Advice can be a wonderful thing … or a disaster. I remember once advising my sister, as she was making ginger snaps. I told her that she should sift the flour and the molasses together into the bowl. I’m sure that a moment or two of thought on your part could bring back memories of bad advice you have heeded in your life, and hopefully some good advice as well.

In our text Paul is given advice by two groups, each of which had considerable influence. The first group was a fairly large group of those who knew Paul, who cared deeply about him, and who urged him not to go to Jerusalem, where bonds and affliction awaited him. Paul rejected this advice, even though it was apparently given by those who traveled with him—men like Luke (see 21:12). The second time Paul was advised in chapter 21 it was by the elders of the church in Jerusalem, who urged Paul to do as they suggested, so that it would convince the Jewish saints in their city that Paul had not utterly renounced his Judaism personally, nor was he advocating that other Jews who had come to faith in Messiah do so. This advice Paul followed.

First impressions might incline us to conclude that Paul made the wrong choice in both cases. In going on to Jerusalem, that which had been prophesied about his being bound and handed over to the Gentiles came to pass. And, from a human point of view, it happened because Paul took the advice of the elders in Jerusalem, worshipped in the temple as they suggested, and was mistakenly accused of wrong-doing in the process.

There is yet one more “mistake” which Paul will appear to make in these final chapters of the Book of Acts: He will appeal his case to Caesar, and thus require that he be held in custody and taken to Rome.

All of these apparent mistakes are simply that—apparent mistakes. The bonds and afflictions which awaited Paul at Jerusalem, along with his subsequent appeal to Caesar, were God’s means of proclaiming the gospel to “Gentiles and kings,” just as God had purposed and foretold (Acts 9:15). In a similar way, the advice given Paul by the elders at Jerusalem was intended to enhance the gospel in one way, but God used it in a very different way to propel Paul and the gospel to the very court of Caesar, in Rome. It is, in fact, fitting that the gospel which, in Acts, was first proclaimed in Jerusalem (Acts 2) and last proclaimed in Rome (Acts 28) should find its way to Rome via Jerusalem (Acts 21-22).

Christians are just as inclined to give advice today as they were in Paul’s. Unfortunately, much (if not most) of the advice which is given by Christians is like that which the saints along the way to Jerusalem give to Paul—well-intentioned, but wrong. In our study, we will take note of the two very different forms of advice given to Paul in this chapter—that given by the saints in the cities on the way to Jerusalem, and that given by the elders in Jerusalem. We will characterize each of these, and then compare and contrast them. Finally, we will seek to identify some principles governing advice which may guide us in the advice we give as well as in the advice we choose to follow.

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