Preaching Christ
Acts 28:17–31
Proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance. Acts 28:31
Notice a few last points at the end of Acts.
1. The gospel Paul preached in the twenty-eighth chapter of Acts is the same gospel preached by Peter in the second. It was not a different gospel because it was being preached to different people, by a different person, or in a different setting. No matter who is preaching or where, it is always the same gospel. It is the gospel of salvation through Jesus Christ. It is our gospel today.
2. The results of the preaching of that gospel are the same. Some reject it, and some respond to it. It was that way when Peter preached at Pentecost. It was that way when Paul preached at Rome. It is that way when we teach about Jesus Christ today. We are not to think that if we experience rejection or resistance we are any different from those who have preceded us.
3. Christ’s plan for the expansion of the gospel and the founding of his church has not altered. As Acts closes, the Great Commission is being fulfilled. We may be frustrated by what we regard as the slow progress of the gospel, but Jesus is not frustrated. His plans are not sidetracked.
What happened to the apostle Paul? From God’s perspective there is a sense in which it does not really matter. What happens to his servants does matter to God, of course. “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints” (Ps. 116:15). What happens to you matters to him. But there is a sense also in which what happens to us is incidental to the greater story, which is the expansion of the gospel. At one period of history there may be a great moving of God’s Spirit, and everything will seem to be going well. At other times, times more like our own, the response to spiritual things will be superficial or people will be hostile. But in a sense, it does not matter.
What does matter is whether we are faithful in the calling to which God has called us. The Lord Jesus Christ told his disciples, “This gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come” (Matt. 24:14). That end has not yet come. So you and I still have the task of preaching the gospel.
Will we? Will we be found faithful?
That is the final question for us from Acts. The Word is not hindered. We are its messengers. Will we take the gospel to the ends of the earth beginning with our Jerusalem, as we have been instructed to do? If we will, God will bless it to the praise of the glory of his great grace.
Taken from Come to the Waters by James Boice ISBN 9798887790954 used with permission from P&R Publishing, Phillipsburg NJ 08865
Scripture quotations are from the ESV (the Holy Bible English Standard Version) copyright 2001 by Crossway a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. All rights reserved.