Paul's Testimony of Faith (Acts 22:1-21)

[Stephan Choe]

February 23, 2024

Key Verses 14-16:      “Then he said: ‘The God of our ancestors 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 people 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.’”

In this passage, we hear the Apostle Paul's testimony of faith. His testimony was given when he was arrested by the Roman garrison as he was being flogged by a Jewish crowd. His testimony tells us what his life was like before he met Jesus, how he came to believe in Jesus Christ, and what his life was like after he was born again.

When Paul visits the temple in Jerusalem, some Jews from Asia recognize him and hurl outrageous accusations at him, thinking that he has broken Jewish law and brought Gentiles into the temple area where only Jews are allowed. In a fit of rage, the crowd grabs Paul and begins to beat him. Fortunately, Roman soldiers who are nearby save Paul from the beating. With the permission of this Roman military commander, Paul explains to the Jewish crowd how he has been transformed by his encounter with Jesus.

We, too, should testify every chance we get about what our old life was like, how we came to faith in Jesus Christ, and what our new life is like.

Paul's experience teaches us that there are three steps we should articulate in telling the story of how we met Jesus:

First, our lives before we met Jesus.

Secondly, the event of the personal encounter with Jesus.

Third, the story of our changed lives after meeting Jesus.

I. Life Before Meeting Jesus (1-5)

Paul was born in Tarsus and grew up in Jerusalem. He was educated in Jerusalem under Rabbi Gamaliel. Gamaliel was a greatly respected rabbi in Israel. Thus, Paul received a thorough education in Old Testament law and Jewish tradition. He was an ardent Pharisee who adhered to Jewish law.

His passion for the law and Jewish tradition was so great that he became zealous in his persecution of Christians. He participated in the killing of Stephen, arrested and detained Christians in Jerusalem, and sought to arrest Christians in Damascus.

II. His conversion (6-16)

Paul was traveling to Damascus to arrest Christians when he encountered Jesus near Damascus. This encounter changed his life forever.

Look at verses 6-8:

“About noon, as I came near Damascus, suddenly a bright light from heaven flashed around me. 7I 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.”

Here we hear Paul's testimony of his personal encounter with Jesus.

A personal encounter with Jesus is not unique to Paul, but is a key component of the testimony of every believer. And this personal encounter with Jesus changes the lives of the people.

We need to ask ourselves: “Have I had a personal encounter with Jesus, and if so, what was that personal encounter like?”

Let me tell you how I met Jesus in a personal way:

I did not believe in Jesus until I was twenty years old. Since I was a child, my third sister encouraged me to go to church and believe in Jesus Christ, but I refused.

Then, on April 5, 1970, the year I became a college student, I attended a Sunday service of a student church in Daejeon for the first time. Everyone was very kind to me. The preacher, Pastor Suh, spoke in a conversational and friendly manner. At the end of the service, everyone was asked to pray in pairs. I was paired with Lydia Bang (her Korean name was Kyung-Sook Cho), who was then in her second year of nursing school in Daejeon.

She explained to me how to pray in a kind way: At the beginning of the prayer, I call God first so that God knows that I want to talk to Him. For example, I say, "Dear God" or "Lord." Then I say something I'm thankful for or something I'm asking for. Then I say, “I pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen”, because only through Jesus Christ I can come to God.

Her kind explanation helped me to understand how I pray. That day, I prayed to God for the first time in my life. Thus, I began to believe in God and Jesus Christ on Arbor Day 1970 in Korea (5th April). That day became my spiritual Arbor Day.

After the Sunday service, Pastor Suh invited me to join the English conversation class held at the church on weekday evenings. I joined the English conversation class from the following Monday. First, we learned English conversation, and then we learned the Gospel of John in Korean. The story in the first chapter of the Gospel of John is that God became a man named Jesus. Surprisingly, that day I was able to believe that Jesus was originally God and came as a man.

In mid-May, Pastor Peter Suh suggested that I and Youngja Kwon, a first-year student at Daejeon University, attend the Student Spring Retreat of the Seoul District. All the students at the retreat were kind to me and full of joy. God opened my heart to Christ completely through their kindness. So from then on, I began to joyfully attend the Sunday Services of the Daejeon Student Church and invite my friends to the Church.

When Jesus appeared to Paul, the bright light of Christ blinded Paul. Afterward, Paul was led to a house in Damascus, where he repented of his sins, believed in Jesus Christ, and was baptized by a Christian named Hananiah. Then his eyes were opened again.

Paul had been blind to the spiritual world before he met Jesus, but by God's grace, his eyesight was restored, his sins were washed away, and he was able to see the spiritual world.

As this story says, the way of salvation is to believe in Jesus Christ and confess one’s faith:

So the apostle Paul says in Romans 10:10:

“For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.”

When we believe and confess that Christ died for our sins and rose again, we are saved:

Sometimes our sins are clearly recognizable to us, and sometimes they are not. Some sins are like severe external injury to the body, and some sins are like cancers that are not visible at first. Regardless of the type of sin, all sins are serious.

On the surface, we may appear to be morally and religiously decent people. This can deceive us, but everyone needs Jesus Christ and the forgiveness of sins. The good news of the gospel is that we can be set free from sin simply by believing and confessing the name of Jesus.

III. Life After Born-Again (17-21)

Paul continues his story in verses 17-21. He tells what happened to him after he was saved. When the Jews refused to accept the gospel of Jesus, God sent him to a foreign country, a country of Gentiles.

The Jewish crowd is stunned by Paul's speech about the need to save the Gentiles. As soon as Paul says this, they stop listening to his speech and shout, “Kill this man!”

The Roman commander then orders Paul to be taken to the barracks and flogged, but when he realizes that Paul is a Roman citizen, he rescinds the order.

Paul uses every opportunity to share the gospel of Jesus Christ! To do so, he gives his own testimony of faith, which encourages us to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with others through our own testimony of faith. Personal testimonies are often more effective than logical arguments for Christianity. Personal testimonies are a great way to overcome opposition to the gospel.

Weaving the message of Jesus with our own testimony is very effective. Our testimony is our personal experience of salvation through the gospel. By clearly stating what our lives were like before we were born again, how Jesus saved us, and how Jesus has changed our lives through this salvation, we can effectively share the gospel with people.

God wants each of us to tell others the story of our transformed lives, just as Paul did.

Where and when might we share the gospel? Maybe at work, or at lunchtime with a friend. Or while shopping with another customer. Or to a neighbor. Or in a doctor's waiting room.

When we share our salvation story with others, it reminds us of God's amazing grace. It's surprisingly easy to forget God's saving grace. That is why we need to be reminded often of the grace God has shown us.

The Apostle Paul gives us a good example of how to bear witness to the grace of Jesus.

Just as Jesus transformed and used Paul, He can save us and use us as His witnesses in amazing ways. Amen!