# Acts Chapter 21
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## Summarrium
Paul journeys to Caesarea where he enters the house of 'Phillip the evangelist'. Agabus a prophet of the Lord travels down from Judea and taking Paul's belt he binds his own hands and feet and claims that this is how the Jews at Jerusalem will bind Paul and deliver him to the Gentiles. Many attempt to persuade Paul not to go but he leaves any way and meets with James and the Elders.

Upon arrival to Jerusalem the Elders suggest that Paul purify himself to avoid reproach from the Jews who are committed to stir up the people against Paul. Indeed once the period of purification is complete Paul attends the temple and the Jews from Asia stir up the people against him and a riot breaks out. Paul is taken into custody by the Roman officials because of the uproar and Paul seeks and is granted permission to address the crowds.

## Meditatio
As we saw in [Chapter 20](http://tilde.club/~chortle/log.php?type=faith&year=part4#acts-chapter-20) Paul is committed to return to Jerusalem. There is a certain level of curiosity I feel towards why there would be oracular foreshadowing of his coming mistreatment and suffering on the part of the Gospel. For if Paul was committed to return was this some kind of test? Friends and brothers continually attempt to talk him out of the attempt but Paul doesn't listen. 

Indeed the bible is largely silent upon if this was the 'plan'. I'm not so liberal as to believe that this might have caught the Lord by surprised, but there is a question as to if it was the Lords best for Paul. We're not granted any insight into the struggles, the conversations, the damage done to relationships for the sake of the Gospel. Paul is single-minded and will not be persuaded to act otherwise.

There is a clear escalation to the violence and opposition which begins with the stoning of Stephen and persecution of the believers and escalates over time. We have disagreements (Chapter 15), persecution (Chapter 11), plots to kill (Chapter 9), incarceration (Chapter 16), stoning (Chapter 7 & 14), beatings (Chapter 16 & 21), legal proceedings (Chapter 13 & 18), Riots (Chapter 17 & 19). Paul and those with him suffer continually, something I hadn't really ever considered.

Acts is proving to be a fascinating read but I'm struggling a little here to draw out principles as I have done within the rich epistles of Paul. This had me thinking of the value of these distinct type of literature. Without Acts there are some incredible insights we would have missed. Such as the realisation that there is a metric ton of suffering experienced by the early church and much of this too was ideological.

Interestingly I worry that we face an ideological crisis because of competing demands within Church Communities. Within my own church Community there are the social commentators that want to make this about loss of traditional moral values and the rise of 'wokeness', the families that want church to be about community, the single people that want to make it about evangelism and the auto-didacts like myself that want it to be about learning and personal growth in Christ. 

What it would be if we *all* demonstrated Pauls single-mindedness and forsaking our ideological perspective, forsaking our wants and needs made it solely about the worship and exultation of the one who is worthy. The work of pastors has never been more of a challenge.