An overview for Sunday School teachers and Bible study leaders, of Lifeway’s “Explore the Bible” lesson of Acts 27:31-44, for Sunday, November 24, 2024, with the title, “Trust.” A video version of this overview is available on YouTube at:
INTRO: Ask your group to share: ??? What was the worst storm you have ever been through: hurricane/tornado/thunderstorm/blizzard? — and what was it like for you?
(You might also ask if anyone has ever been on a boat/ship during a storm …)
For example: Cheryl & I have hunkered down through a couple of hurricanes in Louisiana and Texas. The last one was Hurricane Beryl this July. It was “only a 1” but it was a direct hit; our area was right in the eyewall. At one point I was standing in front of the big window in front of our kitchen table, watching the wind whip the big pine tree right in front of that window, back & forth. I was like, “Hang in there baby!” I did not want that thing crashing in on our house — and thankfully it didn’t. But there were some anxious hours there, and we lost power for a couple of days and had quite a bit of cleanup, as did a lot of our folks.
After everyone has shared about storms they’ve been through, then you can say: In today’s lesson in Acts 27, the Apostle Paul is a prisoner on his way to trial in Rome on a ship, when they get caught in an extremely violent storm on the Mediterranean Sea. But we will see in our focus passage today, that the Lord not only brought Paul through the storm, but also used him to witness and minister to the others who were traveling with him.
CONTEXT:
We will conclude our study of the Book of Acts today with this lesson from Acts 27. As you know, basically the second half of the Book of Acts deals with the three mission trips of the Apostle Paul, and then his arrest and imprisonment. Last time we saw in Acts 26 how he shared his testimony with King Agrippa and others, before he was taken to Rome for trial.
As we pick it up today in Chapter 27, Paul is now on his way to Rome because he has appealed to Caesar. Verse 1 says they set sail for Italy. This is a LONG journey from Palestine to Rome. I have often read Acts 27 about all the stops they made, and wondered, WHY was it taking them so long?
Of course, for one, these were ancient times and they had to rely totally upon fair winds to drive their sails — there was no engine power. And it was winter, and there were some bad storms.
But secondly, this is a HUGE journey in length. I had never really realized just how lengthy a journey this was, until I saw this MAP of the relative size of the Mediterranean Sea, compared to the United States. I just had NO IDEA the Mediterranean Sea this big. I think it might be helpful to your class’ understanding as we cover the passage today, to see just how long and arduous a trip this was that they were making:
As you can see, the Mediterranean Sea is virtually the width of the entire United States — it would stretch from North Carolina to California! I had previously imagined it as being maybe only about 1/4 of that size. So this gives us a good idea of just how far they were sailing on this trip: basically as far as from the U.S. Atlantic coast, all the way to Montana — in ancient sailing ships, and with a lot of storms and difficulties along the way.
And that is what they encountered. Verse 14 says “a violent wind, called ‘Euraquilo’ (Euro (east) Klydon (storm) so a “Northeaster”) rushed upon them and drove them off course. In :18 they start throwing everything overboard, and :20 says “all hope of our being saved was gradually abandoned.” (Do you notice the “we” again in this verse? Luke is evidently still with Paul here, and he is writing about what he experienced with him on this trip.)
So this is a hopeless situation from a human standpoint. Nobody thinks they are going to survive — nobody except Paul. He says in :23 that an angel of the Lord spoke to him, and told him that he would indeed stand before Caesar — AND that “God has granted you all those who are sailing with you.” Verse 30 says the sailors let down the ship’s little boat into the sea, hoping to escape by themselves — and that brings us to our focus passage for today, Acts 27:31-44.
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