INTRODUCTION
The Lord saw fit to give us three distinct accounts of Saul’s conversion on the way to Damascus. The first (Acts 9:1-19) is a third-person narrative by Luke. The second is our passage here today, a first-person defense to an angry mob (Acts 22:1-21). The third is Paul’s first-person defense to King Agrippa (Acts 26:1-23), which we will consider in detail in due course.
THE TEXT
“Men, brethren, and fathers, hear ye my defence which I make now unto you. (And when they heard that he spake in the Hebrew tongue to them, they kept the more silence: and he saith,) I am verily a man which am a Jew, born in Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, 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, as ye all are this day . . .” (Acts 22:1–23).
SUMMARY OF THE TEXT
Paul appealed to his countrymen, brothers and fathers (v. 1). When they heard him speaking Hebrew, they quieted down further (v. 2). Paul said he was a Jew from Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in Jerusalem as Gamaliel’s student. He was a good and zealous student (v. 3). He persecuted Christians to the point of death, delivering men and women both to prison (v. 4). The high priest and elders can confirm all of this, as they were the ones who gave him his letters of authorization for his Damascus raid (v. 5). Coming to Damascus at noon, suddenly there was a glorious light that surrounded him (v. 6). A voice spoke, saying, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” (v. 7) Saul answered with “who are you, Lord?” The answer was Jesus of Nazareth, the one you are persecuting (v. 8). His companions saw the light, but did not hear the voice (v. 9). Saul asked what he should do, and he was told to go into Damascus and await further instructions (v. 10). The glory had blinded him, so he was led by the hand into Damascus (v. 11). A devout Jew, respected by all the Jews there, was named Ananias (v. 12). He came to Saul and commanded “brother Saul” to receive his sight. And Saul looked on him (v. 13). He said the “God of our fathers” had chosen Saul to know His will, see the Just One, and to hear Him speak (v. 14). Saul was going to be a witness to all men of what he had seen and heard (v. 15). What are you waiting for? Get up and be baptized, wash your sins away, and call on the name of the Lord (v. 16). Years later, Saul was in Jerusalem, praying in the Temple, and was in a trance (v. 17). Jesus told him to leave Jerusalem immediately because they would not receive Saul’s testimony concerning Christ (v. 18). Saul protested . . . Lord, they know that I used to imprison Christians, and beat them in every synagogue (v. 19). When the blood of the martyr Stephen was shed, Saul approved and held the coats of the lying witnesses (v. 20). But Jesus said to leave . . . he would be sent far away to the Gentiles (v. 21). And at that word Gentiles, the crowd erupted again. “He is not fit to live!” (v. 22). They were yelling, casting off their clothes, and throwing dust in the air (v. 23).
HARMONIZING THEM
The three accounts are not identical accounts. They are consistent, with no contradictions, but there are discrepancies that have to be addressed. The most obvious is that in Acts 9:7, it says that Saul’s companions “heard the voice” but didn’t see anyone. In our passage, they saw light, but did not hear the voice (Acts 22:9). But the Greek word akouo, used in both places means both to hear and to understand. The men heard sound, but nothing intelligible.
“And the men which journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man” (Acts 9:7). “And when we were all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice speaking unto me . . .” (Acts 26:14). They all fell at the first flash of light, but his companions stood up again while the Lord was speaking to Saul.
As the saying goes, Scripture is an anvil that has worn out many hammers.
ONE NEW MAN OUT OF TWO
One of the central things that Christ came to do was to abolish the enmity between Jew and Gentile. We can see in this passage how much enmity there was. The angry mob listened to Paul talk about his former persecution of Christians. They listened to him describe a great miracle on the Damascus road. They could deal with miracles. They heard him out when he described his baptism. They accepted the good report that Ananias had among all the Jews of Damascus. They listened in silence until he said the fatal word Gentiles, and they went up in a sheet of flame.
“For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace” (Eph. 2:14–15).
The one new man is the Christian man. The center of this project was the enmity between Jew and Gentile, but all others were included as well. Remember all the nations represented on that first Pentecost (Acts 2:8-11). The tearing down of the middle wall of partition is a principle that extends to all other groups at daggers drawn.
“Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all” (Col. 3:11).
But don’t fall into a category mistake. The wall that must come down in the wall of enmity. It is no sin to have a front door on your house, or a secure border for your country, or turnstiles down in the subway. That is simply a matter of good order. Good fences make good neighbors. So the only ethnic opinions you hold that need to be repented of are the ones that smell like sulfur.