LIVE-IT-OUT GUIDE

PMC BIBLE MARATHON: SESSION 6

Sermon Recap & Discussion

Sermon Date: 22^nd April 2018

Text/s: Acts 27:20-38

Title: A Royal Journey

Speaker: Ps Lai Kai Ming

(The sermon recording and slides can be found on the PMC website and MyPMC App.)

A) Key Lessons

1. When God calls, He will protect. Don’t be afraid, trust Him.

2. When we trust God, those around us will also be blessed. Pray for them!

3. In the turbulent journey of life, God’s people are called to be encouragers.

"So keep up your courage, men, for I have faith in God that it will happen just as he told me." Acts 27:25

B) Key Application Questions

1) What are you fearful of in your journey ahead? Share with your group and encourage one another using God’s promises.

2) In the week ahead, how can you encourage or pray for your non-Christian colleagues, friends, or family members?

Digging Deeper into Scripture

Context: In Acts 13, Paul begins his missionary work. His strategy is simple – every time he goes into a new region, he would visit the big cities and preach the gospel. Towards the end of his 3^rd missionary journey, Paul makes an important decision to go to Jerusalem and then to Rome (Acts 19:21). Since his strategy was to preach the gospel in big cities, Rome was the biggest city back then. To preach the gospel there meant the fulfilment of God’s promise for the gospel to reach the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8).

However, before Paul could go to Rome, he had to face intense persecution in Jerusalem. Following a violent riot against him, Paul is arrested and over a span of 2 years, he stands trial before an ascending hierarchy of judges (Acts 22-26: Roman Tribunal & Jewish Council -> Felix the Governor -> Festus the Governor -> King Agrippa). Eventually, Paul appeals to Caesar and this sends him to Rome.

Read Acts 27:1-44

1) When you read Acts chapter 27, you get this strong sense that what you are reading is not some kind of fairy tale or myth, but a well recorded, well documented, historical account.

a) In this passage, how does the author, Luke, show us that he was there and that all these things happened?

b) Why does Luke bother with all this detail? Consider Luke 1:3-4.

2) Verse 20 – “When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days, and no small tempest lay on us, all hope of our being saved was at last abandoned.”

a) Why were the people in such despair? To better understand what they were going through, trace Paul’s journey in Acts 27:1-20 using the map provided.

b) According to Acts 27:21-26, why did Paul not lose hope?

3) In Acts 27:27-44, Luke highlights certain events that came close to jeopardizing the gospel mission to Rome.

a) What were these events?

b) What was the outcome? What does this teach us about God?

MAIN IDEA: If possible, as a LG, draft a sentence that captures the main idea for Acts 27:1-44.

APPLICATION: How can we live out Acts 27 in the coming week? How can we apply this Main Idea to our lives?

APPENDIX – Map of Paul’s Journey to Rome