Acts Part 16

Part 16

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Good morning. It is Sunday, February eighth. This is number sixteen in our series of Acts for the Family. Chapter 28. I'm gonna say it in this way that kindness will come from the most unexpected places. Paul got shipwrecked as a prisoner. He ended up on the island of Malta, and the people treated him and the people with him so generously. And that word kindness comes from the Hebrew Hebrew word which means which is Kesed, which means a loving kindness, a mercy, steadfast love. Mercy may best describe it. I think of the verse it says because it's because of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed. Keep in mind that this life, according to I think Mo Moses Psalm, Psalm 90 or 91, this you need to picture your life as being by giant blast furnace. And between you and that giant blast furnace is this almost like a piece of the thinnest plastic. That's all that's separating you from immediate death and being burned to a crisp, and that little thin piece of plastic that surrounds that giant tube of a blast furnace just inches from you is the mercy of Christ. Kesset. His mercy is the only reason everything is not destroyed immediately. Now it's this idea of Kesset that is foundational to Jews. It represents a proactive, unconditional love and compassion. It's a covenantal commitment to helping others, especially the vulnerable. It's a core ethical virtue for creating a harmonious society. It repairs the world. It's a steady, patient, strong, never failing force. This is how the Jews look at this. Now they look at it, they think they can do all this in their own strength. And in that sense, they do have a wonderful message to present to the world. They really do. They just leave Christ out of it. We don't want to leave Christ out of it. But I want to go back to this idea of helping the vulnerable. We are going to be the vulnerable. We are in need of special care because of the risk of abuse and being neglected. The world hates those who stand for Christ. Period. Satan hates everybody. Satan himself wants everybody destroyed. But Satan especially hates those who care about the things of Christ. And because of this fact, kindness, which comes from God, will raise itself up in ways we least expect. But in the meantime, we want to give God credit for his kindness and love to us, and we want to respond from our hearts to be like our Father in heaven, who gives his reign on the just and the unjust. God sends his reign on good people and bad people. That's how we should be. We want to help all people. Now, some people don't want it, and some people we have to turn our backs on. I'm not saying that at all. But to truly understand this idea of God's mercy, of Kessid, is to truly understand God. And nobody can truly understand God, not in this life. So keep in mind, too, that what we are about to witness, the devastation we are about to witness, is completely foreign to God's nature. It is not part of God's nature to destroy people. It's part of what Luther calls his alien nature. It's like another nature that's beside his real nature. He does things because we demand it, actually. We demand it. We demand it. And he makes us do things that don't come from what you might call his heart of hearts. So in at this time when Paul was on Mark uh Malta, God used what should have been certain death. When that viper b latched onto Paul's hand, it should have been certain death for him. But instead, it had no effect on him. The people were shocked, and it built esteem for the apostle Paul in the eyes of of the other people. Let's move on to the fact that Paul had to appeal to Caesar. He had to go to Rome. He was a Roman citizen, and he had the right to be to have his day in court, so to speak, before Caesar in Rome, rather than submitting himself to the government of the Jews when he knew all they wanted to do was kill him. So he was compelled, compelled to appeal to Caesar. And then when he had to explain it to his Christian brothers, he was just open. He said, You know, this is I'm in chains, and but in here's why. So you will be given opportunities to convince others of the facts about Christ. Some will listen, others won't. Again, like I said last time, the results are not none of your business. None of your business. It's just for you to testify in a certain respectful manner about Christ. So certain passages of Scripture will become alive and real for you and for us. They were to Paul in Isaiah chapter 6, verses 9 and 10. This is really interesting. The actual passage says, and I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send? And whom will go for us? Then I said, Here I am, send me. And he said, Go and say to this people. So this is the historical context when the children of Israel were going to be cast out of the land before hundreds of years before Christ came. Six hundred years before Christ came. Then Isaiah says, This is the message God sent Isaiah to tell the people. Tell these people who keep on hearing, but do not understand. Keep on seeing, but do not perceive. Make the heart of this people dull and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes, lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn to be healed. Then I said, Now this is the part that Paul took out and preached to the Jewish believers, the Jewish the Jewish people who would not believe. So he just took out those two verses. But the rest of it, Isaiah says, How long, O Lord? And he says, Until cities lie waste without inhabitant and houses without people, and the land is a desolate waste. So again, there are two contexts here. There's the original historical context where Isaiah initially said this, and then Paul takes two verses out of this and applies applies it to his life and his ministry. To where he's accusing the Jews of his day and making it the reason for him turning away from the Jews and to the Gentiles, because the Jews would not listen to the message that God sent to the Jews through Paul. So he turns to the Gentiles because the Gentiles would listen. I think for us, the passage that may have special insight for us is in Daniel chapter twelve. It says, At that time shall arise Michael, the great prince who has charge of your people, and there should be a time of trouble such as never has been since there was a nation till that time. But at that time your people shall be delivered. This is the Jews. The Jews are his people. Everyone whose name shall be found written in the book, and many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above, and those who turn many to righteousness like the stars for ever and ever. But you, Daniel, shut up the words and the seal of the book until the time of the end. Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase. Look at the to and fro there. Knowledge shall increase, churches on every corner, the increase of the spiritual so-called spiritual knowledge about God and the next life. Then I, Daniel, looked, and behold, two others stood, one on this bank of the stream, and one on that bank of the stream. And someone to the man and someone said to the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the stream, How long shall it be till the end of these wonders? And I heard the man clothed in linen who was above the waters of the stream. He raised his right hand and his left hand toward heaven and swore by him who lives for ever that it would be for a time, times and a half time. And that when the shattering of the power of the holy people comes to an end, all these things would be finished. I heard, but I did not understand. Then I said, Oh my Lord, what shall be the outcome of these things? He said, Go your way, Daniel, for the words are shut up and sealed until the time of the end. We're going to see the outcome. Many shall purify themselves and make themselves white and refined, but the wicked shall act wickedly, and none of the wicked shall understand, but those who are wise shall understand. And from the time that the regular burnt offering is taken away and the abomination that makes desolate is set up, there shall be twelve hundred and ninety days. Blessed is he who waits and arrives at the three hundred and thirty five days, but go your way, Daniel, till the end, and you, Daniel, shall rest and shall stand in your allotted place at the end of days. So the last part of Acts talks about that to his end, to his very dying moment, at his own expense, Paul proclaimed the kingdom of God and the teaching about Christ with all boldness and without hindrance. And that's what we want to do. Until our very end, we want to proclaim the teaching of Christ with all boldness, simplicity, understanding that only he or she who endures to the end will be saved.