Part 2
Luke tells us that once Peter realized what had happened to him was not a dream and that he was truly free, he went at once to the house where he knew believers would be present. A number of believers were, in fact, gathered there – praying for Peter's safety and release.
Many commentators give a rather negative account of how the servant girl, Rhoda, acted when Peter knocked on the door. These comments range from the more charitable - which tell us Rhoda was so overcome with joy to realize Peter was standing at the door that she could not think clearly and ran to tell the others rather than opening the door for him – to some rather less charitable commentaries which go as far as to suggest that Rhoda
was probably "just a simple servant girl" (apparently intimating that not much could be expected of her).
These commentaries all miss the tension of the situation. Peter's arrest did not take place in a vacuum. Persecution was already well underway, and the gathered believers were probably extremely on edge concerning their own safety and that of all Christians at that point in time. It seems perfectly likely that when a knock came to the door late in the night, the homeowners instructed the servant Rhoda to go to the door to see who was there – but not to open the door. Such a situation seems just as probable as any shortcoming on Rhoda's part, and Luke does not intimate in any way that the young woman was too excited to think clearly - just that she immediately ran back and told the disciples that it was, in fact, Peter at the door.
But focusing on Rhoda's message misses a major lesson in this account regarding the reception of the message. It is ironic that the believers were almost oblivious to the answer to their prayers when it did arrive, and that they almost refused to accept that their prayer was answered even when they were repeatedly assured it was true. Even when they saw Peter for themselves, "they were astonished" (vs. 16).
We can apply this story to ourselves by remembering that we should never pray and presume the prayer is perhaps not likely to be answered. That is doubting prayer at best, and unbelieving prayer at worst.
A second lesson we might consider is that when we pray, we should not then make physical arrangements that presume the prayer may not be answered. Note that Luke records not only that the door to the house was locked, but also that the "outer entrance" was locked. Middle Eastern homes still often have this same arrangement, with the house door set within an exterior court or vestibule area with its own "outer" door. If the believers had truly expected Peter's release, they might have at least left the outer door open for him.
These points may seem easy to make with the benefit of hindsight, but the details of this part of the story of Peter's rescue seem so small and otherwise so historically unimportant that they are surely there as reminders to us rather than being historically significant. They remind us that we should never presume that prayer is unlikely to be answered or that it is not being answered; and we should never make arrangements, due to lack of conviction, that actually hinder the outcome of the requests we make.
15 LUKE'S CHECKPOINT SUMMARIES
Luke's writings are among the most accomplished in the New Testament, and he was clearly an educated individual who was aware of Hellenistic literary styles and conventions. His works are structured clearly and logically, and in both his Gospel and in the Book of Acts the evangelist utilizes a narrative technique which is extremely helpful to his readers: the summary. By "summary" we do not mean a summary at the end of the book, but the use of ongoing "checkpoint" summaries given every so often to show the continuing development in his story.
These checkpoints tell us many things. Luke uses them in his Gospel to provide short summaries at important points in the life of Jesus (for example, Luke 2:40, 52). He uses them throughout the Book of Acts in the same way to provide summaries at key points in the careers of the apostles and the development of the early Church. The summaries tell the reader what has been accomplished, give us a sense of where we are now in the story, and help us understand what needs to be done next.
For example, in Acts 2, as we saw earlier, Luke summarizes the situation in the Christian community directly after the momentous events of the Day of Pentecost:
They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common (Acts 2:42-44).
Luke gives many such summaries in the course of narrating Acts, and each one not only tells us numerous things about the
early Church, but some also give us a point of comparison – something to think about in our own lives. Looking at Luke's description of these early, Spirit-filled days, we see only superlatives in everything he describes – believers who are "devoted" to learning and fellowship, "filled" with awe, and having "everything" shared.
To take another example, in Acts 9:31 Luke summarizes the conditions at a time the Church was enjoying relative peace and security:
Then the church throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria enjoyed a time of peace and was strengthened. Living in the fear of the Lord and encouraged by the Holy Spirit, it increased in numbers.
In this example we see that periods of peace and quiet gave the early Church special opportunities to be strengthened and grow. What happens when we have periods of peace and quiet – free from trials or stresses – in our lives? Do we just relax and coast? We may be appreciative and feel blessed, but do we use the opportunity to be strengthened and to grow?
That is exactly what Acts shows us occurred after one of Luke's summaries in Acts which forms the half-way point in the book: "But the word of God continued to spread and flourish" (Acts 12:24). Directly after this summary, major new growth is seen throughout the second half of the book.
It is clear that if we study them carefully, Luke's checkpoint summaries can be helpful in understanding the life of the early Church. It's a highly effective literary device and one that we can use in our own lives, too. Rather than just moving through life in either a condition of pleasure and coasting or perspiration and coping, we too can take stock regularly and ask ourselves what has been accomplished in our lives so far, where we are now in our walk with God, and what needs to be done next.
Just as Luke's short checkpoint summaries are of great value in understanding the growth of the early Church, if we use them in our own lives, short checkpoint summaries can be extremely useful in helping us understand and continue the story of our own growth.
PART TWO:
EXPANSION
16 SEEING THE LIGHT IN DAMASCUS
The story of the apostle Paul's conversion is repeated several times in the Book of Acts, first as told by Luke (Acts 9), and then twice more in the words of Paul himself (Acts 22, Acts 26). In each telling of the story we learn new details, but the constant elements repeated in each are: the appearance of Christ in a blaze of light to Saul/Paul outside of Damascus, the statement that Saul was persecuting Christ himself; the resultant darkness or blindness Saul suffered for three days; and the commission of Saul to do Christ's work which, as we will see, involved the concept of light as opposed to darkness.
It is easy to think of Saul's conversion as occurring instantly within however many minutes it took for the incident on the Damascus road to take place. But despite the fact that he must have come to near-instant realization that he had been terribly wrong in persecuting Christians, true and deep repentance usually takes time – and time is what Christ gave Saul at this point. Like Christ's three days in the grave, Saul was left for three days in darkness, just as we participate in Christ's death (Philippians 3:10, Romans 3:8) in the process of repentance.
It was doubtless during the three days of physical blindness and inner soul-searching that Saul came to see the ultimate truth about his own nature and what he had done. Christ did not send his servant Ananias to baptize Saul till three days after his appearance to him, so we can presume that it was in that time without light that Saul came to truly understand the spiritual darkness of the human heart left to itself and its need for spiritual light.
This motif of seeing the light is not only the theme of Saul's experience of the radiant glory of Christ, but it is also at the very center of the work Saul was given to do – as we see in the words of Christ Himself:
"I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen and will see of me ... I am sending you to them to open [the Gentile's] eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me" (Acts 26:16-18).
Why did this revelation of the light and the need to carry it to the Gentiles occur to Paul at Damascus and not in Jerusalem? Damascus, called the "eye of the whole East" in ancient times, sat on the intersection of two main highways and was the chief city of the Decapolis, the ten cities of the Roman Province of Asia. The city contained many Jews, but also many Gentiles, and it was, in effect, a major portal to the Gentile world. It was fitting that at Damascus Saul, the one who saw his own blindness after seeing the light of Christ, came to conversion and a desire to fulfill the task he was given – to carry the light into the darkness of the Gentile world.
We still see the centrality of that commission – to take the light to the Gentiles – in Paul's words many years later to the Corinthian church:
The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God … For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God's glory displayed in the face of Christ (2 Corinthians 4:4-6).
The change from darkness into light as a metaphor of taking truth to the Gentiles as well as a metaphor of personal repentance was one Paul personally understood well from his experience of blindness, then coming to see. It was a symbolic image he also doubtless knew from the Book of Isaiah (Isaiah 9:2), the very scripture quoted by Christ at the beginning of his own ministry:
"… the people who were sitting in darkness saw a great light, and those who were sitting in the land and shadow of death, upon them a light dawned." From that time Jesus began to preach and say, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matthew 4:16-17).
There is also a lesson in Paul's conversion that we should not miss. Sometimes people think that conversion is just "seeing the light," that it is, in effect, just a warm, positive, glowing experience of enhanced understanding. But the biblical description of Paul's conversion is in a sense a type of what conversion must be for all of us. As one commentary has put it, Saul's blindness is a kind of "parable" of repentance. It teaches us that it is only as the light brings us to see the darkness within ourselves for the first time that we find true repentance and can then turn to the light. Paul saw what we must all learn, that if we have never seen the darkness in which we sit, we cannot understand what the light is or choose it.
17 "BROTHER SAUL" AND THE FAITH
OF ANANIAS
The story of Saul's conversion on the road to Damascus is a powerful one even from our modern perspective. But from the viewpoint of the early Church, it was a breathtaking one. Could it really be that Saul, the man who was "breathing out murderous threats" against the disciples – hunting them down and handing them over to the persecuting authorities – was now changed, converted, one of their own? To many, the story must have seemed too good to be true, and terrifyingly dangerous to those who could easily lose their lives if they trusted what might be an elaborate plot to find them.
That is the perspective we must have if we are to understand the story of Ananias – a prominent Christian living in Damascus who was well aware of the destruction Saul was wreaking on the early Church:
In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias. The Lord called to him in a vision, "Ananias!" "Yes, Lord," he answered. The Lord told him, "Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying. In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight" (Acts 9:10-12).
It's probably almost impossible to imagine how that instruction really felt to Ananias, but we get a glimpse of his reaction in his reply to the Lord:
"Lord," Ananias answered, "I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your holy people in Jerusalem. And he has come here with authority from the chief priests to arrest all who call on your name." But the Lord said to Ananias, "Go! This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel" (Acts 9:13-15).
We probably have to put this in modern terms to even begin to understand the situation. Suppose you were a Jew living in hiding in World War II Europe, and God told you to go meet one of the highest ranking officers of the SS or the Gestapo. Imagine you lived in Soviet Russia, or today in North Korea, where Christians are routinely executed, and were told to go help the head of the secret police responsible for eliminating Christians. But look at Ananias' response:
Then Ananias went to the house and entered it. Placing his hands on Saul, he said, "Brother Saul, the Lord – Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here – has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit." Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul's eyes, and he could see again. He got up and was baptized (Acts 9:17-18).
We may casually read over those last few words telling us that Saul "got up and was baptized," but imagine Ananias' feelings waiting to see exactly what Saul would do once his sight was restored. Was this just a trap? What would Saul do next? The obedience and faith that Ananias demonstrated by going to Saul and helping to restore his sight were profound, to say the least. It was an act of faith and bravery potentially equivalent to helping a lion out of a trap.
And notice one more detail about the way in which Ananias did this. It may seem like a small detail until you think it
through, but the extent of Ananias' faith was such that the man not only obeyed God's instruction, but also fully accepted his enemy by addressing him with the words "Brother Saul." The level of Ananias' faith is seen again toward the end of Acts 9 which records that after his conversion Saul returned to Jerusalem, and that: "When he came to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples, but they were all afraid of him, not believing that he really was a disciple" (vs. 26). Ananias not only accepted God's word in faith while it was still unclear what Saul's intentions were, but also he accepted Saul as a brother.
Ananias is one of the many who, although not mentioned by name in the great "Faith Hall of Fame" found in Hebrews 11, can nevertheless be included in "all these" individuals of Hebrews 11:39 – the many others who are likewise worthy of inclusion. His name in Acts is the Greek form of the Hebrew name Hananiah, "favored of the Lord," and Paul himself later described Ananias as "a devout man according to the law, having a good report of all the Jews" (Acts 22:12).
According to tradition Ananias was eventually martyred, but we can presume that this man of God died in full faith. New Testament scholar F.F. Bruce summed up the life of Ananias in saying that he "has an honored place in sacred history, and a special claim upon the gratitude of all who in one way or another have entered into the blessing that stems from the life and work of the great apostle [Paul]."
18 PAUL: PREPARED TO SERVE
Perhaps more has been spoken and written about the man known as Saul or Paul than any other man in the Bible (certainly in the New Testament), apart from Jesus himself. Yet many Christians know little about his background before he became the "apostle to the Gentiles" and wrote the biblical epistles that bear his name.
Even Paul's name is often misunderstood. Many think he was called Saul until his conversion and Paul afterward – as a kind of confirmation of change from church-hater to church champion. But Saul and Paul were both names of this man. Many Jews in the first century – and perhaps all those living outside Judea in the wider Roman world – had two names: a Jewish name and a Greek or Latin name.
As a Jew of the tribe of Benjamin (Romans 11:1), Saul was probably named after the biblical King Saul (a man of the same tribe), and his Latin name was the closely sounding Paul (Paulus). In Acts we see he is called Saul for years after his conversion, and it is only when he embarks on his first missionary journey through the Roman world – where his Latin name would be more appropriate – that Acts begins to call him by his name Paul, and this name is then used primarily.
Paul was probably born around 5 BC to AD 5 in the city of Tarsus, the capital of the Roman province of Cilicia in southeast Asia Minor (what is today Turkey), though he was evidently raised in Jerusalem (Acts 22:3). Although of Jewish lineage, we know nothing of his family, though his nephew, his sister's son, is mentioned in Acts 23:16. His parents were undoubtedly devout as Paul calls himself a "Hebrew of the Hebrews" and says that he
was circumcised according to precise Jewish custom and trained in the beliefs of the strictest Jewish sect, the Pharisees (Philippians 3:5). He was trained, in fact, by the noted teacher, Gamaliel (Acts 22:3), who was himself the grandson of the great Jewish scholar Hillel the Elder. This is important not only because Paul had a "good teacher" and gained a deep understanding of the Scriptures (2 Peter 3:15-16), but also because the school of Hillel was noted for providing a broad education, probably further exposing Paul to Greek literature and philosophy. In fact, although we know from Acts that Paul could speak Hebrew, Greek may well have been his first language, and he was doubtless perfectly fluent in it.
Paul's biblical background and training not only enabled him to effectively argue matters of the law with other Jews, and to show them the prophecies of Christ in the Hebrew Bible, but also protected him on at least one occasion. Because the Pharisees rejected many of the teachings and attitudes of the ruling Sadducees and taught certain things they did not, such as the resurrection, he was able to use this situation in his defense when tried before the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem:
Then Paul, knowing that some of them were Sadducees and the others Pharisees, called out in the Sanhedrin, "My brothers, I am a Pharisee, descended from Pharisees. I stand on trial because of the hope of the resurrection of the dead" (Acts 23:6).
Paul's zealousness for the Jewish law made him a fervent and vicious enemy of Christianity which, before his conversion, he doubtless saw as a serious heresy of traditional Judaism that needed to be destroyed. But it also made him an ideal defender and teacher of the new Faith once he was converted to it. And Paul's background in a predominantly Gentile area and broad education also played an important part in preparing him for his future role as apostle to the Gentiles.
We see Paul's non-Jewish learning on many occasions – ranging from his quotation of Cretan poets (Acts 17:28) to his ability to speak to a philosophically-minded audience in the Areopagus of Athens (Acts 17:16-34). These details must never be forgotten when assessing Paul's calling as the apostle to the Gentiles. He was not only thoroughly trained in matters of the biblical law and its promises, but also conversant enough in the intellectual world of the Gentiles to be able to convey what would have often been quite alien and unintelligible concepts to them.
Paul was not unaware of the connection between the extensive training and preparation he had been given and the task to which he was called. In his letter to the Galatians he wrote: "… God, who set me apart from my mother's womb and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles …" (Galatians 1:1516). This does not say that Paul was divinely predestined to become an apostle to the Gentiles despite his own will. Rather, it shows that God, foreseeing the need to reach the Gentiles, planned ahead then worked with an individual to prepare him from birth for that role – in Paul's case, by being born in a Gentile area then also getting Jewish training. Paul's words to the Galatians seem, in fact, to echo the prophecy of Jeremiah 1:5: "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations."
We may not have been called to a great commission like the apostle Paul, but that need not mean that God does not also guide our lives in preparation for the work He gives us to do. Take time to look at your own background sometime – think about the many ways in which your experiences may have prepared you to help others. We sometimes do not realize how we ourselves may have been trained in the graduate school of providential preparation. Reflect a little on how you, too, may have been prepared for the work you have been called to do.
19 BARNABAS: SON OF
ENCOURAGEMENT
Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas (which means "son of encouragement"), (Acts 4:36). Along with Paul, Barnabas is perhaps the person who is shown as being closest to the stature of the Twelve Apostles in the Book of Acts. It is uncertain whether he was made an apostle, however, as he is never called such when mentioned by himself. He is also mentioned in contrast to the apostles: "Barnabas and the apostles;" and although Acts refers to Paul and Barnabas together as "apostles" in the plural, it is likely in those cases that the word is being used in its general sense of "messengers" or "missionaries" (the general meaning of "apostle" was translated missio in the Latin Bible), rather than as a formal title.
But Barnabas was clearly an important figure in the early Church. He is mentioned some 33 times in the New Testament – more than any other non-apostle, and more frequently than some of the Twelve Apostles themselves. We first meet him in Acts 4, where he is said to have sold a field and given the money to the Church (Acts 4:37), and where he is said to have been regularly called by the Aramaic name Barnabas – "son of encouragement" – rather than by his personal name, Joseph.
The name of Barnabas is also, of course, forever linked with that of Paul. It was Barnabas alone who risked befriending Paul and taking him to the apostles, when others thought Paul might be falsely claiming to have become a Christian in order to find and arrest more of them (Acts 9:27). When Paul eventually returned to his home area of Tarsus, it was Barnabas who brought him from there to join him in the work in Antioch (Acts
11:26A). The two men preached and taught together for a whole year during which Barnabas was clearly the leading Christian in Antioch and Paul still a relative newcomer (Acts 13:1).
We are told the Holy Spirit specifically chose the two leaders to be sent on the first missionary journey (Acts 13:2). But once the journey began, it is clear that Paul began to take the lead and is then mentioned before Barnabas on most occasions. The two men accomplished great work together, but we know that eventually they went separate ways over the disagreement regarding whether John Mark should accompany them (Acts 15:36-41). Later, Paul wrote that when he had to confront the apostle Peter for his failure to meet with Gentiles due to Jewish disfavor: "The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray" (Galatians 2:13); but it is clear that the wound between Paul and Barnabas was eventually healed (as we will see), and that Paul had the highest regard for his friend and earlier supporter and mentor.
But despite his considerable missionary accomplishments, together with Paul and on his own, it is the trait of encouragement that we see throughout Acts as the defining characteristic of the ministry of Barnabas. It was, after all, Barnabas' encouraging willingness to take John Mark on their joint missionary journey that had caused the split between Paul and himself, and if we look back to Acts 11, we see the trait again when the church in Jerusalem first sent Barnabas to Antioch:
When he arrived and saw what the grace of God had done, he was glad and encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts. He was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and a great number of people were brought to the Lord (Acts 11:23-24).
In some ways these words were perhaps an obituary written for Barnabas after the fact, for Luke says here that Barnabas
"was" a good man. He is not mentioned again in Acts after chapter 15, and when Paul was a prisoner in Rome, he brought John Mark to him to help him (Colossians 4:10), which is usually presumed to indicate that Barnabas was by then no longer living.
But we should think on the lesson that Barnabas left us. He was not only a dedicated servant who accomplished much in the work of the Gospel, but his encouraging nature was clearly an example in how we can influence others for good through the traits we exhibit, if we are willing to do so.
Encouragement is also a gift of the Spirit of God (Romans 12:8), but it seems to be seldom given to those who are not already encouraging others. The story of Barnabas' life and work as a "son of encouragement" inspires us to ask ourselves how our own obituaries might be written in three or fewer words – do we have a positive trait that others would remember as being characteristic of us, and how might we strengthen and utilize it to the full?
20 THE CHURCH AT ANTIOCH Now those who had been scattered by the persecution that broke out when Stephen was killed traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch, spreading the word only among Jews. Some of them, however… went to Antioch and began to speak to Greeks also… and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord. News of this reached the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. When he arrived and saw what the grace of God had done, he was glad and encouraged them all … Then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. So for a whole year Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people. The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch (Acts 11:19-26).
It was not accidental that when persecution broke out against the early Church, many Christians fled to Antioch in Syria. After Rome itself, and Alexandria in Egypt, Antioch was the third largest city in the Roman Empire, and was a true metropolis with great social and religious diversity.
The cosmopolitan nature of Antioch is seen in the five leading Christians in the Church there (Acts 13:1): Barnabas, evidently the senior figure, was from Cyprus (Acts 4:36); Simeon called Niger ("black") was probably from Cyrene in North Africa and may possibly have been the Simon of Cyrene who carried Christ's cross; Lucius of Cyrene is sometimes thought to be Luke himself, though this is highly unlikely; Manean, who was brought up in Judea with Herod Antipas, the son of Herod the Great; and finally, Saul, who was from Tarsus in Cilicia – an area that is now part of modern Turkey.
We can see from this list of its leaders that the church at Antioch was certainly no small outpost of Christianity. Many Jews and Gentiles were converted there (Acts 11:20-21), and Antioch, in fact, is mentioned in Acts more than any other city outside of Jerusalem, and the various mentions show the powerful work its church was doing.
We see this propensity for independent good work in the fact that when a famine arose, the believers in Antioch "… as each one was able, decided to provide help for the brothers and sisters living in Judea. This they did, sending their gift to the elders by Barnabas and Saul" (Acts 11:29). But the work of the Antiochan believers was not only inward looking in terms of helping other Christians. It was from Antioch that all three great missionary journeys mentioned in Acts were launched.
We should notice the details in regard to this missionary outreach which effectively changed the nature of the early Church. Although Christianity had now spread beyond Judea to some of the surrounding areas, its expansion was still very limited and almost random in nature – as when believers fled from persecution. Despite the commission the church had been given, there was, till now, no formal Christian outreach with the purpose of spreading the faith – and when it finally occurred, it was not from Jerusalem, but from Antioch:
While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, "Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them." So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off. The two of them, sent on their way by the Holy Spirit, went down to Seleucia and sailed from there to Cyprus (Acts 13:2-4).
Notice the duality in this description of the launching of the first missionary journey. We are told "they" (the church) sent Barnabas and Saul on the mission, and that they were sent by
"the Holy Spirit." We sense this duality, this close working of Church and Spirit in much of what occurred at Antioch. And as the first and later missions unfolded – all launched from Antioch – we see they were truly the beginning of the Gentile Church for which Paul (as Luke refers to him from this point) was prepared.
It was now that the fervent and independent nature of the Antiochan church led to expansion, not just in the conveying of the message of the Gospel, but also in the appointing of new elders and the establishment of new congregations (Acts 14:23).
The early church at Antioch presents us with a powerful lesson in how the Church grew then, one which applies equally today. If the Spirit of God is truly active in a church, just as in an individual, good works and growth will be evident.
21 THE ONLY WAY Many believers do not realize that the term "Christian" is actually one which arose relatively late in the development of "Christianity." As Acts 11:26 tells us, it was only as the early Church developed that the disciples were first called Christians in the city of Antioch in Syria. Believers were perhaps called Christians (from the Greek word Christos – the "Anointed One" or "Messiah") to distinguish them from the many Jews living in the area.
So if the believers were not called by the name of Christ at first, what were they called and how did they refer to their beliefs? The believers were certainly known as "disciples" and referred to themselves as "brothers," "members of the household of God" and even "saints," but the earliest known term describing what the early believers believed, the religion they followed, was simply "the Way." Acts 9:2 tells us that Saul sought to apprehend believers: "… so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem." (See also Acts 18:25-26, 19:9 and other instances.)
Why was early Christianity referred to as "the Way"? Interestingly, Judaism had long thought of the Torah as a "way" in that it dictated a way of life which was synonymous with walking rightly before God, a way of righteousness described in the Book of Isaiah: "…This is the way; walk in it" (Isaiah 30:21B). The ancient Jewish Essene community at Qumran (where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found) also followed a "way" which, for them, was more a way of ritual and ultra-strict observance of the law.
For the Christians, however, there was a Messianic aspect to the term. Isaiah 40:3 (a verse quoted several times in the New Testament) says: "…prepare the way of the Lord…." For the early disciples, Jesus, as the Messiah promised throughout the Hebrew Scriptures, was the living embodiment of that way – and, of course, he himself had said: "I am the Way." But let's look at that affirmation a little more closely – Jesus said: "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6). In saying this Jesus made it clear that he was not only an embodiment of the right way of life, but he was also the "way" in the sense of being a road, a path, a way to the Father. This verse tells us, in fact, that Jesus is the only way to the Father. God is certainly a respecter of those everywhere who do good (Acts 10:34-35), but Christians accept the words of Christ that ultimately it is only through him that we find the way to eternal life.
So this earliest of terms for Christianity carries a lesson within itself. It is very easy to think of Christianity as "a Faith" – a distinct set of beliefs and doctrines to which we subscribe; but the words of Christ and the understanding of the earliest believers show that Christianity is not just "a set of beliefs," but a way of life, and a way upon which we travel toward the person and nature of God. This "Way" involves the desire and effort to live as Christ did – it is about how and where we walk as we follow in his steps.
And the way in which we walk may be the "narrow way" (Matthew 7:14), but it is not a single-lane pilgrim's track – it is a path in which we share the walk with others: "But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another…" (1 John 1:7 and see also 1 John 2:9-11). This is something we see throughout the Book of Acts – the earliest Christians knew there was only one "Way," and that our calling is to help others along that way as well as to walk in it ourselves.
22 THE APOSTLE WHO DIDN'T COME
TO DINNER
He had been invited, of course – not that he needed an invitation! – and we had saved a place for him. But he had not come to dinner for the past week, and it was beginning to look as though he would not be coming to dinner again any time soon. He may just have been busy, of course; any apostle – and especially one of the chief apostles – must have so many responsibilities. But it was strange, nonetheless. Some were even beginning to wonder if they had offended him, or if fellowship with the Gentile converts was not a pressing issue just now. But surely, it couldn't be, as some had even suggested, that Peter named Cephas viewed us as somehow less than equal in the fellowship of Christ … could it?
In the second chapter of Galatians Paul tells the amazing story:
When Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face … For before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray (Galatians 2:11-13).
Paul's stand against Peter's hypocrisy must have been a legendary event in the early Church. Paul certainly did not skirt the issue:
When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of them all, "You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?" (Galatians 2:14).
Fortunately, Peter had the humility to accept Paul's reprimand (something worth thinking about in itself) and changed his behavior – fellowshipping again with the Gentile believers. Clearly, he learned a valuable lesson, one which lies behind the words written in one of his own epistles years later: "Show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers …" (1 Peter 2:17).
But this story is given in the Bible for our admonition, not Peter's. Do we avoid certain people in the faith for any reason? Do we not fully accept other believers because of some difference in doctrine or belief? The apostle Peter made this mistake – are we above it?
We know that we are to "keep away from every believer who is idle and disruptive and does not live according to the teaching …" (2 Thessalonians 3:6, 14), but that does not apply to believers who are sincerely trying to do God's will. The writings of Paul and Luke, in Acts, made it abundantly clear that Gentile believers were to be fully accepted as brothers and sisters in the faith – even though they may not have had complete doctrinal understanding (Acts 15:28).
This principle also applies directly to us, of course, in dealing with fellow believers of other doctrinal persuasions. We may not agree with each other on things that we consider to be important, but that does not preclude our fellowship and helping one another in the Faith. Even though we may understand that principle intellectually, we must all ask ourselves whether there is some reason we are not showing up for dinner.
23 THREE JOURNEYS – THREE
LESSONS
There are many lessons that we can learn from Paul's three recorded missionary journeys, of course, but most of them are found in the accounts of individual people he met and events that occurred in the course of the journeys. Here, we look instead at three lessons which we can glean from the overall effects of the journeys themselves. First Journey (Acts 13-14): Contact Paul and Barnabas began their journey from Antioch in Syria traveling to Cyprus and then Asia Minor. At first, they preached in the local synagogues, but when many of the Jews rejected their message, the two missionaries turned to the Gentiles and many were converted to Christianity. This ministry to the Gentiles caused controversy with some Jewish Christians, and at the end of the journey Paul and Barnabas participated in a Church conference in Jerusalem in which they explained the situation with the Gentile churches, and the problem was largely settled.
But one of the most important aspects of this first journey was the congregations the two missionaries established. Acts 13:49, for example, tells us that "The word of the Lord spread through the whole region." This was not Paul and Barnabas going into every corner of the region, it was rather the local Christians reaching out and contacting others regarding the Gospel. At the end of this journey, we see that the two men retraced their steps and doubtless established communication between the churches they had now established. This interchurch communication is seen in the fact that at the conclusion
of the Jerusalem council, letters were sent to the Gentile churches in Syria and Cilicia that had experienced a particular problem (Acts 15:23-29).
Second Journey (Acts 15:36-18:22): Interaction After returning to Antioch for a while, Paul and Barnabas disagreed over an aspect of their next journey. Barnabas took Mark and Paul set out with Silas through Syria and Cilicia and then revisited the churches founded in parts of Asia Minor on the first missionary journey. They then continued to Greece, taking the Gospel to Europe and enabling the conversion of many new disciples including Timothy, Lydia, Aquila and Priscilla. On this journey we see the beginnings of interaction between church areas. After Paul taught Aquila and his wife Priscilla in Corinth, they travelled with him to the church he had founded in Ephesus where they stayed for a while (Acts 18:18-19). Clearly, by this time, local churches were communicating and believers visiting each other. Third Journey (Acts 18:23-20:38): Support On his third major missionary journey Paul returned to the churches of Asia Minor, Macedonia and Greece. Despite many trials and frequent resistance, he added yet more believers to the Church, and much work was again directed toward strengthening the ties with churches founded on the earlier journeys (Acts 18:22, etc.). On this third journey it is notable that Paul collected contributions the established churches had taken up to aid the impoverished believers in Jerusalem (as the church at Antioch had done in Acts 13), and these funds were delivered to the Jerusalem church on Paul's return. The overall lessons of church interaction are clear in these three journeys. We see increasing ties between groups of believers
beginning with contact, expanding through interaction, and culminating in support among mature churches. This was an important development, and we should remember that if Paul had not stressed the things he did that led to these three outcomes of his journeys, we would doubtless have to speak about the early churches instead of the early Church.
The application of these three lessons is also obvious for us. So many Christians today see themselves as part of a local congregation without looking much beyond that. Although there is some contact among local congregations, often people do not even know believers in churches that meet across the street from their own. Most people know little about other groups of believers; few regularly know and pray for, or otherwise support, the initiatives of other Christian groups.
If we look to the greater goals and purposes of the Church itself, we should perhaps, like the early Church, be willing to establish contact, develop interaction and support each other in ways that are mutually beneficial or simply further the work of the Gospel and accomplish good where good can be done. Such was the way of the early Church, and we clearly see it developing in the local churches that Paul founded on his three journeys.
24 PAUL AND BARNABAS DISAGREE
Some time later Paul said to Barnabas, "Let us go back and visit the believers in all the towns where we preached the word of the Lord and see how they are doing." Barnabas wanted to take John, also called Mark, with them, but Paul did not think it wise to take him, because he had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not continued with them in the work. They had such a sharp disagreement that they parted company. Barnabas took Mark and sailed for Cyprus, but Paul chose Silas and left, commended by the believers to the grace of the Lord (Acts 15:36-40). The story of the disagreement between Paul and Barnabas is a fascinating one with levels that we must think about to fully understand. The disagreement was evidently a major one between the two leaders (Acts 15:39), and even the NIVs wording "sharp disagreement" may not completely convey the severity of the difference. The word paroxusmos only appears here and as "provoke" in Hebrews 10:24 in the New Testament, but in the Greek Septuagint of the Old Testament we find the word used in Deuteronomy 29:27, "Therefore the Lord's anger burned," and Jeremiah 32:37, "the wrath of my anger." This was no small disagreement!
Why then was the disagreement between Paul and Barnabas so intense? It is perhaps easy to read the story and, with hindsight, to side with Barnabas who wanted to give the young Mark another chance, especially as we realize that it was Barnabas with his positive and accepting nature who had taken
Paul to the disciples in Jerusalem when everyone else feared to accept Paul (Acts 9:27).
But there are two details to the story we should keep in mind. Many translations of Acts simply say that Mark "left" Paul and Barnabas while they were on the first missionary journey, but his action at that time may have been more serious. The NIV says he "deserted" the two apostles, implying he left them in a negative manner, and the word Luke uses is afistemi which can mean not only to "desert," but also to "backslide" or even "fall away." It is exactly the word that Luke uses in his Gospel in recording the Parable of the Seed on different grounds, in which the seed that does not take root properly "falls away" under persecution. Further, Paul's opinion may have been a majority one, because we notice that after the disagreement "Barnabas took Mark and sailed for Cyprus, but Paul chose Silas and left, commended by the believers to the grace of the Lord" (Acts 15:40), which seems to imply it was Paul and Silas who were commended.
Whatever the cause and extent of the disagreement between Paul and Barnabas, it seems clear that in a sense both their opinions – Paul for truth and Barnabas for mercy – were correct. The work of Paul and Silas was greatly blessed in a situation where it could possibly have been hampered or compromised by the young Mark. On the other hand, Mark was given the opportunity he needed to grow under the accepting guidance of Barnabas, the "son of encouragement." The disagreement between Paul and Barnabas was certainly healed over time (1 Corinthians 9:6), and Paul would later speak of the matured Mark as someone who was useful to the work (2 Timothy 4:11), and he encouraged the Colossians to accept him (Colossians 4:10). The story carries a lesson from which we can all profit. Matters of truth and mercy are not always capable of easy decision. Sometimes the only way to choose between the two paths is to somehow choose both.
25 AN ENCOURAGING INCIDENT
AT PHILIPPI
The apostle Paul suffered many hardships and a great deal of mistreatment during his missionary journeys (2 Corinthians 11:25-26). Acts tells the story of how he and Silas, while they were at Philippi on the second journey, encountered a female slave who made a great deal of money for her owners by predicting the future. When Paul cast out the spirit that enabled her to do this, the woman's owners were infuriated and raised an uproar against the missionaries which led to them being seriously beaten:
The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten with rods. After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. When he received these orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks (Acts 16:22-24). This was no simple "roughing up" at the hands of a few disgruntled individuals. Luke stresses that the crowds joined in the attack so it sounds as though the two men may well have been badly beaten even before they were "severely" beaten with rods in a professional level punishment. The pain of cumulative beatings like this would be intense and would have lasted for days. To add insult to the injury, Paul and Silas were then thrown into the "inner" cell – the lightless dungeon-like part of the prison where they were fastened in stocks so they could not even move.
These events took the concept of "no good deed goes unpunished" to new levels of irony. We can only imagine the levels of pain and discomfort Paul and Silas must have felt at this time. But Luke tells us that:
About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone's chains came loose (Acts 16:25-26).
The jailer himself was converted, and if you have read the account in Acts you know the end of the story is much happier. After they were freed, Paul and Silas left the jail and went to the house of the convert Lydia … where the believers tended their wounds and encouraged the two men? Actually, this is not what happened. It is certainly what we might have expected to have happened to the two missionaries, but Luke plainly tells us the very opposite: "After Paul and Silas came out of the prison, they went to Lydia's house, where they met with the brothers and sisters and encouraged them…" (Acts 16:40 emphasis added).
It was Paul and Silas who encouraged the believers! The lessons for us in this amazing twist to the story are clear. We may not rise to the level of encouraging that these two servants of God accomplished, but their actions teach us not only that any time is a good time for encouragement, but also that the most effective and meaningful time we can ever encourage others is when we ourselves are suffering.
Encouragement is a wonderful thing, but if we are not careful there is always a danger that when we ourselves are feeling buoyed by peace and happiness, our encouragement of others who are down or discouraged can seem slightly hollow – it's easy for us to say "be encouraged" when we are not the ones suffering. But when encouragement is given by those who are suffering
themselves, it carries a level of truth and effectiveness that cannot be doubted. It's a story we should try to remember. When we find ourselves in times of suffering, it can remind us that we may have the opportunity to encourage others more than we might ever otherwise do.
26 WHAT MUST I DO TO BE SAVED? The Book of Acts is the only book in the Bible that asks the direct question, "What must I do to be saved?" and then, concisely and clearly, gives us the answer. Luke tells us that during the second missionary journey, at Philippi, Paul and Silas were thrown into prison, but that after an earthquake miraculously freed them:
The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. He then brought them out and asked, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" They replied, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household" (Acts 16:29-31).
The reply is almost staggering in its simplicity and summarizes in a few short words much of the complex theology Paul patiently explains in his epistles. The fact that all that is necessary to be saved is to "believe" does not mean, of course, that nothing further will be done as a result of that crucial step of salvation. We see in the immediately following verses: "Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house … then immediately he and all his household were baptized" (Acts 16:32-33), showing that the jailor had more to learn and more to do as a result of his faith, as he continued down the path of salvation.
But there is another aspect to what the Philippian jailer was told that we often read over without thought. Luke tells us the object of the faith needed for salvation is "the Lord Jesus," which is interesting because he stresses this phrase throughout Acts. The name "Jesus" appears 68 times in the book, but it is frequently – to a noticeable degree – combined with the word
"Lord" (which is used some 110 times in the book). Unlike some other books of the New Testament, Acts rarely speaks of Jesus as "the Son" (only four times) or of God as "the Father" (only three times). Instead, Luke usually speaks of "God" (over 160 times) and "the Lord" or "the Lord Jesus."
This selective use of titles for Jesus shows us that rather than stressing the familial aspects of God and his relationship to us, Luke wished to stress for his audience the ruling aspect of the resurrected Christ. This approach of stressing a relationship of obedience and loyalty to Christ as ruler may well have been more understandable to a Gentile audience as opposed to faith in "Jesus Christ" – Jesus the Messiah long expected by the Jews. It is also an approach that balances the simple statement of faith. Faith is all that is needed, but faith in Jesus as Lord helps us to see the loyalty and obedience that stem from that belief. Paul himself speaks of that same obedience based on faith which: "… has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith" (Romans 16:26B ESV).
We do not know the name of this jailer of Philippi or hear of him again after the earthquake incident, but in many ways he is a type of us all. Many of us have to be shaken by events in our lives to bring things into better focus, but whether this is true in our own situations or not, most of us ask the same question at the beginning of the process of conversion. The jailer was fortunate to have Paul present in person to fully answer his question of "What must I do to be saved?" But the answer he received is the same one we find in studying the writings of Paul and summarized so concisely by Luke.
27 THE APOSTLE PAUL'S JOB
DESCRIPTION
Throughout the epistles of Paul the apostle gives us glimpses of how he saw his job description. Most of his epistles open by greeting those to whom he writes as an "apostle" or "servant" of Jesus Christ, but these are essentially job titles rather than job descriptions. Similarly, in his letter to Philemon Paul introduces himself as the "prisoner" of Jesus Christ because of his captivity, but once again this is a summary of his situation at that time, not an extended job description. It is interesting to look closely at examples where Paul elaborates more fully what the goals of his work were. We can find several such verses, but one particularly interesting description occurs in Paul's letter to Titus:
Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ to further the faith of God's elect and their knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness—in the hope of eternal life (Titus 1:1-2a).
This description revolves around the famous triad of "faith, hope and love" Paul mentions in 1 Corinthians 13:13 and elsewhere, although the fact may not be obvious without thinking about it. In his letter to Titus we see he mentions faith and hope directly, and the third quality – love – is lightly veiled in the form of "godliness" which (although it can be more than love alone), the Bible frequently equates with love. Because God is love (1 John 4:8), godliness obviously is also love; and we see the equation made clear, for example, in 2 Peter 1:3-7 where godliness is positioned alongside brotherly affection and love.
But Paul does not mention his great triad of spiritual qualities just to include them in the letter. Instead, he stresses them in the statement of his job description as being at the heart and core of his work. Reading the whole of Titus 1:1-2 we see how Paul envisioned this. The apostle clearly saw a big part of his job as "furthering" or growing and expanding the faith of those God had called, as well as their "knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness" and their "hope of eternal life."
Most of us think of "faith, hope and love" in the context of 1 Corinthians 13, where they are discussed as qualities Paul shows we should be developing in ourselves. So it's easy to read over the same qualities in the epistle to Titus without grasping their significance for Paul – as key elements in the job he was called to do to help others. We may study, meditate and pray about these very qualities as things we should strive to develop in ourselves, but do we, like Paul, think of them as goals for the lives of others?
Remembering Paul's self-defined job description, we might think more about how we can help grow these qualities in others. For example, it's easy to see the outgoing aspect of our calling as essentially one of helping others to initial belief in Christ – but then it tends to stop. Perhaps we think of continuation in terms of ongoing "encouragement" of our brothers and sisters, but Paul shows us that he had specific goals in mind in the work he did. Faith, hope and love/godliness lie at the heart of what Paul had to say throughout his writings about living God's way of life. Titus 1:1-2 shows us that Paul also saw teaching and developing these qualities in others as an important part of doing God's work.
How do we apply this to help others grow these qualities? It's a big question, but if we want to imitate Paul as he tells us to do, just as he imitated Christ (1 Corinthians 4:16, 1 Corinthians 11:1), it's a question we should think on.
28 ALL THINGS TO ALL PEOPLE Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews ... To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God's law but am under Christ's law), so as to win those not having the law. To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some (1 Corinthians 9:19-22). One of the most distinguishing traits of Paul's ministry was his ability to relate to people everywhere, and these verses from his letter to the Corinthians are a well-known summary of that principle of being all things to all people. However, the principle was one Paul applied not just to the outside world, but also to those in the Church.
A chapter later, in the same epistle, Paul stresses this truth even more clearly:
Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks or the church of God — even as I try to please everyone in every way. For I am not seeking my own good but the good of many, so that they may be saved (1 Corinthians 10:32–33).
We see the principle again in Paul's letter to the Galatians: "I plead with you, brothers and sisters, become like me, for I became like you" (Galatians 4:12).
Many today do not realize that the early Church was, for much of the first century, almost two churches. Jewish Christians
and Gentile Christians met in their own areas, and there was often little interchange between them. That there was tension between the two groups is seen in many ways, including the situation in which Paul confronted Peter himself in this regard (Galatians 2:11-14).
One example is particularly instructive. Acts 21 tells us that toward the end of Paul's ministry, the apostle visited Jerusalem and met with James, the brother of Jesus, who was the leading apostle there at that time. But this was no ordinary meeting. Even this late in Paul's ministry, there was clear tension between Paul as leader of the Gentile Christians and some of the Jewish Christians. But Paul, in following his principle of being all things to all people, doubtless moved the Jewish Christians by presenting them with a considerable gift from the Gentile churches that they had collected for the poor among the believers in Jerusalem (Acts 24:17). For their part, James and the Jewish Christians were clearly desirous to make things work:
Then they said to Paul: "You see, brother, how many thousands of Jews have believed, and all of them are zealous for the law. They have been informed that you teach all the Jews who live among the Gentiles to turn away from Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children or live according to our customs. What shall we do? They will certainly hear that you have come, so do what we tell you. There are four men with us who have made a vow. Take these men, join in their purification rites and pay their expenses, so that they can have their heads shaved. Then everyone will know there is no truth in these reports about you, but that you yourself are living in obedience to the law" (Acts 21:20-24).
This was the point at which many modern interand intradenominational meetings and negotiations might well erupt into arguments and recriminations. The Jewish Christians'
suggestion might even be understood as meaning that Paul was unclean through all his time in the Gentile world, and he should therefore join with Jews who would be purifying themselves at that time. But Paul's response is instructive: "The next day Paul took the men and purified himself along with them" (Acts 21:26). This event reminds us of how Paul had previously circumcised his assistant Timothy in order not to unnecessarily alienate Jews (Acts 16:3). In neither case was Paul backing down in weakness, however. He was not in any way turning away from full support of the Gentiles (as Peter unfortunately did in similar circumstances), but he was clearly showing that he was willing to undergo the Jewish practices in order to be a Jew to the Jews, to be all things to all people.
Recognizing Paul's approach in this area of being "all things to all people" – inside as well as outside the Church – is vital for our understanding of his ministry and what he accomplished, and it underscores an important lesson for us, too.
One of Paul's most quoted sayings is this: "Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ" (1 Corinthians 11:1). We should never forget the context of this verse – that it follows the verses we looked at above, in which he tells us he strove to "be all things" and to "please everyone" so that they might be saved (1 Corinthians 9:19-22, 10:32–33). That, for Paul, was the only reason for being all things to all people.
29 A MATTER OF CITIZENSHIP The crowd listened to Paul … Then they raised their voices and shouted, "Rid the earth of him! He's not fit to live!" As they were shouting … the commander ordered that Paul be taken into the barracks. He directed that he be flogged and interrogated in order to find out why the people were shouting at him like this. 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?" When the centurion heard this, he went to the commander and reported it… The commander went to Paul and asked, "Tell me, are you a Roman citizen?" "Yes, I am," he answered. Then the commander said, "I had to pay a lot of money for my citizenship." "But I was born a citizen," Paul replied. Those who were about to interrogate him withdrew immediately. The commander himself was alarmed when he realized that he had put Paul, a Roman citizen, in chains (Acts 22:22-29). During his trip to Jerusalem after his third missionary journey, Paul was accosted in the Temple by Jews who disliked his teaching. The situation quickly became an ugly one and, as a result, Paul was arrested and – only by announcing his Roman citizenship – narrowly escaped severe injury and possible death through "flogging" – intense scourging by whips with sharp objects attached to their strands.
The immediate result of the announcement of Paul's citizenship was that those preparing to torture him stopped and did not strike him at all. Even the commanding officer was "alarmed" that he had come close to illegally whipping a Roman.
Roman citizenship certainly carried valuable privileges. It saved Paul on this occasion and would save him again later, as we read in Acts 25. But citizenship was not easily acquired – there were only three ways in which it could normally be obtained: through service, payment, or birth. A person could become a full citizen through twenty-five or more years of military service in Rome's legions. One could also become a citizen by paying a large sum of money for citizenship (as the commanding officer in this story, Claudius Lysias, evidently had done). Finally, one could acquire citizenship through birth, as Paul states he did. This may have been due to Tarsus being designated by Rome as a "free city" with citizenship privileges for its inhabitants, or simply because his parents were citizens.
But regardless of how one became a Roman citizen, the great privileges that came with the designation were such that citizenship was not only highly prized, but also very carefully respected. This fact makes for an ironic contrast with what occurred next in this story:
The commander wanted to find out exactly why Paul was being accused by the Jews. So the next day he released him and ordered the chief priests and all the members of the Sanhedrin to assemble. Then he brought Paul and had him stand before them. Paul looked straight at the Sanhedrin and said, "My brothers, I have fulfilled my duty to God in all good conscience to this day." At this the high priest Ananias ordered those standing near Paul to strike him on the mouth (Acts 22:30-23:2).
We see the irony when we understand that Paul's opening words to the Sanhedrin "I have fulfilled my duty to God in all good conscience to this day" include a Greek verb which literally means to be or to behave "as a citizen." Paul says, in effect, that he has been a good citizen of God and of the laws of God. It was on this announcement of Paul's spiritual citizenship that Ananias
ordered him to be struck. So the paradox is noticeable – while the announcement of his physical citizenship had led to the physical military leaders commanding Paul not be struck, the announcement of his spiritual citizenship was followed by the religious leaders ordering him to be struck.
Specifically, it was the High Priest Ananias who ordered Paul struck – a man whom the Jewish historian Josephus tells us was known for his cruelty, injustice, greed and self-glorification, and who was even summoned to Rome to be examined before Claudius (AD 52) because of his brutality. Perhaps Ananias was among the individuals Paul had in mind when he later wrote to the Philippians regarding spiritual citizenship:
… many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven (Philippians 3:18b-20a).
But we see in Paul's use of his "dual" citizenship status another perfect example of his being all things to all people. To the Roman commander Paul presented himself as a Roman citizen, to the Sanhedrin he presented himself as a Jew and a "citizen" of God. But this was not simply using his citizenships in order to protect himself. When he was rescued by the Romans from the Jews who were beating him, Paul did not immediately use his Roman status to escape the situation – he asked permission to speak to the crowd on the grounds that he was a Jew (Acts 22:3). On the basis of his identity with them, Paul then proceeded to take his message to the very people who had been beating him.
Being all things to all people should never be a shallow way of attempting to get what we want from others, but a way in which we are better able to reach them with our example and message.
30 THE ROAD TO ROME Anyone who has read about the ancient Roman Empire knows that Roman roads were well-constructed and famously straight. But after the apostle Paul's arrest in the Temple at Jerusalem (Acts 21:33) and his appeal to Caesar (Acts 25:12), his "road" to Rome was anything but smooth and straight. It is interesting that Paul going to Rome was clearly according to God's plan and will (Acts 27:24), but many things conspired to stop him or even to destroy him en route.
Beginning with the uproar that erupted in the Jerusalem Temple against Paul, nearly leading to his death (Acts 21:27-32), we find a string of human plots and natural disasters that successively threatened the apostle's life. He was almost "torn to pieces" by the Sanhedrin (Acts 23:10), and then narrowly escaped several plots to kill him (Acts 23:12, 25:3). When he finally got to the sea-leg of the journey to Rome, he survived both storm and shipwreck, as well as near death at the hands of the soldiers (Acts 27:42) and deadly snake bite (Acts 28:3).