Acts 20:13-27

13 We went on ahead to the ship and sailed for Assos, where we were going to take Paul aboard. He had made this arrangement because he was going there on foot. 14 When he met us at Assos, we took him aboard and went on to Mitylene. 15 The next day we set sail from there and arrived off Chios. The day after that we crossed over to Samos, and on the following day arrived at Miletus. 16 Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus to avoid spending time in the province of Asia, for he was in a hurry to reach Jerusalem, if possible, by the day of Pentecost.
17 From Miletus, Paul sent to Ephesus for the elders of the church. 18 When they arrived, he said to them: “You know how I lived the whole time I was with you, from the first day I came into the province of Asia. 19 I served the Lord with great humility and with tears and in the midst of severe testing by the plots of my Jewish opponents. 20 You know that I have not hesitated to preach anything that would be helpful to you but have taught you publicly and from house to house. 21 I have declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus.

22 “And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. 23 I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me. 24 However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.

25 “Now I know that none of you among whom I have gone about preaching the kingdom will ever see me again. 26 Therefore, I declare to you today that I am innocent of the blood of any of you. 27 For I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God.



Dig Deeper
Now days you can walk into virtually any Christian bookstore and find shelves full of books on how to grow a church, build a ministry, and be as successful as possible as a leader of a church. A vast majority of these books are packed with inspirational ideas and concepts of how businesses or groups become successful in our world. They then give example after example of how you can follow a few easy steps to build your own successful ministry in a similar manner. They usually contain several good spiritual tips and reminders but at the heart of most of these types of books are rules on strong leadership, developing tight organizational skills, and having and communicating a clear mission and vision for your church or group. Some of these books are so focused on following a corporate model of success that you can read them and barely notice that they are spiritually minded books at all. They might have a veneer of Christian faith on them but the principles are almost entirely built on what it takes to be successful in the Western world in the realm of business.

Paul’s ministry success stands in stark opposition to these trendy type of books that are full of corporate wisdom and wit. I tend to wonder that if Paul wrote a book on ministry and how to build one that was released today it wouldn’t be very successful in the current climate of following the latest inspirational trend that will help you to attain explosive growth in your own church. Paul well knew that Jesus said that his church would be identified and built on the simple act of loving one another (John 13:34-35). That is not to say that things like having a plan and holding to true doctrines, beliefs, and practices aren’t incredibly important. A church must be built on truth in Christ, but then it must be a constant display of the kind of love that only the Holy Spirit can inspire.

Paul didn’t build his ministries on slick ideas, programs, and corporate structure. He built them on nothing more or less than the simple truth of strong relationships and brotherhood. Paul loved people first and foremost, just as Jesus had, and that will always lead to the true kind of success. Perhaps it doesn’t always lead to explosive numerical growth, for this type of model takes time and much effort, but it will always be the best and only way of building God’s church.

Paul continued to make his way towards Jerusalem where he was hoping to arrive before Pentecost, so his time was definitely tight on this trip. As he arrived in Miletus Paul decided that he did not want to take the time to travel to Ephesus which was about 30 miles away but he did desire to see the elders of the church and to encourage them one more time. Luke doesn’t tell us why Paul did not want to go into Ephesus although it probably was not solely related to saving time, as he could just as easily and quickly traveled to Ephesus and back to Miletus in the amount of time that it took for a messenger to make the trek to Ephesus, gather up the elders in Ephesus and bring them back to Miletus. It is quite possible that one of the factors in Paul’s decision was the massive trouble that he faced previously in Ephesus. It might have caused quite a ruckus had he returned which could have delayed his return to Miletus and caused him to miss the ship to Jerusalem. Paul thought it wiser to have the elders come to him, though he no doubt wished that he could have seen all of his brothers and sisters in Ephesus.

This was no easy trip to make on the spur of the moment but the Ephesian elders clearly valued their relationship with Paul and were willing to sacrifice to see him. As they arrived Paul gave them a farewell address, something that was fairly typical in the ancient world (see Gen. 47:29-49:33; Deut. 31:14-33:29; Josh 23:1-24:30; 1 Sam. 12:1-25; 2 Ki. 2:1-14; Matt. 28:18-20; John 13-17; 2 Tim., etc.) when someone was drawing to the end of their life, a relationship, or a specific period in their life. Paul seemed to sense that this would be his last words face-to-face with his dear brothers in Ephesus.

As such, Paul will remind them that because he did his best to live as an example of the life in Christ for them to follow and emulate. The first thing that he mentions is that he lived among them, identified with them, and served them. His words in verses 17-18 serve as a reminder of how he lived when he was with them (see 1 Thess. 2:1-2; 5:10-11; Phil. 4:15 for similar examples). Paul reminds them that the main thing he did among them was to build relationships. He didn’t approach them as a leader building a large religious structure for his own benefit, rather he served with great humility (2 Cor. 10:1; 11:17; 1 Thess. 2:6) and tears. His work was not just work, though, it was serving the Lord (Rom. 1:1; 12:11; Phil. 2:22) despite constant opposition from his Jewish opponents (2 Cor. 11:24, 26; 1 Thess. 2:14-16). He did the hard work of building relationships and that’s what he was calling them to do.

The second thing that he reminds them of is that he was a true teacher of the gospel. He went from house to house and taught the people the things that they needed to live as the people of God (Rom. 16:5; Col. 4:15; Philemon 21). He spent the time and did the hard work of building up the people according to their needs in Christ (Gal 4:16; 2 Cor. 4:2).

The third reminder is that he was a bold witness to the gospel to all people; both the Jews and Greeks (Rom. 1:16; 1 Cor. 9:20). Paul never got comfortable in building up a small little group of believers and then hunkering down satisfied with that. He never stopped teaching and building up the community but he also never stopped proclaiming the gospel to unbelievers despite the fact that this would bring continued opposition and persecution. The hallmarks of response to the gospel that Paul expected was repentance, which was dying to self (Gal. 2:20), and faith in the Lord Jesus (Romans 10:9-13).

His fourth reminder was that his suffering came as a result of obedience to the Father. Paul was uncertain of his future (Rom. 15:30-32) but he knew that the Spirit was compelling him to get to Jerusalem and he knew that wherever he went, the Spirit had already ensured him that he would face prison and hardships. It cannot be stated with certainty, but I do think that a strong case can be made for identifying this with the thorn in the flesh that Paul mentions in 2 Corinthians 12:7-10. Three times he asked the Lord to remove this reality but God refused, knowing that it would continue to drive Paul back to the Lord’s strength in humility. Bolstering the thought that Paul’s “thorn” was this constant persecution comes from the fact that on three separate occasions in the Old Testament, opposition from the enemies of God and his people is referred to as as being “thorns” (Num. 33:55; Jud. 2:3; Josh 23:12-13). It seems that everywhere Paul went he faced opposition, persecution, and riots and he very well could have viewed this as his humbling thorn in the flesh.

It might seem strange that Paul could both believe that the Spirit was calling him to Jerusalem and that he would likely suffer harsh persecution when he arrived. The answer lies in verse 24. Paul’s focus was not on his life. He considered his life to have been forfeited when he died to himself at baptism and took up his total and complete commitment to the life of Christ (Gal. 2:20). His aim was to finish the course that the Lord had laid out for him and spread the gospel as far and wide as the Spirit would allow and direct him to. Paul realized that his suffering and persecution came as a result of his obedience to God’s will not because he had spurned it.

Because Paul’s sole focus was on his mission as a kingdom announcer and not his own security or comfort, he found great significance in the simple action of doing his duty and proclaiming the whole will of God. He had watered down the message to be more popular, he had not exalted sentimentality over the truth. He had boldly, fearlessly, and tirelessly preached the entire will of God to them. Like the watchman of Ezekiel (Ezek. 3:16-21; 33:1-9) who was charged with the responsibility of adequately warning the people of coming danger, so Paul was innocent of their blood. This gives us important insight into just how vital the role of evangelism was for Paul. It had been one of his priorities during his time in Ephesus and should continue to be a major focus for the Ephesian elders and the family of believers in Ephesus.

As almost an aside here, Paul mentions that he will not see any of them again. Whether this was due to a desire on his part to turn his eyes further West towards Rome and Spain and regions even beyond that, Lord willing, or a creeping revelation from the Holy Spirit that his time was short, we do not know. The fact that he would tell them such a thing, however, is evidence of the closeness of their relationship. At every turn he had acted out of gratitude for his relationship with God and had in turn built deeply genuine relationships with them. Telling someone that you had a shallow relationship with that you would be leaving and never see them again would hardly be cause for much of a response. But as we will see in the next section, Paul’s declaration of his impending absence caused his friends much sorrow. The church in Ephesus had grown and would continue to grow because it was a family of relationships not a collection of religious people. It is incredibly important for God’s people today to be constantly reminded of the fact that we are not a religion, but members of God’s family.


Devotional Thought
Look around at your own relationships in Christ. Are they shallow and business-like or have you done the difficult work of building deep and loving relationships in the body of Christ. Are your best friends in the body of Christ? Do you work hard at creating and building those relationships? Have you built deep and long-lasting friendships among God’s people? This is, after all, what being part of the body is all about.