28 April 2024 // Acts 28
SCRIPTURAL APPLICATION: Read Acts 28
SERMON REVIEW:
Reaching Rome
Acts 28
A place of refuge. Vs. 1
A predicament with a reptile. Vs. 2-6
Hospitality received. Vs. 7, 10
Healings resulted. Vs. 8-9
Sailing commences. Vs. 11-13
Support continues. Vs. 14-16
Hopeful chains. Vs. 17-23
Eternal choices. Vs. 24-27
The foundationally chosen. Vs. 28-31
QUESTIONS:
LIFE APPLICATION:
When I Consider How My Light Is Spent
John Milton (1674) was an English poet and the composer of the great epic Paradise Lost. His sequel, Paradise Regained, written four years later, depicts Christ overcoming Satan’s temptations. Milton was a Puritan who studied the Bible faithfully and based much of his writing on its very words. From 1640 to 1660, Milton supported the Puritan movement in England, believing the Church of England corrupt and arguing that bishops should be deprived of power. In 1652 John Milton lost his sight and three years later wrote “On His Blindness.” Here is the entirety of that poetic work:
When I consider how my light is spent
Ere half my days in this dark world and wide,
And that one talent which is death to hide
Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent
To serve therewith my Maker, and present
My true account, lest He returning chide,
“Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?”
I fondly ask. But Patience, to prevent
That murmur, soon replies, God doth not need
Either man’s work or his own gifts. Who best
Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state
Is kingly: thousands at his bidding speed,
And post o’er land and ocean without rest;
They also serve who only stand and wait.
(Williams, 106–107)
Yes, they also serve who only stand and wait, but that is not the central message of this sonnet. It focuses clearly on faithfulness despite one’s surroundings and circumstances, and that is precisely what we see from Paul. Certainly, it’s difficult for us to identify with beatings and imprisonments, though Christians in every age have endured these. In more modern settings however, we might struggle with raising godly children in a single-parent household, pastoring a church which seems to rest lazily in a no-growth mode, or struggling with the frailties and disabling diseases of age. All these and more fit well into the pattern, if not the experience, of Paul’s life and ministry. Perhaps his magnificent testimony from Miletus can serve as our ringing connection with this book: However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace (Acts 20:24).[1]
DIGGING DEEPER:
A. Snake Miracle (v. 5)
Many have argued that Luke invented this story to provide a little color to the narrative and a little more heroism for Paul. Some of those arguments seem based on the absence of poisonous snakes on the Island of Malta today. Ramsay attacked this view long ago: “The objections which have been advanced, that there are now no vipers in the island, and only one place where any wood grows, are too trivial to deserve notice. Such changes are natural and probable on a small island, populous and long civilised” (Ramsay, 343).
Others have suggested that the snake was probably a constrictor (still found in Malta today) and have pictured it clinging to Paul’s hand rather than actually biting him. However, one does not swell up or suddenly fall over dead from a constrictor so small it only surrounds one’s arm.
Truly the natural reading of the text is best. Luke lets us see this event through the eyes of the islanders who certainly knew their snakes better than their 276 surprise visitors and considerably better than modern commentators. The islanders expected Paul to have serious reaction to his encounter with this snake, but there was none. Rather than argue his immunity or some other explanation, can we not just accept a miracle which God performed, opening the door to wide social ministry on the island?
B. Castor and Pollux (v. 11)
Paul left Malta on another Alexandrian ship, quite possibly headed to Rome like the first one. Ships, like inns, were named for their figureheads, and this one carried on its prow a painted carving of Castor and Pollux, sons of Leda, queen of Sparta. In Greek mythology, these two had been transformed by Zeus into twin gods represented to this day by the constellation Gemini. Longenecker tells us, “The cult of the Dioscuroi (lit., “sons of Zeus”) was especially widespread in Egypt and the Gemini were considered by sailors a sign of good fortune in a storm. For an Alexandrian ship, the figurehead was an appropriate one” (Longenecker, 566).
C. Rome (v. 14)
Along the Appian Way, just north of Aricia, Paul would have caught his first glimpse of Rome. As Coneybeare and Howson describe it,
St. Paul would see a vast city, covering the Campagna, and almost continuously connected by its suburbs with the villas on the hill where he stood, and with the bright towns which clustered on the sides of the mountains opposite. Over all the intermediate space were the houses and gardens, through which aqueducts and roads might be traced in converging lines towards the confused mass of edifices which formed the city of Rome. Here no conspicuous building, elevated above the rest, attracted the eye or the imagination. Ancient Rome had neither cupola nor campanile.… It was a widespread aggregate of buildings, which, though separated by narrow streets and open squares, appeared, when seen from near Aricia, blended into one indiscriminate mass: for distance concealed the contrasts which divided the crowded habitations of the poor, and the dark haunts of filth and misery, from the theaters and colonnades, the baths, the temples and palaces with gilded roofs, flashing back the sun (Coneybeare, 732).
We are told “Rome was not built in a day,” a vast understatement. Settlements began to form the original town shortly after 600 b.c., but Rome did not become a large, heavily populated city until some 200 years later. Within a hundred years after that, the squalor of which Conneybeare and Howson wrote became a characteristic feature. Experts believe that in time one-fifth of the population of Rome became Christian; but after ten generations of persecution, the city killed and buried well over a million followers of “The Way.” In a.d. 64, the year after Paul was freed, parts of Rome were destroyed by fire for which history has made Nero responsible. In any case, the Scripture ends with numerous proclamations against the vile behavior of Rome and symbolic condemnations of its punishment.
D. How Many Imprisonments?
Perhaps it began with Eusebius, but tradition claims that Paul was released after his first defense and enjoyed another two or three years of ministry, quite possibly roaming again over Asia Minor, and this time heading west to Spain. This viewpoint rests largely on material in the Pastoral Epistles (1 and 2 Tim.; Titus) which cannot be fitted into the information we have in Acts. Polhill says:
It is thus highly likely that the personal events related in the Pastorals date from a period after Paul’s first Roman confinement and are thus themselves testimony to Paul’s release and subsequent ministry. In this view Paul would have arrived in Rome sometime in 59 or 60 and been released in 61 or 62. His return to Rome, second imprisonment, and martyrdom would have taken place under the Neronic persecution of the Roman Christians in a.d. 64 or 65. According to early tradition, Paul was martyred under Nero, being taken about a mile outside the city walls along the Ostian Way and beheaded (Polhill, 548).
Marshall is not so sure, but Polhill’s explanation is accepted by many evangelical scholars and Bible students. Indeed, Ramsay says essentially the same thing, adding:
At his second trial the veil that hides his fate is raised for the moment. On that occasion the circumstances were very different from his first trial. His confinement was more rigorous, for Onesiphorus had to take much trouble before obtaining an interview with the prisoner (2 Tim. 1:17): “He fared ill as far as bonds, like a criminal” (2:19). He had no hope of acquittal: he recognized that he was “already being poured forth as an offering, and the time of his departure was come.” The gloom and hopelessness of the situation damped and dismayed all his friends: at his first hearing “all forsook” him; yet for the time he “was delivered out of the mouth of the lion.” In every respect the situation thus indicated is the opposite of the circumstances described on the first trial (Ramsay, 360).
Assuming that pattern is correct, Paul could well have written 1 Timothy and Titus during his period of release (approximately from a.d. 63–66, and 2 Timothy from the Mamertine prison just prior to his death in a.d. 67.[2]
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
1. Have you ever found yourself in a situation where strangers offered you unexpected kindness? How did you respond? Did you use the opportunity to witness for Christ?
2. When have other Christians welcomed you in a way that brought encouragement and hope to your life? How did you respond? Did you give God thanks for bringing these people into your life?
3. When people ask you about Jesus, how do you convince them to turn to him for salvation? How do you respond if the people do not believe your witness?[3]
PRAYER:
[1] Kenneth O. Gangel, Acts, vol. 5, Holman New Testament Commentary (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1998), 470–471.
[2] Kenneth O. Gangel, Acts, vol. 5, Holman New Testament Commentary (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1998), 471–473.
[3] Kenneth O. Gangel, Acts, vol. 5, Holman New Testament Commentary (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1998), 474.
SERMON REVIEW:
Reaching Rome
Acts 28
A place of refuge. Vs. 1
A predicament with a reptile. Vs. 2-6
Hospitality received. Vs. 7, 10
Healings resulted. Vs. 8-9
Sailing commences. Vs. 11-13
Support continues. Vs. 14-16
Hopeful chains. Vs. 17-23
Eternal choices. Vs. 24-27
The foundationally chosen. Vs. 28-31
QUESTIONS:
- What did the message teach me about God/Jesus/Holy Spirit?
- What did the message teach me about the human condition?
- Is there anything I need to confess, repent, or be grateful for, because of this passage?
- How do I need help in believing and applying this scripture to my life?
- How can I encourage others with this passage?
LIFE APPLICATION:
When I Consider How My Light Is Spent
John Milton (1674) was an English poet and the composer of the great epic Paradise Lost. His sequel, Paradise Regained, written four years later, depicts Christ overcoming Satan’s temptations. Milton was a Puritan who studied the Bible faithfully and based much of his writing on its very words. From 1640 to 1660, Milton supported the Puritan movement in England, believing the Church of England corrupt and arguing that bishops should be deprived of power. In 1652 John Milton lost his sight and three years later wrote “On His Blindness.” Here is the entirety of that poetic work:
When I consider how my light is spent
Ere half my days in this dark world and wide,
And that one talent which is death to hide
Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent
To serve therewith my Maker, and present
My true account, lest He returning chide,
“Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?”
I fondly ask. But Patience, to prevent
That murmur, soon replies, God doth not need
Either man’s work or his own gifts. Who best
Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state
Is kingly: thousands at his bidding speed,
And post o’er land and ocean without rest;
They also serve who only stand and wait.
(Williams, 106–107)
Yes, they also serve who only stand and wait, but that is not the central message of this sonnet. It focuses clearly on faithfulness despite one’s surroundings and circumstances, and that is precisely what we see from Paul. Certainly, it’s difficult for us to identify with beatings and imprisonments, though Christians in every age have endured these. In more modern settings however, we might struggle with raising godly children in a single-parent household, pastoring a church which seems to rest lazily in a no-growth mode, or struggling with the frailties and disabling diseases of age. All these and more fit well into the pattern, if not the experience, of Paul’s life and ministry. Perhaps his magnificent testimony from Miletus can serve as our ringing connection with this book: However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace (Acts 20:24).[1]
DIGGING DEEPER:
A. Snake Miracle (v. 5)
Many have argued that Luke invented this story to provide a little color to the narrative and a little more heroism for Paul. Some of those arguments seem based on the absence of poisonous snakes on the Island of Malta today. Ramsay attacked this view long ago: “The objections which have been advanced, that there are now no vipers in the island, and only one place where any wood grows, are too trivial to deserve notice. Such changes are natural and probable on a small island, populous and long civilised” (Ramsay, 343).
Others have suggested that the snake was probably a constrictor (still found in Malta today) and have pictured it clinging to Paul’s hand rather than actually biting him. However, one does not swell up or suddenly fall over dead from a constrictor so small it only surrounds one’s arm.
Truly the natural reading of the text is best. Luke lets us see this event through the eyes of the islanders who certainly knew their snakes better than their 276 surprise visitors and considerably better than modern commentators. The islanders expected Paul to have serious reaction to his encounter with this snake, but there was none. Rather than argue his immunity or some other explanation, can we not just accept a miracle which God performed, opening the door to wide social ministry on the island?
B. Castor and Pollux (v. 11)
Paul left Malta on another Alexandrian ship, quite possibly headed to Rome like the first one. Ships, like inns, were named for their figureheads, and this one carried on its prow a painted carving of Castor and Pollux, sons of Leda, queen of Sparta. In Greek mythology, these two had been transformed by Zeus into twin gods represented to this day by the constellation Gemini. Longenecker tells us, “The cult of the Dioscuroi (lit., “sons of Zeus”) was especially widespread in Egypt and the Gemini were considered by sailors a sign of good fortune in a storm. For an Alexandrian ship, the figurehead was an appropriate one” (Longenecker, 566).
C. Rome (v. 14)
Along the Appian Way, just north of Aricia, Paul would have caught his first glimpse of Rome. As Coneybeare and Howson describe it,
St. Paul would see a vast city, covering the Campagna, and almost continuously connected by its suburbs with the villas on the hill where he stood, and with the bright towns which clustered on the sides of the mountains opposite. Over all the intermediate space were the houses and gardens, through which aqueducts and roads might be traced in converging lines towards the confused mass of edifices which formed the city of Rome. Here no conspicuous building, elevated above the rest, attracted the eye or the imagination. Ancient Rome had neither cupola nor campanile.… It was a widespread aggregate of buildings, which, though separated by narrow streets and open squares, appeared, when seen from near Aricia, blended into one indiscriminate mass: for distance concealed the contrasts which divided the crowded habitations of the poor, and the dark haunts of filth and misery, from the theaters and colonnades, the baths, the temples and palaces with gilded roofs, flashing back the sun (Coneybeare, 732).
We are told “Rome was not built in a day,” a vast understatement. Settlements began to form the original town shortly after 600 b.c., but Rome did not become a large, heavily populated city until some 200 years later. Within a hundred years after that, the squalor of which Conneybeare and Howson wrote became a characteristic feature. Experts believe that in time one-fifth of the population of Rome became Christian; but after ten generations of persecution, the city killed and buried well over a million followers of “The Way.” In a.d. 64, the year after Paul was freed, parts of Rome were destroyed by fire for which history has made Nero responsible. In any case, the Scripture ends with numerous proclamations against the vile behavior of Rome and symbolic condemnations of its punishment.
D. How Many Imprisonments?
Perhaps it began with Eusebius, but tradition claims that Paul was released after his first defense and enjoyed another two or three years of ministry, quite possibly roaming again over Asia Minor, and this time heading west to Spain. This viewpoint rests largely on material in the Pastoral Epistles (1 and 2 Tim.; Titus) which cannot be fitted into the information we have in Acts. Polhill says:
It is thus highly likely that the personal events related in the Pastorals date from a period after Paul’s first Roman confinement and are thus themselves testimony to Paul’s release and subsequent ministry. In this view Paul would have arrived in Rome sometime in 59 or 60 and been released in 61 or 62. His return to Rome, second imprisonment, and martyrdom would have taken place under the Neronic persecution of the Roman Christians in a.d. 64 or 65. According to early tradition, Paul was martyred under Nero, being taken about a mile outside the city walls along the Ostian Way and beheaded (Polhill, 548).
Marshall is not so sure, but Polhill’s explanation is accepted by many evangelical scholars and Bible students. Indeed, Ramsay says essentially the same thing, adding:
At his second trial the veil that hides his fate is raised for the moment. On that occasion the circumstances were very different from his first trial. His confinement was more rigorous, for Onesiphorus had to take much trouble before obtaining an interview with the prisoner (2 Tim. 1:17): “He fared ill as far as bonds, like a criminal” (2:19). He had no hope of acquittal: he recognized that he was “already being poured forth as an offering, and the time of his departure was come.” The gloom and hopelessness of the situation damped and dismayed all his friends: at his first hearing “all forsook” him; yet for the time he “was delivered out of the mouth of the lion.” In every respect the situation thus indicated is the opposite of the circumstances described on the first trial (Ramsay, 360).
Assuming that pattern is correct, Paul could well have written 1 Timothy and Titus during his period of release (approximately from a.d. 63–66, and 2 Timothy from the Mamertine prison just prior to his death in a.d. 67.[2]
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
1. Have you ever found yourself in a situation where strangers offered you unexpected kindness? How did you respond? Did you use the opportunity to witness for Christ?
2. When have other Christians welcomed you in a way that brought encouragement and hope to your life? How did you respond? Did you give God thanks for bringing these people into your life?
3. When people ask you about Jesus, how do you convince them to turn to him for salvation? How do you respond if the people do not believe your witness?[3]
PRAYER:
[1] Kenneth O. Gangel, Acts, vol. 5, Holman New Testament Commentary (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1998), 470–471.
[2] Kenneth O. Gangel, Acts, vol. 5, Holman New Testament Commentary (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1998), 471–473.
[3] Kenneth O. Gangel, Acts, vol. 5, Holman New Testament Commentary (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1998), 474.