With all confidence

Then Paul dwelt two whole years in his own rented house, and received all who came to him, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching the things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence, no one forbidding him. – Acts 28.30-31

The book of Acts has brought us along way from the ascension of Christ all the way to Paul's ministry under house arrest in Rome. About 25 years have passed, but what a 25 years. The church had been born and grown to many thousands it had expanded from Jerusalem into the rest of the Middle East and beyond into Asia and Europe. 'The Way' now included both Jews and Gentiles and great numbers now went by the name 'Christian.'

The book starts in Jerusalem and ends in Rome. It ends with a guy who, when the story began was out to persecute the church, is sitting in a rented home under house arrest teaching and preaching about the Jesus and the Kingdom of God to anyone who called by.

And he did it with confidence. The word confidence means ‘with all out-spokenness.’ Before Paul was saved he pursued Christians with confidence and boldness. He doesn’t appear to be a guy who did anything half way. He gave his all.

In his letter to the Romans, which he has only recently written, he told them to use their bodies to the serve the Lord with the same intensity that they used to serve sin.

I like this last few of Paul before we start reading his letters. We will find out more about his last days in some of those letters, but for now may God give each of us the power and boldness to preach about the Kingdom of God and teach about Jesus with that same confidence.