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If you haven’t been with us we have deconstructed these gatherings down to the essentials:
We begin with prayer
Sing the Word of God set to music (as a means to get it into our heads) and then we sit for a moment in silence here at the Church/Studio.
When we come back we pick up where we left off last week in our verse by verse study.
Acts 27.21–38
October 8th 2017
Milk
Okay, you know that I believe the Bible is the living word of God and that in and through its contents there are spiritual lessons present for all even though the material content and application has been fulfilled.
Last week we had a tremendous example of this as we studied what was materially just a travelogue that included a story of what happened to Paul and those with him on their ship.
But as we looked at the spiritual application we saw that in this tale there were principles that we could look to and learn from therein – principles that included the fact that
We all face wind and wavy storms in life which have the ability to take over and move us where they want.
That in the midst of these storms we sometimes have to surrender control and trust that God has our best interests in mind,
And that at times He will, like He did with Job and John the Baptist, and the Apostles, and even His own son – even snuff our the stars and light and allow us to believe that there is no chance for being rescued or saved (as the scripture puts it).
We also noted that it is in these very times of trial and doubt that most human beings are humbled and broken to being contrite, and that it is in this status that God wants the human heart – not in pride, not glorying in the flesh, not trusting in riches or Man – but looking to him to deliver.
Our story at sea continues today. Let’s read:
21 But after long abstinence Paul stood forth in the midst of them, and said, Sirs, ye should have hearkened unto me, and not have loosed from Crete, and to have gained this harm and loss.
22 And now I exhort you to be of good cheer: for there shall be no loss of any man’s life among you, but of the ship.
23 For there stood by me this night the angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve,
24 Saying, Fear not, Paul; thou must be brought before Caesar: and, lo, God hath given thee all them that sail with thee.
25 Wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer: for I believe God, that it shall be even as it was told me.
26 Howbeit we must be cast upon a certain island.
27 But when the fourteenth night was come, as we were driven up and down in Adria, about midnight the shipmen deemed that they drew near to some country;
28 And sounded, and found it twenty fathoms: and when they had gone a little further, they sounded again, and found it fifteen fathoms.
29 Then fearing lest we should have fallen upon rocks, they cast four anchors out of the stern, and wished for the day.
30 And as the shipmen were about to flee out of the ship, when they had let down the boat into the sea, under colour as though they would have cast anchors out of the foreship,
31 Paul said to the centurion and to the soldiers, Except these abide in the ship, ye cannot be saved.
32 Then the soldiers cut off the ropes of the boat, and let her fall off.
33 And while the day was coming on, Paul besought them all to take meat, saying, This day is the fourteenth day that ye have tarried and continued fasting, having taken nothing.
34 Wherefore I pray you to take some meat: for this is for your health: for there shall not an hair fall from the head of any of you.
35 And when he had thus spoken, he took bread, and gave thanks to God in presence of them all: and when he had broken it, he began to eat.
36 Then were they all of good cheer, and they also took some meat.
37 And we were in all in the ship two hundred threescore and sixteen souls.
38 And when they had eaten enough, they lightened the ship, and cast out the wheat into the sea.
Okay back to verse 21
21 But after long abstinence Paul stood forth in the midst of them, and said, Sirs, ye should have hearkened unto me, and not have loosed from Crete, and to have gained this harm and loss.
Most scholars think that Luke is saying that after going for a long time without food – probably as a result of the storm, fighting to stay afloat, etc.
So when things got even worse and they added hunger to the mix Paul stood forth in the midst of them and said ( as only Paul could)
You guys should have listened to me, and not have loosed from Crete – and action which has caused this harm and loss.
Having pretty much called what was going to happen to them if they journeyed out into the storm Paul now gives them a word of hope and says at (verse 22)
22 And now I exhort you to be of good cheer: for there shall be no loss of any man’s life among you, but of the ship.
But hey, cheer up, nobody here is gonna die (rahhhhhh) . . . but we are gonna lose this ship (ooohhhhh).
It’s likely that having exercised great insight before that some or all of those who were on the ship believed what Paul was saying.
But now he tells them why, saying:
23 For there stood by me this night the angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve,
In our study of Revelation last week we read where John says that he saw a “mighty angel from heaven in the clouds” and how many think this angel was just another heavenly angels of some for doing things relative to the seven trumpets.
But even though John describes this being as a mighty angel the rest of the descriptions of this angel clearly reveal that what John calls an angel was Jesus Himself.
Here in verse 23 we appear to have a similar situation as Paul says:
“For there stood by me this night the angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve,”
I said similar because Paul appears to includes some terms that give a clue that this angel he mentions was more than just an angel as he says:
“For there stood by me this night the (not an) angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve,”
In this case was this angel Jesus as it was in Revelation – most scholars say no – it was a heavenly created angel of light and the term the King James uses can be “an angel” instead of “the angel.”
So what about Paul adding
“For there stood by me this night the (not an) angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve,”
Is Paul referring to the Angel or is he speaking of God.
By looking to scripture we have some passages that speak of serving the Lord Jesus Christ.
Speaking of people who cause division in the church Paul writes in Romans 16:17-18:
Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them. For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple.
Then Colossians 3:24 is plain as it says:
Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ.
So we know from scripture that we are to serve the Lord Jesus Christ.
But when it comes to serving God we have the following in scripture:
Paul says in Romans 1:9 “For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers;”
Romans 7:25 So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.
1st Thessalonians 1:9 For they themselves shew of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God;
2nd Timothy 1:3 I thank God, whom I serve from my forefathers with pure conscience, that without ceasing I have remembrance of thee in my prayers night and day.
Hebrews 9:14 How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
Hebrews 12:28 Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:
So we have a biblical premise before us – we serve Jesus – it plainly states this – and we serve God – again plainly and more repeatedly stated.
And so the dilemma. Jesus said to Peter in Matthew 4:10
“Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.”
Later He added in Matthew 6:24
“No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”
This opens us up to a serious thought churning question:
Are Jesus and God two or are they one? If they are two are we able to serve them both or will we love the one and hate the other (as Jesus taught).
Some say that they are two persons but make the one God – so to serve either is to be serving one God – therefore there is no issue.
The basis behind Jesus teaching is pretty clear to me, though. If we have two masters – even if they are exact in their expectations and commands – there seems to be the problem of loving the one and hating the other.
For example, if God is a Spirit, and His Son is in resurrected flesh, once living as a man on earth, it seems that we would relate (love) the one who is in flesh MORE than we would relate to and love the one who is only in spirit.
Maybe that is just me, but I’m trying to understand the actuality of things relative to us rather than the theory of them.
In my estimation IF there is one God, and if to serve Jesus is to serve the one God – as Jesus was God in the flesh – then to serve Him IS to serve the One God and the problem of two masters is solved.
But I wonder about the “notion of serving and loving” what are called the three persons of the Holy Trinity – with the three persons being the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit as three separate, distinct, co-eternal, co-equal, uncreated individuals.
In that sense I have trouble relating to some of “them”while loving and serving one of the others more.
It is clear from scripture that we serve both Christ and God – in the end the ONLY possible way to serve and love them equally and without any preference is for them to be the same and lacking any and all distinction – once the Son overcame all things on our behalf.
Anyway, back out on the storm-tossed sea, Paul has explained that he was visited by an angel who say to him (verse 24)
24 “Fear not, Paul; thou must be brought before Caesar: and, lo, God hath given thee all them that sail with thee.
Don’t worry about the loss of your life – you must be presented to Caesar (in Rome, which is quite a ways away).
Do not be alarmed with the danger of the loss of your life or others, as God hath given thee all that sail with you.
No one will be lost.
And at this point I have to carry out our biblical story to its spiritual message – from how I see it.
First of all, we have God who is overseeing the events that we are reading about, right?
He is a Good God, and at this point He has sent His Son whom they killed, who rose from the grave having overcome sin and death for the world.
We describe this God as loving – can caring for all of us as His creations, right?
Now in His vast plans to get the Good News of His Son out into the world, Paul is being sent to Rome.
With Him on the ship are believers – Paul and those traveling with Him – and Jews, and certainly Egyptians and other prisoners. Who knows who else is on this ship, but all of them are in the hands of God – every last one of them – and God, according to scripture is not a respecter of persons.
In other words, while He may have plans and purposes for every one of us, he loves us all and uses us and our lives to bring about HIS ultimate purposes.
Still with me?
And so on this ship it says that there are 276 people. Paul was one of them. Luke was another. Astarchus was another and so was Julius, the centurian over the care and delivery of Paul.
We also know that there was a helmsman who could have owned the ship too or the owner was on board as well.
So that leaves something like 269 to 271 men who are on this ship and go unnamed.
What does God put them ALL through? Rough seas and winds. So bad that they have to toss stuff overboard and then lower the sails, strap the lifeboat together with reinforcements and leave it in His able hands – let her be driven.
And then all heavenly light was extinguished to the point that Luke writes (we covered this last week):
“And all hope that we should be saved was then taken away.”
Some questions?
Was God only concerned with the welfare of Paul?
(beat)
Or perhaps He was also concerned about the welfare of Luke and Aristarchus too?
How about Julius, the Roman Centurian guarding Paul? Was God aware and cognizant of him and his safety?
Perhaps the helmsman too? Would you include the helmsmen as being under God’s caring eye and hand?
I mean, was God only concerned with those who were contributing to His purposes and plans, like Paul and Luke and the other participants OR was He also hearing the hearts and prayers and worries of the other 269 souls and their families?
(beat)
We have the natural tendency to see (or read into scripture) the notion that everything is happening because of the figures involved.
In other words when we are reading about Paul we tend to focus on Paul rather than on what Paul is accomplishing for God and His plan for all.
I would suggest that in the larger narrative what we are actually reading about and witnessing is God loving the world (perhaps represented by all the unnamed characters on the ship) by and through the things He is doing through the few!
Are the few performing great things for the benefit of the many? Of course they are. But to what end? For the benefit of the world! Which God so loves.
The highlight of the stories are certainly pointed to the main characters – who God, again, is using – but He is using them to bring about His incomprehensible plans for all, and not just the central active figure in the stories.
We can’t forget this.
So while God wants to get Paul to Rome His love and concern was equal for all that were troubled on those high seas.
The biblical narratice is not about the few “Peter, Paul’s and Mary’s” in the world – it’s about God’s love for the world, and what He did to bring about His desired ends – which was for the Gospel of His only Human Son to be taken first to the House of Israel, and then to the Gentiles before the end of that age fell upon them.
Why? Because it was by and through all that this book contains that God reconciled the world to Himself, where He could and would have open opportunity to engage with the rest on that sinking ship.
So we have a model presented to us of how God operated through that age and the age before.
He had some prophets and apostles who are not ends unto themselves but were chosen to help God bring about His expected ends for the whole world!
This was the purpose of His Son and His life – it wasn’t just for us to look at Jesus and try and follow His lead but it was so that His Son could come and complete that singular goal of saving the world in its sin and to reconcile all of us to God – everyone in the ship.
The presentation most theological schools are teaching their students today is that God elected Paul and Luke and Aristarchus to be His and He used everyone else – souls He could give a rats rear-end about – to bear the terror of the high seas, and man the helm, and own the ship only as a means to deliver Paul.
There is a built-in idea that God really doesn’t care about the rest, that they are fodder for a future burning hell, but His elect, the few, and the chosen like Paul, are His focus.
I had a good friend who I disagree with on almost everything theological sit right here on this stage and tell me that God isn’t even AWARE of the existence of anyone except those who are His . . . and that those who are His are His because He elects them to be of His own free will and choice.
In the midst of the storm we read last week that there was no hope that they were going to be saved.
No light from above, no letting up of the waves and wind.
But Paul, as a type for Christ, one of His very apostles, steps forward to them and now gives much better news, saying at verse 24:
“Fear not, Paul; thou must be brought before Caesar: and, lo, God hath given thee all them that sail with thee.”
Of course, this is speaking of being physically saved from the storm that was attempting to drown them. But to me we have a type presented that cannot be ignored.
If God is all powerful, and all good, and all loving and all capable, then I propose that this God has had the victory over the ways and will of darkness, and Satan and his angels, and human beings and their will, and every other factor that works to bring about our destruction.
I suggest before God and you witnesses, that Jesus had the victory over the waves and the wind, and that while some may be lost in the storm, all – every single one of His creations – will ultimately be brought to that safe shore . . . by and through His Son.
No, not all will arrive with the honors of Paul, or Luke, or even Julius the Centurian, and not all will exit the ship as His children, but ultimately all will be reconciled to Him because God does NOT fail, Man cannot trump Him in His will and ways, and Jesus victory is a victory in deed.
We are engaged in reading about how God has done this – and the principles of import that abide in those who are not only His creations but who are His Sons and Daughters.
So, Paul adds:
25 Wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer: for I believe God, that it shall be even as it was told me.
And then he adds:
26 Howbeit we must be cast upon a certain island (which we will see will be in the Malta Archepelago).
So there it is boys – we’re all gonna be saved, but we are gonna be cast upon an Island somewhere. Luke continues
(verse 27)
27 But when the fourteenth night was come (since the beginning of the storm – wow that is a long time to be at sea in a storm), as we were driven up and down in Adria (this seems to refer to the Adriatic sea which then was much bigger than it is today and included the Malta Archipelago) about midnight the shipmen deemed that they drew near to some country;
28 And sounded (they dropped a weighted line down to the sea floor), and found it twenty fathoms (a fathom is six feet so the floor was 120 feet down or so) and when they had gone a little further, they sounded again, and found it fifteen fathoms (or 90 feet – so they knew, therefore, that they were drawing near to shore.)
29 Then fearing lest we should have fallen upon rocks, they cast four anchors out of the stern, and wished for the day.
So they secured the ship by dropping their anchors and the King James says,
“and wished for the day” or wished daylight would come quickly to more accurately understand their situation.
30 And as the shipmen (those operating the craft) were about to flee out of the ship, when they had let down the boat into the sea (as a means to escape the ship – so much for the captain going down with the ship, right), under color (under the pretence or as if “they would have cast anchors out of the foreship,” (meaning they dropped the dingy in the water and were pretending that it was necessary to personally take the anchors out and away from the ship to drop them in a better place)
31 Paul said to the centurion and to the soldiers, Unless these abide (or remain) in the ship, ye cannot be saved.
In other words, the remaining soldiers and the centurion were unqualified to manage the ship in good water let alone this storm and the presence of the sailors on board was indispensable to their survival.
We are presented with an interesting notion here. Earlier Paul said that an angel appeared to him and assured him that “nobody would die,” and yet now he tells them that if these seaman abandon them nobody would survive?
Which is it – and what is the proper response?
Some might think that if the angel said it that it would be. No matter what. But Paul does not seem to believe this. He doesn’t say that his life would be lost but he does tell them that even though the angel promised no deaths of anyone, they would not make it if these men abandoned ship.
Fascinating. And the premise seems to imply that though God makes promises or gives reassurances that in some cases they are contingent upon our response to them.
We might liken it to God coming to a person and telling them that they would live a long life. And in response the person figures, I can do anything I want – God told me I will live a long life. And so he or she drinks a fifth of whiskey every night and drives drunk etc.
One year later he’s killed when He hits a tree and so he says to God, “I though you said I would live a long life.” Maybe God would reply, “If you had respected the promise instead of disrespecting it you would have.”
I dunno. All we can say is we have an example here to give us pause.
And I can not help but wonder if the principle is true relative to salvation.
Because the end is not determined without the means, where God has resolved that his people shall be saved He has also determined the means by which that will occur ordained that they will abide in Him if they want, and if they wish, and if they are willing.
Look at the example we get from Paul here and in His life.
Here he has been promised by a heavenly angel that none with him would perish and his response was NOT to live with wild abandon BUT to live with respect to the promise!
Then look at his own life. He was murdering Christians and putting them in prison before Christ and afterward, being called and saved by Him directly, Paul writes:
1st Corinthians 15:0 But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.
And so it is with those who have been assured of salvation from loss – in the face of it and its wonderful promise – they labor all the more – not the less.
So hearing this message from Paul (that if they let the crew go they would all die) we read:
32 Then the soldiers cut off the ropes of the boat, and let her fall off.
Obviously the crew hadn’t got on board the dingy yet so these guys made sure they couldn’t – and cut the ropes holding it over the water, letting the lifeboat go.
At this point Paul seems to take the lead and we read verse 33-34:
33 And while the day was coming on, Paul besought them all to take food, saying, “This day is the fourteenth day that ye have tarried and continued fasting, having taken nothing.
34 Wherefore I pray you to take some meat: for this is for your health: for there shall not an hair fall from the head of any of you (reiterating that all would be safe, though their lifeboat had floated away).
35 And when he had thus spoken, he took bread, and gave thanks to God in presence of them all: and when he had broken it, he began to eat.
What Paul did here was the usual custom among the Jews but there were in all probability many on board who were heathens – neither Jew nor Christian.
And Luke informs us that he was not ashamed to Pray over the food to the God of heaven right in front of them.
36 Then were they all of good cheer, and they also took some food.
37 And we were in all in the ship two hundred threescore and sixteen souls. (276 people)
38 And when they had eaten enough, they lightened the ship, and cast out the wheat into the sea.
I said last week that amidst the storm they had tossed the wheat but I was wrong. They did it here.
And we will leave off at this point only to return next week Lord willing.
Q and A
Prayer
