Dennis Tuuri

Soul that trusted in him indeed in our sermon text for today which is found in the book of Acts the 21st chapter we’ll be reading verses 1-16 the subject of the sermon is the will of the lord be done we’ll follow Paul in his track and the master’s footsteps toward his passion in Jerusalem please stand for the reading of God’s word Acts 21:1-16 And it came to pass that after we were gotten from them and had launched, we came with a straight course under Cos, and the day following unto Rhodes, and from thence unto Patara, and finding a ship sailing over unto Phoenicia, we went aboard and set forth.

Now when we had discovered Cyprus, we left it on the left hand, and sailed into Syria, and landed at Tyre. For there the ship was to unladen her burden. And finding disciples we tarried there seven days who said to Paul through the spirit that he should not go up to Jerusalem. And when we had accomplished these days, we departed and went our way. And they all brought us on our way with wives and children till we were out of the city.

And we kneel down on the shore and prayed. And when we had taken our leave one of another, we took ship and they returned home again. And when we had finished our course from Tyre, we came to Tarsus and saluted the brethren and abode with him one day. And the next day we that were of Paul’s company departed and came unto Caesarea. And we entered into the house of Philip the evangelist, which was one of the seven, and abode with him.

And the same man had four daughters, virgins, which did prophesy. And as we tarried there many days, there came down from Judea a certain prophet named Agabus. And when he was come unto us, he took Paul’s girdle, and bound his own hands and feet, and said, Thus sayeth the Holy Ghost, So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man that owneth this girdle, and shall deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.

And when we heard these things, both we and they of that place besought him not to go up to Jerusalem. Then Paul answered, “What mean ye to weep and to break mine heart? For I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.” And when he would not be persuaded, we ceased, saying, “The will of the Lord be done.” And after those days, we took up our carriages and went up to Jerusalem.

There went with us also certain of the disciples of Caesarea and brought with them one man of Cyprus, an old disciple with whom we should lodge. Let’s pray. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you, Lord God, that you have left us here as orphans. You’ve given us your Holy Spirit on the basis of Christ’s work and you’ve given us your inscriptured word. We thank you, Lord God, that word is God breathed and profitable for our edification.

And Father, we do pray that your Holy Spirit might illumine our hearts, our souls and understanding of these texts. Help us, Lord God, to praise your name for them and to reconsecrate ourselves to the service of the master, even if that service calls us through many trials and tribulations and even martyrdom. We thank you, Lord God, for this text. And we pray now that you would bless our time in it. We pray as well that you would enable the Sabbath school teacher to teach the children the word and that the spirit might help them to understand that word that they might apply it in their lives in Jesus name we pray and for the sake of his kingdom.

Amen. You may be seated. Paul is on his way to Jerusalem and as he told the Ephesian elders, not knowing what might befall him there, but knowing indeed that at least there would be bonds, imprisonment, trials and tribulations in Jerusalem. He has completed his missionary journeys and he goes now to the holy city to bring the offering and other things which we’ll discuss next week. I don’t know what Paul thought about on his road there, but it’s helpful for us to remember a couple of things that have happened earlier in the book of Acts.

The first is the death of Stephen. Stephen was martyred for the faith. And the second man who was martyred for the faith that we read of in this in the book of Acts is James killed by Herod. And so the scriptures tell us here that something has changed. Remember I’ve talked about the correlation between the book of Acts and the book of Joshua. But one major change from Joshua to Acts is martyrdom in the book of Acts.

We don’t see martyrdom in the book of Joshua. We see men die at the battle of Ai because of the sin of Achan. But mostly what we see in the book of Joshua is victory, physical victory. The enemies get killed, the good guys don’t. But in the book of Acts, things are different. Here we have death for the good guys. We have martyrdom. There’s a change between these two books. And that change is important for consideration of what this text of scripture begins to point us to.

I’ve said before that In the providence of God, we have entered into this particular portion of the text, the book of Acts, during the Lenten season. Remember, we said that it’s good to mark our calendars according to scriptural denotations as opposed to the secular denotations we have. And so, today is not Sunday. Today is the day of the Lord, the Lord’s day, the Christian Sabbath. And this text that we’re in the context of now shows us precisely what Paul is doing between Passover and Pentecost.

He’s trying to get to Jerusalem for Pentecost. And we have a record of the itinerary of Paul in this text. And then in the larger context in chapter 20 and 21, we see all seven weeks of Paul’s activities that happen during the context of Passover to Pentecost. Pentecost is 50 days later. And so these texts give us a chronology that’s fitted to a cycle of the feasts. And while we are not bound to observe Lent, Christians today, a major portion of the church does and it is good for us on a regular basis to consider in a more focused sense the passion of the Lord Jesus Christ which becomes then the model for our tribulation, our passion as it were, our trials and tribulations that we must suffer in this life.

Our savior told us to take up our cross that all men must bear their cross. Now, Acts doesn’t end with defeat through martyrdom. What did what happened after Steven died? Do you remember the persecution that ensued at the death of Steven then caused the church to go on out and evangelize further and the persecution and the death of James and the imprisonment of Peter is the whole cusp as it were the midway point as we move from the Petrine to the Pauline phase of the book and again the gospel is taken out into the wider world and so martyrdom and trials and tribulations are for the advancement of the kingdom.

But the kingdom doesn’t advance strictly with all victory and no trials and tribulations. In fact, the scriptures say our lives will be filled with trials and tribulations. But part of our preaching of the gospel is being prepared for that through martyrdom and through trials and temptations and tribulations. And the end result of that is sanctification of us if we submit to God and to his will and say his will be done not ours as our savior said.

And the end result of even martyrdom is the expansion of the faith. And if the enemy cannot stop the advance of the gospel with the killing of those who would carry the gospel, then victory is truly assured. Well, let’s consider then I want us to under get a little understanding of this text first and then make some very simple practical applications hopefully to our lives. And the context for all this is this Lenten trek of the disciple Paul into the steps of the master as it were going to Jerusalem setting his face to go there.

Being told he’ll be handed over to the Gentiles as the savior was etc etc all these correlations are made Paul rather now shows us or travels in a particular itinerary I just want us to understand the text first and so first let’s go over briefly an overview of the text according to the outline which I’ve provided the first thing we see is there’s departure from Miletus and the particular word there when it says in verse one that it came to pass that after we were gotten from them.

That word in the Greek means torn from literally it means to be have separation with a lot of difficulty. You don’t want to separate. And so Paul and company are torn as it were from the elders at Miletus the Ephesian elders there. That’s significant for us to show the depth of fellowship and the depth of relationship that these Christians had. They depart from there on a ship and we see in verse one that there is a shuttle ship so to speak that I’ve called it on your outline to three different ports.

They had two different kind of like our planes today. You know you can take shuttle flights to short distances and then you get in longer bigger planes for long distances. And so with the boats then the particular vessel that they board at Miletus is a shuttle vessel and this shuttle vessel doesn’t go out into the open waters so much. It just goes from along the shore to these different cities. And the three specific cities that are mentioned here are Cos or Kos, Rhodes and then Patara and these are the three different shuttle ship journeys that Paul and company make down the coast.

Cos was known for its wines and fabrics Rhodes you know this is the colossus of Rhodes at this time though that 105 ft statue of Apollo was already disintegrated or at least broken down but that is the island of Rhodes at the colossus there and Rhodes means roses remember we had Rhoda earlier who saw Peter at the door and that name rose and then Patara is a maritime city. These all were of course they were ports.

Patara once was had an oracle of the palace there which had competed with had as much significance at that time as the oracle at Delphi. And so we could think about that and think as these three cities are named for us that it reminds us of the fabrics, the clothing, the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ bought with the price of his blood the wine of all wines as Cos indicate. And Apollo, of course, the 105 ft statue is a a termite-like pale imitation of the great king of kings and the magnificence of our god that we serve who brings us through those thistles into roses.

And we could talk about Patara, the maritime city, the center of commerce as Christianity has become in our unconditional surrender class today out at the Bowden house. We’re going to talk about the implications of the scriptures relative to economies and it’s very significant. And we could also talk about the oracle of that city, the prophets of God’s word. The understanding that God’s word gives us to us, of course, is the great model of which all these other things are pale and perverse imitations.

But any event, we then moved on from these shuttle ship journeys to three different ports. You think it’s on a cargo ship for a long travel. These were like 40 or 50 mile journeys so far to these three different towns. And now there’s a long three or 400 mile trip on this big cargo ship to Tyre. And Tyre is a big place and they got a big cargo ship that takes them there. And so when they get to Tyre, we find that they find apostles they find disciples there at Tyre and they abide with them there or stay with them 7 days.

Now the reason they’re staying seven days, remember Paul is hurrying to get to Jerusalem for Pentecost and he’s going to make it. There’s no problem with that. But the text and I won’t go through the specifics, but the text indicates that the reason they were there seven days was not so much they might keep Sabbath at this group or have communion. After all, later on he’ll only spend a day in certain places, but rather because this large cargo ship probably took seven days to complete the unloading of its cargo in the province of God.

However, of course, that gives Paul 7 days to spend with a particular group of people here that he’d had very little contact with up to now. Tyre was prophesied in the Old Testament that it would receive the visitation of the Lord and would grow as a outpost of the Lord’s blessing. And we see some of the fulfillment here of those Old Testament promises as we see that a church has been established at Tyre He finds disciples at Tyre and as they spend time there we’re not given a lot of information on what goes on but we can be assured that he spends good time with them.

Now those disciples to which they tarried seven days then we read in the text that they said to Paul through the spirit that he should not go up to Jerusalem. And this would be kind of confusing but again the Greek doesn’t say that it was the spirit that said he shouldn’t go up to Jerusalem. They spoke to Paul things of the spirit. The spirit revealed to these Christians just as he had to others that Paul would go through persecutions, trials, imprisonment at Jerusalem.

That’s the implication. The way they understood that message of the spirit was that it should be a warning to Paul not to go, but they didn’t have the full story and Paul did. Paul knew that he was supposed to go to Jerusalem. And so the spirit reveals to them the difficulties. They then add their own interpretation to that it should be a warning to Paul not to go up. What we want to The emphatic thing to realize here is that the spirit is warning Paul several times of what awaits him.

The spirit’s not telling him not to go. We’ll see that in a couple of minutes here. So after those seven days, then there’s a departure from Tyre. There’s unloading and fellowship at Tyre for 7 days and then there’s a departure through that as well. Now in the outline I ask what kind of fellowship? Well, it’s interesting that when they depart on in verse 5, when we accomplished those days, we departed and went our way and they all brought us on our way with wives and children till we are out of the city and we kneel down on the shore and pray.

There’s a very again these words are here for a reason. It shows the depth of fellowship and commitment to each other and the unity of that church at Tyre with the relationship to Paul and his mission after just seven days of being together. So we can imagine that those seven days were primarily taken up with discussions about the weather. Paul after all has a lot to tell them about and he’s got a lot talking about where he’s going as well and what that is all about and how he intends to go to Rome through Jerusalem and take the faith to the center of the known world at that particular time and convert those of the empire’s house emperor’s household.

There’s a lot of discussion apparently that goes on here because at the end of seven days they don’t just say well nice to have met you that was great preach and everything Paul will see you around. They actually go with them to the ship and not just the men which is normal in a close communion fellowship but the women and children the wives and children went as well. We have a picture of a strong sense of fellowship here and that’s what’s going on.

As the apostle goes on his way here and spends seven days at this particular city, he then reboards the cargo ship and goes to Tarsus, which is the same city as Accro in the Old Testament. In Judges 1:31, it’s referred to this was in the territory of the tribe of Asher. And Judges 1:31 tells us specifically that they never conquered the Canaanites in that particular place. So they then are still on the traveling itinerary going to Jerusalem and they go to Tarsus.

They spend one day of fellowship there. We read in verse 7, when we had finished our course from Tyre, we came to Tarsus and saluted the brethren and abode with them one day. So there’s Christians all along. See, this is another indication to us as Paul goes to Jerusalem that he doesn’t go in failure. He goes as again as the Lord our God did as a conquering king. Not that Paul’s the king the Lord Jesus is. But Paul and the rest of the church has been successful in planting churches where for instance the tribe of Asher couldn’t plant the faith in the Old Testament.

So we have all these places listed and there are Christians in all of them. And so we see the faith being propagated throughout this throughout the region. And they then move on then on the cargo ship and they sail to Caesarea next. and we’re we’ll be coming back to Caesarea in the in the next few chapters of the book. This is where Paul will spend two years in a very loose imprisonment, kind of a house arrest situation in Caesarea.

So, he’ll be back to see these folks. But while he’s at Caesarea, some significant things happen that we want to understand correctly. And so we read of what happens in Caesarea in verse 8 and following that we that when they go to Caesarea, they enter into the house of Philip the evangelist. Now, you remember Philip was the one who was one of the seven many think deacons or whatever they were, seven deacons or assistants in the service of the table back in Jerusalem.

And then later in Acts chapter 8, Philip is the one that goes and preaches and leads the mission to the Samaritans. And so, Philip is an evangelist in that sense. Remember, Philip also is the one who meets the Ethiopian eunuch and then is taken off by the spirit to Azotus and then he goes from there to Caesarea. So, we’re told earlier in the book of Acts how Philip comes to be at Caesarea and apparently there He states and he is specifically designated as an evangelist.

This was an office peculiar to the New Testament church with the apostles and prophets and evangelists. And then later the continuing officers of those of teacher and preacher teaching and preaching. And so Philip is an evangelist. He has planted the gospel. He’s gone forth not as our evangelist today so much. He’s gone forth preaching not unrelated to the church certainly under in connection with the rest of the body of Christ.

And he then comes to abide in Caesarea. Remember this too is where the first uh well a significant convert of the Gentiles to the Christian faith was Cornelius. Remember is from Caesarea as well. In any event, we then read that there were uh that he was one of the seven. We abode with him and the same man had four daughters virgins which did prophesy. So Philip the evangelist has these four daughters who prophesy.

And in your outline I put it in quotations. I believe the text tells us after this of the of Agabus the prophet to make a distinction between what these daughters of Philip were doing. and the fact that they were virgins indicates that they were grown up. They were not I don’t believe they were foretelling the future. I don’t believe that this is another case where Paul is being warned of the of the problems at Jerusalem.

I think this relates to the proclamation of the word, understanding and expounding of the word. And it’s significant for us because it is easy given the injunctions of scripture that women should not teach or exercise authority over men to somehow think that women shouldn’t expound the word or prophesy in the sense of understanding and expounding the word foretelling of the word. But this scripture as well as many others we could point to show that’s certainly not the case.

Women are supposed to have a knowledge of the scriptures and an ability to speak forth that word and to instruct in the word. They just can’t instruct men and they can’t exercise authority over men. We have a specific commandment that the older women are supposed to instruct the younger women and how to love their children and husbands. And that of course isn’t just based on their understanding of the way the life is.

It’s supposed to be on their basis their understanding of the word of God. So we know that only women are supposed to teach. And here we have an indication that adult women are supposed to be able to do this. Some are the gift. These particular daughters of Philip apparently have the gift to speak and expound the word. And so we then go on from there to read that uh of the coming of Agabus the prophet in verse 10.

And we carried there many days. There came down from Judea a certain prophet named Agabus. Remember this is the same one that had prophesied earlier of the fast or the famine rather in Jerusalem that began a lot of all this work. let’s go back a little bit. Remember when Paul is in Antioch, Agabus goes there and he predicts the famine that will happen at Jerusalem. This is a long time back now. Maybe number of years before this.

And remember then part of what Paul is doing on the missionary journey is also making collections for those saints at Jerusalem. And part of what he’s doing now at the end of his missionary journeys is bringing that collection back. And that’s why there’s a large group of men, seven, eight guys with him. So at the beginning of all that, Agabus is present. At the end of all that, Agabus is present. And here he brings another prophecy, not of famine at Jerusalem, but of the imprisonment of the Apostle Paul.

It says, “When Agabus was come unto us, he took Paul’s girdle, that’s his belt. The belt is what kind of you girded up your loins for action. You had this belt and bound his own hands and feet and said, “Thus sayeth the Holy Ghost, so shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man that owneth his girdle and shall deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.” This is Old Testament stuff happening here.

The Old Testament prophets would on occasion use what do you call them today? Visuals I don’t remember what pictures to assist in their in They’re prophesying kind of like these big pictures I guess here but more like the idea they take something such as this belt and gird themselves. And so Agabus is identified with the Old Testament prophets and this is in a foretelling of the future. He is the prophet.

He’s not just prophesying in the sense of foretelling the word. He is a prophet specifically denoted as such. The daughters of Philip are not prophets or prophetesses. They prophesy. See the difference? Well, here Agabus is associated with the Old Testament prophets and what he tells them both by picture and then by explanation is that Paul will indeed be bound and delivered over into the hands of the Gentiles.

And that’s an obvious allusion there to the same thing that was said of our savior that he’d be delivered over and was delivered over into the hands of the Gentiles. And as our savior approached Jerusalem for his crucifixion, remember he began to get real clear with the disciples what’s going to happen. And he told them the Jews were going to arrest him and they were going to deliver him over to the Gentiles.

So we see another correlation between Paul walking in the master’s steps. very specific language being used. Now this report of Agabus the prophet as well as identifying the Apostle Paul with the work of the Lord Jesus Christ also serves as a little test of the company that Paul is in the context of. They have to do something with this information and they don’t do too well with it at first. in verse 12 when we heard these things both we and they of that place besought him not to go up to Jerusalem.

So Luke here I think by way of confession is saying not only did the people at Caesarea the church the brothers there but also we brothers who were with Paul all of us tried to get him not to go to Jerusalem. Now again this is very much like who this is like the apostle Peter as when he was a disciple remember Jesus reveals what’s going to happen to him at Jerusalem and Peter says oh no we got a better plan than that in mind and our savior rebuked Peter for that get behind me Satan because I must do this thing and Paul also gives a rebuke of sorts to Luke and these other men Paul answers saying what mean ye to weep and to break my heart I’m ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul tells him, look at, you know, while we’re here, you know that I have been told that this is what I’m supposed to do by the Holy Spirit. This is what my ministry is to do is to fulfill taking this money back, fulfilling my vow. We’ll talk about that next week. His vow and why you how that entered into this his desire to go and achieve one give one last preaching of the gospel. So does speak to the Jews in Jerusalem.

This is what he’s supposed to be doing. And as many friends are want to do, while they know that intellectually, their heart gets in the way. Their love for the Apostle Paul gets in their way and they say, “Well, don’t do this thing. It’s going to be bad for you. We think of all the other opportunities we might have if you don’t do it.” And Paul uses some very strong language here. He says, “You’re breaking my heart.” We read J.

Alexander’s commentary on this. To break here literally means to crush. So he says, “You’re crushing my heart.” In other words, weakening as far as in you lies my courage and endeavoring to shake my resolution by working on my own fears and my sympathy with your distress. The same verb as to crush the heart here is used in its uncompounded form by Greek writers at the time to signify moral weakness called by vicious indulgence.

So there’s no out by the particular term that Paul uses here that they are providing as Peter did to our savior a temptation and a weakening on the part of the resolve to do what God wants him to do. And so Paul gives him really a very clearly a sense of rebuke here for what they’re trying to get him to do. And Paul says instead that he’s got to go and do this thing. They then of course recognize that he has as the savior did He has steadfastly set his face also to go to Jerusalem.

In Luke chapter 9:51, our savior said he had steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem. And after he sets his face, that’s when he begins to reveal to the disciples what’s going to happen there. And that’s when the temptation comes from Peter. So the apostle Paul has set his face to go to Jerusalem. That’s when he begins then the spirit does. Now Chrysostom calls the book of Acts the gospel of the Holy Spirit.

The holy spirit then tells Paul’s associates and the churches along the way what is going to happen to Paul at Jerusalem. And just as Peter responded that information incorrectly, so also even Luke and the other disciples here and the churches respond incorrectly and try to weaken Paul’s resolve. But as our savior said that, you know, not my will but thy will be done. So the apostle Paul prevails upon the disciples and the churches here.

And they say the same thing. Verse 21, when he would not be persuaded, we ceased saying, “The will of the Lord be done.” The end result was a submission to the will of the Lord. Very important. And that’s really what I want us to focus on by way of understanding this whole sermon. We have a couple of little object lessons along the way. The daughters prophesying, the fellowship pictured for us, but the center of this text is the difficulty Paul will face being spoken forth by warning of the Holy Spirit.

and the resultant submission to the will of God to enter into trials and tribulations that we even know of. Now, trials and tribulations come upon us that we don’t know of, and we have to be submissive in those. But there are those that we know that if we take a particular course of action, it will cause us trouble. Men may hate us. People may abandon us. And yet, if it’s the right thing to do, we must persevere in that task.

And we must try to as much as we can get others to say, as the apostle Paul got Luke and the others to say, “The will of the Lord be done.” And so we have in this text a number of important correlations between the ministry of Paul and the ministry of the savior. And by way of that it is it is significant to us by way of application because the Christian life is marked by the same sorts of trials and tribulations.

So they go ahead then. By the way, one other thing I want to mention here grammatically ly when Paul says in verse 13, “What mean you to weep and to break my heart, crush my heart, break my resolve? I am ready not to be bound also, but also to die at Jerusalem for the sake of the Lord, for the name of the Lord Jesus.” This word ready is only used by Peter and Paul. And we could talk about the correlations between Peter and Paul in this text too, not just Luke and Peter not wanting to see Paul/Jesus go to Jerusalem, but the Peter was also told by the Savior that he would not be able when in his latter days by talking about what kind of death he would suffer that Peter would be led about by others in the same way that Agabus tells Paul that he’s going to be led about by others in the last portion of his ministry.

But in any event, Peter and Paul both use this phrase and only use this phrase. There’s only two other occurrences of it. The first is in 2 Corinthians 12:14 where Paul writes, “Behold, the third time I am ready to come to you and I will not be burdensome to you, for I seek not yours but you. The children ought not to lay up for the parents with the parents for the children. Paul referred to his own coming, his own being equipped, all set up and ready to have an appearance and a presence to the church at Corinth in his epistle to them.

And then Peter also in 1 Peter 4:5 says, “Who shall give account to him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead?” So the readiness that’s talked about here by the Apostle Paul is preparatory for the evaluation of men’s hearts at Jerusalem that will occur. And so the appearance of the savior really happens will happen at Jerusalem. And Paul is ready to be an appearance of the savior at Jerusalem to the end that the hearts and intentions of men might be made clear and that evaluations and judgments might occur.

So the apostle Paul says he is ready. And he then begins to move out in that readiness. And this is the very day before the final departure in verse 18 or verse 8 rather. The next day we that were of Paul’s company departed. I’m sorry, slipped a couple of verses there. in verse 15, after those days we took up our carriages, that means the things that we were carrying like baggage is the bags. We took up our baggage, our cargo, our things we were carrying and went up to Jerusalem.

Then went with us also certain of the disciples of Caesarea and brought with them one Jason of Cyprus, an old disciple with whom we should lodge. We don’t know how old he was. It doesn’t mean his age, it means how long he’d been a disciple. He might have been one of the converts in the day of Pentecost., but in any event, it tells us then that he is going to lodge with him in Jerusalem. And so, there’ll be a large number of people because Paul already had the eight companions.

Now, we’ve got men from the Caesarean church and we’ve got them all staying at the home of Manasseh in Jerusalem. And so, we have Paul’s itinerary sketched out for us.

Now, Let’s think about how we can apply some of these things to our own lives. We’ve asked that the scriptures that God might illumine the scriptures that we’d understand them and that we would also then be able to apply them in our lives.

and it’s very important that we see and I’ve stressed it enough I guess the correlations between Paul and Jesus. And Jesus didn’t just say that there’d be one or two who would take up their cross and follow him, but that all disciples of his must take up their cross and follow him.

So we’ll get to that point. Before we do that though, I want to first of all by way of application ask us what kind of fellowship what kind of fellowship did Paul have with the brethren all along the way the picture of the Ephesian elders and their tearful departure the picture of the disciples at Tyre after just seven days of knowledge of the Apostle Paul yet the intensity of relationship and fellowship they had and I want us to kind of challenge ourselves a new to try to engage in that kind of fellowship one with the other in the context of Reformation Covenant Church several groups are going to have prayer meetings today.

I believe two or three of them will and prayer meetings are a good place to try to build fellowship. Prayer meetings become a way for us to share things with people that have accepted us in the personal work of Christ and who have covenanted with us to try to achieve our growing sanctification and maturation in the Lord and who will then not chide us over things but rather will encourage us in faithfulness.

And so these prayer meetings should become increasingly over time for those of you who are new here particularly to understand this. We don’t mean for you to go and begin immediate with confession of sin. But we do think that as you ask for prayer for particular difficulties in your life as well as praises that you will begin to develop the kind of fellowship that the apostle Paul had with the men at Tyre and the Ephesian elders etc.

Christian fellowship should be one of going deeper and deeper and deeper in a knowledge of each other and understanding of each other to the end that we might encourage each other in the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ. We all have real trials and difficulties. That is in the best in the best states of the church, we struggle deeply with our own sin. And in the days in which we find ourselves when the amount of people that hold to a sovereign God and the church of Jesus Christ are extremely small.

we have a whole world shouting at us Arminian theology so to speak that man is the boss. and not God or that there is no God at all. And this has an effect on our lives. And I want to urge us today to recommit ourselves as you come forth your tithes and offerings and offer yourself to God again to offer yourself to continue to work on developing closer fellowship with people at Reformation Covenant Church.

That the seven days we spend with each other, whatever it is, whatever time allots us to spend with each other, not be spent in simple idle chatter and discussion about the weather or sports or whatever it is. Those things are fine. They have their place, but let’s not give them the only place. Let’s give them a secondary place. And let’s have the primary place be a real sharing from our hearts of praise to God and also intercession.

asking for intercession to assist us in difficulties, trials, and tribulations we’re going through. Let’s not be like the sin that Luke and the other disciples fell into where they didn’t really encourage Paul to stay the course, but instead pulled back from encouraging him and became a discouragement to him. You know, you can be a discouragement to your brother or sister in the Lord simply by not engaging with them and showing concern over their difficulties or by refusing to share portions of your life with them as well.

That’s a discouragement to people. And if anything, in the individualistic American culture in which we live, we need encouragements to see ourselves as part of a body and not simply an isolated piece. So, what kind of fellowship are you going to aim at and shoot for today? And what about your daughters? We have children now who are being raised up in the context of this church after a dozen years. We have kids that are getting older and that are becoming full-grown women now.

And I pray to God that we would be teaching our children the word of God the way that Philip did so that his daughters could understand the scriptures and be able to expound them, exposit them for themselves, for other women, for children, for whatever it is to be able to reason from the scriptures. and to speak forth God’s will not based upon a special gift of knowledge of the future but based upon a gift that helps them to understand and apply the scriptures.

Now it is a gift and not all people have that gift. We’re told in Corinthians that Paul said the thing they should really desire most of all is prophesying foretelling the word of God. And I want us to understand we should desire that certainly for our boys and we should also desire that for our daughters. We do not as much as we believe in the submission of women to men in this church and how we don’t think that women should exercise authority through voting on who’s going to be an elder or a deacon or whatever it is or changes to the constitution.

Nonetheless, please don’t walk away by thinking somehow that means that women are not involved in an active understanding, knowledge and teaching of the scriptures. These texts tell us differently. And I want us to challenge ourselves. What about our daughters and our wives? Are they able? Do they have a desire to speak from the word of God? And then finally, by point of application, we’re involved here, as I said, all along for the last few weeks on a Lenten trek in the steps of the master.

And I want us to consider as we continue in these couple of weeks leading up to Resurrection Sunday, the passion of our savior and the call from him to us to take up our cross and follow him through difficulties, through trials and tribulations. He’ll be delivered to the Gentiles. And on the outline, I say delivered to the sifters. Remember Our savior told Peter that he would be sifted, tried, whether his faith was gold and silver or wood, hay and stubble.

And God at various times in our lives delivers us up to sifting, temptation and trial. And the Lord’s prayer when we read, deliver us not into temptation, that word means to sift. And it doesn’t mean we never have sifting. It means that we don’t want to do things that call for greater sifting on the part of the gracious father in heaven who will not allow us to walk away from the faith and walk away to obedience.

Jesus was delivered to the Gentiles. The Apostle Paul, we are told emphatically, will be delivered to the Gentiles. He’ll be delivered to trials and tribulations to sifting. And in your life, it is very clear throughout the scriptures that you will be delivered to sifters. I don’t know if it’ll be external people who actually physically imprison you. Probably not. It may be external people who cause you great difficulty and scorn and derision.

It may be not people. It may be illness. It may be poverty. It may be your own sin and the effects of your sin on your life. But you will be delivered on a repeated basis throughout your life as a Christian. As a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ, you’ll be a disciple of his passion as well as the trials and tribulations that he went through. The cross, the cross will be part of your lives. Shall we go to those trials and temptations?

And our response should be the will of the Lord be done. It’s not our desire. I don’t want to stand up here in front of you and say, “Gee, I just can’t wait for the next testing from God.” I praise God’s holy name that several major testings in my life this last week seem to have come to at least somewhat of a resolution and at least a period of some rest before we go on to the next battle in the particular difficulties that are facing me in particular areas. but when God puts a course in front of us that involves tribulation and trials.

Our will should be that the will of the Lord be done and that we not pull back from the difficulties that come our way. I want to read a quotation here. R.J. Rushdoony in his section of the systematic theology on prayer said that he heard a prayer by a pastor once and the prayer was we thank thee for all our yesterdays and he said that for the rest of his life 20 years or so he’s remembered that prayer it made an intense impact upon him we thank thee for all our yesterdays we look back on the things that we’ve gone through and with faith we say it has been good for us that the Lord has tested us tried us and brought us deliverance through the difficulties he’s taken us through God’s sovereign will should certainly be our perspective as we look back on past trials and we should be able to pray as that pastor prayed.

We thank you for all of our yesterdays, not just the good days, but all of our yesterdays and we should look forward to the trials and tribulations that will affect us as well. And we should thank God for those as well. Again, to quote from R.J. Rushdoony from his systematic theology section on prayer and actually he’s quoting from Calvin. He says that a part of this is that we might not seek our happiness on earth.

The Lord makes sure that we are disturbed and molested that we not seek happiness on earth. So said Calvin and his institutes. We’re inclined to overestimate this present life and hence we are always discontented because we expect our life here to reward us. And then Calvin he says as Calvin made clear the blessings of this present life should not be despised. We’re neither to despise or hate our life here nor to make it our hope.

For this life is a post at which the Lord has placed us. And we must stay at it until the Lord calls us away. He goes on to talk about in this section about the context for our lives and these difficulties that God places us in and frequently our prayers are to deliver us from the context of our lives. he says our place is where God’s ordination has placed us and there are no flowery beds of ease to be found in abstracting ourselves away from the difficulties which we face.

When we read Homer we see what pagan prayer is. Paris faced with defeat and death in the battlefield before the walls of Troy is snatched up by the goddess and placed in Helen’s bedroom for a different kind of experience. Too many Christians want similar answers to their prayers. They ask in effect remove the context of my life and give me freedom from it. So to pray means to ask for God’s judgment and testing.

The Lord God is not a character in a fairy tale nor is he our fairy godmother. Such thinking is blasphemous. We should not seek deliverance from all temptations. That’s not what the prayer is about. Is to deliver us from temptations that are too difficult for us or to deliver us from the sin in us that causes us to be chastised and chastened by God in a greater extent. I want to conclude by spending a few minutes, as much time as we have allowed here, by going through some points that Thomas Watson makes in his book, The Body of Divinity, a commentary on the Westminster Standards.

Thomas Watson. If you can get that book, buy it. It’s excellent book and it is just filled with an incredible amount of godly information. He has a whole section of course on the third petition of the Lord’s Prayer., thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And I just want to quote from some of the things he talks about here as we consider how we might understand the trials and tribulations that come into our lives.

What are indications that we’re being unsubmissive to those trials and tribulations? What does true submission look like? And then how may we build submission to the will of God that we might say as Luke and the other disciples did and the apostle Paul did, the will of the Lord be done. Watson in his book speaks first of all about the various ways in which God’s afflictions can come upon us. Trials and testings.

He talks about poverty. Poverty can be a trial. He talks about reproach, difficulties with other men. You know, it’s interesting that again in Paul’s talk to the Ephesian elders, remember he talked about wolves from out outside and then perversions of truth from interior to the church. And Calvin in his commentary says, you know, perversion from within the church, difficulties within the context of the visible church are much more difficult than attacks from outside the church.

And it seems odd, you know, that God would have us go through that. And yet he says it has pleased God to exercise the church by such means throughout recorded history to exercise it to make it stronger. You know, doing calisthenics. Well, that’s part of what God does with reproaches of men. both inside the church and outside the church as well. It may be a loss of relationships or dear relations. Friends might die or move away or be alienated in some way.

It may be infirmity of the body. And I don’t know maybe there I’m sure in fact I do know that there are some of you right now who have conditions such as infirmity of the body, the approach of the death of loved ones. Some of you have financial difficulties in terms of your vocational calling and you can’t seem to make ends meet. And some of you also are in actively receiving the reproach of men. So I know that these four conditions that Watson lays out are part of our everyday life here at Reformation Covenant Church.

It’s part of what each of us goes through. These are the sort of trials and afflictions that God brings into our into our lives. And we must realize that while we can pray thy will the will thy will be done that as Watson said, some people have only said it but not learned it. And so what God does with us as we go through regularly our cross, our Lenten season toward resurrection and deliverance. God is helping us to learn the truth of that phrase, the will of the Lord be done.

Watson gives marks then of things that might properly accompany a proper submission to God’s will because you know sometimes you think you’re not being submissive but maybe you are. He mentions for instance that a Christian may be deeply sensible of affliction. We’re not talking stoicism here. If you’ve got difficulties with health or money or friends or death, whatever it is in your life, the Christian response is not to simply not feel any of that and pull back from it and get above it all somehow in a flight away from reality.

That’s what Rushdoony was talking. One way we try to deal with problems is to see our lives as abstractions away from all of that. But they’re not. Our lives are tied up with that. And so it is perfectly proper and in fact necessary to be deeply sensible the afflictions that God is bringing to our lives at a particular time. Watson goes on to say that a Christian may weep under affliction.