Today is June 30th, the final day in our ministry year. To give a much-needed donation to Insight for Living, call 800-772-8888, or you can go to insight.org/slash donate. Yeah. While sailing to his criminal trial in Rome, the Apostle Paul encountered a terrifying storm. Luke recorded the alarming details, and we can only imagine what it was like for the sailors as their wooden vessel began sinking beneath them.
Today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindahl recounts this true story from biblical history and helps us understand the application for our times. Perhaps you find yourself weathering an unwanted storm in your life. This passage contains four timeless anchors for survival. Chuck titled today's message, How to Handle a Shipwreck. I want to read just a few excerpts, if I may, from the 27th of Acts.
If you're not familiar with your Bible, that's the fifth. book in the New Testament and Very near the end, this book has 28 chapters written by a physician named. Dr. Luke. who also wrote the gospel.
And Dr. Luke writes of this, and you see him. Appear in the tapestry of the text as you come across words like we and us and ourselves.
So Luke is in this scene, he was on the ship. that uh Was shipwrecked when they were shipwrecked. Acts 27, let me begin in verse 1. When it was decided that we should that we would sail for Italy They proceeded to deliver Paul and some other prisoners to the king. To a centurion of the Augustan cohort.
named Julius. And embarking in an Adramidian ship, which was about to sail to the regions. Along the coast of Asia. We put out to sea, accompanied by Aristarchus. A Macedonian of Thessalonica.
Verse 9. When considerable time had passed, and the voyage was now dangerous. Since even the fast was already over, Paul. Paul began to admonish them. And said to them, Men, I perceive that the voyage will certainly be with damage.
and great loss. not only of the cargo and the ship, But also Of our lives. But the centurion was more persuaded by the pilot. and the captain of the ship, then by what was being said, by Paul. Verse 14.
But before very long, there rushed down from the land a violent wind. Call you Rakwilal. And when the ship was caught in it and could not face the wind. We gave way to it. and let ourselves be driven along.
And verse 21, finally. When they had gone a long time without food, then Paul stood up in their midst and said, Men, you ought to have followed my advice. And not to have set sail from Crete and incurred this damage and loss. Yet, now I urge you. to keep up your courage.
For there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship. For this Very night. An angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood before me, saying, Do not be afraid, Paul. You must stand before Caesar. And behold, God has granted you all those who are sailing with you.
Therefore Keep up your courage, men. For I believe God that it will turn out exactly as I have been told. But We must run aground on a certain island. You're listening to Insight for Living. To dig deeper into the life of the Apostle Paul on your own, be sure to purchase our Searching the Scriptures Bible Study workbook by going to insight.org slash workbooks.
Chuck title today's message. How to handle a shipwreck. I've never seen a bumper sticker that read, I'd rather be shipwrecked. I've seen a number of bumper stickers along the coast where people. Promote I'd rather be sailing.
Never I'd rather be sinking. There's something exhilarating and exciting and even times adventurous and challenging about sailing across the seas. There's nothing fun about plunging into the cold waters of the deep, especially if there's a storm Abrew, and if there are high and violent winds and waves. and the water is deep. and frightening.
I have never had the experience of being shipwrecked. Though I have logged many hours on the sea, I have enjoyed the sea both as one who enjoys to fish, and I also enjoy sailing. especially when somebody else owns the boat. But I have never come. closer to a shipwreck than when I was On my way from San Diego to Yokohama, and we were on a troop ship that held about 3,500 Marines, as I recall, and we left the harbor of San Diego, and it seemed like the ship was just as huge as the largest building you could ever see.
But when you get out at sea four or five days and you hit a storm, that's unexpected. It's amazing how small that ship feels. We were in swells that were 40 to 50 feet high, our skipper later told us. In fact, no one was allowed on the deck, and he even mentioned after we got through the storm, which lasted about three days, where everybody on board was sick. He said he wasn't sure we were going to make it.
I'm glad he told us after the fact rather than as we were getting into it or in the middle of it. And then I was fishing out in the deep beyond Miami, a number of Years ago, with several friends, and one of those South Atlantic storms, a squall they call them, blew in, and The skies turned gray and then black and the Sea began to churn and And our little fishing boat. Vote. was suddenly, it seemed, at the mercy of the elements. drenching rain and Waves were coming over the bow and It didn't help when somebody mentioned we weren't that far from the devil's triangle.
I thought, we didn't have to know that, did we? Uh Uh I'll tell you what I did. First of all, I confessed every sin that I have ever committed. In fact, I believe I created some that I hadn't committed in case I had committed and had forgotten or didn't remember. And then I reviewed every verse I had learned since birth that I could recall.
brought them to my attention. I remember counting the life preservers. and uh standing very near the largest one that I could find, I got in the cabin with the skipper and I said to him, Do boats like this ever sink? He said, Yeah, the whole bottom of this ocean area is full of boats like ours that never made. And then I remember asking, how long would it take us to swim?
To Miami, and he just laughed. He said, We'd be dismembered by sharks in less than an hour if we I tried to act like that was funny when he said it and uh Obviously we made it and I look back on that as one of the most frightening of experiences. You are totally. out of control. And to make it worse, so is the skipper, who is the most seasoned and.
And uh should be the most mature one on the on the boat. Uh None of it was funny. It was treacherous. It's as if your life hangs in very thin. wires that could snap at any moment.
Well, we sit in a comfortable place as we hear the story of Acts chapter 27. And we're not getting wet. And there is no ship, everything is imaginary. We try to picture in our mind what it would have been like to be in that westerly direction on the Mediterranean.
Sounds sort of nice to hear that we're going to take a trip from Caesarea by the sea all the way to Rome. in Italy. Uh Until we put ourselves in the scene as Luke hoped we would when he wrote it. Understand, Luke is not a man who is that familiar with nautical terms. He's not a sailor, he's a physician.
And this isn't a ship's log. It isn't like an hour-by-hour, day-by-day account. It's more like a journal, if you will, of what seemed significant to Luke at the time. He wrote it. Uh And what begins very innocuously in a ship that leaves Caesarea.
Uh turns into one of the most frightening experiences in in in the apostles' life. Humanly speaking. In fact, you recall in 2 Corinthians, he mentions being in the deep, he mentions being shipwrecked. Uh You see, he had appealed his case to the emperor. And not only had it been told that it would go to Rome so that Caesar would hear his case.
But he had been told by God that he would go to Rome. 2311. Do you remember? The night immediately following, the Lord stood at his side and told him to take courage, as you have solemnly witnessed to my cause at Jerusalem. 23.11 concludes, You must witness.
at Rome also. That was a statement given to Paul Supernaturally with the Lord.
So he could rely on that. Nevertheless, though he was secure in that promise, he was on this ship. that was bound for trouble. And he was surrounded by Um 275 others who were uh operating with no promise in mind and all the panic that would be accompanied. by this event.
The destination is declared clearly in the first verse. It was decided we would sail for Italy. Remember, Luke is in it when he says we.
So Luke gets on the ship along with another traveling companion. Who is uh Uh Aristarchus verse 2, we know Virtually nothing about this Macedonian from Thessalonica, but they are traveling with Paul, and then along with Paul, Aristarchus, and Luke. is a large company of prisoners. who were going to be lion bait when they got to Rome. They would become the victims of Nero's Schemes and plans, no doubt.
And you can imagine what that group must have been like. Nevertheless, the plan was to go to Italy and to appear before the emperor. Let me pause here and say that Our tendency is to focus on circumstances. God's approach is always on the objective. At the time all hell breaks loose in our lives, we only feel the shattering of the deck of the ship.
the inner being of our souls, of our inner persons. Uh Paul travels free, paid for by the Roman Empire, as he travels under the authority of a man named Julius. Who is uh called here and augustine uh uh centurion And on his way, they encounter the trouble. There's no way to predict it. I want to get technical with you just long enough for it to come clearer in your mind, and then I want to do something a little different with this passage.
I'll tell you about that in a minute. First, as we've established, they were going to Italy from Caesarea.
Now, that tells you right away you need a map. And you know me with maps.
So locate one in your Bible. Take your time to go back to the back. If you were carrying the kind of Bible I use, you'd see a map right in front of you, Paul's journey to Rome. You may not have this particular version of the Bible, but I'm looking at a map, and I want you to do that as well. I want you to locate Caesarea on the far right side down toward the The bottom right-hand corner of your map, Caesarea, where they began.
You will see the journey as they went up. First Osidon, which was about 65, 70 miles. Northeast of Caesarea. They put in there. Then they went around over Cyprus, the island on the Eastern part of the Mediterranean, then they came to Myra, where they changed ships.
Let me show you this in the text. Hold your place here. In verse 2, they embarked on an Adramidian ship. Go back to your map. And you'll see add dromidium.
Just south of Troas, up the coast along the western part of Asia. Which today is the land of Turkey. That large thumb of land that sticks out from right to left, all the way from the Right-hand part of your map, Cappadocia to the Aegean Sea. That's today called Turkey. In those days, it was Asia or sometimes Asia Minor.
Adramidian's ship had come from there and it worked the coastline.
So They found the ship in Caesarea that was going to go up the coast, and they came as far as Myra Verse. Five concludes We landed at Myra in Lycia. There the centurion found an Alexandrian ship. Go back to your map, you'll see down south. In Egypt, Alexandria.
This ship has come north across the Mediterranean. Due north to Myra. And it's there they picked up. That ship, and it's that ship. that finally becomes a wreck.
as they get to the island of Malta. where they are shipwrecked. That's quite a journey. Look at it across the Mediterranean. I've been on the Aegean and the Adriatic Seas as well as the Mediterranean, and it always looks nicer on the map.
than it is when you are out there and the wind whips up and you're feeling the you're hearing the creaks and the groans of the ship. But the ships I've been on were nothing like the ship Paul was on. One man writes of it in this way, Those ships could be as large as 140 feet long and 36 feet wide. In a storm, they had certain grave disadvantages. They were the same at the bow.
That's the front of the ship, as at the stern. Further, they had only one mast, and on that mast, one great square sail. made sometimes of linen.
sometimes of stitched hides. With a sail like that, they could not sail into the wind. And worst of all, the single mast and the great sail put such a strain on the ship's timbers in a gale. that often the timbers of such ships started to break and they foundered at sea.
Now, none of this seemed important as Paul and Aristarchus and Luke and the others got on board by the time they found their way to Myra. These two ships. And how did I know 276, verse 37 tells us? Luke had counted him. There were 276 persons on board.
The time is curious to us. They left probably late August. After a three-month delay on the island of Malta, which we will determine later in our study. They were seven months getting to Rome. took them Twice as long, no doubt, because of the storm and certainly because of the shipwreck.
So they traveled in the winter. Tough time to travel across the Mediterranean, and there is no more treacherous part of the Mediterranean than the sea below Greece. And you'll see on your map Athens and the fingers of land that reach down, that tells you it's Greece.
So they were going at the worst time across the worst part of the sea. By the way, this is the storm they encountered was the original perfect storm. If you will. Uh Storms that came together. And I want you to see the growing intensity in Luke's writings.
Verse 4, he mentions the winds were contrary. Uh verse 7, with difficulty. We read with difficulty that they arrived off Canidis, since the wind did not permit us to go farther. We sailed under the shelter of Crete. Verse 8.
He mentions, with difficulty sailing past it, we came to a place called Fair Havens. Verse nine uses the word dangerous. The voyage was now. dangerous. Finally, verses 14 and 15, Before very long there rushed down from the land a violent wind called Eurakuilo.
It's a combination Greek-Latin word that means northeastern. We have the term today in the New England states a nor'eastern. It's the worst kind of winter storm bringing a blizzard and gale-like winds. And this is now not on the land, but it's at sea. And the ship is caught in it and can't face the wind.
Remember, it couldn't sail into the wind, built as it was.
So we gave way to it and let ourselves be driven along. Oh, man. That ain't fun, just to put it straight. The wording of this passage reminds me of the crescendo marks that are in a musical score. If you love music, you You remember seeing in the score the mark that means to play louder and louder and louder.
It's like an arrowhead that runs longer, farther across the page. And as Luke writes, it gets more and more treacherous and more and more out of control. Look at 18. The next day, as we were being violently storm-tossed, they began to jettison the cargo. Whew, gives me the willies to think about that.
On the third day, they threw the ship's tackle overboard. That's what you use to control the ship.
So it's out of control. Since neither sun nor stars appeared for many days, and no small storm was assailing us, only a doctor would write it like that. No small storm was assailing us. From then on, all hope of our being saved was gradually abandoned. I will tell you, since you're not able to speak and to tell us, I will tell you, I have been in storms like this.
Which are far worse than any storms I've ever known on sea. I have been in places where I did not know how I was going to get through.
Some of you are there even as I speak. You have not come into this storm accidentally. And God is not absent, nor is He aloof from you in the midst of it. You are precisely where he planned for you to be right now. And your situation is as close to impossible as you've ever known it.
And I respect that. Teaching from the 27th chapter of Acts, Chuck Swindahl titled today's message, How to Handle a Shipwreck. And there's much more ahead. You're listening to Insight for Living, and we've set aside time to hear some personal comments from Chuck. First, I'd like to tell you about a beautiful tabletop resource called Guided by Grace.
You might have received a copy at your home recently. It's an exclusive resource from the creative team here at Insight for Living. If you haven't received a copy, let us know and we'll make sure it's sent to you right away. Or you can download a digital copy at insight.org/slash grace. Our friends often ask about Insight for Living's plans for the future and our vision to make disciples in all 195 countries of the world.
After 46 years of God's faithfulness to this ministry, we have absolute confidence that His grace will guide us into the future. This publication includes clarifying statements from our President, Carissa Swindahl Gaither, behind the scenes pictures at the ministry's headquarters, and stunning visuals that clearly illustrate the impact of your personal investment in Insight for Living.
So contact us today and request a tabletop resource called Guided by Grace. You can call us at 800-772-8888. or download the PDF at insight.org slash grace. And now, here's Chuck. It may be hard for you to believe it, but we've been doing this together for Forty-six years.
We go all the way back to nineteen seventy nine.
Some of you may have been listening for three, four years, others five, ten, maybe thirty or more years. But all through these days and weeks and years, it has been my joyful privilege to open the truths of God's Word and share those truths with you. What a joy, what a privilege, what an honor has been mine. The other day I had someone ask me if I had A favorite virtue, one of God's character traits, that was a standout to me more than any other. Didn't take me long to answer, oh, that's rather easy for me to say.
Grace, grace, grace, God's grace, the grace to handle pain, the grace to grow. In the knowledge of His Word. the grace to love others who are sometimes unlovely. the grace to forgive those who hurt us. All of that has been a part of our ministry, and I've emphasized grace regularly from one year to the next.
So thankful for this opportunity.
So grateful for you. And I mean that. For without you, I'd be talking to four walls and that wouldn't help anybody. But because you're there and so many others just like you, and many others who are not like you at all. who are often hurting.
troubled, seeking information. Struggling, whatever may be the situation, it's amazing how over the years God's Word has been opened. and they found hope to go on. Grace to endure. Peace with God, which comes only through His Son, Jesus Christ.
As we reach the end of this fiscal year for our ministry, I want to urge you to think about what the ministry has meant to you. and also remember what it can mean to others. As they turned to this Source of treasure and truth. And then I would ask you to give and to give generously. And we might continue doing what we've been doing these 46 years, and we'll move right on into the next year.
with the same enthusiasm, the same joy as before.
Now you see, you play a vital part in this, not only as our listener, as our friend, our brother, or sister. but as our faithful support. See, all of the things I've named happen because there are financial provisions made for us to afford them. Airtime is costly, and going to other countries is costly. Financing the ministry of those who represent us in other languages is costly.
And your gift helps make all of this happen. I cannot tell you. how important it is or how grateful I am for it. I'm not going anywhere. I'm coming to you.
And I'll be coming to you day after day as I've done. all through these years. Thank you for what you're able to give to the Ministry of Insight for Living. And I thank you with my whole heart. To respond to Chuck Swindall, there are several easy ways to give a donation.
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And you can give a donation online at insight.org/slash donate. I'm Bill Meyer, urging you to listen next time when Chuck Swindahl describes how to handle a shipwreck. Tuesday on Insight for Living. The preceding message, How to Handle a Shipwreck, was copyrighted in 2001, 2003, and 2024, and the sound recording was copyrighted in 2024 by Charles R. Swindahl, Inc.
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