Summary
Pastor Safrit concludes the series on the Book of Acts by examining Acts 28:17-31, emphasizing that the end of Paul's story is not the end of the church but the beginning of its mission. He highlights Paul's unwavering commitment to share the gospel despite his imprisonment, urging the congregation to seize every opportunity to proclaim Christ boldly. The sermon challenges listeners to reflect on their own lives and consider whether the gospel continues through them, encouraging a proactive approach to sharing their faith.
Welcome and Introduction
Thank you for listening to Pleasant Grove Baptist Church Sermon Audio. For more information, please visit our website, pgbcronda.com, or visit on all social media platforms. Well, thank you, young people, for leading us from last week.
That was a great time, and I hope you enjoyed that time of worship with your family as well. I hope your kids sang out, you sang out, and you just praised the Lord this morning for His goodness and how we can worship Him. Today we're finishing up the book of Acts.
What a great last, I think this is my 41st Psalm in Acts, 41st message in Acts, not Psalm,
41st sermon in the book of Acts, and what a great time it has been for me to just immerse ourselves into a book of Scripture, a longer book, but man, it has been so fruitful for me. I hope it has been fruitful for you.
We're going to be in Acts chapter 28 today. We'll be in verses 17 through 31, and so if you'll find your place there, I want to just give just a brief context of where we're at, right, Paul?
Peter began in this book as Jesus started and then turned the church over to Peter and gave him that power, and we had Pentecost, and the first half of the book of Acts is all about Peter preaching and the gospel going to Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria.
Well, then we transition in the middle of the book to Paul, this guy Saul and Paul, and how he comes onto the scene and begins to take it to the Gentiles or to the uttermost, right, where the gospel
is going to go to Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria in the uttermost parts of the earth. This is Paul taking it to the uttermost.
He's been in prison for the last four years, and now we get to the end of his life, and we begin to see the church and what's going to happen to the church. I've entitled the message today, Not the End, but the Beginning.
And as we end the book, it's not the end of the church, it's just the beginning of what's going to happen. And so we'll read the scripture this morning and go through a couple of thoughts quickly as you worship with your family today.
The Bible says in Acts chapter 28, verses 17 to 31, And after three days he called together the leaders of the Jews, and when they had gathered, he said to them, Brothers, although I have done nothing against our people or our customs or our ancestors,
I was delivered as a prisoner from Jerusalem into the hands of the Romans.
Paul's Imprisonment and Appeal
And after they examined me, they wanted to release me, since there was no reason for the death penalty in my case. Because the Jews objected, I was compelled to appear to Caesar,
even though I had no charge to bring against my people. For this reason I have asked to see you and speak to you. In fact, it is for the hope of Israel that I am wearing these chains. Then he said to them, We haven't received any letters about you from Judea.
None of the brothers has come and reported or spoken anything evil about you. But we wanted to hear what your views are, since we know that people everywhere are speaking against this sect.
After arranging a day with him, many came into him at his lodging, and from dawn to dusk he expounded and testified about the kingdom of God. And he tried to persuade them about Jesus from both the law of Moses and the prophets.
Some were persuaded by what was said, and others did not believe.
Disagreeing among themselves, they began to leave after Paul made one statement. The Holy Spirit was right in saying to your ancestors,
through the prophet Isaiah, And he quoted Isaiah when he said, Go to these people and say, You have always been listening, but you never understood. And you will always be looking, but you never perceived.
For the hearts of these people have grown callous, and their ears have hard of hearing, and they have shut their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes and hear with their ears,
understanding with their heart and turning, and I would heal them. Therefore, let it be known to you that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles. They will listen. And Paul's saying,
Staying here two more years in his own rented house, and he welcomed all who visited him, proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance.
What a great passage of scripture to end this series on, to end the book of Acts on.
And I love how Luke sort of brings it all together in a way that would be not how we would write the story. And so I want to take us back to a time in American history.
I want to look at a story that wouldn't be the way that we thought it would be. And in 1903, in December,
two unknown brothers brought a strange-looking machine out to Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. And as they were there, they brought this out. It wasn't a fast machine. It wasn't impressive. It didn't turn heads.
And it certainly didn't look like the future of transportation. But what did happen is the Wright brothers finally lifted off the ground, and they had this airplane that made a 12-second, 120-foot flight into the air.
Historical Context of Change
One reporter said it like this, Man flies for a few seconds, hardly earth-shattering.
History tells a different story, right? Those 12 seconds, they weren't the end of an experiment, but they were the beginning of a revolution that was going to change the way we transport people, possessions, and things all across the world.
Travel didn't explode that day, but what happened was the world changed forever. Because someone was willing to prove that the impossible could be made possible.
That things could change if it was just done the right way. And most people, if they would have been watching that moment at that time, this is what they would have probably said. That's it? That's all? This is what we came to see?
It couldn't have been better? It was probably what most people were thinking. And this is sort of the end of the book of Acts, right?
It sort of feels unfinished. It sort of feels like there's no outcome to the trial. There's no martyrdom. There's no conclusion. There's just the end of the book. And we see Paul here preaching. He's under house arrest. It looks small. It looks restricted. It looks ordinary, right?
The book starts out with this broad proclamation where the dynamite power of the gospel is going to go out, but yet it just sort of feels ordinary in this moment.
And what looks like sort of a quiet landing was actually the historic takeoff of the church that exploded in ways that we never would have saw fit. Chains didn't stop the gospel. The geographical limit didn't stop the mission.
And Rome in no way stopped the preaching of the gospel. What looked like the ending was God opened another door for them. Luke ends Acts with a way where the church has been written in a way that no one would have seen thought possible.
Acts ends with Paul's death not being recorded. No trial or verdict that has been issued or announced. And there's not even a neat resolution. But what we do see is it ending with the primary purpose of the church. You ready? The preaching, the teaching, and the bold prayers of the church are how they end.
It ends with the most important thing possible, the preaching and teaching of the gospel. Why is this? You see, it didn't end with just the story of Paul. It ended with the unstoppable advancing of the gospel.
It ends with people proclaiming the gospel to other people and reaching the world for Jesus Christ.
I want to break this passage into really three simple things as we look at it this morning. The first is this. We must make most of our time. Paul here is saying to the people in verses 17 through 23,
Opportunities in Uncertainty
he said, I have limited freedom. Look at the chains that are on my body. Look at where I am at and the uncertain future that lays before me. But I'm going to take every opportunity that the Lord puts in front of me to initiate gospel conversations.
Look at the chains here. I've got chains around me. I've got, I'm in house arrest. I can't go freely in places, but yet I can share the gospel with people. Is that our mindset?
Is that what we're seeing when we have physical limitations of how I can share the gospel with people? Look at some observations here.
The Bible says that after three days, Paul didn't waste any time. He immediately brought the elders together and he said, I've got to talk to these people. I want to explain. I want to testify. I want to persuade them about who Jesus is.
He speaks of the kingdom of God and he speaks of who Jesus is. And this is our opportunity as well to reach out to those in uncertain places and uncertain times and tell them about this man named Jesus who could change their life forever. You see, Paul didn't wait for ideal circumstances.
He didn't wait for the temperature to be right. He didn't wait for the lighting to be right. He didn't wait for the right location to happen.
All he simply did was stand up and used the moment that was presented in front of him to present the gospel to the people that were around him. The Bible says he did this for two years under house arrest.
See, faithfulness is not about controlling the outcome of the situation, but faithfulness is being stewarded. It's been faithful to steward the opportunities that are put in front of us.
It's when a detour comes or something comes that we didn't expect and we say, God, okay, you put this in my way for a reason and I'm going to be faithful to trust in that for you.
You see, I'm going to be getting on a plane here in a couple of days as I fly out to Israel and I'm sure because I've flown before, they're going to say, show up at gate E3.
And I'm going to show up at that gate and they're going to come up and they're going to say, hey, your flight's been delayed. Oh man, we've all been there, right?
We've all had our flights delayed a couple of times. Or maybe they're going to say, your flight has been changed from E3 to A7 and I've got to run all the way across the airport to get to that flight on the other side.
Redirected Opportunities
Because they changed my terminal or because they delay my flight, does that mean my flight is over?
No, it just simply means it's taking a detour and there's someone else over there that I get to share the gospel with. There's someone else over there that I get to go over and talk about them. This is what happened with Paul.
His life was delayed and detoured and went from one place to another and in chains. And yet he didn't use these pausing moments to stop the gospel. He used them as a new pulpit to proclaim the gospel. What are we doing with our life? What are we doing with our delays?
Or are we just simply waiting for a better condition? Are we simply waiting for a better circumstance? Or are we saying, God, you've given me this moment, you've given me this time, I want to preach the gospel with the time that you've given me.
He went on to say in verses 23 through 28 that he was going to teach all people in this region and everywhere he went about the gospel. Paul begins to teach from morning to evening. He doesn't take shortcuts.
He doesn't use selected verses. As we look at here in a minute, he just simply teaches everyone under the sound of his voice about the gospel. The Bible says in verse 23 that from dusk to dawn,
he preaches the gospel. From dusk to dawn, he didn't waste any time. He spent every waking moment that he could. As long as there was light outside, he was preaching the gospel. He was telling others about this man named Jesus that changed his life forever.
The gospel deserves time and the gospel deserves patience. We don't, when we get saved, fully understand all of scripture. It takes time sitting in small groups and growing together and coming around people and being in Sunday school and sitting in the pews for us to begin to absorb what truly the gospel means.
Paul understood this better than we did. And he said it takes time or just simply understanding and preaching and proclaiming the gospel.
Are you willing to labor long in the truth? Are you willing to say, God, I want you to give me what you have for me or are you just wanting the quick, easy, instantaneous religion?
Paul took the long way. He knew the long term of this. He knew the long game of waiting. And oftentimes we need to understand that patience as well.
Number two underneath this, he went from cover to cover in verse 23. The Bible says that he began teaching from Moses and the law all the way to the prophets, all the way to this man named Jesus. And he is proclaiming the scripture from cover to cover.
He didn't edit scripture. He didn't pick out his favorite little points. He didn't do that to make it easier to swallow.
Preaching the Whole Scripture
He just simply stood up and preached the gospel. He simply said, I'm going to start with our forefathers. I'm going to preach the entire scripture. I'm going to teach everything that we have. And everything that we have points to this one man who literally split our calendar in two. His name is Jesus, who came to die for our sins.
Do we trust the whole counsel of God? Or do we just pull out the ones that we like? The attributes of Jesus that we like, the love and the grace and the mercy? Or do we see the justice and the compassion and the Jesus that flips table?
Are we pulling out the whole counsel of God? Or are we just pulling out what we like? Number three underneath this, it says that he went from heart to heart. The Bible says that some were persuaded and some rejected.
Some said, I don't like this message that you have. I don't like what you're preaching or what you're saying. And he said, the truth is clear.
You either accept what I'm saying or you reject it and you walk away hardened of your hearts. And that's what people did. Some walked away accepted and excited that we received the gospel. And some walked away mad and angry.
All of a sudden we see here that they had all of the evidence that they had to change their heart. And yet they hardened their heart. How often do we resist the truth?
How often do we resist the truth of the gospel? The truth that someone is trying to help us? And yet we don't like it and so we begin to change.
And we begin to move that truth, to move to make us feel better. And God says in his word that we must accept the truth and the reality here.
And then number four underneath this in verses 25 to 28, the Bible says that he went from the Jews to the Gentiles. He went to all people. He was obedient unto the scripture and God's plan was always to be global.
You see, he said he came to his Jews, to his own people and his own people rejected him. And so he moved the gospel to everyone.
The goal was never just to be isolated to a specific group of people. It was to go everywhere.
And we see that in the book of Isaiah where it says he came into his own and his own concealed and his own rejected him. And so he went into the Gentiles because they had open hearts.
Church, this morning, the gospel is coming to us. The gospel is coming to the world. Are we willing to step out and tell those around us who Jesus is?
Closed Doors and New Paths
Most of us look at a closed door and we think, okay, God, my mission is done.
Oftentimes, a closed door just simply redirects us to some other open door that is going to proclaim the gospel forward. Paul doesn't quit preaching when he's in prison the first time four years ago.
No, he buckles down and says, this is a new group of people that I'm going to start preaching to. This is a new group of people that I'm going to start telling the gospel to. Oftentimes, the gospel takes us out of our comfort zone
and into a zone where God says, I want you to proclaim the gospel here.
I want to use a practical illustration that each and every one of us can relate to this morning.
It's supposed to be tonight, but on Wednesday night, we're going to ordain Stephen to leave this body of believers and go be a pastor of another group of churches, another pastor of churches, a sister church,
Mountain Valley over in Wilkes County, North Wilkes area. I'm so excited about that because this is the model that Stephen has done, right? One of our core values is to go and serve. To go and serve means step out of your comfort zone sometimes.
And Stephen, in the comfort of teaching and having a nine-to-five job there at a school system,
surrendered to the gospel call of the ministry and said, God, I'm going to do whatever you want me to do.
And he stepped out and he followed the Lord faithfully and now the Lord has opened the door for him to go into ministry and preach the gospel to a group of believers and to a body of Christ that he gets to build up.
What a beautiful picture of what it looks like to see the detours of life open up to a new door and a new pathway that God has ordained for us.
Are we just looking for the comfortable moments? Or are we willing to go into the abrasive moments of life and say, God, what is it you have for me? Number four, we'll look at the last couple of verses, verses 29 through 31, the praying for spiritual boldness in our life.
The final words of Acts are not death. I think it's so important to get this. The final words of Acts are boldness and going forth.
What a great message for us this morning that we can have the boldness, the Bible says, with all boldness and without hindrance. You see, Paul here, he's confined. He has chains around him and he can't go certain places,
but yet the gospel is not confined by the chains or by man-made borders or boundaries. The gospel goes everywhere.
Paul is also guarded, but yet the word of God is free to move and penetrate hearts so much more than we can.
Trusting in the Gospel
Are we trusting in the gospel? We trust in his word to lead and guide us into his direction. Most times people will say this, Pastor James, my personality is not boldness.
I'm an introvert. I don't like being bold. I don't like saying things out loud, but yet boldness is born out of prayer and conviction.
Because you are convicted of something, you are going to be bold to say this is what I believe and I'm going to stand for truth. Are we bold in our conviction of God changing hearts and lives so much so that we're going to step out of our comfort zone?
You see, the church doesn't need more comfort. We have padded pews. We have lights. We have heat. We have air conditioner. We be in great locations. The church doesn't need more comfort. The church needs more courage.
And are we going to be a church that is courageously standing on the truth of God's word or are we going to be a church that is just happy being comfortable?
The Bible says when Jesus looked at the church that was comfortable in the book of Revelation, he says they were neither hot nor cold. They were lukewarm. And the actual Greek says he vomited them out of their mouth.
Church, I don't want to be vomited out of the mouth of Jesus. I want to be so on fire for Jesus.
As Paul was looking at his life, as Luke is writing the life of Paul, that he is nearing the end of his life and all he can do is be so bold, so hot for Jesus that the world has to come and say, what is this man talking about?
This is what I want our church to be is someone that is on fire for him so that people are wanting to come and hear what we have going on. As I believe Mueller said, set a man on fire and the whole world will come and watch him burn.
Are we so on fire for Jesus that people are coming and asking us what is going on? You see, over the course of history and over the course of time, things have ceased to exist.
I was talking with Hannah this past week at Dale's Surgery and she was talking about one of her great-grandmother's cookbooks.
And one of those recipes in there was like a cough syrup or some type of medicine.
And one of the ingredients, she said she didn't recognize the name of it, so she Googled it to see where she could find it. And it came up and said, this ingredient is banned and illegal to own in all 50 states. It's illegal in America.
You can no longer purchase that specific ingredient that used to be legal. It tells us this.
There are things in America and there are things all throughout the world that cease to exist.
Enduring Message of the Gospel
We see two things here in this passage. We see Rome who had chains. We see Paul who had a message. Rome ceased to exist.
But the message of the gospel and the message that Paul preached 2,000 years ago is still here, still planting churches, still changing lives, and still reaching people for the gospel. History shows which one lasted.
I'm here to say that the gospel is here to stay and the lives that are changed for the glory of God through the gospel, through the preaching of his word, is here to stay. And church, we must be bold for the sake of the gospel.
What does it look like in your life? Are you praying more for boldness? Are you praying more for safety?
Are you praying for God to open doors of opportunity for you to step out and preach the name of Jesus so faithfully to those that are around you, your coworkers,
your family members, the people that you interact with on a daily basis, your teachers, your classmates, maybe it's your boss or your employee that you're just reaching out and you're sharing the gospel with them? They may tell you no. They may get mad at you.
People got mad at Paul and people told Paul no. But there was always a group as well that accepted that message.
Our job is to sow the seed and let God take care of the rest. The Bible says that as Jesus is telling his disciples,
he says that I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Our job is to simply go out and tell others and let Christ take care of the rest. Are we praying for that same boldness?
As we conclude today, I want us to ask ourselves a couple of different things.
Acts ends where the church is still living. You see, they were still teaching Christ, they were still preaching the kingdom of God, and they were still doing it with boldness. Is that what we're doing today? Are we still preaching gospel? Are we still doing it with boldness? And are we still proclaiming Jesus?
You see, this wasn't the end for Paul. Paul's physical life, yes, it was the end and he's about to step into glory and see the one he preached for for so many years. This wasn't the end of the church either. The church still continues in 2,000 years. It's still continuing today.
And we get to be a little part of that picture. And it's not the end even now. Church, we still have a job to do. We still have the opportunity to tell others about this man named Jesus.
The gospel is still moving forward and he's still using ordinary people who refuse to waste their time and say, God, I want to be specific with what I'm doing.
Invitation to Know Jesus
I want to tell the people that are in front of me how to pray a prayer of forgiveness, how to pray into this idea of coming to know Jesus, this glorious gospel that Jesus has given us to set prisoners free through the gospel. Maybe that's you today. Maybe you've never accepted Jesus.
Maybe today would be the day where you put your full faith and trust in him, that you make him Lord of Lord and King of Kings in all of your life. If you've got that question, feel free to reach out to me.
I'd love to give you some encouraging words and hope and help.
But church, specifically, I want to ask us one closing question. A question that you can mull on and you can begin to think on over the next days and weeks ahead. This would be the question. If Acts were to end
with your life, if Luke were to be able to bring himself into your life and be recording the life of the gospel in your life, he gets to the end of your life, would the gospel end with your life? Or, would the gospel be continued because of your life?
As Paul ended his life, the gospel continued to go on for thousands of years later
because he was willing to share it with boldness. He was willing to reach out to those that are around him and proclaim the gospel to those that are around him. Would that be said of us?
Would it be said that at the end of our life, as our lives are growing older and we've got more time behind us than we have ahead of us and we've got to make the most of our time? Are we teaching people? Are we praying for boldness?
Are we telling others about the gospel? Is the gospel advancing because of us or is the gospel declining because of us?
This morning, this is our challenge for each and every one of us. How are we using what we've been given to move the gospel forward?
Father, we thank you for this day. We thank you for this message. I thank you for your blessings. I pray, God, that in this moment of each and every one of our houses today as we worship you, that we would look to you and we would proclaim the gospel through you.
God, thank you for what you've done. Thank you for the book of Acts. Thank you for the encouragement that you've given us there. In your name we pray. Amen.
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