19th of June 2011
Text: Acts 27:9-44
Cargo-less lifestyle
Dear friends in Christ.
Our reading journey through the New Testament brought us to the end of the 5th book of the New Testament, Acts of the Apostles chapter 27. Today we shall look into the story from the last journey of apostle Paul - his journey to Rome. Maybe he did travel some more (to Spain etc.) but we have no record of it, so we consider this to be his last journey. As we know from the historical records Paul finished his ministry and his life as a martyr and was buried in Rome.
I am not going to read the whole passage, I hope that you all read it this week according to our congregational Bible reading plan. But for those of you who are not quite familiar with this story, let me just briefly tell you what is it all about.
Paul was a prisoner because of his faith. Accused by the jealous Jewish leaders in Jerusalem, held in prison for couple years in the city of Caesarea, as a Roman citizen he used his right to appeal to the Emperor, so he is taken by the Roman soldiers to Rome.
They started their journey bit late, the sailing season was nearly over – ships did not sail in wintertime because of the adverse wind conditions. Paul warned them before they even started ‘the voyage will be with injury and much loss, not only of the cargo and the ship, but also of their lives’ (Acts 27:10).
But they did not heed his warnings. But that exactly what happened. They sailed out and the storm came that lasted 2 weeks! Can you imagine 14 days of storm in the wooden vessel from 2000 ago? It must have a ship of reasonable size, because there were 276 people on board, and large amount of cargo, yet they were helpless in the tempest that came upon them.
Now I want to pause in the story at this point and focus on Paul’s words. He said there will be a loss of cargo and lives of people will be endangered.
We are all on a journey! The final destination point is ahead of us. We as Christians we know there will be a loss of cargo and we also know that the lives of many men are in grave danger! WE ARE this prophetic, apostolic voice in our world, in our society, in our city today. In the same way as Paul, we have a choice to be quiet and say nothing or be truthful to our calling and proclaim the truth however unpleasant and hard it is to our listeners.
John the Baptist preached very unpopular message: Repent! – Yet the whole country, all the people were flocking to him. (Matthew 3:5) His words were harsh, penetrating deep, but people kept on coming.
Our message is not easy because we have a duty of care for our neighbours. We have to tell them: Hey, if you don’t know Jesus, you will die forever, you will go to hell. If you live for the things of this world, for the cargo of this world only, we have a very bad news for you: There will be a great loss of cargo and great loss of lives at the end of your journey.
Do people want to hear this? Of course not! But how much do we love the people in our neighbourhood? PUSH, PUSH, PUSH – we have to give birth; we need to see people being born again. PUSH – pray until something happens! Are you pregnant? Why not? What’s wrong with you? Do you need IVF – great, this is a good place, because we listen to the living word of the living God in here and through this word, by this word something happens inside us. This word is given to us to create a new life – just like in the womb of Mary, we are here to conceive new lives all around us.
On this ship there was Paul and probably a few more Christian friends that were with him on the ship – because as we notice, the author of the book of Acts, Luke was obviously there, because he writes as an eyewitness, as a participant in this horrific story. Because of these few believers onboard of this ship, 276 lives were spared!!! This is God’s plan for your life. This is God’s plan for Concordia, for this church: to be people of such an influence on our city that through the words of our testimony and through the witness of our lives there would be such a mighty harvest of souls for the kingdom of our Lord!
I believe so. And this kind of thinking is not farfetched in any way.
Psalm 2:8
“Ask of me, and I will give the nations for your inheritance, the uttermost parts of the earth for your possession.”
This is not megalomania. This is our whole purpose of our existence as the church of Jesus Christ. If we lose this vision of reaching out to those who are just about to perish, we have no legal right to claim our inheritance.
What do you think, why those people on the boat, centurion, the owner of the boat and everybody else, why nobody trusted Paul in the beginning of their voyage? They all heard him, but nobody cared what this Christian prisoner/apostle/missionary/lunatic was saying. Why?
Some were maybe just very homesick and couldn’t wait any longer, they could not imagine staying another winter away from home, from their loved ones. It’s possible. Captain and the crew, the professional experienced sailors might have been thinking: By what right is this Jewish rabbi heretic trying to tell us, the pros, how to sail, when to sail, where to sail? Why should we listen to his black prognosis?
And there could be many other reasons among those 276 passengers why they just wanted to keep on sailing despite Paul’s serious warnings.
And I believe that there were also some businessmen onboard, merchants, traders, who did not like any delays and wanted to get to the final destination, to Rome so that they can sell their goods, their cargo and make their profits and investments.
Now, are any of those reasons evil on its own? No! There is nothing wrong in those motives. They are not sinful per se.
There is nothing wrong with having a cargo in your life – to have stuff, to have a family, to have a business and do business, make profit and invest and reinvest, to travel and to enjoy life etc. It is not evil, nor sinful.
It is good when ship is in the water; it is no so good when water gets into the ship.
It is good when there is cargo in your life; it is no so good, when your life is in your cargo.
After 14 very stormy days, nobody ate the whole time, they thought this is it; we are all going to die.
It is interesting to observe what were their priorities in the time of great stress and in life danger.
Acts 27:18 – cargo went first – already on the second day!
When it is a question of life and death, cargo becomes a burden. Those precious things that were supposed to bring good profits seemed not so profitable when tossed by the great waves.
You know that we did not have this problem in our family life, but when people face the death sentence, when the doctors tell you: You have a cancer, you might live a few months… cargo goes out first!
God sometimes has to bring storms like this into our life to help us realize what is really important. Sometimes He has to teach us to live cargo-less lifestyle. Sometimes God has to take all the distractions away so that we can see what the life is all about – And it is not about the CARGO!
That’s why cargo went out first.
Acts 27:19 – “on the third they threw the ship’s tackle overboard with their own hands.” Instruments for running, operating the ship. Instruments that were supposed to save their lives, but were useless against the power of the storm that came upon them.
What do you rely on? Sometimes the Lord has to bring you to the place where you realize that even the ship’s tackle is a burden. Or maybe He has to show you that it is not the instruments, the skills, the know how, that will save you, but you have to trust completely a totally in Him and His provisions, His guidance, His protection, His wisdom, His power, His hand and not yours.
Throw the tackle out.
Acts 27:20 Hope goes overboard. This one is interesting! There is a saying: Hope dies last! (at least in Slovakian we have this saying J) So it looks like after the cargo was gone, after the instruments, the tackle was gone, they lost all hope that they will be saved.
And in the midst of it all there was the voice of calm apostle: Guys, come over here and eat. We’ll be just fine. I have seen an angel of the Lord and he told me, nobody will die. Cheer up, have a beer! Only this ship will be lost (imagine how the owner of the ship liked that) – but we’ll be just fine! My God, God to whom I belong and whom I worship, He told me. And my God had granted me the lives of all of you. You will be saved because of me!
And this time nobody said: Lunatic, religious freak, idiot… All of a sudden they trusted this man.
Live in obedience, trust the Lord and you will see people around you, those who have been watching you all those years, they will come and they will trust, because they have seen the word of the living God coming through and working what you said it will.
Be a prophetic voice and in the right time you will receive a reward of the prophet, you will see people flocking to you, like in the days of John the Baptist.
Acts 27:32 Ship’s boat had to go as well – the last lifeline, the escape route, the life boat. What is the logic in getting rid of this last survival kit?
Acts 27:38 All the food went overboard. This is getting more and more interesting, isn’t it?
Acts 27:40 The last thing that was thrown away were anchors….
…. And then they were all saved!
They have all learnt a lesson of cargo-less lifestyle. In their case their cargo was actually taken away from them. But I am sure that all them were very happy that they were alive and well, as they were sitting at the bonfire on the shores of Malta.
So this is the story and some application taken from it.
Now let me just quickly give you some more food for thought on this subject of cargo-less lifestyle. I will just read a few Scriptures and maybe ask few questions.
In Luke 10:4 Jesus said:
“Carry no purse, nor wallet, nor sandals. Greet no one on the way.”
But then in Luke 22:35-36 He says something very different, even contradictory:
“He said to them, "When I sent you out without purse, and wallet, and shoes, did you lack anything?" They said, "Nothing." Then he said to them, "But now, whoever has a purse, let him take it, and likewise a wallet.”
There is time and season for everything. There was a time when Jesus sent them without a cargo, but then after they learnt how to live without it, He said: OK, now you can carry a wallet.
(2 Kings 4:29 – Gehazi – example of greed and what it leads to.)
In Luke 12:43-44 Jesus spoke in parables and He said:
“Blessed is that servant whom his lord will find doing so when he comes.
Truly I tell you, that he will set him over all that he has.”
What is it that God has? What will we be put in charge of and when? It says “when He comes” – so does it mean that He is he speaking of things in heaven or does it apply to things and matters here on earth?
Is it possible that God has the power to put you in charge of some cargo here on earth, e.g. that anything we have, anything we are in charge of might be His special appointment, His call and we are to look after those things as His, not ours, with that attitude?
What do you think? Does it apply to your work, to your business? What is your cargo?
Luke 12:33-34
“Sell that which you have, and give gifts to the needy. Make for yourselves purses which don't grow old, a treasure in the heavens that doesn't fail, where no thief approaches, neither moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”
I am sure we will not need purses, wallets in heaven, but this is what Jesus is saying, that by living cargo-less lives we gain those purses, which don’t grow old. Heavenly bank account.
Luke 12:21
“So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God."
It is possible to be very rich and very poor at the same time. Remember the church in Laodicea in Revelation 3:17.
Jesus’ warning:
Luke 12:15
“He said to them, "Beware! Keep yourselves from covetousness, for a man's life doesn't consist of the abundance of the things which he possesses."
Man’s life is not in his cargo.
Luke 14:33
“So therefore whoever of you who doesn't renounce all that he has, he can't be my disciple.”
Some of His apostles were challenged in this and passed the test, but some failed. But then even Jesus Himself had a treasurer among the twelve, it means there were money coming in, they had goods to buy, to look after. They had something with them, they owned something, but what they had did not own them.
What do you have?
The ‘renounce’ used here in Greek means ‘to forsake, to say good bye, to leave, send away – or we can say in the context of our story: To chuck overboard.
Luke 17:25-30
“But first, he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.
As it happened in the days of Noah, even so will it be also in the days of the Son of Man.
They ate, they drank, they married, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ship, and the flood came, and destroyed them all.
Likewise, even as it happened in the days of Lot: they ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; but in the day that Lot went out from Sodom, it rained fire and sulfur from the sky, and destroyed them all.
It will be the same way in the day that the Son of Man is revealed.”
Everything that you have will finish up like those things in the days of Noah and days of Lot – destroyed – water and fire.
Luke 18:28-30
“Peter said, "Look, we have left everything, and followed you."
He said to them, "Most certainly I tell you, there is no one who has left house, or wife, or brothers, or parents, or children, for the Kingdom of God's sake, who will not receive many times more in this time, and in the world to come, eternal life."
And this is such an amazing promise. THERE IS NO ONE who will not receive many times more!
Do we hear clearly? To live cargo-less life can be scary. You feel secure in what you have. But Jesus is saying, trust me, not the things I give, but ME myself.
Remember cargo went overboard first in our story.
In the world today we can see how much of the world’s cargo is going overboard first. The economic disasters one after another. The world has to learn who is the Provider.
Tackle will go second, then hope, then life rafts, then food and then even the anchors. And then the day of the Lord’s salvation will come. But to see that ending we have to be the voice of the prophets in our day. Shall we?
Amen.
