NOVEMBER 10 ACTS 21-23

November 10, 2014

Acts 21-23

All along the final leg of Paul’s Third Mission Trip, people were warning him NOT to go up to Jerusalem as he had planned. One prophet, named Agabus, tied himself up with Paul’s belt and said, “This is what will happen to the owner of this belt, if he goes to Jerusalem.” Paul replied, “Do you think I’m not ready, not only to be imprisoned, but to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus?” (21:13) 


And he almost did.

After consulting with James, the leader of the church in Jerusalem, Paul submitted to a seven-day purification rite. But this did little to appease the strict Jews of Jerusalem, who thought that Paul was undermining the law and the temple. He was accused of bringing Gentiles into the temple; he was seized, dragged out of the temple and beaten. The only thing that saved Paul’s life was getting arrested. Even then, he tried to address the mob. Paul made it through his testimony, but when he told them how God had sent him to the Gentiles, they shouted him down! When the soldiers had stretched Paul out for a whipping, he revealed his Roman Citizenship, and they desisted.

The next day, he appeared before the Sanhedrin, where he wisely played the Pharisees against Sadducees by siding with the Pharisees on the issue of the Resurrection of the dead. Finally, he was sent back to jail, where the Lord Jesus Himself came to Paul at night and encouraged him, saying that Paul would indeed testify about Him in Rome!

While in custody, Paul survived a Jewish assassination plot. When his nephew overheard the plans, Paul sent him to the Roman authorities, who moved Paul to safety in Caesarea in the middle of the night. There, Felix, the governor, received him. Paul was inching his way closer to Rome, and the fulfillment of Christ’s encouraging words!

Your fellow traveler through the New Testament,

Pastor Gary