Paul: Testifying in Chains

“Having received the commander’s permission, Paul stood on the steps and motioned to the crowd. When they were all silent, he said to them in Aramaic, ‘Brothers and fathers, listen now to my defense.’ When they heard him speak in Aramaic, they became very quiet. Then Paul said, “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city. I was thoroughly trained in the law of our fathers and was just as zealous for God as any of you are. I persecuted the followers of the Way to their death, arresting both men and women and throwing them into prison.” (Acts 21:40; 22:1-4. NIV Reads Acts 21:27-22:1-30).

Paul arrived in Jerusalem, and even though he had set his face steadfastly to go there, his reception was two-fold. His Jewish fellow believers received him with gladness, but the Jewish people in general, and especially the temple rulers, were lying in wait for him. He had once been among them, as Paul said on one occasion, “A Jew of the Jews.” They did not like it that Paul had departed the Jewish faith to become a Christian and a missionary, and to them that was a gross crime, worthy of punishment by death. A mob gathered, and Paul was stoned. Such a riot broke out that the Roman commander had to step in to rescue Paul and cast him into the Roman barracks for protection from the mob.

When the commander learned that Paul was a citizen of Tarsus and not an Egyptian insurrectionist who had led a revolt, he gave Paul permission to speak to the crowd.

Paul, no doubt bloody from the stoning and the ill treatment from the mob, stood and spoke in Aramaic to the angry crowd. His testimony recounted how he had once been a devout Jew trying to stop the Christian movement and finding Christians to persecute. But on the Damascus road he came face to face with the Lord in a mighty light and voice from heaven. After that experience, Paul was assigned a new life, that of being a witness to the Gentiles. Paul’s testimony under duress was and continues to be a thrilling account of God’s work in his life. When the commander learned that Paul was a Roman citizen, it put a new light on his position. He was entitled to a hearing, a trial. And so Paul was released from his bonds and allowed to appear the next day before the assembled Sanhedrin.

Hard times bring out either the best or the worst in a person. One can fall apart under duress or face problems and find a way with God’s help to overcome. Paul chose to handle the Jews’ opposition against him by standing up for the Lord and telling what God had done for him. We have occasions where we, too, must choose. May we, with God’s help, stand firm for the Lord as Paul did.

c Ethelene Dyer Jones; Friday, May 7, 2010