Acts 28:17-31 - Part A

This is Connect with Skip Heitzig, and we're so glad you joined us for today's program. Connect with Skip Heitzig is all about connecting you to the never-changing truth of God's Word through verse-by-verse teaching.

That's why we make messages like this one today available to you and others. Before we get started with the program, we want to invite you to check out connectwithskip.com. There, you'll find resources like full message series, daily devotionals, and more. While you're at it, be sure to sign up for Skip's daily devotionals. You'll find devotional emails and receive teachings from God's Word right in your inbox each day. Sign up today at connectwithskip.com.

That's connectwithskip.com. Now, let's get started with today's message from Pastor Skip Heitzig. In 2006, there was in Jerusalem a very famous rabbi named Yitzchak Kaduri, and he was well known, but he died in January of 2006. Yitzchak Kaduri lived to the ripe old age of 108. Before he died, he claimed that he knew who the Messiah was, but he wouldn't tell anybody. He wrote it down on a small note, but he gave it to someone and said, make sure you don't open this till after I die. He died, and in April of 2007, a little over a year later, his beloved disciples, by the way, at his funeral, 200,000 people showed up. Just to show you how widely he was followed, 200,000 at Yitzchak Kaduri's funeral. But in April of 2007, they opened the note, and to the surprise of so many Jews in Israel, who esteemed this rabbi so highly, it said, Yehoshua, Yeshua, Jesus, is the Messiah.

The note went on to say, many have known his name but have not believed that it was him. Now, that shook people up. There was a whole lot of shaking going on in Jerusalem. And I begin with that story because you just got to know that when another rabbi of 2,000 years ago named Saul, Shaul of Tarsus, well known because he studied under the famed Gamaliel in Jerusalem, when he came to believe that Jesus was the Messiah, it shook things up. Three times, the conversion of Saul is mentioned in the book of Acts.

That's how important it is to the narrative. We have followed him in this book. We have seen him in the synagogues of Jerusalem.

We watched him as he consented to the death of Stephen. We followed him up the Damascus road when he had that incredible conversion by that vision, seeing Jesus and hearing him. We followed him into the city of Damascus where he was blinded. But after he could see, he started preaching it up till they persecuted him.

They drove him out. He went down to Arabia for three years studying the Old Testament scriptures, going over the things he had heard and known in his Yeshiva training as well as his rabbinical training. He then went back to Damascus.

They had to lower him over the wall in a basket. He went down to Jerusalem, stirred things up in Jerusalem. The disciples had to ask him to leave. They shipped him back to Tarsus. Years later, Barnabas gets him from Tarsus, brings him to Antioch. And from Antioch, Paul makes three consecutive journeys around the known Roman world at the time. Spreading the gospel message until finally we get now to chapter 28. I told you last time and I said that we always marvel at this man named Saul of Tarsus, aka Paul the Apostle.

We marvel at his unrelenting drive. And in Romans 15, the very next book after the book of Acts, Paul said, for this reason also I have been much hindered from coming to you, that is to you in Rome. But now no longer having, I'm reading Romans 15 verse 23, but now no longer having a place in these parts, and having a great desire these many years to come to you.

I just want that to settle in. For years, I've had a desire to come to Rome. Whenever I journey to Spain, I'm setting it up for later, I shall come to you. For I hope to see you on my journey and be helped on my way there by you.

If first I may enjoy your company for a while. Now why does this man have the pressing desire to go from Lystra to Derby, from Antioch to Ephesus, Corinth, Athens, and now Rome? And why has it always been on his heart to make it to Rome?

Well, a few verses before that, he tells us why. And so, this is Romans 15 verse 20, So I have made it my aim to preach the gospel, not where Christ was named, lest I should build on another man's foundation. So, the theme of the book of Luke, written by Dr. Luke, was from Galilee to Jerusalem. How the message of the gospel in the person of the Messiah, Jesus, went from Galilee to Jerusalem.

That's the theme of Luke, book one. Luke, book two, or the book of Acts, since he wrote book two, the book of Acts, is from Jerusalem to Rome. So how the gospel, through his messengers, primarily Paul, gets the message of the gospel from Jerusalem, where Jesus took it, the center of Judaism, to Rome, the center of the world. So Paul makes it to Rome. Rome has been dominant on his horizon for a long time. Now, in Acts 28, beginning in verse 17, it came to pass after three days.

Paul has been in Rome three days. You learn something about this man. He doesn't wait a week or two weeks.

Grass does not grow under his feet. He's busy. Three days, enough.

I'm done resting. Let's get the show on the road so he wants to present the gospel. So after three days, Paul called together the leaders of the Jews. And so when they had come together, he said to them, and brethren, though I have done nothing against our people or the customs of our fathers, yet I was delivered as a prisoner from Jerusalem into the hands of the Romans. He's recounting now what you already know from Acts chapter 22. Who, when they had examined me, wanting to let me go because there was no cause for putting me to death. Now, you remember, he has been under several examinations so far by the Jewish people and the Roman government. This now is the sixth defense that Paul gives since he has been arrested in Jerusalem. So you remember the first one was to the mob when he was standing on the steps of the Antonia fortress overlooking the Temple Mount. He gave his first defense, and it went well as he was recounting his conversion until he got to the last sentence. He said, and so Jesus sent me to the Gentiles. They had a hissy fit through dust in the air, and they said, away with this man.

Kill him. He's not fit to live. The second defense that he gives is before the Sanhedrin, the Jewish council. That doesn't go well until Paul perceives one part as Pharisee, the other part as Sadducee. So he says, I'm here because I believe in the resurrection of the dead. The Pharisees who believed in the resurrection said, nothing wrong with this guy. The Sadducees who didn't believe the resurrection started arguing with the Pharisees.

Instead of trying to get mad at Paul, they got mad at each other, and Paul got out of there. The third defense was while he was in Caesarea before Antonius Felix, the third before Porcius Festus, both of them procurators of Judea, and the fifth was in front of Herod Agrippa II. This now is the sixth defense since he was arrested in Jerusalem.

He's speaking now to Jewish men and brethren. So he said, they examined me. They didn't find anything, any cause for putting me to death, but, verse 19, but when the Jews spoke against it, I was compelled to appeal to Caesar, not that I had anything of which to accuse my nation. In other words, I wasn't attacking them. They were attacking me, and though they were attacking me, I'm not here to retaliate. I'm not here to attack my nation.

Just giving you the facts for this reason. Therefore, I have called for you to see you and speak with you because for the hope of Israel, I am bound with this chain. Now, I can just picture Paul sort of lifting up his chains.

He was bound in chains and just sort of lifting him up and rattling him around a little bit. For the hope of Israel, I'm bound in this chain. Paul, when he wrote to the Ephesians, by the way, from Rome, he called himself an ambassador in chains, God's ambassador in chains.

Now, he writes about his imprisonment or his chain frequently, and what's interesting is that he never believed that his chains confined him or bound him. You're listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. Before we get back to Skip's teaching, God desires to work in and through your life as a believer, and he does this through the Holy Spirit who lives in everyone who places their trust in Jesus. We want to help you better understand the Holy Spirit by sending you The Holy Spirit Then and Now, a resource featuring two books by Chuck Smith, The Book of Acts Commentary and Power, a biblical balance on the person and work of the Holy Spirit with an introduction by Skip Heitzig. This resource is our thanks for your gift of at least $50 today to help share biblical teaching with more people around the world through Connect with Skip Heitzig.

Go to connectwithskip.com slash offer or call 800-922-1888 and request your copy when you give at least $50 today to reach people around the world through Connect with Skip Heitzig. Let's continue with today's teaching with Pastor Skip. He believed that he was a free man even though he was chained. He believed that he was chained in a prison by the will of God.

But did you notice what he said? He said, because for the hope of Israel I am bound with this chain. Now frequently Paul spoke about the hope of Israel.

What did he mean when he spoke of the hope of Israel? Messiah, Jesus. For 3500 years the Jewish people have anticipated a deliverer, a coming one, a Mashiach, a Messiah. Like Yitzhak Kaduri said, we've been waiting for the Messiah, it's Yeshua. The Jewish prayer that had been uttered and is still uttered is this, I believe in the coming of Messiah and even though he tarry I will wait for him every coming day. For 3500 years Jews have prayed that and anticipated that. It's been one of the cardinal beliefs in the belief system of Judaism. So what Paul is showing them is, I'm not a dissident. I'm mainstream, baby. I'm as Jew as you can get. I'm true blue Jew because I believe in the Jewish Messiah that our fathers have believed in.

It's the hope of Israel. Now we have noticed this phrase, or we at least have read this phrase. Perhaps we haven't noticed it, but if you don't mind I'd like you to just notice a couple times Paul uses that. So I'm going to go back to chapter 23 for a moment and show you what he says. Verse 6, Romans 23. This is his second trial between the Pharisees and Sadducees.

When Paul perceived that one part was Sadducees and the other Pharisees, he cried out in the council, Men and brethren, I am a Pharisee and the son of a Pharisee. Concerning the hope, the hope, and the resurrection of the dead, I am being judged. Now to Paul, the hope of Israel, the Messiah, and the resurrection of the Messiah went hand in hand because he believed that the Old Testament predicted not only the Messiah's coming, but predicted also his death and his resurrection. That was the hope. I believe in the hope and the resurrection.

In the very next chapter, chapter 24, in verse 14 he says, But this I confess to you, that according to the way, which they call a sect, so I worship the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets. I have hope in God, which they themselves also accept, that there will be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and the unjust. He speaks about his hope. His hope is the hope. The hope is the hope of the fathers.

It's all synonymous. Then over in chapter 26, in verse 6, And now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made by God to our fathers. See how frequently he speaks of the hope of Israel, his hope, the hope of our fathers. The promise made by God to our fathers. To this promise our 12 tribes, earnestly serving God day and night, hope to attain, for this hope's sake, King Agrippa, I am accused by the Jews. What is that hope? Not only the Messiah, but look at the very next verse. Why should it be thought incredible by you that God raises the dead? So the hope is Messiah's coming, death and resurrection.

And Paul says, I am mainstream, man. I believe what the fathers have always believed. It's the hope of Israel. He was a man who knew the scripture and is recounting that the Messiah would come, that he would die, be buried, and be risen from the dead. Now, I say it's mainstream Judaism to believe in the Messiah. Over the years, if you were to examine Judaism now, there are branches of Judaism.

I don't have the time to go through them all because we don't have much time in the remaining of tonight. But if you were to examine and ask the question of a modern Jew, do you believe in the coming of the Messiah, you'd find an awful lot of them saying, no, not really. It's really not their hope. But traditionally, in mainstream Judaism, before all the different breakups and the bifurcation of beliefs, that has been mainstream Judaism. In the Talmud, there's even a passage that says this. All of the prophets prophesied only of the days of Messiah.

They saw the singular hope of Israel. And there's an interesting passage in the Talmudic writers among them in the Talmud. It seems that they spoke of a goat that they would affix a red wool bantu, and they would let him go into the wilderness on Yom Kippur. You've read that in the scriptures.

You know the story. So the tradition was to tie a red wool marked tag on that goat and let it go into the wilderness. And the idea is that it would turn white. And when it turned white, it was a symbol to them that God had heard their prayer and forgiven their sins. Well, in the Talmud, 40 years before the destruction of the temple, there's a story that on Yom Kippur, when the goat went into the wilderness with that red woolen tag, it did not turn white.

It remained red. And during that era, that the gates of the temple opened by themselves. And in the Talmud, the sages believed that it was a sign from God that their temple would be destroyed and that God had not forgiven their sins any longer. What's interesting is that is around the time of Messiahs coming to the Israel, dying for their sins, rending the veil in two in the temple, because God was making the statement that the blood of goats and bulls will no longer take away sin, but the Messiah has come. The hope of Israel was that Messiah. So, he stands and he tells them, this ambassador in chains tells them that I am here in chains for the hope of Israel. Then they said to him, verse 21, We neither received letters from Judea concerning you, nor have any of the brethren who have reported or spoken any evil of you.

So, we don't think you're a bad guy. We haven't really heard about this controversy in particular. Though they had definitely heard of Christianity and no doubt knew about Paul. But, verse 22, we desire to hear from you what you think for concerning this sect. We know that it is spoken against everywhere.

Of course, they would know, wouldn't they? As we've already told you before in our studies in the book of Acts, years before this, the emperor Claudius expelled all of the Jews from Rome over a certain controversy about a man by the name of Crestus, C-H-R-E-S-T-U-S, Crestus. Now, we don't know who Crestus was, but some scholars believe it is a reference, a Latin reference to Christus, the Christ, that among the Jews, because of the church in Rome, that there was a controversy over Jesus Christ and it began to split Judaism and that Claudius had had enough and he just expelled all of the Jews out of Rome. Now, during that time when they were expelled, that's when Aquila and Priscilla left Rome and they met Paul on one of his missionary journeys. So, this controversy had been around.

Christianity had been around. It had been seen as divisive and they wanted to know about that. They wanted to hear Paul's opinion about that.

We desire to hear from you what you think for concerning this sect, we know that it is spoken of against everywhere. So, when they appointed him a day, many came to him at his lodging to whom he explained and solemnly testified of the kingdom of God, persuading them, concerning Jesus from both the law of Moses and the prophets from morning until evening. They came to visit Paul. They visited him where he lived. He lived in some house. He was under house arrest.

Remember back in verse 16, would you look at it again? Now, when we came to Rome, the centurion delivered the prisoners to the captain of the guard, but Paul was permitted to dwell by himself with the soldier who guarded him. So, now he is in chains. He has his own house.

This chapter will end in verse 31. It says he lived in his own rented house. By the way, the population of Rome at the time was about two million people, half of which were slaves, half of which were Roman citizens. Even the Roman citizens lived in relative squalor and poverty. So, the homes were not like fancy Roman homes.

It was pretty dismal. He lived in one of those homes among the population. He could not leave that house.

People could come and visit him. He was chained to a soldier. The soldiers that attended Paul worked in shifts. They were chained to him for six hours.

Then they would swap with another soldier, six hours, then six hours. So, four times a day they would switch the sentry or the soldier who would watch Paul. So, Paul is in Rome.

People are visiting him. Jewish people are visiting him, but also many leaders in Rome were getting around Paul at this time. Now, when Paul is in Rome, he writes four letters. He writes a letter to the Ephesians that you have in your Bible, the letter to the Philippians, also in your Bible, a letter to the Colossians, also in your Bible, and a letter to Philemon, also in your Bible.

Those four letters are on record. He wrote from Rome. So, there were leaders in the early church that were around him.

Some of those leaders we know by name. In Colossians 4, and I'm trying to tie a lot of these loose ends so you go, oh, that's what that's about. So, he says this in Colossians 4.

It'll make more sense now. Continue earnestly in prayer. Be vigilant with thanksgiving. Meanwhile, praying also for us that God would open to us a door for the Word to speak the mystery of Christ for which I am also in chains. I'm here in Rome. I'm chained to a guard pray that God will open up a door for the Word to get out. That I may also make manifest as I ought to speak. Now, down in verse 7 of Colossians 4. Tychicus, a beloved brother, faithful minister, and fellow servant of the Lord will tell you the news about me.

He's one of the leaders with him there in Rome. I am sending him to you for this very purpose that he may know the circumstances and comfort your hearts. Thanks for listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. We hope you've been strengthened in your walk with Jesus by today's program. Before we let you go, we want to remind you about this month's resource that will help you understand the person and work of the Holy Spirit.

Our two-book bundle, The Holy Spirit Then and Now, with two books by Chuck Smith, is our thanks for your support of Connect with Skip Heitzig today. Request your copy when you give $50 or more. Call 800-922-1888.

That's 800-922-1888. Or visit connectwithskip.com slash donate. And did you know that you can find full message series and libraries of content from Skip Heitzig on YouTube? Simply visit the Connect with Skip Heitzig channel on YouTube and be sure to subscribe to the channel so you never miss any new content. Come back next time for more verse-by-verse teaching of God's Word here on Connect with Skip Heitzig. Make a connection Make a connection At the foot of the crossing Cast your burdens on His Word Make a connection Connection Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.