This morning in my personal devotions I finished up reading through the book of Acts.  Every time I do it’s always a wonderful reminder of the hard work and sacrifice that early Christians put in to get the church started and the message of Christ spread.  It’s also a reminder of how utterly useless we are without the help of the Holy Spirit.

However, what I’m always most struck by is the ending…or lack thereof.  If you’ve ever read through, you know that Luke the author goes into great detail for 28 chapters talking about times and places and doesn’t leave any loose ends…until the end that is.  Paul has just been put into a Roman jail and Luke ends by saying, “Paul stayed there for two years bravely preaching about the Kingdom and no one tried to stop him”.  And that’s it!  Done!  What?

Luke how can you leave us hanging like that?  If this were a movie we’d say…”Oh it’s obvious they are setting it up for a sequel”.  Here’s my theory.  There is a sequel called Acts 29 and it covers a period of nearly 2000 years.  It’s still being written and you and I are some of the co-stars.  In other words, Luke intentionally (being directed by the Spirit) abruptly ended his writing because God didn’t ever want us to think the story was done.  Acts 29 is where you and I continue on the work of the early church in making sure the Gospel gets preached throughout the world.  Acts 29 is you and I sacrificing of our time, talent and money so that others might hear the good news of what Jesus has done for us all.

I’ll end with a simple question…Are you off script?