Bible Guys Classics: Acts 28 Part 2

Hey, everybody, we're the Bible guys, and if you're just tuning in recently, just know that we are showing a little bit of reruns for a few months, and then we'll be back bigger and better than ever on August thirty first, because behind the scenes we're taking a hiatus to do some very important things. Yeah, we're building building out a new studio and we've got some new structure. Super excited about it. So August thirty first, brand new content. But in the meantime, enjoy some of our greatest hits. So, Jeff, if I were to go, okay, go ahead and preach, could you preach under threat of death? I hope? So yeah, I think everybody needs to be ready to preach. Prayer died at any minute and any minute. Well, it says here in my Bible that Paul preaches under Roman guard. Oh okay, Well he's Chris and I'm Jeff, and we're the Bible guys. Okay, Chris, So I've got a good one for you today. All right. Our segment is It's in your wheelhouse. So we're back with more badly described films that Cres has to guess. So, just to be clear, you have to name the movie. Yeah, you're describing it poorly, and I have to figure out what. I'm giving you a bad bad woman explanation. Although I think these are pretty good. I think these are good. Here you go. The first one, a depressed office worker joins a cult and destabilizes the government. Oh wow, a. Depressed office worker joins a cult. And distin I have no idea. It's the matrix, I think. I think, my goodness, are you kidding me? By the way, I think that that's poorly written. I think that's the hardest one. That is pretty It's a great description, now now that you know what we're talking about. Not the government anyways, depressed, what is it? What is it that? The other way? The cult? It wasn't a call. It was actually the It was a actually like the truth, the only truth that there was. Yeah, but it was against the rules. Was okay, that was a poorly poorly. This one's better. This one's better. After the death of her parents, a young socialite causes millions and property damage. After the death of her parents. This is right up your alley. What is it? After the death of her parents, a young socialite causes millions and property damage. I have no idea. She just has to let it go. Oh you're talking about you're talking about Elsa. Because that's what she does. Okay, Hey I. Kind of frown on that description too. Wow, well these are poorly described. I know, like it made it sound like she did that because the death of her parents death of her parents was like years and years and years before that happened. Okay, anyway, go ahead, and Emo teen can't live up to his grandfather there's legacy and takes it out on his dad. An Emo team team. Oh, Emo teen. Can't live up to his father's legacy and takes it out on his dad. I don't want to waste too much dead time thinking about it, so I have to say I don't know. Yeah, Star Wars The Force Awakens. I'm sorry. Em Well, emo emo doesn't mean emotional. Emo means like a certain like. A golf shirt. Shut. But that's okay, Okay, I don't like that. Yeah, what made Chris mad? Let's go to that. Okay, Yeah, how about here is number four? Immigrant adoptee is repatriated to country of birth, experiences culture, culture, shock, and prejudice one more time. Immigrant adoptee has repatriated to his country of birth, experiences culture shock and prejudice, and he also meets his dad and sings to him. I have no idea elf. That's a good description. I thought, that's a good one. And okay, here you'll get this one. You'll get this one. Adopted kid's older brother won't let him hold the hammer. Oh yeah, well, okay four obviously. Yeah, that one. That one's pretty easy there. It's the only one that even came close to being actually actually Elf was out. Yeah, I would actually say was accurate. It was clever, Yeah, it was clever. Yeah. The other ones were just flat out just well frozen. They needed one more indicator there because that was all accurate too. No, she does tons of damage, yeah, of course. But they connected the dots. They said, because her parents died, is what it. Made after that. I just said after the death of her parents, right, which is not because. After the death of the parents' comma she did these things, right, right, Okay, here's the reality. Her parents died when she was young. Years and years later, she discovers something about herself and then causes money. So after it doesn't mean because right after the moon landing, Jeff and Chris did a podcast. Those aren't the same, right, So it's not because of the moon landing. Jeff and Chris do the Okay podcast. I know being an avid reader, and I know what I know. You know that that is not correct because it could be technically correct. But it's written is correct. It's written to lead you down a pathway. I think that's the idea of written movie descriptions. No, I would disagree. I would think that it would have to be accurate to actually help you guess. Well, it is accurate, but did her actions happen after her parents died? Oh, we're going to go back. Our listeners are like, I'm tuning out. Yeah, yeah, let's move on. Hey, somebody recently just gave us a good suggestion that said, why don't we put a hyperlink right at the end of the game so people can skip to the after this. So we're sorry, Thank you for the three people who are still listening. Chris just isn't very good at remembering the names of movies. I guess so acts Chapter twenty eight, verse seventeen. I take offense to that, and I'm sorry. I didn't mean the offense. Will you please forgive me? I will I just want to hang out on my anger a little. Save that for the next what made Chris mad this week? So we're wrapping up. I mean, this is the end of Acts, chapter of the Book of Acts, yep, right here. And then tomorrow we're moving into the Book of Finalman. We're going to start cleaning up some of the last few books that he wrote. Most of these last books are fairly short. But today we're wrapping up. It says three days after Paul's arrival to Rome, he called together the local Jewish leaders. He said to them, brothers, I was arrested in Jerusalem and handed over to the Roman government, even though I'd done nothing against our people or the customs of our ancestors. The Romans tried me and wanted to release me because they found no cause for the death sentence. But when the Jewish leaders protested this decision, I felt it necessary to appeal to Caesar, even though I had no desire to press charges against my own people. I asked you to come here today so we could get acquainted, and so I could explain to you when I'm bound that I'm bound with this chain because I believe that the hope of Israel. The Messiah has already come. They replied, We've had no letters from Judea or reports against you from anyone who's come here, but we want to hear what you believe, for the only thing we know about this movement is that its denounced everywhere. So a time was set, and on that day a large number of people came to Paul's lodging. He explained and testified about the Kingdom of God, tried to persuade them about Jesus from the scriptures, using the Law of Moses and the books of the prophets. He spoke to them from morning until evening. Some were persuaded by the things he said, but others did not believe. After they had argued back and forth among themselves, they left with this final word from Paul. The whole Holy Spirit was right when he said to your ancestors, through Isaiah the Prophet, go and say to this people, when you hear what I say, you will not understand. When you see what I do, you will not comprehend. For the hearts of these people are hardened, and their ears cannot hear, and they've closed their eyes so their eyes cannot see, and their ears cannot hear, and their hearts cannot understand. They cannot turn to me and let me heal them. So I want you to know that this salvation from God has also been offered to the Gentiles, and they will accept it. For the next two years, Paul lived in Rome at his own expense. He welcomed all who visited him, boldly proclaiming the Kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ, and no one tried to stop it. There you go, there it is, and so it wraps up the book of an accident. Again we mentioned yesterday kind of an abrupt ending. Yeah right, we mentioned we mentioned that it was abrupt, and it's because it's not a book that's supposed to fall the life of Paul. It's a book that actually talks about the spread of the Gospel. So we see it. You know, it take place in Jerusalem, and we you know, all the way from Act Shept two and a Pentecost, you know, the breaking out. Of the Holy Spirit to here it is. Years and years later. Paul has gone everywhere. He's gone on three missionary journeys, and actually tradition says that actually he might have gone on a fourth missionary journey after this. Yeah, Yeah, there's several reasons. Yeah. And in fact, I have some notes on my study Bible that actually indicate as to why there may be a fourth missionary journey. And here's what it says. Tradition says that Paul was released after those two years out of house arrest in Rome and that he left in a fourth missionary journey. Some reasons for this tradition are as follows. Number one, Luke does not give us an account of Paul's trial before Caesar, and Luke was a detailed chronicler. Number two, the prosecution had two years to bring the case to trial, and time of may may have run out. Number three. In his letter to the Philippians, written during his imprisonment in Rome, Paul implied that he would soon be released and do further traveling. Number four, Paul mentioned several places where he intended to take the good news, but never visited those places in his first three missionary journeys. And then finally, number five, the early Christian literature talks plainly about other travels of Paul. Yeah, so those are some pretty good reasons, yeah, to assume that Paul had a fourth missionary journey. Yeah, it's I think it's I think I'm fifty to fifty on it, you know, fifty percent says no, I think this is the end, right, and he just hangs out in Rome for a long period of time. But then, you know, the thing that sways it for me isn't his claims of his desire to go to Spain or you know, as he mentions in Romans or whatever, or those things. The thing that is the thing that makes me pause is the fact that the writers, the early Church historians and writers reference other travels by Paul that appear to be a fourth travel missionary journey after this first stay in Rome. And there's some ancient writers that seem to imply that there were two arrests in Rome. Okay, you know, so I'm willing to do that that, by the way, there's some value in that. It's we forget that Christianity's rooted in time with people, and that they Christianity's always gone from person to person to person. So it didn't end with Paul or John or James or you know. So Paul had Timothy who was one of his disciples, and Aaron Ais and a couple of the other early church fathers that would connect back to some of the teachings and direction of Paul. John, for instance, the last Disciple or the last apostle that died, he was probably over one hundred years old. He had Justin Martyr and a couple of other early preachers that were his disciples. Right, So, disciples make disciples, that's what disciples do. You know, Dogs have puppies, cats have kittens. Disciples have disciples, right, that that's. What we do. So as reproducing Christians, Christianity's always reproduced itself, and it's in the next generation disciples, that next generation, after John, after Paul, after James, from there until what we would call the Council in Nicea, which is a couple hundred years after Jesus. They're called the anti Nicene writers or anti Nicene fathers. These are the guys that were trying to work out Christianity in the tradition of what Jesus and John and Mark and Paul and all these guys had kind of established. And from their writings we can reassemble a tremendous amount of ancient church history and it's very very interesting stuff, very complex. Even early on there was a lot of division about about certain theologies and things, but there was tremendous unity about Jesus Christ as the one way to heaven, right, and so that Antonicine Fathers is a good place to read, and that would be kind of one of the indicators maybe is that they some of them indicate that perhaps there was a fourth missionary journey. Yeah, that's great, and you know, it's it's also great to know that it says that you know, he's here, he's preaching, and it says that he was basically given freedom to live in Rome at his own expense. He welcomed all who visited him, no one tried to stop him. He was boldly proclaiming the Kingdom of God. And yet at the same time, it tells us that he's still under guard, right, So, you know, it's it's not comfortable to know, I'm sure that he doesn't have his freedom, that he can't go where he wants to go, and that he's sort of stuck here in this area, and yet still he continues to just live his life like God wants him to. It's frustrating, Yeah, it's it's it probably was. And even though again he expressed desires to go elsewhere and travel. So here's my point. My point is is that a lot of times we find ourselves in spots where we don't really want to be, and our only goal is to, you know, do what we have to do and then just shine, you know, let the gospel shine. I think of my wife who she took a job and she was working at a place where they were a part of a faith that was not really what we would consider a faith, right, and they constantly were just pretty oppressive about it, and she just felt like she was in this spot and she's like, I got to get out of here, like this is this is really awful. And it took her a while to get out of there, and now she started a new job yesterday. So but the point is this, she was in the season of life, you know, where it seemed like she just sort of had to be somewhere she didn't want to be, and lo and behold, God brought her way this other employee who now she considers like great friends, and she was continuing to and by the way, they're also pastors, you know, who believe in Christ everything else, and so now they're like really good friends. And so that all came about because Hey, we're just gonna, you know, be true to who we are. We're gonna shine, and we're gonna encourage, we're going to do all these things. And they found out that they were pastors just by talking about Jesus. Hey, actually pastors. My husband's a pastor too, right, Because you're just gonna shine, and you're gonna you're gonna be where you're supposed to be and wherever you're at. Man, just shine. Yeah. So the last note in the Book of Acts in the Life Application Study Bible, at the end of that note for verse thirty one says Luke ends Acts with the victorious declaration that the proclamation of the Kingdom of God continued unhindered, just as God demonstrated through Paul. His message is salvation through Christ is unstoppable. Jesus has overcome the world and will one day return his King of kings, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, nothing can stop God from working in and through us. Right. So here is he's he's technically imprisoned, although he's allowed to live in his own home. He funds his own lifestyle at this point, but he's constantly under God. He even mentions the chain. So oftentimes perhaps he's living his days chained, but he's allowed to move around do his thing, just he's not allowed to escape. And he's still doing ministry, and he's still feeling perhaps a little stifled in his ministry. And yet the Kingdom of God keeps going forward. He keeps sharing the gospel. He'd only been in Rome a couple of days and starts inviting people who an't even believers. Hey, coming over, I want to talk to you about Jesus, right, And I love that. That That's how this story ends. This, the Book of Acts ends as Paul is just sharing the gospel again, just going on, and God's force is unstoppable. What God is doing with the gospel is unstoppable, and we all get to be a part of it. It's a great privilege. So you know, I've gone to I've traveled to many places on missionary you know trips and missions trips. And there's a big difference between a vision trip and a missions trip. So a vision trip is you go sort of as a leader and you're assessing things, you're checking things out, you're visiting and you know, acquainting yourself. And then a missions trip is where you go and you serve, yeah, some kind of project, you some kind of project or or do something right for the church. And so so anyway, this thing's coming up here where, and I've been given the opportunity to go down to the Dominican Republic. I have a good friend who is a college roommate of mine who has just sort of reinvigored his faith, and about six years ago he went down there and started this thing. And so get this. We get to preach the gospel to entire villages through tennis shoes. So we actually have about two thousand dollars that we're investing in buying brand new shoes, and we're going and he has this system in which he goes and runs. I don't know whether it's a vacation Baba school or not or anything like this, but but I know that I'm gonna come, prepare to preach and just share the gospel with people. And I just think that's really great. I look forward to it because whenever you get the opportunity to, you know, spread the gospel to a group of people who are I think, you know, really receptive. I think that's really receptive down there. I'm just really excited about it. That's really cool. Yeah, yeah, you know, using whatever tool you have in your hand to move the gospel forward is useful. For Paul, he used his house rights, so he had he was apparently renting an apartment or some house or something, and he used his house and said, hey, everybody, come over, I want to tell you about Jesus. And so a lot of times we think, well, I'm not the preacher standing on stage. I'm not the singer standing on stage. We think the church is supposed to be happening inside the building and that it's by experts. But the reality is God has given you certain tools, and all of the tools in your life are not just for you to consume and to benefit from. You do you benefit from them, But therefore God's loaned those to you as an investment in you to move his kingdom forward. And so you use whatever you Hey, if you have access and you know that there's a need tennis shoes and you have access to tennis shoes, and those tennis shoes get you in front of a crowd and then you're able to share the gospel. Great, you're just using tennis shoes. They want them, they need them. You have the opportunity to give them and share the gospel in a polite and godly way. Good if you have a house like Paul, use your house and bite people over. Start a Bible study. And by the way, it's important to know we're not leveraging the tennis shoes to say, if you listen to the gospel. You get these shoes. No, no, no, we're giving the shoes away first. But it starts a conversation. Yeah, and there they were in writing people stay around if they want so, which is great. Yeah. I used to do back when I was in college. You know, I was a music major, and so I was a trumpet player and best trumpet player you ever heard, by the way, cris Ever and you knew it. Yeah, yeah, that's right. So I had a a brass group, and so we would take the brass group up to the Pacific Garden Mission in Chicago. That's where Billy Sunday got saved, was that at the Pacific Garden Mission and we would there'd always be a dinner and then we'd host a service afterwards, and the dinner was free. I feed the homeless guys in the community for free, and no expectations, but then come in if you want to, and we would make some music and build the room. There'd be a couple hundred guys, and then we'd stand up and it was always the door was open. If you want to leave, you could leave, but we'd stand up to share the gospel and had many opportunities to lead people to Jesus. And it was just a really wonderful experience to realize, Hey, at the time, the last thing I ever wanted to be was a preacher. I didn't want to be a preacher. I just wanted people to know about Jesus. So I was a trumpet player. I played my trumpet, man and now one time guy goes, man, that's a way to play that song, and we lean into it. I start talking to him. Next thing you know, he was a former trumpet player and was trying to find direction in life, and I sat down as able to share the gospel and lead him to Christ. We wouldn't have had that conversation. I would have had no reason to have interacted with him, perhaps in life at all, except we had this commonality of brass. He enjoyed the song the path of his life versus the path of my life were two very different things. But in that moment, I was able to sit down and use what I had in my hand, which was my horn, to open up a conversation with a guy shared the gospel, not under compulsion, but it's just that's where we found commonality. Yeah, and it was a really neat experience. And I mean, I've just got a million of those kind of stories in my life of just what do you have that God has given you? Use that to share the gospel. Yeah, that's awesome. You know, I knew a group of guys who they were mechanics, and they couldn't imagine how they can use that, you know, just to shed this, you know, spread the gospel. And they blessed to the others people. So they created this group that they would decide to buy these old beat up cars and they would fix them up and they would fix them up well, and then they would donate them to single mothers and it was just single mothers and it was just a ministry and it was just a chance to share God's love, to tell them about Jesus and things like that. And they've done this for years, I think maybe even like over a decade, and all they do is just and so you know, the whole entire time, you know, they do. They get together, they share, you know, they encourage one another. It's a godly environment, you know. And then they're working and building together. And then they get done with this project and then they have this really you know, great car that's worth a lot of money. They just give it away fantastic yeah, yeah, and share Christ's love with with somebody who may feel unloved. Yeah. So you know, just take what's in your hand. So Rick Warren did a message one time about Moses. And I know we have we have to wrap it up. But I remember one time Rick Warren did a message about Moses and and when he said, God, they won't believe me, and how can I go to the you know, children of Israel and to Pharaoh and asked them to let my people go and everything else? And then God said what's in your hand? And he said a staff? Right, And he says, we'll throw the staff down it becomes a snake, right. And then then the message I remember it said, uh, what's what's in your hand? And his staff represented his identity, it represented his income as as a shepherd, because it was your sort of Vigo who he was, and to represent his his income and his influence. And I thought to myself, that is one of the coolest illustrations. How it wasn't just a staff that he had. That's staff was meant everything to Moses. It was his identity, his income, and his influence. And he said, throw it down, give it to God. And then God turned in something supernatural. And so whatever God has given you, whatever gift, whatever you know, influence, you know everything else, if you just give it to God and say, God, how can you use this to further your kingdom? God can show up in miraculous ways. Fantastic. Yeah, well that's a good place to end and we will see you next time on the Bible guys,