Acts: An Unfinished Story

Last week we left our hero, the Apostle Paul, 'back at the ranch' in Antioch of Syria. There he enjoyed a short but well-deserved rest after the two to three years he had spent on his second missionary journey, during which he had carried the gospel to Europe. But he did not rest for long. Luke continues the story immediately with Verse 23 of Chapter 18:

When Paul came to Ephesus he found the city in the grip of superstition, fear, demonism, and darkness. It was a city devoted to sex and to religion -- in other words it was the San Francisco of the Roman empire. The great temple of Artemis was located there and was as familiar to the people of that day as the Golden Gate bridge is to us. It was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Tourists traveled from all over the Roman empire to see it, just as they come to San Francisco to see the bridges and cable cars.

A definition I find most descriptive is that a Christian is one who is:

On this last Sunday of 1970 not only are we drawing to the close of the old year, but we have also reached the end of the present series of studies in the book of Acts. With Chapter 21 we will begin a new series, in which we will see Paul in a role different from any we have seen him perform before in Acts, i.e., as a prisoner of the Lord. But today we are completing "The Pattern Setters" series in which the great apostle has been setting an example for us in the ministry of the Word of God throughout the reaches of the Roman empire.

Today we begin the last series of our studies together in the book of Acts. We will pick up the story at the beginning of Chapter 21 and move on into the last section of this great book, where Luke recounts for us Paul's imprisonment in Jerusalem and his voyage to Rome. The book closes with Paul a prisoner of Caesar, living in his own hired house there at Rome. And so we will call this last series The Prisoner of the Lord, for here we find Paul in the new and unaccustomed role of prisoner -- unaccustomed, that is, for any length of time -- Paul in chains, languishing two years in the prison at Caesarea and some three years, most scholars feel, as a prisoner in Rome.

This morning we return to the twenty-first chapter of Acts. Last week, you remember, we left Paul in Jerusalem where he had absolutely no business to be. It is almost incredible to us that this mighty Apostle to the Gentiles, with his earnest and fervent hunger to serve God, his matchless devotion to the cause of Jesus Christ, could be so overpowered by desire to have a ministry to Israel, his brethren according to the flesh, that he would be deceived by his own flesh and find himself disobeying a direct command of the Holy Spirit. But, as we saw in our studies together last week, this is exactly what he did. And, much as we would not like to admit that, there seems to be no adequate way of explaining this Scripture otherwise.

During our studies through Acts, I am sure you have felt in your own heart, again and again, the impact of the faith, the prayers, and the power of Paul -- Christ's mightiest missionary apostle. Who would ever have dreamed that this mighty apostle would eventually fall into the devil's trap and disobey the Spirit of God? But that is exactly what we have seen happening to this great man as he neared Jerusalem but was forbidden by the Holy Spirit to go any further. And yet, out of the passion of his heart to be used of God to reach his people, Israel, and to bear witness to this unbelieving nation -- motivated by the highest of desires -- he nevertheless disobeyed what God clearly told him to do. He continued on and thus fell into great difficulty.

We are drawing near the close of our studies in Acts -- this fascinating book which has set forth for us the character of normal Christianity. The book of Acts is given to us as a pattern of what Christianity ought to be in any age. As we have been caught up in the excitement of it, in its rapid movement, and in the triumph and deliverance so evident in the lives of people of that day, we can rejoice that we see something similar in our own day.

We are in the closing part of our study in Acts. The Apostle Paul is fulfilling the great prediction which Jesus himself made about him when he called him to be an apostle. The Lord Jesus said to Ananias, whom he sent to Paul to pray with him and welcome him into the Christian family: "This man is a chosen servant unto me. I will sent him to the Gentiles to stand before governors and kings, that he may bear my name before them, as well as before the sons of Israel," Acts 9:15).

If any of you are sailors, or lovers of the sea, I know you will be particularly interested in the passage to which we have come this morning in our studies in the book of Acts. The twenty-seventh chapter is a fascinating account by Dr. Luke of Paul's voyage to Rome, and of the shipwreck which occurred on the way. Luke was not a sailor; he was a landsman. And yet he was such a careful historian that the detail which he gives in this chapter about ancient methods of sailing affords more insight into sailing practices on the Mediterranean in the first century than all other ancient manuscripts put together.