ACTS CHAPTER 21:1-14, “In
By
Jim Bomkamp
1.
INTRO:
1.1.
In our last study, we
finished looking at Paul’s address to the Ephesian
elders to whom he was now turning over the oversight of the church in Ephesus
1.1.1.
We saw in that message how
that the most important job of a shepherd is to protect his sheep, for if he does
not protect his sheep he will have no sheep for they shall be devoured by a
predator
1.1.2.
We saw that Paul warned the
elders that after he departed that he knew that wolves would come in amongst
the church, because wolves always try to come in amongst sheep (scripture
constantly warns about this)
1.1.3.
We also looked at the heart
motives of the false teachers of greed (financial gain), power and the ego
boost that comes from it, etc.
1.1.4.
We looked closely then at
the signs to look for in the life of one who is a false teacher
1.2.
In today’s study we are
going to see Paul traveling from city to city as he is heading toward
Jerusalem, and then he comes to the city of Caesarea where he meets up with
Philip the evangelist and where he receives a prophesy concerning his heading
to Jerusalem
1.2.1.
Our focus in this study will
be primarily to look at this prophesy given to Paul, and see what we can learn
from it
1.2.1.1.We first of all need to ask the question about whether or not the
apostle Paul was out of God’s will in going to
1.2.1.2.We will look at how God calls us at times to once again count the cost
of our serving Him
1.2.1.3.We will look at how that sometimes we can react to people out of ‘human
sympathy’ instead of allowing the Lord to work in and through us, and, we will
see how destructive that can be if we do it
1.2.2.
As we begin to discuss the
verses for the message today, I think that it would be good for us to reflect
back upon the life of this man, the apostle Paul
1.2.2.1.When we first saw Paul he was called Saul, his pre-Christian name, and
he was a man who was a member of the Sanhedrin, the greatest ruling body in
Israel, and as a member of that body he was also a Pharisee who had great zeal
for the Lord as he was excelling above all other men of his party. His zeal for the Lord was being demonstrated
by his keeping of the Law of Moses to the letter, and his traveling all about
persecuting Christians. He was present
at the first martyrdom in the church, the stoning of Stephen the deacon in
1.2.2.2.Next, we saw that as Paul was heading towards Damascus upon his ‘high
horse’ he had a vision of Jesus and was knocked to the ground and spoken to
directly by the Lord, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’ The vision left him blind, and he had to be
led by the hand into
1.2.2.3.We saw that after a short time that Saul went to the deserts of Arabia
where he was instructed for a time directly by the Lord, and that it was while
in those deserts of Arabia that the Lord taught him the gospel message which he
preached, the message that salvation was through the grace of God and by faith
in Jesus Christ, and it was given apart from the works of the Law of Moses
1.2.2.4.Later, when Barnabas had gone to the city of Antioch of Syria and a
great revival occurred in that Gentile church, Barnabas remembered Paul and
went and sought him out since he knew by revelation of Jesus that Paul was
called to be the apostle to the Gentiles
1.2.2.5.Paul then becomes the focal point of the early church’s mission
activity, since it appears that the apostles in Jerusalem dropped the ball in
regard to the Great Commission, and from chapter 13 and on Paul is the central
person mentioned in the book of Acts
1.2.2.6.As we have seen though what God did through the life of the apostle
Paul, it is amazing how that God could use a person so greatly
1.2.2.6.1.In less than 10 years an incredible number of churches were planted by
Paul
1.2.2.6.2.The planting of the churches was accomplished through the empowering
and leading of the Holy Spirit in Paul’s life, and as we look at Paul’s life we
see that even today this would be an incredible feat, for Paul did not have:
1.2.2.6.2.1.Modern transportation
1.2.2.6.2.1.1.Ships and camels were the fastest transportation available to him, and
much of the time he walked from city to city
1.2.2.6.2.2.Modern technology
1.2.2.6.2.2.1.He didn’t have a computer, cell phone, fax machine, television, radio,
copier, printing press, etc.
1.2.2.6.2.3.Bibles and Bible study tools
1.2.2.7.We have seen the ‘radical discipleship’ that Paul had in his life, for
he did not count his life as dear unto himself, but rather he was concerned
only about fulfilling the calling that God had for him
1.2.2.8.We have seen already how that from the beginning of his coming to faith
in Christ that the apostle Paul has known from the Lord that his life involved
great suffering and persecution for his faith, and yet as we have seen
throughout the book of Acts this fact has not hindered him one bit from
following Christ and completing the work that the Lord has given him to do
1.2.2.9.In this message today, I believe that as we will see that the brethren
in Tyre are encouraging him through the Spirit not to
go to Jerusalem, and then when the prophet Agabus,
who had showed up in chapter 11 originally, prophesies that Paul will be bound
when he gets to Jerusalem, that Paul is not disobedient to the Lord in going to
Jerusalem, rather he is following Christ and actually being asked of the Lord
to again count the cost of following God with all of his heart
2.
VS 21:1-3 - “21:1
And when it came about that we had parted from them and had set sail, we ran a
straight course to Cos and the next day to Rhodes and from there to Patara; 2 and having found a ship crossing over to
Phoenicia, we went aboard and set sail. 3 And when we had come in sight of
2.1.
In these
verses, Luke is simply recounting the details of their journey. They ended up in
2.2.
By taking
this trek, the apostle Paul and his company traversed south of
3.
VS 21:4 - “4 And after looking up the
disciples, we stayed there seven days; and they kept telling Paul through the
Spirit not to set foot in
3.1.
It may not
have been real easy to do, but Paul and his traveling companions were able to
look up the church that lived there at
3.2.
We see in
Acts how Paul viewed the church which God had established in every city to
which he went. The church was Christ’s
body, and thus he always sought out the church in every city.
3.2.1.
We ought to
have the same great love and respect for the churches that Christ has
established for Himself as Paul had.
3.2.2.
When we are
traveling and vacationing, we ought to use the opportunity to look up and visit
churches along our trip. We can be
greatly blessed from visiting a church while on vacation as we learn from them
what the Lord is doing in their midst.
Also, the Lord might use us in someone’s life when we visit churches as
we go about on our journeys.
3.3.
During this
stay, the brethren at
3.3.1.
I used to believe that Paul may have been outside of God’s leading
concerning his going to
3.3.1.1.Paul was headed to
3.3.1.2.To believe that Paul was
being blinded or disobedient to God because of by his love for his brethren is
equivalent to saying that Paul loved the Jews more than God did and thus he was
going there because of love for them which he himself had generated. However, it is God who places into the hearts
of sinful and selfish people such great love and courage which is beyond their
own ability to desire or attain.
3.3.2.
Some have tried to say that these brethren here as well as the prophet Agabus and the brethren in
3.3.2.1.This view doesn’t hold water
however, for Agabus was a prophet who was known by
the church to be a prophet because what he prophesied came to pass. We have already seen that in Acts chapter 11
that he correctly prophesied that a famine would come on the environs of
3.3.2.2.The test of a prophet from
the Old Testament was that whatever he prophesied came true, and if a word that
a prophet prophesied did not come true, he was to be stoned. So, to say that these New
Testament prophets were sometimes on and sometimes off in their accuracy is
a very tenuous position to maintain.
3.3.3.
There are several reasons for believing that Paul was actually being led
of the Spirit to go up to
3.3.3.1.Paul knew all along that
persecution (‘bonds’) awaited him wherever he went to preach the gospel, as he
states in Acts 20:23, “…the Holy Spirit solemnly testifies to me in every city, saying
that bonds and afflictions await me.”
3.3.3.2.In Acts
20:22-23,
we read that the Holy Spirit was compelling Paul to go to Jerusalem, “22 “And
now, behold, bound in spirit, I am on my way to Jerusalem, not knowing what
will happen to me there, 23 except that the Holy Spirit solemnly testifies to
me in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions await me.””
3.3.3.3.If Paul did not go to
3.3.3.4.Paul had tremendous maturity
in his life, as is seen all throughout his New Testament writings, and
throughout the New Testament we see him after his conversion as being a man who
left all to follow Christ, and as a man who was not self-willed but broken
before Christ, and a man to whom to live was Christ.
3.3.3.5.In Caesarea, we read in
verse 14 of this chapter that though the church had been trying to persuade
Paul not to go to Jerusalem after Agabus’ prophesy
concerning persecution for Paul, that instead of the church trying to convict
Paul of sin in disobeying God, they are instead submitting themselves to God’s
will for Paul to go to Jerusalem.
3.4.
So then, if Paul was not being disobedient to the Lord, and yet the
brethren in
3.4.1.
If we Christians find ourselves in a time of severe testing, as happened
to the apostle Paul, and we have not first sat down and counted the cost of
following Him, then we will probably fail the testing that we will go through.
3.4.2.
Paul needed to be prepared for all that God had planned for his life.
3.4.3.
Spurgeon once preached about how a Christian ought to count
the cost of serving Christ, “Before we
buckle on the Christian armor we ought to know what that service is which is
expected of us. A recruiting sergeant often slips a shilling into the hand of
some ignorant youth, and tells him that Her Majesty’s Service is a fine thing,
that he has nothing to do but walk about in his flaming colors, that he will
have no hard service — in fact, that he has nothing to do but to be a soldier,
and go straight on to glory. But the Christian servant, when he enlists a
soldier of the cross, never deceives him like that. Jesus Christ himself said,
“Count the cost.” He wished to have no disciple who was not prepared to go all
the way — “to bear hardness as a good soldier.””
3.4.4.
This past week I was talking with a good pastor friend of mine, and we
were discussing some of the things that had happened in the last year in his
church, and he told me that God had revealed to him through a particular
incident that had occurred in his church, a picture of where the church at
large is at today. In the church today,
people say that they are Christians and that they want to follow Christ,
however when they are confronted from the scripture with what they should be
doing in their life, they aren’t willing to follow the scriptures. He had a family in his church who claimed to
be strong Christians and yet they were allowing their daughter to do some
things that were clearly condemned by the scriptures, yet they were not bold
enough or convicted enough that they should follow what the scripture said, if
it meant that they needed to repent and do what God wanted them to do as
parents. Jesus Himself had many
followers until one day He taught some of His ‘hard sayings’, those about a
true disciple having to eat His flesh and drink His blood, and after that many
no longer followed Him. Likewise, many
times I have seen people in the church who are enjoying the fellowship, etc.,
and then they hear a hard saying from the Word of God and they end up falling
away from the church and no longer walking with Christ. But the reason this occurs, is because they
have not first ‘counted the cost’ of what it will mean in their life if they
should follow Christ. We all need to
‘count the cost’ of following Christ.
3.4.5.
Beginning with this chapter and all throughout the rest of the book of
Acts, Paul now enters the final stage of his life, his prison ministry. God wanted to use his greatest orator, a man
whom He had used to turn the world upside down, to now witness directly to the
highest rulers of the whole land. Paul
will now be placed in a position to share the gospel with Felix and Festus, and
Caesar himself, and who better to do it than Paul, the man who was equally a
Jew as a Greek. But, Paul couldn’t just
walk up and talk to these men, he will witness to them as the prisoner of the
Lord.
3.5.
There may be times in our life when God reveals something to someone else
concerning us, however He has also revealed something to us. We need to consider carefully any prophetic
word that someone may believe that they have received for us,
however we also realize that we have to be obedient to what God has shown
us.
4.
VS 21:5-6 - “5 And when it came about that
our days there were ended, we departed and started on our journey, while they
all, with wives and children, escorted us until we were out of the city. And
after kneeling down on the beach and praying, we said farewell to one another.
6 Then we went on board the ship, and they returned home again.” - The church in
4.1.
Luke records
the parting of Paul and his traveling companions from the church in
4.2.
They knelt
down on the beach in reverence to God, and prayed for each other before saying
their farewells.
5.
VS 21:7 - “7 And when we had finished the
voyage from
5.1.
From
6.
VS 21:8 - “8
And on the next day we departed and came to Caesarea; and entering the house of
Philip the evangelist, who was one of the seven, we stayed with him.”
- Paul and his companions came to
6.1.
In Paul’s day,
6.2.
Paul and his
traveling companions came and stayed at the house of Philip who had made his
residence in the city of
6.3.
This man,
Philip the evangelist, was a faithful man and thus God used him greatly. He was one of the seven deacons in the church
in
6.3.1.
Philip became
an evangelist when he went up to
6.3.2.
Philip left
the huge revival and went down into the desert to minister to just one man whom
the Lord had picked out, the Ethiopian Eunuch.
6.3.3.
Finally, he
went to
6.3.3.1.It was no small feat to raise
up four virgin daughters who were prophetesses, and this time in
7.
VS 21:9 - “9 Now this man had four virgin
daughters who were prophetesses.” -
Philip had four virgin daughters who were prophetesses in the church
7.1.
This man
Philip had four daughters who never married, and they who were ‘prophetesses’
in the church there in
7.2.
Some have
raised the question as to how these women ministered in the church as
‘prophetesses’?
7.2.1.
It is thought
that they must have had opportunities to share with the body as a whole through
their gift. However, we must remember
that Paul wrote that a woman was not to be the primary teacher or leader in the
church, and not to exercise authority over a man.
7.2.2.
Therefore, I
would conclude that these women had opportunity to share their gift with the
body that met there, but not a position of official leadership.
7.2.3.
In the book
of 1 Corinthians, Paul said that a woman was not to speak in church,
however I believe that he meant that they were not to be disruptive during the
service, as had been their tendency.
8.
VS 21:10-12 - “10 And as we were staying there
for some days, a certain prophet named Agabus came
down from
8.1.
This prophet
described in these verses told Paul through the Holy Spirit’s revelation how he
would be bound in Jerusalem, however it was the people’s conclusion that as a
result Paul should not go up to Jerusalem.
8.1.1.
Luke writes
here that even Paul’s own party were begging him not
to go into
8.1.2.
Paul
obviously thought otherwise about this.
Paul knew that he would suffer imprisonment everywhere he went, however this did not deter him from his calling or
going up to
9.
VS 21:13 - “13 Then Paul answered, “What are
you doing, weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be bound,
but even to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.”” - Paul tells them to quit breaking his heart
for he was willing to die any day for the Lord Jesus if asked to do so
9.1.
Paul was
tender-hearted and therefore affected by the strong emotions of the brethren in
Caesarea, however he did not respond to the wishes or desires of men, no matter
how strongly displayed, but rather to the leading for his life which he knew to
be of God.
9.2.
We have
already seen that Paul spoke of the great love that he had for his Jewish brethren
to know Christ in Rom. 9:3 saying he would be willing to be cast into
hell if they would be saved, “3 For I could wish that I myself were
accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen
according to the flesh.”
9.3.
Paul shows his
devotion to the Lord as well as his courage, in being willing to not only go to
Jerusalem, but be sent to prison for his faith, and also to die for the his
testimony for the Lord, if that was God’s will for him.
9.4.
Paul was
willing to die ‘for the name of the Lord Jesus’, not for the sake of religion,
or to make any statement.
9.5.
When we
Christians read of the devotion of the apostle Paul expressed in his
willingness to go to prison or even suffer martyrdom for His name, we ought to
be challenged concerning our own devotion and commitment to Him.
9.5.1.
What are we
willing to sacrifice or endure for His Name’s sake?
9.5.2.
The least we
could do is to be willing to simply live for Him and be obedient to Him in this
life.
10.
VS 21:14 - “14 And since he would not be
persuaded, we fell silent, remarking, “The will of the Lord be done!””
- Everyone chose to leave everything in
the Lord’s hands and trust that His will would be done
10.1.
The people in
Caesarea realized that Paul was being led by the Lord to go to
10.2.
It is sometimes the case that people react to others out of ‘human
sympathy’, when they are not being led of the Lord, and this can be very
destructive.
10.2.1.I know of Christian parents
who have persuaded their children not to go to the mission field because the
work would be so hard. Many times
Christian parents are just being selfish, for they do not want their children
to go off and serve the Lord because they want them around for them.
10.2.2.I have a good pastor friend
whose son graduated from high school recently, and as his parents were trying
to encourage him to go off to college and get a degree with which he could
support himself well, he told them he felt led instead to tour around the
country ministering in a Christian band.
His parents who are godly Christians struggled with this but finally
encouraged him to follow what he felt the Lord leading him to do in his life.
10.2.3.Another pastor friend of
mine recently told me that his 19 year old son who has just finished a year of
Bible college told his parents that he felt led to go
with another friend over to the
10.3.
We Christians
need to be careful that we are not persuaded by the feelings and emotions of
those who are not being led by the Lord.
Strong emotions can often be used by the evil one to cause a Christian
to make a decision that is outside of the Lord’s will for his life. The devil can often use someone who is
sincerely a well-wisher to dissuade God’s people from their heavenly
calling.
10.4.
All
Christians must be determined that they shall carry out the Lord’s will and
calling for their lives, no matter how much opposition they may face, human or
demonic.