Jesus in His Church - Paul..

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com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. Acts chapter 27 from verse 1. And when it was decided that we should sail for Italy, they delivered Paul and some other prisoners to a centurion of the Augustan cohort named Julius.

and embarking in a ship of Adramitium, which was about to sail to the ports along the coast of Asia, we put to sea, accompanied by Aristarchus, a Macedonian from Thessalonica. The next day we put in Sidon, and Julius treated Paul kindly and gave him leave to go to his friends and be cared for. And putting out to sea from there, we sailed under the lee of Cyprus, because the winds were against us. And when we had sailed across the open sea along the coast of Cilicia and Pamphylia, we came to Myra in Lycia. There the Centurion found a ship of Alexandria sailing for Italy and put us on board.

We sailed slowly for a number of days and arrived with difficulty off Nidius, and as the wind did not allow us to go farther, we sailed under the lee of Crete off Salmone. Coasting along it with difficulty, we came to a place called Fairhaven, near which was the city of Lassie. Since much time had passed, And the voyage was now dangerous because even the fast was already over. Paul advised them, saying, Sirs, I perceive that the voyage will be with injury and much loss, not only of the cargo and the ship, but also our lives. But the Centurion paid more attention to the pilot and to the owner of the ship than what Paul said.

And because the harbour was not suitable to spend winter in, the majority decided to put out to sea from there, on the chance that somehow they could reach Phoenix, a harbour of Crete, facing both southwest and northwest, and spend the winter there. 13. Now when the south wind blew gently, supposing that they had obtained the purpose, they weighed anchor and sailed along Crete close to the shore. But soon a tempestuous wind called the North Easter struck down from the land. And when the ship was caught and could not face the wind, we gave way to it and were driven along, running under the lee of a small island called Korda.

We managed with difficulty to secure the ship's boat. After hoisting it up, they used supporters to undergird the ship. Then fearing that they would run aground on the Cirtus, they lowered the gear and thus they were driven along. Since we were violently storm-tossed, they began the next day to jettison the cargo. And on the third day they drew the ship's tackle overboard with their own hands.

When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days and no small tempest lay on us, all hope of our being saved was at last abandoned. Since they had been without food for a long time, Paul stood up among them and said, Men, you should have listened to me and not have set sail from Crete and incurred this injury and loss. Yet now I urge you to take care, for there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship. For this very night, there stood before me an angel of God, whom I belong and whom I worship. And he said, do not be afraid, Paul.

You must stand before Caesar. And behold, God has granted you all those who sail with you. So take heart, men, for I have faith in God that it will be exactly as I have been told, but we must run aground on some island." When the fourteenth night had come, as we were being driven across the Andriatic Sea about midnight, the sailors suspected that they were nearing land. So they took a sounding and found twenty fathoms.

A little farther on they took a sounding again and found fifteen fathoms. And fearing that we might run on the rocks, they let down the anchors from the stern and prayed for day to come. And as the sailors were seeking to escape from the ship and had lowered the ship's boat into the sea under the pretense of laying our anchors from the bow, Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, Unless these men stay in the ship, you cannot be saved. The soldiers cut away the ropes of the ship's boat and let it go. As day was about to dawn, Paul urged them all to take some food, saying, Today is the fourteenth day that you have continued in suspense and without food having taken nothing.

Therefore I urge you to take some food, for it will give you strength. For not a hair is to perish from the head of any of you." And when he said these things, he took bread, and giving thanks to God in the presence of all, he broke it and began to eat. And they were all encouraged and ate some food themselves. We were in all 276 persons in the ship.

When they had eaten enough, they lightened the ship, throwing out the wheat into the sea. Now when it was day, they did not recognize the land, but they noticed a bay with a beach on which they planned, if possible, to run the ship ashore. So they cast off the anchors and left them in sea, at the same time loosening the ropes and tied the rudders, then hoisting the fore sail to the wind they made for the beach. But striking a reef, they ran the vessel aground. The bow struck and remained immovable, and the stern was being broken up by the surf.

The soldier's plan was to kill the prisoners lest any would swim away and escape. But the centurion wishing to save Paul kept them from carrying out their plan. He ordered those who could swim to jump overboard first and make for land, and the rest on planks or on pieces of the ship. And so it was that all were brought to safety. to land.

Amen. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord, it remains forever. Let's just come to our Lord in a word of prayer before we begin. Father, I ask now that you would be with us. Lord, I pray that you would be the one who by your Holy Spirit is among us, Lord, bring in the truths that are found in Your Word to be living and abiding in our souls.

Give us, Lord, from Your Word. Feed us as only You can. Lord, give me clarity. Give me understanding. Give me the words to speak.

Lord, I pray that You would that you would give me clarity, Lord, to proclaim the word as it ought to be proclaimed. And I pray for your people to receive your word, Lord, as you, Lord, bring it to bear upon their souls. We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.

Well, what a chapter. What a chapter that we have before us in chapter 27. It is probably the most action-packed chapter in the whole book. So much going on here. And Luke, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, has given us a vivid account of the whole ordeal of Paul's journey to Rome.

And it is incredible. There's many dangers, there's many toils, there's much affliction, much stress going on from his journey from Caesarea to Rome. But beyond the fast-paced action that we have described for us in this chapter, behind all the detail, one thing I believe stands clear in this chapter and the next, and that is that God is sovereign over everything. He's sovereign over all things, despite the perils, despite the difficulties that are faced, and despite the difficulties, beloved brothers and sisters, that we will face in life. The real-time dangers and anxieties that can come our way, simply because we live in a fallen world.

even to the point where everything seems dark. And we'll see that's the case in this chapter. Dark. It seems like there's no way out. There's no light at the end of the tunnel.

Imagining a positive outcome is sometimes almost impossible because of the circumstances that surround. Yet even in those times, the Lord God is in complete control. Even in times where things look like chaos and out of order, He is still in control. And as such, beloved, as His people, those who have come to know God through Christ Jesus, that thought, that reality, the veracity of that truth, ought to cause our hearts to rejoice. It ought to cause our hearts to lean upon Him and explicitly trust in Him and in His Word and in His promises, no matter what comes our way.

That's, I think, the overarching theme of what we have before us in the 27th chapter of the book of Acts. Now it's easy to recognize that truth when we can sit down and read this chapter and possibly the next two chapters, which will take us no more than maybe 10 minutes to read from beginning to end. And in less than 10 minutes, we will be made aware of the awful and horrific circumstances that Paul and all these men are placed in. And in that 10 minutes time, we see how the providential hand of the Lord also brings them out of that situation and rescues them from the terrifying dangers and bringing them to safe haven like we we will see next week and even this week and next week to continue their journey to run. But I want you to remember The final two chapters in the Book of Acts, although we can read them in 10 minutes, they've taken place over a period of around five to six months.

That's how long it took the journey for the Apostle Paul and those with him to leave Caesarea and find their way into Rome. They leave in about late August and they find their way in Rome probably somewhere in January or even February of the very next year. So what does that mean? That means their anxieties and the stress experienced in this chapter and the next, this ordeal that is prolonged and it's draining on them. Relief doesn't come immediately.

We need to remember that. We read about the stresses and then the relief, and we praise God for it, but we need to realize in real time, they experienced every moment of every day, every hour, every minute, and every second, and all of it is difficult. All of it is difficult. Beloved, the only way, the only way one can deal with the flurry of emotions and the fear that will come our way during these very difficult circumstances, The only way we can deal with them in times of darkness is to trust in the God who can be trusted. That's it.

That's the only way we can deal with our hardships and our afflictions, to trust in the sovereign God who has all things under his control. He never loses control. It may look like there's chaos and that evil is prevailing but it is all working under the sovereign hand of God and that should cause your heart and mind to rejoice. So we know the whole narrative before us is due because of the imprisonment of the apostle Paul. Now, that happened way back in chapter 21.

We've worked our way through the book, so we're aware. Now, chapter 21 is almost two months ago, but we remember the events that took place. That was almost two years ago now. You remember the Jews accused Paul of these outlandish, serious, but varying offences. They accused Paul of offences against Moses, offences against the law, against their traditions, against the temple.

If you even remember, they even accused the Apostle Paul to have brought a Gentile into the inner area, the forbidden area of the temple, and that made them almost crazy. Now, of course, these were empty allegations. We studied them together for many weeks and we know there was no grounding to what they're saying. There's a misunderstanding. Beyond that, a lack of understanding of who Christ is and how he fulfills Moses and the law and the temple and so forth.

But Paul was not dishonoring those places as they thought he was. But irrespective, the apostle Paul still finds himself in prison, right? And he's been in prison for over two years now. There's a reason why he's in prison. We've worked our way through.

Felix, for example, was that governor that came along who was quite an unethical, immoral man, quite corrupt. And his concern was to please the Jews. You remember that. He wanted to find favor in the Jews' eyes. But that favor was only going to go as far as until, or until I should say, something more beneficial would come his way.

So whilst Paul was in prison unjustly because Felix had sat down and had recognized that Paul is actually not guilty of any offense worthy of imprisonment or the death penalty of capital punishment. He would bring or call on Paul to sit down with him quite regularly, hoping that the Apostle would bribe him, would give him some money, line his pockets. That's more advantageous for Felix, and if he did that, he'll be okay to release the Apostle. But of course, the Apostle would never do that. So Felix kept him under lock and key.

Two years later, Felix is called or recalled back to Rome, and the person who takes his position as the governor of Judea is Festus. We saw a couple weeks ago how he wasted no time in dealing with this new problem that he has in Paul. Quickly he sets up time for the Jews to hear the Jews and their accusations against the Apostle. He wanted to know exactly why it is that the Jews were bent on killing him, why it is that they hated him. The fury in their heart was definitely founded on something.

He needed to know what it was, so he sat down and he allowed them to speak and he allowed them to to give their case and allowed Paul also to make a defense. And what was the verdict? The verdict was, again, just like Felix, there was nothing in their accusations worthy of him keeping Paul in prison, and certainly not to impose the capital punishment upon him, which is the very thing the Jews were calling out for. They didn't want Paul to live another moment. So Paul, so Festus, also had absolutely no ground to imprison Paul or to keep him there.

No justification at all. Yet he was in prison still. You see, Festus knew all too well of the Jews' hatred for Paul. He knew that they were burning with anger towards him. But at the same time, although he couldn't see the justification for imposing the penalties that the Jews wanted upon this apostle, at the same time he knew how important it was that there was peace in Jerusalem.

He knew these feisty Jewish religious leaders and the trouble they can cause. Rome has already experienced some trouble at the hands of the Jews only a few years earlier. So peace is very important, especially for this new governor. He understands. He understands if he doesn't get this situation under control, then things could get out of hand and they can get out of hand very quickly.

So he needs to be politically correct. And in doing so, the best thing he finds is to earn favor with the Jews. He suggests to Paul, well, would you be willing now to go to Jerusalem and be tried there? But of course, Paul refuses. You see, the governors were trying to please the Jews and they'll continue.

But in about 10 years time, they'll have enough of trying to please the Jews and they'll come round, siege the city and actually destroy it. But until then, they're still hoping for peace. But Paul says, no, no, I'm not going to Jerusalem. I'm not going to be tried there before the Jews. Because unlike Festus, Paul understands the hatred that his kinsman has against him.

A deep-rooted hatred that cannot be taken away apart from the grace of Jesus Christ or if he dies. That's the only two ways that the Jews would be lenient or loving towards Paul. They've already had a plot to ambush him and kill him. That was thwarted back in chapter 23. You would remember that.

And then we were told two years later they're doing everything they can to bring that plan back into fruition. Even two years later they're still plotting to ambush Paul and kill him. So Paul appeals to Caesar and he's a Roman citizen so it's fully within his rights to appeal to Caesar and have a hearing in Rome. Festus agrees and begins to make the arrangements and begins to make the arrangements to send him to Rome. He's agreed to the arrangements.

He doesn't know what to write. Last week we examined how King Agrippa comes into Caesarea much to Festus' delight. Now here we have a supposed expert in the Jewish law. Maybe, just maybe, if Paul can come and make a defense in front of Agrippa, Agrippa can later on come and tell me why it is that Paul is so offensive to the Jewish religious establishment in Jerusalem. because he needs to write something to the Emperor.

You can't just send him as he is, he needs to write something. We spoke about that last week, so I'm not going to recap. Hopefully that's still fresh in our minds. But in summary, the Apostle Paul has been confined in prison for over two years, and that confinement for the whole time has been unjust. Unjust.

The Jews were unjust in their accusations against him. That's been founded. And the Roman officials have been unjust against Paul in keeping him in prison when both Felix and Festus was the incumbent upon them. It was their duty, once they found Paul to be innocent, to release him from prison. But they did not.

Neither Felix nor Festus. But beloved, this is what I want you to hear. Despite the injustice all around, all around, God is still in control. Because there's no doubt, no doubt in my mind, no doubt according to the narrative, if the Apostle Paul was released, he would be the target of an assassination by the Jews, would he not? Prison may have robbed the Apostle of his freedom, but it was God's will that he would remain there under Roman guard.

And that was the means that the Lord had used to preserve this apostle's life for two years so that he could accomplish in him and through him the very things that he has promised, that is to send Paul to Rome. That was always God's will. And that was the promise that Jesus himself made to Paul back in chapter 23 in verse 11. The promise that he will testify in Rome of Christ and of the gospel just as he's testified in Jerusalem. And as I've said a couple times already, if Jesus made the promise that he will send Paul to Rome, no matter how bleak the circumstances may seem, no matter how dark things may become, no matter how fierce the opposition he may experience, if Jesus said he will get him to Rome, Jesus will get him to Rome.

Why? Because he said so. Because if Jesus says so, You can bank on it. It'll happen. He's never defaulted on any of his promises.

And Paul rested in that promise. He knows the word of the Lord can be trusted. He knows that his life is safe in God's hands. So despite the perils that he's facing, Paul knows that he's bulletproof until he arrives in Rome. Now, I say that not in a presumptive way, but because Paul was trusting in the Word of God.

He was seeking to do that which Christ desires. And that's the reality. The reality that God and His Word can be trusted. And now, in chapter 27, we'll see that he'll try to convince a ship load of pagan sailors of that reality, that God can indeed be trusted. Because throughout the journey at sea, everything, beloved, I mean absolutely everything they experience will point to the opposite.

It will seem that even though God has promised to preserve their lives, death is imminent. Death seems certain in this situation for both the pagans as well as the Christians on board. The only thing that stands in stark contrast to all their sensory experiences is the word that the Lord had given to Paul. That's it. All their sensory experiences on the one hand and everything they see and perceive and experience is leading to an imminent death.

We're doomed. Yet on the other hand you have only, only the word that the Lord had spoken to Paul in that he will arrive to Rome and the people on board that ship will be preserved. Not a life will be taken. That's it. Doesn't seem like much, does it?

But beloved, by the end of the chapter, chapter 27, and by God's grace, everyone who has read this chapter, this record of this account, millions of people in the last 2,000 years would have come to the conclusion that although it doesn't seem like much, when God speaks, it's enough. It's enough, because you can rely on what He says. So let's look at the details in chapter 27. The time had finally come, and Paul was being sent to Rome. He's delivered into the hands of a centurion, a centurion by the name of Julius.

Now we know in the cohort there's centurions. A centurion is a senior army official who's in charge of a hundred soldiers. That's why the name centurion, century. And his name was Julius, and Julius was entrusted with Paul, or Paul was entrusted, rather, to Julius. Julius's responsibility was to take Paul from Caesarea, and his orders were, you get him to Rome and you get him safely.

And that was his responsibility, and so Julius would have taken his men on board, and that was their purpose. Now we know, we're told in verse 42, that Paul wasn't the only prisoner on board. There were other prisoners. How many there were, we don't know, but we know there were others. But also I want you to realize, Not only were there other prisoners on board, but there were other Christians.

See, Paul didn't go alone. He had brothers with him. We can see that. We're introduced to a man by the name of Aristarchus. He's a man from the region of Macedonia, from the city of Thessalonica.

And also, by the way the text is written, the way Luke is writing this text with the first person plural in the we passages, We know that at the very least, Luke was with him also. So you have the Aristarchus and you have Luke with the Apostle Paul. They accompanied him on the ship and they were accompanying him to Rome. And beloved brothers and sisters, we need to not forget that detail. Sometimes we overlook the little details like that.

Sometimes we focus on the big picture or the Apostle and what he says and where he's going. But we often don't concentrate on the smaller things. The men in the background, they're not the main characters, but they're important. You see, these men had families. They had homes.

They had work. They had other commitments. They had their own lives. But they decided not to allow Paul travel alone without Christian companionship. You see, these men would have had to pay their way to get on board.

They would only be in a few cabins on this cargo ship. Maybe they got one of those. If not, they'd be paying to get a place in the open air on that ship. But either way, it came at a cost to them. And although they didn't know the extent, I mean, the depth of the hazard and the dangers they would be confronted with on this specific journey, they had an idea of how dangerous it is to travel by sea.

They had an idea. And beyond that, they knew that the trip is going to be a long trip. They knew they would have to winter somewhere between Caesarea and Rome. And they would have known that even if Paul got to Rome and fairly quickly after his arrival, he had a chance to have a hearing before Caesar, that trip would have taken about a year at best. And they were willing to go with the apostle.

That's love. That's sacrificial love. To go by one of their brother's side and say, we're going to be with you, brother. We'll be with you. Now, there can be some questions asked about how this all played out because of what the Apostle Paul says in 2 Timothy chapter 4, where he says, on my first hearing in Rome that everyone deserted me.

There is something there that we need to look at. But at least from this point, there's sincerity in that they don't want the apostle to go on his own. So they're willing to leave things behind, willing to sacrifice in order to go hand in hand with their brother, even though there was a shame involved in being associated with the prisoner in these days, in the shame and honor society. But that didn't matter, because love trumps whatever people think. So I think we should remember that.

It's a commendable thing. Now at first the sea journey seemed quite uneventful. Travelling a day's journey to the north, they docked in a place called Sidon, which was about 100 kilometres away from their from where they left. And it's there that we're told that Julius, the centurion, was kind and favorable to the Apostle Paul. He let him go out and visit his friends, most likely speaking about Christians in Sidon, which is very important that we see this, because although Paul was likely escorted by a Roman guard, I mean, of course, Paul is still his responsibility.

And if Paul escapes and he doesn't know him all that well, then Julius is in a lot of trouble. And although Paul was escorted by a Roman guard, we're still told that he was kind towards Paul, that he was favorable towards Paul. Towards the end of the trip, we'll find that that even increases more and more. And that's a detail that Luke tells us, and it's a detail that we need to remember. We need to remember.

Because in fact, that favor that the Lord had given Paul in the eyes of the centurion will end up saving his life. Because in several weeks from now, when the ship is grounded, the soldiers will come up with a plan. You remember what that plan is. We read it just earlier. And that plan would be to kill all the prisoners.

But this is when Julius steps in and says, no, you're not going to kill all the prisoners. And we're told specifically in the text. Why? Because he didn't want Paul to die. The favour that the centurion had towards Paul is important, and we're told that from the very beginning, because this is something that the Lord uses to save the Apostle's life.

The details are important. There is no empty words in the Word of God. So then we're told that the wind begins to increase and they set sail northward again, staying quite close to the mainland for protection while at the same time taking shelter from the island below, which is the island of Cyprus to the south. Now they sail as far north as Cilicia. If you can imagine the map in your mind, Cilicia is about as far north as you go because there's no more Mediterranean Sea.

You have no way to go except west from that point in time. So they've gone north from Caesarea to Sudan, now to Cilicia, and Cilicia is the place where Paul was, or Tarsus is the city that he's from, in Cilicia. And then they start to go westward from there. and west is where Rome is. They sail about 800 kilometers from Sudan to a place called Myra in Lucia, and there they change ships over.

We're told it's at this port that there was a large cargo ship. By the standards of the day, a large ship would have been probably around 60 meters long, maybe about 15 meters wide. Now that's not very big compared to our cruise ships these days, but in these days, In the early 1st or mid 1st century, that was a pretty sizable ship and we know it carried a lot of people. It was 276 people on board and it was mainly designed for cargo. The ship was from Alexandria in Egypt, we're told, and it was heading to Italy.

That's the region where Paul needs to go. So the Centurion organised that they board that ship to continue their journey west. We've already been told that the wind begins to increase and now Paul and Luke, my apologies, informs the reader that the sail towards the westerly direction is becoming more and more difficult. The wind is blowing, the seas are getting rough, it's becoming tough to navigate towards the west. And it's after a number of days that they arrive in a place called Nindus, with a sea, I think the sea, silent, about 200 kilometers away from Myra, and a city just south of Ephesus in Asia Minor, or as we would know, modern day Turkey.

Now to give you an indication of the wind resistance, a voyage from Myra to Nindus on a day, on a good day, would have taken about a day, a day's sail. But Luke tells us it took several days. We don't know whether that's three, five or ten, but many days. You see, this is a bad time in the year to be sailing a boat. We know that for sure.

There would be a lot of delays if you decide to sail a boat this time of year. Towards the end of the year is when the winter comes in and the seas are quite rough around this time. The opposing winds are so strong that the ship was forced to change course and now travel southwest into the open sea to a place called Salome on the eastmost part of the island called Crete. And then it continues on the southern side of the island called Crete to a place called Fairhaven. Now we know Crete because Titus is associated with Crete.

If you remember the Apostle Paul tells Titus to go and put elders in all the churches on that island. The southern side is where they travelled because the wind was coming from the north at this point and it would give them shelter from the wind. That's what they were doing. They were hopping near the coastline because the wind, it would give them protection from the wind. And so they're doing the same with the island called Crete because the wind is really blowing heavy, heavy from the north.

And it's there. at a place called Crete. My apologies. No, because of the amount of time, because of the amount of time they'd already taken in their journey, and because of the bad weather experienced, and the time of year they'd entered, the ship was struggling to make headway. You see, it's this time of year that most ships would be strongly recommended to stay on the docks.

You see, we're told in verse 9 that the time of year was about the time of the fast. Actually, in verse 9, we're told that the fast was already over. Now, that's an interesting way to put it, but you might have in your footnotes that that is referring to the Day of Atonement. You see, in the Old Testament, the only time that Yahweh commands all the people to fast is on the Day of Atonement. In fact, if you didn't fast, then you were at risk of being cut off from among the people, Leviticus chapter 23.

In that Old Testament passage, it says that the people must afflict themselves, and that word really means afflict, to deprive themselves of food, and that is to fast. And so if the people on the Day of Atonement were to fast, and now, and the Day of Atonement is on the 10th day of the seventh month, and now it's beyond that. And remember the Jewish calendar is a little different to us. The 10th day of the seventh month works its way towards the end of September, but most likely the early parts of our October. So that's the time of the year that we're at, then they're in a pretty bad time to be at sea.

Because back in Acts chapter 27, From about September the 15th, the northern winds were known to pick up dramatically in the region of the Mediterranean. Beyond that, some captains of large boats would actually decide, even though most boats would be settled in their docks, some captains who had bigger boats, like this one, may decide to actually voyage out to sea during this time, but it would be a greater risk to them. Now, they weren't necessarily crazy to do so because Rome depended heavily on the wheat or the grain that came out of Egypt. And we know this boat was where? From Alexandria in Egypt.

And therefore, because grain is food and food is required all year round, Rome really was desirous of getting the shipments of wheat into their country on a regular basis. So Rome had offered some incentives to ship owners to make the journey during more risky times of the year and even to the point where they offered to recompense the owner of the ship if they had suffered any damage or loss to the ship. Within reason, of course. But even if someone, an owner, was willing to travel after September the 15th during the time where the tempest was strong and the wind was strong and the seas were raging and it's a perilous time, even if it's after the 15th and they're willing to do that, the window of opportunity was only for about five, six, maybe at the most, seven weeks. Because by the time early November came about, the seas were way too rough.

It became winter and it was almost impossible to sail during that time. And it was common for all the ships in that time to be in the docks. And the question for the travellers here in chapter 27 is not whether they would dock, but where they're going to dock. You see, they arrived on the southern part of Crete, the island, in a place called Fairhaven, but they said, we're told in the text, that they deemed that place unsuitable to winter in. It's about three months that they would spend there.

And the centurion, against Paul's wishes, paid more attention to the ship's owner and the pilot of the ship, than he did to Paul, which makes sense because they have more experience than Paul, and they made the decision to voyage to Phoenix. Now, don't think for a moment that Phoenix is this really far away place. It's not. It's actually still on the same island in Crete. It's actually only a little bit further westward.

In fact, if the weather was fine, they'd get there in only a few hours. But they didn't. It was a bad mistake. Now we're not told why the Apostle Paul had told them not to take that voyage. We're not told why he warned them that there would be loss of cargo and threat to life.

But it may have been a matter of the Apostle's wisdom. He was a wise man. He did a lot of traveling. He did a lot of shipping, a lot of voyages over the sea in his missionary journeys. He got to know the channels.

He got to know the seasons and the times where it's best to go at sea and best not to go out to sea. Now, can we compare that experience with that of the captain? Probably not. But we do know something else about the apostle. We know that in 2 Corinthians 11, that passage that most of us know, where Paul is listing the difficulties and the persecutions and the afflictions that he's experienced during his apostleship, we know that he was shipwrecked not once, but how many times?

Three times. And not including this one. 2 Corinthians was written in about 56 to 58 AD. This is closer to about 60 AD. So that impressive list of afflictions that you see in 2 Corinthians 11 is just probably three quarters of the way for the Apostle Paul.

Three times he was shipwrecked. Three times. So I think that would qualify the apostle, at least to some degree, to have some sort of sense about what he experienced when he was shipwrecked and the sort of dangers it would cause to the ship and the cargo and to human life. And so he discouraged them and said, no, we shouldn't go to Phoenix. But of course, they did not listen to him.

Either way, because they did not listen, they continued their course. to Phoenix. Small break in the wind, they started to see a mild southerly wind come their way, and they thought, well, the trip is doable, so let's take this voyage. But who can predict the wind, beloved? As soon as they start the voyage, the change of wind takes place, and now they're helpless and unable to oppose it.

So the ship is blown by the north easterly winds. So they're drifting west towards Rome in the right direction, but the ship is out of control. The control is no longer in the captain's hands. The control of the ship is in the hands of the one who controls the wind and the waves. That's a terrifying ordeal.

If you've ever been out at sea and you've seen some big swells, that's a scary thing. But this is probably unlike anything we have ever experienced. The 276 people on board this ship this day were at the mercy of the sea and they had no control over it. The ship had a small lifeboat at the back, we're told. It's normally a smaller boat, they tow, and that boat is towed so that when they get closer to shore, the big ship can't run aground, so it needs to stay maybe 100 or 150 odd metres away from the shore, and the crew and the personnel can jump on the life raft and then they can row to shore.

That was at the back, and it's being towed by this big ship. and they have to bring it in, probably being dragged under and being filled up with water. So they had to go out the back and lift that towboat and put it on the ship. We're told they did that. And when the anchors out from the back of the boat were also brought up, we're told.

They had to bring their anchors up. The waves were so rough that the sailors had to also, we're told, wrap ropes under, under the boat to gird up the boat, to strengthen the boat. How they did that is beyond me. How you would get a rope around the actual hull of the boat and tighten it because the pressure of the waves against the hull was so strong it could break the hull apart. It's incredible.

Now we're told in verse 17 also that they needed to, because it was so rough, they needed to lower the gears. Now the gears here is very likely to be anchors, what they're talking about. The anchors were thrown overboard, and as the boat dragged along by the sea, the anchors would actually slow the progress of the boat, and the wind would not affect the boat as much, causing drag. Beloved, this was a very scary situation. The whole boat was being tossed and blown like a little toy in the vast sea.

And you know how serious it got when they began to toss overboard their tackle, their equipment in the boat. They began to toss overboard some of the cargo, which is some of the wheat, in order to lighten the boat. This could prove advantageous because if a boat was to go over a reef, they can't control it. But if it was to go over the reef, having a lighter boat means less of the hull in the water and you might be able to escape by not rubbing the boat against the reef and causing all sorts of problems. It wouldn't be as heavy.

So actually this terror was the fact that there was no sun or stars for days, verse 20. Can you imagine that for a moment? Even on land, if three or four or five days run in a row and there's no sun and it's dark through the day, it's just so gloomy. Imagine being out sea where the winds and the waves are uncontrollable, the ups and the downs, the swell is incredible, you're seasick And we're told there is no sun in the day, no stars in the night. Not only did that mean that there was darkness during the day and darkness during the night, but what is the importance of the stars at night?

That's how they were navigating. That's how sailors navigated their way around the place. So it means any strategical decision made by the pilot or the sailors was at this point purely a stab in the dark. Beloved, these people on board this boat had zero control over where it's going. It's a small boat in a huge sea and where it's going is beyond them.

They're at the whim of the person who is in control. And then we hear or read these heartbreaking words, verse 20. When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days and no small tempest lay on us, that means, that's Luke's way of saying a massive gale, massive wind, hear this, all hope of our being saved was at last abandoned. That's Luke's way of saying all hope was lost. their frantic efforts for life, to survive.

by bringing up the lifeboat, by dropping the anchors, by casting the cargo, by wrapping the rope around the hull of the ship, by putting out the equipment, and beloved, there's nothing on that boat that is not necessarily on that boat. These are all important things they're throwing overboard, but they're thinking our lives are more important. All their frantic efforts to do all this didn't help. There was no more they could do. If their hope lay in the measures they were taking, that didn't work.

The wind and the waves continue and therefore all hope is lost. Their anxiety levels are at an all-time high and their appetite for food is non-existent. We know that. All that was left for them to do at this point in time was to face the grim reality that their lives may shortly come to an end. And it's now when the Apostle Paul, who up until this time seemed to be a bit quiet, stands up and utters the words from verse 21.

He says, men, you should have listened to me and not have set sail from Crete and incurred this injury. It's almost like the Apostle saying, I told you so. I did tell you. 22, yet now I urge you to take heart. You didn't hear me before.

Please, listen to me now. Take heart. For there will be no loss of life among you, but only the ship. For this very night there stood before me an angel of the God to whom I belong and to whom I worship. And he said, do not be afraid, Paul.

You must stand before Caesar. And behold, up until now, it's like, okay, All right, you're going to stand before Caesar, but what about us? But Paul's already said that there'll be no loss of life. But what if they didn't hear that? Then he goes on to say this, and behold.

God has granted you all those who sail with you. That is everyone, every life, on board. So take heart, men, for I have faith in God that you will be exactly as I have been told, but we must run aground on some island. There's always a little bit of bad news in the end, but the good news is, yes, we'll lose the ship, but we're not going to lose any lives. Everyone on board is in a state of despair right now.

We've just been told that hope has been abandoned. There's no hope. They're in despair. They're feeling hopeless. But Paul is saying that's how you feel because you've gone to your wits end.

You've done everything that you can do possibly with your human effort. Now listen to what I have to say. There is one who's greater than you. There is one who is in complete control of this ship, the one who's in complete control of the winds and the waves and the sea and everything else in this universe. And that God has spoken to me through his angel and he says, there is hope.

None will be lost. None will be lost. He's promised. He's already given me a promise that I'll get to Rome. But now he's also said he's granted me all the lives on this boat that they will be preserved.

Jesus made his promise to get Paul to Rome back in chapter 23. And now again, he reiterates that promise to strengthen his faith, but beyond that, that he would give the words of encouragement to these people, that they would take heart because their lives will not be lost right now. Beloved, these are incredible words. Because although Paul utters these words, the question is, do the people who are on board with him believe the words that he utters? You see, for some 20 to 25 years, the Apostle Paul now has been united to Christ.

It's been almost 25 years, in fact, from the time that the Apostle was on the road to Damascus when he was confronted with that great light, that light that was Christ. And since then, he's only seen the faithful hand of the Lord. Since then, the Apostle Paul, over and over again, has seen that God is good to keep his word. Every time he's added something, every promise has been fulfilled. Every single time.

He has never defaulted on any promise on any of his words. The Apostle Paul has seen the evidence of this, as well as the Christians, as well as those who know the Old Testament, how over and over again God can be trusted. But in the 20 or 25 years that he's known the Lord, he has come to believe in the Word of God and trust in the promises of God that every one of them will be fulfilled. Everyone will be fulfilled. And the Apostle Paul, if anything, can stand there before these men and say, you can believe me because if God said it, it will come to fruition.

It will come to fruition. Believe him. He's a faithful saviour. If he says it will, he will. Paul knows this to be true.

These men before him may have never heard about the God of Israel. They're pagans, remember. Paul says you have to believe. You've come to the end of yourself. What else is there?

Where else can you place your hope? You have no more hope. There's no more hope. Trust in Him. Just like I trust in Him.

Because now you've been included in His promise. All that sail with you, Paul, we're told by the angel. All on the ship will be preserved. All their lives have been granted to the Apostle. The ship will be lost, but not a single soul.

Actually, the way it's written, the way Luke has written how the angel, the Lord, had spoken to the Apostle Paul is highly suggestive that this has come in the way of an answer to one of the Apostle's prayers. Now, we can't be 100% sure on this, but it seems like the Apostle Paul had made an appeal to God. And that appeal was that he would save all that are on board. And this seems like the way it's written, that the apostle, the angel is saying, actually God has granted you your prayer. And if that is the case, it really does show the heart of the Apostle Paul, the heart of compassion.

He always was one who thinks of others above himself. You remember back when the Philippian jail, and I'll bring that up a little bit later as well, when the doors opened and he wanted to kill himself, remember that? The Apostle Paul wasn't thinking of running. The Apostle Paul is thinking, no, no, don't do that. Don't kill yourself.

Because here we have another person who I can preach the gospel to. Here we have another person that is possible to hear the word of God and come to repent and come to be united in Christ. I think that's the heart of the Apostle here. That if the Lord preserves the lives of these people, give them an opportunity to speak to them about the true salvation, not the physical salvation that is temporal, but the true eternal salvation found in Jesus Christ. But either way, the circumstances are the same for all.

And this is what I want you to hear. Pagans on board, as well as Christians. We know at the very least, Aristarchus, Luke, and the Apostle Paul. All of them were getting just as wet. All of them were in the same sea.

All of them were probably getting just as seasick as one another. All of them were experiencing the same sensual experiences, humanly speaking at least, on board. But the difference is the believers knew who their Lord was and they could trust Him. They knew that God is one who holds their lives, as well as the universe in His hand, and His promises can be trusted. If they have a specific word, like it was the case here, that all the people on board will be preserved being great, that promise will be held to.

And if they didn't have a specific promise, then the promise that Jesus Christ will hold them eternally is what they were holding to. Either way, either way, there is hope. Either way, there is hope for the believer. Either way, no matter what circumstances you go into, there is always going to be hope for the believer. This life may come to an end, and it does end abruptly and very badly for many Christians.

We look at the 12 apostles, and we see even this apostle, his life will end quite badly. But there's always hope, because our hope is not only for this life, is it? Our hope is in the resurrection, in the one who is the first among the resurrected, Jesus Christ. He's the sovereign one, and he's the one who can be trusted. And if he speaks his word, he's faithful to fulfill it.

It's often that the Lord calls us to trust in him where there seems to be no hope at all. When everything around us is screaming, there is no hope for you. Like these sailors, no sun, no stars, in a boat in the vast sea, unable to control the thing, just like a leaf on a strong current in a river running downstream. But Paul's words are piercing to their hearts, because although it seems like all is lost and everything is out of control, you're precisely where the Lord wants you to be. And He is in control.

The story has so many allusions to Jonah, doesn't it? I was going to bring that out and make the comparison, but I've decided not to. Instead the only thing I want to say there is that there's a massive correlation between back then Jonah and the sailors and all that were on the ship who had come to know once they threw him off overboard that indeed it is the God of Jonah who's in complete control of the winds and the waves and the sea and of nature and it's the same here. But instead of going that way the other person it reminds me of is our Lord Jesus Christ and I think that's a better example to give. In Matthew chapter 8 you may remember it was when the disciples were at sea in the Galilee with the Lord and the winds and the waves also were out of control.

Beloved, who tamed the sea? You remember the story. It was Jesus. And do you remember what the disciples said when he does tame the wind and the waves? Awesome words.

Even the winds and the seas what? Obey him. Obey Him. The pagans didn't hear that. The pagans on that ship had not heard of that story likely.

But those who were found in Christ, they did. And they were able to trust in the One who has control over the seas, over the waves, over the wind, over all things. And beloved, we know the one who is able to settle the seas was able even in that moment to settle the seas and make them as serene as water in a cup. But he doesn't. And beloved, he should not be questioned as to why he doesn't.

But as his people, we should just stand back and trust that he knows what he's doing. He can be trusted. And even though the sea is still raging at this point, he's still in control. And his people ought to rest in that truth, not in the outcomes. And if that is our faith, then we stand with Paul and trust that he will fulfill all that he has promised.

He's good for it. We're told more time passes and the situation doesn't seem to be getting any better. Two weeks have passed now, and at midnight the sailors were suspecting that they were near land. And when you suspect you're near land, what you do is you try to test that theory. And the way you test that theory, being a sailor at sea, is to see how deep the water is.

They had a good idea of how deep the water in the Mediterranean is. And we're told, Luke tells us, the first time they put overboard, it's probably likely quite a big weight on a rope, and that rope is marked. maybe a knot every maybe fathom or thereabouts and when they drop it in the water and it stops and they know it's hit the the bottom they can measure to some accuracy how deep the water is. The first time they do it we're told it is 20 fathoms. A fathom is six feet that would make it around 37 meters.

For those of you who know about water that's not very deep in the Mediterranean Sea so they are getting pretty shallow. A few a little bit a little time later they measure again and they're 10 meters less. It means If the depth is getting less, they're either going to go over a sandbank, or they're coming close to land. Either way, it seems to these men that what the apostles said about the ship running aground is going to happen. It's dark, and they know it's getting more shallow and more shallow, and we're told what they do is they now pray for day.

They pray for day. These are pagans. They're probably praying to their pagan gods, not to the Lord God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And it's at this time that sailors figure it out. They can put two and two together and they're thinking, well, if it's getting more shallow and we're under no control of the boat, it's heading briskly into either a sandbank or land, this is going to end badly for all of us.

How about we escape? So what do they do? We're told they try to lower the boat that they raised before the boat that was being towed by the ship and placed on the actual ship. They drop that boat in the water. They try to drop it at least so they can jump on board and escape.

Leave everyone behind. The boat's going to hit rocky, reefy, rocky ground. And essentially everyone on board is going to get killed. The water is going to rush in and they're going to drown. The sea, it's dark and they can't see where they're going.

But Paul has the presence of mind to inform the centurion. How he knew, we don't know. And then he tells him these interesting words. He says to the centurion, unless these men remain on board, there's no guarantee that you would be saved. See, the centurion could have said to Paul, but what do you mean?

You said that we're going to be saved. You said an angel told you, Paul. So what difference does it make if these men are on board or if these men are not on board? He doesn't say that, of course, but that would have been a viable comment. But the truth of the matter is, beloved, that Paul had known that it required everyone to be on board in order for them to be saved.

How? We cannot know. But we know this, that God is sovereign and that's true, but he also uses means to bring about his plans to fruition. So that means that these sailors who are about to cut loose and escape, saving their own lives, that means that they needed to be on board because God's plan had involved them as well. You see, just like when the Lord promised that Paul would make it to Rome, you remember that?

Back in chapter 23. I said back then that Paul also had a responsibility to do all that he can to bring that about. You remember that? God said, Jesus said to Paul, you will testify my behalf in Rome. And now is Paul's responsibility not to sit back and just put his feet up, and say, Lord, do what you will, I'm waiting, but rather that he would unite his heart with the heart of Christ and press towards going to Rome, towards accomplishing the will that has been revealed to him in the Lord.

So when the Apostle Paul heard about the ambush through his nephew, what does he do? He doesn't say, that's OK, I'm going to get to Rome. Don't you worry about it. Go home and have a cup of coffee or cordial or whatever it is. No, he doesn't say that at all.

Instead, he notifies the tribune and says, take action. You need to protect me from the ambush. But Paul, the Lord said you're going to get to Rome. But Paul was doing everything he can to make sure that comes about. Because you don't presume upon the grace of God.

Beloved, I think that's what's going on here as well. Just like Christ's promise to us, To every believer, to every one of his sheep, that he'll preserve us until the very end. Isn't that a glorious promise? I don't think the Christian can actually get a good night's sleep unless he can trust those words. Really trust in those words.

But also, although they know that the chief shepherd is the one who preserves our lives spiritually until the end, he's the one who upholds us, he's the one who strengthens us. At the same time, we know that we must do everything we can to stand firm until the end. There's those dual truths that are found in God's Word. We cannot, must not presume upon the grace of God. We must not.

Because if the sheep are trusting in His promises and then purposefully going into danger saying, it's okay, I'm protected, then it may actually prove that the sheep don't belong to Jesus. Because that sort of presumption does not belong in the kingdom of God. Even though we know that God is sovereign, even though we know His plans are set, even though we know He's predestined all things, We align our hearts and our wills and all our faculties to that which He desires and we press towards what He desires and what He has revealed according to His will. That's what we do. That's what we do.

And we strive, we strive to, we're told, to enter into the kingdom, into the narrow gate. And that's the reality of the sovereignty of God, and we call it human responsibility, that God will remain sovereign. Don't you worry about that. You don't have to stress about the sovereignty of God. He will be sovereign, but you do need to be concerned with the way you live your lives, whether you're presuming upon His grace, whether you're concerned with your own purity and your own holiness, or whether you're concerned to walk according to His will and according to His law.

That must be your concern. Not to presume upon the grace of God, but to be concerned to do His will, knowing if every step forward is a step because He has empowered you forward. It's not by your own strength or by your own will, it's by His power working in and through you, but there's everything that you are is working towards that ends. because beloved in this situation it won't be long before the 276 people on board will be will be taken to safety because God said he will through his angel to Paul but he'll do it through ordinary means. And as we continue to read, we'll see that the sailor's skills in relation to dropping the anchors, in relation to tying the ropes and loosening the rudders, is instrumental in God's overall plan and purpose to bring about the safety of every single one on board.

That's the means God uses. That's the means he uses. And when we look back and we see that his will has been accomplished, his word has been fulfilled, all glory goes to him. But then we see how he's used sinful human beings to accomplish that will, and that should cause us to marvel. Paul's able to convince the centurion, and the soldiers do go and cut the lifeboat.

No more lifeboat. Those guys, those sailors who wanted to go, cannot go. And so the lifeboat is being cut. It's now drifting out sea. The only way they're going to get off board is the same way that everyone else is going to get off board, and that's by, joke, dumping overboard once the ship is grounded.

So at this point, the men are hungry and they're fatigued. Paul urges them to eat something, and he urges them to trust in the word of the Lord. He urges them to know that there is hope, because God has spoken. He reminds them once again in verse 34, that not a hair on their heads will perish from them. And the meaning of that, of course, is that they will not suffer harm.

Not even a single person will suffer harm. That God has spoken, and he will bring that about. But I'm convinced, beloved, that even though sometimes we marvel at the faith of people in the Bible, like the Apostle Paul in particular, I'm convinced that Paul's faith is what it is. Because he's had time over time and time again, he's been exposed to the faithfulness of God. It's not, to the Apostle Paul, it's not that he believes as an abstract concept, not at all.

In the mind of the Apostle, in the heart of the Apostle, he believes because he's tasted and seen the faithfulness of the Lord. He's seen how he's been with him all along. He's seen in 2 Corinthians 1 when he has come to the point where he even desires death. He came to a point where he despaired all of the world. He knew he had no more strength and he said it was so that the Lord would make us rely on Him and not on our own strength.

He knew that even though he came to the end of himself, that Christ remained faithful and he believed that he'll get him out of that situation and he'll continue to get him out of the situations moving forward to save him. He learned what it means to walk by faith and not by sight. He learned and experienced that Christ is faithful even if we are not. He cannot deny himself. These are words the Apostle Paul utters and writes in his letters.

And now he's sure that he will keep his word. And so he urges the men to eat and be encouraged. be strengthened, because it's only a matter of time before the Lord rescues us. And he will, because he said he will. And before all, he gives thanks to the Lord.

They get some food, he gives thanks to the Lord, and they begin to eat. Paul's unashamed of his God. And the testimony to all the 276 on board is that God can be trusted. And beloved, once they ate some food, we're told, they ate some food, and hear this, they threw the rest of the grain into the sea. Interesting.

That's an interesting point. Early on, when the tempest grew, and the waves, and the boat was going out of control, you remember what was happening back then. They threw all their cargo, they threw, we're told cargo, that's grain. They threw the tackle, and the equipment, and all these things overboard, yet we're told here, they still have some grain. I'm still holding to something.

This is money. The owner of the ship knows if he doesn't deliver that grain to Rome, that he won't get paid. So we'll throw most things overboard. We'll lighten the boat to some degree, but we'll keep some on board. But here, we're told that they throw the grain overboard.

No more payload. No more. There's no way in their hearts that this ship is going to be saved. They kept the cargo, and even though that was a risk because it weighed down the boat, because they still held on to it, the possibility of making income, they still held on to it. Paul had already said that we're going to lose the boat, but there was still cargo on board, there was still grain, it was still weighted down, but now They realised, it seems to me, they began to believe this boat's not going to be spared.

Our lives will be. So let's do everything to spare our lives and not worry about the boat. Because when it hits the ground and the water starts to flood in, all that grain is useless. It's destroyed anyway. Paul says, we're going to run aground.

We won't have an income anyway. So let's do it now. Let's just believe. I'm not saying they all became believers at that point in time. But I'm saying up until that point, they came to a point of despair where they abandoned all hope because they tried to tie the ropes, they tried to put the anchors out, they lifted the little life raft out of the water, but they were still holding on to something.

They hadn't done everything. But now they said even that which was gonna be our income, all gone. The only thing they can hope for right now is to be saved with only the shirt on their back. And it's sometimes that the Lord allows us to get to that point where we actually let go of absolutely everything before he brings us to the point of salvation. It's interesting.

We try to hold on. We'll say, Lord, we've given up everything, but we might hold on to one small, one small sin, one vice, one desire in this world. And we don't understand why we're not enjoying Him. But it may be that He's waiting for us to go even that. Whatever that is.

And the blessings may be flooded in. The very next day they see land. The very next day they see land. They don't recognise what land it is. You have to remember that we know it's Malta because we've read the book.

But this is a big Mediterranean scene. If you look at the map, you'll see that Malta here is on the south side of Italy. And there's nothing else. It's just an island in the middle of nowhere. For God to say that they're going to run aground on an island and it turns out to be Malta when there's nothing around is incredible.

They don't know where they are. It's been dark. They haven't seen the stars. The sun hasn't been up. All they know is they've been drifting at sea.

And now there's land inside. They cast the anchors. They tie the rudder and the ropes are loosened. But between them and the beach, we know there's a reef. And just as Paul said, the ship strikes the reef and gets stuck, and the back of the ship begins to break apart.

Beloved, the winds and the waves are still there. The conditions are still atrocious. These are really bad, bad, bad conditions. You can't explain it otherwise because the stern of the boat is breaking apart because of the waves that are hitting onto it. The only way they can survive this wreck is to jump overboard and swim.

But what makes it What makes it even more amazing is that if they were to jump overboard in those conditions, how can they survive? The boat has hit a reef. And if the waves are that rough and the sea is that rough, who can survive in water like that? It does require faith, even to jump into those waters and believe that your lives will be spared. The odds are against them, but God had spoken.

God has said that not one life will be spared. Not one life will be taken, my apologies. He said, no one dies. Okay. So God will make sure nature doesn't destroy the people.

We know before that he's in control of the winds and the waves, right? So he'll make sure that nature will not destroy the people. But now after surviving the atrocious conditions for weeks, There's actually a new threat, and it's not nature. It's the soldiers. They've been on board the whole time.

Who would have thought that that would be a threat to these people? Probably none of us. If anything, we would have thought that that would be the people who would defend them and rescue them. But now they're a threat. Because if you remember, Back in, and I referenced this before, back when Paul was in Philippi, when he was in the Philippian jail with Silas, you remember, and the doors opened miraculously of the prison, and the Philippian jailer was going to kill himself, and the apostle Paul says, no don't.

The reason why the Philippian jailer was going to kill himself was because In Rome, if you're a soldier in the charge of a prisoner, then your life is attached to that prisoner. In other words, if you allow that prisoner to escape, then it's your life. Because that's how seriously you need to guard the person that you were guarding. And so these Roman soldiers, they knew if any of these prisoners were to escape and word could get out, then it would be their life on the line. So they hatched this little plan.

It's a ruthless plan, it's a horrible plan, it's an inhumane plan, but the plan was to kill all the prisoners, lest anyone escape. The prisoners have absolutely no way of defending themselves at this point in time. None. These soldiers are trained killers. They're battle-ready Roman soldiers, and if they attempt to take your life, you have no say in the matter.

The winds and the waves, well, The Lord will rescue them from those. But what about the soldiers? And this brings us back to Julius and the favour that Paul had found in his eyes, a special favour that I believe the Lord has given this Roman centurion. Because Julius, who became fond of Paul from the very beginning, no doubt over this trip had become more and more fond of Paul. And he did not allow these men to lay a hand on a single one of the prisoners.

You won't do it. I'm the senior official. You will not touch them. And we're told why? Because he did not want them to kill Paul.

I love that. Don't do it. And they obeyed. And in a plan to accommodate for both those who could swim and those who can't swim, they all made it to shore safely. And beloved, I think Luke, in closing, intends for us to have a contrast in our minds in verse 20 and verse 44.

On the one hand he writes, when neither sun nor stars appeared for many days no small tempest lay on us here this all hope of our being saved was at last abandoned. No hope, humanly speaking. But then in the last verse of our passage, we read, and so it was that all were brought safely to land. From a point where they were looking at their own efforts and everything they could do, sure, they abandoned all hope. But in the end, when everything they could do, humanly speaking, was done, When they threw all the cargo off the ship and everything was done and they could see land in sight, there was still the risk of them drowning and even greater risk of the soldiers destroying their lives because that's what they do.

Yeah, because God had spoken. He brought them to land and every single one of them was safe. At one point, they were hopeless and pessimistic and they couldn't believe that they would survive this ordeal. Only days earlier, but now they find themselves on land at the island of Malta safe and sound. Beloved in verse 21 The Apostle Paul says to the people in relation to the decision which was lacking in wisdom to leave fair haven in the first place and set out to Phoenix, he says to them, I told you so.

You can almost imagine him now when all the men and all the people, 276 of them, not a single one lost. are all on the shore, probably lying on the sand, catching their breath. I can imagine the apostle Paul standing before them all and saying, I told you so. Jesus said that we will be saved, that not a single one of us will be lost. I told you so.

Believe in this God. He is the only true God. He can be trusted. He's sovereign. He's in complete control.

And you can place your trust in Him. There is hope in no one else. You've tried all your efforts and you failed dismally. Now come to trust in Him. Let's pray.