Cut the Lifeboat - Pastor Tom Loghry
Paul’s journey to Rome lands in turbulent seas, which lead the crew of his ship to toss all equipment and goods overboard. They trusted his word that life would be preserved; will we hold fast, trusting God at his word?
Transcript:
When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days and the storm continued raging, we finally gave up all hope of being saved. After they had gone a long time without food, Paul stood up before them and said: "Men, you should have taken my advice not to sail from Crete; then you would, then you would have spared yourselves this damage and loss. But now I urge you to keep up your courage, because not one of you will be lost; only the ship will be destroyed. Last night, an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I, I serve stood beside me and said, 'Do not be afraid, Paul. You must stand trial before Caesar; and God has graciously given you the lives of all who sail with you.' So keep up your courage, men, for I have faith in God that it will happen just as he told me. Nevertheless, we must run aground on some island." Acts 27:20-26.
Let us pray as we come before God's word. Dear Father, we pray that as we hear the testimony of Paul's journey to Rome across the sea, that you would minister to us by his example.
That by the work of the Holy Spirit, you would create in us the same sort of faith that we see on display in him. We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. You may be seated.
With temperatures rising, we are entering into the season of amusement parks. Most of us have been to one at some time or another in our life, and some of us are bigger fans of them than, than others. I have to say for myself that I'm not really the biggest fan of riding on roller coasters, though I do enjoy some water rides. Perhaps some of you enjoy floating on the lazy river, that tranquil ride on a tube that just coasts along a man-made waterway at a leisurely pace. The water is shallow and usually warm, and apart from possibly some sprays of water, there's nothing that would disturb your peace too greatly.
Other rides, however, have us on the edge of our seats, thrilling us with seeming danger. Perhaps some of you have taken a ride on the swinging pirate ship, a ride like the one pictured behind me. My wife hates this ride. I've always liked the concept of the ride, I like the idea of getting on a ship, and it's kind of like a pirate, you know, being in the middle of a storm. But it can be a stomach-turning experience. When the ride is swinging at its greatest height, you might be attempted to abandon ship, to get off the thing. But as with any of these thrilling rides, that would be the most dangerous thing that you could do. Because while the ride might scare you more than you could have anticipated, in the moment, the safest thing that you can do is to be still, to hold fast. Because you know that those who have designed the ride have ensured that it's safe enough to welcome you and all others to ride on it. The best thing that you can do is to take them at their word, that it's gonna be all right. The worst thing that you could do would be to try to take matters into your own hands.
Now, outside of the amusement park, we of course face dangers that have not been contrived by human design to merely offer you a thrilling ride. We encounter real risk, the greatest risk of all being death. We encounter dangers that are beyond our control. And this raises the question of what will we do in such circumstances? It raises the question of who or what we will trust, when in the midst of such calamity, we hear the Word of God telling us to be still and to trust in Him. The Apostle Paul and his companions find themselves in just this kind of situation as he is being transported from Caesarea to Rome to stand trial before Caesar. And we're going to pick up the narrative now here in Acts 27, and it's worth noting that Luke, the author of Acts, includes himself in this journey as he refers to Paul and his party as we. So picking up in verse one of chapter 27, we read, "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. We boarded a ship from Adramyttium about to sail for ports along the coast of the province of Asia, and we put out to sea. Aristarchus, a Macedonian from Thessalonica, was with us. The next day we landed at Sidon; and Julius, in kindness to Paul, allowed him to go to his friends so that they might provide for his needs.
From there, we put out to sea again and passed the lee of Cyprus because the winds were against us. When we had sailed across the open sea off the coast of Cilicia and Pamphylia, we landed at Myra in Lycia. There the centurion found an Alexandrian ship sailing for Italy and put us on board. We made slow headway for many days and had difficulty arriving off Cnidus. When the wind did not allow us to hold our course, we sailed to the lee of Crete, opposite Salmone. We moved along the coast with difficulty and came to a place called Fair Havens near the town of Lasea."
So Paul is sailing to Italy. He's on a trip to Italy as a prisoner because he appealed to Caesar concerning his case. And you'll recall that the reason why he's imprisoned in the first place is because the Jews have made accusations against Paul that he's causing trouble. He's a troublemaker. He's part of this, this Nazarene sect. Of course, the Roman authorities, as they've assessed Paul, have said this is just a religious matter among the Jews, 'cause Paul's a Jew himself, was brought up as a Pharisee. But because the Roman governors were trying to pay favors to the Jewish authorities, Paul was compelled to appeal to Caesar. And in fact, this was God's purpose all along, that he would be taken to Italy to stand before Caesar himself The journey, though, to Caesar is no small feat. It includes much danger, and it's danger that becomes realized as Paul proceeds.
He's entrusted into the care of Julius, who is a, a centurion, says that he's part of the Imperial Regiment. Perhaps he was a member of the Praetorian Guard, so very upper echelon military officer. And as they proceed, Paul, and apparently along with Luke, another of their companions joins them named Aristarchus. You'll recall that he appeared in Ephesus. It seems that this is the same Aristarchus, because when there was controversy there with Paul, Aristarchus was one of the ones that got dragged into the theater there in Ephesus before a very enraged mob. And so you have Paul, some of his companions, you've got other prisoners, soldiers, and they're gaining passage to Italy on apparently merchant ships. They're catching a ride. While he's in Sidon, Julius allows Paul to see some of his friends. And so we can see that Julius seemed to have some affection towards Paul, perhaps. He's kind enough to let him see his friends so that they can help take care of his needs.
Now, if you're trying to envision what this journey would have looked like, he's starting from Caesarea down here in Israel. He jumps up to Sidon, and they're working their way up around here because they're trying to get to Italy, to Rome. Now, when they're in Myra, they get on a new ship, and this is a merchant ship that is going from Alexandria to Italy, and it's carrying grain. And this makes a whole lot of sense because Egypt was basically the breadbasket of the empire.
And if you're wondering maybe what this ship would have looked like, it more than likely was a ship known as the Corbida. It would range in its size, but these types of ships could carry up to 400 passengers and could carry up to 1300 tons of, of cargo. So, kind of the mules of the empire bringing goods back and forth.
Now they experienced some slow headway as, as they went along, and these ships in particular could be vulnerable to winds that were not going in their favor because there's just those kind of perpendicular sails, and so it was very difficult to sail into the wind. And so if you had winds that were going over 17 miles an hour, you were gonna have a tough time having things going your way.
As they're coming nearby to Fair Havens, they begin to reckon that things are going against them. They need to make a decision as to whether they're going to cease their journey or they're going to continue forward. So we continue on in verse nine. It says, "Much time had been lost, and sailing had already become dangerous because by now it was after the Day of Atonement. So Paul warned them, 'Men, I can see that our voyage is going to be disastrous and bring great loss to ship and cargo, and to our own lives also.' But the centurion, instead of listening to what Paul said, followed the advice of the pilot and of the owner of the ship. Since the harbor was unsuitable to winter in, the majority decided that we should sail on, hoping to reach Phoenix and winter there. This was a harbor in Crete, facing both southwest and northwest.
When a gentle south wind began to blow, they saw their opportunity; so they weighed anchor and sailed along the shore of Crete. Before very long, a wind of hurricane force, called the Northeaster, swept down from the island. The ship was caught by the storm and could not head into the wind; so we gave way to it and were driven along.
As we passed to the lee of a small, a small island called Cauda, we were hardly able to make the lifeboat secure, so the men hoisted it aboard. Then they passed ropes under the ship itself to hold it together. Because they were afraid they would run aground on the sandbars of Syrtis, they lowered the sea anchor and let the ship be driven along. We took such a violent battering from the storm that the next day they began to throw the cargo overboard. On the third day, they threw the ship's tackle overboard with their own hands."
So we see in verses nine through 12 that Paul has concerns about this trip moving forward, and the reason is, is because they're approaching winter. The, the Day of Atonement occurred around September and October, and so heading into winter, the seas became much more rough and therefore very dangerous. And so he says, "If we're gonna keep going like this, we're gonna lose the cargo, the ship, even our own lives." But the centurion's not listening. Instead, he decides, "I'm gonna listen to the pilot and to the owner of the ship." Of course, they probably have a real interest in trying to to keep going because, again, they're carrying merchandise with them. They have a financial interest in all of this.
Now, they couldn't stay in Fair Havens. The harbor wasn't suitable for that, and so they're aiming to go to Phoenix. And you'll see that's, so they're in Crete. They're right there in Crete, and they just have to go a bit more here just to go to Phoenix. And they'll say, "We'll, we'll go there." And in, in verses 13 through 15, we see that gentle winds appear and they think, "Aha, this is our moment to go." And so they set out, but when they set out, all of a sudden things change very quickly. Instead they have a, a nor'easter that appears with hurricane force winds, and it drives them off course so that it's estimated that they ultimately end up out here. That's how powerful the winds are. Just completely blows them off course And so as they're being beaten about by this storm, verse 16 through 19, we see that they have to secure the lifeboat.
They're even having to try to hold the ship together with, with rope. They're tossing cargo overboard to try to lighten the ship. The third day, they're even tossing off the tackle, which you need the tackle in order to be able to control the ship and, and do all the things. But there's no hope of controlling the ship, so they're just trying to do anything to stay afloat. And the storm is not relenting, it continues to beat them.
We find Paul here in the middle of a story that almost seems to echo the story of, of Jonah, and yet it's the mirror opposite of it. Jonah was caught in a storm because he was running away from God's call, his call to go and speak to the people of Nineveh. Paul finds himself in this storm because it's part of God's plan to bring him to Rome. Even so, the situation is just as terrifying.
Continuing on in verse 20. It says, "When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days and the storm continued raging, we finally gave up all hope of being saved. After they had gone a long time without food, Paul stood up before them and said, 'Men, you should have taken my advice not to sail from Crete; then you would have been, then you would have spared yourselves this damage and loss. But now I urge you to keep up your courage, because not one of you will be lost; only the ship will be destroyed. Last night, an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood beside me and said, "Do not be afraid, Paul. You must stand trial before Caesar, and God is graciously giving you the lives of all who sail with you." So keep up your courage, men, for I have faith in God that it will happen just as he told me. Nevertheless, we must run aground on some island.'
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 that they were going to lower some anchors from the bow. Then Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, 'Unless these men stay with the ship, you cannot be saved.' So the soldiers cut the ropes that held the lifeboat and let it drift 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 two hundred seventy-six of us on board. When they had eaten as much as they wanted, they lightened the ship by throwing the grain into the sea."
So in verses 20 through 22, we see already they've gone a long time without food, and who could blame them? I mean, you're in this storm getting tossed about. Who wants to eat under those conditions? And as Paul later says, they were just in utter suspense. They were expecting to basically be killed at any single moment. And it's kind of funny, you know, Paul basically tells them, "I told you so. I told you so. You shouldn't have gone out and we, we, we shouldn't have proceeded." But he's not saying this in order to just pile on here. Obviously, the situation's terrible. He, he speaks up because he wants to give them good news of God's mercy towards them.
His message is, "Keep courage. We're only gonna lose the ship." Now, I'm sure the owner probably wasn't happy about the idea of losing the ship. But between losing the ship or keeping your life, you definitely wanna keep your life. And Paul says specifically the reason why he's so confident about this is because the Lord sent an angel to him. Says, "Last night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood beside me and said, 'Do not be afraid, Paul. You must stand trial before Caesar; and God has graciously given you the lives of all who sail with you.'" And so it's from that basic assurance that God's got this purpose for Paul. Now, I guess we could have imagined that only Paul might have survived a shipwreck. But God in His mercy is saying, "No, in fact, I'm gonna deliver all of you." And we can imagine how this is going to be a sign of the truth of the, of Paul's faith. It's gonna be a sign of the truth of the gospel, the God that he believes in. It's gonna be a sign of the truth of who Jesus Christ is.
Now, Paul himself has to have faith in this moment. It's a very grim situation. They've been out, out at sea for days. They can't see the stars in the sky even, by which they would navigate. It seems like a hopeless situation, but he has faith because God has brought him this far and he knows that God is going to bring him to Rome. And so he's inviting others around him to share in that faith, even under great duress.
And, and this is a reminder to us. I think sometimes we hold back from trying to invite people to have faith in God in the hard times. Sometimes we do. We say, you know, when someone's going through a hard time, "Have faith in God." But then other times we back off, I think, because it's like, "Well, that's really tough." It's easy to ask someone to believe in God when things are going your way, when there's all kinds of blessings around and you can see how things are lining up. But when it gets tough, that's actually when we most need faith in God. And when we're in the trenches with someone, as Paul is here, he's in the trenches with them.
It's not like he's removed from the situation, sending the message, "Oh, just have faith." No, he he's gotta have faith, too. That's the greatest opportunity for us to invite others to share in our faith as we're alongside them
So in verses 27 through 29, we see they, they drop anchors. They're be- being driven towards shallow water. Things aren't looking good, you know, that they're gonna get crashed on the, the rocks. It says that they're praying for daylight. Now, we don't need to necessarily imagine that all of them were praying to the, the God of Paul. These are pagans on the boat. They're, probably they're praying to anybody they can think of probably in order to be saved. In verses 30 through 32, we see that some of the Roman soldiers aren't so confident in Paul's promise. As, as these anchors are being lowered, they go to the front of the bow and say, "Oh, yeah, we're lowering some anchors here." And actually what they're planning on doing is they wanna lower the lifeboat so that they can get off ship and try to save themselves. Now, Paul gets wise to what they're doing and he confronts them, them and the centurion. He says, "Unless these men stay with the ship, you cannot be saved." You cannot be saved.
Now, you might expect these soldiers would just kind of wave off Paul and just say, "That might be good for you, but it's not good for us. We're getting in the boat." But instead they actually listen to him. They listen to this man who is their prisoner. They take him at his word, they trust that he is in fact a man of God, and they believe the message that God has given to him. And so their trust is so radical that they don't merely not get in the lifeboat, they actually cut loose the lifeboat, and they let it go into the sea. They're trusting in Paul's God.
Now in verses 33 through 38, we see how their increasing faith is being revealed in a meal. At this point, they've, they have, they've gone 14 days without eating, and Paul goes to them and says, "Listen, you gotta eat. You gotta eat in order to survive." And he offers them another assurance. He's saying, he says in, in verse 34, "Not one of you will lose a single hair from his head. So take, eat, fill your stomachs. Get the sustenance that you need." And again, Paul leads by example here. He breaks bread. He takes and eats. He gives thanks to God in this moment for the food that's been given to him. And if you're ever looking for a proof text of, you know, praying before we have a meal, that's what Paul does here. He, he gives thanks for what God has given him. He gives thanks to God. Him giving thanks to God in this moment is another demonstration of his trust in, in Him in this moment.
It brings back to us the imagery of, of Jesus breaking bread and giving thanks when he fed the 4,000 and the 5,000. Even gives us, kind of, it, it recalls the meal of communion, of the Lord's Supper. Now, that's not what's going on here. They're not sharing in the Lord's Supper. But it's bringing all this imagery back to mind as, as Paul is leading these men to have faith in God. Now, there's 276 of them on the boat, so it wasn't a small boat. There was a lot of guys there. And after they eat, they toss the grain over.
So they've been throwing everything, but they've been saving the grain for last, and we can imagine why. It was probably the main reason why they were taking this journey, as far as the merchant was concerned. It was to bring the grain to Rome. But they toss it overboard. So the merchant mission does not remain, but God's mission remains in place
Now, as we see this example of faith here, we're, we're not only inspired by Paul's faith, but by the faith of all those that were with him. A Gentile ship with Gentile passengers, people that didn't have any background in the Jewish religion. A Roman centurion and his soldiers trusting God at His word as it had been received by Paul, that he would stand before Caesar and that all would survive.
They would lose everything, but they would gain their lives. It brings to mind the words of Jesus in Matthew 16:25 when He says, "Whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it." Bit by bit, the cargo and the equipment of the ship was being tossed overboard.
They had relied upon these things, the power of money and commerce, their sailing skill and tackle, until the storm revealed that these things could not save them. But there was still the lifeboat. That one thing they might hope could save them at the end of the day. Yet God calls them to cut it loose, to look to Him alone as their savior.
They were very much tempted to save themselves by their own means, but instead they trusted in God for their deliverance. They took God at His word. Now, when we think about ourselves, we haven't received some specific personal word necessarily from an angel for our personal circumstances, but the word of God continues to speak today into each one of our situations.
In Psalm 46:10, the Lord tells us, "Be still and know that I am God." In Proverbs 3, verses 5 through 6, we are told, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight." In Romans 8:28, God's word tells us, "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."
In Hebrews 13, verses 5 through 7, it says, "Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, 'Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.' So we say with confidence, the Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?" And in John 11, verses 25 through 26, the word made flesh, Jesus tells us, "I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?"
Yes, you are in the middle of a storm. Yes, it is terrifying. Yes, you're out of control. Yes, no one on earth can save you. But yes, you should hold fast because the one through whom all things were made is with us, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Word of God, is with us and assures us of all these good promises which belong to us in him. He will save us. We know He can because He Himself died. He went to a cross, was laid in a tomb, and rose again from the dead three days later. He has gone before us. He has been in the trenches with us.
So throw off the weight of sin and anything else that you might otherwise look to as savior. Cut the lifeboat, let it crash into the sea. In Christ, we have the only salvation that can be found in the storm.
Now we stop short in this story. I leave you with a bit of a, a cliffhanger. Because I think that is really our current situation. We are awaiting Christ's return, the appearance of our salvation. Here we have an example of faith in a salvation that is not yet seen. So too do we wait, and by God's grace, let us hold fast with the same faith, looking with hope to Jesus our Savior.
Let us pray.
Father, we thank you that you are in control. Father, we thank you that you are good and merciful.
We thank you, Father, that in the midst of the storm, in the midst of everything going sideways, we can trust in your good plan and purpose because we have your word. We have your word, Father, as it has been given to us in the scriptures, your promises of salvation and deliverance. And Father, in the course of our life, as, as Paul is going to see here, your Word will come to pass, and we see your promises come to pass here and now, and we know that it will come to pass ultimately when Christ returns, when the dead are raised and the storm has ended because you have brought the peace that we seek.
So even now, Father, we pray in the midst of turmoil, we pray that you would help us to have faith like Paul, to have the faith that these men had on this ship, that we would trust you at your word, and that we wouldn't put our trust in other things that are just going to fail us. Father, we thank you for the sure hope that we have in Jesus Christ.
We give you praise in the name of our Savior. Amen. Amen.
Hey there, Pastor Tom here. I hope you enjoyed this sermon I offered to Rockland Community Church. Rockland Community Church is located at 212 Rockland Road in North Scituate, Rhode Island, just around the bend from the Scituate Public High School. We invite you to join us in person or virtually this Sunday as we worship God and hear the preaching of his word. It's our joy to welcome you into our community
Intro/Outro Song
Title: River Meditation
Artist: Jason Shaw
Source:http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Jason_Shaw/Audionautix_Acoustic/RIVER_MEDITATION___________2-58
License:(CC BY 3.0 US)