And So We Came to Rome
October 27, 2024 Speaker: Clark Bartholomew Series: The Book of Acts
Passage: Acts 28
“And So We Came to Rome”
Introduction
“And so we came to Rome.” This short sentence in our passage is monumentous in everything that we have studied in Acts so far. Everything that Luke has written so far has been directing us toward reaching Rome. This moment is like Frodo and Sam standing at the edge of Mordor or Odysseus seeing Ithica in the distance. We knew this destination was the end goal, but with all the strife and tribulation we might not have thought it would come. And much like Sam, Frodo, and Odysseus… the story isn’t over yet. Because, even though Paul is in the heart of the Roman Empire, there is still one story left to tell. As you probably noticed in the reading of the passage, today’s text ends in a bit of a cliff hanger. So, you’ll have to come back to hear the conclusion.
Why is this moment so important? Because the whole movement of Luke and Acts has been leading to this moment. The Roman Empire has been lurking in the background of this grand story that Luke has been telling. Rome has been a part of the story since all the way back in Luke 2! Just like Jesus promised in Acts 1, the Gospel has gone out from Jerusalem and is now in Rome. From Rome, it can reach anywhere in the world.
And think about what it would have been like for Paul and Luke to enter Rome for the first time. Rome, the Eternal City, a sprawling metropolis that covered seven hills. Monuments to her gods and her power were everywhere. It was the heart of an empire that reached from Syria to Spain and from France to Egypt. Rome had roughly 1 million citizens at the time. They had food stalls, commerce, and state of the art engineering. Caesar Augustus said, “I found Rome built with bricks; I left her clothed in marble.” But that marble was a facade. Because what did Rome stand for?
Supposedly quoting a British chieftain, the Roman historian Tacitus (who was 4 when Paul entered Rome) wrote this about the Empire, “They have plundered the world, stripping naked the land in their hunger… they are driven by greed, if their enemy be rich; by ambition, if poor… They ravage, they slaughter, they seize by false pretenses, and all of this they hail as the construction of empire; and where they make a desert, they call it peace.” That is what Rome under the caesars was all about: taking, destroying, gaining, proving, and in the end they called the ruins around them peace. It was a veneer of peace and marble supported by blood and conquest. A physical embodiment of a kingdom of darkness.
But, now there is another Kingdom on the scene. The Kingdom of the Lord Jesus has come to Rome. That Kingdom has spread heart by heart across the world - from Jerusalem to Judea and Samaria to the ends of the world. And in our passage today, the Kingdom of Jesus is in the midst of the Kingdom of Rome. For you GenXers, think of this like Neo going to the middle of Machine City at the end of the Matrix series. And we wonder, what does God’s Kingdom look like in the midst of this other kingdom of darkness.
And that is what we are going to look at today. At the ends of the earth, in the heart of another Kingdom, what is God doing in and through His Kingdom? Today, we are going to see that even at the edge of the world, even in the midst of a kingdom of darkness, God has not lost the plot. God still remembers His people and His mission even in Rome. Despite the seeming glory of Rome, the might of her armies, the size of her walls, and the edicts of her Casaer, God’s advancement of His Kingdom has not ceased. And if that was true for God’s people living under the Roman Empire, we can hold fast to that truth today - no matter what Caesar is in the White House. God has not lost the plot for us who are in His Kingdom. And that is what we are going to look at today under two major headings. First, we are going to look at how God cares for His Kingdom. And second, we are going to look at how God adds to His Kingdom.
God Cares for His Kingdom
First, we are going to look at God’s care for His Kingdom. And even in a short passage like we have today, we can see the ways that God cares for the people in His Kingdom. And what’s more than that, we actually get a window into how God cares for His people - the means that He uses to care for, strengthen, and embolden the citizens of His Kingdom.
Let’s quickly return to our first-century adaptation of Gilligan’s Island. After the shipwreck we talked about last week, verse 11 tells us that Luke and Paul remained on Malta for three months, and they got a ride on a ship that had been wintered on Malta. They travel up to the island of Sicily, past the tip of Italy, and up the western coast of Italy until they reach a place called Puteoli (which you have to say in an Italian accent).
I can only imagine what it felt like for Luke and Paul to step off the boat in Puteoli. They had made it. They were on the Italian Peninsula. No more islands, no more water, no more coastal towns - Rome was about 140 miles away now. There is a sense of finality to it.
And it is here in Puteoli that we get our first glimpse of how God cares for His people through His people. Look at verse 14 with me, “There we found brothers and were invited to stay with them for seven days.” Paul and Luke land on a strange new world. They are in Europe now, headed toward the capital of the empire. Who knows what is in store for them. And what is the first thing they do? They sought out brothers and sisters in Christ.
After everything they had just been through (and everything they are about to go through), they needed Christian community. And the church in Puteoli did not let them down, “and [we] were invited to stay with them for seven days,” (v.14b). The brothers and sisters in Puteoli brought them in and hosted them for a week. These brothers and sisters are extending the gift of hospitality and service to Paul. And that is an interesting amount of time, because that basically ensures that they would have gotten to worship together. I am sure that it would have been like a homecoming reunion for a place Paul had never been before. Paul and Luke would have gotten to experience a slice of life (and maybe pizza) with these Italian brothers and sisters.
And then, we get the climatic line: “And so we came to Rome.” Luke doesn’t recount the on-foot journey from Puteoli to Rome. That’s 140 miles on foot/horse/wagon that we don’t get. But, it’s what Luke does focus on that I want to draw our attention to. Look with me at verse 15, “And the brothers there [in Rome], when they heard about us, came as far as the Forum of Appius and Three Taverns to meet us.” The church in Rome was coming as far away as 40 miles to see Paul and Luke. Before cars, that's like a 2-3 day journey. It's like somebody in Kansas hearing that a missionary from another country flew into New York and so they drove to meet them.
Think of what this must have meant to Paul! He has a bit of freedom but not much (he is still under supervision), but these Roman Christians come and visit him in his affliction and incarceration. Can you imagine what this must have been like for those Roman Christians? This is after the book of Romans has been written, they have been waiting for Paul to come and visit them, and even though he is in chains… they come to visit him during his imprisonment. Not only would this journey have taken quite some time, they would be openly associating with someone in chains and under house arrest. But visiting a brother in his affliction was worth it.
And what I really want to hone in on is Paul’s response. Because Paul’s response to all of this that Luke draws together God’s care for the people in His Kingdom. The end of verse 15 says, “On seeing them [the Roman Christians], Paul thanked God and took courage.” These two responses offer us a depth of insight in Paul’s understanding of God’s work in His people. First, he thanks God because God has accomplished what He said that He would. Remember, back in Acts 23.11, Jesus stands beside Paul in prison and tells him, “‘...as you have testified to the facts about me in Jerusalem, so you must testify also in Rome.’” Jesus promised that Paul would get to Rome, and here he was.
But, it is the second response that Paul has where Luke draws these threads together. He “took courage.” That Greek word for courage is super weird, this is the only place where it appears in the New Testament. Why would Luke pick such a niche word? Well, a minute ago, when I quoted Acts 23.11, I didn’t quote the whole thing. The first thing that Jesus says to Paul is “Take courage…” the verb form of the word for courage in 28.15. Just as Jesus told Paul to take courage that he would reach Rome, the sight of Jesus’s people brought Paul the same courage. In a very real way, they were bringing the courageous presence of Christ to Paul.
The whole first half of this passage actually parallels insanely well to Matthew 25. In that passage, Jesus is talking about His Second Coming and what will be said of the righteous and unrighteous. He says that He will say to the righteous, “‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me,’” (Matt. 25.34-36). And the righteous are like “When did we do those things?” And Jesus responds, “‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to Me,’” (Matt. 25.40).
When we believe the Gospel, we are united to Jesus in such a way that serving one another is just as if we were serving Him. And you know what? Paul knows this all too well, because he experienced the inverse of it. As he was persecuting the church as a younger man, Jesus came to him and said “Why are you persecuting Me?” And yet, in God’s grace, God not only redeemed Paul out of that life, He is now using the very church Paul hated to minister to him.
And what is crazy is that union with Christ does not just affect the person who is being served, but the one who is serving. None of us are going to have our feet washed by Jesus or share a meal with Him or see His face in this life. But, you know who we do get to serve, share a meal with, and see every week? Each other. Christ’s Body on earth is a major way that He continues to serve and minister to His people.
The only way we can show sacrificial hospitality is because Christ came to seek us out and bring us to His home. The only way that we can visit and care for the afflicted is because Christ first came to us, who were afflicted with sin. The only way that we can strengthen and give one another courage is because Christ first came to bind up and strengthen us, who were weak and weary. His mission to His people becomes our service to each other.
Today’s passage and Matthew 25 should radically affect the way that we see serving and being served in the church. Because you know what the hungry, thirsty, strange, naked, sick, and imprisoned can’t always do? Return the favor. And yet we are called to serve them anyways. So… who are those people among us? If we see the ways that we serve one another as God ministering to His people through us that should make it much easier to serve in ways we might not otherwise want to.
You have heard us talk time and again about OGC’s need for volunteers in children’s ministry, so what if we looked at serving in children’s ministry through this lens? When we teach, play with, disciple, and love kids who are not our own, what does that show their parents about God’s care for them? When we tend to a kid with a scraped knee or sit with a kid acting up, what does that show them about their heavenly Father’s love for them? Serving in kids ministry is more than about giving parents a Sunday morning off. It is about ministering to children and their parents in a way that reflects God. Doing things “for the least of these” is more than just teaching children, it is teaching them, serving them, (and giving them veggie straws) as if you were unto Jesus.
Christ is so united to His Body that He still continues to break bread with them, minister to them, speak to them, and love them through His Body. The radical love that the brothers and sisters in Puteoli, Rome, the Three Taverns, and the Appius Form displayed to Paul should inspire us to love in the same way.
The evergreen temptation for us in serving one another is thinking “Someone else will do it.” or “Someone else is better at it.” But actually robs your brothers and sisters from the way that God has specifically used your story and your gifts to strengthen His Kingdom.
It is amazing to think that God would use His fallen people to care for His precious sheep. And this passage shows us that even the Apostle Paul was not above the care that God offers through His people.
But, that raises the question of what about God’s concern for those not in HIs Kingdom?
God Adds to His Kingdom
That brings us to our second point, God adds to His Kingdom. This brings us all the way back to the beginning of Acts as well. At the very beginning of Acts, Luke says this, “In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach…” Luke says that the “first book” (The Gospel of Luke) was about what Jesus began to do and teach. And that phrasing helps us better understand what Acts is about: what Jesus has continued to do and teach. However, He has not been doing those things physically on earth like in the Gospels. He has been acting and teaching through the people of His Kingdom. Christ did not stop His mission of saving and redeeming a people for Himself when He ascended. He has continued that mission by bringing His people into the mission with Him. And here, at the ends of the earth, we see Paul continuing that mission.
Everywhere that Paul has gone, he basically has the same evangelism playbook. He goes to a new city, he tries to go to the Jewish people of that city first, and then a varying degree of success occurs. Even in the most Gentile city there could have been, Paul goes first to his Jewish brothers. He is following in the footsteps of Jesus as he does so. He engages them on the Law and the Prophets. He shows them the promises that were first handed to them have come true.
Verse 17 tells us that after three days Paul called the local Jewish leaders together because he wanted to meet with them. So verses 17-22 are like having a meeting solely to set up another meeting. The big, final, climatic meeting of Paul with the Roman Jews is in our passage for next week. But, there is something in this passage that shows us that God’s mission to gather a people to Himself has not changed.
In verses 17-19, Paul recounts how he got to where he is. He tells them about how he was wrongfully handed over to the Romans, how the Roman authorities wanted to set him free, and how he had to appeal to Caesar. His speech to them, although it is short, is filled with language that shows his love for these Roman Jews. He calls them “brothers,” he talks about “our people,” and references “the customs of our fathers.” And with all this familial language, he builds to the crescendo of this small speech, “‘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,’” (v.20).
Imagine Paul’s heart in this! He is pleading with his people, his brothers, about the hope that he, they, and their fathers have looked toward. It reminds me of Romans 9.3, where Paul - speaking about the Jewish people - says, “For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers.”
And the Jewish leaders tell Paul that no one has come from Jerusalem and no letters have been sent talking about Paul. Which is crazy if we pause to think about it. Remember how vehemently the leaders in Jerusalem wanted Paul dead? Remember how they planned and waited for a long time to ambush him? Remember all the extra protections that Paul had to be given? And once he was gone, they just let it go?
But, the Jewish leaders do want to meet with Paul. They say, “‘But we desire to hear what your views are, for with regard to this sect [Christianity] we know that everywhere it is spoken against,’” (28.22). And that’s the cliff hanger. What is Paul going to say to them? How are they going to respond? Tune in next week for the exciting conclusion, where Jim will be looking at the last narrative in Acts.
What does the latter half of this passage show us about God’s continuing mission? The first half showed us how the mission includes the people of God caring for the people of God. What about this short discussion with the Jewish leaders?
“‘It is because of the hope of Israel that I am wearing this chain.’” The hope of Israel had brought Paul to Rome in chains. Why? Because the hope of Israel is the hope for the world. And it is that hope that he wants his brothers to understand.
Think about how Luke has used brothers in the passage for today. The first two times Luke uses it is to describe the Christians who are in Italy. And specifically how they have shown brotherly love to Paul and Luke. And then, Paul calls the Jewish leaders brothers. And there is the tension. Paul wants his ethnic brothers to be brothers with him in Christ.
The “hope of Israel” is not bound to the borders of Jerusalem, Judea, or Samaria. The hope in Jesus Christ transcends any physical kingdom. The brothers in Puteoli and Rome were exemplifying what it looks like when you come into that Kingdom - a radically new understanding of family. And Paul here is joining in God’s mission to bring people into His Kingdom. Just like how it is amazing that God uses His fallen people to care for the people in His Kingdom, it is amazing that God uses His fallen people to bring more people into that Kingdom.
One thing that we are as the church (and as Orlando Grace Church) is an embassy of God’s Kingdom among the earthly kingdoms we live in. We are here to build one another up (as we saw in the first half of the passage) and send each other out. We represent God’s Kingdom to the world, and bring people knowledge of the “hope of Israel.” And when we do so, we are joining the same mission that Christ began when He said, “‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe the gospel,’” (Mark 1.15).
Just like the brothers in Rome were the presence of Christ to Paul, Paul is now acting like the presence of Christ to these Jewish leaders. Just like a solar-powered flashlight, Paul was strengthened by the light of Christ among the Christian community. And now, he is able to go out into a dark world and give a glimpse of that light. And Christ promised to be with Paul in his mission.
So, this week, when you have one more Gospel conversation with that friend or family member who you have agonized in prayer over - Christ has promised to be with you there. When loving your spouse like Christ would is teetering on exhaustion - Christ has promised to be with you there. When you have to ask forgiveness from someone and it feels like death - Christ has promised to be there with you. When you feel like you might jeopardize a friendship by inviting them to church - Christ has promised to be there with you. No matter how “small” our part in advancing the Kingdom feels, it isn’t too small that Christ won’t be there with you.
And when the exhaustion of living in a kingdom of darkness, but knowing you belong to a kingdom of light becomes too much - find brothers and sisters. Let them serve you, let them feed you, let them strengthen you. Bearing each other’s burdens is a way that eases our loads as we walk toward that Kingdom we have been brought into. At the close of every service, know that when we say “Church you are sent,” you are not sent alone.
Conclusion
I think Tacitus was spot on when he described what Rome stood for. It was a kingdom of superficial glory, hiding conquest and blood behind “peace” and marble. And Rome’s vileness all the more serves to show the goodness of God’s Kingdom.
God’s Kingdom could not look any more different than Rome. Rome had a facade of glory that concealed a substance of violence and evil. God’s Kingdom has a substance of pure glory that is working its way out of a people that are being formed into something glorious. Augustus might have found a city of bricks and clothed it in marble, but God took a people with nothing and clothed them in pure white. Rome might have created deserts and called them peace, but God took a desert of a world and cultivated a garden that overflows with His peace. And although Rome was called the Eternal City… we know what befell that empire. The thing that won’t befall God’s Kingdom: an end.
And all that God does in this Kingdom is for the good of His beloved people. The very same people that He desires to work on, through, and for.
More in The Book of Acts
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When God Answers Questions You Aren't AskingNovember 3, 2024
God Did What He Said He Would DoOctober 20, 2024
Storms and Suffering