The End of the Beginning (Acts 28)

We arrive this morning at the last page of the first chapter of church history -- the last chapter of the book of Acts. Luke's unfinished book introduces us to the whole record of the history of the church which continues to this day. This chapter is a resumption of the cliffhanger with which we concluded the previous chapter. There we left the Apostle Paul and his company on their way to Rome but stranded as shipwrecked sailors on the coast of the island of Malta. They foundered here after a long and perilous voyage during which they were driven across the Mediterranean before a terrible storm. They lost all their gear and finally the ship itself was utterly lost, just as Paul had said. But their lives were saved, as he had also predicted, because an angel had told him of all this. Now we find the apostle and Julius the centurion and all the company of the ship on Malta as Luke picks up the story in Chapter 28: