Acts 27

I was also to cover Acts 25-26, but decided I had enough material in Acts 27 alone.


Shipwrecked
Acts 27

Pray.

Why was Paul going to go to Rome? He was going to have a trial in front of Caesar. But why was he REALLY going to Rome? In Acts 23:11, the Lord told Paul, “Take courage! As you have testified about me in Jerusalem, so you must also testify in Rome.” God can use anything that man dreams up for His purpose. So Paul’s persecution by the Jews was used by God as a means to get Paul to Rome to tell the people there about Jesus.

When it was time for Paul to sail with Italy, we know that he had two good friends with him, who were they? Luke and Aristarchus. There was a centurion in charge of Paul, what was his name? Julius. Was Julius nice to Paul? Yes. One way we know that is because after the first leg of their journey, Julius allowed Paul to have some time with the local Christians for them to help him get some provisions for the trip. They got back on their boat and sailed a little more, but had to adjust their route slightly because of the wind. There are seasons of the year when the weather is good for sea travel, and seasons when it is more dangerous, and they were out when it wasn’t very safe. The ship landed again, and Julius found another ship that was sailing directly to Italy. Again, they had difficulty due to the high winds and they had to alter their route a bit.

The boat landed on the island of Crete, and Paul warned everyone that he knew their voyage would be disastrous. Did the centurion listen to Paul? No he didn’t. The crew of the boat decided that while they wouldn’t try to go on to Italy at that time, they wanted to move the boat to a better place to spend the winter. They really only intended to sail a very short distance, just to another port of Crete.

So they started to sail away, and they had a gentle wind to help push the boat along. But it wasn’t long before the gentle wind turned into a wind of hurricane force that swept their ship away from the island. Rather than fight the wind, the people decided to just let the wind push the ship along. The crew had to start throwing things overboard in order to keep the ship afloat. This went on for three days, and during this time, the storm was so bad, they were not able to tell day from night.

Was Paul scared? I think most people would be terrified, but Paul was not, nor did he want anyone else to be. He told the people that God had sent an angel to him to tell him that Paul would indeed stand trial before Caesar, so obviously that meant that he would not die on this ship. The angel also told Paul that God had graciously given Paul every life on the ship; that everyone there would survive. Paul told them that he trusted his God and that they should, too.

After two weeks, they were still all on that boat, being pushed by the strong winds. Finally, they realized that the water was getting shallower. Not so shallow that they could stand in it, or that they would want to swim in it, but that there would be land close by. Some men tried to take a lifeboat, but Paul cautioned them to stay with the ship, and they listened to him this time. Paul also convinced everyone to eat, but before they did, he thanked God in front of all 275 people. Shortly after that, the ship hit some rocks, because they were by land, and started to break apart.

Normally, whenever there was a situation where a prisoner could escape, the guard would kill them instead. Julius, the centurion, made sure this did not happen to Paul. He also made sure that everyone made it to land, either by swimming or hanging onto a board from the ship.

God prepared Paul for this trying time in many ways. The most obvious one to me is that the Lord told Paul that he would go to Rome and witness, meaning that he would be ok. Also, we have learned that Paul suffered many other times before, from stoning, to beatings, imprisonments, etc. So Paul was told he would be ok and he was also pretty tough. But how else had the Lord prepared Paul? Jesus was with Paul every step of the way and Paul knew that he would always be protected until God decided to send him to heaven. Remember Paul said in Phillipians 1:21, “For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain”. Christ was the source of Paul’s continual joy, even while in prison. Paul found all of the meaning of his life is Jesus. Either he can be on earth serving God, or he can be in heaven spending time with Jesus.

I don’t think I will ever be in a shipwreck. I also don’t think I will ever be beaten or thrown in jail. But I know that I will have some hardships in my life. God is preparing me for those trials. He is helping me to learn more about Him and to depend on Him. He is teaching me that when I am sad or scared, I can reach out to Him and that He will already be there for me. If I earnestly seek Him, God will reward me. He won’t give me a Happy Meal prize or a hundred dollars. But He will give me peace and comfort. He will do that for you, too.

Pray.