[Darris McNeely] Good morning. The song I played is “No Retreat, No Surrender” and I thought it was appropriate for where we are with the Apostle Paul at this time as we get into Acts 21. And we covered his time in Ephesus. And I wanted to read just a couple of excerpts because what we are beginning now with Chapter 21 to the end of the book is kind of another chapter, if you will, in the story of Paul and the adventure of Paul here in the Book of Acts. He's going to go to Jerusalem, he'll be arrested, and the rest of the book will be the story of Paul in and out of various scenes with people that are opposing his work of preaching the Gospel. The Jewish leaders, Roman centurion, Roman governors, and such, that are in opposition to him. And it seems even his own people don't even understand fully who he is and what he's doing.

And so, that is kind of where we are. And Paul's had warning of this when we ended Chapter 20. He knew that he may not see the elders in Ephesus, and remember they had a very tearful, heartfelt farewell. And then he got on the boat. He got on the boat knowing that he was headed into trouble. There were storm clouds on the horizon. The winds were picking up, poetically, in that sense, and he was heading into difficult waters. And I want to read a little bit from William Barclay's “Daily Study Bible,” his volume on the Acts of the Apostles, and what he says here as he concludes Chapter 20, Barclay's comments on Paul's farewell with the elders at Ephesus.

He said, Barclay writes that, “Paul was the captive of the Holy Spirit. What lay ahead, he did not know, but he knew that he must face it, and he knew that he could face it. But Paul also urges certain claims upon his friends, the elders there. He reminded them of their duty. They were overseers of the flock of God. That was not a duty they had chosen, but a duty that had chosen them. The servants of the good shepherd must also be shepherds of the sheep. He reminded them of their danger. And so, through all this scene, there runs one dominant feeling, and that is the feeling of an affection and a love as deep as the heart itself. This is the feeling that should be in any Church. When love dies in any Church, the work of Christ cannot do other than wither or fade. The Church of Ephesus was dear to the heart of Paul because the air and atmosphere were the air and the atmosphere of love.”

The air and the atmosphere of love. Now, keep in mind, remember, what is it that Jesus says to the Church at Ephesus that's the one thing that he has against them. Does anybody remember? Yeah.

[Man] They lost their first love.

[Darris McNeely] They lost their first love. They lost their first love. And that's interesting. In a whole other dimension of the Ephesian, Church won the battle of doctrine and truth. They persevered, Christ says to them in that same letter. And remember, Paul warned the elders that, "Savage wolves are going to come in among you," and they did. And there's just an ongoing battle as we read 1 and 2 Timothy about what's going on in Ephesus. But eventually, when you come to the end of the first century and what Jesus says to the Church at Ephesus, they won the battle for truth. They had truth, but they lost their first love.

Now, what that love was is multi-dimensional. It was a love for God. It was a love for each other. It was a love for the truth. And time, and events, and stress in a Church, and any congregation has that impact, but without the love of God, which is the first of the fruits of the Spirit, remember, in Galatians 5, then a Church is not going to have and be effective, and that's important. And the Ephesians were kind of in danger of losing their effectiveness because that very power of God ignited, first of all, by love was beginning to fade. But Paul himself, at this point, has laid everything down before them as best he could.

And now Paul gets on the boat and he goes on to Jerusalem. He wants to be there by Pentecost. And he is undaunted and undeterred. You know, to the words of the song, in his mind, there was no retreat and no surrender. He was not going to give in to fear. He was not going to give in to somebody else's doubt, anybody else's warning. He was going to push forward. And that is kind of a theme and a background for what we are beginning to...we'll see here as he faces the matters that he has, beginning with this as he goes on to Jerusalem. So, let's pick it up in Acts 21.

Acts 21:1 “Than it came to pass, that when we departed from them,” and these are the gathering in Miletus, the elders that had come down from Ephesus, “and set sail, running a straight course, we came to Coos, the following day, to Rhodes, and from there, to Patara.”

So, he is beginning to make his way from Miletus right here, down to Coos, and then to Rhodes, and then, ultimately, across the eastern end of the Mediterranean down to Caesarea, ultimately.

Acts 21:2 He says, “Finding a ship sailing over to Phoenicia, we went aboard and set sail.”

And these are probably along the way, are certain pilgrim ships carrying other pilgrims to Jerusalem for the Pentecost festival that lies ahead of them.

Acts 21:3 “When we had cited Cyprus, we passed it on the left, sailed to Syria, and landed at Tyre.”

And this is the Tyre of the book of Ezekiel, the Old Testament story. There the ship unloaded its cargo.

Acts 21:4 He says, “Finding disciples, we stayed there seven days, and they told Paul through the Spirit not to go up to Jerusalem.”

So, here's another warning from some disciples in the Church here in the city of Tyre, right here, Tyre and Sidon. And you remember Ezekiel's prophecies against these two gentile cities. And even Jesus himself had a comment about them in one of his statements, the same about Sodom and Gomorrah and the Time of the Judgment. But he finds some members here, “Some disciples,” it says. That's interesting and encouraging. You know, he'd been on the ship for a few days, they're a small party, but now they found some other people.

You know, when you travel, it's always good to be able to connect with members. And anywhere you travel and you walk into a grouping of the Church of God, of people, and you find them on the Sabbath, or if you're traveling, let's say for the Feast of Tabernacles, and you're going to a distant land., and sometimes we go to Italy and we meet the Italian members there, or we go to England and the members in the UK and other places where we would go.

Travel is great, but there's the dimension of the people of God that adds to it. I've traveled a lot. Some of you have made some, you know, a lot of trips as well. Travel can be exciting, adventuresome, it can get routine and it can be mundane if you do it for a living and for a job. And, you know, there's only so many ways they can build out a hotel room. And airlines, you know, an airplane is an airplane is an airplane, and it is just absolutely grueling to get on a airplane these days and make a trip because of all the security and everything else. It's not very comfortable in those situations. But the travels that I've been able to make both personal and even for the Church, it's always good when you get to Africa, Asia, wherever you may be, in the States, to know that you've got a group of people that are in the Church that you're going there for. And that's what makes all the difficulty of traveling and getting away from your own routine, your bed, your food, and everything else, and go to some other place. It makes it bearable and certainly, even, you know, better because of the people of God.

And always keep that in mind. We want to be welcoming. We want to be hospitable with strangers that come into your congregation that may be there for a few days or maybe even a few weeks. And to take them under your care. To encourage that is a mark of hospitality. And it was something here that Paul needed and found, and for a week, he's with them. And they told Paul through the Spirit. Again, God just, you know, was inspiring this occasion, and Paul recognized that this message coming from this group to not go to Jerusalem was of God. But, you know, he knew that also God was also with him, and they were probably acting more humanly than they were with the full knowledge of what Paul's mission and purpose was.

And this is what I'm saying, you know, here's a group of members that maybe they're certainly concerned for his safety, and they know that Paul is kind of a marked man. But Paul also knows that, you know, he's been through this before. He's been shipped-wrecked already, we read Corinthians correctly. And he has been stoned to within inches of death, and he's had hardship. And he knows that that's part of his job. May not have been every disciple's job, but it was part of his job, and he had to keep going. For him, there was no retreat, there was no surrender. He had to keep moving forward, and he understood that that was the overriding lead of God's Spirit and what Christ had commissioned him to do and to deal with that.

Acts 21:5 “And so, after a period of time, 7 days, when he had come to the end of these days, we departed, went on our way. They all accompanied us with wives and children till we were out of the city. And we knelt down on the shore and prayed.”

Now, again, keep in mind that as he left the elders back in the city of Miletus here back in Chapter 20, they did the same thing. You know, they knelt down, they prayed, and they just kind of had a big group hug there in Miletus. And that's what's essentially going on here. They go down to the shore, to the jetty that was probably there where the ship had tied in, and they knelt down and they prayed. Whenever God's people kneel down and pray, no matter what the circumstance, that's a good thing.

First time I ever remember doing that was in 1967 in a Church. Went to Church one Sabbath in my hometown, and Mrs. Armstrong, the wife of Herbert Armstrong, Loma Armstrong, had been sick for a long time. They'd called a day of prayer and fasting, and that happened to be on that Sabbath. And I remember that we knelt down as a congregation, the pastor led us in prayer for her. And we've done that, you know, I've had other occasions where we've done that. And about 12 years ago, at a time of crisis and the Council of Elders dealing with certain issues and all, we would kneel and pray over certain things. I remember the first budget and strategic plan that we put together after that split of 2010, 2011, we knelt down as a council and we prayed over the work we had done that week, asking God to bless it. I think we did the same thing this year as well.

And so, a group prayer, you know, is very appropriate. And at times, I led my congregation in a prayer. I remember one time in Indianapolis, we had, I think, four or five ladies that were pregnant at one time, and births coming up within a few months. And one complication set in early for one mother, and we had that announcement. And I remember making it in a Sabbath service, and, you know, you had three or four other ladies out there that were expecting. And so, I just led everybody in a prayer. I said let's just pray for not only so-and-so here who's going through a moment, but let's pray for the safety of delivery of all the other babies that are in utero. And we did. I don't do that every time, but, you know, I did that time, and I think God had heard that prayer. Every child was safely born and healthy and everything, everything went well. So, there's a time and a place for that. And the more we do that out of a heartfelt sincerity, I think good things can happen there.

Acts 21:6-7 Then he says, “When we had taken our leave of one another, we boarded the ship and they returned home. The members then went back. And we had finished our voyage from Tyre, we came to Ptolemais, greeted the brethren, stayed with them one day.” This was about 30 miles further south. “And on the next day, we who were Paul's companions departed and came to Caesarea.”

And so, finally, they come to their ultimate port, their destination, and that is the famous world-class city of Caesarea, the home of the governor of Judea, with the great governor's palace that was there, and the hippodrome, and the amphitheater, and the Roman culture. This is the same place where we encountered the centurion, Cornelius, earlier Chapter Acts, the name slips me for a moment, where Peter had come.

Acts 21:8 “And we entered the house of Phillip the evangelist, who was one of the seven, and stayed with him.”

So, here's where we pick up the thread of the Philip who had gone to Samaria. Remember, back earlier in Acts, I believe that's Acts 6. Phillip, who had gone to Samaria down here from Jerusalem. And then he was the same Phillip who had encountered the Ethiopian Eunuch and baptized him. And then he kind of went on up the coast, and he kind of disappears from the story until now. And he has taken up residence at Caesarea, and he's been busy since then because he has four virgin daughters. So, he's got at least four children. Doesn't mention any sons in this case if he had sons, but he has four virgin daughters. What this means is they were young and they were unmarried. And young, unmarried women. Probably older teenage years into their early 20s, is probably what we're looking at here in terms of their age.

Acts 21:9 And it says “This man had four virgin daughters who prophesied, Paul staying with them.”

And what does that mean? Well, it means that they had some type of a gift of inspired teaching that they were able to do within the Church in some way. You wish you had more information on this, but it's not that they were, you know, uttering prophecies. But, you know, I would think that they probably would've passed the exam on the Book of Daniel. What do you think? If they had a gift of inspired teaching there. But they had some particular role there. But this is where we encounter Philip again for the last time in the story.

Acts 21:10 He says, “We stayed many days.” So, again, several days. “And then a certain prophet named Agabus came down from Judea.”

Agabus here is a Jewish prophet. There were Jewish prophets in the land. Some of them, not only in the land, but we run into one who had kind of gone rogue over in Cyprus when Paul and Barnabas first started their journey, and he'd kind of dabbled into the spirit realm, the black, the demonic realm, and wasn't staying true to the Word of God. But this idea of individuals who were prophets that traveled, had certain messages, we encountered that down in Antioch earlier where a prophet came down to Antioch and made a prophecy about a famine. And this is another one. And in this case, it says in verse 11.

Acts 21:11 “When he had come to us, he took Paul's belt, bound his own hands and feet, and said, ‘thus says the Holy Spirit. So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him into the hands of the gentiles.’”

So, here's the message that is delivered here at the hands of Agabus, and it's just like all the others, it is a warning in that sense of what is going to happen. And just one little note about what we're looking at here. It says, “He took Paul's belt and he bound his own hands and feet.” And so, he took from Paul the belt, and he then wrapped his hands and his feet together with this. Now, I have a belt on. All of us men, probably most of us have a belt. If I were to take mine off, it's only about 36 or 37 inches for the size of my waist. I could not take that, and it would not reach around both of my hands and my feet unless I probably was bound over like that. And then I still don't think it would be enough to bind all four appendages that I have.

What are we talking about here? Well, the belt that Paul was wearing was not the typical belt that men wear today in our Western society. It would've been a large piece of cloth or heavy cloth, maybe even canvas, that went around his waist several times, that might have even gone up around his shoulders and come back down and tied off. And it would've created a large enough pouch that would almost, you know, be like a purse or a billfold, or one of these, what do we call these things that we buy?

[Man 2] Fanny pack.

[Darris McNeely] Fanny packs. I've never worn a fanny pack. I don't like fanny packs, but that's what it was. It was just a belt that had folds in it, and you could probably carry money in there, or carry a knife maybe in a scabbard, and who knows, his passport. You know, they did have even, they did have proof of Roman citizenship in those days. It was kind of a card sometimes on wood, sometimes on clay, that affirmed their Roman citizenship. Maybe, you know, so that could have been in there as well. But it was something large enough that would've wrapped around him several times, so when Agabus takes it off of Paul, and since it's Paul's private personal accessory, he uses that to emphasize that what he prophesized is about the owner of that belt, as he puts it here. And so, he makes this prophecy.

And now, here's something about... Let me make another comment about prophecy in general. We've gone through Daniel and we're about to finish up Revelation. We've had these big prophecies, the 70 weeks prophecy of Daniel 9 and Daniel's interpretation of the images of Nebuchadnezzar in his own vision, and what that means prophetically, and all through the time to the end of the age. And we think of prophecy in that way, which is quite large. But prophecy also comes down on a smaller level or a micro level. And there are certain things that are germane to that, that would be on the macro level. This is what you would call, let's say, a micro prophecy, because it's not dealing with nations and empires, it's dealing with an individual, Paul.

If you and I read, let's say the Psalms or the proverbs, do you ever read those and think of some of the things that are in there about, let's say, gossip, about how to conduct our language, or some of the morality teachings of proverbs about loving the wife of your youth and not straying, and some of the proverbs there that teach us about morality? There's teaching there, but, you know, when you look at those, and the same thing happens with some of the Psalms, that moves us to righteousness and a choice between righteousness and unrighteousness, between obedience and sin. The teaching always leaves a choice. And sometimes the teaching is in the form of a strong urging or an admonishment. You know, “Listen, my son,” you know, some of these proverbs will say. So, it's a strong admonishment, father to son. But in every case, there's a choice, right? There's a choice.

We read a proverb that shows us one way to go, and you and I have a choice to take that and be wise as a result of listening and reading it, gaining understanding, and then wisdom by the choice that we make to walk in the paths of righteousness, to stop wagging the tongue, let's say, if it's dealing with that type of relationship. And if we choose wisely, there's going to be good fruit. If we chose poorly, and we don't, you know, we choose to ignore it, we'll suffer the consequences. That happens on the individual level. It happens at the larger level as well. I mean, when Christ came preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom of God, Mark 1:15, saying, “Repent, change. The Kingdom of God is at hand. Believe the Gospel.” That's prophecy on a larger level about the Kingdom of God, as well as any of the other prophecies of, let's say, Leviticus 26 or Deuteronomy 28 that spoke to the nation of Israel and to any other nation to obey God's laws. And if you don't, here's what is going to be the result. And it turns into a prophetic pronouncement.

So, a statement of such, we call it prophecy at the large macro, or the small micro level, always carries with it choice. People can choose or whatever. Nineveh chose to listen to Jonah for a short period of time, and they repented. They eventually forgot that and they went back to their ways. But in this case, Paul is being given a prophecy, but there's a choice. He could, what? Turn around and get back on a ship and go where, back to Ephesus, Corinth, sail onto Rome, go back to Tarsus maybe and retire, his home? But what does he do? He chooses to keep going forward, because, again, in his case, he's got an overriding mission.

But the point I want to make for all of us is that this is a prophecy, and Paul has a choice, and we know what he chooses and why, and it's the right choice for him. But you and I have choices too. When we come across teaching and Scripture from God that lays out a right and a wrong path, we have a choice to make, and our lives will be influenced depending upon the choice we make. Consider that a prophetic teaching in that it's telling us what your future will be if you choose wisely, or what it will be if you choose poorly. And there are consequences, both good and bad. And that's the real fundamental issue about prophecy and why it is such an important part. And there's more prophecy in the Bible if you look at it that way than you realize. I mean, there's the big prophecies of Daniel Revelation, Amos, and Micah, and all the others. But there's prophecy in the Gospels, in the Epistles, and in Proverbs, and in Psalms that impact our lives.

Acts 21:12 “Paul then hears these things” in verse 12, going back to the text. “When we heard those things, both we and those from that place pleaded with him not to go to Jerusalem.”

So, this is their, you know, it was not going to be the binding of a piece of cloth around his hands and his feet. It would've been the binding of chains, manacles, is what it would be, and possibly a beating.

Acts 21:13 “But Paul answered, ‘What do you mean by weeping and breaking my heart?’”

Wow. Weeping, moaning, crying in a sense, there probably was some impassioned discussion here. And he said, you know, breaking his heart. What was breaking his heart? What was causing him this emotional reaction? Well, probably, you know, a bit, you know, apprehension of what lie ahead. But I think also, I would read into this that Paul was moved by their compassion and concern for him and his person and his life.

Acts 21:13 Because he says, “‘I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.’”

This was his resolve. And this is why, you know, there was no retreat and no surrender in his mind. None. When you start out in your life, when you get baptized, you make the decision for God, and you commit yourself to that path, there should be no retreat, no surrender in your mind, no thought of turning back. And as I've said many times, you don't make that choice lightly, you make it very carefully after considerable prayer and counsel, and at the appropriate time in your life. We're coming up to the Passover here in a few days next week. We'll be keeping the Passover, that annual memorial of Christ's death, but also of our commitment and the covenant we made at baptism with God through the blood of Christ to go forward to whatever lay ahead in our life.

When I got baptized at age, was it 19 or 20, I had no conception, what lay ahead for me. I believed and I knew what I wanted to do. I knew the way of life that I wanted to live. I was not married. I had no children. I had not faced any real difficulty in my life, but I knew what I wanted and I knew what I believed, and I made that commitment, and I've had no compulsion to turn back from that. And, you know, there have been challenges, there have been difficulties. None... You know, I haven't had some challenges, difficulties, trials that others have had that I've worked with as a pastor or friends of mine in the ministry and in the Church. None of us know what lies ahead. And I've had all these years and continue to go to move forward and pray that I will finish in the faith.

But the same thing, you know, is that way when you make that covenant with a person that you're going to marry. You know, so often we get married and we aren't even fully grown up yet. I wasn't when I got married. I thought I knew myself, but I had a lot to learn. I thought I knew my wife, but I had a lot to learn. And I see the wingers are smiling as they look at each other. That's the nature of marriage. And so, you know, we kind of we were both mature, but we've grown a lot together since then, as any marriage will that endures. But you make it for life, just like you make the baptism commitment for life because it has eternal consequences. And Paul's saying that here, he had made that commitment himself, and he was ready to go, whatever lay ahead, even if that was death.

Acts 21:14 “When he would not be persuaded, we ceased.” So, Luke is a part of this group at this point, “and they came to the conclusion, ‘The will of the Lord be done.’”

And that's what they had to deal with. Paul listened, he consulted, but he knew that he was the only one that could make the decision, and he knew what that decision had to be.

Acts 21:15 “After those days, we packed and went up to Jerusalem.”

Again, from Caesarea, you go up to Jerusalem, literally, and it's not that difficult or long. In this case, it would've been a walk. I think the original authorized version of the King James, I was reading about it this morning, puts it here, this is the new King James, “We packed.” “We picked up our carriage,” I think is the way an older version translation puts it. “We packed up our carriage.” And that is kind of an old English term. You probably don't have that in any of your Bibles in front of you unless you've had maybe the King James. But the term carriage used to mean what you carried, your bag, your checked baggage you're going to put on an airplane, and, you know, maybe a fanny pack or a backpack, that's part of your carriage. But typically, we think of a carriage as a horse and carriage, or horse-drawn vehicle from, you know, another time. And that would've been available to them at this time, but it may not have been what they actually had unless they would've rented one. But it just means that if they picked up their carriage, it means they picked up their bags, and then they proceeded forward. They went up to Jerusalem.

Acts 21:16 “Also, some of the disciples from Caesarea went with us and brought with them a certain Mnason of Cyprus, an early disciple with whom we were to lodge.”

That is a Greek name from a predominantly a gentile area. And so, commentators feel this is probably a Hellenistic disciple. And it says an early disciple, meaning he'd been with the group, the Church for some time. And they were going to lodge with him there in Jerusalem.

Acts 21:17 “And so, when we had come to Jerusalem, the brethren received us gladly.”

So, they came into and began to fellowship with the Church over a period of time there as they arrived.

Acts 21:18 And so, “The next day, Paul then went in with us to James, and all the elders were present.”

Now, this is James, the brother of the Lord. This is not James, the brother of John. Remember that James, the brother of John, was killed back in Chapter 13 by Herod Agrippa. And this is then James, the brother of Jesus, the same James who presided over the meeting of the ministry in Jerusalem in Chapter 15. So, make sure you keep your James's right as you go through the story here. And all the elders in the Church would've probably been a sizable group of elders. If we looked at the numbers in the early part of Acts in terms of the members, there's, you know, a few thousand members it appears that have become a part of the Church there. And so, you're probably going to have a sizable group of elders then that are represented here, that come together.

Acts 21:19 Says, “When we had greeted them, he, Paul, told in detail those things which God had done through the gentiles, through His ministry.”

So, he gives them a report, and he gives them a report in detail, not just a casual, "Well, you know, we've been to a lot of Churches and had a lot of baptisms." I would say that he windows that down, that he talks about Lystra, Derby, Antioch in Pisidia, Antioch in Syria, Ephesus, the number of Churches in Asia that were a part of, you know, startups in his time in Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Colossae, Hierapolis, and other places that Berea, Thessalonica, he goes into the detail, probably mentions names and the numbers of people that are there, what he said, what he did. “Oh, and I wrote a long letter to the Romans while I was in Corinth just, you know, some short time back, a few months ago. I wrote a long message that I sent with a courier to the Church in Rome.” Probably told him some of the things that he talked about, things that you've studied as you've gone through Romans, and otherwise, some of the difficulties that he's had. And so, he goes through a detailed report, maybe the most detailed that we at least have record of here.

Acts 21:20-21 “And they heard it, they glorified the Lord. And they said to him, ‘You see, brother, how many myriads of Jews there are who have believed, and they are all zealous for the law, but they've been informed about you that you teach all the Jews who are among the gentiles to forsake Moses, saying that they ought not to circumcise their children, nor to walk according to the customs.’”

This is an interesting response that they have. Look at this. Beginning in verse 19, Paul greets them, goes into detail. It's the same thing that Peter had done back in Chapter 11 when he had, after Peter went to Caesarea, baptized Cornelius, and this obvious door to the gentiles opened, they speak in tongues just like the Church had done on Pentecost back in Chapter 2. And Peter then has to be grilled by those in Jerusalem about what he was doing dining with gentiles down in Caesarea, in this, you know, most pagan of all places, the seat of the Roman government and everything. And he explains it all, and they glorified God saying, “God has granted the gentiles repentance to life.” Remember that back in Chapter 11? And they accepted that.

Many years have gone by and still, reports come back about Paul and what he's doing, and who he is, and this former Pharisee and all. And the Church and the elders here, it seems are a bit unsettled, probably some more than others. I don't think James was, that's just my opinion. I think, you know, from what we know about James and certainly, the stature that he would've had and the presiding role that he had over the Church in Jerusalem, what he said back in Chapter 15 when that conference concluded, I would imagine there was a mixed bag. Probably a majority of them didn't... They were comfortable with Paul, his ministry and his message, but maybe there was just enough pressure and maybe some were wavering a little bit or just maybe still a little bit doubtful about Paul. Keep in mind that among some of them may have been people who had lost relatives to Paul's earliest persecution where he was responsible for the death of people in the Church. Memories are held quite long. Blood flows for a long time, is an Arab saying in these areas and that, you know, you don't forget.

And so, maybe some were still a bit suspicious about the Apostle Paul and what he was all about. So, there was not probably a full understanding. And, you know, this is the charge that he was teaching to forsake Moses, saying they ought not to circumcise their children nor to walk according to the customs. And their solution, let's read on just a little bit more as to their solution.

Acts 21:22 “‘What then? The assembly must certainly meet, for they will hear that you have come.’”

This would be the Jewish Assembly, the Sanhedrin. The same one that Gamaliel had been a part of, that grilled James and John...I'm sorry, Peter and John in the earlier chapters when they brought them before them.

And so, now Paul's come back into town, and keep in mind this is at the Pentecost season, there's a lot of people, pilgrims that have swelled the population of Jerusalem, and at any time that happened in that period of this first century period from, let's say, the time of Jesus and His ministry to where we are today, thousands of additional people coming in, zealous Jews worshiping at the temple, etc., it would've brought in more Romans, soldiers, and rumors, tensions, you know, just excitement, and the buzz would've been even louder. The Sanhedrin would have known that now this renegade Pharisee, in their mind, Paul, is in Jerusalem too, and they would be wondering and maybe wanting to seize an opportunity.

Acts 21:23-25 They say, “Therefore, do what we tell you. We have four men who have taken a vow, and take them, be purified with them, pay their expenses so that they may shave their heads, and that all may know that those things of which they were informed concerning you are nothing, but that you yourself also walk orderly and keep the law. But concerning the gentiles who believe, we've written and decided that they should observe no such thing, except that they should keep themselves from things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality.”

Very same things mentioned back in Chapter 15. So, make your connection between this particular verse here in verse 25, with what had come out as a decree from the council deliberations back in Chapter 15 about the gentiles. And so, this particular purification of verse 24, most feel is talking about the Nazarite vow, a vow for a short period of time, usually around 30 days, no meat, no wine during that time, the hair would grow. And as part of the ending of that particular vow, there would be a shaving of the head, a sacrifice, and it, you know, according to the law, had to be done at the temple. And there were certain expenses, you know, you just didn't walk into the temple in Jerusalem in this day and, you know, do a sacrifice or whatever. It cost you. You had to buy something like a dove, some grain, maybe a whole sheep or a bull, if that's what it was. Think about that. I don't know what the price of lamb is today, or cattle on the hoof. It's more than I want to pay. I mean, price of just a ribeye steak is $10 a pound usually, or whatever. You can go up from there. And, you know, you talk about a whole cow, run the numbers, that's a lot of money, and you're going to just kill it and sacrifice a big portion of it, and the priest is going to get his share, and you might get a few meals off of it. A lot of money.

Sin is expensive. In this case, it's not sin, it is a conclusion of a Nazarite vow. But this is their solution. “You take these people and you pay their expenses,” verse 24. Now, this is, in their mind, going to have the effect of showing to any watching carefully Paul's actions, that he is not done away with the law, that he's still a good practicing Jew, and it's going to, you know, put a fork in the rumors about Paul and end those, they think, not really, but that's their solution.

Now, this is interesting, and I'll kind of conclude with this point. I started reading yesterday a book I've had on my shelf for some time by a Jewish teacher, Jewish theologian, writing about Paul. The title of the book is “Paul was not a Christian.Paul was not a Christian.” Now, this is written by a Jewish teacher commentator who teaches in a Christian theological school, or at least he did when he wrote the book. But his premise is that Paul was a Jew. First, always, and, you know, till his death, he was a Jew, which he was ethnically. But his larger point is that Paul would not have taught against the law. And that Paul, you know, he had...

I haven't read... I got the one chapter I need to read and maybe I'll come back at another time and fill in the details, but with what he introduces, and his point is that the idea that Paul taught against the Sabbath, even among the gentiles and the eternal spiritual law of God, and he lays out all the Scriptures you've been through in Romans, the law is holy, spiritual, and good, and we are justified by works of the law. And he goes through to explain what all that means. But the idea that Paul would've been teaching against the law among, even among the gentiles, is an absurdity in his mind, because Paul was a Jew, a Pharisee, and he was always a Jew.

Now, this author's going to take something, probably do a different spin on Paul's conversion to Christianity or acceptance of Christ, but that's his particular perspective on that. But I think he's correct. And, you know, these charges, if you go back to verse 21, what Paul did, he did to have a different teaching about circumcision. He showed that circumcision is now of the heart, not of the flesh. But at the same time, remember, he took and circumcised Timothy when he plucked him into the work out of the congregation of Lystra. He circumcised him, Greek father, Jewish mother. And so, it wasn't wrong, but also was not necessary, but it was expedient for the work that then Timothy was going to be a minister.

And Paul's now going into the temple to pay the expenses for a Nazarite vow and the termination of that vow. As long as that temple stood until 70 AD, you would be a member of the Church of God in Jerusalem, and you would also probably be involved in some way, if you chose, in the temple's sacrifices or structure there. You would not have been sinning, you would have not been doing anything wrong. I would suspect that that would've lessened for those that really did understand that indeed things had changed. But we see Paul at this point here in the '50s A.D. going into the temple and engaging in the worship of the temple, but as we will see, it is to no avail in terms of changing the mind of those that are his enemies.

[Darris McNeely] Good morning. The song I played is “No Retreat, No Surrender” and I thought it was appropriate for where we are with the Apostle Paul at this time as we get into Acts 21. And we covered his time in Ephesus. And I wanted to read just a couple of excerpts because what we are beginning now with Chapter 21 to the end of the book is kind of another chapter, if you will, in the story of Paul and the adventure of Paul here in the Book of Acts. He's going to go to Jerusalem, he'll be arrested, and the rest of the book will be the story of Paul in and out of various scenes with people that are opposing his work of preaching the Gospel. The Jewish leaders, Roman centurion, Roman governors, and such, that are in opposition to him. And it seems even his own people don't even understand fully who he is and what he's doing.

And so, that is kind of where we are. And Paul's had warning of this when we ended Chapter 20. He knew that he may not see the elders in Ephesus, and remember they had a very tearful, heartfelt farewell. And then he got on the boat. He got on the boat knowing that he was headed into trouble. There were storm clouds on the horizon. The winds were picking up, poetically, in that sense, and he was heading into difficult waters. And I want to read a little bit from William Barclay's “Daily Study Bible,” his volume on the Acts of the Apostles, and what he says here as he concludes Chapter 20, Barclay's comments on Paul's farewell with the elders at Ephesus.

He said, Barclay writes that, “Paul was the captive of the Holy Spirit. What lay ahead, he did not know, but he knew that he must face it, and he knew that he could face it. But Paul also urges certain claims upon his friends, the elders there. He reminded them of their duty. They were overseers of the flock of God. That was not a duty they had chosen, but a duty that had chosen them. The servants of the good shepherd must also be shepherds of the sheep. He reminded them of their danger. And so, through all this scene, there runs one dominant feeling, and that is the feeling of an affection and a love as deep as the heart itself. This is the feeling that should be in any Church. When love dies in any Church, the work of Christ cannot do other than wither or fade. The Church of Ephesus was dear to the heart of Paul because the air and atmosphere were the air and the atmosphere of love.”

The air and the atmosphere of love. Now, keep in mind, remember, what is it that Jesus says to the Church at Ephesus that's the one thing that he has against them. Does anybody remember? Yeah.

[Man] They lost their first love.

[Darris McNeely] They lost their first love. They lost their first love. And that's interesting. In a whole other dimension of the Ephesian, Church won the battle of doctrine and truth. They persevered, Christ says to them in that same letter. And remember, Paul warned the elders that, "Savage wolves are going to come in among you," and they did. And there's just an ongoing battle as we read 1 and 2 Timothy about what's going on in Ephesus. But eventually, when you come to the end of the first century and what Jesus says to the Church at Ephesus, they won the battle for truth. They had truth, but they lost their first love.

Now, what that love was is multi-dimensional. It was a love for God. It was a love for each other. It was a love for the truth. And time, and events, and stress in a Church, and any congregation has that impact, but without the love of God, which is the first of the fruits of the Spirit, remember, in Galatians 5, then a Church is not going to have and be effective, and that's important. And the Ephesians were kind of in danger of losing their effectiveness because that very power of God ignited, first of all, by love was beginning to fade. But Paul himself, at this point, has laid everything down before them as best he could.

And now Paul gets on the boat and he goes on to Jerusalem. He wants to be there by Pentecost. And he is undaunted and undeterred. You know, to the words of the song, in his mind, there was no retreat and no surrender. He was not going to give in to fear. He was not going to give in to somebody else's doubt, anybody else's warning. He was going to push forward. And that is kind of a theme and a background for what we are beginning to...we'll see here as he faces the matters that he has, beginning with this as he goes on to Jerusalem. So, let's pick it up in Acts 21.

Acts 21:1 “Than it came to pass, that when we departed from them,” and these are the gathering in Miletus, the elders that had come down from Ephesus, “and set sail, running a straight course, we came to Coos, the following day, to Rhodes, and from there, to Patara.”

So, he is beginning to make his way from Miletus right here, down to Coos, and then to Rhodes, and then, ultimately, across the eastern end of the Mediterranean down to Caesarea, ultimately.

Acts 21:2 He says, “Finding a ship sailing over to Phoenicia, we went aboard and set sail.”

And these are probably along the way, are certain pilgrim ships carrying other pilgrims to Jerusalem for the Pentecost festival that lies ahead of them.

Acts 21:3 “When we had cited Cyprus, we passed it on the left, sailed to Syria, and landed at Tyre.”

And this is the Tyre of the book of Ezekiel, the Old Testament story. There the ship unloaded its cargo.

Acts 21:4 He says, “Finding disciples, we stayed there seven days, and they told Paul through the Spirit not to go up to Jerusalem.”

So, here's another warning from some disciples in the Church here in the city of Tyre, right here, Tyre and Sidon. And you remember Ezekiel's prophecies against these two gentile cities. And even Jesus himself had a comment about them in one of his statements, the same about Sodom and Gomorrah and the Time of the Judgment. But he finds some members here, “Some disciples,” it says. That's interesting and encouraging. You know, he'd been on the ship for a few days, they're a small party, but now they found some other people.

You know, when you travel, it's always good to be able to connect with members. And anywhere you travel and you walk into a grouping of the Church of God, of people, and you find them on the Sabbath, or if you're traveling, let's say for the Feast of Tabernacles, and you're going to a distant land., and sometimes we go to Italy and we meet the Italian members there, or we go to England and the members in the UK and other places where we would go.

Travel is great, but there's the dimension of the people of God that adds to it. I've traveled a lot. Some of you have made some, you know, a lot of trips as well. Travel can be exciting, adventuresome, it can get routine and it can be mundane if you do it for a living and for a job. And, you know, there's only so many ways they can build out a hotel room. And airlines, you know, an airplane is an airplane is an airplane, and it is just absolutely grueling to get on a airplane these days and make a trip because of all the security and everything else. It's not very comfortable in those situations. But the travels that I've been able to make both personal and even for the Church, it's always good when you get to Africa, Asia, wherever you may be, in the States, to know that you've got a group of people that are in the Church that you're going there for. And that's what makes all the difficulty of traveling and getting away from your own routine, your bed, your food, and everything else, and go to some other place. It makes it bearable and certainly, even, you know, better because of the people of God.

And always keep that in mind. We want to be welcoming. We want to be hospitable with strangers that come into your congregation that may be there for a few days or maybe even a few weeks. And to take them under your care. To encourage that is a mark of hospitality. And it was something here that Paul needed and found, and for a week, he's with them. And they told Paul through the Spirit. Again, God just, you know, was inspiring this occasion, and Paul recognized that this message coming from this group to not go to Jerusalem was of God. But, you know, he knew that also God was also with him, and they were probably acting more humanly than they were with the full knowledge of what Paul's mission and purpose was.

And this is what I'm saying, you know, here's a group of members that maybe they're certainly concerned for his safety, and they know that Paul is kind of a marked man. But Paul also knows that, you know, he's been through this before. He's been shipped-wrecked already, we read Corinthians correctly. And he has been stoned to within inches of death, and he's had hardship. And he knows that that's part of his job. May not have been every disciple's job, but it was part of his job, and he had to keep going. For him, there was no retreat, there was no surrender. He had to keep moving forward, and he understood that that was the overriding lead of God's Spirit and what Christ had commissioned him to do and to deal with that.

Acts 21:5 “And so, after a period of time, 7 days, when he had come to the end of these days, we departed, went on our way. They all accompanied us with wives and children till we were out of the city. And we knelt down on the shore and prayed.”

Now, again, keep in mind that as he left the elders back in the city of Miletus here back in Chapter 20, they did the same thing. You know, they knelt down, they prayed, and they just kind of had a big group hug there in Miletus. And that's what's essentially going on here. They go down to the shore, to the jetty that was probably there where the ship had tied in, and they knelt down and they prayed. Whenever God's people kneel down and pray, no matter what the circumstance, that's a good thing.

First time I ever remember doing that was in 1967 in a Church. Went to Church one Sabbath in my hometown, and Mrs. Armstrong, the wife of Herbert Armstrong, Loma Armstrong, had been sick for a long time. They'd called a day of prayer and fasting, and that happened to be on that Sabbath. And I remember that we knelt down as a congregation, the pastor led us in prayer for her. And we've done that, you know, I've had other occasions where we've done that. And about 12 years ago, at a time of crisis and the Council of Elders dealing with certain issues and all, we would kneel and pray over certain things. I remember the first budget and strategic plan that we put together after that split of 2010, 2011, we knelt down as a council and we prayed over the work we had done that week, asking God to bless it. I think we did the same thing this year as well.

And so, a group prayer, you know, is very appropriate. And at times, I led my congregation in a prayer. I remember one time in Indianapolis, we had, I think, four or five ladies that were pregnant at one time, and births coming up within a few months. And one complication set in early for one mother, and we had that announcement. And I remember making it in a Sabbath service, and, you know, you had three or four other ladies out there that were expecting. And so, I just led everybody in a prayer. I said let's just pray for not only so-and-so here who's going through a moment, but let's pray for the safety of delivery of all the other babies that are in utero. And we did. I don't do that every time, but, you know, I did that time, and I think God had heard that prayer. Every child was safely born and healthy and everything, everything went well. So, there's a time and a place for that. And the more we do that out of a heartfelt sincerity, I think good things can happen there.

Acts 21:6-7 Then he says, “When we had taken our leave of one another, we boarded the ship and they returned home. The members then went back. And we had finished our voyage from Tyre, we came to Ptolemais, greeted the brethren, stayed with them one day.” This was about 30 miles further south. “And on the next day, we who were Paul's companions departed and came to Caesarea.”

And so, finally, they come to their ultimate port, their destination, and that is the famous world-class city of Caesarea, the home of the governor of Judea, with the great governor's palace that was there, and the hippodrome, and the amphitheater, and the Roman culture. This is the same place where we encountered the centurion, Cornelius, earlier Chapter Acts, the name slips me for a moment, where Peter had come.

Acts 21:8 “And we entered the house of Phillip the evangelist, who was one of the seven, and stayed with him.”

So, here's where we pick up the thread of the Philip who had gone to Samaria. Remember, back earlier in Acts, I believe that's Acts 6. Phillip, who had gone to Samaria down here from Jerusalem. And then he was the same Phillip who had encountered the Ethiopian Eunuch and baptized him. And then he kind of went on up the coast, and he kind of disappears from the story until now. And he has taken up residence at Caesarea, and he's been busy since then because he has four virgin daughters. So, he's got at least four children. Doesn't mention any sons in this case if he had sons, but he has four virgin daughters. What this means is they were young and they were unmarried. And young, unmarried women. Probably older teenage years into their early 20s, is probably what we're looking at here in terms of their age.

Acts 21:9 And it says “This man had four virgin daughters who prophesied, Paul staying with them.”

And what does that mean? Well, it means that they had some type of a gift of inspired teaching that they were able to do within the Church in some way. You wish you had more information on this, but it's not that they were, you know, uttering prophecies. But, you know, I would think that they probably would've passed the exam on the Book of Daniel. What do you think? If they had a gift of inspired teaching there. But they had some particular role there. But this is where we encounter Philip again for the last time in the story.

Acts 21:10 He says, “We stayed many days.” So, again, several days. “And then a certain prophet named Agabus came down from Judea.”

Agabus here is a Jewish prophet. There were Jewish prophets in the land. Some of them, not only in the land, but we run into one who had kind of gone rogue over in Cyprus when Paul and Barnabas first started their journey, and he'd kind of dabbled into the spirit realm, the black, the demonic realm, and wasn't staying true to the Word of God. But this idea of individuals who were prophets that traveled had certain messages, we encountered that down in Antioch earlier where a prophet came down to Antioch and made a prophecy about a famine. And this is another one. And in this case, it says in verse 11.

Acts 21:11 “When he had come to us, he took Paul's belt, bound his own hands and feet, and said, ‘thus says the Holy Spirit. So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him into the hands of the gentiles.’”

So, here's the message that is delivered here at the hands of Agabus, and it's just like all the others, it is a warning in that sense of what is going to happen. And just one little note about what we're looking at here. It says, “He took Paul's belt and he bound his own hands and feet.” And so, he took from Paul the belt, and he then wrapped his hands and his feet together with this. Now, I have a belt on. All of us men, probably most of us have a belt. If I were to take mine off, it's only about 36 or 37 inches for the size of my waist. I could not take that, and it would not reach around both of my hands and my feet unless I probably was bound over like that. And then I still don't think it would be enough to bind all four appendages that I have.

What are we talking about here? Well, the belt that Paul was wearing was not the typical belt that men wear today in our Western society. It would've been a large piece of cloth or heavy cloth, maybe even canvas, that went around his waist several times, that might have even gone up around his shoulders and come back down and tied off. And it would've created a large enough pouch that would almost, you know, be like a purse or a billfold, or one of these, what do we call these things that we buy?

[Man 2] Fanny pack.

[Darris McNeely] Fanny packs. I've never worn a fanny pack. I don't like fanny packs, but that's what it was. It was just a belt that had folds in it, and you could probably carry money in there, or carry a knife maybe in a scabbard, and who knows, his passport. You know, they did have even, they did have proof of Roman citizenship in those days. It was kind of a card sometimes on wood, sometimes on clay, that affirmed their Roman citizenship. Maybe, you know, so that could have been in there as well. But it was something large enough that would've wrapped around him several times, so when Agabus takes it off of Paul, and since it's Paul's private personal accessory, he uses that to emphasize that what he prophesized is about the owner of that belt, as he puts it here. And so, he makes this prophecy.

And now, here's something about... Let me make another comment about prophecy in general. We've gone through Daniel and we're about to finish up Revelation. We've had these big prophecies, the 70 weeks prophecy of Daniel 9 and Daniel's interpretation of the images of Nebuchadnezzar in his own vision, and what that means prophetically, and all through the time to the end of the age. And we think of prophecy in that way, which is quite large. But prophecy also comes down on a smaller level or a micro level. And there are certain things that are germane to that, that would be on the macro level. This is what you would call, let's say, a micro prophecy, because it's not dealing with nations and empires, it's dealing with an individual, Paul.

If you and I read, let's say the Psalms or the proverbs, do you ever read those and think of some of the things that are in there about, let's say, gossip, about how to conduct our language, or some of the morality teachings of proverbs about loving the wife of your youth and not straying, and some of the proverbs there that teach us about morality? There's teaching there, but, you know, when you look at those, and the same thing happens with some of the Psalms, that moves us to righteousness and a choice between righteousness and unrighteousness, between obedience and sin. The teaching always leaves a choice. And sometimes the teaching is in the form of a strong urging or an admonishment. You know, “Listen, my son,” you know, some of these proverbs will say. So, it's a strong admonishment, father to son. But in every case, there's a choice, right? There's a choice.

We read a proverb that shows us one way to go, and you and I have a choice to take that and be wise as a result of listening and reading it, gaining understanding, and then wisdom by the choice that we make to walk in the paths of righteousness, to stop wagging the tongue, let's say, if it's dealing with that type of relationship. And if we choose wisely, there's going to be good fruit. If we chose poorly, and we don't, you know, we choose to ignore it, we'll suffer the consequences. That happens on the individual level. It happens at the larger level as well. I mean, when Christ came preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom of God, Mark 1:15, saying, “Repent, change. The Kingdom of God is at hand. Believe the Gospel.” That's prophecy on a larger level about the Kingdom of God, as well as any of the other prophecies of, let's say, Leviticus 26 or Deuteronomy 28 that spoke to the nation of Israel and to any other nation to obey God's laws. And if you don't, here's what is going to be the result. And it turns into a prophetic pronouncement.

So, a statement of such, we call it prophecy at the large macro, or the small micro level, always carries with it choice. People can choose or whatever. Nineveh chose to listen to Jonah for a short period of time, and they repented. They eventually forgot that and they went back to their ways. But in this case, Paul is being given a prophecy, but there's a choice. He could, what? Turn around and get back on a ship and go where, back to Ephesus, Corinth, sail onto Rome, go back to Tarsus maybe and retire, his home? But what does he do? He chooses to keep going forward, because, again, in his case, he's got an overriding mission.

But the point I want to make for all of us is that this is a prophecy, and Paul has a choice, and we know what he chooses and why, and it's the right choice for him. But you and I have choices too. When we come across teaching and Scripture from God that lays out a right and a wrong path, we have a choice to make, and our lives will be influenced depending upon the choice we make. Consider that a prophetic teaching in that it's telling us what your future will be if you choose wisely, or what it will be if you choose poorly. And there are consequences, both good and bad. And that's the real fundamental issue about prophecy and why it is such an important part. And there's more prophecy in the Bible if you look at it that way than you realize. I mean, there's the big prophecies of Daniel Revelation, Amos, and Micah, and all the others. But there's prophecy in the Gospels, in the Epistles, and in Proverbs, and in Psalms that impact our lives.

Acts 21:12 “Paul then hears these things” in verse 12, going back to the text. “When we heard those things, both we and those from that place pleaded with him not to go to Jerusalem.”

So, this is their, you know, it was not going to be the binding of a piece of cloth around his hands and his feet. It would've been the binding of chains, manacles, is what it would be, and possibly a beating.

Acts 21:13 “But Paul answered, ‘What do you mean by weeping and breaking my heart?’”

Wow. Weeping, moaning, crying in a sense, there probably was some impassioned discussion here. And he said, you know, breaking his heart. What was breaking his heart? What was causing him this emotional reaction? Well, probably, you know, a bit, you know, apprehension of what lie ahead. But I think also, I would read into this that Paul was moved by their compassion and concern for him and his person and his life.

Acts 21:13 Because he says, “‘I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.’”

This was his resolve. And this is why, you know, there was no retreat and no surrender in his mind. None. When you start out in your life, when you get baptized, you make the decision for God, and you commit yourself to that path, there should be no retreat, no surrender in your mind, no thought of turning back. And as I've said many times, you don't make that choice lightly, you make it very carefully after considerable prayer and counsel, and at the appropriate time in your life. We're coming up to the Passover here in a few days next week. We'll be keeping the Passover, that annual memorial of Christ's death, but also of our commitment and the covenant we made at baptism with God through the blood of Christ to go forward to whatever lay ahead in our life.

When I got baptized at age, was it 19 or 20, I had no conception, what lay ahead for me. I believed and I knew what I wanted to do. I knew the way of life that I wanted to live. I was not married. I had no children. I had not faced any real difficulty in my life, but I knew what I wanted and I knew what I believed, and I made that commitment, and I've had no compulsion to turn back from that. And, you know, there have been challenges, there have been difficulties. None... You know, I haven't had some challenges, difficulties, trials that others have had that I've worked with as a pastor or friends of mine in the ministry and in the Church. None of us know what lies ahead. And I've had all these years and continue to go to move forward and pray that I will finish in the faith.

But the same thing, you know, is that way when you make that covenant with a person that you're going to marry. You know, so often we get married and we aren't even fully grown up yet. I wasn't when I got married. I thought I knew myself, but I had a lot to learn. I thought I knew my wife, but I had a lot to learn. And I see the wingers are smiling as they look at each other. That's the nature of marriage. And so, you know, we kind of we were both mature, but we've grown a lot together since then, as any marriage will that endures. But you make it for life, just like you make the baptism commitment for life because it has eternal consequences. And Paul's saying that here, he had made that commitment himself, and he was ready to go, whatever lay ahead, even if that was death.

Acts 21:14 “When he would not be persuaded, we ceased.” So, Luke is a part of this group at this point, “and they came to the conclusion, ‘The will of the Lord be done.’”

And that's what they had to deal with. Paul listened, he consulted, but he knew that he was the only one that could make the decision, and he knew what that decision had to be.

Acts 21:15 “After those days, we packed and went up to Jerusalem.”

Again, from Caesarea, you go up to Jerusalem, literally, and it's not that difficult or long. In this case, it would've been a walk. I think the original authorized version of the King James, I was reading about it this morning, puts it here, this is the new King James, “We packed.” “We picked up our carriage,” I think is the way an older version translation puts it. “We packed up our carriage.” And that is kind of an old English term. You probably don't have that in any of your Bibles in front of you unless you've had maybe the King James. But the term carriage used to mean what you carried, your bag, your checked baggage you're going to put on an airplane, and, you know, maybe a fanny pack or a backpack, that's part of your carriage. But typically, we think of a carriage as a horse and carriage, or horse-drawn vehicle from, you know, another time. And that would've been available to them at this time, but it may not have been what they actually had unless they would've rented one. But it just means that if they picked up their carriage, it means they picked up their bags, and then they proceeded forward. They went up to Jerusalem.

Acts 21:16 “Also, some of the disciples from Caesarea went with us and brought with them a certain Mnason of Cyprus, an early disciple with whom we were to lodge.”

That is a Greek name from a predominantly a gentile area. And so, commentators feel this is probably a Hellenistic disciple. And it says an early disciple, meaning he'd been with the group, the Church for some time. And they were going to lodge with him there in Jerusalem.

Acts 21:17 “And so, when we had come to Jerusalem, the brethren received us gladly.”

So, they came into and began to fellowship with the Church over a period of time there as they arrived.

Acts 21:18 And so, “The next day, Paul then went in with us to James, and all the elders were present.”

Now, this is James, the brother of the Lord. This is not James, the brother of John. Remember that James, the brother of John, was killed back in Chapter 13 by Herod Agrippa. And this is then James, the brother of Jesus, the same James who presided over the meeting of the ministry in Jerusalem in Chapter 15. So, make sure you keep your James's right as you go through the story here. And all the elders in the Church would've probably been a sizable group of elders. If we looked at the numbers in the early part of Acts in terms of the members, there's, you know, a few thousand members it appears that have become a part of the Church there. And so, you're probably going to have a sizable group of elders then that are represented here, that come together.

Acts 21:19 Says, “When we had greeted them, he, Paul, told in detail those things which God had done through the gentiles, through His ministry.”

So, he gives them a report, and he gives them a report in detail, not just a casual, "Well, you know, we've been to a lot of Churches and had a lot of baptisms." I would say that he windows that down, that he talks about Lystra, Derby, Antioch in Pisidia, Antioch in Syria, Ephesus, the number of Churches in Asia that were a part of, you know, startups in his time in Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Colossae, Hierapolis, and other places that Berea, Thessalonica, he goes into the detail, probably mentions names and the numbers of people that are there, what he said, what he did. “Oh, and I wrote a long letter to the Romans while I was in Corinth just, you know, some short time back, a few months ago. I wrote a long message that I sent with a courier to the Church in Rome.” Probably told him some of the things that he talked about, things that you've studied as you've gone through Romans, and otherwise, some of the difficulties that he's had. And so, he goes through a detailed report, maybe the most detailed that we at least have record of here.

Acts 21:20-21 “And they heard it, they glorified the Lord. And they said to him, ‘You see, brother, how many myriads of Jews there are who have believed, and they are all zealous for the law, but they've been informed about you that you teach all the Jews who are among the gentiles to forsake Moses, saying that they ought not to circumcise their children, nor to walk according to the customs.’”

This is an interesting response that they have. Look at this. Beginning in verse 19, Paul greets them, goes into detail. It's the same thing that Peter had done back in Chapter 11 when he had, after Peter went to Caesarea, baptized Cornelius, and this obvious door to the gentiles opened, they speak in tongues just like the Church had done on Pentecost back in Chapter 2. And Peter then has to be grilled by those in Jerusalem about what he was doing dining with gentiles down in Caesarea, in this, you know, most pagan of all places, the seat of the Roman government and everything. And he explains it all, and they glorified God saying, “God has granted the gentiles repentance to life.” Remember that back in Chapter 11? And they accepted that.

Many years have gone by and still, reports come back about Paul and what he's doing, and who he is, and this former Pharisee and all. And the Church and the elders here, it seems are a bit unsettled, probably some more than others. I don't think James was, that's just my opinion. I think, you know, from what we know about James and certainly, the stature that he would've had and the presiding role that he had over the Church in Jerusalem, what he said back in Chapter 15 when that conference concluded, I would imagine there was a mixed bag. Probably a majority of them didn't... They were comfortable with Paul, his ministry and his message, but maybe there was just enough pressure and maybe some were wavering a little bit or just maybe still a little bit doubtful about Paul. Keep in mind that among some of them may have been people who had lost relatives to Paul's earliest persecution where he was responsible for the death of people in the Church. Memories are held quite long. Blood flows for a long time, is an Arab saying in these areas and that, you know, you don't forget.

And so, maybe some were still a bit suspicious about the Apostle Paul and what he was all about. So, there was not probably a full understanding. And, you know, this is the charge that he was teaching to forsake Moses, saying they ought not to circumcise their children nor to walk according to the customs. And their solution, let's read on just a little bit more as to their solution.

Acts 21:22 “‘What then? The assembly must certainly meet, for they will hear that you have come.’”

This would be the Jewish Assembly, the Sanhedrin. The same one that Gamaliel had been a part of, that grilled James and John...I'm sorry, Peter and John in the earlier chapters when they brought them before them.

And so, now Paul's come back into town, and keep in mind this is at the Pentecost season, there's a lot of people, pilgrims that have swelled the population of Jerusalem, and at any time that happened in that period of this first century period from, let's say, the time of Jesus and His ministry to where we are today, thousands of additional people coming in, zealous Jews worshiping at the temple, etc., it would've brought in more Romans, soldiers, and rumors, tensions, you know, just excitement, and the buzz would've been even louder. The Sanhedrin would have known that now this renegade Pharisee, in their mind, Paul, is in Jerusalem too, and they would be wondering and maybe wanting to seize an opportunity.

Acts 21:23-25 They say, “Therefore, do what we tell you. We have four men who have taken a vow, and take them, be purified with them, pay their expenses so that they may shave their heads, and that all may know that those things of which they were informed concerning you are nothing, but that you yourself also walk orderly and keep the law. But concerning the gentiles who believe, we've written and decided that they should observe no such thing, except that they should keep themselves from things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality.”

Very same things mentioned back in Chapter 15. So, make your connection between this particular verse here in verse 25, with what had come out as a decree from the council deliberations back in Chapter 15 about the gentiles. And so, this particular purification of verse 24, most feel is talking about the Nazarite vow, a vow for a short period of time, usually around 30 days, no meat, no wine during that time, the hair would grow. And as part of the ending of that particular vow, there would be a shaving of the head, a sacrifice, and it, you know, according to the law, had to be done at the temple. And there were certain expenses, you know, you just didn't walk into the temple in Jerusalem in this day and, you know, do a sacrifice or whatever. It cost you. You had to buy something like a dove, some grain, maybe a whole sheep or a bull, if that's what it was. Think about that. I don't know what the price of lamb is today, or cattle on the hoof. It's more than I want to pay. I mean, price of just a ribeye steak is $10 a pound usually, or whatever. You can go up from there. And, you know, you talk about a whole cow, run the numbers, that's a lot of money, and you're going to just kill it and sacrifice a big portion of it, and the priest is going to get his share, and you might get a few meals off of it. A lot of money.

Sin is expensive. In this case, it's not sin, it is a conclusion of a Nazarite vow. But this is their solution. “You take these people and you pay their expenses,” verse 24. Now, this is, in their mind, going to have the effect of showing to any watching carefully Paul's actions, that he is not done away with the law, that he's still a good practicing Jew, and it's going to, you know, put a fork in the rumors about Paul and end those, they think, not really, but that's their solution.

Now, this is interesting, and I'll kind of conclude with this point. I started reading yesterday a book I've had on my shelf for some time by a Jewish teacher, Jewish theologian, writing about Paul. The title of the book is “Paul was not a Christian.Paul was not a Christian.” Now, this is written by a Jewish teacher commentator who teaches in a Christian theological school, or at least he did when he wrote the book. But his premise is that Paul was a Jew. First, always, and, you know, till his death, he was a Jew, which he was ethnically. But his larger point is that Paul would not have taught against the law. And that Paul, you know, he had...

I haven't read... I got the one chapter I need to read and maybe I'll come back at another time and fill in the details, but with what he introduces, and his point is that the idea that Paul taught against the Sabbath, even among the gentiles and the eternal spiritual law of God, and he lays out all the Scriptures you've been through in Romans, the law is holy, spiritual, and good, and we are justified by works of the law. And he goes through to explain what all that means. But the idea that Paul would've been teaching against the law among, even among the gentiles, is an absurdity in his mind, because Paul was a Jew, a Pharisee, and he was always a Jew.

Now, this author's going to take something, probably do a different spin on Paul's conversion to Christianity or acceptance of Christ, but that's his particular perspective on that. But I think he's correct. And, you know, these charges, if you go back to verse 21, what Paul did, he did to have a different teaching about circumcision. He showed that circumcision is now of the heart, not of the flesh. But at the same time, remember, he took and circumcised Timothy when he plucked him into the work out of the congregation of Lystra. He circumcised him, Greek father, Jewish mother. And so, it wasn't wrong, but also was not necessary, but it was expedient for the work that then Timothy was going to be a minister.

And Paul's now going into the temple to pay the expenses for a Nazarite vow and the termination of that vow. As long as that temple stood until 70 A.D., you would be a member of the Church of God in Jerusalem, and you would also probably be involved in some way, if you chose, in the temple's sacrifices or structure there. You would not have been sinning, you would have not been doing anything wrong. I would suspect that that would've lessened for those that really did understand that indeed things had changed. But we see Paul at this point here in the '50s A.D. going into the temple and engaging in the worship of the temple, but as we will see, it is to no avail in terms of changing the mind of those that are his enemies.