Well, I invite you this morning to turn in the scriptures to Acts chapter 21. Acts chapter 21, if you're a visitor this morning, we're working through this book and we're in chapter 21. You'll find that in those Bibles that are in front of you or below you on page 1183. 1183. And we'll consider together the first 16 verses. Okay, Acts 21, beginning at verse 1. This is the word of the Lord. And when we had parted from them and set sail, we came by straight course to Kos, and the next day to Rhodes, and from there to Petara. And having found a ship crossing to Phoenicia, we went aboard and set sail. When we had come in sight 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. On the next day we departed and came to Caesarea and 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 while we were staying for many days a prophet named agabus came down from judea and 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 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. And there is the reading of God's Word. Well, what can we get out of studying some travels of somebody? You know, is there really something that's helpful in this? Why did the Holy Spirit inspire this particular section of Scripture? It's actually a remarkably helpful section of Scripture, as I hope to show you this morning. Because our greatest fears as the church today and in our time is a question about the future. What is the future? What does it hold for us? Where are we going? What are we doing? And I said something last week that I sort of recoiled afterwards saying, I just feel I don't want to be a doomsdayer. when I said, your persecution's coming. I don't think anyone disagrees anymore. I think people look at the culture and they see things are happening. But you stand back from that and you feel weird saying it because we've never known it. Sure, we could say it in third world countries that they have faced these things, but in the U.S., are you kidding? We've not known persecution. And here when you say that, you just feel sort of radical. And then you're reminded of Jesus' great words that if they persecuted me, they will persecute you. Expect it. It's coming. When we're unwilling to hear that, what it essentially does for us is it puts us in sort of retreat mode. In fact, I think Christians by and large today in the United States are asleep. And they are unaware of what is about to hit them. And this is something that we have to think a lot about because it is precisely fear that holds us back and it is fear that keeps us from moving forward. And I believe that's the issue in front of us here this morning in Acts chapter 21. It's the issue of fear in life. It's the issue of who's in control of things and where we're going and what we're doing. These early Christians were sincerely struggling in the culture that they lived, in the opposition that they were facing for the gospel, in all of the things that they were going through, they were sincerely struggling about how to discern the will of God for the future in this mess. That's it. And then you stand back and you say, well, you know, when we say from up here that we look a lot like the first century, we're not joking. Our times more and more look just like the times of these Christians, these early Christians in Acts. It's remarkable how much the times are when you compare what's going on, how similar they're becoming, our time to theirs. But this particular passage is so helpful because it's helping us discern the will of God. Who can know the will of God? Can we know the will of God? It's helping us to do that, to discern the will of God when everything about the future is scary, when everything about the future is dark, when everything about the future is uncertain. And for many of us, that looks like our lives, doesn't it? Especially the younger you are, not knowing where you're going, what's in front of you, what's coming. It's hard to process all of that and know, is there even a path for me? Those things are all here in this particular passage. But I want to set that against the backdrop here and the problem of when we're thinking about these things retreat. This is what we do. When too much is in front of us, it's just easy not to get up. You know that in life. You know that it's not easy to move forward. It's easy to just stay in bed, to not deal with anything. And this helps us here in light of what the church went through here to determine what we're doing and asking if we have right motivations. And that is shown to us here as we see Paul and these early Christians attempting to discern how God is leading them for the future in the dark times in which they lived. And I think as you look at this particular passage, you'll see this as here, you'll notice three sort of emphases that they were using to determine this. They were praying for God's will. They were working hard to discern God's will. And they went forward in that will. And that's the way we'll look at this particular section this morning. So first, the praying for God's will. What we have at the beginning of chapter 21 is a somewhat detailed description of Paul's travels, rapid travels on his way to Jerusalem. You'll notice there in verse 1, and when we had parted from them, we set sail. We came by straight course to Kos, and the next day to Rhodes, and from there to Patara. Having found a ship crossing Phoenicia, we went aboard and set sail. When we had come into the side 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. You have a few different ship accounts here of the apostle. One changing ships here and going on about a 400-mile trip to Phoenicia, to Syria. But I want to back up for a little bit here and consider what has happened. Paul is, I think Luke has really set this up. Paul has been saying certain things along the way about what his future held. When he was talking to the Ephesian elders, when he was saying before to many of the disciples, remember what he said to them, after these events, Paul resolved in the spirit to pass through Macedonia and Achaia and go to Jerusalem saying, after I've been there, I must also see rome and now behold i am going to jerusalem constrained notice this by the spirit not knowing what will happen to me there except that the holy spirit spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me it's an interesting moment as you study the the desire of the apostle to fulfill the mission that jesus had given him that he was saying to them the holy spirit has testified to me that afflictions and chains await me and i have by the spirit determined to go to jerusalem i think we think of the apostles here uh and we think of the way that the lord guided them that the holy spirit just handed them a map and said here you go go from here to here, here to here, and it was all so clear for them. And the reality is it wasn't. The reality is even in the apostolic life, they had to really struggle with what the will of God was for them. They had to really wrestle with where they were supposed to be, what they were supposed to do. That's surprising to us because we just think they snapped their fingers and they had a miracle at their hands it wasn't like that it's much more normal than we realize it really is this is life here's the problem here's the problem i want to focus on uh this morning that i i found really um fascinating in this particular text is that paul comes here to tire and what do we read in in in the section here next when he lands in tire that what are they saying to him verse four 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 see the problem paul says by the spirit i had determined to go to jerusalem all the disciples all of his friends by the spirit through the spirit are saying don't go to jerusalem now to me that seems like a problem don't you think what's the answer on one hand he has resolved by the holy spirit to go all these these disciples are saying not to and i think that luke uh one in future generations to read this particular passage and really wrestle with this and think about what in the world is this and what is the message to us since we have now as essentially what seems to be a contradiction how many over ambitious pastors have you known in your life they have something in their head and they're going to go do it and they have their plans and they have their ideas and elders need to kind of come around them and put the kibosh on it all well i don't really have to ask how many pastors you know i'm talking about you all of you this is what we do all the time we have our plans and we have resolved in our hearts what we're going to do and we're going to go do it and what happens when somebody comes alongside us and says you shouldn't do it and what happens when both parties believe that this is of the lord this is kind of the situation that we're in here the question is how are we to look at the apostle paul should we admire him and think this is just what everyone should aspire to be every pastor or is paul just doing it his own way. We'll come back to that in a moment. But I really think you have to get into the mind of both. And that's what's so important here. Consider it from the perspective of these early Christians. This is their planting pastor. He has been God's instrument to bring the light of the gospel to them. This has been a remarkable figure in their life. All of you who have had this bond of a pastor who has served you well and who has ministered to you well, and you can say that you are the fruit of their labor, that you were saved under that ministry, you have a bond there that is very special. You all know this. I can testify to this in the course of my own life. A pastor by the name of Andy Preston, I was undoubtedly converted under that man's ministry at 21. And I look at him in a special way. He's a special man to me. The problem was, is that everywhere that Paul went, he caused problems. Everywhere he went, there was a riot. There could have been a revival, but there was either a riot, imprisonment, beatings. Paul would make us really uncomfortable today. You'll remember back in the Ephesians, in Ephesus, when they had the big riot over the gospel overtaking the culture in Ephesus. And they had the big riot in the theater. And remember what happened? Paul wanted to go and all of them held him back. They would not let him go. They wouldn't do it. He would have been killed immediately. Well, here he has gone, caused nothing but problems in a sense at least from an outward human view to the culture he has in his preaching hurt their economy he has in his preaching torn down all their idols imagine if he were preaching on super bowl sunday man that would have been awesome to hear by the way do you know what the jews are going to do to him if he goes to jerusalem the mother church the mother area of israel he's dead for sure you imagine the devastation for these early christians thinking of the thought of losing their pastor prematurely i emphasize that prematurely how many of us have had people in our lives who have been a blessing to us and then all of a sudden just like that they're gone and you stand back you say this is this this makes no sense why would god take somebody like that who is such a blessing to us it's all premature the whole sense is that if the person had remained what a blessing they would have been for a long time to us. If you could have prevented somebody's death like that, would you not have? Of course. If you've ever looked at someone's life and you say this, if they make the particular choice that they're making and you love this person, it's going to have serious consequences. A loving response will say, don't do it. don't do it. It's interesting here that it was a wise resolution by the Spirit on these people's part. Meaning, they took all the data they had, they took all that they knew, they're giving the most well-intentioned response to their pastor, don't go. You are not to go. You are not to go do this. We know what the consequences will be. You're done. You're done. But then there's Paul. But my mission is the gospel is to go to the ends of the earth. The gospel is to go out to the ends of the earth. That is my mission. I'm convinced by the spirit of what I'm supposed to do. I'm moving on it. So essentially what you have presented to you in this first section of Acts 21 is an impasse. In other words, you have a full stop. Two groups, two Christians here at Loggerheads and they have no idea. what are we supposed to do and one of them seems absolutely determined and nothing's going to stop him if this is happening they're thinking train wreck paul is saying this is where i'm supposed to go by the spirit how many um believers have had this struggle of what to do and then when there's disagreements of the direction and course that somebody is going all of a sudden those disagreements leads to fights those disagreements lead to separation those degree disagreements lead to anger bitterness everything all that follows and there's a break i should say here that there certainly in this life are bad decisions when we're outside the will of god and we're trying to solve our problems ourselves you we can make bad decisions this is exactly what james is warning us not to do listen you who say today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city spend a year there carry on a business and make money why you don't even know what will happen tomorrow what is your life you are a mist that appears for a little while and vanishes instead you ought to say if it is the lord's will notice that comes up in this passage if it is the lord's will we will live and do this or that as it is you boast in your arrogant schemes all such boasting is evil if anyone then conclusion knows the good they ought to do listen to this if anyone knows the good they ought to do and doesn't do it it's sin that's very cut and dry it's sin we can't play games with god if you know the good that you're supposed to do and you don't do it it's sin so here's the impasse who's right who's wrong in this case here's the first thing shown to us here which i love the passage helps so much in these moments uh for how to go forward notice what happens here that's beautiful verse five when our days there were ended we departed and went on a 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 it's a beautiful thing that just happened here's the imagery you can imagine these terrified believers with paul in their hearts we'll never see him again we're never going to see him again this had just happened they wept together with the ephesian elders remember paul with with tears they hugged each other and embraced notice the beautiful thing that happens here they all together knelt down on the beach and prayed i'm not going to get sappy and mystical about beaches but there's something really wonderful about a beach isn't there you go out to a beach and you look out and you see the vastness of the ocean you looking at you there's something you realize that is much bigger than you there's a mystery to all out there that is unknown and what is coming your way and where paul is headed but then you realize there's somebody who made that beach and that water there's somebody who is in control of all of it they knelt down and they prayed together what an imagery what a beautiful thing that's not what we do when we're in conflict about direction and future we fight they prayed there's something about that isn't there about giving it all to the lord this is exactly what peter said we should do together giving these things to Him, casting the burdens on Him because He's promised that He cares for us. He'll carry it. He'll take it. So this is what they do. They pray. And in discouragement with other believers over the course of actions, of direction we should go, when we all have our convictions, this is the first thing always to do. This is the first step always to take. Can you hear it? Oh Lord our God, We do not know the future. But you're in control of all. Our plans are often not yours. Though the lot is cast into the lap, every decision comes from you. Our beloved pastor desires to leave. We don't agree he should go to Jerusalem. We know what awaits him there. Would you make your will clear to us? If it is not your will for him to go close the door, but in everything, not our will, but your will be done. This is the whole focus of the passage. there's something beautiful about this that people can make all sorts of decisions in life that are right and that are wrong and whatever issue you decide in whatever course we go down the greatest relief is to go to our Lord in prayer you're no longer carrying it there have been more than a few times when I have received advice and been stubborn or I have given advice and they have been stubborn, but to give it all to the Lord and realize, Lord, you're in control of it all. Let nothing happen outside of your will is the best place to be. I have seen the Lord close down people's plans quicker than anything. He has closed doors faster than anything. But that's the first sort of application here. It still hasn't helped us to discern God's will. This is where the passage is absolutely fascinating. I want you to see what happens next here, that Paul goes on and we read that afterward he stayed at Ptolemaeus and came to Caesarea and arrived at Philip's house, one of the deacons. You remember Philip from earlier in Acts. And he had four unmarried daughters who prophesied. And remember, the gifts of prophecy at this point had not ceased, 1 Corinthians 14. Paul made that clear that they would. But you'll notice here that they came and then this prophet agabus came down from judea and if anyone knows um how this is going to go it's somebody from jerusalem if paul goes up to jerusalem somebody a prophet like agabus is going to be able to speak well of exactly what is going to happen to paul and that's what agabus does he took paul's belt verse 11 bound his feet and said thus says the holy spirit this is how the jews at jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him into the hand of the gentiles what would you do seems like paul's being pressed here a little bit doesn't he he gives a prophecy he really takes paul's belt and binds him up this is old testament style. Verse 12 is fascinating. When we heard this, we and all the people urged him not to go up to Jerusalem. Well, yeah. This just made every matter worse under the sun, didn't it? This just made the whole thing a big problem now. Here's the circumstance. You have had prophetic words spoken by the Spirit now that says if you go you will be persecuted you will be imprisoned the disciples entire said don't go the prophets have now spoken this is what's going to happen to you the disciples in Caesarea say don't go and Paul has said I'm going now here's the problem we know Paul is is going to say and they're all going to say not our will but your will be done but every conclusion by every wise man was don't go to Jerusalem it's such a fascinating moment because we know what Paul's going to do. Paul's going to go to Jerusalem. And Paul is going to die later on. Was Paul disobedient to the will of God? There's always wisdom in the plurality of elders, isn't there? There are spiritual leaders and people that the Lord puts in our lives to direct us. I hope I've made the dilemma clear here. If I've done that so far, then I've accomplished what I want to accomplish. That this is a major dilemma that the text is presented because I don't know how many times in my life that I've witnessed people train wreck their lives by making bad decisions. What's worse is, we know Paul, because of this decision, is leading himself to a certain death. What are we learning here? That's what Acts 21 is challenging and pressing us with. What are we learning here? Well, of course, in every way, pastors should submit to their elders. No one denies that. This was an apostle directly appointed by Jesus. But we're being shown something here that I believe was always intended to challenge the church in the future and to help those Christians then. How so? none of the prophecies said he shouldn't go. Not one. All the prophecies said was, this is what will happen to you. You will suffer. You will be imprisoned. You will be beaten. The disciples in Tyre, by the Spirit, look at it and realize that he would face these sufferings. understanding by the Spirit that he would face these sufferings and drew the conclusion he shouldn't go. But just because he might suffer and die did not mean he should not go. This is the point of the passage. What I'm trying to show you is, by the Spirit, they were right that he would suffer and die. But they were not right that it was not God's will for him to go. Answer? He went. He went. They prayed, not our wills, but your will be done. What this is showing us is that we can have a clear understanding of what the consequences will be if we make certain decisions and a choice is made. Often we can see that if this is done, there will be serious consequences for the choices that we make. The question is whether those consequences and whether those ramifications, whether those things are in the plan of God. What did Jesus say to Paul right from the minute he struck him down and blinded him? What did he tell Ananias? I'm going to show him how many things he must suffer for my namesake. This was the plan. It was God's will for Paul to suffer and to die for the cause of the cross and the gospel. And what is it that ultimately holds us back right now in life and in everything? If you're looking at things outwardly, if we're in fear of losing things, the fear that this terrible thing might happen, fear of persecution, fear of this, fear of that, what we're learning in Acts is that the way that the gospel, we're seeing this over and over, the way that the gospel spread was through, here it is, the willingness of these men to die for it. That's how the gospel spread. That's how you have it today. The way the gospel spread was actually through persecution. oftentimes what hurts the church the most in our day is that we are in absolute retreat mode and we're scared in this culture. Drawing all of our conclusions and basing them on what we think the outcome is going to be. And it's this kind of servant mentality that is being shown to us today. Paul counted all things as loss for Christ. Can I go there one more time? Remember what I said last week? Have you ever thought about what he lost? Status? Name? Inheritance? He was a giant among the Pharisees. The most brilliant of the Pharisees. He lost all that acclaim for Christ. He lost all the greatness of a name. he became absolutely nothing for him. This is the kind of sacrifice that we see in the early church by these men. Paul was not Jonah running from Nineveh, was he? He was just like Jesus. And you know how he looked like Jesus? He didn't run from opposition. He didn't run from problems. He didn't run away in retreat mode. You know what he did? He went right into it. That's the Savior. That's what our Savior did. He walked right into the cross. He went right to Jerusalem. There's a parallel here. He went right there for you. Imagine if He would have retreated. Imagine if He would have walked away. You wouldn't be here. But He did it to lay down His life to save you. And this is the commitment that we see from these men that the church needed to understand and the church needs to appreciate of why we're in the world. Jesus never promised us a great retirement, a great home, to sit around and have a nice life. Never promised it. And if we're pursuing it, we're not looking like Jesus. What did He promise us? That we're going to look like Him. Through much tribulation, we, you, enter the kingdom. It is His will that we suffer for righteousness' sake. It is His will that we do what is right. We need that kind of confidence in the church today. That's what I want to say. That's the message here. The people who threaten our liberties right now, the religions that want to destroy us, the things that we see coming down our path, we need to believe His will is being done and not live in fear of what this culture might do to us, what the government might do to us. This is all in the plan that the gospel might have a platform. You're going to see that through this persecution, Paul is put in front of princes. He's going to testify in ways that would have never happened. We need this kind of apostolic zeal today to be bold with the Gospel and realize that Jesus is the King of His church and that Jesus is on the throne for it was His very path for us to go and to come down here and to walk right into the persecution. The best passage for this is John 18. When Jesus has crossed over the brook Kidron and there are His disciples standing right next to Him. And here comes the Roman cohorts of soldiers with their bats and their batons. And He says to them, Whom are you seeking? And they say, Jesus of Nazareth. And what does He say? I am. And all of them fly on their backsides. They get up. Jesus asks, who are you seeking? I told you I am he. And there's a beautiful statement there in John 18 that at that moment a great exchange occurred that Jesus himself stepped into the judgment for you and he said, release them. This is essentially the kind of thing that the Lord is having his church follow, a pattern of suffering and then glory. When we make the prayer, When we say the prayer, not my will, but your will be done, you know what we're asking? We're asking that we'll follow Him where He wants us to go without fear. We too in our lives have to look forward in confidence that God's plan is being worked out, no matter how dark the moment and how dark the path is in front of us. And this encourages us this morning to go forward in His will and to be aware of wrong fear that holds back the church, that holds back us. Wrong fear is what brings us into retreat. That kind of fear never speaks to our neighbors because we're afraid of what they think. That kind of fear holds us back in this life and tucks us away in our cubicles. But it's not what the Lord is calling us to. The point of the passage is to be a huge encouragement to the church today. It really is. Suffering in this life is the way that Jesus has for us. No false teacher ever says that because they want to tell you that God has your best plan for your life now. We say it's not now. We say it's in glory. But for now, you're going to look like Jesus. Not to pay for anyone's sins, but to show Him, to demonstrate Him, to preach Him. We're not here in our lives for peace at all costs. Our decisions are not driven by our comforts. We go forward realizing that through the hardships, it's through the trials, it's through the messiness of it all that God proves and shows His power and His wisdom. God shows how the gospel prevails in the darkness. Here, it's so important to say that a bunch of scared, retreating Christians holding on to the world will never make any difference in this life. This is the encouragement. God is indeed in control. The details of your life are in his plan. The paths that you are supposed to go, he has marked out for you. He is guiding and he is fulfilling his will and he's working through the messiness of it all, taking us into the crucible often that his power might be shown. Isn't that what Paul says in verse 13? To close here. 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, what? Let the will of the Lord be done. Let the will of the Lord be done. After these days, we got ready and we went up to Jerusalem. So that's where they went. This is what happened. And it leaves us today with a great motivation in what we do. May God give us the grace to mean what we pray when we say to him, not our wills, but your will be done. And maybe I could just close with that this morning. Think about in the Heidelberg, in the last section there, when we're talking about prayer and what we're supposed to say, this is what it says on page if you want to follow it's 895 i'll just read it what does the third petition mean of the lord's prayer your will be done on earth as it is in heaven means help us and all people to renounce our own wills and without any backtalk to obey your will for it alone is good help everyone carry out his office and calling as willingly and faithfully as the angels in heaven. And this passage shows us that that's exactly what happened in the early church and today the gospel has been brought to you. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for teaching us all the more about your powerful will being accomplished through the messiness often of life. But may it be when we pray and seek your will that we would understand what we are indeed asking. for oftentimes when we're praying your will be done on earth as it is in heaven we're definitely trying to exalt our wills over yours and every time that will seeks to create the easy way out but we're not being honest with you give us lord the boldness and the strength and the confidence that your will alone is good that you are directing all of life and that you have a perfect plan no matter how dark the circumstances are before us. Give us a boldness for we need this kind of apostolic zeal in our day to be confident with the gospel and to realize that to the ends of the earth you are accomplishing your will and that to this day you've proved it. Thank you, O Lord, for instructing us this way. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.