So this is the last chapter in the book of Acts. And I really struggled with how we
should finish this book. I suppose
I could have broken down this series of events and exegeted each one, tried to
find a parable or outline in each and preach a sermon. But as I considered it, I could not
help but feel that the Holy Spirit was telling us something that was greater
than the summary of each individual event. I couldn’t help but wonder how this grand epic of the gospel could just kind of wind down
with a series of little events without any preaching, without some new
doctrine, and just kind of fade out without coming to a conclusion like we
might expect? It felt kind of like
the way those movies make you feel that never conclude the story but just leave
you hanging at the end, wondering what was going to happen next.
But I don’t think it’s because the Holy Spirit is a bad
writer or because He could not figure out how to finish the story so He just
fades to black and leaves us to figure out the end on our own. I think the solution is to consider the
bigger picture, rather than focus too much on these little vignettes as
independent subjects.
And so at some point I found myself asking some questions
about what the Spirit was indicating in this passage and the preceding chapters leading up to
it. Like for instance, why at
the end of his ministry, not to mention his life, is Paul left to practically
fade into obscurity, without seeing` any great harvests of conversions either
among pagans or among Jews? Where are all the thousands upon thousands saved in
a matter of a few days such as had been the case with Peter in Jerusalem when
the church first started?
Why did God use the storm to drive Paul to the shores of a
tiny 12 x 20 mile long island in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea? Of all places in the world where God
could have sent Paul, why is he shipwrecked on Malta, a barbarous island
peopled by a few superstitious natives? This was after all the greatest apostle of Christ. And
furthermore, why does God allow his servants to die ignoble deaths alone and
practically forgotten by the world?
And as I answered those questions I felt the truth of this passage begin to
dawn in my mind. I considered for
instance, that all of Christ’s apostles were arrested at some point and spent
much time in prison. And all of
the apostles save John were eventually martyred and from our perspective died
an ignoble death, practically alone, alienated from family and friends, by the
hands of brutish men.
But the full answer goes back all the way to the beginning
of Acts. As the Christian church
was born, there was a great blossoming of fruit and a great harvest of souls,
culminating in thousands upon thousands of Jews becoming saved and being added
to the church. And great signs and
wonders were being performed daily in the church and in Jerusalem, and
everyone, Luke tells us, held the first Christians in high esteem and they were
well spoken of in the community.
Today when we talk about the characteristics of the first
Christian church, that is what we think of, isn’t it? Great crowds, admiring congregations, apostles with
tremendous miraculous power, and Christians being well respected in the
community. Sounds like a
Joel Osteen or Billy Graham crusade.
But that is not an accurate picture of the first century church. And I would go so far as to say that is
not an accurate representation of what God’s template for the church truly is. Now we know that to be a fact, because
the popularity and profusion of conversions and subsequent church members did
not last long. The diaspora began
soon after that beginning with the martyrdom of Steven in chapter 7, and in
chapter 8 vs.2 it says, “And on that day a great persecution arose against the
church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of
Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.”
The honeymoon period of the church was over.
Now after that point, the focus of Acts begins to look away
from the church at Jerusalem and starts to look at the developing church in
Gentile territories. And in those
territories we no longer see the mega church example that we see in Jerusalem,
but instead we see small house churches.
We see the gospel taken to individuals, to families, and small
gatherings of believers meeting in rooms and homes. We see the apostles and disciples encountering more and more
persecution from both Jews as well as pagan cultures.
Now I have to say that I saw that really for the first time
just this week as I was preparing for this message. It wasn’t that I did not know it, but I hadn’t really seen
it before in that way. A classic example of not seeing the
forest for the trees. And when I
saw this I was greatly encouraged.
Because to tell you the truth, both the world and the Christian culture
seem to equate success as bigger churches and more people. The question of how many members you
may have, and how big your organization is, and how fast you are growing, and
how many programs you are running, are the ways in which we quantify and
validate successful ministries.
And if you don’t fit that template then you are left to question the
validity of your church.
But what I found when I began to look at this is with the
exception of the brief honey moon period when the church at Jerusalem was
started, there is not another example of a mega church in the New
Testament. And furthermore, there
is no record of apostle worship in the Bible either, at least on the level of
the admiration and followings of the great “Christian” leaders of today. When you compare the 60,000 people
filling up a football stadium to hear Joel Osteen with the ministry of the
Apostle Paul then you will see a major discrepancy. When Paul was last in a huge stadium in Ephesus the crowds
were calling for his head. They
were not lining up to shake his hand and ask him to sign a copy of his latest
book.
Now I point this out because I think that what the Holy
Spirit is illustrating one last time as He winds up the book of Acts is the
template of the church. From a
human perspective, this is not the way it’s supposed to look at this point. After all, Paul is the greatest apostle
of all of Christ’s apostles. If
anyone should have been a mega church pastor it should have been Paul. If anyone should have had a 60,000
member church and dozens of satellite churches streaming live his messages
every Sunday it should have been Paul.
Furthermore, from the human perspective, if Paul was really God’s man
then he wouldn’t have been in chains.
He wouldn’t have ended his life in relative obscurity. He would have been elevated to the
position of the Cardinal of Europe or something like that with his own disciples
serving churches under his supervision.
I mean, if Peter supposed to be the Pope, then Paul should have been the
Cardinal.
But instead we see a different model acted out in these last
chapters of Acts. We see the
apostle beleaguered by constant harassment, chased from town to town, ridiculed
by the elite in not only the intellectual world but the religious world. We see him stoned, beaten,
imprisoned. We don’t see him
lauded by the media, hosted on the Today Show, appearing on the television talk
shows, but instead having to sneak
out of town by being let down from a wall in a basket to escape certain
death. We see him being stoned and
left for dead. We see him in
prison almost more than we see him out of prison. And yet in spite of appearances to the contrary, I would
suggest that Paul is the embodiment of the church. In 1Cor.12:28, Paul said that God after God raised Jesus
from the dead and He ascended on high, He gave first of all to the church
apostles. And in Eph. 2:20 Paul says
that the church has been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets,
Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone. And then again in Eph. 4:11 it says, “And He gave some as
apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and
teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building
up of the body of Christ.”
The point I think then is this; that as we look at the
events in this last couple of chapters in Acts we see that Paul is the
church. He was the foundation of
the church. He was traveling with
Luke and Aristarchus. And you will
remember that Jesus said where two or three are gathered together there I am in
the midst. The church is not
characterized by buildings or organizations, but by people. And that starts with Christ as the
cornerstone, the apostles word as the foundation, and then preachers and
teachers building up the body or the church brick by brick, person by person.
I recently had a woman call me who had attended our church
during the summer and she is writing a book about churches on the Eastern
Shore. She was originally
intrigued by the church buildings and started to think about the stories behind
them. But when she discovered our
church on the beach one Sunday almost by accident, she felt that there was
something here that needed to be investigated. And so as Susie and I spent a couple of hours with her, we
were able to share how God doesn’t dwell in temples made with hands. But how God’s church is comprised of
His people, not characterized by architecture.
Well, how was the church template laid out in Acts? Well, as
we look at Paul’s ministry we do not see the thousands upon thousands saved
like we saw in the honeymoon period in Jerusalem. Instead we see individual conversions such as the jailer and
his family being saved who was in charge of the prison he was incarcerated
in. We see him casting out demons
from people who were accosting him as he preached. We see him meeting with small groups of people by the riverside,
or in the market places or in homes or upper rooms, with some or a few people
being converted. We see Paul
having to work with his hands to raise his own money to support his
ministry. Paul’s life is one of
hardship, persecution, small gatherings of Christians, trials, incarcerations,
preaching, and lots and lots of rejections of his gospel. And yet Paul said “be imitators of me.”
(1Cor. 11:1)
Now that may sound uninspiring to some people. But personally I find it
encouraging. Because there are
times when I find myself comparing our ministry with what the Christian culture
and the world tells me are the marks of a successful church, and feeling like
we keep coming up short. Just the
other night I was speaking with someone and they asked what I do, and as I
tried to tell them about our church I found myself feeling almost embarrassed
because we do not have many of the trappings of what society calls a successful
church. And their response didn’t
help either. Because they proceeded to tell me about the church that they went
to, which happens to be a church of several hundred people and is very popular
in the community. And this man
said they went to this church because they had a large children’s ministry .
Then to add injury to insult, they told me a story about how their pastor and
his wife drove up to the middle of Pennsylvania to attend his mother in law’s
funeral and how that sealed the deal for them in regards to church
membership.
Well, I can’t compete with that. We don’t have a children’s ministry. And I dislike going to hospitals or funerals
and to tell you the truth would never even consider driving three hours one way
to attend a funeral of a person I didn’t know (even if my car would make it)
just so I could seal the deal for someone’s church membership. Besides we don’t even have church
membership. So I guess I will never pastor a mega church.
But thankfully, according to the template given to us in
Acts, that is not necessarily God’s plan for us anyhow. Paul was the greatest apostle in the
New Testament and as we have seen in our recent studies he has been in chains
for the last 2 ½ years, under house arrest, never even formerly charged with a
crime. But in that time God used
Paul to preach to very small audiences, although at times made up of kings and
governors and rulers of the Jews.
However, those messages were not received, but rejected. For the most part, it would look like
from our perspective that those were very unproductive years for Paul. But we are looking at things as they appear outwardly. We don’t know, and perhaps neither did
Paul, all the lives that were
affected by his messages. What we
do know is that God’s ways are not our ways, nor are His thoughts like our
thoughts. And what often seems
like a tragedy to us in a triumph in Christ. Even our Messiah only had a few disciples and He suffered
and was crucified before He was exalted in resurrection.
Now the passage illustrates this template of God’s church in
a series of small vignettes of Paul’s ministry here in this final passage. And we will look briefly at each of
them for additional clues as to the nature of God’s plan for the church as it
continues on until the return of Christ.
First we see that Paul has endured the storm only to be shipwrecked on
the island of Malta. This was a
small island, in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, only 12 miles by 20 miles
wide. It was a Roman colony, but
more than likely populated by a simple, rather superstitious native
people.
And it’s interesting to me that God used the storm to bring
this great apostle to this tiny island and leave him there for 3 months. Certainly, you would think that God
would have used him for greater purposes than that. In fact, there isn’t even a mention that anyone on that island
became a Christian. But I cannot
help but think that Paul would have laid the seeds for a church there on this
island among these simple people.
By the way, the word barbarous is the literal word used there in vs.2
and 4 translated as natives in the NASB.
Barbarians was a word that was used by the Greeks to denote anyone who
did not speak Greek. Paul himself
uses the word in Romans 1:14 when he says “I am under obligation both to Greeks
and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish.” It simply means non Greek speaking.
But I think that it can be surmised that Paul did in fact
preach the gospel there by the fact that the Holy Spirit enabled him to first
of all be healed of a snake bite.
That got the attention of the population. And it also is a fulfillment of the prophecy of Jesus in
Mark 16:17-18 "These signs will accompany those who have believed: in My
name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues; they will
pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them;
they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover."
Now a lot of charismatics have misinterpreted these verses
to say this promise includes all believers. But if you look at the context of that passage, Jesus is
speaking to the 11 disciples, who would become His apostles. They had not
believed Him when He had foretold His resurrection, nor even when the women
came to them and reported it. And
so Jesus rebukes them and then He commissions them as His apostles saying these
are the signs that will accompany His apostles. Those signs of an apostle are born out as well in 2Cor.
12:12 “The signs of a true apostle were performed among you with all
perseverance, by signs and wonders and miracles.” These were the attesting signs of an apostle, not devises by
which we today can attest to our spirituality or serve our personal needs.
And Paul would have used such miraculous powers to proclaim
the gospel. That was the whole
point of miracles, to confirm the word preached. Paul never used miraculous powers for his own benefit, but
only to authenticate the gospel that he was commissioned to preach. So though the text does not say Paul
preached, you can be sure he did, attesting to the authenticity of his message
with signs and wonders and miracles.
So that as the word spread on the island, all who were sick came to him
to healed. And though the
scripture does not tell us of conversions, tradition does say that a thriving
church was started there.
Now this is an example of the mercy and compassion of God,
in that He sent His apostle to this remote island especially so that these few
natives might hear the gospel. And
it would seem from the kindness and the response of the natives that they did
respond to the gospel. This small
island far from the rest of the world was not forgotten by the Lord, but
singled out for a divine appointment by one of Christ’s greatest prophets. Here
is the principle; God often uses great men to perform humble tasks in dark
places to small audiences.
I’m reminded of the story of Eric Liddel, told in the movie
Chariots of Fire, which told how this Olympic athlete became famous for his
stand for his faith by not running on Sunday even though that was when his 100
meter race was scheduled to be held. But after some deliberation, he was
switched to the 400 meter race later in the week, and consequently won the gold
medal in a race he had not prepared for.
That made for exciting storylines.
But the real story is that afterwards, Eric Liddel accepted a call to be
a missionary in China, to a people who never really appreciated his sacrifice
or his athleticism.
If modern Christians would have scripted the story, Eric Liddel
would have moved onto the Christian conference circuit, heralded as a great
example of a successful Christian athlete, and receiving large offerings and
speaking to great crowds. He would
have written a book about successful Christian athleticism and how you can use
it to influence the world. But God
had different plans. He sent Eric Liddel
to the darkest continent on the planet, to a people that would never appreciate
his Olympic gold medals, and Eric Liddel lived out the rest of his days there
teaching the word of God. He died
in China in 1945 after being incarcerated for the last two years in a prison
camp. God’s ways are not our ways.
The next few verses of our text detail the voyage of Paul
and the others as they sailed to Rome.
And one point of interest is that they met some brethren, that is fellow
Christians in Puteoli and they were allowed to stay there 7 days. Notice the providence of God in
this. Here are believers in a town
where there is no record of having received the gospel, and yet there are
already a few Christians there.
Again, this is such an out of the way place that Paul would have
probably never visited these people under normal circumstances. But God knew that this small band of
believers were in this city, and He arranges it so that they will come there,
and not only be there for the day, but for seven days. Furthermore, the text says that Paul
was allowed to go to them. He
stayed with them. This is an
extraordinary indication of God’s providence seeing that Paul is a prisoner,
and yet the centurion so trusts Paul and is in fact indebted to him so that he
gladly allows Paul to stay with his friends. Such an example of how God is concerned about small
audiences. This little group of
believers are visited by the great apostle and given the benefit of his
preaching for 7 days. What a boost
that must have been to that little church there, and what an encouragement as
well it must have been for Paul to see that the gospel seeds that he had
planted elsewhere had blown even to this remote spot.
I was looking at the colors of the trees on our lane
yesterday and noticed a young cedar sapling growing in the woods at the end of
the lane. And I realized how far
it was from the two cedar trees that border our house lot. I don’t know how a seed from those
trees made it all the way down to the end of the road, perhaps a bird dropped
it there and it found root and grew.
But I couldn’t help but think of how Jesus relates the preaching of the
gospel to a farmer casting seeds, and some fall on good soil, and some do not
get rooted deep and do not produce.
But our job is to cast the seed, and let divine winds blow it where God has
prepared the soil to receive it.
I think of all the people that come in and out of our
church, many times for just a few days or maybe a week at a time. And yet during that time we are able to
minister to them and they to us in a special way. Some people we will never see again perhaps this side of
heaven. But God uses our church to
minister to traveling visitors, and infrequent guests, who hopefully go away
refreshed and with a new sense of purpose back to their home communities and
perhaps even bringing new life to their churches.
Then note in vs15, it would appear that two different groups
of Christians came out to meet Paul as he came near to Rome. You know, Paul was a great apostle, but
we must not forget that he was human as well. He became tired, hungry, fatigued, worried and even
fearful. Some pious people like to
say that being fearful or worried is sinful. But I disagree.
I think it just means you are human. There is nothing wrong with being afraid. Courage is not the lack of fear, but
the willingness to go on in spite of your fears. Paul had been on a long hard journey. And now he is finally near his
destination. He has no idea what is
going to happen when he arrives.
Only that the Holy Spirit has told him he will stand before Caesar. Where Nero was concerned that usually
had a way of not turning out too well for most people. And so I’m sure that Paul was
concerned, even a bit fearful as he approached this capital of the world, to be
judged by the highest official of the Roman Empire.
Now we can be assured he was fearful, because it says when
Paul saw the brethren who came outside the city to meet him that he thanked God
and took courage. I cannot tell
you the numbers of times that some visitors to our church have given me an
opportunity to thank God and be encouraged just at a time when I needed it
most.
And the reason that Paul is so encouraged was that these
people were the fruit of the gospel to the Romans that he had written years earlier. People that he had never met, but that had read his letter
and received it as the gospel of Jesus Christ. No wonder Paul thanked God and was encouraged. That is another characteristic of the
template of the church, encouragement.
Even as we are reminded in Hebrews 10:24 “and let us consider how to
stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling
together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the
more as you see the day drawing near.”
I remember a
few weeks ago really struggling with preparing my message, and when I delivered
it I kind of felt deflated, feeling like I wasn’t sure if it had really
accomplished anything for the kingdom.
And a couple of days later I got an email from a woman telling me how
much the message had meant to her, and how it had spoken to a particular need
she had. I’m not even sure who
this lady is. For some reason, I
cannot remember what she looked like or anything about her. But I was encouraged by her note. And I think that every Christian who is
serving the Lord has that hope, that something you said to someone about the
Lord, or someone you reached out to in Christian kindness, was genuinely moved
by your words or your actions. You
may not see the fruit of that work in this lifetime, but there will come a day
when what you whispered in secret will be shouted from the rooftops. And what was done for Christ will last
for eternity and be rewarded in heaven.
Well, Paul finally gets to Rome, he is given his own rented
quarters to live in with just a personal guard. That is an exceptional privilege for a prisoner. He is allowed unrestricted access to
friends and visitors. But
nevertheless he is still a prisoner.
And this is really incredible; Paul calls upon the very group of people
that are responsible for his incarceration in the first place to come and visit
him. It’s almost like he is
inviting trouble. The Jews in Rome
have not heard about Paul, or of any charges against him. You would think that Paul would have
tried to avoid these guys, much less invite them to his house.
But this illustrates another important principle: our
spiritual adversaries are not our enemies, but they are our mission field. So Paul invites them to hear the
gospel. He explains the gospel
from the OT scriptures for 8 to 12 hours and presents them with evidence that
Jesus Christ is the Messiah and that He had to die and be resurrected to
fulfill God’s plan of salvation.
Luke tells us that some of the Jews were being persuaded by
Paul and some weren’t. And that resulted in them having a sharp disagreement and
leaving. The idea that some were
being persuaded does not necessarily mean that they were saved. I think there was a disagreement,
similar to the times when Paul preached to the Jews before and the Pharisees
and the Sadducees ended up arguing amongst themselves. The point is though that they left
without being saved, as Paul’s parting remarks make plain.
Paul quotes from Isaiah 6:9, saying, ‘GO TO THIS PEOPLE AND
SAY, “YOU WILL KEEP ON HEARING, BUT WILL NOT UNDERSTAND; AND YOU WILL KEEP ON
SEEING, BUT WILL NOT PERCEIVE; FOR THE HEART OF THIS PEOPLE HAS BECOME DULL, AND
WITH THEIR EARS THEY SCARCELY HEAR, AND THEY HAVE CLOSED THEIR EYES; OTHERWISE
THEY MIGHT SEE WITH THEIR EYES,
AND HEAR WITH THEIR EARS, AND UNDERSTAND WITH THEIR HEART
AND RETURN, AND I WOULD HEAL THEM.”’
I don’t quite understand the compassion of God, but He
continues to call His prophets to preach to a people who will not understand,
to a people who have hardened their hearts and closed their eyes. But yet that is the commission of the
church. Only God can open hearts
and open the eyes of the blind.
Our job is to preach the gospel, whether or not they will accept it or
not.
I will say this, my experience is confirmed by the scriptures in saying that the majority of people will not understand. The majority of people will not be saved. But a few will turn and believe. When I consider the number of people that we have presented the gospel to that were almost persuaded, but eventually went on their way I can easily become discouraged. However, we must not allow small numbers or the lack of results to discourage us as we fulfill the commission of Jesus Christ. The gospel has never been popular, contrary to what we sometimes are told. Christians have always been in the minority. But I can say this with absolute conviction. The kingdoms of the earth rise and fall into obscurity, but the kingdom of God endures forever. Caesar and the Roman Empire have faded away. Ancient Judaism and the temple are no more. But the gospel has endured, and flourished and is still saving souls 2000 years later.
Well the book of Acts concludes without coming to a
conclusion. Because the story of
the church is not finished. Paul
continued for two years there teaching and preaching out of his home to all who
would come to him. And that I think is the final part of the church’s template;
the consistent preaching and teaching of the word of God in Paul’s house. He
would have never had a great crowd.
It was a rented home after all and would not have held more than a
couple of dozen people at a time. But
the church continued. And when
Paul eventually met his death, someone else picked up the baton and continued
to run the race. That baton has
been passed down through the centuries from church to church, from generation
to generation. Today we still meet
in our homes, and today small groups of Christians meet all around the world,
sharing the truth of the gospel to all who will come.
I believe the true church of God is still following that
template, doing the same thing
that Paul did, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching the Lord Jesus Christ
with all openness. The preaching
of the word is the hallmark of the church, it’s our purpose, and nothing can
stop us except the Lord’s return.
Let us be found as faithful as Paul was, in whatever circumstances we
find ourselves, to be about the purpose of the kingdom of God, never ceasing to
preach Jesus Christ.
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