Acts 20:13-24. This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on August 25, 2024.
Paul is on a ship traveling from Macedonia to Jerusalem by ship along the coast. It is on this trip that Luke gives us several fore-warnings that Paul is to be taken prisoner at Jerusalem. Of course, this should be expected at some point because of what the Lord tells Ananias about Paul in Acts 9:16. “I will show him how many things he must suffer for My name’s sake.”
Back in Acts 19:21, we were told that “Paul purposed in the Spirit, when he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia, to go to Jerusalem, saying, ‘After I have been there, I must also see Rome.’” Added to this resolve that Paul has to go to Jerusalem, will be this farewell speech to the Ephesian elders. Paul spells out that persecution and tribulations await him in Jerusalem. Thus, he may never make it back to see them.
There is a time for farewells. Even when they are for God’s purpose, they are never easy. Realizing that you may not see loved ones again has a sobering effect, and leads people to focus on what is important to say and do. We don’t always know when our last time with someone will be, and so wisdom teaches us to treat every interaction with others as extremely important. We should be better at not leaving things unsaid until it is too late. Farewells happen for a variety of reasons, but the Christian never needs to fear them. God will never separate from us all.
Let’s look at our passage.
These first four verses simply lay out Paul’s itinerary from Troas to a town called Miletus. If you look at a map from the first century of the coastal area of Asia Minor, you will see that their ship travels along the coast and inside of the shelter of various islands. Miletus was a town on the southwest coast of the province of Asia.
We are also told that Paul is hurrying to get to Jerusalem by the feast of Pentecost. Previously he had left Philippi after the feasts of Passover and Unleavened bread. There are 50 days between those spring feasts and Pentecost. Paul had used 12 days getting to Troas and staying there for 7 days. Thus, he only had 38 days left when he left Troas. This leads to Paul calling for the Ephesian Elders to come to him at Miletus, so that he can say goodbye.
When they had gathered, Paul addresses them by first reminding them of his past example before them, especially “what manner I always lived among you.” Paul did not act in a variety of ways, as if he was not sure about the Lord Jesus Christ. He did not have a compartmentalized life, nor was he manic in his devotion to Christ. He was an example of faithfulness to the Lord Jesus in his manner of living. He lived the way that Christ had commanded his disciples to do. His manner always pointed back to Jesus.
Now, it is one thing to be faithful. Some people are faithfully selfish. But, it is quite another thing to be faithful in the good thing of living out the commands of Jesus.
Paul had not come to Ephesus to increase his ministry, to make it global. He was not trying to increase the number of churches sending money to him every month. In fact, the Holy Spirit had forbade Paul to go into that area when he first tried to go there. He went around the area and only came back when the Holy Spirit gave him leave to do so. Paul wants these elders to remember that all that he did was about doing the work of Christ, in the way that Christ desired. He honored Jesus in everything.
In verse 19, he fleshes out what that example was exactly. He had been among them as a servant of the Lord Jesus. We are not called to serve our own interests, but to serve the interests of Jesus. When we serve others for the purpose of Christ, it makes us better husbands, wives, sons, daughters, church members, employers, employees, and every relationship.
Paul particularly served Christ with all humility. This word emphasizes an attitude of mind that then impacts the way one lives among others. He was lowly of mind. This doesn’t mean that Paul saw himself as the worst worm in the room, but that he knew how badly he had messed up in his own flesh. He knew how much he needed Jesus every hour and every day. Jesus had saved him from the grotesque depths of sinfulness. Jesus had then given him a job. Paul did not see himself as the great apostles, but as a person who owed Christ everything. He would faithfully complete the task that Jesus had given him because Jesus was worthy of Paul’s whole life.
Paul was not ministering for reputation or material gain. He was seeking the approval of Christ. To serve Jesus is to serve others. Like Christ going to the cross, the apostle Paul suffered things so that others could receive a good hearing of the Gospel. Yes, there will be a day of judgment for all people, but until then, our job is to serve people with the good news of Jesus.
Paul also served the Lord Jesus with many tears and trials. These trials are various in nature. There were trials of difficult travels and the dangers that went with that. There was the trial of facing wicked people with ulterior motives. There were arrests, imprisonments, beatings, public shame, and shipwrecks. Each one of these tested Paul’s endurance. “Will you keep going now? Or, will you now quit.”
These difficulties not only tested Paul’s endurance, but they also brought tears to the apostle. Yes, he knew they were tests, but that doesn’t make it any easier when someone you have ministered to begins to persecute you. Imagine Jesus Christ looking over Jerusalem and weeping because he knew that they would ultimately reject him. The question that is asked in these times is this. Are you going to remain faithful to the hard work that God has given you to do?
That same question should be answered every day, even if you aren’t the apostle Paul. Grandparents and parents have to answer that question. Believers in a local church have to answer that question. Christians who are to be the light of their culture and generation have to answer this question. All of the difficulties that you face in following Christ are testing you. Yet, your tears are precious to the Lord. Just as he knows the number of hairs on your head, he knows the number of tears that you have shed.
Thus, we see Jesus asking his disciples in John 6:67, “Do you also want to go away?” Yet, Peter answers that this world had nothing for them. The world was empty, but Jesus was full of life. They would carry the burden of the heavy things, the burden of sorrowful things, in order to remain with the one who was life itself.
Thus, our tests and trials bond us to the Lord Jesus. He too shed tears. When you feel like quitting, let the fact that the Lord didn’t quit on you give you strength to continue on. Turn to him in prayer and ask for strength to crucify your fleshly desire to avoid suffering, and then strength to carry out God’s will.
The response of our flesh, whether tears or fears, is generally not a chosen thing. Like a gag-reflex, it comes rushing to the surface in the moment. Yet, we can then take those emotions and those fears and put them at the feet of Jesus, on the altar. “Lord, I am going to keep serving you even though this difficulty is in my way.”
All of us need to get to the broken place where it is tough to follow Jesus, and yet, we know that this world has nothing for us. Each test is a way for us to say to the Lord, “Even this, I will go through for your sake, in order to remain faithful to the work that you have given me to do!”
Paul also mentions that he had proclaimed to them everything that would be helpful, or beneficial, to them. They were not in need of something better from some charlatan that would come along later. There were many itinerant teachers looking for itching ears in those days. We can become weary of doing the good thing that God gives us to do. Then, we become susceptible to the misdirection of the enemy of our souls, the devil. He will seek to pull you off the course that Christ has given you to walk.
Paul had given the Ephesian Christians everything they needed for life and godliness, to live a life that was faithful to the Lord Jesus Christ. In verse 21, Paul explains the greatest good thing that he had given them. The most beneficial thing we can gain from the Scriptures is the call to have repentance towards God and to have faith towards Jesus. Many of the Jews had given up on waiting for Messiah. Repentance called them to turn back to Yahweh with a whole heart and believe upon Jesus whom He had sent.
Of course, not everything we say or do is beneficial to one another. May we become quick to change course, quick to repent, quick to forgive one another, so that the Lord will be pleased with this assembly. If you think you are missing something, the truth is that you are only missing it because you haven’t opened up your Bible and taken it seriously.
In verses 22 to 24, Paul speaks to them about his present example to them. He is a man who is “bound in the Spirit.” Through prayer and communion with Christ, through the help of the Holy Spirit, Paul has committed himself, tied himself, to a difficult work that Christ wanted him to do. We too often give up on difficult works that Christ has for us to do because we don’t spend the time in prayer to gain his vision for it, and then commit ourselves to it in faith.
God will not force you to do anything. He wants you to catch His vision and volunteer for it, to say Yes to it. Prayer is that place where His burden switches to ours, where His vision becomes ours. Part of you may be saying that you can’t do it. Yes, in your flesh, you can’t do it. However, in Christ, you can do all things because Christ will strengthen you (Philippians 4:13).
Paul doesn’t know exactly what awaits him, but he does know that it will be difficult. Verses 22 and 23 tell us that the Spirit of God testified in every city where Paul was going that trials and tribulations awaited him. Notice first that it is the Spirit who was testifying. This happened in Paul’s personal times of prayer, but it also happened through others such as prophets within the church gatherings. We will see an example of this in Acts 21.
This raises the question. If God warns us about persecutions ahead, does it mean that He wants us to avoid them? Perhaps, there are times when this is so. However, Paul knew he needed to march into those trials, at least this time. Such a resolve can only be determined in prayer before God, seeking His will.
Luke has not described these warnings “in every city.” However, this helps us to understand why Paul would preach past midnight and into the rise of morning. He knew that he would most likely not be coming back.
What would you do if you were continually told by the Spirit, and by other people, that the path ahead was full of tribulations? In general, Jesus has told us exactly this. In 2 Timothy 3:12, we are told that “all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.” Are we blessed in these United States of America, or are we spoiled?
Sometimes God warns us of pain ahead because He wants to know if we are ready to be like Jesus. He is preparing us and testing us to see if we will keep going out of love and devotion to Him.
In verse 24, Paul states that this revelation of the Spirit doesn’t move him. He doesn’t mean emotionally. He is talking about the path, or course, that he is on in going to Jerusalem to suffer. Paul is doing something difficult for the lord, and it would be easy to stop, turn back, and to avoid it. However, none of these things have changed Paul’s mind and his resolve to go to Jerusalem.
Do you realize that the devil often uses resistance and difficulty to get us discouraged from God’s path for us? He is doing all he can to change your mind, as he did with Eve in the Garden. He was successful to get her off of the course that God had given to her, at least for a little while. You can choose to follow Jesus at a point in time, but you will need to keep choosing Jesus over the top of difficulties in order to actually do it.
In fact, Paul states that he doesn’t count his life as precious to himself. It is not that our lives are not precious, but that they are precious to God and for His purposes. If God asks me to suffer, even as a martyr, then it has great value to Him. However, I will have to lay my life down to do it. My life cannot mean more to me than glorifying the Savior who died for me. This is one of the major sins of life. We take our lives that are precious to God, and made for His purposes, and we ignore Him. We take what was intended for holy purposes and use them for common purposes, and sometimes even for profane purposes.
Paul is reiterating what Jesus was talking about in Luke 14:26-27. “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.”
Why do people not pick up crosses to follow Jesus? Sometimes it is because we are afraid of losing relationships with the people and things around us. We can refuse to carry a cross in trying to keep from hurting our family, but the best thing you can do for your family is to carry the cross that God gives you. You will do the most damage to them by refusing to pick it up.
It is not that He wants us to hate anyone, even ourselves. Rather, when it comes to choosing between Jesus, his work, and my selfish desires, we would choose him every time! If my life is to end early in Jerusalem or Rome, then so be it. Jesus is worthy of such a sacrifice of love!
Paul refers to the path ahead as a “race” in the NKJV. It is probably better thought of as a course, a particular path that he must travel full of hardships and obstacles. A person is not given all the details of their personal course, but we can walk forward in faith by His daily help. He leads, corrects, comforts, encourages, and does many other things to help us along our course.
Paul knew that he had a duty to walk out this course before him. Yet, all duties can be done as a mere hardship that a person resents, but does anyways. Duty can be a drudgery, and all parents know this. There is something powerful in learning that there are duties that we should do in this Christian walk. Duties that are for Christ and towards other people. Yet, it is even better to find the joy that God has for you in doing them. Paul doesn’t just want to finish his chores. He wants to do them with joy! Why did Jesus go to the cross? Not just because he had a duty to do it. He did so for the joy that was awaiting him on the other side, relationship with the Father and those who would believe upon Jesus for eternity!
Wrestling in prayer, the Holy Spirit will help you to find the joy of fighting the devil and being used of God to impact the lives of others eternally. To be in the presence of God is peace eternally, but we can tap into that peace even today. In the midst of the trial, the joy of the Lord can fill your heart and strengthen you far more than the knowledge of any duty can. May the Lord help us to serve Him with all our hearts!