Take a moment to read the entire chapter of Acts 28 before reading the devotional below.
You made it! Today we finish the book of Acts, so it’s a great time to invite your friends to join us for our next series. Paul finally makes it to Rome, where he makes the most of his opportunity to share the Gospel with the government officials there as well as people who come to his home while he is under house arrest. It is not clear if he is released from custody, stating only that he remained in Rome for two years “at his own expense.”
I find verses 21-22 fascinating: the people have received no word about Paul or his journey to Rome to appeal to Caesar, and the only thing they know about Christianity is that everyone is denouncing it. Wow. Talk about an uphill climb for the early church. Somehow without Twitter or Facebook or 24-hour news, word managed to spread so far that Paul seems to encounter believers everywhere he goes while at the same time the message of Christ is gaining a mixed reputation. And when Paul speaks in Rome, this crowd is not convinced. Paul quotes the prophet Isaiah as he tells them that their hearts are hardened towards God.
God had very clearly told Paul to go to Rome. He goes through a shipwreck and a whole lot of other hardship to get there. He’s placed under house arrest and has to pay his own way to stay there. He preaches to a cynical crowd and it seems most of them are unconvinced. If I were Paul, I’d be wondering if I had misheard God somewhere along the way… What is the point of his mission if people aren’t going to believe? Here we see God’s heart revealed: giving people the opportunity to turn to him is always worth it, even if they do not take it. God always sees people as worth the risk.