If you would turn in your Bibles to the book of Acts chapter 21. As you're turning to Acts 21, I'm overcome by the goodness of God. As I consider who we are. I mean, look around. and look at yourself and consider who we are and what God has done. His goodness, His grace, His mercy is so evident and so amazing. Usually the preacher says, turn in your Bibles and you hear pages turning, you hear leaves rattling. And I don't hear that. I'm assuming it's because we're working systematically. You got a bookmark that you just go, bam, there we are. So I hope you're there, Acts 21. We're gonna read the first 14 verses. I'll remind you again later, but this is one of the we passages. when Luke is evidently traveling with Paul because we have the we language used. Acts 21 verse one. When we parted from them and set sail, we ran a straight course to Kos and the next day to Rhodes and from there to Potara. And having found a ship crossing over to Phoenicia, we went aboard and set sail. We came in sight of Cyprus, leaving it on the left, We kept sailing to Syria and landed it tired, for there the ship was to unload its cargo. After looking up the disciples, we stayed there seven days, and they kept telling Paul through the Spirit not to set foot in Jerusalem. And when our days were ended, we left and started on our journey While they all, with wives and children, escorted us until we were out of the city, after kneeling down on the beach and praying, we said farewell to one another. Then we went on board the ship, and they returned home again. Verse seven, when we had finished the voyage from Tyre, we arrived at Ptolemaes, and after greeting the brethren, we stayed with them for a day. On the next day, we left and came to Caesarea, and entering the house of Philip the Evangelist, who was one of the seven, we stayed with him. Now, this man had four virgin daughters who were prophetesses, and we were staying there for some days. A prophet named Adalus came down from Judea, and coming to us, he took Paul's belt and bound his own feet and hands and said, this is what the Holy Spirit says. In this way, the Jews of Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles. When we heard this, we, as well as the local residents, began begging him, that is called begging him, not to go up to Jerusalem. Then Paul answered, what are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be bound, but even to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus. And since he would not be persuaded, we fell silent, remarking, the will of the Lord be done. Let's bow our heads and ask God's blessings on our time. Lord, we pray that you would open this text of scripture to us, that you would help us to see it more than just some information delivered, but that it is the living word of God. And we pray that it would accomplish your purpose, the purpose to which you have sent it. And we know that it will. We know that we pray this in accordance to your will, because we pray according to your word. God, we pray that even today that you would sanctify the people, make us like Christ, purge sin, convict us of righteousness. God, we pray that you would save sinners, those who do not know you, do not know your grace, but from the testimony of others, we pray that you would save them, that you would make them recipients of your grace, testimonies for your mercy. Bless this preacher, the preaching of your word. Hide the preacher behind the cross, that we might hear the voice of our Savior. We ask this in his precious and holy name. Amen. Chapter 21, this first part that we've read, reads like a tribal itinerary. I thought, boy, is this like preaching a boarding pass? It reads about what Paul and his companions are doing. It's very factual. It's very, very full of information. As a matter of fact, the travel details begin back in chapter 20. And just to warn you, keep your Bible open and we'll be referring back to 20 and 21. But if you look in 20, verse 13, there we have travel plans, and then we interrupted the travel itinerary by the account of this meeting, the meeting in Miletus with the Ephesian elders. But let's look at verse 13, chapter 20, just to see how this travel itinerary is laid out. But we, going ahead to the ship, set sail for Isos, attending from there to take Paul on board for so he had arranged it. intending himself to go by land. And when he met us at Assos, we took him on board and came to Mytilene, sailing from there, we arrived the following day at Chios, and the next day, crossed over to Samos, and the day following, we came to Miletus. So we've got all these travel plans laid out for us. And then it picks back up in chapter 21, and we read this, but let's look again. When we partied from there, we set sail, we went straight to Kos, the next day to Rhodes, from there to Potara, and found a ship crossing over to Phoenicia. We went on board and set sail. We came inside of Syria. And it occurs to me that, I'm not gonna ask you to do this now, because I don't want you to be distracted. We're distracted people sometimes. But if you'll look maybe in the back of your Bible, or you can ask Dr. Google to find you a map of Paul's second and third missionary journeys, you'll see this map out for you, and you'll see these short little trips, The travel is clearly in small, in a small boat or in small boats. And one day's journey stopping each night at a seaport. And we see that this day we went here, the next day we went here, the next day we went, and we kind of see that up to the point that they got on this ship sailing to Tyre. the wind during that area, during this part of the year, would pick up during the day, and then it would die down to a dead calm. And this is why they traveled in this way. It gave them about six hours of travel time, six hours where the wind would propel them, and then they would stop for the day until the wind picked back up tomorrow, and then they'd set sail again. And then we see that when they arrived in Middling, they came to the next day, they came to Chios, the next day to Samos, and then to Miletus. So it's day and day and day. And these coastal vessels hugging the coast was their mode of travel until they came to Patara, where they boarded this trans-Mediterranean ship. They're gonna cross the Mediterranean Sea, and they're gonna sail across the sea to Tyre. So they're sailing from west to east. And so we see that he says, well, we saw Cyprus on the left. Cyprus was north, they sailed south. We saw it, but sailed past it and they came to Tyre. It's clear that that was a much larger ship. First of all, that it went trans-Mediterranean, on a trans-Mediterranean trip. So it's a much larger ship. And when they get to Tyre for the, Cargo to be unloaded took seven days. That's a pretty big ship. Now they didn't have cranes and things as we have today, but this is a big enough ship that it took seven days for them to unload. Load possibly reload whatever whatever they were doing there with the cargo That's not really the point but the point is that they take these small ships day day day and then along the trip over to time So first reading we think wow this is a travel itinerary That's what this is and what could there really be here to benefit us? What is there here that is profitable for us? Maybe maybe we tend to think nothing. I Someone told me, they said, I read the passage this week that you're gonna preach and I wondered how in the world do you preach that? Well, I gotta tell you, I read the passage and I thought, how in the world am I gonna preach that? What is this? We have to remember when we think we come to the text of scripture and we say, wow, is there any prophet in this? We have to remember that God has told us that his word in every part is Profitable, it is profitable. Now we may not see that readily, but before we go and say that a portion of scripture is not profitable, we need to take a beat, we need to think again, we need to remember what God has said. I'm amazed to hear Christian people say, well, I don't know that that's important enough for me to spend my time. God gave us a Bible. with 66 books. To look at some of us and how we read the scripture, you'd think he gave us a Bible with 10 books. And some of you are thinking, well, wow, we've been in Acts, we've been in one book for a long period of time. Yeah, but we're working through, we're gonna, if the Lord allows us to all live long enough and be here, we're gonna get through the whole thing. We're gonna get through the whole Bible. So we need to remember that all Scripture is profitable. Clearly there are some texts of Scripture that are more directly related to things like salvation or the person of God or the person and work of Jesus Christ. There are some passages that are more clear. Some passages that seem to be more easily understood and more easily applied to our life, certainly. And we love those passages because they're so easy to hear and to understand and to apply. But we must not neglect the more difficult texts of Scripture. We must not ignore the texts which don't as easily give up their pearls. This text today may fall into that category. It tells us all about Paul's travel, more than we could want to know about it, but there are also some great profitable things here for us. I want us to see these. And in the first place, some of these will be reviewed because it is kind of a continuation from chapter 20. So some of the things we talked about last week, we'll mention again. In the first place, we notice in this text, the emotion of this section of Scripture. Last week we mentioned that Paul ministered with tears, that Paul ministered with emotions, and those emotions were appropriate to the task that he was doing. But now we can point out once again the emotion of this text. Remember, and you can see again in chapter 20 that it's all started. Tears were shed over Paul's departure. 20 verse 36. When he set these things, he knelt down and prayed with them all, and they began to weep aloud and to embrace Paul and repeatedly kiss him, grieving, especially over the words which were spoken, that they would not see his face again. And they were coming to the ship. So there's all this emotion that is here in this text. All these emotions, as Paul departs from those people. And it seems that in every place that he goes, there's much emotion. We find in our text, chapter 21, verse 1, the New American Standard, as I read it, this is 1995 New American Standard, it says, when we departed. So we remember Dr. Luke is with them, traveling, and he says, when we departed. The King James says, when we had gotten from them. That seems maybe a little bit odd language to us. When we had gotten from them. Surprisingly, New International, the NIV gives the closest sense of the word that is here. I don't know that I've ever said that in my life, and I don't know that I'll ever say it again, but surprisingly, that's what happens here. The NIV renders this after we have torn ourselves away from it, and that's exactly what the word represents of tearing. Do you know what that is, to tear yourself away? I was speaking on the phone the other day with someone who I love dearly, and I don't remember who said it first, but okay, I'll let you go. I'll, I'll, goodbye. Well, you know, there's one more thing and okay, well, goodbye. And well, you know, before I let you, we talked for another 20 minutes. Because it was tearing yourself away. Someone that you love, that you don't want to part from. Maybe you know what that's like. That's what happened here in chapter 21 verse 1. There's a tearing away. We tore ourselves away from them. And there is real emotion that is caught up here. And when we see the emotion, look in verse 12. We heard these things as well as the local, we as well as the local residents began begging him not to leave Jerusalem. Paul said, so it's not only the emotional part of the people, Paul says, what are you doing weeping and breaking my heart? You're crying and you're breaking my heart. There's so much emotion that's wrapped up here and as we see the emotion that is heavy in this text, the great passion, recognizing this helps us to get into the narrative as it were, to understand better the scene and the tone of the text and what's going on here. This is not just a tribal itinerary. It's so much more than that. Notice in the second place, we see the emotion, notice in the second place that Paul was constantly in the fellowship of other Christians. constantly in the fellowship of other Christians. We could note this throughout the book of Acts, but we also have talked about it recently, and we see it again in verse four, after looking up the disciples, after looking up the disciples. Remember, there's no yellow pages. There's no Google church search. Looking up the disciples is a task. I thought how many of us take the opportunity when we travel to distance ourselves from other Christians. I know some people like to go on vacation where no one knows you're a Christian, so then you can behave in any manner you'd like without concern or criticism from Christians who think you ought to act like Christians even on vacation. Paul didn't do that. Paul sought out the Christians in whatever area he was. this area entire where he was, may have been a place that he had preached before, when he first began, or it could be that the gospel had spread there after the dispersion following Stephen's stoning. We don't know exactly how the gospel first came there, but whatever the case, there were Christians entire. And Paul sought them out, and we have this wording, after discovering the disciples, after looking up the disciples. It seems that there was some level of effort that went into this to find the Christians there. They had some days. They're unloading the ship. We're not going anywhere. We're gonna be here. Let's take advantage of the time. Let's redeem the time. Let's look up these people. What a blessing it would be for each of us What a blessing it is when we travel and we visit with fellow believers and we attend church with them and worship with them. What a blessing that is. Paul was also blessed in this way. My third point, I've written it down like this. Paul, God's will, and other people. Paul, God's will, and other people. I want us to camp here a bit as we consider God's will, and for any of you who are thinking, great, he's fixing to tell us everything that we need to know about God's will, that's not gonna happen. So there's still gonna be maybe some questions in your mind, but I do want us to spend some time here and talk about God's will. How different it is knowing God's will today than how it was from Paul's experience. It's very different. And we want to see, how do we process the opinion of others concerning God's will for us? How do we work that in? How does that fit? First, I want us to ask, did Paul disobey God's will, or not? Now some of you immediately just went to, absolutely not. Remember, Paul was a man. We can ask this question. We need to ask this question. And some notable scholars say that this text is Paul's disobedience to the will of God, and because of his sinful actions in disobeying God's will, he suffered. The idea that this comes from, the idea that Paul disobeyed, I believe, comes from an underlying presumption. Something is being presumed. The presumption, I believe, is that if you suffer, you must not be in God's will. If you suffer, you must not be in God's will. Surely, this presumption says, surely God wants me to be happy. Surely God wants me to be healthy. Surely God never wants me to encounter hardship. So if I'm not healthy, if I'm not happy, or if I encounter hardship, I must be disobeying God. I must have missed God's will somewhere along the way. That's the presumption that underlies this idea that says, well, Paul was warned And he went ahead and encountered bonds and affliction and hardship, so he must have sinned. He must have been in sin. He must have missed God's will. Who thinks that? You might think, well, that's just a name it and claim it, blab it and grab it folks that believe that kind of thing. But early in my ministry, I was on staff at a First Baptist church. And I had a man come into my office and inform me that he was leaving his wife. And what's more, it's God's will for me to divorce my wife. Some of you know the scripture well enough to know that I had to question that. Tell me what you mean. He was working from a false syllogism. A false syllogism is where you take a couple of things that you believe to be true, and you come to a conclusion that comes out of that. Well, he took a couple of things that he believed to be true, but they were not true. He's working from a false syllogism. Number one, my wife is not making me happy. And number two, God wants me to be happy. So he had those two things, and he came to the conclusion, God must want me to leave my wife. Now, boy, isn't it easy to criticize that guy? And by the way, he was wrong. He was very wrong. And on several levels in several places, he was wrong. But before we are too quick to criticize him, let's look at ourselves and make sure we don't do the same error. God wants me to be happy. He may not want you to be happy. He wants me to be happy. God wants me to have life on easy street. Some say that Paul's knowledge of coming hardship must have been inherently a prohibition, a command not to go to Jerusalem. I mean, God told him there would be bonds and afflictions. So surely that included a command, but let's take a look at the facts. Let's see what we have here before us, and we'll begin in chapter 20, verse 22. We'll see what's here. And now, behold, Paul speaking here, bound by the Spirit, I am on my way to Jerusalem. Bound by the Spirit, I'm on my way to Jerusalem. Not knowing what will happen to me there, he wasn't sure exactly what would happen, except that the Holy Spirit solemnly testifies to me in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions await me. but I do not consider my life on any account as dear to myself so that I may finish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus to testify solemnly of the gospel of the grace of God. So Paul says in verse 22, he's bound by the spirit. This indicates that Paul has received a positive command from God to go to Jerusalem and he was bound to obedience. Bound by the Spirit, I'm on my way to Jerusalem. He also says in verse 23 that the Holy Spirit had repeatedly told him about these bonds and afflictions that awaited him. Repeatedly, he says, in every city. In every city, at every interaction, Paul is told about bonds and afflictions, but Paul was never told not to go. I know that's a double negative. But he was never told not to go. He was never warned off. He was simply informed of what lay ahead. So Paul was under the orders of the Spirit. But in verse four, well, we got a problem here, don't we? They, disciples, Christian people, they kept telling Paul through the Spirit not to go to Jerusalem. Well, the question comes in here. Did God command Paul one thing and then command these disciples another thing? Now, some of you might be having flashbacks. I know I did when I read this. Flashbacks of the times that people have said to me, God told me to tell you. When somebody says that, you need to look at it or get at it. God told me to tell you. That's what seems to be happening here. God told me to tell you. And if God has commanded Paul one thing and commanded these disciples a different, an opposing thing, then we've really got a problem. But I don't think we really have that problem. It seems obvious here that the disciples did get a message. They did get the message that Paul would be facing bonds and afflictions. They did get that. That is what is, through the Spirit. And then their love for and friendship with Paul led them to advise him not to go to Jerusalem. So the Holy Spirit revealed information to them, and then their own concern, not the Holy Spirit, led them to tell Paul to just stay home. They got some information from the Spirit, and then they ran ahead, they took it somewhere else. I'm glad we don't ever do that, right? We never do that. We never hear something from the scripture and then take it somewhere that it shouldn't. Well, that's what they do. And we must understand their thought process, their reasoning. I mean, did Paul have to go to Jerusalem? They're taking a gift, a generous gift that's been collected, offerings that have been collected for the aid of the church in Jerusalem, but couldn't Luke have said, Paul, we'll take this? We'll do that. Boy, he could trust them to deliver. He could trust them. Wouldn't you be thinking, if this was your friend, hey man, you don't have to go there. Remember back when Gaius was taken by the mob and Paul was gonna go and his friends said, don't go. This is the same kind of sentiment that goes in here. And we can put ourselves in their place and we can understand their thought process and their reasoning. They can't think of any reason why Paul, they can't think of any reason why God would lead Paul into bonds and afflictions. Why would God do that? Well, we get in trouble when we ask the why question sometimes, don't we? God has given them the what, but he didn't give them the why, and they can't imagine why Paul would need to walk into this danger that we know awaits him. So we don't blame them for this, but they were actually, without knowing maybe, they were advising Paul contrary to the command of the Holy Spirit that he had already received. They were advising him contrary to the command of God. We learn here that temptation to disobey God can come from any source. Temptation for us to disobey God can come from any source. And here, Paul is faced with this temptation from Christian friends who were only expressing love and concern for him. But it still brings a temptation in so called. He doesn't rebuke them. He doesn't rebuke them like, you're wrong for how you're feeling. But what he does say is, you're breaking my heart. You're breaking it. You're not making this easy. He asked him to ask him to back off as it were. So, Paul, I don't believe Paul is in sin or missing the will of God, but Paul is faced with knowing what lies before him, and knowing that it is God's will for him, it's difficult, and he has to come to grips with this. Now, I wanna point out here that there are many things in this narrative that are unique to first century church, and they're not part of the life that we live as we walk with Christ in church today. Firstly, we have Paul here receiving special extra-biblical revelation from God. Paul's not reading the book of Acts here. He's receiving special revelation from God that is not recorded. It's recorded here for us, but it wasn't recorded there for him. He's receiving extra-biblical revelation. And we remember that Paul was an apostle an office that has ended, but an office that enjoyed special privilege. Paul healed the sick. Paul raised the dead. He even heard from God directly on the road to Damascus. And God heard from Paul in a way that we do not today. Not only was Paul hearing from God in a special way, but the disciples also received a revelation of Paul's faith. They also received this through the Spirit, we're told. And this doesn't happen today, but it did happen then. So we have these things that don't apply to us today, but they're applied today. And we also read here in this text of Agamas, the prophet, Agabus acted out his prophecy in a dramatic way with Paul's belt, and it would have been a long belt that probably would have gone around Paul several times if he tied his hands and his feet together. The one who owns this belt will be bound in this way. Agabus acted out his prophecy. And then we also have the daughters of Philip, these four prophetesses. And in this time, prophets, and prophetesses were on their way out, but they were still being used by God. So though we don't have these things today, we should find it no surprise to find them in this text of scripture. Incidentally, we also read here of Philip, the evangelist, and this office is also a unique office that is no longer with us. Prophets. Apostles and evangelists are listed in Ephesians as gifts from God to the church. And all those offices are done. They're over. We don't have them with us any longer. The only offices in the church today are still gifts from God, pastor, elder, and deacon. So we have all these special circumstances, the first century church that Paul knew God's will, but he knew it in a different way than we do. Paul had dreams, Paul had visions, Paul heard God speak to him, Jesus even appeared to Paul. We don't have any of those things. We have the closed canon of the written Word of God. the full and sufficient revelation, and the indwelling Holy Spirit are. We have this. The Bible, for us, the Bible is our only infallible, certain, sufficient rule for faith and obedience. How do we know God's will? The Bible. Some of you need to hear it. The John McCarthy quote. If you want to hear God speak, read your Bible. If you want to hear God speak aloud, read out loud. That's a loose quote. If you want to hear God speak audibly, read aloud. We have God's Word, and that is how we hear and know God's will. Now, we can know God's will I'm waiting for all the ears to perk up. We can know God's secret will in hindsight. We can know God's secret will in hindsight. Well, it's not secret anymore. We cannot know what God will do unless he stated it explicitly in his word or unless we wait until he's done it and we look and we say, Look what God did. We can know. There was a lot of talk when I came to this church 15 years ago. There was a lot of talk about how do you know God's will? How do you know? Well, we prayed a lot, right? We prayed a lot. And what is God's plan? Someone asked me at that time, how long will you be in Waco pastoring this church? And I remember saying something like, well, we know God's will in hindsight. We know God's will in the rear view mirror. Here's what I can tell you. It was God's will for me to come and pastor this church for 15 years. Maybe 16. But I don't know what the future will hold, but I can see God's will in the rear view mirror. I can see God's will and I can know God's will in hindsight. God's secret will God, we call it God's decretive will, what God has decreed. But we don't know God's will through the means and methods that Paul knew God's will. And before we go to thinking, well, Paul and those first century Christians had it so much better. Before we go thinking that, before we go get dissatisfied, with what God's given us, with the time that God has placed us in. Remember, Paul wasn't reading the New Testament, because there was no New Testament gathered and collected to read. He didn't have the whole Bible like you and I have. We can say we have the full revelation. They didn't have that yet. So we can know God's precepts. We call it God's preceptive will. We can know God's preceptive will. These are the things that He's commanded us in the Bible. And we should be ruled, we should make our decisions based on God's preceptive will in Scripture. Is this thing God's will for my life? Well, does it violate what he said in Scripture? You know what that means? You've got to know the Scripture. And probably, no, definitely you're not going to know the Scripture well enough to make that decision without the counsel of godly Christian people in your life who also know the Scripture. Who, because Their godly people will say, this is what the Bible says, and this is my opinion, and separate those things out for you. We can know God's will. I remember thinking of this passage that was taught in Sunday school just a couple weeks ago. This is the will of God, your sanctification. And people say, well, I'm looking for God's will. I wanna know God's will. People come to pastor's offices and say, pastor, how can I know God's will for my life? You know what my first question is? Can you name the 10 commandments? Some of you right now in your mind, you're thinking, okay, no other gods. Some of you knew that, some of you didn't, but that's the first one, that's the big one. No other gods. No graven images. God's name, remember God's name, keep it holy. God's day, remember the Sabbath day, keep it holy. Honored Father, have I lost some of you? Well, I knew thou shalt not steal. If you want to know God's will, you need to know God's will. It's written right here. Start with the Ten Commandments and then remember that the Ten Commandments are a summary and then start expanding from there. I wanna know God's will. I really don't wanna know God's will that I can know and obey and apply. I wanna know the secret stuff. The secret things belong to the Lord. And you will never know everything that God knows. Not even in eternity, you will never know everything that God knows. That verse that says the secret things belong to the Lord says this, but the revealed things, You should hold up your Bible when you say that. But the revealed things are for us and for our children. Let us know God's will by knowing His word, His law, His gospel. Let us know God's will in this way. I got off my notes a long time ago, let's continue. We learn here from Paul's example not to follow the opinion or not to allow the opinion of others, even when they're well-meaning, to pull us off of the path of obedience. We learn here from Paul's example not to allow the opinion of others to pull us off the path of obedience. This is what I know God's word commands me. This is what I know that I'm doing to obey God's word. And my friend says, that's just so old fashioned. That's just extreme. That's just absurd. Are you gonna allow their opinion to pull you off? Paul did not allow the opinion of these others to pull him away from the path of obedience. We might wonder, why? Why is it that God revealed to Paul the hard things that were to come? Why didn't he tell him? Maybe you've thought about this. Maybe you've thought things like, I'm glad I don't know the future. I'm glad I don't know things like how I'll die or the bad things that are coming. Paul was revealing here some really difficult things. And we don't know, but someone has suggested that it may have given Paul time to surrender to God's will completely. It may have given him time to kind of get comfortable with this and surrender to God's will. Whereas if these bonds and afflictions had come on unexpectedly, Paul may have just instinctively and naturally resisted and been resisting what God was doing. But by knowing ahead of time in this way, Paul pre-surrendered himself to the will of God. God, and He even said here, I don't know what awaits, I know some things, I know bonds and afflictions, but even if I'm gonna die, and He was gonna die, but He wasn't sure, He didn't know, but even if it's that, I'm willing, I'm pre-surrender to God's will for me. In the next place, we see that Paul followed Jesus to Jerusalem. I'm gonna finish this, and I'll try to hurry, but I'm gonna finish. I've titled the message, Following Jesus to Jerusalem. And I appropriated that from a friend of mine, Following Jesus to Jerusalem. But once I heard that and started looking at this text, I can't unhear it, I can't unsee it. There are so many similarities to Paul going to Jerusalem and Jesus going to Jerusalem. Now they'd both been to Jerusalem before. This wasn't their first time, but their last time. There are so many similarities here. Both Paul and Jesus embarked on their final journey to Jerusalem, obeying the will of God that was revealed to them that they knew. They both knew that they would face bonds and afflictions and even death by making this journey to Jerusalem. They both knew hardship awaits. Both were warned and even begged by those who followed them, please don't go. Now we read today in our reading at the end of, I forget, no, Brother Tim read that, how Peter said, when he hears of the coming treatment of his Lord, he says, no, don't do that remember peter peter even i don't know if i said paul but that was peter that said that peter said no lord i will i will fight for you and he meant that remember the gardener can say he pulled the sword cut off mouth this is here i will fight for you i will even die for you no lord this will not happen to you Paul heard the same kind of things, don't go, don't do this, please don't walk into this trap of the Jews. They both had this warning and begging of their followers. Both Jesus and Paul faced a plot of the Jews. Both Jesus and Paul were accused falsely. Both Jesus and Paul were seized by the Jews and then handed over to the Gentiles. They were both tried in a Jewish council and then before a Roman governor. Well, we're not trying to make Paul out to be Jesus, because he's not. But there's so many similarities here. Paul is literally following Jesus into Jerusalem. Both Paul and Jesus went to Jerusalem and went to their death for the kingdom of Christ. Paul didn't do what Jesus did, but he followed Jesus to Jerusalem. We wonder, why? Why is this? Are we saying these things to elevate Paul to some super-Christian status? Boy, if there's anybody that could be elevated, right? But let's not do that. That's not what's here. Paul is not to be elevated. He bore this burden. And there are many reasons that we could discuss as to why, but let's just talk about one reason why he bore, why Paul had to face bonds and afflictions as he went to Jerusalem. We are taught here that the disciples of Christ should have no expectation of escaping such things. Jesus made us some promises. You know what he never said? He never said, well, you won't have to go through the stuff that I'm going through. Promises of Christ. In this world, you will have trouble. It's a promise of Christ. In this world, you will have trouble. The world hated me. Guess what? They're gonna hate you too. They're gonna hate you too. I don't know where the idea came from that Christians should expect good life on easy street. That's not a Biblical idea. We have misplaced expectations when we think that everything should come together for our ease and comfort. But wait, doesn't the Bible say in Romans 8 that God works all things together for our good? Yes, but our good does not always mean our immediate comfort. When Paul was hearing the axe being sharpened outside his prison cell, the axe that would remove his head. God was working all things together for you. But that was a hard act. What do we learn from this text? I'm in a hurry. One major thing that we learned from this text is Paul was ready to face persecution, even death for Jesus Christ. He said in chapter 20, verse 24, I do not consider my life on any account as dear to myself that I may finish the course, the ministry which I received from the Lord. I don't consider my life as anything to hold on to, to grasp. Lee Gallagher said, anyone who says, I want to go die for Jesus, needs to be seen by a psychiatrist. That's crazy. That's not what Paul said. Paul did not say, I want to go die for Jesus. What Paul said is, I want to go obey Christ, even if death is involved. See, that's different. That's different. But even if that's what it calls for, even if that's where the Lord leads, and Paul was ready to face persecution and even his own death for Jesus Christ. Paul wasn't sure at first that he would die. He wrote things like, if I am to die, if I'm being poured out, if I'll be an offering. But then later in Timothy, 2 Timothy, he wrote, I'm already being poured out as a drink offering. He knew by that time that his death was imminent, that it was coming. He would die for Christ and he was willing. He was ready to obey God, even when it cost him. What a shame it is for us to say we're Christians and we won't obey God when it costs us something. When it costs us a little comfort. It costs Paul comfort and he obeyed God. It costs Paul reputation. Well, I'm not gonna have anybody selling my reputation. Well, Paul sacrificed his own reputation. Paul sacrificed his very life. So Christian, stop lying. When hardships come, when we face those things that we would say, well, this is bonds and afflictions. Why don't we cry some? Why can't we consider it a privilege to suffer for the cause of Christ? We also learn from this text how to respond when someone we love walks through difficulty. as we put ourselves in the place of those disciples who love Paul. When the disciples understood that it was God's will for Paul to face these difficult things, they said in verse 14, the will of the Lord be done. The will of the Lord be done. It may be hard, right? Someone you love is called to walk through a difficult time in your life. However that comes, to say, the will of the Lord be done. And we don't say the will of the Lord be done like, well, let's just give up. I'm reminded of that disciple who said to Jesus, let's go with it, we'll die with it. Like it's giving up. like it's giving in. When we say the will of the Lord be done, we're not giving up, we're not giving in. We are acknowledging, though we may not be able to see all the details, though we may not understand it fully, this is the best thing. It's the will of the Lord. God, help us to know your will as you've revealed it in your word. Help us to pre-commit, to pre-submit ourselves to you, even when we face opposition, even when we face discouragement. Help us to be ready and willing to suffer for you when we're called upon to do so. God, help us when things are good, when things are easy, when you have blessed us so. Help us in those times. to obey, to submit.