Faith without religion.
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If you haven’t been with us we have deconstructed these gatherings down to the essentials:
We begin with prayer
Sing the Word of God set to music (as a means to get it into our heads) and then we sit for a moment in silence here at the Church/Studio.
When we come back we pick up where we left off last week in our verse by verse study.
Paul has had an engagement with what seems to have been a viper and we learned that the natives supposed he was a murderer because of the misfortune but when the attack didn’t kill him, the saw him as a god. (verse 7 – let’s read)
Acts 28.7-15
October 22nd 2017
Milk
WRITE EPHESIANS 6:10-18 ON BOARD
7 In the same quarters were possessions of the chief man of the island, whose name was Publius; who received us, and lodged us three days courteously.
8 And it came to pass, that the father of Publius lay sick of a fever and of a bloody flux: to whom Paul entered in, and prayed, and laid his hands on him, and healed him.
9 So when this was done, others also, which had diseases in the island, came, and were healed:
10 Who also honored us with many honors; and when we departed, they laded us with such things as were necessary.
11 And after three months we departed in a ship of Alexandria, which had wintered in the isle, whose sign was Castor and Pollux.
12 And landing at Syracuse, we tarried there three days.
13 And from thence we fetched a compass, and came to Rhegium: and after one day the south wind blew, and we came the next day to Puteoli:
14 Where we found brethren, and were desired to tarry with them seven days: and so we went toward Rome.
15 And from thence, when the brethren heard of us, they came to meet us as far as Appii forum, and The three taverns: whom when Paul saw, he thanked God, and took courage.
7 In the same quarters were possessions of the chief man of the island, whose name was Publius; who received us, and lodged us three days courteously.
And in that neighborhood lay the lands or houses or property of the chief of the Island – probably the governor – whose name was pub-leous, and he was the one who had received them with hospitality and allowed them to lodge with him for three days.
8 And it came to pass, that the father of Publius lay sick of a fever and of a bloody flux (dysentery, an infection of the intestines and no fun): to whom Paul entered in, and prayed, and laid his hands on him, and healed him.
The natives had gone from calling Paul a murderer to a god and now he was performing the very acts that only a god can perform – healing the sick.
Of course Paul – like anyone else who heals in his name is not doing the healing – God is, and Paul is merely representing the power of the Living God being present with him.
9 So when this was done, others also, which had diseases in the island, came, and were healed:
10 Who also honored us with many honors; and when we departed, they laded us with such things as were necessary.
What is really interesting about these passages and the way Luke writes them, is we read NOTHING about Paul or Luke sharing the Gospel with these natives.
Its not that they didn’t, but nothing is said – which is really uncommon for the book of Acts. In every other situation, whenever Peter or Paul went to a place, Luke took the time to describe how everything that happened there was for the sharing of the Good News.
Every time!
But here, in the last portion of Acts, when there was a tremendous opportunity and the setting was perfect with miraculous healings having occurred, we get no mention of:
“And Paul taught them Jesus, and they were baptized, and repented and he established a church there on Malta.”
Why?
We have some options.
First, we could reasonably suggest that he did – either directly through preaching, which is the biblical way, or indirectly through healing in Jesus name – and that Luke, wrapping up the account in Acts just chose not to mention this.
It’s possible – out of character but possible.
Perhaps the spirit was not moving Paul to share with them, but to only bless them with healings and leave it at that – for what reason we can’t say.
But I am going to go out on a long limb here and suggest that maybe there was another reason.
Before I do I want to point something out that Warren and I discussed the other day.
Hear this clearly – I am primarily a teacher. Even when I counsel people I am teaching.
And what is my job as a teacher? To provide information and to get you to think for yourselves.
It is NOT to tell you how or what to think. Again, it is NOT to tell you how or what to think but my primary job is to motivate you to think and accept or reject what you will.
Religion is NOT typically set up this way in terms of delivery. Religion is typically set up on the foundation of, THIS IS WHAT YOU NEED TO THINK, THIS IS WHAT YOU MUST THINK, THIS IS HOW YOU SHOULD UNDERSTAND THIS TO BE.
I have never been like that and I never will because I love and respect freedom of the individual far too much to do otherwise.
So remember this – that everything I say and do is to provide you with information and hopefully motivate you to think about it – and to freely decide for yourselves.
That being said, the long limb I am climbing out on here as to maybe why Paul is not recorded as having shared Jesus with these Natives is because . . . it wasn’t an imperative in their lives at that time.
“What? Of course it was an imperative! If the King, for example died without Jesus he would have gone straight to hell forever!” Right?
Let’s just think about this. Paul has been sent out to the surrounding areas of Israel and the Roman empire to preach the end of the age and the importance of receiving Jesus before the great and dreadful day of the Lord when all that Jesus described in Matthew 24 would occur.
Malta was an island of natives – not unlike thousands of other islands and lands that would never even see the likes of Paul to share Jesus with them, right?
I mean London had 40,000 inhabitants in Paul’s day? Were they ever reached before the great and dreadful day of the Lord?
Probably not. So the import of Paul sharing Jesus with these natives is NOT supported in other lands of the world was there a pressing reason why it had to be here on the small island of Malta?
Instead of Luke failing to record Paul’s message to these people let’s just suppose that Paul did NOT preach Jesus to these natives. Just suppose.
What would have been the result?
When Rome destroyed Jerusalem there would have been no direct result.
What about the result upon the lives of the individual natives? If Paul came to Malta, stayed three months there before being saved, and did NOT preach Jesus to them, and one or more of the natives died during that time or after he left, what would have been the outcome?
If Paul did NOT preach to them, and they died, we are forced into a theological corner that must be considered:
Either those who died, lacking a faith in Jesus went to hell forever OR they did not.
If they did, Paul failed them. In fact, I would say that God failed them – as He failed all 40000 inhabitants of London who had not heard Jesus name and died without Him during that period.
However, if Jesus has had the victory over sin and death and the grave, and because of this all are beneficiaries of His work, then perhaps Paul, knowing this, was not concerned with their state as much as He was for those in and around Jerusalem and the surrounding country.
Some might say, “If Paul didn’t preach to these natives then God knew that none of them would be saved so the Spirit did not move him.”
But that thinking flies in the face of many other places where the Gospel was preached to the many who rejected it.
Other more hard core believers might say, “God knew He wasn’t going to elect any of the Maltese natives and so there would be no point in Paul preaching to them.” And of course this would leave us with a very nasty outcome.
And of course most would say, “Oh certainly Paul preached to them. That was the call on his life – especially since God granted such miracles there.”
But unfortunately Luke chose not to include this presumed preaching in his account.
That limb I’ve climbed out on, when we spread the situation out over the world – and not limit it just to the natives of Malta – bears consideration folks.
Our Bibles report a very narrow history of the world and God working through it and those He called.
But what impact did the preaching of the Apostles in that specific geographical area have on the rest of the worlds inhabitants who at that time who were ignorant of their goings on – like the Maltese natives?
And then from then on out to today?
We face a major problem in the fields of reason, love, and a goodly God if we cling to archaic notions that those who died without a knowledge of Jesus specifically on their lips determined their eternal state.
IF . . . IF Paul crashed on the sands of Malta and then left them without preaching Jesus as Lord and their need to receive this information by faith, I personally reject the idea that
God didn’t elect them. Or that
God knew they would reject Him, and/or
That they subsequently all went to hell.
Instead, I propose that God took care of their through His Son and His victory (as He has with all of the world) and Paul was wholly comfortable with that fact in relation to these friendly, warm people.
So, anyway, after healing them and being given (or laden) with many wonderful gifts, we read (at verse 11)
11 And after three months we departed in a ship of Alexandria, which had wintered in the isle, whose sign was Castor and Pollux.
Obviously there were other ships there on Malta – with one being from Alexandria.
It seems that Paul and friends had to wait for the weather to clear to catch a ride with this ship from Alexandria which waited there three months – presumably October through December – and they headed for Rome in January.
We know that ships often bore the image or sign of a famous citizen or god and that this particular ship bore the sign of Castor and Pollux – two semi-deities said to be twin brothers and the sons of Jupiter and Leda.
After their deaths, they are fabled to have been translated to heaven, and made constellations under the name of gemini, or the twins.
Then they received divine honors and were called the sons of Jupiter. Because the presided over sailors they were believed to be their protectors.
12 And landing at Syracuse, we tarried there three days.
Syracuse was the capital of the island of Sicily, on the eastern coast. it was in the direct path from Malta to Rome.
13 And from thence we fetched a compass, (which is a very poor translation which better means, “and going around”) “we came to Rhegium: and after one day the south wind blew, and we came the next day to Puteoli:
We coasted about along the eastern side of Sicily and came to Rhegium, (now known as Reggio) in the kingdom of Naples, on the coast near the south-west extremity of Italy.
And after one day a south wind( which would have been favorable for their voyage) blew and the next day we came to Puteoli, a place also known as “the Wells,” which was celebrated for its warm baths and springs.
14 Where we found brethren, and were desired to tarry with them seven days: and so we went toward Rome.
And there in the place of warm spring they found some Christian brethren and perhaps because of this they desired to remain with them a while – which appears to have been seven days, and then they went toward Rome. (verse 15)
15 And from thence (from Puteoli) when the brethren heard of us (The Christian brethren in Rome), they came to meet us as far as Appii forum (about fifty five miles from Rome), and The three taverns (a place about ten miles closer to Rome and given this name because it was a place where refreshment was available to travelers on the noted Appian way): whom when Paul saw, he thanked God, and took courage.
The Christians at Rome had doubtless heard a lot about Paul. He had written an epistle to them in 57 AD or at least five years before this time and it is pretty certain that the believers held him up in very high esteem.
When Paul saw them coming out to meet him Luke tells us that he “thanked God,”
and took courage.
Based on his own words written to the church at Rome Paul had longed to go to Rome (Romans 1:9-11; 15:23,32) and now after this long arduous journey and years of trials and imprisonment he was touched and grateful to God for their presence and support and Luke says, “he took courage.”
The Greek word for courage here is tharsos and it means, boldness or braver with our English synonym being courage.
This is the ONLY time the word is used in all of scripture and in its use we have an important principle.
We have been reading about one heck of a trial here in Paul’s life. I mean his whole Christian life has been a trial and here we have him actually coming to the place where he is going to be put to death.
He has not been rewarded with creature comforts and luxury for his decision to follow Christ, and like Peter and John the Baptist and all of the prophets before them – especially Christ – his life got harder materially, not easier, when he embarked on the work God had called Him to do.
In my estimation, and I could be wrong, but it seems like whatever thrives in the material is associated with material rewards here.
But when we take up the baton for God, we begin to earn spiritual fruits and treasures and the entire material system seems to slowly crumble around us.
It’s not that God does not take care of us here but His care is often just enough, and doesn’t seem to frequently side in opulence.
That, I believe, is waiting in the heavenly realms.
So Paul, once having a materially rewarding future as a Pharisee, has now lived a life on a downward spiral.
Or as he put it in 2nd Corinthians
11:23 Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more; in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft.
24 Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one.
25 Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep;
26 In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren;
27 In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.
And now his journey was coming to an end. Perhaps he knew it would be the end of his life – maybe Jesus revealed this to him.
And an enemy to boldness and bravery could have raised its ugly head – discouragement.
Not in the form of an angel but of other followers – who came out to greet him.
Where the term for courage is only used once in the New Testament the word translated to comfort, encourage, invite, beseech, console, exhort is parakaleo, created from two Greek words:
“Para” which means get around or beside and “Kaleo,” which means call, give and bestow, pray.
Parakaleo – get around or beside someone and encourage them, uplift them, exhort them, give them a lift in their lives – pray for them, encourage them.
It is a wonderful word and one in the capacity of every believer to bestow upon others.
Can contribute time or resources to things. Let it be. But give what you can always give – encouragement.
To do what? To look and live for God. To bear the burdens of life, to move forward with that hopeful expectation of a good end.
It’s interesting, but we all have an opportunity to either encourage or to discourage. I prefer to receive the former and therefore under the golden rule think I should also give the former.
Anyone can discourage anyone for anything. That is an act of lessening courage, lessening boldness and bravery toward a thing.
But to encourage and empower someone with courage and boldness and bravery toward Christ is a wonderful gift to giver and receiver alike.
Jesus told His disciples in John 16:33 “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
He did NOT tell them they would not have troubles in this world. To suggest this to someone is to only fill them with a skewed view of reality.
But He did encourage them to remember that He had overcome the fallen world and that they could count on Him for this.
I have had a lot of opportunity to hear people speak of problems. A lot of sin and failure in the ranks of humanity.
There was a time before I knew Christ where I would meet sin with inferred condemnation and subtle (or outright) challenges to the individual to repent and get their lives in order.
As I said, anyone can do that – its called religion and its easy to impose upon people.
But to encourage sinful people to have hope, to be encouraged that He has overcome the world on our behalf, and that the wonder of the Gospel is that we look to Him to save us goes a long long way in reaching into the heart of the struggling and giving them hope.
All of Jesus honest descriptions of the trouble that was going to come upon his apostles was followed up with a message of cheer, encouraging them to remember that He had had the victory.
And so with us when we become discouraged or are encouraging others. It is in this message that the hope comes, in in spiritual encouragements.
Without them Christian hardships can start to become meaningless and in time even the most faithful humans will crumble into despair, doubts, and discouragement.
Its important that if someone is discouraged over not having a job encouragement often comes more with a connection that words, but if we are talking about spiritual discouragement, losing faith, doubting God, losing hope, of being brought down by enemies of the cross, the solution is spiritual and not physical.
In other words, Christian encouragement is spiritually-based and not fleshly. Recall what Paul said in 2nd Corinthians 10:3
For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of (spiritual) strong holds;)
5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;
What this is essentially saying is that in Christian warfare the weapons are spiritual and the battlefield is in the MIND.
So we seek to help others renew their minds, to take on fresh and invigorating perspectives toward problems with people or problems of the heart, and to, in faith, allow God to reign over them.
Allow a brief anecdotal illustration from our own lives.
We live in a place where we are given one parking spot in the underground garage and we are a family of three cars.
On the street downtown there is open free parking from 4pm to 8am but right in front of our building is a spot that is always free 24 seven.
Our family has called it the premiere spot and we text each other when it is obtained.
About four months ago we noticed that the premiere spot was taken over by two cars and only two cars. They belong to our neighbor and his girlfriend.
When she is parked in their one space in the gargage he is parked in the premiere and when he moves his car (about every 30 days!) she moves her car into that spot. Bottom line this guy and his girlfriend have taken the premiere spot over every day, 24 hours a day for the past four months.
Every day, every night, every morning, my Christianity is called into question – and so is Mary’s.
When she is weak and wants to vandalize a car I encourage her to turn it over to God, that we do not war against flesh and blood, that we MUST – as true believers – not resist through the flesh.
And when I am weak she encourages me to smash its headlights in. Just kidding.
Sort of.
It is a nothing event in the spectrum of life, right? People are dying in all sorts of horrible ways around us but in my heart I have to fight losing courage (of my faith), of failing to be brave for the cause.
It is by Spiritual things that I am strengthened in this trial, not fleshly. My flesh has imagined the most horrific attacks on these cars and those who own them.
So I rise and pray, and read the word, and prepare sermons through study, and try and live the faith in other ways and when I get home at night, and have to walk my daily living proof that people are selfish, entitled beasts, I am encouraged to live my faith.
I have plenty of friends and family to advise me on fleshly ways to seek reprieves. But Paul wisely wrote in 1st Corinthians 2:5
“That our faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.”
And then speaking of Christ Paul wrote in 2nd Corinthians 13:4
“For though he was crucified through weakness, yet he liveth by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but we shall live with him by the power of God toward you.”
And of course, we have the immortal words of Ephesians 6 where beginning at verse 10 Paul wrote:
(ON BOARD)
Ephesians 6:10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord (in who? In the Lord, not in our own flesh, strength, or might that is in this world), and in the power of his might. (Again, not our own – our ability to give a sharp answer, our ability to refrain from sin or our abilities to overcome the flesh, but “be strong in the Lord,” he writes, then adds at verse 11:
11 Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
And weather the devil or darkness or the nature of Man to manage his own life, we are talking one in the same, then Paul adds these immortal words:
12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, (I am NOT in a battle with my neighbors, you are not in a battle with your boss, or your spouse, or this or that material thing) but (instead we are wrestling) against
principalities, (ar-khay)
chief order or rank, the first, the primary, corner, magistrate, power, principality, principle, rule.
against powers, (ex-soo-seah)
privilege, force, capacities, magistrate, delegated influence, authority, jurisdiction, power, strength.
against the rulers of the darkness of this world,
Against KOSMOK RAT OR (world rulers, who would be Satan, demons, flesh) of the darkness of this world,
against spiritual wickedness in high places.
SPIRTUAL – pneumatikos
Supernatural, ethereal, non-carnal spirit
WICKEDNESS – plots and ploys of evil
HIGH PLACES – in the sky!
This is our battlefield and these are the sources of our despair and discouragement for if we were full of spiritual bravery such spiritual powers and principalities could not touch us.
So again, as encouragers and as those seeking to be encouraged seek to encourage and to receive encouragement from sources that are coming from the right places.
When we are able to see that our enemies are NOT the selfish neighbors but the spirits that move them to selfishness we enter an arena where we can engage in spiritual warfare and not carnal.
Paul continues and says at verse 13
13 Wherefore (as a result, or as a means to make sure that despair and discouragement cannot take hold of you) Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
What imagery! When a person or soldier loses courage in a physical fight one of the first things they do is drop to the ground – often in fear and resignation.
We therefore seek to stand firm in our ideas of what it really means to be a Christian or follower of Christ.
Here Paul tells us how to prepare for the warfare against these things on the board:
“unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.” (adding)
“Stand therefore,” having
your loins girt about with truth,
and having on the breastplate of righteousness; (which I would equate with the righteousness we have through faith in Christ)
and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;
Above all, taking the shield of faith,
wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.
And take the helmet of salvation,
and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:
Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit,
and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;
And we will stop here – where Paul, met by other believers, took courage.
Q and A and insights.
Prayer
