Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Sermons and messages from Pastor Jason White and others at Colonial Hills Baptist Church in Tyler, TX
We're going to be starting in verse 17 of Acts chapter 28 in just a moment. We're going to be going all the way through the end of the chapter, and when we get there, I'm here to tell you today that we will have completely finished the entire book of Acts. Yes, one year ago today, on this same Sunday, one year ago, we started in Acts chapter one, verse one, and today we will finish all 28 chapters, all 1006 verses, and all 24,000 words that Doctor Luke, inspired by the Holy Spirit, wrote in this great book of Acts. We will have covered 30 years of church history, the way that the church was birthed. We will have covered over 10,000 miles, watching the gospel spread all throughout the Roman Empire, and it has truly been an amazing journey to see how far Christianity has has spread during this time that we've been focusing in on in the first century, and how many lives were truly being changed, transformed with the good news of Jesus Christ, but the thing is, is if you remember all the way back to this Sunday last year, we looked at chapter one, verse eight, where Jesus met with his disciples and told us that this exact thing was going to happen. That this is what he was going to do all the way back in Acts chapter one verse eight. Jesus stood before his disciples. This was after his finished work on the cross to pay for our sins. After God had raised him from the dead, he had spent time meeting his disciples and with the disciples and all of the things that he had been doing to continue to disciple them and encourage them, and I promise you, I'm still here. I'm just back here. We'll see if that works. Just one of the many hats that I get to wear, you know, technician guru right here. No, so so Jesus met with his disciples after his resurrection, before his ascension, and he told them right here that you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and all to the ends of the earth. And you may remember that he met with them, and even just before them, he said to wait. Like, don't go and do anything. Like, I know you've been spending three years with me, but don't go run off and start trying to share the gospel. Just wait until the Holy Spirit comes, because you need to be baptized by the Holy Spirit. He says, "There's this this spiritual transformation, this new birth that's going to occur when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and that will happen, he says, "because you will receive power, like God's power will start to dwell in you, and because you have access to that, then and only then will you be my witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and all the way to the ends of the earth. And then right after Jesus tells them this, they wait. And then in Acts chapter two, we see it happen. We see at Pentecost the Holy Spirit does come, and they start speaking in different languages, and these supernatural things are happening, and people are wondering what is going on. And so now, Peter, who actually has the Holy Spirit dwelling in him, who has access to a power dwelling in him permanently that he didn't have before that moment, is emboldened by that power and guided by that power. Who is God? Remember, the Holy Spirit is not a power. He is God, the third member of the Trinity, and God now dwelling in Him begins to speak through Him and share the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ, with those who are standing around. And when He does so, then 3000 people respond to the gospel. Remember, they're cut to the heart, and they say we missed it. We missed who Jesus was, and we don't know what to do now. And He says, "Repent, which just means to change your mind. Change your mind about what you were believing in Jesus, and believe the truth that He is the Lord and the the Messiah that was sent, and the one that can save you from your sins. And then get baptized, and they did.
3000 people get baptized to show that all of their sins were washed away in that moment. That that they put their faith and trust in Jesus, and that the old them was dead, buried, and gone, and that they were not who they once were. And then we have this beautiful picture of the church coming together, and the Holy Spirit leads them to worship together as the church and to pray together. And to learn together, and to serve together, and he he uses that to draw even more people to his love and to his grace. Because you may remember at the end of chapter two, it says that the Lord added to their number daily. Why? Because of the unity. Because they were together. Because of them doing life together. He captured the attention of a lost and dying world around them and added them to the church, and it just continued to grow there in Jerusalem. The problem was is that at some point, as the church continued to grow and all of these great things were happening, the church began to face persecution from Jewish religious leaders who didn't believe that Jesus was the Messiah, and they were trying to put an end to all of this nonsense. One of those guys was a guy named Saul, and he was the chief persecutor of those in the church, and he was responsible for most of the persecution. And the really amazing thing that we saw on this journey. If you've been here, or if you've ever just read the Book of Acts and you weren't here, then one of the most amazing things that happened is that Saul, a guy who was out to persecute and destroy the church, who did not believe that Jesus was who he said he was, that Jesus encounters him. He reveals himself to him on the road to Damascus, and he doesn't do so to punish him, but to offer him that same grace, that same forgiveness. And Saul becomes Paul. He receives his Jesus's forgiveness. He becomes a new creation in Christ who gets invited into the church and has the opportunity to go on mission. And Jesus sent him on three different missionary journeys that we've read all about throughout the verse, the book of Acts, going verse by verse. And churches get planted, and he goes back and and disciples them. And this is happening kind of all over the Roman Empire, except for in Rome itself. And Paul is wanting to get to go there and share the gospel, and even beyond there into to Spain, and and it just hasn't happened yet. But Paul begins to experience persecution along the way, and by the time that we get to the end of Acts chapter 28, where we're finishing up today, the apostle Paul has experienced that persecution in a way where he's been falsely charged, he's been falsely imprisoned for over two years, and he can't get a fair trial, and so he's appealed to Caesar, and then he goes on this perilous journey to Rome to appeal to Caesar and to defend himself before him. And there's a there's a shipwreck. They end up on an island called Malta. They have to be there for three, you know, months. Paul gets bitten by a snake and just shakes it off into the fire, and the Holy Spirit prevents anything from happening to him. and And and God is at work in and through it all. And then finally, they end up in Rome, and that is where he is at right now, in prison, in Caesar's palace, awaiting his trial before him. Now, Paul wasn't seen as a threat, and so he actually had the chance to kind of live by himself and to have visitors. and And Paul takes advantage of that as we begin this last section of Acts today. Luke says three days later, so three days after they finally arrived in Rome, he, referring to Paul, called together the local Jewish leaders, and when they had assembled, Paul said to them, "My brothers, although I have done nothing against our people or against the customs of our ancestors, I was arrested in Jerusalem and handed over to the Romans.
They examined me and wanted to release me because I was not guilty of any crime deserving death, but the Jews objected, and so I was compelled to make an appeal to Caesar. I certainly did not intend to bring any charges against my own people, and for this reason, I have asked to see you and talk with you. It is because of the hope of Israel that I am bound with this chain. So, Paul, remember, it's taken him forever to get here. We read this whole journey last week of all the ins and outs. They were blown off course, and the hurricane winds, and all the things about how they ended up in Malta-they were there three months-and so no doubt Paul probably feels like you know what-all of these Jewish religious leaders who this started with all the way back in Jerusalem, knowing that I was coming here to appeal to Caesar, are probably already here. They're already probably either here or they've sent word to the local Jewish religious leaders that Paul is meeting with right now, so that they're aware. And so Paul, assuming that they're already kind of aware of his situation, begins to try to defend himself to them, and we'll see their reaction in just a moment. But I want to point out here that he says, for this reason, I. Asked to see you and talk with you, it is because here's why of the hope of Israel that I am bound with this chain. The question is, what is the hope of Israel? Well, the answer to that is not so much a what, but a who. The hope of Israel is the Messiah, the one that they were hoping would come? The one that they were they were hoping would would come to inaugurate his his kingdom and and who would make all things right. Well, he had come, and his name was Jesus. And Paul knew this, and he's saying that's why I'm in chains because this hope of Israel that we're all hoping in and putting all of our hope in has come, and it's because He's come that I am in chains today. Of course, the problem is that the Jewish religious leaders didn't really believe that they weren't looking for that kind of Messiah. They weren't looking for a Messiah who was going to suffer and one who would eventually die in the way that Jesus died, and so they were out to get Paul, and so Paul's trying to defend himself to them. But look at how they react. Verse 21. They replied, "We have not received any letters from Judea concerning you, and none of our people who have come from there has reported or said anything bad about you. So he probably assumed that they were either there or these guys knew, and he was starting to kind of defend himself. And they're like, "We don't even know who you are, dude. You know, we don't know what's going on. But watch how they respond now in verse 22. But we do want to hear what your views are, for we know that people everywhere are talking against this sect. They arranged to meet Paul on a certain day, and came in even larger numbers to the place where he was staying. And so, it's amazing that Paul is in jail, and God is still finding a way to give him an audience to share the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ, right? I mean, he has the opportunity to bring them in, and even a large number of people, larger numbers than were there, come to hear him share about the gospel. And and and remember, this is what the apostle Paul lived for. He traveled around on missionary journeys, preaching and sharing the good news of Jesus, tracing it back to the old covenant and the scriptures, and who was to come, and those Jesus being the fulfillment of all of those things. And remember, he's in jail, which means that Paul doesn't have anywhere that he has to be or anything that he has to do. He's got all day to share the gospel with these guys, and apparently, that's what he does. Look at the way verse 23 continues. He witnessed to them from morning till evening, and some of you thought my sermons were long.
He witnessed to them from morning, he preached to them all day. He shared the gospel all day, explaining about the kingdom of God and from the law of Moses and from the prophets. He tried to persuade them about Jesus. So we're told here what he was doing. He was explaining what about the kingdom Of God, why? Well, the Jewish the Jews believed that the Messiah, who was coming, would come one day to establish His kingdom, to to be a king, to rule and to reign. But of course, they thought that he would completely take over Rome and the Romans and and relieve them from the oppression that they were in, kind of establishing this political and and and territorial kingdom, if you will, just like the days of King David when there was a united Jewish kingdom in that way. And so this was the hope that they had, but that's not what Jesus, the Messiah, who is the Messiah and the fulfillment of those. He didn't come to do that at his first coming, and they didn't understand that. They didn't understand that he had to spiritually establish his kingdom first, and that this would include him having to suffer. This would include him having to die in order for them to be reconciled to God and become part of His spiritual kingdom, and so what does He do? Well, He explains about the kingdom of God from what does He use? Not His own opinion, not the things that He just thinks are right. Like He goes to Scripture and He explains this from the law of Moses and from the prophets, and so he goes back to show them that the law was actually given to reveal their sin problem, in that their need for they had a need for a savior. I mean, there was no way that they were going to be. To fulfill and obey all 613 Levitical commandments that they had, and God gave them that to reveal more about His holiness in His character, and to reveal more about their ultimate sin problem and how there was no way they could measure up to His standard. And so He uses the law of Moses to show them the truth about that and how the Messiah then would come not to establish this big kingdom, territorial, and all that, but to deal with their sin problem first and foremost. And if he tooks them to the prophets, he probably took them to some place like Isaiah chapter 53, where there's this information, prophetic information about a suffering servant, that the Messiah who would come would suffer, and that he would be the one to take the sins of the world away, and so it was all right there. Prophecy about a new covenant replacing the old covenant, Jeremiah 31 and Ezekiel 36 and all of what the law of Moses to persuade them about Jesus that He is the fulfillment He really is the Messiah even if it didn't happen the way that you thought it was going to happen in the way that He established His kingdom he did but it's a spiritual kingdom first and foremost until He comes back the second time. Some, after they heard this, Luke says, were convinced by what he said, meaning that they changed what they believed about Jesus and began to believe the truth about Jesus. And they put their faith and trust in him for salvation. They had their sins forgiven. They became part of the church, and were sons and daughters of God, and a part of His mission with them together. But of course, others would not believe, and this is the way it's been ever since Jesus began to use the church to share the gospel, and it's the way, unfortunately, that it continues today. Sometimes it's right there and under our noses, but some of us are just not going to see it, and they, these others, would not believe. They wouldn't open their minds to it, and so he finishes by highlighting how Scripture even talked about how that would happen one day. So he takes them to Isaiah six. Look at what he says. They disagreed among themselves and began to leave after Paul had made this final statement, and this is from Isaiah six in the Old Testament.
Says the the Holy Spirit spoke the truth to your ancestors when he said through Isaiah, the prophet, go to these people and say, you will be ever hearing, but never understanding; you will be ever seeing, but never perceiving, for this people's heart has become calloused. They hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise, they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn. And I would heal them. Therefore, I want you to know that God's salvation has been sent to the Gentiles, and they will listen. You may not listen, although it's right there under your eyes because you put your your spiritual blinders on, you put your your earplugs in to avoid hearing what I'm saying, and they've allowed their hearts to become calloused. No matter how much evidence, how much proof in Jesus being the fulfillment of the very scriptures that they read, they would not allow themselves to go there. And unfortunately, many Jewish people today, and maybe even some of us will not allow ourselves to go there. No matter how much evidence, no matter how much proof, we just put our blinders on, our earplugs. We will not let ourselves go there. And my open prayer is that you would truly be open, like truly be open to who Jesus is, and allowing Him to reveal Himself to you in what He accomplished on the cross for the complete forgiveness of your sins and the salvation that He offers to you, no matter who you are, no matter where you've been, no matter what it is that you have done. His grace is available to you, and I pray that you will not close him off. That is where these people are. You may notice when we go on, verse 29 is in brackets, and there really is no words. And then verse 30 starts, and we've talked about this before when we've come to these situations. It doesn't happen very often, but there are a few times in Scripture when the oldest manuscripts that we have, the oldest manuscripts that we have, do not have a verse 29. What's written here? Some of the older copies that scribes were copying have a sentence that's there in verse 29, and so the NIV and several other translations just assume that sentence. It's not in the earliest manuscripts, the ones closest to the time that it was being copied, and Jesus lived. And it seems like maybe it was added later, like a scribe who was copying it decided that it would add a little bit of clarification to what is being said here, and so they just don't include it for that reason because they can't prove that it really was part of the original scriptures, verse 30, Luke says, "For two whole years, Paul stayed there in Rome, in his own rented house, and welcomed all who came to see him. And he finishes up and says, he proclaimed the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and Without hindrance, this is quite an incredible statement that Luke makes here as he ends. The word translated "without hindrance" or in other translations "unhindered" simply means not slowed down, not blocked, not prevented. In other words, even though the apostle Paul was bound by chains in prison, Luke is saying the gospel was not prevented from going out. It was not bound by chains. It was not slowed down from being spread into other people's lives. It's an unstoppable gospel. That's what Luke is saying in the way he kind of finishes up here, and we know that while he was here for two whole years, that God was at work in and through Paul without hindrance. How do we know that to be true? Well, during this time, we know that the apostle Paul wrote what we refer to as the prison epistles. He wrote Philippians. He wrote Colossians. He wrote Ephesians, and he wrote Philemon. And so, the Lord was at work.
The Holy Spirit inspiring Paul to write these amazing new covenant letters to churches in these areas that we have access today, continuing to disciple them in regard to the current situations that they were in, things going on in their church that he had become aware of, but also preserving them for us to learn more about the church today, to learn more about the truth of who Jesus is, what happens to us when we put our faith and trust in Jesus and become part of the same church today. And so, of course, the Lord Jesus Christ was was at work in and through Him with all boldness and without hindrances. He even wrote about the gospel, and and we have those records today. And let me just show you in Philippians one of those letters that he was writing while he was here in prison. Let me show you what he says, verse 12 of chapter one in Philippians. While he's in prison, he's in Rome right now, and he's writing these letters down. He says, "Now I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that what has happened to me has actually served to advance the gospel. I mean, that does not seem possible. What makes sense is that if the apostle Paul, the great evangelist, the apostle Paul, the Billy Graham of his day times 100, was in jail, that the gospel would stop being advanced, and Paul has the audacity to say, actually, it's been the opposite. What has happened is that it's actually served to advance the gospel. As a result, he says, because of that being true, has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ. Who is the palace guard? These are the Roman soldiers that are part of guarding Caesar's palace and overseeing Paul. And and what we know to be true about these guys is that they rotated on these these four hour shifts, and they actually chained themselves to the prisoner, and so you'd have one of these palace guards come in to guard Paul, and they would chain themselves to Paul for four hours, and then you'd have another one come in, and he would chain himself to Paul for four hours, and so you gotta know that what was happening is the moment one of those guards sat down. That the apostle Paul was like, "Well, it looks like I've got four hours to tell you about Jesus. And then the next one comes in and says, "I've got four hours to tell you about Jesus. And the next one, and then when they came back and there was a rotation of these guys, he says, "Now, where did we leave off when I was telling you about Jesus last time, right? And all of the things sharing the gospel. And guys, do you know that when you and I take our final breath here on earth and we go to heaven, that you and I are going to see some of the very guards and their families in heaven with. One day, because of the Lord being at work in and through Paul, even while he was in jail, to share the good news with those who were punishing him and holding him prisoner there. So this is one of the ways that the Lord was at work to advance the gospel. Was even writing these these letters, sharing the gospel with the Roman guards, but then look at the next thing that he says in verse 14 about how it was advanced as well. He says, "And because of my chains, most of the brothers and sisters have become confident in the Lord and dare all the more to proclaim the gospel without fear, because of my chains, because I'm in prison, because they've seen me become confident in the Lord, even in my situation, to share the gospel with the very guards who are responsible for punishing me, because they're seeing that the Lord is transforming and changing their lives, brothers and sisters. Who is that?
His spiritual brothers, his spiritual sisters, men and women who had put their faith and trust in Jesus, who were now part of his family, the family of God, sons and daughters of God, who also had the Holy Spirit dwelling in them, saw what the Holy Spirit was doing in and through Paul in this way, and he inspired them to become confident in the Lord themselves. He didn't inspire them to become more like Paul, to trust in themselves and that they could do it. He said, "Inspired them to become confident in the Lord, the Lord who is dwelling in them and who works through them to share the gospel, and so they dare all the more now to proclaim the gospel without fear. And so now, in all these other communities, all these places where churches were planted and regular people like you and me were living in their communities, were emboldened by the Spirit, inspired through the way He was working through Paul, so that more and more people in their communities. So even though Paul's in jail, the great evangelist and couldn't be out there doing that, the Lord was at work through regular people like you and me in the church to advance the gospel. Why? Because it is an unstoppable gospel. You cannot stop what the Lord said He was going to do in Acts chapter one, in verse eight, where He says, "When the Holy Spirit comes on you, you'll receive My power, and you'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria to the ends of the earth. When you and I put our faith and trust in Jesus for salvation, the same Holy Spirit comes to dwell in us, and that mission continues today. I don't know if you were kind of thinking this when Luke finished Acts, but it seems like it just kind of comes to this abrupt ending, if you will. Like we don't really get any closure on the Apostle Paul and and what happened with him. The book just ends whenever he says that declaration that he was emboldened and and shared it without hindrance. And why does the Holy Spirit inspire Doctor Luke to just stop writing at this point? I personally think that one of the reasons the Holy Spirit inspired him to start like that is because that means honestly that there is no real end to the Book of Acts, meaning there's really no end to the spread of the gospel, guys. The Book of Acts is not finished because it's really not the the acts of the apostles; it's the acts of Jesus through the apostles, and we even see the acts of Jesus through other people, brothers and sisters in the church in this moment, so it's not just a description of them; it's a description of the work of Jesus through the Holy Spirit working in and through the church, and the church still exists today. So, so after Paul ended up dying, Jesus began to write Acts chapter 29 with the rest of the church who was living in the first century, and when those people died, Jesus through the Holy Spirit began to write Acts chapter 30 with the Christians and the believers in the church that were living in the second century, and then Acts chapter 31 in the next century, and so on and so on. And I don't know where that makes it today, but whatever chapter we're in, we're part of the story of Acts. It's still being written through you and through me today, and so we enter into it along with those 2000 years ago, who are involved in the same mission of going and making disciples, being His witnesses, and so the moment. That you and I put our faith in Jesus, we are rescued from our sins, we are made new creations in Christ, we have eternal life assured even in that moment, and we are invited into participating in that mission of reaching the ends of the earth, sharing the gospel to the ends of the earth with Him, and when you and I keep our eyes fixed on Him, His power, we're living life in the Spirit because that's what that means. The Holy Spirit dwells in us, and we're just living our life in a way where we're depending upon the Holy Spirit to be at work in us and through us.
This is not some spiritual thing where we close our eyes and all of a sudden we kind of just transfigure into somewhere else, another realm of things, if you will, for life in the Spirit in this mysterious way. It's the manifestation of Jesus Himself through the Spirit working in us and through us to use our mouth and our actions to share the gospel with other people, to love them and serve them and invite them into it as well. And so, when you and I do that personally, when you and I, as Colonial Hills Baptist Church together, are drawing upon His strength, guys. The gospel will be unstoppable, just like it was at the end of Acts chapter 28. Because again, that story is still being written today. Let's pray.