Today’s message is from Acts 28:1-31. This is part 2 of the message. (Part 1 turned out to be much longer than I had expected because I was led to spend quite a bit of time talking about the need we have for each other as brothers and sisters in Christ—how essential it is for us to have fellowship together, how essential it is for us to encourage each other, how essential it is for us to live together in unity. Tom was led to spend quite a bit of time talking about these things two weeks ago, too. And we’ll talk briefly about them again today.) Before we read the passage, I’m going to do a little reviewing.

This is the final leg of Paul’s journey to Rome, the place where Jesus had told him that he must testify. Jesus had arranged to transport Paul from Jerusalem to Rome as a prisoner. Along the way to Rome he was able to testify to Governors, to a king, to the soldiers that were guarding him and to all those around him.

In the last chapter we talked about, chapter 27, there was the shipwreck. The ship they were on on their way to Rome was completely destroyed and all the cargo was lost. In fact, they had thrown the cargo overboard to lighten the ship in the storm quite a bit before the shipwreck. Everything was lost—everything material, but all 276 on board were saved. An angel had stood beside Paul at night and told him, “Do not be afraid, Paul. You must stand trial before Caesar; and God has graciously given you the lives of all who sail with you.” (Acts 27:24)

The angel told Paul that he would have to survive because he would have to stand trial before Caesar. (When Jesus was sleeping in the back of the boat and the storm was raging, the disciples woke him up and said, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” Jesus cared very much for them and was, in fact, going to give his life for them (and for us, too)—but it wasn’t by drowning. He knew he wasn’t going to drown and neither would they! He rebuked them for their little faith.)

Paul told those on the ship with him to keep up their courage because he had faith in God that it would happen just as the angel had told him. (By the way, notice that it is not just “I have faith,” but “I have faith in God.”) According to what the angel told Paul, it was for his (Paul’s) sake that God was saving the lives of all of those on board the ship: “God has graciously given you the lives of all who sail with you.”

Let me spiritualize this shipwreck a little. Do you suppose anyone on the ship was disappointed that the ship and the cargo were lost—maybe the ship owner or the pilot or someone else who had a stake in it? You know that everything we have that belongs to this life, our possession, our human status, and our own bodies, also, will at some point be lost. Does that seem disappointing? I know it can. But God has something much better for those who trust him—for those who love him. We need to fix our eyes on heaven. We need to fix our eyes on Jesus.

OK, let’s read the passage. (And remember, as always, that we will be reading the word of God, the word that he gave to us in order that we might know him. And also, as always, I encourage you to read your Bibles everyday. Study and meditate on the word of God. Have it written on your heart.) Today’s passage starts right after the shipwreck when they had gotten safely to shore. Let’s read Acts 28:1-31:

¹Once safely on shore, we found out that the island was called Malta. ²The islanders showed us unusual kindness. They built a fire and welcomed us all because it was raining and cold. ³Paul 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. ⁴When 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.” ⁵But Paul shook the snake off into the fire and suffered no ill effects. ⁶The 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.

⁷There 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. ⁸His father was sick in bed, suffering from fever and dysentery. Paul went in to see him and, after prayer, placed his hands on him and healed him. ⁹When this had happened, the rest of the sick on the island came and were cured. ¹⁰They honored us in many ways and when we were ready to sail, they furnished us with the supplies we needed.

¹¹After three months 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. ¹²We put in at Syracuse and stayed there three days. ¹³From there we set sail and arrived at Rhegium. The next day the south wind came up, and on the following day we reached Puteoli. ¹⁴There we found some brothers who invited us to spend a week with them. And so we came to Rome. ¹⁵The brothers there had heard that we were coming, and they traveled as far as the Forum of Appius and the Three Taverns to meet us. At the sight of these men Paul thanked God and was encouraged. ¹⁶When we got to Rome, Paul was allowed to live by himself, with a soldier to guard him.

¹⁷Three days later he called together the leaders of the Jews. When they had assembled, Paul said to them: “My brothers, although I have done nothing against our people or against the customs of our ancestors, I was arrested in Jerusalem and handed over to the Romans. ¹⁸They examined me and wanted to release me, because I was not guilty of any crime deserving death. ¹⁹But when the Jews objected, I was compelled to appeal to Caesar— not that I had any charge to bring against my own people. ²⁰For this reason I have asked to see you and talk with you. It is because of the hope of Israel that I am bound with this chain.”

²¹They replied, “We have not received any letters from Judea concerning you, and none of the brothers who have come from there has reported or said anything bad about you. ²²But we want to hear what your views are, for we know that people everywhere are talking against this sect.”

²³They arranged to meet Paul on a certain day, and came in even larger numbers to the place where he was staying. From morning till evening he explained and declared to them the kingdom of God and tried to convince them about Jesus from the Law of Moses and from the Prophets. ²⁴Some were convinced by what he said, but others would not believe. ²⁵They disagreed among themselves and began to leave after Paul had made this final statement: “The Holy Spirit spoke the truth to your forefathers when he said through Isaiah the prophet:

²⁷ For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.’

³⁰For two whole years Paul stayed there in his own rented house and welcomed all who came to see him. ³¹Boldly and without hindrance he preached the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ. (Acts 28:1-31)

Last week I talked about verses 1 through 10. The islanders, though they were pagans, showed special kindness toward Paul and those with him. They supplied all their needs.

And Paul was able to show the glory of God by healing the sick on the island. All the sick on the island came to him and were cured. Also last week I warned you (and me too) to avoid testing God by failing to do things that we ought to do (like avoiding poisonous snakes, but also some more mundane things) and then saying that God will take care of it.

Now let’s go on to verse 11 in the passage. Verse 11 tells us that they had stayed on the island where they had been shipwrecked (Malta) for three months. They had stayed through the winter until the weather was better. The people of the island had provided for them all of that time. (Do you think that that was a miracle or that it was just the custom of the local people to provide? I don’t know, but we are more selfish these days than they were then. It’s not our custom these days to provide for people to have a place to live and feed them. But in any case, God does provide for those who belong to him and who serve him.) They set out for Rome on an Alexandrian ship with the figurehead of the twin gods Castor and Pollux. The twin gods Castor and Pollux were the gods who were believed to watch over sailors.

The ship stopped at Syracuse on Sicily and then went on to Rhegium on the toe of the boot of Italy. They finally stopped at Puteoli. They apparently had smooth sailing all the way. (We have times of trial and times of smooth sailing in our lives, too. God gives us times of testing and times of rest. So, consider it pure joy my brothers...)

At Puteoli, they found some brothers, so I assume they had looked for them—again the importance of being with other Christians. We need to seek to be with other believers. We’ve talked about it for the last two weeks.

The Christian brothers invited them to stay with them for a week. (Luke doesn’t say anything about the centurion and soldiers who were guarding the prisoners, but apparently it was OK with them for Paul to stay in Puteoli for a week. I wonder if they had become believers by that time.) The rest of the trip from Puteoli to Rome was by land. I looked at a map and it looks like they had about 100 miles to go.

Verse 15 says that the brothers from Rome had heard that they were coming and came all the way from Rome to the Three Taverns and to the Forum of Appius to meet them. From the map it looks like the Three Taverns was about 20 miles from Rome and the Forum of Appius was about 40 miles. How did the brothers from Rome hear that they were coming? Someone must have sent a message to Rome during the week they were staying at Puteoli. Some of the brothers that came from Rome traveled 20 or 40 miles to meet them—not a big deal these days, but quite a distance then. When Paul saw them, he was encouraged and thanked God.

You know, Paul had healed all the sick on Malta. And God had miraculously saved everyone on the ship even though the ship was completely destroyed. God’s presence and power were certainly with Paul. Yet, he still needed encouragement from other believers. And God provided that, too—encouragement from other believers. Paul thanked God for them. Let’s thank God for the fellowship we have with other believers.

And by the way, Tom’s trip to Myanmar (the Lord willing) will probably take around the same time as the trip from Rome to the Forum of Appius (although it will be quite a bit more expensive). But, if you don’t want to travel (20 or 40 miles, or half way around the world), there’s the telephone. Donna was really happy to hear from us the other day.

In Rome, Paul had quite a bit of freedom. He was allowed to live by himself with a soldier to guard him (although he was still in chains). (I’ve read that it would have been customary for the soldier to be chained to Paul.) Anyway, it appears that he was free to call a meeting of the leaders of the Jews so that he could preach the gospel to them. (It was generally his custom to offer the gospel to the Jews first—then to the Gentiles.) Paul waited three days (maybe for rest and certainly for prayer) and then called a meeting. (v 17)

Paul first explained to them how he had gotten there (to Rome—vv 17, 18) and then gave them the reason he had called them together: “For this reason I have asked to see you and talk with you. It is because of the hope of Israel that I am bound with this chain.” (20)

What is the hope of Israel? It’s the hope of the Messiah. It’s the hope of salvation. It’s the hope of the resurrection of the dead. That’s why Paul was in chains. That’s why he had been kept in prison for two years and then was taken to Rome as a prisoner when he could have been set free at Caesarea. It was because of the hope of Israel. And I can ask this: Just what is it that we hope for? Is our hope in heaven? Is our hope in the resurrection of the dead? Is our hope fully in Jesus Christ—in becoming like him and seeing him as he is? Or, is it in this world? Let’s fix our eyes on Jesus!

The Jews in Rome had heard about the Christians (“this sect”) and knew that they were spoken against everywhere. They hadn’t heard anything bad about Paul, however, and wanted him to explain his views to them. (vv 21, 22) They arranged to meet with Paul again.

You know, when you’ve heard nothing but bad about some group or some teaching, what do you expect to hear when someone agrees to explain it to you? Do you prepare yourself with great expectation and excitement to hear some wonderful news? Or do you prepare yourself to shoot down everything that is said. How open are we and how carefully do we consider other people’s ideas?

Paul spent a whole day (morning to evening –v 23) trying to persuade an even larger group of Jews about the Jesus and the kingdom of God. He argued that Jesus fulfilled all that was written about him in the Old Testament—that he was the one that Moses and the prophets had written about. (And really, what our faith is all about is that God does what he says he is going to do—that he fulfills his prophecies—that if he says that he is going to send the Savior of the world, he does it—and that if he says that we have eternal life through faith in Jesus, we have it!!

Look at verse 24: “Some were convinced by what he said, but others would not believe.” Remember what Jesus said to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus after he was raised from the dead? “How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!” Later they asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?” These two believed when they heard Jesus explain the Scriptures to them. (And they didn’t know it was Jesus until later. They thought he was dead.) But just as the two disciples that Jesus taught on the Emmaus road believed, some of the Jews that Paul preached to believed. But, apparently most of them didn’t. Let me read Paul’s final statement to them. This from 23 through 26. He quoted again from the Old Testament:

“You will be ever hearing, but never understanding!” They knew all the Old Testament scriptures concerning Jesus. They heard them in the synagogues every Sabbath. They heard them and heard them and heard them. But they didn’t understand. Why not? Because their hearts had become calloused.

If you sit and hear the same thing week after week and do nothing to put it into practice, your heart becomes calloused. If we are always hearers of the word, but never doers, our hearts become more and more hardened and we are less and less convicted to do what God says for us to do. We become experts at hearing but not doing! And I believe that this applies to both believers and unbelievers. (And by the way, the first thing you need to do, if you haven’t done it, is to admit you are a sinner and entrust yourself to Jesus for salvation. Ask him to save you. Ask God to save you. If you delay, your heart will become harder and harder and it will be harder and harder to do. You will finally be lost. So cross over from death to life!)

Paul got to preach the gospel in Rome freely for two years—maybe more. In Paul’s final greetings to the Philippians (in Philippians 4:22) he said, “All the saints send you greetings, especially those who belong to Caesar's household.” Apparently many in Caesar’s household had become Christians! And we know that Paul got to testify before Caesar. We know it because Jesus sent him to Rome for that very purpose. It was confirmed by the angel that spoke to him on the ship just before the shipwreck.