Bible Commentaries

Acts 21:14

I. The revealed will of God lies upon two pages—the page of Scripture and the page of Providence. There were three trials pressing upon the men of Cæsarea when they meekly folded their hands and said, "The will of the Lord be done." (1) There was defeat, for they were beaten in an argument into which they had evidently thrown all their power; consequently there was (2) disappointment, everything went contrary to their hopes and expectations; and (3) there was grief, the bitter grief of a painful bereavement. What is the secret of rest in all these things? I see nothing but a profound and adoring sense of God—to look away till we see only Him, His counsel ordaining, His love presiding, His hand guiding, His Spirit sanctifying, His glory crowning. "The will of the Lord be done."

II. But I turn to the unrevealed will. After all this was the main thought of the company at Cæsarea. "We cannot tell which is right, Paul or we. The Lord will show in His own time. What He decides must be best. The will of the Lord be done." It is a hard thing to sit and watch one I love, and to school my heart to receive, I do not know what, and I am afraid to ask what. But all the while, far above all this, over the perplexity, and over the mystery, and over the dread, there is reigning the high will of God, and that will is bearing on to its own destined purpose, and it must prevail. And here is faith's large field—the unrevealed will of God. Unite yourself with it, throw yourself upon it absolutely. Let it bear you where it will; it can only bear you home. "The will of the Lord be done."

J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 4th series, p. 1.

Reference: Acts 21:15.—Preacher's Monthly, vol. ii., p. 250.

Acts 21:16

I. This discipleship of Mnason commenced with the freshness of his youth. The epithet "old" does not, I think, refer so much to the man as the disciple. I do not think it tells us about the number of his years, so much as about the number of the years which he had lived as a servant of the Saviour. His birthplace was Cyprus, one of the wickedest places in all the world. To have been a disciple there was no child's play. In that place, of all others, he had witnessed a good profession before many witnesses, presenting himself body, soul, and spirit, a living sacrifice to God.

II. This discipleship of his survived all the temptations of his manhood.

III. This discipleship was held in reputation in his old age.

W. Brock, Penny Pulpit, No. 582, new series.

References: Acts 21:16.—Homiletic Magazine, vol. x., p. 276. Acts 21:17-26.—H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit, vol. iii., p. 19. Acts 21:23.—Ibid., vol. xiv., p. 181. Acts 21:28.—Expositor, 1st series, vol. ix., No. 377. Acts 21:39.—W. Braden, Christian World Pulpit, vol. x., p. 369.