Dennis Tuuri

# Sermon Transcript – Reformation Covenant Church

This time of year that we celebrate the remembrance of the coming of the Lord Jesus 2,000 years ago. And it’s a time when we also prepare our hearts for the new advent that he brings into our life and his special comings to us in judgment and in strengthening. And of course on the Lord’s day, we always have a coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. We lift up our hearts. We ascend to heaven. But we also are told that Jesus descends to us as well and knocks on the door and seeks entrance with those who are his people.

So we do indeed celebrate that advent of the Lord Jesus Christ. And as we read the book of Acts, we see the advent of the Lord Jesus Christ through the apostles and through the witnesses of the Lord Jesus and through of course the Apostle Paul. We see as we said last week that he does indeed come in several ways. We just recited from the book of Isaiah that he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth. With the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked. God’s words bring judgment, temporal punishments into the world. But he also through that same word through the same breath of his mouth brings forth grace for the establishment and strengthening of his people.

We read of the culmination of the second missionary journey of the Apostle Paul in Acts 18:23. Please stand for the reading of God’s word. Acts 18, beginning in verse 18.

“And Paul after this carried there yet a good while, and then took his leave of the brethren, and sailed thence unto Syria, and with him Priscilla and Aquila, having shorn his head in Cenchrea, for he had a vow. And he came to Ephesus, and left them there. But he himself entered into the synagogue, and reasoned with the Jews. When they desired him to tarry a longer time with them, he consented not, but bade them farewell, saying, ‘I must by all means keep this feast that cometh in Jerusalem, but I will return again unto you, if God will.’ And he sailed from Ephesus.

And when he had landed at Caesarea and gone up and saluted the church, he went down to Antioch. And after he had spent some time there, he departed and went over the country of Galatia and Phrygia in order, strengthening all the disciples.”

We thank God for his word and pray now that his spirit would illuminate our understanding and also that the Sabbath school teachers for the younger children may also illumine the word, the spirit might work with them to bring our children to a renewed understanding of God’s word as well.

Let us pray in song.

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Paul has gone forth in the spirit and in the power of the Holy Spirit. He’s gone forth in strength twice taking the gospel to the Gentiles to the remotest parts of the earth. God has blessed them. He has moved through spiritual warfare and conflict. He has seen cities divided. He has confronted pure paganism and going from at one point being worshiped as a god to by those same people within a short period of time, maybe hours, being stoned and left for dead.

He has gone back out on this second journey and he has seen men and women converted. He has seen demons driven out of people. And he has seen God use him to establish churches and finally to establish a great base church at Corinth that would have a ministry into all the surrounding region. The Apostle Paul is seeing the Christianization of the world. He’s seeing the conversion of the world and the discipling of the nations commence and he’s seeing himself being one of the instruments that God has used to that end.

It’s appropriate then that at the end of his second journey as he travels back to Antioch the commissioning church for both journeys that he engage both in the fulfillment of a vow that he took with the shearing of his head and he keeps feast at Jerusalem at the mother church the holy city. He concludes the second missionary journey. And really, I guess in a way both missionary journeys with a picture to us of service completed and a picture to us of worship and thanksgiving.

The text before us shows us in simple format the conclusion of the second missionary journey. We also see him travel then back to, as I said, Antioch and the commencement of the third missionary journey begins after a short stay at Antioch. And in the context of this we have a couple of vague references to a vow and to a feast that I think are very important for us to consider why they are here.

Let’s begin then where the text begins with a description of the journey the apostle Paul leaving Corinth after staying a good while there and you remember he stayed there unmolested apparently after the incident involving the Jews bringing him before Gallio’s judgment seat. He was delivered in a very special sense by the sovereign God whose control extends to the heart of the king and the heart of the civil magistrate. Gallio was set against the persecutors of the church while caring for none of these things yet God cares for his church and God protects his church and he does that in particularly special and momentous ways at particular times and Corinth was one of those sorts of times and so the church was established in peace and in tranquility.

Apparently, we read of no persecution in the letters to the Corinthians written by the Apostle Paul.

Well, that ministry is concluded now and the Apostle Paul travels on and we’re said specifically that he travels on. Then he sails then to Syria. He takes Priscilla and Aquila with them. He had his head shorn in Cenchrea. So, he stopped there. That was one of the two seaports of Corinth. You remember we said that Corinth is on a little isthmus of land. There are two seaports directly there. And so, it’s a very important navigational center and commerce center and Cenchrea is one of those two seaports between 5 and 10 miles away, so he stops by there, sails into Syria and then we read that he came to Ephesus and he leaves Priscilla and Aquila there but he himself reasons with the Jews.

Remember to reason means to speak forth thoroughly using discourse, dialogue, preaching, whatever the means are available but to speak forth thoroughly to a subject they want him to stay which is an amazing picture as well. Of course, there’s no apparent contention here either yet in Ephesus. We’ll see there is contention in later, but here at the institutional church he has accepted, but he wants to carry on or not tarry rather, but to hurry on that he might keep feast in Jerusalem. And so he sails from Ephesus and he lands at Caesarea and you remember this is where Cornelius was, and this is the seaport not of Antioch.

This is the seaport rather that would be the natural place for Paul the sail to were he going to Jerusalem? And so when we read in verse 22 that going up he saluted the church then he went down to Antioch. I think clearly the text is telling us that he went up to Jerusalem. He’s told us he has to go to Jerusalem to keep feast. He sails not to Caesarea which would be the natural seaport if he was going directly to Antioch but rather he sails to the seaport that would then give him easy access to Jerusalem.

Also the text saying he goes up, that is always used in scripture when we’re talking about going to Jerusalem. You go up to the holy city of God and you go down from it when you leave it. So he goes up to Jerusalem. He goes down to Antioch. And so we see here the second missionary journey completed and its arrival at Antioch. We see in 1,500 miles or more covered in a very summary fashion in these first few verses.

His route as we said was by Cenchrea the port of Corinth and then he sails to Ephesus. He goes from Ephesus to Caesarea and from there he went up and greeted the church, and that means undoubtedly he went up to see the leaders of the church at Jerusalem and also as he said to keep festival there, keep feast there and from there he went back to Antioch from which he had been which he had was his original taking off place for the second journey as well as the first.

Antioch was the commissioning church and so he returns there and the second missionary journey is then completed. We’ll talk more about Ephesus in the weeks to come, but it is important to recognize that in essence here at the end of the second missionary journey we have the beginning of the third missionary journey as well. This is where the third missionary journey will actually take begin to take its place in the next few weeks ahead of us in going through the book of Acts.

Ephesus is an extremely important city in Asia. You remember the Holy Spirit had prevented Paul from going to Asia and instead had directed him to Macedonia and to Achaia and so into that region. Well, now the Holy Spirit allows him and takes him to Ephesus and begins to start the work there which will be the commencement of the third missionary journey. Ephesus is an extremely important city. We’ll talk more about its significance next week and we as we begin to look at or the next couple of weeks as we consider the third missionary journey.

But any event, Paul takes Priscilla and Aquila. They are left at Ephesus. There’s a sense in which they perform the work here that the disciples would perform for the Lord Jesus Christ when he had earthly ministry. He would send his disciples ahead to prepare people for his coming. And in a sense, Priscilla and Aquila are left there to prepare for the coming of Jesus Christ through the apostle Paul in a full and lengthy stay there in a few months away from this particular happening.

He will spend up to 3 years at Ephesus. Now remember at Corinth we said he spent a year and a half there and that was an extended period of time. The longest period of time he’d spent at any church on the missionary journeys. But Ephesus will be a three-year stint. Very important to see that is an extremely important place in terms of the church and the development of it.

So Paul goes through these things and concludes the second missionary journey and I would like us to take a little bit of time here in the context of this and remember what has happened remember the cities he has gone to in both the first and second journeys and to see some degree of correlation in the context of those journeys.

And so in your outline I have listed for you and I probably should have reversed the columns but on the left hand column we have the second missionary journey. On the right hand column is the first missionary journey and you’ll see that both missionary journeys begin with spiritual warfare, spiritual conflict and in the context of the first missionary journey that involves Bar-Jesus the Jewish magician or sorcerer so to speak he is the one who’s preventing Sergius Paulus from coming to the faith.

Paul rebukes him and he is then judged and becomes blind and so Paul wins spiritual warfare so to speak at the beginning of the first missionary journey and Sergius Paulus as an official of the government there is converted to the faith. And so we have the typological or an emblem rather of a conversion of the entire world through the military aspects as well through Sergius Paulus and through the civil aspects.

This happened at the city of Paphos. In a similar fashion, the second missionary journey began not with the description of Paul going to a synagogue on the Sabbath in the city and then preaching. Rather, he goes outside of Philippi and we see the conversion of Lydia. And then in the context of that we see the fortune-telling girl possessed by a spirit and Paul rebukes that has the spirit come out of her that causes some conflict and the end result of that is the conversion of the Philippian jailer and so in a similar fashion to the first missionary journey the second missionary journey begins with an explicit description of the spiritual warfare that goes on as Jesus goes out through the personal work of the apostle Paul preaching his word and engages in the spiritual warfare in terms of his day and age.

So both missionary journeys are set up by an emphasis upon individual conversion, but also an emphasis upon spiritual warfare in the context of conversion and also both began very significantly with the conversion of someone who is emblematic of the governing authorities of the uttermost parts of the earth. And so when we get to Rome finally, God doesn’t have to tell us what happens at Rome as Paul sits there in prison.

We know the end because we’ve known the beginning and the beginning speaks of what the end will be like. And so both missionary journeys are very similar in the context of spiritual warfare. Now, this tells us something very important for us, doesn’t it? It tells us that we go forth preaching the gospel, when the Lord Jesus comes as an advent through his people at Reformation Covenant Church, into the communities in which we live and into the friends that we have, etc., and our acquaintances and our political efforts as well, that we are engaging in spiritual warfare.

And that warfare must consist of a reliance upon the work and the power of the Holy Spirit through the preaching of his word. And that work should be accompanied by prayer and expecting severe opposition but also having the assurance that the gospel is victorious for the conversion of men and nations. Sergius Paulus and the Philippian jailer. Both accounts then move on to an account in two different cities: Antioch Pisidia in the first missionary journey and Thessalonica in the second missionary journey where we have a specific literary reference to both synagogue and Sabbath.

Paul reasoning with the Jews at the institutional church on day of worship or convocation, the Sabbath. And so there is a correlary between those two cities as well as the missionary journeys proceed. And you’ll remember that at Antioch, the city, we have the essentially the longest and the most the sermon to the institutional church that is most dressed out for us and told we’re told the contents of it.

And that sermon asserts the lordship of Jesus Christ and asserts also as he did later at the that it was necessary for Christ to suffer and to die. So the Lord Jesus Christ and his death and resurrection is preached in the context of the institutional church but also the extension of that is that has implications not just for a personal life of piety and devotion but rather it has implications for the context of how we live our lives and relief from the oppression of ungodly rulers.

As Mary would sing in the Magnificat, God puts down rulers who are not ruling correctly for God and exalts those of low degree. And so those who are humble are are raised up and those who are prideful are abased and that has political implications as well. And so both missionary journeys go on from the idea of spiritual warfare to the context of taking the message first to the institutional church, taking a message of what we would call the full orbit gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, talking of his death and resurrection and putting that in the proper context of the deliverance and a establishment of his people on the earth and physical implications of that, political implications of that as well as spiritual implications.

Both first and second missionary journeys proceed on then to speak of the same basic message in Iconium and Berea. But now we have a literary device used and there’s the elimination of the reference to Sabbath. In both of these second cities where the description of what goes under the city occurs, there is a reference to the synagogue and reasoning to the in the synagogue but no reference to Sabbath.

And so there is as it were a movement away from the center of life at the institutional church on the Lord’s day. And in both these places as well we have implications. Now there’s a difference here at Iconium the city is split right down the middle apparently in terms of those who cleave to the Lord Jesus Christ and his message and those that don’t. The gospel brings conflict to the city. Berea that conflict will happen.

There’ll be persecution as the institutional church continues its persecution from Thessalonica the same way the institutional church moved from Antioch and began persecuting the apostle Paul at Iconium. But in Berea we have the marks of nobility given. And if there is one message we should take from this that is that the end to division occurs as men consecrate themselves or desirous of and then eager to search out the scriptures to have their lives reformed thereupon.

In Iconium a portion of the people do not do that and the city is split. And so contention and division is solved as people devote themselves to not what is good for them or what they feel or what their traditions say or traditional values and anything like that, but rather a strong apprehension of the word of God, a grasping for it, a studying of it to see if the assertions of the claims of the Lord Jesus Christ are true.

So both journeys go on then to speak specifically, Paul does, to pagans. At Lystra, he goes, and you remember there’s a healing that occurs and people call him and Barnabas gods. And he says, “We’re not gods.” He preaches them a little sermon. At Athens, he goes and he confronts the idolatry of Athens. And in both places, the message to those outside of the institutional church, outside of the teaching of God’s word, to pure pagans to the uttermost parts of the earth, that message is taken in the message in both places given in summary form at Lystra and in full form at Athens.

The message is the creation, providence, and judgment of God. All providing the proper context for the preaching of the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. God the creator, God the provide the what? God of providence and sustainer of mankind. And then judgment to men who will who refuse to give thanks to God and refuse to acknowledge his claims upon their life. Having created them and taken care of them, he judges them blessing and cursing.

And so time God in times past before the advent of Christ more so to speak leeway. But now that Christ has come and the full revelation is out and the gospel is taken to the uttermost parts of the earth, strong judgment to Athens and to Lystra should they fail to repent and turn to the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we have the same message. And so this tells us that in living in a post-Christian culture in America, surely we should take the message of the fuller gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and his sovereignty to the existing institutional churches.

But we also must take the message to the pagan and unbelieving world around us. And that message must center upon the creating work of God. And that’s one of the reasons, one practical reason, apart from the simple assertion of the truth of the scriptures, why it’s important to teach six day creation and why it is important to assert in the face of most major denominations and even the conservative denominations don’t want to take a stand on this.

The creation by God of the earth in six days and that very good. And his act of sovereignty issuing forth in providence by which he governs all things. He has decreed whatsoever comes to pass and through his providence brings those things to occur. And finally, it’s important that we take to the pagan world, not a message of pluralism and I’m okay and you’re okay and why don’t you consider this, but rather we must challenge people with the word of God.

Critique their worldview. Show them the foolishness of their folly. Answer the fool according to his folly and show him the implications of what his assertion of his worldview and his God is. Foolish this ignorance and then show them they’re culpable for that ignorance because they refuse to give thanks to God. Turning from God, they worship creepy crawly things. They worship themselves and what meaning they want to give to things.

And we must take in that message as well. The message of God’s judgment, the message of hell and damnation, which is sadly left out of too much of the institutional church’s message today. And then finally, both missionary journeys conclude on a note of peace. At Derbe, we don’t have much of an account of what goes on there, but there’s no evidence of persecution. And at Corinth, while it begins with the attempt by the Jews to persecute Paul, Paul has been assured a vision by the Lord Jesus Christ, it will not prevail.

The persecution, it will not stop him. And God then sovereignly works in the heart of Gallio to release Paul. And so the church at Corinth has rest in peace. And so both missionary journeys conclude on a note of peace. Even the last footnote to the second missionary journey at Ephesus, no contention described. And it’s so important for us to recognize that as we go forth in a renewed and reconsecrated sense this next year and assert the claims of the Lord Jesus Christ and the truth of the scriptures in various realms in the context of this institutional church speaking with other institutional churches witnessing in terms of our communities it’s important that we recognize that we will face spiritual warfare that there will be cities communities families divided contention will occur persecution will happen but that is not the end of the story both missionary journeys conclude with success and peace and tranquility.

You see, the gospel message is certainly one of contention and division, but it is one that is effectual to victory. And it’s so important that we stay the course and recognize that when troubles come and divisions happen, well, that’s for the purposes of God refining his some of his people and burning up other people and taking them out who really are not part of God’s people. And it’s for the purpose eventually of producing peace in the context of the land.

And so both missionary journey journeys conclude on this note of peace giving us the assurance in our hearts the encouragement to proceed on with the pure teaching and preaching and application of God’s word in our life and so the first and second missionary journeys are very similar in content a two-fold witness so to speak to spiritual warfare to contention division to the necessity to reason on the base of scripture not on the basis of human logic or evidences from the world around us but to cleave to the word of God and speak of the implications of that to take the message to the institutional church and to idolatrous pagans in the context of the land and all this to the end that God would establish his peace, his shalom, his blessing in the context of his presence with his people and the elimination eventually of his enemies.

That’s the goal to which we press. That’s the goal to which we press. And while we stand in the historical trough where the word of God has not been preached by and large in America, across the world, it has fallen into great heresy in terms of Arminianism and other antinomianism etc. Yet we must recognize that the end result will be the establishment of God’s peace in this state in this country whether it’s called America or Oregon or not in the future I don’t know but eventually that’s what occurs and so God gives us that model.

So the first missionary journey is concluded and very importantly Paul says that he’ll go back to the Ephesians, if God is willing. James 4 tells us that don’t say I’m going to go here, I’m going to go there. Say if the Lord wills, I’ll go here and go there. Now, that’s not a mantra. You know, that’s not an incantation. So, if you add that onto your speech whenever you say things, you’re a good person. God is not concerned with empty words.

He’s also not concerned that you remember to say that every time you speak. What he is concerned about is that you’re submissive and do not see in the difficult difficulties of your life, frustration, but rather see the sovereign hand of God, willing or not willing for you to go here or there. The Apostle Paul learned that lesson early on in the second journey, didn’t he? He wanted to go here, he wanted to go there, and the Holy Spirit prevented him, and the Holy Spirit directed him to the place where God wanted him.

And Paul was submissive to that. And he reminds us at that short little phrase, if the Lord wills, I’ll return to Ephesus. He reminds us that undergirding all of our endeavors for the kingdom, we must have a reliance and submissiveness to the will of the Father who controls all things for his glory and to the end that his people would be strengthened and established and that his enemies would be removed.

And so the first and second missionary journey come to an end. Secondly, Paul then has a short stay. Well, not so short really. We don’t know how long exactly, but he spends some time at Antioch. We read specifically that he landed at Caesarea. He goes up, salutes the church, it’s at Jerusalem, and he goes down to Antioch. And after he had spent some time there, he departs and starts the third journey. Paul returns to Antioch.

He returns to the place of commissioning both for the first and second journey. He returns for the purposes of reporting back as he did at the end of the first journey to Antioch, the successes of the Lord Jesus Christ, what God has accomplished, as well as to rest and enjoy the fellowship there, as well as to evaluate his work and submit his work to the evaluation of the church that had commissioned him as well.

And this pattern is another pattern. It’s important for us to see in our lives. Our lives have particular cycles to them. We go through a week. You’ll go out from this place, the blessing of God on your head. You’ll go do labors and you’ll bring those labors back and look for God’s evaluation of them and sometimes for the formal evaluation of your brothers and sisters in the Lord at Reformation Covenant Church as well.

And so it is that our lives are marked by this period of activity culminating in success and victory of the gospel and then resulting in a return to our commissioning place and a pause for reflection and evaluation of what God has done every day can be marked by that in our families. We cause our children to reflect upon what happened. We commission our children in a sense to go into the world each day to behave their lives with the submissiveness to the Lord Jesus Christ and we should get a report back and help them to evaluate their efforts at the end of the week and prepare ourselves for such evaluation as well.

Anyone who’s ever worked in a job, has never had a formal evaluation knows the frustration of that because you know that the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. You know, you need the external evaluation of the church. You need the witness of the church in the context of your attempts to serve the Lord Jesus Christ. You need the witness of those who you work with to bring some degree of objectivity to your own evaluation of your efforts.

And so, the Apostle Paul returns to Antioch reporting, resting, and evaluating his work. And then third, we have the commencement of the third missionary journey, which will take Paul to Antioch or from Antioch rather to Rome. And so, we have that movement begun again as he moves forth and begins again with strengthening the disciples at the churches he had established just as the first journey began with the strengthening of the disciples where he had been before.

So the third journey begins as well with the strengthening of the disciples. We’ll speak more on that next week. I want to move on now to the final point that this text brings to us the vow and the feast. Paul’s missionary efforts conclude as I mentioned earlier with both a observance of his work and evaluation of his work in a very formal sense that this vow taken as well as with worship service and worship.

Paul’s relationship to the ceremonial law is not what anybody really wants it to be. There are those who want him to obey the ceremonial law totally at the context of the Jerusalem council for instance and to say people must be circumcised in order to be a Christian. He rejects that vehemently. And yet also on the other side there are those cheap grace New Testament Christian who want no correlation at all of Christian activity to the Old Testament, thinking somehow that was a different God back then, the God was mean and he’s developed and matured now or something or that those were works righteousness commands in the Old Testament.

Nonsense. This is the God of the scriptures, old and new testament. The Apostle Paul writes about the covenants of grace. All the manifestations of the covenant in the Old and New Testament are covenants of grace. They’re not manifestations of works. The Old Testament system was never intended to be used as a way to earn salvation to earn right standing with God. It all pointed as Jesus taught those men on the road to Emmaus to him and to his work.

And so the Apostle Paul has no trouble at all engaging in vows, engaging in the keeping of feasts at the temple of Jerusalem until such time as God would put an end to all that through the destruction of the temple in AD 70. We don’t know what feast it was that was coming at Jerusalem. Lenski says that Passover was already over. Alexander rather, J. Alexander says Passover was already over. It must be Pentecost.

Lenski says no, it was March 10th that he left for this journey and undoubtedly it was Passover. I think probably Passover since it’s not specified. It had to be one of the two. No other feasts were referred to as the feast. And the feast usually refers in the absolute sense that it’s spoken of here to Passover. We don’t know which one it is. And I guess it’s not all that important. What is important is to see Paul’s sense of continuity between the Old Testament ceremonies and what Jesus brought now in completion of those ceremonies in his work.

And so those ceremonies teach us about the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. I think what else is important for us here is to recognize that there is I believe the completion of the vow here that Paul had taken. He shaves off his head. I believe in consecration of his work, his labor, to God that God had blessed him in his great endeavors of missionary work for the Lord Jesus Christ. The missionary journey is concluded with a note reminding us of vows and service and dedication.

But the second missionary journey also concludes with a feasting, a rejoicing, a worship in the presence of God for what Christ has accomplished. And so all of our labors are marked at the end in that evaluatory period both with a sense of consecration of what we’ve done to God and also with a sense of joy and worship. Service and worship are the two little symbolic notes placed as footnotes to the end of the Apostle Paul’s second missionary journey.

Now, let’s talk a little bit about this vow. In fact, more than a little bit, let’s spend a little bit of time on what’s going on here. Some people aren’t even sure it’s Paul. I’ll just point that out to you right now that some say, “Well, by the way, there are other references before we leave the feast side of this. Paul definitely speaks of keeping the feast being at Jerusalem the day of Pentecost in Acts 20 and other places of scripture.

In First Corinthians he said that he wanted to tarry at Ephesus and to Pentecost a great door and effectual was opened unto me and that there are many adversaries. We know that part of the reason why Paul kept those feasts part of the joy with which he went to Jerusalem besides of course these things being educational devices of what Christ has accomplished and a rejoicing and worship in God’s presence. Part of it too is he knew it would be a great opportunity a great and effectual door for ministry in the context of what was always his first goal to take the message to the institutional church.

And so that was also involved with this. Now this vow we read that Paul took a vow. Well, it doesn’t say Paul. What it says is that he took with him Priscilla and Aquila having shorn his head in Cenchrea for he had a vow. Well, some people say that since Aquila is placed last after Priscilla, maybe this is Aquila. I don’t think that is true. Priscilla and Aquila for whatever reason is always listed in that order.

Priscilla first and then at least usually Priscilla first and then Aquila. And I think the reference obviously is back to Paul. What is Paul doing here? Well, number one, we see here very clearly that Christians, whether it’s Aquila, whether it’s Paul, and we’ll see later as well that Christians can take vows. Our savior never meant to say we shouldn’t vow or shouldn’t place our word on something. When he instructed about proper use of our speech and vowmaking.

His point was that everything we do should have honesty behind it and a commitment to truthfulness. We should always speak truthfulness in whatever we say, not just when we vow. Having said that, the scriptures do warn us about hasty vows. In Ecclesiastes 5:4 and 5, “When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it, for he hath no pleasure in fools. Strong word for those who don’t do what they vow to do to God.

Fools. Pay that which thou hast vowed. Better is it that that should not vow than he that shouldest vow and not pay.” So you want to be very conscientious when you make a vow, a commitment to God to do something, should he bless or prosper your work or should your work prove efficacious, you want to make very sure that you follow through on that covenant, that special covenant of service and consecration to service that a vow entails.

Proverbs 20:25 says “It’s a snare for a man who devours that which is holy and after vows to make inquiry.” The idea is you make inquiry before your vow. You count the cost before you make the vow. You think it through. You talk to people about it perhaps. And you think, is this a good thing to do? So vows are useful in scripture. They’re part of the Old Testament. I think they’re part of the New Testament. Special periods of time in which we consecrate ourselves for particular service and look for God’s blessing upon that and make a vow to him.

But the scriptures are filled with warnings about making hasty vows without proper counsel and consultation with others or with God or thinking things through on your own. And secondly is very dangerous. Of course, it invokes God’s wrath to make a vow and not follow through with what you promise to God. Now, we don’t know that this was a Nazirite vow. It seems that it is. The shearing of the head upon the completion of a Nazirite vow is an old Testament, a ritual prescribed in Numbers chapter 6.

We’re going to talk about that at some length in a couple of minutes. We do know that later on in Acts 21, Paul is asked advised by the apostles at Jerusalem to accompany four men who it seems like were very clearly involved in the taking of a Nazirite vow and offering up their hair at Jerusalem. We do know that he was involved in that and that actually his involvement in that he paid for their sacrifices.

He also went through a ritual purification for seven days and then he paid the price of their sacrifice. He had to sacrifice certain things. They’re actually fairly costly things because the Nazirite vow was no small deal. It was a big thing required big obligations as well. And so he helped these men pay for that. So he involved himself at least in helping other Christians to fulfill a Nazirite vow. And that by the way is what led to his arrest at Jerusalem and eventual imprisonment at Rome.

We also know Josephus tells us that this particular period of time in the first century, the Nazirite vow was fairly popular. It was a popular thing to have done. In fact, James, who was the apostle that advised Paul in Acts 21 to help those four men complete their vow, records that James himself would engage in Nazirite vows and was in some sense a Nazirite. Now, Nazirites were not always full-time. Usually, we’re not lifelong Nazirites.

We always think of Samson and Samson was a lifelong Nazirite, as was apparently Samuel as well. But that was unusual. The Nazirite vow prescriptions in Numbers chapter 6 were for temporary service. And so it’s not beyond thinking that Paul had engaged himself at least in a form of the Nazirite vow. It can be said that all vows in some sense are typified in the Nazirite vow. And so we at least should understand the Nazirite vow for context of vows in the scriptures and perhaps to direct application to Paul shuring his head at Cenchrea.

Having completed his vow. And so we turn now to a consideration of the Nazirite vow. You’ll notice on your scripture on your outlines there, there are five little segments after the number six Nazir. Nazir is the root for Nazirite. A Nazirite did not was not from Nazareth. No correlation at all. Nazirite Nazareth completely separate. Nazareth has its root in this word Nezer and you’ll see there five uses of the word in the scriptures.

It means to be set apart. That’s the basic context, the basic meaning. It also is used to refer to unpruned grapevines that were left unpruned in the sabbatical year. The word Nazar and its cognate is also used in the crown or diadem of the priest and also the anointing oil for priests. Fourth, the word Nazar and a cognate of it is used as a crown for a prince as well. And then finally, there’s a I believe a reference to the long hair of the Nazirite in the book of Judges in Deborah’s song, verse two, which we’ll get to in a couple of minutes.

The Nazirites were important people for the people for the church in the Old Testament. They were correlated with the prophets to being the special people, you know, kind of like the emblems of the best the best of God’s people in the Old Testament. In Lamentations 4:7, “Her Nazirites, speaking of Jerusalem, Her Nazirites were purer than snow. They were white, whiter than milk. They were more ruddy and body than rubies.

Their polishing was of sapphire.” That’s all spoken in a good sense. But God in his judgment of apostate Jerusalem says that their visage is now blacker than coal. But in any event, Lamentations speaks of the Nazirite because he was very important in the context of a picture of Israel. Again, in Amos 2:11 and 12, “I raised up of your sons for prophets and of your young men for Nazirites. Know a lot about prophets in the Old Testament.

They’re important. Don’t think much about Nazirites. They’re correlated here in Amos 2:11. ‘Is it not even thus, oh ye children of Israel, sayeth the Lord. But ye gave the Nazirites wine to drink and commanded the prophets, saying, Prophesy not.’” And so the Nazirites were important pictures of special men and women for special periods of time in the old covenant to the people there. And I want to go over these five senses in which the word is referred to.

in the scripture and use these as kind of a takeoff point for a discussion of what Paul was doing and why perhaps he had engaged in the Nazirite vow in his particular endeavors in the missionary journeys. The most basic sense of the word is to be set apart or consecrated. It’s very important if you’re keeping notes that set apart is from something, but it is also to something. So often we think of Christians as being the ones who don’t smoke, don’t chew, don’t go out with the girls that do.

Set apart from some things. The Nazirite was set apart. He could not drink wine for the period of his Nazirite vow. He could not eat grapes. He could not drink strong drink. And that’s beer. It’s kind of a strong a spiced beer in the Old Testament that was readily available. Was used for rejoicing purposes with a portion of the tithe. He couldn’t do that. He was also separated from cutting his hair. He had long hair.

And then finally, he was separated from death, defilement, contamination with dead people into end of the Nazirite vow. You had to start all over again. Shave your hair off and begin again. Instead of one queen in the history of the Jewish people that she wanted to take a seven-year vow and right toward the end of the seven years, she somehow got contaminated with the dead person. She had to start all over again.

Happened twice. So, she had 21 years of vows. A Nazirite vow could be taken with either man or woman. Contamination with the dead was also something you were set apart from. But primarily, the Nazirite is set apart to a particular task. And that is holiness or consecration in service very importantly not a pietistic sense but in service to God. And so the Nazirite is set apart from things but he is set apart to things very importantly.

And this is the basic meaning of the Nazirite. He had a he had a higher sense of consecration to the service of God for a particular period of time. I think probably the minimum period was 30 days and it could go on for years depending on what the particular vow was. But for that particular period of time, he had a particular sense of consecration. It’s interesting that in terms of the offering that he was to bring, the peace offering that the Nazirite would bring at the end of this period of time, it was a bigger peace offering than the normal peace offering.

Normal peace offering was the peace offering is the one that the worshipper would eat part of. Part would be for him, part be for the priest. Well, in the normal peace offering, the thigh and the breast were given to the priest. But in the Nazirite peace offering, he had to add to the priest’s portion the shoulder and he also had to bring two cakes as well. And this is a picture of the increased sense of consecration and dedication to God that the Nazirite envisaged for the people of Israel and for himself.

So very importantly the first sense of the Nazirite is to be set temporarily set apart to a particular task. Okay, was temporary not usually permanent. Winnham G. or Gordon Wenham in his commentary on Numbers. Numbers six is where the regulations for the Nazirite is found. Wenham said that the Nazirites were the monks and nuns of ancient Israel. Now, not necessarily in the sense least think of monks or nuns, not given to a life of contemplation for a set period of time, but rather given to a sense of service for a period of time.

They were lay people, not priests. They were lay men or women who consecrated themselves to the total service of God. Usually, as I said, for specified period of time, 30 days or more usually is what was involved. And so they were set apart and they would fulfill this vow. They were lay people both men and women. The emphasis was not, as we might think, on deprivation. The emphasis for the Nazirite was rather on the privilege of service to Jehovah God.

He was a man who had separated himself from the usual tasks of everyday life to fulfill a particular task or purpose in specific correlation to the purposes of Jehovah in the nation. So he was a short-term missionary I guess is one way to think of it. A short-term servant and really in a sense a short-term priest and we’ll see that more as we develop this on. He wasn’t a priest but he did become a picture of the priest in the context of his exclusion or holiness to God.

The priests were people who were consecrated in a special sense to God as well. And so the Nazirite became kind of a temporary priest to perform a particular vow. R.J. Rushdoony in his excellent short talk on the Nazirite vow says that when he was raised in Armenia, he remembered a man who had taken a year off or so from his normal vocation and who was interested in studying the works of a particular monk, an aesthetic, and so went to wherever it was in the country or world that man’s writings were found and studied those things for a period of time.

And that service was consecrated, he was consecrated or commissioned to that service at the church and it had it was essentially a form of Naziriteim in the application of the church in Armenia. So we have here a concept of a total separation to a specific purpose and that purpose is a godly purpose. Now there is Sabbath implications in this. The Nazirite could not partake of wine or grapes and as I said the word Nazar is the same one that talks about the unpruned vines of the sabbatical year.

And so it’s as if the Nazirite has entered into a particular sabbatical period of special consecration. Every Israelite was required every seventh year to take the year off and devoted to the pursuit of God and rest in his finished work, but also to study the scriptures etc. and to engage in art etc. All men were required to do that. The Nazirite took a special sense of sabbatical period separation from common work to do particular ministry work for himself for a particular period of time.

Now, because the Old Testament people were characterized as a debt-free people, no long-term debt beyond 6 years, they were especially provident in their lifestyles. And this, of course, was necessary. If you were to take a month, 2 months, 6 months, or a year off from your vocation, you probably couldn’t do it because most of us don’t own homes outright or we rent. And in either case, we don’t have the provident lifestyle characterized by a lack of debt that Old Testament Israel had.

And so, are restricted to a certain degree from being able to fulfill a Nazirite sort of ministries in the context of our lives. And that’s one reason why it’s very important that all of us continue on a track to be debt-free and to be property holders so that we can free up ourselves for particular periods of consecration such as Naziriteim provided. He gave himself totally to life and that probably is one of the symbolic reasons why there was a very important attention away from death.

He couldn’t mourn his relatives even. He wanted to stay far away from death because he was devoting himself particularly to life and to ministry of that life to the purposes of God’s work. Naziriteim the application of this concept of a short-term vow to God and a consecration for a particular task has had a very important place in biblical faith. It also sets forth the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers.

Well, that was true. Obviously, this was a picture of the priesthood of a particular lay person for a particular period of time in which he would devote himself to a particular work. In terms of moral authority, the Nazirite was looked upon as equal to a high priest. We’ll look at that in a couple of minutes. All persons were of course required to serve God, but the Nazirite gave himself for a particular period of time to a specific task and thereby picture the consecration of all of life.

to the service of God. Now, Naziriteim is essentially the basis, this concept of the Old Testament for much Christian missionary work in the last 2,000 years. It has been common in ages past for farmers, for instance, to take a period of time, a year or so, out of their normal vocational life, Christian farmers, and instead travel to missionary areas and teach people how to farm and correct farming techniques for a year.

This is a sense of a consecrated period of time of Naziriteim.