Bible Survey - Acts 16-28

We have the last part, chapter 16 through the end of the book of Acts, to take a look at. And we have it here as the Book of Acts. It's also titled the Acts of the Apostles, although it's a little bit curious how many of the Apostles actually get mentioned in the Book of Acts or the Acts of the Apostles.

Yeah. Basically, it's the first part up to chapter 15 that Randy covered largely addresses Peter, right? And then what we find is the Apostle Paul from chapter 9 to the end is the primary focus. So there's a little bit of crossover there, but it's largely Peter and Paul and not some sort of an objective, even-handed coverage of the Apostles.

Yeah, and what's interesting is even some of the deacons there in Jerusalem get more coverage than some of the apostles. For some of the apostles, it's the last time we see their name listed in chapter 1. What's interesting too is, what happened with most of the apostles? Most of them were martyred. The one that we know of that died a natural death is John. And that's it.

The rest of them, we have varying degrees of reliability, but all the records, the first one being John's brother James in Acts chapter 12, all the records indicate that they all died a martyr's death. And John would have as well. The account, not in Scripture, the account that we have of John is that Domitian, the emperor, tried to have John killed by boiling him in oil. And it didn't work, according to the account. And so that's why we have him in Patmos, according to the Book of Revelation, and then released at the end of his days to Ephesus, and dying a natural death there.

So we have the Book of Acts. Let's take a look. You've got it in your handout here, and we've also got on PowerPoint slides. This Paul's second missionary journey, Acts 15, so the end of 15. So what happened in chapter 15 that was the pivotal point? Do you recall that from last time? What was the Acts 15 pivotal point here? Yeah? Okay, you go.

The split between Paul and Barnabas. One is the split between Paul and Barnabas, and then Paul takes off on his second missionary journey. Now, let's ask, I think, a very important question. What's going on with this split between Paul and Barnabas? What's happening with that? The issue there, the thing that caused them to split is John Mark.

And in retrospect, I think that what was happening is that Barnabas had a different kind of ministry than Paul. And let's back up. When Paul was the one who was not well received by the church, who was the one who stood up Barnabas? Barnabas was the one. He was called the Son of Encouragement. Right? Son of Consolation. He was cousin to John Mark. But he stood up for Paul.

So here is Barnabas who really has a different kind of ministry than Paul. And he takes his cousin John Mark under wing and brings him to a point where Peter associated with them, and Paul even later on, writing to Timothy, asked for send John Mark. So Barnabas works in ministry with John Mark and radically, through the Lord's work, radically changes the character and reputation of John Mark.

And so what we see there is the two of them split And there was a lot of heated debate, but the reality is God had a different assignment for each of them. And both assignments were a good thing. And I think that's something for us to think about, that their heated interaction was a matter of recognizing, and I think it happened over the long term, recognizing that God had a different assignment for each one of them. and that the heat between Paul and Barnabas was a lack of recognition of the difference of assignment. Yeah, Steve? I think it also shows a maturation. that people go through when they're walking by the spirit like Paul. I mean he matured to be able to accept John Mark. John Mark obviously matured to be able to go back and minister to Paul.

And you bring up a very important point and that is the things that we're wrestling with now We're going to deal with those by growing out of the problem and growing into where the Lord wants us. Ever have a believer that you're wrestling with? And I think that that's the thing. Whatever we have been wrestling with, and it may have been even long term, whatever we're wrestling with, the Lord is going to deal with that by growing us out of the problem. Key point. Okay, let's take a look at this map here. I showed this to Nancy and she said, whoa, it's busy. But let's look at it.

Where are they starting? They're starting in Jerusalem, Acts 15, and what did they conclude in Acts 15? What did Peter and James talk about and what did they conclude in Acts 15? This is the Jerusalem Council, if you will. Peter would be the main witness, would head up the witness to the Jews. To the Jews? And Paul to the Gentiles.

Okay, so that's a good point, point one. What else did they conclude? The essentials. you know, circumcision and so on. Right. In other words, there were those who were saying, hey, you know, in order to really be saved, you got to do this, you know, Law of Moses thing.

And what they concluded was, you know, we're not going to put the Gentiles under the Law of Moses, which would be really nice if some Christians would read. We're not going to put the Gentiles under the Law of Moses. And essentially what they did is they said, there are minimal things that were going to require the Gentiles and those were the things actually in fact that were required of the Gentiles to be in the Jewish synagogues. And they basically had a few different requirements and just a very minimal outline, and they just said, we're going to ask those of the Gentiles.

Now, was it necessary for the Gentiles to abide by those things to be saved? No. It was simply a matter of how are we going to have the Jews and the Gentiles in the church get along. So Paul had written the book of Galatians, and then this council took place, and then Paul was able to take, here is the council conclusion in Jerusalem, and he was able to take it to the churches on his second missionary journey, the ones that we see outlined here.

So he goes from Jerusalem up to Antioch. Antioch had begun to be the center of Christian testimony and witness rather than Jerusalem. Why was that the case? Why would Antioch begin to be the center of Christian testimony and witness instead of Jerusalem?

You have too many Jews in Jerusalem that are in a transition maybe? Yeah, and one of the things you have is you've got a number of Jews and a lot of the Jewish activity is beginning to get to the point of persecution. of the Christians and that was in fact scattering a lot of the Christians, the persecution from the Jews in Jerusalem. So making it hard for the Christians who had started off in Jerusalem to actually maintain an active church there openly.

Well, and also if you have the same center geographically for everything, it gets a little confusing working out the overlap. Like right now with Jerusalem, for Jews, Christians, and Muslims, look at all the controversy. Oh yeah, and controversy and conflict and real difficult to get this reconciled. It's good to have separate. Yes, all right.

So what you have, excuse me, what you have there is Antioch begins to be a center of activity. One other little clue that's not shown on the map, for a couple of centuries they had had what was called the Silk Road, you had a lot of commerce coming from the East, from India and China, places like that. And the first point of contact, major contact, in the Roman Empire was Antioch. So it was an international place, and even bringing not just commerce, but philosophy from the East. And Antioch was the place. So it was from there that the Silk Road, the commerce and even philosophy and worldview from the East came there to Antioch. It came to be an international place to spread the gospel.

So then Paul goes to Tarsus. What's interesting is Paul is from where? Tarsus. But what's interesting is that we find in the record very little ongoing mention of Tarsus. It's like, okay, I'm from here, but the Lord hasn't called me here, right? So Paul instead heads off up to, and these, it says Galatia up here, but these actually, what you see, these cities, Those are the cities of Galatia, and there are actually five of them, and two of them are Roman colonies.

And from there, that's where Paul picks up Timothy. Now, how had Timothy become a believer? Okay, yeah, Paul was aware of it, but in other words, Paul had gone there on his first missionary journey to the churches of Galatia, and so what he'd done is gone evangelistically, the first time through and still on his first missionary journey, returning back through those places as appointed elders. And as he goes then on his second missionary journey, because the first, second, and third missionary journeys he goes through Galatia each time. On his second missionary journey is where he picks up Timothy. Now what do we know of Timothy? What do we know about it?

Yes, father was a Greek, his mother and grandmother Jewish. Now, was that a legal marriage under the Jewish law? No, it was not. In other words, Timothy's grandparents had set up a marriage between a Greek and a Jew that was not according to Jewish law. So Timothy, having a Greek father, is not circumcised.

So one of the first things Paul does in order to make Timothy acceptable to the Jews is what? Circumcise him, right? Circumcise him because he needs to be acceptable to the Jews for ministry to the Jews. And otherwise he would be just considered a Gentile. So you have that. He goes through there, picks up Timothy. So now he's beginning to disciple Timothy.

And we don't have time to go through it, but we know more about Timothy than we know about most of the apostles. Isn't that interesting? We know more about Timothy than we know about most of the apostles. And as we'll see in our main service study of Hebrews, Timothy is last mentioned by name as one just being released from prison. We have no other record that he went to prison, but it's recorded in Hebrews chapter 13.

Okay, so here's Paul. He is intending to go up in this area, Bithynia and Pontus, north central Turkey is what we would call it now. And the Holy Spirit specifically directs him, no don't go there, I want you to go to Macedonia. which would establish the first church on the European continent. So instead of going up here, Bithynia and Pontus, they go here over to Neapolis and then Philippi. That's Acts chapter 16. They go into Neapolis and Philippi and then From there they head over to Thessalonica. And what happens in Thessalonica?

Anybody recall? What's that? Yeah, yeah, big riot. And who stirs up the riot? The Jews stir up a big riot. And so Paul's got to get out of there, right? And so he goes to Berea. And what happens in Berea? Acts 17.11 says what? What happens there?

The Bereans were more noble in that they examined the Scriptures daily. And who did they check out? Paul. They checked out Paul to see if what Paul was saying was true. And they used the Scripture. By the way, what was included in that scripture? The Old Testament was what they used to check out what Paul was saying. They examined the scriptures daily to verify, is this guy telling us the straight truth or is he full of it? Yes. So were they Jews? Well, very interesting. Does it specify whether they were Jews or not? It doesn't really spell that out. So this is the Berean. So it may have been Jews. It may have been God-fearing Greeks.

Since, as you mentioned before, the tendency for Paul was to go to the synagogue. Yes. Because those would be the people who are looking for the Messiah. Yeah. And so it would make sense, even though it doesn't say anything about it, that he would continue that practice and go to a synagogue if there were one. Yes. And think about this.

You've got the Thessalonian Jews were causing lots of ruckus. Okay? I mean, stirring up a riot. They were pursuing Paul to cause trouble. The Bereans, instead of going to their traditions and looking at, you know, okay, we're Jews and looking at all that. What did they do? They instead went to the Scriptures.

A huge difference. And this is, I think, a key eye-opener for us. And that is while we will have various church traditions, thank you, we will have various church traditions, what scripture points to and acts, says they're more noble, what scripture points to and acts is not that we go to our traditions, but that we go to the Word of God. and check things out by the Word of God. And that is a huge difference. And it's a lesson that the church has struggled with. Because we've got a lot of churches that have a lot of different traditions, but have not gone to the Word of God to check it out.

So is that what we see there? Is God essentially commending them? Yes, and what you see is they were more noble, right? They checked things out by the Word of God. The Jews from Thessalonica caused Paul a great deal of trouble because they weren't looking at the Word of God, they were looking at their traditions.

Huge difference. Yes? It did say that they went to the synagogue of the Jews, by the way. Okay, alright. So let's continue to track that. So here's Berea. Still, Paul had trouble from the Thessalonians. Yes? Essentially, he starts off with the Jews, but there was also frequently a group of God-fearing Greeks who may have been included in the synagogue as well.

Also interesting, many times women of prominence are mentioned. Yes, that's another thing that shows up. In Galatia and in this area of Macedonia, particularly Philippi, women had a higher rank and role in society. than was typical of the Roman Empire. And what we find is that that was true and it's also reflected in the Book of Acts. Women of prominence or some similar term. Lydia, for example, was a particular person, a lady, who was a woman of prominence, and that was indicative of the culture in those particular areas of the Roman Empire. Most of the Roman Empire, that was not the case. So the Book of Acts gets it right, culturally, historically. The Book of Acts gets it right.

Then coming down to Athens was a place where Paul met the philosophers, Epicurean and Stoic philosophers, and presented to them the gospel. Now here's something else interesting. In Acts 14 and Acts 17 are two places where the Apostle Paul is speaking in discourse to unbelievers. And in both places he makes reference to Genesis 1-11. Isn't that interesting? Both places he makes reference to Genesis 1-11. And so that's the case here.

Then going down to Corinth, that's the place where he establishes the church in Corinth, the one to whom we have two letters from Paul. It actually appears that there were like four letters, but we only have the two. So it's 1 and 2 Corinthians, but that's actually not 1 and 2. So we have indication of four letters to the Corinthians, and we have but two of them.

And then he returns on from there, goes over to Ephesus, and then heads back to Caesarea and Jerusalem. Now, how much time total does he spend in Ephesus? Yeah, actually three years in Acts chapter 20 he meets with the elders from Ephesus in Miletus. So that's in his third journey. So he ends up spending a total of three years in Ephesus. In Acts chapter 20 it's recorded where he spends that.

Okay, now here's Philippi. This is looking down from the mountain nearby. The mountain nearby is a place of two things. One, it's where they would bury their dead. And two, it was a place of gold mines. So looking down from that mountain at Philippi, here are pagan temples. Here is the marketplace where the Apostle Paul is actually beaten. for having pitched the demon out of the servant girl, and the owners were upset. And so he gets put into prison. This is the bathhouse, right in here, bathhouse and gymnasium. So that's Philippi.

Here is modern Antioch. Some of it is available archaeologically. Here is Lystra, which is one of the major cities of the Church of Galatia. And then here is Ephesus. In here, this goes down to the harbor. Here is the amphitheater where they had essentially a riot. They said, great is Artemis of the Ephesians, right?

So that's in that account. And then you go here to the rest of the city, and here is the marketplace here. So you have those. Then you have the next on page two of your handout. You have the next one. And from there they start at Antioch. And again, very interesting. Previously they started at Jerusalem and went to Antioch. Here now, they're starting at Antioch, which is beginning to be, this is the sending church, right? This is where they send them out for ministry. Stan? Is that the capital or is Damascus the capital? I'm just curious. Damascus was a capitalist area, right? Yes, and Antioch was was just a regionally important city, not really a capital in that area.

So here is, and they go again going through Tarsus, and then through these cities of Galatia again. going through there on the third missionary journey and then through there to Ephesus. What's the big deal with Ephesus? Why is Ephesus now a go-to kind of place? Think about that. Why is Ephesus a go-to kind of place? Pardon?

Yeah, it's a major harbor. Essentially, things from the Silk Road came into Antioch, and a lot of those things then went either by sea or by land into Ephesus, and from there things were distributed. So Ephesus is a major harbor. It essentially failed as a harbor eventually because it filled in with silt. But yes, very important, it's a major harbor. and it is the center for what is at that time Asia Minor. It's the major city.

A major intersection point for land travel is from there that it says all Asia heard the gospel there. The gospel went out to other places that, so far as we know, Paul never went, like Colossae. So a huge area of intersection for both sea travel and land travel. It had a Roman governor. There were about 3,000 Roman soldiers stationed there. So it was a major point of intersection. From there, things would go out by water and by land to other parts of the Roman Empire. Yes. Interesting looking at the map and thinking about it.

God seemed to think it was more important to strengthen the faith than to just spread it in the sense of a bunch of little When I was in the Ukraine, that was one of the problems with the evangelical churches. Each one had been established by some mission society. When I was there the third time, I think it was, Franklin Graham came over and had a crusade in Kiev. For the first time ever, they got together and found out that Maybe we ought to do this more often and strengthen the faith and encourage one another instead of each one establishing his own little thing. You bring up a key point and that is what you see is him on his third journey going through a lot of the same places again. Did he spread the gospel?

Yes. But strengthening the believers is a key thing. Get them on the right theological track. Yes, get them on the right track. Why is it important to go in and strengthen the churches that exist? Why not just say, hey, you guys got the gospel, I'm going to go somewhere else.

I think it's more of a refocus on the doctrine, is it not? I mean, you give out doctrine, and then the problem is that because they're human, They have a tendency to deviate from the doctrine. Just like when they had the law, they weren't supposed to deviate from it because it was the law. As long as you have doctrine, it's very important that you understand it and you don't deviate from it.

One way to look at it is there are tendencies among some churches, our tendency is to think that a hospital is simply a maternity ward in a neonatal unit. You know? That there aren't other issues to address. And so we want people to be born again, and then after that there's nothing to be said. Didn't you all have active malware forces trying to destroy some of those churches? Yeah, well, and that's the other thing. If you look at, let's take for instance, the letters to the churches. a lot of the letters were correcting doctrinal error. Right? And it says that doctrine matters. It says that the tendency to deviate doctrinally is there. Yeah?

I have limited experience obviously being only one person, but I have found over the 60 years of being a Christian that a strong home church that's theologically sound, will be a sending church. And so each one acts as a little beacon, a lighthouse, and sends out people. And they may not be specifically designated as missionaries, they might be traveling salesmen or whatever, but if they are solid in their faith. Part of that solidity of faith is the sharing and going out. So much better to have a strong home church sending than a bunch of little groups of people who are enjoying fellowship but not getting any of God's Word done.

Ultimately, think about it. Here's Peter. He ends his second letter, but grow imperative in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. How is that growth going to happen? 1 Peter 2. But long for the pure milk of the word, imperative, long, that by it you may grow. Same word, but not an imperative there. But the imperative is long for the pure milk of the word that by it you may grow, and then the end of 2 Peter, but grow. So there's an imperative, but it's not given with empty, you've got to grow, and who knows how. but rather he's given direction by using the exact same word, that by it you may grow. Yes?

Just jumping on what was previously said, the other so-called spiritual counselors, these were brand new believers, so each time he went back, he would have had to discuss what was going on because they came from such I don't know if it was intentionally that they were trying to be planned accurately, it was just the nature of they had so much history in the wrong mindset. Nothing, the gospel of Jesus Christ is nothing any of us have ever seen. Yeah, yeah, it's brand new. So yeah, so I mean there is, you have to come back and there's some growth and then you come back and when you hear the doctrines again, oh this is what this means. I think it's probably why we're here. Something else to make quick note of here.

He meets with the elders of Ephesus in Miletus. That is Acts chapter 20. Then he is heading back to Jerusalem. Why is he heading back to Jerusalem? What's that? He was basically going back to Jerusalem because he made a vow and he was bringing an offering and headed back there.

And that was in his foresight. He was given multiple warnings, what you're headed back to is trouble. And some people have looked at it and said, well, Paul did the wrong thing. I'm not so sure, but he was headed with the knowledge that he's headed for trouble.

So this is his third missionary journey. And then here, for example, is the temple ruins of Corinth. What you have up high is the fortress area up on the mountain. Now, Paul's journey to Rome, he gets in trouble as expected and as anticipated in Jerusalem. The Jews have got a vow, we're not going to eat until this guy is dead.

And so this word through Paul's nephew comes to Paul, and Paul is taken by several hundred Roman soldiers over to Caesarea. There he spends a couple of years in Caesarea, and then is taken by a Roman centurion along this route, which you see here. By the way, that Myra, have you heard of Saint Nicholas? St. Nicholas is the Bishop at Myra, who is at the Council of Nicaea. That was the one first called by the Roman Emperor, right? And so anyway, that's the guy. But so anyway, here's the connection between Paul and Santa Claus. OK? All right.

Now, then what you see here is This travel here is recorded and using We and Us. Dr. Luke, the author of the Gospel of Luke, that we'll begin studying next month in the main service, and the author of the Book of Acts, uses We and Us on this trip back then. He's involved there. That We and Us pattern starts, not consistently, but often on in Chapter 16 of the Book of Acts. So then they're headed here. They go through Malta and then eventually up to Puteoli and then to Rome. That's the pattern. So this is how Paul gets to Rome.

He has appealed to Caesar. So here's Caesarea where he has been imprisoned. It's there where they found an inscription in the amphitheater. This was back in the early 60s. inscription in the amphitheater that talks about Pontius Pilate and who was the governor 26 to 36 AD. Here is Sidon right near Tyre. that's mentioned there, Cyprus that they go around. Here's Puccioli which is on the coast of Italy and the place where they come into port and actually spend some time there.

Oh, one thing to mention, the centurion had the obligation to get Paul to Rome eventually. So he let Paul actually have times of like fellowship with other Christians and things like that because the Roman law said you must get Paul, a Roman citizen, to Rome. But there's no time schedule. So he was actually following Roman law and doing that.

And then here is some of the ancient remains from the city of Rome. Now, here's something else to take a look at. This is an appendix or supplement page on your handout, and I think, to me, it's fascinating. We have here, Christ is crucified, buried, raised, ascended, and seated in 30 AD. Some of the evidence is increasingly pointed towards Christ's crucifixion being on April 3rd, 33 AD. So just to make that point.

But the big point here, look at the Gospel of the Kingdom, mentioned for the first time even in Acts 2 and 3. And so you see Acts 3, 17-26 with Peter, Acts 8-12 with Philip, and the Gospel of the Kingdom is brought up all the way to the last chapter of Acts. Why would the Gospel of the Kingdom continue to be presented to the Jews throughout the book of Acts, from the beginning all the way to the end. By the way, what's the gospel of the kingdom? Yes, this is the millennial kingdom. And so one question here, this is the gospel of the kingdom, by the way, was presented by John the Baptist and Jesus in early chapters in Matthew. Why would it be continue to be presented like this?

Why wouldn't they just say, look, you Jews have rejected Christ. We're just going to give up on you. Yes. a new cause, or I don't know how you would explain it, of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not like there's such a big difference. It's like both minds, y'all messed up, so forget about the kingdom, forget about all those promises in the Old Testament. It would have had to be some transitional teaching that yes, that still holds true. We need to explain this thing for right now. At some point, there's an end point to this.

The Gospel of the Kingdom gets mentioned starting in Genesis and it continues on to Revelation. Acts is simply a continuance of that Gospel of the Kingdom. That Christ is the Messiah, that Christ will reign on the earth as King of the Jews and the King of Kings and Lord of Lords over the Gentiles. And so that Gospel of the Kingdom starts in Genesis and continues into the book of Revelation. The book of Revelation has a Gospel angel who preaches from the upper atmosphere to everyone the Gospel of the Kingdom. Now, we have the gospel of substitution, that is, that Christ died in our place. And that shows up starting in Isaiah 53. Surely he has borne our sorrows and our griefs. Yeah, you had, Morgan, a question?

Yes, just curious though, the gospel of the kingdom is just, they needed it to stay continual. The Gospel of the Kingdom largely centered upon the Jews. The Gospel of the Kingdom has to do with, here is Christ, He is the Messiah, He will be the one reigning throughout this coming millennial kingdom. And it starts in Genesis and continues all the way through the book of Revelation. The Gospel of the Kingdom is specifically a celebration of the nation of Israel. And it's focused upon Israel. Even though Isaiah said it was going to be a people that couldn't see or hear, and Jesus spoke in parables, God was still talking to the remnant of the Jews, correct? I mean, it's the remnant all the way along.

Here's what's interesting, is that even if a great majority of people reject either one of these Gospels, it's still given. God is amazing. God doesn't just write somebody off. The Gospel, both of these Gospels, are still given even if people reject it. Even if the record we have says that they by and large were entirely rejected. It's still given.

That's God's grace. The next thing you see is a transition from stewardship principle of law to the stewardship principle of grace. And here's something I think is key. The apostles had decades of time after the Lord ascended and the church had begun, the apostles had decades of time where they were having aha moments.

When Peter preached on the day of Pentecost, did he understand that the gospel was for the Gentiles too? He did not. So about a decade later, he would go, Oh, you mean this is for the Gentiles too? So he would go for years not understanding, but then have this understanding that he had to explain to the other leaders in Jerusalem when he got there.

Oh, well, that's what's happening. Now, here is the cool thing. Look at the identification truths in the upper middle part and the right part of this chart. What we have there is, think about in the book of Galatians, what part of the identification truths, remember we've got five parts, we've been crucified, buried, raised, ascended and seated, what part of those truths is presented in the book of Galatians? Baptized into his death? burial and resurrection. Is his ascension and seeding in Galatians? Huh? How about Romans? Is his ascension and seeding in Romans? Romans 6 is where we see our identification with Christ. Is his ascension and seeding mentioned in Romans?

What you see is Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians are the letters written from Rome, when Paul gets there, in Rome, written from Rome, in which the Apostle Paul says you've been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. You've been seated with Christ in the heavenly places. Philippi, you have a heavenly citizenship, which by the way is mentioned three times, not just once, in Philippians. You, in Colossians, set your mind on things above.

It isn't until Paul gets to Rome that he reveals the heavenly position that we have, our seeding, our blessing. It isn't until he gets to Rome. Had Paul been withholding the truth about our heavenly position, or did he not learn that until later? What do you think?

Yeah, and here's what's interesting is here's the Apostle Paul who has been for some years talking about our identification with Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection. He even wrote to the church at Rome and said in 6.3, do you not know, and it's revealed in chapter 7, and the answer is yes you do.

And then in verse 6, Romans 6.6, Because you know. In verse 9, again, because you know is the grammar of the Greek. So he knew, not having been to Rome as far as we know, he knew that they knew those truths.

But he didn't write about anything heavenly. Here's Romans, 16 chapters, the flagship of the epistles, but it leaves the believer on the ground. And so here you have those Roman prison epistles that reveals that we have a heavenly citizenship, that we are seated there in the heavenlies, that we are blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.

Where and when did Paul get those truths? To live is Christ, to die is gain. And as Paul is coming to the end of his journey, or the end of the race, I think his focus has changed from living here and now, being led by the Spirit, to his potential citizenship in heaven.

The city that he's going to live in when he is hence killed, which is pretty soon now. Here's something interesting. And that is, the place where Paul could have met with Christ privately, unbeknownst to anyone else, is at the prison for two years in Caesarea. It could have happened elsewhere, but it's very interesting to notice that here's Paul, who's very emphatic.

He's been baptized into Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection. It isn't until he gets to Rome and starts writing letters, because that's all he can do, that we find out, oh, I've been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. I have been seated with Christ in the heavenlies. And here's what's wild.

Ephesians 2.7, for the rolling ages to come, God will be showing the riches of his grace. What that tells me is that we're just scratching the surface of grace right now.

I don't know about other people growing older, but you become aware of your mortality somewhere along the line. As Stan alluded a minute ago, you start focusing on what's next and what's ahead. Because the activities are dropping off of career and family, the things that occupy so much time, attention, money. What do you have to look forward to? That idea of your focus being now on what God has prepared, what God is teaching, it is a shifted focus. Yes, yeah.

We're not so much occupied with all the things here that are ahead. We get to a place of saying, you know, I'm getting done with all that stuff. And we get reminders that this thing isn't going to last forever, right? Some of us get that earlier than others, but we get reminders that if this thing isn't going to last forever, there must be something else. And we increasingly are looking forward to, I'm going to be with the Lord, and what are we going to do when we get to heaven? A lot of times we worry about what we're going to do, what the Bible focuses on, what is God going to do when we get there?

And one of the things, Ephesians 2.7, is he's going to be showing us, that word means physically demonstrated, the riches of his grace on into the rolling ages of eternity.

And we will be astounded. We will have moments for thousands of years to come, if those mean anything. Amazed at his grace. Imagine being amazed after 10,000 years. When we've been there 10,000 years, that's just the start. Continuously amazed at the riches, plural, of His grace. This is astounding stuff. So here you see the book of Acts, and this records a lot of things happening here on planet Earth.

But the reality is, what that leads to is Paul can't go anywhere, right? He's stuck there until Nero a couple years later, has time on his schedule to look at his case and lets him go. Soon thereafter to begin persecuting Christians. So the Apostle Paul gets let go. But until then, all the Apostle Paul can do is send letters.

And these letters are the ones that tell us that we've been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. These are the ones that tell us that we've been seated with Christ in the heavenlies. These are the ones that tell us that we have a heavenly citizenship. These are the ones that tell us that we not only can, but ought to set our minds on things above.

Amazing, isn't it? Really, really cool. Major cool. So, that's our review of the Book of Acts. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for your word for the amazing things, the astounding things, the awesome things that you have revealed to us. We thank you for your most certainly amazing and astounding, eternally amazing grace. And we thank you that you revealed these things because you love us and care for us. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.