²⁸”Therefore let it be known to you that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles; they will also listen.” ²⁹When he had spoken these words, the Jews departed, having a great dispute among themselves. ³⁰And he stayed two full years in his own rented quarters and was welcoming all who came to him, ³¹preaching the kingdom of God and teaching concerning the Lord Jesus Christ with all openness, unhindered.

After soundly denouncing the Jews who disbelieved the message about Jesus the Messiah, the Hope of Israel, Paul proclaims that the Gentiles are receiving the message more readily than the Jews. This is what had infuriated the Jews in Jerusalem (Acts 22:21–22) and turned them into a rabid mob that wanted to kill Paul. In their minds, God would certainly never bypass the Jews and go directly to the Gentiles, even though there was no question that they as a people fell short of God’s holiness. They knew this despite the pharisaical representation some made of their supposedly superior righteousness.

The prophet Habakkuk reflected this attitude when he asked God to bring judgment on Israel for her wayward ways, but objected to God’s answer of using the Chaldeans to invade the nation:

Your eyes are too pure to approve evil, and You cannot look on wickedness with favor. Why do You look with favor on those who deal treacherously? Why are You silent when the wicked swallow up those more righteous than they? (Hab. 1:13)

Unlike Habakkuk, the unbelieving Jews whom Paul spoke to would hold on to their self-righteous, holier-than-thou attitude. While they could understand that they were not as holy as God, they certainly were not as unrighteous as the Gentiles, or so they thought. So at this, they left, arguing among themselves.

The last of Luke’s record in the book of Acts is a brief reference to Paul’s two years in rented accommodations and continued unfettered teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ. And that’s the end! Why Luke stopped here, scholars continue to debate. Paul’s death is conspicuously absent from this record—and so is Peter’s, for that matter. But we must remember the book of Acts is not primarily about either of these two great apostles. The story is about the Holy Spirit’s movement in the spread of the gospel. So it is fitting that the final word leaves us with the continued preaching of the kingdom and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ—and that continues on well past the book of Acts. In the truest sense, then, the book of Acts represents the commencement of the Christian movement into the whole world (Acts 1:8), and that movement continues on until the Lord returns.

Lord, help me continue the story that began in the book of Acts. Amen.