Acts 27:1-44 - Listening to God’s Voice

Podcast Transcript (Auto-Transcribed by Apple Podcasts)

Welcome back to Tabernacle Talk. Hope that you are having a day today, that you're ready to seek the Lord, ready to dive into His Word. Whatever life has kind of thrown your way, I want you to know that God has not abandoned you.

He's not against you. He is for you. He is for your good, for His glory, for you being able to communicate the Gospel and the truths of God's Word and the comfort that He wants to give.

He wants all of that for your life. So even if you're going through some storms, you're going through some turbulent times, I know that God is with you, and we'll see some of that even today. We are in Acts 27.

We have this chapter and one more chapter, and that's all that's left in the Book of Acts. It has been a crazy journey with you all. We'll have gone through, oh, I think this is episode 46, so we'll have done 48 episodes of Acts in 48 days.

So I don't know about you. It has been kind of a whirlwind for me. I'm a little tired.

And one adjustment that I'm going to be making to the podcast is that it's going to be a weekday. So every day, Monday through Friday, still going to be having Tabernacle Talk.

Almost called it Strength for the Day, which was my podcast with my friend Dennis Fountain, Pastor in Moses Lake.

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But it's been 48 episodes of Tabernacle Talk happening every single day. And I'm going to have it to where it's on weekdays. That way, kind of Sundays, I've already got something that's coming out, if you will, with preaching at Tabernacle Baptist.

And I want to encourage people to listen to that and to pay some attention to that, that kind of corporate study in the word, a little bit longer form than just a little podcast episode. And I want to encourage people to do that.

But then it kind of gives me one day that I don't have to record, which I know my wife would really appreciate, that when it comes to Fridays are normally the day that I kind of take off, set aside to be with family, kind of the Old Testament

principle of Sabbath that I take one day during the week that I go, Okay, God, I know that you can do more with me trying to serve you and follow you in six days. I know you can do more than that than I can in seven days of just me.

And so I'm going to dedicate this whole day that I say, God, you bless what my hands have done. You work when I can't. You be with people when I'm not able to.

And so that's kind of the goal for me that then Fridays, I don't have to record an episode for Saturday.

And that Sundays can be kind of set aside for us to look at what God's doing in the Word, whether you're here in Nassau, middle river, White Marsh, kind of this area, and you're looking at Tabernacle Baptist sermons attending there, or if you're from

some other place. I saw we have some people, I believe from the Philippines, that have listened to at least an episode or two, and I think we might even have some listeners in Europe as well.

So I wanted to let you know that all of that's upcoming, that it's not, oh man, he really forgot to upload two days in a row. That'll be something that as we end in the Book of Acts, that we'll have every weekday, we'll have something.

And on the weekends, they'll kind of be one day of rest, and then Sundays obviously with the sermons from Tabernacle. So we're going to dive right into Acts 27 today.

Thank you for allowing me to take a little bit of time to let you know what's upcoming on the podcast. And we are in Acts 27 verse 1.

When it was decided that we were to sail to Italy, so this is Paul and his kind of entourage of troops and things from the Roman groups that had captured him, imprisoned him, saved him from the angry mobs of the Jewish people that had wanted to put

him to death. He appealed to Caesar and said, Hey, Caesar will do my trial. It won't be the Jewish rulers that do that.

So those people, when it was decided that we were to sail to Italy, they handed over Paul and some other prisoners to a centurion named Julius, not Orange, of the Imperial Regiment.

When we had boarded the ship of Adramidium, we put to sea intending to sail to ports along the coast of Asia. Aristarchus, a Macedonian of Thessalonica, was with us.

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. When we had put out to sea from there, we sailed along the northern coast of Cyprus because the winds were against us.

After sailing through the open sea off Cilicia and Pamphylia, we reached Myra and Lycia. There the centurion found an Alexandrian ship sailing for Italy and put us on board. Sailing slowly for many days, we with difficulty, we arrived off Snitis.

Since the wind did not allow us to approach it, we sailed along the south side of Crete off Salmon. With still more difficulty, we sailed along the coast and came to a place called Fairhavens near the city of Lycia.

So as you can kind of tell, Luke for the most part, as we've journeyed through the first 26 chapters of Acts, has not said these kinds of things before of, hey, with a ton of difficulty, with a lot of work, this thing happened.

Here it is, they're sailing along, but it's heavy going that the winds are fighting against them. They're not able to go into certain ports. They're sailing through.

Like there's a lot of difficulties that are going on. Now in verse nine, by now much time had passed and the voyage was already dangerous.

Since the Day of Atonement was already over, Paul gave his advice and told the 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. He goes, hey, it's pretty obvious.

Like we might die here on this. Says, but the centurion paid attention to the captain and the owner of the ship rather than to what Paul said.

Since the harbor was unsuitable to winter in, the majority decided to set sail from there, hoping somehow to reach Phoenix, a harbor on Crete, facing the southwest and northwest, and to winter there.

When a gentle south wind sprang up, they thought they had achieved their purpose. They weighed anchor and sailed along the shore of Crete. But before long, a fierce wind called the Northeaster rushed down from the island.

Since the ship was caught and unable to head into the wind, we gave way to it and were driven along. After running under the shelter of a little island called Cotta, we were barely able to get control of the skiff.

After hoisting it up, they used ropes and tackle and girded the ship. Fearing they would run aground on the Surtis, they lowered the drift anchor, and in this way, they were driven along.

Because we were being severely battered by the storm, we began to jettison the cargo the next day. On the third day, they threw the ships tackle overboard with their own hands.

For many days, neither sun nor stars appeared, and the severe storm kept raging. Finally, all hope was fading that we would be saved. This is a tough circumstance.

Here the ships, they rarely sailed for just one purpose. Here, we're bringing along prisoners, we're carrying along things that we're going to sell. Here, we're bringing things from this location to this location.

So there's many purposes that the ship is taking in sailing to Italy and sailing to Rome, and they've chucked a ton of the stuff that they were going to sell. So there's already a huge loss that's taking place.

But now they're scared, not just, hey, we lost a bunch of stuff in this storm, but we think that we too are going to die because of the storm.

Verse 21, since they had been without food for a long time, Paul then stood up among them and said, you men should have followed my advice not to sail from Crete and sustain this damage and loss.

Now I urge you to take courage because there will be no loss of any of your lives, but only of the ship. For last night, an angel of the God I belong to and serve stood by me and said, don't be afraid, Paul.

It is necessary for you to appear before Caesar, and indeed, God has graciously given you all those who are sailing with you. So take courage, men, because I believe God that it will be just the way it was told to me.

But we have to run aground on some island. What an encouragement here that God is still continuing to stand by Paul. I forget which episode previously that this had been mentioned in, might have been in Corinth where God comes to Paul.

He says, don't worry, I've got plenty of people in this city. I'm standing by you. And I think it was earlier, maybe three or four chapters ago, where God said, don't worry, Paul, you're going to stand before the emperor.

You don't have to fear these people that are plotting your death. I'm standing by you. And here God is continuing to stand by Paul, and he stands by you.

This wasn't just something that happened to the Apostle Paul. Hebrews 13 would tell us the statements from the Old Testament that God gave to Joshua, that he would never leave him or abandon him, that those same promises apply to us today.

He says, don't be covetous, don't be greedy for money, for material safety in this world. He says, because God has said, I will never leave you or abandon you.

So whatever, if you're in a storm like Paul was in a storm, if you are going through difficulties, know God is by you. He's not abandoned you. You can take his word for it, that he is with you.

You don't have to have a special angel come alongside and tell you exactly what God himself has already told you. He is with you, he is by you, he is for you, he's not against you.

Verse 27, When the fourteenth night came, we were drifting in the Adriatic Sea, and about midnight the sailors thought they were approaching land. They took soundings and found it to be a hundred and twenty feet deep.

When they had sailed a little farther and sounded again, they found it to be ninety feet deep, so they'd gone thirty feet towards it, and they're heading towards land.

Then, fearing we might run aground on the rocks, they dropped four anchors from the stern and prayed for daylight to come. Some sailors tried to escape from the ship.

They had let down the skiff into the sea, pretending that they were going to put out anchors from the bow. Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, unless these men stay in the ship, you cannot be saved.

Then the soldiers cut the ropes holding the skiff and let it drop away. This time, they're listening. Paul had said, hey, it's super clear, like we're going to lose all our stuff, and we might lose our lives too.

They didn't listen to him then, but then when he's saying, all right, God's promised, you stay with the ship, we stay together, we're going to lose the ship, but we're all going to be alive. So now when he's giving them commands, they're listening.

Let's be like that with people of God, that we listen to them when they speak the words of God, not their own words, not, hey, I really think that this super unique thing no one's ever said or done before is really the way that you need to understand

the Bible or follow the Bible. But as people speak to us the clear words of Scripture, let's listen to them just like these men are listening to the man of God here, Paul.

When it was about daylight, verse 33, Paul urged them all to take food, saying, Today is the fourteenth day that you have been waiting and going without food, having eaten nothing.

So I urge you to take some food, for this is for your survival, since none of you will lose a hair from your head. After he said these things and had taken some bread, he gave thanks to God in the presence of all of them.

And after he broke it, he began to eat. They all were encouraged and took food themselves. In all, there were 276 of us on the ship.

When they had eaten enough, they began to lighten the ship by throwing the grain overboard into the sea. When daylight came, they did not recognize the land, but sided the bay with a beach. They planned to run the ship ashore if they could.

After cutting loose the anchors, they left them in the sea, at the same time loosening the ropes that held the rudders. Then they hoisted the foresail to the wind and headed for the beach. But they struck a sandbar and ran the ship aground.

The bow jammed fast and remained immovable, while the stern began to break up by the pounding of the waves. The soldiers' plan was to kill the prisoners, so that no one could swim away and escape.

But the centurion kept them from carrying out their plan, because he wanted to save Paul. And so he ordered those who could jump overboard, who could swim, to jump overboard first and get to land.

The rest were to follow, some on planks and some on debris from the ship. And this way, everyone safely reached the shore. Many other things could be said, things that you could draw out from this passage.

I think of here, the centurion keeping the prisoners alive, because he wanted to save Paul.

Think of Jesus, that God does not pour out his wrath on us, who have placed ourselves in Christ, who the Holy Spirit, through the faith that we have in response to his work and his call, that we have responded in faith, those people, we are safe from

God's judgment forever, because God loves Jesus. Just like here, all of the prisoners were safe, because the centurion wanted to save Paul, that we are safe in Christ.

Here, there was only one way to be saved, and that was through obeying the voice of God, and that Paul spoke.

And I think for us, the word that the apostles have spoken, including Paul, and following through what they have said, is the only way to be saved, that Jesus, His righteousness, is the only way of salvation. Today, will you rely on Jesus?

Will you listen to His voice? When He speaks through His word, through people that are saying the same things that He has said, will you listen to them? And are you in Jesus, the only safe haven for our souls?

Tomorrow, we're going to see what happens now that they are on this new island. And want to reiterate what I said at the very beginning. God's with you.

So, go into circumstances, hard situations, difficult times like Paul was in, and continue to talk about God. He says, the God that I serve and that I'm with said that he is by me.

Will you testify of God being with you, of following him, of loving him? And that would be a wonderful thing to do. Hope you have a great day.

See you tomorrow as we dive into Acts 27, Acts 28.