Sermon Tone Analysis

Scripture

Our final Scripture reading today comes from Acts 21:1-14.

May God add His richest blessing to the reading of His infallible, perfect, holy Word.

“After we had torn ourselves away from them, we put out to sea and sailed straight to Cos.

The next day we went to Rhodes and from there to Patara.

We found a ship crossing over to Phoenicia, went on board and set sail.

After sighting Cyprus and passing to the south of it, we sailed on to Syria.

We landed at Tyre, where our ship was to unload its cargo.

Finding the disciples there, we stayed with them seven days.

Through the Spirit they urged Paul not to go on to Jerusalem.

But when our time was up, we left and continued on our way.

All the disciples and their wives and children accompanied us out of the city, and there on the beach we knelt to pray.

After saying good-by to each other, we went aboard the ship, and they returned home.

We continued our voyage from Tyre and landed at Ptolemais, where we greeted the brothers and stayed with them for a day.

Leaving the next day, we reached Caesarea and stayed at the house of Philip the evangelist, one of the Seven.

He had four unmarried daughters who prophesied.

After we had been there a number of days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea.

Coming over to us, he took Paul's belt, tied his own hands and feet with it and said, "The Holy Spirit says, 'In this way the Jews of Jerusalem will bind the owner of this belt and will hand him over to the Gentiles.'"

When we heard this, we and the people there pleaded with Paul not to go up to Jerusalem.

Then Paul answered, "Why are you weeping and breaking my heart?

I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus."

When he would not be dissuaded, we gave up and said, "The Lord's will be done."”

The Difficult Trail Ahead

“You have died of dysentery.”

Ask anyone who was in elementary or middle school in the ‘80s or ‘90s, and they can tell you exactly where that famous line comes from: a simple computer game called Oregon Trail.

It was one of the first interactive educational computer games that really took off, finding its way into school computer labs across the country.

With primitive graphics on the old Apple IIe, students were responsible for a band of five travelers heading from Independence, Missouri to somewhere along the northwest coast.

You had to buy supplies, ford rivers, keep the group fed when the wagon got stuck in the mud, and avoid threats of all kinds.

With smart choices and some luck, your crew might make it all the way to Oregon.

But for most of us, the story ended badly with our family succumbing to a dreaded disease.

The game related to us the very real trials and tragedies of pioneers in the mid-1800s traveling the 2100-mile route.

As it turns out, among the very first to make that trek was missionary Marcus Whitman in 1835.

He made the journey as far as Wyoming.

He eventually came back home, married, and made the journey again, this time reaching Fort Vancouver, Washington.

His wife’s records of the trip were published, encouraging more settlers and missionaries to come.

By 1890, when railroads made the harsh trip unnecessary, hundreds of thousands of people had made the journey, some intending to make money off the gold rush, others intending to bring Christ to the Native Americans and to those who settled out west.

The journey was grueling.

The American Bureau of Land Development believes that about 300,000 people made the journey along the Oregon Trail…and roughly 30,000 of them died along the way.

The Oregon Trail became known as a traveling junkyard and graveyard as people left broken and used gear all along the way and buried their loved ones in unmarked graves.

Yet the people who blazed the Oregon Trail were responsible for settling the American West, making America the coast-to-coast nation that it is today.

Some journeys are going to be difficult, and Paul’s journey to Jerusalem and beyond would be no different.

Today’s passage relates to us the bumpy journey Paul and his companions had on their way to Jerusalem.

It wasn’t the physical trip that was hard – it was knowing that Paul was going to face incredible hardship sometime after he arrived in the holy city.

But how Paul faces the trip teaches us a lot about the Christian life, and even about our relationship with others as we go through difficult times.

Paul and his Companions in Tyre

Last week, we saw Paul saying goodbye to the elders of the church in Ephesus, dear friends he knew he would not see again.

Luke says they had to tear themselves away from them because their love for each other was so great.

But eventually they’re back at sea, and there’s a number of stops along the way.

Long story short, they were probably on a coasting vessel for a while – a ship that was fine for going distances relatively close to the shore, but not out on the open sea.

That changes when they catch the boat in Patara, which is about a 400-mile, 5-day journey to Tyre.

They spot the island of Cyprus on their journey because that’s the only thing to see along the route!

Tyre was a major trading center, so it makes sense that the boat is stopping there, and why Paul, Luke, and their crew have a week in the city – they get to “see the sights” while wares are unloaded and reloaded, which would take a while.

So they do the natural thing – they find the church in town.

This is not one that Paul started, but one that we think was formed way back when the church was scattered after the persecution Paul started in his former life after the death of Stephen.

And the Spirit is working there.

They are welcomed among them for the week.

I imagine there is a great amount of fanfare, seeing that Paul has been spreading the gospel all over this part of the world.

But the Spirit is also speaking to the members of the church about what is going to happen to Paul.

They may not know him well, but the Spirit reveals to them what is about to occur, that great tribulations are in store for Paul once he reaches Jerusalem.

This is where things get tricky.

Luke writes, “Through the Spirit they urged Paul not to go on to Jerusalem.”

Does this mean that the Holy Spirit is saying contradictory things, one to them and one to Paul?

That would be very unlike God to be inconsistent, right?

So what’s going on?

It has less to do with the Holy Spirit and more to do with our humanness.

The Spirit’s message is consistent to both Paul and to the church at Tyre – Paul is going to face overwhelming hardship when he goes to Jerusalem.

The Holy Spirit is consistent in revealing that to everyone.

It’s what they do with the message that matters.

The people of Tyre would love for Paul to stay and teach them, to fellowship with them long…he is their brother in Christ!

And now they’re going to lose him, maybe permanently, and it’s really really sad.

Their natural response is to say, “Don’t go – please stay.

We love you.

We’ll take care of you here.

You don’t have to do this.”

The Holy Spirit hasn’t revealed to them the why of Paul’s journey or what his final fate will be.

They are responding to what they know.

But as hard as it is to hear this message, it confirms to Paul what he’s been told – trouble awaits him at Jerusalem, but that’s where he’s supposed to go.

So after a week, they set out.

But before they do, there’s a beautiful picture of Christian community there at the beach.

Everyone in the church – the disciples, wives, children – they’re all there.

They’ve all come to pray over Paul and his friends.

Danger may lie ahead, but they don’t face it alone.

The prayers of the church go with them, the prayers of the little ones, the heartfelt cries of God’s people calling out for mercy and protection on this man of God.

In a little over a month, we’re going to be sending our youth off to Cincinatti, OH.

It’s going to be our biggest group ever, with seven of us going.

And I invite you to come out that morning to see us off, to cover our trip with prayer, to join in the joy of knowing that our group will be making a difference in peoples’ lives.

We need your prayers; we covet them.

Plan for that on July 14.

Paul and his companions in Caesarea

The boat leaves and just makes a couple of short hops down to Caesarea, where Paul and company get off to head by land the rest of the way to Jerusalem.

There they meet Philip.

Now this is one of those payoff moments for sticking with me this whole time as we’ve looked through the book of Acts, because you might remember Philip as the guy who ministered to the Ethiopian official in his chariot and then suddenly disappeared after baptizing him.

He found that the Spirit had dropped him a long ways away, and he journeyed until he reached Caesarea.

He’s settled there, had a family there, and he now has four daughters that prophesy.

Luke doesn’t mention the daughters because they’re major to the story, but as an important side note.

They fulfill the words of the prophet Joel, quoted by Peter in his first sermon, that in the day of the Lord, “your sons and daughters will prophesy.”

They are yet another sign that God’s Spirit is poured out on all people, and we should be listening carefully to what the Spirit has to say to us.

When they’ve been there a while, the prophet Agabus comes to them, and he physically demonstrates what is going to happen to Paul – he’s going to be arrested, and the Jews are going to hand him over to the Romans.

Everyone who hears knows what this sounds like – it’s exactly what happened to Jesus when he was crucified.

Their worst fears come to mind.