The Perils and Promises: Paul's Journey Through Shipwreck and Snakebite

Hello and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church Podcast, where we are proclaiming the truth to the world.

My name is Pastor Josh, and I want to thank you for listening to this podcast.

I hope that this podcast can be a blessing to you and strengthen you in the word of God.

Now, come along.

Let's look into the Bible and see what God has for us here today.

Well, we're going to be here in the Book of Acts, Acts, Chapter 28.

We have come to the last chapter here.

28 chapters later, we are going to conclude our study here in the Book of Acts.

Where did we leave?

Where did we leave Paul?

Does anyone remember what happened to him last week?

We left him in a place.

Does anyone remember what happened to him?

Anyone want to take a guess what happened to him?

He was shipwrecked.

That's right.

So if you remember, and we're going to go back a few sermons.

Paul goes to Jerusalem.

He was bound by the Spirit to go to Jerusalem to preach the gospel.

As he's in Jerusalem, he preaches the gospel and his own people subdue him.

His own people seize him and throw him into jail.

And as he's there, he's being tried as someone who's causing an insurrection, even though he wasn't.

And then what happened is, is that the Jewish people turned him over to Roman control.

He was shipped up to a place called Caesarea.

He was there for two years and still really didn't get any answers.

In the meantime, though, he's praying, he's trusting.

God spoke to him and gave him comfort and security in his calling.

And Paul knew that it was not only his goal to preach the gospel to those people there in Jerusalem and also to Rome, but it was also his.

His.

His command.

God commanded him.

God called him and directed him to do that.

We're going to talk a little bit more about that as we go along.

So after those years passed, Paul appeals to Caesar.

He says, I want to talk to Caesar.

I want to go before him.

And we know that that was the highest authority of the land, earthly authority, so to speak.

And he was going to preach the gospel there in Rome, and so they sent him there.

And last chapter, chapter 27, we saw that as they were going on the ship, there was a lot of difficulty.

But ultimately, the big difficulty that we talked about last week was the storm that came.

And in the midst of the storm, Paul and the rest of the people on the ship were shipwrecked.

And they were shipwrecked in this place called Malta, which we're going to be talking about here this evening.

And we talked about how Paul was able to overcome the difficulties of the shipwreck because his heart or his soul was anchored in Jesus Christ.

And there's a lot of things in our life that can shake the ship, so to speak.

And, and we can have a lot of things in our life that can cause us doubt, fear, confusion even in many cases, fear to the place where we would quit.

And we see Paul moving forward.

We see Paul in the sense of the fact that he says, have joy, Be, be, be joyful in this.

He says, have good cheer because no one's going to die.

God's made a promise and he's going to keep his word.

And, and at the very end he explains basically this, that God is going to keep his word.

And he does.

And so though they are shipwrecked, though they go through this huge trial and they're marooned on this island, God is faithful.

They all escape.

And God is true to his word.

So we're going to pick up here in chapter 28.

So so far Paul has been seized, subdued, shipwrecked.

And in this chapter we're going to see that he's snake bitten.

And we're gonna talk about the implication with that.

And so I, I have written down here in my notes.

Paul was seized, subdued, shipwrecked, snake bitten, but he was safely secured in the salvation and sanctification of his Savior.

And so we're gonna see Paul go through all of these hardships here in these last few chapters of the book of Acts.

But through all this, Paul is secure.

He's safely secured in his salvation and his sanctification.

We, we see that he is grounded in the truth of God.

So here in verse number one, it says, and when they were escaped, so they escaped the shipwreck.

Then they knew that the island was called Melita or, or we know it today as Malta.

So they come to this island, verse 2.

And the barbarous people showed us no little kindness.

So these people that live there, on the other side of this island, no little kindness essentially means that they were, they showed compassion to them, they, they showed hospitality to Paul and the rest of the people on the ship.

And so that was a blessing.

No doubt they might have questioned whether or not these people are going to be kind to them, but nonetheless they are.

So it says, they showed them no little kindness, for they kindled a fire and received us, everyone, because of the present rain and because of the cold.

So if it wasn't enough, that Paul was shipwrecked.

It's now raining and it's cold.

So if anyone had a right to complain here at this place, this place, it was Paul.

I mean, he could have been like, hey, you know what, Lord, I give up.

This is enough.

I'm shipwrecked.

I'm cold, it's raining.

I'm with these barbarians here, don't even know anything about them.

They could kill me.

And so there's a temptation here, possibly for Paul to turn his back to the call of preaching the gospel, to live and enjoy.

And so here we see that Paul is being given grace by the Lord and by extension, given grace by these people on this island.

And so one after another, one issue after another issue after another issue, Paul is facing all these things, but we see him staying steadfast in the truth of his call.

Verse 3.

And when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks, and so, you know, he could have been sitting on that island complaining, he there, there were over 200 people on that ship.

He could have just said, hey, they're going to go do the work.

But no, Paul, always as a servant to other people, is out gathering sticks for the fire.

He's doing his work as a servant of the Lord.

He's trying to minister to people.

And so the.

The great apostle Paul, he gathers wood for the fire so that other people can be warm.

Paul is showing a servant's heart in the midst of difficulty.

And I want to pause right there because I think there's a lot to learn from that.

I, I know it's just a.

What we would call a.

A, you know, a narrative.

Basically.

They're just explaining here, Luke and Holy Spirit are explaining in this case, what Paul was doing.

But I think there's a lesson to be learned because for me, it's easy to serve other people.

It's easy to do the tasks that are in front of me when everything's going my way.

You know, like if.

If everyone's kind to me, it's easy for me to serve other people when, when everything is going according to plan.

It's easy for me to be what we would consider to be selfless.

But when the struggles come, the temptation is to turn inward and become selfish.

Well, I can't help those people.

I can't do that for them, because look at all the things that I have before me.

And I think that's really when the rubber meets the road.

Are we going to be willing to serve others and gather the sticks if we're going through a difficulty in Our life.

I know that there's going to be some times where we need to pause and we need to take care of the things and the matters at hand in our own life, whether it be spiritual or physical.

But I'm going to tell you that as a believer, our service is not supposed to quit when things get difficult.

That's the true test and whether or not we want to have a servant's heart.

And so Paul is going to go collect sticks.

And we would think, okay, he's in prison for doing right.

Remember, it was his plan not to go on the ship.

If you remember, he said, guys, the weather's really bad.

Let's not go.

So it wasn't a choice that he made.

Sometimes we find ourselves in difficult situations because of bad decisions that we make.

Paul actually said, let's not go.

But they didn't listen to him.

So.

So he could have a lot of excuses now.

He could say, well, I was preaching the gospel and I got wrongly accused and I got thrown in prison.

I told them not to go on the ship.

I knew that it was going to be bad, but yet nonetheless, they forced me to go.

And now I'm shipwrecked, and now I'm doing something good by trying to help them.

Now what happens, we see something very interesting happens here, Mike.

This is one of Micah's favorite passages.

And when Paul had gathered a bundle of snakes sticks and laid them on the fire, there came a viper out of the heat, a snake out of the heat, and fastened on his hand.

Interesting.

So after all of this, after everything that Paul is doing, he gets bit by a venomous snake.

We.

We know it's venomous by context because we see the natives here are expecting him to die.

Go on a little bit further here.

And when the barbarian saw the venomous beast hang on his hand, they said among themselves, no doubt this man is a murderer.

So now again, he's being falsely accused because of a wrong situation in his life.

Their immediate assumption is as, wow, he's going through a hardship.

He must be a murderer.

He must be a bad guy.

He's getting paid for his wrongdoings.

It says, no doubt this man is a murderer, whom though he hath escaped the sea.

So basically, he was a lucky guy to escape the difficulty of the sea.

Yet vengeance.

And by the way, in the original Greek, this is a reference to a Greek God or a false God that was the God of essentially vengeance or repeal, repaying of.

Of debt, of hard times and bad things.

It says.

So obviously they said it's it's vengeance catching up with him.

Vengeance suffereth not to live.

This.

This false God is not going to allow him to live.

And so, interestingly enough, they say there's.

There's this guy, he got lucky, he gets bit by viper.

This is obviously the goddess of justice really paying Paul to do, even though Paul didn't do anything wrong.

And then it says verse five, and he shook off the beast into the fire and felt no harm.

Now, we're going to stop there because I thought that this was a perfect time to do an object lesson, a sermon analogy.

I don't do this very often, but as many of you know, Micah, he loves snakes.

And some of you have seen Micah carrying, like, rubber snakes around, and he loves these rubber snakes.

And Mike has been begging us for a long time.

He's like, can I just get a real snake?

And so I need to have a time of confession.

Growing up, I had a pet snake.

So as a dad who had a pet snake myself, you know, dad wants to get the snake where mom says, no, we can't have that.

But, you know, we're telling Mike, if you're.

If you're.

If you're good, you know, maybe.

Maybe you can get one.

So he goes to camp.

And of course, he is.

His first time at camp.

He did really well.

So I thought I would bring tonight here what we got from Micah.

So we.

We have here in this box, Micah's snake.

So how many of you have ever heard of a snake handling church?

Well, we're about to be one here.

You want to look in here?

Okay, well, it's not a venomous snake.

I promise you.

It's not a venomous snake.

So should I get it out?

Some of you are getting really uncomfortable here.

No, it's not really real.

Micah.

Micah had a snake here tonight.

I'm like, micah, you should put that up here, and we should pretend like it's a real snake.

So.

So, right, so Paul reaches into the fire, and this.

This venomous snake, this venomous viper comes out and latches onto his hand.

Now, at this point, most of you are number one.

You guys are super relaxed that it's just a stuffed animal and it's not a real snake in the house.

I wouldn't bring a snake into the church building, I promise.

Okay.

I'm not.

I'm not that crazy.

Uh, so we really didn't give Micah a real snake.

I just love for the object lesson.

But at this point in time, Paul is.

Is.

He's bitten by this and I've heard a lot of people spiritualize this here and, and I think to a degree we can.

Obviously in our lives, there are a lot of things that are gonna jump out and bite us.

And what we would say is spiritually inject venom.

And, and some of you know the situation of a venomous snake.

What they do is they essentially have these teeth or their fangs.

They're kind of like hypodermic needles.

And when they latch onto their prey, they inject venom into the bloodstream.

And that blood, that venom in the bloodstream causes a lot of really bad things to happen.

Very painful.

And in a lot of cases, in most cases specifically back in Paul's time, it would be.

It would be.

That would be it.

That would be that because there wasn't an antivenom.

Nowadays you can get bit and you can have this antivenom and you can, you know, sometimes in some cases be saved.

But a lot of times we look at this and we say, you know what?

I'm doing everything right, at least the best that I can.

I'm not perfect, but I'm trying to follow God.

God calls me to do this and I stick my neck out, so to speak, and I take a risk, I take a leap of faith and I'm snake bitten.

Someone reaches out with their venom and maybe questions what I'm doing for the Lord.

Maybe they accuse me of something that's not true.

Maybe they're critical of my heart or critical of my motives.

And it's very easy for us in that moment to see that lashing out of anger as an opportunity for us to say, you know what?

It's just not worth overcomes us.

It takes us to a place where we say, you know what?

I'm done.

I quit.

How many of you don't raise your hand, but how many of you have hurt someone, even within the context of ministry within the church, that when they are faced with criticism, when they're faced with a question, they go, you know what?

I don't even need to serve anyway.

I'm not even going to bring my service to this church.

Why?

Because I'm not.

I'm not appreciated.

And of course, all of us want appreciation.

All of us want to to some degree be recognized for what we're doing for the Lord.

But at the same time in our lives, we are going to find difficulties that we could equate to a shipwreck in our life.

A storm's going to come, we're going to feel broken.

And that might be a situation in Our life.

Maybe it's a loss of a loved one, maybe it's bad news from the doctor.

But then we see that sometimes there's the shipwreck and sometimes there's the snake bite.

Someone's someone, someone reaches out against us.

Maybe it's someone that we know, maybe it's someone that we don't know.

Maybe it's a situation outside of our control.

But that snake bite grabs onto us and latches onto us.

And what we can see is that, hey, those people say, well, obviously he's a bad guy because of this.

And that's sometimes what happens within church and within the ministry.

Someone goes through a difficulty and people go, yeah, I knew that person really wasn't the real deal.

I, I, I knew that they weren't true to what they were saying.

And, and at the end of the day, what we can see is that there's, there's a lot of different ways that we can react to these types of snake bites.

In this case, we see what happens with Paul, verse 5.

And he shook off the beast into the fire.

I mean, no, no consideration to the danger that it could be.

He doesn't sit there and pout.

He could have, I mean, if it was me, if, if I was Paul, okay, I'm trying my best to put myself in Paul's shoes.

You know what I would do?

The moment that snake reached out and bit me, I just, I would have been like, okay, I'm done.

Take me, Lord.

It's not worth it.

After all of this, obviously you don't love me anymore.

Obviously, I'm not supposed to go to Rome, but no, what does he do?

He just shakes it off.

He just shakes it off.

He, and it says there, he suffered no harm.

God.

God preserved Paul from the storm.

God preserved Paul through being seized and subdued in prison.

God preserved Paul from the venom of this viper.

Paul was protected.

Why was Paul protected?

Well, number one, he was a child of God.

Number two, God had a call for Paul in his life.

We go back to Acts, chapter 23, verse 11.

If you go back just a few pages, we see that God had made a promise to Paul.

He had made a promise.

Verse number 11 of chapter 23.

Now, again, remember where Paul is at this point.

This is right after Paul has been thrown in prison for preaching the truth.

His own people turned their backs on him.

And no doubt Paul is discouraged.

He might even had questions about why God?

Why my own people?

Why did you send me all the way to Jerusalem for this?

But we see in the midst of the conflict comes the comfort.

And in verse number 11 of Acts 23, it says, and the night following, the Lord stood by him.

So we see the presence of the Lord in the midst of the problem and said, be of good cheer.

The Lord spoke to Paul and said this, Be of good cheer.

And he's going to give the reason why Paul can have joy.

It's the same thing that Paul said to the people on the ship.

Be of good cheer.

How can you be of good cheer when the storm is coming?

How can you be of good cheer when there's no doubt a shipwreck that's about to happen, we're going to die.

Paul says, be a good cheer.

Paul can say, be of good cheer.

Because God told Paul, be of good cheer.

You see, what we show to other people is really first experience through our relationship with God.

Like, I can't show the love of God unless I experience the love of God.

I can't show the forgiveness to other people if I haven't understood the forgiveness of God.

The reason why Paul can promote joy and cheer and exhort people to love and good works is because he himself has experienced the presence and the provision and the protection of God.

As we go back to Acts, chapter 23, verse 11, God says to Paul, be of good cheer.

For as thou has testified of me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at Rome.

So what's the promise here?

Now we would like it to say, hey, you know what?

You've done really good job, Paul.

So you're going to go preach in Rome and everything is going to be okay.

That's why you can be happy.

If we wrote the story, we would say, you know what, God make it where I don't have any problems.

I want to do everything for you.

I want to take risks for you.

But I don't want anything to be at stake.

I don't want there to be any danger.

I don't want to be there at any risk at all.

But what we see here is that God does not promise Paul that when he goes to Rome, everything will be okay.

What is the reason for cheer?

He says, be of good cheer, Paul.

For as thou has testified of me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at Rome.

He says, be joyful because you get to testify the truth of the Gospel.

Just as you ministered in Jerusalem and got thrown in prison, so you get to go to Rome and do that.

So the joy isn't necessarily in the smoothness of life.

The joy is, is not in avoiding all the conflict the joy is not saying, hey, you know what?

We, my life is perfect.

The joy is I get to be used by God.

And so the promise to Paul was, hey, you get to preach in Rome.

Now, that same promise is what Paul is trusting in.

When he's on the ship and there's certain death coming.

He goes, no, God's promised me that I'm going to Rome.

The ship might wreck, we all might be thrown out into the cold water, we all might be in the rain, we all might be struggling with that, but I know I'm going to Rome.

Now, you have not had the same promise as Paul.

Like, I don't think all of us in this room have heard from God directly that you're going to go preach the gospel in Rome, okay?

But at the same time, God has given us certain promises in His Word.

And so the temptation for us in life is to not trust in the promises because of the fact of the things that are going on around us.

So the reason why Paul could just shake off that snake, the reason why Paul could tell the people on the ship, hey, be a good cheer, is because of the promise in Acts chapter 23 that he was going to go to Rome.

So he took God's word for what it was.

God is going to keep his word.

And for us in our life, what happens is that sometimes we're tempted to think, I know that God has said this in His Word to me as a believer, but the circumstances that I'm facing don't look like it's all adding up.

But instead of saying, I have good cheer because everything's going my way, no, I have good cheer because I'm being used by God.

So God didn't just preserve Paul from the storm just to let him die from a venomous snake.

Paul was protected.

Paul was protected by the promise of God.

And Paul wasn't in Rome yet.

So.

So we know by way of logic that God was going to allow him to get through all of this.

And so it wasn't so much that Paul was the superhuman, it was just simply that Paul was trusting in the promises of God to be fulfilled.

So Paul could take God's faithfulness from his past and use that as fuel to help him in trusting in God's promises and his faithfulness in the future.

So what do we do when we're tempted to doubt God's faithfulness today?

What are we tempted to do?

What should we do when we're tempted to doubt the faithfulness of God tomorrow?

Is to go back to the faithfulness of God yesterday and know that God has been faithful, he will be faithful and he will preserve me.

When we're talking about these types of things now, I will say this.

There is a group of people within what we would call Christianity today that teach that if you just have enough faith, God will give you whatever you want.

Okay?

We have to be very careful with that because I can look at passages of scripture that are not meant for me and say, well, that's a promise to me.

I, I can look at a descriptive passage for Paul and say, you know what?

Paul was promised that he was going to go to Rome to preach the gospel.

So I'm promised to go to Rome.

No, that was Paul's promise.

Now we can take the principles of Paul's promise to the promises that we have directly to us, but we cannot demand God to do things in our life.

We have to be very careful about that.

Because some people will say, I know that I'm not going to be harmed through this.

And so I'm going to tell God, you know what?

This is what you're going to do for me, God, and I'm not going to be harmed.

The problem with that is that sometimes we're speaking outside of the will of God.

We're speaking in the will of ourselves.

And at the end of the day, if it's not God's plan for me to be preserved through this, then what happens is, is that when God doesn't do what I expect him to do, if God doesn't do what I'm commanding him to do, then I start to question, is God really faithful?

There's no promise in scripture that says that we're going to have a smooth sailing life.

There's no promise in scripture that says we avoid all the storms.

The promise of scripture that I am aware of is that he will never leave us nor forsake us.

That, that we have eternal hope with him.

That, that we have a call, that we have a commission to preach the gospel.

And I want you to go to that call and commission.

Because what does God tell us to do?

What's our commission?

What's our job?

What's our job as Christians?

A lot of people think our job as Christians is just to wait till he comes.

The Great commission is not just sit and wait, wait till he gets back and complain the whole time till he does.

That's not what it says.

When, when Jesus is ascending to heaven, he looks at his disciples and he gives them a command, he gives them a job.

That's why we Call it the Great Commission.

Commission is just.

It's our job.

And In Matthew, chapter 28, we see a promise.

Here, we see a promise.

If you look at it here, it says, let's.

Let's go to verse number 18.

And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, all power is given unto me in heaven and earth.

I want you to remember that word, power.

Okay?

All power is given unto me in heaven and earth.

Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations.

Now, I. I need to be very clear about this, because this verse or these verses 19 and 20 look redundant because what does he say here?

He says, go teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.

Teach them.

So we're.

So we're supposed to teach them twice?

No, that first instance, in the original Greek, that first instance of teach all nations is talking about, it literally means to make disciples, to replicate what we are.

So.

So the initial call for us as believers is to make disciples.

How do we make disciples?

Well, first we got to tell people about Jesus.

We got to tell them the truth of the gospel.

Then what happens?

Says, well, we baptize them.

That's the public profession of their belief.

So we teach them the word of God.

That's evangelism.

We teach them the word of God.

We.

We show them the truth of their need for a savior.

We tell them who that Savior is.

And then what happens is, is that they then publicly proclaim their truth of what they believe in Jesus Christ baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.

Then we teach them what to observe all things whatsoever.

I've commanded you.

We teach them how to walk in obedience to Jesus Christ.

That's.

That's the discipleship process, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever.

I've commanded you.

And lo, I am with you alway, even to the end of the world.

So there's a promise, as there's the job here, so there's the Great Commission.

But within the Great Commission comes two promises.

That it's his power and his presence that will preserve us as we do this, as we make disciples, as we go.

And so I want you to think about that.

That's a promise.

The promise is, is that it's not in your strength.

If we're trusting in his power, we are tapping into a power that none of us can match.

And so we go with the Great Commission with the promise of power and the promise of his presence.

He says, and lo, I'm with you always.

I'm always going to be with you, even to the end of the world.

And so I say all that to say, look, trusting in God means trusting what he has said.

It's not trusting in what I want him to say.

I've heard people say, well, I mean, God wants what's best for me.

That means that I'm gonna have all the money in the world.

That.

That.

I mean, he's gonna.

Now, is it God's will for some people to have a lot of money?

Yes, but it's not God's will for everybody.

And is it God's will for me to have perfect health?

For some people, it is for other people.

It's not God's will for us to be perfectly healthy in our physical state.

How do I know that?

Look at some of the greatest followers of God in scripture.

Look at Paul, look at, look at Job, look at Daniel, look at, look at Joseph.

Look at, look at all these people.

Look at Moses.

All of them, all of them had struggles.

So if we were to say that God, if he loves us enough, won't let us go through a struggle, we're missing the point of what God has said throughout his whole word.

And so we go back to Acts.

Chapter 28 says that he shook it off.

How did.

How could he shake off this venomous snake?

Well, he did it because of the promises of God.

So, so let's see what the response of the people are.

Because, like, the responses of the people are so interesting.

Verse number six, howbeit they looked when he should have swollen.

So they were seeing it from the perspective of man, right?

Which is understandable.

Like if today, if a venomous snake came in here and bit somebody, most of us, including myself, we would expect what naturally happens when that goes down.

So it's how be it they looked when they.

When he should have swollen and fallen down dead suddenly.

So they're like, all right, it's a ticking time bomb.

When's he gonna die?

But, but, but after they had looked a great while.

So they're like, they.

They've seen people bit by a venomous snake before.

They know the time frame.

They know the typical amount of time before someone passes, says, but after they had looked a great while and saw no harm come to him, they changed their minds and said that he was a God.

You see how fickle these people are, how, like, extremist they are.

One side, they're saying, he's being judged by God because he's been.

He has difficulty.

And now they're saying, well, he must be a God.

And it, it just shows you that that's the human reaction.

The human reaction is to number one, not understand the situation, to see it from a very selfish humanistic mindset.

And that's what they did.

And then we see also that the, the change would be that when things happen outside of our understanding, we either reject it or we worship it.

And what I would be very cautious with in your life is in my own life as well is when we see things that we can't understand or explain.

Don't worship the person who is the blessing.

Sometimes that's what we do within our own circles is we see someone go through an awesome experience, maybe a miraculous situation, or maybe we just see someone that's highly gifted by God.

And instead of attributing the worth to God and his grace, we attribute the worth to that person and we lift them up.

And that happened to Paul many times.

If you think about it, a lot of times when Paul would show the power of God, they would start to worship him and he would reject that worship.

And I think this goes down the vein of man worship.

We have to be so, so careful about in any way, in any fashion giving any praise or worship to an individual that is not Jesus Christ.

And though we might not like get down on our hands and knees and bow down to a person, there are some times in our life that we are tempted to attribute worship to somebody that is not our Lord and Savior.

So these people want to worship him.

And so what happens after this?

You know, Paul could have used this situation a lot of different ways.

But what Paul does is he uses this situation to point people to the power and the life giving grace of our our lord.

So verse 7 in the same quarters were possessions of the chief man of the island whose name was Publis, who received us and lodged us three days courteously.

So through that they have this person who is, is a, is a high end person on the island.

He hosts them for three days.

And it came to pass that the father of Publis lay sick of a fever and of a bloody flux.

So he's sick, he's dying, to whom Paul entered in and prayed and laid his hands on him and healed him.

So Paul is always looking for an opportunity to extend the gift of God to other people.

So when this was done, others also which had diseases in the island came and were healed, who also honored us with many honors.

And when we departed, they laded us with such things as were necessary.

And so through all of this Paul uses this not as an opportunity for people to praise him, but as an opportunity for people to experience the power of God.

And so God blesses Paul, but through this process, God blesses other as well.

And so, so ultimately what we can see in our own life is that we can use God's power and his provision, not so that we can brag to people like, I'm a super Christian, I'm really a good prayer, or I'm really a good preacher, I'm a really good Bible study person.

No, when we are able to see God's power working through our life, we point other people to him.

We show them the power of God.

We show them that you can know this same God.

And so Paul, he extends the gift of healing to these people that are around him.

And ultimately we can extend the gift of spiritual healing to all those that are around us by pointing people to the fact that it's not our power, it's the power of God.

So again, do I feel, do I believe that everyone in this room can just handle venomous snakes and be bitten and it's okay?

No, I.

We are not one of those snake handling churches.

I believe that's a misunderstanding of scripture.

I think it's a misunderstanding of the context of scripture.

But did Paul claim, did Paul have the power to do that?

Well, Paul didn't, but God gave him the power to miraculously be preserved through that.

And God's going to give different people different aspects of miraculous blessings as well.

But what do we learn from this?

We learn a lot of things.

We learn that through the midst of shipwreck, through the midst of being seized, through the midst of the midst of being subdued, through the midst of being snake bitten, all of this could shake the faith of an individual if not grounded in the anchor of Jesus Christ.

And so we see in verse number 11 through all of that.

And after three months, we departed.

So three months goes by.

They depart in a ship of Alexandria which had wintered in the isle, whose sign was Castor and Pollux.

And eventually we see that Paul does go to Rome.

God keeps his word.

And through all of this, I could tell you, I would be lying if I told you this, that when Paul got to Rome, everything was better.

You know, Paul goes to Rome and there's more struggles.

But Paul is doing the work of the Lord for the gospel.

And so the takeaway for me through this, and I think the takeaway for all of us could be the simple fact that sometimes we're looking for the wrong things.

Sometimes we take peace in the Wrong promises.

Sometimes we create our own promises of God that are not there in Scripture and then in turn we miss the promises that are actually there and the significance of those promises that are actually there.

I know I quote this verse quite a bit and I also mentioned how often it is misunderstood, understood.

But Philippians chapter 4, verse 13 says I can do all things through Christ, but at the end of the day that doesn't mean that I can do everything that I want and God's just going to bless me.

It means that if God is calling me to do something, he will give me the power to do it.

He will give me the protection to do it.

He will give me the provision to do it.

I, I, I can think of many times in my life and I could list for you multiple things, being a teacher, being a parent, being a husband, being, being a pastor, that I have realized my inadequacy.

And the only reason that I'm able to do anything is because of the promises and the power of God and a complete reliance on Him, a complete reliance on his grace and his mercy.

Because folks, the purpose that we have in our salvation is, the purpose is not to glorify self.

If our faith, our salvation, our ministry, our service, our sacrifice is all about me and what I'm getting out of this and who's noticing me.

Eventually we are missing, eventually we are going to be completely missing the mark when it comes to God's call for us in our life.

Because ultimately the call in our life is, and I would summarize it this way, and this is, some of you knew that we were going to camp and one of the, so the junior camp speaker was a guy who basically he works.

Some of you may or may not know this, but there's a ministry called Patch the Pirate.

There's this guy who created music and a lot of really great content for kids.

So his son in law was the speaker at the camp and he was, he's a Paul, he was a politician, he's a lawyer.

I mean this guy has a lot of, a lot of really great accolades and wonderful speaker, but he summarized it to the kids in a really great way.

And I'm gonna take his, his summary.

The whole goal for us as created beings of God, there's really two goals.

To praise him and to please him.

To praise him for what he's done, for who he is, and to please him by obedience and service.

That's my goal in life.

Whether, whether it's what I want, that's a totally different thing.

And that's a hard matter.

But really, no matter if I'm atheist, no matter if I'm Christian, no matter if I'm from America, from.

From whatever country, ultimately we are created in God's image to please him and to praise Him.

And it's going to be my decision on whether or not I want to take that as my goal or do I want to create my own goal in my life.

And so, folks, I would encourage you to find your purpose.

Paul evidently, very clearly had his purpose.

His purpose was to preach the Gospel to the Jews, the Gentiles, to preach to kings, to preach to leaders.

That was his goal.

He would do everything he possibly could to do that.

And he was joyful in that.

And I'm going to tell you that true joy, and I can speak by way of testimony to some degree in this true, complete joy is only found when you are fulfilling God's purpose in your life.

When, when we are going down other trails of purpose, there will be temporary joy.

But the Bible says here, Acts 23, Acts 27, all throughout the book of Philippians, joy, complete joy, true, substantial, eternal joy is only found when we're walking the way that God has ordained us to walk.

And I would encourage you to think about what that means for you.

It starts with faith.

It starts with a relationship with Him.

Then the next step would be, what.

What area of service does he have me to serve in?

All of us have the Great Commission, but not all of us are called to serve in the Great Commission the same exact way.

Not everyone is called to be a pastor.

Not everyone is called to be a missionary.

Not everyone is called to work in, in the nursery or in whatever ministry it might be.

But all of us are called to some degree to have a gospel ministry.

For some, the Bible says in First Peter that some, some of those ministries are more public ministries, speaking ministries.

Other times it's service ministries, behind the scene ministries.

But at the end of the day, all of us are called to proclaim the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ to those around us.

And when we're in, that doesn't mean that things are going to go completely smooth.

Doesn't mean you're going to be perfect.

It doesn't mean that you're going to be, you know, liked in every way.

But what it does mean is that you're fulfilling what God has ordained you to follow.

And I think that's an amazing, amazing place to be.

And my prayer for Middletown Baptist Church, really, I want to tell you that my heart is that I want Every single person that's involved in Middletown Baptist Church, number one, know Jesus Christ and salvation, to understand him in faith.

But number two, to be able to grow in your knowledge of his grace so that you can serve at that capacity, so that you can walk in that capacity to know your purpose in Jesus Christ.

Other than that, I'm not too concerned about other stuff.

Okay.

I'm not too concerned about what sports team you follow, even though we can have disagreements on that and fun.

I'm not too concerned about, you know, what.

What ministry.

Well, Pastor, I like.

I want to serve here.

I can't serve here.

That's okay.

My concern for you is, where are you at in the Lord?

Where are you at in his plan for you?

And for Paul, it was prison, shipwreck, snake bites, being whipped.

I don't think.

Hopefully none of us have to go through that.

Hopefully none of us have to go through it.

But at the same time, I would be lying if I told you that there won't be struggles and difficulties.

But what did Paul say?

Paul's like, it's joyful.

It's joyful to go through these things for the Lord.

It's.

It's.

I count it all joy.

When I fall into diverse temptations, talking about.

Talking about trials, and I. I can't explain that completely.

I.

That's not in our human minds, something that is compatible, because what's compatible in our minds is comfort, safety, security.

But at the end of the day, that's God's economy.

And God's thoughts are different than ours.

And when I saw those kids at camp and I. I call them kids, a lot of them, the teenagers and even.

Even the counselors, man, I was so impressed with these college kids.

I say kids, college young people that are taking their summer, they could be doing a lot of different things.

But they're like, we're going to come and we're going to minister for Jesus Christ.

Now, I don't know all their hearts.

I don't know if all of them are doing it for the right reasons, but I know that they could find a lot more jobs that could pay a lot better and have a lot less hours.

Think about those junior camper workers.

They're working 24 7, okay?

They're not going to be able to let a fourth grade.

They don't take breaks, okay?

They got to watch these kids.

They got to take care of them.

They got to make sure that they're doing.

They're not losing them out in the woods, okay?

And I say all that to say there.

There is so much more to life than just, you know, what, what.

What can I get out of this?

But what can I give to the Lord?

What.

What can I do for him?

How can I invest into eternity?

And so Paul's a great example of that.

We're gonna.

We're gonna close here.

I could go longer, but I won't.

But not next week.

Cause.

Cause we'll have Brother Nick preaching next week, but in two weeks, we'll come back and we'll conclude the Book of Acts.

We'll see Paul get to Rome.

It won't be the end of Paul's story yet, but we do know through other passages of scripture that he spent some time there in Rome, basically under house arrest.

That's where a lot of the epistles were written.

A lot of people were impacted by Paul's ministry there at that time.

And we know by way of extension, countless people have been impacted by Paul's ministry through the vast majority of the New Testament being written from prison there.

And so I encourage you to think about that and.

And pray about what God's purpose is for you.

And you say, well, I don't know what my purpose is.

Like, I. I just know I go to church.

I'm.

I'm a. I'm a Christian.

Well, I would.

I would.

I would challenge you to pray about what God's.

Ask the Lord to give you a clear direction on the.

On what he has for you in his gospel ministry.

And, And I. I know.

I. I know for a fact that that's.

And God will answer that prayer for you.

God will give you clarity if you want that.

Okay.

And it'll be the same thing as when you ask God for an opportunity to give the gospel.

He'll bring that.

He'll bring that opportunity for you.

Why?

Because it's in his will.

We know that.

We ask God's will, He will give it to us.

What's always God's will?

That people hear the gospel.

So if you want to.

You want an opportunity to give the gospel, pray.

He'll give you an opportunity if you want to serve in a ministry.

If you want to serve in a church, ask God.

It's his will that you're serving in a church.

Now, you might not know what area that is, but God, I think, will bring you.

I believe he'll bring you clarity and understanding, at least in a certain direction of where to get started.

And then, you know, then he'll close doors, and then he'll adjust things.

And I think that that will be something that all of us could benefit from.

If we ask him, he'll give that to us.

So I've had some people asking where we're going after the Book of Acts.

We won't announce that till two more weeks, but in two weeks at the end of the Book of Acts, we're going to go somewhere that I'm excited for.

I think it'll be a change of pace going from the New Testament church to a long time before that in the Old Testament.

I think that we'll see some, even some parallels from what's happening even today in the church from, from the Old Testament and what was happening there and which we'll talk about in a couple weeks.

So I'm going to go ahead and close in a word of prayer and then after that I'll have a few announcements and then you guys can be dismissed.

Lord, I thank you for this time that you've given us.

I thank you for this opportunity to come together here this evening to study your word.

Lord, we thank you for the example that you've given to us in scripture through the life of Paul.

But we know that even Paul understood that we shouldn't follow him, only that we should look at his example so that we can follow you.

So, Lord, I pray that we can point folks to you, point folks to your grace, your word, your power, your direction.

Lord, I pray that all of us here this evening can clearly see where God has us in our calling, in our promises.

Lord, help us to have that confidence in our calling, Lord.

If we don't have that confidence, Lord, help us to find that soon.

But Lord, also if we have found that direction, Lord, help us to point other people to the direction that God has them in their life as well.

So, Lord, I just thank you for this time that you've given us this evening.

Thank you for this church, family and what it means to me, Lord, what it means to so many other people.

Thank you for your gift through that.

And so we just ask for your blessing here this week, your protection this week, your provision this week, and most importantly, your power.

So we just ask that you go with us as we go our separate ways this evening.

In Jesus name, Amen.

Thank you again for listening to the Middletown Baptist Church podcast.

I hope that this sermon has been a blessing for you.

If you would like to find out more information about our church or this sermon, you can find us at middletownbaptistchurch.org or find us on Facebook or YouTube.

You can also email me directly at.

Josh Massaroiddletownbaptistchurch dot com if you've enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe and follow along for future podcasts and updates.

Thank you so much.

God Bless.

Have a wonderful day.