As we end Acts, verse 27:2 has them on a journey towards
Rome:
I, Luke, was
permitted to join Paul for his journey to Rome, along with Aristarchus, a
Macedonian brother from Thessalonica. We boarded a ship from Adramyttium that
was stopping in ports along the coast of Asia.
This is the first place where Luke actually identifies
himself and it’s the final trip of Paul. It’s interesting as we read that
things don’t go well and Paul became the center of strength for the crew.
Verse 27:36 shows the men believing after following Paul’s
advice:
A fresh surge of courage seems to
fill their hearts as they also begin to eat.
Through the storm Paul is saying be calm we will be ok at
the end. This is something we really need to follow and do in our lives. How
many times does the proverbial “storm” happen in our lives? What is our action?
Do we pray? Or do we continue to pray?
See the difference here? In one instance crisis hits and we
hit the floor, in the other we do not change anything. God never said believe
in me and you’ll live on easy street. Never once do we see stories of Him
working through people who have everything handed to them on a silver platter.
Often the last things they do in turmoil is die. They key is not praying for
ease, but have peace through the good and the bad because both will happen.
Often they are happening together in our lives, the key is how we handle it.
Do we freak out like the men on the ship or do we have peace
and work through the problem like Paul?
Verse 28:31 ends Acts:
With great confidence and with no
hindrance, he proclaimed the kingdom of God and taught about the
ultimate authority—the Lord Jesus, God’s Anointed, the Liberating
King.
Acts ends abruptly in the
story. We do not see Paul’s eventual end by Nero’s hand but rather see the end
of how the church was built. They key point is how to build the church and not
how Paul’s story happens. This was never a book about Paul, but rather the
church. So while the story leaves us hanging we now know what is needed to grow
the “body” of Jesus or the Church.