Acts 27:13-38

Acts 27:13-38

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In the Tempest

13 When the south wind blew softly, supposing that they had obtained their desire, putting out to sea, they sailed close by Crete. 14 But not long after, a tempestuous head wind arose, called Euroclydon. 15 So when the ship was caught, and could not head into the wind, we let her drive. 16 And running under the shelter of an island called Clauda, we secured the skiff with difficulty. 17 When they had taken it on board, they used cables to undergird the ship; and fearing lest they should run aground on the Syrtis Sands, they struck sail and so were driven. 18 And because we were exceedingly tempest-tossed, the next day they lightened the ship. 19 On the third day we threw the ship’s tackle overboard with our own hands. 20 Now when neither sun nor stars appeared for many days, and no small tempest beat on us, all hope that we would be saved was finally given up.

21 But after long abstinence from food, then Paul stood in the midst of them and said, “Men, you should have listened to me, and not have sailed from Crete and incurred this disaster and loss. 22 And now I urge you to take heart, for there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship. 23 For there stood by me this night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve, 24 saying, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul; you must be brought before Caesar; and indeed God has granted you all those who sail with you.’ 25 Therefore take heart, men, for I believe God that it will be just as it was told me. 26 However, we must run aground on a certain island.”

27 Now when the fourteenth night had come, as we were driven up and down in the Adriatic Sea, about midnight the sailors sensed that they were drawing near some land. 28 And they took soundings and found it to be twenty fathoms; and when they had gone a little farther, they took soundings again and found it to be fifteen fathoms. 29 Then, fearing lest we should run aground on the rocks, they dropped four anchors from the stern, and prayed for day to come. 30 And as the sailors were seeking to escape from the ship, when they had let down the skiff into the sea, under pretense of putting out anchors from the prow, 31 Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, “Unless these men stay in the ship, you cannot be saved.” 32 Then the soldiers cut away the ropes of the skiff and let it fall off.

33 And as day was about to dawn, Paul implored them all to take food, saying, “Today is the fourteenth day you have waited and continued without food, and eaten nothing. 34 Therefore I urge you to take nourishment, for this is for your survival, since not a hair will fall from the head of any of you.” 35 And when he had said these things, he took bread and gave thanks to God in the presence of them all; and when he had broken it he began to eat. 36 Then they were all encouraged, and also took food themselves. 37 And in all we were two hundred and seventy-six persons on the ship. 38 So when they had eaten enough, they lightened the ship and threw out the wheat into the sea.

The New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982), Ac 27:13-38

• Transcript

  Okay, let's make sure that we are live. Everywhere. I'm going to send out the text message. By the way, if you would like to receive the text message, feel free to just shoot me an email Bryan at Sharon RPC dot O R G, and you could get the text message each morning. I know a few of you. Appreciate that. Let me just make sure everything is going live here. Check our audio levels. I've been at fault for that before. So let me see. Okay, it looks like we are good to go. Well, good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Welcome to Coffee and devotions is where every day you and I, we get together, have a little bit coffee. We get into the Lord's word and we grow in our love for the Lord together. And this year 2022. We'll make it all the way from x to five Lehman. I'm so glad to have you this morning. When we have some coffee. We'll pray and we'll get into the Lord's word. Let's pray. Oh, Father, we thank you so much for this day. We thank you for the blessing it is to be able to be in your Word. To know you to love you and we pray that you would indeed assure our hearts that you are the one who is sovereign, working all things out for our good and your glory in Jesus's name, Amen. Find my glasses here and we'll jump into Acts chapter 27. Verses 13 through 20. Acts chapter 27 verses 13 through 28. Here we go. When the south wind blew softly supposing that they had obtained their desire putting out to sea they sailed close by Crete. But not long after a tempestuous headwind arose called Euro slight, slight and that's a hard word to pronounce. And when the ship was caught, and could not head into the wind, we let her drive and running under the shelter of an island called Clodagh. We secured the skiff with difficulty when they had taken it on board. They use cables to undergird this ship. And fearing less they should run aground on Cyprus sands. They struck sail and so we're driven and because we were exceedingly tempest tossed, and next day, the light and and sorry, the next day they lightened the ship. On the third day, they threw the ship's tackle overboard with our own hands.

  Now, when neither son nor stars appeared for many days, and no small Tempest beat on us, all hope that we would be saved was finally given up. But after long abstinence from food, Then Paul stood in the midst of them and said, Men, you should have listened to me and not have sailed from Crete and incurred this disaster and loss. And now I urge you to take heart, for there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship. For there stood by me this night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve, saying, Do not be afraid, Paul, you must be brought before Caesar. And indeed God has granted you all those who sail with you therefore take heart men, for I believe, God, that it will be just as it was told to me. However, we must run aground on a certain Island. Now when the 14th night had come, as we were driven up and down the sea of Adria about midnight, the sailors since that we were drawing near some land, and they took sounding and found it to be 20 fathoms. And when they had gone a little further, they took soundings again and found it to be 15 fathoms. Then fearing less we should run aground on the rocks. They dropped four anchors from the stern, and prayed for day to come. And as the sailors were seeking to escape from the ship, when they had let down the skiff into the sea, under pretense of putting out anchors from the prow, 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 skiff and let it fall off. And as they was about to dawn, Paul implored them all to take food saying, today is the 14th day you have waited and continued without food and eaten nothing. Therefore I urge you to take nourishment for this is for your survival, since not a hair will fall from the head of any of you. And when he had said these things, he took bread and gave things to God in the presence of the mall. And when he had broken it, he began to eat. Then they were all encouraged, and also took food for themselves. And in all, we were 276 persons on the ship. Now when they had eaten enough, they lightened the ship and threw out the wheat into the sea. Quite a remarkable part of the story. We need to kind of explore some of this a little bit together. I hope that you'll forgive me for nerding out a little bit with you when it comes to nautical stuff. I get a little bit excited. But these things are really, really interesting what's going on here. So remember, Paul had tried to tell them as they were at the harbor safe havens, Hey, we should just winter here, but they really wanted to get around the, around Crete to the port of Phoenix, which was only a four or a six mile journey or so to harbor at Cape. They need to go around keep Matala but so they there's a soft south winds I think okay, yeah, we can do this right. They set up for sale. But immediately the words here is there's a typhoon. There's typhoon, when and there's this weird name that it gives here. Here is part Greek heart part Latin name smashed together. It's a North Eastern wind. And this is this is I remember being in the Mediterranean Sea when there were strong winds and the waves can get huge. And I also remember being in a typhoon when we were off the coast or in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of India. And it was incredible how high the waves can get and so here as they're being driven by this typhoon wind as they're being driven away there, they've they've lost all control of the ship. At one point it says that they are off the coast of Florida, which is 23 miles away. It's the wind is crazy blowing them they're so worried about it that they're worried that they're going to get stuck on the sands on the near Tripoli by the sea of Libya. Right right. On the coast of Libya. They're they're freaking out they're really scared here. And so they're throwing their tackle overboard after three days. They're lightening the ship any impersonal things or personal items that they have. They're they're throwing it over

  and this is a desperate situation. They're not eating anything. They're, they're abstaining from food because they're so worried about what's going on. And after a whole bunch of days, 14 days without seeing the sun or the stars that means they have no navigational aids. They consider them lost at sea. They don't know what to do they're they're trying to strengthen the ship. They bring the the skiff on board the skiff is like the small boat you would tie to the to the stern of the of the main ship. And you would use this when you were setting when you put out to anchor and you were going from the boat off to the land or you would use it to pilot the ship. So the so somebody in the skiff could go ahead and take soundings and make sure that when the ship was coming into port that they wouldn't run aground and stuff like this. It could be used as a lifeboat but not typically, but they actually bring that small boat on the deck of this Alexandrian green ship and they're freaking out. What is the text tell us now when neither sun or moon or sorry when neither sun nor stars appeared for many days and no small Tempus beat on us all hope that we would be saved was finally given up. There they they don't have any hope left. And then Paul stands up in the midst of the dome and he says, Do not be afraid. This is what the angel told him. You must be brought before Caesar and indeed God has granted you all those who sail with you. Right so this angel from God tells him you're gonna go before Caesar, you've got to go before the Emperor. So you're not going to die and no one on the ship is going to die. Only this ship is going to be broken up. So he tries to encourage them. Now I love what he says. Luke doesn't paint Paul as a perfect person. But he paints Paul as a real pastor. He's not above something. I was a little bit annoyed by Paul actually it I can imagine the sailors be really annoyed with Paul, you know, he's not beyond you. A little I told you so I told you you shouldn't have set sail from Route. Well, you know, that's not very helpful right now. What is helpful is a word of God that He has for him. Don't expect your pastor to be perfect. He might say things that annoy you. This is one of those things that can imagine a whole bunch of sailors even Luke possibly getting a little bit annoyed by Paul with this. But he says after 14 days at Tom they had been driven up and down the sea of Adria some of yours might say the Adriatic Sea. That's That's right between what's the old Yugoslavia and Italy. You could get up to Crete that way. I remember being in the Adriatic Sea when we went to Croatia, and there's, this is a real small area. This is not where they are. They're actually in what we would call now the Ionian scene just north of the are part of North of the Mediterranean Sea, south of Italy, because they're going to run ashore at Malta, which is south of Italy, south and a little bit to the west. And so they're there they're still in the open sea. But as they are getting closer and closer to land, the sailors can feel it. They can somehow sense it. Now, if you've been out to sea for a long time, you're able to smell the air. The smell in the air starts to change. And you might actually see a difference in the types of birds that you see. Even the change in the color of the water happens. It's it's it's real interesting thing if you go out to sea for long enough, you're, you're you know, when you're in the middle of the sea, and you're able to tell when I think we're a little bit closer to the land. It's this weird feeling. There's just these little changes that happen in your sense perceptions, even the error changes just a little bit. So anyways, as they're out to see they tell they're coming back they take a sounding they take these these cords with LED at the end and at these times at that time that soundings were these these shots of LED and they had holes put in them and they would fill them with with oil and sticky substances. They put it in there and drop it down to the bottom of the ocean or bottom of the sea. And as it if it hit the bottom of the of the ground. You know they would bring up the sounding and they would look at they they'd be able to tell how much of the cord was wet and then they knew it hit bottom if any of that oily substance had sand or grit or, or dirt on it right so they were able to tell how deep they were. And the first rounding they take it's 20 fathoms about about 120 feet. And then next one after they go a little bit while longer. They take another sounding and it's 90 feet until they know okay, it's getting close to the shore. And this is

  where the sailors do something. So it's ours right there. They go to the front of the ship, they go to the bow and they they're acting like they're gonna put out some more anchors. They've already dropped four anchors by this point. They're gonna they're just going to act like they're dropping a few more anchors, but what they're really doing is getting the skiff getting this little trailing boat ready so they could they could get out of there. Now we might think well hold on Paul just told them that they're going to be saved or what they might not believe Paul to if you've ever been to the ocean, or been to a sea where there are rocks it is a scary thing. Right? If you go to Hawaii or if you go to the Pacific Ocean, if you go to different places in the Mediterranean, and you're anywhere near where there's rocks and cliffs and the waves beat against the rocks. That is a place where you could die is not a safe place to be. Just because you might see rocks that does not equal safety. Rocks and shoals can equal death to sailors. And so they're thinking maybe we can just get away from the boat. We can sense we're getting close to the land. Paul tells Julius the centurion and the soldiers. Hey, hold on. Right we need them. To get us to the short, too short. And so this time the Centurion actually listens on me runs over and the soldiers cut the ropes, right? No, no, you're not going to take that. And so so they, they do this and then the last thing in this passage that we come to, as Paul tells them hey, look, guys, guys. This is just a pastor speaking note meaning not a hair on your head is going to be hurt. This is a classic Jewish statement right now the hair on your head is going to fall off you're gonna be okay. But you haven't eaten for 14 days. For two weeks you have any new need to eat. And so what does Paul do? Right? He he doesn't do what some people write in here. Well, look, he's doing the Lord's Supper. I don't think he's doing the Lord's Supper here. Right. The Lord's Supper is based just off the Jewish thankfulness in meals. And I think this is a classic example of a Jewish Christian pastor giving thanks. So he gives things to God. He breaks bread, which is the primary thing you would eat notice there's no no mention of wine or, or anything like that. There's no community building. None of the things we would expect from Paul when he's doing the Lord's Supper. He just thinks the Lord for food. He doesn't hide his faith. He breaks the bread. He sits down and he eats. And the other people that are encouraged by this, right, yeah, you're right. Okay, we need our strength and so other people eat and after they eat, they take the grain. They know that this is the last meal they're going to eat aboard the ship and they need to be light because they're going to be running aground. So they take all the wheat and they start casting it into the sea. This is again how we know that this is a Alexandrian ship that's bringing grain from Egypt up to Rome. Well, what's the best verse and all of this? Well in my Bible, I have verse 20, underline that they had finally given up any hope of being saved. And then I also have verses 24 through 26, underlined in my Bible of the message that Paul gives them about him having to testify to Caesar. Well, let's get to some application. What are we called to do in response to these words? Well, this is a beautiful thing that we have that Paul writes about him being shipwrecked. He knows that he has suffered these things for Christ. He knows he's going through these trials because he's going to testify about Jesus Christ. He knows that all things are working together for his good and for God's glory. He's he's giving a testimony to these pagan sailors he's with that he serves the God who controls the oceans and controls all time. And he's going to serve him and he's going to follow after Him. Do you I know you're not an apostle. But do you believe that all things in your life are working together? For your good and for God's glory? Do you know that every single thing in our lives is sovereignly controlled by God? That he providentially handles all things for His own glory? Even being shipwrecked at sea even when people don't listen to us, even when pagans ignore us? Can we know with certainty that Christ's love is always upon us. I hope you do in your life. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for this day. We thank you for your love for us. We thank you for your care for us.

  Lord, we pray that we would trust in you both in the great and good times. As well as when times are going wrong. And people don't seem to want to listen to us. We thank You, Lord. That even there you are working in loving in Jesus's name, Amen. Well, may the Lord bless you today. May you walk in the joy and peace of Jesus Christ. I'll see you tomorrow. Bye

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