Moving Forward

Acts 26:30-32 The king rose, and with him the governor and Bernice and those sitting with them. 31 They left the room, and while talking with one another, they said, “This man is not doing anything that deserves death or imprisonment.” 32 Agrippa said to Festus, “This man could have been set free if he had not appealed to Caesar.”
 
FOR the third time in this lengthy account of Paul’s defense that occurred over two-plus years, the Romans – and now King Agrippa – find no cause for Paul’s imprisonment. It is unfortunate Festus had not acted on this conclusion a few days earlier before Paul had appealed to Caesar. That appeal was his only hope at the time to escape the Jews’ endless accusations and Rome’s failure to rule. Paul’s solution seems to have caused another problem.
   Good or bad, it is time to move ahead, to set one’s mind on the future. Paul cannot change what has happened. The good thing is he will no longer languish in a jail in Caesarea. The time has come to move forward.
   How do we encounter obstacles as a Christian? To go forward we should assess how the LORD God has prepared us for the challenge: What do we know? What skills do we have? Who can help us? How can we help others? Are we prepared to see God’s kindness through the difficult days?
   As we read Acts 27, we will learn how Paul answers all of those questions through the storm, a shipwreck and suspicion. Let’s begin:
 
Acts 27:1-8 When it was decided that we would sail for Italy, Paul and some other prisoners were handed over to a centurion named Julius, who belonged to the Imperial Regiment. 2 We boarded a ship from Adramyttium about to sail for ports along the coast of the province of Asia, and we put out to sea. Aristarchus, a Macedonian from Thessalonica, was with us. 3 The next day we landed at Sidon; and Julius, in kindness to Paul, allowed him to go to his friends so they might provide for his needs. 4 From there we put out to sea again and passed to the lee of Cyprus because the winds were against us. 5 When we had sailed across the open sea off the coast of Cilicia and Pamphylia, we landed at Myra in Lycia. 6 There the centurion found an Alexandrian ship sailing for Italy and put us on board. 7 We made slow headway for many days and had difficulty arriving off Cnidus. When the wind did not allow us to hold our course, we sailed to the lee of Crete, opposite Salmone. 8 We moved along the coast with difficulty and came to a place called Fair Havens, near the town of Lasea.
 
Luke’s first-hand account helps us understand God’s care on this group. One way God helps Paul is to add Aristarchus, a Macedonian from Thessalonica, to accompany him. Aristarchus will be with Paul through his time under Roaman guard (See Colossians 4:10 and Philemon 24). Junius, too, is a kind Centurion, another Roman who helps Paul. He allows Paul’s friends at Sidon to care for the prisoner.
   The prisoners get on a Alexandrian ship in Lydia. It is a large grain ship from Egypt. But it is very difficult to travel east to west on the Mediterranean and Adriatic Sea in winter. For a time they find a quiet port to be safe from the winds.