Paul Arrives in Rome

Good morning. We're going to be stepping into this passage that David just read for us, Acts of the Apostles 28, verses 11-31. But first, I want to bring up something else. This coming Wednesday, Nancy and I will celebrate 45 years of marriage in Christ. Isn't that amazing? Now, I was going to tell you that we're going to celebrate 16,435 days, but Stan would remind me that that's how prisoners count their time. So I won't do that.

Nonetheless, one of the things that excites me as I anticipate our wedding anniversary and think about it is just to think that the Lord has privileged for us to live out in time soon to be 45 years, the eternal romance of Christ in the church. That is what every day excites me. So it's eternity that excites me every day about that.

One of the things that I also remember is the church where we were married. My grandfather did the ceremony. He's home with the Lord now, but he did the ceremony. But they're written in the front of the church, engraved on large pieces of wood, were, you are not your own, you were bought with a price. Anyway, just those words stick in my head.

So, going from there to a shipwreck, and by no connection, of course, right? We find the Apostle Paul at the end of last couple of Sunday's account was on this ship with 267 other passengers as well as a a cargo of grain, and this was an Alexandrian ship, a ship from Alexandria that was going in wintertime, an unusual thing during the winter because it was dangerous, as became obvious. It was dangerous, but only was it carried out because the emperor would guarantee against any losses in order to keep the food coming into Rome. Rome was a city of over a million people, and so they would dare to take trips that otherwise would not be taken. Other ships, as we will soon see, would winter and wait till the winter was almost done or entirely done before finishing this journey. This ship, they didn't quite do that and Paul had warned them and so they came into what they discovered was Malta as the shipwreck took place.

Now, so we're going to focus in on what we have in the past. This has been what we've looked at recently. We're going to zero in on this area you see in the rectangle. And what I found is the most efficient way to fill the slide is this. But I'm not going to do that to you. So what you have is this on your handout.

And so all of Acts 28 is completed in this part of the map. So the shipwreck leaves them on Malta, the description of what takes place on Malta, taking in the first 10 verses of the chapter, then the rest that we're going to finish here this morning. describes the rest of their trip as they make their way through a few different ports and then head into Rome.

But one question you might have as you read through these different cities with, as David discovered, somewhat hard to pronounce ports and names and things of that sort, we could ask the question, why did Dr. Luke write all of this historical detail? He went here and they stayed three days and they went there and they stayed seven days, etc. And he gives all the detail, how long they stayed at each one of these difficult to pronounce ports until they finally ended up at Rome.

So why? There are three primary reasons for Dr. Luke to include so much detail about times and places and titles and geography. the Apostle Paul traveling from Jerusalem to Rome, and we've been going actually for several chapters through that. Why would he include all that detail? Well, we've got three reasons.

One, the account by Dr. Luke is intended to convey actual real history, and so the places mentioned, the titles of the people at the places that they stopped, The lengths of time that they stayed at different places, all those are real and actual places and events and people.

This is real history. It's not simply Bible stories. Some have come up with the idea that the Bible is spiritually true, but not historically true. That's not obviously Dr. Luke's intent. He gives all the detail because it is in fact real, true, actual history. The other thing is the account does not have the errors of fact and the mythology of the day.

We're going to see some indications of the mythology, but we won't see the errors of fact in Dr. Luke's writing. I give an example. Pliny the Younger, for instance, wrote about some of the exact same places that the Apostle Paul wrote about in this journey from Caesarea to Rome. What's interesting, however, is Pliny the Younger, as he wrote about these exact same places, was as far as 90 miles off in his geography. How far off was Dr. Luke?

None. Zippo. He was right on target. He nailed it. That was not typical or necessarily always the case among ancient historians. Let me give you another somewhat more current example. It's been an interesting hobby of mine, a side hobby, to look at something else, and that is California as an island.

Now, you'll hear stories of California is about to be an island. That's not what we're talking about here. from the middle 1500s until the early 1800s about 200 years ago California was shown as an island on a number of maps. Here is one from 1650 and from the exact same year, another one showing California as an island. So far as I've been able to count from the middle 1500s to the early 1800s, I found 18 maps showing California as an island, okay? Now, maybe you would wish it was an island, and that's okay, but the reality is it's not an island, okay?

And so assumptions were made when people would look at, you know, like what we call Baja California, and we look at the little body of water. between there and the main body of Mexico, and they'd go up to the top. And so they ended up with this idea that California was an island. Not only that, but the ancient name for what is now Britain was Albion. And so this was sometimes called, especially at the top, New Albion, New England. So this is very interesting. But is California an island?

No, it is not. It is not, in fact, true. And what you find is, and the reason for bringing this up, is even possible in our own more recent centuries to have this kind of mythology develop and be carried on for centuries. And in fact, it is not true. Dr. Luke writing about 2,000 years ago, wrote truth consistently. It is historically true. It is not simply a Bible story.

The third reason for these things being recorded, historical detail helps guide us to the intended meaning. If we have the proper context for what is taking place, then we understand why certain things are being written. even to the point where what Dr. Luke recorded fits with a specific time and not earlier and not later.

We find, for example, that the centurion who was talking to Paul in Jerusalem said, I bought my Roman citizenship. It turns out that prior to the time of Claudius you could not do that. And much later, the Roman citizenship didn't buy you anything, and it didn't happen because of that. But when Dr. Luke wrote, and what he wrote precisely fits the time, Dr. Luke nailed it.

Okay, so Acts 28 11, at the end of three months we set sail on an Alexandrian ship which had been wintered at the island, which had the twin brothers for its figurehead. Here was another grain ship, They also had the guarantee of the Emperor, yes we'll pay for your losses if you lose your ship and your cargo and everything else, we'll pay for your losses. They however had decided to winter at the island, which is of course Malta, and wait until winter was nearly, actually not completely, but nearly over before they moved on. And so this ship, which had not shipwrecked since they had wintered there, it had the twin brothers, it says, as its figurehead. Now, the twin brothers were Castor and Pollux. Together, you may know them as Gemini. These are the twins that are the Gemini stars, the twin stars in the constellations. And so that was what it was talking about. So Dr. Luke is referring to something that was mythological. He is not himself teaching mythology. See the distinction there? One more thing.

These twin brothers were thought to be the God protectors of desperate sailors. And so these guys would look to these twin brothers as protection against difficult and perilous circumstances. And then we talk about a figurehead. This would be examples of a ship's figurehead, where they would have some sort of an image or carving at the front, often painted up to give it appropriate coloration. But that would be the idea. And so they would actually have these twin brothers shown on a figurehead. at the front of the ship, and that was supposed to give them some kind of protection. I think the amount of protection it provided was zero, none. But nonetheless, Dr. Luke records that detail as he does the 276 passengers on the prior ship.

So at the end of three months, so what does that mean? Remember that in the reception that they got, there was extraordinary kindness, honoring, there was generous support that continued for three months. Isn't that great? They, after having been completely shipwrecked, having nothing to offer these people, the people on the island were very generous, even supplying them for their trip from Malta to Rome. That's really amazing. But that was the way the people of Malta responded.

And Paul was given the opportunity to heal. Remember, he started off by healing the father of the chief man of the island, Publius. And so he'd been given the opportunity to heal. He healed many. on the island, and he also shared the gospel for three months. Dr. Luke does not describe that, but it is, one, difficult to imagine that the Apostle Paul would be quiet about the gospel for three months on the island of Malta.

After all, you've got a captive audience, right? They're not going anywhere, right? And there's at least the 267 people on board, most of whom are not believers. that he appealed to, and then all of the people on the island. Imagine the Apostle Paul was excited about the opportunity there. So three months of spiritual opportunity had been laid out there. After three months, this Alexandrian ship, another grain ship having these twin brothers figurehead, took Paul, Dr. Luke, and Aristarchus and the centurion Julius and others on to Rome eventually after a time.

That is one of the things you'll notice is sometimes they made good time and other times they were pretty slow about things and that was okay. The centurion's assignment was get Paul to Rome. It didn't say when. So they could be really slow about it. Here's Acts 28, 12 through 14, but after we put it in at Syracuse, we stayed there for how many days? Three days. So here's more historical detail.

From there, we sailed around, arrived at Regium, and a day later, a south wind sprang up. Now, what's the point of the south wind? Heading from south to north, that is exactly the right direction you want the wind because it's going to give you the really good progress. You're not going to go sideways and tacking with some inefficient path. You're going to get direct power right behind your sails in just exactly the direction you need. So this is going to be good.

On the second day, we came to Putioli. So one of the things you see also in this, they were actually a few weeks ahead of the usual time to start off on a wintertime journey. Winter danger was not done, but one of the things they had here was they were getting towards the end of the time and notice what they're making is fairly short hops. They say, okay, the weather is probably going to be good from here to here and so we're going you know, make this jump and I think we'll be okay and then we're gonna stay there for a few days and then we're gonna wait till the weather looks good and make the next hop. So that's the thing that you see them doing. It's a somewhat risky time of year but they look for what look to be good windows and go for short little movements from one port to the next.

Putzioli, we found some brethren out, so that was one of actually three ports to Rome, and it was the southernmost one, and that also was the safest one. Go to the one that's closest, right? Keep your wintertime hops short. And there we found some brethren, and we're invited to stay with them for seven days. Imagine, here is Julius, the centurion.

Okay, he's fine with it, right? And why? Because he knows Paul is not a flight risk. He's not a dangerous man that you have to hurry up and get there, right? And so the centurion is taking Paul to Rome, but he's not in a hurry to get there. And so he'll stay there for a week. Sure, that's fine. And so here's Paul having a time of fellowship and ministry there as they land there.

Acts 28.15, And the brethren, when they heard about this, came from there, as far as the market of Appius, and three inns to meet us. And when Paul saw them, he thanked God and took courage. Now there's some really neat things to look at here. One of the things that was a custom, and this goes back several centuries, was a custom among the Greeks and the Romans, is if you had someone who was important coming into your city, what they would do is they'd send a messenger ahead saying, hey, this important guy is coming, and then you'd send greeters out miles ahead to welcome this person in before they got to the city gates. And that's exactly what you see taking here. So this is a centuries-long custom of hospitality for people who were important.

Something else, the three inns. By the way, is the three inns, is that really an historical place? Or is Dr. Luke just making it up? It turns out it actually is an historical place, three inns. And we have an ancient author who described his experience with the three inns. He had five complaints about the three inns. And one of those that I recall is that he said the innkeepers were really, really stingy.

That's what he said. But it's a real place. And when Paul saw them, all the believers who had come ahead to greet him, they thanked God and took courage. Now, this is something we want to take particular note of. He thanked God and took courage. So took courage meant that he was encouraged by this, right? And he was thankful for it. Why? I think we can look at this. Let's take a look at it. It's on your second page, Romans 1, 8 through 15. I'm not going to read the whole thing.

You can certainly do that on your own here, but I want to point out a couple of things Places that we've underlined and here put on the screen put in blue and says Paul's writing to the church at Rome So he's writing to the church Where he is headed right as we read the book of Acts that he's Coming that by the will of God. I may succeed in coming to you Does he want to insist upon coming regardless of anything? No, he wants to come by the will of God.

And this is chapter one, by the way. Let's look at the next part in verse 12. That is, that I may be encouraged. So is he encouraged? Yes, we just read about it in Acts. So this is a fulfillment of his wishes and his prayers at the outset when he wrote to them three years earlier.

This is exactly what he was looking for, that I may be encouraged together with you while among you each of us by the other's faith, both yours and mine. And that should tell us one more thing about the character of our gathering together as believers, that we be encouraged together each of us by the other's faith. Our fellowship is not simply having a meal together. Our fellowship is not simply sharing about the weather, but our fellowship is to encourage one another together by our mutual faith, that there be spiritual content to our fellowship.

Okay, so here's Romans chapter 1. What we see is direct fulfillment of what Paul had written to these people three years before. Now let's jump into Romans 15. You have that on the bottom of the page. And again, we won't read the whole thing, but notice at the end of verse 24, it says, "...when I have first enjoyed your company for a while." So when he gets to Rome, is he really really going to get excited about taking pictures there? Is he really excited about coming up to Nero and saying, hey, Nero, old emperor, old buddy, old boy? Is that what he's interested in doing? He says, man, I want to talk to the head of the Praetorian Guard.

Woo! No. What he's looking forward to is enjoying the company of fellow believers that he's writing to here. That's what he's looking forward to. And three years later, guess what he did? Exactly that. This is what he'd been praying about. He asked them to pray about it. This is what he'd been looking forward to. And this is what we ought to be looking at as well in terms of our fellowship together.

Let's look at verse 29. I know that when I come to you, is he anticipating that he's coming to them? Yes! He's anticipating, when I come to you, I will come to you in the fullness of the blessing of Christ. When I come to you, I'm not just looking at the best raviolis that I've ever had.

Oh yes, that'll be fine. But, I'm coming to you and there is spiritual blessing from Christ And we share that together. Let's look at the very end of that, verse 32. So that I might come to you in joy by the will of God and find refreshing rest in your company. Isn't that exactly what we see fulfilled here? And it starts before he gets into Rome. Because why? because they send people out ahead. And the fellowship, everything that he's been talking about from Romans 1 into Romans 15, everything we have underlined here, that's what we see being fulfilled right now.

Okay, Acts 28.16, And when we entered Rome, Paul was allowed to stay by himself with a soldier who was guarding him. Now, He entered Rome, he was allowed to stay by himself, as opposed to being put in the prison that they had there. It was a prison that they had where he put all the prisoners, and that's where the other prisoners went that were being brought on this ship, but not Paul. Why would Paul be given privilege to stay in some place just separate from the prison? and where people might come and visit him and all that.

Why? It's because, one, he really wasn't being charged with anything. He had simply appealed to Caesar, who happened to be Nero at the time. And so they weren't worried about him being guilty of anything. He wasn't dangerous. He was also not a flight risk. He could have said, you know, I'd like to get out of the prison here right here in Caesarea. He said, nope, I want to go to Caesar. So this guy was not a flight risk. He was not dangerous. He had not really been charged with anything.

And so, OK, we'll let you stay in your own place. Now, there's something wrong with this picture. Matter of fact, there's two things wrong with this picture, aside from the fact it's a little fuzzy. One is, what do you see the soldier doing? He is snoozing. Would the soldier snooze? No, death penalty if he snoozes, okay? He's not going to snooze, just the threat of death penalty to keep him awake, right? Second thing, he wouldn't be across the room, he would be chained to Paul, right? So, those are two things wrong with the picture. So, just so you can get a little bit more blurry picture, that's the idea. So Paul stayed by himself with a soldier. He could also, however, have as many guests as he liked. So we find in verse 30, Paul stayed in his own rented quarters in Rome. Now with that word rented, we want to take a particular look at that. Rented is implied.

It actually is not stated explicitly. The other thing we want to take a look at is what kind of a place was this? Oftentimes it's pictured that Paul stayed in a house that was some sort of a single-family dwelling sort of place? Probably not. More like this. In Rome it was real common for three to five-story dwellings that were more like apartment buildings. As tall as eight stories tall in Rome.

They apparently were not a good place to get a good night's sleep. Because you have all kinds of people and they weren't quiet. And so you had that. They also had problems if they caught on fire, you'd better get out fast. Any way you can do it, right? So fire trap. So anyway, but this kind of thing was more likely where Paul was and he would have kind of one apartment in this building nearby. So this was more likely the circumstance that he had.

And as was the law and custom, he was chained to a Roman soldier who was, there from the evidence we have, who was most likely or more likely a soldier of the Praetorian Guard. These were the guardsmen who were given charge to protect Caesar and those specifically connected with Caesar's household. And Paul, being someone who was a Roman citizen, who had not been charged particularly, would have had these likely Praetorian guards, these elite guards, Caesar's guards, be the ones connected to him.

Now, some of them might be kind and considerate. However, some ancient authors have written that being chained to one of these guys was like being chained to a beast. And so Paul may have had some combination of all those different sort of things. Some guys that were terribly unpleasant. By the way, one of the staples, the protein staples for these guys was fermented fish paste. So you got that to live with too. Anyway.

So this provided Paul in this situation with much liberty. He couldn't go other places, but he could have people come visit him. He could even invite in groups of both believers and unbelievers, and that's what we see here instantly is these Jews, many of whom didn't believe. He also could write letters, although being chained oftentimes made that inconvenient, so I imagine a lot of it was more dictation. where you have someone who, like Dr. Luke, for instance, someone who could write these letters. Now we have some letters from Rome, and we'll talk about that as Paul wrote from Rome. We'll talk about that shortly here. Here's Acts 28, 17.

After three days Paul called together those who were the leading men of the Jews, and when they came together, began saying to them, brethren, 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."

So what is he doing? Here are the Jews in Rome. They've not, as we're soon going to see, they've not heard anything from the Jews who are in Israel about what's taken place. So he comes there He at least has an open opportunity, an objective opportunity there in Rome. And so what he does is he begins giving them a summary. This is a summary of what had taken place here.

I was delivered as a prisoner from Jerusalem into the hands of the Romans. So remember when Paul was right there in the temple courtyard, he was arrested by the Romans and that began his time as a Roman prisoner. And he's summarizing that. He says, I was then in the hands of the Romans. And when they'd examined me, they were willing to release me because there was no ground for putting me to death. So he's summarizing here, willing to release me. So he's summarizing what was actually a couple of years time.

But when the Jews objected, I was forced to appeal to Caesar, not that I had any accusation against my nation. So it was the Jews who were very, very, very upset with him, and many of them, dozens, had vowed to kill him. But he really was not guilty of anything against them, and certainly nothing that the Romans could charge him.

So 2820, for this reason therefore I requested to see you and to speak with you for I'm wearing this chain for the sake of the hope of Israel. So he brings up these chains as he did in Caesarea. I'm wearing these chains for the sake of the hope of Israel. So I'm being falsely charged, but it is because of my hope. And what is that? This is a reference to the hope of the resurrection. This is a Pharisee belief.

Acts 28, 21, and 22, they said to him, We have neither received letters from Judea concerning you, nor have any of the brethren come here and reported or spoken anything bad about you. But we desire to hear from you what your views are for concerning this sect that is known to us, that is spoken against everywhere. So they have heard all sorts of nasty, bad things about those who were Christian believers, the Way, Christians as they were sometimes called. But we haven't heard anything directly about you from the leadership in Jerusalem. Haven't heard anything.

So that's where things stand. They're willing to hear him out, because here is Paul, a highly trained, well-regarded Pharisee and rabbi by this time. taught under Gamaliel, the premier rabbi of the first century. So verses 23 and 24, when they had set a day for Paul, they came to him and his lodging in large numbers. By the way, so here is an apartment building, most likely. And they come to him in large numbers, so you imagine filling up his small space and filling up out into the hallways and everything else.

It was explained to them by solemnly testifying about the kingdom of God and trying to persuade them concerning Jesus from both the law of Moses and from the prophets from morning until evening. Some were being persuaded by the things spoken, but others would not believe. So, is this a little quick visit? No, he'd talk for hours and hours and hours and hours, okay? Morning until evening.

And there was some responsiveness, and there was some who said, uh-uh, I'm not going there, not believing this. One of the things we also noticed, remember before, we always saw the pattern, even as mentioned in the book of Romans, to the Jew first and then the Gentile. So what did Paul do when he was in Rome? He went to the Jew first, right? Exactly the same pattern here.

Now, We'll take a look next Sunday in more detail, but from the book of Genesis all the way to the book of Revelation, so the first book to the last book, the Bible talks about the gospel of the kingdom, talks about the kingdom, and it also talks about the gospel that Christ died for our sins.

So it's called the gospel of substitution. What do you need to believe? What is the gospel to be believed in order for someone to be saved? That Christ, the Son of God, died for our sins, was buried, and rose again. We'll also see that the book of Acts talks about the gospel of the kingdom, and the gospel that Christ died for our sins, was buried, and rose again from beginning to end. So the book of Acts also presents that. So we'll see more of this, and actually see more of this later on in verse 31. Acts 28, 25, And when they did not agree with one another, they began leaving after Paul had spoken one parting word, The Holy Spirit rightly spoke through Isaiah the prophet to your fathers. Okay, so Paul has some stern words for them.

Acts 28, 26, and 27, saying, and quoting Isaiah 6, 9, and 10, Go to this people and say, You will keep on hearing, but you will not understand. You will keep on seeing, but you will not perceive. For the heart of this people has become dull, and with their ears they scarcely hear, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and return, and I would heal them. You guys had an opportunity, but you turned it down. That's what Paul is saying and quoting here.

We've brought out before, as we studied through other books, including the book of Hebrews, which you see featured largely here, that the seeing, the tasting, the hearing, those kinds of things are brought out In the book of Hebrews and other New Testament books, and now we see it here in the book of Isaiah, the classic five senses are used in the Bible, Old Testament on into the New. Those classic five physical senses are also described in an analog in the spiritual realm. spiritually seeing, spiritually hearing, and that's what Isaiah is talking about. We have that here in diagram form, but the same idea. Taught from the Old Testament on into the New, consistently.

Here's Acts 28, 28 and 29. Therefore, let it be known to you that the salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles, and they will also listen. And by the way, This message, when the Jews would hear, the Gentiles are going to get this message too. What's the Jewish reaction? In Jerusalem, that is what ended his time of appeal to the Jews that were gathered there in the temple courtyard. They became enraged at that. This message is going to the Gentiles.

What? How dare you! Okay? So, similar response here, most likely. Verse 29 is a verse that, though it is very likely true, it is likely good commentary, it doesn't appear to be what Dr. Luke wrote originally. So, make note of that. Again, it's not a false statement. It simply does not appear to be original.

Moving on into verse 30 and 31, which finishes out The passage in the book of Acts is, And he stayed two full years in his own rented quarters, and again that word rented is implied rather than stated, and was welcoming all who came to him, Jew and Gentile, saved and unsaved, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching concerning the Lord Jesus Christ with all openness unhindered.

Can you imagine these Roman soldiers? If you were very interested in hearing this, you might even volunteer for duty. Hey, I'll be chained to Paul. Yeah, I'll do that. And others probably, get me away from this guy and jerking them around. And they could be beastly. And that was legal.

So rather than rented quarters, literally at his own expense, which might imply being renting, the other thing we see here in this last verse of the book of Acts, we see the words that have been used before, preaching, which is a proclaiming, okay, a proclaiming the kingdom of God, and then teaching, and that is typically from specific verses concerning the Lord Jesus Christ with all openness unhindered.

What is he talking about? The kingdom is particularly focused on what is the future and who is Jesus. And the gospel of salvation is what is the past and who is Jesus. You see that? And what's the underlying question? Who is Jesus? What do you believe about the past and the future and who Jesus is?

Those are the issues. And he talked about those And we're going to see all the way through the book of Acts those things get talked about. What has happened? What is going to happen? And who is Jesus with regards to what has already taken place? And who is Jesus with regards to what is going to happen?

He preached about it, He proclaimed it, and He taught about it, explaining the content of the Scriptures. One of the things we see looking at this, there is spiritual opportunity for the Apostle Paul from Jerusalem to Rome. As we'll be going through that, we see, and as Paul wrote to the church at Ephesus once he was in Rome, Ephesians 2.10, God has prepared good works that we might walk in them. God has prepared the opportunities, and God answered prayer that Paul is rescued. We saw that Jesus came to Paul, and that's quoted in your bulletin, right? Saw that Jesus came to Paul personally to assure him that he would go to Rome.

And then, as we've seen also, God provided spiritual opportunity that looked different at different Here's the Apostle Paul, he's in Caesarea. God opens up a massive opportunity for evangelism as he talks to what appears to be hundreds of people there in Caesarea, as well as other dignitaries from other areas. And then as he gets on the ships, different opportunities. As he goes to the island of Malta, different opportunities altogether. And now that he's in Rome, different opportunities.

God provided the spiritual opportunity, but it was not the same all the time. The same is going to go on with us. God is always providing spiritual opportunity in that God has prepared good works that we might walk in them. It does not always look the same, and we should be looking for that.

The Apostle Paul is going to have spiritual opportunity that comes with chains. Paul is going to have a spiritual opportunity that's limited by the place in which he lives and the fact he can't leave. He's stuck there. That's, I think, something for us to take a look at.

Does God provide us a spiritual opportunity that always looks like this is unlimited? Does God put us in circumstances where we have limitations? Physical limitations. Aged limitations. Limitations of different kinds. Circumstances. God will provide us opportunities, but oftentimes providing limitations.

Why does He do that? He did it with the Apostle Paul. Paul, you got this great opportunity and you notice all these things you wrote about the church in Rome and the things you were going to enjoy and all that. But you're going to live out this opportunity with limitations. And that's exactly what I have in mind. For you and for me, the limitations that God will provide, whatever those are, are God intended.

We shouldn't go around rebuking Satan or trying to bind him to fix it. These are limitations that God puts there on purpose. And one reason is so that we will trust in and depend upon Him. If everything was really cool without Him, apparently, we would only trust ourselves. But all those limitations are on purpose. All the things that seem to hamper us and slow us down are exactly what we need.

The last thing here is that Paul had written to the church at Rome, chapter 6, that they were crucified and buried and raised with Christ. Crucified with Christ, buried with Christ, and raised with Christ. Amazing, he didn't bring up, but he's going to write about it now that he is in Rome. He's going to write to the church at Ephesus. He's going to write to the church at Philippi. He's going to write to the church at Colossae. And one of the things he's going to tell them, among many amazing things, is that they've been ascended and seated with Christ.

And so have you and me. So next week we'll take a further look at the big picture spiritually in the book of Acts. Let's pray. Thank you, Lord, for what you have revealed here. We thank you, Heavenly Father, for blessing us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. This is such a special message that the Apostle Paul was privileged and inspired to write. There from Rome, there as he was under house arrest, chained to a praetorian guard, with all the limitations of that for a period of two years. We thank you for your faithfulness as we go through all the limitations of life that, in fact, you've designed and intended. We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.