The Prophet Agabus Predicting St. Paul’s Suffering in Jerusalem / Louis Cheron (17th century)

We normally think of prophets as being Old Testament characters. The New Testament acknowledges prophets and even names a few. Agabus gives us a rare chance to see one in action.

The Bible mentions Agabus only twice. In Acts 11:27-30, he shows up at the church in Antioch to predict a severe worldwide famine. In Acts 21:8-14 he accosts Paul on his way to Jerusalem to say he would be bound there and handed to Gentiles. Luke apparently didn’t expect his readers to remember Agabus by that time, so he introduced him all over again.

Agabus was a prophet from Jerusalem, but he is not ministering in Jerusalem either time he appears in Scripture. We have, therefore, no clue about what his ordinary ministry looked like.

By Agabus’ time, the Jewish leadership had not officially recognized any prophets for about 400 years. They would not have recognized Anna, a prophetess who spoke over the baby Jesus in the temple, or Agabus.

Nowadays, much of the church declares that prophecy and other spiritual gifts passed away with the early church. Others in the church recognize numerous people as prophets, who, unfortunately, are often wrong. These claim that Agabus was wrong with his second prophecy, so it’s no problem if modern prophets are wrong, too. Neither position is biblical.

The continuation of spiritual gifts today

1 Corinthians 12:4-11 lists nine gifts called manifestations of the Holy Spirit. In other words, whenever the Holy Spirit wants to make his presence known, he gives at least one person at least one of those gifts. The Holy Spirit didn’t go into hiding at the passing of the early church. Anyone can prophesy if the Holy Spirit so chooses. (And prophesying doesn’t necessarily mean predicting the future.)

Ephesians 4:11 lists people who serve in five different roles, including prophet, as gifts of Jesus Christ to the church. These five offices constitute the spiritual leadership of the church. Anyone can prophesy under the Holy Spirit’s inspiration, then, but not just anyone can be a prophet. Jesus takes the initiative in anyone becoming a prophet.

In 1 Timothy 3:1, Paul says that if anyone aspires to the office of overseer (or bishop, or other words, depending on the translation), he desires a good work. So someone can aspire to administrative leadership as a career choice, and it’s commendable to do so. One would hope that anyone who aspires to administrative leadership is also a Christ-called spiritual leader. But the two kinds of leadership are not the same thing. Plenty of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers serve in their Christ-given ministries as lay people.

Agabus’ prophecies

Worldwide famine

We never see Agabus ministering in his own church (Jerusalem). We have no idea if he was part of the administrative structure there. He shows up suddenly at pivotal times in the life of the church.

First, he visits Antioch to warn of a coming worldwide famine. Church members decided to take up a collection and send it to Jerusalem. This incident marks the beginning of one church supporting the ministry of another. In a sense, it marks the beginning of giving to missions.

Paul turned over to Gentiles

The Apostle Paul Explains the Tenets of His Faith in the Presence of King Agrippa, his Sister Berenice, and Proconsul Festus / Vasily Surikov (1875)

On his way to Jerusalem to deliver another collection, Paul stayed with Philip. Philip had been one of the original deacons but is here identified as Philip the Evangelist. After a few days, Agabus showed up.  He removed Paul’s belt from him and bound his own hands and feet with it. He said that in the same way, the Jews in Jerusalem would bind the owner of the belt and hand him over to Gentiles.

The people began to argue whether the Holy Spirit wanted Paul to go to Jerusalem at all. Anyone who has studied this passage in any detail must know that commentators have been continuing the argument from that day to this. Alas, Luke doesn’t mention anyone praying for the Holy Spirit’s guidance. Paul went on, and plenty of teachers think he went against a warning from the Holy Spirit.

More recently, some have suggested that Agabus got it wrong. They claim that the Jews did not bind Paul. Luke says they seized him and dragged him from the temple. He doesn’t say anything about their binding him in the process.

Well, Luke’s silence on the point doesn’t mean that they didn’t bind him in order to drag him out. And the accusation of false prophecy depends on Agabus claiming that the Jews would bind Paul the same way he bound himself with Paul’s belt.

As soon as Paul got to Jerusalem, nervous church leaders persuaded him to participate in a purification ritual just for show. Didn’t that advice essentially bind Paul to go to the temple? Keeping his distance may have been safer. Agabus didn’t say which Jews would bind Paul. It appears that Jewish leaders of the church did so very effectively. Even on the off chance that the mob at the temple did not.

And the result? Eventually, Paul had a chance to share his faith with King Agrippa and others.

Agabus as role model

We know Agabus for only two days out of his life. They were hardly typical days. Quite likely, they weren’t the days he considered most satisfying or most important. We need to be faithful in what may seem like small things so God will see us as useful for larger things—and promptly forget about whatever effect it may have on what other people think about us.

What’s more, we should recognize that the kind of spiritual leadership Agabus embodies still exists in the church today. Why else would there be any counterfeits? And we also need to pray that our own congregations be open to whatever style of spiritual leadership the Holy Spirit chooses to manifest. Someone acting weird may or may not be acting under the influence of the Holy Spirit, and we’d better be able to discern the difference.

But the overarching quality Agabus shows us is courage. It took courage to

• stand as a prophet when most people didn’t recognize that prophets still existed
• act as prophet and deliver doom and gloom messages when visiting somewhere
• offer unsolicited prophecy to a renowned leader that involved removing his belt—act like a lieutenant calling a general on the carpet
• acts strangely at the prompting of the Holy Spirit
• speak out, knowing that people often pay little heed to prophetic words