Acts 28: Journey's End?

As we reach the conclusion of the book of Acts, we realize how God's fingerprints were all over the life of the early church and apostles, bringing to a fulfillment what was prophesied much earlier.

Here is just a short list of prophecies fulfilled:

• Paul (the original Chuck Norris?) survives a shipwreck only to be bitten by a snake.  He merely shakes it off into the fire and suffers no harm, leading the natives to believe that he is a god.  Yet the Gospel of Mark promises: "They will pick up snakes in their hands...it will not hurt them."

• Paul finally reaches Rome, just as the Lord had told him in Acts 23:11: "Just as you have testified for me in Jerusalem, so you must bear witness also in Rome."

• Paul's arrival in Rome also goes along with what was prophesied in Acts 1: "You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

• The Book of Acts ends with one final reference to the Old Testament.  Paul tells the hard-hearted Jews, quoting from Isaiah: "You will indeed listen, but never understand, and you will indeed look, but never perceive..."  This statement, which appears in the Gospels as well, reveals that not everyone will accept God's message of grace.  Let us examine our own hearts so that these words may never be true of us!