Finally Rome (Acts 28:7-31, Jeff Kliewer)

Cornerstone Church

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Amen. Chuck Swindoll tells the story of a woman who was on board the

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Titanic. As the ship hit an iceberg and began to sink, the lifeboats were put off the side of the boat and began to gather passengers.

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And different captains and different leaders were filling the lifeboats. Well, this woman, as she got on board, said, how long before you lower the boat?

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How long do I have to run back to my room to get something? He said,

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I think this is going down in three minutes. You have three minutes. She got off the lifeboat and went back onto the

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Titanic. And you think you know where this story is going. She valued things too much, right?

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No, actually, as she ran through the ship, she ran through the casino and left all the money behind and all the gold and everything that was just worthless at that point.

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And she ran to her room, and she pushed past the jewelry, past her money, past every valuable thing in this world's eyes.

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And she grabbed oranges. She took the oranges that she had brought from the journey and carried them onto the lifeboat.

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She made it back in time, and those oranges helped sustain them once they were lowered. In a moment like the sinking of the

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Titanic, our perspective on life changes really quickly, doesn't it? We recognize what we really need for this journey.

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My question for you this morning is, what is really needed for this journey that you're on?

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Now, a journey motif follows through all of Luke's writing.

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If you guys remember, those of you who have been here this long, which might not be a whole lot of people, back in 2016, we began a study through the book of Luke.

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And we studied all the way through Luke and then continued with Luke's writing because Luke is the one who wrote

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Acts. And in both cases, you see a strong journey metaphor. You see that Jesus, even from his earliest days, had set his face to go to Jerusalem.

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He was on a mission. He was on a journey, and he was traveling. And through that whole travel narrative of the book of Acts, we see he has a destination that he's going to.

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Well, we see the same thing in the book of Acts. There we have the apostle Paul with this ambition, this desire to go to Rome.

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And so as he goes from place to place on that third missionary journey, he wants to make it to Jerusalem. Ultimately, he has his mind and his heart set on going to Rome.

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And so where we come to today in the text is the finishing of a mission. I call the sermon,

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Finally Rome, like finally home because when he makes it to Rome, this is the end.

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Now, we don't get how Paul dies in Rome. He's probably released for a period of time after his two -year imprisonment.

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This is around 62 AD, and around 64 AD, he travels maybe as far as Italy but comes back to Rome and is finally beheaded in the city of Rome.

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We don't get the story of Paul's death in the book of Acts. Isn't that interesting? You would think after this long journey that Paul has been on, we would see the final conclusion when he finally makes it home.

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But I think the reason Luke would leave that out and never update the book of Acts once Paul was killed,

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I think he wanted to focus on only one death. You see, the story of Jesus ends in Jerusalem with a sacrifice for sins, a once and for all sacrifice.

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And Paul's story leaves off at a certain point to bring us into that story that this story continues on.

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Paul will not be a sacrifice for sins. That was once and for all accomplished in the death of Jesus at Calvary.

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So that's the great finishing story where Jesus dies and now we're caught up into it.

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So turn with me. We are gonna finish the book of Acts today. But at the end,

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I'm gonna go quickly through the text and at the end of my sermon today, I want to give you oranges. I want to give you 10 things, 10 oranges to take away from this book that if you will take this through your journey in life, you don't need gold, you don't need silver, you don't need anything but Christ and him crucified and these things that we'll talk about.

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So Acts 28, we left off at verse six, which means expository we pick up in verse seven and we continue and finish the book.

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Let's take it a few verses at a time. The first thing I want you to see is that this

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Malta, this island that he landed on, it was very unexpected. It was a shipwreck, remember?

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It was an unexpected detour, but Paul saw it as an opportunity for the gospel. However your life goes and you have this expectation of making it finally home and in your mind, you have your course charted out.

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But sometimes everything shipwrecks. Even that is a part of God's plan.

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Even that is an opportunity for the gospel. Now we see how this all ties together, seven through 10.

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Now in the neighborhood of that place were lands belonging to the chief man of the island named

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Publius who received us and entertained us hospitably for three days. It happened that the father of Publius lay sick with fever and dysentery and Paul visited him and prayed and putting his hands on him healed him.

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And when this had taken place, the rest of the people on the island who had diseases also came and were cured.

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They also honored us greatly and when we were about to sail, they put on board whatever we needed.

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So I'm gonna take a quick little rabbit trail here, just a little sermon aside. This could be a different sermon for a different day.

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Many times people say that in the book of Acts you see that the miracles are fading and that at the end, there's not really many miracles happening.

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I would differ because this is the last chapter of the book of Acts and you still see miraculous things happening.

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Luke is in no way trying to show the cessation of spiritual gifts. At this point, there is some healing taking place.

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We don't know how much of that is normative for us but you can't say that the spiritual gifts ended at any point in the book of Acts because here we are in the last chapter and they're still operating.

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But what's the big idea here? This is an opportunity for the gospel. The spiritual gifts are not the end game here.

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The healing of Publius' dad and all these people on the island, that's not the final healing because these people will eventually die.

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The final healing, the spiritual healing, the most important healing is that they now are hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ.

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And as you go through this life, remember that the reason that you are here is to testify to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

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Here, Paul is shipwrecked for this express purpose to preach Christ. Verse 11 to 16, a very interesting scene now.

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He leaves the island of Malta and the grand finale of the book, this journey that he's been on comes to a conclusion.

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He arrives in Rome. 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.

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Putting in at Syracuse, we stayed there for three days and from there, we made a circuit and arrived at Regium and after one day, a south wind sprang up and on the second day, we came to Puteoli.

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There, we found brothers and were invited to stay with them for seven days and so we came to Rome.

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And the brothers there, when they had heard about us, came as far as the Forum of Appius and the three taverns to meet us.

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On seeing them, Paul thanked God and took courage and when we came into Rome, Paul was allowed to stay by himself with the soldier who guarded him.

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Brothers and sisters, we are called to live in Rome, metaphorically speaking.

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Rome, the world, this fallen world, recognize what Rome is like. It is ruled and the ruler of, the emperor of Rome in this case is a man named

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Nero who killed many of his own family who later will go on to burn down the city of Rome intentionally because he wanted to rebuild it.

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When he did that, he blamed the Christians for the burning of Rome and many of them were put to death in the

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Colosseum. This is a wicked empire, but notice as Paul is sailing from Malta, he has to be in Rome, just not of it.

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Notice the marker for that in verse 11. They set sail in a ship and Luke points out that this ship from Alexandria, the front of it had the twin gods as a figurehead.

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The twin gods are called Castor and Pollux. I thought, you know what, I should put up a slide of Castor and Pollux so you can see who are these gods.

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However, as soon as I Googled it, I saw that the image is rather inappropriate, very inappropriate.

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Every image of Castor and Pollux was just naked effeminate men and I thought, ugh, no, not doing it.

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No slide going up here. The Castor and Pollux figurehead is leading the ship and Paul is on that ship.

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He doesn't belong there. This is not the home. This is the city of man, not the city of God.

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Paul belongs to a different kingdom and yet he's called to be on that ship to make it to Rome. I find it appropriate in that sense.

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He is a light in the midst of darkness, a light for the Gentiles.

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So he's bringing the gospel on this ship. This Alexandrian ship and he arrives in Rome.

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He arrives and begins to move his way up on the southeast side of Rome and we're told in verse 14 that some brothers were there, invited him to stay for seven days and so they came to Rome.

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And the brothers there, when they heard about us, came as far as the Forum of Appius and three taverns to meet us.

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This Forum of Appius is along the Appian Way. It's about 43 miles southeast of Rome.

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It's what would be kind of the stopping point when a runner would do his day's journey.

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Can you imagine a 43 -mile run? That's how far they would go and then he'd hand off the message to the next runner.

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The three taverns, these three shops were in this little outpost. Here's where they stay.

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On seeing them, Paul thanked God and took courage. He's moving in to the city. When he finally made it in, he was allowed to stay by himself with the soldier who guarded him.

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This is the course that Paul has been on. It's been a very difficult journey, hasn't it? And we say about our lives, it is not easy and yet our journey is motivated by hope.

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We're filled with joy as we go. As we move into 17 through 22, the

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Christian course is rife with difficulty. I want you to notice that as Paul is telling this, as we hear about him and as he meets with the

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Jewish people, he tells about being a prisoner and he shows them that he's wearing a chain and there's a soldier chained to him.

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He's been accused and the death penalty was hanging over his head, but in verse 20, the hope of Israel.

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For all of us who struggle in this life, you're not unlike Paul. It's all of us.

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But we have something that the world doesn't have. We have hope. After three days, he called together the local leaders of the

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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

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Romans. When they had examined me, they wished to set me at liberty because there was no reason for the death penalty in my case.

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But because the Jews objected, I was compelled to appeal to Caesar, though I had no charge to bring against my nation.

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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.

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Wow, that's beautiful language. It's because of the hope of Israel that I'm wearing this chain.

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He's not talking about a gold chain, by the way, with a little cross. He's talking about being chained with a thick metal chain.

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And they said to him, we have received no letters from Judea about you and none of the brothers coming here has reported or spoken any evil about you, but we desire to hear from you what your views are.

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For with regard to the sect, we know that everywhere it is spoken against.

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The Christian life is spoken against. Everywhere we go, we meet difficulty and yet we're motivated by hope.

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Notice after this long journey, what is the first thing? I think he takes three days off, we're told in verse 17.

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That's a good little vacation for Paul. That's like a long sabbatical. Three days, and what does he wanna do?

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He wants to go see the leaders of the Jewish people. He calls them and tells this story. They've never heard of him.

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He tells about the hope that he has. He's driven and motivated.

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Do you wake up in the morning and roll out of bed with a burning desire to live that day?

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Do you dwell in fire? Do you dwell in passion?

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This is the life of Paul. He has a purpose, he has a reason. He has a hope that he's living for and it wakes him up with energy in the morning.

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There's a purpose that he's living for. Discover what that purpose is.

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It's the gospel, the hope of Israel. I read the story of Larry Walters again recently.

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Maybe some of you have heard of him. He had no purpose, he had no hope. And so he decided to accomplish just a random dream that he made up in his head.

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And that was to get helium weather balloons, attach them to his lawn chair and fly.

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And this he did. I think he got about 75 industrial strength weather balloons filled them with helium that he got from some party store, tied them to a lawn chair and sat down with his pellet gun.

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His plan being as he ascended, when he got high enough, he would shoot out some of the balloons and slowly descend.

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He had no purpose to live for. He was living just day by day. And actually when he landed, they said, why did you do this?

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And he said, you gotta do something. Gotta do something. He had no plan, he had no purpose to live for.

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Well, anyway, as Larry Walters took off, he went to 16 ,000 feet within a minute. 16 ,000 feet up in the airspace and eventually drifted over Los Angeles airport and all the airport was shut down and became a huge national story.

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The media was watching this. He came down and landed in some power lines after he shot out a few balloons and dropped the

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BB gun and then got tangled in power lines. And he lived to tell the story. But the story didn't need to be told.

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I don't think Paul is looking for something to do in the text. He has the hope, he has a purpose, he has a reason to get up in the morning and he's preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ.

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Verse 23 and 24. Notice that sometimes God sets aside a day, an entire day for preaching the gospel.

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I think Sunday should be that way for us. We should set it aside to gather in God's house and we should look for opportunities for the gospel.

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And that should be week long. But Sunday, just a designated day to come and hear the word of God, to listen to the gospel.

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23 and 24 says, when they had appointed a day for him, they came to him at his lodging in great numbers.

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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.

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And some were convinced by what he said, but others disbelieved. So there it is.

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Paul has a mission. He calls them in and God opens the door. Pray for those opportunities to share the gospel.

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But notice, most of the Jewish people don't believe. 25 through 28.

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And disagreeing among themselves, they departed after Paul had made one statement. The Holy Spirit was right in saying to your fathers through Isaiah the prophet, go to this people and say, you will indeed hear, but never understand.

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And you will indeed see, but never perceive. For this people's heart has grown dull.

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And with their ears, they can 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.

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Therefore, let it be known to you that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles and they will listen.

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Now this again is a sermon unto itself. So I'm gonna give you the cliff note version.

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We're told in verse 26, you will indeed hear, but never understand.

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Romans chapter nine through 11 expounds upon this in more depth. How it is that the people of Israel have been hardened, judicially hardened by God for a time.

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And in this time, the Gentiles are being brought in by and large, but there's coming a time at the end of the age when the hearts of the

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Jewish people will be softened and they will believe. And so the question is, does

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God really have the right to do that? Does God have the right to harden a heart?

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D .A. Carson has some helpful comments. About this, along these lines. He says, if a superficial reading finds it harsh, manipulative, even robotic, four things must constantly be born in mind.

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Number one, God's sovereignty in these matters is never pitted against human responsibility.

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God will harden the Israelites for a time, but that does not mean that they are not responsible for their own hardness of heart.

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And of course we know from Romans nine, the comparison to Pharaoh, how Pharaoh hardened his heart and God hardened

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Pharaoh's heart. Both were true. They're not one or the other. Number two, according to D .A.

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Carson, I think he's right. God's judicial hardening is not presented as the capricious manipulation of an arbitrary potentate, cursing morally neutral or even morally pure beings.

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Time out, D .A. Carson, that's big words. He's saying this doesn't picture God as some harsh ruler who's cursing innocent people with hardness of heart, but rather the people that he has in view here are actually guilty and condemned, making their own sinful choices.

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He's hardening people in their own sin. Third, God's sovereignty in these matters can also be a cause for hope.

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And this is what I wanna stress to you. We're talking today about the hope of Israel. If God is sovereign, then our prayers are heard and he's able to do something about them.

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There's nothing that can thwart God in his answer to prayer. D .A. Carson uses the example of Isaiah.

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He was told that he would go and preach to a people who will not listen because God will harden their hearts,

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Isaiah six. But this was a hopeful thing because in the end, God is achieving a redemptive purpose for all of his people.

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And whatever was happening in the day of Isaiah is called strange, it's a strange work.

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We're not able to fully appreciate and understand what that is, but God is doing something for redemptive reasons.

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It's within his freedom to do that, he has that. And finally, D .A. Carson points out God's sovereign hardening of the people in Isaiah's day, his commissioning of Isaiah to apparently fruitless ministry, it's a strange work that brings

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God's ultimate redemptive purposes to pass. So you read this passage and we're told that the hearts of the people are hard.

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Paul's preaching the truth, it's laid out plainly from the prophets and yet most of them don't wanna hear it and they don't believe it, why?

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And it becomes more personal than that. When the preaching of the word on Sunday morning doesn't resonate with your heart and you don't wanna hear it.

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And maybe when the picking up the Bible is hardening and it just seems like a dry, dusty book and you want nothing to do with it, do you ever ask yourself the question, could it be that my heart has been hardened?

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Am I under God's judicial hardening? Am I in danger? I like what

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Tony Reinke from the Gospel Coalition says, all believers will occasionally struggle with callousness in our affections but this feeling is not the same thing as a hard heart.

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A truly hard heart cannot feel or lament its own hardness and there's the key difference.

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The difference is the hard heart, biblically speaking, the one who is against Christ and against the gospel goes from hardness to harder and harder still and it doesn't lament the fact, it doesn't want

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Christ, it hates Christ and wants nothing to do with Christ but if you're struggling and you desire to know him more but you hate the fact that your heart is often callous, that's a good sign that your heart has not been hardened toward the gospel.

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The very fact that you care about this condition of your own soul is a good sign.

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There's something awake in you that knows that your heart can experience more than it is.

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The Jewish people here are being hardened and they're completely blind to the point where Paul will say, I'm turning away from you,

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I go to the Gentiles and they will listen. Finally, the last two verses,

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Paul's finishing well but Luke is implying something about each of us. He doesn't take it to Paul's beheading, he leaves it off right here and this is where we pick up.

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He lived there two whole years at his own expense and welcomed all who came to him, proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the

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Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance. Notice it doesn't say the end.

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This is where we pick up. Paul has run his course as far as we need to know.

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He was faithful, he will be welcomed in with a well done, good and faithful servant. We pick up where Paul left off, here in Rome, metaphorically speaking, in Rome but not of it.

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The course that we're running for us leads to heaven but for Rome, the end is destruction.

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We're told in 2 Peter that this world will be destroyed with fire. The way it was first of all destroyed by the flood, it is reserved for a day of burning.

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Rome was burnt, Rome didn't last forever, neither does the city of man. The question then becomes and here's where we're gonna go to the application section, a little longer section today.

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The question then becomes, what do I need to carry with me on this journey?

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Brothers and sisters, we've studied through Luke and we've studied through Acts and it's not enough that we've heard sermon after sermon and we've read through it.

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We have to take some of these things, all of them, and put them into practice. So what I've done, I'm gonna ask you to find that red card in your notes.

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And if you don't have that, you can grab it on the way out and just look up here. These are the oranges to take out of the book of Acts.

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10 oranges that will truly help you on your journey. This is after studying for this long, for a year of our lives, this is what we wanna take and say, this is how

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I will live my life. And I want you to review these each day, maybe read through these 10 things for the rest of 2018.

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Each morning, they're short but I'm gonna give you the summary now and ask you to remember when we studied them, put them into practice in your life.

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The first, I think this is the biggest theme of Acts, so I put it first. It is the priority, the importance, the necessity of being filled with God's Holy Spirit.

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There is a difference between a Spirit -filled Christian and a carnal Christian or someone who is grieving the

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Spirit, quenching the Spirit, not walking in the full power of the Holy Spirit. Before the book of Acts unfolds with any action, with any drama, we're told, wait, wait in Jerusalem until you receive the gift from on high.

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Don't go in your own strength, you can't do this in your own strength, but then as we follow through the book of Acts, what do we see?

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In the second chapter, the Holy Spirit descends in fire and rests on each one of them and enters each one of them and we're told they were all filled with the

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Holy Spirit. And then we're told about the apostles in chapter four that they were filled with the

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Holy Spirit. And Peter, in speaking, in preaching, it says he was filled with the

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Holy Spirit, we get into Acts six and seven, we're told about Stephen, what? Stephen, being full of the

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Holy Spirit, was preaching and performing miracles. And as he proclaimed the gospel, we're told, he was full of the

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Holy Spirit. We move on to the story of Philip in chapter eight and what do we see? Philip was a man full of the

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Holy Spirit. You see the theme developing. And finally, Paul comes onto the scene in Acts chapter nine and we're told the

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Spirit came and Paul was filled, filled with the Holy Spirit.

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As he confronts Elymas in chapter 13, it says he was filled with the Spirit and said, you will be blind.

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He's not acting in his own power, in his own strength. This theme is the most important thing for you and I to take from this.

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And so you ask, how do I be filled? I was encouraged by the men's retreat that we went on recently.

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One of the guys there was John Detoli. He pointed out that the Lord has been working in his prayer life and has moved in him to actually kneel before God every morning.

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I've been doing that recently. And what I've been finding is that when you spend time actually on your knees before God, waiting and asking, the

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Holy Spirit will fill you. What were we promised in Luke? If you ask your father for bread, will he give you a stone?

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If you ask him for a fish, will he give you a snake? No, but a good father gives good gifts to his children.

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How much more will your father give you the Holy Spirit if you ask? Start each day on your knees and say,

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God, I don't have strength to obey you. I can't live by the book.

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I need your Holy Spirit because it's not by strength. It's not by power. It's by your spirit.

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I need you, Lord of hosts. Begin every day calling on God to fill you with the

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Holy Spirit. Second, make disciple -making priority number one in your life.

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This is about priorities. We see through the book of Acts. You will be filled with the

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Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit comes upon you, you will be my witnesses. That's the work you're called to do.

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The filling of the Spirit is invisible. It's happening on the inside, but then you go and do something, and what are we called to do as a church?

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Are we supposed to right every injustice in this world? Are we to turn over the political forces and establish

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Christ's kingdom before he comes? Is that what we're told to do? No, we're called to evangelize and make disciples.

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Make disciples. You see it again and again through the book of Acts. I've given you some scriptures, 6 -4, 9 -15.

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In 14 -21, after Paul gets up from Lystra, he goes into Derbe, and the entire ministry that he accomplishes in Derbe is summed up in he made disciples.

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He made disciples. That's what he did in Derbe. He made disciples. And then he went on to the next place.

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Making disciples. It's the theme. It's the work of the church.

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The third major theme that I want each of us to know, and I want us to know it like the back of our hands.

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In fact, I would encourage you to write it on your hands. I actually do that sometimes. I make notes with pen on my hands so I'll remember what

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I'm trying to learn. And this is the gospel. The book of Acts is about the gospel.

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But we assume the gospel because we know the gospel. We know it through our Christmas songs, and we know it through our

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Easter services. But if someone says to you, what is the gospel? Tell me in 60 seconds, what do you say?

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Throughout the book of Acts, we see the apostolic message about Jesus Christ entailing five elements that I have written for you here.

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Number one, the person of Christ. You have to tell who he is. He's the

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Messiah, he's the Son of God, the Son of Man. Fully God, fully man, bridging the gap. He is

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God in the flesh, the Son of God. Number two, the work of Christ. You haven't told them the gospel unless you've told about how he came to die.

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His death on the cross. It's not enough that he gave a moral example and he gave great teachings. No, you need to tell about he died as a sacrifice for sin.

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And you need to tell him that he rose from the dead, he conquered the grave for our justification, and he ascended to the right hand of the

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Father, and he was seated at the right hand of the Father, and there he makes intercession. This is the work of Christ.

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We have to tell what he has done. It's all about him. Third, you ground this belief in the scriptures.

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This is according to the scriptures, we're told over and over again. The prophets foretold it, and now the apostles have confirmed it.

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It's all according to the scriptures. Number four, why is this good news? What is so good about the gospel?

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It is for the forgiveness of your sin. Sinner, you're like me.

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We sin and we go astray. We're like sheep who wander. We're archers who miss the mark. We sin, but we have forgiveness.

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Our sin's completely covered and taken away from us. We have this good news, and we have the gift of eternal life.

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We're given life. We're made new, regenerated, alive. Forgiveness and eternal life, and that life goes on and on and on forever.

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Conquering death, eternity with God, rather than punishment in hell forever.

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This is good news, but finally there needs to be a response. The sinner has to repent and turn from sin and turn to Christ for salvation.

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Repentance and faith. Calling people to believe the gospel. Turning away from sin and trusting in the

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Savior. Acts clarifies that for us because we have one example after another of how they preached.

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Read what they said. That's our message. That's the good news of the gospel. Fourth, you have this theme in Luke about the providence of God.

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The events of earth are unfolding. I mention this a little bit. It ties into the judicial hardening that we talked about from Romans 9 to 11 and the very end of Acts 28.

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This idea, don't miss this. It's a hard teaching, but it's very important that God is in control of this world meticulously.

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Every detail of your life, nothing's happening to you apart from what God has as part of his plan.

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In Acts 2 .23, the crucifixion of Jesus himself was according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God.

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Not just foreknowledge like he learned it by looking down the corridors of history, but the definite plan of God, he planned it.

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In Acts 4 .28, we're told that four groups conspired against Jesus by their own will.

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Herod was against him. Pilate was against him. The Jews were against him. The Romans were against him. They, in their own will, their creaturely will, were opposing

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Jesus, but verse 28 of the fourth chapter of Acts tells us that they did what

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God's hand and plan predestined to take place. Some strong words from Luke.

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Wrestle with Luke on that one. Next, in Acts 13 .48, we're told, as the gospel was preached, all who were appointed to eternal life believed.

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Not the other way around, not that they believed and so were appointed to eternal life, but they were appointed to eternal life and so they believed.

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We also have, in Acts 16 .14, we're told that God opened the hearts of people to hear the gospel and believe it.

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And then we see the fulfillment of prophecy, what must take place in Acts 27 .26. We must run aground on some island.

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It was destined to be that way, that they would shipwreck on Malta. Look, guys, what I'm trying to tell you, and this is why it matters so much to me,

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I found in my life, the higher my view of God, the bigger my God and the lower that I esteem my own self and my own ability and my own control, the more

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I trust him, the more I can rest in him. I want you, brothers and sisters, to know rest in God.

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I want you to know trust, where even the bad things that happen in this life and the willfulness of men is ordained by God.

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And so you can trust it from his good hand and know, Romans 8 .28, he's working all things together for good.

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You will come to a place of maturity in your Christian walk that you can't attain without understanding providence.

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Because if there is any element of anarchy in this universe, then how can you rest in God?

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If anything's out of control, out of God's control, now, trust me, a lot of things are out of my control, but because I know a

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God who has everything under his control, there's a place where we can come and rest and be mature.

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We need that lesson. Review those scriptures if you need strengthening in that area. Fifth, spiritual gifts.

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A little different from the filling of the spirit, which includes all of life, there are certain gifts we're told about.

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Spiritual gifts, charismata. You can't read the book of Acts without noticing them. And there's some disagreement as to which gifts continue and which don't, but I think most of us and probably all of us agree that some of the spiritual gifts are operating today.

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Gifts of administration and teaching and helps. Know that God has given gifts to his children and we need to exercise those gifts.

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So you see through the book of Acts, they're speaking in tongues, their sons and daughters are prophesying, there's miracles, there's healings, there's all these powerful things happening throughout the book and as I mentioned earlier, it runs the entire gamut all the way to the 28th chapter.

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What do you do with that? Well, read 1 Corinthians 12 to 14 and say, Lord, when you're praying in the morning, say,

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Lord, use me, give me a gift of evangelism. Give me a gift that I could speak to someone and they would believe the gospel.

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Pray for spiritual gifts to operate in your life. Number six, notice this in the text.

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Opposition. With gospel advance. It's a stark reality in the book of Acts.

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Every time you see the gospel begin to run powerfully in any direction, you see the forces of evil mount an attack against the gospel.

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So they heal the layman at the gate beautiful. Remember Peter and John? And he's walking and leaping and praising

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God and all of Jerusalem is coming out proclaiming he was healed by Jesus Christ.

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The name, healed by the name of Jesus. Sure enough, the

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Sadducees, filled with jealousy, we're told, oppose him. And this pattern repeats again and again.

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They go out preaching and they're thrown in jail. Acts chapter six, Stephen is full of the spirit.

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He's preaching and they oppose him. So much so that they're, in chapter seven, they're gnashing their teeth.

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They're so angry. They're gnashing their teeth at him. But his face is shining like an angel.

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He's stoned to death. Chapter nine, verse one, Paul is breathing out murderous rage against the disciples.

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When Paul goes and preaches on Cyprus, Elymas, the sorcerer, opposed him, trying to turn the proconsul away from the faith.

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He preaches in Philippi and a little girl possessed by a demon is ridiculing and taunting them by the power of a demon.

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Paul goes to Jerusalem when he finally makes it there for the feast. He preaches and sure enough, the people oppose him and say, this troublemaker has come.

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He's teaching against the customs. They lie about him. They tell all kinds of lies. Again and again, he's on trial.

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Remember that fork -tongued turtuless who comes and speaks so eloquently and then he says, but this guy, and just trashes

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Paul. Again and again, opposition. I'm gonna tell you this, church. The more we preach

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Christ, the more we see baptisms and people coming to faith, know that Satan and his demons are getting angry.

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Apply this to your own life. You will face opposition in this world.

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We're told, Jesus said, in this world you will face trouble but take heart, I have overcome the world. Recognize that the opposition that we're facing as Christians, it's not merely natural.

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We need to fight in the supernatural. We need to take on the armor of God every morning and pray in the spirit at all times.

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This is a war. This is not just a cruise ship like the Titanic. This is a warship that you're on.

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Be prepared for battle. Gird up your loins. Take up the armor.

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Take up the one weapon that you have which is the sword of the spirit. The word of God, that's how we fight.

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It's a truth war, talked about that. Not a justice war but a truth war. Number seven, guys, we gotta be gritty.

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Can't read the book of Acts without seeing grit. We have to be abandoned to God.

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Not soft, not weak, not childish but manly. I'm talking to the men. And women, you've gotta be strong and just as courageous as the men.

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Mary might have been the most courageous woman that we read about in the book of Acts. Well, in the book of Luke, excuse me, that Luke writes about.

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Men and women alike, we have to be gritty. When the disciples are called in and they're being accused by the very people who crucified

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Jesus, meaning the likely outcome in their minds is they're about to die, they look them right in the eye and they said, judge for yourselves whether we should listen to man or to God.

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As for us, there's salvation in no other name. There's no other name given under heaven by which we must be saved.

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And they tell them defiantly, we will preach Christ. But seeing no other way to accuse them, they had to let them go and they went right back to doing what they were called to do.

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That's grit. When Paul is stoned and left for dead in Lystra, they pray over him, he stands up and he goes back into the city.

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Back into Lystra, not running for the hills. And then he leaves the next day. And he continues on in his journey, first missionary journey, second missionary journey, third missionary journey.

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It's always with imprisonments. The Spirit told him explicitly, in every place that he goes, expect tribulation and suffering.

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And that's part of it. That's why we gotta be strong. We can't think that this is an easy life.

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We have to be praying and building up and growing in grace and knowledge or else we won't be gritty.

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We'll be soft and we'll crumble. Number eight. Hold a special place in your heart for the

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Jews. Can't read the book of Acts without seeing that again and again. It went to the Jews first and then to the

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Gentiles. Wherever Paul went, he went into the synagogue first. And finally, at the end of Acts, he's,

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I think, heartbroken when he says, your hearts are always hard and your eyes can't see and your ears can't hear.

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Behold, I'm turning to the Gentiles. They will listen. The council in the 15th chapter of Acts discusses this issue, the relationship of Jew and Gentile.

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Listen, there is a hardening in part for a time. But the call of God that he has put on his people, going back to Genesis chapter 12, is irrevocable.

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God still loves the Jewish people. And there's coming a day when he'll soften their hearts.

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And in the meantime, we need to have the same love for the Jewish people. Preach the gospel.

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We don't know which individual Jewish person is elect or who is not, who's been judicially hardened and who will be softened.

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Someone might be hardened for a time and they just don't seem to ever hear. The other day, last week,

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Ben Shapiro had John MacArthur on his show. And the two sat down and MacArthur just laid out the gospel for an hour.

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Every subject that Shapiro wanted to talk about, MacArthur respectfully spoke about it for a minute or two and then turned back to the gospel.

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Who knows but that he could believe as well. We don't know the identity of the elect. So our job is to preach to Jew and Gentile alike.

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Number nine, tell your testimony. Having seen the light after a

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BC era. Paul tells his testimony over and over again. How he was against God and raging against Jesus until the light came and knocked him down and his eyes were open and he was told, you will be a light for the

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Gentiles. Share your testimony. Tell about what your life was like before you met him.

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Or if you're under that blessing, that Timothy blessing, where he's known the scriptures from infancy because he learned it from Eunice.

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And who's the other one? From his mom and his grandmother? Lois, good.

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Can always count on you for that. If you're under that blessing and your testimony was not robbing banks and things like that, but you've walked with Christ since you were a child, tell about who

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Christ has been in your life as a believer and the difference that he's made. Tell about your life.

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Go share the gospel with your friends and who you would be but for the grace of God. Go why?

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Share your testimony. And finally, we see a love for the truth.

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The truth. Over and over again, the issue of truth comes up. To know it, to defend it.

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Early on, as soon as the disciples are gathered, they devote themselves to the apostles' teaching.

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They're devoted to the truth. Preaching of the entire word of God, the apostolic teaching.

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Remember the time that Paul preached all night long? And Eutychus fell out the window?

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That's devotion to the truth. But remember the Bereans who were more noble than the Thessalonians, remember them?

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Why were they more noble than the Thessalonians? Because they searched the scriptures to see if these things were so.

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They had that heart to know the truth and defend the truth. They weren't just gonna believe whatever anybody said in the culture.

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They went to the scriptures to know truth. And so we must be lovers of truth.

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Defenders of truth. You don't really have to defend the

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Bible. The Bible will defend itself. But you have to be willing to let the lion out of the cage.

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As Spurgeon said. Doesn't defend it. When somebody starts accusing or saying something, he quotes the word and lets the lion out of the cage.

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Let the lion do the work. That's how you defend truth. So it's been a fun ride, a fun journey.

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But let's not just be hearers of the word. And we've heard, we've heard. But let's go home and be doers of the word.

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Take that card with you. Pray that each one of these things would truly characterize your life.

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I know it's hard to witness. It's hard to go out and preach the gospel to a stranger on the street.

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But Paul did it every day. It's a model for us. See, Jesus, we imitate Jesus, right?

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We're trying to become more Christ -like. But God also knew that Jesus alone would be the sacrifice.

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And Jesus, there are things we couldn't imitate. We can't walk on water. So he chose one of his apostles and wrote 16 chapters out of the 28 about his life.

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And then in the epistles, over and over again, we hear about the apostle Paul. Imitate me as I imitate

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Christ. Or in Philippians 3, join with others in following my example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern that we gave you.

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Paul's life is a pattern for us. And he says there's many who live as enemies of the truth.

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Their minds are on earthly things. Their God is their stomach. But our minds are on things above.

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And we eagerly await a savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Oh, Father, we thank you for the book of Acts.

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It is overwhelming. It is so good. It is life to our bodies.

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It is purpose in this world. Lord, we thank you for the words of life that you have given us.

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And we pray now as we finish with the book of Acts, we pray that we would be a people who do the things that we have heard.

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God, we ask that we would not be like the man who looked in a mirror and then left and immediately forgot what he looked like.

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Lord, we pray that we would look into that perfect law that gives liberty and we would be transformed by this word.

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We pray that this church would look a lot like the early church that we read about in the book of Acts.

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Only you can do that, Lord, and so we call on you again to come fill us with your Holy Spirit. Fill us now in Jesus' name.