Hello and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church Podcast,
where we are proclaiming the truth to the world.
My name is Pastor Josh, and I want to thank you for listening to
this podcast.
I hope that this podcast can be a blessing to you and strengthen
you in the word of God.
Now, come along.
Let's look into the Bible and see what God has for us here today.
All right, well, we're going to go ahead and move forward with
our sermon series here in the Book of Acts.
And so if you have your Bibles, turn there with me to Acts
chapter 27.
This is going to be our main text here for the evening.
We're going to jump around and look at a few other texts, but this
is where we're going to start.
Acts, chapter 27.
Where are we at?
Paul has appealed to be sent to Caesar.
So he's appealed to Caesar.
And at this point in time, Paul is being sent to Rome.
And this is a culmination of the prophecy that God gave him all
the way back in Acts chapter 9.
Acts, chapter 9.
God told him that he would preach the Gospel to the Jews, to
the Gentiles there, all over the world, but specifically in Rome
and to kings and leaders.
And then we see later on that Paul has a desire to go to Rome.
We know that Paul had.
He was, as I said in the.
In the Bible here, it says that he was bound in the spirit to
go to Jerusalem.
So he was facing persecution, but he was facing persecution and
obedience.
Some people tried to stop him from moving forward and going to
Jerusalem, but nonetheless, he goes and he preaches the Gospel.
He's persecuted, put in prison for preaching the Gospel, ultimately
held there for two years.
He actually got moved up to a place called Caesarea.
He was held in Caesarea for two years.
Ultimately, they didn't know what to do with him.
They really couldn't find him guilty of anything.
But the Jewish leaders did not want him out, so they just held him
there.
No one really wanted to do the right thing.
But ultimately, Paul says, I want to appeal to Caesar.
I want to appeal to the highest authority of the land.
And so he does so right at the end of chapter 26, there was this
guy named King Agrippa who basically says that if Paul did not
appeal to Caesar, he would be set free.
But we know that Paul is making decisions in the will of God
to do the things that God has him to do.
And that means that Paul is going to face difficulties.
We know through other passages of scripture that Paul faced more
than just bondage in prison.
We know that he faced persecution physically, spiritually,
and we know that he was shipwrecked.
And this is one of those passages of Scripture that speaks
to one of the shipwrecks of Paul.
So keep your finger there in Acts, chapter 27.
And I want you to see where he references this shipwreck in second
Corinthians.
And so, Second Corinthians, he references this shipwreck.
And this was when we were studying the book of second Corinthians.
This was when Paul was recount, recounting all the difficulties
that he had gone through.
And remember, there were people there in the church of Corinth
that said they were the true ministers of the Gospel and that
Paul was a false teacher.
And Paul was basically saying, have they gone through all these
things for the cause of the Gospel?
And he was going through the things that he has gone through.
Verse 23 of Second Corinthians, chapter 11, he says,
are they ministers of Christians?
I speak as a fool.
I am more in labors, more abundant, in stripes above measure.
He's saying he's been beaten so many times he can't even count.
In prisons more frequent.
He references many of his imprisonments there in deaths off
of the Jews.
Five times received I 40 stripes, save one.
Thrice I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned.
Thrice I suffered shipwreck.
A night and a day I have been in the deep and journeyings often
in perils of waters.
We're going to talk about perils of waters here in Acts, chapter
27.
He goes on to say, in perils of robbers and perils of mine own
countrymen.
That's already what we've seen here in the book of Acts.
His own countrymen, the people that he loves, his own Jewish people,
turn their backs against him and ultimately persecute him.
So he says, perils of mine own countrymen, and perils by the heathen,
and perils in the city, and perils in the wilderness, and perils
in the sea.
In perils among false brethrens, in weariness and painfulness,
in watchings, often staying up late at night, not sleeping, in hunger
and thirst and fastings, often in cold and nakedness.
But besides those things that are without, that which cometh upon
me daily, the care of all the churches.
And so he goes on to say that, hey, I've gone through all of these
difficulties, but ultimately it's for the cause of the gospel.
Earlier on, in the book of second Corinthians, he goes and talks
about how he is pressed.
He's he's been troubled on every side.
That's chapter eight.
Excuse me, Chapter four, verse eight.
We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed.
We are perplexed, but not in despair.
Persecuted, but not forsaken, Cast down, but not destroyed.
And so Paul says, my hope in Jesus Christ is not found in my circumstances.
Because if anybody could blame his circumstances for being upset
with God, it could be.
It would be Paul, right?
Sure.
Shipwreck, beaten, forgotten about, betrayed, thrown in prison,
falsely accused.
But through all of this, we see Paul saying, hey, my purpose
in the gospel is so much bigger than what people do to me.
The purpose of the gospel and the call of the gospel in his life
was so much bigger than difficulties that he would face.
And so he's following God in obedience and he's thrown in prison
there in Jerusalem.
He's following God in obedience, and he's held in Caesarea
for.
For really doing nothing wrong.
He's following God in obedience.
And now he's going to be sent to Rome.
He's going to be sent to the capital of the world.
He's going to be sent to the belly of the beast.
He's going to be sent to evil there with King Nero.
But yet at the same time, there's going to be a lot more that
happens in that journey.
And so that's where we're going to be here in Acts, chapter
27.
But we know that even in the shipwreck physically, or what we
would call the shipwrecks of life, the storms of life, we can
have an anchor in Jesus Christ.
And I want to take you to a passage of scripture that references
that as well.
The book of Hebrews, Hebrews chapter six.
Down at the end of the chapter, we can see that no matter
what the case might be in our life, and for us, it's not necessarily
going to be a physical shipwreck that's going to cause us
issues.
Most of us are going to not be on a boat in the middle of the sea
with storms around us and calling out to God in that way.
But many of us are going through other shipwrecks in our life,
other storms of our life that might not necessarily be physical
storms.
It might be, but it might be spiritual storms.
It might be spiritual difficulties.
And here in Hebrews chapter six, we see that we can find an anchor
in the midst of the storm.
My dad and I like to fish, and we like to go out fishing.
When, when I'm there in Florida, we go out on this boat and
he doesn't Have a really big boat.
But we have been in some decent storms, nothing crazy, or
our little boat would be tipped over and gone.
But one of the things that we do is we try to get to a spot where
we can catch some fish.
And that happens from time to time.
And we know that there's going to be fish there.
And so what do we do?
We don't just drift by.
We throw our anchor out and we try to get that anchor to stick so
that we can hold in one spot, so that we can accomplish what we're
trying to do by catching fish.
But sometimes what will happen is, is that we'll throw that anchor
out, but the storm or the wind is blowing so strongly that that
anchor will pull up or.
Or the anchor line will break or we won't get a good set into the
ground.
And so when that happens, we're not steady.
We're not.
And we're like.
All of a sudden, my dad's like, are we moving?
I think.
I think we're moving.
Okay.
That anchor didn't hold fast.
And so what we can see here is that there's a lot of things in our
life that we can throw out into the water to hold us there in
the midst of the storm.
But anything outside of what we're going to see is the true anchor
in Jesus Christ is eventually going to fail.
As the storms of life begin to blow, as.
As the winds blow, as the.
As the seas are tossed to and fro, that many things that we think
are anchor in life will come up.
If we're trusting in anything outside of Jesus Christ, it will,
at some point, under immense pressure, fail us.
But what we're going to see in Hebrews, chapter six, verse 19, is
that our hope is found alone in Jesus Christ says in verse 19,
which hope we have as an anchor of the soul.
So it's not a physical anchor, but it's an anchor of the soul.
It's what holds us steady in the midst of the storm.
And so we're about to go through a whole study with Paul going
and being shipwrecked.
And then some of you know the rest of the story.
He goes on to land, and he finds himself in a lot of other struggles
as he's on land.
And so how could Paul trust in the Lord?
How could he push forward in obedience?
Sometimes, at least for me, I look at Paul and I say, man, this
guy is a superhero.
How could this guy be real Difficulty after difficulty, he pushes
forward for the cause of the gospel.
How could he do this Most of us, if we're honest with ourselves,
would have quit a long, long time ago.
But the truth is, is that Paul had an anchor.
And Hebrews chapter six tells us what that anchor was.
It says, which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure
and steadfast.
So there's only one anchor of the soul that's sure and steadfast
and which entereth into that within the veil whither the forerunner
is for us entered.
Even Jesus made a high priest forever after the Order of Melchizedek.
Now, we're not going to get down the Order of Melchizedek here
this evening.
That is a whole other study for another day.
But essentially what it's saying here is that we have a high
priest in Jesus Christ who, who offered us the sacrifice, who
connects God to man.
We know that Jesus says, I am the way, the truth and the life.
No man cometh unto the Father but by me.
So the role of the priest in the Old Testament was to connect
God and man.
We know that is done through Jesus Christ and his sacrifice and
our faith in him.
So when we're studying Paul, I think it's very easy for us just
to look at Paul and say, you know what?
That's Paul.
But that can't be me.
When I go through difficulties, I'm just going to give
in.
Because, you know, the truth is I'm not strong like Paul.
But I'm going to tell you here tonight, even though Paul was gifted
by God, even though God had a call for Paul's life, a specific
call for Paul's life, Paul was just a man like everyone else here.
He was just a human being led by the Holy Spirit, called by God
and trusting in God.
And so what we can see is that he set his anchor in Jesus Christ.
So when he finds himself in this storm, when he finds himself
shipwrecked, he doesn't question God because that's sometimes
what our humanity wants us to do.
And what we do is we say, well, if God loved me, he wouldn't
let me go through the storm.
If God loved me and cared for me and wanted me to go preach in
Rome, why would he shipwreck me?
And the truth is that many of the struggles that we are going to
face in our life are through our own bad decisions.
But there's going to be some shipwrecks that we go through.
What we're going to see here with Paul, it wasn't his choice.
Actually.
Paul wanted to tell them, hey, don't go.
We shouldn't go.
But some shipwrecks and some storms in our life are beyond our
control.
And so God allows those to happen in her life.
And the test of faith is not, hey, am I strong?
It's, hey, where is my foundation set?
I want to take you to one last passage of scripture, and then I
want us to go through the story with this context in our mind,
and that is found in Luke, chapter six.
Luke, chapter six.
We're gonna see here a story that many of you familiar with.
I, I know that you know this as a parable, and that is the parable
of the people that build their house upon the rock.
And, and so I. I know that many of us have heard this story,
and sometimes we just gloss over.
There's a song, the wise men build his house upon the rock.
But we're going to talk about what that means for us and how we
can ultimately understand how we can build our house upon the rock
of Jesus Christ.
So Luke chapter 6, verse 46.
Jesus is.
Is teaching here something very interesting, and I think that
it's something that we need to hear in our culture today.
Says in verse 46 of Luke 6, and why call ye me Lord, Lord, and
do not the things which I say?
So he says, there.
There are these people that are calling God Lord, or calling
Him.
The word Lord means master.
Calling him master with what they say, but it says, and do not
the things which I say.
So you can't say God is controlling your life.
You can't say you're trusting in the Lord.
You can't say that he's your master.
If you don't obey him, you don't do the things which he says.
Verse 47.
Whoso cometh to me and heareth my sayings and doeth them, I will
show you to whom he is like.
So it's not just about being a hearer, because it's one thing to
hear the word of God.
It's one thing to know what God wants for us in our life.
But what Jesus says here, it's another thing to act upon that.
It's another thing to obey.
It's another thing to apply the principles that God is laying
out for us.
So hearing it is not enough.
I. I can tell you I have sat through many, many sermons throughout
my life.
Sermons that I have given and sermons that I have heard.
And, and they're.
I can tell you in shame, there's a lot of sermons that I've
sat through that they've gone in one ear and out the other.
I'VE heard it, I understood it.
But really, as I walked out the door, that's where it stopped.
It just stopped right there.
And what he says is this.
The danger sometimes is thinking that hearing is enough.
You know, I'll trust in God when the storms of life come.
But I'm okay right now.
No, it's the preparation of the storms to come.
And he gives a parable.
He gives a story.
He gives a earthly story with a heavenly meaning here, starting
in verse 48, he says, he is like a man which built an house and
dig deep.
So the wise man, the one who is obeying the word of God, is like
someone who builds a house.
And he says, and dig deep.
And I like the Luke passage here because it speaks of how he
was digging deep into the foundation.
Really, what I used to think of the story was there was this big
rock and then there was this beach over here.
The one guy built his house upon this huge mountain.
The other guy built his house upon the beach.
But what we can see here is that he was actually digging down
past the sand, past the dirt, down to the foundation stone.
Says he digged deep and laid the foundation on a rock.
And when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon the house
and could not shake it, for it was founded upon a rock.
He says, the one who is trusting in the Word of God has a
sure foundation.
And so when the storms of life come, when the shipwreck comes, when
the confusion comes, we're able to say, you know what I am.
I have my foundation set in something stronger than this storm.
So everything's okay for the one who builds his house upon the
sure foundation, the rock, the Word of God.
Verse 49.
But he that heareth and doeth not is like a man that without a
foundation, built a house upon the earth.
So he.
He doesn't go deeper.
He doesn't apply wisdom.
He goes the easy route.
He says, you know what?
I'll deal with that stuff later.
I'll trust in God when the storms come.
But the Bible says in Psalm 1, if we want to be like a tree planted
by the rivers of water, we have to be people who are desiring
the things of God and putting our faith in the Word of God.
So he that heareth and doeth not is like a man without a foundation
built and house upon the earth against which the stream did beat
vehemently and immediately it fell.
And the ruin of that house was great.
So the test was not necessarily, did the house look good?
We don't see Any difference in the appearance of these houses from
the outside?
Right.
The only difference was the foundation that they were built on.
And we really don't see a problem with the house that was built
upon the sands until the storms of life came.
So the storms of life, the difficulties of life, the shipwreck
that Paul is going to face, that is the test on basically seeing
what the believer is putting his or her faith in.
Are we putting our faith in our circumstance?
Are we putting our faith in the word of God and obeying the word
of God and applying the word of God?
And so, folks, we can't wait till the storm comes and then say,
you know what?
Now I need to learn how to trust God.
The Bible says is be prepared, build our house upon the rock.
Understand that the storms of life will come, the struggles will
come when God calls us to do something.
And so we're going to go and we're going to look here at Acts
chapter 27.
A lot of this is essentially just explaining what happens in the
life of Paul.
But I wanted to give you that long Runway so that you understand
how Paul could go through all of these things and yet keep his
eyes fixed on the goal of the Gospel and on the goodness of God
in the midst of these trials.
So let's look at Acts, chapter 27.
Remember, Paul is heading to Rome, and it's not like he could
just jump on a plane and be there in a few hours.
This is going to be a long journey.
Verse 1.
And when it was determined that we should sail into Italy, they
delivered Paul and certain other prisoners unto one named Julius,
a centurion of Augustus's band.
And so lest we think that Paul is riding on a cruise line, by the
way, you know, I. I think that sometimes in my mind I think of things
in modern fashions.
But Paul is riding basically on a prisoner's ship.
It wasn't going to be the greatest accommodations necessarily.
And he's still being treated as a prisoner, though we see Paul's
testimony allows him to have some beneficial treatment from the
leaders there.
And so let's look here at verse number two.
And it says in entering into the ship Adramytium, we launched.
And it says we there because obviously Luke, the writer of Acts,
is there with him.
We launched meaning to sail by the coast of Asia, One Aristarchus,
a Macedonian of Thessalonica, being with us.
And so he's going through basically some of the main characters
that are there with them on this ship ride, Verse three.
And the next day we touch down a sidon.
And Julius's courteously entreated Paul and gave him liberty
to go unto his friends to refresh himself.
So this is kind of unique because of Paul's testimony.
This guy named Julius allows Paul, because of his kindness to
go visit some friends there and so that he can be renewed and
refreshed.
And so I, I think that we can sometimes in Scripture over spiritualize
things and over allegorize things.
But what I will say that I think we can learn from this is that
while we are trusting in the Lord and while we're going through
difficulties, God does allow for times of refreshment and renewal
if we're open to follow him.
I think a lot of times we think that it's all dark and it's
all gloomy when we're going through the trials of life.
But what we see here throughout Paul's life, there's great
times of joy and refreshment in the Lord.
So it says there in, in that passage that he was refreshed in
verse three, verse four.
And when we had launched from fence, we sailed under Cyprus because
the winds were contrary.
So obviously the path was changed a little bit because of the
winds being contrary to what they had planned there.
Verse 5.
And when we had sailed over the sea of Sicilicia and, and Pamphylia,
we came to Myra, a city of lyia, and there the centurion found
a ship of Alexandria sailing into Italy.
So they're going to change ships and he put us therein.
And when we had sailed slowly many days and Scarus were come over
against Snidus, the wind not suffering us or not allowing us,
we sailed under creep over against Salome, and hardly passing
it came unto a place which is called the Fair Havens.
Nigh unto was the city of Lassie Laia.
And so we're, we're getting a lot of geography and for the sake
of time I'm not going to be able to go through all of this.
But obviously you can reference a, a map and you can point
out these different places, but they're, they're sailing and
obviously they're making passage through these different areas.
Verse 9.
Now, when much time was spent and when sailing was now dangerous
because the fast was now already passed, Paul admonished them
and said unto them, sirs, I perceive that this voyage will be
with hurt and much damage, not only of the lading and ship, but
also our lives.
And so Paul gives advice to the captain and the crew and he says,
hey look, this is going to Be dangerous.
This is a dangerous season.
So Paul shows that he has some experience with sailing.
He has some experience navigating on the waters.
And so Paul, he speaks here and he says, hey, look, I've got
some wisdom.
I don't necessarily know if this is a prophecy of God that he
says, hey, we are going to wreck.
It might just be that Paul has some wisdom on the seas and knows
that this is going to be a difficult time to sail.
And so he knows the seasons, he knows the conditions.
Maybe it was God speaking to him.
But Paul advises them, hey, don't.
Let's not go.
This is not good.
And so we can see that even here.
There are going to be times in our life that we are showing discernment,
we are showing wisdom.
We are doing by all intents and purposes the right thing, but
the surroundings around us are out of our control.
And so what he says is, hey, we shouldn't go any further.
But he says, it's not just going to hurt our ship, it could
take our lives.
So verse 11.
Nevertheless, the Centurion believed the master and the owner
of the ship, they don't trust Paul, they don't trust his wisdom.
They trust the captain more than those things which were spoken
by Paul.
And because the haven was not commodious to winter in the more
part advised to depart thence also, if by any means they might
obtain Zophinus, and there to winter, which is a haven of Crete,
and lieth toward the southwest and northwest.
And so the decision is made to sail on.
And so we know that they are moving forward, and we know the end
of the story.
They don't know the end of the story, but they were advised not
to move forward.
And they.
They failed to listen.
They.
They failed to take in the wise words of Paul.
And ultimately we know that they should have listened to Paul
later on in the passage.
We're going to see that they understand that.
So let's look at verse number 13.
And when the south wind blew softly, supposing that they had obtained
their purpose, when losing thence, they sailed close by Crete.
But not long after there arose again a tempestuous wind called Euroclydon.
And when the ship was caught and could not bear up into the wind,
we let her drive at running under a certain island which is called
Cla.
We had much work to come by the boat, which when they had taken
up, they used helps undergirding the ship, and fearing
lest they should fall into the quicksands, straight sail and.
And we're so driven and we being exceedingly tossed with the
tempest.
The next day they lighten the ship.
So we essentially see that they're taking all the precautions,
trying to take all the measures to get through this storm.
And so the winds, they looked favorable, so they moved out.
This other wind came in, started this storm.
And sometimes that's what happens sometimes in life.
I would say that everything's looking okay.
We think that everything's smooth.
And out of what we would say, out of nowhere, the storms of life
can come.
And so they're trying to take measures to save the ship.
Verses 17 through 19.
And they said that they're being exceedingly tossed.
Verse 18.
The next day they lighten the ship.
And the third day we cast out with our own hands the tackling of
the ship.
And so all the way through, we see that they're doing everything
they possibly can in their own wisdom and their own strength to
save themselves.
But we know that in our own life that we are limited and we cannot
save ourselves.
In this case, they bring themselves to hopelessness.
So I. I think this is a great picture of people trying to save
themselves.
And what does trying to save ourselves amount to?
Verse 20.
And when neither sun nor stars and many days appeared and no small
tempest lay on us, all hope that we should be saved was taken
then away.
And so we see in verse number 20 that hopelessness sets in.
And so on.
On the open sea, they couldn't navigate because they couldn't see
the sun or.
Or the stars.
And.
And so they were at a place of hopelessness.
In verse number 37, we see that there was 276 people on the
boat between the passengers and the crew.
And it seems like at this point is when they finally give up,
they lose hope, and that's a bad place to be.
We mentioned it this morning, and I think a lot of people struggle
in their lives when they lose hope.
And people lose hope for a lot of different reasons.
It could be circumstances, it could be there's no lights in the
end of the tunnel for them, so to speak.
Maybe plans have gone awry.
But what we can see in verse number 21 is that though Paul could
have been like them in hopelessness, we know that his anchor
is in something else.
We know that his anchor of the soul is found in Jesus Christ.
And so Paul could have jumped right in with them.
And sometimes we know that if there's 276 people complaining, misery
loves company.
And sometimes that can rub off on people.
If everybody is upset, if everybody is hopeless, we tend to
lean towards being that way as well.
But Paul does not allow himself to fall into that trap of
hopelessness.
What does Paul do?
He tries to encourage them.
Verse 21.
But after long abstinence, Paul stood forth in the midst of
them and said, sirs, ye should have hearkened unto me.
Now, whether or not that's the wisest thing to say in the mid.
But basically what he's saying is this, Guys, I told you so.
You should have listened to me.
Sometimes we're tempted to say that, um, and he's right, they should
have listened to him.
Sir, you should have hearkened unto me and not have loose from Crete
and to have gained this harm and loss.
I'm sure that didn't necessarily go over well, that he
told them that they had made the wrong decision.
Verse 22 and now I exhort you to be of good cheer.
This is what it looks like for someone to have hope in the midst
of people with hopelessness, right?
So if you're around a bunch of people and they have hopelessness
and you walk in there and you go, hey, guys, be of good cheer.
They're going to say, what?
Why do you have hope?
Well, because Paul's hope is not found in good seas.
Paul's hope is not found in his life.
Paul's hope is found in Jesus Christ.
And so I think this is an awesome picture of how we can exhort
others to comfort and joy and hope in the midst of difficulties.
So what does he do here?
Paul says, hey, I exhort you to be of good cheer, for there shall
be no loss of any man's life among you, but of the ship.
So Paul says, guys, we can be happy here because none of you are
going to die.
And that's interesting.
That's an interesting concept for him to tell them.
And so this was.
Even though it's good news, it is a mixed message.
The promise that no one would die was.
Was a hard to believe for them probably, but it was actually bad
news that the ship would be lost because that essentially means
they're going to be shipwrecked and then they didn't
have the coast Guard to come pick them up.
And so there's hopelessness with that, there's financial loss
with that, there's cargo that would be lost with that.
And so Paul basically says, hey, be happy when this bad thing
happens.
Even though he says your life's going to be saved, there's
another negative with that.
And that would be that the ship is going to wreck and that they're
going to go through that difficulty.
So.
So again, how could Paul say this?
Paul says this because again, he knows that God has a promise in
his life that God is going to preserve him, that God is going to
sustain him.
Verse number 23.
And then he.
He gives where the hope is found.
And the hope is found in the word of God.
The hope is found in the comfort of God.
He says in verse 23, for there stood by me this night the angel
of God whose I am.
He says, I. I am of God.
God is with me.
And God spoke to me.
And essentially what he says here is that, hey, this is what God
told me of whom I serve.
And so what is Paul doing here?
Paul, again, it's so hard to understand how Paul can do this.
But in the midst of the storm, in the midst of being a prisoner,
he's preaching the gospel, he's preaching hope, he's preaching
the truth.
Verse 24, saying, Fear not, Paul, thou must be brought before
Caesar.
And lo, God hath given thee all them that sail with thee.
So the reason why Paul can have this type of confidence is because
of the promises of God, because of the specific promise of
God.
Give it to him this very night.
And he says, hey, guys, God has promised me that we're going
to get to the other side, though it's not going to be easy.
The storm going to take the ship.
We're going to be shipwrecked.
He doesn't give all the details of what's going to happen,
but he says, hey, we're going to be okay.
This is similar to the story that Jesus.
When Jesus tells the disciples, hey, we're going to get
to the other side.
The storm comes and they start to question.
And the presence of God in the midst of the ship with them was not
enough because they thought Jesus should be saving them from
all the storm.
But at the time, we know that Jesus was resting.
Jesus comes on the scene and says, you know what?
Peace be still.
And everything was still.
And so he says, we're going to get to the other side.
Everything's going to be okay.
He says, don't fear.
Why God hath given thee all them that sail with thee.
Verse 25.
Wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer, for I believe God.
I mean, you could summarize Paul's testimony that way.
Be of good cheer.
I believe what God says.
What if we.
What if we as Christians could live that way around people that
are hopeless?
I mean, we live in a world of hopelessness.
Even though there might be temporary Hope for people.
There are people that their hope is driven by what the news is
saying.
Literally, if the news tells them everything's okay, they're like,
okay, I can have hope today.
What if the news says, guys, everything's hopeless, everything's
bad.
They're hopeless and bad.
But what we can say is this, as Christians, we should be able
to say the same testimony.
Be of good cheer, for I believe God.
I believe what God says.
I believe that God loves us.
I believe that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
I believe that he's not going to leave me nor forsake me.
I believe he's promised me something better than this world.
And so even in the midst of a storm, even in the midst of a shipwreck,
we can say, be of good cheer, because I believe God that it shall
be even as it was told me how be it.
We must be cast upon a certain island.
So he says, it's not going to be easy.
We're going to be cast upon an island.
We're going to go through difficulties, but God is going to
sustain us.
And so Paul tells the crew of the Word of God.
Where do we get our Word of God?
I don't get the word of God from a vision.
I get the word of God from what we call the Bible, the Word
of God.
And so what do we trust in when things go awry in our life?
We trust in what he says in His Word.
We don't trust in what we're seeing necessarily in our.
In our world today.
We don't trust in the circumstances.
And so Paul says the same thing that, that we see throughout
the Old Testament and the New.
I. I thought of Job, chapter 13, verse 15.
Job says, though he slay me, yet will I trust him.
But I will maintain mine own ways before him.
Though he slay me, I will trust him.
That's contrary to what our human minds really want to hear.
We want to hear, lord, I'll trust you.
When everything's going my way, I'll trust you.
When the storms of life are gone, I'll trust you.
But no, go back.
The anchor of my soul is Jesus Christ.
So I have to trust him.
I have to believe that he is good.
And so verse number 27 tells us that there is the shipwreck.
The shipwreck comes to pass.
And so there is a difficulty here.
I mean, the story could be that all the storm was calm and there
wasn't a shipwreck.
But sometimes in life there is that shipwreck.
Sometimes that boat is going to break.
Sometimes the water is going to come in.
Sometimes we're going to have to be displaced.
Sometimes there's a detour, sometimes there's a roadblock.
Sometimes the plans that we had are changed.
But what do we do?
We continue to trust.
Verse 27.
But when the fourteenth night was come, as we were driven up and
down in Adria about midnight, the shipment deemed that they drew
near to some country and sounded and found it 20 fathoms.
And when they had gone a little further, they.
They sounded again and found it 15 fathoms.
Then, fearing lest we should have fallen upon the rocks, they
cast four anchors out of the stern and wish for the day.
Now those anchors might fail.
We know the anchor of Jesus Christ will never fail going further
here, verse number 30.
And as the shipmen were about to flee out of the ship, and when
they let down the bow into the sea under color, as though they would
have cast anchors out of the four ship, Paul said to the centurion
and to the soldiers, except these abide in the ship, you cannot
be saved.
Again, there's a lot of analogy that we could talk about
here.
You know, obviously this.
The sailors had to seek to escape the ship to be saved.
That they stayed on the ship.
They're.
They're gonna.
They're gonna die.
And that some people have allegorized the fact that we have
to have faith.
We have to take.
Take that step of faith.
But nonetheless, obviously Paul says they've.
They've got to come.
Verse 32.
Then the soldiers cut off the ropes of the boat and let her fall
off.
And while the day was coming on, Paul besought them all to take
meat, saying, this day is the 14th day, and ye have tarried and
continue fasting, having taken nothing.
Wherefore I pray you to take some meat, for this is your health,
for there shall not an hair fall from the head of you.
So he has this confidence that God is going to keep his word.
And so this is how we can have that peace in the midst of chaos.
Verse 35.
And when he has thus spoken, he took bread and gave thanks to
God in presence of all of them.
When he had broken and he began to eat.
So we see Paul is ministering to these people.
And remember, he's the prisoner.
Remember he's the one that he could say, man, all these people,
I hope they die.
Okay, these people are not being kind to me.
But yet he's ministering to them.
What an amazing thing that is.
Verse 36.
Then were all they, all of Good shear.
And they also took some meat.
So he's impacting those around them.
And we were in all the ship 203 score and 16 souls.
And when they had eaten enough, they lightened the ship and
cast out the wheat into the sea.
And when it was day, they knew not the land, but they discovered
a certain creek with a shore into, into the which they were minded,
if they were possible to thrust in the ship.
And when they had taken up the anchors, they committed themselves
unto the sea and loosed the rudder bands and hoisted up the mainsail
to the wind and, and made toward shore.
And falling into a place where two seas met, they ran the ship aground.
And the four part stuck fast and remained unmovable.
But the hinder parts was broken with violence of the waves.
And the soldiers counsel was to kill the prisoners.
Wait, after all that they're going to kill the prisoners, lest
any of them should swim out and escape.
Now we know why they did that.
Because if the prisoners escaped, they died.
But the centurion willing to save Paul kept them from their purpose
and commanded them that they should, that they could swim, should
cast themselves and first into the sea and get to land.
And the rest, some on boards and some of the broken pieces of
the ship.
And so it came to pass that they escaped all save the land.
Verse 44 is the culmination of God's protection.
There God kept his word as he always does, and they would be saved.
And so God gave Paul favor and grace in the eyes of the Roman centurion.
He could have just killed all the prisoners, but he didn't.
And obviously we know that this was done because of the fact
that God has a plan and a purpose for Paul.
And so God's word, as we could say, never fails.
And that's, that's really the shipwreck that, that we see now.
I, I wish I could tell you that, you know, after that everything
went okay, but Paul is going to face more struggles when he finds
himself on land.
And, and even when he gets to Rome, he, he doesn't have smooth
sailing pretty much for the rest of Paul's life.
Circumstances are not going to be what we would call ideal when
it comes to our way of thinking.
But Paul would have told you, I think by way of his testimony that
things were ideal because he was getting to minister the gospel.
Okay, if that meant shipwreck, great.
If that meant being in prison, great.
If that meant persecution, fine.
I will do it for the cause of the gospel.
And so that's, that's the Difficulty.
I think that sometimes in our life our focus is so much on ourself
that we forget that it's really God's plan for us to further
his purpose, to further his.
His plans, his word, his cause.
And so Paul says, you know what?
I'm okay.
I can be of good cheer.
Why?
Because God's got me going to Rome now.
Remember what's waiting for him in Rome?
He knows there's, there's a guy named Nero.
There's, there's people that are opposed to him.
But why, why does he want to go to Rome?
He wants to go to Rome.
One, because he wants to minister to the people there in Rome.
But, but number two, he, he wants to ultimately proclaim the
gospel to everyone that he can.
And so the word of God was true.
Paul kept the faith.
Paul kept his confidence, his anchor of his soul in Jesus Christ.
And so next week we will come back and we will look at Acts, chapter
28.
And I don't know if we'll go through the whole chapter next week.
We'll see how that goes.
But nonetheless, we will get close here to the end of the Book
of Acts.
And really the whole study of the Book of Acts, it started with
this idea of what is the church?
What is the church supposed to do?
How are we supposed to function?
The acronym we used, Acts.
Authentic Church through Scripture.
What's the church all about?
Well, it's not about entertainment.
We never saw that in the Book of Acts though.
The church in Acts didn't have it all put together.
By the way, it's not the perfect church because there were
still flaws, there was still sin, there was still brokenness,
there was still division.
But if you go back, I want to show you guys one thing we have to
the end of the hour.
As I was reading through the Book of Acts again multiple times,
there was something that I found so unique in chapter two.
Go, go back to chapter two with me.
What, what, what launched all of these things happening?
Because by the way, in the midst of the church is the Spirit
of God, the Holy Spirit.
Right?
We, we can't have the church without the Holy Spirit.
Why?
Because the Holy Spirit is the seal of the believer.
You can't have a church without believers.
A church is not a fellowship of just random people.
A church is made up of born again believers indwelled by the
Spirit.
There are people that call themselves church, but if they don't
have the spirit of God living within them, they're not the church.
This building is not the church.
The church is Made up of people that are indwelled by the
Spirit.
And a healthy church is what we're going to see all the way back
in verse one.
I was reading this this week, I was like, wow, look at this.
The Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost pours out upon them and,
and we see all these wonderful things happen.
But.
But over and over again we see a theme, verse number one.
And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with
one accord in one place.
I want you to think about that phrase, one accord.
It's unity there throughout the book of Acts, when we see the
Spirit of God moving.
It's when believers are in one accord, when there's unity.
And over and over again we see that.
Then at the end of the chapter two, we see again verse 42.
And they continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine and fellowship
and in breaking of bread and in prayers and, and we see all of
this happening in such a way that shows that they had all things
in common, verse 44.
And all that believe were together and had all things in common.
And so they're walking in one accord in the fellowship of the Spirit.
So we would say, what makes a healthy church?
Well, a lot of people, a lot of money, a lot of buildings.
No, biblically speaking, what makes a healthy church is a church
that is made up of individuals indwelled by the Spirit, fellowshipping
one with another.
That is a healthy church who as the church is following the commands
of God, which is the great commission, which is loving one another.
And so through all of the book of Acts, we could sit there and we
could say, well that's a different time for a different place.
And yes, there were things happening in a distinct way at that
age because that was a transitionary period.
We know that.
We know that the book of Acts was a transitionary period when the
complete word of God was not revealed yet.
So there were miraculous things happening, things that aren't
what we would call typical.
But at the same time we know that there are.
There, there are some commonalities in the book of Acts
that we must continue on today.
And I believe that what we can say is that it's of one accord, walking
in the Spirit together as a family.
And we can go deeper into this.
But in Acts chapter two, the very end, it says, and the Lord added
to the church daily, such as to be saved, meaning the church was
not a one time a week convenient thing that people were
doing.
It was a daily thing they were do as the Phrase.
One author put it this way.
As I was reading about the early church says they were doing
life together.
They were doing life together, meaning they were living their lives
as one body of believers.
And so throughout all the Book of Acts, we.
We see that.
And then, of course, toward the tail end, we see Paul's missionary
journey, and we see that Paul was launched out.
So there was a fellowship of believers that launched Paul and
his team out.
And so it's not a stationary thing.
I think that's the beautiful thing about the Book of Acts.
It didn't just stay in Jerusalem, right?
It spread.
And Paul went out and gave the word and was a missionary, and there
was evangelism and there was growth.
And that's what we want to see.
We want to see Middletown Baptist Church here.
First and foremost, we're unified.
We're of one accord.
We.
We have a purpose.
But then at the same time, we want to go, we want to send.
We.
We want to reach people for the cause of the Gospel.
And so that's, I think, the summary of the Book of Acts.
We'll get to more of the summary later on.
But In Acts, chapter 28, we see essentially Paul eventually gets
to Rome.
And it doesn't end there.
I mean, the book ends there, but we know the story continues on.
And some people are asking where we're going after the Book
of Acts.
We'll let you know as soon as we can.
But I'm sure that it'll be profitable.
Why?
Because the Bible says all scripture is given by inspiration
of God as profitable for doctrine, for approved, for correction,
for instruction and righteousness.
So appreciate your time in this study.
I know that some of these studies can be long.
The Book of Acts has been a long, long, long study.
Just like some of you that sat through all the book of Genesis,
some of you remember that we went through the whole book of Genesis.
Those are long studies, but important because the reason why
we want to preach a book is because that's how it was originally
written.
It was written to be understood as a whole idea.
So if we just take one verse and use one verse, that can be applied.
Definitely the Word of God does not return void.
But at the same time, I think we can have a greater understanding
when we see the bigger passages put together so that we
can understand these things from, I think, a clearer understanding,
understanding, so that we can apply the truths of the Word of God,
so that we're not just hearers of the Word, but doers, so that we're
like the man who builds his house upon the sure foundation and
not upon the sand.
And so some people, I was, I was teaching this a little while
back and someone says, what are some of the examples of the sand?
I would say anything outside of the sure foundation of Jesus Christ,
right?
So you could say anything, any.
The sand and the foundation that's going to be washed away can
be anything.
It could be good things.
It could be, it could be something that we would deem to be
not devastating to our life.
But if it's anything outside of the truth of Jesus Christ, then
we're not building our house upon the rock.
We're building it upon something that is going to be torn
away.
So think about it from the perspective of this and then we'll
be done.
The storms are going to come.
You're in the ship of light.
Storms are going to come.
And there might be times, believe it or not, that you will
be shipwrecked, but at the end of the day, God will keep his word.
God has a plan and a purpose for you.
Not saying that it's going to go the way you expected to go.
I'm not going to say that it's going to even go in a way that keeps
you safe.
Right?
But I would.
You know what, it would be amazing if there was.
I, I've always said this.
I.
A time machine would be really cool.
I mean, what if we could bring Paul right here and Paul's here and
I say, paul, tell everybody that trusting in Jesus makes you
live a safe life and everything will be fine.
And if you could speak English and understand it, he would laugh.
He would say, oh really?
You want to know what it's like to live for Christ?
And he would explain to us.
And I'm not saying that's what we all have to go through, but what
I am saying is that the promise of God is not smooth sailing.
Promise of God is that he's with us in the midst of the shipwreck.
He's in, he's in it with us and he's experienced it all.
We have a high priest who, who understands us, who knows us, and
who is there preserving us through, through all of the storms
of life.
So hope that that is is applicable for your life here today.
Thank you again for listening to the Middletown Baptist Church
podcast.
I hope that this sermon has been a blessing for you.
You would like to find out more information about our church
or this sermon, you can find us at middletownbaptistchurch.org
or find us on Facebook or YouTube.
You can also email me directly at Josh Massaro@middletownbaptistchurch.com
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Thank you so much.
God Bless.
Have a wonderful day.