Sermon Tone Analysis

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.