THE LIVING CHURCH
Meditations in the Acts of the Apostles
Acts 28:25b-31

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WE come to the last meditation on this book which gives us insight into the life of the early church. Like the rest of Scripture and this book, these few verses yield real spiritual truth.

Firstly, we hear Paul saying, as he quotes from Isaiah 6:9,10, "The Holy Spirit spoke the truth". How powerful this statement is. Paul affirms by it that God speaks to us in the words of the Bible, and that the Bible is the Word of God. We don’t believe by this that the Bible was dictated to the writers by the Holy Ghost, but we do believe and understand that the Holy Spirit made sure that each writer, though expressing themselves in their own style and language, told accurately the truth which God was revealing through them. So we have truly in the Bible the revelation of God to us. God is speaking to us in the natural meaning of the Bible, and so we may safely believe, obey and rest our souls on this Word of God. They are the words of life to us.

Further when the word given is difficult, or hard to receive, as with this quotation from Isaiah, we have no right to reject it, and say that there must be a mistake, or to judge the word in any way. If we can’t understand, yet God’s word is true, and we believe and ask for more light and understanding. If the word is hard to receive, then we must humbly submit ourselves to the word of God, seeking grace to believe and obey. Paul tells us unequivocally that these words of Isaiah were spoken by the Holy Spirit. They are God given. However by the same token, when we read words of gracious promise, these too are equally God’s word, and can be believed wholeheartedly to the comfort of our souls.

Secondly, in this quotation from Isaiah, we read of the judgement on the Jewish nation for their unbelief. God had spoken, and pleaded; urged and explained, yet they continually rejected their God, and these words from Isaiah explain their condition. Notice the nature of this judgement. As people continually harden their hearts against the truth, refuse to believe and receive it, there results a hardening, and an ever increasing blindness. Just as if we walked all day and every day in bare feet, our feet would become hard and unfeeling to the stones and roughness of the ground on which we tread, so we can walk without pain; so those who continually reject the word of truth, cease to notice or feel its message, and become blind to it. The result is they come to a condition of being impervious to its message, and so are lost to its message of salvation and grace. They become spiritually lost and unsaved. On the other side of the coin we see in this process, God gradually withdrawing further from such people, and leaving them to the unbelief they have taken up. Jeremiah speaks of God sending a famine of the word of God. This is a spiritual famine by which the soul is gradually starved of life and blessing.

How terrible this is. This is the condition that Jewish nation came to after the rejection of their Messiah and Saviour. God is merciful, however. Although the nation has found themselves in darkness, yet all down the centuries the Gospel has still been open to individual Jews, and many have believed and entered into life. God has graciously raised up his servants to go and preach to the Jews. Even today there are missionary societies working in Israel, and the gospel invitation is still open to every Jew who believes.

Thirdly, we notice the activity of the Apostle Paul told to us in the last two verses of this book. Paul spent his time in preaching the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus. Though he was under house arrest and could not live his life freely. Though he was always under guard. Even though the future, humanly speaking, was under threat and bleak, yet Paul spent his time in proclaiming Christ. He spent his every breath in declaring to others the words of eternal life. He spent his time in service of his Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

There is no greater work to do than this. There is no more important work that we could be engaged in. The gospel is the word of life, without which we are lost and doomed. The gospel is good news and the best of good news. Here is the greatest story of love - God giving his only Son, so we who deserve to die, might be saved from death, and possess eternal life. Here is the only means of true life and blessing. How all of us who believe should feel and act as Paul did here! We may have daily work to perform, and earthly duties which have to be done, but let us with what time we can give, seek to share the gospel of Jesus, so that people might hear and believe.

Let us pray that ministers and churches may have as their main and chief aim and activity to preach the kingdom of God and teach about the Lord Jesus Christ. So much preaching today seems to show forth Christ so little. The sermons are good and the message important, but preachers seem to speak about anything rather than Christ. Let us pray that the churches may uplift Christ, and proclaim to people all the depth and extent of his saving work and love.