Because of the length of this passage, I am going to ask folks to read it for themselves. I will synopsize the events.

Advice can be a wonderful thing … or a disaster. A friend of mine was advised to build his cabin on a shelf on a mountain side with a lovely cliff behind. The soil was deep and easily worked and the ground was already level. Unfortunately, a large earthquake occurred after his cabin was completed that caused the lovely shelf to complete its downward slump toward the valley floor. Seems that some thousands of years before, that shelf had been part of the cliff and now it, and the debris of my friend’s cabin, divert the stream at the bottom of the valley.

In Acts 21, Paul was given advice by two groups with considerable influence. Paul knew the first fairly large group, who urged him not to go to Jerusalem because bonds and affliction awaited him there. This he ignored. Later, Paul was advised by the elders of the Jerusalem church to do as they suggested because it would convince the Jewish saints that Paul had not utterly renounced his Judaism and was not advocating that other Jews who came to faith in Jesus do so. He followed this advice.

First impressions might have us conclude that Paul made the wrong choice in both cases. Going to Jerusalem when prophesy said he’d be bound and handed over to the Gentiles seems foolish and certainly if Paul had stayed away from the temple, it seems he would not have been wrongly accused of taking a Gentile into the inner temple courts. We later see him make the “mistake” of appealing his case to Caesar, which assured him a trip to Rome. These apparent mistakes were God’s means of proclaiming the gospel to “Gentiles and kings,” as God had purposed and foretold (Acts 9:15). The advice of Jerusalem elders was intended to enhance the gospel in one way, but God used it in a very different way to propel Paul and the gospel to the court of Caesar, in Rome.

Christians are just as inclined to give advice today as they were in the 1^st Century. Unfortunately, much of the advice given by Christians today is like that the saints gave Paul along the way to Jerusalem —well-intentioned, but wrong.

Paul left the Ephesian elders in Miletus with tears and set sail for Jerusalem, knowing that suffering and bondage waited him. In Tyre, Paul received a prophesy concerning his fate in Jerusalem. The Holy Spirit apparently revealed to one or more prophets there that Paul would suffer in Jerusalem, but that it was not God’s will for him to do so. Thus, they urged him not to go to Jerusalem. However, later revelation in this chapter suggests that it was God’s will for Paul to undergo this suffering. We are left with three possibilities. The prophets could have been right on all counts and Paul was outside of God’s will in going to Jerusalem. The Holy Spirit tested Paul’s obedience and faith by having these saints suggest he could save himself. The saints were correct in understanding that Paul would face persecution in Jerusalem, but wrong in their conclusion that Paul should not go; Paul was therefore correct to continue forward.

I think we must conclude that the Holy Spirit only revealed Paul’s fate and that, in their love for Paul, these saints drew their own conclusion about what he should do about it. This sounds very familiar. I believe Jesus had a similar experience and ended up rebuking Peter for speaking Satan’s words. Like Peter, these saints were well-intentioned and loving and completely mistaken. Paul chose to continue to Jerusalem against their advice.

In Caesarea, Paul encountered Philip, who apparently lived there in Caesarea with his four daughters and wife. It was at his home that Agabus, who had given the prophesy concerning the world-wide famine to the Antioch church years before, prophesied to Paul that he would be bound by the Jews in Jerusalem and delivered into the hands of the Gentiles. This was not news to Paul, but it did take the Caesarean saints by surprise. They urged Paul to avoid arrest by avoiding Jerusalem. No doubt motivated by love and concern for the apostle, they reasoned that he could die in prison and that his ministry would certainly come to an end, and it just seemed best to avoid persecution and not run toward it.

 Paul was not about to change his mind. Convinced that he was to go to Jerusalem, Paul sought to fulfill God’s will for his life, even if that meant suffering for the sake of the gospel. This was not the first time he had suffered for the gospel; why would he shrink from it now? He rebuked those who were trying to turn him from his appointed course because he saw suffering more as a privilege than a problem. It was an inseparable part of his ministry since his conversion. It drew him into a more intimate understanding of Jesus (Philippians 3:10), seeing it as God’s way of encouraging the spiritual walk of other Christians and of promoting the proclamation of the gospel (Philippians 1:12-18).

Although the text doesn’t state it, I think Paul understood that somehow God would use this for the benefit of the saints. God was telling these people something important by this prophesy. As I read Acts, I recognized that the Holy Spirit wasn’t informing Paul of his fate in Jerusalem. Paul already knew. The Holy Spirit was informing the Christians of Paul’s fate. Clearly it was not so they could prevent Paul from going to Jerusalem. So what was the Holy Spirit up to? Well, with each public revelation and each attempt to divert Paul from Jerusalem, Paul was given the opportunity to explain his attitude toward suffering to many of those saints. Suffering was coming to them as well; they just didn’t yet know it. How they handled it would be paramount to the advancement of the gospel. Paul’s example would be paramount to their handling of persecution in the future. The prophesies revealed that Paul would suffer for his obedience to God, not for any sins he had committed. (How this contrasts with many Christians’ view of suffering for wrong-doing).

I think that the prophesy also showed that Paul was a hero of the faith, willing to suffer and to die for the sake of the gospel. A man who is sent to prison for a crime is not a man whose “prison epistles” would be sought, read, and preserved down through the ages. Paul was imprisoned for his faith and his obedience to the command of Christ, thus was a man worth listening to. These prophecies along the way to Jerusalem were both publicity and a divine commendation, paving the way for an even greater ministry from behind prison bars.

Once more, we also see the sovereignty of God at work. Prison bars would not be able to contain the gospel and would become the means for Caesar to hear the gospel. These saints were wrong that prison would end Paul’s ministry. God would use Paul’s imprisonment to enhance His ministry.

Paul was not turned from the course which God had appointed for him. Paul was warmly greeted in Jerusalem. No mention is made of the gift from the Gentile churches to the poor in Judea, but this was certainly delivered at some point in time. The following day, a meeting was arranged between Paul’s group and James and all of the elders of the Jerusalem church. Paul reported how his ministry had resulted in the salvation of many Gentile believers. They responded to this report with great joy, glorifying God for the salvation of these Gentiles saints. It was at this point that they recommended that Paul assuage the distress of Jewish believers living in Jerusalem. It seems they’d received false reports that Paul had been teaching Jewish converts to turn from the law and their Jewish practices and rituals. The Gentile practice of Christianity does not seem to have been the issue. The Jerusalem Council had spoken. Gentiles believers could worship God as Gentiles. It seems that the Jerusalem elders had been encouraging Jewish believers to continue in their Jewish practices, not as a means for salvation, but as an expression of love and devotion to God. Did Paul agree with this position or did he teach that Jewish Christians should discard the law? This was the rumor, of course. James and the elders suggested Paul show his remaining devotion to the Judaism while he was in Jerusalem. The elders did not ask Paul to do something against his doctrinal beliefs or his convictions. Paul was only encouraged to practice publicly that which he already did. Remember the quick comment in Acts 18:18, about Paul’s haircut? He still kept those portions of the Jewish law that were possible when working among Gentiles.

So what happened? If going to Jerusalem was the right thing to do, if worshipping in the Temple was the right thing to do, why did it all fall apart and lead to Paul’s arrest? Even when Paul attempted to demonstrate his continued commitment to (true) Judaism, his unbelieving brethren would have no part of him, of his teaching or his practice. It was not Jerusalem Jews, believers or unbelievers, who caused this trouble, but “Asian Jews” (verse 27) who created the uproar, hastily concluding that Paul had brought a Gentile into the Temple, thus defiling it. Paul participated with four men who were “under vow” in some sort of temple worship. When the seven days of this ritual were nearly completed, some of the Asian Jews, who were familiar with Paul and Trophimus, recognized them both, and falsely concluded that Paul had brought him into the temple. This was a horrifying thought to them, and stirred them to drag Paul out of the temple and bar him from readmittance. They felt his death was appropriate for such evil and were in the process of carrying it out when the Roman commander and his cohort came on the scene. He was there to quell a riot, not to rescue Paul, but his presence served to stop the beating. The commander quickly recognized that Paul was at the center of the disturbance and assumed it must be his fault. The crowd was no help, so the commander removed Paul to the barracks for further interrogation. On the way, Paul spoke to the commander in Greek, assuring him that he was a Jew, not an Egyptian revolutionary. He granted Paul permission to speak to the hostile crowd. Though Paul was being handed over to the Romans by the Jews, the gospel would not be silenced.

Once more, the sovereignty of God is evident in Acts. There are those who will insist that Paul did teach that which he was falsely accused – the utter rejection of the law by the Jews and everyone else. This is simply untrue! Paul fought against legalism and the use of the law as a means of earning God’s favor. He loved the law and found great joy in observing its commands and rituals as an expression of worship, not as a means of salvation. We would do well to re-think our view of the law if it does not agree with the view of the elders of the church of Jerusalem and Paul.

There! I’ve given advice, which brings us back to the central theme of Chapter 21. Good advice cannot be hastily given. I offered my advice based upon study of the Bible. The Jerusalem elders, addressing a problem that had plagued them for quite some time, gave well-thought-out advice to Paul. The saints in the churches, however, gave their advice immediately after the prophet spoke. Paul seems to have needed to interrupt them to give them his perspective. They were too hasty to speak and slow to hear. The elders in Jerusalem based their advice upon principle rather than subjective emotion. The saints cared for Paul and they did not wish to see him suffer. The advice of the elders was rooted in truth. How easy it is to let our well-intentioned concern carry us to ill-conceived advice. The saints sought to help Paul avoid suffering while the elders sought to urge Paul to do the right thing. There is a world of difference between advice that is self-serving and that which puts others first. The elders were encouraging Paul to follow God’s guidance in his life while the saints were discouraging Paul in a course of action that might have hindered the gospel.

Christians should perhaps, based upon a reading of this text, give far less advice than we currently do. We can only advice people to the degree that we have a clear Biblical principle to base our advice on, for our counsel should always rest upon the Bible and not preference or self-interest. Each individual Christian must decide what the will of God is for his/her life. Even Holy Spirit-inspired prophesy must be applied to our lives in practical terms and we see here that we can misinterpret prophesy. Christians can give bad advice for well-intentioned and loving reasons. Good advice and good prophesy will always stand on Scripture and not apart from it. 

It is sometimes hard for us to understand, that Christians can and do act in very human ways against God’s counsel. Christians are not called to live autonomous lives without accountability to other Christians, but ultimately, we are the only ones who can determine God’s will for our lives.

Paul knew he was meant to go to Jerusalem and onto Rome. God meant for him to do it on Caesar’s expense account. God used Paul imprisonment to advance the gospel and to secure it in writing for two millennia. We cannot, looking back with 20-20 hindsight, say that the arrest of Paul was a bad thing, thus we must conclude that he knew God’s will for his life far better than the saints who begged him not to go to Jerusalem.