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Preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, with all confidence, no man forbidding him  Acts 28:31

On the road to Rome, believers came out to meet Paul, and he thanked God and took courage. Now he finally entered the city God had promised he would see. But he did not come as a free man or an honoured guest. He came as a prisoner, chained day and night to a Roman soldier.

Many would have thought Paul's work was over. He could no longer travel to plant churches, cross the seas or visit the believers he loved. He was confined to a rented house, waiting for a trial that might end in his death. Yet Luke ends the book of Acts not with a picture of defeat, but with this verse: Paul preaching the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence, and no one stopping him.

For two whole years, Paul welcomed everyone who came to his door. Jewish leaders, Gentile visitors, curious neighbours and faithful friends all heard the gospel from him. The soldiers who guarded him, changing shift after shift, heard it too. Later Paul would write that his chains had made Christ known throughout the whole palace guard, and that there were believers even in Caesar's household. His chains did not stop the message. They carried it into places where no free preacher could have gone.

Paul could not stop speaking about Jesus because Jesus had changed his whole life. The Saviour who had met him on the Damascus road, stood beside him in the fortress and carried him through the storm was not a doctrine to him but a Friend. Ellen White describes this same longing in every true believer: "No sooner does one come to Christ than there is born in his heart a desire to make known to others what a precious friend he has found in Jesus" Steps to Christ, p. 78.

We may feel that our own circumstances limit us: illness, age, a difficult job, a small house, a life that seems far from where we hoped to be. But the place where God has put us is never too small for His message. A hospital bed, a workplace, a kitchen table or a waiting room can become our "hired house," a place to welcome others and share what Christ has done for us.

On the road to Rome, the believers teach us to encourage the weary. In Rome itself, Paul teaches us that no chain can bind the gospel. Growing in grace means sharing Christ confidently, right where we are, trusting God to carry His word further than we could ever go ourselves.