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"Unhindered"

#91-47
Presented on The Lutheran Hour on July 21, 2024
By Rev. Dr. Michael Zeigler, Lutheran Hour Speaker
Copyright 2025 Lutheran Hour Ministries


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Text: Acts 27 & 28

Mike: It's summertime, time to be out on the water, on the lake, or maybe for some, out on the ocean. But the water can be unpredictable; it can be chaotic. So, I'm wondering, have you ever had a harrowing experience out on the water? And this isn't just a rhetorical question—because I have guests with me today. I'm joined by Jessica (Bordeleau) and Jeff (Gibbs). If you've been a listener for a while, you know that Jeff's a regular guest. He's a Bible scholar, and one of the favorite voices we'd love to hear from. Welcome back to the program, Jeff.

Jeff: Thanks, Mike. Good to be here.

Mike: And Jessica Bordeleau, she and I began working on a podcast together for a couple seasons a few years back. And welcome back to the program, Jessica.

Jessica: Thank you. It's great to be here.

Mike: It was later in the day. We had gone out fishing, my dad, and it was on my uncle's boat, but I was 10 years old at the time, and it may as well have been the ocean. It felt that big. And the clouds are rolling in and the winds picking up. Waves are starting to rock the boat. And so, we got to get in, in a hurry before this storm rolls in, and we're trying to gather up all our gear, and somehow the anchor rope got kicked off the back of the boat. And nobody saw. And as soon as the motor started up, it just sucked up all that rope into the propeller and stalled out the motor. So now here we are, dead in the water, and the storm's rolling in. I felt helpless and afraid.

Jessica: Who was in the boat with you?

Mike: It was my dad, my uncle, and maybe my brother and another cousin. My dad does the bravest—it was the bravest thing I'd ever seen. And the storm is rolling in. He strips off his outer clothing, puts on a life jacket, takes a pocketknife in his hand and throws himself into the water. And the boat's rocking, and my uncle's trying to help him from inside the boat. And he's holding onto the back of the boat, and he's cutting this anchor rope loose with his pocketknife. I was just like, this is amazing! He gets it all free in probably 20, 30 minutes, and we get off the water just as the rain is starting. But it was terrifying. I was like, "I can't believe he's going to jump in the water like this."

Jessica: Did it change your view of your dad?

Mike: Oh, yeah, hero for sure. So the water, whether it's a lake or a river or out in the open sea, it can be a dangerous place, a frightening place, place of close calls, life-altering tragedies. And that's what we're going to be talking about today. How do we get through these times, not just on the water, but in the rest of life? And we're going to do this by diving into the book of Acts, a book from the New Testament in the Bible, specifically the final two chapters of the book. And if you've read Acts, maybe you've noticed that the last quarter of the book, a full seven chapters, is devoted to the trial of Paul: Paul, who has become one of the chief spokesmen of Jesus and His people. But we read Acts and we learned that Paul gets into a lot of trouble along the way, gets into trouble with the Roman authorities, and now he's on trial. Jeff, we talked about this a couple of weeks ago in the Q&A section. Just give us a quick recap. Why is Paul on trial?

Jeff: Well, as he says, he's on trial for the hope of Israel, which has a name, and the hope of Israel's Name is Jesus. Paul has been transformed by his meeting with Jesus, and the good news that Jesus has both died and risen from the dead changes everything. But then many of his own people are rejecting this message. So when he goes back to Jerusalem, he's actually falsely accused of defiling a holy part of the temple.

So there's a riot and he's arrested. The Romans have soldiers stationed there to keep order. Paul is a Roman citizen, so he has legal rights that most people don't have. For political reasons, he's going to be placed in jeopardy. And so he exercises his rights as a Roman and says, "I appeal to Caesar." This is a big deal. That means that the Governor Festus has no choice but to send him to Rome.

Mike: So we're going to listen to these last two chapters, excerpts of these last two chapters. As we listen, I want you to ask yourself, what's a place or a moment or a word or a phrase from the story that gets me, that sticks with me? Then I'm going to ask you to share. Yeah, get comfortable, lean in, and picture these scenes from the book of Acts, chapters 27 and 28, with me.

Now, Paul had appealed to the highest authority in Rome, to the emperor, to Caesar. So it was decided that we would sail for Italy. Paul and some other prisoners were put under the charge of a Roman centurion. The centurion's name was Julius. We set sail from Caesarea, and the next day landed at Sidon, a port about 70 miles north. And there, Julius, the centurion, in kindness to Paul, let him go and see his friends in Sidon, so that they might provide for his needs for the voyage ahead.

We set out again and sailed around the island of Cyprus because of the winds. The winds were against us. For several days, we made slow headway, and came to the next port with difficulty. And because the wind kept blowing us off course, we sailed around the southern side of the island of Crete. We moved along the coast of Crete with difficulty and came to land at a place called Fair Havens. Now, much time had been lost, and sailing was already getting dangerous because winter was approaching. So Paul warned them. He said, "Men, I can see that this voyage of ours is going to be a disaster with much loss to the ship and to the cargo and to our own lives as well." But the centurion paid more attention to the captain of the ship and the owner of the ship, more to what they were saying than what Paul was saying.

Now when a gentle south wind began to blow, they thought they had what they wanted. So they hoisted anchor and set sail along the shore of the island of Crete. But in no time, a whirlwind of hurricane force, a nor'easter, swept down from the island. The ship was caught up in the storm and driven on. We couldn't sail into the wind, so we gave way to it and were driven along out to sea. And the ship took such a battering that the next day they started to throw the cargo overboard. And on the third day, they threw the ship's rigging equipment overboard; they threw it overboard with their own hands.

And for several days when neither sun nor stars appeared and the storm kept raging, all hope of our being saved was lost. Now, the men had not eaten for several days. So Paul stood up and said to them, "Men, you should have taken my advice not to sail from Crete. You would've spared yourself this damage and loss. But take courage, because not one of you will be lost. Only the ship will be destroyed. This very night, an angel from the God to whom I belong, the God whom I serve, an angel stood by me and said, 'Do not be afraid, Paul, because it is necessary for you to stand trial before Caesar. And look, God has graciously given you the lives of all who sail with you.' So keep up your courage, men, because I have faith in God that it will be so, just as he told me. Nevertheless, we must run aground on some island."

On the fourteenth night, while we were still being driven across the Adriatic Sea, around midnight, the sailors sensed that they were getting close to land. And they were afraid that we were going to be smashed against the rocks. So from the back of the ship, from the stern, they cast out four anchors and prayed for daylight. Then, from the front of the ship, from the bow, they lowered the lifeboat. Now they were trying to escape, to abandon ship, but they were giving the impression that they were going to lower anchors from there. Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, "Unless those men stay with the ship, you all cannot be saved." So the soldiers cut the ropes holding the lifeboat, and let it go into the sea.

Now, just before dawn, Paul, he addressed them. He said to them, "For 14 days, you men have been in constant suspense. You've gone without food, you haven't eaten anything. So now I urge you to eat something. Take some food because you need it to be saved because not one of you will lose a hair from his head." And after Paul had said this, he took bread, and in front of them all, he gave thanks to God, and he broke it and he ate some of it. And they took courage and they took some food themselves. We were, all of us together, 276 lives on board, and everyone ate as much as he wanted.

At dawn, they spotted land, but they decided to run the ship aground there. So they cast off anchors, loosened the ropes, hoisted the foresail, and made for the beach. But the bow of the ship got stuck on a sandbar, wouldn't move, and the stern breaking into pieces by the surf. So the soldiers were planning to kill the prisoners so that they wouldn't swim away and escape. But the centurion Julius, he wanted to save Paul's life, and he stopped the soldiers from carrying out their plan and instead ordered everyone who can swim, jump overboard, get to land, and the rest can float there on some plank or piece of the ship. And in this way, we were all saved.

And after we were saved we learned that the island was called Malta, and the islanders showed us no ordinary kindness. They built a fire. They welcomed every one of us around it, because it was raining, cold. Now Paul was gathering some brushwood for the fire, and a viper driven out by the heat fixed itself on his hand. And when the islanders saw the beast hanging from Paul's hand, they said to each other, "No doubt this man is a murderer. He's escaped from the sea, and now justice will not allow him to live." But Paul shook off the beast into the fire and suffered no harm. They kept watching him, expecting him to swell up and keel over dead. But when nothing bad happened to him, they changed their minds about him and decided that he was a god.

Now on the island there was an estate that belonged to the chief official on the island. Publius was his name. And Publius welcomed us into his house. And for three days, he entertained us hospitably. But it happened that Publius' father was sick, he had a fever and was in bed. Paul went in to see him and prayed, placed his hands on him, and healed him. After this, everybody who was sick on the island came, and they were cured. And they honored us with many honors. And when it came time for us to set sail, they supplied the provisions for the next leg of the voyage. After three months, we set sail on a ship that had wintered there. So we passed through several other ports and landed on the Italian mainland. And we found brothers in Christ, and they invited us to stay with them for seven days. And so we came to Rome, and other brothers and sisters in Christ heard about us, and they came from as far as the Forum of Appius and the Three Taverns and met us. And Paul, seeing them, gave thanks to God, and he took courage. When we got to Rome, Paul was allowed to stay in his own quarters with the soldier who guarded him. After three days, he called together the Jewish leaders in Rome to come and see him. And they came, and he explained to them his situation. And he said to them, "It is for the hope of Israel that I'm wearing this chain." And they agreed to hear him out and appointed a day where they would come listen to him. And when the appointed day came, from morning until evening, Paul explained, and he bore witness to the kingdom of God, trying to persuade them about Jesus from the law of Moses and from the prophets.

And some of them were being persuaded, but others believed not. And as they were discussing among each other and as they were leaving, Paul said to them, "The Holy Spirit did well when he declared to your forefathers through Isaiah, the prophet. He said, 'Go to this people and say to them, 'Hearing, you will hear but you will not understand. Seeing, you will see, but you will not comprehend. Because this people's heart has grown calloused. They hardly hear with their ears. They have shut their eyes so that they would not see with their eyes, so they would not hear with their ears and understand with their hearts and turn, and I will heal them.' So let it be known to you that this salvation from God has been sent out to the Gentile nations, and they will listen." Now for two years, Paul stayed there in his own rented quarters. He welcomed all who came to him, and he was preaching the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness, unhindered.

Mike: So what was a word or a phrase or a moment that stayed with you? And then we can say more about why. So Jessica.

Jessica: Paul's like, "Why don't you guys eat something?"

Jeff: For me, especially, Mike, it was at the end when they got to Rome, and Paul saw the fellow believers and he took courage. We think of the apostle Paul as this invincible dude. He's just a guy. And what an encouragement to him. He gets there. I mean, he can't text them to tell him he's coming. So yeah, what an encouragement that must've been to him.

Mike: I would say the no ordinary kindness that the islanders—they're actually called barbarians in the Greek text. These barbarians show no ordinary kindness or sometimes it's translated unusual kindness. That's what got me this time. So Jessica, let's come back to you. Why do you think that scene on the ship got to you or spoke to you?

Jessica: It seemed very relatable for Paul to have calmed down enough to have some food and they didn't want to eat until they saw him eat. And then they go, "Okay," and then they can calm down to eat.

Mike: Yeah. You think, why were they not eating? Maybe seasickness, this constant stress and he knows that they're going to make it through, and so he says, "You need to take this so that you can be saved."

Jessica: Yeah. The power of a leader. With my kids, if I can be calm, then I see them being calm.

Mike: Yeah.

Jeff: Yeah.

Mike: Yeah. Paul becomes sort of the captain of the ship with God's Word guiding him. It's a slow transition of not listening to his advice to now they just do what he says and follow his lead.

Jessica: Is that weird though? He was supposed to be a prisoner.

Jeff: Well, again, he's a high-status person, even under house arrest. Paul is, he's a Roman citizen, which is belonging to the 1 percent. And I was thinking that he was, in eating, why bother eating if you're going to die?

Jessica: That's true, too.

Jeff: And so he was actually showing them what his confidence was and they went, and I think you're right, "Oh, well, he's eating. Maybe I can eat, too."

Mike: There's so many allusions with the language that is used here by Luke that ties back to Jesus, the feedings of the thousands. He directly quotes what Jesus had said to them about, "Not a hair of your head will perish on the Day of Judgment." He says the same thing to the sailors, the breaking of the bread and giving thanks to God. It's all that Eucharistic language that's in the Lord's Supper, so there's a lot going on on many levels here.

Jessica: I thought that when you said that, when he healed that man, that everyone that was sick came to him, like Jesus. Everyone kept coming to him.

Jeff: I think it's in Acts 13 maybe, where Paul quotes Isaiah 49, "I have appointed you a light to the Gentiles." Well, in the first place, Simeon quotes that and that's about Jesus. But now it's about the apostles. See? So Jesus, in and through the apostles, is continuing to do what he had started to do in the Gospel, so I think that's another connection.

Mike: And these are Gentiles on the boat with a little Christian cohort that the "we," which includes Paul and probably Luke the author, we think of Paul as like this single hero who's marching around. But no, he's always got people with him all. He's got brothers and sisters in Christ with him.

Jeff: Yes, co-workers. There's a lot going on here that Paul doesn't get and most of it he never saw coming. But this he can depend on, that he's a member of the body and that there he is in a place he's never been.

Mike: And they are believers there.

Jeff: And they are believers. And missionaries in essentially non-Christian contexts have talked this way about how precious it is to meet a fellow disciple of Jesus, "Oh, this is the best thing ever."

Mike: What do we get to know more deeply about Jesus through listening to these chaotic close calls and yet story of salvation?

Jeff: Well, one thing that came to mind was, "You'll be My witnesses to the ends of the earth." And Jesus meant it. Paul got to Rome, but not in the way he planned, certainly not under the circumstances that he was counting on. "I must show him how much he must suffer for My Namesake." That's what God, Jesus, said to Ananias when he went to baptize Paul. In that sense, Paul is unique, right? He has a particular calling that I don't have. And yet that same determination of Jesus to bring light to the Gentiles is evidenced here. "You're going to get to Rome." And the interesting thing then of course is that it ends before he does what Jesus says he's going to do.

Mike: Yeah. We never hear him testifying to Caesar.

Jeff: But we know he did.

Mike: We know he has to.

Jeff: Because Jesus said he would.

Jessica: That kills me though. There's this epic book and they don't tell you what happens, what happens to Paul?

Mike: Yeah.

Jeff: Yeah. Thousands of books have been written about that. Nobody knows.

Jessica: Oh, I want to know. Left me hanging.

Jeff: Yeah, sorry.

Mike: So Jessica, what are you getting to know more deeply about Jesus, listening to this?

Jessica: It's the relentlessness of this story. Things just keep happening and happening, and then they crash, and then there's a snake? You have to throw a snake in there? So you couldn't predict any of those things. But you also couldn't have guessed the ways that God provided for them—through a centurion soldier, through islanders that you never met. God kept providing for them even through the wind. God was blowing them in the way that He wanted them to go. And so that gives me some peace that God can do that for me, too. Because my life can seem kind of like "Where did that come from?" But I don't need to know how God will be with me. But He promises to be with me, and then in Jesus I can trust Him. Okay, I'm going to be blown around. I'm going to be shipwrecked and storm wrecked, but He's going to bring me home.

Mike: For me, it's the confidence that Jesus is working in us, His body today. That's good news for me. I think of 2nd Corinthians where Paul says that we carry the death of Jesus in our bodies so that the life of Jesus would be revealed in us. And so again, it's not us, it's Christ at work in us.

So I told that story at the beginning of my dad doing that with the rope anchor. Two summers ago, we're in a bay in Florida, and we got 15 souls aboard this big pontoon boat with my family, and a storm rolls in and we're trying to get—we're still an hour ride back to the port, and a big wave comes over the top of the pontoon boat. And it felt like we were going under. But it's a big pontoon, so it sprang up and we kept going, and then the motor stalls in the midst of this. And we're trying to go and we can't get the motor going. And we look in the back, the rope had tangled into the propellers. And I'm like, "I've seen this before!"

Jeff: Did you have a pocket knife?

Jessica: Was it your turn?

Mike: I did. Yeah. I was like, "I've seen this before. I know what has to be done."

Jeff: Wow.

Jessica: Oh my goodness.

Mike: I just had to do it. And I think that's kind of what Acts 26, 27, 28 is like; we've seen this before. Jesus has faced trial, unpredictable things have come at Him, and He's endured every storm, the cross, the worst of it, and rose victorious on the other side. Now He's just working that out in us—in his servant Paul, in a unique way—but in all of us. And that's comforting to know that what He's done in the past, He's doing again.

Jeff: It's a hanging ending. It's an open-ended ending. It's not a happy ending. You don't know what's going to happen to Paul. And Luke doesn't tell us, and we don't actually know—the traditions are kind of several and varied—but we know what capital T, capital E, "The Ending" is. It's the same one that Jesus got, that is rising from the dead. And so, Paul's been bearing witness to that hope. No matter what happens to him, that's what he's holding onto.

Mike: Anything else that you would want to leave with our listeners as we finish this conversation up? What would you want to say to someone who's listening?

Jessica: I would want to remind them of what I learned, that things can be awful, like storm wreck awful, but Jesus is with you. He was with them through the person of Paul. Who knows how Jesus will be with you, but He will be.

Jeff: This is a hard one, but it's okay not to be in control. Because we're not, but Jesus is Lord.

Mike: I would say take courage. What Jesus did once for all long ago, He's still doing. Amen? Thanks. I think that'll wrap it up.

Jeff: I thought you were going to say, "Take courage. Have a sandwich."

Mike: Have a sandwich.

Jessica: Yeah. I wanted to talk about that, too. He threw the wheat overboard. He trusts you so much, we'll throw away the rest of the lunch. Okay. That was good.

Mike: Take courage. Have a sandwich. That's good, too.





Music Selections for this program:

"A Mighty Fortress" arranged by Chris Bergmann. Used by permission.

"The Church's One Foundation" From The Concordia Organist (© 2009 Concordia Publishing House) Used by permission.

Change Their World. Change Yours. This changes everything.

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