Acts

276 people on board the ship taking Paul to Rome, were preparing for shipwreck. Strong ropes held the ship's stern to four anchors, preventing a night-time foundering onto an unknown shore (Acts 27:29); but the people were weak from lack of food and they had no more energy to do anything to save the ship. Strangely, when all hope had been lost (Acts 27:20), Paul became the morale-boosting, strategic leader. God had spoken to him about the ship being lost but the people being saved (Acts 27:21-26), and everybody trusted what he said.

This was the end of an agonisingly long journey. About three weeks had elapsed since they left Fair Havens in Crete. Lured out of that harbour by a fair southerly wind they soon got caught in the violent north easterly winter wind which drove the ship uncontrollably westwards. After Paul's briefing, passengers and prisoners, sailors and soldiers were all ready to get ashore. Daylight revealed an island with a sandy beach where they decided to run the ship aground.

The Lord had been kind to Paul and his travelling companions (including Luke), fellow prisoners, passengers, soldiers and sailors. After more than two weeks adrift in a storm at sea, all 276 people on board the Alexandrian cargo/passenger ship were safe, even though the ship had broken up on the sandbar. After swimming towards the sandy beach or clinging to pieces of wreckage, the survivors assembled in the rain on a sandy beach at the northwest of the island of Malta.

In the Lord's kindness, Paul and all the shipwrecked people made it safely to shore. The Maltese islanders were kind, welcoming the survivors and lighting a fire on the beach to warm and dry the sodden seafarers (Acts 28:1-2). When a venomous snake latched onto Paul's hand, the Lord protected him from any ill effects.

After the dramatic shipwreck, Paul, his travelling companions and the military escort spent the winter on Malta. The unpredictably strong winds made commercial shipping impossible until springtime. When the weather looked more settled, another ship from Alexandria, presumably carrying grain from Egypt (Acts 27:6,38), which over-wintered in Malta planned to go north to Italy.

Paul had arrived in Rome. The journey by ship from Caesarea had taken the best part of five months including a shipwreck and three months in Malta. All the way he had a military escort because Paul had appealed to Caesar's court (Acts 25:10-12), as the Governors in Caesarea were unwilling to resolve the accusations of the religious leaders in Jerusalem and what is now Turkey against the apostle (Acts 25:27).

Paul, under house arrest in Rome, had invited the Jewish religious leaders to his home. As a committed Jew, he called them his 'brothers', explaining that he loved the Scriptures and his people. He had not broken any Roman law, but had appealed to Caesar because the authorities could not resolve, what they saw as, a religious dispute. Paul wanted to tell the religious leaders about the Lord Jesus, whose personal commission motivated his preaching (Acts 28:17-20).

Paul was in Rome because he had appealed to Caesar's court (Acts 26:32) to have a fair trial and to be able to present Christ to the Emperor (Acts 27:23-24). The Roman governors in Judea did not want to release Paul, because they did not want to upset the delicate relationship with the religious establishment, and they hated the idea that Jesus was the Messiah.

Paul's encounter with the Jewish leaders in Rome was to enable them to see how Jesus was the Messiah they had been anticipating (Acts 28:17-22). But, as he spoke, the leaders started arguing with each other. Some may have wanted to hear more, but the majority had made up their minds to reject Paul's message even before they came to his house. It was not a reasonable discussion of different opinions, but an open demonstration of how closed some of their minds were.

As we come to the end of Acts, you may have been amazed at what the Lord did in those early days of the church. Astonished too at the courage of Peter, Paul and those who travelled with them. All through the book, the apostles are speaking and taking action in the Name of Jesus. The Holy Spirit motivated them to make the gospel known to as many people as possible (Acts 1:8).