Assignment for 8.23 to 8.29.09, Acts 21: 1-26

[Irving]

Assignment for 8.23 to 8.29.09
THE BOOK OF ACTS, CHAPTER 21: 1-26


PREFACE: Paul’s third missionary journey is coming to an end, but it
will not terminate at Antioch, his sponsoring congregation, this time.
Jerusalem will be its terminus instead. Chapter 21 begins with the
departure from Miletus, where Paul had given his last face-to-face
instructions to the elders from Ephesus. He and his companions, who
are carrying a large cash gift for the needy mother congregation at
Jerusalem, trace a route to Cos, Rhodes, Patara, Phoenicia (via a sea
route that put Cyprus in sight), landing at Tyre. The Christians at
Tyre tried to persuade Paul not to go to Jerusalem, but Paul would not
be deterred. The whole congregation went with the travelers to their
point of embarkation, prayed with them and bid them goodbye. A brief
stay at the next stop, Ptolemais, was followed by a short voyage to
Caesarea, where the group stayed with Philip (who had ministered to
the Ethiopian Eunuch) and his four daughters who were prophetesses.
They stayed a number of days, during which the prophet Agabus, who had
15 years before predicted the famine in Jerusalem, demonstrated how
Paul would be bound and turned over by the Jews to the Roman
government . Upon hearing this prophecy all the Christians at Caesarea
also tried to persuade Paul not to go to Jerusalem, but Paul was not
dissuaded. Some of the Christians at Caesarea went with the travelers
to Jerusalem and brought them to the house of Mnason. Paul and
company reported to James about the success of the mission to the
Gentiles, which pleased James and his elders. However, these men
warned Paul that the many Jewish Christians in Jerusalem were still
zealous for the traditional practices of Judaism, and although they
may agree that Gentile converts need not adhere to those practices,
Jewish converts must. For that reason, Paul, at their strong
recommendation, funded the purification rites of four men who were
just completing their temporary Nazerite vows, to show the Christian
Jews at Jerusalem that he still honored their ancient practices.

verses 1-3. The route of Paul and his company: Miletus to Cos to
Rhodes to Patara to Phoenicia (past Cyprus, sighted) landing at Tyre.
As an aside, Rhodes had been very important to commerce in the
Mediterranean in both banking and shipping. It was known as a center
of culture and of higher education. Both Julius Caesar and Cicero had
gone their to study rhetoric and philosophy. Tiberius (Roman Emperor
from 14-37 A.D.) retired there. It had possessed one of the seven
wonders of the ancient world, the colossal statue of the god Apollo,
destroyed in the earthquake of 227 B.C.

verse 4. Paul found Christians in Tyre and stayed with them for 7
days, bringing the total time since leaving Philippi, where Paul had
celebrated Passover, to 29 days, with only about two weeks remaining
until Pentecost, the date that Paul had set to deliver the gift to the
Christians in Jerusalem. The Christians in Tyre added their voices to
the the chorus telling Paul not to go to Jerusalem, for his own
safety.

verses 5, 6. The whole congregation at Tyre went down to the beach
from which Paul embarked to pray with him and to say goodbye. We are
now seeing, increasingly, in the Book of Acts, that Christians who
have been converted under Paul’s ministry sense that they are seeing
him for the last time.

verse 7. The next stop for a day is at Ptolemais, spent with the
Christians there.
verses 8,9. By the next day they reach Caesarea, the Roman capital of
Palestine. It remained such for over 600 years. This city was the
point of arrival and departure for several of Paul’s journeys, and
this is where Philip settled after leaving the Ethiopian Eunuch and
became an evangelist. He raised a family of four daughters there who
prophesied. It is with Philip that Paul and his companions stay for
several days.

verses 10,11. Agabus appears in Caesarea, a prophet from Jerusalem.
Fifteen years earlier Agabus had prophesied of the coming famine in
Jerusalem. Agabus now prophecies again, this time with a
demonstration, of how Paul would be bound hand and foot and turned
over by the Jews to the Roman government.

verse 12. Paul’s companions and the Christians of Caesarea all plead
with him not to go to Jerusalem.

verse 13. Paul responds: “Why are you weeping and breaking my heart?
He had a strong sense of the necessity that he be bound and killed for
the sake of the name of Jesus.

verse 14. When Paul could not be deflected from his purpose, his
friends gave up their pleading.

verses 15,16. Some of the Christian men from Caesarea went with Paul
and his companions to Jerusalem and brought them to the house of
Mnason, a man originally from Cyprus and one of the early disciples.

verses 17-19. The travelers receive a warm reception from the
Christians in Jerusalem. On the morrow they go to see James,the
brother of the Lord and the head of the Jerusalem congregation, to
whom Paul made a full report on what God had done among the Gentiles.

verses 20-22. The Christians in Jerusalem praised God at this
report. Then they explained to Paul that thousands of Jews had
believed in Jesus, but despite the previous agreement reached in the
previous Jerusalem conference, they could not abandon the Old
Testament regulations, and insisted that they be followed by Jewish
Christians, including, of course, circumcision. They were putting
their customs above the teaching of Jesus.

verses 23-25. The Jerusalem believers gave advice to Paul and his
companions. Pay the purification expenses of four men who have
completed temporary Nazerite vows (animals for sacrifice),and join in
their purification rites. This will show that Paul lives in obedience
to the Law. They do state, in recognition of the conclusions of the
Conference, that Gentile Christians need only (1) avoid food
sacrificed to idols, (2) Ingest not blood, (3) do not eat meat of
strangled animals, and (4) abstain from sexual immorality.

verse 26. Paul follows the advice of the Jerusalem Christians.

Study Questions for Acts 21: 1-26

1. Why is Paul so strongly committed to returning to Jerusalem,
despite all the
warnings against it. ?

2. Do you see more in the concerns of the Christians whom Paul meets,
at the
various stopping points in his journey toward Jerusalem, than a
simple concern
for a fellow believer?

3. Prophetesses appear in both Old and New Testaments numerous times.
The
prophetic office seems to a channel of information from God to
humans,
employed at special times. At some of these times, God has
chosen women to
fill that role. Why we have been given this information about
Philip’s daughters
in verse 9 without further elaboration is unclear. Do you have
an idea ?

4. In this section of chapter 21, we see again the difficulty that
formerly devout
Jewish converts to Christianity experienced with respect to
their deeply
ingrained religious practices and, for many of them, their belief
that they had to
bring them along into Christianity. Paul was flexible in his
response to this
tendency. In verse 26 it is recorded that Paul followed the
advice of the
Christian leaders in Jerusalem and sponsored the temple
purification of four
young men to demonstrate his obedience to the law. It wasn’t
successful, as we
shall learn in the next section. Was it, therefore, a waste of
Paul’s time and
money ?