So Paul had some good news, and he had some bad news. The good news was that not one life would be lost. The bad news was that the ship would run aground on an island. As everyone on board already sensed (Acts 27:20), they were headed for certain shipwreck.
They were in precisely the kind of crisis situation that calls for a strong, clearheaded, courageous leader. And the one man best qualified to fill that position and most prepared to step into it was the guy who had the prisoner’s cabin at the bottom of the ship’s hold. The irony of that must have occurred to the ship’s captain, to Julius the Roman centurion, and to all others who were in positions of authority on board. Paul had no official position, but he certainly wielded a greater authority than any of them. He took his orders from God, and he spoke for God. By now that was becoming clear to all.
True leadership is tested and proved in crises. The real leader is the one who can handle the stress. He is the one who can solve the problems, bear the burdens, find the solutions, and win the victories when everyone else is merely flustered, confounded, and perplexed.
That’s what Paul had done. By now he had in effect taken charge. He didn’t usurp anyone else’s authority; all of them more or less capitulated to 45 Paul because he was the only one with a clue what to do. And that is why although Paul began this journey as the prisoner (low man on the ship’s organizational chart), all on board were now looking to Paul for leadership. The captain wasn’t leading. The pilot was no longer even steering the ship. The centurion didn’t take over in the chaos; he was evidently as perplexed and as frightened as everyone else. The only guy left with any sense of composure was Paul, and he was a rock.
This underscores the truth that leadership is not something automatically conferred by title or by rank. Again, leadership is influence. It is a matter of ability, not position. And as we read Luke’s account of this shipwreck, it is quite an amazing picture to see all these powerful men, accustomed to giving orders and outranking others, suddenly looking to Paul, the prisoner, who had earned the right to lead.
The ship continued to be driven by hurricane-force winds for days. The crew and passengers’ panic was stretched out with intensity for days. The struggle to stay afloat was so intense that nobody ate for two full weeks. They were petrified with fear. They had not the faintest idea where they were. They didn’t even know what direction they were going. The apostle Paul’s assurance that they would all survive was the one last hope they had to cling to.
We pick up Luke’s account of the struggle in Acts 27:27–29:
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 some land. And they took soundings and found it to be twenty fathoms; and when they had gone a little farther, they took soundings again and found it to be fifteen fathoms. Then, fearing lest we should run aground on the rocks, they dropped four anchors from the stern, and prayed for day to come.
The Adriatic Sea, of course, is the narrow arm of the Mediterranean that lies between Italy and the Balkan Peninsula. In Paul’s day, however, the Ionian Sea (the large, open expanse between the bottom of the Italian boot and Sicily on the west side and western Greece on the east) was also considered part of the Adriatic. Paul’s ship was blown and tossed about in that vast region of the Mediterranean for two full weeks. That is a long time to be caught in such a desperate situation.
Then, around midnight on the fourteenth night, they sensed land. In the dark of a cloudy night, it would be next to impossible to see the outline of land on the horizon. That’s why Luke didn’t say they saw land; rather, they “sensed” it. This most likely means that they heard the faint sound of waves crashing on a nearby shore.
So they took soundings. That process involved lowering a rope with weights until it hit bottom. Then they would measure the rope and that would tell them the depth of the ocean. The first sounding measured the depth at 20 fathoms. A fathom is the length of two outstretched arms (standardized to exactly 6 feet). Twenty fathoms was about 120 feet deep. Deep enough for safety, but shallow enough to indicate that they were no longer out in the open sea.
They waited awhile and sounded again. This time they found bottom at 15 fathoms—90 feet. They were moving toward shore quickly. That was cause for panic; not an occasion for rejoicing. This was a highly dangerous situation to be in at midnight. They were literally washing ashore and unable to see what lay ahead of them. In water that shallow, there are frequently submerged rocks offshore, jutting outcrops that sink ships without warning. It was a sailor’s worst nightmare. They were sailing blind, in the middle of the night, knowing only that every wave took them closer to danger. So they put out four anchors and prayed for morning to come.
They didn’t know it yet, of course, but the island they were nearing was Malta (Acts 28:1). Malta is a small island directly south of Sicily. The geographical features of the region are in exact accord with the ocean depths Luke recorded. Experts who have studied maritime Rome also corroborate all the other details of Luke’s account. For example, the distance from Clauda (where the ship last sighted land [27:16]), to Malta is 476.6 nautical miles. Let’s assume this ship was drifting at the rate of 36 miles every 24 hours. (Nautical experts say that is about what we would expect with a Roman-style cargo ship in those currents at that time of year in a gale-force wind.) Drifting at that rate, it would take them exactly 13 days, 1 hour, and 21 minutes to be driven from Clauda to Malta. Add a day from Fair Havens to Clauda, and that’s precisely two weeks. So it is, in fact, a 14-day journey from Fair Havens to Malta, if you happen to make it in a drifting ship being blown by a hurricane.
Judging from the data Luke gives about the depth of the water, they were less than three miles from the island. They could have been near the mouth of a large bay on the northwest side of the island. In modern times, that bay is known as St. Paul’s Bay, though it may not have been the actual place where Paul came ashore. There is another bay at the eastern extremity of Malta, known as St. Thomas Bay, that some say fits the description more accurately. 1 About the time they sounded for depth, they would have been drifting about a half mile offshore from the eastern end of the island. That is how they could hear the pounding surf.
Notice Luke said they dropped four anchors from the stern, which, of course, is the back end of the boat. That would automatically make the prow of the ship point inland. The plan, evidently, was that when daybreak came and they could see the shore, if it looked safe, they would raise the four anchors, drift straight in, and beach the ship. The winds were apparently still too powerful to risk sailing until they could find a safe harbor.
In fact, the weather conditions were still so bad that some of the sailors tried secretly to abandon ship. Pretending to work on more anchors at the prow end of the ship, some of them had dropped the dinghy and were planning to use it to slip away from the damaged ship.
It isn’t unusual for passengers to get nervous in adverse weather, but if you’re ever on a ship and the crew panics, you’re in real trouble. That’s exactly what happened here.
Here is Luke’s description: “As the sailors were seeking to escape from the ship, when they had let down the skiff into the sea, under pretense of putting out anchors from the prow, Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, ‘Unless these men stay in the ship, you cannot be saved’” (Acts 27:30–31).
At this point, Luke’s record is filled with subtle ironies. First, notice that the men whom you would most expect to stay with the ship are trying to escape. Obviously, these men weren’t the type of devoted sailors who stay at their posts even if it means going down with the ship. They were interested only in saving their own lives, even though that meant abandoning everyone else to certain death.
On the other hand, Paul, the prisoner, is the one trying to stop the escape.
In effect, Paul is now in charge of everyone. He’s even commanding the Roman centurion. And the centurion and the soldiers are now taking his direction without question. Luke said when Paul warned them not to let the crew members escape, “the soldiers cut away the ropes of the skiff and let it fall off ” (v. 32). That must have been a painful moment for Luke, who had “with difficulty” worked to help secure that very same skiff at the start of this ordeal (v. 16). The skiff was vitally important. It was normally the only way to get from ship to shore. It was quite literally their only lifeboat. But by now they had more confidence in Paul’s leadership than any lifeboat. They immediately did what he said. They staked their survival not on a boat that could carry them to shore, but on a man in chains who could carry no one across the water. And once they cut the rope, there was no going back. From here on, Paul was their only hope. This epitomizes leadership at its supreme level, where people literally entrust their very lives to someone. It is a life-and-death risk that happens all the time in military combat, police work, and other dangerous duties.
Here’s another amazing irony: Contrast verse 22 with verse 31. Verse 31 says that unless the sailors stayed in the ship, the centurion and soldiers could not be saved. But according to verse 22, Paul had earlier told everyone, “There will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship.” That promise, he said, he received from God by way of an angel. It was certain and definitive. There was no reason to doubt God’s veracity, His power, or His sovereignty. God would bring to pass what He had promised.
And yet, Paul did not for one moment imagine that God’s sovereignty nullified human responsibility. He clearly did not assume that if God has decreed the end, it simply doesn’t matter what men do. He didn’t think, If God wants to save the passengers on this ship, He will save them without my efforts.
Paul understood that God has not merely decreed the end; He decrees the means as well. And in the normal course of events, God uses ordinary means to accomplish His will. In this case, the means God chose for saving the passengers required the crew to stay on the ship. Without skilled hands when daybreak came, getting to the shore would be virtually impossible for the remaining passengers. God’s sovereignty did not nullify the sailors’ responsibility. In fact, God’s decree is the very thing that established their responsibility.
Verse 22 of Acts 27 (“There will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship”) and verse 31 (“Unless these men stay in the ship, you cannot be saved”) strike the perfect balance between divine sovereignty and human responsibility. There is absolutely no contradiction between these twin truths. Both are true. Not one soul on that ship was going to die. God had decreed it. Yet unless the crew stayed on the ship and brought it aground on the island of Malta, the passengers could not be saved. God had also decreed that. He ordains the means as well as the end, and that is why the truth of human responsibility is established and affirmed by the sovereignty of God. It is not nullified thereby.
So even though Paul was absolutely certain it was God’s ultimate purpose to save every soul on board that ship, that knowledge did not prevent him from issuing a warning and directions to Julius, who needed to be diligent to make his rescue certain, by making sure the crew did not abandon ship.
In this is a seventh principle all wise leaders follow: A leader never compromises the absolutes.
When God has spoken, there can be no compromise. It’s one thing to compromise on matters of preference. It’s entirely different to compromise on matters of principle.
Leadership Principle #7
A LEADER NEVER COMPROMISES THE ABSOLUTES.
Compromise is good and necessary in most human relationships. In marriage, for example, couples often have to compromise to handle disagreements on matters of preference and opinion. In secular government, compromise is sometimes necessary to break executive and legislative logjams. In business, compromise is often a vital part of closing a deal. The person who refuses to compromise under any and every circumstance is obstinate, unreasonable, and selfish. That sort of strong-willed inflexibility is sinful and has been the ruin of many relationships and organizations.
But when it comes to matters of principle—moral and ethical foundations, biblical absolutes, the axioms of God’s Word, God’s clear commands, and the truthfulness of God Himself—it is never right to compromise. The true leader understands that and knows where to hold the line.
In this case, Paul was not about to allow human ingenuity to raid the purposes of God. A lesser man might have said, “Okay, let them go. It’s not worth the hassle.” But Paul knew the promise of God was absolute. God would deliver every soul on board. But Paul would not stand by and watch these cowardly men vainly attempt to circumvent the plan and the promise of God. God was going to put Himself on display. He was going to show Himself powerful and mighty. All would be saved from death, and God alone would get the glory and the credit for what He was about to do. But meanwhile, Paul would see to it that every attempt to thwart God’s plan was itself thwarted. And therefore, in this instance, it was Paul’s quick and decisive leadership that God used to put a stop to the crew’s exodus and ultimately preserve so many lives.
Too many people are timid and fearful of confrontation in circumstances like these. Not the real leader. Real leaders have a clear understanding of what is absolute and what is negotiable, and they hold the line on the principles that truly matter.
For the spiritual leader, the absolutes are established by the Word of God. A leader who applies all the other principles of leadership can perhaps achieve a measure of pragmatic effectiveness. But this principle will test your true mettle as a leader. No one can be a truly effective spiritual leader unless he understands the essential truth of Scripture and refuses to compromise its absolute authority. This principle applies, I am convinced, not just to pastors and church leaders, but to Christians in any walk of life who desire to be good leaders.
Whether those renegade sailors realized it or not, Paul was doing them a great favor. To abandon a ship in the pitch black of midnight, in a hurricane, and try to make it to shore in a dinghy was foolhardy in the extreme. They certainly could not have known what was on the shore, or if there were rocks between them and the shoreline. They were simply in a panic, and they figured their chances of survival were better if they got in trouble in a small dinghy, as opposed to hitting the rocks in that huge, lumbering cargo ship.
Like all good leaders, Paul was alert. He also knew how to follow the chain of command. Rather than trying to handle the crew on his own, he got Julius to order the soldiers to take action. Their action, cutting the ropes and letting the dinghy fall off, assured that the sailors remained on board. It also meant that in the end, everyone would have to swim for shore.
Finally, dawn drew near. Luke wrote:
As day was about to dawn, Paul implored them all to take food, saying, “Today is the fourteenth day you have waited and continued without food, and eaten nothing. Therefore I urge you to take nourishment, for this is for your survival, since not a hair will fall from the head of any of you.” And when he had said these things, he took bread and gave thanks to God in the presence of them all; and when he had broken it he began to eat. (Acts 27:33–35)
These words identify an eighth principle of leadership: A leader focuses on objectives, not obstacles.
Luke had already mentioned in verse 21 the passengers’ and crew’s “long abstinence from food.” Here we learn that for the entire two weeks of the storm, they continued battling the elements without eating any food. But now they had some hard work ahead of them, and they were going to need some strength. Paul, ever the clear-thinking leader, urged them to take some nourishment.
He looked right past the storm, beyond the urgency of the moment, and saw that they needed to prepare for the ordeal that lay ahead. While everyone else was still seeing the obstacles, Paul had his eyes fixed on the objective.
Leadership Principle #8
A LEADER FOCUSES ON OBJECTIVES, NOT OBSTACLES.
“This is for your survival,” Paul told them, “since not a hair will fall from the head of any of you” (v. 34). You’re going to be saved; you won’t even be injured. But you need a good breakfast! (Again we see the perfect balance of divine sovereignty and human responsibility.)
Paul was getting them to forget their fears, the threat of death in the storm, the challenge of a nearly impossible swim to shore, and rather partake of the necessary nourishment they would need to make it.
I remember, as a football player, how I would come into the huddle in a critical moment in the game, facing a last-down effort to score, and say, “After we score, we’re going for two! So line up quickly after the touchdown to catch them in the defensive switch.” The strategy was to get people past the fear of the moment.
Paul did that, giving words of encouragement that ignored the very formidable obstacles.
Then, Luke said, Paul took bread, gave thanks to God in everyone’s presence (thus reinforcing once again the source of his authority and his hope), and he himself began to eat. Here’s a truth any godly mother knows: Two keys to serving the Lord are prayer and a good breakfast. Paul did not neglect the crew’s physical needs and lecture them about the spiritual needs of their souls. He balanced the spiritual and the physical. Then he himself began to eat, becoming an example for all.
This is, in fact, a ninth important principle of leadership: A leader empowers by example.
Notice the effect: “Then they were all encouraged, and also took food themselves” (v. 36). Paul’s courage became infectious. Everyone partook of the overdue refreshment, and it had the desired effect. They all began to feel better, stronger, and more hopeful. And then all hands set to work.
Here Luke records a crucial detail he had not yet given: “In all we were two hundred and seventy-six persons on the ship” (v. 37). Perhaps they did a head count during breakfast to verify the exact number of people on board. This would be essential later, when they regrouped onshore, to be sure that everyone had survived.
Then they set to work on one final task. The ship needed to be as light as possible when they ran it aground, “so when they had eaten enough, they lightened the ship and threw out the wheat into the sea” (v. 38). The remainder of the cargo, which had served as ballast until now, was dumped. Thus, for the owner and the crew of the ship, all hope of salvaging anything but their lives was gone. The prophecy was being fulfilled to the letter.
Daylight finally broke: “When it was day, they did not recognize the land; but they observed a bay with a beach, onto which they planned to run the ship if possible. And they let go the anchors and left them in the sea, meanwhile loosing the rudder ropes; and they hoisted the mainsail to the wind and made for shore” (vv. 39–40).
Leadership Principle #9
A LEADER EMPOWERS BY EXAMPLE.
Here we see why it was essential for the crew to remain on board. Only experienced sailors would know how to do these things. The rudder had been tied down because of the storm. In heavy winds like that, the rudder would be impossible to hold for long, and the ship would have steered itself in circles. So it had been fastened with taut, heavy ropes to set as straight a course as possible in the storm. Now it needed to be free so the pilot could maneuver the ship right to the beach.
By the hand of God’s sovereign providence, their course had brought them to a propitious spot—one of the few places in that vast expanse of the Mediterranean where they could try to beach such a massive grain ship. It wasn’t a rocky cliff or a craggy shoreline, but “a bay with a beach.”
They “let go the anchors,” meaning, most likely, that they simply cut the ropes. There was no point in wrestling four heavy anchors aboard. It was clear to all by now that the ship would be a total loss, as Paul had predicted. They raised a sail (the actual Greek word used suggests that it may have been the foresail rather than the mainsail), and they steered for the beach.
They had no idea what was to come. They were headed for a virtual wall: “But striking a place where two seas met, they ran the ship aground; and the prow stuck fast and remained immovable, but the stern was being broken up by the violence of the waves” (v. 41).
St. Thomas, on the east side of Malta, perfectly fits the description of “a place where two seas met.” Ocean currents converge there at the Munxar Reef, a submerged peninsula protruding a mile and a half into the sea. Breakers from the two currents come together right over the reef, causing waves to form in a unique crisscross fashion. Especially in a storm, the waves crashing together give the distinct impression of two seas colliding. Immediately under that place, the hidden reef is shallow enough to ground a ship.
From the ship’s position coming into the bay, it would have appeared they had a clear path to shore, so they steered for it. But the ship ran aground on the shallow reef. “The prow stuck fast,” and the violent breakers continued battering the back of the ship until it finally could tolerate no more stress and began to break up.
The ship was thus stranded some distance from shore. The raging winds and waves continued battering until pieces of the disintegrating ship were floating everywhere. It was clear all on board had no option but to swim to safety.
At that point, the soldiers realized it was going to be every man for himself. They weren’t about to go into those raging waters chained to prisoners. And in such a chaotic life-or-death situation, it would be virtually impossible to keep track of prisoners swimming free. But as we noted in chapter 1, if a Roman soldier lost a prisoner, he paid with his life. So they devised a plan to slaughter Paul and the rest of the prisoners to guarantee they wouldn’t get away.
Luke wrote, “The soldiers’ plan was to kill the prisoners, lest any of them should swim away and escape. But the centurion, wanting to save Paul, kept them from their purpose, and commanded that those who could swim should jump overboard first and get to land, and the rest, some on boards and some on parts of the ship. And so it was that they all escaped safely to land” (vv. 42–44).
Since Paul’s wise leadership had not only endeared him to Julius, but also made him indispensable, the centurion halted his soldiers’ plan to kill the prisoners. In different circumstances, he might well have authorized the slaughter. It was, after all, from the perspective of worldly wisdom, the prudent thing to do.
“But the centurion, wanting to save Paul . . .” Is it any wonder why? If there was one guy Julius did not want to lose, it was the man who had performed so admirably as a leader. So he ordered those who could swim to head for shore, and the rest grabbed boards, pieces of the disintegrating ship, floating debris—whatever they could find to keep them afloat, and they paddled for shore.
Imagine 276 people diving into waves powerful enough to destroy a huge cargo ship and every one of them making it safely to shore. The odds against it are astronomical. But that is exactly what happened. Two hundred seventy-six people jumped into the water, and two hundred seventy-six people met on the shore. In a maelstrom.
The first thought every one of them must have had was thankfulness to the God Paul worshiped. His promises are sure. His Word is true. God’s angel had told Paul this would happen, and it came to pass exactly as he said.
Paul’s triumph was the triumph of great leadership. Tested in the crucible of crisis, he stepped up and showed how a true leader acts. He was decisive. He was determined. He was clear thinking and levelheaded. He took control when things were otherwise out of control. And God honored his efforts with amazing success. He didn’t compromise the absolutes, nor was he distracted from his objective by the obstacles. And he led by example.
In circumstances when lesser men would have been passive or given up, Paul took charge and became an example to all who are called to be leaders. It was one of the outstanding episodes in the life of this noble Christian, who by God’s design has much to teach us all about the rigors and rewards of true leadership.
In the section that follows, we’ll turn to some of Paul’s own writings about the principles of godly leadership. There we find some wonderful insights into a true leader’s heart, as the apostle battles a different kind of adversity—the disappointments and personal hardships a leader suffers when his own people stray from the example he has set.