“Bible places: Malta”
Acts 28:1-2
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus.
While the Titanic is the most famous shipwreck in all of history, (a little over 1,500 lives were lost!), not many realize that it wasn’t the worst.
Take, for example, the SS Sultana. It was a Mississippi Riverboat that sank near Memphis, Tennessee, some 150 years ago, when three of her four boilers exploded. And while today we call it the worst maritime disaster in U.S. history, (nearly 1,800 people died!), at the time it didn’t get a lot of attention. The Civil War had just ended and President Lincoln had been assassinated only days before.
The Joola was a ferry boat designed to carry a maximum of 580 passengers. Unfortunately, there were more than two thousand on board when it went down in a storm just off the coast of west Africa. In under five minutes, nearly all of the passengers and crew were lost at sea.
And in December of 1987, most of those aboard the Doña Paz were asleep when their ship rammed into another ship, an oil tanker, carrying nearly nine thousand barrels of gasoline. Those who survived the explosion and fire had no choice but to jump into shark-infested waters. As many as four thousand lives were lost, making it the deadliest peacetime maritime disaster ever.
The book of Acts chapter 28 also tells a story about a shipwreck. But here, by the grace of God, even though 276 souls were on board, not even one life was lost.
Please turn to page 1192 as I read the words of our text. I’ll start where it says, “Paul on Malta,” Acts chapter 28, verse 1: “After we were brought safely through, we then learned that the island was called Malta. 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.”
So what’s going on?
By this time, Paul had already been on three missionary journeys, each one several years long. He’s been to places like Cyprus and Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, Macedonia, Corinth, and even Athens, Greece. Then in Acts chapter 23, when forty men promised they wouldn’t eat or drink till he was dead, a Roman governor named Felix arrested him, and protected him with two hundred soldiers, two hundred spearman, and seventy horsemen.
Then finally, in chapter 27, another governor named Festus sent him to Rome to be tried by Caesar himself.
Turn back a page to page 1190, to see what happened next. I’ll start where it says, “Paul Sails for Rome,” chapter 27, verse 1: “And when it was decided that we should sail for Italy, they delivered Paul and some other prisoners to a centurion of the Augustan Cohort named Julius. And embarking in a ship of Adramyttium, which was about to sail to the ports along the coast of Asia, we put to sea, accompanied by Aristarchus, a Macedonian from Thessalonica. The next day we put in at Sidon. And Julius treated Paul kindly and gave him leave to go to his friends and be cared for. And putting out to sea from there we sailed under the lee of Cyprus, because the winds were against us. And when we had sailed across the open sea along the coast of Cilicia and Pamphylia, we came to Myra in Lycia. There the centurion found a ship of Alexandria sailing for Italy and put us on board. We sailed slowly for a number of days and arrived with difficulty off Cnidus, and as the wind did not allow us to go farther, we sailed under the lee of Crete off Salmone. Coasting along it with difficulty, we came to place called Fair Havens, near which was the city of Lasea.”
As you can imagine, the trip had been hard, but it was about to get much harder! Look at verse 14: “But soon a tempestuous wind, called the northeaster, struck down from the land. And when the ship was caught and could not face the wind, we gave way to it and were driven along.” Then verse 18: “Since we were violently storm-tossed, they began the next day to jettison the cargo. And on the third day they threw the ship’s tackle overboard with their own hands. When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days, and no small tempest lay on us, all hope of our being saved was at last abandoned.”
Yet even though all seemed lost, the Lord sent an angel to say, in verse 24: “Do not be afraid, Paul; you must stand before Caesar. And behold, God has granted you all those who sail with you.”
Then finally, after two weeks on incredibly rough seas, they came to land, an island called Malta.
Look again at chapter 28, verse 1: “After we were brought safely through, we then learned that the island was called Malta. 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.”
So what do we know about Malta?
It’s an island that sits some sixty miles south of Sicily, and 180 miles east of Tunisia, Africa, out in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea. And, all things considered, it’s pretty small, at about eighteen miles long and only eight miles wide. You could probably drive it in a little over twenty minutes.
And, as it said in verse 2, “It had begun to rain and was cold.” That’s no surprise. It was, after all, the middle of November.
Let’s try to picture it all in our minds. Here we’ve got a shipwrecked group of 276 people. They haven’t eaten for a couple of weeks, and somehow they’ve managed to survive a vicious storm on the sea. Their ship just crashed against the rocks, and all of them had to swim against hurricane surf in fear for their lives. And when they finally made it to land, they were sopping wet, hungry, and cold.
And what did the islanders, the people of Malta, do? They built a fire. And it must have been quite a fire to warm all 276!
But the story goes on. Look at 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 on his hand. 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.’”
And there we find a first lesson to learn from this text.
Now think about it. The apostle Paul has written God-inspired letters to the churches in Corinth, Thessalonica, Philippi, and Ephesus, just to name a few. He’s preached the name of Jesus Christ to rich and poor, to Jews and Greeks, slave and free. He’s been whipped, beaten, and left for dead. In all the world, there’s never been, nor will there ever be, anyone like him.
Even more, since he’s been held prisoner on this ship, he’s really been the one in charge. He told them not to sail when they shouldn’t have sailed, then he gave them hope when all hope was lost.
And now that he’s on the island of Malta, what’s he doing? He’s not sitting back ordering everyone else around. Instead, as the people of Malta are building a fire, he’s picking up sticks.
You know, he almost reminds me of Someone. He reminds me of Jesus. Remember? On the night when He was betrayed, He didn’t sit back and order everyone else around. He put on a servant’s robe, then stooped to wash His disciples’ feet.
As He said, “For the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.”
But what happened as Paul bent down to pick up those sticks? Verse 3: “A viper came out because of the heat and fastened on his hand.”
And what did Paul do? Verse 5: “He, however, shook off the creature into the fire and suffered no harm.”
Why wasn’t Paul afraid of some snake? Because God had promised that he would stand before Caesar, and nothing, not even a viper, would stand in his way.
And there we find a second lesson to learn from this text.
Until we do what God has called us to do, nothing can stand in our way.
Is there a witness He wants you to give? Are you the one, maybe the only one, to tell of His love to your family and friends?
As a missionary named Henry Martyn once put it: “I am immortal until God’s work for me to do is done. The Lord reigns.”
Let’s look once more at the text to finish the story. Verse 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. 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. They also honored us greatly, and when we were about to sail, they put on board whatever we needed.”
And so the wounded hand, the hand once bitten by a viper, became the healing hand, telling of the power and the love of Christ.
Not quite thirty years ago, back in 1990, Danny Simpson of Ottawa, Canada made two rather tragic mistakes. Desperate for money, he decided to rob a bank. And to plan his holdup, he visited the bank every day for a week. Then the night before, while he was having dinner with his parents, he slipped into their bedroom and took the .45 caliber pistol from the nightstand beside their bed. The next day, he went to the bank and walked out with $6,000 in cash.
But a few days later, when the police reviewed the surveillance tapes, they quickly identified Danny as a frequent visitor, and made the arrest.
Now you’ll remember I said he made two big mistakes. The first was robbing the bank. The second was using his father’s pistol.
You see, it wasn’t just any pistol. It was a very rare, .45 caliber Colt semi-automatic pistol made by the Ross Rifle Company back in 1918. And while he stole $6,000 from the bank, the pistol was worth $100,000.
Oops.
So the pistol went to a Canadian museum and Danny went to jail.
If only he knew what he held in his hand, he wouldn’t have robbed the bank.
Sometimes, we Christians, forget what we hold in our hands--grace that saves, faith that trusts, and the Word, God’s Word, that tells of our Savior Jesus.
Don’t ever forget what we hold in our hands!
In the words of a hymn: “When darkness veils His lovely face, I rest on His unchanging grace; in ev’ry high and stormy gale my anchor holds within the veil. On Christ, the solid rock, I stand; all other ground is sinking sand.”
Dear Father, we thank You for the life You give and the grace You’ve shown. Hold us, safe and secure, in Your hands. This we ask for Jesus’ sake. Amen