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BIBLE
STUDY LESSON
For
the week beginning Sunday September 24,
2017
PAUL MINISTERS ON THE ISLAND OF MALTA
(GOD provides opportunities to use our
faith)
(Acts 28:1-10)
G.K.
Chesterton once wrote, “For whatever is or is not true, this one thing is
certain, “We are not what we were meant to be”. Man is the highest form of
GOD’s creation here on earth, and thereby, is the greatest benefactor of HIS
brilliance and largess. Men and women were made by GOD to have dominion over
the works of HIS hand, here on earth. But instead, we’ve become creatures who
are frustrated by our own, self-imposed circumstances, who are defeated by our
temptations, and, who are surrounded by our own weaknesses.
And so, it is into this seemingly hopeless
situation that GOD sent us HIS only begotten SON, so that whosoever believes in
HIM, will not perish, but rather, will have everlasting life. JESUS made it
possible for us to overcome, an otherwise, saddened and doomed state of
existence, and, at one and the same time, helped us to understand, and become,
what we ought to be.
In Acts chapter 28, verses 1-10, Paul and
the 276-man crew find themselves shipwrecked and stranded on the Island of Malta.
It would be three months before they could board another ship to Rome. Malta
was a small island in the Mediterranean Sea located between Sicily and Africa.
While Paul was stranded there, he seized the opportunity to preach the Gospel
to its inhabitants, and was actually able to expand the Kingdom of GOD to a
group of people, the Maltese, who were called “barbarous”, because they were
said, by the Greeks, to speak an unintelligible foreign language. In fact, not
only did Paul teach the Gospel of CHRIST there, he was also actually able to
plant a new church there before he left.
The people on Malta were very kind to the
crew, and it was very cold and wet when they arrived. As they were gathering
wood for a fire, a poisonous snake attached itself to Paul’s hand. The people
of the Island saw what was happening and thought for sure that Paul would be
killed. However, Paul shook the snake into the fire and was unharmed. The
people, however, waited for a long while to see if Paul would swell up and die,
but when nothing happened, they started believing that he must be a god (Vs.
1-6).
While on Malta, they met the chief Roman
official, Publius, who invited them to his estate where he generously fed them
for three days. Publius had a father who was suffering with an ailment called
dysentery (dis-en-ter-e), which is a painful infection of the lower intestinal
tract that also causes fever and severe diarrhea. While there, Paul laid hands
on him and healed him. He also healed many other sick people on the Island who
came to him seeking relief, and they were honored greatly by the people, and
were given many things that they would need when they re-embarked upon their
journey to Rome (Vs. 7-10).
Throughout our lives GOD gives us many
opportunities to be all that we can be, and all that HE intended us to be. We
are to mature in faith to the point where can, first, master control over the
sin in our lives, and then, help others to do the same. With the power of the
HOLY SPIRIT in us, we become all that we can be under GOD. We can defeat the
forces of satan quite handily because, HE WHO is in us (the HOLY SPIRIT) is
greater than he who is in the world (satan).
PAUL ARRIVES IN ROME
Acts 28:11-16
Three months later they set sail for Rome
on another ship that had docked on Malta for the winter. It was a ship from
Alexandria in northern Africa, which featured the “twin gods” as its
figurehead. In the first century, many ships had images of various idol gods,
carved prominently at the front of the boat, kind of like a hood ornament on
modern day automobiles, only, of course, sized in proportion to the ship. In
those days two of the most popular idol gods were the twins, Castor and Pollux.
This ship had carved images of those “Greeks gods of the constellation” called
“Gemini” (Greek mythology & astrology) as its figurehead.
Their first stop was at Syracuse, a Greek
city on the southeast coast of the island of Sicily, where they stayed for
three days. Then they sailed across the Strait of Messina to Rhegium (Ree-jee-uhm),
on the coast of southern Italy. From there they sailed up the coast to Puteoli
(Poo-TEE-uh-lih) on the western shore of southern Italy where they found some
believers, who invited them to stay with them for seven days.
Puteoli was the port of the great capital
city of Rome, situated at the foot of the “Appian Way”. It was here at the
original “Famous Forum”, some 43 miles from Rome, that, faithful believers came
to meet their fearless, hardworking leader, Paul, to greet and encourage him.
Still others met him ten miles farther
inland at “The Three Taverns”, giving the man who thought that he was nearly
without human support in Rome, a hero’s welcome. And when they arrived in the
city of Rome, Paul was placed under “house arrest”, under guard by only one
soldier (Vs. 11-16).
PAUL PREACHES IN ROME UNDER GUARD
Acts 28:17-31
Three days after arriving in Rome, Paul
called the local Jewish leaders together and informed them, firsthand, of his
situation. He told them that he had been arrested in Jerusalem, and tried, both
there, and, in Caesarea, but hadn’t been formerly charged with any crime. They
agreed that they had heard nothing against Paul, and had no letters from Judea,
nor, reports from anyone else, accusing him of anything against anyone.
However, they were still curious to know about the, much-denounced, “Christian
sect” that they had heard so many negative things about (Vs. 17-22).
And so a time was set for Paul to speak to
the Jews in Rome, while under arrest in his rented house. He took that glorious
opportunity to preach and teach the doctrine of CHRIST JESUS from Scripture. He
taught them from the Pentateuch, the five books of Moses, and, from the books
of the prophets. These teachings continued throughout the day, and into the
night, and some believed, while others did not. However, after debating back
and forward among themselves, Paul left them with a quote from the prophet
Isaiah (Isaiah 6:9-10), and after that, they all walked away, greatly
disagreeing with each other (Vs. 23-29).
For the next two years, Paul continued to
preach and teach from his rented house in Rome, and he proclaimed boldly, the
Kingdom of GOD, and the doctrine of our LORD and SAVIOR, JESUS CHRIST. It is
also during this period that he wrote his, now famous, “jail house letters”,
which includes letters to the Philippians, the Ephesians, the Colossians, and,
to Philemon.
Jewish history tells us that Paul was
acquitted of the false charges against him, and he continued to minister for a
while, away from Rome. However, he returned to Rome after a couple of years and
was re-arrested. This time he was executed by the Romans, reportedly beheaded
during the wave of persecutions against Christians, that was spearheaded by the
“miming emperor, Nero, in close proximity to Peter’s death, in and around A.D.
68.
A
Sunday school lesson by,
Larry
D. Alexander
LARRY D. ALEXANDER- Official
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