The Shipwreck (Acts 27:27-44)

returning your models of course to acts 20:7 we're continuing of course our study of the book of Acts we're seeing the spread of the message of Jesus Christ has gone from Jerusalem through Judea Samaria to the uttermost part of the world and we've seen people being used by God and we think about people we've seen Peter and Stephen and Philip and Barnabas and Silas and Paul and Timothy and all these things now let's think about the book of Acts just for a second because we're right toward the end in fact there's probably only three or four more messages in our whole study of the book of Acts but let me remind you some things this is how we broke they are we break the book down it breaks down in three big sections and Acts chapters one through seven we saw the spread of the message in Jerusalem then in eight through twelve we saw the spread of the message in Judea and Samaria and then in chapters 13 through 28 we see the spread of the message and what we call the known world and as we've been seeing this there are two main people that sort of just stick out and if you looked at the next slide chapters 1 through 12 Peter is the man and he primarily goes to the Jews even though he was the first one to go to the Gentiles his primarily ministry is to the Jews but then in chapters 13 through 28 even though Paul is a Jew and he goes to the Jew first he primarily has a ministry to the Gentiles so we're in this last section the almost to the end of the book Paul is the one who's standing out he's been on trial he's with relative for the Jews he for the Romans in the last few chapters we saw that he stood before the Sanhedrin he stood before Roman leaders he stood before Felix and Festus and King Agrippa the second all of these things what God promised him God said you will stand before Jews Gentiles and the rulers the kings of the world and that's what's happening he's on his way to Rome because he has appealed to Caesar as long as since he Paul was a Roman citizen he could do that he's on the way to Rome to stand before the Emperor and we see in that trip and they left Caesarea and on the way to Rome they've gotten into trouble they've gotten into a bad storm the ship is lost at sea it looks like everybody's going to be lost but here's the great truth Paul knows that God has told him he will stand in Rome he knows that he knows he's going to make it in fact we saw last time that an angel came to Paul and said don't worry everybody is going to be okay and this morning we're gonna see the rest of the storm and we're gonna see the shipwreck and so as we begin let me just raise some questions for you what happens to the ship and the people on board how did Paul know what was going to take place how can we trust God in the trials of life because if you if you were with Paul at this time if there's Luke's with him and and I got any more esterases with him and all these other people there on that chip and it says that they lost all hope that any of them would survive what happens about trials or hours how do we trust God when things look like they're not the way they're supposed to be we say what is it and turn it out the way it's supposed to and then how should we view trials in our lives so there's a lot we'll see as we go through now let me start with this question what can you really count on in life sometimes people say well the government politics well a lot of people not everybody we've got some people in our church that that are leaders in government and I'm gonna tell you what when they tell you the truth they're telling you the truth but there's some people you say they say one thing they do another what about a product you buy this product it says guaranteed and then it breaks and you go that wasn't guaranteed and then people will say I promise you I'll be there and they're not there what can you really count on well there's one thing for sure that you know that you can always count on and it's always right and that is God's Word it is true I think we'll put it up here in just a second yeah God's Word John 17:17 that word is what its truth you can always count on we can base our lives on the Word of God 2nd Timothy says it's profitable I want you to think about some three things we can't always look at God's promises because the promise has always come true we can always go back to God's principles because they can always be counted on we can go back to God's prophecies because they will always come to pass how do you look at the Word of God do you say I believe the Bible it's perfect it's true it's it's the written revelation of God well this morning we're gonna see Paul and God's words gonna come to true exactly what God said let me show you something what did God told Paul he said you will stand at Rome Paul's gonna be there he said all will be saved on the ship everybody's gonna be saved in the ship he said the ship will be lost it was lost and they're gonna land on an island and they did the islands called Malta and so everything that God had told Paul came true and so when we think about the word God and we have the written revelation we can know the scripture we can apply the scripture we should trust it and realize that is true well let's begin unless let's think about where we are Paul is appealed to Caesar let me remind you that Paul is Jewish but his dad was a Roman citizen Paul was born a Roman citizen and by the way in that day and time that was big half the world were slaves then it was a whole group of people that weren't Romans they were called barbarians and then there were the Roman citizens who thought they were the greatest people in the world they ruled the world Paul was born a Roman citizen even though was Jewish and he grew up in Jerusalem and he studied in all of those things and so when all it came down to the bottom line Paul said I appeal to Caesar and he's on the way to Rome remember they got in the ship and I'm gonna show you the map in just a second but let me show you the outline of where we're gonna what we're going to finish this morning we're gonna see that they're on the ship and they're approaching land at the end and they've been out in the middle of the ocean for 14 days I don't even know where they are but they hear something that so they took soundings trying to figure out where they are some trailer sailors tried to escape we'll talk more about that we're gonna see Paul says let's have a meal all of these things and then we see their dramatic part the shipwreck and the ship was destroyed but all we're safe I have to tell you a personal story this is goes all the way back to when I was coaching at Mississippi State and I used to listen to Jay Vernon McGee anybody know who Jay Vernon McGee is through the Bible radio he talked through the Bible verse by verse passage my passage through five years and I love Jay Vernon McGee and and one thing that I can still remember is when Jay Vernon McGee taught acts 20:7 and the shipwreck and all that I remember sitting in my office I was listening to him and I was studying the Bible and I said when people teach the Bible they need to teach it with energy and excitement because I heard Jay Vernon teach this passage and it was like you were there and I was going this is great and I remember prof Hendrix Adele senators used to say don't bore people with the Bible because you can say Bible's real good it's real funny you can say hey the Bible's exciting let's look at it and so when I study this passage I always think back to Jay Vernon McGee and listening to him teach this passage so we're going to see some great stuff there let me show you the map let me where we are if you remember they were at Caesarea and they get on a ship and they go to side then they stop there and and Julius who is the Roman centurion who's in control of everything he lets Paul get off and talk to some friends and they get on this ship and they sail around Cyprus and they sell along this way the winds are not good and they stop at my room when they get to Myra they get on this big ship it's an Alexandrian ship probably a cargo ship that has sweet and everything on it and so they get on this big ship and they start off because there's stuff to go here but as they start off the winds are so bad that they end up getting decreed and they say we got to stop and they stopped at fair havens and they said listen I don't think we can go any further and Paul said let's don't go any further but the captain said here's what we got to do we need to get to the island to this place called Phoenix because it's a better Harbor and so Paul said I don't think we ought to go to try to get to the better Harbor they all said what do you think you know you're nothing and so they got in the ship and they started to get to Phoenix but the wind blew them off blue and patch that little island and this map it's called Carla but it's also called Plata the Bible says it called Cora and all of a sudden they got pushed out into the storm and this giant storm hit him and for 14 days that going up and down and they thrown all the things out and they tried to hold the ship together and just everything's going wrong and it actually said that they had decided that in verse 20 it says they saw that neither the Sun of the stars for many days and there was no small storm on top of them and all hope of them being saved was gradually abandoned how would you like to been on that ship and it's going up and down and people are sick and throwing they're throwing stuff off and these are sailors and things that everybody's saying you can almost see Paul say I told you we shouldn't have gone but anyway it's this is just a terrible time and they've abandon all hope and what we're gonna find is the first time Paul talked nobody listened to him the second time Paul talks they begin to listen to him and the third and the fourth time they do what he says and we'll see it as we go through it we saw it last time let me just remind you that he got up and he gave him some bad news and some good news okay here's the bad news he stood up and said in verse 21 you should have listened to me I told you not to leave you know you could just see and we talked about it last week that maybe Paul shouldn't have started that way but that's what he did but then he gave him some good news and the good news was this keep on have encouraged there will be no loss of life we'll lose the ship look what he says in verse 22 he says yeah I read you to keep up courage but there'll be no loss of life only the ship well how did he know that how did he know well because he makes this statement I want you to see what he says for this very night verse 23 an angel of the God to whom I belong to and serve stood before me now I wanted to stop because we talked about this last week he said the God I belong to and I serve has sent me a message and we talked last week about belonging to God and I think the next slide says something about that that of we belong to God we've been bought with a price he purchased us there's redemption and and we are to serve Him and you think about this next slide I think it says we serve him we're bond servants of Jesus Christ every one of us in this room who have trusted in Christ you've been bought by Jesus Christ himself and you're a servant of Christ I want to I want you to think for a minute about belonging to God think about how we belong to God we belong to God as a child to a father as a slave to a master and as a bride to a grand don't you think about that look at the next thing as a child to the father you realize that when you trust you Jesus Christ as Savior John 1:12 as many as received him to them he gave the right to become what children of God even those who believed in his name you can call God what father you can call him daddy because the word is ABBA it's an Aramaic word which means daddy we can call God our Father we talked about this over the past the Jewish people never they would even say the name of God they wouldn't even say yhw AIDS that's the personal name of God they wouldn't even say it and when Jesus said our Father returned him and they all looked at him like you're talking that you can't you're not supposed to do that he said you can call him daddy we belong to God as a child to a father second we belong to God as a slave to a master we've been bought with a price we're not our own therefore glorify God in our bodies we belong to Jesus Christ he purchased us our or for him and the third thing is we're a bride to a groom see where the Bride of Christ were the church the body of Christ in Ephesians chapter 6 talks about how he loves us and he's protecting us and he's gonna make a spotless and blameless and bring us to him and so when you think about belonging to God he's your father he's your master and he should room and we belong to him the bottom line that Paul said was this I'm gonna be at Rome we're all gonna be saved the ship will be destroyed but we'll land on an island look look at verse 25 therefore keep up your courage men for I believe God just as it will turn out exactly as I've been told but we must first run aground on a certain island he says it's gonna turn out just as God said let me tell you something everything you find in the scripture every truths from the scripture every promise from the scripture every aspect of scripture will turn out exactly as God says if he says I'll never leave you or forsake you you don't have to worry he's never gonna leave you forsake you even if you said I don't feel like God's close to me he's close to you whether you feel it or not he'll never leave you or forsake you if you say I just don't know how we're gonna make it and he's gonna provide every needed you have he made a promise think about that how do we view the scripture it's truth it's alive it's perfect it's powerful well let's see what happened there on this big ship there's 276 people they've been lost at sea for 14 days look what happens I start at verse 27 we'll go to the end of the chapter look at verse 27 when the fourteenth night came as they were being driven about in the Adriatic Sea about midnight the sailors begin to surmise that they were approaching some land now how would they know that how would you think being on this ship storm waves wind how do you think they thought they were getting close to land huh they may hurt they may have heard some something like waves sitting on a shores I think that wait a minute we hear something there there's got to be some land out there so they thought maybe we're getting close to land so here's what they decided to do they took soundings and found it to be 20 fathoms a little further on they took another sound and found it to be 15 fathoms I want you to think about it they first that best way we could tell is they had like something very heavy on a rope and they would let it down over the side of the ship and they'd see how far down it would go and when he got to the bottom they'd say okay that's about 120 feet down there and then they kept going and they sounded again and they went oh my it's 90 feet it's getting shallower and shallower what does that mean we're getting closer and closer to to land and they thought wait a minute this is the middle of the night this is a huge storm the waves are coming the winds come in we do not want what crash on the sword we don't know what to do so it says they took soundings and found it to be 20 fathoms and a little further only took another say I mean I found it to be 15 fathoms and here's what they said fearing that we might run aground somewhere on rocks they cast four anchors from the stern and wished for daybreak we should so they said okay we're gonna anchor the ship best we can we're gonna set here going up and down in this storm I want you to remember this storm has not stopped it's not even gonna stop after they get on the island but they say to themselves listen we don't want to do anything while it's dark because we can't see anything let's just hope we can hake right here until it becomes daylight and then we'll see what we can do so they're hoping for daylight now watch what happened you remember Paul has already told them what he stood up in front of the group and said first of all you shouldn't have gone you should have listened to me second an angel of the God that I belong to and serve has already told me that every one of you will survive I'm going to Rome and God has granted your lives so nobody on these ships gonna die however we're going to crash on an island and lose the ship that's what he's told them now they hear the island they hear something out there and so they anchor the boat down but notice what happens verse 30 but as the sailors were trying to escape from the ship and had let the ships but let the ship's boat into the sea on pretense of intending to lay out anchors from the bow some of the sailors pretending to say we're gonna put some anchors out front they decide they're gonna get in the ship they're little bitty boat and they're gonna make it to shore on their own is that what they should do well you think well watch what happens so some trailers were trying to escape Paul said to the Centurion he goes to Centurion and to the soldiers he says unless these men remain in the ship you yourselves cannot be saved now he talks to the Centurion look what he says next slide he talks to this intern if they leave the ship you cannot be saved now let me tell you I looked at that verse a bunch of he didn't say if you if these sailors leave the ship they'll die he's just told them that everybody's going to be what safe does he mean and it's you plural is he talking to the soldiers and just Centurion and saying if these guys happen to get off the boat none of us are gonna make it because it's all plural he says you plural cannot be saved does he mean maybe if they get off we won't have enough people to help get it or is he saying actually you plural and he's pointing at those guys and saying if you guys get off the boat you plural you're not gonna make it what he's really saying is we gotta all stay on this ship because God's promise is that everybody on the ship is gonna be okay so process they shouldn't be getting off this ship so look at verse 32 and by the way yeah he go ahead to the next slide is he saying if if they leave will not have enough people to save us all or if they leave they won't survive we just don't know what he means by this so what did they do verse 32 then the soldiers cut away the ropes of the ship's boat and let it fall away so these guys were gonna sneak off soldiers came over to cut the ropes boat fell out in the water and floated away and they went you're not going on this boat you're staying on the ship everybody's staying on the ship you know those guys who thought they could sneak off they probably thought this is not right we were gonna try to get out of here we're not taking any chances on this boat but Paul already has word from God everybody's gonna be okay watch what happens until they until the day was about to dine Paul was encouraging them all to take food saying today is the 14th day that you've been constantly watching and going without eating and have taken nothing now it's getting early you can see the Sun its way again with the clouds everything is beginning to get a little bit lighter there's still rain coming down there's still the storm the ship is being tossed up and down but Paul gets up and says listen everybody we of us none of you have eaten for 14 days you've been hanging on for dear life and you've got been constantly watching and going without eating and have taking nothing and here's what he says therefore I encourage you to take some food but this is for your preservation you gotta have strength for not a hair from the head of any of you will perish he says we need to eat we all need to eat because you've got to keep your strength up because when this ship crashes you gonna have to get to shore and you're gonna need your strength to get to shore and so he says it's for your preservation we all need to eat we all need to eat God promised everybody's gonna make it what do you think about the promises I love this passage I didn't put I think I've got just the verse reference the next slide romans 4 20 and 21 says this is talking about Abraham and he says with respect to the promises of God he did not waver in unbelief but he grew strong in his faith and he was assured that whatever God promised he was able to do let me tell you something if God makes a promise he's gonna do it there's some two things first of all God cannot lie so if God says I will do something he can't lie second he's all-powerful that means he can't lie and he's got the power to do whatever he says what does he promise to us think about this this briefly there's a million things he's promised you what he turn a wife how long has eternal life lasts forever when you trust Jesus Christ as Savior that exact moment you get eternal life and you were saved and say forever you have an eternal relationship with Jesus Christ that's one of the most famous verse in the Bible says God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes won't perish but have eternal life that's a promise by God you will never when you trust in Christ his promise is you will never be separated from me you have an eternal relationship with me forever that's a promise he made a promise I'll provide everything that you need Philippians 4:19 my God shall supply all your needs according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus he will provide everything that we need we'll never have to worry about it protection I said it while ago Hebrews 13:5 he will never leave us or forsake us what should we fear even when we're by ourselves even when there's mess all around us we just have to trust him he is there to protect us and in the power we have the power of the Holy Spirit Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through the one through Jesus Christ who strengthens me the power of the Holy Spirit in Jesus Christ inside of us he's promised the power to live the protection the provision the eternal life and there's so many other things he's promised a home in heaven he's promised all kinds of different things promised a new body he's promised all kind of things do you believe the promises Paul said whatever God said is going to happen and Paul's taking it for sure he says listen I guarantee you everyone on this ship not a hair of your head will perish you're gonna make it to the shore we're gonna lose the ship we're gonna get on an island they don't even know what time is there anything about it so what did he do then look what he did having said this he took bread and gave thanks to God in the presence of all and broke it and began to eat Paul is serving Jesus Christ in the midst of this giant ship and all these men and he he gives a prayer he blade breaks bread gives a night tune and thanks God notice what he says and he took bread and he gave thanks to God in the presence of all and he broke it and began to eat he said here you guys need to eat thank you Lord for this provision thank you that you're gonna take care of us thank you that we're going to get on the land thank you for all your blessings and your promises let's eat that you guys start eating everybody eat that's what he says all of them were encouraged and they themselves also took food they all went as well and look what he says all of us in the ship were 276 persons it is not a little bitty ship at the huge ship it's an Alexandrian ship from Alexandria Egypt one of the big shipping places of the world had the largest library in the world had was known for theology and Alexander northern Egypt and that ship it was on the way to Rome and we know they're carrying wheat because they're gonna throw it overboard in a minute so they were carrying wheat we don't know what else they were carrying but they've thrown so much overboard already because of the storm so it says all of us in the ship were 276 persons when they had eaten enough they began to lighten the ship by throwing out the wheat into the sea they said listen we need to be in high in the water as possible when we go into the shore so let's bow everything off we can so that we can get there and take care of ourselves they wanted to get to that Shore let's see the shipwreck watch what happens verse 39 when day came they did not recognize the land but they did observe a bay with a beach and they resolved to drive the ship on to it if they could they look like a bathe sometimes less you could kind of go in and it looked like a beach and so they said here's what we're gonna do we're gonna try to head the ship right into the beach hopefully we'll just kind of hit up into the beach and we'll all be okay that's gonna be the plan by the way this is what island called Malta and I think we got a we have a map this the bay go ahead and go back to that slide right there the bay is caught on this island of Malta today is a place called st. paul's bay let me give you go to the slide now that of the map this is Malta today there is a place called st. Paul's base on this side of the island now when you look at it to date there at the place they call saint paul's bay is not really a bay and there's not really a beach and so one of gary Harding's good friends named bob cornuke decided that he didn't think that was the right place he's done a lot of studies this is the book that Gary gave out earlier in the summer and if you really study it you find that probably this is nice where tradition says they landed it's probably not where they landed they probably landed in another part of the beach or another part of the island but it really doesn't matter even today on Malta they have a place called st. paul's bay whether it's exactly the right place or not we we don't really know it's probably not the exact place but anyway they looked out there and they saw this beach and they said let's just let's run the ship they're casting off anchors they left them in the sea while at the same time they were loosening the ropes or the rudders and hoisting the force to the wind they headed for the beach so they're owned away they're ready to go and they said we're gonna go that way we put up the sail winds gonna push us in we're going in they're all excited but look what happened but striking a reef for the two seas meant they ran the vessel aground and the prow stuck fast and remained immovable but the stern begin to be broken up by the force of the ways they hit this place they hit this reef and the ship got stuck and the front part got stuck and the back part will start moving around and the waves were beginning to tear the ship to pieces and they're going oh my gracious what are we going to do and the wind and the rain is still coming down we know that because I think you know after they get on the island it's still raining so what is the plan notice the soldiers plan was to kill the prisoners so that none of them would swim away and escape you remember if you're a Roman soldier and you regarding a prisoner if your prisoner escaped you died so at this Junction some there's other prisoners on board besides Paul Paul as a prisoner and they've said listen we can't take a chance of these guys getting away from us and then we'd have to die so let's go let's kill all of the prisoners well who's one of the prisoners Paul they gonna kill Paul look what happened but the Centurion wanted to bring Paul safely through kept them from their intention and commanded that those who could swim should jump overboard first and get to land and the rest should follow on planks and others on various things from the ship so here's the plan they said listen we're not killing anybody Paul you you I'm my job is to get you to Rome that was his responsibility he said I'm not killing we're not killing anybody here's what you can do if you can swim and most of them probably could the sailors if you can swim just jump in and go if you can't swim the ship is tearing to pieces get on a plank get on anything and hopefully it'll push you on in that's the plan and watch what happens he says and the rest of us for 44 and the rest should follow on planks and others on various things from the ship and notice and it so happened gia just so happened that they all were brought safely to land why because just did God said I would be saved what do you think about what God says think about this do you trust what God says do you trust his promises do you think his promises are going to come true do you trust this prophecies do you think they're going to come to pass do you trust his principles do you think those are the things that we live by do we base our lives on the Word of God let me tell you what we need to do you need to know it that means a study at second Timothy 2:15 study to show yourself approved to work but need not be ashamed handling accurately the Word of God you need to dig the scripture you need to believe it and trust it live your life by it you need to apply it Philippians 49 talks about living out and then finally we need to pass it on to other people that's what we should do and my prayer for every one of us in this room is that we would dig the word we'll apply the word we'll understand the word and we'll pass on the word now let me show you one thing I just if you look at the start of chapter 28 I just want you to see this when they had been brought through safely through we found out that the island was called Malta in this Malta today and it says the natives showed us extraordinary kindness for the cause of the rain that it set in and because of the cold they kindled a fire and received a song now if you want to read ahead for next week and see what happens when they're building the fire and Paul is helping them build a fire what happens to these people and what happens to Paul and what happens on the island let me just tell you something Paul was a prisoner but he served God on that ship and proclaim Jesus Christ and basically told them truths about God on this island he's a prisoner but you're gonna find that Paul serves Jesus Christ on this island and one of the great truths of our lives is wherever we are we need to serve Jesus Christ let me let me give you the some applications and we'll close first of all we gotta trust God in the trials of life they're gonna be things that are not smooth they're gonna be things that are ups and downs you would think that if God said to Paul you're gonna make it to Rome that would be smooth but it's not smooth at all fact it's hardly ever smooth and what we have to do is do what we have to trust his promises his principles and his prophets we gotta trust the Bible and as I said while ago and I think is this truth steady the Bible and you may say okay I'm not sure I know how to study it exactly right well let me tell you this number one all of us in this room need to have our own time that we can dig the scripture for ourselves but if you don't feel confident then we add these SBI classes that we have our Bible Institute there's one call before 12:00 there's one cold test a New Testament survey there there's the one I'm going to be doing is calling becoming a disciple maker we're gonna talk about how to get into the scripture and how to how to pass it on and those kind of things so we want to train you if you say I want to know the scripture well we'll help you if you if you're you know in that process and then to believe it it applied and to proclaim it every one of us in this room we have over privileged and responsibility to pass on what we know it doesn't mean we all have the gift of teaching but it does mean that we have the responsibility to pass on the truth so we have to trust God in the trials of life go back to his word second thing and this is one that I wish I don't know I don't like this trials are for our benefit I don't want the trials how many of you want trials but they're for you what why because what happens when we come in to think about this for believers James says count it all joy when you fall into various trials because of testing your faith works what patience it cost you to trust God when the trials come into your life you say okay I don't understand it but I am trusting you for unbelievers sometimes trials come in their lives and it brings them to Christ things happen and they say my life's a mess and they look for the answers so trials are for our benefit the third one be ready to serve God in all situations when Paul was on that ship he surged when he was on the island remember these truth we've been bought with a price we belong to him we're to serve Him and I think the next one says were yeah we're serve him we are born slaves of Christ Colossians 3:17 is where my favorite verses whatever you do in word or deed do all of them and Elena the Lord Jesus and give thanks and glory to God through him whatever you do in your words and your deeds do it all for the Lord Jesus may we trust God in the trials of why resting in his word seeking to serve him wherever we are you

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Length: 32min 7sec (1927 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 31 2014