The sermon titled 'Living in Fellowship with the Saints' by Peter Allison explores Paul's journey to Jerusalem as described in Acts 21. It highlights the importance Paul placed on attending festivals, even after they were not obligatory, to be in fellowship with the saints. The travel log serves as evidence of Scripture's infallibility and historical accuracy, illustrating the precision of geographical and nautical details relevant to the era. The sermon emphasizes the role of Christian fellowship, demonstrated through Paul's interactions with various groups, highlighting the importance of community, hospitality, and shared spiritual life among believers. Hospitality is described as a love of strangers, sharing everyday life with fellow Christians, which is essential for strengthening faith and community bonds. The sermon also addresses the handling of disagreements among Christians, emphasizing mutual respect and steadfastness in following God's will, even when faced with differing opinions. It encourages believers to engage in fellowship as families and to prioritize prayer in their relationships, fostering unity and understanding among diverse groups.

Chapter 21 this morning. Completed the sojourn in Acts 20 with Paul's farewell address. And Paul now continues his journey to Jerusalem, trying to be there in time for Pentecost. So hear God's word. Now it came to pass, when we had departed from them and set sail, running a straight course, we came to Kos the following day to Rhodes and from there to Petara, and finding a ship sailing over to Phoenicia, we went aboard and set sail.

And when we had sighted Cyprus, we passed it on the left, sailed to Syria, and landed at Tyre, for there the ship was to unload her cargo. And finding disciples, we stayed there seven days. And they told Paul through the Spirit not to go up to Jerusalem. And when we had come to the end of those days, we departed and went on our way, and they all accompanied us with wives and children till we were out of the city. And we knelt down on the shore and prayed, and when we had taken our leave of one another, we boarded the ship and they returned home.

And when we had finished our voyage from Tyre, we came to Ptolemais and greeted the brethren and stayed with them one day. On the next day we who were Paul's companions departed and came to Caesarea and entered the house of Philip the evangelist who was one of the seven and stayed with him. Now this man had four virgin daughters who prophesied. And as we stayed many days, a certain prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. And when he had come to us, he took Paul's belt, bound his own hands and feet, and said, Thus says the Holy Spirit.

So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles." Now when we heard these things, both we and those from that place pleaded with him not to go up to Jerusalem. Then Paul answered, "'What do you mean by weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus. So when he would not be persuaded, we ceased, saying, the will of the Lord be done. And after those days, we packed and went up to Jerusalem.

Also some of the disciples from Caesarea went with us and brought with them a certain nation of Cyprus and early disciples with whom we were to lodge. And when we had come to Jerusalem, the brethren received us gladly." just as His hands have made us and fashioned us, may He likewise grant us understanding that we may learn His commandments. Almighty Father in Heaven, Please open Your Word to us. Give to us Your Holy Spirit to understand these spiritual things. Transform us, Lord, by Your Word.

Renew our minds and our thinking according to it. Inspire our obedience. Strengthen us for that. And I ask that You would sanctify my sinful lips, that they may proclaim your truth and your grace. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Luke provides here a bit of a travel log. A vlog, I guess, is a video log, I guess, as they sometimes are called today when people do this sort of thing. It's a travel log of Paul's journey to Jerusalem at the end of his third missionary journey. Travel logs like this are interesting geographical and historical documents, to be sure. They can be interesting in bringing far away areas to our attention or in giving us historical information.

But this is the Scriptures. The self-revelation of God in which He tells us what He requires of us as His Creator. And what we are to believe about Him. And of course, central to what we are to believe about Him is that He sent His own Son to be the propitiation for our sins. And of course, the Scriptures are given so that we can be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

That's their purpose. And so we should be asking then, how does This travel log equip us for every good work. How does it equip us for the calling that God has set before us? And I think there are several aspects of this travel log which equip us and serve that purpose. Some are obviously much more significant than others, but it illustrates the significance, for example, that Paul placed on the festivals.

That he is hurrying to get there. These appointed feasts, these holy days of convocation were significant and they shouldn't be missed without good reason. And this is after Christ. This is after these ceremonial festivals have ceased to be binding and obligatory because they have been fulfilled in Christ, many of them. And so Paul is no longer under obligation to keep these feasts, as he explains in several places in his letters.

Nobody should be our judge in these things. This is the ceremonial law. And so forth. But we see still the importance that Paul put on these gatherings because they're the saints would be. And he wanted to be with the saints.

Secondly, these details are proof of the infallible truth of Scripture. And we see this many times in the Scriptures that the writer will state something was done in order to fulfill what had been written by an earlier prophet. Many times it's of Christ. Or historical details are provided that prove to be accurate in every detail which serve to demonstrate the infallible wisdom of the Word of God. Psalm 12, 6 says that the words of God are pure words like silver, tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.

They are the words that God keeps and preserves forever. And that would include even these kinds of historical details. And so from Luke's account here in this not only what we read, but in the previous chapter 20 section that dealt with his travels, it's clear the ship was stopping every evening. And sailors and archaeologists, sailors of that era and archaeologists of our era, would know that this was a typical way a coastal port hopping sailing vessel traveled for the very simple reason that the wind in the Aegean Sea in the summertime generally blew from the north beginning at a very early hour in the morning. And then as the day progressed in the late afternoon it would die away and by sunset there was a dead calm.

Then as the evening progresses a gentle south wind would begin blowing and it would blow during the night. And so then these vessels would typically set sail before sunrise to take full advantage of the northerly wind, that blue. So passengers would typically need to be on board soon after midnight in order for the ship to be able to sail with the very first wind that arose in early morning, pre-dawn morning. But every afternoon during the calm that would come, when there was no wind or the wind was blowing the wrong way, they would put into a port. And so from Miletus, where they were in chapter 20, they went to Kos and then to Rhodes, and then to Pterra, where they transferred from a small coastal vessel that made these daily hops from island to island, to a large ship, a large merchant ship, that was capable of the four to five day voyage across the open sea to Syria now Luke gives a very interesting detail about this part of the voyage.

He says that they sighted Cyprus and passed it on the left. So you have to imagine you're going east, You're going east. They sighted it on the left, which would make it north, so they passed south of Cyprus. See once again Luke's account here, this little seemingly insignificant detail, shows an incredibly accurate understanding of the details that are relevant to that day. This was the course that these big ships routinely took to Syria.

Because they didn't normally make these long open ocean things, but the prevailing winds in the eastern Mediterranean were westerly. And these westerly breezes blew with the steadiness of trade winds, like we have going across the Atlantic Ocean, which the people that were crossing that learned how to take advantage of those. And so because of these very steady, dependable, prevailing westerly winds, these ancient shelling ships, the bigger ones, were in the habit of running directly from Myra, which is next to Patera there, to the Syrian or to the Egyptian Alexandrian coast. But of course, the same, so this would be the typical path. But the exact return voyage from Tyre back there, those same winds made it impossible to go that way.

And so you would have to go up north and hug the Asian coast. You go north along Syria, then you turn and go west along Asia, and you would go to the north of Cyprus. And if you look at a map that's probably in the back of your Bible, you'll see that is the journey that Paul took when he went to Rome. Because that's the way the ships would normally sail. And so once again, we see these small seemingly trivial details confirm the historical accuracy of the Scriptures, even about nautical things.

Now these things don't prove the Word of God, but they do demonstrate its truth. They demonstrate its truth. And they are important, even when they're demonstrating the truth of earthly things, like this, like the course of the standard, typical course that selling vessels took. It's important because if they're not reliable about these earthly things, these earthly matters, how can we trust them about the spiritual matters of eternal life, of eternal significance? And Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3, if I have told you earthly things and you don't believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?

So these earthly details in the Scriptures are important. And this is one aspect of why the age of the earth is so important. It's not so important just to know how old the earth is. What's important is the veracity of scriptures in teaching us a 6, 000 year old earth, which they do. See, if the scriptures can't be relied on when they give us the age of the earth or the course of sailing vessels, then how can we trust them when they speak about the resurrection and everlasting life, and where our soul, where we will spend eternity.

And so this travel log demonstrates the truth, the infallible truth of the Scriptures. It also, thoroughly, it documents the spread, the rapid and pervasive spread of the church. The fact that the Spirit testified in every city implies that there were Christians in churches in all these cities outside of Israel. But the one aspect that I would like to focus on this morning is the picture that this account provides of the fellowship of the saints. The picture that this passage, all the way through, and that's why I read through verse 17, and didn't stop at the more typical stopping points of verse 14 or so.

Because we want to look this morning at the picture that this passage provides of the fellowship of the saints. Saints from many different cities, different regions, different tribes, different native tongues, different cultures. And the fellowship that Paul had across all of those boundaries that typically would define our fellowship. This travel log provides a window into the fellowship of the Eulat church and provides an example of how Christians should live together in fellowship. Now maybe you might be thinking that this is a narrative passage of Scripture, which it is, to historical account.

And you might be thinking, well, we don't derive doctrine from narratives. And there is some truth to that. Because the Bible records both good and bad actions in its historical accounts, in its narratives. It records seances, Wicked things, acts of lying, deceiving, fornication, murder, and so forth. And sometimes in these historical accounts, the evil isn't always explicitly condemned, and sometimes the righteous acts are not explicitly condoned or identified as righteous or unrighteous.

But these passages, these historical accounts, do serve as examples of the application of truths and commands that are given elsewhere in Scripture. They serve as examples of how the saints have lived out these commands, how they've put them into practice, these commands and doctrines and things that are taught elsewhere in the Scriptures. And so as such, we can learn from them. And we can apply these examples to our lives. And the Scriptures teach us, in fact, to learn from these historical examples.

Romans 15 says, For whatever things were written before were written for our learning. The Old Testament record, it was saying, was written for our learning. The Old Testament is a lot of history. And the Bible says that history is written for our learning. This history here in the New Testament, this travel log, is written for our learning.

That we, through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope. And so we want to look at this example and what it has to teach us about the fellowship of the saints in the early New Testament church. What can we learn from that? What things are we doing and what things might we not be doing in two thousand years later? And so the first point I think in this passage is how Paul lived and he traveled with coworkers.

He lived and he traveled with coworkers. Did you notice how every verse, except verse 9 and 13 in this passage we read, verses 1-17, every other verse except those two, if I counted right, are mentioned in the first person plural. First person plural. We or us. We did something or something happened to us.

Every single one. So focus on the community, that this experience was being experienced in the community of saints. Paul traveled in company with other saints. And there were a number of reasons for this. They were carrying a lot of money.

And a larger company provides greater security. They were also traveling through pagan lands in which abounded in darkness, in idolatry, in fornication of all sorts, and in pleasures and so forth. And a group provides protection from these kinds of temptations as well. But traveling together also, as I'm sure you have experienced, provides many hours together for fellowship. You know, one of my favorite things now that our children are older is to take long trips with my wife, and we can just sit in the car and talk for ten hours in a day, and then have all night.

That's a really blessed thing. And this is what they were doing. This was a trip that took many weeks. Many weeks. And there was a lot of time that they would have had together to fellowship.

Time to fellowship, time to spend in prayer, in study, in discussion, in edifying discussion, and so forth. Today we can listen to other speakers and whatnot with our tape recorders and, well not tape recorders anymore, not even CD players anymore, it's MP3 files now, right? Okay, but so we have other things, but These times of travel together provide fellowship. But the second thing we see in this passage is how Paul sought the company and hospitality of Christians wherever He went. He seeks the company of the saints wherever that was possible.

Verse 4 says, in speaking of their being entire, it says that the city, it says that they found disciples there. Finding disciples. Now the Greek word find here means to discover by diligent search. There's a search involved here. There was an effort put forth here.

They were not just wandering around Tyre and happened to stumble across some Christians there. Now, this is saying, that word is saying, They went looking. They went searching. They made a concerted effort to find the Christians in this city. While they had some time, while this merchant ship was offloading its cargo entire, which was seven days, it says, The ship there had to unload her cargo, verse 3.

They used this time to find the church in this city, find the saints in this city, so they could spend time with them, so they could worship with them, so they could both minister to them and be ministered to, so that they could stay with them. So they could stay with them. Luke mentions this nascent of Cyprus when they went to Jerusalem as the disciple who provided a house at which they could stay or lodge. You see, hospitality is a big part of our fellowship as believers. Our fellowship as believers with one another.

And it's mentioned a number of times in the Scriptures, especially in those passages that speak broadly of how we should live as Christians, and especially in those passages of what it means to love one another. 1 Peter 4, 8 says, "...and above all things, have fervent Love for one another. For love will cover a multitude of sins, be hospitable to one another without grumbling, as each has received a gift, minister it to one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God." What flows out of our love for one another is this hospitality without grumbling. And as we've been given abilities and gifts to use those to help others. Both the places that list the qualifications for elders, 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1, both of them include hospitality as a requirement in the qualifications for elders.

And the two chapters, Romans 12 and Hebrews 13, that provide a number of broad, basic commands concerning living as a Christian, Both include hospitality. Romans 12, verse 10, Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love. It's starting out with love just like Peter did. In honor, giving preference to one another, not lagging in diligent, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. You see, these are all just broad categories of our service.

Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer. Those are all spiritual things. There's nothing directly physical in that, unless maybe the diligence. But then it gets to 13, distributing to the needs of saints, given to hospitality. Given to hospitality, meaning it's a practice.

Or Hebrews 13, 2, Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have unknowingly entertained angels, messengers from God." And this last passage here in Hebrews demonstrates the literal meaning of the word hospitality. Because that's the word. The entertained strangers is the same word as hospitality in these other passages. See, because the word here that's entertained strangers, which is translated hospitality elsewhere, It literally means love of strangers. Philo and Xenia we get from.

Xenophobic is a fear of strangers. Philo Xenia would be a love of strangers, and that's hospitality, a love of strangers. People you may not know, but people that are brothers and sisters in Christ. You see, Tyre was not a city where Paul had ministered at any great length. Those saints may not have been even previously known to Paul, although some of the saints may have met him when he traveled through this region eight years earlier on his way to the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15, some of them may have met because he did travel through there communicating or proclaiming and talking about the work that God was doing among the Gentiles.

But he hadn't done any church planting in this area as he didn't want to encroach on other people's fields of labor. But Paul and his team of seven or eight people here searched out these saints and stayed with them for seven days. They searched them out. Now, We don't read of Paul sending any advance notice. The fact that he had to search them out, hunt for them, would also point to the fact that Paul and his team came here with no warning.

He showed up with seven or eight men and stayed for seven days. And these saints welcomed them into their homes. Hospitality, this love of strangers, is not the same as entertaining. See, entertaining is breaking out the good china, killing the fatted calf, setting the formal table, and serving and waiting on the guests and entertaining them. But hospitality is simply sharing our day-to-day life with outsiders.

Sharing the same meal that we would have eaten anyways if they hadn't shown up. It's just throwing a few more potatoes in the pot. Or cutting the meat a little bit smaller. It's using the same dishes that you would have normally used. It's eating in the same condition of the house that you would have normally eaten.

After all, if it's good enough for you to live in and eat in and live in, it's good enough for these other saints to eat in and live in with you. It's providing some space to sleep on, some warm blankets, as you have the ability to do so. That's hospitality. It's also pitching in and helping in the household in whatever way is needed if you're the outsider coming in. In other words, it's shoulder to shoulder sharing a few days of life together.

It's helping in whatever way is needed and in whatever way you are able to help that home out according to your gifts and abilities. Maybe it's a financial gift. Maybe it's labor. Maybe it's expertise in some area that it's needed. Whatever matches your abilities and their needs.

That's hospitality. And it's good for the host families, as well as the visitors, as well as the outsiders. It's good for our children to meet Christian men and women from all walks of life, to hear first-hand some of the stories of their faithfulness to God, to enjoy the privilege of asking questions of them themselves. Hospitality to fellow saints who are otherwise might be strangers to our family, enables us to see and to hear from many different witnesses what it means. It means for our children to be able to see and hear from many different witnesses what it means to seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness.

What it means to build with gold, silver, and precious stones rather than wood, hay, and stubble. I can remember sitting with many people at our dining room table, and It was a very humble dining room table, but Greg Bonson sat there, Francis Nigel Lee sat there, and many others. And I remember those times. But of course it can be encouraging to us as adults as well, If we're willing to go out of our comfort zone and to be hospitable, to have a love of strangers and a willingness to share our life with them, whatever it may be. And so Paul's practice of seeking out the saints is one that we should emulate.

When you travel on vacation, it's a good idea to seek the company of saints, especially on the Lord's Day. And with the Internet, now we can search in advance for churches and be able to find the best one that will be available to us wherever we plan to be. When you go to see the sights of a city, We should think also about meeting and fellowshipping with the saints in that region, for after all, they're going to be around far longer than the sites of that city will be. When we travel on business, or we travel on vacation, We don't cease to be fathers and mothers. We don't cease to be sons and daughters.

We don't cease to be husbands and wives. And we shouldn't cease to be Christians who gather on the Lord's Day for worship. If you go to a conference and they meet on the Lord's Day, you ought to be meeting at the church. There was a conference, an annual conference given by somebody that's fairly well known in libertarian circles. He's a very reliable, long-standing researcher.

He started holding this conference a couple of years ago. He's in his 80s. He's been married to one woman for his whole life, written in some very good books, interviewed some very significant interviews, very significant, not in terms of their prominence, but in terms of what they had to say. So he has this conference on Sunday, and somebody was introducing him, but his wife wasn't there that morning. It turns out she was in church.

This is where she ought to have been. It's where he ought to have been too. See, when we travel, we need to find God's people, especially on the Lord's Day. And if there's a conference, We need to be with God's people and not the conference on the Lord's Day. I Had a business I just remind you just remembered I had a business and a requirement for the whole business.

Every salesman in the company, and I wasn't a salesman, but I was in engineering and rolling out new products, and they had a conference that started on Friday night and went through Sunday night. But I just left and came back on Sunday morning, drove four hours from San Antonio, went to church and drove back. I didn't ask anybody, Nobody really said too much. But that's what we have to do sometimes. We have to be with God's people on the Lord's Day.

And this is what Paul did. And I could tell you many stories of being in all sorts of cities of the world, in Singapore, in London, in Germany, Düsseldorf, and trying to find churches on the Lord's Day to be with God's people. And there were some wonderful times. There was one church I was trying to get to from Oxford in London, and I was a little bit late. It was a free Presbyterian church.

A Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland. I got there a few minutes after 11, and the door was locked. I could hear them stinging inside, but they didn't hear my knocking. I don't know if they opened it. If they did, I don't know.

So I left there pretty quickly and started looking for another church which wasn't easy to find at that hour. But I found a Methodist church sign that was meeting at 11 and went in. There wasn't much gospel there that morning, but one of the men invited me to a prayer meeting that evening at the church. I came back to that, and I found a bunch of zealous Christians praying earnestly for the Lord's revival. That man invited me to his house after the prayer meeting, and it turns out he loved the Psalms, he sang the Psalms, he had a copy of the Scottish Psalter, and we had a wonderful conversation that Sunday evening in his home over scones and tea.

And I remember that. I've never been able to meet him since, but I hope to see him in heaven. And he showed hospitality to a stranger. May the Lord bless him for that. Being in corporate worship each week, even when you're traveling, no matter where you are in the world, is as important as eating and sleeping while you're traveling wherever you are in the world.

Thirdly, we see that Thirdly, we see that they built relationships with all kinds of people. They spent seven days together with the saints entire. That would have included a Lord's Day assembly. And in this time, they obviously developed meaningful deep bonds because these people accompanied them to the ship when they took leave of each other. This wasn't a quick farewell and here's how you get down to the docks.

This was they all walked down to the dock with them. And that probably wasn't a short walk. This is the kind of farewell with close friends with whom there is deep affection and high mutual respect, that they would all walk down. And the fourth aspect is that these families lived in fellowship as families. They fellowshiped together as families.

The family is the basic unit of society, not the individual. The whole family, including wives and children, accompany Paul and his team to the boat. And Luke makes a point of saying that. It's a seemingly small detail, but don't miss it. The children didn't stay at home preoccupied with their own pursuits.

The wives and the children and the husbands and the fathers and the mothers, they are all walking these missionaries down to the dock, to the harbor. See, the entire family is engaged in showing hospitality. And if the children are walking down to the dock, and I can only imagine that the children and the rest of the family were fully involved in all the hospitality that was being shown to Paul and his team. So we see here one of families living as families, working as families, learning as families, worshiping as families, and fellowshipping as families. These children did not regard Paul and his team as friends of their parents.

They were the friends and guests of the family. There was going on here intergenerational fellowship. And I think this is one of the weaknesses of our culture. We function too much as individuals and not enough as families, a family unit. In doing things, even our fellowshipping, even our socializing, doing it as families.

You know, government schools and mothers employed in corporate world both together have split up families and I think been a big contributor to this mega trend of functioning as individuals. When our children were little, my wife and I, Alice and I, would generally not accept an invitation for just the two of us to a social occasion if it did not include our children. Now there were exceptions. And I'm not talking about us going on dates and things. But a social invitation where they just were inviting us, I found it a bit offensive.

We're a family. We're a family. No, we can't come if you're just inviting us and you expect us to leave half our family at home. It would be the same as if somebody invited just me to a social occasion and didn't invite my wife. So these children here are participating in this fellowship.

It's something I've grown in. About 25 years ago, one of the men in the church we were in, happened to be an officer in the church, was talking about... He was a technical... He had a graduate degree in a technical field, science, I think it might have been chemistry. And he had turned, he mentioned at one point in casual conversation, he had turned down some better paying jobs in order to take a job that was closer to where he'd grown up and where the family farm was in Ohio.

And I remember at the time, I mean I respected that, but I was thinking, well That's not what I've done. And didn't really see as well the significance or the importance of what he had done. But I think over time, I think that is a good example to follow. That he was paying attention. I'm not saying you can't go far away.

The Lord calls us far away, and sometimes that's the best thing to do, but simply he puts some weight on being close in proximity to family. I think there is merit in at least making that a consideration. So we see family cohesion here. The men weren't the friends of the men. They were friends with the wives and the children.

There was fellowship with families. The children here were sitting around listening to the adults' conversation and the adults are interacting with the children. And this is what we see in the Scriptures in Deuteronomy 31. Gather the people together, men and women and little ones, and the stranger who is within your gates that they may hear and that they may learn to fear the Lord your God." There's an inclusion of the little children in the gatherings. When Jehoshaphat gathered the nation at a time of national emergency.

They were under invasion. It included the little ones in 2 Chronicles 20-13. Now all Judah with their little ones, their wives, and their children stood before the Lord. Or we see the same thing in Ezra 8-21. In another sort of national time of fasting, He said that we might humble ourselves before God to seek from Him the right way for us and our little ones and our possessions.

And when there's a national day of repentance and fasting that's called for in Joel 2 It's blow a trumpet in Zion consecrate a fast call a sacred assembly gather the people sanctify the congregation assemble the elders Gather the children and nursing babes now of course we you know we have to we have to understand that we don't want the nursing babes to interfere with the worship or be a distraction, but the point is that we're bringing them and we're teaching them how to be a part of these occasions. And so sons and daughters, I would say to you this morning, children, take an interest in your parents' conversations and in their friends. And when you grow up, then they will become your friends too. When I first got married, a big part of our Christmas letter list were my parents' friends. But they became our friends, many of them.

And for the adults, Take an interest in the youth and bring them into your conversations that you are having with the other men and women in the church. And fifthly, we see in this fellowship the centrality of prayer in their relationships. Notice that when Paul left, the Ephesian elders knelt and prayed with them. Now that was just the elders. But we see he's doing the same thing at Tyre when it includes the wives and the children as well as the men.

They knelt down and prayed. Notice the posture. They knelt and prayed. And so I think those are some things that we can learn about fellowship. But there's one more thing that we see here running through this passage.

Genuine fellowship sometimes involves times when saints have different ideas about what is the right course of action. Sometimes in our fellowship, there are times when we have different ideas, different convictions, different preferences, different understandings about what the right course of action is. And there are three things that stand out in this account regarding the fellowship of saints in times of disagreement. The first is that there is a genuine concern for each other's welfare that leads to bringing up difficult matters. The genuine concern that leads to being able to bring up difficult matters.

Secondly, there is a steadfastness in following God's will. And third, there is a mutual respect for each other's positions. First, the genuine concern for each other's welfare in verses 4 and 11 through 14. In each city, well-meaning brothers and sisters were approaching Paul and urging him not to go to Jerusalem, and they did this out of concern for His welfare. Acts 20, 23, Paul said, In every city, the Holy Spirit testifies, in every city saying that chains and tribulations awaited Him.

Every city people were coming to Him. And there are some specific examples given here. In the people in Tyre, they told Paul through the Spirit not to go up to Jerusalem. And then there's this account, more extended account, of Agabus in Caesarea. It's not always easy to bring genuine concerns to people where we know there's a difference.

But where we love one another, then we're willing to do that humbly, graciously, respectfully for the difference, but we're willing to come and speak what's on our mind, what we feel the Lord is leading us to say. Maybe we have wisdom in that situation for that brother. Or maybe we don't understand the situation. But we have to be willing to go out of our comfort zone and to bring this. I can imagine that this wasn't easy for some of these people.

Paul is a great man. He's an imposing figure and his personality is strong. We know that from the Scriptures. So for these people to be able to come and give these kinds of words to him, I'm sure took a measure of boldness. But they did it because they loved Him.

And that's part of our fellowship as saints. But secondly, we see Paul's steadfastness in following God's will. He was firmly convinced that this was God's purpose. He says, for I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus. Now, the question here, and we're not going to take long on it, but It's apparently a big debate.

And there are some people who believe that in this account in verse 4, that Paul disobeys the Holy Spirit. And that they told Paul through the Spirit not to go up to Jerusalem. And that Paul of course goes anyway. Well, I think the question we need to ask is, did the Spirit tell these people to tell Paul not to go to Jerusalem? Or did the Spirit tell these people that Paul would be imprisoned in Jerusalem?

And the people, using their sanctified common sense, were advising Paul not to go to Jerusalem. So we need to understand this for to know which is the right understanding of this verse, because I think either could fit. We need to understand this verse in the light of the other passages. And that would be Acts 20, 22. Paul said, Now I go bound in the Spirit, not knowing the things that will happen to me there.

Paul is going bound in the Spirit. So Paul has been commanded himself by the Holy Spirit to go to Jerusalem. Now the people that disagree with that would say that Paul is being bound by his own spirit. And he's kind of stubbornly doing what he wants to do. But I think this is bound by the Holy Spirit.

Because that's how Paul was bound. And then the passage in Acts 21 that we read about Agabus, he came, took Paul's belt, bound his own hands and feet, and said, Thus says the Holy Spirit, so shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles." And when the people heard this, both we and those from that place, meaning Paul's team and the people that they were staying with, they pleaded with him not to go to Jerusalem. Now what we can say is that the Holy Spirit does not give contradictory commands. And since the Spirit had commanded Paul to go to Jerusalem and told him that he would go to Jerusalem, and in fact later on confirms that he will not only go to Jerusalem, but also to Rome. I think we can say that the right understanding of verse 4 is that the Holy Spirit revealed to the people entire that Paul would suffer chains and imprisonment.

And they, knowing that, revelation of the Spirit, then were on their own, with their own understanding, were encouraging Paul therefore not to go. And I think that was a legitimate conclusion that they brought to him. But we see Paul was steadfast. Even in the face of these very zealous and earnest believers, and prophets even, who were advising him not to go. Paul remained convinced because the Holy Spirit had apparently revealed to him and commanded him to go.

And so He was steadfast in His resolve to go. But there's mutual respect, thirdly, for each of their positions. Paul answers, what do you mean by weeping and breaking my heart? Paul was weighed down by this. Paul was moved by this.

He understood it was coming from a place of their love for him. And he didn't disrespect them. And he says, what do you mean? Weeping and breaking my heart. His heart was weighed down by the concern of these people for Him.

But then on the other side, we also see their respect for His steadfastness. So when He would not be persuaded, we ceased. They stopped. They said we can agree to disagree. We recognize this is what the Lord has called you to do, brother, and we are at peace with that.

They said the will of the Lord be done. They ceased trying to plead with Him. So there you see a mutual respect for a difference of opinion, a different conviction about a matter. And I think that's vital for fellowship. We do have different opinions.

We do have different convictions about things. And we have to be willing to respect those differences among one another. In fact, we have a chart, you probably have, that I love to give out, that just illustrates what are things that we don't compromise on, the heart of the Gospel. What are the things that the church is going to teach, what we will teach here without compromise, without apology. But then what are lots of things that we want full liberty and respect to believe variously?

Even among things that we might teach, we still recognize that there is great liberty to believe otherwise, and we respect that. And so, so I think what we learn from this is that this mutual respect for each other's position is one, we shouldn't be offended when we are confronted by somebody with a differing view. We shouldn't be offended. We should be willing to listen. We should be humble, even if we are firmly convinced of a different view.

We should be willing to listen. To recognize their right to their view, to be open to the possibility that maybe the Lord is sending them to help us. So we shouldn't be offended when we're confronted. We shouldn't be offended when the confronted party doesn't agree with us. They didn't listen to us.

We should be willing to accept that without any break in fellowship. We should be willing to listen to each other. Paul listened to them. We should be willing to be vulnerable with each other. Paul said, why are you breaking my heart?

There's openness there, transparency, that he had with them, even though he was disagreeing with them. And then we have to be, lastly, willing to agree to disagree without any break in our fellowship, without any diminution in our love for one another, in our concern for one another, and in the depth of our fellowship with one another. May God enable us to emulate these saints in their fellowship with one another. Heavenly Father, We thank you that you have brought us near, and that we can have fellowship with you through Christ. That we can come to your throne of grace.

That we can bring our cries. We can ask you the questions, the hard questions, that you are willing to hear, you're willing to answer us. We thank you for the fellowship that we have with one another because of our fellowship with you and because of our union with you in this one body. You are our shepherd, our father, and we are your body. Lord, enable us to live as one body, that when there is pain in one member that we know that when one is imprisoned we are as imprisoned with them.

Enable us Lord to minister to one another in the bonds of affection, in the unity, in the bond of peace. We ask this through Jesus Christ, our Savior, who makes this possible for us. Amen.