Julius: Name, Rank and Serial Number – Acts 27

I think that 27 is one of the most exciting chapters in the Book of Acts and in all the Word of God.

It’s not because of the doctrine or the way that it directly touches us who are here this afternoon.

The name of “Jesus” is not mentioned here and neither is His title: “Christ.”

What makes this exciting is that Luke takes us into the details of a very perilous situation.

It doesn’t take a lot of imagination for us to fill in the blanks and to visualize what was happening.

And yet, there is still enough not said that our minds are forced to directly take part in what is said.

Thus far we have looked at the geography involved and made a brief survey of the characters of the chapter.

And this morning we looked at it allegorically.

This afternoon I would like to focus on the Centurion Julius.

I have friends who try to confine their reference books and Bible helps only to those people with whom they have at least a 90% agreement.

I know people who, if in their reading, find a mis-statement, a slight heresy, or a wrong conclusion, they quit reading.

In the process they proverbially “throw out the baby with the bath water.”

Some of those people probably wouldn’t like my theme for this evening, because it is a person who may, or may not, be a child of God.

Can we learn positive things from a negative person or situation?

Can any good thing come out of Nazareth? I, for one, thinks so.

This message will not be the most homiletical, but let’s try to glean a lesson or two from Julius.

We begin with his NAME.

It means next to nothing.

I found it strange that my usual commentaries didn’t try to define or explain the name “Julius.”

“Nikolai” is an equivalent to “Nicholas,” which is Greek for “the victorious people.”

But “Julius” isn’t so well honoured or so well-known.

After a little digging I found that this man’s name means “soft hair.”

Having recently felt the hair of a new born, maybe this man’s mother, stroked his head for the first time after his birth and said, “Julius.”

But then John Gill suggested that maybe he was a member of the famous Julian family of Rome.

Perhaps he was in some way related to Julius Caesar.

But then he went on to spoil the thought by saying, “or rather he was one that had been made free by some of that family, and so took the name.”

In other words, maybe he was a slave of the Julian family whom they released.

He took their name in order to thank them for his freedom?

Who can say?

The name of this man doesn’t mean very much to us today, but it does suggest a couple of things:

For example, it reminds us once again that Luke was an eye-witness of the things that he describes.

He was not simply repeating material which he had been given by Paul or someone else.

Luke KNEW that this man’s name was Julius.

Second, it suggests that other Christians might have known who he was as well

In other words he was like the Centurion Cornelius.

There may have been a little bit of fame about him by the time that Luke put his name to paper.

I am not done with this thought, but I’m going table it for now and come back to it in just a few minutes.

As to his RANK, Julius was a Roman Centurion.

Julius was said to be a Centurion of the “Augustus band.”

We have another note of that nature in regard to Cornelius who was a Centurion of the “Italian band.”

William Ramsey thinks that Julius was a member of a special cohort of troops that were honored by Augustus and which had special responsibilities toward whomever was the Emperor.

He goes on to suggest that it was the business of this Centurion to carry special Imperial prisoners back and forth to Rome for trial or execution.

At this point, I’m not sure that anyone will ever know.

In my mind, one of the amazing trivial things in the Bible is the nature of the Centurions that we find there.

There are actually quite a few of them, and not one of them is described in a particularly bad light.

It makes us wonder why.

A Centurion was a soldier of only moderate rank; he wasn’t a general or a great commander.

But still, to command a hundred men is not a small responsibility in any man’s army.

In that light, listen to this statement out of “Easton’s Bible Dictionary:”

“The centurions mentioned in the New Testament are uniformly spoken of in terms of praise, whether in the Gospels or in the Acts.

It is interesting to compare this with the statement of Polybius that the centurions were chosen by merit, and so were men remarkable not so much for their daring courage as for their deliberation, constancy, and strength of mind.”

In other words, unlike some military positions, the rank of Centurion was earned and not a political appointment.

Undoubtedly some men became Centurions on the battlefield when their own leader fell.

But apparently others reached that rank because of a variety of very good character traits.

Think about the other Centurions in the New Testament.

There was the Centurion of Capernaum in Luke 7:

“Now when he had ended all his sayings in the audience of the people, he entered into Capernaum. And a certain centurion’s servant, who was dear unto him, was sick, and ready to die. And when he heard of Jesus, he sent unto him the elders of the Jews, beseeching him that he would come and heal his servant.

And when they came to Jesus, they besought him instantly, saying, That he was worthy for whom he should do this: For he loveth our nation, and he hath built us a synagogue.

Then Jesus went with them. And when he was now not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to him, saying unto him, Lord, trouble not thyself: for I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof:

Wherefore neither thought I myself worthy to come unto thee: but say in a word, and my servant shall be healed.

For I also am a man set under authority, having under me soldiers, and I say unto one, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it.

When Jesus heard these things, he marvelled at him, and turned him about, and said unto the people that followed him, I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.”

And then there was the Centurion of Calvary.

“And it was about the sixth hour, and there was a darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour. And the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was rent in the midst.

And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost.

Now when the centurion saw what was done, he glorified God, saying, Certainly this was a righteous man.”

I’m not in a position to say that either of these men were Christians, but as Paul said to Agrippa, they were “almost if not altogether” such as he was.

Did they both become children of God through their contact with the Lord Jesus Christ?

Then there was Cornelius of Acts 10.

“There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian band,

A devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God alway.”

Here was a Roman who fell in love with the God of Israel, and the God of Israel loved Cornelius.

This man did become a child of God by the grace of the Lord.

Then there were four or five Centurions who were touched by the life of Paul.

There were more than one Centurion under the command of Claudius Lysias who rescued Paul from the mob in the Temple.

Then there was the Centurion who was ready to follow Lysias’ orders and beat Paul, but who stopped and warned his superior when he found out that Paul was a Roman.

That may, or may not, have been the same Centurion to whom Paul sent his nephew with news about the conspiracy.

Each of the Centurions in Paul’s life were presented by Luke as either good men or at the very least diligent and efficient in their duties.

To the best of my knowledge there is not an evil thing said about any of the Centurions in the Bible.

And that brings us back to JULIUS.

What sort of things do we see in his life, Christian and non-Christian, which we might emulate?

Well, to him was committed a number of important Roman prisoners.

“And when it was determined that we should sail into Italy, they delivered Paul and certain other prisoners unto one named Julius, a centurion of Augustus’ band.”

I’ve never thought about this until the other day.

As a father, as a husband, as a pastor and in other ways, I have several important responsibilities.

This is true of all of us to one degree or another, even while we are children and still at home.

You teenagers have responsibilities before your siblings, neigbours and friends.

We all have God-given duties and responsibilities.

But how often do we think about them as such? Probably not too often.

And then, how hard do we actually prepare ourselves and train ourselves for those responsibilities?

Don’t most of us, just fall into those jobs and roles without much fore-thought being given to them?

And even more, how much do we pray and yearn for God-glorifying responsibilities in the first place?

No one can speak to Julius’ attitude and approach to his job,

but to him was given the responsibility of a number of important prisoners,

and he took his task seriously.

When we eventually come to chapter 28 we will read: “And when we came to Rome, the centurion delivered the prisoners to the captain of the guard.”

We should learn from Julius that each of us will be given responsibilities throughout our lives.

And we should strive to be worthy of the best and highest, the most worthy and the most noble jobs in this life.

And then once you are given a job, do it with all your heart.

“Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.”

Second, or perhaps even before the prisoners, came Julius’ command of a hundred soldiers.

We know nothing about the specific route that was taken by that man to reach this rank.

In fact, I know nothing about advancement in the Roman military at all.

But I assume that Julius began at the lowest levels of army life and somehow worked his way up.

There is nothing wrong with, and a lot right with, starting at the bottom and working up.

I suppose it is natural for young people to think that when they leave home and begin their own independent lives that they should begin at the same economic and social level as their parents.

But it’s not logical to think that a brand-new adult should make the same income as an adult who has been learning and working for 20 or 25 years.

It’s not logical to think that a young adult should receive the same respect and recognition as his parents.

Wisdom has to be learned, and respect has to be earned.

The only place that these things can be gained is in the trenches and with dirty hands.

I think that probably Julius was a Centurion because he deserved to be a Centurion.

And if we ever want to be Centurions then we have to expect to begin at the beginning too.

A third thing that we see about Julius was his courteous treatment of Paul.

“And the next day we touched at Sidon. And Julius courteously entreated Paul, and gave him liberty to go unto his friends to refresh himself.”

Just as Joseph found grace in the eyes of Potiphar, apparently Paul found grace in the eyes of Julius.

The Greek word is “philanthropos” – he treated him kindly.

Apparently in the opinion of this Centurion Paul needed to be refreshed.

Had he been sick and was he in some sort of weakened condition?

Was he depressed and obviously dejected?

Had he been deprived of clean clothes and the tools of proper hygiene?

We aren’t in a position to say.

But whatever the need was, Julius was kind and courteous enough to invite and encourage Paul to leave the ship and spend some time with his acquaintances in Sidon.

Doesn’t this seem out of character in the relationship between a guard and his prisoner?

Whether or not this kindness and courteousness was appropriate for a Roman soldier, it is certainly appropriate for the man who claims to be a child of grace.

The bitter, mean, hate-filled man is not a true representative of Christ.

Look at the Lord Jesus;

Sure there were times when he called a Pharisee a Pharisee and a hypocrite and hypocrite,

but most of the time the bruised reed he did not break, and smoking flax shall he did not quench.

Most of the time our Saviour was a blessing to people, including those who were not necessarily saved.

Why can’t we be like that?

In fact, why can’t we be more like Julius?

Julius displayed COMMON SENSE.

When the ship of Adramyttium reached Myra, Julius found another ship headed toward Rome.

We remember that they didn’t have computerized bookings and synchronized schedules in those days.

When Judy and I checked in at Spokane to fly to South Carolina, we didn’t have tickets.

We marched right up to the counter and showed the lady our ID’s and she gave us tickets.

There wasn’t even any exchange of money.

But half-way through the flight, I came to realize that we didn’t have boarding passes to fly from Washington to Columbia.

We had passes for the plane leaving O’Hare, but not from Dulles.

But after traveling 5 miles from one gate in Washington to another, all we did was show the woman our driver’s licenses and once again we were permitted to board the last plane.

Aren’t computers something wonderful?

Julius didn’t have the assistance of a computer.

He just knew from experience that eventually he’d find a ship heading in the direction that he needed.

But then there was the storm and the harbor at Fair Havens.

Paul, under the leadership of the Holy Spirit, suggested that they should stay where they were.

But the Captain and some of the more experienced sailors suggested that it would be better if they reached Phoenix.

From there they might even have winds favorable toward the completion their journey.

Julius, as the Imperial representative, was the defacto commander of the trip.

And based on the recommendations of the experts and the favorable wind, he said that it was a good idea to sail around to Phoenice.

It was a decision based upon common sense, to reject Paul’s opinion and accept that of the experts.

I do not fault Julius for setting sail that day.

Common sense is a good thing.

Unfortunately common sense isn’t as common as it once was.

How practical are you, and can it be said that you display good sense?

Is this something about which you need to pray and beseech the Lord?

Julius displayed quick and decisive DECISION-MAKING ABILITY.

“And as the shipmen were about to flee out of the ship, when they had let down the boat into the sea, under colour as though they would have cast anchors out of the foreship,

Paul said to the centurion and to the soldiers, Except these abide in the ship, ye cannot be saved.

Then the soldiers cut off the ropes of the boat, and let her fall off.”

I think that it’s impossible to believe that the soldiers released the boat without the Centurion’s orders.

The sailors made it appear that they were only going to help secure the safety of the ship.

But thinking that everyone in the ship was doomed, they thought that by using the boat they could escape.

When Julius heard Paul’s warning, before the sailors could even get aboard, the boat was released and lost.

What was it that gave Paul’s word such authority in the mind of this Centurion?

Was it that Paul was right about leaving Fair Havens?

Was it his calm, faith-filled demeanor in the face of the storm.

Or was it something else?

Whatever it was, if he hadn’t acted quickly,

not only would the sailors have lost their lives in the little boat, but so would the rest,

because there would have been no one skilled enough to direct the ship onto the shore.

And then there was Julius’ REJECTION OF THE SUGGESTION that prisoners be killed.

“And the soldiers’ counsel was to kill the prisoners, lest any of them should swim out, and escape.

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.”

It was the responsibility of the entire hundred man troop to make sure that every one of the prisoners eventually appeared in court in Rome or else in the Coliseum.

I’m sure that there were probably some of those soldiers who would have taken delight in killing those defenseless criminals.

But in the larger scheme of things, Julius was more responsible for the delivery of the prisoners than any of the men under his command.

He took full responsibility for ordering that no one was slain.

And of course the plan worked perfectly.

Everyone escaped the sea but didn’t escape the authority of the Centurion.

Do you remember the earthquake in Philippi, and the fact that the man overseeing the jail was about to kill himself, thinking that some of his prisoners had fled?

Do you remember that Paul shouted to him that all of the prisoners were still there?

We don’t know how many prisoners there were, but doesn’t it appear that there were more than just Paul and Silas?

One of the many miracles that night was that all of the prisoners were still there.

And likewise, perhaps one of the miracles of Acts 27 was that none of the prisoners escaped the Romans while they were all trying to escape the sea.

Now we come to a question of PURE SPECULATION:

Why did Julius show such kindness to Paul by giving him some liberty in Sidon?

And why did he save the lives of some very evil people just to make sure that Paul’s life was spared?

It was neither logical or practical for him to do either.

His responsibility to Rome might have been to execute the prisoners, I don’t know.

Someone might suggest that his orders were to deliver the prisoners and not to execute them.

But when Luke says that it was because Julius wanted to spare Paul that he ordered no one to be killed, it seems to say that he had the authority to command their execution if they were attempting to escape.

But again, why did Julius want to spare Paul’s life?

Could it be that the Lord had drawn these two men together?

Could it be that Julius had believed Paul’s report and that he too was either almost or altogether such as Paul – a child of the King?

Could it be that he had been saved by the grace of God through the life and ministry of Paul?

Right or wrong, that is what my heart wants to believe.

And I guess that only eternity will actually tell us the truth.