Castaway Series

Castaway

Acts Series

Chuck Sligh

July 8, 2018

NOTE: A PowerPoint presentation is available for this sermon by request at chucksligh@hotmail.com.

TEXT: Please turn in your Bibles to Acts 28.

INTRODUCTION

Illus. – Stories of island castaways are a recurring theme for novels and movies. The idea has captured people’s attention from the beginning of the Age of Exploration all the way to the present. It all began with Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe in 1719, considered the first novel in the English language. Swiss author Johann David Wyss published the popular novel, The Swiss Family Robinson, in 1819. Perhaps the most influential of them all was Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson’s 1882 novel, Treasure Island. – Its influence was enormous in forming popular perceptions of pirates, including such elements as treasure maps marked with an “X,” schooners, the Black Spot, tropical islands and one-legged seamen wearing parrots on their shoulders.

It was movies that brought the castaway theme to modern audiences. There have been several popular movie versions of Robinson Crusoe and The Swiss Family Robinson. And who can forget the Disney rendition of Treasure Island? This movie helped shape our culture’s perception of pirates in the same way the book version did in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. As historian Colin Woodard said National Geographic in 2011, “Newton’s performance [in Disney’s Treasure Island]—full of ‘arrs,’ ‘shiver me timbers,’ and references to landlubbers—not only stole the show, it permanently shaped pop culture’s vision of how pirates looked, acted and spoke.”

But castaway movies aren’t just for kids. – Some very thought-provoking popular movies about being marooned on an island, away from the comforts of modern society, include Lord of the Flies and Cast Away, starring Tom Hanks.

Our text today describes a real-life castaway story the Apostle Paul experienced. But sorry, there are no peg-legged pirates, hidden treasures, parrots or pirate talk. But there are adventures aplenty in this story involving superstitious inhabitants, a venomous snake bite and the performance of miracles.

Picking up Luke’s story in the book of Acts, you’ll recall that the captain of Paul’s ship HAD chosen to take a chance on sailing to Phoenix for safer wintering, despite Paul’s warnings not to proceed. [SHOW ON MAP.] Shortly after casting off in calm winds, they found themselves in a storm of hurricane proportions. Luke says they drifted around for 14 days in this horrific storm and finally ran aground on an island which turned out to be Malta, and all 276 people onboard survived, just as an angel had assured Paul.

This is where we pick up our story.

I. NOTE WITH ME FIRST OF ALL MALTESE HOSPITALITY IN ACTS 28:1-2 – “And when they were escaped, then they knew that the island was called Malta2 And the barbarous people shewed us no little kindness: for they kindled a fire, and received us everyone, because of the present rain, and because of the cold.”

When the castaways washed up on the beach, they had no idea where they had landed. Luke tells us it was Malta, an island in the Mediterranean, as you can see from the map. They had meant to sail just 35 miles (50 km) up the coast of Crete to Phoenix, but ended up being driven by the storm 540 miles (or 870 km) off course.

The King James Version says the people in Malta were “barbarous people” but the word doesn’t refer to what we think of as uncouth people with barbarous, vicious ways. The term simply meant “foreigner,” or in this context, non-Roman. Malta was a Roman territory with a Roman garrison and a Roman governor, but the islanders weren’t Roman, so Luke uses the Greek word bárbaros.

Luke says the people showed unusual hospitality to the castaways, kindling a fire to feed them and receiving everyone from the ship, apparently meaning that they temporarily took them into their homes for shelter.

II. IN VERSES 3-6, WE SEE MALTESE SUPERSTITION. – “And 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. 4 And 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. 5 And he shook off the beast into the fire, and felt no harm. 6 Howbeit 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.”

Although the Maltese displayed great hospitality, we see Paul showing a servant’s spirit. He doesn’t leave all the work for his hosts; he goes out and SERVES! God bless those in the church who see that something needs to be done and don’t expect to be served, but rather step up and get the job done!