January 12, 2020 · Acts 28:30–31

Keep Your Eyes on Jesus

For two whole years Paul stayed there in his own rented house and welcomed all who came to see him. He proclaimed the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ—with all boldness and without hindrance!

“The people in the civil rights movements — they had the same thing. They were being thrown in prison, and they were able to keep their eyes on the prize. Dr. Martin Luther King would tell us that we had to keep our eyes on Jesus. To keep our eyes on Jesus, because freedom is in Jesus. The Civil Rights Movement would not have happened without Jesus. Dr King and so many others were just steeped in the soil of Jesus. He's the one when they're walking across the bridge. … They weren't looking at that — they were looking at Jesus. And when they kept their eyes on Jesus — freedom. Eyes on the prize. Imagine how hard it must have been to just kind of take — these — brutality from a racist government. To not just lash back in violence. How hard it would be not to strike back at them in righteous anger. And yet if they did, freedom may never have come. But it was because they focused on Jesus that they were able to overcome. It was because their eyes — went — Jesus. They were able to see the entire course of history change. Just like Paul, they endured the hardships simply by looking at Jesus instead of their situation.”