Sunday, July 10 - Paul in Rome pt. 1
2022-07-10
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ec4LIpbg67Y

Test, test, testing, one, testing. Testing, yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Let's pray. Let's pray. Let's pray. We'll be singing in just a moment. One of the things we're going to see this morning is we'll be in Acts chapter 28, the very last part of the book of Acts. We're going to spend two weeks here. And one of the things I want you to see this morning is that as Paul is in prison, I want you to see how God is at work and doing things for the good of the church and for the good of those who need to hear the gospel. So we're going to sing a lot about God's goodness this morning and a lot about how God is in control. I'm going to start with Blessed Be Your Name.

Blessed Be Your Name In the land that is plentiful Where the streams of abundance flow Blessed Be Your Name Blessed Be Your Name When I'm found in the desert place Though I walk through the wilderness Blessed Be Your Name Every blessing you pour out I'll turn back to praise When the darkness closes in Lord Still I will say Blessed Be the Name of the Lord Blessed Be Your Name Blessed Be the Name of the Lord Blessed Be Your Glorious Name Blessed Be Your Name When the sun's shining down on me When the world's all as it should be Blessed Be Your Name

Blessed Be Your Name On the road marked with suffering Though there's pain in the offering Blessed Be Your Name Every blessing you pour out I turn back to praise When the darkness closes in door Still I will say Blessed be the name of the Lord Blessed be Your name Blessed be the name of the Lord Blessed be Your glorious name I raise a hallelujah in the presence of my enemies.

I raise a hallelujah louder than the unbelief. I raise a hallelujah. My weapon is a melody. I raise a hallelujah. Heaven comes to fight for me. I'm gonna sing in the middle of the storm. Louder and louder, you're gonna hear my praises roar. Up from the ashes, hope will be. Death is defeated. The King is alive. I raise a hallelujah with everything inside of me. I raise a hallelujah with everything inside of me. I raise a hallelujah. I will watch the darkness gleam. I raise a hallelujah in the middle of the mystery. I raise a hallelujah. Fear you lost your hold on me. I'm gonna sing in the middle of the storm. Louder and louder, you're gonna hear my praises roar. I will rise. Death is defeated. The King is alive. Sing a little louder in the presence of my enemies. Sing a little louder, louder than the unbelief. Sing a little louder. My weapon is a melody. Sing a little louder.

Heaven comes to fight for me. I'm gonna sing in the middle of the storm. Louder and louder. You're gonna hear my praises roar. Up from the ashes, hope will arise. Death is defeated. The King is alive. in the middle of the storm. Louder and louder. You're gonna hear my praises roar. Up from the ashes, hope will arise. Death is defeated. The King is alive. It's online. We're going to move into our prayer and share time. So you're gonna be, we'll be muted here just for a little bit during that time of prayer requests. There'll be a video playing for you online, and there is a number on Facebook in the description of the video, and on our website if you're watching there, if you would like to text us your prayer requests so we can pray for you. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. Let's pray. Let's pray. Let's pray. We gather around the table this morning, we're going to sing, "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing."

Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing, tune my heart to sing Thy grace. Streams of mercy never ceasing, call for songs of loudest praise. Teach me some melodious sonnet, sung by flaming tongues above. Praise Thy mountain fixed upon it, mount of Thy redeeming love. Here I raise my Ebenezer, hither by Thy help I'm come. And I hope by Thy good pleasure, safely to arrive at home. Jesus sought me when a stranger Wandering from the fold of God, He to rescue me from danger Interposed His precious blood. Oh, to grace, how great a debtor Daily I'm constrained to be. Let thy grace, Lord, like a fetter, Bind my wandering heart to thee. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love. Here's my heart, Lord. Take and seal it. Seal it for thy courts above.

In this morning, we talked a little bit last week about the power of unity and the fact that as we come to this table, this is a time to remember Jesus. It's also a time to remember and to celebrate with the community that Jesus created through the cross. And so I just want to read this very simply this morning from Philippians, the second chapter, as Paul writes while he's in prison in Rome to the Philippian church. And he will encourage them in community, but not just to love one another, but he'll give them the foundation upon which that love is built upon. So he says this, "If there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord of one mind.

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourself. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, although he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be held on to. But he emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him, and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, the glory of God the Father. Let's pray.

Father, I thank you for Jesus. We thank you for his love for us, that he emptied himself and became a servant, that he died on the cross. We thank you for the resurrection and the hope that it brings, and we look forward to the day when every tongue will sing of the Lordship of your Son. And so we thank you for the good news of the Gospel this morning. We also thank you for how the Gospel changes us and transforms us, that it allows us to love one another, to forgive one another, to walk with one another through life. And so, as we partake of this bread and drink this cup this morning, remind us of the sacrifice of your Son, and remind us that we are part of a new community, and that we love each other just like you have loved us.

It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Jesus says to the disciples, and Paul will say to the church in 1 Corinthians 11, Jesus will say, "This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me." Then Jesus will take the cup, and he will say, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me." For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

This morning's reading is from the last chapter of the book of Acts. And when we came into Rome, Paul was allowed to stay by himself with the soldier who guarded him. After three days, Paul called together the local leaders of the Jews, and when they had gathered, Paul said to them, "Brothers, 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." When they had examined me, they wished to set me at liberty, because there was no reason for the death penalty in my case, but because the Jews objected, I was compelled to appeal to Caesar, though I had no charge to bring against my nation. For this reason, therefore, I have asked to see you and to speak with you, since it is because of the hope of Israel that I am wearing these chains.

And they said to him, "We have received no letters from Judea about you, and none of the brothers coming have had a report or spoken any evil about you. But we desire to hear from you what your views are. For with regards to this sect, we know that everywhere it is spoken against." Paul lived there for two whole years at his own expense, and welcomed all who came to him, proclaiming the kingdom of God, and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance. This is the word of the Lord. All right, we're taking a look at a few verses this morning from Acts, the 28th chapter. You may have noticed, as Brent read, we're not going to look at everything. We're going to take this sort of last section of the book of Acts. We're going to deal with it in two sections, two Sundays. So this Sunday, we're going to take a look.

We're going to take a look at how Paul sort of behaves during his time in prison and what's going on and how he acts and what he does. And then next Sunday, we're going to talk about hearing the gospel and responding to the gospel because one of the parts that Brent did not read this morning was Paul's sermon to these Jews who gathered together. And so we're going to essentially take a look at sort of three big things that happened to Paul during this time, and hopefully we'll see how God works to change us, to help us to love others, how he helps us to continue in our work, and how he provides powerfully through the midst of it. So let's go ahead and have a word of prayer, and we'll dive right into it. Father in heaven, thank you for loving us. Thank you for taking care of us.

We thank you for your church and your people. Help us this morning as we look at your will and our plans to help us to see that ultimately your will is what is best for us and best for your church. And so help us in those moments where it seems like our plans get a little scrambled, that you would encourage us with the fact that you are working in and through those difficult circumstances in life. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Now probably all of us have had those moments where things did not go according to plan. I remember one time that was particularly memorable for me. I had gotten some snow tires from my dad. They were brand new. I brought them down with me, and it was winter. I was getting ready to drive to Vermont, so I drove over to the garage and said, "Hey, can you put these tires on my car?"

Because Dad didn't have any cars they would fit on, and so they'd get them on my car, and I'm heading out first thing in the morning, and I'm feeling pretty good, right? You got four new tires on the car, full tank of gas. It's like a perfect day. There's not any traffic, and I'm heading down 81. I didn't even make it to Clearbrook, and you hear that of a tire going flat. So I pull over on the side of 81, which is probably one of the worst places to try to change a tire, and thankfully a trooper pulled him behind me and turned on his lights, so I was able to get my tire changed and pulled off to the gas station, and in the time that it took me to go from there to the little gas station

on that spare tire, at that point, three of the other tires, the last three tires, were starting to go flat as well. And so, you know, I called some folks from the church, and we got the tires off the car, took them back. Turns out, when they mounted them, they didn't, I guess, seat them properly on the car, and I was like, "Hey, look, you know, my day has been ruined. My travel has been ruined. This tire is completely destroyed," because it almost went instantly flat. It didn't blow, but it just went flat at 70 miles an hour, and they're like, "Well, I don't know. What did you tell you? You're kind of out of luck." And so, there I was, nothing going according to plan. And it can be frustrating, and it can be difficult for us in those moments.

And our tendency might be to get angry, or we just say, "You know what? I'm just going to give up." Right? And so, when things don't go according to plan, it is a struggle for us. And this morning, we see Paul coming to Rome. And the interesting thing is, this has been Paul's plan for a while. When he writes the book of Romans in chapter one, he will say this, "I'm eager to preach the gospel to those of you who are in Rome." But Paul's plan was not to arrive in Rome in chains. His plan was to make a quick stop, preach to the church, be encouraged by them, encourage them, teach them about the gospel, maybe have some of his needs met for the next missionary journey. And his goal is to go to Spain. In fact, he'll say that in Romans 15. He says, "I hope to

see you as I go to Spain, and to be helped on my journey there by you, once I have enjoyed your company for a while." And the very first verse that Brent read this morning shows that's not going to happen. Right? Paul, in verse 16, comes to Rome, is allowed to stay by himself. So that doesn't sound so bad until you hear that it's with the soldier who guarded him. And so here you have, in the very beginning of the end of Acts chapter 28, you have this picture of our plans and God's will. And what we find is what Paul had planned ultimately in this time, in this place, was not in the will of God. Now, God doesn't frustrate our plans or change our plans because he's being petty, but because he knows

more and sees more and understands more than we do. Just like a parent with children, when we give our kids guidance, I'm not doing it because I don't want them doing something fun or having some joy. I'm doing it because I see where that can end up down the road. And it may hurt them or may cause some problems in the future. And so I say, you know, don't do that because that's not something good to do, right? And so we understand from our perspective, especially if we're older, looking at those who are younger, that we can see those things happening sort of spread out through their life. And so when God changes our plans, when God puts up a block in our plans, he's not doing it because he says, "You know what would really

mess up their day?" He's doing it for our good and for the good of his church. Which brings some to the place where they say, "I just won't make any plans," right? If God's just going to have his plan, then I'm not going to do anything. That's not what James says when he writes to the church. He says, "We make our plans, but in the making of our plans we ask God, we depend on God, and ultimately if God says to do something different, we follow him." And so Paul has become very good at doing that. And what you're going to find is his destination has changed, right? He's no longer on his way to Spain, but he's at his final destination there in Rome, but his mission has not changed. He's going to continue to preach and to share the gospel in Rome. And so the first thing we find is

Paul begins to preach to those who are skeptical. Look at verse 17. "After three days, he called together the local leaders of the Jews, and when they had gathered, he said to them, 'Brothers, though I have done nothing against our people or the customs of the fathers, yet I was delivered as a prisoner from Jerusalem into the hands of the Romans.'" Right? So Paul here is making a really, really bold move, right? How has he gotten to be in chains? It's by gathering together the Jewish leaders and preaching Jesus. And so what does Paul do once he's in chains? He gathers together the Jewish leaders and begins to preach to them Jesus. Three days in Rome, right? Probably one day to find a place, one day to get settled, and third day he goes, "Hey guys,

why don't you come over so I can tell you about Jesus?" The very thing that got him in trouble in the first place. And remember, the Jewish reaction in general of the leaders has not been good to Paul over his last three missionary journeys. In Antioch, in Acts chapter 13, it says, "When the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and began to contradict what was spoken by Paul, reviling him." So as Paul is preaching and teaching, they're beginning to shout him down, they're beginning to insult him. A little later in the chapter, the Jews incited the devout women of high standing and the leading men in the city, stirred up against persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and drove them out of the district. Chapter later in Iconium, "When an attempt was made by both the

Gentiles and the Jews with their rulers to mistreat them and stone them," that means throw rocks at them until they are dead, "they learned of it and fled to Lystra and Derbe, and there they continued to preach the gospel. And in Lystra, the Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, having persuaded the crowds, they stoned Paul, dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead." So his first missionary journey, he gets to this point where opposition from these Jewish leaders has gotten so bad they throw rocks at him until they think he's dead, and then they drag the body outside the city and just leave it. And then for a bit things go quiet. Paul will return to Jerusalem. He'll meet with the church. He'll set out again on his missionary journey. You see that in Acts 17, verse 5. He's in Thessalonica.

"But the Jews were jealous, and taking some of the wicked men of the rabble, they formed a mob and set the city in an uproar and attacked the house of Jason, seeking to bring them out to the crowd. And then in Berea, when the Jews from Thessalonica learned the word of God was proclaimed by Paul in Berea also, they came there, too, agitating and stirring up the crowds. And then in Corinth, when Galileo was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews made a united attack on Paul and brought him before the tribunal. Then Paul will spend time in Ephesus and on his trip home. He's going to speak to the Ephesian elders. He's going to come to Jerusalem. And when he comes to Jerusalem, in order to appease those who had been so adamantly against him, he goes and engages in this sort of purification, time of purification in the temple.

And in Acts 21:27, when the seven days of his purification are almost completed, the Jews from Asia, seeing him in the temple, that's the place he's just come from, stirred up the whole crowd and laid hands on him, crying out, "Men of Israel, help!" This is the man who is teaching everyone everywhere against the people and the law and this place. Moreover, he even brought Greeks into this temple and defiled the holy place. From that point, this crowd tries to murder the apostle Paul. They shut the gates of the temple so it can't be defiled anymore. The mob gathers around him, begins to beat him. And at that point, the Roman garrison, the station near the temple, comes busting in. They grab Paul, and they start to drag him out. Paul says, "Can I address the crowd?"

He preaches to the crowd. Starts another riot. They drag him back. They're going to beat him. Turns out he's a Roman citizen. They can't do that. The next day, they take him before the Jewish high court. Starts another mini-riot and argument in the court. They take him, and they said, "We're going to send him to the regional authorities rather than here." And at the same time, like 40 of the Jewish men say, "We're not going to eat or drink until Paul is dead." And this plot to kill him for the next, essentially three years, Paul is going to be from ruler to ruler, spending an excessive amount of time in jail as the ruler hopes for a bribe, facing these false accusations until eventually he's sent to Rome. On the trip, he is shipwrecked, spends three months shipwrecked on an island,

eventually comes to Rome, is in jail, and the very first thing he does when he gets to Rome is what? To call together the leaders of the people who have been persecuting him this entire time, and began to tell them about Jesus. And he says, "I'm telling you about the hope of Israel." It's remarkable that Paul would do that. And what's interesting is his audience does not seem to be necessarily a friendly one, right? So he says, "These people have been persecuting me. False charges left and right." Listen to what they say. "We have received no letters from Judea about you. None of the brothers coming here have reported or spoken any evil about you." So that sounds pretty good. "But we desire to hear from you what your views are, for with regard to this sect we know everywhere it's spoken against."

Yeah, we'll hear what you have to say about Christianity because we have heard absolutely nothing good about Jesus and his followers from anyone. So do you hear? There's a little bit of dishonesty there, I think. We haven't heard anything from anyone, but all we've heard is negative from everyone, right? So there is probably a little more going on here than we realize. And so here was my thought as I read through this. Why does Paul even bother, right? Here is a group of people who have had a history with him. And in some cases have chased him, not just across cities, but across regions, and all the way to Jerusalem to seek to do him harm. Why would he bother? Why wouldn't he just say, "You know what? There's people who really want to hear the gospel. I'll deal with them."

It's because Paul wants everyone to hear the gospel. And one of the things that the gospel does is that God equips us for the task that he gives us. And Paul, knowing God's love and forgiveness when Paul was a sinner, can't help but seek to love and forgive those who have gone against him. And so he patiently seeks to entreat them with the gospel. The gospel properly applied to our lives. We see Jesus' goodness and how he loves us and how he forgives us. It changes how we treat those, even those who have wronged us. The gospel allows us to forgive and to love and gives us courage. God transforms you and you see it in the fact that Paul would even speak to this group who has sought to do him harm. The second group I want you to see is almost the complete opposite.

It's the gospel for those who are excited about Jesus. And so he lived there for two whole years at his own expense and welcomed all those who came to him proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ without hindrance. So Paul, as he would have got to town, he would have rented probably a little small apartment. Sometimes we picture him in the house. That's not quite likely. Around Rome at this time, there's like 45,000 of these buildings called Insuli. They're like four or five stories tall. A lot of times on the bottom level, they would have shops and places to buy merchants. And then sort of on the stories above, they'd be divided into rooms like we would think modern apartments. And you could rent these and live out of these places.

Some of them were kind of tumbled down. Some of them were in good condition, likely. Paul is next to the Roman soldiers. They're barracks. So he's in an area that's probably not too bad, but notice that he's paying for it himself. And as he's living in this place, it says that anyone, he welcomed all who came to him. And the picture there of welcome is a pretty remarkable one, right? Because sometimes you look out, somebody's knocking on your door, and you're just like, "Oh, man," right? So there was a couple of salesmen that occasionally go through the neighborhood, and they want to talk to you about this or talk to you about that. And we kind of see them because they always park in the bottom of the parking lot, and then they walk with a whole handful of flyers.

And when you see them coming up around the parking lot, it's like, "Everybody inside, under the bed, turn off all the lights." Because it's like, "I don't want to talk to them," right? But then there's people that you're excited to see and people you're excited to talk about. And so notice that these people who were always in Paul's house for two years, Paul is not going, "Oh, man, here's more people," but rather joyfully proclaims the gospel to anyone, and he does it boldly. And that word means openly and plainly, right? He's not speaking in some kind of code, right? Even though there's a Roman soldier there next to him, even though he's in trouble for preaching the gospel, he still does so boldly and openly, and nobody stops him for two years. And so the church, I imagine the church leadership learns, new Christians learn,

maybe people who don't even know Jesus come and learn from the Apostle Paul. It's remarkable. I want to go back to verse 16 and see how God is at work through all of this. When we came to Rome, Paul was allowed to stay by himself with the soldier who guarded him. That seems a little inconvenient, right, to have sort of a permanent roommate. Depending on how this was arranged, it's likely that Paul would have been chained to a Roman soldier. So it's not just like your roommate's in the house and the soldier has this room here and you have this room here, but rather 24 hours a day, Paul was chained to the Roman soldier. The Roman soldier would come in and out based on shifts, but Paul, regardless of what he's doing, is attached to a Roman soldier

so that he would not be able to escape. So today, if you're on house arrest, you get a little ankle monitor, and if you go out past the perimeter, it beeps, tells you you can't do that. Paul has a Roman soldier who, if you go out past the perimeter, he probably hits you with a sword, right? So this is what is happening to the Apostle Paul. He's chained to a Roman soldier, but I want you to see what happens during this time. First of all, during this time, Paul will write the letters to the Ephesians, the Philippians, the Colossians, and Philemon. And he is not just going to write these out. Most of the letters that Paul wrote, he dictated to someone who wrote them down for him. So Paul would essentially just talk, and somebody would write it down.

And so, the whole time, he's chained to a Roman soldier who is hearing the Gospel to the Ephesians and to the Colossians. He's hearing Philemon read, he's hearing Philippians dictated, all of these things. But this Roman soldier is also hearing Paul preach to these Jewish leaders. He's also hearing Paul, for two years, preach to the Romans. So all these soldiers, sort of in and out, constantly rotating, are hearing the Gospel over and over again. And what's remarkable, and this is how God turns things upside down, right? We look at this and say, "Paul's the captive." But in reality, Paul is the guy presenting the Gospel, and that Roman soldier at the other end of the chain is the one who is the captive audience. And as a result, God does something wonderful. Listen to Philippians 1:12-14.

I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the Gospel. That's Paul being imprisoned in Rome. So that it has become known through the whole Imperial Guard and all the rest that my imprisonment is from Christ. And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are so much bold to speak the word without fear. And so when Paul says the Gospel has become known throughout the whole Imperial Guard, that's the regiment that would have been guarding him. At this point in time, somewhere between 8,000 and 10,000 soldiers, each taking a shift, likely during part of the day. There are several soldiers every day. And by the time he writes this letter, the word of the Gospel has spread through this entire group of soldiers.

But more than that, in Philippians chapter 4, Paul will say this, as he sort of does his greeting section. Greet every saint in Christ Jesus. The brothers who are with me greet you. And then listen to this: "All the saints greet you, especially those of Caesar's household." Right? Not just the soldiers who guard Caesar are becoming Christians, but members of Caesar's household are Christians because of Paul's testimony. So here he is, looking like he's trapped, chained to a Roman soldier, awaiting trial, but what's happening? He's encouraging the church by writing letters. He's encouraging us by penning these letters. The Gospel is moving through the soldiers, it's moving through the royal house, maybe even the royal family, all while it seems like Paul is a captive, the Gospel is advancing. I love that God is at work in the life of the Apostle Paul, even when it seems like he's stuck in this little house, chained to this Roman soldier.

The Gospel advances. Let's pray. Father, help us to see the power of the Gospel. That as Paul said of his imprisonment, those who saw him were more bold about the Gospel. Help us to be more bold in proclaiming the Gospel. Help us to see that even when it seems like our world's been turned upside down, you have given us opportunities to share the good news about Jesus, that you have given us hope, that you've given us strength, and you have worked to make things happen for the good of your church and of your people. So encourage us this morning, if we're feeling stuck, that you are with us, that we are not alone, and that you have work for us to do. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. We're going to stand and sing "Behold Our God."

Who has held the oceans in His hands? Who has numbered every grain of sand? Kings and nations tremble at His voice. All creation rises to rejoice. Behold our God, seated on His throne. Come, let us adore Him. Behold our King, nothing can compare. Come, let us adore Him. Who has felt the nails upon His bearing all the guilt of sinful man? God eternal, humble to the grave. Jesus, Savior, is announced to reign. Behold our God, seated on His throne. Come, let us adore Him. Behold our King. Nothing can compare. Come, let us adore Him. We are thankful that you are here with us this morning, both in person and online. Just a couple of announcements. Due to the folks we have traveling, we will not have any Wednesday night Bible study this Wednesday or next Wednesday.

So I just wanted to make you aware of that. Also coming up on August the 14th, I think the second Sunday in August, you know we're, Derek and Chrissy are expecting a new little one. So we're going to do kind of a, I guess it's a sprinkle, so it's not a full-blown baby shower, but kind of a, we'll get together and have a meal. We'll send out some more details about that. So if you want to go ahead and mark that on your calendars for August 14th, we'll be doing that after service. So just a quick update on where Stu is. He just finished, like three minutes ago, 45 miles. So he's got another 12 miles to go. So, and then he's got 13.6 miles to run. So he's doing, moving right along. So we'll go ahead and have a word of prayer, read the verse of Scripture, and sing the doxology. Father in heaven, thank you for

taking care of us. Thank you for allowing us to be here this morning. We thank you for your church and your people. We thank you for Paul and how he, even in the midst of his plans being changed in an uncertain future, proclaimed the gospel. Help us to do the same. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Paul will write at the end of Colossians, he'll say this, "Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving." Let's go ahead and sing the Dock song. Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise Him, all creatures here below. Praise Him above ye heavenly hosts. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.