41-Paul’s Defense (Acts 22:1-29)

Introduction

In our study last week we left Paul as he was being brutally beaten by a mob in Jerusalem who had been falsely informed by the Hellenistic Jews from Ephesus that Paul had rejected the Mosaic Law and had defiled the Temple by bringing in Gentile visitors.

The OT law and the Temple were symbols, a foreshadowing of God’s ultimate work through Christ.  They were “signposts” designed to guide God’s people to the promised Messiah and Savior of the world:

1. The Law: To serve as a tutor to lead us to Christ - Gal 3:24
2. The Temple: To serve as a foreshadowing of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit

But based of these two unsubstantiated charges, Paul had been brutally attacked and beaten and was delivered from death only by the intervention of a Roman detachment quartered within Antonia’s Fortress adjacent to the Temple Mount.