KEY IDEAS
Unrighteousness alienates us from God. God therefore devised a plan of salvation—centered on the atonement of Jesus Christ—whereby He imputes righteousness to believers through faith in Christ, and then progressively brings about personal righteousness (sanctification).
Unrighteousness alienates us from God. God therefore devised a plan of salvation—centered on the atonement of Jesus Christ—whereby He imputes righteousness to believers through faith in Christ, and then progressively brings about personal righteousness (sanctification).
- Don’t ever be ashamed of the gospel.
- All people—Jews and Gentiles—are guilty before God. No person should ever pretend he or she is any better than anyone else. Everyone needs to be saved.
- God shows no partiality, and neither should we.
- We are justified not by works but by faith alone. No one can earn God’s salvation, so don’t even try.
- God’s wondrous plan of salvation centers entirely on the atoning death of Jesus Christ.
- Good news: we have peace with God through faith in Jesus Christ. Live daily with that wondrous reality.
- As Christians, we are now dead to sin but alive unto God. We’ve got new spiritual life!
- As Christians, we’ve died to the law through Christ. The weight of the law is no longer on our shoulders.
- Even people we think of as holy Christians are acutely aware of their woeful sinfulness.
- Rejoice! Christians have no further condemnation!
- Rejoice again—we are adopted into God’s eternal family, and God is our Papa.
- In all things God works for the good of those who love Him.
- We are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. So live like a conqueror!
- Faith comes by hearing the Word of God.
- God ultimately fulfills His promises to people even when they reject Him.
- There is yet a future salvation for Israel. God always fulfills His promises.
- Spend regular time in God’s Word, for it can transform your mind.
- Your inner spiritual transformation always shows itself in outward fruit.
- God wants us all to submit to authority.
- God wants us to show love and respect to each other.
- Christians will one day stand before the judgment seat of Christ.
This is one of the longest and most significant things ever written by Paul the Apostle, who was formerly known as Saul of Tarsus. He was a Jewish rabbi belonging to a group known as the Pharisees, and he passionately devoted his life to observing the Torah of Moses and the traditions of Israel. He viewed Jesus and his followers as a threat to these traditions, so he persecuted them. His life was changed, however, when he had a radical encounter with the risen Jesus himself. He was commissioned to become an "apostle" for Jesus, like an official representative to the world of non-Jewish people or "Gentiles."
As part of this new vocation, he started going by his Roman name, Paul, and he traveled about the ancient Roman empire telling people about the risen King Jesus. These new converts would form into communities called "churches; and Paul would occasionally write letters to these communities to foster their faith, address specific problems, or to answer questions. The book of Romans is one of these letters, written later in his career.
We know from Acts 18:1-2 that the church in Rome had existed for some time and was made up of both Jewish and non-Jewish followers. The crisis for this church began when the Roman Emperor Claudius expelled all of the Jewish people from Rome. About five years later, all those Jews, including many who followed Jesus, were allowed to return. When they did, they found a church that had become very non-Jewish in its customs and practice. This culture clash created lots of tension, and, by Paul's day, the Roman church was divided. They dis-agreed about how to follow Jesus, debating about whether or not non-Jewish Christians should celebrate the Sabbath, or eat kosher, or be circumcised, and so on.
Paul wrote this letter in order to accomplish a few things. He wanted this divided community to become unified once again. For a practical purpose, he hoped that the Roman church could become a staging ground for his mission to go even further west, all the way to Spain. These tense circumstances motivated Paul to write out his fullest explanation of the gospel, the good news that announces Jesus' life, death. and resurrection.
While the letter is designed to have four main movements, it is also unified as one long, flowing exploration of the gospel, which "reveals God's righteousness" (chs. 1-4), "creates a new humanity" (chs. 5-8), and "fulfills God's promise to Israel" (chs. 9-11). As a result, it's this gospel alone that can "unify the church" (chs. 12-16).
CHAPTERS 1-4
Paul opens by introducing himself as an apostle appointed by God to spread the gospel about Jesus (Romans 1:1-17). This is the message announcing that Jesus is the Messiah of Israel. who was raised from the dead as the Son of God and King of the nations. As a result. Jesus now calls all humanity to come under his loving rule. Paul says that this good news about King Jesus is God's power to save people who trust in him. and that it "reveals God's righteousness."
"Righteousness" is a rich, Old Testament word for Paul, which describes God's character. It means that God always acts in a way that is just and right and also that God is faithful and just to fulfill his promises. Paul is saying that the story of Jesus shows how God has done both of these things.
In Romans 1:18-32, Paul goes into a long, creative retelling of Genesis 3-11, showing how the Gentile world, all nations, have become trapped in a spiral of sin and selfishness. The human heart and mind are broken. We've turned away from God to embrace idolatry, which means finding ultimate significance in created things and giving ultimate allegiance to things that are not God. This results in a distortion of our humanity and destructive behavior. What's left is a humanity that stands guilty-as-charged before a just and righteous God.
To this, Paul's fellow Israelites might respond, "Well, good thing God chose our people out from among the nations. He saved us out of slavery in Egypt and gave us the laws of the Torah, like observing the Sabbath, eating kosher, or circumcision. They all show us how to live as God's holy people."
Paul responds, "Not so fast!" He recalls the story of the Torah and the rest of the Old Testament, which showed that Israel was just as sinful, idolatrous, and morally broken as the rest of humanity. In fact, Israel is actually more guilty than the Gentiles because they have the Torah and they should know better.
Paul concludes that all humanity, both the Gentiles and Israel, is hopelessly trapped and guilty before God, but that's not the final word. The good news about Jesus is God's response. Instead of holding humanity guilty. Jesus came as Israel's Messiah to die on behalf of all people as a sacrifice for sins. As our representative, Jesus took into him-self the just consequences of all the pain, sin, and death humans have caused in the world, and he overcame it all by his resurrection from the dead. It's Jesus' own new life that is now made available to others. Jesus became what we are, so that we might become what he is. All of this, Paul says, is how God "justifies" those who trust or have faith in Jesus.
"Justification" is another rich. Old Testament term for Paul. and it is related to God's righteousness. It literally means "to declare righteous." Because of what Jesus did on our behalf, we are given a new status before God. Instead of being found guilty, God declares that a person is in a right relation-ship with him and is forgiven. This results in a new family, as a person who trusts Jesus is given a place among God's covenant people. Justification also results in a new future, which begins a journey of life transformation by God's grace. All of these realities about justification are God's gift to those who are "in Christ" because of their faith and loyalty to him. In chapter 4, Paul explores the huge implication all this has for who can now be a part of God's covenant family. He turns to the story of Abraham in Genesis 15. Before the laws of the Torah were ever given to Israel, Abraham was "justified" or "declared righteous" before God. God promised that Abraham would become the father of a large, multi-ethnic family that would receive his blessing. However, Abraham and Sarah were very old and had never been able have children. Nonetheless. Abraham had radical faith and trust in God's promise, and so God declared him to be "righteous" (Genesis 15:6). Paul's claim is that Abraham's multi-ethnic family is now becoming a reality through Jesus and his followers. Abraham's descendants are spreading throughout the world, made up of Jews and Gentiles who have faith and trust in the one who fulfilled God's promises to Abraham, Jesus the Messiah.
Before we move onto chapters 5-16, let's pause to summarize Paul's main ideas in chapters 1-4 because they're the foundation for understanding the rest of the letter. All of humanity is hopelessly trapped in sin and needs to be rescued, but that rescue will not happen by people trying to obey the laws of the Torah. God's righteous character has moved him to rescue the world through Jesus' death and resurrection, enabling the creation of a faith based, multi-ethnic family as his people.
Now Paul will go on to show how this new family is part of a much bigger story that is calling them to a totally new way of life.
After showing that Jesus is forming a new covenant family of people from all nations, Paul goes on to claim that these people are the new humanity that fulfills God's promises to ancient Israel by obeying the Torah in the power of the Spirit.
CHAPTERS 5-8
Paul begins by exploring how Jesus' family is a new kind of humanity (ch. 5). He looks back at the first human character in the biblical story, Adam, whose name means 'humanity:* Adam and all humanity after him have chosen sin and selfishness, and as a consequence. they face God's judgment. They've become slaves to sin's influence, which results in death. Paul then contrasts Adam with Jesus, the "new Adam:. a human who lived in faithful obedience to God through his act of sacrificial love. Jesus offers his life as a gift to others, so that they can be justified before God. And now Jesus stands as the head of a new humanity that is being transformed by the very same gift.
This leads right into chapter 6, where Paul reminds the Christians in Rome that choosing to follow Jesus means leaving their old Adam-like humanity behind and entering into the new Jesus-style humanity. And the sacred physical symbol of that transition was the immersion of their baptism. Their old humanity died with Jesus as they entered the water, but their new humanity was raised with him from the dead as they I came up out of the water. When a person trusts in Jesus, their life is joined to his, and J what's true of him becomes true of them. It's I when people accept their identity as new, Jesus-like humans that they are liberated to become whole-hearted people that can love God and their neighbor.
Now, if creating this new humanity was always God's purpose, Paul asks in chapter 7 what, then, was the point or God giving Israel "the Law" or, in Hebrew. the Torah? Paul says that the commands in the Torah were good and showed God's will for how Israel should live. However, if you read the storyline of the Torah, Israel broke all of its commands.
The more laws Israel received, the more they replayed the sin of Adam in rebellion. Even when God gave his people specific rules to obey, it didn't fix the problem of the sinful human heart. So, paradoxically, the laws of the Torah made Israel even more guilty. But Paul says that paradox was the very point: God's goal was to make it crystal clear that evil had hijacked the human heart, and the Torah, as good as it was, couldn't do a thing about it.
In chapter 8, however, Paul says that the solution has arrived through Jesus and the Spirit. The commands of the Torah had acted like a magnifying glass, focusing the problem of the human condition in one place, Israel. But now, Israel's representative, Jesus the Messiah, has paid for and dealt with all that sin through his death and resurrection. He has released his Spirit into his new family to transform their hearts, so that they can truly fulfill the ultimate call of all of the Torah's commands—to love God and neighbor. God's renewal of human beings is the first step in his larger mission to rescue and renew all creation, making it into a place where his love gets the final word. Now, while chapters 1-8 explains God's eternal purpose that's now fulfilled through Jesus, what is the current status of Paul's fellow Israelites who don't acknowledge Jesus as their Messiah? How does this story fulfill God's ancient promises to them?
CHAPTERS 9-11
Paul begins in chapter 9 with his own anguish over fellow Israelites who don't think Jesus is their Messiah. Then he reflects on the Israel of the past and the Old Testament. He reminds us that simply being an "ethnic Israelite," a physical descendant of Abraham, has never automatically made a person a faithful member of his covenant family. Paul shows us how God has always selected a subset from Abraham'a family line to carry on the line of promise. His point is that, now in the present, the line of promise is carried on by those who follow Jesus. He reminds us that, for a very long time, people inside and outside Abraham's family have rejected God's will.
Paul recalls the story of Israel and the golden calf as well as Pharaoh's rebellion, showing how God was able to orchestrate events so that people's rejection actually accomplishes his own redemptive purposes.
In chapter 10, Paul turns his focus to the Israel of the present. The reason so many Israelites reject Jesus is that they're basing their covenant relationship with God on their performance of the commands of the Torah. Sadly, they don't recognize what God has done through Jesus to create the new covenant family.
In chapter 11, Paul asks, what about Israel in the future? Will God write his own people off? "No way," Paul says. There are many Jewish people, including himself, who have recognized Jesus as the Messiah, but there are also a lot who haven't. Once again, God has used this rejection for his own purposes, as it has caused the gospel to spread quicker and farther into the Gentile world, making the family of Abraham even larger and more multi-ethnic. Paul describes God's covenant family as a big olive tree. The rejectors of Jesus are branches that have been broken off, while these Gentiles are like wild branches that have been grafted on. Paul does say, however, that one day Jesus will be acknowledged by his own people. He doesn't offer any details about how but simply trusts in God's character and promise that he will not give upon his covenant people.
CHAPTERS 12-16
These ideas transition into the final section of the book, chapters 12-16. Because of their faith in Jesus, both Jews and Gentiles are a part of Abraham's family. This new humanity is being transformed by God's Spirit and is fulfilling God's ancient promises. The only reasonable response to this is for these Jewish and non-Jewish Christians to become a unified church community.
In chapters 12-13, Paul shows us that this unity comes from a commitment to love and forgiveness. Love will look like everyone using their diverse gifts and talents to serve one another. Unity also means having humility and forgiveness. When these different ethnic groups and cultures come together in Jesus, conflict is inevitable and can only be overcome through the hard work of forgiveness. All of this is how these believers show the greatest Christian virtue, love, which fulfills the Torah's greatest commands to love God and neighbor.
Chapters 14-15 focus on the issues creating ethnic divisions in the church, specifically, disputes about Jewish food laws and observing the Sabbath. Paul says that these practices don't define who is in or out of Jesus' family. If the believers differ over these culturally important but non-essential issues, they need to respect each other's dif-ferences. In this way, love is what heals and unifies Jesus' family.
Paul closes his letter by first commending Phoebe, a key leader of the church in Cenchreae. She had the honor of carrying and likely reading this letter aloud to the Roman churches. Paul further concludes by greeting all the people that he hasn't seen for a while.
All the pieces of this majestic letter fit together into a profound masterpiece of Paul's writing. It explained and served to spread the message of Jesus' new covenant family in the first century, and it continues to do the same in our world today.
As part of this new vocation, he started going by his Roman name, Paul, and he traveled about the ancient Roman empire telling people about the risen King Jesus. These new converts would form into communities called "churches; and Paul would occasionally write letters to these communities to foster their faith, address specific problems, or to answer questions. The book of Romans is one of these letters, written later in his career.
We know from Acts 18:1-2 that the church in Rome had existed for some time and was made up of both Jewish and non-Jewish followers. The crisis for this church began when the Roman Emperor Claudius expelled all of the Jewish people from Rome. About five years later, all those Jews, including many who followed Jesus, were allowed to return. When they did, they found a church that had become very non-Jewish in its customs and practice. This culture clash created lots of tension, and, by Paul's day, the Roman church was divided. They dis-agreed about how to follow Jesus, debating about whether or not non-Jewish Christians should celebrate the Sabbath, or eat kosher, or be circumcised, and so on.
Paul wrote this letter in order to accomplish a few things. He wanted this divided community to become unified once again. For a practical purpose, he hoped that the Roman church could become a staging ground for his mission to go even further west, all the way to Spain. These tense circumstances motivated Paul to write out his fullest explanation of the gospel, the good news that announces Jesus' life, death. and resurrection.
While the letter is designed to have four main movements, it is also unified as one long, flowing exploration of the gospel, which "reveals God's righteousness" (chs. 1-4), "creates a new humanity" (chs. 5-8), and "fulfills God's promise to Israel" (chs. 9-11). As a result, it's this gospel alone that can "unify the church" (chs. 12-16).
CHAPTERS 1-4
Paul opens by introducing himself as an apostle appointed by God to spread the gospel about Jesus (Romans 1:1-17). This is the message announcing that Jesus is the Messiah of Israel. who was raised from the dead as the Son of God and King of the nations. As a result. Jesus now calls all humanity to come under his loving rule. Paul says that this good news about King Jesus is God's power to save people who trust in him. and that it "reveals God's righteousness."
"Righteousness" is a rich, Old Testament word for Paul, which describes God's character. It means that God always acts in a way that is just and right and also that God is faithful and just to fulfill his promises. Paul is saying that the story of Jesus shows how God has done both of these things.
In Romans 1:18-32, Paul goes into a long, creative retelling of Genesis 3-11, showing how the Gentile world, all nations, have become trapped in a spiral of sin and selfishness. The human heart and mind are broken. We've turned away from God to embrace idolatry, which means finding ultimate significance in created things and giving ultimate allegiance to things that are not God. This results in a distortion of our humanity and destructive behavior. What's left is a humanity that stands guilty-as-charged before a just and righteous God.
To this, Paul's fellow Israelites might respond, "Well, good thing God chose our people out from among the nations. He saved us out of slavery in Egypt and gave us the laws of the Torah, like observing the Sabbath, eating kosher, or circumcision. They all show us how to live as God's holy people."
Paul responds, "Not so fast!" He recalls the story of the Torah and the rest of the Old Testament, which showed that Israel was just as sinful, idolatrous, and morally broken as the rest of humanity. In fact, Israel is actually more guilty than the Gentiles because they have the Torah and they should know better.
Paul concludes that all humanity, both the Gentiles and Israel, is hopelessly trapped and guilty before God, but that's not the final word. The good news about Jesus is God's response. Instead of holding humanity guilty. Jesus came as Israel's Messiah to die on behalf of all people as a sacrifice for sins. As our representative, Jesus took into him-self the just consequences of all the pain, sin, and death humans have caused in the world, and he overcame it all by his resurrection from the dead. It's Jesus' own new life that is now made available to others. Jesus became what we are, so that we might become what he is. All of this, Paul says, is how God "justifies" those who trust or have faith in Jesus.
"Justification" is another rich. Old Testament term for Paul. and it is related to God's righteousness. It literally means "to declare righteous." Because of what Jesus did on our behalf, we are given a new status before God. Instead of being found guilty, God declares that a person is in a right relation-ship with him and is forgiven. This results in a new family, as a person who trusts Jesus is given a place among God's covenant people. Justification also results in a new future, which begins a journey of life transformation by God's grace. All of these realities about justification are God's gift to those who are "in Christ" because of their faith and loyalty to him. In chapter 4, Paul explores the huge implication all this has for who can now be a part of God's covenant family. He turns to the story of Abraham in Genesis 15. Before the laws of the Torah were ever given to Israel, Abraham was "justified" or "declared righteous" before God. God promised that Abraham would become the father of a large, multi-ethnic family that would receive his blessing. However, Abraham and Sarah were very old and had never been able have children. Nonetheless. Abraham had radical faith and trust in God's promise, and so God declared him to be "righteous" (Genesis 15:6). Paul's claim is that Abraham's multi-ethnic family is now becoming a reality through Jesus and his followers. Abraham's descendants are spreading throughout the world, made up of Jews and Gentiles who have faith and trust in the one who fulfilled God's promises to Abraham, Jesus the Messiah.
Before we move onto chapters 5-16, let's pause to summarize Paul's main ideas in chapters 1-4 because they're the foundation for understanding the rest of the letter. All of humanity is hopelessly trapped in sin and needs to be rescued, but that rescue will not happen by people trying to obey the laws of the Torah. God's righteous character has moved him to rescue the world through Jesus' death and resurrection, enabling the creation of a faith based, multi-ethnic family as his people.
Now Paul will go on to show how this new family is part of a much bigger story that is calling them to a totally new way of life.
After showing that Jesus is forming a new covenant family of people from all nations, Paul goes on to claim that these people are the new humanity that fulfills God's promises to ancient Israel by obeying the Torah in the power of the Spirit.
CHAPTERS 5-8
Paul begins by exploring how Jesus' family is a new kind of humanity (ch. 5). He looks back at the first human character in the biblical story, Adam, whose name means 'humanity:* Adam and all humanity after him have chosen sin and selfishness, and as a consequence. they face God's judgment. They've become slaves to sin's influence, which results in death. Paul then contrasts Adam with Jesus, the "new Adam:. a human who lived in faithful obedience to God through his act of sacrificial love. Jesus offers his life as a gift to others, so that they can be justified before God. And now Jesus stands as the head of a new humanity that is being transformed by the very same gift.
This leads right into chapter 6, where Paul reminds the Christians in Rome that choosing to follow Jesus means leaving their old Adam-like humanity behind and entering into the new Jesus-style humanity. And the sacred physical symbol of that transition was the immersion of their baptism. Their old humanity died with Jesus as they entered the water, but their new humanity was raised with him from the dead as they I came up out of the water. When a person trusts in Jesus, their life is joined to his, and J what's true of him becomes true of them. It's I when people accept their identity as new, Jesus-like humans that they are liberated to become whole-hearted people that can love God and their neighbor.
Now, if creating this new humanity was always God's purpose, Paul asks in chapter 7 what, then, was the point or God giving Israel "the Law" or, in Hebrew. the Torah? Paul says that the commands in the Torah were good and showed God's will for how Israel should live. However, if you read the storyline of the Torah, Israel broke all of its commands.
The more laws Israel received, the more they replayed the sin of Adam in rebellion. Even when God gave his people specific rules to obey, it didn't fix the problem of the sinful human heart. So, paradoxically, the laws of the Torah made Israel even more guilty. But Paul says that paradox was the very point: God's goal was to make it crystal clear that evil had hijacked the human heart, and the Torah, as good as it was, couldn't do a thing about it.
In chapter 8, however, Paul says that the solution has arrived through Jesus and the Spirit. The commands of the Torah had acted like a magnifying glass, focusing the problem of the human condition in one place, Israel. But now, Israel's representative, Jesus the Messiah, has paid for and dealt with all that sin through his death and resurrection. He has released his Spirit into his new family to transform their hearts, so that they can truly fulfill the ultimate call of all of the Torah's commands—to love God and neighbor. God's renewal of human beings is the first step in his larger mission to rescue and renew all creation, making it into a place where his love gets the final word. Now, while chapters 1-8 explains God's eternal purpose that's now fulfilled through Jesus, what is the current status of Paul's fellow Israelites who don't acknowledge Jesus as their Messiah? How does this story fulfill God's ancient promises to them?
CHAPTERS 9-11
Paul begins in chapter 9 with his own anguish over fellow Israelites who don't think Jesus is their Messiah. Then he reflects on the Israel of the past and the Old Testament. He reminds us that simply being an "ethnic Israelite," a physical descendant of Abraham, has never automatically made a person a faithful member of his covenant family. Paul shows us how God has always selected a subset from Abraham'a family line to carry on the line of promise. His point is that, now in the present, the line of promise is carried on by those who follow Jesus. He reminds us that, for a very long time, people inside and outside Abraham's family have rejected God's will.
Paul recalls the story of Israel and the golden calf as well as Pharaoh's rebellion, showing how God was able to orchestrate events so that people's rejection actually accomplishes his own redemptive purposes.
In chapter 10, Paul turns his focus to the Israel of the present. The reason so many Israelites reject Jesus is that they're basing their covenant relationship with God on their performance of the commands of the Torah. Sadly, they don't recognize what God has done through Jesus to create the new covenant family.
In chapter 11, Paul asks, what about Israel in the future? Will God write his own people off? "No way," Paul says. There are many Jewish people, including himself, who have recognized Jesus as the Messiah, but there are also a lot who haven't. Once again, God has used this rejection for his own purposes, as it has caused the gospel to spread quicker and farther into the Gentile world, making the family of Abraham even larger and more multi-ethnic. Paul describes God's covenant family as a big olive tree. The rejectors of Jesus are branches that have been broken off, while these Gentiles are like wild branches that have been grafted on. Paul does say, however, that one day Jesus will be acknowledged by his own people. He doesn't offer any details about how but simply trusts in God's character and promise that he will not give upon his covenant people.
CHAPTERS 12-16
These ideas transition into the final section of the book, chapters 12-16. Because of their faith in Jesus, both Jews and Gentiles are a part of Abraham's family. This new humanity is being transformed by God's Spirit and is fulfilling God's ancient promises. The only reasonable response to this is for these Jewish and non-Jewish Christians to become a unified church community.
In chapters 12-13, Paul shows us that this unity comes from a commitment to love and forgiveness. Love will look like everyone using their diverse gifts and talents to serve one another. Unity also means having humility and forgiveness. When these different ethnic groups and cultures come together in Jesus, conflict is inevitable and can only be overcome through the hard work of forgiveness. All of this is how these believers show the greatest Christian virtue, love, which fulfills the Torah's greatest commands to love God and neighbor.
Chapters 14-15 focus on the issues creating ethnic divisions in the church, specifically, disputes about Jewish food laws and observing the Sabbath. Paul says that these practices don't define who is in or out of Jesus' family. If the believers differ over these culturally important but non-essential issues, they need to respect each other's dif-ferences. In this way, love is what heals and unifies Jesus' family.
Paul closes his letter by first commending Phoebe, a key leader of the church in Cenchreae. She had the honor of carrying and likely reading this letter aloud to the Roman churches. Paul further concludes by greeting all the people that he hasn't seen for a while.
All the pieces of this majestic letter fit together into a profound masterpiece of Paul's writing. It explained and served to spread the message of Jesus' new covenant family in the first century, and it continues to do the same in our world today.
Acts goes below
KEY IDEAS
Christians are empowered by the Holy Spirit to spread the gospel worldwide. People of all nationalities are privileged to become a part of the church.
Christians are empowered by the Holy Spirit to spread the gospel worldwide. People of all nationalities are privileged to become a part of the church.
- The evidence that Jesus resurrected from the dead is weighty and extensive. Rejoice! This gives us confidence that we, too, shall be resurrected.
- The Holy Spirit is an ever-present source of spiritual power and blessing for the believer.
- Some people reject Jesus even in the face of convincing evidence that He is the divine Savior. But don’t let that ever dissuade you from sharing the gospel.
- Trust in Jesus and nothing else for your salvation.
- We must always obey God, even if it conflicts with the commands of human authorities.
- Beware: sin among Christians can bring temporal judgment from God.
- We are God’s witnesses, not just when it’s comfortable, but also when it’s uncomfortable.
- Part of being a Christian is helping others.
- Sometimes standing for Christ can involve the ultimate sacrifice.
- God’s glorious good news is for all people, with no exclusions. Ethnicity doesn’t matter!
- God can redeem and transform even those who may appear unredeemable.
- God sends increased revelation to those who respond to the little revelation they have.
- Persecution cannot stop the growth of the church of Jesus Christ.
- Angels are among us, and they’re active on our behalf.
- Christianity involves not rules and rituals, but a living relationship with Jesus Christ.
- No matter who claims what, it is wise to test all doctrinal claims against Scripture.
- God is sovereignly and providentially with us in our work of ministry.
- Beware of deceptions from false teachers.
- Paul shows us what it means to take up our crosses to follow Jesus.
- The Lord is sovereign over life and death. We need not fret over human mortality.
This is the second volume in the unified, two-part work that we know today as 'Luke-Acts." Both books were written by the same author. Luke, a traveling co-worker to Paul (Colossians 4:14). This is clear from the book's introduction, in which Luke says, "I produced my first volume (that is, the gospel) about all the things Jesus began to do and teach" (Acts 1:1). In this opening line, Luke is also giving a clue as to what the book of Acts will be about. In volume 1, Jesus began "to do and teach," and so volume 2 will naturally be about what Jesus "continued" to do and teach.
This leads to an interesting point about the book's traditional, but not original, title: "The Acts of the Apostles." While different apostles do appear throughout most of the stories, the only single character who unifies the story from beginning to end is Jesus. appearing personally or acting through the Holy Spirit. The book, therefore. could be more accurately named "The Acts of Jesus and the Spirit"
CHAPTER 1
The book's introduction recounts how the risen Jesus spent some forty days with his disciples teaching them "about the Kingdom of God° (Acts 1:3), connecting back to the story of Luke's gospel. There, Jesus claimed that he was restoring God's Kingdom over the world, beginning with Israel. He called Israel to live under God's reign by following him and was enthroned as the Messianic King when he gave up his life, conquering death through his love. As such, the book of Acts begins with the risen King Jesus instructing the disciples about life in his Kingdom.
Jesus promises that the Spirit will soon come and immerse them with his personal presence, fulfilling one of the key hopes in the Old Testament Prophets. They promised that in the Messianic Kingdom, God's presence, or his Spirit, would take up residence among his people in a new temple, transforming their hearts (Isaiah 32:15, Ezekiel 36:26-27. and Joel 2:28-32). Jesus says that when this hap-pens, the Spirit will empower his disciples "to be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth" (Acts 1:8).
From here. Jesus is taken up from their sight in a cloud. This is an image from Daniel 7, showing that Jesus is now being enthroned as the Son of Man who was vindicated after his suffering. He now shares in God's rule over the world, which he will bring fully here on earth when he one day returns.
The main themes and design of the book flow right out of this opening chapter. The book of Acts is about Jesus leading his people through the Spirit to go out into the world and invite all nations to live under his reign. The story will begin with that message spreading in Jerusalem (chs. 2-7), into the neighboring regions of Judea and Samaria, full of non-Jewish people (chs. 8-12). and from there out to the nations and the ends of the earth (chs. 13-28).
CHAPTERS 2-7
The focus stays on Jerusalem in chapters 2-7. as Jesus' followers wait in the city until the feast of Pentecost when Jewish pilgrims arrive from all over the ancient world. The Holy Spirit suddenly comes upon the disciples as a great wind, and something like flames appear over each person's head. Together, the disciples start announcing and telling stories of 'God's mighty deeds" (Acts 2:11), speaking in all these languages that they didn't know before.And, remarkably, all the people gathered nearby understand their words perfectly.
Now, in order to see what Luke is emphasizing in this story. it's crucial to see the Old Testament roots to the key images. First of all, the wind and fire are a direct allusion to the stories about God's glorious. fiery presence filling the tabernacle and temple (Exodus 40:38 and 2 Chronicles 7:1-3). These images also recall the prophetic promises that God would come live, through his Spirit, in the new temple of the Messianic Kingdom (Ezekiel 43 and Haggai 2). Here in Acts, God's fiery presence comes to dwell not in a building, but in his people. Luke is saying that the new temple spoken of by the prophets is actually Jesus' new covenant family.
This connects to the second thing that Luke's trying to say. The prophets promised that when God came to dwell in his new temple, he would reunify the tribes of Israel under the Messianic King. This is when the good news of God's reign would be announced to all nations (Isaiah 11 and Ezekiel 37). Luke describes in detail the international, multi-tribe makeup of the Israelites who first responded to Peter's message at Pentecost. The apostles start calling Israelites to acknowledge Jesus as their Messiah, and thousands do. forming new communities of generosity, worship, and celebration.
Not everyone's celebrating, however. Luke also shows how Jesus' new family quickly faced hostility from the leaders of Jerusalem. With a beautifully symmetrical design in chapters 3-5, Luke tells a "tale of two temples." God's new temple, the community of Jesus' followers, are gathering "every day in the temple courts and from house to house" (Acts 2:46 and 5:42). Inside of these identical notices are two stories of Peter and other apostles healing people in the temple courts, only to be arrested by the temple leaders (chs. 3-4a and 5b).These arrests are followed each time by a speech from Peter, claiming that Jesus is the true king of Israel.
At the center of this symmetry are stories about Jesus' followers who donate property and possessions to a common fund to help the poor (Acts 4:25-5:11). And this generosity is wonderful, but it seems random for Luke to mention it here. Jewish readers would understand. however, because according to the laws of the Torah (Deuteronomy 14-15), this practice was supposed to be happening through the Jerusalem temple and its leaders. Luke's point is clear. The new temple of Jesus' community is fulfilling the purpose God always intended for the Jerusalem temple, to act as a place where heaven and earth meet and where people encounter God's generosity and healing presence.
This conflict between the temples culminates with the first wave of persecution in chapters i 6-7. Jesus' followers continue to multiply, requiring a new generation of leaders. One of them. Stephen, is a bold witness for Jesus t in Jerusalem, but he ends up arrested and s, accused of speaking against and even threatening the temple (Acts 6:12-13). Stephen gives a long speech, showing how Israel's leaders have always rejected the messengers God sent them, including Jesus and now his disciples. The Jerusalem leaders become enraged and murder Stephen, launching a wave of persecution against Jesus' followers and driving most of them from the city. The crisis has a paradoxical effect, however. Luke shows how this tragedy actually becomes the means by which Jesus' people are now sent out into "Judea and Samaria," just as Jesus had planned (remember Acts 1:8).
CHAPTERS 8-12
In the following section (chs. 8-12), Luke has collected a diverse group of stories that show how the mostly Jewish, Jerusalem-based community of Jesus became a multi-ethnic, international movement. The first story is about Philips mission into Samaria. which is the land of Israel's hated enemies. Many come to know and follow Jesus (ch. 8). Next. we see the conversion of Saul of Tarsus, later and better known as Paul (ch. 9). He was the sworn enemy and even a persecutor of the followers of Jesus until he personally met him as the risen King. He went on to instead become a passionate advocate on Jesus' behalf.
Next is a story about Peter (chs. 9-11), who has a dream-vision in which he learns that God does not consider non-Jewish people ritually impure or unworthy of joining Jesus' family. Peter is led by the Spirit to the house of a Roman soldier, full of non-Jews, who all respond to the good news about Jesus. In this story, the Spirit shows up just as pow-erfully as he did for the Jewish disciples of Jesus in chapter 2.
These themes all culminate in the founding of the church at Antioch (ch. 11b), the largest, most cosmopolitan city in that part of the Roman empire. Luke tells us that Barnabas, a Jewish leader from the Jerusalem church. went along with Paul to help lead this church community. During their time there, it also became the first large, multi-ethnic church in history, as well as being the location at which Jesus' followers were first called "Christians" (Acts 11:26). From this church. the first international missionaries are sent out, and we watch Jesus' commission becoming a reality.
CHAPTERS 13-20
The church in Antioch became the flagship church of the first international Christian missionaries. Barnabas and Paul were serving in this church and were prompted by the Spirit to leave, and this opens up the second main section of the book of Acts (chs. 13-20). Paul and various co-workers travel around the Roman empire to announce the good news that Jesus is King. The first journey is into the interior of what's called `Asia Minor" (located in modern day Turkey) and ends with an important meeting of the apostles back in Jerusalem (ch. 15). The second trip is through Asia Minor and into ancient Greece (chs. 16-18a), and the third trip goes through the same territory once again, concluding in Paul's journey back to Jerusalem (chs. 18b-20).
In recounting these stories, Luke has high-lighted a number of key themes through repetition, beginning with the continued mission to Israel. Upon entering a new city, Paul always first visits the Jewish synagogue to share about how Jesus is the risen King. who is now forming a new multi-ethnic people of God. Many Jewish people come to recognize Jesus as their Messiah. Others, however, oppose Paul and sometimes even run him out of town as a dangerous rebel who opposes the Torah and Jewish tradition.
This tension culminates after the first journey and leads to an important council in Jerusalem (ch. 15). Paul discovers that there are some Jewish followers of Jesus in Antioch claiming that unless non-Jewish people become Jewish by practicing circumcision, the Sabbath, and obeying kosher food laws, they can't be a part of Jesus' redeemed people. Paul and Barnabas radically disagree with this claim, so they take the debate to a leadership council in Jerusalem. There, Peter, Paul. and James, the brother of Jesus. discuss and discern from the Scriptures and from their experience that God's plan was always to include the nations within his covenant people. While they do require non-Jewish Christians to stop participating in pagan temple sacrifices, they don't require them to adopt an ethnically Jewish identity or to become Torah-observant.
This decision was groundbreaking for the history of the Jesus movement. Jesus, who is the risen King of all nations, is an ethnically Jewish Messiah. However, a person's membership among his people is not based on ethnic identity or Torah observance. Instead, one must simply trust in Jesus and follow his teachings.
It's this multi-ethnic reality of the Jesus movement that leads to the next theme Luke emphasizes, namely. the clash of cultures between the early Christians and the Greek and Roman world.
Luke records multiple clashes in Philippi, Athens. and Ephesus {Os. 14.16-17. and 19). Paul would announce Jesus as the rev-elation of the one. true God who is the King of the world. The implication of this claim is that all other gods and idols are powerless and futile. This message was consistently viewed as subversive to the Roman way of life, and Paul is accused of being a dangerous social revolutionary. These stories show how the multi-ethnic. monotheistic Jesus-communities didn't fit into any cultural boxes familiar to the Romans. The ancient world had simply never seen anything quite like these Christian communities.
Even more to the point, Luke makes clear that the Christians aroused more than just suspicion. Multiple stories show Romans accusing Paul and the Christians of rebel-lion and treason against Caesar. And it's understandable. People were hearing Paul correctly when he announced that "there was another king, Jesus" (Acts 17:7), and they correctly saw the Christian way of life as a challenge to many Roman cultural values. But every time Paul is arrested and interrogated by Roman officials. they can't see any threat, and they end up releasing him.
All of these themes show the paradox that the early church presented to the world. It was a Jewish messianic movement made up of ethnically diverse communities. Men and women, rich and poor, slave and free were all treated as equals because they all gave their allegiance to King Jesus alone and to no other god or king. Their very existence subverted the core values of Roman culture, yet they posed no military threat because Jesus had taught them to be a people of peace. Really, the only crime that they could be accused of is not conforming to the status quo.
CHAPTERS 21-28
The book's final section, chapters 21-28, returns the focus to Paul's witness spreading from Jerusalem to Rome. His final missionary journey ends in Jerusalem, where his controversial reputation precedes him. Paul is attacked by Jewish people who think that he has betrayed Israel. attracting the attention of Roman soldiers. These soldiers in turn think that Paul is a terrorist from Egypt who is starting a rebellion, so they arrest him. Paul is put on trial before the Jewish leaders of the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem (ch. 23) as well as before a series of Roman leaders in Caesarea. Governor Felix only puts Paul off for the next Governor. Festus, who eventually brings Paul before King Agrippa (chs. 24-26). Paul ends up in prison for years even though each trial fails to declare him guilty. All he's doing is announcing that his hope in the resurrection has been fulfilled through King Jesus. It's hardly a crime, but, at this point, the Roman legal machine can't just let him go, so Paul appeals to Rome's highest court.
Now, all this prison time would seem like a setback for Paul, whose heartbeat was to go on the road and start new Jesus-communities. But in this story, the Spirit orchestrates all things for good. The prison time allows Paul to have his most important apostolic letters written — Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Philemon—and these become the way his missionary legacy was carried on into history. Eventually, Paul was transferred as a prisoner to Rome, and, after a terrifying and near-death voyage across the Mediterranean, he ends up under house arrest in Rome, awaiting his delayed trial. From there, he hosts regular meetings that reach both Jews and Gentiles. The bookends with Paul "announcing the Kingdom of God and boldly teaching all about the Lord Jesus Messiah, totally unhindered" (Acts 28:31)—all right under Caesar's nose in Rome.
The unified work of Luke and Acts does so much more than just give a history of Jesus and the early church. They tell the story of how God's Kingdom arrived here on earth as in heaven. It began with Jesus' life, death, and resurrection, and it continued through the coming of his Spirit to empower Jesus' followers to bear witness from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth. In telling this story, Luke has also given us scores of examples of what faithfulness to King Jesus looks like. It means sharing the good news of the risen King through words and actions. This results in the formation of diverse communities in which people of all kinds are treated equally, as they give their allegiance to Jesus and live by his teachings. And threading all of this together is the power and guidance offered by the Spirit, who leads the church beyond chapter 28 and continues the story even today.
This leads to an interesting point about the book's traditional, but not original, title: "The Acts of the Apostles." While different apostles do appear throughout most of the stories, the only single character who unifies the story from beginning to end is Jesus. appearing personally or acting through the Holy Spirit. The book, therefore. could be more accurately named "The Acts of Jesus and the Spirit"
CHAPTER 1
The book's introduction recounts how the risen Jesus spent some forty days with his disciples teaching them "about the Kingdom of God° (Acts 1:3), connecting back to the story of Luke's gospel. There, Jesus claimed that he was restoring God's Kingdom over the world, beginning with Israel. He called Israel to live under God's reign by following him and was enthroned as the Messianic King when he gave up his life, conquering death through his love. As such, the book of Acts begins with the risen King Jesus instructing the disciples about life in his Kingdom.
Jesus promises that the Spirit will soon come and immerse them with his personal presence, fulfilling one of the key hopes in the Old Testament Prophets. They promised that in the Messianic Kingdom, God's presence, or his Spirit, would take up residence among his people in a new temple, transforming their hearts (Isaiah 32:15, Ezekiel 36:26-27. and Joel 2:28-32). Jesus says that when this hap-pens, the Spirit will empower his disciples "to be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth" (Acts 1:8).
From here. Jesus is taken up from their sight in a cloud. This is an image from Daniel 7, showing that Jesus is now being enthroned as the Son of Man who was vindicated after his suffering. He now shares in God's rule over the world, which he will bring fully here on earth when he one day returns.
The main themes and design of the book flow right out of this opening chapter. The book of Acts is about Jesus leading his people through the Spirit to go out into the world and invite all nations to live under his reign. The story will begin with that message spreading in Jerusalem (chs. 2-7), into the neighboring regions of Judea and Samaria, full of non-Jewish people (chs. 8-12). and from there out to the nations and the ends of the earth (chs. 13-28).
CHAPTERS 2-7
The focus stays on Jerusalem in chapters 2-7. as Jesus' followers wait in the city until the feast of Pentecost when Jewish pilgrims arrive from all over the ancient world. The Holy Spirit suddenly comes upon the disciples as a great wind, and something like flames appear over each person's head. Together, the disciples start announcing and telling stories of 'God's mighty deeds" (Acts 2:11), speaking in all these languages that they didn't know before.And, remarkably, all the people gathered nearby understand their words perfectly.
Now, in order to see what Luke is emphasizing in this story. it's crucial to see the Old Testament roots to the key images. First of all, the wind and fire are a direct allusion to the stories about God's glorious. fiery presence filling the tabernacle and temple (Exodus 40:38 and 2 Chronicles 7:1-3). These images also recall the prophetic promises that God would come live, through his Spirit, in the new temple of the Messianic Kingdom (Ezekiel 43 and Haggai 2). Here in Acts, God's fiery presence comes to dwell not in a building, but in his people. Luke is saying that the new temple spoken of by the prophets is actually Jesus' new covenant family.
This connects to the second thing that Luke's trying to say. The prophets promised that when God came to dwell in his new temple, he would reunify the tribes of Israel under the Messianic King. This is when the good news of God's reign would be announced to all nations (Isaiah 11 and Ezekiel 37). Luke describes in detail the international, multi-tribe makeup of the Israelites who first responded to Peter's message at Pentecost. The apostles start calling Israelites to acknowledge Jesus as their Messiah, and thousands do. forming new communities of generosity, worship, and celebration.
Not everyone's celebrating, however. Luke also shows how Jesus' new family quickly faced hostility from the leaders of Jerusalem. With a beautifully symmetrical design in chapters 3-5, Luke tells a "tale of two temples." God's new temple, the community of Jesus' followers, are gathering "every day in the temple courts and from house to house" (Acts 2:46 and 5:42). Inside of these identical notices are two stories of Peter and other apostles healing people in the temple courts, only to be arrested by the temple leaders (chs. 3-4a and 5b).These arrests are followed each time by a speech from Peter, claiming that Jesus is the true king of Israel.
At the center of this symmetry are stories about Jesus' followers who donate property and possessions to a common fund to help the poor (Acts 4:25-5:11). And this generosity is wonderful, but it seems random for Luke to mention it here. Jewish readers would understand. however, because according to the laws of the Torah (Deuteronomy 14-15), this practice was supposed to be happening through the Jerusalem temple and its leaders. Luke's point is clear. The new temple of Jesus' community is fulfilling the purpose God always intended for the Jerusalem temple, to act as a place where heaven and earth meet and where people encounter God's generosity and healing presence.
This conflict between the temples culminates with the first wave of persecution in chapters i 6-7. Jesus' followers continue to multiply, requiring a new generation of leaders. One of them. Stephen, is a bold witness for Jesus t in Jerusalem, but he ends up arrested and s, accused of speaking against and even threatening the temple (Acts 6:12-13). Stephen gives a long speech, showing how Israel's leaders have always rejected the messengers God sent them, including Jesus and now his disciples. The Jerusalem leaders become enraged and murder Stephen, launching a wave of persecution against Jesus' followers and driving most of them from the city. The crisis has a paradoxical effect, however. Luke shows how this tragedy actually becomes the means by which Jesus' people are now sent out into "Judea and Samaria," just as Jesus had planned (remember Acts 1:8).
CHAPTERS 8-12
In the following section (chs. 8-12), Luke has collected a diverse group of stories that show how the mostly Jewish, Jerusalem-based community of Jesus became a multi-ethnic, international movement. The first story is about Philips mission into Samaria. which is the land of Israel's hated enemies. Many come to know and follow Jesus (ch. 8). Next. we see the conversion of Saul of Tarsus, later and better known as Paul (ch. 9). He was the sworn enemy and even a persecutor of the followers of Jesus until he personally met him as the risen King. He went on to instead become a passionate advocate on Jesus' behalf.
Next is a story about Peter (chs. 9-11), who has a dream-vision in which he learns that God does not consider non-Jewish people ritually impure or unworthy of joining Jesus' family. Peter is led by the Spirit to the house of a Roman soldier, full of non-Jews, who all respond to the good news about Jesus. In this story, the Spirit shows up just as pow-erfully as he did for the Jewish disciples of Jesus in chapter 2.
These themes all culminate in the founding of the church at Antioch (ch. 11b), the largest, most cosmopolitan city in that part of the Roman empire. Luke tells us that Barnabas, a Jewish leader from the Jerusalem church. went along with Paul to help lead this church community. During their time there, it also became the first large, multi-ethnic church in history, as well as being the location at which Jesus' followers were first called "Christians" (Acts 11:26). From this church. the first international missionaries are sent out, and we watch Jesus' commission becoming a reality.
CHAPTERS 13-20
The church in Antioch became the flagship church of the first international Christian missionaries. Barnabas and Paul were serving in this church and were prompted by the Spirit to leave, and this opens up the second main section of the book of Acts (chs. 13-20). Paul and various co-workers travel around the Roman empire to announce the good news that Jesus is King. The first journey is into the interior of what's called `Asia Minor" (located in modern day Turkey) and ends with an important meeting of the apostles back in Jerusalem (ch. 15). The second trip is through Asia Minor and into ancient Greece (chs. 16-18a), and the third trip goes through the same territory once again, concluding in Paul's journey back to Jerusalem (chs. 18b-20).
In recounting these stories, Luke has high-lighted a number of key themes through repetition, beginning with the continued mission to Israel. Upon entering a new city, Paul always first visits the Jewish synagogue to share about how Jesus is the risen King. who is now forming a new multi-ethnic people of God. Many Jewish people come to recognize Jesus as their Messiah. Others, however, oppose Paul and sometimes even run him out of town as a dangerous rebel who opposes the Torah and Jewish tradition.
This tension culminates after the first journey and leads to an important council in Jerusalem (ch. 15). Paul discovers that there are some Jewish followers of Jesus in Antioch claiming that unless non-Jewish people become Jewish by practicing circumcision, the Sabbath, and obeying kosher food laws, they can't be a part of Jesus' redeemed people. Paul and Barnabas radically disagree with this claim, so they take the debate to a leadership council in Jerusalem. There, Peter, Paul. and James, the brother of Jesus. discuss and discern from the Scriptures and from their experience that God's plan was always to include the nations within his covenant people. While they do require non-Jewish Christians to stop participating in pagan temple sacrifices, they don't require them to adopt an ethnically Jewish identity or to become Torah-observant.
This decision was groundbreaking for the history of the Jesus movement. Jesus, who is the risen King of all nations, is an ethnically Jewish Messiah. However, a person's membership among his people is not based on ethnic identity or Torah observance. Instead, one must simply trust in Jesus and follow his teachings.
It's this multi-ethnic reality of the Jesus movement that leads to the next theme Luke emphasizes, namely. the clash of cultures between the early Christians and the Greek and Roman world.
Luke records multiple clashes in Philippi, Athens. and Ephesus {Os. 14.16-17. and 19). Paul would announce Jesus as the rev-elation of the one. true God who is the King of the world. The implication of this claim is that all other gods and idols are powerless and futile. This message was consistently viewed as subversive to the Roman way of life, and Paul is accused of being a dangerous social revolutionary. These stories show how the multi-ethnic. monotheistic Jesus-communities didn't fit into any cultural boxes familiar to the Romans. The ancient world had simply never seen anything quite like these Christian communities.
Even more to the point, Luke makes clear that the Christians aroused more than just suspicion. Multiple stories show Romans accusing Paul and the Christians of rebel-lion and treason against Caesar. And it's understandable. People were hearing Paul correctly when he announced that "there was another king, Jesus" (Acts 17:7), and they correctly saw the Christian way of life as a challenge to many Roman cultural values. But every time Paul is arrested and interrogated by Roman officials. they can't see any threat, and they end up releasing him.
All of these themes show the paradox that the early church presented to the world. It was a Jewish messianic movement made up of ethnically diverse communities. Men and women, rich and poor, slave and free were all treated as equals because they all gave their allegiance to King Jesus alone and to no other god or king. Their very existence subverted the core values of Roman culture, yet they posed no military threat because Jesus had taught them to be a people of peace. Really, the only crime that they could be accused of is not conforming to the status quo.
CHAPTERS 21-28
The book's final section, chapters 21-28, returns the focus to Paul's witness spreading from Jerusalem to Rome. His final missionary journey ends in Jerusalem, where his controversial reputation precedes him. Paul is attacked by Jewish people who think that he has betrayed Israel. attracting the attention of Roman soldiers. These soldiers in turn think that Paul is a terrorist from Egypt who is starting a rebellion, so they arrest him. Paul is put on trial before the Jewish leaders of the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem (ch. 23) as well as before a series of Roman leaders in Caesarea. Governor Felix only puts Paul off for the next Governor. Festus, who eventually brings Paul before King Agrippa (chs. 24-26). Paul ends up in prison for years even though each trial fails to declare him guilty. All he's doing is announcing that his hope in the resurrection has been fulfilled through King Jesus. It's hardly a crime, but, at this point, the Roman legal machine can't just let him go, so Paul appeals to Rome's highest court.
Now, all this prison time would seem like a setback for Paul, whose heartbeat was to go on the road and start new Jesus-communities. But in this story, the Spirit orchestrates all things for good. The prison time allows Paul to have his most important apostolic letters written — Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Philemon—and these become the way his missionary legacy was carried on into history. Eventually, Paul was transferred as a prisoner to Rome, and, after a terrifying and near-death voyage across the Mediterranean, he ends up under house arrest in Rome, awaiting his delayed trial. From there, he hosts regular meetings that reach both Jews and Gentiles. The bookends with Paul "announcing the Kingdom of God and boldly teaching all about the Lord Jesus Messiah, totally unhindered" (Acts 28:31)—all right under Caesar's nose in Rome.
The unified work of Luke and Acts does so much more than just give a history of Jesus and the early church. They tell the story of how God's Kingdom arrived here on earth as in heaven. It began with Jesus' life, death, and resurrection, and it continued through the coming of his Spirit to empower Jesus' followers to bear witness from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth. In telling this story, Luke has also given us scores of examples of what faithfulness to King Jesus looks like. It means sharing the good news of the risen King through words and actions. This results in the formation of diverse communities in which people of all kinds are treated equally, as they give their allegiance to Jesus and live by his teachings. And threading all of this together is the power and guidance offered by the Spirit, who leads the church beyond chapter 28 and continues the story even today.