Safe In the Storm

By Bobby Blakey on April 3, 2022

Acts 27

AUDIO

Safe In the Storm

By Bobby Blakey on April 3, 2022

Acts 27

Well, who here has ever been on a boat out in the ocean? Anybody ever sailed the high seas? Now who gets seasick? Raise your hand if you get seasick, okay? Because you will get seasick today and Acts 27. So, at this time, I'd like to call the ushers to come forward, raise your hand if you need some Dramamine. Everybody, get your hand up now. Because I want to invite you to open the Bible and turn with me to Acts 27. And we are getting on a boat. We are sailing on a ship. We are going to Rome here in this chapter, everybody. And Luke is going to write about it in the first-person perspective. So, it's going to feel like we all get to go on an epic nautical adventure. Everybody's in the splash zone here today. And so, we're all getting on a boat. And we have been waiting for this for a while in the book of Acts, we've been waiting for this moment. We know he's been promised that he's going to Rome all the way from Acts 19:21. The Holy Spirit put it on Paul's heart that he was going to Rome, Jesus said it in Acts 23:11, you've been my witness in Jerusalem, you're going to go to Rome. So, we've been seeing obstacles. Over forty Jews want to kill him. But God rescues him. A Roman governor leaves him in prison for two years. But God is still with him. And he makes his appeal through him. And now we're going to actually get on a boat, and we're going to go to Rome. We're going to sail to Italy. And if you've been out on the sea, you know, you don't mess around with the open ocean. You don't mess around with the wind and the waves.
I had a friend here at the church who has a boat, and he invited me to go on his boat to Catalina Island. I don't know if you’ve ever been to Catalina Island, but we were going to go on his boat one day. And he said, yeah, we're not going today. And I was like, hey, this was the time we set aside. Why aren't we going, speaking like a typical land lover myself, right? And he says, well, we're not going because the winds are up today. And I got a sense right there, like you don't mess around with the winds on the high seas. One time we did get on his boat, we did get to Catalina, and while we were there, there was some trouble with the motors of his boat. And immediately our trip was over. And we were sailing back to the harbor, hoping to make it with these motors that were now acting suspicious. So, I learned from my friend like you don't mess around. You don't want to be out there with the wind telling you wherever you're going to go, and there's nothing you can do about it. And that's exactly what is going to happen here in Acts 27. So, we're going not just on a sailing adventure, we're going through a shipwreck here, and we're going to see how God gets his man to Rome, even through the storm. So please follow along as I read. This is Acts 27:1.
“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. 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. The next day we put in at Sidon. And Julius treated Paul kindly and gave him leave to go to his friends and be cared for. And putting out to sea from there we sailed under the lee of Cyprus, because the winds were against us. And when we had sailed across the open sea along the coast of Cilicia and Pamphylia, we came to Myra in Lycia. There the centurion found a ship of Alexandria sailing for Italy and put us on board. 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. Coasting along it with difficulty, we came to a place called Fair Havens, near which was the city of Lasea. Since much time had passed, and the voyage was now dangerous because even the Fast was already over, Paul advised them, saying, ‘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.’ But the centurion paid more attention to the pilot and to the owner of the ship than to what Paul said. And because the harbor was not suitable to spend the winter in, the majority decided to put out to sea from there, on the chance that somehow they could reach Phoenix, a harbor of Crete, facing both southwest and northwest, and spend the winter there.”
Now if you've got the bulletin in there, you've got a handout you may want to pull out so you can see a map of where we are going along, because these might be some places that you're not familiar with here in the Mediterranean Sea. And so, we'll put the map up here on the screen as well so you can see where they leave Caesarea. That's where we've been with Paul for over two years where he made his appeal. Well, nowadays, you can see they're just sailing up the coast and they get up there to Sidon in and then they go around Cyprus. So one of the nautical terms you may not be familiar with, is this idea of the lee. It talks about the lee of Cyprus, or we're going to go around the lee of Crete. If you don't know that nautical term, the lee is when you're on kind of the sheltered side of the island. So, the wind’s really blowing, but you get on the side of the island where the wind is not blowing, and that lets you kind of do your sailing forward. So, you're using the islands to block the wind. So, that's how they get around Cyprus there. And then they come to Mayra and you see my red arrow up and kind of in the top right of the map, or here it is, right in the middle Mayra that they get into a bigger boat. So, they find a boat now, originally coming from Alexandria, Egypt, but it's going over to Rome, Italy. And so, they get on. This is like a seaworthy vessel, it's going to say later on. There are 276 souls on board this boat, this is the kind of boat that can take us all the way to Italy. So, they set out and you would expect them just kind of go straight across to the boot of Italy there. But as the winds are against them, the winds are making it very difficult, you start to see the challenge of sailing in the seas, as you go where the winds take you, and the winds are not blowing them towards Italy. They're against them. And so, they end up going kind of off course, and they end up using Crete to kind of – this island here in the middle of the map, that's Crete – and they're trying to use that. And they stop right here in Fair Havens. And so, they're now making this decision here in Fair Havens. Should we go to Phoenix? Now some of you are thinking I've been to Phoenix before. I didn't get on a boat to go there. Right? Well, this is clearly a different Phoenix. And if you look at the map, Phoenix is not very far from Fair Havens. It's just a little bit up the coast of Crete. And so that's the debate that we're seeing here. Should we try to get to Phoenix or not?
And so, look back at verse 1. I just want to highlight some things about this adventure that we're on here. And notice the “we” tone when he says when it was decided that we should sail for Italy. So, Dr. Luke, he's a medical doctor, he writes the book of Acts, he writes the Gospel of Luke, He is actually on the boat with Paul, another man that is there with them is this man Aristarchus. If you can see that in verse 2, that's a name that I don't hear a lot of people talk about, but he was one of the traveling companions of Paul. So, if you're taking notes write down Aristarchus. Let's meet this guy. He's a guy that we should know if we were going through the book of Acts, you should write down next to Aristarchus Acts 19:29. In the city of Ephesus, when they were having a riot against Paul in the church, they couldn't find Paul, so they dragged Aristarchus into the theater where they were having their riot in protest of the church in Ephesus, in support of Artemis, the idol in the temple there in Ephesus. And Aristarchus, when they couldn't find Paul, they just grabbed there Aristarchus so this is one of Paul's guys. This is one of the crew that travels around with Paul on his encouragement tour. You could write down Acts 20:4. Aristarchus is named as one of the guys going around all the cities, encouraging the churches, taking a collection of money that they were going to bring to Jerusalem to bless the church there, to give them the praise report of all the churches that have been planted in all the different cities. Aristarchus has been traveling with Paul ever since Ephesus really. In fact, Paul's going to talk about him in Colossians 4:10 And in Acts 20:4, he's going to mention Aristarchus again. So, this guy, for some reason, isn't on our radar. But he was definitely an important person going around with Paul. He's on the boat. So, Paul's not by himself. They're treating Paul very generously. They know Paul's really innocent; he didn't do anything wrong. So, they're letting his friends travel with him. The Romans, they have him as a prisoner, but they know he's innocent. And the Roman Centurion we meet here is this guy, Julius. He's going to be a key guy on the boat because he's got the soldiers. He's got the authority. He's got the power. And he's been very kind to Paul. But now we come to this moment here in verses 9-12, where they've got to make a decision about are we going to stay put, are we going to keep going. And you'll notice in verse 9, it says, “even the fast was already over.” And you might have a footnote that's letting you know that fast is referring to the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur – Leviticus 16, that one day of the year with the high priest would go into the holy place and make sacrifices on behalf of the whole people of Israel. If that day has already happened, that means we're into September or even possibly October, and winter is here. And so, it's a very dangerous time to sail the Mediterranean Sea and hope the wind is going to be with you. And that's why Paul says in verse 10, hey, if we keep going it's not going to go well, and some of us are going to die. So, I don't know what you think about the apostle Paul, I don't know what comes to your mind when you hear his name, but I would imagine a lot of people see Paul is like someone that's different than you, someone who speaks with power, the word of God, someone who leads people to salvation, plants many churches. He's kind of the super apostle. You’ve got to understand in this story, he's just a guy on a boat. He's just some dude. And he's saying something wise, like, we shouldn't go sailing in the wintertime. But they're not going to listen to Paul, they're not impressed by how many churches he planted. They don't know. He's writing books of the Bible. He didn't write their favorite verse. These guys, Paul's just some guy. So maybe today, you'll be able to relate more to Paul than you ever have in your life, because he's just one of the people traveling on the storms of life. That's what Paul's doing here. And when he says something, why would these guys listen to him? Why would the Roman listen to him? Why would the captain of the ship listen to him? In fact, the pilot of the ship and the owner of the ship, they say something different and the Centurion listens to them, instead of Paul, and so they decide we're going to go from Fair Havens to Phoenix just a little ways up the coast of Crete. They think they're going to make it but let's get this down for Acts 27:1-12 if you're taking notes, Storm Warning, you will lose your lives. So, we got a storm warning that there is a storm coming in. This is not a good idea to go sailing at this time. Paul gives them a warning. We're not just going to lose cargo or the ship, we're not just going to have a shipwreck, we're going to die. We're going to lose our lives is the strong warning Paul gives. They ignore the warning. It's not a big deal. We'll make it, we'll be okay. They don't listen to Paul. They keep sailing. Here's what happens next. This is Acts 27:13. Put your life vest on everybody. Here we go.
Now when the south wind blew gently, supposing that they had obtained their purpose, there it is, that's the wind that will take us to Phoenix. They weighed anchor and sailed along Crete, close to the shore. But, soon a tempestuous wind, called the nor'easter as the sailors would say, it struck down from the land, and when the ship was caught, and could not face the wind, we gave way to it, and we're driven along. “Running under the lee of a small island called Cauda, we managed with difficulty to secure the ship's boat.” So, we are no longer on the way to Phoenix. We are now going wherever the wind takes us. And notice here when it says in verse 16, “we managed with difficulty to secure the ship's boat.” That means Luke is out there on deck. It's just like an all hands on deck moment, and they're trying to pull the lifeboat up, and they're trying to secure it there. And it's not just the sailors. They're like, hey you, Dr. Luke, you come help us. This is like we're losing things. We're losing control on this boat. We need all the help we can get. And so, we're all trying to secure this lifeboat here in verse 16. Verse 17: “After hoisting it up, they use supports to undergird the ship, then fearing that they would run aground” on the surface. Think Bermuda Triangle, place where many shipwrecks happen… “they lowered the gear and thus they were driven along.” Since we were violently storm-tossed, they began the next day to jettison the cargo. And 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 no small tempest lay on us, all hope of our being saved was at last abandoned.”
This is the worst-case sailing scenario right here, everybody. They have been driven by the wind. They don't even know where they are anymore, though. They're just going wherever the wind takes them. One day they're throwing the cargo, next day, they're throwing over the tackle there, and now for many days, they have given up hope, like they are dead men on a boat is what they're thinking. We are all going to die and drown at sea in the middle of this storm. Hope is lost. This is it. There is no chance, zero chance that we are going to be saved.
So, let's get that down for 27:13-20: Storm watch. We're now in the middle of the storm. All hope is lost. That's the conclusion that we come to. So, imagine – I don't even know if you can imagine this if you've ever been through anything like this in your life. But first of all, picture yourself out there just getting tossed around. Just feeling that up and down water feeling for days. You're feeling that way. I mean, we imagine this is hard for us to picture. They can't see the sun. They can't see the stars. They don't even know what time it is. Can you imagine that? Like they can't figure out it's not like they can just grab a phone or look at their watch or go figure out what time it is. Like they don't even know. They can't look outside and figure out what time it is. They don't know what time it is. And they don't know where in the world they are, they’ve got no GPS, they’ve got no signal. They’ve got nothing. You were just trying to get to Phoenix. Let's go back to the to the map here, you were just trying to go a little bit up the coast of Crete, to get to Phoenix, and you end up here in the middle of nowhere in the Mediterranean Sea.
And now you're thinking I'm dead. You're thinking I'm going to be on this boat until something bad happens to the boat. Probably we're going to strike on some rock or some reef somewhere where it's not that deep. And that's just going to break the boat apart. And then we're all going to drown at sea. And you're just rocking in the boat. Have you seen the movie? Have you have you felt that experience where it's like, you can hear the creaking of the boat? And it's just rocking, and the wind is howling all around, and the storm is so dark, you don't even know where you are, what's going on. You feel sick to your stomach, and you have this impending sense of doom, that there is no way out of this. This is your end. That's how everybody's feeling. And that's when Paul stands up to speak now for the second time. Look at verse 21. “Since they had been without food for a long time...” Now, let me just stop right there. Because we're going to find out later on, they have food on the boat. So, they are choosing not to eat. They don't feel like eating maybe because they're so tossed around by this violent storm, that they're sick to their stomachs, or maybe just because they feel like they're about to die, they have lost their appetite. They have basically lost their will to keep living. I mean, I know people are going through trials here at our church. I know some people are going through physical trials, they don't want to even eat. They're watching this service online. I know some people they're going through such a sense of grief or mourning or loss, that they lose their appetite. That's what's happening on this ship. They have food they could eat. They're not hungry because they think they're going to die. And “Paul stood up among them, and said, ‘Men, you should have listened to me and not have set sail from Crete and incurred this injury and loss. Yet now I urge you to take heart, for there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship. 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. So take heart, men, for I have faith in God, that it will be exactly as I have been told. But we must run aground on some island’.”
Now Paul's already been rejected. He's already been not listened to once. And notice when he stands up here he gives an I told you so in verse 21. Did everybody hear that? Like, yeah, you guys should have listened to me last time. But it's not really an I told you so, it's a God told you so, is what he's here to give them – that God has told me. Well, first of all, we know about the promise that he's going to Caesar, he's getting to Rome. But I love this line there in verse 24. “God has granted you all those who sail with you.” Makes me think maybe Paul had been praying for the souls of everybody else. They're on board. And now he gets a message from an angel. That's what an angel is, a messenger of God. And the angel lets him know, hey, not only are you still going to Rome, but God is going to spare the lives when all hope is lost, and everybody thinks they're dead. God is going to save all 276 souls on board, where you're going to lose the ship, but you're not going to lose one soul. And he shares that with everybody there. And then here's the key line that you should circle or underline. He says, “for I have faith in God that it will be exactly as I have been told.” Paul believes that God is going to do what he says. And if God's saying he's getting to Rome, and if God's saying everybody on board is going to live, Paul believes, and he says, I know my God who I belong to, whom I worship, and God is going to do what he said he's going to save every single one of us. Now you got it. You’ve got to imagine that the wind is like, can these guys even hear Paul above the howling wind? I mean, these guys, like, they're rocking to and fro, being tossed around by the waves while Paul is saying this. We are talking about expert sailors we are talking about, people who know how the seas work, who are good at what they do. And all of them have lost hope. All of them have said we cannot be saved. Now the guy who's some prisoner that we've already decided we didn't want to listen to, now he says we're all going to live. I mean, what a bold statement that Paul makes. See, Paul, he's thinking about life differently than most other people on the boat. He's listening to God's word, not to the winds.
Let's get that down for point number one: You need to listen to the word, not the wind. That's a very important lesson in life right there. If you let your circumstances, if you let your feelings drive you, they will blow you places you do not want to go. You need to let God's word guide you in your life. You need to have faith as you come to God's word and you see who God is, and what he has said he's going to do. You need to have faith that God always keeps His promises. God always does what he says, Can I get an Amen from the congregation on this?
Okay, so when we talk about faith, a lot of people say, yes, I have faith. And what they mean by that is I agree with the information that 2000 years ago, Jesus died and rose again, that's our current definition of faith. That is not a biblical definition of faith. Faith is not believing about something in the past, Faith is an active trust in the present, that you believe God is going to do what he says he's going to do. And I don't know if everybody here has that kind of faith, not just like, yeah, I believed something a while ago, but I believe that today, God is working for good, I believe, today. God will complete all the good work that he has begun. I believe that right now God is in control of my life that feels out of control. To me, there is someone above all the wind, and all the waves, and he reigns supreme. That's what we need to believe. Okay, so, life is going to get a lot better for everybody on this ship with us here today at this service. The minute that you realize that the winds and the waves are outside of your control, but there is one who is in control of your life, the better your life is going to be. This idea that you have control over your own life is as foolish as human beings trying to tell you what the weather is going to be like tomorrow. Okay. I want to meet a weather forecaster if you know a person who actually makes a living forecasting weather, I want to ask him, hey, what percentage are you guys even really going for? You know what I mean? Because it seems really low. Who's ever been lied to by a weather forecaster before? Anybody here, who has a weather app on your phone that lies to you constantly, and yet, you still look at it on a regular basis. Anybody know what I'm talking about? We can't even predict what the weather is going to be, much less make it what we want it to be. There is one who is behind every storm, there is one who is above all the wind and the waves, there is a God who is in control. And he tells you what's going to happen. He tells you the future before it happens. He tells you what he's going to do. And when you hear what he says in His Word, you have faith, even as you go through the storm. And I wonder who here is really listening to the Word and who here is getting tossed around. If you're listening to the wind of the news, if you're seeing the waves of current events rise and fall, if you're being blown about by your own feelings and how you feel on this day, or that day, you are going to end up sea-sick, getting tossed around by all that wind. And there's going to be constant reasons for fear and doubt and trembling, and there's going to be so much bad news and burdens coming on your life. And so, I want to strongly encourage you have faith. Just look at what he says there in verse 25. “I have faith in God that it will be exactly as I have been told.” I have faith because God told me so. And I believe in God, I believe he's going to do what he says. And I'm looking for God to do it right now. And God said that when we've all lost hope, and we don't think we can be saved, God said every one of us will be saved. Now, are you a person who has faith like that? I'm not talking about, do you want to be a person who has faith like that? I'm saying when the winds start howling at your house, and when the waves rise, and that waterline gets above your head, well, how do you respond? Because we're all being tested. We're all undergoing trials. Some of us are going through severe trials at this. I know people who are here at church this weekend, they lost their job this week. I know people who got a bad diagnosis this last week, people who are going through the worst of it. People are getting divorced right now at our church. They don't want to get divorced, or they don't have a choice in the matter anymore. They are getting divorced. People who are sitting down at the table, and there's an empty seat, they're at the table and they can't get over the fact that their loved one is not there with them anymore. We have people going through real trials, real tribulations right here at the church. How do you respond when those things happen? Are you a person of faith? Do you get up? Do you stand up in the midst of the howling storm blowing all around you? And do you say, I believe in God, and I believe he's going to do what he said. That's what the world needs to see … if we could just have some people like that here at the church. And if we could be those people out in our community. We are living in a time of fear, a time of great storm going on all around us. We'll look at one man on the boat who believes in God that will have impact on everybody else sailing on that vessel. Like you could be the person or the person who actually takes God at His Word, and other people would see that about you. And it would have an influence on Paul, who goes from nobody on the boat to the person that everybody's listening to on the boat. Why? Because he's a guy who has faith. He believes in what God says, and it impacts the entire 276 people on this boat. Look with me at what happens next here in verse 27, when the 14th night had come. Can you imagine two weeks of getting tossed around, not eating, feeling like you're going to die at any moment. “When the 14th night had come, as we were being driven across the Adriatic Sea, about midnight the sailors suspected that they were nearing land. So they took a sounding and they found 20 fathoms. And then a little farther on, they took a sounding again and found 15 fathoms.” So, it's getting shallower, or we're getting closer to land. “And fearing that we might run on the rocks, they let down four anchors from the stern and prayed for day to come. And as the sailors were seeking to escape from the ship, and had lowered the ship's boat into the sea, under pretense of laying out anchors from the bow, Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, ‘unless these men stay in the ship, you cannot be saved.’ Then the soldiers cut away the ropes of the ship's boat and let it go.”
So, what they want is to get to land but getting to land is also the dangerous part because that's where you're going to crash into some rock or some reef, and the ships going to break up, and we're all going to drown. And so, as they realize we're approaching land, and the sailors are dropping these anchors, the sailors are also trying to sneak off on this lifeboat to save themselves. And this idea, you can see that word there in verse 31, you cannot be saved. That's really the key idea of our chapter. If you go back to verse 20, the conclusion they came to was “all hope of our being saved was at last abandoned. The whole point of this story is we're in a situation where we cannot be saved, and yet God is going to show up and save every single person. And so, these guys, they're not trusting God, they're trying to find their own way to save themselves. And Paul's like, if those guys get away on that boat, then we, you, can't be saved. No, we're all in this together, God's going to save all of us together on the boat. Those guys can't go and try to save themselves. And at this point, the Centurion listens to Paul's words of faith rather than listening to the experts, sailors trying to save themselves. So, the Centurion now has changed his mind. He's starting to listen to Paul, rather than the pilot and the owner of the ship, and he doesn't let them get away on the boat. In fact, they cut away the ropes of the boat and they let it go. So, you're starting to see now that Paul's faith in the midst of the storm is starting to cause an influence primarily on this Centurion. But look what happens next verse 33, “As day was about to dawn, Paul urged them all to take some food, saying today is the 14th day that you have continued in suspense, and without food, having taken nothing. Therefore, I urge you to take some food, for it will give you strength, for not a hair is to perish from the head of any of you. And when he had said these things, he took bread and giving thanks to God in the presence of all, he broke it and began to eat. Then they were all encouraged and ate some food themselves. (We were in all 276 persons in the ship.) And when they had eaten enough they lightened the ship, throwing out the wheat into the sea.” So, I just want to make this point again and I'm not sure if you can relate to this or not. But can you imagine feeling so bad, like in such a place of suspense? And maybe it's the physical effects of being tossed around, maybe it's just like the emotional and mental toll, thinking you're going to die at any moment. But can you imagine you're in such a place of suspense that you don't eat for two weeks? That's how these guys are. And, and we find out they've got food, they can have a meal. In fact, after they have their meal, they've got extras that they throw overboard to lighten the ship. So, they had food the whole time. They just didn't want to eat because of how intense it was being on this book. And here comes this guy, Paul, and he says, no guys, you know, you guys are all going to make it. In fact, we should probably get some strength because we are all going to survive this. And so, I want to encourage everybody, now's the time to eat something, let's have a last supper here on the ship. And I want to thank God for this food. And can you imagine? Everybody thinks you're going to die at sea, and he starts already thanking God for their salvation. And look what it says, everybody, it seems all at least the majority here, it gives the number 276. They were encouraged. They found their will to live again, they took heart and they had this meal together. They actually heard, like, maybe they didn't believe in God, maybe they didn't believe they were all going to be saved. But they believe that Paul believed. And they all took heart. And they all had a meal together.
Point number two, let's get it down like this: Faith inspires others to listen. Faith inspires others to listen. When somebody really listens to what God says, when somebody really believes that God's going to keep his promises, and do what He said, that faith can really influence other people. If you want to lead people with your life, be a person of faith, because they'll see that you're not being blown around by the wind, you're not being tossed to and fro by the waves, you're believing what God says. And he's your compass, and he's pointing you in the right direction. And as you trust in Him, other people who are feeling tossed to and fro, they say they see you having your faith standing firm in the Lord, and it has this effect on them. I mean, if you stand up for God, and you trust in Him, in your workplace, in your neighborhood, in your family gatherings, people will be influenced by your faith, maybe now more than ever, in our lives. Show me somebody who really believes that God's going to do what he says, and actually has some hope when everybody else has lost hope, and everybody else thinks we can't be saved. This person believes in a God who says… that impacts other people. And that's what you see here. Like, this was not people at church. This was not people who's like, oh, he's preaching from the scriptures. Let's hear what he has to say. No, he's just some prisoner. He's just a guy on a boat. But that guy on that boat, he really believes in his God. One guy on a boat can influence all the other passengers, all the fellow travelers. I wonder who would look at your life and they would say, wow, that person believes what God says. And he would influence them. They would actually take heart, they would actually be encouraged because of their association with your face. That's what I love about this story. We go from prisoner not listened to on a boat, to we're giving thanks to God in the middle of the storm and everybody's eating, because they're all now believing at least that Paul believes in what he said, what his God has said. I want to strongly encourage you is what we're talking about here in this sermon is not just what do you think you should do when trials come? No, this is about what do you actually do when trials come. Not what's the right answer. But when you get bad news later on this week, or this month or this year, and you realize the wind is blowing at you and the waves are rising and about to crash down on you, what will you actually do in that moment? Your response is not only significant for you and your family, it will impact other people around you. And that's what we see from Paul. The centurions listening to him, the 276 are listening to him, and then we get to the climax, the conclusion here in verse 39. “Now when it was day, they did not recognize the land.” They don't even know where they are still, they don't even know what is that land up there, “but they noticed a bay with a beach, on which they planned if possible to run the ship ashore.” Here we go, let's try to get to that land. “So they cast off the anchors and left them in the sea, at the same time loosening the ropes that tide the rudders. Then hoisting the foresail to the wind they made for the beach.” And so, this was their moment of hope. But then it was what they had feared. “But striking a reef, they ran the vessel aground. The bow stuck and remained immovable, and the stern was being broken up by the surf. The soldiers’ plan was to kill the prisoners, lest any should swim away and escape, but the centurion” – look at this – “wishing to save Paul, kept them from carrying out their plan.” So, can you feel the highs and lows, the roller coaster of emotions here? Land ho we could be saved. There's the beach quick, everybody, let's get to the beach. Oh no, then the worst case, we strike up on that roof, we hit that shallow ground, we hit that rock, the boat stuck, the waves are now pounding the boat, breaking it apart. Oh, here's that moment where we're all going to get tossed in the ocean. And we're all going to drown, the moment we've been dreading for two weeks. Here it is. And so, the soldiers, they make, like just a common sense personal decision to kill their prisoners. And the reason they're thinking to kill the prisoners is because if these prisoners escaped, what happens to the soldiers, everybody? Right? Yeah, this is how it works. We know this from the context here. Roman soldiers, if you're in charge of a prisoner, and the prisoner gets away, or let's just say the prisoner drowns at sea, and we can't find the body, and we can't prove that the prisoner didn't get away, then you would be killed, because your prisoner got loose on your watch. So, these guys are just saying, we’ve got to kill these guys. Otherwise, if we survive, we'll be dead. And the centurion is now so impacted by this guy, Paul, that he he's not just choosing Paul now over the sailors on the boat. He's choosing Paul now over himself, over his own guys. And he said, no, we're not going to kill Paul. So, you see this again, this key word of saving, he wants to save Paul. So, we've got the soldiers trying to save themselves. But the Centurion says, no, we're going with Paul, we're going with these prisoners. And then it says here, after he wants to save Paul, “He ordered those who could swim to jump overboard first and make for the land, and the rest on planks, or on pieces of the ship. And so it was that all were brought safely to land.” 276 men, or people on board go into the water, and they all make it to the beach alive. This was after they thought they were all dead. They all get saved, just like God said. So, there's our word again, if you see it there at the end of verse 44, “so it was that all were brought safely to land.” So that's clearly this the regular use of this Greek word sozo here, throughout our passage, is clearly trying to make the point in a situation where hope was lost, and they were not going to be saved. And the soldiers tried to save themselves. And the sailors tried to save themselves. Everyone actually was saved that and even says that again, in 28:1. Look at 28:1, “After we were brought safely through, we then learned that the island was called Malta.” So, if we go back to the map here, we were in the middle of nowhere getting tossed around by the waves, and we end up on this island over here, Malta, you can see it there. And all the men, everybody on board, they all make it to the beach alive. That is the point that we were brought safely to the island, to the land. Why? Because God granted that everyone would be saved.
Let's get this down for Acts 27:21-44. Spoiler alert: God saves through the waves. And we have a God who saves. And if he says he's going to save you, there is no force, no power on this planet that could keep you from being saved. That is what God has said, that is what he is going to do. That is the point of this story in the Scripture, that people could try to save themselves. People could give up all hope of being saved, but God does save everyone that he says he's going to save. Now, when we talk about this, a key theme in the Bible, this idea of salvation, here specifically, we're talking about being saved from the shipwreck. But throughout the Bible, the main thing we want people to be saved from is we want people to be saved from their sins. Can I get an Amen from anybody on that? Okay, we are not right with God in our souls. As we heard from the testimonies of these three men, we are not right with God naturally, and we need Jesus to save us from our sins. That's why He died to pay the penalty for our sin. That's why he rose again to offer us a new life.
Two weeks ago I was here and we were here in me making an appeal to people to call on the name of the Lord Jesus to be saved but it wasn't really me speaking. It was Paul speaking in Ceasarea, and it wasn't even Paul, it was Jesus saying to people, open your eyes, go from the darkness to light, go from the power of Satan to God, have your sins forgiven and find a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me. And we said, you should call on the name of the Lord Jesus to be saved. You know, we had people here at church that day, who called on the name of the Lord Jesus to be saved, and they were saved from their sin. And we've gotten to meet with them and follow up with them, and share the excitement with them. But here's the thing. If you get saved from your sin, that's not the only thing you're going to need God to save you from in your life. So, let's see, Paul needed God to save him through obstacle after obstacle, through trial after trial. See, I'm concerned that a lot of Christians think I've already been saved. I'm good now, I’m fine. Well, let me just make it very clear. God's going to keep on needing to save you for the rest of your life. And you haven't even really seen what it means to be saved yet. When we get safely home, when we get to God's presence, when we get to see Jesus face to face, beholding him in all of his glory, then we will know what salvation really is; we barely know anything about it at this point. So, I want to make it very clear to everybody here that if you think God saved you from your sins, you need God to save you through your trials, and the real fullness of salvation is yet to come. Are you saved? If you believe in Jesus, yes, but there is also a sense where we could say, you have not yet experienced what it really means to be saved. You have been saved from the penalty of sin, you've been saved even from the power of sin in your life, but you have not been saved yet from the presence of sin in your life. And someday when you get to see Jesus, and I'm not talking about seeing him in Scripture, I'm not talking about turning your eyes on Jesus by faith like we are this morning, I'm talking about the day that you get to see who he really is. The day that you fall down on your face, the day that you see a light like you have never seen before, the day that you know what the word glory really means when you get to behold Jesus. And it says that those of us who believe in Jesus, when we see Him, we will be made like him. You will get a new body and there will be no more sin within you. You will be in the presence of his glory, and there will be no more sin around you. The Bible clearly teaches that just as Jesus is in all of his glory, you will be glorified. And you will be made like him. And I guarantee you, on that day, you're going to think you got saved on that day.
So, there is so much more yet to come. And so, do you believe that God is going to bring you safely to His glory? See, the nautical theme? And there are so many passages I could take you to, but the nautical theme, I don't even need to make this sermon an analogy because it is literally baked into the cake. It is literally like you cannot hear a story about sailing and about wind and about waves and not related to your own life. That's just how the story goes. That's why these stories are so gripping. That's why a story like Treasure Island is so famous. A story of Jonah is so famous, the story of Jesus on the Sea of Galilee with the disciples calming the wind and the waves and walking on the water. Why do people know about these stories because the story of getting on a boat and sailing somewhere is the story of life. And people relate to it on a deep level. And that's why it's throughout the Scripture. That the key you realize there's a destination I want to get to. And I'm not in control of actually getting there, and will I get safely to where I want to go? That's a feeling we can all relate to as fellow travelers. And there's a promise that we know a God who can bring you safely to where he promises to take you. In the midst of the storm, you can be brought safe. See, one of the things I love doing is driving on PCH, and on the beautiful days, looking at how close Catalina Island looks right out there. And some days it's just amazing where we get to live and what we get to see. But never once in my entire life, have I ever thought, wow, Catalina looks so close today. I'm going to swim there. I've never thought that. I hope you've never thought that either. Right. But there's this lady maybe you've heard about her story. It's a famous story. She was a famous swimmer. Her name was Florence Chadwick. And she was a woman known for swimming across the English Channel. She did it both ways. And she got the idea that she was going to swim to Catalina or from Catalina to here, which to me just sounds crazy. But she was going to do it. And you can go look her up, Florence Chadwick. You can find her all over the internet and the telephone game has been played with her story. There are all these different versions of it, but everybody agrees on one detail: On the day that she was swimming from to Catalina or from Catalina to here, there was a day where a thick fog descended upon her while she was swimming. And she had boats Going with her while she was swimming from Catalina. And that's very wise because of sharks. So, she has these boats going with her. And she begins to say, hey, I'm not going to make it. And she asked them to pull her out of the water. And as she gets out of the boat, she then realizes how close to the shore she actually was. And she realized that if she could have seen what was there, she would have kept going. And I think so many of us are caught up in the thick fog. And this is trying to tell us how to keep going. And we're looking at the fog and not our God. Because our God is not going to leave you swimming in the water. Or God is not going to leave you at the mercy of the winds, and under the power of the waves. God saves you all the way home. That's the promise. And I think even a lot of Christian brothers and sisters, when they see what's going on, when they see the thick fog descending here in America, they're growing very weary, and they're very discouraged. And I feel like a lot of people are ready to get pulled out of the water. And maybe we don't realize how close to the shore we actually are.
Okay, turn with me to two verses that I want to show you that are promises that apply to you. And one of them is 2 Timothy 4:18, the last words of Paul here. And 2 Timothy 4, he does make it to Rome. He does stand before Caesar. And he writes this as the last letter 2 Timothy 4:18. And so yes, we are studying and this has been such an encouraging study for us here at the church to see that Paul has been promised he's going to Rome. And he's a ship in a bottle. Nothing can stop him from getting there. Even this shipwreck, even this storm cannot keep Paul from getting to Rome because God's going to bring him wherever he promises to bring him. That's what God's going to do. Well, we are not promised we're going to Rome like Paul was, but we can all relate to what Paul says here. 2 Timothy 4:18. This is a promise for everybody who believes in Jesus, “The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely” – there's that same idea that we see there about getting to the land in Acts. He will bring me safely were into his … what does it say everybody? Okay, if you believe in Jesus, you will be brought “safely into his heavenly kingdom.”
So let's get that down. We’ve got a couple of dashes here under “God saves through the waves.” He may not have promised you Rome, but he promised you home. Everybody here is going home, everybody here, you've got an Uber at the end of this whole experience, everybody, everybody here, you've got to ride home, you will be brought home safely into the Heavenly Kingdom. No one that believes in Jesus gets left behind. All of us will be saved. Every single one. Every single one that Jesus claims as his own. Every single one of us. I'm telling you, Jesus is coming to get you. That's what he said. He said, I'm going to prepare a place for you. And then I'm going to come and get you. And I'm going to come and bring you to where I am, that where I am, you may be also. So, whether it's Jesus coming back to get us or whether we die, and our soul departs from our body into his presence, we will see Jesus. He will know us by name, he will have a place prepared for us. And we will get to be in glory with Jesus for all of eternity. Home is not where the heart is, home is where Jesus is and you're going to be there. I promise you, that the Bible promises you, that there is nothing, there is no force, no power, no authority that can keep you from getting to Jesus. If you're one of his people here today, he will bring you safely into his heavenly kingdom. To Him be the glory forever and ever. Amen. That is your story. Don't let any wind howl something different. Don't let any wave tell you something different. Your story ends in the glory of Jesus Christ, and nobody can stop that from happening. That's the truth. And Paul knew that. Paul knew it wasn't ultimately about getting to Rome, this was about going home. And he knew who was going to take him there. Everybody here who believes in Jesus, you have a ride home, and you will make it. You will make it. Doesn't matter how bad it feels right now, how hard it is right now, there is nothing that can stop Jesus from saving you. He will do it.
Go to 1 Peter chapter 1. One more passage that talks about salvation in this future sense. We have to understand this that salvation is already, but not yet, there is more to our salvation. We need to be saved through our trials through our storms that we're going through right now. And then our ultimate salvation is really being in the presence of Jesus. And when we were going through a trial in 2020, we started preaching 1 Peter here at the church. And we found out there's this, there's this really encouraging passage here in 1 Peter 1:3, and because Peter was writing to people going through trials, people who are scattered all over the place, he starts with such a strong word of encouragement. 1 Peter 1:3 says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” So, remember, they got at this place on a boat in the middle of nowhere, where all hope was lost, and they did not think that they could be saved. If you believe in Jesus, you can never lose your hope. Because you have a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.
Let's get that down for our second dash here: Hope is not lost even in the eye of the storm. If your trust is in Jesus, no matter how high that wave rises, no matter how hard that wind blows, you always have hope even in the face of death, whether it's someone you love who dies, or you are facing death yourself, what is the worst thing that can happen to you in life? What is the worst-case scenario to die? Well, everyone who believes in Jesus, even if you die, you will live. You have a living hope Jesus came down and died in your place. He defeated death once and for all. It has no power over those who have faith in Jesus. When you die, you will live more than you ever have before. That's the truth.
You have a living hope. See, I always heard there were two types of people: there were optimists and there were pessimists. Have you heard about these kinds of people? And I'm an optimist. And so, I have this naive expectation that everything's going to work out. And all you pessimists are already judging me. And you're already saying, we're not pessimists, we're realists, because that's what pessimists say. Because you want to take a dig at the naive optimist, and you want to be like, we're living in the world where wind blows and waves rise, and we're living in the worst-case scenario, and bad things are happening every day, and bad things are going to happen to me. Well, you know what? I'm no longer an optimist. I'm an optimist, because I believe the bad things are going to happen, but I still have hope. Because I know the one who can walk on the water, I know the one who's behind the waves, and he went into death for me. And on the third day, he showed us eternal life. And so, it says here, you've got a living hope and look at it, it says in verses 4 and 5, you have an inheritance, this inheritance is imperishable, undefiled, unfading. It is kept, it is reserved in heaven for you. There is a place like with your name on it, like you have a reservation, who by God's power I wish we could look up all the passages where he's mightier than the seas. In Psalm 89, He's greater than the waves. In Psalm 93, where Jesus is in the boat, and he's saying, but he's rebuking the winds in the seas, and the great calm comes over the Sea of Galilee. And the disciples are like, “what kind of a man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?” So, you have God's power, which is stronger than any storm that we might face in this life. And it's saying God's power is keeping you. You are being guarded through faith for a year, it is a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time, a future grace that you will see in the face of Jesus, a salvation. Yes. Are you saved? Yes, you are. Is the best of your salvation yet to come? Yes, it is a way to use it. You will get there; God's power will keep you all the way there. And what a day of glory that will be when you are brought safely through. And your voyage is over. And you get to be with Jesus. So, we wrote a song Ryan and I, Ryan really did a great job writing a song that we're going to sing right now, based on this idea, that we need a rescue. We need God to save us. We need God to bring us safely through and this song is really a prayer that we're going to pray together right now. So let me pray for us.
Father in heaven, we’ve just got to come to you, and we’ve got to confess that we are those who have little faith. We're seeing Jesus walk on the water and, like Peter, we want to go and we want to have faith and we want to believe in Jesus. And Peter even starts walking on the water, and then he looks at the wind and he begins to doubt. And Father, we want to confess to you that a lot of us have been like Peter, where we look at the wind and we size up the waves. And we don't look to you as the God who saves. We don't look to Jesus and the faith that we have in Him, the living hope that we have through his resurrection. So far that we just want to confess, for every time we thought the bad news was stronger than the good news, for every time we doubted your real power to save, and every time our hope has been lost, we confess that in the midst of the storm, we have not always believed that we would be safe. And we have not always responded with faith. So, I pray for my brothers and sisters here today. I pray that the next time they get that chill going down their spine, that feeling that will take our appetite away, that wind starts howling in our ear again. Here comes another test, here comes another trial, here comes maybe even something beyond anything I've heard before. Something that makes my heart sink, my stomach feels sick. That I pray that in that day we’ll remember you and will know that hope is not lost, because you are a God who saves, and you bring every one of your people safely through. So, God, humble us, make us dependent upon you, and let us be people who will pray, hey I need a rescue. I need you to keep on saving me. I need you to lead me not into temptation, I need you to deliver me from evil. Father in heaven, I need you to bring me safely into your heavenly kingdom. I need you to keep me by Your power bring me through even the seas and the storms, and even through death itself. Father I pray that you will hear this prayer that we come to you as saved people and we say, we still need to be saved. We need you to bring us through our trials, we need you to help those of us who are hurting here today, help those who are going through hard times that they could stand up even if it's their last supper and they could give you thanks because they know the God who saves. I pray that you would hear our prayer, that you would give us faith here today. We need it, Father. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

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