Acts 28: God Is Faithful

We walk through Acts 28 on Malta and trace how God’s faithfulness carries Paul from a storm to shore and turns a snakebite and a winter delay into a door for healing. We challenge ourselves to remember what God has already brought us through, work with a servant’s attitude, and pray boldly even when it feels awkward. 
• Luke’s repeated “we” as eyewitness detail and a reason the account feels grounded and trustworthy 
• God landing the shipwrecked crew in Malta and how providence can guide even when you feel lost 
• Paul gathering sticks as a model of humility and willingness to work 
• The viper bite and how doing good can still bring pain while God protects and uses it 
• “Justice” as a pagan deity and how people misread events through their worldview 
• Paul praying for Publius’ father and the ripple effect of healing across the island 
• Remembering God’s faithfulness instead of normalizing blessings and fixating on one bad day 
• Building a lifestyle of prayer, including praying for strangers and not giving in to embarrassment 
• Seeing Christianity as personal and outward-facing, with everyday moments becoming chances for God’s glory to reach others 

Transcript

Reading Acts 28 On Malta

Luke’s “We” And Why It Matters

Why Malta Is A Quiet Miracle

Vipers Then And Now

“Justice” As A Pagan God

Healing Publius’ Father Through Prayer

How To Preach A Simple Story

SPEAKER_00 0:20

We are steadily moving through the book of Acts. We're at the end of the book of Acts, really. And last week we talked about Paul as his journey from the Middle East to Rome. There's a storm. They're off play off place. They're all over the place. Wind's blowing. It's crazy. It's madness. They're going to die. They're not going to die. Paul knows they're not going to die and he believes God's word. And out of his belief in God's word, he's able to lead, to have wisdom, to have a calm mind. And sure enough, God does deliver them. The boat is shattered, but they survive and they make it to shore. And that's sort of where we are this week. Acts chapter 28, verses 1 through 10 says this. 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 and fastened onto 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, and 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 lay sick with fever and dysentery, and Paul visited him and prayed, and putting his hands on him healed him. And when he had and when this had taken place, the rest of the people on the island who had diseases also came and were cured. They also humored us greatly. And when we were about to sail, they put on board whatever we needed. Desperately wish this text was not so small. Alright. Couple of notes here from the scripture that we got to draw out. Luke once again uses this word we. He used it last week. He uses it again this week, we. This tells us that Luke was not just basically uh receiving this news from from somebody. He experienced it firsthand. In several places in the book of Acts, we see where he uses we. He was there. He experienced it. That's why it is so detailed. That's why it's trustworthy. And we actually see that the crew, as they come ashore to this island, they don't know where they are. They don't know that they're in Malta. But when they come to the island and they see the people, they hear the language, they learn that it is Malta, which is, by the way, a small miracle. We're not going to talk about this long. It's a miracle there in Malta. And here's why. Malta was one of the places that they should have been, anyways. Right? If you recall correctly to last week, they're in the storm and they lose track of where they are. They basically give up. They basically just put the cells up, they draw the anchor, they start throwing over everything overboard just to survive. They don't know where they're going. They have no clue where they are. And yet somehow God lands them exactly where they should have been to begin with. God is faithful. Amen. And they get to this island and it's it's cold, it's winter time, and Paul is working as we see him always work. He's making himself useful. And while he's making himself useful, he's bitten by a viper, it says, a viper. And of course, the islanders think that he's going to die. He doesn't die. The interesting thing about this that we often know is that if you go on Reddit or if you're on social media, people will use this scripture to point out, oh, you see, you see, there's no vipers in the Mediterranean. This can't be true. Well, they fail to realize that this is 2,000 years ago, and there were vipers there 2,000 years ago. A thing happens when humans inhabit a place is that they slowly change the flora and fauna. Just like the fact that, you know, there used to be lions that roamed all the way into the lower parts of Europe, into Turkey. As little as 2,000 years ago, there are lions all the way in Turkey sometimes. As a little as 200 years ago, there were still lions all the way to the very coast of Africa and into the Middle East. Cheetahs used to exist from India all the way through over to Africa. They don't anymore. Humans change things. And so it's just a bit of non-common sense for people to point to this and say, this is the reason why you can't trust this scripture because it's 2,000 years later. There were vipers there. But he's bitten by a viper, right? And the people expect that justice. They use justice. I don't know if you noticed this, but on the scripture, justice is capitalized. That's a reason. Because it's not just a concept they're talking about. They're talking about a God. They literally have a God called justice. And so they think justice is going to get this Paul guy. Like Paul is this prisoner, right? He's escaped this boating accident, which makes it seem less than what it was, like right at Lake Lanier. That's not what this is. Even though there's quite a few boating, that's a different topic. I shouldn't get on the boating accidents at Lake Lanier. That's a whole different thing. But this boating accident, and they think, oh, he escaped that, but justice is not going to let this murderer escape. But he does. And of course, they they end up trying to try to call him a god. If you recall correctly, back in Acts, I think it's Lyestra, something happens and people think that Paul is a god there too. They try to worship him. He tells them not to. This doesn't really happen there. But anyways, it does lead to a chance for him to be brought before the leader of the island. And while he's brought before the leader of the island, uh it comes to his attention that the leader's father is sick and he prays for him and he's healed. And of course, that inspires other people in the town and the region to bring their sick to him. And basically, all of this leads to the fact that they were, it's a very pleasant time and experience for them to sort of wait out the winter because that's what they're doing. They're waiting out the storm season until they can find passage back to Rome. And from all of this, they're honored and they're given supplies to make it to Rome. Now this is one of those scriptures that I can read a couple of times, and I'm reading it from a pastor's perspective, and I'm thinking, how am I supposed to preach this? What is there to preach? It's not like we have Paul, like one of Paul's messages recorded here. We don't we don't have one of his testimonies. We don't know what he said to the villagers. I'm sure he testified. I'm sure, I'm sure he spread the gospel the best way he could to these people. We don't have that. We don't have that. And so just as a pastor, I'm sitting there, and for about a day and a half, I'm I'm driving down the road, by the way. I had a busy week. So I couldn't even sit down and read this the way I wanted to at first. I had to listen to it a couple of times on the road. And I'm just thinking in my head, what are how am I what am I what am I drawing out here for us? And the reality is if if uh if if you just look long enough, you realize there's some significant things here that we can use today. Now, the trick is going to be able to find those significant things in my notes because the text is so small. You can laugh later, it's okay. Or now, the networks too. Thank you. Thank you so much. Where's Carrie? I need her joke journal, right? Uh okay, I gotta I gotta keep going. I I'll just I'll belabor that joke until it's no longer a joke. Can't do that, you can't laugh like that. All right, it encourages me. Uh here's the here's the first thing that we take notice of. The first thing that jumps out to me from this what would simply just be a recounting of something that happened. The chapter starts with after we were brought safely through. They were brought safely through, without 100% rehashing what we preached about and talked about last week. I simply have to say that God is faithful. He's faithful, he's good, he's trustworthy. If he says something, if he promises you something, and he promises us many things in scripture, it you can trust it. You can hold on to it. Just a few moments before this segment of the scripture, maybe a couple of hours before this, that they're on a boat, right? And and and they're they're they're gonna they're they're sinking. The boat is being smashed, and none of them know, except for maybe Paul and maybe a couple of people who are who are with Paul understand and believe that there's a way out of this, and yet now they're on dry ground and now they're safe. They didn't die. The storm didn't stop, the the boat didn't survive, but they survived. God is faithful. He's faithful. They made it through. And my question and what this makes me reflect on is my own life. How many times have I made it through? How many times have you made it through? How many times have you made it through something that that you didn't have to make it through, but you did? How many tough moments have you experienced and yet you're still standing? How many uncomfortable moments did you work your way through and you're still here? And it's a testimony to God's faithfulness. Well, whatever it might be, whether it's financially, socially, whether it's illness and physical things, you are here now. You've experienced things, and and you are still here. He is faithful. And the problem, the thing that happens that that is the danger here, is that is that we forget it. It should be a normal expectation that we believe that God is faithful. That should be a part of who we are. It should be the norm. When we think of who God is, we think of faithfulness. When we think of his scripture, we think of faithfulness. When when God has told us something through the Holy Spirit or through his word or through our prayer time, he is trustworthy. It's normal. The problem with normal is that it becomes uh real easy to get complacent and to put it in the background and and and we forget how amazing it is that we are here. We're here. He's faithful, he's good. We're still standing. We forget the blessing too often and we fixate on the problem. We have one bad day in the midst of six good days, and we forget the six good days because we just normalize his blessings. We normalize his faithfulness. Deuteronomy chapter 8, verse 2. And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these 40 years in the wilderness. Remember the whole way. The psalmist says, I will remember the deeds of the Lord. Yes, I will remember your wonders of old. I will ponder all your works and meditate on your mighty deeds. You have some mighty deeds in your life, whether you want to realize it or not. The fact that you're in church, the fact that you're saved, is mighty deed enough to remember and hold on to for your life. And then if you have much more than that that you've survived in your life, he is faithful, he is good. Don't forget it. Don't forget it. Don't let the work that God does for you become background noise. I don't want to. I just think back to his faithfulness. I think back to how he provided for me, how he has taken care of me, how he has uh drugged me through sometimes, even through my own mistakes. And I don't want the fact that he did that to become commonplace and normal in my life. It has to become embedded into who I am, it has to create wisdom, it has to create understanding, it has to create worship and appreciation. When we get up here on a Sunday morning and we are worshiping and we are singing, it has to be embedded into what we are doing. Amen. Next thing we get this little glimpse of Paul's willingness to to work. Paul's willing to work as an example to us. Um I I don't want to read too much into scripture from my own personal experience, but when I do read this and I reflect on Paul's willingness to work, I mean he's he's there gathering sticks, making a fire, he's putting himself to work, and he's not a young man at this point. I'm sure there's other young people uh there, but he's jumping in and being involved. On a personal level, when I look at that, Paul's a minister, I'm a minister, I have been blessed in my life to work full-time in a church. And now, of course, I'm in a different season, and now I can't work full-time in a church, and my time is split, my thoughts are split a little bit. All right? And I don't know. There is this from my perspective, a pastoral perspective, a preaching perspective, where I look back on those days whenever I was completely uh encapsulated by church stuff, and it's real easy for me to view that as a more productive time than right now. I was working just like I'm working now, but it's different. I had more time. And I'm working now. I'm working now. It's different. Neither one's better, is what I've realized. I'm enjoying right now so much because I am I am in this process of working. I am rubbing elbows with people that I normally wouldn't rub elbows with. I am being exposed to things and therefore exposing the gospel to certain places and things that normally I wouldn't be able to expose the gospel to. Paul, in his life, as you reflect on it, there are times whenever he goes into a place and he is fully supported by other churches to be able to work without worrying about vocation. Okay? And yet there's other times where he jumps in and he is completely and holy and willing and able to jump in and right work his vocation while doing his spiritual vocation. Both are good, both are worthy. Now, moving on to something a little more practical for us, just as a general example, be a person who's willing to work. Be a person who's willing to jump in and do something. See a need, feel a need.

unknown 15:00

Right?

Remembering God’s Faithfulness

Work Hard Even When It Bites

SPEAKER_00 15:00

Whether it be at work, whether it be at the house, whether it be uh at a sporting event, whether it be at a at a class for your kid, whether it be at church, be a person who jumps in and picks up sticks, right? Be a person who works. Don't be lazy because here's what happens. Even though Paul working brings him to into contact with this viper and it's a negative thing, ultimately him working puts him in a position for this event to bring glory and honor to God. Of course, they thought he was a God. I'm sure Paul corrected them. But his his working put him in a position for God's glory to be revealed. Work. Work. Look for ways to serve one another, look for ways to serve your spouse, look for ways to serve your children, look for ways to serve the church. Go the extra mile at work, be people who work. And it might not always work out great. There might be some snakes, right? But you're gonna survive the snakes, and God's glory will be revealed. Be people who work. Way too many lazy people out there, and we all have seasons where that is the struggle in our life. Be people who work. Let's keep let's keep going. Final point. Don't be afraid to pray. Don't be afraid to pray. Press the letter button. That's right. That thing is ingrained in my head. It's afraid. One of those things. Yeah. We used to have this uh recording, classical music recording play with Benjamin. And we like had an on like a like a recording on our phone and on a random computer. And that is jammed into my head six years later still. We played every time he took a nap, every time that he he slept, it was playing real low, and it's just ingrained because we would hear it in our monitor too. So it's just all the time this is going on, anyways. Ingrained in my head. Do you know what should be ingrained into what you do? Prayer. Prayer. Thank you for that segue. Thank you, Benjamin. Thank you, letter button, for that. I appreciate that. Pray. Don't be afraid to pray. Paul is presented with an opportunity to pray for this leader's father. And of course, the prayer is answered and there's healing and it leads to great things, but we we we've got to pray. Gotta pray. First Timothy chapter 2, verse 1. First of all, then I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people. James chapter 5, verse 13 through 15. Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let him be let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. Ephesians chapter 6. And take the helmet of salvation, the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplications for all the saints. Pray, pray, pray for yourself, pray for one another, pray for your church, pray for your community, pray for strangers, pray for people on the street, pray for the sick, pray for the hurting, pray for the hopeless, pray for your neighbor, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray. Don't be afraid to pray. Don't concern yourself when it seems like your prayers might not be answered. Don't concern yourself when you have these feelings of embarrassment. Whenever you know you ought to pray for someone, but you don't want to do it out loud or with them. Get over it and go pray for them. Go pray. Be a people of prayer. This is a house of prayer, God declares. Pray. I talked about this a couple of weeks ago. You know, in the Old Testament, in Isaiah, God's temple is called a house of prayer when Jesus in Matthew, or it might not be in Matthew. I can't remember where it is. I'm sorry. But Jesus goes, it might be in John. Jesus goes to the temple and and he sees everything going on in the temple, which is his father's house. Right? And he starts flipping tables, he goes and makes a whip, he starts whipping. You see that he quotes that scripture, My house shall be called a house of prayer. Now, here's the interesting thing about that statement in conjunction with what Jesus does just a couple of chapters later after that. Jesus dies. He dies, and it says the veil in the temple, the veil, by the way, the veil in the temple is this symbolic thing that separates people from the very presence of God. It was a barrier between us and God. When Jesus died in the crucifixion, it says the veil was torn, the division between the Father and his children was obliterated. And so that we have new connection with the Father like we've never had before. And then scripture continues to tell us that we are now a temple unto ourselves. We are the church, we are a temple of the Holy Spirit. And the temple is God's house, and God's house is a house of prayer. You are a house of prayer, you are a house of communication with God. Pray. Pray for healing. Pray for miracles. Pray just to talk to God. Pray just to tell God how much you love Him. Pray to invite God to let His will be done in your life. Pray, pray, pray, pray, pray. And don't be discouraged when it seems like your prayers aren't producing like Paul's prayers. That's not our job. That's not our concern. I believe in miracles. I believe God answers prayers. I believe he hears us. That's simply not my fixation when I'm praying. My fixation is the fact that I get to talk to God and He cares enough to hear me and to listen, and that I put my trust in Him, and so that no matter what I'm praying, I know that God's will will be done. And I'm gonna be joyful and glad about that. But pray. Pray. We're a people of prayer. Paul prays. God is faithful. Work hard. Pray. It seems like the I guess the call to action, almost at the end of every scripture in Acts, every section of Acts, the call to action is to realize that while you experience Christianity as an individual, and while we come together as individual Christians and we do life together as Christians, your life, at least 50% of your spiritual life and your practical life, exist for God's glory for other people. God is faithful and he brings them to this island. And on this island, while Paul is working, he encounters this problem, and yet from this problem, God's glory is revealed to other people. Paul is Is on this island because of the storm, which God brought them out of because of God's faithful, and they're on this island because of the storm, and he prays for this father who is ill and he's healed. And other people are now healed because of this. The gospel is, of course, about you and your own personal relationship with God. But never forget that there's another 50% side of Christianity that is for other people. But as you are being a good parent, you are being a good example to your children. As you are a good coworker, you are being an example to your coworkers. As you are, I don't know, not screaming and yelling, and I'm convicting myself right now at a at a ref or at uh another coach on the ball field. I already know. I already know. Listen, uh I went to a small private school for the vast majority of my life. And the pastor of the church I went to, um, that it was connected to this church, and he went to these these basketball games. The amount of times that he got tossed out of the basketball games is a little ridiculous. That's the the pastor of this church of 900, 800 people, and he's yelling at the yelling at the the coaches and the referees with his booming uh uh voice. He has this, he had this deep, gravelly voice, not like mine. And it was always impressive to hear him complain to the referees. It always, I don't know, it had a little more gravity to it because of who he was. The refs didn't care, they just kick him out. But anyways, your Christianity, your relationship with God, it turns every moment into a chance for God's glory to be revealed, for other people to see and to experience. A storm might drive you to a place that you don't want to be. A problem might force you to be somewhere you don't want to be, to go through something you don't want to go through. But the reality is if we hold on to God's faithfulness, as we walk through those moments, as we be people who have our eyes open to help work, to pitch in, to pray, there's no telling what God might do with that. And I'll just be honest with you, that's my heart as a pastor for you guys. But I I think about you guys, by the way, I I think about you guys all the time. I do. When I'm when I'm preparing a message, when I'm thinking about this church and and and and where we need to go and what we need to do, I am always thinking about you and how how how can I connect with you to get you to understand your potential. The heart for this church should be your heart for, of course, we're gonna take care of ourselves, but also we've got to keep our eyes open for the world out there. We're not gonna stick our head in the sand. We're not gonna hide from problems, we're not gonna isolate because what we have needs to get out there. God needs us. He needs our help. He wants our help. Can we can we do that as a church? Can we do that as a church? Can we just decide that we're gonna be people who pray, we're gonna be people who work, we're gonna be people who latch on to God's faithfulness, if we can do those things. Listen, I I'm all about strategic planning. I like thinking ahead. I know things are crazy right now, my life is crazy, this is all crazy, all brand new. But let me just go ahead and tell you right now, if we can get prayer right, if we can get faith in God right, if we can get being people who work right, we don't need a strategy. It'll do its own thing. So let's let's do that this morning. Let's bow our heads and pray. Heavenly Father, you are good and you are great, and we love you. Lord, thank you for your faithfulness. Thank you for your faithfulness. Thank you that you know what we're going through. Thank you that you care for us. Thank you that you have a plan for our life, that your sovereignty is so great and so special. And I lean on your sovereignty. We lean on your sovereignty as a church. And I pray that out of that process, your glory would be revealed through this church and through its members, including myself. Lord, we we thank you that uh you give us the ability to work. Lord, I pray that we would just have the right attitude when we walk into the world. We'd have the right attitude at home, we'd have the right attitude at work, at church, wherever we go, that that our eyes would be open to jump in and to help. To help. To make the burden lighter on other people, to just get things done, Lord. And Lord, out of that process, a healthy, godly process and attitude about life and about work, I pray that your glory would be revealed through that. That you would protect us when things don't necessarily work out the exact way we want it to work out, but Lord, your glory would be revealed nonetheless and that we'd be okay on the other side. And Lord, I pray that we would be people of prayer. Lord, that we would find time to pray in the morning, at lunchtime, at in the evening, at some time throughout the day, that we are connecting with you and talking to you. And Lord, I pray specifically that you would put people in front of us and your Holy Spirit would force us to go pray for them. Make us uncomfortable, God. Make us incredibly uncomfortable, so much so that we can't ignore the voice, uh, your voice inside our heart and in our mind, saying that this person needs some prayer, go offer it. And Lord, that we would not be uh discouraged if that person looks like us like we're insane, or if that person says, Well, I didn't really need that, but thank you. But Lord, that we would pray anyways, knowing that your prayers matter. And in all things, I pray that we would bring glory and honor to you as a church. Let these things just be our attitude, let them be our norm, let them be just what we do. And Lord, we love you. Thank you for every blessing. Keep us safe on the way home. Let us have a lovely and wonderful Sunday afternoon. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.