Series: The Birth of the Church (Acts)

Preacher: Ps. James Tang

Date: 8th March 2026

Passage: Acts 21:1-16

Sermon Summary:

What does it cost you to follow Christ? Constrained as he was by the Holy Spirit to visit Jerusalem (Acts 20:22), Paul knew very well that imprisonment and afflictions awaited him there. He was told by the Spirit that suffering awaited him in every city he visited. In Acts 21, the prophet Agabus even comes down from Judea to visit him at the house of Philip the evangelist. (v.10) Agabus takes Paul’s belt and binds his own hands and feet with it as a gesture of what the Holy Spirit has told him, that Paul would be thusly bound by the Jews at Jerusalem and delivered into the hands of the Gentiles. (v.11) Still, Paul perseveres. 

Though Paul suffers, he is also blessed with great friendships in Christ—the elders of the Ephesian church pray and weep with him as he departs from them. (Acts 20:36-37) They embraced and kissed him, and were sorrowful because they knew they would not meet face-to-face again. (v.37-38) In Acts 21, the disciples in Tyre persuade him through the Spirit not to go, as they know the fate that awaits him there. (v.4) At Caesarea, not only the people there but Paul’s own travelling companions urge him to refrain from heading towards Jerusalem, because of their great love for him (v.12)—and Paul says to them, “What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart?” (v.13a) He knows and is blessed by their great love for him, but he is ready and determined to do the will of the Lord. (v.13b)

We are blessed to be in a city so sheltered that we can forget or be ignorant of what goes on outside it. So much so that we forget the brothers and sisters in other parts of the world who are undergoing intense persecution and suffering for Christ’s sake. As the world is increasingly drawn into conflict, will you count the cost and stand with them?