What do we do when approaching spiritual battles?
Run from it?
Complain about it?
Think it to be hopeless and just give up?
Ignore it…hoping it will just go away?
Pray for God to remove it?
Paul is knowingly approaching a significant spiritual battle in Jerusalem. Notice how he approaches this undesirable battle.
BACKGROUND: Earlier in Acts 21 (21:10-13), Agabus delivered an unsettling prophecy to Paul and his mission team. This prophecy was divine (“thus says the Holy Ghost”). The prophecy was visual (Agabus bound his own hands and feet) and the prophecy was troublesome (the Jews would instigate Paul being bound in Jerusalem). The response to this news was quite emotional! His friends were crying and begging Paul not to go to Jerusalem (21:12-13), but he would not be persuaded to change his mind.
Do you recognize the elements included in deciding God’s will from last week? Paul surrendered to go. He was content to go. He was fulfilled in going and He was at peace with going to Jerusalem. It was in this context that the mission team concluded it was the will of God.
Daniel entered the lion’s den. Noah entered the ark. Joshua entered Jericho. Moses entered Pharoah’s presence. The Lord sometimes calls us to enter battle for Him. Here are 3 Realities of a Christian’s Battle Ground:
Prepare for Conflict (21:27)
Paul was found in the temple, no doubt worshipping and praying to God. Did you notice that the conflict never “went away?” Sometimes we delay engaging in spiritual warfare because we hope for it to disappear! A conflict may get quiet or fade from our view for a time, but conflicts do not take care of themselves or disappear on their own. A conflict must be dealt with Biblically.
*Bible hint for handing conflicts with believers: do not approach friends to vent, complain, gossip, or share a prayer request with the details of this conflict. Instead, go to the one with whom you have the conflict, assess your own part in the conflict, ask forgiveness for any personal wrongdoing, and make every effort to resolve the conflict. If this does not resolve the conflict, request a meeting with a godly counselor for the two of you. If the other person refuses, do everything you can do to resolve your part of the wedge. Lastly, keep this conflict between those in the circle of influence (whoever was present at the time of the original conflict) and perhaps a godly counselor, if needed. Depending on the conflict and the sin involved, you may need to continue this process with coming to the church with the unrepentant sin per Matthew 18.
Did you also notice that the conflict only grew in intensity and remained violent? The conflict did NOT disappear AND it actually grew! It went from “they laid hands on him” in 21:27 to “about to kill him” in 21:31. That is a powerful escalation!
Although we all recognize Acts 21 is referring to conflict over the gospel message, it may be helpful to look at a secondary application involving everyday interactions. For example, the married couple that has a disagreement or heated “discussion,” but does not resolve the conflict, still has a conflict between them. So many of us do not like confrontations and we ignore the unresolved conflict the next day. If neither party brings it up and everyone is peaceable with one another, then everything is resolved, right? Wrong! The conflict is swept under the proverbial rug and life moves on until the next conflict. The conflicts then become more frequent and more intense – and the stuff swept under the rug is becoming quite the pile of relationship struggles that you are tripping over constantly!
Men tend to feel better once they have spoken their piece and have had a good night’s rest. They have not resolved any relational issues, mind you, but they are often ready to move on in the morning anyway (but the average woman is still rehearsing the conflict). Men want to listen to debate and/or fix the conflict quickly and then move on. Men are often more success oriented and fixing a problem means they are successful. This is part of how God has wired a man. Women tend to need to talk things through and feel understood. Women tend to want their spouse to listen for the purpose of understanding them and not for the purpose of fixing their conflict. Women are more relational…it is part of how God wired them.
So, to resolve the conflict, men would benefit in working at slowing down. Men would benefit in making the effort to stop trying to “fix the problem” and sit still long enough to listen to understand their wife (without interruption without trying to make a defense). A man’s success drive needs to be fulfilled with having successfully understood his wife and met her needs as she understood them to be. When a man repeats what his wife explained in his own words to ask if he understood correctly, this helps his wife know he is making the effort she is looking for. Women would benefit in assuming her husband has the best intentions, believing he really just wants to make her happy, satisfied, and content. She would also benefit in clearly communicating her needs to her husband without feeling frustrated because “he should know this.” So, if she doesn’t want a solution (which is her husband’s strong drive to provide and protect her) but she would really like some empathy and a listening ear instead — then she ought to tell her husband that before starting the conversation. (One more helpful hint: do not start a conflict resolution conversation right before or during a meal or bedtime and prayerfully approach that conversation.) There is much more that could be said, however, in simple summation, both need to remember that God did not wire their spouse the same way He wired them!
Spiritual People in Conflict (21:28-32)
These who are to be seen as spiritual people are acting very unspiritual! Take a look at their accusations in Acts 21:28:
“teacheth against the law, and this place”
“brought Greeks into this place”
“hath polluted this holy place”
The actions taken at these accusations are very unspiritual indeed. In Acts 21:30 it says, “all the city was moved…” and in Acts 21:31-32 it is revealed they were physically beating Paul and would have killed him if the Roman guard had not broken up the mob scene!
Some may think, “That is quite extreme. I do not think it would come to that today.” It is more possible than you can imagine! I have actually had another Christian yelling at me to point of being out of breath over traditions of the church. I have watched a different professing Christian get so angry over his child not being asked to serve in a specific church ministry that when he took a half step backwards, I truly thought he was about to punch me in the face.
A Christian cannot claim the higher spiritual ground with a fleshly means! These Jews were angry at Paul because he brought the Greeks into the mix. Of course, we know that the Jews believed themselves to be much better than the Greeks, more holy than the Greeks. Of course, we know that is prejudice and wrong (James 2:1-9)! Yet, do we see one who has 20 body piercings, or is dressed provocatively, or smells of their drunken binge from the night before – and think, I am better than them…I am more righteous than them…they do not belong here!
Without Jesus’ shed blood to cover our sins, we are all dirty rotten sinners deserving of eternal judgement in the pit of hell! We are all created in the image of God equally! We are all loved by God with an everlasting love (Jer. 31:3)! Are we upset that these people sin or are we upset they sin differently than we do? Do we need to rearrange our self-perceptions and see ourselves as God sees us? Do we see ourselves as a sinner, deserving of judgment, but for the saving grace of God we are rescued?!
God Chosen Deliverance (21:34-36)
We often figure out what we believe to be the best plan to solve our problems, don’t we? Yet God, more often than not, brings about our salvation from conflict, persecution, and turmoil in the most unexpected ways with the most unexpected people! In Acts 21:32-36, God uses the Roman soldiers to save Paul! Going into a spiritual battle we often do not understand everything, so we must trust God.
When I look back on the day I had my heart attack, I can see the hand of God on that painful, life-threatening experience. God sent an ice storm that day to delay my departure for the church office. God had Charis not go on her regular walk at the YMCA that morning. God enabled Charis to get me to the ER quicker than an ambulance could arrive at our home. God enabled the cath lab team to successfully shock my heart twice. God allowed me to receive care for my “widow-maker” heart attack before I sustained significant damage to my heart. God still has turns on my racecourse that He wants me to take, but He knew I would have to endure this painful experience.
God knew Paul would experience this horrific physical attack in Jerusalem, but God’s racecourse for Paul still had turns on it that would bring him before kings and queens with a gospel witness! Your hard battles can lead you to amazing opportunities to give God the glory! So, prepare for the battle, be certain you are not the spiritual person with unspiritual responses, and look for God’s next turn for you on your racecourse of life. God’s racecourse is the best there is…trust Him with each turn you He has you make!