Come Follow Me LDS- Acts 22-28 Part 2

'Shipwreck and Shackles'

- Paul's defense to King Agrippa
- His epic sea journey and shipwreck
- A God-given purpose is crucial to each of us

 

 

Come Follow Me

LDS Mormon New Testament Acts Bible

 

in this second episode we're going to

talk about a shipwreck and shackles here

we go alright in this episode we pick up

the story with Paul still bound captive

in Caesarea we now have a new governor

so governor Felix is now succeeded by

governor Festus governor Festus has

inherited this problem with Paul he goes

down to Jerusalem or if you read in the

scriptures they say up to Jerusalem

although it's going south and in

Jerusalem he speaks with the high

priests and the high priests of course

want Paul to come down to Jerusalem

where they can lay wait for him to kill

him

Festus goes back up to Caesarea and

decides okay I'm governor I need to sit

and speak with Paul and judge him and so

he has Paul come out and speak with him

and he determines that there is no issue

here that he is innocent of all charges

apart from what he calls superstitions

conflicts of superstition that he has

with the high priests in Jerusalem but

he still brings up - Paul hey why don't

you go down to Jerusalem and speak

before the courts there to the Jews and

Paul says no I don't think so and he

appeals to Caesar so he will end up

going to Rome to plead his case in the

meantime King Agrippa ii this is the son

of Herod Agrippa as you recall a couple

weeks ago he's the one that had the

owl's right the owl that freed him from

prison the omen that freedom from prison

and then the omen that he saw when he

collapsed at the judgment seat here so

this is his son and he is the king and

he rules with his sister Berenice

and his other sister or one of his other

sisters is married to the previous

governor here in Caesarea governor Felix

so it's a big family affair that they

have going here with Paul

so king Agrippa visiting there says hey

you know what I want to hear this guy I

want to hear what he has to say and so

in chapter 26 we get the words of Paul

speaking to King Agrippa here in the

judgment Hall and he goes over his past

again he recounts who he was prior to

the road to Damascus how he was a very

strict Pharisee and how he used to pull

people out of their homes and condemn

them to death for what he cusses is

blasphemy it's interesting how blasphemy

works right blasphemy depends completely

on which side you're on

and Paul here is describing his

treatment of the Christians by saying

that he caused them to blaspheme well

that's a new perspective for him the

blasphemy is now on the other foot in

other words as he's causing them to

blaspheme he's telling them to deny

Jesus as the Christ more than likely so

to him now that is blasphemy whereas

before he considered that belief in

Jesus as the Christ as blasphemy and

here we get the purpose of why Jesus

Christ appears to Paul on that road to

Damascus he says here in verse 16 it

says but rise and stand upon my feet he

told Alma the younger to do the same

thing for I have appeared unto thee for

this purpose to make thee a minister and

a witness both of these things which

thou has seen and of those things in the

which I will appear unto thee that he

does appear to him a couple of times

more delivering thee from the people and

from the Gentiles unto whom now I send

thee so he has right at the beginning

here a purpose of what he needs to do

and certainly this is something that

gets him through so many hard times it's

so much persecution and failure he's

told that he will be freed of the

Gentiles he's told that he has a calling

he's told that he is to open their eyes

and turn them from darkness to light and

so he appeals to King Agrippa and says I

was not disobedient to this vision this

is the son of God a resurrected being

speaking to me and I needed to follow

through and so I've done these things

and this is why the Jews took me from

the temple because they didn't agree

what I was doing but I was following

through on what I should do and then

again here in verse 22 he says that what

he was doing was saying none other

things than those which the prophets and

Moses did say should come that Christ

should suffer this is huge that Christ

should suffer so this is the suffering

servant that they do not believe in

anymore

and that he should be the first that

should rise from the dead and should

shew light unto the people into the

Gentile so this is something he sees in

the scriptures from the prophets a

suffering servant or a suffering Messiah

the exact opposite of what the Jews

envision as a political Messiah here you

have Jesus dying on the cross at the

under the power of the Romans the

Gentiles who the Jews want to usurp and

they are looking for a messiah to

overthrow the Roman Empire and throw the

shackles off of these Gentiles and

remember while Jesus is up on the cross

the high priests say free yourself if

you are the Messiah free yourself in

other words look you're up on this cross

that the Romans have nailed you on of

course we put you up there but that the

Romans have nailed you on if you're the

Messiah overthrow them because that's

what they're looking for and so as he

says this Festus says Paul you're mad

and what you're saying in other words

they understand the doctrine of course

you know not completely perhaps but they

understand the doctor and especially

King Agrippa

but Festus says you're mad in

saying what you're saying here about

this resurrected suffering servant but

Paul says King Agrippa you know what I'm

talking about you understand the

doctrine and he says to the king

believest thou the prophets I know that

you do and then King Agrippa says back

to him you almost convinced me to be a

Christian that probably would have taken

quite a bit of repentance by the way but

why not

and so after Paul is done saying this

that those family members pretty much

get up

to talk among themselves and say look he

hasn't been anything wrong certainly

nothing wrong that is worthy of death or

of bonds and so King Agrippa says to

Festus this man would go free right now

if he hadn't appealed to Caesar so now

he needs to go to Caesar and so then in

chapter 27 we get a rare thing here and

that is a voyage on the sea where Paul

is taken by a Centurion and many others

and they get on a ship they arrive at

several different ports going through

the Mediterranean and taking quite a bit

of time to get there it seems like the

wind was not helping them out and their

sailing in the fall and in verse 9 we

get this now when much time was spent

and when sailing was now dangerous

because the fast was now already past

Paul admonished them so this is the fast

most like most likely of the Day of

Atonement Yom Kippur and this is a time

when the sea in that area can get very

rough and the winds get rather violent

and so while they're at Port Paul says

to them look this is going to get

violent this is going to be bad we

should stick around here and not sail

but the owner of the ship and others

convinced the Centurion to go ahead and

move forward and so they do when they

get caught up in a raging tempest and

over several days they keep dumping

things out of the ship to try and reduce

the ballast and to lighten the load and

then we start getting a theme here from

Luke as he starts telling us about these

events he says here in verse 20 and when

neither Sun nor stars

in many days appeared and no small

tempest lay on us all hope that we

should be saved was then taken away so

he starts bringing in being saved over

and over and over again throughout these

verses he seems to be likening this unto

the plan of salvation and to the

sacrifice of Jesus Christ think about

the symbolism here that Luke would be

working with for the Jews they were not

a seagoing people at all Phoenicia where

they had stopped by yes they were in

fact the Phoenicians were probably the

world class sea goers at the time but

tying to the Jewish Scriptures we can

think of a few different places where

water is really the symbol of chaos and

that would go all the way back to the

creation where the Spirit of the Lord

comes to the deep which is the chaos the

void there is Moses and the power of

using the staff to divide the waters of

the Red Sea to overcome the water in the

chaos that is there is the story

of Jonah who goes out on the ship as

he's trying to avoid his calling to go

to Nineveh and so here we have this

symbolism of chaos that is going to take

down Paul and all those that are with

him but who's with him it's the Gentiles

and of course the message of Paul is the

salvation of the Gentiles and so as Luke

intertwines here the message of

salvation throughout these verses we see

Paul exerting a faith and a confidence

in the Lord to teach the Gentiles here

on the ship with him about faith in

Jesus Christ

so as Luke says that all hope for

salvation had been taken away in verse

21 it says but after a long absence Paul

stood forth in the midst of them and

said sirs you should have hearkened unto

me and not have loosed from Crete and to

have gained this harm and lost so you

should have listened to what I said at

the port

but then he follows with this he says

and now I exhort you to

of good cheer for there shall be no loss

of any man's life among you but of the

ship for there stood by me this night

the angel of God whose I am and whom I

serve saying fear not Paul thou must be

brought before Caesar and lo God hath

given the all them that sail with thee

so again he's going to the heart of the

beast

he's going to the heart of the gen VIII

Gentile nation so to speak and his whole

message is to the Gentiles one of

salvation if you have faith in Jesus

Christ so then they start getting closer

to land and they're very concerned about

running aground and so eventually what

they do is they end up throwing out

anchors to try and hold them into place

so they don't get they don't run aground

and then as the Sun comes up they can

see a little area where they might be

able to make it in closer to shore

something that might work out for them

is they get closer they end up running

ashore and the waves continue to crash

upon them and start to destroy the ship

and the soldiers that are on there say

we need to kill the prisoners that

we have here with us including Paul

because some of them are gonna end up

swimming off and escaping but the

Centurion wants to save Paul and so he

commands that the slaves should try and

get ashore those that can swim and those

they can't they use pieces of the ship

or whatever they can and they all end up

safely on shore and here on shore

they're freezing right it's a storm it's

cold and they try to build a fire and so

Paul puts some wood some branches onto a

fire and out of the heat maybe it was

quelled up over one of the branches a

viper he say a snake leaps out and bites

Paul and it's a venomous snake it

everyone thinks he's gonna die that he

must be sinful which would have been a

common thought back then because a snake

bit him but then nothing happens to him

he doesn't swell up at all it was on his

hand nothing happens to his hand

and he's fine

and of course we're told oftentimes that

those with the priesthood would be able

to overcome the venom of snakes and

would be able to handle snakes without

any problem

this is another message from Luke saying

a Paul has the priesthood I think you

have to wonder sometimes even with great

individuals like Paul or a Joseph

Smith or Peter or any of these great

prophets would they have been able to do

what they did without the assurance that

they were given in these visitations I I

don't know that they could but that

direct message from the Lord to Paul

gives him the strength to go through all

of these tragedies and persecutions and

obstacles and allows him to carry out

the purpose that was given to him and I

think that's a great lesson for all of

us we're all Paul to a certain degree we

all are shipwrecked at times we all are

persecuted in some way we all certainly

have obstacles and I think the question

is how closely tied do we feel to

our purpose do we have that right in

front of us or is it a distant vision

for us a distant thought a distant

motivation for someone like Paul or Alma

the younger I think it is a part of

their very core and so here on the

island of Malita the chief man is they

call him is Publius and Publius his

father is laying sick and so Paul goes

in to his father who probably has

dysentery and lays his hands upon him

and he heals him and then all of the

other people from the island that have

sicknesses and diseases they come to

Paul and Paul heals them and this is

what Paul does he is a true servant to

those around him as he's in jail he is

preaching and watching out for the

jailers when he's in front of kings and

governors he's defending himself as he

testifies of Jesus Christ

so in front of great kings and in front

of our various individuals on an island

it's the same thing he's serving them

and teaching them and they end up

staying here on this island for three

months and they end up at several

different ports and cities on the way to

Rome and they finally make it to Rome

and here Paul is put under guard maybe

for protection as much as anything and

after he's there a few days he calls in

the Chiefs of the Jews that are there in

Rome and he wants to talk to him and he

wants to say look this is why I am here

because I am a Jew like you who the

Romans would have let me go because

there's no reason for me to be held but

I appealed to Caesar and therefore I'm

here in Rome and the Jews there say we

will listen to you but everything that

we hear about this sect of the Nazarenes

or Nazarenes or the Christians but

everybody that hears about this it's

spoken against they say in other words

bad things are said about this sect and

he gives a common appeal or a plea to

them and he says the reason I am bound

here is for the hope of Israel it is a

common thing that we share of course

he's talking about Jesus Christ and so

the Jews said a day aside to listen to

Paul and wouldn't it be great to have

been there and just to spend a day

listening to what Paul would be telling

the Jews in Rome here's a guy with a

background of being brought up with an

incredible education of the law and the

prophets who persecuted the Christians

and now is one himself and to listen to

him for a day expounding on Jesus Christ

being spoken of throughout the pentia

throughout the Torah throughout the

prophets would obviously be incredible

and it says exactly that here in verse

23 and when they had appointed him a day

there came many to him into his lodging

to whom he expounded and testified the

kingdom of God it's the higher law the

mark is

Priesthood persuading them concerning

Jesus both out of the law of Moses and

out of the prophets from morning till

evening again how many times does Luke

tell us this about Paul what he was

doing here's our scriptures you're

reading them wrong this is Jesus Christ

this is the suffering servant this is

what the Messiah is it's Jehovah and so

in modern times today as biblical

scholarship has done some incredible

things one thing it loses is the

theology of Christ the Old Testament but

this is what Paul is teaching from all

of the prophets since the time of Adam

have preached and prophesied about

Jehovah being the Messiah and the Son of

God and preached about the plan of

salvation that he would take on the sins

of the world and that it is him that we

will have faith in because of that where

we can have the higher law of mercy

applied to the lower law of judgment and

that the atonement at one 'men

can be accomplished through us trying

our best to obey and through Christ's

lowering themselves below us and

offering us His grace and some of those

that are there with him this day they

believe him and some don't as happens

just about everywhere he goes and Luke

says that Paul quotes from of course

Isaiah here saying the following

well spake the Holy Ghost by esaias

that's Isaiah the prophet unto our

fathers saying go unto this people and

say hearing ye shall hear and shall not

understand and seeing ye shall see and

not perceive think of them reading their

scriptures for the heart of this people

is waxed gross and their ears are dull

of hearing and their eyes have they

closed lest they should see with their

eyes and hear with their ears and

understand with their heart and should

be converted

and I should heal them be it known

therefore unto you that the salvation of

God is sent unto the Gentiles and that

they will hear it and when he had said

these words the Jews departed and had

great reasoning among them so of course

an appeal back to Isaiah the Messianic

prophet and we get an explanation here

of the Nehor principle from

isaiah then as we push Christ away from

things and the idea of the son of God in

a suffering servant the atonement it is

because our eyes have closed our ears

have closed in our hearts of heartened

because if we are more aware then Christ

comes into our life more and for

whatever reason here with Luke in Acts

it ends up here with us hearing anything

we don't hear anything about the trial

in Rome

we don't hear about him speaking with

Nero the Emperor it ends on Paul

preaching the gospel he's here for two

years and it ends up with him sent with

Luke saying that he was preaching the

kingdom of God and teaching those things

which concern the Lord Jesus Christ with

all confidence no man forbidding him and

that's the end of Acts and so Paul no

matter where he goes among the Jews

among the Gentiles he's preaching about

the Lord Jesus Christ and regardless of

the obstacles that are set before him

regardless of tragedy regardless of

whippings of shipwrecks of jail and

prison of scheming around him he knows

what his purpose is and he moves forward

in a direct line regardless of these

things I think there's something we can

really learn from

I'll talk to you next time