Sunday, July 6, 2025 AM

The Triumphant End of Acts and the Hope of Israel

From the dead, and day that we live in fellowship with you by the presence of your Holy Spirit. So we thank you for such a time as this in which we may live and know you and worship you in glory and your truth.

We thank you for your word so complete and sufficient and powerful for our good. As we think about the prospect of hearing from you today, I do pray for those who were not able to be with us, that we love and care for our fellow church members, and Father, we ask that you would care for them and provide for them, that you would bring healing to them and safety in their travels, and bring them in return fellowship to us, Father.

We recognize our communion together in Christ today, and ask that what we hear today would bring us all the more together in unity and all the more unified in our desire to glorify you and to serve you, and we pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.

I invite you to open your Bibles and turn with me to Acts 28. We're going to be looking at verses 11 through 31 this morning. And this is the last passage here in the book of Acts. It's been a good three years.

Lord has sustained us along the way. The desire to look at Acts and to bring its application to our lives, the desires for that and the plans for that were far different than what everything turned out to be, but the Lord has sustained us all along the way.

His word is sufficient to meet our needs in every season. We've been thinking here at the last part of Acts, these large stories, large sections of historical narrative concerning the final travels of Paul, thinking about his testimony that he's preaching in more than one place to more than one audience, the tribulation that he endures, the trials that he underwent, including legal trials before governors and kings, how he identified his task as that of preaching the gospel to not only the Jew, but also the Gentile, and these travels that God has brought him on, even enduring through storm and shipwreck, all so that he may make it to Rome.

And so we're thinking of Paul's triumph this morning. And we should recall how ardently Paul desired to go to Rome. This was long on his mind. It was in his heart to go to Rome and preach the gospel there.

We hear about that as early as Acts 19, verse 21. When these things were accomplished, Paul purposed in the spirit when he had passed through Macedonia and decayed to go to Jerusalem, saying, after I have been there, I must also see Rome.

So long before the third missionary journey was over, he was already thinking about wanting to go to Rome and preach the gospel there. And in this case, his desire matched with God's design, for God had designed for Paul to go to Rome.

In Acts 23, verse 11, when he was in prison the following night, the Lord stood by him and said, be of good cheer, Paul, for as you have testified for me in Jerusalem, so you must also bear witness at Rome.

Paul was determined to preach the gospel at Rome. We hear this in the very first chapter of the letter that he wrote to them, and I want to read this to you because you should know something of what Paul was thinking and how he was feeling and how he viewed this opportunity when he arrived.

So in Romans 1, verse 8, first I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers, making requests, if by some means now at last I may find a way in the will of God to come to you.

How often had Paul prayed that there would be a way in the will of God to come to Rome, to be there with the saints? He had prayed and prayed and prayed for this. Why? Verse 11, for I long to see you that I may impart to you some spiritual gift so that you may be established, that is, that I may be encouraged together with you by the mutual faith of both you and me.

Now, I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that I often planned to come to you, but was hindered until now. Now, not only had Paul been praying and praying and praying to get to Rome, but he had been making all kinds of plans.

Maybe it'll work out this time. Maybe it'll work out this time. How often had he sat down and made plans to go to Rome? Why? Verse 12, that is, or verse 13, that I might have some fruit among you also, just as among the other Gentiles.

Verse 14, for I am a debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to wise and to unwise. So as much as is in me, I am ready to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome also. Now, they already had the gospel in Rome.

Their faith is spoken of throughout the whole known world, their faith. They caused such a ruckus in Rome, preaching Christ, that Emperor Claudius kicked the Jews out of Rome because they wouldn't be quiet about Christus and making a big fuss about him.

So this church knew the gospel and they rejoiced in the truth of Jesus Christ. They were bold in preaching the gospel, but Paul wanted to go there and preach the gospel to them as well. Why? Verse 16, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God, the salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek, for in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith as it is written to just to live by faith.

And I find those sentiments in Romans one to be very compelling, especially as we come to the end of the book of Acts, where Paul, by God's will and answer to Paul's prayer, despite and this was not Paul's plan to arrive in this way, but he arrives in Rome and he preaches the gospel to the Jew first and also to the Gentile and lives out what he writes here in Romans one.

So let's listen to this. If you are able, I invite you to stand with me as we read from Acts 28, beginning in verse 11. After three months, we sailed in an Alexandrian ship whose figurehead was the twin brothers, which had wintered at the island.

And landing at Syracuse, we stayed three days. From there, we circled round and reached Regium. And after one day, the south wind blew. And the next day we came to Puteoli, where we found brethren and were invited to stay with them seven days.

And so we went toward Rome. And from there, when the brethren heard about us, they came to meet us as far as Apiphorum and Three Inns. When Paul saw them, he thanked God and took courage. Now, when we came to Rome, the centurion delivered the prisoners to the captain of the guard.

But Paul was permitted to dwell by himself with the soldier who guarded him. And it came to pass after three days that Paul called the leaders of the Jews together. So when they had come together, he said to them, Men and brethren, though I have 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, who, when they had examined me, wanted to let me go because there was no cause for putting me to death.

But when the Jews spoke against it, I was compelled to appeal to Caesar, not that I had anything of which to accuse my nation. For this reason, therefore, I have called for you to see you and speak with you because for the hope of Israel, I am bound with this chain.

Then they said to him, We neither receive letters from Judea concerning you nor have any of the brethren who came reported or spoken any evil of you. But we desire to hear from you what you think for concerning this sect.

We know that it is spoken against everywhere. So when they had appointed him a day, many came to him at his lodging, to whom he explained and solemnly testified of the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus from both the law of Moses and the prophets from morning till evening.

And when and some were persuaded by the things which were spoken and some disbelieved, so when they did not agree among themselves, they departed. After Paul had said one word, the Holy Spirit spoke rightly through Isaiah, the prophet to our father, saying, Go to this people and say, Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, seeing you will see and not perceive, for the hearts of this people have grown dull.

Their ears are hard of hearing and their eyes, they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn so that I should heal them.

Therefore, let it be known to you that the salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles and they will hear it. And when he had said these words, the Jews departed and had a great dispute among themselves.

Then Paul dwelt two whole years in his own rented house and received all who came to him, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching the things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence, no one forbidding him.

This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. You may be seated. Paul finally made it. He finally made it to Rome. And we come to the end of the book of Acts to see this note of triumph in Paul's ministry, despite all the things that he went through, to find him here finishing well.

When we think about how we measure success, when we think about how we would evaluate a life lived, how do we put it? How do we describe it? How do we value it? What we have set our heart upon, perhaps some good and godly venture, what we have labored for and endured for and prayed for to to finally have it attained.

When we've arrived at a point we have long anticipated and worked toward, when we have achieved something that we have laid the groundwork for and labored for a great deal. And have come to the measure of what we had anticipated, to the marker of success and recognize that we not arrived in just the way we thought.

And indeed, there were many things along the way that happened that we didn't anticipate. The story was not exactly as we thought it would be. How humbling it is to recognize how impossible it all was without God's grace.

To be 50 and alive and a king at the same time. Better yet, to stand as a pilgrim dressed in white, holding the scroll of our assurance, and to look back upon the slough of despond and the valley of the shadow of death.

Upon doubting castle and vanity fair and say, my God, what a saver you are. Look at what you have led me through. When dusk comes upon us and we reflect upon the achievements of the day, we should recognize that the triumph belongs to the Lord.

So look at this passage. We should recognize, first of all, Paul's desire to preach the hope of Israel. And of course, this is nothing new for him. He's been preaching the hope of Israel everywhere he has gone.

But as he preaches to his fellow Jews, yet again, we see the very same pattern that it provokes many of them to envy as their Messiah constitutes God's salvation to the Gentiles. This hope of Israel is not just for Israel, but it's for all nations, all tribes, all peoples.

But Paul does this with encouragement, Paul does this with confidence, and we see that in this text, what makes for his confidence, verses 11 through 15, verses 30 through 31, what brackets his preaching of the hope of Israel and where we may find our confidence.

As well.

If we think about Paul's triumph, the fact that he finally made it to Rome, he preaches the hope of Israel, and we recognize that this opportunity has come from a remarkable series of events, not only the shipwreck on the Isle of Malta, but what preceded that in Paul's imprisonment, the chaos that happened in Jerusalem, the trials that happened in Caesarea, that this remarkable series of events has been arranged by God in God's faithfulness to Paul, and God has arranged it all as mercy to sinners.

So Paul has been suffering in this course of events that God has arranged all for mercy to sinners. This series of events presents the very same dynamic as we have here in this passage. Paul is suffering, but his suffering presents him an opportunity to preach the gospel to sinners.

So Paul's suffering is used for Paul's opportunity. So we see Paul suffering in verses 16 through 20, and we say, well, he's not really suffering all that much. I mean, he's not starving at sea in a storm that won't stop.

He's like, well, yes, relatively speaking, he's in much more comfortable conditions, but he is still suffering, is he not? We're going to see that he's still a prisoner. He's denied full, complete liberty.

He doesn't have the genuine comforts of privacy. He's living with the harbinger of Roman punishment, which means death, hanging over his head. But think about this. Paul, first of all, he suffers in the hands of the Romans, verses 16 and 17.

Now when we came to Rome, the centurion delivered the prisoners to the captain of the guard, but Paul was permitted to dwell by himself with the soldier who guarded him. So now Paul is under guard. Yes, he has more freedom than the other prisoners do, but he can't be on his own.

The soldier has to be there at all times, and it's a reminder of, Paul, you're not on.

Your own.

You're not free to leave. You're not free to go. You're a prisoner. And as long as that Roman soldier is there, they just remind you that the court case has not been settled yet, and you're facing possible execution by Caesar this whole time.

And so verse 17, after three days, Paul called the leaders of the Jews together. So when they come together, he said to them, men and brethren, though I have done nothing against our people or the customs of our fathers, listen now how Paul puts it, yet I was delivered as a prisoner from Jerusalem into the hands of the Romans.

Paul suffers in the hands of the Romans. They're the instrument, but what was the cause? Because of the hate of the Jews, verses 18 and 19. Notice how he says this, who, when they had examined me, wanted to let me go because there was no cause for putting me to death, but when the Jews spoke against it, you see that?

When the Jews spoke against it, I was compelled to appeal to Caesar, not that I had anything of which to accuse my nation. I'm not here to try to get the Jews in trouble with Caesar. I'm not here to present accusations against Jerusalem.

I'm not here to ask Caesar to send a legion to go punish my people. That's not why I'm here. I'm here because although the Romans found no guilt in me and wanted to let me go, the Jews insisted that I remain incarcerated, and they said I deserved death, and I had no recourse other than to appeal to Caesar.

So Paul is suffering by the hate of the Jews, the Jews, the religious leaders, and those who would agree with them, those that they stirred up. They were the cause of the fracas. They were the catalyst for the incarceration.

They were the reason for the continued nature of this legal limbo. They never withdrew their charges. It is simply the hate of his brethren that has caused all this. So Paul suffers in the hands of the Romans by the hate of the Jews, but notice the purpose, the cause for it in verse 20.

He suffers for the hope of Israel. For this reason, therefore, I have called for you to see you and speak with you because for the hope of Israel, I am bound with this chain. The hope of Israel. So Paul is hated by those that he loves, and he willingly endures this suffering so that he will have the opportunity to preach the hope of Israel to them.

He perseveres in the suffering because this is how he can get the word to them. What is this hope of Israel? Well, Paul's been talking about it. It's been the theme of his message. If you look back in Acts 23 and in verse 6, when Paul was on trial, he perceived that one part were Sadducees, the other part Pharisees, and he cried out in the council, Men and brethren, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee, concerning the hope and resurrection of the dead I am being judged.

You hear that? The hope of the resurrection. And he makes this the center point of all the controversy that continues. In Acts 24 and verse 15, what does he say? He says, again, before the governor, he says, I have hope in God, which they themselves also accept that there will be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and the unjust.

And again, he's talking about a hope that Paul has, a hope that they acknowledge, they don't quite understand, but he's preaching to them the hope of Israel. And then chapter 26, verses 6 and 7, again, before Agrippa, Paul says, and now I stand and I am judged for the hope of the promise made by God to our fathers, to this promise our 12 tribes earnestly serving God night and day hope to attain for this hope's sake.

King Agrippa, I am accused by the Jews. Why should it be thought incredible by you that God raises the dead? So do you hear Paul's consistency? He's been saying, I'm here preaching the hope of Israel, the hope of Israel.

That's why I'm on trial. That's why they hate me. But it's the hope that they need to have. And it's nothing less than the resurrection from the dead that we find in Jesus Christ, who is raised from the dead.

That's why he's preaching. He calls that the hope of Israel. Remember Simeon in Luke chapter 2, who looked for the consolation of Israel. He looked for the comfort of Israel. He looked for the hope of Israel and found it in the Christ child.

And so also Paul preaches the hope of Israel in the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. He preaches the resurrection no matter where he's at. He preaches it in the synagogue. Remember Paul in the region of Galatia in Acts 13, he goes into the synagogue and he preaches a robust sermon all about Jesus Christ and Him risen from the dead.

This is your hope.

He puts Jesus Christ risen from the dead before his fellow Jews and says, this is your hope. This is your salvation. This is what you have long awaited for. And when the Jews kick him out, he preaches the very same message to the Gentiles.

Even in Athens, he was in the marketplace preaching the resurrection of Christ from the dead when the philosophers heard him preaching about resurrection and invited him up Mars Hill to give a fuller account of this new and strange teaching.

So Paul is suffering, why? For the hope of Israel. Because the Jews hate him and they're using the Romans to afflict him. But all of this, again, is opportunity. It's opportunity. Paul's suffering, again, this is by the providence of God, the sovereign governance of God, the details that God has arranged.

Paul is suffering and so brings opportunity to bring, to preach the gospel. So what does he do?

New place?

He does the same thing as he always does. He seeks a gathering of the Jews. Everywhere he went, he would preach the gospel to the Jews until as many as would be saved would be saved and the rest would hate him and lie about him and try to kill him.

And he says, okay, now I'm going to preach to the Gentiles. How many cities in the Roman Empire did Paul do that? And now he's in the very capital and he's keeping to the very same pattern. Now this far removed from Jerusalem, there's a lot they don't know about Paul's testimony.

All they have are rumors, rumors about this sect called the Way. And what they don't know helps. So verse 21, then they said to him, we neither received letters from Judea concerning you nor have any of the brethren who came reported or spoken any evil of you.

It's so nice to not have reputation. This helps Paul so much. He didn't have reputation. It was his reputation that got him in trouble in Jerusalem when the Jews from Asia came, made all kinds of false accusations against him.

But here, nobody knows who he is. Thank God. Thank God he's not famous in Rome. He can preach the gospel at liberty because they don't, at least they're willing to listen and they haven't turned their ears off immediately.

But what they do know hurts. So verse 22, but we desire to hear from you about what you think for concerning this sect we know that it is spoken against everywhere. So yes, it is spoken against everywhere.

We already talked about Claudius' expulsion of the Jews from Rome over 10 years earlier, something that's referenced in Acts 18 verse 2. So they know about the controversy. They know about the general contrariness to the gospel.

And because it is a hot topic, they are eager to hear what Paul has to say about the issue. But what they hear divides. Verses 23 and 24. So when they had appointed him a day, many came to him at his lodging to whom he explained and solemnly testified of the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus from both the law of Moses and the prophets from morning till evening.

And some were persuaded by the things which were spoken, and some disbelieved. Notice that Paul preaches Jesus of Nazareth from Moses and the prophets.

You see that?

He's preaching Jesus of Nazareth from Moses and the prophets. That's very important. This is something that we see throughout the scriptures, especially as we take up the New Testament and see how Jesus Christ Himself and the apostles take up Moses and the prophets.

They preach Christ from all the scriptures. And they expect us by the Holy Spirit to look there in the Old Testament and to read it with unveiled faces and to find there the glory of Jesus Christ. And so Paul starts with the basics, and then he expands upon those truths, and he preaches.

Notice how long he preaches from morning till evening, from the first watch to the fourth watch of the day. What a great opportunity to preach and teach all day long about Jesus from all the scriptures.

And some were persuaded, and some were not. They disagreed with one another, and you'll notice how the word of grace sifted them. Now, what was there to disagree about? It wasn't that Paul was bad at his job.

He was an apostle of Jesus Christ and very good at preaching Christ from all the scriptures. And he was extremely clear by the Spirit's power. We read his writings, and he is so completely clear about Jesus Christ from Moses and the prophets.

It wasn't that Paul was confusing. It wasn't that he was obtuse. But there were things that he was saying that was so hard for them to comprehend, not because it wasn't clear, but because of what it would cost them.

For all their lives, they had been trained, and they had anticipated, and they had thought a certain way, and they had thought that the Messiah would come and deliver them politically. That there would be a Messiah who would rule and reign in a way that would remove Rome and all other foreign influences out of Jerusalem and out of the Promised Land, and they would have a golden thousand years.

This was a common teaching amongst the rabbis. But here, Paul is preaching that the Messiah had already come in Jesus of Nazareth, and that the kingdom was brought about by His death and resurrection from the dead, and that He was reigning even now from the throne of David.

This is what Peter preached in Acts chapter 2. The Messiah is reigning now from David's throne, even now. And then when he preached about the resurrection, the Jewish leaders would see something in the future, a future resurrection that they would have certain expectations for.

But Paul was saying, a resurrection has already begun. Jesus Christ is the firstfruits. The full resurrection isn't here yet, but Jesus Christ genuinely is the firstfruits of that resurrection. We are now here.

In the Second Temple Judaism, they would have thought, well, these promises that have been given to us are for the Jews only. And then Paul is here preaching that the hope of Israel is for all the nations.

That was very hard for them to swallow. And then he would say that fulfillment came through faith in Jesus Christ and the grace that He offered, whereas they would be looking at something in terms of some sort of ethic, as he already said earlier, Paul said, they worked day and night to bring about this hope that I preach has already been accomplished in Christ.

And they really thought that through purity of devotion and great zeal that the Lord would look upon their efforts and that He would grant them deliverance, that they would just suffer enough and be bold enough and pure enough.

And they waited for a kingdom that would be geopolitical, marked by national triumph, whereas Jesus preached that He already was the King and the kingdom of heaven was among them. You see how different it is?

How much are they going to have to give up? Many of them did not like how the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth changed all of their traditionally developed hopes and dreams. That's not the way it's supposed to happen.

That's not what brings me comfort. That's not what I want to happen. But they're not unique in that struggle. They're not unique in that resistance to the preaching of the gospel. In order to receive true hope, comfort, and joy in God, we have to give up a great deal.

How many maintain a prideful refusal to let the Father say how matters should be? God gets to say what salvation is. God gets to say what hope is. We don't get to say, that's not good enough for me. You're not meeting my standards of what salvation ought to look like.

Paul is saying the hope of Israel is fulfilled in Christ. The satisfaction of God is in Christ. The Father considers every promise by the Spirit to culminate in the Son, who for us and for our salvation has taken upon full humanity to be for us righteousness by His life and death and resurrection, our reigning King.

Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, is the hope of Israel. He is all their horizon, all our horizon. The Jews, in the same way as the Gentiles, should be found in Christ. The hope of Israel has been fulfilled in Christ.

So where should they be looking? Listen, the Jews still exist. All manner of tribes still exist. But do you know where the hope of Israel has come to rest? In Christ and Christ alone. Do you know where the hope of the Gentiles is?

In Christ and Christ alone. So the Jews have to be saved in the same way the Gentiles are. Our oneness is together in Christ. What are we offering as the hope of Israel? Paul said the hope of Israel is in the resurrection of Jesus.

What does Israel have to look forward to? What do the Jews have to look forward to? They have to look forward to Jesus Christ. That's their hope. What would you offer them? What is the hope of Israel?

What would you offer them? What would their triumph be in the story you would tell? What would you say to a Jew about what their triumph would look like? And if it's not the same thing as a Gentile, what gospel have you?

What Bible are you reading? What did the apostles say? What did Christ say? What would it cost anyone? This is important to ask. What is the hope that you have? It's going to cost us all the same. We're going to have to lay aside our identity, our identifiers, our individualities, everything that makes us what we are and makes us proud to be what we are.

We're going to have to lay that down and say, you know what's important is that Christ is my King. I follow Him. There's only salvation in Christ. There's a lot of discomfort in compelling others to sacrifice if we ourselves have not.

Now there is one mediator between God and man. He is the man Christ Jesus. Is He the God of the Jews only or is He not also the God of the Gentiles? Yes to the Gentiles also. And so all of the conundrums of the covenant of Israel, all they do is amplify the catastrophe of the creature in Adam.

For all nations are afflicted by sin. All of us are subject to judgment. All of us are doomed by death. And the preaching of Israel's hope to the Jews sparked a lot of hatred among some of them, which generated even more suffering opportunities, such as for Paul to preach salvation to the Gentiles as well.

Salvation to the Gentiles and the Sifting Power of the Word

So let's think about the salvation to the Gentiles. Paul is not dissuaded by the result of his preaching, and I think rarely have preachers imitated Paul's invitation by which he concludes this evangelistic sermon.

But notice that Paul provokes his countrymen to jealousy by proclaiming the wideness of God's mercy. Watch this, verses 25 through 27. Notice what Paul says. So when they did not agree among themselves, they departed after Paul had said one word, the Holy Spirit spoke rightly through Isaiah the prophet to our father saying, go to this people and say, hearing you will hear and shall not understand, and seeing you will see and not perceive.

For the hearts of this people have grown dull, their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their hearts in turn, so that I should heal them.

So Paul is explaining things. He's explaining why so many Jews reject their own Messiah, and he cites the blindness and deafness that God promised in old covenant judgment against a rebellious and idolatrous people.

So Paul is saying, I'm suffering due to the hatred of the Jews, but Jesus told us it was going to be this way. The prophet said it was going to be this way. Paul knows he's suffering for righteousness' sake.

He's suffering for Jesus' sake, and this is in the same vein and for the same reasons that the prophets were persecuted before them. Right? Matthew 5, verses 10 -12. Paul says, notice this, the Holy Spirit spoke rightly through Isaiah, the prophet, to our fathers.

Now, if you want a one verse explanation of how we got the Bible, that'll be right there. Holy Spirit spoke through the prophet, gave it to people in history, and now it's to us.

You see that?

There's the value of the Scriptures. But notice the indictment that comes, as Paul quotes Isaiah 6, verses 9 -10. Now, this is part of a larger context that we're looking at on Sunday nights and Wednesday nights.

But deafness and blindness by the Word of God is judgment. Notice it comes by the Word of God. The Word of the Gospel saves, but it also sifts. Remember Jesus' parable about the soils? When the Gospel is preached, it clarifies the different soils, doesn't it?

As the seed falls upon the various types of soils, you know what kind of soil it is by the fruit or lack of fruit that comes out. It's the same Gospel every time. It's the same seed every time. Same Word every time.

But we can see that there's a sifting and a clarification of who's who by the preaching of the Word. The Word never returns void, but accomplishes God's purpose, a purpose to save and a purpose to judge.

In the language of Romans 11 and John 15, branches are broken off. Branches are broken off the stump in the move from one covenant to another. The judgment upon the old covenant breaks off all fruitless branches and makes way in the new covenant for only fruitful branches.

There are no unfruitful branches in the new covenant. Only the fruitful kind remain. That's what John 15 and Romans 11 agree on. As the seed is clarified, as the branch man, Jesus of Nazareth is revealed, the true vine is manifested, those who are fruitless branches are pruned, broken off, gathered up and burned in judgment.

But only the fruitful branches are in the new covenant. Only those who are truly alive in Christ. And so, the remnant, the few Jews that came in by that narrow gate and difficult way are numbered among an innumerable multitude from all the nations.

So, look at how many come in. And they all have the same hope. We all have the same hope in Christ. Look at verses 28 through 29. Therefore, let it be known to you that the salvation of God, which again, this is going to be the same thing as he says up here, the hope of Israel, okay?

The hope of Israel, the salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles and they will hear it. And when he has said these words, the Jews departed and had a great dispute among themselves. So, with clear and unapologetic contrast, Paul tells the Jews who thought that the salvation of God was their exclusive hope, that the salvation of God has been directed to the nations and that they, in a manner quite unlike that of the Jews of Paul's day, are going to receive that salvation.

And that caused a great deal of consternation. Jesus Christ is the exclusive way, truth, and life for all nations. No man comes to the Father except through Jesus Christ. Jew and Gentile, both in Adam, are depraved in their sin, dependent upon the grace of God for repentance and faith.

So, the question becomes, why then will the Gentiles hear, in great contrast to the Jews who proved so resistant for a time? Because God is working out His judgment upon Israel along old covenant lines.

And 2 Corinthians 3 and 4 says there's a veil. There's a veil that lies upon the Jews who are being controlled by Satan's influence in those last days of the old covenant. And that was not the same as it was upon the Gentiles, among whom the gospel was also preached.

The judgment had to be completed against those who had rejected Christ. Where are we today? Satan is still a deceiver, though we are promised that he is chained in ways unlike before the reign of Christ, that he cannot control whole nations, that he's still a deceiver.

We are told that one day he will be released to deceive the nations and rally a last stand against Christ and His bride, but it will all be designed to his doom. And it is true that mankind, we are all born in sin, are dead in trespasses and enslaved to do evil things, but what are the powers of sin and death in Satan before the reigning Jesus Christ?