In Caesarea, Paul and his team stay with Philip the Evangelist, who settled down there after spreading the gospel in Samaria. Agabus the prophet visits Paul and warns him that he will certainly be arrested and bound by ropes if he comes to Jerusalem. Paul’s traveling companions and the Caesarean believers weep and beg Paul to avoid the holy city, but Paul, though touched by their affection, declares that he is ready even to die for Jesus, if it is God’s will.
In Acts 21:7-14Acts 21:7-14 commentary, commentary Paul receives another prophecy about the danger waiting for him in Jerusalem.
In the previous section, Paul had finally returned to the Middle East after spending over three years in the western Roman provinces of Asia, Achaia, and Macedonia. Paul and his traveling companions spent a week in Tyre, Phoenicia with believers there. The Spirit communicated to the Tyrian believers that Paul would suffer in Jerusalem. This worried them, but despite urging Paul to avoid Jerusalem, Paul was set on going to the capital to celebrate the Jewish festival of Pentecost (Acts 20:16Acts 20:16 commentary). The Tyrian believers, their wives, and their children accompanied Paul to the shore and prayed with him on the beach before he boarded his ship.
Luke, the author of Acts, is with Paul during this journey. He writes that their boat sails south down the coast of Phoenicia: When we had finished the voyage from Tyre, we arrived at Ptolemais, and after greeting the brethren, we stayed with them for a day (v. 7).
Ptolemaiswas another Phoenician coastal city, named after its founder, the Greek king Ptolemy I Soter. It was located about halfway between Tyre and Caesarea. Paul and his team finished the voyage from Tyre to Ptolemais (25-30 miles) and met with the brethren in Ptolemais. This is the first and only mention of Ptolemais and believers living there in the New Testament, so clearly the gospel had continued to spread throughout Judea and Syria.
This community of believers may have been founded during the persecution which arose after the murder of Stephen, when some believers fled Jerusalem to live in Phoenicia, where they preached the gospel to fellow Jews (Acts 11:19Acts 11:19 commentary). On his return journey from his first mission trip, Paul stayed with believers in Phoenicia (Acts 15:3Acts 15:3 commentary), which may have been the brethren here in Ptolemais and earlier in Tyre. Whether or not Paul had formerly known these brethren, they were hospitable to Paul. After greeting one another, Paul’s team was able to lodge with the Ptolemais believers for a day.
After their day in Ptolemais, they continue south to Caesarea: On the next day we left and came to Caesarea, and entering the house of Philip the evangelist, who was one of the seven, we stayed with him (v. 8).
Caesarea was a city that had been constructed by Herod the Great and was a port and center for Roman governance. In Caesarea, the Apostle Peter had stayed in the house of the Roman centurion Cornelius in the early years of the church and the early chapters in Acts. It was there that salvation first came to the Gentiles (Acts 11:18Acts 11:18 commentary). It will be in Caesarea that Paul will eventually stand trial before the Roman governor Felix (Acts 23:23-33Acts 23:23-33 commentary).
Now Paul comes to Caesarea. Luke writes that they stayed in the house of Philip the evangelist, who was one of the seven. Philip had been one of the seven deacons, the first deacons ever assigned to tend to the needs of the poor, in the church of Jerusalem (Acts 6:5Acts 6:5 commentary).
The deacon Stephen, “a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit,” was also one of the first seven deacons, and was the first believer recorded to be killed for his faith in Jesus (Acts 6:5Acts 6:5 commentary, 7:597:59 commentary). At the time of Stephen’s death, Paul was still a Pharisee who opposed the Way of Jesus Christ. He had been present at the stoning of Stephen and had approved of it, though does not appear to have played an active role in it (Acts 7:58Acts 7:58 commentary, 8:18:1 commentary). After Stephen was stoned to death, Paul began persecuting the church severely, and believers scattered from Jerusalem as a result (Acts 8:3Acts 8:3 commentary).
During this persecution, Philip the deacon earned his title the evangelist. Philip first went north to Samaria, bringing the gospel to the Samaritans (Acts 8:5Acts 8:5 commentary). Afterward he preached the gospel to an African eunuch on the road to Gaza, before the Holy Spirit whisked him away to the road along Israel’s coast (Acts 8:38-39Acts 8:38-39 commentary).
Philip preached the gospel as he made his way northward. He ended his coastal mission trip in Caesarea and apparently settled down there (Acts 8:48Acts 8:48 commentary). It is amazing that Philip is now hosting Paul in his house as a friend and guest, when decades ago Paul’s violent persecution of the believers was the reason Philip was driven out of Jerusalem and ended up living in Caesarea.
Philip’s title—the evangelist—comes from the Greek word “euangelistēs,” meaning “bringer of good news.” The word “gospel” is a translation of the word “euangelion,” meaning “good news.” To the Samaritans, the African eunuch, and the coastal cities of Judea, Philip brought the good news about God’s Messiah, Jesus.
Caesarea, where Philip had settled, was the same city where the first Gentiles believed in the resurrected Jesus. Cornelius the Roman centurion was visited by an angel who told him to summon the Apostle Peter, who was in the nearby city of Joppa. Peter came to Caesarea and preached the gospel to Cornelius and his friends and household.
The Spirit fell on these new believers and they began speaking in foreign languages, showing to Peter and his Jewish companions that God was saving Gentiles as well as Jews (Acts 10:24-48Acts 10:24-48 commentary). It was in Caesarea that the door to the gospel opened to the Gentiles, and here many years later, Paul was staying in the city after spending years preaching the gospel to the Gentiles beyond it.
Luke informs us about Philip’s family: Now this man had four virgin daughters who were prophetesses (v. 9).
His four daughters were probably teenagers, since they are described as virgin (unmarried maidens). They were each believers in Jesus and evidently had the gift of prophecy. They were each prophetesses.
Prophets and prophetesses are spiritually gifted to help sort out what is true and direct believers how to make wise choices. Just as in the Old Testament, New Testament prophets could deliver messages from God. The messages usually are geared toward calling God's people to live righteously, according to God's good design. In some cases, people with the gift of prophecy also predict future events, most often as part of calling people to repentance.
Luke makes no further comment on Philip’s daughters or their gifting, but in the following verse, another believer with the gift of prophecy comes to the house of Philip:
As we were staying there for some days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea (v. 10).
The prophet named Agabus appeared earlier in Acts 11:27-30Acts 11:27-30 commentary. He and other prophets made the journey from Jerusalem to Antioch, Syria, where Agabus “began to indicate by the Spirit that there would certainly be a great famine all over the world.” This led to the wealthier Antiochian believers raising a relief fund for the poorer Judean believers to help in the coming famine. Paul helped deliver the charitable donations to the elders in Jerusalem. He knew Agabus from this event years earlier, and perhaps had seen him during other visits to Jerusalem.
Now, As Paul and his team were staying in Philip’s house for some days, Agabus came down from Judea to give another prophecy in the presence of Paul. Somehow word had reached Jerusalem that Paul was in Caesarea, or perhaps the Spirit had revealed it to Agabus. Luke describes that Agabus came down from Judea in reference to the shift in elevation; Jerusalem was nestled high in the Judean hills some 2,550 feet (780 meters) above sea level. To journey from Jerusalem to Caesarea involved coming down from the hills to the coastal plains and then to the sea itself, as Caesarea was a port city directly on the coast.
And coming to us, he took Paul’s belt and bound his own feet and hands, and said, “This is what the Holy Spirit says: ‘In this way the Jews at Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles’” (v. 11).
Agabus gives a demonstration to illustrate what will happen to Paul. After coming to Paul, Luke, and the others staying at Philipp’s house, he took Paul’s belt. Paul’s belt was probably a sash of some kind, not necessarily a leather belt we might imagine. Agabus took the belt and bound his own feet and hands. He may have had someone help bind him in such a way.
To have one’s feet tied together is debilitating. The prisoner cannot run. To have one’s hands tied is likewise extremely limiting. But to have both hands and feet bound together renders the prisoner incapable of any mobility. They are completely at the mercy of the one who has bound them.
Agabus explains his demonstration. In this way the Jews at Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles. Paul is the man who owns this belt. The way in which Agabus has been tied up, so will the Jews at Jerusalem bind Paul. After they have bound Paul, they will deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles. The Jews at Jerusalem do not refer to any believing Jews, but to enemies of the gospel. They will give Paul over to the Gentiles, the Roman authorities.
Luke describes the reaction to Agabus’s illustration: When we had heard this, we as well as the local residents began begging him not to go up to Jerusalem (v. 12).
The reaction of the local residents—Philip, his daughters, and the other believers in Caesarea—is similar to that of the Tyrian believers (Acts 21:4Acts 21:4 commentary). They were begging Paul not to go up to Jerusalem. Now Luke includes himself and the other members of Paul’s team in this reaction. It was When we had heard Agabus’s prophecy, we as well as the local Caesareans together were begging Paul to change his mind about Jerusalem.
Luke, Timothy, Trophimus, and all the others (Acts 20:4Acts 20:4 commentary) had already known that Paul was warned by the Spirit that “bonds and afflictions” awaited Paul (Acts 20:23Acts 20:23 commentary). Paul’s friends had spent weeks with him traveling from Macedonia, along the coast of Asia Minor, all the way to Phoenicia and now to the land of Israel, all in Paul’s company.
Luke and the others had heard Paul tell the Ephesian elders that bonds and afflictions were at the end of his road, in Jerusalem. They had just spent the previous week in Tyre among believers who received the same foreboding from the Spirit, and who had desperately urged Paul to change his travel plans. But until now it seems they were fine with Paul’s plans. But after Agabus’s prophecy they made and change.
Here in Caesarea, Luke and the others at last join in the dissenting opinion that Paul should avoid Jerusalem. All of them were begging Paul not to go. Not one of them agreed with Paul’s commitment to knowingly get arrested, mistreated, and led to a potentially deadly end.
Perhaps Agabus’s stunning visual demonstration had prompted their reaction. To see the prophet bind himself like an animal for slaughter, and to say this would happen to Paul, may have stirred fear and concern in their hearts for their beloved friend. Perhaps what Paul previously said to them went from concept to imminent reality.
To now be only a few days travel from Jerusalem also may have brought their anxiety to the front of their minds. Whatever the reason, Paul found himself surrounded by a crowd of casual and close friends, fellow believers, begging and weeping for him to stay far away from Jerusalem.
Paul answers them with resolve, though he is touched by their love for him:
Then Paul answered, “What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be bound, but even to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus” (v. 13).
He asks his friends, What are you doing? Why are you trying to turn me aside? He describes that they are also weeping as they beg him. It is to a powerful effect that one’s loved and dearest friends would ask one to change one’s mind while sobbing and pleading, and Paul is not impervious to their emotional appeal. Their tears and worries are breaking his heart. It is painful for him to see the distress of the other believers. But it will not alter his commitment to go to Jerusalem.
He declares, as he has before, that he is ready not only to be bound as Agabus had illustrated, but he is also ready even to die. Paul had been arrested many times before (2 Corinthians 11:232 Corinthians 11:23 commentary, commentaryActs 16:23Acts 16:23 commentary). Once, he had nearly been killed (Acts 14:19Acts 14:19 commentary). But he was ready for it to happen again. Paul was ready even to die at Jerusalem, if his death happened for one reason alone: to die for the name of the Lord Jesus.
Paul may have been thinking about Stephen, the first believer to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus. There, in the house of Philip, who was once a deacon alongside Stephen, Paul may have reflected on how faithful Stephen was to the end of his life. Paul had watched Stephen’s murder as an enemy approving of his death. Now he sat in the home of Stephen’s old ministry partner and friend, Philip, and may have been comforted by Stephen’s bold example.
Stephen was the first recorded martyr after Jesus’s crucifixion. “Martyr” is a word derived from the Greek word for “witness” (“martys”). A witness is one who is faithful in their testimony (“martyria”) and is an example of overcoming the world as Jesus overcame (Revelation 3:21Revelation 3:21 commentary). Witnesses live for the name of the Lord Jesus and do not fear death or loss. Paul was likewise committed to being a witness for Jesus no matter what it would cost him.
Luke, Timothy, Philip, and the others see that Paul will not change his mind: And since he would not be persuaded, we fell silent, remarking, “The will of the Lord be done!” (v. 14).
They knew Paul. They knew his commitment to the gospel, and to following the Spirit. Paul was certain that the Spirit had not warned him to avoid Jerusalem but had only prepared him for what was to come. Paul’s friends saw that he would not be persuaded otherwise, and so they at last give up the debate. Luke writes we fell silent. They said only one thing more on the matter, remarking, “The will of the Lord be done!”
In the end, all that mattered was that the will of God happen. They did not want to stand in God’s way, no matter how terrifying the path to the completion of God’s will. Jesus too felt fear, and wept, and asked God for another way, when He prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane the night before His crucifixion.
But His final stance was the same as it had been throughout His life, to do the will of His Father. He prayed, “not as I will, but as you will” (Matthew 26:39Matthew 26:39 commentary, 4242 commentary). The believers who loved Paul loved God even more. They accepted God’s will and Paul’s resolve. Paul did not hold his life or the suffering he might incur in his witness for Jesus to be anything that mattered in the ultimate perspective of eternity. He considered such suffering inconsequential (“momentary” and “light”) compared to the “eternal weight of glory” God has for those who are faithful witnesses for the name of Jesus (2 Corinthians 4:17-182 Corinthians 4:17-18 commentary).
Though Paul knows the outcome might be death, he does not know if it will happen, only that it might. He did not know the future. Even Agabus the prophet did not know the fullness of what remained of Paul’s life. The will of the Lord works all things together for good to those who serve and love Him (Romans 8:28Romans 8:28 commentary). The primary good is that we be conformed to the image of Christ (Romans 8:29Romans 8:29 commentary).
Something good would come of this, as the New Testament bears witness. As the rest of the book of Acts unfolds, Luke gives us testimony that this arrest in Jerusalem would not mean Paul’s death. It would instead give way to providing an array of opportunities for Paul to continue to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, including to some of the top leaders in Rome, the center of world government at the time (Philippians 1:13Philippians 1:13 commentary).
Ultimately Paul would die at the hands of Rome, but in the process he left behind a legacy that all who read the Bible still benefit from to this day.
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Acts 21:7-14 meaning
In Acts 21:7-14Acts 21:7-14 commentary, commentary Paul receives another prophecy about the danger waiting for him in Jerusalem.
In the previous section, Paul had finally returned to the Middle East after spending over three years in the western Roman provinces of Asia, Achaia, and Macedonia. Paul and his traveling companions spent a week in Tyre, Phoenicia with believers there. The Spirit communicated to the Tyrian believers that Paul would suffer in Jerusalem. This worried them, but despite urging Paul to avoid Jerusalem, Paul was set on going to the capital to celebrate the Jewish festival of Pentecost (Acts 20:16Acts 20:16 commentary). The Tyrian believers, their wives, and their children accompanied Paul to the shore and prayed with him on the beach before he boarded his ship.
Luke, the author of Acts, is with Paul during this journey. He writes that their boat sails south down the coast of Phoenicia: When we had finished the voyage from Tyre, we arrived at Ptolemais, and after greeting the brethren, we stayed with them for a day (v. 7).
Ptolemais was another Phoenician coastal city, named after its founder, the Greek king Ptolemy I Soter. It was located about halfway between Tyre and Caesarea. Paul and his team finished the voyage from Tyre to Ptolemais (25-30 miles) and met with the brethren in Ptolemais. This is the first and only mention of Ptolemais and believers living there in the New Testament, so clearly the gospel had continued to spread throughout Judea and Syria.
This community of believers may have been founded during the persecution which arose after the murder of Stephen, when some believers fled Jerusalem to live in Phoenicia, where they preached the gospel to fellow Jews (Acts 11:19Acts 11:19 commentary). On his return journey from his first mission trip, Paul stayed with believers in Phoenicia (Acts 15:3Acts 15:3 commentary), which may have been the brethren here in Ptolemais and earlier in Tyre. Whether or not Paul had formerly known these brethren, they were hospitable to Paul. After greeting one another, Paul’s team was able to lodge with the Ptolemais believers for a day.
After their day in Ptolemais, they continue south to Caesarea: On the next day we left and came to Caesarea, and entering the house of Philip the evangelist, who was one of the seven, we stayed with him (v. 8).
Caesarea was a city that had been constructed by Herod the Great and was a port and center for Roman governance. In Caesarea, the Apostle Peter had stayed in the house of the Roman centurion Cornelius in the early years of the church and the early chapters in Acts. It was there that salvation first came to the Gentiles (Acts 11:18Acts 11:18 commentary). It will be in Caesarea that Paul will eventually stand trial before the Roman governor Felix (Acts 23:23-33Acts 23:23-33 commentary).
Now Paul comes to Caesarea. Luke writes that they stayed in the house of Philip the evangelist, who was one of the seven. Philip had been one of the seven deacons, the first deacons ever assigned to tend to the needs of the poor, in the church of Jerusalem (Acts 6:5Acts 6:5 commentary).
The deacon Stephen, “a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit,” was also one of the first seven deacons, and was the first believer recorded to be killed for his faith in Jesus (Acts 6:5Acts 6:5 commentary, 7:597:59 commentary). At the time of Stephen’s death, Paul was still a Pharisee who opposed the Way of Jesus Christ. He had been present at the stoning of Stephen and had approved of it, though does not appear to have played an active role in it (Acts 7:58Acts 7:58 commentary, 8:18:1 commentary). After Stephen was stoned to death, Paul began persecuting the church severely, and believers scattered from Jerusalem as a result (Acts 8:3Acts 8:3 commentary).
During this persecution, Philip the deacon earned his title the evangelist. Philip first went north to Samaria, bringing the gospel to the Samaritans (Acts 8:5Acts 8:5 commentary). Afterward he preached the gospel to an African eunuch on the road to Gaza, before the Holy Spirit whisked him away to the road along Israel’s coast (Acts 8:38-39Acts 8:38-39 commentary).
Philip preached the gospel as he made his way northward. He ended his coastal mission trip in Caesarea and apparently settled down there (Acts 8:48Acts 8:48 commentary). It is amazing that Philip is now hosting Paul in his house as a friend and guest, when decades ago Paul’s violent persecution of the believers was the reason Philip was driven out of Jerusalem and ended up living in Caesarea.
Philip’s title—the evangelist—comes from the Greek word “euangelistēs,” meaning “bringer of good news.” The word “gospel” is a translation of the word “euangelion,” meaning “good news.” To the Samaritans, the African eunuch, and the coastal cities of Judea, Philip brought the good news about God’s Messiah, Jesus.
Caesarea, where Philip had settled, was the same city where the first Gentiles believed in the resurrected Jesus. Cornelius the Roman centurion was visited by an angel who told him to summon the Apostle Peter, who was in the nearby city of Joppa. Peter came to Caesarea and preached the gospel to Cornelius and his friends and household.
The Spirit fell on these new believers and they began speaking in foreign languages, showing to Peter and his Jewish companions that God was saving Gentiles as well as Jews (Acts 10:24-48Acts 10:24-48 commentary). It was in Caesarea that the door to the gospel opened to the Gentiles, and here many years later, Paul was staying in the city after spending years preaching the gospel to the Gentiles beyond it.
Luke informs us about Philip’s family: Now this man had four virgin daughters who were prophetesses (v. 9).
His four daughters were probably teenagers, since they are described as virgin (unmarried maidens). They were each believers in Jesus and evidently had the gift of prophecy. They were each prophetesses.
Prophets and prophetesses are spiritually gifted to help sort out what is true and direct believers how to make wise choices. Just as in the Old Testament, New Testament prophets could deliver messages from God. The messages usually are geared toward calling God's people to live righteously, according to God's good design. In some cases, people with the gift of prophecy also predict future events, most often as part of calling people to repentance.
Luke makes no further comment on Philip’s daughters or their gifting, but in the following verse, another believer with the gift of prophecy comes to the house of Philip:
As we were staying there for some days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea (v. 10).
The prophet named Agabus appeared earlier in Acts 11:27-30Acts 11:27-30 commentary. He and other prophets made the journey from Jerusalem to Antioch, Syria, where Agabus “began to indicate by the Spirit that there would certainly be a great famine all over the world.” This led to the wealthier Antiochian believers raising a relief fund for the poorer Judean believers to help in the coming famine. Paul helped deliver the charitable donations to the elders in Jerusalem. He knew Agabus from this event years earlier, and perhaps had seen him during other visits to Jerusalem.
Now, As Paul and his team were staying in Philip’s house for some days, Agabus came down from Judea to give another prophecy in the presence of Paul. Somehow word had reached Jerusalem that Paul was in Caesarea, or perhaps the Spirit had revealed it to Agabus. Luke describes that Agabus came down from Judea in reference to the shift in elevation; Jerusalem was nestled high in the Judean hills some 2,550 feet (780 meters) above sea level. To journey from Jerusalem to Caesarea involved coming down from the hills to the coastal plains and then to the sea itself, as Caesarea was a port city directly on the coast.
And coming to us, he took Paul’s belt and bound his own feet and hands, and said, “This is what the Holy Spirit says: ‘In this way the Jews at Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles’” (v. 11).
Agabus gives a demonstration to illustrate what will happen to Paul. After coming to Paul, Luke, and the others staying at Philipp’s house, he took Paul’s belt. Paul’s belt was probably a sash of some kind, not necessarily a leather belt we might imagine. Agabus took the belt and bound his own feet and hands. He may have had someone help bind him in such a way.
To have one’s feet tied together is debilitating. The prisoner cannot run. To have one’s hands tied is likewise extremely limiting. But to have both hands and feet bound together renders the prisoner incapable of any mobility. They are completely at the mercy of the one who has bound them.
Agabus explains his demonstration. In this way the Jews at Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles. Paul is the man who owns this belt. The way in which Agabus has been tied up, so will the Jews at Jerusalem bind Paul. After they have bound Paul, they will deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles. The Jews at Jerusalem do not refer to any believing Jews, but to enemies of the gospel. They will give Paul over to the Gentiles, the Roman authorities.
Luke describes the reaction to Agabus’s illustration: When we had heard this, we as well as the local residents began begging him not to go up to Jerusalem (v. 12).
The reaction of the local residents—Philip, his daughters, and the other believers in Caesarea—is similar to that of the Tyrian believers (Acts 21:4Acts 21:4 commentary). They were begging Paul not to go up to Jerusalem. Now Luke includes himself and the other members of Paul’s team in this reaction. It was When we had heard Agabus’s prophecy, we as well as the local Caesareans together were begging Paul to change his mind about Jerusalem.
Luke, Timothy, Trophimus, and all the others (Acts 20:4Acts 20:4 commentary) had already known that Paul was warned by the Spirit that “bonds and afflictions” awaited Paul (Acts 20:23Acts 20:23 commentary). Paul’s friends had spent weeks with him traveling from Macedonia, along the coast of Asia Minor, all the way to Phoenicia and now to the land of Israel, all in Paul’s company.
Luke and the others had heard Paul tell the Ephesian elders that bonds and afflictions were at the end of his road, in Jerusalem. They had just spent the previous week in Tyre among believers who received the same foreboding from the Spirit, and who had desperately urged Paul to change his travel plans. But until now it seems they were fine with Paul’s plans. But after Agabus’s prophecy they made and change.
Here in Caesarea, Luke and the others at last join in the dissenting opinion that Paul should avoid Jerusalem. All of them were begging Paul not to go. Not one of them agreed with Paul’s commitment to knowingly get arrested, mistreated, and led to a potentially deadly end.
Perhaps Agabus’s stunning visual demonstration had prompted their reaction. To see the prophet bind himself like an animal for slaughter, and to say this would happen to Paul, may have stirred fear and concern in their hearts for their beloved friend. Perhaps what Paul previously said to them went from concept to imminent reality.
To now be only a few days travel from Jerusalem also may have brought their anxiety to the front of their minds. Whatever the reason, Paul found himself surrounded by a crowd of casual and close friends, fellow believers, begging and weeping for him to stay far away from Jerusalem.
Paul answers them with resolve, though he is touched by their love for him:
Then Paul answered, “What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be bound, but even to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus” (v. 13).
He asks his friends, What are you doing? Why are you trying to turn me aside? He describes that they are also weeping as they beg him. It is to a powerful effect that one’s loved and dearest friends would ask one to change one’s mind while sobbing and pleading, and Paul is not impervious to their emotional appeal. Their tears and worries are breaking his heart. It is painful for him to see the distress of the other believers. But it will not alter his commitment to go to Jerusalem.
He declares, as he has before, that he is ready not only to be bound as Agabus had illustrated, but he is also ready even to die. Paul had been arrested many times before (2 Corinthians 11:232 Corinthians 11:23 commentary, commentary Acts 16:23Acts 16:23 commentary). Once, he had nearly been killed (Acts 14:19Acts 14:19 commentary). But he was ready for it to happen again. Paul was ready even to die at Jerusalem, if his death happened for one reason alone: to die for the name of the Lord Jesus.
Paul may have been thinking about Stephen, the first believer to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus. There, in the house of Philip, who was once a deacon alongside Stephen, Paul may have reflected on how faithful Stephen was to the end of his life. Paul had watched Stephen’s murder as an enemy approving of his death. Now he sat in the home of Stephen’s old ministry partner and friend, Philip, and may have been comforted by Stephen’s bold example.
Stephen was the first recorded martyr after Jesus’s crucifixion. “Martyr” is a word derived from the Greek word for “witness” (“martys”). A witness is one who is faithful in their testimony (“martyria”) and is an example of overcoming the world as Jesus overcame (Revelation 3:21Revelation 3:21 commentary). Witnesses live for the name of the Lord Jesus and do not fear death or loss. Paul was likewise committed to being a witness for Jesus no matter what it would cost him.
Luke, Timothy, Philip, and the others see that Paul will not change his mind: And since he would not be persuaded, we fell silent, remarking, “The will of the Lord be done!” (v. 14).
They knew Paul. They knew his commitment to the gospel, and to following the Spirit. Paul was certain that the Spirit had not warned him to avoid Jerusalem but had only prepared him for what was to come. Paul’s friends saw that he would not be persuaded otherwise, and so they at last give up the debate. Luke writes we fell silent. They said only one thing more on the matter, remarking, “The will of the Lord be done!”
In the end, all that mattered was that the will of God happen. They did not want to stand in God’s way, no matter how terrifying the path to the completion of God’s will. Jesus too felt fear, and wept, and asked God for another way, when He prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane the night before His crucifixion.
But His final stance was the same as it had been throughout His life, to do the will of His Father. He prayed, “not as I will, but as you will” (Matthew 26:39Matthew 26:39 commentary, 4242 commentary). The believers who loved Paul loved God even more. They accepted God’s will and Paul’s resolve. Paul did not hold his life or the suffering he might incur in his witness for Jesus to be anything that mattered in the ultimate perspective of eternity. He considered such suffering inconsequential (“momentary” and “light”) compared to the “eternal weight of glory” God has for those who are faithful witnesses for the name of Jesus (2 Corinthians 4:17-182 Corinthians 4:17-18 commentary).
Though Paul knows the outcome might be death, he does not know if it will happen, only that it might. He did not know the future. Even Agabus the prophet did not know the fullness of what remained of Paul’s life. The will of the Lord works all things together for good to those who serve and love Him (Romans 8:28Romans 8:28 commentary). The primary good is that we be conformed to the image of Christ (Romans 8:29Romans 8:29 commentary).
Something good would come of this, as the New Testament bears witness. As the rest of the book of Acts unfolds, Luke gives us testimony that this arrest in Jerusalem would not mean Paul’s death. It would instead give way to providing an array of opportunities for Paul to continue to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, including to some of the top leaders in Rome, the center of world government at the time (Philippians 1:13Philippians 1:13 commentary).
Ultimately Paul would die at the hands of Rome, but in the process he left behind a legacy that all who read the Bible still benefit from to this day.