Safe & Secure No Matter What

Transcript

GR1637
4-15-12
Safe and Secure No Matter What
Acts 27:27 – 28:10
Gil Rugh

We are in the book of Acts and the 27th chapter in your Bibles, the book of Acts and the 27th chapter. We are following the journeys of the Apostle Paul and its life in ministry filled with difficulties, trouble, trials, hardships, and so on. And a good time for us to remind us and be reminded of ourselves of what God accomplishes in our lives with trials, with difficulties. At least two things happen when we go through trials and difficulties, pressures, the special kind. They reveal our character. They reveal our true spiritual condition. They manifest to us and often to others whether we are really walking in dependence upon the Lord, confident that He is sovereign in all that is taking place in our lives. If I resort to despair, frustration, bitterness, complaining, it shows that I don’t really take to heart the promise that God causes all things to work together for good to those who belong to Him as Romans 8:28 assures us. So trials reveal our character, reveal where we are in our spiritual growth even as God’s people.

Turn over to Philippians chapter 1. Leave a marker in Acts 27. Philippians chapter 1 in verse 29 Paul says: “For to you it has been granted for Christ’s sake not only to believe in Him but also to suffer for His sake.” Remember Philippi was one of those cities and the church at Philippi, one of those churches in Macedonia that we looked at in 2 Corinthians 8 where Paul says they were going through a great trial of poverty, spiritually doing well but physically destitute. Evidently persecution for Christ’s sake came with that. Paul said that it is a blessing from God. It has been granted to you for Christ’s sake not only to believe in Him but another blessing has been given you from God. So the trials and suffering are a blessing.

You come into chapter 2, verse 13 and Paul reminded them at the end of verse 12: “Work out your salvation with fear and trembling for it is God who is at work in you both to will and to work for His good pleasure.” So in the midst of their trials and their difficulty, the persecution they may have been experiencing, the physical and material hardships that had come to their life, “it is God who is at work in you for His good pleasure.” And then the next verse reminds them: “Do all things without grumbling or disputing,” because that is always the danger when things are going badly, when pressure builds, frustration can come and despair. We become disheartened, then we begin to grumble and complain and we are dissatisfied. I wouldn’t necessarily say we are dissatisfied with God and what He is doing in our lives we are just dissatisfied with what’s happening to us. But do I believe in a sovereign God? Do I believe that He is in control over what He brings into my life for my good, to mold and shape me according to His plan?

Remember the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5? You don’t need to turn there. There is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. The Spirit produces those things in our lives and sometimes God uses the difficulties to bring those out.

So trials reveal our character and then the trials further develop the character that is revealed. When I am under pressure I’m revealed and as a believer you have experienced it too. Sometimes in a trial you stop and consider and you’re frustrated and disappointed with yourself at how you have been handling the trial to this point. You think, “Wait a minute, what is wrong here? Why am I discouraged, why am I depressed? Why do I have this frustration and irritation? Find myself grumbling about what is going on. I realize that there are things that need to be developed in me.

Come back to Romans chapter 5. The chapter opens up that we have been justified by faith and it’s through Christ in verse 2 we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand. A great position that we have and then verse 3, we are exalting at the end of verse 2 in hope of the glory of God and not only this but we also exalt in our tribulations, so, amazing. We exalt, rejoice in anticipation and hope that we have of the glory of God and that is our destiny but right now in the tribulation and trials of this life we are also exalting, rejoicing knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance and perseverance proven character and proven character hope and hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out within our heart through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. So God is developing us and maturing us with the trials that He brings into our lives, revealing where we need to grow more as we submit to Him.

James wrote in the same vein that the trials that come into the lives will work to bring us to further maturity. That was in James chapter 1, verse 2-4. These difficulties of whatever kind they are work to that end. We say that because as you come back to Acts 27, Paul is going through one trial and difficulty after another. His service to the Lord seems to always bring him into added difficulties. It has been a hard life. It has been a hard ministry in his service for the Lord in reality. Now as the climax of his service to the Lord and other believers in bringing the offering for the needy saints in the church at Jerusalem while in Jerusalem he’s been attacked by the Jews, subsequently arrested by the Romans, repeated declared innocent but not released. So he is being sent to Rome for trial before Caesar. With all he’s been through you’d think the Lord would give him a nice quiet sea voyage. I know, the Lord just giving him relaxing time, a time to be refreshed and strengthened. No, he’s spent the last two weeks in a storm that is in danger of tearing the ship apart and sending it to be bottom of the sea. Everybody on the ship is caught up in the turmoil and Paul is too. He is a resident on the ship. In the midst of this an angel of the Lord appeared to him in verse 23 of chapter 27 and said, and he’s telling people so others what has happened. “For this very night an angel of the God to whom I belong, whom I serve, stood before me.” Paul, you see through the trial. His character is revealed and it is being further developed. He is not yet complete and perfect in Christ he wrote to the Philippians. Later during his imprisonment in Rome that he was still striving for this. He gave his testimony to the Philippians but you see his confidence here. This is the God to whom I belong, the God that I serve. An unbeliever may think well, yes, you’ve got a great God. You serve a great God, look at you. You are on the same ship that we are on, you know. You are in the same turmoil, physically speaking that we are and this angel said to me, “Do not be afraid, Paul, you must stand before Caesar and God has granted you all those who are sailing with you. Therefore, keep up your courage men for I believe God.” Interesting, the angel had to remind Paul, don’t be afraid. Paul is human. He had been tossed on this ship for two weeks seeing the despair around him of seasoned sailors as they have gone to extreme measures to try to keep the ship afloat during the storm. This is not a passing storm. You take about a storm that passes through, that will last for a night or part of a night. This has been two weeks on the sea. “Don’t be afraid, Paul.” Just a reminder, God is in control. You are going to Rome. You must stand before Caesar in an act of God’s grace He’s going to spare all of those who are on the ship with you. Paul’s response, take up your courage, men, for I believe God. The storm hasn’t stopped. Things haven’t settled down. Now if I was writing this I would have had God tell Paul, “Just stand on the bow of the ship and tell the storm to stop in imitation of your Master who did that.” That would make an impact and things could settle down and Paul would have the rest of the trip to share the Gospel with them. But things aren’t going to settle down.

Verse 26 where we left off: “We must run aground on a certain island.” So God has miraculously intervened to speak to Paul through an angel. But the events are going to play themselves out. You talk about the providence of God where God is sovereignly in control but so often He is using the events of life and we forget that He is in control of these events.

I was sitting in my study today looking out the window watching the trees blow and thinking how amazing it is God made these trees. Big trees, and they blow in the wind but they don’t break but all God has to do is turn the wind up and he can turn those trees into splinters. How awesome He is and what He does. The wind blows and they are blowing back and forth and some of the trees out behind our place are old but they are still there. How many of these storms and winds blow? But if God wanted to send a tornado they would all be gone. He is control of these things. They just don’t happen. This is just not a storm that happened. Bad luck for Paul. He picked the wrong ship at the wrong time, poor choices of the sailors but God is in control of the weather. So we must run aground on a certain island. We are not going down. We are not going under. The ship is not going to sink but nor is the storm going to settle down and the ship be spared. Running aground is not a good thing because when all the wooden ships ran aground and the storm hasn’t stopped they just get broken to pieces and that is their destiny.

Verse 27: “But when the fourteenth night came, as we were being driven about in the Adriatic Sea, about midnight the sailors began to surmise they were approaching some land. You see on a map, a more modern map, the Adriatic Sea is up here but that is not where Paul is. In New Testament times the Adriatic Sea was this part of the Mediterranean down here between Crete and Malta and Sicily over here. So they are out here in the sea. As you look at the map don’t get confused and think the Adriatic Sea is up here some place. They are out here. So Paul began over here in Caesarea then came up made a stop come around stop and then they are driven by the storm down south of Crete here and they are out here now in open waters at the mercy of the storm, two weeks. “As we were being driven about in the Adriatic Sea, about midnight the sailors began to surmise that they were approaching some land. They would do sounding, throw the weighed rope over, measure how far down because they are concerned, they don’t want to run aground, the ship will be stuck. The waves will tear it to pieces. So they are testing the depths. “They found it to be twenty fathoms. A little further on they took another sounding and found it to be fifteen fathoms.” Not good. Twenty fathoms is 120 feet. Fifteen fathoms is 90 feet. These are deep waters but they are getting more shallow. It is not good. So with the water becoming quickly more shallow they are afraid they might run aground so what they do, verse 29: “Fearing we might run aground somewhere on the rocks they cast their four anchors from the stern and wished for daybreak.” It’s nighttime and so they cast their anchors off the back of the ship so the anchors will drive, slow the progress of the ship, hoping for daylight to come so they can get an idea, could they see any land to get an idea of where they might be. “But as the sailors were trying to escape from the ship and had let the ships boat into the sea on the pretense of intending to lay out anchor from the bow.” So here’s what happens, the sailors, they realize that disaster is impending. The ship is going to run aground, to come upon the rocks and it is going down. They have the boat that they towed we saw earlier that they had pulled up and brought onto the ship and secured it the small boat this would use when anchored the ship and rode into land. The sailors on the ship have a plan to save themselves. We will put the boat down say we are going to put out some more anchors to stop the ship from moving on but they really were hoping to escape. Paul knows what is going on and tells the centurion, verse 31: “He said to the centurion and to the soldiers, ‘unless these men remain in the ship you yourselves cannot be saved.’”

You see here that God has told him at the end of verse 24: “God has granted you all those who are sailing with you.” Now Paul tells them you have to remain with the ship. So Paul doesn’t just say well it doesn’t matter, everybody for themself. However, God says you will all be spared. It has to be according to God’s plan, God’s way. So God has given Paul a good relationship with the centurion who is in charge of the prisoners, other prisoners on ship along with Paul. He believes Paul so he has his soldiers tell them to cut the ropes for the boat, let it fall into the sea, nobody is leaving the ship. Of course the sailors can’t oppose the Roman soldiers. That would be a disaster for them so when the centurion gives the command to his soldiers, the boat is cut into the sea. Now they don’t have any way to get off the ship. Interesting, since the ship is going down God’s plan is that everybody stay with the ship. “Then the soldiers cut the ropes to the ship’s boat and let it fall away.

Until the day was about to dawn, Paul was encouraging them all to take some food saying, ‘today is the fourteenth day that you have been constantly watching and going without eating and have taken nothing.’” You know what’s it like on a ship, tossing and doing all you can to keep the ship afloat, eating has not been one of their priorities and they get weaker. It doesn’t mean they haven’t eaten a bite but they haven’t been eating regular meals. They haven’t been taking nourishment. They have been totally occupied with survival. Now Paul gives them a word and says, “We are coming to dawn, eat. This is the fourteenth day. You really haven’t eaten. You need your strength.” “Therefore, I encourage you to take some food for this is for your preservation for not a hair of the head of any of you will perish.” Paul takes God at His Word. “Not a hair of your head is going to perish.” You understand the storm hasn’t stopped. Paul doesn’t have any idea where they are either but “let’s eat, you are going to need your strength.” And not a hair of your head is going to be harmed. We are all going to come through it, amazing; great faith.

You know, it’s easy for us to have the faith in reading the account because we have read the end of the account. Paul has this faith when the storm hasn’t subsided. Understand, the sailors are so hopeless in this they just try to abandon ship by taking the boat as their hope of being rescued. Paul has complete confidence, not shaken a bit, it will be exactly as God says. You say, “Well if an angel appeared to me, I would have that kind of confidence too.” But, we have the Word of God right here, right? That is just as sure as anything an angel could say. I can be completely confident in what God has said. I may not know the outcome of the situation like Paul had been told the outcome but I know in the midst of the trial my God has it all under control. He’s working it for my good and His glory and nothing can impact my life that He hasn’t determined would be part of His plan for me for accomplishing His purposes so I can rest assured in what He has said in His Word.

In verse 35: “Paul, having said this took bread, gave thanks to God in the presence of all broke and began to eat.” He sets the pattern. Telling them you need to eat, you will need some strength because they will. They are going to be swimming in the ocean, in the sea, the Mediterranean Sea. So he uses himself as an example. He takes some bread, starts to eat. Well, his confidence encourages them, verse 36: “All of them were encouraged. They, themselves also took food,” all of us in the ship, 276 persons. So you get an idea that there are quite a few people on board. The ship would have been hauling grain but people on board as well. We don’t know how many of these are prisoners being taken to Rome with the soldiers. How many are passengers, 276.

Interesting, Josephus reports, Josephus, the Jewish historian: “In A.D. 63 [the time period we are talking about here] he suffered a shipwreck together with 600 others bound for Rome in the same part of the Mediterranean that Paul’s ship is caught up in.” So there was a ship that had 600 people on board, only 80 being plucked from the waters to continue their journey, Josephus being one of them. 520 of those people went down with the ship in a storm in the Mediterranean, so 276 people being on this ship, not an unusually large number. We think of those wooden sailing vessels and you think “all these people on this ship?” What turmoil there has been for two weeks in this storm, 276 people on board here caught up in this situation. So all 276 will be saved.

“So when they had eaten enough they began to lighten the ship by throwing the wheat out into the sea.” They had thrown a lot of the other tackle and supplies and that overboard but they had kept some for provisions but now having had a good meal everything goes overboard; again, to lighten the ship to ride higher in the water, less chance of being grounded.

“When they came they could not recognize the land but they did observe a bay with a beach.” So now day comes and they can see. They don’t know where they are having been driven around for two weeks. They don’t know where they have been carried to but they can see land in the distance, the distance where they might be able to bring the ship in to a bay area. “So resolve to drive the ship onto it if they could, that beach area; the bay area that would be a place where it would be easier to get off the ship safely. “Casting off the anchors they left them in the sea.” So, they abandoned the anchors, you remember they had put on the stern of the ship to slow it down now they just cut them loose and cast them off. “They left them in the sea while at the same time they were loosening the ropes of the rudders.” These old sailing ships for rudders had two paddles in the back and in a storm they would tie them up so they don’t get broken off. You wouldn’t have any way then to control the ship. The ship is out of control in the storm being driven along so now they untie the rudders to let them down so they can attempt to steer the ship into what looks to them like a beach bay area where they will be able to ground the ship and safely get off.

“At the same time they were hoisting the foresail to the wind.” This is the small sail on the bow of the ship that was used to steer it. This has been saved. So now with the rudders to guide it and this small sail that they use to steer it in the front, they hope to be able to direct the ship into safer waters.

Verse 41: “But striking a reef where two seas met, they ran the vessel aground.” So the seas come and you get deposits made there where the waters meet. They pile up there. It is more shallow and they rammed the vessels aground. Nothing is working. If you were Paul here wouldn’t you think, well here, here’s land, here’s a bay, now I can see how the Lord is going to work it out. The ship is going to come in there and we will come up on the beach, the bay area and we can all get off. All of a sudden – arghhh – the ship has run aground. “The prow stuck fast and remained immovable.” In the reading I did they said these parts of the water there are very muddy in the bottom. They are like clay and when a ship would come in it would be stuck and that is what happened. The ship moving with some force it comes in into the clay ground and it is stuck but now the winds are still going and its immovable so verse 41, the end of the verse: “The stern began to be broken up for the force of the waves.” You’ve still got the storm going. So you have the front of the ship stuck fast. The back of the ship being driven by the waves and it is moving and you know what is happening. The ship is going to come apart. So it began to be broken up by the force of the waves. Now a decision has to be made. A Roman soldier is accountable for his prisoner. Any of his prisoners that escape he has to give his life for. Well now, if everybody is going to bail out into the sea some of these prisoners could escape. Now I’ve got a double problem. I not only have to try to safe my life because I am going to be out in the ocean, we don’t even have a life boat anymore and I also have responsibility, how am I going to get to shore and keep track of these prisoners in the water? They might be carried down to another part of where we are and disappear. I will end up giving my life even if I survive the storm. So the solution is, you kill the prisoners. This is a valid option. No choice but the prisoners could escape whether you kill the prisoners you kill the prisoners and a Roman soldier that would be defensible. It would not defensible to lose the prisoner.

Alright, so the plan was to kill the prisoner so none of them would swim away and escape but the centurion, wanting to bring Paul safely through kept them from their intention. You see the sovereign hand of God in this? I mean the centurion is at great risk here. No indication that he is a believer. He likes Paul, he wants to spare Paul but he is really going to be accountable because his soldiers want to kill the prisoner so there is no escapees. The centurion puts himself at risk because he said, “No, we are going to let everybody, every man for himself to get to land.” What if the prisoners escape? You just obey the centurion. He puts his life at risk in a real way here. He kept them from attention and he commanded that those who could swim should jump overboard first and get to land. Not everybody could swim in those days. So if you can swim, jump out into the water and head for land. At least you can see the land.

You know, when we lived on the East Coast we used to go to the ocean and swim and in those days, I could swim. I say in those days; I don’t know if I could swim now or not. Probably jump in the water and go to the bottom. I could swim in those days so we would go down to the ocean and go swimming. One day we were out there and I hate to touch the bottom in my bare feet so I have to get out deep enough so I can’t touch the bottom. If I get out and you know, you are swimming out there in the ocean you get out there farther and farther and farther and you don’t realize how far out you are. Pretty soon I see the life guard stand up and start waving his hands. He’s a long way off so I just waved back because you know, it’s terribly embarrassing if they think somebody is in trouble they blow the whistle and all the life guards start running and put the boat in. I figure the last thing that is going to happen is they are going to bring a boat out and I am going to come in and be embarrassed like that so I start swimming. They aren’t getting any closer. You can see the life guard watching, watching and everything is alright, whew. Your pride just drives you on, you know. If I was doing it today I would say, “Bring the boat, bring the boat, bring the boat.

So I think people jumping into a stormy sea, that’s amazing you know. But here they go and then those who can’t swim. Verse 44: The rest can follow and you watch for broken pieces of the boat that are broken off. Those who could swim could jump in ahead of time. They could just swim their way in but those who can’t swim, they wait for pieces to break off, a piece of the ship, there’s a board, O.K., I jump in and grab onto the board and try to use that and float in on it. So the rest could follow, some on planks, others on various things from the ship so it happened that all were brought safely to the land.

Isn’t it amazing how it worked out, just as God said it would. Why did He do it this way? He could have just calmed the sea and have Paul stand up and say, “You know, I prayed and my God will still the storm today.” No, he doesn’t do that. He has the ship torn to pieces. Everybody cast into the sea. Everybody has to make their way in and yet everybody survives. His hand is on all 276. Not one of those non-swimmers jumped in. We are in deep water. Remember the last time it was measured it was 90 feet. You jump in, not one of them jumped in and missed the board, they couldn’t swim and just kept going down. No, they all made it in. What a sovereign God. He is as work, He in is control of the weather even in the lives of the unbelievers here. So they all arrive on land.

Chapter 28: “When they had been brought safely through then we found out that the island was called Malta.” Malta is right here. They have passed Crete here. They tried, you know, remember, near Fair Havens and Crete. We are 480 miles from Crete to Malta. But interestingly, they are just 90 miles from Sicily. They have gone the right direction, why? Oh, you remember the key person on this ship has to go to Rome. The wind didn’t blow them the wrong direction, amazing. In all of this storm it seems everything is out of control, nobody knows where they are going, God is bringing the ship to where He wants it to be. So they are brought to the Island of Malta. That is 60 miles from Sicily. I might have said 90, it’s 60 miles from Sicily.

Verse 2: “The natives showed up extraordinary kindness.” Well that’s nice. They are not, you know, unfriendly people. They were extraordinarily friendly, the natives. We get the English word barbarian from this word, barbaroway, barbarian and that was just somebody who didn’t speak Greek. So, they spoke a foreign language. “The natives showed up extraordinary kindness. Because of the rain that had set in, because of the cold, they kindled a fire and received us all. It’s not even you got on the beach and now we can lay out here, take in a little bit of sun, feel good. It’s cold, it’s raining. So they start a fire to help warm them up. How kind and gracious of them. It’s still not over. We read the account before. Paul helps gather up some sticks to put in the fire. You know, you’ve got 276 people. They may have started a series of smaller fires or one big fire. It doesn’t go into detail here. That is not part of Luke’s account.

Paul gathers up sticks and as Paul brings it over towards the fire the heat heats it up and low and behold you know that’s in the sticks, a snake, a viper. He comes out latches onto Paul, bam. Now if that had been me I would have been up the beach waving my hands, screaming. Paul, well we are going to see what he does. “When the natives saw it, the creature hanging from his hand…” I don’t know how I could have traveled with Paul. Here Paul is with a bunch of sticks and his hand hanging out here and here’s a poisonous, viper snake hanging down. “The natives saw the creature hanging from his hand and they began saying to one another, ‘undoubtedly, this man is a murderer. Though he has been saved from the sea, justice has not allowed him to live.’” They’ve got their own religious beliefs and they believe that this is their god that would not let a murder escape just sentence. He survived drowning in the sea but God has set a snake to kill him. They realize how poisonous this viper is. The natives realize what this snake would do. However, Paul shook the creature off into the fire and suffered no harm. Paul just shakes his hand. There is a calm about Paul. What’s Paul got to be afraid of? God said he is going to Rome so a very, very poisonous snake is hanging on my hand, what’s the big deal? It’s more for the fire. Paul, how can you be so calm? Well remember, God says I am going to Rome.

You know, it just seems so reasonable to me when I read somebody else’s life, like Paul. But you know, when turmoil and difficulty and these kinds of things come into your life, somehow we start to we say, lose it. Lord, this is more than I can bear. What? Everything is under control. I am bringing you to glory, remember? I am preparing you for glory, remember? I am working what is good for you in light of My ultimate purpose for you, remember? I don’t see how this fits into the plan. You don’t have to see how it fits into the plan. Paul didn’t have to understand how a ship wreck fit into the plan. How a poisonous viper hanging on his hand fits into the plan. He knows where God is taking him. I know where God is taking me. I am on my way to glory. Nothing will interrupt or divert me from God’s plan. That’s secure. I may die of a terrible disease. That won’t frustrate God’s plan for me. I may live to be 110, I will still get there. My mother-in-law lived to be 100. She used to say, “I don’t know why the Lord won’t take me to glory. Gil, you have to pray the Lord will take me to glory.” “I’m trying Mom. I’d like you out of there too.” No, no. I mean you know it’s all under control. His time will be right, right? So what am I frustrated about? Just like Paul here, ship wreck, no problem, I am going to Rome. Poisonous snake hanging on my hand, it doesn’t matter. Shake him in the fire, I am going to Rome. “So he shook the creature off into the fire, suffered no harm. But they were expecting that he was about to swell up or suddenly fall down dead.” Everybody is watching. You know, you begin to see the swelling or he is just going to fall over here. Nothing happens. He just is going about what he does. “After they had waited a long time…” Imagine everybody watching Paul going around getting some more sticks, throw in the fire; everybody watching, waiting, waiting. Nothing unusual has happened to him. “They changed their minds and began to say he was a god.” How quickly, how fickle people are. Here is a murderer who deserves to die under God’s justice one moment. The next moment he is a god, an agent of the gods; so no more on that account.

You know, you would think that here Paul explained to them the Gospel, the God he served and the Messiah that suffered and died and multitudes of the natives were saved but we understand the purpose of the ship wreck and that. There is nothing indicated. We are not saying that no one did get saved, we just don’t know. It’s not God’s intention to tell us the details of the outcome. He’s spent a lot of time recording what’s going on on the ship and the turmoil and that but how about the outcome. It’s here for our learning, our understanding.

That is a normal thing, traveling on a ship in Paul’s day. We go through normal things and I am in a car accident. Oh, if only I hadn’t gone on that road. Oh, if this only hadn’t happened, if that only hadn’t happened. There are no accidents. Paul wasn’t on the wrong ship at the wrong time. This is part of God’s plan. Oh, if only I hadn’t picked up that pile of sticks. I should have been more careful. That doesn’t mean we are not careful but God is sovereign. We serve a sovereign God. The weather is under His control. The events of life are under His control. That is why James said, “Those of you who are planning business and saying today or tomorrow we are going to go here and do this or that.” You ought to be reminded, if the Lord wills we will do this. That doesn’t mean I have to voice that every time but I always want to remind myself, it’s in God’s hands. You are driving down the road, you know, you are going the speed limit and you are passing cars. You know, you say, “Man, there is not much room for error here. Somebody looks down at their phone and they will be in my lane.” It’s in God’s hands. I can’t control all of the events.

Alright, there is some good things going to happen here. Verse 7: “Now in the neighborhood of that place there were lands belonging to the leading man of the Island, named Publius.” So here is the key man, the prominent man of this island, owns a lot of land here. “He welcomed us and entertained us courteously three days and it happened that the father of Publius was lying in bed afflicted with a recurrent fever and dysentery.” Isn’t this interesting that this leading man’s father was sick and had been sick for a while, just at this time? “Paul went in to see him. After he prayed he laid hands on him and healed him.” And we might say then, Publius bowed down and trusted Christ. Maybe he did. We are not told. “After this had happened the rest of the people on the island who had diseases were coming to him and getting cured. They also honored us with many marks of respect and when we were setting sail they supplied us with all we needed.” That is a summary because verse 11 will tell us they spent three months on this island so don’t get the idea they were here for a week or so and then moved on. They have to wait for another ship and all this and right weather but during this time they are well cared for. Paul has a ministry here. And healing people of the diseases God is using him miraculously and here you see a mixture, an angel appeared to Paul earlier in chapter 27 and told him the outcome of events. Here on the island there is miraculous healing and through it all God providentially working. Paul has to spend two weeks on a ship at sea in the midst of a terrible storm and undergo ship wreck, being bitten by a poisonous snake. He had been a prisoner for years by this time, unjustly. God’s sovereignly working. You know, to people looking at this from just a human perspective, a ship caught in a storm. Josephus, we read about, the storm he was caught in the same part of the sea and went down. Only a fraction of the people were saved but that happens on ship wrecks so you know, that is just part of nature and all this but there are miraculous interventions and there is God working providentially. He is caring for Paul, not making Paul’s life easy. We need to be reminded. When God is caring for us that doesn’t mean He makes our lives easy. Paul’s life hasn’t been easy. He’s had to go through the same kind of turmoil in the storm that the others had to. He, in God’s time can heal the sick but God chose not to use him to still the storm. He chose not to guide him and those around him to keep him from being caught up in that ship. God is sovereign. Why does He do what He does? I don’t know. I think that is partly why God doesn’t tell us the outcome of all these events that every time somebody got saved. There was a great turning to the Lord on the Island of Malta. Perhaps there was, perhaps there wasn’t. That is not the point of Luke’s account here. He is recording the life and turmoil of the servant of God, Paul. Here, Paul has gone through a ship wreck.

Turn over to 2 Corinthians 11. Now remember, we have talked about this because we have been looking into 2 Corinthians 8 and 9. 2 Corinthians was written before Paul came to Corinth to make the collection and take it to Jerusalem so he is writing about events that occur before what happens to him at the end of the book of Acts because we saw him bring that offering to Jerusalem earlier in Acts. So what he’s gone through now is additional to what he is writing about in this earlier letter to the Corinthians.

He says in verse 23 of 2 Corinthians 11: “Are they servants of Christ? (I speak as if insane) I more so; in far more labors, in far more imprisonments, beaten times without number, [I mean, I don’t even count the times I’ve been beaten] often in danger of death. Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes.” Remember the Jews were allowed to give forty. They always counted and stopped at thirty-nine in case they miscounted and would be held guilty for the outcome. “Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked.” We just read, if there were not others recorded, fourth, because before this shipwreck we just read about, Paul had experienced three previous shipwrecks. “A night and a day I have spent in the deep.” He spent all day and all night floating around on a piece of wood in the sea until rescue came. So what Paul experienced here, you know, if he hadn’t summarized this we would think this was a unique event. This is at least number four in shipwrecks. “I have been on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brethren; in labor and hardship, many sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food [not sometimes, but often without food], in cold and exposure.” And these are only the external things. You know a life of service to Jesus Christ is not necessarily a life of ease. We have the song, “Must I be carried through the sky on flowery beds of ease?” No! We try to arrange that kind of life for ourselves but faithfulness in service for our Lord, what? A slave is not above his master. Look how they have treated me. Do you think as My slave that you would be treated better?

I am not saying we court suffering but the difficulties and trials that come of one kind or another all part of God’s plan. We ought not to fear them. We ought not to become always introspective. Maybe this wouldn’t have happened if this. Maybe I shouldn’t have presented the Gospel there. Maybe I shouldn’t have been so bold. Maybe I shouldn’t have gone at that time because I wouldn’t have had the accident on that occasion or on we go and then we are always what? As though because of this, God lost control. I can’t keep a drunk driver from running over me but God can but that doesn’t mean He always will. But I know I am in His hand whatever comes.

So we read the life of Paul and are encourage by it and challenged by it. We are reminded that Paul was serving the same God that we do. We belong to that God. He is just as much in control of our lives. He is not sending us to the same places in the same way, obviously but He is the God who is sovereign over all. Jesus said, “I will never leave you or forsake you.” So wherever I am, whatever I am doing, the One who will never leave me or forsake me is there. I am safe. I may be in pain, I may be in a time of great difficulty. I may be hungry, I may be cold, I may be poor, I may be in labor and hardship, I may be having a sleepless night, relax, Gil, everything is under control.

The Lord is good, isn’t He? He didn’t just write this so we would know something of the history of Paul. He wrote this so we would benefit from this history to be reminded as we continue living out the history of the people of God in this place in our service for Him. We share the same sovereign God with the same unshakeable confidence. If I am on that ship that is going down, that airplane that is going down I have the full confidence, my God is in control. Nothing will happen to me that is not part of His plan for me and I willingly submit to His plan. That doesn’t mean that I court pain. That doesn’t mean Paul liked to be suffering but he could rejoice in the suffering because he knew it was part of God’s plan and his life was being used for the glory of God. May that be true of us. Let’s pray together.

Thank you Lord for the record you have given us of Your servant, Paul. It is a testimony of Your faithfulness, Your faithfulness to this servant and a reminder You are the God Who is always faithful. You are always watching over us. You are always caring for us in health, in sickness, in riches, in poverty, in good times, in hard times. We belong to You. We are safe. We are secure. We have no fear because You love us. Because You love us we love You. We belong to You. You are preparing us for glory. Nothing, but nothing can separate us from Your love. Lord, keep us from realizing the fullness of all Your promises. Lord may those truths grip our hearts and minds as we serve You in the days of the week before us, some of us going through trials and difficulties. Lord, whatever the circumstances, whatever the situation, may we do it with the confidence of knowing that everything is under Your control and we belong to You. We praise You in Christ’s name, amen.