So this is the last chapter in the book of Acts. And I really struggled with how we should finish this book. I suppose I could have broken down this series of events and exegeted each one, tried to find a parable or outline in each and preach a sermon. But as I considered it, I could not help but feel that the Holy Spirit was telling us something that was greater than the summary of each individual event. I couldn’t help but wonder how this grand epic of the gospel could just kind of wind down with a series

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The story we are looking at today shows a godly man, a man chosen and used by God as an apostle, under the direction of the Holy Spirit, yet who suffers incarceration, deprivation, a nightmarish couple of weeks at sea in the midst of a major nor’easter, and ultimately ends up being shipwrecked and having to swim for land. It’s an amazing account of hardship, but I hope that you will see why the Holy Spirit gives us this story in this passage. I hope to show you that God allows His people to go through storms and even shipwrecks

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As you all are aware, yesterday was a major holiday that is celebrated in the United States. Halloween, or as it was once known, All Hallows Eve. Believe it or not, All Hallows Eve was originally a religious holiday. When I was a kid, we just thought of it as a time to dress up in costumes. It was pretty harmless. Unfortunately, today it seems to have gained an association with the dark side that I do not think is beneficial. I won’t go so far as to say that I think that Christians cannot participate in some way, but

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I don’t know about you, but I think a lot of people have a problem with procrastination. Putting things off. Speaking for myself, it’s one of the few things I am really very good at. I put the “pro” in procrastination. I’ve been working on renovating my bathroom for almost a year now. Maybe longer. I try not to think about it. It makes me feel guilty. I just tell my wife that God is using me to teach her patience. My latest excuse is that I’m waiting for winter when I will need something to do indoors. But the

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For the sake of context, let me remind you of the circumstances which have occurred prior to this chapter. Paul had arrived in Jerusalem, and gone to great extremes to try to make sure he did not offend the Jews, even to the point of helping certain Jewish men consummate their Nazarite vows, which Paul may have participated in as well which included purifying himself, shaving his head and making a sacrifices in the temple. But certain Jews from Asia had come as well and having seen a certain Greek man in the city with Paul assumed that he had

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Last time we looked at how Paul was bound for the sake of the gospel. You will remember that he considered himself a prisoner of the Lord, first and foremost. The chains of the Romans, being arrested by the Jews, being held in prison by the Romans, none of that superseded the fact that Paul first and foremost had given himself up to be bound by God. He was the prisoner of the Lord. He had renounced all that had been of benefit to him in the world, to become a bond servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. So his

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Acts has 28 chapters. We are in chapter 21. The last one-fourth of the book is devoted to Paul’s imprisonment, the occasion of it and then the details of it, and, finally, the last chapter deals with his reaching the city of Rome. These chapters, and chapter 21 in particular, are difficult to preach in that for the most part they present a narrative of the details of Paul’s imprisonment and travel to Rome and lack some of the doctrinal principles that are easier to form a message from. But in looking at this chapter as a whole, we see

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Over the last couple of months, we have been looking at many characteristics concerning the power of the gospel. I will not review all of those messages, but just to prod your memory I’ll remind you of some of the titles; the power of the gospel over demons, the power of the gospel over anxiety and depression, the power of the gospel over philosophy, the power of the gospel over lameness, and the power of the gospel to save. And today is perhaps the last one; the power of the gospel is the life of the church. Now if you

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  If there are times in my life when I might wonder at the wisdom of attempting to be an expositional preacher, then today might be one of them. Today’s passage is not one that I think lends itself well to an expositional approach. It is primarily a narrative, and as such it doesn’t present an easy subject to get an outline from. But nevertheless, I firmly believe that all scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for rebuke, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. And so I want to try to understand with you why the Holy Spirit

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If you have been attending regularly in our Sunday morning services this summer, then you will know that I have been preaching over the last few weeks about the power of the gospel. I believe that is what Luke, the human coauthor of Acts is attempting to show us about the gospel of Christ. Way back in chapter 1, the Lord tells His disciples that they should wait for the coming of the Holy Spirit, and then they would receive power to preach the gospel and to be His witnesses to the whole world. So that is exactly what happened.

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