Welcome to this podcast from Harvest Community Church of Huntersville, North Carolina, where our vision is to make disciples who make disciples. I'm your host, Liz Stefanini. So in 1967, a song was written in France, Comme des Abitudes, which would be translated as usual. Paul Anka heard the song while he was on vacation on the, in the South of France. And so he flew to Paris, he liked it immediately and he wanted to purchase the rights to it. So he, for $1, he got the rights to adapt it and create other versions of it. Although the composers, the original composers, retained royalty rights for the French version and any other version that, you know, got created out of it. Well, Anka came home and he was having a dinner with Frank Sinatra. Frank Sinatra was fed up at that point with the music industry. And he said, look, I'm done. That's it. I'm out. I'm quitting. I'm sick of it. Probably used a few other choice words that I'll not repeat here. And Paul Anka took that song, that French song, and he adapted it. He changed the melody slightly, and he adapted the lyrics, and he wrote it, and people tried to get him to sing it, but he said, no, Frank Sinatra needs to sing this song. And the song that he sang, he became pretty famous for. I did it my way. Of course, that song charted in the US, in Canada, in the UK, and it kind of became his signature song. Interesting later, his daughter said that, And he really grew to dislike the song. And even though that was his signature song and everybody thinks of him and all that, uh, he said, or she said he always thought that song was self serve serving and indulgent. Today, I bring that up to ask, as we're coming to the end of our series today in the book of Acts, we're gonna finish Acts. We've been in it since March, and today we finish Acts chapter 28. I wonder if Paul would have sung that song. I wonder if that would have been the song that Paul would have sung had it been written in Greek or Hebrew. Couple thousand years earlier. Well, we'll see as we walk through it Those famous lyrics now the end is near and so I'll face the final curtain My friend I'll make it clear. I'll state my case of which I'm certain I've lived a life that's full I've traveled each and every highway and more much more than this. I Did it My way, that's what frank sinatra said. Let's see. What paul would have said as we walk through this now the leading characters in acts The book divides up into really two Halves the first 12 chapters, um up through chapter 12, uh peter was uh the leading character and he dealt sharing the gospel, bringing the gospel primarily to Jewish people. And then, although in Acts 9, it records the conversion of Paul, beginning in Acts 13, when the church sends Paul and others off on mission, Paul becomes the central character and the lead character in the last half of the book of Acts. The way, there's one verse that really kind of summarizes all of Acts and what Acts is all about. In fact, it really summarizes what the church of Jesus Christ is about. It's Acts 1.8. You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria To the ends of the earth. This was Jesus himself speaking the disciples at that in Acts chapter 1 Jesus has already died and been buried and he rose again and there's a 40-day period before he goes back to heaven, and he gathers his disciples together, and they ask him, Lord, are you gonna restore the kingdom now to Israel? And he's like, well, God, that's not for you to know or to worry about, but here's what's gonna happen. And he lays this out, and actually, the book, the way Luke, the author of Acts, lays out the book of Acts, it really is kind of summarized in that verse right there, Jerusalem, Ministry in Jerusalem, that's what we get in Acts 1 through 7. And then Judea and Samaria, that's chapter 8. And then to the ends of the earth is from chapter 9 to 28. And let me put the map up. I know some of you are really going to be sad there will be no more maps after today. Some of you, I can see you're already shaking a little bit, but I wanted to give you one more opportunity to see this map of that part of the world. Jerusalem, there it is. See how the concentric circles go, get wider and wider and wider. Jerusalem is where it started, chapters one to seven. And then chapter eight, the gospel expanded out to Judea and Samaria, and then all of that other territory at least prepared the way for the ends of the earth. That was what they knew to be the ends of the earth. Not every single place in the ends of the earth was covered in the book of Acts. But when we come to Acts 28, we're getting close. And in fact, You can see there, this map shows since the Book of Acts how from the Middle East, the gospel has just spread to all nations all over the world. Well, let me set the context here for our specific passage today as we wrap up the Book of Acts. Paul has arrived in Rome. He's been on a ship for six months, going through a lot of experiences. And after he gets there, He was under house arrest for two years in Rome, but God still used him to share the message of the gospel with people. That's what is happening here at the end of Acts. Let's start in verse 16 that tells us about this house arrest. We're gonna walk through this passage and then I'm gonna draw out some things that are helpful for us hopefully today in our lives. When we got to Rome, Paul was allowed to live by himself with a soldier to guard him. Now most likely this soldier was chained to Paul's wrist and every four hours Their shift would change. So every four hours a new guy would be chained to the apostle paul I'm, not sure I would have wanted that job if I was a soldier I mean listen to this fanatic christian missionary right for four hours because that's what he did In fact, we know from philippians that the message got spread throughout the whole praetorian guard why he was in chains. Well, that's what house arrest was. There was a soldier attached to him, but he wasn't in a prison. He was in his own quarters and he had some freedom. So three days later, he called together the local Jewish leaders. Paul's customary pattern was to go to the Jewish people first and they would reject. And then he would go to the Gentiles. Now we know in ancient Rome, there were 13 synagogues. There may not have been 13 in place at the time of the New Testament. We're not sure exactly how many there were then, but however many there were, these various Jewish leaders came and they wanted to hear what Paul had to say. He had an open door with them. When they had assembled, the verse continues, Paul said to them, my brothers, although I've done nothing against our people or against the customs of our ancestors, I was arrested in Jerusalem and handed over to the Romans. They examined me and wanted to release me because I was not guilty of any crime deserving death. The Jews objected, so I was compelled to make an appeal to Caesar. I certainly did not intend to bring any charge against my own people. For this reason, I have asked to see you and talk with you. It is because of the hope of Israel that I'm bound with this chain." In other words, here's Paul's defense. In spite of what they may have heard, Paul wants them to know, I'm not in prison because I've been disloyal to us and us being the Jewish people. Paul was Jewish and he's got the Jewish leaders gathered around. He wants them to know, hey, I'm not in prison because I've been disloyal. In fact, I've been loyal to the hope that we have, the hope of a Messiah. That's how he defends himself to them. And verse 21, they replied, we have not received any letters from Judea concerning you. And none of our people who have come from there has reported or said anything bad about you. I don't know if I believe that or not. Everything in the Bible is true, but sometimes the Bible reports things that people said that may not have been true. That's what they said to Paul. They said, we haven't heard anything bad about you. We haven't received any letters from you. And that's, it's possible. It's possible that the letters had been delayed in transit. It's possible that they had not really heard. We aren't sure. We know this is what they said to him. This is what they said to Paul. And we know the Jewish people opposed Paul every place he went. But they're like, okay, Paul, it's a clean slate. We want to hear from you. So verse 22, they say that. We want to hear what your views are. For we know that people everywhere are talking against this sect. They arranged to meet Paul on a certain day and came in even larger numbers to the place where he was staying. He witnessed to them from morning till evening, explaining about the kingdom of God. And from the law of Moses and from the prophets, he tried to persuade them about Jesus. I mean, this is Paul right here. This is what Paul did. This is what Paul does. He speaks about Jesus. He talks about the kingdom of God. He wants people to be saved. He wants his own people to be saved. And he shares and he explains about the kingdom of God. He explains about Jesus. And just like he experienced in many, many places, there were varying reactions. Verse 24, some were convinced by what he said, but others would not believe. And that happened everywhere. They disagreed among themselves. and began to leave after Paul had made this final statement. The Holy Spirit spoke the truth to your ancestors when he said through Isaiah the prophet, go to this people and say, you will be ever hearing but never understanding. You will be ever seeing but never perceiving. for this people's heart has become calloused. They hardly hear with their ears and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn and I would heal them. Therefore I want you to know that God's salvation has been sent to the Gentiles and they will listen. Now this was a quotation from Isaiah chapter 6 verses 9 and 10 and these are fairly famous words in the New Testament. Jesus quoted this in Matthew 13. John used these words in John chapter 12. Paul used these words with the Roman church in Romans chapter 11. This is an explanation. These words from the prophet Isaiah Explain why the Jewish people of that day were so hard in their hearts while they would not accept the gospel of Jesus and consequently God turned to the Gentiles. God turned Paul to the Gentiles, I should say. And that became Paul's primary focus. He was the apostle to the Gentiles. That really has been the primary focus of the church, even though God is still reaching both Jewish and Gentile people. And then the last couple of verses of the book of Acts, Look at verse 30, for two years, two whole years, Paul stayed there in his own rented house and welcomed all who came to see him. He proclaimed the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hesitation. And that's it. That's the way the book of Acts ends. It's really somewhat abrupt. Scholars have speculated, why does it end so abruptly? Why don't we get the end of Paul's life? Why don't we find out all of that? We don't know. Acts 1.8 was put into motion and this is what's happening and that's where Luke leaves it. We don't believe this was the end of Paul's life. Tradition tells us that he got out of the Roman imprisonment, spent more years traveling. He certainly told the Romans Romans that he wanted to come to Rome so that he could expand his base and go even westward into Spain. So we do believe Paul still had ministry after this and in fact we believe he was rearrested and then he wrote more letters, the pastoral epistles, in his final imprisonment. But this is where the book of Acts ends. Look what these verses say about him. He proclaimed the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance. How many of you know that we need to be bold to tell people about Jesus, right? I mean, and how many of you will admit, how many, all of us will admit sometimes it's hard to be bold. We have all kinds of reasons we say in our mind that we shouldn't do it. Well, Paul spoke with boldness. You know, the 12 disciples had boldness earlier, and Paul invited the Ephesian church, for instance, in Ephesians 6, to pray that God would make him bold in his speech. Boldness in witnessing is incredibly important, and it doesn't come from you and I saying, oh, I'm just gonna be bold this time. It comes from being filled with the Holy Spirit. That's what happens. That's how the early believers were bold. They were filled with the Holy Spirit. Paul was filled with the Holy Spirit, and so he proclaims it with boldness, and he also proclaims it without hindrance. Now that's an irony. Think about it. You've got a soldier hooked onto you all the time. and you're under house arrest, you can't really go out freely and have these evangelistic meetings like he had had in other places. How could he say, I proclaim it without hindrance? Well, although the soldiers bound his hands, his mouth was free to speak about Christ. And that's what he did. For two years, he kept speaking about Christ. In fact, he would write to Timothy in the very last letter that he writes, 2 Timothy 2, verse 9 and 10. Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David? This is my gospel for which I am suffering even to the point of being chained like a criminal. But God's word is not chained. So Paul was a prisoner, but the gospel was not a prisoner. The gospel was still going forth and no doubt people were saved. In fact, we know the name of one of those people that was saved. In fact, there's a book in the New Testament written to him. His name is Philemon. It is none other than Paul or as none other than Paul, an old man and now a prisoner of Jesus Christ, that I appeal to you for my son, Onesimus. I'm sorry, he wrote to Philemon about Onesimus. Onesimus was the one who got saved. He became my son while I was in chains. Formerly, he was useless to you, but now he has become useful both to you and to me. Well, that's the book of Acts. What a way for it to end, an interesting way for it to end. He's in jail, he's in prison, he's in house arrest, and yet he's sharing boldly. Now, none of us are the Apostle Paul, and I hope you don't get chained for the next two years. But as I wrap it up, I want to draw some comparisons. to then and now, because there are some things that we today, if you are a follower of Jesus Christ, there are some things that you and I have in common with Paul. So three things Christians have in common with Paul. First of all, we have the same clear message. Our message to our world is the same exact message that Paul gave to his world. It's the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ. Back in verse 23, when they arranged this meeting with Paul and they came to where he was staying, what did he do to them? He witnessed to them from morning till evening, explaining about the kingdom of God. and from the law of Moses and from the prophets, he tried to persuade them about Jesus. That was Paul's message. Two big things, the kingdom of God and Jesus. And really, he was just following Jesus in what he did because in Acts chapter one, Verse three, speaking of Jesus, after his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of 40 days and spoke about the, read it out loud with me, kingdom of God. And then there was Philip in Acts chapter eight, verse 12. Philip was taken away from a very effective evangelistic ministry to talk to one guy, a eunuch. But he preached in this city in Samaria when they believe Philip as he proclaimed the good news of the, say it out loud, kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ. They were baptized, both men and women. Jesus talked about the kingdom. Philip comes and talks about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus. We saw it earlier in Paul in Acts 17 in the synagogue. We saw him in Acts chapter 19 doing it. And this is our message too. What does it mean to talk about the kingdom of God? Here's what it means. God is the ruler of the universe. God is the absolute ruler. He is the king and he is setting something in motion that is called his kingdom. In his kingdom, he's going to rule. And life is gonna be perfect. There's gonna be no sin, no sickness, no death, no hatred, no divorce, no murder, no prejudice. It's just gonna be this unbelievable place. And yet to get there, we aren't there yet. And God said, essentially, all right, to establish my kingdom, I am going to do it through a person. And that person is my son, Jesus. And he sent Jesus. And that's why John the Baptist, the forerunner of Jesus would say, repent. Why? Because the kingdom of God is near. It's almost here. And Jesus came and taught about the kingdom. And he gave teaching about the kingdom and parables about the kingdom. Even told his disciples to pray, Lord, your kingdom come. But here's what happened. The kingdom of God broke in. in the person of Jesus. It wasn't fully realized because there is going to be a day when all the evil forces are put down. We have a lot of evil forces still alive and working today. Satan is alive and working in so many different ways. But Jesus came and defeated Satan at the cross. He paid for our sins. And now we are preaching this message about the kingdom. And God is just, here's how God's building his kingdom right now. It's through individuals and people coming to faith in Jesus and they're being transferred personally or as a group out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. And that happens and happens and happens and happens through this age. And whenever God decides that enough is enough, boom. That's when he returns and he sets up his kingdom and then there is no more evil. This is what Paul talked about. And you know what? This is the same message we have for people. You know, the people in your life, your neighbors, family members, coworkers, whoever, and they think it's just all about religion or they don't even give much time a day to it. And we have a great message for them. God is alive and God is in charge. And one day we're going to fully experience that. Don't you want to be a part of that? This is the message. We have the same clear message. Secondly, we have the same command from God to witness about God's kingdom and Jesus. Verse 31 said, Paul proclaimed the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ without boldness and without hindrance. And where did he get that commission from? Where was the command? Well, Jesus left a command for all of his followers. The last earthly command he gave. in Matthew was all authority. See the kingdom, he's got all authority, he's the king. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me, therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you and surely I am with you. to the very end of the age. Christians, if we call ourselves followers of Jesus or disciples of Jesus, I think a great question for us to ask is, am I following Jesus In spreading the kingdom and spreading the news. Am I witnessing to people by my life and by, by actions and by my words, by my time and by my money? Am I, am I invested in building up God's kingdom or is life mainly about me and my comfort and my issues? I love this about Paul. Paul doesn't feel sorry for himself. Paul doesn't complain. Paul is focused like a laser on the kingdom, and he had a command, and we have that same command. The good news is, because if you're like most Christians, many, many of us, at many times we feel inadequate. We feel like we failed. We feel like we don't have what it takes. We haven't always taken advantage of the opportunities that God's given or and then and then Satan gets in and just starts messing with your mind and and making you feel bad about yourself and defeating you. But here here is the good. Look at that verse on the screen. Not only we have the same command, we have the same presence of God with us. He is with us. Surely I am with you always. So when you walk out these doors today and you live your life for God this week, and if there's any question about, do you have what's in you? Then I'd say, don't look at what's in you and by nature, look at what's in you by God. And that's the person of Jesus through the person of the Holy Spirit. He is with us and he is with you. So we have the same clear message. We have the same command to witness. And finally, we have the same confidence in the providence of God. Paul had a desire to preach at Rome. He wanted to get there. We've followed this along in Acts for a long time. He wanted to get there. I don't know that he knew or expected that he would get there as a prisoner. I don't know that he knew what would happen, but his very getting to Rome was sovereign. Think about all of the trials and the plots against his life. People tried to murder him. Think about him being on the ship and the shipwreck. And think about the soldiers on that ship who were gonna kill all the prisoners when they shipwrecked. And the centurion stopped it from happening. Or not the soldiers, but the ship guys. Think about being on the island of Malta and the poisonous snake latches. It's just, it's God's sovereignty. You can't make this stuff up. God's sovereignly, he was providentially bringing Paul to Rome. In fact, Ajith Fernando says it well, to one who lives under sovereignty, success is obedience to God. That is, even though Paul was bound to a chain in Rome, he was a success. Let's think about some of the ways that God used these difficult experiences that Paul underwent. First of all, some of the most beloved and rich portions of our New Testament that we have were written almost certainly while he was at Rome. Almost certainly while Paul was at Rome for two years in jail, not only was he preaching and teaching and being bold, but he wrote what we call the prison epistles. some of our favorite sections of the Bible, Philippians, Colossians, Ephesians, and Philemon. They came out of this period and God was working in Paul and teaching Paul that he was sufficient, that he was enough. And think about some of the great things that come in these passages, the atmosphere, in the letters, in the prison letters, it's just an atmosphere of peace and joy and contentment. Think about Philippians two, that great description of Jesus. And then he says, God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee would bow of things in heaven and things on the earth and things under the earth. Or think about in Colossians 1, when he talks about the supremacy of Christ, he's the head of the church. He talks about reconciliation, he talks about all of these things. He's the head of the body of the church, the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. These are some of the things that came out of this situation. John Stott writes, was it not through his very confinement that his eyes were opened to see the victory of Christ? and the fullness of life, power, and freedom which is given to those who belong to Christ, Paul's perspective was adjusted, his horizon extended, his vision clarified, and his witness enriched by his prison experience. And then there were the people that Paul got to witness to. We saw that for two years, people came, people came. I told you about Philemon. We know the letter of Philemon was written about Onesimus. But who else was saved along the way? Who else heard the gospel along the way? We know that Paul witnessed before governors and kings and seemingly before Caesar himself. And with these soldiers being attached to him, he wrote to the Philippians. The Philippians were probably concerned about Paul, right? You're in jail, oh no. He's like, hey, I want you to know that what happened to me really served to advance the gospel. And he's like, they're like, what? He said, well, there are two ways. First of all, it's become known all through the guard that I'm in chains for Christ. And secondly, the brothers and sisters out there, they've become more bold. by hearing about it. God is sovereign and this is what we see. We have the same confidence today in the providence of God. So when God builds his church, he uses people who dedicate themselves to advance his kingdom and the message of Jesus Christ. And as we close this morning, I wanna give you three potential ways to respond. There may be other ways to respond. If you're from the word of God, you're sensing God to lead you to respond, I encourage you to do that. But let me make some suggestions. First of all, we ask God to keep building his church through us. That's what we call this series, when God builds his church. We watch how God built his church. Harvest, do you believe that God wants to keep building his church through us? I believe it. I don't think he wants us just to attract people from other churches. We're thankful when people move from wherever. That happens a lot. They'll move from some other city, some other state. They'll come in and they'll have been a part of a similar church. We're thankful for that. But I believe there are a ton of people, in fact, probably more than half of the people in Charlotte, maybe 60% of the people in Charlotte are not in church this morning. And I believe we don't know how many people truly know the Lord around, but there's all kinds of needs right here. And of course, there's all kinds of needs all over the world. And we're trying to be a church that's reaching our community and our region and the whole world. Will you ask God to do that? Second, I want you to copy Paul. I wanna encourage you to copy Paul and be consumed with spreading God's kingdom and the message of Jesus. What's your purpose in life? Some people have no purpose, it seems. They're just drifting through life. Some people have the wrong purpose. They're trying to get ahead. Earning, saving, investing, that's their purpose or sensual pleasure. Some people might have a good purpose. Oh yeah, let's help others out. That's a good purpose. But what is God's purpose? God's purpose is for every follower of Jesus to be used to help advance the kingdom of God and spread the message of Jesus Christ by your life. I'm convinced that's God's purpose for all of us. And that's what Paul did. I read the story once of the Lee Steamboat Company. They were carrying a load of salt pork from New Orleans to Memphis. And on the way, another boat passed them and the captain didn't like the fact that the smaller boat was passing them and going to get to Memphis sooner. So he had this, quote, brilliant idea. And that is it's being a steamboat, right? Let's take some of the salt pork that we're carrying and let's throw it in the furnace. So they did it. They put the salt pork in the furnace and the black smoke billows. And all of a sudden they start going faster and they start catching up with the little boat. So the captain says, put more in and they put more in and they catch the boat and they pass the boat and they keep fueling the furnace with the salt pork that they're carrying to Memphis. And when they get there, Guess what? The people are coming to get their pork and it's all gone. They got there first, but they didn't deliver on what their purpose was. And let's, as a people, make sure that in our lives that we're not there, we're not just racing through life and missing out and allocating our resources improperly like that steamboat did. Well, one more thing I want to do or encourage you to do as we close today is to praise God. To praise God and worship him. He is still sovereign and powerful. He is still sovereign and he is still powerful. Now, Frank Sinatra sang, I did it my way. But I think Paul might've sung something like this. Now don't worry, I'm not gonna sing it. Or should I? Let's take a vote. How many want me to actually sing it? Sorry, it's not a democracy. But he might have sung this. I planned my charted course, each careful step along the byway, but on the road to Damascus, God did it his way. I've lived a life that's full. To share the gospel, I traveled every highway, I faced riots, prisons, shipwrecks, and snakes, and God did it His way. For what is a man, what has he got? If only himself, then he has not. I preached the truth that God truly wills and became someone who often kneels The record shows they gave me blows, but God did it his way. Praise God that he is still powerful. He is still sovereign. No matter what we face, and we do face hard times, and some of you are facing incredibly hard times. I want to remind you today. from God's word that he is still sovereign, he is still powerful, he is still for you. When God builds his church, he uses people who dedicate themselves to advance his kingdom and the message of Jesus Christ. Let's bow our heads together, please. Thanks again for joining us today from Harvest Community Church. This podcast is also available on our website HarvestCharlotte.com. Please go there if you want to send a question or comment, learn more about our ministries, or find out how you can donate to support the podcast.