A Study of Acts: Paul Preaches to the Jewish Leaders, The Book of Acts Ends
Acts 28:23-31; Isaiah 6:9-10 - Is your heart receptive, are you seeing clearly, are you listening carefully? Then the arc of God’s promises will make perfect sense!
“When they had set a day for Paul, they came to him at his lodging in large numbers; and he was explaining to them by solemnly testifying about the kingdom of God and trying to persuade them concerning Jesus, from both the Law of Moses and from the Prophets, from morning until evening. Some were being persuaded by the things spoken, but others would not believe.
And when they did not agree with one another, they began leaving after Paul had spoken one parting word, “The Holy Spirit rightly spoke through Isaiah the prophet to your fathers, saying, ‘Go to this people and say, “You will keep on hearing, but will not understand; And you will keep on seeing, but will not perceive; For the heart of this people has become dull, And with their ears they scarcely hear, And they have closed their eyes; Otherwise they might see with their eyes, And hear with their ears, And understand with their heart and return, And I would heal them.” ’ Therefore let it be known to you that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles; they will also listen.” [When he had spoken these words, the Jews departed, having a great dispute among themselves.]
And he stayed two full years in his own rented quarters and was welcoming all who came to him, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching concerning the Lord Jesus Christ with all openness, unhindered.”
Acts 28:23-31 NASB1995
Well, this is it! I started my study of the Book of Acts on July 4, 2024 and have now reached the final passage in Acts 28. I am sorry to see this end - this marvelous historical book of the New Testament is so full of fascinating people and essential precepts. I will summarize each devotional that I wrote in the next few devotionals based on the book and verses, the devotional titles, a short synopsis, a lesson (if different from the synopsis) and my prayers.
So why is verse 29 In brackets in this passage? This verse is included in some versions but is a footnote in other versions, like the NIV. It really duplicates verse 25 and doesn’t add anything to the passage.
So the Jewish leaders agree to meet at Paul’s residence on a certain day that they set up with him and they bring more men to hear his testimony. Paul spends the entire day explaining the Kingdom of God and tried to persuade them about Jesus from the Law of Moses and writings of the prophets. Some were convinced by what he said but others would not believe. They disagreed among themselves and began to leave after Paul quoted from Isaiah 6. Here is the actual passage in Isaiah that Paul cites:
“He said, “Go, and tell this people: ‘Keep on listening, but do not perceive; Keep on looking, but do not understand.’ Render the hearts of this people insensitive, Their ears dull, And their eyes dim, Otherwise they might see with their eyes, Hear with their ears, Understand with their hearts, And return and be healed.””
Isaiah 6:9-10 NASB1995
The message was not received by many that day nor is it received today. They close their ears, their eyes are dimmed, their hearts are insensitive. Paul tells them that this message of salvation from God has also been sent to the Gentiles and that they will listen. Here is what Enduring Word says about this passage and their mixed reception:
a. When they did not agree among themselves: This suggests that those who were persuaded and those who disbelieved started arguing among themselves.
b. They departed after Paul had said one word: “The Holy Spirit spoke rightly through Isaiah the prophet to our fathers.” Paul understood that Isaiah prophesied of their hardness of heart. Certainly, Paul was happy that some received the gospel, but he was undoubtedly distressed if even one of them rejected Jesus.
c. Hearing you will hear, and shall not understand: Essentially, Isaiah said this in this passage from Isaiah 6:9-10: “If you reject Jesus, you can hear, but never understand; you can see but never perceive. You heart is, and will be, hard, your ears closed, and your eyes shut – because you really don’t want to turn to God and be healed of your sin.”
i. This is a message just as true today as it was when Isaiah first said it – or when Paul quoted it. Many hear and reject simply because they don’t want to turn to God and be healed of their sin.
…
a. Therefore let it be known to you: If some of them rejected the salvation of God, it did not make that salvation of no effect. It just meant that God would find those who would hear it – in this case, the Gentiles.
i. Paul plead for men to receive Jesus, but not as a beggar might plead. Paul ached not for himself, but for those who rejected – and solemnly warned those who rejected of the consequences.
ii. The preacher of the gospel really preaches two messages. To those who respond to the gospel with faith, he is a messenger of life. But to those who reject Jesus, the preacher adds to their condemnation. To the one we are the aroma of death to death, and to the other the aroma of life to life. (2 Corinthians 2:16)
b. When he had said these words, the Jews departed: This mixed group – some who believed, some who did not – left Paul arguing with each other (a great dispute among themselves).
i. In just a few years after Paul’s rebuke of those Jews who rejected Jesus, the Jewish people of Judea were slaughtered wholesale and Jerusalem was destroyed. God’s judgment was coming, and part of Paul’s frustration was that he sensed this.
So if your heart is receptive and if your eyes are seeing and ears are listening, the arc of prophecy and the promises of God starting at the beginning of the Old Testament and fulfilled in the New Testament will be obvious. When my heart was hardened and my senses dimmed, I refused to see the story that is now for me so true and foundational. Paul has preached this so many times, but I can guarantee that he was no less passionate in this final recorded testimony than he was with the first after his encounter with Jesus so many years earlier.
Luke ends his second book of the New Testament by noting that Paul stayed two full years in his rented quarters and received all, welcomed all and preached the Kingdom to all openly and unhindered.
This is, of course, not the end of the story for Paul and for the church. Precept Austin has this timeline in their commentary, taken from the Ryrie Study Bible:
Note that this two-year house arrest when Paul arrived in Rome was probably in A.D. 60-61. Paul probably got his hearing before Nero at the end of those two years. Nero was not yet completely insane, so Paul was apparently released at that time. The epistles of Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians and Philemon were written in the A.D. 61-63 timeframe, while 1 Timothy and Titus appeared around 63-66 A.D. Paul may have traveled more, including a trip to Spain. But commentary for this timeline indicates that 2 Timothy was likely written in prison. Paul was martyred sometime in either A.D. 67 or 68; experts believe he was beheaded, which was the execution method for a Roman citizen.
Here is an excellent background for these later years, from Christian writer Derrick Jeter (not the former New York Yankee) who wrote this in 2017 and InsightforLiving, the website for the Chuck Swindoll ministries, reproduced it (it is linked from Precept Austin). The copyright information for this is at the bottom in the references:
On July 19, AD 64, a fire broke out in Rome, destroying ten of the city’s fourteen districts. The inferno raged for six days and seven nights, flaring sporadically for an additional three days. Though the fire probably started accidentally in an oil warehouse, rumors swirled that Emperor Nero had ordered the inferno so he could rebuild Rome according to his own liking. Nero tried to stamp out the rumors—but to no avail. He then looked for a scapegoat. And since two of the districts untouched by the fire were disproportionally populated by Christians, he shifted the blame to them.
Roman historian Tacitus tells the story:
But all human efforts, all the lavish gifts of the emperor, and the propitiations of the gods, did not banish the sinister belief that the conflagration was the result of an order. Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. . . . Accordingly, an arrest was first made of all who pleaded guilty [of being Christians]; then, upon their information, an immense multitude was convicted, not so much for the crime of firing the city, as of hatred against mankind.1
The accusation that Roman Christians hated humanity likely took root in their refusal to participate in Rome’s social and civic life, which was intertwined with pagan worship. Whether for that reason or for the fire, once Nero’s madness inflamed, he continued his persecution of Rome’s Christians. And as a “ringleader” (Acts 24:5), Paul was rearrested at some point and placed, according to church tradition, in the Mamertine Prison.
The Mamertine Prison could have been called the “House of Darkness.” Few prisons were as dim, dank, and dirty as the lower chamber Paul occupied. Known in earlier times as the Tullianum dungeon, its “neglect, darkness, and stench” gave it “a hideous and terrifying appearance,” according to Roman historian Sallust. 2
Prisoners in the ancient world were rarely sent to prison as punishment. Rather, prisons typically served as holding cells for those awaiting trial or execution. We see this throughout Scripture. Mosaic Law made no provision for incarceration as a form of punishment. Joseph languished in an Egyptian prison for two years, presumably awaiting trial before Pharaoh on a charge of rape (Genesis 39:19–20; 41:1). Jeremiah was imprisoned under accusation of treason (Jeremiah 37:11–16) but was transferred to the temple guardhouse after an appeal to King Zedekiah, who sought to protect the prophet (37:17–21). And though Jeremiah was later thrown into a cistern, the purpose was to kill him, not imprison him (38:1–6).
During Paul’s first imprisonment, he awaited trial before Roman governors Felix and Festus (Acts 24–26). He then was under house arrest in Rome for two years (28:30), awaiting an appearance before Nero. Scholars believe Paul was released sometime in AD 62 because the Jews who had accused him of being “a real pest and a fellow who stirs up dissension” (24:5) didn’t press their case before the emperor. However, during Paul’s second imprisonment in the Mamertine dungeon, he had apparently received a preliminary hearing and was awaiting a final trial (2 Timothy 4:16). He didn’t expect acquittal; he expected to be found guilty, in all likelihood, for hating humankind. From there, Paul believed only his execution would be left (4:6–7), which was probably carried out in AD 68.3
1- Tacitus, Annals, 15.44, in Annals, Histories, Agricola, Germania, trans. Alfred John Church and William Jackson Brodribb (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2009), 353–4.
2 -Sallust, The War with Catiline, 55.5, in The War with Catiline, The War with Jugurthine, trans. J. C. Rolfe, rev. John T. Ramsey (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2013), 133.
3- Paul must have languished in the Mamertine Prison for a couple of years before his beheading (as befitting his status as a Roman citizen), which, according to tradition, occurred on the Ostian Way about three miles outside the city. Eusebius notes that Paul and Peter were executed during the same Neronian persecution, though Peter was crucified upside down, as he requested. See Eusebius, The Ecclesiastical History, vol. 1, 2.25.6, 8 and 3.1.2, trans. Kirsopp Lake (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1926), 181, 183, 191.
The Execution of Paul of Tarsus by Enrique Simonet (1887)
So what happened to Luke? According to Wikipedia, here is some speculation about the fate of the author of “Luke” and “Acts”; you can see the footnotes in the original article:
Luke's presence in Rome with the Apostle Paul near the end of Paul's life was attested by 2 Timothy 4:11: "Only Luke is with me". In the last chapter of the Book of Acts, widely attributed to Luke, there are several accounts in the first person also affirming Luke's presence in Rome, including Acts 28:16:[28] "And when we came to Rome..." According to some accounts, Luke also contributed to the authorship of the Epistle to the Hebrews.[29]
Luke died at age 84 in Boeotia, according to a "fairly early and widespread tradition".[30] According to Nikephoros Kallistos Xanthopoulos, Greek historian of the 14th century (and others), Luke's tomb was located in Thebes, whence his relics were transferred to Constantinople in the year 357.[31]
These early Christians, those “haters of humankind” are so amazing to me. And Christians today who follow the Lord’s commandments are still called haters of humans because we don’t bless others in their sin, but beg them to repent and turn to Christ. I’m so grateful for this deep dive into this early church history and for leaders like Paul, Peter, Luke and others!
My next devotional will summarize Acts 1 through Acts 5.
Heaven on Wheels Daily Prayer:
Dear Lord - You have guided me through this study of Acts and have revealed to me the truth of Your Word and Your promises. I anticipate a reunion with the Saints that came before me in Your heavenly realm! Amen!
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Precept Austin was accessed on 2/27/2025 to review commentary for Acts 28:23-31.
Enduring Word commentary by David Guzik is used with written permission.
The “Historical Background of Paul’s Final Imprisonment” by Derrick Jeter is Copyright © 2009, 2015, 2017 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights are reserved worldwide. Used by permission. For additional information and resources visit us at www.insight.org.
Great job on Acts!! My questions about the early church were answered.