The sermon 'Leadership that Blesses' by Peter Allison, based on Acts 27, discusses the shipwreck journey of Paul and emphasizes the intersection of God's sovereignty and human responsibility. Paul takes proactive steps, guided by faith, to ensure the safety of all 276 people on board despite the violent storm. His leadership, grounded in faith and action, illustrates how faith in God's promises necessitates active participation to fulfill His plans. Paul's actions serve as an example of how Christian leadership can positively influence others, demonstrating that true faith involves proactive engagement with God's promises. The sermon also highlights the broader impact of Christian values on society, such as the promotion of human rights, literacy, and charity, showing how the church historically transformed cultures through adherence to biblical principles.

Acts 27, verse 44. My mistake. Please rise for the reading of God's Word. Now when the fourteenth night had come as we were driven up and down in the Adriatic Sea about midnight the sailors sensed that They were drawing near some land and they took soundings and found it to be 20 fathoms And when they had gone a little farther they took soundings again and found it to be 15 fathoms Then fearing lest we should run aground on the rocks, they dropped four anchors from the stern and prayed for day to come. And as the sailors were seeking to escape from the ship when they had let down the skiff into the sea under pretense of putting out anchors from the prowl.

Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, unless these men stay in the ship, you cannot be saved. Then the soldiers cut away the ropes of the skiff and let it fall off. And as the day was about to dawn, Paul implored them all to take food, saying, Today is the fourteenth day you have waited and continued without food and eaten nothing. Therefore I urge you to take nourishment, for this is for your survival, since not a hair will fall from the head of any of you. And when he had said these things, he took bread and gave thanks to God in the presence of them all.

And when he had broken it, he began to eat. Then they were all encouraged and also took food themselves. And in all, we were 276 persons on the ship. So when they had eaten enough, they lightened the ship and threw out the wheat into the sea. And when it was day, they did not recognize the land, but they observed a bay with a beach, onto which they planned to run the ship if possible.

And they let go the anchors and left them in the sea. Meanwhile, loosening the rudder ropes, they hoisted the mainsail to the wind and made for shore. But striking a place where two seas meet, they ran the ship aground. And the prow stuck fast and remained immovable, but the stern was being broken up by the violence of the waves. And the soldiers' plan was to kill the prisoners lest any of them should swim away and escape.

But the centurion, wanting to save Paul, kept them from their purpose and commanded that those who could swim should jump overboard first and get to land and the rest some on boards and some on parts of the ship. And so it was that they all escaped safely to land. In great peace have those who love this law and nothing causes them to stumble. Heavenly Father, We do love your law. Teach us to love it more faithfully, to obey it more diligently, and to know it and to hide it in our hearts, that it may sanctify us, transforming our thinking, renewing our minds.

And I ask that you would sanctify my sinful lips this morning, that they may proclaim the riches of your grace and your salvation through Christ. Amen. For salvation through Christ. Amen. Well, we ended last week with the ship being driven by this storm, unable to see the sun or the stars, being tossed by large waves and propelled by these hurricane winds to an unknown location.

They were afraid, and Luke says they had lost all hope of reaching land safely and and no one is eating either. They may be very seasick with a little appetite to eat. The tempest probably made it impossible to cook. Or they may have lost many of their provisions overboard in the storm and were also seeking to conserve what they had left. All of these may be at play.

John Newton, who was the ship's captain before his conversion, described his experience in a storm at sea where his ship that he was captain of almost sank. He said, we found that the water having floated all of our movables in the hold, all the casks of provisions had been beaten in pieces by the violent motion of the ship. On the other hand, our livestock, such as pigs, sheep, and poultry, had been washed overboard in the storm. In effect, all the provisions we saved would have subsisted us but a week at a scanty allowance, " he wrote in a letter. So we saw last week that Paul had encouraged them at some point in this time with the word of God regarding their safety and regarding the manner in which they would be saved.

He said They would run aground as opposed to foundering at sea and being rescued by another boat or even maybe being swallowed by a fish like Jonah and cast on the shore. But some of these people on this boat Don't believe what Paul says. They don't trust him. And so this state of affairs has continued now for 14 days where we pick up with verse 27 as they're being driven about in the Adriatic Sea with very little light to see anything. And they have very little ability to control the boat where they wanted to go.

And since they don't know where they're going, they really wouldn't know what course to take, even if they could have good control of where the ship was going. But at midnight, Luke says, on the fourteenth night, the sailors sensed that they were near land, and they started to take soundings. They may have heard the sound of the breaker's change or something change in the wave pattern. Luke doesn't say how they knew, but it says they sensed this, and so they start taking soundings. There are two things they really want to know right now.

How deep is the water, and how fast, how quickly, is the depth changing? How deep is the water, how fast is it changing? Relative to the total depth, because that determines how frequently they will need to take soundings. And it will also dictate how fast it's safe to proceed. So one sounding tells you how deep the water is, but you need a second sounding to know how fast that depth is changing.

So Luke says they wait a little while and then they take a second sounding. And they found to their alarm that the water was getting shallow quite rapidly. The water depth decreased 30 feet in a relatively short time from 120 feet to 90 feet. Now the average depth of the Mediterranean is around 5, 000 feet. So this is, they recognize that they are in very shallow water and getting shallower very fast.

And if you look at your map there of St. Paul's Bay on Malta, those little numbers in the bay refer to sounding depths in fathoms. And so Luke actually gives us numbers regarding the depth. He says it started out at 20 fathoms and then had gone to 15 fathoms fairly quickly by the second sounding. So that's a very significant change in the depth, given that they're only, you know, if that was in the middle of the sea at 5, 000 feet, no big deal, but when it's only 120 to go down to 90, that fast is a concern.

And so they can't see a lot. They just know this water is shallow and it's getting shallow very quickly. And they're very concerned that they're going to run on the rocks. They don't see any land. Can't see anything at this point.

They can't distinguish any land features. And so they think, what do you do when you don't know where you're going, and you're about to run, have a collision? You just stop. You put on the brakes. And that's what they do in nautical terms.

They drop not one anchor, but four anchors from the stern of the boat. Now normally you would drop an anchor from the prowl. But they don't want to do that in this case because that would spin the boat around so it's facing away from the land and they know that if they're trying to get to land they want to be facing the land. So they drop the anchors from the stern and I gather more than one admiral and battle, Lord Nelson being one of them, have used that tactic to their advantage in sailing and in war for that reason. And so they dropped these anchors and Luke says they prayed.

They prayed. This doesn't mean they were praying to God. The word that Luke uses here can be used of prayer to God. Paul uses it that way a couple times. But it's not the usual word for prayer in the New Testament.

And it really can also mean a wish, a verbal expression of a desire. And so the sailors are just wishing here, I think, for morning when they will be able to see better. And so while they're anxiously waiting for morning, remember it's midnight so they've got probably four or five hours to wait here, They hatch a plan to surreptitiously escape the sinking ship on a lifeboat. Because you see, in their best seaman's judgment, they believe this action would give them the best chance for survival. But they did it surreptitiously because their action would strand everybody else in a more precarious position.

And they figured that the rest of the crew wouldn't be very happy with them about that. And if they knew, it would be stopped. You see, but they also, and this is a more significant point, they also doubted the Word of God delivered by Paul that everyone would be saved. Everyone would be saved. You see, they were unbelievers.

They didn't believe what God's word and His promise that everyone would be saved. Now, they don't show themselves to be unbelievers simply for taking action to save themselves. That's not unbelief. That's proper, to take actions consistent with the promises of God. The fact that God has said everyone would be saved doesn't mean everyone should just wait passively for that salvation.

You see, those who take no action towards bringing to pass what God has promised when they are able to take those actions, they're not trusting in God's Word. They're not living by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. We'll see in the following verses in this passage, and have seen up to this point in this voyage, that Paul is anything but passive, and that he leads people in constructive action. And so when we trust God's promises and rest in them, then we will take the best possible actions that we are able to make which in our judgment have the best possible chance of accomplishing God's promise. When we trust God's promises and rest in them, then we will take the best possible actions that we are able to take which in our judgment have the best chance of accomplishing God's promises.

And in this case, actions consistent with trusting God's Word would be actions that facilitate the salvation of everyone on the boat, the ship. And since all 276 people can't fit in this boat, escaping in the lifeboat and leaving everyone else to perish is not consistent, you see, with trusting God. It demonstrates they didn't believe that all would be saved. And so Paul prevents them from carrying out their unbelieving plan, telling the century that unless these men stay in the ship, you cannot be saved. So you know, at this point, see, Paul is acting sick in his best judgment to take actions consistent with everyone on the boat being saved.

They have the best possible chance of God's promises being accomplished, knowing that God always accomplishes His promise. It is our responsibility to take the best actions that we know how to take to accomplish what He said He will do. And so at this point Paul, When he made this statement to the centurion and the soldiers, had a very reliable track record in his leadership and recommendations. His recommendation, remember, not to get underway proved to be the correct one. His perception about the outcome, if they did get underway, Remember he said you're going to lose your ship and your cargo and even life.

His perceptions if they did get underway has so far proven to be correct. It has been a disaster. There has been much loss of cargo. The ship is in peril of being lost. And the sailors are surreptitiously trying to abandon it.

He's also been the only one who brought hope and encouragement to everyone on board. And his prediction, his prophecy about running aground also appears to be imminent. So he has quite a reliable track record. His leadership has quite a reliable track record. And so this time, unlike the previous times, the centurion listens.

And the soldiers cut down the ropes holding this skiff, and they let it fall away. Luke doesn't say whether the centurion ordered them or the soldiers acted on Paul's words directly. But you see what's happened here effectively. Paul has become the de facto leader of this voyage. It's his directions now that are now being followed.

The centurion is the one who hired the boat. He's the one who is ultimately in charge. He's the one who's telling the boatmaster and captain where to go. And now he's listening to what Paul tells him to do. And when Paul says, cut away the only lifeboat that you have, it happens.

They do it. No questions asked. Two observations we can make about this. See, this is a great picture of the fact that only those who believe and trust in the promises of God for salvation are in fact saved. That's not an allegory.

We're not trying to allegorize this. This is a historical event that Luke is recording. But historical events can be pictures of biblical truths, just like the Apostle Peter points to Noah's being saved through the worldwide flood as a picture of the baptism of the Holy Spirit which now saves us. A baptism that is signified by water baptism. So this is a picture that only those who believe and trust in the promises of God's salvation are in fact saved.

That only those who are in the church are saved. This is also an example of Paul, as I mentioned, acting in faith according to the promise of God. Paul does not think or he doesn't even reason that God has promised that no lives would be lost, so it really doesn't matter if they stay on board or not. That's not how Paul thinks. Paul believes God's Word that everyone will be saved, but he's not passive about it.

The sailor's expertise will be needed for all people on board to be saved. The boat is still at sea. It needs to come to shore somehow. And their expertise is going to be needed. If everybody is going to be saved, the best possible chance is to have the expertise of the sailors on board.

So having them leave is not good for the ship. And so that's what prompts Paul's command, Paul's action, his recommendation. And so it falls away. Now As the day is about to dawn, Paul then implores them to take food. See, as Paul is continuing to lead in ways that bless and edify everyone on the ship.

It's not the centurion saying, okay, hey, it's daylight, we can see now, let's get some food to eat, we're going to have a hard day of work. It's Paul that's making these observations and recommendations. Paul's acting in faith, urging the ship's entire crew to take actions, prudent actions, that best prepare everyone to make it through this expected shipwreck alive. Why? Because he believes that everyone will be saved.

That's why he's taking these actions. They're actions based in faith. It's been 14 days since anyone ate, and their bodies aren't prepared for strenuous labor. In order to have strength for even just swimming to shore, they're going to need food. And so Paul urges everyone to eat.

And his justification for eating is preparation for their survival. He tells them this is for your survival. Why? Since not a hair of your head will fall from the head of any of you. You see how it's just completely opposite any passivity regarding the sovereignty of God.

Paul is urging action because God is sovereign, because everybody is saved, therefore you need to eat, so you have strength to swim and be saved. Paul is urging action consistent with his belief in the promises of God. But he doesn't just lead by words in verse 35. He leads by his own actions. After exhorting everyone to take bread, Paul takes bread in front of them all.

And then he sets a beautiful example of having God as our God by giving thanks for the food in the presence of them all. Acknowledging publicly before the entire ship's crew that they are eating by the hand of God. You know how many times have we been in similar situations preparing to eat while surrounded by unbelievers, by atheists, by people who may be offended by any expression of the Christian faith. What do we do? Are we tempted to pray silently?

Quietly? Unobservably? Luke very explicitly says that Paul gave thanks in the presence of them all. He did this very publicly. He was the one who was the influence on this boat.

He was the one who was setting the tone for the atmosphere and what would happen on the boat. And he's doing it as a prisoner. He's leading by example. It's the epitome of being salt and light in the culture. And the crew, in verse 36, is encouraged by His words and by His example in taking bread and thanking God for it.

And they are induced to follow His example and to take food and to eat. Now that word, encourage, is different from the word that is normally translated in courage. It's the sense of they were more cheerful. I should say the spiritual command to be, to encourage. It's meaning they're more cheerful, they're upbeat.

Paul's influence here over this, he's exercising here, is something that has been built over the entire voyage. It's the result of everything that he's been doing up until this point. He was able to cheer up the crew at this point because he's done all the preparatory work. He lived out the exhortation in Romans that he gave to the Romans in Romans 15, Verse 2, let each of us please his neighbor for his good, leading to edification. That's what he's been doing this trip.

For even Christ did not please himself. Remember he prayed for the crew back at the beginning when His advice to sail was rejected. We can't expect to cheer people up in any meaningful way if we haven't been praying for them. Interceding at the throne of grace for their needs. Jesus said, without Me you can do nothing.

And that includes the mundane thing of cheering people up. He's also present with them. He's a part of their lives. When the decision to sail or not to sail from Fairhavens was being made way back in verse 9, he was there to offer his opinion. He wasn't sleeping in the hold like Jonah.

He helped the crew in the storm in verse 19. When the sailors are trying to sneak off on the boat in the middle of the night, he's right there to see it and address it. He wasn't absent. He was a part of the culture of this boat. He also, in addition, spoke God's Word into their situation.

He spoke the applicable portions of God's Word. Obviously not every exhortation in the Bible is applicable in every situation. There is a time to weep and a time to laugh. There is a time to mourn. And the Bible says there is a time to dance.

But he spoke the applicable portions of God's Word to them about what would happen to them. And so the cumulative result of Paul's leadership over this entire voyage is that the crew is blessed. The crew is cheered up. The crew is physically nourished. The crew is equipped to prepare for the shipwreck.

And the first thing that we read that says that they do after having eaten and being nourished is that they begin doing some heavy lifting, throwing the wheat off the ship. So that's the exact thing that comes next. Wheat's been on this boat the whole time, going through this storm. Now having less weight on the boat does two things. Two very significant things.

First it causes the boat to ride higher in the water which means it will get closer to shore before running aground. And that's very important. It's drastically, it can cut down the amount you have to swim and the danger. And then once it does run aground, it will take longer to fill with water and become uninhabitable. Founder.

But secondly, it also reduces the stresses exerted on the ship from the motion of the waves. Allowing the ship to last longer before being broken in pieces. If you don't have that weight in there shifting around, that helps. So both of these reasons, this action is significant. It's a factor in surviving the coming shipwreck.

So once the day dawned then, we move on into verse 39. They could see the land, but they didn't recognize where they were. It was only after reaching the shore that they found out that they were on Malta or Melida. And so considering that they dropped anchor at midnight on the 14th night, Paul says it's midnight on the 14th night, and assuming, make a presumption, that they left Fair Haven sometime during the day, That means they've been underway 13 days and some portion of a day Now James Smith asked two different sea captains familiar with these waters to estimate how long it would take a large ship caught in a gale like this on the Mediterranean, how far a ship like that would travel every day. And they gave him these various answers.

He took the average basically of the answers that he got from them. And by his calculations, it would take 13 days and a little bit longer, a few more hours, to cover the 476 miles from Clowda to Malta. Which is about exactly as long as that trip was. Now, it's puzzled a few people that these Alexandrian sailors would not have recognized the harbor at Malta. I mean these are sailors, Malta is not an unknown island there, just on one of your maps, the bigger map, you can see Malta's relationship to Sicily above it and bigger up much much bigger island and then Italy above that and so why why would they not recognize Malta And one reason which would tend to support that idea is that they landed at what is now called today, is now called St.

Paul's Bay. And it's a bay that's at the other end from the main harbor in Malta. And according to various authors, it doesn't have any distinguishing features. So it's a, it does nothing unique or distinguishing about it. That would be memorable and it's not the usual harbor that they would be going into.

That's at the other end of the island. But even though they don't recognize where they are, Once they can see, they're able to assess their situation and determine the best course of action, which is to run the ship aground on the beach. And this is in accordance with Paul's prophecy. But it was also the best option from a nautical standpoint. And the NIV translates this as a sandy beach.

And I think this is the correct translation of what Luke is saying. Luke, every bay or every creek, that word bay, some people, some translations call it a creek, Every bay has a shore or a beach on it. What Luke is here identifying is the type of beach. The word sometimes means shore in general, yes, but in a more technical sense it means a sandy beach as opposed to a rocky coast. And James Smith notes that this is the way other ancient Greek writers used that word here that Luke is using.

Luke is using the correct hydro-graphical term to refer to a sandy beach as opposed to a rocky coast. So basically the difference between Norfolk Beach in Virginia and in general much of the East Coast Beach versus what the West Coast Beach is, which is mostly rocks and cliffs. And so they see this sandy beach and they make a plan to head for it. Luke doesn't give us the name of the place where they run aground interestingly. He gives us a lot of other names and numbers.

The soundings that he does give us are consistent with the, you can see on your map there with the soundings, it's consistent with the soundings that are currently in St. Paul's Bay. But If this is in fact the bay where they ran aground, it's most likely the traditional point, which is shown on your map of St. Paul's Bay. And this is a location where there are two seas that meet.

And so the bow sticks into the muddy bottom, and you can see that in this survey, the map I gave you, it talks about a sandy muddy bottom. While the stern, the rear of the ship, is being torn apart by these waves. And so the soldiers first fought was the prisoners. If the ship breaks apart and everyone jumps into the sea, they could out swim the soldiers and possibly escape. And if that happened, then the soldiers would have to pay with their own lives.

For every prisoner that was lost, a Roman soldier's life was taken. That's just the Roman system. And so to prevent that, they intended to kill all the prisoners. That was also somewhat of a standard procedure, just killed them all and come back and report that you had to kill them all. Another day, another day at work.

You know, this attitude provides a window into the culture of that day. See, lives were expendable, not precious. In fact, most of these people were probably being sent to die in the Coliseum anyway. And so it would not have been in the least out of the ordinary in these circumstances to kill them all. But you see, like The plan of the sailors, this plan of the soldiers to kill the prisoners is an action of people who did not believe God's promise that all will be saved.

To kill the prisoners is a direct attempt to work counter to the promise of God that everyone would be saved. But this time Paul is not in a position to act in a way that would not be seen as self-serving. So Paul apparently doesn't say anything, doesn't try and plead. But God sovereignly works in the heart of the centurion to counter man that soldier's plan. And he comes up with a plan that does trust in God's promise that all will be saved.

He commands everyone to essentially fend for yourself and get to shore as best you can. Those who can swim were to swim, and those who couldn't swim were to grab a hold of a board or some other part of the boat that was breaking apart and hang on to it and float to land. See, that's a plan that believes God's promises that everyone's going to be saved. Proverbs 21 reminds us that the horse is prepared for the day of battle, but deliverance is of the Lord. Paul's done everything that he can to prepare this boat and the people in it to survive.

But deliverance is of the Lord. A couple things we see in this narrative is one, the juxtaposition of God's sovereignty and man's responsibility. It's a prominent feature in this narrative. God told Paul in person that he would stand before Caesar, and he even appeared to him a second time on the ship telling him no lives would be lost. You see, as we've noted, Paul didn't just sit back and let God or sit back and allow God to be God or any of these equally other unbiblical ideas that are thrown around.

And neither, as we've said, does God's sovereignty lead Paul to passivity. As we sometimes hear people say that it does with evangelism. Rather, it leads Paul to take actions to bring God's promises to fruition. This is exactly what Jesus did. Numerous times the Gospel writers would say Jesus did something so that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by this or that prophet.

Now the relationship of these two things can be very difficult for some to accept. In fact, this is one of the most common attacks from atheists and unbelievers, and probably one of the more frequent reasons that people give for not believing in God. How can there be a sovereign God if there's so much evil or other variations on that question? How can God be sovereign and man still have liberty of the will? Isn't God's sovereignty incompatible with true liberty of the will?

I'd like to offer an analogy. I've used analogies, but like any analogy, it's incomplete. I'll warn you up front. And it can lead to very wrong ideas if carried too far. But I think they can be helpful.

And one of them is, there was a time when people didn't understand negative numbers. They would think, how could you have minus one apples? Does it make any sense? What does that mean? The concept of a negative number which we so readily accept didn't exist.

And so because of that, there were equations, mathematical equations that were unsolvable. Didn't have a solution. But today we have no trouble, most of us, with negative numbers. We understand that, you know, 60 miles an hour east is positive and 60 miles an hour to the west, that's a negative 60 miles an hour. Or we understand a negative number in our checkbook is that we have a debt that we owe money.

It's money we don't have. It's money that we owe. So we have an understanding of these concepts. Well, a little later, Even up into the early middle ages, people didn't understand that numbers were two-dimensional. In fact, that still kind of blows people's minds.

But two-dimensional numbers are routinely used today. But there was a time, not too many hundred years ago, when there were equations that required two-dimensional numbers that people thought didn't have a solution. Because the whole concept of a, you know, we understand the numbers on a number line fine but that numbers are two-dimensional that was hard that's hard to understand but you know we understand it like if you have a car going this way 60 miles an hour a car going that way the other way is minus 60 what about a car going north you see you need another dimension to handle that. And numbers are two dimensional and they can handle that. And so solutions that, mathematical equations that didn't have a, people didn't know how they could be solved, they would say they didn't have a solution.

We actually now see that they do. And so I think this is analogous to the sovereignty of God and human responsibility. There is another dimension involved. That's outside of our experience. It's outside of our understanding.

It's not impossible. God says His Word says it's true. So we believe it. That God is sovereign and we have a liberty of the will. We choose according to what our will desires.

Of course, our will is bound in sin for the unbeliever. And when we have trouble putting those together, I think we're like the people who didn't realize there's negative numbers. Or we're like the people who in recent time past didn't understand there were two dimensions to numbers and maybe more. There's another dimension. It's almost as if you have a chess game with 64 squares, you know that only one piece can live on one square at one time.

And so how can God's sovereignty and man's responsibility coexist in the same square? They can't if you only have one chessboard. But what if you have a second chessboard? That's in a different dimension. That's where those chess pieces are.

Now, the danger in that analogy is it separates God from God's chessboard and man's chessboard. That's wrong. Both dimensions are fully God's dimension. He's working in both of them. But I think if we understand this is another dimension here that's beyond our ability to comprehend, then we can be content to wait to heaven to learn the answer.

See, Isaiah 55 says, My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." Here's the human chessboard, a different chessboard up here in another dimension, higher than ours, where God is. And God is on ours as well. And there's other analogies we won't talk about this morning that show how both of these two things do coexist. But the other thing I want to note here is how Paul's leadership throughout the voyage has been this great blessing on the passengers.

He was the salt and light. He brought them wisdom, which they didn't always accept. He brought them God's Word. He lived as this example before them publicly praying. See, this is a microcosm of how the Christian church transforms culture.

Luke ends this chapter, this right here, with saying, everyone was saved. What Paul did on this ship during the three months voyage is what the church did in the Roman Empire in the first three centuries of Christ's messianic reign. It's what the church continues to do and will continue to do. See, this is a picture of the effect that church is to have and does have on the culture around her. There's the Christians that taught and practiced the truth that every life, every human being is made in the image of God.

This is the foundation of the Western world's understanding of rights. It's the Christian church that created a culture where the lives of the poor, the unborn, the disabled, and the enemy prisoners were valued as human life like anyone else. It was Christians that changed the worldwide culture of slavery that existed in the first century into our world where slavery is not officially condoned, where it's not considered just a wet part of life. And Wilbur Wilberforce was a Christian operating from a biblical worldview. This is a view that's not shared in Muslim lands.

Their practice of slavery was unspeakably worse than anything that happened in the American South, as bad as that was. Their slaves died at ten times the rate of slaves in America. Outside of Christian nations, organized charity is relatively rare. It's the Christian church that has taught the duty of believers to help the poor and as Jesus said in Matthew 25, the least of these. It's the church that has led the way in establishing hospitals, orphanages, and homes for the destitute.

It's a church that drove literacy for all people. Christians taught their children to read in order to be able to read the Bible. And this raised the literacy of every nation that was discipled for Christ. It's Christians that have led the way to literacy in thousands of tribes where in some cases there wasn't even a written language. Wycliffe reports today that there are over 7, 300 languages spoken today, of which 686 still need a Bible translation started.

They report that in this year, 2025, there are started Bible translations for every language in 158 nations. 158 nations in the world have a Bible translation program in place for every language spoken on that. There are 43 countries that have one language that still need a Bible translation program. And there are 18 countries that have six or more languages that still need a Bible translation program. And the countries with the four greatest needs are China, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and Vanuatu.

That's a South Pacific island nation. You see, it's the Christians that are bringing this literacy around the world. Christians or those operating from biblical presuppositions about the created order have led the study of the earth and the development of our understanding of it. See, science operates on a biblical worldview that we live in a world of cause and effect. Logical, orderly, repeatable.

Those aren't the tenets of evolution, which is a world of random chance. Beauty and art and architecture and music is a biblical concept. It's Christians that bring beauty in each of these fields. When Christian influences loss in a culture, that beauty is lost. The beauty in the architecture goes.

The beauty in the art goes. We have today modern art. No beauty. And it's unbelievers that do it. The Bible defines beauty in all different aspects, including music.

And the inspired text of every Old Testament verse contains musical notation that set it to music. That's the standard of beauty in music. The foundation of law and government that we enjoy in the nation are the result of Christians implementing a biblical model of civil government. The concept of individual rights, of individual authority, that's what a right is, it's authority. That didn't come from Greece and Rome.

It came from the Bible. And that biblical concept is lost when the Christians lose influence in a nation. The idea that the king himself is himself a soul that must be subject to every governing authority and is not himself the law, that's an eminently biblical idea. And the great documents of our legal heritage, such as the Magna Carta, or the original constitutions of our land from 1640s, these are explicitly biblical. You know, It's ironic that for this message and this example, this microcosm of Paul being the salt and light on that boat should happen in the very week that Charlie Kirk was so elevated to prominence in his assassination.

But this is what he was doing. This is the work of the church. This is the work of believers. To go into the places of irrational, unbelieving, God-hating, life-hating, thinking, and bringing the light of the Gospel. That's our cause, the church, and that was Paul's labor and fruit on this voyage from Caesarea to Rome.

Heavenly Father, we thank You for the beauty and the clarity and the truth of Your Word. We thank you that you are the reigning king. And that the gates of hell will not prevail against your church. We thank you for the light that you have brought. And are bringing back to our land.

And we ask that this work may continue through us. Grant us as small and as feeble as we are, Lord, we have a mighty God for whom money is no problem, who is all-powerful, and who has chosen the weak and the foolish of this world to confound this wisdom. We ask for your blessing, for perseverance. That we should not grow weary while doing well. That we would not grow faint of heart, that we would remember the purpose for which You have saved us, that we should be a holy people zealous for good works, that we should be the salt and the light of the earth, that we should be your witnesses to the ends of the earth, the Gospel of the grace of God in Christ Jesus.

We ask these things in Jesus' name, Amen.