Acts 21:13

Acts 21:13. Then Paul answered, What mean ye to weep and to break my heart? for I am ready not to be bound only, but to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus. But Paul, in spite of these reiterated prophecies, notwithstanding the loving and affectionate entreaties of his friends, saw clearly the Divine will and his own plain duty through all this cloud of hindrances, and held on to his first purpose without flinching. The work his Master had appointed for him to do lay at Jerusalem. There, at the great Pentecostal feast, he would meet with many thousand Jews from all parts of the world, all more or less prejudiced against the famous apostle of the Gentiles who was said to be everywhere teaching the children of the chosen people to forsake the ‘Law.' He would meet these face to face, and, supported by the countenance of James and the elders of the revered Jerusalem Church, disprove these painful fatal rumours. He would show the multitudes gathered together at Pentecost, how nobly his churches his converts had come forward with money and help for the distressed Palestine Jews, and thus he hoped for ever to set himself right with his own countrymen. He was an old man, wearied with ceaseless toils and worn with sickness and anxiety. The chance of meeting so great a concourse of Jews in the Holy City might never occur again; so for his work's sake, for the sake of the many flourishing churches he had founded, he would do his best to disprove the false rumours so widely disseminated concerning his teaching. This was, we believe, in Paul's mind, and determined him at all risks to go up to the Holy City and keep the feast; and in spite of what happened there, there is no doubt but that this the real purpose of the visit was accomplished, and that with James the Lord's brother, the head of the Jerusalem Church, a vast proportion of the crowds from foreign lands who kept that Pentecost feast, from that time, as the result showed, loyally accepted the Gentile apostle and his noble work. Far down the stream of Christian centuries, another famous Christian leader, an ardent and devoted follower of Paul, when similarly warned of coming danger, resolutely replied to his friends in the spirit of Paul. It was when Luther was on his way to the city of Worms, that he too met with friends who warned him; and when he was near the city, his beloved friend Spalatin sent him a message entreating him not to enter and expose himself to such dangers. His answer was a memorable one: ‘Although there were as many devils in Worms as there are tiles upon the housetops, I will still go thither.'