“And they gave him audience unto this word, and then lifted up their voices, and said, Away with such a fellow from the earth: for it is not fit that he should live.” (Ac 22:22 AV)
Paul’s defense was one of complete innocence. When he arrived at Jerusalem, he did not go to the synagogues or the temple to dispute Jesus with the lost. He did go to the Temple once, and that was to observe the rite of purification stopping short of offering the sacrifice. He then testified God had sent him to the Gentiles in faraway places so the Jews at Jerusalem had nothing to fear. He would not preach in the capital city. He was only there to deliver a benevolent gift to the saints at Jerusalem from the saints abroad. There should have been no reason for these people to want Paul dead. Why did they? The bulk of his speech regarded his personal salvation testimony. Like Lazarus, if they can destroy the evidence of the power of God, the movement stops. They could not take the fact Paul was converted and no longer persecuted the saints. He has become one of them. It is the change in the life of the sinner that the world despises. Wherein we rejoice at the change, we wonder why the world does not rejoice with us. We were lost. Now we are saved. We were on the road of self-destruction. Now we live for God. We were in despair. Now, our hearts overflow with the joy of Christ. One would think, lost or saved, all would rejoice. But they do not.
We have it relatively easy in this country. At least for the time being. We don’t pay a heavy price for our choice to trust Christ. There are places in this world that are not so. To trust Jesus in some countries means certain persecution. Maybe even death. There is a country in central west Africa that is purging their land of any mention of Jesus. They are slaughtering those who have trusted Christ. The first-century church often paid with their lives when professing Jesus as both LORD and Savior. My fear is when this persecution comes to our great nation, will the people of God be willing to stand and be counted? Right now, persecution is coming in very minor ways. A baker here. A photographer there. The next stop will be our churches. They will demand we recognize any deviant as a legitimate member. They will demand we not discriminate based on sexual practice or gender bias. Once they enforce that, the next step is to require all marriages and mandate the minister not to discriminate, forcing the minister to officiate all marriages against the word of God and his conscience. Lastly, they will regulate speech. They will forbid the preacher from saying anything that might offend others. That is pretty much the whole Bible. Eventually, the church in our nation will have to go underground as they did in the first century and the Middle Ages. Why? Because they will not tolerate conversion!
Paul did everything he could do to mitigate trouble. He didn’t go where he was not welcome. He testified he was not there to cause trouble. All he was doing was meeting the needs of some poor folk. But that wasn’t enough. His life was a testament to the power of saving grace. He was no longer like them. He no longer killed the enemy. He was a professor of Christ and that was not good enough. They wanted him dead. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the world has not changed one bit. We may have enjoyed almost two thousand years of relative peace towards believers in the western world, but that is all coming to an end. Rome, a Western culture city/state, killed Jesus. Those who arrested Paul and sent him to Rome were in a Western culture. Western culture may have been Christianized to some degree, but like Israel who turned on the Messiah, the Western world will do the same. So, saint, get prepared. They do not like you. They despise you. And when the time comes, will require you to leave the world for your faith in Jesus Christ.
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