But Christ Jesus the Lord;
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Text: Acts 28:30-31
Intro: The title today doesn’t come directly out of our text here in Acts but out of another. A text which I believe sums up the life and ministry of the Apostle Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles.
For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.
Paul has finally arrived in Rome, where he will remain for the next two years as a prisoner before being beheaded. It is during his time in Rome that God uses Him to write the epistles to the Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon.
Read: Acts 28:16
When Paul arrived in Rome he was placed in the custody of the captain of the guard. Paul however was a Roman citizen so was given better treatment then if you were not. Paul was placed under the care of a soldier that kept him. I believe as we will see in verse 20 that Paul is very likely bound with a chain to this guard or whichever guard is tasked with keeping him on that day.
1. Paul Summons the Jews: Acts 28:17-19
Although Paul was the Apostle to the Gentile, the Bible is clear that it is unto the Jew first and also to the Greek...
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.
These Jews were Paul’s kinsmen.
I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh:
Paul takes the opportunity to declare to them that he is not against the Jews or the customs of their fathers but that he was delivered by the Jews into the hands of the Romans.
2. Paul Expounds to them Christ using the Scriptures: Acts 28:16-23
Paul’s reasoning to speak with them was not to clear his own name before a group of people that clearly have never heard of him or anything concerning him. Paul had a different purpose. Paul rose amongst his kinsmen to speak concerning the “HOPE OF ISRAEL”!
Paul’s topic was the Kingdom of God!
Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.
Through the Kingdom of God he preached unto them Christ and expounded Him using both the law of Moses and the Prophets! One might ask, can you preach Christ from the Old Testament? Yes!
Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near, and join thyself to this chariot. And Philip ran thither to him, and heard him read the prophet Esaias, and said, Understandest thou what thou readest? And he said, How can I, except some man should guide me? And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him. The place of the scripture which he read was this, He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth: In his humiliation his judgment was taken away: and who shall declare his generation? for his life is taken from the earth. And the eunuch answered Philip, and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this? of himself, or of some other man? Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus.
This is what Paul did, and Peter did, and Stephen did, and John did, and Christ did! After all did Christ not do that on the Emmaus road...
Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.
We get into these mindsets that the God of the Old Testament is a different God! That God is too small to reveal Himself anywhere in His word… I serve a bigger God than that, One that can reveal Himself to man anywhere He sees fit!
Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.
3. We see the response of the People: Acts 28:24-27
The Gospel of Christ divides… Some will believe, and others will not. Paul’s responsibility was not in the outcome, but in the proclamation. Some will hear and their hearts will be stirred and they will respond by dethroning themselves and put King Jesus upon the throne of their hearts will others will reject not only the Word, but the Spirits working… As some receive Him, others will die in their trespasses and sins. It is a sad reality, remember God has not condemned man, but man has condemned himself, God in His loving mercy, offered up Jesus to be the propitiation for our sins!
Paul responds to their rejection not by his own anger but with the word of God. He speaks the truth in love...
And he said, Go, and tell this people,
Hear ye indeed, but understand not;
And see ye indeed, but perceive not.
Make the heart of this people fat,
And make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes;
Lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears,
And understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed.
This is the point in Israel’s history where the Northern Kingdom was handed over to the Assyrian Empire in judgment.
4. Paul’s declares the truth that Israels rejection brings, that the Gospel would go to the Gentiles: Acts 28:28-31
This is a truth that was not only declared in word but in the companions of Paul. Luke and Aristarchus were both Gentiles. Because of the apostate character of the Jews in rejecting Christ, they have been cut away from the olive branch and access has been offered to all! This is a wonderful truth, but remember God is not done with Israel, and that Christ is still their Only Hope!
As far a Paul, his prison would become a house of evangelism. You may be able to lock him up, but you could not keep him from speaking Christ! As mentioned earlier, he wrote epistles from the prison house of his as well as preached Christ to all who would listen. The book ends this way because there was nothing else to write.
Paul would get His opportunity to speak to Caesar as God had said.
But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel:
Then Festus, when he had conferred with the council, answered, Hast thou appealed unto Caesar? unto Caesar shalt thou go.
Saying, Fear not, Paul; thou must be brought before Caesar: and, lo, God hath given thee all them that sail with thee.
It resulted in some being saved!
All the saints salute you, chiefly they that are of Caesar’s household.
Before his death, and imprisonment by Nero Paul would write the book of 2 Timothy before being beheaded. A gruesome, but truthful reality for millions of Christians.
According to ancient records Paul was beheaded at the command of Nero, outside of Rome on the road that leads to Ostia, called Via Ostiensis, where the Romans used to have their place of execution in the year of Nero, 69 AD.
Paul’s life ends with this wonderful declaration:
For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.