Acts 27:1-12

All right, well, good morning, good morning, good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. This is where every day you and I, we get together. We get into God's word and we grow in our love for the Lord together. And this year, 2022, we'll make it all the way from Acts to Philemon. We're almost done with the book of Acts, actually. We're at Acts chapter 27 today. Why don't we have some coffee, we'll pray, and we'll get into the Lord's word together. Let's pray.
Father, we thank you so much for your Word. We thank you that you have given us a book full of different genres. that we can hold to and we can believe. We thank you so much for how you worked in Luke's life to give us this history of the acts of the apostles. We pray now that as we read these that we would see the struggle that real people had and that we could identify with them and that we could learn and be built up in our faith. In Jesus' name, Amen. All right, here we go, Acts chapter 27, and we're gonna read the first 12 verses together. So Acts chapter 27, the first 12 verses.
And when it was decided that we should sail to Italy, remember Paul had appealed to Caesar, and so because he had appealed to Caesar, Festus says, you've appealed to Caesar, so to Caesar you will go. They delivered Paul and some prisoners to one named Julius, a centurion of the Augustinian regiment.
So entering a ship of Adramitium, that's a hard word, it's a big one, we put out to sea. meaning to set sail along the coast of Asia. Aristarchus, a Macedonian of Thessalonica, was with us, and the next day we landed at Sidon. And Julius treated Paul kindly and gave him liberty to go to his friends and receive care.
When we had put to sea from there we sailed out under the shelter of Cyprus, because the winds were contrary. And when we had sailed over the sea, which is off Cilicia and Pamphylia, we came to Myra, a city of Lycia. There the Centurion found an Alexandrian ship sailing to Italy, and put us on board. When we had sailed, slowly, many days, we arrived with difficulty off Snidus. The wind not permitting us to proceed, we sailed under the shelter of Crete, off Solomon.
Passing it with difficulty, we came to a place called Fair Havens, near the city of Lycia. Now when much time had been spent and sailing was now dangerous because the fast was already over, Paul advised them, saying, Men, I perceive that this voyage will end with disaster and much loss, not only for the cargo and ship, but also for our own lives. Nevertheless, the centurion was more persuaded by the helmsman and the owner of the ship than by the things spoken by Paul. And because the harbor was not suitable to winter in, the majority advised to set sail from there also, if by any means they could reach Phoenix, a harbor of Crete, opening towards the southwest and northwest, and winter there."
Well, we need to kind of go through this and ask, A, what is this about? B, what's the best verse to summarize this? And C, what are we called to do in response to these words? Now, this passage isn't a passage where there's tons of theological truth. But this is a beautiful passage showing the historicity of the scriptures. We can set times. based on what's going on here, and we can understand the culture that Paul was living in, and that the Holy Spirit was moving the gospel through because of a passage like this. And so, what's going on here?
Well, first what's going on is that he's going to go to Italy. And it gives us his travel route. So he's there in Caesarea Maritima and they set sail from there and they go to Crete. And as they're going along the south of Crete, they head up, they shoot up north back to what's now modern day Turkey on the southern part of it. And they go past Cilicia and Pamphylia. Paul already has been on that specific route before, if we remember the earlier part of Acts. And then they stop and so entering a ship of Adramitium, we put out to sea, meaning to set sail along the coast of Asia. And so they land at Sidon and there Julius finds the ship.
Now Julius treats Paul well. Most likely, so Julius is a Roman name. He most likely got that name when he became a Roman citizen. And so this is most likely a Roman citizen being nice to another Roman citizen. So the centurion is still sending him with guards, but he's allowed to go see his friends. Remember, Paul's been here before. He knows people there. And so as they're there, he's able to receive care from his friends. And so this is one of these instances where this Roman citizen is being nice to another Roman citizen.
And they end up boarding a ship. When they get to Myra, they board a ship. And it's an Alexandrian ship of sailing. Now this is an important piece of history. Alexandria is at the mouth of the Nile River where the Nile Delta opens up to the Mediterranean Sea. And there, Egypt was like the breadbasket of the ancient world. And so Rome would import vast amounts of wheat and grain and barley from Egypt to Rome. And so there's no commercial ships. There's no cruise ships at this time or anything like that. And so this is the only way to travel. And so this is the ship that Paul boards.
That's gonna come important in the next paragraph. And so they begin their trip And it's slow, it is slow going, arrived with much difficulty. And they're going on the bottom side, or on the side of Crete, and it's just hard sailing. And so they finally get to a place called Fair Havens near the city of Lacey. And they spent much time there and sailing's become dangerous because the fast is over. Now this is Yom Kippur.
This is the fast that he's talking about. And why this is interesting is because if the, depending on which calendar you're at, we're talking about most likely right around October 5th. Well we know from Roman writers that from the end of October to the beginning of November you didn't sail across the Mediterranean Sea. This was rough sailing weather and so you didn't want to sail at this time.
And this is exactly the time where they're finding themselves. Now I remember when one time I was coming back from a deployment and we went through the Suez Canal and it was November 1st. And as we entered the Mediterranean Sea, I mean the Arabian Sea was really nice and the Gulf of Suez was really nice, but as soon as we got into the Mediterranean Sea, I mean, the water was really bad. It was dark, it was choppy, the waves were high, and I was shocked how much colder it was in the Mediterranean than it had been on the other side of the Suez Canal.
And so this was a time in which you didn't want to actually sail, but Why would they still want to do it? See, the next part says, Paul advises them and he says, I perceive that this isn't going to go well. Now, this is not prophetic, but this is just Paul speaking as an experienced traveler saying, hey, this ain't going to go well for us or for our lives. But the centurion is persuaded by the helmsman and by the owner of the ship and the majority saying, no we should keep going, we should try to get to Phoenix instead. Well, during the Emperor Claudius' day and Nero's reign, the emperors were so worried about the different riots and things like that that come up from people not having food in Rome, that they would actually pay these ships from Alexandria even more money if they would venture a dangerous trip and get there as soon as possible. Not only would they pay them a premium for the grain, but they would even cover their losses. And so there's real incentive for the ship owners to keep going.
So don't listen to Paul, but we're going to put a dot dot dot at the end of this and pick up the story tomorrow. Well, what's the best verse to summarize this? Well, I think maybe verse 10 and verse 11 would be what I would what I would underline in my Bible. Would you underline something else? Feel free to let me know. What are we called to do in response to this?
Well, I don't think there's anything in this passage that's groundbreaking to our faith. Other than what I think is helpful to pick up from here is the Holy Spirit really is in charge. God is moving by his providence. And we have a true historical record. Sometimes we come to the Bible and we want to think about these great theological truths and stuff like that. But here this passage is meant to give us the reality of the historicity of the scriptures.
That Paul is going from place to place to place. That he's on a real ship We even have the name of the centurion that's guarding him, Julius. And we have the real port cities, and we have all these other details that we're able to look at and go, yep, that lines up with what the Greek writer said. Yep, that lines up with what the Greek writer said.
And we're able to know that these words are true. So have your heart assured that we're not just reading fables, but these are real things. An orderly account to Theophilus. that we might know with certainty the things that we have been instructed in.
Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for this day, and we thank you for the blessing it is to know that your word is true. Father, please watch over us this day in Jesus's name. Amen. May the Lord bless you today. May you walk in the joy and peace of Jesus Christ. And I'll see you tomorrow. Bye.
Thanks for listening to this week's message from God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in rural southeast Iowa. We pray that the message would be used by God to transform your faith and your life this week. If you'd like to get more information about us, feel free to go to the website, SharonRPC.org. We'd love to invite you to worship with us. Our worship time is 10 a.m. every Sunday at 25204 160th Avenue. Morning Sun, Iowa, 52640. May God richly bless you this week.