UNBENDING DETERMINATION

UNBENDING DETERMINATION

Acts 21:1-26

Dr. Wm. J. Maxwell

First Presbyterian Church, Newport, RI

August 12, 2007

It was quite a startling statement to make. Mohandas Gandhi, the Hindu nationalist leader of India, was reportedly once asked by a close friend: “If you admire Christ so much, why don’t you become a Christian?” “When I meet a Christian who is a follower of Christ,” Ghandi replied, “I may consider it.” One might wonder what Gandhi would have done if he had been able to meet the apostle Paul; for if ever there was a follower of Christ, it was the apostle Paul!

As we turn to our passage for this morning, we discover that it was a long journey home for Paul. He had made it before and now at the end of his third missionary journey, he was headed home for Judea and Jerusalem. With stops along the way, he greeted numerous brothers and sisters in Christ he had come to know and love and it is clear to see that they loved Paul in return. In the last chapter, it is reported to us that in Ephesus, Paul “knelt down with all of them and prayed. They all wept as they embraced and kissed him. What grieved them most was his statement that they would never see his face again.”[i] Apparently, Paul had it in his mind and heart that it was the Lord’s will for him to go to Jerusalem. But he also had it in his mind that this might well mean the end of his earthly life.

Paul then sailed on and landed at Tyre, where he met yet another group of disciples. After staying with them seven days, the moment of his departure was quite a touching one. It was yet again for Paul quite an emotional roller coaster ride. Luke tells us: “All the disciples and their wives and children accompanied us out of the city, and there on the beach we knelt to pray.”

One wonders at the apparent steely resolve in the apostle at this point. But he sailed on, eventually reaching the major seaport city of Caesarea. Caesarea was recognized as the provincial capital of Judea and it was also the home of Philip the Evangelist and his four unmarried daughters, who had the gift of prophecy. But they weren’t the only ones with the gift of prophecy, as Agabus soon joined them from Judea. Fifteen years earlier, Agabus had prophesied regarding a coming famine in Judea that would be severe.[ii] The prophecy he then gave regarding Paul wasn’t a much more favorable one. Binding himself symbolically with Paul’s belt, Agabus declared, “The Holy Spirit says, ‘In this way the Jews of Jerusalem will bind the owner of this belt and will hand him over to the Gentiles.’”

What happened then is not to be deemed unreasonable at all. “When we heard this,” Luke reports, “we and the people there pleaded with Paul not to go up to Jerusalem.” They all urged, begged, exhorted, and pleaded with Paul not to go to Jerusalem. Putting ourselves in their place, we would have surely done the same. But I wonder if we would have made the same response as that of the apostle Paul: “Why are you weeping and breaking my heart? I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.”

Do we have that same dogged determination to be faithful to the Lord Jesus Christ, at whatever cost? Do we have unbending determination to do what He asks us to do – and be willing to pay the price, even a high price, if necessary? In this matter of acting out our own obedience to Christ and in following Christ as His disciple in the context of our own lives, there are some lessons we all can learn here from the example of Paul.

WE SHOULD BE FULLY AWARE

OF THE WILL OF CHRIST FOR OUR LIFE.

Paul was fully committed to going to Jerusalem, but not because he had a “martyr complex”, expecting and even wanting to die in Jerusalem. Nor did he do this in order to enjoy all the attention he was getting from other Christians along the way. No, Paul was fully convinced that the will of Christ was for him to go to Jerusalem and bring his witness for Christ to the very heart of Judaism. How do we know this? We know this by verses found in Acts leading up to this event. For example, at the end of Paul’s third missionary journey we read this: “Now after these events Paul resolved in the Spirit to pass through Macedonia and Achaia and go to Jerusalem, saying, ‘After I have been there, I must also see Rome.’” [iii]

On the way back, speaking to the Ephesian elders, Paul stated to them quite frankly, “And now, behold, I am going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions wait for me.” [iv] Paul could sense, both inwardly and outwardly, the testimony of the Holy Spirit that it was God’s will to go to Jerusalem.

Likewise, we need to use all of the God-given resources we can to discern God’s will for us in our own situation. We need to take and make the time to pray, to read the Bible, to look about us and around us, to listen carefully, and to then determine what God’s will might be for us in the situation that we face. In dependence upon the faithfulness of God in accord with all of His promises, we can then determine what God’s will is.

J. I. Packer tells of receiving a letter from one who did this. The letter was from a minister who felt led to leave both his congregation and his denomination. This decision was substantial, in that he didn’t know precisely where he would go at the moment. But as he related to Packer, he was trusting God in seeking to discern and obey God’s will. In his letter, the minister explained his position and cited a hymn by Charles Wesley that spoke of the sovereignty and the security of God’s guidance:

“Captain of Israel’s host and Guide

Of all who seek the land above,

Beneath Thy shadow we abide,

The cloud of Thy protecting love;

Our strength, Thy grace;

Our rule, Thy Word;

Our end, the glory of the Lord.” [v]

As this was true of this minister, it is also most certainly true of us. On our own journey, we have a Captain and Guide, in whose shadow of protecting love we live. Our strength is found in His boundless grace; our standard - His trustworthy Word; and our purpose is in that which brings Him glory and honor.

WE SHOULD ALSO BE AWARE THAT SOME WILL NOT UNDERSTAND

AND MIGHT EVEN SEEK TO DETER US

FROM DOING GOD’S WILL.

Of course, those opposed to Christ and His ways will always stand opposed to those seeking to do His will. But sometimes those with good intentions and decent motives will seek to stand in our way and deter us as well. This is what happened to Paul, who had a hard time emotionally dealing with those who truly loved him and who wept for him and pleaded with him not to go to Jerusalem. Such expressions of tenderness from his friends were to be expected and were well deserved. The tears were inevitable at the potential parting of them from the beloved apostle forever. But Paul would not be dissuaded from following through with what he believed to be the will of God for him – he was going to Jerusalem.

Sometimes, there will be those who seek to dissuade us from following God’s calling and vocation for us. This is often true of those called to be pastors and missionaries. My beloved stepfather, for example, did his best to persuade me not to go into the pastoral ministry, as he feared it would be too hard a journey for me. But this can be true of other vocations as well, when we are assured of God’s will and others are not so sure.

Sometimes, opposition may come in the midst of our calling or vocation. In the way of illustration, Joseph Stowell tells the story of Gregory, sitting in his usual chair at the usual Tuesday evening Bible study at a friend’s home. As the Bible study went on, he stopped listening, as the text had convicted him about a deal he and his partner were designing that was made on unethical grounds. That brought forth a problem, in that the deal would bring lucrative rewards - his wife was looking forward to both a Caribbean vacation and a new fur coat. In addition his partner, who claimed to be a Christian and who was an elder in another church, wouldn’t be happy at all if Gregory told him that this deal was so unethical that they needed to step out of it. “Yet Gregory knew that if he was to be a non-negotiated follower of Christ he would have to tell his partner in the morning that the deal was off.” [vi]

There are so many situations when the will of God is before us, and so inevitably is the struggle. We can be fully assured that when any of us become determined to be a “non-negotiated follower of Christ,” there will be those who, in one way or another, for good or for ill, will seek to deter us.

III

WE MUST BE UNBENDING IN OUR DETERMINATION

TO DO WHAT GOD WANTS US TO DO

AND FOLLOW THROUGH WITH IT.

Paul’s response was unmistakably a bold one in saying, “I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.” The Holy Spirit was obviously giving Paul the inner strength and power he needed to be able to withstand the temptation to escape. He was well aware of the fact that, during the experience of his Damascus Road conversion to Christ, he was told by Jesus that he would inevitably have to suffer for the sake of Jesus. Paul was also convinced that God was sovereign and in charge of all things and that God’s purposes and plans would always be fulfilled.

Although Paul had no idea as to what precisely would happen in Jerusalem, he was willing to die there for Jesus if that be God’s will. To Jerusalem, he was absolutely convinced he should go.

When we are certain that God has called us to go somewhere or to do something, it is a matter of both faith and of faithfulness to move forward and obey. And when we are obedient, we can often be amazed at what God had in mind.

In a former generation, Edward Kimball was a convicted man. He was a Sunday School teacher in Boston, and the Holy Spirit convicted him to take one Saturday to visit each boy in his class. The purpose of this was that Kimball wanted to make certain that all the boys knew Christ; that they had a personal, abiding relationship with Jesus. He was obedient to the will of God and was used by the Lord to lead a boy named Dwight to trust in Christ. Of course, Kimball had no idea at the time that this act of obedience on his part would have such a worldwide impact for Christ and the Gospel.

You see, Dwight was D.L. Moody and Moody became quite an evangelist – he traveled more than a million miles and brought the Gospel to more than 100 million people. It was D. L. Moody who then led Wilbur Chapman to the Lord, who became a Presbyterian pastor and evangelist.

In turn, Chapman was instrumental in the conversion of a professional baseball player by the name of Billy Sunday, who in turn became an evangelist, and in one of his meetings a young man named Mordecai Hamm came to Christ. Hamm also became an evangelist, particularly in the southeastern states. In the midst of a large crowd one night, a young man stepped forward trusting in Christ. His name was Billy Graham.

What an amazing succession of faithful and effective witnesses for Christ and how many people over the course of time have come to know and love Christ through their witness! But it all goes back to a Sunday School teacher in the city of Boston who, in faith and faithfulness, gave up one Saturday in obedience to the will of God for the cause of Christ. [vii]

The Kingdom of God always advances with such unbending determination, dear friends. May we all exhibit such faith and faithfulness today … and every day!