Letters And Papers From Prison Responses to Trials and Tribulations
Letters And Papers From Prison
Responses to Trials and Tribulations
Acts 28
Pastor Barry Kerner
The book of Acts gives a unique glimpse into the life and practice of the early church. It describes the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost in Acts 2, the spread of the Gospel outside of Jerusalem in Acts 8 and to the Gentiles in Acts 10, how the church made decisions in regards to doctrine (Acts 15), and much more. The sermons recorded in Acts give us a window into the preaching ministries of Peter, Stephen, Philip, James, and Paul, along with the immediate impact those sermons had.
We’re going to look at the final sermon found in the book of Acts found in Acts 28, The sermon that we find Paul preaching to the Jewish leaders at Rome I call “Paul’s Last Sermon.” Not that’s it’s truly Paul’s last sermon. We know he’s going to preach many, many more times but the last time we find him recorded is in Acts 28. He has a very pointed word for the people. Paul has been in Caesarea. He is taken prisoner. He appeals to Caesar and they say, “If you want to see Caesar, to Caesar you shall go.” He goes through a rough cruise. Have you ever been on a rough cruise? You’ve never been on a rough cruise like Paul went on. This wasn’t Carnival or Princess Cruise Lines with all their amenities. Paul was on his way to Rome but this wasn’t to be a typical Mediterranean pleasure cruise.
A storm comes up, the seas rage, and Paul finds himself he wind shipwrecked. There he is, on a board, paddling past the reefs to a nearby island. After dragging himself ashore, and there on that island he builds a fire. But his troubles just keep on coming. A poisonous snake, bothered by the heat of the fire, jumps out and attaches itself to him. They think he’s going to die. God touches him and brings a miracle of life in Paul and he’s alive and well and preaching the gospel.
From there they get another ship and they make their way finally to the great city of Rome. At that time, there’s about two million people living in Rome. Half a million of those people are slaves. Every other person you’d see in Rome in 60 A.D. was a slave. Now you have to understand they had doctors that were slaves. They had merchants that were slaves. These were not just people working fields. These were people working in every strata of life but they were slaves. It is said of Rome in that 60 A.D. period there were two things that the Romans lived for. Bread and the circus. Bread because they were all but starving and if they could get food it was usually bread. The other thing they lived for was at the circus. Now not the circus that we know today with elephants and tigers but it was the arena event of entertainment. They lived for food and they lived for entertainment. Nero was the Caesar. He was the emperor. Caesar murdered his mother. Caesar murdered his own wife. Nero embarked on a great building project to lend glory to his elf declared status of a God. When Nero embarked on his project or urban renewal he had to move the people from where he wanted to build. It’s said that he had a fire started to burn down much of the city to brutally force the inhabitants out for his new palaces and gardens. It’s said that Nero fiddled while Rome burned. According to Tacitus and later Christian tradition, Emperor Nero blamed the devastation on the Christian community in the city, initiating the empire’s first persecution against the Christians.
Paul is there in chains awaiting trial and we find him coming into Rome. There were seven synagogues in Rome and he calls those Jewish leaders together and he’s got a word for the Jews here in the great city of the world, Rome. We pick up the text in Acts 28 and verse 16. “When we entered Rome, Paul was allowed to stay by himself, with the soldier who was guarding him. After three days Paul called together those who were the leading men of the Jews, and when they came together, he began saying to them, “Brethren, though I had done nothing against our people or the customs of our fathers, yet I was delivered as a prisoner from Jerusalem into the hands of the Romans. And when they had examined me, they were willing to release me because there was no ground for putting me to death. But when the Jews objected, I was forced to appeal to Caesar, not that I had any accusation against my nation. For this reason, therefore, I requested to see you and to speak with you [these are the leaders of the seven synagogues of Rome and to speak with you], for I am wearing this chain for the sake of the hope of Israel.” They said to him, “We have neither received letters from Judea concerning you, nor have any of the brethren come here and reported or spoken anything bad about you. But we desire to hear from you what your views are; for concerning this sect, it is known to us that it is spoken against everywhere.” When they had set a day for Paul, they came to him at his lodging in large numbers; and he was explaining to them by solemnly testifying about the kingdom of God and trying to persuade them concerning Jesus, from both the Law of Moses and from the Prophets, from morning until evening. Some were being persuaded by the things spoken, but others would not believe. And when they did not agree with one another, they began leaving after Paul had spoken one parting word, “The Holy Spirit rightly spoke through Isaiah the prophet to your fathers, saying, ‘Go to this people and say, “You will keep on hearing, but will not understand; And you will keep on seeing, but will not perceive; For the heart of this people has become dull, And with their ears they scarcely hear, And they have closed their eyes; Otherwise they might see with their eyes, And hear with their ears, And understand with their heart and return, 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 also listen.” When he had spoken these words, the Jews departed, having a great dispute among themselves.”
Paul’s come to Rome. He’s preaching his last sermon. He’s called these Jews from the seven synagogues together and they’ve talked. I want to look at three things found in this last sermon? I want to look Paul’s topic, his text, and his turning. First of all, what was Paul’s topic? We find this topic in verse 23. Look at it right there in your Bible. Here’s what Paul had to say. When they had set a day for Paul, they came to him at his lodging in large numbers. He had a big crowd. And he was explaining to them by solemnly testifying about the kingdom of God and trying to persuade them concerning Jesus. Here was Paul’s topic. The kingdom and the Christ. The kingdom and the Christ. It was about the kingdom of God and Jesus the Nazarene. Paul had one topic. It was Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. I’m telling you, he was driving home the kingdom of God and Jesus.
Well the question then begs, what did Jesus say about the kingdom of God? Listen to the word of God in Matthew 6:33 where Jesus said, “But seek first God’s kingdom, His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” Jesus said, “Seek first the kingdom.” Don’t seek first yourself. Don’t seek your synagogue. Don’t seek the ordinances of the church. Don’t seek love. Don’t seek friendship. Seek first God’s kingdom. Amen.
In Matthew 19 and verse 24 he said, “Again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” He was saying, “I’m telling you, you’ve got to humble yourself and you will enter this kingdom with difficulty.” You do not come with your chest thrown back and saying, “Boy, look at me. Look at all I’ve done” No, sir. If you’re trusting in the things of this world for your salvation, they will stop you from setting even one foot into the kingdom.
A myth has been promulgated for years that Jesus was talking about the difficulty a camel would have going through a small gate into Jerusalem. Just as the apocryphal Acts of Peter and Andrew refers the saying to a literal camel and needle, we are not meant to reason away the apparent difficulty of getting a camel through a needle’s eye. For the difficulty is not just apparent it is real, and not be solved by textual trickery but by taking the Jesus’ ludicrous language at face value.
What we have is a beautiful Hebrew hyperbole, as in the tree sticking out of one’s eye whilst one is removing a speck in another’s eye! Indeed, Jewish Talmudic literature uses a similar aphorism about an elephant passing through the eye of a needle as a figure of speech implying the unlikely or impossible: “They do not show a man a palm tree of gold, nor an elephant going through the eye of a needle.”
The camel was the largest animal seen regularly in Israel, whereas in regions where the Babylonian Talmud was written, the elephant was the biggest animal. Thus the aphorism is culturally translated from a camel to an elephant in regions outside of Israel.
The aim is not, then, to explain away the paradox and make the needle a huge carpet needle for, elsewhere, the Jewish writings use the “eye of the needle” as a picture of a very small place, The sages said, “A needle’s eye is not too narrow for two friends, but the world is not wide enough for two enemies.”The ludicrous contrast between the small size of the needle’s eye and the largest indigenous animal is to be preserved for its very improbability.
Jesus’ hearers believed that wealth and prosperity were a sign of God’s blessing. So their incredulity is more along the lines that, “if the rich, who must be seen as righteous by God by their evident blessing, can’t be saved, who can be?”. Later Christians have turned this around to portray wealth as a hindrance to salvation, which it can be – but no more so than many other things, when the message is that salvation is impossible for all men for it comes from God alone.
But beyond impossibility is possibility with God for, elsewhere, a Jewish midrash records:
“The Holy One said, open for me a door as big as a needle’s eye and I will open for you a door through which may enter tents and [camels?]”
In other words God only needs the sinner to open up just a crack for him and God will come pouring in and set up room for an oasis. God only needs a ‘foot in the door’, so to speak.
What’s the rich man have to do? He’s got to change his mindset. In Mark 1:15, Jesus said unto these Jews, he was saying, “The time is fulfilled. The kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe the gospel.” Stop trusting in your riches and trust in the finished work of Jesus Christ. How do you come to the kingdom? You repent and you believe the good news of the Lord Jesus Christ. In Mark 10:15, Jesus said it this way: “Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all.” You don’t come high and mighty. You come like a child who depends on their father. You’ve got to come like children unto God. You haven’t got to figure out all the theology to get saved. You haven’t got to know everything. The essentials are this: God loves you, Jesus died for you, and you must believe on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. It’s so simple a child can understand it – If you believe, He’ll save.
Paul was hammering home his topic, the kingdom of God. In John’s gospel chapter three and verse three, Jesus said it this way, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” You’ll never get in the kingdom of God unless you are birthed not just in your flesh but birthed in your spirit. You must be born again. Paul would write to the Corinthians in I Corinthians chapter 15 and verse number 50. “Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.” He is hammering home to those Corinthians, “I don’t care how high and mighty you are. You’re flesh and blood.” What you do, your job doesn’t get you there. Who your father is doesn’t get you there. It doesn’t matter what your social standing is or what family you’re in. Unless you’re in the family of God you don’t see the kingdom. Flesh and blood won’t get you there.
Then in Romans 14:17 he’s right here in Rome talking about this. He’ll later write to the Romans and he says this, “for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking,” Remember, the Romans lived for bread and entertainment. He said the kingdom is not eating and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. That’s what the kingdom is. The kingdom of Almighty God. What was his topic? His topic was simple. He was trying to persuade them in this text in verse 23 that Jesus was God and that He ruled the kingdom.
Verse 24 says, “And many, some were being persuaded but others would not believe.” Isn’t it amazing how that the same heat will both melt wax and harden clay? That’s what happens when the glorious light of the heat of the gospel comes. Some melt and believe. Others are hardened and believe not. Which one are you today? Has the glory of God melted your heart and you believed and went public with that? Or did your heart get hard? The more times you say no the harder your heart becomes. Some believed and others did not.
When Paul saw that some were persuaded and some were not he then took a text from Isaiah 6:9- 10. In verse 25. Paul said, “I’ve got one more word for you. Just one more thing before you go.” They were beginning to leave and Paul said, “Just before you go, I’ve got a concluding thought and here it was.” The Holy Spirit right there spoke through Isaiah the prophet when he said unto your fathers. Then he quoted Isaiah chapter 6, verses 9 and 10. He said about your fathers, about your Jewish forefathers. “Even during the days of the prophets, the Jews, they would hear but they wouldn’t perceive. They could see but they close their eyes.” They had a heart but it had become dull to the things of God. This is a word of warning, judgment, and condemnation. Paul is saying to the Jews there in Rome. Your fathers and your mothers and your grandfathers and your great-grandfathers, they heard all of this from the judges and the prophets and they too would not believe and many of you are just like them. That’s what Isaiah said. Those Jews in Rome were like many who hear the Gospel. They’ll come listen but they won’t perceive. They’ve got wax in their ears. They come and they see but they choose to close their eyes. Has your heart gotten dull or have you believed on the Lord Christ? If so, are you sharing that revelation with the world?
Paul’s a Bible preacher and he’s saying, “Listen, look, and learn.” Listen, look, and learn. Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of God. Paul was condemning them. He said, “You’ve heard all your life. You’ve listened all your life. You’ve seen it all your life. It’s not enough to come listen. It’s not enough to see. Your heart’s got to be warmed and God has got to change you. Paul had a topic. It was Christ and the kingdom. He had a text and it was Isaiah.
In the last part of Paul’s sermon there was a turning. Paul said, “Because you won’t listen I am turning away from you Jews and I’m going to the Gentiles.” In verse 28, “Therefore, let it be known to you to the Jews that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles.” They will also listen. Paul said, “I’m turning.” He preached to the Jews and he said, “Now I’m turning to the Gentiles.” Now listen to me. He is not saying that a Jew couldn’t get saved but that many wouldn’t be saved. They’re steeped in Old Testament and they know there’s a promise of a Messiah but they won’t believe. Paul said, “Not many will believe so I’m turning and I’m going to take the gospel to the world.”
So Paul did three things to take the gospel to the Gentiles. Number one. He preached to the people who came to visit with him in the house. And 24 hours a day, there was never a moment in those two years that Paul did not have a chain around his arm that was attached to a Roman soldier. The Praetorian Guard. The elite military force of Rome. Fifteen thousand of these men were assigned to look after Nero and everything pertaining to Caesar’s house. Every shift the guard on duty the guard assigned to Paul unchained himself and another took his place. God just kept sending the harvest to Paul. It’s hard to get away from the preacher when you’re chained to him.
In Philippians 1:13, Paul talked about how the message of the Gospel went through the Praetorian guard. If you open your eyes you’ll realize that God has chained you to someone. God has connected them to you in such a way that they can’t help but hear what you have to say. You ought to be speaking the gospel wherever and to whomever you’re chained to. If you’re chained to a desk, speak the gospel. If you’re chained to a classroom, speak the gospel. If you’re chained somewhere with people running in and out share the Gospel. Paul was chained to the Praetorian. Paul, first of all, shared the gospel to the people he was chained to. His friends would come. They’d visit with him and they’d talk. Paul would say, “You know.” He’s just sharing the gospel of the Lord. This guy chained to him, he’s hearing every bit of it. He can’t go to sleep. He’s got to stay awake. Why? He’s got to guard the prisoner.
Secondly, Paul wrote letters. Paul wrote papers from prison. He wrote at least four epistles from this two year stay in a Roman house of his rented quarters. He wrote Colossians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Philemon from this Roman cell. There’s a guard chained to him while he’s writing. And you know he’s just got to be reading these letters out loud. He probably asked more than one guard, “Well, did I say that just right?” The Bible tells us that all scripture is written by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Let me tell you, the Spirit of the living God was in Paul and on Paul and he’s writing Holy Scripture and this guard was chained to him – what a seat for the kingdom. Some of those guards believed and some of them didn’t believe. Paul preached to who he was chained to. Secondly, he wrote letters. When you share a Bible or a tract with someone you’re doing the same thing Paul did. You’re sharing papers from prison. That’s how the Gospel gets taken around the world.
Third, not only did he preach to who he was chained to and write letters, Paul was released from this Roman jail and took the Gospel with him wherever he went. After his release he then traveled with the gospel to where God would let him go. Eventually he wound up back in Rome and was martyred for the faith. He shared with those closest to him. He wrote letters to the people that he knew and he traveled and shared as God would let him do it. Paul turned from the Jew to the Gentile. To our Jewish friends, God will save you if you’ll believe on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. To our Gentile friends, He’ll save you if you’ll believe on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
It was the 23rd day of May, 1939. America was staring down the gun barrel of entering World War II. Our president was reinforcing the Navy with more ships. One of those vessels that had been built was the U.S. Submarine, the Squalus. The Squalus was off the coast of New Hampshire on the 23rd day of May, 1939 when one of the chambers was breached and water flooded one of the chambers of the submarine, the Squalus. She sank. Of the 59 crew, 26 died in that watery grave and 33 were still alive 240 feet below the surface in a frigid tomb wondering, “Can we ever get out of here?” The commander sent up red dye to mark the water where they went down. They also ran a buoy up with a radio cable so if anyone knew of it or found them they could communicate back. As sovereign grace would have it another ship did find them but now they had to get these 33 out of that submarine and to the surface.
There was a brand new device called the Momsen McCann Rescue Chamber. It was brand new. It was devised to send that rescue chamber to a sunken sub attached to it and let the people get out and in and take it up. So they sent the Momsen McCann device down four times. It could only carry a small payload. There were four Navy divers that all received the Medal of Honor after this. They went down, filled it up and brought them back to the top. Went down, filled it up and to the top. Four times they went and those 33 got into that rescue chamber and went to the top. They made a fifth trip and went in the chamber that had been flooded to see if there were any survivors. None were alive. All were dead.
What amazes me about that story is that not one of the 33 people trapped in that Squalus Submarine refused to get into the rescue chamber. They had never done it before. They didn’t know if it would work. They didn’t know it might be worse in there than it was where they were. They absolutely did not know but not one of the 33 men refused to get in. God is sending a rescue chamber to the world. That chamber is an empty tomb and there’s an extended hand that says you’re sunk without God. If you would but believe you will be saved. Some will say, “I’ve never tried it before.” I understand. Some will say, “I’ve never done it before.” I understand. Some will ask, “Are you sure it’ll work?” To them I’ll tell the what Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 1:20, “For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God.” The chamber has come for you. His name is Christ. If you’ll crown Him king, He’ll change your life and set you free.