Pastor's Ponderings: Bible Study on Acts of the Apostles 27:39-28:31 (October 6, 2026)

October 5, 2026:  Monday Bible Study on Acts 27:39-28:10

Good morning. I was out getting our son to work, and it was beautiful at 72 degrees at that time of the morning. I hope that you have had a wonderful weekend, especially with the great U of A win over an undefeated Ohio team. Sunday at church was wonderful too. we had a small Gospel group, but the music was uplifting and wonderful. Carson brought us some wonderful surprises on the organ and piano, especially with the last hymn, "When the Saints Go Marching In". Please continue the prayers that have been requested for members and friends of the congregation. I am not certain that we have prayed with our Bible Study Group for Pastor Ron and Becky, whose home in Tucson was flooded this summer when a ceiling water pipe broke. The work required to restore the home and repair the damage is substantial. They may have to come early this year to be present as repairs move forward.

I had thought that we would be able to finish through Acts this morning, but now I think that it will be better to finish tomorrow with Paul's getting to Rome as we come the end of the Acts of the Apostles. Today however, we find Paul and the ship that he is on having held during a severe storm by putting four anchors down, dropping the single square sail, hoping that through the night the ship will survive, the anchors will hold, and the 200 plus people on board will not be lost as the ship flounders onto the rocks along the coastline. As we start this morning, we find that the ship, its crew, its passengers, and the Roman prisoners have all survived the storm, and in the clearing morning, a sandy beach is sighted on the shoreline, so anchors are cut free, sail up, steering paddles unlashed, and the ship heads to be beached so that they might find safety on the island that is before them. We need to remember how great a part Paul played in the saving of the ship and the people on board, and as we find the ship being beached, we once again find the honor and dignity of the Roman Centurion who is responsible for Paul's safe transport to Rome for his hearing before the emperor. As the ship is beached the only way to get people off is for them to swim or float on boards to shore. As the ship is being torn apart in the stern by the storm which continues to rage, the other soldiers believe that it would be prudent just to kill the prisoners, including Paul, because they might swim away and escape. The centurion forbids that kind of action against their charges. Once again Paul's life is spared, so that he might reach Rome to offer his witness for Christ to the most powerful people of his time in the world. Coming ashore they discover that they are on the island of Malta. Your text might indicate that the people of Malta are barbaric. A much better use of that word in the text would be to understand its use by the Maltese people there. Barbarous does not mean that the people are cruel, mean, barbaric, and unworthy of consideration by Paul. It means that they may be people who do not speak the language of the island but have little to do with their willingness to offer their hospitality to the people whose ship has just beached on the shoreline, barely surviving the storm. Upon their arrival on shore, a fire is built to warm them (a fire to warm over two hundred people?). Paul joins in by collecting wood which can be used in a bundle to be burned for warmth. Here Luke lets us know that Paul is not a person who ever stands around doing nothing. He knows that he has a limited time on earth, just like us, to do the work to which all believers in Christ are called. As he lights the bundle of wood in his hand, a snake, awakened from the cold rain, comes out of that bundle of wood and bites Paul. The people from Malta and the ship believe that this happening is an act of the fates, those who control death, and cannot be escaped. (Malta has never had poisonous snakes) Their belief is that Paul must have done some great crime, and now the fates have sent the snakes to finally get him. However, as they watch Paul waiting for death to come to him, they are shocked that he is indeed not dying, and lives without illness, so they become convinced that Paul is a god. Now in Malta, word comes to Paul that Publius' father is ill with what you and I might know as food poisoning or perhaps the flu. The passage tells us that Paul speaks with Publius' father, and he is cured of his malady. In a place like Malta such healing would have been quite rare, and the cause of superstitious beliefs. The word used in the original Greek for his healing is more likely to be understood as medical treatment. Such a use of that word should not surprise us since Luke is the writer of acts, and he was a doctor. However, we cannot dismiss the possibility that Paul's prayers and laying on of hands did indeed bring a miraculous healing through Paul's faith and trust in Christ. When the word gets around about Paul's gift for healing, it would be obvious that others on the island of Malta would seek him out for healing too. So, whether it was a miracle, or medical care which brought healing, the reality is that Paul continued to bring honor to the Savior through the actions of his life. I know that there are people in the faith communities of Christianity who truly have the gift of healing illness, yet every one of us has a miracle to bring to other people. On Sunday I spoke about our own ministry of healing, by being certain that we never allow an unsheltered person who we may choose to help to go without our knowing their name and helping them to understand that they are named to us and before God. Our doing so means that they are not left to feel abandoned in a world that doesn't care that they were even born. We probably never understood ourselves to be medical missionaries of the same ilk as Paul, and some, like Luke, can go even farther in caring and healing!

Tomorrow we will finish Acts with Paul's finally arriving in Rome.

With love in Christ, Pastor Kim

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October 6, 2026:  Tuesday Bible Study on Acts 28:11-31

Good morning members of American, and friends of our Bible Study. Starting next week, we will be starting our study of the letters which Paul wrote while he was imprisoned in Rome awaiting his trial before Caesar. Each week we will cover three days, starting with Monday. We have a new email bible study group which includes only those who have asked to receive the studies. It will still be accessible on the church website, godsplaceforgrace.org. If you did not sign up to be in the Bible Study group, you can call the church office at 520-623-3661 and leave a message with your name and email address so that you can be added. On Monday of this next week, we will begin our study of Paul's letter to the Ephesian church. A reminder for you all that we will bless pets again on October 18 at the 10AM worship service. We found that too many folks needed to be at church for too long to have their animals with them, so we have scheduled another opportunity for the blessings to be done.

In our first reading for today, Acts 28:11-15, we find Paul, Luke, and Aristarchus finally arriving at Rome after a lengthy winter stay on Malta, about three months, and then finding another corn ship from Egypt to finish their trip. This time the journey was successful and not burdened with danger. From Malta it took 6 more days for them to journey to Puteoli, the main harbor that received the goods for Rome. In Puteoli, a group of Christians met Paul and hosted him, with his Roman guard for 7 days prior to his departing for Rome once again. Then just outside of Rome Paul was met by another group of Christians. Though we see Paul as a mighty witness for Jesus with Jews and Gentiles, Rome presented the power of the world of Paul's time, and was so much larger than any other community Paul had been in. He thanked God for the presence of the members of the church who greeted him and found courage and strength for the coming task and hearing. Paul was received by the early Roman Christians as if he was a king coming into the midst of those who loved his reign and caring. First, Paul must certainly have come to experience the great cloud of unseen witnesses who had become Christians throughout the Roman empire. Second, Paul now sees the fruition of his 30 plus years of witnessing for Christ and knows that he is surrounded by other witnesses throughout his world. Third, Paul comes to confidence in God's control of every part of the believer's life. Fourth, Paul grows in his faith in the risen Lord, being with him in the midst of so many believers.

When we think about the trials of Paul, bring rejected by his own people the Jews, threatened with stoning, being chased from city to city in Asia Minor, and now facing the trial of his life's work before those who are not yet believers, it is important for us too to know that God is in everything in our lives, both the good and the bad. There is a holy plan for our lives and service for the Savior, but when we go astray, our loving God nudges His plan so that it can compensate for the failure of believers to walk the path of faith with which He has blessed them, all the while calling the faithful, and pursuing them by the power of the Holy Spirit. In times of stress and overwhelming odds, we always need to remember that our God loves us and has promised to be with us through everything in our lives. As I finished my seminary course work, and needed to be approved to be ordained, on one weekend I first interviews with Ford, Chevrolet, and Chrysler executives in the parish that were interviewing me for a call to be their associate pastor, the very next day I met with a synod bishop, and pastors from around the synod for the oral examination of my qualifications and knowledge, including questions about my moral and ethical thinking. It was intimidating, but like Paul, I found courage and resolve to face this tough beginning for parish ministry because I trusted Christ to be with me through it all. My entire career hung on the presence of Christ in, with, and around me. I received my first call before the synod oral exam, which in my case was not unusual.

In the larger next reading for today, we revisit once again Paul's sincere witness. The important thing to find here is that it has been Paul's pattern throughout his life to seek out the Jews first, to offer his witness, through which some come to Christ, but like so many other places, Paul's message about the messiah is rejected,, so then Paul moves back to the Jews own  prophets,  indicating that it has already been spoken by the prophets that the love of Christ will turn to the gentiles when the Jews are unable to received God's truth about the fulfilling of this promise to send the Savior.  Christ Himself speaks these words to the unbelieving Jewish leaders.

Finally, in the last few verses of Luke's telling Paul's story, we have questions. Why did Luke not tell us about what happened to Paul? This was a part of Paul's story which Luke chose not to share. Paul's life and ministry, of course, the life, ministry, and sacrifice of Christ in Luke's Gospel, were at the heart of Dr. Luke the gentile, who found in Paul a man who could speak to his faith and courage, and medical work with the least, the last, and the lost in the world of Paul. We know that Paul continued to support himself with his work as a tent maker, and I think we must assume that he received generous gifts from the Roman Christians too. It is after two years in Rome that Luke shares no more of Paul's experience. But in the book of Acts, we come to know how the story of that child born in a manger in the cold of winter, who grew and learned to be a carpenter, and who carried God's Word, its living presence in the world, was the King of Kings the Savior of the whole of God's creation.

I will be back with you Monday through Wednesday as we begin our study of Ephesians.

With love in Christ, Pastor Kim