We've been going through this series in the book
of Acts, and we've been watching the church,
the Jesus church, this first century church in
the book of Acts, and we've seen this story kind
of unfold, the story of how God sent his son
Jesus to the earth to live a sinless life, to
teach a better way, to exemplify a better way,
to die on a cross and then to rise from the grave.
And as Jesus leaves the earth, he gives a job.
Go tell everybody. Go tell everybody what I did
for you. Go tell everybody what has been done
and what will be done. And so they do. They start
telling anybody that will listen the good news.
And because they go and tell everybody, the number
of disciples in the area starts to multiply so
much so that it begins taking over this entire
region of the world. And now we, 2 ,000 years
later, are the beneficiaries of those people
telling everybody. And so they do what Jesus
commanded. And because they do what Jesus commanded,
a revival breaks out. But even in that revival,
there is opposition because the church wouldn't
stop. See, they were... They were challenging
the ways of society. They were living in radical
community. They were challenging the status quo.
They were making people rethink how they view
relationships, how they view wealth, how they
view health, and how they view their lives. And
this is a threat. This is a threat to the Roman
Empire. And so because of this threat, the church
is hated. Christians are hated. These followers
of this guy named Jesus who had just been killed,
they're hated. But they don't. stop preaching.
The religious establishment hates them. The Roman
Empire hates them. Anybody who wanted power,
anybody who wanted control, or just simply wanted
the world to be content to stay in its sin hates
the church. And ultimately, what this all boils
down to is that what the church was doing was
a direct attack on Satan's empire. And Satan
felt like he had to put a stop to it. But he
couldn't. And he couldn't put a stop to it because
as we've said a few times throughout this series
and as the whole point of this series has been,
if something is a movement of God, nothing can
stop it. No power of hell, no scheme of man,
there is nothing that can stop what God wants
to do. His will will be done. Now, we've recapped.
If you've got all that, I need you to tell me
you got it. Okay, good. So now today, as we close
this series, we land in Acts chapter 29. So I
want you to go ahead and turn there. And while
you do that, I want to give you a little bit
of a warning up front. If you've never read the
end of the book of Acts, and you love a good
ending, like if you love reading, you love stories,
and you love a good ending, you might be a little
frustrated with the ending of the book of Acts.
Because Acts doesn't really end. It just kind
of stops. I want you to think about this. Luke,
he's a doctor. He's a very detail -oriented guy.
He tells us at the beginning of his gospel account
that he set out to investigate everything so
that he could carefully write an orderly account
of the work of Jesus in this world. And Luke
is writing this book of Acts, and you've got
to imagine that the same detail -oriented guy
is doing the same exact thing. Yet when we get
to the last page of Acts, there seems to be no
real ending. There's no verdict. We aren't told
about Paul's ending. We're not told about what
happened to the church after that. In fact, by
now, you've probably realized and you're sitting
there confused because there is no Acts 29. It
just ends with verse 31 in Acts 28. You see,
all of these chapters are building on this incredible
story. There's these character arcs and there's
this development of the church and you see the
mission progress. And then Luke just kind of
walks away from the typewriter or whatever they
wrote with back then. And it just ends. Now,
some people might read that and say, well, maybe
he wrote everything that he felt he needed to
write. Maybe he wrote all that his brain had
held of information. Maybe he wrote everything
he knew and then he stopped. Well, this morning
I want us to consider it another way. I want
us to look at it like maybe Luke ended this book
exactly the way the Holy Spirit wanted it to
end. And by the end of today's lesson, I want
you to hopefully you'll see why that comma -like
ending, like this run -on sentence, might be
more important than we've given it credit for.
But first, I want to set the stage. So at this
point, Paul has been on his missionary journey
somewhere between 25 and 30 years. He's been
all over the map. He's taught thousands of people.
He's planted hundreds of churches all over the
known world. And like the church, Paul has been
persecuted this entire time. He went from persecutor
to persecuted. And he's in this spot now in Acts
28 where he's under house arrest in Rome. And
I want you to look what he does while on house
arrest in verses 16 through 20. If it's underlined,
I would love for you to read along with me. And
when we came into Rome, Paul was allowed to stay
by himself with the soldier who guarded him.
After three days, he called together the local
leaders of the Jews, and when they had gathered,
he said to them, Brothers, 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.
When they had examined me, they wished to set
me at liberty because there was no reason for
the death penalty in my case. But because the
Jews objected, I was compelled to appeal to Caesar,
though I had no charge to bring against my nation.
For this reason, therefore, I have asked to see
you and speak with you, since it is because of
the hope of Israel that I am wearing this chain.
So Paul, under house arrest, calls a meeting
with the Jewish leaders because the Jewish leaders
in Jerusalem were the ones that wanted to kill
him. Just like they did with Jesus, they make
him stand trial. They're trying to trump up the
charges against him so that there is no question
he is going to die. But the government, they're
like, well, we can't really kill him. And if
you remember the story of Jesus' crucifixion,
the government didn't see any reason to kill
him. I mean, Pilate looks at it and he's like,
I don't have any reason to kill this man. And
this is the same thing that happens to Paul.
They can't find a reason to kill him, but they
can put him in chains. And so they put Paul in
chains. He ends up on a ship. He goes to Rome
after a shipwreck. There's a whole story there.
I would love for you to go read that. But I want
you to notice when Paul calls these Jewish leaders
together, he isn't calling them together to testify
about his own innocence. Paul's not calling them
together to say, let me tell you why I shouldn't
be in chains. Let me tell you why what they were
trying to do to me was inaccurate. Let me tell
you why there is some injustice going on here
and I'm not being treated fairly. No, Paul doesn't
do that. What he calls them together to do is
not testify about his own innocence, but to testify
about the goodness of Christ. I want you to look
at verse 20 again. It is because of the hope
of Israel that I'm wearing this chain. What Paul
says is, it's not by anything that I have really
done that was wrong. It's because of Jesus, the
good news that the Messiah has come, the hope
of Israel. That's Jesus. The Messiah has come.
And Israel, the Jews, they felt if we can't kill
him, we can at least have him in chains. But
I need to ask you a question. What does Paul
do with his chains? And maybe a question for
you is what do you do with your chains? When
the world is trying to pin charges against you,
when you feel injustice, when you feel like things
aren't going right, when you feel the schemes
of Satan attacking your life. And let me just
clarify, every difficulty, every pain, every
sorrow we face in this life is a scheme of Satan.
And so I ask you, what do you do? when Satan
attacks. Because Paul doesn't just sit in his
chains in sorrow. What Paul does is he turns
his chains into a pulpit. Or as it says on the
screen, he turns his prison into a pulpit. He
starts... He uses this inconvenience. He uses
this injustice. He uses this pain as a platform
to proclaim the good news. And I'm just curious,
how many of us would keep preaching the same
gospel that got us put into chains? How many
of us would keep preaching the same message that
is getting our lives put in danger over and over
and over again? Paul, he faces this persecution.
The church faces this persecution over and over
and over again, but they keep preaching. They
keep doing the same thing. You know, we call
that insanity when you do the same thing over
and over again and get the same results. So I
guess you could say Paul was kind of crazy about
Jesus. That was a joke. Insanity, crazy, I knew
that one wasn't going to land, but I'm glad you
laughed anyways. Paul was crazy about Jesus and
I'm not, like that's not, like that's serious.
It's a joke, but it's serious. He's crazy about
this good news message so much so that he has
to keep talking about it. He has no choice but
to proclaim what Jesus has done for him because
it is so powerful. And so he keeps preaching
regardless of circumstances. And this piques
the curiosity of the Jewish leaders. And so they
set up a time to come back and hear Paul out.
And so now we look at verses 23 through 24. When
they had appointed a day for him, they came to
him at his lodging in greater numbers from morning
till evening. He expounded to them, testifying
to the kingdom of God and trying to convince
them about Jesus, both from the law of Moses
and from the prophets. And some were convinced
by what he said, but others disbelieved. I just
love this image I have in my head of Paul chained
to a prison guard, walking these Jewish leaders
through the scriptures that they would have known
better than we know our Bibles. Like there is
nobody in this room except maybe Truman that
knows their Bible as good as these Jewish leaders.
And so they know the scriptures. And Paul is
saying, hey, you remember that time? Well, that
was pointing to Jesus. Hey, do you remember when
God said that was pointing to Jesus? Do you remember
when the prophecies told us this would happen?
happened. That was pointing to Jesus. From morning
till evening. See, y 'all would have me thrown
in a real prison if I got up here and started
preaching from morning until evening. You would
start getting stuff to throw at me or you would
drag me off the stage. But what Paul does is
he takes his time and he walks them through the
scriptures telling them about every promise,
every prophecy, every moment of Israel's story,
every moment where God stepped in, how it was
leading to the cross and an empty tomb. And some
believed because how could you not? But as the
scripture tells us, some didn't. And that's just
how it goes. We're not going to convince everybody.
But again, regardless of the circumstances, regardless
of the fruit that comes from it, Paul never stopped
preaching. Nor did he ever soften the message
so that it could be a little more accessible.
He didn't do what he felt like he needed to do
to make it more appealing or decide that the
gospel needed a rebrand or a marketing team.
He just kept preaching the word. Which brings
us to the last two verses of the chapter, verses
30 and 31. He lived there two whole years at
his own expense and welcomed all who came to
him, proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching
about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness
and without hindrance. And that's it. That's
the end of the book of Acts. That's the end of
Luke's recording of the history, the movement
of God through these first century Christians.
The ending is just Paul welcoming everybody who
would come to his door, welcoming anybody that
would sit on his porch, sit in his living room
and listen to the word, welcoming them to preach
the kingdom with all boldness and without hindrance.
I'm no Greek scholar, but I love learning the
meaning of words, and so I wanted to do some
digging. Do you know what the Greek for that
last phrase, without hindrance, translates to?
Anybody know? Anybody? No Greek scholars in the
room? Okay, I'm going to blow your mind with
this one. Without hindrance simply means without
hindrance. It just means nothing could stop it.
Nothing could keep it from going forward. Nothing
could put it on hold. Nothing could put it down.
It just kept going without being hindered. The
word Luke chose to close 28 chapters of church
history is simply unhindered. Now, if you've
got that, can you say unhindered? Nothing blocking
it, nothing stopping it, nothing killing it because
you can't. And now think about everything we've
seen in the book of Acts. Apostles arrested and
beaten, but the word spreads unhindered. Deacons
like Stephen stoned to death, but the gospel
spreads. Riots, beatings, a shipwreck, prisons.
And now Paul sits in chains in the capital city
of the most powerful empire on earth, and the
last word of the story is, it just kept going.
Here's the truth. They can chain the preacher,
but they cannot chain the word. There's a song
by this band called Unspoken, and the song is
called Bury the Workman. And in it, the lines
go, they can... silence the voices, but they
can't stop the song. They can bury the workmen,
but the work will go on. When the spirit is moving
and there is work to be done, you can bury the
workmen, but the work will go on. And see what
we see with Paul is that though he is in chains,
though he is in prison, the proclaiming of the
gospel will go on. As Paul says himself in 2
Timothy, I am suffering, bound with chains as
a criminal, but the word of God is not bound.
It goes on. Rome, the Jews, Satan, through everything
it had at this movement, and after all of it,
Luke picks up his pen and he writes his final
word over the whole story, unhindered. In 28
chapters, over 30 plus years, nothing on the
outside ever stopped it. Not prisons, politics,
or persecution. And y 'all, nothing on the outside
can stop it now. 2 ,000 years later, the empire
that chained Paul is a pile of rubble, a pile
of ruins that people pay to go see. But think
about where we are now. We are not a history
of what was. We are a history of what God is
continuing to do. In fact, it seems like in this
nation that's been here for 200 years, and 50
years, every 50 years, God decides to just explode
this movement and a revival breaks out. Well,
can you guess what year we are on right now?
Year 50 since the Jesus movement, which tells
me we've got some proclaiming to do because God
wants to do something special right now. The
movement cannot be stopped if it is a movement
of God. But now I have to ask another hard question,
the question we've been getting at throughout
this whole series, and I promise this isn't a
joke. What's stopping us? If there is no external
power that could ever hinder the gospel, if there
is nothing out there that could stop the gospel
from being proclaimed, then what is hindering
it now? What is stopping us from exploding these
church buildings to where they're at capacity
every Sunday where people are having to stand
out in the parking lot just hoping to hear the
word of God? Because none of us in this room
are going to be arrested for proclaiming the
good news. None of us are going to be dragged
before a council, lose our home, or be run out
of town for hosting a Bible study. There is no
external factors that should be keeping us from
proclaiming the word of God. So what is stopping
us? If Paul can preach with chains on his wrist,
meanwhile we have complete freedom, yet sometimes
it seems like the gospel, it kind of moves through
our lives slower than it moves through his prison.
How does that happen? How does a people that
have the freedom that we have, that we talk about,
that we celebrate, we have the freedom that we
have to proclaim the gospel without fear of persecution,
how is it then that our churches, and I'm not
just talking about this church, but any church
that professes the good news of Christ, how is
it that we are not exploding? I think it happens
because what Rome couldn't do from the outside,
we can do on the inside. To put it simply, comfort
can hinder us in ways that chains never could.
Drifting... can hinder us in ways that dungeons
never could. Distractions can hinder us in ways
that death threats never could. I think Satan
learned this along the way. I think he realized
when he saw that persecution in the Roman Empire
didn't work, when he saw that putting people
in prison and dragging them out in the streets
and murdering them in front of their followers
didn't work, he saw the American Empire and said,
oh, let me change strategies. I don't need to
throw physical chains on you. I just need to
make you comfortable. I don't need to threaten
you into silence. I just need to keep you busy
enough, entertained enough, distracted enough
that you will never open your mouth and think
about proclaiming the good news. See, Satan realized
he doesn't need to burn our Bibles or tear down
our churches. He just needs our Bibles to stay
closed on the nightstand, and he just needs our
churches to stay in these four walls. The question
this morning isn't whether anything out there
can stop the gospel. We know nothing can. The
question is whether the gospel will move through
us or around us. Because one thing I know to
be true is when God wants the gospel to spread,
when he wants revival to happen, it is going
to happen. We just have to ask, are we going
to be a part of it? Are we going to be the people
that look at it and say, They're probably doing
something wrong. You ever think about that? Like
when churches are growing like crazy, like there's
a church in Atlanta, I've mentioned it before,
that is growing like crazy. Like they are at
the point now where they are filling out, like
there's a line out the door, down the sidewalk,
because people just can't wait to get in and
listen to the word be preached to worship with
these people. And we look at it and we're like,
well, they've got to be doing something wrong.
There's no way a church can grow like that and
still be teaching the truth. But what we see
throughout, history is that that absolutely can
happen. And it does happen that the word of God
revival will happen, whether we want it to or
not. And it doesn't always have to be scandalous.
And so again, I ask, are we going to be a part
of the revival? Are we going to stand on the
outside and say, Hmm, something suspect about
that because God's mission is not in danger.
It is going to advance either way. We just have
to ask, is the Blairsville Church of Christ going
to be a part of it? Which brings me to a point,
the point that we started this morning with,
of why does Acts just seem to stop? Well, history
says Paul was eventually executed under Nero.
And Luke certainly could have told us how the
story for Paul ends, but he didn't. Could it
be because Acts wasn't supposed to be Paul's
biography? The book wasn't about him. Could it
be that it's not about Peter? It's not about
these first disciples? I want you to go back
to the very first verse of the book of Acts where
Luke says in the first book of Theophilus, he's
referring to his gospel, the gospel of Luke,
I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do
and teach. Key words, Jesus began. Acts is not
the story of these people. Acts is the story
of what Jesus began to do and is continuing to
do through his spirit, through his church. Not
only is it not about Paul, it's not about any
of them. It doesn't say all that the apostles
began. It says Jesus began. And also... I believe
there is no ending, no real good ending to this
story because you cannot write an ending to a
story that is not finished. It's not over. God
didn't stop working in the first century. God
didn't stop moving through people way back then.
He is still moving. Luke didn't run out of ink.
The story just isn't finished. Acts 29 doesn't
exist on paper because it's written in lives.
It's written in communities, states, nations
being transformed. And we, the church, have the
chance to live out the next chapter of what Jesus
began to do 2 ,000 years ago. We are, at least
we can be, the 29th chapter of Jesus' work. And
that's why we've been studying Acts, so that
we can see what the church has been and what
it can be. Like you can think about your prime,
right? You can think about, you know, when you
were in high school and you were good looking
and you had everything going for you. Maybe you
had a nice fast car. You were the captain of
whatever sports team you were on. You had all
A's and now you just work like a normal nine
to five and you're just kind of out and about
and you've got back pain and it doesn't feel
like you've got anything hot going on. You're
just kind of going. We can think about what has
been, but guess what? Like for us in these physical
bodies, there's not a whole lot of upside. Like
we have peaked. Okay, well, maybe some of you,
you're aging like fine wine, but me, I have peaked.
There's no up from here. But for the church,
we don't look at what has been and say, well,
the church peaked. No, no, no. The church is
just getting started. The movement of God is
just getting started because there are billions
of people out there that still need to have the
gospel proclaimed to them. They still need to
have their lives transformed. Let me tell you
about something that happened just last month
that was kind of interesting that I found. In
1882, in Barcelona, Spain, construction began
on a church building called the Sagrada Familia.
And I hope I said that right. If there's anybody
in here that speaks Spanish, correct me. The
architect, Antoni Gaudi, devoted his life to
it, knowing from the very beginning that he would
never live to see it finished. And somebody once
asked him about the timeline of this, and Gotti
reportedly answered, my client is not in a hurry.
His client was God. You see, Gotti worked on
the building for over 40 years before he died
in 1926. And he had only lived long enough and
worked long enough to see one of the 18 towers
of this church completed. But the work didn't
stop. See, generation after generation of architects
and builders, they picked up where Gaudi left
off, and they kept building. They built through
a civil war. They built through a world war.
They built through funding collapses and a pandemic.
And through all of that, the work continued.
144 years later, the church was completed. Just
last month, this church was completed, standing
as the world's tallest church building. And one
more detail that I don't want to leave out is
that Gaudi deliberately designed that tower to
stand one meter shorter than the mountain beside
Barcelona because he did not want this church
to rise above what God had created. As he would
have said, the work of man should never rise
higher than the work of God. And I just think
that is a beautiful thing, that we never get
so full of ourselves that we think we can do
something bigger than God. But our story is even
better than the one of this church because the
church that Jesus is building isn't made out
of wood. It's not made out of stone. No man designed
it. The magnificent building in Spain is beautiful,
but one day it will crumble. And one day it will
be nothing but dust. Everything made by human
hands is going to end up as ruins. Like I said,
the very empire that imprisoned Paul is now...
And this empire that we live in today and we
celebrate the freedoms and the goodness that
it is, this will all end one day. This will all
be in ruins one day. But the kingdom of God will
stand. As Jesus said, I will build my church
and the gates of hell shall not prevail against
it. There is nothing, no Rome, no hell itself,
nothing that can bring the kingdom of God to
ruins. Because the church isn't built out of
stones that man stacks together. It is built
out of souls that only God can save. And souls
are the only material in this world that will
last into eternity. Which means every sentence
that we write in Acts 29, every person you share
the gospel with, every kid you teach in a Bible
class, every neighbor you love towards Jesus,
every prayer, every act of faithfulness, everything
we do, none of it will ever crumble. In fact,
it will have an eternal impact. Paul says it
plainly in 1 Corinthians 15, verse 58. Therefore,
my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable,
always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing
that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. It's
not in vain. The stonemasons in Barcelona, they
laid stone for a tower that they would never
see finished. that they would never get to experience
all of its beauty. And you and I are laying living
stones into a temple that we will get to see
finished. Maybe not on this side of eternity,
but on the other side. So what do we do? Over
the last few weeks, I feel like God has been
exposing who we are and who he's calling us to
be. And so what I'm asking us as a family is
what would it look like if... Every single one
of us, individually and communally, if we all
responded to this series in a way that reflects
what we've learned from the book of Acts, in
a way that did show radical community, in a way
that did show radical generosity and charity,
a way that was ultra -inclusive, in a way that
was so different that the world looks at us and
says there is something supernatural among those
people. There is something divine about them.
This does not make sense. but we want some of
it. What if we responded to the book of Acts
in that way? Because that's who the early church
was, and that's our spiritual bloodline. The
question is, are we going to act like it? See,
I don't want us to be a church that just studies
Acts. Churches study Scripture. They read Scripture.
Guys like me get up and talk about Scripture.
But churches all over the place just don't live
Scripture. I want us to be a church that looks
like the church in the book of Acts. And I do
need to say something just to be clear. If we
do that, people are going to think we're weird.
And if we do that, it may make some of us uncomfortable.
If we do that, people will look at us and say,
there's something wrong with those people. Guess
what? I'm okay if the world thinks I'm crazy.
My wife thinks I'm crazy. People think we're
crazy just because we gather here on Sunday mornings.
We got more work to do. And we should be okay
if they think we are insane for Jesus. And so
now as we close this series, I want to bring
you back to Paul's living room in Rome one last
time. In verse 30, it says, Paul welcomed all
who came to him. All. I don't know if you know
this, but all means all. Skeptics, seekers, Jews,
Gentiles, soldiers, slaves, nobodies, somebodies,
elites, wealthy, poor, all who came. And this
morning, anyone who walks through the doors of
this church building should be welcome to hear
the gospel proclaimed and have their lives transformed
by Jesus Christ. And I believe that welcome does
stand in this church family. And so maybe you're
here today and you've never obeyed the gospel.
Maybe you've been watching the story from the
outside. You've heard about this Jesus who lived
this life that you could never live, that I could
never live, that died the death that our sins
deserved. And then he rose from a grave to prove
that he can raise you from the grave too. The
good news that was unhindered in Rome is unhindered
in this room right now. The only thing standing
between it and you is you. And the response today
is the same one that Peter gave on the very first
day of this story in Acts 2 .38. Repent and be
baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus
Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you
will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. That's
how you step into the story. That's how you put
your name on the page. The story that started
back in Acts 2 with 3 ,000 people in the waters
of baptism. And maybe you're here today and you've
already been baptized. You're already a Christian,
but somewhere along the way you did start to
drift. You got off course. Somehow you allowed
the good news to be hindered in you. Well, I
need you to hear me when I say that the God who
was constantly working in Acts is ready to work
on... in and through you too today. And so today,
whether you need to step into the story for the
first time, or you need to make sure that you're
part of the story is what God intends for it
to be, whatever you need, whether it's to repent,
to be renewed, to ask this family to pray over
you, because let me tell you, our story, this
story is not finished yet. It is just a question
of what does our part of it look like? But the
story is not finished. So for all of us, I ask,
what's next in Acts 29? What's next in the story
of the church? The story that Jesus began. So
this morning, if you need to respond, whether
it's for baptism, whether it's for restoration,
whether it's for prayer, whatever it is that
you need, we invite you to come now.