Tuesday 14th March - Acts 28

Today’s chapter is Acts 28

Tom writes:

Mission accomplished?  On one level, clearly not.  On one level you could read this final passage of Acts and figure that Luke had got bored and cut the thing short.  But on another level Luke shows Paul has well and truly hit a home run.  He has established a robust and flourishing mission right in the centre of the most important city in the world.  It’s like a businessman who started selling stuff out of the boot of his car but now is doing a brisk trade from a premium premises on Oxford Street.  The Way is no longer a marginal sect struggling to gain traction on the fringes of the Mediterranean; it is influencing life and culture all across the Roman Empire. All across the Roman Empire people of every ilk and circumstance can find life in the glorious message of God’s grace. So is that it?  Is that the end?  No!  You don’t get a premises on Oxford Street so you can settle down and congratulate yourself on your journey. You trade. You welcome anyone who comes to see you and boldly and without hindrance you preach the kingdom of God. This boys-own adventure through the whole book of Acts leaves me keener than ever to really be church. I want to go even further to worship Jesus as ascended King.

I want to reinterpret even more of my life through the Jesus-story - to pin myself more and more in the great narrative God is writing in the world. And I want to be much more empowered by the Spirit. I want to be empowered not only to worship and to reinterpret but also to help many, many others worship and reinterpret. I want to see more signs and wonders, and more totally transformed lives. I want my life to be a shopfront; to be a rented space where absolutely anyone can come and see and hear the Kingdom of God and Jesus the Lord. I know some will not believe - hard heartedness will abound in this portion of God’s narrative - but others will be convinced.  And for those who are convinced, well, they can become part of the most incredible business venture that anyone has ever conceived. People get to be church - to be Kingdom - to be truly human. Oh, what a prospect that is. I’ll give my life to that. Like Stephen and Barnabas and Priscilla and Aquila and Paul and Lydia I will risk my life for that. Come Holy Spirit, set me on fire again. Come Holy Spirit, cause your church to once again live up to all you have given us.

Question for reflection

What grabbed you most about the book of Acts? What does it make you want to do differently?