Finally in Rome
(1) In this last lap of the journey, Paul traveled through Syracuse (east coast of Sicily), Reggio di Calabria (in the toe of Italy) and Pozzuoli (in the Bay of Naples) to Rome. It’s been a long journey since Jerusalem — from 12 days (24:11) to two years in Caesarea (24:27), from one ship to another (27:5-6), and another 14 days of stormy seas (27:33) to being stranded in Malta for 3 months — now they arrived in Rome, ending not only the “we” section, but Paul’s roving ministry as the Apostle to the Gentiles. Now he reached the center of the then Gentile universe where he would die a martyr’s death. We have no idea why Luke did not mention his death, but it’s in here that he wrote his last letter. Read 2 Timothy 4:7-8 which sums up his feelings in Rome. Can you perhaps understand why Paul appeared to be willing to do anything in order to get to Rome?
(2) Paul did not plant the church in Rome, and yet many believers, even from as far as 30-40 miles away, came to welcome Paul, and Luke said, “Paul…was encouraged.” In what sense might he be encouraged?
(3) At this point of your life (or ministry), do you need encouragement? What might be the greatest encouragement you need?
(4) Paul expected that the Jews would send representatives to Rome to give testimony to support the charges laid against him, so he wished to have an informal defense before the Jewish leaders. What were the main points of his defense? What might be the most important of these main points?
(5) To his surprise, the Jews in Jerusalem had not arrived (yet), perhaps due to the same reasons why it took so long for Paul to arrive in Rome. But they remarked that, “people everywhere are talking against this sect.” This pretty well sums up the first 30 years of Christianity since the Great Commission was given in Acts 1:8. Would you call this first 30 years a success? Why or why not?
(6) How are “people everywhere…talking” about Christianity today, especially in your society?
(7) What is the main message to you today?
As we come the final chapter of the Book of Acts, may I invite you to meditate on the lyrics of the following hymn by Heber, who wrote not so much as a bystander, but as someone who gave his life, like the apostles, to fulfill the Great Commission. In his case, he died as a missionary in India at the age of forty three.
1
From Greenland's icy mountains, from India's coral strand;
Where Afric's sunny fountains roll down their golden sand:From many an ancient river, from many a palmy plain,
They call us to deliver their land from error's chain.2
What though the spicy breezes blow soft o'er Ceylon's isle;
Though every prospect pleases, and only man is vile?In vain with lavish kindness the gifts of God are strown;
The heathen in his blindness bows down to wood and stone.3
Shall we, whose souls are lighted with wisdom from on high,
Shall we to those benighted the lamp of life deny?Salvation! O salvation! The joyful sound proclaim,
Till earth's remotest nation has learned Messiah's Name.4
Waft, waft, ye winds, His story, and you, ye waters, roll
Till, like a sea of glory, it spreads from pole to pole:Till o'er our ransomed nature the Lamb for sinners slain,
Redeemer, King, Creator, in bliss returns to reign.
Reginald Heber (1783-1826)
The End of the first phase of the Great Commission
(1) Paul, as a prisoner, was not be able to go into the local synagogues as was his practice, but he was able to have a considerable crowd come to him and hear the gospel. From morning to evening, he must have had a captive audience and been able to expound thoroughly from the OT without any interruptions. As usual, the audience was divided. Why then would he end with such a stern warning from Isaiah 6:9-10?
(2) The Isaiah quote emphasizes that it was the people who chose not to hear and see, because they, not the Lord, feared that if they undersood, then they would turn and be healed. Why would people “fear” that they would be healed? Do not all people want healing?
(3) As we come to the end of this letter or book written by Luke to Theophilus, the last three verses indicate that the apostles and the first Christians have accomplished their call in response to Acts 1:8. Do you agree? Why?
Luke’s emphases in the last two verses of his book appear to include:
- Paul had relative freedom as a prisoner
- This relative freedom lasted for a good two years
- Many had come to hear the gospel
- No one hindered the preaching of the gospel
- Paul was preaching boldly
Look up Philippians 1:12-14. What insight can you gain during these two years of Paul’s imprisonment?
(5) But Luke does not tell us whether Paul after the two years was released briefly or whether he faced death immediately. It was as if it was not important. Hence, if what happened to Paul is not the most important, what is?
(6) Use some time to reflect on what you have read in the Book of Acts. Can you highlight three lessons that have meant the most to you?
(7) What is the main message to you today?
As we have considered at the beginning of our study of the Book of Acts, this book occupies a very important place in the Canon of the New Testament in that it provides the bridge between the Four Gospels and the rest of the books in NT. It not only allows us to have a glimpse of the life of the NT churches, it also helps us interpret the various epistles, especially those by Paul himself. Acts gives us a context within which to understand the teachings in them.
Perhaps, the most important role it plays is in passing the baton of the Great Commission to us: “…you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).
The apostles had stayed true to their commission and their heavenly vision. In spite of slowness in understanding the will of God, internal division, and fierce oppositions—first from the Jews and finally spread to the Gentiles—they had accomplished the charge given to them by Jesus Christ.
The most remarkable account so honestly retold by Luke is how slow the breakthrough of their racial bias against Gentiles had been. But that was eventually resolved through the direct intervention of the Holy Spirit and through the Apostle Paul.
The gospel has indeed reached beyond Jerusalem at last, and to Judea and Samaria. In the final chapter of Acts, we all wish that Luke would let us know what happened to Paul, but Luke’s focus is only on the gospel being spread to Rome, “the center of the universe” at the time. As important as Paul was as an apostle, the Great Commission, not men, is the center of the Book of Acts.
As most commentators agree that Luke and Acts are essentially one book, with Luke being Part I and Acts as Part II, the kind of “open-ended” conclusion of Acts signifies that the Great Commission is yet to be finished. We, who have benefited from the obedience, labor and blood of the first disciples, are now charged with writing Part III of the same work—the witnessing of the gospel to the ends of the earth. May God find us faithful as the first apostles were faithful.