Victory Amid Hardship - Pastor Tom Loghry Rockland Community Church Download

God continues to work in the midst of Paul’s imprisonment and hardship, revealing the power of Christ though his ministry to the people of Malta and the favor and welcome he receives in Rome. We can expect this same God-given victory in our own hardship.

Transcript:

Last Saturday marked the 122nd anniversary of D-Day. On June 6th, 1944, the Allied Forces during World War II performed a successful amphibious assault on the beaches of Normandy, establishing a beachhead which would eventually lead them to Berlin. It was a decisive day in the war, a brilliant victory, and yet the war was not yet won. It would still take nearly a year before the war in Europe would end. Many more battles, many more lives lost. Setbacks, but also victories, and then the war would come to an end.

We see the very same sort of thing in the case of Jesus. There has been a war between heaven and Earth, between the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan. It's a war in which we as humans have willingly pledged our fealty to the devil, joining him in his rebellion, deciding that we would rather be our own gods rather than submitting to our Creator and living in harmony with him. And as a consequence of our rebellion, we have been given over to our brokenness. We suffer the consequences of the evil that we have embraced. We have been separated from the giver of life, and so we die.

But God has not given up on us. God has never intended to allow evil to win the day. And so God sent His Son into the world to destroy the works of the devil, to redeem us from our sin. Those three days, those three days in which Christ died, lay in the grave, and then rose from the dead, mark an occasion of victory even greater than that of D-Day. It is the turning point of our world. Jesus Christ has changed the course of human history. It's a reality that no one can deny, even those who would deny that He is in fact the Son of God, the Messiah of the world. Christ has changed things without a doubt.

However, while absolutely decisive, decisive, this does not mean that there are no more battles. It does not mean that the war has come to an end. We still face hardships, we still suffer setbacks, but we do also see victories as we await the appearance of the final victory, which will be revealed at Christ's return. In today's passage, here in Acts 27 through, and, and into Acts 28, we are reminded of the victories that come in the midst of hardship as we read about the hardships that Paul himself suffered. These victories come not by our strength, but by the power of Christ, who is with us. We find in Paul a picture of the Christian life as it is lived in the present age.

Now, if you were with us last week, you'll recall that Paul is being transferred to Rome from Caesarea, which was in Israel, and that he was being transferred to face trial before Caesar. And so he is on a voyage as one who is a prisoner. In the midst of their journey, the ship was caught up in a nor'easter. The ship was being torn apart by hurricane force winds. And yet, in the midst of the storm, Paul was assured by God that he and all those on the boat would survive because God's plan was that Paul would stand before Caesar. And so now as Paul has led his fellow travelers to share in this basic faith in God's deliverance, so now we see the fulfillment of God's word.

Their time on the ship has come to an end. And so picking up in verse 39 of Acts 27, we read, "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 other pieces of the ship. In this way everyone reached land safely."

So they finally have sight of land, certainly a sight that must have brought them great relief, hope that they might not drown, an assurance that they could, in fact, live to see another day. And so the ship turns its direction towards this island. It, they, they make way by putting down the sail, the foresail, which would have been this sail right up here in the front that we see, and they basically let loose, they get rid of anchors. They're just going all in. They just wanna bring the beach all, the, the boat all the way to the shore, all the way to the beach. Now, just to orient you to where they are, they're going to the island of Malta, and, in fact, there's a tradition as to where they actually landed. It's called St. Paul's Bay, which is here. Now, as they're going along towards the beach, however, they strike a sandbar. They get stuck, and the waves start crashing against the ship and just starts breaking it apart, and so it's time to abandon ship. Now, that sounds all right, except the soldiers want to kill the prisoners.

Now, we might ask, "Well, why do they want to kill the prisoners?" The reason is, is because they are responsible for the prisoners, and they're concerned, "Well, if these prisoners escaped, it's gonna be our head. We're gonna be held responsible." And so just as it seems that Paul is escaping from death, again, the threat of being killed and not making it to Rome leaps up before him. But God is going to be good to his promise, because the centurion, Julius, orders his soldiers not to kill the prisoners. Instead, everyone is to make their way to shore. And so we see by God's providence how the life of Paul and all those on the ship is preserved just as he had promised.

Turning to chapter 28, Luke continues the story now on the dry ground of Malta. "Once on, safely on shore, 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, the goddess 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 dead; but after waiting a long time and seeing nothing unusual happen to him, they changed their minds and said he was a god."

So they're on the island of Malta, and the people here show incredible kindness to these people that are shipwrecked. Now, people who lived on islands in the Mediterranean at this time weren't necessarily considered to be the most cultured people. They would have maybe been considered as sort of barbarians. And yet the virtue that they display here is profound, as being the sort that anyone of high Greek virtue would display in these circumstances. Once again, we see God's mercies at, at play here for the sake of Paul and all those who are with him.

They build a fire for them. It's a kind of miserable scene. It's raining. It's cold. Remember, they had been in a storm, so this is why they're crashing on this island. And as they're trying to build this fire, Paul decides to give a hand. He's not above trying to do some work to try to help out, and so he's gathering brushwood, he's, he's throwing it on the fire. And while he's doing that, lo and behold, a viper leaps out of the fire, because it's getting so hot, and bites him.

Now, you gotta look at this and you just think, oh, this is just Paul's luck. He just goes from one thing to the next, escapes from the sea, now he gets bit by a snake. And, and it seems once again, oh, maybe Paul's gonna die. Maybe he's not going to make it to Rome. And in fact, the people of Malta assume that this must be a sign of God's curse against Paul. They know that he's a prisoner, and so when they see the snake bite him, they, they figure, "Well, this guy must be a really bad guy that he came out all this way, he escapes from the ocean, and yet he's gonna get bit by a poisonous snake here." And so they say the goddess Justice has not allowed him to live.

Now, Justice was actually personified in a god, an, an, as a goddess known as Dike, a daughter of Zeus. And so quite literally, Justice is not allowing Paul to escape in the eyes of these citizens of Malta. Now, it's inte...