Acts 21 Round Two: God is With us When it Hits the Fan

What if the hardest road is the holiest one? Walking with Paul through Acts 21, we step into a story charged with prophecy, persuasion, and pressure—friends pleading him to turn back, a prophet naming chains ahead, leaders navigating delicate tensions between Jewish customs and Gentile freedom, and a city that erupts on the fuel of rumors. We don’t glamorize pain here; we get honest about calling. Obedience doesn’t always lead to open doors and applause. Sometimes it leads to handcuffs and a platform you never planned on, with a watching crowd and a chance to speak hope into the noise.

We unpack why the Spirit’s warnings weren’t a red light but a weather report, how James and the elders offer a wise path that honors both the gospel and the conscience of Jewish believers, and why Paul chooses witness over withdrawal when chaos breaks out. Along the way, we talk about the difference between fear that protects and fear that paralyzes, how lies spread faster than context, and what it takes to stay rooted when public opinion sways like a storm. There’s also a practical turn: building space to reflect so truth can take root. We share a simple SOAP framework—Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer—to help you slow down, process, and carry God’s word into your day.

If you’ve ever asked, “Why would God lead me where it hurts?” this conversation offers a clear, compassionate answer: presence. Not always to the left or right, but straight through. Listen, reflect with our new end-of-episode music segment, and then tell us what anchored you most. If this helped you grow, subscribe, leave a five-star review, and share it with someone who needs courage for the road ahead.

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The More We Dig. The More We Find.

Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation (NLT).
Copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation.
Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Big Idea
• 0:53 Community And Calls To Engage
• 1:26 Luke’s Purpose And Shift To Paul
• 2:12 Paul’s Call Versus Bad Circumstances
• 2:57 Voyage Toward Jerusalem
• 4:07 Prophetic Warnings And Resolve
• 6:38 Meeting James And The Elders
• 8:12 Temple Vows And Rumors
• 9:22 Riot, Arrest, And Roman Intervention
• 10:54 Courage In The Storm And Prayer
• 14:18 New Reflection Practice With Music

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Welcome to the Bible Breakdown Podcast. Every day, we take one chapter of the Bible, dig deeper, and discover that the more we dig, the more we find. You can find out more at the BibleBreakdown.com. Now let's grow in God's Word together. Well hello, everybody. Welcome back to the Bible Breakdown Podcast with your host, Pastor Brandon. Today, Acts chapter 21. And if I were to give this one a title, it would be God is with us when everything hits the fan. God is with us when everything hits the fan. As we've been journeying through this, we're really going to be focusing on Paul's journey to Rome. We're getting ready to go there, but he doesn't start there. He starts in going to Jerusalem and all kinds of bad things happening. But along the way, God is always with him. And I hope that really brings some comfort to us today. We're going to get into all that, of course, in just a moment. But as always, if you like what we're doing here, make sure you like, share, and subscribe to this on YouTube. If you're doing this on the podcast, you are my favorite. Make sure you are leaving us a five-star review because it really does help kind of get the get everything going and letting people know what we're doing and creating this community. Also, I'd love for you to go to our Facebook group. Man, there are some people over there doing some great work, giving some different perspectives on the Bible as we're reading it every single day. And I love that so much. And so I want you just to add to the conversation because I'm going to tell you, the more we dig, the more we find. And especially as it gets into this last section, because if you remember, this is written by a guy named Luke, who was a physician turned investigative journalist by a guy named Theopolis. And he his first work was the Gospel of Luke. And he is going through the countryside and he's validating this story about Jesus that he wasn't just a man, wasn't just a great teacher, he's a king of kings. And he writes that first gospel, and then he has the honor of being inspired by the Holy Spirit to then write the beginning of the early church. And as we've seen through this, he first talks about the church and he pivots and he's talking about Peter. Now he's pivoting and he's talking about Paul because he is leading the charge into spreading the gospel through the Gentile world. And when we get into this last part, we're really watching what happens as Paul, through a set of circumstances that on the outside looking in, look like terrible circumstances. Looks like everything's going wrong for Paul, unless you realize that God had called Paul to preach the gospel in Rome. And so all of these things are actually happening. So on the outside looking in, it's like, Paul, you've got the worst luck in the world. But if you realize what's happening, you go, Paul, you're right in the center of what God is doing. And oftentimes it's hard to tell which is which, which is why we have the title, God is with us, even when everything hits the fan. So what we want to do is we're going to read this together and just kind of put ourselves as someone who's walking alongside Paul as he's journeying to Jerusalem. And as he gets there, he's going to encounter the Jewish people that are not really friends of his anymore. Remember, they used to be like his friends. Like they did this thing called life together. They were against the way of Jesus. Now he is their enemy, and they've been waiting to get a hold of Paul. So let's read this together and let's see what the Lord will kind of reveal to us as we do. So if you got your Bibles open to uh your NLT Bibles to Acts chapter 21, got your coffee ready. Here we go, verse one. After saying farewell to the Ephesian elders, we sailed straight to the island of Kos. The next day we reached Rhodes and then went to Pantera. There we boarded a ship sailing for Phoenicia. We sighted the island of Cyprus and passed it on our left and landed at the harbor of Tyre in Syria, where the ship was to unload its cargo. Now, once again, Luke is just helping them get an idea of where they are. Verse 4 When we went ashore, we found local believers and stayed with them for a week. These believers prophesied through the Holy Spirit that Paul should not go on to Jerusalem. But when we returned to the ship at the end of the week, the entire congregation, including women and the children, left the city and came down to the shore with us. There we knelt and prayed and said our farewells, and we went aboard and they returned home. Now pause for a moment. Isn't that something else? That these people are warning Paul. Paul, don't go. And that's important to realize because many times when God calls us to do something, it's not always going to look like the easiest thing to do. There may even be well-meaning people that try to discourage us. And it's in those moments that we should always listen to the concerns of others, but always follow the word of God in our life. All right, verse 7. The next stop after leaving Tyre was Ptolemaeus, where we were greeting, where we greeted the brothers and the sisters and stayed for one day. The next day we went on to Caesarea and stayed at the home of Philip the Evangelist, one of the seven who had been chosen to distribute food. That's back at the first part of Acts. Verse 9, he had four unmarried daughters who had the gift of prophecy. Several days later, a man named Agabas, who has the also had the gift of prophecy, arrived in Judea. He came over, took Paul's belt, and bound his feet and his hands with it. And he said, The Holy Spirit declares, so shall the owner of this belt be bound by the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem and turned over to the Gentiles. When we heard this, the local believers all begged Paul not to go to Jerusalem. And he said, Why are you all weeping? This is breaking my heart. I am ready not only to be jailed at Jerusalem, but to even die for the sake of the Lord Jesus. And when it was clear that we couldn't persuade him, we gave up and said, The Lord's will be done. Now pause for a moment and realize, again, people are warning him. Nobody's saying here that it's not God's will for him to go. Do you notice that? Nobody's saying that it's not God's will for you to go to Jerusalem, Paul. They're saying if you go to Jerusalem, it's going to be hard. So we're asking you not to go. We got to make sure we understand that. They're saying, God's probably called you, but we don't want to see this bad thing happen. But even notice there at the last verse, Luke is saying, we tried to. So even Luke is saying, I tried to get him to not go. But man, Paul's saying, when God calls you to do something, you go do it. And so here they go. Well, verse 15, they make it. After we had packed our things and left for Jerusalem, some believers from Caesarea accompanied us and they took us to the home of Manson, Manason, excuse me, who was originally from Cyprus and one of the early believers. When we arrived, the brothers and sisters in Jerusalem welcomed us warmly. The next day, Paul went with us to meet James, and all the elders of Jerusalem were present. After greeting them, Paul gave a detailed account of these things that God had accomplished among the Gentiles through his ministry. After hearing this, they praised God, and they all said, You know, dear brother, how many thousands of Jews have also believed, and they all followed the law of Moses very seriously. But the Jewish believers here in Jerusalem have been told that you were teaching all the Jews to live among the Gentiles to turn their back on the laws of Moses. They've heard you preach them not to circumcise their children and to follow the other Jewish customs. What should we do? They are certainly here, they will certainly hear that you have come. Here's what I want you to do. We have four men here who have been completing a vow. Go with them to the temple and join them in the purification ceremony, paying for them to have their heads ritually shaved. Then everyone will know that the rumors are false and that you yourself observe the Jewish law. As for the Gentile believers, they should do what you've already told them in the letter. They should abstain from eating food offered to idols, from consuming blood, or the meat of strangled animals, and from sexual immorality. So, pause, what's going on here? There's a lot of Jewish Christians who were still grappling with the idea of what does it mean to be Jewish and to be Christian? How exactly does that work? And so, whereas they had no problem understanding that Gentile people didn't have to follow the customs of the law, they weren't sure how to do that as Jewish people because those customs really represented the covenant between God and the Jewish nation. And so they're having a hard time thinking that Paul was saying that they shouldn't follow any of the customs as Jewish people. Well, the thing is, they knew that Paul was doing no such thing. He wasn't telling the Jewish people not to be Jewish. But that's where they're saying, hey, if you go do these things, it'll help them realize that none of that's true, and we can keep on going. So they're trying to find a way to help Paul be able to kind of grapple with this. But watch what happens. Verse 26. So Paul went to the temple the next day with the other men. They had already started the purification ritual, so he publicly announced the date when their vows went in, and the sacrifices would be offered for each of each of them. We can see this in the book of Deuteronomy and the book of Leviticus. Verse 27. Seven days were almost ended when some of the Jews from the province of Asia saw Paul in the temple and roused a mob against him. They grabbed him, yelling, Men of Israel, help us. This is the man who preaches against our people everywhere, and tells everybody to disobey the Jewish laws. He speaks against the temple and even defiles this holy people by bringing in Gentiles. For earlier that day they had seen him in the city of Tremophilus, uh with Tremophilus, a Gentile from Ephesus. They assumed Paul had taken him into the temple. So once again, they don't have information, they have assumptions. Verse 30, the whole city was rocked by these accusations, and a great riot followed. Paul was grabbed and dragged out of the temple, and immediately the gates were closed behind him. As they were trying to kill him, word reached the commander of the Roman regiment that all Jerusalem was in an uproar. He immediately called out his soldiers and officers and ran down among the crowd. When the mob saw the commander and the troops coming, they stopped beating Paul. Thank goodness. Poor Pa you know, Paul is poor Paul. Everywhere he goes, he gets the mess beat out of him. He goes to Jerusalem and they beating the mess out of him. So here we go. Thank goodness for the Roman guy stopping him. Verse 33. Then the commander arrested him, and poor Paul. He stops getting beat to death so he can get arrested. Okay. The commander arrested him and ordered him bound with two chains. Poor Paul. He asked the crowd who was with him what had happened. So one shouted one thing and some another. Since he couldn't find out the truth and all the uproar and confusion, he ordered that Paul be taken to the fortress. As Paul reached the stairs, the mob grew so violent that the soldiers had to lift him to their shoulders to protect him. And the crowd followed behind, shouting, Kill him! Kill him. Alright, let's finish it up. Verse 37. As Paul was about to be taken inside, he said to the commander, May I have a word with you? Do you know Greek? The commander asked, surprised. And by the way, this is because he's living in a region where most likely their main language was Aramaic. And because he was Jewish, he would have known Hebrew. But Greek was the language of the Romans, and they were required to know just passable Greek, you know, just to kind of take instruction from the people who were in charge. But obviously Paul could speak Greek fluently. So do you speak Greek? Aren't you the Egyptian who led the rebellion a time ago took 4,000 members of the assassins out to the desert? And Paul's like, uh, no. I am a Jew, a citizen of Tarsus of Cilicia, and I, which is an important city. Please let me talk to these people. The commander agreed. So Paul stood on the stairs and motioned to the people to be quiet. Soon a deep silence enveloped the crowd, and he addressed them in their own language, Aramaic. So, what's about to happen is Paul's about to get his opportunity to talk to them. And what is amazing about this is all along the way, people are warning him not to not obey God, but just to remind him that obeying God is hard. I mean, they keep telling him, hey man, if you go to Jerusalem, it's gonna be hard. It's gonna be difficult, it's gonna, it's gonna be really, really difficult to do. But what Paul keeps telling them along the way, yeah, but that's where God's presence is. That's where God's called me. And if God has called me, I know that God will be with me even when it all goes south, even when everything hits the fan. And can I just be just encourage you? Sometimes God's presence is right in the middle of the storm. Sometimes storms come because we do bad things. We make mistakes, we we go down the wrong road and we have to suffer the consequences for our bad actions, right? Of course. Sometimes storms just come because the Bible says it rains on the just and the unjust alike. Sometimes storms come for no reason we can imagine. But even in that moment, the Bible says, Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will not be afraid. Why? Because you walk close beside me. Sometimes God's presence is not to the left, not to the right, but God's presence is straight through the middle. And that's exactly what Paul is saying, where these well-meaning people are like, man, Paul, you don't need to go. If you go, it's gonna be hard. I know. If you go, you're gonna be bound, I know. If you go, they may try to kill you. I know. Well then, Paul, why are you going? Because God's there. Because God has sent me there. And if he sends me there, he's also gonna sustain me there. So I want to encourage you. If you're in a situation where you realize that other than a complete divine miracle, God's not gonna get it get you out of the bad situation you're going through. Can I tell you? God doesn't have to deliver you in order to be with you. God doesn't have to get you out of a bad situation in order for you to experience Him. Because sometimes the greatest miracles happen right in the middle of the greatest difficulties. Can I pray for us? And I want to say our scripture, and then I want to challenge you with something brand new today that we're gonna start. But first, let me pray for us. Father, thank you so much that you are with us in every situation. God, I have no idea what may be happening in the life of the person who's listening to this right now, but I know that you do. And I know, God, that you are not intimidated, worried, or upset. Lord, you never once saw something that you didn't know what to do with. So I pray you will help us and encourage us to realize that because you are with us and for us, all things work together for good to those who love you and are called according to your purpose. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Don't forget, Jesus said in Acts 1, chapter 8, you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And then what will we do with it? We will be his witnesses to the ends of the earth. My prayer today is that you experience that power so that you can make a difference in your world. Now I want to do something. Starting today, I'm going to add some music at the end of this podcast. And here's the reason why. Maybe you're not like me, so maybe you don't need this. But if you're like me, sometimes I will read God's word and I and I really have something to think about. But then what happens is I turn this off and I go do whatever else I'm doing, and it just leaves. What I want to do is, if maybe this is your your Bible time when you listen to this or you you watch this, if you're watching on YouTube, I want to give you a moment and I just want to play some music. I'm gonna have a countdown on it. And before you get up, before you close your Bible, before you go anywhere else, I want you to take just a couple of minutes, and I just want you to think about what we have read today. If you're a journaler, maybe you want to journal out your soap. Soap is a Bible study method which stands for scripture, observation, application, and prayer. Maybe you want to take a moment and pull out the one verse that really stood out to you today. Write down the observation and what it meant to you today. Then application. What are you gonna do with God's word today and then a prayer of your own? Or maybe you just want to sit and just soak in what God is doing in your life. But either way, instead of rushing off to the next thing, I'm gonna add a few moments of music for you just to soak on and then soap on what's been happening. And if you don't want to do it, obviously you don't have to. But I just want to give you a moment. I'm gonna turn the music on and just see if the Lord will speak to you in this time. Okay. Hope you have a good thing.