INTRODUCTION
Have you ever been in a situation where you felt that God was asking you to do…
Something that DIDN’T MAKE A LOT OF SENSE to you?
Something that was COSTLY?
Something that all your friends URGE YOU NOT TO DO?
That was the situation the apostle Paul was in. Many years previously Jesus had met Paul on the road from Jerusalem to Damascus. Jesus told him ‘I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and witness’ [Acts 26:16].
Paul did what God had called him to do. He made three missionary journeys and planted churches in ‘Asia’ – modern-day Turkey – and in Greece. But now, Paul felt strongly that God was leading him to go to Jerusalem.
Let’s trace his journey. Paul sets off across the Aegean from Greece. Today, the Greek islands are an iconic holiday destination but I think Paul had other things on his mind than relaxing on the beach. His ship passes by Ephesus but stops in Miletus, just to the south. Paul calls the elders of the Ephesian church to come over. He tells them:
‘I am going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me’ [Acts 20:22-23].
Then he says: ‘None of you among whom I have gone about proclaiming the kingdom will see my face again’ [Acts 20:25].
Paul knew he wouldn’t be coming back to Ephesus. He didn’t just suspect that he wouldn’t be making any more mission trips. He was sure of it. But his mission trips had been so successful! Why stop? If I’d been in Paul’s position, I’d have been thinking, ‘GOD, THIS DOESN’T MAKE SENSE TO ME!’
Paul continues across the eastern Mediterranean and lands at Tyre. He meets Christians there – and Luke reports, ‘And through the Spirit they were telling Paul not to go on to Jerusalem’ [Acts 21:4]. Paul’s friends were URGING HIM NOT TO GO ON TO JERUSALEM. Notice the phrase, ‘And through the Spirit.’ It seems that the Holy Spirit was prompting them.
Paul then continues to Caesarea. A prophet named Agabus visits and prophesies that the Jews at Jerusalem would bind him and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles [Acts 21:11]. Going to Jerusalem would be COSTLY. Once again, believers in Caesarea urge him not to go.
What would you have done if you were in Paul’s position? It didn’t obviously make sense to go to Jerusalem. It would mean the end of his missionary work. Christian friends, apparently at the leading of the Holy Spirit, urge him not to go. Someone who was acknowledged as a prophet tells him that he will be bound and delivered into the hands of the Gentiles.
What would you have done? Would you have gone to Jerusalem? What would you do if you’re ever in a similar situation?
I can’t think of a time I’ve been in a situation quite like this. In about 2008, I thought God might be calling me to be a minister. I asked my friends about it. I was the director of a finance company at the time. My friends couldn’t imagine me as a minister and weren’t at all encouraging. But I continued to explore the idea and God opened doors. But my situation wasn’t nearly as extreme as Paul’s.
What happened next? Paul went to Jerusalem. He was arrested. Then he was put in prison, and he remained in prison or in custody for the rest of his life. As he had anticipated, his ministry to the Gentiles came to an end.
The question I put to you was, what would you do if you’re ever in a similar situation to Paul? You feel God is leading you to do something – but it’s costly, you don’t understand the reason for it, and friends are discouraging. Would you change plan? Or would you, like Paul, go ahead anyway? That’s the question I’d like to focus on.
WHY DID GOD WANT PAUL TO GO TO JERUSALEM?
But it will help if we think about another question first. WHY did God want Paul to go to Jerusalem? The Bible doesn’t tell us explicitly why God led Paul to Jerusalem. But we can see one reason, and it’s enough to satisfy us that it DID make sense for Paul to go to Jerusalem.
In many ways, Paul was the early church’s star player. In our way of thinking, if a football manager has a star player in his team, he doesn’t make him sit on the bench. But God led Paul to Jerusalem, knowing he would end up in prison for the rest of his life. God must have had a powerful reason to do that.
One thing we know about God’s purpose for Paul was that God intended Paul to be a witness to him. The story of Paul’s conversion comes three times in Acts [Acts 9, 22 and 26]. EVERY TIME, there is mention of God’s calling on Paul, TO BE A WITNESS TO HIM. That is what Paul wants to do to his dying breath. He tells the elders in Ephesus, ‘But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, TO TESTIFY TO THE GOSPEL OF THE GRACE OF GOD’ [Acts 20:24].
God called Paul to be a witness and Paul is committed to being a witness. So, we suppose that’s why God led Paul to Jerusalem. But we don’t need to suppose. That IS the reason. In Jerusalem, in prison in a Roman barracks, Jesus appeared to him and told him: ‘Take courage, for as you have testified to the facts about me in Jerusalem, so you must testify also in Rome’ [Acts 23:11].
So, God led Paul to Jerusalem so he could witness to him there and, later on, in Rome.
But why would God take Paul from his very fruitful mission to the Gentiles to the heartland of Judaism, to Jerusalem, the city which was so opposed to Jesus that they put him to death? Did God expect more people to come to faith in Jerusalem than were coming to faith in Asia and Greece?
In Jerusalem Paul is arrested. He then preaches to a crowd of Jews. Then he preaches to the Jewish council. As far as we know, NOT A SINGLE PERSON FROM THE CROWD OR FROM THE COUNCIL BELIEVES. While in prison Paul witnesses to Antonius Felix, the Roman governor, then to Porcius Festus, Felix’s successor, and then to the last-ever Jewish king, Herod Agrippa. AS FAR AS WE KNOW, NONE OF THEM PUT THEIR FAITH IN JESUS. Result: zero. Zilch.
We KNOW God called Paul to Jerusalem to be a witness to him there. There’s no speculation in that.
God knows people’s hearts. God would have known that Jerusalem would not respond to Paul’s message. God didn’t lead Paul to Jerusalem thinking that lots of people would come to faith.
So WHY did God lead Paul to Jerusalem?
I believe we can see the answer in one of Jesus’ parables. It’s the Parable of the Tenants. Here it is, as Jesus told it.
“Hear another parable. There was A MASTER OF A HOUSE who planted a vineyard and put a fence round it and dug a wine press in it and built a tower and leased it to TENANTS, and went into another country. When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his SERVANTS to the tenants to get his fruit. And the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other servants, more than at first. And they did the same to them. Finally he sent his SON to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.’ And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him’” [Matthew 21:33-39].
There are four main characters in the parable: the master of the house, the tenants, the servants and the son. The son who is killed is Jesus. That makes the father, the master of the house, God. The tenants who kill the son are either the Jewish leaders, or Jews more generally. I leave that open because Peter accused both groups of killing Jesus [Acts 3:15 and 5:30]. The servants are God’s servants.
Actual events happened as Jesus described in the parable. The Jewish leaders, or Jews more generally, killed Jesus, the master’s son.
After Jesus tells the parable, he asks the crowd, ‘When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?’ They answer, ‘He will put those wretches to a miserable death.’ Jesus accepts the crowd’s answer.
The crowd correctly anticipate what the master in the parable would do. He would put the tenants to death. There would be a consequence for killing Jesus. 25 years had gone by since the people of Jerusalem had crucified Jesus. But the time of God’s punishment was approaching. 12 years later, in A.D. 70, the Roman army besieged, captured and totally destroyed Jerusalem. The historian Josephus wrote, ‘Caesar ordered the whole city and the temple to be razed to the ground, leaving only the loftiest of the towers … All the rest of the city was so completely levelled to the ground as to leave future visitors to the spot no ground for believing that it had ever been inhabited.’
Is this a reason why God called Paul to Jerusalem? It certainly satisfies me. God is a God of love. He doesn’t want anyone to perish. So, he sends Paul to testify to the people of Jerusalem one last time. Perhaps, even at this late stage, they would change course. What a terrible consequence there would be if they didn’t. What a cost.
But we need to expand this. The consequence for rejecting Jesus doesn’t just apply to the people of Jerusalem 2,000 years ago. It applies to everyone of every age. People who reject Christ, the cornerstone, don’t find salvation. They don’t find life. It’s a terrible result. People need to be told the gospel WHETHER OR NOT we expect them to come to faith.
We have an answer to our ‘Why?’ question. I don’t think it’s too complicated. The logic of witnessing doesn’t depend on whether there will be a great harvest as a result. God wants EVERYONE to hear his message of love. God had good reason to call Paul to Jerusalem.
Was Paul looking for a reason? We don’t know. Perhaps he guessed at the reason. Or perhaps he said to himself, ‘God has the big picture and I don’t. I don’t know why God is leading me to Jerusalem’ and shrugged his shoulders. Sometimes we need to do that. But if the question is, ‘Is there reason to preach to people whose hearts are hard?’ then there’s no need to wonder. There is reason. God loves them. He wants to give them every chance to turn back to him.
Let me come back to the question I started with. Would you have gone to Jerusalem? And what would you do if you’re ever in a similar situation?
Some people think Paul made a mistake by going to Jerusalem. I don’t agree at all. In prison, Jesus told Paul, ‘Take courage, for as you have testified to the facts about me in Jerusalem, so you must testify also in Rome.’ There’s no hint there that Jesus thought Paul had made a mistake. No, Paul did the right thing.
Yes, there was a cost. But Paul didn’t balk at it. What was the cost to him compared to the cost to others if they didn’t turn back to God?
It’s true that people were warning Paul not to go. But that’s the nature of Christian ministry. Simon Peter tried hard to dissuade Jesus from going to the cross. We don’t disregard the counsel of our Christian friends. But ultimately, we have to respond to what we believe the Holy Spirit is telling us. We may have to do what Paul and Jesus did and reject the counsel of our Christian friends.
I’d like to conclude with one final reflection. When I’m preparing for a talk, I sometimes go to a website called SermonCentral. It’s a collection of over 100,000 sermons and it’s free. It’s quite easy to see how many sermons have been preached on a book of the Bible or on a chapter. Here’s the situation for Acts. Paul’s mission to the Gentiles is covered in chapters 13 to 20 – eight chapters. There are, on average, over 300 sermons on each of these chapters. Paul’s mission to Jerusalem and Rome is covered in chapters 21 to 28 – also eight chapters. You can see on the graph that the number of sermons drops right off at chapter 21. There are, on average, about 115 sermons on each of these chapters. As far as we’re concerned, these chapters don’t have so much to teach us.
But they certainly teach us one big thing. God sent Paul to Jerusalem. That was just as much part of God’s plan as it was God’s plan for him to go to Asia or Greece. It’s God’s plan to reach people whose hearts are open and to reach people whose hearts are hard. As we’re listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit leading us, we need to remember that.
Talk given at Rosebery Park Baptist Church, Bournemouth, UK, 29 October 2023, 10.30 a.m. service
