Acts 21

And after you complete the Gospels, you will discover the fourth and final reference to Philip, and he is distinguished by an interesting title.

It's a title found in Acts 21:8, and the Holy Spirit describes this Philip as follows: Philip the Evangelist.

He's not to be mistaken for Philip the Apostle.

He's different.

And what I would like to do with you this evening is follow Philip through these chapters to see what we can learn from this man of God and how he can inspire us in the area of soul-winning and other things as well.

Because I believe when you look at Philip in these different sections where he is mentioned, you will see different emphasis of his person, of his story.

I believe in Acts chapter 6, you see something of Philip's character, and then in Acts chapter 8, it is his compassion that is highlighted, and lastly, in Acts 21, there is something about his consistency that stands out.

Character, compassion, consistency.

People don't talk like that anymore.

Acts 21:24.

Let me get there with you.

Okay, well, can I share my screen with this?

I can zoom in a little bit.

That's as much as it lets me do.

But this is, uh, Acts 21:24.

So this is the order that's given to Paul.

Protect me from both, Lord.

And then, y'all, because God has a sense of timing that continually amazes me, I opened my chronological Bible reading this current week, and that day's reading was Acts 21 through Acts 23.

And there, right in the middle of these verses, the scripture between Acts 21 and Acts 23, there was Paul, surrounded by people who were deeply religious, people who knew scripture, people who believed in God, people who were absolutely convinced that they were defending God.

And some of those same people were completely resisting what God was actually doing.

And I thought, okay, Lord, I'm listening.

One of them is this.

What do I do when these are people I actually love, that I see them sinning, that I see them in sin patterns? I actually love them.

What do I do? What if I'm sitting with Christian friends and someone says something degrading about another woman? What if somebody gets drunk? What if someone starts talking crudely? What if we're involved together in Christian ministry? Do I say something? Do I stay quiet? Do I distance myself? Do I confront? And I think Acts gives us a beautiful model of this because at the end of Acts 21, Paul has been seized by a mob.

And his actions prove that.

In Acts 21, he's arrested.

And then taken as a prisoner to Rome.

And even as a prisoner, he continues to share the gospel of Jesus Christ.

We're going to talk about Acts.

The last couple of days since Wednesday, I've been looking back over Acts 21.

I've been looking at Acts 22.

I've been looking at Paul's statement.

Possibly even according to the wisdom of God at this point because what else could he have done? Well, there was a what else could he have done? He's a Roman citizen.

We find this out towards the end of chapter 22.

This is kind of why today is Acts 21 and 22.

And Monday will probably be Acts 22 slash 23.

Then today, this morning, we went Acts 17 all the way through Acts 40, the end of Acts chapter 21.

And as we're going through it, I'm looking at this going, man, chapter 22 is almost just a continuation, like Normally, I would finish up Acts 21 today, and we'd have our phone it in Friday program, and we'd be like, all right, we're going to go to Acts 22 on Monday, kind of giving us a day to just kind of mull over everything on Friday afternoon here on the Kingdom Living program.

Although I think we're going to try.

There's only 30 minutes.

verses basically to acts 22 the most the the part that really just is flooring me because i kind of had to the last few verses paul speaks to the crowd 37 through 40 here in acts 21 the last few verses leads into chapter 22 so when i was reading it i think it was yesterday I started down through 22, as I often do, actually.

But, man, I'm telling you, just the words Paul says, when he speaks to the crowd, chapter 22, this... discussion with the crowd, this, this crowd with this, this speaking with the crowd that Paul does, um, like every sermon or speech or whatever that we've seen so far through Acts, it's powerful.

So be prepared for that on Friday.

And what grieved them most was his statement that they would never see his face again.

James of Jerusalem is the guy we meet in Acts 15, Galatians 2.19. Paul mentions the pillar apostles, and it's Peter, this James, and John.

And then you read about James in texts like Acts 21, in addition to Acts 15 and so forth.

And so you've got this other character named James in the New Testament.

There's several James, by the way.

Then September, we're back to two services.

But this is the penultimate part of our Acts teaching series.

And before we dive into that, I just want to encourage you that when we get to this point in our gathering, when we get to the preach, when someone's preaching, teaching, unpacking the Bible, I want to encourage you to take notes.

If you don't already, I want to encourage you to start the habit today.

And if you need a little bit of persuading about why this might be important, I have five reasons for you why I take notes during the preach.

So when we get to this point in our service, we're unpacking our teaching series.

This one is Acts.

And our teaching series is always in line with our theme for the year.

And so we all must always keep that in mind as we think about these things.

And so whatever Acts 21 says, it cannot be interpreted to place Paul in contradiction with the Holy Spirit.

It's always got to be, of course, harmonizing with whatever the Holy Spirit has revealed throughout the Bible.

And particularly, if we think about Paul, with Paul's particular lessons throughout as he teaches.

How could Paul say, you know, my conscience is always void of any offenses if indeed he sinned back in Acts chapter 21? That would not be consistent with it.

First Corinthians remains true.

Acts 21 harmonizes everyone, every one of them.

Paul became all things to all people that he might gain them all.