Part of being a Christian is to witness to other people about the Lord Jesus Christ. Some of you are really pleased to hear that. I suspect a number of us had been secretly hoping nobody would ever say that to us, because we find the thought of speaking about the Lord Jesus with others terrifying and difficult. If that is you, you're not alone. Lots of people find it difficult.
But I'm afraid it is an unavoidable part of what it means to be a Christian. Now, don't get me wrong—there are religions, even distortions of the Christian faith, that somehow see devotion to evangelism as one of the things that contributes to you qualifying for a place in heaven. Or that map every good person going to heaven, but if you want a place in first class, you have to have done a certain amount of evangelism. That is out there. It's not at all what I'm saying.
This is not about how you earn your place in God's kingdom. It's not about how you get yourself greater comfort when the Lord Jesus returns. It's none of those things. But God's programme is not just to bless us so that we can keep His blessings to ourselves. His plan is to reach into our lives so that we can share the good thing that the Lord Jesus Christ is with those around us.
So, for example, in Acts chapter 1, verse 8—one of the verses at the beginning of the book of Acts that kicks us off—Jesus says to the first disciples: "You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." Not, "You will comfortably enjoy everything that I have given you forever, all by yourselves—isn't that lovely?" No. "You will." Yes, "I will be with you to the end of the age." Yes, "You will enjoy my blessing and my presence." But you will do so in order to be my witnesses.
Now, they were uniquely witnesses in the sense of eyewitnesses. They saw Jesus rise from the dead bodily and they could say, "This is what we saw." And we're not quite in the same bracket as that. We, at best, can say, "Well, that's what they saw." But the principle—that witness is part of the Christian life—is embedded right through the book of Acts. And as we reach the end of the book, it becomes really clear that we're being shown Jesus training His first disciples how to witness, so that we know how we can carry on their work beyond the first century, beyond the sphere of where they reached.
Now here's what we're going to look at this morning. Telling other people may not always be welcomed. Not everybody you tell about Jesus will be pleased to hear the news, and Luke wants us to be prepared for that reality.
And if you're here this morning as someone who's still investigating the claims of Jesus for yourself, let me say how pleased I am that you've come. Please keep coming, so you can keep looking at the Lord Jesus, who is wonderful. We want you to know Him. But let me help you to be prepared as well, that if you sign up and say, "Yes, I want to follow Him," one of the things He will be asking you to do—falteringly, frightened—is to tell other people that you've discovered how good He is. And that may not always be welcomed.
So let me prepare you as well, as you investigate what this might mean for you. Two things about opposition as we start:
The hated is normal, whoever you’re talking to
The first is to note that being opposed as we share the good news of Jesus is normal, no matter who you're talking to. There are a number of ways in which Luke has deliberately set up this passage to echo Acts chapter 19, when Paul was in the city of Ephesus, and he's saying that the same thing is happening but with a different audience.
So, for example, in Acts 21:27, we have the word stirred up; 21:31, we have the word for uproar—that is the same word in both cases as the word for confusion in Acts 19:32. Or the word for uproar in chapter 21:34 in today's reading is the same word used of Ephesus for the uproar in chapter 20:1. In both cases, there is a fear that the Apostle Paul has desecrated a temple—Artemis in Ephesus, the temple in Jerusalem here—and that fear gets the whole city out onto the streets in protest. And we're told that one person was shouting one thing and another person shouting another—an identical phrase in chapter 21:34 and chapter 19:32.
To the Apostle Paul in the capital of Asia Minor, the city of Ephesus, he was hated by Gentiles, by Greeks. And in Jerusalem, the capital of the Jewish faith, he was hated by the Jews. Whether he's talking to Jew or Gentile, the hatred is the same. The opposition is normal, whoever you're talking to.
The hatred is normal, whoever is doing the talking
But the opposition is also normal, whoever is doing the talking. Whether it's Paul or you or me, it's the same.
There are a number of other deliberate echoes in this passage of other passages in the book of Acts. For example, this passage deliberately echoes Stephen. When Stephen was martyred for his faith, he was accused—chapter 6, verse 13—of speaking against the law and this holy place. And the Apostle Paul is accused—21:28—of speaking against the people, the law, and this place.
Now, that gives us a little hint at the start of this passage of just how much danger Paul could be in, because we know, as readers of Acts, how Stephen's story ended—he was stoned to death. So to hear Paul being accused of those same things starts to alert us that there's real deep threat in the situation here. Paul is in great danger.
There are echoes here of the Apostle Peter. So, in chapter 21, verse 33, Paul is bound with two chains. There's one other person in Acts who was bound with two chains, and that was Peter in chapter 12, verse 6. Or chapter 22, verse 17—Paul narrates how, when he was praying in the temple, he fell into a trance. There's one other person in Acts who fell into a trance, and that was Peter, praying on the roof just before going to visit Cornelius.
But above all, there are echoes in here of the Lord Jesus Himself. There are two halves to this passage. The first half reaches its climax at chapter 21, verse 36: "The crowd that followed kept shouting, 'Get rid of him!'" "Lift him up! Take him away!" The second half of the passage climaxes in chapter 22, verse 22: "The crowd raised their voices and shouted, 'Rid the earth of him!'" "Lift him up! Take him away!" And that's exactly the same phrase that the crowd was chanting in Luke chapter 23, verse 18, of the Lord Jesus Christ—telling us that hatred and opposition are to be expected. Doesn't matter whether you're Peter, Stephen, Paul, Jesus—this is how people were treated.
And so, Luke says, readers of my book: if you share Jesus with people, there will be times when this is how you are treated too. It wasn't that Paul was particularly obnoxious and difficult. It's just that it's what happened to Jesus, and it's what always happens. So be prepared.
Luke wants to equip us, though, to keep telling others about Jesus and not to give up when it gets difficult. So, three things about the hatred we may at times experience:
The hatred is irrational
It is irrational. Paul, the convert to Christianity, recognises himself in the response of the crowd in front of him. He says to them in his speech, "I was once as zealous for God as any of you here." He can see himself in them. And they should be able to see themselves in him. They should look at Paul—look at Paul's past when he was the arch-persecutor—and they should be able to say, "He was once exactly where we are," and it should make them say, "So what's changed? What changed this man from hating Christians like we do today into what he is now? Because I can see myself in him, and I want to know what happened."
Now, some of us here have been Christians since we were very, very young—younger than we can remember. Many of us, though, have come to faith in later life, or have had periods of our life when we have wandered away from the Lord Jesus and later come back. And our friends should be able to look at us and see someone who previously prized the things in life that they now prize most highly.
"You used to love your wine—what's changed?"
"You used to really prize your career—what's changed?"
"You used to pride your freedom to set your own priorities in life—what's changed?"
Instead of seeing someone who is just like them, they will often look at us and see someone who is a threat—that things may have to change for them. And therefore, they respond with hatred.
It's irrational. The charges against Paul were totally false—totally false. They come in 21:28 and 29: "This is the man who teaches everyone everywhere against our people, our law, and this place." Well, their misunderstandings of his teachings are subtle, and he will have to explain how they've got it wrong—but he will. But this next bit is just utterly outrageous: "Besides, he's brought Greeks into the temple and defiled this holy place." They've previously seen Trophimus the Ephesian in the city with Paul and assumed he had been in the temple as well.
They know they don't like Paul. They're looking for a reason to accuse him. So their suspicion—they can guess something about Trophimus—is their excuse. It's just utterly irrational. It's not based on fact. As Jesus said in John 15:25: "They hated me without reason."
The hatred's irrational.
The hatred is frenzied
Now, there are two ways this comes out in this passage. First of all, chapter 21, verse 27: "When the seven days were nearly over, some Jews from the province of Asia saw Paul at the temple. They stirred up the whole crowd and seized him." From the province of Asia—that's where Ephesus was. That's Turkey. So here's a bunch of people who hated Paul so much, they had followed him halfway across the Roman Empire—several months' sea voyage—just to cause him trouble.
Second little detail: they succeeded in whipping up the whole city of Jerusalem into such a powder keg of violence and mob control that the Roman authorities feared they were about to lose control of the whole city. And they had to step in with tear gas—or whatever the ancient equivalent was—and literally carry him away. There's a sense of urgency and desperation: "This man must be stopped!"
The hatred was frenzied.
The hatred is entitled
And third: the hatred is entitled.
It's entitled. Look at exactly what it was that upset them so much that they wanted to get rid of Paul. So, there's those two climaxes of the two halves of the passage: 21:36—"The crowd that followed kept shouting, 'Get rid of him!'" What was it that got them to that point?
"This is the man who teaches everyone everywhere against our people, our law, and this place." This feeling that Paul was anti-Jewish. They suspected Paul was anti-Jewish, and that's why they didn't like him.
Or in 22:22: "The crowd listened to Paul until he said this."
Said what? "Go! I will send you far away to the Gentiles."
They wanted God's treats to be just for them, and they didn't want to lose their privileged position.
Any hint that suddenly they were not quite as special to God as they thought they were, and they don't like it. Perhaps imagine you work in an office building, or a medical practice, or somewhere there's a car park out the back — 10 spaces. If you're lucky, you can get a space, but there are a couple of spaces that you're not allowed to park in. One of them says, Chief Executive’s Parking Only.
One day, Chief Executive drives in — someone's nicked his space. Religious behaviour goes in, says to the receptionist, "Could you find out whose car that is, please?" She says, "It's mine. I was running a bit late, I had a cold and felt awful, and I thought you wouldn't mind."
Well, at that point, you discover the personality of this Chief Executive — whether he's a servant of those who work with him or not. That's a little bit of the sort of feeling of what's going on here. The Jews see the good news of Jesus going to people of other nations and they, "Excuse me! That's mine! You didn’t want to... I thought they... I thought they could have it." They go, "No, that's not on — it's ours."
But actually, the gospel does that for everybody. We all assume that we are entitled to God's favour, and we are deeply offended when we discover that we're not. And when we discover that we are not as entitled to God as we thought we were — that maybe there's stuff about us that God has no reason to like — we go, "Excuse me!?"
And that's the effect that the gospel has as our friends hear it as well.
The other bit of entitlement that can keep people away from Jesus is the fear that there might be certain people — or certain types of people — at church. So in certain other towns in Britain, for example, it might be that there are two football teams people support, and if they know that the people who support the other team might be in that church — "I'm not going to go there!" Or someone lives on the other side of town — "We're the Barrowcliff Church; we don't want the Scalby people!" Or whatever it might be.
Now, I don't think that's our problem, but it could be. Individuals even tell me, "Do so-and-so go to your church?" "Yes, they do." "I'll find another one then!" They think the hatred is entitled.
So Luke is saying hatred and opposition are to be expected. Given which, what will keep you telling other people when sometimes you share the good news and people are not pleased to hear it?
What will keep you going is a right view of the Lord Jesus.
So let me give you three things about the Lord Jesus from this passage — that if you can see that this is the Jesus we have, you'll keep going even when that's the case.
Jesus the reigning king
Number 1, we see Jesus the reigning king. He appears to Paul in dazzling light — chapter 22 verse 6:
"About noon as I came near Damascus, suddenly a bright light from heaven flashed around me, and I fell to the ground."
Jesus appeared to Paul in dazzling light. Notice it happened about noon. Now, I hate driving a car in the winter because the sun is low in the sky, and when you end up driving into the sun, it's really hard to see the road. We live on — to turn right out of that in the morning at about half past eight in the morning — it's straight in your face. It's very hard to see if you can safely turn right.
If you've been to, though, a hot country for holiday — maybe you have moved here from a hot country — picture the sun at half past one in the afternoon on a sunny day. You need to be under a tree. You need a hat, you need some sunblock, you need something to shade you from the bright light of the sun, because it is just so bright.
Well, this happened in the Middle East, where it is exactly like that, and about noon the sun would have been at its brightest. You'd be squinting in the sunlight. So how bright must the light have been for Paul to say, "A bright light shone about me," if it was already that bright? My goodness!
And it got his attention. He just crashed onto the ground, it was so bright.
It's a miracle as well. Notice that Paul says that the companions who were with him — verse 9 — saw the light, but only Paul was blinded. So it wasn't the light that blinded him — it was God. This was a miraculous encounter with the risen Jesus in all his glory.
He met Jesus, the reigning King — in more splendour than the Transfiguration.
And then at the end of the reading, Paul is in the temple in Jerusalem, and he says that he saw the Lord. He's in the temple, and he had a vision in which, "I saw the Lord."
Ring any bells? Anybody else who saw the Lord in his glory in the temple?
Tell you what happened next — the Lord he saw commissioned him to speak to others and said, "As you go out and tell people, they won't want to hear a word you say."
Ring any bells yet?
Holy, holy, holy — we've just been singing, haven't we?
This is Isaiah chapter 6, in which Isaiah saw the Lord, who commissioned him to speak a message that would be rejected.
And by the way, when you get to the end of Acts — the last few paragraphs of the Book of Acts — we discover that Paul has been thinking exactly this. As he looks back on his vision in Jerusalem, he actually sees his own ministry cast in the light of Isaiah's in chapter 6 — he quotes it. Only this time, it's Jesus who is on the throne. It's Jesus who commissions Paul as his spokesman.
Paul in his gospel may be opposed — you with Paul's gospel may be opposed — but Jesus is on the throne. So you can keep speaking.
Jesus the ancient plan of God
Second, we meet Jesus the ancient plan of God.
So, as we've seen, Paul is accused of being anti-Jewish, and he wants to show them it's not true.
So — chapter 22 verse 3:
"I am a Jew, born in Tarsus but brought up in this city. I studied under Gamaliel" — went to Oxford — "I was thoroughly trained in the law of our ancestors. I'm as Jewish as the rest of you," he says.
Or in 22:17:
"When I returned to Jerusalem, I was praying at the temple."
So when he comes back to Jerusalem, where's his chosen place of prayer? The temple.
He addresses them brothers and fathers — they're his family. He addresses them in Aramaic — the language of Old Testament Judaism.
And look at Ananias in 22 verse 12:
"A man named Ananias came to see me... he stood beside me... 'Receive your sight.'"
Verse 14:
"The God of our ancestors has chosen you to know his will, to see the Righteous One and to hear words from his mouth."
The entrance of Jesus into the world, the entrance of Jesus into Paul's life, was the doing of the God of our ancestors — the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.
The Righteous One in verse 14 must be Jesus — because he's saying that God wants you to see and to hear — and this is straight on the back of the Apostle Paul on the road to Damascus having seen and heard Jesus. He says that God wanted you to see and hear the Righteous One — which is language for the Messiah.
So, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob sent Jesus into the world to be the Righteous One, the Messiah. And he wants Paul to know that — that's God's plan — to see the Messiah and to hear his words.
This is not some new plan that Paul has cooked up. This is God's ancient plan to save the world — dating back to Abraham, even being hinted at in the Garden of Eden.
Which means that the Jews of Paul's day can be absolutely confident that Paul is not some anti-Jewish innovator who's cooked up something new. No — as Paul teaches about Jesus, he's being a perfect, loyal Jew, teaching the one on whom all the Old Testament promises and plans and purposes converge.
And we can be confident, as we tell others about Jesus — he's not some afterthought, he's not one religion amongst many in the marketplace. Jesus is God's master plan to save the world since before the beginning of time. And therefore we can share him with utter confidence.
Jesus the reigning King.
Jesus the ancient plan of God.
Jesus the rescuing saviour
Paul talks to these people because he can see himself in them. We've seen that already. He looks at this crowd hating him and he goes, "You know, I was once exactly like that. I was zealous for God. My zeal for God came out in the way I persecuted Christians. I threw them in prison. I caused there to be martyrs. That was me. I did that."
And yet — let me tell you the story. My conversion story. This is how God was the one who broke into my life. The story’s told in such a way it's clear all the way through — this was God's doing to break into Paul's life.
He says, "Let me tell you how God broke into my life and changed me."
And here's the point: if he can do it for Paul, he can do it for the angry Jews he talks to. He's already done it for someone who hated Jesus more than they do.
And if he can do it for Paul — and if he can do it for you — he can do it for your friends, and he can do it for your family. Because no matter how much you have friends and family who hate Jesus — and maybe some of us have people who really, really don't like the fact that you're here this morning — no matter how much that may be the case, I can guarantee no one here has a single person in their family who hates Jesus as much as the Apostle Paul did.
And if God can do it for Paul, he can do it for them.
Jesus the rescuing Saviour.
Conclusion
So, the Christian faith is too good to keep to yourself. And part of being a Christian is telling others of the Jesus that you love — the Jesus that you obey — the Jesus who has rescued you.
But what do you do when you encounter disinterest? Opposition? Hatred? Even physical violence?
What do you do?
Just put yourself in Paul's shoes for a moment. The poor man had been literally within an inch of his life. The Roman soldiers had rescued him and literally carried him to safety. His pulse was 160 beats a minute. He was in the middle of a full-blown panic attack. Great boy. If the Roman soldiers are delayed by 90 seconds, he would actually have been dead.
What does he do at that moment?
Some of you have arrived at church this morning with all kinds of pressures in your life — in your week, in your work, in your family, back home in Nigeria — whatever it is. All kinds of pressures. You have arrived thinking, "What am I going to do?" You're in a full-blown panic attack. But there's a little bit of you that's only half here this morning, because there's stuff that's calling for your attention.
What do you do when life is like that?
What do you do?
Paul did not let the Romans carry him away from the noisy crowd, sit him down with a nice cup of tea and a comfy sofa and just say, "Look, just chill for a bit. You're safe now, it's okay."
No. "Do you mind if we just stop please? I want to talk to them," he says. Paul says, "These are my fellow Jews. They're my people. They're where I used to be. And I love them. Please let me speak to them. Please let me tell them about Jesus."
See, hatred and opposition does not stir up a desire for comfort. It does not stir up a desire for revenge. It stirs up a deep love and a desire to tell them.
And this can become our reflex too — as we become convinced that Jesus really is the reigning King, he really is the ancient plan of God to save the world, and he really is the mighty rescuing Saviour.