It seems to me that the older I get the quicker that time flies by.
Many young people think that time moves too slowly.
And I’m sure that for the more elderly, especially those who can’t get out and about, they would agree with the kids.
For people in hospitals and nursing homes, time has an anchors dragging along through every minute of the day.
And we would have to include people in prison, like Paul.
For two years or more, Paul had been confined to the stockade in Herod’s Judgment Hall.
After the excitement of the previous two years, those months in prison probably seemed like eternity.
But finally, his demand for an hearing before Caesar had been granted; he was on his way to Rome.
In my ignorance I tend to think that Festus had the authority to release Paul.
We know that he had that power when he first arrived on the scene, as Felix did before him.
It would have been a bold move,
but it seems logical to me that the Roman governor had authority to set Paul at liberty.
But – he might have been forced by law to send Paul to Rome once the appeal had been made.
Tonight, we’re going to take note of some of the background of this chapter: personalities and geography.
“And after those days WE took up our carriages, and went up to Jerusalem.
And the day following Paul went in with US unto James; and all the elders were present.”
And that is the last we hear of him until verse 1 of this chapter.
What do you suppose he had been doing during that time?
Or had he gone home or on to other responsibilities?
William Ramsey used to be considered the foremost expert on the life of the Apostle Paul.
As far as I am concerned he still is.
One of the greatest books on the life of Paul is Ramsey’s “St. Paul, the Traveller and Roman Citizen,” originally published in 1897.
What makes this book particularly special is that Ramsey had been a somewhat wealthy agnostic,
But it was through his personal contact with Luke and Paul that he was converted.
So this book is the product of personal research by an unfriendly critic.
And now it not only corroborates the scripture but elucidates it.
Ramsey refers to another important prisoner, who taken to Rome just about the same time as Paul.
That man’s wife wanted to accompany her husband and was willing to pay the fare, but she was refused.
Then she offered to go as her husband’s servant, but because the officials knew that she was actually his wife they continued to refuse.
Ramsey uses that situation to suggest that Paul and Aristarchus convinced the Romans that they were Paul’s slaves, and that they behaved as such both prior to and during the voyage to Rome.
It seems obvious that Paul was treated with some kind of respect while on this journey.
But he was flanked with people who may have appeared to be personal slaves.
This name is mentioned five times in the Bible, and three refer to Aristarchus of Thessalonica.
So this might have been one of the men caught by Demetius and dragged into the arena in Ephesus.
The books of Colossians and Philemon were written while in Rome and Aristarchus is mentioned in both of those books.
But other than passing references, all that we really know is that he was a Christian from Thessalonica.
And he obviously loved and served Paul.
The second major character of this chapter is JULIUS, the Centurion.
I have plans to have a message specifically about him this Sunday afternoon,
so at this point we’ll just skip over him.
Later we will see that there will be a potential problem on board ship in the person of its owner and master.
Who was it in charge? Julius the Centurion with the authority of the Emperor, or the ship’s captain?
And in this case not only was the other man “captain,” but he was the owner.
You can be sure that he was very, very interested in the safety of the vessel and with the safe arrival of his primary cargo.
And his primary cargo was not Julius, Paul and the other prisoners.
The ship that ran aground in Malta was a freighter filled with wheat or corn from Egypt.
It was an extremely valuable cargo which I’m sure that man would have done nearly anything to preserve – even to killing everyone else on board.
Then there were the soldiers and sailors.
These two groups of men had different allegiances and different responsibilities.
And as we shall see later they clashed.
Finally, there was one other group of people on board this ship: other prisoners.
Ramsey thinks that they were probably all condemned criminals.
These were not citizens of Rome, or if they were, they had been stripped of their citizenships.
These men probably had not appealed unto Caesar.
They were most likely being shipped to Rome to suffer death in the Coliseum.
We need to remember that the Roman lust for blood about this period in their history was insatiable.
So these are the characters of this chapter.
And entering into a ship of Adramyttium, we launched, meaning to sail by the coasts of Asia; one Aristarchus, a Macedonian of Thessalonica, being with us.”
I trust that you know where Macedonia is and the approximate location of Thessalonica.
Adramyttium was a city in Mysia on the upper coast of the Aegean Sea close to Troas.
The first ship that the party caught appears to have been a little coastal vessel, much like one that Paul had used to finish his third missionary journey.
It was not going to Rome and in fact may have been returning to its home port for the winter.
But Julius knew that it would stop at one or two places where he could pick up a larger ship for Rome.
“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.”
After leaving Caesarea this little coastal vessel docked at its next regular stop 69 miles up the coast: Sidon.
Since it was to spend the rest of the day and probably the night there, Julius permitted Paul to disembark to meet with the Sidonian church.
But there were probably at least a couple of Roman guards with him.
Was there a church service? Did Paul preach to the saints in Sidon?
Were those guards exposed to the gospel?
And what does this say about the character of Julius?
Could it be that he was already convinced that Paul had not done “anything worthy of death or bonds?”
“And when we had launched from thence, we sailed under Cyprus, because the winds were contrary.
And when we had sailed over the sea of Cilicia and Pamphylia, we came to Myra, a city of Lycia.”
If your Bible has a map, you might notice that in finishing his third mission trip, Paul and the others sailed south of Cyprus directly into Judea.
Those winds generally remained westerly throughout the Summer, but changed dramatically in Winter.
That meant that even if this ship wanted to, it wouldn’t want to sail south of Cyprus into those winds.
So they had to beat along the coast of Cilicia and Pamphylia until they reached Myra.
Again, if you have a map, you’ll see that Myra is almost due north of Alexandria, Egypt.
This was one of the major ports of the eastern Mediterranean and many if not all the grain freighters would stop there before scooting across to Greece and then to Italy.
Not even the bigger freighters wanted to sail into the open sea against those winds.
“And there the centurion found a ship of Alexandria sailing into Italy; and he put us therein. And when we had sailed slowly many days, and scarce were come over against Cnidus, the wind not suffering us, we sailed under Crete, over against Salmone; and, hardly passing it, came unto a place which is called The fair havens; nigh whereunto was the city of Lasea.”
In Mysia, Julius took his prisoners onto a much larger Egyptian ship bound for Rome.
Apparently the winds were particularly strong and starting to shift to the Northwest and they had a really rough time reaching Cnidus, one of the little islands at the lower corner of Asia (Turkey).
And they realized that unless the winds changed they would have a very hard time reaching Achaia (Greece), so the captain determined to use the wind to sail southwest to Crete.
They inched around Salmone and reached the lea side of the Island of Crete, coming to a small cove called “Fair Havens” close to the city of Lasea.
“Now when much time was spent, and when sailing was now dangerous, because the fast was now already past, Paul admonished them,
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.
And because the haven was not commodious to winter in, the more part advised to depart thence also, if by any means they might attain to Phenice, and there to winter; which is an haven of Crete, and lieth toward the south west and north west.
And when the south wind blew softly, supposing that they had obtained their purpose, loosing thence, they sailed close by Crete.”
As the winds would continue to shift, coming from the north and even from the east, that western port would be the safest and the most commodious haven in which to spend a couple of winter months.
But obviously, the owner of the ship, who was also the owner of the cargo, wanted to get to Rome as quickly as he could in order to collect payment.
If there was any break in the weather, he wanted to make the dash up to Achaia, and then across to the eastern side of the boot of Italy, where they would be sheltered enough to easily reach Rome.
We will deal with this later, but Paul, the Christian land-lubber, recommended that the ship stay put.
But Julius and the captain agreed that once the winds calmed they would go on.
“And when the south wind blew softly, supposing that they had obtained their purpose, loosing thence, they sailed close by Crete.
But not long after there arose against it a tempestuous wind, called Euroclydon.
And running under a certain island which is called Clauda, we had much work to come by the boat:
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.”
That country, they eventually learned, was the tiny island of Melita, or Malta.
When the captain had hoped to sail north west to Achaia, his ship was caught in a storm with hurricane force winds which drove them due west.
If they hadn’t providentially run into Melita, in another week or so they would have hit Carthage, Africa or eventually Spain.
That is if they were able to keep their ship afloat and the storm continued long enough.
But it was the will of God that the company stop in Malta.
Oh, how gracious our Lord is.
Not only were Paul, Luke and Aristarcus saved, but so was every other man on that ship.
And not only were those lives saved, but also saved were many of the souls of people on Miletus.
As the saying goes, “Man proposes but God disposes.”
“But we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”