Listened

This week, we are finishing up our journey through Acts by looking at one section in each of the remaining chapters. Two days ago, we learned Paul appealed his case to Caesar in Rome. Today, in Acts 27, we hear how difficult that trip to Rome would be. It is one of the most dramatically written chapters in the book. The group traveled north from Caesarea to Sidon and boarded a ship there.


Acts 27
5 Keeping to the open sea, we passed along the coast of Cilicia and Pamphylia, landing at Myra, in the province of Lycia. 6 There the commanding officer found an Egyptian ship from Alexandria that was bound for Italy, and he put us on board. 7 We had several days of slow sailing, and after great difficulty we finally neared Cnidus. But the wind was against us, so we sailed across to Crete and along the sheltered coast of the island, past the cape of Salmone. 8 We struggled along the coast with great difficulty and finally arrived at Fair Havens, near the town of Lasea. 9 We had lost a lot of time. The weather was becoming dangerous for sea travel because it was so late in the fall, and Paul spoke to the ship’s officers about it. 10 “Men,” he said, “I believe there is trouble ahead if we go on - shipwreck, loss of cargo, and danger to our lives as well.” 11 But the officer in charge of the prisoners listened more to the ship’s captain and the owner than to Paul. 12 And since Fair Havens was an exposed harbor - a poor place to spend the winter - most of the crew wanted to go on to Phoenix, farther up the coast of Crete, and spend the winter there. Phoenix was a good harbor with only a southwest and northwest exposure.


Listened. On one side, the officer had a captain and an owner saying ... better harbor, short trip ... no-brainer. On the other side, he had Paul saying ... shipwreck, loss, danger ... bad idea. Who would you have listened to? Personally, I don’t know. Probably, I would have followed the advice of the captain ... the guy with the most experience. If you read on, you will find that Paul was right. A fourteen day long storm would drive them hundreds of miles off course causing them to abandon their cargo, destroying the ship and leaving them stranded. For me, the decisive moment came when the captain had to weigh Paul’s advice a second time ... with his life on the line (check out Acts 27:30-32). Fortunately, he listened. We all need people in our life that we can listen to when we have to make difficult decisions. This part of God’s story provides some great guidelines on determining who those people should be ... listen to people who trust God and demonstrate that trust by the way that they live ... listen to people that have provided good advice in the past ... listen to people that have your best interest at heart. Who are you listening to?