Grace Baptist Church

Pastor Chris Bell: Let's pray and ask that God would be glorified through the preaching of his word. Father, thank you for another day of life that you've given to us, and not just any day, it is another Lord's day. It is a day that we gather together joyfully in the name of our Savior that we might give him all praise and we might grow and be nourished in him.

Father, we've just sang of the great truth that all that you do is for your glory and the good of your people. And yet we so often lose sight of that. Our lives are filled with difficulties and circumstances beyond our control and there are many circumstances represented in this room today. And yet even as the song said at the beginning, it's at those times that we need to turn our eyes to you and it's as we look to you that we remember what you are doing, that you are doing all things for your glory and our good.

So Father, I pray that you would magnify yourself in our sight this morning. And Father, help us to recognize that your glory and our good are not mutually exclusive, but that as we take greater delight in you, that is for our good, that is also the thing that glorifies you the most. So Father, I pray that you would turn our eyes to you even right now during this time through the word of God as it is preached that it might be for your glory and our good. We thank you in Jesus' name, Amen.

Well, as we get into Acts 28, the end of the book is literally in sight as the close of this final chapter is actually just on the very next page in my Bible from where we are at this morning. But let's briefly review what we saw last week, a very lengthy chapter, chapter 27, but we managed to do it in one shot. After the long trial section of the book, Paul began the voyage to Rome. But this voyage proved disastrous as the crew was caught in a colossal storm and shipwrecked.

Yet not a single life of any of the crew was lost as God answered Paul's prayer to preserve the lives of every single one of them. And so whether by swimming or by floating on the wreckage, all 276 men made it to the beach. And it's exactly at that point that we really resume the account today, right where we left off. It seamlessly transitions. So follow along with me as ultimately we will see together this morning that through the ministry of his people, Christ continues the advance of his kingdom in the world and meets the needs of his faithful servants.

Through the ministry of his people, Christ continues the advance of his kingdom in the world and meets the needs of his faithful servants. Follow along with me as we read Acts chapter 28, verses 1 through 16, and this is the word of God to us this morning. 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 had 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 who had diseases also came and were cured. They also honored us greatly, and when we were about to sail, they put on board whatever we needed.

After three months, we set sail in a ship that had wintered in the island, a ship of Alexandria with the twin gods as a figurehead. Putting in at Syracuse, we stayed there for three days. And from there we made a circuit and arrived at Rhegium. And after one day a south wind sprang up and on the second day we came to Puteoli. There we found brothers and were invited to stay with them for seven days. And so we came to Rome. And the brothers there, when they heard about us, came as far as the forum of Appius and three taverns to meet us. On seeing them, Paul thanked God and took courage. And when we came into Rome, Paul was allowed to stay by himself with the soldier who guarded him.

So this morning's passage really breaks down into two main scenes: verses 1 through 10 being the focus on the island of Malta and then verses 11 through 16 showing the final leg of that journey into Rome. But first, we're going to look at verses 1 through 10: the kingdom comes to Malta. Let's pick it up in verse 1 again. It says after we were brought safely through, we then learned that the island was called Malta.

So you'll recall last week that when daylight came, the sailors saw the island that they were to try to beach the ship on, but they didn't actually recognize it. They didn't know where they were. Well, now once they all make it safely to the beach, they eventually learn that they are on Malta. And we'll pull up our map again that we looked at last week, and so you can see Malta, this little island right here beneath Sicily. And so this is actually the furthest west that Paul has made it in the book of Acts so far. He's never pushed this far.

And so really as one of the closing scenes of the entire book, the fact that this is the furthest west that he has pushed really is a tangible illustration of Acts 1, verse 8. You'll remember this is really the programmatic verse of the entire book setting the agenda for the whole. Jesus says to them, "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth." And the book has really even followed sort of that geographical progression as it's gone. And so now we're on this little island of Malta, the furthest west that Paul has gone, and it's as if it's a scene illustrating the advance to the ends of the earth of the gospel.

But there's something else really interesting about them arriving at Malta, because this week as I was studying for this sermon, I learned something that I never knew before, despite having read this passage many times. And that is that Malta was actually on the normal itinerary for Alexandrian grain ships making the journey from Alexandria to Italy. You'll recall from last week that Paul was on board an Alexandrian grain ship heading to Italy when the shipwreck happened.

So the storm, it would seem, actually ended up taking the ship back on course to Malta where they would have stopped anyway. And I think there's evidence even in the text itself that Malta would have been a planned stopping point on the journey because look with me at verse 11. If we skip ahead to verse 11, it says after three months we set sail in a ship that had wintered in the island, a ship of Alexandria with the twin gods as a figurehead. So when they finally are ready to leave Malta, what kind of a ship do they board? A ship from Alexandria, just as their last ship was from Alexandria.

So it's probably another ship from the same grain fleet, indicating that they yes would have stopped here anyway along the way. But the sailors, they didn't recognize Malta because they shipwrecked on the northern beach instead of stopping at the eastern port like they normally would have. And so they didn't at first see any of those familiar landmarks that would have clued them in that this was in fact Malta. And even today, there is an area on Malta named Saint Paul's Beach. Saint Paul's Beach, as you could guess by the name, is thought to be the area where Paul shipwrecked. And so it's pretty neat that that element of biblical history is even still recorded to this day in the name.

But that raises a question in my mind. If Paul would have stopped here anyway, why did they have to go through so much pain and heartache through the storm in order to get there? In the sovereignty of God, what was the point of them going through all of that if they were always supposed to stop here anyway? Well, we don't know for sure, but I'm going to make one suggestion based on verse 11. It says after three months we set sail in a ship that had wintered in the island. Verse 11 indicates that Paul spent three months on Malta. They waited out some of the winter until they could realistically sail again.

But if the sailors' original plan of wintering in Phoenix worked, they wouldn't have spent these three months on Malta. Instead, they would have spent the winter in Phoenix. Instead, they would have just made a routine stop at the port of Malta before moving on, and so Paul wouldn't have had months to minister to the natives. So here's my suggestion: that God used the foolish decision of the sailors to not listen to Paul's advice to stay at Fair Havens so that the storm would force them away from Phoenix and toward Malta in order that Paul would have additional time to perform his ministry to the Maltese people.

That's still just a guess though as to the reason why God let it play out the way he did. But there's really a reminder in that for us that sometimes we do wonder why God lets things happen the way they do. We go through some ordeal and sometimes we can't even discern what his purpose in it might have been. We may have some possible guesses as to what he was accomplishing through some trial, but even then we're not entirely sure. And it's in those moments that we have to have such a confidence in God's sovereign wisdom that we can rest in knowing that God knows best in all things that he brings into our lives even if we never end up learning the reason for it during this life. Some things you just never know. And that's okay because we know the one who does know the reason for it all.

But we'll continue on in verse 2. It says 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. You see, through the Maltese people, God is kind to provide for Paul and the others once again. You can imagine the absolute and utter exhaustion of the crew after the two-week storm and the cold that they're feeling as they are soaked through and through from swimming to shore only to be further soaked by this cold rain. And the Maltese, they provide just what is needed, a nice warm fire.

Now, if you're reading from the old King James version, you'll notice that instead of calling them native people in verse 2, it translates it as barbarous people, as in barbarians. That's a little bit misleading for us reading today because when we think of barbarians, what do you think of? You think of uncivilized savages. But the kindness really of these Maltese people shows that these are far from savages. But we have to understand that in the time that this was written, a barbarian was simply anyone who didn't speak Greek. And so these are just the native non-Greek-speaking people of the island.

But Paul just can't seem to get a break. It would seem that Paul has sort of, as we might say, gotten out of the frying pan and into the fire. Look with me at verse 3. 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. So we see here, Paul is gathering sticks for the fire. When he puts out the sticks into the fire, though, the heat naturally causes this venomous snake to wake up and it wants to get out. Get out of that heat! And so where does it run to? Well, it runs straight to the Apostle Paul's hand, fastens right on him.

And having come from West Virginia, this scene, it makes perfect sense to me because I know from experience that snakes do in fact love wood. You see, back when I was in high school, I lived in a small cabin out in the holler, as they would say in West Virginia, and our heat source in that cabin was a wood-burning stove. But you see, we made a pretty important mistake and that was the mistake of stacking the wood, the firewood, right up against the front of the deck of our cabin. And we came to realize that we had a nest of copperheads—yes, copperhead snakes—living in that woodpile. Dangerous stuff.

And so I'm going to show you a picture of me from the summer of 2015, a 19-year-old skinny kid holding what appeared to be the mother snake after my dad took the shot. And so here goes. There's skinny 19-year-old Chris Bell holding that copperhead up after my dad blasted it from our woodpile. But I'm sure nobody wants to see that any longer than you have to. So we're going to get back to this nice picture of the island instead. But yes, all that to say, yes, snakes love wood.

But what is the significance of this snake bite in Luke's account? Why is it included here for us? Well, let's keep reading so that we can break it down. First, notice the wrong conclusion that the Maltese people draw from this in verse 4. Verse 4, 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." So the people, they see that Paul is a prisoner and they see that he's just survived this shipwreck and so they think that surely for someone to go through this misfortune, the gods must be after him.

He must have done something really bad like murder and the gods are just trying to enact justice. And the thought is that even though the gods failed to kill Paul at sea despite trying, justice is ensuring that the job gets finished by sending this snake bite to kill Paul so that really the bite is viewed as divine retribution. And you'll notice that some translations actually capitalize the word Justice in verse 4, and that's because this is most likely a reference to the pagan goddess named Justice.

But from verses 2 through 4, we really learn something about the natives of Malta and that is that despite having never come into contact with Christianity, they already have some sense of morality and justice. The people know that they should show kindness and hospitality to the shipwrecked sailors, and so they do. And they also know that murder is wrong, and so they speculate that Paul's misfortune is an expression of divine justice bringing punishment to him. So where did these pagans get such a notion of morality and justice from?

Well, the Apostle Paul helps us out in the book of Romans. One passage, Romans chapter 2, verses 12 through 16, Paul writes, "For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified. For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts while their conscience also bears witness and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them on that day when according to my gospel God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus."

So Paul here points out how even Gentiles who never received God's moral law, which was written down and given to the Jews, still naturally know right from wrong and that is because the law of God is written on their hearts. Now, when you read that, don't think that this means that the law of God is written in their hearts in a new covenant sense of being indwelt by the Holy Spirit to empower true obedience to God. Instead, from the context we should understand that to be a reference to the conscience. There's a sense in which every human being has God's law written on the heart because God has given each of us a conscience which instinctively knows right from wrong.

And because of that, the Gentiles do what the law requires, even when they haven't been given God's law in writing like the Jews did. Once again, don't think that that means that lost sinners are able to sufficiently obey God's law so as to be pleasing in his sight. But instead, we should simply understand this to be a reference to the way that yes, even pagan Gentiles like the Maltese in Acts 28 have a sense of morality that they conform themselves to in some measure as they frown down upon things like murder and they value things like kindness and hospitality.

And so we understand that God's common grace restrains the sin of humanity so that even lost people don't express their wickedness to the maximum degree that they could. God holds that back so that even among the lost there are some expressions of kindness that we see in this world. But this inner sense of right and wrong that God gives to everyone renders every single person culpable before him so that all who sin without the law, Paul says, will perish without the law.

In other words, even though the Gentile world didn't have the special revelation of God's law written in scripture, they still know enough to be morally culpable and judged for their sins because the general revelation of the conscience that God gave them is enough to let them know that they have sinned. So God can justly judge them and they will perish even if they never received the light of scripture. You see, general revelation, the knowledge of God in creation and in conscience, is sufficient to condemn humanity, but it is not sufficient to save humanity.

And that's really important because it flies in the face of a false doctrine being held by some today called inclusivism. Inclusivism teaches that people in parts of the world who never get the opportunity to hear the gospel may still be saved through the work of Christ so long as they respond positively to the light that they have already received in general revelation. It teaches that salvation is possible apart from conscious faith in Jesus Christ for people who have never heard of him if they do sincerely seek God according to the light that they do have in creation and conscience.

But this directly contradicts scripture because Paul would go on to say in Romans chapter 3, verses 10 through 11, "As it is written, none is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God." And so yeah, everybody has general revelation, but what's the common truth of all humanity? Apart from the intervening grace of God, everybody without exception suppresses that. Nobody actually does seek him. We exchange the glory of God for the images of things like mortal man and beasts and all manner of idols.

So nobody actually does seek him. But second of all, it contradicts what Paul says in Romans chapter 10, verses 12 through 15. Paul says, "For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." How then—now this is really important, listen to his chain of logic here—"How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news."

So Paul's logic here is crystal clear. Only those who appeal to Christ for salvation, calling on him, will be saved. Only those who believe in him will call on him. Only those who hear about Christ will believe in Christ. Only those who have a preacher sent to them will actually hear about Christ in the first place, and only those who are sent will go and preach. So there is no room for inclusivism in Paul's teaching. For salvation to occur, the explicit content of the gospel must be presented for people to respond in faith. People must know that Jesus died to pay for the sins of...