Today’s Readings: 2 Kings 24, Philippians 2, Acts 28, Psalm 41
[Paul] lived there [in Rome] two whole years at his own expense and welcomed all who came to him, proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance. –Acts 28:30-31
I always find it interesting that Paul’s story in Acts does not end with his martyrdom, but with his ongoing mission. Luke, I think, intentionally ends his long, two part work for Theophilus with an ellipsis, not a period. He ends, not with grief and mourning for Paul’s death, but with a celebration of Paul’s ongoing work. By ending his story here, Luke, in a sense, passes the work of “proclaiming the kingdom of God and the teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ” on to Theophilus, to the young communities of faith started by Paul, Apollos, and others, and to us. Acts, Chapter 29 is written in our lives as we “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:12-13). So, the question Luke leaves us with is this: how is God writing that next chapter in and through you?