On the way to Jerusalem, Paul and his companions keep meeting people who warn them of what awaits the apostle. Some of his companions and people he meets along the way urge him not to go to Jerusalem...
On the way to Jerusalem, Paul and his companions keep meeting people who warn them of what awaits the apostle. Some of his companions and people he meets along the way urge him not to go to Jerusalem. In human terms, their concern is understandable: no one is asking him to renounce Christ or even to give up his apostleship. He could, after all, continue preaching in the cities of Asia Minor or other provinces of the far from small Roman Empire.
Why go precisely where the danger is not merely real, but clearly unavoidable? All this would make sense if someone entrusted with God's service could choose their own path. But the point is that God's servant has no such choice. More precisely, they gave it up themselves when they chose the path of serving God. It does not matter what particular ministry a person has. Once they accept the ministry God entrusts to them, they no longer belong to themselves. Paul, too, no longer belonged to himself and could no longer choose where to preach. At first sight, such a position may seem to be a complete absence of freedom.
It would seem that God's servant must give up freedom. In reality, however, things are not so simple or unambiguous. Having given themselves to God, a person can thereafter be at peace about their fate. From that moment on, there is no longer any need to think about what will happen to you next. You can concentrate entirely on what needs to be done and not think about the rest. You need not think about your own life and death: if your life no longer belongs to you, why worry about what is not yours to decide anyway? Yet, if we think about it, all of us Christians are in this position. We do not belong to ourselves.
Of course, when it comes to life and death, this is true of every person, whatever they believe and however they live. The only question is how fully a person realizes this: whether they live with their eyes open or squeeze them shut and bury their head in the sand. We must admit that today the overwhelming majority live with their eyes shut: they do everything they can to forget their own mortality and are shocked when they come face to face with death.
But even when this is not the case, many still think that a person has some power over their own life and death. Only awareness of the reality of God's presence, of the reality of the Kingdom, frees us from the illusion of such power. The clearer and fuller that awareness, the less desire there is to direct one's life oneself, and the fewer illusions about the possibilities of doing so. Paul, for whom the Kingdom is an absolute reality, has no such illusions at all. He knows he will go where his earthly journey must end—first to Jerusalem, then to Rome. He also knows that this path is not only the sole possible one for him, but the best: the path God has chosen for him.
21
21:1 And when we were torn away from the in - Not without doing violence both to ourselves and them.
21:3 We landed at Tyre - That there should be Christians there was foretold, Psa 87:4. What we read in that psalm of the Philistines and Ethiopians also may be compared with Act 8:40; Act 27:4.
21:4 And finding disciples, we tarried there seven days - ln order to spend a Sabbath with them. Who told Paul by the Spirit - That afflictions awaited him at Jerusalem. This was properly what they said by the Spirit. They themselves advised him not to go up. The disciples seemed to understand their prophetic impulse to be an intimation from the Spirit, that Paul, if he were so minded, might avoid the danger, by not going to Jerusalem.
21:7 Having finished our voyage - From Macedonia, Act 20:6,we came to Ptolemais - A celebrated city on the sea coast, anciently called Accos. It is now, like many other once noble cities, only a heap of ruins.
21:8 We came to Cesarea - So called from a stately temple which Herod the Great dedicated there to Augustus Cesar. It was the place where the Roman governor of Judea generally resided and kept his court. The evangelist, who was one of the seven deacons - An evangelist is a preacher of the Gospel to those who had never heard it, as Philip had done to the Samaritans, to the Ethiopian eunuch, and to all the towns from Azotus to Cesarea, Act 8:5, Act 8:26, Act 8:40. It is not unlikely he spent the followingyears preaching in Tyre and Sidon, and the other heathen cities in the neighbourhood of Galilee, his house being at Cesarea, a convenient situation for that purpose. We abode with him - We lodged at his house during our stay at Cesarea.
21:10 A certain prophet came - The nearer the event was, the more express were the predictions which prepared Paul for it.
21:11 Binding his own feet and hands - In the manner that malefactors were wont to be bound when apprehended. So shall the Jews bind the man whose girdle this is - St. Paul's bonds were first particularly foretold at Cesarea, to which he afterward came in bonds, Act 23:33.
21:12 Both we, (his fellow travellers,) and they of the place, besought him not to go up to Jerusalem - St. Paul knew that this prediction had the force of a command. They did not know this.
21:13 Breaking my heart - For the apostles themselves were not void of human affections. I am ready not only to be bound, but to die - And to him that is ready for it, the burden is light.
21:14 And when he would not be persuaded - This was not obstinacy, but true Christian resolution. We should never be persuaded, either to do evil, or to omit doing any good which is in our power; saying, the will of the Lord be done - Which they were satisfied Paul knew.
21:15 We took up our carriages - Our baggage; which probably went by sea before. What they took with them now in particular was the alms they were carrying to Jerusalem, Act 24:17.
21:16 The disciples brought us to one Mnason, a Cyprian, an old disciple - He was a native of Cyprus, but an inhabitant of Jerusalem, and probably one of the first converts there.
21:18 Paul went in with us - That it might appear we are all of one mind, to James - Commonly called the Lord's brother; the only apostle then presiding over the Churches in Judea.
21:20 They are all zealous for the law - For the whole Mosaic dispensation. How astonishing is this! Did none of the apostles, beside St. Paul, know that this dispensation was now abolished? And if they did both know and testify this, how came their hearers not to believe them?
21:21 They have been informed concerning thee, that thou teachest the Jews - not to circumcise their children, nor to walk after the customs - Of the Mosaic law. And so undoubtedly he did. And so he wrote to all the Churches in Galatia, among whom were many Jews.Yea, and James himself had long before assented to Peter, affirming before all the apostles and all the brethren, Act 15:10, That this very law was a yoke which (said he)neither our fathers nor we were able to bear - Amazing! that they did not know this! Or, that if they did, they did not openly testify it at all hazards, to every Jewish convert in Jerusalem!
21:22 What is it therefore - What is to be done? The multitude must needs come together - They will certainly gather together in a tumultuous manner, unless they be some way pacified.
21:23 Therefore - To obviate their prejudice against thee: do this that we say to thee - Doubtless they meant this advice well: but could Paul follow it in godly sincerity? Was not the yielding so far to the judgment of others too great a deference to be paid to any mere men?
21:24 And all will know - that thou thyself walkest orderly, keeping the law - Ought he not, without any reverence to man, where the truth of God was so deeply concerned, to have answered plainly, I do not keep the Mosaic law; neither need any of you. Yea, Peter doth not keep the law. And God himself expressly commanded him not to keep it; ordering him to go in to men uncircumcised, and to eat with them, Act 11:3, which the law utterly forbids.
21:26 Then Paul took the men - Yielding his own judgment to their advice, which seemed to flow not out of spiritual but carnal wisdom; seeming to be what he really was not: making as if he believed the law still in force. Declaring - Giving notice to the priests in waiting, that he designed to accomplish the days of purification, till all the sacrifice should be offered, as the Mosaic law required, Num 6:13.