ADIOS
Acts 28:11-31
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 he called together all the leaders of the Jews in Rome and began to share with them what has happening. I heard it said that Acts is not a book of theology, but rather a book of history. I agree to a point. It is the record of the early church and what they did, but at the same time, it is a record of the works of God, and so we can take theological truth from this passage. Look at the:
I) FOCUS
17, 23 It took Paul three days to get settled in, and take care of whatever legal processes that needed to get going, but after that he called the Jewish leaders together to address them. Paul was intentional about his witnessing. He made sure that opportunities came, rather than just hoping they would. He didn’t just wait for Jews to come, he called for them. Secondly, he explained. Don’t think about Paul like Billy Graham at a crusade or even me at this church. This word meant to expound on in a systematic or logical fashion. This is not the word for preach or proclaim. Thirdly, Paul testified. This is the word for witness with a Greek intensive on it. He continued to testify repeatedly to the facts of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Fourthly, he did it consistently, faithfully, and regularly, all day long, even in the face of rejection and persecution.
We should be as intentional as the Apostle about making our own opportunities to share the gospel. What spheres of influence to you have access to? What avenues are open to you that will allow you to meet new people, and develop relationships? Many are placed upon us through work or family. But others are found only by those that want to be intentional. What we need to be careful in doing, is to try to avoid developing judgmental attitudes towards those who do not choose to live like us or believe like us. We tend to list sin from the worst to the not-so-bad. The worst sin, the root sin, the unforgivable sin, is persistent unbelief in the face of the evidence God provides. What is man’s normal response to this evidence?
As Paul speaks to the Jewish leaders he finishes his address quoting Isaiah 6:9 which follow immediately after one of the best known stories 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.
II) FORWARD
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, yet 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. When I was young, we lived next to an Air Base during the Viet Nam war. During the night, they would work on the transport planes’ engines. It was loud, but after a while, you became used to it. You get used to hearing without listening because you never stop hearing the plane 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 we ‘hear 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. Father, please soften our hearts!
III) FORGET (Me Not!)
30–31 The situation remained as in 28:16, with Paul under ‘house arrest.’ The phrase for two whole years prompts the reader to wonder what might have happened after that. It is likely that Paul was executed by the Romans. All that we know of the apostle’s proceedings and history beyond this must be gathered from the Epistles of the Imprisonment—Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon—written during this period, and the Pastoral Epistles—to Timothy and Titus. A fire in Rome in 64AD enabled Nero to use the land to build a grand palace, ‘the gold house.’ When Nero needed a scapegoat for the fire, he ordered the brutal execution of a number of Christians. Both the apostles Peter and Paul probably lost their lives in this persecution. Accordingly, first three were seized, who confessed they were Christians. Next, on their information, a vast multitude was convicted, not so much on the charge of burning the city as of hating the human race.
Paul Believed That the Gospel could not be Stopped. The book of Acts began by drawing attention to the fact that the work of Jesus was continued by the Spirit first through the apostles. But the apostles are not really dominant in the Book of Acts. Holy Spirit is. Jesus dominates the Gospels, and in comparison, little is said about the Spirit. But in the book of Acts, Holy Spirit is indeed another Comforter, Helper, and Teacher. From the Day of Pentecost on we see the Holy Spirit active in the life of the church-in teaching, in miracles, in further fillings, and newly baptized, but above all in the work of spreading the gospel and establishing the Church as He gave them the skills necessary to survive. The church of Acts survived persecution and hardship to become the greatest influential power in the world. The Holy Spirit empowered believers and the church to be survivors and it changed the course of the Roman Empire and the course of the world. This Acts New testament church is still changing lives today and directing the course of empires. It survived drastic persecution and attempts by the enemy to destroy it. It still stands tall and powerful even in the world today. The church has thrived and survived and many men and women are testimonies to the power of the Holy Spirit which enabled them to be survivors. Paul was a survivor! Why? Because the Holy Spirit empowered him with the necessary survival skills to make it to the end! Not only did Holy Spirit do this for Paul but He does the same for us today if we let Him.
CONCLUSION 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 is tough. 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, neither Peter nor Paul serve as the main character of the book of Acts. Holy Spirit is the main focus, and He is still working. He is still active in our lives.
