Acts 21-22

This section marks a stark change in the flow of Acts. Paul is done being a traveling missionary. The tree has spread its branches across the world and established new, Gentile root centers in Corinth and Ephesus. Now it is time for the circle to be completed as Paul returns to Jerusalem.

A new chapter begins in the story as we focus on Paul as a prisoner. After leaving the Aegean Sea, Paul, under the compulsion of the Holy Spirit, sailed to Syria, and then moved on to Jerusalem. Despite the passionate pleas of his friends, Paul was determined to face whatever harm may come to him in Jerusalem.

Agabus the prophet, through a prophetic pantomime, warned Paul that he would be bound in Jerusalem. James, the leader of the church in Jerusalem, warned Paul that the Jewish Christians were hostile toward him, and encouraged him to cleanse himself in a temple ritual. Despite his attempts to reenter the Jerusalem culture, Paul was misunderstood, and, like Jesus so many years before, was falsely accused and wrongfully arrested. It was only by the “grace” and protection of Rome that Paul was quite literally snatched from the hands of an angry and murderous mob. The fact that Paul was a citizen of Rome saved his life and set him up for his final journey.