Praying through Acts- Acts 22

Intro:

Acts 21:30–33 NKJV

30 And all the city was disturbed; and the people ran together, seized Paul, and dragged him out of the temple; and immediately the doors were shut. 31 Now as they were seeking to kill him, news came to the commander of the garrison that all Jerusalem was in an uproar. 32 He immediately took soldiers and centurions, and ran down to them. And when they saw the commander and the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul. 33 Then the commander came near and took him, and commanded him to be bound with two chains; and he asked who he was and what he had done.

As we continue to pray through Acts, we will focus on chapter 22.

One of the aspects of prayer that I love is what God does to us on the inside. The more we pray, the more we become like Jesus. He will help us show His grace and love to others.

Wouldn’t it be great to be able to live like Jesus all the time?

How did Jesus live?

He was loving

He was honest

He was compassionate

He was supernatural

He was consistent

Imagine how life would be everyone was like Jesus.

It is possible through a life of prayer and dependance on the Holy Spirit.

Acts 1:8 NKJV

8 But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

Witnessing is not just something we do, but something done to us. People watch us to see if we live for the one we’ve told them about.

We might GO and witness, telling others about Christ.

But people WITNESS US, watching or lives to see if we actually live like the One we’ve told them about .

Acts 1 - promise of power

Acts 2 - received power

Acts 3- exercised power

Acts 4 - prayed for more power

Acts 5- people lied and God displayed His power

Acts 6- conflict arose and God used people of power to help the church

Acts 7- Stephen reminded them of God’s power in history

Acts 8- walked in power to spread Gospel in Samaria

Acts 9- Saul was converted through an encounter with God’s power

Acts 10- the power of God fell on the Gentiles as Peter preached

Acts 11- Peter defended Gentiles receiving power

Acts 12- the church prayed and Peter was released from prison

Acts 13- God sent Barnabas and Paul as a result of prayer

Acts 14- Paul and Barnabas took the gospel to new regions proclaiming God’s message with power

Acts 15- they prayed and God gave powerful discernment

Acts 16- Paul and Silas prayed and praised in prison, and God set them free

Acts 17- Paul stayed consistent in the face of hardships because of his prayer life

Acts 18- Paul prayed and God helped him reach the city of Corinth.

Acts 19- Paul put what he prayed for and believed into practice and God answered

Acts 20- Paul prayed as he headed to Jerusalem, knowing difficulties laid ahead

Acts 21- Paul Told everyone he was ready to go to Jerusalem for the Holy Spirit led him there

When Paul arrived at Jerusalem, he discovers that there is an rumor spread about him.

People accused Paul of telling people that Jewish Christians were not permitted to keep the law or celebrate the feasts.

When Paul went to the temple to worship and someone noticed him.

Once again a lie was spread about Paul. Someone supposed that they saw Paul bring a Greek into the Temple, which would have defiled their worship.

Paul wanted to witness to others about Jesus, even when they attacked him.

Let’s look at what Paul spoke to the crowd tonight. I have three points, [A Requirement to Witness], [A Review in Witness] and [A Reaction to our Witness].

Let’s begin

1. A Requirement to Witness

Acts 22:1–3 NKJV

1 “Brethren and fathers, hear my defense before you now.” 2 And when they heard that he spoke to them in the Hebrew language, they kept all the more silent. Then he said: 3 “I am indeed a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, taught according to the strictness of our fathers’ law, and was zealous toward God as you all are today.

After being arrested, Paul asked the Roman commander if he could speak to the people.

I am amazed at Paul’s concern for the crowd. (Why would he want to speak to them after all they did to hurt and harm him?) They {lied about him}, they {physically harmed him}, and they {attempted to ruin his reputation.}

I know Christians are to forgive, but everywhere Paul would go, the Jews would persecute him after he spoke to them, (why would he want to speak to them again?)

Paul even acknowledged that he had been persecuted on every side, but he had a plan. He wanted the life and love of Christ to be manifested through his body.

That meant if he has physically hurt, he wanted to be an example and take this opportunity {to witness} and {defend the faith}.

He ceased to speak in Greek and he addressed the crowd in Hebrew. The majority of the crowd would have been unbelieving Jews and Paul requested that he might speak to them.

When we pray, we will stay ready to witness to people whenever the Spirit prompts us.

Paul’s request to address the crowd was granted and he took time to present…

2. A Review in Witness

Acts 22:4–8 NKJV

4 I persecuted this Way to the death, binding and delivering into prisons both men and women, 5 as also the high priest bears me witness, and all the council of the elders, from whom I also received letters to the brethren, and went to Damascus to bring in chains even those who were there to Jerusalem to be punished. 6 “Now it happened, as I journeyed and came near Damascus at about noon, suddenly a great light from heaven shone around me. 7 And I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?’ 8 So I answered, ‘Who are You, Lord?’ And He said to me, ‘I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting.’

Part of the reason Paul wanted to witness to the unbelieving Jews was because he could identify with them. In fact, their thought processes were so much alike, it caused conflict.

Romans spoke to the Jews in Greek, it was the main language of the day. But now, Paul speaks to them in Hebrews, which they quickly understood. He then reviews a list of his credentials.

The famed Pharisee, Gamaliel, trained Paul. His name would have been well recognized. Furthermore, Paul told them that he was {instructed in the strictness of the law} and he was {zealous toward God}.

To be zealous means to have great energy or enthusiasm in pursuit of a cause or an objective. It could also mean deep commitment or eager devotion.

It is not a bad thing to be zealous, however, we must make sure our zeal is placed behind the correct cause.

Paul told them, I was zealous for the law and I persecuted those who were of the Way, meaning he imprisoned Christians because of their faith.

(Why did Paul go back through and review this information?)

It had been twenty-seven years since all of that took place.

He wanted the crowd to understand that he knew how they felt. After listing his credentials, he reviewed his testimony.

Paul discussed his t supernatural encounter with the Lord.

Though this story is familiar to us, it is likely that it is the first time that those in the crowd heard it from Paul. As the story is told, Paul was brought to the home of Ananias after the light blinded him.

Paul tells of Ananias, but he doesn’t mention the fact that he is a Christian, only that he is a brother and that he was devout man who had a good testimony with the Jews.

He recounts the words of Ananias’ mention of the God of our fathers connecting Jesus’ with the history of God’s people. (Why did Paul go through these events?)

He wanted the Jews to know that the same Jesus, who they thought was dead, was in fact alive and Paul had a personal encounter with him.

No one can take away our testimony, the story of our personal encounters with Jesus.

Acts 22:17–21 NKJV

17 “Now it happened, when I returned to Jerusalem and was praying in the temple, that I was in a trance 18 and saw Him saying to me, ‘Make haste and get out of Jerusalem quickly, for they will not receive your testimony concerning Me.’ 19 So I said, ‘Lord, they know that in every synagogue I imprisoned and beat those who believe on You. 20 And when the blood of Your martyr Stephen was shed, I also was standing by consenting to his death, and guarding the clothes of those who were killing him.’ 21 Then He said to me, ‘Depart, for I will send you far from here to the Gentiles.’ ”

This is part of the story that is not told in the earlier accounts in Acts. A vision from Jesus told him to leave Jerusalem to go and reach the Gentiles.

Once he mentioned the Gentiles. This is where things took a turn for a worse.

3. A Reaction to our Witness

Acts 22:22 NKJV

22 And they listened to him until this word, and then they raised their voices and said, “Away with such a fellow from the earth, for he is not fit to live!”

Paul had their attention until he told them that Jesus wanted him to go preach to the Gentiles. For the Jew, this was blasphemous.

They thought the Gentiles were too far gone. But the New Testament preached that Gentiles could go straight to being Christians.

The Jews couldn’t handle that, they viewed themselves to be superior to the Gentiles. They started to throw dirt in the air and began to cry out loud.

Once the uproar started, the commander ordered Paul to be scourged.

To be scourged meant that Paul would be flogged with a whip of leather thongs with pieces of bone and metal sewn in them.

As Paul hung there preparing for his scourging, he had a question.

Paul brought up the fact that he was a Roman citizen. Under normal circumstances they could have flogged a Jew or a Christian, but they couldn’t flog a Roman Citizen.

After further review, Paul explained that he was from Tarsus and he was born a Roman citizen, therefore, he was afforded the rights that went along with his citizenship.

After this Paul as let down and he was not flogged.

Paul stayed faithful even though they did not accept his message.

If people reject us when we witness to them, we should not get discouraged, but trust that God planted seeds in their hearts.

Close:

Paul did not want to miss an opportunity to tell someone about how Jesus saved him from a life of sin. Furthermore, it shows how the heart of every Christian should look.

Isn’t it interesting that though Paul had been a Christian now for more than twenty-five years, he was still moved with compassion for the lost.

After more than twenty-five years he could have become self-righteous.

He could have looked down on the Jews because of their sin, but instead, he identified with them. He knew how they felt in their sin-because he too once felt that way.

Therefore, when he had the opportunity to tell of the risen Savior, he didn’t waste his opportunity to witness about Christ!

(What should this tell us?)

When we commit to prayer, we will never stop witnessing; we will do everything we can to represent Christ everywhere we go.

(How do can we be an effective witness?)

We must remember we say more with our actions than we do with our words. As Christians, we forfeit some rights that non-Christians have.

We must remember people are always watching us; therefore we must be diligent to represent Christ to the world. We must watch what we say; we must be careful how we respond.

It doesn’t matter how good we are in church, we have to take what we experience here and reflect it out there in our actions as well as our words.

(How is this possible?) We must keep the Holy Spirit in a prominent place in our lives!

Then God will open a door for us to share our testimony and tell people how we were once a sinner, but Jesus set us free!

A person who prays is a person will want to be a witness.