Joyfully Advancing the Kingdom of God by Proclaiming Jesus as the Hope of the World

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.

Paul explains he is a prisoner. He is being treated like a felon, a criminal. Why?

Acts 28:20 ESV

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.”

It is the hope of Israel that he is wearing the chains. The “hope of Israel” refers to the resurrection hope that is fulfilled in the Messiah.

You have to understand the irony here. Paul is a good and faithful Jewish man. He seeks out the leaders of the Jewish community to talk about his situation. His testimony all along had been that he is a faithful Jewish man who upholds his Jewish traditions. As it concerns the Messiah, the Jewish Messiah, Paul is convinced that it is Jesus of Nazareth. Why? Because he met him face to face on the road to Damascus (Acts 9).

Paul is in chains because he testifies that Jesus is the promised Messiah and resurrected Lord. He was put in those chains by the Jews, the very people who are supposed to recognize Jesus as the Messiah. And the irony is for now, he is being protected by the pagan Roman state from the Jews in Jerusalem, but he will be in fact martyred by the same Roman state for the name of Jesus just as the Jews wanted.

Paul’s chains are a picture of the church in this world as it proclaims the kingdom of God.

Jesus told his disciples to not be surprised when they hand you over to the courts and kings and governments for his name sake. He told them,

John 15:18 ESV

“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.

The world constitutes everyone who hates Jesus, both Jews and Romans. Maybe the irony for you and I is there will be some under the tent of evangelical Christianity who will hate you because you tell your neighbors that the resurrected Jesus is the only hope for the world.

Paul’s chains come from both the church and the culture, both the sacred and the secular. What this tells is that advancing God’s kingdom is going to be difficult in this life.

Jesus told his disciples,

John 15:20 ESV

Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.

Paul has already told the church in

Acts 14:22 ESV

strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.

Some of you may wonder why it has to be this way. John Calvin says that entering the kingdom of God through many tribulations is something the saints of Christ should expect. Calvin says,

“All whom the Lord has chosen and honored with admission into the society of his saints ought to prepare themselves for a hard, laborious, and unquiet life, replete with numerous and various calamities. It is the will of their heavenly Father to exercise them in this manner, so that he may have a certain proof of those who belong to him. Having begun with Christ his first-begotten Son, he pursues this method toward all his children.” John Calvin

In short, Calvin says that suffering for the gospel is how God proves who genuinely belongs to him. Just as Jesus suffered unjustly at the hands of evil men, so will those who truly belong to him suffer chains for the gospel. And just as Jesus overcame their injustice by trusting the Father to raise Him from the dead to life, so will those who truly love Jesus will overcome the injustice of evil men by trusting the Father to raise them in Christ.

In verse 21, the Jewish leaders respond by saying we have no idea about your issue with the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem. There has been no communication between us and them. This could be because of the winter season, or it could be that the Jews in Jersualem have written Paul off because he is no longer their problem.

The Jews in Rome, however, are interested in hearing what Paul has to say about “this sect” as mentioned in verse 22. So they appoint a time to hear the gospel, and Paul has the audience of many Jews in Rome. How will Paul explain to them that Jesus is the Messiah? He will use the inerrant and all sufficient word of God.

You must advance God’s kingdom through the Scriptures

In verse 23, the appointed day comes and everyone gathers where Paul is staying at the time.

Acts 28:23 ESV

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.

Paul expounded the scriptures to the people. That means that Paul carefully elaborated and explained the scriptures to show that Jesus is the long-awaited Messiah. He gave an exposition of the Old Testament alongside Jesus’s life, death, resurrection, and ascension, with the intent to convince them that Jesus is Israel’s hope.

Why use the word of God to explain Jesus is the world’s only hope?

First, it is God’s word, and therefore it is inspired by God. Paul clues us into the inspiration of scripture when he says that the Holy Spirit spoke through the prophet of Isaiah (Acts 28:25). We can trust its authority.

Second, the word of God gives the full testimony of God’s redemption plan.

The church has been given the full testimony of God’s redemption plan as fulfilled in the pre-incarnate and incarnate Christ. We have been given God’s plan to reconcile and restore the earth and his image bearers through the redemption of Jesus’s life, death, resurrection, and ascension.

What this means is, as one commentator put it, “Jesus is the point of the Bible.” The overarching story and message, from Genesis to Revelation, is about God’s redemption of sinners through his pre-incarnate and incarnate Son, and Jesus knew that and taught this truth.

In the Gospel of John, Jesus asked the Jewish leaders who are upset that he healed a man on the sabbath, “Do you not have the word of God in you?” In essence, he says, “Haven’t you put the Law of Moses and the Prophets in your heart? If you know the word of God, you would know Me.” Jesus goes on to say,

John 5:39 ESV

You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me,

Furthermore, he says,

John 5:46 ESV

For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me.

Jesus taught the Jewish leaders that the Old Testament scriptures were about Him. He taught his disciples the same thing.

Luke, the author of Acts and His gospel account of Jesus, quotes the resurrected Jesus, as saying to his disciples,

Luke 24:25–27 ESV

And he said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.

and in

Luke 24:44 ESV

Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.”

Just as Jesus did, Paul used the Bible, all of it, to try to convince his Jewish countrymen that Jesus is Israel’s hope, and how believing in Him one enters the kingdom of God.

Third, the word of God is living and active, and either hardens the heart or opens it to receive salvation.

Paul uses the word of God to tell sinners of their need for salvation. The Bible says some will reject it. Why? Why would anyone reject the salvation of God? Paul says they reject it because their heart is dull, hardened by unbelief.

Paul quotes Isaiah 6:9-10, the same text that Jesus quotes to describe the unbelief of his fellow Jews (Matthew 13:14-15; Mark 4:12; Luke 8:10), to describe their hardened heart. They have ears but cannot hear. They have eyes, but cannot see. They have a mind, but cannot understand. Why can’t they understand the gospel?

Acts 28:27 ESV

For this people’s heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed; lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them.’

How does a hardened heart, and unbelieving heart, a dead heart as Paul describes it in Ephesians 2:1, receive the gospel? God must make the heart alive in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 2:4-5). He must open their eyes, like he did Lydia, and the way the resurrected Jesus opened the eyes of his disciples.

Consider for a moment the risen Christ on the road to Emmaus in Luke 24:13-35. His disciples are walking with Him, but cannot recognize him. Truth be told, Luke says,

Luke 24:16 ESV

But their eyes were kept from recognizing him.

As Jesus walks with them hearing their unbelief. They give an account of his ministry, but then say

Luke 24:21 ESV

But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened.

They hoped he was the Messiah? And even though his body was not in the grave, just as the women said it wasn’t, still they did not believe Jesus was alive. Jesus confronts their unbelief,

Luke 24:25 ESV

And he said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!

From verses 26-30, Jesus opens the scriptures and interpret everything concerning the Messiah for them. Then Jesus opened their eyes to recognize him and he opened their eyes to the scriptures. What you see again is salvation is always God’s work. and the way he draws sinners to himself is through His message, his word.

Paul says in verse 24, that some believed by what he said. Their eyes were opened by the living word opening their heart to understand. These Jews were able to recognize Jesus is the Messiah, Israel’s hope for the world.

The word of God is vital to the Great Commission. It is the message of salvation that is accepted and believed for one to enter the kingdom of God.

The church will not joyfully advance God’s kingdom by being winsome more than it will by being biblically right. Christians have to know their Bibles if they are going to convince their community that Jesus is God’s hope for the world.

You must advance God’s kingdom to the nations

Once some of the Jews reject Jesus as Israel’s hope, Paul turns from them and reveals that Jesus is not just Israel’s hope, but is the hope of the world.

Acts 28:28 ESV

Therefore let it be known to you that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles; they will listen.”

Jesus made it clear to his disciples at the beginning of the book fo Acts

Acts 1:8 ESV

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

The last commandment Jesus gave his disciples before he ascended was

Matthew 28:19–20 ESV

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

His ascension ensured that the Holy Spirit would empower the church to testify beyond Jerusalem, and beyond Judea. The Spirit will ensure the gospel goes to the ends of the earth in order to fulfill God’s Great Commission-to joyfully advance His kingdom by making much of Jesus to all peoples; red, yellow, back, and white, they are all precious in His sight.

I read a children’s book to the TTV kids by Shai Linne and Trish Mahonney called, “God Made Me and You: Celebrating God’s Design for Ethnic Diversity.” The last part of the book gives a beautiful of the fruit of the Great Commission to the nations being fulfilled. he writes,

“In the book of Revelation, chapter seven, the Church from all times is gathered in heaven.

A great multitude that no one can number, praise God with voices of thunder.

Each tribe, each people, each language, each nation, all thanking God for the gift of salvation.

There’s no sin in heaven, no hating each other. Just love from the heart for our sisters and brothers.

We’ll no longer view our distinctions as odd, but rather, more reasons to give praise to God.

Together forever with saints of all kinds. This is exactly what God has designed.” Shai Linne

The last two verses of the book of Acts is a picture of what fulfilling the Great Commission looks like. for the church, until Christ comes back.

Acts 28:30–31 ESV

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.

Paul took up residence in Rome. He found a way to pay for all his expenses. Some of it was support from the church. we learn that in his letter to the Philippians. Some of it could have been working as a tent maker. The point is, his life, from the ordinary and the mundane to his appearance before Caesar, revolved around the Great Commission.

Also, notice how Paul opened his home to his neighbors. In verse 30, he welcomed all who came to him. Hospitality is a means to fulfilling the Great Commission.

I love the way Rosaria Champagne Butterfield, in her book “The Gospel Comes with a House Key: Practicing Radically Ordinary Hospitality in Our Post-Christian World,” defines Christianity. She says

“Radically ordinary hospitality is this: using your Christian home in a daily way that seeks to make strangers neighbors, and neighbors family of God.” Rosaria Butterfield

Paul opens his home to strangers to make them neighbors who become the family of God. They enter into God’s family because he uses his hospitality to boldly proclaim the kingdom of God and teach his lost neighbors about the Lord Jesus Christ.

Acts 29?

The ending of Acts feels unfinished. Luke does not record Pul’s appearance before Casear or how Paul dies. Many believe Luke dies this because Acts is not finished. The church is still on earth, acting, advancing the kingdom of God. In some respects, FBCL is Acts 29, and we are writing our portion of Acts 29.

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