welcome back welcome back to class number 10. boy it seems like we just got started and here we are we're near the finish line and i hope that you've been uh receiving some of the things that we've been talking about and that the perspectives have has increased by what we've studied all right we will endeavor to complete lesson number five today so this way we'll devote class number 11 and class number 12 to the last lesson lesson 6. let's pray father we thank you lord god for your goodness your grace and mercy and kindness to us all the time father kind that we just stay focused on you uh you are always on the throne you never leave the throne and we thank you father god that uh you pour out your grace and mercy on us we thank you that you give us a spirit of wisdom and revelation concerning the knowledge of you and that we grow each day by what we study by what we read and by what we hear in the godly circles lord and we thank you for that in jesus name all right we learned in our last class that paul is preaching the word to a great host of people when a riot begins and they decide to do paul harm so we know who who is the instigators there anybody that is antichrist is is being used of the devil to instigate a riot and to eventually try to kill paul to silence what the what the lord has given to him to do all right the roman soldiers intervene and paul was thrown into jail and when he asked he asked the prince the people that are guarding him is this right for you to do to a roman citizen i remember we had talked about that paul was dual citizenship he had he was a jew so therefore he was recognized as a jew and and had citizenship as far as israel is concerned but he also had a citizenship from rome which his dad had bought and because he was an heir to his dad he automatically became a citizen all right and so now he says uh to these people that have been captive is it right for you to do this to a roman citizen and when they hear that they go they freak out all right and so they report all this back to the chief roman soldier and when he finds out now you have to remember that the guidelines for the roman empire at that time was was great so what happened is if you touched a roman citizen without a trial uh you in essence went went on trial for doing that and you you you potentially were thrown into jail and and to serve some time he eventually turns him over this this this man says okay we're not going to put him in prison this this chief soldier uh who's a roman and says we are going to turn him over to the governor felix this way like pontius pilate we'll wash our hands of the whole mess so he eventually turns him over to to the governor named felix who puts him in confinement for two years now when we when we read that it does it doesn't appear always the time element remember what we talked about in the timeout we said that the book of acts is really 30 to 35 years long but when you read it it doesn't look like that right so he's in this confinement now the confinement was like a hotel room all right and in fact many believe that paul paid for that confinement now what was felix hoping over this two years time he was hoping that paul would bribe him to get out so felix really didn't find anything wrong with what paul was doing he was just looking to make money off this whole situation a new governor arrives and takes over his name is festus now not to mix it up with felix and festus festus wants to please the jews and tries to persuade paul to submit to a trial back in jerusalem paul knows by the spirit of god and by having natural wisdom that if he goes back to jerusalem he's not coming out he's already been forewarned right in jerusalem there's death all right so uh paul appeals to caesar now along the way comes king agrippa and bernice they come to visit uh festus and and paul is brought before them to speak so we pick it up here today with what paul is having a conversation with with the king agrippa and with his with bernice his sister let's turn to acts 26. we're going to pick it up in verse 21. for these causes the jews caught me in the temple and went about to kill me having therefore obtained help of god i continued unto this day witnessing both to a small and a great saying none other things than those which the prophets and moses did say should come now remember he is talking to a gripper and bernice two individuals especially gripper who really understood because he was a king over this this area and remained king he understood the jewish laws he understood he understood some of the prophetic things that were spoken of about a messiah and about what transpired in the old testament all right so uh he said which the prophets and moses did say should come that christ should suffer that he should be the first that should rise from the dead and should show light unto the people and to the gentiles and as he thus speak for himself festus said with a loud voice paul thou art beside thyself much learning does make you mad in other words you've spent so much time just cramming your brain your brain has gone tilted right but he said i am not mad this is paul responding most noble festus but speak forth the words of truth and and soberness for the king knoweth of these things and it was now paul remember he said about paul he's always a wise man he when he addresses the church he always blesses them speaks good things over them lifts them up so that if there is a point where he has to say something that's on the negative side they already trust him to some degree because of the the things that he has said prior to it so listen to what he says to the king for the king note of these things in other words he's saying you're pretty smart king and you know when you're red and you're educated and you you you you're you're a smart whip okay so before whom also i speak freely for i am persuaded that none of these things are hidden from him for this thing was not done in in a corner king agrippa believed the style of the prophets i know that thou believers in other words you believe in the things that are written there you just are not vocalizing it so much right then agrippa said unto paul almost that persuades me to be a christian so paul testifies and then declares because he's telling the story everywhere about the risen christ and the jews the jews want to kill him why because when light comes into darkness darkness hates the light right because it exposes the deeds that it's doing all right so but uh but god helped him and everything that he testified about was written by the prophets and moses that christ was from the beginning now let me tell you what the beginning from the beginning is from the beginning is back before adam god jesus was the lamb slain before the foundation of the world therefore he and the father made this covenant together that they were going to bring in this covenant which we call today the new covenant and they were going to bring this covenant in where jesus would suffer for us die take on our sins make the payment and be risen right that christ was from the beginning scheduled to suffer and die and be raised from the dead festus hears about being raised from the dead and shouts aloud paul you are crazy nuts you're off your rocker what why because fess is the only belief when you die you go into the ground and that's it right paul looks for grip and says oh o king you know all about what the prophets are saying but agrippa says would you persuade me to be a christian now griffith didn't want people to think he was being persuaded why because he had his reputation to uphold right he uh he wanted to be sure that no word got back to caesar that he was a follower of christ because that would automatically remove him as king and we look at today and the things that are going on today and we see many people just don't want to testify that they're born again because of the fact that they know that it will it could cost them and that's sad when jesus openly testified about us and that uh he loved us so much that we should have the same in fact he says those who don't testify about me before people i will not testify about you before my father and so we have to remember that there are guidelines to the covenants which we are in and we always want to be at the top of our game doesn't mean that we're totally mature totally uh perfect but in essence we always want to be where we're at today we want to be sure that we're moving to tomorrow to be at a higher level but let us fulfill the things that we have for today all right uh so let's look at this for a moment god is trying to reach the world right everyone god is doing you know when you look at the world today's world tomorrow's world yesterday's world god has mercy the word of god says that uh his his mercy endures forever and that it is the goodness of god that brings people to repentance god is constantly dealing with people and here god has opened the door for these people to hear the gospel now what would be the chances in the natural for paul to drop a line to festus ask him to invite the king prominent people and the commander of the army to hear and preach about dead then reigned savior who was god the chances of that happening are slim and none and by the way slim is on a round up he's out of town on a round up that means there's no chance but because god is the orchestrator god can do the what seems to be the impossible and god does that for paul he what looks like a bad situation for paul in the beginning right he's trusted to jail and he's thrust into this hotel room for two years and now he's before a king of gripper he's before all these men that he would never have had the opportunity to testify about jesus not only that but he's sitting in a room where they they haven't stopped him from talking he's preaching the gospel why because god loves these people and he wants to give them a chance to repent all right so uh it looks like paul is under the enemy's control and then that's where in acts 26 let's go to verse 29 and paul said i would to god that not only thou but also all that that hear me this day were both almost and altogether such as i am except these bonds that was he wants them to be saved but he didn't want them to have to suffer all the things that he was suffering in the natural paul was getting to preach to people he would not normally get a chance to paul people such as these would be getting saved often though many bible scholars believe that agrippa was being facetious when he spoke to paul we always have to look back at the deputy pro-counsellings in cyprus on their first journey and so there are people in high places that were being saved and were taking the chance that this was truth and there was the witness of the spirit of god to them and they accepted it right you never know who might be touched and besides god is giving everyone the chance to repent and that's what we have to remember we have to remember that brothers and sisters we may disagree with brothers and sisters but our goal then is always to be focused on god to love one another to always be in a place where you want the best for your brother you want the best for your sister and oftentimes we don't have to express what it is that we'd like to see them it's just that we just ask god to bless them in abundance father just open up the doors for them that that they will prosper in all that they do we love them just as you love them and that's the way god wants us to react right all right so hopefully that's what you're seeing out of everything that's going down here so we're still in acts 23 26 let's go to verse 30. and when he had dust spoken the king rose up and the governor and bernice and they and they that sat with them and was the whole mob got up you have to remember those days when the king stood you stood when he sat you sat right and when they were gone aside they talked between themselves saying this man do with nothing worthy of death or of bonds in other words he shouldn't be locked up he shouldn't have to do anything we should be turning this guy loose then set a gripper at the festus this man might have been set at liberty if he had not appealed unto caesar so after listening king gripper like the other sister festus this chap is innocent and you will find that there are many things that you're innocent of that you're accused of evil but you have to stay focused and you're just going to be talking about the good in christ and what he's done for you and what you've done doing for other people right so uh but now we have to deal with the fact that he appealed to caesar so this stuck he appealed to caesar and there's no way that they can get around that my suggestion is to send him on his way to caesar and let him in other words let us wash our hands of it why should we be held guilty if we turn them loose to the jews make a riot out of it and they'll say why romo said why didn't you deal with that and if we touch him when we're not supposed to wrong will say he's a roman citizen why did you touch him so they say we can't win in this the only way out for us is to allow let's send him off to caesar let caesar make the decision cesar can't argue with caesar all right so then we go to acts chapter 27. paul is sent to rome right verse one now we're going to read verses one through twelve so and when it was determined that we should sail into italy now notice the wii uh we can assume that luke is still traveling with paul right we should sail into italy they delivered paul and certain other prisoners onto one named julius the centurion of the augustus band and entering into the ship of dramatum we launched meaning to sail by the coast of asia one auristicus a macedonian of thessalonica being with us so like i said we can assume that luke is writing the book of acts and when he says we he's saying that i'm with paul at this particular junction and the next day we touched that side and julius curtis reached and treated paul gave him larry to go unto his friends and to refresh himself and when we had launched from vents we we sailed under cyprus because the winds were contrary now whereas this wasn't exactly the best time to to be traveling and when we had sailed over the sea of syste sicilia and pamphlet boy oh boy i wouldn't even want to visit some of these towns because somebody asked me where i was going i couldn't pronounce it and we came to myra city of lycia and that is centurion found the ship over alexandria sailing into italy and he put us there in and when we had sailed slowly many days and scarce would come over and scarce or come over against uh knitters the wind was not suffering us we sailed under on the crete over against solomon now listen what he's saying is the wind was contrary so we just we just kind of like stayed close to the land and we let the wind drive us a little bit but we was always aware of to stay where we were not not to get out into the ocean and harley passing it came into a place which is called the fair havens now where unto was the city of lacia when much time was spent and when sailing was now dangerous because the fast was now already passed paul admonished them and he said unto them sirs i perceive that this voyage will be with hurt and much damage not only to the lady and the ship but also of our lives nevertheless the centurion believed the master and the owner of the ship more than those things which were spoken by paul that was he weighed them but he said you know what paul you might be right but i got this guy on my back that if i don't do what he wants him to do i'm going to lose my job now of course what we have to realize is it's better to lose your job than to lose your life right verse 12. and because the haven was not commodious to winter in the moor park advised the departments also if by any means they might attain to finis and there to winter which is in a haven of crete and liar toward the south west and northwest so they put paul on a ship along with other prisoners they they put him on one ship paul is treated differently for one thing we see in first seek that luke writes once again that he put us on the ship so i don't know how many other prisoners on that ship had their traveling companions with them probably none right paul was being treated differently paul finds favor with the centurion who was in charge of the voyage and that is and stop inside and paul is allowed to lead the ship to greet some friends now listen if you're a prisoner a picture you're a prisoner you go to jail you're in jail yeah they don't open a jail door and say hey listen go visit your friends and then come on back when you get a chance that just doesn't happen right but we have to remember that there's something different that's going on with paul he is definitely being treated differently probably by the orders of a gripper he says look i want this guy to find favor with you and i want him to get the caesar i don't want you to do anything that's going to cause him to reflect bad on any of us so you just treat him well because he's a roman sold he's a roman citizen and he's going before caesar now they had left at a bad time of the year now we have to remember sailing is not like it is today where we have coal and oil driven ships with propellers these were just sails and the wind would just drive them they tried to steer the best that they could to get where they wanted to go so it was probably like september october and this was a marginal ceiling where they're at best after this time most of the sailings had stopped until springtime because the weather was usually that bad that was the oceans around those times usually got pretty pretty vicious got storms blown in left and right the seas were always perilous and so you know it always put ships at risk uh so in fact the people that were running the ship knew that themselves they chose to follow the coastline hoping that they would help that this would help them out in other words i always can see land i'm not too far out in the ocean the c is not exactly that bad uh they knew the normal route over the open sea was too powerless to take so let's look at the map let's look at your map they follow the coastline when they get to myra and lycia they switch ships right they switch to a ship of alexandria and they sail along much diff with much difficulty and arrive at uh nidis they sailed down to the island of crete and come around the southern end to the port of fair havens here paul gets checked in the spirit about the rest of the voyage he stands up and says in verse 10. now we're going to read verse 10 again and said unto them sirs i proceed that this voyage will be hurt with much damage not only of the lady of the ship but also of lives uh luke says after the fast paul focused on god paul was listening to what the spirit of god had to say and paul says i perceive so there are times we know something is wrong we sense we should follow a certain path but not quite see everything but get an overall view of what's going on all right so i say all this because paul warns them of the upcoming peril but notice he says damage and loss of life we will read later on paul says to the centurion if you follow my instructions no life will be lost so when was he right when was he wrong there are times when we mix the spirit perceptions with our own thinking we add to the perceptions because it seems right if we're going to be out in the sea and the ship is lost we can only assume that we will lose people also some will be saved but some will be lost right so we add the perception to the fact that god said if you leave this land now the ship is going to be lost all right so the centurion well there in fear him talks it over with the pilot and captain and they decide to move on disregarding the warning from paul again i say to you you're going to find that when you have good suggestions don't think it's strange when people want to do something different just don't take it personal and they have their own reasonings and oftentimes it's not good right they were going to sail for for phoenix at the western end of crete so they depart and before they could turn to follow the shoreline a storm arose and pull them out to sea there was paul said look i think we ought to stay here they said no we got it we we really got to get to italy we got to get there and got the owner and the captain and everybody else saying let's go so we're going to stay along the shorelines and try and make it there so they depart before they could turn to follow the shoreline a storm arose they do everything they know to save the ship they took cables and wrapped it around the ship's hull to keep the boards together in other words close your eyes for a moment think about this ship with all its sails and the way it was put was probably tongue and groove and then sealed with pitch but with the way this the song was battering the ship they were afraid the ship was going to break up so what they did is they took these cables ran them underneath the ship and then pulled them over the top and tied them so tied them tight so as to keep the boards from shifting and moving so that the ship wouldn't break up so the storm growing worse they began to throw the cargo overboard in other words it was heavy laden and every time they went down into one of those waves you didn't know if he was going to come back up or not so they began to lighten the ship so that it would go in and come back up easier right then they throw over the tackle and anything else cables the only thing they didn't throw over was people all all this in three days then a storm really sets in this is just the beginning of everything right and verse 20 of acts 27 and when neither sun nor stars in many days appeared and no small temples lay on us all hope that we should be saved was then taken away they they were actually losing now these guys were sailors they understood the sea they understood the peril that they were in and they were losing hope they just said there's no way that we can survive this and we're just going to go as long as we can because that's the way life is we try to cling to it as long as we can but all hope was gone you know you can endure storm in your life for a bit you might you might be able to weather it but if it goes on and on and on we must be careful not to lose what we have to wait for the answer because we know as christians that we have an answer god says i'm sitting on the throne he says i know the plans that i have for you there are a future and a hope they're for good enough for evil that's our hope and we're to miss in some circumstance we just got to be saying to ourselves you know what i'm going to be like paul i'm not going to lose my vision i'm not going to lose the insights that god is on the throne and that he's very much aware of where i am and that he can take care of me hebrews 11 1 says now faith is the substance of being sold for the evidence of things not seen so we guard our hope because that's where our faith is attached to right so we we just move ahead in those areas i just want to see how far i got to go here all right so the assurance of things hoped for if we lose our hope we have nothing to attach our faith to first corinthians 13 13 says and now abideth faith hope and charity these three but the greatest is love all right so we see that paul puts hope right alongside of faith and love so we don't want to lose hope in the midst of your circumstance you have to be like abraham in romans chapter four it says that having no hope he hoped and whereas every time he looked at the circumstance it would rob him emotionally he would drain him he would get depressed he would get to the point where he said there's no way this can work out but what he would do is he would look towards god and when he looked at god hope arose inside why because he believed in the one who said you shall become the father of many nations and therefore that's what he refocused on and he kept focusing on that and the bible says he became fully persuaded and being fully persuaded his faith held him the hope that he had was in god and not a circumstance and that's the same thing he was with paul verse 21 but after long absence paul stood forth in the midst of them and said sirs you should have hearkened unto me and not have loosed from crate and to have gained this harm and loss and now i exhort you to be a good cheer for there shall be no loss of any man's life among you but of the ship for there stood by me this night the angel of god whose i am and whom i serve now listen the angel of god came before him and spoke specifically there was no there was no room for interpretation by paul it was specifically what the angel was ordered to tell paul by god all right so here's the difference from the early morning the first was what perception we said that the second one was actually information information that was direct and exact all right there would be no loss of life same chapter 27 let's go to verse 33. and while a day was coming on paul besought them all to take me saying this day is the 14th day that you have carried and continued fasting having taken nothing i can imagine what these guys did even they tried to eat guess what they did over the side of the edge he was barfing their brains out right so he said wherefore i pray you to take some meat for this is for your health for there shall not a hair fall from the head of any of you and it was paul's once again saying not what he was hoping for but what the angel had said to him he said there will be no loss of life eat so they listen to paul this time and begin to have hope now how do we know that they begin to take food they respond by eating let's look at the map to see what this trip looked like verse 39 and when it was day they knew not the land but they discovered a certain creek with a shore into the which they were mine they were were minded if it were possible to trust in the ship in other words they saw a cove and they said you know what this cove is surrounded on both sides by land let's drive the ship into the cove and we'll go as far as the ship was we'll we'll just go aground right the island was was the island of malta they strike a reef while trying to ground the ship on the island they had to swim for their lives the soldiers were going to kill a prison so they wouldn't have to worry about them now listen remember what the rules were at that time if a prisoner escaped you served his time so they were going to kill the prisoners but paul says no don't kill them every man will be found on the shore and you won't lose any of the prisoners all right so they started the land they are treated with great kindness by the people on the island which is which is rather unique when god does something he he does it with perfection not only does god pick out the island for them to land on directs their ship through the storm to this island but he directs them to a place where the people that are on the island will treat them fairly right so we know the story that's coming up they are treated with great kindness by the people they have gathered wood and they start a big fire to warm everyone up knows when they come out of the sea everybody's cold so they were uh wet and so god answered sorry so paul and the rest of the people that are there they decide to gather wood and start a fire right and verse 3 of acts 28 and when paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and laid them on the fire there came a viper out of the heat and fastened on his hand now the snake didn't come out on the fire the snake was part of the sticks that paul was picking up right and when the barbarians saw the venomous beast hang on his hand they said among themselves no doubt this man is a murderer just what just what the world perceives right if they see something they automatically jump to judgment right we as christians have to be careful that we don't fall into that same category we don't jump to conclusions we wait for god to tell us there's no doubt this man is a murder home though he had escaped the sea yet vengeance suffered not to live there was they were under the assumption that when you do evil evil begets you now there are some truths to that but if we look at the world today not all evil is paid back today the bible says that some sins go before me and some follow and so we know that not everybody's bad behavior is is uh reconciled here on earth now listen he shook off verse five he shook off the beast into the fire and felt no harm now what lesson can we learn from this don't play with fire no only care when satan attaches himself to you in any way we have to learn how to shake him off paul learned how to shake him off paul learned and was understood that he had a calling that he was going someplace and that in getting there god had already told me you're going to go before rome before season before all these men and so that was the vision he had he knew he couldn't die so what he did is he just put his hand over the fire and god protected him from burning his hand and at the same time the snake just let go because of the heat and fell into this into the fire and died so i want to be honest with you i got this teaching i heard over 25 years ago expecting paul to die they were amazed when he isn't when he isn't the least bit phased the world judges by what they see and perceive they thought he was some kind of god now that he didn't die they went from him being a murderer they thought that he was some kind of god they're changing their thoughts all over the place right this opens up the door for paul to pray for the father the leader of the people the leader's name was publis the father gets healed and that opens the door for them to bring the sick to him now it doesn't say that paul preached jesus to them but it would be hard to imagine paul not sharing with them who was doing the actual healing we know that the healing took place and paul was just using look look at that as an open door to be able to preach the gospel because that was his mission right all right so they were on malta for about three months when they get on an alexandrian shipbound for syracuse and sicily from there they hit the mainland in the city called uh ria riyagum now there from there they venture across the water to the city of uh put putiko here they are permitted to fellowship for seven days so we pick it up in verse 15 of acts 28. and from thanks when the brethren heard of us they came to meet us as far as happy forum and there and the three taverns from when paul saw he thanked god and took courage paul the great man of faith had endured many things and watched god do mighty miracles through him and for him even he needed to be encouraged from time to time so the fact that that we have all kinds of feelings that are often prompted by the devil as he points out what appears to be failures for us on our part or failures on god's part so we have to be encouraged we have to be reminded again and again that god is still sitting on the throne and we don't get weary and well doing because our focus is in the right place that's why it's important for you to surround yourself with good men and women of god that's why paul he was encouraged because he had luke and the two of them encouraged each other all right paul was lifted up just by average just by average disciples that's what we should be ready to do for the weak and for the strong if that is what is needed and paul says when you're weak i'll send you strong people when you come on weak people know that i have sent you because you're strong to strengthen them it's also amazing that he's still under guard while all this is happening it would do us good from time to time to look how the favor of god is working in our lives you know we can read about paul in the favor of god that it was on his life but we have to be able to transfer that image of god watching over our own lives otherwise what's the purpose in learning all this we still would then be in a place where it's uh if if god prayer prayer eventually god would do something to help you out no god is going to help you out because that's what he promised in the covenant to you right he said these blessings shall come upon you right now remember we read in verse 15 look it's the same we and it's interesting also in in this term to meet us when the brethren came out to greet them this bread this term was commonly used when people or delegation went out to meet an important dignitary in other words when this group of people came out to meet paul and luke they treated them as as royalty almost because they knew who they were word had gotten to them who they were and that paul was on his way through roman ships right the brethren that heard of paul and were holding him in high esteem even though they had never met paul the word uh the vision that they had received the perception they had of him was due to all the people that were traveling back and forth in good times in other words during the season when the shipping was was well you still have people traveling back and forth from the from the asia from israel from all those places back to rome and they carried the stories of paul and who he was and what he did and so when they meet up with paul they finally say you know what this is the man that god has sent and so they treat him with respect and that's what we should be doing always treating people with respect all right verse 16 i hope my voice holds out and when you came to rome the centurion delivered the prisoners to the captain another guard but paul was suffering to dwell by himself with a soldier that kept it in other words paul didn't go into the dungeon like the other prisoners he went into what we might call as a sweet right and he had a roman soldier guarding him they arrive in rome instead of being put in prison he is allowed to be in a room by himself along with a guard some say he was chained to the guard that's a possibility but i don't i don't know that i believe that but the bottom line is he's with this guy and guess what he's talking to this guard about all right verse 17 in acts 28 and it came to pass that after three days paul called the chief of the jews together and when they were come together he said unto them now remember the chief of the jews is of the jews that were in rome wasn't the chief of the jews that was in jerusalem all right and when they ever come together he said unto the men and brethren though i have committed nothing against the people or customs of our fathers yet was i delivered prisoner from jerusalem into the hands of the romans who when they had examined me would have let me go because there was no cause for death in me but when the jews spake against it i was constrained to appeal to caesar because i used that now as my protection not that i had ought to accuse uh to accuse my nation of for this cause therefore i have called for you to see you and to speak with you because death for the hope of israel i am bound with this chain both sins for the jewish leaders paul and change explains the regular jews saying i was accused of making all kinds of accusations against israel when in fact i didn't but when the romans went to free me the jewish leaders wanted to kill me and so there was that conflict remember the conflict we talked about and even festus tried to work get him to go back to jerusalem he said nope i finally had appealed the season because that was the only thing that would protect me and keep me safe verse 21 and they said unto them we neither receive letters out of judea concerning thee neither any of the brethren that came showed or spake any harm of thee so the jews responded we haven't heard about these letters but we would like to hear more about this sect once again here we have god opening up a door for paul right out of all of this i want us to realize that god is constantly opening doors revelations 3 7 8 says i have opened for you a door now there are different doors opening up for different things but there are times when god opens up the door for us so that we can speak the gospel to whoever that is before us at that particular time for god has done a work in that person has now brought them to that place where what you say may be the seed planted or you may be doing the watering or you may be doing the harvesting but in some case you play a part and we have to remember not to treat that trivially we have to be be sure that we are listening to what the spirit of god is saying right so verse 23 it says and when they had appointed him a day there came many to him uh his lodging to whom he expounded and testified the kingdom of god persuading them concerning jesus both out of the law of moses and out of the prophets from mourning to leave me and some believe the things which were spoken and some believe not and that's always going to be the case there will be those that receive the light because their eyes have been opened they understand they may not completely understand but they understand enough about jesus and what the spirit of god is saying to lead them to christ there'll be others that will hear it won't like it and they'll turn away from it right so paul is winning converts everywhere did everyone believe no not everyone believed some believe some did not you realize the guard chained to paul is getting an earful and i'll bet they are talking among each other they change shifts with paul or when they meet up back in the barracks did you hear what paul had to say yeah you know he said this this and this you know what i i i can it makes sense to me the spirit of god witnessing to them and so from time to time there were guards that were being saved right so paul warned the jews by quoting isaiah that it was foreknown that they would choose not to believe all right verse 28. let's see what we're doing here in time all right verse 28 chapter 28 the last chapter being known therefore unto you that the salvation of god is sent unto the gentiles that they will hear it in other words he's saying to the jews you you've been told you've been testified to you had the the old covenant you had a covenant now god was promoting from the old covenant to the new covenant according to jeremiah 31 31 and you were not adhering to it so now we are going to present this salvation to the gentiles right so that they will hear it in verse 29 and when he has said these words the jews departed and had great reasoning among themselves and there were some of them saying hey uh it was being offered to us because we had a covenant and we're turning it down that's that sounds silly another said uh this this new covenant doesn't sound right there's something wrong with it all right the gentiles were being the temporary custodians of it until the time of israel would once again be grafted back in at the end of the times so i believe the bible talks about uh there'll be two witnesses in jerusalem and i believe that those two witnesses will be the two people who who have not died yet and that would be elijah and enoch and there will be witnesses the bible says it's appointed for all men to die once all right and so they they're going to die uh verse 30 and paul dwelled two whole years in his own hired house he's not in junction he's in his own house that he is paying for now how's he paying for it he's paying for it because he has all these incomes that are coming in with people tithing and giving him gifts then he's paying for this and received all that came in and unto him everybody whether they be jew or gentile whether they be romans or whether they just be natural citizens would they be just people passing by he received everybody all right verse 31 preaching the kingdom of god and teaching those things which concern the lord jesus christ with all confidence no man forbidding him in other words he was in his own environment now and no one said to him no you can't say that no one said you can't say this and we don't want to hear that they didn't want to hear it they left but he was in his own confines and everybody that was there was listening to him all right so here we see that paul was able to preach unhindered while he was in this residence so god was able to put paul in a better position that he could have done it on his own no way could even paul made it to rome uh under normal circumstances would he have access to all the praetorian guard would he have access to all the roman believers uh eventually the jews would look to to attack and kill him and so we see that paul was made the door was open for paul to do what god had asked him to do so so god was able to propose a better position than he could have on his own sometimes conflict persecutions affliction will open what does than if we try to skate through some things so what we have to do is just watch god watch what we believe the spirit of god is saying uh oftentimes when things look like we want to run from those are the times we should stand fast and watch god work in our lives so that the very thing that god was bringing promoting we would have the avenue to which we could share the gospel the book of acts ends abruptly it is believed that acts was written shortly after verse 31 therefore perhaps not knowing the conclusion because it had not yet happened in other words we're living the book of acts every every every year every every decade every time every generation is living the book of acts all right so paul wrote the books of ephesians colossians philemon and philippians from rome is also believed because no one disputed against paul he was finally released or he won his case in court there's many that believe that paul was released from there went about some believe he went into spain some believe he went back but he was rearrested in in in the current and uh thrown back in jail but this time it wasn't one of his sweets it wasn't one with the executorial guard this time he was in the dungeon all right all right so eventually paul was arrested somewhere in greece or asia and returned to rome for a new trial while he's there he writes second timothy from his second confinement and second timothy will discover as we talk next week is final epistle all right so all have left me except luke now luke was one of those guys that you wish you had in your life because no matter what went down good bad or indifferent he was there to encourage you to speak well you look for those people that god's bringing into your life all right so we have concluded uh lesson number five and we'll begin to go into lesson number six the next time we meet until that time god bless you