What Did Paul Mean By: 'Bound In The Spirit?'

Tom

:This is our Understanding the Scriptures segment, we’re in the Book of Acts Chapter 20.Dave, we’ll pick right up with verse 21:“Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.”Important verse, Dave, repentance toward God.If we don’t know Him, we are definitely of our own mind, and we are in rebellion against God, so we need to turn, we need to turn back to God.

Dave:

Well, you mean people need to repent? You mean they haven’t been doing what God wants them to do, they haven’t been obeying the conscience, and following the Ten Commandments?Tom, you’re so negative!

Tom:

Well, Dave, I observe things.I get up in the morning sometimes, I look in the mirror and I see the problem, right in front of me.

Dave:

Well, he says, “I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you.”I just want to go back over that for a minute.Tom, we’ve got a lot of preachers, a lot of pastors who are keeping back what is needed.Paul wrote to Timothy, 2 Timothy chapter 3, beginning in verse 16:“All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable (or to be used) for doctrine, (well, doctrine isn’t popular today) reproof, for correction”— (who wants that?Tell me, where do you hear that on television or radio, from your church?) for instruction in righteousness:”So Paul says, I didn’t hold back anything from the Word of God, and he’s talking about the Old Testament now, that you needed.I didn’t just butter you up, I didn’t just give you a positive stuff, but I gave it to you like it is.I gave it to you as God has given it in His Word through holy men of God who spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.And he says, I taught you publicly, I showed it, I demonstrated it, taught you publicly from house to house testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks.Now we’ve got a problem today in the church.There’s at least one well-known televangelist today, one of the most popular, who said, “No, the Jews, they don’t need the gospel, they have a different covenant.”

Tom:

Dual salvation.

Dave:

Right, but Paul says in Romans:1:16For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
See All...—I mean, the Bible is so wonderful, Tom, you can’t go astray, just follow the Bible.What does Paul say:“I’m not ashamed of the gospel of Christ:for it is the power of God unto salvation—(Woops!)—to the Jew first—(he says) and also to the Greek.”

Tom:

Meaning non-Jew.

Dave:

Right, and they’re saying that the gospel is not for the Jews?Paul says they get it first!And every city he went to, he went into the synagogue first—what the Book of Acts has been telling us.

Tom:

The Bereans, Dave, they were not Christians, that those that Paul showed up said, Hey, you’re preaching to the choir here.No, they listened to what he had to say, but then they searched the scripture daily.

Dave:

He took it to the Jews first in Berea, and then to the Greeks.

Tom:

I heard you’re going to Berea, is that the case?

Dave:

Yeah, by God’s grace I hope to be there in the next couple of weeks.I’m going to Albania and Macedonia, God willing yes, and the Lord spares me, and it all works out. I have, I think, the opportunity to speak, I think, fifteen times here and there.He says, Testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks repentance towards God, because God is the Creator of the universe and we have thumbed our noses at Him.Just to put it bluntly! We have defied God, and the world, going back to another subject, but the world leaders, including President Bush and the UN, they are defying God when it comes to Israel. Because God had made promises in His Word about Israel, and they are undoing God’s promises.So we need to repent toward God because we have broken His laws, and then face toward our Lord Jesus Christ because He’s the One who died for our sins.It didn’t do any good to tell God you’re sorry if He doesn’t have a just way of forgiving you. And the only just way is because the penalty was paid.And if we receive Christ as our Savior and Lord, we believe that He took our place, I believe when He stood in my place He was punished for my sins, and I believe He was punished justly.That’s what I deserve is what Christ endured on the cross.So, repentance toward God, faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ, they go together.

Tom:

Verse 22:“Andnow, behold, I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there.”Dave, what does it mean, “bound in the Spirit”?

Dave:

Well, on other occasions he called himself a prisoner of Jesus Christ, although the Romans were imprisoning him.Well, but he was a prison of Christ because he got into this by submitting to the Lord’s will, and he’s going to be true to the Lord.Tom, reminds me of a story, a true story of a prisoner—I don’t think we mentioned it on this program—in Soviet prison.Now this is really bad.He became a Christian through Christian radio being beamed in to the Soviet Union.

Tom:

Thanks to a friend of yours, and the grace of God.

Dave:

That’s right, and there was such a transformation in his life.They were going to let him out nine years early.Now, boy, you get out of a place that—it’s horrible what you’re getting there—he refused!He said, I got saved in this prison, God has put me here and I’m not going to leave because there are prisoners here that would never hear the gospel unless I’m here to tell them. I can’t tell them from outside.Now, that’s being bound in the spirit.Paul said, I go bound in the spirit, knowing what—look what he says:Knowing the things that shall befall me there.I know they are going to try to kill me, they’re going to beat me.Why would I do this?Why not get back in the rocking chair and take it easy?Because the issue is the eternal destiny of souls, and I have the message of salvation, and I’m constrained by the love of God, and I’m told by the Lord to bring this message to everyone who will hear it.We can’t force it on anyone, but that’s what we’re trying to do on this program, Tom.

Tom:

Dave, let me add to that. I sometimes—it takes my breath away when I hear about missions groups that are preaching and teaching and discipling and raising up those in a country, indigenous people to go out and present the gospel.You hear it from time to time, they’ll go into villages and they’ll get beat up, and they’re wounds are healed, you know, and they come out and take some time, and then they go back!It’s so hard for me to fathom that.I’m thankful to God for His grace and His mercy, but I just stand in awe of young people like that, or even older people.

Dave:

Well, they’re following the Lord.Jesus said, Follow Me.And you think about it, He knew from all eternity, and He is eternal, what He was going to face on this earth, and still He came.So, the next verse says:“Save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me.”This is what the prophets of God are telling me.You’re going to be bound, you’re going to be beaten and afflicted.

Tom:

And Dave, we haven’t gotten there yet, but there are little controversy comes up about this because later some people get the impression that Paul was going but the Holy Spirit was trying to restrain him.

Dave:

Yeah, I don’t think so, and Tom, do we have time for verse 24?

Tom:

Sure, verse 24:“But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.”

Dave:

It’s a wonderful gospel, Tom.God is gracious and merciful, and He forgives us but it’s only because of Christ because He paid the penalty.Yeah, Paul is a great inspiration.You said, I don’t understand how he can do it.Well, he tells you, I want to finish my course with joy, I want to hear the Lord say, Well done, my good and faithful servant.I tell you, that’s worth everything.