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;
• He first appears in chapter 19 verse 29.
• When a riot broke out in Ephesus, along with the apostle Paul;
• He was forced to flee into a nearby building for safety from a violent and angry mob.
(b).
• His devotion to Paul is seen when Aristarchus became a voluntary prisoner.
• Quote: Colossians chapter 4 verse 10 he is called a “Fellow prisoner”.
Ill:
• In order to travel with Paul to Rome:
• Both Luke & Aristarchus would become Paul's slaves.
• This meant that they became volunteer prisoners;
• And they were allowed to accompany him.
• So that he could be a help and comfort to the apostle.
• He was a voluntary prisoner for the sake of Jesus Christ and the Gospel.
Ill:
• Reminds me of another couple of men who chose to be prisoners;
• John Leonard Dober and David Nitschman;
• Are names you may not readily recognize.
• John was a potter and David a carpenter.
• Ordinary occupations, yet they were extraordinary men!
• They are men who 300 years ago left the security of their jobs and families in Copenhagen;
• To become the very first Moravian missionaries in 1732.
• (Moravia is a historical region in Central Europe;
• It borders Poland in the north, Czech Silesia in the northeast,
• Slovakia in the southeast, Lower Austria in the south and Bohemia in the west).
John Leonard Dober and David Nitschman are unsung heroes.
• These men were not going on a nice short term mission to the Caribbean,
• Or even Africa or China.
• These men actually sold themselves into slavery in the West Indies;
• Question: Why would anyone want to become a slave;
• Answer: They did this so that they would be chained to gangs of black slaves;
• And there they would be able to witness to them.
• Their story gives new meaning to the phrase “sold out for Christ”.
• They became slaves in order to reach the slaves with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
• Their mission statement was “Our Lamb has conquered, let us follow Him.”
• When they went on board the ship they waved goodbye to their weeping families;
• For they knew they would never see them again.
• As the ship started to depart they linked arms together;
• One of them raised his other hand and shouted across the gap their last recorded words;
• ‘MAY THE LAMB THAT WAS SLAIN RECEIVE THE REWARD OF HIS SUFFERING!’
(c).
• According to tradition,
• Aristarchus, like Paul, suffered martyrdom under Nero.
• Aristarchus is the type of friend everybody needs:
• He sticks with Paul through thick and thin;
• ill: A riot, an uncomfortable voyage, a terrifying storm, even a prison cell and death!
• Aristarchus did not look for the easy option.
• He did not run when the going got tough, he suffered with Paul and laboured with Paul.
• For the sake of the gospel.
• Believing that unless men and women hear and believe this message then they are lost
(3). Julius (vs 1)
• Paul, Luke, and Aristarchus were all placed in the custody of a centurion named Julius.
• But don’t miss a few other words contained in verse 1:
• “…and some other prisoners”.
• Paul, Luke, and Aristarchus were not the only prisoners headed to Rome on that ship.
• In fact the Greek word ‘other’ means ‘of a different kind’.
• Which may mean these men unlike the apostle Paul,
• These ‘other prisoners’ were going to Rome to die and not going to stand trial.
Now Julius belonged to the Imperial Regiment:
• A special unit that acted as liaison officers between the emperor and the provinces.
• To hold that position would suggest that Julius;
• Was a man of long experience and with an excellent military-record.
• Like other Roman centurions mentioned in the New Testament;
• He appears to be a man of integrity.
• And all through this voyage Julius, this Roman;
• Will treat Paul with kindness and consideration – much more than just courtesy.
• e.g. verse 3
“The next day we landed at Sidon; and Julius, in kindness to Paul, allowed him to go to his friends so they might provide for his needs”
Allowing Paul to go and meet with other Christians could so easily have backfired on Julius:
• (a). Paul was a very important prisoner to allow such freedom,
• Had Paul done ‘a runner’,
• Julius, may well have paid for that with his very life.
• Roman practice was if a prisoner escaped the person guarding him would pay with his life.
• (b). More significant, Paul was hated by the Jewish leaders at Jerusalem.
• Had his presence in this place been discovered;
• It could have sparked a riot among Sidon's Jewish population,
• Yet. in the space of twenty-four hours:
• Julius had grown to trust Paul;
• Maybe he saw the same qualities in Paul that were displayed in himself.
• Experience, integrity, bravery, trustworthiness………….godliness!
• And believed the apostle would not do anything to bring harm to him.
(2). The Route (vs 2):
• “We boarded a ship from Adramyttium” - (Ad-ra-mid-i-um)
• (Today that would be ‘Edremit’ in North West Turkey
Ill:
• Sailing Joke:
• An old sea captain was sitting on a bench near the wharf;
• When a young man walked up and sat down.
• The young man had spiked hair and each spike was a different colour;
• One was green, one was red, …orange, …blue, and yellow.
• After a while the young man noticed that the old sea captain was staring at him.
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