Second Last Sunday
Sermon Text:
Acts 27:27-44
27 When the fourteenth night had come, as we were being driven across the Adriatic Sea, about midnight the sailors suspected that they were nearing land. 28 So they took a sounding and found twenty fathoms. A little farther on they took a sounding again and found fifteen fathoms. 29 And fearing that we might run on the rocks, they let down four anchors from the stern and prayed for day to come. 30 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, 31 Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, “Unless these men stay in the ship, you cannot be saved.” 32 Then the soldiers cut away the ropes of the ship's boat and let it go.
33 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. 34 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.” 35 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. 36 Then they all were encouraged and ate some food themselves. 37 (We were in all 276 persons in the ship.) 38 And when they had eaten enough, they lightened the ship, throwing out the wheat into the sea.
39 Now when it was day, they did not recognize the land, but they noticed a bay with a beach, on which they planned if possible to run the ship ashore. 40 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 for the beach. 41 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. 42 The soldiers' plan was to kill the prisoners, lest any should swim away and escape. 43 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, 44 and the rest on planks or on pieces of the ship. And so it was that all were brought safely to land.
This text is life and death. What could be more so than men on a ship long before today’s technology that allows modern sailors to know what lies before them in water and on land, whether in light or darkness, calm sea or stormy? For Paul and the Two hundred seventy-five others with him, it is the treachery of stormy seas, and the terror of what might be waiting ahead in the darkness of the middle of the night. Life and death.
The real sailors onboard are well aware of this. They have done what they can to assess the situation. They have heard faintly what might sound like waves crashing against shore in the distance. They have determined that they are moving into shallower waters. They have dropped anchors in hopes of stopping the ship at least until they might make a visual assessment in morning light; they can’t see anything right now!
In fact, as the minutes tick by and the terror grows, these seasoned sailors have decided not even to wait for morning light. They will escape the ship by lowering the boat (the lifeboat), and making off in it (they hope the inexperienced onboard will see the lowering of the boat as part of the putting out of the anchors, and not as an attempt to abandon all of them to their deaths).
But Paul has put two and two together. He has pointed out to the centurion and soldiers transporting him and other prisoners to Rome, that their own survival (as well as that of the prisoners) depends upon these sailors remaining on the ship and steering it to safety. So, the soldiers put an end to the plot by cutting the boat ropes and releasing it empty out to sea. They’ll all die together if they’re to die.
The sailors’ scheme isn’t all that surprising, is it? They don’t want to die! They’re clinging to whatever hope they think they might still have of getting out of this thing alive. Had the scheme worked, they still didn’t have that much better of a chance. They would still be heading off in a little boat, into open seas in a storm in the darkness; but they take what they can get. They have real reason to be afraid.
What if it were you? You’re different from these sailors in that you have Christian faith. I want all of you to understand that, this morning. You know that your life is in the hands of an all-powerful God. Some things in this world are legitimately terrifying (you might have experienced some of these things); but there isn’t anything that God can’t do in any situation to preserve your life in this world, if that’s His will. The words of our Old Testament lesson from Isaiah are prophetic words about Christ’s kingdom that comes at the end of the world; but the words speak of the same God who is present for you in the terrors that you might face in this world. Behold, the LORD God comes with might, and his arm rules for him. Those are Isaiah’s words. You face an overwhelming power in this world; but what you have on your side is infinitely more powerful than what threatens you.
The sailors don’t have this perspective. To them, life is in their own hands. What a difficult situation that is! What helplessness! You have the ability as believers, to relax your strained muscles, and lean your head back and say, You know what? I can’t do anything more, but I know that God can. I am in His hands whatever may come, be it to be saved from this dreadful situation, or to be with Him in His kingdom. You can have a real peace in that. The dread that many have in this world doesn’t need to be your experience.
And, of course, the dread that we might have in this life isn’t even the worse dread we face. The Last Judgment is our theme on this 2nd Last Sunday of the church year. We face terrors in this world, yes. And the worst possible outcome of those terrors is that we die, right? We cling to this life; that’s just the way we’re made. But our death in this world isn’t the end of the story. There is a judgment upon guilty sinners. And there is a punishment for sin; Paul calls it wages. It’s what every sinner has earned - this punishment. To be helpless before this particular dread is even worse than helplessness before the dread we might face in this world.
The way to be helpless before this particular dread is to refuse to acknowledge that we have guilt, or to insist we will see to the guilt ourselves. Remember, that’s what the priests told Judas to do when he went to them and confessed that he’d sinned in betraying innocent blood. “What is that to us? See to it yourself (Matthew 27:4).” -they’d said. But we can’t. We see our helplessness in the pagan sailors who have no concern for the hundreds of other lives on the ship, so long as they might cling on to their own, and avoid death for a little while longer.
You and I might have thought like them sometimes. In our fear, we might have forgotten all about the God Who holds our lives in His hands. We might have thought that we must do whatever is necessary to save ourselves from what terrifies us.
In comforting his temporary shipmates in their worldly dread, Paul hopes to comfort them also in the matter of the dread beyond this world. As the dawn approaches, with them having survived another dark, stormy night, he urges them to eat. There hasn’t been a lot of that going on lately (a lot seasickness most likely, but very little eating). Why eat when day after day they have thought they were about to die at sea?
In the section just before our text, Paul had said to all who were there, …take heart, for there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship. 23 For this very night there stood before me an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I worship, 24 and he said, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul; you must stand before Caesar. And behold, God has granted you all those who sail with you.’ 25 So take heart, men, for I have faith in God that it will be exactly as I have been told. 26 But we must run aground on some island.”
Perhaps with those words of Paul’s in mind, they have eaten, and have experienced a revival of their spirits. And they go through the ordeal of the ship breaking apart and of various kinds of panic. But as predicted by the angel, all [are] brought safely to land. Their eating has been preceded by a prayer of thanksgiving from Paul. The provider of this food that revives them, and of protection through the gravest danger is also the one who provides the solution to their guilt. Paul hopes all of the men who have been with him on the ship will come to know this, and to know the peace that comes to those whose faith is in the true God.
God has preserved him that he might testify before Caesar. He will tell of Christ just as we heard last week he did before Agrippa. He will tell of this One Who saves for eternity all who put their trust in Him. He has purchased their forgiveness with His own blood, rising from the grave that sinners avoid at all cost. It will not hold His people just as it hasn’t held Him. It will not hold you who are forgiven in the blood of Christ. There is nothing to dread - not in life or death. The Lord God comes with might. He preserves His people. Amen.