Acts 27 Hope - an Anchor
Good morning! Please join me in turning to Acts 27, page 936 in the pew Bibles.
Today we are going to look at the Apostle Paul’s fourth shipwreck. You may remember that Paul had appealed to Caesar during his trial before the Roman Governor Festus and, was as his right, he was being sent to Rome to have his case heard by the Emperor himself. Chapter 27 details the rocky start to that journey.
We are going to be taking in a whole chapter again this morning but rest assured, there’s still only one point, maybe a point and a half.
Let’s pray
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. 2 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. 3 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. 4 And putting out to sea from there we sailed under the lee of Cyprus, because the winds were against us. 5 And when we had sailed across the open sea along the coast of Cilicia and Pamphylia, we came to Myra in Lycia. 6 There the centurion found a ship of Alexandria sailing for Italy and put us on board. 7 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. 8 Coasting along it with difficulty, we came to a place called Fair Havens, near which was the city of Lasea.
9 Since much time had passed, and the voyage was now dangerous because even the Fast was already over, Paul advised them, 10 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.” 11 But the centurion paid more attention to the pilot and to the owner of the ship than to what Paul said. 12 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.
When it was decided that it was time to send Paul to Rome, to Italy, was at the end of the sailing season. The fast mentioned in verse nine was the fast associated with the Day of Atonement, or Yom Kippur. This is typically late September or early October. Less than an ideal time to go sailing across the Mediterranean Sea. In fact, the fast usually marked the end of the sailing season, but for whatever reason the centurion and the majority of his cohort decided to press on and try to make it to Phoenix for the winter.
If that doesn’t sound so bad to you, to sail from Caesarea to spend the winter in Phoenix, Arizona, I have some globes in my office that Forest built that I’d like to acquaint you with!
Paul spoke up and warned the centurion that it was a bad idea to keep going 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 of course the centurion didn’t listen to him and he and the sailors, by majority vote, decided to sail on.
13 Now when the south wind blew gently, supposing that they had obtained their purpose, they weighed anchor and sailed along Crete, close to the shore. 14 But soon a tempestuous wind, called the northeaster, struck down from the land. 15 And when the ship was caught and could not face the wind, we gave way to it and were driven along. 16 Running under the lee of a small island called Cauda, we managed with difficulty to secure the ship’s boat. 17 After hoisting it up, they used supports to undergird the ship. Then, fearing that they would run aground on the Syrtis, they lowered the gear, and thus they were driven along. 18 Since we were violently storm-tossed, they began the next day to jettison the cargo. 19 And on the third day they threw the ship’s tackle overboard with their own hands. 20 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.
In verse 14 the term, “tempestuous wind,” is the Greek root word of our English word, “typhoon.” I mention this so that in your mind you don’t just have an easy picture of it being a little windy.
There was little that they could do, with great effort they pulled up the life raft. After that they undergirded the ship with chains to hold it together. They lowered the sails and gave up the idea of being able to control their direction and were driven along by the strong winds. Eventually they started to lighten the ship by throwing some of the cargo overboard, and eventually the ship’s tackle, ropes and pulleys and gear.
20 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.
There is an important word used there in verse 20, hope. “All hope of our being saved was at last abandoned.”
It’s not hard to imagine that things are looking pretty bleak. These ships couldn’t navigate without being able to see the sun by day or stars at night. And once they passed by the island of Cauda there was nothing but open water for a long ways.
Most of the passengers had no reason to hope, no reason to expect anything but eventually being lost at sea. But Paul was a different story.
Acts 23:11 records the Lord standing by Paul in the night and saying, “Take courage, for as you have testified to the facts about me in Jerusalem, so you must also testify in Rome.”
Paul wasn’t in Rome yet, and the Lord promised that he would testify there. Paul knew he wasn’t done yet, that he wasn’t going to die on the way.
21 Since they had been without food for a long time, 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. 22 Yet now I urge you to take heart, for there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship. 23 For this very night there stood before me an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I worship, 24 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.’ 25 So take heart, men, for I have faith in God that it will be exactly as I have been told. 26 But we must run aground on some island.”
This was not an, “I told you so,” from Paul even though he did tell them so and he reminded them of that. But what he was really doing was giving them a reason to believe what he was telling them now, “take heart, you’re not going to die here. The ship will go down but not you.”
The Lord, through an angel, reminded Paul of what Jesus had said, that he would testify in Rome, that he would stand before Caesar, and that everybody on the ship would survive though they had to run aground on some island.
The God to whom I belong and who I worship promised to bring us safely to land. All of us. It wasn’t without loss or pain but they did make it.
27 When the fourteenth night had come, as we were being driven across the Adriatic Sea, about midnight the sailors suspected that they were nearing land. 28 So they took a sounding and found twenty fathoms. A little farther on they took a sounding again and found fifteen fathoms. 29 And fearing that we might run on the rocks, they let down four anchors from the stern and prayed for day to come. 30 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, 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 ship’s boat and let it go.
33 As day was about to dawn, Paul urged them all to take some food, saying, “Today is the fourteenth day that you have continued in suspense and without food, having taken nothing. 34 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.” 35 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. 36 Then they all were encouraged and ate some food themselves. 37 (We were in all 276 persons in the ship.) 38 And when they had eaten enough, they lightened the ship, throwing out the wheat into the sea.
This ship sailed out of Alexandria in Egypt. Egypt was the main supplier of wheat for the Roman Empire and what the ship was carrying was food for the winter for the people of Rome. The wheat was the last to go.
The wheat may have gone but did you notice what came back? Hope.
After two weeks of being driven westward by a typhoon, at Paul’s urging they all ate to regain their strength. What good is strength if you are convinced that you’re going to die anyway? What had returned was hope.
What is hope? What it isn’t, is a wish, and these often get confused in our vernacular.
“I hope it doesn’t rain today…” or, “I hope that check comes in the mail…” that is not hope; that is a wish.
Hope is more concrete, hope is a confident expectation. It has a great deal more to do with trust than a wish does.
Just like Paul did, we can have a confident expectation that Jesus will do as He said He would do.
We can have confident expectation that His work on the cross was enough to purchase our salvation, that by faith in Him our sins are forgiven, that He is preparing a place for us and will come back again so that we can be where He is for eternity.
We can have confident expectation that He will serve as our mediator between us and the Father as it says in 1 Timothy 2:5, Hebrews 9:15 and 12:24, that He stands in the gap between a sinful people and a righteous God so when the Father looks at us He doesn’t see our sin but sees Christ’s righteousness covering us like a blanket.
Because Christ is our hope we have hope beyond this life, that whatever happens to us, even if it costs us our life, there is something better waiting for us in God’s eternal kingdom because we trust Jesus.
Christ is our hope, not only because our past sins are forgiven, but by faith in Him we are saved from the wrath to come.
Christ is our hope, so no matter what happens to us in this life, whether we perceive it as good or bad, is done for God’s glory and our good, and all according to the unwavering plan of Almighty God!
What a wonderful hope we have in Christ, there is hope in no other!
39 Now when it was day, they did not recognize the land, but they noticed a bay with a beach, on which they planned if possible to run the ship ashore. 40 So they cast off the anchors and left them in the sea, at the same time loosening the ropes that tied the rudders. Then hoisting the foresail to the wind they made for the beach. 41 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. 42 The soldiers’ plan was to kill the prisoners, lest any should swim away and escape. 43 But the centurion, wishing to save Paul, kept them from carrying out their plan. He ordered those who could swim to jump overboard first and make for the land, 44 and the rest on planks or on pieces of the ship. And so it was that all were brought safely to land.
Paul’s confident expectation was that the Lord Jesus would be true to His Word, that none of the crew and none of the passengers would be lost. That his life would be preserved so that he could testify to the gospel in Rome.
Paul’s hope was an anchor for his spirit in times of great trial. He was confident that the Lord would do as He said He would do and Paul got to see his hope fulfilled.
Romans 5:1-5 says, Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
And now, May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.
Amen.
