Voyage to Jerusalem
Published by Stanley Pouw in 2023 · 26 November 2023
As we come to Acts 21, Paul is concluding his third missionary tour. He is on his way back to Jerusalem. And as we studied the book of Acts that the history and the narrative that we have been studying are principles that apply to life. So the book of Acts has become a precious and practical instruction manual on the life of the Church and the life of the believer in the Church.
And as we look at Acts 21:1-15, we have chosen Paul’s conviction for a focal point. And he is a man of conviction, and that conviction needs to be translated to us. And we’ve heard about being dedicated and committed. But in Acts 21, we’re not exposed to a sermon on commitment as we are to a life that is committed. And what makes it so powerful is that Paul does what he says.
Paul says, “The Lord gave me that ministry. I’m going to fulfill that ministry; I don’t care what the price is.” Now, that’s commitment. The basic definition is the issue of the supreme and undivided lordship of Jesus Christ in the life of a believer. It is not a question of whether he is Lord. It is a question of my submission to His supremacy and my undivided obedience to that lordship.
We know the Lord Jesus Christ has a plan for my life. A plan to unfold for my ministry and for yours as well, because you’re a minister of Christ equally as I am. And that unfolding plan is done in terms of the mind of God. God knows what it is He wants us to do. And we have been given the opportunity to do that ministry. The question of commitment is whether we submit ourselves totally.
First of all, this whole idea of dedication begins with a conviction. And then secondly, with the courage to see it through. Most Christians fall into these three categories. First, there’s incomplete commitment. In other words, you’re committed up to a point. If it doesn’t fit my schedule, or if it doesn’t hassle me at the point of my own self-desires, or if it doesn’t get too dangerous.
Secondly there is insincere commitment. This is the verbal commitment that doesn’t have a base for it. This is Peter when he says, “Lord, whatever happens, I’ll die for you.” And when given the opportunity, he denies Christ on three occasions. That’s a lot of hypocrisy. This is all talk and no action. This is the person who is pious on the outside. But it’s all pretense; it’s all superficial.
Thirdly, there is an intermittent commitment. It all depends on which day you talk to them whether they’re committed or not. And the extreme form of it is in the church of Ephesus, as our Lord wrote and said, “I have this against you; you have left your first love.” These are the bouncing balls of Christianity, and very often the bounce goes out, and they just roll along at the low level.
Now, God’s choice for His people is total, constant, with full commitment. That kind of dedication that goes along and whatever happens, happens. But that doesn’t change the commitment. Now, Paul had convictions, and he was committed to them, and it didn’t matter what the consequences were. And he did not have a different Holy Spirit; he had the same resources you have.
In our passage, we’re looking at Paul the example, and we see in him the conviction that has four features. Last time, we considered the first two: it’s purpose and secondly it cannot be diverted. This time we’ll consider part of the third, it pays any price, and fourthly, it affects others. Now by way of review, first, a Christian knows his purpose. Paul put it this way, “That I may know Him.”
Paul’s goal was Jerusalem. He was going to get there, and he was going to get there with that offering. But he traversed the Mediterranean Sea, stopping in all those little spots like Coos, Rhodes, Patara, Phoenicia, past Cyprus, Syria and Tyre, coming to the land of Israel in order that he might deliver the money. Paul felt it was important to unify the church and to help the saints in Jerusalem.
Secondly, that conviction can’t be diverted. You need courage to see it through. That’s illustrated in verses 4 to 6. And these disciples, using the gifts of the Spirit to communicate, warned Paul about the suffering that was going to happen in Jerusalem. And their natural response was, “Paul, don’t go to Jerusalem.” But he was expecting it. He received persecution everywhere else.
And the fact that they told him does not mean that God was trying to prevent him from going to Jerusalem. He went to fulfill prophecy. Well in Acts 9:15 Ananias came after God told him to go, and said to Paul, “For I will show him how great things he must suffer for My name’s sake.’” So God promised there to reveal to Paul all his sufferings before they came.
They were not to prevent Paul from going to Jerusalem; they were to prepare him. God was confirming to Paul that God was still running his life and preparing him for all his suffering. Verse 5, “When our time had come to an end, we left to continue our journey, while all of them, with their wives and children, accompanied us out of the city. After kneeling down on the beach to pray.”
Paul had never been to that church before, and after seven days there, they all loved him, and the whole group went out. “We knelt down on the shore, had a little prayer meeting. So, the apostle Paul was not out of God’s will. He was following the leading of the Spirit of God. God had told him exactly what was going to happen. He was ready for it; he anticipated it. He was a man of conviction.
Now, in the Bible there are a lot of people who illustrate to us a lack of this kind of courage. Acts 13:5 says, “They preached the Word of God in the synagogues of the Jews, and they had also John Mark as their helper.” But in verse 13 it says, “And John departing from them returned to Jerusalem.” He looked at Taurus Mountains with all those robbers and decided it was too dangerous.
Then Paul said to Barnabas in Acts 15:36, “Let’s go and visit our brothers again in every city where we have preached the Word of the Lord, and see how they’re doing.” And Barnabas thought that was a good idea. “Barnabas determined to take with them John Mark, “But Paul thought it not good to take him with them, who departed with them from Pamphylia, and then decided to leave them.”
Now, Paul had a difficult time tolerating weakness in anybody else. And so he said, “There’s no way that I’m taking that guy with us. Last time he showed that he didn’t have the courage to go through with it.” And the contention was so sharp, that they departed from one another.” Paul and Barnabas split up. God used that for His glory. Paul took Silas, and Barnabas took John Mark.
Thirdly, conviction pays any price. And this is just where John Mark blew it. He’d pay some price, but not any price. It can become as simple as this: you know you should share Jesus Christ with somebody, but for the sake of your own ego, you don’t want to be rejected, so you don’t do it. That’s selling out for your own self for your own prestige or self-image or reputation.
Now, back to Acts 21:7, “When we completed our voyage from Tyre, we reached Ptolemais, where we greeted the brothers and sisters and stayed with them for a day.” So, apparently the ship had docked at Tyre, and that was it. But anyway, they came to Ptolemais which was a very old city. Before that it was called Accho, and it’s mentioned in Judges 1. Today it’s called Akka.
“They greeted the brothers and sisters, and stayed with them for a day.” They’ve only got one day there, but they take that one day and maximize it, and they fellowship with the Christians. Paul absolutely staggers you with his commitment to the priorities. The guy had no concept of wasted time. He met the brethren, and he taught them, he listened to their problems and he worked with them.
Paul was totally committed. There was no point at which he stopped. Not for rest, not for money, not for saving his life, not for the failure to be punished or to have wounds. He couldn’t be bought off. Now, he didn’t found that church, so he didn’t have any particular obligation. It was probably founded in the overflow of the persecution that occurred in Jerusalem.
Verse 8, “The next day we left and came to Caesarea, where we entered the house of Philip the evangelist, who was one of the Seven, and stayed with him.” Caesarea was the port of Jerusalem in Biblical times, not now. Now it is the port of Tel Aviv which was ancient Joppa. But Caesarea was the headquarters of Pilate. And the Jews considered it, though it was in Israel, to be a foreign city.
Verse 8, “We entered into the house of Philip the evangelist, who was one of the Seven” What seven? The seven in Acts 6:5, “and stayed with him.” They were the seven deacons chosen to feed the widows. And those seven men were the first deacons of the Church. It is the same Philip mentioned in Acts 8:5, “Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ unto them.”
And in Acts 8:40 it says, “He was found at Azotus, and passing through he preached in all the cities till he came to Caesarea.” Philip preached as an evangelist. He started out as a deacon; but he became an evangelist. Here’s an important principle, God gives His top confidential ministries to those who have been faithful in little things. And because of that, God made him one of the leading evangelists.
Be faithful in what it is He’s given you for now. Now, Paul arrives in Philip’s house and lives with him. And he stayed there awhile, too, because he had a fast trip across the Mediterranean, and he had a few extra days till Pentecost, when he was supposed to arrive in Jerusalem. So, he spent it with Philip. What’s interesting about that is that Philip had met Paul indirectly 20 years before.
Paul was threatening slaughter against the Church. And Philip was one of the ones who ran into Samaria. So, it was Saul who had persecuted Philip, and now Philip hosts Saul in his own home as a brother in Christ. That’s transformation. Twenty years before this, Philip was driven out of Jerusalem by Saul. The Gospel preachers were scattered everywhere, and they started preaching.
Philip preached all those years, and then it says in Acts 8:40, he made his home in Caesarea. Can you imagine what a joy it was to meet his original persecutor and know that he had been a preacher of Christ all through the years? It’s like Galatians 1:23, where Paul says, “You know when I went through that territory there, those people got so excited they said, ‘The one who used to persecute is now preaching.’”
But there was something else where Paul could honor Philip, and it was about evangelism to the Gentile world, we think of two people. We think of Peter, who first delivered the Gospel to Cornelius. And we think of Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles, who preached the Gospel everywhere from Jerusalem to Rome. But when we think of Gentile evangelism, the first person actually was Philip.
When the persecution came, he was the guy that was preaching in Samaria to the half-breed Samaritans. And while preaching in Samaria, the Holy Spirit said, “Get out of here. I want you to go to Gaza,” which is desert. And he went to Gaza, and met the Ethiopian eunuch reading Isaiah. And what did he do? He led him to Jesus Christ and baptized him, and that was the first Gentile convert.
Philip is the guy who really was the predecessor to Paul. And so God used Philip to begin what Paul really expanded. There are apostles and prophets in the early Church, and there evangelists and teaching pastors today. Paul said in 2 Timothy 4:5, “Watch in all things, endure affliction, do the work of an evangelist.” And Philip was one of those preaching Christ, where he found churches.
Verse 9, “This man had four virgin daughters who prophesied.” They had the gift of prophesy. Now, it’s important that the Holy Spirit puts this in here. The unmarried woman cares for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and spirit. Prophesy functioned in two ways. One, it functioned in terms of revelation; Two, in terms of just proclaiming the truth.
In the Old Testament it wasn’t always revelation. The prophets preached to the people; they warned the people; they spoke God’s message to the people repeatedly. But, here Paul makes a very clear statement. These four daughters of Philip could not be women preachers, they had a gift of God to receive revelation from the Holy Spirit that was strategic to the life of the church.
There was an early Church father by the name of Papias who said that Philip’s daughters were known as the informants on the early history of the Church. The historian Eusebius quotes Papias, and gives some credence to the fact that these four daughters were used to transmit revelations of the Holy Spirit; and they even got the Gospel’s information, as well as information on Acts.
These four virgins who did prophesy, didn’t prophesy on this occasion. Do you know what the real issue in courage is? It is one word: trust. Because if you believe God has called you to do something, and that’s your goal, then God who called you is able to perform what he called you to do? And if you do not do your commitment, you have dishonored God. Let’s pray.