September 17th

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Welcome to On the Way with Tony Crisp. Each weekday, Dr. Crisp will be discussing biblical passages, people, places, and prophecies. Tune in daily to start your day right and deepen your understanding of how to better walk the way and enjoy the journey. Here's your host, Dr. Tony Crisp.

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Welcome to On the Way. This is Tony Crisp, and this is the 365 Bible reading plan. Today is September the 17th, and our chapter for today is the book of Acts, chapter 27. Well, Agrippa said to Festus, this man might have to be set free, but he appealed to Caesar, so to Caesar he will go. So Agrippa and Festus agreed they needed to allow Paul to be sent to Rome to appeal his case to Caesar. So we pick up on the narrative in chapter twenty seven, and when it was decided that we should sail to Italy, that is to Rome, the capital, they delivered Paul and some other prisoners to one named Julius. He was a centurion of the Augustan regiment. So entering a ship of Adramentium, we put to sea, meaning to sail along the coast of Asia, that is, this was a place that was a port in what would have been a modern day Turkey. No doubt it had come down to Caesarea, picked up the cargo along with a lot of people and prisoners, and they went to sea and they were meaning to sail along the coast of Asia. Now Asia in this context is the Roman province of Asia. We would call it Asia Minor in that geographical setting, but it was modern day Turkey. Aristarchus, a Macedonian of Thessaloniki, was with us. You see, these are all seafaring towns, they're all harbor towns. Thessaloniki is off of the coast of Greece, is a beautiful harbor at Thessaloniki, and so these were harbors, and these were men who were seasoned mariners and sailors. And the next day we landed at Sidon. And Julius treated Paul kindly. Now this Julius, God had certainly touched his heart and granted Paul favor with him because all the way through Julius is so kind to Paul, and he's the one that's in charge. He gave him liberty to go to his friends in Sidon and to receive care. Paul was not doing well, obviously, so he wanted him to be taken care of because he was a prisoner under his domain, and he probably knew him from there in Caesarea, and may have even heard the gospel many times. There the centurion found an Alexandrian ship sailing to Italy, and so he put us on board. Now Alexandria was the capital of what would have then been a Greek province that had changed to a Roman province in what is modern day Egypt and was Egypt then. It was just under the control of the Greeks first, under Ptolemy the great general, then under Rome. There's a lot of history there. It was one of the greatest libraries in all of the ancient world, the greatest library at one time. That's where they had all the papyra there in that Diluvian fan, that delta of the Nile River, where paper was invented, what we call paper today, it was papyrus. So there was a great library there. And so these were again seasoned mariners and sailors. And it says when we had sailed slowly many days and arrived with difficulty off of Canetus. Now all of these have Cs instead of the Kai, the K sound in Greek, and so we'll pronounce them with a soft sound Sinidas. The wind not permitting us to proceed, we sailed under the shelter of Crete off of Salone. Passing it with difficulty, we came to a place called Fair Havens near the city of Lycia. Now this is all just geography as Luke is giving the blow by blow, place by place sailing itinerary of the apostle Paul. Now what does this do? What is the purpose of this? The purpose of this is to see that it was a real journey. It was not a made up piece of business. It was not a fairy tale. These were real people. They were sailing on a real ship, and they were laying course in a time of the year when they probably shouldn't have been sailing at all. These were seasoned mariners. You say, well, why were they doing that? Same reason people take risks today. Because the risk is there to take, and usually money's behind it. And so no doubt that's what was happening here. They were being paid by Rome a great sum to take these prisoners, these high value prisoners to Rome as Roman citizens fulfilled their right to appeal to Caesar. Verse nine. Now when much time had been spent, sailing was now dangerous because the fast was already over. Paul advised them, saying, Men, I perceive that this voyage will end in disaster and much loss not only of the cargo in the ship, but also our lives. Nevertheless, the centurion was more persuaded by the helmsman and the owner of the ship than by the things spoken by Paul. And because the harbor was not suitable to winter in, the majority advised to set sail from there also. You see, the majority's not always right. And he said if by any means they could reach Phoenix, a harbor of Crete, opening toward the southwest and the northwest, they would try to winter there. Now, when the south wind blew softly, that is, when they got favorable weather that would blow them from the south to the north, they thought, okay, this is what we've been asking for and waiting for. And when it blew softly, supposing they had obtained their desire, in other words, everything was just as they would hoped it would be, they put out to sea and they sailed close by Crete. But not long after a tempestuous headwind arose called Euryclidon. This just simply means it was a nor'easter. And when the ship was caught and could not head into the wind, we let her drive. And running under the shelter of an island called Clauda, or Clauda, as some would say, we secured the skiff with difficulty. Have you noticed everything was difficult? Everything was done with difficulty. They were running into the wind, they were running against the wind. This was a disaster from the beginning because they had not listened to Paul. He had already warned them, and they wouldn't listen to him, and so God was going to have to get their attention so that they could understand the miraculous and understand that what Paul is doing is a divine mission. And when they had taken it on board, they used cables to undergird the ship. And fearing lest they should run aground on the Sirtus sands, they struck sail, and so they were driven. And because they were exceedingly tempest tossed, the next day they lightened the ship. On the third day they threw the ship's tackle overboard, and they did it with their own hands. I mean they were desperate. Now when neither sun nor stars appeared for many days and no small tempest beat on us, all hope that we would be saved was finally given up. So this is an amazing thing, but after a long abstinence from food, then Paul stood up in the midst of them and said, Men, you should have listened to me and not sailed from Crete and incurred this disaster and loss. And now I urge you to take heart. Boy, what a tremendous time, and the timing of God is always perfect. These men were at the uh point of desperation. It says they had lost all hope. And so Paul, the man of God, stood up and he said, You should have listened to me because I was telling you correctly. I wasn't just trying to get out of anything. I'm in the plan and will of God. Now I urge you to take heart, be encouraged, for there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship. Now this is a tremendous statement, and a man would have to know God was in it to do it, but he did. He said, The reason I'm telling you is this is there stood by me this night a messenger of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve, saying, Do not be afraid, Paul. You must be brought before Caesar, and indeed God has granted you all those who sail with you. Therefore take heart, men, for I believe God that it will be just as it were told me. However, we must run aground on a certain island. Now this is an amazing thing. Evidently Paul had been praying for these men. You say, Well, why would you say that, Pastor? Because the messenger from God said, God is going to give you all of these men. Now that doesn't seem to be out of the blue. It's as though Paul had asked of them and for their lives. He had been praying that God would save their lives, that God would save their souls, that God would use him to be a witness. Why? Because his life is Christ. For those of us who are followers of Jesus, Jesus is our life, and everything that we do should be in accordance with his will. Because what had God told him a few chapters back? He said, You have testified for me in Jerusalem, you will testify in Rome. Paul had already been assured he was going to Rome, and some storm wasn't going to get in the way, some season was not going to get in the way, and he said, God's going to work it out, but now our lives are going to be saved. God's going to grant you mercy and he's going to save your life, but now this ship's going down. Now when the fourteenth night had come as we were driven up and down the Adriatic Sea, about midnight the sailors sensed that they were drawing near to some land. You say, Well, how do you know that? Same way you have a sense in your own heart when you are familiar with something, how the wind is changing, how things are feeling, how things are sounding. These were experienced mariners. They weren't acting like it, but they were. And when they had gone a little farther, they took soundings again and found that they were fifteen fathoms. Now fathom is about one point eight meters, about six feet. So you can multiply that times twenty or times fifteen, whatever the case is in these two instances. Then fearing lest we should run aground on the rocks, they dropped four anchors from the stern, and they prayed for the day to come. In other words, it was nightfall. And as the sailors were seeking to escape from the ship, when they had let down the skiff into the sea under the pretense of putting out anchors from the prow, from the front of the ship, from the bow, as we would call it, Paul said to the centurion, the soldiers, Now unless these men stay in the ship, you cannot be saved. Then the soldiers cut away the ropes of the skiff and let it fall off, so that nobody could, because now they were listening to Paul. And as the day was about to dawn, Paul implored them all to take food, saying, Today is the fourteenth day. It's been two weeks that you've waited and continued without food and eating nothing. Therefore I urge you to take nourishment, for this is for your survival, since not a hair will fall from the head of any of you. And Paul said you're not even going to be hurt. And when he had said these things, he took bread, gave thanks in the presence of them all, and when he had broken it, he began to eat. This is just a tremendous insight into the heart of the Apostle Paul, the way that God works, the way that he moves, just when people are ready to hear, God moves in. Then they were all encouraged. And they also took food for themselves. And in all there were two hundred and seventy-six persons on the ship. So when they had eaten enough, it didn't say they had become gluttons, but when they had eaten enough, they lighted the ship and threw out all the wheat into the sea, because they didn't want that ship any heavier than what it was. When it was day, they did not recognize the land, but they observed a bay with a beach onto which they planned to run the ship if possible. Then they let down the anchors and let them in the sea, meanwhile loosened the rudder ropes, and they hoisted the mainsail to the wind and made for the shore, but striking a place where two seas met, where the harbors were coming together, evidently, the sea was coming from one direction, then from the other, the ship ran aground, and the prow stuck fast, that is the front of the ship, and it remained immovable. But the stern was being broken up by the violence of the waves. And then it says, and the soldiers' plan was to kill the prisoners lest they should swim away and escape. The centurion wanting to save Paul, not all the other prisoners, but to save Paul, kept them from their purpose. He said, No, you're not going to do that. I'm in charge of these people, and you're not going to kill them. And he commanded that those who could swim should jump overboard first and get to land, and the rest, some on boards and some on parts of the ship. So it was that they all escaped safely to land, just as the apostle Paul had said. What a miraculous journey. This would have been a dark journey from the very beginning. As you read through that text, it is dramatic. It's melancholy. It is a downtime. But in the midst of the lowest part of the journey, God sent a messenger, an Angelos, and said, Paul, you're going to do exactly what I told you on dry land you weren't going to do. And that is, I'm getting you to Rome, and because you've been praying for these men, I'm going to give you everybody on board. Now, why again would he say that's because he had been asking for their lives? He had been praying for them, he had been witnessing, and now these men were seeing the supernatural hand of God. He was prophesying, and everything that Paul was saying was coming true. If they had listened to him to begin with, then they wouldn't have been in this mess. But this was necessary, evidently, for these men to come to the place to where they were trusting the God of heaven and the God of Paul. You and I can trust him too, as we walk on the way. This is Tony Crisp.

SPEAKER_00 15:31

Thanks for listening to On the Way with Tony Crisp. Tune in every weekday for information on biblical passages, people, places, and prophecies. Fridays are for your questions. Email your questions to questions at TonyCrisp.org. Then just listen for your question to be answered on Friday's podcast. That's questions at Tony C R I S P dot org. Thanks for listening and have a blessed day on the way.