Acts 21:15-19

NOTE: These words may seem familiar to those who read the blog on the day I post.  I originally errantly posted these words under the reflection for Acts 21:7-14.  So if you missed that reflection before I corrected them and put the reflections where they belong, read that one instead because you’ve already read this one.

Summary retelling of Acts 21:15-19

After coming home, Paul prepares himself to go up to Jerusalem.  Some of the disciples of Caesarea decide to go with Paul.  In Jerusalem, the brothers receive Paul gladly.  After meeting with the brothers, Paul is taken to meet with James and the elders.  When Paul met with James and the elders he began to tell them all of the great things that God was doing among the Gentiles.

Thoughts for Today

First Thought:

Let’s make sure that we understand the context of Jerusalem by the time Paul gets there.  First, the Jews are drawing ever more closely to sheer rebellion under the Romans.  This Jerusalem meeting happens most likely in the late 50s A.D.  Thus, this is probably happening close to 30 years after Jesus was crucified and between 12-15 years before Roman soldiers sack Jerusalem because of the Jewish rebellion against Rome.  Thus, the Jews are beginning to tire of Gentile leadership.  Second, many of Jesus’ disciples are largely gone from Jerusalem – or they are doing itinerant ministry as Paul is doing while returning to Jerusalem periodically.  The leadership has been handed over to religious administrators like James (Jesus’ half-brother who wrote the book of James that we have in our Bible, not the disciple and brother of John).  These two facts show us that Jerusalem is really a city on the edge of social and religious turmoil.

What can this teach us about the difficulty that our context can add to doing ministry?

Second Thought:

The Christians in Caesarea have a sense of what Paul is walking into as he plans to head for Jerusalem, so some of them go with him.  They do not abandon him to the tough situations, they journey the road with him.  They cannot walk the road for him and there will come a time when it is no longer possible for them to walk with him.  But they do walk with him while they can.

Why is it important to remember to walk with those spiritual persons among us who have a difficult road to travel?  Should it matter to us whether the difficult road is of their own making (IE, dealing with repentance and the consequences of their sin) or the path God has chosen for them to walk as a part of their ministry?

Third Thought:

Paul is eventually taken to James and the elders.  We’ll get to the meeting over the next few days, so I’ll save that discussion for later.  However, it is good enough for today to understand that the meeting begins cordially.  James and the elders receive Paul and his entourage of Christians.  Keep in mind that some of those who travelled with Paul were Jews who had converted to Christianity and some were Gentiles who converted to Christianity without converting to Judaism first.

Why is it nice to be cordial and social to people when you first meet them?  Do we have an easier time overlooking the individual characteristics of people when we first meet them and have a harder time overlooking these characteristics the longer we know them?  If so, why is that true?

Passage for Tomorrow: Acts 21:20-26