Through The Bible - Acts 27:38 - 28:31 - Part 2

Brett Meador: When Paul gathered a bundle of sticks, laid them on the fire, there came a viper out of the heat and fastened on his hand.
Guest (Male): Pastor Bread Metter takes note of Paul's trust and the Lord's protection in his call to ministry.
Brett Meador: And so what happens? It says, and he shook off the beast into the fire and felt no harm. I wonder if some of you need to do that. Maybe you've been bit by some troublesome thing and the world's looking at you going, oh, you must have done something really bad. And maybe it's time for you just to shake it off. I love how Paul does that.
Guest (Male): The accounts of Paul's missionary journeys continue as his storm-battered ship runs aground on the island of Malta. And after a life-threatening snake bite and curious interactions of the people watching, Paul's response shows us what faith looks like, trusting God even when circumstances appear beyond our control. Pastor Bread Metter makes application for us too in today's word.
Brett Meador: It's quite a deal that we've been following here in Acts chapter 27 where Paul, you know, he's now we we left him kind of in limbo where the ship was tossed for 14 days. And after those 14 days, what happened? Well, that's where we're going to pick it up. We started in Caesarea on this final journey of Paul. And there he was held for 2 years. And then he went up to Sidon and then crossed over to Myra and then Cnidus. And then we kind of saw him land there in Fair Haven. And that's where remember Paul said we should just stay here for the winter. It's some bad sailing. And they said, yeah, whatever. And so they took off. And on their way from Fair Haven, they ended up meeting a large storm. And it was brutal. The ship was breaking up. They were throwing stuff overboard. In fact, if you look backward, look at verse 20 of 27, it says, and when neither sun nor stars in many days appeared and no small tempest lay on us, all hope that we should be saved was then taken away. But he said, be of good cheer. Look at verse 25. Wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer, for I believe God. And we talked about that. Paul's faith would bolster their faith or even ignite their faith so that they would also start believing what Paul was saying. In verse 36 says, and when they were all of good cheer, they took some meat in the ship, 203 score and 16 souls. So they all started being of good cheer. Even though the storm wasn't over, even though things were looking hopeless, how are they all good cheer? Because Paul said over and over, hey, cheer up. It's going to be okay. The Lord told me that we're going to make it. All 276 souls in this ship are going to make it is what he's saying. So they're happy even in the midst of the storm. How? Peace from God, from Paul's faith. But it says verse 39, and when it was day, they knew not the land. But they discovered a certain creek with a shore into the which they were minded if it were possible to thrust in the ship. Verse 40 it goes on. And when they had taken up the anchors, they committed themselves unto the sea and loosed the rudder bands and hoisted up the main sail to the wind and made toward the shore. And falling into a place where two seas met, they ran the ship aground and the four parts stuck fast and remained immovable, but the hinder part was broken with the violence of the waves. And the soldiers' counsel was to kill the prisoners lest any of them should swim out and escape. Oh boy. But the centurion, remember he's kind of our friend and Paul's friend by this time, willing to save Paul kept them from their purpose and commanded that they which could swim should cast themselves first into the sea and to get to land. And the rest, some on board, some on broken pieces of the ship. And so it came to pass that they escaped all safe to the land. And I love that. Paul's word, more importantly God's word to Paul, God's word always always comes to pass. Don't forget that. Whenever you have the word of God, it always comes to pass. And that's true here. But uh in Acts 28 verse 1 it says, and when they were escaped, then they knew that the island was called Melita. And the barbarous people showed us no little kindness, for they kindled a fire and received everyone because of the present rain and because of the cold. Now you might say, Brett, I don't get it. They're barbarians. And yet they made a nice fire and fed them food and stuff. That doesn't sound very barbaric. Well, the word barbarous in the old 1611 English of the King James, what do your newest translations say there?
Guest (Male): Natives.
Brett Meador: Natives. Okay, that's probably better. Native. Even natives, you're picturing spears and bones and arrows. That's not what's going on there. But this is uh barbarous people. Uh interesting word barbarous. I want to explain this why the King James says this. It's because in 1611 the word barbarous, it's the Greek word barbaros or barbaros, which is the way they say it, barbaros. And so they they go barbarian people. But barbarous means rough speech in the Greek language. Barbaros means rough speech, speaking a foreign language which is not understood by another. The Greeks used the word barbarous, which means you don't understand their language, to any foreigner who is ignorant of Greek. If you didn't know Greek language, you were a barbarous people. That's the way the Greeks viewed it. So it meant that they were speaking unintelligible sounds to the Greek. It's actually onomatopoeia. Do you guys remember that word onomatopoeia? It's a formation of a word from a sound associated with what is named like sizzle or splash. Those words sound like they are. Well, the word barbarous in the Greek was people going bar bar bar bar bar. It was like babbling. That's why they said it was like they just don't understand their words. So not uncivilized, they were just not understanding Greek. They had manners, they had hospitality, and they brought a warm fire to these guys. So kind of interesting that these people were hospitable. Verse 3 it says, and when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and laid them on the fire. Now pause there just for a second. Paul just survived a shipwreck and a storm. And 1 minute they thought he was a curse, 1 minute they think he's a blessing, 1 minute they believe him, 1 minute they don't believe him. He's been through the mill. And he ends up on the shore. And what is he doing? Going around collecting sticks and going to build the fire. Uh for you survivor fans, the person who's out gathering firewood either looking for a one of those immunity things or they're just trying to get people to like them because they're hauling firewood. But Paul is like even being a servant right here. You know what I'm saying? He's he's literally calling a bundle of sticks. And he could have just sat there, but he 's there doing some work to try to help with what 's going on there. I like that he's not just surviving. He's actually helping, gathering sticks. Who else is with Paul by the way there? It says in Acts 27 if you just remember verse 2 entering the ship, we launched meaning to sail to the coast of Asia. One Aristarchus, a Macedonian of Thessalonica, we also being Luke. So Luke and Aristarchus and possibly others were traveling with Paul to help Paul. We know that from the previous verses. Paul could have just sent some of his companions to go, you know, Luke, hey, Luke, Dr. Luke or Aristarchus, go get some wood. But he was doing it himself, which I think kind of speaks of Paul's willingness to do hard work, not feeling sorry for himself, not, you know, woe is me, woe is me, woo woo. You know, woe is me, you know, I in shipwrecks and I'm always No, he wasn't that guy. Are you the person that just gets bummed out and pouts or do you do what you can? Don't complain about what you can't do. Do what you can. Paul was that kind of a guy. I love the poem of two frogs in cream. TC Hamlet wrote this. Two frogs fell into a can of cream, or so I've been told. The sides of the can were shiny and steep. The cream was deep and cold. Oh, what's the use? Croaked number one. Tis fate, no helps around. Goodbye my friends. Goodbye sad world. And weeping still he drowned. But number two of sterner stuff, dog paddled in surprise while he wiped his creamy face and dried his creamy eyes. I'll swim a while at least, he said, or so I've heard he said. It really wouldn't help the world if one more frog were dead. An hour or two he kicked and swam. Not once he stopped to mutter, but kicked and kicked and swam and kicked and then hopped out via butter. I like that old poem. Sometimes we just need to keep moving. Just keep moving even if we don't know why, even if we don't know what the solution is or where we're going, if we aren't even sure of the direction. You know, sometimes I think the Lord wants us just to move and start doing instead of just sitting there in despair and not doing anything. Paul's that kind of guy. We know that when he was there at times when in Corinth when he was tent making, he was busy making tents when he had nothing else to do. He was busy, you know, earning a salary and stuff like that. What we need to understand here is Paul was a guy who wasn't afraid of just getting busy even when he was going without knowing. Very important. Well, verse 3 when Paul gathered a bundle of sticks, laid them on the fire, there came a viper out of the heat and fastened on his hand. Now you're saying, oh Brett, I think I'll sit down and not haul sticks. That was a bad idea. A viper, not a car for some of you to dodge people, but it's actually a snake. Now I love this because this is one of those dumb things critics of the Bible say. There are no snakes on Malta and there never were. And what do you do with that if you're a Christian and you have the experts saying there were never any snakes on the island of Malta? What do you do with that? I got to speak on this because this happens all the time. And as Christians, it's just not a problem for us. If you're a believer in God, if you're a believer in the Bible, this is not a problem. First of all, are zoologists and biologists always correct about species and stuff like that? If there's one thing we know, they don't know what they're talking about. Even recently CNN, more than 200 new species discovered in Mekong region of Vietnam. 224 new species were discovered in the greater Mekong region in 2020. Examples of a devil-horned newt, a drought-resistant bamboo, a new rock gecko found in Thailand, a mulberry tree species in Vietnam, a big-headed frog in Vietnam, a monkey named after a volcano. There's all kinds of these uh things like, oh wow, these are new species. And how many times have they said, oh these species are going to disappear? They're endangered. But how many times were they kind of not? They were kind of not. And they're like, oh I guess there's a lot more than we thought. They're just wrong about stuff. So do we know for sure if there were vipers on Malta? Maybe, maybe not. The zoologists you can ask them if you want. But if you're a Bible believer and you know the story is God working out trials and tribulations that it's going to be part of Paul's experience, can God poof make a snake appear on Malta? Is that too hard for God? It's not a problem. This is where if you just believe Genesis chapter 1 verse 1, the rest of the Bible is super simple. You know, like how can God, you know, how can there be a viper on this? Well, if God could say, let there be light and all of a sudden there's the sun in the space, a giant ball of gas burning at huge heat and God just said, let there be light. If he could do that, in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. God just spoke the worlds into existence. Can he put a little snake on the island if he wants to? See miracles are no big deal for us that believe Genesis 1 1. And then people like, well how can that be? You know, it's just it's really ridiculous. But interesting, the word viper, the Greek word is the Greek word which is possibly an adder often found in Europe and Asia as it turns out. So don't get stumbled by people saying there were never any snakes. It's like that Time magazine article that said there were never any apples on any trees in the Middle East. And so we know the Garden of Eden could not have existed because there were never any apples and Adam and Eve took an apple from a tree. And they made this whole article. It's in Time magazine back in the '80s. But the thing was so funny is theologians just came out and said, well the Bible doesn't say it was an apple. It just says it was a piece of fruit, some kind of fruit. We don't know what it could have been, a pomegranate, it could have been a date, could have been a whatever, could have been an an apple that God polished up and sent from heaven and stuck in a tree. Like it's so ridiculous. And he made his whole case while the Garden of Eden could never exist. Don't fall for that stupid atheist kind of you know argument. There's a ton of them. They try to make big deals up. Well, verse 4 goes on. It says, and when the barbarians saw the venomous beast hang on his hand, they said among themselves, no doubt this man is a murderer whom though he hath escaped the sea, yet vengeance suffereth not to live. That's just humanity right there, superstition. Those that believe something bad happened to somebody is because somebody must have done something bad. I still hear this today. People come into our counseling office and I think I must have done something really bad. The Lord's getting back at me for my sins. Uh no, he's not. I 've heard people say, I think the Lord's punishing me for my sins. Question, what's the punishment for sin? Death. So I don't think he's punishing you yet because I still sense a pulse. It's not a punishment. So let's be careful on that one. But humanity we love to say, well they're going through bad things and I must have done something really wrong. That's what the whole book of Job is about. His buddies were trying to say to Job, the reason all this bad stuff's happening to you because you must have done something really bad. And then God thunders in and Job chapter 38 says, were you guys there when I created the heavens and the earth? Like you guys know nothing about what you're talking about. This actually came out in John chapter 9. Remember in John chapter 9 verses 2 and 3, the disciples saw this blind guy on the side of the road. And they asked him because this was the tradition of the day. They asked him, master, who did sin, this blind guy? Because he's been blind from his mother's womb. Who did sin, this man or did his parents sin? Which sin was it? And Jesus answered, no. Which is not this one or that one. Jesus said, neither has this man sinned nor his parents, but that the works of God should be made manifest or made known in him. This is a guy going through trials, a blind guy. And God says, Lord's just wanted to do a work in this guy. And you know, even if that guy the only work God did was that he made John chapter 9. And here we are I'm talking about a blind guy that should have gone into obscurity back in you know the year 30 AD. But we 're talking about him about how Jesus used him as an example. No, this guy's not blind because of his sin or his parents' sin or something he must have done wrong. It's because I'm doing a work in him. The God's going to manifest through this guy's blindness. So don't fall into that sort of worldly not biblical thing thing where I must have done something really bad, so God's paying me back or punishing me or Now don't get me wrong. There are repercussions for our behavior. If you go you know drop acid or do heroin and then go home and fire up your skill saw in your garage and uh run it across your leg and blood and guts and stuff, that's your own fault. That's just repercussions of just being stupid. But it's not necessarily God punishing you for your sins. I hope you understand that because that's death. Keep that in mind. So these guys at Malta the the fact that the people of Malta by the way knew this snake Did you notice that? They said, oh viper, we have those here. You kind of see that implied in the story. They say, oh he must have done something really bad because one of these vipers They knew what it was. I think that's interesting. But what happens, it's not Paul's fault for this. Verse 5 And so what happens? It says, and he shook off the beast into the fire and felt no harm. Howbeit they looked when he should have swollen or fallen down dead suddenly. But after they had looked a great while, they saw no harm come to him. And they changed their minds and said that he was a God. Boy, from one extreme to the other, what is he? A murderer or is he a God? You choose. Like come on you guys. That's human nature. He's a murderer. No wonder he got bit by viper. And then he shakes it off. Wonder if some of you That's a good word for you. I I remember um when I played football in high school and you get hurt or something, the coach would say, come on shake it off, shake it off. And you're like, yeah, but I sprained my ankle. You know, it's like just shake it off, shake it off, run it off. And I think there's a certain truth to that. But I love this this is literally in the Bible. Paul shook it off. Uh he shook off the beast. I wonder if some of you need to do that. Maybe you've been bit by some troublesome thing and the world's looking at you going, oh, you must have done something really bad. And maybe it's time for you just to shake it off. I love how Paul does that. The Bible by the way tells us specifically about missionaries and snakes and things that bite. Like for example, do you remember what Jesus said in Mark chapter 16 verses 15 through 18? Let's read that. Mark 16 15 and 18 says, and he said to them, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. That's what Paul's doing. That's what missionaries do. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. And he that believeth not shall be damned. Now verse 17 goes on. Check this out. And these signs shall follow them that believe in my name. They will cast out devils. They shall speak with new tongues. They shall take up serpents. And if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them. They shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover. Who is this related to? Churches down in Texas, the pastors uh rattlesnakes around. Have you ever seen those people? They're called snake handlers. Some of the hyper-Pentecostal churches do the snake handling thing. If you see that, you need to leave that church. It's not biblical. But what is the context? It's the context of the mission field. When you go on the mission field, God supernaturally protects you. That's the idea against deadly serpents. And that's Paul. This is a great example of that. And I've even seen that on the mission field myself. It's amazing how the Lord does that with his missionaries. By the way, these signs and wonders shall follow them that believe. One of the problems some churches make and super hyper-Pentecostal churches, they'll say, follow after signs and wonders. And that's all they're about, following signs and wonders. Big mistake. That's not the way the church works. You preach the gospel, baptize, make disciples. And then as you're on the mission field going around the world, you will see signs and wonders. I've seen some of the greatest signs and wonders of miracles in my life when I was in other countries. It's just something that happens when you travel and go to Africa or Honduras or South Pacific, you just see stuff that's just on another level and you realize, wow, the Bible is so true when it comes to this. The context here is the Lord will protect those in the mission field that are sharing the gospel. Now you say, well Brett, uh he sort of protected but he got bit by a viper. Well, the biting part probably hurt it. I think it probably smarted, but he didn't die. It doesn't mean you're not going to have some trouble. Why would anybody in their right mind go to this do this stuff? Because Mark 16 they just trust the Lord will protect and he really has. Maybe that's a good word for some of you that are called and maybe you're afraid. Well, you know, Paul he just pressed on, he shook it off. I think that's We need some young people that will go on the missionary field. I've noticed there's a problem in the church today. The old people think, oh I should go on the missionary. But the problem is they're old and they can't because it's too physically hard. But they have enough money to do it. The young people are crazy enough to go, but they don't have any money, so they can't go. I think we should blend the two. I think that older wealthy people should say, hey, how can we send those that are willing on the mission field and and support that? Uh Atheist Creek we support quite a few missionaries around the world. We have a lot of people in different places and we support them as a church. There are some people in our church that are living in some of those dangerous places. We support this amazing couple in Tibet. And they are doing amazing work where it's illegal to preach the Bible and gospel, but that's what they're doing. And I could go on and on. We have people down in Ecuador and other places where we support missionaries. Vanuatu we talk about a lot because it's an Atheist Creek base. Like literally we own the base, Atheist Creek. It's an Atheist Creek church called Natanara Fellowship. Well, uh where was it? Oh yeah, verse 6. So they they called him a God. Verse 7, in the same quarters were possessions of the chief man of the island whose name was Publius, who received us and lodged us 3 days courteously. Again, these aren't barbarians. These are They're lodging and courteously treating these people. By the way, one of the things you need to remember as a Christian, we should have this kind of hospitality. Are you a hospitable person to strangers? Remember Hebrews 13 1 and 2 says, let brotherly love continue and be not forgetful to entertain strangers. Do you remember why? Because you might be entertaining angels unaware. Now this cracks me up because I saw an angel in all these movies, touched by an angel. The only problem with that, the Bible says when you do it, you'll be unaware that they're angels. So if you're writing a book, I don't you're unaware. So you're That's not what the Bible says. So uh put your pen down and just keeping hospitable. I saw an angel. No, whatever. When was the last time you showed kindness to a complete stranger? That's something to think about. But one of the qualifications of an elder by the way in 1 Timothy 3 2, are you a a person who's given to hospitality? That's one of the characteristics of a leader in a church should be given to hospitality.
Guest (Male): Pastor Bread Metter remarking how the hospitality shown Paul after the near shipwreck is an example for the church today. As we near the end of our in-depth study in the book of Acts that we'll continue next time on today's word. And I hope you'll stay right there as Pastor Brett will share some interesting stats about reading the Bible. But first if you've missed any portion of our time today, you'll find all of his messages online at todayswordradio.com. That's todayswordradio.com. Also if you'd like to share your story of how these daily messages have had an impact on your life, just email us. That email address is [email protected]. Again, tell us your story by emailing to [email protected]. Or you can go to our website which is todayswordradio.com. Well, Pastor Brett is with me now. You know, you recently read some stats about how often we read the Bible and how it determines how much of an impact it has on our lives. Brett, can you share that with us?
Brett Meador: Yeah, there was a huge study conducted a couple years ago by the Institute for Biblical Research. And they studied the effect of reading the scriptures on somebody's life depending on how many days a week they read it. And what they found was that if someone reads their Bible only one day a week, it had almost no effect on their life at all. And that kind of surprised me. If somebody reads their Bible two or three days a week, you can see it, but the difference is negligible. But when someone crosses the threshold of reading their Bible at least four times a week, they found that that person is 228% more likely to share their faith with someone else, 407% more likely to memorize scripture, 59% less likely to view pornography, 30% less likely to struggle with loneliness, depression, anxiety. And And see here's the big thing that I think we see out of this is when the word and not the world becomes the majority of your week, then your life begins to change. And the power of the word is obvious when you open it and read it for yourself.
Guest (Male): Those stats about how often we read the Bible and the impact it has on our actions are really amazing. And it does indeed show the power of God's word to change us. Thank you for that encouragement, Brett.
Brett Meador: Sure.
Guest (Male): Well, for more information about today's word or Pastor Bread Metter, you can visit our website at todayswordradio.com. Well, next time Pastor Brett shares how the apostle Paul struggles to reach Rome eventually just became more opportunities for God's power to be revealed. Today's word with Pastor Bread Metter is an outreach of Atheist Creek Church in Westlin, Oregon.