June 23. Acts 27. Reg James

Stay on the Ship

In Acts 23:11, Paul was told by Jesus that he must bear witness at Rome.  We can see at the end of Acts 26:32, King Agrippa said to Festus, “This man might have been set free if he had not appealed to Caesar.  Paul had to appeal to Caesar so that he could bring the Kingdom of God to the Gentiles in order to follow the directions he was given.  

As Chapter 27 begins, Paul had been a prisoner for over two years and was turned over to a man named Julius,  a centurion of the Augustan Regiment of the Roman Army. Julius was charged with escorting Paul and other prisoners from Judea to Rome.  

In 27:3 Julius treated Paul kindly and gave him liberty to go to his friends and receive care.  I believe that Paul was very encouraged to be able to see friends at this time.  

I can remember being on a 6 month deployment onboard USS ELMER MONTGOMERY and our first stop was Bahrain.  Being given liberty to fellowship with Church members was an exciting time and it built my faith even more.  Knowing that Paul was in chains and had been in prison, I can imagine how much the disciples loved up on him and took care of him.

We see in verse 4 Paul set sail during a gale storm. Paul prophesied that an angel of God was going to save all of the lives aboard the ship and their ship would be destroyed.  Julius had to trust Paul and convince the men to stay aboard.  In verse 30 the sailors were seeking to escape from the ship and in verse 31 Paul told the centurion and the soldiers “Unless these men stay in the ship, you cannot be saved.”

I have to ask myself how I would respond to Paul's statement to me.  Would I have trusted what he said or would I have left the ship?  My first deployment was in the North Atlantic aboard the USS ELMER MONTGOMERY and we went through a violent storm which made almost every crew member ask the question why am I here? I know as a young man I felt afraid because I did not know if I would make it back home to see my family.  I did not know if we would make it through the night because of the violent winds and the ship being pushed back and forth.  I felt like my life was flashing in front of me and I thank God because I was not a disciple.  The ship lost a couple of bulkheads and I felt like the ship was breaking apart.  In order to keep the ship floating we had to shore up the bulkheads and we had to battle floods that were coming from some of the topside spaces. We were up for hours making sure our ship was okay and that all personnel were accounted for. 

 I think about Paul’s ship and the guarantee he had from God that he and the crew would be okay as long as they stayed aboard.  What faith this took because the gospel had to be taken to Gentiles.  How would this happen if Paul was lost at sea?  Who would take the message to the Gentiles then?  How amazing was it that  God took very good care of all of the men on that ship. In verse 27:39 we see they were about to be shipwrecked and they did not recognize the land but they observed a bay with a beach.   

By the Grace of God, he made sure that each of the men on that ship would be taken care of.  Paul and the other prisoners ended up being shipwrecked on the Island of Malta by the bay and the beach.