There are those who wonder why Acts ends so abruptly. I dealt with it briefly at the beginning of this series. There is every reason to believe that Luke wrote both his Gospel and Acts as a kind of court brief for Paul’s defense before Caesar. Theophilus appears to have been a Christian in a official capacity in Roman government who Luke hoped would help Paul with his defense. If Acts ends abruptly and does not detail the trial or any part of the years following, up to and including Paul’s death by Roman execution around AD 64, it might be because the finished product had already been given to Theophilus in AD 61-62.

Much ministry must have taken place in those three months that Paul and the other passengers wintered on the island of Malta. Luke didn’t give much detail, but Paul being Paul, the possibility of a vacation seems unlikely. When the seas were again open for travel, the passengers obtained passage on an Alexandrian ship, which had wintered there on Malta and was bound for Rome. Luke not only tells us that this was an Alexandrian ship (undoubtedly a grain ship), but that it had “the Twin Brothers” for its figurehead. These “twin brothers” were the heathen gods who were believed to provide safety and success on the sea. In the shadow of God’s mighty hand in delivering Paul and all on board his ship, how paltry these two gods must have seemed to Luke. The One True God is in charge of all, while the heathen make their “gods” to bolster their hopes for safety and success. Even they were used to fulfill God’s plan to take Paul to Rome.

In contrast to the detail with which Luke described the journey which ended in shipwreck (chapter 27), he told us very little about the journey from Malta to Rome. I think this is because not much happened. Their route took them from Malta to Rome, via Syracuse, Sicily’s major port city, then onto Rhegium on the “toe” of Italy and then to Puteoli, where Paul stayed seven days visiting Christian brethren. Luke gave details that could be checked against archeology, which is one reason he is such an important Biblical historian. We know Paul met the Roman Christians at the Market of Appius and the Three Taverns along the Appian Way. Paul had written a very important letter to these believers some time before (we call it the Book of Romans) and had spoken of his earnest desire to visit and minister to them and allow them to minister to him (Romans 1:7-15). This was joyous fellowship, but Luke did not dwell on the minor details, for he had a more important goal in writing this account. Luke had almost nothing to say about Paul’s relationship to the church in Rome, particularly Roman Gentiles. Instead he ended his narrative with an account of Paul’s meeting with the leading Jews of Rome.

Although Paul had arrived in Rome, his appearance before Caesar would be delayed by the normal “red tape” paperwork and processes of government. Paul was kept in custody during this time of waiting, allowed to stay in a house, under guard by one soldier. This freedom appears to be the result of one or more factors. First, Paul was not yet a convicted criminal. The Romans had great difficulty even deciding upon what charges to press against Paul, let alone succeeding in convicting him. Second, Paul had won the confidence of at least Julius, the centurion commander of the Augustan cohort (27:1). Paul was therefore granted a fair measure of freedom, being under a kind of “house arrest.” This also seems to have been consistent with Roman governance under Claudius and the administrators who acted in Nero’s stead before the madman reached his majority. These were sensible men who saw no reason to act rashly just because they had the power to do so.

This freedom did not allow Paul to travel about on his own, but it did give him the opportunity to minister to any who would come to him. Three days passed before Paul called for visitors. We do not know what happened in these three days, or why Paul waited to invite the Jews to his house. My best guess is that Paul wanted to meditate and pray about this matter, to be able to come to some conviction as to what he should do.

Paul determined to invite the Jewish leaders, so that he could explain the reason for his presence in Rome and open the door to proclaim the gospel to unbelieving Jews there. Paul had at least two meetings with these Jews. On their first visit, Paul is not said to have presented the gospel to them. His first order of business was to explain his presence in Rome and assure the Jews of his innocence and sincerity. Paul faced an uphill battle in this. He was, after all, a Roman prisoner. He had to explain the cause of his arrest and the reason for his presence in Rome. He claimed not to have violated any customs of the Jews and he assured them that the Gentiles had purposed to release him, but had been dissuaded by protest from certain Jews.

The Roman Jews were rapidly facing difficulties of their own. Claudius had expelled Jews from Rome for a period of time because of unrest and the coming rebellion of the Jews in Jerusalem would lead to the sack of Jerusalem by the Romans. Thus, Roman Jews were likely sensitive to the presence of any Jews who might cause trouble with Rome. They dealt with Paul in an apparently open-minded fashion. They claimed to have not heard the details of his case and they insisted while they had heard nothing against him, the Jewish response to the gospel was uniformly unfavorable. They assured him they were willing to listen to his views and they set up a second meeting to do so.

“They set a day to meet with him, and they came to him where he was staying in even greater numbers. From morning until evening he explained things to them, testifying about the kingdom of God and trying to convince them about Jesus from both the law of Moses and the prophets. Some were convinced by what he said, but others refused to believe. So they began to leave, unable to agree among themselves, after Paul made one last statement: “The Holy Spirit spoke rightly to your ancestors through the prophet Isaiah when he said,

‘Go to this people and say, “You will keep on hearing, but will never understand, and you will keep on looking, but will never perceive. For the heart of this people has become dull, and their ears are hard of hearing, and they have closed their eyes, so that they would not see with their eyes

and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them.”’

On the appointed day they arrived in large numbers and Paul proclaimed the gospel all day long. The Jewish response to Paul and the gospel was, as usual, mixed. Some were persuaded by what Paul taught and believed in Jesus as the promised Messiah. Others did not. As usual, this created another dynamic in the group. Rather than telling us that the unbelieving Jews polarized against Paul, Luke recorded a polarization between the believing and unbelieving Jews. Having arrived in unity, they departed along gospel lines. Those who chose not to believe decided that Paul was insane while those who believed the gospel found him the sanest man in Rome. As the day drew to a close and Paul was about to bid his guests farewell, he had one last thought to share. Paul had used Scripture to prove that Jesus was the Messiah; he now reminded them of Isaiah 6:25-28.

There was a distinct parallel between Paul’s ministry to the Jews of his day and Isaiah’s ministry to Judah and Jerusalem centuries earlier. Paul found an explanation for the rejection of these Jews of his day and a corresponding word of warning for them in God’s instruction to Isaiah could therefore find in God’s instructions to Isaiah. The people of Judah and Jerusalem have not listened to God’s admonition; now the time for her divine discipline had drawn near. Isaiah was commissioned to preach to this disobedient nation to bring about repentance, but God had made it clear that his words would not succeed Paul saw the parallels between his ministry and that of Isaiah. He knew that God had spoken once and for all in Jesus and that the Jews had rejected Him. His ministry would not be one of ushering in the kingdom of God, but of preceding the coming day of God’s discipline. Paul pointed back to God’s words to Isaiah as being also words to his own generation of Jews. Let them listen well to this ancient warning, for just as Judah and Jerusalem of Isaiah’s day were soon to go into a period of captivity at the hand of the Babylonians, so the Israel and Jerusalem of his day were to go into captivity at the hands of the Romans.

These were Paul’s last words to most of the unbelieving Jews in Rome, but for the other Jews who believed in Jesus, Paul’s words were only the beginning. Luke recorded that Paul spent the next two years continually ministering to all who came to him, both Jew and Gentile.

The concluding words of the Book of Acts are sad because they focus on the fate of the nation of Israel. Luke had started his Gospel introducing the Savior God had promised to His people, but the Jews rejected Him. The church had been commissioned at the start of Acts to carry on Jesus’ work, but the Jews continued to reject the gospel. The gospel expanded from Jerusalem all the way to Rome and there were Jewish listeners as well as Gentile listeners, but the Jews persisted in rejecting the gospel and persecuted those who proclaimed it. Now, at Rome, the majority of the Jews there rejected the gospel. The Jews have heard, and most have rejected the truth that Jesus was the Messiah, who came to the earth, took on human flesh, was rejected, crucified, and raised from the dead. Now, after nearly 40 years of grace, the time of God’s judgment drew near. The Book of Acts ends, not with the salvation of Israel and the establishment of the kingdom, but with the rejection of Israel and the approaching time of Israel’s captivity and suffering. There is, in this sense, a deep feeling of sorrow as the Book of Acts draws to a close.

Yet, in a way, the Book of Acts does not end here and Luke’s way of ending indicates that. If the gospel has been rejected by the Jews, it is still being proclaimed and believed by the Gentiles. We Gentiles, who now live some 20 centuries after the ending of Acts, find that what Jesus continued to do through the apostles, He is still doing today. The Book of Acts ends one chapter in the history of Israel as it begins a whole new chapter in the history of the church. Jesus is still at work in and through His church to this very day. Perhaps it will not be long before “the times of the Gentiles” come to a close, and the return of the Lord Jesus to establish His kingdom will take place. The day of judgment for all mankind draws near. Each individual must repent of his sin and trust in the solution for sin which God provided in Jesus, Who died in the sinner’s place, and Who offers righteousness to all who would believe, which God requires for eternal life.

Paul’s focus (and Luke’s) was not a happy ending that resolved Paul’s life, but the advancement of the gospel. Today, we seek to motivate Christians to obey Christian principles so that they can live happier, more successful lives. Paul urged Christians to live in obedience to the Word of God so that the gospel would not be hindered. When Paul prayed or asked for prayer, it most often pertained to his boldness and clarity in proclaiming the gospel, not in his deliverance from suffering and difficulties. The gospel had been proclaimed and Paul was in Rome, the place where God wanted him. This was the focus of Acts from the beginning and it remained the focus of Acts in the end. The gospel proclaimed!

We are not, however, done with Paul because the Lord was not done with him. Luke’s court brief was apparently successful and Paul was released. He ministered about three more years before being rearrested and eventually executed by Nero.

For this reason, we will take a look at the three letters Paul wrote after the close of Acts and then move onto the letters that grew from his death.