Our Sermons

Bible Passage:Acts 27:13–26
Pastor: Pastor Horton
Sermon Date:  June 23, 2024

When it rains it pours.  It certainly literally did yesterday.  When you hear that you may think of scenarios where you have said it or thought?  Like when one of the kids are sick and up half the night, and you make it into work the next day tired but then also it’s extra stressful, and as you drive home the car begins making a funny sound under the hood and breaks down in the rain.  Finally, after getting all that settled, you make some dinner for yourself: a nice fresh salad with strawberries or a frozen pizza and as you take it from the countertop your hands fumble it and down it goes spilled all over the ground.  You can’t catch a break on a day like that.  When it rains it pours.

To be fair, sometimes these scenarios are far more serious.  Sometimes we feel like we can’t catch a break in life.  Unexpected storms come up.  Unplanned forces batter our spirit down.  The clouds block out the sun’s rays of hope.  And a very real temptation is to ask, “where are you, God, in all of life’s stormy chaos?”

The temptation to think this could have entered into the Apostle Paul’s heart.  Before this ill-fated boat trip, in 2 Corinthians 11, he gives a brief rundown of what he had to go through so far for the gospel of Jesus.  He recalls that had been in prison, whipped five different times by the Jews, three times beaten with rods, stoned close to death once, shipwrecked thrice even before this famous journey, and in danger: “from rivers, in danger from robbers, in danger from my own people, in danger from Gentiles, in danger in the city, in danger in the wilderness, in danger on the sea, in danger among false brothers.  I have worked hard and struggled.  I’ve spent many sleepless nights.  I’ve been hungry and thirsty.  I’ve gone without food many times.  I’ve been cold and lacked clothing.”  Since Jesus stopped Paul on the road to Damascus and called him to faith and to be his missionary to the Gentiles it’s been nothing but raining and pouring.  It’s been anything but smooth sailing for him.

And then on to this the 4^th missionary journey.  And the stormfront of life did not let up.   It began in Jerusalem where a mob formed and stirred up the city.  Roman soldiers had to step in, pick up, and drag Paul out of the ruckus he was being beaten so badly.  They arrested him with no legitimate charge against him, and after dodging an ambush to kill him and after dealing with a crooked politician – Paul appealed to Caesar and we find him in our reading on this boat headed towards Rome.  Beling a believer in Jesus didn’t exactly make his life a cakewalk.

You would think that now he had suffered and endured enough.  It had rained and poured so to speak over and over upon him.  And yet we find him staring down a literal ominous storm out on the open ocean.  Paul the prisoner had objected to the trip to his centurion who was guarding him – but was overruled by the pilot and the owner of the grain ship.  Money talked and off they sailed only to have the door of fair-weather slam shut in their face.

The Mediterranean is big.  If you laid the ocean out across the continental US and place the Strait of Gibraltar in Los Angeles the Eastern Mediterranean and Israeli coastline would almost reach the Atlantic and come down in the Carolinas.  Istanbul around Chicago, Alexandrea Egypt near Atlanta, Athens Greece in Missouri, and the Italian peninsula running down the Eastern side of the Rockies.  And so, for our teens on the Youth Rally, when you drive into western Nebraska and see signs for Buffalo Bill’s ranch and museum in North Platte – that’s about how far from Eastside that the storm took them and shipwrecked them on Malta.  Imagine as you travel being violently pushed by wind across open ocean by monster waves for weeks.  Imagine trying to eat or sleep.  Your nerves would be gone.  Your strength gone.  And your hope gone as well.

The ships’ crew did what they desperately could in order to survive.  They tied ropes under their ship to secure its stability.  Lake Superior is littered with shipwrecks from the big waves of storms tossing ship hulls into the rocky bottom and breaking them apart – and those are metal – this boat was made of wood.  They lowered the sea anchor off the back (the stern) as they were helplessly pushed – hopeful the drag would keep them moving with the current instead of being tossed directly into the shoreline.  And they threw the cargo overboard (and along with it any hope of profit or of getting paid).  The next day the ship’s gear followed into the drink: waterlogged ropes and pulleys and the rig system to work the sails.  And as the constant and unrelenting violence of the storm kept on, the inspired author tells us that you could have thrown their hope for being saved into the dark depths as well.

How in all the world could they possibly get out of this storm into shelter?  Paul spoke up.  Paul gave hope in the midst of this dire and bleak situation.  He didn’t speak in empty optimism.  The hope he gave was based in God’s words of promise.  For when one true living God promises something – God always makes good on his promises.  Paul says in our reading, “Men, I urge you to keep up your courage, because there will be no loss of life among you.  Only the ship will be lost.  In fact, last night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood beside me and said, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul.  You must stand before Caesar.  And surely God has graciously given you all those who are sailing with you.’  So keep up your courage, men, because I believe God that it will be exactly the way I have been told.”  Hope in the face of the impossible.  Safety in the midst of death.  God will save.  God provides shelter for their lives and salvation from the storm.

What a great truth for you and for me to pause and reflect on.  Because I don’t know all the fearful storm fronts you are currently facing in life.  Maybe it involves a wind that pushes us back and we make no headway in an area of life we desperately want to move forward in.  Like in our financial security, or in our family’s spiritual wellbeing, or in our efforts to figure out the correct diet, exercise, or medication to regain a certain degree of health.  Maybe you are dealing with a rogue wave – an unexpected issue that swamps and may even threaten your life.  May be there is a steady downpour of bleak depression that is making your life miserable.  Or you simply feel adrift and helpless in an area of your life.

God didn’t snap his fingers and make everything in life instantly perfect for Paul (although for his disciples Jesus who has power over wind and wave did speak in our gospel and instantly dispel the violent squall).  God allowed for hardship to come into Paul’s life.  But he also allowed for Paul to wrestle and communicate with him consistently in prayer as his own child.  He allowed for Paul to rejoice that when we are weak, he is strong, and that his grace is sufficient.  He allowed for Paul to look with eager joy to the perfect shelter of heaven waiting for him.  And He allowed for Paul to recognize that, in the meanwhile, he can endure all things through him who gives him strength.

And so hungry, wet, tried, and miserable, Paul speaks up and shares with the other 275 individuals onboard the light of hope he has because God gave him good news of salvation.  It would continue to rain and pour (and the ship would be wrecked), but every one of them would be saved.  The living God made his message clear, and his promise certain.

As your shepherd, part of me wishes I could snap my fingers and change all the bad in your life for the good.  Sometimes it seems like it’s too much and like it’s too insurmountable and it’s too hopeless.  But what your Savior and what his church can do for you is to point you in the same direction that Paul pointed his listeners: to the sure and certain – to the good and saving news – of salvation through the living God.

We know that left along our sin should sink us not to the bottom of the ocean, but rather to the depths of hell apart from God and his unlimited love and compassion.  We have earned that condemnable doom for ourselves, and nothing we can do can right our spiritual boat in life.

But behold the living God at work to save us in Jesus!  Better than a lifeboat, our lifeguard Jesus dove in headfirst into our human existence.  He set aside heaven to be right here with you in the mess of life’s storms.  He understands us and has even been tempted like we are.  He was fully committed to save you from your sins – to pay for their dreadful price at the cross and rise wonderfully from the grave.  Jesus pulls you from drowning in your sin and washes you through water and the word that you might know with confidence that you belong to God.  He calls to you through his word no matter how the winds of the world may howl.  Here he speaks the gospel to our hearts.  Here he gives us shelter from our storms.  Here is peace and relief and joy for our souls.

This gospel of salvation is yours today.  It is yours to cling to by faith as your Savior sheds light into the foggy confusion of our lives.  It may, as it did for Paul, continue to rain and pour, but Jesus gives us courage and holds you close through his word.  Lord, bring us into the safe harbor and shelter of heaven one day.  And until that time help us speak up and share your gospel truth, as you did with Paul.  Amen.