CLAIM: Luke writes, “They kept telling Paul through the Spirit not to set foot in Jerusalem” (Acts 21:4). Later, Agabus says, “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’” (Acts 21:11). Each place Paul goes, the believers tell him not to go. Is Paul being head strong?

RESPONSE: Luke records, “Paul purposed in the Spirit to go to Jerusalem” (Acts 19:21). Later, Paul said that he knew that he was “bound by the Spirit” to go to Jerusalem (Acts 20:22). Later, when Paul is in Jerusalem, Jesus visits him. Instead of rebuking Paul, Jesus tells Paul, “Take courage; for as you have solemnly witnessed to My cause at Jerusalem, so you must witness at Rome also” (Acts 23:11). Thus Jesus seems to be supportive of Paul going to Jerusalem. Moreover, if God didn’t want Paul to go, he could have stopped him the way he did in Asia (Acts 16:6).

What do we make of these seemingly contrary statements?

Believers in Tyre. Luke records, “They kept telling Paul through the Spirit not to set foot in Jerusalem” (Acts 21:4). What do we make of this? Commentators argue that God gave an accurate prophecy to these believers about Paul’s future (i.e. suffering and persecution), but they made an inaccurate interpretation of this prophecy (i.e. that Paul shouldn’t go). This is what Darrell Bock calls an inaccurate “inference from the message.”^[1] Paul, on the other hand, knew his destiny of suffering, and he embraced it as God’s will.

Richard Longenecker: “We should understand the preposition dia (‘through’) as meaning that the Spirit’s message was the occasion for the believers’ concern rather than that their trying to dissuade Paul was directly inspired by the Spirit.”^[2]

Howard Marshall: “The simplest solution is that the Christians at Tyre were led by the Spirit to foresee suffering for Paul at Jerusalem and therefore of their own accord they urged him not to go… The disciples at Tyre may not have been well informed on the finer points of predestination, and could have thought it possible to say to Paul, ‘If this is what is going to happen to you, don’t go.’”^[3]

John Stott: “Perhaps Luke’s statement is a condensed way of saying that the warning was divine while the urging was human.”^[4]

Agabus. The Holy Spirit tells Agabus: “In this way the Jews at Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles” (Acts 21:11). Again, Paul already knew that he would face persecution in Jerusalem. The Holy Spirit told Paul that “bonds and afflictions” awaited him (Acts 20:23; cf. Rom. 15:31). Stott writes, “The pleadings with Paul which followed are not attributed to the Spirit and may have been the fallible (indeed mistaken) human deduction from the Spirit’s prophecy.”^[5]

This is an example of how people with the gift of prophecy should not override the leadership of the church. Even if a prophecy is genuine, the leadership of the church still needs to interpret what they are hearing, and act based on God’s will.

Furthermore, when believers reject Christian counsel, they typically do so to avoid suffering and pursue comfort and security. Paul was doing just the opposite.

^[1] Bock, D. L. (2007). Acts (p. 637). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic.

^[2] Longenecker, R. N. (1981). The Acts of the Apostles. In F. E. Gaebelein (Ed.), The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: John and Acts (Vol. 9, p. 516). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.

^[3] Marshall, I. H. (1980). Acts: an introduction and commentary (Vol. 5, p. 358). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.

^[4] Stott, J. R. W. (1994). The message of Acts: the Spirit, the church & the world (p. 333). Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.

^[5] Stott, J. R. W. (1994). The message of Acts: the Spirit, the church & the world (p. 333). Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.