Acts 27:1-12

Oh, the testimony of our lives, isn’t it? Not for a moment did He forsake us—every step, every tear, every cry, every prayer. God has always been the constant, faithful One in all of our lives. Praise God for the songs that He’s given to us as a testimony in all of our lives. So grateful to be worshiping the Lord with all of you. A warm welcome to all the guests that are here with us this morning. And also, I believe the newlyweds are here with us as well. We welcome Esther for the first time to our church as well, and all of you that are here, we welcome you. We were so grateful to have the brother of Bijoy Phillip, for those of you who don’t know, who came and read Psalm to her as prayed. For those of you who are new to the church in the last year, probably wondering who is this man who came and read the Psalm and prayed for us today. He’s a brother of Bijoy Phillip, and we will introduce him later as well.

So thankful for this day the Lord has given to us, and we will continue with our series, Church on the Move, and we’ll be in Acts 27:1‑12 this morning—Acts 27:1‑12. Thank you, by the way, Shine, for speaking so powerfully from God’s Word last week, and it was a blessing in the life of the church. As I was flying back to Dallas from Toronto, I got to listen to the entire sermon as I was waiting in the airport, and I was so touched by it and so thankful for young men like that that God has given in the life of the church. We pray that God will continue to build them up and use them for the glory of His kingdom, and even in the life of our church for decades to come. That is our hope and prayer—that God will use them mightily just in this place even.

And we are here in Acts 27, and we are coming to the final last section. This journey started for us almost two years ago as we started in the book of Acts, and we are coming to the last main section of this book in Acts 27. Acts 27 and 28 are known—sometimes called by theologians—as the fourth missionary journey of the Apostle Paul. Oftentimes we talk about the first missionary journey, the second missionary journey, and the third missionary journey, and we covered it at length as we went through the book of Acts. In chapters 27 and 28 we see the fourth missionary journey, so to speak, where God would ordain His Apostle to travel to imperial Rome and testify the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, not only among the guards who were guarding him, but even in the seat of power of the Roman Empire at that time in the city of Rome that he had gone to.

Remember the verse in Acts 1:8, where Jesus promised to them that, “You will wait for Me, and the Holy Spirit will come upon you with power; you’ll be My witnesses, not only in Jerusalem, but also in Judea, in Samaria,” and then He said to them, “You’ll be My witnesses even to the ends of the earth.” Now, Rome may not seem like the end of the earth to you, living in the 21st century, but in the mind of the people of that day the ends of the earth was Rome itself. So you can see how the Holy Spirit moves us—makes us go through Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and then in chapters 27 and 28 the Holy Spirit brings us to Rome to show to us the fulfillment of the promise that Jesus Himself had given to His disciples.

What we also find in these two chapters is one of the lengthiest descriptions of a shipwreck found anywhere in ancient history. In fact, when you look at all the ancient writings, there is not such a descriptive description of a shipwreck as we find in Acts 27 and 28. There is a tremendous amount of debate as to why Luke was inspired by the Holy Spirit to go into such detail about the journey that Paul would take from Caesarea all the way to Rome. But I think there’s a reason behind it: the Holy Spirit wants to show to us that this journey of reaching the destination that God wanted him to have was still filled with so many setbacks and problems. And we’ll see this as we go through Acts 27 and 28.

Oftentimes in our life we kind of think of the Christian life as a straight line. God saves us, God promises certain things for us, and we get there in a straight line. But what we find out in the realities of life is that the Christian life is not a straight line; Christian life is actually filled with so many curves and detours in our own life. And when we go through the curves and detours of life, often life does not make sense to us. Because if I’m going to travel from Louisville to Rowlett, the easiest way to do that is to just come down on George Bush. But you know what God sometimes makes us do? He makes me go 35 north all the way to Oklahoma, and then He makes me drive down I‑40 all the way to Tulsa. And you’re like, that’s not where Rowlett is. But you promised me Rowlett; I should have just taken 35 minutes straight down on George Bush—I would have gone to Rowlett. It doesn’t make any sense why I’m in Tulsa. And then He makes me ride down on 75 south for many hours, and it still doesn’t make any sense to me. Finally, I end up on George Bush, and I drive 15 minutes, and I get to Rowlett. And then you’re like, wouldn’t it be much easier if I just drove straight from Louisville to Rowlett? And the Spirit of God is telling me, there are things that you learned in Oklahoma City and Tulsa you would have never learned if I just made you come straight from Louisville to Rowlett.

Acts 27 and 28 are chapters just like that—descriptions that are given to us about the journey that this man would take. The promise we will talk about towards the end came to him almost two years ago. In the last two chapters we have seen how God made him in Caesarea to stand before the rulers and kings of that time and testify about his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, but he was left in prison there in Caesarea by both Festus and Agrippa.

And then, in that context, we come to 27:1: “When it was decided”—the Bible doesn’t tell us who decided it, whether it was Festus or Agrippa that decided it—“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.” This term “Imperial Regiment” is a very common term in the Roman army; in fact, there were many, many regiments that were known as the Imperial Regiment. They were held in much higher regard compared to other regiments of soldiers.

Then, in verse 1, the Bible says it was not only Paul the prisoner who was to make this journey: there were other prisoners who were also made to make this journey. The Bible doesn’t tell us what kind of prisoners they were, whether they were hardened criminals given to murder and robbery, or they were political prisoners like the Apostle Paul—the Bible doesn’t say. Then the Bible gives us the identity of the centurion who would be responsible for all these prisoners—a man’s name that is given in God’s Word: Julius, the centurion. A centurion is someone who gets double the salary of an ordinary soldier. Not only that, you have to serve in the Roman army for 15 years before you can be promoted to this post of being a centurion. It’s very interesting that when they looked for someone to be a centurion, they were not looking for the most courageous person; they often looked for someone who had a steady hand, who was really strong in the decisions and able to stand in the decisions that he has made. Rome was looking for steady people, people with strong leadership skills, to become centurions. You will see that in chapters 27 and 28, how that will be put to the test as he faced these trials he’s about to face. That detail is very, very important—not necessarily courage, and you will see that he lacked courage in a lot of instances, but one who had strong leadership and had a steady hand over the affairs of life. A man like that was appointed to be in charge of the prisoners.

27:2: “We boarded a ship from Adramyttium about to sail for ports along the coast of the province of Asia.” So here comes a ship from a place known as Adramyttium, which was a port of the Aegean Sea. It was coming alongside Caesarea, and this centurion, along with the prisoners, now gets on the ship. Now, this is not the ship that is going to take them all the way to Italy; it is only a means by which they can get to a bigger ship, as we will see in the later passages. “And we put out to sea.” And then Luke writes to us; remember the terminology here—we put out to sea—which means Luke is also part of the journey of the Apostle Paul from Caesarea all the way to Italy.

We don’t know what happened to Luke when he was in Caesarea, because in all the accounts in chapters 25 and 26, the terminology of we is never used. The thinking here is that Luke was always there, but in the description of the events of Paul’s imprisonment in Caesarea that detail was not important, so Luke never interjected himself into the story in Acts 25 and 26. In 27 he tells us, “We set out to sea.” Luke was one of them.

Then the Bible tells us, “Aristarchus, a Macedonian from Thessalonica, was with us” as well. To me, this is a beautiful detail that is given to us by Luke. If you’ve been listening to the sermons very carefully, you already know who Aristarchus is. We first encountered him in the book of Acts, as he was one of the converts during the second missionary journey of the Apostle Paul to the town of Thessalonica—he was one of the converts there. But the Bible tells us very clearly that he is Macedonian, so he is a Jewish man who is of Macedonian origin. His name is a Greek name, Aristarchus, who had come to faith through the preaching of the Apostle Paul in the town of Thessalonica during his second missionary journey.

But you know what happened to him? He was a faithful follower of the Apostle Paul. In fact, he would travel with him from place to place—that by the time you come to Ephesus, he was almost caught up in the rioting that we saw there in Ephesus. Aristarchus, along with Paul, was almost killed during the rioting in Ephesus that we learned about early on in the book of Acts. Not only that, he would walk with him all the way to Jerusalem as well; we saw him as one of the men traveling with him all the way to Jerusalem. Now he’s in prison. You would think that Aristarchus would go back home—no, he does not. He travels with him all the way to Caesarea. And then guess what: he also gets on the ship with Paul to go to Italy.

Some people make the argument that this man had such commitment to the Apostle Paul and the gospel that he literally had to become a slave of Paul in order to accompany him on the ship. They say that they would have never allowed this man to make this journey from Caesarea to Italy unless and until he was a slave of the Apostle Paul. Now, he was not a slave of Apostle Paul because Paul was his master and he became a slave; he literally became a slave because he wanted to be wherever Paul was, and he wanted to do the gospel work right beside Paul and do the work of the Lord.

I look at this man and think: what a commitment to the gospel. What a commitment to the cause of God, even in unfavorable circumstances. We are filled with people in this world that do not get going when the going gets tough. When things become difficult, they’re nowhere to be found. If you’re walking along the journey, you look around and you’re like, “Oh my goodness, where did all the people go?” And that’s what usually happens in life. But here is a man who stuck with the Apostle Paul through the thick and the thin—through the harvest of the gospel message being preached and many coming to the Lord, through the persecutions in Ephesus, through the trials in Jerusalem and Caesarea, and now on a ship on an uncertain journey all the way to Italy—guess who is there? Aristarchus is there.

And when you come towards the end of his life, as he writes from the Roman prison the book to the Colossians, he writes in Colossians 4:10, “My fellow prisoner Aristarchus sends you his greetings.” Look at the commitment of this man! This man follows him all the way to prison. He didn’t come to the door of the prison cell and say, “You know what, Paul, it’s been a great journey, it’s good and well, but you can go there; I will just go back home.” No: “My fellow prisoner Aristarchus sends you his greetings.” And this was a couple of years before his death.

What about almost another few months later? He writes Philemon; look at Philemon 1:24. He greets Philemon and says, “Everyone greets you—Epaphras greets you; so do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke, my fellow workers.” So who is there in prison with him? As he writes Philemon, Luke is there with him; Aristarchus is there with him. I thank God for men like these, who are committed to the man of God and to the cause of God and to the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul is the main preacher; Paul is the main pastor; Paul is the one whose spotlight is on. But to the mind of Aristarchus, none of that matters. All that matters is the remembrance of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ that saved him when he was a heathen in the town of Thessalonica. The love for the Lord compels him to travel with Paul all the way to Jerusalem, all the way to Caesarea, to be on a ship all the way to the prison in Rome, and he becomes a fellow prisoner because the love of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love for the gospel compels him to say, “The world behind me, the cross before me—I will follow after Jesus and whatever He wants me to do.” Even today in the world there are men and women who will go to the ends of the earth for the cause of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, and I praise God for that.

27:3: The next day we landed at Sidon—a journey of seventy geographical miles, a journey that can be undertaken in one day, they would get there. And look at what happens: Julius, in kindness to Paul, allowed him to go to his friends so they might provide for his needs. What has happened here? I don’t think this happened in one day. Many believe that Julius was probably a listener as Paul talked about his faith before Agrippa and Festus, so his heart was already softened by the time they made this journey to Italy. Because look what he did: he does not need to do this. You know what he’s allowing him to do? He is allowing Paul to go ashore and have freedom to visit with some of his friends as they cast their ship and they got out in the port of Sidon. You know what happens to his life if Paul the prisoner escapes? Death—beheaded by the Roman Empire. But this man already trusts Paul so much that he allowed Paul to have visitors on this island while he was there and allowed him freedom and kindness. This is what God does: He makes us in favorable light even among the people of the world, so that they can treat us favorably and with kindness because God is working even in their hearts as well.

27:4: From there we put out to sea again and passed to the lee of Cyprus because the winds were against us. Especially at this time of the year the north‑western winds were so severe. And what does it mean by they passed to the lee of Cyprus? It literally means they sailed on the eastern side of Cyprus in order to escape the powerful north‑western winds that were battering against them—all of this detail again to show this is not an easy journey. This is a God‑ordained journey to a God‑ordained place for the man of God, but it’s still filled with storms and problems. Many a time we think when we face storms that we did something wrong or that maybe we are not at the center of the will of God, but that’s not necessarily true. The Apostle Paul is right in the center of the will of God, but the storms are still battering him; there are still difficulties on the journey.

Look at 27:5: “When we had sailed across the open sea off the coast of Cilicia”—what is Cilicia? The birthplace of the Apostle Paul. So he is now going all the way to Italy and is going off the coast of Cilicia. I’m sure his heart probably thought about his childhood, his parents, his upbringing, and how far God has brought him now as a prisoner going to Italy. Maybe in his human nature he thought, Only because I followed Jesus, I am a prisoner on this ship. If I had just lived my life the way I wanted to, I could have been a very well‑respected rabbi in my own hometown and all of Jerusalem. But the cross, the gospel, the message of the cross was so compelling that none of my upbringing, none of the things I found to be worthwhile in my own life are worth comparing to suffering for the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Then the Bible says he goes off the coast of Pamphylia. Do you remember Pamphylia? That was the first place that he came to during his first missionary journey. And now the Holy Spirit makes them go on that coast. “We landed at Myra in Lycia.” This place is almost five hundred miles away, so this journey in verses 4 and 5 almost probably took them a week to go on—battering winds, storms coming against them, but they are in the open sea for one week long before they landed at Myra in Lycia.

27:6: There the centurion found an Alexandrian ship sailing for Italy and put us on board. Remember I told you earlier that the small ship was only a means to get a bigger ship, and that’s where this is. Now, Alexandrian ship—what is an Alexandrian ship? Alexandria, Egypt, was the chief grain supplier of Rome at that time; in fact, the majority of the grain that Rome ever got came from Alexandria, Egypt. Throughout the year they would commission owners and captains to bring about grain during this time. Now, there was a problem: during this season of October, November, December time frame, if you carried grain from Alexandria all the way to Rome you were given double the bonus because the journey was so difficult. So they find a ship that is coming through, and the Bible will tell us here in a detail as to what time of the year this is—they’re sailing towards Italy, and they put us on board.

Now, why did they put them on board? It is because of the authority of the centurion that they put them on board. If you go and ask an Alexandrian ship, “Hey, you’re traveling carrying grain all the way to Italy—put all these people on board,” they will not do that. But who is in charge here? The centurion under the authority of the Roman rule is in charge, and so when the centurion says, “Put the prisoners on this ship,” the captain has no choice but to put the prisoners on the ship.

27:7: We made slow headway—read these verses very carefully—slow headway. Again, in the will of God, doing what God wants him to do, but the journey is what? Not only difficult, but it’s also very, very slow—for many days, and difficulty arriving off Cnidus. When the wind did not allow us to hold our course, we sailed to the lee of Crete opposite Salmone.

Why is all this description of different ports and everything given to us in God’s Word? Just like many historical records in God’s Word, the book of Acts is often attacked by skeptics for its historical accuracy. Many years ago, there was a little group of free thinkers in Scotland—whenever you hear the word free thinker, it equates unbeliever, okay? That’s what it means. They use all these high terminology to make themselves look all smart: “We are free thinkers, high thinkers,” all this stuff, okay? That doesn’t mean they don’t have a mind of their own and they let somebody else do the thinking for them.

A little group of free thinkers in Scotland—unbelievers—they decided on a plan whereby they might show up the supposed inaccuracies of Scripture by tracing this journey from Caesarea to Italy and proving that Luke was wrong in the description of many of the port cities. You know what the problem was? By the time you come to the modern era, many of these ports are lying in ruins, and no one really knows what the original name of these ports were. They’re like, “You know what, Luke is making all these things up. If there’s inaccuracies in Acts 27, how can you believe the rest of the book? How do you know it’s inspired in all these things?” So they traveled many regions.

One member was given the task of going to Asia Minor, Southern Europe, and the islands of the Mediterranean, visiting all the places mentioned by Luke in connection with Paul’s journeys. It was hoped that he would be able to unearth enough information to make evident any false record in Luke’s account in the book of Acts, that many who had pinned their faith on the book of Acts could be turned away from their faith because you’re able to show that this is not the inspired Word of God. The young man that they chose was a man by the name of Sir William Mitchell Ramsay. He investigated it very carefully, and after the most minute examination concluded that Luke was absolutely accurate in every particular that he gave in Acts 27 and 28. Not only that, he himself, once a free thinker and an unbeliever, became a Christian and wrote many books in defense of the Word of God.

I pray that more free thinkers will go to more of these places and hold God’s Word against everything that we know from history and archaeology. And I’m here to tell you, thousands of years later, there’s nothing like this book whose accuracy can never be questioned, and you can put your trust in it and you can believe every word that is written in it. For you, reading through these verses, these are Bible questions. But to God, it is one more proof about the fact that these words did not originate in the mind of a man, but these are accurate records written by the faithful Luke, inspired by the Holy Spirit, and passed on unhindered, unadulterated for generations to come to show to us that we can believe everything that is written in God’s Word from cover to cover, and you can put your life and your future completely upon it.

27:8: We moved along the coast with difficulty and came to a place called Fair Havens near the town of Lasea—another two places that are not found until modern archaeology dug them up, and you know what they found? They found Fair Havens—go see it today. You can see Lasea; all these places were unearthed, showing the accuracy again of God’s Word.

Let me stop at Fair Havens for a minute. I’ve heard sermons on Fair Havens; I’ve heard sermons on the north‑western wind. There’s a way to preach through this chapter allegorically, but I think that is really doing injustice to God’s Word. Even the port does not necessarily mean Fair Haven spiritually. I know in Malayalam there are so many words—Ishanamul and all those things. I don’t really know if there’s anything spiritually you should read into this more than what is given to us in God’s Word. Fair Haven just happens to be the name of a port, and Luke just recorded it. And I think we can kind of go into a really bad ditch of reading too much into God’s Word if you start taking things allegorically. But if you preach like that, it’s okay—just be very, very careful with the interpretation.

Look at 27:9: Much time had been lost, and sailing had already become dangerous because by now it was after the Day of Atonement. So now for the first time Luke gives an account of when this is happening. What is the Day of Atonement? Yom Kippur—October 5th. Here’s the problem: sailing until September 11th or so is relatively okay along these seas, but starting from that time frame all the way to the middle of November is considered to be extremely dangerous, and that is where they are sailing towards Italy. In fact, starting in November all the way to the winter months—forget it—you cannot sail through these seas at all; it is extremely dangerous. That is why Luke writes in detail: sailing had become extremely difficult because now it was after the Day of Atonement.

27:10: 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.” What he’s saying in verse 10 is not the Word of God; in fact, no one had appeared to him and told him to say this. In fact, that’s why Luke uses the word Paul warned them. Otherwise, he would have said God spoke to Paul and told him to say so. Paul is using his own intuition, his own understanding of the weather and all the things that are happening around him, and saying to them, “Men, I can see that our voyage is going to be disastrous and bring great loss to cargo and ship and to our own lives also.” He’s giving them a warning.

Now, you might be asking, How does he know so much about traveling by ship and the weather and all these things? How does a prisoner already become an expert? This also shows already the respect that these men have for the Apostle Paul, that they are listening to him. But remember what he wrote to us in 2 Corinthians 11:25. Along with all the persecutions he already suffered, he’s already been shipwrecked—how many times? “Three times I was shipwrecked.” In Acts 27 this is not the first time he’s shipwrecked; this is the fourth time he’s shipwrecked. So this is a man speaking from experience—it’s kind of like a passenger aboard the Titanic, you know? A passenger aboard the Titanic that survived does not need to know much to know what it means to go down into the sea because he’s already done it before. And now here is a man who three other times has already been shipwrecked, and he’s looking at the weather, he’s looking at the calendar, he’s looking at where they are, and he’s saying, This journey is going to be disastrous.

He knows that he’s going to be safe—why? God’s promise to him is that he will one day testify in Rome. But you know what he’s worried about? He’s worried about other prisoners who do not know the Lord; he’s worried about Luke; he’s worried about Aristarchus. There’s no guarantee that any one of them will survive. So he says to them, This journey is going to be very, very difficult—in fact, it’s going to be disastrous.

But look what happens: 27:11: “But the centurion, instead of listening to what Paul said, followed the advice of the pilot and of the owner of the ship.” And this would prove to be tragic, to say the least. The man who owned the ship, the captain—his word was taken more. This is often the way the world works, right? Science over the saint; believe in Darwin over Moses. People do this all the time. When people of God speak from intuition that are given to them by the Lord, the world does not want to listen to them because the world always wants to listen to the expert—supposedly the person who “knows” what is about to happen. But Paul was very adamant in telling them that this journey was going to be difficult.

Look at 27:12: “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 south‑west and north‑west. They were at a harbor, and Paul really wanted them to remain in that harbor; he said the journey along is going to be disastrous. But they looked forward and they saw the harbor of Phoenix, which is only about fifty miles away, and they thought, If we just make it through one night and the next morning, we can get to that harbor. The harbor in Phoenix is much better; it is much suited for us to live there during the winter months and be comfortable. But Paul knew in his heart that this was not a good idea because of everything that was happening around them. And I’m sure, as they sailed that night, the man of God probably went to the barracks and fell to his knees and prayed for his friends—Luke, Aristarchus, prisoners that did not know Him—and cried out to the Lord and probably said, “Lord, save their lives.” But you know what would keep him going? What God spoke to him more than two years ago: Acts 23:11—“The following night the Lord stood near Paul and said, ‘Take courage. As you have testified about Me in Jerusalem, you must also testify in Rome as well.’”

You know what carries us through? The promises of God. You know what allows us to wait upon the Lord? The promises of God. But you know what the problems of life are? The details of life until you get to the promise—that’s where the problem is: the storms along the way, the detours along the way, the stop in Oklahoma City and Tulsa that doesn’t make any sense. That’s where the problem is. You know what God’s promise is, but you know what God asks you to do? When the journey becomes something that does not make sense to you, still trust in the Lord who made the promise to you—that He’s always a faithful God and that He is a promise‑keeping God.

Many parents have received promises about their children, but growing up, you see them going in a different way, and suddenly your heart starts questioning the promise of God over their life that God has given to you. In the midst of detours, still trust in the God who made the promise; still trust in His Word that He is not an unfaithful God, that even if you go through detours, you will wait upon the Lord and He will bring everything to fruition.

Listen to what we sang even this morning:

I will wait for You, I will wait for You;
On Your Word, I will rely.
Through the storm and through the night—
For Your love is my delight.

Church, can we say that with confidence this morning? That I will wait for You; that I will wait for You; that through the storm and through the night, on Your Word, I will rely. You know why? For Your love is the delight of my life. And boy, about everything that I’m facing, I will believe that You love me with an everlasting love, and Your faithfulness is near and dear to my heart. When the nights get long, when the storms batter, when the journey gets difficult, when the journey gets slow, it is hard to imagine that you will reach the designed shore for you. But do not forget God’s Word: “You must testify about Me in Rome as well.” My God is a faithful God; my God is a promise‑keeping God. As you have heard me preach countless times: my God never breaks His promise, and He is not about to start in 2025 breaking His promise. He is eternally faithful; forever He’ll be faithful. His Word doesn’t change—you can rely upon Him; you can trust upon Him. No matter what you’re facing through, remember the promises of God.

Let’s look to the Lord in prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank You that You have given us words—promises. Your Word constantly has reminded us Your plans for us, O God. But in the midst of the slowness of life, in the midst of the storms of life and the detours of life, help us to still keep our eyes on what You have promised—rely upon You, trust in You, a faithful God, and to wait upon You, O God. Help us to renew our strength day by day by trusting in You. May Your Holy Spirit guide us and lead us. We thank You for this time as we now remember Your sacrifice for us. We pray for Your holy presence to be with us. In the name of the Lord Jesus, we pray, Amen.