145 Acts 27:36 GOOD CHEER IN BAD TIMES Introduction: We will be covering essentially the same passage of Scripture in this message which we covered in the previous message. However, in our previous message the emphasis was on what to do when you are having had times. The emphasis in today’s message in upon having good cheer in bad times. The Apostle Paul was a prisoner on a ship which was headed for Rome. At least two fellow Christians, Luke and Aristarchus, were on board the ship with him. A sizable number of other prisoners were also on board, along with a Roman centurion and about 100 Roman soldiers were on board. In addition to these, there were other passengers, the ship’s captain, the owner and the crew members. In all there were 216 people aboard that ship. I. Boarding the ship with Paul and the others As best you can, I want you in your imagination to come aboard that ship. I want you to see the things which they saw, to do the things which they did and to feel the things which they felt. I want you to experience the apprehension which they felt when they were suddenly hit by that storm which must have had winds of hurricane force. V. 14, “But not long after there arose against it a tempestuous wind, called Euroclydon.” The word which here is translated “arose” means “beat.” The winds and waves of that storm beat upon them with terrific force. I want you to experience the stress that they felt when the crew was unable to control the ship and were forced to let the ship go with the wind. V. 15, “And when the ship was caught, and could not bear up into the wind, we let [her] drive.” I want you to labor with them when they strained every muscle in an effort to hoist their one lifeboat up into the ship to keep it from being smashed to pieces against the side of the ship by the powerful winds and waves. V. 16, “And running under a certain island which is called Clauda, we had much work to come by the boat:” After that hard work, I want you without any rest to feel your muscles ache as you strain to undergird the ship with chains and ropes to keep the ship from breaking apart if it should suddenly run aground on a sandbar. V. 17, “Which when they had taken up, they used helps, undergirding the ship; and, fearing lest they should fall into the quicksands, strake sail, and so were driven.” After undergirding the ship there is more hard work to do in raising the sails in this fierce wind. You are really too tired to do such strenuous work, but you are too scared not to try. By the second day of the storm the ship had begun to take on water and it became necessary to lighten the load so that it would not sit so deeply into the water. If too much water was taken into the ship it would sink. So without really getting up from the previous day’s hard labor, I want you to join the crew and passengers throwing every heavy item overboard. V. 18, “And we being exceedingly tossed with a tempest, the next [day] they lightened the ship.” It was along hard day’s labor. I want you to experience the desperation which they felt on that third day when the ship appeared to be in danger of going down at any minute and they threw out the tackling of the ship. They were throwing overboard ropes and pulleys that they would need later if somehow the ship should survive the storm. But the most important thing at this time was to survive the storm and that meant that the tackling must go. So over it went. V. 19, “And the third [day] we cast out with our own hands the tackling of the ship.” Day after day go through the grueling labor and feel the desperation when you cannot even tell which direction is east or west because even in the daytime the clouds are so thick that you cannot tell where the sun is in the sky. V. 20, “And when neither sun nor stars in many days appeared, , and no small tempest lay on [us]...” Day after day went by and there was no letup. A week went by and there was no let up. Two weeks went by and there was no letup. The storm was as fierce as ever. They had labored hard and long trying to survive, but it seemed that all their labor was futile. It all seemed in vain. There was no physical strength left. They were all exhausted. There was no hope left. All hope of survival was gone. There was only a deep sense of depression. (V. 20), “...all hope that we should be saved was then taken away.” II. A message of hope from God through the Apostle Paul V. 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.” There was one man aboard that ship who was not in despair. He had not lost all hope. He had not lost any hope. In his mind he was certain that there was hope, not only that he would survive the storm, but that all would survive the storm. But he does not start out with a message of hope for them. Rather he started out with a message of rebuke. Paul said, “I told you so! You should have listened! “ But the real point was that he wanted them to listen now. V. 22, “And now I exhort you to be of good cheer: for there shall be no loss of [any man's] life among you, but of the ship.” Paul said, “Be of good cheer!” Can you believe that? For 14 days they had struggled to stay alive and it now looks as if all their labor has been in vain. It looks as if they will all die and this man says, “Be of good cheer!” Can you believe that? Paul said, “Not one of you will lose your life in this storm!” Can you believe that? Can you believe that not one person aboard that ship would lose his life? Paul did. Paul believed that he would survive and he believed that every man aboard that ship would survive. Furthermore there was somebody else aboard that ship who believed it. There was an angel from God who believed it. In fact it was the angel who had informed Paul. V. 23-24, “For there stood by me this night the angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve, Saying, Fear not, Paul; thou must be brought before Caesar: and, lo, God hath given thee all them that sail with thee.” It was because Paul believed the angel of God and because Paul believed God that he could say, “Be of good cheer.” V. 25, “Wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer: for I believe God, that it shall be even as it was told me.” V. 26, “Howbeit we must be cast upon a certain island.” In other words, “The ship is not going to survive and we will all go into the water, but we will all reach the shore of the island safely. I am going to skip some of the events and point out to you that Paul encouraged the people to eat. He, him self ate. He ate in their presence. He ate cheerfully. Paul, himself, was full of good cheer. The ship that he was on was going to beak apart and all of them would soon be in the powerful waves of the sea, but Paul was filled with good cheer. He was filled with cheer because he knew that they would all reach the shore safely. Now listen to verse 36, “Then were they all of good cheer, and they also took [some] meat.” III. A message of doom and a message of cheer Now let us leave that storm and come back to the present. Literally we are not in a storm, but figuratively we are in a storm. The storm that we are in is just as real as that the one was that Paul was in. But we are in a far worse storm than the one that Paul was in. We are in the storm of life. The powerful winds of sin are blowing all around us. We, ourselves, have committed sin after sin. We have labored long and hard to stop our sinning and to live good enough to get to heaven, but all our efforts have been in vain. We have tried throwing overboard all of our bad habits. We have sought to clean up our language and stopped saying bad words. But all of our efforts have proven to be in vain. We still continue to sin time and time again. We turn over new leaf and soon the new leaf is dirty. We turn over new leaf after new leaf, but the results are all in vain. There is no way that we can stop sinning. We then try to do enough good deeds to outweigh our bad deeds so that we can go to heaven. We may get join the church and get baptized. We help the poor. We pay all of our debts and we start doing good unto other. But that does not stop us from sinning. And it does not change us on the inside. We are still have sinful thoughts and sinful desires down on the inside. The more we try the more we fail and the more in despair we become. It just seems that there is no hope at all. Our sins are real, the fires of hell are real and the danger is real. All of our efforts--- all of our good intentions --- all of our good works have failed. We have never stopped sinning and we never will stop sinning as long as we live in this sinful fleshly body that has inherited the sin nature of Adam. We are in as storm and there is no way in the world that we can survive by our own efforts. We would all be doomed to the everlasting fires of hell if it were left up to us to save ourselves. But let me remind you that on board that ship where all were in despair, the voice of the Apostle Paul rang out with a message and from the Bible we have that same message. The first thing that Paul told those doomed people aboard that ship was, “You ought to have listened to me.” And that is essentially the first message from the Bible that I point out to you today. Those of you who are unsaved and on the road to hell let me say to you that you ought to have already been listening to the word of God. If you had been listening to God you would have known that you cannot earn your salvation by turning over a new leaf and doing good deeds. If you had listened to God’s word you would know that the only way you can be saved is by repenting of your sin and depending on Jesus Christ to save your soul. If you had listened to the word of God you would have known that it is dangerous to put off being saved until some other time. God has said, “Now is the day of salvation. Now is the accepted time.” If you wait until tomorrow it may be too late for you to ever get saved. But Paul’s message was not just a message of rebuke only. It was also a message of hope and good cheer. Paul told those men that every person on that ship would reach the shore safely. Paul said that God had sent that message. God through the angel told Paul that every person on that ship would reach the shore safely. I wish that I could tell you that every person in this building is going to reach heaven’s shores safely. I wish that I could tell you that every person within the sound of your voice will go to heaven. I cannot tell you that. I cannot tell you that everyone who is present here will go to heaven. But I can give you some good news. I can tell you that every person who calls upon Jesus for salvation and trust Jesus to save his soul, that person will never go into the fires of hell. That person will make it safely to heaven’s shores. .