The book of Acts is 28 chapters long. In Chapter 28, Paul finally gets to Rome. But chapter 27 is the chapter where the last major drama of the book of Acts happens. It’s the story of Paul in a storm. Luke, who wrote the book of Acts, gave a lot of space to this story. He must think it’s significant. I do too! I believe it has some important things to teach us about what the Christian life is like and how to survive storms.
GOD AND STORMS
to begin with, I’d like to make some comments about God and storms.
God sometimes CAUSES storms. In the story of Jonah we read, ‘But the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea’ [Jonah 1:4]. God caused that storm.
Conversely, God sometimes CALMS storms. Jesus calmed a storm on the Sea of Galilee. He rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm [Matthew 8:26]. There are examples in the Old Testament too [e.g. Psalm 107:28-29].
But sometimes, God doesn’t engage with the storm at all. That’s the case in our passage today. There’s nothing to suggest that God caused the storm Paul found himself in. And he certainly didn’t calm it. But God went with Paul INTO the storm.
This tells us something about the Christian life. Most of us wouldn’t like God to CAUSE a storm in our lives. But he could. Most of us WOULD like God to CALM storms in our lives! God can do that too. But it may be that God neither CAUSES not CALMS a storm. But he goes with us through the storm.
In the book of Daniel, Daniel’s friends Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego got into trouble with King Nebuchadnezzar. He ordered that they be thrown into a fiery furnace. God could have kept them from the furnace – but he allowed them to be thrown in. But then, to his amazement, King Nebuchadnezzar saw a fourth person in the furnace with him. And he cried out, ‘and the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods!’ [Daniel 3:25].
It’s the same point. God may not keep us from the storm, but he will go into the storm with us.
But perhaps you think, ‘Storms don’t come to righteous people. Storms come when we drift out of God’s purposes.’ But that isn’t the case in this story. Paul hadn’t been drifting spiritually. God had told him that he had to testify in Rome [Acts 23:11]. Here he was, on his way to Rome. He was in the centre of God’s will. And yet, a terrible storm came along! It shows that storms CAN come to righteous people, people who are in the centre of God’s will.
So, here are two simple but important truths about storms. First, storms happen. God can cause them. God can calm them. God may do neither. But he’ll go with us through them. Second, a storm in your life doesn’t mean that you’re outside God’s will. Paul wasn’t.
KINDS OF STORMS
I said, ‘a storm in your life.’ What kind of storm am I thinking about? There can be literal storms at sea. But there are many kinds of storms in life. There was an item on the news yesterday about a lady called Emma Webb. Her daughter, Brodie, committed suicide when she was 16. Brodie was a keen rider and Emma Webb is now walking from Chepstow to London, pulling a life-size resin horse after her to raise awareness of mental health. What a devastating experience that must have been. It was certainly a storm. But there are many other kinds of storms. A person can lose a close family member. A person can fall ill, or get into debt, or suffer from depression. A person can lose their job or fail an exam or have a car accident. A person’s marriage can fail. A person can have problems at work. A person’s children can get into trouble. They’re all storms.
Storms come. It’s part of life. We need to be prepared. Maybe Jesus will intervene and rebuke the winds and the waves and everything will become calm. But maybe God will see fit to let us go through the storm.
What are our strategies? What did Paul do? I’m going to make three points. Have you heard the phrase, ‘Not-so-common common-sense’? When I tell you these things you’ll probably say, ‘Come on Simon! These are obvious! We know these things!’ I expect you do know them. But the evidence is that many Christians don’t DO them.
AVOID
The first strategy is AVOID. AVOID the storm if you possibly can.
Look at verse 10. There’s obviously a discussion going on between the centurion, the ship’s captain, the owner of the ship, and Paul. Paul tells them: ‘Sirs, I perceive that the voyage will be with injury and much loss, not only of the cargo and the ship, but also of our lives.’
Paul doesn’t like the plan. He’s already been shipwrecked three times. So, he warns them, ‘If you go ahead with this plan, there will be loss.’
There’s a passage in Proverbs which is like this. The writer of Proverbs sees a young man from his window, ‘a young man lacking sense.’ He’s walking in the evening, ‘taking the road to HER house…’
The woman invites him in. The writer continues:
‘All at once he follows her,
as an ox goes to the slaughter,
or as a stag is caught fast
till an arrow pierces its liver;
as a bird rushes into a snare;
he does not know that it will cost him his life.’
Then the writer of Proverbs gives some advice:
‘And now, O sons, listen to me,
and be attentive to the words of my mouth.’
What do you suppose his advice will be? Here it is:
‘LET NOT YOUR HEART TURN ASIDE TO HER WAYS;
DO NOT STRAY INTO HER PATHS…’ [Proverbs 7].
It really isn’t rocket-science! If you don’t want the same result as that young man, don’t go in the direction of that woman! How does this apply today? Today, there’s sexual temptation everywhere. If we don’t want to fall to it, we have to avoid it. We must avoid films which have explicit sexual content. We mustn’t look at pornography. It sounds simple, doesn’t it? Not too complicated. Apparently, there are somewhere between 1 and 4 million pornographic websites in the world. A lot of people are looking at porn! What about Christians? About eight years ago Premier Christian News did a survey and found that 42% of UK Christian men admit ‘porn addiction.’ It’s shocking and tragic. The situation in America is very similar. Last year, Barna, an American organization, found that 68% of church-going men and more than 50% of pastors regularly view porn. Wow! Barna also noted that pornography use increases the marital infidelity rate by more than 300%. It screams the word ‘Danger’. And yet, tragically, huge numbers of Christians don’t do any avoiding at all. Instead, they head right into the storm.
Strategy Number One in surviving the storm is to AVOID it. Paul couldn’t avoid it. He was a prisoner. But he did his best to shout a warning.
I’d like to spend a few minutes more on the subject of avoiding. Paul warned the centurion, the pilot and the owner what would happen if they sailed. ‘But’, Luke tells us, ‘the centurion paid more attention to the PILOT and to the OWNER of the ship than to what Paul said. And because the harbour was not suitable to spend the winter in, the MAJORITY decided to put out to sea from there’ [Acts 27:11-12].
Notice the words PILOT, OWNER and MAJORITY.
In this case, the experts – the pilot and the owner – were both wrong. The majority was also wrong. Paul was right. In modern life, we usually have a lot of respect for experts. When Covid came along, the politicians listened to the medical and scientific experts. We also respect the majority. If the majority thinks such-and-such we often just fall in line. We stop fighting for something.
But Paul had something that the pilot, owner and majority didn’t have. He had a living relationship with God. The pilot, owner and majority had views about what would happen. God KNEW what would happen.
If we want to avoid a storm we MUST listen to God. It isn’t good enough to listen to the experts or listen to the majority.
In the Old Testament there was an occasion when Ahab, the king of Israel, was wondering whether to go to battle with Syria. 400 prophets encouraged him to go. But Jehoshaphat, the king of Israel, asked, ‘Is there not here another prophet of the Lord of whom we may enquire?’ [1 Kings 22:7]. Micaiah is brought out and after some pushing tells the two kings that he foresees disaster. They should have listened. In the battle that follows, Ahab dies.
Strategy Number One in surviving the storm is to AVOID it. And to avoid it, we need to listen to God!
PRAY
Let’s continue to our second strategy. Our second strategy is to pray. It’s another of those ‘not-so-common common-sense’ strategies.
The majority and the experts decided to sail and they set off. Before long, a storm struck. The crew did what they did to survive the storm. They secured the ship’s boat, they put ropes under the ship and they lowered the sea anchor. But it’s clear that Paul was praying. Look at verses 23 and 24. Paul tells the crew:
“For this very night there stood before me an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I worship, and he said, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul; you must stand before Caesar. And behold, GOD HAS GRANTED you all those who sail with you.’”
The angel told Paul, ‘GOD HAS GRANTED.’ When we read the word granted it means that Paul had requested. Paul had been asking God. He’d been praying.
It’s obvious that we need to pray but we need to say it. I, as minister, need to keep drumming it in. Are you in a storm? Then pray! People sometimes say, ‘All I could do was pray!’ – as if praying was the LAST thing that was left when you’ve exhausted everything else. That’s back to front! Prayer needs to be the FIRST thing we do in a storm.
But psychologically, we often struggle to pray in a storm. In a storm there are immediate problems: ill-health or debt or a marriage break-up, for example. But it isn’t long before other problems start to surface.
We may feel that God has let us down. ‘God, WHY did you let this happen?’ We blame God and so we don’t pray.
Or we may feel that WE have let GOD down. WE got ourselves into the storm. So, what right do we have to ask God to help us get out of it? Burdened by guilt, we don’t pray.
Or perhaps other people are giving us a hard time. Jesus tells us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute you [Matthew 5:45]. But we’re angry with these people! We have no wish to pray for them!
But God WANTS to help and God CAN help. So, we need to get over our resistance to praying and pray.
TAKE THE INITIATIVE
Let’s go on to our third strategy. Our third strategy is to take an initiative. An angel had appeared to Paul. He knew it was God’s will for all those on the ship to survive. But that did NOT mean that he could now just sit back! On the contrary, he took the lead. He acted. The people on the ship had lost hope. When people lose hope, they give up. Paul needed to encourage them and that’s what he did. Look at verse 22: ‘Yet now I urge you to take heart, for there will be no loss of life among you…’ And verse 25: ‘So take heart, men.’
But Paul’s initiative doesn’t stop there. He sees the sailors preparing to leave the ship and stops them. He urges everyone to take food. Before he eats, he gives thanks to God. He makes a point of acknowledging God.
If we’re going to follow Paul’s example, the third thing we do in a storm is to take the initiative. Maybe it’s to encourage. Maybe it’s to attend to practical needs. In a storm there will be things to do. We need to have our eyes open, see what’s going on, and take the initiative.
Let me conclude.
In life, storms come. The fact that we’re in a storm doesn’t mean that we’ve drifted outside God’s will. Paul hadn’t. In this story we’ve seen three things Paul did. They’re basic strategies to survive a storm. First, he did his best to avoid it. We noted that to avoid storms we need to listen to God and not just rely on experts or the majority. Second, Paul prayed. He asked God to save them. Third, Paul took the initiative. There were jobs to do and he did them.
These things may seem obvious. We know them. Sadly, many Christians don’t do them. But if we do, we’ll avoid a lot of storms, and survive the ones we can’t avoid.
PRAYER
Lord Jesus, thank you for this reminder that storms come; they’re part of life. Thank you for the reminder that you’re with us in the storms. Thank you that you know what lies ahead and can help us to AVOID storms. Thank you that you know how to keep us, your people, safe in storms. Help us, please, to PRAY to you! And when we’re in a storm, help us please to see what needs to be done and TAKE THE INITIATIVE as we should. Amen.
Talk given at Rosebery Park Baptist Church, Bournemouth, UK, 10.30 a.m. service, 26 November 2023
