Acts 27:1-24
When the Storm Comes…
This chapter is long (44 long verses), but are all needed to tell the
story. For the sake of time, I will not read them all, but I will
read a good portion. To help in the understanding of the account, I
will narrate a bit too.
Paul was on the way to Rome. He was a prisoner, arrested by Rome for
preaching the gospel. Even so, Paul would not have asked to go to
Rome for trial except the Jews had plotted to kill him in Jerusalem.
because the Jews had attempted to killed him. Once was arrested, Now
he was on his way to Rome to be tried before Caesar.
\\#7\\ They were sailing slowly not because they wanted to but
because there was no wind. Their desire was to get to Rome before
the weather turned bad, but their slow sailing was against them.
\\#9\\ The fast was the Jewish Day of Atonement. That holy day can
fall from mid-September to mid-October. It must have been late that
year. The typhoon season in the Pacific started November 1 this year.
\\#14\\ Euroclydon-It means a typhoon wind. This must have been a
massive, slow moving hurricane or typhoon. They will be in this
storm for at least 14 days \\#27,33\\, and there is no reason to
think the storm did not continue after Paul and his shipmates made
it to shore.
I do not think the name of the storm was Euroclydon, but rather the
name of the wind that brought the storms was Euroclydon. These
ocean winds are called trade winds and they blow pretty much a
specific path at the same time each year. Being a mostly land locked
state, most in Alabama may be unfamiliar with trade winds but you may
have heard of the Nor’easter Winds that blow onto the nation’s east
coast or the Santa Ana Winds that blow onto the west coast. These
winds do not have to be just off the ocean. The Chinook Winds blow
down from the Rocky Mountains.
The Euroclydon winds were bringing a strong typhoon across Paul’s
path to Rome. That part of the world has typhoons like we have
thunderstorms. In our the last letter from our missionaries, the
board who handles the finances of one of our Pilipino missionaries
described the great devastation that two such typhoons had caused to
the Philippines this summer and fall. They spoke of the extreme
damage and loss of life. So much, they were doing what they had
never done before, asking the churches to consider sending a special
offering.
I found some information on typhoons that I done some time ago. As
of that time:
1. Longest lasting typhoon on record was in 1994, lasting
31 days.
2. Strongest was November, 2013. Typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda,
Sustained winds of 195 mph, killed 6,300 in the
Philippines, affected over 11 million people.
This was a true story, an actual event that occurred in the life and
ministry of the Apostle Paul. But all of us have lived through such
a story as well. We each sail the ship of our own name upon the sea
of life and as a result of both circumstances beyond our control and
decisions we have made, have found ourselves inside storms we would
rather not be within.
I can give no advice on sailing for I know nothing about it, but I
can share some advice on living that I get from this Bible passage.
Perhaps it will prove useful to you as you sail life’s oceans.
I. \\#10\\ Before Euroclydon comes, listen to God’s Man.
Acts 27:10 And said unto them, Sirs, I perceive
that this voyage will be with hurt and much
damage, not only of the lading and ship, but
also of our lives.
Acts 27:21 But after long abstinence Paul stood
forth in the midst of them, and said, Sirs, ye
should have hearkened unto me, and not have
loosed from Crete, and to have gained this harm
and loss.
A. \\#21\\ is the closest thing to an "I told you so," as you
will find in the Bible.
B. The best way to deal with a Euroclydon is to stay out of it.
Not all of life’s storms are avoidable but some are and this
was one of them.
1. Paul felt something.
2. Because of what I think of Paul, I believe I can say two
things about what he was feeling.
a. I don’t think Paul gave advice in matters that were
none of his business.
(1) Such would make him a busy body, and I don’t
think he was that.
(2) So I don’t think Paul offered advice as a busy-
body.
b. There is nothing in the Bible that indicates Paul was
a sailing expert.
(1) He may have been a ship-wreck survivor expert,
having survived 3 shipwrecks in his life,
\\#2Cor 11:25\\ at least once spending a night
and a day in the water!
(2) So I don’t think Paul offered advice as an
expert.
c. That leads me to believe what Paul felt about this
voyage was of God.
3. In this case, if the people had listened to God’s man,
they would never had been shipwrecked!
C. I understand the difficulty with trusting preachers.
1. The whole lot of us are not worth much.
2. We are all human, mostly self-inflated, and not nearly as
close to the Lord as we should be.
3. Some are just counterfeits, out and out living like the
devil.
4. Many are ignorant of their own Bibles and most our loud
with their own advice.
5. But some of them are honest, godly, preachers of the Word
of God who have proven themselves to be faithful and to
have understanding concerning the Scriptures.
Romans 13:4 For he is the minister of God to
thee for good.
Hebrews 13:17 …they watch for your souls…
6. You should listen to them!
a. You should listen when they tell you what the Bible
says. (Keep checking them out but listen.)
b. You should even listen if what they are telling you is
just an opinion.
(1) They have an anointing on them.
(2) They are not gods and can be wrong, but you ought
to at least listen and consider what they are
saying because if they have God on them, God may
use them to speak to you.
II. \\#31\\ When Euroclydon comes, stay in the ship!
Acts 27:31 Paul said to the centurion and to
the soldiers, Except these abide in the ship,
ye cannot be saved.
A. We read through \\#24\\ where Paul told the crew that God had
sent an angel who had promised all (276 souls) safety.
1. In these verses, Paul explained that for that promise to
come to pass, the crew had to stay together in the ship
until they could all leave as one.
2. It sounds to me like it was going to take a miracle to get
these people safely to shore and God was only going to do
one!
3. If you were not with Paul’s group, you were not going to
make it!
4. So at this point, Paul was saying, "Stay in the ship!"
B. This takes us back to some other stories in the Bible.
1. The story of Noah building an ark, a wooden ship.
a. That ship was the means of saving not only Noah and
his family, but the whole human race.
b. If you get in the ark, you will be saved.
c. If you do not, you will be lost.
2. The story of Moses being set adrift in an ark also comes
to mind.
a. Pharaoh had commanded that all the male infants be
cast into the Nile River.
b. His mother made an ark, a small basket boat, and laid
Moses in it to sail down the river. The daughter of
Pharaoh came down to the river for a bath and found
the basket with Moses in it. She kept Moses as her
own son.
c. Moses was saved because he was in the ark.
3. Now Paul and this sailors are in a ship, an ark made of
wood.
a. Only those who are inside will be saved. All others
will be lost.
b. All three of these ships represent salvation—if not
Jesus Christ Himself.
(1) There is salvation in Jesus.
(a) Only those who enter salvation and stay with
it will be saved.
(b) I don’t mean to imply that one can lose
their salvation because that is not what I
believe.
(c) I will echo what John said:
1 John 2:19 They went out from us, but they were
not of us; for if they had been of us, they would
no doubt have continued with us: but they went
out, that they might be made manifest that they
were not all of us.
(d) Jesus is our only Hope.
i. If you call yourself His today, stay
with Him.
ii. There is no safer and better place to
be, and the storm is no place to be
changing your ride.
(2) There is safety in Jesus.
(a) Once aboard the ship, don’t leave!
(b) Some "lose their faith" in the Euroclydon.
(c) That is just another way of saying they
abandon Jesus. They jump ship.
(d) Friend, never doubt in the dark what you
knew was true in the light.
III. When Euroclydon comes, let God be your Pilot.
A. God should be your Pilot before, during, and after the
Euroclydons of life, but in this account, I see how God
piloted the ship.
B. It is interesting but the crew was only three days into the
storm when they began to do take some bizarre measures.
Acts 27:19 And the third day we cast out with
our own hands the tackling of the ship.
1. The Bible does not say what the tackling actually was.
a. The exact word for tackling used here is only used
this one time in the Bible.
b. However, the root word that it is derived from is used
often and seems mean furniture, tools, and hardware.
c. It many places, the root word is translated "vessel,"
indicating to me that the it has to do with the
essential hardware of the ship.
2. It is probably too much to say that they cast overboard
the absolutely essentials needed to navigate the ship,
but I do not think it is too much to say they were
pitching items that they were likely to need if they
survived the storm.
C. Why do that?
1. The answer is because they had already learned that they
could not steer and direct their ship in this storm.
Acts 27:15 And when the ship was caught, and
could not bear up into the wind, we let her
drive.
2. Drive means drive.
a. The sailors weren’t steering that ship.
b. They let the ship steer itself.
3. I attempted to study this passage in detail some time ago.
a. I have this in my notes.
b. It is interesting that when the sailors lose control
of their ship, they are 550 miles from their
destination. In a typhoon, they can could have
drifted in any direction—including down! But when
they finally landed on the island of Melita, they
were only 120 miles from their intended destination!
God kept the ship going in their desired direction
because it was also His desired direction.
c. The best One to steer your life in a storm is God.
d. I read a bumper sticker. It said, "If God is your Co
Pilot, change seats!"
IV. \\#29\\ When Euroclydon comes, drop your anchors and wait.
Acts 27:29 Then fearing lest we should have
fallen upon rocks, they cast four anchors out of
the stern, and wished for the day.
A. Waiting while Euroclydon rages is difficult but always
required.
1. Waiting helplessly while the storm rages is the scariest
feeling.
2. Yet on the Sea of Life, we are often threatened with the
unwanted, unliked, and unwelcomed, and all we can do is
listen to the storm rage, hold on while the ship is
jerked on the rocks, and hope for a brighter day.
3. But we have some anchors we can drop while we wait.
B. An anchor is a strange object for a ship to have.
1. Ships are designed to move. They carry merchandise and
people from one location along the seaboard to another.
2. Anchors are designed to keep a ship from moving. The more
you want to stay in one place, the more anchors you drop.
3. This ship dropped FOUR anchors. That is one for every
side of ship!
a. They did not want to move.
b. The captain and crew had come to understand that if
they moved, either the waves would bust their hull
or the wind would carry them back out to sea.
c. They wanted to stay where they were and wait until the
sun came up so they might see how they could make it
to shore.
C. When life threatens to smash you upon the rocks, drop you
anchors and wait. What anchors? I will give you four.
1. The anchor of God’s plan-Rest assured. God has a plan.
You may not see it. You may not like it. You may not
want it right now; but when it is finished, you will know
it was the best plan of all.
2. The anchor of God’s promises-Our future is only as
secured as God has promised to make it. Find them.
Memorize them. Quote them often. Trust them.
3. The anchor of God’s power-God can do the impossible.
4. The anchor of God’s presence-I have the presence of God
in Euroclydon! I have dropped my anchors and waited
while God came down.
V. \\#38\\ When Euroclydon comes, lighten the ship.
Acts 27:38 And when they had eaten enough, they
lightened the ship, and cast out the wheat into
the sea.
A. While you waiting for morning light, try lightening your ship
of the things that are weighing you down.
1. Obviously, wheat is a commodity and that meant money.
2. This ship was probably a trade vessel that took a few
passengers onboard if they had the space.
3. They had gone weeks through the storm with that grain. It
was their income, their reason for sailing, their reason
for existing, but knowing they were fighting for their
lives, their priorities had changed and now they were
ready to throw the wheat overboard.
4. \\#19\\ It is interesting that they threw their tackle
overboard 11 days earlier!
(a) Tackle refers to their sailing equipment!
(b) But they are just now throwing out their cargo!
B. It is amazing how a Euroclydon can make us see how trivial and
sinful our lives really are!
1. In those super storms, we see that some of the world’s
pleasures that we thought we just couldn’t live without
are seen as the very weights which have been holding us
back.
Heb 12:1 … let us lay aside every weight, and
the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let
us run with patience the race that is set before
us,
2. While we are waiting on the light, why not take inventory
on your life? There might be some things that you should
throw overboard?
Euroclydons come. They cannot be avoided; however, there are things
we can do avoid a few of them and to weather the rest.
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