It's been eighty weeks of joy to study this book together with you. What a treasure trove of the wisdom and knowledge of God are here in these too-short pages as they summarize the early spread of God's kingdom from Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria and the uttermost parts of the earth! So what do we take away from these final two verses of the book? This is Luke's summary, wrapping up everything he wants us to know from his two-volume work. So we will review his main point: The Kingdom is certain. We will also review his two subpoints: The Kingdom is greater than any particular servant of the Kingdom, no matter how important, and the Kingdom keeps spreading through the proclamation of Jesus and His reign.
9 Oct 2022
Maltese and Roman Hospitality
In this final quarter of Acts, Luke is adopting the Genesis-style narrative of promise and fulfillment, where God's promise meets with threat after threat, but vanquishes them all in succession. The story of Paul's journey to Rome is just such a Genesis-style narrative. Paul decided to go to Rome back in chapter 19, and then for ten chapters met with obstacle after obstacle to the fulfillment of God's promise. One such major obstacle, of course, is the shipwreck on the island of Malta that Luke recounted at length in the previous chapter. Now, at the beginning of this final chapter, Luke records how the apostle was received in Malta. Many commentators have noticed that Luke doesn't say that Paul preached, that people were converted, that Paul started a church on the island, etc. One even goes so far as to say that the text is all about how Christians can cooperate with non-Christians to make the world a better place. But I much prefer the comments of Luke Timothy Johnson, who points at that by this point in the story, Luke doesn't need to tell us that Paul preached and planted a church. Instead, Luke shows us the symbols that he has used time after time in his two-volume work. If you look, the marks are there. The natives received Paul; they showed hospitality; and they ruled money, showing generosity with their possessions toward the mighty apostle and his companions. Taken together, these three symbols leave no doubt: The Maltese show major evidence of conversion. The Son and Spirit of God were at work on this island, converting the Maltese and bringing them into the Kingdom.
2 Oct 2022
A Sea Voyage
Why is this here? One reason, of course, is that it happened. As Ajith Fernando comments in his commentary, he had to take a seven-hour boat ride in the Indian Ocean to get to a place in Sri Lanka where he was speaking. The ride home involved fierce winds and was pretty harrowing, to the point that Fernando says it is indelibly imprinted on his memory. Luke was there, and this story stuck out to him so much that he had to share it. More than that, though, he also is tapping into an ancient Biblical theme of promise and fulfillment. Jesus had promised that Paul would reach Rome; that promise is jeopardized time and again by the trip across the Mediterranean in which Paul engaged. Yet though the promise is jeopardized, it wins through, and not only Paul but all 275 others affiliated with him in this trip come safely to land in the end. God keeps His promises. He rules His Kingdom, and He even rules over the chaotic waters of the sea.
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