Four Keys to Sharing Your Faith Effectively (Acts 21-22)

A Few Thoughts to Consider

How should you share your personal testimony with others?

In Acts 22, the Apostle Paul is in Jerusalem, where he faces a hostile crowd accusing him of teaching against Jewish laws and defiling the temple by associating with Gentiles. As tensions rise, Roman soldiers arrest Paul to prevent a riot. Standing on the steps of the barracks, Paul asks for permission to address the crowd. Speaking in their native language, he shares his personal testimony in a way that serves as a template for Christians of any generation.

First, he builds a point of connection. In verse 3, he says, “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia but brought up in this city, educated at the feet of Gamaliel according to the strictness of our ancestral law. I was zealous for God, just as all of you are today.” This helped them see he was not randomly speaking from ignorance.

F.F. Bruce notes, “His defense takes an autobiographical form, as he tells his hearers of his heritage and upbringing as a strictly orthodox Jew, of his call and commission by the risen Jesus on the Damascus road, and of his being sent to evangelize the Gentile world.”^[1]

Second, Paul sympathizes with his audience by showing how he, too, once sought to destroy believers. In verses 4-5, he states, ⁴ “I persecuted this Way to the death, arresting and putting both men and women in jail, ⁵ as both the high priest and the whole council of elders can testify about me.”

Third, Paul talks about what Jesus has done for him. He shares how Jesus spoke to him on the road to Damascus and how his life was forever changed.

Fourth, he confronts the key issue preventing his audience from accepting Jesus as their personal Savior. In verse 21, he says Jesus told him, “Go, because I will send you far away to the Gentiles.”

As Richard Longenecker writes, “In effect, Paul was saying that Gentiles can be approached directly with God’s message of salvation without first being related to the nation and its institutions, which was tantamount to placing Jews and Gentiles on an equal footing before God. For Judaism, that was the height of apostasy indeed!”^[2] As a result, verse 22 says, “They listened to him up to this point. Then they raised their voices, shouting, ‘Wipe this man off the face of the earth! He should not be allowed to live!’”