Acts 24

Acts 24:1

Take heed therefore - I now devolve my care upon you; first to yourselves; then to the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers - For no man, or number of men upon earth, can constitute an overseer, bishop, or any other Christian minister. To do this is the peculiar work of the Holy Ghost: to feed the Church of God - That is, the believing, loving, holy children of God; which he hath purchased - How precious is it then in his sight! with his own blood - For it is the blood of the only begotten Son of God, 1 John 1:7.

Acts 24:2

Grievous wolves - From without, namely, false apostles. They had, not yet broke in on the Church at Ephesus.

Acts 24:3

Yea, from among yourselves men will arise - Such were the Nicolaitans, of whom Christ complains, Revelation 2:6; to draw away disciples - From the purity of the Gospel and the unity of the body.

Acts 24:4

I ceased not to warn every one night and day - This was watching indeed! Who copies after this example?

Acts 24:5

The word of his grace - It is the grand channel of it, to believers as well as unbelievers. Who is able to build you up - To confirm and increase your faith, love, holiness. God can thus build us up, without any instrument. But he does build us up by them. O beware of dreaming that you have less need of human teachers after you know Christ than before! And to give you an inheritance - Of eternal glory, among them that are sanctified - And so made meet for it. A large number of these Paul doubtless knew, and remembered before God.

Acts 24:6

I have coveted - Here the apostle begins the other branch of his farewell discourse, like old Samuel, 1 Samuel 12:3, taking his leave of the children of Israel.

Acts 24:7

These hands - Callous, as you see, with labour. Who is he that envies such a bishop or archbishop as this?

Acts 24:8

I have showed you - Bishops, by my example, all things - And this among the rest; that thus labouring - So far as the labours of your office allow you time; ye ought to help the weak - Those who are disabled by sickness, or any bodily infirmity, from maintaining themselves by their own labour. And to remember - Effectually, so as to follow it; the word which he himself said - Without doubt his disciples remembered many of his words which are not recorded. It is happier to give - To imitate God, and have him, as it were, indebted to us.

Acts 24:10

They all wept - Of old, men, yea, the best and bravest of men, were easily melted into tears; a thousand instances of which might be produced from profane as well as sacred writers. But now, notwithstanding the effeminacy which almost universally prevails, we leave those tears to women and children.

Acts 24:11

Sorrowing most for that word which he spake, that they should see his face no more - What sorrow will be in the great day, when God shall speak that word to all who are found on the left hand, that they shall see his face no more!

Acts 24:13

And when we were torn away from the in - Not without doing violence both to ourselves and them.

Acts 24:15

We landed at Tyre - That there should be Christians there was foretold, Psalms 87:4. What we read in that psalm of the Philistines and Ethiopians also may be compared with Acts 8:40; 27:4.

Acts 24:16

And finding disciples, we tarried there seven days - ln order to spend a Sabbath with them. Who told Paul by the Spirit - That afflictions awaited him at Jerusalem. This was properly what they said by the Spirit. They themselves advised him not to go up. The disciples seemed to understand their prophetic impulse to be an intimation from the Spirit, that Paul, if he were so minded, might avoid the danger, by not going to Jerusalem.

Acts 24:19

Having finished our voyage - From Macedonia, Acts 20:6, we came to Ptolemais - A celebrated city on the sea coast, anciently called Accos. It is now, like many other once noble cities, only a heap of ruins.

Acts 24:20

We came to Cesarea - So called from a stately temple which Herod the Great dedicated there to Augustus Cesar. It was the place where the Roman governor of Judea generally resided and kept his court. The evangelist, who was one of the seven deacons - An evangelist is a preacher of the Gospel to those who had never heard it, as Philip had done to the Samaritans, to the Ethiopian eunuch, and to all the towns from Azotus to Cesarea, Acts 8:5,26,40. It is not unlikely he spent the following years preaching in Tyre and Sidon, and the other heathen cities in the neighbourhood of Galilee, his house being at Cesarea, a convenient situation for that purpose. We abode with him - We lodged at his house during our stay at Cesarea.

Acts 24:22

A certain prophet came - The nearer the event was, the more express were the predictions which prepared Paul for it.

Acts 24:23

Binding his own feet and hands - In the manner that malefactors were wont to be bound when apprehended. So shall the Jews bind the man whose girdle this is - St. Paul’s bonds were first particularly foretold at Cesarea, to which he afterward came in bonds, Acts 23:33.

Acts 24:24

Both we, (his fellow travellers,) and they of the place, besought him not to go up to Jerusalem - St. Paul knew that this prediction had the force of a command. They did not know this.

Acts 24:25

Breaking my heart - For the apostles themselves were not void of human affections. I am ready not only to be bound, but to die - And to him that is ready for it, the burden is light.

Acts 24:26

And when he would not be persuaded - This was not obstinacy, but true Christian resolution. We should never be persuaded, either to do evil, or to omit doing any good which is in our power; saying, the will of the Lord be done - Which they were satisfied Paul knew.

Acts 24:27

We took up our carriages - Our baggage; which probably went by sea before. What they took with them now in particular was the alms they were carrying to Jerusalem, Acts 24:17.