Chained And Proclaiming In Rome S5e160 Acts28:20

Good News: Paul finally makes it to Rome. Yet, he needs the support and encouragement of local believers because he is a prisoner and has nothing.  They share their "units of encouragement" with him.

Paul has a guard and a chain and an apparent inability to go to the temple so he calls the Jewish leaders to him. He doesn't revile or attack the people who have accused him.  In fact, they are nowhere to be seen or even heard from.

Paul speak of HIS HOPE which is the relatively UNBELIEVABLE concept of the first resurrection (Jesus) and then those who believe.  Some do believe after hearing and exposition from the OLD TESTAMENT.  You too can fall in love with God from the Old Testament.  Listen 7 minutes and then subscribe for a daily podcast on Stitcher, Spotify, Google, Audible, or Apple Podcasts.

Transcript

Michael Smith: 0:01

Good morning, my brothers and sisters, welcome to episode 160 of be with me in the book of Acts. We're in chapter 28, which is the final chapter of the book of Acts. The title of this little section I'm going to read is Paul in Rome. He's been trying to get to Rome for a long time, chapter after chapter of excitement and in shipwreck literally. And he finally gets there yesterday, we learned about units of courage that he gets from believers in a nearby town as well as in Rome. That is, we were looking at sharing courage and taking courage from other brothers and sisters, and building courage into a particular person. In this case, it was Paul. And we find, we were asked to find kind of the shipwreck person in our life and build courage into them, which would likely be inconvenient, expensive, time consuming, etc. Alright, today, this is Acts chapter 28 And verse 17. And Paul starts to give witness, but I want to address our attention to Paul's imprisonment here. So after that, I'll start with verse 16. Because it tells us something about Paul's imprisonment. And when we had come into Rome, Paul was allowed to stay by himself with the soldier that guarded him. 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. When they examined me, they wished to set me at Liberty, because there was no reason for the death penalty in my case. But because of the Jews objected, I was compelled to appear, appeal to Caesar, although I had no charge to bring against my nation, for this reason, therefore, I asked to see you and speak with you since it is because of the hope of Israel. We'll talk about that in a second, that I am wearing this chain. So Paul, even though he was allowed to stay by himself, he still had a chain and he still had a soldier and he didn't have his liberty in that he had invite these Jewish leaders to him, rather than going to the synagogue, Alright, first 21. And they said to him, this is the Jews of Rome, saying, Now, we've received no letters from God about you, and none of the brothers coming here as reported or spoken in the evil about you. But we desire to hear from you what your views are, for with regard to the sect, that must be Christianity, the way 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. 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. Alright, so he's, he's addressing the Jews first, as he gets to Rome, he's gonna, obviously speak to the Roman authorities. But he speaks to the Jews first by calling him into his little, let's call it a house, a home prison or house prison, probably provided by the by the Christian church there in Rome. And he speaks of the hope of Israel. And he says that the people that are listening, have heard about Christianity, and are sort of against it. But Paul does not have anything bad to say about the people that have accused him. In other words, he's giving a good example of what Jesus did when he was being persecuted that is he didn't revile against the people that were that were attacking him. So he didn't make like personal attacks against them, and neither does Paul here. He just makes an argument and says, you know, hey, listen to me. I'm going to talk to you from Moses and the prophets, as they come to visit him probably because he's chained to the chain to the ground, or at least to the other soldier. So they have an opportunity to be convinced of head and heart and some end up disbelieving. Now, let's look just at Paul here for a second. He's staying by himself with a soldier. It's probably about 60 to A D. He's working through some incredible theologies writing the book of Ephesians and Philippians and Colossians. During this time, he's already written the book of Romans and Galatians. And First and Second Corinthians. This is his first imprisonment, Rome, another one is going to follow in a couple of years, he we find out he's still changed, change, excuse me. And he's we find out that he's yesterday, especially that he was encouraged by the brothers and sisters that he had in Rome. Presumably, it was the first time he was ever in Rome, and certainly was the first time he was ever there with Christianity, since Christianity was relatively new. Now, this hope that he's talking about is the hope connected with or on the coattails of the resurrection. And he often circles back to this. We've heard that the resurrection is of the just and the unjust. And then he kind of rhetorically asked King Agrippa, a couple of chapters ago, why is it thought incredible by interview that God raises the dead? Well, let me answer for a grip of it. It's because it's the most incredible thing. In the Gospel, it's, it puts Jesus beyond sort of the nice guy, teacher, into the Godhead who has power over life and death. So it's the critical issue of, of belief. So in this little passage, we see the people of God and the message of God and the opportunity of God, the people of God, regarding the courage of this shipwrecked guy, in prison guide, locked to a soldier guy named Paul, and the courage that other people build into him. And then we see him not reviling. But going back to the message of God, which is circling back to the resurrection. And then we find Paul chain still productive writing these books of the Bible, but restrained physically in the prison of his own making, or at least in the prison of the making of the people that were being hospitable to hospitable to Paul. And finally, we see this opportunity to believe or in some people's case, to, to disbelieve, so these people build courage into Paul he preaches the message of the resurrection. And finally, these some people believe and receive it and grab it and take it home. But others disbelieved. Thanks for listening, be a believer. I'll see you tomorrow.