Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - How God Works Today | New Testament | Acts 28

Episode Date: September 11, 2023

In today's episode, Keith wraps up the last chapter of Acts. How does Acts 28 propel the church forward? Will God still move in the same way? Find out in today's episode. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Join the TMBT community in reading the entire New Testament in one year. Get your FREE reading plan here. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Acts 28

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. We're in the last chapter of the Book of Acts. Acts 28, Paul and his companions find themselves on the island of Malta. They've been there about three months sheltering during the winter. So they've been there probably from mid-November to mid-February. And now the weather is changing and they can sail again.

So they get on a ship from Alexandria, which is also the... spent the winter in Malta. Luke tells us that the boat's figurehead was two twin gods, Castor and Pollux, who according to Greco-Roman mythology, were the sons of Jupiter, who is also known as Zeus. I know all the mythology can get confusing, but these are the gods of navigation and the sea. So now here Paul and his companions, they leave Malta, and they've got a few stops to make before landing in modern-day Italy. When they get out of the boat, they travel approximately 140 miles due north up the famous Appian way. It leads straight into Rome.

The Christians in Rome had heard that Paul was coming to their city. So they went out about 30 to 40 miles outside the city to greet him and then walk with him into Rome. Verse 15. At the side of these people, Paul thanked God and was encouraged. Paul was encouraged that these believers were coming. out of the city to greet him and escort him into Rome. But remember that Paul is still under the guard of the Roman authorities. That's why he's going to Rome. He's not coming as a guest, but as a prisoner. But when he gets to Rome, he doesn't have to spend his time in a cell. Instead, we're told

that he's allowed to live by himself with a soldier to guard him. Three days after arriving in Rome, the capital of the Gentile world, Paul invites all. all the Jewish leaders to meet with him. It seems odd, doesn't it? Why would you invite the Jews to meet with you when you're right there in the Gentile capital of the world? It's because Paul never gave up on his fellow Jews coming to faith in God's Messiah.

All the way back in Romans 9, Paul said, I wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race. So Paul loved his fellow Jews. Jews. But Paul also knew that God had called him to preach the gospel of Jesus to the Gentiles. Paul longed to see Jews and Gentiles come to faith in Christ. Paul longed to see Jews and Gentiles reconciled not just to God, but to each other. In fact, that's one of the things that Paul thought

God had accomplished through Jesus on the cross, that he would make the two groups, Jews and Gentiles, into one. Well, in Acts 28, Paul eventually gets the opportunity to share the good news of Jesus with the Jews in Rome. Verse 23, they arranged to meet Paul in a certain day and came in even larger numbers to the place where he was staying. He witnessed to them from morning till evening, explaining about the kingdom of God, and from the law of Moses and from the prophets, he tried to persuade them about Jesus. So when Paul talks about the kingdom of God, it's likely that he's comparing God's kingdom to Caesar's it's likely that he's comparing Jesus, the king of kings, to Caesar, the king of Rome. Because the reality is that Caesar is a cheap imitation of the true king.

Paul also showed the Jews how the Old Testament had always pointed toward a suffering Messiah. And then in verse 24, it captures their response. Some were convinced by what he said, but others would not believe. Well, that's how it's always been, isn't it? I mean, some people respond in faith to the message of the gospel, and others refuse to do so. But because they rejected the gospel, Paul says, now, he's going to turn to share the gospel with the Gentiles. So, verse 28, therefore I want you to know that God's salvation has been sent to the Gentiles, and they will listen. Now, I'm sure this made some of the Jews very angry, but all hope wasn't lost, because here's verse 30.

for two whole years Paul stayed there in his own rented house and welcomed all who would come to see him. So while Paul's under house arrest, he shares the gospel with any who were willing to listen. In fact, when it says all who came to see him, I think that all means that there were both Jews and Gentiles that were interested in learning more about Jesus. And here's the final verse of the final chapter of the book of Acts. He proclaimed the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ. with all boldness and without hindrance. Paul had asked churches to pray for him that he would speak the gospel with boldness, and here we find the answer to those prayers.

So what can we learn from these last chapters in the book of Acts? And one thing that we can learn is that God is sovereign over every detail of our life. Back in Acts 23, we find that Jesus had told Paul that he would testify about him in Rome. So Jesus says to Paul, look, one day you're going to talk about me, represent me in Rome. And yet, everything we read from the time that Jesus tells Paul that until the end of the chapter, makes it seem like that is never actually going to happen. I mean, circumstance after circumstance, seem to make that arrival in Rome impossible. I'm sure that once Jesus told Paul he was going to represent him in Rome, he wanted to go straight there.

But instead, he was arrested in Jerusalem. And then he had to go through all those trials. And then he was imprisoned in Cessaria. And then he was threatened and almost assassinated. Then he was almost drowned in the Mediterranean during that big storm. Almost killed by soldiers. Almost killed by a poisonous snake. It seemed like everything that happened was designed to prevent him

from reaching his God-planned, God-promised destination. Luke's main focus is the storm. and we have to remember that the sea in the Old Testament was a symbol of evil powers in opposition to God. So it's like Luke is saying it wasn't just the forces of nature, or it wasn't just the schemes of people who were arrayed against Paul, but it was all the demonic forces that were working through them. Scripture is full of examples of how the devil tries to prevent God's plant. I mean, in the book of Exodus, we read how Satan tries to drown the baby Moses. Or in Esther, we read how he uses Haman to almost annihilate all the Jews.

Or how he uses Hared the Great to kill all the infants in Bethlehem, hoping to prevent Jesus from growing up and claiming his kingship. We read how the Sanhedron tried to keep the apostles quiet, so they would not spread the good news that Jesus had been crucified and resurrected. Now in Acts 28, we're reading about this storm, which is Satan's attempt to stop. Paul from bringing the gospel to Rome, the capital of the world. But at every point, God triumphed over Satan. Remember that Jesus had promised Paul in advance that he would reach Rome. In one sense,

we know that he's going to get there. But as the story continues, as the storms grow more violent, we wonder, how will Paul ever make it? I mean, will he actually survive? Will he actually make it to Rome? Yes, he will, we find out. does make it there. God rescues him, but he comes as an unlikely prisoner. Because when Jesus said that he would get Paul to Rome, he didn't say that it would be in chains. But it turns out that because Paul goes to Rome as a prisoner, he has an even greater and more effective ministry. And the gospel penetrates Caesar's imperial court in even his household. We find that people in Caesar's household become followers of Jesus, and that's because Paul was a prisoner who got to give a defense for his

faith in front of the people who were most opposed to him. Acts 28 is the last chapter in the book of Acts, but it's not the last chapter in God advancing his kingdom on earth. We live in the next chapter. We live in Acts 29, which means that we get to continue what God started 2,000 years ago, we get to be God's representatives in the world that we live in, in the people that we are around, in the people that God has put us into contact with. We are continuing the mission that Jesus started. We're continuing the mission that Paul sacrificed for. What an incredible opportunity to live in Acts 29 to represent King Jesus to our world. Amen.