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Acts 27:37-44  PAUL SHIPWRECKED

Introduction:

	The Apostle Paul was on a ship which had been caught in a terrible storm.  
For fourteen days all aboard had struggled to survive with little rest and 
almost no food.  In the darkness of the fourteenth night the ship’s crew 
discovered that they were approaching land and they put out four anchors in 
hopes that it would keep them from crashing into rocks along the shore.  All but 
the Apostle Paul were in despair.  They had lost all hope.  
	It was in that time of deep despair that the Apostle Paul was able to 
persuade them that the power of God would protect them from harm and that they 
should all take on nourishment to provide them with energy which they would 
sorely need.  The people believed what Paul said.  Being lifted from their deep 
despair they all ate food and were filled with cheer and gladness.   
	In sharp contrast to those who had been in despair, the Apostle Paul had 
never lost hope.  Even before they started on this trim he had been assured by 
the Lord that he would live to go to Rome.  Also during the height of the storm 
an angel of the Lord had appeared to him and reassured him that not only would 
he be spared from death in the storm, but all of the people on board would also 
be spared.  So Paul was not afraid.  

I.  Waiting for daylight to come 

	V. 37, “And we were in all in the ship two hundred threescore and sixteen 
souls.”  You will note that Luke, the writer of this book, used the word “we.”  
He included himself.  By this, he reminds us that he, himself, was aboard that 
ship in that storm.  So we can account for at least three Christians aboard the 
ship.  There was the Apostle Paul, Luke and Aristarchus, who was named back in 
verse 2 of this chapter.  If there were other Christians in the group Luke says 
nothing about it.  In verse 1 he does give the name of the Roman centurion   His 
name was Julius.  By looking ahead to verse 42 we learn that Paul was not the 
only prisoner aboard.  There were likely a sizable number of prisoners because 
the Roman centurion had with him 100 Roman soldier and that many soldiers would 
not be needed for just a few prisoners.  The ship’s captain and other officers 
were aboard the ship, and Luke tells us in earlier verses that the ship’s owner 
was aboard.  There may have been a goodly number of other passengers.  The total 
number was 273.people plus the cargo of wheat that it was carrying.    This lets 
us know that this was a rather large ship for that day.   
	V. 38, “And when they had eaten enough, they lightened the ship, and cast 
out the wheat into the sea.”  Now that they had eaten it was back to work again.  
They had already done much to lighten the ship.  They had thrown overboard 
everything they thought that they could get by without.  They had even thrown 
the ship’s tackle overboard.  But by now the ship had taken in more water and 
would be sitting very deeply into the sea increasing the chances it would sink.  
This would also increase the chances that the bottom of the ship would hit some 
underwater rock and rip a hole in the bottom of the ship.  So now the wheat, 
which was its main cargo, was thrown overboard.  They had consoled themselves to 
the fact that both the ship and its cargo would both be lost.  What they were 
trying to do by lightening the ship further was to try to get the ship in close 
enough to shore that the people could reach shore safely.  
	I want you to take note of something.  Earlier they had been in despair.  
They had given up all hope.  But now, they joyfully go about the work of 
emptying the ship of its wheat.  The know that they are going to shipwreck.  
That is apparent.  It was inevitable.  The are now going about dumping their 
cargo overboard.  But they are not in a state of depression.  They are not in 
despair.  They joyfully go about their work because they are confident that Paul 
has told them the truth.  They believe what God has promised Paul.  They are 
confident that they are going to reach the shore safely.  
	Listen!  We face a similar situation.  We all face death.  Both the saved 
and the unsaved face death.  That is inevitable.  For the unsaved this is reason 
for great despair.  The Bible teaches that when the unsaved depart from this 
life they go into the fires of hell to await their final resurrection and final 
judgment.  Then they will be cast into the Luke of Fire and Brimstone where they 
will suffer according to their deeds.  
	But for the Christian that is no reason to despair.  You see God has 
promised that all who place their faith in Jesus Christ for salvation will reach 
heaven’s shores safely.  Believe me, it is no tragedy to go to heaven.  It is no 
tragedy even to die when you are going to heaven.  We need not fear that somehow 
we might end up in hell.  God has promised that we will make it safely to 
heaven’s shores.  Instead of despair there is reason for us to rejoice.  
	Please note another thing.  They had work to do while they were waiting 
for the ship to wreck.  Likewise, we who are saved by the grace of God through 
faith in Jesus Christ have work to do while we wait for death to come upon us 
and send us on our way to heaven.  May God give us the grace to be about his 
work and to do so with joy in our hearts.  
	
II.   When daylight came      

   	V. 39, “And when it was day, they knew not the land...”  That is, none of 
the ship’s crew recognized having ever seen this shoreline before.  There were 
no distinguishing landmarks which they could recognized so as to be able to 
identify their locality.  They had been unable in the storm to chart their 
course so that they would now know where they were.  If they had been able to 
recognize where they were they could make decisions based on their former 
knowledge of the shoreline, but they had no former knowledge of this place.  
Therefore, they had to make decisions as to their best course of action based on 
what they could see.  
	What they saw was encouraging. (V. 39), “...but they discovered a certain 
creek with a shore...”  The could see the mouth of a creek which emptied into 
the sea.  They could see a sandy shore on either side of the mouth of the creek 
which had been formed by sand and sediment which had washed down by the waters 
of the creek.  The mention of the sandy shores which the creek had formed 
indicates that the rest of the shoreline visible to them was rocky and very 
dangerous.  If they could somehow manage to stir the ship into the mouth of the 
creek even for a short distance, they would be somewhat protected from the main 
force of the winds by the land and trees.  If they should not make it into the 
creek, they would hit one of the sandy shores which the creek had formed.  That 
would be much better than hitting the rocky shores.  So their best course of 
action was to try to get into creek or at least to the sandy shores and this was 
the decision which they made.  (V. 39), “...into the which they were minded, if 
it were possible, to thrust in the ship.”   
	So immediately they set about to try to maneuver the ship into the mouth 
of the creek.  V. 40, “And when they had taken up the anchors...”  The King 
James version reads that they took up the anchors.  That is, that they drew the 
anchors up and kept them in the ship.  It is worthy of note that some of the 
older manuscripts say that they cut the anchor ropes and left the anchors in the 
water.  If this is the correct reading it would make better sense.  It does not 
seem likely that the crew would want the heavy anchors on board to cause the 
ship to sink deep into the water and increase the danger that they would hit an 
underwater rock before they could get to the creek.  But whichever reading is 
correct, they were no longer anchored and the ship was being pushed by the 
fierce winds.  (V. 40), “...they committed [themselves] unto the sea...”
	(V. 40), “...and loosed the rudder bands, and hoised up the mainsail to 
the wind...”  Old records indicate that ships of that day had two rudders which 
were used to help stir the ship.  During the time that they were anchored they 
would have the rudders tied to help prevent the anchor ropes from becoming 
entangled by the rudders.  But now that the ship was moving they would need to 
use the rudders to try to stir the ship toward the mouth of the creek and so 
they cut the rudders loose.  Both the rudders and the mainsail would be used to 
try to stir the boat toward the creek.  (V. 40), “...and made toward shore.”  
That is, the made toward the mouth of the creek which was a part of the 
shoreline.  

III.  The shipwreck

	V. 41, “And falling into a place where two seas met...”   This terminology 
describes a narrow strip of sand which was washed by waves on both sides.  In 
otherwise it was a sandbar.  It may have been underneath the surface of the 
water and thus could not be seen by the sailors.  Had they seen it they probably 
could have stirred the ship to avoid it.  
	(V. 41), “...they ran the ship aground; and the forepart stuck fast, and 
remained unmoveable...”  The ship hit the sandbar with a terrific force and the 
bow of the ship stuck securely in the sand.  It would have  been impossible for 
those sailors to  get that heavy ship off that sandbar.  
	With the front part of the ship stuck firmly on the sandbar and the back 
part of the ship still afloat it was just a matter of time until the powerful 
winds and waves would beat the back part of the ship to pieces.  It did not 
happen immediately.  It did not break in two immediately.  It would take time.  
This would give those aboard time to move to the front part of the ship from 
which they would make their exit to go ashore.  
	(V. 41), “...but the hinder part was broken with the violence of the 
waves.”  It must not have taken long for the winds and the waves to beat the 
hind part of the ship to pieces and leave the men stranded on the from part of 
the ship.  It was obvious that they must soon leave the front part of the ship 
because it, too, was in danger of being torn apart by the fury of the storm.  
There was little time to act.  
	But before they could exit a new problem arose.  V. 42, “And the soldiers' 
counsel was to kill the prisoners, lest any of them should swim out, and 
escape.” 
 At first it was a problem only for the Roman soldiers.  They were afraid that 
even if they made it safely to shore they still might lose their lives.  They 
were afraid that some or all of the prisoners might escape and that they would 
be held responsible by the Roman government for allowing them to escape and 
would be put to death.  This, to them was a real threat to their lives.  So what 
they intended to do was to put all the prisoners to death there on the ship.  
	This now posed a problem for all of the prisoners.  It appeared that they 
would not be given a chance to make it safely to shore.  They would all be 
killed right there on the ship.  This included the Apostle Paul.  This plan by 
the Roman soldiers was a threat to the life of the Apostle Paul.  
	Now it became a problem for God.  You see God had promised the Apostle 
Paul that he would live to go on to Rome.  God had also promised Paul that all 
of the people aboard the ship would safely reach the shore.  Now when God has a 
problem God finds a way to solve that problem and God found a way to spare the 
life of the Apostle Paul and the lives of all the prisoners.  
	V. 43-44, “But the centurion, willing to save Paul, kept them from [their] 
purpose; and commanded that they which could swim should cast [themselves] first 
[into the sea], and get to land:  And the rest, some on boards, and some on 
[broken pieces] of the ship. And so it came to pass, that they escaped all safe 
to land.”  God moved upon the heart of the Roman centurion and somehow persuaded 
him to spare the life of Paul.  In fact his orders would spare the lives of all 
the prisoners.  He ordered his soldiers and all the people aboard the ship who 
could swim to immediately jump into the water and swim to he shore.  Therefore, 
the soldiers did not have time kill the prisoners.  They had to obey the orders 
of the centurion and jump.  
	This accomplished two things.  First it saved the life of the Apostle Paul 
and the lives of all the other prisoners.  Secondly, it put people on the shore 
who could swim who would be available to assist those who could not swim and 
help them to get safely to the shore.  While the swimmers were swimming to the 
shore the non-swimmers were ordered to hunt boards or anything that would float 
and take it with them into the water so that they  could hold on tight.  The 
winds and waves would carry them to the shore or at least near the shore where 
the swimmers could help.  
	The result was that Paul and the other prisoners were saved from the 
soldiers and everybody was saved from drowning in the waters.  They all made it 
safely to the shore.  

IV.  Some important lessons for us

	Let us first learn that God keeps His promises.  He promised Paul that he 
would survive the shipwreck and God kept His promise to Paul.  God also promised 
Paul that all of the people aboard the ship would survive the shipwreck and God 
kept that promise also.  God kept them all alive and saw them safely to the 
shore.  God has promised the unsaved that if he would trust Jesus Christ to save 
his soul that Jesus would save his soul and see him safely to heaven.  God will 
keep His promise.  In John 534 Jesus said, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He 
that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, 
and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.”   In 
Hebrews 7:25 we read, “Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost 
that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.”
	God has made many great  promises to those who are saved.  One of those 
precious promises is, “I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.”  That promise 
is found in Hebrews 13:5.  
  	Let us be sure that every promise that God has made, God will keep.  Let 
us depend on the promises that He has made to us.  
	Let us learn to help one another.  The people aboard that ship all joined 
in doing the work that was necessary trying to survive.  We should learn to do 
the same thing.  We are all in the ship of life together.  In this world there 
is all too much working against one another.  We need the help of others.  
Others need our help.  Let us learn to work and help one another.  Especially 
there is the need for those of us who are Christians to seek to assist others in 
coming to Jesus.  We cannot make folks come to Jesus and be saved, but we can 
counsel others and assist them to come to Jesus if the want to be saved.  
	Let us learn that for those who are saved there is a better day ahead.  
For fourteen days Paul and all aboard that ship were in the storm.  The winds 
blew hard upon them and the waves beat unmercifully upon them.  But there was a 
better day ahead.  The day came when they were all safe on the shores of an 
island.  As long as we live in this world we are subject to the storms of life.  
But, thank God, there are better days ahead.  The time will come when all of 
God’s redeemed people will be safely on the beautiful shores of heaven.  What a 
time of rejoicing that will be!  
	Let us learn that our time here in this world is short.  When those 
sailors tested the waters and learned that they were getting into shallow water 
they knew that they were very close to land and that it would not be long before 
they would hit the shore.  They would hit it whether they were prepared or not.  
They had but a little time in which to get prepared.  Listen, folks, our time 
here in this world is short.  If you are unsaved, you have but a short time in 
which to get prepared to meet God.  If you are saved, you have but a short time 
in which to serve the Lord in this world.  Whatever we know to be most important 
for us to do in this world, we need to get it done without delay.  We are going 
to face death and that very soon.  Let us get prepared while there is time.