Acts - Week 13 (21:1-21)

This is ERC Sundays, the messages at Emmaus Rd.

Church in DeWitt, Iowa. ERC is a Church of people

striving to grow in Jesus and make him known to others through

our faith, words and actions. Find out more about our church

at emmausrdonline.org. Here's this week's message.

We get started this morning we to just run us backwards a

little bit. We have been in the book of Acts

for quite some time and it's been an interesting ride so far.

We've watched the church multiply through through means

that on the surface look really great.

You know, just people getting to meet Jesus for the first time.

But we've also seen the church multiply in ways that on the

surface don't look so great. It looks like dispersion and it

looks like people getting kicked out of places and they're in

danger and all these kinds of things.

But we recognize then that God acts.

He does his good. No matter what is happening in

the world. There is nothing that can

dissuade him or stopping him from his mission and doing the

good that he knows he wants to do.

And that ultimate good is making Jesus known.

That is our mission here. In fact, it's to know Jesus and

to make him known. And so God is doing that through

any means necessary, both what we would say, good or bad.

And it's been, it's been interesting to watch that

happen. In particular, last week, Pastor

Matt, he did, gosh, I'm not trying to blow him up, but I

think he did a masterful job teaching us the importance

through Paul's story, through his life, the importance of

speaking God's word. No matter what we saw, we saw

the early stages of, of Paul doing just that, even if even at

the cost of his life, even when he's in danger and all these

sorts of things. And we know that Paul did this

for the better part of 20 years. And so even though we've been

working through the series for probably, I think it's going to

be almost 20 weeks by the time it's said and done, we have to

also recognize that the number of years that this is spanning

is pretty substantial. And over those years, Paul has

dealt with hardship that we could probably only imagine, but

we'd probably prefer not to being whipped and being stoned

and being thrown in prison and riots and everything in between.

He's experienced these things. Yet one thing remains steadfast

and true, the word of God. And he's preaching it with

boldness and courage. And there's, there's been

nothing to stop him yet because and that, and that's the point

when God gets involved, doesn't matter what people do, he's

going to do what he wants to do. And on our best days, we want to

be involved in that. We want to be involved in that.

And so I would, I would tell you this morning that that's part of

part of our call as Christians. And that's, and we'll get to

that in a, in a bigger sense today, but is absolutely our job

or our call to be ambassadors for Jesus Christ.

If we know Christ, if we confess him as our Lord and Savior man,

we ought to want to make him known right now.

I know how awkward that is sometimes.

And we've had some of these talks already through the book

of Acts. But we have to keep pressing in.

We have to keep pressing in because the the world as you

know, it is not a safe place. It is not a place where

Christianity is all out accepted.

There's danger to it and we have to accept that.

We have to be OK with that. How do we make ourselves OK with

that? How do we work through that?

Well, over the next two weeks, Paul is going to help us figure

that out. I'll tell you right now that

what I'm going to tell you today, it's actually part one of

two. I would consider the next two

weeks really just one big topic and one big sermon.

And I would love to deliver all of that to you today.

But you have lunch plans. I'm sure you have places you

need to go. And so we're going to break up

really this moment in Paul's life, we're going to break it up

into two different sermons. And so when we read the text

today, it's going to feel like we're leaving off on a bit of a

cliffhanger. And that's by design.

Otherwise we'd be here longer than maybe your stomach would

allow you to be. So let me say this too before,

before we get to the text, one of the things that's really true

about us as people in our faith is how we respond to the

pressures of fitting in and not speaking the name of Jesus, how

we respond. What that will do if you're

paying attention, is it will tell you something about what

you believe about God and what you believe about your future,

right? So if I believe that God is how

all powerful, holy and he always has my best in mind and and that

my future is secure no matter what happens to me, no matter

what happens in the inside the relationships that I have on

this earth. If I believe that God has me

securely fastened to his grace and he will give me life, man,

it makes those conversations that I may not normally want to

have. It makes them a lot easier, but

I have to ground myself in that reality that God is my ultimate

reality. His grace is my ultimate

reality. The life that he wants to give

me is, is ultimate reality. And then everything else, I

think, as Matt said last week, tends to grow strangely dim and

it makes those things a lot easier.

It makes those conversations way more accessible.

And so I would, I would encourage you as you, as you

listen, as you listen to the story of Paul today, have these

things in the back of your head, have these things in mind.

Because I'm sure, very practically speaking, I'm sure

that we all have friends and family that man, we would, we

would love them to know Jesus the way that we do.

And there's something that is hindering us from having those

conversations, you know. So take that in for what you

want for now. But as we hear the story of Paul

and, and what he's going to do and the hardship that he'll go

through in order to do it, I hope it's inspiring, but not

inspiring like a Ted Talk, like, Oh yeah, I'm feeling really good

now. And and then later we get

scared. No, it should be inspiring in

the sense that we see the God that Paul sees and we know he's

powerful and we know he's for us, right?

And that can really shape the way we speak to people and how

we live. So let me give you a sense of

where we're going today. We're going to look at this text

ultimately through three lenses, being bound by the spirit, being

free from the law. And then we will see how 1

broken heart heals them all. Gosh, that when I wrote that, I

was like that rhymes. And that feels a little silly,

but it's true. It's true.

These are these are the ways that God is working through the

text that we're going to read today.

So sorry about the Doctor, Seuss, but it'll be OK.

Yeah, let's let's go ahead and read the text for today.

We're in Acts chapter 21. We'll read verses 7 through 14

Acts 21 · chapter mention

and then 17 through 22 reading in Jesus name.

When we had finished the voyage from Tyre, we arrived at

Ptolemais, and we greeted the brothers and stayed with them

for one day. On the next day we departed and

we came to Caesarea, and we entered the House of Philip the

Evangelist, who was one of the seven, and stayed with him.

He had four unmarried daughters who prophesied.

While we were staying for many days, a prophet named Agabus

came down from Judea, and coming to us he took Paul's belt, and

he bound his own feet in his, in his hands.

And he said, Thus says the 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 Gentiles. When we heard this, we and the

people there urged him not to go up to Jerusalem.

Then Paul answered, What are you doing?

We've been in breaking my heart. For I am ready not only to be

imprisoned, but even to die in Jerusalem for the name of our

Lord Jesus. And since he would not be

persuaded, we ceased and said, Let the will of the Lord be

done. When he had come to Jerusalem,

the brothers received us gladly. On the following day Paul.

Paul went in with in with us to James, and all the elders were

present. After grieving them, he related

1 by 1 the things that God had done among the Gentiles through

his ministry. And when they heard it, they

glorified God, and they said to him, You see, brother, how many

thousands there are among the Jews of those who have believed,

and they are zealous for the law.

And they have been told about you, that you teach all the Jews

who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, telling them not

to circumcise their children or walk according to our customs.

What then is to be done? They will certainly hear that

you have come. Here ends the reading of God's

Word. This is this is quite a moment

that Paul is living with. And what I again, I think one of

the things that we're going to learn right out of the gate in,

in the sense of being bound by the Holy Spirit is that when we

are bound to our convictions that are pushed to us by God,

that can actually change the world.

Let me give you a couple examples of how that works.

In 1775, Benjamin Talmadge said at the beginning of the

Revolutionary War that our holy religion, the honor of our God,

a glorious country, and a happy Constitution is what we have to

defend. Nathan Hale was so inspired that

he went on to become a spy for America during the Revolutionary

War, and this is what he said about his conviction.

I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.

Wow. You see what being bound to a

conviction can do for a person, how they can change the world.

It's fascinating. Let me give you another one,

Rosa Parks in 1955, she had the audacity to sit on the bus in a

seat where a white person wanted to sit, and when they told her

to move, she refused. How dare her.

She was bound by the belief that all people, regardless of race

are made in the image of God. She was bound to that conviction

and because of that she refused to give up a seat on the bus.

She would later go on to say stand for something or you will

fall for anything. Today's mighty oak is

yesterday's nut that held its ground.

Small decisions can change big things.

They really can, especially when we are so bound to the

convictions of our hearts that God puts there.

Let me give you one more. This is much more recent.

John MacArthur, pastor in California, who just very

recently died during COVID. What happened was California

shut down everything, shut down everything.

Places of worship, all of it. Didn't matter who you were, what

you were, what kind of thing you were, you were not allowed to

gather whatsoever. And after 20 weeks, 20 weeks of

not being able to worship with his people, John MacArthur and

his church had enough and they defied the mandate because they

were bound to their conviction. And this is what they said.

The church by definition is an assembly.

That is the literal meaning of the Greek word for church

ecclesia, the assembly of the called out ones.

A non assembling assembly is a contradiction in terms.

Christians are therefore commanded not to forsake the

practice of meeting together, and no earthly state has the

right to restrict, delimit, or forbid the assembling of

believers. John MacArthur and his church

went on to battle lawsuits from the state and from LA County

because of their biblical convictions.

Now let me tell you the end of that story because it makes me

happy. The end of this story is that LA

County in the state of California had to pay back that

church over $400,000 in legal fees because they were wrong,

but they were bound to their convictions.

That God says we are to meet together.

We are to be a community regardless of the danger.

We are to be a community of believers together, not

separate. That's important.

That's really important. Now what I want you to notice is

that being bound to, to a conviction, especially when it's

led by the Holy Spirit, it can absolutely change the entire

world. And most of us don't think of us

as world changers. I suspect we live in our, we, we

live in our own kind of happy little community or happy little

bubble. And most of the time for us, it

is enough that we have influence over our our kids to whatever

degree that, you know, we're trying to push them into what we

know and think is good and true. And usually we, we were OK with

stopping right there. But God in the Holy Spirit is

never OK with stopping right there.

He has so many bigger plans than we could ever imagine.

His his ideas are so much more grand than what we're willing to

admit. I think sometimes because we

don't want to get involved in something that's as scary as

changing the world. Right.

Well, let me let me read something back to you that we

just caught in the text. This guy, Agnes, he came down

from Judea and he did this really interesting illustration.

He took off the belt around Paul's waist, waist, which was

probably a rope or some kind of cloth.

And then what he did was he literally bound himself up right

to, to prove the point that this is what's going to happen to

Paul. Now, I really thought about it.

I'm not joking. I thought about doing that to

myself on this stage. Now, what's more weird about it

is I practiced. I did, I did, I I didn't even

tell my wife that yet. I was, I was sitting in my

office and I had a belt on. So I kind of kneeled down and

like working this thing and I'm like, oh man, this works Like,

and then like, you know, I had to turn my hand in a very

awkward position to get myself out.

I thought about entertaining you guys and doing that, but I

decided better of that. Sorry if that is a

disappointment to you, but at least you know, I tried.

I did it. I'm just glad I could get out

because I was alone anyway. I'm sorry, I'm sorry that is

that is me going off the rails. But here's here's the thing

about being bound to these convictions.

I would tell you from the experience of somebody who's

been a Christian for somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 years

now that there seems to be this tension, right?

There's this tension between what does it look like to be

holy and set apart and have personal responsibility.

You can read Ezekiel 18 all about personal responsibility

when it comes to the law. And then on the other side, we

have grace, we have the gospel, we have this amazing thing that

God has given us that sets us free.

I can tell you too that for my part, it has been easy, but in

some ways to become the law abiding Pharisee at certain

points in my life. You know, if you read Timothy

and Titus and some of these New Testament books, you can say,

OK, here's the list. This is how I'm going to live.

I'm going to nail this thing and I'm going to be really good.

And then I've also become the kind of laissez faire Christian

who clearly believes in cheap grace.

Well, it's fine. I mean, I know I wasn't supposed

to do that, but God loves me. I know he definitely forgives

me. It's going to be OK.

Oh my gosh, friends, I suspect somewhere in the middle of those

two things is the truth. Now, I would tell you that

because of our cultural moment that we live in and sometimes

what I think is our lack of biblical understanding of of law

and gospel, it is really easy to fall one side or the other.

Now, Paul, for his part, he is being hunted down by people who

are absolutely zealous for the law.

They've come into this place and well, let me, let me give you,

let me skip forward a little bit.

They've come into this place and they are so zealous for the law

that they are outright accusing Paul of things that he hasn't

done. And that's hard to do.

I don't know about you guys, but when you're accused of something

that you haven't done, that probably doesn't feel great,

does it? No, come on, give me something.

No, in fact, it tends to make us incredibly angry and it makes us

bitter and, and, and it breaks relationships, doesn't it?

I absolutely know that to be true.

And so these people who are incredibly zealous for the law

and saying that Paul has forsaken Moses and the customs

and all these kinds of things, what it what is he supposed to

do about that? What's he supposed to do?

I mean, I'm sorry, we don't have the Internet at this point.

We don't have newspapers. He can't get on a blog, he can't

get on Facebook and kind of lay out his, his agenda.

He can't do any of those things. So what's he supposed to do?

He's got a pack of people who are ready to kill him.

And, and I mean, he is bound. He is bound to the desires of

the Holy Spirit. And so I got to tell you,

friends, when we are bound to the desires of the Holy Spirit,

here's what it might cost us. It might cost us relationally,

it might cost us socially, It might cost us financially.

All of these things are true. That is the reality of being

bound to what the Spirit is calling us to do.

Now I have to tell you, I have failed many times.

So many times the prompting of God is there to speak the name

of Jesus, to walk it out. And I shrink back.

I shrink back, I get small. I would tell you that some of

the greatest regrets of my life are those moments.

It is when I know that God has prompted a conversation.

God has prompted me to speak the law or grace into somebody's

life, and I just come just short of speaking Jesus.

Those are moments that I deeply regret.

I really do. And it's not because I'm a

pastor and I feel like I failed at my job, which maybe I did,

but it's because I know the reality.

Of grace inside Jesus Christ. And I know that when Christians

are bound by the Holy Spirit to speak, it has the ability to not

just change somebody's moment or change their status, it has the

ability to change their entire eternity.

And I can't think of something more important than that, can

you? And so again, it's, it's

difficult for us to sit here and say, OK, I am, I'm I'm going to

be bound to the Holy Spirit. I'm going to speak when God

tells me to speak. And I'm at the cost of social or

financial or relational like I'm going to walk out of here.

I'm going to start doing that today.

Can I tell you that is motivating and spurred on as we

are now. It will feel different when you

leave this building. It really will.

And so you will absolutely need, if we are to fulfill God's

mission, if we are to be truly bound by the Spirit, we will

absolutely need that Spirit to be alive and well in US.

What does that look like, man? Friends, I got to tell you that

that looks like a lot of prayer. It looks like a lot of time

alone with God. It looks like being in His Word

as much as we possibly can so that our vocabulary changes.

You see the what? What I fill myself with, and I'm

sure you've heard this before, but the thing that I fill myself

with is the thing that I will also put out.

So again, not, not a law heavy thing, but just just an

observation and a question. What are we filling ourselves

with? Because it's going to come out

whatever that is. I like TV shows and movies and

entertainment as much as anybody, but man, if that's what

I'm consistently feeling myself with, that's all I got.

And that won't be enough. It won't be enough to give me

courage and strength when I need it most for the most important

conversation that I can have with somebody.

It just won't be enough. Now, I, I should keep moving on,

but I and I don't have time. I don't have time today to deal

with the fear factor. You might say, like, so I'm

afraid to talk about Jesus. How do I deal with that?

We don't have time to get into that today, but I promise Part

2, we'll talk about it next week as we continue on in Paul's

story. We'll definitely, we will

absolutely 100% get into how do we deal with this fear of, of

people rather than living in the fear of God.

We'll come to that. But for now, at least for the

next week, it's worth it to take the time to examine ourselves in

a couple different ways and just say, Lord, am I feeling myself

with the right things? Am I having the right

conversations? It's a good start and we all

have to start somewhere, so why not there?

Anyway, let's keep going. I've got this text in front of

you and, and yes, walking this line between holiness and, and

cheap grace and all these kinds of things, it's a tough thing to

do, right? It's, it's, it can be incredibly

difficult. And I'll, I'll tell you what, I

want to put it to you this way. I think one of the best ways to

do this is OK, got it. Here's how we do this.

Let me give you the way, the best way to kind of work in

between this holiness that God calls us to and also this grace

that He calls us to and living right in those things is to look

at our motivations. It's to look at our motivation.

So let me give you an example that I think works.

And if it doesn't work, you can tell me afterwards or you can

just shout at me right now and we'll have a good time.

We'll figure it out either way. But let me give you an example

that I think works. OK, so if I am doing something

really good for my wife, for her sake, why am I doing it?

Couple motivational tools could be in play.

I could be doing it because I don't, no offense.

Oh my gosh, I have to be so careful.

I know. Let me walk so gently here.

If I'm doing something for her, but my motivation is I don't

want to get an argument. I don't want to see a look of I

don't want to see her roll, roll her eyes if she comes home and

this thing isn't done. So I'll I'll just do it.

OK, That's one motivation. Another motivation could be,

well, I'm going to do this thing for my wife because you know

what, she'll be really happy and she'll owe me.

Guys, you know what I'm talking about.

I don't have to spell it out. You know what I'm talking about.

And women, so do you. It doesn't take long for you to

see through that, right? I'm sure those there's two

possible motivations for loving her well.

But as we think about the law, let's let's put this over there.

If I am following God's law because I see I perceive God as

somebody who's going to be angry with me and somebody who's going

to yell at me and somebody who's going to strike me down.

If that's why I'm doing the law, I'm not doing the law.

I'm not following God's way of life for the right reasons.

I'm doing it out of this unnatural and unhealthy fear of

Him. That's the wrong reason.

That's the wrong motivation. So I could be a perfectly

righteous person on the outside, but if I'm doing it for the

reason of I don't want God to be mad at me, that's not the right

heart position. Or in the other case, if I'm

doing this because I think I can make God really happy and now

he'll owe me, that's a dangerous place to be in.

I don't think I want God to owe me if I feel that way, man, I

have, I have fallen off a pretty steep ledge theologically and

and that's pretty dangerous, but a lot of people live that way.

They say, you know what? I've lived a really good life.

I, I've, I've, I've honored God. I've given this much money to

the church, I've volunteered, I've done all these things and

God owes me a good life. Why am I getting sick?

He owes me. I've done everything he wanted

me to do. This isn't fair.

Now let's talk a bit about a different motivation that's

better for the law. If I'm going to follow God's law

and I'm going to exercise some personal holiness, what if it's

because I just love him? And the example with a spouse,

if I do something nice for her just because I love her, you

know what's going to happen? She may not even notice.

She may not even notice. She maybe she had a day and I

did all this stuff that normally that she might normally do, but

I did it because I love her and she doesn't even notice.

And you know what, That doesn't hurt me at all.

That doesn't break my heart at all because I'm not looking for

credit. I just want to serve.

That's the motivation to be right with God.

That's the motivation to do the law to to honor him, to honor

our neighbor and all the things that the law says.

That's the reason why we should do it because we love him, not

to get something out of him, not to avoid, you know, the

argument, but just because we love him.

And that's the thing. When we can get to that point in

our relationship with God, it changes us.

We are more joyful people. We are more giving people.

We are more forgiving people. It absolutely changes the way we

think. And so if you are not to that

point in your relationship with God yet and you still feel like,

man, I got to do this thing, he's going to be mad.

I mean, like, Oh my gosh, friends, help yourself out.

Dig into the Gospels, dig into what God says about Jesus Christ

and how he's died for you and let your motivations change a

little bit. And I suspect you will be a more

joyful person and you'll be a person who doesn't look at

Christianity as a job. Well, I got to go to church, I

guess. Come on.

No Change your motivations by knowing who he is and falling in

love with him in his word and through the Holy Spirit.

You can absolutely do that. And I know that for a fact

because I have and it's changed me.

So I got to keep moving forward. I think I'm running out of time.

So let's get to kind of this last idea that there is one

broken heart to heal them all. And here's how this goes.

Paul, he answered, What are you doing?

Weeping and breaking my heart? What are you doing?

So Paul, bound by the conviction of the Holy Spirit and free in

Christ, right? He is free in Christ.

It's not that he's not honoring the law, but he is free in

Christ. Those two things can coexist.

Although the people who hate him don't think that.

But in all of this, his friends, the people who love him the

most, they say don't go, don't go.

Agabus isn't wrong. If you leave, we'll never see

you again. Don't go.

It breaks his heart. I remember, and I have to be

careful because I don't want to be all weepy on stage, but I

remember what it was like when Lisa and I made the decision for

our family to to leave and go to seminary.

You know, some of you know my story really well and so forgive

me, but when we decided that when we were prompted and bound

by the Holy Spirit and his call on our lives, it meant that we

had to change careers. It meant that we had to move out

of the house that we just bought.

It meant that we had to move away from this church.

It meant that we had to move away from our family and our

friends. And I have little doubt, no, in

fact, I have no doubt that the people closest to me, some of my

family members said don't go. I remember that.

Don't do it. There's a different way.

Serve your church in a different way.

You can be a Christian without being a pastor, which is true,

which is true. But that wasn't what God had

bound me to. And so I remember maybe maybe

one of the most heartbreaking moments of my life, Alyssa was

already gone. She was in Fergus Falls kind of

getting the house ready for me and the kids and my brother

followed us to the gas station car packed up, kids in the back

and ready to change our entire lives.

And driving away was one of the hardest things I ever did.

My kids are crying in the back. I'm trying to drive and put my

eyes don't have windshield wipers, you know, and, and, and

I look back and I can see my brother's my best friend.

He won't get in his car. He's just watching.

He's just watching. Oh my gosh, friends, I know what

it means to have your heart broken by following God's

prompting. I know what that means.

God knows what that means too. He absolutely knows what it

means to have his heart broken. When Jesus was praying in the

Garden of Gethsemane the night before he was crucified, he

asked, he begged, Lord, if there's any other way, can't we

do this some other way? Nope, Nope, we can't.

Your will be done. And then on the cross says Jesus

was dying. The Bible reminds us that God

turn his back on his Son. How heartbreaking.

How heartbreaking. How could he do it?

He could do it at the expense of his own heart, that's how.

But at that expense, God has healed your heart.

I know it doesn't always feel that way.

I know we still experience pain and trauma and hard things.

But God has healed your heart. He has made it so there is no

sin that exists in there that can separate you and Him for all

of eternity. He has healed you.

And because He has healed you and He will call you home

because He has made you right. Because He has sacrificed His

Son, because His heart was broken so that yours could be

mended. You don't have anything to be

afraid of. Can I tell you that honestly?

You don't have anything to be afraid of.

I mean, what could we possibly worry about if God has healed

our hearts and guarantees our eternal existence?

What? What is there to fear?

The answer is there is nothing left to fear because we have

God, we have Jesus Christ, we have the the lover of our souls

who promises to bring us home. There's nothing left to fear,

friends. There is only freedom left.

And so to the extent, to the degree that you understand that

freedom and you see how God's heart has been broken so that

yours can be healed, to that same degree, these

conversations, and they sure do get a lot easier.

And I know that to be true too. They get a lot easier and the

prompting of God's Spirit when He calls us to move or to stay

or to speak or to stay silent. Those things get far easier to

when I have the joy of the Lord in my heart.

Friends, find it. It's right there.

If you haven't experienced that in your life, find it.

It's in His Word, it's in prayer, it's in His Holy Spirit,

it's in the prompting of your community members who love you.

It's in all these places. Find it.

Don't walk through life without it.

Let's pray. Thanks for listening to ERC

Sundays. To support the work God is doing

and Emmaus Rd. Church, visit

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