Acts 21:19

Acts 21:19. And when he had saluted them, he declared particularly what things God had wrought among the Gentiles by his ministry. Both from the private (Acts 21:17) and public reception of Paul and his companions by the presiding elders and bishop of the Jerusalem Church, it is quite clear that the governing body among the resident Jerusalem Christians sympathized with Paul's work, and thoroughly endorsed his teaching and practice. The bitter opposition proceeded from a small though influential faction, which was represented to some extent in all those many populous centres where Jews congregated. Before this venerable assembly of the elders of the mother church of Christianity, presided over by one who had been with the Lord from the days of the sacred childhood, Paul rehearsed the story of the past three years, including what is generally called the Third Missionary Journey all, in fact, that had taken place of importance since his last visit to the city, briefly recorded in chap, Acts 18:22, dwelling on the vast numbers of Gentiles who had joined the Church of God in such centres as Ephesus, Corinth, Thessalonica, Philippi, Colossæ. On this occasion he, no doubt, presented the costly presents and alms contributed as a token of love and sympathy by these foreign Gentile congregations to their poor Jewish brethren in Palestine.