5×5×5 Bible Plan
Read: Acts 28
Meditation: Acts 28:30-31
Then Paul dwelt two whole years in his own rented house, and received all who came to him, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching the things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence, no one forbidding him.
Shift Your Focus… If you take the time to read this last chapter of Acts in its entirety, which is the culmination of a story that began back in Acts 21, you will notice a curious thing: It has no ending.
Other historical accounts in the Bible bring the story they tell to an obvious conclusion. Not Acts. The author, Luke, adds no “the end” or “that’s all folks” to this history of Christianity in the first century. He simply leaves Paul in Rome, performing miracles along the way, trying to convince the Jews that Jesus was the fulfillment of Old Testament promise, and preaching the Good News to the Gentile world.
I think Luke was intentional and strategic in leaving us hanging in Acts 28. Rather, I think the Holy Spirit, who inspired him to write this account, had a specific reason for preventing Luke from bringing this ship into the harbor. He wanted us to realize that we, the church, the people of God, are the continuing story of the Acts of the Holy Spirit.
You see, there are still miracle stories waiting to be recorded. God is still working among his people, Israel, through the likes of you and me. The world is still waiting to hear the Good News of salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. The Kingdom of God is still waiting to advance and reclaim territory now held by Satan that rightfully belongs to the Creator God.
We are the story! We are the next chapter—Acts 29! We are to take up Paul’s mantle and do the stuff of the Kingdom wherever we are. This is a story that is to be continued.
So give it your all. Your testimony will not be recorded in the Bible, but it will be written down in heaven’s record, and celebrated by God himself, along with heaven’s hosts for all eternity.
You are the story!
“Every story ends…and that is just the beginning!”
Acts very quickly turns into the conversion, evangelism and travels of the apostle Paul, and, by extension, a small band of disciples who accompanied him, among whom we find Luke.
Acts ends peaceably when Paul reaches Rome. That was where his journey ended. He is not a free man, though. He is confined to his home. Yet he was granted great freedom to accept and instruct all who came to him without impediment, even though the Jews also rejected Jesus there. It is obvious they lacked any real power in Rome to cause trouble for Him. That is a very fitting end to Luke’s account. Paul finally was bestowed a relative peace to continue his evangelistic work.
It would be years before he stood before Caesar, as prophesies concerning him had clearly stated. He was not put to death until the year 68 A.D., which was just slightly less than forty years after the Lord was crucified, during a time when Peter also was crucified. It hardly seemed fitting to fast forward to that event, of which Luke may or not have survived to write. Many believers perished in Rome at that time.
I very much like how Luke ended his account, not with a bang but a peaceful whimper and a flourishing church.
michael