Now let us turn in our Bibles together to the 27th chapter of the book of Acts, as we read the closing section of that chapter once more, and the first six verses of chapter 28 of the book of Acts. Chapter 27 from verse 39 through chapter 28 of Acts, verse 6. If you are a visitor we encourage you to follow the reading in your own Bible or the Bible in front of you in the pew rack. We read these words, when daylight came they did not recognize the land but they saw a bay with a sandy beach where they decided to run the ship aground if they could Cutting loose the anchors they left them in the sea, and at the same time untied the ropes that held the rudders. Then they hoisted the foresail to the wind and made for the beach. But the ship struck a sandbar and ran aground. The bow stuck fast and would not move, and the stern was broken to pieces by the pounding of the surf. The soldiers planned to kill the prisoners to prevent any of them from swimming away and escaping. But the Centurion wanted to spare Paul's life and kept them from carrying out their plan. He ordered those who could swim to jump overboard first and get to land. The rest were to get there on planks or on pieces of the ship. In this way everyone reached land in safety. Once safely ashore, We found out that the island was called Malta. The islanders showed us unusual kindness. They built a fire and welcomed us all because it was raining and cold. Paul gathered a pile of brushwood and as he put it on the fire a viper driven out by the heat fastened itself on his hand. When the islanders saw the snake hanging from his hand, they said to each other, this man must be a murderer, for though he escaped from the sea, justice has not allowed him to live. But Paul shook the snake off into the fire and suffered no ill effects. The people expected him to swell up or suddenly fall over dead. But after waiting a long time and seeing nothing unusual happen to him, they changed their minds and said he was a God. Thanks be to God once more for this living and abiding testimony to himself in the inerrant Word of Scripture. Now on these Sunday mornings we have arrived at last at the very final chapter of the great historical account and picture of the growth of the early church in the book of Acts, the 28th chapter of this book. You will remember how the account has begun so many chapters earlier with the church waiting for the Holy Spirit upon the day of Pentecost to be given in great effusion and power upon the infant church on that great day and how the story has spread through its chapters with the gospel increasing from its center in Jerusalem and Judea to Samaria in the first 12 chapters of the book and then with the amazing accounts of the three great missionary journeys of the Apostle Paul as the Gospel progressively expanded throughout all of the Eastern Mediterranean area. Until finally we have come to the surprising conclusion of this great historical portrait of the Gospels advance in the descriptions of chapter 27 and 28 of the Book of Acts. and the account does not end before the glorious gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ has reached the mistress of the world itself, the city of Rome to which Paul, you remember, is now journeying. So we have been seeing on these last Sunday mornings together that these closing chapters of the book of Acts are not there in any sense accidentally with their unusual and detailed and vivid account of Paul's sea journey to Rome in Acts 27, nor his arrival there in Acts 28. But it is of the greatest possible significance that the Apostle Paul, the ambassador of the Lord Jesus Christ, was on board a ship whose prow was pointing westwards. That through his arrival in Rome, the blessed gospel of God's grace might reach eventually all the western lands which have now embraced it. And these closing chapters as I think I said to you several Sundays ago are so important for us for the very history of the way in which Christianity has reached our shores depends upon these concluding passages of the Book of Acts. Now we have come as I say to the very last chapter in this great historical narrative And you remember that Paul has been on board this distressed and stricken ship in the midst of circumstances that might have seemed to indicate to him that he was out of the will of God. Everything apparently has gone wrong. A storm has swept the ship off course. There are no landmarks by which the pilot and the sailors on board may know their location. They are drifting helplessly in a ship that is becoming increasingly waterlogged and sinking ever deeper into the sea. Until at last they have arrived off the unknown coast of the island of Malta. Now we've come as I say to the very last account that Luke gives us in chapter 27. and the opening verses of chapter 8 which deal with the arrival of the shipwrecked company upon the lonely island of Malta. And as you look at these events with me this morning from verse 39 of chapter 27 you might well say what lessons do they bring to us from this portion of the Apostles travel. Well I want to suggest to you this morning but in the three incidents that are recounted for us there is two clearly or are two clearly identifiable themes. There is the advance of the glorious gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ whose advance is so dear to the heart of God and there is secondly the place of honour and usefulness but the Lord accords to his servant Paul and through these three incidents of being saved from the sea and the bonfire on the beach and the healings among the heathen we see these two themes running consistently through Luke's account they are incredible things coming at such a point as this of near disaster but we see them highlighted again and again. Much is being done you see to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ even in the midst of apparent disaster and total loss. And we need to look together at these things as they come before us now. Now first of all, do you notice with me in verses 39 to 44 of Acts 27, there is the account of the ship's company being saved from the sea. When daylight came, verse 39, they did not recognize the land and so forth. Now it's the final description of these stricken vessels, lurch toward the shore. in the hope that it might be beached on the sandy cove that the sailors through the drifting spray and the violent winds had seen in the distance and the very account again as you notice reads like a veritable log book that evidently Luke the historian had taken of the voyage and now drew upon in his account it's one of the most vivid parts of the whole chapter recounting the actual wreck and destruction of the ship Now it's very interesting to us again that almost every detail of what now happens can be confirmed by the studies of a man called James Smith, who I told you a Sunday or so ago, wrote a great commentary upon Acts 27 called, The Voyage and Shipwreck of St. Paul, more than a hundred years ago. and the very topographical features that are mentioned in verses 39 through 44 of the rocks in verse 29 and the bay with the sandy beach in verse 39 and the sandbar in verse 41 literally in Greek a place where two seas meet together. All of this topographically perfectly fits St. Paul's Bay in the northeast corner of the island of Malta and there the ship having cast four anchors from the stern is about to drift toward the rocky shore of the coast of Malta now one question must be in every mind on board that ship will all on board be saved? And no wonder the passengers as Luke tells us longed and waited for the daylight. I want you to notice then first of all from this account the place of honour given to God's servant. And you see that in verses 42 and 43. The soldiers even at that point in the voyage plan to kill the prisoners to prevent any of them from swimming away and escaping says Luke. But the centurion wanting to spare Paul's life kept them back from carrying out their purpose. Now isn't it remarkable my dear friends this morning that Luke should bring to our attention this particular incident at this particular point. when the thoughts of the whole ship's company one would imagine is upon their own safety. Luke again reminds us of the centrality and importance of the Lord's servant on board this ship because his life was again at risk. And we know the reason that any Roman soldier who allowed a convicted convict or prisoner to escape would inevitably have his own life as forfeit and would lose it. And Paul's life was gravely at risk because of the severest penalties upon the soldiers if any of the company were allowed to escape. But says Luke, the centurion intervened on account of his regard for Paul and his determination to save him at all costs. And I think what this lesson teaches us is that God's but beloved comes in to the situations of our lives again and again. Has it not changed so many situations? As you go back through the book of Acts that we've studied at such great length together. as you see the apostles life in danger from beatings and stonings and from mob violence in chapter 24 in Jerusalem from a Roman scourging from the Sanhedrin's accusations and venom in almost every one of these passages that I went through in my own Bible you find again and again after the description of the threatening circumstances there is the little word but or however or nevertheless. And suddenly the whole situation has changed from one of danger to one of preservation and one of God's blessings. And it's remarkable as I say to you But what is emphasised is the place of honour and usefulness that is given to God's faithful servants when they are in the centre of God's will. Nothing in this world can touch them until God himself allows it to do so. And we have so many historical examples and instances of this. As you think of Martin Luther at the time of the Reformation. Standing alone almost like Athanasius those many centuries before him. Contramundum against the world. Vulnerable with no protectors. But there comes into that man's life suddenly God's but. And the elector Frederick of the Palatinate comes to his rescue and defends him and others come around him and strengthen his cause and that man is buttressed about by God's protection and God's provision because being faithful in the service of the Lord he finds that a place of honor and usefulness has set him apart in the Lord's service. and even should it be my dear friend but God should not choose to preserve one of his servant's lives We know that even in those circumstances from the scriptures, that precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. Now surely as we have come to the end of a year, that is an encouraging and precious lesson for us to take to heart and to apply to our own circumstances. But the second thing you notice from this passage of being saved from the sea is that Luke would emphasize for us the advance of the gospel. Now when you consider the circumstances again it seems extraordinary that this should be in the narrative. Here is a company of men 276 in all standing on the verge of disaster facing total shipwreck with the loss not only of their vessel and its cargo as we have seen but presumably of many lives as well. As you look at the situation it is utterly improbable at this supreme moment of the voyage that every one of their lives would be saved and not one single life would be lost. and especially when you consider their miscalculation because evidently as they looked there into St Paul's Bay in Malta they saw what appeared to be a jutting headland and they sought to steer the ship past it not realising that it was the little island or islet of Salmoneta that is separated from the mainland by a narrow channel only a hundred yards wide through which the fierce current runs with great force and evidently when they had come into the bay they were caught in this current that drove them remorselessly until the prow of their ship became stuck fast on the sandbank or more probably the mudbank that I'm told you can still see in St Paul's Bay in Malta to this very day the very topographical features of the island have changed so little in 1900 years And with the power stuck fast in the mud, the waves began to break up the rear of the ship, the stern of the ship. And it seemed in those circumstances doubly certain that all would be lost. Now as you think of that incredible, that improbable scene that Paul had said all 276 lives would be saved. How can you believe it? but the improbable beloved comes to pass because it is God's purpose to advance the glorious gospel of his son. God had promised that he would save every life upon the ship along with Paul's and all because the advance of the gospel depended upon the saving of the Apostle Paul himself. And God kept his promise. He never fails. His promises are always sure. And you see as I look at this incident this morning as the year end comes to its close. I say to myself what encouragement to believe that the gospel will advance in spite of all the most threatening of circumstances in the world today. In our prayer of intercession earlier in this service, we thought together of the amazing events in Russia and its formerly satellite countries, the great countries of Europe held for so long in bondage. And one might have looked at that situation until six or nine months ago and said well the kingdom of Christ cannot possibly advance in power in these circumstances. and yet see what God has done. Because the events of the gospel of his son is always the issue that is closest to the heart of our Heavenly Father. And he has promised that the gates of hell shall not be able to prevail against the victorious church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now as I think of these events in Acts 27 at the end And I see how nothing can prevent the arrival of the Apostle in Rome, and the spread of the Gospel still further west. And it still is a touch the furthest limit of the western hemisphere in God's providence. I say to myself that nothing shall be impossible for him to do. And all my friends this morning are we not exhorted in the light of these events to pray with all fervency and all desire that Christ's kingdom may come, that barriers may fall, that opposition may crumble, that men's hatred of his Christ may be humbled into penitence and saving faith and that indeed his purposes through all the world will be accomplished according to all his holy will. The advance of the gospel is nearest to the heart of God himself. Now the second thing I want you to consider with me is the bonfire on the beach. It's the second incident in this particular passage and you notice that Luke begins his account in verse 1 of chapter 28. Once safely on shore we found that the island was called Malta. Now they had drifted there helplessly you remember in the dark. not knowing exactly where their location was and believing it seems that they had drifted in a very different direction from the northeasterly one that the wind and current had taken them. And therefore they anxiously awaited the break of day if perchance some topographical feature on the approaching land might be recognized by one of the sailors and they might at least know where they were. But evidently there is no prominent landmark on that part of the adjacent coast. Indeed you will read in some commentaries that there is a rival claim that Paul's ship was wrecked upon a little island in the Gulf of Venice off Yugoslavia. An island of a similar name to Melita, the ancients name for Malta, an island called Melita. But this evidently cannot be the case because of the wind direction and the current and the topographical features for that particular island are so very different from those described in the inspired record under Luke. But what is important for us is that now the exhausted company are resting on the beach. Wet, cold, weary, exhausted. filled with anxiety, unsure still at that moment upon which shore they had been cast. And never expecting or anticipating the provision marked due that they would now receive. And so you see the two same issues in this account that we've seen in the earlier one. The furthering of the gospel and the honouring of God's servant. Well what do I mean? Well look with me if you will at verse 2. The islanders showed us no unusual kindness. And in that statement Luke tells us some very surprising and startling things. The term islanders for one thing is the Greek word barbaroi. that gives us our word barbarians. And it's used I believe in the King James translation of that particular verse. The barbarians showed us no unusual kindness. Now we should be clear that they weren't savages. They were simply people who did not speak the common language of Greek. And the Greeks and Romans called anyone Barbaroi who did not speak either Latin or Greek who spoke in other words in an unintelligible tongue but they lit a fire says Luke and the word for fire is literally the word used for a funeral pyre And you may well believe that a very large pyre was needed to bring consolation to a ship's company of 260, 76 persons and all of them sea-drenched and discouraged men as they clambered up the slippery rocks upon the shore in the rain and the biting cold that Luke describes. They built a funeral pyre as it were and they showed us moreover, he says, unusual kindness. Now you see what he's surely underlining for us is the exceptional conduct of these men who were not barbarians but were certainly foreigners whose language could not be understood. And why did this happen? Because a merciful God, Paul's God, the God who had chosen to save this stricken company of sailors. The God who purposed to bring the gospel to the island of Malta on Paul's way to Rome. He did this. And he softened the hearts of men in an unusual way. to be receptive to the truth that Paul would bring to them in order to further the gospel of his son. Now it tells us doesn't it that in the most unlikely circumstances my dear friends you may find there is reception to Christian testimony and that God going before as it were in a form of prevenient grace, prepares the hearts of the heathen for the ministry of his servants, yours and mine, and among the most unlikely of people, if you like, the barbarians. The truth of God may triumph when the servant of God is in the centre of God's will, because the furtherance of the gospel is the end that God chiefly desires, and he is able even to make those who are most naturally opposed to the truth to show unusual kindness and receptivity. But then the second feature you notice stands out in this account in verses three to six. The honoring of God's servants and their continued usefulness as they are in the center of his will. Now this is the point that some of you have been waiting for, I know because one or two of you have asked me, what about the snake? Was it venomous? Or was it harmless? And you notice there in verses 3 to 6 the remarkable picture of the Apostle Paul and again the word unusual occurring there. But nothing unusual happened to him in verse 6, as the heathen watch. But what a remarkable portrait this is of the servant of God. Remember, upon the ship it was his word and action that had saved that doomed and stricken company more than any other factor, more than the captain's skill to steer the ship, more than the sailor's nautical knowledge, more than the centurion's influence. It was Paul by his prayer, by his word, by his actions, who had done so much to make the safe landfall possible. And now we come to the picture of him, conscious of practical needs to be met, a fire to be made, warmth to be provided, fuel to be gathered. He does not stand on his dignity. But he's there, with that typical earnestness and lowly laugh, among the others, gathering bundles of drenched firewood or combustible material and putting it on the fire. And we see such a beautiful picture of this man, don't we? Even in that instance. And it's a rebuke and a lesson, I think, to all of us who tend to stand on our dignity or prize our gifts, that the lowly task is beneath us, but not with the Apostle. As he came to Thessalonians, you may remember, he was as a tender nurse with them as he came to the Corinthians. He had been a patient father in the midst of all the turmoil and aggressiveness of the Corinthians to him. And here we see him with that lowly earnestness, joining in the humble tasks of providing for the needs of others as needs must. Now one of those sticks, mark you, but he had picked up appears to have been a semi-frozen viper aroused and irritated suddenly by the heat of the fire and leaping up seizing upon the apostles hand and hanging there as Luke describes it now it's true there is no viper on the island of Malta today there are no poisonous snakes there But then in a number of other historical instances as in the island of Arran in my own country in Scotland, once there were poisonous snakes, now there are none. In Ireland, the country of Ireland, once there were poisonous snakes and now there are none. and there is no reason to doubt the sacred record of God's word but this was indeed a venomous snake the islanders reaction bears this out they had no doubt that he had been bitten and expected him to swell up and suddenly die and the very words fastened verse 3 upon his hand and hanging there verse 4 indicate that he had been bitten by this creature And they jumped to a conclusion that he was a murderer, escaped from drowning. But now the God Justice, do you notice the capital J there in verse 4 at the end? The God Justice, dike in Greek. The personification of justice and revenge. She will take her own upon this condemned man. How wrong so often, how frightfully distorted people's ideas become when they are not governed by the truth of the gospel. And they think that all wrong is punished here and none perhaps is punished in the life to come. And they see someone apparently suffering some misfortune and come to the conclusion that that person is a wicked or a bad man. and see someone else prospering and come to the conclusion wrongfully often that that person must be good and favoured by God. But you see in this instance God's purpose in bringing no harm to Paul from the snake bite is that they might recognize that it is not justice, the God justice that is involved here but the God Jesus who has protected Paul both from the drowning and the poisoning of the venomous snake. The place of honor and usefulness for God's servant even in those distressing circumstances stands forth. The rain, the cold, the wretchedness the miserable company of which he was a part on water. He was being protected and honoured as an instrument of Christ in the midst of the heathen. And as the Lord promised in Mark 16 verse 8, one of the signs of the gospel was being fulfilled. But though they might be bitten by poisonous snakes, no harm would come to the true servant of God. Now thirdly as I draw to a close, do you notice that there are healings among the heathen in verses 7 through 10 of Acts 28. There was an estate nearby says Luke that belonged to one called Publius. Now remember again that to the human eye it would not have seemed possible that the gospel could advance in such circumstances as these, on that drear November morning. in the midst of all the cold and hardship that the company had undergone. It might seem that nothing more would be done for the cause of Christ until Christ reached the metropolis and mistress of the world in Rome. But already we have seen striking things that have happened. Lives saved and preserved by God's almighty providence. And the servant of God blessed and honoured and made the instrument of usefulness again and again. But now comes the final sign. Do you notice once more the place of honour for this servant of God in verses 7 and 8. Publius is there, the first on the island in the original Greek. The Protos, again showing Luke's accuracy in all his historical writing. The very term that is still used on the ancient manuscripts in some of our museums that describe the governor of the island as the first man on the island. And he is there, the owner of a neighboring estate of some wealth evidently to provide temporary shelter for the Apostle and his sea-drenched company. And as the Apostle is entertained there evidently as a house guest with the Centurion and presumably Aristarchus and Luke along with the Apostle, they discover that the father of this great man is ill with a fever. and the Greek would tell us by the plural form that it was a recurring fever. But it evidently led you notice in the text to dysentery. And some suggest that it was that peculiar and unique illness of the island of Malta known as Maltese fever. Diagnosed first of all in the middle of the last century and due to a particular microorganism that is found in Maltese milk, goat's milk alone. and it is almost certainly a terminal condition. Now if this man suffered from this condition or from whatever fever, do you notice again the honoring of God's servant. The fulfilling of Christ's promise that they shall lay their hands upon the sick and they shall be healed. And in an altogether glorious way The signs that accompanied the inauguration of the Gospel in the New Testament are evident in the Apostle's ministry once more. In honour of him who was crucified and raised from the dead and has ascended into glory. It is granted to this Apostle to share the signs of the coming age in the healing power of God even over physical illness and distress. And he has the place and usefulness as a servant of God once more. But do you notice the second thing, the furtherance of the gospel that comes about through this in verses 9 through 10. It arrests our attention, many come and many are healed. And though some of the commentators point out that the word for healing in verse 9 is the word therapeuo, in Greek meaning to heal and is often used of medical healing and suggest that it was in fact Paul who healed the father of Publius. But by the use of this different word Luke is telling us it was Luke by medical means who healed the others. That I believe cannot possibly be true. For instance that same word is used of Peter's healings by miracle in Acts chapter 5, when those came to him and even his shadow falling upon them, healed them. The same word. And it was the Lord attracting hearts by his gracious power to the truth which sets men free for heaven and eternity. From these apostolic signs of Christianity that are characteristically kind and beneficent in nature, they say to the heathen the gospel brings blessings to be desired into your lives. and spiritual blessings way and beyond the benefit to your body itself. But they are samples on earth if you like of that which is banishing the evil that is in this world and chasing away the dire effects of sin and signs of the coming kingdom of God when all of this shall be no more. if peradventure they might call upon the name of the Lord and be saved. Now do you see again, you have the theme that is dear to the heart of God. The advance of the gospel of his son and no small testimony was made to the name of Christ among those that were not yet his. Now as I conclude this morning, perhaps there is truth in the tradition and it is only a tradition, but it's a long-standing one. That the introduction of Christianity upon that rocky island in the Mediterranean, 60 miles south of the toe of Sicily. The introduction of Christianity began with the presence of the Apostle Paul upon that island. Indeed as you read in James Smith's account of the voyage and the shipwreck of the Apostle Paul, you find that there has been an unbroken tradition of a very place where his vessel was wrecked through almost 1,900 years. because God chose him as the instrument of blessing and as the object of divine care and chose to glorify his son even in the most difficult and adverse of circumstances. My friends as I finish this morning and as we come to the last Sabbath of the old year We are not told any other events of these three months stay upon this island than these. But taken together do they not sum up the whole ground and course of the Christians life in this world. What am I here? What am I doing here? Well I am the object of divine care. I am the instrument by God's grace of divine blessing. And is that not your desire as you go into this new year and your heart's hope and prayer that you might continue to be protected around and about and the instrument of the advancement of the gospel of Christ that issue and end that is so hot near to the heart of our gracious God and Heavenly Father. And with these things then we leave this passage this morning as we pray together. Oh our gracious Father we are thankful But even in these seemingly obscure events of this portion of scripture, there is evidence of that almighty providence of God by which all things are being presently ordered. and evidence too of that protective hand of the Almighty God around both his servant and his gospel that it may advance and nothing may impede its way. So help us father as we stand this morning at the end of a year to bless thee for thy faithfulness and to look for further usefulness in all the time that in your providence may lie ahead of us and all for your glory's sake. Amen.