Alright, if you'll take your Bibles and turn with me to Acts chapter 27. We'll be in verse 27 through the end of the chapter today. We'll begin reading in verse 27. When the 14th night had come, as we were being driven across the Adriatic Sea, about midnight, the sailors suspected that they were nearing land. So they took a sounding and found 20 fathoms. A little further on, they took a sounding again and found 15 fathoms. And fearing that we might run on the rocks, they let down four anchors from the stern and prayed for day to come. And as the sailors were seeking to escape from the ship and had lowered the ship's boat into the sea under pretense of laying out anchors from the bow, Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, unless these men stay in the ship, you cannot be saved. Then the soldiers cut away the ropes of the ship's boat and let it go. As day was about to dawn, Paul urged them all to take some food, saying, Today is the fourteenth day that you have continued in suspense and without food, having taken nothing. Therefore I urge you to take some food, for it will give you strength, for not a hair is to perish from the head of any of you. And when he had said these things, he took bread, and giving thanks to God in the presence of all, he broke it and began to eat. Then all were encouraged, and ate some food themselves. We were in all 276 persons in the ship. And when they had eaten enough, they lightened the ship, throwing out the wheat into the sea. Now when it was day, they had not recognized the land, but they noticed a bay with a beach on which they planned, if possible, to run the ship ashore. So they cast off the anchors and left them in the sea, at the same time loosening the ropes that tied the rudders. Then hoisting the foresail to the wind, they made it for the beach. But striking a reef, they ran the vessel aground. The bow stuck and remained immovable, and the stern was being broken up by the surf. The soldiers' plan was to kill the prisoners, lest any should swim away and escape. But the centurion, wishing to save Paul, kept them from carrying out their plan. He ordered those who could swim to jump overboard first and make for the land, and the rest on planks or on pieces of the ship. And so it was that all were brought safely to land." The title of my sermon today is Shipwreck. I thought about naming it God's Island in honor of the Gilligan's Island song last week from Blake, but I went with the shipwreck because that's exactly what we see take place here in this passage. You know, when an author sets out to write an adventure, It's important that they keep their readers in suspense, right? They keep their attention. And they do this in several different ways, but the most common way to do this, and the best way to do this generally, is by putting the hero of their story in danger or in a predicament which makes the reader wonder if that hero is going to be able to escape without any harm. Now for an author who is writing fiction, that is entirely up to he or she to create those moments of suspense, right? Because the whole story that they're writing is made up. It's just all from their own imagination. For Luke though, he had no responsibility to do that at all. Nothing Luke wrote in this account or in the book of Acts entirely is fiction. It all happened and it all happened precisely in the way that he wrote it. The situation that we have for Paul just naturally provided Luke with all the suspense that you would ever want for an author, though. Now, I'm sure neither Luke nor Paul wanted suspense as they made their way to Rome on that trip, but suspense is exactly what we get as readers of this historical account that Luke gives us. Over and over, and this is really the entire book of Acts, but especially as we've seen Luke and Paul and their companion Aristarchus make this trip, being on this boat, over and over and over, we have seen the life of Paul in peril on this trip, right? And that will continue in our passage today. And look, just because we know the end of the story does not take away from the realness of these events for Paul and his companions. I often try to bring our attention to that as we go through a historical account, or we go through a real-life event that is taking place, and we're not just studying a point of theology, we're learning about what happened to a biblical character in Scripture. We know the story generally, especially if we've read through our Bible, or we've been in church for some time, we may know the ending, we know what happens, but we need to remember that as they're going through these things, it's very at that moment for them, right? They're going through that without knowing every detail of the future, and how everything is going to play out, and they're just living that in the way that we're living today, waiting for the next moment to happen. Yet, as we see this unfold, At no time do we see panic or a sense of loss come over Paul, do we? In fact, we see the opposite as he takes on this event, takes on this wreck about to happen. Now we ended last week in verse 26 with Paul giving encouragement and prophecy to those in the boat. In the midst of that hurricane, Paul stood up and told the boat that they would all live. Quite a declaration, right? He further predicted, by the Word of God, that they would have to run aground some island. This is what he says. This is what Luke tells us. And in this passage, we find Paul's prophecy to be 100% accurate. In v. 27, we find Paul and the crew here still adrift in the Adriatic Sea on their boat, and we read that it is the 14th day that they've been adrift. So this is two weeks after that Northeasterner, that hurricane, struck the boat. For two weeks, their boat had just been drifting in the open sea. Look, at this time, there was no radio to call for help. There was no Coast Guard to come and deliver them. The boat was likely broken and tattered by this point. Everyone on the boat was tired, seasick from being tossed back and forth without much control over how to, or being able to steer the ship, hungry and unsure when or if they would be able to find land and be safe again. Now, Paul had given them God's message of safety some two weeks prior, right? I mean, he'd stood up in the middle of that storm, told them they would all be safe, they would all live. I'm sure that was comfort in that moment. But we're two weeks into this. They're still floating. There's still been no land in sight. And remember, Luke, Paul, and Aristarchus were the only professing Christians on this boat that we know of for sure. I'm not saying that there wasn't someone else who was on the boat that was a professing Christian or that might have been converted even along the way as Paul and his companions were there on the boat maybe professing Christ to them, but the only ones we know for sure were Paul and his companions. And even for a professing Christian, Faith can waver in such a desperate time, right? I mean, you put yourself on a boat, drifting for two weeks without sight of land, and not knowing where you're at, and having come through that storm, and with your boat broken and tattered, and food probably running low, your faith may start to waver despite what has been said by Paul. You can only imagine that the prisoners and soldiers who worshiped pagan gods, they were losing faith after such a long time there at sea. And as we dig into our passage here, we see that hope seems to kind of break through for them here at midnight after these 14 days. we're told that the sailors, they hear something that tells them or tips them off that they think they're nearing land. And we will begin, we will see at the beginning of this next chapter that they indeed had found land. They had drifted to an island called Malta. So if we're following the trip here, if we're following how this is taking place, at least from the point where we ended last week, this hurricane came about right around a little island called Kata. And from that point, The small island where they began to drift to here, Malta, after the hurricane, was roughly about 476 miles away. So they had drifted about 476 miles in these two weeks from the point of Calda to Malta. Now, an interesting little tidbit while we're here, a study was done by a man named James Smith back in the late 1880s, where he set out to determine the accuracy of Luke's account here of this drifting. He found that the rate of drift for a ship that size in a storm and after a storm like that northeastern would have drifted at a rate of roughly 1.5 miles per hour or about 36 miles a day. And at that rate, a ship would drift 476 miles in about 13 days. So going from Calda to Malta in 13 days, and this lines up with exactly what Luke's statement has said, because he says 14 days from the day of the storm that the boat hit, we find them near Malta. So the day that the storm hit was that first day, and then the next day they began to drift along, and for those next 13 days, they drifted these 476 miles. So shockingly, Luke's account is precisely accurate. And if you look at that map or the map maybe that you have in the back of your Bible of this trip, you can see that as they were drifting, even though this boat was afloat and they had little control to no control of where they were going or they didn't even know where they were at, even though it was off course a little bit, they were drifting the whole time towards Italy, towards Rome. God was going to get Paul to Rome because that's exactly what He said He would do, right? And even as the sailors, Paul, his companions, the soldiers here, as all were seemingly, or not seemingly, but all were out of control, God was in control the entire time. Now from what I understand, this island of Malta is known to have huge rocks or structures which jut out from its banks almost all the way around the bank of the island. And this can create this loud pounding sound as the waves come in and break from the ocean onto these rocks around the shore. So as the sailors hear this sound, or they hear a sound, that's what they're hearing most likely, these waves hitting into the shore, these giant rocks. So they hear this sound and they believe that they're coming close to land. And in order to try and determine how close they are to this land, verses 28-29 tell us that they took a sounding, which is not exactly what we may think of today with a sounding. That's generally a sound, sound something, maybe waves, sound waves may have been sent, but they didn't have that terminology at that point. They did that a little bit different. What they would do is they would take a stone or a lead piece and they would tie it to the end of a rope, a long rope obviously, and they would drop it into the sea. Now the bottom of that would have some type of grease substance that would be able to stay on the bottom and as it went through the water, if they got to the bottom of the island or bottom of the sea, They'd be able to pull that back up and see for sure that they had touched ground because some of that ground would stick, some of the bottom of the seashore would stick to the bottom of that rope. And then they would be able to determine how deep they were, what kind of water they were in at that point. And that's exactly what they did here. We're told that they took a sounding and they found that they were at 20 fathoms, and that's roughly 120 feet deep. They drop this stone, they find they're in about 120 foot deep water, so they know they're starting to kind of get closer in to land likely, because you're going to be a whole lot deeper than that in most of the ocean, most of the sea. Then we're told that after that first sounding, they take another one, roughly 30 minutes later probably, from what I understand, would have been common. They dropped again and they found that they were at 15 fathoms, so they were at 90 feet at this point. So again, they knew they were in fact approaching land. Which you would think would be a great thing, right? That'd be something to just celebrate and be extremely happy about. I mean, it'd been two weeks they've been floating around not knowing if they'd make it to land. And here, they're getting confirmation. They are likely getting in to land. But what we see here instead is that the sailors, they actually recognize they are in immediate danger, or at least the ship is. Now to begin with, as you think through this, and we read through this, you have to remember this is happening at midnight, right? This is where Paul picks us up in the story. About midnight is when they hear this sound, and then they begin to take these soundings. And so, in the dark, as dark as it was, it would have been practically impossible for them to see very far from where they were at on their boat. And obviously it would have been impossible to navigate their boat. Any type of navigation they could have done on the boat would have been practically impossible in the dark. And as the waves took them closer to the shore, the danger of being driven directly into the rocks on the shore where the boat would have been dashed to pieces would have been a very real danger for them. And these experienced sailors, they seem to be experienced based off what we read here, they would have known that. They would have known that danger. Also, the sailors understood that, you know, a lot of stuff is located under the ocean floor or under the ocean, down towards the ocean floor, which they couldn't see. I mean, it's hard to see that in daylight. You certainly won't be able to see it in the middle of the night. So as this boat approached land, there would have been the danger from the from the coastline, but then there will also have been danger from rocks maybe coming up from the bottom of the ocean floor as they get closer and closer and the bottom of the sea floor starts to rise up and up as they're getting closer to land. This of course would be dangerous because a wooden boat as it runs across maybe a rock solidly attached to the ocean floor is likely going to lose that battle, right? They're likely going to end up with a hole in the hull of their ship, at the bottom of it, and then a quick sinking will take place. So they had now exchanged This two-week basically danger of being overcome with water and maybe hunger or being lost during their drifting along after this hurricane to floating along in this beaten ship to a dashed piece of rocky shore or rock up underneath and just being sunk in the middle of the night. So in an effort to prevent a shipwreck, these sailors, they wisely decide to put down their anchors and keep themselves from drifting in and out any further. They just stop right there, they anchor down right there. In the daylight now, this might not have been, they might not have had to have done that, it would have been avoidable, because again, they could have seen a lot more of what they were doing, but this situation was exactly what caused them to just kind of stay where they were at. So they strategically do this, then they anchor, The bow, we're told here, pointing toward where they believe land to be, which would have been the front of the ship. This would have been done in an effort to hopefully, when daylight came, they would be able to steer the ship. It would already be in position, hopefully, to steer them on into land, if they could find a place to potentially land the boat safely, or somewhat safely. Now, we're told that as they do this, they pray and wait for daylight to come as quickly as possible. There's no reason to think that most of these prayers that were going up were going to Yahweh, as the vast majority of the boat was likely lost, as I mentioned, and worshiped pagan gods. But we do know Paul and his companions were on board, right? And we do know and can be confident that their prayers were going to the only true and living God, and they were heard. Now as they waited for day to come, we see in verses 30-32, it seems that these sailors, they were praying, But they didn't really trust their prayers. They didn't trust these pagan gods that they were going to deliver them. And so fear takes hold of them, and they seemed to believe that the ship would not make it through the night, or they didn't want to take that chance, and they were going to have to abandon it pretty quickly. They were tired of drifting along, I guess. They were anxious, I'm sure. They were afraid maybe the ship was going to rip apart at any moment. Maybe because, you know, of the beating it had already taken and the thought of being stranded in the ocean during the middle of the night without any idea of whether they'd be able to find a place to swim to safely and get safely to shore was, I guess, too much for them at this point. The sailors started searching for a way to escape the boat. So they began to try to put this lifeboat down and sneak off on it. That's their plan. But they do it under the pretense of lowering these anchors down. Now remember they had anchored the ship at the bow or the front of the boat so that they could get in that good position and navigate to the shore in the morning and it would have been normal in that process to put extra anchors down or use the boat as an extra anchor. That would have been a normal thing to do if you're trying to keep a ship in place. So that's what they claim to be doing. They were lowering this ship down under the pretense of just a normal thing, just part of the anchor. So anyone seeing this that was not experienced at sea, and maybe those that were experienced at sea would have had a difficult time seeing what their true intentions were here. Now, we know, or I'm sure you probably know, most lifeboats, I don't know of any lifeboat actually, that's going to carry everybody on a boat to safety unless there's not very many on that boat. It's just meant for a small number of people, especially out of what number we see here. So as they do this, they know that's not going to carry everybody to safety. It's just going to get them to safety. They don't seem to care. That's not what they're thinking about, the safety of the rest of the crew or the rest of the people on the boat. They weren't doing this to save everyone on the ship. They were making a business decision, basically, to see about themselves first, and then forget about the prisoners and the soldiers that they were actually supposed to be taking to Rome. But as they do this, Paul, he sees through the deception somehow. We aren't told exactly how he knows this, how he sees it no one else does, or what tips him off, but he sees through the deception, and so he alerts the only one really who could do anything about it, and that's the centurion in charge of these soldiers. He tells them, he tells the centurion and the soldiers, that unless the sailors stay on the ship, if they leave on this lifeboat, And the soldiers would die. It just tells them that's what's going to happen. If you allow them to leave or they get off on this boat, you're going to die. Now, the reason why Paul states that they would have died is because he knew that the sailors were essential for trying to safely land this boat on the shore the next day. If they all left, then what would have been left on the boat? You'd have been left with a bunch of soldiers and prisoners who had little to no idea how to guide a ship, right? I mean, the sailors, that's their job, that's their responsibility. Most of those that were on the boat at this point were just along for the ride. They had no idea how to guide this ship. So Paul, with common sense, warns the centurion that they would all die again if these sailors were not stopped from leaving. As we read that, you may think, well, but Paul's been promised they're all going to live. Why does he care? Why is he telling them this, that they're all going to die? Is that contrary to what God has said? No, it does not go against the promise of God to Paul that he would save everyone. Not at all. Paul understood that God was sovereignly in control of everything. But Paul also understood that he and those on the boat had a responsibility to act as well, right? I mean, they weren't just to sit around, wait for God to pick them up in a bubble and take them onto the sea, right? Or take them onto the shore. They had a responsibility to act properly and to do things right and to try to act responsibly themselves. And part of that responsibility would be to have these sailors stay on the ship and Again, common sense would tell you that if you have no one to steer a ship, you're not going to be able to land it. So this interior here obviously seems to believe Paul. And Luke tells us that the soldiers began to cut the ropes of this lifeboat. and doing this would have made it just drop into the sea, obviously it would have been attached no longer, would have made it to where no one would have been able to use that lifeboat. These sailors' plans to get off on the lifeboat would have been completely thwarted and that lifeboat would be not, it wouldn't have been useful any longer for anyone on that boat. Now as this happens, as you're trying to maybe think through this, I think you can imagine the anger and the arguments probably that would have come about during this whole process as these sailors are fearing for their life and they begin to try to get down in this lifeboat to save themselves and then hear the soldiers come along and, you know, no, you're not doing that. We're cutting this lifeboat. You're not going off by yourself. These arguments that would have ensued as this was coming about due to the scene, but we can be sure that there was one group out of these two groups, these sailors and these soldiers, there was one group who were trained killers. And they were the ones with weapons, and so they win the argument. These ropes are cut, the lifeboat drops. Everybody's left on the boat until the morning. According to verse 33, though, we're told that light began to slowly show its face. As dawn approached, Paul, he takes the time to now stand up and address the boat. This is the second time that Paul has done this in this short little trip according to Luke's account. In both times, we see Paul give hope as he addressed this crew, as he addressed the people on the boat. And he did so, really, it may be the time of greatest distress. If you recall, the first time was when they were facing the peak of that storm, right? He stood up and He gave them God's promise that they would all live, despite what it seemed like in that moment. This time, they're all on the verge of shipwreck, maybe, and here He reminds them of that promise again. So what do we see from Paul here? Paul was quite literally a steady presence during a storm, right? He had all the reason to be confident and calm through this, though, because he trusted the Word and the promise of God. Now Paul states here as he addresses the boat that they had not eaten in 14 days. Now we can't know for sure exactly if Paul is saying that they had literally taken no food at all during these two weeks or not. It's possible that what he means here is that they had not eaten an actual meal, like a full meal because of the storm. They maybe were seasick as they were drifting along. They were unable to prepare the meal and the conditions of the sea and the ship. But it's also possible that they had been able to eat small portions of food here and there just enough to maybe sustain them a little bit. Nothing large enough to be considered a meal or what he would consider, you know, you've not eaten in 14 days. We know that from this passage, they had enough food to eat more than one time, but because of the storm, some or maybe even most of their food had either been lost or thrown overboard to keep this ship from sinking originally there during that storm. But without knowing how long they would have been on the boat or been adrift, it seems that they probably had made a very concerted effort to keep from eating the food which was left. I mean, they didn't know how long they might need to be out there. So either way, whether they had had a little bit of food or whether they hadn't had no food at all during these 14 days, Paul stands and he tells them, and he says that they had been in suspense this entire time, meaning that they had not known how long it would take to reach the land or if they would even reach land at all. I mean, he understood the way they felt. He understood what they thought. Paul was confident they would be fine. There's no question in my mind as we read this account, and we know Paul, that he was confident that they were going to live because God had told him that. But he knew how the rest of the crew likely was feeling and thinking throughout this whole time, and he knew that there had been a great deal of suspense for them. So Paul, as he addresses them, he gives them really two pieces of good news here. He tells them, first, go ahead and eat so that you can get some strength. And again, as I mentioned a minute ago, he reminds them of God's promise that they would all live. And then we see Paul take bread and give thanks to God for this food or for this bread in the presence of all. And I don't want us to skip over that little point there. Paul clearly took that opportunity to witness. He could have just prayed to himself, right? I mean, he could have just taken the bread, said a little quick prayer to himself, and went on about his business. Or maybe he could have gotten the bread and taken Luke and Aristarchus into a corner or somewhere and just prayed together themselves. But instead, what are we told here by Luke? Paul took the bread, he broke it, and he prayed in front of the entire crew here. We aren't told by Luke in this account of any sermon that Paul preached or any specific time that Paul took during this trip to tell the people on the boat about Jesus, but I feel confident that he had taken as many opportunities as he could have, That said, we know that a storm had come, right, and had made them drift off, had kept this boat afloat, and had put them in a bad spot where they were trying their best to keep alive. And so he likely had not had a lot of opportunity during that period of time to witness or to talk to the crew there about Jesus as they were all trying to keep themselves alive and keep the boat afloat. But even with a simple prayer here, Paul witnessed to these many men on the boat. As John Phillips puts it, the sailors, angry, ashamed, afraid, worn out, knowing better than anyone their fearful perils ahead, they were brought by Paul through this simple instructive act of giving thanks for a piece of bread into the presence of the true and living God. And I would add to that, not only did he do this with the sailors, but with the prisoners and the Roman soldiers as well. I don't know for sure, but I do feel confident in saying that Paul not only thanked God for the food here, but also prayed the gospel to these many lost souls who thought they were close to death for these two weeks during this prayer. And then we see Paul begin to eat. It would appear that Paul had gained some measure of leadership maybe among those in the boat by this point. Not only was he able to convince the centurion a little while ago and the soldiers to cut this lifeboat off and convince them that the sailors were in fact trying to escape and were going to put them in danger, but now he seems to be allowed to take the food, which again had likely been carefully rationed or maybe even forbidden from eating for an entire two weeks, and then he just begins to eat. And he begins to encourage others to eat, right? Obviously a real and full meal would have given a huge boost of morale to everyone on this boat after having gone so long without it. Not only would they have been able to satisfy their hunger, some, but they were promised here again that life was guaranteed them, that not a hair on their head would be hurt. It's hard not to believe that as this takes place, as they eat this meal, and as they hear this, and they listen to the prayer of Paul, and see his faith and confidence, that this good cheer that we read of here by this crew was not only because of the good meal, but because of the courage and faith of Paul. They get a glimpse here into the realness and closeness of Yahweh on this ship. Again, most of these had followed empty and fake gods all their lives. And now they were seeing genuine faith from Paul in the living God. For the first time in this account, Luke tells us, How many people were on the boat in verse 37? Luke tells us that there were 276 persons on the ship. That's not a small number of people, right? And this number actually, I think, puts Paul's guarantee of life for everyone in perspective psalm. I mean, it's not like he's making this claim for 5 or 10 people. He's just saying, oh, it's fine, we're all going to live. And the chances of 5 or 10 people maybe living is far, far greater than the number of 276 people, all of them, on board this ship living. Unless God had given that promise, which is exactly what had happened, and exactly why Paul could be confident that he could reiterate this promise, he could remind them, this is going to happen, you will be fine. And we can actually compare this to the account of the Jewish historian Josephus, He had a voyage that he took to Rome on boat, and there were about 600 people, from what I understand, aboard his ship. It also wrecked. Out of those 600 people, though, only 80 survived, including Josephus. So, less people out of 600 people lived than the 276 on this boat. Yet here we see that all 276 people will survive this shipwreck, despite a number of them not even being able to swim. Look, this is obviously the hand of God at work. It seems that Paul's promise of survival would be tested soon, though, as the crew knew they would be trying to make land, because instead of preserving the food here, they throw the remainder of the wheat overboard, and this is done to lighten the load, lighten the ship again. I know Brother Blake went over this a little bit when he preached the last sermon, but the less you have on that boat, obviously the higher it's going to ride in the water, and the lighter the boat, the higher it rides in the water, The longer it's going to be able to float inland before running up to ground, or maybe hitting a rock or something, it gives them a better chance to get farther in and be saved. Then we're told in verse 39 that Dave finally breaks through completely, and they realize as this happens, they're able to look around, they realize that they don't recognize where they're at. They don't recognize the island they drifted to. The area of the island where they were at certainly didn't have a port for them to just go into, right, or sail into. They'd been afloat for two weeks without any idea of which direction really they'd been going, most likely because of those, I mean, I'm sure the storm had created clouds and, you know, they can't see where they're going most of the time. They'd been floating for a while. had likely no idea how far they'd floated, exactly where they were at. So as they see this island, they have no idea what it is. And because this land was foreign to them, they didn't know of a good place to try and land or where the port might've been. And so they were likely limited in their ability to navigate on top of this. And as a result, they decide, they look and they decide to try and land in a bay. close to a beach or that had a beach, they would try to sail into smoothly or at least as smoothly as possible and then run into this land and be able to get on to shore safely. The place that they find here, this bay, is likely known today as St. Paul's Bay. We can't be for sure about that, but there's been a lot of looking into that, and that's the most likely place that we see here, that Luke tells us about, is what is commonly known today as St. Paul's Bay. Now, according to what I read, the ocean in this area, it breaks into two small creeks, really, which run into this beach area. Now, by God's grace and providence, what have we seen? He has steered them for these two weeks to one of the only places in that area towards Rome that they could have possibly steered their ship which would have given them a chance to make it to land safely instead of running on to the rocky shore. So we see in verse 40 that they begin to prepare to try and land on this area, this beach, by cutting off the anchors, which would have allowed the ship to begin moving again. They also had tied rudders to keep the ship stable through the night, but they cut those ropes as well, or loosed them, so that they could try and steer the ship with the rudders. And then, moving the sails to a position to catch the wind to get into the bay, they start their efforts to reach this beach. In verse 41, Luke tells us, before they could make it onto the beach and out of the bay, though, they find a reef. That's what we read here in the ESV, that they run upon a reef. Now generally, when we hear that word reef, we probably think of something maybe like the Great Barrier Reef, at least it's the first thing that came to my mind, that large reef located off the coast of Australia on the ocean floor. And that reef is quite large, has a whole ecosystem in it, has a lot of plants and animals which live in it and around it, on it. Those things can be beautiful to see. Here, though, it's more likely, and other translations will translate it this way, but it's more likely that what they've run to here is more along the lines of a sandbar. A place that had developed between these two creeks coming into this bay or this beach where the sand had gathered into a spot under the water, high enough, though, to keep the ship from going over it. Luke tells us that the ship runs over it and gets stuck, at least the bow of the ship, it gets stuck to the front of the ship, can't go any further in, they're not able to drift back out, they're stuck where they're at. And then he tells us that the stern of the ship, or the back part of the hull, begins to get battered by these waves. So after being stuck, the ship began to break apart by the surf. So basically, when you're close to land, as I'm sure you well know if you've been to the beach, these waves, they're rolling in and out, right, towards that land, towards the shore. And these waves are constant. They're constantly coming. They're constantly cresting. And if a ship cannot ride those waves, go up and down with them, then the waves are just going to batter into the side of the ship. And if they're stuck in an area, they're not riding the waves, right? They're stuck down at the bottom of the ocean floor. And so these waves are just pounding into the back of the ship. And with it being a wooden boat, eventually those waves are going to be powerful enough to start to wreck that ship and destroy it. And that's exactly what we see happen to their boat. And honestly, it doesn't seem like it takes very long for this to start to take place. So, in verse 42, after being stuck with no way to go further into the land, safely onto the beach or to the bay, and with the ship about to be torn apart, they knew that the only option was to swim to shore. They had to get off the ship, they had to swim to shore. So think of this scene for a moment. They're on this ship. You've got 276 people who are about to abandon this ship. They can see land, but obviously it's far enough away to where they can't just walk up there, right? And it's not shallow enough. I mean, they're going to be required to swim. Among those 276 people were a number of prisoners whom the centurion and these soldiers were bound to keep in custody. By Roman law, they had to keep them in custody. Now, as you likely remember from previous sermons concerning people in jail in Roman custody, the most important thing that a Roman soldier could do for their prisoner or with their prisoner was to make sure that they remained in custody, right? For a Roman soldier, they wanted to make sure that the one they had in custody stayed alive if possible, but it really didn't matter that much as long as they could account for him. A dead body was better than nobody. And so if they allowed their prisoner or prisoners to escape, it could mean their death as well, right? And so you had these Roman soldiers who were about to have to swim to shore and to try and keep themselves alive. I mean, the idea of trying to keep themselves and keep up with their prisoners, who may not be able to swim themselves, was a little too much to ask of them, they thought. And then, even if they could do that, they could keep themselves and the prisoners alive on the way to the shore, the idea of these prisoners just allowing themselves to be arrested again was even more unthinkable. In fact, if these prisoners did what most prisoners do, if given the chance, they were gonna escape, right? I mean, they might take their life, or not take their life, but they might, put their life in danger just to be able to live and escape if possible. The last thing these Roman soldiers wanted then was to have that happen, have a bunch of prisoners who they were supposed to keep in custody, make it to shore, or swim around somewhere and be turned loose on an island that they don't even know what island it is. It would have been a perfect recipe for a bunch of escaped prisoners and probably a bunch of dead Roman soldiers who returned with no prisoners. So their solution is a pretty common sense solution for them. Let's just kill the prisoners. Better the prisoners die than for them to be in trouble or for them to die, right? But as they make this plan, we see that the centurion here in charge, he seems to have developed an attachment perhaps to Paul, or at least a great deal of respect for Paul by this point. Perhaps this was purely because he began to trust Paul as a spokesman for God, and he felt like he needed to protect this spokesman from God who had promised life to them, And if he didn't, perhaps God would punish him as well. Perhaps God's promise of life wouldn't come about if he didn't do this. Or perhaps, you know, Paul might have been the only person that appealed to Caesar out of these prisoners, and that he had care over. And so Paul, maybe he thought Paul was the one who, if anybody, had to get them to Caesar if all possible, and he didn't want any of these prisoners being put to death for that reason. Or maybe, and I think this is most likely, the centurion had grown to truly respect Paul. and think a lot of him, and did not want to see him put to death." Whatever the case be, though, Luke tells us that the centurion, he kept the soldiers from killing the prisoners on account of Paul, and he ordered everyone who could swim to jump off the ship and swim to land. The remaining on the board were then to find something, grab a plank, a board, any piece of the ship which would help them to float to shore as well. Interesting, according to John Polehill again, this phrasing of plank or board, it could even be referred to as a body. So it's possible that the ones who could swim, once they got in the water, they actually carried or helped those who couldn't swim on into land. And then we're told, God's promise through Paul was fulfilled. All came to land safely. And our adventure for now is done, at least with the shipwreck and the storm and the drifting. We've made it to God's island. A couple of things to close just to think of. I don't think we can read this account and we can see Paul through all of these dangers and all of these events here specifically on this trip, these two weeks, and not just see Paul's calming presence, right? Do we ever see Paul out of control here? Do we ever see him in great worry during this time? Paul's faith There's no question, Paul's faith in God was a source of courage for the rest of the ship. I say that to say that our actions, they matter not just to us, but people around us as well. Our faith in our Savior and His promises matter not only to us, but to those around us as well. We may not think that or feel that all the time, or see that even, But if we're in a situation, we're going through a chaotic time, we live in a chaotic society, whatever it might be, we're going through a hard time, we're going through a rough time. Our faith, even in those times, can be calming, can be a great example to those around us. That's what we need to be anyways, right? I mean, for ourselves and our professing faith in our Savior, we need to have faith in His promises and what He has told us, that no matter what happens here, we have eternity with Him, right? We have a future and a hope, and that's all that really matters at the end of the day. And if we can hold on to that, and we can trust in God's promises and His sovereignty and His promise to care for us and give us that eternity, we can stay calm. We can stay in a place where those around us can see that. They can see true faith lived out. Secondly, God's blessings on Paul here, who was his child, was his chosen vessel, They were also blessings for those around him, too. We see this commonly. God blesses others, oftentimes, through the blessings of His own children. Paul's life was saved, and the primary point, I believe, of this whole event was to get Paul safely to Rome as He told him he would. And he had a further purpose for Paul. So Paul was not going to die on this trip, but because of Paul's life, Everyone else was blessed in this. God is a gracious God. God is a good God. God blesses both the lost and the just and the unjust, right? But He does bless those around His children, and we see those blessings all the time in the way that He blesses us, and those blessings are important on others as well. Again, we've kind of mentioned this, but it's impossible not to see the hand of God in this voyage. I mean, we know God is in control, right? God is always in control. But it's impossible not to see His hand in control this entire time. Getting them to Malta. Getting them to a point where they could safely go ashore and be able to save everyone, all 276 people going through this hurricane on this boat and still remaining safe. God has been in control. He's been orchestrating this thing the entire time. And God kept His promise, as He always does. But as I mentioned as we went through this, I think it's important for us to see the fact that Paul, he acted during this whole event as well, right? I mean, God promised him during the height of the hurricane that they would all be saved. Paul believed that. Nothing would or could change that. But do we see Paul just sitting around idly this entire time? Do we see him just expect God, as I kind of mentioned, I put it earlier, to just put them all in an air bubble and lift them into safety on the land and save them in that way? No. He expected the normal course of things as a general rule in his life to play out and for him to take action and responsibility when necessary. We have to remember that as well. We believe and trust in God's promises. God is sovereign. He is in control of everything. But that does not mean we don't have a responsibility in this life. Both in salvation and both in the way that we carry out our faith and the way that we live our life. Let us remember that as we go into this world. Let's remember our responsibility, how we are to act, and how our faith is to be lived out, and not just a vocal thing that we just say. Right? Stand with me.