ACTS 21-22 21:30-22:22 SPEAK ABOUT WHAT YOU HAVE SEEN AND HEARD2017 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Acts 21-22 21:30-22:22 Speak About What You Have Seen And Heard

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2017. And I want to begin looking at Acts chapter 21 this evening by reading verses 30 through 40, and then we'll jump into the passage and see what the Lord has for us. Acts chapter 21 verse 30 says...

And all the city was disturbed. And the people ran together, seized Paul, and dragged him out of the temple. And immediately the doors were shut. Now as they were seeking to kill him, news came to the commander of the garrison that all Jerusalem was in an uproar. He immediately took soldiers and centurions and ran down to them. And when they saw the commander and the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul."

Then the commander came near and took him and commanded him to be bound with two chains. And he asked who he was and what he had done. Verse 34. And some among the multitude cried one thing and some another. So when he could not ascertain the truth because of the tumult, he commanded him to be taken into the barracks. When he reached the stairs, he had to be carried by the soldiers because of the violence of the mob.

For the multitude of the people followed after, crying out, Away with him! Verse 37. Then as Paul was about to be led into the barracks, he said to the commander, May I speak to you? He replied, Can you speak Greek? Are you not the Egyptian who some time ago stirred up a rebellion and led the 4,000 assassins out into the wilderness? But Paul said, I am a Jew from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no mean city.

That takes us into chapter 22, and we'll get into that in a little bit.

This evening, as we look at and continue our study in the book of Acts, I've titled the message, Speak About What You Have Seen and Heard. And the reason for that, I'm going to jump ahead. If you're there in chapter 21, you can flip over to chapter 22. And in verse 14 and 15, as Paul is sharing with this mob that has just tried to kill him,

He shares his own testimony, and he says in verse 14, it says, That's Ananias talking to him. That's what Ananias told Paul about his life now. As he went forward from his conversion experience, he said,

Ananias tells him, number one, you're going to know the will of God. Number two, you're going to see the just one. Number three, you're going to hear God's voice, and then you're going to be a witness. You're going to testify. You're going to speak about what you have seen and heard. And so we're going to see that lived out in the life of the Apostle Paul here in chapter 21 and 22. And so

We're looking again at the testimony of the Apostle Paul. We saw it in Acts chapter 9. We'll see it again in Acts chapter 26. And several times, you know, Paul will refer back to his own testimony throughout his letters as well. And we learn a valuable lesson from that. And that is there's great power in sharing your own testimony.

in sharing what you have seen and heard, that you have experience with God, you have encounters with God, and there's value and there's power. It's a great tool for God to use in his kingdom for you to share your own experience and your own encounters with the true and living God. You know, sometimes people,

For example, when I'm sharing, sometimes I'm teaching doctrine and I'm like laying things out. It's all very orderly and, you know, this builds on that and that builds on that and that builds on that. But then there's other times where I'm sharing from different contexts and different types of things and it's more testimonial or, you know, there's different types of speaking. And one of the tools that we all have access to

whether or not you're called to be an evangelist, whether or not you're called to be a pastor, whether or not you're called to be a teacher or to lead Bible studies or anything like that, one of the tools that every Christian has access to is your own testimony in sharing what God has done in your life. And so it's something important for us to take note of and applicable for every one of us that the way that God works through our testimonies is amazing and powerful.

And so really the biggest question I guess we should be asking you this evening is, what have you seen and heard? Because God has called you to give testimony, to be a witness to what you have seen and heard. Do you have encounters with God that

that you can talk about, that you can share with others. And it might be a conversion, you know, your accounting of how you first came to know the Lord. And oftentimes when we talk about a testimony, that's immediately where we think of

But you know, there's other areas of our lives and different parts of our walk with God where God does a work in us and we have these encounters with God. And these can be valuable tools for sharing with others, whether it be other believers or unbelievers, whether, you know, depending on the context and what it is we're sharing, but it can be a powerful tool for God to use. And so I want to encourage you to be thinking about that and to be preparing yourself

to share some type of encounter with God, some type of testimony. I'm not necessarily going to call on you tonight, but I do want to, in the coming weeks, start incorporating some of your testimonies into our Wednesday evening service. And so you can be preparing, and maybe I'll call on you next week. And that means like half of you aren't going to show up next week, right? Because you're like, oh, I don't want to.

You can't call on me if I'm not there, but I might just call you on the phone and put you on speakerphone then. So, just kidding. No, but really, seriously, it doesn't have to be dramatic. You know, Paul, of course, has a dramatic testimony, right? But it doesn't have to be. There's power in the work that God has done, regardless of how we might, you know, observe it or think of it as impressive or dramatic or whatever. But

But those encounters with God are real and they're valuable. And so I do want to encourage you as we look at this tonight to take some points, to learn some lessons, and to think about how you might share about your own encounters with God and what God is doing in your life. Well, the passage we read thus far, finishing up in chapter 21, we're jumping into the middle of the account where Paul the Apostle has returned to Jerusalem after his third missionary journey.

And in Jerusalem, he's attempted to kind of like play nice with the Jews and help them understand, I'm not against you. And I haven't, you know, tried to turn people against Judaism or that kind of stuff, you know. So he's been part of this process of this vow with these other guys. But as much as they tried and the religious, not the religious leaders, but the church leaders of Jerusalem tried to kind of prevent this kind of situation, you know,

The Jews saw Paul in the temple and they threw a fit and they thought that he had brought Gentiles into the temple and they thought he was trying to cause trouble and

And so they proceed to grab Paul. They drag him out of the temple. In verse 30, it says they dragged him out of the temple and immediately the doors were shut. So they don't want any chance of him coming back in. They shut the doors. They pull him out of the temple. And now they begin to beat him. And it tells us in verse 31, they were seeking to kill him.

And so this is not, you know, just a little bit of a kerfuffle. It's, I mean, this is serious. They are trying to, their intention is to kill him. Now, as they are attempting to kill him, they get interrupted by the commander of the garrison. It says in verse 31,

And so the soldiers, it says in verse 32, and the centurions ran down into the crowd. And when they saw the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul. And so let me just show you a quick picture just so you can get an idea here. This is a picture of the city of Jerusalem. Obviously, it's a depiction of it. It's an artist's rendering of it. But there on the right-hand side towards the top is the Temple Mount, right?

The temple is that structure in the middle. And then you have those open spaces on either side. That's the court of the Gentiles. And so when they dragged Paul out, they dragged him out of that temple area and into the court of the Gentiles. But then right there at the top of that temple mount is what's known as the Fortress of Antonia or the Antonia Fortress. That is where the Roman army was stationed there.

because one thing that Rome really supervalued was order. There had to be order. And any kind of chaos, any kind of disturbance, any kind of, you know, uprisings or those kinds of things, they did not put up with that. And they didn't put up with the commander's

those Roman, you know, people or soldiers in charge of the area, if that happened on your watch, you were in trouble. And so you can, you know, see that throughout. In fact, a couple weeks ago, we saw in Ephesus, remember, the city clerk was all freaked out when the whole city was in an uproar and went into the theater and says, great is Diana of the Ephesians for two hours, right? And

And the city clerk was like, quiet down, quiet down. Like, we're already in danger of getting in trouble here because of this uproar. And even though nothing major happened, Rome did not like these things. And of course, Jerusalem was a hotbed for all kinds of uprisings and riots and all those kinds of things. And so they parked their fortress right next to the Temple Mount, right in the heat of things, so that when situations like this happened,

They could be right there on it. And so that's what happens. They are pulling Paul out of the temple. They're trying to put him to death. And now a couple hundred Roman soldiers flood the temple mount and the people realize, okay, the game's up. If we continue now, we're going to be in trouble. So they stop beating Paul. And now Paul is taken into custody by the Roman authorities. And

In verse 33, it tells us the commander took Paul, commanded him to be bound with two chains, and then tried to figure out, okay, what has he done? What happened here to cause all of this difficulty? Now, the crowd, like most crowds, was incoherent. It was some cried one thing, some cried another thing, and he could not figure out what the truth was. And so he's going to take him back to the barracks now to question him, to find out what the situation is.

But as they're taking him back to the Antonia Fortress, Paul speaks to the commander and says, hey, can I talk with you? And it's going to begin now this opportunity that Paul has to share what God has done in his life and his encounter with the Lord.

And so again, speak about what you have seen and heard. That's what Paul's about to do. He's not about to go into some doctrinal dissertation. He's not about to quote the book of Romans, you know, and explain every, you know, but he's just, just walk through very simply the,

what God has done in his life. And so there's four points that we'll look at as we see Paul share his testimony and speak about what he has seen and heard. The first point is found starting in verse 37 of chapter 21 through chapter 22, verse 2, and that is speak so people can understand. This is important for you and I as we seek to speak about what we have seen and heard and talk about how God has worked in our lives and our encounters with God and

We need to approach it in a way that is understandable to the people that we are talking to. And that may take some effort and work on our part. And we see Paul demonstrate that here in the passage. Check out verse 37 again. It says, then as Paul was about to be led into the barracks, he said to the commander, may I speak to you? And he replied, can you speak Greek? And

Verse 38, he says, are you not the Egyptian who some time ago stirred up a rebellion and led the 4,000 assassins into the wilderness? It's interesting. This commander, as he goes into the crowd, he couldn't figure out what really happened. And different people are crying out different things. He came to his own conclusion. There was an Egyptian who announced that he was going to overthrow Rome. It was a few years before this and attempted to lead a revolt, but it was defeated and

The leader, this Egyptian leader, he got away. And so now with all this tumult, the commander thinks, oh, it's probably that Egyptian who led the revolt a couple of years ago. You know, he's probably back and that's what this is all about. But Paul corrects him and says, no, I'm a Jew from Tarsus. I'm in Cilicia, from Cilicia. It's a big city. It's an important city. And so I would ask that you permit me to speak to the people.

But I think it's interesting here in verse 37 when Paul says, hey, can I speak to you? The commander replied, can you speak Greek? Paul, speaking to the Roman commander, speaks a language that surprises the commander. He speaks to him in Greek. And I would pay attention to that. And notice a couple other things. Number one, Paul asked permission to speak.

He shows respect to this Roman commander. I mean, he doesn't, he's just been beaten, remember? They just tried to kill him, and he's been put in chains, even though he did nothing wrong. So understand, you know, I was thinking about this.

Forgive me, Richard. But Richard, if you ever want to see him get worked up, ask him about the time that the cops pulled him and Pastor Cisco out of a vehicle by the bank, had them sit on the curb, and while they investigated, made sure that they were OK, and they checked out. And man, I remember when it first happened, Richard was so upset. Like, you can't put Pastor Cisco up. He's a pastor. Like, if people see him here, like, that's

You know, and he'll get all worked up if you ask him about it, I promise. Anyways, but he gets passionate. He was passionate about it. And, you know, that kind of thing. And we could respond that way, right? If we were being attacked, beaten, you know, we could respond quite harshly. But here Paul is...

Very conscious about how he's approaching this, he asked the Roman commander permission to speak. That's number one. Number two, he speaks to him in Greek. He makes sure he's talking in a language that the Roman commander understands.

He provides credentials. He says, I'm not the Egyptian. I'm from this city. It's a very important city. And that was part of their culture. Like that, hey, where you came from, that was everything. And so I'm from, you know, Cilicia. That's, it's really important. And he asked permission then to speak to the people. And so he's requesting, he's being respectful. He's honoring, you know, the authority that is there. And again, all of this to say, he becomes,

began this conversation with this commander in a way the commander could understand, the commander could receive it. He could have just been shouting and railing and all kinds of things, and it would have had no effect. But he has a deliberate approach, and he requests permission to speak to the commander. He uses a language he can understand, and then asks to speak to the crowd that has just tried to kill him.

Well, verse 40, it says, And we'll go on into what he says in just a moment. But notice, Paul gets permission. He stands on the stairs. So they're going up the stairs to the Antonia Fortress.

As he stands on the stairs, he's able to kind of like overlook the whole crowd and he waves his hand over the whole crowd. And he says, you want to be quiet right now. No, I'm just kidding. He doesn't do a Jedi trick, but he waves his hand over. He says, okay, quiet down, everybody, quiet down. And then he has an opportunity to speak. And notice at the end of verse 40, it says, he spoke to them in the Hebrew language. So he spoke to the commander in

In what language? Greek. Now as he's approaching or addressing the people, he speaks a different language. He speaks Hebrew. And that's primarily because Paul wanted to show off how many languages he knew. No, I'm just kidding. No. Why the difference? Paul spoke the best language to communicate with the people that he was speaking to.

It's likely that he could have spoke to the commander as well, the commander being stationed in Jerusalem. He could have spoke to him in Hebrew or Aramaic, and that would have been fine, but he spoke to him in Greek. The people on the Temple Mount, they understood Greek also, but he doesn't speak to them in Greek. He speaks to them in Hebrew or Aramaic. And why is that? Again, he's intentional. He's making some deliberate decisions here, speaking to people in a way that gets their attention, but also that they're able to understand.

And I know that this is a point that I've shared before, and so if you've been around on Wednesday evenings, you've heard me share this, but it's something that God continues to emphasize for me as I go through the book of Acts, but also just observing and being part of conversations and meetings and all those kinds of things, that there is a need for us to make sure that we go to where people are instead of making them come to where we are.

And I say that metaphorically in our words, that we don't say what we want to say and just expect people to do the effort, to take the effort, to understand what we're trying to say, but that, well, there should be effort on our part. Right.

to understand the people that we're speaking to, to be able to present and deliver what we want to say in a way that is already accessible to them. So they don't have to work to understand, but we do the work to present it in a way where they can already understand what we are saying. And that is something that I believe God wants to work in us, that

It takes work. It takes effort. Again, it's deliberate. Speaking different languages to different groups, it's a deliberate conscious decision that needs to be made. And maybe it's not like you have to decide whether you're going to speak Spanish or English or Greek or Hebrew, but it's about using words. It's about approaching with respect, with honor, with whatever is appropriate so that it can be received by the people that you are talking to.

communicate in a way that is understandable to others. Now, of course, it makes sense to you. And sometimes we can get so frustrated, right? When we say something and the person that we're talking to doesn't understand what we're saying. Why don't you understand what I'm saying? And so then, well, we say the same thing over again.

Maybe if I say it twice, then you'll understand what it means. But if I speak to you in Japanese, which I can't, but if I speak to you in Japanese and you say, I'm sorry, I don't understand. And then I just say the same thing in Japanese again, that doesn't help you understand, right? I mean, you get the point. And the same is true, not just with language barriers, but, you know, language is very interesting. And even though we all speak English, we all speak English.

Boy, we have a hard time communicating. And miscommunication can happen so easily. And it really takes effort to bring forth a message in a way that is clear and understandable and accessible to the people that you're talking to. Over the past week, I had the opportunity to interact with a lawyer, and not in a bad way. So this lawyer reached out to us at work and wanted a website. And so we started the process, we began the work, and

Everything is going along really well. Sold the deal. Got it. Estimate's good. All right. Good to go. All right. Here's what we got to do. We got to sign the contract. Now, we have a contract that we use that is pretty simple and clear. It's in plain English. It's not legalese. It's not all kinds of weird stuff. It's, you know, if you sat down and read it, you could understand it. That's the point. That's the way that we like it. But we're dealing with a lawyer. So we give him our contract and he says, you know, this is too simple.

Let me write my own, and then you guys can sign that, and then we can do the deal. And so he comes back with this thing that we had to, like, spend a crazy amount of time just trying to understand what on earth is this saying? What, you know, and as we dialogued with him, he said, oh, no, it says everything the same thing what your contract says. And we're looking at it saying, I don't know that it says that, you know? Like, it was a little bit like, what?

We don't know if we can commit to this because we don't quite understand exactly. It's just, you know, so detailed and all this stuff, right? And he insisted that we say it his way and sign that. And, you know, sometimes that's what we do. We kind of approach conversations that way. We expect the other person to

I'm going to say it the way I want to say it. I'm going to say it the way that I like to say it. I'm going to say it the way I understand it, and then you figure out what I'm talking about. But I appreciate that Paul here, he makes an effort to speak to different people in ways that they can relate, and they can understand, and they can receive what is being said. Have you ever been arguing with someone for a while? And maybe after a

quite a long time of arguing, you realize, hey, we actually agree. You ever done that? You ever had that experience? Like you're going back and forth and back and forth and maybe even passionately, maybe for hours, maybe for days or weeks. And then suddenly it kind of, there's just like this, like opening, like this understanding. We actually agree. We're saying the same thing, but we're just saying it different ways. And that's an example of what I'm talking about here. Speak so people can understand. Sometimes we are saying the same thing, but

We're just saying it so poorly, the other person can't understand. And of course, you know, sometimes there's emotions involved and things like that. So that, you know, complicates the whole matter. But when it comes to sharing about our encounters with God, especially, there should be a conscious effort on our part to do the work, to present the message, to present the account, to present what God's done in a way that others can receive it and understand it

and get what's going on. I've also had opportunity recently to be part of some board meetings, and not internally our board, but other boards, and having conversations with other pastors, and watching conversations happen between pastors. And you know, it's interesting that how often it happens where

There's a whole conversation about a decision that needs to be made, and the people walk through the conversation. They talk through all the different aspects. They make the decision, and then later on, find out they both had very different ideas about what decision it was that they were making.

And that happens all the time. I would suggest, you know, Kim and I do that all the time. We come out, oh, that's what you meant? Oh, I didn't realize what I meant is this. And, you know, there's this disconnect. And I'm spending a lot of time on this, I know. But again, this is something that just God continues to emphasize. And that's why I'm spending time on it. We need to put some effort in to bring forth this.

The things that God has done in us, the things that we're sharing in a way that others can understand it and not expect them to figure out what we mean.

but speak in a way that they can understand. And so if you're speaking to a Roman commander, maybe you show some extra respect. Maybe you speak Greek. And if you're speaking to the Jewish people, then you use Hebrew. And I'm not talking about being patronizing and talking down to people because nobody likes that. But notice, moving on to chapter 22, verse 1, how Paul begins his address here. In verse 1, it says, Brethren and fathers, hear my defense before you now.

And when they heard that he spoke to them in the Hebrew language, they kept all the more silent. And then he said, and now we're going to go on to read the rest of the account in just a few minutes. But notice a couple of things. First of all, he says, So in speaking to the commander, he asked for permission. He uses respect.

In speaking to the mob, he identifies with them. He says, brethren and fathers, again, showing respect, identifying with them. He is approaching this very tactfully. And let me remind you, these are the people that just tried to kill him. And I don't mean, you know, they had some plans and the plans fell through. They were beating him to death. So this is, again, amazing, deliberate, conscious effort on the part of the apostle Paul to

As he now addresses this mob that attempted to kill him, he says, brethren and fathers, hear my defense. Let me tell you what happened. Let me tell you what God has done. And then it says in verse two, when they heard that he spoke to them in Hebrew, they kept all the more silent. So it already says they'd been quieted, but now they're really quiet.

Because he spoke to them in Hebrew. Again, just making the point. He spoke to them in a language that got their attention, that they were able to understand. And so now they are open to receiving what Paul has to say as he is gentle and respectful and identifies himself with them. He overlooks all their insults. He overlooks their malicious intent. And he speaks to them in their language.

I think that this is something that is worth some meditation on. And so I would just encourage you to be thinking about that and praying over that this week. And even think about in the context of not just your interactions with people in person, but online, on the phone, that we have some deliberate, intentional, even overlooking great offenses and issues and insults, but we

Then afterwards, bringing in the message or the thing that God has put upon our heart to share, that we need to speak so that people can understand. It's very easy to begin speaking in a way that closes the door on a conversation, right? It's easy. And Paul could have done that. He could have easily, at the beginning of this address, just got the crowd all worked up again and had no chance of ever delivering on the rest of the testimony that he wanted to share.

And sometimes we do that. We slam doors closed by the way that we approach because we don't do the work of speaking so people can understand. And so we need to put some effort into that. Now, of course, it has to be genuine.

It can't be fake, and it shouldn't be manipulation. I'm going to speak to you in a way that you can understand so that I can get what I want out of you. Now, like, it can't be manipulation. It can't be fake, and all of us hate being sold on stuff, right? You know, someone's like, as this happens to me all the time, oh, you're a pastor, and then all of a sudden, you know, everything changes. The language changes. Oh, praise the Lord, you know. It's like, okay, it has to be genuine, right? And, and, and,

And we have to be genuine. That's the reality. But that means we have to actually care about people and love them enough to do the work to speak in a way that they can understand, to present it in a way that's not demeaning.

but in a way that's loving and able just to be presentable and received by those that we're speaking to. And that, again, it means we're going to overlook insults and malicious intent. It means we'll need to identify ourselves with the ones that we're speaking to and speak to them in their language in a way that they can understand. Well, moving on to point number two, we're going to jump now to verses three through five of Acts chapter 22. Point number two is speak about where you came from.

So, in talking about what you have seen and heard and how God has worked in your life, first, you do the effort. Make sure it's in a way that is understandable. But also, we need to talk about where we began, where we came from. Verse 3 says, I am indeed a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, taught according to the strictness of our father's law, and I am a Jew.

And was zealous toward God as you are, as you all are today. I persecuted this way to the death, binding and delivering into prisons both men and women, as also the high priest bears me witness and all the council of the elders, from whom I also received letters to the brethren, and went to Damascus to bring in chains even those who were there to Jerusalem to be punished."

Here is Paul begins this address talking about what God has done in his life. He starts out again, identifying with the people that he's addressing. He says, I am a Jew and I was brought up right here in this city at the feet of Gamaliel. Gamaliel was a very well-respected teacher for the Pharisees. And so he's like, I was taught by Gamaliel, taught according to the strictness of the law. And that was zealous toward God. And then he throws in, as you all are today.

And again, Paul's identifying with them. He's recognizing you tried to kill me right now and you think it's zeal for God that's motivating you. And I was like that. I was there. I understand what that's like. And I was just as zealous as you are today. And he gives some examples. I persecuted the way, that is the way of Christ, the people who followed Jesus to death. Paul says, I put Christians to death and I bound them and bound

both men and women. I was so zealous, I didn't just hassle the guys. I put the girls in prison too. And I even went all the way to Damascus and got the approval of the high priest, and they could testify to you if you want to hear from them. And I was going to bring the Christians that fled to Damascus back to Jerusalem to be punished. Paul shares this part of his life. Now,

He doesn't go into the gory details and give every detail, but he does a very great concise job of just painting the picture of, look, this is where I started. Just as you're zealous, I was right there. And from there, he's going to talk about how God got a hold of his life. But he starts here, sharing about where he came from, where he was, and really how bad he was in regards to the things of God. And this is an important part of a testimony.

You know, sometimes we kind of prefer to give off the vibe, the impression, you know, I was born mostly a good person, and then I got saved, and I just got a little bit better because of Jesus, you know, and that's awesome. And sometimes we're reluctant to share about some of the things that really we have done and been involved in. And that's understandable, and that doesn't, and I'm not saying, you know, again, we need to hear all the gory details of everybody's life, but let me just encourage you that sometimes

Part of the power of Paul's testimony is the incredibly radical turn that took place. Part of the power of Paul sharing his testimony and its impact on us as we read it thousands of years later, on the people that heard it, and the life that he lived, is

it's that turnaround, the thing that God did and how far he was and how God brought him completely opposite. It's an encouragement to us many times, isn't it? Because he was willing to share everything

In truth and genuineness, like, this is where I came from. We have that recorded, and we often appreciate that in the rest of the scriptures also, right? We appreciate David's failures. It's encouraging to us. It's helpful to us. We appreciate Peter's failures. It's encouraging to us. It's helpful to us. And for us also, as we share about what God has done in our lives, it's appropriate for us to also share where we began.

How low we fell, how horrible we've messed up. It's appropriate for us to share. Now, I know it's hard to share those things. Paul talks about it in Romans 6, verse 21. He says, Now, he's giving an exhortation of, you know, not to continue to walk in the flesh and reminder, hey, you know, those things that you used to do, now you're ashamed of those things. And that shame is often...

Well, something that holds us back, that kind of, I'm ashamed of who I was. I'm ashamed of what I did. I'm ashamed of how corrupt my heart is. I'm ashamed of how, you know, far I fell. And so we withhold because we're ashamed. But again, just presenting Paul as the example here, without a doubt, Paul was ashamed of his past. He was ashamed of what he did.

but he had great boldness to share about it in the grace of God. And so we have at least five times in the New Testament, a record of Paul's zeal in persecuting, in torturing, in putting Christians to death. In Acts chapter nine, we have the historical account that Luke gives us. In Acts chapter 22, right here, we have him telling the testimony. In Acts chapter 26, he'll be telling his testimony again before Roman rulers saying,

He mentions it to Timothy. He mentions it in the book of Philippians, that it was something that was brought up as a part of his life, that this is how far God has brought me. This is the work that God has done. And that's part of the radical power of the testimony of Paul's life, that he being that far gone, that far messed up, that far away from God, was transformed into the apostle Paul that we know and that we love.

Let me read to you a couple of things from Timothy. 1 Timothy 1, verse 12, Paul says, and I thank Christ Jesus, our Lord, who has enabled me because he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry. This is a verse you've probably heard before. And again, it's one that we appreciate. Hey, this is good. You know, I recognize. Yeah, I thank Jesus. He's enabled me. He put me into ministry. He counted me faithful. You know, it's his work. But let's not get confused and think, you know,

I was mostly good, but just, you know, not really fully qualified for ministry. He goes on in verse 13 to say, although I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man, but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. And so connecting those two thoughts, I thank Jesus who put me into the ministry, even though, even though formerly I was a blasphemer. Let me tell you about how bad I was.

a persecutor, an insolent man, but I obtained mercy. So he's not dwelling in there. You know, I mean, this isn't looming over him like he just cannot move on in his life, but he's also not letting go and not pretending that that wasn't part of his life, but he's accepting, look, this is the mercy of God. And then verse 14 of 1 Timothy 1, and the grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant with faith and love, which are in Christ Jesus.

This is the work of God, the grace of God, which is exceedingly abundant. Even though I was so bad, the grace of God was exceedingly abundant. And God counted me faithful and put me into ministry. This is the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus. Again,

It makes the point, God does not just reach out to good people. God does not only help people who are right on and go to church or read the Bible or are faithful, that God works in people's lives not because they're good. The reality is God takes wicked people who are nothing and have no hope and transforms them. But it's kind of easy for us to afterwards try to pretend like we weren't that wicked. And that's, it takes away everything.

from the reality of the work that God has done. And so as you have the opportunity to share and speak about what you've seen and heard and what God has done in your life, I would encourage you to speak about where you came from. Share honestly about your condition before God intervened. That's part of the power of the testimony that God took you in that condition and did a work.

Now, we can take it too far, and some people kind of celebrate the past when they share their testimony, and they just, you know, 45 minutes of talking about how bad they were. But notice the proportion compared to the rest of his testimony. We're going to go through verse 22. Here's three verses. This is how bad I was. I mean, it's pretty concise. It's just kind of packed in there. Boom. He paints a very clear picture. We know exactly, you know, what kind of guy he was and where he was at. He's not going into all the gory details and, you know,

going on and on and on about what he did, but you got to start there. You know, this is where I came from. And then let me spend a lot of time talking about what God has done, but it's an important element. And I would encourage you. Yeah. Hey, I know. I recognize you're ashamed. I'm ashamed of what I've done and how I've been and where I was. That's part of all of our testimony, but that's part of the gospel. We're recipients of mercy and grace.

Mercy is not getting judgment I deserve. Grace is God's blessings in my life that I don't deserve. There's no escaping it. This is the reality. I don't deserve God's blessings, but God has done a work and he's spoken to me and he's worked in my life. And that is the power of the testimony. Even though I was this bad, this far gone, God worked in my life. So speak about where you came from.

Well, moving on, verses 6 through 16 here, the point is speak about your encounter with Jesus. Speak about your encounter with Jesus. Here, Paul will go on to say,

Give the account of what happened. And I'm just going to read through here verses 6 through 16 and see what Paul says. We've read it before again in Acts chapter 9. We'll see it again in 26. So I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this. But let's read verse 6. It says, Now it happened as I journeyed and came near Damascus at about noon, suddenly a great light from heaven shone around me. And I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?

Verse 10. Verse 10.

Then he said,

Here as we read this account, we're again looking at the Apostle Paul. He was on his way as a passionate religious Jew. And he was on his way to the Lord.

to Damascus to torture, to bring back Christians, chasing them down when he had an encounter with Jesus. And the Lord just kind of smacks him in the face with a bright light, knocks him off the donkey onto the ground. The Lord speaks to him, blinds him. He goes into Damascus. Ananias meets him and prays for him. He gets saved as a part of this encounter with Jesus that happens on the road to Damascus.

And now the rest of his life is going to be different. And Ananias explains that in verse 14. He says, look, the God of our fathers has chosen you. Now, again, as we look at these things, understand this is not only for the life of the apostle Paul, the God of their fathers, the God who created the heavens and the earth, the God of gods and king of kings and Lord of lords has chosen not just Paul, but he has chosen you. Every believer knows

God has chosen you. You are his special people. You are his prized possession. He has chosen you. And the same things that are said of Paul are true of you as well, that you should know his will. God wants you to know his will. You have the extreme privilege of being part of the work of God, of the will of God. You have the awesome opportunity to

To hear from God, the master planner of all creation and all things and all eternity, he's decided, I'm going to include you. I'm going to give you some insights into what I'm doing, why I'm doing it, and what your part is. I want you to know my will. God wants you to know his will. He's also chosen you to see the just one. Now, not quite yet. You're not going to see God today, even if you look in the mirror, despite what people might tell you, okay?

But you're going to stand before God. You're going to get to be with God. You are chosen by God to be with God for all of eternity. And you're chosen to hear the voice of his mouth. You are chosen by God. He's called you out. He's singled you out and said, I want to speak to you. I want to show you who I am. I want to show you my will. And I want to speak to you. You're going to hear from me. But then notice, this is not all about you.

Then in verse 15, for you will be his witness to all men of what you have seen and heard. So God has chosen you and he's going to reveal himself in unique and powerful and special ways and speak to you so that you can turn around and be his witness of what you've seen and heard. And you can turn around and say, this is what God has shown me. This is what God has spoken to me. And again, this is not just the apostle Paul saying,

And it's only limited to him. This is him describing his experience and encounter with Jesus. But from Ananias, we can also take these things to our own hearts and understand God has chosen me. God has chosen you. And you can easily build that case all throughout the scriptures. From the foundations of the earth, you're chosen, selected by God because he loves you and he wants to reveal his will to you and reveal himself to you and speak to you so that you

You can speak about what you've seen and heard and be his witness to the people around you. And so here we have Paul's experience and his encounter with the Lord. And what I would ask you to consider is what encounters have you had with Jesus? Now, again, it doesn't necessarily have to be dramatic. You didn't have to fall off a donkey for it to be a legitimate encounter with the Lord. But you and I know there are those special occasions where God has worked together

in our lives, and God does that work in us for us, but also for others when we might have opportunity to share, like Paul tells the Corinthians, right? We comfort others with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. You know what Paul's talking about there? He's talking about you have an encounter with God, you receive comfort, and then later on you have an opportunity to

to share that comfort with somebody else. Now, in order to share that comfort with somebody else, you know where you have to start? You have to start with where you were. Why did I need comfort? And then God comforted me. And then when you share that with somebody else, you know, then it's not like, well, I had this luxurious lifestyle and everything was like fluffy and pillows and everything was provided for me, you know, but I have some comfort and so be comforted. You know, that it's not comforting. But to share, you know,

Where we are, where we were, and how God worked. Again, that's the power of the message. It's the way that God works. And every one of us has power.

encounters with the Lord like that. Now, if you don't have encounters with the Lord like that, well, then you need to start having encounters with the Lord like that. And that needs to be your first priority. You need to connect with God. You need to pursue God with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength. That needs to be highest priority because, well, you need to have a connection to God. But every one of us as believers has the opportunity to have these encounters with God. And so it's not limited to our conversion experience.

You know, that's, again, typically where we go to when we think of testimony. All aspects of our lives where we've had an encounter with the Lord and God has spoken to us. And, you know, sometimes that's little things in the sense of, you know, hey, God spoke to me something this week that I needed this week. And sometimes it's life-changing things, big things.

I could share with you, and I have shared, you know, different elements of my life and how God has worked in my life, you know, throughout the years. I could go back to when I walked away from God and then how God brought me back and

I got back into a walk with the Lord and serving the Lord. I could share about the encounter with the Lord that I had when God revealed that I was going to marry Kim. And that's a cool story. I love to share that account. That's awesome. It's an encounter with the Lord. I could share with you about the time, the day, I know the specific day where I accepted the call to be a pastor. It was an encounter with the Lord, with Dave and Jackie in the hospital. I could share with you about, well, the time when Pastor Tom told me that

He was leaving to Japan, and he thought I was called to be the pastor, and the Lord had been working in me, and the confirmation that happened there was an encounter with the Lord and God preparing all of those things. I could share with you about just a couple years ago when I was not even sure if God had called me to be a pastor anymore, and God maybe wanted me to do something else, and then God confirmed very clearly to me that I was called to be the pastor of Living Water, and that He has placed me here, and so on and so forth. But I've had these encounters, and

And the whole point is not that, you know, aren't I amazing? I've had all these encounters with the Lord. No, the point is you have those same kinds of encounters and God's walked you through those things and given you those things so that you will have opportunity to share what you have seen and heard. What are your encounters with the Lord? What kind of ways has God worked in your life and transformed things and turned situations around and spoken to you and revealed himself to you?

What moved you? How did God speak and what did he say? Those are all things that God gives you, not just for you at that moment, but also so that you can be his witness to speak about what you have seen and heard. Well, finishing it up, point number four in verses 17 through 22, here it's speak to whoever God sends you.

Verse 17 says,

Paul skips ahead in the account a little bit. He spends some time after Damascus out in the wilderness. He comes back to Jerusalem a few years later, but that's what he's talking about here. He's there at Jerusalem in the temple, and he has this vision, and the Lord says to him, get out of Jerusalem. It seems that Paul was there thinking, all right, time to start ministering to the Jews. And the Lord says, nope, get out of here. They're not going to believe you. They're not going to receive your message.

And Paul reasons with the Lord. Lord, I mean, I know you know everything, but let me remind you of some things. They know what I was like before. I imprisoned Christians and beat those who believe in you. And I was there with Stephen and was consenting to his death. I mean, all the things that I was sharing with you before about where you were, and that's part of the power of the testimony, right? That's what Paul's recounting. Lord, look at the power of my testimony. But here's what God says. It's not going to work. It's not going to work.

Paul thought his testimony would be far greater among the Jews because of where he came from. And that seems to make sense. And you and I could look at this and go, yeah, that makes sense. But God says it's not going to work that way. And here's another important point about speaking about what you've seen and heard. Listen, our ideas about effective ministry are often wrong. You ever have the thought that like, oh, I know exactly what that person needs to hear. You're probably wrong.

You ever have the thought like, oh man, this person will be perfect for that situation. You're probably wrong. It's probably not going to be as effective as you think. God doesn't work that way. Now, sometimes, okay, God does use people from very similar backgrounds to minister to one another. You know, we often kind of celebrate and rejoice like when a youth is ministering to other youth. It's like amazing. Yeah, that ministry amongst peers, that's awesome. And not to say that that's not of God, but also to say that that's not the only way that God works.

Often our ideas about effective ministry are wrong. And what people need to hear is something from God that's maybe not according to our logic and our understanding. You know, how many times have we kind of thought or expressed or heard, you know, if only, you know, this famous person got saved, oh, they could be so effective. And think about what they could do. Nothing. It doesn't work that way. Think about Jesus. I mean, if there was ever an effective minister, he was the most effective minister, but he

But he was rejected and crucified. So things don't work the way that we expect them to work. Instead, we need to speak whoever God sends us to or whoever God sends to us. And so you might think of yourself, well, I could be perfect for ministering to this kind of person, ministering to the people in that situation. You know, I was in that situation, so I can comfort others who are in that same situation. But that may not be what God has for you.

And God may have you minister to them that same message of comfort, but in a context that you would have never imagined or thought about or considered. And your experience with God is still valid, even if the other person isn't in exactly the same shoes as you are. But God can use that effectively to a radically different group or context than you might consider. Verse 21, he says, then he said to me, depart for I will send you far from here to the Gentiles.

Now then verse 22, and they listened to him until this word. And then they raised their voices and said, away with such a fellow from the earth for he is not fit to live. Proving the point, God did not send Paul to the Jews. They wouldn't receive it. The things that God told them ahead of time, get out of Jerusalem, they're not going to believe you, lived out right here. Instead, God sends Paul primarily to the Gentiles.

Doesn't mean he didn't minister to Jews or wasn't called to minister, but generally speaking, his mission was to the Gentiles. That's who God sent. And guess what? The Jew of Jews, the one that we would think is like the best equipped to minister to Jews was incredibly effective beyond all imagination amongst the Gentiles. It's not what we would have expected. It's not what we would have planned. And so God can use you in ways that are radically different than you would expect.

Young people, God can use them to minister to old people in radical ways. And old people can be used by God to minister to young people. And maybe God's going to call you to, you know, share about what you've seen and heard with a biker gang. I don't recognize anybody here as biker gang members, but maybe God's going to just, I wouldn't expect him to do that. But hey, if God sends it, if that's where God places you, speak about what you've seen and heard. Share your testimony. Share what God has done.

where you came from, your encounter with the Lord, with whoever it might be. Don't disqualify yourself in your own mind and think, well, I can't really share because, you know, this or that. We come from entirely different worlds. I could do that to myself, honestly, all the time. I do that all the time to myself because I was raised in the church. I come from a different context than almost everybody I meet, right? It's easy for me to say, I could, I'll send them to Cisco. He's lived a rough life. He knows what it's like. Send them to Cisco.

That makes sense. But you know, that's not always the way that God works. And so speak to whoever God sends you, because God may want to use you to do something radically different than you could ever imagine. That's what he did with the Apostle Paul. And so these are the things that I would encourage you to be meditating on. Speak to people so that they can understand it,

Speak about where you came from, about your encounter with Jesus, and with whoever it is that God places you in front of. And this applies to sharing your testimony. Listen, it applies to teaching the Bible, sharing a devotion, everyday conversations. These are important truths for us to grasp hold of. And I would encourage you as you consider these things to think about your own encounters and be ready to share. Maybe next Wednesday, maybe with someone that God connects you with throughout the week, but be ready to share.

about what God has done in your life, what you have seen and heard, because God has chosen you. Let's pray. Lord, I pray for each one of us. And again, just thank you for the grace and the mercy that you've displayed and extended towards us. Lord, that we could be called the children of God and that we could have a part, not only in eternity with you, but in a part of, Lord, other people coming to know you.

Walking with you, drawing near to you, and having an impact for eternity on the lives of other people is a great honor and privilege. And so thank you, God. I pray that you would help us, Lord, this week to have some real encounters with you. Lord, that we would be able to know you and see you and reveal yourself to us, we pray, God. Speak to our hearts. But Lord, I pray that you would also give us opportunity then to turn around and speak what we've seen and heard, to share what you've done. And Lord, may it be...

glorifying to you as we seek to honor you by testifying about your work and your grace and your mercy in us. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of his word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.