Acts 28

The story of the Apostle Paul is a story of much trouble and danger, but it is also a story of much success and deliverance. Paul had a very important part to play in the safety of 276 passengers aboard a ship that was travelling towards Rome. Because of severe weather in the Mediterranean Sea, the ship was off course, eventually running aground on the island of Malta. After everyone on board made it safely to land, we might think that all the excitement was over. But just then Paul was bitten by a deadly snake, causing the natives to conclude that he must be a murderer. They waited for him to swell up and die. When that did not happen, they came to the conclusion that the man was a god. We are reminded of the early days in Lystra…

Paul was no god, but he was a messenger of God’s grace. He was also used by the Lord as an agent of healing on that island. They remained there for three months, and were well-supplied by the appreciative people of Malta. They then continued on their journey by sea, and eventually by land, on their way, at last, to Rome. Along the way they met fellow believers who were a great source of encouragement to Paul and his gospel companions.

He soon called together Jewish leaders in the city to explain his situation. Asserting his innocence of any true offense against his own countrymen, Paul explained why he had appealed to Caesar, that it was “because the Jews objected.” What did they object to? They objected to any sign that Paul might be vindicated by the appropriate civil authorities where he was being held. Paul certainly had no charge to bring before Caesar’s tribunal against his own nation. Once again, he used his own situation as a prisoner to bring up the topic that he desired to speak about before their consciences: “the hope of Israel.” The hope of Israel is a King, a Land, and an age when the King most fully and eternally reigns in the Land. This is our hope now as well. We know that the King has come, that He has entered the real Land above, purifying the way for us, and that a day is coming when that King and His Land will come upon the earth with fullness and power.

The leaders of the Jews in Rome indicated that they had received nothing yet in writing specifically about any charges against Paul, nor had any of the Jews in Rome spoken against Paul, or even spread any evil report against him. On the other hand, Christians were being spoken against everywhere in Jewish circles.

Large numbers of Jews came from morning till evening on an appointed day in order to hear from Paul concerning the Christian faith and life. He taught them from the Hebrew Scriptures about the kingdom of God. As always, some were convinced, and others did not believe the message he preached. There was no one Jewish consensus in the first century. There were Jews who saw in Jesus the key to the hope of Israel, and there were others who rejected Jesus as the key to that hope. Of course, there were others still who looked for no such hope at all, whether through Jesus or not through Jesus.

As Isaiah had been warned hundreds of years prior to the coming of the Messiah, the messenger of God could expect that many would hear and see with their ears and eyes, but they would not be able to understand and love the truth with their hearts. They would be spiritually blind and deaf. This is not presented to Isaiah as something that God will be unaware of. It is a part of His judgment against His people, as it had earlier been His judgment against Pharaoh when God hardened the heart of the king of Egypt in the day when He saved His people out of that land.

Now something different was happening, a development that was not unknown to Isaiah. The Old Testament people of God would sadly take the place of Egypt in their stubborn rebellion against God and His Word, and so He would harden the hearts of Jews, and yet He would at the same time begin to call out for Himself a chosen people from the Gentiles. They would be the ones who would listen to the Word of hope preached by Paul and others.

This is where the two volumes of Luke-Acts ends. The Apostle Paul is under house arrest in Rome for two years. He is not travelling from church to church. He is not being expelled from synagogues. He is not battling an angry mob at Ephesus. People are coming to Him, and He is proclaiming a message to them. That message is the Word of the Kingdom of God. It is the story of the great King of the kingdom, the Lord Jesus Christ. Men may try to stop the progress of that kingdom and that message, but they will ultimately fail, because they cannot stop the King of the kingdom. The man who is able to turn one of the foremost persecutors of the church into one of the foremost champions of the message of Christ and His grace, is able to cause that Word to move forward with all boldness and without any hindrance. He can bring the nations streaming into His New Jerusalem using His humble servants who would proclaim that the hope of Israel has now become the hope of the nations.