The sermon 'Teaching Straits on the Way to Rome' by Scott Brown explores the biblical narrative from Acts 27, detailing Paul's perilous voyage to Rome as a prisoner. The journey is marked by numerous challenges, including contrary winds, a violent storm, and the eventual shipwreck on Malta. Despite these adversities, Paul remains a figure of faith and leadership, offering guidance to the ship's crew and passengers. His warnings are initially disregarded, but his faith in God's promises and the appearance of an angel reassures him and those around him that they will survive, although the ship will be lost. The sermon emphasizes the sovereignty of God, illustrating that divine purposes often involve trials and challenges. It highlights the importance of trust in God's plan, the role of divine intervention, and the value of steadfast faith in overcoming life's adversities. The narrative serves as a reminder that God's will is not always synonymous with ease, but is ultimately for His glory and our growth.

When it was decided that we would sail for Italy, they proceeded to deliver Paul and some other prisoners to a centurion of the Augustan cohort named Julius. And embarking in an Adramidian ship, which was about to sail to the regions along the coast of Asia, we put out to sea accompanied by Aristarchus, a Macedonian of Thessalonica. The next day we put in at Sidon, and Julius treated Paul with consideration and allowed him to go to his friends and receive care. From there we put out to sea and sailed under the shelter of Cyprus because the winds were contrary. When we had sailed through the sea Along the coast of Cilicia and Pamphylia, we landed at Myra in Lycia.

There the centurion found an Alexandrian ship sailing for Italy, and he put us aboard it. When we had sailed slowly, for a good many days, and with difficulty had arrived off of Nidus, since the wind did not permit us to go farther, we sailed under the shelter of Crete, off of Salmon. And with difficulty sailing past it, we came to a place called Fairhavens, near which was the city of Lacey. When considerable time had passed and the voyage was now dangerous, since even the fast was already over, Paul began to admonish them and said to them, men, I perceive that the voyage will certainly be with damage and great loss, not only of the cargo and the ship, but also of our lives. But the centurion was more persuaded by the pilot and the captain of the ship than by what was being said by Paul.

Because the harbor was not suitable for wintering, the majority reached a decision to put out to sea from there, if somehow they could reach Phoenix, a harbor of Crete, facing southwest and northwest, and spend the winter there. When a moderate south wind came up, supposing that they had attained their purpose, they weighed anchor and began sailing along Crete, close in shore. But before very long there rushed down from the land a violent wind called Yurokwilo, and when the ship was caught in it and could not face the wind, we gave way to it and let ourselves be driven along. Running under the shelter of a small island called Clota, we were scarcely able to get the ship's boat under control. After they had hoisted it up, they used supporting cables in undergirding the ship, and fearing that they might run aground on the shallows of Cyretus, they let down the sea anchor, and in this way let themselves be driven along.

The next day, as we were being violently storm-tossed, they began to jettison the cargo, and on the third day they threw the ship's tackle overboard with their own hands. Since neither sun nor stars appeared for many days, and no small storm was assailing us, from then on all hope of our being saved was gradually abandoned. When they had gone a long time without food, then Paul stood up in their midst and said, Men, you ought to have followed my advice, and not to have set sail from Crete and incurred this damage and loss. Yet now I urge you to keep up your courage, for there will be no loss of life among you but only of the ship. For this very night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood before me, saying, Do not be afraid, Paul, you must stand before Caesar, and behold, God has granted you all those who are sailing with you.

Therefore keep up your courage, men, for I believe, God, that it will turn out exactly as I have been told. But we must run aground on a certain island. But when the fourteenth night came, as we were being driven from the Adriatic Sea, about midnight, the sailors began to surmise that they were approaching some land. They took soundings and found it to be 20 fathoms, and a little farther on they took another sounding and found it to be 15 fathoms. Fearing that we might run aground somewhere on the rocks, they cast four anchors from the stern and wished for daybreak.

But as the sailors were trying to escape from the ship and had let down the ship's boat into the sea on the pretense of intending to lay out anchors from the bow, Paul said to the centurion and to the soldiers, unless these men remain in the ship, you yourselves cannot be saved. Then the soldiers cut away the ropes of the ship's boat and let it fall away. Until the day was about to dawn, Paul was encouraging them all to take some food, saying, Today is the fourteenth day that you have been constantly watching and going without eating, having taken nothing. Therefore, I encourage you to take some food, for this is your preservation, for not a hair from the head of any of you will perish." Having said this, he took bread and gave thanks to God in the presence of all, and he broke it and began to eat. All of them were encouraged, and they themselves also took food.

All of us in the ship were two hundred and seventy-six persons. When they had eaten enough, they began to lighten the ship by throwing out the wheat into the sea. When day came, they could not recognize the land, but they did observe a bay with a beach, and they resolved to drive the ship onto it if they could. And Casting off the anchors, they left them in the sea, while at the same time they were loosening the ropes of the rudders and hoisting the force sail to the wind. They were heading for the beach.

But striking a reef where two seas met, they ran the vessel aground and the prow struck fast and remained immovable, but the stern began to be broken up by the force of the waves. The soldiers' plan was to kill the prisoners so that none of them would swim away and escape, But the centurion, wanting to bring Paul safely through, kept them from their intention, and commanded that those who could swim should jump overboard first and get to land, and the rest should follow, some on planks and others on various things from the ship. And so it happened that they all were brought safely to land. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we are grateful for this chapter in Acts.

You've given us the book of Acts because you love us. Lord, we would just pray that we would have the faith of Paul and that the turning of hearts like these men on the ship would glorify you. Lord, we lift up Scott today and We pray for him as he walks up here and delivers this message on this chapter. Lord, we pray that the Holy Spirit just speaks through him and blesses each one of us in this room and glorifies you in our acts as we go forth this week. In Jesus' name, amen.

Well, Acts 27 that's just been read here is a recording of Paul's last voyage. He has sailed enough to have shipwrecked three times. He knows the sea and it is it is here that we find one of the most exciting seafaring stories in all of the Bible. It ends in a shipwreck in Malta and it contains nautical details that sailors have studied and verified that all these things make sense based on what they know about the region. It's a fascinating passage of scripture.

Like all of us, Paul is on a journey. He's on a journey to Rome, intermittently. God is actually taking him to heaven and there's a lot that happens between the time that we pick him up here in this story and the time he takes him to heaven. It is God who is taking Paul to Rome. He's being taken there by other people.

It's not that Paul doesn't want to go to Rome. He can't wait to get to Rome. In Romans chapter 15, we learn that he hopes, he urges, he longs to be there. He prays. He is eager to be in Rome so that he may be refreshed together with the believers in Rome.

He does desire to be there, but he is being taken there as a prisoner. Paul knew that he would not get a fair trial in Jerusalem, so sometime earlier he said, I appeal to Caesar, and to Caesar he is going. And this voyage is all part of this mix of desire, God's sovereign hand, and his great plan to bring the gospel to Rome. Paul's journey is a fulfillment of prophecy. In Acts chapter 9 verse 15 we see that this journey is the Lord's will, and that's important to make a point of because we often think that the Lord's will means a smooth sailing.

Not true. This is a prophetic fulfillment that includes many, as John Newton said, dangers, toils, and snares. And we often think that when God is taking us from point A to point B that things will be smooth if it is God's will but we learn here from this chapter and from almost every other chapter in the book of Acts that this simply is not true. We must grow up. We must quit thinking that God's will is a smooth ride.

It won't ever be that way and it never has been that way. And there are God-ordained problems with weather, with people, with supply, and God supplies them all for his own glory. Now in this chapter we meet some fascinating people as we always do in the book of Acts. We meet a centurion, another centurion, who is praised for his great deeds. His name is Julius.

We meet Aristarchus again. Remember Aristarchus has a rich history with the Apostle Paul. He was with Paul in the riot in Ephesus, where they were tearing the place apart, where they were screaming and chanting in the theater there. And Aristarchus was with Paul taking the offering to Jerusalem. We don't know what happened to Aristarchus.

Maybe he was also with Paul incarcerated in Caesarea as Paul's been in jail for two years there in that town. We don't have any mention of him, but quite possibly he was there. Some say that Aristarchus made himself on paper Paul's slave so that he could be with him in prison because slaves were allowed to accompany prisoners in that time. We meet the crew members who are delighted to save their own skin to the harming of the rest of the people on the ship. We also meet an angel who literally stands beside the apostle Paul and speaks to him a word that he will communicate to the people.

We meet, we will go to Fair Havens, we'll go to Crete, we'll pass by Phoenix and Clodagh and finally We'll find ourselves on the shoals of raging waters, where the two seas meet. You can go there today in Malta. And it's the place where on February 10th every year on the island of Malta they celebrate the shipwreck of the Apostle Paul. We're dealing with real places in space and time. We're dealing with history.

We're not dealing with fanciful stories that have 50, 000 allegorical meanings. This is historical narrative of the mighty deeds of God at work on planet Earth. What we find are these violent and sudden winds rising up and so without food for 14 days they're at their wits end and they find themselves on shore. Well let's begin in the text. You have an outline before you.

I've broken this down into particular sections. In verses one through five, we pick up the narrative of the voyage to Rome beginning. And what we notice here are a number of things I'll just point out a few things in these first five verses first of all Paul is not in control in the very first verse we have language that indicates that Paul is not determining his own destiny, that it was being decided for him. He is operating within decisions that have been made completely apart from his own thinking. He is quote, being delivered, you can see that in the text by centurions Paul is not in control he is dependent upon those who have been appointed to take him to Rome he has no control over the destination He has no control over the destination.

He has no control over the means to the destination. He's not moving under his own power or under his own counsel. And also, one of the men in our Bible study on Tuesday pointed out, by the way, Rome is not in control either. Rome gets upstaged and embarrassed by the wind, taking them in a direction that makes their plan inefficient and dangerous and actually quite costly. And so Paul's will does not carry any weight.

He's making counsel to the men there, and they totally disregard his counsel. And so no matter what Paul says, it doesn't matter. No matter what Rome does, matters not. It does matter though what God is doing here and he is taking Paul out of his own control. So in the same way as we are here on these voyages, these journeys that God has put us upon, we are being taken to destinations through circumstances which are way beyond our own control.

We meet people, we have no control over meeting them, and we go places we have no control over the things that happen in the midst and all the variations that God builds into it. I just want to submit this one idea to us this morning. Every little boy, every little girl is on a voyage. You're in the ship of your Father. You're in the ship of your heavenly father.

Every man, every wife is on a voyage. God is determining the path. And I just hope that as we read this and go through it line by line that God would just thrill our hearts with His own sovereign hand. That He would show us that He is faithful. That he would reveal to us maybe in a new way how mighty and how good he is even in the midst of the of the terrible winds that might blow against us and the things that might happen in the midst of this voyage that we would never be a bitter people I pray that there would not be one little boy or one little girl in this room who would grow up to be bitter at The winds that are blowing at them throughout their entire lives and that their parents would also Rise up in praise to God for every stiff wind every shipwreck everything that's ever happened under the sovereign hand of God.

So Paul is not in control. That's the first observation here. Number two, you see the blessing of the church, of the friends in Sidon. You know Sidon. It's always mentioned with the name of another city in the context of God's judgment and the worldliness that gripped that region Tyre and Sidon they find themselves in Sidon and The church comes out they're called friends the friends come out and they minister to Paul you know how blessed it is to be in a strange place and then to have the friends of God to be your friend as well and God's people give Paul kind treatment there in Sidon and it for some reason he needed some kind of care perhaps there he had an affliction that was necessary for some kind of salve but They were nursing him to health for some kind of ill health.

I read that the wording that's used here indicates a communion and almost a kind of prayerfulness together. They were perhaps praying together with the believers there inside. Whenever you go to another city, find the friends of God, and as the Apostle Paul did. The third thing you see here in these first five verses is something that you might think is surprising here is a Roman centurion who is he is considerate to the Apostle Paul. His kindness, first of all, allowed Paul to go and see the friends and to meet with the church that was there in Sidon.

But Julius is treating Paul with consideration. And, you know, we could probably think of different reasons why but maybe here's one reason Paul is a man of integrity we've seen Paul in prison being broken out of prison We've seen him deal kindly and graciously with those who have captured him. And this is his reputation. He's a man of his word. If the apostle Paul tells you he's not going to run away, he's not going to run away.

And so they trust him. By the way at the end of the story Paul ends up being trusted by everyone and his councils are honored as they were not on the front end by all of the all the people involved. And then we meet Aristarchus and Luke we find the word that little word we that means Luke is here we we found Luke several chapters earlier and now Luke is Luke is with the group again and we have Aristarchus and we talked about him earlier and they're the brothers are there in engaging in this journey. The the last thing that we see in these first five verses is something that we're going to see throughout the entire chapter and it's something that we've all seen many times nature is not cooperating at all nature is running contrary to the intentions of the sailors and the passengers in verse 4 it says the winds were contrary in other words the prayers for good winds were not being answered because God is in control of the winds and the waves and he does whatever he wishes God does appoint journeys that include hard situations and difficult trials and just because something hard is happening doesn't mean that the Lord is not in it.

He ordains difficult windy often tumultuous journeys through this life and hardship often instead of proving the proving the irrelevancy of the journey it often proves the importance of it and you know we just live in a culture that says if something is too hard it must be wrong and if there are difficulties if they're roadblocks it must not be the Lord's will. Acts 27 just argues so mightily against that kind of thinking and God has not ordained that our journeys would be trouble-free. We must always say what the disciples said when they were in the midst of a great and raging sea. They said even the winds and the waves obey him. Well that's the first five verses.

Look at verses 6 through 8, and you see that they transfer to an Alexandrian ship, so they're changing modes of transportation, and the same thing happens. They're now again, in very short order, under contrary winds. And so this centurion managed the changing of the ships he hired out to another vessel. And the voyage immediately faces difficulty. And we read in verse seven, the wind did not permit.

Now often we find this in life. There are things that do not permit certain things that we have engaged, that we desire. And that's exactly what's happening here. The winds did not permit. They were forbidding.

We read in the book of Acts where the Holy Spirit actually had forbidden Paul to go to a certain region Even though he wanted to go there you look back and you see how God used it for his own glory And that's the same thing here, but divinely appointed difficulties are are are part of God's working and the winds are in the hands of God. I love the way that Spurgeon communicates this idea. He says there's not a spider hanging on the king's wall that doesn't have an errand. A leaf doesn't fall to the ground without God determining its exact placement. That there's not a nettle that grows in the corner of a churchyard that doesn't have its purpose.

There's not a single insect fluttering in the breeze that does not have some divine purpose associated with it. You know I am I am so grateful for this text today because it brings the sweet knowledge of a God who's in control over all things and knowing that is so helpful to the human soul. I think that if people believed in the doctrine of the sovereignty of God I think you could virtually wipe out modern the modern therapeutic industry today and you know I was speaking to a man in our church recently and he said that over the last year that has that he's been with us his prayers have changed from Lord deliver me from this problem to Lord help me to glorify you and if and if and do not remove the problem so that I would glorify you well the voyage faced difficulty and they had this time in Fair Havens, wrongly named. Sometimes cities are named wrong. It was neither fair nor was it a haven.

And a fair time was not had by anybody there. And Time was passing by. Everybody knew that the longer they waited, the worse the season would get and the more dangerous the voyage would be. They also knew that Fair Havens was not a great place to winter anyway. They needed to get that ship out of there.

They were exposed there. And so time was passing by. And Paul rises up and he speaks and he's disregarded I think that's interesting the you know Paul says that the ship and the cargo and the lives are going to be lost if they go ahead with this plan. It's a bad plan. Paul is advocating that they winter and not continue on the voyage based on his own knowledge of seafaring in that area and from his understanding of the situation He encourages them not to take the gamble, I'll use that word in a qualified way, obviously, but it was a turbulent time of the season.

And he knew that the weather at this time would be dangerous to the cargo and the passengers. Paul is, I don't believe Paul is making an authoritative prophecy here. I think Paul is just, he's just using wisdom, he's using experience as leaders need to do. Leaders of families, leaders of churches need to look out for dangers, see them out there and warn and say, hey, you see that out there? That's dangerous.

Look out for that. And that's what Paul is doing. He's just exercising godly wisdom in the midst of his leadership. And the guy's already been in three shipwrecks. And so considerable time has passed.

The late date is threatening the trip and Paul just knew that that this this time That's lapsing is going to make for a dangerous time now we we believe it was sometime after October 5th, AD 59 in the dangerous season for storms in this area. Paul gives advice and his advice is not taken. But you see something else here that we all should learn from. It's another principle of leadership and it's this. The centurion does the right thing.

He seeks a broad range of counsel. He's asking the owners, he's asking everybody advice. He's taking it all in and then he makes a decision. And that's what wise men should do. By counsel you wage your war.

And that's what we should do. We should seek the counsel of others and then it comes to us if God has placed us as a head of a household or whatever to make that decision based on the counsel that has been received. This was one of the great qualities of George Washington. I was reading last week, sort of in preparation for 4th of July, Peter Lilbach's book, Sacred Fire, which is about George Washington, where he goes to source documentation to determine whether George Washington was in fact a deist or not and he just absolutely explodes that idea on every page. But because it's full of quotations of things that people said about Washington, observations, his personal patterns.

He has a comment in the book about the ways that his officers viewed him. And Thomas Jefferson made this comment about George Washington. And it's the same pattern in George Washington that we see in the Centurion to seek wise counsel for everything. The common remark of his officers of the advantage he derived from the councils of war where hearing all suggestions he selected whatever was best and certainly no general ever planned his battles more judiciously. That was Washington's quality.

That was the centurion's quality. He was gathering up the best wisdom he could get, and then he made a decision. And it says in verse 12 that a majority reached a decision to put out to sea. The owner of the ship wanted to do it. They all decided that this was the right thing to do now was Paul panicking no I don't think Paul was panicking he was not the obsessive fearful shipmate you know he wasn't there wringing his hands over this whole thing he was bringing his counsel but I just believe from all that I know about the Apostle Paul that he understood what Solomon said when he said, have no fear of sudden disaster or of the ruin that overtakes the wicked, for the Lord shall be your confidence and he will keep your foot from being snared Paul was not panicking he was just operating under under godly wisdom okay so they leave Fair Havens because of all for all these reasons and they proceed ahead.

And then we see a calm and then a storm in verses 13 to 20. You see this amazing language that explains what often happens. You begin with such sunny expectations. Everything just seems to be so good. You say, didn't God provide such a wonderful day here for us?

Isn't it amazing? And then you give praise to God. That's exactly what was happening here. A moderate south wind came up. The word is used that indicates an under breathing.

It was a very pleasant, just right. You know what a day is like when it's just right. And this was one of those days. And it was a good sign. It was encouraging enough to give them motivation to set sail and then and then the weather changed your Aquila the typhoon this wind still blows today It's a very cold wind that blows down and creates typhoon-like conditions.

Typhoons happen in all the major seas of the world. They're called willy-nillies in Australia. They're called hurricanes in the Atlantic, and they're called typhoons in the Pacific. And so here is the uroquillo, it's just this different name for the same old thing, the gigantic wind whipped up. And now It says that they gave way and they just let themselves be driven on again.

Here they are out of control again. Rome, Rome's directions mean nothing. God has whipped up a wind, the uroquillo, to do its deed. And today the wind is called the Gregale. But it's just a notorious wind that sweeps through the Mediterranean Sea.

And it will happen again this winter, perhaps. They're being violently tossed. They've lost all reliable navigation methods. They can't see the stars. They have no idea where they are.

This is a huge problem with ancient navigators. They had no idea where they were at sea. They were using a technique called dead reckoning, and dead it was. They would leave their destination and throw over a log and count how long they departed from the log and what direction they were moving by the current and tried to determine their position at sea. It was madness, and That's why the sea captains found themselves so often on the rocks clinging to debris and mass of their ships, thinking that they were in New England when in fact they were in the Caribbean, just being blown wherever the winds might take them having absolutely no idea where they are Well, that's what was happening here.

They could not see the stars and they could not know where they were So they start throwing valuable items overboard They're lightning the ship The things which were so dear are not dear anymore. Which, by the way, this is one of the reasons I believe God brings calamity. So we start throwing away some of the things that were near and dear to us that we've been clinging onto for so long. Often God brings a calamity so we would flip over the side some things that we have been clinging to for maybe a little bit too long and so their all hope of being saved was gradually abandoned. Can you imagine that?

On this ship, hope is lost. Nobody, Nobody thinks there's any way out of this. And so they begin to collaborate and they throw out anchors. They're afraid that they're going to drift over a region called the Certus, which was another graveyard of the Mediterranean. You've heard our own coastline called the Graveyard of the Atlantic, where hundreds and hundreds of ships were founded there, and a whole life-saving industry was created as a result of all the people that were lost at sea right off our coast.

There's some fascinating stories. Every time we go to the beach, I bring, I bring a book with me called The Graveyard of the Atlantic, and I try to read a couple of the stories because they're, you know, men clinging, clinging to the rigging, you know, for three and four days and then falling off from hunger. This is the kind of thing these men were facing. And they'd lost all hope. And they were just drifting, praying they would not drift 200 to 300, 400 miles to the Surtis, this other graveyard.

And God though, of course, is seeing all of this. He's created all of it. And He provides hope in an unexpected way. He sends an angel. When all hope is lost, God sends an angel.

God rescues his people in many ways. He sends his word. He sends his spirit to comfort. He sends a brother or a sister. In this case, he sends an angel.

And it's a marvelous testimony. So then we read this narrative, this testimony, of the help from the angel in verses 21 through verse 26. Paul stands, an angel appears to Paul, stands right next to him, and then Paul goes into a prominent place in the ship and stands up and Tells everybody the story he says an angel appeared to me and he's standing if you can just picture this in your mind's eye There I mean the storm is raging No one has any hope And Paul is having to speak loud over the raging winds and the crashing of the breakers. And he's telling them this story of what had happened. So Paul speaks, takes his prominent place, and the first thing he says is really interesting.

He says, you should have followed my advice at the beginning. I told you this would happen, and now it's happening. You know, was Paul boasting? I don't know, But he was definitely communicating historical points. And he admonishes them.

You know, imagine the admonition. Here we are in this nice, quiet, air-conditioned place, and we were thinking about how Paul was communicating this. But I mean, it's pandemonium. And Paul is going to tell these people, he's going to encourage them. He's going to exhort them.

So I think he's speaking loudly. I think he is really powered up here. And he is urging them with all the might of his soul to believe the words that he is going to say. And he says that an angel appeared and stood by him and gave him a message. And then Paul delivers the message.

I mean, this is a great opportunity just to talk about the ministry of angels God sends angels to minister to those who love him and even to those who don't love him. He dispatches them. You know, people have funny ideas about angels, but the Bible is really very clear about them. You know, we don't pray to angels. Angels are created, they are regular beings.

We don't worship them. We don't revere them. They are dispatched by God. You know, if you know anything about Roman Catholic theology, they put angels on a totally inappropriate plane regarding what Scripture teaches. But angels are beings created by God, who are faithful to God, and they are sent out to provide help and to execute the will of Christ.

In the Bible they're called dominions, they're called thrones, they're called principalities and powers. There are evil angels and there are gods sent angels and you know we were in Hebrews last year where we read do not forget to entertain strangers for thereby some had entertained angels unaware and now Paul knew that this was an angel now this was not an angel unaware this was an angel quite aware and you know I'm sure as Paul was was with this angel he was thinking of David who said you know he shall give his angels charge over you he will guard your ways on on their hands they will bear you up lest you dash your foot against a stone." That was exactly the same message these angels had for Paul, was the message that David communicated so long ago. You know, the angels appear in different places. I would love to spend the whole rest of our time just talking about angels, and I'm so tempted to do it. But God sends his angels.

He often, he has in scripture appeared as an angel, that's one category. Then there are angels who remain in God's presence before his throne and then there are angels who are dispatched to minister to mankind and This last week my son David and Taylor Santles and I were reading John Calvin's Institutes and we were we just happened to be in his section on angels. Wow that it was such a powerful powerful time to read this stuff. Calvin says, they surround their prince in his court, adorn and display his majesty like soldiers. They have their eyes always turned to their leader's standard and are so ready and prompt to execute his orders that the moment he gives the nod they do his work.

Wow! It was so exciting to read a biblical theology of angels this last week. You know, knowing that God has multitudes of angels at his disposal to protect us and to guide us and render help to us, does it make sense for a moment for us to be afraid? Does it make sense for us to obsess about our enemies or the problems that are about us? Does it make sense at all for us to wring our hands knowing that there is divine assistance?

That if an angel is needed, He will send it. Do you remember when Abraham was looking for a Spouse for his son Isaac. What did God do? He sent an angel if you need an angel God will send it if you need it on a ship in your journey If you need it in the finding even of a spouse for your son or your daughter. God is able.

God is sovereign. And He will, if He needs to, if He desires, will dispatch an angel from His throne of grace to bring you help in time of need. Would it not be better to be like Elisha who looked out and he saw the angelic host and he realized that there were more of them than there were of the enemies and that would be such a great help to us if we in our own hearts would be reminded of the great and mighty help of God toward his people You know the Bible says that that his angels that that the angels of children Behold the face of their father in heaven I don't really know everything about what that means but there is something about children and angels that is important for us to take note of. Well the angel says do not be afraid. Hey isn't that that's what usually angels say.

Don't be afraid when an angel shows up I'll just bet you he's gonna say do not be afraid. Well hopefully that's what he'll say. But that's what he said here. And Paul is boldly proclaiming the goodness and the presence of God in the midst of his passengers in this ship. He's standing there.

I think he's just letting it go, proclaiming the greatness of God and that an angel has appeared to him. And he says some of the tenderest things. He says, for this very night, an angel of God to whom I belong, just just stop there for a minute, The God to whom I belong. Just let that soak in for a minute. You know, in the raging wind of this life, You would not want to pass by those words right there.

Did the passengers miss those words? I hope they didn't miss those words. I hope it was as inspiring to them as it can be to us here this morning. The God to whom I belong. Now, Paul said, you belong to Christ and Christ belongs to God He said to the Galatians if you belong to Christ you are Abraham's descendants and heirs according to the promise.

So we come across this very precious, helpful thought of who we belong to. And so if you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ you belong to God he owns you he you are his possession God always takes good care of his possessions He is going to crown all of his possessions with glory. He is going to take all of his possessions to heaven. He does take good care of all of his possessions. And so Paul says, I belong to God.

And he says that he also serves God. He says, the God to whom I belong and the God whom I serve. And Paul is just proclaiming the goodness and the beauty of a life dedicated to God, that he would serve God in whatever circumstances he would find himself in. Paul indicates that he is a servant of God and that these circumstances are just a theater of the service toward God, whatever those circumstances might be. So then we go to an intensifying situation in verses 27 to 32.

The sailors plan to abandon the ship. This is amazing that it's in this story. But the authorities are still operating. They're being driven out. They're out of control.

And they're taking soundings. And then within the hearts of the crew members is a wicked plan. They're out to save their own skin and they're going to try to sneak away from the ship and let it sink with everybody else in it. These men are not godly men. They are not protecting women and children.

They are not there to provide assistance to those who are in the calamity. They are there for themselves. And so they tell everybody on the ship that they're gonna go and anchor the bow of the ship and they say we're gonna we're gonna drop the little boat We're gonna go out and we're gonna anchor the ship. They were lying they they actually were gonna take off as soon as that boat hit the water And so somehow the lie was detected and and Paul says if you leave everybody's everybody's life will be lost and so the soldiers the centurions took their swords you know it's often helpful to have a sword with you at a time like this and they cut the ropes and off with the ship and the plot was foiled and you know the flesh leads men to to abandonment and causes desperate measures for survival. And we know the love of Christ was not in these men because they were trying to save their own skin.

And we could talk a while about a man's view of human life and what he does in the midst of the trials that come. But then we see Paul doing something that is unusual. He encourages all the passengers to take food in verses 33 to 37. They've been without food for 14 days and so he encourages them to take food. Now this is not a communion service that they're having here.

This is eating. They've not eaten for a long time and Paul gives thanks and blesses and gives thanks to God. He offers a prayer of thanksgiving. Now, hey, this is one of the places that people go to in answer to the question, Why do you always pray before a meal? Now there are a number of places in scripture, but this is one of them.

There's no command, thou shalt bow your head and thank God for your food every time you eat. There's no command of scripture like that. But There are godly men who have set the pattern. That's why we do it. That's why there's so many people who just, they feel guilty if they don't give thanks for their food because there's a biblical pattern that's guiding them.

And here Paul is giving thanks for his food and we see scripture in scripture people doing this Even though there's no command in scripture in John chapter 6 Jesus takes the loaves on the hill and he gives thanks And then he distributes the food Paul said in Romans 14 he who eats gives thanks They're just they're people who give thanks before they eat in Scripture. And so there's indication that we should, so that's why we do it. So if any of you children want to know why you bow your head and thanks it's because godly men who've gone before you did it and so that's why we do it so we should just keep on doing it and and be like the Apostle Paul of course Paul said in everything give thanks but we should also bow and truly give thanks to God for our food. We're not blessing the food, we're blessing God who gave the food and for his kindness to us in delivering it to us. So the ship is lightened in verses 38 through 41.

They ate, they received strength, They were able to do the next thing in the in this journey, which is swimming That's what they needed to do and It was it was a it was a providential Help that they would have food so that they could now swim through these raging waters. And then we notice that all were saved, verses 42 to 44. And the plan to kill the prisoners was aborted. This was their strategy and because of the Apostle Paul they did not kill the prisoners. A godly man was the reason for the saving of the life of many other prisoners and it's it's it's really an amazing story here but not one was lost maybe that's why in February 10th in Malta every year they celebrate the shipwreck of the Apostle Paul it was one of those shipwrecks where everyone was saved it's amazing all when you Just when you think all hope is gone, God has another plan.

He is going to do His will. He will glorify His name. The sun will come out again. He will do his will on the earth. Okay, I've got several applications here.

The first one is this. Notice the value of the presence of a trustful believer. Now in our case it's Paul. Paul is a trustful believer on a voyage in which there's tremendous calamity. You know, some of you are sailing in a sailing ship called Your Company.

And what a value it is to have a true believer on the voyage who has wisdom who understands authority Paul understood Paul didn't try to bring a mutiny you know because he he wanted to do something different he knew it was the right thing to do. He was a trustful believer who understood authority, he understood his place, he understood the mighty hand of God, and he was not afraid to say something when God put it in his mind. And he did it, And he did it with all the grace of the Lord Jesus. So Paul is trusted by the centurions and Paul is there. He understands the word of the Lord Jesus.

Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Paul is at peace in the midst of all these trials. He's the most clear-headed guy on the boat because of his faith in God. And, you know, Paul was serving God. He says, this is the God whom I serve. And he said, for I have faith in God that it will happen just as he told me.

Paul was a trustful member of the crew. He belonged to God. He believed God was his provider. He believed that God was his shield. He believed that God was his buckler.

He believed that God was his stronghold and his fortress. Now, Why is this important? Here's one reason it's important. There are times when believers in working in their businesses or in their churches, they are the most fearful, untrustful people in there. And I just want to throw out a challenge if you are in your work life and you are fearful and you are worried about all the things that might happen take this as an example that God has placed before you Be a trustful member of this of this community that God has placed you in.

Often believers are the most fretful and fearful people in the company and that's not right And that's not the pattern that's being played for us here by the Apostle Paul. Secondly, like Paul, God has given us a voice to speak up at critical times. Like Paul, God has given us a voice to speak wisdom into the situations that God has given us and we should speak up we should speak our mind as Paul did John stop pointed out that Paul made three specific calls during this chapter He called them to keep up their courage, that was one thing. He was bringing a message from God, keep up your courage, your hope is slipped out of your soul, bring it back. The second was it was a call to stay together.

Remember when he found out that That there was an abandonment of the ship He called he called for everyone to stay together. He wasn't just gonna let anything happen He was gonna make a statement and say no this is the way to walk and that was then that's what he did And then he made a call to take food and they took food and it was a good thing that they did so Paul Was someone who helps us to understand that there are times when we should speak. So here's the question. Is there any situation that needs your voice right now? Anything going on that needs your voice and it's a voice from God and you're confident in that?

Then let it be. You know, this is just one of the principles of leadership that we see in this chapter in John MacArthur's but commentary on this chapter he makes the whole chapter about leadership I think there's a lot way more than that here and he points that out as well but there's enough just about leadership here to keep us going for a long time. It's interesting, you know, Paul is in action, he's not an authority but he does contribute. He's a prisoner, he's not in charge of anything, but by the end of the chapter he's kind of the acknowledged leader. It's really a fascinating study in how things can progress.

Okay, here's the third application. The God-appointed journey may include resistance and difficulty. And the difficulties can come from different places. Nature, winds and waves, enemies of different kinds, political motivations. Those are the kinds of things that we see in Acts.

We could make a list of the sources of the problems that are brought to the people of God in Acts, and you would find all those things that I just mentioned and more. And that's been a theme here in the book of Acts, that God's plan is not for our comfort but it is for our consecration and that this God appointed journey will not always be a smooth one and we should just glory in that and understand that that this God appointed journey may have resistance And then the fourth application is just, I hope, a word of encouragement, and that is just to rest in the knowledge that God is in control. Paul is being delivered. God is in control. Paul is not in control.

He is dependent on those who are taking him to Rome and neither is Rome in control as the weather will trump their authority and their schedule And even Paul's suggestions are rejected. His control, as is ours, is often not regarded. And God, yet, is still in control. And so In the same way, we are being taken to our destinations by forces completely outside of us and completely outside of those who seem to be in control, for God is doing his will on this earth. And then the fifth, and this is the last application and it's like the last one really, if you are in a calamity, Is your calamity drawing you near to God and make or is it making you bitter at those who are?

Involved in the story Well, this is the great danger of all calamities isn't it? That often we become bitter at those whom God has appointed. Either the weather or a person outside of our family or maybe even inside our family. And our greatest danger in times of calamity is to become bitter at the plan of Almighty God and We should reserve judgment upon all of our calamities God will judge finally God will set everything right He'll blow away all the confusion and we need to just trust him and that that our calamities would cause us to draw near to God in the same way did with Paul where he said he said the God whom whom I belong he He really did see himself in the hands of God. He was not, there's not a bitter angry word from the Apostle Paul through this whole engagement even though they ignored his good advice.

Often we complain about those things that have run contrary to our will when people have upstaged us, but we shouldn't do that. God will judge all things. You know, it's often true that calamity is our greatest friend because it causes us to throw overboard the things of lesser value and to cry out to God and to get down to the things that are really important in this life. You know when I first read Acts 27 in preparation for this I couldn't help going back to Psalm 107 one of my favorite Psalms because I think the message of Acts 27 at least includes the message of Psalm 107, which reads in verse 23, those who go down to the sea in ships, who do business on great waters, They see the works of the Lord, his wonders in the deep. For he commands and raises the stormy wind which lifts the waves up from the sea.

They mount up to the heavens, they go down again to the depths their soul melts because of their trouble they reel to and fro and they stagger like a drunken man And they're at their wits end and they cry out to the Lord in their trouble and he brings them out of their distresses he calms the storm so that the waves are still and then they are glad because they are quiet and so he guides them to their desired haven oh that men would give thanks to the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men Let them exalt him also in the assembly of the people and praise him in the company of the elders. Would you pray with me? Lord, that all these stories of calamity would cause us to give praise to you for your mighty hand. There's so much for us to learn. Lord, we pray that we would be faithful in learning it as we are in the midst of different trials and tribulations.

In Jesus' name, Amen.