Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 3145
“And we being exceedingly tossed with a tempest, the next day they lightened the ship; and the third day we cast out with our own hands the tackling of the ship. 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. But after long abstinence Paul stood forth in the midst of them, and said, Sirs, you should have listened to me, and not have sailed from Crete, and incurred this disaster and loss. And now I exhort you to be of good cheer: for there shall be no loss of life among you, but only 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, you must be brought before Caesar: and, lo, God has given you all them that sail with you. Therefore, Sirs, be of good cheer: for I believe God, that it shall be even as it was told me.” Acts 27:18-25.
[Other Sermons by Mr. Spurgeon, upon parts of this passage, are as follows—Sermons #1070, Volume 18—WRECKED, BUT NOT RECKLESS; #2952, Volume 51—THE CHURCH—THE WORLD’S HOPE and #1355, Volume 23—A CHEERY WORD IN TROUBLOUS TIMES.]
HERE we see a Believer full of comfort cheering others. The words of good cheer now before us are from a man, but inasmuch as he does but repeat what the Lord had spoken to him, they are none the less precious. And they may be all the more profitable if they move us, by their example, to speak words of cheer to others.
The Believer is sure to come to the front. He may be hidden away in the crowd and his condition and circumstances may put him in the rear rank for a time, but his light will by some means rise out of obscurity. Paul is nothing but a prisoner all the time the ship sails safely. He is courteously entreated, yet he holds rank among others who are being carried to Rome for trial. But the storm comes on and the ship is driven before the tempest—and he who was only a prisoner becomes practically the chief man in the ship! The owner, the captain, the centurion—these are very small figures in the picture. You scarcely notice them in the group huddled together in the laboring boat. Paul is the center of the whole company, the observed of all. He is as much the master of the ship as Caesar was when, in the tempest, he encouraged the mariners with the words, “Fear not, you carry Caesar and all his fortunes.” Paul is greater than Caesar, for he says less of himself and more of the Eternal God. He is evidently reverenced and esteemed even by those who hold him in chains.
Paul on board that vessel was strikingly like the Lord Jesus when He came into the ship upon the Galilean Lake. There are many parallels between every true Believer and his Lord. Albeit that He is great and everything about Him is colossal, we, if we follow Jesus, are like He—and in this world we are as He was—we are miniatures of His life-size portrait, shadows of His glorious Substance! When Paul, on board the ship, sees the fears of those about him and he lovingly cries, “Be of good cheer,” his voice has a consoling ring borrowed from his Master’s. If you, dear Friend, are thoroughly and strongly a Believer, you will find a place in which you shall illustrate to others the Character of your Lord. If I might so speak, on board that ship Paul was prophet, priest and king. In our text he spoke prophetically, for he declared to them their perfect safety. He acted like a priest in his prayers for them all and I had almost added that in his breaking of bread, he was dimly like Melchizedek—blessing men and refreshing them with bread and wine. As for the kingly office, was not Paul truly royal? No mortal brow was ever more worthy of a crown! Amid that crowded ship he was more imperial than Caesar—and all on board acknowledged it. They felt constrained to obey him, for he stood superlatively above them all—unassuming, modest, gentle, self-denying, sympathetic, yet evidently a superior being. If we had more faith, we would sink in our own esteem, but we would greatly rise in our influence upon others, for we, too, would dwell
among men as prophets, priests and kings! Are not the saints the twice-born of a higher lineage and a nobler race—the excellent of the earth in whom is the delight of holy men?
Let us think for a while of the Apostle’s character as set forth in his cheery speech and view him under three aspects. First, let us see in him the avowed believer Secondly, let us consider him as the bold prophet. Thirdly, as the sympathetic comforter. May we, by God’s good Spirit, be made to bear each of these characters!
I. First, as we read our text, the Apostle will be seen as THE AVOWED BELIEVER. Hear him as he says, “I believe God, that it shall be even as it was told me.”
He commences his statement of his faith by saying that he believed God. We cannot have a better basis of faith than that! We must settle in our minds that there is a God, that the Word of God must certainly be true, absolutely infallible, and beyond all question. “I believe God”—if a man can say no more than this, it means, in the very mildest sense of it, he is on the way towards faith. But he who can say, “I believe God,” in such a sense as the Apostle intended has reached to an eminent height of faith and has obtained the elements of spiritual strength.