Before
we begin to dive into the latter half of the final chapter of the book of Acts,
I want to tell you what we’re not going to do today. We’re not going to have a series concluding
look at the entirety of Acts; that will come next week. We’re also not going to see what happened to
Paul for the remainder of his life. In
fact, we’re really not going to see how this situation with the Jews that led
to his trial completely turned out in the end.
You see, the book of Acts isn’t concerned with giving us the story of
Peter or Philip or even Paul. The book
of Acts, with Luke as the author, is not about any individual or apostle, but
about the spread of the gospel. So, next
Sunday, we will take a more comprehensive look at what we have seen as we’ve
moved from Christ’s ascension to Paul’s standing trial here in Rome; a
timeframe that lasted somewhere around 30 years in all.
However,
for today, we have this final chapter, this final text about Paul and the
various struggles that he endured as a result of his proclaiming the gospel
across the earth. We looked last Sunday
at Paul’s voyage to Rome as a prisoner awaiting trial before Caesar. We saw a massive storm cause the ship that
Paul was aboard to have to crash along the coast of Malta instead of making it
to the desired port. Now, we’re skipping
over the first half of Acts 28. We’re
skipping over Paul being bitten by a snake and the people thinking that it’s
God’s way (or some other god’s way) of punishing Paul. At least they thought that until Paul didn’t
die, and then they changed their minds and thought that Paul himself was a
god. So, they viewed him as condemned
one minute and a deity the next. It’s
amazing how prone to change people have always been. However, despite the confusion on the part of
those on the island of Malta with Paul, the journey to Rome continued. Now, along the way, Paul continued to do what
he had always done: teach, preach, and
heal. He healed a man with fever and
dysentery. He healed people all across
the island during his three months shipwrecked there before leaving for Rome
once again after the weather had turned back to favorable sailing conditions.
So,
Paul finally arrived at Rome. Now, it’s
worth noting that it wasn’t as if Paul was kept in a prison while in Rome. No, he was allowed to stay in a house as long
as there was a guard watching his home at all times. Paul’s imprisonment was really more like that
of a house arrest than anything else; a luxury that was largely afforded to him
because of his Roman citizenship. After
taking a few days to sort of shake off the effects of his travels (which took a
total of about 5 or 6 months), Paul called together the local leaders of the
Jews in Rome. He began much the same way
as he had done previously at other defenses and appeals. He stated that he had done nothing wrong in
terms of Jewish customs and traditions and that the main reason why he was
facing such charges was because of a personal vendetta that some Jews had
against him. He even went into the
explanation of why he had to appeal to Caesar in the first place, because it
was the only way to put an end to the constant persecution.
Now,
where this story gets a bit odd is the response made by the Jewish
leaders. Verse 21, “And they said to him, ‘We have
received no letters from Judea about you, and none of the brothers coming here
has reported or spoken any evil about you.’” Now, it seems quite odd to me that of all the
government officials that we’ve looked at (Felix, Festus, Agrippa), that none
of them would have either reported themselves or sent word about Paul’s
testimony. After all, by this time it
had been several years since Paul first stood trial before Felix. However, they seemingly deny that they have
heard anything about Paul, but they continue on by adding, “But
we desire to hear from you what your views are, for with regard to this sect we
know that everywhere it is spoken against.” In other words, they said to Paul, “Well, we
really don’t know anything specifically about you, but we have heard a lot
about this Christianity thing (which they always referred to as a sect). We really don’t know what it is all about
either but everyone that we’ve heard talking about it has had nothing good to
say.” Paul had to be sitting there
thinking that that was the best news he had heard in a while. “Oh, you want to know my thoughts regarding
Christianity? Well, how much time do you
have? This could take a while.”
We’re
told that a few days later an even greater number gathered to hear Paul and “from
morning to evening he expounded to them, testifying to the kingdom of God and
trying to convince them about Jesus both from the Law of Moses and from the
prophets.” In other words, Paul
spent an entire day teaching about Jesus and the kingdom of God. He didn’t just focus upon Jesus’ earthly
teaching, but he gave them the full scope of things. He taught the entirety of Scripture that
existed up until that point. He didn’t
spend any efforts on winning his freedom, but only on proclaiming the truth of
the gospel. He taught from the Law and
the prophets and showed Christ in them. He
showed how Christ both fulfilled the Law and the prophecies about the coming
Messiah. Now, some of the Jews were actually
starting to believe Paul and some of them weren’t, but they were still there
listening.
However,
those who didn’t believe Paul began to leave after he made one particular
statement. He quoted Isaiah 6:9-10 to them
(Acts 28:26-27). And after he finished
reciting these words to them, he clarified his intentions by saying, “Therefore
let it be known to you that this salvation of God has been sent to the
Gentiles; they will listen.”
Paul pointed to the fact that the Jews had grown deaf and their hearts
dull when it came to God. Paul spoke to
them about how they had taken the blessing of being God’s chosen people and had
changed it from being a privilege to an excuse.
He was telling them that that had all changed, and now Jesus, the power
of God, the salvation of the cross, the good news of the gospel was just as much
for the Gentile as it was for the Jew.
Notice that he didn’t take anything away from the Jews (except
exclusivity), but was merely including the Gentiles into God’s blessings. However, this was the very thing that the
Jews had repeatedly gotten made about over and over again when it came to Paul
and the other apostles and deacons of the early church. They wanted to be God’s exclusive chosen and
covenant people.
I
was reading an article last week about a seminar given at the recent meeting of
the World Council of Churches. The seminar
was about the shift that we have seen and possibly will see again in the
geographical center of the Christian faith.
While the percentage of Christians has steadily been declining in both
North American and European countries, it has grown rapidly in Africa, Asia,
and South America. One of the presenters
said that we shouldn’t be surprised by these numbers, since that’s the way
Christianity works so often. Now, this
doesn’t happen overnight, but there does come a sense of complacency with the
gospel in areas where there is little resistance and persecution. In both America and Europe particularly,
Christianity became so completely entrenched in the way of life many years ago
that it lost its edge. It’s kind of like
even the most skilled marksman after not firing a gun for an extended period of
time; sure he’s still going to shoot very well, but he’s not going to be as
precise as he once was without the continuous practice the he once did. Christianity in our country has become a slow
burn instead of an all-consuming fire.
It has become a part of who we are and not who we are in our
entirety. We’ve come to not be awestruck
by God. We’ve come to expect God’s
blessings instead of expecting punishment.
We’ve come to a point where quite honestly we no longer fear God.
You
see, that’s exactly what the Jews were experiencing during Paul’s time (and
Jesus’ too for that matter). For so
long, they had been God’s chosen people that they had settled into their narrow
view of thinking and had adapted their faith around their own personal views. They no longer viewed God as the one who
could say who His blessings were for, but they thought that somehow they
dictated the recipients of God’s blessings.
However, that is the exact thing that Paul is trying to show them is an
error. That’s the same thing that we saw
Jesus teaching against during his earthly ministry. And to a certain extent, it’s something that
many Christians are having to teach against today. We’re reminded at various places in
Scripture, spanning from Exodus to Revelation, that only God knows whose name
is in book of life. Who are we to try
and place restrictions on God?
Now,
let me sort of reign things back in for a moment because I feel like I’m
getting a little off track here. I want
us to turn our attention from exactly what Paul was teaching (at least
specifically) to the fact that he was teaching the gospel. As I briefly said earlier, Paul wasn’t
pleading for his life. He had never
tried to talk his way out of his prior imprisonment and captivities, nor was he
about to start doing it there in Rome.
You see, it would have been a great opportunity for Paul there in Rome
to speak to the Jewish leaders. He could
have spoken with them about why he didn’t need to be on trial and made it about
him. He could have taken the golden
opportunity that he had to negotiate some sort of deal. “Hey guys, I’ll agree to do my proclaiming of
Christ away from temples and make sure it doesn’t affect you or your taxes or
your worship.” Well now, that wouldn’t
sound very Pauline at all does it?
No,
Paul isn’t concerned with himself; he’s only concerned with the gospel. He’s only concerned with proclaiming God’s
word. Remember what we said last Sunday
about Paul’s primary concern being such, and that he had an assurance of faith
that helped him to know that the words that he wrote in Romans 8:28 weren’t about
prospering financially or situationally.
Instead, they are about God’s will and God’s plan unfolding for our own
good even when we cannot see a bit of good in it. The writer of Hebrews says that “faith
is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen”
(11:1). You see, Paul had faith that
never wavered during the entirety of his trials. He had a conviction that God would deliver
him through whatever he was going through.
Like we said last Sunday, he had that win-win view of either living and
continuing to proclaim the gospel or dying and entering into heaven. There was an unflappableness to Paul’s faith
that we are called to emulate.
You
see, we do this a lot. We look at the
faith of someone like Paul and we say to ourselves, “Man, I just don’t know
that I could ever be as convicted as him or as enlightened as he was” and so on
and so on. However, what we so often
forget is that not only should we try and duplicate Paul’s conviction for the
gospel, but weren’t expected to. And not
only are we expected to duplicate his conviction, but we’re called to go beyond
it as well. Now I’m not talking about
being someone who simply does the right thing even in difficult situations,
that’s just being a moral person. I’m
talking about being faithful. I’m
talking about praise God, worshiping Him, adoring Him, in both times of
suffering and times of celebration. I’m
talking about praising Him for creating and sustaining us even as we watch a
family member slip away from us. I’m
talking about adoring Him even as our financial situation at home
dwindles. I’m talking about worshiping
Him even as bad news pounds us like waves crashing along the shoreline in the
midst of a storm. And you see, that’s
what it’s all about.
Christ
died for us. God sent His Son to die for
us. In response, we are to simply
believe it. We are to have faith that
not only did Jesus die, but that in his death he accomplished all that he said
he did. That faith, that belief, is how
we’re saved. The good works that we do
aren’t our salvation; they are our right responses to the saving faith that we
have in Christ. Friends, let me close
with this challenge modeled after the apostle Paul: have faith.
Have faith in good times and in bad.
Have faith in times of prosperity and times of struggle and want. Have faith that quite honestly isn’t affected
by anything. Have faith that the God who
created the heavens and the earth is who He has revealed Himself to be through
the Law, the prophets, His Son, the apostles, and the rest of His word. Glory be to God; in the name of the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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