On the Way to Rome

[ 001 ] How many of you know that life doesn’t always look the way you thought it would look? Right? When you’re young, and you have visions for how your life will work out best, you get to 45 like I am, and you’re like, I can see why people go into a mid-life crisis at this age. You realize you’re across the 50 yard line and this isn’t looking like you thought it would.

Back in August of 2020 our family decided to head out on a week-long camping trip to Decorah, Iowa. We don’t own a camper, so we were borrowing one from my sister-in-law, and were using her 12 passenger van to pull it since we didn’t have a truck at the time either.

We made it as far as the exit for the CR airport when the derecho hit us and pushed us across the right lane onto the shoulder. As soon as we came to a stop, we watched a semi coming southbound get blown into the median and flip over on the side. For 50 minutes, I white-knuckled the steering wheel and tried not to panic as the wind did everything it could to remove the trailer from the van, or roll us into the ditch. By God’s mercy, we stayed upright and survived the storm, but I was hoping to be sitting in my chair in front of a fire watching the kids fish – not hanging on for dear life in a storm like that.

Hopefully it’s not always that dramatic, but for most if not all of us, the journey of our lives doesn’t always look the way we expected it to look. But I think if we can learn to appreciate the journey just as much as we appreciate the destination, we’re going to be a lot further ahead in the end. So, that’s where we’re headed today, but first let’s ask the Lord to help us get there with him today.

PRAY

We are starting into Acts chapter 27 today, and basically, what you need to know is that Paul is finally getting his wish of heading to Rome. Rome was the political, economic, and cultural center of the Roman Empire. It was the city that represented the entire empire. I had an idea what city in the US that would be, but I thought, eh, let’s see what Google says. Maybe I’m not as relevant as I think I am. So I typed in, what is the political, economic and cultural center of the United States. Can you guess what it was?

It’s actually Lone Tree. Lone Tree, Iowa. Didn’t see that coming. No, you’re right – it was New York City. World leaders are hosted there at the United Nations, Wall Street is there, it’s a melting pot of all the cultures of the world. That’s pretty much describing Rome.

So in Paul’s mind, if you are called specifically by Jesus to take the gospel to Gentiles, what better place to go than Rome. There’s an old saying that says, “as it goes in the city, so it goes in the country.” Whatever happens in urban areas tends to spread to the country eventually. So if Paul can help the gospel take root in Rome, it will eventually spread all across the Empire.

I imagine that initially, Paul probably thought his trip to Rome would be on his own terms, where he sort of went where he wanted to go. But things already don’t look like he thought they would, when chapter 27 [ 004 ] begins with, 27 When it was decided that we were to sail to Italy, they handed over Paul and some other prisoners to a centurion named Julius, of the Imperial Regiment. He’s not going on his own terms – he’s going as a prisoner.

Now, you didn’t have Priceline or Expedia back then, so people who wanted to travel by sea went to the closest port city to find a ship heading where they wanted to go (Bock, 731). [ 005 ] And in verse 2, they find a ship that’s headed northwest along the coast, so that’s a good start.

Now here is where having a physical Bible in your hands can be helpful. If you flip all the way to the back, you’ll see some maps. And in most Bibles, the very last map is Paul’s voyage to Rome. So you can follow the line there as I’m reading about the trip if you want to. [ 006 ] Or you can follow along on the map here on the screen.

3 The next day we put in at Sidon, and Julius treated Paul kindly and allowed him to go to his friends to receive their care. 4 When we had put out to sea from there, we sailed along the northern coast of Cyprus because the winds were against us. 5 After sailing through the open sea off Cilicia and Pamphylia, we reached Myra in Lycia. 6 There the centurion found an Alexandrian ship sailing for Italy and put us on board. Paul must have butterflies in his stomach, right, this is it! He’s going over to Aristarchus and Luke, let’s go, guys!! We’re doin’ this!

But things were about to get interesting. 7 Sailing slowly for many days, with difficulty we arrived off Cnidus. Since the wind did not allow us to approach it, we sailed along the south side of Crete off Salmone. 8 With still more difficulty we sailed along the coast and came to a place called Fair Havens near the city of Lasea. 9 By now much time had passed, and the voyage was already dangerous. Since the Day of Atonement was already over…

It’s dangerous because of the time of year. The Day of Atonement is a Jewish festival that happens in late September/early October, and Luke records that it’s in the rearview. It’s already past. In addition, “every sailor knew that sailing was difficult from mid-September to mid-November, and impossible from mid-November to February” (Wiersbe, 1:508). This ship may have been the last one for the year coming out of Egypt, so it’s already pushing the envelope for safe travel – and then to have some slow days and having to readjust because of the wind, they have lost a lot of valuable time, and are already into October where things can get pretty dicey and they’ve still got 800 miles to go. [ 008 ]

…so Paul gave his advice 10 and told them, “Men, I can see that this voyage is headed toward disaster and heavy loss, not only of the cargo and the ship but also of our lives.”

Paul may have been a tentmaker, but he has spent a lot of time on the water. In 2 Corinthians 11, Paul writes that he was shipwrecked three times – so he’s not very excited about doing that a fourth time. After losing a lot of time to the wind, and realizing they are in trouble, finally he speaks up and says, look this isn’t going to end well if we keep going. Now, as we’ll read in a second, [ 009 ] Fair Havens isn’t the best place to harbor. It’s not protected enough from the winds.

But Paul surveys the situation, looks at the calendar, and says, we don’t have a choice – we have to stay here. But, verse 11 …the centurion paid attention to the captain and the owner of the ship rather than to what Paul said. 12 Since the harbor was unsuitable to winter in, (at least according to the captain and owner), the majority decided to set sail from there, hoping to play their shot in the dark and somehow to reach Phoenix, a harbor facing the southwest and northwest, and to winter there. 13 When a gentle south wind sprang up, they thought they had achieved their purpose. They weighed anchor and sailed along the shore of Crete.

I’m guessing with that gentle breeze, there were a lot of smiles and rejoicing on the ship. Maybe the captain and the owner looked at Paul like, what’s up now, tent boy? Anything you want to say? And maybe Paul is going, look I’ve never been happier to be wrong, maybe even praising God, thanking him for his favor. I think he went to the front of the ship and did the Titanic pose.

People who know the island of Crete well suggest that when Paul’s ship had gone about 8 miles, which is a little over an hour, [ 010 ] 14 … a fierce wind called the “northeaster” rushed down from the island. The derecho hit. You can see this reflected in the sharp downward change in that yellow line.

They end up getting blown 23 miles south, where they end up, verse 16 …under the shelter of a little island called Cauda, we were barely able to get control of the skiff. They are able to hide behind a small island to do some emergency operations. 18 Because we were being severely battered by the storm, they began to jettison the cargo the next day. 19 On the third day, they threw the ship’s tackle (any extra equipment, potentially even the main sail – that’s how desperate they are (Bock, 736)) overboard with their own hands. [ 011 ] 20 For many days neither sun nor stars appeared, and the severe storm kept raging.

When you’re operating a ship like this without radar, without any sort of instruments, you rely on the sun to know which direction you’re headed. The sun comes up behind you, great! We’re still headed west. The north star appears to your right – perfect, still going west. But when you have 3, 4, 5 days that you can’t tell where the sun is and you can’t see the stars, you have no idea which direction you’re going. All they know is that the wind came from the northeast. Verse 17 says they are afraid they might hit the Syrtis, a shallow sandbar off the coast of Africa known as the ship graveyard. That was 400 miles away from Crete, but with this wind and having no clue where they are, it could be anywhere. [ 012 ]

And Luke ends verse 20 with a statement of despair – Finally all hope was fading that we would be saved, delivered, rescued. That’s not how we imagined the trip would go.

Have you ever been in that kind of a place? All hope was fading that things would get back to normal, or back to what you wanted them to be? That’s where a lot of our stories end up. Whether it’s addictions or broken families or relationships or financial crisis or questions about faith and God that seem to never get answered – maybe you found yourself in a position where the shame of your sin weighs you down to the point where it feels like you’ll never get out from under it, or you feel stuck in your faith. When you’re in the middle of those situations, it can feel like being in a storm without a radar. You don’t always know if you’re going the right direction or making things worse. On top of losing hope that they would be saved…

[ 013 ] 21 … they had been without food for a long time…If you look down at verse 33, you’ll see it’s been 14 days since these guys have eaten food. Everyone is hungry, they’ve been fighting the storm day and night for quite a while now, they have no idea where they are, they’re chucking stuff overboard, nothing is helping, and then out from the middle of the ship, this unimpressive bowlegged preacher that makes tents in his spare time stands up among them and said, “You men should have followed my advice not to sail from Crete and sustain this damage and loss. “I told you so! You should have listened to me!” Paul is not trying to make them feel worse here, but he is saying, see, I know what I’m talking about (Bock, 737). And here’s why you need to listen to me:

Everyone on that ship had a god of some sort they were praying to – all kinds of mythological beings and deities that were supposed to be able to help them. The god of wind. God of storms. Rain. Whatever. So good ol’ “never-waste-a-crisis” Paul is standing up and saying, it doesn’t look like any of your gods are going to be much help here, but now that you can see I know what I’m talking about – 

[ 014-1 ] 22 … I urge you to take courage, because there will be no loss of any of your lives, but only of the ship. 23 For last night an angel of the God I belong to and serve stood by me [ 014-2 ] 24 and said, ‘Don’t be afraid, Paul. It is necessary for you to appear before Caesar. Paul must have been praying for everyone on the ship too, because the angel continued, And indeed, God has graciously given you all those who are sailing with you.’ [ 014-3 ]

25 So, take courage, men, because I believe God that it will be just the way it was told to me. God has saved us from death, we’re NOT headed for the graveyard – instead, he has given us our lives!

Here’s what I think is wild: Because of Paul’s witness, everyone onboard that ship is now 1) aware of a God they have never worshiped, 2) they can see that this God has a personal presence that their gods don’t have, 3) they can see that a servant of this God has some wisdom they don’t have, and 4) the rest of the trip now they will have to trust Paul’s God, to believe that it will be like he said it would be.

The storm, being blown way off course, losing the cargo, and all of that sure looks like a massive interruption to God’s plan for Paul’s life – get him to Rome – and yet, what struck me with this story is that Paul never complains about the storm! He is not pouting on the deck of the ship, going, COME ON, GOD! I’ve waited so long to make this trip – first I get stuck under house arrest for two years, and now this! I want to get there and preach the gospel. I want to see people saved. I want to encourage them, and have them encourage me. I want them to see that the gospel is the power of God for salvation! Finally I get out of the prison and onto a ship, and you dump this on me.

Have any of you ever been there?

Let me be fully transparent with you. I love to teach God’s word, I love the local church, ever since I was a young man I’ve known that God would use me to serve the church, but I have beat myself up for the last 6 years because I’m not very confident starting conversations with unbelievers about Jesus. If a stranger walks up to me and asks me about matters of faith, boom, let’s go, not a problem. But starting that conversation is something I used to carry a lot of shame around, until recently. Several people have spoken truth into my life and I’ve been released of that shame. It’s wonderful.

But here’s how the conversation would go in my head: If Jodi and I ever get to move to Riverside, I’ll be more evangelistic then. We’ll have people over and I’ll be bold, and I’ll ask them really good questions… I’ll walk around town on my breaks, and stop and talk to people – oh, that’s nice that your flowers are growing – do you know Jesus? Oh, my boldness level is going to skyrocket when I move to Riverside. I’ll be who I want to be once I get there.

And I think that’s how a lot of us think about life:

When I get financially secure, I’ll start giving more to the church, or being more generous just in general.

When I graduate high school and get through college, when I get married my life will settle down and I’ll be able to focus more on Jesus then.

When I get this project done, When the kids are out of the house, When baseball season is over, then I’ll have time for something like discipleship or community groups or really digging in to growing in my spiritual life.

And I’m not trying to shame anyone with those examples. But here’s what I want you to see in our passage today – Paul was desperately eager to get to Rome, the same way you’re desperately eager to be financially secure, or not so busy with sports, or in a healthier place in your marriage, or in a better job that you enjoy. But look at what Paul is doing on the way there: Two weeks without food, no idea where they are, preparing to hit the graveyard at any moment, Paul isn’t just praying that the wind will stop so he can get to Rome and lead people to Jesus – he’s praying for the people next to him NOW, and then opening his mouth to be a witness, so that they would come to a saving knowledge of the God he belongs to and serves! He is testifying to God’s presence and his power right where he is, and praying for the people standing next to him!

In other words, he’s the same person on the ship in a derecho as he will be in Rome! He’s doing the things he would do in Rome right here on the journey.

See I think the enemy has snuck into our churches and convinced us that safety, comfort, wealth and earthly security is the “Rome”, the good life that God wants for us NOW, and that if we face anything difficult, impossible, or otherwise challenging, that God is silent or not working. I call BS. If God was willing to crush his own Son for our salvation, I would say some of his best and most loving, faithful, and fatherly work is done in the crushing parts of our lives. If his goal is to make us more like Jesus, we should be surprised if we’re not experiencing challenges on our way to maturity.

I also think some of the devil’s best work recently is that he’s convinced us that we are in a busy season and it’ll soon be over, and that we’ll have time for Jesus or discipleship or community then. Our “Rome” we’re trying to get to is on the other side a giant sea called “busy season.” Let’s just get this out of the way – you’re not in a busy season: You’re just alive. It’s called life. If you had more hours in the day, you would fill those with the same things you’re filling these with. Honestly, what’s probably underneath us always being in a “busy season” is our complete inability to say no to good things. And that comes by way of insecurity, and the fear of missing out.

Or maybe the devil’s work with you is that he’s convinced you that until you get an apology from the person who hurt you, you don’t have to forgive. Until I hear the words, “I’m sorry”, and their level of groveling matches their crime, I’m not going to forget what they’ve done to me; I’m not budging; I’m not going to forgive.

Or, if I could just have some questions answered, then I’d trust Jesus with my life. If he could just explain to me how he could allow suffering to happen to children, or how he could have let that abuse happen, or if he could just explain how all this stuff works, then I’d give him my life.

I don’t know what your “Rome” is. But sometimes I think the devil convinces us that when we get there, then we’ll be obedient, then we’ll have more time, then we’ll be more surrendered to Jesus. And these are simply lies to keep us from being effective in the middle of the ordinary storms and circumstances of our lives, reaching the people right beside us on the boat!

I’m just telling you – the winds of life are always going to be there. Some are favorable. You may get the Rome you’re looking for. Some make for slow going, and it takes a lot longer than you thought it would. Some winds set you way back, and some blow you so far off course you have no idea how you got here.

[ 015 ] But here’s the whole sermon narrowed down to one sentence: Our circumstances don’t get to override our obedience. Our circumstances don’t get to override our obedience. How do we know? Because Jesus, the one the wind and the waves obey, didn’t stop the storm. Instead, he showed up in it to announce life where there should have been death.

The gospel is that 2000 years ago, Jesus, the Son of God, was the messenger who showed up to a world that also had no hope of being saved, with a message that the ship and everything in it is headed for the graveyard of eternal separation from God because of our unbelief and rebellion against him. But his message was that there is a God here among us who saves!

The good news of the kingdom is that the King is here in mercy and healing and salvation and in freedom instead of condemnation and judgment, because Jesus was obedient in the middle of the circumstances that were marching him toward crucifixion. He was here on earth to step in and take the condemnation we deserved, absorbing the wrath of God in himself, so that anyone who stops straining against the wind, but puts their faith in him and his finished work on the cross, is not only forgiven and has their record of sin washed away – they are covered with the righteousness of Jesus, and filled with the very Spirit of God who is our helper in this life. The fact that he sent us a helper to do life with us – it’s almost like he expected that we would have storms!

Now, with all of that said, please hear me – I’m not saying don’t pray for the storm to quiet down. I’m sure Paul was praying for that too, so don’t hear me say you can’t pray for your situation to change. But don’t overlook the fact that

your financial struggle is exactly where God wants you to be obedient and generous…not only after you have a surplus.

Your brokenness in marriage or brokenness in your family or your brokenness in your friendships is exactly where God wants to help you to be patient and kind and forgiving and self-controlled and un-anxious… not only after it’s resolved.

Your lousy job that you hate is exactly where God wants you to be obedient and trust him… not just when you get the one that you are excited about.

Your busyness is exactly where God wants to prove himself faithful to you and give you rest…not just when you have free time some day.

Teenagers and young people – where you are right now – middle school, high school, college – is not something to just endure on your way to being mature in Christ, but it is actually where God is calling you to learn to trust him in your sexuality, your time, your friendships, your identity, and the very place he wants to show himself to you.

Our obedience doesn’t save us, only Jesus can do that. Paul wasn’t welcomed into heaven because he was missional in the middle of the storm – Paul was missional in the storm because he knew he was deeply loved by this Jesus who lived, died, and rose again so that we would not just be saved from the storm, but so that we would be new creations who live for him day in and day out until the day he returns.

So let’s take this to the Lord right now in prayer. Just right where you are, spend some time with Jesus. He said where two or more are gathered in his name, he’ll be there too. So whether you whisper your prayer, or keep it in your thoughts, he’s here. And he’s listening. You can pray as he leads you, or make your prayer go something like this:

[ 016-1 ] Name the storm – God, I’m struggling here. This is what I’m seeing in my life. I don’t like where I’m at – shoot, I don’t always know where I’m at.

[ 016-2 ] Lord, I surrender the destination – Jesus, your word tells me that the destination you have for my life isn’t financial security, though that may come. The destination isn’t a perfect marriage, though that may come. The destination isn’t the perfect job or perfect health. The destination you have spelled out for me is spiritual maturity. You are making us more like Jesus. You are forming our character. And so, I submit and surrender to your destination for me – even if it’s not what I want.

[ 016-3 ] Ask the question: What does obedience look like for me today? Help me, by your Holy Spirit’s power and presence, to walk in that.

SOURCES

Warren W. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary, (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1996)

Darrell L. Bock, Acts, Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2007)