3rd Missionary Trip - Lorin

Paul accepted as God’s will. It was with the help and encouragement of
believers in Thessalonica that Paul and Silas safely left the city for Beroea
(Acts 17:10). And believers in Beroea helped Paul escape persecution in
that city as well (Acts 17:14-15). It was the believers at Ephesus in the riot
who would not let Paul go into the theater to try to speak to the crowd (Acts
19:30). But it was on this final trip to Jerusalem starting from Corinth that
the believers urged Paul repeated not to go to Jerusalem out of concern for
his safety.
Paul gained understanding of God’s leading in his life clearly through
prayer and out of his commitment to doing the Lord’s will. But often the details
of what that leading meant in specific circumstances came through the
spiritual wisdom of fellow Christians. Paul was wise enough to recognize
this and to follow their advice. But at other times their sincere advice motivated
mostly by their love and concern for Paul led them to offer advice and
encouragement that Paul could not follow, because it
went against the leading of God in his life. When to accept
advice from fellow believers and when to ignore it
requires enormously great spiritual wisdom. Personal
safety and concerns to avoid suffering at times may
become channels through which God says for us to
get away from danger. But at other times these very
same concerns may instead be God saying, “Are you
ready to pay the ultimate price to follow Me?” Knowing
what God is saying to us is the challenge.
The final unit of this pericope in vv. 15-16 describes
the trip from Caesarea to Jerusalem: 15 Μετὰ
δὲ τὰς ἡμέρας ταύτας ἐπισκευασάμενοι ἀνεβαίνομεν
εἰς Ἱεροσόλυμα· 16 συνῆλθον δὲ καὶ τῶν μαθητῶν
ἀπὸ Καισαρείας σὺν ἡμῖν, ἄγοντες παρʼ ᾧ ξενισθῶμεν
Μνάσωνί τινι Κυπρίῳ, ἀρχαίῳ μαθητῇ, 15 After these
days we got ready and started to go up to Jerusalem. 16
Some of the disciples from Caesarea also came along and brought us to the house of Mnason of Cyprus, an early disciple,
with whom we were to stay.
Luke defines this event as coming at the end of the ‘very many days’ (v. 10) of their visit in Caesarea at the
home of Philip: Μετὰ δὲ τὰς ἡμέρας ταύτας, and after these days. Again no specification of the number of days is
given for their visit in the city. The phrase signals the end of the visit, as well as setting up a literary break between
what preceded and what follows. 290 The main clause in the first half of the sentence of vv. 15-16 signals that
extensive preparations were made for the final leg of the journey: ἐπισκευασάμενοι ἀνεβαίνομεν εἰς Ἱεροσόλυμα,
after having prepared we began the trip up to Jerusalem. The group did have a reasonably long trip ahead of them,
about 96 kilometers in length. This would include at least a couple of overnight stops along the route. The packing
of supplies etc. had to be completed before they could leave for Jerusalem. 291 Antipatris 292 was the overnight
stop on the trip from Jerusalem to Caesarea by horseback (cf. Acts 23:32). Possibly the delegation made it that
far before nightfall when they left Caesarea.
Members of the church at Caesarea escorted Paul and his group on this trip to Jerusalem: συνῆλθον δὲ
καὶ τῶν μαθητῶν ἀπὸ Καισαρείας σὺν ἡμῖν, ἄγοντες παρʼ ᾧ ξενισθῶμεν Μνάσωνί τινι Κυπρίῳ, ἀρχαίῳ μαθητῇ,
Some of the disciples from Caesarea also came along and brought us to the house of Mnason of Cyprus, an early disciple,
290Cf. 1:15; 6:1; 11:27.
291When in a few weeks Paul would come back from Jerusalem to Caesarea as a prisoner of the Romans, he would be riding a
horse courtesy of the Roman army escorting him. (cf. Acts 23:31-33). It took two days to make the trip by horse, so walking the distance
going up into the mountains where Jerusalem was from the seacoast would take at least that long if not longer.
292 “Herod the Great (37-4 BC) expanded the Judah kingdom, under the Roman rule. He sided Octavian (Augustus) against
Anthony and Cleopatra. Cleopatra controlled the city of Arethusa, after receiving it from her lover. The victorious Augustus gave him
the city and the area as a bonus (30 BC). Herod expanded the city in 9 BC, naming it after his father - Antipatris - which was his Greek
name” [“Afek, in the Sharon,” biblewalks.com] The modern Israeli city located there is named Afek.
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