To Rome, With Love

When Luke and Aristarchus and the Apostle Paul arrived in the city of Rome, they were three little men among two million people. There were two million people in the city of Rome and almost half of the population slaves.

Nero was the emperor. He was about 25 years old about this time. Number two man was a philosopher whose name was Seneca, who was a great Stoic and an interesting man.

But the most important person in the city of Rome among all those two million people was a little Jewish missionary named Paul. Now as Luke gets to the end of the book of Acts, he records no miracles. There's no sound of a mighty rushing wind.

There's no speaking in tongues. There's no raising of the dead. There's no healing of the sick.

He comes to the end of the book and he says, Now there are three events that I want you to lay hold of. Because each of these events teaches us an important truth about God. Because after all he wasn't writing the life story of Paul, he was writing about God.

And the only reason Paul is a part of this book is because Paul was God's messenger. Event number one, Paul arrived in Rome. The faithfulness of God.

Event number two, he met with the Jewish people. The patience of God. Event number three, he turned to the Gentiles.

The grace of God. Now no matter what your difficulties may be today, you listen to these three basic truths about God because they'll make a difference in your life. Luke is not writing ancient history.

Luke is recording these facts because behind these facts are some eternal truths. And my friend, if your life is not built on eternal truths, then your life is shallow. Event number one, Paul came to Rome.

And this teaches us the faithfulness of God. And so, says Luke, we came to Rome. Now some years before, Paul had stated his determination to go to Rome.

Not as a sightseer, but as a soul winner. Back in chapter 19 and verse 21, he said, I must see Rome. Some three years before, he had written a letter to the Roman Christians.

We call it the Epistle to the Romans. And in that letter, he gives us three reasons why he wanted to go to Rome. Chapter one, verse 11, he said, I want to come to Rome that I might minister to the church.

I want to impart to the church some spiritual blessing. And I want them to be a blessing to me. Reason number two, he gives in Romans chapter one, verse 13.

He said, I want to win some Gentiles to Christ. He said, I want to have some fruit among you as among other Gentiles. Paul, as you know, was especially the apostle to the Gentiles.

You have to read through eight chapters of Romans until you get to the third reason why he wanted to come. Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. Paul wanted to go to Rome to be a blessing to the church, to win some fruit among the Gentiles, and to witness to his people Israel.

Well, Paul got to Rome. God brought Paul to Rome in a very unusual way. You see, Paul's plans weren't fulfilled just the way he planned them.

I suppose each of us here today has made plans. We've made plans concerning schooling or concerning family. We've made plans about vocation or maybe vacation.

And somehow our plans didn't turn out. That's what happened to Paul. When Paul wrote the letter to the Romans, he said, Now you pray.

You pray that I might be delivered from these people in Judea, and that I might be able to come to Rome, and that I might be there in the blessing and the fullness of God. Well, he wasn't delivered from the enemies in Judea. They arrested him.

And Paul spent two years as a prisoner, cooling his heels in a place called Caesarea. And then they put him on board a ship, and that ship went through a storm. And on board that ship, it was the Apostle Paul who was the captain and the rescuer and the savior.

Because God told Paul what to do, and they did it, and they were saved. Then they sat on the island of Malta for three months, and Paul had to wait some more. And finally, he comes to Rome.

Now, this says to me, God is faithful. Where God cannot rule, he overrules. It wasn't Paul's fault that they arrested him totally.

They arrested Paul, and they lied about him, and they kept him a prisoner. They wanted to kill him. On two occasions, they wanted to kill him.

It wasn't Paul's fault that that ship got into the storm. Had they listened to Paul, they would not have gone through the storm. It wasn't Paul's fault that they were delayed on the island of Malta for three months.

But you see, where God cannot rule, God overrules. And as Paul came into Rome, passed through those historic gates, and saw that city before him, the Christians in Rome met him. And the word of God says, he thanked God, and he took courage.

You know why he thanked God and took courage? Because Paul was singing under his breath, Jesus led me all the way. Paul was saying, my Savior has guided me and protected me, and now he's brought me to Rome that I might fulfill my ministry. You see, Paul got to Rome because Paul trusted a God who was faithful.

Now, had Paul trusted men, he never would have made it. Had he trusted himself, he never would have made it, but he trusted the Lord. You see, Paul was God's property.

When Paul was saved, God said, he is a chosen vessel, and he's going to bear my name before governors and kings and great people. And Paul did. And my friend, when you are God's property, God takes care of you.

What know you not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, which you have of God, which is in you, and you're not your own, you're bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. And Paul said, look, Lord, I'm your property.

I can't stop the waves. I can't stop the winds. I can't control these people who hate me and want to kill me, but I'm your property.

God said, I know that, Paul. I'll take care of you. You see, God was faithful to take care of his property, and God was faithful to keep his promise.

Paul was a discouraged man back there in Jerusalem, and that night the Lord came into his little place of confinement, and the Lord said to him, Paul, don't be afraid. You have testified for me in Jerusalem. You're going to testify for me at Rome.

And Paul just relaxed and said, Lord, am I going to make it? He said, you're going to make it. You mean you'll get me all the way to Rome? All the way to Rome. Don't be afraid.

My friend, it's a wonderful thing when you embark on the voyage of life and you have the promises of God to hold on to. Some of our students are taking off in just a few days for their summer ministry, some to go very far afield. There are going to come days of discouragement and days of defeat, but my friends, if you lay hold of the promises of God, if God has told you something, you just hold on to it because he'll keep it.

There has not failed one word of all his good promise. And whether it was sitting in a prison cell or chained to a soldier or riding on a ship or going through a storm or waiting for spring to come, whatever he was doing, Paul was saying to himself, he gave me the promise. I'm holding on to that promise.

I'm going to get to Rome. You know, God has given us some wonderful promises. Jesus said to his disciples, let not your heart be troubled.

In my Father's house are many mansions. I go to prepare a place for you. Are you holding on to that promise? Regardless of how many storms we may go through in this life, no matter how much difficulty people may cause or circumstances may cause, we know that God's going to see us through.

I'm holding on to that promise. Someone says we're going through the valley. Well, there's a promise that says, Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.

Thou art with me. You see, my friend, if you don't have the promises of the word of God, you can't make the trip. Now, Paul could have gotten bitter.

Paul could have looked up and said, Lord, these are my people. I love them. I'm not against my people, Israel.

I love my people. The more I love them, the more they hate me. Paul could have gotten bitter.

He could have gotten to Rome and said, well, I'm through with those people. No, Paul didn't get bitter. Nothing ruins the voyage of life like bitterness.

Don't let your heart get bitter or critical. Paul just kept trusting the word of God. He says, Grace is thy faithfulness.

Now, Jesus nowhere promises us that the trip is going to be an easy one. Nowhere does he tell us that we're going to have an easy way. Quite the contrary.

In the world you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I've overcome the world. There's a good promise to lay hold of.

He says, as long as you're in this life, there's going to be difficulty. There will be disappointment. You're going to pray about things, and the answers won't be the same.

You're going to talk to God about problems, and his answers won't be what you expect. There are going to be detours, and there's going to be distraction and disappointment and occasionally seeming defeat. But God says, I just want you to know something.

I'm going to get you where I want you. And I'm going to accomplish what I want to accomplish if you'll just trust me. And so the first lesson that Luke gives to us as we close this book is in spite of the storm, in spite of people, in spite of seeming defeat, in spite of disappointment, God is faithful, and he's going to finish his work.

You can lay hold of the faithfulness of God. Now some of you, dear people, are going through some storms. Some of you are going through difficulty and defeat.

And Satan comes and says, oh, you're trusting the Lord. Does it work? It works. You see, all of Paul's disappointments turned out to be great blessings.

Because of that storm and that shipwreck, the people back in Jerusalem thought that Paul had been drowned, and they couldn't send any letters to Rome. So when Paul got to Rome, there was no bad news. The storm helped there.

He was chained to a soldier, but that meant he had someone to witness to 24 hours a day. He could have visitors come and see him. And since he couldn't get out to preach, he had more time to write.

And so because of this Roman captivity, we have Ephesians and Philippians and Colossians and Philemon. And a couple of years later, he wrote 2 Timothy. You see, God's will is that we fulfill his purpose, not our plans.

And God can be trusted, the faithfulness of God. The second event that took place was Paul's ministry to the Jews. He hadn't been there very long before he said, I want to talk to the leaders of all the synagogues in Rome.

Now, history tells us there were 11 big synagogues in Rome. And the Jewish people were favored by the Roman people. The Jewish religion was an acceptable religion to the Roman people.

And so Paul called together the leaders of these synagogues. He said, men, I want to meet with your representatives and spend a whole day with you telling you what God wants you to know. Now, Paul had a great burden for his people, Israel.

There already were Gentile churches in Rome, but these Gentile Christians had not yet begun to witness to the Jewish Christian. It's rather interesting. Paul was the missionary to the Gentiles.

And yet when he came to Rome, he had a great burden to reach the Jewish people. But this was Paul's policy. For I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, he wrote.

It is the power of God unto salvation to the Jew first. Now, most of us gathered here today in Moody Church here in Chicago are Gentiles. And yet we wouldn't be here were it not for the Jews.

Throughout the New Testament, you're going to find this principle, to the Jew first. When Jesus came, he came unto his own, to his own world and his own people. He said to his disciples early in their ministry, now don't go to the Samaritans and don't go to the Gentiles.

Go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And when my Lord ministered on this earth, he ministered to the Jew first. When the apostles began their ministry after Pentecost, it was to the Jew first.

In Acts chapter 2 through Acts chapter 7, it's the Jew and only the Jew. Then in Acts chapter 7 when they stoned Stephen and rejected the word of God. Then the gospel went to Samaria and then to the Gentiles and then to the uttermost parts of the earth.

But it was to the Jew first. When Paul went to a city, he went to the Jew first. You see, the Jew had been a privileged people.

To whom much is given, much is going to be required. They had the law and the prophets. They had the word of God.

And Paul would step into the synagogue and tell them that this word of God, this Old Testament scripture, talked about the Lord Jesus. And that's what he did with these Jewish people in the city of Rome. He gathered them together.

All day they had a meeting. There was a Roman soldier there. The only interruption was that every four hours a different soldier came in and got chained to Paul.

Many of these soldiers got saved listening to Paul preach to other people. Paul met with them early in the morning. He said, now you be sure to bring your Bibles with you.

And they did. They had their Old Testament scriptures, their scrolls. Paul said, I want to start back in Genesis and I'm going to go through the entire Old Testament.

I want to talk to you about the hope of Israel. Now, they said there's no hope for Israel. We'll just gather together by ourselves and maintain our traditions.

No, said Paul. The hope of Israel is the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Messiah. All through the book of Acts you find Paul saying this.

The hope of Israel is the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And he started in Genesis chapter 3, verse 15. He said, do you remember this promise that Moses wrote? That the seed of the woman is going to conquer the seed of the serpent.

Now, who is this seed of the woman? And they said, why, this is Messiah. We've known this all of our lives. Ah, he said, where did Messiah come from? Why, they said, from Abraham.

God called Abraham and said through him all the nations would be blessed. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, yes. But Jacob had 12 sons.

Which of his sons is going to give us Messiah? They said, well, that's easy, Judah. We're told that the scepter comes from Judah. Oh, but Judah has many families, said Paul.

Now, which of the families? Why, the family of David. Messiah is the son of David. How is he going to come, said Paul? He's going to be born of the virgin.

Where is he going to be born? Why, he's to be born at Bethlehem. Micah tells us that. And then Paul leaned over and said, do you know that all of these prophecies have been fulfilled? And they looked at each other, and they looked at Paul.

They said, we didn't know that. We've heard this new sect called Christians. It's spoken against every place we go.

He said, this Christ fulfills these prophecies. And Paul began to explain how that Jesus was born of the virgin Mary, just like Isaiah 7.14 said he would be. That he was born in Bethlehem, just like Micah said he would be.

That he was of the family of David, just the way the scripture said he would be. And he went right down the line, verse after verse. They said, oh, but we hear that this Jesus was crucified.

Surely our Messiah is not going to be crucified. And Paul said, have you never read Psalm 22? And they turned to Psalm 22 and began to read, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? They pierced my hands and my feet. Paul said, I've talked to people who were there when that happened.

And that's exactly what happened when Jesus was crucified. He said, look at Isaiah chapter 53. And they turned over to Isaiah 53.

For he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. Paul said, if this is not Jesus, who is it? And the word of God tells us that half of this crowd believed and became Christian.

The other half said, we'll have nothing to do with it. So at least five, possibly six, of the synagogues in Rome became Christian synagogues. The patience of God.

You see, God had been patient with the Jewish nation down through the years. As the people began to leave, Paul said, before you go, I want to quote a scripture for you. He goes back to Isaiah chapter 6. When Isaiah was called to serve God, Isaiah said, how long do I minister? What's going to happen? Oh, he said, you're going to preach.

They're going to hear, but they won't hear. They're going to see, but they won't see. Their hearts are getting fat and callous and hard.

Interestingly enough, these verses from Isaiah, Isaiah 6, 9, and 10, are found seven times in the Bible. They're found in Isaiah chapter 6, Matthew 13, in Mark, in Luke, in John, here in Acts, and also in Romans. Seven times God quotes this passage, referring to what happens to people when they reject the word of God.

Now listen. God had spoken to the Jewish people. God had given them his word.

God had sent his messengers. And what did the people do? Their ears became deaf. Their eyes became blind.

Their hearts became heavy. And they would not believe and be converted. I wonder if that isn't happening to some people here at Moody Church.

There are those of you who have been hearing the word of God. You've been seeing what God is doing in the lives of other people, but your heart has not responded to Jesus Christ. What happens? Oh, you say, I go to church.

Wonderful. I even listen on the radio. Wonderful.

Wonderful. I even read my Bible occasionally. That's fine.

But unless we open the heart to Jesus Christ, you know what happens? We start hearing, but we don't hear. We grow spiritually deaf. We start seeing, but we don't see.

We get spiritually blind. And our hearts get calloused and cold. And I want to warn you, my friend, against a hard heart.

It happened to these people. It can happen to you. Oh, the patience of God.

Oh, through the years, God had been patient with his people Israel. And most of them would not believe. Paul says, all right, if you don't want to be saved, there's somebody who does.

He said, I'm turning to the Gentiles. I've given you your chance. To the Jew first in responsibility, to the Jew first in revelation, to the Jew first in judgment.

To whom much is given, much shall be required. He said, I'm turning to the Gentiles. And now we have a third great truth about God.

We've learned about the faithfulness of God. He takes us where we're supposed to be if we trust him. We've learned about the patience of God.

Down through the ages, God patiently called to his people. He said, all day long, I have opened my arms to a disobedient people. It's rather interesting that Luke says from morning till evening, Paul ministered to them.

It got darker and darker and darker. And when they left Paul's house, it was night spiritually as well as physically. He said, I'm turning to the Gentiles.

And here's truth number three, the grace of God. The grace of God. This is why the Jewish people have such a hard time trusting Christ.

They know nothing about grace. Law, they know. If I do this and do that and don't do this and don't do that, God will accept me.

But the word of God says there is no difference between Jew or Gentile. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. The same Lord is rich unto all that call upon him.

For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. The grace of God. He said, I'm turning to the Gentiles.

When you read the history of Rome, you discover an interesting thing. You can read Dr. Farrar's study of the Roman people. You can read the classic, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Gibbon.

Or you can read any of the other works on Rome. They all agree that the people living in the city of Rome when Paul arrived had four characteristics. You want to know what life was like among these two million people in Rome? Number one, poverty.

Poverty. There were a few rich and many poor. There were people who didn't have meals day after day.

If the government did not dole out bread to them and at least a hundred days out of the year entertain them in the circuses, they would have had a revolution on their hands. Poverty. The people were poor.

The second condition was sadness. That's the word the historians use. They say a cloud of dismal sadness rested upon the people.

Nothing to look forward to. Nothing to live for. Poverty.

Sadness. And the third characteristic, ignorance. The philosophies had failed.

The old superstitions had failed. There was a great deal of occult going on during Paul's day. They were looking to magic to guide them.

Poverty. Sadness. Ignorance.

Not knowing which way to turn next. Everything falling apart. Finally, cruelty.

If you think that today men are cruel to each other, you should have lived in Rome when Paul was there. I remember reading one story about a rich man who had a slave and the slaves weren't fed too well. There were some masters who were good, but for the most part they were not.

And the slave was so weak he dropped a crystal goblet and broke it. The master was furious. A slave, after all, was just a piece of property.

And he commanded the slave to be thrown into the fish pond where there were man-eating fish. Somehow the slave broke away and he ran to Caesar. And he fell at Caesar's feet and begged for mercy.

Caesar was anything but an archangel. But he was so infuriated that a master should want to torture his slave for breaking a goblet. You know what Caesar did? He ordered every goblet and every piece of crystal in the man's house to be broken.

Secondly, he ordered him to fill up his fish pond. And then thirdly, to cap the whole thing off, he set the slave free. But that's an exception.

You could walk up and down the streets of Rome and look through the windows of the great villas and the beautiful mansions and you could hear the screaming of slaves as they were being whipped for some little thing they did. Cruelty. If you wanted to be entertained, you just went down to the arenas, down to the Colosseum, and you watched captured soldiers mauled by the animals.

This was their entertainment. Cruelty. Here is a vast city filled with poverty and sadness and ignorance and cruelty.

And we go down to a quiet little area where a man is writing. He's dictating some letters. His name is Paul.

You see, when Paul turned to the Gentiles, Paul had the answer to every problem they were facing. Paul wrote a letter called Ephesians. You know what Ephesians is all about? It's all about our wealth in Christ.

Paul looked around and said, oh, the poverty in this city. But the greatest poverty is spiritual poverty. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

He writes about the riches of God's grace and the riches of God's mercy and the riches of God's glory. And Paul turned to the Gentiles and said, you may be poor materially, but I've got spiritual riches for you that are going to last forever. By the way, do you have these riches? Do you have these riches? What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his soul? Paul looked around and he saw sadness.

He wrote a letter called Philippians. And the whole theme of Philippians is joy. Some 18 times in one little letter, joy, rejoicing, gladness.

And Paul said to these people, oh, there's no need to be sad. I can give you through Jesus Christ a joy that no man can take from you. Do you have that joy? Jesus said, my joy I give unto you.

I want my joy to be in your heart. Paul looked around and he saw ignorance. But he wrote a letter called Colossians.

And the theme of Colossians is all of the wisdom of God is in Jesus Christ. And you are made complete in him. And you don't need temples and priests and superstitions and myths when you have Jesus.

You have in Jesus Christ all the wisdom. God has placed all of his wisdom in Jesus. By the way, do you have Jesus? Do you have this wisdom that guides you day by day? Paul looked around and he saw cruelty.

One day a slave came to see him. By the providence of God. A slave named Onesimus.

He'd run away from his master in Colossae. And Paul knew his master Philemon. And Onesimus said, what are they going to do to me? They can kill me.

I've stolen from my master. I've run away. What am I going to do? Paul said, I'll tell you what you're going to do.

You're going to give your heart to Jesus Christ. All the problems you've got are going to be found when you give your heart to Christ. And Paul not only wrote Ephesians about wealth and Philippians about joy and Colossians about wisdom, but he wrote Philemon about forgiveness.

And he said, Onesimus is coming home now, Philemon. You receive him the way you'd receive me. And you forgive him.

He's not just simply a servant. He is a brother. Paul didn't go around preaching against the social evils of his day.

He just won people to Christ. And you know, when he started winning people to Christ and the church began to grow, that was the end of the Roman Empire. What am I saying? I'm saying that when Paul turned to the Gentiles, he offered them Jesus Christ, which was everything they needed.

Their wealth was in him. And their joy was in him. And their wisdom was in him.

And their forgiveness was in him. And this is why the book of Acts doesn't really end. It just keeps on going.

Because today we're saying to you, that same Savior that Paul offered to an unsaved populace in Rome, he's offering to us today. In Jesus Christ, there's forgiveness. No slave has to be afraid.

No slave of sin. In Jesus Christ, there's forgiveness. In Jesus Christ, there's wealth.

In Jesus Christ, there's wisdom. In Jesus Christ, there's joy. As Luke ends this letter, he says, Oh, here's the greatest thing that Paul ever did.

He went to Rome. Ultimately, he laid down his life. But he offered them Jesus Christ.

And many received him. And some rejected him. What church are you going to be today? You're here without the Lord Jesus Christ? You're living on substitutes? Why don't you come and trust him? He's the Savior.

He was crucified for you. He was buried. He arose again.

He's alive today. And he's here today through his Holy Spirit speaking to your heart. And he says, I want you to come.

I'll give you everything you ever need to enjoy life. And when life comes to an end, you'll step into eternity. And you'll have all of my blessings forever.

If you reject me, you won't live. You'll die. This life with all of its pleasures and all of its sins is just a living death.

And when you die, you'll die forever. And you'll be in a place called the second death. And oh, my friend, we don't want you there.

We want you to trust Christ. For I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, said Paul. It's the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes it.

If the Jews will not receive, we'll turn to the Gentiles. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. By the way, who's going to take your place? Because you said no.

We pray, our Father, that many here today will open their hearts to the Savior. We're so thankful for the grace of God that saves us. The patience of God that puts up with our stubbornness.

Oh, I pray, Lord, that you will so work today that many will trust the Savior and come and begin life. For we pray it in Jesus' name. Amen.