Entrusting God with the outcome
Acts 28:17-22
17 Three days later he called together the local Jewish leaders. When they had assembled, Paul said to them: “My brothers, although I have done nothing against our people or against the customs of our ancestors, I was arrested in Jerusalem and handed over to the Romans. 18 They examined me and wanted to release me, because I was not guilty of any crime deserving death. 19 The Jews objected, so I was compelled to make an appeal to Caesar. I certainly did not intend to bring any charge against my own people. 20 For this reason I have asked to see you and talk with you. It is because of the hope of Israel that I am bound with this chain.”
21 They replied, “We have not received any letters from Judea concerning you, and none of our people who have come from there has reported or said anything bad about you. 22 But we want to hear what your views are, for we know that people everywhere are talking against this sect.”
The Apostle Paul had a regular practice of reaching out to the Jewish leaders in every city where he went with the Gospel.
Here at the end of the Book of Acts we see Paul making one last attempt to meet with the Jewish leaders in Rome to show them that he is a fellow Jew and brother, with no agenda against them.
Although some of those Jews did embrace the Gospel, overall, the Jewish hierarchy rejected Paul and the message of Jesus.
Sadly, in just a few years after those Jews rejected Jesus, the Jewish people of Judea were slaughtered and Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 AD. God’s judgment was coming soon, and perhaps Paul sensed this. Whatever the case, it seems that the leaders had made up their minds, and even the great evangelist Paul could not change this.
What can we make of this? I think it is a good reminder that there are some people who will harden their hearts to God and to the Good News no matter what we do or say.
Ultimately it is up to God to bring salvation and to judge people’s hearts. Our job is to love and to share the Gospel as led by the Holy Spirit. The way that people respond is not our responsibility.
Lord, help us to be bearers of your love and truth wherever we go. We also ask that you help us to let go of the burden of responsibility over how people will respond to the Gospel and entrust those we love into Your hands.
Written by Shelley Witt