Acts 21:6 - Printer Friendly

ESV: and said farewell to one another. Then we went on board the ship, and they returned home.

NIV: After saying goodbye to each other, we went aboard the ship, and they returned home.

NASB: Then we boarded the ship, and they returned home.

CSB: we said farewell to one another and boarded the ship, and they returned home.

NLT: and said our farewells. Then we went aboard, and they returned home.

KJV: And when we had taken our leave one of another, we took ship; and they returned home again.

NKJV: When we had taken our leave of one another, we boarded the ship, and they returned home.

For several months, Paul has been saying "goodbye" to people. This includes the churches in Ephesus, Troas, Philippi, and Thessalonica, and twice in Berea. Now, he says farewell to the church in Tyre: a church he may never have met with before. Even so, they become distraught when they realize Paul is headed to Jerusalem where he will be imprisoned. They try to convince him not to go. Yet Paul knows the Holy Spirit's "warning" is not so he can avoid hardship but so that he will be prepared for it. So, the church prays for him as he leaves (Acts 21:3–5).

Around this time, Paul writes a letter to another church he'd never met: Rome. In Romans 8, Paul speaks about the place of suffering in the Christian life. He says suffering for God is a sign that we are His children and that He will glorify us (Romans 8:17). Paul tells them, "For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us" (Romans 8:18). He reminds us that everything—including suffering—works "together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose" (Romans 8:28–30). And that although we may suffer in the world, nothing can take us from God (Romans 8:38–39).

The key, Paul says, is to set our minds on the Holy Spirit and make sure He indwells our hearts. If we belong to God, even if we die, we will live (2 Corinthians 5:6–8).

Acts 21:1–6 describes how Paul and his companions finally start their way back to Judea. They sail from Miletus on the southwest coast of modern-day Turkey around the islands to Tyre in Phoenicia. Whether because the Holy Spirit informs them or Paul tells them, the Jesus-followers there realize Paul faces arrest in Jerusalem. Not understanding God's purpose, they try to protect their friend by begging him not to go. When Paul insists, they pray for him and send him on his way.

In Acts 21, Paul returns to Judea from his third missionary journey and promptly gets arrested. He begins by visiting Philip in Caesarea Maritima. Church elders in Jerusalem ask Paul to help men fulfill a Nazirite vow, to dispel rumors he has apostatized his Jewishness. While doing so, Ephesian Jews accuse Paul of bringing one of his Gentile Ephesian companions into the temple. The Roman military tribune keeps the enraged crowd from tearing Paul limb from limb by arresting him.

Acts 21 fulfills the fears of many of Paul's friends. Throughout the last part of his third missionary journey the Holy Spirit has been telling him he will be arrested in Jerusalem (Acts 20:23–25). When Paul reacts to dire personal prophecy, the Jesus-followers in Caesarea Maritima try to stop him from going on (Acts 21:8–14). Through a complicated trail of rumors, lies, and wrong assumptions, things go according to the Holy Spirit's foreknowledge and Roman soldiers arrest Paul. He will face the next 5 years in custody in Caesarea and Rome, but he will spread Jesus' story the entire time (Acts 22—28).

The summary of the book of Acts is provided in Jesus' words in Acts 1:8: ''But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.'' In Acts 2:1–13, the Christ-followers receive the Holy Spirit. Acts 2:14—7:60 describes the rapid growth of the church in Jerusalem. Chapters 8—12 find Jewish persecution inadvertently spreading the gospel throughout Judea and Samaria. And in chapters 13—28, Paul and his companions spread the good news throughout the Roman Empire.