Acts  Sermon Series

Wheelersburg Baptist Church 12/7/03 Brad Brandt

Acts 28:1-16 "Moving Ahead One Inch at a Time"**

There’s an interesting set of marks on the doorframe in the kitchen of my parents’ home. Some of the marks were there before I left home. Most have been added since. The marks represent the height of our family members at various times over the years. Next to the mark is the date on which the mark was made. You can take a quick glance at the marks and see the rate of growth for the grandchildren, nephews, nieces, and more.

When our girls were little they used to pay close attention to the marks. "How much have I grown, Grandpa?" Kids love to see evidence that they’re growing.

Churches do, too. Living things are supposed to grow, and the church is a living organism. It is the Body of Christ.

But the rate of growth varies, due to a variety of factors. Sometimes a ministry will produce new life like a garden in the springtime. At other times, however, the growth moves into the maturation phase, like corn in the month of August, not as obvious to the naked eye, but it’s happening.

To put it another way, sometimes God’s work advances by leaps and bounds—and it’s obvious for all to see. But there are other times when God’s work moves ahead inch by inch.

When it came to ministry in the latter part of the book of Acts, it was the latter for Paul. After being arrested in Acts 21, he didn’t see much progress in human terms. There weren’t too many statistics to report in his missionary letters. He was incarcerated for two years for a crime he didn’t commit. He faced legal challenges, and due to injustice in the legal system he was forced to appeal to Caesar. As if matters couldn’t get worse, they did and he nearly lost his life in a hurricane, ending up shipwrecked on an island.

Ministry had slipped into low gear for Paul, not by his choice either but by sovereign design.

If we don’t settle this issue, we’ll live frustrated lives. Our God is sovereign. He is sovereign in salvation. He is also sovereign in ministry. "I will build My church," the Lord Jesus said. And sometimes He builds at a rate and in a manner that surprises us.

God gave Paul a promise in Acts 23:11. "Take courage! As you have testified about me in Jerusalem, so you must also testify in Rome." You’re going to Rome, Paul! "Great!" Paul must have thought. He’d wanted to minister in Rome for years, and now God told him he was on his way. Little did he know, however, how hard the road would be. And how long it would take.

The Lord has given us promises, too. "You’re going to heaven." And "I’ll meet all your needs along the way." And "You will be my witnesses." And He meant what He said. However, at times—indeed, many times—He fulfills His promises in ways that don’t make sense to us. He often uses hardship to provide the backdrop on the canvas of His redemptive work. He allows us to face setbacks and difficulties and opposition. There are seasons of life when it seems we’re just inching ahead, if that.

Perhaps you’re in such a phase right now. If so, Acts 28 is for you. Acts 28 reminds us that what God promises God will fulfill, in His time and in His way. In Acts 28, Paul finally makes it to Rome. Indeed, in the bigger scheme of things in Acts 28 Luke shows that the mission of the church was moving ahead right on schedule.

In Acts 1:8 the Lord told His followers, "You will be my witnesses, starting in Jerusalem and Judea, then in Samaria, and finally to the ends of the earth." What the Lord says He will do, the Lord does. In Acts 1-7 He guided His people to accomplish phase #1, in Jerusalem. Then He accomplished phase #2 by reaching Judea and Samaria in Acts 8-12. Then, beginning in Acts 13, He scattered His people to reach the rest of the world, with the hub of that first century world being Rome itself.

We’re going to learn something critical about the Lord today. As ministers of Christ, we’ll live frustrated lives until we take to heart the message revealed in Acts 28. In Acts 28:1-16 we discover two insights about God and how God works.

Spectacular. Obvious. Undeniable. Eye-catching. There are times when God is at work and one would have to be blind to miss it. We serve the God who can do the impossible, the spectacular, and sometimes He does just that.

In our text the Lord worked in two spectacular ways in Paul’s life.

A. The Lord used the bite of a viper (1-6). Here’s how it happened:

Verse1—"Once safely on shore, we found out that the island was called Malta." The "we" includes the 276 people (27:37) that survived the storm and shipwreck of chapter 27. Malta is an island in the Mediterranean Sea, 17 miles long and 9 miles wide, located about 500 miles south of Rome.

In verse 2 Luke says, "The islanders showed us unusual kindness." The KJV calls them "the barbarous people" based on the Greek term barbaroi. Barclay explains, "To the Greek the barbarian was a man who said bar-bar, that is, a man who spoke an unintelligible foreign language and not the beautiful Greek tongue. We come nearer to the meaning when we simply call them the natives."

The middle of verse 2 shows how the natives demonstrated their kindness—"They built a fire and welcomed us all because it was raining and cold." Remember, it’s the winter season and all Paul, Luke, and the other 274 sea travelers have with them is the wet clothing on their backs.

Verse 3 begins, "Paul gathered a pile of brushwood." Please don’t miss the obvious in this very unassuming statement. Paul, the brilliant preacher, theologian, and author of half of the New Testament books, was gathering sticks. No task is too small for the true servant of God.

A century ago a man traveled with two women, hoping to enroll his daughter in D. L. Moody’s school for young women. "The three needed help in getting their luggage from the railway depot to the hotel, so the visitor ‘drafted’ a rather common-looking man with a horse and wagon, assuming he was a local cabby. The ‘cabby’ said he was waiting for students, but the visitor ordered him to take them to the hotel. The visitor was shocked when the ‘cabby’ did not charge him, and was even more shocked to discover that the ‘cabby’ was D. L. Moody himself!"

If you want to be God’s kind of leader you must learn how to serve.

While feeding the fire, something unexpected occurred. Paul picked up one stick that was "alive." Verse 3—"Paul gathered a pile of brushwood and, as he put it on the fire, a viper, driven out by the heat, fastened itself on his hand." Apparently, Paul mistook the viper for a stick since in the cold weather it would be stiff. But warmed by the fire, it came to life and sank its fangs into Paul’s hand.

Verse 4—"When the islanders saw the snake hanging from his hand, they said to each other, ‘This man must be a murderer; for though he escaped from the sea, Justice has not allowed him to live.’" It’s a basic belief held by mankind worldwide. Do good and God will reward you. Do bad and He will get you. Good people get what’s coming to them, and bad people get what’s coming to them.

By the way, grace is a foreign notion to a works-oriented world. That God would bless undeserving people with His favor makes no sense to the pagan mind. Nor does the fact that God would send to hell people who consider themselves "good" because they’ve done their best. Let there be no misunderstanding. God accepts people on the basis of His grace, through faith in His Son, not on the basis of our merit.

What happened next shook the erroneous world-view of the islanders. Verses 5-6—"But Paul shook the snake off into the fire and suffered no ill effects. The people expected him to swell up or suddenly fall dead, but after waiting a long time and seeing nothing unusual happen to him, they changed their minds and said he was a god."

You might conclude that this Paul is an invincible fellow. He’s not. But he does belong to a God who is, a God who has a plan for His people, a God who won’t stop until He completes that plan!

Right here’s the remedy for fear. Put your life in God’s hands, trust in His wisdom, and let Him work out His plan for your life. He can do spectacular things, and sometimes He does!

Let’s take a closer look at this miracle, with a question in mind. What kind of effect does the miraculous have on a sinner? Consider three.

1. A sinner can’t ignore the miraculous. The people on Malta saw it with their eyes. They saw the viper. They saw it hanging from Paul’s hand, passing its deadly juices into his body. They saw Paul shake it into the fire. They stared at him and waited for him to drop. That’s what happens when a viper strikes a man. But not this time. What they saw this time defied explanation. What they saw this time was a miracle.

By the way, some scholars say that Luke fabricated this story because there are no poisonous snakes of any kind on Malta today. But Luke didn’t say there would be a viper there in 2003. He said there was one there in A.D. 60 and it bit Paul! Certainly snake populations can change. F. F. Bruce cites Ireland as an example, which has been free from snakes for long centuries, although tradition asserts they were once plentiful there until banished by Finn MacCumhail (according to pagan legend) or by St. Patrick (according to the Christian account).

The miraculous produces a second kind of effect on a sinner…

2. A sinner will misunderstand the miraculous. The islanders did. These folks saw a miracle in living color yet came to the wrong conclusion. First they said Paul was a murderer caught by Justice, one of their goddesses, next they concluded he was a god!

Some people say, "Well, if the Lord would just let me see a miracle, I’d believe in Him." That’s not true. If a sinner did see the miraculous he would come to wrong conclusions because his thinking is darkened. In point of fact, he has the miraculous evidence of God all around him—he sees it every time he looks at the stars or at a newborn baby—but he doesn’t submit to the Lord. Why not? The fact is, a sinner needs more than evidence.

1 Corinthians 2:14 says, "The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God [including miracles], for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned."

Here’s what a sinner needs.

3. A sinner needs a new mind to make sense of the miraculous. Romans 8:6-8 explains why, "The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God."

If a sinner is ever going to see a miracle and respond appropriately, He needs a new mind. Only the Spirit of God can give him one, and that’s what the Spirit does the moment He produces new birth in the sinner’s heart.

Let me bring it closer to home. If you’re trying to make sense of God on your own, you’ll fail. You need a new mind. You need the Holy Spirit. You need to be born again. Talk about spectacular! There’s nothing more spectacular than the new birth!

After the viper incident, the Lord worked in a second spectacular way in verses 7-10.

B. The Lord used the healing of the sick (7-10). Verse 7 says, "There was an estate nearby that belonged to Publius, the chief official of the island. He welcomed us to his home and for three days entertained us hospitably." If the "us" refers to all 276 survivors of the shipwreck, this Publius must have had a large home and food pantry.

One thing we know he had was a sick dad, as Luke explains in verse 8, "His father was sick in bed, suffering from fever and dysentery." Malta has long had a peculiar and unpleasant gastric fever of its own, called "Malta fever," caused by a microbe in goat’s milk.

God often turns problems, in this case a sickness, into ministry opportunities. Here’s an example, verses 8-9, "Paul went in to see him and, after prayer, placed his hands on him and healed him. When this had happened, the rest of the sick on the island came and were cured."

Please notice that Paul initiated the first healing, not Publius nor his dad. The text says that Paul went to see the bedfast man, prayed, laid hands on him, and healed him.

Isn’t it interesting that as an apostle Paul had the ability to heal others, and at times he did so, but he himself lived with a thorn in the flesh? That says something to us about the biblical purpose of miracles. There are two things we must keep in mind if we’re going to maintain a biblical understanding of miracles.

1. God uses miracles to validate His message. That’s why Paul healed this man. This miracle substantiated the validity of the gospel message for these lost people. The miracle said loudly, "You’d better listen to what this man has to say!" And apparently they did.

Interestingly, Luke here uses two different terms for healing. Verse 8 says that Paul "healed" the father of Publius, an obvious miracle. In verse 9 the text says that other sick people came and "were cured." Barclay explains, "The [second] word used is the word for receiving medical attention; and there are scholars who think that this can well mean, not only that they came to Paul, but that they came to Luke who gave them of his medical skill. If that be so, this passage gives us the earliest picture we possess of the work of a medical missionary."

So there seem to be two kinds of healing here, the miraculous by Paul, and the medical by Luke. God used both to validate His message.

2. God uses miracles to validate His messengers. Notice verse 10—"They honored us in many ways and when we were ready to sail, they furnished us with the supplies we needed." If you’re grateful to the Lord for His blessings, you’ll show it to the messengers He used to deliver those blessings. The islanders responded to what God did for them by giving honor and supplies to Paul and the others.

Take that thought a step further. When your relationship with the Lord is right, it affects your attitude towards the things you possess. You become a giver rather than a hoarder. Luke says they "honored us with many honors (KJV)."

So here’s insight #1. At times, God works in spectacular ways. At Malta, He used the bite of a viper and the healing of the sick to validate His servant and subsequently, to bring the lost to Himself. Tradition says that Publius became the first bishop of the church of Malta. Yes, our God can do the spectacular!

However…God doesn’t always do what He can do.

The unspectacular. The commonplace. The normal. Granted, God can speak through a donkey, as He did to Balaam, or in thunderous voice, as He did on the Mount of Transfiguration. In times past, He spoke in such spectacular ways. But today we have something "more certain" than spectacular, mountain top experiences, as Peter put it in 2 Peter 1:19. Today He speaks to us when we open the Scriptures.

This is the norm. Sure, God can do the spectacular—He can do whatever He wants. But typically, God works through the ordinary. In fact, that was true even for the apostle Paul. Luke illustrates this for us in verses 11-16 by showing how the Lord provided for Paul in three very wonderful, albeit very "ordinary" ways.

A. The Lord provided a safe journey (11-13). "After three months [that made it the middle of February] we put out to sea in a ship that had wintered in the island. It was an Alexandrian ship with the figurehead of the twin gods Castor and Pollux."

Stop there for a moment. Why does Luke include this information about the ship’s design? I’m not sure, but picture this peculiar site. A ship with two pagan gods as figureheads carrying the ambassador of the King of kings to Rome! God often uses pagan inventions to advance His cause.

Take, for instance, the internet. This past week I didn’t have to leave my study and yet did kingdom-communication with two Ukrainian brothers via email. I used technology created by the world to do God’s work.

Caster and Pollux were false, pagan gods, the so-called "sons of Zeus" and supposed guardians of sailors. Were they really? Chapter 27 makes it clear how impotent pagan gods are when the true God sends a storm! The fact that God uses something doesn’t mean He endorses it.

The trip log continues in verse 12, "We put in at Syracuse [located on the island of Cicily, 95 miles from Malta] and stayed there three days [tradition says Paul started a church in Syracuse during these three days]. From there we set sail and arrived at Rhegium [located on the "toe" of Italy, 75 miles from Syracuse]. The next day the south wind came up, and on the following day we reached Puteoli."

The final leg at sea covered 210 miles, a journey that would take 24 to 26 hours with a good south wind. Luke verifies they arrived on the following day. Puteoli was the chief seaport for Rome, a city of 100,000 people in Paul’s day. Paul had arrived in Italy.

Here’s what stands out to me about this journey. It was uneventful. How many times do we hop in our car, drive across town or across the state, arrive safely at our destination, and fail to thank the One who made it possible? Friends, the Lord is at work in our lives, but so often we miss it. We fail to see Him because we fail to recognize that many, if not most of His works are in the realm of the ordinary.

Yes, God could send an angel at the last moment to rescue us from a head-on collision, but most of the time He protects us in less impressive ways. As He did with Paul. Ordinary provision #1—the Lord provided a safe journey.

B. The Lord provided people (14-15). Although the sailing was over, the traveling wasn’t. They were still 150 miles from Rome, a distance they would cover by land, most of it on the famous Appian Way.

God sent some special people into Paul’s life at the end of the trip. Verse 14—"There [at Puteoli] we found some brothers who invited us to spend a week with them." God has His people everywhere, and when they meet there’s an instant bond.

Don’t be lulled to sleep by the next six words in the text (14b). "And so we came to Rome." That’s a loaded statement.

Three years earlier Paul wrote a letter to the church in Rome, sharing his intense burden to come to the capital city (Romans 1:9-11): "God, whom I serve with my whole heart in preaching the gospel of his Son, is my witness how constantly I remember you in my prayers at all times; and I pray that now at last by God’s will the way may be opened for me to come to you. I long to see you…"

At the end of his letter he repeated his desire in Romans 15:23-24, "But now that there is no more place for me to work in these regions, and since I have been longing for many years to see you, I plan to do so when I go to Spain. I hope to visit you while passing through and to have you assist me on my journey there, after I have enjoyed your company for a while."

As the months turned into years he must have wondered if his dream would ever come to pass. He endured two monotonous years in a Roman prison, followed by two weeks of terror-filled days stranded at sea. The setbacks were plentiful, but God was faithful. And so we cam to Rome.

Yet even as he approached Rome he must have wondered, "What have the believers heard about me, and how will the church accept me?" What he saw next must have thrilled his soul.

Verse 15—"The brothers there had heard that we were coming, and they traveled as far as the Forum of Appius [that’s 43 miles from Rome] and the Three Taverns [that’s 33 miles from Rome] to meet us. At the sight of these men Paul thanked God and was encouraged."

Please note the term Luke uses. He says "the brothers" came. That’s what we are, fellow Christians, brothers. We are a family, and the tie that binds us is stronger than blood.

The actions of the Roman believers teach us two things about ministry.

1. God uses His people to encourage His people. Luke is very specific in verse 15, "At the sight of these men Paul thanked God and was encouraged." On the one hand, they didn’t do anything big. They were just there. And that’s the point. They were there. Your presence at the right place at the right time can bring great encouragement to God’s people.

The next time you find yourself thinking, "I don’t think I’m going to Sunday School today. It won’t matter if I’m not there," think again. Your presence speaks loudly. It says to your teacher, "Thanks for investing study time this week to feed my soul." It says to your fellow-classmates, "I value you. Being with you is more important to me than an extra hour of sleep." Yes, God uses His people to encourage His people.

2. God uses people who are available. Let this sink in. These brothers walked 30 to 45 miles, and why? To show their love for a man they had never met, a brother named Paul.

Let’s not underestimate the power of a timely phone call, a card, or a home visit. I urge you to be an encourager this week. To do so, you must be available.

One final "ordinary" provision…

C. The Lord provided a place to live and minister (16). "When we got to Rome, Paul was allowed to live by himself, with a soldier to guard him."

God’s blessings come in all shapes and sizes. If you’re expecting a five-star hotel, a private house with a soldier chained to your arm would produce complaints. But if you’re agenda in life is to know Christ and make Him known to others, then you’d be rejoicing. As we’ll see next time, Paul turned the house into a ministry-center and viewed the soldier as a prime target for evangelism!

By the way, how do you view your house? Do you see it as yours or God’s? Is it a castle where you hide, or a ministry center where you serve? Paul realized what we tend to miss. The house we live in is another "ordinary" provision from our gracious God.

We’ve learned two things about our God today. One, He can work in spectacular ways, but two, typically He works through the ordinary.

One of my favorite things to do when vacationing at the beach is to wade out into the ocean. Here’s how it goes. You venture out until the water is about chest high, dive into the waves, and do a little body surfing. Then you kick up your heels, relax, and go with the flow. It’s great. But after about 15 minutes or so you notice something has happened. You’ve moved. It happened so slowly you weren’t aware of it at the time, but sure enough, you’ve moved. How can you tell? You look at the shore and notice that the landmarks have changed. You don’t see your chair in the sand or the hotel behind it any longer. Indeed, you discover the waves have moved you fifty yards or so north of where you started. The movement occurred slowly, but surely.

So it is in God’s work. Jesus said in Acts 1:8, "I’ll provide the power and you will be my witnesses to reach the world." Sometimes it doesn’t seem like anything’s happening, like we’re not moving, like God’s plan has stalled. Sometimes you feel like you’re living in Acts 27, stranded at sea or stuck on an unknown island.

Be patient. Acts 28 is coming. "He who began a good work in you will perform it until the day of Christ (Phil 1:6)."

1. Remember God’s promises. If you feel like you’re stranded in the ocean of life, lift your eyes and notice the landmarks. It may seem like nothing’s happening, but that’s because we’re looking in the wrong direction. When my eyes are on the waves, I don’t realize I am moving. When I look to the landmarks on shore, I begin to see things differently.

We need to fix our gaze on God’s promises, brothers and sisters. If you can’t see what God is doing, ponder what He said He would do. You can be sure He is doing just that, so look for evidences of it.

The great New England preacher Phillips Brooks was noted for his poise and quiet manner. At times, however, even he suffered moments of frustration and irritability. One day a friend saw him feverishly pacing the floor like a caged lion. "What's the trouble, Mr. Brooks?" he asked. 

"The trouble is that I'm in a hurry, but God isn't!" Haven't we felt the same way many times?

Some of the greatest missionaries of history devotedly spread the seed of God's Word and yet had to wait long periods before seeing the fruit of their efforts. William Carey, for example, labored 7 years before the first Hindu convert was brought to Christ in Burma, and Adoniram Judson toiled 7 years before his faithful preaching was rewarded. In western Africa, it was 14 years before one convert was received into the Christian church. In New Zealand, it took 9 years; and in Tahiti, it was 16 years before the first harvest of souls began.

When you wonder what God is doing, remember His promises.

2. See the big picture. Don’t become consumed merely with what’s happened in the last month or year. Look at what’s happening today from God’s perspective. Again, the promises of God help us. God’s promises provide the frame for the picture.

According to a traditional Hebrew story, Abraham was sitting outside his tent one evening when he saw an old man, weary from age and journey, coming toward him. Abraham rushed out, greeted him, and then invited him into his tent. There he washed the old man's feet and gave him food and drink.

The old man immediately began eating without saying any prayer or blessing. So Abraham asked him, "Don't you worship God?"

The old traveler replied, "I worship fire only and reverence no other god."

When he heard this, Abraham became incensed, grabbed the old man by the shoulders, and threw him out of his tent into the cold night air.

When the old man had departed, God called to his friend Abraham and asked where the stranger was. Abraham replied, "I forced him out because he did not worship you."

God answered, "I have suffered him these eighty years although he dishonors me. Could you not endure him one night?"

Are you seeing the big picture as you move through life? God has a good plan.

3. Realize He is not done yet. He knows what He’s doing. He knows. Trust Him.

Acts  Sermon Series