Book of Acts - Ch. 27, Vs. 1-44 (07/27/2003)

The lesson for today is Acts chapter 27. We're coming to the close of Acts and the life of Paul, although he has written many other books.

Verse 1, And when it was determined that we should sail into Italy, they delivered

Paul and certain other prisoners unto one named Julius, a centurion of Augustus, a centurion of Augustus' band.

We have here one named Julius. He was a very civil person.

He suffered Paul to receive friends. Thus God raises up his people's friends in the midst of their suffering.

And when the persecutors send their saints to prison, he will provide keepers for their turn.

Julius, a heathen soldier, was kinder to him than his own

Jewish brethren. We find that's true.

And entering into a ship at Rameltes, we landed, meaning to sail, to sail by the coast of Asia.

One of the Aristarchists of Macedonia says, I'm not going to be in with us. And the next day we touched at Sidon, and Julius courteously entreated

Paul and gave him liberty to go unto his friends to refresh himself.

Now this is a Roman soldier. He is responsible for all of the prisoners.

If one escapes, he forfeits his life. Yet he let Paul go ashore.

So we find that when a man's ways pleases the Lord, he can make not only his enemies, but strangers and even heathen, not merely to be at peace with him, but to aid and assist him.

We find in Proverbs 16 .7, When a man's ways please the

Lord, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him. Four.

And when we had launched from Thames, we sailed under Cyprus, because the winds were contrary.

What's that mean, Dennis? The wind was blowing in the direction of the outboard motor.

Why didn't they start the outboard motor? The people. The people.

And when we had sailed over the Sea of Cilicia and Pamphylia, we came to Myra, a city of Lycia.

And there the centurion found a ship of Alexandria sailing unto Italy, and he put us therein.

Now, we're going to touch a lot of islands. I can't pronounce them right,

I know. And when we had sailed slowly many days, and scarce were come over against Sidus, the wind not suffering us, we sailed under Crete, over against Sinoma, and hardly passing, it came unto a place which is called the

Fair Havens, and nigh whereunto was the city of Assia. It says here, the wind not suffering us, we know what that means, and hardly passing it, came unto a place which is called the

Fair Havens. So, we're just tracing his voyage to Rome.

Now, much time was spent, and when sailing was now dangerous, because the fast was now already passed,

Paul admonished them. What fast is he talking about,

Dennis? Well, he's talking about sailing. Sailing was dangerous, and Paul admonished them.

David, what does admonish mean? This is a prisoner.

Can you imagine? And the sailing is dangerous.

God's providence does not take away the causes which God uses as means.

We're concerned too many times with causes and effects, but rather orders and disposes their right use, even when he reveals an extraordinary issue.

The fast was in October, I think, and it's not good for navigating.

They all know that. Thus established in the time of year when they were traveling.

It was in the wintertime. Paul exhorted and admonished them, or tried to persuade them.

He was somewhat knowledgeable of navigation of that sea, endeavored to persuade them not to risk the danger of sailing at that season of the year.

Did they listen to him, Greg? No. He said unto them,

Sirs, I perceive this voyage will be with hurt and much damage, not only of the leading of the ship, but also of our lives.

Now, weather forecast. Paul is like anybody else.

With a little bit of knowledge, he applies it. And nevertheless, the centurion believed the master and owner of the ship more than those things which were spoken by Paul.

We find that men cast themselves willingly into an infinite amount of dangers.

Have you ever done that? We all have at some time in our life. When they chose to follow their own wisdom instead of God's.

When he speaks by the mouth of his servants. And because the haven was not commodious to winter in, the more part advised to depart thence also, if by any means they might attain to Phoenicia, or Phoenus, and there to winter, which is a haven of Crete and Lyeth toward the southwest and northwest.

Now, Greg, what do we mean, because the haven was not commodious?

It wasn't. When we were on the south, we were in a good place.

All right. And when the south wind blew softly, supposing that they had obtained their purpose, loosening fence, they sailed close by Crete.

When the circumstances appear to be correct, we must beware, for it is then that we are the most vulnerable.

When you think everything is going just right, beware.

Remember, God waits till the last moment. But not long after there arose against it a tempest wind called, somebody pronounce that.

It's a southeast wind, and it raised mighty, mighty waves.

And when the ship was caught and could not bear up into the wind, we let her dry.

David, what's that mean? It means they turned and went with the wind. Suffered the ship to be borne along by the wind without attempting to control it.

Well, it's a difficult historical object, not knowing anything about the ancient miracles of the

Mediterranean. So I'd like everyone to hear. That's right.

And running under a certain island, which is called Plodae, we had much work to come by the boat.

Now, this does not mean that they attempted here to land in the boat, but they had difficulty in saving the small boat attached to the ship.

They had difficulty to keep it from being broken to pieces. Verge, what is this small boat?

I don't know, brother. I would say it's like a boat. It transports cruises back and forth.

People tend to put it back on the ship to the island. It doesn't help. It's a small boat that they use for anything.

It would have a very low draft, but the big ship, big in their time, had a deep draft and could not get but so close.

Which, when they had taken up, they used helps undergirding the ship and fearing lest they should fall into the quicksand, struck sail, and so were driven.

Now we come to another nautical term. Greg, what is this undergirding?

As far as I remember, what they're doing is they're wrapping heavy ropes around the ship.

You know, as Steve said, if I remember right, he was there. You're right.

They bound the ship in boats, and the ropes are steel cable or whatever they had.

I doubt they had steel cable. Well, I don't know just what the undergirding involved, but it could have involved weights.

We are undergirded by the presence of the Holy Ghost. You see the connection? To keep us from flying apart, children.

And we being exceedingly tossed with a tempest, the next day they lighten the ship.

And the third day we cast out with our own hands the tackling of the ship.

So they're getting rid of all furniture, all tackling, everything that's loose, they're throwing it overboard.

And when neither sun nor stars in many days appeared, and no small tempest lay on us, all hope that we should be saved was taken away.

Now, what are you going to do? Here's Paul. He's been promised to go to Rome, and he is evidently facing a shipwreck.

Neither sun or stars. Why didn't they rely on the compass,

David? Didn't have one. Hadn't been invented.

When sailors could not see the stars or the land, they didn't know where they were.

That would be an awful experience for me anyhow, not to be able to see.

God in his providence often shows men that they are dependent on him, that all of their efforts to deliver themselves are utterly insufficient.

So no matter what they did, it did not get them out of the situation.

That he must save them or they would perish. And that's the ultimate truth here.

What an encouragement it is to us to enter upon and be faithful in the service of God.

When he causes his holy angels upon all occasions to serve us, when visible dangers are before us,

God has invisible servants around about us, both to preserve and secure.

The wicked are not so. From physical destruction, they're delivered.

Or for the sake of godly who live among them, they're delivered. But it is not for their sake.

We honor God exceedingly when we depend upon his promise. That's what

Paul is doing. Rely upon his power.

Believe his word. Though what he says may seem very improbable, and unlikely to come to pass,

I still believe. I wonder, have any of us been in a situation, you don't need to raise your hands, been in a situation that is absolutely hopeless and we had to depend upon God?

Twenty -one. But after long absence of eating, or the violence of the storm,

Paul stood forth in the midst of them and said, Sirs, I told you so.

You should have hearkened unto me and not have loosed from Crete and to have gained this harm and loss.

Isn't it strange that they have gained a loss? How do you explain that,

Bert? I don't know if I can explain it.

I don't know. What are you asking me? I can't explain it. Well, he said, and have not loosed from Crete and to have gained this harm and loss.

Well, if they had just listened to him, they would not have lost. They would have gained what they lost.

David, give me your explanation. Well, I don't know if they could understand it, but Paul certainly could understand it.

If things looked bad, really we were gaining the benefit of being able to move on to the

Lord because we were going through it for a purpose. All right.

Dennis? Even when you have harm and loss, you gain from it. All right.

What do you think, Dennis? Well, I think what David said is right.

I think that Paul is telling us that if they had not listened to the man of God, as some of them probably did, they would have gained the loss, the harm.

They would have gained prosperity. They would have got the ship where it was going.

It was brought off to what it set out to do. It's wrong doing it.

All right. Greg, can you find in this an allegory to us today?

Well, yes. All right, give it to us. I'd like to see where it was doing it.

All right. The gain of the loss is the motto of those headed for hell after they get there.

And now I exhort you to be of good cheer. Boy, that was an understatement, wasn't it?

For there shall be no loss of any man's life among you but of the ship.

Now, David, do you suppose that they listened to Paul this time?

They did. This was probably even harder to believe, but they were forced to.

They had listened. Absolutely. For there stood by me this night the angel of God, whose

I am and whom I serve, saying, Fear not,

Paul, thou must be brought before Caesar, and, lo, God hath given thee all of them that sail with thee.

Wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer, for I believe God. What a statement that is.

That it shall be even as it was told to me. Howbeit, we must be cast upon a certain island.

But when the fourteenth night was come, as we were driven up and down in Adria, about midnight the shipmen deemed that they drew near to some country and sounded and found it twenty fathoms.

And when they had gone to a little further, they sounded again and found it fifteen fathoms.

What's taking place here, Joey? They came closer to the land, to some land, where I live.

All right. How long have they been in the storm, Greg? Well, at least fourteen days.

All right. How do you suppose, Dennis, that they knew they were close to some land someplace?

Well, I think they did. There is a thing that appears to be close to an island, not a land.

But before they took that gauge, they felt like they were close.

Why? We're not told why.

All right. Something changed, and I'm sure it was the sound.

But remember, the wind's blowing. Then, fearing lest we should have fallen upon rocks, they cast four anchors out of the stern and wished for the day.

Have you ever been in a situation where you thought daylight would never come?

I have. It's an awful, awful feeling.

I can't describe it. But it's, you're all alone.

And as the shipmen were about to flee out of the ship, when they had let down the boat into the sea under color as though they would have cast anchors out of the foreship, now the anchors were just in the back of the ship.

Now they're saying they're too poor to put anchors out in front. But one word, and that's color.

But under color, what did he mean, Greg? David? He means under the color of darkness.

Right. No. Dennis? I'm not sure either.

Anybody. But it would make it appear.

Make it appear what? That he was under the color of darkness.

Well, the color here means that they pretended.

They pretended to go and put out anchors. You'll never run across that term.

I don't know how to explain it. It's not like you would color red, purple, black, or whatever.

But they were pretending that this is what we're going to do. But they were getting ready to put out anchors.

Yes, they were. You understand? In my feeble way of explaining.

No matter how foul they act, distrust and evil consequences can always compel men to commit it.

They pretended that it was necessary to get into the boat and carry the anchors ahead of the ship so as to make it secure.

But with the real intention of making for the shore. Paul said to the centurion.

Paul saw them. He knew what they were doing. Except these abide in the ship, ye cannot be saved.

Greg, are they listening to Paul now? Yes. That though the event may be determined, yet the use of the means may be indispensable.

The event is rendered no more certain than the means required to accomplish it.

Then the soldiers cut off the ropes of the boat and let it fall away.

What did they do? They cut the skiff lights of the boat off. Yes. We have here an illustration of the manner in which

God decrees and human agency harmonizes to produce a given result.

It was the decree of God that the passengers and crews should be saved.

And it was certain to be accomplished. But the voluntary watchfulness of Paul and the desire of self -preservation on the part of soldiers were accessories on which the result depended.

And which contributed to it. And when the day was come on,

Paul besought them all to take meat, saying, This day is the fourteenth day that you have tarried and continued fasting, having taken nothing.

So they've been two weeks without eating. Well, it looks to me like,

David, that they could have eaten anyhow. But they didn't.

Why? I don't know unless they're pagan originally.

Would it have been possible? No. I don't know. It would have been like, if they would have been sick, if that ship was tossed from the bow, they'd all been seasick.

Would they not? They would have been seasick. The ship was tossing so much that they couldn't cook anything.

And it's been fourteen days. Well, the fact that they've got it is one thing.

That they've put it on. Yes. It's like an emotional sickness in everybody's head. I mean, you don't want to eat.

You don't want to eat. You put me in the back of a car and I'll get sick.

And I sure don't want anything to eat. Wherefore, I pray you to take some meat.

For this is for your health. For there shall not a hair fall from your head, fall from the head of any of you.

And when he had thus spoken, he took bread, gave thanks to God in presence of them all.

And when he had broken it, he began to eat. Were you ever in a restaurant and you knew you should bless your food but you bowed your head and muttered something so other people couldn't see you?

Now Paul is the ship's chaplain.

Then were they all of good cheer and they also took some meat.

And we were in all of the ship, two hundred, three score and sixteen souls.

Is how many people in us? And when they had eaten enough, they lightened the ship and cast out the wheat unto the sea.

They had a shipload of wheat. How did they,

David, how did they get it overboard? How did they do it,

Greg? Well, you were there, you don't know.

Well, I'm sure it was insects of some kind. And they carried it.

What? And when it was day, they knew not the land.

So they'd come upon a spot of land that they don't know. But they discovered a certain creek there with a shore into which they were minded, if it were possible, to thrust in the ship.

So they come to, not a harbor, but there's a little creek running down and they're going to try to drive the ship into that.

And when they had taken up the anchors, they committed themselves unto the sea and loosed the rudder bands and hoisted up the mainsail to the wind and made towards the shore.

Verge, what's the rudder bands? Greg? All right, it's something to...

They were not trying to steer, in other words. And they let the wind drive the ship.

From what? Well, they did that all right. But the rudder bands, they disconnected from the rudder, too.

And falling into a place where two seas meet, they ran the ship aground and the fore part stuck fast and remained unmovable.

But the hinder part was broken with the violence of the waves. And the soldier's counsel was to kill the prisoners, lest any of them should swim out and escape.

Now, this is the situation. The prisoners,

Paul had said, would be safe on board the ship. But as soon as they struck land, they're going to get out and leave.

So, why did the... David, why did the soldiers counsel to kill the prisoners?

What difference does that make? Fred, what did you say?

Those in charge of them would have been killed. Though through the providence of God, those poor men had escaped a watery grave and had borne all of the anxiety and distress of this disastrous voyage, as well as the others.

Now, there is a likelihood of all getting safe to land that could swim, lest they should swim to shore and so escape.

Now, they didn't know it was an island. They knew nothing except the shore.

But the centurion, willing to save Paul, kept them from their purpose and commanded that they which could swim should cast themselves first into the sea and get to land.

And the rest, some on boards, some on broken pieces of the ship, and so it came to pass that they escaped all safe to land.

Some on boards. They had a surfboard and they rowed in to land.

All right, next week we'll take chapter 28, which is the last chapter of Acts, and you might want to start studying in the book of James.

I have something here that I want to pass out. I don't want you to discuss it.

Bring your answer next week, written. Virge, will you come and pass these out, please?

As you know, as I study, different thoughts come into my mind, and I have to ask the question more quickly now before I forget it.

So that's why we have this. It doesn't deal directly, well, maybe it does, directly with the lessons that we've been having, but it's a good thing to know.

Are there any questions? Thank you.

All right, Virge, would you dismiss us, please? Father, I thank you for this day,

Lord, and I just thank you for the good thoughts that we've had this morning, Lord, and I just thank you for the things that you revealed to us this day,

Lord, to help us to be more calm, always be, in recognition of the things that you're trying to show us.

Lord, I just thank you for so many blessings to go on in our lives this day, Lord, and particularly for the day that we've had the message,

Lord, and the Lord's given us rewards. May we have faith and safety this day, Lord.

Lord, just give me that good service, Lord, and I'll be proud of you.