Acts 22: Paul’s Defense, Testimony, and Mission

In this episode of The Morning Charge, Joshua walks through Acts 22 and unpacks Paul’s defense before the crowd in Jerusalem.

Paul responds to accusation and opposition by sharing his testimony, recounting his encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus, and explaining the mission God gave him. This chapter highlights the importance of meeting people where they are, speaking in a way they can understand, and remaining faithful even when facing resistance.

This episode also explores Paul’s Roman citizenship, why it mattered in that moment, and how God used both spiritual calling and practical circumstances to preserve Paul for the work still ahead.

For a more interactive experience, watch "The Morning Charge" LIVE every Monday–Friday at 7:00 AM CST on TikTok.

Find more teachings, podcasts, resources, and ministry updates at fireandwaterministries.org.

If you’d like to become a Monthly Partner with Fire & Water Ministries or sow into the mission, click HERE!

- Real Talk. Real Jesus. Real Life. -

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to the Morning Charge. This is your moment to slow down, breathe, and get your spirit aligned before stepping into the day ahead. Life moves fast, responsibilities pile up, voices compete for your attention. But before the noise of the world takes over, this is where we come back to what actually matters. This is a place for honest conversations about faith, life, purpose, and everyday battles we all face. No pretending, no religious performance, just the truth. Because following Jesus was never meant to be complicated, it was meant to be real. So whether you're driving to work, you're getting the kids ready, or simply taking a quiet moment for yourself, you're in the right place. This is real talk, real Jesus, real life. This is the morning charge. All right, Acts 22, verse 1. Ladies and gentlemen, fellow believers and elders, please listen to me as I offer my defense. All right, so he is about to make his defense statement right here. Now, when everyone realized he was speaking to them in their Judean Aramaic language, the crowd became all the more attentive. So what? Okay, so he was speaking Hebrew at this point. So in 21, it was very important for us to note that he was speaking Greek to the commander. And now he is speaking Hebrew to the crowd. Alright, the Hebrew language had been replaced with Aramaic during the Babylonian captivity. Okay, it had been replaced. Alright, for more than a thousand years, the Aramaic language remained the Greek or the language of the Jewish people, sorry. Paul did not address the Jewish people in Greek, though. He addressed the Jewish people in Hebrew. He addressed them, he's addressing them in their own language at this point. Paul is a very big, big, big person on you meet people where they are. If this is the language they speak, this is how we're going to communicate with them. All right. If this is their customs, we're going to jump in with their customs because we're going to meet them where they are. He knew the gospel of Jesus Christ was so important. He knew the message of Jesus was so important that he would meet people where they were in the natural so that they would begin to hear the message of Jesus. It's like, yeah, you've got the first, you've got the Torah down. You got the first few books down, but but we have something bigger and something better. All right, so he began to explain this. So now he's speaking in their own language, and the word tells us the crowd becomes even more attentive at this point. They're listening. Okay. All right, verse three. Then Paul said, I am a Jewish man who was born in Tarsus, a city of Turkey. However, I grew up in this city and was properly trained in the Mosaic law and tutored by Rabbi Gamalil according to our ancestral customs. So he's given a backstory of who he is and where he's from. I've been extremely passionate in my desire to please God, just as all of you are today. He's like, well, let's let's get one thing straight here. We are all passionate about the Lord. I've hunted down and I've unalived the followers of the way. Unalived is certain social media language for. I've hunted down and unalived the followers of this way. He was a bad man. Paul, and he's not denying that, not one bit. He's not saying I was an angel, I was a saint from the start. No. He said, I've seized them and I've thrown them into prison, both men and women. All of this can be verified by the high priest and the supreme counsel of elders. For they even wrote letters to our fellow Jews of Damascus, authorizing me to arrest them and bring them back to Jerusalem as prisoners to be punished. That's who he was. Excuse me, y'all. As I was on the road approaching Damascus about noon, because remember, if you remember the story about, you know, early on here, the road to Damascus was actually supposed to go one way and get more, and get more of these followers of Christ thrown into prison and unalive. They were going to make a kind of a law out of this. But there was a mighty encounter with the Lord along the way. So he goes on to tell us. He was on his road. He was on the road approaching Damascus after about noon. All right, and a brilliant heavenly light suddenly appeared, flashing all around me. As I fell to the ground, I heard a voice say, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? I answered, Who are you, Lord? Isn't that amazing? I answered, Who are you, Lord? Like it's like a well, you know who this is. But he said to me, I am Jesus the victorious. I am the one you are persecuting. Jesus himself shows up there on the scene and says, Oh, I am Jesus, the victorious, and I'm the one that you are persecuting. Now, now, is this could also translate out, if you look at the different translations out, it to Jesus the Nazarene. Alright, the word Nazarene actually means the branch, if you've ever wondered what Nazarene means. Nazarene means the branch or Sion. The Aramaic word implies the title of an heir of a powerful family or one who is victorious, okay? Jesus the victorious one. Believers are now grafted in branches. Come on, somebody. Believers are now grafted in branches of his family tree, victorious ones in Christ. My gosh. When you begin to really break down these words that are being said here, and you begin to look at what they mean, it wasn't just I am Jesus the victorious. That means Jesus, the heir of a powerful heavenly family, and one that is victorious over all. And us as believers, we are grafted in as branches into the main vine, which is Jesus, the one we should stay connected to. Always. Wayne, good morning to you. Good to see you this morning. No matter where you're joining from or doing this morning, say hello to us this morning. Let us know you're here with us. Amen. So those who were with me saw this brilliant light. This is verse 9. But they didn't hear the voice of the one who spoke to me. This is important. Those that were here saw what was going on in the physical, but they did not hear the voice that was speaking to me. There's a lot of people that'll see things going on in your life, but they don't hear the same voice that you hear of the Holy Spirit that's leading you and guiding you. There's gonna be a lot of people who are around you in your circle who are not gonna understand what you're doing or what it is the Lord has you doing. There's gonna be a lot of people that don't understand what's going on with you, and that's okay. They see certain things, but they don't know the voice that has been speaking to you. Why do you think I say that it's so important to get into the secret place? You got to get into the secret place because that's where the strategies are coming. All right, that's where the Holy Spirit's speaking to you. That's where healing comes. There's a lot of things that come from that place. Come on. There's a lot of things that come from that place, but you have to get yourself in the secret place where you're hearing the voice. You got to hear the voice of the Lord. But there's gonna be a lot of people around you, just like Paul. They saw the bright light, but they did not hear the voice. So I asked, Lord, what am I to do? And the Lord said to me, Get up and go into Damascus, and there you will be told about all that you are destined to do. Lord's like, I got a lot of things to show you. I I got some things that you need to see. Get up and go into Damascus, and there you'll be told about all that you are destined to do. Because of the dazzling glory of the light, I couldn't see. Verse 13. I was left blind. So they had to lead me by the hand the rest of the way into Damascus. So he's like, I needed some help of some folks to lead me into Damascus. A Jewish man living there named Ananias came to see me. He was a godly man who lived according to the law of Moses and was highly esteemed by the Jewish community. He stood beside me and said, Saul, my brother, Saul, open your eyes and see again.

SPEAKER_00 9:30

Excuse me, y'all.

SPEAKER_01 9:33

At that very instant I opened my eyes and I could see. Then he said to me, The God of our ancestors had destined you to know his plan and for you to see the holy one and to hear his voice. Or this could also be to see the righteous one, the just one. Oh, yeah. Yeah. If you're having any type of freezing issues, yeah, swipe out and swipe back in. Sometimes that fixes it. Hopefully that'll fix it for you this morning. For you will be his witness to every race of now. This is it. Paul's getting divine instructions for his life. But here's the deal. Even in the I want somebody to pick up on this. Let's stop for just a second. Let's go through this. Paul, in his in his brokenness, in his distorted view of things, trying to come against these apostles and these disciples, I think they should all be stoned, just like Stephen. He was a part, Saul, let's go back, Paul, when he was named Saul, was a bad man. He was a very evil man. But even in the midst of his brokenness and his distorted views, he still had an encounter with the Lord on his way to do bad things. He still had an encounter. God knew who he was, he knew who he was created for, and he was one that listened. He knew how to get in touch with, he knew how to how to how to get Paul to pay attention and to listen. And it was to strike him to where he couldn't see with these anymore. Paul was doing a whole lot of running around looking with these. He needed somebody that would that that would be able to hear and see from in here. So there was that lightning or that big bright flash that caused him to go blind. And then the Lord spoke to him. The Lord couldn't have spoken to him any other way. He had to get rid of this first, and then the Lord thundered to him. Saul, why are you persecuting me? I am Jesus the victorious. Saul knew, and we already saw his background. Did you not see how he grew up? He was a Jewish man. He grew up in the city, was trained in the Mosaic law, tutored by a rabbi.

SPEAKER_00 12:06

All right, according to our ancestral customs.

SPEAKER_01 12:13

I've been extremely passionate in all my desire to please God, just as all of you are today. But I've hunted down and killed the followers of this way. So see, he's going on to say, hey, we see how he was raised, and then we see where he turned, but then we see how God got a hold of him again. Some of you out here are even praying for prodigals in your life where you know they were raised in the way of Christ. But yet something's happened along the way and they've turned. Don't give up your prayers. Somebody was praying for Paul. The Lord got a hold of him. Hello? God knows how to speak to you. He knows how to speak to the prodigals in your life. He knows how to get your attention. But this was a huge encounter with the Lord. This takes up most of chapter 22 in Acts today. If you're just joining us, good morning and welcome in. We're in Acts chapter 22. We're taking that, we're tearing this thing apart. We're going through it and tearing it apart. Amen. Amen. All right, Georgia. Good morning to you. Welcome in. Yes, Jonathan. Good morning. Good morning. Wherever Jonathan is this morning. Amen. Well, good morning. Well, if you are new, let us know so we can say hello to you and uh good morning to you. And uh we'll uh we'll we'll try to we'll try to give you some love up there. If y'all see some see some folks up there this morning, y'all give them some love, okay? All right, anyway, Paul telling about his road to Damascus story. All right, now we're getting now we're to the part where where he meets Ananias, all right? A Jewish man living there in Ananias came to see me because the Lord had also spoken to Ananias and said, Go to this place, to this city, and I'll show you which house, and there's a guy in there that I need you to talk to. Those are some really specific instructions from the Lord. And the Lord still speaks that way, by the way. I need you to go to this place. When you get to this place, I'll give you further instruction. He can't give us all the instructions at one time. He can't give us the whole download at one time. Okay. If he did that, we'd get it all messed up in our head, and boy, we'd just be all over the place. Well, I see where God's taking me, so I'm gonna do this. Amen. Amen. Georgia said, Love this breakdown of the word. Amen. That's that's what we do. I get to reading it and we'll break it down. And I got some notes here, and I got some notes here and here, and amen. All right. So, verse 12, once again, a Jewish man living there named Ananias came to see me. This is Paul talking. He was a godly man who lived according to the law of Moses and was highly esteemed by the Jewish community. The reason the Lord sends specific people on specific assignments to reach a specific people group, that is. He knows this is how Paul was. This is how he also became. All right, Ananias. There had to be one sent that lived according to the law of Moses and highly esteemed by the Jewish community. He stood beside me and he said, Saul, my brother Saul, open your eyes and see again. And at that moment, that's when he could see again. Then he said to me, The God of our ancestors has destined you to know his plan and for you to see the holy one and to hear his voice. In the Aramaic, when he says, when he says, the God of our ancestors has destined you, the Aramaic says, has raised you up. That means from the very beginning, the Lord of all of creation has raised you up to know his plan. For this moment, for this time. Everyone who's who's watching and listening this morning, the God of all of creation has raised you up to know his plan and to carry it out right now. Right now. For you will be his witness to every race of people. Did you hear that? So this is why Paul is, he said, I gotta be all things to all people. This was a part of his destiny. He knew how he needed to reach other people. For you will be his witness to every race of people, and will share with them everything that you've seen and you've heard. So now, what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized, and wash away your sins as you call upon his name. Wash away your sins as you call upon the name of Jesus. In verse 17, Paul says, I would then return to Jerusalem, and while I was praying in the temple, I entered into another realm, he says, or I fell into a trance, is the way that they described it then. The Greek word for trance, let's go back for a minute. Anyone who's been with me for a while knows that I like to look at this stuff. The Greek word for trance, extasis, one of the few Greek words I can actually say, from which we get the word ecstasy, you know, that word. Can't really say that on here because it's also related to a drug. But it literally means to be taken to another place, in another state, in another realm, is what he was saying. So so when he was saying, when I went into the temple, I was praying, and I went to another place, the Lord took me to a totally different level. And I saw him. He said, He says, I saw him. And he said to me, Hurry and depart from Jerusalem quickly, for the people here will not receive the truth that you share about me. They're not going to receive you. But, Lord, I argued, this is verse 19, they all know that I'm the one who went into our Jewish meetings to find those who believe in you and had them beaten and imprisoned. That's beaten with a whip, too, by the way. It was not just like a we're gonna No, this was this was intense beatings. When the blood of your witness, okay, or martyr, Stephen, now he's bringing Stephen back into the picture, was shed, I stood nearby in full approval of what was happening. I even guarded the cloaks of those who stoned him to that unalive state. Then he said to me, Go at once, for I am sending you to preach to the non-Jewish nations. I am sending you to preach to the faraway nations, is what the Aramaic says. Go at once. I'm sending you out. The crowd listened attentively to Paul up to this point, but when they heard this, uh-oh, all at once they erupted with loud shouts, saying, Get rid of this man. Unalive this man, he does not deserve to live. Everything was good, everything was great. We're talking about the Jewish law, we're holding some things up, everything's good. Now he's going into the temple. He entered into another realm, he said, with the Lord. And then the God of the Jews, remember, he went during the feast now. He picked the time of the feast when the most, when the most most of the Jews were here in Jerusalem celebrating the feast. So it was a very crowded place. He had quite the crowd going on here. And he said that so so God told him to go at once, and I'm sending you to preach to the non-Jewish nations.

SPEAKER_00 20:12

Not Yahweh. He would not say that. Now they're angry.

SPEAKER_01 20:20

They're very angry. All right, so let's go to verse 23. While the crowd was screaming and yelling, removing their outer garments and throwing handfuls of dust in the air in protest, the commander had Paul brought back into the compound. He ordered that he would be whipped with a lash and interrogated to find out what he said that so infuriated the crowd. When the soldiers stretched Paul out with ropes, he he said to the captain, who was standing nearby, is it legal for you to torture a Roman citizen like this without a proper trial? Uh-oh. When the officer heard this, he immediately went to the commander and reported it, saying, This man's a Roman citizen. What should we do now? The commander came to Paul and asked him, Tell me the truth. Are you a Roman citizen? Yes, I am, he replied. The commander said, I had to purchase my citizenship with a great sum of money. In other words, I don't believe you because that cost a whole lot if you have to do that. Paul replied, Well, I was born as a citizen. He didn't have to pay the price. He was a citizen already. All the soldiers who were about to whip Paul backed away because they were afraid of the consequences for tying up and holding a Roman citizen against his will. Verse 30 says, The next day, the commander ordered that the high priest and the supreme Jewish council, all right, the Sanhedrin, Be convened because they wanted to find out exactly why the Jews were accusing Paul. Why are they accusing him?

SPEAKER_00 22:10

So we had him untie and brought out to stand before them all. And that's where 22 ends.

SPEAKER_01 22:25

I have some more notes to share, don't worry. Tomorrow Paul is going to stand before the Supreme Council. They're going to come up with a plot against him. Paul's still got some life left, don't worry. But boy, he's being grilled right now. He's really going through it. But I want to point some things out to you that we've sort of looked at this before, but I want to make sure you get this because it's very important to look at the culture of the day. If you're going to study the word of God, you have to know why people say the things that they say, why they responded the way that they responded. Because there's a lot of information here that's missed if you don't realize the history, if you don't realize the culture, if you don't realize what was going on, you can read it and go, what? So let's take a look. Let's take a look at this part first before I dive back into a recap. So we see the fact that it was illegal to beat a Roman citizen. This is this is what? And yes, it was illegal to beat a Roman citizen. Under the Roman law, if you look this up, under the Roman law, a Roman citizen had legal protections that most people in the empire did not have. All right, and Paul was born a Roman citizen. He didn't have to pay the price to become a Roman citizen. He was born into this. All right. One of the most important rights was protection from unlawful punishment. Paul technically has not committed a crime. Okay. He really has not really committed a crime crime. All right. Just he's coming against the Jewish with a belief. He's coming against beliefs. All right. And to the Roman Empire, that was, you know, if you got some things to say, then we need to bring this into the court and say it. You guys are out here acting like a bunch of animals, and we can't have this. So if there's something, if this man has done something very improper, okay, something that should require him to stand before the courts, then let's, you know, let's let's bring him into the court. This is not the right way. We've seen this through Acts. But Roman citizens could not be, they couldn't be beaten without a trial. They couldn't be scourged without formal charges. So, like I said, you gotta have you had to like unalive somebody or do something very drastic against their laws. And they couldn't be executed without a legal process. There was a process to this. So the high court already had its system in place. All right, these protections came from several Roman laws, including the Valerian and Porsian laws, which were designated to protect citizens from abuse by magistrates and soldiers. So it was protecting the citizens from being unlawfully abused. Like you couldn't just go out and beat somebody just for the sake of beating them. Okay. The soldiers immediately panicked. Why? Why did they panic? Because beating a Roman citizen without a trial could get the officer in very serious trouble with Rome at this point. Whoa, we got to stop. They're like, hold on a minute. Is this truth that you're telling us? Yeah, it is. I mean, if you really look at history and you go back into this, sometimes it could have even cost the officer his career or even his own life if you treated a Roman citizen improperly outside of the system that they had in place. This is the thing that helped Paul drastically here.

SPEAKER_00 26:19

They went, whoa, we got to be careful how we do this.

SPEAKER_01 26:24

If you notice, this issue comes up several times. So let's recount those times. Acts 16 over in Philippi, we saw this. All right, JT, have a good day, buddy. Thanks for jumping in with us, man. Acts 16, we see it happen in Philippi. Acts 22 here in Jerusalem, and we're going to see this again in Acts 25 over in Caesarea. We're going to see this happen a few times, okay? On the book of Yes, absolutely, Apostle Kelly. Good morning, man. Look, you've even got your TikTok language down. I'm very proud of you. Good morning, my brother. Good to see you, man. All right, so we see this happen several times. Oh, wait, wait, wait a minute. Wait, you're a Roman citizen? Hold on a minute. We got to be careful how we treat you then. This was a protection for Paul. This has been a big protector. See, God had a lot for Paul to do. Even when he gets thrown in prison, there's still a lot for Paul to do. All right. But this keeps coming up because of Paul's Roman citizenship. This gave him that legal leverage that he needed. Glory to God. God will use anything to protect us and to put us. Does it mean we're not going to go through tests and trials and we're not going to feel like we were abused from time to time? Okay. But praise God for this. He used that citizenship to move Paul through the Roman legal system. Paul was a big candidate for the Lord. Big, big candidate for the Lord to help spread the gospel. Without these protections, Paul could have been executed at a much earlier time, and we would have missed out on all kinds of things. All right, because Paul has written a ton of letters. He's given us a lot of knowledge about spreading the gospel of Jesus, what true churches should look like, how we should act, how we should you know. I mean, there's a lot of teachings of Paul that are so very important to the body of Christ. All right. So thank God for these laws to help preserve him long enough to teach the gospel throughout Rome. Praise God. Roman citizens also were very valuable. I'm just going through my notes here, trying to make sure I don't double talk and give y'all information I've already given you. Because I'm I look at the cultures, I look at all these different things, y'all. I have to understand if you really want to understand the full significance of it, dig deep. Don't just read the scripture and say, I read scripture today. Yeah, yeah, that was great. But Roman citizenship was very valuable. Most people in the empire, I want you to understand, we're not citizens. All right, citizenship meant what? Legal protection, all right, a right to trial, the ability to appeal to Caesar. It gave them a higher social status. It gave them an economic advantage, even throughout their businesses and different things. All right, there were several ways to become a Roman citizen. Birth into a Roman citizen family, glory to God. That was Paul. You could also become a Roman citizen by your military service, serving in the military, the purchase of citizenship, as we saw from the commander, and special government reward that could reward somebody. You're a good citizen, you're now an official citizen. All right. The Roman commander in Acts 22 says he purchased it at a great cost, he said. Paul responded, Well, I was born. That means Paul's family already had the citizenship status, all right, which was extremely rare for the Jewish community outside of Italy. This was a very, very rare thing.

SPEAKER_00 30:16

Very rare.

SPEAKER_01 30:20

And Paul, if you look at Paul, his identity was extremely complex to start with. If we really study him. He was what? He was Jewish by religion and ethnicity. He was he was Roman by his citizenship. And he was he was a Greek.

SPEAKER_00 30:40

He learned how to speak Greek by way of the culture.

SPEAKER_01 30:47

Acts 22 tells us he was born in Tarsus again. We've heard this before, but he was born in Tarsus. Tarsus was a major Roman city in the modern day of Turkey, you know, where Turkey is.

SPEAKER_00 31:00

He was highly educated, very politically important to them.

SPEAKER_01 31:09

Paul grew up in this multicultural environment. He he was a very multifaceted guy, and you didn't see this very much. He was able to go into the what the Jewish synagogues. He could go into the Jewish synagogues. He could he could approach Greek leaders, all right, those in the intellectual world, and he could talk to those leaders that way. I mean, then in that culture, those were three huge areas. He really was all things to all people. If we really break this down and think about it. But what he was teaching us through that was that when you walk in to the Jewish synagogues, what he was teaching them, when you walk in here, you're a respecter of their house. He knew the Torah. That's how he was raised. He was ingrained in him. He could speak to them and say, But I also have the true message of Jesus, this Messiah that's been prophesied to come, he came. That's just who he was. And he was bold enough to go in and do it. But this is the dude Paul we're talking about. He wasn't just powerful. The Lord has already set him up to be able to spread the gospel and be all things to all people. But it's a big message for us to be able to meet people where they are.

SPEAKER_00 32:34

We got to be willing to meet people where they are. Amen. Thank you, Jesus.

SPEAKER_01 32:47

So today we see him recounting his story. He was arrested in the temple riot, addresses the people now, spoke to them in Hebrew, so of course the crowd became very quiet. They showed him respect. That was another mode of sp- Oh, he's speaking in our language. Of course they're going to be quiet. He couldn't speak to them in Greek. They would not have taken him seriously. So they showed him respect and they listen. And instead of are instead of arguing the point of Christ right off the bat, he could have been very defensive and be like, you guys aren't getting the message. No, he shares his testimony first. Some of you feel like you've been put on trial in your life. You got a lot of things coming against you, a lot of people coming against you. Well, maybe instead of arguing your theology first, you should share your testimony and what Jesus has done for you. Show how the Holy Spirit has moved in your life. All of us have a testimony of some kind, but we gotta learn how to be able to speak that testimony forth. We gotta know whose we are and who we are, and begin to speak our testimony out and then say, Here is Jesus. Jesus met me in the midst of my situation. Let me tell you about this man that saved me. Let me tell you about this man who took this life and cleaned it up and turned it around. People are more apt to listen because when you begin, and two, here's the thing: he spoke to them in Hebrew, not in Greek. Well, how can we look at that? I don't know. I I'm good with English. Actually, I'm I'm sort of good with English. I'm still learning how to English. But when you're speaking to somebody, you speak on their level. What am I saying? I don't mean you have to know another language. No, no, no. You're able to reach certain people with your testimony because you have been through what they've been through. Now you're talking their language. You're talking their language and you're you're piercing this. And it causes them to be quiet when you start to speak their language, so to speak.

SPEAKER_00 35:14

Amen. Come on. Paul taught us a lot through this.

SPEAKER_01 35:17

We just have to glean from it. But he's going through the whole story. He's going through who Gameleel was and and and which was one of the most respected Pharisee teachers in Israel, by the way. But he's but he's explaining who we've been through all this. Anyone who's been over here, if you're over here in the book of Faces, you haven't been with us live like you have on TT, but we're going through the whole book of Acts. We're in Acts chapter 22 today. Man, we've seen some stuff. If you've missed any of these, these are in podcast form. All you got to do is just anywhere you get podcasts, look for the morning charge. That's it. Look for the morning charge, and you'll see the little circle with the lightning bolt emblem with the morning charge. You can go back and look at all the chapters we've done so far. You can pull them up. Well, at least through, I think, 12. We're still trying to get those up. Glory to God. They are all here and they all will be up at some point. But he gets to the point where he talks about the Gentile mission, and that's where things kind of went south for Paul. The crowd listened up to this point. As soon as he mentions the Gentile crowd, they explode in anger. What? Our God Yahweh said, go speak to the non-Jewish people. See, many Jews believe that Gentiles could come to God only by becoming Jewish. So you're telling me you're going to them and you're going to meet them where they are. This man named Jesus is going to save them. And they don't have to become Jewish? The idea that Gentiles could come directly to Christ was extremely offensive to the Jews. This was like one of the highest levels of, like they can't even enter our temples. You got the outer court, inner court, holy place. Hello. And Paul, you've already been one. That's the whole reason we're we're out here and we're fighting today. You're the man that's allowing people into the inner courts, trying to get into the holy place, these unclean Gentile people. That's why we're here. So once again, they're very, they're very angry again now. And they begin to shout. Away with such a fellow from this earth. We don't need this man. He's defiling the whole religion. Get him out of here. Lots of rage, a lot of protesting going on at this point. But like I said, and we studied earlier, his Roman citizenship saved the day.

SPEAKER_00 37:56

The commander, though, still wanting to understand the charges here.

SPEAKER_01 38:02

So he brings Paul before the Jewish council at this point. Let's go before the Jewish council, and that's what we're going to really see tomorrow. The Roman system is protecting Paul while Jewish leadership is trying to condemn him and do away with him. I mean, for once, thank you, government.

SPEAKER_00 38:22

We appreciate you very much. Let's be like Paul.

SPEAKER_01 38:31

We got to start being a bridge between. See, he was a bridge between Jewish traditions, Greek culture, and the Roman law. He was a bridge. He had a foot in all of that. We too have got to have a foot in everything. We've got to meet people where they are. They're never going to know about Jesus if we don't meet them where they are. Don't just be a Christian that's going to don't be a Christian that just goes to work every day. Be one that's effective. You want to look different, sound different, be different. When you begin to display the fruit of who you are in the places that God has placed you, and some of you may work in government. You may work in the court realms, you know, among judges and counsel and people all day long. You might be ones that that go to your workplace. Wherever God has seated you, you're not just a Christian going into those places. You should look different, sound different, walk different, like I said. And then when your fruit begins to hang off of your tree, people will come up and be like, There's something different about you. What is it? What is so different about you? I can't quite put my finger on it, but there's something really different about you. And when people begin to say things like that, it opens up the door like, Well, do you really want to know? I'll tell you. And then you go through your story. And then as you're going through your story, then you begin to open up the door to talk about a man named Jesus. Yeah. And then people know that you're one that they can come to and trust and they can talk to. I see I saw that all through my television career. The places that the Lord would sit me. I've had people, there's something different about you. When situations arise and things happen, you just handle things differently. Like, what is up with you? I've had people say that, what is up with you? I'll tell you what's up with me. It's a man named Jesus. When I met him, I've never been the same. You're uh that should all be all of our story. And then we're able to talk about the gospel. And then there's another one saved, another one that has come into purpose. But the thing that the Lord has on me right now is that so many times we can share our story and we can be there for those people. And then what's after that? There's no discipleship after that. Even Big C church, we have all these different programs and all these different things. Discipleship has always been one that's kind of been put over here in the that's what they did. Paul is showing us the system here, the right system. So many times, like systems and things, we're like, no, the right system. We have got to be able to sit together, break bread together, and go over the word together. That's how we're going to know Jesus better. That's how we're going to get to know Jesus better. Discipling, discipling, discipling. I say this all the time. Every one of us can find one person. If we can all find one person, just one. Find one person and sit down with them. Spend some time with them, maybe once a week, maybe once a month. I don't know what your schedule looks like, but surely to goodness, we can find time to carve out to sit down with one person. Mentor them. Speak life into their life. Go over the word together. But the only caveat here is that over time, you've got to go find one person and do the same with them. And then that person needs to find another person and do the same with them. It's just one. It's just one person. Surely we can find a time to be able to disciple others. Surely we can find some time to be able to go through the word together. Breaking bread together. Whatever that looks like. I'm just saying that's just one model of what that could look like. All right, you may have a Bible study group that you go to every week. That's great. Invite more people into that Bible study group. If that Bible study group begins to outgrow, then have another Bible study group. Whatever you're doing, discipleship has got to come back to the forefront. The vision the Lord gave me for fire and water ministries is that many would be saved, but even more would be discipled. So discipleship is a that is a that is a thing that's on the forefront of my heart always.

SPEAKER_00 42:52

Yeah. Amen. Oh, heavenly Father, I thank you.

SPEAKER_01 43:00

Lord, I thank you for what you've showed me through Acts, what you're showing us through Acts.

SPEAKER_00 43:07

Let us be more like more like you, Jesus.

SPEAKER_01 43:13

May we have the boldness of Paul even upon us to be able to be all things to all people, to be able to meet them where they are. God, show us what that looks like in our everyday circles. In our everyday circles, Lord, what does that look like to be able to be all things to all people, to meet people where they are so that they can hear the gospel of Jesus radiating out of our lives to show them that they also can live a better way? Jesus, continue to show us what it is to adopt your lifestyle. Where we can just begin to walk as you walked, God. Go when the Heavenly Father says go and stay when he says. To stay. Lord, take us back to that time where we're following the cloud by day and the fire by night. Moving with your spirit when the timing is right. You're daring us to move right now. You're daring us to move right now. Thank you, Jesus. That's today's morning charge. Before you move on with your day, take a moment and let what you've heard settle into your heart. Faith isn't just something we talk about, it's something we live out in the ordinary moments of everyday life. Wherever today takes you, remember this. You don't walk into it alone. God is already ahead of you, working in ways you may not even see yet. Stand firm, walk in wisdom, lead with love, and don't forget who you belong to. Until next time, keep your heart anchored, keep your faith strong, and keep living out real talk, real Jesus, real life. We'll see you on the next morning charge.