Acts: To The Ends Of The EarthSample

Paul has a conviction that he must go to Jerusalem, and after that, to Rome (Acts 19:21). He is both compelled and warned by the Spirit (Acts 20:22–23). Both danger and rescue are going to be Paul’s experience.

His friends warn him not to go. Agabus warns him (vv. 10–11), and his fellow travellers plead with him not to go (v. 12), but he persists, insisting he is ready to die "for the name of the Lord Jesus" (v. 13).

Just as it was for the Lord Jesus (Luke 18:31–33), Jerusalem will once more show itself to be a centre of aggressive opposition to the interests of the gospel.

We read that thousands of Jews have believed, but retain their zeal for the law (v. 20) and rumours abound that Paul disregards the Old Testament law (v. 21). Anticipating trouble, James urges Paul to join the purification rites of four men. As is evidenced in the case of Timothy’s circumcision (16:3), Paul’s attitude to the law was probably flexible, in cases where no gospel issue was involved. It may have been the outworking of 1 Corinthians 9:19–20.

Professor Blaiklock comments on these events: "He sought to love, to understand, to act in selfless humility. The result, by that tragic irony which Heaven sometimes permits, was apparent disaster."*

There is a riot. Wisely, the Romans had placed their barracks near the Temple, and the garrison is on hand to rescue Paul from his own people. This rescue is the first of four. (The others are recorded in Acts 22:24; 23:10; 23:20 and 23:31.)

Paul is thus rescued from a hopeless situation, four times. Each time rescue comes from an unlikely quarter. The original word spoken to Ananias in Acts 9:15 to 16 is being fulfilled. 

God can be trusted to exercise careful oversight of His church as it seeks to promote the gospel in the world.

Reflection

Paul earlier listens to Agabus (11:27–30). Why doesn’t he listen to others in this situation? Paul asks the church at Rome to pray for this visit to Jerusalem (see Rom. 15:31). What is ironic about the way in which God answers this prayer?

* E.M. Blaiklock, ‘Commentary on The Acts of the Apostles’, Tyndale New Testament

Commentaries (London: Tyndale, IVP, 1959), p. 172.