Atos 28:30-31

Gentile response to the gospel 28:30-31

Paul’s innocence of anything worthy of punishment is clear from his living a relatively comfortable life in Rome for the following two years (A.D. 60-62). [Note: Bruce, "Chronological Questions . . .," pp. 289-90.] Paul was able to preach (Gr. kerysso, to proclaim as a herald) the kingdom of God and to teach (didasko, to instruct others) about the Lord Jesus Christ. Luke began Acts with a reference to the kingdom of God (Acts 1:6) and ended it with another (Acts 28:31). Acts 28:23 clarifies Acts 28:31. Preaching the kingdom of God involves solemnly testifying about it, and teaching concerning Christ includes persuading people about Him. Paul could do this openly and without hindrance by the Roman authorities. This was Luke’s final testimony to the credibility and positive value of the Christian gospel.

"With this expression [i.e., unhindered], which is literally Luke’s last word in Acts, he is saying that largely through Paul’s activities, the Church is now on the march, and nothing can stop it. Paul has built the vital bridge from Jerusalem to Rome. The Cross is in the field." [Note: Neil, p. 30. Cf. Matthew 16:18.]

"In seeming to leave his book unfinished, he [Luke] was implying that the apostolic proclamation of the gospel in the first century began a story that will continue until the consummation of the kingdom in Christ (Acts 1:11)." [Note: Longenecker, "The Acts . . .," p. 573.]

These verses contain the last of Luke’s seven progress reports (Acts 2:47; Acts 6:7; Acts 9:31; Acts 12:24; Acts 16:5; Acts 19:20).

"What is the one outstanding impression made by the study of the life and work of the Apostle of the Gentiles? Is it not this:-The marvelous possibilities of a wholly-surrendered and Divinely-filled life?" [Note: Thomas, p. 83.]

What happened to Paul following the events recorded in Acts? There is disagreement among scholars, as one might expect. Some believe the Roman authorities condemned Paul and put him to death. However most believe they released him and he left Rome. In support of the latter view are references in other New Testament books to Paul’s activities. These are difficult to incorporate into the events of his life that Acts records. We can explain them if he continued his ministry. Also Eusebius, the early church historian who died about A.D. 340, wrote the following.

"After pleading his cause, he is said to have been sent again upon the ministry of preaching, and after a second visit to the city [Rome], that he finished his life with martyrdom." [Note: Eusebius, p. 74.]

"The tradition from Clement to Eusebius favors two imprisonments with a year [at least] of liberty between them. It has been pointed out that the leaving of Trophemus sick at Miletus (2 Timothy 4:20) could not have been an occurrence of Paul’s last journey to Jeruselem, for then Trophimus was not left (Acts 20:4; Acts 21:29); nor could it have been on his journey to Rome to appear before Caesar, for then he did not touch at Miletus. To make this incident possible, there must have been a release from the first imprisonment and an interval of ministry and travel." [Note: The New Scofield . . ., p. 1208.]

While Paul was in Rome during the two years Luke mentioned (Acts 28:30), he evidently wrote the Prison Epistles (Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon). After his release and departure from Rome, he wrote the Pastoral Epistles. He probably wrote 1 Timothy between A.D. 63 and 66 to Timothy who was ministering in Ephesus, but we do not know from where he wrote it. He spoke of meeting Timothy in Ephesus later (1 Timothy 3:14; 1 Timothy 4:13). Paul also wrote the Book of Titus probably from Illyricum or Macedonia during the same period to Titus who was on Crete (cf. Titus 3:12; 2 Timothy 4:10). Perhaps Paul visited Spain as he longed to do between A.D. 62 and 67 (Romans 15:23-24) though there is no Scriptural record that he did or did not do so. From Rome he wrote 2 Timothy to Timothy in Ephesus shortly before his martyrdom in A.D. 68 (2 Timothy 1:16-18; 2 Timothy 4:14; 2 Timothy 4:19; 1 Timothy 1:20). Geographer Barry Beitzel estimated that Paul’s travels between his release in Rome to his return and death there would have involved a minimum of 2,350 travel miles. He also calculated that Paul probably traveled a total of at least 13,400 airline (as the crow flies) miles during his years of ministry. [Note: Beitzel, pp. 176-77.]

". . . the end of Acts directs attention to the missionary situation that Paul leaves behind and to Paul’s courage and faithfulness as example for the church. It points to the opportunity among the Gentiles. It underscores the crisis in the Jewish mission. It presents Paul continuing his mission by welcoming all, both Jews and Gentiles, and speaking to them ’with all boldness’ in spite of Jewish rejection and Roman imprisonment. This is the concluding picture of Paul’s legacy." [Note: Tannehill, 2:356.]

"What almost seems like the unfinished character of the book of Acts, from a merely literary standpoint, is doubtless intended to teach us that until the fulfillment of the angels’ prophecy that ’this same Jesus’ shall return even as He went away, the work of evangelization for this age will not be completed. We are to heed the Word-’Occupy till I come.’" [Note: Ironside, Lectures on . . ., p. 651.]