Might just be the plan

Today we read about Paul’s journey in the book of Acts chapter 27:

1 “When the time came, we set sail for Italy. Paul and several other prisoners were placed in the custody of a Roman officer named Julius, a captain of the Imperial Regiment. 2 Aristarchus, a Macedonian from Thessalonica, was also with us. We left on a ship whose home port was Adramyttium on the northwest coast of the province of Asia; it was scheduled to make several stops at ports along the coast of the province.

3 The next day when we docked at Sidon, Julius was very kind to Paul and let him go ashore to visit with friends so they could provide for his needs. 4 Putting out to sea from there, we encountered strong headwinds that made it difficult to keep the ship on course, so we sailed north of Cyprus between the island and the mainland. 5 Keeping to the open sea, we passed along the coast of Cilicia and Pamphylia, landing at Myra, in the province of Lycia. 6 There the commanding officer found an Egyptian ship from Alexandria that was bound for Italy, and he put us on board.

7 We had several days of slow sailing, and after great difficulty we finally neared Cnidus. But the wind was against us, so we sailed across to Crete and along the sheltered coast of the island, past the cape of Salmone. 8 We struggled along the coast with great difficulty and finally arrived at Fair Havens, near the town of Lasea. 9 We had lost a lot of time. The weather was becoming dangerous for sea travel because it was so late in the fall,[c] and Paul spoke to the ship’s officers about it.

10 “Men,” he said, “I believe there is trouble ahead if we go on—shipwreck, loss of cargo, and danger to our lives as well.” 11 But the officer in charge of the prisoners listened more to the ship’s captain and the owner than to Paul. 12 And since Fair Havens was an exposed harbor—a poor place to spend the winter—most of the crew wanted to go on to Phoenix, farther up the coast of Crete, and spend the winter there. Phoenix was a good harbor with only a southwest and northwest exposure.

The Storm at Sea

13 When a light wind began blowing from the south, the sailors thought they could make it. So they pulled up anchor and sailed close to the shore of Crete. 14 But the weather changed abruptly, and a wind of typhoon strength (called a “northeaster”) burst across the island and blew us out to sea. 15 The sailors couldn’t turn the ship into the wind, so they gave up and let it run before the gale.

16 We sailed along the sheltered side of a small island named Cauda,[d] where with great difficulty we hoisted aboard the lifeboat being towed behind us. 17 Then the sailors bound ropes around the hull of the ship to strengthen it. They were afraid of being driven across to the sandbars of Syrtis off the African coast, so they lowered the sea anchor to slow the ship and were driven before the wind.

18 The next day, as gale-force winds continued to batter the ship, the crew began throwing the cargo overboard. 19 The following day they even took some of the ship’s gear and threw it overboard. 20 The terrible storm raged for many days, blotting out the sun and the stars, until at last all hope was gone.

21 No one had eaten for a long time. Finally, Paul called the crew together and said, “Men, you should have listened to me in the first place and not left Crete. You would have avoided all this damage and loss. 22 But take courage! None of you will lose your lives, even though the ship will go down. 23 For last night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood beside me, 24 and he said, ‘Don’t be afraid, Paul, for you will surely stand trial before Caesar! What’s more, God in his goodness has granted safety to everyone sailing with you.’ 25 So take courage! For I believe God. It will be just as he said. 26 But we will be shipwrecked on an island.”

The Shipwreck

27 About midnight on the fourteenth night of the storm, as we were being driven across the Sea of Adria,[e] the sailors sensed land was near. 28 They dropped a weighted line and found that the water was 120 feet deep. But a little later they measured again and found it was only 90 feet deep.[f] 29 At this rate they were afraid we would soon be driven against the rocks along the shore, so they threw out four anchors from the back of the ship and prayed for daylight.

30 Then the sailors tried to abandon the ship; they lowered the lifeboat as though they were going to put out anchors from the front of the ship. 31 But Paul said to the commanding officer and the soldiers, “You will all die unless the sailors stay aboard.” 32 So the soldiers cut the ropes to the lifeboat and let it drift away.

33 Just as day was dawning, Paul urged everyone to eat. “You have been so worried that you haven’t touched food for two weeks,” he said. 34 “Please eat something now for your own good. For not a hair of your heads will perish.” 35 Then he took some bread, gave thanks to God before them all, and broke off a piece and ate it. 36 Then everyone was encouraged and began to eat— 37 all 276 of us who were on board. 38 After eating, the crew lightened the ship further by throwing the cargo of wheat overboard.

39 When morning dawned, they didn’t recognize the coastline, but they saw a bay with a beach and wondered if they could get to shore by running the ship aground. 40 So they cut off the anchors and left them in the sea. Then they lowered the rudders, raised the foresail, and headed toward shore. 41 But they hit a shoal and ran the ship aground too soon. The bow of the ship stuck fast, while the stern was repeatedly smashed by the force of the waves and began to break apart.

42 The soldiers wanted to kill the prisoners to make sure they didn’t swim ashore and escape. 43 But the commanding officer wanted to spare Paul, so he didn’t let them carry out their plan. Then he ordered all who could swim to jump overboard first and make for land. 44 The others held on to planks or debris from the broken ship. So everyone escaped safely to shore.”

In this chapter, we read that Paul and 276 men consisting of sailors, soldiers and prisoners are aboard a ship they are traveling to Italy to bring Paul to go before Cesar.  As they stop from port to port, they come to a port called Fair Havens.  It is here that  Paul gave warning to the men on the ship not to continue on the journey, that it would be dangerous.  They would lose cargo, men would get hurt, and also lose the ship, to no avail they declined his warnings and they set sail.

Often times this applies to us…God warns us to stay away from storms, bad decisions, sin, and lawlessness.  We too, as the crew of this ship, should have taken the warning or advice and not headed into it, because there are consequences for these actions.  I once heard this saying that there is a reaction for every action, so for every action that is outside of God’s will for us, the reaction will more than likely be one we do not like or is displeasing to God.

Moving on….so now the ship that Paul is on is in this horrific storm, a storm that could have been avoided if the captain and crew just would have listened.

We read in Chapter 27: 18-22

“The ship is getting battered and the crew is in panic mode, scared, fearing for their lives and Paul comes out like a Boss and gathers the crew to say, “Fear not my fellow travel mates for an angel of God spoke to me and assured me we will all be safe.”

Point:  We are starting to see a clear picture painted here: If God is steering us away from something or someone if a door has been closed than God is doing it for our own good.

We read in Jeremiah 29:11:

¹¹ For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

Question:  Can anyone recall a storm that the Lord was trying to keep us from, but we didn’t heed the warning and sailed ahead anyway?  What were the results and what did you eventually learn?

To continue with our re-cap we also learned in the scriptures that there are a sequence of events, a multi-link chain of events that by design are set in place for us by God to help us reach our goals.  So listening and doing should be very important to us if we are to stay steady on God’s plan.  This is done through prayer and reading His word daily and following His commands.

If God is trying to close a door for us and we want to pry it open, 2 things will happen: 1) is we will not like what we find on the other side and 2) is when we go through it and close it, we leave God on the other side.

So now that the scene is set, they are in the storm.  Let’s see what happens next.  We already read Acts 27: 39-44, Let’s recap real quick…

³⁹ When daylight came, they did not recognize the land, but they saw a bay with a sandy beach, where they decided to run the ship aground if they could.

⁴⁰ Cutting loose the anchors, they left them in the sea and at the same time untied the ropes that held the rudders. Then they hoisted the foresail to the wind and made for the beach.

⁴¹ But the ship struck a sandbar and ran aground. The bow stuck fast and would not move, and the stern was broken to pieces by the pounding of the surf.

⁴² The soldiers planned to kill the prisoners to prevent any of them from swimming away and escaping.

⁴³ But the centurion wanted to spare Paul’s life and kept them from carrying out their plan. He ordered those who could swim to jump overboard first and get to land.

⁴⁴ The rest were to get there on planks or on other pieces of the ship. In this way everyone reached land safely.

Let’s start with verse 39, this is what I see illustrated here, it is now light and the crew is not sure where they are.  All they know is they are in a horrific storm, it was dark and they could not see where they were going and now it’s light and they can see a bay.  This means safety.  The bay to me is representing God.  If we can just get to it, we will be safe.  If I’m going through a storm or a trial, I can tell you this much…when I start to see God I am running towards Him.  I’m getting to those shores to that beach.  I don’t care if I run aground, as long as I’m in the arms of my God because that’s our resting spot.  Bottom line, when you’re outside God’s will and the storms are all around you, look for the bay, look for God.

In verse 40, the cutting of the anchors:

This section of scripture speaks volumes to me.  At one point we see the cutting of the anchors.  Now, this can represent bondage, sin, and things in our life holding us back from growing in our relationship with the Lord.   Often times they are holding us back in the storms, what an illustration we see here.  These guys are stuck in the storm, anchors holding them back, rudders tied so there can be no movement and what do they do in order to get to safety?  They throw everything overboard and cut their anchors!

We also see another illustration here: Living a simplified life.  We see earlier in verse 18 that the ship’s crew was lightening the ship’s load of all non-essentials and again in verse 38 tossing all essentials including the lifeboat.

These actions by the crew can be an encouragement for us, that we also need to lighten our load.  We get caught up with life.  Our lives become loaded and overburdened by demands, schedules, and commitments

Simplicity was the way of life in authentic Christianity from the beginning.  We see it in and through the life of Jesus, as well as His Apostles.  A very simple life looking to do the will of the Father.  We are the ones who have loaded our ships with so much storage space so we can fill it up with stuff, junk, surplus, busyness, and sin.  Then we tote it around on our backs, all while traveling down our own path.

So let’s be like the crew we read about here in Acts 27.  When they were in the storm, they wanted to lighten their load, simplify, and get down to the bare essentials.  We need to do this so our ship will be able to sail out of the storm back to Jesus.  So remember this slogan “Lightening our load” the next time you’re in a storm.

Think with me for a minute.  We fill our lives up to the brim with work, life, schedules, and commitments and far too often we don’t have time for God.  No time in our devotions, prayer time, worship, church, or commitment to serve.  These are things God loves to see His children doing, but come a life or death situation, we have all the time in the world…just saying.

Our fellowship with the Lord should be on our life or death situation list.  In verse 41 we see the ship runs aground leaving its tail end out where the waves are still bashing it in.

Sometimes we want to take our own journey and venture into the storms of life.  Sometimes we get a spiritual spanking, to me, this is illustrated in the ship getting spanked by the waves.

You have ventured out on your own, not listening to God.  You have got yourself into troubled waters.  You need to cut your anchors, leave your bondage, and your sin behind.  Get your ship down to the bare essentials and back to simplicity.  Then when you see God on the horizon, raise your sails and let the winds of God blow you into his loving arms and take your loving discipline.

Thoughts?

So to conclude, we finish up in verse 42-44.  We see the soldiers want to kill all the prisoners.  They knew they all had to bail off the ship seeing it was being destroyed.  They felt they had no option, probably because the Roman army would hold them responsible if a prisoner had escaped or was to break free.  They did not want to meet that fate, but the commanding officer found favor with Paul and canceled those orders.  This was part of the sequence of events that needed to be fulfilled to get Paul to Rome.  So then, the soldiers instructed the crew and prisoners to either jump and swim to shore, or jump in and grab a plank or debris from the ship’s wreckage and get to shore.

So what stands out to me here is this:

We obviously see time and time again there are forces working against Paul.  These are all the futile attempts of the devil to kill, steal, and destroy Christians.  We see if it’s not God’s plan then “ no weapon formed against me shall prosper.”  (Isaiah 54:17)

We also see this:

There are people, Christians, who know God and have a relationship with Him but are currently in the storms of life.  Maybe they have stepped away, backslidden, or maybe they fell off the train to recovery, whatever the case may be.  So like the soldiers commanding the people to jump in and swim to shore, we also need to jump in and swim to shore returning to the loving arms of our Savior.  We also see an illustration for the unsaved.  The people who don’t know how to swim or don’t know God….just jump in and grab a plank or debris!  I take this as jump in and grab hold of the word of God, scriptures, church, and Jesus.  While you’re grabbing that, grab some debris representing an accountability partner or home fellowship, a bible study, and let that bring you into a loving relationship with the Lord.  Regardless, we see at the end they all made it back to shore safe and sound just as God promised, fulfilling the scriptures.

Last point: Whether you’re a new believer, seasoned believer, or unbeliever.  God has a plan for all of you.  Some of us are like the sailors and crew, we don’t listen and have to go through the storms of life.  Which ultimately teach us valuable lessons and show us it’s better to listen to God when He is directing us.  For others, we are like Paul and have to go through storms for others.  Maybe God has a bigger plan for us which may include a teaching moment for someone else and a storm is just how He will bring it to pass.  So we as Christian have to be constantly seeking the Lord with all of our hearts, minds, and soul.  When we are directed away from storms, then stay away and when we have to go through them just see it for what it is.  The Bible says in Romans 8:28:

“And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.”

Just keep an open mind when a storm comes, for it could be just for you!