October 04, 2023 | Be On Mission
Paul Heals Many on the Island
Scripture: Acts 28:7-10(NIV)
7 There was an estate nearby that belonged to Publius, the chief official of the island. He welcomed us to his home and showed us generous hospitality for three days. 8 His father was sick in bed, suffering from fever and dysentery. Paul went in to see him and, after prayer, placed his hands on him and healed him. 9 When this had happened, the rest of the sick on the island came and were cured. 10 They honored us in many ways; and when we were ready to sail, they furnished us with the supplies we needed.
Devotional
In Luke’s gospel of the life of Jesus, he recorded this episode in Luke 4:38-40.
“Jesus left the synagogue and went to the home of Simon. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever, and they asked Jesus to help her. So he bent over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her. She got up at once and began to wait on them. At sunset, the people brought to Jesus all who had various kinds of sickness, and laying his hands on each one, he healed them.”
Now, three decades later, in Luke’s history of the Early Church he recorded the events in today’s reading. What are the similarities between the two accounts?
There is one major difference. In Luke 4:41, the healed people proclaimed Jesus to be the Messiah, the Son of God. But in Acts 28, Paul is merely a shipwrecked, human prisoner who wanted people to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God.
Still, the leader of the island and his people showed the prisoner Paul and his traveling companions hospitality, honor, and generosity for the next three months. The sailors, soldiers, and other prisoners were blessed by their proximity to a man who was ministering and being persecuted because of the name of Jesus!
Just before Jesus was crucified, he told his disciples, “Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it” (John 14:12-14). Do you believe this? How is Holy Spirit calling you to do great things in the name of Jesus? What will you do about it?
Poem
New Moses
Called forth from the desert
Of arrogant brain
Thrown off his high horse
Entire heart change
Not by burning bush
But by burning Christ light
The calling of prophet
Release captive plight
Go now to my people
The ones held in chains
Go now to the Gentiles
Relieve guilty stains
Bring them through the desert
Bring them to my land
Prepared from the promise
The blessed pilgrim band
Lead them to the mountain
Teach them how to live
Cast off Egypt’s slave dirt
New garments do give
Arise them in singing
Lead them now is song
Whip no longer master
To Me now belong
