Acts 19:21

Acts 19:21. After these things were ended. ‘These things were ended' probably refer to the completion of the work of laying the foundation-stories of churches in Ephesus and the neighbouring Asian cities; the public mission work, so to speak, of the Asian district for this time was complete-Some two years and three months had been spent by Paul and his companions in this work. The little society of missionaries was now broken up. Two of them, we find from the next verse, were despatched by Paul before him into Europe. He himself intended, with a diminished staff, to stay a little longer in the centre of his past scene of labours. His own prolonged stay seems to have been suggested by the events which have been related as just having taken place at Ephesus. A new opening, on the one hand, seems to have presented itself among the Heathen population, and there was also a grave necessity for consolidating and strengthening his work among many of the professing believers (see Acts 19:18-19).

Paul purposed in the spirit. Too much emphasis must not be laid on this expression. It does not signify a direct intimation of the Spirit through a vision or by a voice. It was probably, however, owing to a secret impulse of the Spirit that he formed the purpose of this long and hazardous journey.

When he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia, to go to Jerusalem. In Macedonia and Achaia had been planted those well-loved churches of his, at Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea, and Corinth. He had a twofold object in purposing to visit these congregations. The first was to stir up their faith, and correct and set in order any disorders which might be disturbing their progress and development, such as we know were at that time distracting the peace of the Church of Corinth. The second was to bring to a close the collection for the poor saints at Jerusalem. Paul evidently hoped much from this generous coming forward on the part of the Gentile churches to the help of their distressed Jewish Christian brethren at Jerusalem. He felt that such an unsought-for gift would do much to move the stubborn hearts of the jealous and exclusive party among the Jewish Christians, who still grudged with a fierce jealousy any concession which admitted the Gentiles to a share in the kingdom of God. This was the reason of Paul's deep anxiety on this subject. It is interesting to note that this relief fund, which had been in the course of collection for some time, and which Paul gathered up on this journey, and then carried to Jerusalem, was the first of the many acts of love and charity since shown by strangers to strangers for the love of Christ. This example of Paul has been followed in many an instance in the long story of Christianity. Similar acts of apparently uncalled-for generosity, which loves to be independent of race and nationality, shine bright among the evil selfish deeds of our own time.

After I have been there, I must also see Rome. This had been evidently a long and cherished plan of Paul's. He alludes to it very distinctly in the Roman epistle, Acts 1:13: ‘I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that oftentimes I purposed to come unto you' (see, too, in the same epistle, Acts 20:23-24; Acts 20:28). He must have heard much of that little faithful congregation in Rome, gathered together, we have reason to think, in those very early days which immediately succeeded the Church's first Pentecost, in the Suburra, the poor, remote quarter where the Jews of Rome mostly dwelt. Priscilla and Aquila, Paul's dearest friends, had been, before they came under the mighty influence of the Gentile apostle, members of that primitive Roman congregation, and from them he had heard, no doubt, many times of the burning faith and devotion of the poor despised brotherhood gathered under the shadow of the great palaces of imperial Rome.

Paul longed to visit them, and to endue them with some of his own ardent aspirations and high thoughts of work for the Master. The long - cherished desire of years was at length to be accomplished; and the journey, as he planned it, as far as regards the place visited, was carried out, and at length the apostle finds his ardent wish gratified, and sees Rome with his own eyes. When at Ephesus, after his successful work, he made his plans, Paul little thought how, through weariness and painfulness, he would at length reach the Rome of his dreams, but as a prisoner and in chains!