Acts 28:17-31 - The Gospel and the End of the Road

Podcast Transcript (Auto-Transcribed by Apple Podcasts)

Well, my friends, we have reached the end of an era. 48 episodes later, we have completed a verse by verse study through the entire book of Acts.

I hope you have enjoyed this time in God's Word that as we see how God works, what He does, how He loves and cares for His people, the miraculous mission that we are given from Jesus Himself to go into the entire world, first in Jerusalem, and then

Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the earth, that as we've seen the Holy Spirit come and indwell believers, as we've seen the preaching of the gospel go out, as we've seen deacons be installed in the first church, and seen how God views the

seriousness of sin and how He wants His church to be pure, as we've seen those that were enemies of the gospel become its strongest proponents, as we've seen God take care of people in times of incredible difficulty, as we've seen Him do miracles, to

use earthquakes, to break open prison doors, to save those who were in shipwrecks, as He saved Paul yesterday from snake bites. I hope all of this would encourage you that you are part of something incredible, that God has done for 2,000 years and

He's not done. He wants to work in your life, that the people that were saved here in the Book of Acts, those weren't intended to be the last people that got saved. The works and the revivals that took place of large groups of people accepting Jesus,

that wasn't just for the first century. God wants to do it again. So may we have this heart as we end the Book of Acts today, that we want to continue that mission going forward, that we want to see people saved, not just because someone else

witnessed to them or someone else shared the gospel, but we want to get in on the action, that whether we are a Paul or a Barnabas or a Philip or Philip's four daughters or we are Lydia or we are any of the people that we've heard about in the Book

of Acts, that we'd say, man, whether or not I've got a great bombastic personality or I'm just, you know, a quiet young person, I want to be involved in what God is doing. We start today in Acts 28 17. Paul has now arrived in Rome and here's what

happens. After three days, he called together the leaders of the Jews.

When they had gathered, he said to them, brothers, although I have done nothing against our people or the customs of our ancestors, I was delivered as a prisoner from Jerusalem into the hands of the Romans.

After they examined me, they wanted to release me since there was no reason for the death penalty in my case. Because the Jews objected, I was compelled to appeal to Caesar, even though I had no charge to bring against my people.

For this reason, I've asked to see you and speak to you. In fact, it is for the hope of Israel that I'm wearing this chain. So here he brings together the Jews and he's going to declare the Gospel to them.

Then they said to him, We haven't received any letters about you from Judea. None of the brothers have come and reported or spoken anything evil about you.

But we want to hear what your views are, since we know that people everywhere are speaking against this sect. So here they go, Well, we haven't gotten anything from Jerusalem that's like, Hey, watch out for Paul. He's the worst.

Even though Paul had been imprisoned there in Caesarea for multiple years. So he eventually appealed to Caesar, and the Jews didn't send any letter forward to warn the Jews in Rome about, Hey, Paul is going to preach about Jesus, about the way.

And so now the Jews here are going, We've heard everyone speaking against the way, but we want to hear it from you. What are your views after arranging a day with him? Many came to him at his lodging from dawn to dusk.

He expounded and testified about the kingdom of God. He tried to persuade them about Jesus from both the law of Moses and the prophets. So we've talked before.

It's kind of shorthand for the Old Testament. The Jews had to this day still have the law still have the Old Testament. They call it the Tanakh.

So it's three letters T, N and K that form an acronym. So Tanakh T the Torah, the first five books of the Bible, the Netuvim, which is the prophets. Their Old Testament is in a different order.

Same exact books as we have, but it's in a different order. So you have some of the history of Israel as well as some of the main writings. So you have the Torah, the Netuvim, so the law of the prophets, and then the Ketuvim, which is the writings.

And that includes a lot of the books of poetry, things like Ruth, first and second Chronicles are in there.

So Paul says, Luke's writing that Paul tried to persuade them about Jesus from the entirety of Scripture, going, hey, all of this pointed to Jesus.

I also noticed it says he from dawn to dusk, he expounded and testified about the kingdom of God, that this was something he was passionate about, that it wasn't just a maybe 30 minute Ted Talk.

This was from the moment the sun got up to the moment the sun went down. He was able to talk about Jesus.

I'd encourage you, not all of us are like Paul in that we could talk for, you know, 12 hours, however long this would have been about God or the Gospel or the Bible, but I'd encourage you, let's continue to learn more and more about our faith so that

maybe if it's not 12 hours, we could at least talk to people and try and convince them, hey, I know what Jesus has done in my life. I know that his word is true.

I know that what he's promised has come to pass, that we would have a heart that would go, okay, maybe I can't do 12 hours, but I want to continue learning. So maybe I could talk with someone for 20 minutes.

Maybe I could talk with someone for an hour about faith, about Jesus, about the Bible. Verse number 24. Some were persuaded by what he said, but others did not believe.

Disagreeing among themselves, they began to leave after Paul made one statement. I bet you can't guess after all of the times in the book of Acts that the Jews have gotten upset at Paul. I bet you can't guess what he said that made them angry.

It was this, the Holy Spirit was right in saying to your ancestors through the prophet Isaiah when he said, go to these people and say you will always be listening, but never understanding. And you will always be looking, but never perceiving.

For the hearts of these people have grown calloused. Their ears are hard of hearing, and they have shut their eyes. Otherwise, they might see with their eyes and hear with their ears, 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. Every time it was after he mentioned the Gentiles, they were out.

They didn't want to be with those people. They wanted to be the only people that got saved. They wanted to be the only people that experienced the favor of God.

Let's not have that heart personally, not say, wait, I'm saved. The people that I like are saved and we're in our church and we don't want anyone else. We don't want anyone new.

This church is for me and for mine. Let's never have that heart. Depending on your background, you might never have heard people say something like that.

With the kind of life experience and what I've seen in hundreds of churches that I've been to, that does happen 100%. And I've heard the stories from pastors heartbroken because they wanted to reach their community for Christ.

And yet, just like these people here in this chapter, they went, we don't want anyone else other than me and mine to experience salvation and forgiveness of sin.

Here, though these people knew the Old Testament, that as Paul was talking about the law and the prophets, about the Old Testament, they knew all of those things. They knew what Isaiah said.

When he says the Holy Spirit was right in saying to your ancestors through the prophet Isaiah, they're quoting from Isaiah 6, 9 and 10, they knew what he was talking about.

But just knowing God's Word, just saying that they were God's people, it didn't result in them actually turning to God. And they were condemned because though they knew God's Word, they did not accept Christ.

And I want to challenge you today, as we end the Book of Acts, this whole book has been about Jesus, about accepting his salvation, his righteousness, about declaring him as your Lord that you would turn from your sin.

It wouldn't just be some sort of mental assent that goes, yeah, I believe that those facts took place. It's way more than that. In Romans 10, 9 and 10, I'll actually turn over that, it's just one book over.

Scripture, it says this. If you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

One believes with the heart resulting in righteousness, and one confesses with the mouth resulting in salvation.

For the scripture says, everyone who believes on him will not be put to shame, since there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, because the same Lord of all, richly blesses all who call on him, for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will

be saved. That here, a mental assent to the facts of the Old Testament did not save them.

It had to be that they turn from their own righteousness, from their own ways, and turn to Jesus and accept Jesus' righteousness on their behalf, that they would believe on him in their heart and confess him.

That is, that they would live out that confession, Jesus is Lord. That it's not magic words that make you saved, but it's that genuine declaration and expectation from your heart that would say, Jesus isn't just my righteousness, though. He is that.

He is my Lord. He is my master. He is the one that I choose to follow personally.

And I would encourage you today, if you have never done that, if you have never accepted Christ as your Savior and your Lord, you can do it today. You don't have to put that off for some other time.

You don't have to wait until you get your act together. You don't have to wait until you attend church a certain amount of times. You don't have to wait until maybe a spiritual mentor or leader is with you.

You can do it in your heart as we have seen many times through the book of Acts. Sometimes it was that someone, they expressed their belief in Jesus as Lord through being baptized.

For some of them, it was in their heart while Peter was preaching that as he's talking about Jesus, they believe in their heart and inwardly they go like, Jesus, you're my Lord. Whatever you say, I'm doing. I might not always do it perfectly.

I might be like Peter or Paul or any number of people that make mistakes here in this book. I might fail you, but that's all right because you are still my Lord and I will follow you. I will become your disciple.

And while they express that faith in their heart of, yeah, God, I'm with you. I'm following Jesus. The Holy Spirit came into their lives and it says that they, it was obvious that God had adopted them.

So I'd encourage you today. Pray in your heart. Something when I accepted Christ, it was something like, Dear Jesus, I know that I'm a sinner.

I know that because of my sin, I've been separated, alienated from you. God, I want you to be my Savior. I want you to come into my life to save me and help me to follow you.

It's not magic words or anything that cause you to go from death to life, from condemnation to acceptance.

It's simply a heart that responds to the truth of Jesus in the gospel that would say, God, I believe what you said, and I'm going to follow you. I will become your disciple.

If you pray that, if you call out to the Lord in your heart, Romans 10 says, whoever calls on him will be saved. God will never turn you out. You might say, I've done terrible things.

I've done bad things. I promise you've not done more than Paul has. If you go, oh, but what will people think of me if I say that I'm saved now?

I've been in church for 50 years. Any genuine believer in Jesus will be over the moon to hear that you have accepted him. I would encourage you to do that today.

If you've never done it before, pause the episode, pray, call on the name of the Lord. Confess him as your Savior, as your Lord. Trust holy in his righteousness and his way alone.

Forsake your sin. Forsake your self-righteousness and turn entirely to him and he will never, ever cast you out. It will be forever secure in his hands.

He will bring you through this life. He'll put your Holy Spirit, his Holy Spirit in your life, who will never leave you. He will be the seal that God places on you until you either pass or until he comes again.

That promise that says, this one is mine and he will never cast you out. Verse number 30.

Paul stayed two whole years in his own rented house and he welcomed all who visited him, proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance.

Today, Paul did this while he was imprisoned in a house that he had to rent. He's proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness. Today, if you do know Jesus, will you do the same thing?

Will you call on him? Will you believe in his name? Will you choose him as your Lord?

Will you declare him to others? Thank you for tuning in for the past 48 episodes. And we'll start season two in, I believe, this episode comes out on Saturday.

So Monday, we'll start our new book of the Bible that we're going through together. I'm really excited to dive into it with you all. Thank you for tuning in.

If you have maybe a book of the Bible that you would like us to look at, please comment that email. You can email either podcast at tbcsx.com or pastor at tbcsx.com. Would love to hear or you can comment whatever you want to do.

Would love to hear maybe what books of the Bible or maybe if there's a topic or something that you'd like to hear about on the podcast. Would love to take those into account and put that into what we're going for.

I've got some books of the Bible that we're going through as a church. I've got that planned out through the end of 2025.

And so if you mention one of those, I might tell you, hey, we're coming up on that as a church, and we'll be going through that all together on Sunday mornings. But if it's not one of those ones, I would love to dive into God's Word with you.

Thank you for joining me on this journey and for you and your patience and allowing me to be able to move from every day to weekdays. And that's a big help to my family and to my wife in particular.

So thank you for tuning in, and can't wait to see where God takes us next.