Participants: Jim & Mark Howard
Series Code: ABOTB
Program Code: ABOTB00022B
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00:01 Welcome back to Books of the Book.
00:03 When we went to our break, Mark, we were talking about this 00:07 exhortation given by the Apostle Paul to the elders in Ephesus. 00:12 And he had just spoken in verse 20 about how he had proclaimed 00:17 publicly and from house to house the gospel and held nothing back 00:22 We pick up in verse 22 and it says, And see now I go bound in 00:26 the Spirit to Jerusalem. So something, whether it was the 00:30 Spirit of God or just his own fervent desire, he felt bound, 00:34 he needed to go to Jerusalem, not knowing the things that will 00:38 happen to me there except that the Holy Spirit testifies in 00:41 every city saying that chains and tribulations await me. 00:45 So we see this interesting statement that the Holy Spirit 00:49 is testifying wherever he goes either through some special 00:53 revelation to himself or to one of the believers. And we'll see 00:57 that in the future too as he continues to travel that the 01:00 believers are telling him it looks like something bad is 01:03 going to happen when he goes to Jerusalem. So he knows that 01:06 there's going to be, as he says here, chains and tribulations 01:10 when he gets there. But he's still going. He's fervent to go. 01:14 In verse 24 it says, But none of these things move me nor do I 01:18 count my life dear to myself so that I may finish my race with 01:22 joy and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus to 01:25 testify to the gospel of the grace of God. You can almost 01:28 tell that he's saying, You know, I've gone through so much, I'm 01:32 not going to be a coward now. I'm going to keep going because 01:36 I want to finish my race with joy. 01:38 That's right and he says it's the ministry I received from 01:41 Jesus. He takes that seriously. He wants to finish that race. 01:45 And picking up in verse 25, he says, And indeed now I know that 01:49 you all among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God 01:53 will see my face no more. Of course, this is a parting and 01:57 he believes because of what the Spirit has told him that he's 02:01 going to perish in Jerusalem. He doesn't know. And verse 26 02:05 says, Therefore I testify to you... These are his parting 02:08 words to them. I testify to you this day that I am innocent of 02:12 the blood of all men, for I have not shunned to declare to you 02:16 the whole council of God. Jim, this just really grabs my 02:22 attention as a minister of the gospel. He says, I testify that 02:28 I'm innocent for or because I have not shunned. In other words 02:33 if I had played a political angle and not wanted to ruffle 02:37 feathers and held back on some things and not told the saints 02:41 there certain things, not preached certain things because 02:44 it would create opposition or people would get mad at me or 02:49 even in his case worse, he says I wouldn't be innocent. I'd be 02:52 guilty of the blood of others. So he really takes his charge 02:56 seriously and so should any minister of the gospel, so 03:01 should every Christian. If we're going to be free from the blood 03:04 of men and women, if we're going to be free from the blood of 03:08 others and the guilt of their sins, if we know the truth, we 03:12 are debtors, as Paul says in the book of Romans, to share that 03:16 truth with others. You know maybe we may feel like we 03:18 know a lot and we may feel like we know a little, but what we 03:23 know we are bound to share. So he goes on to say, Take heed 03:28 to yourselves and to the flock, verse 28, among which the Holy 03:31 Spirit has made you overseers. Now he gives that charge to them 03:35 and reminds them, you are disciples of Christ and that you 03:38 have a responsibility now. And we could speak to that for each 03:42 one of us having that responsibility in the faith. 03:47 We don't just need to minister but we ourselves have roles to 03:48 play. Of course, he's speaking to the elders of the church in 03:52 Ephesus and he says in verse 29, For I know this, that after my 03:55 departure savage wolves, not might but will, come in among 04:00 you not sparing the flock. These are people from the outside that 04:04 are going to come in and try to cause trouble in the church. 04:08 But then verse 29 says, verse 30 rather, Also from among 04:12 yourselves men will rise up. Not men might rise up, men will rise 04:16 up, speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after 04:19 themselves. Therefore, he says watch and remember that for 04:23 three years I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with 04:26 tears. You now need to warn them with tears. He says, you need to 04:29 watch. Keep a lookout not only for those who are going to come 04:32 from the outside and bring trouble but even those from the 04:35 inside that are going to come up with strange teachings and try 04:37 to lead people away from the simplicity of the gospel. 04:40 That's right. And these were not just believers, they were elders 04:42 They were overseers and he was giving them a charge of 04:44 responsibility. In verse 32 he says, So now brethren I commend 04:48 you to God and to the word of his grace which is able to build 04:52 you up and give you an inheritance among all those who 04:55 are sanctified. I have coveted no one's silver or gold or 04:58 apparel. Yes you yourselves know that these hands have provided 05:01 for my necessities and for those who were with me. I have shown 05:05 you in every way by laboring like this that you must support 05:08 the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus that he said 05:11 It is more blessed to give than to receive. What a powerful 05:15 statement. The Apostle Paul is here saying that you know... 05:18 In another place in I Corinthians he says 05:20 that as ministers he had a right as a minister to partake of the 05:25 physical necessities that he needed because he was providing 05:29 spiritual necessities to the people and yet he didn't take 05:34 those because he didn't want to run the risk of someone accusing 05:37 him of being in this for material gain. So even the 05:43 things he had a right to the Apostle Paul didn't necessarily 05:46 take. Not only did he provide for himself, he even provided 05:49 for those who were with him to set an example of unselfish 05:52 service. Powerful example, the Apostle Paul. In verse 36 it 05:56 says, And when he had said these things he knelt down and prayed 05:59 and it says they all wept and fell on his neck and kissed him 06:02 sorrowing most for the words which he spoke that they would 06:06 see his face no more. What an incredible departure but the 06:09 Apostle Paul was loved wherever he went by the church. 06:13 That's right, that's right. Well we're jumping ahead to chapter 06:16 21. I want to apologize to our viewers. Because of the size of 06:20 the book of Acts and the length of the narrative we can't be 06:23 exhaustive and there's so many things that we want to talk 06:27 about. We're going to try to hit the key points here. We just 06:30 encourage you to continue your study of the book of Acts and 06:34 drawing out these wonderful lessons here. In chapter 21 we 06:37 continue on the journey to Jerusalem. I want to key in on 06:40 verse 4. It says, And finding disciples we stayed there seven 06:44 days and they told Paul through the Spirit not to go up to 06:48 Jerusalem. No that may seem like a prohibition except for we saw 06:51 in other places we just read where he was bound in the Spirit 06:54 to go to Jerusalem. But the Spirit had warned him about what 06:58 would happen. What we see here is not a prohibition to Paul as 07:00 much, but more of a warning that he's going to befall some 07:05 difficulties there and the disciples don't want to see that 07:10 happening. Chains and tribulations. Yeah, chains and 07:12 tribulations. Now we jump on to verse 8 and he says, The next 07:15 day we who were Paul's companions departed and came to 07:18 Caesarea and entered the house of Philip the evangelist who was 07:22 one of the seven. They stayed with him. And it's interesting, 07:25 Jim, that he was one of the seven, he was one of the deacons 07:28 he was a lay person, but he was also an evangelist and I think 07:31 we need to remember. Maybe you're a deacon and often times 07:33 we think in the church of deacons as those who collect the 07:37 offering and clean up things, but we all have a responsibility 07:40 to share the gospel of Christ and I think we need to hold to 07:43 that. Now he goes on to say, Philip had four virgin daughters 07:46 who prophesied and also there was a man named Agabus who was 07:50 a prophet. We saw him in Acts chapter 11. He came down from 07:53 Jerusalem. Verse 11 says, When he had come to us, he took 07:56 Paul's belt, bound his own hands and feet and said, Thus says the 08:00 Holy Spirit, So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man who 08:04 owns this belt and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles. 08:07 Again, not a prohibition but here the Spirit is telling him 08:11 that he's going to have to suffer at Jerusalem. And so then 08:15 they pleaded with him not to go and Paul says in verse 13, What 08:18 do you mean by weeping and breaking my heart. For I am 08:21 ready not only to be bound but to die at Jerusalem for the name 08:24 of the Lord Jesus. Makes me think of Jesus when Peter came 08:27 to Jesus and he said Oh Lord you won't suffer these things and 08:31 Jesus said, Get behind me Satan, you savor the things of man not 08:34 the things of God. Paul's saying Look it's hard enough for me 08:37 already. Don't make it harder. I have a mission to accomplish 08:41 and I can't be deterred from that mission. This is what I'm 08:44 called to do. Yeah, and they finally accepted 08:48 the Apostle Paul's desire. In verse 14 it says, So when he 08:51 would not be persuaded, we ceased saying, the will of the 08:55 Lord be done. Now as we continue through beginning in verse 15, 09:00 there's a section of chapter 21 that talks about what happens 09:05 when Paul comes to Jerusalem. Paul, when he arrives, he's 09:10 received by the brethren and there he meets with James and 09:14 of course James was the one who stood and spoke up at the 09:18 Jerusalem council of Acts 15. James has heard some reports and 09:23 he feels that the Apostle Paul needs to do something to offset 09:27 these reports that have come in. Basically the heart of the 09:33 report you can see in verse 20 here. It says, And when they 09:37 heard it they glorified the Lord and they said to him, You see 09:40 brother how many myriads of Jews there are who have believed 09:44 and they are all zealous of the law but they have been informed 09:48 about you that you teach all the Jews who are among the Gentiles 09:52 to forsake Moses saying that they ought not to circumcise 09:55 their children nor to walk according to the customs. 09:58 So James is saying, People are saying, Paul, that you're 10:02 telling the Jews not to circumcise their children, not 10:05 to follow the customs and so he says what we need to do, what 10:09 I'd like to counsel you to do, and then he shares with him in 10:13 verse 23, Do what we tell you. We have four men who have taken 10:17 a vow. Take them and be purified with them and pay their expenses 10:21 So he's having him go through this purification process in the 10:25 temple at Jerusalem, hoping that all these Jews will see Paul in 10:29 the temple going through a rite that can be found in the 10:33 writings of Moses and therefore see that he really is supportive 10:37 of the writings of Moses. The problem here is that the Apostle 10:42 Paul never really did tell the Jews that they shouldn't 10:45 circumcise their children. He confirmed and affirmed the 10:49 Jerusalem decision that the Gentiles should not be required 10:53 to circumcise, but he never told the Jews who believed that they 10:57 shouldn't circumcise their children. This was a false 10:59 report. In fact, back in Acts 16 verse 3 we see where Timothy 11:03 is circumcised by the Apostle Paul. So this is clearly a false 11:08 report, and yet you almost get the sense that the leaders in 11:12 Jerusalem felt that perhaps that Paul was partly to blame 11:16 for some of the prejudice that existed and that he needed to 11:20 sort of clear up matters. Rather than defending the Apostle Paul, 11:25 and simply telling these people no that's a false report and 11:29 enumerating why, he instead counsels Paul to try to fix the 11:33 matter by appeasing those false reports and I just can't help 11:37 but think that sometimes we do the same thing. We try to 11:42 accommodate something and try to prove something that really 11:46 there was never any support for or factual evidence for in the 11:50 first place. You know sometimes as a minister I've had false 11:54 reports spoken about me and I know that I'll talk to a member 11:58 and they'll share with me, Oh so and so said this about you 12:02 Pastor. I didn't believe it but... 12:05 I didn't believe it, that's right but you wonder why they 12:09 didn't speak up when that happened and explain. And James 12:12 seems to have not or the leaders in Jerusalem, instead of 12:16 defending Paul and settling it that was, they want Paul to do 12:19 something so that they do not have to put their reputation on 12:23 the line and be associated with these problems. Instead they 12:25 wanted Paul to do this and because of that I think their 12:31 counsel becomes marred. So the problem here is that we have 12:37 these leaders in Jerusalem giving Paul an option here 12:41 to try to fix matters but when we get to verse 26 and the rest 12:45 of the chapter we find that it doesn't turn out the way that 12:49 they had hoped. Unfortunately however, we don't have time to 12:52 go into that particular matter. Next time, we're going to study 12:57 in depth how the response of the Jews when Paul came into the 13:01 temple proved that this counsel was really not the best. 13:05 So until next time, God bless you and we'll look forward to 13:09 seeing you on Books of the Book. |
Revised 2014-12-17