Acts 21:1-15 6/30/24 A.M.
This is the last day of June. We’re at the MIDDLE POINT of the year. 2024 is half way over. Now how many of you all made a New Year’s resolution? How many of you all RESOLVED to make a change or do something different in 2024? So … how’s that going for you?
Listen, there’s nothing wrong with RESOLVING, MAKING PLANS to do things differently.
This year, back in January, I didn’t WRITE DOWN any RESOLUTIONS but there were some things that I needed to change.
I need to EAT a little bit healthier. EXERCISE a little bit more. And spend more time PRAYING!!! TALKING to my Father ..... ABOUT YOU ALL!!! You know, He’s the ONLY ONE we should be GOSSIPING to.
ILLUS: A lady and her friend were having a conversation after church services. The lady asked her friend, “Did you notice that hat Myrtle was wearing?” The friend responded, “No.” The lady then asked, “Well, what about the coat that Hazel had on?” Again, her friend said, “No.” The lady then said, “Well, a lot of good it does you to go to church.”
I wish more people would RESOLVE to go to CHURCH but for the RIGHT REASON!!!
Listen, there’s nothing wrong with making plans and resolving to do things, but in all of our plans, in all of our resolutions, we need to ALWAYS put God first.
And that’s what I want to bring out this morning. Let’s turn to Acts 21. We’re gonna look at the LIFE of the Apostle Paul. This Chapter is the BEGINNING of his journey to Jerusalem and ultimately to Rome. There he would stand before Caesar. Later on in this Chapter he is PREACHING in the TEMPLE. The JEWS drag him out and begin to BEAT the LIVING DAYLIGHTS out of him. He is then BOUND and ARRESTED by the Romans. Some would say, “Man, if he had only known, he would have made other plans.” But here’s the KEY. HE DID KNOW but he went on, LEAVING IT IN GOD’S HANDS. Let’s read Acts 21, Verses 1-15
“And it came to pass, that after we were gotten from them, and had launched, we came with a straight course unto Coos, and the day following unto Rhodes, and from thence unto Patara:
2 And finding a ship sailing over unto Phenicia, we went aboard, and set forth.
3 Now when we had discovered Cyprus, we left it on the left hand, and sailed into Syria, and landed at Tyre: for there the ship was to unlade her burden.
4 And finding disciples, we tarried there seven days: who said to Paul through the Spirit, that he should not go up to Jerusalem.
5 And when we had accomplished those days, we departed and went our way; and they all brought us on our way, with wives and children, till we were out of the city: and we kneeled down on the shore, and prayed.
6 And when we had taken our leave one of another, we took ship; and they returned home again.
7 And when we had finished our course from Tyre, we came to Ptolemais, and saluted the brethren, and abode with them one day.
8 And the next day we that were of Paul's company departed, and came unto Caesarea: and we entered into the house of Philip the evangelist, which was one of the seven; and abode with him.
9 And the same man had four daughters, virgins, which did prophesy.
10 And as we tarried there many days, there came down from Judaea a certain prophet, named Agabus.
11 And when he was come unto us, he took Paul's girdle, and bound his own hands and feet, and said, Thus saith the Holy Ghost, So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man that owneth this girdle, and shall deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.
12 And when we heard these things, both we, and they of that place, besought him not to go up to Jerusalem.
13 Then Paul answered, What mean ye to weep and to break mine heart? for I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.
14 And when he would not be persuaded, we ceased, saying, The will of the Lord be done.
15 And after those days we took up our carriages, and went up to Jerusalem.”
This morning I want to talk to you about something that’s SO EASY to say but often it’s hard to do. Sometimes it comes to the point where we have to GIVE UP on our OWN PLANS. We have to LET GO of what we want. And we have to SHUT OUR MOUTHS until we’re ready to say as Paul did in Verse 14, “The will of the Lord be done.”
So let’s pray and then we’ll get into our message.
Brother _____, would you lead us?
I think one of the hardest things for us to do is to PRAY, in ALL HONESTY, that God has His will in our lives.
I. As I was looking at this passage, I realized that Paul probably didn’t really want to go to Jerusalem but yet he was CALLED BY GOD to go there. Listen, the PLACES God calls us to GO, won’t always make sense.
Earlier in Acts Chapter 20, Verse 22,
“I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there:”
Paul going there was basically going right into the HEART of the ENEMY. The Sadducees and the Pharisees. The Temple was there. The place he used to work when he was persecuting the church was there. The High Priests and Jewish Councils were there. Paul’s former bosses. The place where Jesus had died for our SINS. The Romans were probably still performing executions there on Golgotha. Who would want to go there?
But yet Paul was BOUND by the SPIRIT to go into the very HEART of the JEWISH ESTABLISHMENT of the DAY. It really made NO SENSE for Paul to go EXCEPT, God was calling him to go. And so Paul began the journey to Jerusalem.
ILLUS: I mentioned a couple of weeks ago on a Wednesday evening about a young man named John Paton who felt the Lord calling him to be a missionary to a chain of islands in the South Pacific. A few years earlier there had been two missionaries EATEN by cannibals there on those islands. But John Paton felt called to go and was preparing to go when an elderly friend tried to reason with him. He said, “John, don’t go, you’ll be eaten by CANNIBALS!!!” John replied, “Sir, you’re getting old and you don’t have much longer to live. When you die you’ll be eaten by the worms. It makes me no difference whether the CANNIBALS eat me or the WORMS.”
I have to think about this beautiful young couple that were killed in Haiti a few weeks ago. It’s absolutely heartbreaking. AND RIGHT NOW!!! I can’t really see what purpose there was for them to die but yet God’s ways are so much higher than our ways. I truly believe God called them there and they accomplished HIS PURPOSE in their lives. And so the PLACES God calls us to GO won’t always make sense to us.
II. And that leads me to my next point. The THINGS that God calls us to DO won’t always make sense to us.
Look there at Verses 8 and 9. Paul has travelled to Caesarea and is there in the home of Philip the Evangelist.
A little side note here. I don’t know much about this fellow Philip. According to Acts 6:5, he was one of the first seven deacons. He is now an evangelist. But he had to be a very patient man because he had FOUR DAUGHTERS. And these four daughters were VIRGINS, in other words, they weren’t married and they all lived at home, AND… THEY PROPHESIED.
I believe the reason this is in the Bible here is because these ladies weren’t young virgins before they were married. These were likely maidens who never married and lived at home and served God. They PROPHESIED, they were probably teachers in the church. And Frederick Bruce tells us according to ancient records, “The daughters, or at least some of them, lived to a great age, and were highly esteemed as informants on persons and events belonging to the early years of Judean Christianity.”
And so Paul is there in the home of Philip. And Agabus the prophet comes down to see Paul and begins to PROPHESY over him. This had to be somewhat of an unusual scene. An ADULT OBJECT LESSON. Agabus picks up Paul’s GIRDLE, a belt that a person would tie around their waist to hold their clothes from flopping around, and he begins to twist it around his arms and legs. And this is what he says, “Thus saith the Holy Ghost, So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man that owneth this girdle, and shall deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.”
All the people setting there were shocked. Agabus was telling Paul that the Jewish people of Jerusalem would GRAB HIM and TIE HIM UP and then deliver him to the Romans. Jesus had been delivered to the Romans and He had been CRUCIFIED by them. Would the same thing happen to Paul?
Look at Verse 12. Can you imagine being there? “Paul, you can’t go. They will kill you. Please don’t go.” It would make absolutely NO SENSE for Paul to go to Jerusalem. It was the CAPITOL of the Jewish Nation. And Paul KNEW he would be hated there. But yet God was calling him to go.
God is calling you and I to DO SOMETHING. I don’t care WHO YOU ARE setting here today, God is calling you. He has a PLAN for you.
Grandmas and Grandpas here today. I don’t care how old you are. I don’t care what physical condition you may be in. God has a job for you to do.
ILLUS: I was talking to a sweet friend this week. She’s older. She’s a widow. And I haven’t known her for a very long time. But she told me something. She said, “I don’t know why I’m still here but I guess God has a job for me to do.”
And you know what, she’s right. I would imagine that there’s someone who needs to hear what she has to say. There’s someone who needs to see the LIGHT of JESUS SHINING through her. I have NO DOUBT that God will use her because she’s WILLING TO BE USED.
Mom’s and dad’s here today. You’re probably very busy in this SEASON of your life. And there is NOTHING MORE IMPORTANT than the job that God has given you. To raise your children “up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” Ephesians 6:4. Don’t let ANYONE BELITTLE your job. It is of the UTMOST IMPORTANCE. Our future depends on it.
And you kids that are here today. God has a perfect plan for you. I graduated 40 years ago and I still remember not knowing what God wanted me to do. But I just tried to do the RIGHT THING at each crossroads that I came to. I know I made some wrong turns along the way but yet God was always there to turn me around and get me back on the right road. And if you will make it YOUR GOAL in life to do the RIGHT THING at each INTERSECTION you come to, GOD WILL USE YOU.
After 40 years I can look back and see how He was there all the time.
And listen folks, Grandparents, Parents and Kids. All of you all. Sometimes the things God calls us to do won’t make sense. In our own HUMAN REASONING we’ll say, “How can that be right?” But yet if you’ll do THE RIGHT THING, FOLLOW HIS WORD, LISTEN to the HOLY SPIRIT of GOD, someday everything will be clear. I mentioned this Verse earlier but I want to read it. Isaiah 55:6-9,
“Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near:
7 Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
Look at Verse 12 again.
“And when we heard these things, both we, and they of that place, besought him not to go up to Jerusalem.”
I know as Paul prepared to leave Caesarea, he had to have felt a lot of ANXIETY. Here this Prophet of God TOLD PAUL what was gonna happen. The people were begging him to stay. “Don’t go Paul, they will throw in to JAIL.”
How could this be GOD’S WILL for him to be thrown in PRISON? But 2000 years later we see GOD’S PLAN and how it all worked out. We read as Paul travelled to the different places on his path to Jerusalem and Rome. We see how God used him. How he was able to share his testimony about how Jesus called to him on the Road to Damascus. And today, almost half of the books of the New Testament were written by him. Some of them while he was BOUND and in JAIL.
We don’t always know why God calls us to do certain things. They don’t always make sense. But yet SOMEDAY, we’ll be able to look back and SEE and UNDERSTAND WHY.
III. And lastly, the TRIALS we may have to ENDURE for the cause of Christ won’t always make sense.
Looking on down in this Chapter, in Verse 17 we see where Paul arrives in Jerusalem.
In Verses 18-25, Paul meets with James and the other elders and he began telling them all of the ways that God was working among the Gentile people. They were THRILLED to hear what was going on but then we find out SOMEONE has been TELLING SOME LIES on Paul.
You see, the CHURCH at Jerusalem was made up almost EXCLUSIVELY with Jewish people. And they still held to parts of the LAW. And someone had come in and told them that Paul was PREACHING that the JEWS had to FORSAKE the LAW in order to be a CHRISTIAN. It was WRONG to CIRCUMCISE their children. It was WRONG to keep the Jewish Customs.
Look at Verse 22, “What is it therefore? the multitude must needs come together: for they will hear that thou art come.”
“The PEOPLE here at Jerusalem are gonna find out that you’re here. They’re gonna want an answer.”
And so Paul joined four other men who had taken a VOW of PURIFICATION so that the Jewish leaders would see that he had not forsaken the Law of Moses. He goes into the TEMPLE with these other men and an offering is made for them. This seems to make everyone happy. The Gentiles are not expected to keep the Levetical Law and the Jewish people aren’t forced to do away with their Jewish Customs.
So Paul does his best to get along but … some Jewish people from Asia come in and they find Paul in the TEMPLE and they began stirring up the crowd. Let’s read Verses 27 -40.
“And when the seven days were almost ended, the Jews which were of Asia, when they saw him in the temple, stirred up all the people, and laid hands on him,
28 Crying out, Men of Israel, help: This is the man, that teacheth all men every where against the people, and the law, and this place: and further brought Greeks also into the temple, and hath polluted this holy place.
29 (For they had seen before with him in the city Trophimus an Ephesian, whom they supposed that Paul had brought into the temple.)
30 And all the city was moved, and the people ran together: and they took Paul, and drew him out of the temple: and forthwith the doors were shut
31 And as they went about to kill him, tidings came unto the chief captain of the band, that all Jerusalem was in an uproar.
32 Who immediately took soldiers and centurions, and ran down unto them: and when they saw the chief captain and the soldiers, they left beating of Paul.
33 Then the chief captain came near, and took him, and commanded him to be bound with two chains; and demanded who he was, and what he had done.
34 And some cried one thing, some another, among the multitude: and when he could not know the certainty for the tumult, he commanded him to be carried into the castle.
35 And when he came upon the stairs, so it was, that he was borne of the soldiers for the violence of the people.
36 For the multitude of the people followed after, crying, Away with him.
37 And as Paul was to be led into the castle, he said unto the chief captain, May I speak unto thee? Who said, Canst thou speak Greek?
38 Art not thou that Egyptian, which before these days madest an uproar, and leddest out into the wilderness four thousand men that were murderers?
39 But Paul said, I am a man which am a Jew of Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, a citizen of no mean city: and, I beseech thee, suffer me to speak unto the people.
40 And when he had given him licence, Paul stood on the stairs, and beckoned with the hand unto the people. And when there was made a great silence, he spake unto them in the Hebrew tongue, saying,”
I can’t help but think about Paul here. Just doing what God called him to do and what happens? He gets the LIVING DAYLIGHTS beaten out of him. He’s almost MURDERED. And he has to be RESCUED by the Roman Army.
I bet at the time it didn’t make a lot of sense to him. He may have thought, “Why is the Lord doing this to me? Why do I have to ENDURE this? I’m just trying to do what GOD has called me to do!!!”
But yet in the next Chapter Paul has the opportunity to preach to all of these people. And today Millions if not Billions of people worldwide have read the writings of the Apostle Paul. He probably didn’t understand at the time why he had to endure these for the CAUSE of CHRIST. But now you and I today can see why. And I believe the Apostle Paul knows why. He FOUGHT a GOOD FIGHT, he KEPT the FAITH, and he endured HARDSHIP for the CAUSE of CHRIST. And today he has received his reward.
I don’t know most of the things that you all go through. Some of the hardships you face may be because of your commitment to the Lord. Sometimes you may have to ENDURE some things that just don’t make sense. But I have good news. In the end, THEY WILL. Someday you’ll be able to look back and see that God was with you through some of the toughest times that you faced. And I believe you’ll be able to see why. Why you had to ENDURE those TIMES.
I like the song we sing, “We’ll understand it better by and by.” Trials dark on every hand
And we cannot understand
All the ways that God would lead us
To that blessed promised land
But he'll guide us with his light
And we'll follow 'til we die
And we'll understand it better by and by
By and by, when the morning comes
All the saints of God are gathered home
We will tell the story how we've overcome
And we'll understand it better by and by.
In 1978, at the one-hundredth anniversary of the arrival of missionaries to Zaire, Africa, Christians gathered to celebrate. In 1878 the region was called the Belgian Congo. Near the end of the celebration, a very old man stood to give a speech. He said that he would die soon and that he needed to tell something that no other man still living knew.
He explained that when the first white missionaries came, his people didn’t know whether to believe their message or not. So they devised a plan to slowly and secretly poison the missionaries and watch them die. One by one, children and adults became ill, died and were buried. It was when his people saw how these missionaries died that they decided to believe their message.
The missionaries never knew what was happening. They didn’t know they were being poisoned, and they didn’t know why they were dying. I’m sure it didn’t make a lot of sense to them why they were having to endure the DEATHS of their loved ones but their faithfulness to the Lord convinced the people of the Belgian Congo that their message was true.
Today Zaire, the former Belgian Congo, is the most Christian nation in Africa with over 95% being Christian. Much higher than the United States. And all because some people endured.
Listen, the PLACES God calls us to GO, the THINGS that God calls us to DO, and the TRIALS that we may have to ENDURE won’t always make sense. They won’t folks. But BY and BY we’ll understand.
Let’s Pray
