Sermon Tone Analysis
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It is a foundational biblical truth that obedience brings God’s blessing, disobedience His chastening.
In Luke 11:28, Jesus said,
James reveals that it is the
In Deuteronomy 11:26–28, Moses exhorted the Israelites:
Because of his obedience, King Uzziah
For that act of disobedience God struck him with leprosy, and he lived in disgrace the rest of his life.
One way God blesses those who obey Him is by granting their desires.
In Psalm 21:1–2, David wrote,
Psalm 37:4 promises,
while Psalm 145:19 declares,
Proverbs 10:24 contrasts the disobedient with the obedient:
The apostle Paul had desired for many years to visit Rome.
In Acts 19:21 he said,
He repeatedly expressed that desire to the Roman Christians:
At long last, the time had come for God to grant His faithful servant’s desire.
After years of waiting, two years in a Roman prison, a terrifying two-week-long storm at sea, and his fourth shipwreck, Paul would at last see Rome.
This climactic passage records the story of the apostle’s arrival in the imperial capital.
Acts 28 opens with Paul on the Mediterranean island of Malta.
He had left Caesarea more than two months earlier, bound for Rome to have his appeal heard by the emperor.
In a risky attempt to reach a more favorable harbor on Crete to winter in, the apostle’s ship had been caught in the dreaded Euraquilo.
That violent storm had driven the vessel for fourteen terror-filled days across the Mediterranean to Malta.
There the crew attempted to beach the ship, but it ran aground and was destroyed by the pounding surf.
Miraculously, all 276 persons on board managed to reach the shore safely.
God had promised Paul that although the ship would be destroyed, no lives would be lost (27:22).
He had also promised that the ship would run aground on an island (27:26).
Both promises were fulfilled when the ship reached Malta.
The events of Acts 28:1–16 unfold in five scenes: pagan hospitality, potential harm, public healing, the promise honored, and private housing.
PAGAN HOSPITALITY
Having made it safely through the breakers to the beach, the people from the wrecked freighter, huddled wet and exhausted on the shore.
It was only then that they found out that the island they were on was Malta.
Although some of the crew had probably been to Malta before, they had never seen St. Paul’s Bay.
They would have stopped at the main port, called Valletta.
Malta, located fifty-eight miles south of Sicily, is about seventeen miles long and nine miles wide.
Since it is not a large island, it would not have taken the sailors long to discover where they were.
They may have found out from the nearby inhabitants.
Those inhabitants were of Phoenician descent, and the name Malta meant, appropriately, “a place of refuge” in the Phoenician language.
Malta became a British possession early in the nineteenth century and didn’t gain its independence until 1964.
Luke’s use of the term natives to describe the people of Malta does not mean they were primitive or uncivilized.
Barbaroi (natives) denotes people whose native language was not Greek or Latin; it is not necessarily a derogatory term.
The reaction of the Maltese to their unexpected visitors proves that they were anything but uncivilized.
Luke records that they showed extraordinary kindness, beyond what would normally be expected.
They did not murder or enslave the victims of the shipwreck, as sometimes happened in the ancient world.
Instead, Luke says, because of the rain that had set in and because of the cold, they kindled a fire and received us all.
Exhausted from their long ordeal, soaked from their swim to shore, drenched by the driving rain, and chilled by the cold November wind, they welcomed a fire to warm themselves.
God requires Christians, both church leaders (1 Tim.
3:2; Titus 1:8) and all believers (Rom.
12:13; Heb.
13:2; 1 Pet.
4:9), to show hospitality.
That the pagan Maltese exhibited it illustrates an important theological truth.
One aspect of God’s general revelation to all people is the moral law written on their hearts.
Although the specifics may vary, every culture holds some things to be right and other things to be wrong.
Paul sets forth that truth in his letter to the Romans:
Because God has so revealed Himself, all men are without excuse:
God can justly condemn those who never hear the gospel because they fail to keep the moral standards they impose on others.
Because
POTENTIAL HARM
Wood needed to be added continually to the bonfire to keep it from going out.
It is a measure of Paul’s character that he humbly stooped to perform such a menial task.
Humility is essential to true leadership.
“Even the Son of Man,” Jesus said, “did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45).
He gave the classic illustration of humble service by washing the quarrelsome disciples’ feet in John 13.
Having gathered a bundle of sticks, Paul laid them on the fire.
Unfortunately, one of the “sticks” was alive, and a viper came out because of the heat, and fastened on his hand.
Startled from its lethargy by the sudden heat, the venomous reptile immediately bit Paul on the hand.
Critics have charged that this is a fictional attempt by Luke to glorify Paul, or that Luke mistook a harmless snake for a poisonous one.
They raise those objections because Malta today has no poisonous snakes.
But that does not prove that there were none there nineteen centuries ago.
They have disappeared due to the progress of civilization on Malta since Paul’s day.
As a trained physician, Luke would be unlikely to mistake a harmless snake for a poisonous one.
Sir William Ramsay notes that “a trained medical man in ancient times was usually a good authority about serpents, to which great respect was paid in ancient medicine and custom.”
But the most convincing proof that this was in fact a poisonous snake comes from the reaction of the islanders, who fully expected Paul to die after being bitten.
The greek word Luke used here is thērion.
Scholar A. T. Robertson points out that “Aristotle and the medical writers apply that word to venomous serpents, and the viper in particular.
Here is another illustration of the truth that all cultures have a sense of justice.
The islanders had no doubt from the presence of Roman soldiers that Paul was a serious criminal, likely a murderer, and as such would not escape his fate.
Although he had been saved from the sea, justice would not allow him to live.
Now I believe they were probably refering the Dike the Greek god of Justice, the pagan Maltese had a clear sense of right and wrong;
Romans 2:15 (ESV)
15 They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts ...
Although once disposed to killing Christians, Paul, since his conversion, was no murderer.
He merely shook the creature off into the fire and suffered no harm.
The apostle’s calmness was conspicuous; most people bitten by poisonous snakes panic.
But Paul had absolute faith in God’s repeated promises that he would see Rome.
Therefore, he knew he would not die on Malta.
As always in Acts, God used this miracle to authenticate His message and His messenger.
The islanders, however, were still expecting Paul’s hand to swell up from the bite, or that he would suddenly fall down dead.
But when they had waited a long time and had seen nothing unusual happen to him, they changed their minds and began to say that he was a god.
Obviously they had been mistaken; this was no victim of their goddess but a god himself, they thought.
Such divine beings were, they believed, impervious to such trivialities as snakebite.
This was not the first time Paul had been mistaken for a god, and he no doubt quickly set the islanders straight.
PUBLIC HEALING
Not far from St. Paul’s Bay were lands belonging to the leading man of the island, named Publius.
As his title the leading man of the island indicates, he was the Roman governor of Malta.
Inscriptional evidence confirms Luke’s use of that title.
Publius graciously welcomed all 276 persons and entertained them courteously for three days until they could make arrangements for winter quarters.
Publius extended hospitality even though his father was lying in bed afflicted with recurrent fever and dysentery.
The recurrent fever was likely the gastric fever, caused by a microbe found in goat’s milk, which was common on Malta.
Dysentery, often resulting from poor sanitation, was also common in the ancient world.
God often rewards acts of kindness to His people, and Paul was able to repay Publius for his hospitality.
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