“And Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house, and received all that came in unto him, preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, with all confidence, no man forbidding him.” (Acts 28:30,31)
And that’s that. Those words from Acts 28 are the last words of the Book of the Acts. There’s one problem, though. Questions remain: What became of Paul? What became of the churches spoken of in Acts? What became of the Jewish-Gentile conflict in the early church? Yes, the rest of the New Testament answers some of those questions, but they aren’t settled in Acts. What a wonder is the Book of the Acts! Chapters one through twelve show the advance of the gospel in the Jewish world, and chapters thirteen through twenty-eight show it in the Gentile world. One through twelve focus on Peter; thirteen through twenty-eight on Paul. Covering about thirty years, Acts is the perfect transition from the four Gospels to the rest of the New Testament. It comes to a stop, however, not to an end. Why?
The early church’s exploits are great. The Holy Spirit effectively moves the gospel from place to place. Paul has finally arrived in Rome. But Acts abruptly stops in the middle of Paul’s ministering to “all that came in unto him” (28:30). And that may be the point: Acts provides a pattern for ministry in any age and place. Paul’s ministry in Rome wasn’t finished, and neither is ours. We spread the gospel to those around us regardless of circumstances. Paul’s circumstances were extreme (under house arrest), so we cannot complain that the going is too rough for us. He continued through trials, and the results were mixed (“some believed…and some believed not”, Acts 28:24). How can we do less?
Acts stops its record of the early church, but leaves a pattern for us to follow: give the gospel to those nearby; stay awhile or arrange for others to stay awhile to confirm them; move on to others who need Christ; repeat the process wherever you go. That process should only end when Christ, the head of the church, ends it. Where does it end? Early Christians served much of the known world of their day. True to the pattern of Acts, we must keep serving so long as we have breath until God says otherwise. If Acts were an opera, it would open in Jerusalem (Acts 1), proceed to Rome (Acts 28), and now continue in your home, your street, your workplace, your school, your church, where you continue to proclaim the kingdom of God and teach “those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ” (28:31). God is using us to write the ending that Acts began. Are you writing it wherever you are?
