The David Spoon Experience 9-26-24 part 2
1) There’s an additional fascinating portion of text in verse 11, where it says after they were shipwrecked for three months, they went on another ship, an Alexandrian ship with twin gods as the figurehead. These were the twin gods, Castor and Pollux. What I want you to catch is that this was a pagan ship. But guess what? The Christians went on it.
2) They weren’t so offended by it that they couldn’t travel on it for two specific reasons: one, that was the ship that God provided, and two, they didn’t have a choice. We might want to remember that before we get overly legalistic. After all, you still say, "Is it Thursday?" which is named after the god Thor. So relax, The God of the universe knows you don’t honor false gods or idols.
3) We’re down to the last three or four teachings that are coming out of the Book of Acts. This has taken us quite some time to review, but it is definitely worthwhile to understand the process of the early disciples. We pick it up in chapter 28, verse 12. One of the deeper elements in the Book of Acts is understanding how important fellowship is. In verses 12 and 13, Paul is on a ship traveling towards Rome, just looking for some form of fellowship. Why do you think Paul did that?
4) In verse 14, we find out that, in fact, the crew traveling with Paul did find some believers, and they hung out together for about seven days. In the midst of our journeys, when we’re on ships going from place to place and really sensing insecurity or uncertainty, an excellent place to find strength, restoration, and empowerment is in the fellowship of other believers. This is how God designed the church to be. Whatever differences they had theologically were laid down for the sake of ministering to one another.
5) In verse 15, we find out that everybody was on their way to the Forum on the Appian Way. The Roman proverb for the Appian Way is, "How do you build the Appian Way?" The answer to that is, "One stone after another." As they met up at the Three Taverns, which was a bar scene about 35 miles from Rome (and no, there were no Christian coffee houses), when Paul saw more believers, he just thanked God and took courage. This reiterates what we were mentioning: there is strength in fellowship.
