Acts 27

Acts 27:1-44

The Acts of the Apostles Chapter 27:1-44 - 28:1-15 Acts 27:1-44 - Acts 28:1-15 The words of Luke in the fourteenth verse of chapter Twenty-eight (Acts 28:14), “So we came to Rome " indicate the value for us of this long section of the book. A grouping of brief statements scattered over ten chapters will help us to gather up the story which ends at this point. “I must also see Rome “(Acts 19:21). “So must thou bear witness also at Rome” (23:11). “Unto Caesar shalt thou go” (Acts 25:12). “Thou must stand before Caesar” (Acts 27:24). “So we came to Rome " (Acts 28:14).

The first of these words was spoken by the apostle himself in Ephesus, just before the uproar. They were words expressive of the passion of this man’s heart as a missionary of Christ. “I must also see Rome.” He knew that Rome stood at the strategic centre of the world. He knew how her highways ran out through all the known world, and he coveted that centre as a base of operations for Christian service.

Then in the lonely night, in Jerusalem, after the scourging and the buffeting and the bruising, into the quietness of the cell the Lord had come, and had spoken to His servant, saying, “So must thou bear witness also at Rome.”

Later there had been definite if unconscious cooperation with the desire of the apostle, and the will of the Lord, when the Roman governor, Festus, had said, “Unto Caesar shalt thou go.” That word was spoken in Csesarea. The next word had been spoken by the angel visitor; when, in the midst of the sea, in the midst of the storm and tempest, and the stress and strain, he had said, “Thou must stand before Caesar.”

The last word was that of Luke, the companion of the perilous voyage and journey, “So we came to Rome.” The “So” of Luke covers the whole story, even though it had immediate reference to the voyage and journey.

This voyage and journey occupied, as we find by observing the time notes of the story, about six months. Lewin, who has attempted to date these stories, declares that Paul left Caesarea in August A. D. 60, and that they were shipwrecked at the beginning of November. That is indicated by the fact that they were three months on the island of Melita, that they sailed again after the three months’ stay there at the beginning of February A. D. 61, and arrived in Rome about the first day of March. This story is full of interest geographically and nautically, revealing a most intimate and accurate acquaintance with the methods of navigation at that time.

The main interest for us, however, centres in Paul himself. Let us then glance briefly at the incidents of the voyage; in order that we may gather up some of the lessons which the whole story teaches.

We observe first that on this voyage and journey Paul had as close companions two, namely Luke and Aristarchus. There is perhaps a speculative and yet very interesting line of study, that namely of following these men of the early days, who cross the pathway of the reader now and then, in association with more prominent figures. Aristarchus first appeared in the nineteenth chapter, where this whole movement toward Rome began. Almost immediately after the apostle had said, “I must also see Rome,” Aristarchus is seen as one of his travelling companions. When in the uproar at Ephesus they were unable to find Paul, they arrested Gaius and Aristarchus. Then we find that Paul returned from Europe to Asia, accompanied by Aristarchus, who had preceded him there, and then returned to meet Paul.

Here we find that he was a Macedonian of Thessalonica, in all probability he was a convert of an earlier ministry of the apostle. We now know that he went with him all the way to Rome, and certainly remained with him throughout the period of his imprisonment there; for in the Colossian letter, and in the letter to Philemon he is referred to as being in company with the apostle, with others. So when we watch the apostle in the midst of tempest and tumults, we must remember that he had with him two men, dear to his heart, of one mind with himself in the purpose and passion of his life and ministry.

The first incident to note is that of Paul tarrying for a few hours at Sidon among friends, when the ship made its first call. Imagine the refreshment and quiet of those hours. Then the ship took its way, and arrived at its destination, and the passengers were transferred into another boat.

Paul then warned those in charge-himself a prisoner in charge of a centurion-of the danger of the proposed voyage.

In the midst of the storm itself, he gently reproved those men that they had not listened to him, and then spoke the word of good cheer and of courage, so making in the midst of the storm, and in the listening ear of these men, the Roman centurion, the soldiers, the master of the vessel, and the whole of that company of nearly three hundred souls, a good confession of faith. “I believe God,” he said, and therefore this thing must be as He has said to me.

Then,-when presently the vessel was anchored, four anchors being cast out of the stern, and the soldiers wished and prayed for the day, as the ship was near to the land,-mark the apostle’s action. He had observed that by stealth the soldiers were attempting to escape; he knew the danger, and so immediately interfered. He had said he believed in God, and was perfectly sure no harm could happen to them, and that they would be saved; but he was very careful to prevent the soldiers escaping. His courage was proved by his caution. There is also a revelation of a sanctified sanity in his appeal to these men to take food. For fourteen days they had fasted, and he set the example himself by beginning to eat. With the ship threatening to break up, tossed and heaved about, they took food, and were filled with good cheer.

The next incident is that of Paul himself on the island of Melita. There is a subject for an artist, Paul gathering sticks to light a fire. That is apostolic in the finest sense of the word. The viper fastened upon him, and the amazed barbarians imagined first of all, that justice was dogging him, and he would die; but when the viper was shaken off, and the man was unharmed, then they said he was a god.

Then we see Paul in the house of Publius, healing his father; and exercising a healing ministry for all who were brought to him. The story is told in a sentence, but what a picture there is here of the power of Christ in healing, operating through this man. There are many things suggested in the story. There is not a word recorded here of his preaching of the Gospel. Of course the argument of silence is dangerous. Undoubtedly he did preach; but it was a ministry of healing. The man who wrote the story was himself a physician.

The journey was resumed, and Paul does not appear again until forty miles from Rome, or perhaps three and thirty miles, there at the Three Taverns, where He me? the little company coming out from the City. In the sixteenth chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, we probably have the names of some of those of that company. It was a great meeting, and Paul thanked God, and took courage. Such are the incidents.

Surveying the scene I am first, and perhaps supremely impressed with the contrasts that run through the whole story. On the one hand there were difficulties and dangers all the way. It does seem, as we read this story, as though all forces were combined to hinder this man, and to prevent his arrival at Rome. If it were possible to read the story without knowing the things that had preceded it, without knowing what the end was, in the process of our reading we should say again and again, This man will never see Rome. Or if, on the other hand, recognizing the truth about this man, we read the story, we could almost interpret it by the book of Job, in imagining that the arch-enemy of mankind himself had somehow gained possession of all storms and tempests, and let them loose upon this ship. For instance, in that story of the girding of the ship, the technical expression is that they f rapped the ship together; a term never used except when a ship was imminently in danger of falling to pieces, when men pass great hawsers round her.

That was a most perilous hour. We see how tremendous was the storm, and how terrific the elemental forces that seemed to be let loose against that ship. All forces seemed to combine to make it impossible for this man to reach Rome. And yet this is not the principal impression produced upon the mind as we read the story. It is that of sure, if slow progress; and in the midst of all the storms, and tempest, and all the difficulties, and buffeting, and darkness, and hopelessness, a man is seen, conducted, cared for, and comforted; until at last, his companion, writing the story at the close, said, “So we came to Rome,” “So,” by these very things, by these storms, and shipwrecks, and all this darkness, and by these difficulties, " So we came to Rome.”

Again looking at the story, mark the recurring hopelessness of situations, and that not once or twice, but over and over again. Humanly speaking the situation was entirely hopeless. Over against that, mark the unvarying hopefulness of Paul. There was never an hour in which he became despondent; never a situation in which he lost heart.

There is another way of looking at the contrast. I see the repeated perils resulting from the excitement and the folly of men; but I also see the persistent sanity and strength of Paul.

We want to discover the secret of the quietness, the strength, and the optimism of this man; for here, wherever we find the storm at its worst, we find the man at his calmest. What was the secret of it all; for the story is a parable. It is this, “The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him.” As we look at this picture, or this series of pictures, for the changes are very remarkable, we notice all the way through, that this man was a man who was in personal fellowship with the Lord. On this voyage the Lord did not appear to him. There was one hour when, in the stress and strain of the tempest, amid the howling of Euraquilo, when waves were tossing the ship, an angel came and spoke to him in the night; but the Lord did not appear. Yet all the way through this man was in fellowship with his Lord.

Remember what happened during the forty days, between our Lord’s resurrection and ascension. What was He doing? He was always vanishing. Into the upper room He came, no door was unlocked. Why did He come? To vanish.

He walked to Emmaus with two men. Why did He walk with them, and talk with them, and enter with them, and break the bread with them; for they never knew Him until He broke the bread? To vanish. In other words He accustomed them to the vanishing, and to the fact that He was always there, though they could not always see Him. The last thing said about this matter in the beginning of the Acts of the Apostles is this, not that He vanished, but that He went out of sight. The secret of it all is that these men knew Him nigh at hand, though they could not see Him.

The new spiritual sense was a more real and definite thing to them than the old sensual sense could be. Here is the secret. Here was a man on two ships, one after the other, in storms,; in stress and danger, with howling winds and creaking timbers and rending ropes and buffeting waves. Why was he quiet? Because the Lord was with him, and he knew it.

But there is another element in it. Not only this personal fellowship, but the fact that he knew his Lord’s purpose. “The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him.” He had told him, “So must thou bear witness also at Rome.” When the next peril came he always measured it against the power of the Lord. He said, “I must also see Rome.” “Paul will never get to Rome! These foolish men are fascinated, and mistaken by reason of this soft south wind, and they are going, though they ought not! It is a mistake, they will be wrecked! Paul would have stopped them.

But when they persisted, he knew that the One Who was with him had said that he must go to Rome, and though all tempests broke upon the ship, he knew he would reach Rome. He knew the secret of the Lord. Talking along that line to a friend who was not a professing Christian, he said, “Well, then, there is no credit at all, after that man knew the secret; and if he knew what would happen ahead, there was no credit in being quiet.” Quite true. There was no credit to Paul; and Paul would have been the first to say so. But the fact remains that this man was perfectly calm with his Lord, perfectly conscious of His purpose, perfectly confident in His power; and that kept him calm in all the stress and strain.

Mark the activity of the Lord. No Christian man or woman of spiritual understanding, reading this story, can talk about coincidences, happenings. We cannot read the story without seeing this living Lord Himself presiding over everything. Mark His activity on behalf of His servant. The central figure throughout is Paul. Paul is the respected prisoner. Paul is the honoured castaway on the island. Paul is the much-loved friend. Everything is in his favour. A viper fastening on his hand is made the method by which the barbarians are brought to a new respect and a new willingness to listen to him. AH this resulted from the presidency of the Lord and Master Himself. All was by the overruling of Christ.

I like to read this story again and again, and to listen to the whistling winds and the straining ropes, and to feel the buffeting of the waves, and to see danger on danger threatening to engulf the ship; and then to read at the end that wonderfully quiet calm statement, “So we came to Rome.” This story is all condensed in Psalms 107, which declares that God creates the storm, and the calm. The psalmist sang at last, “So He bringeth them unto the haven of their desire.” And Luke wrote, “So we came to Rome.”

What are the things of importance here for us? First that we have a destination, Rome. We may have to change the spelling of the word, and may have to change the geographical location of the destination; but we. must be sure of the place to which God has appointed us. Not heaven. Do not spiritualize this story and spoil it. This is not the assurance that we shall get to heaven some day.

This is a destination on earth, a place of service in this world, a great conviction in the soul that the Lord says, “That is the place of thy service.” A good many may say, “That is our difficulty. We are not sure of our destination.” Then wait on the Lord. But when once the destination is marked and seen, then although the way there may be through storms and by devious ways, we shall reach it. Get the map, and mark the way Paul went to Rome from Csesarea. It is most accurately described in this chapter. It was not a straight way.

By devious ways he came to Rome; through storms, but in the atmosphere of an abiding calm; all the way communicating help to other people.

Then we have the account of the arrival, in spite of all obstacles, through loyalty and faith, and in quietness; and the issue is declared. Put together the end of this story in the book of the Acts, and the end of the psalm paragraph; “Paul . . . thanked God and took courage”; “Oh that men would praise the Lord for His goodness! “When we are in the place of His appointment, if we will only look back, we shall see by storms and stress and strain, and through devious paths He led us. Have we forgotten to praise Him? “Oh that men would praise the Lord! “Some may not yet be there, but in the midst of the buffeting still. Then let them rest assured that,

“No water can swallow the ship where lies The Master of ocean and earth and skies.” If He have called us to Rome to witness, we must come there. So let there be a song in the heart, and light on the pathway; and as we journey by devious ways, through stress and strain, let us help the soldiers and the sailors and the sick folk, and every one who crosses our pathway; for on the way to destination there are great opportunities of service.