Acts Chapter 28 Verses 11 – 15

• Syracuse is the ancient capital city of the island of Sicily and it was where the brilliant mathematician Archimedes lived. When the Romans conquered the island, a solider put a dagger to his throat as he worked on a math problem, drawing in the dirt. Archimedes said, “Stop, you’re disturbing up my equation!” and the solider killed him. (I mention that only to entertain David and Matt Morgan) 
• Paul caught boldness. Caught courage.  Caught confidence!  Why?  Because around the people of God this goes around!  Ever call into work well!?  Yea, I’m definitely coming in today!! I caught a major COURAGE COLD!  HA!  That’s literally how I feel on Thursday mornings!  Monday through Wednesday typically kick my hind quarters but then Wednesday night worship, Bible study, fellowship…the next day, man I’m calling in WELL!!
• Are you catching confidence around the people of God? Growing more and more thankful?  You can be…humble yourself…allow yourself to be led by the Spirit of God…and then the people of God in your life become like this…you take courage…you catch it…it’s going around…

Acts Chapter 28 Verse 16

• And so Paul finally makes it to Rome. And when he gets there, Julius somehow makes it so, sets him up, so that he doesn’t enter into the regular jail but is set apart on his own with the soldier who guarded him.  What a stroke of luck for that soldier, eh?  All of the criminals getting off of that ship and he is assigned to the one who will share with him eternal life.  Set him free from hopelessness.  Encourage him and build him up.  Educate him about the God that because of sin, because of this fallen world, he is out of touch with…why?  Because Paul was so great?  Not at all, I want you to see this…it was because Jesus is so great and so perfectly faithful!
• Paul, being stoned and left for dead in Ephesus…but the Lord said to him…promised..., “You’re going to make it to Rome.” Paul, the leading Jews plotting and pledging to murder him…attacking him with violence and urgency in the temple, Paul being filled with terror…but the Lord said to him…promised…, “You’re going to make it to Rome.”  Paul, in front of Felix, Festus, Agrippa…all with the power of death with just a word over him…none of them receiving his testimony…Paul so very discouraged as he pleaded with Agrippa specifically…, “He’s going to kill me…,”  But Jesus had promised him, “You’re going to make it to Rome.”
• The storm beat on the ship so harshly and for so long that the remembrance of normality and the recollection of safety was ripped from the heart of the sailors…Paul aboard that doomed ship…, but the Lord had promised, “Paul, you’re going to make it…” And now this soldier…receives Paul, lights off, spirit no chance until this chance meeting…and now he knows of Jesus.  He understands in words and concepts what he knew to be true before but couldn’t articulate in his heart of hearts…that he has sinned and is somehow not worthy and lacking…but Jesus has fought for him, won, and paid for his sin…he is now free to go.  Free to go right up to the Father of lights, the Almighty and meet Him for the first time…free to eternal life.  Why?  Not because of Paul, but because of the Lord…
• You have been given sure and strong promises too…and God will see you through. Psalm 121.  Trust in the Lord.  All of the greatness that may and can happen to you…behind it all, He is there.  Simply loving you.  He’s always been there.  He’s always been for you.  He’s always known you.  His desire is for you.  I am so thankful that one day 13 years ago, I was this soldier…and met a Paul. 
• Why? Jesus is like none other.  No one is completely for me in my life.  No one.  No one was ever completely for me when I was a child…and I grew up with a broken heart…and really today, even revealed to me freshly just recently, in ways it remains broken…but in His hands, I find something not found on this earth…Someone completely for me.  Someone who loves me perfectly.  Someone whose promises to me, to the people I love, to this world…will never be broken.  Why, because God is entirely faithful.

Acts Chapter 28 Verse 17

• It’s an interesting point to make. That Christianity doesn’t go against the customs of Judaism.  From the feasts to the commandments to the dietary restrictions and even the Sabbath.  Jesus didn’t come to nullify all of it or any of it.  What He did was fulfill it.  Why?  Because it all pointed to Him.  The feasts all speak of the Messiah, the dietary restrictions speak of the sanctification of the people of God, Jesus being the ultimate and final sanctification…the commandments speak of the perfect requirements placed upon man…again, a pointer to the Savior…and even the Sabbath…Jesus Himself is the Sabbath, the rest…for and of and from within man.  (Matthew 12:8)
• Look at Hebrews Chapter 10 verses 1 – 3. And now to verse 10.  It’s fantastic that Jesus is the perfect culmination, the summation the entirety of the law and the prophets and salvation…not done away with in Jesus and the New Covenant…it’s all satisfied, fulfilled…completed.  Jesus said in Matthew 5:17, “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets.  I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.”  When you study the Old Testament scriptures through the lens and filter of Jesus Christ, there is not left but clarity and understanding!  And so Paul now begins his explanation to the leading Jews in Rome, showing them how in Jesus, all things are revealed.  The puzzle comes completely together!

Acts Chapter 28 Verses 18 – 21

• Now that is crazy! It’s been years!  Years since the Jews there in Jerusalem tried to kill him.  Then he appeals to Caesar and off he goes and since then no one sent an email!?  Why?  Because there was nothing to accuse Paul of…he was an innocent man that challenged the position of those in power and for that they wanted him dead!  They knew their case was hopeless so they made no effort to reach out to the Jews there in Rome.  They’re whole case was hate.  What’s black and brown and looks good on haters?  Two Dobermans!  HA!!!  Just kidding (sorta!)!

Acts Chapter 28 Verse 22

• Good on them! They’ve heard all kinds of issues, that what Paul was about was spoken against everywhere…not some places…everywhere…but notice, they want to hear directly from Paul.  So very important!  To allow one to answer for himself before making some sort of solid or final judgment!  And this “spoken against,” it is in the Greek, or could also be, “contradicted.”  I pray that my life and actions, my attitude…doesn’t contradict and cause confusion…super important to me and yet I have observed how many Christians seemingly pay no attention…boggles my mind!

Acts Chapter 28 Verse 23

• Just a side note here…while in Rome, Paul would write what we know of today as the “Prison Epistles.” Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon.  In Philippians 1:12-14, Paul talks about how his chains had actually turned out to further the Gospel.  Don’t forget that although your situation today may not be favorable, God is still at work!  He still has a plan…and many many many came to Paul in his house arrest and many are now still with him to this day because of it! 
• And check this out…isn’t that just terrible! Luke, you are KILLING ME!  Did you not take notes?  We have a 28 chapter scroll that you wrote…but you couldn’t record this single day!?  I think it would be fantastic to have this sermon.  And I know what you’re thinking…we do…just read your Bible…thanks.  It sure would be nice to have the easy button…but nooooo, thanks Luke!

Acts Chapter 28 Verses 24 – 26a

• Did you hear that!? I feel like Elf after he drinks the entire two-liter!  “The Holy Spirit spoke rightly through Isaiah…” and now Paul will quote directly from Isaiah 6…this is a wonderful statement which testifies to the divine authorship of the Bible!

Acts Chapter 28 Verses 26 – 29

• Essentially this message is if you reject Jesus, you will hear but not understand…you will see but never grasp what is being seen… I was in a business meeting the week before last and a senior leader made the statement, “If we get the point of reference, the origin, the baseline wrong…then the strategy, the plan will be ineffective.  We will end up doing a bunch of unnatural things downstream when we realize we are off course and those things will be costly and risky.”  We need to surrender our heart of hearts to Jesus Christ.  That is the beginning of wisdom and the beginning of truly understanding scriptures yes but the strategy and plan of life as well!  You know all this truth and you see all this power and yet continue to find yourself doing unnatural things in your life to just make it…why?  You haven’t yet done the most important thing perhaps…  Give it all over to Jesus…

Acts Chapter 28 Verses 30 – 31

• It’s interesting, the two-year delay has been attributed to congestion in the legal system…sound familiar? When Paul did go in front of Nero, Nero essentially let him go…didn’t kill him…there was no crime…but in the trial of Paul, Nero heard the Gospel and history tells us that it was about that time that Nero lost his mind.  Faced with the gospel, the truth of God, he rejected it…heard but didn’t receive, he saw but didn’t perceive…and he lost his mind…(and his empire). 
• He had a unique connection with the Gospel. You see, Nero was adopted.  His great uncle Claudius had taken him in as his own and Nero had become his heir…which has a clear connection to the Gospel and no doubt Paul presented that.  Nero however was ambitious, compulsive and self-reliant.  After his meeting with Paul, Nero was turned down by the senate for funding to build a new palace, and history tells us Nero set fire to his own house which ended up burning parts of Rome.  In a twisted political play, he blamed the Christians for the blaze and had them ritually killed including Paul.  He lost his mind…and ended up being the first emperor to kill himself.
• Why? How?  Life eternal, power and purpose eternal had been presented to him?  What if he had of received?  Ears would have caught it all…eyes would have been opened…his heart would have perhaps filled with understanding and he would have been healed…
• And so the Book of Acts closes…the first 30 years of the church…from Jesus empowering to Jesus proving…as Luke would write in Acts Chapter 1 (verse 3) that Jesus is alive and even today infallible proofs continue…