Acts 28

Acts 28

So, the ship wrecks and all of the men on board make it safely to shore, which later they find out is the island of Malta.  The native people were quite kind to them, and after an incident with a poisonous snake, decided that Paul was a god.  Later, Paul healed the chief’s father and many others on the island.  When it was time to set sail, the islanders provided the necessary supplies (the ship itself was “borrowed”, actually it was probably commandeered by the Roman centurion).

After some weeks of travel they arrived in Rome, where Paul was allowed to live alone under house arrest.  For two years Paul lives in this house, preaching and teaching the Gospel to anyone who came to hear him, fulfilling Jesus’ prophecy from chapter 23 that Paul would testify about Him in Rome.  Quite suddenly, the book ends here…

Acts 27

Acts 27

This chapter opens with Paul on his way to Rome to appeal his case to Caesar.  The conditions must not have been ideal for all of the sailing they were doing, so they were quite a bit behind schedule when the decision was made to keep sailing instead of pulling into Crete for the winter.  Paul warned against this, but the Roman centurion in charge decides to keep going in hopes of reaching Phoenix.  A huge storm crops up and batters the ship for several days.  An angel of God appears to Paul in a vision and tells him that the ship will be destroyed, but no one will die.  The storm raged on for a total of fourteen days, during which the men on the ship hadn’t eaten.  As they begin to approach land (although they didn’t know what land) Paul encourages them to eat.  Then, those who could swim to shore were told to do so, and those that couldn’t were told to grab planks of wood or other pieces of the ship and float to shore.  And true to His word, not one of the men died.

Acts 26

Acts 26

This chapter consists of Paul’s defense to King Agrippa.  Paul recounts his credentials and his conversion to Christianity.  During this, Paul appeals to Agrippa’s understanding of Judaism, stating that he is only following God’s direction.  Festus interrupts Paul to accuse him of being insane, which Paul deflects with a lot of courtesy, given that he has been on-trial or in prison for several years under false charges!  When Agrippa asks Paul: “Do you think that in such a short time you can persuade me to be a Christian?” (v 28), Paul’s response is amazing: “Short time or long-I pray that not only you but all who are listening to me today may become what I am, except for these chains” (v 29).  This response should be ours to those who want to know why we want to share Christ with them.

The chapter ends with Agrippa and Festus agreeing that Paul has done nothing wrong, and would be set free except for Paul’s appeal to Caesar.  Of course, they didn’t know about Jesus’ conversation with Paul in chapter 24!

Acts 25

Acts 25

The seemingly endless cycle of trials and prison continues for Paul.  Here, the next governor, Festus, meets with the Jewish religious leaders while on a visit to Jerusalem.  They requested that Paul be transferred to Jerusalem, in another effort to ambush and kill him.  Festus declines their request, but does allow them to come to Ceasarea and make their charges against Paul in another trial.  Again, they bring false charges against them which, again, they cannot prove.  Trying to do the Jews a political favor, Festus asks Paul if he will stand trial in Jerusalem.  In what must have been a stunning turn of events, Paul not only refuses, he demands to take his case to Caesar!  This was an odd move, since he was certainly innocent, but if you remember back to chapter 23, Jesus told Paul that he would have to testify about Him in Rome.  I’m not sure whether Paul did this to ensure that what Jesus said would happen, or if he thought this was the best way to clear his name (which would make Jesus’ words a prophecy); anyway around it, Paul was a Roman citizen and appealing his case to Caesar was his right.

Festus’ boss, King Agrippa, arrives a few days later, and so Festus bends the King’s ear about Paul.  What is the result?  Another “trial”, as Paul is brought in before the King.  This chapter ends with Festus recounting the situation so far to the King, and the next one begins with Paul’s defense.

Acts 24

Acts 24

Here we find Paul in Caesarea, and Annanias the high priest (with a lawyer in tow) follows behind to present the case against Paul to the governor, Felix.  They accuse Paul of “stirring up riots among the Jews all over the world” (v 5).  Paul easily makes his defense, as the Jews cannot provide proof that he has committed any crime.  He does, however, detail his adherence to the Jewish Law, even as he follows “the Way”.

Felix isn’t quite sure what to do with Paul, as he has apparently done nothing wrong, but the Jewish leaders want rid of him!  So, he orders Paul to be kept in custody, but having some personal freedom which included having his friends provide for his needs.  After two years, a decision has still not been reached about Paul, and Felix is succeeded by Festus, which in the next chapter will lead to yet another trial for Paul.

Acts 23

Acts 23

Here we find Paul in front of the religious leaders of Jerusalem, defending his teaching.  While fighting an apparently uphill battle, Paul uses the traditional divide between the Pharisees and the Sadducees to turn the two groups against each other and forget about him (see v 8)!  The disagreement becomes so animated that the Roman commander orders troops to get  Paul out of the assembly. The next night Jesus appears to Paul and tells him that he will have to testify about Him in Rome (this will play a part in chapter 25).

Forty Jews decide that enough is enough with Paul, and they take an oath not to fast until Paul was dead.  Of course, they were planning on hastening his death!  They plotted to have Paul transferred so that they could ambush him and kill him themselves.  Word of this reached the Roman commander, who decides to transfer Paul to Caesarea.  This commander was baffled (as have been other rulers in this book) as to what to do with Paul: he has committed no crime under Roman law, but the Jews seem to have a big problem with him which is causing quite a bit of civil unrest.  moving Paul appears to be a combination of Paul’s safety and passing the buck to a higher authority!

Acts 22

Acts 22

If you remember from chapter 21, Paul has been arrested and is being taken to the barracks when he asks permission to speak to the crowd.  The majority of this chapter is his speech to the Jews who were trying to have him killed.  He spends the first section establishing his credentials, before going into the story of how he came to stop persecuting Christians and become one himself.  The crowd seemed to be OK with what he was saying until he mentioned taking the message of Christ to the Gentiles.  This made the Jews mad!

The Roman soldiers took him away (probably to avoid a riot) and ordered that Paul be beaten and questioned about his “crime”.  Before they could hit him, Paul informed them that he was a Roman citizen; meaning that they couldn’t beat him without a trial.  In order to ascertain what was really going on, the Roman commander called together the Jewish chief priests and the Sanhedrin.  The next chapter starts with this assembly, and along with this chapter, sets in motion the events of the rest of the book.

Acts 21

Acts 21

Paul’s willingness to obey God and to do whatever was necessary to show His love to everyone is stunning.  He knows that he is in mortal danger if he goes to Jerusalem, but because God has asked him to do so, he does.  Also in this chapter, we see Paul agreeing to live by the Law in order to make his message of Christ’s salvation more acceptable to the Jews in Jerusalem.  In no way was he obligated to do this (Jesus doesn’t require His followers to adhere to the Mosaic Law) but Paul was willing to put aside his own rights to be able to continue to preach Christ to the Jews.

Now, for his trouble, Paul is dragged out of the temple and beaten by some Jews who were upset at his teaching.  Saving him from what would probably have been a fatal beating was the fact that Paul was a Roman citizen.  This is not the first time that a beating was stopped by Roman soldiers because Paul was a Roman citizen.  As he is being carried away in chains by the Romans, he asks for permission to speak to the crowd…

Acts 20

Acts 20

Continuing with the amazing miracles that God is performing through Paul, here a man named Eutychus (apparently not an ingredient in Hall’s lozenges) is raised from the dead!  Also continuing is the pattern of constant travel, although Paul stayed longer where he was needed.  The majority of this chapter is dedicated to a “farewell address” that Paul is giving the the church leaders from Ephesus.  He tells them that he won’t see them again, and that they need to protect the Believers under them from attacks the will come from both outside and inside the church.  Paul then makes this statement: “I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me” (v 24), which should be the overarching theme of all of our lives.  It certainly seems as if Paul believes that he is going to Jerusalem to his death.

OK, this may not be interesting to anyone else, but in v 5 the narrative turns first-person.  Up to this point in the book, we’ve been listening to someone tell someone else’s story, but here Luke (the author) must be getting personally involved.  His first-hand account of, and now participation in, this narrative lends much credibility to his writings.

Acts 19

Acts 19

For all of the traveling that Paul is described as doing, he manages lengthy stays in some of these towns.  Here he stays in Ephesus and teaches in what appears to be a secular lecture hall (or possibly Count Dooku’s hideout, see v 10 and then Star Wars Episode 2 if you don’t get the joke) for two years.  This shows that he truly followed Jesus’ mandate to make disciples.  He was willing to put in the time to help people really understand what it meant to follow Jesus.  He was also flexible in his plans, as in this case his teaching in the synagogue was met with opposition, which lead to Paul’s teaching in the lecture hall.  Through him, God was doing such amazing miracles that even cloth that had touched Paul was able to heal people!

In the second half of this chapter, we find commerce causing a riot against the teaching of Christianity.  Up to now, most of the opposition to “The Way” was from Jews who were upset at what they considered to be blasphemous teaching.  Here, we find the craftsmen who make the idols that people worship upset that people were converting to Christianity, meaning that they were not buying the idols that the craftsmen were making.  This leads to quite a riot (and apparently not a quiet one!)  What’s funny about this is that someone points out to the crowd that Paul and the other Christians have legally done nothing wrong, but by continuing to riot, they could legally be charged with a crime!