The following teaching is the 22nd of a series on the book of Acts by the Reverend John W. Howe of Truro Episcopal Church in Fairfax, Virginia. The title of this teaching is Courage and Despair, and the scripture reference is Acts chapter 19, verse 21, through chapter 21, verse 14. I'm picking up the story in Acts chapter 19 and verse 21. Now after these events, Paul resolved in the Spirit to pass through Macedonia and Achaia and to Jerusalem, saying, After I have been there, I must also see Rome. I just want us to look at that one verse for a moment because it gives you a glimpse into Paul's mindset.

There's a tremendous amount of detail in the last third of the Acts with sort of a travelogue of going from place to place, and it can get fairly confusing. I'm concerned that we not miss the forest for the trees. All right, if we had unlimited time, we could go verse by verse.

But I want us to step back a little bit as we move into this final third of the book and see an overview. There are several important things that are going on that sort of emerge from the detail. The first thing I want us to notice is the attitude that Paul has, the mindset that he has, which is expressed just in this one verse.

After these events, Paul resolved in the spirit to pass through Macedonia and Achaia to go to Jerusalem, back home, saying, after I have been there, I must also see Rome. I suggest to you that this would be true of all of the apostolic band. It was true of Peter, but it's preeminently true of Paul, that he is a man who has a goal, he has a strategy, and he has flexibility.

His goal is that he wants to evangelize the whole of the known world. That's a fairly exciting goal, isn't it? That's clearly the motivating force behind Paul's travels.

He's a man under authority, and he has a sense of mission, but the overarching goal is that he would personally be involved in the fulfilling of that great word that began this whole book, that the gospel would be preached, you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, to the uttermost parts of the earth. And his goal is to be personally involved in that, to be one of those through whom that commission is fulfilled. And so he wants to go home, yes.

He wants to go through Macedonia and Achaia where he's previously ministered. But after all that, I want to see Rome. Why?

Because Rome is the center of everything. All roads eventually lead to Rome. And Paul has just had the experience of evangelizing what Luke records all of Asia.

Heard the word of the Lord through Paul renting a room in Ephesus and in two years' time people coming into Ephesus took it back to their own communities. Church after church was begun throughout all of Asia by virtue of renting a room in Ephesus. You can just see the wheels turning in his mind.

What would happen if I rented a room in Rome? Paul, we know from other bits and pieces of Christian history and legend, wanted in fact to go even beyond that. He wanted to get to Spain and he wanted to get even to England.

this is the big stop is to get to Rome so we see a goal is to be personally involved in the fulfilling of the great commission and the strategy is to move from the great metropolitan centers the great centers of commerce, of trade of interchange, as people come in to these central cities if you can evangelize the central city of necessity, it reproduces itself in the countryside and so he has a strategy that he wants to get to Rome and to make that a new center of operations. Thirdly though he has a flexibility and I just remind you of this as we think about ourselves as God gives us goals and we begin to strategize about them how we want to see God enabling us to fulfill the mission that he gives us. Paul is a man infinitely flexible as God himself interrupts the plans.

We remember back in Acts 16 When he was on his second missionary journey, he wanted to turn right and go to Asia. And God says, no, you turn left and go to Europe. So he's a man with a goal.

He's a man with a strategy. But he's also sensitive moment by moment as God brings new directions into his life. I think if you really look carefully at Paul, at this point in his career, you'll see a man of tremendous courage.

who at the same time is a man of great weakness, great human weakness. And I'm interested in that combination. This comes through much more strongly in 2 Corinthians than it does in Acts itself.

And if you were going to do justice to what's happening, you'd really need to read those two books simultaneously. I'm going to refer to some material that we really get only by reading 2 Corinthians. It's not in Luke's account.

But at this particular point in his life, Paul is subject to tremendous weakness which he lays bare when he writes to the Corinthians. This is not a man in his own person who is so vastly superior to the rest of us. It's not that Paul is an extraordinary person so much as it is that he knows an extraordinary God.

He's subject to the very same weakness and maybe even more so than you and I would be. now there are three interrelated scenarios that I want us to be aware of at this particular point as Paul is in pursuit of his goal and working out his strategy first of all the opposition is building you remember this has been a time of tremendous success quote unquote tremendous success spiritually speaking he was in Corinth for about a year and a half during which time there was something on the order of 60,000 converts he moved on from there I've already referred to it spent about two years in Asia and all of Asia obviously that's a generalization but tremendous outreach from the city of Ephesus tremendous tremendous success but now comes the backlash alright and you better be aware of that the more successful that you get as a Christian the more the enemy is going to take you seriously and begin to try to undermine We had that experience in the schools prior to going into a parish situation. It got to the point in one school where I was chaplain where almost exactly half of the student body had given public allegiance to Christ.

It was extraordinary. A secular school and virtually 50% had made some sort of public commitment. They were obviously at varying stages in terms of what that meant, but that was a pretty courageous thing to do on a secular campus.

How do you think the other 50% reacted? I mean, it literally split the campus. The more successful we became, the more it threatened to self-destruct.

Paul has had incredible success and blessing in his ministry. Now comes the backlash. It begins with a fellow named Demetrius, right there in Ephesus, who was a silversmith.

And you can read in verse 24, a man named Demetrius, a silversmith who made silver shrines. What that really means is idols, silver idols of Artemis and brought no little business to the craftsmen. He was an idol maker.

And Ephesus was a tremendous center of idolatry. We saw last time the tremendous occult influence which also was there. And part of the response to Paul's ministry was this tremendous relinquishment of many, many people who had been into the occult and been into magic coming and burning their books and renouncing it.

Well, it also affected the idol trade. Ephesus was really the supplier of idols and idol paraphernalia to all of Asia. You can begin to see what happens as people involved in idolatry are converted to Christ.

That has business repercussions. And so Demetrius begins to organize the idol makers trade union. And they stir up the people.

Artemis, some of your translations may say Diana. The great temple to Diana was in Ephesus. And you may or may not be familiar with that.

This was the temple. This was actually the third temple that was built in her honor. that particular place.

This was the center of Diana worship. The third temple was classified as one of the seven wonders of the world. Some of you have seen, all of you have seen pictures of the Parthenon.

You can just picture in your mind the Parthenon dominating Athens even today, right? The temple to Diana was four times the size of the Parthenon. Tremendous There were 127 pillars, each 60 feet high, 36 of them overlaid with solid gold.

In fact, it's said that Alexander the Great offered the entire spoils of his eastern campaign to have his name inscribed on one of those pillars. And they refused, because he wasn't a local. so you can begin to sense the importance of this particular place to the whole structure of idolatry magic occult the worship of diana and all that that implies and that is being directly threatened by the gospel of christ and in particular the ministry of paul demetrius and his fellow idol makers stir up the people.

It says that they stirred up the whole city and they filled the amphitheater in Ephesus. Now that amphitheater sat about 25,000 people. You need to get the dynamics of this.

25,000 people get caught up in this anger, this clamor, this demand to do away with Paul. They seize his fellow workers and they demand Paul's head. And what does he want to do?

He wants to go in there and talk to them. I want to talk to them! Let me speak to the people.

And it says the disciples would not let him. Verse 30. Some of the folks who had been converted to Christ through Paul's ministry sensed the tremendous danger and they restrain him.

Verse 31 mentions some of the Asiarchs also. they were probably officials at the Pan-Ionian Games which were held in Ephesus Pan-Ionian Games rivaled the Olympics and it's interesting we're not exactly sure who these people were but that's the best guess that scholars can make it's interesting if that's right to see once again the circles in which Paul is operating isn't it because his life seems over and over again to touch the lives of people whose lives touch other lives. You know?

You would think of when he was chained to the soldier in Rome and the soldier would get converted and so they'd have to chain him to another soldier and he would get converted and would reproduce himself and Paul ends up sending out disciples all over the known world at the expense of Caesar as Rome keeps moving them around. You know, we can document the fact that the gospel came to England through soldiers of the Roman Empire. It is almost certain that some of them had been chained at one point or another to St. Paul.

So in the midst of his desire to go and evangelize all of the known world, he ends up getting frustrated in that. God does not allow him ever to see England, so far as we know for sure. And yet he reproduces Paul through the soldiers.

So similarly here, the Pan-Ionian games, people coming in from all over Asia, having to deal with folks whom Paul had personally known and befriended, and who are in a position of official responsibility for the games. Just a kind of an interesting footnote. You notice in some of Paul's letters the use of a sports metaphor.

parenthetically, it's interesting that there are some Christians who really would look down on our participation in athletics as being somehow unworthy. Yet Paul is able to go in and befriend these folks for Christ and to reproduce himself among them. And this becomes one of the dominant metaphors that he uses in talking about running the race for Christ, laying aside every weight and hindrance and so on.

Sort of a first century fellowship of Christian athletes. Well, finally, the riot is put down. Paul pushes on to Macedonia, Philippi, in chapter 20, verse 1, and on down from there through Greece, and then he retraces his steps.

If you just want to picture this, starting in Ephesus, he goes through Macedonia, down into Greece, and then back up the same route again and ends up back in Troas. Trouble, opposition, dogging his footsteps at every point along the way. That's the first scenario.

Tremendous success is now creating a backlash of opposition. Everywhere Paul is going, people are being stirred up, demanding his head. All right?

Mainly in Asia. Mainly in Asia. Although everywhere, that's true.

Hold your finger here for just a minute and turn over to 2 Corinthians 1. Let me read the first major paragraph quickly, and you tell me what the theme of this paragraph is. Starting with verse 3, 2 Corinthians 1, verse 3.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ's suffering, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation.

And if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort. What's the theme of 2 Corinthians?

Well, at least he didn't say tithing, right? That's the sub-theme. That's the sub-theme.

2 Corinthians lays bare the heart of Paul. It is a painful, painful book to read. He is talking about comfort, but he's talking about comfort in the midst of incredible affliction.

Okay, that's the theme. It's written to the Corinthians, but the backdrop of it is Asia. This hit me in a brand new way when we were in Singapore, as we were in the Asian area, and we began to see the experience of Paul in Asia, out of which this book is written.

Read the next paragraph. For we do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly, unbearably crushed that we despaired of life itself.

Why, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead. He delivered us from so deadly a peril, and He will deliver us.

On Him we have set our hope that He will deliver us again. You also must help us by prayer so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us in answer to many prayers. And so he goes on.

The whole book is like that. Look just at two more verses over in chapter 2, verse 12 and 13. He says, When I came to Troas, okay, this is where we've just traced him, down into Greece and back up through Macedonia and into Troas.

When I came to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ, a door was opened for me in the Lord But my mind could not rest because I did not find my brother Titus there. So I took leave of them and went on to Macedonia. Do you picture Paul that way?

Do you hear what he just said? A door was opened for us for ministry, but I was so upset. I was so beside myself.

Why? Because I was alone. I looked for Titus.

I needed support. I needed a companion. And I couldn't find him.

And I couldn't minister. Is that how you picture Paul? A man of such affliction that it got to him.

And so he goes on. I couldn't minister in spite of an open door because of this tremendous opposition. Well, as I say, this affliction, this opposition dogs his heels everywhere, but especially in Asia.

the second scenario that is unfolding at the same time is back in Corinth itself alright that is not reflected primarily in the book of Acts but as you read through the letters to the Corinthians this is unfolding at precisely the same time things are in terrible shape in Corinth and Paul is getting word of this you remember how he left people and then Apollos goes back to minister and word comes back to him as he is making his travels primarily in the area around Asia things are in desperate straits back in Corinth. There is division. There is factionalism.

There's this little group over here saying well we are of Peter. Nobody speaks like Peter. We are Peter's men.

And another group over here says no, no, we're of Paul. Paul's the one who's got the right message. You guys who follow Peter don't know anything.

And another group says well we're of Apollos. He's better than both of them put together. And then there's another group that says we're the only true Christians.

All of you guys are wrong. In addition to which, there is unresolved immorality right among the leadership of the church. The most spiritual, quote unquote, of all the churches in terms of having received gifts, supernatural visit of the Holy Spirit, and there the leadership is bound in the flesh.

And the church doesn't know how to deal with it. They don't know how to discipline it. And then they got all kinds of questions, theological questions that are just racking them.

And finally, what ends up being evident is that even in the things of the Spirit, there is a fleshly attitude. They're priding themselves on all that they've received and turning the very gifts of the Spirit, which God intended to be a source of mutual blessing and support, into the very opposite. I've got this gift and I'm better than you are.

Well, God didn't give it to me for my sake. He gave it to me for your sake that I might the better serve you. Well, all of that is exploding.

If that weren't bad enough, a group of Pharisaic Christian Jews, follow that phrase? pharisaic christian jews arrives from jerusalem and begins to undermine paul's ministry and his message in every way that they can they're not only saying he's got wrong doctrine but they're saying he himself is a phony we are the true apostles and paul didn't even know jesus never met him why are you following paul he's trying to divert you away from the law which god gave he's telling you that Christ has fulfilled the law and yet we know that what Christ wants for you is to become a better Jew more disciplined in your adherence to the whole counsel of God you better not follow Paul anymore that's going to lead you into shipwreck you better follow us we're the true apostles so Paul in fact ends up writing a whole series of letters of which we have only two in our New Testament some of you have studied this with me in the past. I'll just summarize it very quickly.

He writes a first letter, which we don't have, but which he refers to in 1 Corinthians 5. The Corinthians answer that with a letter that contains a whole set of questions. And what we call 1 Corinthians is actually the second letter that he wrote.

On the one hand, he's speaking to all the issues that I've just mentioned. He's rebuking them very, very strongly for their undisciplined immorality. But its basic structure, and you can see this very clearly as you read through, virtually every chapter begins as you wrote, here's your question, here's my answer.

He's addressing the various concerns that they have. Following that, he writes a third letter, which is also lost to us, which he refers to in 2 Corinthians 7. It must have been a real humdinger.

He calls it a strong letter. It was a very, very strong rebuke. They have not shaped up by the time of the third letter.

And finally he writes what we call 2 Corinthians, in which he defends himself against the slander of these so-called apostles who have come up from Jerusalem. And he gets to the point in 2 Corinthians, he says, are they apostles? So am I. Are they Pharisees? So am I. Are they Hebrew? So am I. And he gets to the point of saying, I'm beside myself.

I'm talking like a madman. And yet you value all these things for the wrong reasons. Those aren't the grounds of my authority.

The grounds of my authority is that Jesus Christ has spoken. And if you don't heed me, you are not heeding him. And I don't care who comes among you.

I don't care what they call themselves. You better be right with Christ. Paul lays himself bare in 2 Corinthians.

I want you to see that while he is literally on the run, facing opposition in his own personal experience, at the same time part of his mind and heart are back in Corinth, and that's exploding too. Okay? The third piece of the scenario involves what he's about to encounter in Jerusalem.

And all along the way, God is telling him that when he gets to Jerusalem, he's going to be bound and thrown into prison. Look in chapter 20 at verse 18 and following. When he gets to Miletus, he sends to Ephesus and calls to him the elders of the church there.

And when they came to him, he said to them, You yourselves know how I lived among you all the time from the first day that I set foot in Asia, serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials which befell me through the plots of the Jews, how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable and teaching you in public and from house to house, testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance to God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. And now, behold, I am going to Jerusalem, bound in the Spirit, not knowing what shall befall me there, that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me. Can you imagine being in such a set of circumstances?

Every place you go, and especially in Asia, where your heart has been for the last two years, opposition, threat of death, Corinth, where you were for the year and a half prior to that, things exploding, your own name your own character being defamed and discredited as well as the ministry being undermined the very gospel of grace that God has commissioned you to preach is being reversed in the name of obedience to Christ and now you're en route to go back to your home church the place from which you began the sort of center of things Antioch but even more so Jerusalem and the Holy Spirit is testifying to you at every point that when you get there you're going to be clapped into jail. He says, But I do not count my life of any value nor as precious to myself if only I may accomplish my course in the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. And now behold, I know that all you among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom will see my face no more.

Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of you all, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. I gave you my best. I gave you everything God gave me.

And therefore, I'm innocent of it. You've got it. It's up to you.

That's what he's saying. And then verse 28 is almost exactly the commission that he gave to Timothy. In 1 Timothy 4, I think it's 16, he says, Take heed to yourselves and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to care for the church of God which he obtained with the blood of his own Son.

When he wrote to Timothy, he said, Take heed to yourself and to your flock. Sorry, take heed to yourself and to your teaching. Hold to that, for by so doing you may save both yourself and your hearers.

Take heed to yourself and to your teaching. You and your flock are at stake. he's heading into a maelstrom in Jerusalem there are some tremendous things en route I'm just skipping over them the healing of Eutychus bringing him back literally from the dead he falls asleep during a long sermon that encourages me a great deal falls over and breaks his neck and Paul by the power of God raises him from the dead again I love the understatement verse 12 chapter 20 verse 12 and they took the lad away alive and we're not a little comforted.

Tremendous things en route, but I want you to see that he knows what he's heading into. In 21 and verse 8, it's back into Palestine, back into Judea. It comes to Caesarea.

On the morrow we departed and came to Caesarea and we entered the house of Philip the Evangelist, who was one of the seven. Remember the seven so-called deacons back in Acts 6? Who was one of the seven and stayed with him, and he had four unmarried daughters who prophesied.

Women are to keep silent, but not always, right? Okay. While we were staying for some days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea.

And coming to us, he took Paul's girdle and bound his own feet and hands and said, Thus says the Holy Spirit, So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man who holds this girdle and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles. This is the kind of thing he's getting, both in his own spirit and evidently from others en route. A prophet, a recognized prophet, comes, takes him, binds his hands symbolically together, binds his feet and says, this is what awaits you.

All right? I want you to note Paul's response to that. Paul answered, what are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart?

For I am ready not only to be imprisoned, but even to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus. And when he would not be persuaded, we ceased and said, the will of the Lord be done. Paul receives this as a word from God.

He believes that that is exactly, precisely what awaits him. He says, why are you adding to the conflict and the burden that is already mine? Notice he does not make his decision based upon this word of prophecy.

We might just meditate on that a bit. I believe God speaks prophetically. I don't believe that for the most part he wants us to make our decisions on the basis of prophecy.

He wants us to make our decisions on the basis of his leading by the Spirit. And the prophecy may confirm it. It may strengthen us in it.

But Paul knows he's been sent by the Spirit of God to Jerusalem, and he gets this strong word, and he says, I'm going anyway. God told me to go, you see. And after these days, we made ready and went up to Jerusalem.

Note the we. Luke is traveling with him again at this point. Went up to Jerusalem, and some of the disciples from Caesarea went with us, bringing us to the house of Manassas of Cyprus, an early disciple with whom we should lodge.

Three things at once. Tremendous opposition everywhere he goes, especially in Asia. The church back in Greece and particularly in Corinth exploding all over the place.

Not only Paul's message, but his person being attacked, slandered, ridiculed, and reviled. And now repeated prophecies that imprisonment and possible death awaits. And he says, I'm ready for that.

I'm prepared to go. I want you to see a man of human weakness. A man who is so crushed, he can say, we despaired of life itself.

We were so utterly, unbearably crushed that when I got to Troas, I couldn't even minister, even though there was a wide open door. This is not an extraordinary man. This is a very ordinary man.

And yet he knows an extraordinary God. And he says, with his strength, I'm willing, no matter what awaits, to fulfill His call for my life. Let's stand and pray together.

Father God, with all I come before You, to Your throne of grace in time of need. To You, my King, I lift my eyes in wonder that You have chosen me to be Your own. You alone know the secrets of my heart.

And I would place my trust in You again this day. in your ways I find my strength renewed and with your grace I turn to follow you Lord thank you for Paul's courage which came we know and confess only by your gracious gift as daily he made that decision to turn and follow you. Lord, we thank you that that same courage and strength would be available to us as we face so much less opposition.

As we're so easily burdened by circumstances. We would have our strength renewed this day. Lord, we confess, I confess, that it is not in me to carry out the ministry you've given.

But by your grace, it will be done. Thank you, Father, for seeing your power exhibited through earthen vessels. We would walk with you this day to the glory of your name for Christ's sake.

Amen. Amen.