With All Boldness and Without Hindrance

Scripture Text: Acts 28

Quotes for Reflection

Teresa of Avila, Interior Castle
By God’s goodness I am, and always shall be, faithful to the Church, as I have been in the past. May He be for ever blessed and glorified. Amen.

Ben Witherington III, Acts: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary
Luke’s main concern is to leave the reader a reminder about the unstoppable word of God, which no obstacle — not shipwreck, not poisonous snakes, not Roman authorities — could hinder from reaching the heart of the Empire, and the hearts of those who dwelled there. It was a universal message that was proclaimed, and yet it was from the start of Acts to its conclusion the same story over and over again about the coming of the kingdom and of Jesus (cf. Acts 1:6-8 and 28:31). It was a message that asserted that God in the end was sovereign, and that God was faithful to both his word and his people. It is this same message and mission that galvanizes the church today, giving it its marching orders and calling us to emulate the behavior of those like Paul who spoke boldly and freely, believing no external obstacle was too great for the God who raised Jesus to overcome in saving the world.

N.T. Wright, Acts for Everyone
Jesus of Nazareth, Messiah and Lord: through his servants, through their journeys and their trials, through their pains and their puzzles and their sufferings and their shipwrecks, still reaching out into the future, out beyond Rome and the first century, out across the tracts of time and geography, still confronting men, women and children, rulers, disabled people, local authorities, artisans, governors of islands, wandering tentmakers, philosophers in the market-place, and young men nodding off on windowsills. Luke has brought them all before us, in a dazzling display both of writing and of theology, drawing us in, reminding us once more that this is a drama in which we ourselves have been called to belong to the cast. The journey is ours, the trials and vindications are ours, the sovereign presence of Jesus is ours, the story is ours to pick up and carry on. Luke’s writing, like Paul’s journey, has reached its end, but in his end is our beginning.

Application Questions

1. How does the ending of Acts give you hope for the church?

2. How was Teresa of Avila able to be a critic of the church while being faithful to the church?

3. As you look back over our year-long series in Acts, what are your big takeaways?