A Mediterranean Storm

 Acts 27.1-44

Luke's account of Paul's voyage to Rome stands out as one of the most vivid pieces of descriptive writing in the whole Bible. Its details regarding first-century seamanship are exceptionally precise and its portrayal of conditions on the eastern Mediterranean remarkably accurate. 

Paul before Felix

Our reading this evening is quite a long one as we pick up from where we left off last time … Acts 23:25 – 24:27. Last time we had Paul in custody and examined by the Sanhedrin. Then on the Sunday which the preacher had to excuse himself from because of a family emergency, we would have looked at a conspiracy to kill Paul which was foiled by Paul’s nephew and which resulted in him being spirited away by the Romans to Caesarea on the coast. Here he appears before his accusers and Felix, the Roman governor. He denies all the charges which the governor eventually realises are baseless, but the governor nonetheless keeps him in prison because he wanted to gain favour with the Jews he governed.

The With Us God

Image sourced here

My text is Acts 23:11

The following night the Lord stood near Paul and said, ‘Take courage! As you have testified about me in Jerusalem, so you must also testify in Rome.’

Wouldn’t it be great if the Lord stood near you and me and said: ‘Take courage! As you have testified about me in Jerusalem, so you must also testify in Rome’; or, as He did on another occasion: ‘Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent’; or “Quick!” he said. “Leave Jerusalem immediately, because the people here will not accept your testimony about me”; or ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness’ (see18:9; 22:18; 27:23; 2Co 12:7–10). Wouldn’t it be great if God actually spoke to us as He did to Paul; that we could be so aware of His presence that we could say, as Paul does on other occasions that we sense the Lord standing next to us? What is it for God to be with us and how do we live with the presence of God? There’s a lot

Paul - Roman, Greek, Jew, Christian.

Acts 22.23-30

We continue our journey through the Acts of the Apostles and find ourselves at Acts 22.23-30. We ended two weeks ago with the crowd in Jerusalem shouting for Paul's blood after he told them that God had sent him to minister to the Gentiles: ‘Rid the earth of him! He’s not fit to live!’..... and the Romans taking him into custody.

Saul/Paul's Turnaround, Britain's Turnaround, Your Turnaround

Acts 21:37-22:22

What a week it has been in British politics ... talk about a turn around, a change of direction, which, you might remember from previously, is what is at the root of the word repentance. The New Testament word translated as repentance is the Greek word metanoia which is not a confession of sins but a change of mind (here is an excellent article on this subject) implying a change of direction from moving away from God to now moving towards God. As I said: "What a week of mind changing, direction changing, we've had."

Apostle Paul, the Referendum and Jo Cox.

Acts 21.17-36

We continue our teaching journey through the Acts of the Apostles. This is quite a long reading and I want to highlight a few things and apply our reading to events of the last week and the coming week here in the U.K.

Mnason and the Refugee Crisis (Opportunity)

Acts 21:1-16

Paul is journeying back to Jerusalem: from Greece to Asia Minor, passed Lesbos to Miletus to Kos to Rhodes to Patara ... he is touring the Greek Isles on his way towards Syria and back to "The Promised Land" ... which is perhaps irrelevant except that many of these names are in the news daily right now as thousands travel hazardously and at great threat to their lives in the opposite direction from Syria towards the freedom of the perceived promised lands in the West ... in this past week some making the final stage of that journey across the dangerous and cold North Sea and landing in dinghies here on our beaches in Norfolk. You'll understand that I wondered whether Paul's journey in the opposite direction teaches us anything about those making the journey in this direction.

Paul's Farewell to the Elders

Acts 20:13-38

An important note to my wider readers: What follows are the rough notes for my sermon on the above subject. Various constraints have meant that I have not been able to flesh it out in a way that might make sense to folk who did not hear me preach it. I publish it mainly for my congregation who are in the habit of reading my blog in order to find the references made during my preaching.

Eutychus (Who???): There is Life in You!

Acts 20:1-12

When the uproar had ended, Paul sent for the disciples and, after encouraging them, said goodbye and set out for Macedonia. He travelled through that area, speaking many words of encouragement to the people, and finally arrived in Greece, where he stayed three months. Because some Jews had plotted against him just as he was about to sail for Syria, he decided to go back through Macedonia.

Just how long Paul stayed in Macedonia we do not know. Luke's words seem to suggest a fairly prolonged period. One activity that especially concerned Paul at this time was collecting money for the relief of impoverished believers at Jerusalem. He instructed the churches in Galatia, Asia, Macedonia, and Achaia about this. The collection was an act of love like that undertaken by the church at Syrian Antioch earlier. More than that, Paul viewed it as a symbol of unity that would help his Gentile converts realize their debt to the mother church in Jerusalem and give Jewish Christians