Acts Recap – Principles and Patterns - October 4, 2026

Acts Recap – Principles and Patterns

Good morning! We have spent the last nine months or so working our way through the book of Acts and now we are bringing it to a close.

Our focus in examining this wonderful historical narrative has been to figure out the principles and patterns that the early church followed so that we can see more than just the description of events but the prescription that the church for all time is to follow.

In considering those patterns it is important for us to consider what those patterns are and who it is that is supposed to follow them.

Before we get too far, Let’s pray.

Luke wrote in Acts 1:1-2, “In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when He was taken up, after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom He had chosen.”

Now, in his second book, Luke deals with all that Jesus continued to do and teach through the Holy Spirit in His church.

In verse 8 of chapter 1 Jesus tells the Apostles exactly what they were to do after He ascended back to the Father.

“You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

The rest of the book of Acts describes how exactly how they did that, how they functioned as witnesses to the world of who Jesus is and what He did.

In a general sense, this is still the main principle for His church to continue to follow, to be His witnesses in our homes, in our neighborhoods, at work, everywhere we go.

But that is only the beginning of the pattern laid out for us.

The pattern breaks down like this:

By the power and direction of the Holy Spirit the gospel is preached, the Good News that though everyone has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and the wages of that sin is death, the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. God demonstrates His own love for us in this, that while we were sinners Christ died for us. If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. Everyone who calls on the Name of the Lord will be saved. Since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. And there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Those who believe the Good News, who repent of their sin and turn to Jesus for forgiveness are baptized and gathered into churches.

Those churches are instructed in the Way of Christ and His Apostles.

Within those churches leadership is established in the form of Elders and served by Deacons.

Those churches then start to share the gospel within their communities and start to expand and multiply and the pattern repeats. Or, at least it should.

These are the small, mobile, personal, outwardly and upwardly focused groups, little local church families, empowered and directed by the Holy Spirit that the Lord Jesus used to spread the Good News and change the world.

Well, good for them. Is that really what we are supposed to do? Well… yeah!

Acts 2:42-47 gives us a sweet picture of what life was like for those early groups. Again, it’s a pattern that I hope sounds somewhat familiar to you, and if it doesn’t then we need to address it and right the ship.

42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 43 And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. 44 And all who believed were together and had all things in common. 45 And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

It’s important for us to remember is that the activity of these groups, and their decisions on how best to follow Jesus was unencumbered by thousands of years of church tradition and teaching. There were no thoughts of church politics or cathedrals, no popes, nor priests. What these folks had was simply faith in Jesus, the filling of the Holy Spirit, and the teaching of the Apostles.

The truth is that this fledgling church had, and did, all that was necessary to be the church: They had faith in Jesus, they had the Apostles teaching, and they had the fellowship.

Peter had proclaimed back in verse 38 of this chapter when the people responded to his message by asking what they must do, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the Name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

This is where the church starts. 

There are thousands of groups that will meet all over the world today that calls themselves  churches but do not teach this simple truth: that all have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory, that the wages of that sin is death but the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord, to repent, turn away from sin to follow Jesus, and be baptized in the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

The church is not just an incidental gathering of like-minded individuals trying their best to be good.

The church is a body of repentant believers in Jesus, maturing disciples, devoted to His teaching through His Apostles and to fellowship with one another.

That first gathered group in Jerusalem turned to Jesus in faith, repented of their sins, received the Holy Spirit, and… they devoted themselves to the Apostles teaching and the fellowship.

If only the Apostles had written their teaching down so that generations of disciples could read it and devote themselves to learning it and applying it and allowing themselves to be encouraged and changed by it…

Oh wait, they did! We call it the New Testament!

The word, “devoted,” means that they continued with intense effort. Their goal was to be firmly established in the truth. Their level of devotion makes ours look a little pale I think. Every one of the Apostles would be martyred; beaten, stoned, stabbed, sawed in half, whipped, beheaded, boiled in oil.

Not just the Twelve, but countless others would follow in their footsteps, killed in an effort to silence them and turn from following Jesus.

We have great advantage here today. There’s more than enough copies of the Apostles teaching here in this building that we freely gather in. Nobody around here is getting set on fire for reading it. Maybe that’s why we take it for granted, because we think that there’s nothing at stake, but there is, there are lives at stake.

Inspired by the Holy Spirit, the Apostles wrote down their teaching and the teaching of Jesus, and now we have great freedom to have it in our hands and to be devoted to it like the early church was.

Their devotion to the Apostles teaching was proven by the second point, the continued with intense effort in fellowship.

Fellowship is another word that gets cheapened in our modern understanding. Fellowship is not just hanging out. In fact, the rest of the passage for this morning describes what fellowship really means.

42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 43 And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. 44 And all who believed were together and had all things in common. 45 And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people.

The breaking of bread and the prayers.

There has been much debate over what bread exactly, does this mean the Lord’s Supper or just a regular meal?

Remember what I said about being unencumbered by thousands of years of church tradition? 

When Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper, He didn’t use a tiny wafer and miniature plastic cup, He used bread from the table, and wine from their cups. There is no reason to make a distinction at all!

This is the reason that we celebrate the Lord’s Supper during a communal meal, because that’s the way they did it, because that is the way that it was intended.

The early church also prayed together, with prayers new and old, prayers from the words of Jesus, from the Old Testament Scriptures, as well as from their own hearts.

And awe came upon every soul, and many signs and wonders were being done through the Apostles. The finger of God was at work among them and they could feel it, they could see it. His power was at work performing signs and wonders through the Apostles and saving people daily.

44 And all who believed were together and had all things in common. 45 And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people.

Now, this is not a description of the early church being socialist or communist, don’t be confused. They did hold all things in common. Each one regarded his own property, not as intended for personal use but as intended for the use of all the others. This however, was not a law, it was not forced on anyone, it was a choice to help others in need. Brotherly love, generosity, and care for one another is what motivated their giving to those in need, not compulsion, nor guilt, nor rule of law.

46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people.

In Jerusalem, they continued to go to the Temple as it was never the intention to create a sect, or new division of Judaism, just as the Reformation was never intended to create a new and different division of the church, but rather they both were intended to reform the old into a way that aligned with the Word of God.

They met together in each other’s homes to eat, to pray, to receive instruction. In fact, the house and the Temple, private prayer in the closet, and the public praise of God in the Temple, formed into one harmonious and complete whole as was intended from the beginning.

It’s no wonder that the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

These are the principles, this is the pattern for local church families to follow.

The church is the plan of God to make and mature disciples of Jesus Christ together as a family, and he has given us the Apostle’s teaching along with the Law and the Prophets, the entire Bible, to guide and instruct us on how to do that.

So let’s devote ourselves to those things like they did, to continue with intense effort in the Apostle’s teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers, and maybe, like back then, awe will come upon every soul because we will see that the Lord is at work, and He may just add to our number day by day those who are being saved.

Amen.

Acts 28:11-31 The End is Just the Beginning - September 27, 2026

Acts 28:11-31 The End is Just the Beginning

Good morning! Let’s turn back to Acts 28, page 937 in the pew Bibles. We are going to look at verses 11-31 and examine Paul’s arrival in Rome.

As we look at the end of this wonderful book I hope that we can all appreciate that though it is the end of the book, it is just the beginning of the story of the Church.

There are three points of interest in these verses this morning, lucky us. Don’t worry, they don’t all begin with the same letter or rhyme or anything. Let’s pray and take a look at our text.

Now remember that Paul had spent the winter on the island of Malta after being shipwrecked there with 275 other people. All of the passengers and crew were spared just as Jesus had promised Paul.

11 After three months we set sail in a ship that had wintered in the island, a ship of Alexandria, with the twin gods as a figurehead. 12 Putting in at Syracuse, we stayed there for three days. 13 And from there we made a circuit and arrived at Rhegium. And after one day a south wind sprang up, and on the second day we came to Puteoli. 14 There we found brothers and were invited to stay with them for seven days. And so we came to Rome. 15 And the brothers there, when they heard about us, came as far as the Forum of Appius and Three Taverns to meet us. On seeing them, Paul thanked God and took courage. 16 And when we came into Rome, Paul was allowed to stay by himself, with the soldier who guarded him. 

Let’s just pause there for a moment.

The first interesting thing here is not one of our three points of interest, sorry.

The ship of Alexandria, another vessel from Egypt carrying grain to Rome like the one that they were on during the storm and ran aground off Malta, obviously got there before them while the weather was still good and safely spent the winter there.

On the bow of the ship was either painted or carved the twin gods as a figurehead. Hese were the twin gods, Castor and Pollux, more sons of Zeus. Supposedly, they gave good fortune to those travelling under their name. The scholars are divided on why Luke chose to include this detail in his account, it was probably just to identify the particular ship, we aren’t sure. And I’m not sure it matters, that isn’t why I brought it up.

To us, in our, oh so evolved thinking, this idea of painting or carving Castor and Pollux on the bow of our ships seems silly, just superstition. Castor and Pollux have no power over life, they aren’t real.

However, Castor and Pollux are known by another name. Do you know what it is? Gemini.

If you were born between May 21st and June 21st you may be more familiar with what I mean. Gemini is the third sign of the Zodiac. Another fruitless superstition that has way more influence today than we might want to give it credit for. Giving the Zodiac any power over your life at all is idolatry and is a practice that should not be tolerated in Christ’s church.

 Let’s go back to verse 12.

12 Putting in at Syracuse, (That’s on the coast of Sicily) we stayed there for three days. 13 And from there we made a circuit and arrived at Rhegium (Which is on the toe of the boot of Italy). And after one day a south wind sprang up, and on the second day we came to Puteoli (Seven miles from Naples, Italy).

This is where the seafaring part of Paul’s journey ended and the walking started.

14 There we found brothers and were invited to stay with them for seven days. And so we came to Rome. 15 And the brothers there, when they heard about us, came as far as the Forum of Appius and Three Taverns to meet us. On seeing them, Paul thanked God and took courage. 16 And when we came into Rome, Paul was allowed to stay by himself, with the soldier who guarded him. 

So here is the first point of interest, the gospel had already reached Italy.

In Puteoli they found brothers and sisters in Christ. Interestingly, Luke doesn’t write, the brothers, meaning, they found brothers and sisters that they did not expect. If it were a particular group that was known to them, he would have written that they had found the brothers in Puteoli.

Now we know that Paul already knew that the gospel had reached the city of Rome, he knew there was a church there because he had written to them. The gospel was brought to Rome by the visitors from Rome that were mentioned in Acts 2 when Peter preached and the Holy Spirit came on the Day of Pentecost. The letter to the Romans was written from Corinth before Paul even went to Jerusalem and got arrested and started this whole trip over three years prior to this moment.

Paul wrote in Romans 1:8-15,

8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world. 9 For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I mention you 10 always in my prayers, asking that somehow by God’s will I may now at last succeed in coming to you. 11 For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you— 12 that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine. 13 I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that I have often intended to come to you (but thus far have been prevented), in order that I may reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles. 14 I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. 15 So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.

The surprise was not that there were believers in Rome but that there were believers in Puteoli, over 170 miles from Rome! 

After staying a week with them they continued on to Rome. Word had reached the city and some folks from the church traveled 30 to 40 miles to greet Paul. This encouraged the Apostle’s heart, both that he had made it to Rome and that there was such fruitful ministry there already underway. It was a very promising beginning to build on.

16 And when we came into Rome, Paul was allowed to stay by himself, with the soldier who guarded him.

17 After three days he called together the local leaders of the Jews, and when they had gathered, he said to them, “Brothers, though I had done nothing against our people or the customs of our fathers, yet I was delivered as a prisoner from Jerusalem into the hands of the Romans. 18 When they had examined me, they wished to set me at liberty, because there was no reason for the death penalty in my case. 19 But because the Jews objected, I was compelled to appeal to Caesar—though I had no charge to bring against my nation. 20 For this reason, therefore, I have asked to see you and speak with you, since it is because of the hope of Israel that I am wearing this chain.” 21 And they said to him, “We have received no letters from Judea about you, and none of the brothers coming here has reported or spoken any evil about you. 22 But we desire to hear from you what your views are, for with regard to this sect we know that everywhere it is spoken against.” 

It’s not that the Roman Jews had not heard of Paul, they just hadn’t heard anything from anybody in Jerusalem about him. Most likely those who had accused him before were just glad that they got him out of town, and that by going to Rome he was as good as dead.

The point of interest here is the reason for Paul’s chains. Why was he wearing a chain? Because of the hope of Israel.

First of all, do you remember what “hope” really means? It’s not a wish, it’s a confident expectation of something good, something they knew was coming.

So, what was the confident expectation of the children of Israel?

Their confident expectation was that God’s promises would be fulfilled and Messiah would come and restore perfect order for God’s people.

This is still the hope of Israel, the problem is, they missed it! Messiah has come just as the Father promised, and He has restored order, in that He has made a way for us to be restored to the Father by the permanent atonement, the permanent forgiveness of sins once and for all!

Jesus told this parable in Luke 14:16-24,

“A man once gave a great banquet and invited many. 17 And at the time for the banquet he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’ 18 But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it. Please have me excused.’ 19 And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to examine them. Please have me excused.’ 20 And another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’ 21 So the servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house became angry and said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’ 22 And the servant said, ‘Sir, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’ 23 And the master said to the servant, ‘Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled. 24 For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet.’ ”

The Jews were the invited guests, the people of God, but, like the invited guests that made excuses why they couldn’t come to the banquet, those who rejected God’s Messiah, Jesus, will never taste the Father’s banquet. And those poor and crippled and blind and lame, those in the highways and the hedges, those are the people who accept the invitation of the gospel and put their trust in Jesus, Jews and Gentiles alike.

Jesus is the hope of Israel and He is the hope of the Gentiles too.

And that thought brings us to the third point of interest in our text, not everyone is going to believe.

23 When they had appointed a day for him, they came to him at his lodging in greater numbers. From morning till evening he expounded to them, testifying to the kingdom of God and trying to convince them about Jesus both from the Law of Moses and from the Prophets. 24 And some were convinced by what he said, but others disbelieved. 25 And disagreeing among themselves, they departed after Paul had made one statement: “The Holy Spirit was right in saying to your fathers through Isaiah the prophet: 26 “ ‘Go to this people, and say, “You will indeed hear but never understand, and you will indeed see but never perceive.” 27For this people’s heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed; lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them.’ 28 Therefore let it be known to you that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles; they will listen.” 

30 He lived there two whole years at his own expense, and welcomed all who came to him, 31 proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance.

Not everybody believed Paul, not everybody accepted his message of deliverance and freedom from sin, not everybody is going to believe us either but Paul kept at it and so should we.

This wasn’t the end of Paul’s story. During those two years in Rome he wrote the “Prison Epistles,” Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon. Tradition says that Paul was eventually released and traveled as far as Spain before being arrested again and eventually was beheaded in Rome. During that time He wrote the “Pastoral Epistles,” the letters to Timothy and Titus.

Whether or not that is 100% accurate we don’t know for sure but what we do know is that no matter the opposition, Paul kept at it and so should we.

In the words of John Chrysostom, “Let us, then, imitate Paul, and take his noble, adamantine soul as our pattern, so that, following in his wake, we may safely sail over the stormy ocean of life, and enter the waveless haven of peace, and thus obtain that salvation which God has prepared for those who love Him, through the grace and love of our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit, in like majesty and glory, blessed forever.”Amen.

Acts 28:1-10 Snake Bites for Sinners - September 20, 2026

 Acts 28:1-10 Snake Bites for Sinners

Good morning! Turn with me to Acts 28:1-10, page 937 in the pew Bibles. Last time we examined Paul’s journey across the Mediterranean Sea in a storm that lasted two weeks. The 276 passengers had traveled over 600 miles in the storm and had finally run aground off an unknown island and swam to shore floating on pieces of the battered ship. Every soul on the ship made it safely to land just as had been promised to Paul by the Lord Jesus.

Let’s pick up the story on the beach of that, as of yet, unnamed island.

After we were brought safely through, we then learned that the island was called Malta. 2 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. 3 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 hand. 4 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.” 5 He, however, shook off the creature into the fire and suffered no harm. 6 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. 

7 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. 8 It happened that the father of Publius lay sick with fever and dysentery. And Paul visited him and prayed, and putting his hands on him, healed him. 9 And when this had taken place, the rest of the people on the island who had diseases also came and were cured. 10 They also honored us greatly, and when we were about to sail, they put on board whatever we needed.

Let’s pray.

I can’t tell you how many times I have heard people say, and have even said myself, “Everything happens for a reason.” This is often a very nebulous statement that people who don’t follow Jesus don’t usually argue with or will at least let Christians get away with saying. And though the statement is technically correct, everybody, believer or otherwise, is relatively safe in continuing to believe whatever they want about the sentiment.

As we look at this brief account we may wonder why these two circumstances, the snakebite and the healing of Publius’ father, are included in Luke’s account of their time on the island of Malta.

But unlike whatever bad thing we try to ease the edges on by saying, “everything happens for a reason,” these two things happen because Jesus said they would and it’s recorded in Scripture.

Mark 16:15-20 says, 15 And [Jesus] said to [the disciples], “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. 16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. 17 And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; 18 they will pick up serpents with their hands; and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.” 

19 So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. 20 And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by accompanying signs.

The Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by accompanying signs. That’s exactly what was happening on Malta.

Look at verse seven. 7 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. 8 It happened that the father of Publius lay sick with fever and dysentery. And Paul visited him and prayed, and putting his hands on him, healed him. 9 And when this had taken place, the rest of the people on the island who had diseases also came and were cured.

Paul didn’t heal Publius’ father just because he wanted to. This healing was an accompanying sign that confirmed the gospel. And while Luke doesn’t record any sermons from Paul on Malta, in fact he doesn’t mention any evangelistic efforts at all, I think we can all agree that from what we’ve learned of the apostle that there is no way he went for three months on this island full of people without telling anybody about Jesus!

Paul and his companions stayed with Publius for three days and during that time Paul learned that Publius’ dad was sick. We can so often read these quick accounts and not think much of the details but what Paul did has significance and there are principles here for us to learn and apply.

Look at Paul’s order of operations with this man. Starting in verse 8.

Paul visited him and prayed.

Sometimes what we say isn’t what we say, it’s what we say by saying what we say. Make sense?

When Paul visited the sick man he prayed. We don’t have the words of his prayers recorded, we don’t have any idea what Paul said to the Lord in his prayer. But what we do know is that by praying Paul submitted the matter to the Lord and the Lord did the work of healing the man.

When we pray, our prayers ought to be prayers of submission to the Lord’s will. 

1 Peter 5:7 says to cast all your anxieties on Him because He cares for you.

This is an echo of Psalm 55:22, Cast your burden on the Lord, and He will sustain you; He will never permit the righteous to be moved.

When we pray rightly in faith we are declaring our powerlessness and the Father’s powerfulness.

And Paul visited him and prayed, and putting his hands on him, healed him.

Paul put his hands on the man, as a servant of the Lord, as His instrument, and the man was healed instantly.

Once word of this event got around all the sick people on the island were brought to Paul and his companions for help.

An interesting little nugget here is that two different words are used to describe the healing of Publius’ dad and the curing of those who had diseases. One word describes instant healing just as you might have imagined in the case of Publius’ father, but the other word was more long term. Don’t forget that Luke was a doctor, and they spent the next three months tending to the needs of the sick on the island.

So, we can see demonstrated for us compassion, hospitality, submission, service, and generosity.

Cool. But what about the snake bite? That’s why you all came today isn’t it?

2 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. 3 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 hand. 4 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.” 5 He, however, shook off the creature into the fire and suffered no harm. 6 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. 

This was kind of the opposite experience of the time Paul and Barnabas were in Lystra where the people said they were Zues and Hermes but then changed their minds and tried to stone them to death. This time the people decided that Paul was so evil that though he had escaped the sea, justice wouldn’t allow him to live.

Paul was gathering firewood like everybody else except the pile of sticks he brought to the fire had a snake in it. No surprise the snake didn’t like being thrown in the fire and bit Paul on the hand.

The natives believed that what goes around comes around. Bad things should happen to bad people. They knew he was a prisoner, but he must have been a murderer because the universe didn’t want him to live.

If we say it in the right tone it sounds ridiculous, except we act like it’s true all the time.

JP Lange wrote, “The further man departs from the truth, the more easily he falls into extremes.”

The natives assumed the snakebite was a judgment against Paul just as people still often assume what we perceive to be negative is some form of judgment from God.

In this case, Paul was living out Jesus’ words in the great commission from the gospel of Mark, “they will pick up serpents with their hands; and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them…” 

This was an accompanying sign, to give the people all the more reason to listen to what Paul would have to say to them.

Now when they saw that he didn’t fall down and die or swell up and pop like a balloon they changed their minds about him and thought he was a god. 0 for 2 so far for these folks.

But what about Paul? He shook off the snake like it was nothing. I’m sure that if he screamed like a little girl Luke would have recorded that for us. He shook the creature off into the fire and suffered no harm.

What reason would Paul have to fear? Like we talked about last time, Paul knew he had to get to Rome as the Lord had said. He knew that a snakebite was not going to kill him, he had no reason to fear, he had to make it to Rome.

Well good for him. That brings me to two questions: One, is that the only reason Paul had to not fear, the promise of a trip to Rome? And two, what about us?

I think the answer to both questions is the same.

If the Lord wants you to die by snakebite, you will get bit by a snake and die.

If the Lord wanted Paul to die by snakebite, he would have gotten bit by a snake and died.

But he didn’t, and so far at least, you haven’t either because the reverse is also true, if the Father does not want you to die by snakebite, you won’t get bit by a snake and die just like Paul.

As kooky as this may sound, the truth behind it is that the Lord knows exactly what He wants from you and for you, and if you trust in Jesus you are in the palm of His hand so you have absolutely no reason to fear.

John Calvin wrote, “Though faith doesn’t quite take away the feeling of evils, it does temperate the same, lest the godly be more afraid than is appropriate; that they may always be bold and have good hope.”

Paul was able to be bold and have good hope, not just because the Lord said that he had to preach in Rome, but because he knew that the Lord loved him and was always at work in his circumstances just like he is for us.

Paul wrote in Romans 8:31-39,

31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 33 Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” 

37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Amen.