Zachary Peters

And when it was decided that we should sail for Italy, they delivered Paul and some other prisoners to a centurion of the Augustan Cohort named Julius. And embarking in a ship of Adramyttium, which was about to sail to the ports along the coast of Asia, we put to sea, accompanied by Aristarchus, a Macedonian from Thessalonica. The next day we put in at Sidon. And Julius treated Paul kindly and gave him leave to go to his friends and be cared for. And putting out to sea from there we sailed under the lee of Cyprus, because the winds were against us. And when we had sailed across the open sea along the coast of Cilicia and Pamphylia, we came to Myra in Lycia. There the centurion found a ship of Alexandria sailing for Italy and put us on board. We sailed slowly for a number of days and arrived with difficulty off Cnidus, and as the wind did not allow us to go farther, we sailed under the lee of Crete off Salmone. Coasting along it with difficulty, we came to a place called Fair Havens, near which was the city of Lasea.

Since much time had passed, and the voyage was now dangerous because even the Fast was already over, Paul advised them, saying, “Sirs, I perceive that the voyage will be with injury and much loss, not only of the cargo and the ship, but also of our lives.” But the centurion paid more attention to the pilot and to the owner of the ship than to what Paul said. And because the harbor was not suitable to spend the winter in, the majority decided to put out to sea from there, on the chance that somehow they could reach Phoenix, a harbor of Crete, facing both southwest and northwest, and spend the winter there.

Now when the south wind blew gently, supposing that they had obtained their purpose, they weighed anchor and sailed along Crete, close to the shore. But soon a tempestuous wind, called the northeaster, struck down from the land. And when the ship was caught and could not face the wind, we gave way to it and were driven along. Running under the lee of a small island called Cauda, we managed with difficulty to secure the ship’s boat. After hoisting it up, they used supports to undergird the ship. Then, fearing that they would run aground on the Syrtis, they lowered the gear, and thus they were driven along. Since we were violently storm-tossed, they began the next day to jettison the cargo. And on the third day they threw the ship’s tackle overboard with their own hands. When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days, and no small tempest lay on us, all hope of our being saved was at last abandoned.

Since they had 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. 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 those who sail with you.’ So take heart, men, for I have faith in God that it will be exactly as I have been told. But we must run aground on some island.”

When the fourteenth night had come, as we were being driven across the Adriatic Sea, about midnight the sailors suspected that they were nearing land. So they took a sounding and found twenty fathoms. A little farther on they took a sounding again and found fifteen fathoms. And fearing that we might run on the rocks, they let down four anchors from the stern and prayed for day to come. And as the sailors were seeking to escape from the ship, and had lowered the ship’s boat into the sea under pretense of laying out anchors from the bow, Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, “Unless these men stay in the ship, you cannot be saved.” Then the soldiers cut away the ropes of the ship’s boat and let it go.

As 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 to 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 all were encouraged and ate some food themselves. (We were in all 276 persons in the ship.) And when they had eaten enough, they lightened the ship, throwing out the wheat into the sea.

Now 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. But striking a reef, they ran the vessel aground. 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 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 all were brought safely to land. (ESV)

—

Paul is going to Rome. He is placed in the custody of a Roman Centurion and they find passage to Rome. That is a very simple sentence to describe a very interesting, dangerous, and complex journey.

The account of this journey in Acts chapter 27, which is where we are now, is one of the most detailed and accurate accounts of sea travel in the Mediterranean and in ancient times. From a technical perspective, Luke does a masterful job and an accurate job of painting a picture of what’s happening here. Even outside of Christian circles, this bit of scripture gains a fair amount of attention for its skill and style.

And all of that is fun to read about, in certain circumstances, it’s fun to talk about, but I don’t think that stuff really matters for us this morning in our attempt to put God’s word in our heart and perhaps do something with it.

And to be honest with you, there is some challenge here on my part to craft a sermon or sermons from what is a very good travel account.

What spiritual profitability is it to us to talk about the weather off the coast of Crete 2,000 years ago? To talk about the direction of the wind? To know the geographical directions that Paul and Company were heading to all the different islands and cities and ports that are mentioned, it’s all interesting and it certainly speaks to the legitimacy of the authorship and quality of the book of Acts. And trust me I could talk about some of this stuff for a long time, until you are trying to find a way out of the conversation politely. But what is the theological message here? What are the practical spiritual takeaways? It’s here in the Bible for a reason. What are some of those reasons?

Hopefully, we can draw a few out that will help us be who God has called us to be.

One thing we see throughout this account is that this Centurion treats Paul with unexpected kindness and respect. Granted, Paul was a Roman citizen and that mattered, but he was still a prisoner. There was no reason for the Centurion to allow Paul so much leeway and influence. There certainly wasn’t a reason for the centurion to save Paul when the plan was to kill all the prisoners so that none of them could escape. Yet he does.

Whether it be Melchizedek, the pharaoh and Joseph in Egypt, the ravens with Elijah, a myriad of characters in the exile of Judah, and countless others, God will use anyone to help his people. Here too, with the Centurion, it is the same.

And simply from contextual inference from all of these events in scripture, we can take heart knowing that God can raise up anybody to help us. We never know where it is going to come from. It is an example of how in control he is. It matters that God is in control, that he is not surprised, and that he is working for his people. This leads us into the meat of our focus today.

It seems fairly obvious that one of the reasons this journey is described in such detail is to show how in control God is even in the midst of the storm. Here’s what we all know in this room right now and if somebody listens to this one day online, problems are unavoidable. Stressful days will happen. And unfortunately, sometimes those stressful days compound on each other, and you have stressful months, maybe years. Things are not fair. There are injustices, accidents do happen. And I certainly pray that we can avoid it all or at least the worst of it.

They are storms of life. Just as an exercise in imagination, imagine yourself as Paul or one of Paul’s companions on this small ship in this big sea with these big winds, waves, and rain. The individuals on that ship are small in comparison to what’s happening around them. And we see that they take drastic measures to try to work through the storm, and it doesn’t work.

I am sure we have all felt the same way facing the problems in our life. We do everything possible and sometimes it does nothing.

At the end of the day, what Paul knows is what God has told him, he is going to Rome, as the angel reminded him, and that everyone was going to be ok. God said it, so in clarity and plain language, Paul has a confidence to encourage and lead in the storm. I want to come back to this point in a second.

First though, what is interesting to me is that the miracle was not in the calming of the storm like we saw with Jesus. What we see is God’s word being trustworthy despite the storm, despite the ship being destroyed. How many times do we pray and our expectation is that the storm will stop or the ship will be saved, but God doesn’t answer the prayer that way, but we make it through anyways?

I think that reflection should expand what we consider an answered prayer. It is frustrating when it seems like God is ignoring us, but maybe we just aren’t paying attention or seeing the full story. God is faithful. His word is trustworthy.

And, if we truly believe that God is faithful. That he is in control. That he does care. That he does hear us. That he does remember us. If those things are ingrained into who we are, and this gets back to our previous reflection of Paul’s confidence and ability to lead in the storm, if we’ve got that on the inside of us it enables us to step into conflict, to step into storms, to step into problems, to step into stress, to step into division and divisiveness with a clarity, a courage, and a calmness that will force others to pay attention. Not for your own glory or prestige, but for the advancement of the gospel.

We live in a world of constant broadcast of the storms that make up our existence, so it seems at least. Some people deal with that by living in oblivion, others fixate on this problem or that problem and make their entire life about that problem, others medicate, many self-medicate, and I’m sure I’m missing 13,000 different other ways people attempt to deal with the chaos of life that is in our face 24/7.

First, and this is a different sermon, we should probably do a better job of not having that stuff in our face 24/7.

Second, and more importantly, if we believe God is in control and he has our best interest at heart, then that should probably shape how we face the storms. We aren’t fixating. We aren’t ignoring. We certainly aren’t self-medicating. We are simply walking with a confidence in a God who loves us and who has given us a mission in this world that matters even in the storm.

Haven’t we seen this repeatedly in the book of Acts? This scripture almost mirrors the first half of Acts and the scattering of the church.

In a world full of storms and people negatively impacted by them, be people who trust and serve God in spite of the storms. That is Christianity not just in word but in everyday action.

I am thoroughly convinced that we need more than anything to be a people who are not just church attenders, not just name tag Christians, but a people who have the gospel ingrained into our very way of doing life and thinking about life.

Christian identification has declined from 78% (2007) to ~62% (2023-24). 29% of U.S. adults now identify as religiously unaffiliated, yet 85-92% still report belief in God, a higher power, or spiritual reality.

That is deeply troubling, and yet hopeful. Those 85-92% are looking for signs. Some churches get in the trap of trying to have the best worship experience, the best programs, the most entertaining services, and the best buildings and even sometimes the best coffee. Those are not bad things, but they mean nothing as a sign of how good God is, or how faithful he is, or what Jesus can do. They are looking for something the world cannot produce. Of the many things they need to see, they certainly need to see Christians, standing on the ship about to wreck in the middle of the storm, saying my God says it is going to be alright. He has got us.