If you have your Bible, let me invite you. once more to turn to the book of Acts and to Acts chapter 27. There are 28 chapters in Acts, and we are in the next to last chapter. We have seen Luke's inspired account of the Apostle Paul. We have watched as Luke has described Paul's missionary journeys that came after his initial conversion. And we have also then seen Paul as the prisoner, as he was taken into custody within the temple, and then he stood before the Sanhedrin. He has stood before two Roman governors, Felix and Festus. And we have seen him even stand before the Jewish king, Herod Agrippa. Now the die has been cast and Paul has appealed to have his case heard in front of Caesar, as was his right, as a Roman citizen. And so the plan is made to send Paul off on the journey to Rome. Remember, he's in Caesarea, he's in the land of Israel, and he's going to be put on a ship and he's going to be sailed all the way across the Mediterranean Sea to Italy, where he will eventually be in Rome and stand before the Roman emperor. And so in chapter 27, we have Luke's account of Paul's journey from Caesarea to Rome by ship. And along the way, there is a shipwreck. And that's interesting. Why is this chapter in the Bible? Couldn't Luke have skipped over this? Why does he have to go into such great detail? And I think there are probably at least a couple of reasons for this. One is, it's there because it really happened, because it's true. It's just part of the historical record. But secondly, in telling this, Luke wants us to get something spiritually out of this. He wants us to understand that there are going to be times in this Christian life where we may go through trials, difficulties. It may be as difficult as being on a ship that is in a storm. And yet God is in control. God is sovereign. He is guiding our course. He is guiding the course of the nations. And so we can trust in Him. Now, travel by boat in the ancient world was a pretty dicey venture. I've not really done much traveling by boat. We've got some experts here, I guess, today who've just gotten off the boat, off the cruise ship, anyway. But Paul was not traveling on a cruise ship. He was traveling on a little boat through the Mediterranean. And it was very common. I mean, sometimes we think ancient people weren't sophisticated. They didn't do very much. No, they traveled quite a bit. throughout what we know today as Europe, Israel, Asia Minor, North Africa, on the Mediterranean Sea. But it was dangerous. And when they traveled by boat, what they were usually doing was really traveling along the shore, or they were hopping from island to island. Think about this, what it was like to travel by boat in this day. They had no satellites. They had no sophisticated weather forecasts. They had no sonar equipment to know when you were coming up on a sandbar or something like that. They had no GPS to tell them exactly where they were. They had to navigate looking at the signs, looking at the conditions, looking at landmarks and so forth. And so traveling was difficult. So we're going to look at Acts 27 and its account of how Paul traveled. again from Caesarea on his way to Rome, although as we're going to see. He will eventually be shipwrecked on the island of Melita or Malta, which is just below Syracuse off the Italian peninsula is where he's eventually going to be shipwrecked. So we start off with the initial leg of the journey in verses 1 through 6, which takes him from Caesarea to a town called Myra. So we look at chapter 27, verse 1. And when it was determined that we should sail into Italy, they delivered Paul and certain other prisoners unto one named Julius, a centurion of Augustus's band. And so Paul, remember, had appealed to go to Caesar, was his right as a Roman citizen. And so they said, OK, you're going to go. And they put one Roman centurion was his guard to safely transport him to Rome. Now, the interesting thing is, You were allowed, if you're a prisoner in those days, to basically have an entourage. And so there were people who went with Paul. They were taking care of his needs. They were helping getting him food. They were talking with him and so forth and so on. Julius is taking him basically on an armed escort to Rome, but he's also got his friends with him. And one of the friends who was with him was Luke, the fellow who's writing this. Notice in verse one, and when it was determined that we should sail into Italy, Luke is right there. He's with Paul, he's traveling with them. Not only was he there, but he mentions at least one other fellow by name. Look at verse two, and entering into a ship, of Adramidium, we launched, meaning to sail by the coasts of Asia, one Aristarchus, a Macedonian of Thessalonica, being with us. So we know at least Luke is with him and a fellow named Aristarchus. And Aristarchus is mentioned in Colossians 4.10 and Philemon 1.24, one of Paul's missionary companions. And here's the interesting thing. Paul is imprisoned, but he's never alone. There's always Christian community, Christian comrades, brothers in arms who are with him. And so I think this is one of one of the things that we can take away from this is you are not meant to live the Christian life alone. You are not meant to go through trials and difficulties alone. There is meant to be a Luke and an Aristarchus who are beside you to encourage you. And if you're trying to face spiritual struggles or difficulties and keep it all to yourself, you're doing something that's unhealthy. It's unbiblical. It's wrong. You need Christian community. You need Christian brethren. And so. We're told then that even, again, I've talked about it before, the strange situation in the ancient world, to be under arrest and to be headed for trial, you're actually given quite a bit of freedom. And it says, for example, in verse three, and the next day we touched at Sidon, and Julius the centurion courteously entreated Paul and gave him liberty to go unto his friends to refresh himself. And so it wasn't quite the same as being arrested today and being held for trial. Paul was given some degree of liberty. And then we're told in verse four, and when we had launched from thence, we sailed under Cyprus because the winds were contrary. If you have one of those maps in the back of your Bible, you will notice if you look at the Mediterranean, that there is the island of Cyprus that is a little bit closer to where Israel is, and it's up toward what is modern day Turkey, what the ancients called Asia Minor. And if you go a little bit further to the west, you'll see the island of Crete. And if you go a little bit further, you'll see the island of Syracuse, which is just below the Italian boot. And basically Paul is gonna travel from from Cyprus to Crete, and then he's going to be shipwrecked at Melita or Malta, which is just below Syracuse, as he sort of leapfrogs across the Mediterranean being taken to Rome. So it says in verse five, and when we had sailed over the sea of Cilicia and Pamphylia, we came to Myra, a city of Lycia. So that's the first leg of the journey. And again, Eustace didn't hop on one boat and go, but he's going to be on several boats making this journey. And this is an arduous journey, just to be carried to stand trial, where you could face being executed. So certainly, there were a lot of things that were a lot of stresses that were on Paul, the apostle. The second leg of the journey, I think we could call it from Myra to a place called Fair Havens, which was on the island of Crete. So he's going to leapfrog from Cyprus over to Crete. It says in verse 6, and there the centurion found a ship of Alexandria sailing in Italy, and he put us therein. And when we, again, Luke is still writing, he's still a first-person observer, and when we had sailed slowly many days and scarce were come over against Canidas, the wind not suffering us, we sailed under Crete over against Salmone, and hardly passing it, came unto a place which is called the Fair Havens, nigh whereinto was the city of Lasea. And if you look at a map, Lasea is a city on the southern end of the island of Crete, and Fair Havens was apparently the harbor of this place, and so they sail into this location. Now, what comes next is, apparently, we don't know the exact time that they were making this journey, but it must have been in the fall of the year. And in ancient days, again, without satellite imagery, without sonar, without weather forecasts, it was well known that it was dangerous to travel during the fall. And then when it got to be wintertime, they didn't even travel at all. They would stop the ships going. But it was getting to be the time of danger. There's a mention of this when we get to verse nine. Now, when much time was spent and when sailing was now dangerous, because the fast was now already passed. The fast here probably refers to the Jewish Day of Atonement, which would have been in the fall of the year. The Jewish fast, the Day of Atonement, having passed by, it says Paul admonished them And he said unto them, verse 10, Sir, as I perceive that this voyage will be with hurt and much damage, not only of the lading and ship, but also of our lives. Now, here's the interesting thing. Paul is a prisoner, but he hasn't stopped being a prophet of God. He hasn't stopped being an apostle of God. And basically he's prophesying, listen, if we try to set off on this journey, There's going to be danger. There's going to be danger to our lives. There's going to be danger to the ship. There's going to be danger to the contents of the ship, because there were not only passengers on the ship, but there was also cargo. And wouldn't it be great if we find out they had listened to Paul, but no, instead, what did they do? They completely ignored what Paul was saying. Look at verse 11. Nevertheless, the centurion believed the master and owner of the ship more than those things which were spoken by Paul. And because the haven was not commodious to winter in, the more part advised to depart thence also, if by any means they might attain to Phenice, and there to winter, which is a haven of Crete, and lieth toward the southwest and northwest. And the south wind blew softly, supposing that they'd obtained their purpose, loosing thence, they sailed close by Crete. So they wouldn't listen to Paul, And they set off on their journey. Now, who do you think is going to be right here? Do you think Paul's prophecy is going to come true? Well, of course it is, because he is a servant of the Lord. And the Lord has given him this knowledge, even if they are not willing to listen. Then we come really to the final part of the journey. And that's going to be the harrowing trial that Paul and the others on this ship undergo at sea. And so they're there on this ship before it crashes for about two weeks, for about 14 days. And I don't know if you've ever been in a situation Maybe traveling on a plane, going through a storm, maybe on a ship in a storm, or maybe just driving in a car in a bad storm. Have a fear for your well-being, whether you're going to survive, whether you're going to make it. And this was certainly the trial that Paul and others Went through it starts in verse 14 where it says but not long after there arose against it a tempestuous wind called the euro Clyde on and the this was apparently a notorious wind stream, the Euro in it, from the word for east, Europe is the land of the east, from the perspective of those to the west of it, and so the Euro-Clydon was this easterly wind, notoriously for bringing storms. And this is also difficult because they're traveling toward the West and they're met with a wind that is going against them and causing trouble for them. And so it says in verse 15, and when the ship was caught and could not bear up into the wind, we let her drive. And running under a certain island, which is called Clauda, we had much work to come by the boat. So they realized they're in trouble. And they tried to do whatever they can to shore up and make the ship more seaworthy in the light of the storm. It says in verse 17, which when they had taken up, they used helps undergirding the ship. One of the commentators I read said that this would include taking wires and cables and wrapping them around the ship to hold it together. So they were literally wrapping up the ship to try to hold it together. And then it says, in fearing lest they should fall into quicksands, strake sail and so were driven. And it says in verse 18, and we being exceedingly tossed with a tempest, the next day they lightened the ship. They attempted to just throw overboard whatever was on the ship, except that which was absolutely necessary to keep. And so things kind of go from bad to worse, it says in verse 19, and the third day we cast out with our own hands the tackling of the ship. 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. It's a literally hopeless situation. These men are basically saying we're not going to make it. We're doomed. We're going to die. The ship is going to end up being our grave. We're going to sink to the bottom of the Mediterranean. We will never see our families again. We will never see our children again. We are all going to die here. And who steps forward then to speak to these people on this occasion? Who was probably the only person in the ship, including Luke and Aristarchus, who wasn't huddled in a quivering mass in the fetal position somewhere in the ship? This man called Paul. This man called Paul. And then it says in verse 21, but after long abstinence, Paul stood forth in the midst of them. Notice that's a very common description in the book of Acts for someone preaching, someone standing up to talk about Christ. Someone stands forth and speaks. And he says, sirs, you should have hearkened unto me. I told you so. I told you. I prophesied this was going to happen. You didn't listen and not have loose from Crete and to have gained this harm and loss. And now I exhort you to be of good cheer." So oddly enough, in the midst of this terrible storm, in the midst of despair, he has a word of encouragement for them. And now he has a new prophecy. For there shall be no loss of any man's life among you, but of the ship. For there stood by me this night the angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve, saying, fear not, Paul, thou must be brought before Caesar, and lo, God hath given thee all them that sail with thee. Basically, what the angel said is, listen, this storm is not gonna thwart God's plan. You're gonna go to Rome. You're gonna stand before Caesar. And I mean, if we've been paying attention, we really shouldn't be surprised that this is gonna be the outcome. If you go back to chapter 23, verse 11, when Paul was first arrested, he was in Jerusalem. It says, in the night following, the Lord stood by him and said, be of good cheer, Paul, for as thou has testified of me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at Rome. He's gonna go to Rome. And no storm, no trial is going to stop that. It's going to waylay it. And I don't know, you know, I don't know what else Paul said. Certainly not everything is recorded. I would not. I mean, he's given some testimony to the God whose I am and whom I serve. And you've got to think there had to be some sailors thinking, who is your God? Who is this one you serve? How are you? How are you having this calm in the midst of the storm? Where does this come from? Surely there were some people who had those types of questions. We also find out here that I think Paul had been interceding for these men. He had been praying for them, not only for their physical lives, but also for their spiritual lives. And here the Lord, via his angel, tells Paul that his prayers for them have been granted. Even though, again, he predicts as well that the ship will be lost. Verse 26, how be it we must be cast upon a certain island. So two weeks now pass, and they've had two weeks of nothing but storms. You ever had a period in your life where it seems like for two solid weeks, all you've had are storms, trials, difficulties? And it says, verse 27, but when the 14th night was come, as we were driven up and down in Adria about midnight, the shipments deemed that they drew near to some country and sounded and found it 20 fathoms. How did they do that? They would put weights on the end of rope and they would drop it. That's the way they did it without sonar to measure the depth of the water. And it says that when they had gone a little further, they sounded again and found it only 15 fathoms. So the water's getting shallower, they're getting close to land, they think. Then, fearing less we should have fallen upon rocks, they cast four anchors out of the stern and wished for the day. So they realize they're drifting, they're getting towards something. Maybe it's going to be a rock. They try to cast anchor to try to keep them stable and wait till it's daylight so they can see is it land or is it rock? What is it? And then it says, verse 30, and as the shipmen were about to flee out of the ship, When they had let down the boat into the sea under color, as though they would have cast anchors out of the force ship, Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, except these abide in the ship, you cannot be saved. In other words, the sailors were about to abandon ship. They were about to get on a boat, a little dinghy themselves and get away and leave Paul and Julius and all the other passengers on the ship to fend for themselves. And Paul says, listen, if those guys get away, we're all going to die. And so it says then in verse 32, the soldiers cut off the ropes of the boat and let her fall off. They got rid of the dinghy and said, you sailors are staying on here. We're going down, you're going down with us. And then verse 33, and while the day was coming on, Paul besought them all to take meat, saying, this day is the 14th day that ye have tarried and continued fasting, having taken nothing. So feverish, so fearful were they, they had barely eaten in 14 days. Imagine how weak, bewildered you would be. Paul encourages them to eat and he says, verse 34, wherefore I pray you to take some meat for this is for your health, for there shall not an hair fall from the head of any of you. Think about Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount when he says that you shouldn't give a lot of thought and care to the worries of life. And he says, every hair on your head is numbered by the Lord. The Lord knows you intimately. And so he's telling these men, the Lord knows you intimately. Verse 35, when he had thus spoken, he took bread and gave thanks to God in the presence of them all. And when he had broken it, he began to eat. That's very intriguing because we have a tendency to see in that as a Christian interpreters, not just Paul ate some food so he would have his strength, but what else might be going on here? You think maybe he gathered Luke and Aristarchus and he said, you know, we need this physical food to keep us alive, but we need something else even more. We need spiritual sustenance. And can you imagine the passengers on this ship in the midst of this terrible storm and people are despairing? Can you imagine these people looking on as Paul and Luke and Aristarchus gather together and they take a piece of bread and they say, remember what Jesus said? This is my body which is broken for you. And then maybe they took the cup and said, This is the blood of the New Testament. This is poured out for you. And they took the bread and the cup, and they were nourished, not just physically, but spiritually. And then he says to all of them who are looking on, verse 36, or then it says, Luke reports, then were they all of good cheer, and they also took some meat. And we were in all in the ship 200, three score and 16 souls, 276 persons on that ship. Again, not a cruise liner, but a lot of people, a lot of people on board this ship. And it says, verse 38, when they had eaten enough, they lightened the ship and cast out the wheat into the sea. And when it was day, they knew not the land, but they discovered a certain creek with a shore into the which They were minded, if it were possible, to thrust the ship. And so daylight finally comes. Remember, the fathoms are getting closer and closer to the shoreline. They see a little inlet. They say, well, let's at least try to narrow. Let's see if we can run the ship in there. We can get off onto the land. And then it says, verse 40, when they had taken up the anchors, they committed themselves under the sea and loosed the rudder bands and hoisted up the mainsail to the wind and made towards shore. And falling into a place where two seas meet, they ran the ship aground. And the fore part struck fast and remained unmovable, but the hinder part was broken with the violence of the waves. And the soldier's counsel was to kill the prisoners, lest any of them should swim out and escape. Let me pause right here because this is another challenge, right? Is Paul going to make it to Rome? How many challenges have we seen to this? There could be a shipwreck. He could die in the shipwreck. The sailors could have gotten away and the ship could have wandered on its own. The soldiers could have killed all the prisoners so none of them could escape. But at every point along the way, somehow, by some means, God providentially intervenes. And so here, that centurion, Julius, with whom Paul had had an amicable relationship, it says, but the centurion, willing to save Paul, kept them from their purpose and commanded that they which could swim should cast themselves first into the sea and get to land. Do you notice how all through this account, there's always been somebody there to help save Paul's neck. Remember his nephew who warned about the men who had taken a vow to kill him? Remember the Roman soldiers who came and stopped him from being torn limb from limb in the temple? Here, God providentially uses Julius, a pagan, no doubt, Roman centurion to preserve the life of Paul. And now the ship is broken apart. Kids, this is kind of exciting. This could be a scene in a movie. And it says, the rest, some on boards and some on broken pieces of the ship. And so it came to pass that they escaped all safe to land. All 276 persons on that ship made it to land. And as we'll see in chapter 28, the island that they wash up on is called Malta. And kids, if you get a chance to read chapter 28, guess what happens to Paul after he gets off the island, after the shipwreck? He gets bitten by a snake. A poisonous snake is going to survive that, too, because God's purposes cannot be thwarted. Yes, there are snake bites in the New Testament. There are snake attacks. So interesting to read about. Well, we've looked through the chapter. Let me let me see if I can at least point to two spiritual lessons that we can find in this passage. And these are probably obvious and you probably draw these conclusions yourself already. But let me just let me just point to them anyway, as obvious as they may be. First of all, we see God's providential care for his saints in the trials of life. We see God's providential care for his saints in the trials of life. You may never be in a shipwreck. You may never be arrested and be sent to Rome, but you're going to go through some difficulties in life. And you're going to despair. And you're going to think, how can this be? Everything is lost. I might as well give up. And the message that comes through here is, follow the example of Paul. God is caring for you. And we don't always get the kind of deliverances we think are the things that ought to be done. You know, we're not God. God did not release Paul so that he wouldn't have to go to Rome, he wouldn't have to be in prison, but he did preserve his life. And he put people in his life, people who weren't even believers, like Julius the Centurion, to help preserve his life. So we see God's providential care for his saints. Secondly, we see the calmness of God's servant in the midst of the storm. Now, It doesn't always happen like this for believers. Sometimes even Christians can become frantic and discouraged and we can be overwrought and we can be emotional. I read a few years ago the biography of the Scottish theologian John Murray, who taught for years at Westminster Seminary in Philadelphia, a much respected godly man, wrote some wonderful things on theology, but Ian Murray, no relation to him, wrote a biography of him. And he shares at the end, toward the end of his life, interestingly, John Murray had never married. He ended up marrying one of his students very late in life, a big gap in their age. It was a blessing to him. But he went back to Scotland to live. And Ian Murray says at the end of his life that he got cancer. And he went through a period of real suffering. and pain. And even somebody who had a very strong faith, very strong faith, he went to a time where he was distressed and despairing. Just because you're a Christian doesn't mean you won't go through difficult times. There's a false teaching out there called the health and wealth prosperity gospel that teaches if you're a Christian, you're sort of made of Teflon, everything kind of bounces off of you and you become wealthy and you get the best parking places or whatever. That's a false gospel. That's not what happened to Paul. But Paul found this secret and by God's grace, he was able to have a supernatural peace in all circumstances, no matter what was going on around him. There's a book in the New Testament called Philippians. And Philippians was Paul's letter to the church at Philippi. And he probably wrote it from prison in Rome. He probably wrote it from prison in Rome. So this is after he got into Rome, after he'd been through the shipwreck and everything else, and this is what he writes to the believers at Philippi. This is from Philippians 4, verses 6 and 7. He says, be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known unto God. And the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. And then a few verses later, verse 11, he says, not that I speak in respect of want, for I have learned. In whatever state I am, therewith to be content. I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things, I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. Then he says, Philippians 4.13, I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. Whatever trials you have to go through or I have to go through, we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. Amen. Let me invite you to stand together.