Safely Through

Yeah. Okay, we go sit. Okay, good morning, everybody. We're going to get started today by reading out of Isaiah together. Let's go ahead and stand. We're going to be reading Isaiah 46. And we're going to be starting in verse 9 and going through verse 11. And it says, Remember the former things of old, for I am God and there is no other. I am God and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand. for the opportunity to gather here today together with with our brothers and sisters here and we thank you for those that are watching online and for the encouragement that we can get by meeting together every week and reading your word together and worshiping together and learning more about

you. We thank you so much for the plans that you have for us and how you hold us in your hand and what you say you will do will happen. And we thank you for your mercy and for your grace and for your love. Be with our service today and allow it to glorify you. In Jesus' name, amen. All right, we're going to start off today with the lion and the lamb.

On the clouds, kings and kingdoms will bow down Every chain will break His broken hearts declare His praise But who can stop the Lord Almighty? Our God is the Lion, the Lion of Judah He's roaring with power and fighting our battles Every knee will bow before Him Our God is the Lamb, the Lamb that was slain For the sins of the world, His blood breaks the chains Every knee will bow before the lion and the lamb Every knee will bow before His Open up the gates Make way for the King of Kings The God who comes to save Is here to set the captives free Who can stop the Lord Almighty? Our God is the Lion, the Lion of Judah. He's roaring with power and fighting our battles. Every knee will bow before Him. Our God is the Lamb, the Lamb that was slain, for the sins of the world, His blood breaks the chains.

Every knee will bow before the Lion and the Lamb, every knee will bow before Him. Who can stop the Lord Almighty? Our God is the Lion, the Lion of Judah. He is roaring with power and fighting our battles Every knee will bow before Him Our God is the Lamb, the Lamb that was slain For the sins of the world, His blood breaks the chains Every knee will bow before the Lion and the Lamb And every knee will bow before him. We're going to be moving into our prayer and share time. So if you're watching online, there'll be a slide up with a phone number that you can text. If you have any prayer requests or anything you'd like to share with us, just text that number there. And then we'll be muted here during that time.

So just give us a few minutes and we'll be back to continue on in our service. And if you want to sit now, you can or you can keep standing. But we're going to sing together Waymaker.

You are here Moving in my midst I worship you I worship you You are here Working in this place I worship you, I worship you You are here, moving in our midst I worship you, I worship you You are here, working in this place I worship you, I worship you Way made a miracle work, a promise keeper Hide in the darkness, my God, that is who you are Way made a miracle work, a promise keeper Light in the darkness, my God, that is who you are You are here, touching every heart I worship you, I worship you You are here, healing every heart I worship you, I worship you You are here, turning all your door around I worship you, I worship you You are here, bending every heart I'll worship you, I'll worship you.

Way maker, miracle worker, promise keeper, light in the darkness. My God, that is who you are. Way maker, miracle worker, promise keeper, Light in the darkness, my God, that is who you are. Waymaker, miracle worker, promise keeper. Light in the darkness, my God, that is who you are. Waymaker, miracle worker, promise keeper. Light in the darkness, my God, that is who you are. I'm going to go to the next episode. so I'm sorry. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

God bless you. To draw near to the table and to see the goodness of the gospel. So one of the things that I've shared with you before, but I think about when we come to the table is Charles Spurgeon once said that the Lord's Supper is the spectacles through which we see the gospel. This little piece of bread and this little cup of juice is a way that we see more clearly who Jesus is and what Jesus has done. So, we're going to go ahead and sing Above All, and then we'll spend some time together partaking in the Lord's Supper.

Above all powers, above all kings, above all nature and all created things. Above all wisdom and all the ways of man, you were here before the world began. Above all kingdoms, above all thrones, above all wonders the world has ever known. Above all wealth and treasures of the earth, there's no way to measure what you're worth.

Lucified, lay behind a star, lived or died, rejected and alone, like a rose, traveled on the ground. You turned the ball and thought of me above all. Above all powers, above all kings, above all nature and all creative things. above all wisdom and all the ways of man you were here before the world began above all kingdoms, above all thrones above all wonders the world has ever known Above all the wealth and treasures of the earth There's no way to measure what you're worth Crucified, laid behind the stone You lived to die, rejected and belonged Like a rose trembled on the ground, you took the fall and thought of me above all.

The beginning of our service, we read from Isaiah, the 46th chapter, those verses about sort of the greatness and the goodness of God. You know, I am God, there is no other. I am God, there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times, things not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand and I will accomplish all my purposes. And for Christians, these verses have been a comfort to know that God is the beginning. He's the end. He upholds everything in between. But the context of Isaiah 46 is not just an encouragement about the nature of God. It's really a call to evaluate who it is we are trusting in. In fact, the context of Isaiah 46 is people who are worshiping gods that are made by him. And just a few verses earlier, it talks about goldsmiths and silversmiths measuring out precious metals.

And they're turning it into gods and bowing down and worshiping it. And God is contrasting himself with these objects of false worship, saying, All they are is a statue. They can do nothing, but I am the one who declares the end from the beginning. I am the one who accomplishes his purpose. And not only is this, I think, a call for God's people to evaluate where it is we put our hope, but it also contains words of comfort. In Isaiah 46.3, it says this, Listen to me, O house of Jacob, all the remnant of the house of Israel, who have been born by me from before your birth, carried from the womb, even to your old age, I am he, and to the gray hairs, I will carry you. I have made, I will bear, I will carry, and I will save. And God speaks to his people saying,

from before birth until the time when we are old and gray, that I am the one who has made you, I carry you, I will lift you up, and I will save you. Paul, when he speaks to the Corinthian church and they're struggling with how they're partaking in the Lord's Supper, one of the things that he says to them is that he says, let a person, before they partake of the meal, spend some time examining themselves. And so what I would call you to do this morning, as we've looked briefly at Isaiah 46, is to examine where it is we're putting our hope. Are we putting our hope in these sort of temporary physical things, the things that Jesus said, moth and rust destroy and that thieves break in and steal? Or are we putting our trust and our hope in the one who knows the end from the beginning

and all things in between, the one who made us, the one who loves us, the one who carries us, and the one who saves us? And we remember that salvation and that hope by partaking of this bread and drinking this cup, which reminds us of how God saved, not just through mighty acts, but ultimately through the sacrifice of His Son. Let's pray. Father, I thank You for hope. I thank You that You come to people who are walking away from You, And you come with words of correction and words to challenge our hearts. And so may the light of your word melt the coldness of our heart this morning. May we see your goodness and your glory in all of those things that you have made but are not ultimate. Those things that we put our hope in, we ask that you would convict us of that hope.

And that you would help us to place our hope in you and in your goodness and in your strength and in your salvation and in your love. So be with us as we partake this morning. Direct our eyes to Jesus, to his suffering, and to the hope that he brings us as a broken people. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Jesus will say, this bread, which is for you, this is my body. And when you eat it, do it in remembrance of me. And Jesus will say, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

This morning's reading is from Acts 28, 1 through 10. And we were brought safely through. We learned that the island was called Malta. The native people showed us unusual kindness, for they kindled a fire and welcomed us, because it had begun to rain and was cold. 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 to his hand. Also a problem you can have with woodpiles in the winter. 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 escaped from the sea, justice has not allowed him to live. He, however, shook off the creature into the fire and suffered no harm. 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 Paul, they changed their minds and said that he was a God. 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. It happened that the father of Publius lay sick with a fever and dysentery, And Paul visited him and prayed, and putting his hands on him, healed him. And when this had taken place, the rest of the people of this island who had diseases also came and were cured. They also honored us greatly, and when we were about to sail, they put on board whatever we needed. This is the word of the Lord. This seems like one of those texts that would be great with an object lesson.

And unfortunately, I didn't bring any snakes to help us along with that. I don't think we're quite that kind of church. It's a remarkable short ten verses that we're in this morning. Before we pray, and just we're going to dive straight into the text this morning, one of the things to note about this is the accuracy of the way that Luke writes when he writes these things. As he's written the previous chapter, if you read through it, it reads like a book about the sea or a journal of somebody who is traveling by sea from one place to another. What's remarkable is that Luke gets the names right, the nautical terminology right. He gets everything right, and then here in these 10 verses, one of the things you see is Luke's medical background. We'll talk about a little bit of that in a moment, but one of the remarkable things when it talks about the fever and dysentery

that he actually uses the words from the medical literature of the time. He's not just sort of saying he was really sick, like the time that happens when non-doctors write about things, medical in Scripture, but he actually uses the right words and the right terminology and the right things and describes the right symptoms. So one of the things to remember is that Luke, as he writes this, he was a witness to these things, but he was also very knowledgeable about what is happening and the side effects of things that are happening. So let's pray. We're just going to dive right into these 10 verses. Father in heaven, thank you for allowing us to be here this morning. Thank you for your word. Thank you for the testimony of Dr. Luke as he travels with Paul and suffers with Paul and works with Paul. We thank you

for this account, the hope that is found, and we just ask that you would help us to see your goodness and your grace this morning, both in us and how it comes through us to others. And so just help us this morning. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So one of the things that I want you to kind of keep in mind as we walk through these 10 verses is that especially in times of trouble, I think it is important to see how God demonstrates his grace in your life, the things that God is doing for you, but that also he uses this time of maybe uncertainty and conflict and suffering and not being sure where to go for you to be able to pour his grace out into the life of others. And so part of the picture of this text is that God uses his grace

both for you and through you to those who surround you. And so we're just going to pick up in verse one where Luke writes this, after we were brought safely through, we learned that the island was called Malta. And so we want to start by saying, who is the we that he is talking about? If you remember the beginning of Acts chapter 27, it's Paul, it's Luke, it's one of Paul's friends, Aristarchus from Thessalonica. There's a Roman centurion, there's a bunch of other prisoners. We learn at the end of Acts chapter 27 that there was 276 people in all. And so when we hear that we. What we're talking about is Paul, the soldiers, the sailors, the other passengers, the ship's company. This is who he is talking about. They've been brought safely through the storm. And so this

ship and these 276 people, they have been sort of suffering for the last several weeks. They left against Paul's advice. Remember, Paul's advice is likely good because he has spent a lot of time on ships. He's traveled a lot. He's been shipwrecked several times. And so when he says, hey guys, it's getting to be winter. It's not the time that ships should be sailing. How about we don't do that? And they said, oh no, we can make it. And so they begin to sail and they get to a harbor that seems pretty safe, but it's a really boring town. So none of the sailors, none of the soldiers want to spend their time there. So they said, we can make it to a better harbor and a better town. And on the way, it starts out pretty well with gentle winds and the storms.

pick up. Now, nor'Easter comes, and it begins to blow them. They just have to take down their sails, and they're blown along in front of the storm. Every chance to sort of keep the ship together, they're trying to take. Remember, they take ratchet straps, essentially would be our modern equivalent, and tie the ship together all the way under it to keep it from splitting apart, and eventually they're driven along. We learn that for 14 days, this storm is so intense, and everybody is so afraid that nobody eats during this time. Eventually the ship will ground on a reef and what will happen is it begins to break up and they all head for shore. And the centurion will say, after saving the life of his prisoners, because the soldiers will say, hey, you know, it's easier to keep an eye on a dead person

than it is a live person. We'd rather not have to sort of chase these guys around the island and recapture them. And the centurion says no. And so everybody who can swim jumps overboard, swims to shore. Everybody who can't swim grabs a piece of the ship as it's breaking up and sort of uses it as a flotation device to get to shore. And so they all get to shore. And so this has been, as Acts 28 begins, a frustrating, it's been a difficult, it's been a dangerous journey. and 276 people have just washed up on a beach on this island. And look at what Luke's assessment of the situation is. We were brought safely through. And I want you to sort of focus on how he says that. He doesn't say that we figured out a way safely through.

He doesn't say that through our skill and through the courage of the sailors and their experience, we were brought safely through. Not through our ingenuity. Not through our equipment. Not through our schemes. Remember the sailors at one point tried to sneak off the boat. They said, hey, we're going to go set some more anchors. And what they were really going to do is just take the lifeboat and head off and abandon everyone. Not in their wisdom, but what? We were brought safely through. The way Luke words it, it's not our actions that brought us through. That somebody else came and carried us through. And what Luke is making sort of very subtly here is the point that God is ultimately the one that brings us through these storms and brings us to safety. And in verse 2 we find this, the native people showed us unusual kindness for they kindled the fire and welcomed us because it had begun to rain and it was cold.

So Luke here is kind of making a point. And so the way that he refers to these native people in Greek is hoi barbaroi. And it's where we get our English word barbarian from. Now, barbarian means something probably different to us than it would have been to Luke's audience. For us, when we think of barbarians, especially if you've grown up with video games, you've got armor, you've got fur, you've got a big spiky hat, you've got an axe or a club. That's not the picture of barbarians. These are people who are not part of either the Greek or Roman Latin culture. They speak a different language. In fact, the word barbarian likely comes from the sound that it sounds like when people speak a different language. So if you've ever watched Charlie Brown and he's in school and the teacher is going to...

That's what they sound like. And somebody took that kind of noise and put it together to come up with the word barbarian. And so what Luke is saying is these are not people that you would normally expect to be sort of friendly to Romans or Roman citizens or Greeks. Now, there is a Roman presence on the island. They're familiar with Greek and Roman gods. But Luke is saying that we don't really expect a lot from them. And then he'll say this, they showed us unusual kindness. And this is remarkable, right? Because there's normal kindness, right? There's politeness, but then there's unusual kindness. And unusual kindness sort of takes us by surprise when it happens. I remember the first time that this happened to me. I was getting coffee at Dunkin' Donuts, and I get up to the window, and I go to pay,

and they're like, hey, the guy in front of you just paid for your coffee. And I'm going, like, it kind of caught me by surprise. I was like, do I say thank you? What do I do? Is it okay to take the coffee? Like, it just was not at all what I was expecting, and it sort of takes you by surprise. Now, it turns out that what you were supposed to do, there wasn't really unusual kindness. You were supposed to pay for the guy behind you, which for all I know, my $1.50 black coffee, and I'm going to pay for some guy's $25 of frappuccino sugar water or whatever. But I didn't even realize it. I was just like, okay, and I drove off because it took me by surprise. And what Luke is saying is that we showed up,

and here are people who are not native Latin speakers. They're not native Greek speakers. They have a whole different culture. And all of a sudden, this burden of 276 people washes up on the shore. And what do they do? They immediately build a fire. They immediately show us hospitality. They take care of us, right? It's cold and it's wet. Now, Malta, in general, doesn't get real cold. It's probably November. They're probably in the 40s or 50s. The water temperature is probably high 50s or maybe into like 60 or 61 degrees. And so, objectively, for us, we say, well, that's not very cold. But remember, these guys have been battling through a storm. They haven't been dry in probably two weeks. And then they go into the water. They have to swim to shore. They get out.

And if you've ever gotten out of the water into like 45 degree air, right, you're cold, right? They're cold. They're shivering. And so these guys begin to build a fire so that everybody can warm up. And then some surprising things begin to happen. Pick up in verse 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 onto his hand. And 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. He, however, shook off the creature into the fire and suffered no harm. And 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. So this starts out normally, this hospitality. God brings you safely through the storm. You end up in a place where people are friendly. They treat you well. They begin to warm you up. And so I think probably by this time, most everybody has kind of warmed up a little. And the fire has been going. And Paul, kind of one of those guys who seems like he always has to be doing something, sees a bundle of sticks, and so he grabs it, throws it into the fire, and at that point the snake that was asleep inside the bundle of sticks, maybe because of the cold, gets sort of invigorated because of the fire,

and he comes leaping out, and Luke refers to it as a viper, a venomous snake, and he doesn't just bite Paul, but he latches on, right? He's not just biting, but he's there to stay. You sort of picture Paul, in fact, one of the coloring sheets for the kids this morning is Paul and a group of people standing around a fire, and there's just a snake hanging off of Paul's arm. And I want you to think about how Paul reacts to this event. Think about his demeanor first. We're going to talk about his demeanor, and then we're going to talk about sort of his emotion, sort of what's happening on the outside, and I think what's happening on the inside. So from my perspective, snakes are generally useful. They're helpful. They're great to have around, and even venomous snakes, if you treat them with care, give

them their space, right, they have a purpose in God's creation and God's design. However, like, I'm not real excited to be surprised by a snake. Like, if I'm out hiking, like, I expect to see a snake, I'm prepared for it, but if you find a snake in a place that you're not prepared for it, right, that's a different, whole different reaction. So, when my parents got ready to move down here, the house they were moving into had been empty for a long time, and we were down in the basement doing some stuff with the wiring, and we're in this little kind of utility room, and we're standing there, and we look up, and there's, like, wires hanging down, and then there was this big black wire hanging down, and we're standing there, and somebody goes, and you start pulling on it.

It's like, that's a dead snake, and, like, all I heard was, that's a snake, and I heard that from the next room, right? It was like, you know, the people who were there, like, we've never seen him move that fast. And I'm not scared of snakes, but I'm not a big fan of ceiling snakes dropping on my head unexpectedly, right? That's not something that I'm excited about. You see Paul here, as he encounters that, it doesn't seem like it even throws him on, right? And I don't think it's just remarkable because of his calmness, his demeanor. But after the reaction of being bitten and realizing this is a venomous snake, I'd have some additional things to say. Not only all of a sudden I'm sitting there throwing wood on the fire, a snake comes leaping out at me.

I'm going to have some things to say about that. But then when I realize it's venomous, and the expected result is that you swell up and die, I'm going to have some more things to say about that. because Paul has been in the custody of a man who has kept him in custody to seek a bribe, so unfairly imprisoned. The next guy who comes to power tries to use Paul as a political pawn, almost gets him murdered seeking to appease Paul's enemies. He gets put on a ship. They ignore his advice. He's been in a storm for 14 weeks. Everybody almost dies. The ship wrecks. He has to swim to shore. He gets out, just starts getting warmed up, does something nice by throwing some wood on the fire and gets bit by a viper, right? I would have some things to talk to God

about in this situation, right? It's like, don't you think at some point I've gone through enough, right? I've been in prison. I've been used as a political pawn. I've now been on a ship and been shipwrecked. And now I finally get to the safety of shore and a venomous snake bites me. And what is in front of me now, instead of going to Rome and preaching the gospel, what's in front of me now is death. I would be upset about this turn of events. Paul doesn't do that. It seems like he just sort of calmly shakes the snake off. I don't know that he's intentionally trying to shake it off into the fire. I think he just kind of shakes his arm and the snake flies off. That's what happens. So how is Paul, and the way Luke writes that his demeanor is extremely calm, that his

spirit is calm through all this how is he able to be like this because i don't know that any of this would have been my reaction and i think it's because Paul trusts the promises and provisions of God right in the previous chapter God will say to Paul through an angel do not be afraid you must stand before Caesar and behold God you and all who sail with you so take heart men for i have faith in God, it will be exactly as I have been told. And God has told Paul, you're going to stand before Caesar. And Paul sees the snake hanging off his arm and realizes what God has said. And Paul trusts what God has said. And I would say to you that this doesn't happen in our lives all at once,

right? We don't just wake up one morning and all of a sudden we go through the storms and the unfairness of life and all the struggles get bitten by a snake. And then we're just like Paul, right? This is a process that you and I grow through in terms of faithfulness and the faithfulness of God, right? We begin to see God's faithfulness as new Christians in our lives. And as we grow, we continue to see his faithfulness and we continue to see his faithfulness. And eventually what happens? We find ourselves where Paul is, right? This is a picture of a mature Christian. And most of us, I think, we wouldn't respond this way because we're still growing. We're still learning to put our wholehearted trust in God. Paul is seeing God's strength in contrast to his weakness.

And his faith has been nurtured and it grows. And I want you to see that faith is not simply a good luck charm, right? It's a relationship and a hope in the goodness and the greatness of God. And Paul in this moment is trusting God's purposes even as he's bitten by a snake. Now, take a look at the contrast that Paul is the people And they have, I remember seeing this a while ago, a little comic, and it just says, you know, the only exercise most people get is jumping to conclusions. And that's exactly what happens next. The people who see this happen, it says this, 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 is not allowed to live.

And before we talk about their reaction, think about this, that they may have been very well true. We don't know how Paul persecuted. We know that he did. He may have very well been a murderer, right? He did participate in the death of Stephen. He gave approval to that death. He was at least an accomplice in murder. But remember that Paul has seen the grace and the goodness of God, and God has changed him. And so these people, they look at Paul and they say, he must be a terrible guy to have this kind of thing happen to him, right? He's been shipwrecked, and they would think, Oh, man, God saved him out of the sea, but now he's bit by a snake. And so when they say this, in some of your Bibles, the word justice will be capitalized.

And what these people are doing is they're attributing what happens to the Apostle Paul, to a Greek God who is the daughter of Zeus and Themis, and her name is Dike or Dese. It's where we get our English word dice. So she and her mother are the personification of justice. And you've actually seen, likely seen, pictures of her mom, right? So if you've ever seen a picture of justice, right? The statue that's blindfolded, a sword in one hand, scales in the other hand, that's a picture of this goddess's mom. And so what D.K. did was she would make sure that people got what they deserved. And what they're saying is that he had managed to escape the sea somehow, And now, he's been bitten by a snake. Justice has finally caught up with him. And they're exhibiting a very common way of thinking,

especially in our world today. So how many times when somebody's suffering, well, maybe they deserved it. We tend to think, whether consciously or not, that oftentimes bad things happen to bad people, good things happen to good people. Now it's true that sometimes the bad things that happen to us, they're because of decisions and choices we have made. But that is not universally true. And the problem is they immediately see Paul's problems and they assume it's because he is an evil, evil man. And so I would caution you to be very careful how you view suffering in your life and in the life of others. And as Paul doesn't swell up and die, they immediately go to the other end of the spectrum, right? He's a horrible human, too. He's a God. While they were waiting for him to swell up

and suddenly fall down dead when they had waited a long time. And I wonder how that worked out. Paul's sitting by the fire and everybody's kind of staring at him going, is he getting a little bigger? Is he swelling up? Is he trying to sort of watch what happens to the Apostle Paul when they waited a long time and saw no misfortune came to him. They changed their minds and said he was a God. How quickly can the opinions of people change? From one hand being angry at you to the other hand worshiping you and you know it's only just a decision away that flips. It's why when we serve God, our hope is in what God thinks rather than what is in the opinion of men. Because if we do put our hope in the opinions of people that surround us,

what's ultimately going to happen is it's going to be a rollercoaster of disappointment and joy and disappointment and joy as we go back and forth between them. And Luke doesn't enumerate it, but this has happened to Paul before. And I would say this, as we consider Paul's snakebite and his shipwreck, that when we trust in God, the unexpected doesn't necessarily mean that it's the end for us. But learning from the people, when we trust in God, we learn to leave the judgment of events to Him rather than to our superstitions or emotions. Now, in the neighborhood of that place where the land belonged to the chief man of the island, named Publius, who received us and entertained us hospitably for three days. 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. And when this had taken place, the rest of the people on the island who had diseases also came and were cured. And they honored us greatly, and when we were about to sail, they put on board whatever we needed. The first thing you see is that God provides for Paul and his companions' rest after the storm. They have been struggling and facing uncertainty. And this chief citizen will be the name sort of the highest-ranking Roman on this island and invites them in, provides for them, and they are allowed to eat and sleep and recover from the struggle that they have gone through, that God provides rest after the storm. The second thing that happens is that God provides this power of the miracle of Paul

to heal this man's father. Paul prays and the man is recovering and the word begins to get out. And what you find biblically is that when God causes these miracles to happen, these miraculous events, what he is doing is bearing testimony to the message of the gospel. Because people say, how can I know it's true? And you say, well, this man who is sick isn't sick anymore. And so what's interesting is the whole island, everybody who's sick, starts showing up at the door. and what you see happen next is remarkable because it doesn't seem that God provides any more miracles but he does provide healing and here's how we see that it says this verse 9 and when this had taken place the rest of the people on the island who had diseases came and also were healed everybody hears about it shows up for healing now remember Luke is a

doctor here and it's interesting when he talks about healing here he uses two sort of different terms for it in verse 8 where Paul prays and this leading citizen's father is cured it's the word that's traditionally used for miraculous healing right that you know Jesus goes up and you know get up and walk and the guy gets up and walk or or Peter you know you know he says I don't have anything to give you but I have this from Jesus in his name get up and walk and he gets up and walks right that's the picture that's used here for the healing of the father in verse 8 now in verse 9 the picture that is used of healing it's very very different word in fact it's the word that when it's transliterated into english becomes our word therapy or therapeutic and what it means

is healing through the use of medicine and i love this because it appears that Luke who is a physician Paul's probably personal physician sees all these people come and he just gets to work right rolls up his sleeves and begins to work. And you see God healing the people on this island both through the power of miracle and the power of medicine. And the picture here is two different gifts. Luke's gift in caring and healing people through medical knowledge and medical treatment. God uses that. Paul's power in the spirit and the power of God working to heal that. And what you find is that God uses all of us in different ways and for different purposes. God uses both Paul and Luke to minister to the people on this island. And then as they get ready to go,

the island is thankful. And so as they're getting ready to sail, the whole island shows up and provides enough food and resources to take care of Paul and his companions on the next level of the journey that God doesn't just give them rest in the storm. He doesn't just give power for miracles. He doesn't just provide Luke as a doctor to the island. But as they're getting ready to leave, He provides for their future. And what's remarkable about it, even though Luke doesn't mention it, Paul has never gone anywhere that he hasn't proclaimed the gospel. And so I think for three months, Paul preaches, teaches, Luke works as a doctor, sort of the first medical mission that you see in the Bible. And here's the thing, they were never supposed to be here to begin.

There was no plan to be on this island. There was no purpose for Paul to be on this island initially. As far as missionary efforts go, this was probably one of the last places that would have been evangelized, one of the last places in the region that the gospel of Jesus would have come to because it was small, it was out of the way, it wasn't very important. Nobody really important lives there. They don't even have a governor. They just have kind of the highest-ranking citizen. And God sends Paul and his companions to this place to share the gospel. And so many times we may look at our life and say, God, why have you brought me here? Why have you put me in this place? And I think God would answer to share the gospel.

where you are. It may not be where you expected to be. It may not be where you thought you would be at this stage in life, but He has a purpose and a plan for you, right? Luke goes to work. Paul goes to work. And you see this island that never probably would have heard the gospel without the divine hand of God directing the apostle here. Right? God is at work. Let's go ahead and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you that you are the one who brings us safely through. that we may not always end up where we had planned or imagined, but that you have a purpose for us. Help us as we look at the lives of others that unlike these people, we would not rush to judgment. We would rush to shout our opinions,

either good or bad like they did, but that we would see people as those who need the gospel. And that like Luke and Paul, we would care for the hurting, both physically and spiritually, That we would be a people who help and a people who love and a people who demonstrate Your grace to the world that surrounds us. Thank You for what You have done for us. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. We're going to stand and sing The Assurance.

Jesus is mine, all on a foretaste of glory divine. Heir of salvation, purchase of God, born of His Spirit, washed in His blood. This is my story, this is my song Praising my Saviour all the day long This is my story, this is my song Praising my Saviour all the day long A face of mission, all is at rest I am my Savior, I'm happy and blessed Watching, awaiting, looking above Filled with His goodness, lost in His love This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long. This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long.

And online, we will be back Wednesday for Bible study at 7 p.m., and then next Sunday we'll be continuing on in Acts 28, getting very close to the end, just a week or two left as we see Paul arrive where God has sent him. So I'm going to pray, and then we'll read a verse from the end of the book of Jude, and then we'll sing the doxology. Father in heaven, thank you for your goodness. Thank you for your grace. Thank you that you are the one who brings us safely through the storm. Help us to see those evidences of grace that you have shown us and help us to share that grace with others. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Jude ends his very short letter like this. Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling

and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority before all time, now and forever. Amen. Amen. of the heavenly host. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.