Day 40: Acts 28:1-31

Paul has finally arrived in Rome, just as the Lord had declared: “As you have testified about me in Jerusalem, so you must also testify in Rome” (23:11).

Unlike other places where Paul would share the gospel with the goal of establishing a church, Rome already had a community of believers. Paul had penned the epistle to the Romans several years earlier. In Romans 15:29 Paul expresses his desire to visit them: “I know that when I come to you I will come in the fullness of Christ’s blessing.” So, we should not be surprised to read in Acts 28:15 that some of them greeted Paul upon his arrival.

There is also another significant difference in the way Paul spent his time in Rome. He was still a prisoner, but he did not have to share a cell with others. Instead he was assigned a soldier who would guard him while he was under house arrest.

Paul had his own digs which must have been quite spacious, because when the local Jewish leaders “came to him at his lodgings in great numbers” (v. 23), there was enough room for them all.

What do you do when you’re in Rome, if you’re the apostle Paul? You take advantage of every opportunity to bring others to Jesus. Duh! Paul begins with the Jewish leadership. He spends a whole day “trying to convince them about Jesus both from the law of Moses and from the prophets.”

The results were no different from any other place where Paul preached the gospel. “Some were convinced by what he had said, while others refused to believe.” (v. 24). But that does not deter him. He simply turns his attention to the Gentiles.

Here is what Paul has to say about this stay in Rome in Philippians 1:12-14: “I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that my situation has actually turned out to advance the gospel: The whole imperial guard and everyone else knows that I am in prison for the sake of Christ, and most of the brothers and sisters, having confidence in the Lord because of my imprisonment, now more than ever dare to speak the word fearlessly.”

Did these efforts produce fruit? If this reference at the end of an epistle is any indication, the answer is a big resounding YES! “All the saints greet you, especially those who belong to Caesar’s household.” (Philippians 4:22).

Oh, by the way, did you notice that Paul did something else with his time in Rome? That’s right. He wrote letters to the churches he had established along the way. The so-called “Prison Epistles”—Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians and Philemon—emerged from his house arrest.

There is a sense in which we, who are part of the Church today, also find ourselves in “Rome.”  We too may feel that we are under the watchful eyes of those in power or those who are opposed to us, at times. Yet, for the most part, we, like Paul, have the great privilege of “proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance.” (v. 31). We get the same spectrum of responses as Paul did too!

Are we taking advantage of this window of opportunity the way Paul did with the two years that he was given? He made every attempt that he possibly could to fulfil the mandate Jesus gave us all to be his witnesses (Acts 1:8) and “make disciples of the nations.” (Matthew 28:19-20). He did this through personal contact, in small groups and by his writing.

I sense Holy Spirit saying to all of us, as we conclude this 40 Day walk through the book of Acts and the corresponding Fast: “When in Rome, do as the apostle did.”

Some of you who are reading this need to write the books that you’ve been putting off until now within the next two years. And all of us need to “proclaim the kingdom of God and teach about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness” while we are still able to do so “without hindrance.” Amen?

Day 37: Acts 25:1-27

Governor Festus is trying to tell visiting King Agrippa and his Queen Bernice who this prisoner named Paul is and why he is being held captive. He expresses surprise that the charges levelled against him by the chief priests and the Jewish leaders were not as serious as he had anticipated. “Instead, they had some points of dispute with him about their own religion and about a dead man named Jesus who Paul claimed was alive.” (v. 19)

“A dead man named Jesus.”

That is how Festus views Jesus. A dead man. Just another rebel put to death by the Romans before he could disrupt the Pax Romana that they maintained with ruthless force and do any damage to the empire. Yes, Paul claims that this Jesus was alive. But obviously, Festus is not buying that story. After all, it is only a “claim!”

Oddly enough, nearly 2000 years later, the world is still full of “Festuses” who simply dismiss Jesus as no more than a dead man, just like the founders of other world religions. There are those who agree that Jesus was someone special, a wise teacher, a phenomenal miracle-worker, a great leader, etc., who still do not believe that anything happened beyond his death.

Sadly, there are even “Christians” in churches who do not believe that Jesus was raised from death. They believe that He continues to live through those who follow Him. They would describe Him as being “immortal” in this sense. But, as for Him being alive today…they’re not quite ready to go that far.

Yet, as the apostle Paul puts it in I Corinthians 15:14: “If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.” To get even more down to basics, without believing in His Resurrection, you cannot be saved! Here is Paul again: “If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9)

The challenge that faces us is the same that the first edition of Church in the Book of Acts faced. You may recall this episode in Acts 17, when Paul was preaching to a non-Jewish crowd in Athens. As long as he was talking about God the Creator, no problem. Everyone was with him. But, as soon as he declared the truth about Jesus, here is what happened.

When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, “We want to hear you again on this subject.”At that, Paul left the Council. Some of the people became followers of Paul and believed.” (vs. 32-34)

How do we “prove” to those who believe that the Christian faith is about “a dead man named Jesus” that he is alive today?

There are some who can do this via scholarly debate with persuasive logic and appeal to extrabiblical sources. However, for most of us, the best way is what we have been seeing in the book of Acts over the past 37 days. You guessed, it, signs and wonders.

Go back and read through the entire book of Acts and you will discover over and over again that it was signs, wonders and miracles that provided irrefutable proof that Jesus was indeed raised from the dead—whether it was the healing of the lame in Jerusalem (chapter 3) or Lystra (chapter 14), the raising of Tabitha from the dead (chapter 9), or the many others described in summary form (5:12-16, 6:8, 8:6-7, 19:11-12).

If Jesus is doing through Christians (little Christs) today exactly what He did when He was physically alive on this earth, then surely, He is no longer “a dead man named Jesus” who Paul, …………..(your name) and others “claim is alive”, but He is indeed alive. Today. Here’s the “in-your-face” proof.

Now it is their turn to respond–to sneer, to hear you again or to believe.

Day 34: Acts 22:22-23:11  

Paul gets into trouble again (Surprise! Surprise!) with yet another crowd turning on him, this time in Jerusalem. “Then they raised their voices and shouted, ‘Rid the earth of him! He’s not fit to live!’” (v. 22). Before they could take matters into their own hands though, the Roman Commander comes to his rescue.

He then orders Paul to be flogged and interrogated—in that particular order. The flogging would make him more open to tell the truth when he was interrogated. That was Roman logic for you.

What happens next is rather unexpected: As they stretched him out to flog him, Paul said to the centurion standing there, “Is it legal for you to flog a Roman citizen who hasn’t even been found guilty?” When the centurion heard this, he went to the commander and reported it. “What are you going to do?” he asked. “This man is a Roman citizen.” The commander went to Paul and asked, “Tell me, are you a Roman citizen?” “Yes, I am,” he answered…Those who were about to interrogate him withdrew immediately. The commander himself was alarmed when he realized that he had put Paul, a Roman citizen, in chains. (vs. 25-27, 29).

As we know from previous chapters, Paul is not exactly allergic to suffering. Nor is he immune to it. He had experienced his fair share of persecution along the way. Most of the time he would just take it lying down, so to speak. Yet, in this instance and also in Philippi (Acts 16:37-39), he pulls out the trump card of Roman citizenship that prevents them from laying a hand on him.

What is going on here?

Fast forward to chapter 23:6-8, when Paul is facing the Sanhedrin. “Then Paul, knowing that some of them were Sadducees and the others Pharisees, called out in the Sanhedrin, “My brothers, I am a Pharisee, descended from Pharisees. I stand on trial because of the hope of the resurrection of the dead.” When he said this, a dispute broke out between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the assembly was divided. (The Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, and that there are neither angels nor spirits, but the Pharisees believe all these things.)

Let’s be clear about one fact. The leadership of the Jews was clearly opposed to Paul and wanted to stop him from spreading the message of the gospel. Yet, before they could come at him unanimously, Paul comes up with a strategy to split them down the middle by blatantly siding with one of the two groups. Now there is a brouhaha within the Sanhedrin between the Pharisees and the Sadducees which prevents them from doing anything to Paul.

What is Paul doing here?

Sandwiched between these two episodes…in Acts 23:1, Paul makes what seems to be an innocuous statement: “My brothers, I have fulfilled my duty to God in all good conscience to this day.”  The response to it is shocking: At this the high priest Ananias ordered those standing near Paul to strike him on the mouth.

Paul’s response is rather harsh, wouldn’t you say? “God will strike you, you whitewashed wall! You sit there to judge me according to the law, yet you yourself violate the law by commanding that I be struck!”

When he discovers that he has just insulted the High Priest, Paul repents instantly: “Brothers, I did not realize that he was the high priest; for it is written: ‘Do not speak evil about the ruler of your people.’”

What is this incident all about?

Remember these words of Jesus from Matthew 10:16? “Be wise as serpents and innocent as doves?” Paul illustrates this advice perfectly in today’s reading.

By apologizing immediately when he realized that he had violated Exodus 22:28 (“Do not blaspheme God or curse the ruler of your people”), Paul maintains his innocence before God.

By using his Roman citizenship to his advantage and by causing a split in the Sanhedrin, Paul demonstrates the need to be wise as serpents.

The same Holy Spirit who directed Paul to act with wisdom and stay innocent will do the same for us as well. Amen?

Day 31: Acts 20:7-38

In verses 7-12, we read about a meeting in an upper room where Paul was preaching and teaching. We’re not sure when he got going, but he was still carrying on with no sign of quitting when the clock struck midnight.

Let’s conservatively estimate that the meeting started at 9 p.m. Eutychus is enjoying Pauls’ message in the closest thing to a recliner in the room—leaning against the equivalent of what we would call a window “frame” today. Even the eloquent and erudite apostle could not hold Eutychus’ attention captive for more than three hours.

If Eutychus had been sitting on the floor or leaning against a wall, hitting the ground could have passed for being slain in the Spirit. But when you nod off from your lofty perch on a window sill with no bars or screens to break your fall, you hit the bottom floor. Paul sure knocked him dead with his preaching, didn’t he?

How does he respond to this emergency right smack in the middle of Point 7 of his sermon? He puts the sermon on pause. “Excuse me for a minute, folks, while I attend to a situation that has arisen that needs my attention.” He “went down, fell on him, and embracing him said, ‘Do not trouble yourselves, for his life is in him.’” (v. 10).

Notice the casualness of the entire episode. A guy drops dead while I’m preaching? No big deal! I’ll just go raise him up. “Don’t go away, folks! I’ll be right back to finish my sermon!”

Eutychus comes back to life.  What does Paul do next? “Now when he had come up, had broken bread and eaten, and talked a long while, even till daybreak, he departed.” (v. 11). The pause turns into a midnight lunch break. Paul packs some carbs into his system, gets another shot of energy and keeps going for a longer stretch than before–until daybreak. Conservatively, let’s say he got going again at 1 a.m. and finished at 5. He finishes his seven hour, 77 point sermon and hits the road again.

What strikes me about Paul is how natural it was for him to perform a supernatural act in raising Eutychus from the dead. There was no big fuss. No panic. No cause for concern. Raising the dead was no different than healing someone of a headache.

While, on the one hand, it is a striking display of God’s power, yet, it is exactly what Jesus sent his newly-minted disciples to do on their very first ministry trip: “And as you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons.” (Matthew 10:7-8)

Raising the dead is not even given a climactic place at the end of the directives; it is sandwiched between cleansing lepers and casting out demons. It’s no big deal!

Paul says in his farewell visit with the elders in Ephesus that all he did was “preaching the Kingdom of God” (v. 25). As he writes elsewhere: “And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of humanwisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power…” (I Corinthians 2:4). And again in Romans 15:19: “…in mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God, so that…I have fully preached the gospel of Christ.”

Signs and wonders were not an exception, but the norm. They were part and parcel of preaching the gospel of Christ. Yes, indeed, for Paul, the supernatural was so natural.

How about you, dear friend? Jesus said: “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.” (John 14:12)

That promise was not just for Paul in the Upper Room that night. Do you believe in Jesus? If so, it is also for you right now. Amen?