Last Sentence

The last sentence of the book of Acts. "Boldly and without hindrance he preached the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ."

There is so much in that sentence:
"Boldly and without hindrance . . . "
Paul never complained about his circumstances, but he used all of it for the Gospel. When he was in prison he saw that as an opportunity, when he was shipwrecked he saw that as an opportunity. Nothing seemed to derail or hinder him.

" . . . He preached the kingdom of God . . . "
The kingdom of God was his message . . . I believe this is the central theme of the bible, yet it is one that most Christians know little about. If you asked 10 different Christians, "What is the kingdom of God?," I'll bet you would get a couple puzzled looks, some vague answers, some aspects of the kingdom, but very few who deeply understand it. In my own life, I grew up in the church, I went to seminary, got my Masters in Divinity, but it is only in the last year, that I feel I am beginning to grasp it. Why did it take so long? It was never really taught . . . I never really studied it . . . I only looked up close at individual verses, never really step backed and looked at the big picture (thanks to the influence on "modernism" on my life . . . the metephor was out dated and hard for the 21 century mind to understand . . . maybe a combination of all of that and more.

" . . . and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ." Jesus was the focus of his teaching. We need to stay true to this. If we make Paul the focus, we loose Paul's message. Pastor Steve said in his sermon Sunday the more our church (and individuals) focus' on Jesus the healthier we become. I tend to agree with him. Let's teach and focus on Jesus.

And the last three words. The Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus is Lord, he is the King of the kingdom, he is God!