Last Sunday of the Church Year Service

Sermon - Acts 28:17-31

17 After three days he called together the local leaders of the Jews, and when they had gathered, he said to them, “Brothers, though I had done nothing against our people or the customs of our fathers, yet I was delivered as a prisoner from Jerusalem into the hands of the Romans. 18 When they had examined me, they wished to set me at liberty, because there was no reason for the death penalty in my case. 19 But because the Jews objected, I was compelled to appeal to Caesar—though I had no charge to bring against my nation. 20 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.” 21 And they said to him, “We have received no letters from Judea about you, and none of the brothers coming here has reported or spoken any evil about you. 22 But we desire to hear from you what your views are, for with regard to this sect we know that everywhere it is spoken against.”

23 When they had appointed a day for him, they came to him at his lodging in greater numbers. From morning till evening he expounded to them, testifying to the kingdom of God and trying to convince them about Jesus both from the Law of Moses and from the Prophets. 24 And some were convinced by what he said, but others disbelieved. 25 And disagreeing among themselves, they departed after Paul had made one statement: “The Holy Spirit was right in saying to your fathers through Isaiah the prophet:

26 “‘Go to this people, and say,
“You will indeed hear but never understand,
    and you will indeed see but never perceive.”

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

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

30 He lived there two whole years at his own expense, and welcomed all who came to him, 31 proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance.

After the shipwreck that we heard about last week, and having gone on to Rome, now, and having been there a few days [Paul] has asked to meet with local Jewish leaders. He wants to explain to them why he comes to be here. He tells of his having been delivered by Jews from Jerusalem into Roman hands, and having felt compelled to make use of his Roman citizenship, appealing to Caesar. And much like in his testimony before Agrippa that we heard about a couple of weeks ago, Paul uses this opportunity (before facing Caesar) to tell of Christ before these Roman Jews.

On this Last Sunday of the church year, our bulletin cover says, The Expectant Church. The Church is all of the believers in Christ in the world. What they’re expecting is the Lord’s return - at any moment. Send forth Your Son we pray, that He may lead home His Bride, the Church, that we with all Your saints may enter into Your eternal kingdom -We prayed that in the Collect this morning. We anticipate the one who says in our Old Testament lesson, I create Jerusalem to be a joy, and her people to be a gladness. I will rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in my people (that includes you, by the way; it talks about what you will experience in God’s eternal kingdom). We anticipate the One Who comes like a thief in the night (as Paul writes in our Epistle lesson), but to receive to Himself those for whom He died, whom He destined for salvation. We anticipate the Bridegroom Who brings to Himself all those who are waiting for Him, as demonstrated in our Gospel lesson. 

Paul has been journeying to find any who will add themselves through faith to this group of Christ’s followers. He seeks any who recognize the burden of guilt that they bear that has no other solution than God’s grace as it has been offered through the blood of His innocent Son as atoning sacrifice. He’s looking for people to add to the Expectant Church.

So, he is meeting with the Jewish leaders of Rome. They’re religious people. They’re no doubt very sincere in what they believe. Sometimes people think God will be satisfied as long as you’re sincere about your beliefs. As long as you grab onto something and believe it with all your might, you’ll be good with Him. This is absolutely not the Bible’s message. According to the Bible it very much matters what a person believes. It’s impossible, in fact, to avoid punishment and have God’s eternal inheritance without putting one’s trust where He has placed His mercy. It’s like kids whose mother has left a bucket of apples on the counter in case they’re hungry, who remain hungry because they are looking for a bucket of oranges, and ignoring what has been placed there to satisfy their hunger. The person who is sincere in error goes to the same place as the one who is lukewarm in error. God has placed His mercy with Christ, who died for sins.

And Paul is concerned that these people with whom he meets are in error. After all, he had been one of them. He had been self-righteous, believing that attaining God’s kingdom was based on what a person does in this life, based on a person deserving to be saved because he or she has opted to do right things and avoided doing wrong ones. That’s the most natural thing for us to believe (of course our nature is corrupted). It’s what we believe if God doesn’t cause us to believe otherwise. It seems like it should be right. You more or less do your best and you more or less stay out of trouble, and good things happen. What could be more natural to believe than that? 

For Paul, then, to have success in his aim before these people would be impossible were the Holy Spirit not working through God’s Word to convince them. He works to convince them not to believe what seems like it would be right, and instead, to believe what’s really true. So, with the aid of the Holy Spirit, From morning till evening, our text says, [Paul] expounded to them, testifying to the kingdom of God and trying to convince them about Jesus both from the Law of Moses and from the Prophets.

Just as he had done before Agrippa, Paul insists to them, that what he believes and what he wants them to believe isn’t in conflict with what their own prophets have said. They’ve been missing something in it; but it has always been there for them to see. The Christ was to come from their own people. When the people heard Jesus and said, [Uh…wait…] Isn’t this the carpenter’s son? (Matt. 13:55) -as if that meant He couldn’t possibly be the Christ (he was just an ordinary one of them), instead, they should have recognized that coming from them was one of the things the prophets had said about the Christ (the Redeemer, the One God was sending as His mercy toward them). And it had been said of Him by the prophets, that He would suffer and die. Who did they think Isaiah had been talking about in his 53rd chapter, Who appeared ordinary, Who was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, Who was pierced for our transgressions…crushed for our iniquities, by Whose wounds we are healed because the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all? 

And St. Luke writes that some of those to whom Paul is speaking in our text have become convinced (we know through the Spirit’s work through the powerful Gospel message that Paul has been proclaiming). Some of his listeners have added themselves through faith to the group of Christ’s followers, to the Expectant Church. They have come to know Jesus as the One through Whom God has mercifully put away the guilt of their sins, and made them His sons and inheritors.

But others on this day, having heard this message, have disbelieved, Luke says. They have (at least up to this point) rejected the message for themselves. They have refused to be numbered among Christ’s followers, among those who are the Expectant Church. Paul has said to them Isaiah’s words: This people's heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed. They have forfeited the message for themselves, and now watch with disinterest as it is sent to others who will have the opportunity that is offered within it - the opportunity to have sins forgiven, to have peace with God and the inheritance of His kingdom. 

Why would anyone refuse this? -we might wonder. It’s interesting to know that these were God’s people. Isaiah was writing to Israelites of his time; Paul was addressing their descendants generations later. And in his address to these descendants, he specifically goes back to that text that demonstrates God’s people hardening their hearts against Him to their own destruction. He’s saying to them, Don’t be like they were! And again, these are religious people. They’re sincere in what they believe. But they are choosing to believe contrary to what God has revealed (just as Paul had done before). They are putting Christ aside, like a bucket of apples that was put out when they wanted oranges.

Could it ever happen to you? Could it ever come to a point at which God’s messenger says you’re like the ones Isaiah was talking to? We started out saying how natural it is to be self-righteous, to see oneself as deserving of God’s kingdom because of what he or she has done in this life. It might occur to us that religious people are the very ones who are ripe for that kind of thing. They’re the ones who are behaving (at least it looks that way) while the world around them is misbehaving. Look at you this morning. You’re in church! You’re doing what God said people should do in the Third Commandment. You’re not like the heathen all around. The key word in that statement is you, not Christ. See how easy it is to get there? It’s most natural for us to see ourselves as deserving of God’s kingdom because of what we’ve done. And then we’re no different than the Roman Jews Paul was addressing because Jesus doesn’t mean anything more to us than He did to them. We’re hearing but not hearing. Seeing, but not seeing. We’ve chosen to believe something other than God has revealed to us. We’ve chosen ourselves as savior instead of Christ. And what a poor choice that is, that forfeits God’s grace in exchange for a verdict that is based on our own failing works. We’ve only imagined ourselves righteous.

At the end of our text it says Paul was, teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance. We can imagine the kind of thing he was saying. He was probably talking about what it means that our Savior is truly righteous, that He never had any sinful self-righteousness like we do, that He humbled Himself before His Father - obeying in everything, even to the point of death on a cross. His sacrifice removes our self-righteousness and every other sin. Paul was no doubt offering them Christ as the only solution to the burden of guilt; He is God’s grace for them. His innocent blood made atonement for their sins. He was probably saying to them that there is a place among Christ’s followers for them, a place in the Expectant Church, within which forgiven people anticipate His return to bring them to be with Him in His kingdom.

Of course, you hear the same message this morning, this message of God’s grace that is yours through faith in Christ. You have possessed it since your Baptism, or perhaps since hearing God’s powerful Spirit-filled Word and believing it. You can have true peace through it because you’re forgiven of sins. You are inheritors of God’s eternal kingdom. You come to the Lord’s Table this morning as those whom He has redeemed. You are His own, who receive from Him His true body and blood along with bread and wine to nourish your very souls as you await His return in glory. You are those who have added yourselves through faith to this group of Christ’s followers. You are the Expectant Church. God be praised. Amen.