SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/28/2018 11:59 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-2 “The
Courage of Conviction Pays Any Price”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Acts 21:7-14
Message of the verses: “7 When we had finished the voyage from Tyre, we arrived
at
Ptolemais, and after greeting the brethren, we stayed with them for a day. 8 On
the next day we left and came to Caesarea, and entering the house of Philip the
evangelist, who was one of the seven, we stayed with him. 9 Now this man had
four virgin daughters who were prophetesses. 10 As we were staying there for
some days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. 11 And coming to us, he
took Paul’s belt and bound his own feet and hands, and said, "This is what
the Holy Spirit says: ’In this way the Jews at Jerusalem will bind the man who
owns this belt and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.’" 12 When
we had heard this, we as well as the local residents began begging him
not to go up to Jerusalem. 13 Then Paul answered, "What are you doing,
weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be bound, but even to
die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus." 14 And since he would
not be persuaded, we fell silent, remarking, "The will of the Lord be
done!"”
We want to
pick up today looking at verse ten which speaks of the prophet named Agabus who
came to the house of Philip from Judah.
Now even though Caesarea was a part of Judah, the Jews thought of it as
a foreign country as it was the seat of the hated Roman occupation. Let us look at Acts 11:28 to see another
prophecy from this man: “28 And there
stood up one of them named Agabus, and signified by the Spirit that there
should be great dearth throughout all the world: which came to pass in the days
of Claudius Caesar.” The prophecy we see
in our text for today speaks of Paul’s upcoming arrest and imprisonment in
Jerusalem. He graphically depicts this
by using Paul’s belt which he bound himself with.
Like the
believers in Tyre who did not want Paul to go to Jerusalem, these believers in
Caesarea did not want Paul to go there either as the pleaded with him even to
the point of tears that he may not go to Jerusalem. Paul would not turn back
from his goal to go to Jerusalem even with all the weeping as he states “, "What
are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be
bound, but even to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus."” John MacArthur writes that his determination
mirrored that of Ezekiel:
“5 For you are not sent to
a people of a strange speech and of an hard language, but to the house of
Israel; 6 Not to many people of a strange speech and of an hard language, whose
words you can not understand. Surely, had I sent you to them, they would have
listened to you. 7 But the house of Israel will not listen to you; for they
will not listen to me: for all the house of Israel are impudent and
hardhearted. 8 Behold, I have made your face strong against their faces, and
your forehead strong against their foreheads. 9 As an adamant harder than flint
have I made your forehead: fear them not, neither be dismayed at their looks,
though they be a rebellious house” (Eze. 3:5-9).
MacArthur writes “Because of Israel’s stubborn and
obstinate refusal to heed his message, Ezekiel would have to be even more
stubborn and obstinate in his determination to deliver it.”
We will
try and finish the rest of this section in our next SD.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question: “On the cross” (John 19:28).
Today’s Bible question:
“Who said ‘You surely will not die?”
Answer in our next SD.
7/28/2018 12:36 PM
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