Hey, we're coming to the end of Acts. How do you think this book is going to end? Because we've just been charging forward at full speed for 28 chapters. And for a couple of chapters, all about getting to Rome, and now we're at Rome. And we're in Rome!
There's a little bit more of the story and we'll see what that is today. I'm more than income. Hey, good morning. This is More Than Inc. and I'm Dorothy.
And I'm Jim. And we are just recovering from being shipwrecked with Paul, right? He has been through a shipwreck and a snake bite, and he has finally arrived safely in Rome. And he was welcomed by friends, believers he found along the way who were already there to welcome him. And we left off with him being settled in his own rented quarters with the Roman guard, and he's just settled in.
Settled in.
So to pick up the story right here in the middle of 28, Acts chapter 28, verse 17, when Paul begins with his regular pattern. Right. Meeting with the Jews to them about the reality of their Messiah. Yeah, and you know, we saw this as he went on his missionary journeys. He'd come into a town he'd never been before, and he always goes to the Jews first.
Part of that was because the synagogues had what I like to call an open mic time. If someone was visiting, Visiting from out of town, you get up and speak. But for Paul, you know, he always says, although he sent to the Gentiles, it's the Jews first and then the Gentiles. And he says it over and over.
Well, Jesus had said that to the disciples, go to the Jews first. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because they're the lost sheep of Israel.
So they deserve the first message. But not too long ago, as we were reading here in Acts, Paul, you know, found that he was not getting a great reception with the Jews. Right. Well, you know, you guys, I'm going to be going off to the Gentiles.
So. But here he is. He's back in Rome and he's making some new acquaintances in Rome. Yeah. And so before we finish the book of Acts, let's see what his initial reception in Rome proper is.
So remember, he's settled into his own rented quarters. There's a Roman guard probably chained to him. Probably there's a bunch of them cycling through, but he's making home and he's not derailed in his ministry at all. Yeah. So let's see how things go.
I'll read for us in chapter 28, verse 17. We're in Rome.
So after three days, he called together the local leaders of the Jews. And when they had gathered, he said to them, Brothers, though I had 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. And when they had examined me, they wished to set me at liberty, because there was no reason for the death penalty in my case. But because the Jews objected, I was compelled to appeal to Caesar, though I had no charge to bring against my nation. For this reason, therefore, I have asked to see you and speak with you, since it is because of the hope of Israel that I am wearing this chain.
We'll stop right there. Yeah. So, by the way, these are not necessarily believers in Jesus. No, they're Jews. Lowers teach the Jews.
Right, right.
So he gathers them together. And this, again, is what we were talking about to the Jews first. And so he gathers them together. Isn't it interesting, though, that the way Luke has structured this, it sounds so much like what happened to Jesus, right? He said, delivered as a prisoner into the hands of the Romans.
That happened to Jesus. They wish to set me at liberty. That happened to Jesus. Pilate said, He's not guilty of anything. I want to set him free.
But because the Jews objected, and that's where the story diverges, right? Right. And I think that's, you know, that's kind of a risk he's taking, I think, because these people he's talking to would identify with the people who are, you know, basically his enemies that got him on this whole thing coming to Rome.
So he says, brothers, which I think is a wonderfully gracious thing to say because Paul has never claimed that he hasn't, he's not still a Jew. No, he's. He's remained a faithful Jew. That's actually how he always addresses Jewish congregations and Jewish people he's talking to. Brothers.
That's right. And in fact, I went back and took a look at some other earlier things we looked at before. Remember when he had that, when he finally came down to Jerusalem at the temple, there's that big riot in the temple and the Roman soldiers trying to haul him off and take him into the barracks and stuff. He says, Wait, wait, wait, wait. Can I talk to the people?
When he stops him and makes his appeal to the guard to say, No, wait a second. He says, I am a Jew. I looked it up. It's in 2139. I am a Jew from Tarsus and Silesia and a citizen to boot.
And so based on that identity, they said, Okay, you can speak to the crowd. And then the first thing he says when he speaks to the crowd from the steps of the barracks, he says, I am a Jew.
So he's never lost his Jewishness. And I think for a lot of people, that's kind of a surprise. He doesn't call himself a Christian. He calls himself a Jew. And so when he talks to the brothers here in Rome, he says, Brothers, to the Jews, brothers, we're still brothers.
I'm still a Jew. And so, no matter what you may have heard about me, I'm still a Jew and been doing Jewish things. And that's where he starts off from that point to talk about the Jewish things.
Well, yeah, it's interesting. He says that, you know, I didn't have any charge against my nation, but for this reason, I've asked to see you and speak with you because it's because of the hope of Israel that I'm wearing this chain, right?
Well, what is the hope of Israel? That their Messiah has come and been resurrected from the dead to assure their salvation by belief in him. For the Jews, that's kind of a catchphrase. The hope of Israel is the Messiah. And that hope of Israel, their concept of the Messiah, again, was kind of a political military guy who would free them from the injustices, which were, you know.
A lot of them from Rome, and he would come and he'd free them from all this.
Well, to be fair, the scripture indicates that. Exactly. But it also speaks strongly of a suffering Messiah who would die for sin. Exactly. And so, even at this point, in the Jewish leaders' minds, they sense there's kind of something's weird going on here.
Is he going to tell us about the Messiah that has come? Is he going to claim the Messiah has come while he's in chains to the Romans? How can that work? Why is he in chains to the Romans? It doesn't make any sense.
If he's promoting a Messiah who has come, we don't understand how he can sit there in chains and claim that's happened because the Messiah is supposed to free us from that.
So it's interesting to me that these Jews are more open-minded than the ones in Israel. Yeah. Because their response to him in verse 21 is, and they said to him, We've received no letters from Judea about you, and none of the brothers coming here has reported or spoken any evil about you. But we desire to hear from you what your views are. For with regard to this sect, we know that every It's spoken against.
Yeah. They're curious and open-minded. But they know that for Jews to believe in this Jesus Messiah is spoken against among Jewish brethren, but they don't really know why. Right. And they call it a sect instead of a completely independent religion.
And so, and they clearly want to know what's going on with it because all they hear is negative stuff. But here's this guy who can be a good spokesman.
So let's see what's going on. And they're flummoxed by the fact that this guy is in chains. And they, you know, even if he's in chains because the Jewish leadership in Jerusalem wanted him to be in chains, how come they didn't send us a letter telling us why they wanted him to be in chains? And there's no good answer to that, except for the fact perhaps they knew they didn't have a case. They didn't have a case.
There's nothing they could put on paper. I mean, Felix and Festus, Festus tried to figure out how to put something on paper for Caesar to talk about a civil crime, couldn't do it. And then the Jews themselves couldn't send one along here either.
So they're saying, we don't understand. You're in chains and we don't understand what our own brothers in Jerusalem. What were they thinking? What were they thinking? And why didn't they tell us?
So I guess, Paul, what you got to do is just tell us in your own words what's going on. Yeah. And that's honest on their part. I really like that. But it is interesting that they say that everywhere it is spoken against.
It's spoken against. And I don't think they're just speaking in the Jewish community, probably in the general secular Roman community. Everyone says, What about this weird thing that's going on, these followers of Jesus? What is that all about? And it's uniformly negative.
Well, and we know that within a few years, Christians were going to be seriously persecuted in Rome. Yeah, and Jews. Jews. Yeah. So the beginning of that was probably boiling up here.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, exactly.
So, in fact, that's just about 10 years away. It's coming. Yeah. Yeah. So, verse 23: when they had appointed a day for him, they came to him at his lodging in great numbers.
Because remember, he can't go to them. He's under house arrest.
Well, and they bring more guys than he originally invited into his cell. Right, in greater numbers. Greater numbers. And from morning till 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.
Well Okay, again, this is Luke hearkening back to what Jesus himself did. Right in Luke's Gospel, chapter 24, he refers to Jesus doing this very same thing with the disciples on the road to Emmaus, opening their minds, beginning with the law of Moses and the prophets, talking about the Messiah.
So here's Paul doing the same thing Jesus had done. Yeah, and you know, we let our speculation minds kind of run wild right here about what they picked up. We know a lot of passages they could do, but I've always wondered whether or not they referenced back to, you know, in Exodus with the raising of the viper on the stick. Remember that? Right.
When they were being bitten, and because Jesus uses that same analogy when he talks about himself, unless the Son of Man be lifted up. Right. He says, just like the serpent on the pole had to be lifted up by Moses in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up. And I always wondered if that was included in this persuasive talk from Paul.
Okay, so if your eyes are rolling up in your head and you're like, what are they talking about? That's in John 3. John 3 in Jesus' conversation with Nicodemus, and it comes exactly right before the verse you all know. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Right.
And the reason that I wonder whether the same argument is. made is because Nicodemus himself was one of these guys. He was a well-respected, well-taught religious leader. And here's the same guys here. They're all replicas of Nicodemus.
Ooh, that's an interesting thought.
So I always wondered if that was part and parcel. When you talk about how do you reveal Jesus in the writings of Moses, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, where do you find it? And when Jesus himself does it, he quotes that.
Well, yeah, and Paul himself had written to the Corinthian church, right? He made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf. That's what Jesus was referring to in the reference to the serpent on the pole, right? That they were healed by simply looking to the serpent on the pole. Belief.
Believing that God had dealt with it. Right. And he could have gone through all the lists about the sacrifices in the temples. You know, blood must be shed because of sin. And so, yeah, there's a lot of places he could have done that.
So interesting. But there's so much of it, it took him from morning until evening to. Go through this list. And verse 24. And some were convinced by what he said, but others disbelieved.
Yeah. Now, that's an interesting word. That means literally, they deliberately put no confidence in it. Right. They stuck their fingers in their ears and went la la la la.
And disagreeing among themselves, they departed after Paul had made one statement.
Okay, so we read the statement. Here's the statement. Oh my gosh.
Well, yeah, well, no, let's wait till the end of the day. Yeah, let's talk about the disagreeing.
So Paul spends all day talking about from the Old Testament evidences for why he believes that Jesus is the promised Messiah. And it's convincing to some. They're going, well, okay, I know those passages. This is one of those times where Paul's deep training in Pharisaical exposition of the Old Testament really comes in handy because he can make a case. Yet, what's interesting, although he should have been able to make the best case of anyone on earth for Jesus being the Messiah, it's not compelling for everybody.
And the difference isn't so much the facts or disagreement about where he's quoting in the Old Testament. The difference is that when people hear something, they're either predisposed to want to accept it or not. People will believe what they want to believe. That's right. And so, in this particular case, although Paul makes a very good case for Jesus being the promised Messiah, still for many of them, we suppose that they're.
They're thinking about this political Messiah. Can't be. And if he has come already, then Rome shouldn't be here. And that hasn't happened.
So you kind of cling to that. And no matter how much evidence you put in front of people, they want to believe what they want to believe. You know, that makes me think of Jesus' conversation with Nicodemus back in John 3 when he says to Nicodemus in that conversation, Are you a teacher of Israel? And yet you failed to connect the dots. You don't get it.
You just haven't looked. You haven't connected the dots. And that's really what Paul is doing here. And some are connecting the dots and going, huh, he might be right. And others are going, eh, that's ridiculous.
I will not accept it. But, you know, to Nicodemus' credit, he does become a believer. At the end of the gospel message, he's there with Joseph Arimathea collecting the body of Jesus and outing himself to the entire religious community that maybe he thinks Jesus is who he says he is. Yeah, so so maybe for some of these guys like Nicodemus, it'll just take time for him to digest it. But in this first one-day exposition, They're in disagreement.
In any case, they leave arguing, throwing their hands in the air, disputing, disagreeing among themselves. And as Paul sees them disagreeing, He makes one bold statement.
Okay, this is fascinating. This is fascinating. He says, and this is in verse 25, the Holy Spirit was right in saying to your fathers through Isaiah the prophet, which, by the way, was 600 years before this. 600 years, yeah. Here's Isaiah.
Go to this people and say, you will indeed hear, but never understand. And you will indeed see, but never perceive. For this people's heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and turn, and I would heal them. Therefore, let it be known to you that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles. They will listen.
They will listen. Yeah, yeah. And and so as they're going away in disagreement, Paul is saying, you know, you guys, you are actually demonstrating a fulfilled prophecy before my eyes. Right. What do you mean?
Isaiah 6, Isaiah 6.
Well, and again, Jesus had said the same thing back in Matthew 13 when the disciples asked him to explain the parables of the wheat and the tear, or the seeds. Right, right.
And he said, you know, this people are the ones that the prophet Isaiah was talking about when he said, they're going to hear but not understand, see but not perceive.
So that look at Matthew 13, 14 and 15, because that's where Jesus cites this very same thing, saying, that's why some are hardened and the seed just bounces off. Yeah. Yeah. So the seed really is the truth about the gospel. The truth about who this Messiah king is.
That truth is there. But when he does his parable of the sower, the issue about how well that seed is going to grow is based on the soil that it lands in. The condition of the soil.
So here's where we see that. The condition of the soil in these two groups of people who are believing and some disbelieving is just with the same facts. It's not going to germinate with one, but it is going to with others.
So, and this is. Not a surprise to God. Many times we think, even in our modern day, you think, well, if someone's presented with the facts of a thing, how can they, in the face of the facts, still say, well, I don't believe it. And you know, for us that come out of this kind of logical background, that's actually an Aristotelian, that's a Greek mindset. Facts, facts, facts, infer a conclusion.
And so, how is it someone can be given those many facts and still not believe? Because again, The soil is not fertile for seeds to grow. If someone says, I'm never going to believe this, I'm going to stick my feet in it. They never do, regardless of the magnitude of the facts. You have to admit you were wrong.
That's true. You have to take personal responsibility to say, what I believed was not the truth. And that's a humbling of self. If you're not willing to humble yourself and say, I was wrong, I might be wrong. I might be wrong about this.
Yeah. Yeah. In the face of the evidence. Yeah. So.
And that's that hardened heart. Yeah. It's the hardened heart. And by the way, the fact that Isaiah is saying this, you know, five to six centuries before this happens means that this is not a surprise to God. Right.
He knows that given the statement of the gospel and the evidence of who Jesus is, Jesus Himself says, Look, haven't you been watching what I've been doing? Doesn't what I've been doing tell you something? You know, when John the Baptist's disciples go and say to Jesus, are you the guy? He says, Well, look what I'm doing. Look what I'm doing.
You know, can the blind see and the lame rise if it's not from the body? Has anybody ever done that before? Hello. You know, and so even in the face of all that stuff, it turns out that nope, some hearts are going to be soil that it just doesn't germinate. In fact, they've got ears on the side of their head, which means they can hear, but they don't understand, is what he says here.
They'll have eyes in their head, but they won't see it. And why? Their hearts have grown dumb. The soil is bad. Their ears can barely hear.
Their eyes are closed. Yeah. So Paul makes this serving notice statement in verse 28. Therefore, let it be known to you that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles. They will listen.
Indeed, they already have been listening. They already are believers in Rome. And that's what's been causing the stir with these guys because what Paul has done for such a long time, the three missionary journeys we know about, has been just turning the world upside down. And clearly, it's gotten to Rome. You know, I went back, this is also a good Bible study method.
He's quoting Isaiah 6 here. And if you have a Bible that's got a center column reference or side column reference, they almost for sure will write Isaiah 6, verses 9 and 10. They'll put that there. If you'll see that there, say, oh, I bet you he's quoting from Isaiah.
Well, go back and read that. And the part that Paul quotes here is verses 8 through 10. But, well, 9 through 10, maybe. But, you know, after it is fascinating. What is quoted after that and what Isaiah says is so prophetic about what's going to happen 10 years later when Rome comes in and sacks Jerusalem.
Just listen to what it says. I'm going to read it to you. Yeah, please.
So Isaiah says, Then I said, How long, Lord? And he said, Well, until cities lie waste without inhabitant, and houses without people, and the land is a desolate waste. And the Lord removes people far away, and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land. And though a tenth remain in it, It'll be burned again, like a terabin-throwing oak, whose stump remains when it's felled. The holy seed is its stump.
So, so clear, I mean, that could be a word-for-word description of what's going to happen a decade later when the Roman soldiers came in and absolutely destroyed Jerusalem. And Jesus himself said in another place, gosh, I should have looked this up as well, about the fact that they missed the time of their visitation, and that's why it's all going to fall apart. It's when he's weeping over Jerusalem. I would have gathered you under my wings. Right.
And isn't it interesting? And what we're reading here in the end of verse 27: if you had listened and if you had reacted to what you heard and believed, God would heal you. But you know, it's even a statement about the patience of God because back in Isaiah 6, God tells Isaiah this in response to Isaiah's question: you know, well, here am I, Lord, send me. That's the beginning of chapter 6. That's the beginning of chapter 6.
And God says, Okay, I'm going to send you to a deaf, dumb, and blind people. And Isaiah says, What? How long? And how long am I going to have to preach this message? And God says, Until it's completely desolated.
God is going to come. Continue to make salvation available until the end. Yeah. Even though, in the midst of that transmission of the gospel, so many people will just stick their fingers in their ears. But what I find fascinating in the healing in verse 27, what is he healing them of?
These sense problems. They have eyes that don't see and ears that don't hear. And hearts that don't understand. Hearts that don't understand.
So this physiology of your spiritual senses, God will fix. In a sense, it's another way of saying that this blindness that they have, the scales will fall off, and God's the one who will do that. And clearly, that's exactly what happened to Paul on the road to Damascus. He saw all the evidence, the same evidence he's quoting to them here, he knew about, but he was blind to it and not willing to believe it. And then in one fell swoop, God healed those senses that couldn't make heads nor tails about what he always had known in the Old Testament.
Yeah. So he heals them.
So we should close this off. We got two more verses in all of Acts.
Okay, so verse 30. He lived there two whole years at his own expense and welcomed all who came to him, proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance. And without hindrance. What a great kind of capstone statement for the end of the, really the beginning of the story, but the end of Luke's account in Acts. Yeah, here he is.
In a rented apartment, and he's chained to a soldier, but the gospel's going out without hindrance. You know, it's, I would encourage you listeners to go back now that we've worked our way through Acts and read the whole book. Just sit down and read it in a sitting if you can. It'll take you an hour or so. Yeah.
But just look at the story, the whole arc of the story, because it begins in chapter one, right, with Jesus saying, You're going to be my witnesses, clear to the ends of the earth. And Peter says in chapter two, you're going to receive the promised Holy Spirit because the promise is for you and for your children and for anyone who will hear it. And we'll see the gospel going to the Gentiles. We'll see it going out to the entire known world through Paul. And go read the story.
Well, and you know what else I want you to read? While Paul was in this jail here in Rome, he wrote what we call the prison epistles, the prison letters. And these are jewels. And what are they? The book to the Ephesians.
Right. Philippians. Right. Colossians and Philemon. Philemon.
Which is about a slave who actually had left his owner. And where did he go? He went to Rome and visited him in his jail cell.
So it's fascinating to think about what Paul is doing here right now. And we're thankful that God allowed him to have time to write these letters because they are just pivotal. Just pivotal. Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, just pivotal. But he writes these things for our benefit here 2,000 years later.
And maybe if he hadn't sat down for so long, he wouldn't have written these things. But now, because of this charge that came to him from the religious leaders in Jerusalem, he spent two years in Caesarea waiting for trial. And now he's been waiting two years in Rome waiting for trial. And what we know from extra-biblical history is that eventually, likely, he's acquitted. Seems like he's acquitted here.
And he's let out free, but he's arrested again about four or five years later. And that will end in his death. He'll be executed by Nero around 66, 67 AD.
So the two whole years he's in Rome are pretty well documented to AD 60. To 62. Right, right.
So we know where that is. What's murky is we don't know exactly where he went afterwards, although there's. there's extra biblical accounts that say that he did. But Jesus came true to his word. Paul, you're going to witness for me in Rome.
And it seems like he does with great effect, great effect. In fact, it says such a great effect, such an unexpected effect, that when Paul writes to the Philippian church, he says, Look, the gospel has become known throughout the whole imperial guard. That's right. The whole imperial guard. These are the guys who guard Caesar.
Yeah. And is it the Philippian letter where he says, and the household of Caesar greets you? And the household of Caesar greets you. And he says to the imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. I mean, so again, go back and read Acts, go and read Ephesians, go read Philippians and Colossians.
These are all contexts that happened in the Roman jail right here. And so now. I'm sad, but we're coming to the end of X. We are, but it's really not over. No.
Every time you go back and reread it, you'll gain increased insight and increased amazement at the faithfulness of God. To do exactly what he told them would happen. You're going to go and be my witnesses. Yep, yep. Yep, and the gospel moves across the world in an accelerated pace even after this.
So Paul was critical for a time, but then when he finished what God had appointed for him in his generation, The Lord took him home. But the gospel doesn't stop because of that. Even being put in jail, Paul says. The gospel goes forward without hindrance. That's right.
Without hindrance.
So we're mighty glad you joined us, and we're going to move on to another book next time you join us. But again, savor the sweetness of this wonderful story in Acts and these wonderful books that he writes while he's there.
So I'm Jim. And I'm Dorothy. And we're glad you joined us. And come back next time and we'll start a brand new adventure together here on Morning. There are many more episodes of this broadcast to be found at our website, morethanink.org.
And while you are there, take a moment to drop us a note. We've reached the end of the book of Acts. Wow, with the boldness and unhindered preaching the word of God, the kingdom, and the Lord Jesus Christ. Yeah, unstoppable. I just love that statement, without hindrance.
Yeah. Thanks for joining us. Bye. This has been a production of Main Street Church of Brigham City.
