Topic: Paul Goes to Rome Acts 27:1-28:31

When it was decided that we should sail to Italy, they handed over to Julius, an officer in the Roman army regiment called “The Emperor’s Regiment,” Paul and some other prisoners. We embarked on a ship from Adramyttium ready to leave for the province of Asia’s seaports and sailed away. Aristarchus, a Thessalonica Macedonian, has been with us. We arrived in Sidon the next day. Julius was kind to Paul and gave him the opportunity to go and see his friends and get what he needed. We went on from there and we sailed on the sheltered side of the island of Cyprus because the winds were blowing against us. Off Cilicia and Pamphylia we crossed the sea and came to Myra in Lycia. There the officer found a ship going to sail for Italy from Alexandria, so he put us on board. We sailed slowly for several days and finally arrived from the town of Cnidus with great difficulty. The wind wouldn’t let us go any further in that direction, so we sailed down Cape Salmone’s sheltered side of the island. We stayed close to the coast and came to a place called Safe Harbors with great difficulty, not far from the city of Lasea. We spent a long time there until it became dangerous to continue the journey, as the Day of Expiation had already passed. So Paul gave them this advice: “Men, I see our journey from here on will be dangerous; there will be great damage to the cargo and the ship as well as loss of life.” But the officer of the army was convinced by what the captain and the ship’s owner said, and not by what Paul said. The harbor wasn’t a good place to spend the winter in; so nearly everybody was in favor of going out to sea and trying to get to Phoenix to spend the winter there, if possible. Phoenix is a southwest and northwest facing harbor in Crete.

A soft wind from the south began to blow, and the men thought they could carry out their plan, pulling up the anchor and sailing along the coast of Crete as close as possible. But soon a very strong wind was blowing down from the island, the one called “Northeaster.” It hit the ship, and as it was impossible to keep the ship in the wind, we gave up trying and let the wind carry it along. When we passed south of Cauda’s small island, we got some shelter. There, we managed to make the ship’s boat safe with some difficulty. They pulled it on board, then tightly fastened a few ropes around the ship. They were afraid they could run off Libya’s coast into the sandbanks, so they lowered the sail and let the wind carry the ship. The violent storm continued, so they started throwing some of the ship’s cargo overboard the next day and threw some of the ship’s equipment overboard the following day. We couldn’t see the sun or the stars for many days, and the wind continued to blow very hard. At last we gave up all hope to be saved. After everyone had gone without food for a long time, Paul stood before them and said, “You should have listened to me and not sailed from Crete; then all this damage and loss would have been avoided. But now, please, take courage! Not one of you is going to lose your life; only the ship is going to be lost. Last night there came to me an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I worship, saying, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul! You’ve got to stand before the Emperor. And God has spared the lives of all those who sail with you in his goodness to you.’ So take courage, men! For I have confidence in God that it will be just as I have been told. But on some island we’ll be driven ashore.”

It was the fourteenth night, and the storm drove us into the Mediterranean. The sailors suspected we were getting close to land around midnight. So they dropped a line with a weight attached to it and found the water to be one hundred and twenty feet deep; they did the same a little later and found it to be ninety feet deep. They feared the ship would go on the rocks, lowering four anchors from the ship’s back and praying for daylight. The sailors then tried to escape from the ship; they lowered the boat into the water and pretended to put some anchors out of the ship’s front. But Paul said to the military officer and soldiers, “If the sailors don’t stay on board, you don’t have any hope of being saved.” So the soldiers cut the ropes holding the boat and let it go. Paul begged them all to eat some food just before dawn: “You’ve been waiting for fourteen days now, and you haven’t eaten anything all this time. So I beg you to eat some food; to survive, you need it. Not even a hair of your head will be lost.” Paul took some bread after saying this, gave thanks to God before all of them, broke it, and started eating. They took courage, and each ate some food as well. A total of 276 of us were on board. They lightened the ship by throwing all the wheat into the sea after everyone had eaten enough. The sailors did not recognize the coast when day came, but they noticed a beach bay and decided to run the ship down there if possible. So they cut off the anchors and let them sink into the sea, untied the ropes holding the steering oars at the same time. Then they raised the sail at the ship’s front so the wind would blow the ship forward, and we headed to the shore. But the ship hit a sandbank and went aground; the ship’s front section was stuck and was unable to move, while the waves’ violence broke the back section to pieces. The soldiers made a plan to kill all the inmates to prevent them from swimming and escaping ashore. But Paul wanted to be saved by the military officer, so he stopped them from doing this. Instead, he ordered anyone who could swim to first jump overboard and swim ashore; the rest would follow, holding on to the ship’s planks or broken pieces. And that’s how we got ashore safely. We learned that the island was called Malta when we were safely ashore. We were very friendly with the natives there. It had begun to rain and it was cold, so they built a fire and welcomed us all. Paul collected a bundle of sticks and put them on the fire when a snake came out because of the heat and clung to his hand. The natives saw the snake hanging on Paul’s hand, saying to each other, “This man must be a murderer, but Fate will not let him live, though he may have escaped from the sea.” But Paul shook the snake into the fire without any harm. They waited for him to swell or fall dead suddenly. But after a long wait and seeing nothing unusual happen to him, they changed their minds and said, “He’s a god! “Nearby were some fields belonging to Publius, the island’s chief. He kindly welcomed us and we were his guests for three days. The father of Publius was in bed, suffering from fever and dysentery. Paul was going into his room, praying, putting his hands on him, and healing him. All the other sick people on the island came in and were healed when this happened. They gave us a lot of gifts and they put on board what we needed for the trip when we sailed. We sailed off on a ship from Alexandria after three months, called “The Twin Gods,” which had been on the island for the winter. We arrived in Syracuse city and spent three days there. We sailed on and arrived in Rhegium City from there. A wind started blowing from the south the next day, and we came to the town of Puteoli in two days. There we found some faithful who asked us to stay a week with them. And so we arrived in Rome. Rome’s believers heard of us and came to meet us as far as Appius Market and Three Inns cities. He thanked God when Paul saw them and was greatly encouraged. Paul was allowed to live by himself when we arrived in Rome with a soldier guarding him.

Paul summoned local Jewish leaders to a meeting after three days. He said to them, “My fellow Israelites, though I did nothing against our people or the customs we received from our ancestors, in Jerusalem I was made a prisoner and handed over to the Romans. The Romans wanted to release me after questioning me because they found I had done nothing I deserved to die for. But I was forced to appeal to the Emperor when the Jews opposed this, even though I had no charge against my own people. That’s why I asked you to talk to you and see you. In fact, for the sake of him for whom the people of Israel hope, I am bound in chains like this.” They said to him, “We have not received any letters from Judea about you, nor have any of our people come from there with any news or anything bad to say about you. But we’d like to hear your ideas, because we know people are talking against this party you belong to everywhere.” So they set a date with Paul, and a large number of them came to the place Paul was staying that day. He explained his message about the Kingdom of God to them from morning till night, and he tried to convince them of Jesus by quoting from Moses’ Law and the prophet’s writings. His words persuaded some of them, but others would not believe. After Paul had said this one thing, they left, disagreeing among themselves: “How well the Holy Spirit spoke to your ancestors through the prophet Isaiah! For he said, ‘Go and say to this people, ‘You’re going to listen and listen, but you’re not going to understand; you’re going to look and look, but not see, because the minds of this people are dull, they’ve stopped their ears and closed their eyes. Otherwise their eyes would see, their ears would hear, their minds would understand, and they would turn to me, says God, and I would heal them.'” Paul concluded: “Then you must know that the message of salvation from God was sent to the Gentiles. They’re going to listen! “Paul lived in a place he rented for himself for two years, and all who came to see him were welcomed there. He preached the Kingdom of God and taught the Lord Jesus Christ, speaking boldly and freely.

Moral Lesson:

1. Always seek the face of God in time of difficulties.
2. Let your light shine so that people will see it and glorify God
3. Faith is the most important thing in life when facing difficulties
4. Team work goes a long way to tackle issues faster
5. As children of God, we ought to be spiritually alert to discern when the Holy Spirit is ministering to us, just as Paul an apostle of God was ministering to the people to follow the right direction but they refused due there inability to read between the lines.

By faithwheel.com