Bible Guys Classics: Acts 28 Part 1

Hey, Jeff, do you know this one just right back?

Can you hear it?

You?

Let's Gilligan started from this traffic board to board this

tiny shipped.

Wow, very good.

Oh I got, I got the whole thing.

I imagine you do.

I would imagine. I'm not going to do it. That's

right with Gilligan the skipper. Okay, forget it, I'm not

gonna do it. But that's what we're doing today. We're

talking about Paul being stranded on the island.

Okay, through on the island now. So he's Chris and

I'm Jeff, and hopefully he doesn't sing anymore. We're the

Bible guys. I love gilligan Sland.

Oh I love that. It was so good. It was

so good. Yeah. And that's how you know you're old

because most of my memories of Gillian's Island are black

and white.

Oh yeah, me too, Yeah, yeah for sure. And I

was in love with Marianne.

Oh yeah, who wasn't the whole world was first crush.

My first crushed as a little kid was Mary.

Oh for celebrity crush or first Chruss in general. Yeah,

I get news for you, but it's not gonna happen

well that's okay. Yeah, that's okay. You went out. So

today this is the segment today. Jeff is that it's

called Bible verse or not. So here are five Bible

verses or inspirational quotes. Have Jeff, guess if it is

an inspirational or a Bible verse. Yeah, these are pretty tricky.

I have to warn you in advance, like you have

to really think through. So here we go.

So, so what are my two options. It's either a

Bible verse, a quote, or a quote. And it's a

bonus if you tell us where where books from? Yeah?

Probably not.

Okay, here we got ready, h God will meet all

your needs.

That's a Bible verse.

Where do you think it's from?

Paul wrote it?

Yep, you're right. It's in Philippians. Okay, So how about this,

This too shall pass?

So many times the Bible says and it came to pass,

This too shall pass. I'm gonna says a quote.

It is an inspirational quote. Yes, okay, number three, you're

doing good. You're doing good the job. Here we go.

That's a tough one.

God is the most glorified in us when we are

most satisfied in him.

Oh, that's a quote.

You know who said it?

Piper?

Yes, it's John Piper, good child. Where do you go?

How about this one? Don't be too proud to enjoy

the company of ordinary people?

Uh? Paul said that it's a Bible course. Where do

you think it's from the Romans? It is Chapter twelve, yep.

And then the last one is don't forget to show

hospitality to strangers. You could be entertaining angels without realize.

That's a Bible right, yeah, yeah, yeah, you remember where

it's from, Uh, entertaining angels unaware? I can't remember.

It's Hebrews.

Hebrews.

He was thirteen. Hey man, you get five out of five,

five out of five, good job, all right.

I was really intimidated by this.

Well you nailed it them, You nailed it. You You

even quoted John Pipper. You knew that you said the quote. Yeah,

so that must have been easy.

And you know if I had answered, I would have

said Hebrews.

Yeah, yeah, just to add that in there, just as

if as if you didn't nail everything. I just want

to make you but you I.

Also n it was Hebrews, but I wanted to give

you one.

Yeah, I'm joking.

I couldn't remember.

Yeah, he was thirteen, by the way, So so good job,

where do you go?

Good?

Well, thank you?

That was fun, Thank you, Desiree. Yeah, it was a

little intimidating. It's scary because you know, when you're a

Bible guy, I know it because you've had these two right, Yes,

you're thinking, yes, they're going to make us look so bad.

So I'm not going to do it now because I'm

not sure I could do it. But like the Twelve Disciples, right,

because you know sometimes they shifted around after Judas and

everything else.

Uh.

One time I was playing trivial Pursuit back in the

day and they said name the twelve Disciples, and every

every the room was like, oh man, sor I got

this question. But to get it, oh, you know, I'm

in Babba College and they're like, they're like, okay, he's

obviously gonna get his pie, you know, and and I

and I named him. I think I got ten something

like this, and I'm.

Like, oh, you know, learned the song. I think I

forget no Disciples Jesus called to help him.

No, I don't know that. I didn't grow up in

some the show. Oh wow, yeah, yeah, so so yeah,

so I did. I didn't know Peter.

Andrew who James's brother John Philip Thomas, Matthew James, the

son of Elis. You don't you know that song that

doesn't rhyme, It doesn't have to rhymes. You're just storing

it in the part of your brain that sings instead

of remembers.

That's why.

Isn't that weird?

Uh?

How your brain works like that? Music really matters? It

really does. Music puts uh. You know? So I have

a music background, music degree, and this has nothing to

do with the passage today, but this is why, you know.

I caution young people the kind of music you take in,

because music puts stuff in your brain and stores it

in ways that your regular memory doesn't work, right, it

doesn't do, and so it embeds concepts and ideas and

philosophies in areas of your mind that you will never

ever forget. Yeah right. I watched the thing recently, a

very famous singer struggling with Alzheimer's. He's coming towards the

end of his life and it has a hard time

with family and friends. But as soon as the band

struck up, he knew every lyric.

Right, this is with Lady the Jazz Lady Gaga.

Yeah, yea yeah, Tony Bennett. Yeah, and he's able to

pull out every song. It's because it's stored in a

different part of your brain and your brain processes that,

so art is really really has way more impact than

just oh it's a cool tune.

Right, Hey, just so you know real quick. So I

was in Brazil about three or four years ago and

our lead pastor said, hey, can anybody name all sixty

six books of the Bible in order? Oh?

Yeah, And when I.

Was in college, I remember the very first day of college.

First day, he said, come come tomorrow memorizing all sixty

six books, and oh, it was actually two days because

it was Monday, Wednesday, Friday class. And everybody was like,

oh ha, because all these people are like Christians from birth,

you know, and so everybody knew it. And I felt like, I,

you know, I just started reading the Bible. So I

went home and made up a song. And it was

one little, two little, three little Indians. Right. It was Genesis, Sex, Slavidicus, Numbers, Dronomy,

and Joshua Judges, ruth Yea saying first Sying Chronicles first

in Kings first and second no, it was first thing

Samuel for sin Kings, first and second chronicles and and anyway.

So I so I went through the whole thing right

as raight name, I esther Joe. And by the way, proverb, psalms, proverbs,

because that's the song of song it so anyway, the

point is is that like I sang the song and

I can remember it and uh. And then he ended

up saying, he said, out of everybody I've asked, he said,

I've been asking all weekend. I didn't know this, he said,

I asked over fifty people. All these guys are pastors.

Not a single person could do it. Oh, he goes,

but you did it.

Wow, I was the only.

One they could do. How long ago was that? Like

four or five years ago?

Oh?

Wow?

Wow?

Yeah, yeah, good for you.

Yeah, four or five years ago. You just learned all

all sixty six book to the Bible.

No, no, no, years ago.

You used a song that you learned in college.

I taught myself in college.

I see, I see.

I didn't explain that very well.

I thought you were saying you just memorized this.

No, no, no, no. I was able to quote it to

him a couple of years ago. In Brazil because I

still remember that Goofy song.

Thirty years ago.

From thirty years ago, y y, yeah, it's crazy.

Okay, I'm tracking now a little slow today, No no, no,

I might not said it on So that's fantastic. So

that was a little free aside, right, talking about the

importance of music and the kind of music we take

in This is why the Bible says that we're supposed

to encourage one another with songs, hymns and spiritual songs. Right,

It's because we want to be filled with God's spirit

and that's a different side of our brain. That's what

music does. So anyways, a whole other thing. So we

are wrapping up. We're kind of on the final lap. Now.

We are on the final lap of the Book of Acts.

We're in the last chapter twenty eight.

Yeah. This has been a great series.

I've loved it, man, it's been fantastic.

Yeah. Yeah. It really is the choice to go through

acts chronologically and then to pause during the Book of Acts,

to break off and then you know, like when when

Paul was writing the Book of Romans, somewhere chronological in

the Book of Acts, we broke off and covered all

of Romans, and then we came back and we covered

several books in this in this series.

And then you know, when we finish this up tomorrow

or yeah, on the last episode, the next thing that

happens is he writes a few more letters, but he's

in Rome. It's just the Book of Acts ends with

him getting there, right, and then there's several more books

to cover, so it'll be good.

By the way, it's important to add on that the

reason why the Book of Acts seems to end abruptly

is because it's not actually following the life of Paul.

It's following the spread of the Gospel, that's right. And

so it's it is it is. You know, we're going

to arrive at the point here as we're wrapping up

the story to sort of you know, put the building

blocks together and say that, you know, the Gospel has

been spread far and wide, and then from there it's

just gonna you know, take over like a plague. And

and so it doesn't continue to follow the life of

Paul because Acts not a life of Paul book.

That's right. So let's pick up at chapter twenty eight.

We'll just read verse one through sixteen or so, and

it kind of unpacks what happens after the shipwreck says

Once we were safe on shore, we learned that we

were on the island of Malta. The people of the

island were very kind to us. It was cold and rainy,

so they built a fire on the shore to welcome us.

As Paul gathered an armful of sticks and was laying

them on the fire, a poisonous snake, driven out by

the heat, bit him on the hand. The people of

the island saw it hanging from his hand and said

to each other a murderer, no doubt. Though he escaped

the sea, justice will not permit him to live. But

Paul shook off the snake into the fire and was unharmed.

The people waited for him to swell up or suddenly

dropped dead. But when they had waited for a long

time and saw that he wasn't harmed, they changed their

minds and decided he was a god. Near the shore

where we landed was in a state belonging to Publius,

the chief official of the island. He welcomed us and

treated us kindly for three days. As it happened, Publius's

father was ill with fever and dysentery. Paul went in

and prayed for him, and laying his hands on him,

he healed him. Then all the other sick people on

the island came and were healed. As a result, we

were showered with honors, and when the time came to sail,

Peop supplied us with everything we would need for the trip.

It was three months after the shipwreck that we set

sail on another ship that had wintered at the island,

and Alexandrian ship with the Twin Gods as its figurehead.

Our first stop was Syracuse, where we stayed three days.

From there we sailed across to Reggium. A day later,

a south wind began blowing, so the following day we

sailed up the coast to put Putioli. There we found

ourselves some believers who invited us to spend a week

with them, and so we came to Rome, and the

brothers and sisters in Rome had heard we were coming,

and they came to meet us at the Forum on

the Appian Way. Others joined us at the three taverns.

When Paul saw them, he was encouraged and thanked God.

When we arrived in Rome, Paul was permitted to have

his own private lawsjudging though he was guarded by a soldier.

There you go, man.

So three months they spent on the island.

A month, yeah, and that's something.

Yeah, and then he finally found another ship. So so

think about this is his stay on Malta was only

three months, and I say only I mean that's a

long time to stay on the island of course for

us today, but back then, you know, people used to

camp for the winter. Remember that's that's actually why they

were searching, you know, the next city, because they didn't

want to stay in this one place and they wanted

to go to the next place where they found themselves

fourteen days. So here's what we know. They set sail

in October, which means by the time they got shipwrecked

in Malta, it was dead winter, right, So the three

months that they stayed on the island were winter, right,

So which means makes sense. Then you know, think about

like him starting a fire. This isn't like necessarily the

scene on Castaway. This is you know, probably something quite cold,

and then the snake comes out.

I mean, it's still the Mediterranean, but for them where

they're accustomed to higher temperatures, and higher humidity. Now in

the winter, it can get pretty chilly. I was in

Sicily a while back, and it was during the wintertime

and at night it would get down into the low forties,

you know, pretty chilly. So you're not thinking frozen tundra,

you know, three feet of snow, but it's pretty chilly,

and you know, so they're not worrying about frostbite, but maybe,

you know, some of the other weather related issues could

be a problem. They get sick very easily, and so yeah,

for them, it'd be very, very cold.

So so Paul builds a fire, and so think about this.

So here's my point. My point is three months compared

to places where Paul has stayed for years, three months

is actually a pretty short stay for Paul, you know,

extended stay at least. And think about what happens in

that short time on that small island. They witness him

being immune to a poisonous snake, decide that he's a

god with a little g and then he heals somebody

with dysentery and the fever, and then other peop people

come out from the woodwork asking to be healed, and

then he starts healing. It's part of me thinks that

this is the first time I think it's recorded this way.

I think it's the first time that that Paul's captors

have seen Paul in action doing miracles, doing miracles like that. Yeah,

probably right, So and so think about this, So Paul

remember a time? Yeah, so Paul. So Paul starts to

heal people, and and and and the guys who are

about to kill him probably thought to themselves, we didn't

know who we had here, Like, who is this guy?

Because when you know, when somebody does, you know, first

of all, he's claiming to have insight from God already.

Don't worry, nobody's gonna die, not die, your head on

your head. And then all two hundred and seventy six

people live right.

Right, and then and then and then so they're sort of,

you know, respecting him. You know, they're being persuaded to

eat bread because he says, hey, everybody needs to eat

everything else. And now he's doing miracles. And I have

to believe that his captors, and there's one of the

reasons why Julius is we're about to discover gives an

incredible leeway because he goes into like an airbnb, right,

he just goes into a house that he's rented for

two years, and Julius gives them incredible leeway. And it's

probably because of this experience on Malta. And think about

the island of Malta after Paul leaves, so Paul zooms in,

stays there for three months, leaves and every Malta is healed,

right because it's a small island, very small island.

And they just kept bringing him sick people to you.

And it says that he healed them.

Yeah.

I mean, you know, listen when Jesus commissioned the Disciples,

remember when he sent them out two by two and

he sent them out and he said, you're going to

do great miracles like I have done. I was just

watching the Chosen. Have you seen any of the Chosen?

A few of them?

Yeah. Yeah. So I'm just starting chet you know, season three.

I decided to wait and then sort of binge watch

because I like more binge watching. And I'm just right

now at the place quite literally, like my stopping point

was like like ten sentences in to him sending them out,

and they realistically, you know, added in the dialogue of

like how the disciples must have felt and and and

one of the disciples, like Simon says, he goes, did

I hear you right? Like you're sending us out? Like

what are you talking about? Like what do you mean

we're going to do miracles? Like what are you talking about?

I just remember thinking, like, yeah, that's right. It doesn't

say so in the scripture, but can you imagine how

the disciples must have felt when they when they have

been following Jesus. Jesus does these miracles, and then Jesus

turns around and says, I'm going to send you had

two by two to go in every direction and to

perform the same kind of miracles I did. And they're

probably thinking I'm not qualified to do that. And here's Paul,

who's you know again, he's not one of the original apostles.

He comes later on and meets with Jesus several times

in person, the resurrected Jesus and then and then here

he is, he's he's doing like a Jesus moment.

Here we tend to think that we are not qualified.

Remember I mentioned a couple of days ago, Jack, was

it yesterday?

Jack?

The missionary that you used to say every problem is

a prayer problem. Yeah, another thing.

Yeah.

Another thing that he used to say, which was is

so powerful. He would say, you're gonna feel like you're

not qualified for the miracle God needs to do today.

He'd say that all the time.

Right, Wow, that's really good.

And he would say, because you think pastors and apostles

and all these great superstar Christians, and it turns out

you're the Christian that's here that God needs to use today.

So He's going to use you. And he said the

reason why Americans don't see lots of miracles is because

we don't live lives that need lots of miracles. Right,

And so he said, you think of miracles, you've got

to go home. He said, you think miracles happen like

Harry Potter. You get your wind, and you've got to

go practice how to use your wand right, keep practicing, practicing,

and finally you're qualified to use it. And he said

that is not how God. God doesn't do magic.

It's a flick in a swish.

Yeah, yeah, he said, it's not magic that you have

to practice. He said, this is God's power working through

God's people to fulfill God's purpose. So God does it,

you don't do it, right, So he said, sometimes somebody

needs prayer and they need healing, and you don't you

feel like, oh, I'm not qualified to pray for this

person and to heal them. He says, you're not qualified

to heal them. You are qualified to pray for them.

You do your part, and God will do his part.

If God chooses to heal, heal.

Right.

So not every single person I've ever prayed for was healed,

but some people are. Right, My job is not to

heal them. My job is to pray for them, to

lay hands on them, pray for them, and lead them

to faith in God's healing ability. And if God chooses

in that moment to heal, he will. So in this situation,

Paul gets bit by a snake. It wasn't his turn

to die, right, But Paul does die. Eventually they take

his head off. That kind of ends it for him, right,

but not that day.

Right.

So God had a purpose. And while Paul was fulfilling

the purpose God had for him, he was invincible. Then

when his purpose was fulfilled and he'd done everything God

wanting to do, then his life was taken. That that's

how it works. We all die, right, So you know

you're not qualified God's qualified. You're qualified to pray. That's

all you've got to do. And I think that if

more Christians would be aware of that in their workplace

or at the school that they're at. You don't have

to feel like you're super Christian. Also, you have to

decide to do is say, you know what, how can

I pray for you today? That's it? And then you

pray and then God has it. God does God's part.

Yeah, right, yeah, I think that's great because you know,

when we when we think of ourselves as somebody less

than you know, God, God continuously in the scriptures tells

us who we are. You know that we have the

power of God. Then we have the power of the

Holy Spirit in our lives. You know. It says we

can do all things through Christ, who strengthens us. Right God,

God says that we're given just as much as the

Holy Spirit as that we'll ever need, as much as

any other person. And so every Christian you know, is

gifted as the priesthood of the believer. Right, So the

priest of the believer says that you know that every

follower of Christ has been gifted in a miraculous way.

We have direct access to the throne of God, right

right right.

Yeah, which is which is great? And by the way,

that's that's that's not how I was raised. I was

raised to say that, like, if you want to find God,

you get to go to a certain building. You know.

That was the mentality, right it was. It was not

not true.

And then you needed the buffer person between you and God.

Yes, you needed to go to this person, you know,

confess your sins or talk to them, or have them

pray for you, or give them give me an assignment.

And I was raised that way. And and that is

not what the scriptures say at all. But it depends

on you know, it just depends on sure you believe

has the authority? Sure does the church and the people

of the church have the authority? Where is the Bible

have the authority? And we believe the scripture has the authority.

So when Paula finally does arrive in Rome the Appian Way,

I was on the Appian Way one time. That road's

still there, man, The Romans can build roads. Let me

tell you. Here we are two thousand years later, and

that road still they still drive on it. It's not

like it's a tourist thing over there is the Appy Way.

They still drive on the Appian Way. It's crazy, right,

So is it cobblestone, Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's fabulous. Almost

got hit by a bus on that's whole other story.

But what's cool is in del Yeah. Yeah, I was

crossing the road, but I've been getting a really narrow spot.

There's two walls on either side and there's almost there's

no sidewalk, and I was just was walking down the spot,

trying to make where I was going. All of a sudden,

this bus comes through, doesn't slow down, it starts honking.

I'm pupting up against the wall while the bus is driving,

you know, like a foot away from me. It was crazy. Anyways,

Chad was with me. He can testify. I'm not making

that up. But what I'm trying to say is, again,

it was at the Forum on the Appian Way. This

is a town about forty miles south of Rome. He's

being very specific, But what I wanted to highlight is

the delight of the Christians that were already in Rome.

So you can kind of get the idea that this

is only happening because that this book of Acts is

all about Peter and Paul. They're the ones. But when

Paul arrives in Rome, neither Peter nor Paul have been

there yet, right, and there were already lots of Christians,

and the delight of those Christians being there. The gospel

spreads sometimes through the famous people, but more often through

just the every day Christians sharing their faith and living

it out right. So by the time he arrives in Rome,

there's all these Christians. They're delighted to cem and what

a joy it is. Even when we and you've had

this before, even when you meet people for the first

time you've never met before, we have commonality and joy

in christ. We immediately know that we're family and there's

there's a delight here that's happening. So the ministry was

going on in spite of or because of, or around

or without, and with Paul's participation, it's just happening. It's

not about the superstar. We just the superstar we know

because his story is written. But there were lots of

non superstars that are also sharing the gospel, and there

were already Christians in Rome before you got there.

Yeah, So it's a great message to end with that.

You know you're equipped, that God has called you that

you're the miracle. You're the answer to the miracle that

God wants to do. That's right. That's because you're the

Christian there in the moment.

That's right.

You're the one who knows Christ and has the power

to pray and spread the news and bring about healing.

So all right, well that's a great time to end,

and so we will see you hopefully tomorrow on the Bible. Guys,