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Acts 22:1-8  PAULS ACCOUNT OF HIS CONVERSION

Introduction:

	In our previous text the Apostle Paul was rescued by the Roman army from 
being beaten to death inside the courtyard of the Jewish temple by an angry mob 
of Jews.  He had been bodily carried by soldiers up some stairs which led from 
the temple courtyard into a building which was used as a barracks for the Roman 
soldiers.  When the soldiers put him down at the top of the stairs he was 
granted permission by the chief captain to speak to the crowd of Jews below in 
the courtyard.  In his speech to them he explained to them why he now promoted 
Christianity instead of persecuting Christians.      

I.  Paul getting the attention of the crowd

	Let us get the picture of the scene in our minds.  The Apostle Paul stood 
at the top of the stairs chained between two Roman soldiers.  The chief captain 
stood there with them.  Soldiers stood up and down the stairs preventing any of 
the angry mob from coming up the stairs to get at Paul.  An angry mob of people 
clamored below yelling out bitterness and hatred much like you have seen on 
television when the Palestinians shout out their anger and hatred for Israel.  
Those people wanted to kill Paul themselves and now that they couldn’t, the 
cried out for the Roman soldiers to do so.  
	Paul raised his arms indicating that he wanted the people to listen to 
what he had to say.  Little by little they began to quieten down until there was 
complete silence.  Every eye was fastened on him and every ear was tuned in to 
him.  They were anxious to hear whatever he might have to say.  
	V. 1, “Men, brethren, and fathers, hear ye my defence [which I make] now 
unto you.”   Note the courteous manner in which Paul addressed these people.  
They had cried out against him in anger.  They had falsely accused him.  They 
had physically grabbed him and manhandled him.  They had beat him with their 
fists.  They had intended to beat him to death.  Most men would respond by 
cursing them and calling them all manner of names.  But Paul addresses them in 
words of great respect and courtesy.  
	He addressed them as brethren.  That is, he addressed them as his flesh 
and blood brethren.  They were of his own nationality.  They were his fellow 
Jewish brethren.  He addressed some as fathers.  That is, he paid honor to them 
as being leaders --- as being members of the Sanhedrin Council.  He addressed 
them in terms that were calculated to give him a chance of winning their favor.  
At least they would not stir up further anger toward him.  This must have taken 
a great deal of self discipline on his part.  If he felt any anger toward them, 
he did not express it in his words.    
	We would do well take a lesson from Paul.  When people are angry at us and 
strike out against us with bitter words and with acts of violence, our best 
chance of calming their anger is to speak kindly and courteously to them.  It 
will certainly not help for us to speak out with bitter words in return.  This 
is especially true when we are trying to witness to someone about Jesus Christ.  

II.  Paul speaking in the Hebrew language

	V. 2, “(And when they heard that he spake in the Hebrew tongue to them, 
they kept the more silence...”: and he saith,) Now those who had instigated the 
riot knew Paul by sight and they knew enough about him to know that he could 
speak the Hebrew language.  They were not at all surprised that he could speak 
Hebrew.  But the majority of people who had participated in the riot did not 
know Paul.  They apparently, like the chief captain, must have thought him to be 
a Gentile who had come into the courtyard of the Hebrews, where no Gentile was 
allowed.  They were much surprised when he spoke to them in the Hebrew language.  
Therefore, they gave the greater attention to Paul and were more anxious to 
learn what he would say in his behalf.  

III.  Paul identified as a Jew

	V. 3,  “I am verily a man [which am] a Jew, born in Tarsus, [a city] in 
Cilicia...”  Paul identified himself as a Jew.  This, alone, would not get him 
in the good graces of the multitude, but it would help.  The Jews in the crows 
who were not already prejudiced against Paul would not be as quick to find fault 
with him since he is a Jew.  
	He not only identified himself as a Jew, but he identified the city in 
which he was born.  It was common practice for Jews to identify themselves, not 
by the city where they live, but by the city or village where they were born.  
He was born in the city of Tarsus which was located in the Roman province of 
Cilicia in what is now known as Turkey.  

IV.  Paul trained up at the feet of Gamaliel

	(V. 3), “... 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...”  Even though Paul had been born in the city of Tarsus in 
a distant country, yet he had been brought up in the city of Jerusalem.  So even 
though Paul had been born in a distant land, yet he had been brought up in the 
city of Jerusalem, which was the most prominent city of Israel.  
	Furthermore he was brought up at as a student under Gamaliel, who was the 
most noted teacher of Jewish law of that day.  He, himself, had been exceedingly 
zealous in his stand for the Jewish law.  
	(V. 3), “... as ye all are this day.”  Paul had been at least equally as 
zealous of the law of Moses as any of the people who were in that great crowd of 
people.  V. 4, “And I persecuted this way unto the death, binding and delivering 
into prisons both men and women.”  Paul called attention to the persecution that 
he had earlier brought upon the Christians.  He said that he had persecuted them 
“unto the death.”  That is, had been responsible for the death of some of the 
Christians.  He had brought many a Christian prisoner bound and thrown them into 
the prison dungeons.  He had arrested both men and women, disrupting their lives 
and actually bringing many of them to the end of their lives.  
	He had literally made havoc of the church at Jerusalem.  This church had a 
very large membership going up into the thousands.  But Paul had so persecuted 
the Jerusalem church that the great majority of them had fled to other cities 
and some to distant lands.  Paul had made havoc of the Jerusalem church in his 
zeal for the Jewish law.  

V. Witnesses of Paul’s former zeal for the Jewish law


	V. 5, “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.”  The high  priest knew Paul well.  He could testify to the fact that 
Paul had been very zealous toward the Jewish law.  The members of Jewish 
Sanhedrin Council were all well acquainted with Paul and could also testify that 
Paul had been exceedingly zealous of the Jewish law.  They had given Paul (or 
Saul as he was known at that time) letters granting him authority to go to 
Damascus to take prisoners all the Christians that he might find in that 
synagogue.  

IV.  Paul’s conversion to Christianity

	V. 6, “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.”  Paul, along with a number of other people, had started to Damascus 
for the purpose of arresting more Christians   Becoming a Christian was the 
furthermost thing from his mind.  He had no idea that by the time that he would 
reach Damascus that he would be a Christian.  He had no idea that he would ever 
in his lifetime be a Christian.  
	It was almost noon and he had almost reached the city of Damascus when it 
happened.  Suddenly there was a great light from heaven that did shine down from 
heaven.  Now note, please, that sun is at its brightest at noontime.  So right 
at the time that the sun was at its brightest an even brighter light --- a much 
brighter light --- did shine down from above.  If this light had been no 
brighter than the sun, it would not have been noticeable at all.  But it was 
brighter than the sun --- much brighter.  
	V. 7, “And I fell unto the ground...”  Paul does not say why he fell to 
the ground.  It could have been that he was so startled that he fell to the 
ground.  It could have been that he was suddenly blinded by this light that he 
fell to the ground.  He was, in fact, blinded by the light, but we do not know 
that this was the reason he fell to the ground.  I think that there was some 
kind of power in that light that knocked Paul to the ground.  Paul was just 
walking along and suddenly WHAMMO and he fell to the ground.  
	Right after Paul realized that this great light had knocked him to the 
ground he heard a voice.  The voice came from above and the voice called him by 
his name.  (V. 7), “...and heard a voice saying unto me, Saul, Saul, why 
persecutest thou me?”  According to what Paul said in I Corinthians chapter 
fifteen, Paul was able to look up into heaven and to see that person in heaven 
who spoke to him. 
	V. 8, “And I answered, Who art thou, Lord? ...”  At this point he did not 
know that this was Jesus who called him by his name.  Surely he must have known 
that this person is Deity God, but he did not know that this was Jesus and he 
did not yet know that Jesus is Deity God.  He did not know these things until 
the person in heaven answered him.  
	(V. 8), “...And he said unto me, I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou 
persecutest.”  Can you imagine that shock that this was to Paul?  He had 
arrested many Christians, perhaps hundreds of Christians.  He had brought a 
sizable number of them to their death.  He had beaten many more.  He had 
imprisoned great numbers of them, perhaps hundreds of them.  He was on his way 
to Damascus right at this very moment for the purpose of arresting many more.  
He had done all of this thinking that he was doing God a favor and that God 
would be pleased by what he was doing.  Now all of a sudden he is knocked to the 
ground, he sees somebody in heaven, who is obviously God and he hears this 
person say, “I am Jesus of Nazareth whom thou persecutest!”  
	What a blunder he had made!  What a horrible blunder he had pulled!  He 
had not only made the terrible mistake of thinking that Jesus is not the Christ 
of God, but he had actually persecuted the Christ by persecuting His people! 
	But now there could be no doubt!  Jesus is the Christ!  Jesus is the Son 
of God!  Jesus is the promised Savior, whom the prophets of old had said would 
save men from their sin.  As John the Baptist had said about Him, Jesus is the 
Lamb of God that takes away sin.  Paul is now convinced.  He is forever 
convinced.  This is why he has stopped persecuting Christians and has started 
preaching Jesus.  Paul, himself, is now a Christian.  He would spend the rest of 
his life telling people that Jesus is the Christ.  He would tell lost sinners 
that if they would accept Jesus as the Christ and trust Him to be their Savior 
that they would be saved.  
	Now let me ask you a question.  Why do you think that Paul told this angry 
mob this?  Do you think that Paul was hoping that they would see that they were 
wrong in trying to kill him and that they would ask the Roman captain to set him 
free?  
	Let me tell you what I think.  I think that Paul knew that he did not 
stand a chance in this world of convincing these people to ask that Roman 
captain to set Paul free.  I think Paul wanted to tell this story to this great 
crowd of Jews because he was hoping that at least a few of them would believe 
what he had to say about Jesus Christ and be saved.  Paul’s heart’s desire and 
prayer to God for his fellow Jews was that they might be saved.  He really 
wanted all of them to be saved, just as Jesus had wanted him to be saved.  But 
even if they would not all believe in Jesus and be saved, he was hoping and 
praying that at least some of them would be saved.  
	
VI.  The lesson for us

	Folks, this is what it is all about.  This is what our life is all about.  
Those of us who are already Christians, what our lives are all about is to live 
for Jesus and to be able to tell lost souls about Jesus so that some of them 
will turn to Jesus and be saved before it is everlastingly too late.  
	Those of us who are not saved this is what life is all about.  It is to 
give you another opportunity to hear the message of Jesus Christ, the Son of 
God, the Savior of men and to give you another opportunity to be saved.