The Hope of Israel and the World

I want to invite you to take out your Bibles while we stand and turn to the 28th chapter of the book of Acts. Our message this morning will be looking at Acts 28, verses 11 all the way down to the end, but the primary focus will be on verse 20.

So our opening will be Acts 28, verse 20. The title of the message is The Hope of Israel and the World. For this reason, therefore, I have asked to see you and speak with you, since it is because of the hope of Israel that I am wearing this chain.

Father in heaven, I thank you for your word. I thank you that it is the light unto our feet and the lamp unto our path. I thank you that it is the inspired, inerrant, and infallible word of God. I pray, Lord, that as I seek to preach it, that you would keep me from error.

For I am a fallible man, incapable of error, and for the sake of my conscience and for the sake of your people, I pray to be kept from that. And I pray, Father, also, as we look here at the last few verses of this book, that we would understand the hope that Jesus Christ brought into this world, and that that hope is not a vain wish, but is the calm assurance of eternal life for all who trust in Him.

And Lord, if there are those with us today who have not trusted in Him, and Lord, there always are, for Lord, we know that even amongst those who come to church regularly, there are those who have yet to bow the knee to Christ, and may it be this morning that they understand that there is only one hope, and it is the gospel.

And I pray it all in Jesus' name, Amen. You may be seated. Well, beloved, today marks the last sermon. Lord willing, today will be the last sermon in our series on the book of Acts, and I feel a bit like a runner who is nearing the end of a marathon, and the banners of the finish line are starting to be in view.

We began this series in December of 2014, which means that we have been in this study for over two years, albeit with a few breaks here and there. And it really is amazing, if you consider, those of you who have been here with us since then, since we began this series, it really is amazing the transition which has taken place in these 28 chapters, because we begin the book with the last words of the Lord Jesus Christ when He spoke to His apostles before His ascension, and He gave them what would ultimately be the outline of the book.

He says, you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria, and to the end of the world. And we see throughout the book of Acts, that came true. That was not just Jesus giving them a mission, but that was a prophetic utterance regarding what the book would outline for us.

Because it began with the church in Jerusalem, when the apostles received the tongues of fire and came upon them the Holy Spirit, and they spoke with the tongues of the men who couldn't hear them or understand them in their language, but understood them in the language of their own.

And so this miracle occurred, and we see thousands upon thousands saved, beginning in Jerusalem, moving out into the area of Judea, into Samaria, and into all the world. Along the way of our study in the book of Acts, we have seen one unlikely convert, and that is Saul of Tarsus.

In fact, I heard recently, I was reading an apologetic paper, or maybe I was listening to a sermon, I don't remember, but it was a man talking about why we, you know, one of the reasons why we trust in the Bible and the truth of Christianity, and he said one of the great apologetic statements or historical realities that give the defense of the faith is the conversion of Saul of Tarsus.

Because Saul of Tarsus is not as if he was just some man on the countryside who had a vision of the Lord Jesus Christ. This was a man who was out persecuting Christians, leading them to prison, and holding the coats of men willing to stone Stephen, the first Christian martyr.

And yet here is a man who even though he was zealous in opposition to Christ, he was converted. As it were, a miraculous conversion, and he became historically the most noted missionary of the first century.

He takes the gospel from the area of Israel up into Galatia, through Asia Minor, and even across the sea to Macedonia and what we would call modern day Greece. He founded churches all over. He founded the church in Thessalonica and Philippi and Corinth and Ephesus, and his letters to these churches would later become recognized as inspired by God.

They were inspired writ from the very mind of God himself using the pen of the apostle Paul. And in the 23rd chapter of Acts, Paul is given a promise by God. We've talked about this for the last few weeks, but just by way of reminder, I want to remind you of what that promise is.

In Acts 23, verse 11, the apostle Paul had just faced the Sanhedrin, that is the Jewish high court, and he had just made his defense to them, and he is now laying in prison awaiting what is going to happen to him, and the Lord Jesus Christ appears to him yet again and says you will be my witness in Rome.

You are going to Rome. And we've studied the chapters after that as Paul faced one governor after another and then a king, and then he was put on a boat, and while on the boat went through a tempestuous sea journey that ended him on the island of Malta on a busted ship swimming for shore for his own survival.

And you've got to think while he's swimming and the water and the waves are crashing over him and he's going toward the shore, he's like I ain't at Rome yet, but I know that's where I'm headed, so one arm in front of the other, we're going to make it work, because we've got to get to Rome while on Malta he's bitten by a snake, and all the people think he's going to swell up and die, but he just shakes the snake off of his hand.

I've noticed a lot of sermons, and I didn't preach this sermon, but a lot of sermons about shaking sin off, shake it off, shake it off, we're not going to do that sermon, but the people think he's going to die and then he doesn't die and so they think he's a god, they're so confused, and so he gives them the gospel.

Well today we see the trip from Malta to Rome. And, we begin in verse 11 of chapter 28, it says after three months, and this is the, why three months, well this is the winter time, this is the time when the sea was most perilous, they shouldn't have been traveling at this time anyway, and that's why they ended up in a crashed ship, it's because they were traveling at the wrong time of year.

So after three months we set sail in a ship that had wintered in the island, a ship of Alexandria with the twin gods as a figurehead. Now Paul is not saying these twin gods are real gods, he's just, this is actually Luke making a reference to the fact that ships of the day would often sail under the banner or under the benefit of gods, and these gods that it's being referenced here are Castor and Pollux, which are the sons of Zeus in Greek mythology, and so they were the gods of the water.

And so, this is just another reminder of the historic nature of this book. There was an archeologist who sought out to try to disprove the Bible, and what he did, he said, well if I can disprove the historicity of the New Testament, then that will, then there will be like a house of cards.

If I can disprove the historic nature, it'd be like removing the foundation, and once the foundation crumbles, everything else sort of falls along with it. So he went out to disprove what Luke had written in the book of Acts, and throughout his goings he learned that not only is the book of Acts and the other books of the New Testament, but specifically the writings of Luke, who was a historian, were not only accurate, but so accurate that they give credence to their claim of divinity, and this man ultimately eventually would become a believer, but this is just an amazing thing.

Why mention that this ship is sailing under the banner of two gods? Well, it's just another reminder of the fact that we're learning the history of what happened in this event, and he goes on to say, they put in at Syracuse, and we stayed there for three days, and from there we made a circuit and arrived at Phrygium, and after one day a south wind sprang up, and on the second day we came to Pethioli, and there we found brothers, and were invited to stay with them for seven days, and so we came to Rome.

This is interesting, by the way, because when he says they found brothers, that means they found fellow believers. This is not Paul's physical family, and it's not referring to Jewish people as brothers, this is Christians, and what does that tell us?

Well, it tells us that the gospel has already come this far. You see, the apostle Paul is going into Rome, but he's not the first one to go to Rome. In fact, how do we know that there's already Christians in Rome?

Because Paul already wrote the book of Romans. In this point in history, the book of Romans is already written. Who would he have written it to? The church in Rome. There's already believers there. He's not going as the first missionary.

He's going as God's man to speak to Caesar. That's who he's going as. But there's already believers. There's already been missionaries who've gone before Paul, and have established churches, and there's already believers.

And here we see some of them. It says, "...and the brothers there, when they heard about us, came as far as the forum of Appius and three taverns to meet us.". That's just areas that they're coming from.

"...and on seeing them, Paul thanked God and took courage.". You know, it's always great to realize you're not alone. It's always great to realize that you're not in this by yourself. You know, that's one of the things people say sometimes.

You know, I don't need to go to church. I can worship God by myself. Well, yes, you can worship God by yourself, but you're not called to worship God alone. Not only alone. You are called to worship God individually in your closet, as Jesus said.

When you pray, go into your closet and pray. And there are times when we meditate with God in singularity by ourselves, but we're also called to be in community. And there's a blessing of community, because in community we often find our encouragement and strength, and we find people who can do what we can't do, and that's what the gifts do.

They work together, and all of us bring our gifts together and minister together. So Paul here realizes, hey, I'm not by myself. And so he took courage. And when we came into Rome, Paul was allowed to stay by himself with a soldier that guarded him.

I find this fascinating. Paul was such a good prisoner that he was allowed to essentially have his own quarters. He wasn't forced to stay in the dungeon. He was able to, as it were, have a place of his own.

The only thing they had was they had a guard who was with him. Now historically, and this is not being proved from the text, and if this is incorrect, I will say it's simply the historic record of what would have been, but historically, what they would do is they would chain the guard to the prisoner, sort of like a modern day house arrest bracelet.

They didn't have the technology of putting a bracelet on someone's ankle like they do today, and they can tell when you leave the house. So back then, they would simply chain the guard to the person, and if you had to go anywhere, well you had about a 180 pound person that you had to make go with you, and that's tough to do.

And those guards would change out. They would have shifts throughout the day. There would be four different guards that would come in and they would work their shifts, you know, several hours a piece.

And I got to thinking, and I wondered, you know, do you think for a second that any of those guys didn't hear the gospel? And can you imagine being chained to the apostle Paul? You're going to hear the gospel.

Those guys were chained to him so he couldn't get away. But the reality was, they couldn't get away. As he was there, and you've got to think, how many of those men may have come to Christ as a result of being chained to the man of God?

But even more so, and more dangerously so, how many of those men entered into hell having heard the gospel from the lips of the apostle Paul? How many people enter into hell having heard the gospel and rejected it?

Such a sad reality. Verse 17 says, 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.

You have to understand something. Paul never considered himself a traitor to the Jews. Now Jews consider him a traitor to this very day. If you speak to an orthodox Jew about the apostle Paul, they consider him a heretic because he followed the Nazarene.

But Paul never considered himself a heretic, in fact, the opposite. Paul considered himself a true descendant of Abraham, one who truly believed in the faith of Abraham, and he believed that he was just going in the direction that the Jews ought to go, and that was after their Messiah.

And so his argument, when he called the local leaders together, he said this, he says, I have done nothing against our people. I'm not preaching against Moses, I'm preaching the Jesus that Moses preached.

I'm not preaching against the law, I'm preaching the Jesus that the law appointed to. I'm not opposed to our heritage. This is the outgrowth. This is the birthright of our heritage. Verse 18, when they had examined him, they wished to set me at liberty because there was no reason for the death penalty in my case.

When they examined me, Paul is talking about what happened back in Jerusalem and in Caesarea. He said, they examined me and they didn't have any reason to put me to death. The Romans examined me three times, Felix, Festus, and Herod Agrippa examined me, and all of them said I should be set free.

But because the Jews objected, verse 19, I was compelled to appeal to Caesar, though I had no charge to bring against my nation. I'm here because the Jews believed I was against them, verse 20, for this reason therefore I have asked to see you and speak with you since it is because of the hope of Israel that I am wearing this chain.

We're going to go back to that in a minute, but that's the key. He says, because of my hope, which is the hope of Israel, is why I'm here today. Verse 21, this is interesting, and they said to him, we have received no letter from Judea about you, and none of the brothers coming here have reported or spoken any evil of you.

I find this tremendously interesting from a historical perspective, because what they're basically saying is this, Paul, we don't have any idea why they were against you. They haven't contacted us. Now, I understand this is first century.

They didn't have email where they could send an email, or even a post office as it were, like ours, which is pretty regular, getting things across lines very quickly. So they're saying, we don't know what the charges were.

They haven't come yet, and it is possible that once Paul was gone from Caesarea, that they just said, you know what, just wipe their hands of them and don't worry about it. But it's also possible, remember this is at the end of a very perilous winter, it's possible that those guys are still on the way.

So we don't know. But we know this, the Jews in Rome hadn't heard anything. They didn't know anything about what was going on. And so, what do they say, verse 22, but we desire to hear from you what your views are, for with regard to this sect, we know that everywhere it is spoken against.

Wouldn't you love somebody to look at you and say, tell me about Jesus? You know, that's what they're saying. We want to hear what this is about, because everybody is saying it's bad. It's spoken against everywhere.

Tell us about it. Verse 23, when they had appointed a day for him, they came to him at his lodging in greater numbers. Remember, he couldn't go to them, he was under house arrest, so they came to him at his home.

And 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. Remember this, beloved, at the time that this is happening, they didn't have a King James Bible.

They certainly didn't have an ESV or an NIV. They had what they called the Torah, the Natzavim, and the Ketuvim, or the law and the prophets. They had the Old Testament scriptures. Paul couldn't pull out Colossians and say, here's where it talks about Jesus as Messiah, in Colossians.

Paul couldn't pull out Matthew and say, here's where Matthew talks about Jesus fulfilling the King of the Jews, the requirement of being the King of the Jews. So what does Paul have to do? He goes back to the writings of Moses.

He goes back into the writings of the historians. He goes back to the writings of the poets. He goes back to the writings of the prophets, and he demonstrates who Jesus is from their own scriptures. And he demonstrates the reality of who Jesus is from the Old Testament.

Beloved, you have to understand this. Jesus is not a New Testament religion. Jesus is the religion of the Bible. Jesus is the focus of scripture from the very moment when it says, in the beginning, God.

From Genesis 1 -1, all the way to Revelation, and the very ending, it is about the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, Jesus Christ. And so Paul simply expounded Jesus Christ from the Old Testament.

Verse 24, and some were convinced by what he said, but others disbelieved. Let me tell you this, beloved. If you ever get discouraged when you're sharing your faith, when you're proclaiming the gospel because not everybody believes what you're saying, you've got to understand, not everybody believed Paul.

He's the greatest missionary in the history of the world, and not everybody believed him. He was the most articulate, most learned, most evangelistically spirited man in the history of the church, and even when he preached the gospel, people didn't believe.

That's important too, because some people think that how we get people to believe is through clever arguments and clever strategies. That's not how you get people to be Christians. You know how you get people to be Christians?

You preach the gospel and let God change their heart. You can't do it. You cannot change the heart of a man. And a man can't change his own heart. The Bible says, can the leopard change its spots, or the Ethiopian his skin?

Neither can you who are evil and accustomed to do, or can do good, who are accustomed to doing evil. The only one who can change a heart is God. So Paul is preaching, and God changes the heart of some, but some remained in disbelief.

In verse 25, in disagreeing among themselves, they departed after Paul had made one statement. This is the statement Paul made, and I mentioned this earlier in our service. He's going to quote Isaiah 6.

The Holy Spirit was right in saying to our fathers through Isaiah the prophet, go to this people and say, you will indeed hear, but never understand. You will indeed see, but never perceive. For this people's heart has grown dull, and with their ears they have barely hear, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and turn, and I would heal them.

Remember what Jesus used this in his parable, or when Jesus was talking about parables, the disciples came to him and said, Jesus, why are you speaking parables? Why do you use parables, Jesus? Why not just tell them how it is?

And you know, a lot of people think that parables are, a lot of people think that parables are Jesus' way of helping us understand stuff. That's not what the Bible says. The Bible says that parables are actually a veil put over something.

It's actually meant to confuse, because you know, and I don't know how many of you listen to liberal scholars, but liberal scholars take the parables and they confuse them really, really, really bad, and they use them in wrong ways all the time, and that's what Jesus said they were going to do.

Because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not understand. But to you, you've been given eyes to see, and ears to hear, and a heart to understand. And so now the parables make sense. And now, we see in this passage, Paul's saying the same thing to these men.

He's saying, you know what? Your eyes are blinded, your ears are stopped, and it's God who will open your eyes, it's God who will open your ears. And he says this in verse 28. This is really what gets their attention, and I would say fires their anger.

Because it says in verse 25, they went away disagreeing among themselves. Well, why? Because in verse 28 it says, therefore let it be known to you that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles, they will listen.

Now I could spend weeks going to Romans 11 and talking about the hardness that has fallen over the hearts of the Israelites so that the fullness of the Gentiles could come in, but I would encourage that to your reading because this is really what Paul's talking about here.

There is a sense in which the blindness of Israel was for the benefit of the Gentiles. And yet, God did not blind all of Israel because Paul himself is an example of an Israelite who was saved, and there are men in this community who are being saved.

God has not blinded them all. And there are those who will hear, but it will not be bound in Israel alone. The gospel will go to the Gentiles, and they will have ears to hear, and they will have eyes to see.

Verse 30, he lived there two whole years at his own expense. That's an interesting thing to say because Paul basically had an apartment with a guard. He was living as it were on his own with a guard, and he welcomed all who came to him.

By the way, did you notice I didn't mention verse 29? Because in some of your Bibles it ain't there. The verse 29 is a textual variation there, and the variant says this, when he had spoken these words, the Jews departed having a great dispute among themselves.

Whether or not that's in the original is up for debate or dispute, but if you have a King James Bible, the verse 29 is there, and that's what it says. And I wouldn't imagine that it would be far from us to...

It's not hard to imagine that there would be a dispute after Paul says the gospel's going to the Gentiles, but anyhow, he lived there for two years at his own expense and welcomed all who came to him, proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance.

And therein is the last verse of the book of Acts, and I want to say this because it's seems like it cuts off before the ending. You ever been to a good movie and something happened and you had to leave ten minutes before it was over, and you didn't know how it resolved?

Well, that's sort of what's going on here in the book of Acts. You've got Paul, he's made his journey from Caesarea through the perilous sea over the sea, he's got his own apartment, he's got a guard who is with him, and he's there, and he's ready to see Caesar.

By the way, who's Caesar at this point? Nero Caesar. He's ready to see Nero. He's ready to proclaim the gospel to the most powerful man in the world, and the curtain's closed. The movie's over. Well, what happens now?

Well, I'm glad you asked. Because the book of Acts does end here, but we do have historical records which tell us what happened after this, and if you don't mind, I'd like to spend just a few minutes as I draw to a close on the epilogue, the part that's not here.

Because according to church history, Paul does remain in house arrest for two years, it says that in verse 30. And during that time, Paul is not only ministering, he's writing. It's during this time that he's writing Ephesians, he's writing Philippians, he's writing Colossians, he's writing Philemon, those great books of the New Testament.

This is why we often call, you know, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, we call these the prison epistles because he's writing them while essentially under arrest. Extrabiblical sources and Paul's own writing tell us what happens next.

In 1 Clement 5 .7, and 1 Clement was written in about the year 95, it was the earliest Orthodox Christian writing outside the New Testament. And it speaks of Paul preaching in the limits of the West, which at that time would have been euphemistic for Spain.

And if you look at Romans 15, you'll notice Paul talks about, when he's talking to the Romans, he says, I want to visit you on my way to Spain. See we think that this is the end for the Apostle Paul, it's not the end.

This is a providential stop in his journey. But this isn't the end because the Apostle Paul, according to Eusebius, who wrote in 83 .25, that Paul was freed after two years from his confinement, and he carried his ministry out into Spain until he was arrested and placed back in Roman imprisonment.

And you know why? Because Nero had accused the Christians of burning Rome. And so now there is a new accusation against the Christians. Nero himself, having been the one responsible for the blaze, he hates Christians so he chooses to blame them.

And as a result, Christian martyrdom becomes part of Roman tradition. And the time after Paul's release from prison in the mid -60s, that time where I said he was out and went to Spain, would have been about the time he wrote 1 Timothy and Titus.

But now that he's been arrested again, taken back to Rome, and he's waiting his imprisonment, he writes his last letter. Do any of you know what the last letter written by the Apostle Paul is? 2 Timothy.

Who said that? That's right. 2 Timothy. And how do we know that? Because at the end of 2 Timothy, he writes this. For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come.

I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. And church history tells us that not long after that, he was beheaded as a prisoner in Rome, about the same time, probably in the same year, as the Apostle Peter was crucified upside down.

Why was Peter crucified and Paul beheaded? Because Paul was a Roman citizen, and Roman citizens were not crucified because it was considered a shameful death. So Paul is a Roman citizen, loses his head for the gospel.

Peter, as a lowly Jew, is crucified, but not so in the manner of Christ, because he requested, according to tradition, that he be crucified upside down, because he did not bear, so that he would not bear the same death.

He was not worthy to bear the same death as his Savior. So, as we draw to the close now and have a little bit more of the history that goes along with the book, I want to ask a question as we begin to move to the end.

What was it that drove Paul and men like him to the ends of the earth? What was it that caused him to be an unstoppable force for missions, and what caused him to go all the way to his death with unmatched and unparalleled zeal?

Well I think the answer is found in verse 20, when he was speaking to the Jews. He says, it is because of the hope of Israel I am in this chain. He believed. He was carrying the hope of Israel with him, and by extension, the hope of the whole world.

And I wonder at times, I wonder if we realize what we possess when we say we possess the gospel. Do we realize how precious a thing it is that we possess? Do we understand how marvelous a thing it is that we have been given?

Paul understood it, and it was his life's mission to ensure that he gave that gift not only to his brethren, but to the world. It wasn't just the hope of Israel, it was the hope of the world. Do you know what the gospel is?

The gospel is hope. And do you know what this world is without the gospel? Hopeless. A man can spend his life in relative comfort. He can join a gym and be fit. He can get a good job and be wealthy. He can find a mate and be satisfied.

And he can get an education, and he can be intelligent. But apart from the gospel, all that he will have is temporary comfort. One day this life will end. And when it does, he will face his Creator. He will have to give an account for his sins, and without the atonement of Jesus Christ, that man will be found guilty in God's sight, and all the comforts of this world will turn to ash, and he will be consigned to hell forever.

Do you realize that if you are outside of Christ today, that is describing you, not someone else, but you. You can have a wonderful life. You can have friends and family that love you. You may have more money than you can spend, but without the gospel, you have no hope.

You say, well, I'm a Christian. I know Christ. I'm safe. I'm content. And that's wonderful if you know Christ. Would it be that all of you would know Christ? But how valuable is the Christ that you know?

Is the hope in you because of Christ worth sharing? See, it was the hope in Christ that drove Paul to the ends of the earth, but often our hope that we proclaim won't drive us to talk to the person next to us.

And you know what I find? I find that in life, when people get something they like or something they appreciate, they'll share it with other people. People love to share things with other people that they like.

Recently, when I hurt my back, I've had several people, and I appreciate this, several people have come to tell me about their doctor. Pastor Keith, I have a great doctor. I have a great chiropractor.

I have this great massage therapist. You should go see him or her. Hey, I appreciate that. Thank you for that. People do the same thing with their movies. Oh man, this movie, you got to go see it. Or their restaurant, or a book, or an amusement park.

You haven't lived until you've had this. Why do people do that? Because they share things about which they are passionate. They love to share what they're passionate about. And this is how I can tell when someone really knows Christ, because they have a passion to share Him.

Paul went about the world proclaiming Jesus because he had a passion to see people come to know the Lord that saved him. To the Jews, he would say, the long-awaited hope of Israel has come. And to the Gentiles, he would say, Zeus is not God.

Jupiter is not God. Mars is not God. Yahweh alone is the God of heaven and earth. And He sent His Son as an atonement for sin. And He is our only hope. And let me remind you that the Christian understanding of hope is not wishful thinking.

We use hope in our modern vernacular as a way of expressing things that we wish would take place. Well, I hope it rains so those fires will go out. Or I hope the person I invited to church will come on Sunday.

Or I hope that my children will grow up and experience wonderful and fulfilling marriages. Or go to college. Or get a good job. Or have a good relationship in their life. That's a hope that we can't promise.

That's a hope we can't guarantee. But when I say I hope in Jesus, that is a hope based upon the assurance of the Word of God. It is not wishful thinking. The Christian hope is the earnest anticipation and confident expectation that my life here and my life yet to come is secure in my Savior who will not fail to do what He has promised in bringing me to glory.

That is my only hope. And I pray it will be yours. Father in heaven, I thank you for your Word. I thank you for the hope that drove Paul even to the executioner's block. I praise you for the hope that drove Peter even to the crossed tree.

And all the early apostles who everyone gave their lives for the faith. Lord, their hope is inspiring. And I pray that we would share in that hope. Not wishful thinking, but confident expectation that you who began the good work in us will complete it in the day of Jesus Christ.

And it's in His name we pray. Amen. Let's stand together and sing as we prepare for communion.