God's Favour Surpasses All Boundaries

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Acts 27 is a familiar chapter that talks about the shipwreck of Paul. Paul undertook three missionary journeys in his lifetime. This is Paul’s fourth and final missionary journey to Rome, where Paul was taken as a prisoner and would be tried before Caesar.

Along with 276 other prisoners, Paul was travelling in a ship from Caesarea to Rome. This missionary trip is largely different from the other three. During the other journeys, Paul chose to travel to places he wanted so he could further the gospel. Not so this time; he is now a prisoner and had to go where he was taken.

And the bad news is that the ship would soon go through a storm.

These three verses are easy to ignore, because they are full of some names, names of places and names of men. However, these verses point to the favour of God that was so extensively available for Paul in the midst of the hardships that he was going through. Every individual mentioned here were not there by chance. You will find that God had specially placed them to favour Paul.

Acts 27:1-3 ­ – “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. 
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. 
The next day we landed at Sidon; and Julius, in kindness to Paul, allowed him to go to his friends so they might provide for his needs.”

The first name is Julius. We do not know anything much about him, except that he was a centurion. But he didn’t not appear there all of the sudden. God placed him there at that time to help Paul. Although he was a centurion of Roman regiment, he who showed unusual kindness to Paul. Of course, he was instrumental in saving Paul’s life, as we see at the end of this chapter.  But he also allowed Paul to go and meet his friends at Sidon. Isn’t that amazing that a Roman centurion would show kindness to a Jewish prisoner!

Secondly, we read about Paul’s friends at Sidon

The ship’s first stop was at Sidon. They needed some time for loading and unloading. At that time, although Paul was a prisoner, Julius gives him the freedom to go and meet his friends.

How did Paul have friends at Sidon?

Sidon was the principal city of ancient Phoenicia. Although there is no evidence of Paul having started the church there, a church probably began shortly after Stephen’s death. We read about that in Acts 11:19.

There didn’t just happen to be a group of believers in Sidon who was ready to help Paul, God put them there! God had planned it a long way back. Paul was in a hopeless, lonely situation and at that God extends his favour to him through these people at Sidon.

Luke, Paul’s trusted friend and physician

We can’t find his name there. But he is the author of the book and the usage of the pronoun ‘We’ indicates his presence. Luke apparently was with Paul during the entire journey. That is why he is able to give minute details about the journey and shipwreck with such precision. He talks of the wind directions, efforts they take, the names of place and so on, because he personally witnessed everything.

Scholars say Luke was travelling with him as Paul’s personal physician. Luke’s presence in the ship must have been extremely comforting and encouraging to Paul in many ways, as Luke was not just a physician, but a disciple of Jesus and was like-minded with Paul in the way they loved and lived for Jesus.

Aristarchus

We read about yet another man - Aristarchus, a Macedonian from Thessalonica. Colossians 4:10 describes Aristarchus as Paul’s “fellow prisoner.” And in Philemon 1:24, Paul’s send greetings from Aristarchus as well. Both Colossians and Philemon are prison epistles written when Paul was imprisoned in Rome. This means Aristarchus travelled with Paul all the way to Rome and was probably with him during the imprisonment.

Scholars believe that in order for Aristarchus to travel with Paul on this journey, he had to become Paul’s personal slave. Isn’t it amazing that Aristarchus was willing to stoop down to the level of becoming a slave, just that he could be of some help to Paul?

It is impossible to understand the grace and favour of God with our limited knowledge and wisdom. The favour of God transcends all boundaries. And when God’s favour is upon us, we will see providence and help coming from all corners, even unexpected places.

Part 1 of the Series ‘The surpassing greatness of god during our stormy days’ by Sunitha Justin 

 


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