Review of Acts 22

by Pastor Ayo Sparks

THE WORKINGS OF ZEAL:

Acts 22:3 KJVA I am verily a man which am a Jew, born in Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, yet brought up in this city at the feet of Gama´li-el, and taught according to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers, AND WAS ZEALOUS TOWARD GOD, as ye all are this day.

I could see as though watching a movie as Luke narrated this story beginning from chapter 21 when Paul spoke Greek to the Chief Captain. The countenance on the Captains face as he heard Paul speak Greek, He asked so you are not that Egyptian who caused “kasala” sometimes ago? Paul said I am not the one, I am a citizen of an important city…

As the Captain gave him permission, I could watch as Paul motioned the stairs slowly because the chains on his feet were heavy, he tried to adjust his skirt in order not to trip and finally he stood firm then he gestured with hands, “CALM DOWN”

Instantly, there was silence but the only sound you could hear was the clanging chains on his hands as he spoke, yet the silence grew as he spoke in waffi Hebrew (Aramaic, the language of the streets).

So, in Paul’s defence he starts out with his “zeal toward God”

One of the offspring of any belief system is ZEAL. You become zealous toward/about the object of your worship. So having zeal is not a bad thing but what defines your zeal is the workings thereof.

When I first got born again, after I have been born again like 50 times before that time😄, myself and a group of others were so zealous that we stopped wearing jeans, we stopped talking to females let alone shake them, we stopped have nice haircuts too… We were hated for our beliefs, but we said we were persecuted for sake of Christ…

Our zeal was purely on ignorance about the person of God. Same with Saul of Tarsus, his zeal was propelled by his ignorance of the person of God.

See verse 4

…and I PERSECUTED THIS WAY unto the death, binding and delivering into prisons both men and women. Many Christians today are in that same boat, they are fighting against the person they think they are fighting for.

Tell them, your sins have being forgiven- Past, Present and Future, they will kill you by fire…

Tell them, Once you are saved, you are always saved! They will pure holy water on you like an evil spirit…

The truth is this, inside them, they are good people, they love God and the system of God, they seek to uphold the tenents of God…

Their problem is;

THEY HAVE NOT MET JESUS!

See what Paul said, “…I WAS ZEALOUS toward God”

Does it mean that he is no longer zealous? No! A thousand times No! If he wasn’t zealous, would he be in chains?

So, what happened was that there was a change in the workings of his zeal because he met with Jesus.

There are many of us who believe the gospel of Grace yet we are ignorant about the Jesus’ way… We are zealous toward God, you see everywhere on social media people attacking themselves with words… It ought not to be.

Paul now understood that it was not about his own zeal but it was God working in him both to will and do of His good pleasure (Phil. 2:13)

He realized having met Jesus that he couldn’t make anything happen by his own labour but by the labour of Grace (1Cor. 15:10). He now realized having met Jesus that he was wrong by having zeal toward God rather he should have zeal IN God because it is the zeal if God that would perform the establishing that he sought (Isaiah 9:7)

In essence, for those of us who gave come to know and believe the Gospel of Grace, we shouldn’t be caught exercising zeal toward God, whether we seek to teach men for the purpose of their believing, let’s always remind ourselves one thing…BE GRACIOUS WITH GRACE

THE GOSPEL OF NO DRAMA:

Acts 22:6-7 KJVA And it came to pass, that, as I made my journey, and was come nigh unto Damascus about noon, suddenly there shone from heaven a great light round about me. And I fell onto the ground, and heard a voice saying unto me, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?

I don’t know if you have heard sentence amongst Christians, “if you don’t have a salvation experience, then your salvation can be questioned”

Like many of us, my conversion story is not as interesting and intriguing like Saul’s. Like I said earlier, I have “given” my life many times…

Some others will say “I gave my life and took it back…”

I tell new converts in church during our Maturing Class (discipleship) that from the very first day you acknowledged your sinfulness and made a confession of the Lordship of Christ believing in his death and resurrection, you were already imparted with Righteousness leading to Eternal Life.

You didn’t take your life back from Him, how could you?

You didn’t backslide, how could you?

What happened is that you were not taught (discipled)

If you doubt me, let me ask a question…

What was Peter’s conversion story?

What was John the Beloved’s conversion story?

No spectacular drama attached to their conversion.

Many a Christian still battle with the challenge of understanding what it means to be born again. Too much importance is put on the how of conversion rather than the deposits of conversion.

When you got born again, you were deposited with the fullness of God, the Godhead took residence in you.

Paul’s conversion however was dramatic not to prove a point and not to form a theology after it but as a “monument” in order to effectively reach those of whom God has purposed him to.

Many times, I have better reached people effectively for Christ and caused them to be stable because of the simplicity at which I teach the gospel… I call it the Gospel of No Dramas😄 don’t try to force anything to happen, Simply Believe!