Acts: In Rome (28:17-22)
Acts has one of those frustrating: we’re-going-to-leave-you-hanging endings. What happens to Paul after he gets to Rome? Is he ever tried? Is he ever released? Does he ever make it to Spain? We don’t really know.
Sure a lot of people try to hypothesize that he went on to have a huge impact on Roman culture. He was under house arrest, and those guards of his were surely important highly placed people in Roman society. He must have converted enough of those guys that Christianity spread through the upper reaches of Roman society and eventually, a couple centuries later, Christianity became the official religion of the Empire! All thanks to Paul!
Why do we do this? The story is left untold. God didn’t feel that part was vital for us to know. Is it not enough to know that Paul had the role in God’s plan that we are told about? (For that matter, Christianity becoming the official religion may not be something anyone would want to claim. Who says it was a good thing?)
Truth is we do the same thing with our own role in God’s plan: “You may never know, until you get to heaven, just how great your impact was on the Kingdom of God. You may have indirectly or unknowingly helped thousands of people into heaven!” So what? What if your part in God’s great plan for the ages was for you to be faithful and have an impact on twenty people? What if you were to impact just ten, or five? Is that not enough?
The honor is to be a part of the plan, not in how big our role is. Because ultimately it is God that gets the results. We are simply allowed to be tools in His hands.
Sure a lot of people try to hypothesize that he went on to have a huge impact on Roman culture. He was under house arrest, and those guards of his were surely important highly placed people in Roman society. He must have converted enough of those guys that Christianity spread through the upper reaches of Roman society and eventually, a couple centuries later, Christianity became the official religion of the Empire! All thanks to Paul!
Why do we do this? The story is left untold. God didn’t feel that part was vital for us to know. Is it not enough to know that Paul had the role in God’s plan that we are told about? (For that matter, Christianity becoming the official religion may not be something anyone would want to claim. Who says it was a good thing?)
Truth is we do the same thing with our own role in God’s plan: “You may never know, until you get to heaven, just how great your impact was on the Kingdom of God. You may have indirectly or unknowingly helped thousands of people into heaven!” So what? What if your part in God’s great plan for the ages was for you to be faithful and have an impact on twenty people? What if you were to impact just ten, or five? Is that not enough?
The honor is to be a part of the plan, not in how big our role is. Because ultimately it is God that gets the results. We are simply allowed to be tools in His hands.
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