Romans 2:17-25 :

Indeed you bear the name of a Jew, and rest on the law, and glory in God, and know his will, and approve the things that are excellent, being instructed out of the law, and are confident that you yourself are a guide of the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of babies, having in the law the form of knowledge and of the truth. You therefore who teach another, don’t you teach yourself? You who preach that a man shouldn’t steal, do you steal? You who say a man shouldn’t commit adultery. Do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who glory in the law, through your disobedience of the law do you dishonor God? For “the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you,” just as it is written. For circumcision indeed profits, if you are a doer of the law, but if you are a transgressor of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision.

Just because a person knows about religion doesn’t mean that they are religious. A person is only religious if they do what God says they are supposed to do. If a person does what God wants, even if they don’t claim to be religious, they are acting religiously.

If a person claims to be religious and goes around sinning, that person makes a mockery of their religion. That is what God was accusing the Jews of here, but the same could be said about any person who claims to be religious. If you claim to be religious and don’t do what you are supposed to do, you are making a mockery of what you say you believe. It doesn’t matter what you say to people, or what memberships you have, if you don’t do religious things, then you are not religious.

Paul knew that the only true religion was found in The Rules of the Old Testament and no one has been able to do that without depending on sacrifices for sin. There is more about this later in Romans.

The fact is, Christians aren’t able to be religious by rule following either. We are only able to do what God wants when we trust in His power while believing and doing what He says. It isn’t a performance it is dependence. Only when we depend on Him are we be able to practice what we preach.

Romans 2:11-16 :

For there is no partiality with God. For as many as have sinned without law will also perish without the law. As many as have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. For it isn’t the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law will be justified (for when Gentiles who don’t have the law do by nature the things of the law, these, not having the law, are a law to themselves, in that they show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience testifying with them, and their thoughts among themselves accusing or else excusing them) in the day when God will judge the secrets of men, according to my Good News, by Jesus Christ.

You don’t have to tell people that killing is wrong. We know naturally that hurting someone else is bad thing. This is evidence that the Creator has left His mark on all of us by giving us a conscience. This doesn’t mean that we have a full understanding of what God thinks concerning sin, but we have a general idea. If we really want to know what God thinks we should read the Bible.

The Jews had the Bible before everyone else and God held them responsible for what they knew. Most Americans today are aware that God has a Bible and that in it are the Ten Commandments. Alarmingly, most Americans don’t even know what these Ten Commandments say!

It is very inconsistent of us to think that there is a God who has a Bible but not care what God says in the Bible. God will hold people responsible for this. This is no small matter because those who don’t do what God wants will be judged according to what they knew. If you had no awareness of the Ten Commandments, then you would be judged by your conscience, but if you are aware of them, you will be held responsible for doing them. That’s what I believe Paul is saying here. In both cases, people find themselves lacking what God requires, however. Those who don’t know about the Bible violate their own conscience and those who know about the Bible break the Ten Commandments.

So, God sees all of us equally as sinners but for different reasons.

Acts 28:30-31 :

Paul stayed two whole years in his own rented house, and received all who were coming to him, preaching the Kingdom of God, and teaching the things concerning the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness, without hindrance.

Although the Apostles are no longer with us, the acts of the Holy Spirit continue in our hearts and lives today. These are the final words of Luke in the Bible. Both Luke and Paul died as martyrs according to other historic documents. It is probable that Paul died at the hands of Nero after telling him about Jesus.

Many stories about what God is doing through Christians are continuing to this very minute and all of them are very interesting and powerful. If there is more that God is doing in you then you are a part of God’s story. God can use our stories to demonstrate the power of God to those who don’t yet believe and to encourage those who do. May God help us all to share with those who come to us and tell them about “Christ with all boldness, without hindrance.”

Acts 28:23-29 :

When they had appointed him a day, many people came to him at his lodging. He explained to them, testifying about the Kingdom of God, and persuading them concerning Jesus, both from the law of Moses and from the prophets, from morning until evening. Some believed the things which were spoken, and some disbelieved. When they didn’t agree among themselves, they departed after Paul had spoken one word, “The Holy Spirit spoke rightly through Isaiah, the prophet, to our fathers, saying,

‘Go to this people, and say,
in hearing, you will hear,
but will in no way understand.
In seeing, you will see,
but will in no way perceive.
For this people’s heart has grown callous.
Their ears are dull of hearing.
Their eyes they have closed.
Lest they should see with their eyes,
hear with their ears,
understand with their heart,
and would turn again,
and I would heal them.’

“Be it known therefore to you, that the salvation of God is sent to the nations. They will also listen.”

When he had said these words, the Jews departed, having a great dispute among themselves.

Once again the Jews in general didn’t listen to the message although “some believed the things which were spoken.” As a result, God’s word was to go out to the whole world giving each person a chance to learn about the God of the Jews and about their Messiah Jesus. God planned for this all along since there are no surprises to God. His plan was for the entire world to be brought back to himself.

Notice, also, that Paul makes it clear that the Holy Spirit was speaking through Isaiah in the Bible. Isaiah as well as the whole Bible was actually spoken by the Holy Spirit. That’s what makes it special. Even though the Bible had authors such as Isaiah, God was able to have them willingly write what He put in their hearts to write for Him. It should not come as a surprise to us that the Bible is the number one best selling book of all time in the world.

Acts 28:11-16 :

After three months, we set sail in a ship of Alexandria which had wintered in the island, whose sign was “The Twin Brothers.” Touching at Syracuse, we stayed there three days. From there we circled around and arrived at Rhegium. After one day, a south wind sprang up, and on the second day we came to Puteoli, where we found brothers, and were entreated to stay with them for seven days. So we came to Rome. From there the brothers, when they heard of us, came to meet us as far as The Market of Appius and The Three Taverns. When Paul saw them, he thanked God, and took courage. When we entered into Rome, the centurion delivered the prisoners to the captain of the guard, but Paul was allowed to stay by himself with the soldier who guarded him.

They stayed there on Malta for three months, finally deciding that waiting until winter was over was a good idea. I am sure the centurion guarding Paul was effected by the things that he had seen. Can you imagine being the one who had to “guard” Paul? He must have been amazed by all of his dear friends who traveled from long distances just to see him. Almost everywhere people were either already believing in Jesus or were interested and getting miraculously healed. It’s not a big surprise that the centurion gave Paul special treatment among the prisoners.

Paul really had a passion to be with the Roman Christians. Notice that just the sight of them encouraged him. That is the kind of love God can give us. He can cause us to ignore our own troubles and long to take care of others. It’s just like becoming a father or a mother. The cares of our single life fade into the past and we become very interested in taking care of the members of our families. Like Paul, it is important for us to see that all Christians are a part of our true family. That’s the kind of love we are to have for each other.

Acts 28:7-10 :

Now in the neighborhood of that place were lands belonging to the chief man of the island, named Publius, who received us, and courteously entertained us for three days. It happened that the father of Publius lay sick of fever and dysentery. Paul entered in to him, prayed, and laying his hands on him, healed him. Then when this was done, the rest also who had diseases in the island came, and were cured. They also honored us with many honors, and when we sailed, they put on board the things that we needed.

Dr. David Hocking mentioned that if a person really has the “gift of healing,” why don’t they clear out the hospital? That’s a good question because here we see that Paul did something much like this in “the neighborhood of that place.”

When he found out that their host’s father was sick, he healed him and then “the rest also who had diseases on the island came, and were cured.” Notice that Publius gave Paul hospitality, then Paul gave Publius his father, then they all gave “many Honors” and “they put on board the things that” they needed. One gift lead to another gift and I doubt we have the end of it recorded here.

That’s how God’s grace works with us as Christians. We can give, and give, and give, and give to each other. What a blessing it is to be a Christian! God gives us things to give to others and on it goes. It appear that the Maltans learned to understand more about the grace of God as Paul and Luke stayed there with them.

Acts 28:1-6 :

When we had escaped, then they learned that the island was called Malta. The natives showed us uncommon kindness; for they kindled a fire, and received us all, because of the present rain, and because of the cold. But when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and laid them on the fire, a viper came out because of the heat, and fastened on his hand. When the natives saw the creature hanging from his hand, they said one to another, “No doubt this man is a murderer, whom, though he has escaped from the sea, yet Justice has not allowed to live.” However he shook off the creature into the fire, and wasn’t harmed. But they expected that he would have swollen or fallen down dead suddenly, but when they watched for a long time and saw nothing bad happen to him, they changed their minds, and said that he was a god.

The exchange between Paul and the people of Malta seems strange and comical today but if we look at the situation carefully, we will see that we are much more similar to the Maltans than we may realize.

It is very likely that these Gentiles in Malta didn’t know anything about the God of the Jews. It is clear that they were also polytheistic. They also appeared to believe in the idea that if you do bad things then then “Justice” will get you. My guess is that their worldview didn’t provide for the concept that a god would help save a man from vipers just because of his favor. Since their worldview probably didn’t give them any option for grace of a god on mankind, they assumed that Paul was a god himself. It’s actually quite logical.

Our own cultural worldviews also have this effect and those who understand the truth better may marvel at how hard it is to break through to us. Today the idea that the world is only a few thousand years old seems impossible, but why? How many 6,000 year old pieces of written history do we have laying around to review? If you think about it, no one knows by their own experience and no one can prove scientifically that things have always gone on as they are now. Nevertheless, people still assume that the world is millions of years old and even accuse others of being harmful and evil because they don’t agree. It sounds very similar to me. Remember, the people during this time in Rome honestly believed in “the gods” and “knew” they were right.

When we base our worldview on something that we think we will probably end up hurting the innocent. It is extremely important for us to listen to what the God of the Bible says and believe it so we can understand what is really going on.