Acts 21 is a microcosm of community, discipleship, glory and suffering: Paul reaches the point where he knew he wouldn’t see his beloved family again and that this final voyage from Tyre to Caesarea was unto final suffering, imprisonmmet and death.

Imagine the scene as, with profuse tears, Paul’s missional community kneels together on the gritty sand, embracing each other tightly, praying that God would protect and bless their leader whose face they’d never see again.

The voyage was a precursor to a gruelling 27 hour walk from Caesarea to Jerusalem via the pit-stop house of Mnason. And Agabus would soon confirm prophetically what Paul probably already knew in his heart that awaited in Jerusalem. It was all happening and fear must have lurked. And yet Paul set his face like flint (See: Luke 9:51; Isa. 50:7).

Spurred on by the Spirit of his Leader, Paul pressed on, driven by an assignment that Luke pens in the last 11 words of Acts 20:24