The Book of Acts 27:1-44 Paul's witness during shipwreck

Let's kind of proceed through there. I've labeled this through three sections in terms of content. The first is Paul sent to Rome. The second is the storm. And then the third area is Paul takes leadership. We'll take a look at that sequentially. So King Agrippa of Abraham. So she heard the gospel and was almost converted. What does it mean to be almost converted?

Is this like horseshoes? In fact, we had a conversation with a neighbor yesterday at the mailbox, and we got into Mormonism and Jehovah's Witnesses and things like that with one of our neighbors, and he's a mainline church guy, and all he was willing to accept was, somebody believes in God, that's all you need to do. And Margaret kind of captured that a little bit, and it was clear that we were not going very far very fast, and he got kind of defensive about that, so we said, Have a nice day. We returned to talk about the weather or something. Anyway, you heard the gospel was almost converted. I sense these deists, if you will, were almost converted people at times. But the gospel is very simple. It's all wrapped up in the Lord Jesus Christ. What he came to do and what he did. It's that simple.

So King Agrippa came close, but he didn't quite make it. He found Paul innocent, yet he sent him and other prisoners to Rome. You know, it's not quite like a pilot thing, but it resembles that a little bit. And in Acts 26, 32, it says, Then Agrippus said to Hephaestus, This man might have been set free if he had not appealed to Caesar. So in other words, Agrippus said, Paul, There ain't nothing wrong with this guy. He didn't really do anything bad at all. But the fact that now he's appealed to Caesar, we've got to follow through with the legal tradition of the day. So off to Caesar. And if Paul had not claimed Roman citizenship, the Jews would have killed him probably. So it's one of those win-win, lose-lose kind of scenarios. But Paul's trusting the Lord through this, and I think that's the lesson for us.

So here's the map you've got in your handout. And what we're looking at today is traversing from Caesarea all the way up through here and over to Malta ultimately. So this is the path that we're following here today. And some of the names on this map, it's the best map I could get for this.

So I apologize for that. But anyway, many of the places that you're going to be seeing in Chetnak's 27 are on that map. In fact, I think all of them are. All right. So we're going to maybe be turning back and forth to that. I'm going to trust you to be able to see these cities better than I can.

Alright, so Paul had been in prison now for two years. And the question comes up, where were Silas, Luke, Timothy, Barnabas, where are all these friends these days? Do we have any evidence that any of these guys were around hanging out with Paul? Well, in the very first phrase there it says, We, we should sail for, there's a we in there. Well, there's a we and we're going to come back to who the we's are. Yeah, we're going to come back to that, that we have no evidence that Paul hung out with these other apostles at the time. I mean, Barnabas and Timothy and Silas are probably elsewhere someplace, you know, spreading the gospel. And we know that Luke is there because Luke wrote, wrote Acts, right?

So he's one of the we's on the boat. And it's really not mentioned that anyone for two years, none of these guys showed up. And again, I'm not being critical, it's just they weren't there. So we don't know where they were or whether they were actually, you know, they may be praying for Paul, but they really probably didn't know the circumstances. I think for the most part, Paul was a loner. I mean, he really, I mean, he made trips with people. He certainly counseled and taught others. But Paul was a man of the Lord who was really called to really probably carry the torch probably more so than anybody else, and often by himself.

And what was determined, and if you turn to Acts 25.12, and this is really what Thestis says, the trip is led by a centurion of the Augustus band, and a band is about 500 men. So we have a centurion who is going to be on board, who is going to take charge of leading this trip.

Acts 25.12, why don't we take a look at that. That's just as Festus declaring that he's got to go to Rome. It might be worth just noting that. All right, so Festus has made this decision that you're off to Rome. So his appeal is being heard at the very highest level. If you will, this is kind of the Roman leader, but also kind of the Supreme Court kind of scenario. So it falls off the Roman.

And the shift is led by a centurion of the Augustus band. That means this centurion is ultimately overseeing 500 people. And although centurion stands for 100, the band is 500. So you get the idea that he's got more responsibilities than a lot of the other centurions.

Now back to Roger's point, we know Luke was with Paul during the trip because of this detailed description we have here in Acts 27. You wouldn't get this type of journalism for someone who's getting this by hearsay, right? So Luke's on board, and ultimately we find that the last time that Luke and Paul hung out together was in Acts 21-18. We can go back there, but that's when he went on to James. Remember that story? So Luke is with Paul at that time. But since Acts 21-18 we have nothing in the record that indicates Luke and Paul were together.

Now in Acts 27-2 it says Aristarchus, a Macedonian, a Thessalonian, was also with them. And by the way, this is kind of surprising to me. Aristarchus is mentioned four other times in scripture. This must have been somebody who Paul liked and really acknowledges repeatedly. And that's not only in the Acts, but it's in Colossians and Philemon also. So this Macedonian is probably someone he touched base with when he was up in Macedonia, and Galatia, and Asia Minor.

And so Aristarchus is the other believer. As far as we know, only three believers on board, Paul, Luke, and Aristarchus. There could have been others. Presumably these were other prisoners and Roman soldiers who were on board. We find out later that there were 276 people on the ship that was made in Alexandria on its way to Malta. That ship had 276. Presumably this ship was much smaller.

By the way, let me go back here just a second. Now maybe I have it going forward. Yeah, here it is. The ship was from Andromeda. And if you turn back to your map, that's further north on the Aegean Sea. They didn't go to Andromeda. That's where the ship is made. And I have no idea why scripture would have to tell us where the ship is made. But scripture does.

And we're told that the second ship that Paul goes on is made in Alexandria. I think that has meaning because the ship made in Alexandria is typically a wheat carrying vessel and apparently was loaded with wheat because they ended up dumping the wheat to make the boat lighter.

Any thoughts here about this? I almost think that Paul might have had a preference for a ship from a certain city and so it was noteworthy and loose. Do you think Paul had any choice here? It's kind of like, Paul's been a well-traveled fellow all over the place. Places Luke probably hadn't been to.

So he'd say, you know, this ship has something going for it. It might be my favorite brand. Keep in mind the mandate is to get him back to Rome and this is the ship they're departing on. I got a sense that the plan to pick up another ship. Parkway and Journey was already in place, but we don't know that. But anyway, this ship, for whatever reason we're told, it was made in Edremitia.

By the way, the intent was to go down the coast of Asia Minor. If you look at your map, it's a coastal route at that red line. I don't know if you can see it very well, but the route goes along the coast. Presumably, so you can port, get food, and other things that are necessary on route.

Now, Sidon, which is in Phoenicia, about 70 miles north of Caesarea, Julius alludes to the support of Felix and his own support by courteously allowing Paul to see friends. So Julius is on board here, and apparently he's assuming some responsibility. And ultimately, he's allowing Paul to see friends. Now, the question is, who are these friends? We're not told anything about who these friends are. But presumably when they dock and he's on land, these are probably people that he ultimately seen previously in his travels through Asia Minor.

Just don't pull details, but courteously is kind of an uplifting term. And by the way, Felix really didn't have that much against Paul. Remember, Felix really played the pilot role, kind of washing his hands of the final outcome, but yet ultimately both Felix and Julius are supportive of Paul and courteously allowing Paul to see Fritz. That's a decision made by Julius on vote.

We are told in verse 4 that the shelter of Cyprus is noted because the wind was contrary. Apparently, I don't know much about sea travel, but islands can be protected at times against winds. This is mentioned a couple of times in this section. Cyprus is the first example where an island is actually protecting them from the winds which are described as contrary. Keep in mind these winds are contrary here and they are going to get a lot worse. This is the first wind we are told about. The wind that ultimately has the ship crash into Malta is probably a hurricane.

The way it is described scripturally. When they reach Myra, that's on your map, they boarded another ship. Here is the second ship. This one is made in Alexandria. It noted in verse 38 that had wheat on board, and my reading about these ships from Alexandria is that these are laden with wheat, I mean they're transporting wheat large volumes from one port to another port, and this boat is sailing to Italy, which is particularly appropriate because where's Polyvon? He's going around, right? So this seems like a likely vessel for him to be boarding. This is like an airport where you're looking up at the sign, what time is the next boat leaving, right? These things are of the Lord, if you will, to allow this path to be successfully completed.

Then it says, they sailed slowly and south near Nidus, because the wind made it more difficult, and they were partially sheltered by Crete. So remember, back here they were sheltered by Cyprus. And if you look at the map, now they're sheltered and parked by a creek. But this wind was so contrary that they were blown apparently 25 to 30 miles out of the way to the south of the intended route.

Now why do you think Paul mentions the fast here? And this fast, if you date this back to Leviticus 23.17, this is the Jewish great day of atonement. And so I think There's probably some relationship to the time of year and typically in terms of the Jewish calendar this is late October and you would think the Mediterranean in fact is starting to get more treacherous in terms of winter travel. So I suspect that that's why the fast is being mentioned just to place this temporally in terms of the time of the year and ultimately what they're going to be experiencing in this trip from Caesarea all the way to Rome.

It likely reflects a time of year when the sea becomes more treacherous. One thing I want to quickly add, they actually have the Plimsoll markings on ships these days and it mentions one setting where you have to have the maximum freeboard for big waves and just contrary winds and everything else. Let's see, it says North Atlantic Winter, NAW on that. That's the worst possible for shipping. North Atlantic Winter, NAW. Light loads, ready to take the heavy seas. And if you abbreviate that, it's NAW, which I would interpret, don't go. Remember, I'm going to ask you if you remember that one. So here, here, Paul is warning the group. And this is an interesting area for us to pause a little bit.

So Max, twenty seven, ten, he said, men, I perceive that this voyage will end with disaster. and much loss, not only of the cargo and ship, but also of our lives. Now, it's interesting because he kind of counters that later, but let's kind of look at this. Did Paul really believe that God had his destiny in mind to get to Rome? Was Paul doubting the Lord here?

Do you think I think he was trying to drop a few hints to the ship owners, et cetera, that if you lighten the load, you may stand a chance. OK. I think Tom's reading between the lines there. Well, he wasn't the captain. I mean, weren't there like 500 people on board? Well, 276.

We'll find that out later. So, I mean, if you think of a group, there'd be people complaining about this or that, and ultimately the captain has to be the one to decide if they're going to go or not, right? Yeah, the captain makes a lot of decisions here, some of which we can second guess. Yeah, I mean, so is Paul Rowley in charge. So I guess the question, let's personalize this a little bit, you know? We all in this earthly experience kind of make what we would consider intelligent and well-formulated decisions, right? And Paul just said, hey, look, it's pretty treacherous out there. We're taking quite a risk here.

Are we really sure we want to go? And of course, Paul, again, back to the issue. Are we trusting that the Lord has Paul in Rome ultimately? Or is this Paul's decision against God's will? And again, I think At least a few of us or most of us, I think, agree that this is the Lord's will for Paul to get to Rome. But anyway, Tom, Paul had so many seagoing technology terms used in all his letters that you would have to say that he's more than just a casual boat freak or anything. He's been there and done that. Right. OK. Yeah.

And also, too, according to my thing, it's like the only reason that they would try and go on is because and not lighten their load. It's because of it says greed and the desire for comfort may have gotten in the way of good sense. So it's like Paul's just pointing out how greedy they are and, you know, willing to make bad choices just to get that wheat to sell. Well, we're going to come back to that a little bit in terms of decision-making under trials in the section that follows. You make a very good point here. Keep in mind there are three things that Paul brings up. What are they? They're cargo, cargo itself, the ship itself. Oh, by the way, there are a few lives on board here, too.

We tend to, you know, want to watch out for our own skin first, don't we? Well, it's the same thing kind of with flying, too. A lot of the bad decisions are made because people want to get where they're going, you know, and it's like, wow, and it's for your own convenience that you're willing to risk a bad decision, you know. Well, and people get pretty upset thinking about one, you know, if they make a decision because of the bad weather, you know, then the passengers are irate, but they don't really take into consideration. Do you want to die or do you want to get there? Yeah, and it's a sensible decision. And you see a lot of charters that in fact, because they have cargo or they're being paid big money, to fly corporate people somewhere, and then you see a plane crash, like the one up in Aspen that crashed, which was a charter, because they probably were putting pressure on that pilot.

We're going to be there. We know, you know, we're going anyway. I mean, I travel a lot. Many of you may travel some too. I mean, you know, hearing about a mechanical problem is not good news when you're needing to get someplace, right? You've got to sit there and say, oh, no, you know. I think we've set the stage. Paul's going to come back to this statement in a few verses. So remember this one.

All right. But the centurion was not persuaded and actually believed that the helmsman, who's the master of the pilot boat and the owner of the ship. Now, why the owner of the ship? Who is this owner of the ship? Oh boy. Anyway, the ownership. Who's that rich guy in New York? Who am I thinking of? Oh, with the bad hair? Trump.

So both the pilot or the master of the ship and the owner of the ship, more than Paul, really decided that they ultimately ought to move on and hope to reach Phoenix with the assistance of the Southern Breeze. I guess they felt that the Southern Breeze would lift them back up on the track, on the route that was planned. Because remember, they've gone astray. in a southern direction so the southern breeze can push it back up towards the north and recover the planned route of travel. So that's our first section Paul sent around, but it's beginning to look like a rugged start.

The second section I've entitled the Tempestuous Storm. That's scripture, but not long after a tempestuous headwind, and I've identified this as a hurricane, I guess it could be an Could be a tornado, but I mean, tornadoes are mostly land, right? And hurricanes are mostly, and I think this is a hurricane, really, is what it is. And if you look at people's definition of this Greek term, it fits best with a hurricane. And of course, we think of the sea as a source of hurricanes. So a hurricane arose, and we've had a name called Uroclodon, or Uroclodon, I don't know, but anyway, it has a name. And if you look up a lot of background about what the name is, it kind of implies really that. Nor'easter? I was in New York this week and Nor'easter was described as what was hitting New York. Unfortunately the city got spent and there was a lot of snow north of the city. I got out of there okay, but Nor'easter was being described as that.

We're near Clauda now, which is southwest of Creek. And they're, again, blown about 25 miles backward, according to the people who've studied this section of scripture. So they're being blown here and there. Nothing seems to be going as planned. And then they're near the African coast. And a series of steps are then taken to survive. So this wind is, again, probably boat-threatening, cargo-threatening, and also life-threatening.

So the first thing you did, the skiff, which is a small boat, was secured with difficulty. They ultimately made sure that the skiff was available in case they had to abandon ship. Although this skiff may have held six to eight people, this wasn't a big boat. It probably wouldn't have gotten very many people very far.

You think with a hurricane, to be in a small boat would be more treacherous than being in a larger ship. Cables were used to undergird the ship. Can you imagine that? Taking cables and kind of wrapping the boat in cables to secure its structure? Now it's duct tape. Can you imagine using duct tape to keep your plane together?

It reminds me of an old comedy routine of Bob Newhart where he's describing the Joyce L. Ferguson Airlines and Storm Door Company. So he's getting ready to board this plane. It's run by the Joyce L. Ferguson, Grace L. Ferguson's airline and storm door company. He said, you know, they've cut back on some of the expenses, like routine maintenance and radar.

Nevertheless, this may have been the kind of boat they were on. And they struck sail to avoid hitting Sirtis, which I think in further study, Sirtis is near the African coast. Apparently these are quicksands. It's really an area close to Africa where the jargon is, I feel like I'm in quicksand. Well, you know what quicksand is like? It's probably not where you want to put a boat. So they wanted to avoid hitting these quicksands.

And on the third day, the ship was lightened and the ship's tackle was cast overboard. And ultimately then, I forget what verse this is, no sun, no stars, no hope. Anybody have that verse? Twenty, it's twenty. Twenty, okay. So read twenty. And when neither sun nor stars in many days appeared, and no small tempest lay on us, all hope that we should be saved was then taken away. So keep in mind, hurricane, no sun, no stars to navigate, right? That's why they mention that. for many days, and keep in mind scripture, Luke so often does this by the way, a double negative. No small tempest. How would you better word that? Thank you. This is not Dickens. No small task. He often says this. No small task or whatever. You have to assume that this is the exact opposite of nothing small. So I think Tom described that well.

So no hope. I think that's the critical issue. They're running out of hope. Do you think Paul himself is running out of hope? I think he probably was. Don't you? I mean, earth is a real experience. He knows the Lord is heading him to go to Rome, but circumstances are pretty grim.

Bob, do you know what struck sail means? What does that mean? Struck sail? Struck sail, I think, is probably move the sail away to avoid hitting the island. I didn't... Let out all the sails. I mean, it's when you... They said they let down... They don't want the sails torn up, so they just take the sails... Then they let down the sea anchor. So a number of things were done here to survive this. hurricane experience that they're going through. So the last part of the chapter is really half the chapter.

Paul's leadership is portrayed. So after a long absence of food, Paul states that he had told them so. Remember I said we were going to come back to this? So if we go back to it, we can go back here where Paul says, I told you so. I told you so. So here.

Man, I perceive that this voyage will end with disaster and much loss, not only in the cargo ship, but also my life. Do you ever think about telling people I told you so? Well, at this point, that's not that's not going to be the best approach because people are pretty. Well, my question to the class is, is this place your spirit?

But he had a follow up something to follow it up with positive. Yeah. He doesn't read site there. OK. So how many times have somebody, it sounds like when you're a kid and your mom or dad said that to you, right? Your kids can remind you, you said this, right? It's not uplifting, is it? But I don't know, you know, the spirit in which he said this is unclear, but you're right. There are other things that follow this and make you think that Paul's got another plan in mind.

So why no food? Verse 33 indicates that there was food on board. I suspect this is because they're seasick as can be. They don't have time to prepare the food. There's no... Well, were they still... The fast was over. Sometimes they weren't eating. Later on, they don't eat for a while. Well, I think this is where they don't eat.

This 14-day period. And the question is, why not? There's food on board because they have food. We're going to get to there. That's part of this section. He asked them, you guys should be eating. You need to eat for your nourishment. You've got to just speculate here, but no food for 14 days. They're really saving the lives of the ship. How much hunger do you have when you're really stressed? I mean, really stressed. Food is the last thing on your mind. I wonder if they were fasting because they thought that the gods would help them.

Scripture doesn't indicate that. Remember, we only have three believers on board as far as we know. There could be more, but Paul, Luke, and Aristarchus are the only three believers we're told are on this ship. Now maybe there's some conversions going on here. That's what makes Acts fun. It's always fun to speculate between the verses to figure out what's going on.

But whatever, the scripture says they haven't eaten for 14 days. They wouldn't have or pizza or anything greasy. You know, they had to be drinking this medically. You can't go without water for 14 days. deep, deep fluid. So they must have been drinking as well, whether they're drinking salt water or fresh water, who knows?

Again, speculation is always fun. Paul exhorts them in good cheer. What do you mean good cheer? Roger was implying that he had more to say than I told him. So look, guys, things are pretty bad out there. But God has told me that ultimately the ship, that no lives will be lost. And I'm asking, is this flesh or spirit lead? I think it's spirit lead because of verses 23 to 25. And these verses indicate that this is of God. And he was told by an angel, the Lord. And we have other examples where Paul's interfaced by angels in Acts 16, 9, 23, 11. And he will be brought before Caesar. So the angel is communicating to Paul, look, things don't look so good out there.

I got a purpose here, we're getting it around. Basically what he's saying is, look, I was right about the shipwreck, so now when I say nobody's going to be lost, it's more than just, I told you so, he's establishing his credibility. I told you we shouldn't go and look what happened. Now I'm telling you everything, all of us are going to survive. It's just pointing back to, I know what I'm talking about here, or I know the one who knows what's going on here.

I bet Paul was glad to have been approached by the angel room. All right, good. So are we all kind of living through this experience at this point? I think you have to kind of do that. Would you like to lay down? I don't feel like Steven Spielberg, you know, you know, directing a movie here. So all for claims that they must try to be grounded. And you see this scene unworthy travels getting to the end of the at least at this point in time.

So on the 14th night, after Fair Havens, and I didn't really study what Fair Havens is about, it's a location, a nearby island is perceived. Now, look how nearby this is. Initially, 20 fathoms, and then the verse tells us it's 15 fathoms, and if you translate that into non-metric distances, 20 is 120 feet, and 15 is about 90 feet. Talk about an island in proximity. Let's let's see how far do you think it is from here to the end of the rail? I would say that's more than 50 feet. Well, not only that, you're there in that part of the Mediterranean where there's some huge differences in depth. It's going down to 7,900 feet below sea level to reach bottom.

So this is big news, great news, and to see this decreasing even further, boy, yeah, yeah, let's do it. Let's go for it. Nearby islands perceived. Notice it's perceived, but maybe this perceived means it's actually seen, or we sense that there's a land mass there.

I don't know, but they must have seen it, I would think, don't you? But it's close, and they probably didn't know it was close until they got close. Remember, they're in a hurricane. Probably visibility is limited in terms of distance. So if they sounded, they didn't see it. Right. And doesn't this mean like 20 fathoms deep and then 15, like they're getting closer because it's getting more shallow? Yeah, it's more shallow, but they don't know where it is. They must not be able to see it. Yeah. How would they know? They might think we didn't see it.

They have ropes with pieces of cloth and various depth indicators. So you think we're talking about depth rather than distance? Oh yeah, depth of the ocean. And they figure, because the closer you're getting to land, it'll get shallower and shallower. But you notice here, then they say, fearing they'll be on the rocks, because they know that all these islands in that area are surrounded by big rocks.

All right, good. We've talked through that nicely. So yeah. And then Margaret is that my next comment is the fearing rock. So four enters were dropped and they prayed for data comes. It's night here and it's storming. And so they decided to stay a little bit. It's not like there's a lighthouse there. And also, when some of the seamen saw the circumstances, they wanted to flee the ship. And Paul warned that Centurion, again, the person overseeing this whole travel experience, said, lest these men stand forward, you cannot be saved. So my question to you, who's you? Everybody on board. You all? Y'all. Y'all. This is y'all. I think it's y'all. It's not just you, Centurions.

But, you know, there was another option. What was that other option? We'll come to that in a few minutes in terms of who we're talking about here. Well, the prisoners could be, you know, let go. And the Roman soldiers could be looking out for their own heights. I mean, so that's another option. You'll see that in a second.

Well, it said the sailors were trying to escape in the lifeboat. So they were the ones that were going to be sailing the boat, right? So if they were escaping, everybody's in danger. Yeah. Nobody driving. Right now, I'm not sure who you know pertains to, but I would suspect it means everybody that goes abandoning a boat because they don't. But he's talking to Centurion. The Centurion is not leaving the boat. So, you know, everybody is at risk.

And the guys deciding to depart probably are at great risk because they're in a skiff or a smaller vessel. So the rest of the skiff are then cut. And I was keeping in mind, they're probably lowering the skiff. The men are going to either end the skiff, it's a big load, or alternatively have a way of getting to it down there. But they cut the rope so the skiff is gone now. It's basically lost to sea.

And without food for 14 days. So here's the evidence that they hadn't eaten for 14 days. Paul urges all to consume some nourishment and no hair will fall off of their heads. And no hair falling off of their heads is a couple of verses of the Old Testament. I think one is Jonathan in terms of of Saul and his son in terms of his credibility. And I think the claim was made that no hair will fall off his head if he's lying, if he's not lying.

And then 1 Kings 1.52, it's on Ed and Elijah.

We can look back at that. But trust me, this is an Old Testament kind of scenario that's being referred to at this point in time. So Paul's claiming Old Testament scripture to say that if they eat, then ultimately they're going to preserve their health and every hair on their head. And so it's interesting. Paul gives thanks to God and breaks bread for the 276 on board, all of good cheer, by the way. And some people think this is maybe kind of a Lord's table kind of thing. I really don't think so. Do you? This is... Mid-overflow. Yeah, I don't think so. Keep in mind, these are unbelievers on the boat anyway. I think that's probably ridiculous.

It's interesting, Paul prays over the food. Sometimes I think when we pray at a mealtime, it's just kind of sterile, but we do. There's nothing wrong with it, it just gets to be kind of routine and somewhat legalistic. Margaret and I often say, the Lord knows how we're thankful for all things including this meal. Let's get on eating. I would say most times we do pray, but then sometimes we're We're kind of everybody's rushing around and that's not something you have to confess. I just said it's me on the phone. Maybe you pray more than for this part, right?

They've apparently come close to grounding and daylight is there. By the way, daylight's a good thing, particularly when they haven't seen the stars or the sun for days on end. Wheat is then cast overboard to lighten the ship and day breaks. Here's day coming on board. We know this is a wheat carrying vessel. I don't think wheat is being very heavy, but if you're casting wheat off to lighten the ship, there must be a lot of wheat on board. That was typical, I guess, for boats that were constructed in Alexandria. It implies a larger boat than is a cargo ship. Observing a creek with a shore, or a bay if you will, the anchors were cut and the mainsail hoisted.

So they're off and at them again. This is verse 40. But then more bad things happened. So kind of the death of a vision, birth of a vision, death of another vision, birth of a new vision. So what happens? They strike a place where two seas meet and they ran the ship aground. What do you think that means where two seas meet?

The currents were like this. Yeah. This is a name like the Atlantic and the Pacific being right. We're talking about substantial wave forms coming from two different directions. So the turbulence on sea is. Yeah, the horn, right. We were there. It's really rough. Keep in mind these are hurricane conditions, so we're talking about a rough sea.

The front of the boat became stuck and the stem was broken by the strength of the waves. That's how strong the waves are. If you think of the point of the boat getting stuck between presumably some rocks, now the waves themselves are breaking the boat. As it's anchored here, presumably between rocks, because we're told that they were fearful rocks.

And I get the vision that that's what happened here. The soldiers then wanted to kill the prisoners. So here's what I told you before. There's another option. Let's get the prisoners out of here. Get them to lighten the load. It's one way to lighten the load. Let's kill the prisoners. And so I think the world here, even ours at times, right? The survival mode is a pretty strong human instinct. Well, plus it says so they don't escape. So it's like, oh, let's just kill them and throw them overboard. Right. Well, and remember, the guards were responsible. They would have to suffer whatever sentence the prisoner had. There is a responsibility that they have to deliver the prisoners to Rome.

Do we think there are only three prisoners? Or is Paul the only prisoner? It doesn't really ever say, does it? It says other prisoners were put on board. Paul is on board. Don't know if Luke is, Luke's not a prisoner. So Luke is on board. Erisarchus Chloe isn't a prisoner. So there are other prisoners that were with Paul. We don't have to know how many. We know that 276 are on the boat.

That's what the scripture tells you. The centurion had other ideas here other than killing the prisoners. And back to Jeremy's comment. I think that's why the centurion in part had other ideas. He didn't want to have to go face Caesar and have to deal with. We killed these guys. You did what? And he wanted to spare Paul too.

And I think Paul was probably as important as anyone on the boat. It commanded those who could swim, they should jump overboard and swim to land. So that's really kind of the centurion standing up and making the decision for those who have passed their lifeguard requirements and are worthy to swim in turbulent seas to land. And others on board are part of the ship, also reached land.

And by the way, the land here is Malta. We're not really told that until Acts 28 verse 1. But look at your maps. Malta is quite a distance from what's on the left part of the map there. And I think the treacherous The treacherous part of this journey was probably the night, do you see that on your map? C N I D U S, I presume the C is silent. That's probably where the more treacherous part of the journey was.

But also it's interesting that everybody else. So they said everybody can swim. You swim. But everybody else in my translation is someone planks. So you find your piece of wood or whatever. And so you're going to get my next point here. Other on boards are by the way parts of the ship. So presumably the planks as Roger indicated. But then remember the ship being broken by the waves. So, you know, pieces of ships that are being separated from the mainframe now are probably floating objects.

So you grab on to that and hang on to that. That's your life preserver. Pretty treacherous. And so kind of a final thing for us to consider is just simply a beautiful description of a sequence of events by Luke or Kent. Should we spiritualize this section? We spiritualize this segment? I think it's more of just a practical statement.

You don't have to try to read between the lines and bust a gut doing it. It's just the ship's broken up. They're heading shore. Right. But also that spiritualized in the sense that, you know, the angel came to Paul and told him what was going to happen. And, you know, Paul wasn't all, whoa, what's going on? Paul's like, we're going to we're going to run aground and your lives will be saved.

And so Okay, so that's church age doctrine too, right? With the Lord communicating in special ways at times, and the apostles. And also keep in mind this is the age of miracles too, in terms of speaking in other languages, known tongues, and also casting out demons, and also healing people, raising them from the dead, in terms of resurrection and restoring life from death. Of course, we've seen examples of all those in Acts.

But don't you think, too, this was a witness of Paul's faith because he continued to say, we're going to be saved. The boat won't be saved, but all lives will be saved. And everything he said, as Jeremy pointed out, his credibility from the get go. And I am sure that all of these soldiers on board know the story of Paul.

They know he's been in jail for two years. They know that he was, I mean, they're going to know who he is. He was, I think, a well-known figure. Profile. Yeah. You know, his profile. Right. So. So now what he said has come to pass. So he's believable. So who knows how many of these soldiers became, say, people really don't know that.

So let's let's bring this into the modern modern day where we live. This could be I could be accused of over spiritualizing this, but What's different between a hurricane at sea today the way we might experience, let's say, on a tour ship versus what Paul's gone through? What are the similarities that we might experience today versus those that they experience? What's different? a metal boat, you're not going to be saved. But there's increased technology like radar and whatnot, so they don't need the stars to navigate anymore.

But you have to be careful who your captain is. Yeah. Just like the Concordia. And that's right. The ship. Everybody is very actually a similar thing. All the crewmen abandoned the ship, including the captain. They all left. Well, you know, remember that ferry that went down in the Netherlands a few years ago, whether 300 people drowned or something.

I mean, so, you know, maybe navigation accidents still are occurring occasionally. I mean, it's probably the most. Well then, such stories. But again, let's personalize this. The angel of the Lord is not going to show up to us, right? I mean, we're not going to have the angel speaking to us in terms of the desire of God to get to wherever we're going. Let's say we're going to Athens or something.

Well, Bob, I just was thinking about the stories I've heard about the Titanic. There were believers in the water. This is a story I've heard, I might share the validity of this. There were believers in the water encouraging people to accept the Lord. in the sea there by the Titanic.

And so while you have a few moments before the ship goes down or whatever, there's opportunity to share that there is hope and you can be saved, saved spiritually. That would be a very elementary salvation, but it still counts before the road. What else is similar or different? I think we have to trust the Lord. And Paul was trusting the Lord. And that's it's pretty basic.

I mean, I was on a flight once going from Charlotte to Greenville, North Carolina, for a site visit. And there is a hurricane on the Atlantic. And we were in a small plane. There must have been 12 people on that plane. It was night. It was like we left Charlotte at 930 or 10. And that's about an hour and a half flight in a smaller plane. This is a number of years ago and never all my travel almost three billion miles in the United while my travel.

I thought I mean so there can be times where we sense that death is imminent. You know, there are times when I fly when I think, you know, we're fine for me to win this prize and die this game. You know, so I don't I don't get nervous on flights at all anymore because I fly so much. I mean, a lot of people don't fly much. I'm used to bumps. I've done a lot of them. But I mean, there was one time in flight that I really thought I wasn't going to make it. I was a new believer at that point, too.

Anyway, I think When the Lord takes us through some tough times, they're really personal at times, but also these can be shared by others. I think this type of experience can occur. I think here's where our own personalities and our experiences come into play. Some people who know the Lord and are really mature believers can fly through this perfectly well, but someone who we might look at spiritually, like a Paul, could in fact from a human perspective, disappoint us and be very anxious. I mean, that's not right or wrong. It's just differences in people.

And Paul seemed to be... I'm not sure Paul was totally at ease here, but Paul was trusting the Lord that ultimately this was a trip that was purposeful in terms of getting him to Rome. Although, it sounds like he was at ease when he said, OK, we're going to eat. And, you know, it's kind of like, OK, let's eat and stay healthy and, you know, hope isn't lost.

Paul says, and I like this and use it often, Paul says, Be ye followers of me, as I also am of Christ. And that's not walking in Jesus' steps. It's really, I'm a follower of Christ, which means basically it's that life that's being lived out in me. I think 1 Corinthians 11 or something is where that is. The Christ life is one that is above all circumstances.

And remember God is in the business of changing our circumstances. Do we have any others here that people are praying that the storm would go away? It would seem natural that we pray for our circumstances to be changed, right? But in fact the Lord knows our circumstances and is there to grow us in grace through the circumstances. And that's not a power of the flesh, it's a power of the spirit in our lives to give us that rest and peace through God and through the elect. Anyway, spiritualize us a little bit.

This was a tough trip and probably the most dramatic trip that God has been on in terms of this circumstance. Roger, you close this one correctly. Your Heavenly Father, we thank you for our time today, Lord. We thank you for the blessings we have. Thank you for your scriptures, Lord, that tell us about how we can trust you, how Paul ultimately trusted you through the situation, and you took him to the place that you wanted him to be. We thank you for that. In Christ's name, Amen.