It is not over yet. (Acts 28) | Pastor Victor Amar

Welcome to the Celebration Church Orlando podcast.

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So good to be here.

I I'm never tired.

I'm never tired to say the same thing that and you probably noticed by my accent that I'm originally from Brazil.

You you guys already have your resident Brazilian pastors here.

So you have Vinnie, you have Juliana, so you are used to Brazilian accent and to Brazilian jokes.

So but I'm I'm still working on that.

So I count with your grace and with your help.

Maybe you know that sympathetic laughter if you see that I'm trying hard enough, you know.

Thank you.

So and they never heard that before.

So there was that awkward silence for a bit.

And so I'm still learning on that.

I appreciate your help.

But I'm never tired to say that the first thing that I experienced when I got here, uh I got here on a Thursday in November 2022.

And on Friday night, there was a joint worship night between Vita and Cration.

And it was amazing.

It was it was amazing to experience two churches living the kingdom of God together.

And that was great, that impacted me a lot.

And while both churches grew, we are not able to fit everybody in the same auditorium, either here or there today.

We're praying, hoping maybe on your new next home on the building.

And it's so good to see the progress there is being made.

And I consider my extended home as well.

Okay, so here my extended home.

But it's so good to see everything that God is doing in you and through you.

And to finish the series, I would like to invite you to open your Bible with me on Acts chapter 28, starting on verse 30.

Acts 28 · chapter mention

If we are closing the series, we're going right through the end of the book.

And the title of this last message of the series is it is not over yet.

Because why not?

Right?

That's the title for the last one.

But it says the following Acts 28, verse 30 says this.

Acts 28:30

I'll give you one more second so you can open it.

It says the following.

And no one tried to stop him until here.

Let's pray one more time.

Father, thank you for this morning.

Thank you for your word.

May it find our hearts open to you.

May you speak to us.

You are the one who has the words of eternal life.

And it is your voice that we want to hear this morning.

In the name of Jesus.

Amen.

Amen.

I'm a really big fan of stories.

I do like them a lot, to the point of reading books like The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, and things like that.

And also, I love series, movies.

But one thing that frustrates me a lot is when I spent a couple weeks watching a series, and the season ends with that huge cliffhanger that you don't know what happened, if the if ever if the character is going to die or not.

And a couple days later, I find out that the series was canceled.

And I'm never gonna find out what would happen.

Or you were watching, I'm watching that movie, and spent two hours, two hours and a half watching a movie, and at the end, you don't know what happened.

You don't know if the character survived, if he was dreaming all through the movie, or if everybody was dead from the beginning, and they interviewed the writer or the director, and and he says, you know what?

Yeah, that's the idea.

Nobody knows.

You choose your own ending.

I don't like that.

I do like, you know, good endings that everybody's happy, everybody's safe, everything got sorted out at the ending.

But we just read the last verses on the book of Acts.

And I'm not sure about you, but for me, this is not looking like an ending.

Saying that for two years Paul was there preaching.

Okay, and then was Luke, the author of the book of Acts, planning a third season, so he wrote the first season, which was the Gospel of Luke, and then he wrote second season, was the book of Acts, and then he was planning a third one that he wasn't able to finish or it was canceled before he was able to write it.

But the point is it doesn't look like an ending.

And to give you a little more of context, starting on chapter 13, the focus on the narrative on the book of Acts moves from Peter and the early church leaders and moves mostly, exclusively to Paul, his missionary trips and his missionary work, especially because Luke became one of uh Paul's travel companions.

You see him writing in first person sometimes, saying, Okay, so we got a boat and we sailed to that city and we did this and that happened.

Um, and he was traveling with Paul.

And on verse 20, we see Paul deciding to go to Jerusalem, and it says on Acts 20, verse 22, and now, compelled by the Spirit, I'm going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there.

Acts 20:22

I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me.

However, I consider my life worth nothing to me.

My only aim is to finish the race and complete the task that the Lord Jesus has given me.

The task of testifying of the good news of God's grace.

So the Holy Spirit is warning Paul, but he decides to go anyway because he knows it is the Spirit who is leading him there.

So the Holy Spirit is telling Paul, you know what?

I'm sending you to Jerusalem.

But be ready.

Things are not gonna be easy.

You know, there will be chains and suffering for you there.

And Paul is has his has a clear mind on this.

He says, All right, God, so if you are sending me there, I'm going.

I know it will not be easy, but I'll go.

And he gets there, and by the usual uh behavior of the Jewish leaders, they uh accuse him falsely.

He ends up getting arrested by the Roman authorities.

And after some time, there is not enough evidence or not enough witness to actually convict him of those false accusations.

Uh, but the Roman authorities are taking too long to release him.

You know, probably they were trying to keep the peace, they didn't want to upset the Jews, so he was there.

Just wait there, Paul.

Be arrested there.

And Paul was waiting and he decides to play the system.

One of his uh benefits as being a Roman citizen was that he could ask, he could claim that he uh he case should be judged by the emperor.

And somebody else would say, Paul, are you crazy?

Stay where you are.

It is comfortable you were arrested, but what would happen if you go to the emperor?

That guy would have you killed for wasting his time, or you've something something else could happen.

What are you planning to do there?

And Paul says, You know what?

I can't imagine this on Paul's heart.

He says, You know what?

I will use the system, I will preach to the gospel.

I'll preach the gospel, I will preach the good news of Jesus to the emperor.

He will have to listen to me, and I will bring the gospel to the city of Rome.

So Paul uses that and uses his right.

He asks to be judged by the emperor.

He travels there, a lot of things happened from chapter 20 to chapter 28, and there's a lot of stories there.

I love it.

But he got there and he's there in prison, and the Bible says that he was allowed to rent a home instead of being in jail, he was in house arrest.

There was a soldier watching him all the time.

I can't I can't imagine how many times that soldier heard the gospel.

I can imagine Paul preaching to him all the time.

Oh, so good morning.

And you know what?

Have you heard about Jesus before?

And starts talking to him all the time, all the time.

That guy definitely became a missionary.

Something happened to that.

Because you know, there was a theology course there for free.

Um, to the point that you will see Paul referring, for example, in his letter to the Philippians, that those from the house of Caesar were sending their regards to the church, those that worked for the government, those that were part of those soldiers that were stated that were there stationed in Rome to protect the emperor, they were being evangelized.

So Paul is allowed to be in a home for two years, and he's preaching the gospel, he's receiving those that are there.

End of the book.

What happened after the two years?

Come on, tell me what is happening to the apostle Paul later.

Was he accused?

Was he was he set free?

And the book and the book of Acts doesn't tell us.

There are two reasons for that.

The first one is that for how however great the of a guy the apostle Paul was and a missionary and a man of God, the purpose of the book of Acts is not to give us a biography on the Apostle Paul, but it is to show the fulfillment of the words that Jesus says in Acts chapter 1, verse 8.

Acts 1:8

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witness in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

The church received the power of the Holy Spirit to continue to bear testimony to the world about Jesus, and that is happening.

Now the gospel is getting into Rome, the heart of the Roman Empire.

To the standards of that at that time, the gospel was reaching the ends of the earth.

Luke is showing that what Jesus said is being fulfilled.

The church is reaching the ends of the earth.

There was a missionary base in the heart of the Roman Empire.

And the second and important point about that, the book doesn't have an ending because the story is not over yet.

It doesn't end there.

We are the continuation of what God was doing in the book of Acts.

We are in a relay race with the church, with the apostles.

So you and I, we are writing chapter 29 today.

As we are here, as we live our lives with Christ, we are the continuation of this story.

So it doesn't have an end because it is still being written today by you and I.

We need to understand that God's calling is not just for a few selected people that will be protagonists of what God is doing, and there will be great preachers, great missionaries, great men of God, great worship leaders, and they will move a multitude of people, and there will be crowds following them, and we would be just the side characters.

You know, we are there for to fill the scene and we're doing our own thing, but they are the ones actually doing the things.

That's not what scripture shows us, but that we all were called to be sent by God to witness about Jesus, to witness the gospel, the good news of salvation in Christ.

That is it, that is what we are called for, not just to sit on a Sunday or on activities during the week and doing our thing and reading the Bible for some time, and that's it.

We were called to witness.

Christianity is not meant to be something we do, a compartment in our lives that we go, and there are a few things that we do, and we go to a service, we feel good about ourselves, we you know feel morally correct, and we then keep living our lives.

It's not just like an app that I install in my phone or in my life, and I say, okay, this it has some functionalities that I like, that I use, some other things I don't, so those that leave that, but the things that I want and that are helpful to me, I'll keep that and I'll use that, and that is good as it gets.

That's not the point.

Ephesians chapter 4 will say that the gifts for the ministry, like being a pastor, it the the goal of those gifts is that the Holy Spirit distribute those gifts so those people can equip the church to do what God called them to do.

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

So the point is your pastors, the staff here, everybody that is ministering to you here, their goal and their calling is to equip you, is to train you, is to give you the resources so you can go outside and you can testify about Jesus, you can witness about Jesus, you can show the world who Jesus is through your lives.

That is our calling.

This is what we are called to do.

This is your training room.

We are here being prepared to do what God called us to do.

But we need to understand that it is not in our strength, it's not about perfect people.

God is not seeking perfect people, he's seeking available people, people that are available to him.

Because it is not in our strength.

God used ordinary people to do extraordinary things.

Look to the apostle Paul, he was not perfect, his past was questionable.

He persecuted Christians, he killed Christians, he was the one trying to end Christianity, and God changed his life.

Even after conversion, he was still he had a difficult temper.

He was not Paul's temper was not easy.

He got into a fight with another apostle because of some things during a missionary trip, and they ended up parting ways.

But he was not perfect, but he was available to God.

He said, God, here I am.

Do what you can.

Um, do what only you can.

I I surrender to you.

Because it was not on his strength, but it was on the power of the Holy Spirit, the same power that is available to you and I.

That's it.

We have the power of the Holy Spirit available to us today.

The Holy Spirit was not just something that God put in the church of Acts and said, you know what?

Do some things over there, you know, steer things up a little bit, some miracles, you know, move people so we could establish Christianity so they can have the Bible further, they can have Christianity in America in in a few centuries.

But that's it, it is over there.

That's not the point.

The Holy Spirit continues to move today as He was moving there.

The Holy Spirit is not just another energy, an emotion that you feel, something that God gave you to feel, you know, dopamine when you are on a worship service like this, in a worship moment.

But the Holy Spirit is the presence of God, is a person, is God Himself who lives in you.

If you received and confessed Jesus as your Lord and Savior, be reminded that both things are important.

He's your Lord, he's in charge, he's your savior, he redeemed you.

You already have the Holy Spirit living in you.

He's the Holy Spirit is a gift to those who confessed Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

But there's a difference between you having the Holy Spirit and how much of you the Holy Spirit has.

And that's the point.

It is He's available to you.

But sometimes we are holding back.

We are saying, No, God, leave this area to me.

This I will handle this.

You know what?

It will be my way.

This is my plan.

God, I have a perfect plan.

You should let me tell you, my perfect idea, you have to do it.

And we try to impose to God what we want him to do, or we are holding back on the things that God is calling us to do.

But understand the Christian life is a life of full surrender.

And when he has all of us, he's our first priority.

When God is everything to us, when the Holy Spirit has all of us, he will do what only he can do.

It'll be on his strength, not on ours.

It'll be in his power, not on what we can do.

The Holy Spirit is available to you so you can witness.

It's not just to give you a spiritual experience, but to give you power to become more and more like Jesus every day, something that he's doing every day in our lives, but also to give us power to witness what Jesus is doing in our lives to others, to witness the message of the gospel, the message of salvation in Christ, the good news, gospel.

This is the meaning of gospel, is good news and the good news of salvation in Christ.

We have the most powerful message in the world.

And in Brazil, this is a year of presidential election.

And we are worried about a lot of things that are happening there.

And we do our best to vote in the best candidate that we have available, whatever we can do.

But it is not a president who will change the nation.

The only thing that can really change the nation is the message of the gospel that can change a life, that can change the reality is the message of the gospel.

And this is the message that God entrusted to you and to me, to you and I.

So we have this message of in our hearts, in our hands.

He entrusted this message to you.

The Bible says that we were called and that we were entrusted with the message of reconciliation.

We were called to reconcile the world with God, to say, come back to God.

God loves you.

God wants to save you.

You don't need to keep struggling alone.

God is a loving father who wants to embrace you.

And that's the message.

There's forgiveness for you, there's restoration for you.

Your story is not over yet.

God has eternal life for you.

Our lives are not resumed to this, they are not limited to this world and to what this world can offer.

But our the gospel and Christianity is about an eternal life with God in His presence.

And we have the message that can bring life to this nation, to this world, and we were called to witness about it.

To say what God is doing in us and what he can do in everybody else.

You were called to witness in your home, in your work, and to the people you relate every day, to the way through the way you say good morning to your neighbor, to the way that you talk to Kashir, to the way you talk to someone that is helping you with something, that you are helping with something, we have that message.

And the problem is that culture pressure us, and hear me out on this.

There's a pressure from culture for us to see the gospel as a matter of opinion.

You have yours, I have mine.

You know, if somebody else believes something else, they have their opinion, I have mine, I'll hold my opinion to myself, I'll keep it to myself, they'll keep theirs, and everything is fine.

But understand I'm not in I'll not impose what I believe or my lifestyle to other people, but understand that there is a difference between imposing and sharing.

We share the things that we like.

You know, we uh a couple months ago or a couple of weeks ago, we went with a group of our young adults from Vita to watch um Project Hail Mary.

Not sure how many of you watched that movie.

I love that movie, that is a really good movie.

And but there was one there was a youth kind of youth transitioning to young adults with us that he was fascinated by the by the movie, but he loved that movie so much that all that he could speak about in the next two weeks was about the movie.

And we would meet him and he would say, Man, Project Hail Mary.

That movie was amazing.

Oh my god.

And every time we were talking to him, he found a way to bring that up and to use, you know, some analogy with the movie, and he was excited about the movie, and we do that about the things we love.

If you go to a good restaurant, you will say to somebody else, man, you need to go to that restaurant.

It is so good.

You need to experience what I experienced when I was there, and that's the message of the gospel.

It's not a burden that we are carrying, it's not about something that we have to make other people agree with us, but it's about sharing the source of the most joy that we ever experienced in our lives, and this is what we were called to do.

There is a phrase from C.S.

Lewis.

I love this author, and really hate home when I when I read it, it says, Christianity, if false, is of no importance.

And if it is true, it's of infinite importance.

The only thing it cannot be that is moderately important.

This is Christianity for us.

It cannot be something that is just you know, because it it is it is true what it is what this quote is saying.

If Christianity is false, it's just a bunch of rules.

That we are trying to follow, trying to feel good about ourselves, that is of no importance.

But if it is true, if it is virtuous, if it is actually true, the message of the gospel, it has all the importance.

It must not be something that we attach to our lives, but it's something that is the reason of our lives.

As Paul was saying, I don't care about my life, it has no value to me.

My only aim is to finish the race and complete the task that Jesus has given me of testifying the good news of God's grace.

This is our task, and this is what we were called to proclaim.

You and I, this is our calling.

If you were questioning yourself about what God wants from you, this is his calling for all of us.

In your workplace, with your family, with your friends, wherever you go to testify, to share about what Jesus is doing in you, about the message of the gospel of God, who Jesus is, the world is desperately, desperately waiting for the for Christ to be proclaimed and to be known by them.

People were waiting for that.

And there are a few important things that we learn from the Apostle Paul when we see here.

The first thing is we don't stop to proclaim, we don't stop when things get difficult.

You know, Paul knew that persecution would come.

He knew that going to Jerusalem where God was sending him would result in prison, in suffering.

But he said, I will not slow down, I will not stop just because things got difficult, I will continue.

And we don't wait for perfect conditions.

We proclaim the gospel in the season we are right now.

You see, Paul was arrested.

What was he doing?

You say, Okay, I will wait until I'm released, until things get better, until I have more time, you know, until I don't have a soldier watching everything that I'm saying, everything that I'm doing.

Then I will resume preaching the gospel.

I'll take some time, just you know, I'll wait.

My judgment when I go to Caesar, I will preach to him, but I will wait.

That's not the point.

He's using the season he was there, the conditions that he had right there.

Don't wait for perfect conditions, don't wait for a perfect season, don't wait for you to feel perfect because we are not perfect and we will only be freed by from our flaws when we get in heaven.

Until then, we are trusting God's grace and we are seeking him and it is in his strength.

Don't wait for perfect conceiv uh perfect conditions.

Proclaim the gospel in the season you are.

Doesn't matter your age, the resources you have, doesn't matter where you are right now, how much you know.

Just say yes, be available to God, and he will do through you.

If you understand that you need to learn more, do it, seek resources, use every opportunity that the church is making available for you to grow deeper, to stay locked in, and use it so you can grow stronger and fulfill the calling from God in your life.

The next thing that we learn from Paul there is that he invested his resources, and this is what we do as church.

We invest our time and our resources in the mission.

We see that Paul he rented a home from at his own expense, and he was paying for that, for his food and for his home, for his housing there.

And this was the policy in the Roman Empire.

So prison prisoners needed to provide for themselves, for food, for clothing, for resources.

They were not interested in maintaining prisoners.

So the churches would help Paul, would send donations, and Paul would use his own resources.

Um and that's the point.

We invest time and resources in the mission, in proclaiming the gospel.

Can you did you notice how many people is was involved in this service happening today?

So we could worship God together, so we have a uh live transmission so people can watch the service and be part of this with us, so you can be welcome, so everything can be prepared with so much care, with a new summer season prepared and everything so you could be cared for and equipped.

How many people throughout the week worked and coordinated and coordinated everything so we could be here today and hearing the word of God, worshiping God, feeling God's presence, being transformed by God.

We invest time, so I encourage you to serve at your church, invest your time in proclaiming the gospel, invest your time in growing your roots in God and learning more and going further in your walk with God.

But also invest your resources.

We invest our resources in the mission that we were called for.

We don't wait everything to be ready or just waiting for the easy conditions.

We invest resources as you were doing, and we preach to all of those that are around us.

The soldier heard the gospel, and the soldiers that were there watching Paul, they heard the gospel many times.

Everybody who was visiting Paul, he was able to receive everybody and preach the gospel to them.

That home, that house became a missionary base in the heart of the Roman the Roman Empire.

And Paul was preaching to everybody, and he was not intimidated by who was around him.

We are not intimidated.

He was not intimidated by the person's uh position or role or whatever that person was doing there, being that someone visiting him, being a soldier, being the emperor himself, he would preach the gospel for everybody, and he was not intimidated by people's reaction.

He was not, well, will they accept me?

Will they reject me?

Will they still want to be my friend if I tell them about Jesus?

He was not intimidated, but he testified about who Jesus was.

And the last thing at the end of the verse, we see that it says that no one tried to stop him.

We know that God is the one who removes the obstacles.

It is not in our own strength, it's not us.

We're not in, you know, it's not our responsibility to convince anyone, it's not our responsibility to make them believe, it's not our responsibility to remove opposition or obstacles.

Our responsibility is to be available and say yes, God, where you want me to go.

Do you want me to pray for that person?

And maybe you already had that experience that God showing you someone or reminding you about someone.

You know this verse that you just read?

Send to that person.

You know that person over there in the corner?

Go pray with them.

You know that friend that was sharing with you some really difficult things that are happening.

Tell them about me.

Share what I'm doing in your life, share what I already did to you, share what scripture says.

If you don't know what script what scripture says about that, go look a little more on that.

Ask your help with your pastors, for your pastors, go look for resources on that.

But have you ever heard that little voice in your heart?

And sometimes immediately our reaction is to think, you know what?

This is in my head.

No, I'm inventing this.

Don't no, this this is this can be God, usually is, and we are fasting, dismissing that.

So obey, let God use you and be intentional.

Don't wait for perfect conditions.

Being that convenient or not, preach the gospel, share about Jesus, preach the good news that there is salvation in God for all of those around you.

There is love in God that is not that is not conditional on our perfection, but that receives everyone who has a heart surrendered, who repents and who asks for forgiveness, receives those who do that, receive forgiveness.

We were called to testify, to witness about Jesus to the world.

That's your mission, that's our mission.

This is what we were called to do, that's why we have the Holy Spirit in us, that's why church is here, and not we and we don't get immediately drawn to heaven when we get converted.

We are here to testify, we were called to testify, you were called to testify.

This is the mission God has for us.

So if you want to say yes, God, I'm here, use me.

I say yes to your mission, I answer your call.

I want to testify.

I don't know how, I don't have the strength, but I will trust in the power of your Holy Spirit.

I will invite you now to stand up with me and we will pray.

If you can please, if you accept this mission, if you want to say, God, I'm here with the resources I have in the season I am, I answer your call, and I want to testify.

I want you to be a witness of what you are going to do.

And I want to share, I want to share your love, I want to share the amazing grace and love that I find in Christ.

With your eyes closed, could you start saying your own prayer?

Saying, God, I'm here.

I surrender to you.

I know that it is not in my strength, and I know that I don't have the strength, but I trust that it will be through the power of your Holy Spirit, not by my strength.

Forgive me if I centered my life in what this world can offer, if I lived just for myself, because now I surrender all to you, and my life is not mine anymore, it is yours.

So use me as your missionary, use me to testify about Jesus.

She will be witness and to share about your love to all of those around me.

Give me the right words, give me the strength, the courage to go and do what you called me to do.

Talk to him this moment, and I'll pray with you later.

We surrender to you.

I pray, presenting my life and and for my brothers and sisters in here, saying, God, we surrender to you, help each one of them in the areas that are even difficult, and you know, in which areas each one of us struggle or have challenges, help us.

May us go deeper and deeper in your presence, in the power of your Holy Spirit.

May you move through us, give us the right words, show us the people you want us to testify and to share about your love.

Help us, give us the right words, give us courage so we can keep moving forward, not fearing opposition, not fearing people's reactions, but may we answer to your calling and may we go and may we proclaim the love of God through Jesus to all of those around us.

We say yes to you, we say yes to your calling, we say yes to your mission, understanding that you will give us the resources and the power that we need to do what you call us to do.

We thank you, we praise your name in the name of Jesus.

Amen.

Amen.

Thank you for joining us to learn more about Celebration Orlando, a church devoted to reaching the lost, equipping the found, and helping the hurting.

Follow us on social media using the handle at celebrationorl or visit our website, celebrationorl.org.