15. The Book of Acts
August 30th, 2009
Acts 29
Can I get a volunteer to come up here and read our text for today? Ok thank you very much. Would you open your Bible to the very end of the book of Acts for me. Let me know when you get there. Ok, now if you would begin reading in Acts chapter 29 verse 1. What’s the problem? It’s not there? Your Bible doesn’t have an Acts 29? What translation is it? Well that is lame. Does anyone have a real Bible? One that has the rest of the book of Acts? No one? No one has a Bible that has Acts 29? That seems strange. Ok well that’s all I need from you I suppose you can go sit down. Perhaps I was remembering this wrong. Let’s go back to chapter 28 then. We will start in verse 17 maybe we can figure out what happened to the rest of the book of Acts.
Here is what has been happening: Paul went to Jerusalem in Acts 21 where he was preaching the gospel when some Jews accused him of bringing a gentile into the temple of God which is a big no-no. The crowd got agitated and tried to kill him but Paul was whisked away by Roman guards. Due to an eminent threat on his life, probably from his own family Paul was lead out of Jerusalem by the Roman guards and escorted to Caesarea where he would wait to stand trial before the governor there, a man named Felix. Paul was held by Felix for two years until Felix was replaced as governor by Porcius Festus. A new governor meant a new trial for Paul. Once again the Jewish leaders had an opportunity to get their hands on this man they wanted dead. They began to urge Festus to send Paul back to Jerusalem to stand trial where they had an ambushed prepared for him. When Festus wanted to do the Jews a favor asked Paul if he would be willing to move the trial to Jerusalem Paul appealed his case to Caesar. After a few more trials Paul was finally shipped off to Rome. The trip did not go smoothly. There was a great storm and the ship he was on was wrecked but the crew managed to survive and made it to an Island called Malta. Having just escaped the storm Paul was bitten by a poisonous snake. Yet Paul did not die. This caught the people’s attention. So Paul is brought before the leader of the island an official named Publius who was also a legate which is an important office in Rome. Paul was taken into Publius’ home where he healed the official’s father who had been suffering from a fever and dysentery. When the news of what Paul had done got out all the people brought their sick to Paul to be cured. It is important to note that this is not the same word that was used to earlier. The healing Paul carried out was a miraculous healing. The word used to describe what happened to the people from the rest of the island is where we get our word ‘therapy’. It is likely that Paul healed Publius’s father and Luke being a physician used his medical skills to care for the rest of the village. As a result of this the villagers worked to get the supplies Paul would need to finish his journey to Rome.
After about three months they finally made their way off of the island toward Rome. Finally we are getting to the end. We have reached the climax of the story where everything starts to come together. For seven chapters we have been in this process of slowly moving towards Rome the capital of the ancient world. It would be here Paul would stand trial before the Emperor who was the most powerful and influential man alive. When they reached Rome Paul was allowed to live under house arrest. During this time he began to preach. He called together all the leaders of the Jews in Rome and began to share with them what has happening. So our text begins in verse 17:
Acts 28:17Three days later he called together the leaders of the Jews. 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. 18They examined me and wanted to release me, because I was not guilty of any crime deserving death. 19But when the Jews objected, I was compelled to appeal to Caesar—not that I had any charge to bring against my own people. 20For 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." 21They replied, "We have not received any letters from Judea concerning you, and none of the brothers who have come from there has reported or said anything bad about you. 22But we want to hear what your views are, for we know that people everywhere are talking against this sect." 23They arranged to meet Paul on a certain day, and came in even larger numbers to the place where he was staying. From morning till evening he explained and declared to them the kingdom of God and tried to convince them about Jesus from the Law of Moses and from the Prophets. 24Some were convinced by what he said, but others would not believe. 25They disagreed among themselves and began to leave after Paul had made this final statement: "The Holy Spirit spoke the truth to your forefathers when he said through Isaiah the prophet: 26" ’Go to this people and say, "You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving." 27For 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.’ 28"Therefore I want you to know that God’s salvation has been sent to the Gentiles, and they will listen!" 30For two whole years Paul stayed there in his own rented house and welcomed all who came to see him. 31Boldly and without hindrance he preached the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul has lived an extraordinary life. Now in Rome Paul speaks to the Jewish leaders. He finishes his sermon with this quotation from Isaiah 6:9 which follows immediately after one of the best known verses in the Old Testament. Isaiah 6 begins: In the year King Uzziah died Isaiah saw the Lord seated on the throne and above Him were seraphs flying and calling out to each other Holy holy holy is the Lord almighty the whole earth is full of His glory. At this Isaiah realized his own uncleanness having seen the Lord God Almighty. Then he heard a voice from heaven saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” To which Isaiah responded “here am I. Send me!” Many of us know this verse. I want to show you what follows.
Right after Isaiah says: “here am I send me” God gives him a message and tells Isaiah to go to the people and say this: you will be ever hearing but never understanding. You will be ever seeing but never perceiving. The Jewish people had become so callused, so hard hearted that even though they can hear they never really hear. Even though they see their minds do not register the truth of what they have seen. It is because of their callused minds they can hear the word of God and not recognize it. It is due to their hardened hearts that they can see God work around them and not realize it. These people who were supposed to be the people of God had denied and rejected Him so many times that they did not even recognize His voice when it was among them. In John 10 Jesus says I am the good shepherd, I know my sheep and my sheep know me. The sheep know the voice of their shepherd. So if the sheep know the voice of their shepherd and the Jews who were supposed to be God’s people did not know Jesus voice what does that mean? That means that Jesus isn’t there shepherd. That is not because He isn’t truly the shepherd, it is because they have wandered so far from Him that they cannot hear the sound of His voice and they have been away from Him for so long that even if they were to hear it again they wouldn’t recognize it. Rather than hearing the Jews had made their ears thick. Rather than seeing the Jews had shut their eyes. Otherwise they would have seen the truth. If they could just see they would turn to God and He would heal them.
Do you understand what God is saying here? These people had hardened their hearts so much that they can no longer hear God speak to them. So God says to these Jewish leaders in Acts 28 the same thing He said to His people in Isaiah 6: fine you don’t want to listen to me? I’ll go talk to someone who does. When God’s own people will not hear His voice He will go find another people who will. See there comes a point in which you ignore God enough that He moves on. Imagine a spiritual line in the sand that if we cross we can no longer hear God and if we harden our hearts so much that we can longer hear Him then He will begin to speak to those who can. When God’s people stop listening God finds a new people to speak to. In Paul’s time the Jews stopped listening and so God began to speak to the Gentiles. What is interesting is to see how this applies to us.
If you look at Christianity today you will notice something. Incredible things are happening all over the world where people are listening to the Holy Spirit and hearing God’s voice. Christianity in places like China, India, and Africa is growing faster than their buildings can contain, where as a general rule American Christianity has become stagnant. Perhaps what Paul is saying to the Jewish leaders applies to us as well. Perhaps we have become so comfortable ignoring God that we no longer hear Him when He speaks. Maybe the reason we don’t always see the Spirit of God working in our lives is because we have shut our eyes. A few years ago I lived in an apartment complex right by a train. It was very loud at first but after a while you start to get used to it. You get used to hearing without listening because you never stop hearing the train you just become so callused that your mind doesn’t register it because you are not listening anymore. This is one of the greatest dangers in the church. The more we get used to showing up and hearing the word of God without allowing it to change and mold us the more accustom we become to hearing without listening. Every time we hear without really listening to what God is saying it makes it that much harder for us to listen the next time until we reach a point where the word of God is right before us and we don’t even realize it.
Perhaps we are not as open to the Holy Spirit as we think. The Jewish leaders had everything they needed to hear God but even with Jesus they rejected Him. I wonder how long will God wait for us? How long can we reject Jesus before He moves on to someone who will hear Him? There is point in which we reject the opportunity for a relationship with God so thoroughly that God hardens our hearts. There is a point where we walk so far away from Him that He says: no more. God will not be ignored forever. He will not be rejected forever. We need to be very careful because at some point if we reject and ignore God so much that He will turn away from us.
This turning away is actually an act of compassion because when the people become so callused to the word of God and God turns away from them His very act of turning away can soften their hearts. When the people who were comfortable and used to being God’s people see God’s favor fall on others their jealousy can harden their hearts so that they are receptive to Him once again.
Paul stayed in Rome for two years preaching about Jesus without hindrance and then the book ends. I don’t often like to argue with the Holy Spirit and far be it from me to criticize Him but this is a terrible ending. The book of Acts is awesome, the ending sucks. In any story you expect a conclusion. You want to know what happens to the main characters. Jesus told Paul that he would stand before the emperor of Rome. Our story has been moving to this showdown between the emperor of the known world and the king who sits on the throne of heaven. We have been building to this climatic showdown and Luke doesn’t tell us about it. He doesn’t us about Paul being released from prison. He doesn’t tell us about the great fire of Rome which would have begun the first official persecution of Christians. He doesn’t tell us about the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem. He doesn’t even tell us about the death of Peter and Paul. Luke doesn’t tell us what happens to the main characters thus this cannot be an ending. This is not an ending which is why we need to turn to Acts 29. You may think there is not an Acts 29 but you are wrong, there is. It just wasn’t written by Luke. There is an Acts 29. It’s you. It’s us. We are Acts 29. Luke doesn’t finish the story because the story of the church is not yet finished. We are the conclusion to the book of Acts. We finish the story. Remember Peter and Paul are not the main character of the book of Acts. The Holy Spirit is and He is still working. He is still active in our lives.
