Acts 21:1-16 | Preparing for DeathSample

Those of Us Left Behind

Many of us are familiar with pictures and films of World War II, where service members are on trains heading out of their towns and cities to fight the war. The platforms are filled with family and friends seeing them off. Neither the lives of the soldiers nor those left on the platform would ever be the same after that moment. Even though those left behind know that the cause is just, there is still a hole left by their loved one's absence. A fear about what they will face, and about whether they will return.

That kind of fear and uncertainty before potential loss is what those believers Paul met were feeling. They didn’t want Paul to go to Jerusalem because they knew what lay before him. They knew he might not come back. They knew he might die. They loved Paul and saw what he was heading into, and they wanted to stop him.

Twice we’re told the disciples tried to stop him.

• “After sighting Cyprus and passing to the south of it, we sailed on to Syria. We landed at Tyre, where our ship was to unload its cargo. We sought out the disciples there and stayed with them seven days. Through the Spirit they urged Paul not to go on to Jerusalem” (Acts 21:3-4, NIV, ital. ours).
• “Leaving the next day, we reached Caesarea and stayed at the house of Philip the evangelist, one of the Seven. He had four unmarried daughters who prophesied. After we had been there a number of days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. Coming over to us, he took Paul’s belt, tied his own hands and feet with it and said, ‘The Holy Spirit says, “In this way the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem will bind the owner of this belt and will hand him over to the Gentiles.’ When we heard this, we and the people there pleaded with Paul not to go up to Jerusalem” (Acts 21:8-12, NIV, ital. ours).

And that doesn’t include what we’ve already seen in Acts 20.

Did you notice this too? They even warn him prophetically.

From a place of compassion, the believers speak by the Spirit warning Paul not to go. From a place of mission, Paul was undeterred, convinced of where the Spirit was leading him.

Paul reassures them that he knows what he is getting himself into and possibly awaits. “I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus” (Acts 21:13, NIV). And as Acts goes on to say, when he would not be dissuaded, “we gave up and said, ‘The Lord’s will be done’” (Acts 21:14, NIV).

There’s something in that last phrase. Not just the direct meaning, but the tone. This whole time the disciples who loved him were grieving over where Paul was heading. They try to stop him. They want to keep him from this. But when they can’t, notice how they respond. They accompany him (21:5,16) and pray with him (21:5). They stay with him (21:8,16), plead with him (21:11-12), and weep for him (21:13). They accept his decision and what is to come rather than continue to break his heart (21:14). They support him and choose to be a source of encouragement to him rather than creating an emotional burden for Paul who is already bearing the weight of what he must face.

God’s will might result in separation from those we love. It might lead us into danger. Even death. When those closest to us face it, it’s natural to pray and plea for another path. We want those closest to us to be safe. It is not always possible.

The disciples choose to leave Paul with a blessing. With whom might you have to do the same?