“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.’

Hebrews 6.19,20: We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, 20 where our forerunner, Jesus, has entered on our behalf. He has become a high priest for ever, in the order of Melchizedek.

What a surprise!

Surprisingly, ships, storms and shipwrecks figure prominently in the Bible. For example:

Noah and the Ark (Genesis 6);

Moses in the bulrushes (Exodus 2);

Jonah and the ship to Tarshish (Jonah 1);

Hymenaeus and Alexander, who made shipwreck of their faith (1 Tim.1.19,20);

Ephesians 4.14:That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive.

The ships on the Sea of Galilee, most famously the one in Mark 4.31-35 where Jesus stills the storm.

The shipwreck of Acts 27, when they threw four anchors from the stern, and they all came safely to land.

Hebrews 6.19: We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor for the soul.

These ships are often associated with miracles:

The Stilling of the Storm is one of a group of four miracles in Mark 4 and 5. The Healing of the Gadarene Demoniac shows Jesus’ power over evil; The Healing of the Sick Woman shows His power over sickness and suffering; The Raising of Jairus’ Daughter shows His power over death; The Stilling of the Storm shows His power over the created order. Together they demonstrate the truth of Paul’s declaration about Jesus in Romans 9.5: ‘the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever’. So, in the Bible we see that a miracle, where God intervenes supernaturally in the created order, shows us one aspect or another of His mighty power.

In Acts 27, another kind of miracle unfolds as Paul experiences a shipwreck. Despite the worst that the forces of the created order could hurl at His servants, God is with them through it all. When we’re tossed about and troubled by the circumstances of life, ‘we rest in Him, our Shield and our defender’.

The adventure of the Christian life:

Paul must have seen life in Christ as one great adventure in which he would participate to the full.

He would do whatever God asked him to do.

He would go wherever God asked him to go.

He would trust God to enable him and to bring him through it all to glory.

And this was all because he had complete faith in the power of his Lord Jesus Christ to hold him fast and enable him to persevere to the end.

Paul was a manly man, but far, far more than that, he was a man in Christ and, ever since Christ came to him on the road to Damascus until the day he went to be with Christ in glory, he gave the whole of his life to Christ as he lived the grand adventure by Christ’s power and grace, and for Christ’s glory.

One of Paul’s greatest adventures was that sea journey recorded in Acts 27, and it stands as a kind of parable of our journey through life. When they set out, the weather was calm enough, but Paul warned that there was a real risk of sailing into bad weather and dangerous waters, and that they should wait for better weather. They set out anyway. A fierce storm did come, leading the sailors to try everything they could to keep the boat afloat, by throwing the cargo overboard, then putting out four anchors from the stern. Despite the best efforts of the sailors, the ship broke up and they had to cling to pieces of the ship to drift to the shore.

            In the meantime, Paul was waiting on God who sent an angel to assure him that no-one would perish.

The resistance of the world:

In Acts 27.9-12 we read: 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, 10 ‘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.’

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