Now will you turn with me in your Bibles this morning to the 27th chapter of the book of Acts, as we read a portion of it for the second time this morning. And we will read from verse 27 through verse 44, the second half of chapter 27 of the book of Acts, from verse 27. On the fourteenth night we were still being driven across the Adriatic Sea when about midnight the sailors sensed they were approaching land. They took soundings and found that the water was a hundred and twenty feet deep. A short time later they took soundings again and found it was ninety feet deep. Fearing that we would be dashed against the rocks they dropped four anchors from the stern and prayed for daylight. In an attempt to escape from the ship the sailors let the lifeboat down into the sea, pretending they were going to lower some anchors from the bow. Then Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, unless these men stay in the ship you cannot be saved. So the soldiers cut the ropes that held the lifeboat and let it fall away. Just before dawn, Paul urged them all to eat. For the last fourteen days, he said, you have been in constant suspense and have gone without food. You haven't eaten anything. Now I urge you to take some food. You need it to survive. Not one of you will lose a single hair from his head. After he said this he took some bread and gave thanks to God in front of them all. Then he broke it and began to eat. They were all encouraged and ate some food themselves. Altogether there were 276 of us on board. When they had eaten as much as they wanted they lightened the ship by throwing the grain into the sea. When daylight came they did not recognize the land, but they saw a bay with a sandy beach, where they decided to run the ship aground if they could. Cutting loose the anchors they left them in the sea, and at the same time untied the ropes that held the rudders. Then they hoisted the foresail to the wind and made for the beach. But the ship struck a sandbar and ran aground. The bows stuck fast and would not move and the stern was broken to pieces by the pounding of the surf. The soldiers planned to kill the prisoners to prevent any of them from swimming away and escaping. But the centurion wanted to spare Paul's life and kept them from carrying out their plan. He ordered those who could swim to jump overboard first and get to land. The rest were to get there on planks or on pieces of the ship. In this way everyone reached land in safety. Once more thanks be to God for his most holy word. Now on these Sunday mornings as you realise we are drawing near to a long series of expositions through the book of Acts that we have taken over several years in several segments to study. And we have come on these later Sundays, you will recall, to the final events of the great Apostle's life and ministry as recorded in this remarkable book of the New Testament Scriptures. To the time when for two years fully he has been under a form of house arrest in the great city of Caesarea. and from which he has appealed to Caesar that he might be taken on trial before the great imperial emperor himself in Rome but the testimony of the gospel might at the last be heard in the very highest echelons of the Roman government and of the great metropolis and city of Rome itself the mistress of the whole civilized world Such is the amazing and remarkable providence of God. Now you recall that last Sunday morning we began to look at Acts 27 which must in many ways be the most fascinating chapter of this later part of the Acts of the Apostles. And we asked the question as to why this chapter should have been recorded in holy writ at such great detail. when it might seem that Luke the writer of Acts could more profitably have given his attention to other descriptions of the Apostles ministry. It is a chapter as you notice that abounds in intricate and minute details of the description of Paul's maritime voyage to Rome, his voyage by sea to that great city. A journey of some 1900 miles and mostly accomplished on the waves. Why is it there? And we saw last Sunday morning it is there for at least three reasons. It is the description of Paul's progress to the great imperial city, fulfilling the design of God's providence. But the gospel might be heard in the great Roman metropolis as it had not been heard there before, and before the imperial Caesar himself. that from thence it might be brought to all the Western Hemisphere. And as I said to you there is a sense in which we are sitting here today as Christian men and women and boys and girls because of the Apostles sea journey. to the great city of Rome, the mistress of the world. But the third reason it is here, is that the chapter is a most remarkable display of God's power. As we see him bringing his servant out of what seems almost certain disaster and destruction, upon the doomed ship, safely to his destination. reminiscent as I reminded you of the description of the 107th Psalm where the sailors in the midst of their distress are brought safely to their desired haven because of God's display of his power in salvation for his people. Now this morning I want you to look at this passage under a somewhat different light. We are going to look at the whole of this chapter even though we read only part of it in the interest of time this morning. and you must notice that the chapter falls very naturally into three parts and divisions so simply set out in a way that even the youngest child here this morning can observe the progress of this journey there is the start of the journey in verses 1 through 12 there is the account of the storm in verses 13 through 26 and finally the chapter concludes with the account of the shipwreck in verses 27 through 24 now what is significant beloved for us this morning is that throughout these three sections you see there is a remarkable pattern but Luke evidently has deliberately written in to his account and the pattern is that in each one of these sections there is the account of difficulties and hindrances on the one hand complemented, on the other hand, by compensations and comforts for the faithful servant of the Lord, the Apostle Paul. Difficulties and hindrances balanced in each one of these sections by complementary compensations and comforts. And it's remarkable as you notice this unfolding pattern throughout the whole chapter of Acts 27. And we're going to look at these three sections together this morning under this particular perspective. Now first of all will you notice with me in verses 1 through 12 the start of Paul's great sea voyage to Rome over 1900 miles of troubled and stormy oceans as we come to realize as we read the chapter. As you look at it you see first of all and I must take a moment before we look at the hindrances and the compensations I must take a moment to share these things with you. There are several matters of great interest For instance, who were the prisoners who travelled with the great apostle? As you read in verse 1, when it was decided that we would sail for Italy, Paul and some other prisoners were handed over to a centurion named Julius who belonged to the imperial regiment and so on. Who were the other prisoners? Now we are not told, but it would seem fairly obvious that they were condemned criminals. being sent to Rome, very probably, to supply the endless need for the crowd's entertainment in the arena of the Colosseum, where these condemned criminals would become fodder for the lions and other animals. that were set upon them to entertain the crowds at the regular games or else they would be delivered up to be trained as gladiators, another form of certain and cruel death for such to make what we term today a Roman holiday. And it was in the company, you notice, of these men that we would call today jailbirds, that Paul travelled to Rome, this distinguished servant of the Lord. But the difference between their treatment and his was almost certainly this, that they would have been chained below decks until the violence of the storm enabled their release under the Roman orders to help The doomed vessels survived in the midst of the storm. They were below decks, but Paul, a Roman citizen, would almost certainly have been allowed his freedom above deck, together with his friends Aristarchus and Luke, though always wearing the loose chain as the symbol of his status as a prisoner of Rome. now do you notice another thing that is of great interest that Paul's close companions were with him there Aristarchus in verse 2 and Luke now we know very little about Aristarchus except that he's referred later to in some of Paul's writings as his fellow prisoner and it seems very probable that the only way he would be allowed to travel On that particular ship bearing prisoners before the imperial Caesar was that he went as Paul's personal servant or slave, as evidently it seems Luke would have done. and you remember that because of the we sections verse 2 we would sail to Italy but Luke was there for the whole duration of the journey and gave us one of the most instructive accounts of ancient seafare in all of ancient literature now another interesting point is Julius the Centurion wherever Centurions are mentioned in the New Testament and this is very significant They are always mentioned as remarkable men. As men, it seems, who were particularly responsive to the Christian gospel. There isn't a single instance of a centurion being mentioned in the gospels or the book of Acts. But the portrait of these men is men of integrity and uprightness. Men who were capable in every sphere in which they operated. And it was so with this man, Julius. And you see it all through this account, it's quite remarkable. He allows Paul and his companions to go on shore, on trust, even though they are prisoners of the imperial Caesar. He listens to Paul's advice, even though he doesn't follow it, that the ship should not proceed on its voyage. He prevents the Roman soldiers from killing the prisoners off the rocky coast of Malta as the ship founders on the rocks. Because he has such regard for Paul and so on. And it's a remarkable picture of this man. And while Luke doesn't tell us directly that he has become a believer in Christ, we may well assume that the witness and the testimony of the Apostle Paul both in his imprisonment in Caesarea and especially on board the doomed ship made such an impression on this man's life that he began to think seriously at least about the message of which Paul was the ambassador and the commissioner. it's a very interesting portrait of Julius the Centurion but do you notice very quickly also the final thing the incredible detail and accuracy of the whole message of Acts 27 It's interesting because in the 19th century a Scotsman from Renfrewshire, a man called James Smith wrote a volume that has recently been republished and is available in Christian bookstores called The Voyage and Shipwreck of the Apostle Paul. And this man, James Smith, in the year 1848, being a keen yachtsman and a seafarer of considerable experience, actually went by sea, under sail, the very journey that is described in Acts 27. And again and again in that book, The Voyage and Shipwreck of St. Paul, James Smith shows us that every detail of that voyage, down to the finest point, was confirmed by his own experience. The direction in which the winds blew, the prevalence of the Mediterranean, the Eastern Mediterranean to violent storms that would arise without warning. The drift of the current bearing the ship to the island of Malta at the very time that Luke says it arrived there, 14 days from the commencement of the storm and so forth and so on. so that the whole account bears the accuracy of an eyewitness who was present as though Luke day by day was writing a daily log of the ship's progress upon which he later drew in his great account within this chapter. Well such is the start of the voyage. Now look with me at the difficulties and hindrances and then at the compensations and comforts. Now what were these difficulties and hindrances? Well first of all there was no direct ship for Rome and it's evident as you look at verse 2 that the ship on which the party was compelled to start this long maritime voyage was what we would call today a local coaster. A ship that would slowly beat its path up the coast of Palestine from Caesarea to the port of Sidon to the north and then painfully against country winds beat its way across the northwest quadrant of the Mediterranean Sea until with great difficulty it came near to its home port of Andromitia, the port of Myra. There was no direct ship for Rome. Yet it was God's purpose to bring his servant there. Yet you see him on board a lumbering coastal vessel, calling at various ports on a roundabout route to get to the great imperial city. Now hold that in your mind for a moment. Then the second difficulty is that the winds are contrary. Verse 4, we passed under the lee of Cyprus because the winds were against us. Now it's well shown from James Smith's account as well as modern maritime charts that in the fall season of the year the winds blow predominantly from the northeast. And the ship is going in the direction north-west. And you remember that these ancient sailing ships were not like even these sailing ships of more modern times with their several masks. So that they could tack against the wind by taking some sails down and putting others that were appropriate up. And so in a zigzag course could make progress even against contrary winds. The ancient sailing vessels had but one central mast of vast proportions. And when the winds blew violently upon that central sail, it would almost have such force that the very timbers of the ship were under immense strain beneath the waves. And it was not uncommon for them to be known to split and the ship to founder. But when that sail was down, they were practically helpless and had to drift. before the prevailing winds and so you see they had to sail north of Cyprus instead of south of Cyprus as Luke tells us from verse 4 onwards and painfully beat their way port by port along the southern shore of what is now southern Turkey Then there were further delays in verses 7 through 8. We made slow headway. We had difficulty arriving off Canidas. The wind did not allow us to hold our course. We moved along the course, verse 8, the coast with difficulty and came to a place called Fair Havens. So there is further delay. And even though by this time they have trans-shipped, to use an American term, moved from the small coastal vessel onto one of much bigger proportions, with a crew, as we read later, of 276, and a vast cargo of Egyptian wheats on its way to feed the numerous mouths of the populace of Rome, Even though it is an Alexandrian corn ship of the great fleet that perpetually supplied and provisioned the city of Rome, the progress means delay after delay after delay. And then finally in verse 9, you notice that they are beyond the safe sailing season in that quadrant of the Mediterranean. From mid-September, we learn from the ancient writers, until November 11th, it was considered dangerous to be at sea in the eastern Mediterranean. After November 11th, all maritime navigation stopped completely. And it's interesting that the reason why it stopped, was not so much the prevalence of storms, as the fact of that season of the year, the skies are almost always overcast, and the sun is hidden, and the stars at night, and the ancient mariners guided themselves by their ability to see the heavenly bodies. When there were none, they were lost on the open ocean. And now says Luke in verse 9, the fast is past. It was not as I incorrectly said to you last Sunday, the Passover, but it was the day of atonement that fell usually in the month of October. And so you see, the season for safe sailing upon these waters is almost over. Now look at these difficulties and hindrances. There is no ship available to sail directly to Rome. The winds are contrary. There is further frustrating delay. And they are beyond the time of safe passage upon the great ocean. Yet Paul is in the midst of God's will. And what it teaches us among other things, beloved, is this. That if you are a servant of God about His business and in the centre of His will, it does not mean that He will safeguard you from trials and difficulties. It does not mean that your passage will be easy. And very often, if you are in the centre of His will, what you should look for is the very presence of hindrances and difficulties. And the very fact that you are in his will, points almost towards them, as an experience that you will almost and certainly encounter. Wherever you look in the Bible or in the pages of church history, you find that this is the pattern that almost certainly is present. Whether it is Luther at the time of the Reformation, surrounded by all manner of opposition, as he seeks to make known the gospel of the New Testament again. Whether it is Calvin at Geneva in the midst of a council that is unsympathetic and a populace that rejects a biblical discipline. Whether it's Samuel Rutherford in his banishment from his lovely church of Anworth by the Solway to the distant parts of Aberdeen, crying out in longing that he might be among his people again and bring them the word of God if you are in the will of God, expect hindrances and difficulties in your path. But look you at the second thing. The gracious Lord of his faithful servant does not leave the situation only there. There are compensations and there are comforts. Now there are two of them, let me mention them just briefly. The first is the recognition that Paul received at the start of the voyage and you see this in verses 1 and 3 and again in verse 9 at the end. Paul and some other prisoners, verse 1 and in verse 3, Julius in kindness to Paul let him go with his two companions to visit his friends in the port of Sidon and in verse 9 Paul warned them not to continue the voyage now these three instances show us that Paul was not just one of the other prisoners He stood out, as it were, head and shoulders above them, to the point where Julius, the Roman centurion, recognised the difference in this man, his commanding character, his integrity, his courage, and his trustworthiness. And all of these qualities were evident in Paul's life, so that he could be allowed on shore on trust to be among his friends, knowing that he would return to the ship again in time for its departure. He could be listened to, along with the captain of the ship, regarding the great decision whether they should proceed or whether they should stay in the port of Fairhavens and winter there. And Julius took note of this man's character and presence. He was no ordinary prisoner. And there's no doubt that to Paul himself this must have been a great encouragement in the midst of the increasing difficulties that he was to encounter. That God had so singled and marked him out that even for heathen men there was a difference, but they noticed that he was the servant of a great master and his character was in keeping with that calling. But the second encouragement is this, the refreshment of the saints of God. Do you see that in verse 3? In kindness to Paul, he and Aristarchus and Luke were allowed to go to his friends so they might provide, says the scripture, for his needs. Now what a great interlude for this man in the midst of increasing difficulties and discouragements and disasters. God had said he would get his servant to Rome but look what is unfolding and in the midst of these difficulties he has sweet fellowship with God's people. They're called his friends. They're Christians evidently in Sidon, just as John in 3 John verse 14 has that lovely designation of Christian people. Peace be to you, the friends here send greetings, greet the friends there by name. There are nothing like Christian friends and Paul is with them and they are ministering, it seems very probably, to his remaining needs, whatever they were on this long journey to Rome. In their largesse they supplied whatever was lacking for Paul and his companions and cheered them and fitted them out. for this great impending journey. Now isn't that a sweet touch of the gracious God to encourage his servant who will be in so much distress very soon. There are hindrances and difficulties, there are compensations and comforts as God deals with his own. Now notice with me secondly, the storm in verses 13 through 26. Again, you see the same pattern of difficulties and dangers, of compensations and comforts. Now the ship, remember, was a large one, no longer the coaster on which Paul had begun his voyage to Rome, but one sufficient to have almost 300 passengers on board and a considerable cargo of wheat destined for the city of Rome. Probably a vessel of some 500 tons, and by no means, even by ancient standards, a large ship. It was no smaller than many of the ships that would have sailed the oceans in the time of Nelson in the 19th century, but it was different from these later sailing vessels. with its one huge mast as I described carrying an immense square rigged sail and her stem and stern both appeared like a modern bow a different design from our modern ships today and it was steered at the rear by detachable rudders like huge paddles you notice when the ship was about to be wrecked these paddles were cut loose and fell into the sea and the captain had no compass or chronometer but only the roughest of sea charts and depended on his vision of the sun and the stars for navigation. Now this gives us some kind of idea of the fearful predicament that the ship was shortly in, caught on the open sea in the midst of a great storm. And moreover the cargo of wheat would become rapidly waterlogged as the ship took on water and gradually throughout that voyage no doubt it was steadily sinking lower and lower to the level of the waves in danger of being lost not through shipwreck on the rocks but through foundering in the midst of the ocean and indeed the ancient accounts tell us that far more of these ships were lost through foundering then we'll last shoot through shipwreck and you can begin then to see what is happening now what were the difficulties and dangers very quickly well when a south wind began to blow, a gentle south wind says Luke The sailors thought that they had gained their purpose, and against Paul's advice, you remember, they endeavoured to cross from the safety of the harbour at Fairhavens. They crossed the bay to the next more commodious harbour of Fenes, a journey of forty miles. But in the midst of the bay the weather changed. And instead of the gentle south wind, there arose a tempestuous northeaster, called in the King James version, Euroclidan. A terrifying wind of hurricane force, says the narrator Luke. And the ship, the lumbering vessel, was caught in the clutches of a gale force wind. Now instead of being driven west, in the direction of Rome, They could not go before the wind and were driven instead south or southeast, the very opposite direction almost, of the one they desired. And shortly no land is in sight. And soon the heavens become black with the tempestuous storm and all sight of the sun and the stars is gone for good. Until you notice in verse 20 we finally gave up all hope of being saved. Now the sailors undertook five measures to make the ship safe in the midst of that terrifying experience. You remember that under the Lee of the little island of Cowder, off the coast there of Crete. They manage with great difficulty to pull in the lifeboat that was towed behind these great ancient vessels. It had already become waterlogged and hence their difficulty. And Luke says, we manage with great difficulty to get it on board. Then they put ropes around the hull of the ship technically called frapping the ship, a practice still in vogue in the time of Nelson, in the age of the great sailing ships, in the midst of violent storms at sea, to strengthen the timbers and prevent them from splitting asunder under the violence and the force of the waves. They took down all sail Because they were afraid of being swept still further south to be off the shores of the coast of Africa and the dreaded quicksands of the Sirtis. The next day they began to throw over the gear of the ship. And the day after that, says Luke, they began to throw over at least some of the cargo of wheat. And the difficulties and the dangers mount. Now when you consider them all, you see a picture of the sheer terror of being aboard an ancient vessel, with no means of navigation, not knowing where they are. the wind unceasingly driving them, they thought, in a direction they did not want to go in, and unable increasingly to take the strain and the violence and the pounding of the waves, becoming increasingly waterlogged, with its very timbers beginning to open up and let the water in. until they have given up all hope of ever being saved. Now that is the difficulty and the danger. But in the midst of that hour of peril, you see, something happens of great interest. There is suddenly a word of encouragement and compensation. If you look at verses 21 through 27, nothing is more striking than this. When all hope has been abandoned, verse 20, Paul stands forth In verse 21, calm, assured, with a message from God that cheers and reanimates the fainting hearts of all the crew. And the sun and the stars have been hidden, but Paul has seen, you see, a better light. And though the sky around them was black with the tempest and the wind, He has seen something that can be visible only to the eye of faith. Now what compensation and comfort abounds here. Everyone on board had feared the worst. But God comes with a word that says, I will never abandon my faithful servant. And the picture is that of Paul standing forth amongst them all with a consciousness of his safety greater than if he had stayed at home on the safety of the land. He is safer on the storm-tossed sea in the will of God than he could be sitting in his chair at home. And it's because of God's Word, of God's promise, of God's providence, the decisive factor is the Word of God coming into this situation and changing everything. The storm has not changed. The wind is still blowing, the sky is still black with tempestuous rain and blinding winds and the waves are still rising and falling around the doomed ship in their endless cycle. But what has changed? is that by the eye of faith, the Word of God has brought hope and encouragement to God's servants. Now my dear friend, you may say to yourself this morning, where is God in the midst of the storm that I am going through? Where is he in the tempest? And the answer is, God is there. in the midst of it all. And since that is the case, how much obligation rests upon us to serve him, with all our strength and all our integrity and all our energy and all our faith, as Paul evidently did. Now thirdly as I draw to a close do you notice there is not only the start and the storm but the shipwreck in verses 27 through 44 as we read, but on the fourteenth night, they were still being drawn, driven across the Adriatic Sea, when about midnight, the sailors sensed they were approaching land. Now, interestingly enough, the Adriatic Sea does not refer to our modern understanding of the Adriatic, the sea between the coast of eastern Italy and western Greece, but it was used then of all that part of the eastern Mediterranean. as they were being driven blindly across the ocean. No idea of where they were and their location. The sailor suddenly sensed the approach of land. We assume they heard the sound of breakers on the rocks. And they become alarmed, realizing that with the force of the current and the violence of the wind, they may be driven in the midst of night upon the rocks and shattered with the loss of cargo and of life. And they cast out four anchors from the stern. And they attempt soon afterwards to leave the ship. without their skill that was so necessary for bringing it safely to a shore if such shore existed by lowering the lifeboat and leaving it under the pretence of letting down anchors from the bow. And Paul again saves the situation. The difficulties and the dangers, the rocks, the nearness of the land, the darkness of the night, the sailors attempting to abandon ship and leave all on board to their fates. The impending total shipwreck that all must have felt was inevitable. But again in the midst of it, there is the balance of the compensations and the comforts. Look at verses 33 through 38. God's servant stands forth again and God in and through his faithful servant becomes their encourager and their counsellor and you have the amazing picture, the last one of the apostle upon this ship. on the heaving decks as he stands forth before the assembled ship's company, with the violence of the waves pounding upon the ship as it strains to hold anchor to the sea floor far beneath. The wind howling shoots through the ship's rigging, and Paul with great calmness and great fortitude and with sanctified common sense in the midst of such suspense saying to them, what you need my friends is a hearty meal, take some food, you need it in order to survive because not one of you will lose a single hair of his head. And he gives thanks publicly to God before them all. He knew the struggle that was at hand and he prepares them by getting them to fortify their bodies for the ordeal that is ahead. Now do you notice how remarkable this picture is? He does it because of the faith that he had in God. It was because of his faith that he did so. And this amazing man looks as it were at impossibilities and cries, it shall be done. Because in the midst of all that violence and terror, there is the compensation and the comfort of the faithfulness of God, who points the clouds their course, whom winds and sea obey. He shall direct thy wandering feet. He shall prepare thy way. Through winds and waves and clouds, He gently clears thy way. wait thou his time, so shall this night soon end in joyous day. Well as we finish this morning, so all escaped and came to land and they did so humanly speaking because of the influence of one man on board that ship, the Apostle Paul. who by God's grace and power, was able to bring in the midst of difficulties and dangers, the compensations and comfort that abound to the faithful servant of God and overflow, as we've seen in blessings, even to the heathen themselves. Surely God rides upon the storm. Do you see the lesson for yourself from this passage this morning? As you say before the Lord in your inmost heart, Lord, you see my struggle against winds and waves and tides that assail me this morning. Oh, give to me the steadfast faith that was in the great apostle Paul that can withstand the strains of winds and tides. but I too may be a witness for you and so show forth the strength of your grace and the providence of your power no matter how hard the trial that I am going through make me like him an example and encourager of others and glorify your name. Let's pray. Our gracious Father we thank you this morning for this passage in all its fullness as it recounts the start and the storm and finally the shipwreck and brings to us these amazing parallel pictures of dangers and of compensations. So may we draw strength our father from this passage for our own Christian lives and apply its truths to the way in which our pilgrim path