Here are the quotes of Jesus from Acts 22 with the parallel quotes from Acts 9 and 26 below them. I have used the account from Paul’s speech to be the standard form in this comparison.
Jesus: ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’
“Saul! Saul! Why are you persecuting me?” (Acts 9:4)
‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is useless for you to fight against my will.’ (Acts 26:14)
Paul: ‘Who are you, lord?’ I asked.
Jesus: ‘And the voice replied,’ ‘I am Jesus the Nazarene, the one you are persecuting.”
“I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting! (Acts 9:5)
‘I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting. (Acts 26:15)
I asked, ‘What should I do, Lord?’ “
And the Lord told me, ‘Get up and go into Damascus, and there you will be told everything you are to do.’
Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.” (Acts 9:6)
Now get to your feet! For I have appeared to you to appoint you as my servant and witness. Tell people that you have seen me, and tell them what I will show you in the future. (Acts 26:16)
Spoken to Ananias:
The Lord said, “Go over to Straight Street, to the house of Judas. When you get there, ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul. He is praying to me right now.
I have shown him a vision of a man named Ananias coming in and laying hands on him so he can see again.” (Acts 9:11-12)
[Ananias: ‘Brother Saul, regain your sight.’‘The God of our ancestors has chosen you to know his will and to see the Righteous One and hear him speak.
For you are to be his witness, telling everyone what you have seen and heard.
What are you waiting for? Get up and be baptized. Have your sins washed away by calling on the name of the Lord.’ (Acts 22:13-16)
After I returned to Jerusalem, I was praying in the Temple and fell into a trance.
I saw a vision of Jesus saying to me, ]
‘Hurry! Leave Jerusalem, for the people here won’t accept your testimony about me.’ (Acts 22:18)
Paul: ‘But Lord,’ I argued, ‘they certainly know that in every synagogue I imprisoned and beat those who believed in you.
And I was in complete agreement when your witness Stephen was killed. I stood by and kept the coats they took off when they stoned him.’
“But the Lord said to me, ‘Go, for I will send you far away to the Gentiles!’” (Acts 22:21)
But the Lord said, “Go, for Saul is my chosen instrument to take my message to the Gentiles and to kings, as well as to the people of Israel. (Acts 9:15)
And I will show him how much he must suffer for my name’s sake.” (Acts 9:16)
And I will rescue you from both your own people and the Gentiles. Yes, I am sending you to the Gentiles. (Acts 26:17)
to open their eyes, so they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God. Then they will receive forgiveness for their sins and be given a place among God’s people, who are set apart by faith in me.’ (Acts 26:18)
This is a remarkable portion of the Scripture. It is majestic in its importance and yet simple and direct in its form. But behind these words are huge impact for the speaker and hearers alike. I will likely spend a number of Gems on this section because of the weight of argument that it carries. Nowhere in Scripture are as many words spoken by Jesus selected with such power and specificity. Here we have five quotes from the mouth of Jesus which are compiled to form overwhelming support to mount a defence against the allegations in this particular case before fellow Jews. Furthermore from our (contemporary) point of view we have three accounts of these five encounters with Jesus recorded for us. Each has some variation which if we compile all three accounts over five interactions give a comprehensive understanding of what went on. The unique portions from Acts 26 I will leave until I gem with Acts 26. That seems appropriate. However in this Gem I will deal with the first three utterances Jesus makes and Paul quotes.
“Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?”
“I am Jesus the Nazarene, the one you are persecuting.”
“Get up and go into Damascus, and there you will be told everything you are to do.”
These are three simple statements yet filled with meaning and inference.
Notice the repetition of Paul’s name. Well it’s not Paul’s name is it? It is Paul’s pre-conversion name – Saul, the persecutor. By using that name Jesus was addressing the old Paul, adding to Paul’s point that he was just like them – the crowd and the Jewish hierarchy. Jewish culture uses name changes frequently to depict personal transformation. Here we have a powerful one in that it encapsulates all of what Paul is arguing. I used to be like that but I have changed. I was one hell-bent on persecuting the church (The Way) but I have changed. Messiah knows it. The repetition is for effect. Repetition in Hebrew and Greek is for effect and used to emphasize something important. In this case it is to add weight to the transformation that has taken place in Paul. The very thing that Paul is arguing. So Paul makes the point that when Jesus, the Nazarene, addressed him on the road to Damascus he used his old “persecuting” name. Twice to catch his attention. Jesus made it clear to Paul what he meant by the words that followed: Why are you persecuting Me?
Hang on a moment! In what way can Paul be said to be persecuting Jesus, the Lord? By persecuting the Church; the followers of the Way. This is a huge statement. It equates the Church (the followers of the Way) with Jesus the Messiah. Paul in all of his epistles makes it clear that Jesus is the Head of the Church and the Church (universal – hence the capital letter) is His body. Wow. That is a huge statement to make to the High Priest and his Council – the Sanhedrin. After all that was who Paul was addressing. When Luke first gave us these quotes in Acts 9 he was not recording them as addressing anyone apart from those who would become disciples. All the disciples who would follow and us – lovers of God – along with Theophilus (perhaps). [See my earlier comments on the opening to the Luke’s Gospel when you can. This is the first time these words were used to address a crowd. That crowd was Jewish and knew the story behind the scenes.
Well that is not strictly true. The crowd as such likely did not know the story well. They were merely an impromptu crowd. The ones who knew the story well were the High Priest and the members of the Sanhedrin. Paul was their representative. What he was saying was a vivid reminder to them of the events that had happened. They, more than any others, knew the background to the story. For them these words were particularly challenging because they were intimately acquainted with what happened. In fact Paul reminded them of the fact. This speech was for the Jews – the crowd and the Jewish authorities. This was for those who knew the details of the events that had taken place over the years since the arrest, mock trial, persecution, crucifixion, death and resurrection of Jesus the Messiah. The Followers of the Way had consistently made that clear to the Jewish authorities and the crowd – read Peter and the disciples. Paul was now another in the same mould. Yet one they knew well.
The next thing to notice is how Paul addresses the one talking to him. “Lord”. The term Lord here is the Greek [kurios]. The word “Lord” here is actually in the text of most versions spelt with a small [l]. Largely because Paul was asking who was speaking? He wanted confirmation of the speaker. But for Paul this lord becomes the LORD – YHWH by the time he writes in Philippians 2 “every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is LORD to the glory of God the Father.” By the time of Paul’s speech to the Jews in Jerusalem in Acts 22, Paul’s concept of lord has clearly grown to the point of him meaning Jesus the LORD not Jesus the Lord. It would have been clear to the members of Sanhedrin and the High Priest what form of usage it was that Paul was meaning here.
Now let’s put in context Paul’s use of “Jesus the Nazarene” here in his speech. We have to ask ourselves the question, Did Jesus add the term “the Nazarene” or did Paul add the term “the Nazarene” at this point in the speech? I suspect it was Paul’s usage not Jesus. My only reason for saying that is the comparison with the other accounts where the term Nazarene is not used. It is clear to me that in talking to Paul, Jesus actually said “I am Jesus the one you are persecuting.” But in his speech Paul added the words “the Nazarene” by explanation. Was it Jesus explaining to Paul that he was the One the Sanhedrin called Jesus the Nazarene. Or was Paul inserting that term to make it clearer to the High Priest and the Council. It is a good question but one unfortunately we can’t solve this side of the grave. My guess is that it was Paul inserting the term for effect to the Sanhedrin. Why? Because in John 18 we are told the members of the temple guard came to arrest Jesus and when they were asked who they were looking for, they said “Jesus of Nazareth” or “Jesus the Nazarene”. Who called Him that? The members of the temple, the Sanhedrin. I suspect Paul has made the change here in order to use the term for Jesus that the Sanhedrin used. It would have been clear to them what Paul was doing by using this term. Once again it was for their benefit he inserted “the Nazarene” here in his speech.
This Gem has already grown to the point where I need to stop. I had intended to move on to the third utterance of Jesus in this Gems.
“Get up and go into Damascus, and there you will be told everything you are to do.”
But I think now I will only introduce the importance of this section and then leave you to ponder it until the next Gem. In order to do that let me give you the total section here for clarity.
“I asked, ‘What should I do, Lord?’ “And the Lord told me, ‘Get up and go intoDamascus, and there you will be told everything you are to do.’
“I was blinded by the intense light and had to be led by the hand to Damascus by my companions.
A man named Ananias lived there. He was a godly man, deeply devoted to the law, and well regarded by all the Jews of Damascus.
He came and stood beside me and said, ‘Brother Saul, regain your sight.’ And that very moment I could see him!
“Then he told me, ‘The God of our ancestors has chosen you to know his will and to see the Righteous One and hear him speak.
For you are to be his witness, telling everyone what you have seen and heard.
What are you waiting for? Get up and be baptized. Have your sins washed away by calling on the name of the Lord.’
“After I returned to Jerusalem, I was praying in the Temple and fell into a trance.
I saw a vision of Jesus saying to me, ‘Hurry! Leave Jerusalem, for the people here won’t accept your testimony about me.’
“‘But Lord,’ I argued, ‘they certainly know that in every synagogue I imprisoned and beat those who believed in you.
And I was in complete agreement when your witness Stephen was killed. I stood by and kept the coats they took off when they stoned him.’
Acts 22:10-20
Look at all that happened in response to what Jesus, the Messiah, told Paul.
“Get up
Go into Damascus
the city
and there
you will be told everything you are to do.”
There is an account, a story, behind what happened next. Take the time to get clear in your mind “the whole story”.
The goals of most Christians are often a nice marriage, children who don’t swear and practise good church attendance. Taking the words of Christ seriously is rarely considered. Most want a balanced life we can control, that is safe and that doesn’t involve suffering!
Rick Godwin with Ian’s modifications
The only limit to your impact is your imagination and commitment.
Tony Robbins
There’s no such thing as cheap grace; grace is free. It costs us nothing. It cost Jesus everything.
Anon
We need the God-given-ability to behold God’s glory in Scripture and know its source.
Ian Vail
The challenge in “if you are lukewarm I will spit you out of my mouth” is that God wants white-hot commitment from us.
Ian Vail