Acts - Week 11 / Monday

Reading for today: Acts 21:1-14

The farewell experience that Paul has just gone trough in Miletus with the elders of the church in Ephesus is merely the first of other farewells that are going to happen on his way to Jerusalem.

At Tyre they had 7 days to wait while the ship unloaded cargo. Paul located the Christian believers in Tyre, and spent time with them. Here again, as in many places before, the Holy Spirit warned of what was going to happen to Paul in Jerusalem.

The Bible does not say how the Spirit did this, but from what happened a little later in Caesarea, we can be pretty sure the warning came through a prophecy. It says that "through the Spirit" the believers kept urging Paul not to go up to Jerusalem. It does not say that the Spirit did not want Paul to go up to Jerusalem. Back in Acts 20:22, Paul said he was compelled by the Holy Spirit to go to Jerusalem. Paul knew the Holy Spirit would not contradict himself.

The Holy Spirit warned several times of what was ahead for Paul in Jerusalem. These believers knew the warnings, and because of their love for Paul, they urged him not to go. But Paul refused to go against what the Holy Spirit had told him to do. He refused to let them force their feelings on him.

Interestingly, it was not bad advice that was given to Paul. And it was given out of love for him and his ministry. But it was not the right advice for him. He had heard the compelling voice of the Holy Spirit telling him to go to Jerusalem, and so any other advice, as good as it may have been, was wrong for him.

Tomorrow: Paul finally gets to Jerusalem