The Will of God: and Your Real Life Acts 21:1-14

Sermon by  Pastor  Dennis Gleason -- July 15, 2007

¹After saying farewell to the Ephesian elders, we sailed straight to the island of Cos. The next day we reached Rhodes and then went to Patara. ²There we boarded a ship sailing for the Syrian province of Phoenicia. ³We sighted the island of Cyprus, passed it on our left, and landed at the harbor of Tyre, in Syria, where the ship was to unload. ⁴We went ashore, found the local believers, and stayed with them a week. These disciples prophesied through the Holy Spirit that Paul should not go on to Jerusalem. ⁵When we returned to the ship at the end of the week, the entire congregation, including wives and children, came down to the shore with us. There we knelt, prayed, ⁶and said our farewells. Then we went aboard, and they returned home.

⁷The next stop after leaving Tyre was Ptolemais, where we greeted the brothers and sisters but stayed only one day. ⁸Then we went on to Caesarea and stayed at the home of Philip the Evangelist, one of the seven men who had been chosen to distribute food. ⁹He had four unmarried daughters who had the gift of prophecy.

¹⁰During our stay of several days, a man named Agabus, who also had the gift of prophecy, arrived from Judea. ¹¹When he visited us, he took Paul’s belt and bound his own feet and hands with it. Then he said, “The Holy Spirit declares, ‘so shall the owner of this belt be bound by the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem and turned over to the Romans.’” ¹²When we heard this, we who were traveling with him, as well as the local believers, begged Paul not to go on to Jerusalem.

¹³But he said, “Why all this weeping? You are breaking my heart! For I am ready not only to be jailed at Jerusalem but also to die for the sake of the Lord Jesus.” ¹⁴When it was clear that we couldn’t persuade him, we gave up and said, “The will of the Lord be done.”

The Apostle Paul is on his way to Jerusalem. And as he makes this trip, he is given advice in almost every place he stops along the way. The advice is that he should not go to Jerusalem. Danger awaits him there. People were prophesying in the Holy Spirit that he should not go. They see the danger Paul is in and want to spare him.

Now, there is something important for us to understand about advice. It is just advice, someone’s thoughts about what we should do, say or so on. We can take it or leave it when it is given. If you want my advice about something, I am sure I would have some to give you. But it is just advice…my thoughts about the matter. People here are giving Paul advice about staying away from Jerusalem. They understand what he is going into by traveling to Jerusalem. And it is all bad. Stay away from Jerusalem, is the advice.

But Paul is in route to Jerusalem, already knowing in the Spirit that bad things await him, even death. But he was determined to go. Whether this was God’s will or not is in question, and there are good people on both sides of that question. He is warned now for the 2nd time that danger awaits, and his friends and co-laborers beg him not to go.

There is disagreement here, but there’s one thing they all agree on: they want God’s will to be done. And that should be the greatest desire of our hearts: to know and to do the will of God!

A grandfather said to his grandson would you like to go with me? The grandson said where are we going? The grandfather said if you want to go with me it doesn’t matter. God has a plan for you. Do you want to go with him?

And then along comes Agabus. He is a man who is gifted as a prophet. Whereas, the daughters of Philip have the ability to set forth God’s will from his Word ( note: In 1 Corinthians 14:1 Paul tells the Corinthian Christians to strive for this gift) Agabus has the ability to give direct revelation from God regarding the future. In this case it is Paul’s future that is the focus.

We should note that he does not warn Paul not to go to Jerusalem. No he simply takes off Paul’s belt and ties his hands and feet with it and says: “The Holy Spirit says, ‘In this way the Jews of Jerusalem will bind the owner of this belt and will hand him over to the Gentiles.’”

Agabus came to Caesarea because the Holy Spirit led him to go there. He uses the belt as symbolism for what is to take place in Jerusalem. In this he fits right in with how you see the Old Testament Prophets functioning as they give their prophecies symbolism and all.

I think that one of the things we should see in this part of Acts is that Spiritual gifts are still being exercised by individual believers. This is approximately 20 years after the Holy Spirit came upon those first believers with power on the Day of Pentecost.

The point of spiritual gifts and power is that believers have the power necessary to serve God and do the work of reaching a lost and dying world with the good news. Time and again pagans are confronted with the power of the Holy Spirit and the reality of the God who made the heavens and the earth. One of the most prominent places is in the healing of the sick and demon oppressed.

When God’s people moved among them with the power of the Holy Spirit, whether it was healing the sick or overcoming the forces of evil, the world was presented with a viable alternative to the false belief that had enslaved them. The Devil has for centuries deceived the world into believing that people could believe whatever they wanted, as long as it was false. The end result of course was death, but that is the part people do not see.

God comes into our world and now gives us the good news.

-There is life and forgiveness in Jesus.

- There is power in the Holy Spirit – enough power to draw those who belong to God to Jesus and faith in him.

- This power is designed to convince an unbelieving world that God is and that in love he sent Jesus to live and die for us; so that by faith in him and his sacrificial death on the cross, we might have forgiveness of sin and be in a right relationship with God.

This takes us to Paul and his response to what Agabus has done. ¹³But he said, “Why all this weeping? You are breaking my heart! For I am ready not only to be jailed at Jerusalem but also to die for the sake of the Lord Jesus.”

Paul writes this to the believers in Rome: “So you should consider yourselves dead to sin and able to live for the glory of God, through Christ Jesus.” Romans 6:7

There is a choice to be made. We can live a victorious Christian life or not. The choice is always ours. Paul says “…consider your selves dead to sin…” You can take advantage of all God offers or not. The choice is yours.

There is an interesting line in the story of the Band of Brothers detailing the experiences of Easy Company of the 101^st Airborne during World War II. One of the Easy Company privates is struggling with his fear. And because of that he is not functioning properly as a soldier. One of his lieutenants comes to him one night and says: Blythe, your problem is that you still have hope. You will be OK as soon as you see yourself as already dead.”

The point for Blythe was that fear could only control him if he thought he could actually survive the war. Consider yourself dead already and there is little for you to fear.

So it is with the Christian life. Paul says, “Consider yourself dead to sin..”. Nothing, not even sin can harm you any further. When you do that you can live successfully for God’s glory.

Paul’s response is  “Why are you weeping? You are breaking my heart. For I am ready not only to be jailed at Jerusalem, but also to die for the sake of the Lord Jesus.” Acts 21:13

He has considered his options.

He knows that there is trouble in Jerusalem.

He knows that it may mean imprisonment and maybe even death.

But he is doing God’s will as he understands it.

He simply cannot be persuaded to change his mind or his destination.

There are not tears, no second guessing. There is no change of plans. Paul is confident in the Holy Spirit. How can Paul proceed this way?

Paul knows that “he who is in us is greater than he who is in the world.”

Most of us have no idea of the challenges of tomorrow. And that is probably a good thing. Knowing the future is not necessarily a plus for us. But the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives should free us to serve Christ and free us to do that without fear. The world, the flesh and the devil all conspire to destroy us. To that God says, “…consider yourselves already dead…”

But we have a problem with that. We have formed attachments here. There is the family we love, our friends, the people with whom we work, our careers, investments, and so on. We even think that we should have a life of our own. All these things and others draw us and bind us to this world, to all that we really know for sure.

To this Paul would say, there is really nothing that is unknown. Here is what I know:

- I am a sinner saved by God’s grace.

- I am dead in Christ to sin.

- I am alive in Christ – filled with His Spirit and His Power

- There is nothing in this world that really matters

- What matters is Christ – Christ crucified / risen from the dead and the life faith in him gives us.

- What is the worst that the world can do? It can torture and kill us.

- But if you consider yourself dead to sin already, and in the center of God’s will for your life then you are free to serve Christ and to touch the world around you in the power of the Holy Spirit.

- Paul is free from anxiety about his future because he already knows the outcome of his life.

Think about your future.

You will either die for your faith or you won’t.

You will have victory over sin and death in your own life or you won’t.

You will serve Christ with power, real spiritual power or you won’t.

Your choices will either give God glory or they won’t.

Sometimes the decision to do nothing is wise. But you can’t make a career of doing nothing. Freddie Fulcrum weighed everything too carefully. He would say, "On the one hand... but then, on the other," and his arguments weighed out so evenly he never did anything. When Freddie died, they carved a big zero on his tombstone. If you decide to fish -- fine. Or, if you decide to cut bait -- fine. But if you decide to do nothing, you’re not going to have fish for dinner.

-- The Wall Street Journal

If you have trusted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior you already know the outcome of your life. You have made that choice and because of that choice you have been made right with God. He sees you as if you have never sinned. That means you have been justified in God’s sight and he will welcome you into his presence with great joy.

Think of the power in the word Paul used when he said “Consider…”

See your self as if you are already dead to sin. Choose to see things that way. And when you do God’s will for you can be found in Colossians 3:3 “For you died when Christ died and your real life is hidden with God in Christ.”

That is your future. Your real life is your future. And that real life that is waiting for you is safely hidden away with God in Christ. Whatever happens in this life, your real life is waiting for you.

And that is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

In the choices we make we need to seek the will of God.

In the choices we make we need to submit to the will of God.

Once we know His will, we need to surrender to it, and then stand firm in it, not drifting to the right or the left.

God loves us more than we love ourselves. He knows of greater possibilities and more success that we could achieve, if only we’ll seek and follow His plan!

God will not make you do His will. He has given us a free will to choose. He didn’t force Adam and Eve to obey Him, but gave them a choice, and it’s been that way ever since…why? Because God wants people to choose to love, obey, and follow Him,

God’s will for our lives is good, pleasing and perfect. It’s always Right
Romans 12:2 makes this clear: “…that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”

If God’s will is perfect…we will not be able to improve upon it.

If God’s will is perfect and we cannot improve upon it, it will be good for us.

If God’s will is perfect and we cannot improve upon it and it is good for us, then we will be pleased with it.

What then is the will of God for you and your life? By definition:
The will of God is exactly what we would choose for our lives if we had sense enough to choose it.

God has a plan for you and your life. He is going somewhere. Do you want to go with him?