GOD’S SOVEREIGNTY AND OUR FREE WILL

GODS SOVEREIGNTY AND OUR FREE WILL 1

We read in the last half of Acts Nineteen how Paul sets up a Bible school called the school of Tyrannus and teaches both Jews and Greeks the Gospel there for two years, and God works powerfully through Paul, so that people who even touched Paul's clothing and handkerchiefs were healed. Many evil spirits came out of people through Paul’s ministry and many people who practiced witchcraft repented and burned their books of magic which were reported to be worth fifty thousand silver coins. 
When Paul saw that God’s word was now sovereign and prevailing in Ephesus he decided to move on to Macedonia. Then he said, ‘from there I’m going to Jerusalem and then I'm off to Rome - I've got to get to Rome’. But before he left Ephesus, a man named Demetrius who manufactured and traded statues of the Ephesian goddess Artemis (Diana to the Romans) accused Paul’s teachings of destroying the glory of Artemis, whom the whole world worshipped and that her statues would end up a pile of rubbish. These accusations set the crowd off into a frenzy, and Paul and those with him were again in danger of being severely punished for this crime.

But the mayor of Ephesus finally quietened the mob and said, ‘This conduct is unworthy of Artemis, and these men have done nothing to harm either our temple or our goddess, and if Demetrius and his artisans have a complaint, they can take it to court and have it dealt with - we're putting our city in serious danger here, because Rome does not look kindly on rioters.’ With that, he sent everybody home.

Reading on now in Acts Chapter Twenty after Paul had just farewelled the people of Ephesus Paul travels to Greece and preaches there for three months. He discovers that the Jews are plotting again to take his life, so he sails over to Troas in northern Turkey and preaches there for seven days. On the final day he went to preach at their communion service.
Acts 20:7… He preached in an upstairs room until midnight! and as Paul spoke on and on, a young man named Eutychus, sitting on the windowsill, went fast asleep and fell three stories to his death below. Paul went down and took him into his arms. “Don’t worry,” he said, “he’s all right!” And he was brought back to life! They all went back upstairs and ate the Lord’s Supper together; then Paul preached another long sermon—so it was dawn when he finally left them!

Acts 20:17 Paul then sailed to Miletus, and he sent a message to the elders of the church at Ephesus which was not far away, asking them to come down to the boat to meet him. When they arrived he told them about the plots of the Jews against his life, and that he had never shrunk back from telling them the full counsel of the Word of God.
Paul tells them that he is being drawn irresistibly by the Holy Spirit to go to Jerusalem, not knowing what awaited him, except that the Holy Spirit had told him in city after city that jail and suffering lay ahead of him, but he says that life is worth nothing unless he uses it for doing the work assigned to him by the Lord.
Verse 36. He knelt and prayed with them, and they wept aloud as they embraced him in farewell, sorrowing most of all because he said that he would never see them again.
We now come to Acts 21.
Acts 21:1 After parting from the Ephesian elders, Paul sailed straight to Cos and then sailed across to the harbor of Tyre, in Syria, where he went ashore, found the local believers, and stayed with them for a week. These disciples spoke through Holy Spirit to Paul and warned him not to go on to Jerusalem. 
Then Paul went on to Caesarea and stayed at the home of Philip the Evangelist, one of the original seven deacons. He had four unmarried daughters who had the gift of prophecy. 
And during his stay of several days, a man named Agabus, who also had the gift of prophecy, arrived from Judea and visited Paul - he took Paul’s belt, bound his own feet and hands with it, and said, “The Holy Spirit declares, ‘So shall the owner of this belt be bound by the Jews in Jerusalem and turned over to the Romans.’ Hearing this, all the local believers and his traveling companions begged Paul not to go on to Jerusalem.
But he said, “Why all this weeping and trying to dishearten me! For I am ready not only to be jailed at Jerusalem but also to die for the sake of the Lord Jesus.” 

We saw earlier that Paul had felt drawn by the Holy Spirit to go to Jerusalem.
When it was clear that he wouldn’t be dissuaded, they gave up and said, “God’s will be done.” So shortly afterwards Paul and his company packed their things and left for Jerusalem. 

When Paul arrived at Jerusalem all the believers at gave them a warm welcome, and on the second day Paul met with James and the elders of the Jerusalem church, and he recounted the many things God had accomplished among the Gentiles through his work.
They praised God but then James said, “You know, dear brother, how many thousands of Jews have also believed, and they all believe they must continue to follow the Jewish traditions and customs. They have been told that you are against the laws of Moses, against our Jewish customs, and that you forbid the circumcision of their children. Now what can be done? For they will certainly hear that you have come.
It wasn’t long before some Jews visiting from Turkey saw him in the Temple and roused a mob against him, and they grabbed hold of him, yelling, “Men of Israel! Help! Help! This is the man who preaches against our people and tells everybody to disobey the Jewish laws. Paul was dragged out of the Temple, and immediately the gates were closed behind him. And as they set about to kill him, word reached the commander of the Roman garrison that all Jerusalem was in an uproar. Paul declares his Roman citizenship to the Roman commander and in the following chapters through all kinds of hazards is escorted under an impressive military guard of two hundred soldiers, where he ends up preaching the Gospel to King Agrippa. 

These encounters of Paul’s with the prophets and then with James and the Jewish elders that he had debated with before, and then with the lynch mob that wanted to kill him present us with some interesting options regarding whether Paul was in the will of God or not in going to Jerusalem. God’s sovereignty and our free will.
The first option is, were those prophets really speaking through the Holy Spirit? 
The next option is, was Paul overriding the Holy Spirit and determined in his own will to get the true message home to the Jewish Christians about the freedom of the Gospel of grace? And had James forgotten or been pressured to water down the prophetic word about the Tabernacle of David back in Acts Chapter 15 about the freedom from Jewish laws?

The last option is, was there something bigger going on that only God knew about and had purposed, that nobody else knew about, including all the prophets, and James, and Paul’s companions and even Paul himself. We had seen in earlier accounts that when Paul felt he had a good idea about when he should act on something or where he should go and preach, like when he wanted to go into Asia, that the Holy Spirit prevented him. He sometimes humbly found out that God would block him and redirect him later on, with a clear word, after having Paul wait for something greater to come to pass that Paul would never have imagined, but in God’s good time. 

Those prophets prophesied correctly by the Holy Spirit that Paul would be beaten up and locked up in chains in Jerusalem, assuming in their love and concern for Paul that God was telling him not to go to Jerusalem, and Paul could still accept that and say, ‘So what!’ Paul knew that part of his job description was to go through the sufferings of being resisted and rejected and opposed. There was something bigger going on that only God knew about and had purposed for Paul about his desire get to Rome that he could never have possibly foreseen. 

It is that last option that teaches us that only God knows the end from the beginning in everything concerning his will and purpose for us, even though we are fully committed to do his will and even though he lets us hear from him, and even though he gives us a glimpse of certain things that will come to pass along the way. God finally brings his will to pass in his own remarkable way, and we are privileged in all our stumbling and bumbling and suffering, to be included in the outworking on earth of what God has planned to do from heaven. 

People may debate the paradox of God’s sovereignty and man’s free will. However, we see here that God sovereignly takes us in his way but graciously accompanies and leads us on our way.
This is how God is able to fold together and reveal to us the intricate parts of the unknowable mystery of His sovereignty and our free will. The Bible says that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who say yes to his invitation of living according to his purpose. (Ephesians 3:28)
God meets us there and sorts out the loose ends of our bumbling in such a way that both we and God are very happy with that. That is why just turning to him and looking in his direction is often enough to receive a mountain of faith if we hang in there. He is so far above and beyond us in his workings with us that our acceptance of his unlimited sovereignty and our severely limited capacity to discern the future becomes the peace within us that surpasses all understanding. It is no longer a paradox but a new kind of certainty.