Shipwrecked

If you have a Bible go ahead and grab it. We’re going to be in Acts 27 tonight and I want to ask you this question because it is really going to shape the bulk of what we are going to look at tonight: What is the difference between believing and believe in. I know those sound pretty similar but is there a difference between lets say believing in someone and believing someone. Or maybe an easier way to ask the question is this: what’s the difference between knowing someone and knowing about someone? You can know about who Joe Biden is and we all know about Joe Biden but none of us can say that we truly know the man. We don’t know his absolute innermost heart, we don’t know the thoughts that he has in his head (but in our defense, I don’t think he does either), and we can know all about him without truly knowing him. How then does that relate to man’s knowledge of God? Well man knows God exists, they aren’t ignorant to the fact that He is there, but they don’t have an intimate knowledge, a close connection, and they do not believe in Him. That’s really the entire message of Romans 1. What we are going to see is that for us as Christians, there is a great deal of gain for us because we don’t just know about the God who is there, we believe and know Him personally because He has chosen to reveal Himself to us. When we know this God, truly know Him and not just things about Him, it creates something inside of us that allows us to stand in the midst of chaos, in the midst of trials, in the midst of the storms, like no one else. Why? Because we know the providence of God, we know His sovereignty, we know His power, we know His might, but perhaps more importantly, we know Him. We know He loves us and when we know that the God who holds the universe holds us tenderly and lovingly in His hands, while the world may throw a lot at us, it will never be able to take God from us and that is the reality in which the Apostle Paul finds himself in Acts 27. Let’s open up in prayer and then we will start reading around verse 13.

Summary of Verses 1-12

We have a lot of verses that we are going to look at tonight so to save us a little bit of reading, I want to summarize what is happening in the first 12 verses. You’ll remember last week if you were here that Paul has just finished his 5th defense of himself and the Gospel and in the course of his defense, Paul has appealed his case to the highest court of power in the land: He has appealed to Caesar, who was likely at this time Emperor Nero of Rome. This is the same Nero that would be known as the Mad Emperor, the emperor who played his fiddle on the roof of his palace as half of Rome burned to the ground. The same Emperor Nero who would be responsible for the deaths of Peter and Paul and who knows how many others. This very emperor would be the one that would toss Christians to the lions in the coliseum, would cover them in animal skin and have dogs hunt them, and would even set them on fire to be used as candles in his garden parties. Nero was a bad dude and yet Paul wants his case to be heard by this very man. That’s not what I want us to focus on though, what I want you to remember is that Paul has been sent to Rome by Festus as a prisoner of Rome and at the beginning of chapter 27, Paul along with others who were not prisoners, like Luke, set sail for Italy. They are accompanied by other prisoners and that have been entrusted to a man named Julius and Julius treats Paul very well. Julius even allows some of Paul’s friends, like Luke, to take care of him and his needs and they sail for several days but they have some difficulty. The weather is not treating them well and as they go along the coast, they stop at a place called Fair Havens where a decent amount of time would pass. As the crew is about to set sail, Paul recognizes that there is a danger if they were to leave now. Paul either prophetically, or perhaps just as an experienced traveler, recognizes that if they were to leave now that not only would the ship and the cargo be in danger, the very health and lives of the crew would be in danger but the advice and warning of Paul is ignored and they decide to leave with the hope of reaching a harbor in Crete and then basically wait out the winter there. Let’s go ahead now and we will read Acts 27:13-44

Acts 27:13–44 (ESV)

Now when the south wind blew gently, supposing that they had obtained their purpose, they weighed anchor and sailed along Crete, close to the shore. But soon a tempestuous wind, called the northeaster, 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 Cauda, we managed with difficulty to secure the ship’s boat. After hoisting it up, they used supports to undergird the ship. Then, fearing that they would run aground on the Syrtis, 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 threw 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 heart, 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 the God to 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 Adriatic 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 four 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 pretense of laying out anchors from the bow, Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, “Unless these men stay in the ship, you cannot be saved.” Then the soldiers cut away the ropes of the 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 had said these things, he took bread, and giving thanks to God in the presence of all he broke it and began to eat. Then they all were encouraged and ate some food themselves. (We were in all 276 persons in the ship.) And 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 the sea, at the same time loosening the ropes that tied the rudders. Then hoisting the foresail to the wind they made for the beach. But striking a reef, they ran the vessel aground. The bow stuck and remained immovable, and the stern was being broken up by the surf. The soldiers’ plan was to kill the prisoners, lest any should 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 the land, and the rest on planks or on pieces of the ship. And so it was that all were brought safely to land.

There’s really only 2 things that I want to draw your attention to tonight which I think sounds a little bit better than the 11 things that we talked about last week: The first thing that I want to talk about is believing and belonging and then the second thing that I want us to talk about is the Christian in the midst of the storms.

Believing and Belonging

Before we tackle the storm, let’s tackle Paul’s statement to the crew in verses 21-25. In the midst of this great storm that these people have found themselves in, it is the Apostle Paul that stands out and encourages the crew. Not the captain, not the centurion guard, it is the man of God that stands out. He begins with a phrase that is seen numerous times in Scripture, “Take heart!” Grow in courage! Revel in comfort! Now this is a hard statement to make if you believe that all things are happening chaotically. If there is no God that is sovereign over the big things as well as the little things, then saying take heart is like saying good luck. There’s no power behind that just wishful thinking. Paul isn’t liking and sharing a social media post in the hopes that it will inspire and make a difference. How is Paul able to urge such a calm and courage in a time that seems to be totally out of their hands? It is because Paul knows the God through whom all calm and courage comes. That’s where he bases his call for courage. He says take heart! Why? Because that very night an angel of the to whom he belonged and worshipped told him, “Do not be afraid, Paul; you must stand before Caesar. And behold, God has granted you all those who sail with you.” Here we see the courage of the man that belongs to and believes in the God of all creation. Paul took courage because he belonged to and believed in God and there is a very important lesson in this that I want you to take notice of. Belief in God must be pointed to God Himself. It is one thing to believe there is a God, there is another thing to believe in the true God of all creation and belong heart, body, and soul to him. People can believe that there is a higher power out there in charge of the universe, they can believe in a small god or a big god, they can believe in a large number of gods but that belief does not matter unless they belong and what we know is that there is only one God that can save, only one God to whom we can truly belong. Paul didn’t just believe facts about God, He trusted God to do what He said He could do. He recognized that not only could God talk the talk, He would walk the walk. God never makes an empty promise. God never promises that which He cannot fulfill. Paul did more than just believe that God what there, He truly believed that God would keep His word. R.C. Sproul said, “Anybody can believe that God exists. Believing in God isn’t hard; what is difficult is believing God. Paul told the sailors that not one of them would perish. He believed that God would do exactly what He said He would do.” God spoke and Paul believed. God gave Paul a word and Paul did not sway from his belief even as the rains and the winds bore down on him. Now I have to ask you guys this question: Not only do you believe in God, not only do you claim to worship God, do you belong to God? You can believe in God but not worship Him. You can believe in a God but not praise or belong to Him. Do you belong to God? Is He your greatest treasure? Song of Solomon 6:3 says, “I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine.” In order for you to be saved, in order for you to worship God, you must belong to Him! It’s one thing to believe that you are married to someone, it’s another thing to belong to someone! It is one thing to act like you are married to someone but unless you belong, heart, body, and soul to someone, then you do not truly belong to that person? Do you see how this connects to our relationship with God? Christ makes this clear to us in His teaching on being the Great Shepherd. Jesus says in John 10:27-29

John 10:27–29 (ESV)

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.

Why do we follow Christ? It’s because we hear His voice and He knows us. He knows us long before we ever know Him and it is because we have been given to Him by the Father, because we belong to Him as His bride and great possession, that we follow Him. It is because we belong to Christ that nothing in all creation is able to remove us from Christ. Once one is bought by the blood of Christ, there is no return of that sale and there is no removing of what has been purchased. The price for our ransom was far too costly to ever be lost! J.C. Ryle said, “Christ declares that His people shall never perish. Weak as they are, they shall all be saved. Not one of them shall be lost and cast away; not one of them shall miss heaven. If they err, they shall be brought back: if they fall, they shall be raised. The enemies of their souls may be strong and mighty, but their Savior is mightier; and none shall pluck them out of their Savior’s hands.” The confidence in our belonging is found squarely in Christ’s purchasing and possessing of us and not in anything inside ourselves or our abilities. That is why Paul is able to have such tremendous courage in this storm of his life. So do you belong to Him? If you don’t, this very moment in your heart, cry out and ask that Christ would come into your life and would bring your from the darkness of sin and shame and into the newness of life that can only come through faith in Him, that can only come to one that has been given by the Father for the eternal possession of the Son. May today be the day of your salvation, may today be the day where you can say with Paul, “This God is the God to whom I belong and worship and it is Jesus Christ, God over all, that I have faith in.” You might believe things about God, you may believe in God, but do you belong to Him? I can’t answer that for you, I can’t make that for you, you must respond. You must take His yoke upon you and know that belonging to Christ will always be better than belonging to sin and Satan. While the Shepherd may have to lead us through rough terrain and dry valleys in order to come to still waters, we know that as long as we belong to the Shepherd that He will bring us where we need to be, to the place of pure goodness and that if we continue to listen to the voice of another, the thieves and the robbers, the one’s that do not truly care or love us, as long as we follow the voice of the Devil, destruction will be our home. Do you belong to the Lord Jesus Christ? Now is the time to decide whom you belong and are devoted to. When you belong to this Savior, you can stand boldly in the midst of life’s storms with great confidence because you know the One that is in control and you know the One that you are going to. Let’s talk quickly about the Christian in the midst of the storm.

The Christian in the Storm

Paul stands out from the rest of the sailors doesn’t he? He is a man of hope and this contrasts with the rest of the group because Luke says in verse 20 that they had abandoned all hope of being saved; not Paul though! He has tremendous confidence but it is not confidence in the flesh. It is not in the skill of the captain or in the sturdiness of the ship or in his experience as a sailor. It’s from God. And He has taken God at His word and He believes that if God says it will be one way, that’s how it’s going to be. What made Paul different was that he knew God. He didn’t just know about God, he knew Him personally. He knew that God was sovereign over the wind and the waves. He knew that God could calm that storm in an instant and when the word of the Angel came, any possible fear that Paul may have had melted away. Why? Was this irrational? Not at all because Paul trusted God and he knew that God was with him. If you know that God is for you, who can be against you? If you know God is with you, what storm could shake you from His lovingkindness? There’s this one moment in the Chronicles of Narnia, I think it’s in the Voyage of the Dawn Treader where Lucy and a number of other characters are on the ship and they come across this island that is shrouded in darkness and it’s described as this island where all your nightmares come true. The ship tries to get away from the island but it feels like it just can’t escape the darkness and Lucy, cries out to Aslan, who is the great Lion King of Narnia, the personification of Jesus Christ, and she says, “Aslan if you have ever loved us, please send help.” Not long after that, a little glimmer of light makes its way to the boat and an albatross is seen flying over head that leads them out of the island of darkness and C.S. Lewis, the author of the books writes, “But no one except Lucy knew that as it circled the mast it had whispered to her, ‘Courage, dear heart,’ and the voice, she felt sure, was Aslan’s.” This happens to us all the time right? We feel trapped in this darkness, trapped in this storm, trapped in this hurt and all it takes is that little spark, that little reminder of the God who is there and who loves us beyond all measure to bring us out of that despair. Perhaps the most important sentence in the book comes not long after when the crew completely escapes the darkness and Lewis writes, “And all at once everybody realized that there was nothing to be afraid of and never had been.” In the grand scheme of eternity, this is life for us as Christians. We know where we’re going and we know who we belong to and even though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we will fear no evil because the Lord is our God and He guides us. We can go through life’s storms because we know that all that is sad will one day become untrue. That all wrongs will be made right and after the last tear falls, there is a love that never ends. We know that right now this is just the dark before the dawn. Paul also was able to stand in the midst of that storm because he knew that God still had a work for him to do. Paul recognized that no matter what may come, if God had something for him, he would remain alive until he completed what God had for him to do. James Montgomery Boice said, “We can know that as long as God has work for us to do, God will preserve us to do it. God will not be frustrated; and if God is not frustrated, we do not need to be frustrated either. If God has work for us to do, then God will keep us alive to do it. And if you have finished the work that God has given you to do, why should you want to linger around here any longer? We may want to go to heaven as soon as possible, but until then we need to get on with our Father’s business.” Paul knew his savior and he trusted his savior. Paul knew that he had a mission to share his savior with others and we are tasked with the same task. One last thing before I close: We are to point to the God who saved us and we must share with the world that there is no other way out of the storm of life other than God’s way.

God’s Way or No Way

Look quickly again at Acts 27:30-32

Acts 27:30–32 ESV

And as the sailors were seeking to escape from the ship, and had lowered the ship’s boat into the sea under pretense of laying out anchors from the bow, Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, “Unless these men stay in the ship, you cannot be saved.” Then the soldiers cut away the ropes of the ship’s boat and let it go.

Man is always looking for a way to be saved but they almost always look for it by their own skills, own methods, own ways. Salvation comes from God’s way and God’s way alone. It’s God’s way or the highway to Hell. The answer of Heaven isn’t multiple choice with multiple right answers. It is God and God alone that saves. When it comes to salvation, from the escape of the ultimate storm in life, you will not be saved by your works, you will not be saved by your good deeds, you will not be saved by your merits or your beliefs in yourself or maybe some other god, you must enter the narrow gate of Heaven by Christ alone. Everyone may want heaven but relatively few seem to want it by the way that God requires. There is no escape from this storm called life outside of the person and work of Jesus Christ. There is no escape without faith in His Name. There is no escape by any other name but the name of Jesus Christ. Again I would encourage you that if you have not placed your faith in Christ, if you have not turned to Him as your lone source of redemption and rescue, do it now. Do it before the storm of life totally overwhelms you and make today the day that you have called out for the light to shine in the darkness. Make today the day of your salvation. Next week we finally finish the book of Acts with chapter 28 and I hope that the past 6 months in this book has been beneficial for you, I know that it has been an amazing time of study and reflection in my own life and to be honest, if we were to start back over in chapter 1 on March 1st, there is still so much that we could talk about. This is truly an amazing book that has been inspired by a truly amazing Savior. Let’s go to Him now in prayer.