and please God to bless us together
this evening as we continue our meditation in the Acts of the
Apostles and this evening we'll commence our thoughts in the
27th chapter of the Acts and we'll take the first 11 verses as we've read this together this
evening we would have noted of course that it gives a fairly
precise account of Paul's travels and it takes us, of course, not
to Rome, but at least well on the way towards Rome. And what
we observe is that the Apostle Paul, of course, who travelled
about so freely prior to being made a prisoner in Caesarea,
we know that he'd gone to a large number of countries and towns
and preached the Gospel, but now we see he's a prisoner. And
although, of course, when he was before a gripper, and also
a festus, he was able to make a wonderful statement and account
of the truth of the glorious gospel. And yet now we see him
really in a different situation. And perhaps he wonders why the
Lord has permitted him to go to Rome in this way. But we have
to observe that God's ways are higher than our ways. And on
the face of it, as we look at these first verses, we think,
well, it's very strange that he's having to travel like this.
But the Lord, in his sovereign will and purpose, causes our
natural journeys and also the journeys of our life to be varied
and sometimes to be hedged up, and sometimes we find we're diverted
from one situation to another. And so, as we read this account,
we'll observe how God was directing, even in this journey. When it
was determined that we should sail into Italy, they delivered
Paul and certain other prisoners unto one named Julius, a centurion
of Augustus' band, And entering into a ship of Adrammerium, we
launched, meaning to sail by the coasts of Asia, one Aristarchus,
a Macedonian of Thessalonica, being with us. Well, we see what
the intention was. The intention was to journey,
and if possible, to sail by the coast of Asia. But that didn't
actually come to pass. It didn't come to pass, of course,
because, as we read later in this chapter, God had a purpose,
a divine purpose, a purpose of blessing. And then we're told
in the next day, we touch that Sidon and Julius courteously
entreated Paul and gave him liberty to go unto his friends to refresh
himself. But again here was another opportunity
that the Apostle was blessed with to be able to go and to
meet with his friends and no doubt to recount to them the
help and the blessing he'd had as he stood before that company
of those learned people with King Agrippa. And here he is,
you see, that we're told that Julius courteously entreated
Paul. He didn't just say, well, you
know, if you like, you can. It seems far more positive than
that, that he really encouraged him to go and to meet with his
friends and also to refresh himself, remembering that Paul was a prisoner. So we see, do we not, the Lord's
goodness and how he touches men's hearts. No doubt this centurion
wasn't really known to Paul, but we see the Lord moved his
heart to grant him this favour. And we're thankful today we still
have the knowledge and the evidence that God moves people's hearts,
but sometimes worldly people's hearts, to do those things which
we did not expect. and we reckon and realise it's
the Lord's goodness and mercy toward us." So when they finished
that stop there, then we were told, and when we had launched
from thence, we sailed under Cyprus, because the winds were
contrary. Well, here again, we see God's
control in the winds. And instead of sailing to the
south of Cyprus, they had to go to the north of Cyprus. And
of course, had they gone to the south, it would have been much
quicker. But the Lord purposed that they should be delayed in
their journey by this way. And again, let us not forget
these things as we come towards the end of this chapter. We see
how things were delayed, but they were delayed for a divine
purpose. And so we in our path shouldn't
be over-concerned if we find that there are contrary winds,
We read, you know, the wind bloweth where it listeth. We can't not
tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth. We can't tell, can
we? The Lord ordains where the wind
should go, and the same way the Lord ordains where situations
should change, so that perhaps our route in life is changed. And when we had launched thence,
we sailed under Cyprus because the winds were contrary. And
when we had sailed over the sea of Cilicia and Pamphylia, we
came into Mara, a city of Lycia. And there the Centurion found
the ship of Alexandria sailing into Italy, and he put us therein. Alexandria, of course, at that
time was the capital of Egypt, named after Alexander the Great,
who had built the city, And therefore the ship had come from there,
and travelled across a good few miles already, and had reached
this place at Lycia, and there they changed boats. Again, ordained
by Almighty God. There was a change, and there
was a situation. Now, when we had sailed slowly,
many days, and scarce would come over against Nidus, The wind
not suffering us. You see, there were no engines
to boats in those days. They were totally dependent upon
the wind to give them the aid that the sails might fill and
the boat might travel. And as we think of that, you
know, we are so dependent, aren't we, on the power and strength
and help of Almighty God. We can't rely, can we, on natural
things as perhaps we might do today with a boat and an engine.
We have to rely, don't we, on the help of God, that He might
indeed bless us in our journey of life and go before us, so
that although we may find ourselves sailing slowly in the journey
of life, yet to know that although we're sailing slowly, it's the
Lord's purpose for us. Sometimes we may think we journey
slowly. We don't seem to make much progress.
But if we do journey, if we are making progress, then it is in
accordance with the Lord's goodness toward us. And so sometimes we
want to rush on and get from A to B as quickly as we can,
naturally and perhaps spiritually. But the Lord, you see, has a
purpose, and the Lord has a plan, and the Lord has a rate for our
journey. And that journey won't be quickened,
and it won't be slowed. And so here we see the Apostle
Paul in this journey. And then we're told, and hardly
passing it, came unto a place which is called the Fair Havens,
nigh whereunto was the city of Lycia. Lycia. Now, when much
time was spent, and when sailing was now dangerous, because the
fast was now already passed, That was the fast of the Atonement,
the Day of Atonement, which of course was a very special time
in the Jewish calendar, and no doubt a situation which much
concerned and gave much thought to the Apostle Paul, hence the
reason why he notes it here. And because the fast was now
really passed, and Paul admonished them. So Paul spoke to those
who were in charge of the boat, and he said unto them, Sirs,
I perceive that this voyage will be with hurt and much damage,
not only the lading and ship, but also of our lives. As we know, there was damage
to the ship. In fact, there was extreme damage
to the ship. But we also know that all the lives of those men
were saved. And therefore, there was not
the loss of life, but the Lord was very gracious and very merciful
to them as they went on this journey. But we see those that
the apostle addressed weren't in agreement. And again, sometimes
we may feel that there is a right direction and feel that the Lord
has directed us, but we may not find agreement always with people.
And here, the centurion He didn't believe what Paul said. He believed the Master, the captain
of the ship, and the owner of the ship, more than those things
which were spoken by Paul. And surely today we find that
there are so many who will not believe the truth of the Gospel. They won't believe. There are
dangerous situations. They won't believe that if they
follow that course, they will be shipwrecked and they will
be lost at last. They will not believe. Well,
what a blessing it is if the Lord has given us that heart
to believe the gospel and not to ignore the word of God and
not to ignore the words of his servants who preached the everlasting
gospel, just like it was here. These people, they ignored the
words of the Apostle Paul, and clearly he was moved by the Spirit
to tell them these things, because how would a man who was not a
sailor know? We realize that the Lord was
in this, but sadly of course, They ignored his words, but we
do know that although they ignored his words, there was a good outcome. And we see that the Lord, in
his mercy, delivered them. We know not, of course, how many
of all those prisoners and sailors were, in the end, true believers,
but no doubt that many of them perhaps were. because of God's
amazing deliverance which he brought to them. So as we've
commenced this journey of Paul coming from Caesarea and going
to Rome, it was a long journey and it took a long time but there
were those situations which clearly brought honour and glory to Almighty
God as he The great God was overall ruling and directing the journey
that the Apostle took. There was no chance in it. It
was all ordained and it was all for the purpose to bring honour
and glory to the name of Almighty God. May there always be our
recognition and see that it is for that purpose our lives are
for the honour and glory of our God. Well may God bless us in
our thoughts on these things. Amen.