Acts · chapter 21 of 28
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Acts 21 tells how Paul, despite warnings from the brothers in Tyre and the prophet Agabus, continues to Jerusalem ready to die for the name of the Lord. In Jerusalem James and the elders ask him to take part in a vow in the temple; Jews from Asia see him there, stir up the people and seize him, and the Roman tribune arrests him and lets him address the crowd.
Paul's third journey reaches its end. Since Acts 20 he knows that imprisonment awaits him in Jerusalem, and this chapter shows how he goes forward with full awareness and obedience. Here begins the last part of Acts, in which Paul is a prisoner and his testimony reaches governors, kings and finally Caesar.
After saying goodbye to the elders of Ephesus, Paul and his companions sail to Tyre, where they stay seven days with the disciples. They tell Paul through the Spirit not to go on to Jerusalem. When they leave, all of them, with wives and children, accompany him to the beach, where they kneel and pray. At Caesarea they stay at the house of Philip the evangelist, one of the seven, who has four daughters who prophesy.
There the prophet Agabus comes down from Judea, takes Paul's belt, binds his own feet and hands with it and says that so the Jews at Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him to the Gentiles. All urge Paul not to go up, but he answers that he is ready not only to be bound but to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus. They cannot persuade him and say: let the will of the Lord be done.
In Jerusalem James receives them with all the elders. Paul tells what God has done among the Gentiles, and they glorify God, but tell him that many Jewish believers are zealous for the law and have been told that he teaches them to forsake Moses. They ask him to join four men who have a vow and pay their expenses, to show that he keeps the law. Paul agrees and enters the temple.
When the seven days of the vow are almost over, Jews from Asia see him in the temple, stir up the crowd and seize him, crying out that he teaches against the people, the law and this place, and has brought Greeks into the temple, for they had seen Trophimus the Ephesian with him in the city. They drag him out and try to kill him. The tribune rushes down with soldiers and centurions, arrests him and has him bound with two chains. Paul speaks to him in Greek, says he is a Jew from Tarsus and asks to speak to the people; the tribune allows it, and Paul, standing on the steps, motions to the crowd and addresses them in Hebrew.
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
Paul answers those who weep that he is ready not only to be bound but to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus. His decision is not recklessness but obedience to the calling he has received.
When the believers see that they cannot persuade him, they stop pressing and say that the will of the Lord be done. They learn to trust God even when they do not understand why his servant must suffer.
Paul reports in detail what God did among the Gentiles, and the elders glorify God. The shared joy shows the unity among the leaders, even with their different ministries.
Paul presents himself as a Jew from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no obscure city, and asks to speak to the people. Even in the midst of an arrest, he sees an opportunity to witness.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: Not to go on to Jerusalem. — Acts 21:4
Answer: At the house of Philip the evangelist, one of the seven, who had four daughters who prophesied. — Acts 21:8-9
Answer: He bound his own feet and hands with it and announced that the Jews in Jerusalem would bind Paul so. — Acts 21:10-11
Answer: That he was ready not only to be bound but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus. — Acts 21:13
Answer: That he join four men under a vow and pay their expenses, to show that he kept the law. — Acts 21:23-24
Answer: Of teaching against the people, the law and the temple, and of bringing a Greek into the temple. — Acts 21:27-29
Paul teaches us to obey God even when the road is costly. His friends loved him and wept, but he had received a calling. In your group, ask what calling of God you are putting off out of fear or comfort, and ask for courage to obey.
The believers, for their part, learned to let go and say let the will of the Lord be done. Ask in what situation you need to accept that God is working in a way you do not understand, and pray for those who suffer for their faith.
Acts 21 ends with Paul asking to speak to the people from the steps of the barracks. In Acts 22 he gives his testimony in Hebrew: his earlier life, his encounter with Jesus and his call to the Gentiles.
To show Jewish believers that he did not despise the law of Moses or his people. It was a pastoral concession, not a condition for salvation, and it fits with what Paul writes elsewhere about becoming all things to all people. Commentators disagree about whether it was wise, but the text does not condemn it.
The text says they told him through the Spirit not to go to Jerusalem. Many understand that the Spirit showed them the danger and that the warning was an expression of love, while Paul kept his sense of calling. The passage does not resolve the tension, only shows the sincerity of both sides.
An Ephesian, a Gentile believer who traveled with Paul. The Jews from Asia had seen him in the city with Paul and wrongly assumed Paul had brought him into the temple.