Acts 21, Going the Hard Way

Covenant Reformed Baptist Church

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All right Acts chapter 21 be reading from verses 1 to 36 hear the word of the

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Lord and when he had parted from them and set sail we came by a straight course to Kos and The next day to Rhodes and from there to Potara 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

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We sailed to Syria and landed in Tyre For there the ship was to unload its cargo and having sought out the disciples

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We stayed there for seven days and through the spirit. They were telling Paul not to go on to Jerusalem When our days there were ended we departed and went on our journey and they all with wives and children

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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

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When we had finished the voyage from Tyre We arrived at Potomac and we greeted the brothers and stayed with them for one day on the next day

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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?

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He had four unmarried daughters who prophesied while we were staying there for many days a prophet named

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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

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Holy Spirit This is how the Jews of Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him into the hands of the

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Gentiles When we had heard this we and the people there urged him not to go on 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

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Lord Jesus and Since he would not be persuaded we ceased and said let the will of the

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Lord be done After these days we got ready and went up up to Jerusalem and some of the disciples from Caesarea went with us

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Bringing us to the house of Manasseh and of Cyprus an early disciple with whom we should lodge

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When we had come to Jerusalem the brothers received us gladly on the following day Paul went in with us to James and all the disciples were present after greeting them

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He related one by one the things that God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry and when they heard it

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They glorified God and they said to him you see brothers How many thousands there are among the

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Jews of those who have believed? They are all zealous for the law and they have been told about you that you teach all the

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Jews who are among the Gentiles To forsake Moses telling them not to circumcise their children or walk according to our customs

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What then is to be done they will certainly hear that you have come do therefore what we tell you

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We have four men who are under a vow Take these men and purify yourselves along with them and and pay their expenses so that they may shave their heads

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Thus all will know that there is nothing in what they have been told about you But that you yourself also live in observance of the law

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But as for the Gentiles who have believed We have sent a letter with our judgment that they should abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols and from blood and for what

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Has been strangled and from sexual immorality then Paul took the men and The next day he purified himself along with them and went into the temple giving notice

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When the days of purification will be fulfilled and the offering presented for each one of them

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When the seven days were almost completed the Jews from Asia seeing him in the temple Stirred up the whole crowd and laid hands on him crying out men of Israel help

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This is the man who was teaching everyone everywhere against the people in the law in this place

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Moreover, he even brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled this holy place For they had previously seen trophimus the

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Ephesian with him in the city and they supposed that Paul had brought him into the temple Then all the city was stirred up and the people ran together

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They seized Paul and dragged him out of the temple and at once the gates were shut and as they were seeking to kill him

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Word came to the Tribune in the cohort that all Jerusalem was in confusion He had once took soldiers and centurions and ran down to them

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And when they saw the Tribune and the soldiers they stopped eating Paul Then the Tribune came up and arrested him and ordered him to be bound with two chains.

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He inquired Who he was and what he had done? Some of the crowd were shouting one thing some another and as he could not learn the facts because of the uproar

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He ordered him to be brought into the barracks and when he came to the steps He was actually carried by the soldiers because of the violence of the crowd for the mob of the people followed crying out away with him

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May the Lord add his blessings to the reading of his Holy Word We'll ever find out that you've been doing something the hard way

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Unnecessarily, maybe there's an easier way Instead of scouring you can clean the inside of your microwave

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They say by boiling a mixture of water and white vinegar in it and then let it cool and then open it up and just Wipe it clean for finding a stud in a wall instead of you know

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Knocking and hope you hearing right or maybe anyone is paying money to get extra some kind of special equipment

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You can use magnets they say like from your just right on your fridge to open plastic packaging, you know

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There's tough plastic packages particular stuff you get in the mail instead of using a knife and come maybe in danger of cutting yourself

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They say you can use a can opener Of course Some people say that there's a benefit from doing things the hard way

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When I was training cross -country and track a coach told us to take the hard way take the stairs instead of an elevator

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Walk somewhere instead of get a ride use everything You can is a training opportunity if instead of using a

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GPS you follow directions You'll turn left here turn right you'll learn the route better and you'll be able to do it by memory.

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I Guess but you know, I don't see the value of doing things the hard way when the easy way is just as good

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I'll just follow the GPS. Thank you very much. And then I'll follow it next time Early on when we were working on this building lamb from Houston He brought his four sons all back college a time that the younger ones were in high school

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I don't know. Anyway, he had him install a ceiling in that upstairs room He insisted they do it by hand, you know, they drive the screws with screwdrivers instead of a drill now

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I didn't see the use of that and so I didn't want to I didn't want to you know Tell him stop fussing on him right in front of his son

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So I asked him to go with me into Danville so that we could leave the guys to do the work as they thought best

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There's nothing wrong. You know, there's nothing really wrong with doing things the easy way when it's just as good

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But sometimes we're too adverse to suffering to going the hard way And so we'll go the easy way to what we think is the same goal the same result

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But really we get nowhere Ads promise us you ever seen these ads promise you an online job

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You can do at home on your own schedule and the big money will just come rolling in I Don't know what the scam is

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But I'm sure there's a scam in there somewhere Okay I don't buy it for a second the lottery promises instant wealth just for the small sacrifice of buying a ticket it draws us

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With the allure of easy riches, of course, what it does is easily make the lottery owners

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These days the government rich I know someone who said that he bought a lottery ticket every day on the way to work for 25 years probably hoping every day, you know to win and he wouldn't have to go to work anymore

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I did the math and calculated that he could have a $1 per ticket for 25 years five days a week that he could have saved $7 ,500 you could get a good used car for that Some online schools, especially in the theology field offer an easy an easy way to to a degree

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Unaccredited of course for just a check maybe some light work send them some kind of paper you threw together You'll get a diploma of whatever kind you order

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You can get an ordination even easier. You know, you need a paper for that Just just a check you can't do that now for law or for medicine

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You can't become a lawyer or a doctor just by ordering a phony certificate from some diploma mill because the government requires

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Academic and peer -reviewed standards and whatever the the bar or board exams or residency you have to go

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The hard way to do that now because of our First Amendment in this country The government doesn't get involved in regulating the ministry, which is a good thing

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I don't want them involved in regulating the ministry But the result of that is that we're left up to what people are voluntarily willing to submit to To become say a pastor or a minister.

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The result is that we that there are there are some a minority I hope I think but still some

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Who who think being qualified for the ministry ordination is just a matter of having a feeling and maybe some diploma mill generated?

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certificate Maybe not even that Why spend several years? I guess this is a way of thinking

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Why spend several years of your life studying Hebrew and Greek and reading stacks of books on theology and church history?

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When you can buy a certificate declaring you you a doctor or a reverend, you know

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You can get it within a week. We had someone like that visit us about two years ago I think visit us for Sunday school.

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He could hardly put together. He could hardly put together a grammatically correct sentence I was about to apologize for sounding so condescending and but I thought no,

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I'm not apologizing for that He could hardly put together a grammatically correct sentence and yet he had he because he bought a doctorate

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He now insists on being called doctor he didn't stay for the main service Maybe because I didn't call him doctor.

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I don't know. Maybe that's it but since I don't have to regularly deal with him I could regard people like him as a joke and I think making fun of Such people is the best approach

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But what is tragic here are men like him who are supposed to be telling people along with the whole

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Council of God That they will often have to go the hard way

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Who themselves? haven't Sometimes we have to go the hard way

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That's hard for us because we instinctively like to minimize suffering. What's the easiest way that I can get what

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I want? That's the question that comes naturally to us and that's not necessarily wrong if you have a choice and the easy way is just as good if the drill drive screws just as well as a screwdriver if the lawnmower is easier than a swing blade if Flying is easier than driving if ordering out is easier than cooking then it's okay to take the easy way

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But sometimes you don't have a choice Sometimes the only way is the hard way and here we see

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Paul Take the hard way we see that here in three parts And I'll make it very easy for you to remember

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First apprehension second apprehension and third apprehension first apprehension

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Paul's friends his companions are experiencing a lot of Apprehension they have a sense of foreboding of dangers and misgivings

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About where they're going particular where Paul's going they assume that that means that they should change their plans And that's the way we naturally think if the way we're going is going to be hard.

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Let's go another way Paul had already said in that chapter 20 verse 22 that he is constrained in or by the

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Spirit He's compelled by the Holy Spirit to go to Jerusalem Even though he knows he says in chapter 20 verse 23 that imprisonment and inflictions

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Await me He knows that The Holy Spirit is testifying this to him in every city.

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He says now here in chapter 21 We see how the Holy Spirit was doing that how the

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Holy Spirit was telling him that imprisonment and afflictions await him The Holy Spirit was putting that into the heart of Paul's friends as he was on this farewell tour

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Every one of these cities it goes in he sees the church and someone there would tell him, you know You there's trouble ahead.

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You shouldn't go to Jerusalem. Watch out They parted from the Ephesian elders at Miletus on the western

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Coast of our current -day Turkey and set sail toward toward Israel So they're sailing east around some islands mentioned some islands in the

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Mediterranean They finally land in Tyre which is in current -day Lebanon just north of Israel and there at Tyre that the disciples they called again

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This is what Christians are usually called in Acts disciples. They were telling Paul not to go to Jerusalem It says through the

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Spirit that is I think the Holy Spirit told them As Paul had told the

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Ephesian elders Holy Spirit told them that you're going toward arrest you're gonna be arrested there

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You're going toward hardship He's going the hard way and they assumed that that meant that he shouldn't go that way

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We naturally assume that the Lord is going to warn us that the way we're going is going into suffering

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That that means well, we go another way if they were assuming that all the way back in the early church

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Now let's avoid this suffering because But you know before And art like in our day before someone had written that being a

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Christian is all about getting our best life now How much more do we assume it today? Well, they spent a week there entire with those disciples and and when it was time to go in verse 5 and 6 they they

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Escorted him out of the city with their entire family in tow, you know, the wives and the children are all there another one of those heart -wrenching

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Pathetic Departures like we looked at last week when their friends from Tyre had gone as far as they could

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Another slow walk to remember to another ship. They knelt on the beach and prayed together. I said farewell

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They'll never see him again as Paul and his entourage got on the boat sailing toward sailing south toward place called

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Potomac Where they met the church there and then they went on to Caesarea and their Caesarea They stayed with Philip the evangelist and the deacon

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He had brought the gospel originally to the Samaritans and then to the Ethiopian eunuch and he settled down in Caesarea on the coast by now he has four

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Daughters who were old enough apparently old enough to be married, but they are not married yet They prophesied probably telling

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Paul what all the other Christians along the way were telling him You're going the hard way you know that's got a cause a lot of apprehension

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While he was there Agabus the Prophet visits we've seen him before we met Agabus before in earlier in Acts Where he predicted an oncoming famine and they prepared for it because of his his prophecy

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He comes to meet Paul and he enacts This prophecy he takes

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Paul's belt, you know, and he binds his own hands and feet with it and he declares

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Thus says the Holy Spirit This is how the Jews at Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him up into the hands of the

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Gentiles Now that's the prediction the assumption based on the prediction

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Is that they shouldn't go that way don't go to Jerusalem, you know, take the easy route Maybe go back to Ephesus, you know, the church loves you there

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It's big you're popular have any impact or maybe make that trip to Spain, you know, you've been talking about, you know new areas

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Stay away from Jerusalem. It's it's rough in verse 12 when they heard the prediction we here's

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Luke Speaking about himself and including himself We and the people there urged him not to go up to Jerusalem Don't go that way

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They confused the prediction with the prohibition and Why not?

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Why would he purposely? Knowingly go into imprisonment and afflictions.

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It only makes sense. The Holy Spirit was revealing what was coming they thought so that he could avoid it and Yet he responds

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Even if I have to die in Jerusalem I'm gonna go there From what he said last week.

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Remember in Acts chapter 20. I do not count. My life is valuable. It's precious to myself

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The only am I finish my course But we think they Luke thought the others thought don't go that way that's the hard way people including prophets

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See through a glass darkly They see that they see the hard way they're filled with apprehension and assume

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Confusing a prediction of affliction with a warning Against going that way that they should they should they should go another way

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Why go into danger? That's what they asked Martin Luther when he was summoned to go to Worms City of Worms to testify before the

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Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire and the officials of the church there Don't go Martin. It's a trap

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Sure, they gave him the promise of safe conduct They gave they promised him you would be he you know Martin to be able to allowed to return home

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That you won't you won't be arrested But they had given the same promise to John Haas about a century before Inviting him to the

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Swiss city of Constance also to a conference there promised him safety But when he got there that they said faith cannot be kept with an infidel

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So they arrested him and eventually burned him at the stake They're gonna do the same to you

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Martin, but he felt compelled to go despite the apprehension and There he said unless I am convinced by Scripture or right reason

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I cannot recant Here I stand Luther knew that following Christ meant sharing his suffering.

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He took the hard way 400 years later another German man Dietrich Bonhoeffer Went the same way

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When World War two started he was a German living safely in New York City Where he wrote the cost of discipleship in that book.

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He wrote suffering then is the badge of true discipleship He could have stayed in America writing books about Devotion and theology, but he saw that his fellow

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German Christians needed him the most so he returned To Germany he left

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America the safety of America to go live under the reign of Adolf Hitler likely with great apprehension

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To help the confessing church there, even though like Paul he knew that it meant likely Imprisonment and afflictions awaited him and indeed he was arrested and he was imprisoned at the

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Flossenberg concentration camp And he was finally executed by the direct order of Heinrich Himmler in April of 1945

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Just days before the end of the war True discipleship goes ahead into suffering despite the apprehension it takes the hard way

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Why are they warring though if it's not to tell them to go another way? Well to prepare them for what's coming prepare

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Paul for what's coming so they would know To be ready Notice though that even these prophets had some confusion between what was the prediction?

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It's gonna be a hard way. It's gonna be prisonment affliction. And what was the Lord's prohibition? He just assumed the

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Lord was saying don't go that way. They're wrong about that Even Agabus's prophecy isn't technically 100 % accurate.

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Do you notice that? He said that the Jews the Jews will bind Paul and hand him over to the

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Romans and reality They try to kill Paul the Romans sees him away from them. And then it's the

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Romans who end up binding him This is because as Paul explained about spiritual gifts in 1st

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Corinthians We see through a glass darkly They sensed the

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Holy Spirit was showing them that the Paul was heading into danger. They had a feeling of apprehension of Foreboding, you know, there's something bad is coming, but they didn't interpret that Apprehension perfectly they assumed at first that the prediction of suffering mean a prohibition

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Meant don't go that way, especially when they assume that the Lord will never lead us down the hard way a little over a year ago

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In the summer of 2018 both Mary and I had a sense that covenant would have a Reconstitution that's what we kind of called it among ourselves that it would be basically started over We thought that that meant that we that we should reconstitute the church

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That is officially start over basically dissolve the Old Covenant Reformed Baptist Church and start with a new church Maybe changing the name back to the

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Old Covenant Fellowship I kind of like that anyway invite everyone back But tell people that you know, you're free to go in your way free of the church covenant absolved from any commitment assuming that they

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Understood they were supposed to keep their word because you know who wants to keep people who don't want to be here Anyway, I don't want people to feel like there's just a dreadful burden.

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They don't want to have to bear anymore Well, well when that didn't work out when we didn't do that, we saw that it's not we

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The members who are to do a reconstitution of the church, but that that is what the

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Lord is doing With or without a name change in New Testament prophecy You see through a glass darkly

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Holy Spirit may reveal things, but you don't always interpret it perfectly Which is why we're commended back in Acts 20.

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You remember I commend you to Prophecies the feelings declinations now we're commended

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We're entrusted to the Word of God to be kept safe not to feelings not to inclinations But like here the

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Holy Spirit does still speak to his people There's no reason to believe that what we see here with many people being you know

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Warned by the Holy Spirit of what's coming that that does not still continue that the Holy Spirit still doesn't reveal things

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But we also still get it wrong sometimes so filled with apprehension they go to Jerusalem a

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Group of friends Walking from Caesarea on the coast up to Jerusalem taking a last long walk with Paul two days of a walk to remember

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Why does he want to go to Jerusalem? Now sure, he's compelled by the Spirit, but what's his purpose?

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I mean surely he knows what his reason is He has a mission to accomplish. We got a preview of that three weeks ago

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I think when we ended first Corinthians looking at Paul's offering to the church in Jerusalem Which he's probably bringing here with him on this walk to remember

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He wanted to teach the Corinthians and the other Gentile Christians to care practically For their

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Jewish Christians their Jewish brothers and sisters so that they feel connected to them to overcome the culture barrier

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Here he finds that the Jewish Christians of Jerusalem have their minds though poisoned Against him and the

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Gentile church and he probably knew that already actually probably at least heard heard something about that How he suspected by the

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Jewish Christians in Jerusalem, they feel suspicious They feel disconnected from him and he wants them to apprehend

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Comprehend apprehend the vision that they are all part of a united Church the universal body of Christ.

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They're all part of it. He comes for their apprehension Of the unity of the church

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Notice in verse 17 when they finally made it to Jerusalem the brothers That's what the

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Jerusalem Christians are called. They're the brothers They're not another religion. They brothers received us gladly

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They go to see James the leader of the church with with all the elders there Paul greeted them I asked about he asked about them as a going and then told them in verse 19 one by one of all the things that God had

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Done among the Gentiles through his ministry like all the things we've read earlier in Acts already so Paul tells them how the

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Gentile church is Exploding full of new people, of course, they're Greek people and they you know

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They like their ham and they and they're pagan there They were raised anyway in a pagan culture and so they're following Jesus these these

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Greek people the Jewish Messiah They're following him in verse 20 when James and the elders heard it they glorify

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God They that's great news. They recognize it was God's work Just as James had in Acts 15 remember the conference there

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Acts 15 when he saw that the inclusion of the Gentiles into the church And James said this there now the gospel going to Gentiles and they are believing it that that was the fulfillment

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James said in Acts 15 of the prophecy that Amos had given When Amos said that God will rebuild the tent or the the dynasty the the reign of David that has fallen that God will restore it and he

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James says this is being fulfilled this prophecy of the restoration of the of the rule of David that it's being fulfilled

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By the Gentiles now these non -jewish people coming into the church of believing in Jesus That restoration isn't a literal

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Jewish kingdom with his capital in Jerusalem but in the Expansion of the church that which is the true

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Israel to include all the kinds of people that God is calling out of the world So Paul's news of the continued growth of the church among all these kinds of people

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These Gentiles is yet more good news that God is rebuilding David's dynasty by bringing more and more people under the rule of the

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Son of David Jesus So they praise God for that for the growth of the kingdom of God They also had good news of their own on their own front, you know, they say to Paul you see brother how many thousands

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There are among the Jews of those who have believed in verse 20 While Paul had been out spreading the gospel among the

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Gentiles All kinds of people getting to the ends of the earth James in the church in Jerusalem had been busy with making disciples from the

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Jews many thousands they report But there's a problem They are all zealous for the law

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James says now that by itself is not a problem. Paul had not been telling Jews that they should not keep the law

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He only said that you can't have confidence in your own law keeping for your salvation

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Here these newly saved people these Jewish Christians in Jerusalem had become more eager to please

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God by keeping the law And that's a good thing truly say people should should be zealous to express their their gratitude by God By living in a way that pleases the

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Lord. They love pleasing the Father Who saved them and that's great

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But these people have been told in verse 21 about Paul that he teaches all the Jews who are living among the

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Gentiles to forsake Moses Telling them not to circumcise their children or walk according to Jewish customs

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So these Jewish Christians have had their minds is poisoned against Paul and not understanding the distinction

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That because we're free of the law as a way of salvation Doesn't mean that we are against the law

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The church is often torn between legalists on one hand you try to you try to tell us that we got to keep the law to be saved and Antinomians on the other hand who say well, you don't have to bother with any law you're saved now

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You can live any way you want here. They were accusing Paul of being an antinomian of being against the law They hadn't apprehended the truth that since the ceremonial law of Moses isn't a way for salvation and So for the

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Gentiles, it's not a part of their culture That there it wasn't necessary for for the non -jewish

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Christians. It's not part of their upbringing. They don't need it So they felt opposed to him and his churches.

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So there's this rift There's this division between the Jewish Christians and the and the non -jewish ones from Paul James asked it in verse 22

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Well, what is to be done? James wants to heal the rift to He wants to heal the rift and that's what

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Paul has come back for and they'll hear that he's back now these Jewish Christians who Suspect Paul they'll hear these back and James thinks well do something

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Paul do something visible something tangible To show that you Paul Don't disrespect the law so they'll know that we're all part of the same church

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So he has an idea James has an idea in verse 23 be seen Paul be seen following the law make a display of it and they have four men who have taken a temporary

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Nazarite vow like Paul had earlier when he cut his Hair if you remember that and it sponsored their purification and your own after being among the

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Gentiles thus In other words when they see that these Jewish Christians who are suspicious of you

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James concludes in verse 24 by doing this all will know that there is nothing and what they have been told about you

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But that you yourself also live in observance of the law so though instead they are united They're not divided demonstrate to the

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Jewish believers your respect for the law for their own apprehension of our unity

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As for the Gentile believers You know Well, they remain free of the law as we saw earlier in there in their letter to the to them in Acts chapter 15

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And he references that here to me. He recounts the the four main points of that letter, but being

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Gentile Christians you should now abstain from these pagan Practices but being saved they are so we are

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Gentile believers are like the old Israel was supposed to be well set apart from the world That means that Gentiles from their pagan cultures with their sacrifices to Zeus and Hermes and and all their customs

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Well, they need to be set apart from that. That means that separation from idolatrous practices things polluted by idols

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Which would in their culture include sexual immorality that often would Anything that went along with pagan temple worship there their sacrifice meat that was often strangled and eating the blood of those

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Sacrifices as pagans might do it's important that Christians be separate from pagan worship

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We might think well that has nothing to do with us You'll find that Christians in many places around the world still have to deal with with breaking away from the paganism for the of their

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Ethnic background Chinese Christians today usually understand that they shouldn't eat food sacrifice to the kitchen

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God Because eating that food is a way of honoring that God and you can't do that You don't honor the false gods here

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This also helps in Maintaining the unity of the church as the Jewish Christians like these thousands who are converted in Jerusalem here

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They would not eat with them They wouldn't fellowship with them if these Gentile Christians if they know if they know that they're eating

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Pagan sacrifices they even strangled meat. They're eating the blood. They're not gonna sit down and have a meal with them

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So there'll be a division and unless the Gentile believers break away from their

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Pagan background both James and Paul are agreed on the importance of maintaining the unity of the faith of the church

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So Paul thinks that's a good idea. I Think that's clear by the fact he goes through with it

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In fact, he he's taking up the offering to heal the rift and it goes through but James Suggestion because he wants to heal that rift the next day.

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He took the four Jewish Christians men with him to the temple He takes them through the door Obviously through the court of the

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Gentiles through the gates and the wall past the sign There by the gate and said no foreigner may enter within the barricade which surrounds the temple and enclosure

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Anyone who was caught doing so will have himself to blame for his ensuing death

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Like that get right to the point That was the literal dividing wall of hostility that Paul referred to in Ephesians chapter 2

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Said now it's been broken down Jews and Gentiles believers are one body But he would hear in this literal temple.

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He was safe because he was Jewish. He could go past it He was bringing in Jewish men.

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He started the ceremonial purification. He gave offerings he gave notices You know when he starts it and when it will finish hope hoping to be noticed by the

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Jewish Christians around That he was observing the law That we were part of the same body he wanted their apprehension of the unity of the church we

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Need a greater apprehension of the unity of the church We need to avoid the idea that we're the only true church or maybe maybe the reform are the only true believers

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No, that's that's not true. Sure. There are false churches Not everyone who calls themselves

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Christians are brothers and sisters in Christ when I did that debate last May the the Church of Christ guy

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At the end when we up to the TV cameras are over. We're saying bye He said well, I don't consider you a brother in Christ, but I know it's be friendly

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I was thinking I didn't say it back. I don't consider you a brother either You're you're heretical. Your doctrine is false.

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You're your Bible twister, you know, I'll be nice But I think you call yourself the Church of Christ.

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You're not so not everyone who calls himself is Christian is a Christian but there are true churches that may not have everything accurately

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They may do some things that we can say they look like they're wrong, but they have enough accuracy You know like Apollos Before Priscilla and Aquila educated him to still be considered part of the one body

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But I think the major problem today in America is not thinking well our church is the only true church Most of us probably all of us don't better than that.

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Our major problem today is in not thinking about the church at all They see themselves as well.

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They see themselves and They see the Lord and that's all There's there's just them and Jesus walking together on the beach, you know two sets of footprints in the sand just that relationship the personal relationship, which they assume is a solitary relationship

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With the Lord now they might think well, there's sure there's some there's some gurus. There's some experts

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There's some preachers that might have some good advice to help me with my solitary personal relationship with the

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Lord, you know just like But they're not really part of the relationship, but just like many people listen to experts to help them in their marriage relationship you know like dr.

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Phil or Gary Chapman, but they're not really part of your marriage. Are they they're just experts helping

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So many preachers try to cater to that by doing series after series on on marriage or sex or family

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So they'll be looked up to as the Christian. Dr. Phil, but the church is more than just an advice giving institution for your personal relationship today

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Often there's no idea of the church of a body of a family to which you are dedicated to with it to the

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Apostles teaching eating together sharing and prayer One major problem today,

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I should say our major problem today. Is it that we fail to see the unity of the church?

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It's that we fail to see the church at all here Paul goes through this because seeing apprehending the unity of the church and thus the church is worth

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Going the hard way The third point in case you forgot is apprehension namely

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Paul's Paul did this purification ritual in the temple for seven days not because he felt he had to In order to be seen as pure before God that because of the unity of the church and thus the church that's worth it

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He could have protested, you know, he could have asserted. No James. I'm free from the law

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I don't have to do that. But is it but a truly free person Is not in bondage to his own freedom

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He will use his freedom to serve the unity of the church When the week's worth of cleansing was almost complete

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Some Jews from where Paul had just been the Roman province of Asia and probably from Ephesus itself saw

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Paul in the temple He wanted to be seen by the Jewish Christians He didn't really want to be seen by the Jewish unbelievers, but he couldn't really help that it's out of his control

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They saw him there in the temple and they cried out in verse 28 men of Israel Help, this is the man who teach who is teaching everyone everywhere a vast exaggeration there against the people of Israel they mean

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Obviously just lying. He's not teaching against the people of Israel and against the law Lying again.

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He's not teaching against the law and this place I was against the temple that it's not necessary anymore again another lie

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Moreover, he even brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled this holy place false Now new

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Luke nicely explains that they had seen Paul earlier that day in Jerusalem with a Gentile named trophimus and just assumed

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That he had brought him with him into the temple You're supposed to check out by the way, you're supposed to check out your assumptions first before it was making accusations

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Just a little tip there that was like but this charge that Paul was defiling the temple was

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Opposed to it. It's like throwing a lit match onto dry grass It started a wildfire

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The outrage spread turning the crowd into this this insane mob with hordes of men

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Running and pushing toward Paul grabbing him and dragging him out of the temple and starting to beat him

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The end of verse 30 says at once the gates of the temple were shut as if to signify

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The rejection this unreasoning rejection of the remaining Jewish people to the gospel the uproar

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This is this hullabaloo rising from the mob It caught the attention of the commander of the nearby Roman garrison the

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Tribune kind of like a colonel Who let a band of soldiers into the mob causing them to stop beating

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Paul? That the Tribune assumes that the mob has some good reason for punishing

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Paul And so he arrests Paul binding him hand and foot with chains fulfilling approximately

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Agabus's prophecy Paul has now been apprehended

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This is what he knew before speaking to the Ephesian elders in chapter 20 that the

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Holy Spirit was testifying to him that imprisonment and Afflictions await him But he went anyway

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He took the hard way The Tribune doesn't know what's going on or who

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Paul is he asked the crowd but gets this hysterical nonsense back To get him away from the uproar

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He orders him brought into the barracks and to get him out safely The soldiers have to have to carry him probably up on the top of their hands and the mob was crying out away with him

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Just like another mob About 30 years before in the same place had been shouting crucify him

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Paul has now followed Jesus down that hard way of unreasoning blind enraged hatred now

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Apprehended Why did he do it? You know, you've been warned that it would end like this

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Well, like Jesus the predictions of suffering didn't deter him he went the hard way anyway because Also like Jesus who gave his life for the flock the church

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Paul loved the church He his friends loved him and as they understood that he was going to imprisonment and afflictions.

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He was going a hard way They tried to warn him, but he continued to Jerusalem because he loved

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Jesus and His body you can't love Jesus without loving his body

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What does this mean to us You know, we're not Paul. We can't be expected to be an apostle to follow his every step

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To parallel to him as if is if we will end up doing the same thing or something like it But we can follow his principles his priorities his motivations.

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We can know that if we follow the Lord in some way It will be hard We go the hard way of giving generously even when we know that that means we'll have less money to splurge on ourselves we go the hard way of Turning away from immorality, even when we know that that means we'll miss some temporary pictures.

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We go the hard way of Prioritizing the church over our personal rights Even when we know that means that we can't use it like customers use restaurants for their immediate gratification

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We go the hard way of putting serving the Lord ahead of chasing another dollar Even when we know that we'll suffer some loss of income so we can be with a body

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We go the hard way of tearing ourselves away from the TV or the or from bed or from outdoors

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To help kids hear the gospel because we do not account our life our comforts our enjoyment now

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Even the game on TV as the most precious thing as the most valued but that we might do our part in Helping the body of Christ testify to the gospel of the grace of God we can know

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That if we follow the Lord Yes, it might be the hard way

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But that's the way We choose to go Because we want to be with him now