Salvation in the Storm (Acts 27)
We believe (chorus)
Call to worship/OT reading:
pastor zack mcguire
Psalm 29
NT reading:
pastor Andrew loginow
Matthew 8.23-27
song:
The lord almighty reigns
Historical reading:
dr. brett eckel
Apostles Creed
song:
Lord have mercy
Jim Nocera deacon appointment:
pastor Andrew & kevin prayer
Confession & Pardon:
pastor Michael champoux
song:
In Christ alone
Sermon:
dr. alex loginow
Salvation in the storm (acts 27)
Introduction
I need to preface this story by acknowledging that I’m not quite sure that I’ve recovered from this experience yet. It was October 2020. The world was still neck-deep in Covid protocol but everything wasn’t completely shut down anymore. We all felt like we needed to get away to do something, anything. So Andrew, Chrissy, Bethany and I along with our kids went up to Ludington for a few days.
Andrew brought his boat, which is not unusual for him – he likes to fish and take the kids out on the boat. At one point Andrew convinced me to join him, AJ, and Jack out on Lake Hamlin. Remember it’s October. We get out on the lake and it’s windy and choppy and at that time there was more Al to love, like I said it was Covid. So as we’re cruising, it starts to feel a bit precarious, and then the front of the boat starts to take on water, and it wasn’t long before we were in the water…in Ludington…in October.
The water is scary; it’s humbling – it can swallow you up. That’s why ancient Israel spoke of the sea as a monster. Ancient cultures like the Egyptians, Phoenicians, and Greeks were sea-fairing people, but not the Jews. This view of the sea is why in Revelation 21 St. John describes the new world saying that the sea will be no more – the poetic language conveys that there will be no more danger, no more death in the new heavens and new earth. And yet so much of the story of God’s people travels through the water – Noah, Israel at the parting of the Red Sea, Jonah (which we will see in a few weeks), John the baptizer and now St. Paul in Acts 27.
Acts 27 tells us the story of how Paul, on his way to Rome, experienced a storm at sea and shipwreck. We already mentioned Jonah; this story feels a lot like Jonah, doesn’t it (and that’s intentional! Luke wants you to think of Jonah when you read this story), but with some differences? Jonah was running from his calling to preach the gospel to the gentiles in Nineveh; Paul is faithfully running toward preaching the gospel to the gentiles in Rome. Jonah is thrown overboard in the storm; Paul tells everyone to stay onboard through the storm. And it is in Paul’s words, what he says in the midst of the storm that we find the purest of gospel gold.
Take heart, have faith in God that it will be exactly as you have been told
Note in verse 25 Paul says, “take heart, men, for I have faith in God that it will be exactly as I have been told.” As you would imagine everyone on this ship was aware that the storm might mean death, but an angel of the Lord revealed to Paul that they would survive. It was God’s will that Paul get to Rome to preach the gospel and die for the gospel. This is just as Jesus promised in Acts 1.8 when he said that the apostles would be his witnesses to the ends of the earth. In the 1st century Rome was the center of the world, much like Manhattan or Washington DC today so for Paul to preach the gospel to Caesar in Rome meant the gospel had reached the center of the world permeating to the ends of the world. Paul had faith that God’s promises were true, that it would be exactly as he’s been told.
We can apply this to the entire Bible because Scripture is the inspired Word of God. We must take heart and have faith in God that it will be exactly as we have been told. We must have faith that what we’ve been told in Genesis is true – that there is 1 true and holy God who created everything and specifically created men and women in his image. We must have faith that God gave the 1st man, Adam, his law and that as our federal head Adam fell in sin. We must have faith that from Genesis 3.15 foreword Scripture reveals that God is saving his people from sin through the incarnation, life, death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and return of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The key word here is faith – we must have faith that the gospel revealed in the Bible will be exactly as we have been told. To have faith doesn’t just mean that we know this gospel, don’t get me wrong, we must know this gospel, but knowledge of the good news is not necessarily faith. We must also assent to this good news. We must acknowledge that the gospel is true – we must confess it and not deny it.
And while both knowledge and assent are essential elements of faith on their own they fall short of saving faith. James 2.19 says that demons have knowledge and assent of the gospel but demons do not have faith. Why? What are demons missing? The answer is trust. Trust is the key and final element of faith – we must transfer our trust to Jesus alone.
If you have faith in Christ alone that faith bears the fruit of repentance. Repentance means to confess your sin and turn from your sin. Confessing your sin means to name your sin as sin, to name your guilt as guilt. Confession doesn’t make excuses, confession doesn’t shift blame, and confession humbly acknowledges sin for what it is – breaking the law of the 1 true and living God.
Confession is the starting place of repentance but repentance doesn’t end with confession, it also means turning away from sin. Turning from your sin means to crucify your pride, humble yourself, and then practice the spiritual discipline of self-control to stop practicing the sin you confess. You won’t ever do it perfectly and you’ll need the Holy Spirit every second but if God genuinely gives you the gift of faith, he will work repentance in your heart.
And then as we live the Christian life we continue to take heart and have faith in God that it will be exactly as we have been told. Take heart and have faith that if you confess your sins [Jesus] is faithful and just to forgive you of your sins and cleanse you from all unrighteousness (1 John 1.9). Take heart and have faith that Jesus will never leave you or forsake you (Heb 13.5; Matt 28.20). Take heart and have faith that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified (Rom 8.28-30).
The Christian life is a life of faith. That means that for all of your life through every season and experience in life we must know, assent to, and trust the good news of Jesus. In seasons of joy and celebration: know, assents to, and trust the promises of God. In the fury of the storm: know, assent to, and trust the promises of God. In busyness and boredom: know, assent to, and trust the promises of God. When your life is consumed with taking care of babies, toddlers, and preschoolers: know, assent to, and trust the promises of God. When you’re older, your peers are dying, and things aren’t how they used to be: know, assent to, and trust the promises of God. As you face the wave of death: know, assent to, and trust the promises of God.
Unless you’re in, you cannot be saved
Paul told his shipmates that this wave they were facing would not be the wave of death but they didn’t believe him; they trusted their circumstances more than the promise of God. Notice how St. Paul responds in verse 31: unless these men stay in the ship, you cannot be saved. Paul had encouraged his shipmates to have faith in God but 2 weeks had passed and anxiety-inducing circumstances arose. Suspecting they were nearing land the crew took soundings of the water’s depth. As fathoms decreased the great enemy of faith slithered into their hearts.
Look again at verse 29: and fearing that we might run on the rocks… Fear is the enemy of faith. But isn’t their fear reasonable, you might ask? All of the science was warning them that they were going to run on the rocks. But the truth is their fear was unreasonable because God already told them that he was going to save them and nothing is more unreasonable than not believing what God says.
Fear festers when we neglect knowing, assenting to, and trusting in the promises of God. That’s why the command do not fear is in the Bible 365 times. God said it 365 times in Holy Scripture so that there are as many commands to not fear as there are days in the year. Fear, anxiety, and worry are sin because when we fear anything other than God we’re treating that thing, or that person, or that potential event as if it is God, as if it is sovereign over our lives, as if it can give us joy, or meaning, or identity, or security. But God is the only sovereign, and God is the only source of true joy, meaning, identity, or security, so it is only reasonable that we fear God and we do not fear anyone or anything else.
That doesn’t mean it’s always easy to fight fear with trust. God’s plan of rescue for the sailors was counter-intuitive – salvation was not found in escaping the storm but by enduring the storm in the ship. That’s because in the midst of the storm, with no alternative than to fully trust God, we are nearest to the gospel. The irony is that Paul told them that they must stay in the ship to be saved but that the ship would be destroyed – do you have the eyes to see the gospel here?
Luke already gave us a hint in verse 9 when he mentioned the Fast. The Fast he’s referring to is Yom Kippur – the Day of Atonement. You see, it is in Jesus alone that we are saved. Jesus, though he was sinless, endured the storm of God’s wrath in our place. On the cross Jesus willing took on the curse of the elect, bearing the guilt and shame of every single sin of his people before God. Jesus submitted himself to death and burial, which was the curse for sin from the very beginning.
Good Friday, the true and final Day of Atonement was the storm but as he took in his very 1st breath of new creation on Easter Sunday Jesus calmed the storm once and for all. When Jesus opened his eyes on the 3rd day it was to a new world. During his ministry Jesus had calmed the storm on the boat with his disciples but on Easter Sunday Jesus fully and finally calmed the storm of God’s justice against the sins of the church. Jesus was destroyed for us but we are only saved when he stay in him. And that’s the key as we live in this millennium between the advents of Christ – unless we stay in the ship, unless we stay in Christ, we cannot be saved.
Trust in Christ and then stay in Christ. Persevere. Don’t believe the lie that if you did something religious in the past like pray a prayer, or get baptized, or grow up in church that it means that you’re in Christ. Your religious works do not save you. It is continual repentance, continual faith that gives us confidence that we are in Christ now.
Keep trusting in Jesus alone. Keep repenting of your sin. Keep coming to church to receive the means of grace. Keep looking to the cross and the empty tomb. Keep resting in Jesus. Unless we stay in Christ, we cannot be saved.
Eat the bread for it will give you strength and you will be encouraged
Persevering in faith isn’t easy but there’s more good news; Jesus doesn’t only justify us to leave us on our own, no, he promises to be with us along the way and collectively we feel his presence among us every week in the sacrament and this narrative gives us a hint of that sweet fellowship here in verses 33-36. After Paul convinced the men to stay in the ship he urged them to take food. Scripture says:
“Today is the fourteenth day that you have continued in suspense and without food, having taken nothing. Therefore I urge you to take some food. For it will give you strength, for not a hair is to perish from the head of any of you.” And when he had said these things, he took bread, and giving thanks to God in the presence of all he broke it and began to eat. Then they all were encouraged and ate some food themselves.
It’s so important when we read this kind of language in the New Testament that our minds are trained see the Eucharist. Luke’s verbs are deliberate – he took bread…giving thanks to God…he broke it. These are the exact same verbs used in the exact same way in the Lord’s Supper passages in 1st Corinthians 11 and in the gospels (including Luke’s!). In fact, the verb giving thanks in verse 35 is εὐχαριστέω, literally Eucharist.
Does that mean I think that Luke is telling us that St. Paul literally took Holy Communion on this ship with these sailors? Not necessarily. I mean, maybe he did but I don’t think that’s the point. Remember, hermeneutically, when we consider the nearest context of this pericope – the most immediate application and original intent of the author – it is not the actual scene on the ship that comes into focus but rather St. Luke writing the book of Acts to the early church after the fact. So it really doesn’t matter whether Paul took communion or merely ate bread on the ship, Luke wants you to think of communion when you read it. The point Luke is making to the early church with the way he describes the scene is that to endure the storms of life, to endure this time of tribulation between the advents, we draw strength, thankfulness, and encouragement from the sacrament.
Did you notice that is what the bread produced – strength and encouragement? In verse 34 Paul said take some food for it will give you strength. Then in verse 36 the Bible says they were all encouraged. And what do we see in the middle of strength and encouragement in verse 35? The Eucharistic echo – taking the bread, giving thanks, breaking the bread.
We all need the bread and the wine every single week. We need to commune with the ascended Lord Jesus in the manner he uniquely provides at the table. We need to see and taste his body broken for us and his blood shed for us. We need to remember and proclaim that Christ has died, Christ is risen, and Christ will come again.
Together on equal footing at the Lord’s Supper, Christ gives us strength, thankfulness, and encouragement. We draw strength by examining ourselves and remembering what Jesus did for us through his death and resurrection. Reflection on the gospel then produces thankfulness in our hearts. And we are encouraged to go on, to persevere, to fight for holiness, to repent of our sins, to keep trusting, keeping obeying. If you want strength, if you want to be thankful, if you want to be encouraged, come to the Eucharist every Sunday and receive the body and blood of Jesus by faith.
Conclusion
NT Wright notes that the Book of Acts follows a similar narrative structure to the Gospel of Luke. We know that Luke begins Acts assuming Theophilus has read his Gospel. We’ve even noted how Paul’s trial mirrors the trial of Jesus (arrested by the Jews, handed over to the Romans). But Wright says that Acts 27 is where the narrative is turned on it’s head because this chapter parallels Jesus’ death in Luke 23 but Paul doesn’t actually die here – he comes close to death and experiences a type of death and resurrection through shipwreck and then finally arriving in Rome in Acts 28. Paul does mirror Jesus in that death-and-resurrection pattern and there’s a sense in which all believers follow the patter of Jesus throughout our lives – we experience types of death and resurrection by God’s grace, the most important being when we die to our sin and resurrect through forgiveness. But there is also a sense in which we are not Jesus and never can be. Jesus is the only one who could endure the storm of God’s justice and he did it in our place so let’s take heart, because it will be exactly as we have been told, and let’s stay in Christ for it is the only way we will be saved, and let’s eat the bread and drink the wine for it is at the table that Jesus strengthens us, makes us thankful, and encourages us whether we’re in the calm or in the storm.