The sermon titled 'What Kind of Gospel Is It That Is Filling Paul?' by Scott Brown, centers around Acts 21:1-14, highlighting the apostle Paul's unwavering determination to journey to Jerusalem despite the certain suffering that awaits him. The speaker, Scott Brown, delves into the nature of the gospel that fuels Paul's resolve. Brown contrasts this gospel with other belief systems, emphasizing the gospel's unique power to inspire profound commitment and courage, as exemplified by Paul. The sermon explores the deep bonds of fellowship and love among believers, as shown in their emotional farewells and communal prayers. Brown challenges the congregation to embody the same spirit of boldness and dedication for the gospel, encouraging them to support evangelists and integrate the gospel into every aspect of their lives. The sermon also touches on the role of women in the early church, using Philip's daughters as an example, and stresses the importance of prayer and community in the Christian journey.

Acts 21 When we had parted from them and had set sail, we ran a straight course to Kos, and the next day to Rhodes, and from there to Pterra. And having found a ship crossing over to Phoenicia, we went aboard and set sail. When we came inside of Cyprus, leaving it on the left, we kept sailing to Syria and landed at Tyre. For there the ship was to unload its cargo. After looking up the disciples, we stayed there seven days.

And they kept telling Paul, through the Spirit, not to set foot in Jerusalem. When our days there were ended, we left and started on our journey, while they all, with wives and children, escorted us until we were out of the city. After kneeling down on the beach and praying, we said farewell to one another. Then we went on board the ship and they returned home again. When we had finished the voyage from Tyre we arrived at Ptolemaeus and after greeting the brethren we stayed with them for a day.

On the next day we left and came to Caesarea and entering the house of Philip the evangelist who was one of the seven we stayed with him. Now this man had four virgin daughters who were prophetesses. As we were staying there, for some days a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. And coming to us, he took Paul's belt and bound his own feet and hands and said, This is what the Holy Spirit says. In this way the Jews at Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.

When we had heard this, we as well as the local residents began begging him not to go up to Jerusalem. Then Paul answered, What are you doing? Weeping and breaking my heart. For I am not only, for I am ready not only to be bound, but even to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus. And Since he would not be persuaded, we felt silent, remarking, The will of the Lord be done.

Let's pray. Lord Father, help us to have the spirit of determination and boldness, as Paul did, to spread the gospel. Lord, help us as Paul to be willing to go on a journey to spread the good news. Lord help us to be as we see these Families gather around Paul to support him help us to be those families to support evangelists That are on this mission to spread the gospel to the ends of the earth We pray that you would anoint Scott with the Holy Spirit as he delivers your message this morning that you have placed on his heart. Lord, I pray that we would have ears to hear, minds to understand and hearts to do.

Pray this in your son's name. Amen. Acts 21, 1-14 shows us many beautiful pictures of life in the church, wonderful patterns, I can't wait to get to them. But what you see here displayed in such a powerful way is Paul's absolutely indomitable spirit of resolution to face the suffering that awaits him in Jerusalem. You know, what kind of gospel, what kind of life, what kind of eternity would produce this kind of resolution?

You might ask a question in a different way. What kind of gospel is it that causes an Islamic terrorist to strap on a bomb and walk into a restaurant? Or what kind of gospel is it that causes a Hindu to take his food to feed his children and go to a temple and sacrifice his grain to a rat? Or what kind of gospel is it that would cause a modern woman in our day to sacrifice the children of her womb for the God of success? But what kind of gospel is it that is filling the heart of the apostle Paul as he's making his way to Jerusalem.

This is by the way a passage of scripture that lots of commentators and preachers, they just skip right over it because for some reason it's not that interesting. But as we enter into it, I hope that we'll see it again as we've seen it so many times, how helpful it is, how good it is to do expository preaching, to go into the passages, spend time there, hang with them, draw from them, and get what is there. I think that we'll understand how good these words here on this page are. The context of this is this. All three of Paul's missionary journeys are now over, and he's making his way back to Jerusalem, and he is sailing, he's sailing across the sea and then he's going to bounce his way down the coast from city to city.

He is headed back to Jerusalem and he's facing bondage there. It's been perhaps over 20 years since he was saved on the road of Damascus down in that area and he has been traveling about everywhere he goes now, prophecies from the Holy Spirit are coming out that bondage and change and suffering await him. And we know that that's true as we read the rest of the story. Wait till next week, you'll see how it all unfolds, the prophecies were correct. You see an example of a courageous man who has the true gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ absolutely burning in his heart And he is such a helpful example to us.

In contrast, in Scripture, we find lots of examples of cowardliness. One of the clear examples in Scripture are the ten spies who are so afraid for their own skin that they would not go into the promised land and the result was that the children of Israel wandered for 40 years more. There are tremendous consequences that surround all the men who are cowardly for the gospel. Paul though is a beautiful example for us as one who was not cowardly at all. He was like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

He is such a good role model for all of us. He's a picture of courageous manhood, but he's not the picture of courageous manhood that tries to crank up some kind of a manly testosterone session. No, this manhood was fueled by the power of the gospel, by a love for the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. What kind of gospel was it that drove him? What was it that made him so fearless?

Well this text here opens with the details of this journey that document this drivenness to Jerusalem. Verses 1 and 2, we see him pressing on to Jerusalem by ship. Now it came to pass that when we had departed from them and set sail, running a straight course we came to Kos, and finally, the following day to Rhodes and from there to Patera, and finding a ship sailing over to Phoenicia, we went aboard and set sail. Luke uses the term it came to pass many times in his writings. It's fascinating to see what happens after the term it came to pass.

Look in the Gospel of Luke, look in the book of Acts and you'll see amazing things happen. Well here this phrase comes again, and it came to pass. Often when that term is found in the Gospel of Luke, something amazing is getting ready to happen. It is true here as well. Something really great is happening.

And we learn what's happening in chapter 20, verse 16, where we read, he was hurrying to be in Jerusalem, if possible, on the day of Pentecost. What is happening here is Paul is hurrying. You see him making a straight course. He's bouncing his way down the coastline to get to Jerusalem. There's something of urgency in his heart for it.

And We see also in the midst of his hurry, there's resistance to the hurry in his spirit. It says here that when we had departed from them. Now the term that Luke uses here for departed is a term that Indicates sort of a violent pulling away. It was a difficult parting He parting from what parting from the elders on the beach at Miletus They hated they hated to see him go he hated to see them stay He They wanted to be together because of their love for one another. Here again we see the bonds of fellowship, the bonds of love that God desires in his church, and there this parting was a ripping.

Luke was an eyewitness of this, by the way. Do you see the word we here? Ah, Luke is here. Luke saw the parting on the beach, he documents it, and he makes note of it, and he uses a very graphic word that indicates love, that indicates connection, which we so treasure. What kind of gospel creates relationships like this?

What kind of gospel is it that causes people's hearts to break when they're away from one another? It's the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, why would Paul tear himself away when his heart's desire was to be with them? And there are a number of reasons. I really think there's just one major, major reason Jason alluded to it earlier today.

It was affection. It was wonder. It was love for the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ that caused him to have the strength, the inner fiber, to pull himself away from these people. But there were other things going on too, beyond just what was happening in his heart. This was a fulfillment of prophecy.

Under the direction of the mighty hand of God, prophecy was being fulfilled. Paul was really a pawn in the hand of a sovereign God who was moving him toward Jerusalem. The Lord had said to Ananias who was fearful because of Saul's persecution of the church over 20 years earlier and this is what the Lord said to Ananias And it was the prophecy that was driving this. The Lord said to Ananias, Go, for he is a chosen vessel of mine, to bear my name before the Gentiles, kings, he hadn't done that yet, and the children of Israel, for I will show him how many things he might suffer for my name's sake." Paul was fulfilling prophecy to testify to the gospel, not just to the children of Israel, but also to kings, And he was getting ready to do that here now in this last section of the book of Acts. His resolve was also motivated by what was a direct command of the Lord Jesus Christ.

It was command, but it wasn't only command. It was affection. It was heart love toward the gospel, but we know that it was an obedience to the command because the trip was, quote, the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus. He was, he had been given a gift of grace by the Lord Jesus in the form of a command to go do this, to go and testify and to make his way back to Jerusalem. I believe also his resolve was motivated by his love for the church.

The Apostle Paul loved the church. Do you remember what he was carrying with him? Well, he was carrying men with him, but what were those men carrying? Those men were carrying gifts for the suffering church in Jerusalem. They'd been gathering money to take back to this church that had been storm-tossed and beat to death by the surrounding afflictions and persecutions that were upon them.

And so there they were. Paul was, in his love for the church, wanted to get this gift back to the church in Jerusalem. And as I said before, I think that it can all be summed up in his love for the gospel of the grace of God. He was testifying to the gospel of the grace of God. Do you remember what he said to the elders on the beach of Miletus?

He said, the Holy Spirit testifies in every city saying that chains and tribulations await me but none of these things move me nor do I count my life as dear to myself so that I may finish the race, I'm sorry, so that I may finish my race with joy and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus to testify to what? To the gospel of the grace of God. That was what was driving him. It was the greatness, the beauty of the gospel of the grace of God. That was what was driving him.

It was the greatness, the beauty of the gospel of the grace of God. So what will happen in Jerusalem will be imprisonment and he will be turned over to the authorities. His cup will be poured out some more and then finally God will pour out the last drop of his cup on the church so that it would flourish. And that cup of blessing would continue to to release its energy year after year after year. And here we are now in this room now we are recipients of this outpoured life as his life was poured out as a drink offering because he loved the gospel so much.

Now here we are trying to get a grip. We're trying to get our suction cups on the beauty of the grace of God and the gospel so that somehow we wouldn't go through life numb to it or stupid to it or silent about it so that it would fill our hearts so much that we couldn't keep our mouths shut, so that the gospel would characterize everything in our marriage. It would characterize everything about the way we're raising our children, so that it would be the driving force in every relationship we have, so that the gospel would be proclaimed in all of our work and in all of our prayers and in all of our doings in life. What kind of gospel would make a man open himself up to so much suffering? Because he knew it was going to happen in Jerusalem.

What would cause any of us to open up ourselves to this kind of trouble that Paul would do. Paul had nothing, he had no wife, he just kept moving on for one single reason. The gospel of the grace of God. Now I don't know if anyone in here this morning needs an extra sense, an outpouring of the grace of the gospel of the grace of God, but my guess is every single person in here does, including myself, because we so think that we can justify ourselves through our actions. We think that by being nice guys, we can justify ourselves.

Absolutely not. There's no truth in that at all. It's only the grace of God. It's only the gospel of the grace of God that can save us from any of our sins and none of us saved ourselves from any of our sins by our own works. We never did, we never will, and we never can.

And it's the gospel of the grace of God that Paul was testifying. The poor Jews were there trying to justify themselves by their rights and their regulations, and it never worked and it never would work, and the apostle Paul knew that. It was only the gospel of the grace of God that would cause the relief of the soul from bondage. And Paul was preaching that gospel. You know, there are many of us who would do a great amount of work for some kind of a payment, maybe to fulfill a personal dream, or maybe to carry out a personal vision statement, or maybe to improve our lot in life, or maybe to gather up some kind of a moral improvement or for building our character.

But the apostle Paul went to Jerusalem not to fulfill a dream, not to fulfill a personal vision statement. He went there for the gospel of the grace of God. This was his overwhelming motivation. Jesus characterized this gospel in Matthew 11. He said, the blind see, the lame walk, The lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.

Mark said that the gospel was the means of saving your life, for whoever would save his life would lose it, but whoever would lose his life for his sake would find it. Jesus was so clear on the beauty of the gospel. He spoke of the effect on the human soul and he said in Luke 4, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me Because He's anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the recovery of sight to the blind, and liberty to those who are oppressed. And that's why the apostle Paul could say, none of these things move me, nor do I count my life dear to myself, that I might finish my race with joy, that I might declare the gospel of the grace of God.

In Romans 1, Paul said he was a bond servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God. It was Paul who was energized by the greatness of the gospel. This is why he tore himself away from the believers there on the beach in Miletus, is because of the gospel, the grace of God. What kind of gospel would it be that would make us do things like this. Well the next event in the text is we see that he spends seven days in Tyre and then he's courageously moving on after those seven days.

Verses 3-6 tell us what happened there. They find disciples and they stay there seven days. I am so attracted to these words here where it says, finding the disciples. One of the men in our Bible study on Tuesday said, you know, Paul wasted no motion. He wanted to find his brothers.

Isn't that wonderful to go to a city or to go to a place and find a brother or a sister and to be bonded with them? Of course, there are no two brothers or sisters that agree exactly on everything, but there is a spiritual bond. The Lord Jesus Christ, the gospel, the blood, the righteousness, the calling, heaven, this is what binds us together. And this is what happened when he went to Tyre. This church was probably planted as a result of the great persecution that broke out as a result of the stoning of Stephen.

And we know that these brothers and sisters were there. And when Paul and the apostles came there, they were met, of course, with loving kindness. We know that from everything in the story, but that they were also met with a severe message. And that was, don't go to Jerusalem. Stop, go to a different city.

Chains and bondage await you there. And it says here that the disciples told Paul through the Spirit not to go to Jerusalem. Now, he's been hearing over and over again in every city already that change and bondage await him there. But here, here it says that the Spirit says, don't go up to Jerusalem. This is a startling, difficult piece of language in the text, because all along we're thinking, you know, Paul is being led by the Spirit to Jerusalem.

Now It's as if the Spirit is saying, don't go. Now, you can interpret this passage a couple of different ways, and I'll tell you why I interpret it the way that I do this morning. It's a difficult statement because Paul is getting resistance about going to Jerusalem and the chains await him there. Now everything we know about his trip to Jerusalem though is directed by the Spirit because the Lord Jesus put him up to it And there's no indication in the text that he's disobedient. Paul doesn't have a track record of resisting the Spirit at all.

And so I believe that this statement here, it can be inconclusive in a sense because it refers to a situation where someone is speaking with the gift of prophecy as they did in the early church. We know that all prophecies are not legitimate. We know that all prophecies are not manifestations of the Holy Spirit, and they need to be judged. The prophets need to be judged. I believe this was judged by Paul to be wrong, that he should go indeed.

But yes, the prophecy was correct, that bondage awaited him there. This was a ministry he received from the Lord Jesus Christ. And so therefore I believe that this is an instance in which there were well-meaning prophets, but were wrong. Now Paul was sensitive to the Holy Spirit and he continued this ministry which he received from the Lord. One thing that is interesting about this is that God is not keeping Paul from suffering.

And interestingly enough too, God is telling Paul that he is going to suffer. Isn't it nice when you get warning? Don't you like it when you get warning? Well, we don't always get warning. But God, for some reason, was preparing Paul's spirit for this suffering.

And he made preparations for it in his spirit, and I'm confident that in his team he was working together to have a godly response to the suffering that he was going to engage in when he got there. We know that all who live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution and nothing could divert Paul from his mission, even the threat of this suffering. Now another thing that we see in this section here in this city is a very difficult parting. Here's another time where the disciples have a hard time breaking free from one another. It's a wonderful scene on this beach where there are wives and children and prayer and it's a, you know, it really is a beautiful scene of the church gathered together.

Now Paul always taught by example and one of the examples that we see here is the example of prayer and kneeling together. I believe Paul is teaching us about tender fellowship and how we part with one another. You know, Not that we always have to pray when we part with one another, but it is Paul's pattern. You see it. When he departs, they pray.

What's compelling here are wives, children, and they're doing something very meaningful together. They're walking together. They're ending their time together in prayer. You know, I just believe with all of my heart that men, as much as they can, should include their wives and their children in the ministries that they're involved in. That the prayer and the preaching of the word should be engaged in, not just with men alone.

I don't believe that Christianity is just for men alone. I believe it's for wives and for children, even the littlest of children. And scripture constantly records the presence of children in times of preaching and prayer and other kinds of ministry. Jesus was hailed by the children who cried out, Hosanna, Hosanna to the son of David. He desired the children to come near him.

We know that the children heard the readings of the epistles in Ephesus and Colossae. The children were addressed directly. I just believe this is a pattern of scripture. I believe it should be carried on, and it's carried on here. There's a philosophy of life that's taken hold in this culture that I think needs to be destroyed, and it should be destroyed boldly and confidently according to the patterns of scripture that we see here.

There are two patterns of life in our land that are so destructive and so bad, particularly for children. And you know what? They're also bad for fathers and mothers as well because it retards the maturity level of them at the same time. Here are two things we do. We outsource our children instead of taking them with us through the experiences of life.

This outsourced generation is in a tragic free fall. And in our churches right now, in our conservative churches, you know, 80, 90 percent of them are being lost. Does anyone want to just say, hey, at least let's be pragmatic about it and try something different? But you know what? This is just a pattern of Scripture.

Forget pragmatism. You know, parenting is more, parenting is about more than fulfilling our own dreams about what we want to do today or tomorrow. But it's about taking the next generation with us and talking along and walking alongside of them. God has commanded us. It's not an option.

You see the commands of scripture, and you see the patterns of scripture. I don't know what anybody else needs, honestly. But we are commanded to speak to our children when we sit in our house, when we walk by the way, when we go to the beach, when we go to the store, when we go to the conference, and as much as we can when we go to work. We should take them with us and disciple them as much as we can, wherever we can, and as much as we possibly can. I think that's what you see here in this church.

And they went to the beach and they prayed. I think the second terribly damaging thing that we're doing to our children today is we're segregating in their own age groups. It dumbs them down, it concentrates stupidity and foolishness that's already running hard in their hearts, and discipleship is downgraded as a result of it. But here, you know, we just see, This is just another one of those quick snapshots that we can make observations about life in the early church and what is beautiful about it. Here's one thing that's beautiful about it.

The little children kneel together with their mothers. The big children kneel with the younger spiritual aunts and uncles in the church. God gives fathers and mothers and sisters and brothers of differing ages, and they were meant to kneel together on the beach, and they were meant to kneel together in the church and in the home and everywhere else. And that's what we see right here. So here we see this pattern of prayer well here's the thought about that just to consider.

You know are we praying enough in our in our normal doings in life? Are we missing opportunities for prayer at the end of a phone conversation? When your sister, your dear friend, is leaving your household, to kneel in prayer with that sister and send her out with the grace of God that she might represent the gospel of the grace of God. That a phone call ends or a meeting ends and there's a time of sending one another out to proclaim the goodness of the Lord Jesus Christ? What kind of gospel do we have to proclaim?

How much prayer do we need to proclaim it? A lot. And if we've let prayer lack, this just should be a wonderful opportunity to remind us of a pattern. It's a good biblical pattern. It was Paul's pattern.

Of course, we have dozens of commands to pray, but we need those as well. But here is the pattern. And Paul is courageously continuing his way to Jerusalem. He tears himself away from these people. Paul is not obsessed with his own personal peace and affluence.

He doesn't care about his house. He doesn't care about his property. He doesn't have any. He's an example of a man who is completely free to bring the gospel of God, but you know why he's doing it? He's doing it because he loves it.

He's doing it because he adores the gospel. He adores the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, in Romans 1, Paul spoke of the confidence that he had in the gospel. And he said, for I'm not ashamed of the gospel, for it's the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes, to the Jew first, and also the Greeks. Paul believed that the gospel was blessing, and he said in Romans 15, he said, I know that when I come to you, I shall come, listen to this, He said, I will come in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel.

That's how he viewed the gospel. What kind of gospel is it that makes a man do things like this? Well, it's not the same gospel that makes the Islamic terrorist strap a bomb on his chest It's not the same kind of gospel that makes a Hindu take his grain for his children and sacrifice it for a rat or some ugly God's sitting there painted red and purple and green. No, it's not a gospel of insanity. It's a gospel of blessing.

And that's what Paul is testifying to. He said that it was a scourge to him if he didn't preach the gospel. He said, woe to me if I do not preach the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ." He spoke of how helpful the gospel is to all who are walking in darkness, and he said that the light shines on those whose minds are, by the God of this age, are blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God should shine on them." What kind of a gospel? It's a gospel that shines on blind hearts. It's a gospel that is full of blessing.

It's a gospel that is so effective that you would never have to be ashamed of it. So Paul pulls away from the beach of praying with these families in the church there in that city. And he spends one day in Ptolemaeus in verse seven. This is another place on the coastline, and I suspect that even though he stayed there only one day, he had enough words for 10 days. We know that Paul with many words, solemnly testified and kept on exhorting them saying, be safe from this perverse generation, not holding back anything that's profitable.

That was Paul's pattern. Men, we need to be that way. We really do. We need to quit being shut-mouthed men who have nothing to say to one another. We ought to be coming in one other's presence, prayed up, ready to testify to the gospel, the grace of God.

Let's not be men who are mealy-mouthed and passive. We need to be more like the apostle Paul. Of course, none of us are gifted exactly like the apostle Paul. We all have particular, you know, niches and effects in the kingdom of God. But let's at least make sure that we testify to the gospel of the grace of God with our mouths as much as we can, and that we're not secret service, silent believers with one another, but that we really have something to say.

And you know, you boys here in this room, I pray that you boys will be young men who have something to say, that you won't think that this is just something about your daddy's church. This is your church, boys. It really is. You girls, this is your church. God has called you to minister to one another in a mighty way and to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.

You think that, Does anyone think that the gospel of the grace of God is just for boys and men? That's madness. The gospel of the grace of God is to be communicated by everyone. Let everything that have breath praise the Lord. That's what we're here to do.

So here Paul is one day, many words in Ptolemaic. And he presses on to his objective and he goes to his next stop on his way to Jerusalem. He comes to Caesarea. We could spend three hours here in Caesarea, but it is amazing what happens here. There are two very fascinating engagements in Caesarea that take place here.

But first of all, let's just talk about Caesarea for a minute. When Paul arrived in Caesarea, he lodged in a home. He goes into the house of an evangelist who we've met before in the book of Acts. He was one of the deacons. He was the first of the selected deacons in the Jerusalem church.

He was a great guy. We haven't heard a word from him since the Ethiopian eunuch was converted almost 20 years before. Maybe this guy's been living in Caesarea for 20 years. He settled there. You know, it's interesting, I was thinking about that.

Deborah and I have been here in Wake Forest for 19 years, for almost 20 years. Just like Philip, We've raised our whole family here. And now we find Philip, he has a place of hospitality. He has a home of spiritual sensitivity. You know it's that way because of the way he's described.

He is an evangelist. And we also know that he was full of wisdom in the Holy Spirit. That's why he was chosen to be a deacon. There's no reason to believe that he's finishing poorly. I think Philip is finishing powerfully.

He's not like a lot of men who get crotchety and old-minded instead of receiving the renewing of the grace of God in his life over and over again through the filling of the Holy Spirit. Not Philip. This is a Spirit-filled home, and he's been living there for quite some time. You know, Philip had a good reputation back when he was a young guy and they were looking, seeking out men who were filled with the Holy Spirit, says Acts chapter 6. And what an inspiring man.

I don't know how long you've been living in this town or wherever, but whatever town you live in, man, oh, we ought to just ought to be like Philip, who maybe God will call us to a place for a long time, maybe more like Paul though for just a short period of time, but whatever it is, it's the filling of the Spirit that makes a difference no matter where we live. It doesn't matter where you live, honestly, but it does matter what lives in you, and the Holy Spirit was the governing factor in the life of, in the household of Philip. You know it is interesting, here's this godly man, he's been doing the work of God for 20 years and nothing's ever written about him, but his name is written in heaven, and he's a faithful brother. Paul would come back here and he would be in prison for a couple of years, and his brothers would be there. Now here's one of my favorite things about this town, Caesarea, Philip's daughters.

This is another instance of women mentioned in the New Testament. Here's the mix. Philip is an evangelist. Hey, by the way, Philip is the only guy in the entire book of Acts that's called an evangelist. He's the only guy.

Now, Paul said to Timothy, do the work of an evangelist, but Philip is the only guy that gets the title and I don't know why but it's just it's just interesting. There are two expressions that the Holy Spirit is at work in this in this household. One is evangelism. There's a gift of evangelism there and there's the gift of prophecy through these daughters. So Philip's daughters are highlighted.

Now I want to tell you, here's what we know and here's what we don't know about these daughters. Let's talk about what we don't know. And then we're going to talk a long time about what we know. What we don't know is, we don't know anything about what they were prophesying and what the emphasis was. There are two aspects of prophecy in scripture.

There's a predictive prophecy and then there is a prescriptive prophecy or a prophecy that explains the wisdom of God on a certain matter. It can come from the exposition of Scripture, drawing from the wisdom of God, but it's applying the wisdom of God to a situation. So prophecy in Scripture appears in a couple of different ways. Well, here's what we do know about Philip's daughters, and this is what I love about this section. Philip's daughters were full contributors in the life of the church.

Women were not, should not be second class citizens in the church, but full participants in the spiritual life of the community. They have specified roles in which they function within. They have particular responsibilities in the structure of the church. And we can say a few things about these daughters. I'm gonna give you five qualities of these daughters.

So you daughters in here, listen up. This is particularly for you young daughters. Be like these daughters. These are just marvelous. We have so many beautiful, wonderful, wise young ladies in this church.

And by the way, it is Mother's Day, and Jason and I were speaking about this earlier this week, how grateful we are to be among so many powerfully focused women who have trustfully taken the commands of God, the wisdom of God, and they've taken it to heart, and they've loved it. And you know what else? Their daughters also love it. This is, I don't know what, I don't know what God is, how God is going to use this, but it's so rare and it's so beautiful. Well, these mothers used to be daughters, and so here are five qualities of these daughters.

First of all, they were godly daughters. They were not worldly daughters. They obviously were not drinking in the world and imbibing it. And you know, what's true of any daughter here was true of these daughters. You are either sowing in the flesh or you are sowing in the Spirit.

Everything that's said here makes it clear that these daughters were sowing in the Spirit. They were spiritually minded daughters who were impressionable by the Lord. You know, they were like their father. Their father was full of the Spirit and of faith. And these daughters were not exactly like their father.

They had a particular function and gift that worked in the church. And they were displaying, they were displays of the work of the Spirit. You know, the fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There's no indication that these daughters were anything but that kind of a daughter. So, they were godly daughters.

Secondly, they were gifted daughters. They had particular gifts. They weren't like every other daughter. They were particular, just like every other daughter here. God has built us all differently in his wisdom.

Isn't it marvelous to see the wisdom of God, how he chooses to arrange everything in nature perfectly according to his own will. None of us get to choose our gifts. God chooses them. We don't get to choose our hair color. We don't get to choose anything.

God gives it to us but he gives it to us because he's a loving God and he desires to express his love in the world and he does it through daughters who are gifted. These daughters had been given the gift of prophecy. I believe, I know that everyone doesn't believe exactly the way I do on this issue regarding the Holy Spirit. I am not a cessationist. I don't believe that the gifts of the Holy Spirit ended.

Now, there are many qualifications to make about that, but I believe that these daughters are a fulfillment of Joel 2, 28, where the prophet Joel says, and it shall come to pass in the last days, I will pour forth my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. And I will pour out my Spirit on my men servants and my maid servants in those days." I just believe that's an expression of this. And, okay, so why to say all that? God gives gifts of the Holy Spirit to daughters. Yes, he does.

Just like these daughters. The gifts of the Holy Spirit are at work in daughters. If you have been saved by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, you've been baptized by the Holy Spirit, and you have all that you need pertaining to life and godliness. Daughters, daughters be trustful of the gifts that God has given you. Listen to him, fan them to flame through the word of God.

Take good godly counsel into your heart and be daughters like these daughters who are gifted daughters. Now these daughters obviously were under the government of God in exercising their gifts properly. Any of us at any time can misuse our gifts and apply them wrongly or in the wrong place or in the wrong way. So the question is, where were these girls prophesying anyway? Where were they prophesying?

They were not prophesying in the meetings of the church because Paul had already made it plain that one thing daughters shouldn't do is be teaching and speaking in the meeting of the church. In 1 Corinthians 14, 33, the Apostle Paul speaking to the church there says God is not the author of confusion, but he's the author of peace. And here is how it should be in the churches. He said, let your women keep silence in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak. But they are to be submissive, as the law also says.

And if they want to learn something, let them ask their husbands at home, for it is shameful for a woman to speak in church. That's why I don't believe that Phillips daughters were prophesying in the church. Paul said it was shameful, but where were they prophesying? Well, they were prophesying to one another, they were prophesying in their households, they were prophesying in individual conversations, They were marvelously useful in their prophesying. These daughters' character and behavior was consistent, I believe, with 1st Timothy 2, 11.

Let a woman learn in silence. I do not permit a woman to teach or have authority over a man, but to be in silence, for Adam was formed first, then Eve, and Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived fell into transgressions." Now these daughters were prophesying, yes they were, but they were not prophesying to teach in the meeting of the church, rather they were silent in the church. All of the gifts are meant to be used in a in an appropriate way, not in an out of control way. It's like fire is good, but it's only good in the fireplace. And that's the same thing with our gifts.

They're to be used properly. Often when it comes to spiritual giftedness we go out of control and we go our own way and we see expressions that are contrary to scripture. Now so I don't believe that these daughters were speaking in congregations but they were speaking to individuals. Now often the people who don't believe that I've interpreted this properly, they call it 1 Corinthians 11, 3 through 5, where it says, every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head. So people read that and they say, well, women were prophesying and praying.

And I would just say Yes, they absolutely were. They were prophesying. They were of tremendous benefit to the church. They were expressing the love of Jesus Christ in the church through their gifts. But they weren't doing it in the meeting of the church because Paul already said it was shameful for a woman to speak in the church.

He said let your women keep silent in the churches. He said let a woman learn in silence. Should women be dumb in silence? No, they should learn in silence. So These daughters were, they were gifted daughters and they expressed their gifts appropriately in the church.

The third thing about these daughters is that they were literary and they were verbal daughters. We learn from the church historian, Father Eusebius in the third century, who set himself to organize the history of the early church. He says that Papias, one of the early church fathers, received the stories of the early church from Philip's daughters. So now scripture doesn't tell us this, so it may not be absolutely correct, But we have reasons to believe that these daughters were writing the history of the church in their father's house. And they did a marvelous service to the church there to write the early history of the church.

Here's the fourth thing about these daughters. They were single daughters. They were single in their father's house. I thought it was very illuminating when one of the men in our men's Bible study said, marriage is not the only way that daughters can be useful to the Lord. It's one way, but it's not the only way, and every daughter can be useful marvelously to the Lord even though she's not married.

You know, I have a daughter who, you know, who's nearing marriageable age and she's not married yet. I can't wait to open this up and talk to her about it. She's in Texas today. I wish she were here and I could just talk with her about usefulness, you know, in her single years. She is a single daughter just like these daughters in their father's house.

You know, for a daughter to be useful, she should set her mind on Holy Scripture. She should set her ears upon the exposition of Scripture in the church. She should ask her father to help her know what she should do. She should be filled with the Holy Spirit. That's how a daughter is useful, just like these daughters of Philip were useful.

You know, it's too often that daughters are obsessed with fashion, they're obsessed with worldly praise, but the daughters of Zion are filled with the Holy Spirit. Here's the fifth and the last thing about these daughters. You see the effectiveness of Philip, the evangelist, as a father. Often children of evangelists go astray, not Philip's daughters. I think one thing you learn here is that there is a bond between this father and these daughters because they were doing the same work together except in their particular giftedness.

So anyway, this incident of Philip is just a long, long line, one in a long line of references that document the involvement and the presence of women in the early church. The church is not a men's club. The church is a family thing and you know, it's isn't it interesting that it was the women who stayed the longest at the cross and it was the women that Jesus first spoke to, you know, after the resurrection, that John takes an entire chapter to document a conversation of Jesus and two women and he just seems to linger there in this conversation. There are so many women. There's the prophetess Anna, there's the Samaritan woman, there's the Syrophoenician woman, there's Elizabeth whom Mary said of her, blessed are you among women.

Well, the Bible is full of the activities of women in the church. By the way, when we get to Romans chapter 16, you'll see these amazing tender things that Paul says about and to some of the women in the in the Roman Church. Of course sometimes there are problems with women in the church. Paul addressed Iodians, Sintiqians, and Philippians who were warring together and they needed to be loving one another instead of warring against one another. Okay, so where are we anyway?

We're in Caesarea. We're in Phillips House in this marvelous picture of godly home life. Now, but everything isn't so beautiful because Agabus is going to show up again. Well, we know Agabus. Whenever Agabus shows up, something, there's some bad news.

And Agabus comes, he makes his way to Caesarea, and he prophesies. Agabus is delightful because he's faithful as a prophet. And He's already prophesied about a famine in Jerusalem and it happened, and now he's back. And this just illustrates the giftedness of the Holy Spirit in the church. Here's another interesting thing that came out of our Bible study.

It was mentioned, notice these men here, Philip, Philip's daughters and Agabus. None of these were elders. These were gifted people just working by the work of the Holy Spirit in the church. The church doesn't go forward by a bunch of professionals. It goes forward by the work of the spirit through the whole body working together in love.

So it's a great picture of the gifts in operation. So they're pleading with him not to go to Jerusalem. Even Lucas is saying, he's getting on the bandwagon, Paul, don't go, don't go. And Paul's response is, why are you, why are you, why are you breaking my heart? What he meant was, you're just wearing me down.

Don't wear me down. I need to go there. You know, Paul had a tender heart. Paul wanted to be affected by his brothers. And he's saying, why are you breaking my will, my resolve, my heart to do this?

Brothers, don't do that. Paul wanted to respond. Paul wanted to obey them. I'm confident that he did, but he knew that there was something greater that he had to do. The kindness, the mercy, the fellow feeling was, Paul could see through it.

And he knew that there was something that he needed to do so he He affirms his readiness to accept the suffering and he says for I'm ready not only to be bound but also to die in Jerusalem in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And why? What kind of gospel would bring Paul to such a conclusion like that? It's the gospel that seals you with the Holy Spirit of promise. It's the gospel that makes a Jew and a Gentile fellow heirs.

It's the gospel of peace. It's the gospel that causes the heart to soften and for love to come in where there was no love before. It's the gospel of the grace of God. And this is why Paul would not be persuaded because he was willing to sacrifice everything for the gospel. He loved the Lord Jesus Christ.

You know, people may counsel us by their emotions. We might have internal desires for some kind of peace or prosperity, But what should rule the day in all of our doings? The gospel of the grace of God. That is what was driving Paul. You know, I just want to bring us together with a number of questions as we reflect back on this passage of scripture.

Here's one question. Remember how the apostle Paul was bringing a gift from the churches to a church? Here's one question. How should we be thinking about other churches? Paul and his companions were heading to Jerusalem with a gift to offer to the suffering church there.

I just believe that God desires churches to help one another. How can we be of help to other churches? Paul was traveling for this purpose. Here's another one. Let's look back.

Let's look back at our partings that we've had. Are they blessed partings? Is it possible that we could offer more prayer, more blessing as we send one another away? In the normal course of the day, more scenes, Is it possible that God would give us more scenes like on that beach entire, where the children and the husbands and the wives are kneeling down together? Or how about this, could it be possible that we're here today because God desires to grip us with the beauty of the gospel in the same way that Paul was gripped by it?

Paul said that the gospel would cause you to obtain the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's how important the gospel was. He encouraged Timothy to suffer for the gospel saying, don't be ashamed of my testimony but share with me in my sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God." So what if what if the gospel would be so great in us as it was in the Apostle Paul in spite of the outcome, because we see a courage here, we see a resolve. But it wasn't a man-made, manly kind of a resolve. It was something from the God-man, from the Lord Jesus Christ, and it was because of the grace of the gospel.

So We might ask, you know, what's driving me? What's driving me in my thoughts and my business and everything? And Paul's answer would be the urgency of the importance of the gospel, of the grace of God. Now, here's one last question. Is there any area in our lives, in our church life corporately, that we have been called to but because of the difficulty, because of the council of friends, because of weariness, because of trouble, because of money, because of threat of persecution, is there anything we've laid aside that is an aspect of the gospel of the grace of God, and we have laid it aside because of one or some of those considerations.

Let's ask ourselves that. Is it possible? You know, what could be sweet enough to make an urgency rise in a man like we see in the apostle Paul? What would make a man make a beeline to suffering? What kind of gospel is it?

Well, it's not the gospel that causes you to strap a bomb on your chest. It's not that gospel at all. You know last night as everyone was in bed I opened up a sermon of Charles Spurgeon and I was caught by the name of it because it seemed to relate with what I think is here in this passage. The sermon was a gospel worth dying for. And here's what he said, I know that by grace we're saved through faith and not of ourselves.

It's a gift of God. What more do I need to know? You may leave this rock if you like, my brother, for you may be able to swim, but I must stay right here where I am, for I would drown. Without the gospel we would all drown, and so would our fellow travelers in this life that God has chosen us to know. And it would be for us to learn much from Paul about the beauty and the glory, the goodness, the happiness, the blessedness, the peace of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And that that would be the center of all of our affections and all of our doings, for it is by grace that we are saved and not of ourselves. Would you pray with me? Lord, we desire to be taught by you according to the gospel of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.