Sometimes God sends us down the road to get to the end of the road and at other times God sends us down a road to get to the fork in the road … We cannot know which it is unless and until we go down the road.
• If not watchful - We can become so focused on what we know God wants for our lives that we miss what God is doing in our lives.
Tonight I hope to conclude our study of the Book of Acts with a discussion of a powerful life principle from the 28th chapter. We will begin this evening by re-reading a brief passage from the previous chapter to help us set the stage. Remember, when we left the Apostle Paul last week, he was on his way to Rome, sailing on a large ship when a storm overtook them and the best they could do was to let it take them wherever the winds blew.
There were 276 people onboard the ship when it began to break up and people jumped into the rough seas finding anything that would float to help them make it to shore. A few days earlier, in the middle of the storm, Paul had told everyone that he had received a word from God. He said:
Acts 27
23 For there stood by me this night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve,
24 saying, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul; you must be brought before Caesar; and indeed God has granted you all those who sail with you.’
25 Therefore take heart, men, for I believe God that it will be just as it was told me.
26 However, we must run aground on a certain island.”
Make no mistake, the messenger of God said, you must be brought before Caesar … but don’t imagine your destiny or final destination is all God has in His plan.
• Wouldn’t it be terrible to reach your God given goals only to realize later that you missed the point?
I think of the story of Jacob & Leah …
• Jacob lived his whole life thinking Leah was the wrong person … but she wasn’t!
• Even though Jacob accomplished the will of God for his life, he missed so much of the joy God intended for him.
• The Bible says that Jacob loved Rachael and hated Leah.
• Leah was the right woman – Leah is the mother of Judah and therefore the grandmother of Jesus. However, Jacob reached his God given goals but missed the point.
• When we are on our way to our God given destiny and things happen which are beyond our control … we should not always count them as a distraction sent by the devil … sometimes they may be things God intended all along.
God does not first have to seek our permission before He upsets our plans.
What may seem like a surprise to us, may be a plan to God.
God does not want us to miss the joys of the journey …
Allow me to set the stage for Acts 28 … At the end of chapter 27, Paul and his companions have just made shipwreck. They had no idea where they were, but it turns out they had landed on the Island of Malta.
The island of Malta was inhabited by a superstitious people in that day. They had been influenced by the many cultures who had previously conquered and ruled the island. Today you can visit the remains of Megalithic structures left over from the prehistoric Neolithic culture that existed on the island as far back as 4000 BC.
Some of the oldest and largest free-standing structures in the world can be found around the island as a testimony to who ruled the centuries. From the Phoenicians to the Carthaginians, Romans, Greeks, Arabs, Normans, Aragonese, the Knights of St John, the French and the British … Nations of peoples throughout history have found Malta to be a strategic asset in the central southern European Mediterranean and a stepping stone between Europe, Asia, North Africa, and the Middle East.
It is no wonder why God included this strategic island and the current leaders in the group of the people He wanted to be saved and brought into His service. Malta, and by extension the Maltese people, continue to be a strategic asset for the nations of the world in that all-to-often unsettled region.
There is no doubt the Apostle Paul had an appointment with destiny and was bound by the Spirit to appear before Emperor Nero and the highest rulers of the Roman Empire … but … We can be so focused on the future that we miss the point of the present.
We read in Acts 27:26 that the angel of God told Paul that he had an appointment with the Emperor but first … you “must run aground on a certain island.”
Let’s continue our study of Acts from Acts 28 and see if we can imagine why God allowed the storm to detour Paul’s ship.
Paul did not want to fall short of his final destination but neither did he want to miss the point of the problem he was having getting there!
Acts 28 NKJV
1 ¶ Now when they had escaped, they then found out that the island was called Malta.
2 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.
3 But 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.
4 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.”
5 But he shook off the creature into the fire and suffered no harm.
6 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.
Superstitious people are wishy-washy … they change with the wind. When things are going good … you’re good … when things are going bad, everything’s bad.
“He’s a god! He’s a murderer! He’s a god!”
Acts 28
7 In that region there was an estate of the leading citizen of the island, whose name was Publius, who received us and entertained us courteously for three days.
8 And it happened that the father of Publius lay sick of a fever and dysentery. Paul went in to him and prayed, and he laid his hands on him and healed him.
9 So when this was done, the rest of those on the island who had diseases also came and were healed.
10 They also honored us in many ways; and when we departed, they provided such things as were necessary.
• This man was evidently a good man
• There is no doubt God wanted to reach this family and these people.
• All it took was a little storm.
Paul could have spent his time moaning and complaining about the weather and the hardship of the shipwreck. He could have held prayer and warfare meetings, binding the devil for disrupting his important journey to Rome. Paul could have wasted his opportunity to embrace the present gift of God and spent his days at the dock trying to catch every ship bound for Europe. However, instead of being so focused on his destiny that he missed his opportunity …and the joy in the journey.
Paul spent the next three months ministering to the Maltese people, Jews and Gentiles alike,teaching them concerning the Word, the Will and the Way of Jesus the Christ.
Then, in about the spring of AD 60/61, Paul arrived in Rome and was placed in his own rented house (Wonder who paid the rent?), where he received guests and ministered to those in Caesar’s government and household for at least the next two whole years without restrictions.
This chapter concluded the account of the book of Acts around the years AD 62. Many, as do I, believed Paul was released from prison in about that time and continued his Apostolic ministry,strengthening the churches before being re-arrested in AD 64/65, taken back to Rome where he wrote more of the New Testamentbefore being beheaded under the order of Nero in AD 67.
