“Brothers and fathers, hear the defense that I now make before you.” And when they heard that he was addressing them in the Hebrew language, they became even more quiet. And he said, “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated at the feet of Gamaliel, according to the strict manner of the law of our fathers, being zealous for God, as all of you are this day.”
– Acts 22:1–3
And I could keep reading, at this point, but this is Paul standing up in front of a crowd of people who is not happy with him, and he begins to tell his story about how he met Jesus, or better put, Jesus pursued him.
Acts 22:1–3 Narrates How Paul Made the Most of His Opportunity to Speak Before the Jews
And even as he starts, it’s so interesting how Luke emphasizes He was addressing them in the Hebrew language, language they could understand, and so they got really quiet, and then he begins to identify himself with them.
“I’m a Jew brought up in this city, educated here, according to the strict manner of the law of our fathers, being zealous for God, as all of you are this day.” And the reason I point these things out is because you and I have opportunities every day to tell our story, and we don’t have to stand up in front of a crowd of people who is angry at us, but we do have opportunities, in our lives and our relationships, over lunch, over coffee, interactions with people.
I think about one brother who told me not long ago, he was giving a corporate presentation and he decided he was going to go for it, and he incorporated his testimony to how he met Jesus into this corporate presentation that he was doing. And I just want to encourage each of us today to think about opportunities we have to tell our story, the unique story of how Jesus pursued us. And as we do, to look for opportunities to identify with the people we’re talking with. We will have all kinds of different conversations with all kinds of different people, but we have a lot of things in common with all the people who are around us, all longing for satisfaction, a longing for joy, for purpose, for meaning.
Acts 22:1–3 Encourages Us to Seek Opportunities to Share Our Story & God’s Story
Start there with your story and your longing for these things, just like they long for these things, and then share about how Jesus has met your longing for these things in a way that nothing else in this world can meet. Not just your longing, but all of our longing for all of those things. So just think about opportunities you have to share your story, in ways that obviously don’t just stop with your story, in a subjective, “This is what works for me,” way, but in ways that point to the great story, who God is and how God loves us, the objective truth of gospel, which Paul gets to in Acts 22.
So God, we pray that you’d help us to faithfully share our stories, the stories of how you pursued us. God, we praise you that we have a story, we praise you, that just like Paul, you met us. You opened our eyes, you’ve saved us from our sins. You’ve given us new life, you’ve brought us into your family. We praise you for the story we have to tell.
So God, help us not to be shy in telling it, help us to be bold in telling it, and to tell it often to all kinds of people around us. And help us, God, as we share to identify with those who are around us in ways that point them to you. God, ultimately, help us to share the story of who you are and how you love not just us, but the people we’re talking with, and you love all the nations of the world, and you’ve made a way for their salvation.
Praying for the Halebi Romani People
Oh God, we praise you for the story of salvation, and we pray that it would spread through us today, it would spread through us to the ends of the earth. We pray for the Halebi Romani people of Egypt, a million of them, no known followers of Jesus in this Muslim people group. God, we pray that you would change that story, that you would send laborers with the story of the gospel to them, and we pray that the Halebi Romani people would believe in the objective truth of your love, your grace, your mercy in Jesus, that their stories would be changed, and the history of the Halebi Romani people of Egypt would be totally transformed by the greatest story in the world.
God, thank you for this picture in Acts 22:1–3. Help us to faithfully share our story of your grace in and through our lives. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
