The Book of Acts
The Arrest of Paul, Part 4
Acts 22:15–30
We return to our study of the book of Acts and we are in chapter 22 where Paul has been arrested. The Romans have taken him into custody believing he is an Egyptian rebel trying to overthrow the Roman government.
They are surprised to learn that Paul is actually a very educated man who is proficient in at least two languages. So he is allowed to speak and give a defense of his life and faith. From that defense we are trying to gather some principles that will help us learn how to give a positive witness in negative circumstances.
So far we've learned to remember God put us in the negative situation so we can be used by Him to share the faith. So we embrace that opportunity and share about the difference Christ has made in our life.
Paul does it in three parts. He talks about his life before he met Christ. Then he shares the circumstances of his conversion, and we began looking at that last week. We pick up tonight in
verses 14-15
It is in those verses that we discover the fourth principle of giving a positive witness and that is
4. Exalt the Lord
Now remember, Paul is telling them about the message Ananias delivered to him after he was confronted and blinded by the Lord on the Damascus road. So these aren't his words. They are the word of God delivered through Ananias.
Now when Paul referenced "the God of our fathers",
every Jew standing there knew Who he was talking about. And Paul makes a critical point here. He wants them to know if they reject him, they are rejecting God.
His story is interesting and dynamic, but the truth requires that they accept or reject God. And Paul is just making sure that if they reject his testimony, they are rejecting the God of their fathers.
Paul then offers a very powerful defense! He says, first of all, “You can't accuse me of being anti-Semitic,” because as we saw in verses 1 to 5, I am a Jew in every sense. You can’t accuse me of chasing after Christians and becoming a traitor and getting won over by these Christians. You can’t accuse me of that.
The reason I am what I am is because the God of our fathers invaded my life and made me this way. If you want to argue, you’ll have to argue with Him. If you don’t like this, you’ll have to talk to heaven about it.”
And in like manner, when we give our testimony we need to make sure what we are giving testimony to is the power of God to change lives.
It's not just about turning over a new life and acting different than we used to act or being a better person. The testimony is to the power of God to change lives from the inside out. And that’s what Paul did.
Then, Ananias continued,
verse 16
So now the message is over and Ananias is extending the invitation. God has spoken, now, what are you going to do about it? Here's what you need to do. Arise, and be baptized. Wash away your sins by calling on the name of the Lord."
This is one of the go-to verses for those that believe in baptismal regeneration. They say, “Rise and be baptized, and wash away your sins,” and the idea is that physical water can wash away sins.
So what do we do with this verse? Either we are saved by baptism or we are not. So how those of us who believe we are not handle this verse?
Well, let's think about that. This is the first time Paul has had someone speak personally and directly to him about what it means to be saved. So if Ananias was saying, “Paul, be baptized, and wash away your sins,” then that becomes the requirement for salvation as far as Paul is concerned.
After all, Ananias is a God-sent messenger specifically directed to go to Paul and give him a message from God. So in essence, that would have been God saying to Paul, “Here’s how to get saved: get baptized and wash away your sins.”
Now if that was, in fact, what Ananias said and meant and if that’s how Paul got saved, then it makes sense that Paul would have followed the same pattern when he told people how to be saved. If God's message was, “Get baptized and be saved,” that’s what Paul would have preached.
So what did Paul preach? It’s important to know what he preached, because whatever it was, he got it directly from the Lord through Ananias.
In Romans 10:9, he tells us something interesting. He says, “This is the word of faith which we preach.” “What is it you preach, Paul? Remember what Ananias told you that first day, Paul! Don't forget that! Be true to God's word!
Paul says, “Here’s what I preach: that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, shall believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.”
Do you see any water there? Hear anything about baptism? Obviously not because that is not the message Ananias delivered.
In fact, he continues:
verse 10
Salvation is simply a matter of believing in the heart and stating or confessing that belief with the mouth.
So if verse 16 doesn't mean :"Be baptized and wash away your sins", what does it mean? What is it saying? It's clarified by understanding how to break the phrases.
There are two separate and distinct commands, each with two parts. The first one is “Arise and be baptized.”
The second one is “Wash away your sins by calling on the name of the Lord". The phrase that modifies “wash away your sins” is “calling on the name of the Lord.”
Do you know how to get saved? You get saved by calling on the name of the Lord. That's the message Paul was given. How do we know? Keep reading in Romans 10.
Romans 10:13. “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
Listen: The way to interpret Bible verses is by using other Bible verses. The New Testament never teaches that a man can be saved by water. Instead, it teaches that a man is saved by "calling on the name of the Lord.”
That means to ask God to be all that He is in your life: calling on His name, calling on His fullness, appropriating all that He is unto yourself.
So what does the baptism have to do with it? Baptism is the way we go public with our faith. Ananias is telling Paul to get up and go public with his faith and to be saved by calling on the name of the Lord.
By the way, if Paul believed salvation was in baptism, he sure did says some unusual things.
For instance, in 1 Corinthians 1:13, he said, “Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?” And he’s showing that there’s no sense in having little factions of people in the church.
Verse 14, “I thank God that I baptized none of you but Crispus and Gaius.” Now, if baptism equals salvation, that’s a very strange statement. Paul is saying, “I thank God that I didn’t lead any of you to Christ except Crispus and Gaius". then he goes on to say, I do remember some others and beyond that I don't remember who I baptized."
Why don't you remember Paul? “Because Christ didn't send me out to baptize."
Now think about that: In Acts 22, Paul is telling about Ananias showing up to tell him what Christ was sending him out to do. And in 1 Corinthians he specifically says, "Christ did not send me out to baptize."
Then what was he sent out to do? Preach the gospel.”
So Ananias says, "Paul, theis is God' message to you. Now, do something about it,” and Paul does. Paul did believe and he was baptized. You can check it out in Acts 9:17 and 18. He gave his life to Christ and was baptized.
Now, in all of this testimony, his objective is to bring their attention to God and give Him glory for what has happened in his life.
By the way, read his testimony from 1 Timothy 1 sometime and pay attention to how he ends in
verse 17
“Now to God immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be glory and honor. Amen.”
His whole testimony resolves itself in God’s glory; and that’s what we’re trying to say. Exalt the Lord. If people are going to deny, then let them deny God, not your experience.
Jesus said, “If you lift Me up, I’ll draw men unto Myself.” That’s a priority. Paul told the Corinthians, he said, “When I came to you, I didn’t come with fancy words and cute sayings or stories about myself. I determined in my mind I would know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” Exalt the Lord.
Well, what has Paul done? He’s totally exonerated himself. They can’t accuse him of anything. They can’t say, “Paul, you did this.” He’ll say, “No, God did this to me. If you want to indict anybody, indict God.” Man, does that put pressure on them. Woo, their own God. And so powerfully he turns the tables. You know who’s really on trial now? They are.
This is what Jesus did. Before Jesus was done with His trial, Pilate was on trial, and the Jews were on trial, and the whole of the chief priests and rabbis were on trial, and Jesus was sitting was sitting in the seat of the judge. And Paul turns the tables on them. He says, “Now you folks are on trial, because if you’re going to reject me, you’re going to reject your own God. So make your choice. God did all of it.” That’s the way your testimony ought to come across people.
The third section of his defense focuses on his commission after his conversion and I think that will be a good place for us to stop and we'll pick up there next time.
Let's pray.
