Acts 18-21: On to Jerusalem

These years of Paul's are punctuated by traveling, performing miracles, preaching the gospel, and being run out of town.  Paul was not afraid.  He was not afraid to speak.  In fact, he could speak for hours and hours to the extent that he put the young man Eutychus to sleep and he fell out of a third story window.  Paul was non-plussed.  He went down stairs, put his arm around the boy and assured everyone there that he was alive, and then went back upstairs to eat and continue talking until daylight. 

Paul was not ashamed or afraid to share the gospel and to travel throughout the Roman world on the gospel's behalf.  'I must go to Jerusalem,' he continued to tell the various churches that he visited, knowing that only trouble would await him there.  He told the people of Ephesus in a poignant farewell,  “And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me. However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace. - Acts 21:  22-24 NIV

All along the way, those that he came in contact urged him not to go on.  In Tyre, they urged him not to go on to Jerusalem, In Caesarea, the prophet Agabus told Paul that he would be bound by the Jews if he went to Jerusalem and the people pleaded with him not to go up to Jerusalem. Then Paul answered, “Why are you weeping and breaking my heart? I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.” When he would not be dissuaded, we gave up and said, “The Lord’s will be done.”  - Acts 21:13-14 NIV

Paul had an inkling of what lay ahead, but he also knew exactly who he believed in and nothing was going to change his mind.  As he later told the Romans,
    Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
   "As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
   Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
   For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
   Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.- Romans 8:35-39 NIV
 
Paul knew.  He knew what the end would be and he knew that he would always be in the loving hand of his God.  On to Jerusalem.