Paul’s Arrival at Rome
Published by Stanley Pouw in 2018 · 10 June 2018
For many months we have been following Paul as he travels to Rome. We don't know what is going on in his heart but it will be interesting. Psalm 107 declares that God created both the storm and the calm. And then it says that God is in the business of fulfilling desires. One of the greatest frustrations of mankind is realizing that most of their dreams and ambitions are unfulfilled.
But that is only the frustration of humanity because God is able to fulfill dreams. God is able to maximize anticipation into reality. The Psalmist said in Psalm 37:4, “Delight in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.” He will plant dreams in you and then He will fulfill them. There needs to be no frustration in the life of a believer. God is definitely in the business of fulfilling desires.
Psalm 145:19 says, "He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him." When a person puts himself in the right relationship with God, God will fulfill that his desires. And we see that in this passage. We just see it as Paul arrives at Rome and received the fulfillment of that desire that has lingered in him for years. Now let us draw some principles out of it. Our last study of Acts 27 was about Paul being a leader.
Now in Acts 28 we are going to see the blessing of God on a faithful leader. Last time we saw about ten qualities of a faithful leader that were exhibited by Paul during the journey and the shipwreck. And so the trip to Rome is a rich narrative because it not only gives us principles of leadership but it gives us the principles on which God blesses faithful leadership. So now we come to the last stage.
Now this portion in Acts 28:1-10 describes the journey from Malta to Rome. It has already lasted two and a half months and for fourteen days they have fought the wind and the sea against the Euroclydon, which is a northeastern hurricane. They can't navigate because there are no stars and no sun visible in this terrible storm. But God has somehow controlled the hurricane and pushed them actually to the island of Malta.
Remember when they arrived at Malta, they wrecked the bow of the ship into the sand and the stern began to disintegrate. The soldiers became afraid and decided to kill all the prisoners because if they escaped the soldiers would be held responsible. But the centurion Julius prevented them from doing that and then all 276 people made it to shore. Everything that God said came to pass.
Imagine having been told by the Apostle Paul what would happen and then it became true. Think about the credibility of Paul and the God he claimed was ruling in the world. Acts 28:1-2, “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.”
The first thing we see is pagan hospitality and this is wonderful. Hospitality is to be the characteristic of a godly man according to 1 Timothy and Titus. And that goes back to Genesis 18 when Abraham and Sarah put on a dinner for some people that turned out to be God and two angels, so be hospitable to strangers. Christians are to treat all strangers with kindness and love.
Jesus in Matthew 10:40-42 says, “He who receives you receives Me, and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me. 41 He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward. And he who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward. 42 And whoever gives one of these little ones only a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple, assuredly, I say to you, he shall by no means lose his reward.”
Well, when you look at this story, often our lives aren't as friendly as they ought to be. Malta is the Phoenician word for "refuge" or "escape." It is sixty miles off the south tip of Sicily. And the natives kindled a fire and received every one of us. It's mid-November and it is cold and they are wet and exposed to the wind. God always notes kindnesses in Scripture even by pagan people toward His own.
One of the reasons so many wonderful things happened there at Malta was because of those people being so openly kind to those strangers. The activity of the people on Malta is a classic illustration of the internal revelation of God to the pagan. Even an individual without a knowledge of Jesus Christ, has the sense within him of what is right and wrong. Where does he get that sense? He gets it because the Law of God is written in his heart.
This is one of the great proofs of the inward knowledge that God has revealed Himself to men. People always say, what about unbelievers that have never heard of Jesus? How will they know? Believe me, God has written His Law into their hearts, they have a sense of morality, they have a sense of kindness and love that is granted to them by God, they have a sense of right and wrong.
Verse 3, “But when Paul had gathered some sticks and laid them on the fire, a viper came out because of the heat, and fastened on his hand.” From his position as a prisoner on the ship he is gathering the sticks, but he has risen to rule the ship. But now the situation has changed but Paul is still the leader because he's the resource that all of them have. As a leader he is willing to do the menial task that usually goes to others.
There is something significant in the Holy Spirit telling us that he was gathering sticks. A true leader has a servant mentality and he never lost his perspective. He was always sacrificing. Listen, Jesus said, "For the Son of man came not to be served but to serve and give His life a ransom for many.” Humility is necessary for a true spiritual leader. Jesus in John 13 washed the disciples’ feet.
Unfortunately from one of the sticks “a viper came out of the heat and fastened on his hand." A "viper" is a poisonous snake. It's interesting that today there are no snakes on Malta. They have since ceased to exist there but these snakes must have been there in some quantity because the people immediately recognized it and the severity of the bite in the hand of Paul.
Verse 4, “So when the natives saw the snake 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.” There's their theology. The words are an affirmation of their faith. This was the goddess Dike that was personified as Justice. She was the daughter of Zeus. Of course this is all mythology.
So they all expected Paul to fall dead as a victim of the goddess Dike. These pagans have a sense of justice and a sense that sins get punished. There is a sense of morality. Now they didn't take that morality too far, they allowed for gods who wouldn't tolerate murder but they didn't mind adultery. They made gods to accommodate their theology but at least the germ of morality was there.
Now notice the contrast. One is a sense of goodness the other is a sense of evil. Goodness and its consequences; evil and its consequences. And so we see that the pagans have the full understanding of goodness and evil. Now this all began when Eve and Adam ate the fruit and received the knowledge of good and evil. And men have that sensitivity, they have that awareness and that's why God holds them responsible for their activities.
And if they live up to the moral standard of God, and they believe and accept as much revelation as they have, God will continue to reveal Himself to them. Verse 5, “But he shook off the creature into the fire and suffered no harm.” Well, that kind of calmness is conspicuous. Usually such a snakebite would create panic and a person would be running around in horror.
Look at Luke 10:19, “Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.” Mark 16:17-18, “And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; 18 they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them.” This is fulfilled in Paul.
Now remember that is not for today. If you play with poisonous snakes you cannot claim Mark 16:18. This was purely for the apostolic era. God used miracles to confirm His apostles and to confirm their word. Verse 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.”
All of a sudden he is not a murderer, he is a god. No, Paul didn't like that. He didn't like to be thought of as God, he wanted to be thought of as a representative of God not as God or a god. He didn't want to be a part of that proliferation of deities, that polytheism that they were involved in. But it was good that they recognized supernatural power, because that is the platform on which Paul's gospel is made creditable as a divine revelation.
That brings us to the third point, the public healing. Verse 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.” Remember there were 276 people that he took care of. Verse 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.”
Now notice that Paul did two things, he prayed and he laid his hands on him. Why did he pray? Because all power is from God. Why did he lay his hands on him? Because he wanted people to see that it was through him that God moved in power. It was the power of God but Paul was only the representative of that power. What Paul was doing was identifying God's power and the fact that he was only God's agent.
Surely Paul preached also. The Lord Jesus Christ performed miracles while pointing out that these miracles were to corroborate the testimony of the gospel. Peter when he performed miracles earlier in Acts preached Christ. Paul when doing miracles established that he represented God, he then proclaimed the divine message. And tradition tells us that he founded in these days the church at Malta.
Verse 9, “So when this was done, the rest of those on the island who had diseases also came and were healed.” Why? Because God was showing His kindness to those who had been kind to His people. More than that, God was establishing the credibility of Paul as His minister. We know Paul was on the island three or four months so he had plenty of time to follow up that confirmation with the gospel message.
These people really had a church and many of them came to Christ. Look at verse 10, “They also honored us in many ways; and when we departed, they provided such things as were necessary.” When did they depart? Verse 11, “After three months we sailed in an Alexandrian ship whose figurehead was the Twin Brothers, which had wintered at the island.” Paul did 3 months of preaching, and by now, many of them were believers.
Verse 12-13, “And landing at Syracuse, we stayed three days. 13 From there we circled round and reached Rhegium. And after one day the south wind blew; and the next day we came to Puteoli.” Tradition says that Paul founded a church in Syracuse, Sicily too, which is an island about 65 miles away from Malta with a three day layover there. Then to Puteoli, the lovely port in the bay of Naples. Today it's called Pozzuoli.
Verse 14 says, “Where we found brethren, and were invited to stay with them seven days. And so we went toward Rome.” There was a large Jewish trade community in Puteoli and they had a terrific time for seven days with the Christians. It wasn't a church that Paul founded; they were already there. Paul finally, was just 145 miles from Rome and here was a group of Christians, it must have thrilled his heart.
Now they would have to go from Puteoli on the famous Appian highway, named after Claudius Appius who was the builder in 312. Verse 15, “And from there, when the brethren heard about us, they came to meet us as far as Appii Forum and Three Inns. When Paul saw them, he thanked God and took courage.” 33 miles from town those Christians walked and greeted him as he comes in the caravan chained as a prisoner.
Verse 16, “Now when we came to Rome, the centurion delivered the prisoners to the captain of the guard; but Paul was permitted to dwell by himself with the soldier who guarded him.” He had a house of his own, but he was chained all the time to a Roman soldier, verse 20 tells us about that. Never being able to get away from that guy would really be tough.
We see in this passage the faithfulness of God to a faithful man. God says, I will fulfill the desire of all them that fear Me. Look what God provided. Number one, he surrounds him with kindness. Remember in Acts 27:2-3, when they first left Caesarea he arrives in Sidon and immediately he is ministered to by the Christians. In Acts 28:1-2, his needs are met by the Maltese.
Second, God ministered to his needs. When he was sick in Sidon he was ministered to medically. In Acts 28:7 he was ministered by Publius by being given a place to stay. God continual ministered to his needs supplying exactly what he wanted. Thirdly, God encouraged him. In Acts 27 God sent an angel to him and the angel said, do not worry Paul, you're going to make it to Rome and everybody is going to make it.
Fourthly, God protects him from harm. God saved him in a hurricane. God saved him in a shipwreck and saved him from a snakebite. Fifthly, God blessed his influence. And sixthly, God fulfilled his desire. He wanted to get to Rome, and he got to Rome. He wanted to be encouraged to know that the Christians loved him. God met his desire. God is a faithful God. He rewards those who faithfully serve Him, Amen? Let us pray.