Our voyage from Tyre terminated with our arrival at Ptolema'is, where we greeted the brethren, staying with them for a day. On the day following we departed coming to Caesare'a where we were given hospitality at the house of Philip the evangelist, one of the seven. He had four unmarried daughters, prophets. During our stay of a few days, a prophet named Ag'abus came from Judea to confront us. He took Paul's girdle, and binding his own feet and hands, said, "Thus says the Holy Spirit, 'This is how the Jews at Jerusalem shall bind the man whose girdle this is, to hand him over to the Gentiles.'" Upon hearing this, we and the others present, begged him not to go up to Jerusalem. Paul answered us, "What is this? Why weep and break my heart? Am I not ready to be imprisoned and even to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus?" And he would not be persuaded, so we had to desist saying, "The Lord's will be done." After these days we prepared ourselves and went up to Jerusalem. Some of the disciples from Caesare'a accompanied us, to bring us to the house of Mnason of Cyprus, a long-term disciple, so we could lodge with him.
In a Nutshell
Paul, like Jesus before him, set his face to go up to Jerusalem. He did so knowing full well the danger that faced him and the disciple of Jesus.
Questions
Did Agabus and Luke think Paul was going to disobey the Holy Spirit?
In Luke's gospel (Luke 9:51-56) Jesus set his face to go up to Jerusalem. This caused the Samaritans anguish and they refused to offer Him and the disciples hospitality. We also recall that some years after that Philip preached the Gospel in Samaria. Then Peter and John discovered Samaritan hospitality for the people of that region had come to believe that Jesus was the prophet foretold by Moses. Around the time of Paul's conversion Luke told us that the entire region of Judaea, Galilee and Samaria experienced a peace that had not been known for centuries. Now Paul returned to this prominent Samaritan sea-port where the Holy Spirit had been poured out and where Philip settled with his talented, prophetic daughters.
But the latest resistance to Paul's "going up to Jerusalem" was born of a new kind of spiritual perception. Sure, the Samaritans had a custom of not welcoming those going up to Jerusalem. But now the resistance was from those who continued their hospitality, those who advised against "going up" for quite different reasons.
Agabus was a well-know prophet in those parts. He had been responsible for alerting the followers of Jesus to their God-given responsibility of caring for those suffering famine. Paul and Barnabas had collected monies from the churches at Syrian Antioch and through Galatia in order to make good their common bonds as servants of God's Son. Now, this same Agabus, had another word, a word of warning for Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles. Luke tells us that Agabus, as with the warnings from the believers in Tyre, was fully responsive to what God's Spirit required of them. Indeed, Paul's party including Luke, were alerted to the danger. They tried to persuade Paul against "going up" to Jerusalem. But their obedience to God's Spirit was also tested because Paul too was required by the Same Spirit to do what he had been called to do. Paul prophetically answered those who felt he was needlessly putting himself in the way of danger. He was able to persuade them. Their willingness that "the Lord's will be done!" was not some kind of passive resignation but a confession of faith, a characteristic of the party's entire journey to Jerusalem. But then, how else are Christians to travel?