David Bahn – Reflections

Acts 21:1-2 (see 3-15 below)

And when we had parted from them and set sail, we came by a straight course to Cos, and the next day to Rhodes, and from there to Patara. 2 And having found a ship crossing to Phoenicia, we went aboard and set sail.

I have had the great fortune of learning history from two really great history professors. Sadly for me, they were the exception, not the rule in my personal experience. When I was first in college, I took a summer school history class that met at 7 a.m. Bad choice times two. First it was at 7 a.m.: what ever possessed me to think that was even a possibility? Second, the professor was simply boring, and I mean every caricature of the word you could imagine: monotone voice, lecture style, a list of dates, no sense of story or context that I needed in order to learn.

But then along came Mr. Green. He was a graduate assistant, teaching at the university I attended. He was great: engaging, putting the meat of story and intrigue on the bones of dates and times. It didn’t hurt that the class was at a more respectable hour (10 a.m.). As a graduate assistant, however, he was neither tenured, nor exempt from the draft. When he got called up to active duty in the military, guess who took over his class?!? Sadly for me: Mr. 7 a.m. Monotone. It didn’t take long for my decent “B” to turn into a barely OK “C”. Ugh.

When I was at the seminary, one particular history professor there was excellent. I still remember the day he used the whole class period to draw a chart on the chalk board showing the genesis and life cycle of the various Lutheran church bodies in the United States. The chart was a great visual for me, and he managed to make the history behind the lines, circles, and squiggles come alive as he told about mergers, falling-outs, and personalities along the way. History came alive for me through the teaching of that professor.

If you read this section of Acts in a monotone voice, with little attempt at putting it in the larger context of the mission of God and the plot-thickening events that would ultimately send Paul to Rome, you will have little more than a travelogue. It will be a list of places in the order in which they were visited. But read the list in light of the dangers that await Paul, and the warnings he receives along his way, as he heads back toward Jerusalem, and the travelogue becomes an engaging story of God’s mission through Paul and in those various places. Add to that the fact that these are real places, not contrived Neverland creations. God’s mission is being lived out in real time in real places. Imagine what it was like to receive him in one of those places, and wonder: Why are you heading to Jerusalem, Paul?!? They want to kill you there! Stay here. Hunker down. Be safe. 

But there is a bigger story. Paul will go to Jerusalem. There will be a plot to kill him. He will escape, and ultimately get to Rome. But all that is part of an even greater story. It is the story of the Mission of God being played out in the lives of Paul, his companions, and those he met along his way. It is the story that now involves you and me, for the Gospel has been spread all over the world. The Holy Spirit has compelled the witness of the Gospel to be shared, and we have heard it and believed it. Frankly, if it had not been Paul, it would have been someone else, for God will see to it that the lost are found and the elect are saved. But what a blessing to be part of his story of redemption and love for all people in Jesus Christ. What a great story we have to tell – whether it is this travelogue section of Acts, or the twists and turns that take Paul to Rome recorded in the coming chapters of Acts.

This travelogue is more than a travelogue because it is part of the story of God’s salvation coming to people throughout the whole world. We now rejoice together in that salvation and give praise and glory to God for his salvation and discover that we are also part of the story of God that will end on the great last day.

Acts 21:3-15

3 When we had come in sight of Cyprus, leaving it on the left we sailed to Syria and landed at Tyre, for there the ship was to unload its cargo. 4 And having sought out the disciples, we stayed there for seven days. And through the Spirit they were telling Paul not to go on to Jerusalem. 5 When our days there were ended, we departed and went on our journey, and they all, with wives and children, accompanied us until we were outside the city. And kneeling down on the beach, we prayed 6 and said farewell to one another. Then we went on board the ship, and they returned home.

7 When we had finished the voyage from Tyre, we arrived at Ptolemais, and we greeted the brothers and stayed with them for one day. 8 On the next day we departed and came to Caesarea, and we entered the house of Philip the evangelist, who was one of the seven, and stayed with him. 9 He had four unmarried daughters, who prophesied. 10 While we were staying for many days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. 11 And coming to us, he took Paul’s belt and bound his own feet and hands and said, “Thus says the Holy Spirit, ‘This is how the Jews[c] at Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.’” 12 When we heard this, we and the people there urged him not to go up to Jerusalem. 13 Then Paul answered, “What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be imprisoned but even to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.” 14 And since he would not be persuaded, we ceased and said, “Let the will of the Lord be done.”

15 After these days we got ready and went up to Jerusalem. 16 And some of the disciples from Caesarea went with us, bringing us to the house of Mnason of Cyprus, an early disciple, with whom we should lodge.