Transcript
Though our text is found in Acts 28, to get proper context I want to read certain sections of Acts 27. So if you have your Bibles, flip back over to Acts 27 and we'll pick up the reading at verse 20.
Acts 27:20. Now when neither sun nor stars appeared for many days, and no small tempest beat on us, all hope that we would be saved was finally given up. But after a long abstinence from food, then Paul stood in the midst of them and said, ‘Men, you should have listened to me and not have sailed from Crete and incurred this disaster and loss. Now I urge you to take heart, for there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship. For there stood by me this night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve, saying, “Do not be afraid, Paul. You must be brought before Caesar. And indeed God has granted you all those who sail with you.” Therefore take heart, men, for I believe God that it will be just as it was told me.’
Skipping down to verse 33. And as day was about to dawn, they had spent the night with the anchors down. And as day was about to dawn, Paul urged them all to take food, saying,
Today is the fourteenth day you have waited and continued without food, and eaten nothing. Therefore I urge you to take nourishment, for this is for your survival. For not a hair will fall from the head of any of you.
And when he had said these things, he took bread and gave thanks to God in the presence of them all. And when he had broken it, he began to eat. Then they were all encouraged and also took food themselves. And in all we were two hundred and seventy-six persons on the ship. So when they had eaten enough, they lightened the ship and threw out the wheat into the sea.
Now when it was day, they did not recognize the land, but they observed a bay with a beach onto which they planned to run the ship if possible. And they let go the anchors and left them in the sea. Meanwhile, loosing the rudder ropes and hoisting the mainsail to the wind, they made for the shore. But striking a place where two seas met, which is a way of describing a reef, they ran the ship aground. And the prow stuck fast and remained immovable, but the stern was being broken up by the violence of the waves.
Now the soldiers’ plan was to kill the prisoners, lest any of them should swim away and escape. But the centurion, wanting to save Paul, kept them from their purpose, and commanded that those who could swim should jump overboard first and get to land, and the rest, some on boards and some on broken pieces of the ship. And so it was that they all escaped safely to land.
Now the passage that we want to talk about primarily is in the first six verses of chapter 28.
Now when they had escaped, they then found out that the island was called Malta. I might pause to say that Malta is an island about sixty miles to the south of Sicily in what we now call the Mediterranean Sea. And they had been blown by this storm approximately six hundred miles to the west. And the island on which they have landed now is the island of Malta.
And the natives showed us unusual kindness, for they kindled a fire and made us all welcome because of the rain that was falling and because of the cold. And when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and laid them on the fire, a viper came out because of the heat, and fastened on his hand. So when the natives saw the creature hanging from his hand, they said to one another, “No doubt this man is a murderer, whom though he has escaped the sea, yet justice does not allow to live.” But he shook off the creature into the fire and suffered no harm. However, they were expecting that he would swell up or suddenly fall down dead. But after they had looked for a long time and saw no harm come to him, they changed their minds and said that he was a god.
One of the questions that we all use a lot is, ‘How was your trip?’ I’ve already asked Lewis how his trip was, and I understand it was pretty good. And a number of you have probably already asked him, ‘How was your trip?’ and gotten some answer. Hopefully you’ll be asking me that in about three weeks. Tomorrow, Lord willing, I’m flying out of Dallas and will be in California for a week and preaching next Sunday at Coast Bible Church. And then flying from California to Oregon and preaching in Oregon the following Sunday. And Lord willing we’ll be back with you again three Sundays from today. And hopefully you will be able to say to me, ‘How was your trip?’ And hopefully I will be able, with the assistance of your prayers, to say it was a good trip.
Now if we had been with Paul on the island of Malta and we had said to Paul, ‘How was your trip?’ it would not have been too surprising if Paul had replied, ‘Terrible. Awful.’ You see, Paul had boarded a ship, really a grain ship, in a port called Myra, which is on the southern coast of what is now Turkey. And this grain ship was headed for Italy because Italy imported most of its grain, primarily from Egypt. And they had sailed from Myra down to the island of Crete. And they had stopped in a harbor on the island of Crete. And then they were discussing whether it was wise to go on with the voyage because the season of the year was now the time of year that was very dangerous to be out on the Mediterranean Sea.
And Paul advised them not to proceed with the trip. But the men who were in charge of the voyage decided against Paul’s advice, and they set sail hoping to reach their home port. They sailed safely for a little while, and then a very fierce storm, a northeaster, we might call it, came sweeping down upon them. And for the following days and nights they were in terrible, terrible trouble. They did everything they could to lighten the ship. And during the daytime they couldn’t even see the sun. At night they couldn’t see the stars. They couldn’t navigate. They couldn’t control the ship. And finally, out of the two hundred and seventy-six people on board the ship, two hundred and seventy-five gave up hope that they would get out of there safely. But one man had hope.
And at this very dark point in the voyage, Paul stands up, as we have read, and he announces to the rest of his traveling companions that God has assured him through an angel that he will get safely to Rome and will appear before Caesar. And that God has graciously given him the lives of everybody who is traveling with him. And in a very simple but very powerful statement Paul says, ‘Cheer up, because I believe that it will be just exactly the way God said that it will be.’ What a good attitude to have.
Well, it wasn’t long after this before they sighted some land. But it was dark, and they were afraid they’d get onto the rocks. So they lowered some anchors. And in the morning they made for the shore. Unfortunately they didn’t see, or couldn’t navigate around, a reef. And the ship struck the reef and got stuck on the reef. And then the rear of the ship was broken up by the violence of the waves. And everybody had to get out of the ship. And the people who could swim swam from the ship to the shore. And the people who couldn’t swim held onto some piece of the ship. And by the miraculous and wonderful power of God they made it safely to the island of Malta, every single one of them.
But as you can imagine, they were not presentable for company now because they were wet and cold and tired and trying to recover from this exasperating experience. So if you had said to Paul, ‘How was your trip?’ he would have had some grounds for saying it was a terrible trip. However, if you had said that to Paul, I suspect he would have said, ‘Well, it was a rough trip. But we had a wonderful manifestation of the power of God because God preserved the life of every single individual on board the ship and brought us all safely, as He had promised to do, to shore.’
So there they are. The trip is over. And we might ask ourselves the question, now that Paul is on shore, what is Paul up to? Well, if we hadn’t read the story before, folks, we might have said, ‘Well, Paul is probably standing around receiving the compliments of all the people from the ship.’ ‘You know, Paul, you were the only one who had courage. You were the only one who had faith that we were going to come through this. Your faith in your God is really tremendous. And when you told us to eat, why that was really good for us because we were going to have to swim or float to the shore. We needed our energy. You are really an impressive person, Paul.’
We might have expected him to be in the center of a group of people receiving compliments like that. Or if we hadn’t read the story before, maybe we would think that Paul has got a very special place near the fire. And maybe he’s thinking to himself, ‘You know, I’ve done my part in this. I mean, I encouraged them. I bucked up their spirits when they were down. And it’s time for me to get dry. It’s time for me to get comfortable. So I think I’ll just stand here and enjoy the fire.’
But I am profoundly impressed by what Paul is actually doing. Neither of the things that I have suggested. Instead, Paul was collecting sticks for the fire. And you believe it? This great man of God, this man who is arguably the greatest of all the apostles of Jesus Christ, a man whom we correctly regard, I believe, as the greatest Christian missionary who has ever lived, a man whose faith and courage lighted the darkness for two hundred and seventy-five other people on this voyage. When he gets to shore he’s collecting sticks. Why? To make the fire hotter, to make it better for everybody, right?
And don’t you see that what Paul is doing here is what he did from the first? He made himself a part of this whole experience. He’s not above the rest of them. He’s part and parcel of this activity. And when they get to shore he is engaged in lighting the fire as brightly and warmly as possible.
Do I need to tell you that in doing this the Apostle Paul reflects the Lord Jesus Christ Himself? Remember of our Lord it is said that though He was in the form of God, yet He thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, and took the form of a servant. And being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
And the amazing and wonderful truth of our religion is this: that the Lord of glory, surrounded as He was by the splendors of heaven and by the adoration of angels, became a part of our life and experience here on earth. Born as a baby in a manger, placed in a manger in Bethlehem, walking the dusty roads of Palestine. And everywhere He went He helped. Jesus went about doing good, we read in the book of Acts, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil. Wherever He encountered need, He met it. He was a servant here in the midst of the world in which we live.
And this is His perhaps greatest disciple here. And that’s the spirit of the Apostle Paul. Even though he’s safe on land, even though he’s had a major role in getting everybody safely to shore, he still wants to do something to help.
May I suggest that your greatness in the Christian life and your greatness in the Christian church is not measured by the amount of compliments that you receive from people. It’s not measured by the recognition that you get. It’s not measured by the special positions that you occupy in the church. If you occupy positions like that, your greatness in the Christian church is measured by your ability to collect sticks, as measured by your ability to minister to the needs of others, to help others, forgetful of yourself, forgetful of your own deserts, and giving yourself in the spirit of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to the needs of others.
And that would be a beautiful place to end this story, wouldn’t it? Just right there. You know, here’s Paul the humble servant of Christ piling sticks on the fire.
But that isn’t the end of the story, however. Because you see, apparently as he leans over and throws some sticks on the fire, there’s a viper. And in the cold and wet weather that was there on Malta, the viper was probably kind of dozing or something. But the heat of the fire awakens the viper to activity. And when Paul stretches out his hand to put more sticks on the fire, the viper gets hit and fastens, hanging from his wrist. That’s bad. We all hate snakes. And I’m sure that was a very distressing moment for the Apostle Paul.
And immediately the opinion begins to circulate among the inhabitants of Malta, ‘No doubt this man is a murderer. And even though he has managed to escape death in the sea, justice will be done and he’s not going to escape because that viper,’ the natives of course recognize this as one of the poisonous varieties of vipers, ‘that viper will get him. He’ll be dead.’
Isn’t it surprising? Isn’t it amazing how many people there are who stand around with an opinion like that? They see a Christian person. They see a servant of the Lord. And something dreadful happens to that person. And they say, ‘Oh, they must have done something wrong. There must be some real evil in their life because God wouldn’t let that bad thing happen to them, would He, if they were faithful to Him?’
Now don’t get me wrong, folks. It’s perfectly true that if you don’t walk with the Lord you can have a lot of troubles that are brought on to you by your failure to obey the Lord. But if we understand the Bible we don’t adopt the mentality of the society around us that bad things happen only to bad people and good things happen to good people. As a matter of fact, the Bible teaches us that bad things often happen to good people. And the classic example of that, of course, is Job. The man who was most faithful to God in his day and time had the worst series of calamities that I have ever heard about or read, other than just dying on the spot. Why? Because he was wicked? Because he was evil? No. But because God had a purpose in what happened.
Now I suspect that we Christians who read this story not only don’t share the opinion of the natives of Malta, but we also have another opinion. Because this is a snake, right? And from the book of Genesis to the book of Revelation, when we think snake we think Satan. The serpent that tempted Eve. And Satan is called in the book of Revelation that old serpent, the devil and Satan. And we have the feeling, I think rightly, that Satan must have something to do with this.
As a matter of fact, the last half of the book of Acts is really filled with satanic attacks on the Apostle Paul. Shortly after he was converted on the road to Damascus, when he began to preach in Damascus, they plotted against him and they had to hide Paul in a basket, remember, and let him down through the wall to get him away. And then he goes down to Jerusalem and nobody believes that he is a Christian. They will have nothing to do with him. Finally Barnabas gets him in and he begins to preach and they plot against him again. He has to leave Jerusalem. And that’s the story of Paul’s career. We’ve been reading the book of Acts so I’m sure you have noticed this, that over and over again Satan stirs up opposition. Satan stirs up persecution. And Paul goes through all sorts of things. That’s the story of Paul’s life. Why? Because he’s wicked? Because he’s a murderer or a criminal or something like that? No. Because he’s a servant of God and because he is an object of satanic hatred.
I am quite sure that if Satan had been allowed to do so he would have sunk the ship out in the Mediterranean Sea. It would not have mattered to him that two hundred and seventy-five other people died with the ship. His main purpose would have been getting rid of this great apostle to the Gentiles. And one feels that even though the fire has naturally brought this viper out, that Satan has a hand in guiding the viper right to the wrist of the Apostle Paul.
And one of the things that we need to remember, I think, is that when we are walking with God, when we’re living for God, bad things do sometimes happen to us. And frequently we are the object of one kind of satanic attack or another. And it’s very important for us to not get the impression that that is necessarily because we have done something wrong.
So what does Paul do? Does he say, ‘That does it. I mean I’ve just escaped from a near shipwreck and I’ve really helped everybody to get to shore safely by encouraging them. And I’ve had this long series of problems and I’m under arrest anyway. I’m heading toward a trial in the courtroom of Caesar. I’ve had it. I give up.’ Some of us might have been tempted to take that kind of an attitude toward it. But not Paul. What does he do? He shakes it off. The viper falls into the fire.
Permit me to suggest that the Bible teaches us to shake off Satan. Remember the words of James. He says, ‘Submit yourselves unto God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.’ Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
You know what I think? I think it crossed Paul’s mind as that snake was hanging on his arm, ‘This could be a poisonous snake.’ I think it also crossed his mind that if it is, I won’t die because I have a promise from God that I’m going to be before Caesar. And I believe that it will be just as God has told me. And in the midst of any kind of attack from Satan we can count on God. We can believe in God. We can be sure that whatever He has promised in His word is good.
Now the attitude of the people is pretty fickle, don’t you agree? I mean first of all they are convinced he’s shaking the viper off. And the people are convinced that he’s done for. So they watch him. They’re watching for him to swell up where the viper has bitten him, or they’re watching for him to fall over dead. They watch and watch. No swelling. No falling over dead. ‘Wow, that was a poisonous snake and it hasn’t done him any damage at all. He must be a god. He must be a god.’
Paul has been there before. We read it in Acts 14. He and Barnabas were in a certain city and Paul had performed a very impressive miracle. And the priests and so on brought the animals to sacrifice to them. They regarded him as gods. Barnabas was Zeus and Paul was Hermes. They were going to sacrifice to them. It took all the persuasive powers that Paul and Barnabas had to convince them not to commit sacrifice.
And then what? Some enemies of Paul arrived in the same city. And almost the next thing we read is they’ve stoned Paul. They think he’s dead and they drag him out of the city. I mean this is the guy they were going to offer sacrifice to, and now they practically killed him. They went from one side to the other.
Now folks, I’ve been alive for seventy years and I hope that one of the things I have learned is not to believe my press clippings. You know, sometimes your press clippings are pretty depressing. And people say to you, ‘You know, I really don’t think much of your Christian testimony. You’ve got a lot of faults and I can tell you some of your faults. You’re not so hot a Christian.’ Or if you’re in the ministry they may say, ‘Your ministry is not very impressive. It doesn’t look like God’s doing much through you.’ Press clippings are down.
Now you know we can learn some things sometimes from the negative press that we get from people. But we need to remember to keep it in perspective because then we’ll find that the press clippings go up. ‘Oh you are a real challenge to me. You are a real spiritual leader. You are a wonderful, wonderful example.’ The one that I like best being a preacher is, ‘You know, you’re the best preacher I’ve ever heard.’ And the thought goes through my mind, ‘You haven’t heard many preachers, have you?’
But you see, we can get caught up in what people think of us. And it goes from one extreme to the other. Sometimes it’s good. Sometimes it’s horrible. And Paul had learned this. And you remember his words in First Corinthians chapter 4. He says, ‘To me it is a very small thing if I be judged by you or by a human court. In fact I don’t even judge myself,’ says Paul. ‘One who judges me is the Lord. Therefore,’ says Paul, ‘judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes, who will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and make clear the counsels of the heart. And then each one’s praise will be of God.’
I think Paul is saying, ‘You know, I’m really, with all due respect to you Corinthians, I don’t care what you think of me. And I don’t care what anybody on earth thinks of me. I don’t even think I can think well about myself. I don’t think I am accurate in judging myself. What really matters to me is what the Lord thinks of me.’ And all of us need to remember, says Paul, that we shouldn’t be passing judgment until the Lord comes and everything that is hidden is revealed.
One of the great lessons that all of us can learn is that we are aiming for the approval of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and not for the approval of men.
One of my favorite stories is a story told by Lawrence Spivak. You remember his name? Lawrence Spivak was the host of the television program Meet the Press. And on one occasion shortly before he was to go on the air he got a telegram. And the telegram said, ‘Why don’t you smile? I will be watching today so please smile.’ And Lawrence Spivak, you know, being eager to please his television audience, went on the air and he gave what he thought was a very fine and fetching smile. And after the program was over he got another telegram. And this telegram said, ‘Don’t do it again. I liked it better the other way.’
And that’s the way the human mind works, isn’t it? Yeah, you’re in today, you’re out tomorrow. You’re up today, you’re down tomorrow. But Paul says we walk by faith and not by sight. And we are confident, yes, well pleased to be absent from the body and present with the Lord. Therefore we make it our aim that whether present or absent we may be well pleasing to Him. And then he adds, ‘Well we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ to receive the things done in the body according to what each man has done, whether good or bad.’
And there is nothing more anchoring to our Christian life or experience than to remember then every day what really counts is whether the Lord is pleased with me.
So what’s the bottom line? Three bottom lines this time. Pick up sticks. Be visibly engaged in helping other people. Shake off the serpent. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. And have it as your chief focus in life to be pleasing to your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.