God’s way is full of surprises to the end

Every day we’re asking four questions about part of the Bible. Today Bern Leckie answers:

What did I like about today’s passage?

I love how, just when I think I’ve got this thing God is doing with Paul, it keeps getting more exciting and surprising. We know he is literally bound for an audience with Caesar. What could go wrong?

I am struck by an image of Paul as the calm in the centre of a storm. Not everyone understood how much God was with him, flooding him with peace, power and wisdom – that’s clear from the story. It’s understandable: “the centurion, instead of listening to what Paul said, followed the advice of the pilot and of the owner of the ship.” What? He listened to professional mariners instead of the criminal suspect from a religious sect? What was he thinking!?

Of course, people did not know to listen to Paul until, to paraphrase Jesus, wisdom is proved right by the results. I love seeing how so many people’s minds were changed and opened to God by recognising truth in his words at a time when it really mattered. This didn’t just save everyone on the ship but brought the people of Malta from superstitions about false gods to a willingness to seek healing from the real God. Can you even count how many people changed their minds because of God’s unexpected work in this story?

As we approach the end, I’m also loving two more surprises at the end of this account. One is how God has stirred Rome around Paul, rather than required Paul to go and stir up interest in God himself. I take this as an example of how mission is always God’s mission rather than ours. He works ahead, above, below and around us, as well as in us. I would expect Paul to be despairing about the delays, anxious to conclude his journey, meet his objectives. But we finish with an assurance that all is well, despite years of house arrest. God works surprisingly!

And maybe the biggest surprise of all is that the story ends here, despite almost certainly being written years after the events, in a time of turmoil for the church. We know from history that Christians would suffer incredible persecution from the Romans. What, then, is the author trying to tell those suffering Christians, and what can we learn from it?

What did it show me about Father God, Jesus or the Holy Spirit?

God changes our minds. He starts this process as we learn about his kingdom, see his promises fulfilled in Jesus, follow Jesus to know God as Father, and receive his Spirit of healing power, love and peace.

But Acts is not a story about believers finding themselves or their circumstances perfected by God. It shows that God continues to work, continues to change believers’ minds, showing more of his purpose and strengthening us for surprising changes in the world.

The Spirit inspired this story to end with an open door through which people would come and be changed. God’s plans and words endure, but he calls us to a way of change so that, as Paul wrote to the Romans, we could “be transformed by the renewing” of our minds.

What am I going to do differently as a result?

Remember that God still wants to strengthen me and change my mind, and ask him how.

Who am I going to share this with?

My family and others I follow Jesus with.