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Today: [Acts 28:] Book of Acts – Conclusion: The book of Acts begins as a chronicle of early church leadership. It concludes as a biography of one man, the Apostle Paul. This demonstrates to you the impact that Paul’s life had on the formative decades of the church and what a difference your life, a solitary life can make on the world around you.
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[Act 28:1-15 KJV] 1 And when they were escaped, then they knew that the island was called Melita. 2 And the barbarous people shewed us no little kindness: for they kindled a fire, and received us every one, because of the present rain, and because of the cold. 3 And when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks, and laid [them] on the fire, there came a viper out of the heat, and fastened on his hand. 4 And when the barbarians saw the [venomous] beast hang on his hand, they said among themselves, No doubt this man is a murderer, whom, though he hath escaped the sea, yet vengeance suffereth not to live. 5 And he shook off the beast into the fire, and felt no harm. 6 Howbeit they looked when he should have swollen, or fallen down dead suddenly: but after they had looked a great while, and saw no harm come to him, they changed their minds, and said that he was a god. 7 In the same quarters were possessions of the chief man of the island, whose name was Publius; who received us, and lodged us three days courteously. 8 And it came to pass, that the father of Publius lay sick of a fever and of a bloody flux: to whom Paul entered in, and prayed, and laid his hands on him, and healed him. 9 So when this was done, others also, which had diseases in the island, came, and were healed: 10 Who also honoured us with many honours; and when we departed, they laded [us] with such things as were necessary. 11 And after three months we departed in a ship of Alexandria, which had wintered in the isle, whose sign was Castor and Pollux. 12 And landing at Syracuse, we tarried [there] three days. 13 And from thence we fetched a compass, and came to Rhegium: and after one day the south wind blew, and we came the next day to Puteoli: 14 Where we found brethren, and were desired to tarry with them seven days: and so we went toward Rome. 15 And from thence, when the brethren heard of us, they came to meet us as far as Appii forum, and The three taverns: whom when Paul saw, he thanked God, and took courage.
Paul, the apostle, arrives in Melita in the final chapter of the book of Acts after appealing to the judgment of Rome concerning accusations held against him by the Jews in the Holy City. He was among a ship’s company of 200 men who suffer shipwreck in chapter 27 and find themselves on a foreign shore among a barbarous people disposed to treat them kindly in their dilemma. The book of Acts began as a history of the early church but is eclipsed midstream by the enormity of Paul’s life and his impact on the fledgling movement. This fact is a profound indicator of how much one man’s life can not only impact those around him but in Paul’s case all of Christianity and verily the human race from his conversion on the road to Damascus down to the present day. Did Paul grasp the magnitude of his influence? Very unlikely as uppermost in his mind is against hope to bring the gospel to his people the Jews in spite of dozens of divine warnings that his would be a futile effort.
Was Paul unable to reach the Jews because they were so intransigent in their rejection of the gospel? Considering Apollos great success in convincing the Jews we must carefully consider this. In preaching to the Jews with the emphasis that Paul did in spite of God sending him time and again to the Gentile – his success or lack thereof is as much commentary on his refusal to accept the parameters of his own call as it is of the hardness of Jewish hearts. In your own life and ministry (and you do have a ministry) you have to realize if you are not reaching those you feel drawn to is this because you are misdirected in your understanding of your calling or because your constituents are just that resistant to the message? It may be that another servant called and ordained may have dramatic success in the very field of hardened ground where you have failed. Jesus plainly taught the disciples that when they were resisted in one city or among one people they were to flee to another. What is it that makes us unwilling to move on? Perhaps the rigors of following Jesus and fulfilling the great commission are so difficult for us that we would rather accuse a city of being in a reprobate condition rather than facing the fact that we are operating as Paul plainly does outside of the focused parameters of our call. Learn to acknowledge your failures, and your successes will present themselves to you in full view.
In the midst of seeming failure we cannot impeach Paul’s character fully nor would we want to because in the aftermath of his resistance even to obey the resurrected Jesus appearing before him, Paul still went on to write 2/3rds of the New Testament and to be the single most significant influence on all of human history excepting Jesus Himself.
After the shipwreck on Miletus, the band of survivors gathers together to find heat for themselves in the cold. Paul doesn’t sit idly by but gathering wood for the fire is bitten by a poisonous viper. The superstitious residents of Miletus see this and conclude that since the sea didn’t take his life, the gods were sending a viper to take him whom they conclude must be a vile, evil and pestilential fellow. When Paul doesn’t oblige them by falling down dead however they reverse their judgment and conclude he is a god, revering him and sheltering him in the home of the chief leader of their populace. Isn’t it interesting that Paul doesn’t correct their error as in the case in Acts 14:12 when he preached with Barnabas in Lycaonia.
While staying in the home of Publius the city chieftain Paul lays hands on the man’s sick father and he his healed instantly, prompting a procession of the sick and diseased to present themselves to him, and he healed them all. Luke is with Paul in this adventure, mentioning in v. 10 the many honors and privileges heaped upon them as a result until they find shipping once again under the centurion Julius guard to continue for three months making their way toward Rome.
[Acts 28:16-31 KJV]
16 And when we came to Rome, the centurion delivered the prisoners to the captain of the guard: but Paul was suffered to dwell by himself with a soldier that kept him. 17 And it came to pass, that after three days Paul called the chief of the Jews together: and when they came together, he said unto them, Men [and] brethren, though I have committed nothing against the people, or customs of our fathers, yet was I delivered prisoner from Jerusalem into the hands of the Romans. 18 Who, when they had examined me, would have let [me] go, because there was no cause of death in me. 19 But when the Jews spake against [it], I was constrained to appeal unto Caesar; not that I had ought to accuse my nation of. 20 For this cause therefore have I called for you, to see [you], and to speak with [you]: because that for the hope of Israel I am bound with this chain. 21 And they said unto him, We neither received letters out of Judaea concerning thee, neither any of the brethren that came shewed or spake any harm of thee. 22 But we desire to hear of thee what thou thinkest: for as concerning this sect, we know that every where it is spoken against. 23 And when they had appointed him a day, there came many to him into [his] lodging; to whom he expounded and testified the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus, both out of the law of Moses, and [out of] the prophets, from morning till evening. 24 And some believed the things which were spoken, and some believed not. 25 And when they agreed not among themselves, they departed, after that Paul had spoken one word, Well spake the Holy Ghost by Esaias the prophet unto our fathers, 26 Saying, Go unto this people, and say, Hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and not perceive: 27 For the heart of this people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed; lest they should see with [their] eyes, and hear with [their] ears, and understand with [their] heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. 28 Be it known therefore unto you, that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles, and [that] they will hear it. 29 And when he had said these words, the Jews departed, and had great reasoning among themselves. 30 And Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house, and received all that came in unto him, 31 Preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, with all confidence, no man forbidding him.
When Paul arrives in Rome, Julius is assigned elsewhere, and he is delivered to the captain of the guard who puts him in the custody of a soldier to accompany him at all times. This was ostensibly to keep Paul from escaping, but he must have appreciated the security that safeguarded his him from the many attempts to assassinate him from amongst the Jews that harbored such murderous hatred against him for his advocacy of the Gentile nations in the gospel. After three days Paul is settled into his new circumstances and presents himself to the Jewish leadership of the city of Rome who feign having no knowledge whatsoever of his plight or the resistance he has encountered in every quarter from his kinsmen and their own.
Did the Jews honestly not know of the controversy surrounding Paul? Judging by the judicious and lenient hearing that they gave him when he recounted his testimony and his ministry before them it indeed is possible that God supernaturally sheltered the Jewish community in Rome in hopes that they would receive the gospel at Paul’s hand. Paul preaches among them for an entire day set aside to deliberate his doctrine, and in fact, many of them do convert, but the majority refuse and strong contention breaks out among them. It is interesting that Paul isn’t satisfied with the many converts who do turn to Christ through his preaching. He is absolutely incensed that the entire community doesn’t come to Jesus by his teaching. These are the results he is expecting and has come to expect during the years of his preaching. For you and I if we win just a few meager followers of Jesus in a city of 1000’s we think a revival has broken out. Paul expected much more than this and that had been his experience. Because all the Jews didn’t accept Jesus, he denounces them resoundingly declaring that the words of Isaiah are fulfilled in that hearing they will not hear and seeing they will not see. With that, we then come to a turning point in the proffering of the gospel to the Jews, and from this day the curtain or veil of unbelief falls upon them as a people, and within just a few short years the demographic makeup of the church is overwhelmingly Gentile in composition.
How does the Acts narrative end? With Paul under house arrest in his own rented domicile, preaching the gospel for two years without hindrance to all those who came to him. Does the book of Acts conclude hear? It does not. It continues as an unending narrative that makes itself as available to us in its graces and giftings as it was to the principal figures within its pages – Peter, John, Barnabas, even Paul itself. While many claim that these days are gone forever we have only anecdotal but no doctrinal grounds whatsoever to do anything other than cry out to God in our hearts “Revive us again oh, God that we might so live in your sight!”
