This is Living Waters of Grace, the teaching ministry of Clark
Wofford, senior pastor of Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland,
County of Greensburg, PA. Now here's Pastor Clark as he
continues teaching through God's Word.
Paul had health issues and Timothy had health issues, so
sometimes people were sick and they didn't get healed, and
sometimes people were sick and they died.
But then there was many times where God chose to do miracles
right, like He still does today. You just don't know.
You pray, you ask God to touch someone you love you care about,
and sometimes they recover, sometimes there's a miracle,
whatever. But other times nothing happens
and you can't doubt God or disbelieve him.
God does everything after the counsel of his own will.
It's easy for us to dismiss the people of the Bible as
fictional. You don't take a minute to
remember that they were real people with real problems, with
real commitment to God, not unlike ourselves.
In today's message, Pastor Clark reminds us that the main
characters in the Bible even had health issues and ailments that
they dealt with throughout their lives.
We don't know God's plan or reasons for why He does what He
does, but we can know and remember that His plan is for us
to go to heaven now. Here's Pastor Clark in Acts
Chapter 28 with today's edition of Living Waters of Grace.
When you look at Paul and all you guys, I know you have
challenges in your life, whether it's relationship issues or
health issues or career issues, whatever you might might be
challenged by Paul's an example that when life isn't going right
or the way you were hope it would go.
Paul never complained. He he never said I'm done.
I quit, I'm not following Jesus anymore because I wasn't
expecting this to happen in my life.
This isn't fair. Why did this have to?
Why did this have to happen? As you follow the Lord in your
own life, you come to realize that there's a lot of things you
don't understand why. And you can ask God why doesn't
mean He's going to answer you and tell you why.
There's a lot of things you just have to accept by faith and
believe that no matter what you're dealing with, God has a
plan. And Paul always kept his head
down and kept praying and and asking God to strengthen him and
lead him. So as we go into this chapter
today, they just finished 14 days at sea, violent storms,
winds, swells, almost the loss of life.
And yet God promised that no one on the ship would die, that 246
people, whatever how many there was, would survive and and be
able to get through this storm. And so we're we're beginning to
pick up where they the boat was destroyed.
This pieces of wood and elements of debris.
If you weren't able to swim the amount of distance from where
the boat was moored into the sand, you had to grab a piece of
wood and this flowed in into the sea of Malta.
Malta is an island in between Tunisia in the South and Italy.
The boot as you look on the map in the north, they were on the
side of the island that didn't really have a whole lot going
on. The other side of the island was
where ships would dock and port over the winter time until the
weather passed. So they would be able to start
getting out in the water again and go where they were going.
They were on the side. It was not familiar.
So initially whenever they were being washed up onto the shore,
they weren't really quite sure where they were at.
So let's pick it up here in verse one.
So when they had escaped, then they found out that the island
was called Malta. And the natives showed us
unusual kindness for they can kindle the fire and made us all
welcome. Because of the rain, it was
falling and because of the cold. So you can imagine it's the
winter time. I don't know about you, but I
don't like going into cold water.
I don't even care if it's summertime.
I don't like cold water. I don't like a cold shower.
I want it to be warm. Well, they were freezing cold.
Their clothes are soaked, they had no luggage to pull warm
garments out of. They get up onto this piece of
sand here, this place called Malta, and these wonderful
people that lived on this island knew what they were dealing
with. So they built this fire to be
able to warm all these prisoners that were being washed up onto
the shore to bring some relief to them as they were kindling
this fire to make everyone welcome.
It says that in verse 3 went, but when Paul had gathered a
bundle of sticks. So here's Paul, he's the great
apostle, and he had already told everybody in the ship that not
one life would be lost. Prophetically, not one person
died as a result of this storm. God protected them.
You think everybody would be in awe of his ability to sort of
see into things in the future and and tell people what God was
going to do, the promises. But Paul never thought of
himself as being anything other than a servant of the Lord.
And he represented being a servant because here, instead of
him sitting around like some kind of big shot, he went out to
find other sticks to keep this fire going.
And he gathered a bundle of sticks and laid them on the
fire. Little did he know what was
going to happen next. It says the Viper came out
because of the heat and fastened onto his hand.
So it's cold. The snakes are tired or sleeping
when it's cold. They get near the heat and all
of a sudden they wake up. And it bit Paul.
And it was scary because the way it bit him, the the snake was
dangling from his hand, bit into his hand, right?
How would you like that to happen to you?
George told me he went to bed last night and he shook his
pillow out and all of a sudden there was a spider about that
big on his pillow. He showed it to Tracy.
She screamed. He's like, how in the world did
a spider get into our our house? We have exterminators.
But so I'm thinking like every night, I better check my pillow
too. But you wouldn't have expected
Paul didn't expect when he got these sticks.
He's just looking down and picks them up.
This looks like sticks, but one of them happened to be a snake
and it it bit him. It was a poisonous snake.
So when the natives saw the creature 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 is not allowed
to live. They thought in Pagan terms,
mythology, that because this happened, that Paul had to have
been some kind of bad, bad dude. And so even though he made it
through the sea, they didn't believe in a creator like we do
a God. But they they felt that fate now
would deal with this and the consequences of his crimes,
whatever they might be, would cause him to be taken out and he
would he would die. So they assumed that this was
going to happen to him, but he shook off the creature into the
fire and suffered no harm. And it reminds me of what it
says in Acts 16. And a lot of times it's taken
out of context, but Acts 16 was written to the apostles.
Jesus was speaking to them about the signs that would follow
them. And one of them was they would
be able to pick up a snake, not intentionally to try to prove
that they were, they had supernatural power in them.
But there there would be no snake that would be able to hurt
them or harm them and that they would also be able to lay hands
on sick people and they would be miraculously healed.
So this was an indication of that promise that the snake was
not going to destroy his life. 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.
So isn't it interesting how the public, the community can have
one opinion every one day and think you're wonderful and the
next day they want to say crucify him just like they did
to Jesus, right? So never take the flattery and
applause of people seriously because they might be your fan
one day and the next day they can't stand your guts.
It's like the athlete this time of year, baseball, you got a
good baseball player when he gets up at a plate like
McCutcheon, he's a great ball player and everybody's cheering
him and here, here, oh man, we're going to win because of
his athletic ability. And then he goes into a slump.
And then the next thing, you know, if you're a ball fan and
you watch ball, you hear people booing and hissing.
Isn't that interesting? So that's what you guys are with
preachers too. One Sunday you'd say, wow, that
was a great message. The next song, and you call
yourself a preacher, you know, I mean, but we don't listen to
that, do we, Lewis? We just keep on keeping on.
So anyway, they they're trying to make him feel like a big
shot, but he knows that's not true.
So in verse 7, it says 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.
So Paul had favor on himself and upon justice, the centurion, it
was handcuffed to Paul because of Paul's exemplary behavior in
his testimony. And there was really nothing he
did wrong to be considered guilty of any crime.
God's favor was was upon him. So he got to meet this man in
Malta who was put in position of being in control of that
particular island by the Roman Empire.
And so he was invited to be a guest in this house.
I'm sure Luke was also invited as well as art to curse that
they were with him on this journey in the on the boat and
they were also on the island who had survived the the storm.
It says he received us and entertained us courteously for
three days. What a blessing a favor and
verse 8 and it happened that the father of Publius lay sick of a
fever and dysentery. So I I think there's always a
bigger reason why we find ourselves in situations or
circumstances or relationships with people beyond this meeting
people. God knew that Paul had the
ability by the Holy Spirit to do a miracle here and this is what
we're we're going to see here. So they're being entertained in
this home and it it becomes knowledge that this man's father
has a sick with a fever and dysentery.
So Paul went in to him and prayed.
He laid his hands on him and he healed him immediately.
This man was healed. This is a miracle.
And Paul and the apostles had this gifting as the Holy Spirit
LED, not as Paul willed all the time because Paul had health
issues and Timothy had health issues.
So sometimes people were sick and they didn't get healed, and
sometimes people were sick and they died.
But then there was many times where God chose to do miracles,
right, like He still does today. You just don't know.
You pray, you ask God to touch someone you love you care about,
and sometimes they recover, sometimes there's a miracle,
whatever, but other times nothing happens.
And you can't doubt God or disbelieve him.
God does everything after the counsel of his own will.
And we're not all guaranteed to be healed.
I wish we would be if we would. If we had that ability, we would
be spending a lot of time in hospitals, wouldn't we?
Going from bed to bed, laying hands on sick people to see them
recover. But whenever we do go to the
hospitals and visit people or sick people, we do lay hands and
pray if perchance God would decide to deliver them and and
raise them up. So there's a there's a
difference and how God works physically in regard to bringing
people back to health again. Sometimes it's miraculous
through the laying of hands and praying, but many times it's
through the skilled hands of nurses and doctors and
physicians assistants who have the ability because of their
ability and science and and knowledge to provide certain
medicines that are also gifts of God that people would be able to
recover. And so this is what happens in
the next verses. So when this was done, the rest
of those on the island who had diseases also came and were
healed with the Greek word in this sense is gradual healing,
where the word in the Greek on the issue of Pubia's father was
immediate healing. So 1 was miraculous healing and
the other one was healing done through a process of time
because Paul and those guys were on that island for three years.
So there was a lot of people that were sick that needed
treatment and Doctor Luke was with them to be able to help
with medical assistance as well. It says in verse 10.
And they also honored us in many ways.
And when we departed, they provided such things as were
necessary. So these people had such an
appreciation for the ministry of the gospel.
I'm sure the word was preached. I'm sure people became believers
as a result of Paul and those guys being on that island for
for three years. And the people showed their
appreciation by providing offerings, gifts, material
things to take with them on the ship.
Because you got to realize these guys lost everything in that
storm. In verse 11, after three months,
we sailed in an Alexandrian trip, a ship whose figurehead
was the twin brothers, which had wintered at the island.
Three months winter's over. Now they're able to get back
into the sea and head up toward Rome, which is where Paul knew
he was being called. God promised that he would get
to Rome and give his defense and also have a chance to share his
faith with the Jews in Rome as well as the Gentiles.
It's interesting. It says this ship had a
figurehead. So on the top of the in the
front of the, of the, of the bow there, there would always be
like these idols. And these were Greek
mythological gods that represent extended Pagan deities.
And they believe because of these things being on the boat,
they would be protected in storms, which, you know,
obviously wouldn't work. But nonetheless, that's what
these people believed. And that's the significance of
the the twin brothers, a figurehead there.
And landing at Syracuse, we stayed three days.
So Syracuse is about 70 miles up the coast from Malta.
The weather is awesome, gentle breezes, unlike the storm that
they encountered when the ship was destroyed those 14 days.
Everything's smooth sailing now. And they, they went up to
Syracuse was the capital city of Sicily and Italy.
So they're, they're real close to getting to Rome.
From there we circled around and reached Riggium that was another
90 miles up the coast. And they were making this within
a day or so. It wasn't taking weeks because
the water was real calm. And after one day the South wind
blew and the next day we came to Patole.
And Patole was about 180 miles north of this riggium.
And they got up there in about a day and a half.
And it's, it's interesting here because this was the main port
that you would go into, to go on to the road that would take you
down to Rome, which is, you know, about, you know, so many
miles. I guess it was about 100 miles
down to Rome from this place. And also Paul would be able to
see the, the naval fleet of the Roman Empire, which was quite
impressive up up the coast. He would see all the ships
there. I'm sure that was interesting to
him. And when they got to this
pitole, it says in verse 14, we found brethren and we're invited
to stay with them seven days. And so we went toward Rome.
So how exciting would that have been?
You get the Rome and you have a an entourage of Christian people
wanting to see you and meet with you and hang out with you and
fellowship with you. You wonder how in the world
these people became Christians. You know, Paul wasn't at that
point in time in the book of the Acts evangelizing up there, but
you got to realize that in Acts 1/8 when the Holy Spirit came
down upon the church and it and it told us that you shall
receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.
You shall be witnesses of me in all Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria
and the other most parts of the earth.
So all those people, those 3000 people that got saved in the day
of Pentecost through Peter's sermon were able then to go
after the persecution started into all the different regions
of Asia Minor. And some of them got up into
Rome and, and preached the gospel and planted churches.
So there, there's believers there and, and Paul's obviously
excited to, to hang out with them.
And from there, when the brethren heard about us, they
came to meet us as far as a pre forum and three ends.
Now a pre forum was about 40 miles from Rome and three ends
is about 30 miles from Rome. So there's more people coming to
me, Paul. And when Paul saw them, he thank
God and he took courage. And I don't know about you, but
I need to be encouraged in my faith.
You guys encourage Lewis and I Pastor Lewis and I you, you
come, you're you're faithful, You're you're interested in the
things of God, you're in the word.
You want to follow Jesus, you love him.
You're living life and your challenge.
You got struggles and trials like everyone else, but yet you
know the faithfulness of God and this would be able to be in a
room worshipping with Gina and the team and hearing your voices
and, and just being reminded that you're in a world right now
that is not real interested in Christianity.
You're in a world where there's cultural wars.
You're in a world where where people are making big deals out
of nothing, right? And trying to get their
positions as as being front and center as being normal versus
being abnormal. You know what we're dealing with
all this stuff every day and, and sometimes you can feel
alone. You can say was anything
changing or is anything shifting or is there any hope or is there
any possibility of of, of maybe seeing a move of God's Spirit
again and a survival to bring people to faith and get serious
about being followers of Jesus Christ.
Well, there is every time we gather together as a church,
Jesus promises whenever two or three or more people are
gathered together, he is there in the midst of us, isn't he?
He's right here with us. So I get strength as being with
you guys and I can leave here today and be encouraged that
we're not alone. We are not the minority of the
world says we are. We are really a majority in the
sense of God's Kingdom eventually going to be coming on
earth as it already is in heaven.
So we have every reason to be joyful and happy people, right,
and not be down and discouraged and complaining about the
condition of the world. Jesus said in the world you will
have tribulation, but be of good cheer.
I have overcome the world. He has Amen.
He's overcome the world, and we can be overcomers, walking by
faith, staying in the Word, being prayerful people.
I'm looking for opportunities in this life to speak into the laws
of people who are hopeless or may be searching for an answer.
And so now when he came to Rome, he eventually gets to Rome.
The centurion delivered the prisoners to the captain of the
guards. So all these people that
survived this incident and Glendon and Malta are now in
Rome, and every one of them are accounted for.
And Paul was permitted to dwell by himself with a soldier who
guarded him. So again, God's favor.
Paul wasn't a vicious murderer or someone who had committed
some horrific crime. He committed no crime.
So he's able to live in his own house, but he's chained to
someone six hours, and God takes a break.
Someone else chained to him for six hours.
This is just how he's permitted to dwell.
And so the soldier says, guarded him.
And it came to pass after three days, verse 17, that Paul called
the leaders of the Jews together.
So when they had come together, he said to the men and brethren,
though I've done nothing against our people or the customs of our
fathers, yet I was delivered as a prisoner from Jerusalem into
the hands of the Romans, who when they had examined me,
wanted to let me go because there was no cause for putting
me to death. So he's emphasizing again that
he's not guilty of anything, and he's with these Jewish people
that really don't know a lot about anything yet in regard to
the gospel. All they know is by hearsay.
There's a sect called The Way, which is the move of what is now
known as Christianity, Christians.
So Paul's expecting them to have all these complaints about who
he is. And when the Jews spoke against
it, I was compelled to appeal to Caesar.
Not that I had anything of which to accuse my nation.
So Paul made it clear I was never against the nation of
Israel, and I never said anything derogatory about the
Kingdom of the city, the plan of God.
For this reason, therefore, I've called for you to see you and
speak with you because for the hope of Israel, I'm bound with
this chain. Though the hope of Israel is the
Messiah who is to come, the Messiah, the Lord Jesus.
Today the hope of Israel still is a Messiah.
But unfortunately majority of Jewish people don't believe that
Jesus is a Messiah. They're waiting for Messiah who
will come, who will come as a conquering king to rule and
reign in Jerusalem and and put everything in this world in
place the way we know prophetically, it will be put in
place when Jesus comes the second time and he lands on the
feet of the Mount of Olives and he sets up and establishes
Kingdom for the millennial reign of 1000 years that will come to
pass at that point in time. When Jesus comes again the
second time, there'll be this technology.
We already have it now we're we're going to be able to see
through TV and media and iPhones, whatever.
What's that object coming from the middle of the universe?
What's that bright light moving and, and this crowd of looks
like an army with him. That's the Lord Jesus coming
back with his Saints, and he's going to land.
And the Bible says every eye shall see him.
And the Jews in Jerusalem, it says when they see him, they
will see him is the one whom they've pierced.
And at that point in time, they'll realize that Christ is a
Messiah. And a lot of people will come to
be born again at that time, to come to be saved at the second
coming of Jesus Christ. So Paul's reasoning with them,
and it's explained to them this I'm bound because I'm telling
you guys that Jesus Christ is the Messiah, the hope of Israel.
Then they said to him, this is interesting.
We neither receive letters from Judea concerning you, nor have
any of the brethren came and reported or spoken evil of you.
So everything that was made to be like a big deal when he was
in Jerusalem and they wanted to kill him and martyr to him.
Martyr him. Now he's in the situation where
no one's got any complaints. Isn't that amazing?
They can't even accuse him of anything.
Thanks for joining us on today's edition of Living Waters of
Grace, a ministry of Calvary Chapel, Westmoreland.
Today, Pastor Clark is teaching about the Book of Acts, and as
we learn more about Acts, it becomes clear that the early
church didn't miss a single opportunity to share the gospel.
In nearly every chapter, you see apostles like Peter and Paul
stepping into conversations, crowds, and crises with
boldness, ready to proclaim the name of Jesus.
Their example challenges us to consider how we might step into
gospel moments in our own lives. What doors might God open this
week for you to speak truth, offer hope, or live out your
faith in a way that points others to Him?
The story of Acts reminds us we are part of the same mission.
Today, let's live with eyes open and hearts ready to respond.
We hope you are challenged by today's message.
If you're in the Greensburg, PA area, we'd love to see you in
person this Sunday at 10:30 AM at 400 E Pittsburgh St.
Unit 6B. For more information, visit
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