The Storm Before The Calm Series

The Storm Before the Calm

Acts 27:1-44

Rev. Brian Bill

March 27-28, 2022

I suffer from aquaphobia, or the fear of water. I can trace it to four traumatic events.

• When I was around 9 years old, I was fishing in the middle of the night with my dad and his buddies on Devil’s Lake [aptly named]. When it was time to leave, my dad pulled the rope to start the motor on his homemade pontoon boat, and it fell off and sank to the bottom of the lake. I remember being terrified because we had no oars. My dad simply unscrewed some old kitchen chairs he had attached to the deck, and we used them to paddle back to shore.

• When I was around 12, my dad and I were in a small boat salmon fishing on Lake Michigan when a storm suddenly came up. I spent most of the time leaning over the side of the boat “feeding the fish.”

• When I was around 15, I was waterskiing when my buddy was driving the boat and tried to make me wipe out by turning the boat sharply. That caused him to fall on the floor of the boat as it headed straight toward me while I was bobbing in the water.

• My most traumatic event with water happened when I was 18. My friends and I were tubing below a power dam on the Rock River when my friend Tim drowned in front of my eyes.

To this day, I avoid water whenever I can (you’ll be glad to know, I still take showers). It doesn’t take much for my water worry to come cascading like waves over me. In fact, just reading our passage for today caused my heart rate to bump up a bit. Please turn to Acts 27 where we will encounter a seafaring epic filled with danger, suspense, and raw fear as Paul sailed from Caesarea to Rome.

Because this passage is long, our approach will be a bit different. I’ll begin by reading the passage while providing a running commentary. Then, I’ll make some observations along with several applications we can apply to our lives. We’ll end by hearing from a person who experienced God’s providential care while going through many personal storms. BTW, the Ukrainian family we’ve been praying for just arrived in the QCA! We’ll learn more about them next weekend.

This is what I’m hoping we learn today: In the storms of life, make sure you have an anchor for your soul.

Please follow along in your Bible because the Scripture text won’t be on the screen. Instead, we’re putting up a map for those engaging in person and online [if you’re reading this manuscript, in the back of many Bibles you’ll find a map of Paul’s journey to Rome].

Interpretation

And when it was decided that we should sail for Italy, they delivered Paul and some other prisoners to a centurion of the Augustan Cohort named Julius. The use of the word “we” shows that Dr. Luke was reunited with Paul. The other prisoners were likely being transported to Rome to become prey for wild animals in a gladiator match. Julius was a high-ranking military officer in charge of Paul. 2 And embarking in a ship of Adramyttium, which was about to sail to the ports along the coast of Asia, we put to sea, accompanied by Aristarchus, a Macedonian from Thessalonica. This was a small coasting vessel, much like the Channel Cat, though bigger. Aristarchus, one of Paul’s companions, was allowed to accompany him.

3 The next day we put in at Sidon. Sidon was 80 miles up the coast from Caesarea. And Julius treated Paul kindly and gave him leave to go to his friends and be cared for. Julius was kind toward Paul, allowing him to get some TLC from his friends. As we’ve seen before, Paul went out of his way to find fellowship with fellow Christ followers. It’s great to see so many making an effort to gather again in person – God brought 801 people last weekend, which is close to our pre-Covid attendance. 4 And putting out to sea from there we sailed under the lee of Cyprus, because the winds were against us. Facing contrary winds, they had to stay close to the island of Cyprus for protection. 5 And when we had sailed across the open sea along the coast of Cilicia and Pamphylia, we came to Myra in Lycia.

6 There the centurion found a ship of Alexandria sailing for Italy and put us on board. The centurion found a larger ship which could handle the open sea and put everyone on board. Alexandria, a port city in Egypt, sent grain to Italy on a regular basis. 7 We sailed slowly for a number of days and arrived with difficulty off Cnidus, and as the wind did not allow us to go farther, we sailed under the lee of Crete off Salmone. 8 Coasting along it with difficulty, we came to a place called Fair Havens, near which was the city of Lasea. Notice the word “difficulty” is used twice, showing this was not a three-hour tour from a tropic port [that was a reference to the Gilligan’s Island theme song].