"Finish What you Started" | Acts 28:1-30 | Pastor Jon Geraci

[Music] i'm particularly excited for this chapter in acts because we're finishing a book that we started 404 days ago and like i told you with all the facts last week out of the 100 or excuse me a thousand and six verses that we are going to cover by the end of today it has been just an amazing book and then i thought man it would be so cool to give you a summary of everything we've learned and then realistically realizing you can't i can't do that unless you guys want to stay here for hours and hours and hours which i know you don't um but i'm going to encourage you to look up some sources online that it's going to be incredibly helpful one of them is is called the bible project so if you go to youtube and you type in the bible project they have overviews of entire books in the bible and they they correlate like awesome illustrations and give a commentary on what to expect and so when you go to the bible project youtube channel uh look up their act their book on acts and it's like i want to say it's less than 10 minutes and it gives you all 28 chapters summarized in it and it's fantastic we don't have time today of course because of that but we do have time to dive straight into the text so let us begin in verse 1 of acts 28 look what it says now when they had escaped they then found out that the island was called malta now again context is they just shipwrecked and they're on this place well and before they entered the island they escaped something and the to which we might ask well what did they escape exactly they escaped the tempestuous headwind that we learned was called uraclidon and as they entered and the island of malta they recognized a couple things number one that they're gonna find people on it but what's interesting about the name malta is that it means refuge and we're gonna find out here in the text they're going to spend three months of refuge if you will on this little island off the coast of sicily and of course they meet people as they're on the island look at verse two with me the natives showed us unusual kindness for they kindled the fire and made us all welcome because of the rain that was falling and because of the cold now as paul and all the sailors and all the prisoners all the 200 plus people are exhausted and like we just we made it i can't believe we made that shipwreck upon arrival they see the natives come and what's interesting about that word native if you were to take the greek translation behind it it means hobarbero where we get our english word barbarian and you hear that it's like wait what so the barbarians showed us unusual kindness some of you are like john it's 20 21 that's derogatory and offensive like i don't know where you're going to go with this well in order for us to understand why that is written we have to understand the context behind it because it does sound offensive hey paul how would you describe your time on the island of malta well i'm glad you asked these barbarians came to joda's unusual kindness it's like wow that is weird that barbarians would do that you know you hear that and immediately your mind goes what is this another bible verse you know showing and revealing how offensive things are here's the thing when we hear that word barbarian we like think of arnold schwarzenegger like conan the barbarian and it's like that's that's the barbarian term but check this out they would refer to barbarians to those who could not and did not speak the greek language in fact which you know i guess kind of makes sense with arnold schwarzenegger as being a barbarian you know the greek language it's so hard come on get into the choppa this is getting bad so i'm going to stop here we go the greeks at that time would say things like well anyone who doesn't speak the beautiful eloquent greek language sound nothing more than unsophisticated and some of you might think i'm making this up but to the greek speaking individual back then if they heard anyone speak anything other than the greek language it sounded just like bar bar bar to them it was gibberish it was it was like babbling and so therefore that was barbaric language hobarbero and so these barbarians showed us unusual kindness meaning they didn't speak the way that we spoke and verse 2 says that they kindled a fire and made us all welcome because of the rain that was falling and because of the cold now the hard thing and especially if you visited a family or if you're been in any home and you're hosted generally they serve you and they show kindness and it's not unusual i mean that's a very common thing maybe to some americans it's odd because it's like what do you want it's like that's not how it works always but what's hard about serving someone in particular that their life is centered on serving others is that you'll notice that these people can't sit still for anything and paul was that way look what paul's doing as they're trying to serve him let's read the first half of verse three the first half but when paul had gathered a bundle of sticks he laid them on the fire stop there for a second this is why i love paul i love paul because he's setting a tone for us on what it means to serve and what it means for others to even serve us it wasn't like paul was sitting there and the fires going out he's like you guys want to rock paper scissors to see who adds logs to the fire i mean he looked at it and he's like hey there's a need i will do it i will stand up and i will take care of it he serves them and the reason for this and there's some principles we can learn behind this guys number one a true leader of god always serves first and leads second this is true individually for those you work with those who you serve in your house those who you serve outside of this place and and paul reinforces this idea in philippians listen to this guys philippians 2 3-6 paul tells us don't be selfish don't try to impress others be humble thinking of others better than yourself don't look out only for your own interests but take an interest in others too you want to know what makes a great leader ladies and gentlemen a great leader a true leader begins their leadership by serving others first in fact if you want to dive more into this i'm going to suggest two resources to you okay i always like doing this because they've blessed me and i hope they bless you the first one is warren weirsby he wrote a book called on being a leader of god great easy read and there's another one by oswald sanders called spiritual leadership they give us principles biblical principles on what it means to lead in your house and just be a leader of god in general i can't go straight into it because obviously but because of time but they're great resources but for paul he tells us you know don't think of only yourself think of the interests of others but then he gives us a principle on who we should be like check this out philippians 2 5-6 he says you must have the same attitude that christ had though he was god he didn't think of equality with god as something to cling to meaning jesus wasn't during his earthly ministry like sitting down and the disciples are doing the dishes and he's like i don't do dishes i'm the son of also i need someone to rub my feet like jesus didn't do that in fact we know that because and paul will even give us a principle behind the characteristic of god of jesus check this out philippians 2 7 through 8. he said that jesus didn't think of equality with god as something to cling to verses seven and eight instead he gave up his divine privileges he took on the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being when he appeared in human form he humbled himself there's the key of what it means to serve and he did it in obedience to god and he died a criminal's death on the cross and that really was the heart of jesus i'm here in humility fulfilling what my father has sent me to do and we know this because jesus made this claim in one of the gospels you know this verse mark 10 45 for even the son of man the son of man came not to be served but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many there's this idea that and a lot of leaders in the church do this and god forbid this ever happens to me call me out if this ever happens but this mentality of like i put in my time you can make you can walk your way up the ladder like me what gibberish guys you know what a tr a true leader is modeled in the life of jesus that he did not come to be served but to serve others and that really is what it comes down to and i can see by your facial expressions for some of you it's like wow you got all of that john from the verse that said paul gathered a bundle of sticks and laid them on the fire it was either that or expressing my love for fires for every person in here who knows my love for bonfires but we're not gonna get into that so look what happens as servant paul is adding sticks to the fire the second half of verse three a viper came out because of the heat and fastened on his hand i mean i'm not i'm imagining seeing that like then just like i would imagine seeing it now for the ladies in the room some of you if i just said there's a snake in here just the talk of it you would stand up and be like what and scream for some of you just seeing a reptilian creature make some of you pass out you know those goats that pass out from fear like some adults are that way they're like ah and like fall over and it made me think of carolyn when we were in charleston charleston breeds reptilian creatures left and right and i remember she sent me this text when we were in south carolina and it just said there's a frog in the house with like a screaming emoji face which you know that's real business when there's a screaming emoji phase minutes later she sends a text frog's gone and i thought this is weird something's wrong here she either moved to a new house and didn't tell me or she said something is missing in this story and i'm like the frog's gone and then she wrote jaden picked it up and put it outside i was like ah there it is there it is that makes sense but i want you to notice the natives here in acts 28 they don't scream once the viper fastened to paul's hand look how they react in verse 4. so when the natives saw the creature hanging from his hand they said to one another no doubt this man is murderer whom though he has escaped the sea yet justice does not allow him to live justice who is that referring to because obviously it's not what we would consider what justice is or even a biblical context check this out the people on malta worshiped the goddess lowercase g uh justice and so you have this polytheistic group of people that that were both superstitious but it was kind of like maybe you've met people today and they'll say things like you know it's just karma getting to them you know this idea of what goes around comes around they're looking at paul and they're like well obviously a snake only bites murderous bad people so paul's getting what he deserves so the reaction was all right he's a murderer that's how they responded look how paul responds to the snake biting him i would not do this verse five yeah but he shook off the creature into the fire and suffered no harm it's like what okay i've watched this youtube channel of a guy named coyote peterson like i just want to apologize ahead of time if you google search this guy's name his whole youtube channel is he finds creatures and animals to bite him and he records the response and i was watching this and i'm 45 minutes into it i'm like i've wasted so much time but i can't stop watching this it wasn't like paul was like you guys want to see what real faith looks like no he saw the snake he brushes it off in a moment i'm going to expound why i think his response was this way but i'd love to him it was like it's no big deal i got to go to rome this isn't going to stop me so even though that was his inclination look how the natives respond to him getting bit in verse six however they were expecting that he would swell up or suddenly fall down dead paul's looking at them like why do you keep looking at your watch and looking at me and like amazed but after they had looked for a long time and saw no harm verse six they changed their minds and they said he's a god again it's just it's it's funny to me because it just makes me think of the media and just social media and how fickle people are we're like this is my position but then again maybe it's not my position and again you see you see the heart of this polytheistic superstitious group where it's like it's a murderer he's a murderer but he's not dead maybe he's a god but the issue here is that he didn't swell up because he was a god he didn't swell up because god was with him because god had intentions and plans and purposes to accomplish through the ministry of paul and for us it seems impossible that he should have survived this that the toxins didn't affect his neurological system or create some form of paralysis or even as the text put it that he would just drop down dead he survived he shook off the creature into the fire he suffered no harm and then it made me think of us today we go through certain things and we measure it by whatever we're going through god cannot use me because this has happened to me or god can't use me because this has happened to me he's finished with me we pulled this false lie that god's contingency to use us or love us is on the basis of what we have to offer but i'm i'm looking at this and i've shared this verse time and time again it's my life verse philippians 1 6 to remind you if god has started something in you ladies and gentlemen if he has started something in you he has every intention of finishing it in you philippians 1 6 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 and i feel like you guys need to hear that this idea i i need to speak directly to every person in here because this was my struggle when i first became a christian i was so excited that i felt i had nothing to offer and then i came across this verse and i'm going to say the same thing to you that the holy spirit revealed to me when i was 15 that even though you may feel like he is finished with you the promise of scripture is if he begun the good work in you he's going to finish the good work in you and he determines the end he determines it you may feel like you're finished you may because of circumstances be like i'm finished but i'm here to tell you it's because of jesus not you it's jesus who determines it because he is the author and he is the finisher of our faith amen he is the one who determines it and that's a weight we need to take off of our shoulders right now and for paul he got that i mean for paul it's like i survived caesarea from the mob i survived the mob in jerusalem i survived the shipwreck i'm going to survive this snake bite because god made a promise that as i appeared before jerusalem so also i must go to rome and no snake is going to stop me so they're figuring out and i mean it's implied but that obviously paul wasn't god because he's quickly pointed them back to jesus verse seven and eight in that region was an estate of the leading citizen of the island whose name was publius who received us and entertained us courteously for three days and it happened that the father of publius lay sick of fever and dysentery paul went into him and prayed and he laid his hands on him and healed him now publius's father was believed to have and there's a lot of research behind this and interestingly enough a med student after first service came up to me and talked to me about this it was insanely fascinating but the layman's term of what they had was gastric fever and what's happened and it's basically this dysentery issue of people who don't wash their hands and as a result would have violent diarrhea and it's believed you guys are gonna love this but anyways it was believed that it was caused by a microbe in goat's milk and they would eat this and they wouldn't wash their hands properly and as a result what's interesting is that the civilization on malta ended because of this disease as a result and but what was happening was paul was used in that season in that moment to heal people left and right look what happens in verse 9 and 10. it wasn't just publius's father so when this was done the rest of the island who had the disease also came and they were healed they also honored us in many ways and when we departed they provided such things as were necessary i love this because paul has every intention to make it to rome but he can't yet and he didn't understand it all he knew was guys we're gonna survive the shipwreck and we're gonna make it to malta our lives will be spared he doesn't know why he didn't even know the name of the island until he entered the island but what's so beautiful about this is god is using him in ways that he wasn't expecting to be used and this is the same for each person in here that god wants to not only use you but use you beyond what you think we measure god can use me this way and this way in this way but according to scripture god is able to do exceedingly above anything we ask or think and maybe for some of you you need to understand that god is allowing perhaps based on what we learned last week a certain storm in your life to a get your attention but be to show you that your dependency needs to be on him in order for you to minister to others i have gone through things in my life that some of you can relate with and god is going to use me to minister to you but praise god that the body of christ is designed in such a way that you have gone through something that maybe i have never gone through but god wants to use you and the storm you are facing right now to minister to someone minister to someone in a way in in a capacity that i can't satan does this he gives you know for him he wanted to use the shipwreck to damage the faith but he doesn't they make it through the storm satan wanted to use the snake bite to kill paul but he doesn't because god is the author and the finisher of paul god is the great physician and god created paul satan doesn't determine that and we have we go through this each of us we see a storm coming ahead and we prep for the storm and maybe it's not beyond it's not what we expect but some of us like metaphorical snake bite we're going through day-to-day stuff and then you get hit with something that you didn't expect i'm here to tell you that if god started something in you he's going to finish it and he's the one who determines it and for paul not only does god use him to like survive a snake bite no no paul i'm not just using you to survive a snake but i'm using you to heal the sick of those who were around all right paul what else do you got look what happens in verse 11. it gives us an indication how long they were on malta after three months we sailed in in the alexandrian ship whose figurehead was the twin brothers which had wintered at the island now the twin brothers here is referencing the greek gods that are known as castor and pollux basically a lot of sailors would engrave these images on the front of their ship in a superstitious way believing that these twin brothers gods would protect them at sea which made me think of today that this is like no different from today people put shrines in their transportation all the time in fact some people yeah they put on their little dashboards in their car you know that's saint peter that's saint mary they're going to protect us and maybe some of you have done this so i just want to preface i'm sorry ahead of time which isn't good that i'm laughing before i say it but anyways um it's funny to me when people take these saints and shrines and they put them in their car and they have the saints facing them and not the road i'm no shrine expert but it's like i go to car accident which way was saint peter facing well me of course there's your problem there's your problem i mean i'm gonna get so many emails after this complaining that's offensive john you're right here's my email sebastian calvarycsd.org whatever you have to say it say it to my face in that email all right all right let's move on let's move on so they're sailing for three months they sailed this alexandrian ship with the twin brothers shrines on the on the front and we're gonna realize that they're gonna reach their destination not as a result of the gods lowercase g but because of the god of israel who has them rome bound and they're going to make it verse 12 and landing in at syracuse we stayed three days and from there we circled around and reached regium and after one day the south wind blew and the next day we came to putil oli now i need you guys to understand that like any of you who have gone on a two week excursion three week three month there's a lot of rest that's needed and as a result of being on malta for three months uh god's used them they've rested in the way that they needed to paul knows he's supposed to make it to rome god wanted him to stay there a fourth of a year and as a result they get on the green transport and they go to syracuse now interestingly enough syracuse is a capital city of the roman province in sicily because again malta is on the same coast as sicily and lord willing one day we'll take a we'll do the footsteps of the apostle tour and we'll see all the areas that paul visited and then we'll go through the scriptures again but a guy by the name of cicero said that syracuse was and i'm quoting him now the most beautiful and highly highly decorated of all so it was a gorgeous area and it was a gorgeous area for that time especially and as they're entering the city paul found something there that i think brought him great comfort that he didn't expect look at verse 14 and 15. where we found brethren and were invited to stay with him seven days and so we went toward rome so they meet christians they meet christians to fellowship with and as a result from there verse 15 when the brethren heard about us they came to meet us as far as happy forum and three ends and when paul saw them he thanked god and he took courage he took courage and he thanked god because as he's making his way halfway to rome he meets a group of people that not only brought great joy to him he wrote to this group of people while he was in corinth a very meaty book in the bible that we have today do you know what book paul penned while in corinth it's the book of romans paul when that corinth wrote this and these people who are meeting him halfway is the church at rome and so it makes sense as paul sees them and that he thanks god he knows he goes bound by chains to see to see caesar and he i think he knew death was gonna he was gonna face death as a result and isn't it true when we go through a hard time as tough as you may want to be or act isn't it true when we see other believers by our side during hard times what great comfort that brings as much as you want to believe that you are a introverted i need my fuel time only with me time john and although that might be true i'm here to tell you god designed the body of christ to be around us not just during the good times listen guys during the hard times we need people around us that love jesus and can encourage us to depend on christ and so in no doubt it makes sense that paul sees them and he thanked god and he took courage implying that i'm going to be tough i'm going to do this but man the courage that resonated and generated as a result of seeing brothers and sisters and so they meet him halfway and they take him the rest of the way verse 16 when they came to rome the centurion delivered the prisoners to the captain of the guard but paul was permitted to dwell by himself with the soldier who guarded him when we get to verse 30 i'm going to expound and connect those two verses to help you understand what the life of paul's ministry looked like as a prisoner but for now let's look at verse 17 through 19. 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 said to them men and brethren though i have done nothing against our people or the customs of our fathers yet i was delivered as a prisoner from jerusalem into the hands of the romans verse 18 who when they had examined me wanted to let me go because there was no cause for putting me to death verse 19 but when the jews spoke against it i was compelled to appeal to caesar because they were going to murder him not that i had anything of which to accuse my nation paul is recounting what we have already learned in the previous chapters of acts chapter 20. he's trying to describe to them again what we've studied already was that when he went to the nation of of israel that he didn't have this attitude and or of jerusalem and speaking against it he didn't have an agenda he didn't have a political agenda for paul the case was that he understood the hope and love of jesus and what he had for the nation of israel and that is what he wanted to express to them and it's the same for today we our eyes are on israel because god has made a covenant with the jews and his heart and he has unfinished business with these people guys and so for paul he's trying to express this hope and joy that he has and he describes it in verse 20 for this reason therefore i have called you to see you and speak with you because look why for the hope of israel i am bound with this chain the hope of israel is referring to the coming messiah and for a lot of practicing jews even today they're waiting for this coming messiah but what paul is trying to say in acts chapter 28 is i know the coming messiah the hope of israel it's jesus of nazareth he's the he's the reason why i'm bound in chains he's the reason why i'm here and he's the reason why i'm here to tell you the hope that you could have in him he had such a burden for his brothers and sisters and i know you guys do too we so badly want to eloquently and adequately describe why our friends and family need to give their life to jesus am i right and we try and we pray and we ask the lord to give us just the words we need to describe why we serve the messiah the king of israel the great i am jesus of nazareth that was paul too in fact you begin to hear the heart of paul when he wrote to the church at rome the guys that met him halfway you begin to hear the heart of paul and what he thought of his brothers and sisters his jewish brothers and sisters romans 9 1-4 this is what paul said 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 wow why paul for my people my jewish brothers and sisters i would be willing to be forever cursed cut off from christ if it would mean look what it says if that would save them verse 4 they are the people of israel chosen to be god's adopted children again you just you hear his tone like i just want to see them come to christ he wasn't just sad the texts and it's it's just it gives you unending grief bitter sorrow i just want to see them come to know christ and i know that's true for you i know you have that brother that sister that mama that dad that uncle that aunt that that co-worker and you see them and and you see that they're suffering right and you have the answer it's like it's like the cure for cancer it's like i got the answer i got the they don't want to hear it that's discouraging that's hard because our inclination as a people is to help people and this is especially true when it comes to people that we love toward paul to pieces it just tore him to pieces and that's what he's expressing to those here at rome that's that's why i'm here man i first came to appeal to my brothers and sisters the jews and look at the result of his plea verse 21-22 they said to him well we need to receive letters from judea concerning you nor have any of the brethren who've come and reported or spoken any evil of you verse 22 but we desire to hear you or excuse me desire to hear from you what you think for concerning this sect we know that it is spoken against everywhere another translation for a sect is heretical teachings the sect was referring to christianity they're hearing like hey paul we haven't heard anything from you which is really shocking because the jews were relentless to make sure paul was tried and killed like we haven't heard anything from you but man we're hearing literally everywhere we go this sect and like what's that about who are these jesus followers history tells us that claudius expelled all christians from the roman empire because of the great division that was being created as a result with the christians and the jews in rome it was making i mean so it makes sense that everywhere they went that you have this rapid rise of who jesus was the coming messiah they didn't hear the brethren speak evil against paul according to verse 21 but according to verse 22 they wanted to hear what paul had to say about those jesus followers and so verse 23 and 24 they appointed him a day and many came to him at his lodging whom he explained or set in order he's logically expounding that he solemnly testified of the kingdom of god persuading them concerning jesus from both the law of moses and the prophets from morning till evening that is a long bible study you guys are you guys are lucky verse 24 and some were persuaded right this is great they were persuaded by the things which were spoken and some disbelieved i without a doubt know paul used old testament scripture to affirm everything that he was saying that the hope of the of israel the messiah was in fact jesus christ i know he's going to the prophet isaiah who's prophesying jesus's birth even his death in his resurrection i know through the night he's going to micah that's talking about jesus coming from bethlehem and he's expounding it and no doubt he's going to the psalms of david when david predicted that jesus would be killed but pierced by nails on both his hands and his feet and it's no wonder that paul spent much time giving the scriptures from morning or from evening till dawn and and it's crazy to me because i what amazing evidence to persuade someone like so this is why jesus should be the answer and yet some of them believed but not all of them did some of them did but not all and i'm going to talk about in a moment why why that is it's pride and as a result look what they do in verse 25 through 27 as he's expounding all throughout the night when they did not agree among themselves they departed after paul had said one word he said that the holy spirit spoke rightly through isaiah the prophet to our fathers meaning he he's about to explain to them that isaiah predicted and prophesied that they would have hardened hearts that this is a that this makes sense toward this reaction that some are receiving some are not some are hardening their their hearts to the gospel and they're arguing with one another and so they argued from that one saying verse 26 read it with me go to this people and say again referring to the jews hearing you will hear and you shall not understand seeing you will see and not perceive for the hearts of these people have grown dull their ears are hard of hearing their eyes they've 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 is a prophetic writing from isaiah that's describing something that was insanely applicable to those that paul's appearing before which is why they were arguing among one another in acts 28 but it's insanely applicable for us today i mean it's true though we see this pattern of maybe giving the gospel some accepting it and receiving it but some rejecting it man even with the greatest sermon the greatest outline some still reject it why though it's pride guys the bible says god resists the proud but he gives grace to the humble for a reason you never go to the cross proud you come to the cross broken realize your need for a savior that jesus loved you enough even despite your constant running from him that was me and just overwhelmed that his love for me was still available people rejected the gospel as a result of pride and it really comes down to the heart of god you have the choice which was so applicable because of the men's breakfast this last saturday john golightly taught from deuteronomy and there's this amazing promise in the 30th chapter where god is calling the children of israel moses is asking the children of israel to repent right and then in the 19th verse he says and it won't be on the screen he says today i've given you the choices between life and death blessing and cursing and today i call upon heaven to see the choice that you make and what's interesting is that the next thing he says to give us the heart of god as he's calling the children of israel to repent it says in acts or excuse me it says in deuteronomy 30 19 and oh that you would choose life so that you and your descendants might live the heart of god is that none should perish guys but that all come to repentance but that's the thing you have to choose you have to choose to allow humility to let you see the truth of who christ is or let pride determine who you are i don't need saving from sin i like my sin what's the problem no i don't need any of this he quotes isaiah they get upset verse 28 therefore let it be known to that salvation of god has been sent to the gentiles i love this next part and they will hear it god made a covenant with the jews they are god's adopted children we know this and he is not finished with them but this isn't like jesus follower propaganda this is isaiah prophesying that this would happen and that's the pattern we see in the book of acts someone gives the gospel someone responds some believe some reject but this is why the lord is okay i'm going to focus on the gentiles because salvation of god has been sent to them and they're going to hear it i'm so thankful for that i'm so thankful for it because i i it helps me see the consistency of god that when he makes a promise he has to do it but it also shows me the heart of god that he wants to see everyone saved but this was a pattern throughout the book of acts that we saw in jerusalem paul saw it in jerusalem and now he's seen that pattern take place in rome and so look what happens as a result of verse 29-30 when they had said these words the jews departed and had great dispute among themselves but it didn't stop paul because paul dwelt there look what it says two whole years in his own rented house and received all who would come to him this is why i want to take a moment now to connect verse 16 with 30. the life and ministry of paul in fact this last part of i mean honestly these last two verses we could spend multiple sermons just speaking but paul he was permitted to have his own private lodging though he was guarded by a soldier for two years this means 24 hours surveillance there were multiple shifts every six hours a soldier would be bound to him to keep an eye on him and you think about that for a moment paul's not just seen by the guard chained to him he he's allowed and permitted guests to come to him and guess what he's writing to some churches while there he's writing to the prison epistles that we know today ephesians philemon he's writing to philippians colossians he's writing all these things while a guard is chained to him so you've got to know that they're hearing what he's saying because when i write when i'm writing i have to write it out and then i have to say it out loud okay does this make sense paul of course you know inspired by the holy spirit is writing everything but it just made me think what an amazing time to basically minister to someone for two years and have the guards respond as a result how do i know the guards responded philippians 1 12-13 i want you to know brethren 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 all of the rest that my chains are in christ the way i look at it paul it's like you're going to prison okay as a roman citizen i have certain rights so guess what i'm going to minister to the guard that's next to me hey guess what i'm going to tell them the hope that they can have in christ because the gospel message is for the jew first but it's also to the greek and they're going to hear it and they're going to hear it from the horse's mouth guys for me i i like i i look at this and i i wonder if some of the guards were like sick of paul like paul that's all he talks about is jesus jesus jesus jesus right and then by the end they're listening they have ears to hear now and their heart's been opened and you wonder if some of the guards were like you want to trade shifts paul's doing a sermon series to the church at philippi and i kind of wanted to hear what it let's just think about it you may be working with someone right now today that you just despise and load you don't like working with some of the people you work with i have my family i have my church family and then i got to go to work to the ver vernon you know the the the locusts the people they suck me dry but can i just encourage you guys that god puts people in your life to be a light to them to represent the truth of why you have a hope that is immovable and god wants to use you and i i'm going to say i miss working in the secular world because i have these opportunities that you have that i don't as much it's not like i only stay here and at my house even though it feels that way sometimes um i want to encourage you as glamorous as it seems from your perspective to work in the church god uniquely designed the body of christ so that you are the hands and feet outside of this church it's true for all of our staff members too but i just i want to encourage you you have an amazing call even though you may not feel that to be the case paul was able to minister to the palace guard in fact if you go to rome today in one of the museums there's a piece of plaster that was taken off the walls of the palace of the caesars and this particular plaster has an engraving upon it and there's a figure of a man's body with the head of a donkey that's crucified on the cross and below that picture is a man basically bowing down before the crucified individual the artist who created it at the time created it as a mockery to christianity because as a result there were some people who surrendered to jesus but what's interesting is that the inscription on this picture says annex on a mosque worships his god which was a title given to a roman guard in caesar's palace which indicates the person who now worshipped jesus and artists is making fun of them gave their life to jesus because paul was in prison at this time it's an amazing it's just amazing to see the art that we have today connecting the dots with the scripture that we have in our hands right now and what's beautiful about that what would have happened if paul gave up after the shipwreck in acts 27 what if he would have given up in the previous chapters at caesarea when he knows he's going to appeal before caesar in jerusalem maybe that's the same for a lot of you guys i want to give up it's so hard john well then let the words of paul inspire you that people that you minister to are worth it philippians 4 21-22 paul says greet every saint in christ this is one of the last things he wrote when he wrote phil the philippians to the brethren who are with you they greet you all the saints who greet you but especially those who are of caesar's household hey guess what this guard you know bob the guard next to me greets you also because he responded to the good news of jesus christ paul should have been depressed and he wasn't he looked at this as an opportunity to give glory to god and as a result and this is where we fall upon the very last verse of acts the 1006th verse of the acts read it with me acts 31 he preached the kingdom of god and teaching the things which concern the lord's the lord jesus christ with all confidence and no one forbade him or forbidding him do you ever read a book and it just kind of ends abruptly you're kind of like but what happened with the character that i just said and like it just ended like what happened to paul like it's kind of like and he preached with confidence and no one forbade him it's like yeah but what did he do well we do know historically he's going to appear before nero he didn't have retirement on his mind he's going to appear before nero and historically speaking clement of rome who is a historian said that paul again he makes his way to rome he appears before nero and i think it was there he gave the gospel and it was there that nero called paul to be executed by beheading paul dies doing exactly what christ told him to do and interestingly enough as we're reading acts chapter 28 this isn't the last thing that we see of him we see all four different prison epistles that he wrote but one of the last things he ever penned was when he wrote to timothy and i'm going to end it with this final words of paul ii timothy 4 7 through 8. i fought the good fight i finished the race i've kept the faith look at the wording what he says 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 guys paul finished what he started and the faithfulness and the excitement that he was entrusted with this gospel message is what caused the rapid rise of christianity that we know it today you're sitting in here and you're listening to me talking i'm about to finish and it's a result of the faithfulness of paul faith is a hard thing to swallow it's hard to trust god when things are hard it's difficult to trust god when things don't make sense but i'm here to tell you it is worth it because if paul is any example to you it's an example to me that i we serve an amazing god who is worth the fight amen [Music]

Channel: Calvary South Denver

Views: 86

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Calvary Chapel, Gino Geraci, Christianity, Bible Study

Id: sXL9x8IkufI

Length: 47min 22sec (2842 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 14 2021