WWUTT 1131 Through the Spirit they Were Telling Paul?

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Sometimes, we may have a clear understanding of God's will for us according to His Word.

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But are our reactions to God's will for us also in submission to His Word when we understand the text?

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Many of the Bible stories and verses we think we know, we don't. When we understand the text as an online ministry committed to teaching sound doctrine and exposing the faulty, visit our website at www .utt

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.com. Now here's our host, Pastor Gabe Hughes. Thank you, Becky. We come back to our study of the book of Acts.

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The 21st chapter is where we are this week. And I'll start out by reading the first 16 verses.

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And when we 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 Patera.

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And having found a ship crossing to Phoenicia, we went aboard and set sail.

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When we had come inside of Cyprus, leaving it on the left, we sailed to Syria and landed at Tyre, for there the ship was to unload its cargo.

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And having sought out the disciples, we stayed there for seven days. And through the

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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, accompanied us until we were outside the city.

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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 Ptolemaeus, and we greeted the brothers and stayed with them for one day.

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On the next day, we departed and came to Caesarea, and we entered the house of Philip the

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Evangelist, who was one of the seven, and stayed with him. He had four unmarried daughters, who prophesied.

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While we were staying for many days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. And coming to us, he took

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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 at Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him into the hands of the

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Gentiles. When we heard this, we and the people there urged him not to go up to Jerusalem.

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Then Paul answered, What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be in prison, but even to die in Jerusalem for the sake of the

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Lord Jesus. And since he would not be persuaded, we ceased and said,

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Let the will of the Lord be done. After these days we got ready and went up to Jerusalem.

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And some of the disciples from Caesarea went with us, bringing us to the house of Manassin of Cyprus, an early disciple with whom we should lodge.

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And then from here in the story, Paul goes on to visit James, who was the head of the church there at Jerusalem.

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We're going to spend a couple of days in this particular section, Acts 21 verses 1 through 16.

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What I want to look at today is primarily where the

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Apostle Paul is being hindered by friends of his from going to Jerusalem.

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They're trying to convince him not to go to Jerusalem. And this happens twice in this particular section. So we're going to look at that today and then tomorrow focusing more on this mention of prophecy, because we've got a talk about Philip, the evangelist.

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This was Philip, who was one of the seven deacons that were mentioned in Acts chapter six.

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Then, of course, we saw Philip evangelize in Samaria and he evangelized the Ethiopian eunuch.

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But here it's said of him that he's got four unmarried daughters who prophesied. We also have this prophecy that's made by Agabus.

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And whenever you hear somebody mention Acts 21, more often than not, they're probably coming to these two things here, either mentioning that Philip had daughters who prophesied or Agabus had this prophecy.

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What do these things mean? Also, what's the difference between an apostle and a prophet?

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Because if a prophet in a New Testament context especially is being given visions, does that not make their ministry apostolic?

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Didn't the apostles also receive visions from the Lord? Certainly they did, because we saw

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Peter's vision that led him to the house of Cornelius. So how do we understand these distinctions between an apostle and a prophet?

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We'll talk about that tomorrow. I think there's enough there we need to devote to one particular lesson. So in the meantime, let's look at this seeming opposition that Paul gets trying to prevent him from going to Jerusalem, because he knows and the

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Spirit has revealed to him that that's where he's supposed to go next. And yet he's got these Christian brothers at a couple of different stops that are trying to prevent him from going there.

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So coming back again to Acts 21, verse 1, when we had parted from them and set sail.

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Now, who is it that Luke and Paul and their missionary group is parting from? Well, it's the

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Ephesian elders who they had summoned to come and meet them at Miletus. Now, it's easier to kind of visualize this if you were to have a map and you can find a map of Paul's third missionary journey.

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That's what we're reading about here, his third journey. And this map is going to show you what is modern day

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Turkey. And it's there that we have Asia Minor. There's Galatia, Lycia, Pamphylia, Cilicia, Cappadocia.

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All those are right there in modern day Turkey. It's bordered on the left by the Aegean Sea, and then you cross the

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Aegean Sea to Macedonia and Achaia. It's in Macedonia where cities are like Philippi and Thessalonica and in Achaia where you find

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Corinth and Athens and even Sparta. South of Achaia is Crete. South of Cilicia is

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Cyprus. And we have Cyprus that's mentioned here in this journey or in this route that Luke starts off this section talking about.

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So Miletus is on that western side of modern day Turkey. And that western side is also it's pretty broken up.

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There's a lot of islands in there. By the way, Patmos is one of those islands. So you remember

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John the Apostle being exiled to the island of Patmos, and that's where he had his vision, which became the

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Book of Revelation. That's just to the southwest of Ephesus or just immediately to the west of Miletus.

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That exile island of Patmos. So anyway, Ephesus is that major port city, probably the most important port city in that region other than Athens.

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It would probably be the city that would be one larger and more important than Ephesus.

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Paul decides not to go to Ephesus because he doesn't want the Ephesians to believe that he's coming back there to stay.

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He doesn't want them to try to convince him to stay. That kind of seems to be a pattern here as we go from Miletus to this list of locations that Paul mentions here in Acts 21.

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Everybody that Paul comes to is trying to prevent him from going on to where he wants to go. If Paul had gone to Ephesus, it would have been even more difficult for him to get out.

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But because he had asked the Ephesian elders to come and meet him at Miletus, then it was easier for him to be able to communicate to them that he's not coming back to stay.

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He has to go on because the Holy Spirit is summoning him to go to Jerusalem.

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It's by way of what's going to happen to Paul in Jerusalem that eventually he's going to get to Rome. And that's really where his heart is right now.

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He wants to go to the capital city of the world so that he has the opportunity to preach the gospel there.

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And then it goes out to everywhere. And by the way, that's what the book of Acts is about. So you have the gospel of Luke and the book of Acts, both of which books that Luke wrote.

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OK, so in the gospel of Luke, that's the gospel. The book of Acts is then how the gospel made it to the world.

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And we're getting closer and closer to the end here, jumping into like the last third of Acts is where we are.

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Paul's third missionary journey. So according to what we're reading here, Paul set sail and came to a straight course.

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It came by way of a straight course to Kos. So it's just Miletus straight down to Kos. That's where the island is, where that city is located.

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And then from there, they went on to Rhodes. Now, some of you might be thinking of the Colossus of Rhodes.

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If you know the seven wonders of the ancient world. Yep, that was exactly that place. So they came to that island where the

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Colossus of Rhodes would have been. Then they go from there to Patera, and that is in Lycia.

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So it's on the mainland area. Rhodes is an island. Lycia is part of that, again, what we call modern day

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Turkey. So they're on the southern coast of Lycia. And then it says they went from there, having found a ship crossing to Phoenicia.

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So they couldn't stay on the same ship. It wouldn't going all the way over to Syria. So they found a ship that was going to be crossing to Phoenicia and went aboard and set sail.

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And when we came in sight of Cyprus, we left it leaving it on the left.

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We set sail to Syria and landed at Tyree. So that means that the ship would have gone to the south of Cyprus, didn't land at Cyprus, but went around it and then down to Phoenicia, which is that western coast of Syria to the north of Judea.

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What we would refer to today is modern day Israel. That's where Phoenicia would have been. Landed at Tyree, went down to Ptolemaeus, Caesarea, and then eventually to Jerusalem.

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Now, it's interesting to note that we don't have any mention of Paul stopping in these cities to share the gospel with anybody.

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It doesn't say here that he went into the synagogue and preached. So we don't know if he did or not. But the likelihood is that they were just trying to get from one place to the next.

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So there wasn't much gospel preaching going on at these stops that Paul was making. The Holy Spirit is very intentional here at this point in getting

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Paul to a particular location. And I think sometimes we can have this tendency in our minds to think that everything has to be an evangelism opportunity.

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So like you go to the grocery store, but you don't share the gospel with anybody and you walk out of the grocery store.

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Maybe the day goes by, you get to the evening and you're thinking back on all the stuff you did today and including that trip to the store.

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And he didn't share the gospel with anybody. And you might start to think in your mind, am I a bad Christian because I'm going to the grocery store and I'm not sharing the gospel with anyone?

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Well, why did you go to the grocery store? You probably went to get some groceries to come home and make some food for your family.

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That is kingdom work, even if it did not involve sharing the gospel with strangers at a grocery store.

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Now, if you feel so convicted that you need to be doing more evangelism than you're doing, then talk about some ways that you can do that.

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Talk with some Christian friends, talk with your pastor, maybe a Sunday school teacher or some elders.

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But we don't have to be in this mindset of thinking that absolutely every time we're out in public or we're encountering strangers or other people that it needs to turn into a gospel opportunity.

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For even here, the apostle Paul is not stopping in each one of these cities to go into the synagogue and preach.

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So therefore, as an apostle, is he disobeying God somehow because he's not bringing the gospel to the world as he's supposed to?

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No, he's certainly still doing that. The Holy Spirit has work for him to do in respective places. And we've seen over the course of acts where the

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Holy Spirit is told Paul or Peter or any of the apostles to go here but not go there.

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And right now there's a direct course where they're trying to get. Paul may have been sharing the gospel on the ships that he was on with the ship's crew.

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In fact, I would say that that's very likely that he did that. But there's not a reason for us to believe that every single city he stopped in, he was entering the synagogue and sharing the gospel.

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Most likely, he was stopping in churches and encouraging the believers. Maybe that was the case, because when they stop in these respective cities, they've got to have somewhere to stay somewhere, someone to feed them.

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And so the church in those locations, those Christians would have come to their aid.

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And Paul regularly commends those who helped him at any point on his journey.

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We see those commendations. We read about them in the epistles. When it comes to the evangelism that we do, though, everything is not going to be an evangelism opportunity.

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A good idea is to have some tracks with you. Take some tracks along. So when you do go to the grocery stores, you're going back out to your car.

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Grab one of those tracks, slip it under the windshield wiper of the car next to you. There you go. You've shared the gospel with somebody else without having to walk away feeling like, hey,

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I could have turned my grocery store trip into an evangelism opportunity. And I didn't do that.

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I've got some tracks in my car whenever I go to the gas station and they have those the clear boxes with the brochures in them.

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You know what I'm talking about? A lot of quick trips have them, but it'll be something about maybe their little bonus card that they have that might be one of the brochures.

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And there will be some sort of charity thing that they do maybe to help veterans. I'll just take a what brochure, which is the size of all the rest of the brochures that are in that box, and I'll slip it in there.

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And it's got a presentation of the gospel in it, as well as talking about the when we understand the text ministry and where you can hear good

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Bible teaching every day. So just giving you some ideas for some extra evangelism opportunities.

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Charles Spurgeon, there's a quote from him, and I don't remember what this quote was or even where to find it.

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But I remember him saying something about always having a track with him because it's the easiest thing that he can do to share the gospel with somebody else, even if he doesn't have time or opportunity to stop and talk here on this particular course.

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Paul doesn't have time to stop and talk. The Spirit's got a place that he's sending him post haste.

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And so they get around Cyprus, leaving on the left. They sailed to Syria, landed at Tyree for there.

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The ship was to unload its cargo. And having sought out the disciples there, they stayed in Tyree for seven days.

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And through the Spirit, they were telling Paul not to go on to Jerusalem.

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Now, this is real curious. How is it that the Spirit, these brothers and sisters in the

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Lord are acting according to the Spirit to encourage Paul not to go to Jerusalem? And we see that come up again because Agabus makes this prophecy to Paul.

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And then the brothers that are with him there try to convince him not to go to Jerusalem. This is verse 12.

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When we heard this, we and the people there urged him not to go up to Jerusalem. So what's going on here?

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It's by a revelation of the Spirit that these brothers and sisters at Tyree know that Paul is going to be arrested.

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And it's by a revelation of the Spirit that Agabus says the same thing. Paul is going to be arrested at Jerusalem.

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And then in both cases, people are trying to keep Paul from going. It says they did so through the

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Spirit, though Paul is being led by the Spirit to go to Jerusalem. What's happening here?

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Well, the prophecy is right, but their reaction to the prophecy is not.

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It is true that Paul's going to go up to Jerusalem and be arrested. We know that because you know the story of Acts, correct?

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But the way that they're reacting to this revelation that the Spirit has given them is not the way that they should be reacting to it.

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I think it's genuine. It's good. It's right that these brothers and sisters express to Paul, look, we're really concerned about what is going to happen to you at Jerusalem.

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But they shouldn't be preventing Paul from going. Yet the Holy Spirit could yet be using these brothers and sisters so that Paul is being tested, that he's becoming even more sure and more confident in his mind that this is where he needs to go.

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He is he's becoming more bold, not even letting brothers and sisters in the Lord prevent him from what he knows the

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Holy Spirit is leading him to and how the Spirit has even revealed to him that imprisonment and afflictions await him there.

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This is what Paul shared with the Ephesian elders in verse 23. The Holy Spirit testifies to me that in every city imprisonment and afflictions await me.

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And this was even in regards to talking to those Ephesian elders about what he was doing next, where he was going.

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He was heading to Jerusalem. So these brothers and sisters likewise have had it revealed to them that Paul is going to be in prison.

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They try to keep him from going. The revelation is right, but their reaction to it is not.

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We saw a similar thing happen with Peter when Jesus told his disciples that he was going to be arrested and he was going to be put to death.

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But fear not, he said to them, I'm coming back again. I'm coming back to life. And how did

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Peter respond to this? This is in Matthew chapter 16. He tried to prevent Jesus from going to the cross.

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Far be it from you, Lord, to do this thing. And what did Jesus say to Peter? Get behind me,

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Satan, for you are not thinking with the mind of God, but with the mind of a man.

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And this was just after Jesus had asked his disciples, who do you say that I am?

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And Peter says, you are the Christ, the son of the living God. And Jesus replied, blessed are you,

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Simon Bar -Jonah, for this has been revealed to you not by flesh, but by my father, who is in heaven.

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Peter, unfortunately, got a little too sure of himself. And though this was an understanding that came to him from God, he reacted to it the wrong way.

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And when Jesus revealed to his disciples that he was going to be put to death, even though he said to them he was going to come back to life again,

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Peter is the one that stands in Jesus' way and says, far be it from you, Lord, I would never let this happen to you.

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And this was totally against the will of God. So it has been revealed to these brothers and sisters in the

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Lord here that Paul is going to go up and suffer for the name of Christ. But they react to it in a human way rather than an understanding of the spirit.

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They've had this revelation of the spirit, but they don't follow the spirit in their reaction to it.

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We need to have not only our understanding governed by the Holy Spirit of God, but even our emotions would be in subjection to the revealed will of God that is given to us in the scriptures, not reacting or responding to how we want to.

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And we can't pay attention to every single automatic reaction that we have in our human flesh.

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Even our own feelings need to be in subjection to what the word of God says.

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And so we don't really get the rebuke from Paul to his brothers and sisters at Tyree, but he does then rebuke his friends at Caesarea later on.

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Let's finish up where we're reading here in Tyree. I'm coming back again to verse four. And having sought out the disciples, we stayed there seven days and through the spirit, they were telling

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Paul not to go on to Jerusalem. When our days there were ended, we departed and went on our journey.

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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.

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Then we went on board the ship and they returned home. So we see some sanctification going on here on the part of these believers and even on the part of Paul and his missionary brethren.

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So these believers have seen that Paul is going to be arrested, and yet they're not ashamed of him.

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They encourage him. They are friends with him. They spend time with him. They pray together with him.

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Yes, it's true that they were probably acting out of turn by trying to convince Paul not to go to Jerusalem, but it was still the spirit had revealed this to them so that they might be sanctified through this.

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They would come to an understanding of the Lord's servants being persecuted for his name's sake.

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And through this testing, we share in the sufferings of Christ being made further in the image of Christ, being conformed to his image that we may be presented before the father on the day of glory, fully sanctified.

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Paul, likewise, is receiving some sanctification in the sense that he is emboldened all the more to go to Jerusalem.

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He's being reminded yet again that he's going to face persecutions there, but nothing's going to stop him.

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He's in full obedience to the Holy Spirit of God to accomplish what Christ has set him forth to do.

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And may we be the same once again, letting even our feelings and our prejudices and any of this be governed by the

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Holy Spirit of God is revealed in his word. We cannot just listen to every act or impulse or feeling or emotion that may come into our mind or in our physiology.

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All of this must be governed by the word of Christ. And this happens. This is accomplished.

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This sanctification comes for us when we are regular in God's word and God's word is sufficient for our every need and all matters of faith and righteousness and the pursuit of holiness in Christ Jesus, our savior.

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So let us be regular in God's word. Let us not ever find ourselves chasing after flights of fancy or some thought or seeing

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Jesus in a wrinkled Coke can or something like that. But we are finding

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Christ in his word as given to us in the pages of scripture, the Bible. And this is how the

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Holy Spirit has communicated to us so that through the word of Christ, we would be sanctified and presented wholly before him in righteousness.

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Let us pray. Our heavenly father, we thank you for this word today. And I pray that we understand that in this world, we are going to have trouble, but we are following our savior who has overcome this world.

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Therefore, what can man do to us? We put our faith and trust in you and that you guide us and instruct us in all our ways, according to your word.