Calvary South Denver | Sunday Morning Service | 09/12/21

[Music] shake these walls [Music] [Applause] [Music] these [Music] lord we are your friends [Applause] [Music] on glory [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] all glory [Music] oh [Music] oh restless [Music] oh not [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] um [Music] morning church my name is kevin sylvester i'm an intern here at calvary south denver um and this morning i'm going to be reading psalm 103 so let us stand as we let the word of god lead us into the worship of god bless the lord o my soul and all that is within me bless his holy name bless the lord o my soul and forget not all of his benefits who forgives all your iniquities who heals all your diseases who redeems your life from destruction who crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies who satisfies your mouth with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagles the lord executes righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed he made known his ways to moses is acts to the children of israel the lord is merciful and gracious slow to anger and abounding and mercy he will not always strive with us nor will he keep his anger forever he has not dealt with us according to our sins nor punished us according to our iniquities for as the heavens are high above the earth so great is his mercy toward those who fear him as far as east is from the west so far has he removed our transgressions from us as a father pities his children so the lord pities those who fear him for he knows our frame he remembers that we are dust as for man his days are like grass as a flower at the field so he flourishes for the wind passes over it and it it is gone and its place remembers it no more but the mercy of the lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him and his righteousness to children's children to such as keep his covenant and to those who remember his commandments to do them the lord has established his throne in heaven as kingdom rules over all bless the lord you his angels who excel in strength who do his word heeding the voice of his word bless the lord all you his hosts you ministers of his who do his pleasure bless the lord all his works in all places of his dominion bless the lord all my soul lord we come before you desiring to bless you with our worship lord i pray as we we bow before you in our worship that you prepare our hearts and minds for whatever you may have for us this morning lord we thank you for this opportunity to get our together as believers and to worship you in your may mighty name jesus amen [Music] oh lord my god when i in awesome wonder consider all the works the hands have made when i see the stars i hear the rolling thunder thy path throughout the universe display let's sing it out and then sings my song my savior god to thee how great they are how great thou art then sings my soul my savior god to thee how great they are how great thou art went through the woods i went through the woods and four is [Music] in the trees when i look down from lofty mountain grandeur and hear the brook and feel the gentle breeze then sings then sings my song how great they are how great thou art how great thou art when i think and when i think that god is not sparing sent him to die [Music] then [Music] [Music] how great they are [Music] how great they are [Music] how great they'll how great they are [Music] when christ when christ shall come wish [Music] then i shall bow sing it out church [Music] then sings my soul my savior god to thee how great thou art how great thou art and sings my soul my savior got to thee how great thou are how crazy [Music] amen [Music] how great is our god [Music] and i searched the world but it couldn't fill me [Music] and man's empty praise and treasures have been are never enough [Music] then you came along yeah you put me back together [Music] oh there's nothing better than you this one better than nothing is [Music] i'm not afraid i'm not afraid to show you my weakness my failures and flaws lord you've seen them all and you still come and pray the praise you got cause the god of the mountain [Music] is the god of the valley and there's not a your mercy and grace won't find me again [Music] oh there's nothing better than you there's nothing better than you lord there's nothing [Music] nothing is better than you [Music] oh there's nothing better than you there's nothing better than you lord there's nothing [Music] is turn morning to dancing you give beauty for ashes [Music] you turn shame into glory [Music] [Music] you give beauty you turn shame into glory you're the only one who cares you you're the only one who cares you're the only one who cares oh there's nothing [Music] [Applause] oh there's nothing better than you there's nothing better than you for this [Music] you turn crazy into garden you turn bones into army you turn seas into highways you're the [Music] me you're the only one who cares you're the only one who [Music] cares oh there's nothing better than you there's nothing better than you lord there's nothing and nothing is better than you [Music] sing it out one more time oh there's nothing that's better than you there's nothing better than you lord there's nothing [Music] nothing is better than you let's lift up some praise he's worthy [Music] jesus there truly is nothing better than you god you are eternal lord your glory will reign forever and ever and ever lord while these bodies are finite lord [Music] you are infinite and you've created our souls to be eternal and jesus we want to spend eternity with you god our creator the author of our dna our personalities our minds our hearts god nothing in this world compares to you and yet god we confess that so often lord we go for the things that don't compare jesus today we want to confess we want to lay those things down at your feet lord as we come before you lord as we present ourselves to you your presence that is here in this place and also to your word god [Music] lord we want to align ourselves with you jesus oh there's nothing that's better than you there's nothing better than you there's nothing nothing is better than you oh we believe it's true [Music] as jesus remind us of the mystery replace in our hearts lord that sense of awe when we first came to you jesus make your love make your word come alive in us today it's in jesus name we all said amen he's worthy amen he's good you can clap for jesus it's okay it's good it's a good thing yeah and even a woohoo is great all right well before you guys are seated i want you guys greet one another in the lord and we'll get started with our study hello good morning csd as always so good to worship with you guys and it's odd that we are all longing for the fall weather and we still have the summer weather lingering just by a raise of hands who's happy about that it's a safe place that's okay who in here wants more than anything for the fall to be here okay with hands raised but let's give a what if scenario what if would you rather give a pumpkin spice anything and have continual fall weather throughout the year or just came we're not going to do that this morning all right guys well i want to let you know of a couple things here happening at the church i love i was telling daisy our children's ministry director that she's given these fun informational facts incorporated into the children's ministry and uh she has a third fact so she gave three facts the first one is that kids ask like a million questions so let's be a part of participating and asking those questions the second fact we learned is that kids laugh more than adults so let's you know observe him and participate in that now here's the third fun fact why you should participate in our kids ministry did you know that plane is the most effective way for children to learn life skills and find out what they are like now what's interesting is that there are adults who still play and figure out their life skills so i mean honestly it makes sense so come enjoy teaching children through fun and engaging curriculum the csd kids ministry we're hosting and training and having lunch for today for existing volunteers and anyone who are interested in joining the children's ministry team so come after second service today if you want to learn what that means and how you can participate and i just want to ease the nerves that some of you might be experiencing right now it's not as scary as you think it's not it's i mean and in the same way when you become a parent for the first time it's the most nerve-wracking fearful thing and then you become a parent and then you're realizing okay this is hard but it's not as hard as i thought kids ministry is an amazing way for you to pour into kids and love them and show them the love of christ so if you guys are interested come check it out today after second service they're going to be meeting in the cafe or if you just have questions just see daisy and she'll answer them the missions meeting the next missions meeting is today after second service in the multi-purpose room pastor sebastian he's going to give an overview on the missions so if you are interested in that please stop by as well it's going to be at after second service and if you can bring a side dish and if you can't you know worser things have happened in life just kidding all right hey last announcement av ministry we're looking for volunteers who want to help with our audio visual ministry for sunday mornings for first and second service if you have even the like slightest interest in this area but you have zero experience i'm here to tell you that this is an area where you can learn and especially grow and especially just learn the fundamentals between how we work our cameras with the slides and even running sound so if you guys have any questions in regard to that please sign up at the connect center because we are looking for people that want to help and participate in it i want to add one last thing before i say before we move on um we're in a post shutdown year i know that it's still covered lingering and everyone is sick and tired of hearing it but can i just i want to remind you that our church had a transition of my father as the senior pastor to me in 2020 and then covet happened and what we saw was a lot of people left the church and are still watching online and we miss you guys and those who are watching right now we love you we miss you we understand but for you guys who are here i want to remind you that much of the the volunteers that made up our church have not come back and i'm reminding you that so that you can know because it's easy to walk into a church and just say oh everything's taken care of here but i want to challenge you to really pray about where the lord might have you serve in some capacity here at the church because that's where we're at as a church we need help we always will whether you're a mega church small church or medium-sized church this is always going to be the need across the board so guys please pray about what that looks like go to the connect center or talk to any of the staff and they'll be happy to answer uh anything that you might have in regards to how to serve and where to serve all right with that said please turn off your cell phones or silence them uh we just finished worship we're continuing an attitude of worship believing that god when we give to him is an expression of our adoration to him so you can give by doing uh our mobile website or you can give at mycsd.church forward slash give you can give use our text to give platform text csd give to 833-685-5433 or the old-fashioned way with the agape boxes around the sanctuary and outside in the foyer all right with that said guys brace yourself turn to the final chapter of acts chapter 28 this morning 446 days later we are going to finish the book of acts and i don't know about you i am so excited for these next three months so the next three to three and a half months we are going to start jonah ruth and exodus and we're going to lord willing start the book of exodus in december that's the timeline but we're going to fly through these these passages and it's going to be so exciting i'm so excited for these these books that we're going to study together so let's come before the lord one more time and let's bless this time reading his word lord we thank you again that there's no one like you there's nothing like you there's no experience that fulfills us like you you are truly the only reason why we can have joy in our life and lord for those in here who are feeling joyless that they would experience it right now through the word thank you lord that you intentionally work in a way so that your spirit reveals to us the truth of who you are and lord for anyone that's feeling this sense of wanting to give up just on a lot of things maybe on their marriage maybe on a job maybe on a certain particular thing or or a group of friends i don't know lord we just we have this inclination when things are hard to give up or would you through your spirit let us know and understand when we should pursue something and when we should give up on something and it's only done by your spirit that we can distinguish this so i pray that over this church right now i thank you for this book that we've studied thoroughly for so long and i just pray that you would be glorified through the last study in the book of acts this morning we love you in jesus name and all god's people said amen so yeah i mean it is exciting that this morning we are finishing the final chapter of the book of acts and yes we started this book 446 days ago in acts chapter 1 and we have slowly but surely made it all the way to the 28th chapter and for a lot of you i what i wanted to do was an overview of what we've learned but realizing that's going to be impossible for time sake and reason so i'm going to suggest to you a resource that's going to be really helpful that's under 10 minutes that will give you an overview of the entire book of acts for those of you who are familiar with the bible project it's a youtube channel that takes books of the bible and they create illustrations and commentary on the overview of a lot of books in the bible i was planning to show it this morning we're not going to show it to you this morning so i'm going to just recommend for those of you who like to take notes and like to put reminders on your phone go to the youtube channel the bible project and watch the video on acts it's amazing highly recommend it but now ladies and gentlemen we fall upon the final chapter of acts so let us begin in verse 1 of acts chapter 28 it says this now when they had escaped they then found out that the island was called malta to which we might ask the question well what did they escape from exactly well they had escaped from the tempestuous headwind that we learned about in the previous chapters you're a clydeon and you're a clyde on this giant headwind force paul and those who are on the ship to basically wreck onto an island called malta and by the way that word malta the translation it means refuge and so this little island of refuge was right off the coast of sicily and this is where they find themselves and look as they enter the island inevitably they're going to meet people on the island read verse 2 with me and the natives showed us unusual kindness for they kindled the fire and made us all welcome because of the rain and that was falling and because of the cold now as the crew are no doubt tired and just thankful that they even survived this shipwreck they're on the island they meet as the text puts natives and these natives show them unusual kindness i'm prefacing the word native because if you were to translate it in the greek it's hobar baro which you can probably guess what english word we get from that hobarbero barbarian now reading that it would read something like so the barbarians showed us unusual kindness now some of you are cringing already or like john it's 20 21 you can't say stuff like that from the pulpit because you know it sounds derogatory it sounds offensive i mean because hey paul how would you describe your time on malta i'm glad you asked um these barbarians showed us very unusual kindness yeah that is odd paul you know barbarians don't usually do that now again before you dismiss this verse as nothing more than offensive we have to understand the context of why it is written and basically what it means because when we hear the word barbarian we're going to associate it with arnold schwarzenegger as you know conan the barbarian and it just carries this idea but but that's not what it means it refers to someone check this out who could not speak greek that's what that's really what it comes down to which i guess kind of applies to arnold schwarzenegger right you know the greek language it's so hard come on give them to the choppa this bible study is going to digress i'm sorry but for the greeks they believed they looked at their language as as this as this eloquent greek beautiful language and anyone who doesn't speak it are barbarians and some of you are going to think i'm making this i am not making this up to many of the greek speaking individuals at this time when they heard anyone speak other than greek to them this opposing language that was in greek just sounded like bar bar bar as gibberish as babbling and therefore that's where the the word barbarian came from so these barbarians showed us unusual kindness and how they showed kindness the text says they kindled a fire and made us all welcome because of the rain that was falling because of the cold now the hard thing when it comes to serving people because a lot of you have such a servant's heart in here but the hard thing about serving people who naturally serve other people is that they can never sit still and that's what that was the case with paul the apostle they're serving them showing unusual kindness by creating a fire because of the cold and the rain so what does paul do read the first half of verse three with me let's not read the whole thing let's read the first half of verse three paul who couldn't sit still for anything but when paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and he laid them on the fire stop there for a second here's paul and this is what i love about paul not just that he could not sit still because i can relate with that but he had this he's setting the example for us on what it means to honestly serve one another paul doesn't sit there and he's seeing that the fire is going out and goes you want to rock paper scissors to see who gets the firewood and stuff no you just saw the need he decides i i know how to fulfill this i'm going to serve them and and a leader and this is important a leader is always going to serve first and then lead second paul once said in philippians 2 3-6 don't be selfish don't try to impress others be humble thinking of others as better than yourself don't look out for your own interests but take an interest in others too and that really is the mark of a great leader is that not only is his interest in others but his interest is in serving others so i'm going to recommend two books for you that are kind of like honing in on this like i want to learn more about leadership warren weirsby wrote a book called on being a leader of god and then oswald sanders wrote a book called spiritual leadership and i highly recommend both of them they're both valuable and they really give you a biblical overview of what it means to be a leader in your house in your church outside of the church what that looks like and for paul he understood that all too well but not only that but paul gives us an example of what we should aim to lead like and who we should aim to lead like philippians 2 5-6 so who's our example he says you must have the same attitude that christ jesus had though he was god he didn't think of equality with god as something to cling to meaning jesus when he was working with the disciples wasn't like oh i don't do dishes i'm the son of god also i need someone to rub my feet like that wasn't jesus that wasn't jesus at all jesus didn't cling to his right to being god philippians two through seven and eight puts it this way instead he gave up his divine privileges he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being when he appeared in human form he humbled himself in obedience to god and he died a criminal's death on the cross there's the heart of jesus and he sets the tone even with his disciples a verse that many of you are familiar with when jesus gives this outline of like i didn't come to be served mark 10 45 the son of man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many so a true servant serves out of the love for others i want to love you and serve you because christ is so good christ has shown his love for me and i and if this is the way that i can create the trickle-down effect so that you can see how much god loves you can i serve you let me serve you i can see by some of your faces you're like wow that's a lot to take john just from what the text says that paul gathered a bundle of sticks and laid him on the fire it was either that or talking about my infinity for fires which would just digress from there so look look at servant paul he's getting a bundle of sticks to add to the fire verse three the the second half of verse three and the viper came out because of the heat and fastened on his hand which it makes you wonder i mean if any of us saw that i would imagine most of the ladies if there was even talk of a snake nearby would scream but if you saw that snake you would just freak out reptilian creatures have that effect i suppose in fact when carolyn and i were living in charleston uh she sent me this text message and she wrote there's a frog in the house with like a screaming emoji face which you've got to know when there's a screaming emoji face that's that's bad news right and then minutes later she just wrote frog's gone and i thought this is weird this doesn't make any sense this i mean this was a code red she either moved to a new house and didn't tell me right or there's just something more to the story to which she told me oh no jaden grab the frog and put it outside for me there it is that makes sense that makes sense but i want you to notice in acts 28 when the viper comes out and fastened onto paul's hand that they didn't scream look how they reacted to what happened verse four when the natives saw the creature hanging from his hand they said to one another no doubt this man is a murderer whom though he has escaped the sea yet justice does not allow him to live justice well who's justice and why does justice not want him to live justice was the female goddess that those on malta would serve and worship and so you have this very you have this polytheistic group of people that were both superstitious but they're looking at you know it's kind of like those around like you maybe you've heard someone say like it's karma what goes around comes around i mean that's basically how they're looking at paul right now well a snake only bites murderous bad people so paul's getting what he deserves and for paul i mean here's the crazy thing what the text says i mean if i saw a snake i'd probably be like cautious if the snake bit me i tell you what i wouldn't do what paul does here look how he reacts in verse five but he shook off the creature into the fire and suffered no harm like what what i mean i found this youtube channel of this guy and i think i don't even remember what his name is he purposely makes insects and animals bite him and sees how he reacts to it and i don't know and i'll sit here and i'll watch and i'll look at the clock i've been watching this for 45 minutes of this guy who's purposely inflicting pain on himself and that wasn't the case with paul and i'm going to talk about in a moment why i believe he so passively just like he just shook it off no harm was done to him no paralysis no neurological damage no random woman screaming in the background snake none of that he looks at this as just like a mosquito bite just shakes it off and so even though it wasn't a big deal to him and i'll preface again why here in a moment it was a big deal to the natives because look how they respond in verse six however they were expecting that he would swell up or suddenly fall down dead paul's looking at him like why are you looking at me and looking at your watches and like baffled but after they had looked for a long time and saw no harm had come to him they changed their minds look how fickle people are right and they said he's a god he's a god i mean clearly that's i mean i'm laughing when i read that because you have this very superstitious people oh viper got him he's a murderer he's getting what he deserves oh he's not dead so maybe it's because he's a god and the issue here that for paul the reason why he didn't swell up wasn't because he was a god he didn't swell up because god was with him and god was and this is the point paul knows he's supposed to make it to rome he was so convinced on the ship that should have taken their lives and he's looking at this snake and he's just you know he's just shaking it off he's like no i'm going to rome and if even if the toxins remain in my bloodstream until i get to rome and do what i'm supposed to to do and accomplish this isn't going to stop me and and i what i love about that and there's a couple things that we can learn from this number one there's a difference between being spirit-led okay everyone listen there's difference between being spirit-led and making poor choices meaning i'm gonna make a choice because i know god wants to do something but that choice doesn't reflect how god wants you to behave well if god really wants me to live then the stuff that i put into my body and even what i do to my body isn't going to have any long-term issues you know obviously you need to make choices that are going to reflect that you want to live a long life it wasn't like paul was like you guys want to see how much faith i have where's the snake let it bite me you know and then like that didn't happen the snake came out of nowhere and god is going to heal him as a result he's going to shake it off into the fire and what it reminds me of guys it reminds me that god is not done with paul and that's that's a hard concept that is the reoccurring question christians have what does god want to do with my life i don't know what god wants to do with my life right now i'm confused i'm searching in all the right areas and i want to remind you of a verse that i read so often from this pulpit and because it's my life verse to remind us that a we need to finish what we've started if god has started something in us and b we need to be reminded that god has the final say and determines when we're done philippians 1 6 you guys know this verse and i am sure of this that he who begun a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of jesus christ some of you need to hear this because i needed to hear this was the first thing i needed to hear when i was a first a new believer and i'm still reminded that i need to hear this that if you've given your life to jesus and everyone who's hearing my voice right now he's not finished with you it may feel like he is finished with you or you may feel like you are disqualified because something you have done that he has finished with you and if that is you and you're like he's finished with me that is not your call because if he started the work then he intends to finish the work he intends to complete the work in you because it's jesus not you it's jesus who is the author and the finisher of life amen he's the one who determines this and there are times and you know we use metaphorical things like the storms of life and we talked about that last week about the four different storms we face but now we're going to talk about the metaphorical snake bites that come out of nowhere and we think that little thing that happened to us is the determination of like i'm done i'm done and i'm here to tell you that's not your call god had unfinished business with paul and paul knew that the natives look he must be a murderer nope he must be a god but look what happens in verse 7 through 8 because he's clearly not dying so then in that region there was an estate of the leading citizen of the island whose name was publius who received us and he entertained us courteously for three days and it happened that the father of publius lay sick of fever and dysentery paul he went into him and he prayed and he laid hands on him and he healed him now a lot of people and some theologians and writers believe that publius's father uh basically had what was known as gastric fever and it was believed that there was this microbe you're gonna love this that he got the gastric fever from the goat's milk on the island again this is all conjecture and unfortunately it was an epidemic that was common on this island so if you're ever like heading to sicily and you're going to stop at malta just avoid the goat milkshakes don't say i didn't warn you anyways but paul he sees this man he's laying sick and in faith he prays over him and in faith he heals him and no doubt the result was amazing because look what happened in verse 9 through 10. so when this was done the rest of those on the island had diseases also they came and they were healed they also honored us in many ways and when we departed they provided such things as were necessary again i i love what i love about this story is that you have this disastrous moment that they don't think they're going to make it but they do make it and they're on the island of malta and instead of just sitting around being like whoa that was close we almost died god uses that situation because he knew it was going to happen for them to minister to every single person on a malta and not just minister to them god used them in faith to heal a lot of people that were sick often god allows storms in our life in order to get our attention so that we can depend on him more check this out so that we can minister to others more life of a believer is not just how people can serve me we learn that the the heart of a true servant is to serve others but you guys need to understand something that sometimes you go through storms with the intention that god wants you to minister to others and use whatever you're going through to show the love of christ to others and maybe the storm you're going through i've never been through there's nothing wrong with that but maybe god wants to use the storm that you're facing right now to minister to someone that's going through what you're going through and praise god for that because in this case i mean what a discouraging moment satan wants to use the shipwreck to damage their faith like most storms in our life and satan wanted to use the snake bite to kill paul but god was not finished with paul all adversities he was facing for the sake of his faith and those on the cruise faith to be increased so that paul can be used to heal others and that's exactly what he does then look what happens in verse 11 and this gives us the timeline of how long he was on malta after three months we sailed in the alexandrian ship whose figurehead was the twin brothers which had wintered at the island now the twin brothers referenced here in verse 11 is referring to the greek gods castor and pollux it was often something that a lot of sailors would put at the the front of their ship as figures to symbolize as these are the greek gods that are going to protect us at sea now some of you before you're like okay that we see this exact same thing with a lot of people today people put shrines in their houses but you know what people put shrines in their motor vehicles i've seen maybe some of you grew up with this so if what i'm about to say takes offense i just want to apologize ahead of time but i thought this was great some people take certain shrines they put them in their vehicle to protect them and you know they'll get like mary the mother of jesus to symbolize how mary is going to protect them and again if some of you were raised in this condition which isn't good and i'm laughing before i preface don't be offended but here we go it's funny to me that some people take these shrines these statues and they have them face the driver but not the traffic i mean i got in a car accident well which direction was saint peter facing oh towards you well there's your problem he's like that looking in there that's why you got in your car accident again i'm no shrine expert but if that were me i would put it where it counts i'm just looking at you like john you're going to get so many complaining emails after this sermon let me ease your pain email me at adam calvarycsd.org his phone number is just kidding all right back to acts 28 they're sailing for three months on the alexandrian ship with the twin brothers on there and they've reached their destination verses 12-13 and landing at syracuse we stayed three days and from there we circled round and reached regium and after one day the south wind blew and the next day we came to patulia now i need you guys to understand something it must have been exhausting to even deal with a shipwreck after a three month stay on refuge island on malta they finally are able to get another grain freighter this alexandrian ship to get them where they were supposed to go it was a three-month delay that some of us would call but for god it was like no that was the three months i needed you to minister to the people there and they landed in a place called syracuse now syracuse was a part of the roman province of sicily and there was this guy by the name of cicero who said that syracuse was the most beautiful and highly decorated of all and that's where paul finds himself and as they entered the city they noticed someone there that brought great comfort to paul look at verses 14 through 15. it's and where they found brethren and they were invited to stay with them for seven days and so we went toward rome so yes they found christians they found fellowship and in doing so verse 15 from there when the brethren heard about us they came to meet us at as far as happy forum and three inns and when paul saw them he thanked god and he took courage now again for paul he's on his way he's going to rome he's going to roman isn't it just great that on his destination there he meets a group of christians who meet him half the way in happy forum to greet him but what's great about this group of people that is meeting him is that he wrote a letter to them while he was in corinth a very meaty doctrinal book that he wrote while in corinth do you know what book it was it's the book of romans these are the those at the church at rome that benefited from this book that we have today they're meeting him halfway and as a result no doubt paul thanked god and took courage when he saw them it's another reminder why we need people in our life i know that there are introverts in the room i see you you see me but can i i need to remind you guys as difficult as people are i get it people are difficult we need each other in our life in times of discouragement paul found encouragement to the very group that he served wrote to corrected edified in the book of romans and as he sees them oh what great joy that brought him sometimes we don't want to see other christians because a we're upset that they're going to call us out on something that we know that we don't want to be called out on but for some of you it's like i need to find that person that you know that one person in your life they just man they minister to you and they pour into you in ways that are just is so encouraging for paul he sees them and encouraged he greets them verse 16 and when we came to rome because they met halfway now they're on their way to rome the centurion delivered the prisoners the captain the guard but paul was permitted to dwell by himself with the soldier who guarded him now in a moment when we get to the 30th verse i'm going to expound on what paul was doing in detail while he was in prison for these next two years but for now let's go to verse 17 and 19. and when it came to pass after three days that paul called the leaders of the jews together so when they had come together he said to them men and brethren though i have done nothing against our people or the customs of our father yet i was delivered as a prisoner from jerusalem into the hands of the romans verse 18 when they examined me and wanted to let me go because there was no cause for putting me to death but when the jews spoke against it i was compelled to appeal to caesar not that i had anything of which to accuse my nation paul at this point is recounting what we've read in the previous chapters over and over again what be started in caesarea in jerusalem and he's having to recount over and over again what again what we have studied and what he's prefacing here is that when he was in jerusalem he wasn't speaking against it as a nation he didn't have a political agenda that wasn't the case paul understood the hope and love of jesus and what jesus had for the nation of israel as a whole and and i just need to preface this again jesus still has a hope and a love for the nation of israel today and paul understood that because look what he says in verse 20 back in acts 28 for this reason therefore i've called for you to see and speak with you because the hope of israel that i am bound with this chain the hope of israel was referring to the coming messiah and for many jews today even today they're waiting for that coming messiah but what paul is trying to help them understand is that jesus of nazareth is the messiah he's the one everyone spoke of and he's going to expound on a second on all the prophets that spoke of jesus and he i mean you can hear the tone in his voice that he had such a burden that his brothers and sisters would understand that concept that god the father abraham that they revered worshiped god and god had a covenant and plan for his people and paul was wanting them to understand yes i know you know that but jesus is the fulfillment of that pro of that promise he wanted nothing more to see them embrace the hope of israel the coming messiah in fact you really get to see it when he wrote to the the church at rome so the guys that met him halfway this is one of the things he wrote in romans 9 1-4 with christ as my witness i speak with utter truthfulness my conscience and the holy spirit confirm it my heart is filled with bitter sorrow and unending grief for what paul for my people my jewish brothers and sisters i would be willing to be forever cursed cut off from christ like why would you say that paul if that would save them they are the people of israel chosen to be god's adopted children for paul it clicked it clicked on who jesus was in being the messiah but it just hurt him so much to see his fellow brothers and sisters they just they didn't get it they didn't get it and it just hurt him and because of their unbelief as a nation they rejected the messiah and it tore paul to pieces and i know there's some of you in here who feel that way with family members i know you've got that son or that daughter that husband or that wife that brother or sister that mom or dad and and you get it you get christ's love and you want them to know it so badly to the point that you're not just bothered by it but you're burdened some of you have lost sleep over i know there's parents in here i know you're praying for your kids to come back to the lord i know there's siblings in here you man you want your you want to see your siblings come back to jesus that hurts and i i'm affirming that with you guys and these are the moments when we go through the ringer that it's like it's too hard john it's too hard to be rejected over and over again one of the prefaces things i want to preface is that i truly believe if that were the case if if hard times determined and how we calculate when to quit i think a lot of us can agree a lot of us would have quit a long long time ago but for paul he has every reason to quit even in this burdened heart for his people but he doesn't guys he never does because i think he saw the ending the end picture that god was going to use this to minister to more people than he could ever imagine and the religious leaders who are listening have something to say in response to what paul had to say look at verses 21-22 when they said to him we've neither received letters from judea concerning you nor have any of the brethren who've come to report or spoken any evil of you but we desire verse 22 to hear from you what you think for concerning this sect we know that it is spoken against everywhere this sect the translation or more specifically they're referring to in their mind a heretical teaching the sect was referring to christianity they're looking at all of the rise this rapid rise of christians everywhere and and you know hey paul we haven't heard anything about you we haven't gotten any letters from you which is surprising because the jews were so relentless to see him die we haven't heard anything about you but man it seems everywhere i go this group of people called christians or as they put it this sect are talked about everywhere historically speaking claudius expelled all the christians from the roman empire because of the division it was going to create amongst the jews there it was so problematic you know they didn't hear the brethren speak evil against paul according to verse 21 but according to verse 22 man they wanted to hear what paul had to say about these jesus followers because everywhere everywhere they went they were just spoken of and so his response in verse 23-24 when he appointed him a day many came to him at his lodging whom he explained or meaning he set an order logically expounded he solemnly testified verse 23 of the kingdom of god persuading them concerning jesus from both the law of moses and the prophets from morning until evening that's a long bible study verse 24 and some were persuaded by the things which were spoken but some disbelieved i think from evening until morning paul i i mean no doubt he used the old testament prophets to confirm exactly who the hope of israel was the messiah i i think paul at that point as he's expounding as he's remembering the scriptures he in my mind i think he's turning to isaiah and he's he's talking about jesus's birth about jesus death and resurrection or he's going to micah and he's describing how jesus would come from bethlehem i think he's turning to the psalms when david is speaking of how jesus would be pierced with the hands and his feet and he's going through the the scriptures and he's pointing that this was all confirming and affirming that jesus was the messiah from morning till evening and yet and yet despite the proof and the evidence that was needed some didn't believe which is hard to believe that you know there's some preachers where it's like they preach and it just explodes with with response and for paul you would expect that and yet despite the proof that they needed many of them still felt like it was a joke so look what it says in verse 25-27 so when they did not agree among themselves they departed after paul and said one word the holy spirit spoke rightly through isaiah the prophet to our fathers paul understood that isaiah would prophesy concerning the hardness of the hearts of those who hear the gospel who hear the message and yeah paul was so happy to hear that some responded and that's the that's the true heart behind any pastor or any of you when you find out that your friends and family give their life to jesus but you gotta you no doubt know that he was upset when some rejected even when he presented what the prophet spoke of and i want to point out and i'm going to preface this in a second a lot of us it's hard to understand why people do that and you want to know the answer it's pride guys it's pride god resists the proud but he gives grace to the humble and that's really what was the result here because look what happens in verses 26 through 27 he again expounds on isaiah speaking of jesus saying go to this people referring to the jews and the people of israel hearing you will hear and shall not understand and see you will see and not perceive verse 27 for the hearts of this people who have grown dull their years are hard of hearing their eyes they have closed lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears lest they should understand with their hearts in turn so that i should heal them now this prophetic writing from isaiah was just as applicable to them listen as it is for us today i mean it's the reality it's this idea that many hear the gospel and maybe you came to church for years till you responded but it's the same today that people will hear the gospel repeatedly over and over again and then there are those people and i was one of them who heard it but never responded i didn't want anything to do with the forgiveness of my sins i liked my sins i was happy with my sins you know until jesus got a hold of my life and it really what came down to my pride it made me think that we had our men's breakfast this last saturday jungle lightly taught and he taught from deuteronomy and in the passage in deuteronomy chapter 30 the children of israel are called to repent right and in that passage it said you hear the heart of god today i've given you the choice between life and death between blessings and cursings and now i call upon heaven to witness the choice that you make and in the heart of god in that deuteronomy passage he says an o that you would choose life so that you and your descendants might live god's given us the choice you have the choice to embrace christ as savior or not and really what it comes down to if you choose to reject it it's pride why would i give my life to jesus when my life is fine i don't need my sins to be forgiven and for paul he's pointing out this passage no doubt the hardening of hearts that isaiah prophesied would happen then look in verse 28 therefore let it be known to you that the salvation of god has been sent to the gentiles and they will hear it because that's the problem that was really the core issue is that jesus paul was promoting a jesus that the gentile community could respond to and here's the crazy thing he's quoting from isaiah now this wasn't some heretical propaganda teaching from the jesus followers oh no guess what let it be known to you that salvation of god has been sent to the gentiles and they're going to hear it for a lot of the practicing jews hearing that was just disgraceful which is why paul had a quote from isaiah which is why they will start arguing with one another some will respond some won't and that's the pattern of acts this consistency that luke presents to us that someone preaches the gospel some believe some disbelieve and this is why the lord places his focus on the gentiles okay if you're listen god has made a covenant with the jews he still has today but you better believe that the gospel is first for the jews and then to the greek we're going to give the gospel to those who are here salvation of god has been sent to the gentiles and they're going to hear it because god's desire is that none should perish and that all come to repentance including the gentiles and that's the pattern that we see and that's honestly a pattern we see now hear the gospel respond to it some response some don't and as paul's in rome he's seen that same pattern that he saw in jerusalem and in caesarea and he's seen it also take place right in front of him the gentiles were accepting the truth and many of the jews were not so look at verses 29 and 30 and when they had said those words the jews departed and they had a great dispute among themselves they're arguing but that didn't stop paul because verse 30 paul dwelt two whole years in his own rented house and received all who came to him now this is where i want to connect verses 16 and verse 30. remember verse 16 paul was permitted to have people come to his house and uh he had private lodging and he was guarded by a soldier for two years at this point paul is going to remain in rome under 24 hours surveillance meaning he's chained to another guard and they would rotate that basically every six hours and i want you to think about that for a moment because paul would use that time this is where he's penning all the prison epistles that we have today philemon colossians ephesians philippians this is the moment when people are coming to ask questions to paul and he's talking doctrine and the bible and the guards are hearing it all the guards are hearing it they're listening to every word he has to say when he's penning those letters to them for two years which is why and this that gives you context this is why paul said what he said in philippians 1 12-13 i want you to know brethren he wrote this while he was in rome acts 28 is when he wrote this that the things which happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel so that it has become evident to the whole palace guard and to the rest that my chains are in christ it's amazing and again the way i look at it the guards are forced to sit with paul and listen it's their job they have to do it right and by doing it they're hearing the greatest thing that they could ever hear and you wonder if some of them at the beginning were like i'm sick of paul talking about jesus this jesus that someone's trade shifts with me but i think i think in time i really think in time god was getting a hold of their heart i really do i think that not only that was happening i think at some point they were like toward the end can can i trade shifts with you paul's got this really sweet sermon series that he's writing to the church at philippi just i want to hear the rest it's going to be great the guards were affected by it in fact if you visit rome today in one of the museums there's this piece of plaster that was taking off the walls of one of the palace of the caesars and this plaster has an engraving upon it with a figure of a man's body with the head of a donkey that's crucified on a cross and below it is a picture of a soldier bowing down before a man on a cross and the idea behind the art was that they were basically the artist was attacking and mocking roman soldiers who converted to christianity it was supposed to be meant as a mockery to those this person is worshiping jesus christ and on this description of this piece of art it says annex onomas worships his god annex on onomas was a name given to roman guards in the caesar's palace i'm pointing this out to you guys to show you the result of paul doing what he did resulted in guards responding to the gospel and now we have art and history that records what paul did in acts 28 for the two years was both effective and fruitful which is why he said and i'm almost done i'm winding down guys philippians 4 21-22 paul said greet every saint in christ jesus the brethren who are with me greet you all the saints greet you but especially listen to this those who are of caesar's household he's referring to the guards the guards grieved well why would they greet him because they responded to the gospel paul should have been depressed i got arrested paul should have been depressed they shipwrecked paul should have been depressed he was stuck an island got bit by a dumb viper like all these things that should have caused him to quit but he never gave up guys he never gave up he finished what he started and it makes me wonder how many of us kick ourselves because we miss these opportunities where we know god wants to use us and our inclination when things are hard is just to give up it's just easier and for me my conviction guys is that we would have a heart like paul man even when things are hard i'm going to stick it out because god's worth it and i have a peace about it even though things are hard i'm going to stick it out and now we fall upon the very last verse the 1006th verse of acts 28 it says this preaching the kingdom of god and teaching the things which concern the lord jesus christ with all confidence no one forbiding him do you ever read a book and just realize it kind of ends abruptly you kind of read that last verse and you're like okay so what happened to paul though like what happens next after two years of being in rome and under house arrest we know he's gonna write to all the churches that i mentioned he's gonna minister to pastors in ephesus and rome and corinth he didn't have retirement on the forefront of his mind he just kept going historian clement of rome tells us that paul does make his way back to rome he appears before caesar nero just as god intended he should and it was there that he gave the gospel and i think it was there that paul was ordered to be killed by nero history tells us he was beheaded and interestingly enough the last letter paul ever wrote before he was beheaded was to timothy i want to read you the last words of paul ii timothy 4 7-8 i fought the good fight i finished the race i've kept the faith finally there's laid up for me the crown of righteousness which the lord the righteous judge will give to me on the day on that day and not to me only but also to all who have loved his appearing paul finished what he started the faithfulness to be entrusted with the most precious message ever the gospel he finishes what he started and as a result created the rapid rise of christianity as we know it today i'm going to invite the worship team to come up but there it is ladies and gentlemen you did it we finished the book of acts yes i cannot wait to see what the lord has in store for our our sermon series renegade as we study through the book of jonah but i want to encourage you in this moment as we're about to enter into worship to really ask the lord god what do you what do you want me to gain from the sermon today is there something that i i need something that i started that you you intend to want me to finish and i don't know what that is guys and the lord does but let's take this time right now to thank god for his word and thank god for what he has planned for us heavenly father we come before you we thank you for the faithfulness of paul thank you that you had unfinished business thank you that he didn't give up before reaching malta thank you lord that christianity today the western church the church globally is what it is because you gave strength to a man that probably wanted to give up time and time again but never did where we desire to have a heart like paul's that desires to know more about you help us to finish what we started lord help us to be good stewards with the time that we have to understand what the hope of our salvation is and how that applies to our life thank you for this book and thank you again lord for what you're going to do through our studying of the word moving forward you're so good god you're so good to us we love you in jesus name amen let's worship [Music] [Music] and i can't get enough [Music] i know i can't get enough [Music] of your amazing love [Music] jesus i can't get enough and i can't walk away you know i can't walk away for i have seen your face and i can't walk away and i just wanna be where you are [Music] and i just wanna be near your heart [Music] there is nothing like your love there is nothing like your love [Music] sing i can't get enough and i can't get enough [Music] jesus i can't get enough [Music] of your amazing love jesus i can't get enough [Music] yeah i can't walk away [Music] no i can't walk away i thought i have seen your face [Music] and i can't walk away [Music] i just wanna be where you are [Music] and i just wanna be near your heart and there is nothing like your love there just is be where you are [Music] and i just wanna be near your heart [Music] there is nothing like your love [Music] there is nothing like your love [Music] oh jesus [Music] oh [Music] [Music] jesus i love you jesus i love you singing [Music] jesus [Music] jesus love you jesus [Music] [Music] i just wanna be where you are [Music] and i just wanna be near your heart if there is nothing like your love [Music] there is nothing like your love [Music] and i just wanna be where you are and i just want to be near your heart there is nothing like your love there is nothing like your love [Music] [Music] you call me out upon [Music] upon your name [Music] foreign [Music] you're sovereign [Music] you've never felt [Music] i'll keep my eyes above [Music] i am [Music] we trust you jesus [Music] let me [Music] take me deeper than my feet [Music] take me deeper than my face [Music] [Applause] is my faith [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] so i will call upon your name [Music] and keep my eyes above the waves when oceans rise [Music] all right [Music] spirit sound rushing when fire of god fall within holy [Music] [Music] your spirit out pour your spirit out [Music] from hearts that burn with holy fear purify [Music] strengthen what remains so we the church will be [Music] is [Music] the holy anointing [Music] [Music] your spirit [Music] we can hear the wind [Music] we can hear the wind we can hear the wind we can hear the power of your presence all pour your spirit [Applause] [Music] of heaven [Music] [Applause] [Music] the power of your presence pour your spirit out your soul pour your spirit arms [Music] blow through this place [Music] [Music] lord we pray that you would pour your spirit out upon us we sang it lord in faith believing that [Music] when your spirit leads it directs that you are both glorified and yet you reveal to us the truth of your character want to walk by the spirit and not by the flesh we want to understand who you are [Music] that when we pray things like increase our faith lord what we're asking is help us to be disciplined to read your word and grow in the faith and the knowledge of your word when we pray pour your spirit out we're praying help us lord because we try on our own and we try to do things apart from your spirit and we fail lord so pour your spirit out and do a great work lord because we want to see you glorified may the lord bless you and keep you may the lord make his face to shine upon you may the lord lift up his countenance and give you peace as you trust in him every day as you pray to for him to pour his spirit out and as you read the scriptures with the intention of believing that it's meant for you today as much as it was for paul when he penned them may the lord bless your family today and it's in jesus name that all god's people said amen god bless you guys god bless and blessings to you hey we'll see you next week [Music] drop let's see let's see let's see hi dude [Music] sweet car sweet car sweet car this is amazing i have the other two you gave me man thank you bro welcome thanks bro [Music] uh [Music] [Music] yes [Music] [Music] [Music] um [Music] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] so [Music] you

Channel: Calvary South Denver

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Id: mMgHTl0512s

Length: 111min 58sec (6718 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 12 2021