Scripture Daily

Context No. 1423 of 4322 · Acts

Context · Reflection

Acts 28:23-31: in context

23When they had appointed him a day, many people came to him at his lodging. He explained to them, testifying about God’s Kingdom, and persuading them concerning Jesus, both from the law of Moses and from the prophets, from morning until evening. 24Some believed the things which were spoken, and some disbelieved. 25When they didn’t agree among themselves, they departed after Paul had spoken one message: “The Holy Spirit spoke rightly through Isaiah the prophet to our fathers, 26saying, ‘Go to this people and say, in hearing, you will hear, but will in no way understand. In seeing, you will see, but will in no way perceive. 27For this people’s heart has grown callous. Their ears are dull of hearing. Their eyes they have closed. Lest they should see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their heart, and would turn again, then I would heal them.’ 28“Be it known therefore to you that the salvation of God is sent to the nations, and they will listen.” 29When he had said these words, the Jews departed, having a great dispute among themselves. 30Paul stayed two whole years in his own rented house and received all who were coming to him, 31preaching God’s Kingdom and teaching the things concerning the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness, without hindrance.

The book of Acts comes to its close with Paul in Rome, under a loose house arrest, receiving all who come to him. He spends whole days, morning to evening, explaining the kingdom of God and persuading people about Jesus from the law and the prophets. As always, the response divides: some believe, and some do not. Paul quotes Isaiah about hearts grown dull, declares that God's salvation has gone out to the nations, and the book ends on its final note: for two whole years Paul stayed there, welcoming all, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus with all boldness, and without hindrance.

It is worth noticing how Acts chooses to end. Not with Paul's release or his death, not with a triumph or a martyrdom, but with a quiet, resonant note: the word of God being preached in Rome with all boldness, without hindrance. Paul is a prisoner, chained, awaiting trial before Caesar, and yet from his rented lodging the gospel goes out freely, unhindered, to all who come. The last word of the book is that word, unhindered. The point is not finally about Paul, whose story simply trails off; it is about the gospel, which cannot be chained even when its messenger is. The message has traveled from Jerusalem to Rome, the heart of the empire, and it is being proclaimed openly, and nothing has been able to stop it. There is deep encouragement in that ending for every time the work of God seems hemmed in by circumstances, by opposition, by the confinement of those who carry it. The messengers can be bound; the word cannot. Paul in chains preaches without hindrance, and Acts ends not on a note of defeat or even of resolution but on the unstoppable forward motion of the gospel. And the mixed response along the way, some believing and some not, is simply the perennial pattern; the same message that some receive, others refuse, and the preaching goes on regardless. God's word is not bound, and the story of its spread has no final chapter that human opposition can write.

When the work of God seems hemmed in by circumstances or opposition, can I remember that though the messengers may be bound the word cannot be, and that Acts ends with the gospel preached in chains, boldly and without hindrance?

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