"He proclaimed the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ – with all boldness and without hindrance!"
Acts 28:31
It was Sunday. 30th January 2022. I stood here and said, ‘my plan is to focus on the book of Acts for a while…’ Not all of you were at Riverside then. Perhaps some who were, had a question – ‘how long is a while?’. Now you know! It’s 2½ years! That’ll cause me problems. Until now I’ve got away with it. But no more. There are always jobs that need doing around our house. Every so often my wife asks me, ‘when are you going to do such and such?’ Now she’ll know what I really mean, when I say, ‘in a while’!
But Acts isn’t really defined by the time I’ve taken. It’s more defined by the time that the account covers. That’s about thirty years. And it began with the word ‘began’. That word is in the first sentence of Acts 1.
Acts was written by Luke - who also wrote Luke’s gospel. He wrote that first. And he refers to it at the start of Acts. Luke says, ‘In my former book… I wrote about all that Jesus beganto do and to teach until the day he was taken up to heaven…’
So, Luke’s gospel was about ‘all that Jesus began to do’ on earth. But then he left for heaven. ‘Began to do’ - it implies that his work on earth is not finished. But Jesus is no longer here. How on earth, can his work on earth continue? Well, that’s what Acts has shown us. Jesus has continued to Act - throughout Acts. By sending his Spirit to give his people the power to Act on his behalf. Acts is the record of the ongoing Acts of Christ – through his Spirit supplied church. So, how’ve they done?
Well, Acts 1 described the original believers as ‘a group numbering about a hundred and twenty.’ In Acts 1, the whole worldwide church of Christ would’ve fit into this building. Can you imagine?! Yet imagine trying that with the worldwide church just thirty years later in Acts 28! The scouts would not be happy!
Yet, on the face of it, all those people had was words – a message about a man who’d died. Set that against what the empire of Rome had. They were the Manchester City of empires! Rome had the best fighting men and the best equipment. They were top of the human league. Rome controlled life for a huge slice of humanity – they’d taken over nations and empires and everyone. Rome was unstoppable. Until they were stopped.
Because, 2000 years on, where is that empire? Only in history books. Despite huge power at the time - its time was limited. Like all human governments and structures and groups and bodies of people – its time had a set time. And an end date.
Yet how different to that heavenly group – that body of people which the risen Jesus began – the Church of Christ? How different with those 120 initial believers. Yes, all they had was words. But they were God’s words.
In the Old Testament, a man called Isaiah spoke God’s words. 700 years before God sent his Son to our world of need, to rescue the needy, God told Isaiah what to say about the coming of Christ. And Isaiah said, ‘For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders… Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and for ever’ (Isaiah 9 6-7).
I bet Isaiah sat at his desk, iPad in hand, thinking ‘Wow! This is awesome! How’s it gunna happen?’ And so, God told him - ‘The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.’
The governing authority of Christ. And his peace. That’s his rule in his people’s lives. And the peace he brings them in a world of trouble. To that, ‘there will be no end’! 2000 years later and Rome has long fallen flat. But the message those 120 believers had? That still stands.
And look what’s been achieved in those first thirty years. The message about Jesus has spread far and wide. Just as Jesus said. In Acts 1 8, Jesus said this to his followers - ‘youwill receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.’
And now, in Acts 28, a follower of Jesus called Paul, is awaiting an audience with the most powerful man on Planet Earth. Paul’s gunna tell Caesar Nero about Christ. The message about Jesus is now knocking on the door of Rome’s Imperial Palace. It’s reached world centre. And gone everywhere else on the way. In just 30 years. What an encouragement to us – the people of Jesus in Horbury Bridge. Someone may say, ‘But we don’t even have 120 yet. And the world’s changed. People have done away with God. Who’s gunna listen now?’ The truth? Not many. But then that was nearly always the case. Acts has shown this. And Acts 28 confirms it one last time.
While Paul’s waiting in Rome, he does what he always did. He invites the religious Israelites – the Jews – first. To hear about Christ. Always, the same thing happened. As a group, they rejected the message about Jesus. Just like when Jesus began his mission - when Jesus himself spoke - so, it was when others continued to speak about him. It was the opposite of what should’ve happened.
Let’s imagine. Let’s say I’m feeling peckish. I knock on a random stranger’s door. They answer. I say, ‘I’m hungry – feed me.’ We’d not be surprised if they slammed the door. Shouting, ‘get off my property or I’ll call the cops!’ Because they aren’t expecting me. Because they don’t know me from Adam. But let’s say I do it differently. I knock on my Mum’s door. I say, ‘I’m hungry – feed me.’ How would she respond? I think she’d invite me in. She’d sit me at the table. She’d bring me food. Because she knows me. She recognises me. She isn’t surprised that I’ve turned up. If she behaved in any other way, I’d be surprised!
When Jesus arrived to begin his mission, the Jews should’ve recognised him. But they didn’t. They should’ve been expecting him. But they weren’t. They should’ve welcomed him with open arms. But they didn’t. They should’ve received him. But they slammed the door in his face. As John 1 says – ‘He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.’
The reason they should’ve been expecting Jesus? God had given his word that Jesus was gunna show up. And these Israelites were the people group that he’d given his word to. Throughout their Old Testament Scriptures was the promise of Christ’s coming. And it wasn’t as if they weren’t opening God’s word. Jesus acknowledged it. He said to some Jewish unbelievers, ‘You study the Scriptures diligently’. Yes, they did. But Jesus continued with this. ‘You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life’ (John 5 39-40).
‘These… Scriptures… testify about me.’ Jesus was the main point of those writings. And this people group completely missed the point. And when they refused to receive God’s Christ – they turned down new life in him!
How could this happen? Well, I think it’s a bit like this. We’ve recently had the Euros football tournament. England played a quarter-final match against Switzerland. It’s become famous for one moment. The match was drawn – undecided - at the final whistle. So, it was decided by penalties. It went from being a team sport to being like an individual sport. One player in turn took one shot against one goalkeeper from 12 yards out. All pretty standard stuff, until one individual, called Ivan Toney stepped up.
He had a very unusual style. He took his penalty without looking at the ball. He just stared at the goalkeeper. And swung his leg. And scored. High risk but high reward. Since then, he’s gone viral. One of his team-mates thought it’d be funny to video him doing all sorts of other stuff without looking. He shoots a basketball and scores. He throws some darts and gets all bullseyes. All without looking. And then he reads a book.
Ivan is sitting on a sofa with a book, gradually turning over the pages. But he’s not looking at the pages. He’s looking elsewhere. So it was, with these religious Israelites. They had God’s book. They regularly turned the pages. But they hadn’t a clue about what it really meant. Because they’d already decided - that they were already right. And so, they stayed wrong.
Not only was this the reaction to Jesus, when he was here on earth. This was so often the reaction when believers witnessed to Jesus after Jesus returned to heaven. Paul met this reaction time and again. From the most religious people. People who’d you’d most expect to listen – didn’t.
Paul tried. He tried in the best way possible. Acts 28, verse 23, says, ‘he tried to persuade them about Jesus.’ How? Using those scriptures that were theirs. From ‘morning till evening’ he explained what it all meant. These Israelites should’ve seen. Should’ve known. When presented with Jesus, they should’ve known him from Adam – from Adam, right through Moses and the prophets. But, as a group, they didn’t.
And so, Paul condemns them as a people group. He quotes from Isaiah’s prophecy in verses 26 and 27. This was God’s command to Isaiah – ‘Go to this people and say…’ This people. 700 years before, they hadn’t been listening to what God was saying about the coming of his Saving Son. Thirty years before Acts 28, when Christ spoke, as a group they weren’t listening. Throughout Acts, as a group, they weren’t listening. They looked like Ivan Toney. Looking anywhere but at the pages. And their religious sofa was far too comfortable to move from. And so, they never moved towards Christ.
So, what was the point? Why did Paul bother? Doing this. Repeatedly. The point for Paul is the point for us too. It’s verse 24.
As a whole, their response was one of rejection. But ‘some’ were different. Some individualswere different. Verse 24 says, ‘Some were convinced by what he said’ about Jesus. ‘Others would not believe.’ But, praise be, some did.
Just think how those new converts arrived that morning? They arrived as part of that old group. Verse 22 tells us that those Jews in Rome didn’t know a right a lot about Christianity. But they knew this. ‘We know that people everywhere are talking against this sect.’ That’s the state of mind they’d arrived with. These ‘some’ all walked in that morning with that mindset. The only thing they knew about Christianity was that people criticised it. But they left that evening knowing Christ. And that’s why Paul did it.
En masse we’ll often find people in that position. The only thing they’ll know about Bible-believing Christians is that a lot of bad stuff is said about them. And when we tell them about our Christ, many will not change their view. But some will. And that’s why we’ll do it.
It won’t be easy and there’ll be a whole lot set against us. Some of us really struggle with confrontation. Really do. We really want to talk about Jesus. But we’re really scared to. What should we do? Head back to Acts 4.
In Acts 4, the newly began church of Christ was experiencing opposition. And so, they prayed - ‘Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the nameof your holy servant Jesus.’ What were they asking? ‘Jesus, please Act – so that we can.’
Should we pray that prayer? Well Acts 4 says this - ‘After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.’ Do we really, really want that same blessing? Then let’s pray that same prayer. To the same God. In the name of the same precious Saviour, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Verse 28 reminds us that the message about Jesus has reached the Gentiles – ‘Gentiles’ – that just means those who weren’t Jews. Everyone else! Cos Jesus is for all people everywhere. And this is confirmed by Paul’s behaviour in the last two verses of Acts 28. He’s waiting. For two whole years Paul’s life appears in limbo. But Paul’s life for Christ is not stood still. He ‘welcomed all who came.’ Why? Cos he was following Christ. Who did, and does, the same. Jesus welcomes all who come to him. And Paul ‘proclaimed… Christ… with all boldness and without hindrance.’ The end! That’s weird!
What about his audience with Caesar? Did he get to tell Nero about Christ? Well, that depends. On whether you’re convinced. Are you convinced that God’s word is true? If so, you can be certain. Acts 27, had Paul’s life shaken to the core by life’s stormy sea. Then God’s angel shook Paul to renewed hope with a promise – ‘Do not be afraid, Paul. You muststand trial before Caesar.’ So, he must’ve have done.
But Luke doesn’t tell us. Why ever not? A huge chunk of this Acts account has been given over to the record of Paul’s mission for Christ. Surely the high point would’ve been that meeting with Caesar – the ruler of the known world? But no. The most important meeting of Paul’s life was in Acts 9. Not in Rome. But on the road to Damascus. When he met the King of kings and Lord of lords. The Jesus he hated. Became the Jesus he loved. The Jesus he’d refused. Became the Jesus he embraced - the Jesus who embraced him. The Jesus who acted to save him. The Jesus who acted so Paul could serve him. The Jesus who never left his side through thick and thin. The Jesus who is the same yesterday and today and forever. If only we receive him.
John 1 tells us, ‘He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God – children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.’
And then John says this about Christ. He ‘became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
The glory of Christ – living and active - is on every page of this Acts past account of church life. And it’s on every page of its present and future.
And that’s why Acts ends incomplete. It ends with Paul still waiting. But still serving and still being served by Christ. Acts is the account of what Jesus continued to do on earth - through his Spirit working through his people. And that isn’t finished yet. Acts 28 isn’t the final chapter of those Acts. It’s just the end of the first chapter - of the history of what Christ did… through Christ’s people.
Here at Riverside, we are part of that ongoing account. Jesus is still acting. And our work for him goes on. Until when? Well Acts 1 told us. When Jesus left for heaven, two men dressed in white appeared to his disciples. They told them to stop staring and to start acting. And then they said more. Because not only is Jesus determined to carry on his work on earth through his people now. Jesus is also determined to return. At the date determined by his Father. Those men in white said this – ‘This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.’
So we go on. Until we die and go to be with the Lord forever. Or until he comes back to take us there forever. Whichever comes soonest. People of Christ - a date is set. When Christ will wrap-up what he began. And then we’ll praise his saving acts… forever.
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