Good
morning. Paul and crew looked up the disciples and stayed there seven days.
They kept telling Paul through the Spirit not to set foot in Jerusalem. This is
the only place I can find that it seems like God was telling Paul not to go to
Jerusalem; the other places seem to be peoples’ personal feelings. But then
later Jesus speaks to Paul and seems to say he was supposed to go to Jerusalem.
My Bible says that the total now is 36 days since Passover. They continued on
in the boat and came to Caesarea. They entered the house of Philip the
evangelist. He is the one who spoke to the Ethiopian Eunuch and then vanished.
The last we saw of him, he was in Caesarea; so apparently he stayed there all
these years. He was one of the seven original deacons, and is now known as an
evangelist. He had four daughters who were prophetesses. As we were staying
there for some days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. He is the
same one who had foretold the coming of a famine. He took Paul’s belt and bound
his own feet and hands, and said, this is what the Holy Spirit says: in this
same way the Jews at Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and deliver
him into the hands of the Gentiles. As a note: the Holy Spirit did not tell
Paul not go to Jerusalem; He just told him that this is what will happen if he
does. When we heard this, we as well as the local residents began begging him
not to go up to Jerusalem. The “we“ indicates that even Luke was urging him not
to go. Before, it was just the people in the localities where they had stopped.
I assume that it was the fact that it came through Agabus that drove home the
reality that this would happen. Next time we will see how Paul responded.
Father thank You that You even give us warning at times of what is to come, so
that we will not be surprised. Help us to listen for and to heed Your warnings.
Unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God
Good morning. While Jesus was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name, observing His signs which He was doing. Jesus was not entrusting Himself to them, for He knew all men. Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. It doesn’t say, but I assume it is still during this time of the Passover. This man came to Jesus by night. Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do the signs that You do unless God is with him. It just said that the people believed in His name because of the signs He was doing; yet it does not say what those signs were. Unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God. That is why unbelievers cannot tell what is of the kingdom of God and what is not – they’re not born again. Nicodemus doesn’t have a clue. How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he? Unless one is born of water and the Spirit ...
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