Archive for May 15th, 2009
May 24, 2009: Paul Sails for Rome
The text for this lesson is Acts 27:1–44.
Key Points
- As Christ was with Paul and His companions, so He is with me, holding me up, keeping me with Him in the ship of the Church, and casting all my sins into the depths of the sea.
- Law: In sinful despair, I let the pains of the present overtake me and no longer believe in God or trust His redemption or love.
- Gospel: Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever, rides out the storms of life with me, granting me hope in my future redemption.
Context
Arrested in Jerusalem on trumped-up charges (Acts 21:1–40) and jailed for more than two years in Caesarea (Acts 24:27), Paul is finally on his way to Rome, for he had appealed to Caesar (Acts 25:11), the “supreme court” of the empire. As this story makes clear, sea travel in ancient times could be quite treacherous, especially as winter approached (Acts 27:9–12). After the shipwreck at Malta, where Paul and the crew wintered (Acts 28:11), the apostle finally arrived in Rome, where Acts ends with the account of Paul’s incessant preaching of the Gospel to the Jews and all who would lend him an ear.
