Unhindered

“Then he stayed two whole years in his own rented house. And he welcomed all who visited him, proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching the things concerning the Lord Jesus Christ with full boldness and without hindrance.” (Acts 28:30-31)

Interesting arrangement. Paul was a “guest of the state” in Rome (a prisoner), but he rented his own house there. He paid rent for 2-years. Essentially this was house arrest. Anyone who wanted to could come and go, but he had to stay put. That seems to have been his only real limitation.

With regard to kingdom work, Paul freely proclaimed the gospel of Jesus Christ “with full boldness and without hindrance,” says Luke. There were no attempts to muzzle him. Paul says in one of his letters that the entire “Praetorian guard,” that is, the troops assigned directly to Caesar heard the gospel during his stay. Undoubtedly, many came to faith in Jesus during those two years.

Since Luke says that Paul “stayed” two full years there, the past tense of the verb suggests at least the possibility that Paul was released after that and continued his itinerant mission work. Other allusions in the New Testament in the Pastoral Epistles seem to clearly indicate that Paul in fact had a 4th missionary journey, before being re-arrested and taken to Rome where he was then, according to tradition, beheaded.

The point of these verses Luke wrote is that the gospel of Jesus Christ will find a way to be proclaimed. The Holy Spirit intends for the gospel to be preached, and when we follow His lead He will show us the open doors. We must then have the courage to go through the door and share the gospel freely.
In your personal situation, you may feel that there are encumbrances around you that prevent you from sharing the Jesus story with others. Those hindrances may well be there, but what we need to remember is that they are not there for the Holy Spirit. So what we need to do is to ask Him to show us ways within our context for how we can share the gospel with others. We then trust Him to show us the way.

Lord, Show us today some ways we can share the gospel. Amen.