Have a heart like Paul's

Acts 21.40-22.21 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: 1"Brothers and fathers, listen now to my defense." When they heard him speak to them in Aramaic, they became very quiet. Then Paul said: "I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city. Under Gamaliel I was thoroughly trained in the law of our fathers and was just as zealous for God as any of you are today. I persecuted the followers of this Way to their death, arresting both men and women and throwing them into prison, as also the high priest and all the Council can testify. I even obtained letters from them to their brothers in Damascus, and went there to bring these people as prisoners to Jerusalem to be punished. "About noon as I came near Damascus, suddenly a bright light from heaven flashed around me. I fell to the ground and heard a voice say to me, 'Saul! Saul! Why do you persecute me?'" 'Who are you, Lord?' I asked. " 'I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting,' he replied. My companions saw the light, but they did not understand the voice of him who was speaking to me. "'What shall I do, Lord?' I asked. "'Get up,' the Lord said, 'and go into Damascus. There you will be told all that you have been assigned to do.' My companions led me by the hand into Damascus, because the brilliance of the light had blinded me. "A man named Ananias came to see me. He was a devout observer of the law and highly respected by all the Jews living there. He stood beside me and said, 'Brother Saul, receive your sight!' And at that very moment I was able to see him. "Then he said: 'The God of our fathers has chosen you to know his will and to see the Righteous One and to hear words from his mouth. You will be his witness to all men of what you have seen and heard. And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on his name.'"When I returned to Jerusalem and was praying at the temple, I fell into a trance and saw the Lord speaking. 'Quick!' he said to me. 'Leave Jerusalem immediately, because they will not accept your testimony about me.'" 'Lord,' I replied, 'these men know that I went from one synagogue to another to imprison and beat those who believe in you. And when the blood of your martyr, Stephen was shed, I stood there giving my approval and guarding the clothes of those who were killing him.' "Then the Lord said to me, 'Go; I will send you far away to the Gentiles.' " The crowd listened to Paul until he said this. Then they raised their voices and shouted, "Rid the earth of him! He's not fit to live!"

Good Day~

Paul was a quick thinker. Here we find him, a shackled prisoner, requesting a moment to address the mad crowd who sought his death. . . if you are like me, at this point, you're not sure of the accusation against Paul. He had been accused of defiling the Temple by taking Trophimus, a Gentile, into the inner courts . The mob would have torn him apart had a Roman commander not intervened. (From what we know about the harsh tyranny of Rome over the Jews throughout Jesus' ministry, it is a paradigm shift to see her as protector, but she was a stickler for legal process.)

From his first spoken word, Paul draws a comparison of himself to the Jewish crowd, by addressing them as 'brothers'. He paints a reasoned defense of his faith and conduct, beginning with his birth as a Jew, raised and educated in Jerusalem. He 'drops names' by mentioning Gamaliel as his teacher, and a few eyebrows go up in the crowd. He assures them of his zealous ownership of the Law, and his desire to honor God above all. Paul mentions these things in hopes the hostile crowd will soften as they identify with his Jewish bearings. And if that isn't enough, he lets them know how he persecuted the followers of 'the Way', even pursuing them all the way to Damascus. At this point, they are probably thinking that they have misinformation about Paul, perhaps they were wrong about him. . . not for long. That all changed when Paul told how Jesus had stepped into his path as he journeyed on the Damascus Road. Paul's meeting with Jesus turned him around 180 degrees.

Zoom out for a minute... What is Paul doing? He is witnessing. A witness tells what he has seen or experienced. Paul is just recounting for the crowd his own experience as a prominent Jew whose life was interrupted with the truth of Jesus Christ. Well, they are still listening, as Paul gives them the account Luke recorded in Acts 9. It is really a very straight-forward account, but the events themselves were dramatically supernatural. You will notice that no one interrupts him, even as he is telling about Jesus, and his encounter with Him. Here's the thing: people may disagree with what you take away from some occurrence, but they really can't deny your experience. . . because it was YOUR experience. That is why simply telling what you have experienced in your Christian faith is the very best, most effective, and certainly most authentic manner of telling someone about the wonderful, life-saving truth of Jesus. I have not known a time such as this when people have been looking for hope. . . needing a Savior. Do you have a favorite 'watering hole' or Starbucks or gym or neighborhood, where you might have the opportunity to encourage someone else by the difference in your life since you came to know God? Take a book with a 'God title' that will draw comments; it is an easy 'in' to interesting conversation. Ah, the adventure. . .

Let's go back now, as Paul is careful to describe Ananias with Jewish pride to make him credible to the crowd, as he continues the chronology of events. He is rolling along so well, but then, it happened. . . he said the Lord specifically told him, 'Go; I will send you far away to the Gentiles.' The crowd went crazy in three seconds flat. I wish we had the luxury of hitting the "pause" button for a while before he brought the Gentiles into the picture. Perhaps, many more would have been added to the Jerusalem faithful. . . No matter, we can't change the way it happened, or the way it was recorded, but I do like to muse about the 'what ifs' in some of the scenarios we read in Scripture. And, you just gotta' love Paul's heart though, don't you? Have a heart... take a chance and start a spiritual conversation. Christine