The Jesus Church: Finding the Church of Jesus in the Book of Acts | Donovan Rillion | The Unfinished Church

We've been going through this series in the book

of Acts, and we've been watching the church,

the Jesus church, this first century church in

the book of Acts, and we've seen this story kind

of unfold, the story of how God sent his son

Jesus to the earth to live a sinless life, to

teach a better way, to exemplify a better way,

to die on a cross and then to rise from the grave.

And as Jesus leaves the earth, he gives a job.

Go tell everybody. Go tell everybody what I did

for you. Go tell everybody what has been done

and what will be done. And so they do. They start

telling anybody that will listen the good news.

And because they go and tell everybody, the number

of disciples in the area starts to multiply so

much so that it begins taking over this entire

region of the world. And now we, 2 ,000 years

later, are the beneficiaries of those people

telling everybody. And so they do what Jesus

commanded. And because they do what Jesus commanded,

a revival breaks out. But even in that revival,

there is opposition because the church wouldn't

stop. See, they were... They were challenging

the ways of society. They were living in radical

community. They were challenging the status quo.

They were making people rethink how they view

relationships, how they view wealth, how they

view health, and how they view their lives. And

this is a threat. This is a threat to the Roman

Empire. And so because of this threat, the church

is hated. Christians are hated. These followers

of this guy named Jesus who had just been killed,

they're hated. But they don't. stop preaching.

The religious establishment hates them. The Roman

Empire hates them. Anybody who wanted power,

anybody who wanted control, or just simply wanted

the world to be content to stay in its sin hates

the church. And ultimately, what this all boils

down to is that what the church was doing was

a direct attack on Satan's empire. And Satan

felt like he had to put a stop to it. But he

couldn't. And he couldn't put a stop to it because

as we've said a few times throughout this series

and as the whole point of this series has been,

if something is a movement of God, nothing can

stop it. No power of hell, no scheme of man,

there is nothing that can stop what God wants

to do. His will will be done. Now, we've recapped.

If you've got all that, I need you to tell me

you got it. Okay, good. So now today, as we close

this series, we land in Acts chapter 29. So I

want you to go ahead and turn there. And while

you do that, I want to give you a little bit

of a warning up front. If you've never read the

end of the book of Acts, and you love a good

ending, like if you love reading, you love stories,

and you love a good ending, you might be a little

frustrated with the ending of the book of Acts.

Because Acts doesn't really end. It just kind

of stops. I want you to think about this. Luke,

he's a doctor. He's a very detail -oriented guy.

He tells us at the beginning of his gospel account

that he set out to investigate everything so

that he could carefully write an orderly account

of the work of Jesus in this world. And Luke

is writing this book of Acts, and you've got

to imagine that the same detail -oriented guy

is doing the same exact thing. Yet when we get

to the last page of Acts, there seems to be no

real ending. There's no verdict. We aren't told

about Paul's ending. We're not told about what

happened to the church after that. In fact, by

now, you've probably realized and you're sitting

there confused because there is no Acts 29. It

just ends with verse 31 in Acts 28. You see,

all of these chapters are building on this incredible

story. There's these character arcs and there's

this development of the church and you see the

mission progress. And then Luke just kind of

walks away from the typewriter or whatever they

wrote with back then. And it just ends. Now,

some people might read that and say, well, maybe

he wrote everything that he felt he needed to

write. Maybe he wrote all that his brain had

held of information. Maybe he wrote everything

he knew and then he stopped. Well, this morning

I want us to consider it another way. I want

us to look at it like maybe Luke ended this book

exactly the way the Holy Spirit wanted it to

end. And by the end of today's lesson, I want

you to hopefully you'll see why that comma -like

ending, like this run -on sentence, might be

more important than we've given it credit for.

But first, I want to set the stage. So at this

point, Paul has been on his missionary journey

somewhere between 25 and 30 years. He's been

all over the map. He's taught thousands of people.

He's planted hundreds of churches all over the

known world. And like the church, Paul has been

persecuted this entire time. He went from persecutor

to persecuted. And he's in this spot now in Acts

28 where he's under house arrest in Rome. And

I want you to look what he does while on house

arrest in verses 16 through 20. If it's underlined,

I would love for you to read along with me. And

when we came into Rome, Paul was allowed to stay

by himself with the soldier who guarded him.

After three days, he called together the local

leaders of the Jews, and when they had gathered,

he said to them, Brothers, though I had done

nothing against our people or the customs of

our fathers, yet I was delivered as a prisoner

from Jerusalem into the hands of the Romans.

When they had examined me, they wished to set

me at liberty because there was no reason for

the death penalty in my case. But because the

Jews objected, I was compelled to appeal to Caesar,

though I had no charge to bring against my nation.

For this reason, therefore, I have asked to see

you and speak with you, since it is because of

the hope of Israel that I am wearing this chain.

So Paul, under house arrest, calls a meeting

with the Jewish leaders because the Jewish leaders

in Jerusalem were the ones that wanted to kill

him. Just like they did with Jesus, they make

him stand trial. They're trying to trump up the

charges against him so that there is no question

he is going to die. But the government, they're

like, well, we can't really kill him. And if

you remember the story of Jesus' crucifixion,

the government didn't see any reason to kill

him. I mean, Pilate looks at it and he's like,

I don't have any reason to kill this man. And

this is the same thing that happens to Paul.

They can't find a reason to kill him, but they

can put him in chains. And so they put Paul in

chains. He ends up on a ship. He goes to Rome

after a shipwreck. There's a whole story there.

I would love for you to go read that. But I want

you to notice when Paul calls these Jewish leaders

together, he isn't calling them together to testify

about his own innocence. Paul's not calling them

together to say, let me tell you why I shouldn't

be in chains. Let me tell you why what they were

trying to do to me was inaccurate. Let me tell

you why there is some injustice going on here

and I'm not being treated fairly. No, Paul doesn't

do that. What he calls them together to do is

not testify about his own innocence, but to testify

about the goodness of Christ. I want you to look

at verse 20 again. It is because of the hope

of Israel that I'm wearing this chain. What Paul

says is, it's not by anything that I have really

done that was wrong. It's because of Jesus, the

good news that the Messiah has come, the hope

of Israel. That's Jesus. The Messiah has come.

And Israel, the Jews, they felt if we can't kill

him, we can at least have him in chains. But

I need to ask you a question. What does Paul

do with his chains? And maybe a question for

you is what do you do with your chains? When

the world is trying to pin charges against you,

when you feel injustice, when you feel like things

aren't going right, when you feel the schemes

of Satan attacking your life. And let me just

clarify, every difficulty, every pain, every

sorrow we face in this life is a scheme of Satan.

And so I ask you, what do you do? when Satan

attacks. Because Paul doesn't just sit in his

chains in sorrow. What Paul does is he turns

his chains into a pulpit. Or as it says on the

screen, he turns his prison into a pulpit. He

starts... He uses this inconvenience. He uses

this injustice. He uses this pain as a platform

to proclaim the good news. And I'm just curious,

how many of us would keep preaching the same

gospel that got us put into chains? How many

of us would keep preaching the same message that

is getting our lives put in danger over and over

and over again? Paul, he faces this persecution.

The church faces this persecution over and over

and over again, but they keep preaching. They

keep doing the same thing. You know, we call

that insanity when you do the same thing over

and over again and get the same results. So I

guess you could say Paul was kind of crazy about

Jesus. That was a joke. Insanity, crazy, I knew

that one wasn't going to land, but I'm glad you

laughed anyways. Paul was crazy about Jesus and

I'm not, like that's not, like that's serious.

It's a joke, but it's serious. He's crazy about

this good news message so much so that he has

to keep talking about it. He has no choice but

to proclaim what Jesus has done for him because

it is so powerful. And so he keeps preaching

regardless of circumstances. And this piques

the curiosity of the Jewish leaders. And so they

set up a time to come back and hear Paul out.

And so now we look at verses 23 through 24. When

they had appointed a day for him, they came to

him at his lodging in greater numbers from morning

till evening. He expounded to them, testifying

to the kingdom of God and trying to convince

them about Jesus, both from the law of Moses

and from the prophets. And some were convinced

by what he said, but others disbelieved. I just

love this image I have in my head of Paul chained

to a prison guard, walking these Jewish leaders

through the scriptures that they would have known

better than we know our Bibles. Like there is

nobody in this room except maybe Truman that

knows their Bible as good as these Jewish leaders.

And so they know the scriptures. And Paul is

saying, hey, you remember that time? Well, that

was pointing to Jesus. Hey, do you remember when

God said that was pointing to Jesus? Do you remember

when the prophecies told us this would happen?

happened. That was pointing to Jesus. From morning

till evening. See, y 'all would have me thrown

in a real prison if I got up here and started

preaching from morning until evening. You would

start getting stuff to throw at me or you would

drag me off the stage. But what Paul does is

he takes his time and he walks them through the

scriptures telling them about every promise,

every prophecy, every moment of Israel's story,

every moment where God stepped in, how it was

leading to the cross and an empty tomb. And some

believed because how could you not? But as the

scripture tells us, some didn't. And that's just

how it goes. We're not going to convince everybody.

But again, regardless of the circumstances, regardless

of the fruit that comes from it, Paul never stopped

preaching. Nor did he ever soften the message

so that it could be a little more accessible.

He didn't do what he felt like he needed to do

to make it more appealing or decide that the

gospel needed a rebrand or a marketing team.

He just kept preaching the word. Which brings

us to the last two verses of the chapter, verses

30 and 31. He lived there two whole years at

his own expense and welcomed all who came to

him, proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching

about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness

and without hindrance. And that's it. That's

the end of the book of Acts. That's the end of

Luke's recording of the history, the movement

of God through these first century Christians.

The ending is just Paul welcoming everybody who

would come to his door, welcoming anybody that

would sit on his porch, sit in his living room

and listen to the word, welcoming them to preach

the kingdom with all boldness and without hindrance.

I'm no Greek scholar, but I love learning the

meaning of words, and so I wanted to do some

digging. Do you know what the Greek for that

last phrase, without hindrance, translates to?

Anybody know? Anybody? No Greek scholars in the

room? Okay, I'm going to blow your mind with

this one. Without hindrance simply means without

hindrance. It just means nothing could stop it.

Nothing could keep it from going forward. Nothing

could put it on hold. Nothing could put it down.

It just kept going without being hindered. The

word Luke chose to close 28 chapters of church

history is simply unhindered. Now, if you've

got that, can you say unhindered? Nothing blocking

it, nothing stopping it, nothing killing it because

you can't. And now think about everything we've

seen in the book of Acts. Apostles arrested and

beaten, but the word spreads unhindered. Deacons

like Stephen stoned to death, but the gospel

spreads. Riots, beatings, a shipwreck, prisons.

And now Paul sits in chains in the capital city

of the most powerful empire on earth, and the

last word of the story is, it just kept going.

Here's the truth. They can chain the preacher,

but they cannot chain the word. There's a song

by this band called Unspoken, and the song is

called Bury the Workman. And in it, the lines

go, they can... silence the voices, but they

can't stop the song. They can bury the workmen,

but the work will go on. When the spirit is moving

and there is work to be done, you can bury the

workmen, but the work will go on. And see what

we see with Paul is that though he is in chains,

though he is in prison, the proclaiming of the

gospel will go on. As Paul says himself in 2

Timothy, I am suffering, bound with chains as

a criminal, but the word of God is not bound.

It goes on. Rome, the Jews, Satan, through everything

it had at this movement, and after all of it,

Luke picks up his pen and he writes his final

word over the whole story, unhindered. In 28

chapters, over 30 plus years, nothing on the

outside ever stopped it. Not prisons, politics,

or persecution. And y 'all, nothing on the outside

can stop it now. 2 ,000 years later, the empire

that chained Paul is a pile of rubble, a pile

of ruins that people pay to go see. But think

about where we are now. We are not a history

of what was. We are a history of what God is

continuing to do. In fact, it seems like in this

nation that's been here for 200 years, and 50

years, every 50 years, God decides to just explode

this movement and a revival breaks out. Well,

can you guess what year we are on right now?

Year 50 since the Jesus movement, which tells

me we've got some proclaiming to do because God

wants to do something special right now. The

movement cannot be stopped if it is a movement

of God. But now I have to ask another hard question,

the question we've been getting at throughout

this whole series, and I promise this isn't a

joke. What's stopping us? If there is no external

power that could ever hinder the gospel, if there

is nothing out there that could stop the gospel

from being proclaimed, then what is hindering

it now? What is stopping us from exploding these

church buildings to where they're at capacity

every Sunday where people are having to stand

out in the parking lot just hoping to hear the

word of God? Because none of us in this room

are going to be arrested for proclaiming the

good news. None of us are going to be dragged

before a council, lose our home, or be run out

of town for hosting a Bible study. There is no

external factors that should be keeping us from

proclaiming the word of God. So what is stopping

us? If Paul can preach with chains on his wrist,

meanwhile we have complete freedom, yet sometimes

it seems like the gospel, it kind of moves through

our lives slower than it moves through his prison.

How does that happen? How does a people that

have the freedom that we have, that we talk about,

that we celebrate, we have the freedom that we

have to proclaim the gospel without fear of persecution,

how is it then that our churches, and I'm not

just talking about this church, but any church

that professes the good news of Christ, how is

it that we are not exploding? I think it happens

because what Rome couldn't do from the outside,

we can do on the inside. To put it simply, comfort

can hinder us in ways that chains never could.

Drifting... can hinder us in ways that dungeons

never could. Distractions can hinder us in ways

that death threats never could. I think Satan

learned this along the way. I think he realized

when he saw that persecution in the Roman Empire

didn't work, when he saw that putting people

in prison and dragging them out in the streets

and murdering them in front of their followers

didn't work, he saw the American Empire and said,

oh, let me change strategies. I don't need to

throw physical chains on you. I just need to

make you comfortable. I don't need to threaten

you into silence. I just need to keep you busy

enough, entertained enough, distracted enough

that you will never open your mouth and think

about proclaiming the good news. See, Satan realized

he doesn't need to burn our Bibles or tear down

our churches. He just needs our Bibles to stay

closed on the nightstand, and he just needs our

churches to stay in these four walls. The question

this morning isn't whether anything out there

can stop the gospel. We know nothing can. The

question is whether the gospel will move through

us or around us. Because one thing I know to

be true is when God wants the gospel to spread,

when he wants revival to happen, it is going

to happen. We just have to ask, are we going

to be a part of it? Are we going to be the people

that look at it and say, They're probably doing

something wrong. You ever think about that? Like

when churches are growing like crazy, like there's

a church in Atlanta, I've mentioned it before,

that is growing like crazy. Like they are at

the point now where they are filling out, like

there's a line out the door, down the sidewalk,

because people just can't wait to get in and

listen to the word be preached to worship with

these people. And we look at it and we're like,

well, they've got to be doing something wrong.

There's no way a church can grow like that and

still be teaching the truth. But what we see

throughout, history is that that absolutely can

happen. And it does happen that the word of God

revival will happen, whether we want it to or

not. And it doesn't always have to be scandalous.

And so again, I ask, are we going to be a part

of the revival? Are we going to stand on the

outside and say, Hmm, something suspect about

that because God's mission is not in danger.

It is going to advance either way. We just have

to ask, is the Blairsville Church of Christ going

to be a part of it? Which brings me to a point,

the point that we started this morning with,

of why does Acts just seem to stop? Well, history

says Paul was eventually executed under Nero.

And Luke certainly could have told us how the

story for Paul ends, but he didn't. Could it

be because Acts wasn't supposed to be Paul's

biography? The book wasn't about him. Could it

be that it's not about Peter? It's not about

these first disciples? I want you to go back

to the very first verse of the book of Acts where

Luke says in the first book of Theophilus, he's

referring to his gospel, the gospel of Luke,

I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do

and teach. Key words, Jesus began. Acts is not

the story of these people. Acts is the story

of what Jesus began to do and is continuing to

do through his spirit, through his church. Not

only is it not about Paul, it's not about any

of them. It doesn't say all that the apostles

began. It says Jesus began. And also... I believe

there is no ending, no real good ending to this

story because you cannot write an ending to a

story that is not finished. It's not over. God

didn't stop working in the first century. God

didn't stop moving through people way back then.

He is still moving. Luke didn't run out of ink.

The story just isn't finished. Acts 29 doesn't

exist on paper because it's written in lives.

It's written in communities, states, nations

being transformed. And we, the church, have the

chance to live out the next chapter of what Jesus

began to do 2 ,000 years ago. We are, at least

we can be, the 29th chapter of Jesus' work. And

that's why we've been studying Acts, so that

we can see what the church has been and what

it can be. Like you can think about your prime,

right? You can think about, you know, when you

were in high school and you were good looking

and you had everything going for you. Maybe you

had a nice fast car. You were the captain of

whatever sports team you were on. You had all

A's and now you just work like a normal nine

to five and you're just kind of out and about

and you've got back pain and it doesn't feel

like you've got anything hot going on. You're

just kind of going. We can think about what has

been, but guess what? Like for us in these physical

bodies, there's not a whole lot of upside. Like

we have peaked. Okay, well, maybe some of you,

you're aging like fine wine, but me, I have peaked.

There's no up from here. But for the church,

we don't look at what has been and say, well,

the church peaked. No, no, no. The church is

just getting started. The movement of God is

just getting started because there are billions

of people out there that still need to have the

gospel proclaimed to them. They still need to

have their lives transformed. Let me tell you

about something that happened just last month

that was kind of interesting that I found. In

1882, in Barcelona, Spain, construction began

on a church building called the Sagrada Familia.

And I hope I said that right. If there's anybody

in here that speaks Spanish, correct me. The

architect, Antoni Gaudi, devoted his life to

it, knowing from the very beginning that he would

never live to see it finished. And somebody once

asked him about the timeline of this, and Gotti

reportedly answered, my client is not in a hurry.

His client was God. You see, Gotti worked on

the building for over 40 years before he died

in 1926. And he had only lived long enough and

worked long enough to see one of the 18 towers

of this church completed. But the work didn't

stop. See, generation after generation of architects

and builders, they picked up where Gaudi left

off, and they kept building. They built through

a civil war. They built through a world war.

They built through funding collapses and a pandemic.

And through all of that, the work continued.

144 years later, the church was completed. Just

last month, this church was completed, standing

as the world's tallest church building. And one

more detail that I don't want to leave out is

that Gaudi deliberately designed that tower to

stand one meter shorter than the mountain beside

Barcelona because he did not want this church

to rise above what God had created. As he would

have said, the work of man should never rise

higher than the work of God. And I just think

that is a beautiful thing, that we never get

so full of ourselves that we think we can do

something bigger than God. But our story is even

better than the one of this church because the

church that Jesus is building isn't made out

of wood. It's not made out of stone. No man designed

it. The magnificent building in Spain is beautiful,

but one day it will crumble. And one day it will

be nothing but dust. Everything made by human

hands is going to end up as ruins. Like I said,

the very empire that imprisoned Paul is now...

And this empire that we live in today and we

celebrate the freedoms and the goodness that

it is, this will all end one day. This will all

be in ruins one day. But the kingdom of God will

stand. As Jesus said, I will build my church

and the gates of hell shall not prevail against

it. There is nothing, no Rome, no hell itself,

nothing that can bring the kingdom of God to

ruins. Because the church isn't built out of

stones that man stacks together. It is built

out of souls that only God can save. And souls

are the only material in this world that will

last into eternity. Which means every sentence

that we write in Acts 29, every person you share

the gospel with, every kid you teach in a Bible

class, every neighbor you love towards Jesus,

every prayer, every act of faithfulness, everything

we do, none of it will ever crumble. In fact,

it will have an eternal impact. Paul says it

plainly in 1 Corinthians 15, verse 58. Therefore,

1 Corinthians 15:58

my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable,

always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing

that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. It's

not in vain. The stonemasons in Barcelona, they

laid stone for a tower that they would never

see finished. that they would never get to experience

all of its beauty. And you and I are laying living

stones into a temple that we will get to see

finished. Maybe not on this side of eternity,

but on the other side. So what do we do? Over

the last few weeks, I feel like God has been

exposing who we are and who he's calling us to

be. And so what I'm asking us as a family is

what would it look like if... Every single one

of us, individually and communally, if we all

responded to this series in a way that reflects

what we've learned from the book of Acts, in

a way that did show radical community, in a way

that did show radical generosity and charity,

a way that was ultra -inclusive, in a way that

was so different that the world looks at us and

says there is something supernatural among those

people. There is something divine about them.

This does not make sense. but we want some of

it. What if we responded to the book of Acts

in that way? Because that's who the early church

was, and that's our spiritual bloodline. The

question is, are we going to act like it? See,

I don't want us to be a church that just studies

Acts. Churches study Scripture. They read Scripture.

Guys like me get up and talk about Scripture.

But churches all over the place just don't live

Scripture. I want us to be a church that looks

like the church in the book of Acts. And I do

need to say something just to be clear. If we

do that, people are going to think we're weird.

And if we do that, it may make some of us uncomfortable.

If we do that, people will look at us and say,

there's something wrong with those people. Guess

what? I'm okay if the world thinks I'm crazy.

My wife thinks I'm crazy. People think we're

crazy just because we gather here on Sunday mornings.

We got more work to do. And we should be okay

if they think we are insane for Jesus. And so

now as we close this series, I want to bring

you back to Paul's living room in Rome one last

time. In verse 30, it says, Paul welcomed all

who came to him. All. I don't know if you know

this, but all means all. Skeptics, seekers, Jews,

Gentiles, soldiers, slaves, nobodies, somebodies,

elites, wealthy, poor, all who came. And this

morning, anyone who walks through the doors of

this church building should be welcome to hear

the gospel proclaimed and have their lives transformed

by Jesus Christ. And I believe that welcome does

stand in this church family. And so maybe you're

here today and you've never obeyed the gospel.

Maybe you've been watching the story from the

outside. You've heard about this Jesus who lived

this life that you could never live, that I could

never live, that died the death that our sins

deserved. And then he rose from a grave to prove

that he can raise you from the grave too. The

good news that was unhindered in Rome is unhindered

in this room right now. The only thing standing

between it and you is you. And the response today

is the same one that Peter gave on the very first

day of this story in Acts 2 .38. Repent and be

baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus

Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you

will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. That's

how you step into the story. That's how you put

your name on the page. The story that started

back in Acts 2 with 3 ,000 people in the waters

of baptism. And maybe you're here today and you've

already been baptized. You're already a Christian,

but somewhere along the way you did start to

drift. You got off course. Somehow you allowed

the good news to be hindered in you. Well, I

need you to hear me when I say that the God who

was constantly working in Acts is ready to work

on... in and through you too today. And so today,

whether you need to step into the story for the

first time, or you need to make sure that you're

part of the story is what God intends for it

to be, whatever you need, whether it's to repent,

to be renewed, to ask this family to pray over

you, because let me tell you, our story, this

story is not finished yet. It is just a question

of what does our part of it look like? But the

story is not finished. So for all of us, I ask,

what's next in Acts 29? What's next in the story

of the church? The story that Jesus began. So

this morning, if you need to respond, whether

it's for baptism, whether it's for restoration,

whether it's for prayer, whatever it is that

you need, we invite you to come now.