There's A Storm Brewing
Text: Acts 27:1-12
Introduction
1. Illustration: A man stood on the side of the road hitch hiking on a very dark night in the middle of a storm. The night was rolling and no cars passed. The storm was so strong, he could hardly see a few feet ahead of him. Suddenly he saw a car come towards him and stop. The guy, without thinking about it, got in the car and closed the door to realize that nobody was behind the wheel. The car started slowly. The guy looked at the road and saw a curve coming his way. Scared, he started praying, and begged for his life. He hadn't come out of shock, when just before he hit the curve, a hand appeared through the window and moved the wheel. The guy, paralyzed in terror, watched how the hand appeared every time before a curve. The guy gathered strength, got out of the car and ran to the nearest town. Wet and in shock, he ran into a cantina and asked for two shots of tequila, and started telling everybody about the horrible experience he went through. A silence enveloped everybody when they realized the guy was crying and wasn't drunk.
About half an hour later, two guys walked into the same cantina, and one said to the other. "Look, that’s the character who climbed into the car while we were pushing!"
2. Here in Ohio we like to say, "If you don't like the weather, stick around a few minutes it will change." Well the same thing is true for the storms of life. We never know when they're going to come our way, but you can be assured that they will come.
3. However, the question is not will there be storms, but rather what will we do when they get here?
4. From this episode of the life of Paul we learn about...
A. Battling Bad Weather
B. Listening To Sound Advice
5. Let's stand together as we read Acts 27:1-12.
Proposition: When the storms of life come our way we need to lean upon Jesus to see us through them.
Transition: First, it's imperative that we know what to do when...
I. Battling Bad Weather (1-8).
A. The Winds Were Against Us
1. Paul's trial before Festus and Agrippa is now over and he is on his way to Rome.
2. This chapter begins with, "When the time came, we set sail for Italy. Paul and several other prisoners were placed in the custody of a Roman officer named Julius, a captain of the Imperial Regiment. 2 Aristarchus, a Macedonian from Thessalonica, was also with us. We left on a ship whose home port was Adramyttium on the northwest coast of the province of Asia; it was scheduled to make several stops at ports along the coast of the province."
A. This account of Paul's journey to Rome gives us one of the most interesting and factual accounts of a sea voyage and a shipwreck to be found anywhere in ancient literature.
B. This narrative is clearly eyewitness history; the details of the voyage, including the number of days it took to reach particular harbors given the winds mentioned, fit exactly the report of one who had undertaken such a voyage.
C. The “other prisoners” may have been sent for trial as Roman citizens, but a higher number of those sent normally were convicted criminals to be killed in the games for the entertainment of the Roman public
(Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary – New Testament, Under: "Acts 27:1-8 The Voyage to Rome Begins").
D. Luke uses "we" throughout the passage, so it is clear he was an eyewitness.
E. He may have been in Caesarea during the two intervening years and collected valuable information for his two-volume work (Fernando, NIV Application Commentary, The – Acts, 610).
F. For the trip from Caesarea to Italy, Paul and other prisoners were turned over to a centurion named Julius "who belonged to the Imperial Regiment," or "Augustan cohort" (v. 1, NASB).
G. They first took passage on a ship belonging to Adramyttium, a port of Mysia, southeast of Troas. It was headed up the coast of Asia Minor.
H. Luke took passage on this ship to be with Paul. So did Aristarchus, a Macedonian believer from Thessalonica.
I. They went along to help him and serve him in every way they could. Thus, Paul did not travel as an ordinary prisoner. He had friends (Horton, Acts: A Logion Press Commentary, 393).
3. Luke's next commentary on their journey begins in v. 3 with, "The next day when we docked at Sidon, Julius was very kind to Paul and let him go ashore to visit with friends so they could provide for his needs. 4 Putting out to sea from there, we encountered strong headwinds that made it difficult to keep the ship on course, so we sailed north of Cyprus between the island and the mainland. 5 Keeping to the open sea, we passed along the coast of Cilicia and Pamphylia, landing at Myra, in the province of Lycia."
A. Julius, like many of the centurions mentioned in the Gospels, was a warm-hearted officer, sympathetic to Jew and Christian alike. The next day at Sidon, Julius, treating Paul with humanitarian kindness, permitted him to go to his Christian friends there to obtain care for his needs.
B. It is not stated whether the centurion Julius was a believer, but he took good care of Paul.
C. Later, Julius would single-handedly protect Paul and the other prisoners from being executed during the shipwreck.
D. He is one of several Roman centurions in the New Testament who are portrayed favorably (Barton, Life Application New Testament Commentary, 564).
E. Then, battling contrary westerly winds, they sailed east and north of Cyprus along the southern coast of Asia Minor to Myra, an important city in Lycia, the southernmost part of the province of Asia (Horton, 394).
4. Next Luke tells us, "There the commanding officer found an Egyptian ship from Alexandria that was bound for Italy, and he put us on board. 7 We had several days of slow sailing, and after great difficulty we finally neared Cnidus. But the wind was against us, so we sailed across to Crete and along the sheltered coast of the island, past the cape of Salmone. 8 We struggled along the coast with great difficulty and finally arrived at Fair Havens, near the town of Lasea."
A. At Myra, the centurion transferred Paul and his friends to a ship from Alexandria that was sailing for Italy with a cargo of grain.
B. Egypt was the chief source of wheat for the city of Rome, and ships that carried wheat were considered very important.
C. The winds continued to be contrary, and they sailed very slowly trying to reach Cnidus on the coast of Caria in southwest Asia Minor.
D. But the northwest winds did not let them get there. They were driven "to the lee of Crete," that is, along the east coast of the island of Crete.
E. Then they struggled along its south coast until they reached Fair Havens (the Gk. can mean "good harbors") (Horton, 394).
F. Like many of us in our lives, Paul was facing a storm on the horizon.
B. Be Still
1. Illustration: Years ago a military officer and his wife were aboard a ship that was caught in a raging ocean storm. Seeing the frantic look in her eyes, the man tried unsuccessfully to remove her fears. Suddenly she grasped his sleeve and cried, "How can you be so calm?" He stepped back a few feet and drew his sword. Pointing it at her heart, he said, "Are you afraid of this?" Without hesitation she answered, "Of course not!" "Why not?" he inquired. "Because it’s in your hand, and you love me too much to hurt me." To this he replied, "I know the One who holds the winds and the waters in the hollow of His hand, and He will surely care for us!" The officer was not disturbed because he had put his trust in the Lord.
2. Now matter whatever storm you are facing right now Jesus has the power to calm it!
A. Mark 4:39-40 (NLT)
When Jesus woke up, he rebuked the wind and said to the water, “Silence! Be still!” Suddenly the wind stopped, and there was a great calm. 40 Then he asked them, “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?”
B. The same Jesus that calmed the storm 2000 years ago is the same Jesus that can calm any storm you are going through today.
C. If it is an emotional storm he can calm it.
D. If it is a relational storm he can calm it.
E. If it is a spiritual storm he can calm it.
F. If it is a financial storm he can calm it.
G. Don't be like the disciples who doubted when the storm rose up against them.
H. Look at your storm right in the face and say "In the name of Jesus silence, be still!"
Transition: In the midst of the storm it is a good idea to...
II. Listen To Sound Advice (9-12).
A. I Believe There Is Trouble Ahead
1. As the journey continues things are about to get worse, and the problem is they didn't have to.
2. In vv. 9-10 we read, "We had lost a lot of time. The weather was becoming dangerous for sea travel because it was so late in the fall, and Paul spoke to the ship’s officers about it.
10 “Men,” he said, “I believe there is trouble ahead if we go on—shipwreck, loss of cargo, and danger to our lives as well.”
A. Because considerable time had passed, including "the Fast" (the Day of Atonement, the tenth of Tishri, which in A.D. 59 was on October 5), Paul recognized that it would be dangerous to continue their voyage.
B. He had been in three shipwrecks already (2 Cor. 11:25), and he knew how dangerous winter storms could be.
C. So he went to those in charge of the ship and advised them of the certainty of injury and "great loss" to the ship and its cargo, as well as of their lives if they continued (Horton, 395).
D. This advice may have been given informally at a consultation with the owner/master of the ship, its pilot, and the centurion, to which Paul was included "as a man of standing and experience who had won Julius' respect."
E. We do not know whether this advice was given through direct divine guidance or through Paul's human wisdom (Fernando, 610).
3. However, even the best advice goes sometimes unheeded. As Luke tells us, "But the officer in charge of the prisoners listened more to the ship’s captain and the owner than to Paul. 12 And since Fair Havens was an exposed harbor—a poor place to spend the winter—most of the crew wanted to go on to Phoenix, farther up the coast of Crete, and spend the winter there. Phoenix was a good harbor with only a southwest and northwest exposure."
A. Waiting for favorable weather at Fair Havens, the ship’s anxious commanders had a decision to make: Should they stay put and find winter quarters in Fair Havens (or nearby Lasea)? Or should they push on westward in an attempt to complete their journey to Italy before winter?
B. A guiding principle of sailing was that it was dangerous from mid-September to mid-November and disastrous from mid-November to mid-February.
C. Paul probably was exhibiting common sense from the weather/sailing calendar.
D. In ancient times ships had no compasses and navigated by the stars, so Paul understood that overcast skies and strong northwesterly winds made sailing west all but impossible and very dangerous (Barton, Life Application New Testament Commentary, 565).
E. But he was overruled by the majority, who decide to go a short distance further west to the better harbor at Phoenix.
F. They needed to travel four miles west and about thirty-four miles west-northwest across a bay (Fernando, 611).
G. As we shall see in the rest of the chapter they should have listened to Paul.
B. Wise Counsel
1. Illustration: It's always good to heed good advice. This piece of advice comes from that great gospel program, "Hee Haw." Doc Campbell is confronted by a patient who says he broke his arm in two places. The doc replies, "Well then, stay out of them places!" He may have something there. We cannot regularly put ourselves in the face of temptation and not be affected. When faced with the problem of temptation, we need to take the good doctor’s advice and "stay out of them places."
2. Sometimes the storms we face are storms of our own choosing because we didn't heed good advice from wise people in our lives.
A. Proverbs 4:1-2 (NLT)
My children, listen when your father corrects you. Pay attention and learn good judgment, 2 for I am giving you good guidance. Don’t turn away from my instructions.
B. It's always a bad idea to ignore advice from someone more experienced than you.
C. Teenagers are often amazed at their parents. In their teen years their parents are the dumbest people on earth, but when they reach their 20's those same people got awful smart in a hurry!
D. Church people are often like teenagers. They don't take their Pastor's advice and when they get in trouble they come to him expecting him to fix it.
E. Here's some good advice from your Pastor...your Bible won't help you if you leave in the pew all week! Take them home and read them everyday!
F. Here's some more Pastor's advice...if you don't have the money for something don't buy it! If you don't have money plastic doesn't help...it will always come back to bite you!
G. Here's some more Pastor's advice, if that cute young man or young woman isn't on fire for Jesus keep looking! If the Holy Spirit hasn't changed them you're not going to!
H. Here's some more Pastor's advice, if you don't have time to pray turn off the TV and get off of Facebook. You don't have time not to pray!
I. Proverbs 25:11 (NLT)
Timely advice is lovely, like golden apples in a silver basket.
Transition: If wise advice is given to you make use of it because it just might keep you out of a storm.
Conclusion
1. From this episode of the life of Paul we learn about...
A. Battling Bad Weather
B. Listening To Sound Advice
2. If you're in a storm of life let Jesus calm it.
3. If you're not in a storm, heed wise advice it just might keep you out of the storm.
