The Ministry in Rome

Jim ButlerActs 28:11–31

Acts 28:11–31 records the Apostle Paul's arrival in Rome under house arrest and his sustained ministry to the Jewish leaders there, demonstrating that divine providence — not Roman law or Jewish opposition — governs the advance of the gospel. The sermon traces Paul's two meetings with the Roman Jews: his defence of his innocence and his grounding of the gospel in the hope of Israel, and then his full-day exposition of Christ from Moses and the prophets, which divides his hearers between belief and hardened unbelief. The open-endedness of Acts is shown to be deliberate fulfilment of Acts 1:8 — Christ's commission to witness from Jerusalem to the uttermost parts of the earth has been accomplished. Hearers are called to resist fear, to proclaim Christ from the Scriptures with confidence, and to rest in sovereign grace as the sole explanation for why any sinner believes.