Shake It Off (Journey To Rome pt 3)

Thank you. Here at Cross Connection, we're finishing what has become a five-year study through the Book of Acts. We are in the last chapter, Acts chapter 28, which shows some awesome truths for us as Paul and those who are with him are shipwrecked on an island in the Mediterranean called Malta. There, God reveals some great truths for those who want to serve and follow Jesus. So, open your Bible to Acts chapter 28 and follow along with us. I think you'll be blessed.

Acts chapter 28, we'll start reading today in verse 1. Luke writes, "Now when they had escaped, they then found out that the island on which they ran aground was called Malta. The natives showed us unusual kindness, for they kindled a fire and made us welcome because of the rain that was falling and because it was cold." But when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and laid them on the fire, a viper came out because of the heat and fastened to his hand. When the natives saw the creature hanging from his hand, they said to one another, "No doubt this man is a murderer, whom though he has escaped the sea, yet justice does not allow him to live."

Lord, we pray that You'd speak to us. We believe that Your Word is living and powerful, that it is sharper than any two-edged sword, and that it is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness. So, God, instruct us and teach us. Lord, if there's anything in our lives that needs to be reproved or corrected, then do that work by Your Word and by Your Spirit, that we would be those who walk in a way that is honoring to You. We know that walking in a way that is honoring to You is going to be satisfying to us.

So, God, we pray that You'd make that a reality in our lives. Transform us by the renewing of our minds as we continue to follow along with the Apostle Paul here on this journey to Rome. We pray in Jesus' name, and all God's people agreed, saying, "Amen." You can be seated.

Maybe you saw this article some months ago, February 17th, Sunday, 2014: Middlesboro, Kentucky, snake-handling Pentecostal pastor dies.

From a snake bite, the snake-handling pastor of a small Pentecostal church in Kentucky died after being bitten by a rattlesnake during a weekend church service. Jamie Coots, the pastor of the Full Gospel Tabernacle in Jesus' name, which I love as the name of the church, in Middlesboro, Kentucky, was handling a rattlesnake during a service when he was bitten on his right hand Saturday night. When the ambulance arrived at 8:30 PM, the EMS team found that Coots had gone home.

According to a statement from the Middlesboro Police Department, Chief of Police Jeff Sharp told ABC News that, according to the people at the church, Coots verbally refused treatment. He said Coots was unconscious when they got to his house. When the ambulance crew arrived at Coots's home, his wife, Linda Coots, signed a form declining medical treatment. Police said he went on to die about an hour later.

I picked this up this morning because I wanted to point out, as we start this passage in Acts chapter 28, that the story of Pastor Jamie Coots in Kentucky is the wrong application of the text we are looking at today. Even though we see in this passage a powerful miracle, the Apostle Paul is on the island of Malta and is bitten by a snake that is clearly poisonous, as indicated by the reaction of the people who lived on that island.

Even though we see this powerful miracle that ultimately opens a door for the gospel, it does not present a pattern by which we should endeavor to worship God through handling venomous snakes. If you come tonight, there will be no venomous snakes in our worship time; I can promise you that. This is the wrong application of the text.

Even though there is a very contested passage of Scripture at the end of the Gospel of Mark that talks about handling snakes and being bitten by them without dying, it is still the wrong application of the text. Very clearly, even though we are told by those who do the research that there are more than 120 churches in our nation that practice handling venomous snakes in their worship services, this is not one of them. So if you came here hoping to find that, you are probably in the wrong state. Just so you know, we don’t do that here at this church.

There is a powerful miracle here through this event that happens, and it does open a door for the gospel, as oftentimes powerful miracles do.

But it's not the only miracle in the text. As I pointed out last week, I think there is an even greater miracle here in this passage. So, look back with me one chapter to Acts chapter 27, verse 41.

There we read that the boat that Paul and 275 other individuals were on was in the midst of a storm for two weeks. In verse 41 of Acts 27, we read that it struck ground in a place where two currents or seas met, creating a sandbar. They ran the ship aground, and the bow stuck fast and remained immovable, but the stern was being broken up by the violence of the waves of this great storm.

The Roman soldiers aboard this boat, who had command over a group of prisoners, planned to kill the prisoners lest any of them should swim away and escape. However, the Centurion, wanting to save Paul, one of the prisoners, kept them from their purpose. He commanded that those who could swim should jump overboard and first get to land, while the rest would grab onto boards and parts of the ship.

And so it was that they all escaped safely to land. That is a phenomenal miracle: 276 individual men aboard this Roman grain ship, after being in a phenomenal storm, a typhoon-like storm, for 14 days, came to the end of this journey, and all of them came out alive. All of them ended up on shore.

In verse 1 of Acts 28, we read, "Now when they had escaped, they found out that they were on an island called Malta." Immediately upon reaching the shore, they discovered they were on this island called Malta.

Now, many days prior to this, when they were just a few days into their journey, the storm was already making all of them sick, bringing them to their utter end of hope. They were all wondering if they were going to make it out of this. We saw previously in verse 21 of Acts chapter 27 that after a long abstinence from food, Paul stood in the midst of them, saying, "Men, you should have..."

If you were with us a couple of weeks ago in our study, you know that this boat had come to a harbor called Fair Havens on the island of Crete in the Mediterranean Sea. They were there for a long period of time, and they had come to the point in the year where it was not safe to travel on the Mediterranean Sea any longer. Paul, who had already experienced three shipwrecks in his life up to this point, stood up and told the group of sailors, the prisoners, the soldiers, and the Centurion, "I don't think we should go on this trip; it's not going to end well." However, they overruled him. They didn't listen, and so they set out on this journey.

Now, three or four days after that, they were in the midst of a terrible storm. Paul stood up and said, "Guys, I told you so. You should have listened to me. We wouldn't be in this predicament; we wouldn't be in this mess if you had listened to me and not sailed from Crete." Verse 21 says, "And incurred this disaster and loss." Paul continued, "Now I urge you to take heart, for there will be no loss of life among you, but only the ship." These were powerful words of faith uttered by the Apostle Paul that ultimately turned out to be a prophetic word from God: "There will be no loss of life among you, only the ship. For there stood by me this night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve, saying, 'Do not be afraid, Paul. You must be brought before Caesar there in Rome, and indeed God has granted to you all those who sail with you. So, men, take heart, for I believe God that it will be just as it was told to me.'"

However, verse 26 of Acts chapter 27 states, "However, we must run aground on a certain island." In our studies over the last two weeks, there was a map on the back of your sermon guide that showed the Mediterranean Sea. Although it's not on the back of your sermon guide this morning, you'll probably find it in the back of your Bible. One of the things you'll notice about that map is that when you look at the Mediterranean between the island of Crete, which is right in the middle of the Mediterranean, and going west to the left, there are no other islands other than this little piece of land called Malta. When I say little, it is indeed small—only 17 miles long and 8 miles wide. It's just a little bit bigger than Catalina Island. Here was this massive grain ship; historians tell us that it was not an easy ship to sail in good conditions, and yet they were not in good conditions.

They were in a typhoon. They had let down the mainsail, pulled up the anchors, and brought the skiff—the small boat that was being dragged behind it—up on the deck. They had just allowed the wind and the currents to drive them. Paul, in faith, said, "Listen, guys, we're all going to be okay. We're all going to survive this, but the boat won't make it. We're going to run aground on a certain island."

When you look at the map, there are not certain islands all over the place; there's just one small island. By God's sovereign direction and providence, this boat, which they could not navigate because they could not see the stars or the sun during the day, was caused by God to come right into this place on the island of Malta. That's a miracle, and it was in alignment with the words that Paul had shared. Now they ran aground on this small island just as Paul had foretold.

In addition, not only did they run aground as he had prophesied, but ultimately there was no loss of life among the people—only the ship. We continue to read back to Acts chapter 28, verse 2. When they had escaped, they found that they had come to a certain island called Malta. The natives showed us unusual kindness, for they kindled a fire and made us all welcome because of the rain that was falling and because of the cold.

Now, this is not one of the points that I've put on our sermon guide this morning, but I do think it's an important point to note. If you will, consider the hospitality of the natives on the island of Malta. The hospitality of these Maltese natives, as Luke writes, was unusual kindness—unusual kindness, not your normal sort of kindness. It stood out to Luke; it stood out to all of those who were there in this situation. The King James translators wrote that the natives showed us no little kindness; they showed us great, exceedingly great kindness.

As these newly arrived guests found themselves dashed upon the shore there on the island of Malta, the grain ship had been broken apart. They came ashore, weary and tempest-tossed, and the Maltese natives welcomed them. They kindled a fire to warm them and to get them out of the cold of the storm. I point this out because it's important that we...

We seek to be unusually kind to strangers, especially if we are Christians. Jesus told His disciples in John chapter 13, around verse 35, that they shall know we are His followers by the love we have for one another. The world will recognize us as followers of Jesus by the love we demonstrate.

Love can sometimes be a very subjective and intangible thing. It only becomes real and tangible to us when we see acts of love demonstrated. In the Old Testament, God tells us through the Prophet Jeremiah, "I have loved you with an everlasting love." However, we may wonder what exactly that love entails. God describes it through special revelation given to the prophets in the Old Testament. In the New Testament, Jesus comes to demonstrate this love. We are told in the most translated verse of the Bible, John chapter 3, verse 16, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."

God demonstrates love. We see it again in Romans chapter 5, verse 8, where it states that Jesus demonstrates His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. He makes His love very tangible. In the Gospel of John, chapter 15, Jesus said, "Greater love has no man than this, than to lay down his life for his friends." Romans 5:8 shows that God demonstrates His love toward us by dying for us when we were His enemies. This is a very tangible demonstration of God's love, and we, as followers of Jesus, need to display that kind of love to others.

I know some may argue that in John chapter 13, Jesus is specifically talking about love between believers and disciples. However, we cannot dismiss this easily. As Christians, we are called to love not only those in the church but also those outside the church in very tangible and demonstrable ways.

Most of us will admit that when you ask the average American who does not go to church and does not necessarily believe in the Bible to give their immediate word association with the term "Christian," it is not typically "love." Unfortunately, the world does not see us that way.

Immediately, we connect love to the term "Christian." We are identified not by those things, even though Jesus said they shall know that you are my disciples by the love that you have for one another. I would suggest that if you are a Christian today, we need to put some of these things into practice so that people can look and say, "Yes, that is a Christian." If anything, the Church of Jesus Christ should be known for our unusual loving kindness.

Here, the people on the island of Malta are pagan; they don't believe in Jesus and have never heard the Gospel. Yet, Paul is obviously going to have an opportunity to share the Gospel with them through the events that happen in Acts chapter 28. Even though they didn't know God, we see that they are unusually kind. Would to God that it would be said about Cross-Connection Church, the people who make up this church, that we are unusually kind, especially to strangers. Amen.

Luke records in verse 3 that when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and laid them on the fire, a viper came out because of the heat and fastened to his hand. The natives of the island of Malta showed unusual kindness to the shipwrecked men, welcoming them to the island with this fire to warm them. Paul, even though he is one of the 276 weary, storm-beaten men that came ashore on this island, and despite being tired after more than two weeks in a storm, does something phenomenal. At more than 60 years old, as soon as he is on the island, he gets up and begins to walk about in the storm, in the rain, and in the cold, gathering sticks for the fire to warm the rest of the sailors, soldiers, and prisoners.

There he is, this old disciple of Jesus, walking, storm-beaten and cold, gathering sticks. This brings us to our first point on our sermon guide, if you have it handy: Godly leaders serve. Of course, I recognize this is not an incredible insight, but it is an important one that we should hold on to. Godly leaders serve. This is clearly a cultural value of the Kingdom of Heaven; it is most certainly not of this world, because this world does not value service in the same way.

Servants are not valued in our world, which is completely contrary to the teachings of Jesus. In the Gospel of Mark, this concept is recorded in three of the four Gospels: Matthew, Mark, and Luke. In Mark chapter 10, Jesus gathers His disciples and says, "You know that those who are considered rulers over the Gentiles lord their authority over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them."

He acknowledges that many of you seated here today work in secular, non-Christian environments. You may work in a corporate office or on a college campus, where you observe the hierarchical structure of authority. In those environments, it is atypical—meaning it is not normal—for those in authority to submit themselves as servants. Jesus points out that the rulers of the Gentiles lord their authority over others, but the Kingdom of Heaven, the Kingdom that is to come, is different because its King is different.

How do we know that its King is different? In that same passage in Mark chapter 10, Jesus states in verse 45, "For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give His life a ransom for many." King Jesus exemplified servanthood; He came to serve and not to be served. Therefore, we can rightly call Him the Servant King. He teaches that although the rulers of this world lord their authority over their subjects, it should not be that way among His followers. In verse 43 of Mark chapter 10, He says, "Yet it shall not be among you. But whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant."

Subjects of the Servant King are to be servants too. Godly leaders serve.

Secondly, point number two: Godly leaders get bit by snakes. Godly leaders get bit by snakes. Now I'm...

Not talking about actual snakes here, although that may happen. Even though the snake that bit Paul was a very real venomous viper, those who seek to serve Jesus and follow along with Him, leading in His kingdom, will, as we've already considered in previous studies, suffer snake bites. They will go through times of difficulty, and this is proven by Scripture, history, and personal experience. Those who seek to serve and follow the Lord, honoring and glorifying Him as godly leaders, will suffer snake bites.

This is evident in Scripture, all the way back to the Book of Genesis and the story of Joseph. Some of you may remember that story. Joseph was, at that time, the youngest of twelve brothers, with ten older brothers. I think that would be a difficult situation; I had one older brother, and I can't imagine it times ten. Here he was, the youngest, and he began to have these God-inspired dreams about becoming the leader of the family. You can imagine his ten older brothers did not like the sound of their little runt brother Joseph saying, "One day you'll bow down to me." They didn't care for that, even though the vision came from God.

Ultimately, if you read through the story in Genesis, you find that his brothers became so angry with him that one day they hatched a plan to kill him. They took him, beat him, and threw him into a pit, intending to kill him that day. One of the brothers spoke up and suggested that maybe they shouldn't do that; instead, they should sell him into slavery. So, they sold him to a group of people passing by, and Joseph ended up as a slave in Egypt, in the house of Potiphar.

There, he served well, even though he got bit by the snake. Despite finding himself in a terrible situation, he served well and began to rise up in the household of Potiphar. However, ultimately, the wife of Potiphar accused him of harassment, claiming he tried to rape her, and he was thrown into prison for something he didn't do. He spent the next many years in prison.

Now, ultimately, the story ended well, but what do we see in the life of Joseph? We see that godly leaders get bit by snakes. I think not only of Joseph; I think of Job.

The story of Job is an incredible book. If you've never read it, you should. In the Book of Job, we see a man who was a godly man. In fact, God's testimony of Job was that he is a righteous man; there is none like him in all the Earth. How awesome it is to have God say he is righteous and that there is no one like him. He is the standout.

However, Job was bitten by the snake—the enemy, the adversary, the devil. He comes in and strips Job of everything he has: his children, his wealth, and his health. The only thing that the enemy didn't take from him was his wife, and that was purposeful because she says, "Curse God and die." So, there is Job, bitten by the snake.

Not just Job, but also Jeremiah, the prophet. Jeremiah was indeed a godly man, a man whom God had placed His call and gifting upon from birth to be a prophet, a voice of God to the nations in his day. However, the people who heard him didn't like what he had to say. As you follow his life through the work of Jeremiah, you see that there were times when he was beaten and times when he was thrown into a pit. He lived a hard life, bitten by the snake because he was a godly leader.

We cannot forget Jesus, and I am only mentioning the names that start with "J" in the Bible; there are many more. What do we see? Godly leaders get bitten by snakes. This is not just in Scripture but also in history. If you get a chance, I encourage you to read Fox's Book of Martyrs, an excellent work that charts the martyrs of the early church and extends through many thousands of years into the history of the church. These are people who were killed, bitten by the snake because of their profession of faith.

Fox's Book of Martyrs shows that it's not just in Scripture; it's in history. It is also in personal experience. If you set out to serve and follow Jesus, you can be certain that the enemy, who is often described as the serpent, will bite. He will come against you and oppose you. It is very real that the enemy seeks to oppose anything that is of God.

So, if you seek to follow Him, serve Him, and lead in His kingdom, we must recognize that bites will come, as they did for the Apostle Paul. In this passage, we see that godly leaders serve, and secondly, godly leaders get bitten by snakes.

Continuing on to verse 4 of Acts chapter 28, it says, "So when the natives saw the creature hanging from Paul's hand, they said to one another, 'No doubt this man is a murderer. Though he has escaped the sea, yet Justice does not allow him to live.'" You could rightly capitalize the first letter of the word "Justice" because it might actually be the name of a Greek goddess named Dike, the goddess of Justice.

The natives of Malta, like almost everyone today, had a certain quid pro quo theology—a tit for tat or this for that kind of idea about the way the world works. This is considered to be perhaps the most universal worldview of humanity, what theologians and theology professors refer to as the doctrine of Retribution.

What is the doctrine of Retribution? It is simply this: if you are a good person, you will receive blessings and good things, and if you are a bad person, you will receive curses and bad things. Therefore, if you are going through a trial, you must be a pretty bad person. This is one of the most universal worldviews of humanity, and it is one of the oldest.

I mentioned a few minutes ago the Book of Job. It is considered by some scholars to be the oldest book chronologically written in the Bible, and it perhaps reveals this idea, this worldview of man, the doctrine of Retribution, more than any other book.

How so? In the first few chapters, we see Job go through a devastating trial. He loses his children, he loses his wealth, and he loses his health. Then, three of his friends come to visit him. They find their friend sitting down in the dust on the ground with oozing sores all over him. When they get there, they sit down with him, and for seven days, they do not say a word; they just sit there and mourn with him.

After seven days, Job speaks up and cries out, lamenting his life and all the terrible things that have happened. He says that with all this terrible stuff that has happened, it would have been better if he had never been born. One of his friends then says to Job, "Listen, I have a word for you. This would not have happened to you if you were not a bad guy."

For the next thirty or so chapters, we see this rotation of Job and his friends going back and forth. Every time, his friends say, "Listen, Job, clearly there's some hidden sin in your life." Although we know the testimony of God—there's none like Him in all the Earth—Job was righteous. His friends didn't know that; all they saw were the bad things that had happened. In their minds, because this has happened to you, clearly you're a bad dude.

The doctrine of retribution is so ingrained in our hearts that we carry it into our Christian life, even though the Bible, especially in the New Testament, teaches something completely different. We find ourselves instantly reverting to that mindset when something bad happens. You stub your toe, you get a flat tire, you're having a bad day, and immediately you start to think, "I must have done something bad. It's because I didn't read my Bible this morning," right? We do that. But the Bible doesn't reveal that God is like that. God is gracious, even upon those who don't deserve it.

How many of you have experienced the grace of God without deserving it? Come on, all of you raise your hands. That's every one of us. But here, Paul escapes the storm, and while he's in the midst of doing something good—he's serving—he gets bitten by a snake. The conclusion of those watching, the men and women of the island of Malta, was undoubtedly this: "This man's a bad guy. No doubt he's a murderer because he escaped the sea, and yet justice does not allow him to live." The God of justice will not let him go unpunished.

Point number three on your outline: Godly leaders have their motives questioned, or you could say, Godly leaders' character is often questioned. The Maltese natives knew nothing about the Apostle Paul other than the fact that he, along with 275 other individuals, had just escaped a violent storm. But minutes after the escape from this storm, he is bitten by a deadly snake. In their minds, it is the epitome of wandering justice.

What is wandering justice? Well, you thought you escaped, but now it has come back to get you—divine retribution, wandering justice. Now, the Bible does reveal that one day there is a day of justice coming, a day that is described as the day of the...

Vengeance of our God, who sees all things and knows all things, will one day rightly judge all things. Of that, we can be certain. In the Book of Amos, the prophet Amos tells us in Amos chapter 5 that the day of justice, when it comes, is inescapable. For those of you who look out on the world, read the news, or watch the news and think there is no justice in this world, you're right; there is a lack of justice. However, one day, the day of justice will come upon those who deserve it.

Now, the reality is that every single one of us here today deserves justice. But in Christ, we've been given grace and mercy if you are in Christ. Those who are not in Christ will receive the inescapable justice of God one day. Amos describes it like this in Amos chapter 5, verse 19. Let me read it to you: "That day, it will be as though a man fled from a lion and a bear got him, or as though he went into the house and leaned his hand against the wall and the serpent bit him."

What is Amos saying? He is saying that the day of vengeance of our God is inescapable. It will be as if you're running from a lion, and just when you think you got away from the lion, bam! The bear gets you. But then, you're able to get away from the bear, and you finally get to your house. You run into your house, and oh, you put your hand on the wall, and a serpent comes out and bites you. That justice will be inescapable.

Godly motives and Godly leaders' motives are often questioned, especially by those who are led by Godly leaders. But look at Paul's response; look at his reaction when he gets bitten by the snake. He shook off the creature into the fire and suffered no harm.

Point number four: Godly leaders press on in the face of opposition. You see, if there was one thing that Paul knew beyond a shadow of a doubt, it was that he was going to Rome. Some two-plus years before the events described here in Acts chapter 28, the Apostle Paul was back in the city of Jerusalem. A plot had just been revealed to kill him, and there was a group of men that bound themselves to this plan.

Themselves in a fast, saying, "We will not eat until he is dead." Paul hears about this and, no doubt, like you would have been, I would have been a little bit down when he hears that this group of people wants to kill him so badly. Public opinion was not very high for the Apostle Paul at that moment.

There he was in the city of Jerusalem, in the Roman praetorium, and God appears to him by night and says, "Listen, Paul, you have testified before me here in Jerusalem; you will testify of me in Rome." This is not just in Acts chapter 23, but in the middle of the storm we see it in Acts chapter 27. While they are in the midst of the storm, God comes to Paul. He is afraid and concerned that he is going to lose his life in a shipwreck. God comes to him by an angel and says, "Listen, Paul, let me remind you I told you you're going to Rome; you will testify before Caesar there."

Now, here Paul is on the island of Malta. God got him away from those who sought to kill him some two-plus years before. God brought him through the shipwreck so that he can ultimately get to Rome. He gets bitten by a snake, looks at it, and shakes it off into the fire like it's nothing. Why? Because he had God's vision and he knew that God had an outcome that was not the final destination—the island of Malta. He could look at that circumstance of being bitten by a venomous snake and know, "I don't know how, but God's going to bring me through this."

This is an encouragement to me because we have the testimony, the more sure word of prophecy, as the Apostle Peter calls it. We have the testimony of God that He will bring us, who are followers of Jesus, through whatever trial we face. In fact, the book of Romans, chapter 8, says we in Christ are more than conquerors through God who loved us. We know that nothing shall separate us from the love of God, and ultimately, He is going to bring us to be in His presence.

Therefore, if you go through a storm, or someone seeks to come against your life, or the snake comes and bites you, we can be certain in whatever situation or circumstance we find ourselves that God is going to bring us through. This gives us the faith to press on. Godly leaders press on in the face of opposition and hardship. This thing that happens does not deter Paul from his course.

In verse 6 of Acts chapter 28, however, the Islanders of Malta were...

Expecting that he would swell up suddenly and fall down dead, they had seen this before. When a man gets bitten by a snake, he swells up like a balloon and then falls dead. This had happened to other people who lived on the island with them. These people, like many others, didn't like snakes. When they saw a snake, they would run away from it; they didn't want to be anywhere near it.

So here, Paul gets bitten by the snake, which latches onto his hand. He shakes it off, and they are watching closely. They think, "Oh, he must be a murderer. What a bad dude! He escaped the storm, but now he gets bitten by a snake, and he's dead." They are watching intently, almost as if they get some sort of sick glee out of this situation. Isn't that the way we are? We often get a twisted sensation from watching someone get bitten or hit, wondering what will happen next.

As they observe him, they think he is going to swell up. They check to see if he is swelling up, but he is not. He is not falling over dead. In the middle of verse six, after they had looked for a long time and saw no harm come to him, they changed their minds and said he was a god. They concluded he was divine.

Interestingly, this is the second time in Paul's life and ministry that someone mistook him for a god. It also happened in Acts chapter 14 when he was on a missionary trip with a friend named Barnabas. Initially, their first idea when he got bitten by the snake was that he was a murderer. How quickly things change! When he does not die, they conclude that he is a god.

Point number five: Godly leaders experience God's empowering. Godly leaders experience God's empowering not only in verse six, when Paul did not die from the snake bite, but also in verses seven through nine. In that region, there was an estate of the leading citizen of the island, whose name was Publius. He received us and entertained us courteously for three days. Now it happened that the father of Publius was sick with a fever.

Dysentery struck, and Paul went to him and prayed. He laid his hands on him and healed him. When this was done, the rest of those on the island who had diseases came, and they were healed also. Godly leaders experience God's empowering.

Godly leaders go through open doors. Here was an open door of opportunity for the Apostle Paul. He found himself on the island of Malta, and he immediately began to serve as he had always done, gathering sticks. He got bitten by a snake, but God healed him from the snake bite, empowering him to overcome this venomous attack. Now, an open door was given to him: the leading man of the island, what we call a man of peace, became a bridge to the people of the island. He opened his door and his house, saying, "Come on in." Paul walked through this door of opportunity, and as he did, he found another opportunity. The man's father was sick, suffering from a fever and dysentery, and was no doubt going to die. Paul went in and prayed for him, and God healed him. Then many multitudes of people from the island brought their sick and diseased to the Apostle Paul, and God healed them too.

Godly leaders go through open doors, and godly leaders experience God's empowering. This is an encouragement to you and to me because every single one of us who are Christians is called by God. If you are a follower of Jesus and have put your faith in Him, you have been called by Him to go through the open doors that He gives you. The problem is that none of us, when those open doors are presented, can avoid thinking, "I don't think I could do that. I don't know how I can fulfill that." Yet, God not only calls His people but also gifts them, as seen in 1 Corinthians chapters 12, 13, and 14. Not only does He gift His people, but He empowers them to do things they could not do otherwise.

Just before Jesus ascended into heaven in Acts chapter 1, He told His disciples to wait in Jerusalem, and they would be filled with power from on high. The Spirit of God would come upon them, and they would be witnesses of Him in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts. There is not a single person that God places His call upon who does not sense their overwhelming inability to do what it is that God sets before them. But it's not your ability; it's His ability.

Godly leaders experience God's empowering as they go through the open doors that God gives to them. In Acts chapter 28, verse 10, we see that the people of the island of Malta honored us in many ways. When we departed, they provided such things as were necessary; they took care of our needs and honored us.

Point number seven, the last point, is that godly leaders are ultimately vindicated by God. The temptation we all experience, including me, is to defend ourselves when opposition comes. When the snake bites, when questions are levied against our character and motives in ministry, our instant temptation is to stand up for ourselves and deal with it ourselves. That is what our flesh wants to do.

When the snake bites, when the questions come, and when opposition hits us, we are all tempted to try and deal with it. We might think, "I'm going to get in there, I'm going to make it right, I'm going to let these people know who's boss," whatever it may be. But the reality is that the godly leader is the one who says, "God, you defend my case. I answer ultimately only to you." If we will, by faith, say, "God, you defend my case," we can be certain that we will see Him do just that. God will vindicate His leaders and His people.

The response of the people on the island of Malta when they saw this prisoner come ashore, surrounded by Roman guards, was immediate. They watched as he picked up sticks, threw them in the fire, and got bitten by the snake. Their initial reaction was to label him a murderer. Yet, ultimately, in the end, they honored him greatly and took care of his needs. They provided for him as he and the others left the island because godly leaders are ultimately vindicated by Him.

Would you stand with me as we close in prayer? Father God, I thank you for these ten verses. These ten verses, although written nearly 2,000 years ago, have application for us today.

For us in the 21st century, I'm certain that if someone had told Luke 20 centuries ago, "Hey, 2,000 years from now, there are going to be people that you have no idea about, living in a place you'll never see, who are going to be reading through these things and be challenged and encouraged," he would have thought they were crazy.

And yet, God, by Your providence and by Your awesome direction, here we are today, being instructed by You. Help us this week to walk in a way that is pleasing to You. Help us to put these things into practice by faith, Lord, and to trust that even though snakes come and people question our character and our motives, even though opposition and hardship come before us, we can serve and press on.

Help us to recognize and look for Your empowering to go through the open doors that You give, and to know that ultimately we are vindicated by You. Lord, our trust should not be in anything else but You. Even though we're tempted to try and do it on our own, help us this week not to lean on our own understanding, but to acknowledge You in all our ways and see You directing our path. We pray this in Jesus' name.