Acts 28

I had a good cry last night. Something little happened to start the tears, but then they just continued to flow throughout the night. The reason being, I believe, a couple real tough months, mostly with my health; after 2 1/2 hours in a dentist chair yesterday, I finally gave in to the tension and I let it all out last night. This blog is so far behind where I wanted it to be at the beginning of the year, mostly due to a thousand doctor/dentist appointments before work that is making me feel older than my years. As the dentist was working on my yesterday I tried to pray, I tried to be grateful that I am living in this age of dentistry, but I fell short.

But here we are at the end of Acts. After sailing into St. Paul's Bay, they were received kindly by the natives, until Paul got struck by a viper. The natives believed he was a murderer or something because after surviving the sea he had been struck by the snake to die. But Paul didn't die so then they thought he was a god. Paul began to heal the sick on the island. Fever and dysentery were widespread in the ancient world....making my illnesses look like nothing, I suppose. But remember, Paul is still a prisoner.

They waited three months to sail, went to Syracuse on the way, and finally made it to Rome. "When we (Luke was with them.) entered Rome, Paul was allowed to stay by himself, with the soldier who was guarding him." v.16 Luke does not really expand on how it came about but Paul was given huge liberties while awaiting trial before Caesar. "And he stayed two full years in his own rented quarters and was welcoming all who came to him, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching concerning the Lord Jesus Christ with all openness, unhindered." v. 30-31

The end of Acts.
John MacArthur, "Luke wrote Acts before the end of Paul's first Roman imprisonment (A.D. 60-62). That date is the most natural explanation for the abrupt ending of Acts - which leaves Paul awaiting trial before Caesar. Surely Luke, who devoted more than half of Acts to Paul's ministry, would have given the outcome of that trial, and described Paul's subsequent ministry, second imprisonment and death, if those events had happened before he wrote Acts. Luke's silence about such notable events as the martyrdom of James, head of the Jerusalem church, the persecution under Nero and the fall of Jerusalem (A.D. 70) also suggests he wrote Acts before those events transpired."