Cornerstone Mission Church, Sunday Sermon November 23, 2008
Do you often find yourself in a position of giving advice to people or seeking people’s advices? There are people who are so full and sure of themselves, they find no reason to seek advises from others. And, for these people who are so full and sure of themselves and no need for anyone to speak to their lives, I won’t be surprised if no one seeks after them for good advices. Pity the soul who seeks advice from a person who cannot think beyond himself or herself. And, pity the souls who are too proud to ask for advice. Then, there are people who have such shallow friendships or no significant friendship at all that they simply don’t have anyone to turn to for good advice. Or, they may have been burned by someone giving them stupid advices that got them into trouble. Perhaps, there are people who have hard time trusting others, not alone to ask for their advices for anything because of some kind of trust breaking events that took place in their lives. Then, there are people who don’t like being responsible by giving advices to others. So, they shrug their shoulders and refuse to give any advice besides the typical, “I don’t know.” Then, there are people who make the whole world know about their problems without any discretion because they feel they are incapable of solving any of their own problems.
Well, more realistic picture is that we all fall some where between these extremes. We all need some good advices time to time. And, we also find ourselves in positions to give good advices to others as well. We all need time to time experts to help us with our problems. And, some of you are that expert so people seek you out for advice. And, most often we don’t even need someone with PhD degree. We just need to talk to our good old buddies, who have proven to be trustworthy and easy to talk to. We don’t expect that they will give us the perfect and the right solutions to our problems; we simply expect them to tell us honestly what they think, their advice.
Today, we are going to consider how Paul dealt with the advices given to him by God’s people who loved and cared for him.
1. When people who love you give you advice
In his journey, he had people telling him what he should do and what he should not do. This makes when you consider how Paul was in the business of networking people spiritually. He was in the business of helping others be connected to Jesus. When they got connected to Jesus then they were in the network of the Way, the Christians, the followers, the disciples of Jesus Christ. He gave tons of godly advices to them; and he was also very much open minded person who welcomed advices from them as well.
His journey took him from Cos, Rhodes, to Patara. On board a ship, passing Cyprus and sailing to Syria, he and others landed at Tyre. Verse 4 says, “Finding the disciples there, we stayed with them seven days.” And, here is that advice we were talking about, verse 4, Luke records, “Through the Spirit they urged Paul not to go on to Jerusalem.” If you remember from last week, it was Paul who said in Acts 20:22, “And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem.” Who was right here? Is this a contradiction? How could Paul be compelled by the Spirit to go to Jerusalem while the disciples at Tyre urged Paul not to go on to Jerusalem, through the Spirit? Well, what did Paul do? Verse 5-6 tell us when it was time for them to leave perhaps because the ship was ready to leave, Paul and those who were traveling with him, Luke the author of Acts including, left and continued on their way. From this we can see that Paul didn’t follow their earnest advice for him not to go on to Jerusalem.
When it says, “Through the Spirit they urged Paul not to go on to Jerusalem,” it didn’t mean that the Spirit directly told them to tell Paul not to go on to Jerusalem. The Spirit would have contradicted himself if this was what it meant since he already compelled Paul to go to Jerusalem. It will become clearer to us as we move forward, but it is suffice to say that they probably heard the Spirit telling them how Paul would face hardships and dangers at Jerusalem. And, from this they felt surely it wouldn’t be God’s will for Paul to suffer in Jerusalem. Their emotional response to the revelation of the Spirit was, ‘God doesn’t want you to suffer.’ Now, remember this was well meaning, caring people who were looking out for Paul. Well, as already mentioned, he didn’t take their advice.
2. When people who love you give you advice
After leaving Tyre against the advice from the believers in Tyre, Paul and his accompany continued their voyage to Ptolemais. There again, Paul met a network of brothers in Christ and stayed with them for a day. Then left next day and got to Caesarea. There, he stayed at the house of Philip the evangelist. This was the same Philip back in Acts 6. He was one of the seven men appointed for daily distribution of food. He was also the same man in Acts 8 who left Jerusalem to Samaria because of the persecution in Jerusalem and proclaimed Christ in Samaria. Now, there was also different Philip in the gospel accounts who was an apostle Jesus appointed among the twelve. Philip the evangelist was a different person.
Whenever I meet someone with four daughters, I find myself connecting with them. Maybe I should start a Facebook group called, “Father with four daughters.” Philip had four unmarried daughters who prophesied. We are not sure what they actually prophesied, but it is just enough for me to know that God used this four unmarried daughters of Philip for his kingdom business. I like that! As of now, I just cannot get myself emotionally invested in the thought of marrying my daughters. I like to think of them as unmarried as long as I can that is until the Lord moves otherwise. Then, sure pray that my girls would take mommy and daddy’s advices seriously about their future husbands. Sorry about that I am getting distracted here.
Back to the story, while Paul remained at Philip’s house, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. Although Caesarea was located up further north in relation to Judea, because Jerusalem, Judea was on the higher ground, you often read in the Bible people talking this way, going down from Judea or Jerusalem or going up to Jerusalem.
Anyway, Agabus was the same guy back in Acts 11:27-28 who prophesized about the severe famine that was to strike the entire Roman world. This time Agabus used the prophetic tradition of using hands on object to demonstrate what the Lord was going to do in the near future. The prophet Ezekiel was famous for doing this. Agabus took Paul’s belt and bound his hands and feet and told, “The Holy Spirit says, ‘In this way the Jews of Jerusalem will bind the owner of this belt and will hand him over to the Gentiles.’” Basically, the prophecy pointed Paul to journey down through the narrow gate, narrow road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
And, it says in verse 12, “When we heard this, we and the people there pleaded with Paul not to go up to Jerusalem.” There it is again, “go up to Jerusalem.” Earlier when the believers in Tyre urged Paul not to go on to Jerusalem through the Spirit, Luke and others who accompanied Paul didn’t quite get where they were coming from. Now they got it with Agabus visual demonstration of what was to happen to Paul.
Now, even Luke joined the believers at Caesarea started to urge them not to go up to Jerusalem.
And, here is Paul’s answer to them in verse 13. “Why are you weeping and breaking my heart? I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.” He spoke in the same determination earlier in Acts 20:24, “I consider my life worth nothing to me if only I may finish the task the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me- the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace.” Well, they must have tried really hard to dissuade him from going up to Jerusalem for Acts 21:14 says, “When he would not be dissuaded, we gave up and said, “The Lord’s will be done.”
In both cases in Caesarea and in Tyre, the believers were reacting emotionally to Paul. They really cared for their beloved leader, their mentor. Their attempt to dissuade Paul from going up to Jerusalem was sincere expression of their love for him, genuine care. And, there is nothing wrong with being emotionally caring.
But, they were forgetting one thing about the gospel. The mandate of the gospel was heavy on him. The gospel gives us life of Jesus Christ, but in return it demands our lives. We cannot have both. We either live the abundant life of Jesus Christ while putting our flesh, our egos, our agendas, our desire to death or we choose our lives and forfeit the life of Jesus Christ. Paul was more than willing to choose the life of Jesus Christ over his own life even it meant being imprisoned or worse facing death. Choosing the life of Jesus Christ meant continuing his journey to Jerusalem to testify about Jesus. The Holy Spirit revealed to them all how Paul would suffer for the name of Jesus Christ. But, well meaning believers who really cared for him thought that what the Holy Spirit said would happen unless Paul changed the course and not go up to Jerusalem. They thought reason for the Holy Spirit to reveal what would happen to Paul was to help Paul avoid being persecuted. But, Paul knew better. Jesus who gave it all to save Paul from sins and gave his life to Paul demanded Paul to carry the cross, to deny his life, in order to gain the life of Jesus. He knew he had to go up to Jerusalem to proclaim the name of Jesus Christ even it meant being bound in chains or worse to be killed.
3. When people speak to you from what’s in God’s heart (James and all the elders of Jerusalem church)…
Now, let’s look at another case of God’s people speaking into Paul’s life and unlike the way he responded to the believers at Tyre and Caesarea, we see Paul fully talking on the advice by James and the elders of Jerusalem church.
Here is what James and the elders were advising Paul to do in verse 20-25. There was misunderstanding about what Paul stood for. The rumor was that he taught the Jews to turn away from Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children or live according to our customs. When you read Galatians, Acts 15, and 1 Corinthians 7:18-19, you understand that Paul was against circumcision as means to earn a good standing before God. He said in 1 Corinthians 7:18-19, “Was a man already circumcised when he was called? He should not become uncircumcised. Was a man uncircumcised when he was called? He should not be circumcised.” He gave this direction because Jews thought that circumcision contributed to their standing before God; they believed circumcision as a merit to earn a good standing before God. But, the gospel Paul preached was the good news accepted by faith alone.
But, Paul also understood that the Jewish Christians were zealous for the law meaning that their conscience was wired in such way that it was very important for them to follow the law instead of breaking the law. Until the temple in Jerusalem crumbled later time in 70 A.D., Paul knew that the Jewish Christians’ conscience would be still bound by the cultural practice of circumcision. According to David Gooding, God’s program until the fall of temple in Jerusalem was progressively moving the Jewish Christians away from the cultural practice of circumcision. There was going to be a sort of weaning off process to help the Jewish Christians that circumcision practice was really not necessary any more for those who are in Christ.
Paul said in 1 Corinthians 9:20, “To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law.” James and the elders were concerned for the conscience of the Jewish Christians who still felt strong pull from the way of life as Jews with all the facet of cultural practices. So, in order to show that Paul was sensitive to this weaning process from the way of life as Jews to way of life in Christ, James and the elders asked Paul to undergo Jewish purification rites including shaving head along with four other Jews in order to fulfill their vows. Now, from previous sermons, you may remember that one of the reasons Paul wanted to get to Jerusalem during the time of Pentecost was to fulfill his own vow to the Lord as well.
I know that this is little bit confusing, but here is the point I want you to get about giving advice. The difference between James and the elders from the believers of Tyre and Caesarea who tried to dissuade Paul from going up to Jerusalem is that James and the elders were appealing to Paul from what God was already doing; they were speaking out of truth. To practice circumcision, to fulfill vows through purification rites and shaving heads, if done because of conscience reason as it was for the Jewish Christians, and not for the purpose of earning a standing before God, it was okay for the time being until things would become very clear to all the Jewish Christians such ritual practices were unnecessary. Again, the difference was that James and the elders spoke from the truth while the believers of Tyre and Caesarea spoke from their emotion without being grounded in the truth of God’s purpose.
4. Implications for giving advice and receiving advice
From these two case studies, here is what we can learn about giving advice and receiving advice.
- Even though you mean well and speak out of deep emotional care for the one you are giving advice to, if you are speaking not in line with the biblical truth, your advise is wrong.
- To be able to discern if your advice for someone is biblical based, you need to know your scripture.
- Don’t give advice based on your feelings but based on what is sensible from the truth of God’s word.
- Discern if an action you advice would promote the gospel or discourage it.
Discern if an action will requires faith in God to do what is hard or it simply gives an easy way out to the comfortable journey.
- If you are a recipient of someone’s advice, ultimately you are responsible for taking the right course of action.
- You need to discern if the advice given is biblical or contradicts what God says. This means you need to know your scripture.
- You need to discern if the course of your action will promote the gospel even though it means taking harder course.
- You need to discern if the course of your action will compromise the gospel because you are taking an easy way out
- Be weary of advices that point you to easy road instead of narrow path that only few travels.
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