Acts 28:1-10
And when this had taken place, the rest of the people on the island who had diseases also came and were cured.
Sermon Transcript:
I invite you to take your Bibles. We’re going to be looking at Acts chapter 28 as we continue in our series, The Spirit at Work, To the Ends of the Earth. We’re almost to the ends of the book of Acts in Acts chapter 28. And I invite you to join me there. We’re going to be reading Acts chapter 28 verses 1 through 10.
It’s great to be with you. Great to be with you guys here in the gym. Also, you guys that are in the lobby and also those of you that are in Collingswood this morning. One of the great roles of preaching is to encourage people to be excited to get into the scriptures themselves. The Bible is not a secret code book.
Am I rattling a little bit? It gives me a little more presence.
It’s not a secret code book. It is designed to be a living message of God to our lives to help us grow and learn. One of the best ways to learn its truth, both for preaching, and for just practical living is to ask questions. The most important question every time you read the scripture is, what do I learn about God here?
That’s the goal. We’ll go into the scripture most of all. But there are other questions that we ask. What do I learn here about living with God, about trusting God, about obeying God, about enjoying God, depending on God. It’s all God. But we look to things to learn and to understand. When we come to narrative sections, which the whole book of Acts is narrative, one of the most important questions that we ask, because really what’s happening is selective history.
Acts is a record of over 30 years of events taking place over literally the entire Roman Empire in the Mediterranean world. And Luke in this 28 chapters is presenting to us specific sermons, specific events of thousands that he could have presented to us. So each one that is there is recorded for a reason.
And so one of our great questions as we come to the book of acts or any narrative is to say, why would God have chosen this particular story, this particular event, this particular place at this particular time? And there are always clues and cues that God gives to us. Last Sunday, Pastor Jared preached a sermon on Acts chapter 27.
I thought he did a tremendous job. in answering this question. He explained what it taught us about God. He also explained why God included this record, which was just a story of a shipwreck. And it took a whole chapter of all the things that have been going on for 30 years to spend 1 27th about a shipwreck.
Why? And I thought Jared did a tremendous portrayal of how it fits in the whole purpose of the book of Acts. for our lives. That’s what we want to do. We want to be questioners as we come to the scriptures in order that we can be learners in the scriptures. This morning we come to a follow up historical event.
They did get shipwrecked. Actually, they were shipwrecked off the shores of an island called Malta, which is a small island just south of Sicily. , off the coast just west of Italy. And as we come to this particular scene again, I’d like to begin, after we read it, at just saying what I think is at least one of the prominent reasons God may have recorded this for us.
But let’s read it together. Acts chapter 28, verses 1 through 10.
After we were brought safely through, we then learned that the island was called Malta. The native people showed us unusual kindness, for they kindled a fire and welcomed us all, because it had begun to rain and was cold. When Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and put them on the fire, a viper came out because of the heat and fastened on his hand.
When the native people saw the creature hanging from his hand, they said to one another, No doubt this man is a murderer. Though he has escaped from the sea, justice has not allowed him to live. He, however, shook off the creature into the fire and suffered no harm. They were waiting for him to swell up or suddenly fall down dead, but when they waited a long time and saw no misfortune come to him, they changed their minds and said that he was a god.
Now in the neighborhood of that place were lands belonging to the chief man of the island named Publius, who received us and entertained us hospitably for three days. It happened that the father of Publius lay sick with fever and dysentery, and Paul visited him and prayed. And putting his hands on him healed him.
And when this had taken place, the rest of the people on the island, when they had, had disease, who also had diseases, also came and were cured. They also honored us greatly. And when we were about to sail, they put us, they put on board whatever we needed.
Lord, we come, we love the scriptures. We’re grateful, God, that You designed to give us the Bible, the living word that could speak into our lives. And Lord, I’m asking you to do that today in a particular way. In this room, in the lobby, in Collingswood, with folks that are watching online this morning, Lord, you know every single life situation that they’re bringing to their listening.
And I ask, Lord, that you who know us, you who superintend our lives, that you might specifically, intentionally, particularly speak into their lives this morning truth. In Jesus name, Amen.
As I’ve reflected on this story and why God recorded it for us, I’m convinced that at least one of the reasons is that God could teach us that He is a God that is at work all the time, in all places. That’s important to be reminded of, isn’t it? Some of you are in situations that don’t feel that way.
Some of you are in circstances where darkness seems to be winning, where hearts that you long to see changed seem impenetrable. And God encourages us to be reminded of the things that are true about God as revealed in this passage. The first we find is that God perceives the worldview of everyone. In verses one through seven, we have this interesting event that takes place and it says the native people, these were the people on the island there, And the word is literally the word barbarians in the Greek.
It actually is recording them, these people were barbarians. Now it wasn’t used in quite the way we might use it today because it meant a specific thing. Barbarians are a new group of people introduced to us here in the book of Acts. They’re not mentioned anywhere else. And these individuals, and they’re mentioned twice here in this passage, are individuals that did not know Latin or Greek.
They didn’t know the, the, the language of the Romans, which was Latin. They didn’t know the Greeks, which was Greek. They didn’t know either one. And for them, they were viewed by the populace at large as uneducated and unrefined. They were individuals that did not have learning, didn’t really know the languages.
They had their own language, and there were derisive things said about this. Now, of course, this tells us something we may not have known about bodybuilder and California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and apparently he does not speak Greek or Latin. But when Greeks or Romans heard these barbarians speak, they heard their language just like, Bar, bar, bar, bar.
They didn’t know what it was saying. So they actually took what they heard and gave them that name. Now you may say, well that’s, that’s ridiculous to, to make repeated sounds into a word. But you do the same thing. I’ll show you how. You’re listening to somebody chattering on and on, and you go, you know, she’s just going on and on, just blah, blah, blah, blah.
What are you saying? She’s a blah, blah being. You get it? Barbarian blah, blah, blah. We won’t try that one in the 1030 service. Okay.
And as we read about these people, these barbarians, we find that they represent another form of paganism or polytheistic belief. They actually identify one of their gods who is the god who is called Justice. The one
that one that guarantees that Somebody gets theirs when they do wrong and somebody is rewarded when they do right It’s a it’s a belief system that is replete that there is something outside of han experience that is dominating things. Interestingly, the visual of Lady Justice has continued. It is actually, she is inscribed into the wall of our Supreme Court, Lady Justice.
She’s there with scales which are saying she’s, she’s weighing things. She’s also given a sword. She’s the one to mete out justice. This concept is something that has been built in as a foundational belief among these islanders, and that has been true since the beginning of han history. It is the idea that there is accountability to a system of justice that is outside of ourselves.
Now, we don’t agree that Paul is bit by a poisonous viper because He’s a murderer. They actually just asse, look, there are 276 of you that floated ashore and only one of you got bit by a poisonous snake. He must be the worst. He’s the, he’s the, he’s obviously a murderer. The worst crime they could come up with.
And we also don’t believe because he doesn’t die that that proves that he’s godlike because Lady Justice is affirming him in such a way. But there is a worldview that has dominated hanity since the beginning of han existence. It goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden, an awareness that hans are accountable to something beyond themselves.
Of course, the Garden of Eden portrays it as a monotheistic view of life. And monotheism, the word mono is one, one God, one Theos is the concept. It was the faith of Abraham and his descendants, all the Jews. It became the faith of the, of the Christian faith. It is foundationally believing that there is a sense in which we are accountable to this one God beyond ourselves.
Now hang with me on this because the reason I’m saying all this. What happened then, as hankind invariably tries to throw off authority and accountability to God? There began to be a distortion of that. Romans 1 describes it. That inevitably a heart of sin, a desire for autonomy, attempts to distort one’s responsibility and accountability to God.
And so one of the things we do is what Romans 1 said. Although they knew God, in verse 21 and 22. Although they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him. But became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools. And here’s what they did, and here’s what hanity does.
And exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images. Resembling mortal man, and birds, and animals, and creeping things. In other words, they developed a multiplicity of gods. This is the practice of polytheism. The idea that the development of multiple gods, only in this case, small g, there’s not one ruling brella god, one being over all.
But there is still the sense that hans do not set their own rules. That they are accountable to laws, rules outside of themselves. It may be lady justice. It may be a thousand other beings that they are accountable to in one way or another. But there is the sense, there is a worldview that we are accountable to something beyond ourselves.
Now, the reason I’m saying all this is because in the last 500 years that has changed. There is a book that has been put together. It is, it is, I’m in the middle of the thing. It is called, , just lost the word, Charles Taylor A Secular Age. It’s a classic book. It’s 900 pages long. It is not fun reading.
It is slow go, but it is fantastic. And basically he is a Harvard professor. It is produced by Harvard Press. And Charles Taylor has developed the whole concept of our secular age. And basically what he’s done is saying, where did the concept of secularism come into han experience? He goes back to the 1500s to present time.
The fascinating thing, and I’ve read a ton of reviews on this book, because I was just interested. I, I have not found anyone, whether it is a, a Christian person, whether it is an absolute atheistic person, whether it is a A professor in a Christian university, whether it is the chairman of a philosophy department and the most liberal university that has not said, this is a brilliant portrayal of what is transpiring in our culture or how we have got to where we are.
Basically, what is presented in the book is to highlight why Western civilization is facing the crisis it is. Because deeply within ourselves is the deep determination to find purpose in one’s life and to uphold culture with moral standards that all must subscribe to, yet having no basis for either of these realities without a higher power actively ruling in our lives.
Basically, the concept of atheism, and you’re welcome to Google me on this baby. Was not out there until 500 years ago. You say, well, that’s ridiculous. It’s not. No, I mean, there’s never been atheists. I’m not going to say I don’t know everybody. But but as far as a movement, as far as a belief system, it has come.
It is just another world view. And what has happened in the last few centuries? And now we are bearing the the sense of this in the way people perceive life. And why so many people Even that would name the name of God. So, well, yeah, I believe, you believe in God? Absolutely. But they are utterly functional atheists.
By the way, we Christians can live that way as well, right? We believe in God, but we don’t really act like it. , but basically, what is, is portrayed in this book and others that are now, I mean, this is amazing how many people quote this. I, I read one, but I didn’t read the whole thing. I read part of a book.
Was called the greatest development of the history of atheism. This guy basically quotes from, from Charles Taylor’s book over and over and over just historically. But atheism is simply the attempt to take Romans 1, a little farther and say it is not only to reduce God, you know, by saying, well, there’s not really one sovereign God, there’s multiple gods, thousands of them, put them in shapes of animals and, and people and everything else.
It is to eradicate God. To act like he is not existent. C. S. Lewis talks about in his classic treatise, God in the Dock. What has resulted in our day and our culture, and that is the fact that we, the dock in English courtrooms is where the person on trial is stands as the trial goes on and the questions come.
And he says that’s where God is. People now put God on trial. Tim Keller says it in his in his really good book making sense of God and invitation to the skeptical. He says this ancient people did not asse that the han mind had enough wisdom to sit in judgment on how an infinite God was disposing of things.
Of course, we do it all the time. So here we come to this little island of Malta. And we find a people that believe there was a standard of righteousness outside of themselves. They believe it was under Lady Justice. who would implement it, whether it was in the form of one supreme God or various deities.
We find as we look through the book of Acts that Paul has been continually introducing us to all different people groups with all different world views started Paul interacting with people that were Jews that believed in a monotheistic view of creation and And that all were accountable to this sovereign God.
We see him in Mars Hill in the book of Acts, where he says I see you’ve got a lot of gods here. Well, but I see one that’s to the unknown God. Well, I want to tell you about him. He’s the one that’s the maker of heaven and earth. He’s actually the God. We see him as he comes in, in the, the, the church, the city of Ephesus, where the temple of Diana is.
And all the perspective that she was the supreme being. And now we come to Malta and we find another view of polytheism. But what we find is all different world views and perspectives. But the one common reality we find in every situation is God knows exactly how to make himself known. I’ll tell you, I find such encouragement in that.
Because this time I do what you do and I look at our world and I look at our culture and I say, How in the world is anything gonna get through in this chaos and this anger and this confusion and this, this throwing out of even the most basic historic definitions of anthropological or, or the, the whole doctrine of man, which I’ve said many times to you is, is the assai doctrine in our, in our day, every major issue.
that is raised in our culture, anti christian, is an anthropological. And you say, how in the world are we going to? God, God knows worldviews. God knows people. He knows the people in your office. He knows your relatives. He knows your neighbors. He knows you. He knows how to speak into us, whatever our worldview is.
And he does it here, on Malta. To people that believed in lady justice. And somehow God is able to take their view of things and to speak into it. And first, in their interpretation, they think, well, well, the God is, the God’s, in this case, Lady Justice in particular, is punishing him because he’s a very wicked man.
Nope! He’s not a very wicked man. He’s an amazing man. The gods are honoring him and even making him one of their own. God is then able to speak into them. I’ve mentioned this story in the past. It was such an encouragement to me. I was sitting in a doctor’s office and as I was sitting in the doctor’s office, I was reading a magazine that was sitting there and I almost didn’t pick it up because I just felt I’ve, I’ve done enough thinking lately about, various philosophies that were out there and I just, it felt sort of weighty from it.
And this guy was quoting from the existentialist, which was a major thing in the 1900s, which basically said there is no purpose to life. There is no meaning. There is no God. It was a giant thing. John Paul Sartre. Just lost it. Actually, my favorite one. Anyway, so they’re, they’re, , he’s, he’s, and he’s telling his story.
He says, yeah, I was raised in a religious background, Christian background, and I went to university and I love philosophy and I started to move towards philosophy and he became a philosophy major. And he was a philosophy professor now as he was telling his story, but what he did was he told, he said, as I studied the existentialist and, and that’s the whole, if you’ve ever heard of the theater of the absurd, it’s just life is absurd, things are absurd makes no sense because there’s no purpose and meaning and get over yourselves if you think there are, because there’s no God, there can’t be, And this guy was telling the story of how, in the midst of this, a card carrying existentialist that he had become, he was all of a sudden thinking about, But, wait a minute, I want to have purpose to my life.
Where did that desire come from? Why do I long for that? My dog doesn’t want to have a purpose. He wants lunch. But, but where do I get this from? Where do I get this desire for meaning? And he began to think, and he’s a philosopher type, so he’s probably, where, where does that come from? And it was actually the existentialist that caused him to say, you’re a purposeless, random, basically meaningless being.
You just got to sort of create your own purpose and meaning that actually drove him to the cross. And to my delight, as I read through the story, he was actually now teaching philosophy as a born again Christian, speaking into the existential world of saying, there is a God. He is real and he has come among, it was just, it was so, it was so encouraging to me.
Because it reminded me what this, this, this whole thing is about. God knows worldviews. God speaks into… And you may say, well, the people that I’m dealing with wouldn’t even know how to spell existentialist. As a matter of fact… I don’t either and I wouldn’t care. It doesn’t matter the life view. They’re living out of the things in their life that they’re holding on for meaning.
God knows them. God understands them. God speaks into the language of every worldview. I think part of this that that Luke has been reminding us in all these different situations. Now he’s got a whole new people group for us. I mean, we’re on the way to Rome. That’s the crown jewel of everything, right? We stop off at a little island called Malta in order that We can be reminded that God also speaks into the barbarian.
The second thing we find, God puts to you small steps of hble servanthood. Paul and the other 275 passengers make their way to the island. Some encouraged to swim, initially, and then the others that can’t swim, they’re put on boards and barrels and whatever they can hold on to. And astonishingly, just as Paul predicted, because God had told him, all 276 make it And on the island of Malta, apparently where they came, , there were shoals way out deep.
So there was a long journey in, but none of these people were lost. And they had come to see Paul now as having some answers they needed to listen to. I mean, he’s told them, don’t anybody, they were trying to leave the ship. And he goes to the guys, he says, no, God has told me that nobody should leave the ship.
Don’t put them out in the lifeboats. And so they cut the lifeboat free. If you remember with Jared’s Text last week and basically everybody stayed on the boat. They listened to Paul and now Paul has rescued every single guy. It’s astonishing. The boat had actually broken in half. It said the stern broke off, but they all survived.
Just like Paul said. Now, Paul comes to the island and Paul is the man, right? I mean, he’s the man. He’s the guy and they’ve come on shore. It’s, it’s, it’s raining. It’s cool, which probably about that time of year in that place would have been about 50 degrees. So it’s like a wet, cool rain. And what does Paul do?
He just does what everybody else does. I love the way we see him. He’s portrayed as a simple laborer gathering brush for the fire, it’s cold, and doing the task of putting the brush on the fire. God is at work. God has a snake there, and that snake bites Paul.
And we’re reminded that so much of the Christian influence is really found in just the small mundane stuff of life. The entire thing that happens on Malta, and it’s a cool thing that happens here. Came about because Paul is just doing with everybody else, probably one of many fires for 276 people that didn’t all get around one little campfire.
He’s just doing his stuff. He’s cutting the brush, and as he’s doing the brush, he gets bitten by a snake. He’s not preaching. In effect, we don’t even read of things that he was preaching here on Malta. He’s not confronting religious leaders. He’s just doing what he feels God is prompting him to do. I mentioned this week I was at a pastor’s conference speaking up in northern New York State.
And Marianne and I were there over one of the meals. We were talking with a couple. And that’s always some of the best part of some of this kind of time. Just getting to know people’s stories. We were talking with a guy who was a farmer. And he was now a pastor. Actually, both. He was still doing a little bit of farming.
He he he milked his cows in the morning and he did church other parts of the day. And he was telling the story. He went to this little church. He’d been there four years. God had done some remarkable things in this very small church. But he was telling the story when he was candidating at the church that a 95 year old lady Was in the congregation and it was very, very small, but she was there and she sincere but direct pointed her finger at him and she said, Young man, if you become our pastor, how are you going to reach this community?
It was an old church. Most of the people were very older. He was younger. And he just, he said, I just honestly said, I don’t know. But he said, I know the one that knows how to do it. And he said, I’m confident That he’ll show me what to do and us what to do. And then he said that his 95 year old lady, will you help me?
Well, he got the call. And here he is trying to faithfully serve, do his thing, doesn’t know how God’s going to reach this community. And only a few months after he’s there, this 95 year old lady passed and she died. And he got a call from the lawyer. He said, I just want you to know she left your church 300, 000.
And this guy being this guy, he said, we really felt that a lot of that shouldn’t be looked at as ours to use just here. So they started looking for enterprises around the world where they could give 30, 000 here and some there. And he’s telling these stories of movements of God that they jped in. And it was so exciting.
Anyway, just think. This guy had no plan, but he had a big God and he believed God. And he said, I don’t know how, but I know the one that knows. Little knowing that God was going to use this lady that he challenges to be a part of the vision.
You may be in a situation in your life right now and you just say, All I see is giant obstacles. I don’t see anything. I don’t see any progress. There’s not a Christian in here that has not felt that way sometimes or will feel that way. Where you just feel, I just, I, God, I need some wins. I need to see this moving forward some way.
Just remember that Paul didn’t just make a difference by preaching and teaching. Paul spent eight of the last ten years of his life in jail. In the years when he thought he was going to be on his fourth missionary journey, changing the world in Rome and into Spain. But God used him to write all the letters we’ve got.
Again, Jared did a great job talking about that last week. Basically, God is at work. God is at work in your office. God is at work in your family. You may not know it. You may not see it. You may not experience the fruit of it tangibly, visibly. At least not yet, but God is at work all the time, at all places.
He asks you to be the one that’s willing to work with, you know, Okay, I’ll carry the brush. I’ll do this. Maybe a snake will jp out and you think, Yeah, sure, that’s exactly what I thought would happen. Paul didn’t do that. He said, Okay. Snakes? Jail? I don’t know how all this works, but he’s big. I’m not. God puts to use the small steps of hble servanthood in the last thing.
And by the way, just remind you of some of the greatest stories in the Bible were people that just offered something really small. David offered a slingshot. Moses offered a staff. Paul had a brush pile. It was some little kid at a preaching venue of Jesus that offered five biscuits and two sardines. And there was a widow that gave her last penny.
It’s God. It’s only God. The third thing, God plans circstances to change people’s hearts and build his kingdom. And verses 8 through 10 is the story that That Paul is, , given access, actually, he and others are cared for by the local chieftain of the island, Publius. And he finds out on the third day that Publius dad has a very severe fever.
, And Paul prays over him. He’s healed. Eventually, the result is Paul has this major healing ministry on the island. Incredible impact. And we’re told in verse 11 that he was on the island for three months. And when they left, the people of the island came and outfitted the ship and blessed them. I mean, I just, I love to think about what it was like for the Roman soldiers that were supposed to be the guards of this guy.
They didn’t usually have the islanders outfit them. I mean, people hated the Romans. But somehow God has been at work and they have received this amazing favor. The whole story of the island, frankly, is a disaster when you think about it. I mean, it starts with Paul arriving there with, as a prisoner on his way to Rome.
He didn’t design that, didn’t expect it. It begins here with a shipwreck. It morphs into a cold rain on the beach. It develops by a poisonous snake biting Paul. He’s viewed as a murderer, a deeply evil man. It changes to a misunderstanding that he’s a pagan god. It’s a mess! It might be how you’re interpreting your world right now.
Shipwrecked. Great metaphor. Vipers coming at me. It’s gray and miserable, surrounded by misunderstandings. But,
but, God. He is there with you in the gray and misery. He is with you in the shipwreck. He is there with the vipers that are coming at you. He’s with the misunderstandings that are swirling around. He is present and he is at work and he says, lean into me, trust me, believe me, do the small acts of obedience I still ask you to do, even though there’s part of you that wants to just curl up in your bed and not face one more morning.
Or maybe that you want to, you can’t wait to face the next morning because you want to give them theirs. Lean into God. He’s big. He’s at work. He understands the worldviews of the people that matter most to you. He knows how to reach them. He’s the only one that can reach them. You, you, you can be the greatest Christian that ever lived.
That isn’t going to lead them to Jesus. Only God brings. It says salvation is of the Lord. He has to do it. He has to work in their lives in such a way.
God is a work. He’s a work all the time. Lord,
there are times when I struggle to grab hold of that. There are times right now that some folks that are listening are in that it’s hard to grab hold of that. So, Lord, do what you seem to delight to do. Do what the psalmist prayed. Lord, show us signs of your favor. Give enough favor, Father, enough encouragement to just
inflame their belief, their trust in you. Lord, as we gather here on this, Lord willing, last Sunday in the gym, as we look back on how you financially provided to enable us to go back to a room that is changed, we believe can more effectively accommodate ministry into lives of people. God, we think of all the ways, even over this last few years, of how many twists and turns.
And some ways it just felt like all we got is confusion. We don’t know what’s going on, where this is going. And now it just seems like, oh yeah, it all makes sense. Lord, for those of us today that are in that twist and turn confusion time. Give them faith to trust and hold on that they might look back and not only say, Oh, yeah, now it all makes sense.
But they also might look back and say, God, thank you that you helped me to hold on that. I didn’t give way to anger, godlessness, vindictiveness, overwhelming fear.
Lord, you who delight to show mercy, mercy us today, we pray. In Jesus name. Amen.