Acts 27:13-32

The Storm
13 When a gentle south wind began to blow, they saw their opportunity; so they weighed anchor and sailed along the shore of Crete. 14 Before very long, a wind of hurricane force, called the Northeaster, swept down from the island. 15 The ship was caught by the storm and could not head into the wind; so we gave way to it and were driven along. 16 As we passed to the lee of a small island called Cauda, we were hardly able to make the lifeboat secure, 17 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[b] and let the ship be driven along. 18 We took such a violent battering from the storm that the next day they began to throw the cargo overboard. 19 On the third day, they threw the ship’s tackle overboard with their own hands. 20 When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days and the storm continued raging, we finally gave up all hope of being saved.

21 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. 22 But now I urge you to keep up your courage, because not one of you will be lost; only the ship will be destroyed. 23 Last night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood beside me 24 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.’ 25 So keep up your courage, men, for I have faith in God that it will happen just as he told me. 26 Nevertheless, we must run aground on some island.”

The Shipwreck
27 On the fourteenth night we were still being driven across the Adriatic[c] Sea, when about midnight the sailors sensed they were approaching land. 28 They took soundings and found that the water was a hundred and twenty feet[d] deep. A short time later they took soundings again and found it was ninety feet[e] deep. 29 Fearing that we would be dashed against the rocks, they dropped four anchors from the stern and prayed for daylight. 30 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. 31 Then Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, “Unless these men stay with the ship, you cannot be saved.” 32 So the soldiers cut the ropes that held the lifeboat and let it drift away.



Dig Deeper
About ten years ago a mini-series came out on American Television called “Band of Brothers.” This deeply fascinating show chronicled one particular division throughout their time during World War II, from their enlistment and training camp all the way through the war and right up to the end. The movie was based on a book which was an account of the real lives and experiences of a group of men that served as American soldiers in Europe during the war. The movie has been heralded as quite accurate to real life and is an intriguing study in the loyalty, bravery, honor, and leadership of different types of men during the harrowing realities of war, where life and death matters are constantly hanging over the heads of the soldiers.

It’s quite interesting as one watches the series to see how the enlisted men, those most in danger of dying, would respond to different types of leaders. Some leaders were of quite high rank and the men obeyed dutifully, but they did not relish following these men and saw it as something that they shouldn’t have to do because of the ineptitude of these so-called leaders. Others, however, might not have been as high of a rank, but the men respected and followed them wherever they led because they were clearly calm, cool, and in control despite the circumstances swirling about them constantly. At the end of one of the episodes, they showed an interview with one of the real soldiers from the unit depicted in the series, a man who was nearing eighty years old at the time of filming. He said something quite memorable when he recalled, regarding the previous commander of their unit, that he wouldn’t want to follow that guy anywhere. But, when it came to a particular officer who started out the war as a rather low rank, he said that he would follow that man into hell because he was a real leader. It just goes to show that in crisis situations especially, people will follow true leadership.

Paul had warned the centurion and the crew of his ship that things were going to go badly but they decided to not listen to Paul’s warning. As the trip progressed and the storm got worse, they may not have had time to think clearly about too many things in the effort to simply stay alive, but one thing that keeps rising to the forefront of this scene is the fact that Paul was exactly the type of leader that men will follow. He may have been a prisoner with no power and no rank, but he didn’t rely on those things anyway. Paul found his strength and wisdom by leaning on the Spirit and that enabled him to be in control of himself during even the most dire situations, and other men noticed and were willing to follow this man. Great leaders rise to the top and that was certainly true of Paul, the follower of Christ.

Despite Paul’s warnings, the sailors thought that they had a favorable southern breeze and a good window of weather through which they could sneak. The trip to Italy should have taken less than a day but no sooner did they take off than the weather unpredictably shifted violently and unfavorably for the folks on board the ship with Paul. A notorious wind known at the time as the “Euraquilo” blew up seemingly out of nowhere. Ancient ships did not have the ability to fight against such heavy winds and so they were left with no choice except to let the boat go with the wind and be blown dramatically off course. They tried everything that they could to slow down their unwanted journey by dropping anchors into the water and letting them drag against the progress as much as possible. The fear was that the ship would be blown into an area know as the “Syrtis.” The Syrtis was an area of quicksand and shallow water that caused great fear amongst the people of the first century, especially sailors, in much the same way that people fear the Bermuda Triangle today. It was a ship’s graveyard and they desperately wanted to avoid that area.

Things got so bleak that they began to throw the cargo (a desperate move that would have cost them their profit source) and spare gear overboard to lighten the ship. The skies were so dark and stormy that they were unable to see the sun, moon, or stars for days making navigation nearly impossible. As they were blown further and further out to sea, they began to give up hope, not helped by the fact that things were so intense that they had not been able to sleep for days, nor had they eaten much, if at all, a fact that will become central in the next section.

When things seemed darkest, Paul stepped forward into the gap and began to demonstrate steady leadership. He reminded the men that he had warned them that something like this was going to happen if they left Crete but not to rub their noses in it. He wanted them to understand that his words were reliable because God was guiding him. They failed to listen to him once and should not make that same mistake again. But Paul didn’t want to chide them, he wanted to encourage them. None of them would die but they would lose the ship. Paul was clear that he wasn’t just offering up platitudes either, his God had sent a messenger that had assured him of all of this. He would complete his mission to stand before Nero Caesar, so because of that and as a result of God’s grace and mercy, they would be shipwrecked on an island and their lives spared. This must have been particularly comforting at a time when most of the men on the ship must have felt like their own gods had abandoned them, no longer cared, were incapable of saving them, or perhaps really didn’t exist after all. This man and his God were different. And it is no accident that Paul, all the while showing incredible leadership, never tried to exalt himself but was showing them just how powerful and caring the one true God was.

If all of the business about rough seas, frightened sailors, throwing things overboard, God one of his servants sounds a bit familiar, it seems that Luke intended for it to be so. If you said that this account sounds a little bit like that of Jonah from the book named after him you would be correct. But Paul’s account is more of an opposite negative-type-image rather than a mirror image of Jonah. He was expressly following God’s will and not running from it and as a result things turned out dramatically differently. It is a powerful reminder, however, that just because we are obeying God’s will does not mean that we won’t go through the storms. Because Paul was acting obediently, the solution wasn’t to cast him away from the ship like Jonah but to stay with him. Rather than Paul’s presence causing their trouble like the sailors that were with Jonah, it and the grace of God were the only things keeping them alive.

In fact some of the sailors seemed to forget Paul’s promises and doubt his word once again, but Paul swiftly dealt with the situation and prevented the men from escaping in the lifeboat, and in the process, saved their lives. At every turn Paul was a leader, leading men towards the truth of God and righteousness, even when it meant saving people from themselves.

In reality, Paul’s actions here are captured quite well in his exhortation to the Corinthians: “As God’s co-workers we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain. For he says, ‘In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.’ I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation. We put no stumbling block in anyone’s path, so that our ministry will not be discredited. Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses; in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger; in purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love; in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left; through glory and dishonor, bad report and good report; genuine, yet regarded as impostors; known, yet regarded as unknown; dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed; sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything” (2 Corinthians 6:1-10).


Devotional Thought
Paul says that he had nothing but possessed everything. What do you think he meant by that? How did he demonstrate that during the storm at sea. Could you honestly say that you share that attitude with Paul? If not, what keeps you from doing so?