Tossed About in a Sinking Ship

How will you deal with the demise of your own failing flesh aboard the sinking ship of this brief life?

Acts of the Apostles 27

Sailing so slowly into a billowing whirlwind of destruction.

That’s how it must have felt for the Roman Centurion Julian, various guards and now others aboard a large Greek merchant ship hauling grain into a storm.

How did we arrive at these last days of a failed voyage to Rome?

AD 59 - Acts [27] of the Apostle Paul

• v.3 entering a (small) ship of Adramyttium, sailing only to nearby Tyre
• v.4-6 crawling along the coasts of Pamphylia and Asia to board this large ship hauling grain to Rome
• v.7  we had sailed slowly many days, and arrived with difficulty off Cnidus [still only along the coast of Asia {Minor} at the Southeast edge of the Aegean Sea], the wind not permitting us to proceed.
• Their ship had drifted on gentle waters into harbors along Crete. Barely had their voyage into the Mediterranean begun.
• The winds of winter near upon them now, their only hope a sheltered harbor away from which they were suddenly swept into the tempest. [v.7-17]

Swept asunder by the Tempest of a Euroclydon

Paul — Shipwrecked

276 souls on a sinking ship

Because we were being severely battered by the storm, they began to jettison the cargo the next day… On the third day, they threw the ship’s tackle overboard with their own hands…

For many days neither sun nor stars appeared, and the severe storm kept raging. Finally all hope was fading that we would be saved...

.. they had been without food for a long time…

Acts 27:18-21 excerpt CSB

Message of an Angel to Paul and all souls aboard

We have not heard from the Apostle for several days now since his warning to the Centurian Julian had been ignored. As would have been his regular practice, no doubt Paul and Aristarchus had been praying. 

Now the Apostle appears with a new messenge of hope from an angelic messenger of God.

“You men should have followed my advice not to sail from Crete and sustain this damage and loss. Now I urge you to take courage, because there will be no loss of any of your lives, but only of the ship.

Acts 27:21b-22 CSB

'Preposterous,' these hungry men on a sinking ship laden with grain must have thought - Roman men and Greek sailors who would have been weak from fighting for their lives.

'YOU told us we would die and now that we're almost sinking into the sea you say that we will not.'  

“For last night an angel of the God I belong to and serve stood by me and said, ‘Don’t be afraid, Paul. It is necessary for you to appear before Caesar. And indeed, God has graciously given you all those who are sailing with you.’

Acts 27:23-24

The crew must still be skeptical.
'Your god has graciously given you all of us sailing with you?' Many of these sailors and guards must have thought, 'You're the prisoner, not us!'

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Paul has already established his credibility as a Roman citizen with Julian, the Centurion officer charged with delivering the Apostle to Caesar.

And we are about to learn that in the protocol of the Roman Empire, it is the Centurion who is in charge of ALL of these men — NOT a captain or pilot of the ship or enlisted Roman guard.

The Apostle continues by prophesying what is about to take place (rather than drowning in the depths of the sea as their ship sinks into the depths of the sea). 

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“So take courage, men, because I believe God that it will be just the way it was told to me. But we have to run aground on some island.”

Acts 27:25-26

When the fourteenth night came, we were drifting in the Adriatic Sea, and about midnight the sailors thought they were approaching land. They took soundings and found it to be 20 fathoms deep;

when they had sailed a little farther and sounded again,

they found it to be 15 fathoms deep.

Then, fearing we might run aground on the rocks, they dropped four anchors from the stern and prayed for daylight to come.

Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers,

“Unless these men stay in the ship, you cannot be saved.”

Julian the Centurion in COMMAND

Then the soldiers cut the ropes holding the skiff and let it drop away.

When it was about daylight, Paul urged them all to take food..

“Today is the fourteenth day that you have been waiting and going without food, having eaten nothing. So I urge you to take some food. For this is for your survival, since none of you will lose a hair from your head.”

Acts 27:33b-34 CSB – encouragement of the Apostle Paul to the men of the ship

Recall that Paul has this prophesy first hand from an Angel of God. 

Breaking the Bread of Thanks

After he said these things and had taken some bread, he gave thanks to God in the presence of all of them, and after he broke it, he began to eat.

They all were encouraged and took food themselves.

Acts 27:35-36 CSB

And we were in all in the ship two hundred threescore and sixteen souls.

ACTS 27:37 KJV

And when they had eaten enough, they lightened the ship, and cast out the wheat into the sea.

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Fleeing a Sinking Ship

After cutting loose the anchors, they left them in the sea, at the same time loosening the ropes that held the rudders.

Then they hoisted the foresail to the wind and headed for the beach.

Julian – Responsible for all men

The soldiers’ plan was to kill the prisoners so that no one could swim away and escape. But the centurion kept them from carrying out their plan because he wanted to save Paul,

and so he ordered those who could swim to jump overboard first and get to land.

The rest were to follow, some on planks and some on debris from the ship.

In this way, everyone safely reached the shore.

Acts of the Apostles 27:44 CSB

Once safely ashore, we then learned that the island was called Malta.

Acts of the Apostles 28:1

To be continued…

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