The Unfinished Story!

The book of Acts ends abruptly with Paul in a Roman prison. This book does not record what happened after Paul's two-year imprisonment or how he met his end.  We read about some of Paul's activities only from his epistles.  Why did the Holy Spirit leave it in the middle of 'Paul's story'?  Ray Steadman (Adventuring through the Bible) believes that this book really should be titled "The Acts of the Holy Spirit," or even, perhaps, "The Continuing Acts of the Lord Jesus Christ."  In the book of Acts, the Holy Spirit begins the commission of Christ.  Jesus said, "But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth. (Acts 1:8)"  It is the story of the beginning of the Church.  The Holy Spirit begins to carry out the great commission through the Church, which is the body of Christ.  This is how the Lord planned to reach out to the uttermost parts of the earth. That work began 1900 years ago, and the Lord is still at it today!  

Now, how that story is continued and who is continuing that story are the questions we have to answer.  Cornelius was a centurion of the Italian Regiment.  He is said to be a devout man and one who feared God.  God sent an angel to Cornelius to tell him what he must do.  God did not ask the angel to give him the message of salvation but that Cornelius must send for Peter to tell him what he must do to be saved (Acts 10:1-6).  At the end of the Gospels, we see a handful of Jews in the city of Jerusalem, the center of Jewish life, talking together about a kingdom for Israel.  But in the book of Acts, we see the Gospel of Christ reaching the gentiles through the disciples.  The book of Acts is the continued story of what Jesus began to do and to teach! 

My friend, Paul quotes the Lord in Acts 13:47, " I have set you as a light to the Gentiles, that you should be for salvation to the ends of the earth." Jesus still wants to work through you and me.  When this story is finally finished, will each one of us be in that story as the light leading people to Christ? 

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