THE MAIN IDEA
Through faith in Christ, we will surely be delivered.

Although this story happened in real life, Luke uses it as a metaphor for God’s plan of salvation for the world in Christ Jesus and through His church. God’s sovereign plan is that the world will be saved by His grace through faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ and by the witness of His people, the church.

GOD DELIVERS THROUGH HIS PROMISES
God promises deliverance for all who live according to this sovereign plan. Outside of God’s promises, apart from God’s plan, He offers no deliverance. Furthermore, God does not save us for us to just wait for Jesus to come back. But we are to bear witness to our daily need for Jesus Christ. In so doing, we are effectively seeking and saving the lost. Ultimately, we fulfill God’s purpose to fill the earth with His glory in Christ Jesus through God-honoring, God-fearing, God-worshiping, God-loving families and communities—the church. Jesus is not just our Lifeboat. Jesus is everybody’s Lifeboat. And if we neglect God’s promise of salvation in Christ Jesus, if we don’t live our lives according to God’s promise of salvation in Christ Jesus, many will perish.

GOD DELIVERS THROUGH HIS WORD
God used Paul to strengthen and encourage everyone on board the ship at a critical time. Paul urged them to eat because they would need strength if they were to be saved. The way that Luke describes the sharing of bread reminds us of Jesus’s feeding of the 5,000, and also the last supper. And this was on purpose. Communion points to the truth that “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Deuteronomy 8:3). Communion also reminds us that the Bread of Life is the Word of Life, that is Jesus Christ. The passengers were so encouraged by the presence of Christ through Paul’s sharing of bread, that they threw away the grain, concluding that Paul’s God would provide for them.

GOD DELIVERS THROUGH HIS PEOPLE
This story of the storm and shipwreck is different from most other ancient testimonies and stories of storms and shipwrecks. In most other stories, the narrator blames the storm or shipwreck on a person on the ship who has angered a god. But this story is just the opposite. Paul’s presence was responsible—not for the storm and the shipwreck—but for the survival and deliverance of everyone on board. What Luke is emphasizing through this reversal is that on that ship, which is a metaphor for a lost word, God wants everyone to be saved. And also, God wants to save everyone through the followers of our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ—that is, the church. This doesn’t mean that everyone will be saved. But this is the heart and attitude that God wants us to have, because that is His heart and attitude. This is what God wants—just as our story today ends in verse 44—“In this way (the Way is the gospel of Jesus Christ through the witness of the church), everyone reached land safely (the land is eternal life in Christ Jesus).”

Discussion Question
Our need for Christ should fill our lives with blessing and joy, because Christ will always satisfy that need. That is to say, our need for Christ is something we should be actively pursuing. In what ways can you actively pursue your need for Christ?