A Prisoner of Christ on the Seas of Life
By Pastor Jim May
Acts 27:1 – 28: 10
The story of Paul’s capture and sailing on a ship bound for Rome as it pertains to the life of a Christian who has been “captured” for Jesus and sailing through life on the way to our predetermined destiny in the work of the Lord.
Before Paul was called and anointed to be a carrier of the gospel of Jesus Christ he had been a man of the world, persecuting the church; even causing some followers of Jesus to be put to death for their testimony. But God got hold of his life on the road to Damascus and Paul was forever changed. From that day forward he was always about the Lord’s business, building churches, preaching the gospel to everyone he met and training ministers to take over when he left town so that the church would go on in victory.
Then came that fateful day when he came face to face with Festus, the newly appointed Roman Governor. Festus was a man who had little regard for the gospel or for these people who called themselves Christians. He accused Paul of being a crazy man because of all his ranting and raving about this man Jesus.
I don’t know about you but I’ve had a few people say that I was a little bit crazy too for serving the Lord. I am convinced that only way you can truly have a sound mind is to serve the Lord. The world has it backwards and sin blinds us to the truth. We need Jesus giving us wisdom just to live a normal life.
Paul then went before King Agrippa in the Roman Praetorium and there he preached the gospel to that heathen Roman puppet king. The power of God’s Word preached that day cut right through the hard heart and blinded eyes of King Agrippa. Conviction fell in that palace as Paul spoke and King Agrippa became immortalized by the words that he spoke, “Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian”.
Almost – that’s a hard word to think about. Almost means I am so close and yet I will never make it. Agrippa almost became a born again Child of God that day, but he didn’t. He almost repented of his sin, but he didn’t. He almost fell down and worshipped Jesus as Savior, but he didn’t. He was almost saved, but he wasn’t. Those words will haunt Agrippa and everyone who identifies with his predicament throughout eternity. As they are forever tormented in the flames, with every moment, their thought will be,
I almost escaped these flames, but I didn’t.” Almost isn’t good enough. You can’t almost be saved and go to Heaven. You can’t almost come to church, and then say you came.
It’s like one story I heard of the police officer who tried to make a man obey the stop sign. Why did you run the stop sign, he asked the driver. The driver said, “Well, I almost stopped.” At that the policeman pulled out his ticket pad and began writing a ticket for running the stop sign. Several times he almost stopped writing, but kept going instead. When he handed the driver his ticket he said, “Now can you tell the difference between almost stopping and not stopping?” Maybe the fine that you will be paying will help you remember the difference.
Paul appealed to Caesar as a Roman citizen and therefore he had to go to Rome to plead his case. The story continues as he is arrested and placed on board a ship bound for Rome. All of this was going according to God’s predestined plan for Paul’s life. On one side of the coin Paul could see the hand of God in action as he was given the chance to preach the gospel before powerful Roman officials, and perhaps even before the great Caesar himself.
Paul was faithful. He continued in the work of the Lord and even though he was forewarned by the Holy Spirit that this voyage would not go well.
Oh that we would have that kind of faithfulness; to be faithful and do our duty even when we know that it won’t end well; even when we know that a shipwreck is coming; even when we know that there will come a day when we will have to face some terrible hardships and perhaps even die in the process.
I dare say that not many Christians in the church of today would stay faithful to their calling if they knew these things were coming. Most people are looking for a “feel good” faith where they can dwell in peace, safety and have fire insurance against hell. Don’t tell them that hardships are coming or that they will have to face persecution. If you do you will see a mass exodus from the church. Very few people want to be told about their sin. Even fewer Christians want to hear that they need to humble themselves before God. We want Jesus and we want to live our own life at the same time. It’s impossible to serve two masters. Choose you this day whom you will serve! Don’t allow “almost” to be a part of your life’s story. Go all the way with Jesus.
Paul chose the hard road; that one that is less traveled. He sailed on in his life’s journey, throwing ambition and caution to the wind, and allowed the Holy Ghost to take him anywhere God wanted him to go. He was truly a captive of Jesus Christ, sailing on the seas of life, and his life was in God’s hands all the way. He wasn’t an armchair Christian, sitting on the side rooting for those down on the playing field. He wasn’t a Christian on the river bank watching what was going on as others floated down the stream while in service for the Lord. He was smack in the middle of what God was doing. He was a river Christian and a starter on the Lord’s team. He was determined to remain faithful to the end, whatever that end would be.
That’s the kind of determination that it takes today too. God wants men and women, young people and children who will make a quality decision to go all the way with Him. Regardless of whether the way is easy or hard; regardless of whether they are rich or poor; regardless of whether its convenient or it’s a major interruption of their own plans, those who choose to follow Jesus must do whole heartedly and without reservations, or don’t follow him at all. Cast aside the wisdom of men; abandon your plans and take up your cross and follow Jesus; then sail on as a captive of God’s love and sail life’s sea with the Lord. Don’t stop short of selling out completely! Almost doesn’t count. Close doesn’t count. It’s all or nothing!
Jesus said in Luke 9:62, "… No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God." How many will sail on with Jesus, get almost to the end of life’s journey and then jump ship? How many will come to church, stand in the pews, hear the message of the gospel, feel the conviction power of the Holy Ghost, know that they need Jesus and yet won’t surrender? Almost, but never quite all the way – a terrible legacy to take to the grave!
When Paul stepped onto that ship for the first time, he already knew what was coming. He was given a Word of Knowledge and a Word of Wisdom to bring to the captain of the ship and in Acts 27:10 we see his warning, "And said unto them, Sirs, I perceive that this voyage will be with hurt and much damage, not only of the lading and ship, but also of our lives."
Just as it is when you try to reach people with the message of the gospel and of the Second Coming of Jesus, and of the impending doom that God has predetermined upon this sinful world, the masters of the ship and the Roman centurion wouldn’t believe Paul either. They set sail, not heeding the warnings and struck out across the open sea, headed for Rome.
The world ridicules those who speak the truth of future events today. They call us preachers of doom and gloom. They call you an alarmist or old fashioned. The world would rather believe a lie than to hear the truth. And so the world sails on, the people all around you sail on through life, one day at a time, never giving a thought to the danger that lies ahead. They hear the Word of God but they choose to ignore it. Hearing isn’t enough. Just sitting in God’s house and sensing the move of the Holy Ghost isn’t enough. You must allow the Word to have effect in your heart and let it change you. Being almost persuaded isn’t enough.
I’m not here to tickle your ears or just make you feel good all the time. I do want to make you feel good when you come to church, but sometimes the medicine that God wants to give to you doesn’t taste so well. Sometimes it’s a bitter pill to swallow. Sometimes I have to tell you that the storm is coming and that danger lurks around the next corner in life’s journey. You need the truth more than you need to feel good all the time.
Jesus told us that this would happen too when He told the parable of the sower,
Mark 4:4, "And it came to pass, as he sowed, some fell by the way side, and the fowls of the air came and devoured it up." The fowls of the air are a picture of the demons of hell flying through the air, and the powers of darkness that are ever present and ready to steal the Word right out of your heart, or fill your mind with the cares of life.
Mark 4:5-6, "And some fell on stony ground, where it had not much earth; and immediately it sprang up, because it had no depth of earth: But when the sun was up, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away." The shallow ground of course is that shallow heart of a man who will not allow the gospel to penetrate to the depths of his soul. He’s almost a Child of God, but never quite surrenders it all to Jesus; and in the end he is lost. The scorching sun is a picture of the times when you are in the heat of life’s furnace of trouble and circumstances.
Mark 4:7, "And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up, and choked it, and it yielded no fruit." Unless we give place in our hearts for the Word to take root, it will die.
Now the fact is that we can ignore the warnings of God’s Word; we can ignore the message from the preacher and we can ignore the wooing of the Holy Ghost, and we can continue blindly on our way thinking, “Oh I can handle anything. The devil won’t whip me. I’m strong in the Lord.” You’re only fooling yourself, just like that sea weathered captain and that battle hardened Centurion. The day came when the storm arose and then it was too late to turn back. The storms of life have a way of blindsiding you. Everything is going smooth and suddenly, out of nowhere, a great north wind blows and threatens to destroy your life. Jesus speaks calm into the troubled waters. He speaks to the wind and waves and they obey. But if you don’t know Jesus, what then?
The sailors threw overboard everything that they could to lighten the ship. They send divers around the hull of the ship and began to try to reinforce it with ropes to hold it together. They lowered the sails and tried to slow the ship down to keep from going into the rocks. Finally, they even through all of the control lines overboard and just committed themselves to the sea.
Isn’t that a picture of how not only the worldly crowd operates but how many Christians act as well? We try everything in the book to make things work out.
We begin by casting aside those little sins that we thought might be the reason for the storm, but the storm continues.
We almost repent, but not quite.
Then we go searching for scriptures to support the way we think.
We don’t change to agree with the Word of God, we manipulate and translate the Word of God to agree with us.
The day must come when, like the ship’s crew, we finally decide to give and let God have his way and cast aside our control and commit our way unto the Lord. Only then can we begin to turn away from the storm, and though it may blow for a while, God will bring us through.
Acts 27:44, "And the rest, some on boards, and some on broken pieces of the ship. And so it came to pass, that they escaped all safe to land."
Every once in a while you will have to face what Paul faced on this final journey to Rome. All of his life as a Christian he had been sold out to God and has tried to walk in the center of God’s will. He had accomplished a might work for the Lord by simply being an obedient servant. His journeys had taken him all over the known world and now in his last years on life’s seas, he was about to find himself shipwrecked and a cast away on a foreign shore.
Have you ever found yourself in a place where you felt as though luck, or circumstances had turned against you? I’ve heard people say this and I’ve said it myself, “When it rains; it pours.” When troubles come, sometimes they just keep piling on.
You already feel like a castaway. You’re already feeling cold in the Spirit and the excitement of sailing with the Lord through life has had a cold rain fall on it and now it seems to be a real chore to serve the Lord. You are trying to do something to make things better. Maybe one of the sticks that you pick up to rekindle the fire of the Spirit is that you add another hour on your prayer time; or you determine to read another chapter a day in the Bible. Maybe a stick for your fire is to go and visit the pastor or some good Christian friend, to try to get some encouragement.
Like Paul, you are trying to gather things into your life that will rekindle the warmth of God’s presence in your life. But the devil loves to kick you when you’re down.
As Paul was gathering sticks a viper struck him in the hand. Paul was having a really bad time of it. No one believed his warnings of danger to come. He was called a crazy man for preaching the gospel. He was arrested and was under guard. He sailed many days without the sun to warm him and only the darkness of night and the storm all around him. He was shipwrecked and cast ashore on an island in the cold and rain. He was hungry, wet and tired, and now to top it all off, he was bitten by a snake.
Have you ever heard that term? Anytime someone seems to be having a run of bad luck we often say that they are snake bitten. Perhaps that came from Paul’s experience.
When you are at your lowest point is when other people, both in the church and in the world, will begin to point fingers of blame at you. They did the same to Paul too.
Acts 28:4, "And when the barbarians saw the venomous beast hang on his hand, they said among themselves, No doubt this man is a murderer, whom, though he hath escaped the sea, yet vengeance suffereth not to live."
You must have committed some great sin for this sickness to come upon you. You must have done something wrong to have this happen to you. You just brought it upon yourself. You deserve it. Oh how much do we kill our own wounded? No army in the world destroys its own wounded soldiers except the Army of the Lord. Instead of praying for them, trying to encourage them and helping them heal, we being to point fingers of blame and spread terrible words of gossip that only serve to wound them deeper.
But Paul just shook it off and went on. The poison of the viper had no effect upon him because it wasn’t God’s time for his journey to end. Suddenly, because he didn’t swell up and die, everyone looked upon him as a god.
Acts 28:5-6, "And he shook off the beast into the fire, and felt no harm. Howbeit they looked when he should have swollen, or fallen down dead suddenly: but after they had looked a great while, and saw no harm come to him, they changed their minds, and said that he was a god."
Thank the Lord that Paul wasn’t a preacher like so many we have today. Some of us would love it when people called us a “god”. We even get a sense of pride and arrogance when someone says that we are “godly”. We get all puffed up in pride, built ourselves a platform and stand behind the pulpit just waiting for the people to bow before us and call us Pastor. We build huge churches, saying that it is for the Lord, when all the while it is our legacy that we are thinking of. We appear on TV and go on the radio, building up our “ministry” but we use our name; and not the Lord’s name. Men love the praises of other men, and we love the money that comes too.
We should be like Paul, shake that beast of pride off in the fires of judgment; go on about our daily walk with the Lord and keep an humble spirit before God. Paul didn’t even respond to the barbarians calling him a god. He just went on sailing through life with Jesus piloting his ship.
He went on to Rome and finished his work for God there. In the end Paul had sailed as a true captive of Christ on the seas of life. He never faltered or failed in doing his duty as a slave of Love to his Lord.
His final words can be read in 2 Timothy 4:7, "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:"
As I look around this auditorium today I see a lot of people who sailing with Jesus right now. You are a captive of His great love and you’re sailing on the seas of life with Jesus piloting your ship. Don’t give up. Keep sailing on. Like Paul, there will be times of danger; times of near distress; and times when you might feel the sting of the snake bite; but sail on. Fight the good fight. Finish the course. Keep the faith!
When life’s journey is over and you’ve finished the course, then comes the great reward for your faithfulness.
2 Timothy 4:8, "Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing."
If you don’t know Jesus, or if you fail to remain faithful to Him, you’ll still face the same things in life as those who serve the Lord. There were a lot of other people on the same ship with Paul, and they were blessed because Paul was there, but there is no record that any of them ever received Jesus as their Savior. They faced the shipwreck, the cold, the rain and the same storms but they were still lost in the end.
Don’t let that happen to you. They had a chance. There’s no doubt that Paul preached Christ to many of those sailors. People in distress are always open to hear anything that might help them. I’m sure that some of those sailors came close to giving their lives to Jesus when they thought they were going to drown in the storm. But when the storm was over they went about life as usual.
They were so close; almost persuaded; but they died in their sins and never saw a crown of righteousness or gained eternal life.
Don’t let that happen to you. Give your heart and life to Jesus today and start sailing with Him. Become a captive of Christ’s love on the seas of life and then just sail on with Him.
