Acts

Passage: Acts 28:30-31

This morning we come to the end of the final chapter of Acts.  Finally.  For those who are curious about such things this is sermon number 87.  What a journey we have had through this great book of the Bible, The Acts of the Apostles.

If you were going to sit down and write your life story, there is a real sense in which you could copy, cut and paste this entire book as chapter one of your story if you are a Christian.  We can all trace our Christian heritage all the way back to Acts.  This is the beginning of our spiritual genealogy.

God knows our spiritual lineage, our faith family tree all the way back to Paul’s preaching the Gospel to the Gentiles.  God knows the name of the Gentile who became a born-again believer and is your spiritual great grandfather and great grandmother.

The last word of the book of Acts is unhindered.  Let’s see three things that are unhindered.

Passage: Acts 28:11-28

Finally, we are heading to Rome.  Luke begins by telling us they set sail on a ship of Alexandria.  What an interesting providence of God, a picture of how life is in our fallen world.

Two ships, both of Alexandria in Egypt, both bound for Italy, both ending up on the island of Malta, one wrecked and one safe.  Such are the twists and turns of life in this fallen world.  Sometimes all is well and sometimes all is stormy.  We are taught by Paul to learn from both.

Passage: Acts 28:1-10

On September 11, 2001, at 9:45 am, Ben Sliney, in his first day as the National Operations Manager of the FAA, ordered American airspace closed for the first time in history.  There were 500 international flights inbound that were turned back or redirected to other countries.

38 jets landed in the little town of Gander, Newfoundland.  The town of 6,700 people took in 7,000 passengers for five days.  The residents quickly mobilize every available resource to provide shelter, food and clothes.  Cots were set up in school gyms and social centers.  People opened their homes to provide showers and meals.  Bakeries went into overdrive production, hospitals staffed up, school bus drivers who were on strike came off strike to transport the plane people.  One woman took on the feeding all the animals on the flights.  The passengers were overwhelmed with the outpouring of unusual kindness and generosity.

Acts 28:1-2, unusual kindness.

On a fall day 2,000 years ago a ship left Fair Havens, on the island of Crete to sail 42 miles west to Phoenix to spend the winter.  They were diverted and two weeks and 500 miles later they shipwrecked on a beach in Malta.

I am trying to imagine this scene.  276 men soaking wet, chilled to the bone, filthy, shivering, shaking, hungry and thirsty, having just crawled out of the surf, sitting on a beach in a cold rain.  Absolutely miserable.

God sends a must unusual kindness.  On this island, we see more evidence of the providence of God.  He directly carried every man out of the water to safety on the shore.  And then He sends upon them the most unusual kindness.

Passage: Acts 27:27-44

Over three weeks ago, Paul and his friends boarded this ill-fated ship.  It has been a difficult journey the entire way, first contrary winds slowing them down and then a terrible storm blowing them 500 miles across the Mediterranean.

We can understand the storm that blew against Jonah.  God was keeping a prodigal prophet from fleeing further from His presence.  That storm was meant to bring Jonah back to his senses, to repentance and obedience.  But Paul wasn’t fleeing, in fact Paul was totally obedient, he wanted to go to Rome to preach the Gospel.  Why did Paul have to face all this suffering at the mercy of an unmerciful sea?

Why did it seem God opposed them the whole way?  We are reminded of the reality of life, Christians are not promised a life spared from crises or traumatic events, even Christians of the highest standing like the apostle Paul.  Paul was a godly, mature Christian, and yet God was still working in his life, testing, refining, increasing his faith, producing holiness.

Tests, trials, and suffering are all meant to refine us, to build our faith, to strengthen us.  It is especially important we teach this to our children while they are young.

Remember the words written down by Moses in Deuteronomy 6.

Passage: Acts 27:13-26

Acts 27 recounts in much detail one of the most famous shipwrecks in ancient history, and certainly one of the most spiritually profitable, as it is given to us by

We are about two weeks into Paul’s cruise from Israel to Italy.  Ever since leaving the second port of Sidon the winds have been against them, it has been slow going up and along the coast of Asia Minor (Turkey).  At the port of Myra they transferred to another grain freighter from Alexandria in Egypt bound for Italy.

The Nile River valley of Egypt was called the breadbasket of Italy in ancient times.  Every year some 1700 ships bearing wheat and corn would sail from Egypt to Italy.  These ships were from 140 to 180 feet long and from 35 to 50 feet wide.  The hold was 40 feet deep and capable of carrying 1,000 tons.  They were single masted sailing vessels.  Having only one mast and one sail they were not easily maneuverable in contrary winds.

We are told later there were 276 passengers made up of at least three classes of people, the ship’s crew of sailors, the Roman centurion and a number of soldiers or guards, and prisoners including Paul.  We know that Dr. Luke and a Thessalonian convert, Aristarchus were with him.

Passage: Acts 27:1-12

Acts 27 recounts in much detail one of the most famous shipwrecks in ancient history, and certainly one of the most spiritually profitable, as it is given to us by the Holy Spirit in Scripture for our spiritual benefit and training in righteousness.

Chapter 27 of Acts is a detailed travel diary of Paul’s all expenses paid Mediterranean cruise from Caesarea, Israel to Rome, Italy, with body guards, security detail and friends, including his personal physician Dr. Luke.  We will spend three weeks at sea with the apostle Paul.  During our voyage with him we will learn several lesson on how to cope with the difficult and unexpected providences of God we encounter all through our lives.

It is most providential that Dr. Luke is on board with Paul, so we have much more detail than we might otherwise.  This is one of the most detailed ship log in ancient literature.

But this leaves us with a question.  What is Luke’s purpose in giving us this detailed travel diary of Paul’s voyage?  What does he want Theophilus and us to know?

First, it reveals the historicity of these events, all these geographical details can be traced on a map and confirmed.

There is a well known story of a British scholar and skeptic of the late 1800’s, Sir William Ramsey, who went to this part of the world to trace Paul’s steps with the intention of proving it was not true.  By the time he finished his research he was a convinced believer and he wrote a well-known book “St. Paul the Traveler.”

But more importantly, Luke wants to show us, as with all his other journeys, how God was with Paul every step.

When the circumstances and storms of life come crashing in we learn from Paul how in the midst of seemingly hopeless situations, our hope is rooted in the trustworthiness of God.

Passage: Acts 26:24-32

Acts 26:24-25, Governor Festus, this is completely crazy.

This is a pastor’s nightmare.  You’re preaching along, really getting into the heart of your message when suddenly someone yells, “Pastor, you’re crazy.  You’re out of your mind.”

Paul was just warming up to his defense of the Gospel.  He was coming to the best part, the part he loved the most, the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  This was his passion, this is why he suffered all he suffered, this is what made all the suffering worth it.  This was the light for a dark world.

One wonders if as he became more passionate he might also have become more animated, moving and gesturing, chains clanging.

It appears Paul had more to say, but he was interrupted.  Festus had heard all he could stand.  And even though this is King Agrippa’s trial, Festus interrupts it.

Festus was a pagan Roman politician.  He was ignorant of Judaism and Christianity (25:19).  He was an atheist Festus with no categories for the possibility of a god breaking into our world.  This resurrection business was all a bunch of crazy talk, just religious superstition, not logical, not rational.

He was a materialist, this world is all there is, all you get.  He worshiped the idols of this world, money, sex, and power.  He was a hedonist who could not even begin to conceive of anyone choosing a life of suffering over a life of pleasure.  That’s just plain crazy.

Passage: Acts 26:12-23

Introduction.

Repetition in Scripture is always a sign of significance and importance.  There are not a lot of pages in God’s divine book so any pages spent repeating something is a call to pay special attention.  Paul’s conversion is told three times in the book of Acts.

This is one of the most famous conversions in the history of Christianity.  One scholar said after the death and resurrection of Jesus there is no other greater event in human history than the conversion to Christianity of Saul of Tarsus.  Another called him the second founder of Christianity.  Paul turned Christianity from a little Jewish sect into a world religion.

Without Paul’s conversion we would have no NT like we have.  We would be devoid of the depths of theology and doctrine revealed in Romans.  Our understanding of justification by faith and salvation by grace would be anemic.  Without Paul there would not be the conversions of Augustine, Luther or Wesley.  In fact, our conversion is tied to Paul’s conversion.

Paul wants King Agrippa to know his radical reversal from a devout Jew, violently persecuting believers in Jesus, to a devout Christian, fearlessly spreading the Gospel against all opposition, can only have one possible explanation.  Jesus of Nazareth who is the Christ appeared to him and commissioned him to be an apostle to take the Gospel to Gentiles.

Passage: Acts 25:23-26:11

Introduction.

The Bible is truly the most remarkable book ever written.  There is no other book like it, which stands to reason since it is written by God.  As you know the Bible is a

Detours.  Did any of you have to take a detour from your normal path to church?  I am not a fan of detours.  They interrupt my plans; they slow me down from getting where I want to go.

I had to take a detour off I-5 at Slater Road last week because traffic was backed up.  There have been several detours in Lynden this past summer, on Grover, on Badger and there is still one on Main.

But I shouldn’t be complaining.  Paul has been on a detour for over two years, and I don’t hear him complaining.  Have any of you been on a two-year detour you had not planned, not anticipated, didn’t see going?  Or maybe you feel like you are on a longer one?

Paul had a plan to carry the Gospel to Rome.  He had an idea of how and when he would do that.  And then he ran into a huge detour.  He was arrested on false charges and ended up going through several trials before a Roman tribune, a Jewish high priest, two governors Felix and Festus, and now before the king of Palestine, King Agrippa.

God thinks nothing of changing the course of history, and He thinks nothing of changing the course of our lives.  Actually, He does think about it and when He does it, it is because He has thought about it and has very good reasons for doing so.  Reasons related to redemption, to salvation, to bringing us to faith or increasing our faith, for our good; or to make us to be without excuse because of our lack of faith.

Detours and interruptions are all acts of God, God is always up to something, they are acts of God’s grace, reminding us our lives are not our own, we belong to God; or making us face our sin, or showing us our dependence on Him, how He wants to transform us some more.

Passage: Acts 25:1-12

Introduction.

The Bible is truly the most remarkable book ever written.  There is no other book like it, which stands to reason since it is written by God.  As you know the Bible is actually a library of 66 books.  Written over a period of 1600 years on two continents, in three languages, by 40 different authors from a wide range of backgrounds and educations, who wrote in a wide variety of genres.  There are histories, prophecies, poetry, wisdom literature, apocalyptic literature, letters and a new genre called Gospels.

All of this makes preaching the Bible an interesting challenge as you try to navigate and interpret all these different styles of writing.  The narrative or historical books have there own challenge.  The temptation that is easy to fall into is to just preach the facts, the events.  He did this and then this happened and then some more things happened.

When I come to a text like ours this morning I pray and I ask God to open His Word to me to understand not just what it meant then, but what it means now.  I am asking “so what?”  My concern is to get past just information to transformation, how does this speak to our consciences, how does this confront our sin, how does this strengthen our faith and encourage us in hope?

I will speak to each of those three things as we look at God’s Word given to us for our benefit.

Passage: Acts 24:22-27

Introduction.

A national survey was conducted revealing 97% of adults have experienced procrastination at one time or another.  They are still waiting for the other 3% to turn in their surveys.  Did you know National Procrastination Day is tomorrow, maybe.

Procrastination is something best put off until tomorrow.

Procrastinate now and panic later.

Someone has written, “Procrastination is my sin. It brings me nothing but sorrow. I know I should stop it. In fact, I will, tomorrow”. (Gloria Pitzer)

OK, enough procrastinating, lets get to this sermon about Paul and the procrastinator, Felix.