August 28, 2023 | Be On Mission
Traveling from Caesarea to Jerusalem
Scripture: Acts 21:15-16(NIV)
15 After this, we started on our way up to Jerusalem. 16 Some of the disciples from Caesarea accompanied us and brought us to the home of Mnason, where we were to stay. He was a man from Cyprus and one of the early disciples.
Devotional
Sometimes it’s good to stop and catch your breath. When facing a mountainous task, it might be good to take a day off. When going through endless challenges, it’s often a good idea to get a friend’s perspective.
While Paul was going to Jerusalem for what he thought could be his own death, he was not going alone. First, he had his traveling companions. This included Luke, who wrote the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts. It also included Timothy, who had traveled with him some five thousand miles on his second and third missionary journeys. There were others who were part of the preaching, discipling, and ministry team (see Acts 20:4).
In addition, some of the disciples from Caesarea accompanied Paul and the team to Jerusalem. No doubt Philip was one of them. He was one of the seven people chosen to oversee the distribution of food to widows in Jerusalem (Acts 6), took the Gospel to Samaria and Ethiopia (Acts 8), and now lived in Caesarea with his four daughters who had the gift of prophesy (Acts 21:8). Other believers from Caesarea joined the journey to Jerusalem.
Finally, the whole entourage stopped for the night at the home of a man who had relocated from Cyprus to Israel. Cyprus is where Barnabas was from (Acts 4) and where some of the first Christian converts went after persecution intensified in Jerusalem (Acts 11). Maybe because of their work, this guy Mnason was “one of the early disciples” (Acts 21:16).
You get the idea. This group of people walking to Jerusalem represented the full spectrum of Christianity for the thirty years it had existed. It included people who had helped extend the faith to distant lands. It was comprised of people who would write a Gospel and who would lead the church in a hostile city.
Why is it so important to be surrounded by good people when you are facing impossibly difficult situations? How can you be a friend to someone in need right now?
Poem
Mnason
I want to be Mnason
A person aptly named
“One who remembers” things of God
And thereby is sustained
“One searching with great diligence”
The one who seeks and finds
“Exhorter by the Word of God”
To transform others’ minds
I want to be Mnason
Remembered in God’s word
Just barely noticed by the world
Yet by the Spirit stirred
The quiet one who welcomes
Providing rest and stead
For weary pilgrim journeyers
By sharing love and bread
