Miraculous Safety

Acts 27:1-44

Good morning! Today we continue our exploration of the book of Acts – we are nearing the end of this book; next week we have our final chapter. It is amazing to me to think back on the book and see the dramatic changes that have taken place in the Roman world. From a group of 12 disciples, to thousands of believers in Jerusalem, to miracles, to persecution and scattering, to the dramatic conversion of one of the key people behind the persecution, Paul, to the spreading of the gospel in Judea, Samaria, and then even beginning to spread in earnest “to the ends of the earth.” In major city after major city in the Roman-dominated world, thousands are coming to faith in Christ, and even the cultures themselves are beginning to change. Before long, the government of Rome will see that the spread of Christianity threatens their very existence, not through war, but through a rejection of Roman gods and a radical change in the people, one that means that they will no longer participate in the cruelty, the idolatry, and the countless other abuses and vices that have made Rome function and grow for centuries.  When Rome fully realizes this, believers will experience a degree of persecution that is unimaginable for us, and yet, even then, the Christian faith will only grow. It will spread like a forest fire that can not be put out. 

But, relative to the book of Acts, that is in the future. Where are we in Acts? Paul, who has been imprisoned for more than two years in Caesarea, has appealed to Caesar, and so Paul will be sent to Rome. 

Recall that Paul is not actually guilty of anything. He had come to Jerusalem, and while there, had spoken with many believers, both Jewish and Gentile, and among the Gentile believers was Trophimus the Ephesian. Seeing Paul at the Temple, and hating him because of his Gospel message along with the fact that he was not only associating with Gentiles, but treating them like family, they started a riot, spreading a rumor that Paul had brought Trophimus into the Temple (which he had not). This lead to Paul’s arrest. And despite multiple attempts to set the record straight, the Jews would only riot when Paul tried to explain the truth, and because of a conspiracy to kill him, he was whisked away to Caesarea, where he stayed under arrest without progression on his case for two years. A new governor wanted to start out by making a good impression on the Jews, and so he pressed for transferring Paul back to Jerusalem to have a trial there. But the Jews again intended to murder Paul, and Paul, whether he knew this or not, knew of his danger, and appealed to Caesar, meaning that he wished his case to be given in Rome. The governor agreed, and this brings us to today’s passage, but before we do, I want to say one more thing.

Today’s passage, more than any I have done in quite a few years, lends itself powerfully to verification of its details using history, geography, science, other Scriptures, and more, and I am going to use these tools perhaps to excess today. Why am I doing this? Because I think it is extremely important that we trust the Bible, quite literally, with our lives. And the details of today’s passage are so amazingly verified that it should make us trust the Bible even more. It is quite literally God’s Word, and it is God-breathed and it is true. So with that in mind, let us start today’s passage.

When it was decided that we would sail for Italy, Paul and some other prisoners were handed over to a centurion named Julius, who belonged to the Imperial Regiment. We boarded a ship from Adramyttium about to sail for ports along the coast of the province of Asia, and we put out to sea. Aristarchus, a Macedonian from Thessalonica, was with us. – Acts 27:1-2

The first thing that strikes me about this passage is the word “we”. This was apparently a merchant ship, not a military vessel, and so anyone could reserve passage who was willing and able to pay. The use of “we” implies that the author of Acts, Luke, accompanied Paul on this journey. Also with them was Aristarchus, who appears to be a long-time companion of Paul. Aristarchus from Macedonia is mentioned in Acts 19 as a traveling companion of Paul who experienced the riot in Ephesus. He is also described as “from Thessalonica” in Acts 20, as one of Paul’s traveling companions who went with them through Macedonia. He is mentioned again in Paul’s letter to the Colossians as “a fellow prisoner” who “sends you his greetings.” And he is also mentioned in Philemon as a “fellow worker” who sends his greetings. And so Paul is not alone. He is accompanied by at least two of his friends and former traveling companions in his missionary journeys.   

Now, Adramyttium was a port city in the province of Asia, well north of Ephesus and a little south of Troas (the location where Eutychus fell out of the window and was raised from the dead). It was common for ships to go up and down the coast for transporting both goods and people. 

The next day we landed at Sidon; and Julius, in kindness to Paul, allowed him to go to his friends so they might provide for his needs. From there we put out to sea again and passed to the lee of Cyprus because the winds were against us. When we had sailed across the open sea off the coast of Cilicia and Pamphylia, we landed at Myra in Lycia. There the centurion found an Alexandrian ship sailing for Italy and put us on board. We made slow headway for many days and had difficulty arriving off Cnidus. When the wind did not allow us to hold our course, we sailed to the lee of Crete, opposite Salmone. We moved along the coast with difficulty and came to a place called Fair Havens, near the town of Lasea. – Acts 27:3-8

Sidon was about 70 miles north of Caesarea. Caesarea is in modern-day Israel; Sidon is in Lebanon. Today it is the third largest city in Lebanon. If you remember the scene of the death of Herod in Acts 12, where Herod was settling a dispute and fell dead as people shouted “this is the voice of a god, not a man,” the dispute was between the cities of Tyre and Sidon. These cities were about 20 miles apart. Sidon or the Sidonians are mentioned roughly 50 times in Scripture. The Sidonians were known as the ones in Lebanon who cut the acclaimed cedars of Lebanon. But prior to the reception of the gospel there, the Sidonians were known for worshiping false gods including Ashtoreth. Multiple Old Testament prophecies against Sidon were given. And yet Jesus, in Matt. 11, said of Tyre and Sidon, that if they had seen the miracles that Jewish towns Chorazin and Bethsaida had seen, they would have repented, and so these towns were facing even worse judgment than Tyre and Sidon. The passage says that Paul had more friends in this city. This is more evidence of how the gospel was spreading and spreading. Paul seemingly had friends everywhere! 

And so then they went on to the right (East) of the island of Cyprus because the island sheltered them from winds that would have sent made their progress slow or even sent them in the wrong direction. They went past Cilicia and Pamphylia, and stopped in Myra in Lycia. Myra is in modern-day Turkey and is famous for ancient rock-cut tombs. Prior to the introduction of the gospel, Myra was known for worshiping Artemis, not Artemis of the Ephesians, but Artemis Eleutheria. Essentially the same god, but different stories about the god. But the gospel spread in Myra, and in written records we are told of a Myran Christian leader being martyred in AD 95. The gospel was spreading here too.

From here we are told they switched ships and went with difficulty, as the winds were against them. But they made it as far north as Cnidus. We don’t know exactly when Cnidus became influenced by Christianity, but by the Byzantine era (a few hundred years after Christ) it was strongly Christian, as there are many ruins of churches that have been found. Prior to this, excavations show that they worshiped Dionysus and Aphrodite. 

From there, due to their difficulty in making progress in their original route, they decided to not continue to travel along the coast but instead sail for the island of Crete. Their difficulties with the wind continued, but they made it to the southern port of Fair Havens on Crete. 

Paul’s letter to Titus makes it quite clear that Christianity was spreading throughout the island of Crete. At some point, Paul left Titus there to appoint elders in every town of believers. From Scripture, the details are murky, but many believe that this took place after Paul went to Rome. If this is true, spoiler alert, Paul must have eventually been released from house arrest in Rome and gone on to have further missionary journeys, one in which he left Titus in Crete. The distance from Sidon to Myra was about 500 miles, from Myra to Cnidus about 130 miles, from Cnidus to Salmone another 130 miles, and from Salmone to Fair Havens about 80 miles.

Much time had been lost, and sailing had already become dangerous because by now it was after the Day of Atonement. So Paul warned them, “Men, I can see that our voyage is going to be disastrous and bring great loss to ship and cargo, and to our own lives also.” But the centurion, instead of listening to what Paul said, followed the advice of the pilot and of the owner of the ship. Since the harbor was unsuitable to winter in, the majority decided that we should sail on, hoping to reach Phoenix and winter there. This was a harbor in Crete, facing both southwest and northwest. – Acts 27:9-12

The Day of Atonement is Yom Kippur, which is one of the high Holy Days in the fall. So winter was coming, and to this day the seas in that area become quite stormy and rough in the winter. The harbor was exposed, and so it was not a good choice for staying put during the winter. They would have had to have gone in a direction that either kept them from moving forward or even moved them backward to keep the ship safe for the winter, and the sailors did not want to do that. So they decided to go on towards Phoenix, on the west side of the island of Crete, where they would be protected from the winter storms. But Paul urged them not to do this, because, it seems, the Lord was prophetically warning him that this would not go at all well. Today, Phoenix is called Loutro, and on a web page describing the location, it actually mentions that, due to the location and shape of the harbor, “the sea is always calm and northeasterlies are unknown in Loutro.” 

When a gentle south wind began to blow, they saw their opportunity; so they weighed anchor and sailed along the shore of Crete. Before very long, a wind of hurricane force, called the Northeaster, swept down from the island. The ship was caught by the storm and could not head into the wind; so we gave way to it and were driven along. As we passed to the lee of a small island called Cauda, we were hardly able to make the lifeboat secure, so the men hoisted it aboard. Then they passed ropes under the ship itself to hold it together. Because they were afraid they would run aground on the sandbars of Syrtis, they lowered the sea anchor and let the ship be driven along. We took such a violent battering from the storm that the next day they began to throw the cargo overboard. On the third day, they threw the ship’s tackle overboard with their own hands. When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days and the storm continued raging, we finally gave up all hope of being saved. – Acts 27:13-20

To weigh anchor means to raise it up out of the water when you are about to sail. And although Loutro doesn’t get northeasterlies, they didn’t make it that far, and dangerous hurricane force winds pushed them away from Crete and past a small island called Cauda. Cauda today goes by the related name Gavdos. The island is about 12 square miles, and although it has some beaches, the southern part of Gavdos has imposing cliffs.  

The lifeboat was likely attached to a side of the ship. The wind and waves were so severe that they feared that the forces would either rip apart the lifeboat or, even worse, cause the lifeboat to rip apart the ship. So they moved it from the side to fully on top of the ship and made it secure. And then they added ropes under the ship so as to provide compressive force to try to hold the ship together. The ship was subject to all kinds of forces from the wind and the irregular waves, causing at various times one part of the ship to experience one direction of force while another part of the ship felt another direction. The risk was that this could snap the main planks of the ship, so the ropes were used to provide more support. 

Now, they knew they were being driven southward, although not exactly sure where, but they knew that south of them was a region of water called the sandbars of Syrtis. We have additional fictional and historical accounts that verify this.

Apollonius of Rhodes in the 3rd century BC wrote the book known as Jason and the Golden Fleece. And in it, he describes a ship carried towards the Libyan sea where they came into Syrtis, “where there is no getting out again for ships… for everywhere are shallows, everywhere thickets of seaweed from the depths, and over them silently washes the foam of the water.” 

Strabo, an ancient Greek geographer around 100 AD wrote the following about Syrtis: “The difficulty … is that in many places their deep waters contain shallows, and the result is, at the ebb and the flow of the tides, that sailors sometimes fall into the shallows and stick there, and that the safe escape of a boat is rare.  On this account sailors keep at a distance when voyaging along the coast, taking precautions not to be caught off their guard and driven by winds into these gulfs.” 

And Dio Chrysostom, a traveler who lived from 40 to 120 AD, wrote “The Syrtis is an arm of the Mediterranean extending far inland, a three days’ voyage, they say, for a boat unhindered in its course.  But for those who have once sailed into it find egress impossible; for shoals, cross-currents, and long sand-bars extending a great distance out make the sea utterly impassable or troublesome.”

And so, because of this, the Acts passage says they used a “sea anchor.” What is a “sea anchor”? A sea anchor, unlike a “regular” anchor, is designed to slow a boat but not stop it. Modern sea anchors often consist of parachutes that fill up with water; but sea anchors can also be designed to drag along the ocean floor but not dig in to become stuck. Sea anchors go back over a thousand years before the events in Acts, and there is a display of ancient sea anchors at the Maritime Museum in Haifa, Israel. Ancient sea anchors consisted of long ropes weighed down by heavy items designed to have contact with the sea floor but not become stuck to it. The reason you didn’t want to be stuck was that the forces of the wind and waves would then tear the ship apart. So there was a “sweet spot” in the amount to which the ship was slowed down. Most ships had many sea anchors so they could use the right one for the right conditions. 

Despite these measures, they were still in fear of losing the ship to the storm, so they threw things overboard to lighten the ship as much as possible. But when you are carried along by the winds of a storm, you often remain stuck in that storm, and that is what happened to them. Eventually, it says, they lost hope of surviving the storm.

After they had gone a long time without food, Paul stood up before them and said: “Men, you should have taken my advice not to sail from Crete; then you would have spared yourselves this damage and loss. But now I urge you to keep up your courage, because not one of you will be lost; only the ship will be destroyed. Last night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood beside me and said, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul. You must stand trial before Caesar; and God has graciously given you the lives of all who sail with you.’ So keep up your courage, men, for I have faith in God that it will happen just as he told me. Nevertheless, we must run aground on some island.” – Acts 27:21-26

But God. God spoke to Paul in the storm. I want to remind you of the stakes. Paul has yet to write the various letters of the New Testament. God has exceedingly important plans for Paul, and He will not let the perhaps foolish decisions of the captain and crew of the ship derail His plans. God states, “You must stand trial before Caesar.” And God’s grace comes not just to Paul but to all the men who sail with him, most of whom are likely not believers, at least, not yet. 

On the fourteenth night we were still being driven across the Adriatic Sea, when about midnight the sailors sensed they were approaching land. They took soundings and found that the water was a hundred and twenty feet deep. A short time later they took soundings again and found it was ninety feet deep. Fearing that we would be dashed against the rocks, they dropped four anchors from the stern and prayed for daylight. In an attempt to escape from the ship, the sailors let the lifeboat down into the sea, pretending they were going to lower some anchors from the bow. Then Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, “Unless these men stay with the ship, you cannot be saved.” So the soldiers cut the ropes that held the lifeboat and let it drift away. – Acts 27:27-32

It says that they dropped four anchors; that is, they put four anchors down to the level of the floor of the sea. Now, they don’t want to be dragged; they want to stop, because it is night and they fear being dashed to pieces by rocks. 

Again, I love all the details doctor Luke gives us. We are told that the anchors were dropped from the stern. Normally, this is a very bad idea. Listen to this from the website anchoring.com: “Dropping a stern … anchor in addition to your primary is a good idea in certain situations. You may want to use this technique if you are anchoring with limited space available such as in a channel or narrow bay. This way, you’ll prevent your boat from swinging into another vessel or running aground. Another possible case is to maintain a heading into the swell for greater comfort. In most other scenarios, it is not a good idea to use a stern anchor this way because your boat will not swing. If you are unsheltered and conditions are unpredictable for example, you may end up with waves crashing astern, which is at minimum unpleasant but can be downright dangerous.”

As you can see, some of the men did not trust or believe that God had really spoken to Paul. I am not surprised by this. These men were basically committing a kind of mutiny, defying orders and taking the lifeboat for themselves. But it appears that at this point, the centurion, at least, and perhaps the soldiers as well, truly believed Paul. The lifeboat is already in the water, and all that remains is for the men to climb down into it. Believing Paul’s warning, the centurion orders his soldiers to cut the ropes to the lifeboat so that it drifts away before the sailors can get into it.  

Just before dawn Paul urged them all to eat. “For the last fourteen days,” he said, “you have been in constant suspense and have gone without food—you haven’t eaten anything. Now I urge you to take some food. You need it to survive. Not one of you will lose a single hair from his head.” After he said this, he took some bread and gave thanks to God in front of them all. Then he broke it and began to eat. They were all encouraged and ate some food themselves. Altogether there were 276 of us on board. When they had eaten as much as they wanted, they lightened the ship by throwing the grain into the sea. – Acts 27:33-38

What a remarkable picture this is! Paul, a prisoner, has become the de-facto leader of this boat, as well as the leader of the Roman centurion. And Paul gives thanks for something that has not happened yet. The people seem to be growing in faith, as they even throw the excess grain into the sea. They apparently believe Paul that not only will they survive, but the ship won’t. Lightening the ship will make it possible for it to go further towards shore before grounding, making it easier for them to come ashore. If the ship did survive, this might be seen as foolish, because they could have brought food with them, along with other supplies, unloading the ship. But perhaps the nastiness of the presumably still ongoing storm makes them see that there is no chance of that. 

When daylight came, they did not recognize the land, but they saw a bay with a sandy beach, where they decided to run the ship aground if they could. Cutting loose the anchors, they left them in the sea and at the same time untied the ropes that held the rudders. Then they hoisted the foresail to the wind and made for the beach. But the ship struck a sandbar and ran aground. The bow stuck fast and would not move, and the stern was broken to pieces by the pounding of the surf. – Acts 27:39-41

Again, they are proceeding as if they know the ship will not survive. They did not bring the anchors back into the ship, as it would have further weighed the ship down. They let them go. And they now untie the ropes holding the rudders so that they can steer, and they put out a sail. But soon the ship strikes sand, and the roughness of the waves and wind destroys the back of the ship. The ship will never sail again. 

The soldiers planned to kill the prisoners to prevent any of them from swimming away and escaping. But the centurion wanted to spare Paul’s life and kept them from carrying out their plan. He ordered those who could swim to jump overboard first and get to land. The rest were to get there on planks or on other pieces of the ship. In this way everyone reached land safely. – Acts 27:42-44

This is a critical final detail of this passage – the soldiers, as per normal protocol, knew that it was far better to kill their prisoners than to let any of them escape; if word got out that they had let prisoners escape, they could lose their own lives. But the centurion risks his own life by making orders that they spare the prisoners, including Paul. By giving this order, he takes responsibility for this decision, meaning that his own life will be on the line, rather than those of his men, if indeed any prisoners escape. But the prisoners, along with the rest of the men, owe their lives to Paul, and they will indeed all reach land safely, and together. Where are they? Stay tuned for next week’s message, but know that the distance from Cauda to where they are now is more than 500 miles. 

In closing, I want to highlight the scene of Paul, on the ship at night, the storm still around them, breaking bread and giving thanks to God for saving them. What a beautiful picture of communion! The parallels run deep. We too, are metaphorically on a ship at night, a ship that will not survive the ultimate morning. We too, were destined for destruction as a result of our foolishness, but the kindness and mercy of God through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ has saved us. When we remember the Lord with bread and the cup, we are, by faith, thanking Him for something that has not yet happened. Yes, we can be positionally saved – that is, we have the promise of salvation through faith in Him – but we have not yet physically experienced it. And just like the case of Paul’s ship, of all those that are truly God’s, not one will be lost. And so I encourage you remember the Lord’s body, broken for us, with the bread, and remember the Lord’s blood, spilled for us, with the cup, and give thanks to God for what is yet to come. For the next few minutes, I will play some music while you spend time with the Lord, and when you are ready, partake of the bread and the cup. Although “shipwreck” awaits us, beyond that lies the eternal shores.