How To Survive A Shipwreck Series

SERMON OUTLINE:

The Passengers (vs 1-2)

The Route (vs 2)

The Choice (vs 9-12)

The Storm (vs 13-26)

The Speech (vs 21b-26)

SERMON BODY:

Ill:

• Many Christians use car stickers to witness i.e. Bible verse or fish sign.

• Many non-Christians also use car stickers displaying messages.

• Some advertise a club or society e.g. scouts, caravan club.

• Some tell you where they have been, e.g. Poultons park, Alton Towers.

Some are humorous:

• i.e. ‘There are 3 kinds of people: those who can count & those who can't’.

• i.e. ‘99 percent of lawyers give the rest a bad name’.

• i.e. ‘Dyslexics of the World: 'Untie!'’

• i.e. ‘Be nice to your kids. They'll choose your nursing home’

• i.e. ‘I love cats...they taste just like chicken’

• My favourite car sticker is:

• i.e. ‘If you can read this, I’ve lost my caravan!’

Some car stickers reveal a person’s hobbies or desires:

• i.e. ‘I would rather be skiing,

• i.e. ‘I would rather be sky-diving etc.’

• i.e. ‘I would rather be sailing’.

• Acts chapter 27 starts off with everybody wanting to be sailing;

• But it finishes with everybody sinking!

• Now with such a long passage, we don’t have time to go into all the detail;

• So I want to pull out 5 points – 5 key headings

(1). The Passengers (vs 1-2):

• These first two verses of this chapter, reads like a page out of a ship's log.

• It gives us the list of passengers who were on-board this voyage;

“When it was decided that we would sail for Italy, Paul and some other prisoners were handed over to a centurion named Julius, who belonged to the Imperial Regiment. 2 We boarded a ship from Adramyttium (Ad-ra-mid-i-um): about to sail for ports along the coast of the province of Asia, and we put out to sea. Aristarchus, a Macedonian from Thessalonica, was with us”.

• Let’s take a quick look at the passenger list:

• There are a number of people worth mentioning.

(a). Luke (vs 1).

• “When it was decided that we would sail for Italy”,

• Notice the little word ‘we’ in verse 1 (also verse 4 & 6).

• This informs us that Luke has rejoined Paul once again.

• He has been absent from the narrative since chapter 21 verse 18,

• But now he’s back.

• So Luke is writing as an eye witness, first-hand account to these events.

• Let me remind you that Luke was a Gentile (non-Jew):

• In fact the only Gentile to write any of the books of the Bible,

Ill:

• When I had my market stall at Fareham selling second-hand books & Bibles;

• I set up the stall and then popped off to do a school assembly at park Gate.

• I think John & Christine looked after the stall for a few hours.

• Later, when I returned to the market stall;

• John & Christine mentioned to me that Harold,

• The trader who was positioned next to me;

• Had purchased a second-hand Bible while I was away.

• Well I did not say anything but later on that day Harold who is Jewish;

• Said to me; “I have bought one of these books, the Bibles”.

• Then his Jewish humour came out as he said (tongue in cheek);

• “But I have torn your half out!”

• But he was shocked when I replied; “What do you mean ‘my half’”

• Both parts were written by Jews, only two books were written by a Gentile”

• They are Luke’s Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles.

So Luke was a Gentile:

• He was a skilful doctor, a devoted friend and a careful historian,

• All wrapped up in one!

• Now he was back with Paul, on hand to sail for Italy and to get to Rome.

• And note that Luke will now remain with Paul to the very end of his life;

• Writing from his prison cell in Rome awaiting to be beheaded at any moment;

• Paul could write in 2 Timothy chapter 4 verse 11: “Only Luke is with me”.

• Luke was a professional man:

• Who uses his skills in the service of the Lord,

• And he was willing to go wherever God sent him!

• He could have played safe and practised being a doctor in a surgery back home;

• But Dr Luke had a higher calling and that calling would at times;

• Cause him great hardships and sufferings in the advancement of the gospel.

(b). Aristarchus (vs 2).

“Aristarchus, a Macedonian from Thessalonica, was with us”.

(a).

• We have met Aristarchus earlier in our studies of the book of Acts;