Acts 28 ROME AT LAST! There would have been great weariness from lack of sleep and food for quite some time, but that did not stop the apostle Paul from helping to meet the needs of the group who had need of warmth. The people of Malta who kindly assisted the survivors of the shipwreck, thought Paul would die because of the bite of the viper. How like Satan to continue to oppose those who serve the Lord. The deceptive soft south wind; the hurricane force northeast wind, the desire of the soldiers to kill the prisoners and now the poison of the viper all failed to stop God's intention of having His servant get to Rome. The obstacles in the life of faith are not a hindrance to the will of God. Rather, they are unmistakable testimony to the faithfulness of God. Seeming delays are often really great opportunities. Opposition may be God's way of claiming the attention of an indifferent society. Natural disasters may be allowed as a wakeup call to a jaded and complacent nation.
What may seem to be the "half-empty glass" of failure, may be the "half-full glass" of blessing. One act of Satan in an attempt to kill God's servant before he got to Rome, was an opportunity to bring blessing to the people of Malta and glory to God. The difficulties we encounter need to be looked at as confirmation of the Gospel we preach.
The travel to Sicily and through the Straits of Messina, and then on to Puteoli was possible because of the south wind that blew. What one time had been a deceptive comfort was now a positive assistance in putting God's man to where He wanted him to be. Not every effort we put forth to further the work of God is effective the first time we try to use it. But unless there is some unscriptural reason for us to reject it, there is no reason to abandon it. Not every Gospel tract passed on will bear fruit. Not every series of Gospel meetings, will be a time when souls are saved. Not every message of edification, exhortation and comfort given with the purpose of blessing God's people, will be received. But that is no excuse for us to quit or turn away from the goal set before us by the Lord. A farmer may have years when his crops fail. The fisherman may go out to sea many times and catch nothing. But those lean times do not mean the farmer and fisherman quit their work. They continue going back to their labors because the principle of sowing and reaping is sound, tried and proven. Not every south wind is bad. Sometimes it is God's way of hastening His work to completion. Other times it deceives us into complacency. The difference is discerned by our commitment to maintaining close fellowship with God.
Seven days at Puteoli would have been a great encouragement to those brothers who had been five months or more away from the fellowship of an assembly of believers gathered in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. They made it a point of finding Christians in that city, so both groups could be strengthened in their commitment to, and faith in, Christ. It is not always the length of a visit that counts. The willingness to search for believers means most to those who live there. Two different groups of believers heard Paul and those with him were coming to Rome and met them along the Appian Way. How blessed is the fellowship of God's people who are not ashamed to be identified with God's servants! Even though Paul was under the guard of Roman soldiers, when he entered the city of Rome, he came with dignity and honor.
The heart of the apostle Paul was still linked to his own people the Jews. Even though he was in chains, he wanted to give them a clear presentation of the Gospel. The soldiers who guarded Paul would have heard the Gospel from him. Perhaps they would have taken what they heard from Paul wherever they were posted. Those who became believers in Christ would have taken the testimony of the Gospel throughout the whole Roman empire as they traveled from place to place. However, Paul still wanted the Jewish leaders to hear from his own lips the charges made against him and his own testimony of personal faith in Christ. He identified himself with them and told them why he was chained - the hope of Israel. The future of Israel as prophesied in the Old Testament was then, and still is, a major hope of Jews everywhere. They were then and still are now, looking for a Jewish Messiah to reign over them. Paul had written about the Gospel of Christ previously to the assembly at Rome - "to the Jew first, and also to the Greek." The silence from those who opposed Paul in Jerusalem, was probably so the ignoring of the unlawful ways of the Jewish leadership there, would not be reported to those in authority at Rome.
For one whole day Paul followed the same practice the Lord had used of opening the Old Testament scriptures and carefully explaining all they said about the promised Messiah. He would have told them how the Lord Jesus fulfilled those scriptures. Then those Jewish leaders would have to decide. "Will I act on what has been expounded from the scriptures? This testimony regarding the kingdom of God being here - is this true? What will I do with Jesus?" This pattern of presenting the Gospel is the same today. Our message is based on the scripture, not man 's opinion. The testimony as to the new birth to enter the kingdom of God is not some human ordinance. There is the focusing of attention made on man's responsibility to repent and believe the Gospel. Any other kind of compromising preaching is not the Gospel of God. The results will be the same - some will believe and others will not. Truth divides people. Some will accept the truth of the Bible and others will deliberately reject the message, and the God of the message. Those results we will have to leave with God.
Luke began writing the book of Acts by telling Theophilus of "all that Jesus began both to do and teach" he recorded in his first treatise, the Gospel of Luke. Now he had continued to give an in-depth account of how the Christ-centered Gospel spread from place to place through the apostles, Stephen, Peter, Paul and others. Principles related to the work of the Lord that are taught in Acts are: The Gospel is Christ-centered; those involved in the work must be willing to sacrifice personal ambition, talents and themselves; be separated from the world to the Gospel. As evangelists (messengers) they take the word of God to unbelievers and when God saves people, they are to be gathered as autonomous and indigenous companies of saints in fellowship with those of "like precious faith." The resurrection of Christ and His glory motivates us to faithful service in spite of difficulties. They were not divided into denominations, nor known by magnificent buildings or any other meeting places. There was no clergy or laity among those who gathered in the Lord's name. He was the Supreme Person among them who gathered in His name. There was no governing body of men over all the churches. Those who went out to preach were commended to the grace of God to fulfill the work of God called them to. They were not hired servants but trusted God to provide for their needs through their own labor or support of fellowship from those who wanted to be a part of what was being done in the kingdom of God. Those men were responsible for their own work and at the same time demonstrated accountability to those who supported them.
So as Luke wrote these words, and suddenly stopped writing when Paul was in "his own hired house" still preaching the kingdom of God and teaching "those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ," he left an unfinished history. The same work is still going on. The same message is still being preached. Even though there is much confusion, there are still those who carry on the way the apostles started the work in Acts. They do the same thing, under the same authority following the same practices, with the same results - some believe and some do not. May the on-going work of the Holy Spirit through God's people today be done in God's way - and under the power of the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.