Every December, the world remembers a birth in the town of Bethlehem in Judea—Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of God, with a feeding trough for a cradle. From that humble beginning, the good news began to move. Jesus pledged to his followers in Acts 1:8 that, once they had received the promised baptism in the Holy Spirit, they would be his witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth. As we’ve pored over the pages of Acts for the last couple of years, we have watched the gospel cross political borders and cultural barriers—Bethlehem to Nazareth to all of Galilee to Jerusalem and all Judea to Antioch, to Asia Minor, to Macedonia, to Greece, to islands of the Mediterranean (Cyprus, Crete, and Malta), and finally to Rome.

We find ourselves at the very end of the book of Acts, chapter 28, in the imperial capital, the Eternal City, Rome itself. Last Week we listened in as Paul introduced himself to the leaders of the synagogue of that city, and asked for the chance to lay out for them the message he’s been speaking all across the empire. Today, he will spend the whole day with them, explaining the kingdom of God, answering objections, and announcing salvation through Jesus for all peoples. Here we’ll hear why Christmas is celebrated all over the world, among all the peoples of the earth.

Acts 28:23-29

²³ 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. ²⁴ And some were convinced by what he said, but others disbelieved. ²⁵ And disagreeing among themselves, they departed after Paul had made one statement: “The Holy Spirit was right in saying to your fathers through Isaiah the prophet:

²⁶ “‘Go to this people, and say,
“You will indeed hear but never understand,
and you will indeed see but never perceive.”
²⁷ For this people’s heart has grown dull,
and with their ears they can barely hear,
and their eyes they have closed;
lest they should see with their eyes
and hear with their ears
and understand with their heart
and turn, and I would heal them.’

²⁸ Therefore let it be known to you that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles; they will listen.”  ²⁹ And when he had said these words, the Jews departed, having much dispute among themselves.

Today we’re asking four key questions. The answers to them will explain why Christmas is celebrated all over the world.

FIRST What is the Kingdom of God that Paul spent all day explaining?

²³ … they came to him at his lodging… 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. ²⁴ And some were convinced by what he said, but others disbelieved. 

Paul spent all day, from morning until evening, doing two things:  formally bearing witness that the Kingdom of God had arrived and trying to convince those synagogue leaders that Jesus of Nazareth is the king of the Jews and the Lord of the Nations. Luke goes on in verse 31 and says once again that what Paul was doing, not just for the Jewish leaders, but for anyone who would listen, was proclaiming the Kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ. I simply want to suggest that, if Paul took a whole day to proclaim and explain and urge these things, we might be wise to at least spend a few minutes together on it—or maybe a little more.

Have you ever noticed how many of our Christmas songs are insistent that Jesus Christ was born a king? We just sang two of them, and we’ll sing one more before we’re done, if the Lord allows. So what is the Kingdom of God, and what does it have to do with Jesus Christ?

When John the Baptist came preaching, the first thing he preached was the nearness of the Kingdom of God. When Jesus preached the gospel, the good news he preached was that the Kingdom of God had arrived. The clear message of the earliest Christians, as we saw repeatedly in the first few chapters of Acts, was that Jesus the Messiah had come, bringing with him the Kingdom of God and Spirit of God and the love of God and the victory of God. In other words, there is no bigger deal in the Bible than the Kingdom of God. But what is it?

The Kingdom of God is the Kingship of God. This is not a limited royal authority, like the British crown, where the king has no effective power except to sit on a special chair and wear a really impressive hat. This kingdom is the most absolute of absolute monarchies, where the king claims that all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to him.

The Kingdom of God is God’s rule through King Jesus his Christ, welcomed in the hearts, the lives, the relationships, and the realms of mankind. Jesus was born in Bethlehem to be the king of the Jews and the Lord of the nations.

The early chapters of the gospels make it clear that there were many on the day when Jesus arrived who were waiting intently for the Kingdom of God. They didn’t know who the king would be, but they always seemed to recognize him as soon as they saw Jesus. They quickly and clearly saw that he was the king, the messiah, and the redeemer of Israel. The Kingdom of God is his rule through King Jesus his Christ, welcomed in the hearts, the lives, the relationships, and the realms of mankind. Christmas is about the fact that Jesus is your king and my king and THE king.

Paul spent all day that day expounding it and explaining it to the leaders of the synagogue in Rome. Some were convinced and believed. Many left still doubting and questioning, or even outright rejecting the gospel of Jesus Christ the King.

What will you do today? At Christmas time everybody says they’re celebrating the birth of a baby king. Are you celebrating the fact that Jesus came to be your king? Do you find great joy in the fact that God has sent his Son to tell you how to live your life and show you why life is worth living? Do the tidings that tell you that Christ has come to be your king and save you from your sin and yourself and the Satan strike you as glad tidings?

The Kingdom of God that Paul spent all day explaining is God’s rule through King Jesus his Christ, welcomed in the hearts, the lives, the relationships, and the realms of mankind. It’s so important that we’ll spend all of next week’s sermon looking at how Paul repeats himself in verses 30 and 31, the last two verses of this chapter and this book.

second Why do some reject the gospel of the salvation and reign of Christ?

Watch how the crowd reacts to Paul, and then listen to him respond to them.

²⁴ And some were convinced by what he said, but others disbelieved. ²⁵ And disagreeing among themselves, they departed after Paul had made one statement: “The Holy Spirit was right in saying to your fathers through Isaiah the prophet:

²⁶ “‘Go to this people, and say,
“You will indeed hear but never understand,
and you will indeed see but never perceive.”
²⁷ For this people’s heart has grown dull,
and with their ears they can barely hear,
and their eyes they have closed;
lest they should see with their eyes
and hear with their ears
and understand with their heart
and turn, and I would heal them.’

Isaiah uttered these uncomfortable words early in his prophecy. Actually this is 6:9-10, spoken several centuries before Jesus ever came and now quoted by Paul about 60 years after Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem. God predicted long centuries before it all happened that Israel would shut their eyes and stop their ears to his truth. He saw clearly that Israel would reject the prophets God sent to them and even refuse their Messiah.

Of course, that doesn’t exactly answer the question. Why do people reject the gospel of salvation and the reign of Christ? Why did most of Old Covenant Israel? Why do we? There are two answers.

First, people naturally refuse to believe that they need to be saved from anything and deny that they need anyone to tell them what to do. That’s true for all of lost, rebellious mankind. I think it’s especially true for us Americans.

Plenty of people in Baltimore today are convinced that they don’t need anyone to save them or rule them. They’re confident that they can save themselves from whatever problems they face, and certain that they are the only authority they need running their lives.

Jesus doesn’t see things that way. The message of Christmas doesn’t allow for it, either. Jesus came to be the Savior and the King. That’s why he was born in Bethlehem long ago, that’s why he died on a Roman cross 33 years later, and that’s why he rose again three days after that. What you and I need to do today is simply decide where we stand. Do we want and need Jesus as Savior and Lord, or do we think we’re good on our own?

It’s my task here to warn you. Repeated rejection of God’s truth always leads to blindness and deafness and hardness of heart. It did for Israel so long ago and it does for us right now. Please do not console yourself with the idea that you have not made yourself blind or deaf to God. If you were blind and deaf to God, wouldn’t you, almost by very nature of the case, be completely unaware of it? You would have no way of knowing, and no desire to know. Please listen to me. There literally is hell to pay if you make the wrong call at this point. Make sure you think it through.

Second, there was something uniquely relevant to the case of Old Covenant Israel. By the time that Jesus was born during the reign of Augustus Caesar, God had been sending prophets to Israel for centuries—with distressingly little impact. On top of that, in just judgment he had unleashed more than one imperial dreadnought on them, Assyria in 721 BC and Babylon in 586 BC, to devastate their cities, desolate their sanctuaries, and drag their people off in chains, to punctuate the points that his prophets were making. The baptism in the Holy Spirit that happened at the beginning of the book of Acts was, among other things, one final warning of fiery judgment to come on Israel if her leaders would not start listening to the voices God kept sending them.

But they were blind and deaf, just as Isaiah had foretold. That fiery judgment fell on that generation, just as John the Baptist and Jesus himself had warned. It came at the hands of the Romans in AD 70, when, following in the steps of the Assyrians and the Babylonians before them, the Romans utterly and ultimately desolated Jerusalem and her temple—just as Jesus had prophesied forty years earlier.

The prophecy Paul quoted from Isaiah there in Rome, talking to that room full of rabbis, about a decade before that final conflagration in AD 70, was from early in the messages of the prophets, 700 years before Jesus was born. In other words, the design was laid out long before. God was going to speak to his people again and again, to no avail. Their rejection was predicted and expected. It was part of the plan.

Now let’s take a step back for a minute. We would have to be in a drunken stupor not to realize how anti-Semitic this sounds, especially considering that the news, even over the last couple of weeks, has been full of stories of horrific acts of antisemitic violence. Antisemitism is a general hatred of the Jews as a people. It has been around for thousands of years, almost as long as the Jews themselves.

Biblical prophe8cy has any number of passages—some of which we’re reading right now—that certainly sound antisemitic. Muslim prophecies in the Quran and the Hadith and elsewhere, say some vicious, virulently anti-Semitic things. Christian and Muslim preachers and pundits for hundreds of years have filled the air with anti-Semitic screeds. Why are we reading these things or saying them?

That’s a good question, one that needed to be asked. Here’s my answer.

These passages are like several others scattered throughout the Bible, in that they make statements that are deeply troubling and demand deep thinking. Wisdom calls us, not to simply skip over these passages, but actually to look at them and learn from them.

I’ll put it as succinctly as I can.

1. Both here in Acts 28 and elsewhere, Paul is quoting from writings in the Hebrew Bible that were penned many hundreds of years before Christ ever came. These passages contain clear and legitimate accusations of covenant-breaking from God against his people Israel, Accusations that careful Jews of every generation have confessed to be legitimate. Nor is Paul cherry picking. These are only a few of many pericopes that scholars call “covenant lawsuits”—indictments of Israel for unfaithfulness to God. These sections may seem harsh or cruel or unreasonable to us, but God apparently doesn’t see it that way. We may think we can accuse him of injustice, but I guarantee you he is not intimidated. Here again we’d better think things through!
2. Jesus himself in Matthew 23 and elsewhere makes it terrifyingly clear that God would hold that present generation of Israelites, within the natural lifespan of Jesus and his apostles, accountable for all the sins of Israel against all the prophets, from the blood of Abel to the blood of the Messiah. That day of reckoning happened exactly 40 years after Jesus announced it.
3. It is true that the New Testament has several statements in it that seem to attach blame for the crucifixion of Christ to “the Jews”. However, if you look at those passages closely, you’ll see that the phrase “the Jews” is uniformly a shorthand way of referring to the leaders of the Jews, the priests of the temple and the rabbis in the synagogues. In particular, the priests and rabbis who made up the Great Sanhedrin, the ruling council in Jerusalem, the official leaders of the Jews in that generation, are the ones who carried the blame for crucifying the Son of God—not every Jew who was ever lived. You may be struck with the thought that it is not fair for God to allow the followers to suffer for the choices of their leaders, but I can only reply that that’s just the way it is. It is an observable reality: bad leadership hurts the ones who are being led. God certainly doesn’t need to apologize for that. On the other hand, if you do need to ask some more questions about that, come to the afternoon service at 5:00 and let’s talk about it.
4. Not just Matthew 23, But actually several other places in the New Testament hint that the final, comprehensive judgment of God against Israel for refusing God’s prophets and rejecting God’s Son was the Roman destruction of Jerusalem two millennia ago. That was it. Divine justice was done. There could not conceivably be anything we could add to what God did. There is nothing, not one single word, in the New Testament that would in any way countenance any resentment or violence against Jews by Christians today. God’s judgment against his ancient people is done. It was done two millennia ago. Our job today is to love our unbelieving Jewish friends, and serve them, and pray for them.

There’s a third major question that needs to be asked here:

third Doesn’t their rejection defeat God’s Kingdom and salvation in Christ?

No! Although sin is ubiquitous and human rejection of the divine word is often part of the picture, that’s never the end of the story. God allows people to harden their hearts so he can set them up better to save them in the end. Sometimes rejection leads to redemption. Listen to Paul’s pronouncement in Acts 28:28.

²⁸ Therefore let it be known to you that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles; they will listen.” 

He had already anticipated their reaction and presponded in his letter to the Roman Christians. In Romans 11 we find these words:

First, a parallel prophecy from Isaiah 29:10):

⁸ as it is written,

“God gave them a spirit of stupor,
eyes that would not see
and ears that would not hear,
down to this very day.”

Then, another parallel pronouncement, found in Psalm 69:

⁹ And David says,

“Let their table become a snare and a trap,
a stumbling block and a retribution for them;
¹⁰ let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see,
and bend their backs forever.”

Then Paul asks us to think about the prophecies we just heard.

¹¹ So I ask, did they stumble in order that they might fall? By no means! Rather, through their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous. ¹² Now if their trespass means riches for the world, and if their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean!

Did you hear that? Paul envisions a day when all Israel will embrace Jesus of Nazareth as king. He seems to think that will be something like the fulfillment of history!

Do you remember me telling you that in many ways the entire book of Romans is a response to the problem of how the leaders of old covenant Judaism were rejecting Jesus their Messiah? He had already written his letter to the Roman church before this meeting ever happened. This was a last-ditch appeal to the leadership of the synagogue in the capital city of the world, Rome.

When you read these almost savage prophecies that Paul quotes from the holy book that these religious leaders all revered, please don’t think that he was gleefully, flippantly putting the final flourishes on a debate that he was having simply to try to prove himself right. He was not enjoying this at all! He was pleading with them to open their minds and hearts to their Messiah Jesus Christ. And he was strictly warning them of the enormity of the choice they were making for themselves and their followers.

But he was also letting them know that God was going to win in the end anyway. The gospel of the Messiah was going to go to the nations, and God’s ancient covenant with Abraham was going to be fulfilled as all the nations of the earth are blessed through Jesus the son of David, the son of Abraham, the son of Adam, the son of God. Their rejection of God’s good news by the Jews was the best news imaginable for the nations.

That was precisely what Jesus himself had prophesied in the parable of the tenants. Leave Paul and his gathering with me for a moment and come back to Jerusalem and listen to Jesus shortly before his crucifixion. Matthew 21 ³³ “Hear another parable. There was a master of a house who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a winepress in it and built a tower and leased it to tenants, and went into another country. ³⁴ When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit. ³⁵ And the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. ³⁶ Again he sent other servants, more than the first. And they did the same to them. ³⁷ Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ ³⁸ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.’ ³⁹ And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. ⁴⁰ When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” ⁴¹ They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.”

⁴² Jesus said to them, • • • •

⁴³ Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits. • • • •

⁴⁵ When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he was speaking about them. 

This idea of God’s penchant for turning the rejection and rebellion of his people into redemption and salvation is nothing new. You remember the classic story at the end of the book of Genesis, in which Joseph’s brothers sell him into slavery. Then, decades later, when Joseph is in a position of supreme power and has the clear opportunity to pay them back for what they did to him so many years earlier, he says this to his terrified brothers:

Genesis 50:20 As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.  The plans and choices of the brothers were entirely sinful and utterly wicked. But God’s plans were perfect. You should be careful how you quote this verse, though. The verse does not say that what Joseph’s brothers meant for evil, God turned to good. That is true enough, but it’s not with the verse says. The verse says that God meant Joseph’s brother’s sinful choice for good. God’s providence was in perfect and purposeful control of their sinful rejection of what they knew to be God’s will. In fact, that sin had a crucial place in his plan for their family.

Just as God predetermined to turn Joseph’s brother’s sin into the salvation of Jacob’s family, he planned in advance to turn Israel’s rejection of their Messiah into salvation for the whole world.

Listen again to what Paul said in verse 28 to the leaders of the Jews in Rome: ²⁸ Therefore let it be known to you that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles; they will listen.” 

That is why people all around the world, of every tribe and tongue and nation, celebrate Christmas, the birth of the baby king of the Jews in Bethlehem 2000 years ago.

FOURTH How should we respond to this?

Most ancient copies of Acts include verse 29 here. It tells us how Paul’s conference wound up and how his audience responded.      ²⁹ And when he had said these words, the Jews departed, having much dispute among themselves. Ouch.

All that’s left for us is to think carefully about how we will respond. Let’s contemplate four possible responses.

1. Don’t walk away doubting and disputing. If you do not yet know Jesus as your Savior and King, repent of your sin and your self-will, including your self-willed religion, and come to Jesus the Christ. Did you notice the final sentence in that prophecy that Paul was quoting from Isaiah? In spite of all of the blindness and the deafness and the hardness of heart, God was still reaching out to them and saying if they would but open their eyes and see, if they could but open their ears and hear and turn then God would heal them. There has never been a Sinner who truly repents and comes to Jesus and does not find the arms of the savior wide open to welcome him to wash away his sins and to give him a new life forever. Come to Jesus!
2. Look for opportunities this Christmas season to talk to friends and family and neighbors about Jesus the Christ, your Savior and King. Of course, you need first to be sure that those who know you best can see that Jesus is your king. If you’ve not been living that way before them, Christmas is a great time to repent to them, ask them to forgive you for your hypocrisy, and begin to live in their eyes as a servant of King Jesus ought to live. There’s no better time than Christmas.
3. Open your mind and heart to really believe that Jesus Christ is the King of Dundalk, Maryland, Baltimore, the United States of America, and the whole world. I know some people are shrieking about the idea that Christians should want the will of Christ to be supreme in our neighborhoods and our nations. They call that “Christian nationalism” and think of all kinds of nasty things to say about it. All I can do is remind you that Jesus commands us to make disciples of every nation, beginning where we are and reaching to the ends of the earth. People who have a problem with that just have a problem with Jesus. Pity them, pray for them, and press on presenting Jesus Christ as savior and king.
4. Pray for and give to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering, supporting our international missionaries among unreached peoples, so the gospel reaches where Christ is not yet known. They need to know their King. We are still a Southern Baptist church, you know!
5. Knowing that this is the first Christmas since October 7th 2023 the the town of Bethlehem in Judea Is actually open for business, pray for the people of Bethlehem.
   1. Pray for the pilgrims who come, that they will do more than merely see the spot where the event happened long ago. Pray they’ll actually meet the Lord Jesus Christ the king who was born there that first Christmas.
   2. Pray for the Palestinian Christians who live in Bethlehem, That they will find their hearts free once again to joyfully remember their savior and Lord at the place he was born. Pray they will be free from the restrictions and the repressions that the Israeli government has brought upon them because they’re consider the Palestinians.
   3. Pray for the Muslim Palestinians who live in Bethlehem, that their eyes will be open to the truth that the baby born so long ago was so much more than just a prophet of God. He was the Son of God, and he is the way to God.
   4. Pray for the Jewish Israelis who live in Bethlehem. Pray that, after all these centuries, their eyes will see, their ears will hear, their hearts will turn, and they will be saved.

There’s simply no better time to come to Christ than at Christmas!