Paul's Final Journey in Acts Twenty-Eight — Acts 28

0:06 Let's open up with a word of prayer. Dear Lord, we're, just grateful to be here, grateful to be with your people. Thank you that we can have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin. Thank you that we could remember the Lord Jesus this morning. Just help us now as we look into your Reporting in progress.

0:31 Help us as we are instructed by it, are challenged, are encouraged, are exhorted. Just pray Lord that you just speak to our hearts this morning. Pray this in Jesus name, amen. Turn with me to the book of Acts chapter 28. Acts chapter 28.

0:55 And he's following me, so I talked with him beforehand and I think maybe it does deserve one more message on the book of Acts, but we'll see what the Lord lays on his heart to review and to look into. But we're gonna do our best to end the book of Acts from verses 17 through to verse 31. And I'm gonna do my best to kinda stick to the text as best as we can. Like to start in verse fifteen and sixteen though, just to do some connecting thoughts with what we've discussed in the past and kind of reconnect our brains with where we're at. Twenty eight and fifteen, and from there when the brethren heard about us, they came to meet us as far as Apii, Forum, and Thriens.

2:30 So maybe through the testimony and history that he had with the Roman soldier and commander that was under guard of him and the soldiers that were with him and the different prisoners. Maybe he got just to be under guard in a house with one soldier. Maybe that was an influence. But nevertheless, Paul rides in Rome about 60, 61 thereabouts. He finally gets to have fellowship with the believers there. We

3:01 We see how he meets some of them down in the southern cities there in verse 15. And remember that he had already wrote his epistle Romans to there, he never got to go there yet. And so we kinda see this heart that Paul had for the Roman people, specifically the believers, but also we're gonna see in the text today for unbelievers. He wanted to be there. He wanted to preach the gospel to them. He

3:29 He wanted to talk to them about Christ. And so we see this come to fruition. Paul's mission as it were later, he you know, he finds out during his missionary journeys that the Lord would have him go to Rome and there he is, he arrives in Rome. And so we pick up our text today in verse 17. And it came to pass after three days that Paul called the leaders of the Jews together.

4:56 For concerning this sect, we know that it is not, it is spoken against everywhere. I'd like us to consider a few things here in this passage. It's Paul's conviction. So wherever you see him in his different missionary journeys, you have Paul convicted to preach the gospel first to the Jews and then to the Gentiles. And in different times, you saw him when he came into a city, he went straight to the synagogue to preach to his own people.

5:31 And you just have a little bit of a different circumstance here. Paul has come to Rome but he's under house arrest. And so instead of him being able to go into the synagogue and talk to the Jewish leaders, he calls for them to come to his house. And so they come over and and talk to him and he wants to talk to him, talk to them about his imprisonment, about why he's there and and what the Lord, has for him to to share with them. Here in other, passages, specifically in in Romans chapter nine and verse three, he says, I wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren.

6:12 So you can continue to see Paul just has this tremendous heart to see his own people saved. To see the leaders specifically of the Jewish people, to see them come to Christ. And so Paul continues to have this heart for the Jewish people, for his own people, and continues to share the gospel with him with them. Says that he called the leaders of the Jews together. I was thinking about just what was what was Paul's idea here? Why

6:45 Why would he get the leaders of the Jews? Well, in in one sense, right, you have all this history of why Paul's a prisoner. You know, he he came before the different councils in Jerusalem, he went up to Caesarea. But I'd like to think that Paul was... Maybe had it on his mind that if I were to preach Christ to them, you know, some of these guys, they have a following in Judaism.

7:09 And if if I preached Christ to them and they got saved, maybe they could use their influence and certainly the Lord would use their influence to see other people saved. Just a suggestion there, but that's what Paul did. He called the leaders together and wanted to testify to them about why he was there. You can kinda see him kinda wet their appetite in verse 20. It says, for the hope of Israel, I'm bound with this chain.

7:41 And so we don't get a full explanation yet from Paul about all the things that happened in his life, about a testifying of the gospel, but he says to them, the hope of Israel, I'm bound with this chain. So imagine you're a Jewish leader and you hear that, it kind of intrigues you. So he just kind of wets their appetite. And so they wanna hear more from him, we read in verses twenty one and twenty two. Kind of a little Easter egg or thing that pops up here that Luke does is right in verse 18.

8:22 It says, and there was no cause for putting me to death. That's what he says. It's kind of you think back back when Christ was under trial. He had the same thing happened to him. There was no cause for Christ to be put to death. So

8:41 So just kind of a remembrance of Luke's gospel and what he has already testified about Christ. But we see Paul also, he's following in the same thing of Christ in his suffering. So, Paul is under trial and we see Luke in writing the book of Acts. We see how the Lord would, through Luke, write this testimony in Acts of how Paul is just like Christ in suffering for the gospel. Continuing on, we see Paul's character in these sections.

10:03 He wanted them to believe on Christ and be saved from this idolatry and we see the same thing in this passage in his love for these Jewish leaders when he came to Rome to see them come to saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. Reminding me of another passage that Paul wrote and at this time, he already wrote it. Second Corinthians five and verse 20. He says, now then we are ambassadors for Christ as though God were pleading through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God.

10:44 And so Paul just had this character about him. He had a love for the lost. He wanted and he pleaded with people to be saved through Jesus Christ. He uses that word implore. You can just see this earnestness about Paul wherever he went on his missionary journeys and now he comes to Rome, that he wants them to be saved and he wants them to come to a saving knowledge of Jesus.

11:09 Verse 21 of second Corinthians, for he made him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in him. Tough act to follow from this past weekend, but one of the things that I appreciated from our brother, Jab, was his love for the lost, his earnestness in sharing the gospel. And it just, it really encouraged me to have that same heart. I had that same heart and love for people that they would understand who Christ is, that they would understand that they can be saved through Jesus Christ. And that really it's each and every one of us have that same purpose and same calling.

11:57 Although we may not have had the same exact commission from the Lord that Paul had, we all have this mission that we are on together with the Lord that we would be his witnesses until the other uttermost parts of the earth. And so that's a purpose that every Christian has no matter what their occupation is. So we just see Paul's character in that he wanted to see the lost saved. Next, we can see what compels Paul. If you look at verse 19, it says, when the Jews spoke against it, I was compelled to appeal to Caesar.

12:41 Not that I had anything of which to accuse my nation. So he was going through these different ordeals. He was accused, he came before these different leaders. We see him go through the different Gentile leaders of the Roman leaders. And it says, I was compelled to appeal to Caesar. So

13:03 So they have no reason to convict him of anything, but he appeals to Caesar because he already heard in his life through the Lord himself and through other prophets as he was making his rounds and his missionary journeys that he was gonna go to Rome. And and I think that here you have Paul kinda telling his testimony of when he's going through all these ordeals. Remember, it's a little over two years, maybe even more from the time he was at those different councils. He went through all that traveling several years later. But he's telling about how he was compelled to appeal to Caesar.

13:43 At some point in time, Paul decided and kinda his desires got on the same track with what the Lord had for him to do. And so I believe that he had this desire, I wanna get to Rome and I wanna preach before Caesar. And so, and that's what he was appealing to. And so the Lord had him to go there. Now you might hear this kind of problem that someone might have.

14:18 Well, Paul is just doing a self fulfilled prophecy. So this is prophesied about him and he's just kinda manifesting it himself. I would say that if you were to read all the different accounts, how would you be able to come to that conclusion after all the things that he had just went through from that account. So he's before those Jewish leaders and the Roman leaders and he says, I wanna go to Caesar. At any given point in time during his entire captivity, all through, you know, the sailing, being shipwrecked, all those kinds of things, he could have died.

14:57 And so we see that it was the Lord's will for him to do that. It wasn't necessarily just Paul manifesting this prophecy, but we see the Lord's hand in it. But we also see that Paul wanted to do it as well. We see Paul making that decision. He was compelled to appeal to Caesar. He

15:16 He wanted to be... He wanted to take the gospel to Rome. He wanted to take the gospel to these different leaders. He just had that conviction from the Lord in his life. Also take a look at verse 20.

16:05 It says in verse six of Acts chapter 23, the latter half it says, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee concerning the hope and resurrection of the dead, I am being judged. So that's what Paul is declaring to them and that's why he was on trial there is because he's talking about the resurrection of the dead which some of the Jews believed in. Some there was a sect of the Jews they believed in that and some others didn't. But he's saying that this resurrection that's gonna happen in the future is actually through Jesus Christ And it's specifically because Christ himself rose from the dead. That's why he's being judged.

16:53 Verse 15 of acts chapter 24. He says, 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. So you can kinda see that Paul is, he's sprinkling a little more there. It's the resurrection of the dead, of the just, and of the unjust. That there's these two categories of people that there will be a resurrection for the just unto eternal life and the unjust unto eternal damnation.

17:31 Acts chapter 26 and verse six, he says, And now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made by God to our fathers. So this little phrase here, again, from their perspective, he's just whetting their appetite and he's gonna explain a little bit more. We're gonna get some clues on to what he's explaining. But he's saying all of this idea of resurrection of the dead, the messianic prophecies of the old testament, they're fulfilled in Jesus Christ. And we're gonna see here starting in verse 23 about how he talks to these Jewish leaders about what this is all about, the hope of Israel.

18:16 Verse 23. So when they, the Jewish leaders, had appointed him a day, many came to him at his lodging. And you can kind of see the spirit working there. They didn't they they made time out of their schedule, out of maybe when they were at synagogue doing their daily activities and they made it a point to go and visit Paul. And it says, 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 till evening.

18:57 And some were persuaded by the things which were spoken and some disbelieved. So when they did not agree among themselves, they departed after Paul had said one word, The holy spirit spoke rightly through Isaiah the prophet to our fathers. Saying, go to this people and say, hearing you will hear and shall not understand and seeing you will see and not perceive. For the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing and their eyes they have closed.

19:34 Lest they lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears. Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn so that I should heal them. Therefore, let it be known to you that the salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles and they will hear it. So here you have Paul's content. What does he actually say? What

20:40 I think if you were there in the room listening to Paul and maybe even having some dialogue with those Jewish leaders, you can tell the earnestness of Paul that he was absolutely unequivocally convinced by these facts. And you and I could have the same idea when we share Christ with someone that we would be absolutely convinced. And also that he would just share with eagerness and an expectation of what the Lord is gonna do by sharing this message. Another takeaway, it says that, He persuaded them concerning Jesus. It's all about Christ.

21:21 On every single page of scripture, we can find Christ there. From all the different messianic prophecies and different stories in the Old Testament to the the gospels, to the epistles, to the revelation of Jesus Christ, we can find Christ and we can see that it's all about him. Not only that, the third thing is that we can make a case for Christ from the Old Testament. I think it's a good exercise for us to do sometime. Just think about it and sit down and try to think in your mind, how would you talk to somebody about Christ specifically from the Old Testament?

22:06 It says in this verse 23 that he talked to them about Christ from the law of Moses and the prophets. So it's kind of a tip for us to go into the law of Moses and the prophets. One more thing, one more takeaway is that he used... Luke also uses this same phrase in the gospel of Luke. If you wanna turn there or I can just read it, it's it's Luke chapter 24 and verse 27.

22:41 Luke says, and the beginning or excuse me, and beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. So once again, we kind of have a little bit of a little Easter egg there that Luke is doing of talking to his readers in Acts and referencing his first gospel or the gospel of Luke. Remember that's a... This is just a continuation the book of Acts. Nevertheless, we have that phrase.

23:13 It says that he preached from the law of Moses and the prophets. Christ did it himself. Remember that Luke is writing in Luke chapter 24 and that is a quote right from about Jesus that Jesus is talking to those disciples on the road and he's explaining to them how Christ had to come and he had to suffer and die specifically from Moses, the the Torah, the the first five books of the Old Testament. Others call that the law and also of the prophets. As an aside, Ray Comfort in his Evidence Study Bible, I don't know if you've ever heard, he has an Evidence Study Bible. It

24:02 It just has different apologetic sayings and helps when you think about evangelizing. And he says that Biblical prophecy appeals to the intellect and the law appeals to the conscious. So just sort of the sense of when you read this, what is the law of Moses represent and what do the prophets represent? Well, on one sense you have the prophets, you have fulfilled prophecy. How if you can present to someone that Christ fulfilled scripture and he had to come and he had to die and we see that from the very first passages in the Old Testament. We

24:47 We see those fulfilled in the new testament when Christ had come. But it can't stop there in the witness for Christ. Not only does prophecy go to our intellect, but then you have the law of Moses talking about the law and some people like to use the 10 commandments like break comfort does, but appeals to the conscience. The Lord wants to win our hearts. He wants us to understand things about ourselves, about how we have sinned, and why we actually need a savior. Why

25:21 Why we need to come to Christ and be saved. And so you just have those two components there. But again, Paul persuaded them concerning Jesus from both the law of Moses and the prophets. Just like to suggest a few sections maybe he would have used. Maybe we all can use them in our different conversations that we have or we could also appreciate the telling of the gospel in them.

25:53 Genesis chapter three. I remember a little while ago we had the permitting and Trevor had requested or had this idea that he wanted to go to the conference and hear about how that connects to the Lord Jesus. But here we have this story in Genesis chapter three. And from the very beginning sections of the Old Testament, the very first chapter of the Bible, we learn about the consequences of sin, about how Adam and Eve had sinned, and that God was gonna do something about it. That there had to be a payment for sin.

26:32 We see that that He had slain those animals to take those skins as a covering for sin. But we see also the prophecy in Genesis chapter three about how Satan was gonna be defeated by the seed of Eve. How for many many years it says that... Well, let me just turn there in Genesis chapter three. I believe it's 15.

27:03 It says, and I will put my enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise your head. This is God speaking to the serpent. He says, he shall bruise your head. Just this idea that over a long period of time it might look like the devil's winning, but it says, and you shall bruise his heel or you shall...

27:29 Sorry, have that backwards. Christ is gonna bruise the head of the serpent, but and you shall bruise his heel saying that the serpent it might look like the devil is winning by bruising the heel of Christ but he's gonna win by crushing his head. So from the very first sections of the Bible, we can hear about how Christ had to come. Another suggestion would be in Numbers 21. We have the story of the children of Israel and they're saved by the consequences of their sin by looking at the bronze serpent. So

28:11 So we see that the people of Israel were complaining and so as a consequence, the Lord sent in fiery serpents to bite them and people were dying because of it. And so we see that Moses, God uses Moses as an intercessor. I just sort of speaking to us about how Christ would be our intercessor. Just a foreshadow of what's what's gonna come. And he would tell them, he would say, look, God has provided a way for you to be saved because of this sin.

28:47 And all you have to do is look and trust and trust in what God has done for you and look at the bronze serpent. If someone's convinced by that, I think you could probably go right into John chapter three. If they're convinced in that story, that you could probably go right into John chapter three and talk about how Christ says himself. It says that even though or even as, the the serpent was lifted up on the on the pole in the wilderness, even so the son of man shall be lifted up. Another one, another section.

29:21 So those are from the first five books of the bible. The law. You have the prophets. Jeremiah chapter 17. The weeping prophet is explaining the human condition and God's expressed character in response to those who trust in Him. So

29:38 So you just have this section in Jeremiah 17 and Jeremiah is talking to them. It's before their captivity, before they're going captive because of their different sins over many many years. And he's talking to them about this sin, about the human condition. We have those verses that talk about how the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked. Who can know it? And

30:06 And we can learn from those ourselves today. But he then talks about that in the same passage, he talks about how we can put our faith in the Lord. So just another way, another section in the prophets there about how you can talk to someone about Christ from the Old Testament. Moving on in Acts chapter 28, we have those that reference there verses 24 through 28. That references specifically Isaiah six where Isaiah is hearing from the Lord and the Lord is telling Isaiah that he's gonna go and he's gonna preach to them and they're not gonna listen.

30:54 And we have another account of that but it's it's I guess not an account but a reference to that. Christ himself references this as well in the gospels. We see him talk about the same thing that he would come to the Israelite people but they would refuse to listen. I think there's a verse that says, talks about how he longs to draw them to himself but they were unwilling. They would not come to him.

32:41 He says there, I believe it's in verse 28. So he says this quote and then Paul says, let it be known to you that the salvation of God has been set to the Gentiles and they will hear it. So he's telling these Jewish leaders and these these people that are curious about him. He's telling about for so many times, the Lord has provided you a testimony, but you wouldn't hear it. That they were...

33:13 Their hearts had grown dull. There's a section in Romans that talks about there's a hardness that has come upon the people of Israel. And so what he's saying here is now the gospel is gonna go to the Gentiles. And it's kind of like a, I don't wanna say a stab in the back, but he's saying they're gonna listen to it. They're gonna want to be saved from it.

33:41 And I imagine, I don't know, maybe after that Paul's there in Rome and he's testifying to different people about Christ and he's going to Gentiles as well. And maybe some of the guys that he was there with talking to them, maybe they saw him later on. And it was just kind of a reminder to them that the gospel is now going to the Gentiles and they're actually going to hear it. Verse 29, there are some manuscripts that don't necessarily have it, but I think we can learn from it. Some have it and some don't, but nevertheless, verse 29, and when he had said these words, the Jews departed and had a great dispute among themselves.

34:28 We also heard earlier about how some had believed and some had disbelieved. And we might experience the same thing. I think we all have probably experienced that same thing of testifying to people about the gospel. But it's not a discouragement. There's gonna be people that are interested, that wanna believe and there's gonna be people that don't. And

34:53 And so at some point we can move on and maybe there's someone else that wants to hear about the Lord Jesus or maybe someone else is curious and they wanna hear more about the Lord Jesus. And finally, we have the ending of Acts in verses thirty and thirty one, the conclusion. So Paul dwelt two whole years in his own rented house and received all who came to him. Preaching the kingdom of God and teaching the things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence, no one forbidding him. So there we have again that Paul was continuing to preach the Lord Jesus Christ.

35:40 That's what he wanted to do. He wanted to preach Christ. And it says that he was not forbidden. So he had this liberty, he was not forbidden, excuse me. He had this liberty to go and find people and they would visit him at his house and he would hear or he would have this opportunity to preach Christ to them.

36:25 Like you don't get to hear the rest of Paul's story. Nothing. But I think that, and this is just kind of where I'm at right now, I think that Luke is kind of using this for the reader. That at any given point in time, as a Christian, you could read this account and you could read this ending and and that feeling of that's it. Like, I thought there would be like an ending to it.

36:54 It's kind of abrupt for me. But I think that the reason he abruptly ends it like this is so that the reader, you and I now today, can feel a part of it. It's not the end really. It's not the end. The witness of the gospel continues today.

37:14 And you and I can feel a part of that as a reader of the book of Acts. We don't really... We know, and I'll tell you that we know after this, he does send other letters out. And there's other, you know, different histories happening like the things with Philemon. We know of those other things happening and Paul even says in some of his other letters, he references some of these other guys.

37:43 But in the book of Acts, he specifically ends this way, I think, as just as a way to kind of help us be a part of that story and say, wow Paul's there and I can, I see him and his example of witnessing to others for Christ and I can do the same thing? I can witness to others for Christ and I can be part of that same mission. Same mission that we have from the very first chapter of Acts that we could be his witnesses to the uttermost parts of the earth. So, the question for us today is maybe some takeaways is how do you and I want to be part of this continuing story? What's our calling on our life as a believer? Are

38:37 Are we called just like Paul? Maybe not in the exact same way. Paul was an apostle. Paul was also single. Paul had these great missionary journeys. I

38:48 I don't think we're not all necessarily called that exact same way but we have the same commission that he did and that we would be a witness for Christ. We could have that same calling as a believer in Christ. Do we all love the lost just like Paul does? What are we compelled by? What provokes our hearts when we walk through this world?

39:44 And so I've been reading a book recently. It's called Tactics by Greg Kochel. I'm only in about chapter four or five. it's been very helpful to me. just in dialogue with other people, he's talking about some of the ways that you can witness to people, Some of the ways that you can talk to Christ about other people. And

40:07 And one of the ways is by using questions. And so we can use questions whether it's leading questions or clarifications questions to to talk to people about Christ. Let's just close in a word of prayer. Dear lord, we're just grateful to be once again together with your people. We thank you for this section section in acts that talks to us about Paul and just his heart for the lost.

40:36 We pray that you would help us to have that same heart that you would just convict us to see other people as lost and in need of a savior that through even a small word and testimony and also the way that we act in our actions to other people, the way we conduct ourselves would be a testimony of the lord Jesus Christ in our lives, lord. We pray that you'd help us as a body, as individuals as well, as we're part of this story, this continuing story of bringing the gospel to the uttermost parts of the earth to be a witness for Christ. We just pray your help in that. We pray your blessing upon the rest of the activities today. Pray this in Jesus name. Amen.

41:24 Amen.