(Suggested Reading: Chapter 28:17-31)
As Paul’s travelling companion, Luke was well qualified to record the events of Acts. Even so his history is an inspired one, for he was the penman of the Holy Spirit. Losing sight of this leads men to speculate that Luke may possibly have written another book to record Paul’s trial and other matters which interest us naturally but are not found in Acts. As it is, what remains of the historical narrative carries on to the end of Acts 28:1616And when we came to Rome, the centurion delivered the prisoners to the captain of the guard: but Paul was suffered to dwell by himself with a soldier that kept him. (Acts 28:16), which would have made a better chapter division. These verses narrate the aftermath of Paul’s shipwreck—the healing of the sick in Malta, sailing away from the island and Paul’s arrival in Rome. Verses 17-31are really the last chapter in Acts. These verses summarize God’s dealings with Israel and the Church—the two great themes in Acts.
Acts opens with the Apostles departing from the Sanhedrin 5:41, it closes with the Jews departing from the Apostle Paul—28:29. Thus God gives the Jews full apostolic testimony—Power and miracles at the center of Judaism; the preaching of the law and the prophets in weakness and chains at Rome. The complete range of testimony to the Jews in the Acts is brought to a climax in the verses we are about to consider. Although the testimony is totally rejected, Paul assures the Jews that the Gentiles will hear it. The Jews depart. Paul is seen in chains at Rome, but dwelling in his own hired house, still able to preach and teach, for, as he told the Jews, the Gentiles will hear the message. This is also a veiled foreshadowing of the continuing influence of Paul’s doctrine in the Church after he left it. His doctrine would be bound by the power of Rome in the world, but proclaimed in his own hired house, of which we shall write later.
With these introductory remarks over we will consider the text in detail. Our sixteenth verse ends the fifth and last “we” section of the Acts. The next subject in the inspired record opens with the introductory phrase “and it came to pass.”
The Setting Aside of Israel During the Church Period
Paul loses no time in calling together the leading Jews at Rome. He addresses them apologetically at first, for he is a prisoner, chained to a soldier as he talks. He points out that he has done no wrong yet was delivered from Jerusalem to the Romans. They examined him and found no wrong in him, yet “the Jews spake against it.” He had no recourse, then, but to lodge an appeal to Caesar. But he hastens to add— “not that I had ought to accuse my nation of.” He was not going to accuse them to Caesar. Here we find the last reference to Caesar and Israel in the Acts. It is for the hope of Israel that he wears Caesar’s chains. Besides vindicating himself before the Jewish leaders, Paul longs for an opportunity to preach Christ to a larger audience as the hope of Israel. The leaders can arrange this. He awaits their reply.
Choosing their words carefully they state that they have received no written communications concerning him, and none of the visiting Jewish brethren have commented adversely on him. So he will be given an opportunity to address the people more largely. But as for this sect—the Jews at Rome apparently think of Christianity as a sect of Judaism unlike those in other cities—they know that everywhere it is spoken against. So Paul is granted an audience. The time they set; the place is the only one Paul can now preach from—his prison house. From the number who assemble there this would seem commodious enough.
The Judicial Blinding of Israel
To his audience Paul now “expounded and testified the Kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus, both out of the law of Moses and out of the prophets.” Paul’s testimony to them brings before us the last of the prophets mentioned in Acts, and for a good reason. Four Old Testament prophets are cited in Acts—with an equal number of references to the “Peter” and “Paul” parts—and all related to the kingdom. First there is Joel to whom Peter refers at Pentecost 2:16. Joel gives us the day of the Lord—that is, the day when the Lord comes forth for earthly judgment—without which the kingdom cannot be ushered in. Peter also calls David a prophet at the same time—2:30. David gives us the King not yet on the throne—but the sure mercies of David—the royal seed in resurrection. Then in the “Paul” part of the Acts Paul refers to the prophet Samuel—13:20. Samuel gives us the King anointed, but a usurper—Saul—on the throne (“we have no king but Caesar”). Finally, here, Paul cites Esaias the prophet. Esaias had been told at the time he was specially commissioned—Isa. 6:8-128Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me. 9And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not. 10Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed. 11Then said I, Lord, how long? And he answered, Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate, 12And the Lord have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land. (Isaiah 6:8‑12)—that the end result of his prophetic testimony would be that judicial deafness and blindness would descend upon Israel. This condition was progressive as we see from our Lord’s own words in the gospels—Mat. 13:13-15; Mark 4:1212That seeing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they may hear, and not understand; lest at any time they should be converted, and their sins should be forgiven them. (Mark 4:12); Luke 8:1010And he said, Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God: but to others in parables; that seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not understand. (Luke 8:10)—touching on His teaching concerning the “mysteries of the kingdom of the heavens” —Mat. 13:11. They were deaf to all remonstrances and blind to what constituted their blessings. So the Kingdom of God at Jerusalem was brought to an end—for the time—in the “carrying away to Babylon.” A remnant returned to the land and their history went on there until the Christ of God came to them. Again, they shut their ears and eyes and this time slew their Messiah. Then followed the final effort to reach them which we have considered in the Book of Acts—the preaching to the Jews at Jerusalem and in the dispersed lands of the nations. God raised a warning of their final fate in the blinding of Elymas the sorcerer. This figure came to pass when the Apostle Paul’s closing testimony to the Jews at Rome was rejected—28:27. But Elymas was to be blinded only for “a season” for God has not cast away His people—see Romans, Chapters 9-11. A day is coming when they shall look on Him whom they pierced and shall mourn for Him as one mourns for an only son—see Zech. 12:1010And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. (Zechariah 12:10). Then the Sun of Righteousness will gladden their opened eyes.
It should be noted that immediately after Paul made his declaration of judicial blindness on the Jews he went on to say “be it known therefore unto you, that the salvation of God is sent to the Gentiles and that they will hear it.” This should be connected with Peter’s words “and it shall come to pass that every soul” (that is both Jew and Gentile) “which will not hear that prophet” (the Lord Jesus) “shall be destroyed from among the people” —3:23. Peter of course had in mind primarily the Jew but the sentence is true for Gentiles also.
How great is the long suffering of our God! Eight hundred years had elapsed from the death of King Uzziah—Isa. 6:11In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. (Isaiah 6:1)—to Paul’s sentence on the Jews in Acts 28. Peter made the first apostolic appeal to the guilty nation in Jerusalem—Acts 3; Paul the last appeal in Rome Acts 28.
Paul’s Life After the Acts
Paul cannot be tried until his accusers arrive to face him. Two years pass this way—28:30. He had spent two years in confinement previously under Felix until Festus came—24:27—years without any fruit as far as the record tells us. But the two years at Rome in his own hired house are productive ones. He not only spends the time evangelizing but writes the Epistles to the Colossians, Ephesians, and Philippians, and the communication to Philemon in which he describes himself as “Paul the aged.”
With minor exceptions, scholars are agreed that Paul’s appeal to Caesar was successful. Clement, who labored with Paul in the gospel—Phil 4:3—wrote a letter in which he says that Paul instructed the whole world in righteousness and went ‘to the extremity of the West.’ To the ancients ‘the whole world’ was the Roman Empire and ‘the extremity of the West’ was Spain. He is considered to have arrived in Spain, stayed there a short time, and returned to Macedonia. From various Scriptures we know he also travelled to Ephesus, Crete, Miletus, and Nicopolis, where he is thought to have been arrested and sent to Rome for trial. During the period of his freedom he wrote the first epistle to Timothy, Titus, and Hebrews. In his final imprisonment he wrote the second epistle to Timothy. Now seventy or so years old, his body worn out with toil, privation, imprisonment, and beatings, he is even more Paul the aged, the prisoner of Jesus Christ, than when he wrote to Philemon. A lesser court than the Emperor’s tried him on unknown charges, but certainly connected with the proclamation of the gospel. He was sentenced to death. A guard of soldiers escorted him along the Ostian way in case his prominence should attract public attention. Because he was a Roman citizen he was beheaded in the military way with the Roman short sword.
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The Acts closes with the ruin of all things overshadowed by the ultimate triumph of the Kingdom of God, for it is this Paul preaches at the end. Full apostolic testimony accompanied by signs and miracles was rejected. Peter, the other Apostle who shares with Paul the great events in Acts, suffered martyrdom as well as Paul. Neither lived to see the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple. With this the old system of Judaism effectively ended, since the dispersed Jews were cut off from their center in the land. It took a little longer for the Church to give up the truth Paul revealed to it and to go back to the world out of which it was called by the gospel. The Acts gives us the foreshadowing of this in the figure of Paul’s shipwreck. But the final note is one of triumph. Though a prisoner, Paul preached the Kingdom of God, a sure indication that God would overcome evil with good. Paul would not preach the Kingdom of God unless it were truly to come—one thousand years in which Christ will rule the world—the golden age of the future.
Two sub-chapters follow in which we will consider how man ruined God’s work in Israel and the Church. It is not an irremediable ruin—that is, it does not alter God’s purposes with respect to either. Rather it demonstrates what is in the heart of man after the goodness of God’s heart has been fully told out. The world is a wilderness in which we must learn our hearts and God’s heart. But God will never be turned aside from His purpose—which is to bless Israel and the Church in spite of themselves. Consequently, a third sub-chapter follows which covers the restoration of all things when the kingdom Paul preached becomes a reality on the earth. Surely like the man who sat at table with the Lord we can say “blessed is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God” —Luke 14:1515And when one of them that sat at meat with him heard these things, he said unto him, Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God. (Luke 14:15).