SOMHAL
Notes
Transcript
We’re here at the end of the book of Acts. Along with others, I’m sad to be wrapping it up. I love the book of Acts, the story of the early church. When I came to Rich Hill in 2010, the Wednesday Night Bible Study the book of Acts. They were in Acts chapter 4 or 5, so I got in on most of the book. I really wanted to preach through the book, but figured I had to wait a few years. I found plenty of other books to preach through (there are 66 of them, after all). I waited for 10 years, have preached through the book, and now, after this morning’s sermon, we’ve made our way through the book again.
“The book is finished, but the mission Jesus gave the church isn’t.”
We’ve preached our way through Acts, but the story of Jesus working through His Church continues, not only here in Rich Hill, but around the world. The story continues. The Acts of the Risen Lord Jesus don’t stop at Acts 28. He is working still.
If you have your Bible (and I hope you do), please turn with me to Acts 28 and look with me at the last verses of the book of Acts.
17 Three days later he called together the local Jewish leaders. When they had assembled, Paul said to them: “My brothers, although I have done nothing against our people or against the customs of our ancestors, I was arrested in Jerusalem and handed over to the Romans.
18 They examined me and wanted to release me, because I was not guilty of any crime deserving death.
19 The Jews objected, so I was compelled to make an appeal to Caesar. I certainly did not intend to bring any charge against my own people.
20 For this reason I have asked to see you and talk with you. It is because of the hope of Israel that I am bound with this chain.”
21 They replied, “We have not received any letters from Judea concerning you, and none of our people who have come from there has reported or said anything bad about you.
22 But we want to hear what your views are, for we know that people everywhere are talking against this sect.”
Opportunity
Opportunity
The Lord has granted to Paul an untold number of opportunities to share the good news. Paul’s shared from town to town, with Jews and Gentiles, with young and old, peasants and kings, important people and seemingly insignificant people. And now, Paul’s in a new place with people who are eager to hear what Paul believes.
And Paul is eager to tell them. He hasn’t shied away from it. The threats of persecution and even actual persecution can’t dissuade Paul from preaching.
Paul asked to see the local Jewish leaders to speak with them (28:20). He took the opportunity presented to him and he spoke to them about the hope of Israel.
This phrase—the hope of Israel—would have been very familiar to them. It’s used a few times in the Old Testament to speak of the Lord. We read this from the prophet Jeremiah:
13 Lord, you are the hope of Israel; all who forsake you will be put to shame. Those who turn away from you will be written in the dust because they have forsaken the Lord, the spring of living water.
Paul is in chains, though given this opportunity, because of the hope of Israel, that is, the Lord.
He’s been given yet another opportunity, and he takes it. Paul is actually the one who calls together the Jewish leaders there in Rome, asking them to assemble.
Considering the history Paul’s had with the Jewish population in and around Jerusalem, it’d be a safe bet to assume Paul expected some hostility, some pushback from the Jews in Rome, too.
But the Jewish community in Rome hadn’t heard anything about the hub-bub—no letters were sent, no one who had come from Judea had said anything bad about Paul (which is kind of shocking), they hadn’t sent a delegation to the imperial court to speak against Paul.
What started out as an assumed hostile crowd has turned out to be a receptive and anxious group— “we want to hear what your views are, for we know that people everywhere are talking against this sect.”
What an opportunity for Paul to share the gospel—the Good News about Jesus—with his Jewish brethren. They need to hear it (it’s the power of God unto salvation), and what’s great is that they want to hear it—“we want to hear what your views are.”
And then, they arrange to meet Paul and come in large numbers to the place Paul was staying—a private residence with a soldier to guard him. The soldiers would take turns, rotating on and off. In this way, not only did the Jewish community there ask to hear from Paul, but also the palace guard. To the church in Philippi, Paul spoke about this opportunity and what it has afforded him:
12 Now I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that what has happened to me has actually served to advance the gospel.
13 As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ.
What’s more, from “prison” here in Rome, Paul wrote what we know as the Prison Epistles (Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Philemon).
According to verse 30: for two whole years Paul stayed there in his own rented house and welcomed all who came to see him. Here in Rome, Paul has been gifted with opportunity after opportunity to share the gospel, in various ways and to various groups of people
I’m gonna go out on a limb, and say the same is true for you—you’ve been granted opportunity after opportunity to tell people about Jesus. I know it’s true for me. I have an untold number of opportunities to share the gospel—I take some, and I squander others. Sometimes I have the conversation; other times, I avoid it in favor of comfort or because of my pride.
But the opportunities are there, this is for certain. God sees to it to give His people ample opportunities to witness, proclaim, and teach people about His Kingdom and His Son, Jesus.
23 They arranged to meet Paul on a certain day, and came in even larger numbers to the place where he was staying. He witnessed to them from morning till evening, explaining about the kingdom of God, and from the Law of Moses and from the Prophets he tried to persuade them about Jesus.
24 Some were convinced by what he said, but others would not believe.
25 They disagreed among themselves and began to leave after Paul had made this final statement: “The Holy Spirit spoke the truth to your ancestors when he said through Isaiah the prophet:
26 “ ‘Go to this people and say, “You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.”
27 For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.’
28 “Therefore I want you to know that God’s salvation has been sent to the Gentiles, and they will listen!”
29
God sees to it to give His people ample opportunities to witness, proclaim, and teach people about His Kingdom and His Son, Jesus.
Paul is captive, but, boy howdy, does he have an audience. Paul’s second meeting with the Jews here in Rome draws a large crowd, and give Paul an opportunity to:
Witness
Witness
He witnessed to them from morning till evening, explaining about the kingdom of God, and from the law of Moses and from the prophets, he tried to persuade them about Jesus.
Paul’s teaching about the One True King and His eternal kingdom reminds us of the necessity of making disciples by teaching everyone about Jesus and His Kingdom, and doing so from the Scriptures.
Paul witnessed from morning till evening about the kingdom of God. In Troas, Paul preached all night (and Eutychus fell asleep and then out the window). Here, in Rome, Paul preaches all day. Paul took his time to explain the plan of God within the context of the OT Scriptures.
It takes time to introduce people to Jesus. A large number of people have no Biblical understanding or know only a few stories. The troubling truth in our day is that people are discipled more and better by the evening news and Facebook pundits than they are the Word of God. It will take some time to orient people to a biblical understanding of things.
Paul had to start with what his audience knew—the OT—and go from there.
We will have to provide a framework for people, explaining to them that God made a perfect world, that sin broke it, and that God—out of love—stepped into His creation on a rescue mission to save humans from our wicked choices.
Paul witnessed from morning till evening about the kingdom of God and witnessed from cover to cover of the Old Testament about Jesus. Paul taught about Jesus in accordance with the Old Testament, showing Jesus as the Hero of the Bible. He magnified Jesus as the Messiah throughout His witnessing.
Jesus did the same thing after His resurrection:
27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.
Without Jesus, the Old Testament doesn’t make much, if any, sense. Without Jesus, the promises of God are still waiting for fulfillment. Without Jesus, the true hope of Israel, the story is incomplete.
We don’t know exactly, word-for-word, what Paul said about Jesus and the kingdom of God, but we can certainly assume that he described Jesus as the long-awaited Ruler, the true and better David, the One who would sit on David’s throne forever.
Paul wouldn’t have hesitated to speak about the difference between the eternal and forever reign of Jesus and Caesar’s temporary kingdom.
As King, Jesus reigns in the hearts of those who belong to Him by faith. Each local church (like this one) is an outpost of His kingdom; and we are ambassadors for Him. What a privilege, to serve the King! Paul, even in chains, considers it worthy of his very life. Even in chains, Paul shares the blessing of belonging to Jesus.
Paul witnesses about Jesus and His Kingdom; some are convinced, some don’t believe.
That’s kind of how it goes. By grace, some believe. Some, in their hard-heartedness, don’t.
Paul’s faith in Christ has separated him from the Jews, who rejected the Messiah. Paul cites Isaiah who highlights hearing, seeing, and the heart.
If the people who listened to Paul’s message would actually act on what they saw, what they heard, what they understood in their hearts, they would repent and be healed.
It’s been said, rightly I believe, that “hearing the Word of God always (ALWAYS) has an effect on people, but the same sun that melts the ice also hardens the clay.”
Either people are melted and moved by Jesus when they hear the Word, or they reject Him and become increasingly hard-hearted toward Him. No one can listen to the gospel and remain neutral. There’s no fence-sitting. No middle ground. Either one believes and is saved, or they’re lost.
The Jews, in large part, reject the truth about Jesus. They hear, but reject. But, as Paul says, the Gentiles will listen!
There is coming a day, friends—and soon!—when a large number of Jews will turn to Christ. Romans 11 assures us of this, and in this we rejoice!
Here in Acts 28, Paul simply notes the tragedy of the Jewish rejection of Jesus. Polhill comments:
“A message of salvation was foretold by Jewish prophets, fulfilled in a Jewish Messiah, preached by Jewish evangelists, rejected by the Jewish people, but embraced by the Gentiles.”
Paul is faithful to witness about Jesus; Paul knows he’s there in Rome to do just that. This is his task.
It’s our task, too, church. Christians witness. It’s what we do, in any number of ways.
The pastor, dressed in a comfortable pair of old blue jeans, boarded a plan to return home. He settled into the last unoccupied seat next to a well-dressed business man with a Wall Street Journal tucked under his arm. The pastor, a little embarrassed over his casual attire, decided he’d look straight ahead and, for sure, stay out of any in-depth conversation.
But the plan didn’t work. The man greeted him, so, to be polite, the pastor asked about the man’s work. The man was eager to share:
“I’m in the figure salon business. We can change a woman’s self-concept by changing her body. It’s really a very profound, powerful thing.” His pride spoke between the lines.
“You look my age,” said the pastor. “Have you been at this long?”
“I just graduated from the University of Michigan’s School of Business Administration. They’ve given me so much responsibility already, and I feel very honored. In fact, I hope to eventually manage the western part of the operation.”
“So you’re a national organization,” asked the pastor, becoming impressed.
“Oh, yes. We are the fastest growing company of our kind in the nation. It’s really good to be a part of an organization like that, don’t you think?”
The pastor nodded approvingly and thought: “Impressive. Proud of his work and accomplishments. Why can’t Christians be proud like that? Why are we so often apologetic about our faith and our church?”
Looking then at the pastor’s clothing, the businessman asked the inevitable question, “And what do you do?”
“It’s interesting that we have similar business interests,” commented the pastor. “You are in the body-changing business; I’m in the personality-changing business. We apply basic theocratic principles to accomplish indigenous personality modification.”
He was hooked. “You know, I have heard about that. Do you have an office here in the city?”
“Oh, we have many offices. We have offices up and down the state; in fact, we’re national: we have at least one office in every state of the union, including Alaska and Hawaii.”
The businessman had a puzzled look on his face. He was searching his mind to identify this huge company he must have read or heard about, perhaps in his Wall Street Journal.
“As a matter of fact,” the pastor continued, “we’ve gone international. And Management has a plan to put at least one office in every country of the world by the end of this business era.”
The pastor paused, and then asked, “Do you have that in your business?”
“Well, no. Not yet. You mentioned management. How do they make that work?”
“It’s a family concern. There’s a Father and a Son, and they run everything.”
“That must take a lot of capital,” he asked, skeptically.”
“You mean money?” the pastor inquired. “Yes. I suppose it does. No one knows how much it takes, but we never worry because there’s never a shortage. The Boss always seems to have enough. He’s a very creative guy. And the money is, well, just there. In fact, those of us in the Organization have a saying about our Boss. It goes like this: ‘He owns the cattle on a thousand hills.’”
“Oh, so he’s into ranching, too?” asked the businessman.
“No, it’s just a saying we use to indicate his wealth.”
The man sat back in his seat, musing over the conversation. “What about with you?” he asked.
“The employees? They’re something to see. They have a Spirit that pervades the organization. It works like this: the Father and Son love each other so much that their loves filters down through the organization so that we all find ourselves loving one another, too. I know this sounds old-fashioned in a world like ours, but I know people in the organization who are willing to die for me. Do you have that in your business?
“Not yet,” he said. Quickly changing strategies, he asked, “But do you have good benefits?”
“They’re substantial,” said the pastor with a grin. “I have complete life insurance, fire insurance—all the basics. You might not believe this, but it’s true: I have holdings in a place being built for me right now for my retirement. Do you have that in your business?”
“Not yet,” he answered. The pastor could see a light was starting to dawn.
“You know, one thing bothers me about all you’re saying. I’ve read the journals, and if your business is all you say it is, why haven’t I heard about it before now?”
“That’s a good question,” said the pastor. “After all, we have a 2,000-year-old tradition.”
“What a minute!”
“You’re right,” the pastor interrupted. “I’m talking about the Church.”
“I knew it. You know, I’m Jewish.”
The pastor smiled and asked the businessman: “Want to sign up?”
Sometimes, opportunities to witness present themselves. At other times, we might have to be creative. We should always be prepared to give an answer for the hope we have. Paul, saved by grace through faith in Jesus, spent the remainder of his days witnessing about Jesus. Let’s look at the last verse written in the book of Acts:
31 He proclaimed the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ—with all boldness and without hindrance!
Proclaim
Proclaim
This is the word kerusso—the Greek word for preach. We are called to proclaim the works of God, the Kingdom of Jesus. That’s you, Christian. You are a preacher. That doesn’t mean you’re going to have to stand behind a pulpit and preach a sermon in front of a congregation. But it might. There are men, young and old, the Lord may use to do just that.
You’ve heard it said, “Preach the gospel at all times; when necessary, use words.” Okay, now. Please UN-HEAR that. That’s a horrible quote. We are called to preach the gospel WITH WORDS! We’ve been given a book full of words to use.
Our proclamation is the most effective tool we have. Proclaim, preach, herald, tell the world Jesus saves! Tell your friends, co-workers, classmates, neighbors that Jesus brought you out of darkness and into His marvelous light. Proclaim to the lost that you were right where they are, and then Jesus found you and made you brand new!
Teach
Teach
I’m sure there was little Paul enjoyed more than teaching people about Jesus. This is what he did. He welcomed everyone, anyone who came to see him. And he proclaimed the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus.
He wrote several letters from his “home” in Rome (his Rome-home). Four of these letters are in our Bibles: Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon.
I can envision Paul sitting at his table with whomever came to visit—Tychicus, Onesimus, Epaphroditus—teaching them about Jesus, discussing what the OT had to say, the acts of the Risen Lord Jesus, all that the Triune God had done through His Church so far.
Why can’t we do that? Now, we probably don’t have friends named Tychicus or Onesimus. But when the neighbor drops by or our friend from work comes over, why can’t we share with them what we’re learning about God and following Christ? We can, can’t we?
Why can’t we gather together with a few church members, read the Bible together, pray, and hold one another accountable? We can, can’t we?
Paul proclaimed and taught with all boldness and without hindrance.
Why wouldn’t he? I mean, what are they going to do? Arrest him?
Why shouldn’t Paul be bold? He has unbreakable hope in Christ and opportunities to witness, proclaiming and teaching the most glorious news of all!
Paul boldly, without hindrance, preaches and teaches to anyone who wanted to hear.
From A.D. 60-62, Paul is under house arrest. It appears from some of his other writings that he expected to be acquitted and released. This must have happened before A.D. 64 when Nero set fire to Rome.
Once released, Paul just continues on preaching and teaching, taking advantage of every opportunity to witness, going as far as Greece, Crete, Asia Minor, Troas, Miletus, possibly as far west as Spain.
And then, about A.D. 67, Paul was imprisoned again by Nero and executed.
But the Word of God was not chained! Stopping Paul didn’t stop the Gospel! The gospel marches on! We hold this gospel forth, preaching, teaching, witnessing to others about Jesus and will until the day we die or the Lord takes us home.
This is our commitment. Nothing will stop us. We will continue with all boldness, without hindrance. God will give us strength to endure and grace to continue.
In this way, the book of Acts continues. We could consider our time as the next chapter, Acts 29, if you will. Jesus is still at work in and through His people, the Church. The Acts of the Risen Lord Jesus continue. He has given us our assignment:
Take every opportunity to witness, proclaim, and teach—and to do so with all boldness and without hindrance—SO OTHERS MAY HEAR AND LIVE!