The Book of Acts
Paying Any Price
Acts 21:10-16
We've been talking about commitment as it's seen in the life of the Apostle Paul, and in the 21st chapter of Acts, there are several characteristics given about that commitment. I've been calling it the courage of conviction. It is the kind of conviction that affects everything in your life.
Now at this moment in his life, the particular conviction Paul had was that God wanted him deliver a love offering that had been received for the church in Jerusalem. Everywhere he went, people warned him not to go. In fact, the Holy Spirit had let him know that once he got there, trouble was waiting on him.
-
in spite of the danger and all the warnings, his conviction was, “God wants me to get this money to the saints in Jerusalem. They need it, it’ll help the church, and I’ve got to get there.” That was his goal, and so, he pursued it. He had something to which he was committed.
And that conviction expressed itself in a number of ways. First of all, conviction knows its purpose. He clearly understood the objective. Second, the courage of conviction can’t be diverted. No matter what happens, a person driven by conviction cannot be deterred.
Third, the courage of conviction
3. Pays Any Price
Just to set the scene, we'll read verses 7-14. We covered 7-9 last time, but they help lead us into what follows beginning in verse 10
verses 7-14
On his way to Jerusalem, Paul makes this stop in Caesarea, and stays in the home of Philip. This is the same Philip who is introduced back in chapter 6 as one of the seven men appointed by the church to help with the needs of the congregation.
We also saw him in chapter 8 leading an Ethiopian eunuch to the Lord. Now he has been the pastor of the church in Caesarea for 20 years, and he has four daughters who prophesy.
God used them, as we saw last time, to speak words of practical instruction to the church. So that's
- The Setting
Paul, along with his traveling companions is in the home of Philip in Caesarea. They have the love offering with them to deliver to the church in Jerusalem.
verse 10
One little detail there in verse 10 that I find interesting is that Luke says this prophet "came down" from Judea. Caesarea was a city near the middle of Judea. So why would it say he came down from Judea to Caesarea?
Caesarea was a Roman city, therefore, to a Jew, it was like a foreign land. So, whenever you stepped from the Judean countryside into the city limits of Caesarea, you were coming from Judea to Caesarea, therefore you were leaving the heights of Judaism to step down into the pagan culture around you.
Now, the prophet who came was named Agabus, and just the fact that he is referred to as a prophet is interesting because he is a prophet, not in the Old Testament sense, but in the New Testament sense.
In the design of God for the early years of the church, there were two key positions in the church. One was prophets and the other was apostles. In fact, Paul told the Ephesians in 2:20 that "Jesus is the chief cornerstone of the church and the apostles and prophets were the foundation.
Now I think it needs to be noted that those two offices, even though they were foundational positions, were also temporary positions and after they served their purpose, they ceased to be offices at all.
In fact, when Paul writes under the direction of the Holy Spirit instruction for the church, the leadership of the church is turned over to pastors and elders, with no mention of apostles at all. And instead, the term “evangelist” comes into use.
So it is my understanding that the apostles and prophets were replaced chronologically by teaching pastors and evangelists. But in the foundational years, there were apostles and prophets.
Now, both of those were preachers, and they preached all over the place. They preached evangelistically and they taught educationally.
They were used of God as public spokespersons to provide primarily revelation.
The apostles’ revelation was, for the most part, doctrinal. They wound up writing the New Testament gospels and epistles. And theirs was a doctrinal kind of revelation.
The prophets had a practical kind of revelation, and we see that here in the text with Paul and Agabus. Paul was an apostle. He’s also called a prophet in the sense that he was a preacher. But Paul prophesied as an apostle, therefore when he spoke, he gave doctrinal revelation.
When Agabus prophesied, he gave revelation concerning the practical life of the Church. By the way, this is not the first time we've met Agabus. Back in chapter 11, verse 28, Agabus gave a revelation about a coming famine and that motivated the apostles to take care of the church in the area.
Here Agabus shows up again, and guess what? he's still doing the same thing. What he says has no doctrinal value at all. It is simply a practical word of warning about a future event.
In verse 11, we hear
2. The Message
verse 11
Now that is a dramatic prophesy Agabus makes a robe out of Paul's sash, and ties himself up to illustrate what is going to happen to Paul when he arrives in Jerusalem. And that is exactly what happened. The prophecy of Agabus came to pass.
By the way, this is not the first time God used a dramatic, visual object lesson to share truth with His people. Study the Old Testament, and you will find it quite interesting as you read about prophets tearing up their clothes to illustrate how God would divide the nation of Israel and prophets like Isaiah running around naked to illustrate the devastation that was coming to Israel.
By the way, Isaiah was commanded by God to preach in his underwear for three years! I would guess he didn't even have to open his mouth! Everyone was saying, “There goes that guy in his underwear again!"
God had Jeremiah go downtown and buy himself an aprom and wear it for a while, then travel to a certain place and bury it, then return after it had rotted and dig it up and put in on again just to illustrate what he thought about the pride of His people!
I have to laugh at those who ignore the Old Testament because they find it boring! Far from it! The prophets were dramatic conveyers of God's message!
And here in Acts 21, once again, just as He has in history, God uses a prophet to deliver a message through an object lesson when Agabus arrives and tells Paul that he’s going to be bound and delivered to the Gentiles.
And in a few weeks, we'll see how that comes to pass.
verse 12
You can imagine how this news was received. They begin to beg Paul not to go, and they implication of Scripture is they were getting to him. How do we know that?
Verse 13
The word there that’s translated "breaking my heart" is really "to soften my heart by pounding it like a washer woman pounds clothes".
Paul's question, then, is “Why are you beating on me, trying to soften up my will?” And he calls on them to stop because his determination is weakening.
And at the end of verse 13 we see the point I want to make regarding the courage of his convictions.
verse 13b
In other words, Paul says, "I'm not just going; I'm willing to pay any price!"
Which brings up an interesting question. . .
I wonder how many hundreds and thousands of people in the history of the church have gotten out of God's will and missed God's ultimate will for their life because well-meaning family and well-intentioned friends and loved ones talked them out of it?
“Oh, it’s too risky.” “Oh, too many sacrifices.” “Why, you’ll never be able to endure in that circumstance.” “Why, such-and-such and such-and-such.” "You can't survive on a preacher's salary!"
I wonder how many lives have been shipwrecked spiritually, without ever accomplishing the will of God, all because somebody just kept beating on them until their determination to do the will fo God was softened.
It may well be that short-sided, selfish Christians have done as much to deter people from doing the will of God as have the enemies of Christ. Jesus said, “Sometimes, it’s going to be necessary for you to forsake everything. And if you’re not willing to leave father and mother and everybody else that you love and follow Me, you’re not worthy to be My disciple.”
Let me just remind you there is no safer place to be than in the will of God, and when we are in the will of God, no matter the circumstances around us, we are as safe as the sovereignty of God is strong.
Don’t ever be hesitant to do God's will and don't ever try to discourage or dissuade somebody from following God's will. God forbid that we should ever talk somebody out of what God has called them to do!
These friends gather round Paul and try to talk him out of going to Jerusalem, but
verse 14
-
they are saying, “Don’t go, and at the same time Paul’s saying, “I’m going. So what they decide to do is give it God and acknowledged His sovereignty. What a great way to face life!
Listen: That is not a resignation to the worst, it is an invitation to the best!
A lot of people talk about the will of God like it's the worst experience anyone could ever have! But being in the will of God it the most rewarding and satisfying experience a human can ever be!
That's what Jesus taught us to pray for, that the will of God would be done on earth, just as it is in heaven.” That's what Jesus prayed in the garden, “Not My will but Thine be done.” The ultimate goal of everything in life is that the will of the Lord would be done.
Paul just gave his life to the will of the Lord, and followed that will, regardless of the cost.
The courage of conviction knows its purpose, can’t be diverted, pays any price. Let me show you one more thing very quickly, and that is the courage of conviction,
4. Affects Others
verses 15-16
It's easy to read those verse and go right by the tremendous truth found there.
Remember what had just happened. Everybody's begging Paul not to go to Jerusalem because it's too dangerous. But Paul will not be deterred. So he packs up and leaves for Jerusalem. . . and they all go with him!
I love the fact that instead of all their begging and weeping affecting him, his courageous affected them. He was a marked man who was going to be imprisoned or killed, but they were willing to pay the same price he was.
There is something about the courage of conviction that inspires and raises others up to where you are.
D. L. Moody told the story of a young man who had 500 soldiers. And he went to war against a king who had 3,000. And the king saw the discrepancy, of course, in the two, and so he sent a messenger to the young man, and he said, “You can surrender, and I’ll treat you mercifully, and we’ll save the lives of both sides.”
And the young man called up two of his soldiers and said to the first soldier, in front of the messenger from the king, he said, “Take this dagger and drive it into your heart.” And the soldier took the dagger and drove it into his heart. He fell on the ground dead. He said to the second one, “Dive off that precipice into that chasm,” and the guy dove off and smashed his body on the rocks below.
The young man looked at the king’s messenger and says, “Now, you go back and tell your king I have 500 other men just like those.”
Courage is contagious. Those men were willing to die for the leader they believed in. And because of the courage of Paul, the little band of weepy, sad Christians at Caesarea all of a sudden became courageous giants.
People, if you have the courage of conviction, let me tell you, God will use you to affect the lives of others. May God help us to be people of conviction, willing to pay any price.
Let’s pray.
