Acts 21

STUDY TWENTY-SIX: ACTS 21

In Acts 21 to 23, Luke records Paul’s journey to Jerusalem and tells us in some detail what happened to him there.

A. THE JOURNEY TO JERUSALEM

We have already seen how Paul felt compelled to go to Jerusalem, despite the repeated warnings he received about what would happen there if he went. Go back to section B.3 in the previous study for a discussion of the difficulties involved in this.

Read 21:1 – 16. Answer these questions:
What did Paul and his companions do when their ship arrived in Tyre?

What did the disciples there keep telling Paul?

Why did they do that?

Where did they stay in Caesarea?

What do you remember about this man? (See Acts 6:1 – 5 and 8:4 – 40)

Philip’s daughters ‘prophesied’. Read 1Corinthians 14:4 Ephesians 4:11 – 15 to learn the outcomes of the ministry of ‘prophets’ (and others).

How did Paul’s companions respond to Agabus’ actions and words?

What do you think Paul meant When he said ‘You are breaking my heart …’?

How did he express his commitment to Jesus Christ?

What is the worst thing you have had to suffer because of your allegiance to Jesus Christ?

Describe your personal allegiance to ‘the name of the Lord Jesus’:

Read verses 14 and 15. How is this situation similar to …
Peter and Jesus in Matthew 16:21 – 23?

That of Jesus and his disciples in John 10:31, 39 – 42; 11:16?

Leaving aside the difficulties in the seeming conflict between what the Holy Spirit was saying and what Paul was determined to do, we can see the depth of Paul’s allegiance to Jesus Christ. Even having been repeatedly warned of what would happen, he would not be turned aside from what he understood to be God’s will.

A.1 Think about what Paul said

‘Why are you weeping and breaking my heart?’

Their persistent efforts to dissuade him actually made it more difficult for him. He had already said ‘I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there’ (20:22), and we know that he was a timid person (see 1Corinthians 2:3; Ephesians 6:19, 20). What Paul was committed to, believing it was the will of God, was not easy for him.

Albert Barnes comments: ‘Tears may be inevitable at parting from those whom we love. But such expressions of love ought not to be allowed to interfere with the convictions of duty in their minds. If they have made up their minds that a certain course is proper, and have resolved to pursue it, we ought neither to attempt to divert them from it, nor to distract their minds by our remonstrances or our tears. We should resign them to their convictions of what is demanded of them with affection and prayer, but with cheerfulness. We should lend them all the aid in our power, and then commend them to the blessing and protection of God. These remarks apply especially to those who are engaged in the missionary enterprise.’ Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible, Public Domain.

Matthew Henry comments: ‘It was a trouble to him that they should so earnestly press him to that in which he could not gratify them without wronging his conscience. Paul was of a very tender spirit. As he was much in tears himself, so he had a compassionate regard to the tears of his friends; they made a great impression upon him, and would bring him almost to yield to any thing. But now it breaks his heart, when he is under a necessity of denying the request of his weeping friends. It was an unkind kindness, a cruel pity, thus to torment him with their dissuasions, and to add affliction to his grief.’ Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, Public Domain.

‘I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.’

How is this deep commitment to Jesus in keeping with these verses?
About Paul in particular?
Acts 9:16

About believers generally?
Matthew 5:11

Luke 9:23 – 26

Jerusalem the centre of the Jewish religion, whose leadership was adamantly opposed to the name of Jesus Christ; it was also the homebase of Jewish believers in Christ who had not understood or accept that Jesus Christ was the real meaning of all the Jewish rites, and were therefore unable to accept Gentile believers who did not observe those laws which were mandatory for Jews. It was in Jerusalem that the opposition to the gospel had started, and it had disturbed his ministry regardless of where he was. And now he was heading directly and determinedly into the very eye of the storm.

In section B.1 of the previous study there is a list of the attacks of the Jews against Paul and his ministry, the most recent just a few weeks previously in Greece (Acts 20:3). Perhaps Paul believed that he must face their opposition head on, right at its centre. Perhaps, given his strong desire for their conversion, he hoped that he could convince them of the truth about Jesus Christ. As we read through Luke’s reports of what happened, it is obvious that Paul grabbed hold of every opportunity to somehow try do just that.

B. WHAT HAPPENED WHEN PAUL ARRIVED - 21:17 – 26

The very next day after arriving in Jerusalem, Paul and his companions went to see James and the other leaders of the church in Jerusalem. A number of things of significance happened at that meeting:

[1] Paul gave a detailed report of his ministry among the Gentiles – 21:19 – 20a. This was well-received, and the Jerusalem leaders praised God for it.

[2] James and the elders told Paul that ‘many thousands of Jews’ had believed, and that they were all ‘zealous for the law’ – verse 20b. But that was not all James had to say about these Jewish believers in Christ.

Read verses 21, 22. What had these Jewish believers been told about Paul?

It seems that James and the elders were quite concerned about what would happen when these people found out that Paul was in Jerusalem, and particularly if he went into the Temple.

[3] James and the elders knew that the reports that people had heard were misinformation (see verse 24b), so they suggested a plan to prove it – verses 23, 24. Their plan was all about Jewish purification rites, which four other men were engaged in, and which James etc suggested Paul should join. This would demonstrate his obedience to the law. It is thought that the purification these four men were pursuing was some form of a Nazarite vow. You can read about that in Numbers 6:1 – 21.

M.R.Vincent comments about what James asked Paul to do:

‘Lit., spend upon them. Pay the necessary charges on their account. Hence … “for them.” The person who thus paid the expenses of poor devotees who could not afford the necessary charges shared the vow so far that he was required to stay with the Nazarites until the time of the vow had expired. “For a week, then, St. Paul, if he accepted the advice of James and the presbyters, would have to live with four paupers in the chamber of the temple which was set apart for this purpose; and then to pay for sixteen sacrificial animals and the accompanying meat-offerings” (Farrar, “Life and Work of Paul”). He must also stand among the Nazarites during the offering of the sacrifices, and look on while their heads were shaved, and while they took their hair to burn it under the caldron of the peace-offerings, “and while the priest took four sodden shoulders of rams, and four unleavened cakes out of the four baskets, and four unleavened wafers anointed with oils and put them on the hands of the Nazarites, and waved them for a wave-offering before the Lord” (Farrar)’ R.M. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament, Public Domain.

[4] James and the elders confirmed the letter sent out to Gentile believers by the Jerusalem council – verse 25, Acts 15.
In verse 26 Luke reports that Paul did just what James etc advised.

C. THE ATTACK – 21:27 – 36

The period of purification was almost over, when the attack occurred. Paul’s participation in the purification rites had been aimed at keeping the believing Jews in Jerusalem onside, but the Jews involved in this attack were ‘Jews from the province of Asia’, and that is where Paul had been teaching for three years. (Remember that Luke told us that ‘all the Jews and Greeks wo lived in the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord’ – Acts 19:10.)

Read 21:27 – 32. Answer these questions:
Who started the trouble? – verse 27.

What did they do? – verse 27b.

What accusations did they bring against Paul? – verse 28.

What had they assumed? – verse 29.

How widespread was the riot? – verse 30.

What did they do to Paul? – verse 30.

What did they try to do? – verse 31.

Why did the uproar stop? – verse 31, 32.

What had the crowd already done to Paul? – verse 32.

What did the commander do to Paul? – verse 33.

What confused the commander? – verse 34.

Describe the attitude and intentions of the crowd – verse 35, 36.

D. PAUL’S RESILIENCE – 21:37 – 40

Paul had been travelling and meeting with believers non-stop for almost seven weeks. He had left Greece after the Feast of Unleavened Bread with the goal of arriving in Jerusalem for the Day of Pentecost, fifty-days later. It had been an emotional trip, saying a tearful goodbye in various places, especially to the Ephesian elders. With deep grief he had warned them against the corruptions of the gospel that would arise in their church. His grief had been intensified by the failure of believers in every place, including his ministry associates, to identify with his compulsion to go to Jerusalem, and by their persistent efforts to dissuade him from doing what he felt God wanted him to do.

Now, having complied with the suggestions of James and the elders in Jerusalem, and engaged in the required seven days, which most likely included an amount of fasting, Paul has just been beaten and set upon so violently that he had to be carried by the soldiers.

Yet still he wanted to talk not only to the commander, but to the crowd. Physically and emotionally, he ought at this point to have had no strength left. But such was his commitment to the true gospel, such was his desire that his fellow-Jews be saved, and such was the all-sufficient power of God, that he was able to do so.

Reflective question:
What is your personal response to the level of commitment evident in Paul?

At what point does the presence of difficulties make you feel like giving in and giving up?