127 Acts 22:17-23 PAULS FINAL WORDS OF DEFENSE TO THE MOB Introduction: The Apostle Paul had been rescued by the Roman army from a great mob of Jews who had drug him out of the Jewish temple and was trying to beat him to death. Paul had received permission from the chief captain of the Roman army to speak to the mob and in earlier texts has already spoken to them in his own defense. In our text today Paul continues his speech to the mob until they interrupt him and will listen to him no more. I. What Paul had already said to the mob Paul had reminded the mob that in early life he had been a student of Gamaliel, who was a noted teacher of the Law of Moses. He pointed out that he had been a star student of Gamaliel and had been an a zealous supporter of the Law of Moses and of the law system of worship. He reminded them that in his zeal to support the law system of worship that he had bitterly persecuted Christians. He had personally arrested many Christians and had been responsible for the death of many of them. This was something that this whole mob of people knew to be true. Paul then related to them that he had actually been on the road to the city of Damascus in Syria for the purpose of arresting Christians of that city when he had what might be called a close encounter with Jesus Christ. A great light did shine down around him and a voice from heaven called him by name and asked, “Why do you persecute me?” Paul looked up and was able to see the person who spoke. He asked that person, “Who art thou?” and that person said, “I am Jesus whom thou persecutest.” He was told to go on into Damascus which he did. It was there that he received instructions to become a preacher and to be a witness for Jesus among the Gentiles. It was also there that he received instructions to be baptized and to, thus, become publicly identified as being a believer in Jesus as the Christ. It is at this point that our text today begins. II. What Paul says in this text V. 17, “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.” Paul had left Jerusalem to go to Damascus to persecute Christians. According to Galatians 1:17-19 there were three years after he had left before he returned. When he came back to Jerusalem he came back as a Christian. Never-the-less, he did not come back to Jerusalem taking a stand against the Law of Moses and the law system of worship. Rather he went to the temple and worshipped God in keeping with the law of Moses. He had continued to worship at the temple every time he has returned to Jerusalem even to that very day. Many years had passed since he had become a Christian, but he still showed great respect to the Law of Moses, to the nation of Israel and to the Jewish temple. On that very first trip back to Jerusalem while Paul was worshipping God in the temple according to the Law of Moses God had warned him to get out of the city of Jerusalem. God had appeared to him while he was in a trance. V. 18, “And saw him saying unto me, Make haste, and get thee quickly out of Jerusalem: for they will not receive thy testimony concerning me.” Paul had come into Jerusalem with great respect for the temple and for the Law of Moses, but he had also come into Jerusalem testifying that Jesus is the Christ. God knew that the Jews of Jerusalem would not believe his message about Jesus and that in their anger they would seek to kill him. So God had given Paul warning to get out of the city. Paul did not want to go. He had reasoned with God seeking to get God to let him stay so that he could witness for Jesus there. His reasoning was that all the Jews knew that he, himself, had been a persecutor of Christians and that they should know that he would not now be a Christian unless he had seen very convincing evidence that Jesus really is the Christ. Listen to what he told that crowd. V. 19-20, “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.” Paul thought this would be enough to convince the Jews at Jerusalem that he was telling the truth and that Jesus really is the Christ. However, Paul was wrong and God knew it. God knew that the Jews were not willing to be convinced. V. 21, “And he said unto me, Depart: for I will send thee far hence unto the Gentiles.” III. The reaction of the mob V. 22. “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.” Surprisingly that whole mob had remained silent, listening very intently to every word that Paul had spoken --- up to this point. What is not surprising is that they had not believed what Paul had said about Jesus. They believed what he said about him persecuting the Christians. They knew this to be the truth. But they refused to believe that Jesus had risen from the grave and they refused to believe that Jesus is the Christ. They refused to believe that Jesus is the Son of God. Paul’s testimony was very strong evidence. He had been such a fierce persecutor of Christians that it surely took good solid proof to convince him to make such a drastic change in his life and to become a strong promoter of the Christian faith. But there was no doubt now about Paul being convinced. He was positively persuaded that Jesus is the Christ, the Savior of men. The drastic change in Paul’s life should have been very convincing to his listeners. They should have recognized that Jesus indeed is the Christ. But when people make up their minds not to believe the truth it is next to impossible to convince them. The old saying is, “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink.” You can present the truth to people, but you cannot make them believe it. The fierce anger with which they rejected Paul’s message is evident in verse 23. V. 23, “And as they cried out, and cast off [their] clothes, and threw dust into the air.” They yelped and yelled to the top of their voices. They romped and raved and yanked off their own clothes. They reached down to the ground and got hands full of dirt and threw it up in the air. They behaved like mad men. Luke does not say what they did with their clothes, but they may have thrown them up in the air also. They closed their ears and their hearts and minds to anything that Paul might have to say and would not listen to another word from him. IV. Some things that we should take note of You will take note that Paul seemed a lot more concerned about defending the gospel than he was in defending himself. Paul had been accused of speaking against the law and against the temple. He had been accused of bringing Gentiles into the temple. It would seem that he would say, “Hey, listen, fellows! My presence here in the temple on this very occasion shows that I am not opposed to the Law of Moses. I have been faithful to attend the worship services at this temple every time that I have been back at Jerusalem, as my presence here gives evidence this day. Even in Gentile cities, I always attended worship services at the Jewish synagogue when that was possible.” As for bringing Gentiles into the Hebrew courtyard, I wonder why he did not say, “Where are the Gentiles that I supposedly brought into the temple? Where is even one Gentile whom I have brought into the temple? Can anybody produce such a fellow?” But instead of asking such questions, Paul spent his time presenting to them good solid evidence why they should believe that Jesus is the Christ, the promised Savior. Brethren, we can take a lesson from this. We, as Christians, should be a lot less concerned about our own personal welfare and a lot more concerned about the welfare of God’s cause. We should spend a lot more time and effort to further the cause of Christ than to further our own cause. Another thing that we should learn is that it is mighty difficult to get people saved who are already prejudiced against Christianity. It is hard even to get them in a church service where the gospel message is preached. It is harder to get them to listen to your personal testimony about Jesus and about their need of being saved. If they have been brought up to believe that salvation must be earned by their own good works it is especially hard to get them to believe that they can be saved by repenting of their sin and trusting in Christ Jesus. Yet we can learn to bare witness of Jesus and His saving grace even when it seems that nobody wants to listen. The Apostle Paul was faithful to present the truth about Jesus Christ to people who were trying to kill him and who were not interested in hearing his message about Jesus. And let us not think that Paul’s testimony for Jesus was wasted. It is obvious that the great majority of those people rejected the gospel message which he presented to them. But it is very likely that somewhere in all that mob of people there was someone who would later reflect back upon what Paul had said and would turn to Jesus and be saved. Even if only one soul was saved out of all that great crowd his effort was worthwhile. Likewise today we need not expect that a great majority of people who hear our testimony for Jesus will be saved. But if we will be faithful to Jesus and give our testimony for Jesus at every opportunity, as Paul did, some will be saved. And the few who do get saved as a result of our effort makes it all worthwhile. Thank God ;that some who hear our message will repent of their sin and trust Jesus Christ for the salvation of their soul! We will have opportunity to see them in heaven and to thank God for giving us an opportunity to witness for Jesus. Another thing we should note is that it takes a lot of bravery to do what the Apostle Paul to witness to those people who wanted to kill him. Likewise it takes a certain amount of bravery today to speak up and witness for Jesus when we know that there is already opposition to what we have to say. May God give us grace to stand up for Him and to speak out for Him. Another thing that we should learn from this passage is that we should take advantage of the time that we have to serve Jesus Christ and to witness for Him. The time which Paul had to witness to this crowd was very limited. He had a few minutes in which they gave him their full attention, but when those few minutes were over they would no longer listen. His opportunity was gone. Paul took advantage of the few minutes that he had and gave them what should have been very convincing evidence that Jesus is the Christ. Likewise the opportunity that we have to serve Jesus and to witness for Him is very limited. May we profit by Paul’s example and take advantage of the time and opportunity which the Lord has given us to serve Him and to witness for Him to the unsaved.