Unhindered (Acts 28:30-31)

“Paul lived there two whole years at his own expense, and welcomed all who came to him, proclaiming the kingdom of God, and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance.” – Acts 28:30–31

That is the last, really it’s actually the last word in the book of Acts. Unhindered. The whole story of the spread of the gospel from the early disciples, that small group in Acts1, throughout the known world, the Roman empire by Acts 28:30–31. The gospel has gone forward. Disciples have been made. Churches have been planted. Thousands and thousands of people have come to know Christ. And in the very end, so you got Paul under house arrest, but he’s proclaiming the kingdom of God. He’s teaching about Christ with boldness, and the gospel’s going forward unhindered.

Nothing can stop the spread of the gospel in the world.

Acts 28:30–31 Shows Us That the Gospel Will Prevail

What a great picture. That is a clear takeaway from the entire book of Acts. You cannot stop the spread of the gospel. Nothing can stop the spread of the gospel in the world. It continues unhindered. All throughout the book of Acts, it’s faced obstacle after obstacle after obstacle. The Church has faced challenge after challenge after challenge. Persecution, death, imprisonment. All these things have happened. But in the end, the gospel goes forward without hindrance. Unhindered.

So be confident today. We can be confident today, 2000 years later. The gospel has gone forward for the last 2000 years, and it will continue to go forward. Unhindered. You can’t stop the gospel of God, and the people of God, or the power of the spirit of God. It is unstoppable.

Prayer of Praise for the Sake of the Gospel

So, oh God, we praise You. We praise You for 2000 years of gospel proclamation. Unhindered gospel proclamation. We think of all the obstacles, all the challenges, all the threats to Your church over the last couple of thousand years, for all the ways that the adversary has sought to keep the gospel from going forward, and how the gospel has spread, advanced, in the middle of it all. How You have shown Your power over every obstacle, over every challenge, over every threat. How You have sustained Your church for the spread of the gospel these last 2000 years.

Prayer for Boldness in the Spread of the Gospel

And so we pray, oh God, in our day may it continue to go forward unhindered in our lives, in our families, in our churches. We pray for the spread of the gospel today. We pray for the spread of the gospel to more and more people. And we think of places and people in the world today where the gospel has not yet gone. Where there are so many obstacles to the gospel getting there. God, we think about unreached people in the world, people who have not been reached with the good news of Your love in Christ.

For all the obstacles that are keeping them, at this point have kept them, at this point from hearing the gospel. God, we pray that You would bring down those obstacles, that You would help us, give us boldness. Just like we see in the book of Acts, (stated in Acts 28:30–31) give us boldness to spread this gospel without hindrance.

Use us, we pray, to keep spreading the gospel without hindrance to every person, people, group in the world until the day when the gospel has gone to all the nations, to all the peoples. And all the peoples have had an opportunity to believe in, just like we read in Revelations 5, every nation, tribe, tongue, language gathered around Your throne, singing Your glory. We pray that You would use us to cause this gospel to go unhindered throughout the world until that day.

In Jesus name we pray. Amen.