Here is a teaching on chapter 22 of the book of Acts. If you want to check out previous Bible studies and chapters going forward, join our group here. Once you get added into that Facebook group, you can go to the "units" tab and you'll see all of the chapters and their study guides as they are being taught.
First I want to say a quick prayer... Lord, I pray that you lift up every single person reading this right now. Please give us the knowledge and understanding to know exactly what it is that we're reading and the wisdom to implement it in our daily lives. Please open up our eyes, our ears, our hearts, and our minds to you Lord. Please lead, guide, and direct us through every aspect of our lives. Lord, I can't thank you enough for every single thing that you've done. You are so amazing and I'm beyond grateful and thankful for you. I love you with every ounce of my being. In Jesus' name, Amen.
Let's pick up where we left off at the end of Chapter 21:
37 As the soldiers were about to take Paul into the barracks, he asked the commander, "May I say something to you?"
"Do you speak Greek?" he replied. 38 "Aren't you the Egyptian who started a revolt and led four thousand terrorists out into the desert some time ago?"
39 Paul answered, "I am a Jew from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no ordinary city. Please let me speak to the people."
40 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:
Acts Chapter 22:
1 "Brothers and fathers, listen now to my defense." 2 When they heard him speak to them in Aramaic, they became very quiet.
Then Paul said: 3 "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. 4 I persecuted the followers of this Way to their death, arresting both men and women and throwing them into prison, 5 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.
6 "About noon as I came near Damascus, suddenly a bright light from heaven flashed around me. 7 I fell to the ground and heard a voice say to me, 'Saul! Saul! Why do you persecute me?'
8 " 'Who are you, Lord?' I asked.
" 'I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting,' he replied. 9 My companions saw the light, but they did not understand the voice of him who was speaking to me.
10 " '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.' 11 My companions led me by the hand into Damascus, because the brilliance of the light had blinded me.
12 "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. 13 He stood right beside me and said, 'Brother Saul, receive your sight!' And at that very moment I was able to see him.
14 "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. 15 You will be his witness to all men of what you have seen and heard. 16 And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on his name.'
17 "When I returned to Jerusalem and was praying at the temple, I fell into a trance 18 and saw the Lord speaking. 'Quick!' he said to me. 'Leave Jerusalem immediately, because they will not accept your testimony about me.'
19 " 'Lord,' I replied, 'these men know that I went from one synagogue to another to imprison and beat those who believe in you. 20 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.'
21 "Then the Lord said to me, 'Go; I will send you far away to the Gentiles.' "
So Paul got permission from the commander to speak and he told the crowd about his story. How he was killing and imprisoning all who spoke in the name of Jesus and then Jesus came to him, he became blind, he got his sight back, and he got baptized in the name of Jesus. Then he started preaching and testifying about Jesus. In our Bible study from last week, we actually went back into chapter 9 of the book of Acts, because that's where it talks about all of these things. So the Lord told Paul to leave Jerusalem because they wouldn't receive his testimony and that he would send him to the Gentiles. This just goes to show that Jesus Christ will use anyone and he can change the heart of anyone. He took a man that was imprisoning and murdering all who spoke in the name of Jesus and he saved him. Paul had a new heart, he got baptized, and he testified about Jesus. You may think that you've done too much in your life and you're too far gone, but it's never too late to repent, to get saved, to change your life around, and to follow Jesus, and Paul is a witness to this.
In verses 17-21, the Lord told Paul to leave Jerusalem because they wouldn't accept his testimony and that he would send him away to the Gentiles. So we saw throughout our previous Bible studies where Paul went to different places and preached among the Gentiles and many Gentiles believed in Jesus. Then through the past few Bible studies, the Holy Spirit had been guiding Paul to go back to Jerusalem. Paul knew that he was going to face hardships and he didn't know exactly what was going to happen to him, but he was fully ready and prepared to face hardships, to suffer, and to even die in the name of Jesus.
22 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!"
23 As there were shouting and throwing off their cloaks and flinging dust into the air, 24 the commander ordered Paul to be taken into the barracks. He directed that he be flogged and questioned in order to find out why the people were shouting at him like this. 25 As they stretched him out to flog him, Paul said to the centurion standing there, "Is it legal for you to flog a Roman citizen who hasn't even been found guilty?"
26 When the Centurion heard this, he went to the commander and reported it. "What are you going to do?" he asked. "This man is a Roman citizen."
27 The commander went to Paul and asked, "Tell me, are you a Roman citizen?"
"Yes, I am," he answered.
28 Then the commander said, "I had to pay a big price for my citizenship."
"But I was born a citizen," Paul replied.
29 Those who were about to question him withdrew immediately. The commander himself was alarmed when he realized that he had put Paul, a Roman citizen, in chains.
Alright, so those are all the verses that we're going to be going over in chapter 22 of the book of Acts, but I'm going to discuss these verses with the guys here. So in verse 22, this crowd had heard this amazing testimony of how Jesus saved Paul, He changed his heart, and called Paul to preach, and they automatically turned on him as soon as they heard him say that the Lord sent him to the Gentiles. They were so full of hatred and had stubborn hearts that they couldn't see past what they thought was right according to their laws and they wanted him dead. They completely disregarded everything that Paul had just said because they heard that he said the Lord sent them to the Gentiles, so they automatically just said that he wasn't fit to live.
Then in verses 25-29, as soon as they were about to flog Paul he asked if it was legal for them to flog a Roman citizen that hadn't been found guilty. Whenever the Centurion heard this, he told the commander and asked what they were going to do because this man was a Roman citizen. So the commander asked Paul if he was a Roman citizen and Paul said that he was born a citizen. We saw in our Bible study in chapter 16 of the book of Acts, and there may have been another time or two, where Paul had mentioned that he was a Roman citizen. He and Silas were Roman citizens and they had beat them publicly without a trial. Whenever the officers found out they were Roman citizens, they were shocked and they escorted them from the prison. So this wasn't the first time that people didn't know that Paul was a Roman citizen and they beat him or were about to beat him, and then he told them about his Roman citizenship.
Acts Ch 22 Study Guide
How did Paul go from imprisoning Christians to testifying about Jesus?
What type of people does Christ choose to testify about him?
In verse 21, why did the Lord send Paul to the Gentiles?
In verse 22, why did the crowd say that Paul was not fit to live?
What is your biggest takeaway from this Bible study?
So that concludes this Bible study on chapter 22 of the book of Acts. Next week we're going to go into chapter 23, so make sure you stay tuned for that.
I love you guys so much.
Never forget to choose faith over fear.
-Lorena Camille (Faith Fuels My Fire)
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Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.
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