heard that he was addressing them in Aramaic, they became even quieter.)  Then Paul said, “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated with strictness under Gamaliel according to the law of our ancestors, and was zealous for God just as all of you are today. I persecuted this Way even to the point of death, tying up both men and women and putting them in prison, as both the high priest and the whole council of elders can testify about me. From them I also received letters to the brothers in Damascus, and I was on my way to make arrests there and bring the prisoners to Jerusalem to be punished.” Acts 22:1-5

While Stephen had shown that the Sanhedrin were very far from God, Paul sought to achieve commonality with his audience. He did not address the Hellenistic Jews who are accusing him or the Roman guard that was protecting/holding him. He addressed the Hebraic Jews in Aramaic. Perhaps he sensed that there was no reasoning with the Hellenistic Jews; perhaps he recognized that he had more in common with the Jerusalem Jews. I think, though, that Paul merely sought to share the gospel one last time to his own people.

His defense was that he was a Jew, born in Tarsus, but raised in Jerusalem under one of their most revered rabbis, Gamaliel. He had been zealous for God in the same way that they were now, even persecuting the church, arresting men and women, putting them in prison, even killing them. The High Priest and the Sanhedrin could testify to Saul’s zealotry for they had given him letters of introduction to Damascus where he was supposed to arrest Christians and bring them to Jerusalem for punishment.

So far so good.  I can imagine the crowd whispering among itself – do you think that’s Saul of Tarsus? Remember, he was an up-and-coming rabbi before he went a little nuts.

“As I was en route and near Damascus, about noon a very bright light from heaven suddenly flashed around me. Then I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’ I answered, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ He said to me, ‘I am Jesus the Nazarene, whom you are persecuting.’ Those who were with me saw the light, but did not understand the voice of the one who was speaking to me. So I asked, ‘What should I do, Lord?’ The Lord said to me, ‘Get up and go to Damascus; there you will be told about everything that you have been designated to do.’ Since I could not see because of the brilliance of that light, I came to Damascus led by the hand of those who were with me. A man named Ananias,  a devout man according to the law, well spoken of by all the Jews who live there,  came  to me and stood beside me and said to me, ‘Brother Saul, regain your sight!’ And at that very moment I looked up and saw him. Then he said, ‘The God of our ancestors  has already chosen  you to know his will, to see the Righteous One, and to hear a command  from his mouth, because you will be his witness to all people  of what you have seen and heard. And now what are you waiting for?  Get up, be baptized, and have your sins washed away, calling on his name.’^” Acts 22:6-16

I will submit that Paul’s audience at this point had no problem with his testimony. This was his personal experience, telling about his encounter with God. It’s very hard to argue with someone’s personal experience. It was what he said next that would upset the Hebraic Jews as much as the false accusations had upset the Hellenistic Jews.

“When I returned to Jerusalem and was praying in the temple, I fell into a trance and saw the Lord saying to me, ‘Hurry and get out of Jerusalem quickly, because they will not accept your testimony about me.’ I replied, ‘Lord, they themselves know that I imprisoned and beat those in the various synagogues who believed in you. And when the blood of your witness Stephen was shed, I myself was standing nearby, approving, and guarding the cloaks of those who were killing him.’  Then he said to me, ‘Go, because I will send you far away to the Gentiles.’” Acts 22:17-21

Paul spoke of having a vision while in the temple praying. Jesus has spoken to him and told him to leave Jerusalem. We know from other accounts of his conversion that Paul was told by the Jerusalem saints to leave Jerusalem. My guess is he refused to go until this vision convinced him he must.  He thought he was safe because the Jerusalem Jews knew he had persecuted Christians. God assured him that he was not safe!

Yet it was not this admission that threw Paul’s audience into a rage. What set them off was Paul’s sharing that God intended to send him away from Jerusalem and the Jews to the Gentiles. This, they could not tolerate!

“The crowd was listening to him until he said this.  Then they raised their voices and shouted, “Away with this man from the earth! For he should not be allowed to live!” Acts 22:22-23 

Paul’s speech did not convince the crowds that they were mistaken. Instead, Paul’s words sent the crowds into an even greater frenzy, throwing dust into the air and yelling for his blood. It was not just that God had commanded Paul to go to the Gentiles with the gospel. The words of the Lord to Paul went beyond this. The command to “go to the Gentiles” was linked with a parallel command to “forsake the Jews in Jerusalem, who would not believe the gospel.” Distressing enough for a Jew to think of God’s blessings being shared with the Gentiles (Jonah had difficulty with this, remember), but this statement, quoted by Paul and made by the Lord, goes to the limit, by saying that God’s blessings will be taken from Jerusalem and sent to the Gentiles. This is exactly what Paul described in Romans 9-11, but it was the most horrifying thought a Jew could entertain. Jerusalem was in the midst of economic hard times and Jews were being expelled from Rome. Paul was telling his peers that the time of their blessings was coming to an end, due to their unbelief, and that times of blessings were coming to the Gentiles. If the nation Israel would not believe and obey God and take the “light to the Gentiles” God would use their unbelief as an instrument to proclaim the “light to the Gentiles.” God’s purposes would not be frustrated by Jewish unbelief and disobedience. But the times of refreshing for which every devout Jew looked forward were to be postponed to a later time, a time after the Gentiles had heard the good news of the Gospel.

We were told by Jesus, early in the Book of Acts (1:8) that the gospel would be proclaimed abroad, beginning at Jerusalem and extending to the remotest part of the earth. God was making that happen, not only through faithful men and women, trusting in Jesus and committed to doing His will, but also through the mistakes of a Roman commander, who probably should never have allowed Paul to speak, through the Hellenistic Jews who accused and opposed Paul, and through the “native Hebrew” Jewish leaders of Jerusalem. The gospel was bound for Rome! The harder the Jews work to resist and overcome it, the more the proclamation of the gospel expanded.

We also see here the power of a testimony. We don’t know that any were saved immediately, as a result of this testimony. Some might have been. The power of Paul’s testimony partially rested in his similarity to them, how Paul in his lost state resembled those whom he was addressing. When people know what we use to be, and see what God has done to change us, the power of the gospel is evident and we need not be ashamed to proclaim it.