"After greeting them, Paul gave a detailed account of the things God had accomplished among the Gentiles through his ministry" (Acts 21:19 NLT).
This was a wonderful day in the history of the early church. Paul returned from his third and longest missionary journey to give "a detailed account" to James and the elders in Jerusalem. After hearing the report of how the Gentiles all over Asia Minor and Greece had received the gospel, the elders rejoiced and praised God.
The modern practice of giving a missions report back to the home church is really not modern at all. I suppose the first missions team to report back was the "Seventy-two" sent out by Jesus who "returned with joy" (Luke 10:17). Yet, Paul and his team certainly solidified the practice of bringing back a detailed report to the sending church.
In only a few weeks, we'll be sending out our Guatemala Missions Team. And we look forward with hope to rejoicing and praising God at their missions report when they return.
The riotous crowd that had chanted to kill Paul now fell silent as he addressed them in their own tongue. Did he defend himself or respond in anger? No. He gave his testimony. Paul's response was the epitome of the prayer that the early church prayed in Acts 4:29 when they prayed, "Lord, you consider their threats while granting us boldness to speak Your Word." We can pray this prayer too. Paul was truly bold, but his courage came from a deep sense of calling by the Lord Jesus. The Lord is still calling followers that would depend on Him like Paul.