Acts: The Gospel Surpasses & Transcends our Expectations (27:39-28:10)

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The second lesson is from Acts 27, beginning at the first verse.

And when it was decided that we should sail for Italy, they delivered Paul and some other prisoners to a centurion of the Augustan cohort named Julius.

And embarking in a ship of Adramitium, which was about to sail to ports along the coast of Asia, we put to sea.

Now when it was day, they did not recognize the land, but they noticed a bay with a beach on which they planned, if possible, to run the ship ashore.

So they cast off the anchors and left them in the sea, at the same time loosening the ropes that tied the rudders.

Then hoisting the foresail to the wind, they made for the beach.

But striking a reef, they ran the vessel aground.

The bow stuck and remained immovable, and the stern was being broken up by the surf.

The soldiers' plan was to kill the prisoners, lest any should swim away and escape.

But the centurion, wishing to save Paul, kept them from carrying out their plan.

He ordered those who could swim to jump overboard first and make for the land, and the rest on planks or on pieces of the ship.

And so it was that all were brought safely to land.

After we were brought safely through, we then learned that the island was called Malta.

The native people showed us unusual kindness, for they kindled a fire and welcomed us all because it had begun to rain and was cold.

When Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and put them on the fire, a viper came out because of the heat and fastened on his hand.

When the native people saw the creature hanging from his hand, they said to one another, No doubt this man is a murderer.

Though he has escaped from the sea, justice has not allowed him to live.

He, however, shook off the creature into the fire and suffered no harm.

They were waiting for him to swell up or suddenly fall down dead.

But when they had waited a long time and saw no misfortune come to him, they changed their minds and said that he was a god.

Now, in the neighborhood of that place where lands belonged to the chief man of the islands named Publius, who received us and entertained us hospitably for three days.

It happened that the father of Publius lay sick with fever and dysentery.

And Paul visited him and prayed, and putting his hands on him, healed him.

And when this had taken place, the rest of the people on the island who had diseases also came and were cured.

They also honored us greatly, and when we were back to sail, they put on board whatever we needed.

The word of the Lord.

Father, it's so easy to want to hear the things we want to hear, you say to us.

It's so easy to take things an opposite way that you tell us to go.

Father, I pray now that any distractions, anything that might hinder us from hearing your voice, not our own voices, would just fall away now.

And I pray us in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Please be seated.

So expectations can be a funny thing.

Expectations, we all have them for things in life.

We expect certain things from certain people, we expect certain things to go just so or in a certain way.

But most of the time, if if we rethink about it, when we put expectations on something, these expectations never go the way we actually want them to go.

Sometimes it may go in the same positive direction that benefits us, but most of the time our expectations that we put on things, on people, always go the other way.

And we've all experienced this.

This is something that happens daily, happens weekly, happens all through our lives, that we make expectations and things go the other way.

And the same is true when it comes to the gospel.

We put our own expectations on it.

There's things that we expect it to do, but it ends up surpassing what we expected it to do.

We think it should be this way, but it ends up going this way.

We have a hope that it's this, but it actually is this.

The thing with the gospel, as the title is of the sermon that you see in the bulletin, is that the gospel surpasses and transcends our expectations completely.

Anything we expect of it, it completely goes, surpasses it.

And now we come to the famous shipwreck episode in Acts.

We're coming right at the end of the book of Acts.

Creighton's going to finish it off in two weeks' time because we have the Bach cantata next week.

And we're coming to the end.

And this shipwreck episode from verses chapter 27 and to verse 28 are famous.

Many people have spoken about it.

Many people reference it.

This is a famous passage, and it's a very intense passage.

It could be a movie.

And it's the shipwreck passage.

And if you haven't already, please turn in your bulletins or in your Bible to chapters, uh chapter 27, verse 39.

And we're going to be jumping around a bit in chapter 27 and then ending in chapter 28.

So I'm just going to do a big summary of what happens in this shipwreck episode in chapter 27.

Paul is finally on his way to Rome.

He's sailing to Rome, as Pauline read at the beginning of the Acts passage.

He has gone, he stood before kings, he's been pushed around, he's been beaten, he's been whipped, and now he's on his way to Rome to go before the emperor.

And as they go, it becomes late in the season.

And when it happens late in the season, the weather changes drastically, and then the wind picks up and it makes it very dangerous to sail.

And what happens is that they end up in a harbor, but the harbor is not good enough to winter in.

So they have to go to, they try, they test their luck to go to a different harbor, and as they go, the northeastern wind hits them, and this is a very intense storm that happens yearly, and it hits them, and they're stuck in the middle of it.

And it's a desperate situation.

They don't eat for 14 days.

And then Paul pretty much pressures them into eating because they're so stressed, they're so weak.

And this is where we are, and this brings us to verse 39, and this is where the first point comes in.

The first point is the gospel affects lives.

Verse 39 to 44.

Now when it was day, they did not recognize the land, but they noticed a bay with a beach on which they planned, if possible, to run the ship ashore.

So what's going on here is that they've in the night during the night they took some fathoms, that means they took the depths of the ocean to see how deep the land is, and they've noticed that it's starting to go up, so that means they're close to land.

But it's nighttime, so they have no idea where they are.

And then so here the day is breaking, and they see land, and they make they're gonna make their way towards it.

So they cast off the anchors that were holding them in place, and they left them in the sea at the same time loosening the ropes that tied the rudders.

Then hoisting the foresail to the wind, they made for the beach.

But striking a reef, they ran the vessel aground.

The bow stuck and remained immovable, and the stern was being broken up by the surf.

The soldiers' plan was to kill the prisoners, lest any should swim away and escape.

But the centurion, wishing to save Paul, kept them from carrying out their plan.

He ordered those who could swim to jump overboard first and make for land, and the rest on planks or pieces of the ship, so it was that all were brought safely to land.

Now over the weeks we've been looking at how the gospel changes individual lives, how it comes in and changes the person, it changes communities.

And a good example of this that we've looked at three times, because it's said three times within Acts, is Paul's testimony.

And just a quick recap of Paul.

Paul was a religious zealot for the people of Israel.

He was a Pharisee, he was the Hebrew of Hebrew, raised by the best teachers, he was the man as a Hebrew.

Like he knew everything, he had the best track record, and then all of a sudden, and he persecuted the church, and then all of a sudden he has a conversion experience.

And we were familiar with that, so I won't go into it, but the Damascus Road experience.

But now we, if we look at, we're looking at this text and we see how the gospel affects those around.

And this is something for us to take into account because we bring this into our own lives, how the gospel affects people around us.

And we have a great example here.

As it says in verse 1 of chapter 27, the centurion was in charge of the voyage.

His mission, his purpose was to bring the prisoners to Rome to face trial.

And he's named.

His name is Julius.

And then we see in verses 10, in chapter 27 again, in verses 10 to 11, we see Paul warns them not to sail because they're late in the season, that they're it's gonna, the ship, the voyage is gonna turn disastrous.

But they don't listen to him.

Obviously, the centurion listens to the captain, the ship pilot.

I probably would too.

I wouldn't listen to this random guy on the ship.

And then we see later on in verses 42 to 43, we see Paul, or sorry, in verses 30 to 31, we see Paul warning them again.

This is during the commotion of all the storm, chaos is ensuing, and then he warns them again that if anyone escapes the ship, because of what an angel told to him that we're gonna look at in a bit, that if anyone escapes the ship, that they're all gonna fall, it's gonna turn out um tragic.

People are gonna die.

But if they stay on the ship, they're gonna make it safely.

They will make it to land.

And the centurion starts to listen to him.

And then you see in verses 42 and 43 of chapter 28, the centurion wants to save his life.

Why?

Why the sudden change of heart?

Why does it go from not listening to him, treating him well but not listening to him, to all of a sudden wanting to save his life?

He had no reason to want to save his life.

And just a quick side note those who struggle, as including myself, to sometimes there's moments of doubt of the Christian faith.

There's sometimes we go through these seasons where it's it's hard to believe that this is actually a true message.

That is this message is too good to be true.

Something I do personally that I would highly recommend for anyone here is to really look at the resurrection to count.

Because if Jesus rose from the dead, all things fall into place.

And we did the learner's exchange a couple weeks ago, and we dove into that as the best we could.

And if you want the resources from the learner's exchange, please contact us and we'll send you the link to that.

Or we can go to coffee with you and we can discuss it.

But a great thing about the Christian faith is that it's based on a fact based in history.

It's not something that's just in the air.

It is a fact.

And that is something that as we struggle, as we struggle to believe the Christian walk, as we struggle to believe it or believe what people say, people at the front say to you, you can look at the resurrection account, and it gives you a great assurance that Jesus truly rose from the dead.

So back to the story.

But what Paul, what made this centurion change his mind?

He didn't have all these great works, all these great books telling him about the resurrection account.

What changed his mind?

Well, the first point, remember, is that the gospel affects lives.

And we see it here, right here in the text, that what changed it?

It's how Paul handled himself during this moment, how he was unapologetic about the gospel message.

There is no way that he did not, the centurion did not hear the gospel message from Paul.

Paul oozed the gospel message.

He couldn't help telling people about the gospel, about Jesus and his work on his cross and the great hope.

So we see we see this in Paul, and we see that during this moment of this great immense shipwreck, that Paul is handling himself with calmness.

He's not panicking.

Why?

It's because of the gospel hope, the gospel message that he's he's calm.

John Wesley, a famous um preacher from back in the day, he was going across, um, I believe, from the states back to England.

And he was, he he did the Christian walk, he did the everyday Christian things to do.

He was a great preacher, but he didn't have an effect of his heart was not changed by the gospel.

And then during this, uh during his voyage, a storm hit the ship and it was chaotic, and he was moved by the people on the boat as their faith kept them steadfast while he panicked.

And he had a conversion moment right there.

And so the gospel changes lives around us.

If you're deeply affected with the gospel, people can't help but notice.

And this is what we have here.

Paul is not in this situation being stoic.

He's not just some religious leader trying to appease his God, and the centurion sees it.

He sees that he's affected deeply with it.

Paul is a man who is unashamedly proclaims the gospel, no matter what the outcome.

Since chapter 9 in Acts, we've seen this.

We've seen that he has stood before the ordinary person, he has stood before religious leaders, he has stood before kings and governors, and he has faithfully proclaimed the gospel message.

And now he's on his way to go to the in front of the emperor, the person who was in charge of the whole world in that time in the Mediterranean, the biggest empire ever to exist.

He's going to go before him and proclaim the gospel.

And this gospel message is that Jesus the Messiah was crucified, is risen, and is alive.

And then those who believe in him will not perish and believe and follow him.

It's a key thing, the follow.

Jesus commands us to follow him, will not perish.

It wasn't just a good, feel-good message.

It was a message that considered of life and death means, a serious serious message, the gospel.

And that was what the centurion saw, would have heard and seen in Paul.

This message, this serious, serious message.

And this is something we need to bring to Port Perry and the communities surrounding us.

That this message is a message so dire that people need to hear the gospel.

They need to hear the good news of Jesus Christ preached to them, told to them, through our lives, through how we act and interact with people or talk with people.

There's no doubt the centurion saw, didn't see this in Paul.

He saw it.

There's no way.

Everyone else was there for committing a crime.

He knew that.

The centurion knew that.

But he knew Paul was there for a fact.

For a fact that he said that Jesus rose from the dead and is alive.

Do people see that in us?

It's a good question.

I always ask that in myself.

Do people see this gospel change in my life when I go out into the community?

I pray often this for myself because I'm naturally a shy person.

If you're taking notes, I would encourage you to take this note, this prayer.

Lord, help me to be unashamed of your gospel.

This is something I personally pray constantly.

Lord, help me to be unashamed of your gospel.

But there was also something else about Paul.

Second point.

The gospel gives confidence.

And we see it in verses, in verse um of chapter 27, verse 44, into verse 1 of chapter 28.

Let's take a look at it.

And so it was that all were brought safely to land.

And after we were brought safely through, we then learn that the island was called Malta.

See what's going on here in the text is that Luke is doing a very strategic thing.

When he says that as, and so it was, all were brought safely to land.

He's referring back to what Paul has when the angel speaks to him.

Then Paul gives this prophetic message that all will be brought safely to land.

So this is in the text, it's confirming Paul's vision, Paul's prophetic message that he says to the centurion.

It confirms the prophecy.

But Paul also was confident in the gospel.

And you might be thinking, well, didn't the Romans have gods?

What's the difference?

What's the difference between the Romans' gods and then the Christian god?

Like if everyone has gods, what does it matter what God I believe?

The Roman gods were gods that you must, they believed you had to appease them daily.

You had to make daily sacrifices to them, you had to live a certain way to appease them for things to go right.

If you wanted to have children, you go to the God of fertility.

If you wanted to have justice, you go to the God of justice.

If you're about to go to war, you go to the God of war and you make a sacrifice to them to appease them.

What's the difference between the Christian God if there's all these gods to choose from?

The Christian God, the true God, the only God, is a God that doesn't wait for us.

He comes into the world through Jesus Christ and saves humanity to it from itself.

All these other gods that the Romans believed in, you had to go to them and in the hopes that you can make them happy for you.

But the thing is, is that that is just fallacy.

The Christian God is the only God, the true God, and he is a God of love, he is a God of justice, and he is a God of mercy.

And we see that in Jesus Christ.

And Paul has the confidence in that.

And this gives us great confidence that during these seasons of where we feel like we're being storm-tossed, we're feeling like we're being persecuted, we can go to the Christian God, to Jesus.

And he calls us to himself.

We don't have to, it's not about us going to him, he comes to us.

So Paul has this confidence that he has an angel, speak to him directly, but he also has this confidence that in the Christian God is going to see him through.

And the centurions saw this in him.

See, the gospel affects the lives around us, and it also gospel gives us confidence.

It affects us deeply.

And we see this in the text.

You may be thinking, well, that was a long time ago.

Aren't they more like aren't we more sophisticated now?

These gods, these God talk.

Why are we talking about gods?

Well, the belief in God and gods is coming back.

Even Richard Dawkins calls himself a cultural Christian now.

I don't know what that means, but he calls himself a cultural Christian.

But we also see it that you can almost go to stores now and you can buy a t-shirt, and at the same time, you can buy tarot cards when you go to the checkout.

They're just there in the cash.

Or you can buy crystals, or chakras are now a big thing in our culture within yoga.

What's the difference?

A good way to look at this when we look at these things that promise a confidence, promise a new life, is this.

When you go into the mountains, when you're going through the mountains, um, if you are in when you're in the mountain valley, you can't see much.

You can't see what's ahead of you, you can only see your needs right in front of you.

And these things, these other things that say they're gods or that they're gonna better your life, are these these things that just only help you in the now help.

They say they help you.

And then you're just in the now surrounded by these things.

So if you're going through the mountains, you can only see the things in front of you.

There's no hope.

There's nothing to help steer you in life.

But the gospel promises that there is a hope.

And what this means is that when you're in the mountain situation and you feel like you're in the valley, the gospel allows you to climb the mountain and you can see what's way in front of you and where what the direction you need to go.

It promises you a hope.

So the Christian message is that Jesus will return.

Jesus is coming back.

There is a hope, there's a purpose and a direction for our lives.

That during when we're going through immense suffering, there is a hope.

It's not just a pointless suffering, is that through the suffering, there will be hope.

There will be this time when there's no more suffering.

Through persecution, there will be a time when there's no more persecution, no more mocking.

And there will be a time when we feel like we're being smashed against the rocks, that there will be a time when there's no more moments of that happening in our lives.

Only the gospel offers confidence in that.

Unchanging, steadfast confidence in God's word, God's promises to us.

And Paul had great confidence in God.

And again, do people see this confidence in us?

This is things to ask ourselves.

Because through this past year we've been looking at who Jesus is, and then now we've been looking at to the go and tell about who Jesus is.

And do we have the confidence of what the gospel teaches us?

It's something I again ask myself daily.

Lord, help me to be unashamed of your gospel.

But the whole time during this me speaking, you might just be thinking, isn't this the story where Paul grabs a viper and he gets bit by a viper?

Does that mean we get to grab vipers?

Well, let's take a look.

Let's take a look.

Point three, the gospel surpasses and transcends our expectations.

Chapter 28, verse 1 to 10.

After we were brought safely through, we then learned that the island was called Malta.

The native people, when it says native people, it just means non-Greek speaking.

It's not a derogatory term.

It's just saying that they don't speak Greek.

Showed us unusual kindness, for they kindled the fire and welcomed us all, because it had begun to rain and was cold.

When Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and put them on the fire, a viper came out because of the heat and fastened on his hand.

When the native people saw the creature hanging from his hand, they said to one another, No doubt this man is a murderer.

Though he has escaped from the sea, justice when it says justice here, it's talking about their God, the God of justice.

That's why the justice is capitalized.

Has not allowed him to live.

He how he, however, shook off the creature into the fire and suffered no harm.

They were waiting for him to swell up and suddenly fall, down dead.

But when they had waited a long time and saw no misfortune come to him, they changed their minds and said, He is a god.

And then it goes on and says Paul goes into the community and heals their chief and heals the people of the community.

It's interesting the way they react when we look at this, that because he has, because he escaped a shipwreck, because now he got bit by a venomous snake, that this man is marked to die.

That justice is gonna God has to get him.

Justice is owed to him.

And in this part it's a God that's gonna give him the justice.

But isn't this very Canadian way of thinking?

Don't we all think like this?

If someone does something, this has to be dealt to them if they do something bad.

Or if we just we just assume that if someone's going through, if these things keep happening to them, they must have done something bad.

I'm reading Job right now, and this is what Job's friends do say constantly to him, that you're suffering because you did something bad.

This is something that is very prevalent.

We see this in our culture.

We all think it.

Another way we could say it is it's karma being dealt.

Karma is talked about quite a lot.

And the people, these people here have no education.

They would have just been very primitive people, and most likely they had no books, nothing to learn from.

But they have this notion of justice that those who do crimes should be held accountable.

This is something we all have in us.

We have this grid for what's right and wrong.

If we feel wronged, we want people to be held accountable.

Someone breaks a law, we want justice dealt.

And the laws are a good thing.

I'm not saying they're a bad thing.

But where does it come from?

That's what we have to ask ourselves.

And those watching online, we have to ask that.

Where do laws, this notion of good and evil, come from?

Well, it comes from the throne of perfect justice.

See, when God's when God created humanity, he wrote his law on our hearts.

And under this law, we've all fallen short.

We all can't live up to this law.

But this same law we hold other people accountable by, God holds us accountable to.

It's this great reversal that we want people to follow this law, but if we break it, we don't want to be held accountable by it.

But when we look at this text, we see the viper hanging from Paul's hand, and we see the gospel of grace being shown through this text.

And what do I mean by that?

Now I'm not saying we should go around and start grabbing vipers.

That's not what I'm saying.

You're on your own if you're gonna do that.

Um I'm saying is that because of the fall of sin entering into the world, the sting of death entered the world.

They became the ruler of the world.

But God in his love didn't leave us to experience this sting of death.

He provided a way, and that's through his son.

That's the gospel message.

See, here we see a viper hanging from Paul's hand, and there's no sting of death.

See, those who are found in Christ will never experience the ultimate sting of death.

The death when we clo when you close your eyes, you do not feel a sting, you open your eyes before Jesus.

See, that's that's what it that's the hope.

That's the hope, that's why Jesus came into the world for us to save us from this ultimate death, this ultimate sting.

See, the native people saw Paul for who he was.

Past tense, unjustified.

But God saw him for who he is, justified, a child of God.

Now are you saying if I believe I can do whatever I want?

By no means, as Paul says in Romans.

See, Paul's on his way to Rome, and he's going through all these hardships, persecutions, beatings, and now he's stranded on an island.

But he's going for the gospel.

He's not going for his own self-interest.

His life is not his own anymore.

He wasn't just kicking up his feet and going through easy life.

He is going to share the message of hope with the world.

See, only when there's a there's a life-changing, life-altering commitment to Jesus will the gospel be effective in your life and the lives around you will people be affected.

If we put expectations on what the gospel should be or how it should look, we'll miss it.

It won't be the true gospel.

Only way we can find what the true gospel is is looking at God's word and see what it says for itself and not putting our own agendas onto it.

See, the Bible is very blunt.

All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

But it's also great hope that those who put their faith in Jesus Christ and follow him will have eternal life.

And that's what that's what our mission is, is to spread this gospel message through the ends of the earth, to be go and tell disciples, to go peep tell people within Port Perry, within Oshawa, of this good message that Jesus will return, and he will bring all his children into himself, and that there is a great hope in heaven.

And let's pray.

Father, thank you that the gospel, the Bible, um tears down our expectations of what we think it should be.

Thank you, Lord, that um that you sent Jesus into the world to save us from ourselves because we cannot help ourselves.

Father, I just pray if there's anyone here in person or watching online who don't know you, who don't have that true heart change, that you would just speak directly to their hearts, that you would call them to yourself, that they would feel the great hope, the great weight being lifted off their shoulders, and that you truly, truly love them.

I pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Thank you for listening today.

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God bless you, keep you today and every day.