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September 24, 2024 6:00 am

Acts 20:17-21:14 - Part C

Connect with Skip Heitzig / Skip Heitzig

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September 24, 2024 6:00 am

Paul's heart for the Jewish people and his willingness to sacrifice for their salvation is a powerful example of Christian leadership. His commitment to teaching the full counsel of God and protecting the flock is a crucial aspect of effective ministry. Through his story, we see the importance of spiritual guidance, faith, and sacrifice in following God's will.

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This is Connect with Skip Heitzig, and we're so glad you joined us for today's program. Connecting you to the never-changing truth of God's Word through verse-by-verse teaching is what Connect with Skip Heitzig is all about. That's why we make messages like this one today available to you and others. Before we begin the program, we want to invite you to check out connectwithskip.com, where you'll find resources like full message series, daily devotionals, and more. While you're there, be sure to sign up for Skip's daily devotional emails, and receive teaching from God's Word right in your inbox each day. Sign up today at connectwithskip.com. That's connectwithskip.com.

Now, let's get started with today's message from Pastor Skip Heitzig. Why? Why?

Two reasons. One we talked about last time. Anybody know?

Remember? An offering. He took an offering from Macedonian churches to support the poor saints in Jerusalem.

That's number one. Number two, and this is the real heart of it, because he loved them. He was Jewish. He studied in Jerusalem.

He sat at the feet of Gamaliel. He knew the blindness of the Pharisees and Sadducees, and the Jewish people who crucified Christ. Along with the crowds and the Romans. He knew that.

He was one of them. He himself was blind. Let me read this to you. Romans chapter nine. I tell you the truth in Christ, I'm not lying. My conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen, according to the flesh who are Israelites.

That's amazing statement. Chapter 10, verse one. Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved.

Can you imagine making the statements that Paul made? I've come to satisfaction in Jesus Christ. I know salvation. I know truth, but I am willing to see my own life separated eternally from God. If that means salvation for my brethren, the Jewish people. What a heart.

What a heart of love. The only parallel I find to that is Moses. Moses coming down from the mountain, looks in the camp, sees them committing idolatry with a golden calf, smashes those tablets.

You know the story. God says to Moses, Moses, move aside. I'm just going to wipe all these people out.

Start with you and start all over again. Now, I don't think God really wanted to do that. He was drawing out the spirit of intercession in Moses, which worked because Moses said, Lord, please forgive the sin of these people, but if not blot my name out of your book. That's how much he identified with them. That's how much he loved them that he begged for their forgiveness and was willing himself to be separated. So Paul was bringing a financial offering, but he had a heart of love for this people. Broke his heart to see his own people who were supposedly waiting for the Messiah to come, not get excited that Jesus, their Messiah came. He saw it. He knew he was blind once.

He wants their eyes open. So he mourned for them and he loved them. It's a great story about D.L. Moody. You've heard me talk about him, the founder of Moody Bible Church in Chicago years ago, 1800s. Another preacher who knew him from Birmingham, England was R.W.

Dale, another one that I respect and I've read Dale's writings. He said this concerning D.L. Moody.

He said, D.L. Moody is the only person I know who's qualified to preach about hell. Because when Moody preaches on hell, there are tears in his eyes. When Paul preached to the Jews, he had a broken heart.

There were tears in his eyes. So I'm going to Jerusalem. None of these things move me. Move aside. I'm heading out by the will of God. Verse 25. And indeed, now I know that you all.

He was southern. And indeed, I know that you all, among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God, will see my face no more. He knows what is coming. He has an inkling.

He doesn't know the details exactly, but he knows it's not going to be pretty. Therefore, I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men. For I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God. Ooh, that is one of my favorite passages in all of scripture. It shows me that I wasn't the first one to take people through the whole Bible.

Paul did an Ephesus. For three years, he taught them the word of God. All of it. The full counsel of God. And I don't have lots of respect for preachers who don't give their congregations the full counsel of God. All the word of God.

And here's why it's important to do so. Preachers have pet topics they like, and they will often just zero in and hover on those. When you teach through the Bible, you cover things that aren't that exciting to you. Other things are.

But you can't ride a hobby horse. You have to deal with uncomfortable topics, and you have to do them in their context. But that's where the balance comes from. Sometimes people will say, well, you ought to preach more about the family. Or you ought to speak more and more on prophecy. And yet I've never heard somebody say, you know, you ought to preach more on tithing. It's selective what we want to hear about.

My answer is the same. I will tell you about the family. I will tell you about prophecy, and I will tell you about tithing when they arise in the course of going through the text of scripture. We'll get what God says about all those topics eventually, and you'll get them with the emphasis God has on them. Not yours, not mine, his emphasis and frequency and balance. And you'll get it all with God's emphasis and God's balance. I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God. Therefore. Now he gets direct.

Now there's a warning. Therefore, take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit made you episcopoi, bishops, overseers, to shepherd. That's the word poimenos, pastoral.

It means pastoral oversight. Shepherd the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood. This is not my church. Well, I go to Skip's church. Skip doesn't have one. Skip goes to this church. It's Jesus' church. He purchased you with his blood. I didn't. We're all part of his body.

The reason for the warning. Verse twenty nine. For I know this. After my departure, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. And I wonder if he knew.

I bet he did. Some of the troubled people in Ephesus that were going to take advantage of Paul not being there any longer. The leadership vacuum is gone. He knew the personalities will arise and create havoc. Because look at verse 30. Also from among yourselves. Men will rise up speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after themselves.

Therefore, watch and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears. I'm going to add this as number seven in attributes of effective, healthy ministry, and that is protection. Paul is warning them of wolves because he loves sheep.

He wants to protect them. Because this is God's flock. This flock is valuable to me. And anyone who will serve alongside me must make this flock valuable to them as well. Remember Psalm 23, David said, The Lord is my shepherd. And then he said, Your rod.

And your staff. They comfort me. Now the staff, we understand why that would bring comfort because the shepherd would use the staff to direct the sheep. Gently pushing them or tugging them with that staff on the neck or on the body to get them to move so he would take them on the right path. However, a rod is something that a shepherd wore on his belt.

It was a club that had sometimes nails at the end of it, and it was used to beat. Not sheep. To be predators, wolves. How is it that a club would comfort the sheep?

Easy. This shepherd's got my back. The shepherd's going to guide me and lead me, but he's going to beat up any predators who are coming my way.

That's a great comfort to a sheep. Shepherds have to be willing to say things that might alienate some people. Might have to warn about a false prophet that is on the current landscape. Oh, why did that?

Why did he mention that person? I like that person's radio or TV ministry. If the shepherd feels that damage can be done, it's incumbent upon the shepherd to warn. That's part of being a shepherd.

Protection. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. Jesus said, I am the door to the sheepfold. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and the sheep will go in and come out and find pasture.

When he said, I am the door, he was using a motif, an illustration that people in that era understood. When a shepherd would leave this city and take the flock out into the country, there were sheep pens or sheepfolds that were enclosures without a door. The sheep would be gathered at night into that enclosure, and the door would be this. The shepherd would lay his body over the entrance and sleep at the entrance of the sheepfold. When Jesus said, I am the door, means a wolf is not going to get to the sheep unless he crosses over me.

And I got a club to beat him up if he comes. And you know, Jesus could get pretty testy, couldn't he? How I love that passage when the Pharisees are having, they think, a private conversation with the disciples. Jesus comes walking up, sees them talking to the disciples, and he says, What are you talking to them about? That's a good shepherd. What is it you're discussing? I want to find out what you've been telling my disciples.

Not that he didn't know, but he was calling them into account. That's a good shepherd. You're listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. Before we return to Skip's teaching, God's peace, his shalom, can penetrate every aspect of your life, spiritually, mentally, physically, and emotionally. In his book, Unleashing Peace, Experiencing God's Shalom in Your Pursuit of Happiness, author Jeremiah J. Johnston helps you understand shalom and guides you into the peace that passes all understanding. And when you give a gift of $50 or more today, we'll send you Unleashing Peace. Our thanks for your support to reach more people with God's love through Connect with Skip Heitzig.

Go to connectwithskip.com slash offer or call 800-922-1888 and request your copy when you give. Now let's get back to Skip for more of today's teaching. Martin Luther wrote something.

I brought a little copy of a paragraph. He said, Even if I preach correctly and shepherd the flock with sound doctrine, I neglect my duty if I do not warn the sheep against the wolves. For what kind of builder would I be if I were to pile up masonry and then stand by while another tears it down? The wolf does not object to our leading the sheep to good pastures. The sheep that have been fattened are the more eagerly sought by him. What he cannot tolerate is that watchdog stand on guard, ready to give him battle. And he also said, A preacher must be both a soldier and a shepherd. He must nourish, defend and teach. He must have teeth in his mouth and be able to bite and fight.

That's a good shepherd. Jesus was like that. Paul was like that. He warned them.

He protected them. Verse 32. So now, brethren, I commend you to the grace to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified. I have coveted no one silver or gold or apparel. Yes, you yourselves know that these hands, my own hands, have provided for my necessities and for those who were with me.

I have shown you in every way by laboring like this that you must support the weak. And remember the words of the Lord Jesus that he said it is more blessed to give than to receive. Now, in my Bible, it's in red because I have a red letter Bible.

If you have one, I bet it's in red, is it? That means Jesus said it. The Lord Jesus, Paul said, said these words.

Here's the problem. We have no record of Jesus saying these words in Matthew, in Mark, in Luke, or in John. And so the question is, well, when did Jesus say them? I don't know. Where did Jesus say them? I don't know. Did Jesus say them?

Well, yes. How do you know? Well, Paul said, well, that's circular reasoning. Now, be careful because John, when he wrote what Jesus said and did, toward the end of his book, he said many other things Jesus did which are not recorded in this book. And he said, I suppose if they were all recorded, the world couldn't contain all the books that could be written. So Jesus said other things and did other things which weren't recorded by the evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John.

This is one of these things, obviously, he said, passed on by tradition. The gospel writers didn't find the context to put that in there, but Paul knew he said that. The church knew he said that. And when he had said these things, he knelt down and he prayed, verse 36, with them all.

Then they all wept freely, and they fell on Paul's neck and kissed him, sorrowing most of all for the words which he spoke that they would see his face no more, and they accompanied him to the ship. Always found it interesting that though Paul said and predicted, as soon as I leave, wolves are going to come in, tear this flock apart, he left anyway. You think he'd say, well, you know, the Lord's revealed this to me, so I'm going to stay. He didn't stay because he believed the Lord would take care of that as well, that he is not the be all and end all and the only person God could ever use, that God would easily replace him, and eventually he did. Timothy will pastor in Ephesus.

He will be sent there. Paul will send him a letter, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy. So he commends them to God's grace and he leaves.

After the tears, he gets aboard the ship. Verse 21, now it came to pass. When we had departed from them and set sail, running a straight course, we came to Kos and the following day to Rhodes, an island we've been to, some of us, and from there to Patara, finding a ship sailing over to Phoenicia, modern day Lebanon, we went aboard and set sail.

When we sighted Cyprus, we passed it on the left, sailing to Syria and landed at Tyre, for there the ship was to undergo cargo. Verse 4, and finding disciples, we stayed there seven days. They told Paul, through the Spirit, not to go to Jerusalem.

There it is again. When we had come to the end of those days, we departed and went our way and they all accompanied us with wives and children until we were out of the city and we knelt down on the shore and we prayed. When we had taken leave of one another, we boarded the ship and they returned home. In the next few verses, quickly, you're going to see three groups of people that tell Paul not to go to Jerusalem. He believes the Holy Spirit led him. Holy Spirit's testified, chains and tribulation await me.

He's on the way there. First group are Christians in Tyre. And it says, they told Paul through the Spirit not to go to Jerusalem. In the Greek language, it's in the present tense.

Let me translate it. They told Paul again and again, over and over and over again, not to go to Jerusalem. It was in the continuous form. So you just have to imagine at breakfast, Paul, don't go. At lunch, Paul, Holy Spirit telling us what's going to happen, don't go.

Now, he was there, it says, seven days. It was a hard week for Paul. He's got all these Christians in Tyre hearing this message and it says, they told Paul, it says, through the Spirit not to go to Jerusalem. The New American Standard Bible has a marginal note that says, because of impressions given by the Holy Spirit. So I'm going to guess they receive a word of knowledge, a spiritual gift. The word of knowledge was that Paul, if he goes to Jerusalem, is going to have hardship. They interpret this as meaning don't go.

Paul's response to that is verse five. When we came to an end of those days, we departed. See you later, alligator. I'm boarding this ship.

Bye-bye. Verse seven, second group, first was Christians in Tyre. These are clergymen in Judea. When we had finished our voyage from Tyre, we came to Ptolemais, greeted the brethren, that's the modern city of Akko up by Haifa, greeted the brethren and stayed with them one day.

Smart. On the next day, we who were Paul's companions departed and came to Caesarea and entered the house of Philip the evangelist. Remember him? Who was one of the seven, the seven servants in Jerusalem and stayed with him. Now this man had four virgin daughters who prophesied.

What are the odds of that? You have four girls and they all have the gift of prophecy in the same house. And you know, prophets of a feather flock together because watch this. No, seriously, watch this, verse 10.

And as we stayed many days, a certain prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. And when he had come to us, he took Paul's belt, bound his own hands and feet and said, Thus says the Holy Spirit. So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him to the hands of the Gentiles.

Now this cat is dramatic. He's not a little guy going, you know, the Lord spoke to me and I have a little word. He just gets dramatic and takes a belt and stands up and everybody's looking at this dude with the belt and goes, whoever owns this belt. Well, everybody knows Paul's belt.

Hello. Is going to be bound in Jerusalem. Now, you know, don't freak out. Some people are a little more dramatic than others, but he's sort of following the style of some Old Testament prophets. I mean, Isaiah walked barefoot and naked for three years because God told him to do that.

It would be hard to convince people, God told me. Jeremiah put a wooden yoke on his neck and then broke pots to get people's attention. Ezekiel took a clay tablet, drew Jerusalem on it, then beat it up, laid siege to it. Right?

Remember all those cases? Hosea, the prophet, married a prostitute. There were some dramatic ways these prophets acted.

Agabus is in that style. Now, verse 12. When we heard these things, both we and those, notice that now, it's not just they said, we and they. So now Paul is completely outnumbered and even his traveling companions are on this train. When we heard these things, both we and they from that place pleaded with him, that's Luke also and Silas, all of them, pleaded with him not to go to Jerusalem. What's Paul's response? Paul answered and said, what do you mean by weeping and breaking my heart?

For I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die at Jerusalem in the name of the Lord Jesus. So when he would not be persuaded, we ceased saying the will of the Lord be done. Once again, prediction to Paul did not mean prohibition. Were these words from the Holy Spirit?

Yes, they were. Words of knowledge, prophecy, absolutely. It was from the Holy Spirit. Paul believed that these were infallible messages from God.

What he disputed was the infallibility of the messengers in their interpretation of the message. They applied this as meaning don't go. Paul sees it as preparation.

Okay, now I know what I'm up against. I'm ready to go, be bound and get killed. I'm going to Jerusalem. I purposed in the Holy Spirit to do so. So they concluded the will of the Lord be done. So we made it really where we wanted to make it.

There was more things I had to share, but I have to wait till next time. As Paul indeed does go up to Jerusalem, trouble begins. He's going to take another journey, but not as a free preacher, but as a bound prisoner. And yet Paul will say, the word of God is not bound. You can't incarcerate God's truth.

He'll preach in prison as well as on the street corner in Jerusalem or Rome. We're glad you joined us today. Before you go, remember that when you give $50 or more to help reach more people with the gospel through Connect with Skip Heitzig, we'll send you Jeremiah Johnston's powerful book, Unleashing Peace, to guide you into the peace that passes all understanding. To request your copy, call 800-922-1888.

That's 800-922-1888. Or visit connectwithskip.com slash donate. For more from Skip, be sure to download the Connect with Skip Heitzig app, where you can access messages and more content right at your fingertips. Come back next time for more verse-by-verse teaching of God's word here on Connect with Skip Heitzig. Make a connection, make a connection at the foot of the cross and cast your burdens on His word. Make a connection, connection. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never changing truth in ever-changing times.
Whisper: medium.en / 2024-09-24 05:26:12 / 2024-09-24 05:35:38 / 9

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