
For more than “two years” (Acts 24:27), Paul languished in Caesarea’s prison. After appealing to Caesar, he was finally sent to Rome to stand trial before the emperor. Of course, he was planning to go to Rome, he’d hoped to evangelize and plant churches there, but he didn’t expect to make the trip as a prisoner. “When it was decided that we (Paul, accompanied by Luke and Aristarchus) were to sail to Italy, they handed over Paul and some other prisoners to a centurion named Julius, of the Imperial Regiment” (Acts 27:1).
“Julius treated Paul kindly” (Acts 27:3). Why did Dr. Luke remember and record Julius’s name, and why did Julius treat Paul kindly? Maybe Paul led the Roman Centurion to saving faith in Christ Jesus and Julius became known to the churches in Rome. Maybe.
Julius was responsible for delivering Paul to Rome, so he was with the Apostle for the entire journey, recorded for us in great detail in the twenty-seventh and twenty-eight chapters of the Book of Acts. Julius saw the powerful providence of God as the storm-tossed ship was finally blown into the harbor at Malta. It was the fiercest of storms! To keep the ship from being torn to pieces, the crew “used ropes and tackle and girded the ship” (Acts 27:17). They literally tied ropes around the belly of the boat to keep it in one piece. But as the gale-force winds buffeted them, “they began to jettison the cargo” and they even “threw the ship’s tackle overboard” (Acts 27:18-19).
When all hope was lost, God sent an angelic messenger to Paul. “Don’t be afraid, Paul. It is necessary for you to appear before Caesar. And indeed, God has graciously given you all those who are sailing with you” (Acts 27:24). On the darkest night, as the storm raged on, Paul likely put his hand on Julius’s shoulder. “Don’t worry, pal! God is bigger than the storm!”
When the rudderless ship was grounded on a sandbar off the coast of Malta, some soldiers determined to “kill the prisoners so that no one could swim away and escape. But the centurion kept them from carrying out their plan because he wanted to save Paul” (Acts 27:42-43). There were “276 … on the ship” (Acts 27:36), and every person made it to share alive.
Truly, I don’t know if Julius became a follower of Christ, but he certainly saw God’s powerful grace in action. Later, Paul wrote from Rome… “I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that what has happened to me has actually advanced the gospel, so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard, and to everyone else, that my imprisonment is because I am in Christ” (Philippians 1:12–13). Maybe, just maybe, Julius had shared his testimony with his fellow soldiers.
“… think on these things” (Philippians 4:8, KJV).

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