SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/28/2018
11:59 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-2 “The
Courage of Conviction Pays Any Price”
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 him 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.”
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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