SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/22/2018 1:27 PM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-1 “The Start”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Acts 27:1-8
Message of the verses: “1 When it was
decided that we would sail
for Italy, they proceeded to deliver Paul and some other prisoners to a
centurion of the Augustan cohort named Julius. 2 And embarking in an
Adramyttian ship, which was about to sail to the regions along the coast of
Asia, we put out to sea accompanied by Aristarchus, a Macedonian of
Thessalonica. 3 The next day we put in at Sidon; and Julius treated Paul with
consideration and allowed him to go to his friends and receive care. 4 From
there we put out to sea and sailed under the shelter of Cyprus because the
winds were contrary. 5 When we had sailed through the sea along the coast of
Cilicia and Pamphylia, we landed at Myra in Lycia. 6 There the centurion found
an Alexandrian ship sailing for Italy, and he put us aboard it. 7 When we had
sailed slowly for a good many days, and with difficulty had arrived off Cnidus,
since the wind did not permit us to go farther, we sailed under the
shelter of Crete, off Salmone; 8 and
with difficulty sailing past it we came to a place called Fair Havens, near which was the
city of Lasea.
I
mentioned before that Luke went with Paul, as they were good friends, and Luke
writes in a wonderful way about this sea voyage. As we read through this entire sea voyage we
will come to appreciate the way that Luke writes about it even though the
voyage become a threat to their very lives on different occasions of the
voyage. By the way this is the first
time that Luke has joined the narrative since Acts 21:18, which was a while
ago. Luke may have been living near
Caesarea nearby to where Paul was in prison in order to make sure he stayed in
good physical condition. So if this was
true, which we think it was, then Luke was on hand to go with Paul as he sailed
to Rome along with “Aristarchus, a Macedonian of Thessalonica.” John MacArthur writes “Aristarchus first
appeared in Acts when he was seized by the angry rioters at Ephesus
(19:29). He accompanied the apostle on
his journey to Jerusalem with the offering from the Gentile churches (20:4). He later ministered to Paul during the
apostle’s imprisonment at Rome (Col. 4:10).
According to tradition, Aristarchus, like Paul, suffered martyrdom under
Nero. That he and Luke were willing to
accompany Paul on a hazardous, uncomfortable voyage shows their love for the
apostle, and his ministry. In addition,
some have speculated that they may have identified themselves as Paul’s slaves
so that they could accompany him (cf. Sir William M. Ramsay, St. Paul the Traveller and the Roman Citizen.”
We
see that this journey began as Paul and some other prisoners who were bound for
Rome from Caesarea were placed in the custody of a “centurion of the Augustan
cohort name Julius.” In MacArthur’s
commentary he mentions that there is evidence of an Augustan cohort which was
stationed in Palestine during the reign of Agrippa. We have read about other centurions in the
Word of God in Matthew 8:5ff., 27:54; Acts 10:1ff., and it seems that these men
were representing the Emperor, and were men of integrity, and in this case was escorting some important
prisoners, such as Paul.
“And
embarking in an Adramyttian ship, which was about to sail to the regions along the
coast of Asia (2a).” Adramyttian is the
home port, and was located on the northwest coast of Asia Minor, near Troas,
and from there they would have little trouble finding a passage to Italy, near
Rome. They put out to sea, making port
the next day at Sidon, seventy miles to the North.
We
will continue looking at this voyage as we go along with Luke, and Paul along
with the man from Thessalonica in our next SD.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Shall he live.”
Today’s Bible question: “Who said, ‘Is the young man Absalom safe’?”
Answer in our next SD.
9/22/2018 1:58 PM
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