Evidence of Faith (Continued): Acts 22

"You will be his witness to all men of what you have seen and heard." 

Acts 22:15

        Witness. Someone whose personal observation renders credibility to a report. An individual who verifies critically important details of an occurrence.
The term “witness” is typically attributed to legal settings where both prosecuting and defending attorneys rely upon human accounts to solidify the merit of a case and help establish facts. In that context, witnessing is more than the awareness of circumstances; it is the attestation of them as well. This train of thought is relevant to the Christian faith because believers are charged to speak of the things that we have seen and heard (Acts 4:20). Scripture validates God’s followers are not only called to enact a relationship with Christ, we are called to exemplify Christ. A vital part of the Christ-exemplifying process is the dedication to unashamedly witness about the glory and greatness of Jesus.  

To an apathetic, spiritually dark world, Christians should be beacons of light and demonstrate that Jesus’ salvation yields undeniable hope and security. Sadly, this honorable obligation is one that I took for granted for the better part of my young adult life. Because of my self-perceived limitations and weaknesses, I did not actively beseech God to utilize me as His spokesman. But when I was challenged to share a testimony with my church fellowship at the age of twenty-one, I realized that being a witness of God is a tremendous privilege, a privilege that should not be dismissed or trivialized. 

One day, my music minister asked me to present a message to our church. He was making the final preparations for a youth musical service and felt my testimony would complement the theme of the worship drama, which was that the world’s standards are ever-changing and ever-declining (whereas God’s standards are forever-strong and forever-holy). In my flesh, I wanted to reject the music minister’s invitation, but the Holy Spirit encouraged me to pray about the speaking proposal. I was convicted because I had never really spurred myself to be in a place where my witness could be noticed or heard. Like Moses, I rationalized the reluctance to publicly testify with my inability to adequately articulate my heart. But the more I dwelled on it, the more I recognized that my stance was a feeble excuse for refusing to let God use my life for His great purpose. After all, if I continued to wait for ideal conditions (from my selfish vantage point) or the eradication of my many faults then I would never do anything significant for God’s kingdom. When I firmly acknowledged that I needed to view the event as an opportunity to be an instrument of praise, I accepted the testimonial prospect. 

Because I longed for my witness to be meaningful in the youth musical service, I asked the music minister what theme I should base my message on. He wisely told me that my question was a matter I needed to bring before God. I spent the next several weeks praying about it and searching for an appropriate topic. As I reviewed the youth musical’s score, one song in particular kept circulating in my mind. The lyrics contrasted how different man’s definitions of success and beauty are from God’s. Humanity attributes success to accomplishments and beauty to appearance, but God attributes success to conduct and beauty to character. Reflecting on that disconnect, I was moved by how destructive mankind’s behavior is. Humanity’s lowly and sinful desires often wound our ability to fully appreciate God. It soon became apparent what central point I should convey to the congregation: the carnal, self-pleasing lifestyle is both debilitating and demoralizing. 

The subject was intensely personal to me because I had witnessed the aftermath of an alcoholic addiction in a family member, as well as in college classmates. It was painful to watch loved ones slip into a detached, depressed, and dysfunctional state because they were enslaved by drunkenness. I was determined to not journey down the same ruinous road. Sinful obsessions, like alcoholism, do not strengthen a bond with God; they fracture it. In essence, that was the core declaration I extended to the church a short while later. It was a difficult testimony to share because it was an emotionally-stirring and near-to-my-heart consideration. But such real-life encounters make witnessing that much more compelling and convicting.     

Being a witness carries with it a great imperative: vocalizing what a person knows to be true through firsthand experience. Paul was very familiar with challenges that often accompany Jesus-centered witnessing. Having given himself wholeheartedly to the cause of Christ, he traveled to distant lands and preached to hostile audiences. The apostle received much affliction and harassment because of his pronounced faith. His beliefs were often misunderstood and misconstrued, as was the case in Acts 21 when some Jewish followers from the Asian province made some faulty assumptions about Paul’s reverence for Hebrew practices and religious customs. In hate, they initiated a vicious sequence of episodes.
Because of a hasty smear campaign, Paul was apprehended inside the Jerusalem temple and forcibly carried outside the perimeter gates. He was then brutally assaulted and beaten. News of an uproar made its way to the Roman guard commander (who is later identified as Claudius Lysias in Acts 23:26) posted in the city of David. The officer momentarily quieted the unrest by incarcerating Paul. The apostle was hastily taken to the military barracks quickly thereafter, but the bloodthirsty mob trailed the soldiers to Paul’s holding facility. Even as the apostle was being marched to confinement, the anger of the people erupted into additional violence. Their venomous shouts of “Away with him!” insinuated Paul was not worthy to live. Paul petitioned to address the people, a request Lysias authorized. Paul’s appeal to his Jewish brethren comprises the lion’s share of the text in Acts 22. 

Paul opened his address by referring to the people as his kinsmen. In designating the men assembled “brothers” and “fathers”, the apostle not only conferred a spirit of respect for the Jewish nationality, but he drew attention to his association with it. Paul was raised in a Hebrew home and spent a considerable deal of time studying the customs and doctrine of the Jewish community. As Paul preached, he orated in Aramaic, the common tongue of the Jewish people at this juncture in ancient history. This caused most, if not all, of the virulent yelling to cease. Paul’s usage of the Aramaic dialect further validated his connection and affection for the Hebrew populace. Paul spoke to the antagonistic crowd, a crowd directly responsible for physically assaulting him, with a calming compassion. There was no hint of hatred or vengeful thought in the apostle’s speech. Like Christ on the path to Calvary, Paul had a supernatural composure, a composure which bestowed upon him the ability to nobly communicate to a body of individuals bent on bringing about his sudden demise. 

Paul confirmed both his genealogical and educational credentials in his defense. Born in Tarsus, he later went to Jerusalem to train in the religious school (presumably around the age of thirteen) under the tutelage of Gamaliel, an esteemed, eminent scholar. As a Pharisee, Paul possessed and expressed fervor for the Mosaic law. Because of this zeal, he became fiercely reactive to anyone who attempted to teach about anything or anyone outside of the Old Testament writings (as the Christians were by heralding the life and lordship of Jesus). Thus, Paul persecuted the followers of Christ for propagating a creed that he initially assumed was heresy. He imprisoned and murdered Christians, justifying that they were enemies of God and needed to be punished as such. 
Having aptly outlined his disdain for the tenets of Christianity, Paul revealed the miraculous and divine manner in which Jesus invited him into the Christian faith on the road to Damascus. The apostle recounted how he had been blinded by a heavenly light and heard the voice of Christ. He said that Ananias, a highly respected Jewish man and follower of Jesus, had been instructed to meet him and disclose Paul’s future purpose: to be a witness of everything he had seen and heard. Paul then mentioned a trip that he had taken to Jerusalem some years after the Damascus conversion where he prayed for God’s direction as he worshipped inside Jerusalem’s temple. As Paul entered into supplication in the house of worship, he fell into a trance and saw Jesus, Who told Paul to hastily leave Jerusalem because most of its citizens would refuse to accept his testimony (this narrative, incidentally, is not captured in any other section of Scripture). Paul pressed the matter with Christ for he longed to be an agent of change in the epicenter of Hebrew culture. But Jesus reiterated Paul’s need to depart Jerusalem and reminded Paul that he had been commissioned to be a witness to the Gentiles. 
It was at this point that the attentiveness of the mob suddenly vanished. The implication that outsiders of the Jewish sect, uncircumcised Gentiles, could have an equal stake in God’s eternal kingdom and blessing was absolutely preposterous to those who had long held to the perception that God’s love and favor were solely reserved for His chosen nation: Israel. History teaches us that Israel was tasked to share God’s message and glorify Him by their righteous example, but over time covenantal relationship with God, by and large, turned into a source of pride, a pride that drove many to exclude those outside their lineage from learning about God’s Word or His magnificence. Paul was very familiar with this sentiment because he once subscribed to it. For most of his life, the apostle had held tightly to the principle that there was to be a strong, distinct division between Jewish and Gentile people. But upon receiving salvation, Paul realized that all of humanity could find connection and unity through Christ’s forgiveness. 

Paul, the former Christian persecutor, hoped that his repentance might compel some, if not all, of the Hebrews listening to him to remove blinders from their souls and petition Jesus to do a similar work in them. Unfortunately, Paul’s crowd that day was full of stubborn, obstinate hearts. The people began screaming, ripping off their cloaks, and flinging dust in the air. Their behavior implies many had pronounced a death sentence on Paul by way of stoning, similar to the pattern that was recorded in Acts 7 with Stephen’s murder. Lysias sought to prevent this from occurring and demanded Paul be rushed into the barracks. Because of the explosive reaction of the people, the Roman commander probably assumed Paul was worthy of extreme punishment for inciting the Jerusalem residents and visitors to anger. Therefore, Lysias ordered Paul be subjected to harsh examination by way of flogging. This tactic was an attempt to forcibly extract the nature of Paul’s business and determine the root cause of his supposedly malicious intentions. This was not uncommon treatment for non-Roman citizens in this era. 

As Paul was being prepared to be tortured, he questioned whether it was legal to flog a Roman national who had not been found guilty of any wrongdoing, knowing it was not. When Lysias was made aware that Paul had claimed Roman citizenry he immediately went to see the apostle to authenticate it. Paul confirmed that he had been born a freeman of Rome. Lysias and the soldiers subsequently halted their course of violent interrogation, lest they violate the civic rights afforded to a Roman inhabitant and risk being punished themselves for failing to adhere to the official protocol and process in such matters. Instead, Paul was released, but kept in the care of soldiers. The apostle, who was formerly under guard because of a speculative crime, was now being given the resources of the Roman military for his protection. Lysias set out to investigate the impetus of the Jewish hostility towards Paul. The Roman commander had the Sanhedrin gather so that Paul could bring his defense before them. 

Paul’s charge from Christ was to be a witness to all men. Clearly, Paul had a fondness for his Jewish brethren. He routinely offered the first fruits of preaching in the Jewish synagogues of the cities he visited post-salvation. But Jesus made it clear that by being a witness to Gentiles the apostle needed to look further than his religious genealogy and be a messenger to those outside the Hebrew community. Paul became a most excellent ambassador for Christianity and made an enduring impression upon Gentiles across the ancient western hemisphere. Through Paul’s testimony in Acts 22 we discover three critical components of a sound witness.     

One, a sound witness involves perception. Although we often liken perception to a casual mindfulness, perception entails so much more. To perceive is to gain amplifying discernment or knowledge. It provides pivotal insight, an insight which cultivates a clearer picture of someone or something. As Paul described the way in which Jesus met him on the road to Damascus, he declared that a bright light from heaven flashed around him and he heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul! Why do you persecute me?” (Acts 22:6). When Paul inquired as to who was speaking to him, the voice said, “I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting” (Acts 22:7). Paul’s ability to perceive the communication from the Lord prompted him to reconsider and reevaluate everything he had wrongly believed about Jesus. 

What makes Paul’s testimony so compelling is that there were men traveling with him who saw the light but did not perceive the message or its significance. Whether shielded from hearing the divine correspondence by Jesus Himself or shielded from hearing the heavenly dispatch because of the callousness of their own spirits, the men accompanying Paul on the road to Damascus did not share the redemptive breakthrough that Paul did. They could not perceive or appreciate that God’s Son and humanity’s Savior was in their midst. Sadly, there is no indication in Scripture that these men were changed as a result of their introduction to Christ.    

Perhaps a vital lesson to be learned from this passage is that perception implies something much more than a dispassionate mental deliberation; it is a soul-rousing reflection that causes one to put the things of God before the things of man. This truth is reinforced by how quickly Paul’s persecutory plan was abandoned after he met Jesus on the road to Damascus. Perceiving Jesus’ eternal existence, the former adversary of Christianity was immediately moved to dedicate ample time in meditation and prayer to Jesus. Paul’s heavenly solicitation produced a yearning to intimately know Christ and submit to His governance. Upon surrendering belief that Jesus is the Son of God Who sacrificially offered His life for mankind at Calvary, Paul received the blessing of spiritual deliverance and the gift of the Holy Spirit, which were essential to his eternal life, as well as his earthly life.      
Two, a sound witness involves provocation. Provocation is often evaluated in a negative sense because people correlate provoking with the generation of irate feelings. But to provoke is to evoke a powerful response. It is a method utilized to elicit activity, which means a provocation can either be positive or negative. The intent of the provocation and the nature of the one exercising it differentiate a positive provocation from a negative provocation. Paul received the purest provocation of all: a holy prodding from heaven’s Prince. Christ’s personal and passionate contact with Paul acknowledges Jesus lovingly engages mankind and seeks to excite our complacent temperament.
Paul highlighted his divine provocation in Acts 22:10 when he asked Jesus, “What shall I do now, Lord?” Paul was intellectually endowed with the ability to educate, strategize, and organize (as evidenced by his cunning crusade to eradicate Christianity), but he found himself unable to know what he should do with his life, a life that had been suddenly turned upside-down. His previously concocted agendas and tasks were exposed as shameful and destructive. Jesus’ intervention provoked the apostle to acquiesce to Christ’s sovereignty and plead for the Lord’s guidance. 

“What shall I do now, Lord” was a cry for heavenly aid. Broken of his ego and religious vanity, Paul deduced that the path he was on was not approved or sanctioned by God. The divine collision left him dumbfounded and searching for answers from the Savior, the very One Paul should have been seeking all along. God’s provocations shatter our spiritual barriers. When we sense the overwhelming wisdom and superiority of God it cannot help but provoke our spirit and motivate us to ask, “What shall I do now, Lord?” 

Three, a sound witness involves a proclamation. The intersection of a Christ-oriented perception and a Christ-oriented provocation naturally beget a passion to proclaim Jesus. Numerous passages affirm Paul convincingly proclaimed Christ to the world. In the Savior’s exchange with Paul in Acts 22:18, Jesus identified Paul’s abiding allegiance to make known his testimony, even in the face of adversity. Clearly, Paul was a workman for God’s kingdom and displayed an ever-thankful outlook for his salvation. He made himself available for proclaiming the hope, truth, and emancipation of Jesus.       
Acts reminds us that witnessing is no easy endeavor, but it is a most honorable endeavor. Paul’s persistence, devotion, and esteem for witnessing produced a lasting legacy, a legacy worth following. The apostle taught us that carrying the banner of Christ in this world yields a sweet contentment for the life committed to it.    

Are you a witness for Christ in this world?