Fearless and Flexible

Thank you for reading so well and for your prayer.

Morning for myself, good to be with you again here at Brunsfield.

Let me give you greetings from Greenview Evangelical Church, a few connections there, including Neil who prayed earlier on.

And also from the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches, FIEC, that's my full-time kind of ministry job.

So greetings from churches and that network.

And maybe I could just highlight a couple of things you could pray for, a couple of church plants.

One that you'll be familiar with, I think, the Abbeymore Church Plant.

Just to update you on that, that started meeting publicly on Sunday afternoons last November, officially.

It meets in the community hub, which is a primary school complex.

And that seems to be going well.

There's about 20 to 30 regulars, I think, going along there.

And it's starting to find its feet.

And this year, hopefully, will be the first full year of normality for it.

The first year where it's been having public services that haven't had a kind of start, stop, and all the kind of restrictions of the last couple of years.

So do pray for Kenny Rogan and the team there.

Also just started a toddlers group in the community midweek.

And they had a great kind of full page kind of article on it in the local newspaper.

So that's going well.

But I pray that it will continue to grow and to be a real central witness in that area.

That's a church plant which was quite organised with kind of lots of churches supporting it and funding it.

And a lot of work went into that.

But another church plant which has started, just kind of popped up a little bit more organically, is in Forth.

Forth is an ex-mining town.

It's between here and Glasgow, out in the kind of Lanarkshire hinterland.

Three and a half thousand people.

There's one kind of church in vacancy there, Church of Scotland.

But there's nothing else by way of gospel witness.

And a small group of about 12 people are meeting in a home there.

They'd like to get a public venue to reach that community.

So do pray for the folks in Forth.

And again, for our support for them in FIEC.

So a couple of church plants just for your prayers.

There's much, much else I could say.

But let's get to the word of God in Acts chapter 21.

Acts 21 · chapter mention

Now the great template for the book of Acts, if you know the book and you've been going through it,

so I'm sure you are, of course is found in chapter 1.

Jesus' instructions that the gospel is to be taken out, starting in Jerusalem,

then to Judea and Samaria, and then to all nations.

And the story of Acts, of course, is that story.

The gospel is first preached on the day of Pentecost in Jerusalem.

It's then taken to the Samaritans, and finally throughout the whole Gentile, non-Jewish world.

And in the previous 20 chapters up until our reading today, that is the story that is unfolding.

It initially is focused on the ministry of Peter and Philip.

Then from Acts chapter 13, the focus turns to Paul and his missionary journeys.

Acts 13 · chapter mention

And it's the story of how the gospel took hold in Asia and then into Europe itself.

Men and women coming to faith, churches being planted, God calling people from all nations.

But as we come to chapter 21, we are approaching another turning point in the book of Acts.

Because chapter 21 will mark the end of Paul's great missionary journeys.

The work of taking the gospel to unreached places will continue, of course, even as it does today.

But not for Paul himself.

Because Acts 21 marks the moment when Paul the missionary becomes Paul the prisoner.

So it's a significant moment for the gospel story, not least for Paul himself.

As we come to this turning point, let's observe two things.

Two features of Paul's ministry that were at the heart of that great first century gospel advance.

Two features that might at first glance seem a bit incongruous, but actually two things that we need to hold on today.

Firstly, Paul was fearless in advancing the gospel.

But secondly, Paul was also flexible in advancing the gospel.

Now we'll unpack what we mean and don't mean by those headings as we go on.

But let me suggest right at the start, those are two aspects of gospel ministry that are really crucial that we hold them together.

Because of course there are churches and there are Christians who are fearless.

They are full on in their convictions.

And we can't fault their commitment, their passion, their readiness to be out of step and to be unpopular.

But in that boldness, they sometimes tip over into a kind of rigidity.

Becoming a bit strident and a little bit narrow.

Increasingly alienated from the very people that they are trying to reach.

On the other hand, of course, we know there are churches and Christians who are very flexible.

Always looking to accommodate others, to kind of fit in well.

Desperate to be as un-off-putting as possible.

But in that desire to be accessible can end up watering down some really important truths.

Giving away things that the Bible tells us to hold on to.

So let's get into the text.

At the end of chapter 20, your last time in Acts, you remember Paul made his tearful farewell to the Ephesian elders.

And if you just flick back to chapter 20, you'll see there that he tells the Ephesian elders about his desire to get back to Jerusalem.

Verse 22.

Notice that for Paul, this appointment in Jerusalem is something that the Holy Spirit is compelling him to do.

Now one reason he wanted to go there, we know from other parts of the Bible in Acts,

was to take a gift from the non-Jewish churches to the poor churches in Judea.

That's the gift that he writes about in 2 Corinthians chapter 9.

2 Corinthians 9 · chapter mention

He mentions it in chapter 24 of Acts.

Another reason, of course, was to go to Jerusalem to report on his missionary work.

That's what he does there in chapter 21 and verse 19.

Paul greeted them and reported in detail what God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry.

So there are some very practical reasons for Paul wanting to get to Jerusalem.

But I think as we stand back, we can also understand there might be even bigger reasons why Paul was really keen to get back to Jerusalem.

Because there are two big plot points in the book of Acts as you go through it.

The first, of course, is the spread of the gospel geographically, moving out of Jerusalem to the ends of the earth.

And the story of Acts records something of the adventure of that.

But secondly, the second big plot point is the theological challenge for the gospel.

The challenge for it to move out of Judaism.

The challenge for it to be more than just a Jewish sect, but to be a message for the whole world.

And the threat to that in Acts particularly comes from certain Jewish Christians who still felt very bound to Old Testament laws and rituals.

And throughout the book of Acts and in Paul's letters, we see that battle being played out, don't we?

The ultra-conservative Jewish converts who insisted that Christians should embrace a Jewish way of life.

Diet, circumcision, religious festivals.

And against whom Paul and the apostles recognized that those things were actually fulfilled in Christ.

They were only ever intended to be signposts to the real thing, Jesus himself.

That gospel salvation was about one thing and one thing only, faith in Jesus.

But that was a cause that, of course, Paul, more than anybody in the early church, took the flack for.

So going back to Jerusalem, where opposition to that gospel was strongest,

to the gospel that Paul had been in the lead and proclaiming,

we can imagine was something that Paul would feel very, very deeply about.

Feel it was essential almost that he should go there and show face.

And explain himself to make sure that the gospel of faith alone and Christ alone was defended in the very place

where it was potentially most vulnerable to being undermined.

But notice that Paul is well aware of the risks involved in returning to Jerusalem.

Saw that in chapter 20, didn't we?

I just read the Holy Spirit warning him about hardships and prison.

It's a danger and threat in chapter 21, which is confirmed in two subsequent warnings.

Verse 4 of chapter 21,

We sought out the disciples there and stayed with them seven days.

Through the Spirit, they urged Paul not to go on to Jerusalem.

Through the Spirit.

And then further on, verse 10, there's Agabus, this prophet.

A prophet named Agabus came down from Judea, coming over to us.

He took Paul's belt, tied his own hands and feet with it and said,

The Holy Spirit says,

In this way, the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem will bind the owner of this belt

and will hand them over to the Gentiles.

When we heard this, we and the people there pleaded with Paul not to go to Jerusalem.

What do we make of these two things?

Because Paul then insists that he must go, whatever the consequences.

Verse 13,

Then Paul answered,

Why are you weeping and breaking my heart?

I am not ready only to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.

When he would not be dissuaded, we gave up and said,

The Lord's will be done.

Some have actually argued that Paul's determination to go to Jerusalem was actually foolhardy,

maybe even disobedient.

After all, he seems to be getting all these Spirit-filled warnings not to go.

And yet, on the other hand, of course, in chapter 20,

he himself describes this need to go to Jerusalem as something that the Holy Spirit is compelling him to do.

So how do we make sense of this?

Well, firstly, I think there's two observations.

Firstly, the warnings are genuine.

We'll see them being dramatically filled, or you'll see them being dramatically filled as you go on into Acts.

But secondly,

Paul's determination to go,

I think, is showing us

a very vivid illustration of the fact

that avoiding suffering is not a gospel priority.

We can understand the concern of Paul's fellow Christians to protect,

and that's very natural, isn't it, if you care about somebody.

But equally, we know that being a Christian is not a call for a trouble-free life.

You see, Paul's big concern wasn't his comfort,

wasn't even his personal safety.

It was the advancement of the gospel.

And being able to defend the gospel,

and if being able to defend the gospel

caused him difficulties,

then as far as Paul was concerned,

so be it.

And let me suggest,

we need some of that fearlessness today,

don't we?

I need that fearlessness today.

One of the most insidious,

indeed devilish,

attacks on the gospel

is the prosperity gospel.

The idea that God's blessings

will equate to being rich or healthy

or just having an easy, problem-free life.

So if you have hardships in life,

well, that must be due to a lack of faith

or perhaps even God's displeasure.

It's a teaching that is not only unbiblical,

but it is pastorally devastating.

Somebody comes along to your Christianity course

and they hear the message

and they embrace it.

But guess what?

Six months later,

their partner is still horrible.

They still get made redundant.

They still get cancer

and so they walk away

because obviously Christianity is not true in that case

or it's not true for me.

I remember one person years ago

who discovered that their new house

had got dry rot.

And they said,

but we prayed for guidance

before we bought it.

We must have got God's will wrong.

As if God's will must be

for us all to find a perfect house

without any DIY problems.

Maybe it's exactly God's will

for you or I

to have a house for dry rot,

to humble us,

to stretch us,

to sanctify us,

to test our hearts.

What is it that is most important to us

in life?

The Bible is clear,

isn't it,

that to be a Christian

is to take up a cross.

That's the expectation set by Jesus himself

that if you're a follower of his,

you should expect to face suffering and trial.

And of course,

there are many places in the world tonight

where if you want an easier life,

the very last thing you should do

is become a Christian.

Increasingly for us in the UK,

indeed for some time now,

biblical Christianity

is losing

and has lost much of its old

cultural respectability.

To be a Christian,

that is to be a Bible-believing Christian,

is increasingly to be thought of

by many parts of society

as just, well,

a kind of despised minority.

To say that Jesus Christ

is the only way to God

is to be narrow-minded,

to live by biblical standards of holiness

is to be weird.

To believe the Bible is God's word

and to stand by its teachings

is to be oppressive.

So to believe and live out the gospel

and be warned

is to open yourself up

to problems and difficulties,

potential loss,

friends, advancement.

So like Paul,

we'll need to be clear-minded

and fearless for whatever comes.

I'm going down to a conference in Wales

start of the week.

I'm doing a seminar

on the church and the state

post-COVID.

And one of the issues there

is how do we wrestle

with some of the proposals

of new laws and legislation

which are kind of seeming to be squeezing

our Christian liberties

and kind of antithetical to our faith

and how can we get protection against them

and how can we mitigate

the worst effects

of some of these proposals.

And it's good to do that

and we're so thankful

for Christian organisations

that are in the forefront

of making those cases.

But of course,

there comes a point,

doesn't there,

when there are no longer

any workarounds,

when all the exemptions

are exhausted

and we just have to face

the fact that the Bible

doesn't promise us

a persecution-free life.

Now, I'm saying this here,

it sounds great, doesn't it?

I'm not a very fearless person.

I don't like confrontation.

I cower away

at these kind of things.

So I need to pray

for that courage

and bigger vision

in my life

as I look forward.

To remind myself

that what really matters

is really valuable,

is really lasting,

is not temporary comfort,

is not avoiding

hardships and sufferings ahead,

but the honour of Jesus Christ,

the proclamation of the gospel,

whatever that might entail.

And so Paul was fearless

in advancing the gospel.

But there's another side

to this, of course,

because just as he was fearless,

he was not intransigent.

He did not just disregard

other people's sensitivities.

He was flexible.

Paul's wasn't a kind of blunt,

unthinking,

it's my way

or the highway approach.

Paul was prepared

to accommodate others

to be flexible

where that would remove

unnecessary obstacles

to the gospel

or cause needless offence.

Which takes us

to the second part

of the chapter,

verse 17 onwards.

Paul arrives

in Jerusalem

and while James

and the Jerusalem elders

are delighted

to hear about his work

among the Gentiles there,

not everybody

is quite so thrilled

because rumours

that are circulating.

It's so real life,

isn't it?

Jewish Christians

still wedded to the law,

verse 20.

We're hearing stories

that Paul was undermining

Judaism.

Stories that Paul

was telling Jewish Christians

to ditch their Jewish heritage.

Verse 21.

You see, brother,

how many thousands

of Jews have believed

and all of them

are zealous for the law.

they have been informed

that you teach

all the Jews

who live among the Gentiles

to turn away from Moses,

telling them not

to circumcise their children

or live according

to our customs.

Paul, what's going on?

Are you going round

telling people,

Jewish Christians,

to eat bacon,

to play golf

on a Saturday?

And notice in verse 25

as you go down,

it's not,

the problem wasn't so much

that Gentile Christians

weren't complying

with the law.

That seemed to kind of

be accepted

that Gentile Christians

wouldn't wholeheartedly

embrace Judaism.

There were just a few

restrictions there.

The Acts 15 stuff

isn't there

about abstaining food

from sacrifice

to idols

and from blood

and from sexual immorality.

But rather that Paul

was teaching people

who had been Jewish,

who were Jewish Christians,

that they should now

live like Gentiles.

One writer points out,

however,

that although Paul

wasn't preaching that,

it was probably

an inevitable outcome

of the gospel

being preached.

Because any Christian,

Jewish or otherwise,

would begin to question

the need after time

for such traditions.

As their faith

in Jesus deepened,

so attachment

to those old ways

would wane.

As they would see

that all of them

had been fulfilled

in Christ.

Now,

we know from Paul's letters

that he was actually

relatively relaxed

about secondary customs.

Sabbath keeping,

Paul's pretty legalistic

about,

pretty non-legalistic

about that,

either way.

As long,

and only as long,

as there was no suggestion

that such customs

were required

for salvation,

salvation,

or in some way

essential for you

to live as a holy

follower of Jesus Christ.

In that sense,

Paul was quite pragmatic.

He would eat kosher food

when he was in

Jewish company.

He writes to the church

in Rome

not to eat certain foods

if that's going to cause

other people offense.

He was happy

for Timothy

to be circumcised

in order to open up

gospel opportunities

among that community.

equally,

however,

he refuses

to let Titus

be circumcised

because that was

being demanded

as necessary

for salvation.

And at that point,

it was no longer

about cultural sensitivity,

but people were trying

to add to the gospel itself.

So back to chapter 21.

To cut a slightly

complicated story short,

what happens is

that in order

to reassure

Jewish Christians

in Jerusalem

that he wasn't

going around

trashing the law,

Paul agrees

to take part

in a Jewish

purification rite

with four other men.

Verse 24.

Probably a kind of

Nazarite vow

where they'd abstain

for certain things

for a period

and then there'd be

a little ceremony

at the end of that time

to kind of acknowledge

they had completed

their vow,

whatever that might involve,

maybe to pray for something.

Now this seems strange

to us, doesn't it?

It seems pretty

counterintuitive to us

that Paul

would do something

like that.

Indeed,

some people argue

that Paul makes

a genuine misstep here,

that he is buckling

under pressure

in a way that he

shouldn't have done

and he takes part

in something

that actually was wrong.

I guess we'll never

100% know

because Acts

doesn't comment

either way

on the right or wrong

of this particular

incident.

But it would seem

strange,

let me suggest,

that somebody

who was as fearless

as Paul

evidently was

and continues

to be

throughout the rest

of Acts

would knowingly

go against

his conscience.

I rather suspect,

although

I can't be sure,

that for Paul

this was not

something

that he saw

was compromising

the gospel

and that it

neither added

a requirement

to faith in Jesus

or undermined

faith in Jesus.

But it was

simply a way

of showing respect,

reassuring

fellow Jewish

Christians

that he was not

about rubbishing

their consciences

or sensibilities.

Perhaps

it's an example

and practice

of Paul's

willingness

to be flexible

that he talks

about in

1 Corinthians

1 Corinthians 9 · chapter mention

chapter 9.

We know the

passage well,

don't we?

Though I am

free and belong

to no one,

I have made

myself a slave

to everyone

to win as

many as

possible.

To the Jews

I became

like a Jew.

To those

under the law

I became

like one

under the law

though I am

myself not

under the law.

So as to win

those under the law,

to those

having the law,

to those not

having the law,

I became like

one not

having the law.

Though I am

not free

from God's

law but

I am under

Christ's law

so as to win

those not

having the law.

To the weak

I became weak

to win the weak.

I become all

things to all

people so that

by all possible

means I might

save some.

I do this

for the sake

of the gospel

that I may

share in

its blessings.

So if Paul

was going to

meet a friend

at a mosque

today,

he would take

his shoes off.

If he was

invited for

a celebration

at a synagogue,

he would wear

a skull cap.

If he was a

missionary in

India, he

wouldn't eat

beef.

And that of

course remains a

challenge for us,

doesn't it?

The easy

thought is to

retreat or to

create a kind

of Christian

subculture,

to become a

bit culturally

detached.

That's

understandable because

there's so much

in society which

is kind of

threatening and

feels unwholesome.

person.

But our

desire to be

morally and

spiritually

different can,

if we're not

careful, lead to

a kind of

ghetto mentality.

We can hang

on to the

cultural trappings

of eras when

we thought things

were just a bit

more Christian

generally.

I became a

Christian in my

teens, non-Christian

background, and I

went to a small

mission hall in

Glasgow.

great godly

people, but it

was from a

bygone era, even

then.

You were walking

into church as it

was in the

1930s.

There was a

sense in which

people conflated

the culture, the

trappings of the

1930s with the

blessings of the

1930s.

When we sang

these type of

hymns, God

blessed us, so

we need to hang

on to these hymns

because then God

might bless us

again.

When we wore

these type of

clothes, the

churches were

full.

So we need to

wear those

kinds of

clothes and

then God

might fill the

churches again.

Of course, the

two things were

very incidental.

God wasn't

blessing the

church because

people were

singing with an

accordion or

something as

opposed to a

guitar.

It's a great

church, a great

place to cut my

teeth.

But the danger

was, looking

back, that we

were just in

danger of creating

a slight gospel

plus mentality.

Not just

enough to be

saved.

We never

have denied

that, of

course, but

you really need

to adopt our

social customs

in order to

really be

acceptable.

Now, of

course, just

being a

Christian will

mean that people

think you're a

bit weird.

Just deal with

that.

Get over it.

You know, having

faith, talking

about Jesus, going

to church, it's

just a bit odd

today for a lot

of people.

But let's be as

normal and

open and

culturally connected

as we can be in

all those non-essential

things.

So if people are

offended and put

off, it will be by

the gospel and not

by us.

Now, of course, as

Paul would find out

in the next part of

the chapter, sometimes

you just can't win.

He gets accused of

the very thing he was

trying to knock on

the head.

Even that, in

God's providence,

became an opportunity

to proclaim Jesus.

Another example of

how God can use

plans gone wrong

in surprising ways.

But in summary, as

we finish and we

leave Paul here in

this part of

Acts chapter 21,

Acts 21 · chapter mention

we leave Paul in

his final days as a

free man, let's

pray that in our

time we will follow

people in those

New Testament

footsteps.

That we will be

people who are

fearless, ready to

go, ready to

suffer for the sake

of making Jesus

known.

We won't hold

back, retreat from

doing the right

thing just because

we think it might

cause us difficulties.

But in that, we'll

also be people who

are flexible, more

interested in

converts than

customs.

And in those

ways, as in the

first century, the

good news of the

gospel might once

again fill our

communities and

nation.

God bless these

thoughts from his

words.