God’s Word for You

Acts 20:1-5 Southeast by north

by Pastor Timothy Smith on Monday, November 30, 2020

Paul had already been planning his next move, but the uproar in the theater of Ephesus set his plans in motion right away. It was time to move on and revisit the churches of Macedonia and Greece.

20 After the uproar stopped, Paul called for the disciples. He encouraged them and then departed for Macedonia. 2 After he traveled through those parts, and spoke many words of encouragement, he arrived in Greece 3 and stayed there for three months. But the Jews made a plot against him just as he was about to sail for Syria, so he decided to return through Macedonia. 4 He was accompanied by Sopater of Berea, the son of Pyrrhus of Berea, and also Aristarchus and Secundus the Thessalonians, Gaius of Derbe along with Timothy, and the Asians, Tychicus and Trophimus. 5 These men went on ahead and waited for us at Troas.

These verses present several months of traveling and preaching. One visit alone in Greece (probably Corinth) involved a three-month stay. It might help, for the sake of clarity, to trace Paul’s movements one by one.

1. The encouragement and departure from Ephesus. Since Luke was present at a later encouragement to the Ephesians, he doesn’t record what was spoken here, but there will be a long speech from Paul to them later in this chapter (verses 18-35).
2. The journey north and west from Ephesus to Macedonia. This might have been by land or by sea. Some maps of Paul’s third missionary journey show Paul traveling by land, others by sea. If he went overland, he could have visited places such as Smyrna and Pergamum (Revelation 1:11) and also Adramyttium, a seaport mentioned in Acts 27:2.
3. The trip south through Macedonia. Paul went to see the people at the churches he had planted earlier, especially Philippi, Thessalonica and Berea.
4. He arrived in Greece, also called Achaia. Paul may have visited the small group in Athens at this time (Acts 17:34), but the three months were probably spent in Corinth. We believe that this was the time when Paul wrote to the Romans, since that letter was carried by a woman named Phoebe from the church at Cenchrea, which was near Corinth (Romans 16:1-2).
5. The plot laid by the Jews. Paul was planning to sail back to Syria (he had begun this journey from there, in Antioch, Acts 18:23), but a plot by the Jews made him change his plans. There may actually have been an assassin involved, planning to kill him aboard ship. Assassination was not unknown among the Jews (Hosea 6:9; Jeremiah 41:1-2; 2 Samuel 3:30). Once or twice in the Bible this was done in God’s service (Judges 3:21), but most often not (Judges 9:5). In just one chapter of 2 Kings, there are four separate assassinations (2 Kings 15:10, 15:14, 15:25 and 15:30).
6. The return northward through Macedonia. Knowing the Books of Moses as well as he did, Paul used God’s own method of foiling the plans of his enemies by means of unexpected travel. God hid the Israelites from Pharaoh by sending them south rather than traveling north to Canaan, and this meant staying in an impossibly inhospitable desert for years. If the Israelites themselves thought this was a bad idea, surely Pharaoh would never have even considered looking for them there (Exodus 16:1-3). But the Lord provided for them with daily bread in the form of manna (Exodus 16:4), water summoned from a rock (Exodus 17:6), and quail that flew into the camp in vast numbers (Numbers 11:31-32; Psalm 105:40). So, in order to travel east-southeast to Syria, Paul missed his boat and went north on foot through Macedonia once again, knowing that the Lord would look after him.
7. “Us.” For the second time, Luke begins to say “us” rather than “they” as Paul passed through Macedonia. When we last heard about Luke, he was with Paul in Philippi (Acts 16:17). It’s almost certain that he had remained there until this time, serving the church there. The other men who accompanied Paul were all either from Macedonia (one Berean and two from Thessalonica) or Asia Minor (Timothy and two other men). These were sent ahead by Paul to Troas, where Paul meant to find a good ship to carry him home again. But Luke was now with Paul, and he would stay with Paul until they arrived at last in Jerusalem (Acts 21:18).

Since, as Paul would later tell Timothy, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16), what shall we make of the Holy Spirit’s inclusion of this travelogue? While we could apply this as we have other passages where Paul left a difficult place for some other mission field, what we see here is a good example of Christian planning. Paul used what the Lord had given to him: an opportunity to share the gospel throughout the Roman world. Thwarting the plans of the jealous (and perhaps murderous), he simply took the gospel somewhere else. We can look at this as God opening a door where we didn’t expect to find one. “Let the one who has my word speak my word faithfully,” the Lord says (Jeremiah 23:28). And the Lord also promises: “If anyone keeps my word, he will never see death” (John 8:51). The word of God, my friend, is sweetness itself (Song of Solomon 5:16). Pray for the pastors and missionaries to carry the word faithfully into the world. And pray for every ear, heart and soul that hears it to treasure it (Matthew 13:45) like a precious, priceless pearl.

In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith

 

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