Setting Sail

DEVOTION

THE BOOK OF ACTS

SETTING SAIL

Acts 27:1-2

27:1 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.

NIV

This whole chapter is dedicated to the travels aboard ship in an attempt to reach Rome so Paul can appeal his case to Caesar. In reality we need to deal with the whole chapter all at once, but that would be difficult in some sense, yet the life lesson is in the conclusion of this chapter. What can we learn from this introduction to the sailing of the ship? We should note that this ship they boarded was not owned by the Roman government. In those days ships were merchant vessels caring goods from port to port and passengers, even a detachment of Roman soldiers with prisoners needed to find passage on a ship heading in the general direction of their destination. It was not like the Centurion owned a ship that they could board and travel straight to Rome on. Sometimes life can take us into ports we may not really need to go. We are going to see their travels take them to many places along the way, places they had to go because of the winds and the seas, places that were not part of their plans. When we set sail on the course of our life, we for the most part, have a plan, a destination in mind. We put out to the sea of life. We may even have some traveling companions with us as Paul had, all with the same mind, having the same journey, but as with Paul for different reasons. His companions, including Luke, who is the author, as inspired by the Spirit, of this record of acts. We will deal with this traveling where we might not want to go a little later in the chapter, but for now we should focus on the lesson of traveling with companions. We should note that none of them, Paul or his companions were in charge of their travels, unless of course we consider all the travels are a result of Paul appealing to Caesar. But, nevertheless they were all traveling along with him and none of them including Paul had control of the ship, the winds and the seas, which meant the route they would travel attempting to reach their destination was up to various conditions. Although we can learn it is not good for us to travel through life alone, that it is good to have traveling companions, we also must realize that life can take us along a route we may not have any control over on the way to our destination. It is good to have a destination, in that setting out into the sea of life with no place to go affords little meaning to life at all. We must also note that for us believers our destination is not of the world, but rather is of the kingdom of God. For us to determine a physical destination of life, whether that be desired professional or monetary goal is in fact no real destination at all, but merely ports of call which we can be distracted by enough so that we lose sight of our final destination and perhaps even decide to settle down and leave the life on the high seas, striving for our final resting place. So now that we have set sail, let us sail on.