Shipwrecked! This is a chapter all about being on a ship. They are on a ship from aromatic then they are on a ship that is headed for Italy. This ship is beaten into pieces. The bow gets stuck, and the stern gets broken into pieces by the force of the waves. The Mediterranean Sea is absolutely no jokeand a northeaster storm is very destructive to the ship 276 people are on the ship, Paul, the writer of this book possibly a guy named Luke Aristarchus, Julius Julius soldiers the sailors, the ships pilot the ships captain the ships crew who knows who else.

Paul gives his defense before the king and in classic Paul fashion. Paul gives his defense to try to convince the king to believe in the resurrection of the dead and to become a Christian. Paul yearns for others to know the freedom in Christ.

Festus and Paul interact quite a bit in this chapter. This is Paul being accused and facing trials giving a defense before the governor and then being talked about by the governor and King Agrippa and his sister wife. Are they brothers and sisters and wife and husband, I don’t knowbut it seems like there’s some weird stuff going on with this family.

Felix was a Roman governor who was married to Druscilla. Drusilla is the sister of Agrippa II and Bernice of the next chapter. They are all three children of the Herod a.k.a.Agrippa I

This family empower has been in power since the first chapter of the book of Luke. We have here the great then we have Herod Antipas then we have mention of Antipas’s brother then we have mention of Herodias Harrod’s brother‘s wife. Then we have the herd of ax 12 and his children these three. One of them Drusilla is married to the Felix of this chapter, who is also a governor. The families of power, both of them, and now are often interrelated and mixed, and I am blown away by the sensitivity and hope that Paul wants to share eventually with this family

Here we have another speech with Paul before the people once again. He speaks to them this time though after insulting the high priest for telling them to hit him in the face, he thinks I bet I can get something going. I bet I can stir up the pot so he brings up this issue that he knows very well that there is already a dispute between the Pharisees and the sad is over the resurrection And along with the resurrection, angels and spirits, and Paul understands that this is the crucial piece of a Jewish hope that has just happened not that will happen that it just happened that Jesus the Christ the Nazarene was raised from the dead and that that is what both makes him Christ and Lord that his resurrection is at the center of all this at the center of the way, which they call a fact that it is the center of the Jewish Hope and Paul is constantly trying to help people see what a big deal the resurrection is. Obviously this addresses do not believe in the resurrection, but that doesn’t prevent Paul from drilling point drilling this point home that the resurrection is at the heart of all of this then there’s a conspiracy against his life. They’re going to kill him and then Lius the commander decides to take Paul side and tries to get Him away.

Paul gives a speech to the Jewish people in Aramac. He is listened to very closely and very intently until he puts the words in God‘s mouth go. I will send you far away to the Gentiles. To say that this would be like standing in the locker room of the Ohio State buckeyes during the game against Michigan and say I’m going to go play for the Wolverines is a giant understatement. Not only does it seem like God is put that Paul is putting on the lips of God that he is leaving the Jewish people, but that he is going over to their enemies. We cannot overlook the great betrayal that this feels like. There is a reason that they’re going nuts. There’s a reason that they are screaming that there is a reason that they are shrinking. There is a reason that they’re ripping off their clothes and fling dust end of the air. They are so beside themselves with anger. And here in this chapter, we also have Paul mentioning that he’s a Roman citizen again. This is another interesting topic that’s coming up heavily through the end of the book from here on we will read about Paul being a Roman citizen and the connections to that.

More sailing more goodbyes, more tears more journey toward Jerusalem. Have you noticed that in the book of Luke Jesus has a journey toward Jerusalem, in which Jesus knows that the kingdom of God will come through his enthronement on the cross? Here in the book of acts we have a similar path of Paul going to Jerusalem, much in the same way of Jesus much to everyone’s knowledge that Paul is going to suffer there and possibly be arrested and possibly die. It seems that everyone knows this and that the Holy Spirit knows it and is telling everyone. But it seems like Paul’s interpretation is why wouldn’t I wanna diefor the sake of the name of the Lord Jesus. Everyone else though wants to talk him out of it what a wild idea and then in this chapter, we also have Paul being arrested in Jerusalem, and this is referred back to a lot throughout the rest of the book.

Here we have a lot of pole traveling a lot of traveling a lot of sailing a lot of saying goodbye a lot of talking and in the middle is this wild story of a resurrection encounter where Paul shows some self to be a very long winded speaker. I don’t know if you’ve noticed throughout the book of acts that Paul seems always ready to speak. They called him Hermes because he was the main speaker when they say does anybody wanna talk? Paul is ready to talk, but when the evil spirit talks through the little girl, these people are servants of the most high God Paul gets annoyed with that and cast the demon out of her. Obviously, it’s a great thing to have a demon cast out of a person. But here we have Paul talking so incredibly long that it put somebody to sleep and they die from falling out of a window wow what a wild wild story I can’t imagine the annoyance the frustration. I know that I myself and many people get frustrated with long winded preachers who can’t shut up Paul just kept talking. What kind of emotions did these people feel when the young man died oh my goodness how annoyed how scared how sad then for Paul to go and raise him from the dead then Paul goes back upstairs eats then he keeps talking I imagine the people around Utica were like either. No, you don’t need to go upstairs Utica, you can juststay down here or at least Atticus do not sit by that window. Absolutely not no way Jose.