Welcome to Connect with Skip Heitzig. We're glad you've joined us for today's program. Connect with Skip Heitzig exists to connect you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times through verse-by-verse teaching of His Word. That's why we make messages like this one today available to you and others on air and online. Before we kick off today's teaching, we want to let you know that you can stay in the know about what's happening at Connect with Skip Heitzig when you sign up for email updates. When you do, you'll also receive Skip's weekly devotional email to inspire you with God's Word each week. So sign up today at connectwithskip.com.
That's connectwithskip.com. Now let's get into today's teaching from Pastor Skip Heitzig. In fact, their favorite thing to watch on television is the Weather Channel.
I kid you not. I remember hearing this, I go, I don't get it. I mean, okay, it's like you hear it once a day, move on. But then I started watching the Weather Channel when I thought, this is kind of addicting.
You know, I kind of like it. And there was a special segment on there called Storm Stories. I don't even know if it's still on. I've sort of been weaned off the Weather Channel since then. But Storm Stories, so they fascinate me how storms generate and what happens and how the people survive them, etc. Acts 27 is the storm stories of the New Testament. And by the way, my friends that I talked to you about, their favorite chapters in the Bible is Acts 27. It is the last voyage of Paul the Apostle, last recorded voyage of Paul the Apostle.
We believe after this he will travel again and be re-arrested. But this is the last recorded in Scripture voyage of the Apostle Paul. It lasts all of chapter 27, which is 44 verses long, I believe, and into chapter 28 down to about verse 15 or 16. So a chapter and a half, Luke gives the details of this voyage. It is one of the most famous stories in ancient history of seagoing and a shipwreck. There are many stories that are told in antiquity, but this is one of the most famous. And of all ancient stories of shipwrecks, this happens to be the most detailed. And because of that fact, scholars for years have studied Acts 27 just to get an idea of how boats were built, how people traveled, and what the facts were concerning seagoing voyages.
So that is what is before us in Acts chapter 27. Now, I don't know if you have traveled much on the ocean. Chances are, where we live, many of you have not. But if you have been in the Navy, or you have gone fishing on boats, or spent much time in the sea, you'll be able to sympathize a little bit with the people who are a part of this voyage. I've never had the experiences of Paul the Apostle, though I was involved in a small shipwreck at one time, not on any capacity like this. But my first memory of a tough time at the ocean is going over to Catalina Island from Southern California. My dad would take us over to Catalina, but one time he took us deep sea fishing. And I just could not wait to get on that boat and, you know, fish out in the open ocean until I got on the boat. And as a kid, you just got a picture of a kid who was out there for two days, and the first day he was basically just feeding the fish. I mean, he was just hanging his head overboard, green in color, and just chucking up a storm.
It was horrible for me. And then years later, I had another experience of going across the English Channel from England over to France, over to Belgium I think it was at the time. And it was before the channel was built, and we were just on the ship, and it was a little humorous, I have to admit, for me to see these well-mannered, well-dressed British citizens just hanging their heads over the deck feeding the fish. I don't know why it just struck me as funny, but it did. In Chapter 27, as Paul is going now to Rome, he is, he believes, and I believe with him right in the middle of the will of God. He always wanted to go to Rome. It was a heart desire that he had. He even wrote about it.
He spoke about it. And back in Chapter 19, he says, I'm going to Macedonia in the areas of Achaia, then I have to go to Jerusalem for the feast, and then he said this, then I must see Rome. It's got to happen.
I've got to do it. I must see Rome. Well, people warned him not to go to Jerusalem because bad things would happen. He would get arrested.
He said, quit bothering me about that. I'm ready not only to get arrested, I'm ready to die if that's what the Lord wants. Sure enough, he gets arrested. Taken to Caesarea, spends two years there, goes through three different trials. Before Felix, a governor of Judea, Festus, another governor who succeeded him, and then King Agrippa, Herod Agrippa II. He appealed to Caesar because he felt he was getting the runaround, and so Agrippa said, well, you could have escaped all this because we can't find that you have done anything wrong, but you appealed to Caesar, so you're going to Caesar. But Paul believed, even though he was beaten, even though he was arrested, even though he had several missed trials with poor evidence, he believed he was in the will of God. And the reason he felt so sure is that when he was arrested in Jerusalem and then taken to Caesarea, the Lord appeared to him at night in a vision and said, be of good cheer, Paul.
Cheer up, man. Even as you have testified of me in Jerusalem, so you must also bear witness in Rome. The Lord told him, you're going to Rome. So he's on a ship beginning in verse 1 of chapter 27 in what he believes is the will of God. Now, we're going to look at a boat trip, a storm story.
But while we look at this literally, let's just keep something tucked in the back of our little minds, and that is, as true as this is historically and literally, there are some parallels spiritually. Because Paul's whole life really was a storm. He'd never had it easy. He followed relentlessly the will of God, but it never came simply.
He fought, it seems, at every turn. And all of us, as we sail through life, we go through storms. We have our own storm stories. And this chapter shows us how to cope with it, how to deal with it. So we're going to look at it historically, literally, but then also make some applications of us going through trials, difficult times, storms, and what to do as we do.
Every human being faces heartache, trouble, difficulty, every single one of them. Job said, as surely man is born, he is destined to trouble. As the sparks fly upward, man is born to trouble. In other words, you can count on it. It's a fact of life.
It's like the fire and the heat ascends and the little sparks of fire would go upward, ascend upward. A fact of life. It's a fact of life that you're going to go through trouble. Jesus said the rain falls on the just and the unjust alike.
But, though all people experience trouble, we experience a very unique kind of trouble. Because if you passionately love Jesus, you are also aware that we have an enemy of our souls who passionately hates Jesus and His cause. And Paul understood this. Paul understood that as he traveled to Lystra and Derby, Iconium, Athens, Corinth, Ephesus, Philippi, he understood that he wasn't going to a playground but a battleground. That he was doing warfare. That he had an enemy who was trying to stop him.
And so he kept that in perspective. No matter what happened here, he believes he's in the will of God. So, the end of chapter 26, Agrippa said to Festus, last verse, verse 32, this man might have been set free if he had not appealed to Caesar. And when it was determined, verse 1, chapter 27, 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. Paul is not alone.
There are other prisoners with him. Now, we're going to discover just how many as we continue reading, if by God's good grace we make it through this chapter tonight. We'll understand that the total number of persons aboard the ship were 276.
Crew members, people who watched the cargo, the captain and his small group crew, and prisoners, 276 altogether. So, Paul and all of them are given under the direction of Julius, a centurion of the Augustan regiment. Now, in the Roman army, the backbone of the Roman army was a centurion.
It's amazing to me, and I'll get to this in a second, it's amazing to me the quality of character that shows up in the Roman military ranks, especially among centurions. You're listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. Before we return to Skip's teaching, we want to tell you about this month's resource titled The Holy Spirit Then and Now, which comes with two books by Chuck Smith. The Book of Acts commentary will help you understand how the Holy Spirit worked in the early church, and Power, a biblical balance on the person and work of the Holy Spirit, will help you see how he works in you. You'll be inspired as you discover that the same spirit who worked in Paul, Peter, and the early church is active and involved in your life today. We'll send you the Holy Spirit then and now as our thanks for your gift of $50 or more to reach more people with God's love through Connect with Skip Heitzig.
Go to connectwithskip.com slash offer or call 800-922-1888 and request your copy when you give. Now, let's get back to Skip for more of today's teaching. They were really great at picking leaders in the military. They were not so good at choosing leaders in politics. Their Caesars, their governors were wacky.
But what's new? I mean, in politics, it's different than in the military. It's a difficult field, the political field. I admire prayerfully anybody, any Christian who says, I want to get involved in politics.
I want to pray them up because it's so difficult to do a political dance. A soldier is different. And so the kind of people that rose to the top in the Roman military were amazing. I said they were the backbone of the Roman army. A centurion was over a century, a hundred men. There were 60 centuries in allegiance. There were 6,000 men in a legion divided by 60 centuries. So you had 60 centurions in a Roman legion. They were risk-takers. They were bold, but they were steady usually in personality. And I mentioned that they are noteworthy in the New Testament.
There's an incredible quality about them even when it comes to understanding the principle of faith, especially faith in God. For example, one day Jesus is up around near Capernaum where his headquarters was up in the Galilee, and a centurion came to him and implored him that he would heal his servant. And Jesus said, sure, man, I'll come to your house. Let's go.
I'll follow you. And the centurion said, oh, no, no. I'm not worthy that you should even step into my roof, into my home. You could just from here at a distance speak a word and I know my servant will be healed because I'm a man under authority and I'm a man of authority. Being under authority, I know what it is to take orders.
Being a man of authority, I know what it is to give orders. I say to one, do this. He does it. To another, do that. He does it. So I know that you can speak and you have the authority from a distance. You don't even have to touch them.
You don't have to sully your feet by coming into my house. Just speak the word, man, and he'll be healed. And Jesus marveled and said, I haven't found this kind of faith even in all of Israel. So high marks for a centurion. At the cross when Jesus was crucified, there was a storm. The sky darkened.
There was an earthquake. And after Jesus died, the centurion presiding over that said, surely, truly, this man is the Son of God. What a statement of faith. Then we read about in chapter 10 of the book of Acts a guy named Cornelius a centurion. He was in Caesarea.
He summoned Peter to come and tell him about the gospel. And it says Cornelius was a man who feared God, gave alms to the people, and prayed always. That's a Roman centurion. That sounds like a pastor. That sounds like a reverend.
That sounds like a New Testament Christian. It's a Roman centurion pre-conversion. So this one is named Julius. That's just his name. A very common name. A centurion of the Augustan regiment.
And so entering a ship of Adrimidium we put to sea, meaning to sail along the coast of Asia, Aristarchus, a Macedonian of Thessalonica, was with us. Now let's just pause here and consider Paul on this trip. It's going to be a tough trip. His whole life's been tough. This journey is tough.
Nothing comes easy. If you think, if I'm in God's will, things are just going to run smooth, banish that thought. Yes, the Lord may open doors, create opportunities for you, confirm His will by doing so, but it doesn't mean that the path is going to be smooth and problem-free.
Au contraire. You now walk around with a bullseye and the enemy will do everything he can, though God is ultimately in control. So Paul is getting what he always wanted, sort of. He wanted to go to Rome, but he didn't just think he was going to go like this. He thought he would go as a missionary, as a clergyman. But he's not going as a clergyman. He's going as a convict. He wanted to go to Rome.
God said, absolutely. I'll let you go to Rome and I'll have Rome pick up the tab. Catch is, you've got to be a prisoner. To get a free ride, you've got to be in this prison ship. The Jews used to have a saying.
It's still famous in some Yiddish and Jewish circles. Man makes plans and God laughs. Paul had it all planned out in his head, probably, of how it was going to go down. He did not quite expect the way it did go down.
But the Lord is superintending his steps all the way along. Now you'll notice that we entered a ship, verse 2, we put to sea, meaning to sail along the coast of Asia. So the plan is to go and hug the coast.
You'll see soon that we're entering the fall time of the year. It's dangerous to sail in the Mediterranean in the winter. Always has been. Sailors know that.
So this ship is going to hug the coast, going up north along the coast of Lebanon and then Asia Minor and then going to cut across and stay along the coast. Now you'll notice that Paul has traveling companions. This is weird.
It's unheard of. Prisoners don't get to bring traveling companions with them. The only way a traveling companion could come along with a prisoner is if they were slaves of that prisoner. So Aristarchus, the Macedonian brother, and Dr. Luke would have said, we are Paul's slaves. Or, number two, and this is probably it, Agrippa, as well as Festus, must have known Paul was innocent. And because he was a Roman citizen, granted him certain leeway, certain favors. Because it was just unheard of that a slave could bring traveling companions, Paul was allowed to do that, and he was able to bring Luke, who was part of this trip.
He's writing about it. So, verse 3, The next day we landed at Sidon, and Julius treated Paul kindly, this is also interesting, and gave him liberty to go to his friends and receive care. Again, it's sort of weird that somebody of Roman notoriety who's in charge of prisoners would say, well, Paul, listen, you've got friends here, go for a couple days, enjoy fellowship with them, go hang out at the church you guys started, then come back and get on the prison ship again and we'll keep going. It's weird because if a Roman centurion, a soldier, a guardsman, who had charge of the prisoners, if a prisoner escaped his control, that soldier would incur the punishment that that prisoner should have gotten. All I can think of is that Paul was able to win his heart rather quickly.
Maybe there was just something about Paul where this centurion said, I know people, I know men, I've been around a lot of different people, and I know I can trust them. So, it happened. They were at Sidon. I happened to go to Sidon. You know, I've always wanted to go to Sidon. I flew into Beirut, and for years my buddy, who's the pastor of a church up there, said, hey, let me go to Sidon, and he always says, no, no, it's too dangerous. It's a radical Islamic city, you can't go there, you'll stand out like a banana among, you know, figs.
They're going to hunt you down. So, I talked to one of his assistants without him knowing it, and I said, hey, can you drive me to Sidon? And he goes, sure, man, I'll take you to Sidon if you want to risk it.
I said, I want to risk it. Well, when Sammy, my buddy, found out, everybody goes, oh, no, no, no, you can't go, and so he prevented me, but the next day he put me himself in his car, and a couple of us, Murray, you were there with us, and we drove down to Sidon. So, I was able to get out of the car and take a picture of this cool Crusader fortress. I'd always wanted to see it, and then Sammy and the gang said, get in the car quick, because they saw a gang, a local gang, kind of coming my way.
I stood out like a sore thumb. So, anyway, we faced that. Paul got there and had a welcoming committee when he was there, because there were believers at that time. Verse 4, when we had put to sea, from there we sailed under the shelter of Cyprus, that large island where Barnabas was from, if you remember, because the winds were contrary, and when we had sailed over the sea, which is off Cilicia and Pamphylia, we came to Myra, a city of Lycia, and there the centurion found an Alexandrian ship sailing to Italy, and he put us on board. So, they take the prisoners off one boat and put them all on this boat. This boat is from Alexandria, Egypt. It's an Egyptian grain vessel. Rome got most of its wheat and bread supplies from Egypt.
They had a contract with that nation. So, there were shipments regularly going over, and we know this was a grain ship, because when we get down to verse 38, God willing by tonight, maybe not, but God willing, we find out that there was grain aboard that they threw out to be able to survive the storm. So, it's a grain ship going from Egypt to Italy. In those days, there were no passenger ships. There were no Disney cruises. There was no love boat princess cruise of the Mediterranean, footsteps of Paul the Apostle, first class, second class, third class. There was just cargo ships and prisoners or people, certain amounts of people were allowed on board.
So, it was always in a combination. Now, something about this ship. We have discovered since this was written what these ships looked like. They were about 180 feet long, 50 feet across or wide, and the hull was 44 feet deep. It was a very sturdy ship to withstand Mediterranean sea travel.
However, it had some distinct disadvantages. Number one, it had no rudder. It was controlled by two large oars at the stern, the back, the rear of the ship. It only had one mass, not multiple mass. It had one solid mass with one sail that was square, a very rudimentary basic sailing vessel. And because of that, though it was sturdy, the disadvantage was you couldn't take it into the wind. You couldn't tack easily with that. So, it could end up just about anywhere.
It was sturdy, it was strong, it was slow moving, and it could not easily be controlled in problem situations. So, that's where we're going with this. We're glad you joined us today. Before you go, remember that when you give $50 or more to help reach more people with the gospel through Connect with Skip Heitzig, we'll send you The Holy Spirit Then and Now, featuring two books by Chuck Smith to help you understand how God's Spirit worked in the early church and how he's active in you today. To request your copy, call 800-922-1888.
That's 800-922-1888. Or, visit connectwithskip.com slash donate. For more from Skip, be sure to download the Connect with Skip Heitzig app, where you can access messages and more content right at your fingertips. Come back next time for more verse-by-verse teaching of God's Word, here on Connect with Skip Heitzig. Make a connection Make a connection At the foot of the crossing Cast your burdens on his word Make a connection A connection Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.
