Acts 28 - IVP New Testament Commentaries

Ministry at Malta and Rome

Among the watchwords of the 1989 evangelical world congress on evangelism, Lausanne II in Manila, was for the "whole church" to bring the "whole gospel" to the "whole world." For many at the conference, "the whole gospel" meant, as it did for Paul, proclaiming Christ in "word, deed and sign."

At Rome Paul engages in personal evangelism (28:23-31). On Malta he is involved in a mercy ministry (28:3, 8-9). And the apostle himself, unaffected by a poisonous snake grasping his hand, is proclamation "in sign" (28:3-6). Taken together and in proper relation to each other, these scenes help us understand what it is to proclaim "the whole gospel."