Illustration: Test pilots have a litmus test for evaluating problems. When something goes wrong, they ask, "Is this thing still flying?" If the answer is yes, then there’s no immediate danger, no need to overreact. When Apollo 12 took off, the spacecraft was hit by lightning. The entire console began to glow with orange and red trouble lights. There was a temptation to "Do Something!" But the pilots asked themselves, "Is this thing still flying in the right direction?" The answer was yes--it was headed for the moon. They let the lights glow as they addressed the individual problems, and watched orange and red lights blink out, one by one. That’s something to think about in any pressure situation. If your thing is still flying, think first, and then act.
Capt. Alan Bean, USN, Apollo Astronaut, in Reader’s Digest.
Acts 27:13-26, “When a gentle south wind began to blow, they thought they had obtained what they wanted; so they weighed anchor and sailed along the shore of Creete. Before very long, a wind of hurricane force, called the “northeaster,” swept down from the island. The ship was caught by the storm and could not head into the wind; so we gave way to it and were driven along. As we passed to the lee of a small island called Cauda, we were hardly able to make the lifeboat secure. When the men had hoisted it aboard, they passed ropes under the ship itself to hold it together. Fearing that they would run aground on the sandbars of Syrtis, they lowered the sea anchor and let the ship be driven along. We took such a violent battering from the storm that the next day they began to throw the cargo overboard. On the third day, they threw the ship’s tackle overboard with their own hands. When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days and the storm continued raging, we finally gave up all hope of being saved. After the men had gone a long time without food, Paul stood up before them and said: “Men, you should have taken my advice not to sail from Crete; then you would have spared yourselves this damage and loss. But now I urge you to keep up your courage, because not one of you will be lost; only the ship will be destroyed. Last night an angel of the God whose I am and whom I serve stood beside me and said, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul. You must stand trial before Caesar; and God has graciously given you the lives of all who sail with you.’ So keep up your courage, men, for I have faith in God that it will happen just as he told me. Nevertheless, we must run aground on some island.”
Life is full of moments like that, those moments when everything seems to go horribly wrong and we wonder not only what to do next, but if it will even matter. Sometimes we feel urgency to do something now, whether it’s wise or not, sometimes we feel completely out of control and wonder if there is even anything we can do. Paul was a man who knew what that was like. As we’ve walked through Acts we’ve seen and read his testimony. He started off as a man who was sure of himself. He started out as a man with his life pointed strongly in one direction and everything seemed to be going well for him. He was traveling around not only persecuting the church but doing so with the authority of the high priests. In other words as a young man he not only had their attention but their trust.
It was all going so well except he wasn’t going in the direction that God wanted him to go. So God turned him around, and not only set him off in the right direction. What we see happen for the rest of his life tells us about the priorities of God. See God doesn’t then make everything perfect in his life, God doesn’t give Paul a life a leisure, luxury and comfort. Instead God gives Paul a life of purpose, mission and impact. But to have all of those things happen, God has to change Paul and Paul has battles to fight, and storms to go through, some were literal, and some were personal. You see God’s view of our lives is for all eternity, not just this life, God already knows our destination, but He wants us to get the most out of the journey and to do the most we can along the way. That won’t always seem easy, but it will be worthwhile. As we look at this passage it is important to note that the Paul in this passage has seen and done a lot. Even though he was very accomplished at a young age, this older version of Paul has seen and experienced so much. What we see in this passage is part of the pay off of a life lived with Christ.
One of the things that I love about this passage is the imagery of it. I believe that God is very aware of symbolism and uses things to teach us about Him, and to help us better understand the concept. As we look at Paul and His companions going through this storm in our culture we see the symbolism of the storms of life. When the economy is in the tanks, when you just can’t find a job, when the doctor gives you a prognosis that isn’t good, and you feel the figurative winds of life blowing, this is one of those stories in the Bible that you can turn to for comfort.
That is symbolism that we are aware of. But there is another type of symbolism at work here. You see in Paul’s culture to survive a test of life at sea was to be portrayed as righteous. One of the most famous examples of this was the Odyssey by Homer. Odysseus manages to survive the trip home and is therefore proves righteous and worthy of reclaiming his throne despite his earlier rebellion. For Paul’s culture as Luke is writing this tail, Luke is not only giving details of an actual event, he proves his by the amount of detail that he puts into the story because people of the day could go and check these events for themselves, Luke is not only telling what happened but symbolically showing the righteousness of Paul.
But as we look at this story we see more then simply symbolism, we see the account of how a Godly man, a man who was experienced in the storm, reacts in all of the stages of the storm. The journey starts out simply enough, after the events of the hearing that we looked at last week, Luke writes in verse 1, “When it was decided that we would sail for Italy, Paul and some other prisonsers were handed over to a centurion named Julius, who belonged to the Imperial Regiment. We boarded a ship from Adramyttium 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. The next day we landed at Sidon; and Julius, in kindness to Paul, allowed him to go to his friends so they might provide fro his needs.” Julius was most like a member of a regiment that was not under the control of Festus, his main mission would have been transporting prisoners from all over the empire to Rome for trial. This would have been a man who was most likely used to prisoners and hardened to their plight. But here we find that Paul has favor with Julius the Centurion and his friends. The friends there are Paul’s.
Notice that at the first port the stop in Julius allows Paul to leave the ship and to visit with his friends. Now if you notice Luke doesn’t write that we went to visit the friends so it may be that Luke stayed behind as security of sorts. I don’t know, what I do know is that this was an unusual event. Guards don’t just let their prisoners go visit their friends. They may let the friends come visit but this is unusual. It shows that Paul was viewed as someone warranting respect. I also think that there is an amount of favor that God is granting Paul with this guard.
So the journey starts off, it is not only smooth sailing wise but relationally as well. For a journey to go stand trial, things are going very well for Paul. This is what the human side of us emotionally expects in life, when we are doing things for God everything is supposed to go well for us. But the truth that we are about to see is that even when we are walking (or in this case sailing) in the will of God the wind can blow against us. It seems unfair right? We’ve got a sense of justice built in that says when you do the right things you should get rewarded and when you doing the wrong things you should get punished, but life doesn’t always seem to work that way. Paul wanted to preach in Jerusalem, he goes there and doesn’t find success. God sends him to Rome, the circumstances of his journey aren’t the best, but he makes the most of it. He does what he’s supposed to do. Now he finds himself on a ship, going to the place he didn’t want to go because he is being obedient. He’s evidentially being a good prisoner, because the centurion is willing to let him visit his friends. This trip should go well for him. But it’s about to get really rough.
The same thing happens in our lives. We do what we’re supposed to do, we go to church, we spend time with our families, we pay our taxes, and we work hard. We do everything we’re supposed to do and then the storm comes and we are tempted to think it’s unfair. But God is going to walk through this storm with Paul. He is going to use what Paul has learned to give a better result then everyone involved should have expected. In fact we’re going to see that even in the midst of the storm, God blesses Paul.
There’s a final thing that we need to be aware as we look at what was going on before the storm. Paul had experience with the sea. Look at what Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 11:25, “Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spend a night and a day in the open sea. This may have been Luke’s first ship wreak but it wasn’t Paul’s. He knew something about the sea, he knew exactly how dangerous it could be, but he also knew that you could survive a shipwreck. There’s an important lesson for us in that. Sometimes, God let’s us go through a storm because we have been there before and He wants us to help someone else get through it. We find that in this passage Paul is a voice of wisdom and assurance throughout.
Look at verse 9, “Much time had been lost, and sailing had already become dangerous because by now it was after the Fast. So Paul warned them, “Men, I can see that our voyage is going to be disastrous and bring great loss to ship and cargo, and to our own lives also.” We don’t know if this was a warning that Paul had from God, or just from his own background. To understand the warning you have to understand the time of year and the conditions of the sea. In this area the sea was very violent in the winter. In fact the period between November 11th and March was known as “mare clausum” which means, “the sea is closed.” During this time sea travel was to be avoided. The journey that they are taking under ideal conditions was about 45 days, they weren’t facing ideal conditions and it was getting really close to November 11th. The term “the Fast” would have referred to the day of Atonement. The Day of Atonement was in late September to early October depending on the year. Most historians believe that this journey took place in 59 A.D. if that is accurate then the Day of Atonement would have been October 5th. These events are taking place after that. So we don’t know if Paul is giving a warning from God or just his experience but he warns the centurion that they should go.
It is a good warning but look at verse 11, “But the centurion, instead of listening to what Paul said, followed the advice of the pilot and the owner of the ship. Since the harbor was unsuitable to winter in, the majority decided that we should sail on, hoping to reach Phoenix and winter there.” These guys have more experience with the sea then Paul does so why is there opinion so much different? What is going on with them? I think that it is simple, look at those words, “hoping to reach Phoenix and winter there.” See this would have been a cargo ship, they didn’t have passenger ships back then, if you wanted to sail someplace you found a cargo ship and caught a ride. Commentators believe that this was most likely a wheat ship. The issue for them is that the ship is exposed in this harbor, if the ship sinks they lose the ship and the cargo. They are in a crisis and they feel that they have to do something.
This is one of the biggest dangers when we are caught in a bad situation too many times we feel the need to do something, so we make a rush decision, we rush into doing something and in the end we’re much worse off then if we had simply waited. I believe that the problem for these guys is that they were sitting around with all the worst case scenario’s playing out in their minds and they did it so much that in their opinion the worst case became the inevitable case. It set them up for what happened next. When the storm came it was subtle at first, in fact they thought it was favorable. Look at verse 13, “When a gentle south wind began to blow, they thought they had obtained what they wanted; so they weighed anchor and sailed along the shore of Crete.” They thought that they were getting exactly what they wanted, they felt the need to do something, so the minute they saw a change the assumed that they knew exactly what it was and they acted, not accordingly, but according to what their wishes were.
It was late in the year they were in an area that was known for storms. I mean if they were in Arizona, I can understand this right? I mean this year we don’t believe a forecast of rain until after it starts to fall. But for these guys maybe they should have waited a bit. But they were in a hurry to act, in a hurry to do something, so they did and it led to disaster. That gentle wind began to gather in strength, clouds at some point began to appear on the horizon. As the sky grows darker and the wind begins to howl the sea would begin to rise, the gentle swells would turn into crushing waves, and the journey they thought they were on would be totally changed.
Pick up Luke’s narrative in verse 14, “before very long, a wind of hurricanes force, called the “northeaster,” swept down from the island.” Have you been there? You thought you knew what you were doing, you felt the need to do something, you were sure things couldn’t get any worse. So you saw a direction and you took action. Only it wasn’t too long before you found out that it could get worse and the winds of life come up and now not only have you found it can’t get worse it feels like nothing can go right.
It seems that one of the worst places to be in the storm is the point where we realize that we don’t have any control any more. When the storms of life come we may find that our lives are driven by them. We thought we were in control, we thought we could make all the decisions, only we come to a place where there aren’t any good decisions left to make. We know what we want to do, but we can do it. Verse 15, “The ship was caught by the storm and could not head into the wind; so we gave way to it and were driven along.” We know what we want to do. We know what we think is right, but sometimes life has other ideas. Sometimes it’s just the way that it works. The options that we want simply aren’t there and we have to simply run with the course of things until that time comes to change.
They were being driven by the storm and things did get worse. Verse 16, “As we passed to the lee of a small island called Cauda, we were hardly able to make the lifeboat secure. When the men had hoisted it aboard, they passed ropes under the ship itself the hold it together. Fearing that they would run aground on the sandbars of Syrtis, they lowered the sea anchor and let the ship be driven along. We took sush a violent battering from the storm that the nest day they began to throw the cargo overboard. (Remember they’re probably in the mess because they wanted to save the cargo) On the third day, they threw the ship’s tackle overboard with their own hands. When neither son nor stars appeared for many days and the storm continued raging, we finally gave up all hope of being saved.” Oh have you been there. It just doesn’t seem to stop, you thought things were bad but then they got worse, you thought that was the worse, but now everything good seems to be gone. You can’t see the sun, the moon the stars, anything, there doesn’t seem to be a light at the end of the tunnel.
That is where Luke and company found themselves, he says, “we” it’s all inclusive, “we finally gave up all hope of being saved.” In the midst of that in the middle of hope being lost Paul stands up and tells them that there is one true place to hope. It’s not just a message of hope in the next world it’s a message of hope in this world. But even after he delivers that message, we see one final danger of the storm because, in the midst of the storm thee temptation to do the wrong thing can be great. Skip to verse 30, “In an attempt to escape from the ship, the sailors let the lifeboat down into the sea, pretending they were going to lower some anchors from the bow. Then Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, ‘Unless these men stay with the ship, you cannot be saved.’ So the soldiers cut the ropes that held the lifeboat and let it fall away. So much for the tradition of the captain going down with his ship, the sailors wanted to leave. They were ready to abandon everyone else to death to save their own lives. We know what they were thinking, the ship was not little more then just floating wood. The cargo was lost the tackle was lost. This might be their last chance to get out of things with their lives. So as the wind howled as the waves crashed over the ship. They knew what they should do but chose to try and do what they could do despite the consequences. This is one of the deadliest temptations of the storm. The wrong thing may seem attractive. They wouldn’t have called it the easy way out but it was. The problem would have been in they days and the years ahead as they dealt with the guilt of what they had done. It people heard about it there would have been other consequences. There is always a price to be paid, and in the midst of the storm it may not seem so bad. The problem is that storms don’t last but the consequences might.
In this case for them, they almost made the wrong decision when the storm was almost over, when deliverance, was at hand. Look at the next verse 33, “Just before dawn.” Remember those words of Luke? In the middle of the storm they couldn’t see Sun or stars, but now we read, “Just before dawn Paul urged the all to eat. “For the last fourteen days,” he said, “You have been in constant suspense and have gone without food-you haven’t eaten anything. Now I urge you to take some food. You need it to survive. Not only of you will lose a single hair from his head.” After he said this, he took some bread and gave thanks to God in front of them all. Then he broke it and began to eat. They were all encouraged and ate some food themselves. Altogether there were 276 of us one board. When they had eaten as much as they wanted, they lightened the ship by throwing the grain into the sea. When daylight came, they did not recognize the land, but they saw a bay with a sandy beach, where they decided to run the ship aground if they could. Cutting loose the anchors, they left them in the sea and at the same time untied the ropes that held the rudders. Then they hoisted the foresail to the wind and made for the beach.”
The worst of the storm was over they not only sighted land by a bay. Their salvation was at hand, and when they saw it they cut loose the anchors and went for it. These anchors are mentioned in verse 29, “Fearing that we would be dashed against the rocks, they dropped four anchors from the stern and prayed for daylight.” I was looking at that verse, and thinking about what we do in the storm, what are our anchors? What allows us to stand fast like Paul did and be the voice of wisdom and assurance that helps everyone else get through the storm, and helps us to make it through too? Well if you have accepted Christ into you life there are four anchors in the storm that we see in this passage and in our own lives.
The first is the anchor of God’s presence nothing happens that is a surprise to God. Simply put God knew what was coming. I don’t know if Paul’s warning was from God or experience, but we do know that God was with Paul in the storm, and God makes His appearance at the perfect time. At the moment when hope seemed lost. Remember Luke wrote, “We gave up hope.” But then in verse 21 Paul begins to speak, he reminds them of his warning, I don’t think this is an I told you so as much as it is a note to his credibility, then he delivers this message. Verse 22, “But now I urge you to keep yp your courage, because not one of you will be lost; only the ship will be destroyed. Last night an angel of the God whose I am and whom I serve stood beside me.” In the midst of the storm God was there. Paul saw the angel when hope seemed God, but God was always there. In the midst of our storms God is with us.
Next we see the anchor of God’s plan – He knows your destination. Continuing in verse 24, “Do not be afraid, Paul. You must stand trial before Caesar; and God has graciously given you the lives of all who sail with you. So keep up your courage, men, for I have faith in God that it will happen just as he told me. Nevertheless, we must run aground on some island.” God has a plan for your life too. He has missions for you to accomplish, people that he wants you to reach. We’ve talked about our “Oikos” the 8 to 15 people that God wants you to reach with His grace. It’s not about inviting them to church, that’s just a way to share it is about introducing them to the one who will see us through any storm. Why did Paul make it through this storm? Because his focus was on what he had to share in Rome. Why did the angel say that Paul would make it through, because Paul needed to share. God has a plan and a purpose for your life, follow that plan, seek that plan and He will see you through.
Then there is the anchor of God’s provision because He know your needs. We saw it in verse 33, Paul told them that they needed to eat if they were going to survive. It may not be so dire for you that you’ll literally starve to death, but God knows what you need and He will provide it for you. It may not be how you planned, it may not be when you would like it, but God will see you through. It may be at the last minute as it was with Paul, it may be when hope fades, but God will provide for you needs.
He is able to do that because of the last and perhaps greatest anchor, the anchor of God’s Power, in the midst of the storm God is in control. I think we see a glimpse at the faith that Luke had in the power of God in verse 37. Paul tells them that they will all be saved, so they all eat and Luke counts heads, he writes that there were 276 of us. Why? I believe that he expected all of them to be saved. That is what we read at the end of verse 44, “In this way everyone reached land in safety.” God had seen them through. Hope was gone, light was gone, all there was, was the storm, but God saw them through. When it comes to the storms of your life He is ready and willing to see you through to if you will just accept Him.
