Acts: A 14-Day Devotional For MenSample

Obstacles and Opportunities
Acts 28:30–31

Acts consistently presents the obstacles and opposition that believers face as surprising opportunities to proclaim the gospel. Leading witnesses like Peter, Stephen, and Paul give powerful sermons and testimonies while they are interrogated, harassed, and persecuted. Paul declares in Acts 19:21, “I must also see Rome,” but on the way he faces one obstacle after another, including arrests, plots, political wrangling, a storm, shipwreck, and a poisonous snakebite. When Paul finally reaches Rome, he is placed under house arrest and chained to the soldier guarding him (28:16, 20). However, amid these challenging circumstances, Paul welcomes all who come to him and continues to preach “with all boldness and without hindrance” (vv. 30–31). Notice three important truths in the closing two verses of Acts. 

First, Paul views personal obstacles as opportunities to talk about the Lord Jesus. He may be chained and confined, but he is also commissioned to testify to the gospel of God’s grace (20:24). God frequently delivers Paul from dangers and threats, preserving his life so that he may testify to the facts about Jesus in Rome (23:11). But the Lord also strengthens and sustains Paul in times of suffering (26:22). Even though he is innocent of all charges, Paul is not embittered by his long imprisonment but takes it as an opportunity to bear witness to the hope that he has because of Jesus (28:17–20). 

Second, Paul keeps the main thing the main thing. Acts opens by recounting how the risen Lord Jesus appeared to his disciples for 40 days, “speaking about the kingdom of God” (1:3). The book concludes with Paul in Rome, “proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ” (28:31). Paul continues Jesus’ emphasis on the kingdom of God—God’s sovereign rule over his people and his world, in fulfillment of his saving promises. He also teaches about “the Lord Jesus Christ.” This title stresses that Jesus is both the promised Savior (“Christ”) and the divine King (“Lord”). 

Third, God’s Word is not shackled even when his people are. Paul writes, “I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal. But the word of God is not bound!” (2 Tim. 2:9). This is the point of Acts 28:31. Paul is under house arrest, and yet he preaches about God’s kingdom and King Jesus boldly and without hindrance. God turns personal obstacles into gospel opportunities.—Brian J. Tabb