Paul on Malta and the Unhindered Gospel in Rome

The island of Malta received the shipwrecked company with a kindness that the text calls uncommon. The rain was cold, the survivors were drenched and exhausted, and the local people built a fire and took them all in. There is no note of suspicion or hesitation. The barbarians, as Luke calls them, simply acted.

Paul, as always, did not stand apart. He gathered a bundle of sticks and laid them on the fire. In that ordinary act, a viper driven out by the heat fastened on his hand. The islanders saw the venomous creature hanging there and drew their own conclusion: this man must be a murderer. Justice, they believed, had followed him even from the sea and would not let him live. They waited for him to swell or drop dead.

Paul shook the viper into the fire and suffered no harm. The islanders waited. Nothing happened. So they changed their minds and said he was a god. The shift from murderer to deity took only the length of a failed expectation. The text does not dignify their judgment with a comment. It simply records the reversal.

The chief man of the island, Publius, owned lands near that place. He received the group and entertained them for three days. His father lay sick with fever and dysentery. Paul went in, prayed, laid his hands on the man, and healed him. When that became known, the rest of the islanders who had diseases came and were cured. They honored Paul and his companions and, when the time came to sail, loaded the ship with whatever was needed.

After three months, they set out in another Alexandrian ship that had wintered on the island, its figurehead the Twin Brothers. They touched at Syracuse for three days, then made a circuit to Rhegium. A south wind rose, and on the second day they reached Puteoli. There they found believers and were asked to stay seven days. Then they went on to Rome.

The brothers from Rome heard of Paul's approach and came out to meet him as far as the Market of Appius and the Three Taverns. When Paul saw them, he thanked God and took courage. That moment is the only place in the chapter where Paul's inner state is named. He had been a prisoner for years, through trials, a voyage, a shipwreck, and a viper. But the sight of these believers strengthened him.

In Rome, Paul was allowed to stay by himself with a soldier guarding him. After three days, he called together the leading Jews. He told them plainly that he had done nothing against the people or the customs of the fathers, yet had been handed over as a prisoner to the Romans. The Romans examined him and wanted to release him, but the Jews in Jerusalem objected, and he was forced to appeal to Caesar. He stressed that he had no accusation to bring against his own nation. The chain he wore was for the hope of Israel.

The Jewish leaders replied that they had received no letters from Judea about him, and no one had come to report anything harmful. But they wanted to hear what he thought, because this sect was spoken against everywhere. Paul appointed a day, and a great number came to his lodging. From morning until evening, he explained the kingdom of God and persuaded them concerning Jesus from the Law of Moses and the Prophets. Some believed. Some did not.

When they could not agree among themselves, they left. Paul had one more thing to say. He quoted the Holy Spirit speaking through Isaiah to their fathers: hearing but not understanding, seeing but not perceiving, hearts grown dull and ears heavy. Then he said plainly that this salvation of God had been sent to the Gentiles, and they would hear.

The chapter ends not with a dramatic conversion or a martyrdom, but with a rented house. For two full years, Paul stayed in his own hired dwelling and received everyone who came to him. He preached the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness, and no one stopped him. The gospel had reached the capital of the empire, and the last word in Acts is not a verdict but an open door.