Acts 21:1-16

Towards Jerusalem

Fellowship of travelers

• Paul travelled with companions (Acts 20:4-5, 21:18)

• He is often portrayed as an austere man• He was loved by those who knew him • We are called to live in relationships • God has purchased a church (Acts 20:28)• Who are your fellow travelers?

Fellowship of believers

• Paul had a big vision • He saw the world as a mission field • He also shared with Christians he had never

met • Its right to have a local focus • Christ is head of a worldwide church • Gentile believers shared fellowship with the

church in Jerusalem • Do we have a worldwide vision?

Fellowship with the Holy Spirit

• Big questions in the passage • How can the Spirit urge Paul not to go to

Jerusalem when he had called him to go there? (Acts 20:22, 21:4)

• “And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there”

• “I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me” (Acts 20:23)

Fellowship with the Holy Spirit

• The Spirit was warning Paul of what was ahead

• Believers took this to mean avoid Jerusalem • Sometimes we can put our own spin on what

the Spirit is saying

Fellowship with the Holy Spirit

• Is there a ‘sell by date’ on Spiritual gifts?• No (1 Corinthians 1:7, 13:8-12)• If God works in miraculous ways are we always

going to be healthy, wealthy and happy?• No (Acts 9:15-16, 21:13-14)• Are we in step with the Spirit?

Fellowship with Jesus• The Spirit warned Paul three times (Acts 20:22-

24, 21:4, 21:10-11)• He still pressed on • Jesus predicted his death three times (Luke

9:22, 9:44, 18:31-33)• He drank the cup • “I want to know Christ and the power of his

resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.” (Philippians 3:10-11)

Fellowship with Jesus

• “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?” (Luke 9:23-25)