Acts 22:17-21 17And when I had returned to Jerusalem and was praying in the temple, I fell into a trance 18and saw him saying to me, ‘Hurry and get out of Jerusalem quickly, because they will not accept your testimony about me.’ 19And I said, ‘Lord, they themselves know that in one synagogue after another I was imprisoning and beating those who believed in you, 20and when the blood of Stephen your witness was being shed, I myself was standing by and approving and watching over the cloaks of those who killed him.’ 21And he said to me, ‘Go, for I will send you far away to the Gentiles.’ ”
Paul then recounted a vision he had upon returning to Jerusalem in 9:26–30. This is new information not described in chapter 9. It further adds legitimacy to Paul’s message and ministry. He went to the temple to pray, like the prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 6:1-13. The temple was a place of encounter with God. Paul was a faithful Jew, following the Jewish custom of prayer in the temple. He was doing what any good Jew would do, when all of a sudden, God intervened in his life. The him of verse 18 would refer back to the Righteous One of verse 14. Paul’s connection of Jesus to a vision in the temple was a significant claim and would have infuriated the listening Jews even more.
Paul’s experience in the temple was visible and audible: he saw Jesus saying. The voice spoke two significant statements. The first was a warning about the trouble that awaited Paul if he stayed in Jerusalem. That same trouble was being repeated in the episode in this chapter. Within this warning was an implied warning to the listening, but growing more agitated, mob. The Jews of Jerusalem would not accept Paul’s testimony about Jesus. By not accepting Paul, they were also rejecting their Messiah. They would do to Paul and his message what they also did to Jesus and his message. By rejecting Paul, they were rejecting Jesus, because Paul was the one bringing the message from Jesus.
Paul’s response in the dialogue of the vision in verses 19-20 was a form of confession. He had done much harm to the followers of Jesus. This statement showed his sincerity and zeal as a Jew, much like those listening to him at that moment. The problem was that this zeal was misdirected. Jesus took Paul’s zeal for God and redirected it to go to the nations (ethnē, typically translated as Gentiles). Paul had committed great atrocities, including watching Stephen be killed. He was a radical Jew committed to the law and traditions, fighting fervently against anyone who opposed his interpretation. He had been like the crowd, but he had experienced forgiveness in Jesus’ name.
The second significant statement from the voice in the temple in verse 21 functions as a form of commissioning. Just like Isaiah was sent to Israel with a message, so also Paul was sent to the whole world as God’s messenger. All of Paul’s ministry in faraway places was in obedience to God’s Messiah and was spoken in that very temple. Paul was not finished with his testimony, but he had spoken all the essential information about Jesus as the Messiah, the call to repent and believe, and the warning about rejecting Paul. The crowd in the temple was faced with the same decision as the people in Isaiah’s day and the Jews who heard Jesus. That same decision confronts all who hear of Jesus today.