Paul’s Apologetic

Paul’s Apologetic

By Michael Klikas

15 October 2006
Adult Education Hour
Acts 22

What I want to do is give you a brief overview of this chapter before we start our study because the very first verse is where we find our word apologia which means to give a verbal defense as we have already found out.

Paul, in his address to the people, gives an account of his birth and education, Act_21:1-3. His prejudices against Christianity, Act_21:4, Act_21:5. And of his miraculous conversion, and call to the apostleship, vv. 6-21. The Jews, hearing him say that God had sent him to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles, become exceedingly outrageous, and clamor for his life, Act_21:22, Act_21:23. The chief captain orders him to be examined by scourging; but he, pleading his privilege as a Roman citizen, escapes the torture, Act_21:24-29. The next day the chief captain brings Paul before the chief priests and their council, Act_21:30. (Commentary from Adam Clarke on Acts Chapter 22)

This is a nice overview of the chapter if you want to know what has happened in the chapter but what this fails to do is it fails to tell us anything about the preceding chapter and why Paul has to give an account of his birth and education. You would have no idea by reading this why Paul is giving a defense. In fact, from just reading this, you really don’t know that Paul is giving a defense of the gospel. So to really understand what is happening here we need to go back to chapter twenty one.

If you remember from what we studied in 1 Peter Chapter 3, we said that you may have to give a verbal defense to those who are religious. Sometimes the people that you have to give a verbal defense to know the word of God but are still lost. In other cases it may be that they do not know the word of God at all but are quite religious. The third area is those that are religious, know the word of God, are saved, but believe in teachings that are contrary to the Bible. We will explore some of these situations here in Acts Chapter 22. We will start out by looking into verse one.

Acts 22:1 Men, brethren, and fathers, hear ye my defense which I make now unto you.

Now if we were to just read this verse and pick it apart we could come up with many things that we think this verse could mean. So I want to ask if you know the context of this verse. We have talked a lot about that and how important it is to use the word of God within the context of how it was written. So is Paul speaking at a men’s breakfast like we have here on Saturday mornings? Is this a father son banquette where everybody gets along and Paul is the guest speaker? What is Paul defending and why is he having to put up a defense? Again in order to understand the context of the defense that Paul is going to make we have to go back to Chapter twenty two. If we do not understand the context of this verse (Acts 22:1) then we will never be able to make application and we will be no different then the person who uses the word of God to suit their own purposes and motives. Now we are going to read most of Chapter twenty one. The reason we have to do that is because if we don’t, we will not understand verse one of Acts Chapter twenty two.

Acts 21:7 And when we had finished our course from Tyre, we came to Ptolemais, and saluted the brethren, and abode with them one day.

Acts 21:8 And the next day we that were of Paul's company departed, and came unto Caesarea: and we entered into the house of Philip the evangelist, which was was one of the seven; and abode with him.

Acts 21:9 And the same man had four daughters, virgins, which did prophesy.

Acts 21:10 And as we tarried there many days, there came down from Judea a certain prophet, named Agabus.

Acts 21:11 And when he was come unto us, he took Paul's girdle, and bound his own hands and feet, and said, Thus saith the Holy Ghost, So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man that owneth this girdle, and shall deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.

Acts 21:12 And when we heard these things, both we, and they of that place, besought him not to go up to Jerusalem.

Acts 21:13 Then Paul answered, What mean ye to weep and to break mine heart? for I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.

Acts 21:14 And when he would not be persuaded, we ceased, saying, The will of the Lord be done.

Acts 21:15 And after those days we took up our carriages, and went up to Jerusalem.

Acts 21:16 There went with us also certain of the disciples of Caesarea, and brought with them one Mnason of Cyprus, an old disciple, with whom we should lodge.

Acts 21:17 And when we were come to Jerusalem, the brethren received us gladly.

Acts 21:18 And the day following Paul went in with us unto James; and all the elders were present.

Acts 21:19 And when he had saluted them, he declared particularly what things God had wrought among the Gentiles by his ministry.

Acts 21:20 And when they heard it, they glorified the Lord, and said unto him, Thou seest, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are which believe; and they are all zealous of the law:

Acts 21:21 And they are informed of thee, that thou teachest all the Jews which are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, saying that they ought not to circumcise their children, neither to walk after the customs.

Acts 21:22 What is it therefore? the multitude must needs come together: for they will hear that thou art come.

Acts 21:23 Do therefore this that we say to thee: We have four men which have a vow on them;

Acts 21:24 Them take, and purify thyself with them, and be at charges with them, that they may shave their heads: and all may know that those things, whereof they were informed concerning thee, are nothing; but that thou thyself also walkest orderly, and keepest the law.

Acts 21:25 As touching the Gentiles which believe, we have written and concluded that they observe no such thing, save only that they keep themselves from things offered to idols, and from blood, and from strangled, and from fornication.

Acts 21:26 Then Paul took the men, and the next day purifying himself with them entered into the temple, to signify the accomplishment of the days of purification, until that an offering should be offered for every one of them.

Acts 21:27 And when the seven days were almost ended, the Jews which were of Asia, when they saw him in the temple, stirred up all the people, and laid hands on him,

Acts 21:28 Crying out, Men of Israel, help: This is the man, that teacheth all men every where against the people, and the law, and this place: and further brought Greeks also into the temple, and hath polluted this holy place.

Acts 21:29 (For they had seen before with him in the city Trophimus an Ephesian, whom they supposed that Paul had brought into the temple.)

Acts 21:30 And all the city was moved, and the people ran together: and they took Paul, and drew him out of the temple: and forthwith the doors were shut.

Acts 21:31 And as they went about to kill him, tidings came unto the chief captain of the band, that all Jerusalem was in an uproar.

Acts 21:32 Who immediately took soldiers and centurions, and ran down unto them: and when they saw the chief captain and the soldiers, they left beating of Paul.

Acts 21:33 Then the chief captain came near, and took him, and commanded him to be bound with two chains; and demanded who he was, and what he had done.

Acts 21:34 And some cried one thing, some another, among the multitude: and when he could not know the certainty for the tumult, he commanded him to be carried into the castle.

Acts 21:35 And when he came upon the stairs, so it was, that he was borne of the soldiers for the violence of the people.

Act 21:36 For the multitude of the people followed after, crying, Away with him.

Acts 21:37 And as Paul was to be led into the castle, he said unto the chief captain, May I speak unto thee? Who said, Canst thou speak Greek?

Act 21:38 Art not thou that Egyptian, which before these days madest an uproar, and leddest out into the wilderness four thousand men that were murderers?

Acts 21:39 But Paul said, I am a man which am a Jew of Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, a citizen of no mean city: and, I beseech thee, suffer me to speak unto the people.

Acts 21:40 And when he had given him license, Paul stood on the stairs, and beckoned with the hand unto the people. And when there was made a great silence, he spake unto them in the Hebrew tongue, saying,

Now that was a lot to read but if we did not read that then we would have never understood why Paul was making a defense in verse one of Chapter twenty two of the book of Acts. So let’s spend some time examining what lead up to this defense and then we will move into Paul’s defense.

The first thing that we will see is that apologetics is sovereignly controlled by the Lord. Any time we have the opportunity to give a defense of the scriptures, all events leading up to the defense of the scriptures have been sovereignly controlled by God. To say otherwise would be to say that God is no longer sovereign and that the encounter that took place happened by chance, luck, or by something that you and I did. If I hadn’t said this or that then this or that wouldn’t have occurred, or it was a stroke of luck that I was there at that particular time. With that type of thinking we will never be ready to give a defense of the scriptures because our minds and our hearts will be so earthly minded. God is sovereign and everything he does is for his glory and his purpose. Those encounters with JW’s, Catholics, Mormons, and other people that are religious lost people who have their own ideas about God are sovereignly orchestrated by the Lord.

If we were to look back at the events that lead up to the times that we have had the opportunity to give a defense of the scriptures or the opportunity to give someone the gospel we would see that the timing of the entire day or days was perfect because it was the Lord who arranged it. As we look at the first few verses in chapter twenty one of Acts we can see how God’s timing is perfect. First of all we see that Paul only stayed one night with the brethren at Ptolemais. From there he went Caesarea to stay with the Philip. Now this is the same Philip that baptized the Ethiopian Eunuch and was also one the seven deacons that we find earlier in the book of Acts. Now the bible says that they tarried there many days? You could drive yourself nuts asking why they only stayed in Ptolemais for the night when there were brethren there who could certainly used the fellowship from Paul and would have definitely grown spiritually if he stayed with them longer. How could he minister to all the brethren in one night? Why would he stay with Philip many nights and not the brethren? This is what we sometimes do? We want to know the why’s of the events instead of looking for the sovereign hand of God in all situations. We can’t be satisfied until we know everything about the situation and the events that lead up to it. Why can’t we just be content in the fact that the Lord is sovereign and we are not? Until we come to the conclusion that we can’t know everything and all we need to do is obey the Lord, we will never be the apologist that we need to be. We have to trust in God’s sovereign will and not worry about what we don’t know. Well let's see God’s sovereign hand in this situation.

Acts 21:10 And as we tarried there many days, there came down from Judea a certain prophet, named Agabus.

Here we see this prophet Agabus come and give Paul a message. What a greeting this was. He tells Paul what is going to happen at Jerusalem. Now how can we make application this? First of all if you enter into the world of apologetics, by which you are commanded to do so, then you can expect conflict and hatred to be directed your way. The Jews were not going to bind Paul’s hands and feet to take him to a surprise party for being the apostle of the year. They weren’t going to bind him and deliver him to the gentiles for the purpose of showering him with gifts because he had been fulfilling the great commission and they were excited about the gentiles coming to the Lord.

There was hatred, resentment, worry, and all sorts of other emotions going on in the Jews that made them hate Paul. So what does Paul do? Of course he does what you and I have done in all to many situations and he avoids the conflict, right? Not at all, look at verses twelve through fourteen.

Acts 21:12 And when we heard these things, both we, and they of that place, besought him not to go up to Jerusalem.

Acts 21:13 Then Paul answered, What mean ye to weep and to break mine heart? for I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.

Acts 21:14 And when he would not be persuaded, we ceased, saying, The will of the Lord be done.

Now there is something interesting here in verse twelve that I want to park on for a just a few minutes. Don’t get involved Paul, it’s not your fight. It’s not worth you getting thrown in jail for these thankless people who could care less about you. Let someone else who is a little more politically connected take care of this problem. They are not going to listen to what you have say, and even if they do listen they are not going to believe you. Have you ever said anything like this? Maybe it’s been the last sentence where they are not going to believe you or listen to you.

We usually use this type of reasoning when we don’t want to get involved. We also use this type of reasoning when we are putting up a defense in the flesh and not trusting God by using the word of God to work in the person’s heart. When JW’s come to the door, don’t answer it because they may come back again. The problem I have is that they don’t come back so I have one shot to confront their lies and give them the truth. When JW’s, Mormons and other such groups come to your house or you encounter them away from the house, it is a divine appointment for you to verbally defend the truth. But as I said the problem that we have is that we do not want to get involved.

God has a chosen people, his elect. Who are God’s elect? Well I know I am one. Can you tell by looking at someone who the Lord’s elect is? Are the elect nice people who go to the right church before they are saved? Do the elect of God have this look about them that says witness to me because I am one of God’s own and all you need to do is give me the gospel so that I can get saved? God’s people come from all sorts of different backgrounds and lifestyles. They are good people by mere human standards as well as the most undesirable people you could imagine. Some of God’s chosen people have even been saved out of cults, imagine that! The other thing that I find funny is our reaction to the people who are saved. We get excited when a catholic is saved, but we are completely amazed when an atheist, a JW, or a Mormon gets saved. Why? God does the drawing and the saving so why should we be amazed? We act as if it is harder for God to save a Jehovah’s Witness then it is for Him to save a Catholic. We act as if it’s easier for God to save someone who has grown up in church then it is to save an atheist.

Jeremiah 32:27 Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh: is there any thing too hard for me?

If this is true, which it is, then why do we act as if God really did something great when he has saved one type of person and but really didn’t have to work too hard to save another type of person? No matter who the Lord saves, it is a great act of God. Then, why do we shy away from conflict and verbal defenses of the truth? One of the reasons we may shy away is because we do not trust in the Lord like we say we do. A second reason that we may shy away is because we do not know the word of God like we should and for that reason we are not comfortable in making a verbal defense. A third reason that we shy away from a verbal defense is because we are afraid of what may happen to us or what people may think of us. All that is, is pride and idolatry. Because I am me, I don’t deserve anything bad to happen to me. Or in the case of Paul, those around him had the wrong idea of what serving the Lord is all about. Serving the Lord meant that you never put yourself in harms way or in a position to be verbally assaulted. Just get used to the idea that not everyone is going to like you and that some people are actually going to hate you. So what do we do, try to get along with every one so that everybody likes us? It will not work because people are still going to hate you regardless of what you do to try and win friends and influence people. Look at John 15:18 – 21.

John 15:18 If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.

John 15:19 If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.

John 15:20 Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.

John 15:21 But all these things will they do unto you for my name’s sake, because they know not him that sent me.

Paul knew that the opportunity to confront people about there sin and give them gospel was more important then what would happen t him and what people thought about him. Now I am going to ask myself this question also. What is more important to us, what people think of us and how many people like us, or serving the Lord and being a witness for him?

Paul stood up to those around him and look at how they finally responded to him in verse fourteen.

Acts 21:14 And when he would not be persuaded, we ceased, saying, The will of the Lord be done.

Why did it take Paul’s resolve to go to Jerusalem to get them to stop trying to get him to go somewhere else? Notice what they said in that last part of this verse. The will of the Lord be done. Okay, when there are no other options, then I guess I will do the Lord’s will. Guess what, there are no other options. As we saw from our first study in 1 Peter 3:15, you do not decide to become an apologist, you are an apologist whether you like it not. God’s will should not be the last option but the only option. So when that person comes to your door, talks about the blessed virgin, baptismal regeneration, and a number of other things, your only option is to stand up and defend the truth. Even when others want to avoid the conflict, you have to stand up for what is right and do God’s will. There’s something else that I want you to notice about what we are studying here in Acts chapter twenty one.

Unlike in 1 Peter with people coming to you and asking you of the hope that is in you, you are going to have to go to them yourself. So now we have a battle on two fronts. On one front is those who will come to us and the other front are those that we will have to go to. We see this in verses fifteen through nineteen.

Acts 21:15 And after those days we took up our carriages, and went up to Jerusalem.

Acts 21:16 There went with us also certain of the disciples of Caesarea, and brought with them one Mnason of Cyprus, an old disciple, with whom we should lodge.

Acts 21:17 And when we were come to Jerusalem, the brethren received us gladly.

Acts 21:18 And the day following Paul went in with us unto James; and all the elders were present.

Acts 21:19 And when he had saluted them, he declared particularly what things God had wrought among the Gentiles by his ministry.