Paul's Voyage to Rome
Notes
Transcript
Intro:
Intro:
We have been following now the journey of Paul as he has been arrested in Jerusalem back in Acts 21. From that point we have seen Paul be a part of 3 different uprises, he has been beaten, he has been rescued by the Roman army on a few different occasions, he has been put under trial.
he has been forced to travel by night as the threat of death has come. He has appeared before Felix the Governor, then later before Festus and last week , he appeared before King Agrippa.
This has been a hard season for Paul the apostle. He has had to experience alot in the matter of a few years. And the reality is that this hardships are not done for him. We will see today that Paul will continue to see hardships in his journey.
and this should not have been a surprise to Paul, you remember that as he was finishing his 3rd missionary journey and as his heart was moved to go to Jerusalem, many people along the way told Paul not to go to Jerusalem because of the hardships that awaited him.
even the Holy Spirit had revealed this to him personally, that hardships and chains awaited him, but this would be necessary in order to accomplish God’s will in Paul’s life.
Part of the hardships would lead to Paul being able to preach the gospel message before leaders and Kings as the Lord had told Paul he would.
Paul may never had had the opportunity to minister to these people would it not be for the hardships and the situation that he was in.
Transition
and the reality is that this is how our Christian lives are as well. There are different hardships and difficulties that we may go through, and the assumption is that as a Christian , i will not go through difficulties, but the opposite is true...
There is so much that God is able to do in the midst of hardships in our lives that He could not do in us if everything in our lives was going great. God is able to produce in us things that He could never, if he made everything work out in the best case senario.
But the truth is that it is not easy going through these difficult seasons, we are human and our hearts and minds want to run and flee from difficulties. We want to fight in our own understanding with the hardships.
and how we respond in to our hardships will determine what is produced in us on the other side of those hardships.
we will be those who are either “ defined by the hardship or refined by the hardship”
Transition
we are going to look at Paul in the midst of one of his biggest storms in life and we will see how he responded to that storm and what made him be able to have a
“ Firm foundation in the midst of the Storms of Life”
In chp. 26 we saw Paul have the opportunity to give his testimony before King Agrippa. Paul took advantage of the opportunities presented before him and he spoke words of “truth and reason” (v.25)
And we saw that as Paul spoke the truth about his conversion and about what God had done in his life, Agrippa was moved emotionally ..... but was not convicted spiritually.
“ YOU ALMOST PERSUADED ME TO BECOME A CHRISTIAN” (V.28)
He was moved by the story but was not convicted about his own life.
Both Fetus and Agrippa come up with the same conclusion which is that Paul has done nothing wrong. Yet because Paul appealed before Caesar, they cannot let him go, but must fulfill the appeal and have to send Paul to Rome to stand before Caesar Nero and proclaim his case. And so we pick up our story in chp. 27.
I. THE BEGINNING OF PAUL’S JOURNEY TO ROME (V.1-8)
A. The Voyage Begins ( FIRST STOP) (v.1-3)
now it has been decided that Paul should be taken to Rome to face Caesar, Paul was placed under the Authority of a centurion named Julius. He was part of the Roman army and was a man of authority as he was over a regiment of 100 men.
we see here that Paul, a man by the name of Aristarchus from Thessalonica and Luke go onto this ship on their way to Rome. Later we will see that there were other prisoners who were also with them.
now as this ship begins it journey, the next day they arrive at Sidon either to unload material or to pick up more people. And while they make this stop, Paul is allowed to go and visit with Friends in Sidon. Julius was a man who dealt kindly with Paul.
B. The Second Stop (v.4-6)
they now load back up on the ship and begin their journey again. They move to travel in between Cyprus and Pamplyia in order to find protection from the wind. They eventually come to Myra.
now we are told that the centurion found an Alexandrian ship that was sailing from Myra to Italy and they all transferred ships.
the first ship that they were on was obviously not traveling to Italy, so they used this first ship as a means of getting closer to a port that would have a ship that was travelling to Italy.
now we are told that this ship was an Alexandrian ship. Alexandria was directly in a straight line south of Myra in Egypt. During this time there were grain ships that were under the control of the Roman government that were used to ship many things across the Roman controlled area including grain, which Alexandria was known for.
so it is possible that this was one of those grain ships under the control of the Roman government which was on its way to Rome and this may have been one of its first stops.
C. Third Stop (v. 7-8)
From Myra they began their journey again and it was a slow moving trip that had difficulty when they came to Cnidus. The initial direction that they wanted to take was a direct route from the area of Lycia to Italy.
yet we are told that the wind did not permit them to , so they had to shift their route coming under Crete where they would find some shelter from the winds until they came to a place called Fair Haven.
II. Paul’s Waring Ignored (v.9-12)
Now we have to understand the time frame of this journey. When they got on the first ship back in Caesaria by the Sea, it was sometime in summer, it is believed that it was sometime in August.
We are told that much time has been spent. In other words at this point where they find themselves, months have past. We know this because Luke tells us that the “fast” was already over.
that is in reference to the “Day of Atonement” which shift year to year but it normally landed in between Sept to Oct. So the fact that Luke is telling us that this day is over, is telling us that they have now began to move really close to winter season.
Sailing was very difficult between the time of Sep. - Nov. in this part of the world. So understanding that much time has been spent on this journey, they find themselves in the middle of the worst time to be sailing.
normally ships would stay in a port through the winter months of Nov- Feb. So it was important for the ships to find a good port that could hold the ship during winter, but also the men on the ship would want to stop in a good port where there is excitement. If you were to stay somewhere for a few months , you would want it to be a fun place not boring.
Transition
now Paul had advised them already that they should not leave Fair Haven, but that they should stay because he felt that disaster awaited them with much loss of cargo and people.
They must have had some sort of discussion, and the ultimate decision would be on the Roman Centurion, another reason why it is believed that this was under the Roman authority.
The centurion heard the arguments and he chose to listen to the owner of the ship and the men who were working on the ship rather than Paul.
so the plans was to try to make it to the harbour of Phoenix and stay there for the winter.
III. Caught in the Storm (v. 13- 26)
A. The First Waves of the Storm (v. 13-19)
so the winds were blowing nicely and they thought this is our opportunity to set sail from Fair Haven along the coast of Crete some 40 miles to Phoenix.
but not long after they had set sail, the weather shifted and they got hit with a great wind, they called it Euroclydon.
the ship became caught in the midst of this great storm and they begin to secure the ship knowing what they are facing.
it tells us that they used cables to undergird the ship, or litterally they used the ropes to tie around the ship so that it would not fall apart during the storm.
as they were being taken by the wind , they were afraid that they would be driven to the Syrtis Sands and run aground so they put up sails to counter the wind.
because of the great storm and how they were being tossed, we are told that the next day they began to lightened the load on the ship.
they threw over the ships equipment, it is possible that the ship was taking on water and to avoid this they wanted to make the ship lighter .
B. Hope lost in the Midst of the Storm (v. 20)
so now the ship has been in the middle of this storm for days, Luke gives us a picture of the environment that they are in....
he says that the sun or the stars have not appeared for a few days. The sky must have been so dark and covered by the clouds that they did not allow the light of the sun or the light of the stars to penetrate
remember that in these days, sailors would use the stars to navigate on the sea.
These men were beaten by the waves pounding on them , they were lost, probable discouraged and scared. And Luke tells us that in the midst of this situation....
“all hope” that they would be saved was “lost”
This includes Paul as Luke says “We” in the sentence . We all lost hope .
Transition
This is the reality of what happens when people go through hardships or difficulties in live. There can be things that happen in your life, that you never expected . Things that can be devastating, heart breaking.
and in the midst of the darkest time of their lives..... all hope can be lost
Question
How is Hope Lost ?
Fear. Fear can be one of the things that drives a person to losing hope.
We have seen this first hand during this Covid season , that fear has caused people to lose hope and to be discouraged.
Fear Produces
A tunnel vision effect.
where all we can focus on is the problem, the difficulty directly in front of us.
2. A paralyzing effect
fear can cause people to be paralyzed by their situation, unable to move forward pyhsically , emotionally or spiritually. They come to a stand still in their lives
3. A prisoner effect
fear can cause us to be prisoners to our own emotions and feelings.
when i can do nothing but focus on myself and my problem, when i feel like i can’t do anything to fix this, when i can move past my feelings and emotions..... i can begin to lose hope.
Transition
and this can happen to all of us when we deal with hardships.
but there are ways that you and I are intended to deal with hardships. We can either “Lose Hope” or we can “Find Hope”
we will see Paul here go from Losing hope to finding hope in the midst of the storm he is in.
C. Hope Found in the Midst of the Storm (v.21-26)
here Paul tells the people that they should have listened to him. But he is saying this not to be like “hey i told you so” but because of what he is about to say. If he was right about what he said earlier, then he will be right this time.
he assures them that no life will be lost only the ship will be lost.
and then Paul goes on to tell us why all of a sudden his perspective has changed. Remember that he was also losing hope. Now Paul has a different tone.
Paul Finds Hope
HOW DID PAUL FIND HOPE?
In God’s Presence (v.23)
Paul tells us that the angel of God stood with him in the night. It was God who sent this angel to reassure Paul that God was with him.
Back in Acts 23:11, we see this same picture. As Paul is arrested, he has been beaten, is in prison by himself, we see that the Lord came and stood with him.
Paul understood the peace that came by being in the presence of God. This is the same for you and I, there is such peace that can be found within the presence of God.
but what is required, is for you and i to go to the place where we can experience His presence. to go to him in prayer, in worship, He will meet us there
2. In God’s word (v.24)
we see that the angel brought God’s word to Paul and it was God’s word that .....
A. Brought Comfort and strength ( do not be afraid)
B. Brought Promises
you must be brought before Caesar
God will grant all those with you
There were promises that God brought with His word . And these promises became an anchor for Paul in the midst of the great storm
God also bound himself with an oath, so that those who received the promise could be perfectly sure that he would never change his mind. So God has given both his promise and his oath. These two things are unchangeable because it is impossible for God to lie. Therefore, we who have fled to him for refuge can have great confidence as we hold to the hope that lies before us. This hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls. It leads us through the curtain into God’s inner sanctuary. Jesus has already gone in there for us. He has become our eternal High Priest in the order of Melchizedek.
this became true to Paul. it was God’s word found within God’s presence that became an anchor , it brought security in the midst of an unsecure storm.
Application
and this is so true in our lives. That we can find such peace, comfort, strength in the midst of our trials and hardships as we seek God in his presence and in His word. His promises will become a strong anchor we hold on to, that will keep us from drifting away in the storm.
this is what you and i have seen in this pandemic. There have been those who have held on to God’s word and to His promises and they have not been moved. Oh things have still been hard, there has still been pain, but they have not drifted from the place God has for them because he has been an anchor to their soul.
True Hope Produces Action (v.25-26)
Paul is moved to grow in his faith, Paul is moved to encourage the people, Paul is moved to take practical steps.
IV. The Purpose of the Storm (v. 27-44)
Read. 27-38
Within this storm God was working his purpose.
The storm would cause growth in Paul
Paul was further developing the understanding of how God works, developing a trust in God’s word, a dependence on God as an anchor. all these things God was producing in him
My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.
2. The storm would cause salvation (v.31)
For Paul the people would be saved as long as they stayed in the boat because of the promise of God to Paul.
i can’t help but believe that their were men who were also saved spiritually . God uses our situations and how we go through them to draw people that don’t know Him to Himself
3. The storm would further God’s will (v. 39-44, 28)
