For most of my preaching career I have been the one choosing the passages and books I have been preaching on.
It is possible that this has led me to stay within certain “comfort zones”. Many preachers have a functional canon within a canon. The natural habitat for some preachers is the letters (particularly the letters of Paul), while others find the Gospels the place where they naturally land as a preacher.
Recently I did a training event for a church preparing to preach on the Book of Acts, and subsequently I have been asked to preach two sermons in their series on Acts.
The first sermon I was assigned was Acts 21:1–26. When I began to prepare the sermon, I realised that my own preaching series on Acts stopped at the end of Chapter 20 and never took off again. I do have one-off sermons on chapters 21–28 but nothing on Chapter 21. Perhaps it is because it is quite a difficult passage to navigate. I cannot remember why I didn’t take up the Acts series, but maybe it was because I didn’t fancy dealing with chapter 21.
Well, I have done so now. What did I find?
It is full of references to the Spirit.
Reading this section is like entering into a strange world. It talks of disciples speaking through the Spirit (4), the four daughters of Philip, who prophesied (9) and Agabus the prophet (10–11) saying, “The Holy Spirit says …” For many in the conservative world this pitches us into an unfamiliar world.
Christians differ as to whether this type of activity has continued or ceased in the aftermath of the last of the Apostles and the completion of the canon of Scripture.
Yet a couple of texts might suggest that “small p” prophecy has a longer shelf life that some have suggested.
In the Old Testament Moses, responding to the complaint that two men who were not part of a specially chosen group of seventy leaders, were prophesying, said,
“I wish that all the Lord’s people were prophets and that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!” (Numbers 11:29).
Peter on the day of Pentecost quotes the prophet Joel:
“In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.” (Acts 2: 17–18)
The odd thing is that those around Paul warn him by the Spirit that he should avoid Jerusalem, when Paul himself had said that the Spirit had told him to go (Acts 20:22–24).
John Stott suggests, “The warning was divine while the urging was human”.
This was Paul’s “Gethsemane moment”. Like Jesus, he is presented with the painful prospect of what awaits him in Jerusalem and the human shrinking from that pain.
Preachers need to help us be open to a variety of voices within the church which can help us to sense the mind of God, before settling on what was the ultimate arbitration for Jesus and Paul:
“The Lord’s will be done.” (Acts 21:14)
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