Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Acts 28:11-31
11 After three months we set sail in a ship that had wintered in the island, a ship of Alexandria, with the twin gods1 as a figurehead. 12 Putting in at Syracuse, we stayed there for three days. 13 And from there we made a circuit and arrived at Rhegium. And after one day a south wind sprang up, and on the second day we came to Puteoli. 14 There we found brothers2 and were invited to stay with them for seven days. And so we came to Rome. 15 And the brothers there, when they heard about us, came as far as the Forum of Appius and Three Taverns to meet us. On seeing them, Paul thanked God and took courage. 16 And when we came into Rome, Paul was allowed to stay by himself, with the soldier who guarded him.
17 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. 18 When they had examined me, they wished to set me at liberty, because there was no reason for the death penalty in my case. 19 But because the Jews objected, I was compelled to appeal to Caesar—though I had no charge to bring against my nation. 20 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.” 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. 22 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.”
23 When they had appointed a day for him, they came to him at his lodging in greater numbers. 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. 24 And some were convinced by what he said, but others disbelieved. 25 And disagreeing among themselves, they departed after Paul had made one statement: “The Holy Spirit was right in saying to your fathers through Isaiah the prophet:
26 “‘Go to this people, and say,
“You will indeed hear but never understand,
and you will indeed see but never perceive.”
27 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.’
28 Therefore let it be known to you that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles; they will listen.”3
30 He lived there two whole years at his own expense,4 and welcomed all who came to him, 31 proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance.
[1] 28:11
[2] 28:14
[3] 28:28
[4] 28:30
(ESV)
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
If you have a bible, I invite you to turn to Acts chapter 28. After more than a year, we're going to finish Acts today. So Acts, chapter 28. And as you're turning there, I've got a confession to make. And that's that I like Britney Spears.
Joel Brooks:Not as a person, but I like her music. I mean, she writes great hooks. It's not like I like Nickelback or anything. It's, but I do like Britney Spears. And in particular, I like her song Oops, I Did It Again.
Joel Brooks:And we all have songs like that. Don't don't judge me. I mean, we all have songs where when it comes on in the radio on the radio and you're driving someplace, if nobody is with you, you keep it on. You keep it on. You crank it up.
Joel Brooks:You sing. You know all the words. You know, somebody's with you. You gotta be like, oh, gosh. You know, you change, but but if you're alone, it it comes out.
Joel Brooks:And and you just got to sing. I was pulling into our, we don't have a driveway. So I'm just pulling in the front of our house, coming home from work a few weeks ago. And, Britney Spears is on. Oops, I did it again.
Joel Brooks:And, problem was right when I got home, the song was only halfway through. So, of course, you have to stay. You have to just sit in the in the truck and I just had to listen to it. And, and my wife was actually up on the front porch and she was just looking at me. And she's wondering why I'm not getting out of the car.
Joel Brooks:And so she texts. What are you doing? And I just texted her back. Oops, I did it again. And this she gave me this amazing look, of admiration and respect at that moment.
Joel Brooks:Like, I am so proud that you are my husband. No. I mean, she was like, she just shook her head. She went inside. I just cranked it up.
Joel Brooks:And I'm singing, oops, I did it again. Because you can't turn it off. She makes great earworms. They just kinda get in there. And, it would have been a sin to turn it off there.
Joel Brooks:The reason I I share that story is, Luke's gonna do something to us in the Book of Acts. That kinda rubs us the wrong way a little bit. He he's been singing this gospel tune now for 28 chapters. We're coming to the end, and he just turns off the car. And the song doesn't finish.
Joel Brooks:He he literally just turns it off and and you're ready to sing a a final chorus. You're you're ready to sing something, but but he won't allow you to do that. And he turns it off and, and you've got to wonder why. Well, let's read Acts chapter 28, and then we'll begin to look at some of those reasons why. Acts 28, we'll begin reading in verse 11.
Joel Brooks:After 3 months, we set sail in a ship that had wincered in the island. A ship of Alexandria with the twin gods as a figurehead. Putting in at Syracuse, we stayed there for 3 days. And from there we made a circuit and arrived at Rhegium. And after one day a south wind sprang up, and on the second day we came to Puteoli.
Joel Brooks:There we found brothers and were invited to stay with them for 7 days and so we came to Rome. And the brothers there, when they heard about us, came as far as the Forum of Appius and 3 taverns to meet us. On seeing them, Paul thanked God and took courage. And when we came into Rome, Paul was allowed to stay by himself with the soldier who guarded him. After 3 days, he called together the local leaders of the Jews.
Joel Brooks:And when they had gathered, he said to them, brothers, though I had done nothing against your people or the customs of our fathers, yet I was delivered as a prisoner from Jerusalem into the hands of the Romans. 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.
Joel Brooks:And they said to him, we have received no letters from Judea about you. And none of the brothers here coming here have reported or spoken any evil about you. But we desire to hear from you what your views are. For with this regard to this sect, we know that everywhere it is spoken against. When they had appointed a day for him, they came to him at his lodging in greater numbers.
Joel Brooks: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. And some were convinced by what he said, but others disbelieved. And disagreeing among themselves, they departed after Paul had made one statement. The Holy Spirit was right and saying to your fathers through Isaiah the prophet, go to this people and say, you will indeed hear, but never understand. And you will indeed see, but never perceive.
Joel Brooks: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. He lived there 2 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. This is the word of the Lord.
Joel Brooks:Thanks be to God. If you would pray with me. Father, I pray that in this moment through your spirit, you would encourage our hearts and strengthen them that we might boldly declare your gospel without any hindrance. And in order for that to happen, I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. And, lord, may your words remain and may they change us.
Joel Brooks:We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. Okay. So by this point in acts, Paul has traveled 15500 miles on his 3 missionary journeys. 8700 of those miles were on foot.
Joel Brooks:Just to put that in perspective, that's walking across the United States 3 times by foot. This is a man who has traveled and traveled and traveled. And these were hard miles. Even when he wasn't walking on foot, it's not like it was easier. You remember what happened when he boarded a ship from last week.
Joel Brooks:It was nothing but obstacle after obstacle throughout all of these journeys. But God throughout it all in His sovereignty kept him safe, often through miracles. Now ever since chapter 19, so about 10 chapters ago, ever since chapter 19, the reason Paul has been journeying has been to get to Rome. I mean, we we read in chapter 19. He says, He is resolved in His spirit to get to Rome.
Joel Brooks:And He needed that resolve because from that point on, it was gonna get really hard to get there. He's immediately arrested. He's thrown in jail, where he spends 2 years forgotten. 2 years where his case doesn't even go up, and he's just rotting away in jail. And he just keeps hitting a wall after another wall and it's so much persecution yet he keeps moving forward.
Joel Brooks:At one point, in the midst of some discouragement, the Lord actually appears to him and encourage him and the Lord says this to him. He says, you must testify also in Rome. And so Rome is what's been put before him. Even when we we saw the ship going down last week, Paul said, an angel appeared to me and he said, I must testify before Caesar. And so for 1,000 of miles now, Paul has just been single-minded in this pursuit, I must get to Rome.
Joel Brooks:I I must get to Rome. I've got to preach the gospel to Rome. And this now has taken up a third of the book of acts. And once Paul reaches this town called Pudiale, which basically function as the port city of Rome. Once he reached there, he's essentially arrived.
Joel Brooks:He's arrived. And and it had to be such an encouragement to him that when he arrived, these Christian brothers and sisters immediately greeted Him there. There was already a church there. We read in verse 14 that these Christian brothers, they found him and they immediately invited him and his companions to stay at their house. Just let that sink in.
Joel Brooks:It's not asking just Paul to stay in, but Paul and everybody with him. That's the 276 prisoners and soldiers. I mean how would you like to open up your home to a bunch of prisoners to come and to stay? But what what you're seeing here is this radical hospitality, this gospel hospitality that is already permeated out into Rome. The spirit was at work there.
Joel Brooks:After a week of enjoying the hospitality of these Christians, Paul finally decides to take the last leg of his journey towards Rome itself. And as he's walking there, Christians from Rome hear that the apostle Paul has has landed and is making his his final way to Rome. And so, these Christian brothers and sisters actually come out to meet him on the journey. They come and they meet him in the towns of Forum of Appius and the 3 taverns. And these were essentially the suburbs of Rome.
Joel Brooks:And this had to be such an encouragement to Paul. He wasn't gonna have to go to Rome alone. And please don't miss the ironic beauty in all of this because Paul has been trying to get to Rome for years now. He's got to bring the gospel to Rome. He's got to plant a church in Rome.
Joel Brooks:He's been enduring riots, beatings, persecutions, imprisonments, shipwrecks, snake bites, everything, so he could bring the gospel to Rome. And then when he arrives, he finds a thriving church in Rome. And not just in Rome, but even, out in the outskirts in the suburbs of Rome. It's a growing thriving spirit filled church. Showing gospel hospitality here.
Joel Brooks:Now, Paul knew this. A couple of years ago, he had already written Romans, so he had already caught wind that there were Christians there. And so he wrote them a letter. But now that he sees this, this has to be an enormous encouragement to him. And we actually know that the first church in Rome was established 20 years before Paul set foot there.
Joel Brooks:20 years before. So what we see is that God didn't need Paul. God didn't have to have Paul bring the gospel to Rome because He had already done that through some unnamed people many years earlier. When Paul arrives there and he sees the city for the first time, I'm imagining that he was he was overcome with emotion. I mean, for 1, he's just been for so long, he's had to get there.
Joel Brooks:He's had to get there. He has to preach before Caesar and and he finally arrives. And for him, this is a mission accomplished. It's a big mission. It's the one where at Pentecost when or at the Ascension, when Jesus promised the gift of his spirit and he says, You're gonna be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
Joel Brooks:Well, Rome is the gateway to the ends of the earth. It's the gentile capital of the world. And so when Paul sees that, he's thinking mission accomplished. Gospel coming here to the ends of the Earth. And then Rome also was his capital city.
Joel Brooks:He was a Roman citizen and he had never seen it. And for him, the the chance to go to go to his capital and proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ, I'm sure had to overwhelm him with emotion. And so he arrives and then he is waiting for his trial before the emperor Nero. Now, Acts ends with these exact words. Paul lived there 2 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.
Joel Brooks:Now when we come to these last words, you're you might be a little puzzled. Or for me, I was like, What? That's it? I wanna say, and then what? And then what happened?
Joel Brooks:Did Paul actually get to preach to Caesar? That's been the big build up. Did he actually get to preach to Caesar? Did anybody get saved? How did Paul's trial go?
Joel Brooks:Was Paul released or was Paul executed? There's a lot of questions that are not being answered here, and I think, you know, Luke, you've done quite a build up to this. You've gotta be kidding me that you're not gonna answer these questions. I mean, 10 chapters we've been building up to this moment here and now we don't know what happens. And so you get a little frustrated with Luke or at least I get a little frustrated with Luke.
Joel Brooks:And a lot of my frustration is because Luke goes on and on and on about all of these other things that I honestly don't care that much about. He goes on and on about all of these trials and then another trial that looks just like it, and then another trial that looks just like it. Paul shares his testimony three times. How many times do I have to keep hearing this? He keeps going on and on about these things, but yet he doesn't tell whether Paul lives or dies.
Joel Brooks:And then Luke essentially writes a novel about a shipwreck. That's what we looked at last week. I mean, how many details could you give? It reminds me of when somebody comes home from a trip, and they're like, would you like to look at all my pictures? And you're like, you know, you have to say yes, even though you really don't want to.
Joel Brooks:And they're going through and they're just showing you everything. And they're pointing out every little detail. Luke does that in chapter 27 about the shipwreck. He keeps pointing out, and we saw that city, and we saw that city, and we saw that city. I'm not kidding.
Joel Brooks:Listen to the cities that Luke names from this journey when on this before the shipwreck. He says that they saw Sidon, Cyprus, Cilicia, Pamphylia, Myra, Elisha, Cnidus, Crete, Salmone, the Fair Havens, LaSalle, Cauda, Cyretus, Malta. And then when he finally arrives, he starts describing the ship itself. And we had these beautiful twin figureheads. They were named after these gods.
Joel Brooks:He begins telling you every direction the wind kept blowing. And you're like, what are you doing Luke? How can you give us all of that and yet you don't tell us one thing about Paul's trial? Does he live? Does he die?
Joel Brooks:Does he talk to Caesar or not? So many questions. This unusual ending to this book has, it's raised up a lot of questions with people. And and some people, they think, well, he he probably obviously ended it here because he didn't know what happened. I mean, he probably finished acts and Paul's still in prison and nothing's happened really at this point, so he just ends it.
Joel Brooks:The problem is that's not the case. Luke wrote Acts 20 years after Paul was executed. 20 years after he knows the full story. And just in case you want to know, do you want to know what happened to Paul? Yes.
Joel Brooks:We've been following him for a while. We kinda gather bits and pieces from 1st and 2nd Timothy and some from church tradition, but it actually does seem like Paul was released. He was released and then he goes to Spain. He's able to take the gospel to Spain for a year, and then there's the great Roman fire in 64 AD. And Nero blames Christians, and he rounds them up, and he executes Peter, and he executes Paul.
Joel Brooks:So it seems like Paul was released and he lived for another year before he was executed. And we know from church tradition, it says that Peter was crucified upside down. And Paul, because he was a Roman citizen, he could not be crucified. So he was beheaded. But that's not included here.
Joel Brooks:So why do we have this ending? I wanna give you 3 reasons. Three reasons I believe that Luke chose to end the book this way. First is this, when we look at Paul's life, he wants us to see it was really about the journey and not the destination. It was really about the journey and not the destination.
Joel Brooks:Simply from a literary standpoint, the shipwreck was the climax of Paul's life. It was certainly written that way. It's one of the reasons there are so many details in it. The journey is what mattered most, not so much as to what happened when Paul finally arrived. Yes.
Joel Brooks:Paul was going to glorify God when he got to Rome and he got to testify there, but Luke does not write that as the pinnacle of the story. He writes in such a way to show that Jesus was more glorified through the process of getting there. He was more glorified when we see how Paul trusted God in the midst of of the fierce storm, in the midst of the sinking boat. Jesus was more glorified when Paul trusted God in the midst of suffering and imprisonments. That's when Jesus was most glorified.
Joel Brooks:The journey itself mattered more than the destination. We just saw that because when he arrived in Rome, we find out God didn't even need him to establish a church there. It was never really about the destination. Now there's a there's a huge lesson here for us as believers because I don't know about you, but I know this about me. Often, I am really focused on some destination or the end product of something instead of the process of getting there.
Joel Brooks:A place that you can actually see this happening all the time is if you ever go to Disney. You go to Disney world and, you see, especially with the dads, I could look, I've been a couple of times And, you see this panic look on other dads. Because they have spent a lot of money. A lot of money to get their family there, you know, to make their sure their kids are happy. Because if you can't be happy at Disney, you can't be happy anywhere.
Joel Brooks:But but they are so driven for destinations. They're grabbing their kids, and they're their kids and they're just like pulling them along in the hot sun. They're like, we gotta hurry and get to Space Mountain. You know, we gotta hurry and get to Thunder Mountain. And they drug Kids drop their ice cream, and they're like, leave it.
Joel Brooks:Leave it. We gotta get there. You know? Princesses wanna talk to them, and they're like, don't talk. You know, we gotta They have to get to these destinations.
Joel Brooks:And when their kids start having meltdowns, they're like, don't you go crying on me. Do you know how much I have spent so that you can have a good time? And they're so fixed on destination, they actually forget the journey. And all the kid wants is just to be with mom and dad in this. And just to enjoy this entire time.
Joel Brooks:But there's something about this. We we we rarely focus in on the journey and the process because we're so focused on that end. And I know this is true with me. I I see this often with other pastors or in particular, church planters. I I work a lot with other church planters, and they are so focused, many of them, on that final product.
Joel Brooks:That final thing that they need to do. I must establish a church here. Otherwise, how will the gospel ever get here? And so they sacrifice their family. They sacrifice their wife and their children, so they can establish this.
Joel Brooks:They run over the team that's going with them, and they don't treat them like people created in the image of God. They treat them like tools that they could just use in order to build this one product. Because of course, that's what God wants. Isn't it? I gotta build this.
Joel Brooks:And Jesus is saying, I'm not glorified in that. I'm glorified in the entire journey. Would you love your family well? Would you walk in humility and kindness with the team that's going with you? I'm glorified in those things.
Joel Brooks:Now I've gotta ask you the question. I've got to ask you this, is there a destination that you have out there that you are so focused on? You are making many sacrifices for it. Way more than you should. And perhaps you're thinking, well, once I get there once I get there, then I can spend time with my friends or with my family.
Joel Brooks:Once I get there. Or once I get there, then I'll have enough money where I can actually, you know, give and tithe to the church or or give to the poor. Once I get there, well, then I'll have enough time where I can read my Bible more and I can pray. Once I get there, well then I'll I'll have more influence and then I could begin sharing my faith. And we keep thinking, once I get there, and we're just so focused on making every sacrifice getting there.
Joel Brooks:God's saying, no it's the journey. I can do that with anybody, but I need you to glorify me and have faith in me every step of the way. I believe Luke writes acts this way because he wants to teach us that the journey itself matters. 2nd reason, I think, Luke ends this way is to remind us that Paul is not the hero of this story. Acts is not about Peter, and it's not about Paul.
Joel Brooks:It's about Jesus and His gospel advancing. It's about the glorious news of the kingdom of God advancing to the very ends of the earth. It's about the rule and reign of Jesus being established in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria, and now to the ends of the earth. Jesus is the hero of this story. Luke does not tell us about the last 25 years of Peter's life.
Joel Brooks:We know nothing about them. We don't know what happened to Paul or to John or to Philip or to Silas or to Barnabas. Because the stories we've been reading was never really about them. It's always been about Jesus. And Luke reminds us of this here.
Joel Brooks:The story is not about whether Paul lives or dies. The story is about how the gospel advances whether Paul lives or dies. The gospel will advance. Even if Paul's left in prison. Even if Paul is killed.
Joel Brooks:There's no amount of beatings, no amount of riots or shipwrecks or snake bites that can stop the kingdom of God. The gates of Hades, Hades itself cannot stand against the march of the Kingdom of God. And this is good news for us. The last words of acts are so key for us to understand this movement and this advancement that we see of the kingdom of God in Acts. Let's read the verse 30 and 31 again.
Joel Brooks:He lived there 2 whole years at His own expense. He welcomed all who came to Him proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is not Jesus' last name. Christ is Messiah or the king. So the Lord Jesus, the king of the kingdom of God, with all boldness and without hindrance.
Joel Brooks:Paul is in prison proclaiming that the Kingdom of God and the Lordship of Jesus is going forth with all boldness and without hindrance. And that word without hindrance is just one word and that's how Paul chooses to or Luke chooses to end the book of Acts with without hindrance. It means to let loose. No obstacles. Nothing stopping it.
Joel Brooks:It's the perfect word to end this account. Paul actually wrote something similar to this, to Timothy in 2nd Timothy chapter 2. He wrote this. This is 2nd Timothy is the last letter he ever wrote. He's just about to be executed.
Joel Brooks:And he writes these words from prison. Remember Jesus Christ risen from the dead. The offspring of David as for which I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal. But the word of God is not bound. I am bound.
Joel Brooks:But the word of God is not bound. What an incredible hope that is for us because a day might come when we begin to lose some of our freedoms here even in America. Some of our religious freedoms that we have and when that happens, we need to remind ourselves that although those freedoms are taken away, the word of God is not bound. That although a day might come where we lose our jobs, maybe lose our properties for being a Christian, the word of God still is not bound. A day might come when legislation is passed, law is passed, that we can no longer share our faith openly, publicly.
Joel Brooks:And if that happens, that's fine because the Word of God is not bound. There might be a day we were even thrown in prison. But the Word of God will never be bound. It cannot be bound. Nothing can hold it back.
Joel Brooks:The gospel is going forth unhindered, unleashed. A couple of weeks ago, I was asked by somebody, so what do you hope to do with your life? That that's always a humbling question. Because you know what the implications are. Like, I see what you've been doing for the last few years, Joel.
Joel Brooks:And, I'm just wondering, what actually do you want to do with your life? And I've been asked this question multiple times, which is also pretty telling. And maybe you've been asked that question as well. And when I've been asked that question, I always give the same answer. Well, I hope to preach the gospel, die and be forgotten.
Joel Brooks:Preach the gospel, die, and be forgotten. And I usually get these few looks and I'm like, well, 2 of those things are gonna happen regardless. Alright? All of us are gonna die and be forgotten so you might as well preach the gospel beforehand. That should be everybody's calling to preach the gospel and die and be forgotten.
Joel Brooks:Because all of us will die and all of us will be forgotten. A question. How many of you, I want you to think of your grandparents. How many of you can name their full names? First, middle, last name of all 4 grandparents.
Joel Brooks:I wanna raise a hands. Kenny? We've got I'll put it at 9. There are horrible grandchildren. Actually, you've had the most of any service.
Joel Brooks:1st, we had 7. At 11 o'clock, we had 0. Okay. You owe your lives to those people. You wouldn't be here if it wasn't for those people.
Joel Brooks:You have photo albums with many pictures of them, yet you hardly know a thing about them. If that happens to them, it's gonna happen to you. We will die and we will be forgotten. So you better cling to the gospel, which will never die and never be forgotten. The gospel in which is our only hope.
Joel Brooks:Let's look at the third reason. The third reason that Luke ends acts this way. It's his way of telling us this, the story continues. The story continues. We've we've been over a year in Acts now, and we've got to see Luke write about many, many things.
Joel Brooks:He wrote about the ascension of Jesus, and then he wrote about Pentecost and how the spirit descended and rested as tongues of fire on the apostles. Luke has told us stories about conversions, miracles, triumphs, trials, beheadings, imprisonments, shipwrecks. He's brought before us all types of characters. We've we've seen beggars. We've seen the lame.
Joel Brooks:We've seen widows. We've seen eunuchs. We've seen kids falling from 2 story windows. We've seen all assortments of characters in this. And some of these have been introduced to us by name.
Joel Brooks:And so we've met Peter, and Paul, and John, and Philip, and Stephen, and Barnabas and Silas. And so we've been seeing this drama unfolding with its cast. And now Luke is saying, the drama is still being told and it's time for you to join the cast. You're joining in this story. You are one of the cast.
Joel Brooks:The story is now yours to pick up and to carry on. You see, if if Luke had ended acts by telling of Paul's death or even by by telling how Paul went and he got to testify before Caesar. If Luke had ended with that, we would have thought, well there's the climax of the story. We finally reached the climax of the story and Luke is saying, that's not the climax of the story. The climax of the story is when Jesus returns and He brings His kingdom with Him.
Joel Brooks:There's the climax. Until then, the story continues in which we all play a part. We're all cast members of this, unfolding drama, but the climax is ahead of us when our glorious King comes. If you wanna pick back up the Britney Spears analogy, because let's be honest, all things go back to Britney here. Amen.
Joel Brooks:Yes. It's so sad. That's the only amen I get. You know, in the middle of the song, you know, maybe you're going into what you think is that is the final chorus there. If the car is cut off, what do you do?
Joel Brooks:What do you do? You sing. You sing. You pick up where it left off. Luke has been playing for us this glorious, glorious tune.
Joel Brooks:And he's getting now to where we think is the climax and then he just cuts it off. He just cuts it off. And now he says, you're supposed to carry the tune. It's time for you to sing. And you sing it loud and you sing it joyfully.
Joel Brooks:And that's what we do moving forward. We keep carrying this gospel tune. At the start of acts, I mentioned that when you go through this book that is all about, missions, you'll actually never find the word missionary. It's not in anywhere in the book of acts because that's just implied when you're a Christian, you are a missionary. You're one who carries this tune to others.
Joel Brooks:You you proclaim the gospel to other people. Matter of fact, if you look in the bible, you're really gonna find it categorizes people only 2 ways. You are either a missionary or you are the mission field. You're one of those two things. You either go to people and you declare to them the Lord ship of Jesus and how they are to repent of their sins and cling only to Him for their salvation, or you are one who's in desperate need of that message.
Joel Brooks:You're either a missionary or the mission field. So so how can we participate this? How can we continue to sing this gospel song? And what I would say is that what we need to do is live lives that provoke the people around us. That's really when you look at all of the characters we've seen over the book of acts, that's really what they have done.
Joel Brooks:Hasn't really been that extraordinary, but they've they've lived lives that have demanded an answer. I would call this a holy provocation. And there's simple ways that we could do this. Something that's kind of gone out of fashion now among Christians is just simply saying a blessing at a meal when you're in public. I'm not talking about Chick Fil A.
Joel Brooks:That doesn't count. You have Everybody is supposed to do that when you go there. Outside of Chick Fil A, actually bowing your head and thanking God for the food. You will be amazed at how many people notice and they respond. What is that person doing?
Joel Brooks:We did that, our family did that in Istanbul. We just held hands and we thank God for the meal. We just did like, you know, 5 seconds. Quick prayer. And one of the waiters across the room came up and goes, what was that?
Joel Brooks:What what you were holding hands and you had and we're like, we were praying to Jesus. And we got to share the gospel right there. Some of you would never dream of doing that in front of your coworkers or your friends. Do that. It's a holy provocation to which they notice.
Joel Brooks:What are they doing and why? Other things you could do is just simply tithe. Be generous to the poor. Your coworkers, they're gonna think, wait that person makes the same amount that I do, but they're living a lifestyle way below mine. Because they're just giving their money away.
Joel Brooks:Why? And they will begin to ask, give me a reason for the hope that you have, which is what Peter talks about. They'll demand that. How? Why are you doing that?
Joel Brooks:Or it can be just opening up your home, being hospitable. Invite 276 prisoners into your house. And invite your coworker to your house. The person you work out in the gym with. Invite them over for a meal, and you will be amazed at how the gospel explodes when we move past what I would call kindness into a gospel hospitality.
Joel Brooks:Just about every Christian is kind, but not that many Christians are hospitable. And that's when the gospel flourishes. And then of course, you could just share the gospel openly with people. Some of us, we we tell ourselves, we trick ourselves into thinking, well we're just building a relationship bridge with them. And you've been working on these relationships for years now and really all that is is a bridge to nowhere.
Joel Brooks:It's time for you to mention that you actually love Jesus and to share the gospel with these people. And to be faithful in the message that you've been given. My my girls, and they're not alone. There's a there's a few of their friends who do this as well. They have come up with something called celebrity slam dunk.
Joel Brooks:And, basically, when some celebrity, you know, tweets something about how miserable their lives are or about how they have a hole in their heart, they call it a gospel slam dunk. They get out these letter. They get out their stationary and they write that person a letter. And they find a way that they can address it, you know, and find where they need to send it, so they can send that person the gospel. And say that hole in your heart, only one person can fix it.
Joel Brooks:All of us need to be looking around. Some people actually are tweeting about the hole in their heart, but other people you could just look at over a cup of coffee and you could realize your life is broken. And you could give them the good news of Jesus Christ. We need to live lives of holy provocation in which we are provoking people to ask us, please give me a reason for the hope that you have. Alright.
Joel Brooks:So Luke stops here and he he turns off the car and he tells us to keep carrying the tune. And this is a tune now that has been carried for almost 2000 years. And I would say to you that this is a tune that's been getting louder and louder and louder. It's a good time to be alive as we see that the gospel is going forth unhindered. Did you know that in 1900, so about 1900 years, you know, after the the church was established, a little less than that, but about 9 in the year 1900, only 2 a half percent of the world's population were practicing Christians.
Joel Brooks:Only 2 a half percent. But then 70 years after that, in 1970, 5% of the world's population were practicing Christians. It doubled in 70 years what took almost 1900 years to establish. Well then 40 years later in 2010, 12 and a half percent of the world's population now claims to be Christian. That's that's exponential growth that we are seeing now within our lifetime.
Joel Brooks:Now one out of every 7 people alive today are practicing Christians. That's good news. This number is growing. In Africa, a 100 years ago, there were only 9,000,000 Christians. Today, there are over 541,000,000 practicing Christians in Africa.
Joel Brooks:Making it the 1st continent where more than half of its population is practicing Christians. That's astounding. One out of every 4 Christians on earth is an African. Even hard to reach places like India, which is extremely hard, to for people to be reached with the gospel. They're reporting 15,000 baptisms a month.
Joel Brooks:That's nothing compared to the 10 1,000 new converts a day in China. 10,000 a day. More people have come to know Christ in China in the last 15 years than in the last 15 centuries. The gospel is going forth unhindered. South Korea in 1900 was 1% Christian.
Joel Brooks:Today, it is over 30% Christian. As a result of massive missionary efforts there, missionaries went there and started 293 schools. 40 universities they started, which which not only just gave this great education, but told how Jesus was the center of it all. What we see is the gospel going forth unhindered. Christianity now is growing at twice the rate twice the rate of the population growth in Asian countries.
Joel Brooks:The gospels going forth unhindered. It's a great time to be alive. JD Greer, who's the president of the Southern Baptist Convention, he recently wrote that by the end of the first century, so the end of the first century, there was only 1 church for every 12 unreached people groups. And I actually like those odds. I mean, I'm like, shoot.
Joel Brooks:Give redeemer 12 unreached people groups, we'll get after it. I mean, I I like that. But he says that now, today, there are 900 churches for every one unreached people group. We're seeing the great commission being fulfilled. The gospel going forth unhindered.
Joel Brooks:The question is, have you gotten on board with that? Are you singing that gospel tune? Are you? And the key is not for you to just try to sing it louder for your neighbor. That's not really what works.
Joel Brooks:It's not when you say you need the gospel. The gospel has advanced most throughout the years. Not when we say you need the gospel, but to say that we need the gospel. And that you never outgrow your need for the gospel. You never outgrow the wonder of the gospel and how Jesus saved you when you're on the path to hell.
Joel Brooks:And all you can do is just sing about that. That's why we have Paul giving us testimony over and over and over in the book of acts, because he never got over the reality that Jesus appeared to him, when he's on the path to hell and plucked him out of the listen even when He's literally in prison and all of the prisoners listen in. Are you singing? Has the gospel so captivated your heart? As these dramas unfolded, we have seen people like Paul and Peter and Stephen and Barnabas and Silas and Philip, all calling for us to join in.
Joel Brooks:I am so thankful that Jesus, although He does not need us to establish anything, He doesn't just call us to Himself. He calls us to be part of His mission. And what a privilege that is. Pray with me. Lord Jesus, we simply pray that we would proclaim your lordship, your kingdom, your reign with all boldness and without any hindrance.
Joel Brooks:All for your glory and for our joy. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen.