A Centurion Delivers Paul

We are coming today to our fifth and final sermon on the centurions in the Bible. Number one, you remember, was a centurion in Capernaum, described for us in Matthew chapter 8, who was a man of exceedingly great faith, and Jesus marveled at the faith of a Gentile. The second was a centurion at the cross.

He also confessed faith in the Lord Jesus Christ when he said, Surely this was the Son of God. The third is Cornelius, a centurion at Caesarea on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the land of Israel, a man of great faith, a man of great influence, who influenced his family and friends and a number of others in Jesus Christ for salvation when Peter came and preached the gospel to him. Last week we looked at seven centurions, all bundled together, scattered throughout Acts chapters 20 through 24, who all of them ministered to the apostle Paul. All were used by God to advance the cause of Paul and the gospel of Christ. And all of these men, the ones that we know quite a bit about and those that we don't know so much about, are all presented as honorable men of integrity.

The Bible does not point to any centurion with rebuke, but all of them are viewed as honorable men, both those who look to God for saving grace and for those who have no evidence of faith in their lives. But now we come to the last one, the fifth one in Acts chapter 27. In the 27th chapter of the book of Acts, the human author, of course, is Luke, the beloved physician. The ultimate author is none other than God Almighty, who by his Holy Spirit guided and directed Luke and what he wrote. But Luke chapter 27 is an exceedingly acclaimed portion of God's word, not only valued by the people of God, but actually valued by secular historians because of the exceedingly great details of sailing conditions in the first century on the Mediterranean Sea.

There's information to be found here that cannot be found anyplace else, but all the information that has been confirmed from secular sources indicates that everything Luke wrote was exactly accurate. It is an exceedingly interesting account of Paul's journey to Rome by ship and the shipwreck, which could have taken his life but did not. So now we will examine how God used the Roman centurion to deliver Paul. And the centurion is mentioned one way or another six times throughout chapter 27, so we'll pick up each of those six references and learn something about this man.

We begin number one with his identity as revealed in verse 1. And when it was decided that we should sail to Italy, they delivered Paul and some other prisoners to one named Julius, a centurion of the Augustan regiment. When it was decided, that phrase is loaded because behind that is a lot of background that brings us up to the point when it was decided that Paul must go to Rome. In fact, that takes us back to where we left off last Lord's Day in Acts chapter 24 when Paul was placed before Felix for a verdict and Felix was convinced of Paul's innocence as far as any Roman law is concerned, but he procrastinated his decision.

A wavering politician who is testing the wind and didn't want to enrage the Jews. And so he left Paul in custody for two years while he was trying to decide how to deal with his hot potato on his hands until he was replaced in his governorship by a man named Festus. And when Festus came, he found that he had this responsibility for a prisoner by the name of Paul who had been left in his custody by Felix and not understanding why he was there when from all evidence he was not guilty of breaking Roman law, he conducted his own investigation about Paul and that takes up the first few verses of chapter 25. And in the course of that investigation, he called the Jews to come and to prosecute their case and he listened to what they had to say and he heard what Paul had to say and he couldn't hear anything that sounded like an infraction of Roman law, but still feeling that maybe he didn't quite understand the situation fully. He said to Paul, would you be willing to go back to Jerusalem to the Sanhedrin one more time, another trial before the council, the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem and be tried there, at least so that I can get some better idea what's going on here. Now remember, Paul already knew that 40 Jews had pledged that they would neither eat nor drink until he was dead. Now I suppose in the passing of two years, 40 men were dead or else they broke their promise. And I'm sure breaking their promise is the right answer to that little question, but that means if they broke their promise, they're still alive and they're still determined to carry out their plans and Paul knows what they intend to do.

If they can get him to go back to Jerusalem, they will plan to ambush him along the way and kill him. And so Paul resorts to his legal rights as a Roman citizen and though not many citizens did this, it wasn't the most comfortable thing to do. You would rather avoid it if at all possible, but in cases of extremity, when it seems like you were being put in danger by the Roman legal system and you are convinced that you were innocent, you had this remedy, namely to appeal to the highest governmental court of the land, that is to appeal to Caesar himself in Rome. And Paul said, I've done nothing wrong as you very well know, I will not place myself in the hands of the Jews, I appeal to Caesar. Now that actually only increased the dilemma which Festus faced because now, and he consulted, he tried to consult with all the authorities around him that he could to see if there was any way to wiggle out of this, but it was impossible. Paul is a Roman citizen, he's standing upon his right, he'd appeal to Caesar, and the law said that once a citizen appeals to Caesar, to Caesar he must go, but the problem with Festus is he knows that he has nothing to write to Caesar to tell him why he's sending this man to Caesar. There's no breaking of Roman law, he's kind of in a hot spot right now. So he makes the best of it he can, but he's still going to have to send Paul to Caesar.

And so at the appointed time when there were a group of other prisoners that also needed to be transported to Rome, Festus puts Paul in the care of a centurion, apparently a pretty high ranking centurion as we shall learn, along with these other men who were presumably all prisoners convicted in court of a crime and being sent to Rome probably for punishment, along with Paul who has not been convicted in a Roman court of anything, he is still, as far as the law is concerned, a perfectly innocent man, but is being sent to Rome to be tried, to pursue his appeal. And he's accompanied, we learn, by two men, number one Dr. Luke, the author of this book, who rejoins Paul's company after an absence of two years, he hasn't been around during the two years that Paul has been in custody, though probably close by, but we can trace the presence of Luke by what? By the presence of the pronoun we. When Luke is there, he says we did this and we did that. When Luke's not there, he said they did this, they did that.

And suddenly the pronoun changes in chapter 27 verse 1 when he says, and when it was decided that we should sail to Italy. So Dr. Luke is accompanying Paul and we learn in verse 2 that he's also accompanied by one Aristarchus of Thessalonica and he has also appeared previously in the record in Acts. And so two others are accompanying Paul and one well respected commentator who was very familiar with the customs and culture of that day suggests that probably the only way these two men could accompany a prisoner, could be allowed to go along in the company of a prisoner and also at some expense to Rome in order to be able to do that, they had to present themselves as servants of Paul. No way to prove this, the Bible doesn't say, but it's a good possibility knowing the customs and culture of that day that Dr. Luke and Aristarchus said we are Paul's servants, we are his attendants which of course not only allowed them to accompany Paul and they wanted to be there to help him out, but also raised Paul's status in the eyes of the centurion and others. Here's a man who's not only a Roman citizen, but he is of high enough status to have two servants to attend him as only the well connected would be able to do and so Paul is going off to Rome under these conditions. And he is placed in the custody of a man named Julius, almost certainly named after Julius Caesar, the people of that day, particularly those who wanted to advance in the Roman system, tended to adopt names of famous people who had helped them or who they wanted to identify themselves with in some way. And so a centurion by the name of Julius who is attached to, we are told here, the Augustan regiment, the Augustan cohort, a cohort was a company of 600 men, there would be six centurions, remember, 100 soldiers each that would make up a cohort, but the Augustan regiment was a title, an honorary title that was given only to a small number of elite cohorts or regiments and this is one of them. So we take it that Julius, being part of that particular elite regiment, was rather highly honored within the Roman military system. And he would certainly have had soldiers accompanying him, probably not all 100 of his men as a centurion, that would be quite a sizable company.

It's not entirely impossible. The larger boat they were on ended up having, and they tell us, Luke tells us exactly, when it was shipwrecked they had 276 people on board. It's possible that 100 of those were Roman soldiers, but I don't think it's likely particularly because the first vessel they boarded was considerably smaller, and it would have been not likely that 100 soldiers would be able to be accommodated on that smaller vessel. So, reference number one to this centurion, his identity is revealed. Reference number two, his disposition is displayed. Verse three. And the next day, we landed at Sidon, and Julius treated Paul kindly and gave him liberty to his friends, gave him liberty to go to his friends and receive care.

The journey begins. The centurion engages a ship of Adramateum to take his prisoners and his soldiers on board. This would be a smaller coasting vessel. There were a lot of those smaller vessels, smaller ships, that stayed within sight of land. And this coasting vessel would have gone along north along the coast, and then west on the south of Turkey all the way along the coast, and then turning northward again after they got to the end of Turkey, they would have headed up the coast, the west coast of Turkey to their home port.

That's where they were going. A ship of Adramateum, which is on the northwest coast of Asia, or what we call today Turkey. And so it's a smaller coasting vessel that's heading home.

It's not going to Italy. It would have been going to its port city, and then no doubt making a return trip back down the coast, back down the same route that they had followed, back no doubt to Caesarea once again. But as this ship begins, they come to their first port of call, which is the city of Sidon, 70 miles north of Caesarea, which is where they first began, which would be one day sailing under good conditions. They had apparently good weather, good winds, and one day later they arrived at Sidon, where they had cargo either to load, or unload, or both load and unload. They may have had cargo to take off, may have had cargo to put on the ship.

Apparently not a huge amount of cargo because they're going to be able to handle that in a matter of a few hours. But during the time they're there, and this is the point, Julius allows Paul Liberty to get off the boat and to go visit his friends in the city, which indicates to us that there is a church in the city of Sidon, probably established in the evangelistic activity that is recorded in chapter 11 and verse 19. We aren't even told that he was accompanied by a soldier.

He might have been, but it's very evident that he's not in chains. Julius was very kind to Paul. Julius treated him as an honored Roman citizen, even though he was a prisoner in the care of Julius, and Julius trusted him. And we learn something now about the disposition of this man, Julius. He's very kind toward Paul.

And so God once again uses a Gentile idolater, who does not know the Lord, to take good care of his servant Paul. And we also realize that Julius, by his attitude, was evidently not inflated by his superior position. He doesn't try to act the big shot. He doesn't try to demonstrate how much authority he has. He's not jerking people around and treating Paul roughly, but just the opposite. He's treating him very kindly. He holds his authority lightly.

Well, he knows how to use it when it's necessary, but he holds his authority very lightly. Good lessons for people today. Certainly good lessons for Christians today.

If God gives you authority, and all of us have some kind of authority and some sphere of life, let's learn to hold it lightly, to not let it inflate our ego, to not try to act like the big shot, but to be kind and courteous toward those who are beneath us in levels of authority, as Julius, a pagan idolater, illustrates how this should be done. Well, we come to the third reference, and we learn of Julius that his fidelity is manifested, and that's verse 6. There, we read, the centurion found an Alexandrian ship sailing to Italy and put us on board. I didn't read the intervening verses, though I read them earlier, but the journey continued on from Sidon. They sailed north, on up north the coastline, and then they sailed west, and that put them north of the island of Cyprus, which sheltered them from some of the winds that were beginning to blow. But they were still close within sight of the coast of Asia, and they arrived at Myra, that would be about halfway along the southern coast of Turkey.

Myra, which is a major port for large grain ships coming from Egypt, and if you look at a map, you'll realize that Myra is just about exactly due north across the Mediterranean Sea from Alexandria, Egypt. And Rome depended upon grain, lots of grain. Who eat another grain that was grown in Egypt in order to feed Rome?

They didn't have enough grain to feed themselves. And so Rome had actually built a whole fleet of imperial grain ships, an imperial grain fleet of ships. They were all privately owned, but they were all commissioned into the Roman system of transportation for grain to be carried to Rome on a regular basis. And that's exactly what this ship is doing. And they liked to sail straight north up to Myra, that was a major port, and then from there they would make their way on west to Italy.

But in this particular case, the sailing conditions didn't give them the privilege of going their normal route. But in Myra, a transfer occurs, and the ship that's not going to Italy is now left, and this large cargo ship with Egyptian grain that is destined for Italy is employed. Now these Egyptian cargo ships, these grain ships were huge by the standards of that day and would even be pretty large today. In that they could measure up to 180 feet long and up to five stories high.

Think of a five story building. Julius secures passage for his company on this ship. And by the way, they had 276 passengers, but that was probably only part of their capacity because Josephus describes traveling on a similar ship that had 600 passengers on board. And his ship wrecked also, and he survived as well.

But what does this show us? Julius is focused on his assignment. His assignment is to bring these prisoners safely to Rome, and he's doing his job. He has a lot of liberty, he has resources, he has the money to be able to pay the fare on these ships, he's doing what he's commissioned to do, and he's a military officer. He's pictured to us as a military officer who is faithfully discharging his assignment. Again, a man who doesn't know God, he is a Gentile, he is a pagan, he worships idols, but he is a faithful man who does what he is assigned to do. Are you such a person?

You surely ought to be. If an unbeliever can be that faithful to his assignment, surely believers can be even more faithful to your assignments, both in this world and, more importantly, the assignment which God has given you to be an ambassador for the Lord Jesus Christ. That brings us then to reference number four, where we see his worldly wisdom is exercised.

Are you following me? Number one, his identity is revealed. Number two, his disposition is displayed. Number three, his fidelity is manifested.

And number four, his worldly wisdom is exercised, verses 11 and 12. Nevertheless, we read the centurion was more persuaded by the helmsman and the owner of the ship than by the things spoken by Paul, and because the harbor was not suitable to winter in, the majority advised to set sail from there also if by any means they could reach Phoenix, a harbor of Crete opening toward the southwest and northwest in winter there. The voyage soon becomes dangerous.

This large grain ship from Egypt sailing to Rome is having trouble, and we read about that in verses 7 and following. It's very slow sailing to Nidus, which is the westernmost city on the southern coast of Turkey. Once you pass Nidus, then if you're going to stay inside of the coast of Turkey, you have to turn north and go along the coast in a northerly direction. And so they got as far as Nidus. They were staying as close to land as possible because already winds were beginning to blow. But now having reached as far as they could go in the shelter of the land, they wanted to continue going westwardly, which would now take them across open water not in sight of land, but the winds didn't allow them to do that, and so the only course they were able to take was to sail south until they could get to the island of Crete and sail under on the south side of the island of Crete to protect them from the winds that were blowing from the north.

And they arrived eventually in a port called Fair Havens, a good name for a port to get out of the weather. And Dr. Luke tells us that by this time the fast was already passed, and that's a reference to the Day of Atonement. The Old Testament Scriptures only prescribed one fast one time a year for the people of God. How is it, therefore, that in the first century we find the Pharisees so proud of the fact that they fasted twice a week and paraded that as evidence of their godliness? Where did they get this twice a week fasting stuff? It didn't come from the Old Testament Scriptures. The Old Testament Scriptures prescribed one fast once a year on the Day of Atonement, that sacred day when the high priest would enter into the Holy of Holies, the only time during the year when he could go, and would sprinkle blood on the mercy seat in order to cover the sins of the nation before a holy god for another year so that his judgment, his just judgment, would not fall upon them.

And while that was taking place, God's people were supposed to be fasting, going without food, to think about their sins which had been committed and which were now being mercifully atoned by the blood of the bull upon the mercy seat. But that Day of Atonement would vary in the calendar year. It's kind of like Easter. It tends to jump around a little bit in the calendar. But it always happens sometime in the last part of what is to us now September, up to about the first half of October in that period. And in AD, or yeah, 59 AD, or AD 59 I think in the ADs you put the AD before the date. It's the BCs that go after, right?

I always have to stop and think about that, and then I'm never quite sure. But in my notes I put a 59 AD, but I think I got it backwards. I think it's AD 59. Is that right, any of you scholars? AD first, thank you.

I'm glad we've got a scholar down here on the front row, and probably quite a few more on other rows. Alright, AD 59, the Day of Atonement was on October 5. That's what I was getting at, October 5. And that's probably the year in which this took place.

Hard to be certain, but that's probably the year this took place. AD 59, Day of Atonement, October 5. And what does that mean?

Let me tell you what that means. As far as sailing on the Mediterranean, there were six weeks of dangerous sailing, and then three months of impossible navigation, when nobody could sail. And the six weeks of dangerous sailing, when it was pretty iffy, pretty dangerous, not the time you really wanted to get out on the open sea, maybe you'd be willing to risk going along the coast where you could dive into shore quickly if necessary. And those six weeks began the middle of September and continued to the end of October, six-week stretch. So if the day of the fast, the Day of Atonement, October 5, was now past, they were about in the middle or a little more of this dangerous period of sailing on the Mediterranean Sea.

And then the period of no navigation, three months long, began the first of November and continued to the first of February. So under those conditions and in that schedule, at that time on the calendar, they arrived in the port of Fairhaven. And they called a council of the people on board ship who would have some authority and some knowledge and have some kind of an informed opinion as to what they ought to do. And Paul is part of that council.

That's interesting again. They called the ship's captain, they called the ship's owner, they called the centurion, who because it was an imperial grain ship that was under the authority of the Roman government, he was the ranking officer aboard ship and he was really in charge. And apparently they called some others because there's reference made here to the majority. But they called together this council and Paul is sitting on the council, this prisoner. And Paul advised them. And he advised them according to personal experience, which he'd had plenty of that. He tells us elsewhere that he had been shipwrecked several times in the Mediterranean. He had sailed on the Mediterranean a lot in his missionary journeys. He knew a great deal about conditions of sailing on the Mediterranean.

And so in this particular case, his council is not based upon a vision from God, but it is based upon his considerable experience. And he tells them that if they proceed, that disaster is almost certain to befall them with the loss of the ship and even with the loss of life. His advice is stay put. Stay in the port of Fairhavens until February.

Now that's going to be quite a while, about up to four months. But that's better than shipwreck, isn't it, and loss of life. But Paul's council is ignored. The centurion waives all the competing recommendations, and then he makes his decision accordingly. And he chooses to follow the advice of the professional seamen. It's not that he completely discounted what Paul had to say, but Paul is not a sailor. Paul is not a pilot, a ship's pilot, like this man who spent his whole life guiding ships across the Mediterranean Sea. Paul is not the captain of the ship who would have been also the owner of the ship, captain slash owner, who also had considerable experience in shipping.

He captained his own grain ships across the Mediterranean on a regular basis. And so it seemed like the wisest course of action to take the advice of the professional seamen as knowledgeable and experienced and as wise as Paul is. He doesn't have as much knowledge and experience as these other men. And furthermore, they would seem to have more at stake. The ship owner has the most at stake. They didn't have insurance in those days. If he loses his ship, he is losing a fortune, like a millionaire losing his millions just in one blow.

And so Julius is weighing all of this to come to a thoughtful decision. And the majority says, let's sail on 60 more miles. It's not that far under good conditions. They could do that in one day.

They had done it earlier, 70 miles in one day. Sixty more miles from Fairhaven to Phoenix because Fairhaven's not really the most ideal harbor. And we don't know exactly what it was about Fairhaven's that made it less ideal than Phoenix. Apparently it wasn't as large a harbor, maybe not as well protected a harbor. And I rather suspect that maybe it didn't have as many accommodations on shore for the sailors for a long time to be there with nothing to do except to frequent the bars and entertain themselves during this time.

And Fairhaven maybe didn't have the accommodations, which they preferred, and so they advise, sail on just 60 miles, just one good day's journey, and maybe a couple, three hard days if the weather's not good. Sail on 60 miles to Phoenix, which seemed like the right decision from a natural viewpoint because Julius at this time had no capacity to understand the insight that Paul had. He had no capacity to understand that Paul had access to insight information that these other people didn't have. He had no capacity for a spiritual dimension. And so he made his decision according to worldly wisdom, and it proved to be a costly mistake.

As we see, it ends in disaster for the ship, and only by the grace of God are their lives saved. And I wonder how many of us here today have made the same mistake of basing decisions upon the best advice that educated people have to offer, the best advice that scientific people have to offer, the best advice that the worldly wise have to offer, but ignore the greater insight that comes to us from the Word of God. And I'm not talking about visions. I'm not talking about God speaking to you in the middle of the night. I'm not talking about angels coming and telling you what to do. I'm just talking about the understanding which comes from Scripture, which the natural man has no capacity to understand, just like Julius had no capacity to understand. And so he was making a decision, a good informed decision, based upon the best knowledge that he had available to him, not being able to understand spiritual things, but it proved to be a great mistake.

And some of you have made similar mistakes in the past, and maybe some of you are in the throes of weighing a similar decision now. And I urge you, look to the Lord. I urge you, get on your knees in prayer. I urge you, search the Scriptures. I urge you, ask God to give you insight from His Word to add to, to add to the information that's available to you from natural sources. But now we come number five to his understanding is enlarged. And now something's about to change, and this is the whole section from verses 13 and following.

But disaster unfolds. They start out with favorable conditions, and they thought that's proof that our decision was the right one. Verse 13, when the south wind blew softly, supposing that they had obtained their desire, putting out to sea, they sailed close by Crete. If you have maps in the back of your Bible, and I would encourage you to look at them, you can look and see that Crete is a very long, narrow island, I mean relatively narrow, very long in the Mediterranean.

So it has a long coastline to travel along and to shelter them from the weather. And so they're going along in the shelter of the island of Crete and with favorable winds and weather. The sun is shining, everything's right.

And you say, see there? If Julius had been a Christian and if the pilot and if the owner of the ship had been a Christian, they would have said, see there? God opened the door for us to sail. That was God's will. Be careful about how you interpret circumstances. It's very easy to interpret favorable circumstances as God's will and God's open door when it's not at all.

And it certainly is not if it's something contrary to revelation that God has given. But favorable conditions encourage the decision, but no sooner had they gotten out of port and started sailing than a dangerous storm quickly arose, a northeastern, easter, a northeaster-er, and it's named here. They named their storms then like we name our hurricanes now, Eurycledon. And the ship was driven in a westwardly direction. The winds had been coming from the west and had been opposing them, trying to go west, but now suddenly this storm arises out of the northeast and it's driving them, it's driving behind them, and it's driving them out to sea, west from Crete. And they don't know exactly where they are. It's dark, it's stormy, there's no stars, there's no moon, that's the way they navigated in those days. They can't tell where they are, and they know if they are driven far enough west and south, they are very likely to get stranded in the shallow waters off the coast of Africa. The sandy, shallow waters where many a ship of that size has been lost by being stranded and then beaten apart.

So they start jettisoning their cargo and the hurricane goes on for many days, two weeks altogether before it's over, and they abandon all hope of being staved. And now Paul begins to exert his leadership because he's the only one left who I think wants to exert any leadership at this point. And so in verse 21 he reminds them of his previous counsel, men you should have listened to me.

Some people look at that and say that wasn't very, very gracious. What Paul's actually saying is, I told you so, I told you so. But he said it kindly and they needed to hear it.

They needed to be reminded that if they had listened to him to start with, they wouldn't be in the mess they're in now. Therefore, what he's saying is, please don't repeat that mistake for your own good, for your own sake. Please now listen to me. If you'd listened to me before, you would have been good for you.

You didn't, but now listen to me and I can help you. And he assures them of divine deliverance, though he tells them that they will ground upon an island. And so they're driven more through the Mediterranean, and the sailors try to abandon ship secretly, take the only, what do you call those boats? Yeah, lifeboat, there it is, I couldn't hear you. One lifeboat, they've got one lifeboat, and they'd almost lost it in the storm. They talked earlier about how, with what difficulty they've been able to pull it up on the ship.

They normally would tow it behind the boat. And they had one lifeboat and the sailors decide that they're going to sneak away in the one lifeboat and just leave the ship with not a single sailor on board who knows how to sail the thing. And Paul sees them, no doubt God alerted him to it. An angel probably tapped him on the shoulder and said, Paul, look at that, stop them. And Paul warns them, and he tells them, if those men do this, then you can't be saved. And the centurion, now he's listening to Paul. And he gives the command, and the soldiers cut the ropes, and the lifeboat falls in the sea.

Now, I don't know if they were required to do that. He could have just stopped the sailors from using it, but it shows that he is placing himself completely in dependence upon Paul. He's willing to let the lifeboat go.

He's not depending upon anything except this one man that he now has confidence in. You see, we're talking about his understanding is enlarged. And now Paul's counsel prevails. The centurion has learned to listen to Paul. Does he now understand Paul's relationship to God?

We're not told that, but it sure seems like it. How else is he willing to entrust himself completely to this man? And Paul counsels them to eat, and he prays for the food and eats it himself to set an example.

And they all follow his example, all 276 eat. And then the commander gives the command and tells everybody, abandon ship and get to shore the best way you can. He says all those who can swim go first. Everybody can swim, jump in the water and swim to shore.

All right, they're on their way. Now, everybody else, you grab a plank or whatever you can find to hold on to, and you get in the water and paddle for dear life. And in the midst of a storm, this ship has, they had seen a beach that they thought they could ground on. But as they tried to do it, the prow of the ship stuck in the shallow waters quite a ways from shore. And the prow is stuck, and the stern of the ship is being torn to pieces by the waves, the fierce waves of the storm. So there are plenty of boards getting torn loose. And they, all 276 of them, jump in the water and make it to land safely.

Not a single one is lost. How do you explain that? Paul said tonight, an angel from God stood by me and told me that there would be deliverance, not only for myself, but everybody who was with me in this ship. And the sixth thing about the centurion is his appreciation is expressed in verse 43. But the centurion, wanting to save Paul, kept them from their purpose and commanded those who could swim jump overboard first and get to land. What's he talking about? Well, the soldiers had decided that under these circumstances, the best thing for them to do was to kill all the prisoners.

Why? Because under Roman regulations, if a soldier had been given charge of a prisoner and the prisoner escaped, then the soldier received the same sentence that had been passed upon the prisoner. And if the prisoner was designated for execution, then the soldier would be executed. And so here they're at a place where if they get away, they can scatter. Who knows where we can find these prisoners?

They're going to all get scattered and gone. And so the safest thing for me is to kill the prisoners. These soldiers don't show a lot of integrity, except they have no concern for anyone but themselves, unlike Julius. Julius is a man of much greater honor, and Julius is determined to save Paul. In order to save Paul, he forbids the soldiers from killing any of the prisoners. All of them must be allowed to get loose, to go to land the best they can. And again, Julius is just going to trust Paul, and I think the god of Paul, to look out for them in this situation, and he does. None of the prisoners escape.

Kind of like the Philippian jail. The doors were thrown open, but none of the prisoners escape. There was an unseen hand that kept them from doing that.

Unseen hand got them to shore here, but kept them from scattering. But Julius' appreciation is expressed in his preservation of Paul. He's learned to appreciate Paul, Paul's wisdom, his integrity, his godliness. Julius is the kind of man who will express his appreciation.

Are you? Again, a pagan showing us the way. If someone has helped you, express appreciation. If someone has been used by God to do you a kindness or to help you in some way, don't be a heathen and just ignore it. Learn from this idolater to express appreciation. Well, two lessons we should take from this passage before we're done.

The first one is to recognize the beneficial presence of God's people in this world. Paul's presence saved all the other prisoners. They were spared because of him, otherwise they'd all be dead. And beyond that, all 276 people on board were spared.

Why? Because of Paul's presence. God chose to spare Paul and all who were with him.

He benefited all of them in that way. The Bible talks about unbelieving spouses being blessed by God because of their believing husband or wife, their partner. A Christian husband or wife is of benefit to the unsaved partner. God's word says so. The United States of America has been greatly blessed because of the presence of Christians in America. This is a reminder of that. If all the Christians were taken out of America, and some people wish they were, wish we were, some people would like to see every one of us God.

You cannot imagine what this country would become if that happened. This country is, as bad as it is, is being kept from total destruction and disaster because of the, no doubt, millions of God's people who are scattered throughout America. There's a benefit to the presence of God's people.

And then the second lesson is the beneficial effects of difficult circumstances. When we become sufficiently desperate, we're often willing to listen to God and to listen to God's messengers. When things were a little bit tough but not so bad, Julius doesn't listen to God's messenger. When things get really bad, he's ready to listen to God's messenger.

Is there a lesson there? How desperate must America become before it's going to start listening to God's word again? I don't know, but I pray that's what God is doing with this mess that's going on now. I pray that God is bringing America to desperation so we will stop trusting in our human wisdom and start looking to God's word and seeking the guidance of Almighty God.

If it has that effect, we will be grateful for it. How desperate are some of you going to have to become before you start listening to God? Some of you can trace times in your life when God got your attention through illness. God got your attention through the death of a loved one. God got your attention through the loss of a job. God got your attention through difficult circumstances. You weren't paying him any attention until he brought those things into your life. And he got your attention. I'm going to come back now and say that was one of the best things that ever happened to me because it caused me to look to God.

Are some of you there now? Some of you who need to look to God, if you're not there now, I tell you, you've probably got some even tougher days ahead if God will be merciful and kind to you. God sends these things and uses them as he chooses to.

There's no guarantee that desperate circumstances are going to have this effect unless God works in them. But if he does, what a blessing, what a benefit, what mercy and goodness from God. Shall we pray? Teach us thy ways and show us thy paths, we pray. Amen.