Suffering

Introduction

Acts 27:1-22

Acts 27:1–22 LEB

1 And when it was decided that we would sail away to Italy, they handed over Paul and some other prisoners to a centurion named Julius of the Augustan Cohort. 2 And we went aboard a ship from Adramyttium that was about to sail to the places along the coast of Asia and put out to sea. Aristarchus, a Macedonian from Thessalonica, was with us. 3 And on the next day, we put in at Sidon. And Julius, treating Paul kindly, allowed him to go to his friends to be cared for. 4 And from there we put out to sea and sailed under the lee of Cyprus, because the winds were against us. 5 And after we had sailed across the open sea along Cilicia and Pamphylia, we put in at Myra in Lycia. 6 And there the centurion found an Alexandrian ship sailing for Italy and put us on board it. 7 And sailing slowly, in many days and with difficulty we came to Cnidus. Because the wind did not permit us to go further, we sailed under the lee of Crete off Salmone. 8 And sailing along its coast with difficulty, we came to a certain place called Fair Havens, near which was the town of Lasea. 9 And because considerable time had passed and the voyage was now dangerous because even the Fast was already over, Paul strongly recommended, 10 saying to them, “Men, I perceive that the voyage is going to end with disaster and great loss, not only of the cargo and the ship, but also of our lives!” 11 But the centurion was convinced even more by the shipmaster and the shipowner than by what was said by Paul. 12 And because the harbor was unsuitable for spending the winter in, the majority decided on a plan to put out to sea from there, if somehow they could arrive at Phoenix, a harbor of Crete facing toward the southwest and toward the northwest, to spend the winter there. 13 And when a southwest wind began to blow gently, because they thought they could accomplish their purpose, they weighed anchor and sailed close along Crete. 14 But not long afterward a wind like a hurricane, called the northeaster, rushed down from it. 15 And when the ship was caught and was not able to head into the wind, we gave way and were driven along. 16 And running under the lee of a certain small island called Cauda, we were able with difficulty to get the ship’s boat under control. 17 After hoisting it up, they made use of supports to undergird the ship. And because they were afraid lest they run aground on the Syrtis, they lowered the sea anchor and thus were driven along. 18 And because we were violently battered by the storm, on the next day they began jettisoning the cargo, 19 and on the third day they threw overboard the gear of the ship with their own hands. 20 But when neither sun nor stars appeared for many days, and with not a little bad weather confronting us, finally all hope was abandoned that we would be saved. 21 And because many were experiencing lack of appetite, at that time Paul stood up in their midst and said, “Men, you ought to have followed my advice not to put out to sea from Crete, and thus avoided this damage and loss! 22 And now I urge you to cheer up, for there will be no loss of life from among you, but only of the ship.

Pray

Paul is finally heading to Rome. He knew he would. God promised it in Acts 23:11. And the rest of the Book of acts is about Paul’s journey and ministry in Rome.

Julius treats Paul very well and allowed him considerable amount of freedoms. Even preventing others from taking his life. Luke also was allowed to travel with Paul giving us this vivid description of what takes place on his voyage to Rome.

Upon their journey the winds cause a constant advisory and as they travel it only grew worse.

The Bible Mentions The Fast. Probably a reference to the Day of Atonement which occurs between late September and Early October. This is a dangerous time of the year to be sailing in the Med. Seeing the signs and knowing the time of year Paul gives his advise that they should stop. But the majority and the not the prisoner was listened to and they traveled on.

While sailing along the island of Create heading for the city of Phoenix (not Arizona). A fierce typhoid wind. A whirling wind of hurricane force hit the ship. The ship is blown of course some 475 miles of course. They pulled the life boat into the ship. They used ropes and tackle and girded the ship. They lowered the drift- anchor. There is no sun or stars so they can’t navigate.

What a scary time.

WHY

When I was reading this I could not help but thinking about the Tsunami and the Tornadoes in Kentucky, the hurricanes that hit our boarders. That destroyed so much, And produced so much suffering.

Have to talk about How can a God who is love as we are told in John 4:8 allow so much Suffering?

We have all seen Suffering. We see fires and storms and floods every year. Look at the Holocaust. People who are without work. Death of Disease like Covid. Children that don’t have enough to eat.

Every year, more than 4 million referrals are made to child protection agencies involving more than 4.3 million children. The United States has one of the worst records among industrialized nations – losing on average 5 children every day to child abuse and neglect. 68% of those are abused by a family member.

Why would God allow such a thing is a hard question.

For some there seems to be no answer. For some they decide that God can’t exist. For some they deiced that God can’t be all-powerful. But I think there is a better answer for that. As I preach realize that I am drawing on Scripture and Much smarter men than me, People such as William Craig

The question that we are asking is a theological and intellectual one. It isn’t about how you comfort someone who is suffering. That is completely different, Because why there is suffering doesn’t really help the suffering all that much. It’s to long term. Answer to that one is loving them and support as we go through.

What does it mean to talk about a God who is love? Not loving. Not Something that you do, Something that you are. He is love. Love is not God but God is love. Out of his love he created Life. He wants to create a world that love is capable of meaningful experience and expression. Easy enough to say but little more difficult in reality. Let’s say that I am feeling a little down and my wife and I are fighting and my kids don’t wake up in time to tell me that they love me before I go to church. And in the middle of the sermon I was to call someone up here with me pull a gun out of my pocket and ask them if they love me. What do you think the answer would be I might even get some tears out of some people. He would tell me He loves me. Then you go home and have a conversation with someone they ask what you did this morning your say you went to church they ask if it was interesting.

Not really had a long winded guy speaking. Something unusual happened. Half way through his sermon blank got up and declared undivided love for me. Makes a big difference if they know that a gun was involved. For love to be meaningful it has to be given you cannot take it by any means.

So if a loving God wants to create a world in which love can be meaningful and expressive it must be a world in which love can be given. And that is the world that God has created.

In order to protect that freedom God has given us he gave us a moral law. Freedom is not do whatever when ever, That’s anarchy. Freedom only exist when you have a moral construct. When you do away with the moral you actually take away the freedom. Break the law God has given us. Example Break the law of Gravity by jumping of the roof. Break you.

Break God’s law what we end up doing is breaking ourselves while proofing Gods law. Romans tells us slave to sin or righteousness. Whenever we try to break God’s law we get suffering.

Say that Sin is the reason is no less the truth but maybe an uncaring answer. Sin as far back as Adam and Eve there has been sin and that sin has lead to our suffering. Because God loved us so much that he was willing to give us the freedom to love. And this in some since goes for Natural disasters too. We know thanks to Gen 3 that nature has been cursed because of our sin.

It is a reflection of us. So to say that it is because of our sin that the tsunami hit Japan would not be a mistake. But maybe an over simplification. Because some of these disaster may have been because of just how the world works in the way it was created. Tsunami caused by earthquake. Earthquake caused by shift in the tectonic plates. We end up suffering because of that shift.

Allowed to suffer.

In part because of our sin. In part because of the Glory of God. When suffering happens Through Christians and non Christians alike God shows his love to people.

And in part it is because through suffering we mature as beings. James tells us that we should rejoice in our trials because through that we endure which makes us perfect and complete in other words mature. And as much as that seems like an unsatisfactory answer and it is to some degree. That is the answers we are given.

Look at Job. End of Job God never answers his question of WHY. Basically tells him You don’t need to Know but that its part of my plan. And that is part of it we are so small that we are incapable of seeing the bigger plan. Shoot I have trouble with the chess board. Let alone all of creation including time and space.

But here is the kicker God loves us so much that he in the very beginning knew that the lamb was to be slain

Revelation 13:8 LEB

8 And all those who live on the earth will worship him, everyone whose name is not written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slaughtered.

All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast—all whose names have not been written in the Lamb’s book of life, the Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world.[a]

This does not mean that God wanted to have a trial run to see if it would work. No that before time began he knew that in the world we can have freedom to love that we would choose to reject him. And he knew what it would cost him. It would cost him everything. God himself comes into the world. God himself takes on the responsibility of our rebellion. And God himself is willing to be broken for us. And he pays the price so that we won’t have to. And then he offers forgiveness to us as a gift.

He came so that we may suffer because of our rebellion only for a short time

Next Steps

God is here to offer you forgiveness. A Relationship with him so that it is just a short time. As hell is a eternal suffering of being apart from God. Want to accept that gift?\

When you are going through suffering no answer will help

Bibliography

https://www.childhelp.org/child-abuse-statistics/