BIble Study Helps: Acts Shipwreck Story

This is a remarkable account.

I.  We can’t underestimate Paul’s credibility here. One of the things that amazes me about Paul’s story is his personality transformation. He was clearly, from the beginning, a man with leadership. The Sanhedrin gave him power to persecute and prosecute and lead the persecution. He was bent on it, obsessed. After Christ, he truly changed. Key verse: 27:3. Julius found a connection with Paul. He was making all sorts of personal connections. Was he a charismatic person that you were just drawn to for some reason? No, not at all, and that’s the thing. How do I know that? II Corinthians 10:10¹⁰ “For his letters,” they say, “are weighty and powerful, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible.” ¹¹ Let such a person consider this, that what we are in word by letters when we are absent, such we will also be in deed when we are present.

What makes a person an effective leader has been written about enough to fill this room. I’ve read some of them and written a book on it. Leadership is something we all do or all can do. But then there are leaders, who do that as their main job. God put Paul in a place of leadership. I’m not sure he was that way all his life, but God equipped him to start churches, stand up for the truth, and save lives. His main quality: Boldness. He didn’t care about approval, only about pleasing Christ. That’s where we all are. You can’t make all people in your life happy all the time, so you might as well give it up and follow Christ.

What activity is risky? Buying a house. Take a risk to follow Christ and speak the truth in love. That is a bigger risk than bungee jumping or sky diving. (which are kind of dumb when you think about it).

 Do you remember Robby’s “signs” exercise? I did that with my BCM students once. Very cool. Paul never got away from his signs, what he was and what he became because of one reason: Christ. Not his efforts, intellect, strength, talent, good choices, pedigree, family, class, race, religion.  That’s my first point: grace.

 I’m in a Bible study about identity. We want to be significant for all kinds of reasons. I want, in my heart, to be significant for my merits. Merit mongering. The wonderful thing about being in Christ is that all our significance comes from him. The hard thing is that all our significance comes from him and we slowly have to give up significance for everything else if we really want to experience grace. Paul said, I count all my credentials loss for Christ. We must do the same to have a place for grace to fit in our lives.

 Why did the Romans let the stone the Jewish believers and imprison them? They weren’t citizens. We don’t know how many, but any is too many.

 II. starting 27:4, we have a voyage. Observations: Paul’s first thoughts about the trip 27:10. He believes he will get there, but fears for the others. “loss of life.” However, on the boat later he is visited by an angel wih assurance everyone will get there.

This parallels the story of Jonah. Jonah is the cause of the crisis. It was a common belief in those times that in a storm there was a guilty person on board who needed to be “sacrificed” to the sea gods. This is the reverse, really. Paul is going to make it possible to save them all.

 Luke is writing and with Paul, so he’s an eyewitness and really is detailed here. A disciple named Aristarchus is also with them, and otherwise there are 273 other people. Other prisoners, soldiers, captain, the owner of the ship, sailors, and oarsman (slaves, think Ben Hur). That’s actually a big boat but not a cruise ship!

 It gets to be fall (early October, we know from Luke’s reference to the Fast, which is the day of atonement for the Jews in v. 9) and the captain and Roman in charge of the prisoners decide to go on from Crete. At first it seemed okay, “soft south wind” but then it all fell to pieces. Strong winds and storm seas. Sailors couldn’t eat (seasick? Fear? Fasting?) They did things to avoid shipwreck. It was bad and they looked for hope anywhere. Paul emerged as the leader because God wanted it that way and because he had self-control. He had hope and faith and a message that kept him cool-headed in the worst situation. They all expected to die.

v. 26 – we must run aground on a certain island. He doesn’t name it, interestingly.

At one point the some of the sailors try to escape and jump ship, but

 Paul tells the captain. They are not punished (probably should have been) but their mean of escape, their life boat, is cut off and let to go. We could probably make some allegorical statement here but really, this story is in the record for a couple of reasons:

1.     it happened and was historical true

2.     Luke was going through it and it probably traumatized him

3.     It explains how Paul got to Rome despite everything going wrong.

4.     It explains the progression of the gospel to the main capital city, Rome, from where it would spread. Actually the gospel had already gotten there (there are believers there already when Paul gets there) but Paul’s presence is going to make a big difference.

5.     It validates God’s promises to Paul.

 After great trauma and drama, they shipwreck on a reef, and either swim to shore or get there on parts of the ship. No one dies. Could Paul swim? Apparently. Good reason to get swim lessons! Luke ends it “So it was that they all escaped safely to land.”

They are on Malta near Italy. More adventures to come. Remember what happens. Paul gets to Rome and stays in a hired house for two years, house arrest. This imprisonment is not a hard one. People come and go and visit him. He’s let out for a while after seeing Caesar and then travels some more, is arrested and it’s the bad imprisonment. OR he is taken from the house to the bad prison. We don’t know.

 What matters is his focus. Paul never writes his memoirs. He could have. He could have become famous for other reasons.  No. One thing mattered. What one thing matters to you and subsumes all others?