Acts 21:1-14 (CLICK HERE FOR BIBLE VERSES)
Hi GAMErs,
Today’s passage is Acts 21:1-14. As usual, I encourage you to read the passage yourself first and see what you can glean with the Holy Spirit’s help, then read the GAME sharing below. Let’s go!
Acts 21:1-6 (NIV)
1 After we had torn ourselves away from them, we put out to sea and sailed straight to Cos. The next day we went to Rhodes and from there to Patara.
2 We found a ship crossing over to Phoenicia, went on board and set sail.
3 After sighting Cyprus and passing to the south of it, we sailed on to Syria. We landed at Tyre, where our ship was to unload its cargo.
4 Finding the disciples there, we stayed with them seven days. Through the Spirit they urged Paul not to go on to Jerusalem.
5 But when our time was up, we left and continued on our way. All the disciples and their wives and children accompanied us out of the city, and there on the beach we knelt to pray.
6 After saying good-by to each other, we went aboard the ship, and they returned home.
On verses 1-6: Paul believed that the Holy Spirit was leading him to go to Jerusalem (see Acts 20:22). Yet in verse 4 we read that “[t]hrough the Spirit” Christians in Tyre “urged Paul not to go to Jerusalem”. Was the Holy Spirit giving contradictory directions? I don’t think so. God is not double-minded, so I think the best way to understand verse 4 is that the Holy Spirit had moved Paul’s heart to go to Jerusalem and at the same time impressed it upon the Christians in Tyre to warn Paul that great hardship lay ahead of him if he were to go. In light of this oncoming hardship, the natural reaction of these Christians in Tyre who loved Paul was to urge Paul not to go. But Paul, still believing God was leading him to Jerusalem, continues on his way there (v5).
What can we learn from this? We need to be careful to distinguish what we want from what we think God wants. Sometimes it’s tough to tell. If you’re not sure, it helps to do the following:
- Measure up what you want (or what you think God wants) with what God says in the Bible. Is it consistent with God’s directions for our lives as stated in Scripture? God will never tell you to do something that contradicts His already written Word.
- Get good advice from people whom you know and whose judgment you respect.
- Here’s something I’ll do when I’m weighing two options and I’m not sure which one God wants me to take: I’ll surrender both options to God and say to God, “God, whichever direction You say is best, I’m willing to go in.” Then, after surrendering both options to God, ask God again, and as I listen for His direction, the option that comes with the most peace could very well be the one that God wants me to go in. If I don’t have peace about either option, it could be that there’s a third option to consider or a different way of looking at the situation.
Sometimes because we feel so strongly about something, or we have a very strong personal bias, we can let our feelings and our bias get in the way of God’s leading. That’s why it’s important not to rely on feelings alone when making important decisions.
Acts 21:7-9 (NIV)
7 We continued our voyage from Tyre and landed at Ptolemais, where we greeted the brothers and stayed with them for a day.
8 Leaving the next day, we reached Caesarea and stayed at the house of Philip the evangelist, one of the Seven.
9 He had four unmarried daughters who prophesied.
On verses 7-9: The same Philip who did great miracles in Samaria (Acts 8:6-7) and who helped the Ethiopian eunuch find faith in Jesus (Acts 8:26-40) is now living in Caesarea raising 4 daughters who, like their dad, all exercise the gift of prophecy. Praise God! Like Philip, I pray that the next generation that you raise would love God and serve Him powerfully. For the church was never meant to be a one generation wonder, but a force to be reckoned with from generation to generation.
Acts 21:10-14 (NIV)
10 After we had been there a number of days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea.
11 Coming over to us, he took Paul’s belt, tied his own hands and feet with it and said, “The Holy Spirit says, ‘In this way the Jews of Jerusalem will bind the owner of this belt and will hand him over to the Gentiles.'”
12 When we heard this, we and the people there pleaded with Paul not to go up to Jerusalem.
13 Then Paul answered, “Why are you weeping and breaking my heart? I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.”
14 When he would not be dissuaded, we gave up and said, “The Lord’s will be done.”
On verses 10-14: Speaking of prophetic, Paul is reunited with Agabus, who earlier prophetically foretold the famine that would hit the region (see Acts 11:27-28). Now Agabus prophetically acts out what would happen to Paul when he went to Jerusalem. Upon seeing this, people who love Paul urge Paul not to proceed to Jerusalem, but Paul would not be dissuaded.
Some people call this moment “Paul’s Gethsemane”, comparing this moment to when Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane and struggled about going to the cross before finally doing so. I’m not so sure that Paul struggled that much with the decision at this moment. It seems that he had made the decision a while ago in his heart that this is what he was going to do. If anyone, it was the people around Paul that struggled with his decision and had to surrender the situation to God. It was more the people’s Gethsemane than Paul’s.
What can we learn from this?
First, there may be times when people who genuinely love you will try to dissuade you from going in a direction that God wants you to go in. They do this out of love, simply because they don’t want to see you get hurt. Paul had wrestled with this decision internally for a while and thus he was able to distinguish his friends’ sentiments of not wanting to see him get hurt from the call of the Holy Spirit to go to Jerusalem. Similarly, sometimes you need to distinguish people’s sentimentality (and even your own feelings), especially when such sentimentality and feelings are leading you in a direction that is opposite of where you believe God has already called you to go.
Second, sometimes the way God wants us to go is not the easy way but the hard way. That’s not because God loves hardship. It’s because certain things, in fact the best and most valuable things, don’t come without hardship. That goes for the birth of every child. That goes for the achievement of any goal worth working toward. That goes for the closest relationships and the best marriages. That goes for our forgiveness and salvation, which Jesus suffered greatly to give us. Praise God. The greatest things are worth fighting for, even dying for.
Holy Spirit, please give me the wisdom to discern what is best. May I not make important decisions simply out of emotion or bias, but with Your wisdom and Your perspective. In Jesus’ name, AMEN!
Copyright © 2022 Justin Lim. All rights reserved.
