The Story of the Bible

Paul and his company sailed among the islands and toward the land of Judea, and went ashore at Tyre. There they found disciples, and stayed with them a week. Some of these spoke to Paul in the Spirit of God, and told him not to go into Jerusalem. But Paul had set his face toward that city; and when he found a ship going from Tyre to Judea, all the disciples, with their wives and their children, went with him out of the city; and all knelt down together on the beach and prayed, before they parted from each other. Paul's party left the ship at a place called Ptolemais, from which they walked down the shore to Caesarea. This was the place where years before Peter had given the gospel to the Roman centurion Cornelius, as we read in Story Seven. And there Paul found Philip, the man who had preached to the Samaritans and to the nobleman from Ethiopia, of whom we read in Story Five. In those old days, Paul then Saul, had been Philip's enemy, and had driven him out of Jerusalem. Now they met as friends, and Paul stayed as a guest at Philip's house.

While they were at Caesarea, an old man named Agabus, came down from Jerusalem. He was a prophet, to whom God had shown some things that were to come to pass. We have read of a prophecy by this man before, in Story Nine. This man came to Paul, and took off Paul's girdle, and with it bound his own feet and hands, and he said:

"Thus saith the Spirit of God, 'So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man that owns this girdle, and shall give him into the hands of the Gentiles.' "

When they heard this, all Paul's friends, and Philip, and the disciples of Caesarea, pleaded with Paul and begged him not to go up to Jerusalem. But Paul answered:

"What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart? I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus!"

When they saw that Paul could not be moved from his purpose, they ceased trying to persuade him, saying, "The will of the Lord be done."

After some days in Caesarea, Paul and his friends, with some of the believers from Caesarea, went up the mountains to Jerusalem. So Paul was once more, and now for the last time, in the city of his people.

The Speech on the Stairs

Acts xxi: 17 to xxii: 29.

When Paul and his friends came to Jerusalem, they met with the church in that city, and gave the money which had been gathered among the Gentiles to help those of the Jewish believers in Christ who were poor. The Apostle James, the Lord's brother, who was at the head of the church in Jerusalem, gave Paul and his friends a glad welcome, and praised God for the good work wrought among the Gentiles.

About a week after Paul had come to Jerusalem, he was worshipping in the Temple, when some Jews from the lands around Ephesus saw him. They at once stirred up a crowd, and took hold of Paul, crying out:

"Men of Israel, help! This is the man who teaches all men everywhere against our people, and against our laws, and against this Temple. Besides, he has brought Gentiles into the Temple and thus has made the holy house unclean!"

They had seen with Paul, walking in the city, one of his friends from Ephesus who was not a Jew, and they started the false report that Paul had taken him into the Temple. When the Jews set up this cry against Paul, all the city was stirred up, and a great crowd gathered around Paul. They dragged Paul out of the Temple into the outer court, and were about to kill him, in their rage.

But in the castle on the north of the Temple was a Roman guard of soldiers, a thousand men under the command of an officer whom we should call a colonel, but who they called "the chief captain." Word came to this officer that all Jerusalem was in a riot, and that a wild mob had seized the Temple. He called out companies of soldiers and their centurions, or captains, and rushed quickly into the Temple and into the midst of the crowd who were beating and trampling upon Paul. The chief captain took Paul from their hands, and, thinking that he must have done something very wicked to call forth such a riot, ordered him to be fastened with two chains.

Then he asked who this man was and what he had done. All began to answer at once, some shouting one thing and some another, and as the chief captain could understand nothing in the confusion, he commanded the soldiers to take him into the castle. The crowd made a rush to seize Paul and take him away from the soldiers, but they carried him through the throng and up the stone steps that led into the castle, while all around, at the foot of the stairs, was the multitude of angry Jews, crying out, "Away with him! Kill him!"