"… his father was ill in bed, suffering from fever and dysentery. Paul went in to see him and, after prayer, placed his hands on him and healed him."
Acts 28:8
These first two verses are a picture of calm. Not the calm before the storm. The calm after! God’s word paints wonderful pictures of the lives of his people. If I could have one actual Bible picture on my wall – painted by me or, perhaps, someone who can paint, I’d have this one. A picture of calm. The apostle Paul - stood on a beach - gathering sticks. After the ordeal of Acts 27, that’s what I’d want - an easy task. To settle me. To give me focus. It would help me – to pick up pieces of wood with my hands as, in my mind, I picked over the pieces of what just happened.
And there are other things in this scene that are delightful - the milk of human kindness. Concerned people gathering round. Going out of their way to make a bad situation better. The picture looks so good. But it’s about to be spoiled. No! – It’s not the orange paint of Just Stop Oil! Once again, life’s picture is about to be hit by the deeper, darker stain of sin.
Paul is about to suffer snake attack. And it will quickly change people’s perceptions. They’ve only just met him, but they’ve treated him so well. But two verses on, they’re calling him a murderer. It invites a question – ‘Hasn’t Paul suffered enough?’ Do you ever ask that question? Not of Paul. But of you – ‘Haven’t I suffered enough?’ The bell’s only just gone on one round of trouble. When another one starts. Can’t we just keep the calm? Can’t we just have better?
People promise us better. There’s quite a few of them doing it right now. There’s a General Election coming. And promises of better are swirling around. People addressing crowds of the undecided - Holding meetings with smaller groups of already-supporters. They’re giving a message about the future. They’re not dismissing trouble. In fact, they highlight trouble. They tell us - as if we needed telling - that we’re in a bit of a mess. A world of trouble! But their message is this. ‘Me/my party, we’ve got the solution. You can have better. Vote for us today. And trouble will soon be yesterday’s news.’
But I want to concentrate on another message. A message from someone called Jesus. He often spoke to crowds of the undecided. He was trying to get their vote - to get them to believe in what he was saying. So that they would commit their lives to him. He often spoke to smaller groups of his already-supporters. So that they would - so that they could… more deeply commit their lives to him. But his message was not the message of your average politician. In fact, it was quite the opposite. Jesus said this to his supporters - ‘In this world you will have trouble…’
Now, you may think, ‘Who’d cast their vote for a man like that? – I prefer the other message of things-can-only-get-better. I don’t want trouble to be the news of my every today. I’m not convinced about this Jesus fella. I’m not choosing that for my life.’ But consider this. What is the truth about trouble? Because those that promise us that tomorrow will be better than today are often playing fast and loose with reality. Whereas Jesus is the truth.
Trouble today? Trouble tomorrow? Ultimately, that’s not determined by a choice you make now. But by a choice made many years ago. By a man named Adam, and his wife called Eve. Those two people – the first parents of humankind – made a choice for themselves. And a choice for us. They chose to ignore God’s truth. They voted for the devil’s lie, voiced by a snake. And since that choice - and since that day - the snakebite of difficulty and disorder – it’s guaranteed. The politicians may tell people otherwise. But people of Christ remember this. Jesus says, ‘In this world you will have trouble.’
Paul’s Christian life confirms it. But Paul’s Christian life confirms something else. Through Christ, God can work good things… slap bang in the middle of bad times. Jesus didn’t come into this world to deal with the sin and life ruin of his people, just to then leave them be. Jesus is still dealing! So, let’s look.
Trouble in Acts 28. Paul hasn’t so much jumped out of the frying pan into the fire. He’s jumped out of the frying pan into the snake that’s jumping out of the fire! But he’s got trouble. More trouble. And there’s a warning here for churches. Churches should be like those first two verses. Places that are stand out. Where there is unusual kindness. Where there is warmth and welcome. If the local church is always like verses 1 and 2 then it will do well. But the church is always going to experience verse 3. Where the snake of sin rears it’s ugly head. And troubles a brother or sisters’ life. How should we react? Not like verse 4!
Acts 27 had a crowd of people jumping off a ship - not our everyday. But Acts 28 4 has people jumping to conclusions – that’s all too common. And these weren’t just any kind of people. These were kind people. Unusually kind people. But that didn’t stop them jumping to conclusions about this Christ follower called Paul.
What was at the root of their misjudgement? Well, they would’ve quickly gleaned that this was a prison ship. Many of the passengers had been judged by society’s rules, to be bad-uns! And that pre-judgement fuels their prejudice. Paul was a prisoner. Easy to assume that he’s a proper bad-un. Especially now this latest trouble has grabbed him. Of course, they haven’t yet heard his full story. Where he’s moved by Christ – from the power of Satan to God. They will hear it. But they haven’t yet. And so, with part of the info, they judge as though they had it all. How like us!
But by God’s good hand, Paul shakes the snake off his own hand. And what they thought was true… turns out otherwise. Now they should have paused for reflection here – ‘We got it so wrong when we judged this man by extremes. Let’s not make the same mistake again!’ But no. They really are just like us! They correct their error by jumping to the other extreme! First, he’s a murderer. Now he’s a god!
Acts doesn’t record what Paul says to them. But we can be sure he put them right. A similar thing happened in Acts 14 and Paul put people right. He called this extreme thinking, ‘worthless.’ That was in Lystra when Paul was with Barnabas. They found a man with trouble. As my wife often reminds me, that’s not a hard thing to find! But what Paul did next was more unusual. The man was unable to walk. But he’d heard about Jesus. And Paul ‘saw that he had faith to believe.’ And through the power of Christ, he was healed. And ‘the man jumped up and began to walk.’ The trouble was dealt with. And what happened next – more trouble!
‘When the crowd saw what Paul had done, they shouted… ‘The gods have come down to us in human form!’ Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul they called Hermes… The priest of Zeus… wanted to offer sacrifices to them.’ These men were being viewed as gods. They weren’t gods. But, through Christ, they belonged to God – they were God’s! And so, they quickly set the record straight. They said, ‘Friends, why are you doing this? We too are only human, like you.’
That’s always the truth of it. ‘Only human, like you.’ What kind of people does that apply to? All people. ‘Only human, like you.’ And here is another warning for Christ’s people. There ain’t none of you that are gods. None of us should be given elevated status in the minds of others. Yes, some may have gifts that you don’t. But you’ll have gifts they don’t. ‘Only human, like you.’ But how often in churches have people been placed on a raised platform. Viewed as less broken. Viewed as unbreakable. And then they break. And everyone ends up shattered.
Sometimes, we can be guilty of treating our church leaders in this way. Sometimes, church leaders are guilty of cultivating this. Maybe with intent. More often unwittingly. We need our wits about us.
I have a leadership role at Riverside. It involves what I’m doing this morning, teaching from God’s word. If I have a gift, that doesn’t make me special. We are all equally God’s special people through Christ. And let’s face it, I may be able to stand here and say a few things. But I struggle to do a right lot else! So, let’s be sober in our judgement of each other. Let’s endeavour not to jump to conclusions. Let’s pray that we’re kept from the extremes of thinking that are often like second nature. Let’s pray for God’s ongoing grace in Christ.
The thinking here in Acts 28 is nothing more than superstition. It’s given a name - the goddess Justice. We may not be superstitious like that - giving our broken ideas a name or a face. But what about Karma? The idea that good things happen to good people and bad things happen to bad people. We may not embrace that thinking wholesale, but do we sometimes struggle to completely shake it off into the fire of God’s word.
The Gospel is the opposite of Karma. In Christ, good things happen to bad people. It’s easy to read this section and laugh a bit at these superstitious islanders. How wrong they were about Paul being a god, seconds after being a killer on the loose. They weren’t wrong on both counts. Paul wasn’t a god. But he was a murderer.
We’re nearly at the end of Acts now. Do you remember what Paul was doing in Acts 9 1 – He was ‘breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples.’ That’s soon after we first met him. And just before Jesus did. Christ changed his heart and life. Paul didn’t cover-up his past. Christ crucified had done the cover-up he needed. Paul admitted, in Acts 22, ‘I persecuted the followers of this Way to their death.’ He even used General Election language in Acts 26 - ‘I put many of the Lord’s people in prison, and when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them.’
When he wrote to his friend Timothy, he confessed (1 Timothy 1 12-14) – ‘I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man.’ Karma - natural law - justice, would all demand an eternal world of pain for a man like this. Cos that’s what he deserved.
Do you know what he told Timothy he got instead - when he fell at the feet of Christ Jesus? ‘Mercy… the grace of our Lord… along with… faith and love.’ What sort of justice is that? That’s the kind of justice we need. Justice satisfied at the cross. Karma won’t bring this to our messed-up lives. Karma can’t. But Christ can.
Paul met with ongoing grace and faith and love for his new life. His old way of life had trouble. His new life had even more. We’ve seen that. But, whereas his old life had nothing of Christ, his new life was full. His Lord and Saviour with him every step of the way. See how the Lord overrules these events in Acts 28. The sin of man-worship is used to give Paul an opening. Soon, in verse 7, he’s been invited somewhere for a meet-up. Not the Public House - the Publius house! He’s the chief official of the island. And he’s another person who is used by the Lord to supply Paul and his friends.
His dad’s poorly. Another person with need. If we’re looking for needy people, our world of trouble is full of them. And then, in Paul’s life, we have another lesson for our lives.
Last week, Tim had us look at Mark 8, where the disciples faced trouble… again. They were facing a near identical situation to before. But they couldn’t see that the answer was the same as before. They were so focused on their little. How could they feed thousands of people with so little? They couldn’t. But Jesus with them could. And he was with them.
Jesus warned them afterwards about the attitude of the Pharisees. They were religiously self-sufficient. It was less like they needed God. More like, God needed them! Jesus warns - that kind of self-sufficient attitude will affect every part of your life. The disciples were guilty of the same error but in a different way. They also seemed to think it was all about them. But rather than being self-sufficient, they were self-loathing. Their attitude was like, ‘we haven’t got enough to do anything for you here, Lord.’
Jesus didn’t deny the smallness of what they had. It was weak. And so were they. But Jesus was present. He’s not small. He was… he is… mighty. And he’s always present with his people. We can – we must – judge him to extremes.
Paul had learned this. And so, he acts differently in Acts. Look at what he does. That’s what we need to do in church life when we feel like what we’ve got is tiny. And in our everyday trouble when our capacity looks limited. There are just three steps. God has noticed our capacity and made it easy-peasy!
Verse 8 reads, ‘Paul went in to see him and, after prayer, placed his hands on him and healed him.’ ‘But that’s not easy! I ain’t never healed no-one!.’ No, that third step isn’t yours to do. That’s a miracle. You can’t do them. But the power of Christ can.
So, Paul’s 3 steps. Step 1 - Paul prays - because he belonged to God, in Christ, he could talk to him whenever. He could ask for what he needed – expecting! Step 2 – Paul put his hands to the task. That’s all he does. That’s all he can do. His very best was just to put his hands on a poorly man. So, Paul did his best. And Step 3 – God did the miracle. May that be the pattern of our lives. Pray. Put our hands to the task. Let God do the miracles.
When Paul wrote to Timothy about what he received in Christ, he said, ‘The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly.’ He’d got an abundant God. Look at what happens in verse 9. Paul prays for the healing of one troubled person and God heals an island full! Paul wasn’t a god. But he had a good ‘un. We may not be Paul. But our Jesus is the same yesterday and today and forever.
I’ve been a bit sneaky this morning. I’ve given my best impression of your average politician. By not telling you the whole story. But God’s word compels me to. Jesus didn’t just tell his people that ‘In this world you will have trouble’. He told them more. Jesus said (John 16 33), ‘In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.’ Why did he tell us this. Jesus says, ‘I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace.’
He doesn’t want us looking for peace in the things of a troubled world. Because, even if we find it, it won’t last long. He came to bring the lasting peace of his forever nearness. In this life, trouble will never be far. But Christ will be closer. Yes, his people may struggle to keep hold of this peace. His church often looks like a field of calamitous cricketers, dropping his promises here, there and everywhere. But he keeps knocking them our way. He doesn’t give up like others would.
Jesus says (John 14 27), ‘Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.’
In our trouble, it’s so easy to jump to conclusions. The Bible’s message is otherwise. Don’t jump to conclusions. Jump to Jesus. You’ll be safe in his loving arms.
Paul, this servant of Christ, finished his letters to the Thessalonians with some final greetings. We’ll finish today with one of them. ‘May the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way. The Lord be with all of you.’
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