Acts 21:1-16
Amen. You can be seated. Please
turn in your copy of God’s word to Acts chapter 21. Today, we’ll
be looking at verses one through 16. As you’re making your way
there, you can find it in the pew Bible on page 930. But we
are on the last leg of Paul’s third missionary journey. Some
believe that Paul will get out of the Roman prison, go on a
fourth missionary journey, but we don’t we don’t hold that view.
And so this would be the last of his missionary journeys. He’s
on his way back to Jerusalem, where he will be arrested and
make his way to Rome, where he will be in prison for many years,
meet with lots of people, visit kings, preach the gospel, and
then ultimately die in about the year 68 at the hands of Nero. Today, as we read this passage
and hear It’s proclamation, we want to observe the readiness
and the resolve of the apostle to do whatever is necessary to
live for Jesus Christ. So hear now God’s word. And when
we had parted from them and set sail, we came by a straight course
to Kos and the next day to Rhodes and from there to Patera. And
having found a ship crossing to Phoenicia, we went aboard
and set sail. When we had come inside of Cyprus,
leaving it on the left, we sailed to Syria and landed at Tyre,
for there the ship was to unload its cargo. And having sought
out the disciples, we stayed there for seven days. And through
the spirit, they were telling Paul not to go to Jerusalem. When our days there were ended,
we departed and went on our journey, and they all, with wives and
children, accompanied us until we were outside the city. And
kneeling down on the beach, we prayed and said farewell to one
another. Then we went on board the ship, and they returned home.
When we had finished the voyage from Tyre, we arrived at Ptolemaeus,
and we greeted the brothers and stayed with them for one day.
And on the next day, we departed and came to Caesarea. We entered
the house of Philip, the evangelist, who was one of the seven and
stayed with him. He had four unmarried daughters who prophesied
while we were staying there for many days, a prophet named Agabus
came down from Judah, from Judea. Coming to us, he took Paul’s
belt and bound his own feet and hands and said, thus says the
Holy Spirit. This is how the Jews at Jerusalem
will bind the man who owns this belt. and will deliver him into
the hands of the Gentiles. When we heard this, we and the
people there urged him not to go up to Jerusalem. Then Paul
answered, what are you doing weeping and breaking my heart?
For I am ready not only to be imprisoned, but even to die in
Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus. And since he would
not be persuaded, we ceased and said, let the will of the Lord
be done. After these days, we got ready
and went up to Jerusalem, and some of the disciples from Caesarea
went with us, bringing us to the house of Nason of Cyprus,
an early disciple with whom we should lodge. Amen, the word
of the living God. Let’s do pray together. Father,
help us to hear and believe and see the things that you have
done in history and the things you will be doing in our lives.
willingly receive the words of the king from the voice of Jesus
himself. Hear us and help us, we pray
in his name. Amen. There’s an important practice,
I think, in the Christian life, and that is to read biographies.
It’s good to read the lives of people whose final chapters have
been written. We know the good, we know the
bad, we know the ugly. There’s a wonderful biography
about one of the missionaries who was martyred in Ecuador by
the Aka Indians. It’s the biography of Nate Saint,
the jungle pilot. In his book, he laments about
after college desiring to fly for the military, but not being
able to pass. the strict and stringent standards of the military
physically and in other ways. And so he begins to wonder how
God might use him and he becomes one of the pioneers of jungle
aviation. Some of his practices and some
of the things that he learned and did in those days in the
1950s still are practiced today in jungle and mission aviation.
But one of the things that really struck him in his early life
when he really wanted to fly for the military was that these
pilots were willing to be expendable for their country. They were
willing to get in a plane and fly on missions even if it meant
death. And so in his lament that he
could not be a military man, a military pilot, He began to
think how honorable it would be to fly for the cause of the
gospel and to be expendable as a pilot for Jesus Christ. Little
did he know that not but a few years into his life and ministry,
he would die and become a martyr for the cause and the witness
of Jesus Christ. His life and his witness would
be heard around the world. And a question pops up as we
read a passage like this and think of the life of the Apostle
Paul, could you, Would you be willing to be expendable for
the gospel? You know, we throw out the little
phrase from time to time, oh, it’s to die for. And we’re generally
talking about dessert. But do we ever say it about the
gospel? The gospel is something for which Jesus may require of
me my life. He may require of me my body. He may require of me my everything,
and it would be worth it all. That’s the vision of Nate Saint. That was the vision of the apostle
Paul. And I hope by the end today, it may be that each of us resolves
to serve the living God, whatever it takes. Now, where we are in
our passage, Paul is at the end of his third missionary journey.
He was at Ephesus for three years. He decides on his way back to
Jerusalem, he’s going to swing through Corinth and Philippi
and some of those cities in both Achaia and Macedonia. We saw
that he swung by Troas. We had a few weeks ago a glimpse
into a Sunday evening all-nighter service with the people at Troas.
And then last week we looked at his visit with the Ephesian
elders at the port of Miletus. Now that he has parted ways rather
emotionally with the Ephesian elders, they’ve set sail and
they’re island hopping or skipping along various islands along the
edge of the Mediterranean, making their way across back to Syria
and ultimately Palestine. And there are three notable stops
on this journey on the way to Jerusalem by ship. There are
three notable stops. And these stops show us that
Paul bonds with the people. They plead with him not to go
to Jerusalem and die. They prophesy to him, but they
pray with him and submit to the will of the Lord and send him
on his way. So we want to look at some of these features of
this passage very briefly. First, the prophecy. The prophecy,
you know, just by way of quiz, who is the last Old Testament
prophet? Most people start thinking of
Jeremiah and Ezekiel and Malachi, that’s it, Malachi, he’s the
one. No, the last Old Testament prophet is John the Baptist.
He comes to prepare the way of the Lord. He comes to make the
way open in the hearts of Israel for the people’s Messiah. And
so John the baptizer is the last Old Testament prophet. But then
we get into the New Testament era after Jesus has risen and
ascended and he’s given gifts to the church. He’s given victory
spoils to the cross. And Ephesians chapter four tells
us he gives apostles and he gives prophets. He gives the pastor
and he gives the teacher. And so during the apostolic era,
God is establishing pastors. He’s entrusting them with the
gospel to carry on the life of the church. But there were apostles
and prophets who helped carry the word of God in a mighty and
powerful way into the early church. And our passage tells us of four
unmarried daughters of Philip the evangelist. Now, Philip the
evangelist, it says, is one of the seven. He’s one of the deacons
chosen to distribute in early chapters of Acts the goods to
the widows and the poor of the city. And so now he’s living
with his four unmarried daughters, and they have the gift of prophecy
in this apostolic age. And then there’s Agabus. Agabus
is a prophet as well who predicted the famine. He predicted the
famine that is at Jerusalem, which Paul is now bringing an
offering back. But he also was one of the prophets who said
Paul ought to be set apart and sent on these missionary journeys.
And so from Antioch, because of the prophecy of Agabus and
others, Paul goes on all these journeys, which he is now ending.
Well, the ministry and the message of these prophets is to foretell
to the church the things that God wishes them to know. And
so here in this case, he predicts that Paul will suffer and die
if he goes to Jerusalem. Now, it’s a wonderful thing to
see this in the life of the church, but it’s good to note that these
things have ended. The apostolic age ended with
the life of John. John, who wrote the letter of
John, he wrote 1st, 2nd, 3rd John, and then he saw the vision
of revelation while he was on the Isle of Patmos. John, that
old man, pastored the church at Ephesus after Timothy. And
when he passed away, he was the last of the apostles. And so
now what we have, what we believe in the church is we are fed by
God through his word and spirit through the ordinary ministry.
of elders and ministers through the preaching of the word and
the sacraments. Nothing more, rather simple. And you’ll see
from time to time today, people will attach to themselves certain
names from the scriptures. They’ll give themselves all these
titles, including prophet. But we believe that Jesus, Hebrews
chapter one tells us, has spoken. and he has put all that he has
spoken into the word of the living God, and so the church has in
her hands the holy scriptures. But nevertheless, in this portion
of our scripture, along those three stops, at the three places
where they stay a bit and meet with the disciples, we bump into
Agabus, the old prophet, uh, who acted out much in old Testament
fashion, what was to take place in the life of Paul, what his
future would be if he went to Jerusalem. And so he takes from
Paul, his belt, he binds his own hand and feet. And he says
to them, thus, it will be a view. If you go to Jerusalem, you can
imagine how dramatic this was. You can imagine how perplexing
this was, how excited in a sad way, the crowd of disciples. and Paul’s traveling companions
were. And so after this prophecy, we move through our passage to
see the pleading of God’s people to Paul, don’t go to Jerusalem. Now it’s usually Paul who does
the pleading. He pleads with people to come to Jesus. He pleads
with them to leave their idols. He pleads with them to escape
the coming wrath of God that is coming for sin. But here,
the disciples, the leaders from Ephesus and those from Tyre and
Caesarea. In each of these occasions where
they’re with Paul and they understand in the spirit that Paul is planning
to go to Jerusalem where he will be arrested and handed over to
the Gentiles and ultimately die, they are pleading with him, do
not go. Now you can imagine at one of
these scenes at the village of Caesarea where there’s all these
disciples, there’s all these prophets, there’s this family,
the daughters, there’s the entourage, I don’t know, just say 30, 40
people. They’re piling on and begging, begging Paul, do not
go. Don’t you remember back in the
study that Luke gives us in his own gospel where he speaks of
in I think chapter nine or so, Jesus begins to get laser focused
on Jerusalem. Now it’s for a different reason.
It’s to go and suffer and die at the cross for the salvation
of sinners. but he becomes very resolute,
Jesus does, about going to Jerusalem and to the cross. And there’s
a point where Peter, well-intentioned Peter, but hot-headed Peter,
says to Jesus, no, you’re not gonna go, and you’re not gonna
suffer, and you’re not gonna die. And do you remember Jesus’
rebuke? Get behind me, Satan. And there’s
a sense here, there’s a parallel here, though Paul is not Jesus
and he’s on a different mission. He indeed, though, is on a mission
to seek and to save the lost sheep of Israel for the risen
and ascended Christ who met him on Damascus Road and meant for
him to have a ministry of Jesus Christ that involves suffering
and probably, ultimately, death. And so what do we have here?
We have infallible facts, facts that do not lie coming from the
Holy Spirit through these prophets. Paul, if you go to Jerusalem,
when you get there, you’re going to be arrested. You’re going
to be handed over to the Gentiles and you will likely ultimately
suffer and die. But then we get a reaction to
these infallible facts. We get fallible advice. And don’t
you hear the words from these well-meaning Christians, Paul,
you’re so much more useful to the kingdom if you’re alive.
And don’t we think this way? We don’t reckon ourselves to
the facts of the truth that God has given us. And so we start
thinking, well, maybe it’s okay to fudge here or do this or do
that because the end justifies the means. And here Paul is staying
resolute. They’re pleading with him. And
he must obey God rather than men. He must obey the voice of
the Holy Spirit. And I hate to do it, but spoiler
alert, in the coming chapters, Paul is going to Jerusalem. Paul
is going to be arrested. Paul is going to be handed over
to the Gentiles. And Paul will eventually make
his way to Rome. That’s the rest of Acts. And he will ultimately
die at the hands of Nero. But I want us to see a third
aspect of this passage. The prophecy shows us what will
take place. The pleading tells us the love
the disciples had for Paul and his effectiveness for the gospel.
But I want us to think for a moment about Paul and his resolve. James
Montgomery Boyce, who was a famous pastor in Philadelphia until
he passed away, oh, 20 some years ago, wrote all kinds of commentaries
volumes and volumes of good Christian biblical interpretation. And
when you read his chapter on this section of scripture, he
says this, he said, I’m paraphrasing. He says, Paul is a knucklehead.
That’s not what he said. That’s just me paraphrasing.
Paul is a knucklehead. He shouldn’t have gone to Jerusalem,
but he went anyway. He was disobeying the voice of
God. He was disobeying the Holy Spirit and it got him killed.
And he goes on to say disobedience cost Paul, and it cost many others,
hardship, even their lives. Now I’m not so sure that I agree
with Boyce, and that’s saying a lot, because he was a giant
in the faith, a man much more brilliant than I. But I say that
I’m not so sure, because several places along the way in the book
of Acts, Paul says in every city and every town, there awaits
for me persecution. There awaits for me imprisonment
and all kinds of afflictions. He says in several places, including
our recent studies over recent weeks, I am constrained by the
spirit to go to Jerusalem and then to Rome. Well, his trip
to Jerusalem is going to ensure his trip to Rome because when
he’s arrested, he appeals to Caesar and to Caesar he does
go. But I also think back through
the multiple accounts that we are given in the book of Acts.
Three or four times Paul tells about his calling at the Damascus
road. But in the first account Luke
gives us in the earlier chapters of Acts, remember Paul is breathing
murderous threats against Jewish Christians converts to Jesus
Christ and he’s breathing murderous threats. He’s carrying letters.
He’s on his way to Damascus and he’s gonna kill him or in prison
or whatever he can do to stamp out Christianity if he can and
God meets him through Jesus. Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting
me? He’s struck blind. He gets led to a street called
straight street and God tells Ananias, hey, go there and see
the guy. Are you crazy? This guy will
kill me. No, go and speak to him for he is a chosen instrument
of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and before kings
and before the children of Israel for I will show him how much
he must suffer for the sake of my name. I believe Paul’s resolve
to go to Jerusalem and ultimately Rome and to ignore the warnings
of the Holy Spirit. I don’t believe the Holy Spirit
would say, no, don’t go. He was just preparing him for
what was gonna take place. go to Jerusalem and go to Rome,
and the gospel will go before Gentiles and kings. And so Paul,
remember, is a great student of the Old Testament. Remember,
he was a Hebrew of Hebrews. He was of the school of Gamaliel. He knew his Old Testament backwards
and forwards. He could quote it in his sleep. And he was aware of the plight
of the prophets, how every single prophet was mistreated. He was
aware of the plight of John the Baptist killed at the hands of
Herod at a birthday party. He was aware of the way. of the
suffering and death of Jesus, his master. And he’s aware, I
believe, of his own way, that he will suffer and die for the
sake of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Even more so, though, I think
we’ve got to remember, Paul was keenly aware of what the Jews
are capable of. He was one of them. And he was
the chief persecutor. And he knew every trick, every
tool in their toolkit. He knew what they could do if
he fell into their hands. But how is it we discern the
will of God? Well, we read his word. We trust
the guidance of the Holy Spirit. We had asked advice of wise counselors
and other godly people. And then we settle it in our
conscience. It is the right thing to do.
And then we rest. It may be agonizing to get to
that point, but then we land in the hands of almighty God
and we make big decisions, maybe sick stomachs and all-nighters,
but we rest. We rest in the fact that God
has led us to this point. And so Paul here is resolved.
He’s much like Jesus. He’s set like a flint for Jerusalem. He is sold out for whatever the
gospel requires of him. He’s not a sellout. Remember
at the end of several of Paul’s books, his epistles in the New
Testament, he lists the good people that have stayed by his
side and helped him. But there’s some folks like Demas
who was in love with this present world and he wasn’t sold out
for the gospel. No, he was a sellout because
the thorns choked away. The cares of this world got a
hold of him and he walked away from the faith of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And so after all the pleading of the disciples, after
all the pleading of the Christians at Caesarea and at Ephesus and
these other stops along this voyage back to Israel, Paul finally
says to this last group, what are you doing? You’re breaking
my heart. I’m gonna go and the more you plead with me, the more
it tears at my heartstrings. For I am ready not only to be
in prison, but even to die at Jerusalem for the name of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Like Nate Saint, he was willing
to be expendable for the gospel. You know, we take simple decisions,
like, do I wanna go take a walk today? Well, I might get sweaty.
Do I wanna take a walk today? If I get sweaty, I’ll have to
take another shower, I’ll have to wash more clothes. And that’s how
we make first world decisions, we call them, isn’t it? But here’s
a man who is resolved, even with the pleading, he’s resolved,
even with all the danger, to go and stay on mission. Well,
then this leads us to prayer. We’ve had the prophecy of the
New Testament apostolic era prophets. We’ve had the pleading of the
disciples. Paul, don’t do it. Don’t go. Don’t die. We’ve had
Paul and his resolve. Now we want to think about the
prayers. There’s lots of praying in this passage. There’s praying
at Ephesus. There’s praying on the docks. There’s praying on
the beach. All the women and children come
along. Wherever we are, we ought to be people of prayer. And notice
the posture of body and the posture of heart. The posture of body
here is they kneel down. They are driven to their knees
for the love of the gospel, the love of Jesus and the love of
those who may be saved. And so they kneel and pray with
Paul, but there’s the posture of heart. There’s no more pleading. There’s no more thinking it through.
There’s no more rationalizing it. There’s just submission to
God’s will. Paul is destined to go to Jerusalem. Paul is destined to be handed
over. Paul is destined for Rome to appeal to Caesar, and he’s
destined for the sword. And they didn’t have the hymn
at the time, but you can imagine in their brains, if they were
us today, they would have sung, whate’er my God ordains is right. Or they might have sung in their
minds, God moves in a mysterious way, his wonders to unfold. We don’t always understand, but
we submit and we submit ourselves finally in prayer. Jesus, the
night before his death, was in the garden of Gethsemane praying,
Lord, if possible, Father, if possible, take this cup from
me. But Jesus knew, didn’t he? He
knew the mission of the suffering servant. He must drink the cup.
The father could not withhold it, and so he says, in resignation
to the will of God, not my will, but yours be done. And can’t
you imagine these disciples? If possible, God, keep Paul alive. Keep Paul traveling, keep Paul
preaching, keep him encouraging, keep him visiting city to city. If possible, keep him safe. Don’t
let the Jews hand him over to the Gentiles. Let no harm come
to his body. If possible, keep him safe. Let him go on to Rome
and Spain as he desires to take the gospel to the east or to
the west. Let Paul go. Think of the words
that Paul had received just a couple of years earlier in his Macedonian
ministry, where God himself comforted Paul and said to him, do not
be afraid, but go on speaking. They’re all the mobs and the
riots and whatever. Do not be afraid to go on speaking and
do not be silent for I am with you. No one will attack you. No one will harm you. For I have
many in this city who are my people. And it says Paul stayed
another year and six months for 18 months. The hand of God was
on Paul and he went before him and protected him. He hedged
around him and gave him safety. But now it seems this isn’t the
case. He’s going to go to Jerusalem and very soon after entrance
into the city, those Paul-hating, Christ-hating Jews from Ephesus,
from Asia, will find him and cause an uproar. They resolved to let God be God,
and they entrusted Paul to him through their prayers. And what
a sight it must have been at the dock of Miletus to see the
Ephesian elders in tears and weeping and praying with Paul,
never to see each other ever again this side of heaven. Or
how about the beach at Tyre? with the men, women, and children,
or now in Philip’s living room with his daughters and Agabus
and all the others. Could you imagine being a fly on the wall
in these prayer meetings? But what a great witness it would
have been to the watching world. You know, we don’t like to pray
before men. We like to keep our prayers secret and quiet. But would people, if they knew
you a little bit, think you’re a praying person? I remember
A common phrase from someone who taught me, he said, I’ll
do anything God asks as long as there’s praying people to
surround me. And I wonder if back at Philippi,
I wonder if back at Ephesus, I wonder if back at Thessalonica,
I wonder if back at Corinth and Troas and all the places where
Paul had been, I wonder if they were on their knees, knowing
what Paul had told them about his journey to Jerusalem. They’re
praying, they’re fasting, they’re putting Paul before the throne
of grace. If you read the wonderful book
written by Elizabeth Elliot about her husband, Jim Elliot, and
the other four missionaries who were killed by the Akka Indians,
the book is called Shadow of the Almighty. The very beginning
of the book tells the story about the day they landed on the beach,
and we’re gonna make personal contact with these Akka Indians. These men gathered together and
sang of God’s shadow, his protection, his wings around them. And they
knelt on the beach and prayed, Lord, if we could come into contact
with these people and bring them to the name of Jesus. And that’s
exactly what happened. They came into contact, but they
were killed. But it opened the door for years, even to this
day, where missionaries have gone in that village and the
people of God are now those savage Indians because Jesus converted
them. And it began with getting on
their knees and praying. Let the will of the Lord be done.
And so they’re resolved, aren’t they? After these days, our passage
says, they got ready. They helped Paul pack his bags
and they went up to Jerusalem. Paul and his ministry partners,
Paul and some of the disciples of Caesarea, they journeyed to
Jerusalem. But there’s another traveling
party making their way to Jerusalem. In fact, they’re probably already
there and it’s the Jews from Asia in hot pursuit of Paul.
They’re going to be waiting for him in the temple. But meanwhile,
Paul and his companions get to the house of Nason. They’re received
and they meet with James and the elders. They’re received
gladly. And these elders glorify God
when they hear of the work of the gospel that Paul has done
on his third missionary journey. But there’s danger ahead. They warn Paul, oh, no, you’ve
come. Oh, no, this is what’s being said about you and what
you’re preaching and teaching. But I imagine Paul remembers
the words of Jesus, the son of man came not to be served, but
to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. And you can imagine Paul and
his resolve says, I will go for Jesus. I will go for Jesus, whatever
it costs, and I will get his people. Question for us is, would
we? Think of Jim Elliot, his famous,
and most well-known quote about his philosophy of his ministry
is this, he is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain
what he can never lose. Brothers and sisters, I think
we’re gonna enter in the next many years, soon rather than
later, a difficult time. And it’d be good for us to get
it straight in our head, what we’re willing to do for Jesus,
because it’s gonna take it. to proclaim Jesus before this
crazy, dark, and dying world that hates him so. Let’s do pray
for his help. Our Father, we thank you for
this word that encourages us in the life of Paul. Lord, may
it motivate us to take stock of our lives, stock of our living,
stock of our priorities, and to think through how we might
be willing to serve you, whatever it takes. It may not cost us
our lives, it may not cost us even much, but it will cost us
something. So help us be prepared and to
be willing. We ask all this in the name of
Jesus, the great suffering servant. Amen.