Steady Obedience: No Matter the Obstacles
Acts 21:1-25
At Calvary Church, I recently taught Acts chapter 21 and the theme of steady obedience despite obstacles. The Apostle Paul encourages us as we follow his journey and the various challenges he faced. We see his obedience and steadfastness over and over again. Let’s break down the critical points of this chapter to help you grow in your personal walk with the Lord.
Did you know that fellowship can deeply strengthen your faith journey? Paul demonstrates this for us with his departure from Miletus and his arrival in Tyre, where he seeks out disciples and stays with them for seven days. This stresses the importance of fellowship and support from other believers. Involving others in ministry, especially your family, can create lifelong bonds and spiritual growth. Let’s remember that walking together in faith can make us stronger.
Forgiveness can be one of the most powerful expressions of grace. Paul experienced this firsthand when Philip the Evangelist, who witnessed the stoning of Stephen, an event Paul was complicit in, welcomed him into his home. Imagine the profound forgiveness and grace that Philip must have encountered to embrace Paul after such a traumatic event. This reminds us that forgiveness can transform our lives and relationships with others.
Have you ever struggled with staying faithful to your calling despite internal doubts and external pressures? Paul exemplifies this steady obedience despite all obstacles. Even after warning after warning from well-meaning believers and friends, he remains resolute in his mission to Jerusalem. This teaches us the importance of discerning God’s voice as opposed to the voice of others and remaining unmoved in our calling, even when the path is fraught with challenges.
However, navigating through the various voices that try to influence us can be tricky. From self-doubt to cultural pressures and even well-intentioned advice from other believers, these voices can lead us astray and sometimes are just lousy counsel. You and I must tune into God’s voice above all else. In Acts 21, Paul faced warnings and concerns from his friends and family in Christ, but he continued to move forward in what the Lord had for him, even though it was hard. Despite the challenges, Paul’s determination to deliver an offering to the church in Jerusalem underscores the importance of keeping one’s word and fulfilling our commitments. The same is true for us. Let your yes be yes and no be no, and follow through with integrity and faithfulness.
Success, in God’s eyes, often looks different from worldly success. Paul’s journey teaches us that real success is being faithful to God’s calling, even when it involves suffering and a lack of recognition. Our outlook on a situation will change as we redefine success, emphasizing faithfulness over outcomes. Remember, God is responsible for the results; our role is to obey and stay committed.
FULL TRANSCRIPT
Take your Bibles. Open them to Acts chapter 21 as we start a new chapter today. I’ve entitled the bible study, “Steady Obedience, No Matter The Obstacles.” Or you could also title it, “Steady Obedience No Matter Of All Of The Voices That Are There That Might Try To Take Your Attention” – that’s a far longer title. So let’s stick with, “Despite the Obstacles,” because you’ll face a lot of obstacles in your path of obedience. There will be things, and there will be people, and there will be voices, and there will be circumstances that will cause you to doubt and cause you to want to retreat. Or like we read in the Psalm today, to be like a dove, man, and just fly away and just go into the wilderness (Ps 55:6). “This is not what I wanted…this is not what I expected,” and yet you’re right in the middle of God’s will for your life. And He’s using it to make you a stronger woman and a stronger man for His purposes; that He has bought you and me with His precious blood.
We see that in the life of Paul here. Notice verse one of chapter 21, it says,
Now it came to pass, that when we had departed from them and set sail, running a straight course we came to Cos, the following day to Rhodes, and from there to Patara. And finding a ship sailing over to Phoenicia, we went aboard and set sail. When we had sighted Cyprus, we passed it on the left, sailed to Syria, and landed at Tyre; for the ship was to unload her cargo. And finding disciples, we stayed there seven days. Acts 21:1-4a
Pause there for a moment and notice Paul has left the area of Miletus. Now, where we are now in Paul’s life is at the end of his third missionary journey. His third missionary journey started back in chapter 18. He left the home base of the church in Antioch, and he went through Galatia and Phrygia, strengthening the disciples. He came to Corinth and planted a church there and served there almost two years. From Corinth he headed off to Ephesus, where he ministered for another three years. You’ll remember in Ephesus there was a great revival. A massive amount of people would throw away their magic books and their idolatry and came to know the living Christ. But then Demetrius got upset. We learned, when we studied that section, how the “people that make money off of sin,” often get mad at the church.
Demetrius was making money off of sin. He was making idols. And because of the idolatry, he could see the writing on the wall that Christianity would change his business. He got everybody that made idols with them, caused a riot, and Paul had to leave. He comes to Miletus. Paul does, on that shore of Miletus, and he calls for the elders of Ephesus to come to him, to have those final exhortations. We studied that in our previous studies in Acts chapter 20, and it’s here in chapter 21. We’ll pick up in Acts 20:37, by way of context he says, “then they all wept freely, fell on Paul’s neck, and kissed him, sorrowing most of all for the words which he spoke, that they would see his face no more. And they accompanied to the ship. And it came to pass when they departed….” Very emotional scene. He takes off. He’s following this course and finally ends up in verse three, in Tyre where the ship’s going to unload his cargo. And then the next thing we see in Tyre in verse four is that he found disciples. Now the word is finding. You can circle it. If you like to write in your Bibles, you can write next to this word he searched out instead of resting for the seven days. He really wanted to be in fellowship with other believers, and he searched for disciples and he found them. And he stayed with them for seven days and hung out in that area for seven days.
And it was while he was there in verse four, that they told Paul through the Spirit, not to go up to Jerusalem. This is a challenging time where he has heard from the Lord, and he’s confident in the Lord, and he’s headed to Jerusalem. But not everybody around him is supportive. And we have this time here now, where the Spirit of God has enveloped these people, to encourage them to tell Paul not to go. Now, there’s a little bit of debate on this. There’s two ways of looking at this verse. One is, is that the Spirit of God gave a very specific message to this group to tell them not to go, which is not where I think this text leads us, although some people might think that another way of looking at is this group of disciples were in the Spirit, and they believed that what they were saying was from the Spirit, and they gave it to him. And we’ll see this in a moment where this is just another example of all the voices that come into our lives when we’re taking steps of faith.
When you choose to obey God, there will be people that want to share their opinion with you where, you know, Paul knew and he’s confident. By the time we finish our study today, you will see from the text how confident Paul was and how I believe it was God’s will for Paul to go to Jerusalem. But not everybody agreed there were others that believed otherwise, and there is this constant tension between men and women living in faith and other people, men and women, that could also be living in faith but disagreeing with a decision. And there’s this tension that what we believe is from God and then what other people think about it. Opinions, thoughts, advice that are always in abundance.
But Paul moves on. It says he found disciples. He was there at the end of that seven days. Verse five, when he had come to the end of those days, we departed, went on our way, they all accompanying us, the wives, the kids, till we were out of the city. And we knelt down on the shore and prayed, which must have been very beautiful. I also think those in Tyre, receiving from the Lord that it’s going to be tough for Paul in Jerusalem, recognizes they’ll probably never see him again. So they get all the family and go, “Hey, this isn’t a usual occasion, and let’s get them going.” By the way, this is a model that just this verse here, they brought the kids and the wives out to follow Paul in ministry. This is a model that was handed down to us, my family, one that I have followed over the years. And that is, even when the kids were super, super young, I would try to bring the kids with me in anything I was doing for the Lord. I just wanted them to see it. I wanted them to experience it back in the day. For seven years, when we met in a school, we had to show up super early to set everything up and put everything together, and I’d be waking up the kids to come early with me. “Hey, there’s an empty seat in my car. Why don’t you come early with me and let’s do ministry together?” Church, I want you to learn that with your kids. Bring your kids along as much as you possibly can. Bring your kids along.
Obviously, you bring your kids along to church for sure. But as God has enlisted, wherever it’s possible, bring your kids and let them not only hear about the things of God, but let them see it with their own eyes and experience it. There’s a lot of pressure, you know, because you’re looking at your time, right? You’re looking at your time, and the kids got sports and the kids got this, and the kids got this, and the kids got this. And when it’s out on the table, I’ll tell you, one of the things that suffers is doing things together for the Lord. So, be sure that that’s a priority in your prayer as you’re praying about what the kids are involved in. You know, my kids were involved in sports and all sorts of things, but I wanted them to be with me. I wanted us to do things together as much as possible, and I just love that. That could be a whole Bible study in and of itself. The power of being together and knowing that God is going to bless it.
So they go. They say goodbye to him. It says in verse six, “When we had taken our leave of one another. We boarded the ship and they returned home. And when we had finished our voyage from Tyre, we came to Ptolemais. We greeted the brethren and stayed with them for a day.” That was about a 25-mile journey there. “On the next day we were Paul’s companions, departed and came to Caesarea and entered the house of Philip the Evangelist, who was one of the seven, and stayed with him. Now this man had four virgin daughters who prophesied.” So we have back to back examples of families being together in ministry.
Here, Philip, you remember we met Philip back in Acts chapter six. Philip was one of the original men that God raised up to serve the early church. Remember when the widows were upset with one another and there was one group feeling neglected? The Apostles said, look, we can’t leave the Word of God and prayer. We need to find these men that are filled with the Holy Spirit – men of wisdom (Acts 6:1-7). They found Philip and Philip’s friend, you remember? His name was Stephen. So I want you to think of three people together: Saul of Tarsus, Philip, and Stephen. You’ll remember that, Stephen, He was the first martyr. The first one that was stoned to death by the religious leaders of the day. Stephen was stoned to death. And as the religious leaders were taking off their cloaks so that they might be able to hurl these stones in a more free way, who was the one holding the clothes? Saul of Tarsus. Not only that, there’s some indication in the text that Saul, in his official religious capacity, cast his vote for the stoning of Stephen as well.
So fast forward now, 20 years later, Paul’s traveling on his way to Jerusalem, he comes to Caesarea, finds out that Philip is there, shows up at Philip’s door, knocks on the door, and how did Philip answer the door? I’ll tell you, he answered the door with a heart of forgiveness. A heart of forgiveness. This would have been a deep wound, you know, to watch your best friend, or a co-laborer in the ministry, or a good friend, be stoned to death before your own eyes. And to meet, now, 20 years later, a man, if not completely complicit, partially complicit with it, to show up at your front door with your family. How does he answer the door? I think in forgiveness. The alternative, of course, is to hold it against him all the rest of his life.
If you were with us this last midweek Bible study, we studied in Exodus chapter 15, how the children of Israel, they just finished singing the song of Moses and worshiping God, and they’re so excited that he delivered them and that they’re free. And the Egyptians didn’t get them, and they’re heading into the promised land. And then the text says in Acts 15, at the end, just three days later, just three days later, they find themselves coming to a place of water, and they’re thirsty. And as they’re taking the water, the waters are bitter. Three days later, the bitter waters made them come against their leader, Moses, and complain against God. For some, listening to me, it doesn’t take three days. For some, it just takes three seconds, or three minutes, where bitterness has taken root in your heart and it has deep, deep, roots and it’s completely skewed the way you look at life and look at people. There may be a Saul or two in your life that’s brought you deep pain and deep sorrow. And how will you answer the door 20 years later? That’s really the question.
If you weren’t with us, you should get the study, I believe God used it,i an expansion of the study I did in Hebrews on the topic of bitterness. The answer for the children of Israel, then, is the answer for us. Moses was instructed to cut down a tree and throw it into the water. And he did. He cut down the tree, and threw it into the water. And the Bible says the waters became sweet. And it becomes a picture for us, a type. That tree represents the cross of Jesus Christ and the way to deal with the bitter waters in your life, which we all have a Mara or two. By the way, that’s what they called the waters, the waters of Mara, which in Hebrew means “bitter.” The only way out of bitterness is to “throw the cross in.” And we forgive great sin because of how great we’ve been forgiven. We extend agape love to others because of the agape love extended to us. Philip answered the door with forgiveness. Now listen, Saul showed up to the door in repentance.
Forgiveness is one thing, but repentance is necessary for reconciliation. I mean, if the person doesn’t change, then they continue, continue, continue. You will be unable to reconcile and restore relationship, but you’re fully able to forgive. Those are two different things. Forgiveness releases you. Repentance brings you together. And so, if Saul would have showed up to the door, not Paul, then I could already see the way the story will go. He’s going to run in,he’s going to protect the kids, he’s going to get them out the back door – he is not going to have the kind of relationship that comes with repentance. Where, yeah, the pain is still there and nothing’s going to bring Stephen back. But they could say, and you can imagine, the conversations that they had of just how much regret is in Paul’s heart. I mean, if he could do it all over again, it would be different. But how encouraged he is to see Philip and his family serving the Lord all these 20 years later. It’s just one of those “what a small world,” moments, you know.
Have you ever had them? I don’t have too many here, but growing up, you know where I got saved? At the Calvary near my house. I would have these moments all the time. I’d be in a service just like, you know, worshiping the Lord, singing out. And I look down to the left and I’m like, “whoa!” And after the songs are over, we’re greeting. I’d walk down to the pew there, and I go, “what are you doing here, man?” A buddy from my past, and you know what his response was? What are you doing here? And together we’re like, man, look what God has done. Look what God has done. And I hear those stories a lot here in the neighborhood from you guys where you grew up and the people you hung around with. And now, years later, “look what God has done!”
I don’t want you to forget to be praying for the people you grew up with, the people you hung around with, maybe the people you sinned with, or the people that hurt you deeply because of their sin. Because God is still…He is still working on the earth today, church changing people. And you just don’t know who’s going to show up sitting next to you. You just don’t know. And you got to be ready to answer the door – in forgiveness – and not bitterness.
Can you imagine what would have happened if Paul showed up to Phillip’s house in bitterness? I’ll tell you, one of the things that probably wouldn’t have happened is he wouldn’t have had four daughters that were prophesying because bitterness would have defiled them. The home would have been filled with it. Instead, we see great success here. So he’s hanging out with Philip. What an amazing…that just had to be amazing…that’s…only God could do that. That’s just this little text here. Only God can bring Philip and Paul together 20 years later, after the atrocious murder of Stephen. Only God can do that. And I wonder how many stories we have in the room today. But how many more stories will still be yet written, where we’re writing down our testimony or typing into our writing in our journal and we just like, say, “look what God has done.” This is unbelievable. Exactly. It’s supernatural. The work of God.
Well, while he’s at Philip’s house, enjoying fellowship with his family, notice what happens. Verse ten,
We stayed many days and a certain prophet named Agabus came down from Jerusalem . And when he come to us, he took Paul’s belt, bound his own hands and feet, and said, “thus says the Holy Spirit, ‘so shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man who owns this belt, and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.’” And when we heard these things, both we and those from that place pleaded with him not to go up to Jerusalem.
Acts 21:10-12
And just mark the word, we, because Luke is writing this. So, Luke his doctor, Luke his companion, Luke his ministry partner, including everyone else in Caesarea that are there, are begging Paul not to go. And notice Paul’s answer, verse 13, “’What do you mean by weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.’ And so when he would not be persuaded, we ceased, saying, ‘the will of the Lord be done.’” And that’s the best place to end. But it’s actually the best place to be when you’re dealing with the situation. There’s disagreement. Hey, “the will of the Lord be done.” I just commend you to God and the word of his grace, and let God’s will be done through this situation.
We first met Agabus, this prophet, back in Acts chapter 11. He’s the one that predicted the famine that did come to pass (Acts 11:28). And what a character Agabus was. He was a prophet in line with the prophets of old – animated, dynamic, very serious. Like Isaiah, you remember with Isaiah…Isaiah walks around…he was told by God to walk around naked as a message to the nation (Isaiah 20) Aren’t you glad that’s not God’s call for you? Can you imagine? We’re going to be bailing you out, if that was the call of God. It’s like, “what is wrong with you?” But that was the call upon Isaiah. I think of Jeremiah. Jeremiah was told to go bury some underwear in the ground and then later bring it out, put it on and wear it as a testimony to the nation (Jeremiah 13). So walking around with just your dirty underwear on, that was a message. John the Baptist, he’s kind of the bridge from the Old Testament to the New Testament prophets, John the Baptist had this air about him, where he was just eating locusts and wild honey, and he had this sackcloth on (Matt 3:4, Mark 1:6), he was this character of a man. Well, Agabus, he as well has this characteristic around him, and he comes and he takes the belt of Paul, and he wraps himself up in it, and he says, “the one that owns this belt is going to have serious things happen to him in Jerusalem. It’s not going to be good. It’s going they’re going to bind him and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.” And so everybody picks up on that and begins to beg him not to go. I mean, they’re begging him emotionally – very animated.
In the Middle East, It was very common as you’re bartering and arguing that it’s very animated, very emotional. But Paul, he stands firm. He says in verse 13, “Why are you guys breaking my heart? I know what I’m supposed to do, and I know where I’m supposed to go and whatever Agabus says or anyone else, I’m going to Jerusalem.” We need to pause here for a second, because when you are living a life of faith, just trusting God, living everyday life, and even more so beginning to take steps of faith, when you’re wanting to obey God you’re going to get steady resistance. You want to have steady obedience in the steady resistance. You’re going to have obstacles along the way. You’re going to face, and I think the greatest obstacle, is you’re going to face many voices. You’re going to hear a lot of voices when you choose to step out and obey God. And let me just, I guess, put it this way, “the greater the step, the more voices and louder the voices are.”
If you’re taking notes, let me give you a list of things to watch out for when you’re living this life of faith and you’re wanting to take steps of faith and taking huge steps of faith, you want to watch out for these voices. There’s a lot of competition for your attention and your allegiance. There’s many voices out there, and here they are, in no particular order. Number one: you need to watch out for your own voice, which might be your greatest adversary, quite frankly, your own voice. The voice of doubts, the voice of second guessing ourselves, the voice of being unsure, the voice of…once you get there you go, “Oh, this was not from the Lord.” I thought I heard from the Lord, and you’re just messing around with yourself in your own head. You got to watch out. Anybody have a battle with their own voice? Sometimes, yes. Okay, good. That’s one of them. Probably. My greatest battle is in my head. And you got to watch out for it. Because you can talk yourself out of faith, like, God leads you to a place, like, when you feel like the Lord’s calling you to do something, do it. Because if you give any time, you’ll probably talk yourself out of it. And then you’re like, well, I don’t understand what’s happening. I don’t hear from the Lord anymore. And he goes, no, no, no, you heard just clearly. You just talked yourself out of it.
Number two, I want you to watch out for the voices in this world, this culture. The voice of this culture is really loud. We’re living, we’re eating, we’re drinking, we’re working in this world. And the world has a message. And the message of this culture is “anti Christ.” The message of this culture is “anti Christ.” It is not the way of the world, the way of the Lord. It’s the way of the world. It’s the culture is…the atmosphere of this world does not lead a person toward the Lord. It leads a person away from the Lord. And we have picked up things along the way in our living in this world. If you were educated like I was at a very young age, I was in all the public schools, I picked things up very early on, even many years ago, that I carry with me that I need to continually sacrifice before God, because the world’s ways are not God’s ways. Let me give you one. Let me give you one that I think is very, very popular, especially in the United States of America, that we’ve been given from a very young age, and that is from a very young age we were taught to go after the American…
*crowd answers* Dream.
Oh, you know about it? There’s no such thing as the American dream. It was made up by some marketer or somebody along the way to keep you in the rat race, to keep you running, running, running. Because, I mean, if you’re here today, I mean, if you think about the American dream, if you’re listening to my voice today and you think you’ve done pretty well, and then you’re thinking, “there’s more, there’s more, there’s more.” If you’re listening to my voice today, and go, you know, “I don’t know anything about the American dream, I haven’t really attained it,” then you beat yourself up. And you what? There’s more, there’s more, there’s more. Until finally, at the end, you look back on your life and you have given, given, given, given, given, given to this world. And the American Dream is not the Kingdom of God. Because Jesus teaches us to “seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, then all these things will be added unto us” (Matt 6:33).
Now hear me carefully. Those of you that have more resources entrusted by God, what does God want you to do with them? He wants you to use them for His Kingdom. Those of you that have less resources here in this world, what does He want you to do with them? Use them for the Kingdom of God. It’s not about what we have and what we don’t have, it’s about our priorities. But if you grew up in this culture, I mean, it’s just like, bam, you just keep going, you keep going, keep going. And if you find yourself going after a career and looking to go to school – excellent and wonderful – just do it second to seeking first the Kingdom of God. You belong to Him so that everything you have has been given to you by Him. And the world has a voice, you gotta watch out for it.
Thirdly, another voice to watch out for is bad counsel, bad counsel even from people you trust.Just bad counsel, emotional counsel. People will hear what you say. And you? I want you to think about this for a second. Your step of faith stirs up your friends. Did you know that? Stirs up your friends, sometimes for the good, but sometimes not so much for the good, because they’re not willing to take the step and lay it all on the line like you are. So sometimes you have to be careful of the voice that will try to talk you out of something that actually isn’t from the Lord at all. They just don’t want you to go farther than they are. It’s not that they don’t love you. It’s not like, no, it’s just like, “man, you’re going to take that step of faith and then you’re going to take off – oh well what are my kids are going to grow up with and what am I…?” And you got all this stuff going on just like, no, God has told me to do it. You go, “can friends give bad counsel?” Oh, yes. The Bible says “in a multitude of counselors there is peace ,” but also in a multitude of counselors, it can be confusion.
You remember Nathan when he came to David? Nathan was David’s best buddy, most trusted ally. Nathan comes to David and he has a strong message to share, and David needed to hear Nathan’s counsel. David needed Nathan in his life to tell him this, you ready? “You are that man.” He was 100% right. It was a turning point in David’s life, and it was began his repentance and everything changed in his life when Nathan came and said, “you are that man” (2 Sam 12:7). Perfect, 100% accurate. But you’ll remember later, Nathan was in David’s life and Dave was just talking about, you know, I want to build a temple. I want to build a temple. What did Nathan tell him? “Do everything that’s in your heart” (2 Sam 7:3; Chr 17:2). And he was 100% wrong. Same buddy, same brother. He was 100% right and 100% wrong. And you go, “Oh, man, what am I supposed to do now?” You’re supposed to train your ears to hear the voice of the Lord and be confident in what God has given you to do. Because sometimes Nathan has a right and sometimes he doesn’t. But God always has a right to give you another voice.
Another voice, the voice of social media. It’s new for our generation. Newer in the last 10-15 years, social media. So that means there’s a lot more voices out there. And the voices actually change, you know, depending on the algorithm. So depending on what you’re looking at, depending on what, you know, your phone is listening to you and watching you and depending on all that the voice changes. And so you don’t want to be making big life decisions because you saw some 30 second clip on YouTube or on TikTok. It’s like, oh, “I’m going to make a big decision because I heard the voice…” I think, no, no, no, no, no, no. “I saw this clip on YouTube.” You know, don’t make big decisions by what you’re listening to on YouTube, even if it’s me on YouTube. Don’t make big decisions on the voice of a man. You train your ears to hear the voice of God. Because you never know. That’s why God has given to us pastors and teachers.
Every good pastor or teacher will get your eyes off of him and onto the Lord. And you just got to be careful in the world, because there’s all sorts of ideas and all sorts of voices out there that we need to be careful. You want to know what the voice of God sounds like? You want to know? It sounds like it sounds when you read the Bible. I don’t know about you, but when I read the Bible, oftentimes I will say the words in my head. Sometimes I read it out loud, but most of the time when I’m reading, I just kind of say it slows me down a little bit, but it reaffirms what I’m saying. So when I’m reading it, when I hear the words being said, that is the voice of God. The voice of God translated into the English from the Hebrew or the Greek is what you have when you read your words.
So the more you know the Bible, the more you will know what the voice of God sounds like where, you know, I mean, if you hear something like, yeah, go ahead. God says it’s okay to go steal and rob a bank. I mean, come on, really, the Bible is very clear on that. You know, the voice of God on that:“Thou shalt not steal.” It’s very clear. You don’t need the law to tell you that, you don’t need a police officer to tell you that, you don’t actually don’t even need a pastor to tell you. Why? Because God already told you that. And God will give you wisdom in the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. You want to watch out for voices that are out there.
Let me give you another one to watch out for. And that’s the enemy’s voice, the enemy. He would love to throw ideas and thoughts towards you in a variety of different ways, to get you to believe a lie. That’s exactly how mankind fell into sin in the garden – was to believe a lie. The devil is the father of lies. And you want to be careful with the voices that you hear.
Turn over now to 1 Kings 19. We have these examples in the Bible. They’re so good. So turn back to 1 Kings 19, because I want you to see this in your own Bible. This is that time when Elijah is on the run. Jezebel threatened his life. He’s just had this great victory up on Mount Carmel. He hears Jezebel’s upset. He runs away. He’s discouraged. He comes to the cave, 1 Kings 19:11, he’s in a very vulnerable spot. A lot’s going on. He’s got everything on his mind. He’s emotionally charged. Situation’s hard. And notice what happens. “Then He said,” God speaking, “’go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord,’” He told Elijah,
And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains, and broke the rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice.
1 Kings 19:11-12
That just tells me, in all the activity and noise around me, I can hear the voice of the Lord. And it’s not in some of the big stuff. You know, the breaking of the rocks and the fire and the wind. The Lord has a word and He’s going to speak it, I just need to train myself to hear it in all the chaos. Notice it says in verse 13, “so it was when Elijah heard it.” You can hear the voice of God, it’s not elusive, you just got to be careful of the other voices.
Then this morning, I’m in my devos, I couldn’t sleep, so I got up super early. Today. I’m in my devos, and I’m reading about a missionary in China just to stir up my faith and see what God wants to do in my life. And this scripture was shared in the chapter that I was reading today. So turn over to Isaiah, I thought, “what a gift,” to give you guys today from my own devos this morning. Not super happy I wasn’t sleeping, but I’m super happy that God can speak to me in it. And I love this, turn over to Isaiah 30: 21, and I love this, You can trust the Lord. He will take care of you. He will speak to you. He will lead you. He will guide you. You don’t need to be worried about all the other voices if you’re listening for His. So notice what he says, “Your ears shall hear a word behind you saying ‘this is the way; walk in it,’ whenever you turn to the right hand or whenever you turn to the left.” You can trust the Lord.
He’s ready to lead you and guide you. Maybe not everyone’s going to be happy with you. I think of this last Wednesday night we had before us on the stage, Michelle. Michelle is heading off nine months to go minister in Guatemala. She’s going to be an English teacher. That’s going to become a bridge to connect kids with the gospel and their families. And she’s launching off. It’s kind of like an exploratory…it took all this faith just to get to nine months, this nine-month commitment. But she’s starting to feel the weight. She’s starting to feel the weight, even from her own testimony. We didn’t get a chance to interview her, but I’m sure if we did interview her, we would hear this testimony because it happens quite a bit, that there are many around her that goes, “go sister,” “go sister,” “go sister.” But there may be a few among her, “are you out of your mind, sister? Why would you do that? Why would you sell everything and leave it? Look at all the work that you’ve done, the schooling. You’ve finally got your condo and you got your car, and you got your life all lined up, and you’re just going to turn your back on it, to go to Guatemala, to minister to strangers’ kids?” And, you know, if you hit you on a weak moment, you’re like, “I don’t know, maybe I shouldn’t.” But you got to drown those voices out and hear the voice of the Lord. Why is she going to Guatemala? Because God told her to. And she’ll be there as long as God has her there. And if God leads her to a more full-time commitment, she’ll be like my other friend.
I have another friend that’s a pastor in Oregon who’s just been praying about his life. He’s been ministering in this church for many, many years, and God put it upon his heart to move to Europe. I mean, he’s got an established life in Oregon, where he was born, where he was raised. Now the ministry, he’s been doing everything about him in Oregon, like, this is it. He’s got it said he’s raising his kids there, everything, but God spoke to him and said, “I don’t want you in Oregon. I want you in England.” And so when I open up Instagram, I’m watching him every time his post comes up, he’s selling everything. It’s all in his front lawn: the toaster, the blankets, everything, the kids’ toys. They are taking very little with them because God had laid…that one little thought led to this, led to this, and now he met a brother.
And, by the way, I met him years ago when he was first talking about leaving where he is in England, this other brother in England, he’s going to Germany. I remember meeting him for the very first time years ago. He was just talking about, “maybe I’ll do this.” Maybe. Well then, since then, he’s been waiting ten years for the right guy to show up so that he can hand the church off and go do the ministry he wants to do in Germany, and who showed up? My buddy from Oregon. And as they connect, here he is. And I’m sure if we if we interview my friend, he would say, well, yeah, there’s a few people that don’t understand. Few people, but most of the people, they’re speaking with the voice of the Lord because we know we’re supposed to go there. We know we’re supposed to go there. Even if you came out and told me we weren’t supposed to go there, I would take it and I’d pray over it. But we’re supposed to go there. That’s how confident he is.
So with all that in mind, let’s step back for a second and let’s ask the question that needs to be asked about Paul. And it’s very simple. And this is if you guys took the Bible study class that we did, teaching how to study the Bible, you were taught how to do this: to ask questions of the text and let the text answer them. That’s what that’s how you bring interpretation to a text. You let the Bible answer its own question. So here’s the question: Was Paul supposed to go to Jerusalem or was God telling him not to go? So you’ve got this opposing force where Paul’s pretty confident. But was it God’s will for him to go to Jerusalem, or was it God’s will for him not to go to Jerusalem? And my answer is this: I believe it was God’s will. And I’ll give you the biblical basis for it in a moment. But I believe it was God’s will. Not only was Paul determined, but I believe it was God’s desire for him to go to Jerusalem wasn’t just his strong personality. It wasn’t just him wanting to do something. It wasn’t just him ignoring God and all these voices, but rather he was supposed to be there.
Let me give you some reasons, if you’re taking notes. Number one, you’ll remember in the calling of Paul when Ananias went to him with a message in Acts 9, remember what the message was? Acts 9:15, “But the Lord said to him, go, for he,” speaking of Paul, “is a chosen vessel of mine to bear my name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel. For I will show him how many things he must suffer for My Name’s sake.” This is one of the things that the Holy Spirit has been showing Paul that he must suffer going to Jerusalem, number one.
Number two, Paul is demonstrating to us something that we must learn how to live in our own lives. And that’s this, he had a financial offering that he took from the Gentile churches to help the hurting church in Jerusalem, and he is determined to take that offering to the church. And you go, well, what is it that we have to learn? And it’s very simple. You ready? Jesus taught us that your “yes,” should be a “yes” (Matt 5:37). And he’s living it out right here. He made a commitment and he’s going to keep it. He made it unto the Lord, and he told the churches what he was doing, and he’s going to keep it. This is greatly lacking in the church today. Unfortunately, again, it’s kind of like the culture influencing the church where, like so many believers, they say one thing, but they do something else. And church, one of the greatest ways, I mean, I would say probably one of the top five complaints against churches why the world thinks we’re so hypocritical is because the church in the world doesn’t keep their word. And we need to keep our word.
This is an area of life that God uses in my life, where he leads me to a point of commitment, and I don’t go back on it. Otherwise, I want to go back on it. Like recently, I made a commitment to another church to do some ministry with them, and I looked at it, I looked at my calendar and all that was needed, and I’m like, “yes, I’m going to do it.” And as soon as I said yes, then they started showing me what the commitment was. I should have said, show me first, but I did. So they started showing me. I’m like, oh man, this is a lot. And then another one, I was like, oh, this is a lot. And then I got a text that goes, “hey, I got two more things for you.” And I’m thinking, you know what? I think I should just cancel it. I got too much going on. I got too many, like, I got too much, that’s all. But the Holy Spirit, “go ahead, you said ‘yes.’” I’m like, “I know I said yes.” I know what…I’m wrestling with God in prayer. And eventually I just text back and go, “Hey, not only will I do these two things, but I’ll do whatever you want me to do.” And just I made my commitment and said, I don’t even know why I’m wrestling with it? I said, “yes,” it doesn’t matter what they asked me to do. I said yes, I want to keep my commitment. If they have more, then I want to do more. If they I get there and they want me to do less, I’ll do less. But the key is to make that commitment.
Some of you, that’s what you need to do. You need to make a commitment. One of the reasons why we keep asking for help in the church is not merely because we need help in the church. It’s not. The church can get go on just fine without all the ministries and everything. We’ll just sing and teach the Bible, no problem. But you know, when you step in and make a commitment, God grows you up. And when you make a commitment, people expect you to show up. They expect you to do what you said you would do. When you make a commitment, like, think of the children’s ministry: you make a commitment; those little kids are waiting for you. I mean, right now, they’re down there waiting for you. “Where’s my teacher? Where’s my teacher? It’s been an hour already. Where’s my teacher?” I have to go down and tell them, “I’m sorry, your teacher hasn’t committed yet,” you know. But when you make a commitment, people are waiting for you. People are depending upon you. And you know what the Holy Spirit does? He wells up in you maturity. He wells up in you this satisfaction of serving Him. And so Paul here, he has an offering; he’s going to deliver it.
Thirdly – Paul’s life. The reason, I think, he knew and he wasn’t disobeying God here is: Paul knew what a closed door was like in his life. Remember in Acts 16, he knew what a closed door…he wanted to go into Asia. The Bible says the Holy Spirit “forbid him” (Acts 16:6). So he knew. He kind of moved around and…maybe go a different way, and the Holy Spirit stopped him. And he knows what it’s like. “Okay, I’m going to move on, I get it.” And so all of these messages: “it’s going to be hard in Jerusalem,” “It’s going to be hard, don’t go,” “we need you, don’t go.” He could sense that it wasn’t from the Lord. It was just their personal desire. Not only that. Go back to Acts chapter 20, notice with me in verse 24. Paul described his trip to Jerusalem this way, Acts 20:24, well really go back to verse 22,
And see, now I go down in the spirit to Jerusalem, not knowing the things that will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies in every city, saying that chains and tribulations await me. But none of these things move me; nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I might finish my race with joy. Acts 20:22-24a
So, number one, it’s part of his race. He realizes that. And number two, he calls it, “the ministry I received from the Lord Jesus.” Jerusalem was the ministry. Suffering was the ministry. Difficulty was the ministry. It was all part of it. I don’t believe Paul was disobedient at all. Truly, when I think about in my own life on a personal level, when I hear, if I hear, that pain is going to come to your life, or I hear there’s a difficulty, I sense that God would have me to warn you or tell you about it, it will be emotional. Of course I’ll tell you to stay out of it. I mean, “come on, avoid it, don’t go through it.” That may or may not be from the Lord. That’s why you need to hear the voice of the Lord.
That’s why I try more and more over the years, all these years serving, to give less and less of my opinion, because I have my own opinions. Sometimes we step into someone’s life and we counsel them as if we were doing the situation, but we’re not. So, you know, “if I was you….” You’re not me, so let’s set that aside, and I want you to pray and hear from the Lord, because you’re not me. And that’s the worst kind of counsel, you know, “if I was you, I would never go….” Yeah, but you never do anything! So, no, I don’t want to hear that kind of counsel. I need you to pray for me. I need you to seek out God’s wisdom for me. And the best thing you can do for me is not give me your opinion, but just pray for me that I could hear the voice of the Lord. That’s what I want to do for you. I don’t want to put myself away. You know, “if I was in your shoes….” I’m not in your shoes. The best thing I can do is to get you seeking God. Because I’m confident He’ll give you direction.
A couple more things and we got to go – there’s three real barriers that Paul overcomes here. I’m not going to develop them, but I do want to give them to you so you can study them later. But three things come up when he’s taking a step of faith that he deals with valiantly. Number one, he overcomes the temptation of fear. Because you keep getting all these kind of testimonies, you might, you know, be fearful and freak out and not go to Jerusalem and get someone else to deliver the money. But he knew he belonged, so he overcame fear. Remember 2 Timothy 1:7, “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and a sound mind.” So he overcame fear.
Number two, he overcame the influence and temptation of friends. Because, again, friends sometimes aren’t so excited about your step of faith because they only think about what they’re going to lose or what’s going to happen. Family as well is the third one, he overcomes family. Now he doesn’t have, like, a mom and dad or things like we may relate to today, but you could say the family of God here. It’s very emotional and he overcomes all family. And he goes, “No, I’m going to Jerusalem, this is from the Lord.” And he learns the definition of success has to be changed. That’s going to be a part of our next podcast season that launches in October. Bob and I talk about “redefining success,” another thing that the world has taught us that isn’t accurate. Because the Bible teaches us success equals faithfulness. It doesn’t matter the outcome. God is going to take care of the outcome. You and I, we just need to obey God. He’ll take care of the rest.
Well, come back to Acts now. It’s a quick read on the next season of his life where it says “after,” in verse 15, I love this. It’s so simple, right? Verse 15, “After those days, we packed up and went to Jerusalem.” That’s it. I mean, everything I just shared with you is summarized in that one verse. Okay, Paul, see you later. “We went to Jerusalem,” notice, and, “some of the disciples from Caesarea went with us and brought with them a certain man by the name of Mnason of Cyprus, an early disciple, with whom we were to lodge. And when we had come to Jerusalem, the brethren received us gladly. On the following day Paul went in with us to James.” Remember, James is the leader of the early church, not Peter, in Jerusalem. “All the elders were there, when he had greeted them, he told in detail all the things that God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry,” which is the second time Paul got to do this.
And when he had heard it, they glorified the Lord. And they said to him, “you see, brother, how many myriads of Jews there are who have believed, and they are all zealous for the law; but they have been informed about you that you teach all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, saying that they ought not to circumcise their children nor to walk according to their customs.” Acts 21:20-21
You see, already they’ve already been slandering him. They’ve already been lying about him. There’s already a group against Paul before he ever got there. So the Spirit was right: there’s going to be trouble there. That was accurate. They had the right interpretation, “it’s going to be hard for you in Jerusalem, Paul,” but I believe they had the wrong application. They applied that as, “don’t go.” When all God wanted him to know is, “it’s going to be super hard, just be ready for it.” And so it is super hard. They already are lying about him, telling everybody that he’s against the law, when that’s not what he’s teaching at all. He’s teaching exactly what Jesus taught – that Jesus is the fulfillment of the law.
Notice, “What then?” So here’s their advice,
The assembly must certainly meet, for they will hear that you have come. Therefore do what we tell you: We have four men that have taken a vow. Take them and be purified with them, and pay their expenses so that they may shave their heads, and that all may know that those things of which they were informed concerning you are nothing, but that you yourself also walk orderly and keep the law. Acts 21:22-24
And you remember in 1 Corinthians 9, what did Paul say? Paul said that he lived his life. He became “all things to all men,” so that he might win the more (1 Cor 9:22). And here’s an example of that. He’s living it out. He didn’t have to do the Nazarite vow on his own. He didn’t have to go into the time of purification. He didn’t have to pay the way for them. He didn’t have to partner with them. But for the sake of the gospel, he did whatever needed to be done to take away any barriers that might be there.
Notice, verse 25, “But concerning the Gentiles who believe, we have written and decided that they should observe no such thing, except that they should keep themselves from things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality,” which is a repeat of the Council in Acts 15. They haven’t changed. It’s almost like James, just wanted Paul to know, “we haven’t abandoned grace, we haven’t changed our mind, we still believe that grace is important, that you’re saved by grace. But just to repeat, this is what we said in Acts 15, now, this is what we’re saying now.” And God is using Paul greatly.
One more thing I want you to notice in verse 17, this is as important. Again, if we were developing, these could all be their own Bible studies, but in verse 17, I should say, “When we had come to Jerusalem, the brethren received us gladly.” And then it just keeps going on. I want you to notice that there’s no mention of anyone in the Jerusalem church thankingPaul.
There’s not, “they received us gladly and expressed their appreciation for all that I went through to bring this offering to them.” There’s nothing like that. They receive him gladly – and for good reason – he brought a great gift with them and he’s Paul the Apostle. But then they just got to business. And here’s the lesson we need to learn. You and I, we cannot serve God with the expectation that we’re just serving for a bunch of people to appreciate us, slap us on the back and thank us. If you get into serving God, if you step into serving God for the accolades and the appreciations and the “thank yous”, you will be greatly disappointed. Because remember, you’re serving the Lord. What did Jesus teach us? He said, “Do things in secret,” because your Father in heaven, “who sees in secret, will reward you openly” (Matt 6:4, 6:6, 6:18). And many a man and woman have been greatly discouraged, even through the ministry here, where they expected this attention and they expected the accolades. But in reality, they’re not serving man, they’re serving God.
Now, don’t misunderstand me. I believe appreciation should be shared. I believe appreciation should be plentiful among us. I think we should always be loving and caring for one another. I am not one that believes you can “steal someone’s rewards,” just by saying “thank you”, or giving them a hug and thanking him for their commitment. I don’t believe that at all. However, on the flip side of that, if you serve expecting that you are just going to be one miserable sister, man! And one miserable brother! Because you served the Lord and not man. And you so often serve people on their worst days and their worst situations, that the last thing on their mind is thanking you. The first thing in their mind is survival. Just to get through it. And so we serve the Lord. And Paul, he’s going to come anyway. He’s going to serve the Lord. And it’s going to get worse for him, not better.
It was Charles Spurgeon, the very first chapter of his book, Lectures To My Students, he was training young men for the ministry, and he basically tells them, “if you can do anything else instead of ministry, you should go do it.” Because what’s required in ministry is a dying to yourself daily, moment by moment. And even if, and especially when, you don’t get the appreciation that you want or expect, you need to learn how to fill your tank with the Lord. And remember why you started; remember why you continue; and remember that at the Bema Seat you will receive the rewards (2 Cor 5:10, Romans 14:10). Some of what we did will pass through the fire and last (1 Cor 3:13-15). And to that we’ll say, “yes, Lord.” And then we receive those rewards from the Lord. We have those crowns, if you will, from God (1 Cor 9:25, 2 Tim 4:8, James 1:12, 1 Peter 5:4). And what do we do with them? We cast them right back down at his feet (Rev 4:10). They go, it was all from you anyway, Lord. It was all from you, and it’s going to all be to you. And I think that’s just a word from the Lord for someone that just senses, like man, I said, “I’ve been doing all this stuff and nobody knows and nobody’s appreciated me.” That’s not true. Your Father in Heaven knows, and He greatly loves you and appreciates all that you do for Him, in His name. Amen?
So, Lord, thank You for the Word and just the clarity of Your scriptures today. And we have so many voices, it can be so confusing to us, God, so help us train our ears to hear Your voice, Lord. Train our ears to, like the Bereans did, test everything that was given to them by the Word of God – that we might be able to move forward through all the earthquakes and all the wind and all the fire, to get right down to it, that we can hear Your still, small voice. In Jesus name we pray this. And we cling to you, Lord, and we love you, and we all say together, church, amen and amen.
KEYWORDS: Bible study, Pastor Ed Taylor, Acts chapter 21, obedience, challenges, Apostle Paul, fellowship, forgiveness, God’s calling, faith, community, distractions, steadfastness, self-doubt, cultural voices, American Dream, worldly success, bad counsel, social media influence, Scripture, discernment, Holy Spirit, commitment, integrity, faithfulness, purification ritual, grace, salvation, ministry, service to the Lord, Charles Spurgeon, Bereans, prayer, Calvary Church, live stream services, Abounding Grace Media, Christian community, emotional support, spiritual journey, encouragement, faith journey, voice of God, trials, personal experiences, overcoming fear, family ties, redefining success, ministry challenges, recognition in ministry, commitment to God.
