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. 2We 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.
3The 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. 4From there we put out to sea again and passed to the lee of Cyprus because the winds were against us. 5When we had sailed across the open sea off the coast of Cilicia and Pamphylia, we landed at Myra in Lycia. 6There the centurion found an Alexandrian ship sailing for Italy and put us on board. 7We 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. 8We moved along the coast with difficulty and came to a place called Fair Havens, near the town of Lasea.
9Much time had been lost, and sailing had already become dangerous because by now it was after the Fast. So Paul warned them, 10“Men, I can see that our voyage is going to be disastrous and bring great loss to ship and cargo, and to our own lives also.” 11But the centurion, instead of listening to what Paul said, followed the advice of the pilot and of the owner of the ship. 12Since the harbor was unsuitable to winter in, the majority decided that we should sail on, hoping to reach Phoenix and winter there. This was a harbor in Crete, facing both southwest and northwest.
13When a gentle south wind began to blow, they thought they had obtained what they wanted; so they weighed anchor and sailed along the shore of Crete. 14Before very long, a wind of hurricane force, called the “northeaster,” swept down from the island. 15The ship was caught by the storm and could not head into the wind; so we gave way to it and were driven along. 16As we passed to the lee of a small island called Cauda, we were hardly able to make the lifeboat secure. 17When the men had hoisted it aboard, they passed ropes under the ship itself to hold it together. Fearing that they would run aground on the sandbars of Syrtis, they lowered the sea anchor and let the ship be driven along. 18We took such a violent battering from the storm that the next day they began to throw the cargo overboard. 19On the third day, they threw the ship’s tackle overboard with their own hands. 20When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days and the storm continued raging, we finally gave up all hope of being saved.
21After the men had gone a long time without food, Paul stood up before them and said: “Men, you should have taken my advice not to sail from Crete; then you would have spared yourselves this damage and loss. 22But now I urge you to keep up your courage, because not one of you will be lost; only the ship will be destroyed. 23Last night an angel of the God whose I am and whom I serve stood beside me 24and said, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul. You must stand trial before Caesar; and God has graciously given you the lives of all who sail with you.’ 25So keep up your courage, men, for I have faith in God that it will happen just as he told me. 26Nevertheless, we must run aground on some island.”
27On the fourteenth night we were still being driven across the Adriatic Sea, when about midnight the sailors sensed they were approaching land. 28They took soundings and found that the water was a hundred and twenty feet deep. A short time later they took soundings again and found it was ninety feet deep. 29Fearing that we would be dashed against the rocks, they dropped four anchors from the stern and prayed for daylight. 30In an attempt to escape from the ship, the sailors let the lifeboat down into the sea, pretending they were going to lower some anchors from the bow. 31Then Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, “Unless these men stay with the ship, you cannot be saved.” 32So the soldiers cut the ropes that held the lifeboat and let it fall away.
33Just before dawn Paul urged them all to eat. “For the last fourteen days,” he said, “you have been in constant suspense and have gone without food—you haven’t eaten anything. 34Now I urge you to take some food. You need it to survive. Not one of you will lose a single hair from his head.” 35After he said this, he took some bread and gave thanks to God in front of them all. Then he broke it and began to eat. 36They were all encouraged and ate some food themselves. 37Altogether there were 276 of us on board. 38When they had eaten as much as they wanted, they lightened the ship by throwing the grain into the sea.
39When daylight came, they did not recognize the land, but they saw a bay with a sandy beach, where they decided to run the ship aground if they could. 40Cutting loose the anchors, they left them in the sea and at the same time untied the ropes that held the rudders. Then they hoisted the foresail to the wind and made for the beach. 41But the ship struck a sandbar and ran aground. The bow stuck fast and would not move, and the stern was broken to pieces by the pounding of the surf.
42The soldiers planned to kill the prisoners to prevent any of them from swimming away and escaping. 43But the centurion wanted to spare Paul’s life and kept them from carrying out their plan. He ordered those who could swim to jump overboard first and get to land. 44The rest were to get there on planks or on pieces of the ship. In this way everyone reached land in safety.
28:1Once safely on shore, we found out that the island was called Malta. 2The islanders showed us unusual kindness. They built a fire and welcomed us all because it was raining and cold. 3Paul gathered a pile of brushwood and, as he put it on the fire, a viper, driven out by the heat, fastened itself on his hand. 4When the islanders saw the snake hanging from his hand, they said to each other, “This man must be a murderer; for though he escaped from the sea, Justice has not allowed him to live.” 5But Paul shook the snake off into the fire and suffered no ill effects. 6The people expected him to swell up or suddenly fall dead, but after waiting a long time and seeing nothing unusual happen to him, they changed their minds and said he was a god.
7There was an estate nearby that belonged to Publius, the chief official of the island. He welcomed us to his home and for three days entertained us hospitably. 8His father was sick in bed, suffering from fever and dysentery. Paul went in to see him and, after prayer, placed his hands on him and healed him. 9When this had happened, the rest of the sick on the island came and were cured. 10They honored us in many ways and when we were ready to sail, they furnished us with the supplies we needed.
11After three months we put out to sea in a ship that had wintered in the island. It was an Alexandrian ship with the figurehead of the twin gods Castor and Pollux. 12We put in at Syracuse and stayed there three days. 13From there we set sail and arrived at Rhegium. The next day the south wind came up, and on the following day we reached Puteoli. 14There we found some brothers who invited us to spend a week with them. And so we came to Rome. 15The brothers there had heard that we were coming, and they traveled as far as the Forum of Appius and the Three Taverns to meet us. At the sight of these men Paul thanked God and was encouraged.
Original Meaning
THE LAST TWO chapters of Acts record the fulfillment of Paul’s great ambition to go to Rome (cf. Rom. 1:10–13; 15:22–32). Luke records the event with the crisp, “And so we came to Rome” (Acts 28:14). This was politically the most powerful city of the time and Paul had been a citizen of it from birth. He had planned to go there several times but had been prevented from doing so (Rom. 1:13). He had spent the twenty-seven years or so after his conversion in the eastern parts of the empire (15:19–20) and had dreams of taking the gospel westward as far as Spain, hopefully using Rome as a base for this stage of his career (15:22–29).
About three years before, Paul had written to the Roman church his testament of faith, the letter to the Romans, in preparation for his visit. In a time of crisis, the Lord had buttressed this dream through a vision in which he was told that he “must also testify in Rome” (Acts 23:11). But he probably never imagined that he would reach Rome as a prisoner. The description of the way he got there reads like an excerpt from an exciting novel. We can feel the drama and excitement of the events through Luke’s vivid description. These two chapters also contain details typical of the record of one who was part of the travel group (this is a “we” section).
One of the most helpful resources for the study of this passage is a book written more than a century ago by James Smith, The Voyage and Shipwreck of St. Paul. As an experienced yachtsman and classical scholar, Smith “made a careful study of Luke’s narrative in relation to the route which it maps out—a part of the Mediterranean with which he himself was acquainted—and formed the most favorable estimate of the accuracy of Luke’s account of each stage of the voyage.”1 Smith says about Luke’s style and content, “No sailor would have written in a style so little like that of a sailor; no man not a sailor could have written a narrative of a sea voyage so consistent in all its parts, unless from actual observation.”2
Fortunately for us, Colin J. Hemer has made available many of the findings of Smith and of others in arguing his case for the historical accuracy of the book of Acts.3
The Journey Begins (27:1–12)
LUKE RETURNS TO the first person plural (“we/us”) (27:1) after leaving off with his arrival in Jerusalem (21:18). He may have been in Caesarea during the two intervening years and collected valuable information for his two-volume work (see Luke 1:3).4 Others in the traveling party included the centurion, Julius, his soldiers, other prisoners, and “Aristarchus, a Macedonian from Thessalonica” (27:2). The latter had been traveling with Paul for some time (19:21; 20:4); he is described as Paul’s “fellow prisoner” in Colossians 4:10 and “fellow worker” in Philemon 24. These two letters were probably written from Rome in the early sixties.
In tracing this journey it is helpful to have a map open. In the Phoenician city of Sidon (about sixty-nine miles north of Caesarea), the centurion, in the first of his many acts of kindness to Paul, permitted him to visit “his friends”—probably members of the Christian community there (27:3; see 11:19). Interestingly, this was a privilege also given to Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, when he made his journey to martyrdom in Rome.5 The western winds that blow during the summer months caused the ship to go east and north of Cyprus (traveling off the coast of Cilicia and Pamphylia). Luke must have made note of this fact since this was opposite to the route they used when coming to Tyre two years earlier (21:3).
The ship arrived in Myra in Lycia and the passengers boarded an Alexandrian ship there (27:6)—probably one of the large Alexandrian grain ships that headed west from there.6 A strong northwest wind probably caused them to make “slow headway” (27:7) and even to travel southwest, along the southern coast of Crete, rather than due west (27:8).
With difficulty the ship arrived in Fair Havens, which, despite its name, was not a suitable place to face the rigors of winter. The group had already been delayed, for it was “after the Fast” (i.e., the Day of Atonement or Yom Kippur, 27:9), which fell around October 5 that year.7 Paul felt it was not safe to venture out to find a better place for the winter (27:10). This advice may have been given informally at a consultation with the owner/master of the ship, its pilot, and the centurion, to which Paul was included “as a man of standing and experience who had won Julius’ respect.”8 We do not know whether this advice was given through direct divine guidance or through Paul’s human wisdom. We know that on one point he was not accurate, for he predicted the loss of life if they ventured out, and that did not happen.
Paul was a seasoned traveler, who had already been shipwrecked three times and had spent a night and a day in the open sea (2 Cor. 11:25). But he was overruled by the majority, who decide to go a short distance further west to the better harbor at Phoenix (27:12). They needed to travel four miles west and about thirty-four miles west-northwest across a bay.9
The Storm (27:13–26)
“A GENTLE SOUTH wind” seemed to be ideal for the journey to Phoenix, so the crew weighed anchor (27:13). But “there was a noted tendency of a south wind in these climes to back suddenly to a violent north-easter, the well known gregale.”10 Unfortunately Paul’s ship had to confront a northeaster with all its force. They eventually decided that they could not fight it, so they gave in and let it carry them along in the opposite direction, away from the island (27:14–15). The little island of Cauda gave them a temporary reprieve from the gale (27:16), and they were able to take some emergency measures necessary under these conditions. The lifeboat that may have been towed behind the ship was hauled in (27:17a), and the crew passed ropes under the ship “to hold together and reinforce the hull against the battering of the waves.”11
As they were being driven along, a new fear confronted them—the dreaded shallows and quicksands off the shore of Cyrene in North Africa called “Syrtis” (27:17b), which “inspired an obsessional fear constantly mentioned in first-century literature.”12 The crew “lowered the equipment or instrument” (lit.), an action that has been given numerous explanations as Luke is not specific about this instrument. This may be because Luke did not know what the instrument was or had forgotten its technical name.13 It was probably a floating anchor that “was dragged astern at the end of a rope of suitable length so as to offer maximum resistance every time the ship plunged down from the crest of the wave.”14
As with the storm in the story of Jonah (Jonah 1:5), the next step the sailors took was to throw their cargo overboard (27:18) and then the ships tackle or the spare gear (27:19). By doing this they hoped to decrease the danger of the ship if it offered too much resistance to the storm. The sun or stars did not appear “for many days” (27:20a), which meant that they could not now determine which direction they should go. They finally came to the stage of giving up hope of being saved (27:20b).
As a result of this storm, most of the people on board would have become seasick and not have eaten for several days. In this hopeless situation Paul came with a word of encouragement, having himself been encouraged by God (2 Cor. 1:3–4) through a vision. When he said that they should have taken his advice (27:21), he was not making an “I told you so” statement but trying to win their attention. Twice he asked them to keep up their courage (27:22, 25), basing that appeal on his vision. God had a job for him in Rome, and because of that everyone would be saved (27:24). After expressing his faith in God, he predicted the ship would run aground on an island (27:25–26). From this point on, Paul seems to have assumed a leadership role in the ship.
The Shipwreck (27:27–44)
LUKE MENTIONS “STILL being driven along the Adriatic sea” (27:27), that is, the central Mediterranean. James Smith made careful inquiries from experienced Mediterranean navigators and calculated the time it would take for a ship drifting and trying to avoid the Syrtis to do the trip that Paul’s ship made. He came up with thirteen days, plus one hour and twenty-one minutes, thus giving credence to Luke’s mention of the fourteenth night when the sailors sensed they were approaching land (27:27).15 They wisely decided to drop anchor and wait until it was day so that the ship would not dash onto rocks of these unknown seas (27:29).
Paul asserted his leadership again when the sailors tried to escape from the ship and ensured that they would stay on for the crucial time when the people had to go to shore (27:30–32). His leadership is again seen when he urged the people to eat (27:33–34). They needed energy for the final challenge and would not be strong on empty stomachs. They found courage to eat when they saw Paul eating after giving thanks to God (27:35–36).
Some have been skeptical about Luke’s report that there were 276 people on board (27:37), but Hemer lists ample evidence from the literature of the time of ships plying this route carrying larger numbers of people.16 The crew saw a bay, which was probably what is now known as St. Paul’s Bay in Malta, but they did not recognize the land. They decided to sail toward land and run the ship aground near the shore, but it struck a sandbar further out and became stuck (27:39–41a). The waves were too strong for the battered ship and it broke to pieces (27:41b). The soldiers would have faced severe punishment if the prisoners escaped,17 so they planned to kill them; but they were saved because the centurion wanted to save Paul’s life (27:42–43a). Again, therefore, people’s lives were saved because of Paul’s presence on the ship. As Paul had predicted, “everyone reached land in safety” (27:44).
Ministering in Malta (28:1–10)
THE PROPOSED FORTY-MILE trip from Fair Havens to Phoenix ended two weeks later on the island of Malta, which was scarcely a day’s voyage from the great port of Syracuse in Sicily. But the people had to wait three months in Malta because it was winter. The word “islanders” (28:2) is barbaroi (lit., “barbarians”), which was how those who did not speak Greek were referred to in those days.18 The islanders showed the shipwrecked travelers “unusual kindness.” And Paul, despite his exhaustion from the preceding events, joined in setting up a fire, which was probably needed because of the cool autumn temperature (28:2–3).
The viper that stuck to Paul has caused problems to scholars. While present-day Malta has vipers that stick onto their victims, they are not poisonous. This may be the species referred to here. But if so, the islanders would not have expected Paul to swell up or fall down dead (28:6). Perhaps there was a species of poisonous viper in first-century Malta, which has since been exterminated by the islanders.19 The reaction that Paul was probably a murderer (28:4) is typical of superstitious people who see others going through misfortune—they assume that they are paying for their wrong deeds. When nothing happened to Paul, their superstition led them to change their verdict, saying that he was a god (28:6).
As was typical, Paul had a healing ministry in the town following the healing of the chief official’s father (28:8–9). The prayer and the placing of hands on him is similar to other healing miracles. The hospitality of the people was truly generous, for they even supplied the travelers’ needs when they left three months later (28:10).
Rome at Last (28:11–15)
THE SHIP THAT took Paul and company to Italy was also an Alexandrian ship, with a figurehead of the “Heavenly Twins,” Castor and Pollux. These were “patrons of navigation and favorite objects of sailors’ devotion. Their constellation, Gemini, was considered a sign of good fortune in a storm.”20 If they left three months after the shipwreck, that would have been around February 8, rather early in the shipping season.21 They first stopped at Syracuse in Sicily and then at Rhegium at the toe of the Italian mainland. They finally reached Puteoli, the port of Neapolis (modern Naples), where they disembarked (28:12–13). It is interesting that Paul was allowed to accept the invitation to spend a week with the Christians in Puteoli. Longenecker is probably right in suggesting that Julius likely had to stay for some time in Puteoli.22
During this week news of Paul’s arrival in Italy reached the church in Rome, presumably through someone who went to Rome from Puteoli. Some believers decided to meet Paul on the way (28:15). Paul traversed “the oldest, straightest and most perfectly made of all Roman roads,”23 the Appian Way (Via Appia), which connected Neapolis and Rome. Some Christians met him at the famous Forum (or market) of Appia, forty-three miles from Rome, others at the Three Taverns (a settlement that had grown around an isolated inn by that name24), thirty-three miles from Rome. “At the sight of these men Paul thanked God and was encouraged” (v. 15).
It was almost two and a half difficult years after the divine assurance given to Paul in Jerusalem that he would go to Rome. He finally met Christians in Rome, people whom he had longed with much eagerness to see. Luke’s mention of arrival in Rome in verse 14 rather than in verse 16 has been variously explained. Longenecker is probably right in suggesting “that it reflects Luke’s eagerness to get to the climax of his story and that this eagerness led him to anticipate their arrival in Rome.”25
IT IS SURPRISING to find fifty-nine verses devoted to a journey in a history book with a strong theological orientation. As we seek to apply this passage the most important questions to ask are, “Why did Luke devote so much space to this journey?” and “What does he want to achieve from this passage?”
Luke was there. The narrative is so vivid that we can almost feel what was happening. In light of this I suppose we can understand the conclusion of R. I. Prevo that Acts should be classified along with popular novels and historical romances.26 Hopefully the discussion above and what has been said in other studies about the historicity of Acts has shown that this passage, like the rest of the book, is historically reliable. When we reckon with the fact that Luke was there and that his emotions must have been severely affected by such a tumultuous journey, we can understand the reason for the vividness of his description.
A little over a year prior to writing these words, traveling from a YFC center that was not accessible by road because of the war in our country, I made a seven-hour journey on a ship that must have been about the size of Paul’s ship. We ran into bad weather, and that experience of battling relatively less severe winds is etched vividly in my mind. How much more would a two-week ordeal be etched in Luke’s mind! This gives us the first reason for the great length of this record of Paul’s journey to Rome: Luke was there.
God’s sovereignty is at work. A second reason is that here we see vividly illustrated the mysterious providence of God as he works out his purposes amidst the apparent misfortunes encountered while living in this fallen world. This is a major subtheme of Acts.27 Our passage shows how again God worked good out of a difficult situation. Earlier we saw God work out his purposes despite human sinfulness. Here he works despite the unpredictability of nature and despite human errors in judgment (i.e., the decision to spend the winter in Phoenix [27:12]). God spoke to Paul at a crucial time so that he could maintain his courage and trust in God’s sovereignty; buoyed by that belief, Paul acted with calm at a time when others were panicking.
Paul, the leader. Luke also wanted to present his hero Paul as an example of leadership in the midst of difficult circumstances. This situation is what we might call a “secular situation,” where the others do not have even a nominal allegiance to Christian principles.28 Because of Paul’s strength of character he rose to the occasion and gradually became more and more influential as a leader, even though he was still a prisoner.
Ernst Haenchen is not impressed by all of this. He discounts the historicity of this passage, claiming that the events reported simply could not have happened.29 He thinks that the author of Acts, using “a constructive imagination,” adds to his source “edifying supplements which extol Paul.” The source was “a journal of reminiscences which could not report anything special about Paul.”30 In response to Haenchen, E. F. Harrison maintains that “this prominence [given to Paul] would indeed stand out like a sore thumb if the apostle had not displayed extraordinary qualities elsewhere.” He continues:
But his personal magnetism and sterling character, his outstanding leadership, and his Spirit-filled life, affecting enemies and friends alike, are so clearly etched on the history as a whole that there is no good reason for distrusting this portion of the narrative. He was no less dynamic as a prisoner than as a free man; and for this information we are not dependent simply on Luke, for after reaching Rome Paul made a profound impression both on the praetorian guard and on others in the imperial service (Phil. 1:13).31
We will look at this passage, then, to find significant things about leadership in what we might call “secular” situations, which are the situations in which Christians find themselves most often. Paul was an agent of hope, a wise person, one who had an attitude of servanthood, and one whose testimony was clear and appropriate. Paul also found encouragement from fellow Christians amidst the strain of the challenges facing him.
Contemporary Significance
THE SOVEREIGNTY OF God over circumstances. We noted that this passage is unique to the exposition of God’s sovereignty amidst hardship in Acts because here the hardship comes not from the sinfulness of people but from the forces of nature and the folly of humans. Paul and his team would have avoided the storm if the ship’s officers had heeded his words of wisdom. This passage provides a needed check to prevent overapplication of the story of Christ’s stilling the storm (see Luke 8:22–25). Indeed, Christ can still every storm, but he does not immunize Christians from problems that others in the world also face. Sometimes he miraculously delivers Christians from such situations, while at other times he gives Christians courage to endure natural and other disasters.32 We thank him for performing miracles but also for his sufficient grace that provides endurance in the midst of storms (2 Cor. 12:7–10).
Some Christians will testify how God has saved them from investing in a venture that went bankrupt while others ponder the mysterious providence that permitted them to invest in the same venture after making all the necessary inquiries about it and praying about the decision to invest. One Christian will testify how a traffic jam caused him to miss an ill-fated flight, while the godly mother of three little children will face an uncertain future because her husband died on that flight. We should never say that the one who was saved was any more godly than the one who was not. In fact, the one who suffered perhaps had a stronger faith, so that God felt that he or she was able to go through this circumstance. We must never glibly pronounce that a calamity faced by a Christian is a judgment from God. This may be so, but most often it is not, and by making such a pronouncement we may unnecessarily intensify the suffering of the righteous (cf. what Job’s friends did to him).
What use is it to refer to God’s sovereignty in view of the Christian who was not spared the experience of disaster? Though Christ can still the storm, we can have the courage to face it when he does not, for we know that through the crisis God’s sovereignty will work out something good (Rom. 8:28). We live under God’s promises, and these promises brace us to face the challenge. The American poet John Greenleaf Whittier (1907–92) meditated on the mysterious providence of God in a beloved hymn:
Here in the maddening maze of things,
When tossed by storm and flood,
To one fixed ground my spirit clings;
I know that God is good!
But what if the trial is too heavy for us? Whittier anticipates this situation:
And if my heart and flesh are weak
To bear an untried pain,
The bruiséd reed he will not break,
But strengthen and sustain.
Paul experienced such strengthening from God when an angel brought him a reassuring message, reminding him about the Lord’s promise (27:23–24).
Leadership in “secular” situations. That Paul should take a leadership role in this situation while being a prisoner is so amazing that Haenchen thinks it never happened.33 But this is typical of the way Paul acted elsewhere in this book. It is important for Christian witness and for the general welfare of people for Christians to be actively involved in the affairs of society. If they are gifted in leadership, they can take a lead and have a wide influence for good. But even those not called to be leaders can learn from Paul’s actions here.
Being agents of hope. Since Paul believed so strongly in the sovereignty of God, he could look beyond the bleak situation and anticipate good to come out. A vision of sovereignty may not come to us at once because our natural tendency may be to panic in a difficult situation. If so, we must grapple with God until we come out of that situation and are able to go to the people with a word from God rather than with a public display of anxiety.
The psalmist in Psalm 73, for example, pondered the mysterious providence of God that can permit the wicked to prosper while the righteous suffer. After a sustained reflection on his doubts, he said, “If I had said, ‘I will speak thus,’ I would have betrayed your children” (Ps. 73:15). As a result, without publicly proclaiming his doubts, he went to the sanctuary to battle it out with the Lord (73:17). There he received a vision of God’s sovereignty, and in the rest of the psalm he praised God. We too must grapple until we see things the way God sees them. This will give us the confidence to be agents of hope in this hopeless world.
Twice in this passage Paul asked the people to take courage (27:22, 25). He then buttressed these words by eating. Thereupon, “they were all encouraged and ate some food” (27:36). Our words and actions can cause us to be agents of hope in a world that often seems hopeless. One of the most powerful messages we can give to the world is that God is sovereign and that there is therefore hope amidst the gloom that may temporarily engulf us.
Both words and actions can communicate this hope. Jeremiah’s purchase of a plot of land in Anathoth at a time when he himself was prophesying the defeat and exile of his people was a symbolic act of hope (Jer. 32:6–16). God asked him to do so because after seventy years of exile, he promised that the Jews would return to their land. When people lose hope, it shows in their meaningless actions, which make situations even worse. Christians, by their constructive and meaningful actions, can bring hope to others and thus help transform society.
At a time when the war was raging in the north of Sri Lanka, the people there had fallen into a state of hopelessness and despondency. Roads were littered with filth and the yards of homes were unkempt. The YFC leader for northern Sri Lanka at that time, Suri Williams, decided to keep a happy and beautiful home in spite of all the terror and confusion around him. He and his family carefully tended their flower plants even though bombs were destroying many yards and many others had given up on their yards. One day they decided that not only would they keep their yard clean, they would also clean up the road outside their home. An Indian army officer34 from a camp nearby saw this being done and challenged his soldiers to start a clean-up campaign of the roads near their camp. Neighbors were also encouraged to improve the areas surrounding their houses. Keeping a tidy home in a time of war became a symbolic act of hope.
The unspoken witness to the gospel through such acts of hope is immense and will result in people who observe others seeking out Christ. When John Wesley was on his voyage to North America as a missionary from England, his ship encountered a terrible storm, so bad that they feared for their lives. The English immigrants on the ship were shrieking with fear. Wesley examined himself, as he usually did in all circumstances, “and found to his horror that he was afraid, mortally afraid of dying.” But a group of Moravian Christians from Germany were singing hymns amidst the storm. After the storm had subsided, Wesley went to one of them and asked, “Were you not afraid?” The man replied, “I thank God, no!” Wesley persisted, “But were not your women and children afraid?” “No,” came the reply, “our women and children are not afraid to die.”35 This experience had a profound influence on Wesley, and these and other Moravians had a big part to play in his subsequent experience of evangelical conversion that sparked off the eighteenth-century revival in England.
Human wisdom. Several times Paul acted with a wisdom that came out of a knowledge of life in the world. For example, his warning about the danger of leaving Fair Havens for Phoenix (27:10) probably came out of his experience of sea travel. Later, Paul sensed that the sailors were trying to abandon the ship, and his advice enabled the officials to keep them on board so that their expertise would be available when it is most needed (27:30–31). Paul’s wisdom is also seen in his advice to those on board to take some food (27:34). Barclay aptly observes, “He knew that hungry men are not efficient men.”36
The media often portrays religious people as nice people who, however, do not know much about what is happening in the world. They are of little use in emergencies, for they lack the wisdom needed. Paul did not fit into this stereotype, nor did Joseph, Moses, Joshua, David, Solomon, Daniel, Mordecai, Nehemiah, or a host of others known for both their wisdom and their godliness. We are challenged to be alert to what is happening in the world and to seek wisdom on the best ways to live and work in this world. While some may be gifted with more wisdom than others, this is essentially something we acquire through alert observation, through conversations with people active in fields different from ours, through reading periodicals and books, through viewing programs that give us information about the world around us, and through involvement in the affairs of the societies and nations in which we live.
Clear and appropriate testimony. Luke does not cite any aggressive evangelism during this journey, though Paul must have been involved in personal verbal witness on the trip. Yet Luke does mention that when Paul can say a word for God, he does so. For example, he gave reassuring words to the people on board the ship, explaining that the one who spoke to him was “an angel of the God whose I am and whom I serve” (27:23)—a most appropriate way to introduce God to a non-Christian. When he partook of the food, he “gave thanks to God in front of them all” (27:35). At a time of seeming hopelessness these words of thanks must have provided a strong contrast to the mood of the rest.
Such quiet and appropriate acts of affirming our faith play a role in orienting people positively toward God. I have heard tennis player Michael Chang, ranked third in the world at the time of my writing, winsomely mention God when answering a question on television: “I am hoping to win, if it is God’s will.” On another occasion I heard television commentators discuss why he takes longer than other players to sign his autograph. Chang not only signs his name, he also writes, “God bless you.” On that occasion a commentator remarked, “What a good model he is for the younger generation!” Years ago in the West it was common to mention God in a conversation or a public statement. But with mounting hostility to the Christian idea of God even in Western society, statements about God now have to be slipped in at appropriate times, but they can do their part in adding to the total witness of the church in a given society.
A servant’s lifestyle. Wherever we are (in church, at home, or in society) and whatever our role may be (leader, follower, Christian minister, worker in a secular job, etc.), our attitude should always be that of a servant (Phil. 2:5–8). In our study of Paul’s address to the Ephesian elders (20:17–35), we saw that he adopted a servant lifestyle in his ministry. Now we see him adopting a similar lifestyle in his activity in society. Though he must have been exhausted from the strenuous trip and though the Maltese people were doing their best to help the people from the ship, Paul was busy gathering wood for the fire that the Maltese people were building (28:2–3). Commenting on this Barclay says, “It is only the little man who refuses the little task.”37
Paul was, of course, following the example set by Jesus, who washed the feet of his disciples—a servant’s task that none of the disciples seemed willing to do (John 13:4–9). I have in my dossier of photographs from my travels a photo of an Australian Anglican bishop, Reg Piper, kneeling on the floor beside my bed making it up. He was my roommate at a conference, and coming from a warm climate where blankets were unnecessary, I was at a loss to know how to make up my bed, so he took the job over. I rushed to my camera and snapped the scene, as I felt that a remembrance of this Christlike act needed to be preserved.
Another servant-like act of Paul in this passage is his going to see the sick father of Publius (28:8). In religions like Buddhism and Hinduism one has to pay to receive the services of religious workers, and devotees have to either go to them or provide transport for them to come and perform their service (at a funeral, wedding, almsgiving, etc.). In Christianity the religious worker is a servant, so he does his work without demanding any privileges except that of serving the people. This is a powerful testimony for Christ.
An article by an anti-Christian journalist in an Indian newspaper on the conversion of large numbers of tribal people in India to Christianity attributed the success of Christianity with these people to three reasons. (1) Christian workers went to places where no one else would go. Even government census workers did not bother to go to remote tribal villages in the mountains (they simply wrote down estimates). But Christian evangelists not only went to these places, they even lived among these people. (2) Christian evangelists handed over leadership of the churches to locals very soon and thus empowered the people. (3) Christianity is a “cheap” religion. By that the author meant that it did not cost the people a lot in order to get the services of a Christian minister.38 These three points of attraction of Christianity have to do with the servant lifestyle of the Christian. How powerful might the testimony be of a legislator, a government official, a bus driver, or a school teacher if he or she went into his or her work with a desire to be a servant!
Encouragement from fellow Christians. The task of being a Christian witness in a secular society is a difficult one. It is emotionally draining and often discouraging. Paul must have been drained as he was coming to the end of his trip. Luke points out that when Paul saw the Romans who had come to meet him on the way, “[he] thanked God and was encouraged” (28:15). They had walked at least thirty-three miles from Rome to meet him—a sacrificial expression of kindness and of warmth. Though they could have welcomed him when he arrived in Rome, they made the considerably long walk to meet him on the way. That kind gesture lifted his spirits.
Christians who have boldly stood for Christ and his principles in public testify how acts of affirmation by fellow Christians do much to encourage them along the way. Let us take time to do this to people who live under pressure. A short letter of appreciation of services rendered may be just what a person involved in a lonely battle for God needs to spur him or her on at a time of discouragement.