Acts 27:1-12 When it was decided that we would sail for Italy, Paul and some other prisoners were handed over to a centurion named Julius, who belonged to the Imperial Regiment. We boarded a ship from Adramyttium about to sail for ports along the coast of the province of Asia, and we put out to sea. Aristarchus, a Macedonian from Thessalonica, was with us. The next day we landed at Sidon; and Julius, in kindness to Paul, allowed him to go to his friends so they might provide for his needs. From there we put out to sea again and passed to the lee of Cyprus because the winds were against us. When we had sailed across the open sea off the coast of Cilicia and Pamphylia, we landed at Myra in Lycia. There the centurion found an Alexandrian ship sailing for Italy and put us on board. We made slow headway for many days and had difficulty arriving off Cnidus. When the wind did not allow us to hold our course, we sailed to the lee of Crete, opposite Salmone. We moved along the coast with difficulty and came to a place called Fair Havens, near the town of Lasea. Much time had been lost, and sailing had already become dangerous because by now it was after the Day of Atonement. So Paul warned them, “Men, I can see that our voyage is going to be disastrous and bring great loss to ship and cargo, and to our own lives also.” But the centurion, instead of listening to what Paul said, followed the advice of the pilot and of the owner of the ship. Since the harbor was unsuitable to winter in, the majority decided that we should sail on, hoping to reach Phoenix and winter there. This was a harbor in Crete, facing both southwest and northwest.
In the above passage we see the love of God displayed through Paul’s ministry to the world. He had desired to go to Rome for a long time. Rome and the Roman world controlled the countries around the Mediterranean Sea and beyond. Rome powerfully influenced the people they conquered. Their knowledge, wisdom, their mysticism, their power strongly affected the way people thought and lived. God sent Paul into this dark Roman world to present Christ as the Lord and Savior of all people. Paul was driven by the Holy Spirit to minister the Good News to everyone in the Roman world. Now he is traveling 1,810 miles to Rome with the message of Jesus being the Redeemer of all people. When God stopped Saul on the road to Damascus, He supplanted Paul's will of how he wanted to live his own life with God’s will of how Paul will live his life. Instilled in his heart during his blindness was the love of God for him and for all people. The darkness in Paul’s heart was turned to the light of God. Paul’s heart of darkness, murder, and hatred for other people, especially Christians, turned to loving others as himself. Now that love compels him to go to Rome with the Good News. This journey to Rome should have taken approximately 24 days; instead, it took seven months to complete. On his way to Rome Paul finds himself in the Mediterranean Sea, swimming for his life after his ship, the Alexandrian, breaks up on rocks. When on shore of the island of Malta, safe from drowning, he is bitten by a deadly snake while putting wood on the fire that the survivors started to keep them warm and dry. The snake bites Paul’s hand; he shakes the snake off into the fire. The inhabitants of Malta when seeing this viper bitting Paul’s hand assumed Paul would die immediately. For them they now considered Paul was cursed by the goddess of Justice. He had escaped justice by not drowning in the sea, but now the viper will complete the final act of justice, causing Paul to die before their eyes. But Paul did not die, so they thought Paul was a god. Paul on his mission to spread the Good News to Rome experienced a very difficult journey. He was a victim of other people’s bad decision. The owner and pilot of the Alexandrian wanted to sail even though it was late in the season for boats to be on the Mediterranean. The celebration of the Day of Attonement was past, so it was either late September or early October when the ship’s owner and pilot decided to leave a place called Fair Haven to continue the journey to Italy. Paul had already experienced difficulty traveling the seas. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea. (2 Corinthians 11:25) He knew well the danger of being on the sea in the wrong season. Even though having no say in this decision to sail on, he found solace in seeking the Lord. Paul had the natural fear of drowning, but God comforted his heart through an angel and told him not to fear, for this journey to spread the Good News was in God’s perfect will. He would make it to Rome.
We see in this journey to Rome, God works in miraculous ways. He will save Paul from drowning, and He will save everyone on the ship from drowning, 276 people. Before the ship was destroyed on the shore of Malta, Paul’s words were heeded by everyone on the Alexandrian. Paul was in charge, and the people knew, Paul’s God was in charge. How many of them became Christians we do not know, but surely some of them turned to the Redeemer in that harrowing experience. God works in mysterious ways. Because of disobedience to God, the Israelites were constantly in danger of being disciplined by God or being threatened to be disciplined for their sinful ways. They were a hard-nosed people with hardened hearts. They served other gods with a multitude of shrines and altars in the land of Israel. To save a remnant of God’s chosen people, his treasured people, God disciplines the Israelites by allowing the Babylonians to conquer their land. The best of them, all their leaders, all their strongest young men and healthy women, all of their talented artisans and skilled craftsmen were taken to Babylon, a 900 mile journey to the land of their enslavers. We might assume that this long, agonizing journey to Babylon was filled with tears, hearts of emotional pain. They knew they were permanently walking away from a land they loved to a land of slavery. Yet, this was a mission of God’s love. God was in the business of saving the human race. He had his seed of redemption in these people who were experiencing unimaginable pain and suffering. Paul’s ministry of suffering and pain was for the purpose of redeeming the world from darkness into eternal life. His personal life, not one of us would desire. Paul as Abraham’s descendants had the coveted position as God’s chosen. He was chosen as the captive’s of the Babylonians were a chosen people, a greatly loved people by the God who made all things. Paul’s life was part of God’s plan as those who were brought to Babylon as slaves were part of God’s mysterious plan to redeem the world from its darkness. The slaves were put to work in a dark and dangerous world. Paul said he was a slave to God. Paul, a servant (slave, bondservant) of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God. (Romans 1:1) He also worked in a dangerous world, never knowing when his life would be taken from him by people who hated him. He says, I have worked hard, been in prison frequently, been flogged severely, and been exposed to death again and again. Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers. I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. (2 Corinthian 11:23-27) What did God require of Paul, his slave? To love people, to forgive them, and treat them as potential children of God, worth redeeming.
What did God require of the Jews who were bound in slavery in Babylon, a wicked and cruel people? God allowed these people to enslave the Jews in their country of Babylon. This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.” Yes, this is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: “Do not let the prophets and diviners among you deceive you. Do not listen to the dreams you encourage them to have. They are prophesying lies to you in my name. I have not sent them,” declares the Lord. (Jeremiah 29:4-9) Pray for my enemies? Why pray for them? Pray to the Lord for THEM. Is that not too much to ask? Why should the Jews in Babylon pray for their enemy? It is too much to ask. But Jeremiah says, This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. This is the Lord’s will for you. Paul says that he would sacrifice his own eternal dwelling with God for the Jews who hate him and wish to kill him. Why would he say such a thing? Because this is God’s will for him in the form of his Son, Jesus. He was sacrificed for humanity. His Son, Jesus, the Christ, cried out in a loud voice, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:48) Paul could have felt forsaken as the ship breaks up on the rocks, but God was with him. Definitely the captives in Babylon could have felt God had abandoned them. But in neither case was God far from them. He had a plan for them, a plan that would fulfill his mysterious plan of redemption for all mankind. The Chaldeans of Babylon hated the Jews; the leadership of the Jewish nation hated Paul, and the secular and religious world hated Jesus. But God had a plan that supersedes the natural will of man to hate and kill. God is in the process of making perfection. Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be PERFECT therefore, as your heavenly Father is PERFECT. (Matthew 5:44-48) The Jews in Babylon had no real reason to pray for the Babylonians; Paul had no reason to love those who wanted to murder him. And Jesus had no reason to love the world who killed him on the cross. But God is love, eternity is love, a place where love abides. We are given the daily responsibility to love as God loves. This is our assignment: our assignment is not to harbor hate and bitterness is our hearts. If you are abiding in this kind of darkness, ask the Lord to forgive you, AND HE WILL.
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