The Book of Acts reads like a novel. There’s drama, intrigue, death plots, and shipwrecks. It’s exciting stuff. The ending is pretty disappointing though, right? By the time you get to the end, you’re absorbed in the story of the ruthless persecutor who became the apostle Paul. You’re engrossed in his incredible exploits, but as the book ends, he’s chained to a soldier under house arrest in Rome. He’s awaiting a verdict from the emperor regarding charges brought against him by the Jewish leadership. But there’s no resolution. Not only is there no happily ever after but there isn’t even a conclusion to Paul’s story. Have you ever considered why?
Acts 20 is the Cinderella ending to Paul’s story
If I were to have written the Book of Acts, I would have ended the book in chapter 20. In Acts 19, we see the gospel spread throughout Ephesus in some powerful demonstrations of God’s power. Then in Acts 20, there’s a great scene where Paul takes a man who had fallen backwards out of a third-story window and brings him back to life. After that, he continues preaching until dawn. And then there’s a moving speech by Paul to the Ephesian leaders and they all kneel and pray and kiss and hug and send him on his journey. If Hollywood ever puts the Book of Acts on the big screen, this will be the final scene. It’s Paul’s fairytale ending. It’s the Christian Cinderella story.
It seems like it’s all downhill from there
Unfortunately, that’s not where it ends. In Acts 21, Paul goes to Jerusalem and the people swarm him. In Acts 22, he’s taken by the Romans and is almost flogged and interrogated. In Acts 23 to 26, Paul is dragged to stand trial before the Jewish authorities, and then Governor Felix, King Agrippa, and finally, he’s on his way to the emperor in Rome. As if things couldn’t get any worse, in Acts 27, Paul is caught in a shipwreck and when he finally reaches shore, he’s bitten by a poisonous snake.
Luke has given us a surprise ending
Finally, in Acts 28, Paul arrives in Rome. We’re on the edge of our seats anticipating the fairy-tale ending. For seven chapters, we’ve been waiting for Paul’s name to be cleared. We’ve been waiting for him to triumph and be declared innocent. Only that conclusion never comes. Most scholars believe that Luke wrote the Book of Acts after Paul’s release from house arrest in Rome, but he doesn’t mention it. He knows how Paul’s story ends, but he doesn’t tell us. It begs the question, why?
What kind of ending does Luke give us?
I think we need to deal with the ending Luke gave us. In Act 28:30-31, the book ends by just saying, “He lived there two whole years at his own expense, and welcomed all who came to him, proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance.” There’s a note of victory but not the one we expected. The ending is about the victory of the gospel – the unstoppable spread of this message of good news. And the ending teaches us that that has been the point of the story all along.
It's about Jesus and the gospel
As you read the ending, you have to conclude that Paul is just a supporting actor in the Book of Acts. Luke has been telling the story of the spread of the gospel. So that scene of Christian warmth and fellowship in Acts 20 would have made a terrible ending. That’s not the climax of the story at all. And the riot, interrogations, shipwreck, and snake bite – while personally painful to Paul – are powerfully used to proclaim the gospel to a crowd, to some of Rome’s most powerful leaders, to a ship with close to 300 soldiers, sailors, and criminals, to the people of Malta, and then to the island’s chief official. Even that final chapter which felt like a disappointment, at first, is instead a fairytale ending after all. Despite riots, unjust legal action, natural disasters, and the opposite of Rome, the good news about Jesus continues to be proclaimed without hindrance.
Paul is a supporting actor and so are you
When we read the story of our lives with ourselves at the centre, it feels like the Author has made a series of mistakes. But maybe we’ve been reading our stories wrong all along. How would it change your life if you began to see yourself as a supporting actor and not the lead? What if you gave the main role to Jesus and saw your circumstances in light of Him? There’s a happily ever after, but we can only see it when the good news about Jesus is in the centre of our view. So, let’s take up our roles as supporting actors and put our focus on the good news about Jesus where it deserves to be!
In awe of Him,
Paul
