Bible Reading: Acts 22
Acts 22:1 Men, brethren, and fathers, hear ye my defence which I make now unto you.
Paul was under arrest and held by a Roman guard. He asked permission to address the crowd and when he spoke in Hebrew, the people listened to him. As he stood on the stairs leading into the castle close to the temple area, he addressed the crowd and asked them to hear his apologia. This Greek word means an answer or a defense. It is also used in Peter’s epistle:
1 Peter 3:15 But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.
An apologia is a defense of the faith. As if you are on trial as a Christian and you are going to explain why you believe what you believe about Jesus Christ. Giving answers to questions about the Christian faith is apologetics. That is what Paul is going to do for this crowd. What is interesting is that his defense is his personal testimony. It is broken into three sections and we can learn about giving our own testimony from what Paul says here in Acts 22.
In verses 3-5, Paul talks about his life before he met Christ. He explains how he was actually persecuting Christians and with orders from the chief priest, he was on his way to Damascus. At this point, Paul was very religious, but he was misdirected and lost.
Next he explains how he had his born again experience in verses 6-16. On that Damascus road, he was blinded by Jesus himself and Jesus told him who he was and instructed him to go into Damascus and meet Ananias. Everyone that is a Christian came to a point of decision when they called upon the name of the Lord. Ananias told Paul to do this and follow in baptism.
Finally, Paul explained what his life was like now that he was a follower of Jesus in Verses 15-21. He was now engaged in the Great Commission. Paul was instructed to be a witness for Jesus Christ and to make his name known among the Gentiles.
We can learn a lot about apologetics from this chapter in Acts. When Paul had this small chance to address a crowd for a few minutes, he gave his personal testimony. You and I can do the same. A testimony is a powerful thing. I challenge you to sit down and write out your testimony, using Paul’s template in Acts 22. It should be short – about 3 minutes. (You can also have the long version, but make sure you can share it in three!) You never know when you might have a divine opportunity to share your testimony and only have a few minutes to talk to someone!
In Christ,
Rody
