Following Where God Leads
Do you want to know what God’s will is for your life? Your Sunday school answer is “yes.” But in reality, at the intersection of knowing God’s will and following God’s will, there are many wrecks. Directly following this series in Acts, we will be walking through the book of Jonah. It’s clear in Jonah’s life and it’s clear in ours, that following God’s will is often difficult and not the path we desire to take. We see that in our text today. Paul knows God is concluding his third missionary journey by sending him to Jerusalem. He is also told by God that suffering awaits him.[1] Though he knows he must go, all those around him try to get him to stay. Because suffering certainly isn’t the will of God. Right?...
Follow God wherever He leads. (1-3)
Paul is determined to follow God’s leading despite whatever challenges are ahead. The passage describes Paul’s journey from Miletus to Jerusalem, stopping at various ports along the way. “In summary, he endured a routine journey filled with time-consuming stops on the way to the port of Patara, then booked passage on a nonstop four-hundred-mile voyage until he landed in the port of Tyre, Syria.”[2]
The journey in these verses represents Paul’s obedience to the Spirit’s guidance. He is going where God leads, even though he knows hardship lies ahead. We must trust God’s guidance in our lives, even when it doesn’t make sense or is difficult. Whether it’s a new career path, a ministry opportunity, or a personal difficulty, we must trust God and follow Him wherever He leads.
How do you seek to know and follow God’s will? There are “Four Councils” for us—God’s Word, the Holy Spirit, conscience, and others. These, taken together often reveal God’s will. I love how simply Augustine put it: “Love God and do what you want.” We know Paul relied on God’s Word. That’s even why he’s come this far, following the Holy Spirit’s prophetic word to him. We will see more and more that his conscience is bound to take him to Jerusalem. But we also see here counsel from other believers.
Weigh godly counsel when discerning God’s will. (4-7)
During his journey, Paul stayed with the disciples in Tyre, who it says, through the Spirit, urged him not to go to Jerusalem. We also see that despite their warnings, Paul continued his journey. Godly counsel is crucial, but it must be weighed against God’s Word, personal conviction, and the leading of the Holy Spirit. The believers in Tyre had genuine concern for Paul’s safety.
We should seek the advice and counsel of mature Christians. However, we must also discern God’s will through prayer and personal conviction. Sometimes, godly counsel may seem to contradict our sense of calling. In such cases, we need to seek clarity from God, ensuring that our decisions align with His overall purpose for our lives.
What do you do when you have two differing promptings from the Spirit?
We should always weight the counsel of other believers, but our primary allegiance is to God. We need to sure it’s God we’re listening to, though, when we feel contrary to what other people are saying. If what we feel deeply about is contrary to God’s Word, He never leads us that direction. We need to pay attention to the motives behind our feelings. We could feel very strongly about something that isn’t the will of God. Paul listened to the disciples but discerned that God was calling him to continue his journey to Jerusalem.
Some of the counsel he was given came by prophetic words from God.
God uses both men and women to fulfill His ministry. (8-9)
Here we see Philip the evangelist and his four unmarried daughters who prophesied. We earlier saw Philip when he led the Ethiopian eunuch to the Lord, and when he was one of the first seven deacons.
One thing we see in this passage is significant and can’t be overlooked now within our Southern Baptist Convention. This week the SBC is gathering for their yearly convention. Every year it seems one issue rises to the top of which people debate heavily over. This year it is essentially a vote about the word “pastor,” whether it can be used for women or not. Some will say that if men and women have different roles, they are not equal in value. So, in that view, if women are not allowed to be “pastors,” they are of lesser value. That is a lie from the worldly culture we live in. If that’s the case then Jesus and the Holy Spirit are of lesser value than the Father, which is complete heresy. And that doesn’t follow with God’s revealed design for the church.
Last week we saw Paul say goodbye to the Ephesian elders. Within that text, three of the words used for elders were present.[3] The Bible is very clear about who God sets apart as elders and their qualifications in 1 Timothy 3:1-7 and Titus 1:6-9. And the qualifications are specifically male. So redefining the word “pastor” is problematic when it comes to interpreting what the Bible says. Do we take God’s Word as it is, or do we redefine it based on the culture? If we do that, it can’t just stop with men and women’s roles, but it opens a Pandora’s Box of countless other issues. And when you look at church history, denominations and churches that have veered away from trusting and following God’s Word have started with this very issue.
The truth of the Bible, though, is that women are highly valued and have an essential part in the church and in discipleship. We don’t have time to get into all the many ways women are lifted high (way higher than the culture at the time the Bible was written), but we can see it from this text even. Philip, one of the seven deacons chosen in Acts 6, had a fruitful ministry, and his daughters also played an important role by prophesying.
This shows us the value and contributions of both men and women in the church while recognizing distinct roles. Men and women are equal in worth and dignity but have different roles in the church and family. Here, Philip’s daughters are engaged in prophetic ministry, demonstrating that women have vital spiritual gifts that benefit the church and are to be used within the church.
That was a necessary pause from the topic of following where God leads, although it still fits within the topic because that is how God has led the church through the Scriptures. Let’s get back to the question, what do you do when you have two differing promptings from the Spirit?
Humbly seek to persuade others of your convictions. (10-12)
Twice in this passage we see them urge Paul not to go to Jerusalem (4, 12), and here the prophet Agabus foretells Paul’s imprisonment in Jerusalem. The believers, upon hearing this prophecy, pleaded with Paul not to go. You know who’s even a part of that pleading? Luke, who is writing Acts and is with Paul on this journey. You can tell because this is a “we” passage. They made known their strong feelings. Shouldn’t we do the same? Sometimes we make known too much while other times we are too silent. We’ll yell about the color of the carpet while we’re silent about the sin in someone’s life.
Despite their promptings, Paul remained unyielding. He didn’t dismiss their concerns arrogantly but explained that he was ready to face imprisonment and even death for the name of the Lord Jesus. Paul’s humility and determination serve as a model for how we should handle our convictions.
Were both sets of people hearing different things from the Lord? I don’t think so. John Stott explains it well. “[We should] draw a distinction between a prediction and a prohibition…The warning was divine while the urging was human.”
They knew that if Paul went to Jerusalem, suffering awaited him. Certainly that can’t be God’s will, right?
The will of God is often the path of suffering. (13)
Paul accepted that the suffering that awaited him was part of God’s will. When the believers continued to plead with him not to go to Jerusalem, Paul responded, “Why are you weeping and breaking my heart? I am ready not only to be bound but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.”
Paul’s willingness to suffer for the sake of Christ reflects Jesus’ own teaching that anyone who wants to follow Him must deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow Him (Matthew 16:24). Discipleship is costly, and suffering is often part of God’s calling on our lives.
We should be willing to endure hardship for the sake of the gospel. Think of all that wouldn’t have happened in this world if believers weren’t willing to do hard things for the sake of the gospel, even going against the counsel of others. Here is an excerpt from Tony Merida’s commentary on Acts. I pray you see yourself in their story, and I pray you will follow Jesus down the difficult road, not the road of comfort.
“Missions history is filled with the accounts of missionaries who left people and possessions for dangerous places, even though friends and family urged them to choose different paths. These condensed stories of Jim Elliot, David Livingstone, William Carey, Adoniram Judson, C. T. Studd, and John G. Paton are just a few examples of what I mean:
Jim Elliot, who decided to give his life to serve the Auca Indians in Ecuador even though people told him he was “too gifted” to consider such a thing, said: “Consider the call from the throne above. ‘Go ye, and from round about, come over and help us.’ And even the call from damned souls below, ‘Send Lazarus to my brothers that they come not to this place.’ Impelled, then, by these voices, I dare not stay home while these Indians perish. So, what if the well-fed church in the homeland needs stirring? They have the Scriptures, Moses and the Prophets and a whole lot more. Their condemnation is written on their bankbooks and in the dust on their Bible covers. American believers have sold their lives to the service of mammon, and God has His rightful way of dealing with those who succumb to the spirit of Laodicea.” Elliot and four other heroes gave their lives for the Auca Indians.
David Livingstone, who went into the heart of Africa, wrote a letter to the London Missionary Society: “So powerfully convinced am I that it is the will of the Lord that I should go to Africa, I will go no matter who opposes me.” Later, after countless afflictions, he still wouldn’t return home, even though others, like Henry M. Stanley, tried to persuade him to do so. Livingstone told Stanley, “God has called me to Africa, and I am staying here.”
William Carey, “the father of modern missions,” rose up in Europe and said to a group of ministers, “I am going to go to India and make the gospel known there.” A minister in the audience rebuked him: “Sit down, young man. You are an enthusiast. When God pleases to convert the heathen in India, he will do it without consulting you or me.” But Carey wouldn’t be persuaded—and praise God he wouldn’t!
Adoniram Judson, a Baptist missionary who had a desire to go to Burma (present-day Myanmar), a “closed country,” against the pleas of others, took his new wife into the heart of Burma. He labored for thirty-eight years, suffering through cholera, malaria, dysentery, and unknown miseries that would claim the lives of his first wife and second wife, as well as seven of his thirteen children and numerous colleagues. As a result of his resolve, today there are close to four thousand Baptist congregations in the middle of Buddhist Burma. Over half a million believers are represented in those congregations.
C. T. Studd, a wealthy Englishman, came to faith in Christ and, soon thereafter, sensed God’s call to go to China. His family brought a Christian worker in to dissuade him. Studd said, “Let’s ask God then. I don’t want to be pig-headed and go out there of my own accord. I just want to do God’s will.” He sought God’s will and decided that he should indeed go. Then later, when he was fifty years old, he resolved that he should spend the rest of his life in Sudan, when others again urged him to do otherwise! In the next twenty years, he founded the Worldwide Evangelization Crusade through his work in Africa, which has planted gospel seeds all over Africa, Asia, and South America.
John G. Paton served for ten years as the pastor of a church in Glasgow, Scotland, but God began to burden his heart for the New Hebrides. These were Pacific Islands filled with cannibalistic peoples with no knowledge of the gospel. Twenty years earlier, two missionaries had been cannibalized there. Paton received opposition from everywhere. The church offered him more money to stay. When one older man protested, Paton famously said, “Mr. Dixon, you are advanced in years now and your own prospect is soon to be laid in the grave there to be eaten by worms. I confess to you if I can but live and die serving and honoring the Lord Jesus, it will make no difference to me whether I am eaten by cannibals or by worms. And in the great day, my resurrection body will arise as fair as yours in the likeness of our risen Redeemer.” Paton wouldn’t be persuaded, and soon he would be putting the Lord’s Supper elements into the hands of former cannibals that had repented and trusted in Jesus. (Paraphrased from Platt, “A Mission Only the Church Can Stop”)”[4]
I also think of Martin Luther’s hearing, when before a large crowd was asked,
“Martin, how can you assume that you are the only one to understand the sense of Scripture? Would you put your judgment above that of so many famous men and claim that you know more than they all? You have no right to call into question the most holy orthodox faith, instituted by Christ the perfect lawgiver, proclaimed throughout the world by the apostles, sealed by the red blood of the martyrs, confirmed by the sacred councils, defined by the Church in which all our fathers believed until death and gave to us as an inheritance, and which now we are forbidden by the pope and emperor to discuss lest there be no end of debate. I ask you, Martin—answer candidly and without horns—do you or do you not repudiate your books and the errors which they contain.”
And he answered, “Since Your majesty and your lordships desire a simple reply, I will answer without horns and without teeth. Unless I am convicted by Scripture and plain reason—I do not accept the authority of popes and councils, for they have contradicted each other—my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. God help me. Amen.”[5]
Leave the outcome to God and continue in faithfulness. (14)
Verse 14 concludes this passage with a powerful statement of surrender to God’s will: “When he would not be dissuaded, we gave up and said, ‘The Lord’s will be done.’” This shows the believers’ ultimate trust in God’s plan, even when it involves letting go of their personal desires and fears. This is humility right here. This is humility that is often not present within the church. A leader going against the counsel of others like this is exactly why many people leave the church. I’m grateful we have this biblical example of humility to stand in contrast to what we so often see around us.
The response of Paul’s companions teaches us the importance of surrendering to God’s sovereignty. Despite their initial resistance, they ultimately trusted that God’s will was best, even if it meant Paul’s suffering, and even if it was different than their desires.
We must learn to leave the outcomes of our lives and ministries in God’s hands. Our responsibility is to remain faithful to His calling and obedient to His commands, regardless of the circumstances or results. When we do this, it allows us to experience peace no matter the circumstances, knowing that He is in control and that His purposes will prevail.
They sought to persuade him but ultimately left it up to God and they continued in the faith. God is calling you to do the same.
We’re talking about suffering as part of our calling. It was first part of Christ’s. Isaiah 53:10 says this: “Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.”
[1] Acts 20:23: “…the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me.”
[2] R. Kent Hughes, Acts, Preaching the Word (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 1996), 283.
[3] In the New Testament, the terms are all equivalent—elder connotes the man’s dignity and standing; overseer his function and duty; pastor his calling of shepherding, protecting, and feeding of the flock through teaching.
[4] Tony Merida, Exalting Jesus in Acts, Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary (Nashville: B&H, 2017), 330-332.
[5] Bainton, Here I Stand, 144.
