Christ's command to his followers before his ascension to heaven was for them to be his witnesses in Jerusalem, all Judea, in Samaria, and to the uttermost part of the earth.

Our Lord did not intend for the good news of his death and resurrection to stay local, but

instead it was to be taken globally.

In this third section of Acts, the adventure continues as the gospel is taken to the ends

of the earth. Let's join Scott Pauley now for today's study.

Just because you're a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ and serving God does not mean that all of life is going to be pleasant. In fact, when you're really

right with the Lord and moving forward for the Lord and being used to the Lord, it makes you a target

for the enemy. It brings you into spiritual warfare. And frankly, just the fact that we are human beings

living in fallen bodies on a fallen planet

surrounded by other fallen people means we're going to have difficulty to deal with.

Christians are not immune to trouble.

When you come to Acts chapter number 21, we find Paul and his missionary team enjoying a wonderful visit with

Philip the Evangelist and his four daughters in a beautiful place, Cessaria by the sea. Those must

have been wonderful days. And right in the middle of that setting, right in the middle of that

season of reprieve, it would seem, bad news arrives. Acts chapter

number 21 and verse number 10 says, and as we tarried there many days, there came down from

Judea a certain prophet named Agabus, and when he was come unto us, he took Paul's girdle and

bound his own hands and feet and said,

Thus saith the Holy Ghost, so shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man that

oneth this girdle and shall deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.

And when we heard these things, both we and they of that place besought him not to go up to Jerusalem.

So here's a man in a safe place, surrounded by friends, loved by so many, and yet the message comes that if he proceeds on his journey to Jerusalem, he's going to be arrested there.

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