So you're in a raging storm, all hope has been abandoned, and you've prayed for God to deliver you.
So you expect... You expect him to calm the storm like Jesus did in the boat with the disciples. That seems natural. But he doesn't do that. But he does deliver them nevertheless, and we'll see how today.
Onboard the Nick.
Well, hey, good morning. Welcome. We're so glad you're with us. I'm Dorothy. I'm doing sound effects.
And I'm doing that. Because if you remember, we left off last week in the middle of a violent storm. And it was so bad because Paul's on his way to Rome, but it was so bad. Yeah, it was bad. But they had abandoned all hope.
They'd thrown their cargo overboard. They'd begun to tear the ship apart in an effort to ride higher in the sand. Really bad. And finally, they just gave up because they couldn't even navigate. Couldn't navigate, didn't see the sun or the stars for a long time.
Didn't have a lot of the tackle that took the ship because they threw it overboard. Abandoned all hope, says Luke. They are totally out of control and have no clue where they are. And the waves are big enough that it could kill them. They've abandoned all hope.
And Paul had warned them about that before they ever left their previous port. That's true. He had been concerned about that and said, you know, this voyage I foresee there's going to be loss of life, loss of cargo damage to the ship. Let's not do this. And you know, to Paul's credit, he didn't stop.
Stand up in the boat and wag his finger and say, I told you so.
Well, he didn't, but he is going to say, You should have listened to me. He is. He is. But I just mentioned that kind of jokingly, because when everyone feels like they're going to die, that's the last time you want to stand up and. Take credit for having seen it coming.
Well, yeah, but you know, it occurs to me that because Paul had foretold. That it would be this bad. That gives him some credibility here when he speaks in this next part of the chapter. And it will serve him well. It'll serve him well.
So we're picking up the story right in the middle of chapter 27 of Acts. And remember that Luke is our historian here, so he gives us a lot of detail. He's told us exactly where we've been, exactly what the circumstances are, and who all is there. Right.
So are we ready to read? Yeah, and by the way, where are they? We don't know. We know exactly. They're in the Mediterranean, somewhere between Italy and North Africa.
That's about it. At this point in the story. And they can't see land. They haven't seen the sun or the stars for two weeks. Yeah, it's bad.
It's bad. And they're waiting to die.
Okay, what should I read for us? Yeah, I'll knock off the sound effects. Yeah, please.
Okay, so we're in chapter 27 of Acts, verse 21. Here we go. Let's get on the boat.
Well, since they had been without food for a long time.
Okay, wait, there might have been a couple reasons for that. That's right. If you've ever been on a boat in a storm. Anyone want a ham sandwich? No, no.
Okay, since they'd been without food for a long time, Paul stood up among them and said, Men, you should have listened to me and not have set sail from Crete and incurred this injury and loss. Yet now I urge you to take heart. For there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship. That's interesting.
So even right here, although he says, you know, you should have listened to me, but everything will be okay. Take heart, take heart. Lives will not be lost, but the ship will. Which, by the way, if you're a thinking person, you're thinking, how can the ship be lost but no one dies? Yeah.
I mean, don't those go together somehow? But Paul knows that it's going to be okay. Isn't you know, there was a period of time not so far in history when we all were saying to each other, we're all going to die. Or that was running in the background.
So what good news is this for Paul to say, you know what? We are not all going to die. This is not going to kill us, no matter how bad it looks like it's going to get. Yeah, yeah. And you'll see why his confidence in just a second here.
So 23, for this very night there stood before me an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I worship. And he said, do not be afraid, Paul. You must stand before Caesar. And behold, God has granted you all of those who sail with you. That's interesting.
God has granted you the lives of those who sail with you. Which implies that he was praying for them. Yes, it does. Praying for those men. And so it's this word from God that gives him the confidence to stand before them and say, the ship will be lost, but no lives will be lost.
And how do you know that?
Well, because God told me so. And he tells him again to take heart. Take heart. Exactly. Lock up.
So it's interesting, too, because at this point, everyone's pretty sure they're going to die. And so Paul is putting God's reputation on the line. If anyone dies, then the God of Paul is probably lying to him or doesn't even exist. You know, isn't this interesting? I suddenly am thinking of Jonah.
And Jonah essentially says the same thing.
Well, it's my God. There is a God that I worship.
So this is all my fault. But in Jonah's case, they throw him overboard with Jonah's suggestion. But Paul didn't even suggest that. He says, you know, we're going to lose the ship, but we are not going to die. We're not going to die.
And we're not going to sacrifice anybody. That's right. Yeah, yeah. So God has granted you all those who sail with you. That's just a fascinating phrase.
It is. It's just fascinating. It's an answer to prayer.
So he goes on.
So take heart, men, take heart, for I have faith in God that it will be exactly as I've been told, but we must run aground on some island.
Well, that's how the ship's going to get torn up.
Well, yeah.
So again, so this partially answers the question in mind: How is it the ship is going to be totally destroyed? Right.
None of us are going to die.
Well, it's going to run aground on some island. Oh, okay. That sounds good to me.
So, but it is interesting. I mean, figuratively speaking, Paul is able to pass on hope to them because he has heard the word of God. Yeah. And for us, we know that when God speaks, he's good to his word. He has fidelity as his word and what he does.
So when God speaks, it's just natural for Paul to say, this is what God told me. He's granted me all the people on this. There's not going to be anyone who's going to die.
So I want you to have hope because I have hope in this God in whom I have faith. Yeah. Well, and the fact that God says, I've granted you the lives of everybody who's with you.
So, yes, we can deduce from that that Paul was praying for them. But what would that say to you if you were one of these crewmen? Like, oh, this God. Seize me. He doesn't just see the guy he wants delivered to Rome.
Right.
He's the God who sees me. Right, right. And I might emphasize, too, the beginning of this message from God, he redoubles the thing that Paul already knows. You must stand before Caesar. You must.
So it's, you know, if Paul's starting to lose heart, or even Luke, it's because they're thinking, well, I know God said that that's where we're going. Is that promise off? Is God uncapable? And so the first word comes back. Don't be afraid.
You have to stand before Caesar. That plan is still on. Just because you see waves are going to kill you, that plan is still on.
So don't lose heart. Here we go. So he reinforces, I think it's just great. He reinforces the word that Paul already knows, which we tend to forget in the middle of the worst circumstance. We forget what God has already told us about his sovereign love for us.
He reinforces that and then promises even further, no, there won't be any loss of life.
So there you go.
So, yeah.
So the plan is still on. This is not a train wreck. I guess that's a shipwreck now. I wonder at this point if at least Luke, who has done his gospel. Research in the life of Jesus.
If he's not thinking about that storm that the apostles were in on the Sea of Galilee, and they thought they were going to die, and they saw Jesus walking toward them on the water. Right.
Could be. And they had a choice: do we believe him or not? They think he's a ghost, right? Because does this one have the power to stand? In the middle of the storm, yeah, yeah, and we know that we know that Luke has already penned those words in the Gospel of Luke, so yeah, I wonder if he's thinking that.
I don't know, pretty interesting, yeah, yeah. But anyway, okay, so they're gonna run around on some islands. Let's pick it up: 27. 27. When the 14th night had come, two weeks blowing around in the storm, being battered by this battle, 14 nights.
Well, when the 14th night had come, as we were being driven across the Adriatic Sea, by the way, the Adriatic is between Italy and Greece, so they're way somewhere down there. About midnight, the sailors suspected that they were nearing land.
So they took a sounding, found 20 fathoms. By the way, a fathom is six feet. It's about a man tall. That's 120 feet. And then a little farther on, they took another sounding and found 15 fathoms.
It was shallowing, but still, that's still, what is that, 90 feet?
So why are they taking these fathoms? By the way, this is. This is done routinely, even up in the 19th century in the U.S. If you wanted to find out where the bottom is underneath your boat, you drop a weight with a string on it and you mark the string every Man lengths, a fathom, and you count the fathoms before it's the bottom.
Well, and if the sea floor is coming up, chances are you are approaching land. We're coming towards land. That's good news.
So 29. But with that news, they're approaching land, and fearing that we might run on the rocks. They let down four anchors from the stern and prayed for day to come.
So it's in the dark that they're doing this measuring. Yeah, yeah. And I like when Luke describes the 14. He says these are 14 nipes. Yeah, that's right.
That's right. Because everything is scary here in the dark.
So they drop the anchors. They drop the anchors, hoping that they'll drift closer to shore. And then 30. And as the sailors were seeking to escape from the ship and had lowered the ship's boat on, you know, that little skiff under the sea, into the sea, under pretense of laying out anchors from the bow. Yeah, they're just wanting to abandon ships.
Yeah. So someone says, hey, what are you doing up there, guys, in the front of the boat?
Well, we're laying out anchors. Laying out anchors. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But Paul, being a man of the sea, remember, he's been shipwrecked three times. He's logged 3,000 miles on the Mediterranean.
Paul says to the centurion in verse 31 and the soldiers, look, unless these men stay in the ship, you cannot be saved. Oh Then the soldiers cut away the ropes from the ship's boat, the little skiff, and they let it go.
So these guys, under the pretense of doing a right maritime thing with the anchors, were actually trying to steal the little dinghy. And the abandoned ship. Right.
And these guys know how to run the big boat. Right.
So Paul says, look, if you let these guys go, we don't have a hope at all. We just can't be saved. If we lose that kind of expertise, those kind of sailors. No. Yeah, then when the ship breaks up on the rocks, we're all toast.
Right.
And also, the souls that were granted to Paul in his prayers are these two guys, you know, are these little guys too are trying to steal the skiff?
So it just doesn't figure. Anyway, this time, I wonder if they'll take his advice, take Paul's advice. You know, last time he said, let's not go sailing this time of year. Let's just stay on Crete. Everything will be happy.
We'll winter over here. And they disregarded him this time. It seems like the soldiers have an increased respect for Paul because they see what's going on. They go, you're right. We're going to stop this.
Yeah. So that's what happens right there. And that's in the middle of the night. Yeah. This is interesting because there's a real turn here.
Shall we pick it up in verse 33? And as the day was about to dawn, Paul urged them all to take some food, saying, Today is the fourteenth day that you have continued in suspense and without food, having taken nothing. Therefore I urge you, take some food, for it will give you strength. for not a hair is to perish from the head of any of you. and when he had said these things, he took bread, and giving thanks to God in the presence of all, he broke it and began to eat.
Then they were all encouraged and ate some food themselves. And Luke says here in parentheses, We were in all two hundred and seventy six persons in the ship, and when they had eaten enough, They lightened the ship, throwing out the wheat into the sea.
So there was some remaining cargo of wheat. But you know what strikes me about this passage is not only Paul's urging them to eat, but he stands in front of them just like Jesus in this dire situation. He takes bread, breaks it. Gives thanks to God, and then he eats, right? I'm having a meal because I know God is providing.
Yeah. And when they had eaten enough, I mean, they ate more than just a little bit. Right, right. They ate enough to have strength. Can you imagine fasting for 14 days?
Right.
Well, you know, and when you're tossed around like this, you don't feel like eating. Energy is going. You're laying on the deck. I mean, you don't feel like eating. And you're so weak.
You know, think of all those shipwreck stories, just so weak. And they're going to need strength pretty soon here because they're going to find ground and they're going to need to be able to hustle out the boat under bad, bad circumstances. They don't have the boat anymore. The little boat. No, the ship, I mean.
Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, so this is this is really good. They need to build up their strength a little bit.
And so Paul says, practically, you know, let's eat. And so they did. But it is interesting: in verse 37, 276 persons.
So this is a sizable ship. That's a lot of people. Yeah, plus, plus, and you know, I've read some historical accounts of these maritime freighters that carried grain from Egypt all the way up into the northern Mediterranean. And they were big monsters. They were really big boats.
So, and enough so you could carry all this wheat, all this grain, as well as 276 purses. It's just a. Yeah, it's a big deal. It's a big deal.
So they've eaten, and Paul's telling them that, you know, we're going to run aground pretty soon, and everyone knows that the water is shallowing. Right.
So they lighten the ship by throwing over the very last of whatever it is they're carrying. Right, right, right. In an attempt to get the gunnels higher than the waves. That's what you do. Yeah.
So, verse 39. When it was day, they did not recognize the land, but they noticed a bay with a beach on which they planned, if possible, to run the ship ashore.
So they cast off the anchors and left them in the sea, at the same time loosening the ropes that tied the rudders. Then hoisting the foresail to the wind, they made for the beach. You can, boy, this would make a great movie. You just see the wind blowing and they're just like, here we come. But striking a reef, they ran the vessel aground.
Like that was not intentional. The bow stuck and remained immovable, and the stern was being broken up by the surf. The soldiers' plan was to kill the prisoners lest any of them should swim away and escape but the centurion, wishing to save Paul, kept them from carrying out their plan. He ordered those who could swim to jump overboard first and make for the land, and the rest on planks or on pieces of the ship, and so it was that they all were brought safely to land. That's amazing.
Wow Yep, that's amazing. That's amazing. Thereby, you know, fulfilling God's promise to Paul that all these souls have been granted to him in response to his prayer. Yeah. So, yeah, so if you picture this, they, you know, it's daytime.
They actually get a view of land for the first time in two weeks. A view of land. And they see a bay, good. And they see a beach. Better.
And so the idea is if you can actually run aground on a beach, that's a soft landing. Yeah. That's right. That's a good one. Jump off onto the sand.
Jump off onto sand, yeah.
So they aim for that. They get rid of the anchors. They undo the rudders and they go that. And they head for it. They head for it.
and uh they go toward the beach But between them and the beach is a hidden reef that they cannot see. That's a very not unusual occurrence around a lot of islands. And it just gets stuck on the rocks of that reef and they can't get any closer to the beach.
So they're stuck out here. And the waves are still bad enough that it's battering the boat, which means if you put your body in the wrong place, it will batter you as well.
Well, and the boat has taken such a beating, it's very likely that it was significantly weakened from two weeks of being battered around on the ocean.
So, you know, this is like the shock of hitting the reef has loosened everything. It's just all going down. Yeah, yeah. And the bow, the front of the boat is stuck on the reef. The back, the stern is just being mashed up like some big machine eating up the back of the ship.
So they got to get out, and they still have a ways to go to be able to get to that beach.
So it says that they swim or those who could swim jumped overboard first, and the rest they're just going to have to float on pieces of the ship. Oh my gosh. I mean, this is how bad it is. Pieces of the ship. Look, there's a board floating in the water.
Let's get on that and see if it'll drive us to the beach. You would think that they would not all be saved, right? Like the Titanic, there were people hanging on to pieces of the ship, right? But not only that, they haven't been eating for two weeks. Right.
You know, they've been, you know, they're very weak.
So it's just amazing. Even at this point, there's great danger in getting off the ship without if the if the waves are big enough that they're ripping up the ship into boards, then they're able to kill you. And how are they going to avoid being smashed to death on the rocks themselves? Yeah, exactly. This is this is a tough deal.
God is doing something amazing here.
So just even this delivery from this point, I mean, not just the arrival of a beach and a bay, but from this terrible thing being stuck on these rocks in this. Reef, it's like this, they're still not out of danger. This is just this is probably the worst danger of the whole ship so far. This is like this is where you're going to get munched up by the sea between the waves and the reef. And yeah, you're going to die.
So the thing they had depended on to get them where they were going was about to kill them: the ship. Exactly. Yeah. Wow. There's theology in that.
There's theology. There's theology in that. But isn't it interesting? This centurion had become a friend of Paul.
Now, that's a fascinating side story. We're told his name at the very beginning. We're told that he was kind to Paul and let him go and see his friends at the beginning of the journey. And we don't know, two weeks at least, and probably much more, they were together on this boat. And so he is determined to save Paul.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah, and you know, the mandate, why would they kill the prisoners? I mean, come on, this is after two weeks, you're finally surviving.
Why do that? But you understand what the mandate is on people who guard prisoners in Rome. Right.
If you lose your prisoner, you're dead yourself. Yeah, you actually are given the same sentence your prisoners are given.
So many times, in this case, there were other prisoners, we think. And so, because it says prisoners plural, many of them are probably already convicted and they could be going back to Rome to be killed, actually. The executions happen.
So, theoretically, if these soldiers show up in Rome without their prisoners, Then their leadership look at them and say, Well, you were supposed to keep them in your guard and you let them go? You let them go in some unknown island somewhere?
Well, they're supposed to be killed, so now you're going to be killed.
So, for them to preserve their own lives, for the soldiers to preserve their own lives based on the rules of the Roman legions, they had to kill these guys. But something about the relationship built between Paul and the centurion.
Well, it's possible that this centurion had begun to believe in Paul's God. I think that's likely enough. Luke doesn't tell us that specifically, but it's very likely. We know that Paul had tremendous influence among the military in Rome. He writes, you know, those of Caesar's household are greeting you in some of his letters.
So strange how you make good friends in the worst situations. But not only does it save Paul's life, it saves the lives of all the other people. And that was important because God had granted all of their souls. And Paul had told them, God has said, He's given me all of your lives. Right.
And no one is going to, not a hair on your head. You wonder if they all became believers. It makes you wonder. I mean, it really makes you wonder. Because the drama of this story is really good.
Because after, you know, we've sighted land. Look, maybe we're not all going to die. But then everyone is jumping ship. If you've got prisoners, once they jump ship and get on land, they're going to run away because they're under condemnation from Rome. And the guards realize that.
So you're back and forth on are we going to be saved or aren't we going to be saved? But Paul has already stated, God has told me that no one is going to die. And so all these different episodes where you could have died and they don't is just pretty remarkable. And God works on the heart of a centurion.
So if you think God cannot influence hardened soldiers, especially a centurion who's used to seeing death, Even in the midst of these worst of situations, life-threatening situations, I think, I'm with you. I think the centurion might have taken a couple steps toward God. And he was thinking, Paul's, no, we're not going to kill Paul. And Paul has also, in the midst of the trauma of this entire trip, has shown great leadership when you think about it in many stages of this. I mean, he was the one that went on record at the beginning saying, This is a bad time of year to leave Crete.
You know, he knows what he's talking about. But then to have these visions from God, all of these things, I'm pretty sure the centurion's going, and he knows God. He's also the one who said, you know, hey, it's time to eat. Right.
It's time to have strength because we've got some hard things ahead of us.
Well, and that was prophetic, whether he heard it or not. Right.
Could you, after fourteen days, being whipped around in the ocean? Jump in the ocean and swim any distance? Can you imagine?
Well, the waves would be pushing you towards shore. But can you imagine what this crew is thinking, right? We have been brought through this only by the promise and the purpose of this man's God. Exactly. That's the only reason we've survived this.
Yep. Yep, exactly. The ship itself didn't save us because, in the end, it got lunched up by the sea. Yeah. And we had to abandon ship.
Yeah. Yeah, so God so the God of Paul is the one who who has saved them. Which makes you wonder, as the story goes on, which we won't look at today, whether that topic comes up in their further discussions.
Well, you know, this actually was a topic in the Psalms. And so, as I said last week, you should look up the sea in the Psalms and see how it is used. And so, just kind of thinking about this being saved out of a raging sea sent me reading in Psalm 107. Oh, one of my favorite readings. Because it's like all these little verses talking about different catastrophes, right?
So, starting in verse 23, those who go down to the sea in ships who do business on great waters, well, that's these guys. That's these guys. They've seen the works of the Lord and his wonders in the deep. For he spoke and raised up a stormy wind, which lifted up the waves of the sea. They rose up to the heavens.
They went down to the depths. Their soul melted away in their misery. They reeled and staggered like a drunken man. They were at their wit's end. Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and He brought them out of their distresses.
He caused the storm to be still, so that the waves of the sea were hushed. Then they were glad because they were quiet.
So he guided them to their desired haven, let them give thanks to the Lord for his loving kindness and for his wonders to the sons of men. That's just an amazing song. Slightly applicable here. A little bit, you think. And again, like Jesus, right?
He calms the storm. Yeah. He brings it, it serves his purpose. Yeah. Yep.
God is more sovereign and more powerful than the scariest, biggest power they know about on the earth, which is the sea. which is capable in this case of eating up their ship. Yeah, but God's bigger than that. And that's a conscious point that God's trying to make. Even when you're out of control, you're never in control of the sea, but God is.
God's always in control of the turmoil and the waves that you're going through right now. Yeah, the application is just quite direct. Quite direct. And yet what we normally do is we focus so much on what could happen in the wrong sense. We forget about the fact that God is so much bigger than the sea and the turmoil.
Why don't we just turn to him and remember his word? Remember who he is. Remember, he does not change and this is not an accident. And he hasn't fallen asleep and he's watching. He's on top of things.
Yeah. Yeah. So that's So, I guess there is hope. I guess there is.
So, the story is going to continue, right? But we're getting very close to the end of Act.
So, stay with us. Read ahead if you must, but stay with us and come back next week. Yeah, especially if you want to find out where exactly they landed. Right.
You're going to have to wait till next week. They're still in the Mediterranean somewhere, but they're closer to where they want to go. At least they're on dry land. Yeah, they're on dry land and they're on a beach, and everything's good. And Paul's going to Rome.
We know that. But there's still a few perils ahead, and they're fascinating in their details.
So you're not going to want to miss that.
So I'm Jim. And I'm Dorothy. And. Wow, we've landed. I feel better now.
I've lost my nausea as soon as I get my feet on the ground.
So we'll see you here next week on More Than Ink. There are many more episodes of this broadcast to be found at our website, morethanink.org. And while you are there, take a moment to drop us a note. Man, this storm was a monster. And now their ship is in splinters and they've paddled their way to the shore on the wrecked pieces of it.
But God delivered them all, just like He promised Paul that he would. Proving that indeed God is faithful. We'll see you next week. Bye. Bye.
This has been a production of Main Street Church of Brigham City.
