Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Do You Avoid Tension? | New Testament | Acts 21

Episode Date: August 10, 2023

What do you do to avoid pain? What do you do to avoid tension? In today's episode, Patrick shares how Jesus endured ultimate pain and tension. Find out what Acts 21says about dealing with and walking through tension. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Join the TMBT community in reading the entire New Testament in one year. Get your FREE reading plan here. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter@TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Acts 21

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Patrick Miller. What do you do to avoid pain? What do you do to avoid tension? I mean, no one really likes to admit that we want to avoid the hard things in life, but the truth is obviously a lot more complex. For example, if you're like me, you'd rather stuff your own frustration with a coworker rather than bring it out into the open. Or if you're like me, Maybe you'd rather gossip about a friend than deal with the tension of talking to that friend directly. But it's not just interpersonal problems that I want to try to avoid. I think we all want to try to avoid.

It's even bigger problems. For example, in our culture, there are all kinds of things that are causing Christians' tension, tension in their interpersonal relationships, but also just a general chronic tension because of the world that we live in. For example, holding to a biblical view of sex and sexuality and gender, it's not just laughable to our world, it's become offensive, bigoted, and backward. And so we try to avoid the subject. We try to avoid relationships where those issues could become an issue. We try to avoid saying anything publicly that could cause offense to anyone. Our worst nightmare is that a family member or a close friend would make us pick between the Bible's vision of virtue and them. Either you leave

behind what the Bible says or you leave me behind. That's what we're afraid they might tell us. And the truth is these things do really happen. And deep down, we all want to avoid the tension. We all want to avoid the relational discomfort that comes from following Jesus. We all want to avoid the interpersonal pain that we fear might happen or might be happening right now because we follow him. The problem is that Jesus told us to expect this pain, this discomfort, and this tension. In the Gospels, multiple places, he warns his followers that they would be imprisoned and brought

before judges and rulers for their faith. To follow Jesus is to tread the path of pain, tension, and discomfort. It's to have the people who once loved you and appreciated you, sometimes turn their back on you because you put Jesus first. The Apostle Paul understood this. In Acts 21, he is journeying back toward Jerusalem. He's spent a lot of time up in the region of Turkey and Greece and Macedon and he's coming back to the Middle East, back to the land of Palestine to go back to Jerusalem. And the entire scene recalls Jesus' own journey to Jerusalem. Now, he was coming from the region of Galilee, just north of Jerusalem, all the way down to Judea, where Jerusalem was. So it was a shorter journey than what Paul was doing. But their journeys

are still very similar, because Jesus, on his way to Jerusalem, it's clear that he knows that he is going to be imprisoned and executed by the religious leaders. And his disciples, they keep rebuking him, saying, this won't happen. Or we're telling him, hey, you can't do this. They keep trying to to resist him, and yet Jesus goes headlong into the tension and into the pain. In the same way, the Apostle Paul is journeying towards Jerusalem, despite knowing that he too would be imprisoned. In the same way, his friends tried to stop him. They tried to resist him. We'll pick up in Acts 21. And just a reminder, this is Luke writing, and he's actually a part of the story at this point because he's traveling with Paul. So that's the we that he's talking about. It's him and Paul and all of their traveling

companions. So, we landed at Tyre, where our ship was to unload its cargo. We sought out the disciples there and stayed with them seven days. Through the spirit, they urged Paul not to go on to Jerusalem. When it was time to leave, we left and continued on our way. So let's just pause. They land in tire, and there's all of these disciples of Jesus who are inspired by God's spirit to tell Paul not to go to Jerusalem. Now, we're going to find out more of why they were telling him not to go. And this is kind of confusing because maybe it sounds like the spear is telling Paul don't go to Jerusalem, but that's not actually what's happening. When we pick up in verse 7, it's going to become more clear. We continued our voyage from Tyre and landed in Tumice, where we greeted the brothers and sisters and stayed

with them for a day. Leaving the next day, we reached Cessaria and stayed at the house of Philip, the evangelist, one of the seven. He had four unmarried daughters who prophesied. After we had been there a number of days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. Coming over to us, he took Paul's belt, tied his own hands and feet with it, and said, the Holy Spirit says, in this way, the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem will bind the owners of the spelt and will hand him over to the Gentiles. When we heard this, we and the people pleaded with Paul not to go to Jerusalem. So now we've got more clarity on what happened in Tyre when these followers of Jesus were arguing with Paul through the Holy Spirit telling him not to go to Jerusalem. It wasn't that the

Spirit was saying, Paul, don't go to Jerusalem. No, what was happening was that the Spirit was revealing to the disciples of Jesus what was going to happen to Paul in Jerusalem. He was going to be imprisoned. He was going to be put into chains. And as a result, everybody hearing this from the Spirit is telling Paul, obviously you shouldn't go. Obviously, you need to turn around. Obviously, you need to avoid this pain, this tension, this discomfort. And this doesn't just happen entire. According to the passage, it happens in Cessaria. It happens with Agabus. It happens with multiple friends in multiple places telling Paul to please avoid the pain. You see, this is the difficulty of following Jesus. Not only does Jesus lead us down the path of pain and tension and discomfort,

but when we follow him, even those who love him may not understand. They might say to us, don't do that painful thing, or avoid causing yourself any more problems, or do whatever you can to preserve that relationship, even if it comes at the cost of your integrity. It's no small irony that Part of the tension of following Jesus comes not from taking a virtuous stand, but from your fellow Christians who would try to convince you to do otherwise. And I want to be really clear. They do this because they love you. All of these people loved Paul deeply.

They wept for him. They cared for him. And they didn't want to see Paul hurt. The same way that you don't want to see your friends hurt when they stand up for truth. Your friends live in tension and pain when they do the right thing. They love Paul. Your friends love you. and sometimes that's why they want us to avoid the pain, the discomfort, and the tension that

Jesus is calling us into. But when that happens, we easily forget. And in these moments, when we're being called to something difficult, and even those we love are telling us to resist, in those moments, we must pray for strength and grace from Jesus. You see, you have to remember this. Jesus went into the ultimate tension, into the ultimate pain, into the ultimate discomfort on the cross. Why? So that you could be absolutely sure that no matter how painful, how uncomfortable, or how tense your life becomes, your ultimate destiny is secure. He went through death and came out

the other side alive. In the same way, you can rest assured that if you follow Jesus, there is always life on the other side of death. Maybe you face a literal death and you look forward to a literal resurrection, but more often than not, in these moments, of tension and pain and discomfort, what dies are small but significant things. You allow your reputation to die so that it might be resurrected when Jesus says to you, well done, good and faithful servant. You allow a valued friendship to perish or grow distant so that a truer friendship might be resurrected when Jesus says to you, I have called you friend. You allow a profitable opportunity or promotion or raised to pass by into death.

death, if it costs you your conscience. Why? Because you know that in the resurrection, Jesus gives you eternal treasure that does not fade or perish. The only reason why Paul was able to continue on to Jerusalem, even though he knew there would be pain and tension and discomfort, the only reason he was able to do that was because he knew that what Jesus promised was greater than anything he stood to lose. And so in the midst of his friends crying and weeping and telling him, Paul, please don't go to Jerusalem, he responds to them in verse 13. Why are you weeping? Breaking my heart. I'm ready not only to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus. When he would not be dissuaded, we gave up and said,

The Lord's will be done. After this, we started on our way up to Jerusalem. They eventually get there, and Paul, as you'll learn, is wrongfully arrested. And as I was a result, He's imprisoned for years. He's eventually sent to Rome where he is executed. Do you have discomfort, tension, or pain in your life? The hurt and the suffering that you're experiencing never bring joy to Jesus. And yet he knows that in a twisted, evil, sabotaging world, these things will be the result of faithfulness. Pain will be the result of virtue. Discomfort will be the result of standing up for what is good. Tension will be the result of believing what is beautiful and true. And so Jesus tells you not only to expect discomfort, tension, pain, and even death, he tells you to embrace them. Not because they're

good, but because he's secured little and great resurrections for you on the side of every little and great death that you go through following him. And the suffering that you experience in the present is not worth comparing to the weight of the incomprehensible glory far outweighs whatever you pay today. Do you have pain, discomfort, or tension in your life? Give it to Jesus. Trust him. Walk with him. Know that you're on the path that he laid.