Men, brethren, and fathers, hear ye my defence.
Paul’s defence
1. Whether we consider the man, the circumstances, the speech, or the effect produced, this address is worthy to be ranked among the famous speeches of the ages. Yet it was not the address of a great political leader, but the defence of a poor, friendless, manacled prisoner.
2. Most men would have desired nothing so much as to be hurried out of sight of the crowd. Not so with Paul. Barely delivered from that most terrifying of all forms of danger, the murderous fury of masses, he addresses the densely thronging thousands, who were only kept from him by a little belt of Roman swords.
3. What surroundings could have been more unfavourable--a crowded stairway for a platform, a surging, hostile mob for an audience, a manacled arm to interfere with freedom of action. But a man was behind that speech; a life of suffering and heroism, an unwavering conviction of the truth spoken, an unfathomable love for the Saviour whose cause was defended, was behind that speech. Three elements made it great.
I. Its wisdom and moderation. He must have been terribly excited when he began. He had been struggling with the mob in a hand-to-hand conflict. He knew its desperate and despicable character, and that it was on a false and malicious charge that this uproar against him had been excited. Now we should expect some terrible invective. Curran, or Grattan, or Wendell Phillips, would have withered those Jews. By nature he was as hot-tempered as any, and you would expect him to begin, “Liars, hypocrites, whited sepulchres, hear my defence.” But no; even that hateful mob he addresses in terms of the highest respect. Then he conciliates them still farther by speaking in their own dialect, every syllable of which was music to their ears. There is a great deal for us to learn from this exordium. When you try to convince men, find out what you have in common with them. Enlist their sympathies by showing the marks of common humanity. And in order to show this sympathy feel this kinship. Go into the slums of any great city; go to the farthest heathen shore; go into the fashionable church--with all we have something in common. We are all men and immortal sinners for whom Christ has died. In comparison with these bonds of union what are other distinctions?
II. Its simplicity. There is no attempt at rhetoric. The simple story of his conversion is told without embellishment. After all, is not this simple direct experimental way of speaking for Christ the best? Did long words and involved sentences and high-sounding phrases ever convert anyone? When Abraham Lincoln used to plead before the juries of Illinois farmers, they would say to one another, “Lincoln can’t make a great oration, but he can somehow show us where the truth lies.” His Gettysburg address has been pronounced by the highest authority to be one of the three greatest speeches ever uttered in America, and yet there is not a word or a sentence which a boy cannot understand. No, eloquence does not consist of noise. The mob made a great deal more noise than Paul, but Paul made an address which will be read for a thousand years to come, while their wild, incoherent ravings have long since been lost in the surge of time. Is there not a thought of encouragement here? We are not equal to the eloquent oration, but we are equal to the simple recital of experience. In that may lie the most soul converting power.
III. Its truthfulness. It would have been very easy for him to colour or exaggerate the truth, and startle the superstitious fancies of his easily-excited audience. But he chose to appeal to their hearts with the simple truth. Here is a weapon which we all have for the beating down of error--the recital of a truth which we have experienced, and which has entered into our lives.
IV. Its courageous utterance. Paul concealed, modified nothing. He told his straightforward story, and left it to make its own impression. There was one word which he knew would fill his enemies with fury, that was the word “Gentiles.” Because of his carrying the gospel to the Gentiles this mad mob had been aroused. Now, should he declare that it was his mission to carry the gospel to them? By one word he can arouse all their passions, or, by avoiding it he can pose as an honoured and learned Pharisee. A warm abolitionist, speaking against human slavery in a Richmond slave market before the war, was never in a more perilous position than Paul if he declared or intimated any sympathy with the Gentiles. But we know what course Paul will take, and he took it. “They gave him audience unto this word, and then” (Acts 22:22). Conclusion: This was an entirely unpremeditated speech of the apostles. He was so pervaded and filled with the love of Christ, that when taken unawares he could do nothing less than tell the old, old story. And he could have done nothing more or greater. (J. Clark.)
Paul’s defence
I. Persecuting Christ’s Church.
1. A birthright among God’s chosen people did not keep Paul from early persecution of those who believed on God’s Son. We may have been born in a Christian land, and still not be Christians.
2. A most complete education did not restrain Paul from persecuting Christ’s followers. We may be college educated and still remain bigoted, ignorant, opposers of the truth.
3. A. consuming zeal only made Paul’s mistaken activity the more disastrous. We had better never be zealous than to have a zeal only for the wrong.
4. A relentless determination rendered Paul’s evil work of persecuting increasingly evil. We are so much the worse off for having a strong will, if it be a wrong will.
5. A hatred of the Way led Paul into the way of persecuting. If we do not love the Saviour, we shall soon find ourselves attacking those who do.
II. Hearing Christ’s voice.
1. The great light shone in the broad glare of noonday. The Divine glory overshadows any earthly radiance.
2. The Divine voice called the sinner by name. Christ addresses each personally, and it is a waste of time to plead that the message was intended for someone else.
3. It was Jesus who was persecuted. Our sins are chiefly not against our friends, ourselves, or our Church; but against our Saviour.
4. The true answer to the Divine warning is, “What shall I do, Lord?” What we have done, we may repent of--what we shall do tests the sincerity of our repentance.
5. The Lord sent Paul right on to Damascus, whither the apostle had been journeying before. Christianity doesn’t take a man out of his earthly surroundings; it sends him on to Damascus, but with a new purpose and new hope.
6. The beginning of the Christian life is in faith. We must trustfully wait until we reach Damascus for God’s plans regarding our life to be unfolded.
7. The new vision of heavenly things may well blind our eyes to the things of this world.
8. The reclaimed wanderer, the regenerated persecutor, the regained evil-doer, are all sure witnesses of what power there is in the Christian life.
III. Called to Christ’s service.
1. We need to make haste and get to our field of Christian labour--especially if, like Paul, we have spent the early years of our life in opposing Christianity.
2. We have a right to select the home mission field as our place of labour, but if God indicates that our place is among the foreign missions, it is our duty to go thither.
3. We shall always feel hampered by the record of opposition that preceded our acceptance of Christ, but we can do thorough work for Christ nevertheless.
4. We are responsible alike for our doing and for our consenting to what others do. We may become implicated in the murder of Stephen without having cast a stone.
5. We may rightfully pause and deliberate and consider regarding our future course until God cuts it short with a peremptory “Depart.” Then we must at once arise and go. (S. Times.)
The legitimacy of self defence
A man must not be always defending himself, or explaining his actions, to others. Life is too short, and time is too precious for that. But there are occasions when a man owes it to himself, to his friends, and to the cause of truth, to speak out, and to make clear what is now a tangle of inconsistencies, or a web of misconceptions. It is a great thing to know when to explain, and when to let things explain themselves. Paul had wisdom from above to enable him to do the right thing in this line. Any man with the faith of Paul can have wisdom on this point from the source of Paul’s wisdom. (H. C. Trumbull, D. D.)
The defence and weapons of a man of God in troublous times
I. For himself--he has right and law which must protect him, as long as they have the power.
II. Within himself--he carries the equanimity of a good conscience, which remains undisturbed in the storm of the passions.
III. In himself--he exhibits the power of a Divinely consecrated personality, which does not fail to impress even brutal crowds.
IV. In God--he has a friend who says, “No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper.” (K. Gerok.)
Paul’s memorable sermon at Jerusalem
I. The preacher: in chains.
II. The pulpit: the stairs to the Roman barracks.
III. The deacons who conducted him: the soldiers.
IV. The psalms which preceded the discourse: murderous outcries.
V. The congregation: an excited people.
VI. The anointing which he brings along with him: the Spirit of the Lord, as a Spirit of faith, love, wisdom, and strength. (K. Gerok.)
Paul and the bigoted Jews
1. Christians may at any time be called upon for “a reason of the hope that is in them,” and ought to be “ready to give it, with meekness and reverence” (Acts 22:1; 1 Peter 5:1).
2. We ought to consider in the best light even the acts of enemies (Acts 22:3).
3. Prayers are often answered in ways we least expect. Not only are our greatest joys, but our keenest disappointments, experienced in Divine communion. Paul wished first to be an apostle to Jews. Even devotions must cease when the demands of duty are urgent. It is well to carry the zeal and consecration acquired in prayer into life and action. There are many tasks for which we are unprepared until we have been fired by devotion (Acts 22:17-18).
4. Men are not always the best judges as to how, when, and where they shall do the most good (Acts 22:19-20).
5. The distant purposes and preparations of Christianity prove its Divine character and power (Acts 22:21).
6. Where there is conscious rectitude, a narrative of facts is the best defence.
7. The hardness of the heart is as supernatural as its conversion. (A. F. Muir, M. A.)
Paul’s address on the stairs
In this address he--
1. Avows himself a Jew by birth and education (vers3).
2. Describes his persecuting zeal against the Christians (Acts 22:4-6).
3. Narrates his miraculous conversion (Acts 22:6-10).
4. Shows how his reception into the new body was by Jewish agency (Acts 22:12-16).
5. Gives an account of his apostleship among the Gentiles (Acts 22:17-21). In the address note that--
I. Self is criminated. Not one word is uttered in vindication of his conduct prior to conversion; on the contrary, he paints it in the darkest colours. What can any man discover in his history before conversion on which he can look with complacency?
II. Christ is honoured.
1. His conversion is ascribed to Him as it always is.
2. His commission is ascribed to Him; Christ became everything to the apostle after his conversion.
III. Conversion is memorable. Twenty-five years had passed away, and yet the incidents were fresh. So it is in all genuine cases of conversion. (D. Thomas, D. D.)
Paul’s sketch of his life
or how a servant of God looks back upon his life course.
1. With grateful remembrance of human benefactors (Acts 22:3).
2. With penitent confession of his own erroneous ways.
3. With humble praise of the Divine gracious dealings (verse 6-16).
4. With clear consciousness of his life’s call (Acts 22:18-21). (K. Gerok.)
The apostle’s autobiography
The apostle’s life, as he here sketches it, may be divided into three parts.
I. Paul persecuting Jesus. For in persecuting the disciples, he really persecuted their Lord. He persecuted--
1. Intelligently. When this hated sect was broken up in Jerusalem after the martyrdom of Stephen, he saw in a moment that the scattered fragments must be annihilated before victory was complete. In this he showed the true genius of a general. So he deliberately laid his plans to harass the scattered bands of disciples.
2. Relentlessly. All women as well as men who loved Jesus, Paul hated. He gave no quarter to any. Nothing short of Stephen’s death would satisfy his bloodthirsty soul. Extermination is the goal which he means to reach.
3. Consecratedly. He gave himself to this work; not his means or his thoughts only, but himself. He scorned working by proxy. How the ecclesiastics in Jerusalem must have loved him! How the Christians must have dreaded him, even as the Saracens dreaded Richard the Lion-hearted.
II. Paul prostrate before Jesus. Yes, in the very dust, on the way to Damascus. Yes, before the very Jesus, whom with all his soul he had hated. In an instant all his cherished plans were dissipated, and he cries, “Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do”? Humanly speaking, the history of the world was more changed by that incident than by any of the “decisive battles of the world.” We love to tell of Platea, Thermopylae, Marathon, Tours, Waterloo, and Gettysburg, but all of these have not exerted so great an influence as this battle of Jesus with Paul his enemy. It lasted but a moment, and the Pharisee was conquered once and for all. Note: Certain sceptics explain this occurrence by Paul’s having been sunstruck, and that he mistook the blinding light of the sun for a Divine appearance. To which we answer, that if a sunstroke can make such preachers we had better close our theological seminaries, and set all their students out under a boiling sun. Such criticism is on a par with that of the German commentator, who says that when Jesus said to Martha, “But one thing is needful,” He meant, “Don’t cook too much, we really need only one dish.”
III. Paul praying to Jesus. When a man falls prostrate before Jesus, it will not be long before he begins to pray (Acts 9:11). In this prayer he evidently asked for guidance as to what he could do for Jesus. A good prayer that for a young convert. Too many merely ask for pardon, and stop. Paul also asked for orders. (A. F. Schauffler.)
Personal experience
1. We wonder what speech Paul wilt now make. Will he enter into some learned argument and confound his hearers by his heavenly eloquence? The audience is unlike any other audience he has ever addressed, and he is now in the metropolis of the land. What is his defence? He tells over again the story of his conversion, and nothing more. The sublimity of that act is without parallel. Here is no argument, criticism, erudition, but a simple statement of facts; the application being: “After this, what could I do”?
2. We wondered how the old story of the conversion was bearing the wear and tear of apostolic life; the answer is before us. Having gone down into the city and into the wilderness, and over the sea; having been beaten, stoned, imprisoned, the apostle ends just where he began: by telling the simple experience of his own soul. The story is just the same. Sometimes imagination plays havoc with memory; and throws its own colour upon the simplest facts of early life, and we begin to regard those facts as a dream. This is particularly the case with the religious imagination; it leads us to disown our early selves, to regard our first prayers as passionate and sentimental rather than as sober and vital. It is interesting, therefore, to find that Paul, after all the manifold experience of a missionary’s life, repeats the old story exactly as it occurred in the early part of his life. Paul laced and kept both his feet on the rock of facts which had occurred in his own knowledge.
3. Christianity is not to be defended by mere argument, by the able use of elegant terms and subtle phrases; it does not challenge the world to a battle of opinions. Christianity is an incarnation; it stands up in its own living men, and says, “This is my work; the controversy which I have with the world is this: produce your men and I will produce mine.” The tree is known by its fruit. If the Church would stand firmly to this one point, there need be no controversy. If in an unfortunate mood you refer to some other man’s case, you may be perplexed by some cross inquiry as to the order of the facts; but if you keep to your own self there is no answer.
4. The recital Paul called his “defence.” The defence of Christianity is not a book but a man--not an argument but a life. Of course we shall be told about the shortcomings of Christians. So be it; and still the truth remains that Christians are the defence of Christianity. You tell me that London is a healthy city! Come with me to the hospitals and I will show you every disease known in this climate. Come with me from house to house, and in nearly everyone I will find you someone sick. That kind of argument would not be admitted on sanitary questions; yet the very men who would probably reject it upon the ground of a physical kind, might be tempted to use it in relation to Christians. There are sick Christians, Christian cripples; and yet it remains true that even the weakest Christian may have about him the peculiar sign manual of heaven.
5. Here, then, is the plain line along which we must move when called upon for our defence. “Men, brethren, and fathers,” says some poor old mother in the Church, “hear ye my defence. I was left in difficulty and trouble and sorrow; I knew not where to turn: I sat down and felt the pain of utter helplessness, when suddenly I heard a voice saying unto me, ‘Pray to thy Father in heaven.’ I never had prayed just in the right way; but, at that moment, my eye brightened with hope, and I fell down, and asked the Lord to show me what He would have me to do. Suddenly there was a great light around me, and a hand took hold of mine, and ever since I have felt that I am not an orphan, but under fatherly superintendence.” Sweet old mother! sit down; the philosophers can never answer that. Have you no tale to tell about the dark and friendless days; the sudden suggestion that stirred the mind; the inspiration like a flash of light at midnight; the key which has unlocked every gate ever since? Stand up and tell your tale. Let me not hear your opinions and views and speculations--keep them to yourself; but when we call for your defence read out of the pages of your heart. Herein is the secret of ardent preaching.
6. A converted man is one who is completely turned right round in every act, motive, impulse, and purpose; one who was travelling east, but is now marching straight towards the west. You could tell what turned you round--it was a death, a grief, a reading of the Book, a sermon, a singular providence, the hearing of a hymn, the touch of a child, the feeling of an inward agony. That is your defence; it is not mine; it is not another man’s, probably. Every man has his own view of God, his own conception of the Cross.
7. We want more personal experience in the Church. Herein the idea of some Christian communions is sound: that we should meet one another periodically, and audibly say what God has done for the soul. And, judging by apostolic history and precedent, nothing is so convincing, so satisfactory, as for the soul to tell its own story, in its own words, and when the soul does that, the best of all sermons will be preached. Each can say, who has known Christ’s ministry in the soul, “Once I was blind; now I see.” (J. Parker, D. D.)