Acts 28
Acts 28 does not end the story of the gospel. It ends with the story still running. Paul arrives at Rome, not in triumph, but in chains. He is under guard in a hired house. Yet from that rented room, with a soldier chained to his wrist, he calls together the chief of the Jews and reasons with them about Jesus, about the kingdom, about the hardening of the people spoken of by Isaiah six hundred years before. Some believe, some do not. And Luke closes the book not with Paul's martyrdom, not with his release, but with him still preaching, still teaching, still unhindered.
This is Luke's purpose. He wants you to see that the gospel cannot be imprisoned. Chains cannot bind it. Shipwrecks cannot stop it. Opposition cannot silence it. In Acts 1, Jesus promises the disciples: "Ye shall receive power… and ye shall be witnesses unto me… unto the uttermost part of the earth." By Acts 28, that promise is being lived out. The word from Jerusalem has reached Rome, the center of the known world. And it is still spreading, still speaking, still calling people into the kingdom of the God who never loses.
Watch, in this final chapter, how Luke shows you the unhindered gospel. Watch the viper on Paul's hand - and the reversal of Eden where the serpent no longer has power. Watch a centurion's father healed, watch healings multiply, watch the Gentiles see the kingdom at work. Watch Paul stand before the Romans and the Jews and say: this is why I am bound. This is the hope of Israel. This is what the prophets saw. And the book ends with the door still open, the apostle still speaking, the power still running out.
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People in this chapter
- Paul (Saul of Tarsus)Reaches Rome at last; preaches "the kingdom of God" two whole yearsc. AD 5 - 67
A Roman citizen, a Pharisee trained under Gamaliel, and a hunter of the early church. Confronted by the risen Jesus on the road to Damascus, he became the missionary who carried the gospel across the Mediterranean and wrote thirteen of the New Testament’s twenty-seven books.
Acts 28:1-6The Kindly Barbarians
1And when they were escaped, then they knew that the island was called Malta. 2And the barbarians shewed us no little kindness: for they kindled a fire, and received us every one, because of the present rain, and because of the cold. 3And when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks, and laid them on the fire, there came a viper out of the heat, and fastened on his hand. 4And when the barbarians saw the venomous beast hang on his hand, they said among themselves, No doubt this man is a murderer, whom, though he hath escaped the sea, yet vengeance suffereth not to live. 5And he shook off the beast into the fire, and felt no harm. 6Howbeit they looked when he should have swollen, or fallen down dead suddenly: but after they had looked a great while, and saw no harm come to him, they changed their minds, and said that he was a god.
Malta is not Jerusalem. It is not Antioch or Ephesus or any city where Paul has churches waiting for him. It is an island south of Sicily1, inhabited by people Luke calls “barbarians” - literally, non-Greek speakers, outsiders to the covenant. And yet these pagans, these barbarians, show Paul “no little kindness.” They kindle a fire against the cold. They receive him. The gospel has a way of breaking through the thickest walls, opening the hardest hearts.
The viper fastens on Paul's hand. The Greek word is echidna, the very word Jesus used when He called the Pharisees a “generation of vipers” (Matt. 12:34). And yet Paul shakes it off. No swelling. No death. The barbarians watch, stunned - what kind of man survives a deadly bite? First they think him a murderer; then a god. Neither is true. He is an apostle, and the power of Christ runs through him.
Acts 28:7-10Healings on the Island
7In the same quarters were possessions of the chief man of the island, whose name was Publius; who received us, and lodged us three days courteously. 8And it came to pass, that the father of Publius lay sick of a fever and of a bloody flux: to whom Paul entered in, and prayed, and laid his hands on him, and healed him. 9So when this was done, others also, which had diseases in the island, came, and were healed: 10Who also honoured us with many honours; and when we departed, they laded us with such things as were necessary.
Fever and bloody flux - a brutal, wasting sickness. Not a minor ailment. The chief man's father was dying. And Paul does what he has done from the beginning of Acts: he enters, prays, lays on hands, and the man is healed. By this point in Acts, healing is so woven into the apostolic life that it needs no fanfare. It is simply what happens when the Spirit moves through those who believe.
The laying on of hands is not a magic gesture. It is a sign of identification, a moment where the apostle stands with the sick person and brings the power of Christ to bear on the broken body. Throughout Acts, this gesture marks the moment the Spirit breaks through - Philip lays hands, Peter lays hands, Paul lays hands. And what was broken begins to heal.
Acts 28:11-14The Journey to Rome
11And after three months we departed in a ship of Alexandria, which had wintered in the isle, whose sign was Castor and Pollux. 12And landing at Syracuse, we tarried there three days. 13And from thence we fetched a compass, and came to Rhegium: and after one day the south wind blew, and we came the next day to Puteoli: 14Where we found brethren, and were desired to tarry with them seven days: and so we went toward Rome.
Three months on Malta. Not a brief stop, but a whole season. Paul heals, testifies, plants faith in soil far from Jerusalem. And then - the journey continues. The ship is named for Castor and Pollux, the divine twins of pagan mythology. Even the pagan world's symbols carry Paul toward his destiny.
They arrive at Puteoli, the great port city of southern Italy. And here, unexpectedly, there are brethren - Christians already in Italy, already meeting together, already waiting to welcome Paul. The gospel has run ahead of him. The kingdom is already spreading in the heart of the empire.
Acts 28:15-16“Paul thanked God, and took courage”
15And from thence, when the brethren heard of us, they came to meet us as far as the Forum of Appius, and the Three Taverns: whom when Paul saw, he thanked God, and took courage. 16And when we came to Rome, the centurion delivered the prisoners to the captain of the guard: but Paul was suffered to dwell by himself with a soldier that kept him.
The Forum of Appius and the Three Taverns are stops on the Appian Way, the great road leading into Rome. And at these two places, the brethren come out to meet Paul. They have traveled, gathered, waited. They know who he is. They know his letters. They come to welcome an apostle. When Paul sees them, he thanks God and takes courage.
He arrives in Rome as a prisoner, under guard, chained to a soldier. Yet he is permitted to dwell “by himself” in a hired house. It is a strange imprisonment - neither freedom nor dungeon, but a kind of house arrest that will allow him to teach2. Luke is showing you that even the machinery of empire has been bent to serve God's purpose. Paul will spend two years in that house, and from that house, the gospel will go out to the heart of the world.
Acts 28:17-22Paul Calls the Chief of the Jews
17And it came to pass, that after three days Paul called the chief of the Jews together: and when they were come together, he said unto them, Men and brethren, though I have committed nothing against the people, or customs of our fathers, yet was I delivered prisoner from Jerusalem into the hands of the Romans. 18Who, when they had examined me, would have let me go, because there was no cause of death in me. 19But when the Jews spake against it, I was constrained to appeal unto Caesar; not that I had ought to accuse my nation of. 20For this cause therefore have I called for you, to see you, and to speak with you: because that for the hope of Israel I am bound with this chain. 21And they said unto him, We neither received letters out of Judaea concerning thee, neither any of the brethren that came shewed or spake any harm of thee. 22But we desire to hear of thee what thou thinkest: for as concerning this sect, we know that every where it is spoken against.
Paul's opening is careful. He affirms the customs of the fathers, the traditions of the people. He is not a revolutionary bent on destroying Judaism. He is a Jew defending the deepest hopes of Judaism itself. His message is not “abandon your fathers.” His message is “the hope your fathers waited for has come.”
Paul wants them to see him. To hear him. Not to condemn him, but to understand why he stands before them in chains. He is a Jew speaking to Jews about the faith of Israel. There is no contempt in his voice, only the deep desire that they understand what he has understood: that Jesus is the Messiah Israel has been waiting for since the days of Abraham.
Acts 28:23-27The Hardening of Israel
23And when they had appointed him a day, there came many to him into his lodging; to whom he expounded and testified the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus, both out of the law of Moses, and out of the prophets, from morning till evening. 24And some believed the things which were spoken, and some believed not. 25And when they agreed not among themselves, they departed, after that Paul had spoken one word, Well spake the Holy Ghost by Esaias the prophet unto your fathers, 26Saying, Go unto this people, and say, Hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and not perceive: 27For the heart of this people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed; lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.
Paul reasons all day. From the law. From the prophets. From the oldest texts of Israel. He shows them that Jesus is not a departure from what Moses and the prophets said - He is their fulfillment. Some believe. Some do not. And when the conversation breaks down, Paul quotes Isaiah 6, the prophet's own lament over a people who will not hear.
Isaiah 6 is a passage about a people who refuse to hear, who close their own eyes, who harden their own hearts. It is not that God refuses them; it is that they refuse Him. The tragedy is not that God's word is weak. The tragedy is that the people's resistance is so strong they have lost the capacity to perceive what is plainly true.
Acts 28:28-31“No man forbidding him”
28Be it known therefore unto you, that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles, and that they will hear it. 29(And when he had said these words, the Jews departed, and had great reasoning among themselves.) 30And Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house, and received all that came in unto him, 31Preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, with all confidence, no man forbidding him.
Paul has given the Jews the first hearing. They have rejected. And so the door turns outward. The salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles. This is not spite or retaliation. It is the unfolding of what Jesus Himself said in Acts 1:8 - “ye shall be witnesses unto me… unto the uttermost part of the earth.” Jerusalem first, then Judaea, then Samaria, then the uttermost parts. By Acts 28, that prophecy is being lived out. Paul in Rome means the gospel in the center of the world.
Two whole years. Not a few months, not a brief season, but a sustained span of time. For two years, from his hired house in Rome, Paul teaches, counsels, writes letters, plants faith. The pastoral letters (1 Timothy, Titus, perhaps 2 Timothy) are written during or shortly after this period. The kingdom is not advancing through spectacle now. It is advancing through patient, faithful, relational teaching.
Further study
- Malta Archaeological HeritageHeritage MaltaOfficial government museum and heritage organization documenting Malta's archaeology and St Paul's Bay tradition.
- Continuous archaeological documentation of Roman infrastructure, including the Via Appia that Paul traveled to reach Rome.