Paul's Ministry In Rome
Book of Acts Chapter 28
The Apostle Paul made it to Rome simply because the Lord God of all creation decided that Paul would be a witness for the Lord Jesus Christ in Rome.
The Book to the Roman Christian Church had been written three years before the arrival of the Apostle Paul.
Many people wanted to see the man who wrote this great epistle.
Of course we know that it was the Holy Spirit who gave Paul the scriptures to use.
2Pe 1:20 Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.
2Pe 1:21 For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
Many times Paul had to dictate the words that were written down by some other Christian.
Paul was treated with respect probably because Julius the Roman Centurion had been saved by the advice of Paul during that great storm.
Paul was bound by one chain to one guard but allowed to stay in a house that was rented for him.
Paul used every opportunity to spread the gospel even to the many guards as they relieved each other.
No doubt Paul was well known to the Roman guards also because of the things that happened on this trip to Rome.
**How did Paul reach Rome? It was because of his faith in the truth of the Lord Jesus Christ!
**It was an answer to his prayers!
This may seem a strange way for God to answer a prayer, but the ways of God are unknown to the world.
Isa_55:8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.
The promise of God was much more than just fulfilled. Paul had much to witness through his trials and his work to get there.
Paul had been through great trials, but he had been saved by great deliverances from those trials.
Paul had written:
Rom 1:13 Now I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that oftentimes I purposed to come unto you, (but was let hitherto,) that I might have some fruit among you also, even as among other Gentiles.
Rom 1:14 I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise.
Rom 1:15 So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also.
Rom 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
Rom 1:17 For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.
The story of Paul's imprisonment had gone before him.
Rom 1:9 For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers;
Rom 1:10 Making request, if by any means now at length I might have a prosperous journey by the will of God to come unto you.
Rom 1:11 For I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift, to the end ye may be established;
Paul had made that prosperous journey.
Notice that this was not a onetime prayer, but Paul prayed without ceasing.
We should notice that the Church was already established in Rome before Paul got there.
*****Act 28:14 Where we found brethren, and were desired to tarry with them seven days: and so we went toward Rome.
Act 28:15 And from thence, when the brethren heard of us, they came to meet us as far as Appii forum, and The three taverns: whom when Paul saw, he thanked God, and took courage.
Act 28:16 And when we came to Rome, the centurion delivered the prisoners to the captain of the guard: but Paul was suffered to dwell by himself with a soldier that kept him.
Paul was anxious for his fellow Christians to be exposed to the dangers that are out in the world.
Those dangers to Christians still exist today!
According to records, Paul arrived in Rome in the spring of A.D. 61, and he dwelt two years in his own rented house and it seems that Paul went back to the mission field again and his beheading came at a later date.
After three days’ rest, Paul called the chief of the Jews to his residence.
We should be able to see that there is nothing and no one in this world that can stop the spread of the Gospel.
It is our Holy God who will decide if the Gospel has gone to all the places, He has intended for it to go!
*****Act 28:17 And it came to pass, that after three days Paul called the chief of the Jews together: and when they were come together, he said unto them, Men and brethren, though I have committed nothing against the people, or customs of our fathers, yet was I delivered prisoner from Jerusalem into the hands of the Romans.
The Apostle Paul had entered Rome, the then capitol of the world, as a prisoner.
His first step was to contact the Jewish religious leadership.
Paul turns himself for the last time to his Jewish people with an explanation.
For the rest of his short life he reached out only to the Gentiles!
Paul wanted them to know that under Roman Law, he was innocent, and he was not charged for breaking Roman laws.
Paul said he had not committed any wrong against the nation of Israel and he would be free if not for false accusations.
Paul had been dealt an injustice by his own nation, just because he believed in the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, and he believed in the truth of all the Scriptures.
Paul had a great desire to reach Rome, to evangelize this wicked city, but mainly to ensure the spiritual growth of the Christian Church.
Discipleship seems to be the missing ingredient in most churches today, along with worldly compromise coming from the pulpits of most churches.
It was not much different in the days of the Apostle Paul; it is just more widespread.
We should notice that even after the ordeal Paul had been through, he still did not rest but went straight into the work of the Lord.
**We could say that Paul's coming to Rome was an answer to Paul's prayers.
Paul was a prisoner in the company of criminals.
The story of Paul's imprisonment had gone before him from this came sympathy from God's children.
Some powerful Roman officials now had great regard for the Apostle Paul, including Julius the Centurion and many soldiers.
Paul had now experienced the truth of God's promises and we all should take notice.
Paul had shared the Gospel of Jesus Christ while this terrible trip was taking place.
Paul was an innocent man seeking only to please God.
Notice how much that Paul tried to be like the Lord Jesus who was also innocent of all charges, who spent all his days reveling the Gospel and the truth of God, because he is God.
In those first three days Paul had secured a private home even still being bound to a Roman soldier.
He had now had his meeting with the Jewish leaders in Rome and gave his testimony.
*****Act 28:18 Who, when they had examined me, would have let me go, because there was no cause of death in me.
Act 28:19 But when the Jews spake against it, I was constrained to appeal unto Caesar; not that I had ought to accuse my nation of.
Act 28:20 For this cause therefore have I called for you, to see you, and to speak with you: because that for the hope of Israel I am bound with this chain.
Paul knew how valuable it would be for a Christian presence in Rome.
From Jerusalem came the Law of God.
From Rome came the law of Satan.
Some say that this is still true.
You have to make your own personal trip to the cross of Jesus to understand these things.
Paganism still has a long reach but so does the Gospel and the Gospel will go to where God intends it, and the Gospel will succeed in the way God intends it.
Everyone will get an opportunity to hear the truth of the Gospel because this is the will of God!
We are all called to be witnesses for the Lord Jesus Christ in this evil world that is not getting better but just the opposite, it is getting worse.
Can the Gospel change the world? Sure it can, but Satan has a strangle hold on this world and he is in his own last days, and he is spreading more evil and more wickedness and even more immorality, before his time expires and he is locked away for a thousand years.
This world should stop long enough to witness the truth of God unfold day by day, but the lies of climate change along with the immorality of the homosexuals and the transgender movement, and the threat of war and the collapse of the monetary systems keeps the world rulers occupied.
Satan is a defeated foe, but no one ever said the Devil was stupid.
Paul was an innocent man and Paul defended himself before a Jerusalem mob, a chief captain of Rome, the Sanhedrin Court, Felix, Festus, King Agrippa II and now the Jews of Rome.
How did these Jews respond?
*****Act 28:21 And they said unto him, We neither received letters out of Judaea concerning thee, neither any of the brethren that came shewed or spake any harm of thee.
Act 28:22 But we desire to hear of thee what thou thinkest: for as concerning this sect, we know that every where it is spoken against.
Act 28:23 And when they had appointed him a day, there came many to him into his lodging; to whom he expounded and testified the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus, both out of the law of Moses, and out of the prophets, from morning till evening.
Paul received an open invitation to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
It was the Lord Jesus Christ who had brought the Kingdom of God to Earth, just so He could take all believers to Heaven to present them to His Heavenly Father.
Mat 9:35 And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.
Mat 9:36 But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd.
Mat 9:37 Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few;
Mat 9:38 Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.
Mat 10:7 And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand.
The Apostle Paul was just one of those laborers!
Paul focused his preaching on the Word of God alone.
There is nothing in this world that can be used to save the soul of the lost except its wickedness!
What truth is the Gospel based upon?
1Co 15:3 For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;
1Co 15:4 And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:
Paul preached that it was the same Lord Jesus who would return to take His children home to Heaven.
As are normal, some believed the Word of God, and some rejected the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Joh 3:18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
Joh 3:19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
As they began to leave. Paul could not allow them to leave without a warning from the same truths of the Word of God.
*****Act 28:24 And some believed the things which were spoken, and some believed not.
Act 28:25 And when they agreed not among themselves, they departed, after that Paul had spoken one word, Well spake the Holy Ghost by Esaias the prophet unto our fathers,
Act 28:26 Saying, Go unto this people, and say, Hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and not perceive:
Act 28:27 For the heart of this people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed; lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.
Act 28:28 Be it known therefore unto you, that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles, and that they will hear it.
Act 28:29 And when he had said these words, the Jews departed, and had great reasoning among themselves.
We see the same things that happen today. Some people believe and some do not and there is no third choice.
Notice how Paul speaks with the same thoughts that God had given to Isaiah.
One of those thoughts reads:
Isa_49:6 And he said, It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth.
What was wrong with these elders and those members of the Sanhedrin Court?
They heard the Word of God every Sabbath, but they did not try to understand what God was saying and none of the elders tried to explain it to them.
Only in the time of Ezra do we read where he made sense of the Word of God.
Remember the Jews had killed most all of God's prophets because they rejected the truth of Jehovah God.
We need to take the time to study the Word of God ourselves and to study is much more than to just read the Bible.
Notice how Paul tells these people that it is the Holy Ghost who gave Isaiah the words he had written.
What was the biggest problem with these Jews?
Their hearts had waxed gross!
These people had become so involved in carnal and temporal things they had become hardened to the Divine and Spiritual things.
We can see again that nothing has really changed in nearly two thousand years.
Even, here in the Bible Belt, we know that many have become dull to hearing the Word of God and I am sure the patience of the Lord is wearing thin and when His patience reaches a certain amount, He will return to take His Church out of this world.
2Pe_3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
Then Paul said to these Jews, if you will not believe what the Lord has said, then the Word of God would go to the Gentiles and many of them would believe.
Paul said this is one part of the Bible you had better understand because your salvation depends upon it!
These Jews could not understand that Jehovah Himself had proclaimed that His ministers were to turn to the Gentiles when the Jews would not listen.
This was not something new, God had made the Word of God to be understood before He began His creating of this universe.
This is something the Holy Trinity had decided before time began!
Look in the Book of Genesis for the words "let us" and see that the Holy Trinity was been involved in the truth of God since our Creation.
Paul simply told these Jews that the Prophet Isaiah, a prophet these Jews admired, had written that these things would happen so, now the Jews only include a portion of the Book of Isaiah in their own Scriptures.
This is also the same today. People just remove the parts of the Bible they refuse to believe, how foolish!
You see if the Gospel cannot touch the heart, then it will not be accepted.
These people had a heart of rock and not a heart that could be reached by the true Rock, the Lord Jesus Christ.
It is from the heart that this grossness reaches the mind.
Jer_17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
Anyone who willfully rejects the truth of Jehovah experiences a judicial blindness and rejection by Jehovah.
All those who deliberately choose to remain blind to the truth of God and who reject the Lord's understanding are given over to a justified punishment which is also written down in the Bible.
When you reject any part of the Word of God you will be rejected by the Writer who is God Holy Spirit.
Gen 6:3 And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.
God gave Noah 120 years to preach to the world but not one was saved beyond Noah's own family!
Not much of the world is listening to the Word of God today!
Those days of Noah are upon us again today.
Mat_24:37 But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
Luk_17:26 And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man.
There is nothing stronger than these things that are said in the Scriptures.
Why is the Lord Jesus Christ rejected?
1) Hardening their hearts to the truth.
2) Deafening their ears to the truth.
2) Closing their eyes to the truth.
2Th 2:12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
Psa 52:3 Thou lovest evil more than good; and lying rather than to speak righteousness.
The Lord Jesus explained it this way:
Joh 3:18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
Joh 3:19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
Joh 3:20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.
Joh 3:21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.
It is tragic that the Word of God is so easily rejected by those who believe what the world is saying, when few politicians will even get near the truth themselves.
*****Act 28:30 And Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house, and received all that came in unto him,
Act 28:31 Preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, with all confidence, no man forbidding him.
Though these things bothered the Apostle Paul, he continued to serve the Lord.
Paul received anyone who wanted to know the truth, but it was also during this time that Paul, by the same Holy Spirit as Isaiah, authored more books of the New Testament.
Till the day Paul died he preached the coming of the kingdom of God and all things concerning the Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul was confident that the message of the Gospel is all we need to reach Heaven's Gates.
No one in Rome at this time tried to stop the Apostle Paul from preaching the Gospel.
Most of the Jews wanted nothing to do with Paul and the Lord Jesus Christ that he preached.
All those Jews now are believers because they are in the Hell that is also the truth of the Gospel along with all unbelievers at that time.
Everyone in Hell now fully believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but it is too late for them.
Paul spent as much time making disciples as he did preach the Gospel. This is something that seems to be forgotten today in most churches.
The Book of Acts began with a few believers and this hand full of believers continued to serve the Lord, and the Gospel had now made it to the Capital City of the entire world.
Sometimes the Gospel has flown freely and sometimes the Gospel has been silently counterfeited by false teachers who have infiltrated the Church.
The Word of God is sometimes added to and sometimes parts of it have been deleted.
The Gospel has never been stopped and neither is this possible!
Mortal man cannot stop the Word of God.
If we open the Word of God today, we can see how it perfectly describes this world we live in today.
Believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ and be saved!
Reject the Gospel and see the wrath of the All-Powerful God.
Amen
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