Download audio Download sermon Acts 28:17-31 We come this morning to the end of the Book of Acts. If you are interested, this is the fifty-fourth sermon in the series. In some ways, of course, as we will see, the book ends in medias res. There is no ending in the sense that there is […]
Download audio Download sermon Acts 28:1-16 Paul and the 275 others on the ship had made their way safely to shore on what proved to be the island of Malta. Text Comment v.2 “Native people” is literally “barbarians,” a term which in that time probably meant simply someone who didn’t speak Greek, though it […]
Download audio Download sermon Acts 27:1-44 Paul had appealed his case to Caesar, as was his right as a Roman citizen. Festus, the new governor, unlike Felix, neither hoping for a bribe nor obliged to do the Jews a favor, sent him on to Rome for his case to be heard there. Text Comment v.1 […]
Download audio Download sermon Acts 26:1-32 Last week we considered the circumstances that provided an opportunity for Paul to make still one more defense of his life and conduct, this time before the governor, Festus, and one of Rome’s client kings, Herod Agrippa II, and his sister, Bernice. Now we hear the defense itself. Text […]
Download audio Download sermon Acts 25:1-27 We left Paul last time in Caesarea where he had been incarcerated for the previous two years. At the end of the previous chapter we read that Felix, the Roman governor, had been replaced by Porcius Festus, whose responsibility Paul had now become. According to Josephus, Felix was recalled […]
Download audio Download sermon Acts 24:1-27 Paul has been taken from Jerusalem to Caesarea for his own safety and for the adjudication of charges made against him by the Jewish leadership in Jerusalem. Text Comment v.2 Isn’t it amazing how similar that world was to ours today? The Jews came to present their charges, but […]
Download audio Download sermon Acts 23:11-35 Paul has been placed under guard by the Roman authorities in Jerusalem. Remember, Jerusalem was not the capital of the Roman province of Judea. That was Caesarea, a new and beautiful city built by King Herod the Great on the Mediterranean Coast, where Paul was soon to be taken. […]
Download audio Download sermon Acts 22:2-23:11 To be frank, I’m not entirely sure what Luke would say if I were able to ask him why he included the narrative we are about to read. It is interesting, to be sure, and it carries the story along – explaining how it was that Paul was taken […]
Download audio Download text Acts 21:37-22:22 As we left Paul last time, he had been beaten by a Jewish mob in the Temple’s outer court and then put in protective custody by the Roman tribune. Text Comment v.38 Greek was the language of Egypt at this time, so the question that begins v. 38 might […]
Download audio Download text Acts 21:27-36 I suspect there are a few of you who recognize my sermon title but are trying hard to remember where you have seen or heard that phrase before. Well keep at it for another week or two and I’m sure it will come to you. Paul is now in […]