Paul's innocence of anything worthy of punishment is clear from his living a relatively comfortable life in Rome for the following two years (60-62 A.D.).977Paul was able to preach (Gr. kerysso, to proclaim as a herald) the kingdom of God and to teach (didasko, to instruct others) about the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 23 clarifies this verse. Preaching the kingdom of God involves solemnly testifying about it, and teaching concerning Christ includes persuading people about Him. Paul could do this openly and without hindrance by the Roman authorities. This was Luke's final testimony to the credibility and positive value of the Christian gospel.
"With this expression [i.e., unhindered], which is literally Luke's last word in Acts, he is saying that largely through Paul's activities, the Church is now on the march, and nothing can stop it [cf. Matt. 16:18]. Paul has built the vital bridge from Jerusalem to Rome. The Cross is in the field."978
"In seeming to leave his book unfinished, he [Luke] was implying that the apostolic proclamation of the gospel in the first century began a story that will continue until the consummation of the kingdom in Christ (Acts 1:11)."979
These verses contain the last of Luke's seven progress reports (2:47; 6:7; 9:31; 12:24; 16:5; 19:20).
"What is the one outstanding impressionmade by the study of the life and work of the Apostle of the Gentiles? Is it not this:--The marvelous possibilities of a wholly-surrendered and Divinely-filled life?"980
What happened to Paul following the events recorded in Acts? There is disagreement among scholars, as one might expect. Some believe the Roman authorities condemned Paul and put him to death. However most believe they released him and he left Rome. In support of the latter view are references in other New Testament books to Paul's activities. These are difficult to incorporate into the events of his life that Acts records. We can explain them if he continued his ministry. Also Eusebius, the early church historian who died about 340 A.D., wrote the following.
"After pleading his cause, he is said to have been sent again upon the ministry of preaching, and after a second visit to the city [Rome], that he finished his life with martyrdom."981
While Paul was in Rome during the two years Luke mentioned (28:30), he evidently wrote the Prison Epistles (Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon). After his release and departure from Rome, he wrote the Pastoral Epistles. He probably wrote 1 Timothy between 63 and 66 A.D. to Timothy who was ministering in Ephesus, but we do not know from where he wrote it. He spoke of meeting Timothy in Ephesus later (1 Tim. 3:14; 4:13). Paul also wrote the Book of Titus probably from Illyricum or Macedonia during the same period to Titus who was on Crete (cf. Titus 3:12; 2 Tim. 4:10). Perhaps Paul visited Spain as he longed to do between 62 and 67 A.D. (Rom. 15:23-24) though there is no Scriptural record that he did or did not do so. From Rome he wrote 2 Timothy to Timothy in Ephesus shortly before his martyrdom in 68 A.D. (2 Tim. 1:16-18; 4:14, 19; 1 Tim. 1:20).
". . . the end of Acts directs attention to the missionary situation that Paul leaves behind and to Paul's courage and faithfulness as example for the church. It points to the opportunity among the Gentiles. It underscores the crisis in the Jewish mission. It presents Paul continuing his mission by welcoming all, both Jews and Gentiles, and speaking to them with all boldness' in spite of Jewish rejection and Roman imprisonment. This is the concluding picture of Paul's legacy."982
"What almost seems like the unfinished character of the book of Acts, from a merely literary standpoint, is doubtless intended to teach us that until the fulfillment of the angels' prophecy that this same Jesus' shall return even as He went away, the work of evangelization for this age will not be completed. We are to heed the Word--'Occupy till I come.'"983
