TO ROME!

Acts 27-28

We come to the end of our study on Acts this week. Next Sunday we begin to study 1 Corinthians, which is an early letter of Paul, probably after 1 Thessalonians and the Gospel of Mark. I once counted nine (9!) different groups in the church. Beware when a church starts choosing up sides!

Now let's review major themes through Acts:

1 -The book has been called the Acts of the Holy Spirit. From the in rushing like a mighty win and flames of fire after the Great Commission and prayer, God's Spirit was working effectively in the lives of believers to spread the Gospel around the world. It's an awesome thought that God can be working in His world through you!

2 – One candidate for THE theme of Acts is the spread of the Gospel from Jerusalem to Rome. The last word of the book is “unhindered.” The message was broadcast throughout the Empire!

3 – The Gospel was and IS for all. This is the underlying story. We focus on the tongues in Acts 1, but a better translation is languages. Acts 2:8 shows everyone was hearing the story in the language from their home country! That's a powerful way of making an early statement that the Gospel is for everyone. The average layman or laywoman can often be more effective in explaining the Christian life than a preacher, because they speak their neighbor's language.

4 – The apostles witnessed and ministered to all sorts of people: the lame beggar, the Samaritans, the Ethiopian eunuch, always Jews, also Gentiles, next to last came Roman officials and a King! That reminds us that WE are called to share God's love with everyone. I don't know the solution to the immigration problem for example, but I know when they come within our purview, we have orders from the Lord.

5 – Ministry is as varied as both the believers and society around them. Both Jesus in the Gospels and the disciples in Acts witness in innumerable ways to a widely varying type of people. And the meetings are all different. God expects us to witness and minister according to who we are, where we are, and who they are!

Now let's turn to this week's lesson, still emphasizing what the quarterly doesn't focus on.

Paul prophesies shipwreck. The ship then wrecks. As he did in the Philippian jail, he saved lives. He kept the sailors from killing the prisoners by assuring them they would not escape. He actually helped deal with the situation by gathering firewood. Whoops! A snake grabbed him! Like any good Louisiana boy, he just shook off the snake and went on collecting wood. The crew was sure the venomous serpent had killed him. But God intended Paul for Rome and not premature death, so nothing happened. They were impressed and wanted to make a god of him. (Ever notice in the NT how eager people are to make gods out of disciple, but wouldn't accept Jesus as divine?)

Flash forward 2000 years into the back woods of Appalachia and elsewhere. Snake worshipers! Or at lest snake handlers. For some reason they are always rattlers. They say they sometimes get bit, but develop an immunity. They claim Biblical justification from the very end of Mark – 16:18. You can forget that, because Mark didn't write verses 9 – the end. Most current translations omit it, or put it in a footnote. My copy of the NIV prints it with the heading that “the most reliable manuscripts of Mark omit verses 9 – 20. I have personally verified this, and it's true. We have discovered many older manuscripts since the KJV was written – about 5000 or more – and the latest translations give us the closest possible witness to what the NT writers actually wrote. Would you rather read the words of John Mark or some anonymous scribe? Incidentally, as far as snake handing goes, you might check out “cleaning the cobra pit” on YouTube. Incredible!

Paul, by the way, unsurprisingly used their awe as an opportunity to share with them that he was no god, but he could point them to the true God. How often do you work the Lord into your conversations?

The entire trip moves at a leisurely pace. They seem in no hurry along the way and apparently meet with believers wherever they stop. I wonder whether Paul started any more churches along the way. We do know that the governor of the island offed “us” hospitality. Think about that word. Elsewhere in Acts, “us” means Luke is with Paul and whoever else is around. So Luke traveled toward Rome also, but note it was Paul who healed the ruler's father! Was Publius, himself likely a Roman – his name is Latin – respecting Paul's citizenhood or his learning and personality? Does “us” include the entire ship's crew? They stayed three months!

They landed in Italy at a port called Puteoli. There they “found brothers” who invited them to hang around for a week, which they did. Have you realized how incredible it is that Paul seems by now to be leading the expedition and not his captors? Maybe over the sea voyage they too had become brothers? The local Christians traveled with him to Rome and turned him over to their fellow believers from the capitol city. The latter group had heard they were coming. From whom? Did the Puteoli group send a message? Or had they got a letter from a believer from Jerusalem or Cypress? Or did someone just text them?

Another surprise! Paul is not thrown in jail, but allowed to live in his own (rented?) house with a guard to nursemaid him. Actually, he used his home as a abase of operations, beginning first with the Jewish leaders in Rome. You remember Paul always began his work in a new city by speaking in the synagogue. So in Rome he sent for the Jewish leaders, since perhaps he wasn't allowed to wander freely. They came, and he explained his situation to them. They said they knew nothing about this. The Jerusalem Jews who acted so hard-nosed on their home ground, hadn't bothered to reach ahead. They came back on an appointed day, bringing others with them. Paul preached and taught,

The book concludes by saying Paul stayed for two years in his rented house witnessing to Christ. Luke says nothing about what happened after that. Some writings from the next century say he was released and went to Spain, as he had hoped to do. Another says he was hanged by Nero or another emperor. But you can be sure that he preached Christ until his death. When's the last time you bore witness?