Acts 27:27

But after a long abstinence from food, then Paul stood in the midst of all those on the ship and said, men, you should have listened to me and not have sailed from Crete and incurred this disaster and loss. And now I urge you to take heart, for there will be no loss of life among you, but only the ship... Now when the fourteenth night had come, as we were driven up and down in the Adriatic Sea, about midnight the sailors sensed that they were drawing near to some land. And they took soundings and found it to be twenty fathoms... and fearing lest we should run aground on the rocks, they dropped anchors from the stern and prayed for day to come. (Acts 27:21–29)

When the surf gets steep, there are rocks ahead—so make sure your soul is anchored in the One who cannot lie.

When a Crash Is Inevitable

We finished our last study with a simple point: sometimes a crash is inevitable. We know this all too well. Back in 2005 and 2006, at the height of the U.S. housing market, things seemed to keep going up and up, and people were cashing in. By 2006 and 2007, economists began warning about an "adjustment." As 2008 wore on, that talk turned from adjustment to fear of a bursting bubble and a crash. Then on October 1st, 2008, the major crash came—and there isn't a single person here who wasn't affected by it. The ripples spread throughout the entire world.

Paul stood before the 275 other men aboard this ship and said essentially the same thing: a crash is inevitable. Before they left Crete, he had warned them. They were stuck in a place called Fair Havens—which sounds nice but was not a good place to winter. The winds were contrary, coming from the west when they wanted to go west. Then one morning the winds changed to a soft breeze from the south. Perfect conditions. All hands on deck—they only needed to move about 35 nautical miles to the port of Phoenix.

But midway through the journey, everything changed. The wind shifted to the northeast, a storm with a name—Euroclydon, meaning "nor'easter." They could no longer reach the harbor. In this huge grain vessel they couldn't maneuver, so they did everything in their own strength: hauling in the skiff, undergirding the ship with cables, dropping the mainsail, hoping not to be driven into the shallows. The word for this storm in the original language is typhonikos, from which we get "typhoon."

A Promise in the Storm

Three days into the storm, Paul couldn't help himself. He said, "Guys, you should have listened to me." Some of us can relate. But then he told them what mattered: an angel of the God to whom he belonged and whom he served had appeared to him and said, "You will get to Rome, because you will appear before Caesar—and all who sail with you will be saved." A phenomenal promise. So Paul said, take heart, no loss of life will come. The ship and cargo would be a total loss, but their lives would be spared—if they stayed aboard.

If you look at the map, between Crete and Italy there is essentially just one island in the path: Malta. In God's providence and sovereign direction, they could not navigate under their own strength, yet this weather pattern pushed them exactly where God intended. A 19th-century Scotsman, James Smith, wrote a great scholarly work on this voyage. He charted that a vessel this size, driven by such winds, would travel roughly 35–36 miles a day—and the distance from Crete to Malta matches exactly the fourteen days described. Luke is a careful, fact-based historian.

Though All Be Lost, All Is Not Lost

Verse 20 says all hope of being saved was given up. Unfortunately, many people live their whole lives like that—walking through the world with a hopeless, depressed demeanor. If you watch the world news, there's reason to feel that way. The sad fact is that many who sit in churches like this, who call themselves Christians, also carry that down, defeated demeanor.

But here is point number one: though all be lost of this world, all is not lost. Though you lose everything you have in this world, all is not actually lost if you are a Christian. We have a hope that extends beyond the trappings and trinkets of this life. And the world needs to see that truth lived out in us.

Consider the teaching of Jesus and the pattern of Paul. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says:

Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven... For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Matthew 6:19–21)

The same man who survived this shipwreck later wrote to the Philippians:

But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ. (Philippians 3:7–8)

That word "loss" is the very same word Paul used on Crete when he warned that "much loss" would come. He willingly gave up everything that was gain to him so he could lay hold of Christ—declaring that Jesus is far more valuable than anything he surrendered.

Let It Go

In Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Harrison Ford finally grasps the Holy Grail, then it falls just out of reach as the place breaks apart. He's hanging onto his father's hand, straining—"I can just get it." And Sean Connery says, "Indiana, let it go." There's such wisdom in that. He had risked everything for that cup, and the word was: it's not worth it, let it go. There's wisdom in that other movie my daughters sing constantly, too—"Let It Go."

Jesus said something vital, especially if you're not yet a Christian:

For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. (Luke 9:24)

If we try to hang onto the things of this life, we will lose them. Scripture reveals a coming day when all that is seen here passes away and God remakes everything—so we have hope of something better. But for the person fully invested here, whose treasure and heart are here, that is a poor investment with far too much risk.

The awesome result of living this way is that if, like Paul, you reckon all things lost—none of this is really mine, it's God's to manage—then losing those things is not devastating. The world says #YOLO: you only live once, so go for it. For the Christian, that mindset belongs only to living for Jesus and the gospel. The missionary Jim Elliot, killed in the 1950s by those he sought to reach, said, "Only one life will soon be passed; only what's done for Christ will last." Paul had already reckoned himself dead and laid down his rights to his life.

When the Surf Gets Steep

Luke continues: "Now when the fourteenth night had come, as we were driven up and down in the Adriatic Sea, about midnight the sailors sensed that they were drawing near to some land." In ancient times the "Adria" referred to the whole middle section of the Mediterranean. They took soundings—a rope with a weight, measured in fathoms (about six feet each)—and found twenty fathoms, then fifteen. It was getting shallower; they were nearing land.

For weeks I kept asking how the sailors sensed land. Most commentators say they must have heard the waves breaking on the rocks; James Smith says in storm conditions you can hear that from about a quarter mile. But I asked Mick Maggiore, one of our own who's spent a lot of time on the water. He said, "The surf got steeper." In open water the swell is long and spread out; as it approaches land and hits the shallow ground, it compresses—tighter, steeper, bigger. That tells you you're getting close, and that's not a good situation.

So point two: when the surf gets steep, there are rocks ahead.

Make Sure You're Anchored Correctly

Point three follows immediately: make sure you're anchored correctly. Most modern boats come to a point at the bow with a flat stern, and you wouldn't anchor from the stern in these conditions—it would face the flat end into the waves and take on water. But these ancient grain vessels came to a point at both bow and stern. They dropped four anchors from the stern so the ship faced directly toward the beach. Their plan at first light was to hoist the mainsail, cut the anchors, drop the rudders, and beach the ship. They positioned themselves for the best outcome.

This applies to every believer, because Christian or not, we all face life storms—bad diagnoses, job loss, foreclosure, the realities of a fallen world, sometimes our own foolish mistakes. In the storm, we want our anchor in the right place, and only the Christian has the right place to be anchored. Listen to Hebrews 6 from the J.B. Phillips translation:

So in this matter God, wishing to show beyond doubt that his plan was unchangeable, confirmed it with an oath... so that by two unchangeable things, the word of God and the oath of God, who cannot lie, we who are refugees... might have a source of strength... This hope we hold as the utterly reliable anchor for our souls, fixed in the very certainty of God himself in heaven, where Jesus has already entered on our behalf. (Hebrews 6:17–20)

If you're a Christian, your hope and your soul are anchored in a place that cannot fail. Whatever storm we face as refugees fleeing this dying world, we are the only ones with the right mooring, because it rests in God who cannot lie. Our hope is not built on being smart enough to figure it out, or on religious efforts or our own ideology—it is fixed firmly in heaven, in God. Make sure, Christian, that you are anchored correctly.

Take Nourishment for Your Survival

As the sailors tried to escape under the pretense of putting out anchors from the bow, Paul told the centurion and soldiers, "Unless these men stay in the ship, you cannot be saved." The sailors wanted to lower the skiff and slip away to save themselves. Paul, knowing he himself would live because God had told him, pushed the button of their self-preservation: "These guys leave, you're done." So the soldiers cut the skiff loose and let it fall. By that act they revealed they were heeding Paul's word and trusting that his God would save them.

As day approached, Paul implored all 276 men aboard to eat. They had eaten nothing for fourteen days—weak, tired, constantly tossed. "Take nourishment," he said, "for this is for your survival, since not a hair will fall from the head of any of you." That's a Jewish euphemism for being kept safe. Notice the beautiful connection in Paul's words between the sovereign power of God—"all of you will be safe"—and human responsibility—"you need to eat." These go together throughout Scripture: God is sovereign and has a plan, yet you have a responsibility.

Point four: take nourishment for your survival. Contextually this is physical food, but it points to something deeper. Jesus, after fasting forty days, was tempted by the devil to turn stones into bread. He answered from Deuteronomy 8:

Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. (Matthew 4:4)

This applies to Christian and non-Christian alike. The only place to receive that nourishment is God's Word. Too many Christians live spiritually emaciated lives because they never spend time there. Who would try to thrive on one meal a week? That would be foolish—yet many Christians live on the one meal served up for them on Sunday that they didn't prepare for themselves. You need to be in the Word continually, ready before the storm comes, because the storm will come.

Pray Anyway

Paul took bread, gave thanks to God in the presence of all 276 men, broke it, and ate—and they were all encouraged and took food themselves. There were likely only three believers aboard: Paul, Luke, and Aristarchus, perhaps a few others. Yet Paul prayed openly. That's an encouragement for us. When you're out to lunch with coworkers or family who aren't Christians, simply say, "I'm a Christian—can we pray?" Even a staunch atheist won't refuse.

I was once at lunch with my friend Victor Marks. When the waitress came, he called her by name and said, "We're Christians, and in a minute we're going to pray—can we pray for you?" She looked confused at first, then said yes. A tear came to her eye, she shared a bit of her story, and said, "I used to go to church—maybe I should find one." It was awesome.

Trusting God Brings Salvation

When they had eaten enough, they lightened the ship by throwing the wheat into the sea—finally letting go of the cargo that would have made them money. At daylight they didn't recognize the land but saw a bay with a beach. They cut the anchors loose, dropped the rudders, hoisted the mainsail, and made for shore. But striking a place where two currents met, the ship ran aground on a sandbar; the bow stuck fast and the stern began breaking up under the violence of the waves.

The soldiers' plan was to kill the prisoners, because under Roman law a soldier who lost a prisoner forfeited his own life. First the sailors wanted to save themselves; now the soldiers did. But the centurion, wanting to save Paul, kept them from it and commanded those who could swim to jump overboard first, the rest following on boards and parts of the ship—the first mention of "surfing" in the Bible. And then these words: "So it was that they all escaped safely to land."

Point five: trusting God brings salvation. Some math major could calculate the statistical improbability of 276 men in a storm all surviving and reaching land—it would be exceedingly high. But God is bigger than our statistics. People have calculated the improbability of Jesus dying and rising again and concluded it can't happen—yet God is bigger than that, and there are witnesses of the resurrection.

Remember the other storm, on the Sea of Galilee, when the disciples were tossed at night and Jesus came to them walking on the water. There have only ever been two men who walked on water. Peter stepped out and walked too—until he took his eyes off Jesus, looked at the wind and waves, and began to sink. He cried, "Lord, help me," and Jesus reached out and grabbed his hand and saved him. Trusting in God brings salvation—for the Christian and the non-Christian alike. Two hundred seventy-six souls were saved.

When the surf is steep, there are rocks ahead. Make sure you're anchored correctly. Take nourishment for your survival. And recognize that trusting God brings salvation.

Closing Prayer

God, thank you for your word. Thank you that you are the Savior—that you, Jesus, are the one able to reach down into the storms we face and lift us out. You have given us spiritual nourishment through your truth in the Bible, and a sure and steadfast anchor in your unchangeable promise and nature.

I pray for my brothers and sisters who know you, that they would be anchored in you again and trust you in whatever circumstance they face. And I pray for those who don't yet know you, that you would draw them by your Spirit to put their trust in you for salvation. Jesus came and died on the cross 2,000 years ago to pay for my sin and yours, and he rose from the dead to reveal that the payment was accepted. He offers you the chance to put your faith and confidence in him so that payment applies to your account. You can do that right where you are. Simply confess your sin, ask him to take it away based on what Jesus did on the cross, put your trust in him, and ask him to forgive you and come into your heart. And he will. In Jesus' name, amen.