I) Young man: Symbol of a man with little or no experience with the Lord and in need of conversion.
II) Sitting in a window: He looked at the service inside the house and looked at what was happening outside. Symbol of the undefined man who still does not know whether he wants the church, the Lord or the world.
III) He fell asleep: Spiritual sleep. He got tired of waiting for Jesus to return. A situation similar to the religious situation of many today, without faith, without experiences with the author of life.
IV) Fell: Fell from grace, it is the spiritual fall, leaving communion. Thus, he enters into spiritual struggle. You who are justified by the law are separated from Christ; you have fallen from grace (Gal 5:4). Many have fallen from the third floor, Jesus no longer lives in their lives, they have become religious, apostate, and there is no remission for them because they do not want to return to their first love (John 1:10). “So it happened to them according to the true proverb, ‘The dog returns to his own vomit, and the sow that was washed returns to her wallowing in the mire’” (II Peter 2:22). They fell to the ground, in the concepts of this life.
V) Died: The last stage of man without God is death (eternal life without God). For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state is worse for them than the first (II Pet 2:20).
Everyone there listened to what Paul had to say before he left. They were attentive. That young man was a target of Paul's preaching. The return of the Lord Jesus is not late. We are seeing the Lord's longsuffering so that many may still be saved (2 Peter 3:9). The Lord's love is so great that He will insist with the unbeliever to the end, so that he may be saved.
The man has no experience, and he is the target of the operation of the Holy Spirit, who wants to save him. He is undefined, and as long as there is time, the Holy Spirit will insist that he take a defined position. He has fallen asleep, but it is not yet midnight, but it is close. At that moment the Holy Spirit cries out: “Awake, you who sleep” (Eph 5:14). That young man fell, but it is not yet midnight. So, the Holy Spirit will not stop speaking to him, just because he fell. He wants to save him, as long as he does not blaspheme against the Holy Spirit, that is, does not deny everything he has experienced that came from the Holy Spirit. Has it already struck midnight? No? Then it is easy! The Holy Spirit continues to speak of salvation. He will do this until midnight, and then He will leave forever with the church. But at midnight a cry was heard: “Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him” (Matthew 25:6). Jesus will come, and whoever is attentive, determined, living in obedience to the will of God, will enter the heavenly city (Rev 21:1).
The Lord's Prophecies for the Church and the Faithful Servant
Verse 1 – For a time the church was led toward Italy, a type of the world's religious system in many periods of man's history.
Verse 2 – Always skirting the earth, without straying too far from it. Closer to the things of earth than to Eternity.
Verse 3 – Paul was treated humanely, but he was imprisoned. This is what the religious system often wants. It treats man well, does social work, but does not let him freely follow the Holy Spirit.
Verse 4 – Contrary winds. Many struggles, especially in the beginning, for the work of the Holy Spirit to establish itself among us. The winds of doctrines, customs, the religious system, tradition, human reason. Everything was contrary to what the Lord wanted to do.
Verses 5-7 – Until now we have been led by man.
Verse 8 – Things began to change when we found a place called Fair Havens. This place is the work of the Holy Spirit. It is a place where the Lord began to speak to us and we wanted to stay there.
Verses 9-12 – We wanted to stay there, enjoy the rest, the worship, the visitation of the Holy Spirit. But the Lord wanted to take us further. In this verse, Paul, typifying the first shepherds, questioned some things, because everything was new. But the will of the centurion, the pilot and the master prevailed. The great blessing of the work of the Holy Spirit that we experience in our days is that the will of the Father, the Holy Spirit and the Lord Jesus always prevails.
Verse 13 – At first we were led by a gentle wind. Our journey began slowly, we had much to learn.
Verses 14-15 – But suddenly a very strong wind took over and we had to give in and let ourselves be led by Him. The Holy Spirit changed the course of the work; He gave it a new speed, a new direction. We could not sail against His will. We understood that we could not put our hands on the steering wheel, but let ourselves be led only by the Holy Spirit.
Verses 16-19 – The boat was taken in: We put everything we wanted to keep inside the work of the Holy Spirit. We girded the ship and tied everything so as not to lose anything. The next day we lightened the ship: it was time to get rid of everything that was not necessary. There is often a need for renunciation, surrender, sanctification, submission. We did this ourselves, it is an experience for each one of us.
Verse 20 – We went through difficult times, hard trials. We thought the work would be lost. Without it there was no hope of salvation.
Verse 21 – Staying in a religious system was much more comfortable. In the work we go through struggles every day.
Verse 22 – A word of comfort. The servant will not suffer any harm. The work of the Holy Spirit protects those who are in it.
Verses 23-24 – All who are in the work will be saved.
Verses 25-26 – Faith, understanding God’s plan.
Verse 27 – Fourteenth night: Same day they ate the lamb on the way out of Egypt. It is the time of departure. At midnight: prophetic hour. They suspected they were close to some land: Signs that Eternity is near.
Verse 28 – To cast the plumb line is to check the prophetic signs, to be attentive to the revelation, to the Word.
Verse 29 – They cast four anchors so as not to run aground on rocks. Jesus is the rock of salvation. The rocks are the surrounding religions, concepts, reason, philosophy. The four anchors that steady the ship are the four gospels: every word is based on the Gospel of Christ: his death and resurrection, in addition to the promise of rapture. We long for the day to come, and for the eternal day to dawn. May the Sun of Righteousness rise: rapture.
Verse 31-32 – The Holy Spirit’s effort to keep the servants in fellowship: removing even that which can separate the lives from the body.
Verse 33-36 – Last Supper – Last Passover. “Eat of it, all of you.”
Verse 38 – The wheat was thrown into the sea: After the rapture there will be no more Bread from Heaven in the world. It is the great famine prophesied in the parable of the prodigal son.
Verse 39 – They did not recognize the land they saw from afar: The church already sees Eternity in the distance, but everything there is new. “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.”
Verse 40 – Last start of the work. Current moment (Brief). All efforts are to reach the Promised Land. The promised land is isolated from the sea, it does not have what the world has.
Verse 42 – Each one held on to a piece of the ship to save himself. Each servant has something that keeps him in the work: service, function, instrumentality, etc. These things will help us reach heaven. We must hold on to what the Lord has given us, because it will sustain us until the end.
Verse 43-44 - “And so it came to pass, that they escaped all safe to land.”