if you would take your Bibles and open them up to the book of Acts. Acts 22 will be our chapter for the morning. Acts chapter 22, and our text proper will begin in verse 22 and will take us through verse 29. However, I am going to read Acts 22, verses 17 to 29, just to put a little context for us this morning. Acts chapter 22, Verses 17 through 29, when you arrive there because this is the word of the living God and you are the people of God on the Lord's day, if you are able, would you please stand to hear from the God who still speaks to us in his word? What a privilege it is for us to gather together and hear him speak. Acts 22, again, I will begin reading in verse 17. Our text proper, however, will begin in verse 22. Luke, as he was carried along by God's Spirit, recorded the words of the Apostle Paul, beginning in verse 17. When I had returned to Jerusalem, and was praying in the temple, I fell into a trance and saw him saying to me, make haste and get out of Jerusalem quickly because they will not accept your testimony about me. And I said, Lord, they themselves know that in one synagogue after another, I imprisoned and beat those who believed in you. And when the blood of Stephen, your witness, was being shed, I myself was standing by and approving and watching over the garments of those who killed him. And he said to me, go, for I will send you far away to the Gentiles." Up to this word, they listened to him. Then they raised their voices and said, away with such a fellow from the earth, for he should not be allowed to live. And as they were shouting and throwing off their cloaks and flinging dust into the air, the tribune ordered him to be brought into the barracks, saying that he should be examined by flogging to find out why they were shouting against him like this. But when they had stretched him out for the whips, Paul said to the centurion who was standing by, is it lawful for you to flog a man who is a Roman citizen and uncondemned? When the centurion heard this, he went to the tribune and said to him, what are you about to do? For this man is a Roman citizen. So the tribune came and said to him, tell me, are you a Roman citizen? And he said, yes. The tribune answered, I bought this citizenship for a large sum. Paul said, but I am a citizen by birth. So those who were about to examine him withdrew from him immediately. And the tribune also was afraid, for he realized that Paul was a Roman citizen and that he had him bound. The grass withers, the flowers fade, but the word of our God will stand forever. You may be seated. The message of Christ is often met with resistance and rejection. The word of the cross, as the apostle Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 1, verse 18, is folly. to those who are perishing. When we are met with rejection in sharing Christ with others, how should we respond? Should we tuck our tails and shrink back from persevering in our gospel sharing? Should we be surprised that our faithfulness to share the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ did not produce a positive response in the hearts and the minds of others? Should we wonder whether the promises of God have failed? After all, has not God promised, so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth. It shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it. In Isaiah 55 verse 11. Might rejection of Christ itself be a part of God's mysterious and sovereign plan for His glory and the good of His people? The Apostle Paul knew the joy of seeing positive responses to the gospel that he proclaimed. He saw many come to repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. But he also knew the sorrow of seeing many reject Christ. In fact, he knew the sorrow of being the object of ridicule and opposition. Opposition and ridicule that was aimed ultimately at Jesus, but came to Paul, the messenger, as a demonstration. In Acts chapter 22, verses 22 to 29, Paul experiences the rejection of his Jewish brothers. He experiences the rejection of the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem. However, Paul's experience of rejection And his enduring Christian faithfulness to persevere provides an example for us in how the sovereign Lord over heaven and earth uses even rejection to provide additional gospel opportunities. And we're gonna see this unfold in our text this morning. We'll also see it unfold throughout the remainder of our exposition in the book of Acts. If you're taking notes, we're going to unpack this text together by making four observations. Four observations this morning. First, we will identify what I'm calling the rejection of the Jews. The rejection of the Jews. And here we're focused on verses 22 and 23. The rejection of the Jews. Second, we will see the response of the Romans. Two groups of people in the text. First, the rejection of the Jews. Then, in verse 24, the response of the Romans. And if you are taking notes, by the way, this second point will probably be very brief. Probably. Third, in addition to the rejection of the Jews and the response of the Romans, we will find the rites, the rites of the Apostle Paul. Paul shares a citizenship that brings with it certain rights. And we'll unpack that together in verses 25 to 29. This is really where Luke does focus as an avenue for additional gospel opportunities. And then finally, after the rejection of the Jews, the response of the Romans, and the rights of the Apostle Paul, we will conclude with a couple, or perhaps a few, reflections. reflections for us as imitators of Paul and ultimately imitators of Christ. So we'll wrap up our time with a few reflections together. Young worshipers, so our younger theologians in the room, I have a couple of items I want you to pay close attention to as we're making our way through the text. Parents, grandparents, if you do choose to have your younger worshipers with us in this room, we're grateful to God to have them here. You can use these questions as fodder for conversation throughout the sermon. Feel free to do that. So younger worshipers, look for the following two things. First, why did the Jews reject Paul's message? Why did the Jews reject Paul's message? There is something in particular that Paul says, and I'll give you a hint, he says it back in Acts 22 verse 21. That really causes this rejection among the Jewish people gathered together to hear him, this really, this angry mob. listening to him throughout chapter 22. What causes this rejection? And you'll look back there at verse 21, but we'll make note of that together as we begin here in just a moment. Why did the Jews reject Paul's message? Second, Paul was a citizen of blank. You're going to fill in the blank. We've got to fill in the blank this morning, everybody. How about that? Paul was a citizen of blank. Now, Paul has already emphasized, I am a Jew. But in our text, he will emphasize, I am also a fill in the blank. Don't say it out loud and pay close attention to the text as we're making our way through it. And you can jot that down, younger worshipers, or be ready to answer that maybe to your parents or your grandparents or your guardian after the service. All right. Well, let's begin broadly with the rejection of the Jews. We're looking down at the text together at verse 22. I'll read that again. Verse 22, up to this word, they listened to him. Then they raised their voices. So now they're yelling. And they said, away with such a fellow from the earth. for he should not be allowed to live. Now, Luke tells us that this crowd listened to Paul up to this word. What word is he referring to? And I've mentioned it a moment ago. This is the word that Paul spoke just a verse before this, Acts 22, verse 21. You might recall that Paul was in a trance in Jerusalem. He was recalling this trance as he's speaking to the Jewish crowd. And he says, in this trance, in this vision, the Lord Jesus appeared to me, and here's what Jesus told me. In verse 21, go, for I will send you far away to the Gentiles. That's what did it. Up until this point, the Jewish crowd was glad to listen to the apostle Paul. I say glad, they were listening to the apostle Paul. But as soon as Paul indicated that Jesus had uniquely commissioned him to take the message of the gospel to the non-Jewish world, the Gentiles, the nations, the Jewish crowd was unwilling to listen. Now, Paul preached that although the Jews enjoyed unique privileges, and you can log this away maybe for later study, Romans 9, verses 4 and 5, those couple of verses, the Apostle Paul mentioned some of the unique privileges enjoyed by the Jewish people. So they enjoyed unique privileges. However, in Christ, the Jew who believed and the Gentile who believed were one. And so now Gentiles, those who were non-Jews, Those who trusted in Jesus Christ as Gentiles, Galatians 3.28, shared in the blessings of being God's people. They actually now became co-heirs. They received the promise of the inheritance just as the Jewish people had, and especially those Jews who had trusted in Jesus Christ. The gospel challenges the superiority of any one particular people group. And for that reason, at times, it's offensive. It's offensive for a whole host of reasons, but it's offensive to those who are a part of a culture that presents itself as an elite culture, an elite people group, an elite tribe, an elite nation, so on and so forth. And so the gospel message challenges superiority in any people group or culture or language or nation. It is a message for all peoples. This is why in the early church, we won't chase this one far, but just to mention it, the early church often would refer to the church as a kind of additional culture even, additional nation, using that language of 1 Peter 2, a different people comprised of people from every nation, tribe, tongue, and so forth. Now notice verse 23, the crowd became so angry, this Jewish crowd, so angry that they were shouting and throwing off their cloaks. and they're flinging dust in the air. Now, when I study through a passage, one of the things I do is I keep my pen in hand as I'm studying early in the week, and I jot down any question that surfaces in my mind, okay? I learned this, by the way, from someone under whom I was privileged to study at the masters. John MacArthur was the president out there, and this is how he studied. And so I write down any questions that come to my mind. Even if I think I know the answer to the question, I jot it down, write it down as a question, revisit it later in my study. Well, this is one of the questions. Why in the world are they throwing off their cloaks and flinging dust into the air? And I think there are a number of possibilities, but one of the central possibilities is this. In order to stone someone, you take off your cloak. We saw this back in Acts chapter 7, the very end of the chapter. And it's really interesting because in Acts 7, the end of the chapter, verse 58 or so, the cloaks have been taken off and placed at the feet of Saul, the one we know is the Apostle Paul. Now it's very clear the persecutor of the church has become the persecuted. Now, as it were, that same group of people years later, years later, decades later, that group of people now taking off their cloaks, not to place them at Saul's feet, but in order to stone Paul himself. And flinging dust into the air, perhaps, you know, some commentators even mentioned, maybe they had no stones close by. They're grabbing whatever they can to throw it. Maybe. But this is a fit, and they're ready to take Paul's life. They're ready to take his life. Now, these were the people, don't miss this, these were the people alongside of whom Paul had trained for many years in Jerusalem. He's already mentioned this in his defense. He spent years being educated in Jerusalem, in particular under Gamaliel. One of the leading Pharisees of the day, Gamaliel would be quoted at length even to the present day among Jewish rabbis and in the Mishnah. So he studied under Gamaliel, he studied in Jerusalem for years. This was the culture Paul had grown to love. The people that angrily and violently responded to this message concerning Jesus were the people for whom Paul would readily give up his life. In fact, he tells us, he tells us in Romans 9 verse 3, he would be a curse for them. If it meant their salvation, he'd give his own soul. Friends, when people we love deeply reject the gospel, it can be disheartening, can't it? That was the experience of Paul in this moment. It can be disheartening. I can remember coming to know Jesus Christ and being so excited to share this message with others. And I don't know if you had asked me, do you think everybody's going to respond positively to what I would have said? I don't think I would have said yes. However, this Jesus was infinitely desirable. And the Spirit of God had regenerated me. And the result of that regeneration was I loved him. And I wanted to honor the Lord Jesus. And so there was a sense in which I could not even understand anymore why everybody doesn't love him. And so I thought to myself, look, I gotta go tell everybody. And so I started to share the message. And I remember it wasn't long before I realized, wow, everybody is not as excited as I am about this message. They're not as excited as I am. In fact, in fact, it meant the loss of some friendships. It did. Invariably, it meant the loss of friendships. It will cost you, friends. It will cost me. If we love the Lord Jesus Christ, It will cost us. It will at times be Jesus or fill in the blank. Some of you who are younger, perhaps in high school, perhaps in middle school, perhaps in college, young adults, get this straight. Serving the Lord Jesus Christ will cost you. And it will cost you what you love at times. This is why it must be that your love and affection for Christ be greater than other loves. This is also why the Lord Jesus describes love for him as necessarily meaning hatred of everything else. Because in comparison, it must pale for your love for Christ. And so this is what the Apostle Paul is experiencing, what he was experiencing, is the rejection of the gospel by those he had grown to love. But what Paul knew, and I think what even I'm learning and what perhaps you're learning, is that the rejection of Christ in others is not, look, it's not the consequence of my failure, your failure, Paul's failure to convincingly preach Christ. The rejection of Christ in others is the consequence of the hardness of a heart in opposition to Christ, and it demands the supernatural work of the Spirit of God to change that. Paul knew that. He would write on it at length. We must know that this morning. It's never easy. It's never easy to see those we love reject Christ. It certainly wasn't easy for Paul, but we can endure and persevere in faithfulness knowing that it is in the Lord's sovereign and benevolent hands. God's plan, just kind of coming full circle under this first point of the rejection of the Jews, God's plan was always to reach people from every nation in Christ. That was his plan from the beginning. In fact, I wanna mention a text to you. We could really trace this to the Old Testament. We're not going to do that just for the sake of time. But one example of this is God's promise to Abram in Genesis chapter 17, verses four and five. Genesis 17, four and five. Listen to the words God spoke to Abram as he's changing his name to Abraham. Behold, my covenant is with you. and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. Verse five, no longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham. Why? For I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. So even there in the beginning as God was making this covenant in Genesis 12 and Genesis 15 and Genesis 17 with Abraham, And that covenant would extend from Abraham through Isaac, and from Isaac through Jacob, and so on and so forth. God was making it very clear that his intention was never limited to the salvation of the Jewish people, ever. It always included the salvation of people from all nations. This was a part of God's plan. And so in a sense, in a sense, and again we may come back to this in our reflections, but in a sense the rejection of the gospel by the Jews, even here in our text, becomes the avenue for extending the message of salvation to the Roman world. and to people from other nations, you see. Friends, some of you in here, some of you are Jewish, but most of you are not. Most of you are just like me, just Gentiles, non-Jews. Right? And you're here this morning, if you know the Lord Jesus Christ, don't miss this, you're here because of God's grace and extending the gospel beyond the parameters and boundaries of the Jewish people to people from other nations. That includes us this morning. You know the Lord Jesus Christ because of his goodness, because of his sovereignty, because of the fulfillment of his promises. and even through the avenue of the rejection of the gospel by the Jews, through which God would extend the gospel to the nations. Again, we may come full circle to that in just a bit on reflections. But there might be some of you here this morning that do not know the Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, I can perhaps speak more frankly than that. There are some of you here this morning who do not know the Lord Jesus. Salvation has not yet come to you. You've not yet surrendered your life to Christ. You don't yet love the Lord Jesus. You've not yet trusted in Jesus Christ. And I want to beseech you and exhort you this morning, don't leave here without coming to recognize God's goodness and extending this promise of eternal life through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ on your behalf, received through faith. Embrace that even this morning. And if you'd like to talk more about what it means to know Jesus, and to serve Jesus Christ, we would love to visit with you after the service. So stick around for a few moments. There is nothing more important after the service than this. Nothing at all. And you can even, if you want someone to talk with, you can go to that room I mentioned earlier called Crossroads. As you exit one of these double doors, take a left, and out there on the right-hand side, there will be some elders down there. I'll be out there somewhere. Perhaps you even came with a friend who can talk with you about the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us come alongside of you, and you alongside of us. as we learn to boast in God's goodness and extending the promise of eternal life and fellowship with Him to us, outside of the Jewish people even. Still to the Jewish people, but outside of the Jewish people through Jesus Christ. So we find the rejection of the Jews. Secondly, we find the response of the Romans. And I mentioned to you here, I'm going to be brief. The response of the Romans. In verse 24, as the crowd was rejecting Paul and his message, the tribune, some translations may read the commander, the leader, the ciliarch, this is the one who oversees the Roman guards, he ordered him to be brought into the barracks. That is, he's ordering Paul to be taken into the barracks. Notice, saying that he should be examined by flogging. to find out whether, or rather why, they were shouting against him like this. Now, it was common. It was common in the Roman culture, in the Roman Empire, to examine a potential rabble rouser, okay? He doesn't even know if Paul is guilty. It doesn't matter. It was common to examine this person by flogging him. We've come a long way, haven't we? This would have looked something like this. You take him into the barracks and there would have been a centurion or someone who would oversee the process and others who would participate and perhaps take turns so that one of them didn't get tired. And a whip would be used made of a leather strap. And at the end of the leather strap would have been fastened shards of metal or bones to lacerate the flesh. because Paul is an alleged rabble rouser. This was done to discover information. You didn't want to be falsely accused. This was done to discover information and potentially secure a confession. And so that's what's going to happen. By the way, this examination process would at times prove fatal. You wouldn't make it out of it. So that's the response of the Romans. Very brief, isn't it? But it's really clear. Okay, we don't know the answers. We don't know why they're responding this way. Let's take this guy and teach him a lesson and teach everyone else a lesson because everybody else knows what we're about to do. And let's see if we can discover, find out what indeed took place, all right? That's the response of the Romans. Third, in addition to the rejection of the Jews and the response of the Romans, now we find the rights of the apostle Paul. He's been quiet about this up until this point. Verse 25, when they had stretched him out for the whips, by the way, I think probably a better translation there is when they had stretched him out with leather straps. It's a discussion, if you wanna know more about that, you can ask later. But I think it's more likely stretched him out with leather straps, but nevertheless, it was for the whips, okay? For the whips, Paul said to the centurion who was standing by, now he finally mentioned something, hey, by the way, is it lawful to flog a man who is a Roman citizen and by the way, uncondemned? No trial. Up until this point, the Roman guards have had no idea that the apostle Paul is actually a Roman citizen. So younger worshipers, this was that second bit, that fill in the blank. Paul wasn't merely a Jew, Paul was a Roman. He was a Roman citizen. After Paul shares this with the centurion who was to oversee this examination, the flogging, the centurion takes the news to the commander. Now look with me at verses 26, 27, and 28. When the centurion heard this, he went to the tribute and said, what are you about to do? Something like, what are you thinking? For this man is a Roman citizen. So the tribune came and said, tell me, are you a Roman citizen? The tribune had no idea. Paul had not shared this yet. I don't know about you, but I might've mentioned it. The moment I got arrested, by the way, I'm a Roman citizen. Paul waits. After Paul has asked the question, tell me, are you a Roman citizen? He said, yes. The tribute answered, I bought this citizenship with a large sum. You could buy citizenship. You could bribe your way into it. Took a lot of money. Paul said, that's nice. I'm more Roman than you. I'm a citizen by birth. At some point in Paul's past, someone had obtained citizenship. And as a result, then subsequent generations would have been born into it. Roman citizenship was a coveted status, even as we see in the text. It came with certain rights, certain privileges that non-citizens did not receive. It proved especially helpful if you found yourself in trouble. For example, Roman citizens were not to be bound and flogged as others could be. Okay, you couldn't do that to a Roman citizen. Roman citizens were guaranteed a trial before punishment. And even if the Roman citizen were found guilty of an extreme crime, let's say, one that perhaps even demanded capital punishment, that capital punishment took a particular form, a more humane form. You couldn't, for example, crucify. a Roman citizen, which, by the way, as an aside, may be one of the reasons why later tradition tells us that Peter the Apostle was crucified for his faith. Paul was beheaded in Rome, not crucified. He was a Roman citizen. You cannot crucify a Roman citizen. And so this is, at this point, the Apostle Paul says, yes, indeed, I'm a citizen. And I want you to notice that the commander was terrified in verse 29. So the result of all of this is the fear of the commander, for he realized that Paul was a Roman citizen. Moreover, that he had already had him bound. So Paul could have even mentioned this before this point, and he wouldn't have been bound. The commander had already broken the law. Paul allowed him to do so. Now interestingly, Interestingly, he waited to share this citizenship. He could have shared it with the Roman commander earlier upon arrest or soon thereafter, but he didn't. Why? I think there are a couple of potential observations that could serve us, okay? The text doesn't explicitly tell us, but this is the way narratives are. Narratives lead us in a direction, lead us to conclusions through story. So a couple of observations that might help us understand why Paul waited to share his citizenship. First is this, Paul consistently did not publicize his citizenship to gain prestige or comfort. He mentioned it previously in Acts 16, but even in Acts 16, he mentioned it as he was being released from jail, not going into jail. He waited to share it in Acts 16 as well, as if to expose the injustice of what they've just experienced back in Acts 16. But he never shared it to gain prestige or to gain comfort. He knew full well that serving Jesus Christ would demand suffering. He didn't seek to escape suffering. In fact, he would tell us in Philippians 3, Actually, part of his goal was to share in the suffering of Christ. That's one observation. And then secondly, that might help us most importantly, perhaps here, Paul used everything at his disposal to proclaim Christ. Everything. Had he shared his Roman citizenship when he first got arrested, he might not have been able to speak to the Jewish crowd as a Jew. He seized upon his opportunity as a Jew to proclaim the glory of Christ. Now he seizes upon his citizenship as a Roman to proclaim Christ throughout the remainder of Acts. Everything in Paul's disposal he wanted to employ to proclaim Christ. Everything. Every relationship, every vocation, every hobby, every occupation, every moment. wielded and employed for the glory of Jesus Christ, to make him known. That's what he's doing. I confess to you, I might have been less inclined and might have been tempted to share it earlier. But I hope I would have had the grace, as the Apostle Paul did, to wait if necessary. to wait in faith, to wait in hope, and to wait for an opportunity to magnify Christ by means of suffering, not attempt to escape suffering through compromise. All right, that's basically the story of our text. What I want to do for the time we have remaining is I want to share a few reflections. It's a shorter text, one that I think we understand now together. What grows out of this for us? Let me share a few reflections as we begin our descent. If I'm a pilot on a plane, this is the beginning of a descent. This may take us a long time to descend, I don't know. But we'll start descending, all right? First, first reflection. Consider that God sovereignly used the rejection of the Jews to extend salvation to you this morning. We did this already, we won't spend long here, but I want to mention it again as a reflection. Consider that God sovereignly used the rejection of the Jewish people here in our text and even in the first century, to extend, graciously extend salvation to you this morning. Paul writes in Romans chapter 11, verses 11 and 12, that Israel's rejection was the means through which God would rescue the world. Now this isn't a sermon on Romans, but I wanna mention this to you. Romans 11, 11 and 12. Here's what Paul wrote. I ask, did they, that is the Jewish people, stumble in order that they might fall? By no means. Rather, listen to this, through their trespass, salvation has come to the Gentiles. The rejection of the Jewish people was the avenue God sovereignly chose to extend salvation to the Gentiles. Through their trespass, salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous And then Paul says this, now, if their trespass means riches for the world, and if their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean? In other words, the best is yet to come. As he hints in the text I just read, Israel's rejection is not the end of the story for them. I'd be remiss if I didn't at least say this. He goes on to develop this idea in Romans 11 that in the future Israel will be saved. Romans 11 verses 25 and the beginning of verse 26. Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers, that a partial hardening has come upon Israel. Until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. Verse 26 of Romans 11, and in this way, all Israel will be saved. And as Paul goes on to explain in verse 29, for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. In other words, God doesn't give his gifts and give his calling and then pull them back and retract them. So all of this is to say, consider God's goodness, God's sovereignty, God's mercy in using the rejection of the Jews to extend salvation to you through Christ, and additionally, consider in hope the day is coming when God will extend back that same mercy to the Jewish people. And thus all of Israel will be saved. Now there are wise and faithful theologians who disagree with me on that. That's fine. They can't be right all of the time. This is how I understand Romans 11. Okay, that's one reflection. Second reflection, consider with me what avenues God has given you to share Christ. What avenues God has given you to share Christ? In our text, Paul used both his Jewish heritage, his Jewish card, And then when that was rejected, he was glad to pull out his Roman card, all for the purpose of proclaiming the gospel. 1 Corinthians 9, verses 20 to 22 is instructive for us. This is, again, the Apostle Paul. 1 Corinthians 9 said these words. To the Jews, I became a Jew in order to win Jews. To those under the law, I became as one under the law, though not being myself under the law. Why? That I might win those under the law. To those outside the law, I became as one outside the law, not being outside the law of God, but under the law of Christ. Why? That I might win those outside the law. To the weak, I became weak. that I might win the week, and then he says, this is outstanding, I have become all things to all people that by all means I might save some. By all means. What is Paul saying? I will use anything at my disposal as an avenue to reach people with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Anything and everything. So God has given you, God has given me positions, relationships, other opportunities through which to share Christ. Friends, you do not have to go looking for these. You already have them. Seize them. Employ them for this purpose. Parents, You have an avenue every day to proclaim Christ to your children. Do it. Husbands, wives, you have avenues every day to proclaim Christ to one another. Do it. Friends, through those friendships, proclaim Christ. Employees, employers, if you enjoy a hobby, If you golf, if you play a sport like volleyball, you're in school playing volleyball or playing football, whatever it is, employ it in service to Christ to proclaim Christ, that by any means, you might serve as an instrument to save some, as Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 9. So, what prevents us? What prevents us? We could say a number of things here. I'm gonna mention a couple of things that I think serve as hurdles or common pitfalls preventing us from doing what the Apostle Paul demonstrates in our text and actually explicitly exhorts in 1 Corinthians 9. What prevents us? First, busyness. We're so busy. We don't have time to stop and think about the opportunity that is right before our eyes. Busyness prevents us from seizing opportunities to serve Christ and to proclaim Christ. We so fill our schedules to the point at which there is no room to pause and have a meaningful conversation with someone. I do it, I do it, okay? I walk into the grocery store, and I believe I'm at the grocery store to buy food, and I am. Now, by the way, if I'm at the grocery store to buy food, there may be some things wrong in my family. Because Tana knows if I go to the grocery store to buy food, I'm there for a long time, and I come back with very little to show for it. But I go to the grocery store, and I go to the grocery store to buy food, and indeed I do, but I fail to realize I'm not there merely for the task. That it may be the case that I have an opportunity to show the love of Christ, but guess what that takes? That takes a posture that is willing to be interrupted. It takes a posture that is willing to think through a schedule with a degree of margin in it so that I can have a meaningful conversation with someone else. Busyness consistently prevents us. I was at an upper school retreat just a few days ago and listening to some of the students talk and I was just so encouraged by many of the conversations. But I was also thinking and reflecting on the unique opportunity that students have. And that's high school. College students as well. I've got a group of college guys, college age guys right there. I can't get into the classrooms you're going to sit in. I'd love to. I would love to sit in those classrooms with you and engage in the gospel. But I can't in most cases. You will be there. You'll be there, and there will be opportunities to talk about meaningful things. You won't have to create it, okay? You don't have to like cold call on it. It will happen. You'll be talking about the meaning of life in a college classroom, and you will be there to honor Christ. You'll be there to honor Christ, and you won't be there with the authority to convert. You'll be there with the authority to share and trust the Spirit of God to convert. And so it is with other students and other vocations and other positions in life, seizing these opportunities for the glory of Christ and to share Christ. Okay, so busyness, be aware of that, that busyness prevents us. But secondly, secondly, I think another pitfall, and then we'll move on to our final reflection. Secondly, we have minds, I fear, that are saturated with trivial matters rather than eternal matters. We saturate ourselves with what doesn't mean a thing. And it distracts us. Mindlessly scrolling through social media. Or it's this, I don't know. Which direction? I have no clue. My wife is shaking her head, thinking, bless him. Friends, if I could be frank, okay, I'm going to cook in your kitchen. Like a professor of mine said, I'm gonna throw a brick at a pack of wolves. I can't help it if the wolf that gets hit is the one that yelps, okay? Even in service this morning, some of you may have been on social media. Why? Distracting yourself from eternal matters. We fill our minds with what is trivial. And it prevents us from being saturated with the glory of Christ and our eternal riches and the majesty of God to such a degree that when the opportunity presents itself, we can't help but speak of Christ. In Screwtape Letters, I mentioned this in our after school retreat, Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis described a conversation between Screwtape, who is a seasoned demon, and his understudy Wormwood. And Screwtape advises in this way. Listen to the words, brilliant words. He says, it is funny how mortals always picture us as putting things into their minds. In reality, Our best work is done by keeping things out. Friends, think about how you're spending your mental energy. What are you saturating your time with? Busyness, triviality, or the glory of Christ in his word manifested in the gospel? Finally, all right. Get out of your kitchen a little bit, and out of mine as well. Finally, in addition to considering what avenues God has given you to share Christ, and in addition to considering that God has chosen to sovereignly use the rejection of the Jewish people to extend salvation to us, in the sovereign plan of God. What confidence we can enjoy in God's sovereign plan. Our text, did you notice this? It concludes, and we really are coming close to landing now. Our text concludes with the Roman commander in fear. Did you see that? The Roman commander who's in charge is in fear. And Luke never tells us Paul is afraid. We're supposed to see that. The story ends with the commander in fear, but not Paul. Paul is courageous in the gospel. Paul ministered in a horrifyingly debauched and wicked culture. The broader culture in which Paul ministered was no friend of Christianity. However, he knew full well that nothing could befall him apart from the Father's will. Nothing at all. First Baptist Powell, I do not know. I do not know what the future of our culture is. I do not know what it will bring for believers in Christ who remain faithful to Christ. I do not know whether it will be a culture that experiences revival and restoration and awakening or a culture that grows increasingly hostile. to the gospel. I have thoughts, but I don't know. And while we must do what we can as salt and light, even praying for our governing authorities according to 1 Timothy chapter two, or in our case as Americans voting even for policies that make for peace and just leadership, our hope is not in this culture. Our hope is in the Lord Jesus Christ. who reigns even now over heaven and earth, such that our story, like our text, will conclude with fear in those who oppose Christ and eternal confidence in those who embrace him and worship him. As Paul wrote in Philippians 2, there will come a day when every knee will bow. and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, thank you for your promises and for the instruction we receive in your word, in particular this morning in Acts 22, verses 22 to 29. Thank you for the example of the Apostle Paul who was empowered by your spirit to boldly proclaim Christ as a Jew and also as a Roman citizen, seizing upon whatever he had at his disposal for your glory. Father, I pray that you would animate us to do the same. Forgive us, Father, forgive me for my busyness and for various other distractions that keep me from being saturated in your word to the degree I need to be. Forgive me, Father, for giving my mind and my affections over to trivial matters. Call us, Father, even this morning, to be enraptured by, taken by your glory in Christ. And remind us even now that forgiveness and mercy and grace is ours through Christ. In his name and for his sake we pray together, amen.