Acts 21: Bearing Fruit Where Life Is Hard

Introduction

"He called the name of the second, Ephraim: 'For God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction.'" This verse, Genesis 41:52, opened the October 11, 2026 service at Tokyo Grace Evangelical Church. It sets the thread for the whole message: God speaks to us in the land of affliction, and he does it to make us fruitful.

The main text is Acts 21:1-6. Paul and his companions sail from Cos to Rhodes, then to Patara, pass by Cyprus and land at Tyre. There they find disciples and stay with them seven days. Then everyone, women and children included, escorts them out of the city, and they kneel and pray on the beach.

Pastor Ishizaka frames his sermon as a question: in this place, what have you found? For him, the problem is not the environment. It is you. Where you have been placed, even if it is hard, you can grow and bear fruit.

Outline of the Message

1. Tyre, a City Where Living Out Your Faith Is Hard

Tyre lay in the land of Canaan. God had told Abraham to go to that land and possess it, a land "flowing with milk and honey," a kind of ideal country.
After leaving Egypt and walking forty years, Israel entered it and found enemies: many warlike peoples, idolatry and even human sacrifice. The pastor reports that an archaeologist found there many bones of small children offered in sacrifice.
The people are bewildered: why did God bring us into a land like this? The answer is the theme of the day: to make Israel fruitful. Not to live an easy life, but to bear much fruit. God deliberately chose a place full of enemies and temptations.
Later, Tyre mingled with the Greeks. Immorality and idolatry ruled there. For those who believed in Jesus, it was a place of temptation and resistance.

2. Paul Looks for the Disciples, Not an Easy Place

When he arrives in Tyre, the first thing Paul does is look for the disciples. A disciple does not have a crowd's faith: he does not give way before any difficulty and keeps going every day, faithfully, in a city where life is hard.
These disciples had grown a great deal, "because they had so many enemies." They kept turning to Jesus to be kept by him. Someone surrounded by bad company often ends up looking to them and forgetting Jesus.
Tyre was a port where sailors, after long crossings of the Mediterranean, came to have a good time. No one would have imagined finding disciples there. Yet they did not treat their enemies as enemies: they loved them, blessed them and lived a communion full of love.
The pastor asks: in this place where bad habits come easily, in this fallen place, what do you find? He answers: "In this place, you can grow."
We often think the answer is simply to run away. He points to Jesus, who goes up to the lepers, kept at a distance, even though people told him not to go. He lays his hand on them and heals them. The disease does not pass from the sick person to Jesus: it is the life of Jesus that passes into him.
"You are not the one being poisoned by their poison. You are the one who, by the power of the Holy Spirit, purifies them." Since Acts 2, the Spirit has been pushing believers to enter the city and win it for Jesus.

3. Growing First in the Church

The pastor warns young people: "Do not do more than you can bear." This is not about canceling tomorrow's barbecue to go make the rounds of the bars in Kabukichō. "Grow a little first, train here."
He recalls the Spirit's revival at Azusa Street in Los Angeles: according to his account, young believers marched with a banner reading "Jesus is our Savior" and went into bars to talk about Jesus. Far from disappearing, the movement grew.
He connects it to the Jesus Movement: according to him, many hippies, young people damaged by LSD, came to follow Jesus, and that is where Calvary Chapel was born, which later planted many churches around the world.
"The worse the city, the more Christians grow." But he adds right away: do not move on purpose. He himself grew up playing in Kabukichō from kindergarten on. That is not the case for everyone.
Some find church leaders too strict. "Sometimes it is probably too strict." Someone who has been hurt can rest for a while. But if you are wounded in the church, how will you hold on in Kabukichō? Only someone who can say "whatever anyone tells me, I will follow Jesus" can go somewhere.
In Japan, they say, out of ten people baptized, five disappear within the year. The pastor was baptized at the same time as five other people: only two are still there.
God wants to make you someone who has a family full of love, a pure life, and who can comfort many people. For that, what place does he choose? Tyre. The place where you have been put, however hard, is where God put you to show the powerful fruit of Jesus.

4. Nazareth: Do Not Judge by Reputation

Jesus was born in Bethlehem and grew up in Nazareth, where he lived until he was thirty before announcing the gospel. Yet Nazareth had a bad reputation, to the point that people ruled out in advance the idea that a Messiah could come from there.
When Philip tells his friend Nathanael about Jesus, Nathanael answers with a stock phrase: "Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?" Philip answers him wisely: "Come and see."
Nathanael goes to check. Jesus knows everything about him, his secret, what he could not have known. Nathanael recognizes in Jesus his Savior.
Many stumble at the same spot: "What good can come out of the church?" The pastor asks them whether they have checked. To those who come to see him, he recommends the big library right across the street: as far as he knows, no one has gone in. "They decide everything on rumor." Few people make the decision after meeting Jesus for themselves.
Bearing fruit is not listening to what your friends say. Whatever the world says, you can read the Bible, open the documents, look at the evidence and be convinced.
He tells his own story: until his last year of high school, he was a troublemaker. When his pastor suggested he believe in Jesus, he would answer with a sneer: "If they find Noah's ark, I'll believe." A few years later, he says, it was announced that it had been found; fragments were analyzed and displayed in museums, and he saw one. That shook him, and he began to look at things seriously.

5. David, the Samaritan Woman and the Family: God Looks at the Heart

Samuel, disappointed by Saul, goes to Jesse to anoint a new king. He first sees Eliab, the most handsome, and thinks: this is the one. But God tells him: "for man looks at the outward appearance, but Yahweh looks at the heart."
All the sons pass by and are set aside. One remains, the youngest, the one nobody counted on, left to tend the sheep. His father had already put him out of sight. This is David, whom Samuel anoints as king.
"Without God's wisdom and love, we often choose the wrong person." Without the faith of the gospel, in a society marked by sin, we cannot see those who are ready to come to Jesus.
Jesus also went on purpose to Samaria, a city where Israelites never went, and there met a woman whose married life was completely in disorder. He led her to the Lord.
"The problem is not the environment. It is you." There are places you can flee, and others you cannot: the family. "A child cannot ask for a divorce." It is there that we learn to love Jesus and our neighbor, to forgive and to serve. "At first it was hard for me too," the pastor admits, before learning it little by little.

6. Joseph: Fruitful in the Land of His Affliction

The opening verse comes from Joseph. Betrayed by his brothers, sold as a slave in Egypt, deceived again and again, he never blamed the Lord. In prison as elsewhere, he looked to God and obeyed his word.
His faithfulness was noticed. When Pharaoh is troubled by dreams, the man Joseph had helped in prison remembers him. Joseph announces seven years of abundance followed by seven years of famine and advises storing up grain.
Pharaoh trusts him and raises him to second place in the kingdom. For Joseph, Egypt was the worst place, the place of betrayal. Yet he did not hold a grudge against people: he served God.
And he could say: in this land where I suffered so much, God has made me fruitful.

7. The Canaanite Woman: "Yes, Lord"

A mother begs Jesus to drive out the demon tormenting her child. She follows him, crying out. "But he answered her not a word." The pastor finds this detail very true to life: we would have liked to read that Jesus healed the child right away. This woman came precisely from the region of Tyre.
The disciples are annoyed: send her away. Jesus tells her in essence that the time has not come, that he must first lead Israel. She does not get angry: "Yes, Lord. But even the dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their masters' table."
She could have said: you preach love, you heal everyone, and you refuse to heal my child? "Firing off a last retort and leaving is what people usually do." She kept asking, out of love for her child.
Jesus sees this humility and wisdom, and tells her to go home: her child is healed. "We often get angry too quickly, and we waste wonderful opportunities." Venting may bring relief, but you do not receive what you were asking for.
She knew Jesus. "Those who do not know him complain." Her conviction that the Lord is good never wavered. Someone who thinks it wise to point out the other person's mistakes rarely gets what he wants. It was the wisdom born of humility that touched Jesus.
The path is simple: "The Lord is good." Before saying this or that, say: "Yes, Lord, you are good," even when he seems not to answer your prayer. Praise him in the land of affliction, like Paul who praised God in prison, again and again.
The pastor concludes with Philippians 4:11-13, written in prison: "I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content in it. [...] I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me." He makes clear: you are not the strong one, it is the Lord's grace that strengthens you. So do not speak ill of the Lord, and become fruitful in the city where you live.

Key Takeaways

God sometimes chooses a hard place, like Canaan or Tyre, not to make your life easy but to make you fruitful.
You are not called to run away or to be contaminated: by the Spirit, it is the life of Jesus that passes from you to others. But start by being trained in the church.
Do not judge people or the gospel by reputation: "Come and see." God looks at the heart.
Like Joseph, you can serve faithfully without blaming God in the place where you were hurt.
The Canaanite woman's humility opens the way: "Yes, Lord, you are good." I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

Personal Reflection

What is your "Tyre" today: your work, your neighborhood, your family? What does God want you to find there?
In that place, are you looking toward Jesus or toward those who pull you away from him?
Do you ever get discouraged, or leave, as soon as a word hurts you in the church? What would help you hold on?
Is there a person or a subject you have rejected on reputation alone, without going to see for yourself?
When God seems silent, what is your first reaction: anger, or "Yes, Lord, you are good"?

Verses Cited

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does Paul look for the disciples in Tyre in Acts 21?

Tyre was a port city full of temptation, idolatry and hostility toward believers. According to Pastor Ishizaka, Paul wanted to meet these disciples precisely because they had kept their faith in such a hard place. There he found a church full of love.

What does "God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction" mean?

These are Joseph's words in Genesis 41:52, at the birth of his son Ephraim. Betrayed by his brothers, sold, imprisoned, Joseph never blamed God. He served faithfully, and God raised him up in Egypt. The preacher sees in this a promise: where you suffer, God can make you fruitful.

What does the Canaanite woman teach us about prayer?

Faced with Jesus' apparent silence, she did not get angry. She answered: "Yes, Lord," and asked for the crumbs. Pastor Ishizaka sees in this a wisdom born of humility and a firm trust that the Lord is good. That is the attitude that touched Jesus.