GETTING STARTED
I grew up sailing boats with my family, mostly on calm lakes. However, when I was 17, we took an ocean voyage, sailing a 34-foot Catalina from Galveston to Cozumel. The round-trip took 14 days, and we encountered mostly storm-free weather. Even with the clear skies and the benefit of motion-sickness medication, eating was not easy, and I was thrilled to get back on solid ground.
Unlike my uneventful trip, in today’s passage we find Paul, Luke, and 274 men riding out a violent storm at sea. Fearing for their lives, several onboard attempt to take things into their own hands.
- When storms come in your life, do you walk in faith, obediently doing what God wants you to do, or do you respond in fear, taking things into your own hands?
READ THE WORD: ACTS 27:21-38 (ESV)
21 Since they had been without food for a long time, Paul stood up among them and said, “Men, you should have listened to me and not have set sail from Crete and incurred this injury and loss. 22 Yet now I urge you to take heart, for there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship. 23 For this very night there stood before me an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I worship, 24 and he said, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul; you must stand before Caesar. And behold, God has granted you all those who sail with you.’ 25 So take heart, men, for I have faith in God that it will be exactly as I have been told. 26 But we must run aground on some island.”
27 When the fourteenth night had come, as we were being driven across the Adriatic Sea, about midnight the sailors suspected that they were nearing land. 28 So they took a sounding and found twenty fathoms. A little farther on they took a sounding again and found fifteen fathoms. 29 And fearing that we might run on the rocks, they let down four anchors from the stern and prayed for day to come. 30 And as the sailors were seeking to escape from the ship, and had lowered the ship’s boat into the sea under pretense of laying out anchors from the bow, 31 Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, “Unless these men stay in the ship, you cannot be saved.” 32 Then the soldiers cut away the ropes of the ship’s boat and let it go.
33 As day was about to dawn, Paul urged them all to take some food, saying, “Today is the fourteenth day that you have continued in suspense and without food, having taken nothing. 34 Therefore I urge you to take some food. For it will give you strength, for not a hair is to perish from the head of any of you.” 35 And when he had said these things, he took bread, and giving thanks to God in the presence of all he broke it and began to eat. 36 Then they all were encouraged and ate some food themselves. 37 (We were in all 276 persons in the ship.) 38 And when they had eaten enough, they lightened the ship, throwing out the wheat into the sea.
English Standard Version, copyright 2001 by Crossway Bibles. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
DIGGING DEEPER
- In the previous passage, Luke wrote that, “…all hope of our being saved was at last abandoned” (27:20). In spite of their dire circumstances, what did Paul twice encourage those on the ship to do (vss. 22, 25)? What reassuring information did Paul tell them three times (vss. 22, 24, 34)? On what basis did Paul encourage the men?
- What new fear beset the sailors as they approached land, and what actions did they take to secure the boat? What did the desperate sailors attempt to do in verse 30?
- In verse 24, Paul said that God had assured him that all on board would survive. Yet, in verse 31 Paul said that unless everyone on board stayed on the boat, they would not be saved. How can both of these statements be true?
- Without lifeboats, whom would the men on board have to depend on to bring them to safety? What did the sailors do after they had eaten? How are both this action and the cutting free of the lifeboats demonstrations of faith and/or obedience?
- What storms are you facing today? What promises has God made to you in his Word that you need to hold on to and act in obedience to in the midst of these challenges?
RESPOND TO GOD
In Acts 23:11, Jesus told Paul that he would testify in Rome. In today’s passage, an angel reassured Paul that not only would he make it to Rome, but all on board would survive. Paul knew that God was sovereign—his promises were secure; yet, he also knew he needed to act obediently, and he called the men on the ship to do what was required of them—taking courage, staying together, and eating. When storms rage around us, we, too, need to remember that God is sovereign. We can trust his promises, and we need to continue to walk obediently in faith.
- Thank God that he is trustworthy, and ask him to help you walk in faith and obedience today.