Welcome to this podcast from Harvest Community Church of Huntersville, North Carolina, where our vision is to make disciples who make disciples. I'm your host, Liz Stefanini. Welcome to Harvest again. We're glad you're here. We have been very blessed here at Harvest with facilities to house our church family. God has given us 26 beautiful acres here that we've been in since 2002. Before we got here, we did what every church that starts up from scratch does. We met here and there and here and there in schools and different places, and it brought some interesting things along the way, mostly really good things. One day we were meeting at a community college and we were dependent on the maintenance staff to come and bring the key every Sunday morning and one Sunday morning the maintenance staff decided not to come. And, um, the worship team was there. And so they just pulled out whatever instruments they had and practiced out on the side. I see. And were you, uh, on that team that day? Okay. Um, so they just practice. Fortunately, they did come in time for us to get inside for the service. So we haven't had. We haven't had problems with facilities and ultimately that's just a pretty minor inconvenience compared to what a lot of our brothers and sisters in the world experience like this church building in Syria. In 2014, a Syrian village was overrun by al-Nusra militants, entered the church building. They destroyed everything, the pews, the hymnals. They tore down the crosses, the steeple. They set up at the windows a place for sniper fire. But then a few months after this, the Syrian army overran them and the villagers were able to return to that small village. And although their church building was damaged, the Syrian Christians knew that the true church was not the building, but the gathering of God's people. And all through those villages. There were believers that were making amazing decisions to stay in the midst of that environment so they could share the gospel with others. Pastor Saif married and had three young children traveled from village to village because some of the villages no longer had pastors and he would go from church to church. helping these out. He knows it's dangerous. His wife knows it's dangerous. In fact, she said, we are in danger. She said this to a voice of the martyr worker. We're, we're in danger. Our family's in danger, but we serve a mighty God. Another believer who has chosen at that time to stay in Syria, Sabine lives in a village that was overrun by Islamists. And that village now has no electricity or water. She lives alone, there's no one to protect her, so it would be very understandable if she would go somewhere else. In fact, I think people have urged her to go somewhere else, but she has chosen to stay and minister to those who are left behind. And then another Syrian believer, Sahib, was once a highly ranked officer in the Syrian army, but he was a Christian. And he shared the gospel, and because of that, they forced him to retire. November is a month that many, many Christians all over the world bind their hearts together to remember the persecuted church. Because as you and I got up this morning and came to this campus to be able to worship God with others, we did so freely, without any thought that anybody was going to arrest us or stop us or question us. But all over the world, that's not the case. And there is much persecution happening everywhere. November is the month in which we, in particular, remember the persecuted church. And we're going to do that at harvest. And today the persecuted church concept really fits well with our message. We're continuing through the book of acts, teaching through the book of acts. We come today to acts chapter 21 and I invite your attention there to acts 21 beginning in verse 27. We've been working through acts for several months. We're coming down the home stretch And now we're going to look at three chapters and we're going to find out that persecution started way back at the beginning. The beginning of Christianity was met with a lot of opposition, a lot of persecution, and we're going to read about some of that today from the apostle Paul. Let me set the context of Acts 21 for you. After being warned but compelled by the Holy Spirit, the apostle Paul arrived in Jerusalem And today's passage details the way that he was treated by his opponents, by rulers, and by God. So Paul the Apostle took three different missionary journeys. And this is the third one. This is near the end of the third one, near the end of his life and ministry. He gets back to Jerusalem where it all started. He finally gets there. He had been warned. by the Holy Spirit that there are gonna be troubles and hardships, but he was also compelled by the Holy Spirit to do it, and so he did it. Now, there's a lot of passage here today. Acts 21, 27, all the way to the end of chapter 23. So I'm not gonna try to read the whole story, but let me just take a minute or two just to give you an overview of what happens, and then we'll hit some of the highlights. Paul, when he got back to Jerusalem, he went to the temple. He was there in the temple. And as often happened in his journeys, this created quite a stir. And there was a crowd and there was a riot and they didn't like what he was doing. And this crowd was physically taking Paul and they were going to kill him. And there was a Roman commander who didn't want to see chaos and anarchy. He stopped things and grabbed Paul, essentially. and rescued him from this mob, but he decided to arrest him. Let's arrest this. He's got to be a troublemaker, right? If these people want to kill him. So let's arrest him. And Paul says, Hey, I want to say something. And he allows Paul to address the crowd. So this, this mob that's been trying to kill him, Paul speaks to them. And as he often did, what did he talk about? He talked about his conversion to Jesus. He talked about that day when he was on his way to Damascus and Jesus met him and saved him and changed his life and then called him to go to the Gentiles. Now, Paul was a Jew and these people were Jewish. And when they heard that, that made them even madder. The Gentiles were unclean. The Gentiles were not worthy. And so they said, let's get rid of him. He's not fit to live. So the commander takes him to the barracks and the next day the commander is going to have Paul or allow Paul to speak to the Jewish ruling council. It's called the Sanhedrin and it's got two groups of people, Pharisees and Sadducees. Paul was a Pharisee. who became a Christian. And so he was also a very smart man. He knew that the Pharisees and Sadducees did not agree with each other on certain things like the resurrection. Pharisees believed in it. The afterlife, angels, things like that. The Sadducees didn't. In fact, that's their name. They were sad, you see. I can't believe I just said that. remark was sad but Paul spoke to them and it stirred up controversy even in the religious ruling council and they were all getting mad and angry and everything and stirred up with each other and so Paul once again is taken back to the barracks And that night in the barracks, a very interesting thing happened. The Lord appeared to Paul. In the midst of all of this chaos, the Lord appeared to him and said, Paul, just like you're gonna testify here in Jerusalem, you're also gonna testify for me in Rome. And so, here's what was gonna happen next. While Paul is doing this, A bunch of Jewish men come up with a secret plan. They're going to kill Paul. More than 40 of them decide they're going to kill Paul. They want Paul dead so badly that they say, we're not going to eat or drink until Paul is dead. And so they go to the chief priest and tell them this. And they say, look, why don't you call Paul back out of the barracks and just, you know, say you want to get more information from him because they were going to ambush him. So while they say that, it just so happens that Paul's nephew overhears it. And he goes to Paul and says, look, This is what's going to happen to you. Well, Paul goes to the commander and surprisingly the commander listens to him and says, okay, I'm going to take care of you. He didn't want somebody to be murdered without a trial and all of that. So he makes the decision to transfer Paul secretly away from Jerusalem up to another city called Caesarea. And he writes a letter. They write a letter, he gets some troops, he says, don't tell anybody we're doing this. They sneak Paul off, under guard, so he can stand trial before the Roman governor, Felix. That's Acts 21, 22, and 23. All right, let's go home. No, just kidding. Not that good news. You got good news and bad news. Now, why did Paul experience these kind of things? Why was there enmity against him? Why was there opposition against him? There's a very simple reason. Paul lived his life on mission for Jesus Christ. He was serious about Jesus Christ. He was committed to Jesus Christ. He wanted to tell everybody about Jesus Christ. And if you today are a follower of Christ, you may not experience the same exact things Paul experienced, but you're gonna experience some of the same types of things. You and I are going to experience, those of us who are going to live on mission for God are gonna experience some things. And today I wanna be real. I want to give you what some good expectations are. In fact, the title of the sermon is Biblical Expectations. Don't want you to go into this thing of serving Christ. with rose-colored glasses are thinking it's all gonna be incredibly easy. I want you to have biblical expectations and that's the way we're organizing. I wanna give you three things from this passage that Paul experienced that those who are on mission for God can expect. And the first one is this, misunderstanding and opposition to challenge you. If you serve Jesus, you will be misunderstood. you will be opposed. Now notice several things, and this is on your outline, several things that happened to Paul. Let me start at verse 27. When the seven days were nearly over, some Jews from the province of Asia saw Paul at the temple. They stirred up the whole crowd and seized him, shouting, fellow Israelites, help us. This is the man who teaches everyone everywhere against our people and our law in this place. And besides, he has brought Greeks into the temple and defiled this holy place. He was lied about. He was misunderstood. Paul wasn't preaching against those people. He wasn't preaching against their law. Christ was the fulfillment of the law, but he was lied about. He was misrepresented. And besides, It says he's brought Greeks into the temple and defiled the holy place. There was a four and a half foot wall in the temple that separated Jews and Gentiles. There was the court of the Gentiles. The Gentiles, if you weren't a Jewish person, you could come only so far. You had to kind of stay out in this outer court. And so they accused Paul of bringing a Gentile, which this is just absurd. I mean, nobody could bring a Gentile into the inner court. There was this man named Trofimus, which somebody earlier had seen Paul with in the city. And they just accused him of bringing Gentiles in the inner court. So he was lied about. He was misrepresented. Then the mob attempted to kill him. Verse 30. The whole city was aroused and the people came running from all directions. Seizing Paul, they dragged him from the temple. And immediately the gates were shut. And while they were trying to kill him, news reached the commander of the Roman troops that the whole city of Jerusalem was in an uproar. He at once took some officers and soldiers and ran down to the crowd. When the rioters saw the commander and his soldiers, they stopped beating Paul. Now fortunately, This Roman commander stepped in and arrested him. That doesn't sound too great, but it sounds better than being beaten by an angry mob, right? Paul was also misunderstood. Verse 38 was started. Verse 37, as the soldiers were about to take Paul into the barracks, he asked the commander, may I say something to you? Do you speak Greek? He said, Aren't you the Egyptian who started a revolt and led 4,000 terrorists out in the wilderness sometime ago? Paul answered, I'm a Jew from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no ordinary city. Please let me speak to the people. So the first century historian Josephus tells us that about three years before this account, there was an Egyptian false prophet who led a rebellion of 30,000 people. And he gathered these people, he led them to the Mount of Olives, and he promised them that they would be able to break into Jerusalem and overpower the Romans. And then, of course, The governor Felix brought tree troops to intervene. And those, those men were either killed or captured or scattered. And, and now they're saying, Hey, that's, aren't you that guy that led those, you know, those insurrectionists? No, he was, he was misunderstood. Paul cleared that up for them. He said, no, here's who I am. And he gave his testimony about being saved. But the crowd didn't want to hear that. So the next thing that happened to Paul is he was rejected by his own people. Verse 22 of chapter 22. Then the Lord said to me, I'll send you far away to the Gentiles. The crowd listened to Paul until he said this. Then they raised their voices and shouted, rid the earth of him. He's not fit to live. He's not fit to live. Now again, the Roman commander intervened, took Paul to the barracks, and he was about to flog Paul. He was about to beat him himself. And Paul's like, wait a minute, do you know that I'm a Roman citizen? And of course it was illegal to punish a Roman citizen without a trial. And the commander didn't know that, and so he said, hey, there are only two ways to become a Roman citizen. It was very expensive to buy that citizenship, or you could be born a citizen. Commander says, I had to pay a lot of money for that. Paul, I was born a Jew. And so he doesn't flog him, and he decides, as I mentioned in the overview, to let him speak to the ruling council. Sadducees Pharisees Let's talk about the resurrection of the dead. So there was a plot to kill him Verse 9 actually started verse 12 the next morning Some Jews formed a conspiracy and bound themselves with an oath not to eat or drink until they had killed Paul More than 40 men were involved in this plot. Think about that more than 40 men We're going to try to kill Paul and they're not going to eat or drink. We talked about this in our community group Friday night and a couple of interesting points were raised like wonder when those guys ever ate and drank since Paul got taken away to Syria. And why was it taken more than 40 men to kill one guy? But that's what they were going to do. And so they, verse 14, they went to the chief priest and the elders and said, we have taken a solemn vow not to eat anything until we have killed Paul. Now, then you and the Sanhedrin Petition the commander to bring him before you on the pretext of wanting more accurate information about the case We are ready to kill him before he gets here This is it's it's such a crazy story Look what first 16 but when the son of Paul's sister heard of this plot He went into the barracks and told Paul. What are the chances that Paul's nephew is going to overhear this plot? He does. He tells Paul about it. And what does Paul do? Paul goes to the commander. So, look at all those things Paul was lied about, he was misrepresented, he was opposed, he was rejected by his own people. They tried to kill him. Now fortunately, that's not all that Paul experienced. If that was all that Paul experienced, it would be an unhappy ending. But the second thing that Paul experienced that you and I on mission for God will also experience is the nearness of God to comfort you. The nearness of God to comfort you. Right in the midst of this dispute, verse 10, the dispute became so violent that the commander was afraid Paul would be torn to pieces by them. He ordered the troops to go down and take him away from them by force and bring them into the barracks and tucked into the middle of all of this craziness is this verse 11. The following night, the Lord stood near Paul and said, take courage as you have testified about me in Jerusalem. So you must also testify in Rome. Sometimes when we need encouragement, all we need is for somebody to show up, right? It's not what they say. It's just their being there. They're putting their arms around us. They're expressing their love to us. Sometimes that is all we need. Well, this wasn't an ordinary person. This was the Lord himself, Paul. of this you've been beaten and you've been dragged and you've been Miss represented and they want to kill you and there's another plot to kill you and all of that Don't worry Paul I'm gonna be with you You're not only gonna testify me for me here in Jerusalem like you have but you're also gonna go to Rome and So Paul has opposition, we're gonna have opposition. Paul had the nearness of God, we're gonna have the nearness of God. And number three, the sovereign hand of God to lead you. Think about this crazy story. Think about a couple of ways that God sovereignly, in a way that we humans could not plan, how he would orchestrate protecting Paul. First of all, there's this nephew overhearing. But there was also the Roman legal system. God used the Roman government, which was a very corrupt government, to protect Paul and to give Paul a chance to witness and testify for the Lord. Verse 16 records the nephew. We read that. Verse 17, Paul called one of the centurions and said, take this young man to the commander. He has something to tell him. So he took him to the commander. Now I don't know about you, but I don't think of Roman commanders as being touchy feely guys. Do you? I mean, the commander could have just easily just said, I know, look, I'm not getting involved with that. That's not what happened. Centurion said, Paul, the prisoner sent for me and asked me to bring this young man to you because he has something to tell you. The commander took the young man by the hand, drew him aside and asked, what is it you want to tell me? He said, some Jews have agreed to ask you to bring Paul before the Sanhedrin tomorrow on the pretext of wanting more accurate information about him. Don't give in to them because more than 40 of them are waiting in ambush for him. They have taken an oath not to eat or drink until they have killed him. They are ready now, waiting for your consent to their request. The commander dismissed the young man with this warning. Don't tell anyone that you've reported this to me. Then he called two of his centurions and ordered them, get ready a detachment of 200 soldiers, 70 horsemen, 200 spear men to go to Caesarea at nine tonight, provide horses for Paul so that he may be taken safely to governor Felix. I doubt that this centurion cared much about Paul. or about Christianity. He was probably concerned about his own net. Right, it wouldn't have looked good on the Roman officers and soldiers if a mob just was able to come in and kill one of their prisoners. So he's like, nope, I'm gonna take care of you. Was it really the centurion taking, or the commander taking care of Paul? No, ultimately it was God. God was sovereignly using the Roman government. God can use government, even when it's a bad government. That's what was happening there. Well, the commander wants to make sure Paul gets there safely. So he writes this letter to the governor and we'll skip down to verse 33 He sends these people out and it says when the Calvary arrived in Caesarea They delivered the letter to the governor and handed Paul over to them to him The governor read the letter and asked what province he was from learning that he was from Cilicia He said I will hear your case when your accusers get here Then he ordered that Paul be kept under guard in Herod's palace. That's a lot of stuff happening in three chapters, right? Now let's think about what Paul on mission experienced and let's apply it to us. Three things. If you live on mission for God, you can expect misunderstanding and opposition to challenge you. In his book, Life Sentence, Chuck Colston, who was the former hatchet man from the Nixon administration, who was converted to Christ and became a spiritual leader in the Christian community, tells about a time that somebody tried to set him up while he was on a ministry assignment in a hotel, tried to set him up with two prostitutes in his room. He was in that hotel room, they knew what room he was in, they were gonna send these prostitutes there, but before they got there, and not knowing anything about it, Colson tried to open the window and he couldn't open the window, so he switched rooms and went to another room. And then he said, as he was flying out of town the next day, he pondered how many enemies do I have? Would the hatred and suspicion never end? One critic had written, you deserve the worst that can happen to you. I fretted about that for days. Ugly male came to me at times. And then on a few occasions, people angrily confronted me in public. I don't want to be hated. I yearn for affection, love and support like anyone else. But he says, if one is to accomplish anything at all, he will meet opposition. So be it. I could only trust the Lord for protection. Now, we don't have the same profile that Chuck Colson had. But if you serve Jesus and you speak up for Jesus, there's a good chance that you might be lied about. You might be misunderstood. You might be rejected by your family or by the cool crowd at school. You certainly will face spiritual opposition because the enemy does not want the gospel to go forward. But secondly, you will have the nearness of God to comfort you. The Lord appeared to Paul, but this wasn't the only time that God appeared to his servants through the course of the Bible. You go all the way back in the Old Testament, Deuteronomy 31, when Moses is about to pass the mantle, he says to Israel, the Lord, in Deuteronomy 31 5, the Lord will deliver them to you, and you must do to them all that I have commanded you. Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you. He will never leave you or forsake you. And there was an instance in Mark chapter six, Jesus' disciples were on a boat on the lake and he was not with them. And the waters got high and the sea got stormy and they got afraid. And Jesus walked across the water to them. And when they saw him, they thought it was a ghost and they were afraid. And Jesus said to them in Mark six, take courage, it is I, do not be afraid. Then he climbed into the boat with them and the wind died down. No matter what opposition we have, Christ is with us. And then number three, the sovereign hand of God. You have the sovereign hand of God to lead you. Remember Joseph in the Old Testament? He was betrayed by his brothers. They were about to kill him. They decided to sell him into slavery. He worked his way up in Potiphar's house. Then he was lied about. Potiphar's wife tried to seduce him. He said, no, she lied about it. He went to jail. He was forgotten in jail. He interpreted the dreams. He still was forgotten for years. And then finally, He was released and he actually worked his way up to a prominent. He was second in command in Egypt and his own brothers years later had to come to Egypt to get grain. And now Joseph, they didn't know Joseph was second in charge. They thought he was dead probably. And when they found out who it was, they were scared to death. And Joseph said to them in Genesis 50, don't be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is being now done the saving of many lives. Paul himself at a later imprisonment will write to the believers at Philippi. He was in jail. That's a terrible thing, but he said, I want you to know brothers and sisters that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel. As a result has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I'm in chains for Christ, the sovereignty of God, the sovereign hand of God. This is God's word for us this morning. When God builds his church, it experiences both opposition from the enemy and support from God. So let me encourage you as we start to wrap up The message today, I want to encourage you to apply this sermon in three ways. Let's thank God for his sovereignty and nearness. That is an appropriate response today to realize, yes, God is sovereign. He is the ruler. He is over all. He works his plans out somehow, even through bad things. Let's worship him. Let's thank him for his sovereignty and nearness. Secondly, let's worship Jesus for his willing suffering. Now, Paul was totally dedicated to Christ, and we've talked about that for a few weeks here, and it was great that he was willing to go suffer, but he didn't know in advance exactly what he was going to experience. Jesus, in heaven, before he decided or not before he decided, before he came to earth to live as a human, fully human and fully God, he knew exactly what his sufferings were going to be and they were going to be far worse than Paul's ever could have been. It was death on the cross. It was separation from God the Father in that moment to pay for our sins. So as we think about suffering, our thoughts always have to keep going to Jesus to thank him for willingly suffering for us. Have you accepted him and his suffering for you? If not, today's a great day to open your heart in faith and say, yes, Jesus, I take you as my Lord and savior. So let's thank God for His sovereignty and nearness, let's worship Jesus for His willing suffering, and let's pray for persecuted Christians. Let's pray for those who are persecuted today. The things that happen to Paul are happening all over the world, unfortunately. Several years ago, in the former Soviet Union, a 28-year-old woman named Valentina was arrested for transporting Christian literature in the former Soviet Union. She waited trial for six months and they assigned a public defender who was an atheist. So she knew she was not going to be on her side. And it became clear to her through the trial that the judge and all the assistants were prejudiced against her. And so finally they sentenced her to five years in jail. And they transferred her to a Siberian camp called the Valley of Death because so many people, so many prisoners died there. They were mistreated and there were outbreaks of tuberculosis. And she said, in those moments, I was so lonely. I was so alone. I didn't have a Bible. I didn't have any Christians around me. I felt like the heavens were just not listening. They were sealed up in silence, but she go went on to say this, the conditions in camp were disheartening. I'd prayed before being sent there that wherever God sent me, he would give me the strength to fulfill the work quota. At first thing, all things were very hard, but God preserved me. Sometimes I didn't even have the strength to pray. But it can only raise my eyes to heaven and a silent cry in his mercy. The Lord sent me a Christian sister, Natasha, a wonderful Christian of sterling character, full of peace. And it was evident that the Lord was with her. We always tried to support one another in the arms of prayer. So today, if you, if you live on mission, expect some opposition, but whether it's the Roman legal system, whether it's a random nephew overhearing, or whether it's maybe a fellow prisoner, God is going to support you. God is going to support you. He will comfort you with His nearness. He will work in your life in sovereign ways because when God builds His church it experiences both opposition from the enemy and support from God. Will you bow your heads with me please? Thanks again for joining us today from Harvest Community Church. This podcast is also available on our website HarvestCharlotte.com. Please go there if you want to send a question or comment, learn more about our ministries, or find out how you can donate to support the podcast.