Stayed

We are coming to the end of Paul’s third missionary journey. There is a link in the “sites” section of the blog that will allow you to interactively track his journey.


Acts 21
1 After saying farewell to the Ephesian elders, we sailed straight to the island of Cos. The next day we reached Rhodes and then went to Patara. 2 There we boarded a ship sailing for Phoenicia. 3 We sighted the island of Cyprus, passed it on our left, and landed at the harbor of Tyre, in Syria, where the ship was to unload its cargo. 4 We went ashore, found the local believers, and stayed with them a week. These believers prophesied through the Holy Spirit that Paul should not go on to Jerusalem. 5 When we returned to the ship at the end of the week, the entire congregation, including women and children, left the city and came down to the shore with us. There we knelt, prayed, 6 and said our farewells. Then we went aboard, and they returned home. 7 The next stop after leaving Tyre was Ptolemais, where we greeted the brothers and sisters and stayed for one day. 8 The next day we went on to Caesarea and stayed at the home of Philip the Evangelist, one of the seven men who had been chosen to distribute food. 9 He had four unmarried daughters who had the gift of prophecy.


Stayed. This word stood out to me for a couple of reasons. First, it seemed ironic that Luke (the author) would use the word “stayed” while describing constant movement (seven points of destinations in eight verses). More importantly, why did he even mention these “stays”? He could have simply skipped this whole section. We could have skipped this whole section. For me, the greatest value, in pointing out these “stays”, is reminding us how big the family God really is. It is so easy for me to get caught up in my own life, or even in my own community of believers if I am even slightly compassionate, that I forget about the extended community. There are communities (big and small) of believers in towns and cities all over the world. Next time you arrive in a different “port of call” take some time to find the local believers and spend some time with them ... find a church and attend. Allow God to show you how big he really is.