Pastor Rod Thompson
Shipwrecked
Midland SDA Church
August 8, 2020
Between 1984 &1989 I was living near Charleston South Carolina, Navy – on a submarine repair ship – called the USS Holland, 600 ft long, 83 ft wide, displaced 19,000 tons. Not a little boat but a great big ship. Bigger than most of the navy’s frigates and cruisers and other war-craft. There are some ships that are bigger, but not many.
1987 – hurricane coming, get all the submarines underway, worked around the clock for 3 days straight. Started to prepare ourselves, sent us all home, called us all back, the hurricane coming this way. Left the naval weapon station, Out the Cooper river, past Drum island, past Fort Sumter (famous fort in the Civil war), out past Sullivan Island and into the Atlantic Ocean. There was nowhere to turn – had to head straight into the storm. The weather got worse, couldn’t go outside. Didn’t know how bad it was until I had to stand watch on the third day, in the pilot-house. The water line to the main deck was 35ft (23ft from the water line to the keel), the bow of the ship to the front of the pilot-house was 110 ft. Up the ladder (facing forward) Out the window – saw a wall of water that I estimated to be between 50-75 ft high. Now that main deck where the pilot-house was located was 35 ft above the water line – so that wall of water (wave) was approximately 100 ft high. Looked up and saw the 2” plexiglass window - there’s no way it’s going to hold. And when the bow of the ship went into that wall of water it came crashing down on the pilot-house (110 ft back from the bow) and when it hit the steel deck above us it shook the whole pilot-house and the deck beneath my feet. And I was terrified. It took 3 days to get through that storm and it was the most scared I have ever been in my entire life. I surely thought that we were going to perish.
I want to talk to you about another ship that had gone through a serious storm like this
You’ll remember that the Apostle Paul had gone before King Agrippa, he had talked to him about his saving faith, and it’s interesting that in
Acts 26:28 Agrippa, says you almost persuaded me to become a Christian. Those are probably the saddest words in all of the bible. He was almost saved.
But Agrippa, hears what Paul has to say, and then he says to Festus (in verse 32), this man might have been set free, I find nothing wrong with him, nothing that he has done deserving death, but since he appealed to Caesar, to Caesar he must go.
So Paul was put in chains, and he was to be taken to Rome. And they left Israel and they went along the coast, up along Asia Minor, and they were making their way up to Rome and we pick up the story
Read Acts 27: 9-12
Paul is to be delivered to Rome. So, if you know your geography Israel is right on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. So let’s track their path.
They sailed along the coast towards Asia and a town called Sidon, they went from there sailing under the shelter of Cypress to another port in Cilicia, a city of Lycia where they caught another ship and after much difficulty reached Cnidus. Sailed under the shelter of Crete off Salmone. They came to Fair Havens – near the city of Lasea.
Verse 9 – The fast is already over. Paul was talking about the fast that took place on the day of atonement, that every Jew would have participated in. So, Paul is talking about a time frame, of late September to early October. So winter was coming
And I can tell you that sailing on the Mediterranean Sea in winter is very dangerous.
So, Paul advises them not to go any further. It’s too dangerous. It’s not only going to result in the loss of equipment and cargo but, also a loss of life.
But it says in verse 11 that they would not listen to him. But of course why would they – he is only the preacher. And besides this, it says in verse 12 that there was no suitable harbor there for the ship.
So, they set sail
Read Acts 27: 13-26
So, here we see in this part of the story that they set sail anyway, even though Paul had warned them not to. And it says they headed straight into a Euroclydon. Now you may recognize that if I say it another way. They were headed straight into a Nor’easter.
In other words, they were heading into a really, really, bad storm. And they couldn’t make any headway. They had gone up along Asia, out toward the Island of Crete, then they tried to head north up towards Italy. But that Nor’easter was coming down at them and preventing them from making any headway, so Paul says they took the sails down and they allowed the wind to drive them.
The wind was coming from the Northeast, so if you know your geography you know that it was driving them right toward Africa. And it says there that they were concerned about running aground on the Syrtis sands (17).
Sand banks right off the coast of Africa are famous for shipwrecks. So the put the sails back up and they try to go back out between Crete and Africa and make their way to the north if they could.
It says they were in fear that the wind was going to run them aground so, they put up their sails and head back toward where they came from, but really unable to do so.
They make further preparations for expected trouble by lightening the ship. And that makes sense. If you are in a small sailboat and in a really bad storm you want to get that ship as high up out of the water as you can so you can head into those bigger waves.
So, they began to throw out the non-essential stuff, like the cargo. Non-essential in that it can’t save you. But then on the third day, they even start to throw over the tackle. This really shows us how desperate they were because the tackle was necessary for replacing broken parts and sailing the ship. But now they have thrown away all their spares.
Luke says that they did it with their own hands. In other words, it wasn’t the waves that washed these things overboard. But they purposefully threw them out.
It says that the sun didn’t shine for many days. You can imagine too that they couldn’t see the stars at night. Which means they were not able to navigate.
They navigated by the sun and the moon and the stars, so if it was overcast and it was raining and storming, they had no idea where they were. If you have ever been out on the sea in a severe storm, not knowing where you were then you would understand their fear.
They began to lose all hope of being saved. I was in some very difficult situations in my 11 years in the navy. There were several times when life should have been lost.
I know first hand the fear and anxiety that these men must have been facing at that time.
But Paul says, do not fear – our lives are in the master’s hands. He has promised me that we shall all be saved. There will be loss of ship and cargo and equipment, but no loss of life.
Brothers and sisters, it should be encouraging to us to know that when all human help has vanished that God steps into the middle of the chaos and brings hope
Read Acts 27: 27-38
Now in ancient times, the Adriatic Sea was that portion of the Mediterranean Sea
If you know your geography you know that Greece is here, Italy is here and in between there is a body of water, part of the Mediterranean Sea, called the Adriatic Sea. And at that time they considered the Adriatic Sea to go all the way down to between Crete and Malta. That whole area there outside of those two bodies of land.
But today we don’t call that whole area the Adriatic Sea. If you look here at the map you see that today the only thing called the Adriatic sea is the part between Greece and Italy. That body of water right there.
So Paul was talking about this area out here. But he says we were going through the Adriatic Sea. And he says 14 days later they were still being tossed around by this storm.
Brothers and sisters, after 3 days in a hurricane I can’t imagine what it was like going through something like that for 14 days.
No wonder Luke said, that they had lost all hope of being saved. And finally, Paul urges them to eat.
Now I can also tell you this. That when you are being tossed around like a feather in the wind, when you are so sick. I want to tell you that 3 days in a hurricane – everybody was throwing up. That entire ship smell like vomit. There was nowhere you could go to get away from it.
And it was hard. Now I was one of those that never threw up – but I can tell you I wanted to. I considered sticking my fingers down my throat and making myself throw up because I thought it might make me feel better.
But it was horrific, and after 14 days in a storm, being tossed around, after 14 days of motion sickness, after 14 days of being scared to death its no wonder they didn’t eat.
They couldn’t, they wouldn’t have eaten.
I didn’t eat for those 3 days either.
And it’s interesting to me that it says there that they sensed that they were getting near land. Isn’t that interesting? In the dark of night, in the darkness of this horrific storm that these experienced sailors had ever been in, in the visibility of less than a few feet, these hardened- seasoned sailors sensed that land was near.
I think that’s pretty amazing.
And braving the storm washed deck, they go out to take soundings.
I don’t know if you have ever seen a movie, or you can imagine in your mind, a ship in a storm, where the waves are washing over the deck and you go outside in a storm like that and you step into one of those waves it will just wash you overboard.
But they went out and they braved that storm washed deck to take the soundings.
So they have a long line with a heavy weight on it and they drop it down until it hits the bottom. And there are markings on the line so they know that it was 20 fathoms.
1 fathom is 6 feet. So this was 120 feet of water
Then a little further its 90 feet.
It confirms their suspicion – they are heading toward land.
So they drop 4 anchors.
Think about that for a minute. One anchor – no matter what size the ship – one anchor will hold when there is no wind. When there is a little bit of wind you might need two. But they dropped four anchors.
And then notice what it says in verse 29. (And they PRAYED)
One time I was stationed on a Nuclear-powered Submarine. The USS Sam Rayburn. We had gone into drydock. A dry dock is a pretty neat piece of equipment. It’s shaped like a horseshoe, and they can lower that down into the water, you can drive the submarine – or another ship into it, then they pump the water out and it raises the ship out of the water so that you can work on it.
We spent 30 days working on it then we went back down into the water. We went out to sea to test all the things that had been repaired. So we started doing – what was called angles and dangles – explain. Doing all of these different tests. Going up and down and all of a sudden we lost hydraulics.
Ballistic missile sub about 400 feet long, round tube, a sail up near the front on top of the tube and out the sail there are 2 fair water planes. And what these planes are used for is they pivot up and down and if you are under the water and you turn them up the sub is going to start going up and if you turn it down you are going to start going down.
So we were going down and we lost hydraulics. And guess what. Those fair water planes operate on hydraulics. So there was no way to turn them back up so that we could come back up.
We were going down, down, down.
They couldn’t stop. They stopped the engines and reversed them to try and pull us back up, but because of the weight of the submarine, we were still going down.
We were in what was called a jam dive. And there is no recovery from that. We were going down.
I was in a room with a couple of other guys and one guy got down on his knees and started praying out loud. Lord if you get me out of this I will change this, I will do that, I will give my life totally to you.
I don’t remember all of the specifics of his prayer, but I remember, I wasn’t a Christian at that time, but I remember being fascinated with this man, thinking we were probably going to die, and I remember thinking – has it come to this.
Well, brothers and sisters, after 14 days of the worst storm of their lives. This is the storm of the century, Paul says they dropped 4 anchors and they prayed. It had come to that.
We have probably all been in an experience like that where something tragic has happened and we have gotten to the point where we just fall down on our knees and pray.
It says here by Luke, in the book of Acts that the storm had gotten so great that they couldn’t do anything. They dropped their sails, and they dropped 4 anchors.
The sails were helping them to at least head partially into the wind, (Tacking / going back and forth)but when they drop their sails and they drop their anchors the ship would begin to turn with the seas and the anchors would hold and pretty soon the waves would be right at the back of the ship.
And you can imagine the back of the ship being pulled down by the anchors and the waves coming over the back of the ship and those seasoned, hardened sailors having lost all hope of being saved and they imagine the only way they can be saved is to get into the lifeboat and get out of there.
So they do that. And Paul says if they go out into the lifeboat they cannot be saved. So the soldiers go and cut the lines, the lifeboat falls into the water. So they drop the anchors and they are praying for daylight to come.
And then Paul, understanding the moment, stands up and says I know it has been 14 days that you have not eaten. I know why you haven’t eaten – but you have got to eat. Because this ordeal is not over yet.
There is still more to come and you need to regain your strength so that you can finish this out. And he takes bread and he breaks it and he gives thanks and he encourages the men to eat.
So they do, and they start regaining their strength. Then it says they start throwing out the rest of the things on the ship. At this point, the only thing left is the cargo. And cargo is money.
They did everything they could to hold onto the cargo including throwing out all the tackle. All the things they needed to sail and for repairs, but now it has come to the point where it is time to abandon any hope of financial gain so they begin to throw the wheat out into the water.
They made that ship as light as they possibly could so that when daylight came and they saw the land they could head towards the land in the hope of making it all the way ashore.
When daylight comes they see the land, cut the anchors, they raise the sails, and they start heading right toward the coast And there is only one problem. There is a sand bar beneath the surface of the water and they drive the ship right into it. So deep and so hard that now the ship is stuck and guess what?
The waves beat against the back of that ship and it starts ripping it apart. And now there is nowhere to go but into the water.
And praise God that He keeps His promise and all 276 men survive the shipwreck.
Brothers and sisters, God loves you with an amazing, huge, incredible love – and yet sometimes He allows your ship to wreck.
Sometimes He allows tragedy into your life. And it may cause us to ask God why?
After all, Paul was God’s servant. He had told Paul that he will go and stand before Caesar. God had a purpose and a plan for Paul’s life. Surely, we would think, that God would safeguard his journey.
But God never promises us that we will be able to avoid the fire of affliction. He never promises to take away the problem. He only promises to be there in the middle of it with us.
Turn to Deuteronomy 8
I want you to notice something here about Israel. They are getting ready to go into the promised land and Moses reminds them of how far they have come.
Read Deuteronomy 8:2-5
When the storms of life are coming into your house, if you are immature Christian it will cause you to ask why Lord?
I remember when I was a brand new baby Christian, that’s exactly what I would do. Why Lord? But then you grow in your faith and you realize that God loves you – but if He is allowing this then He must have a greater purpose in it. And look what Moses says to the people of Israel.
He reminds them that as they were in the wilderness 40 years that He allowed them to go through the furnace of affliction. And why? To humble them. To teach them to depend on God. So that they would know that God chastens the ones He loves.
So they wouldn’t forget who it is that brings them out of bondage. God has a greater purpose in those trials in your life. To take away your pride, to test you to see if you will obey His commandments.
God allows it for your good.
So Paul and his companions are shipwrecked. But brothers and sisters, notice that his faith was not.
How do you know how strong your faith is until it has been tested? It has to be tested in those areas where you are weak so that the next time a storm comes you can weather that one with greater faith.
Faith can bring you through the trials of life.
Romans 11:20 Because of unbelief they were broken off, but you stand by faith.
Hebrews 10:38 You shall live by faith
Hebrews 11:6 Without faith it is impossible to please God.
2 Timothy 4:7 At the end of his life, Paul said, I have kept the faith.
You will not know how strong your faith is until it has been tested.
Hebrews 11:1 Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
2 Corinthians 5:7 We walk by faith and not by sight
So even though you have a measure of faith, God may still allow you to be shipwrecked.
John 15:33 Jesus said, in this world, you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world.
Ecclesiastes 9:11 Time and circumstance happen to us all.
In other words, there are difficulties that come into your life that are no fault of your own. But it’s not always circumstance and chance. Sometimes, we shipwreck ourselves. Sometimes it's your own fault.
Read 2 Samuel 24: 10-14
David had shipwrecked his life, but he still trusted God
Matthew 8:23-27
One of the first questions we might ask ourselves when we read that story is, how could Jesus sleep at a time like this?
I assure you there must have been some very good reasons. Imagine what it must have been like in that little tiny boat. Going across the lake with the waves washing over the sides. How could anyone sleep in the water? How could anyone sleep in that kind of weather?
1. It may be that Jesus was absolutely exhausted. Have ever been so exhausted that you could sleep just about anywhere.
I can tell you that after 3 days of no sleep, I can sleep standing up. I know it because I have done it.
2. If you have ever been out in rough sees you know that the only thing you want to do is lay down and sleep.
Three days in a hurricane all I want to do was lay down and sleep, and that’s what I did every chance I got.
Think about the story of Jonah. It says that the seas were so rough that the ship was being torn apart, and where was Jonah? Down in the bottom of the boat sleeping.
So here is Jesus sleeping.
I heard a story once about a man who was interviewing for a Forman position on a ranch. I can sleep in any storm
Winds blow. I told you I can sleep when the wind blows.
Because before the storm came, he prepared for the storm
You can sleep soundly knowing that your life is in the father's hands.
So, there is Jesus sleeping soundly
Lord save us, we are perishing.
And He says to them Oh you of little faith, why are you afraid?
In other words, don’t you know that your life is in our father's hands?
Here we have another storm where all hope of being saved is lost. But this time it’s not the ship that’s wrecked, it’s their faith. This time their faith is lost.
I suggest to you today that it’s better to be shipwrecked then faith wrecked.
Desire of Ages P334
The disciples called to Jesus twice in the darkness, only to have their voices drowned out by the storm. Then suddenly through a flash of lightning, it was disclosed to them that Jesus was still asleep, where upon they came to Him, astonished that He could sleep through the furry of the Gail and amazed at His apparent lack of concern in the midst of their frantic efforts to save the ship and their very lives. They addressed Him somewhat reprovingly, “Carest thou not that we perish?”
They had lost sight of God in whom their lives were held. And Jesus reminds them that in doing so they had no faith.
Read 1 Timothy 1: 18
Paul had assigned pastoral duties to Timothy and he reminds him of the prophecies that had been given about him and the difficult problems that he would face in the church of Ephesus. And he was to hold onto faith that God had spoken through Paul and the prophets of the church when they had appointed him to the leadership and the gospel ministry and his future usefulness.
Timothy could succeed only if he maintained the conviction that men of God had spoken God’s will for him and that in doing his tasks faithfully he could be assured of God’s blessing.
We, too, can be assured of God’s blessing if we are doing all that we can to prepare for the storms of life and yet trusting that when they come God will get us through them.
Like the ship captain who turns from his compass to rely on his own judgment only to court disaster. In the same manner, a Christian will shipwreck their faith when they turn from the dependable word of God unto our own judgment.
Like Timothy, Job was a man who was severely tested.
Brothers and sisters, there is quickly approaching a storm that is going to test your faith. All hope of being saved may be lost.
But may we be able to say like Job, “Though you slay me, yet will I trust you.”
That’s faith.
And though your life may be shipwrecked – may your faith stay strong.
Let’s pray.