Acts 27:24

Sermon preached on February 4, 2007 by Laurence W. Veinott. © Copyright 2007. All rights reserved. Other sermons can be found at http://www.newlifeop.org/.

I grew up in a harbor town and we used to have a lot of fun playing down by the water's edge. Right at the end of my street, perhaps 100 yards from my house, was a little cliff and below what was the shore and the water. One day when I was around 10 years old we almost got into big trouble down there. Four or five of us were walking along the shore when we came across a really nice row boat. It was bigger than the ones that we were used to and it must have been used by a fisherman. It was just sitting there—it was half in the water and half out- but it wasn't tied up and there was no one around. It was most unusual. We couldn't figure out why it was there like that. When the tide came it would just float away. So we hurried over to it and were full of admiration at such a nice boat. It wasn't before long that one of us said,

"Let's take it out for a ride."



That sounded like a good idea so that's what we did. We pushed it into the boat out into the water and quickly rowed perhaps about 30 feet from shore when all of a sudden police sirens and lights were going and people and policemen were standing on the road above the cliff waving for us to come in.

We couldn't believe what was happening. I think it must have been a world record as far as police response time goes—they were on us so quickly. It's like they were lying in wait for us.

But actually they weren't. What happened was that someone had stolen the boat and the police and the man who owned it were going back and forth on the road looking for it. But they couldn't see it from their cars when it was on shore because of the little cliff. But as soon as we launched it, they saw us and that's when they turned on the sirens.

I thought we were going to get in a lot of trouble but fortunately, one of my friends who was in the boat with us—Gordie Carter, was the son of a town policeman. The police knew him and they believed when he told them that we had just found that boat and that we hadn't stolen it. I think the fact that we were so young helped too—as I don't think we could have rowed the boat from where it was stolen. Anyway, because we were with my friend, Gordie, we got off scot-free. They let us go. We all got away except, that is, for Gordie. You see, this happened right in front of Gordie's house and the last I saw of Gordie was his mother dragging him into his house.

But the point is that we got off because we were with Gordie. Being with him made all the difference.

We have something like that in our text—only it's on a much higher level. The great truth that we see here is that

God spared the lives of others on the ship because of Paul.

It was all because of Paul that no lives were lost. In verse 24 Paul reported that the angel had said to him,

"God has graciously given you
the lives of all who sail with you."

If Paul had not have been on that ship some lives would have been lost. Some would have been drowned or succumbed to hypothermia or been killed by the soldiers. But because Paul was there, everyone was spared. God saved them all because of Paul.

What's important for us to understand is that this wasn't a special, unique case that applied to Paul and to him only and that it never applies to other Christians. No. God sometimes works this way. John Calvin writes,

"it sometimes happens that, when the Lord spares His own, He preserves the ungodly for a time along with them."



We see this principle at work in the Old Testament. You'll remember when God was going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, He told Abraham about it. We read, (Genesis 18:23-32)

"Then Abraham approached him and said:
'Will you sweep away the righteous
with the wicked?
What if there are
fifty righteous people in the city?
Will you really sweep it away
and not spare the place for the sake
of the fifty righteous people in it?
Far be it from you to do such a thing—
to kill the righteous with the wicked,
treating the righteous and the wicked alike.
Far be it from you!
Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?'
The LORD said,
'If I find fifty righteous people
in the city of Sodom,
I will spare the whole place for their sake.'
Then Abraham spoke up again:
'Now that I have been so bold
as to speak to the Lord,
though I am nothing but dust and ashes,
what if the number of the righteous
is five less than fifty?
Will you destroy the whole city
because of five people?'
'If I find forty-five there,' he said,
'I will not destroy it.'
Once again he spoke to him,
'What if only forty are found there?'
He said, 'For the sake of forty,
I will not do it.'
Then he said,
'May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak.
What if only thirty can be found there?'
He answered,
'I will not do it if I find thirty there.'
Abraham said,
'Now that I have been so bold
as to speak to the Lord,
what if only twenty can be found there?'
He said, 'For the sake of twenty,
I will not destroy it.'
Then he said,
'May the Lord not be angry,
but let me speak just once more.
What if only ten can be found there?'
He answered, 'For the sake of ten,
I will not destroy it.'"

God would have spared Sodom and Gomorrah if there had been 10 righteous people in it. God sometimes spares cities and people because of the presence of righteous people.

You'll also recall that in Matthew 5:13 Jesus said to His disciples,

"You are the salt of the earth."

In the ancient world salt was a preservative. But we must not understand that in just one way, that our influence stops society from becoming worse—rather we must also understand that the presence of godly people sometimes preserves some of the ungodly from punishment, at least temporarily. God often withholds the punishment that sin deserves because of the presence of His people. John Calvin writes,

"it is a remarkable pledge of God's love toward us that He makes some drops of His kindness flow from us to others."



There are two other examples from the Old Testament that don't relate to God preserving people's lives, but with God blessing them because of their close contact with His people. In Genesis 30:27 Laban said to Jacob,

"If I have found favor in your eyes,
please stay.
I have learned by divination
that the LORD has blessed me because of you."

Then in Genesis 39:4-5 we read about Potiphar.

"Joseph found favor in his eyes
and became his attendant.
Potiphar put him in charge of his household,
and he entrusted to his care
everything he owned.
From the time he put him in charge of his household
and of all that he owned,
the LORD blessed
the household of the Egyptian
because of Joseph.
The blessing of the LORD
was on everything Potiphar had,
both in the house and in the field."

So the principle we see is that God sometimes spares ungodly people because of the righteous in their midst. At other times he blesses ungodly people because of their close connection with God's people.

This has great implications for us.

First of all, for Christians,

you are to realize what a blessing you are to society.

Many people today believe just the opposite. They think that society would be better off without Christianity. Gore Vidal once said that the worst thing that ever happened to Western civilization was its conversion to Christianity. Many other people think that violence and hate are fueled by many religions and that the world would be better off without them. John Lennon wanted us to imagine a world where there would be no religion.

But what we should understand is that Christianity is the best thing that ever happened to the human race. It not only gives hope, in the sense that whoever believes will be saved but the presence of Christians has a beneficial, preserving effect on society.

Now this does not mean that we should be proud or glory in ourselves or anything like that. But you Christians should realize how important you are to our society. You are to humbly see yourself as a means that God uses to preserve sinful men. F. F. Bruce writes,

"The world has no idea how much it owes, in the mercy of God, to the presence in it of righteous men."



The world may not realize it—but you Christians should. We are to realize how God uses us and thank Him for using such unworthy vessels to His glory. How thankful you should be to God for this. The angel said to Paul, 'God has graciously given you the lives of all who sail with you.'. The Greek word means, "to give freely, as a favor'. God did not have to do it. He did it to honor Paul. Praise God for His grace.

Secondly, Christians,

be prepared to go through life's storms with those who are not Christians.

We know that God could have given Paul a peaceful and uneventful journey to Rome. Although Paul could have learned some lessons from the storm—I don't believe the storm was primarily for his benefit. But God had a great purpose in it for the others. Many people are open to the gospel after they face a life-threatening situation. They realize their own mortality. God uses it to wake them up.

But if Paul and the other Christians had not been on the ship, they might not have known where to turn. But because Paul was there and because God exalted him—everyone knew where to turn—to Paul's God.

So next time you have to go through something bad, weather it be an ice storm, sickness—whatever—recognize that you are there to help those that are with you.

Thirdly, for those of you who are not Christians,

you should realize what a blessing Christians have been to you.

It is a possibility that one of the reasons you are alive today is because of your connection with Christians. That was the case for Paul's shipmates and that may be the case for you.

The mere possibility that may be the case ought to make you sit up and take seriously the command to believe in Jesus. You need to believe now.

Lenski suggests the possibility that in regard to Paul and others on the ship that more than their sparing their physical lives was in view. He writes, (Acts, p. 1083)

"Surely, it was not the keeping of all alive that is so important in this divine grant… Is not God telling them that through Paul's mediation they, too, like him, are to be this true God's own in order to serve him? There were to see and to hear much more about God, and we may, indeed, conclude that many of these men 'sailing with Paul' came also to be saved in the higher sense."



He will may be correct. Many on the ship were slow to give an heed to Paul. We see this in the sailors. They were going to abandon Paul and the other passengers and prisoners when they let the lifeboat down. The soldiers also, were prepared to kill Paul and the other prisoners when the ship wrecked in order to prevent any of them from escaping.

But God spared them all and continued to work in Paul. Many people saw the snake bite him. Many learned of how he healed Publius' father. Many learned how Paul healed everyone who was sick on the island. God spared them, some, no doubt, to believe in Jesus.

God has spared you. You need to believe right now.