Acts 21:1-3- "Now it came to pass, that when we had departed from them and set sail, running a straight course we came to Cos, the following day to Rhodes, and from there to Patara. {2} And finding a ship sailing over to Phoenicia, we went aboard and set sail. {3} When we had sighted Cyprus, we passed it on the left, sailed to Syria, and landed at Tyre; for there the ship was to unload her cargo."

A. "Now it came to pass...."

1. Cos was an island about midway between Miletes (40 miles) and Miletes (50 miles). The great Hippocrates founded his medical school there.

2. The "straight course" seems to suggest that the weather was excellent and that the trip went quicker than expected.

B. "...the following day to Rhodes..."

1. RHODES (Rhodes) Island off the southwest coast of Asia Minor in the Mediterranean Sea associated with the Dodanim (Gen. 10:4; Ezek. 27:15). See Dodanim. Rhodes was founded as a Minoan trading colony about 1500 B.C. and came under the control of a single government around 407 B.C. A wealthy shipping center, Rhodes developed navies that controlled the eastern Mediterranean. Standing with one foot on either side of the harbor entrance was the 105-foot-tall brass Colossus, one of the Seven Wonders of the World. Set up in 288 B.C., it fell during an earthquake about 64 years later. Disloyalty to Roman rule met with stiff economic sanctions against the city and threw it into decline. While enjoying some popularity as the center of the cult of Helios, the sun god, Rhodes could not rise above Roman economic pressure. When the apostle Paul stopped over on his voyage from Troas to Caesarea (Acts 21:1), Rhodes was only a minor provincial city.

2. From Rhodes Paul traveled to Patara. Patara is one of the harbor towns on the southwest coast of Asia Minor where ships would put in with cargo for unloading and pick up other cargo.

a. From the text, we are told that Paul changed ships here, either because this was the last stop, it would not travel as quickly as he desired, or that it was going in a different direction from what he desired.

3. The next ship was to take him quickly from Patara to Tyre. During the trip Paul's company saw Cyprus in the distance. Paul must have allowed must have wondered how Barnabas was doing, since Cyprus was his home.

4. They seemed to arrive uneventfully and quickly in Tyre, where Paul's ship unloaded its' cargo.

A. "And finding disciples..."

1. NASV says that Paul and his company "looked up" the disciples. This is literally what the text says.

2. Evidently the ship stopped for a week to take on cargo and Paul and his friends were able to find much needed rest from the journey in their fellowship with the brethren.

3. This means that they spent one Lord's day with the brethren at Tyre, undoubtedly in worship to God.

B. "They told Paul through the Spirit not to go up to Jerusalem."

1. What does this passage mean? It cannot mean that the Holy Spirit was telling Paul, through them, not to go to Jerusalem. If this was the case, Paul would have received this message long before directly.

2. It is likely that the Holy Spirit had revealed to some of them, prophetically, that Paul would be imprisoned in Jerusalem. Upon hearing this, these brethren were so distraught that they pleaded with Paul not to go.

3. It seems highly unlikely that this was an actual warning to Paul from the Spirit not to go, since this seems to be the intent of God.

C. "When we had come to the end of those days..."

1. On the appointed day all the brethren and their families accompanied Paul to the ship to bid him farewell.

2. The entire company knelt in prayer before parting. When they took their leave (likely with tears and embraces as at other places) Paul and his company left in the ship southward.

A. "And when we had finished our voyage from Tyre, we came to Ptolemais, greeted the brethren, and stayed with them one day."

1. This was the next to last stop on Paul's sea journey. They stopped over, likely to drop off or receive extra cargo.

a. This was an old city. It got its' name from the Ptolemy's who were given it after the dividing of Alexander the Great's empire. It is the present day Acre.

2. While there Paul used the opportunity to visit, if only for a short time, the brethren at Ptolemais.

B. On the next day we who were Paul's companions departed and came to Caesarea..."

1. This was the last stop on Paul sea journey to Jerusalem.

2. Paul stayed some time at the house of Philip the Evangelist, who was one of the seven chosen in Acts chapter six to wait on tables.

3. There are little details given here that bear mentioning.

a. Philip was married, or at least, had been married.

b. Philip had four daughters.

c. There were "prophetesses." We can only surmise that they prophesied in harmony with the biblical restrictions on the public work of women.

C. " And as we stayed many days, a certain prophet named Agabus came down from Judea."

1. Who was Agabus? Personal name meaning, "locust." Prophet in the Jerusalem church who went to visit the church at Antioch and predicted a universal famine. His prophecy was fulfilled about ten years later in the reign of Claudius Caesar (Acts 11:27-29). His prediction led the church at Antioch to begin a famine relief ministry for the church in Jerusalem.

2. The Holy Spirit delivered a forceful message through this object lesson. Agabus took Paul's belt and bound himself and told everyone that God would all Paul to be bound and imprisoned when he went to Jerusalem.

3. These statements were enough to cause both the brethren at Caesarea and those with Paul to plead with him to not go to Jerusalem.

4. Paul responded that he was determined to go to Jerusalem, even if it meant his imprisonment or death. All their pleadings would accomplish would be the breaking of his heart.

5. Upon seeing that their pleadings would accomplish nothing the ceased and placed it into the hand of God.

A. "And after those days we packed and went up to Jerusalem..."

1. According to McGarvey, Paul and his friends had been in Caesarea had been in Jerusalem for approximately six days.

2. They were two days journey from Jerusalem, being about 65 miles away.

B. "Also some of the disciples from Caesarea went with us..."

1. Some of the Caesarian brethren decided to accompany them to Jerusalem. Amon them was one Mnason. He was a native of Cyprus who was evidently a wealthy disciple. He maintained at least two residences, one in the Jerusalem and one in Caesarea. He was one of the early converts to Christianity.

C. "And when we had come to Jerusalem, the brethren received us gladly."

1. We need to keep in mind that the reason for Paul's company's coming to Jerusalem was to deliver the combined contribution of the Gentile churches for the poor brethren in Judea. While we are not specifically told of the reaction of the brethren in Jerusalem to the contribution, we can infer from here that is was very positive.

A. "On the following day Paul went in with us to James, and all the elders were present..."

1. James and the elders of the Jerusalem church gathered the next day to hear all the good words that Paul, and at least Luke, had to say concerning the great planting of Gentile churches.

2. The day before they likely gave a quick thumbnail sketch of all the evangelistic efforts that had taken place. Now they were going into full detail. The brethren listen intently, wanting to hear every good word.

B. "And when they heard it, they glorified the Lord..."

1. James and the elders of the Jerusalem church rejoiced when they heard of the good work that Paul had done in Asia Minor and Greece.

2. But the perceived that Paul and they had a problem. There were thousands of Jewish Christians in the church which still continued to practice the ceremonial parts of the Law of Moses.

a. There was a charge that was making the rounds in the Jerusalem, probably spread by the Judaizing teachers, which stated that Paul was telling Jewish Christians in the Dispersion that they should no longer practice the things of the Law.

b. In the light of the rest of the Inspired record, it is easy to logically conclude that this is exactly the intent of God, that the Jews abandon the Old Law. It might not has been that easy forty years before the end of the first century.

3. What was the solution to Paul's "problem?"

a. James and the elders of the church asked Paul to sponsor four men, likely Jewish Christians, who had a take a Nazarite vow and had become unclean for some reason.

b. Paul would pay their expenses (paying for the priest shaving their heads and a sacrifice) and go through the ceremony himself.

c. This would "prove" to the devout Jewish Christians that Paul still kept to Old Law as zealously as them.

C. "But concerning the Gentiles who believe, we have written and decided that they should observe no such thing..."

1. James, who was there at the meeting in Acts chapter 15, restated what had been said there concerning the Gentile Christians. There were under no such obligation to obey any of the Law, which included circumcision.

2. The things mentioned in Acts 15:29 were restated: idolatry, things strangled, blood, and sexual immorality.

D. The thorny question comes to mind, Why did James and the elders suggest such a thing, and why did Paul agree to it?

1. One thing is certain. The Jewish Christians in the first century continued to practice much, if not all of the Law of Moses and saw no inconsistency in doing so.

2. This should not be surprising. They had been raised in the strict observance of the practice of the Law of Moses. They considered Christ to logical extension of the Old Law.

3. The progressive nature of revelation. Not every truth was given, or understood, from the start.

a. John 16:13- ""However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come." The concept of guiding seems to suggest a gradual process.

b. Even those things that were revealed early in the work of the church were not completely understood at the first, not even by inspired men.

c. Pater's sermon on the day of Pentecost has clear reference, at least in light of the entire inspired record, to the desire of God to have Gentiles as part of the body of Christ. See Acts 2:17, 39. Yet, it was about ten years before the Church reached out to Gentiles. Even then, it took a direct revelation from God and the miraculous outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon Cornelius and his family to convince them.

d. The later, Prison epistles, Philippians, Colossians, Ephesians, and Philemon, bear the mark of a man who now completely understood that the Old Law must be abandoned completely.

e. We see that in the book of Hebrews. The Hebrew writer, likely Paul, tells us that the Old Law is a rotting corpse that is ready to be blown away. Se Hebrews 8:13.

4. It seems clear that the Lord, who understood that destruction of Jerusalem would mean a complete taking away of the Old Law, allowed a period of time for the Jewish Christians to continue to keep the ceremonial portions of the Law while the truth was being revealed.

E. Do we have authority to practice certain acts of the Law today?

1. We are in a completely different circumstance today.

2. We are not a people who have lived their whole lives wedded to a religious system which had just recently be approved by God.

3. To go back for any of us would be to go back "under bondage." (Galatians 4:9)

4. It is impossible to keep to Old Law today, since the heart of it (Jerusalem worship at the temple) and the means for worship (the Levitical priesthood) is missing.

5. We have advantage of possessing late revelation (book of Hebrews) which states then that the law was ready to vanish away (Hebrews 8:13).

6. We are part of the full maturity of the body of Christ. (Hebrews 4:13). 

A. "Then Paul took the men, and the next day, having been purified with them..."

1. The purification process that Paul and the other men would undergo would take seven days. It began with Paul and the men washing and Paul entering the temple to announce to the priest the intent for the offering to be made for them at the end of the seven day period. Paul, unlike the other men, was not ceremonially unclean. He could enter the temple.

2. After the offering Paul and the men would begin the thirty day vow.

B. "Now when the seven days were almost ended, the Jews from Asia, seeing him in the temple, stirred up the whole crowd and laid hands on him"

1. From the reading Luke has skipped from the day when Paul first entered the temple to notify the Priest to the end of the seven days. It was almost time for the offering and Paul, along with his company, were entering the temple to renew the Nazerite vow.

2. The "Jews from Asia" would be a different group than those who lived in Palestine. They were part of the scattered Jews who lived in the east. Among them would almost certainly be those who were personal enemies of Paul.

3. While in the temple to perform this vow, these Jews grabbed Paul.

C. "crying out, "Men of Israel, help! This is the man who teaches all men everywhere against the people, the law, and this place; and furthermore he also brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled this holy place."

1. The first charge shows that they had a continuing enmity for Paul. Paul had always been respectful for the Law of Moses and the customs. He had simply said that Jesus was the fulfillment of the Law.

2. The second charge, that he brought Gentiles into the temple, was not a trumped up charge. From the text it seems that they had mistakenly thought that Paul had brought Gentiles into the temple. They perhaps, in the rush of the moment, thought that these men with Paul were Gentiles.

a. Violating the temple by a Gentile was the last transgression that the Jews could still exact the death penalty.

3. They had seen Paul in the company of some of the Gentile Christians who had accompanies him from Asia. Paul made no secret about fellowshipping these Gentile brethren. But the charge was false. Paul had not tried to bring these brethren into the temple. He understood the penalty for doing so.

D. "And all the city was disturbed; and the people ran together, seized Paul, and dragged him out of the temple; and immediately the doors were shut."

1. Since this was a feast period there would be a large number of people in the public areas in and around the temple. It didn't take long to gather a large crowd who were motivated by anger.

2. The gates from the outer courts to the Court of Israel were closed to keep any other "pollution" outside the temple.

A. "Now as they were seeking to kill him..."

1. After the mob dragged Paul out of the temple his beating would be able to be noticed by the sentries posted in the tower of Antonia, a Roman barracks which overlooked the city. The Roman guard could overlook the entire city from the tower. The Tower of Antonia adjoined the temple. The Roman guard would be on special alert during the feast times to quickly put down any disturbances.

2. There is little doubt that the mob would have killed Paul if the Roman guard had not intervened.

3. The Roman commander was quick to respond to this breaking of the peace.

4. When the Roman guard arrived the mob quit attacking Paul, fearing the troops.

B. "Then the commander came near and took him, and commanded him to be bound with two chains; and he asked who he was and what he had done."

1. The commander immediately took Paul into custody, for his own protection and to ascertain whether he was truly responsible for the mob action.

2. He quickly tried to discover the facts of the case.

A. "And some among the multitude cried one thing and some another..."

1. It was virtually impossible to find out the truth out on the street in the midst of the mob. The commander decided to take Paul back to the barracks to question him.

B. "When he reached the stairs, he had to be carried by the soldiers because of the violence of the mob..."

1. The soldiers had to provide a human shield for Paul to escort him unharmed into the Roman barracks for further interrogation.

2. The Jews had continued to work themselves into a frenzy, believing that the "criminal" had been saved by the Roman authorities.

C. "Then as Paul was about to be led into the barracks, he said to the commander, "May I speak to you?" He replied, "Can you speak Greek?..."

1. From this passage we learn that Paul had spoken little or nothing in his defense up to the point.

2. Having been in the temple area, Paul would have been expected to speak in Hebrew. He likely addressed his first statement to the Roman commander in Hebrew instead of Greek.

3. Likely the Roman commander would understand some of what Paul would say, but he wanted to be sure to understand Paul fully.

4. "The Egyptian" was a terrorist leader who had troubled the Roman government about four years earlier.