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SALVATION IS ENTERING & LIVING IN GOD’S KINGDOM #22: is the final Gospel Message in Acts where salvation is described as coming into God’s Kingdom. The opening salvation message in Acts was: repent; and the concluding message is: enter God’s Kingdom, both rarely if ever used today.
Acts 28:28-31 (NKJV) “Therefore let it be known to you that the salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles, and they will hear it!” 29 And when he had said these words, the Jews departed and had a great dispute among themselves. 30 Then Paul dwelt two whole years in his own rented house and received all who came to him, 31 preaching the kingdom of God and teaching the things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence, no one forbidding him.
Paul’s final proclamation of salvation is so simple (entering & living in God’s Kingdom), and Paul’s final proclamation of salvation is so connected to Christ’s preaching of the Gospel. Jesus often equated salvation to “entering” the Kingdom. Jesus said to Nicodemus in John 3:3,5 that unless a person is born again, they cannot see or even enter the kingdom of God.
Here is Acts 28, Paul is at the end of his public ministry. We have no more detailed accounts of his travels after this. We have no more eyewitness accounts of how he preached the Gospel. Paul’s life in the spotlight of the Scriptures is coming to a close. How does God close the curtain on Paul’s public ministry life? Basically, we can say that Paul was doing the same thing he had always done:
PROCLAIMING CHRIST
Paul is sitting inside a house somewhere in Rome: the most powerful city in the world.
Paul is waiting to be brought before Emperor Nero: one of the most depraved and cruel men in history.
Paul is sharing the Gospel with everyone he can: inviting each to enter the Kingdom of God through the only Door, Jesus Christ. That is how the Book of Acts ends. But what had started in Acts 1, and went onward to Acts 28, is still unstoppably going onward today.
Think about it, we are each connected to Acts 28 in some way through Paul. Nearly every one of us were led to salvation, trained, taught, and encouraged through some part of the New Testament that Paul wrote. So as the curtain closes on Paul in the Book of Acts, pause with me and note the elements God has emphasized for us, about Paul’s life.