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Reading Acts 20:13-17 where the Apostle Paul arrives at Miletus, and he sends for the elders of the church in Ephesus to come to him where he addresses them for the last time. Visit wwutt.com for all our videos!
The Apostle Paul is nearing the end of his third missionary journey, but he has a few other stops to make first and An address he's going to give to the elders of Ephesus at Miletus. It's the first pastors conference when we understand the text.
This is when we understand the text a daily Bible study in the Word of God that we may comprehend with all the Saints. How wide how high and how deep is the love of Christ? Tell all your friends about our ministry at www .tt .com.
Here once again as pastor Gabe. Thank you Becky in our study of the book of Acts. We come back to chapter 20 picking up where we left off last time. We're getting close to the end of Paul's third missionary journey and here's some of the stops that he makes in Asia Minor on his way to Jerusalem.
I'm reading verses 13 to 16 here the Word of the Lord. But we going ahead to the ship set sail for Assos intending from there to take Paul on board for so he had arranged it intending himself to go by land and when he met us at Assos we took him on board and came to Midoline and Sailing from there.
We arrived the following day opposite kiosk and the next day We crossed over to Samos and the day following we came to Miletus. For Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus so that he would not have to spend time in Asia for he was hurrying to be in Jerusalem if possible on the day of Pentecost.
Now this is setting up The speech that Paul is going to give to the elders of Ephesus Gathered in Miletus. This is like a pastor's conference that Paul has with the elders there and he gives them instructions.
He gives them warnings some of the specific things about this speech. We'll look at next week. I want to read the whole speech to you. So we'll get to that at the end of this particular lesson. But first of all, let's look at some of these stops that Paul makes as he nears the end of his third missionary journey.
I'm also going to go back up to the start of chapter 20 and Some of the stops that Paul makes there because I kind of rushed through that anyway, so back to verse 13. We going ahead to the ship set sail for Assos remember that this is Luke who is talking who is part of Paul's Missionary entourage and as I describe some of these things to you I'm gonna be looking at a map.
It'd probably be easier if you had a map to In which you're looking at Paul's third missionary journey. But I'll do my best to try to describe the scene to you as we go through some of these things. So remember that they've been at Troas that's where we've spent the majority of the chapter thus far going back up to the very Start of Acts 20.
There was the riot in Ephesus. Paul got away. He said farewell and he goes to Macedonia so he's in the the southern region of that Greek Peninsula and when he had gone through those districts and had given them much Exhortation he came to Greece and we're talking there about Athens Corinth Sinclair some of those cities right there in that location there.
He spent three months and when a plot was formed against him by the Jews as he was about to set sail for Syria. He decided to return through Macedonia. So instead of coming all the way back down South along the Mediterranean Sea and ending up on the coast that that far.
What would it be eastern coast of the mess Mediterranean. You don't call that a coast of the of the sea. Do you the coast is on land? But anyway, yeah at the eastern side of the Mediterranean instead of doing that he decides to go back through Macedonia and he was accompanied by Sopater of Berea the son of Pyrrhus and Aristarchus and secundus of the Thessalonians and Gaius of Derby and Timothy and Tychicus and Trophimus of Asia now some of these names that we're reading about here are still with him as he has gone to Troas and As he is even going to come to Assos and Miletus.
These had gone on ahead and were waiting for us at Troas and we sailed from Philippi after the days of unleavened bread and came to them at Troas within five days and there we stayed seven days. So that's how Paul got to Troas, right?
Troas is on the far northwest side of What we call today the nation of Turkey, but then it was just simply called Asia. So as we read about Paul being in Asia. So here in this particular section. It's it's verse 16 the section we're looking at today.
Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus so that he would not have to spend time in Asia. Sometimes we refer to it as Asia Minor and today we call it Turkey, but it was just Asia back then. Very Greek along the coastlands in particular and had been Greek for a long time.
Even when that particular region was occupied by Persians hundreds of years earlier. The Greeks took over the coastlands since they were the sea people. They were on that whole surrounding area of the Aegean Sea.
So you would have the inland area would be occupied by Persians the coasts were Greek so up there to the northwest. You've got Troas. Which is on the coastland of a peninsula that is referred to as Troad.
Now you can leave Troas and go around the peninsula to reach Assos on the southern coast or You can just go across the land. You can walk by foot. From Troas down to Assos and that's what Paul opts to do.
Probably because he wants to share the gospel along the way. I don't think he's afraid of the sea or Traveling by ship. He wants to interact with people. He wants to continue to try to spread the gospel there even in the northwest area of Asia.
So he arranges with Luke and the other guys that they're gonna sail. They're gonna take that journey by ship and probably to keep all of their stuff together. Paul is able to travel light. He doesn't have to carry anything.
So he goes by land and they're gonna sail around it by sea. Now it could be because of the season that journey by sea is not real easy. It could be that like winds and the sea are kind of against them and so that the journey would be much slower.
Paul is able to cover the same amount of ground in about the the same Speed or the same pace the same amount of time as if he were sailing so he can walk the journey. They can sail and they're all gonna arrive there at roughly the same time.
So they get to Assos and that's where Paul comes on board and then they come to Middling so as you kind of follow the map south from Assos. There is an island called Lesbos and On the southeastern side of that island is Middling.
Now you might be asking. Okay Lesbos is This where the name lesbian comes from and the answer is yes it is. Lesbian is to is derived from the island of Lesbos or it means out of Lesbos. People who were from Lesbos were called Lesbians, but it had a different meaning back then than it had today the word today as it's used for Sexual perversion between women that didn't start coming into the English lexicon.
Until about the 17th or 18th centuries or it started getting used as a word to describe erotic relationships between women around that time. The word Sappho or sapphic was also used at that time and the reason why so either sapphic or lesbian those two terms were interchangeable and the reason is because of a Greek poet named Sappho who lived on the island in The 6th century BC so all of this was hundreds of years before Paul was there.
Sappho's poetry had expressed an erotic desire for women and so later writers and scholars Associated that island with erotic relationships between women. So you would have these two words that would describe that you would have lesbian and you would have sapphic.
So it would also be said that a woman who had a sexual desire for another woman. She would be called sapphic, but eventually I think sometime around the 19th century the word lesbian won out now. That's when that term comes into the English lexicon.
That's why you don't find the word used that way in the Bible, even though These things had preceded the events that we're reading about here by hundreds of years. It's just that the word lesbian was not used to describe erotic relationships between women.
Now Paul does talk about that. He talks about that sin in particular in Romans chapter 1. It's the only place in the Bible where erotic relationships between women are mentioned Romans 1 26 for this reason God gave them up to Dishonorable passions for their women exchanged natural relations for those that are Contrary to nature and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another.
Men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. So that's the only place in the Bible that lesbian eroticism is mentioned. This was not a place as Paul came to the island of Lesbos.
This was not a place where it was just full of this erotic sin of women between women. That was a term that would come about much much later. There was of course all kinds of sin throughout the Roman Empire and Even within the Greek people even among the Greek people.
Sins like this were prevalent. They were common. Paul describes them in Romans chapter 1. But it's not like that's what the island of Lesbos was known for. And so that's what Paul ends up coming into when he arrives at Mytilene again.
This was a term that would not be derived until over a thousand years later. So Paul at Mytilene as his journey is being described here. Hang on. I got to pull my my text back up. So sailing from there.
We arrived the following day opposite kiosk and the next day we crossed over to Samos and the day following we came to Miletus. Now, these are islands that are being described. Samos is on an island and There is a narrow strait Between Samos and the mainland and the mainland being Asia.
Now Ephesus is just to the northeast of Samos. It's possible that you could have seen Samos from the coast of Ephesus. There's a pretty significant journey. But you may have been able to see the land from there.
Like on the horizon. Evidence of okay. There's an island out there and now if you were Standing on the peninsula that was between Samos and the mainland. You definitely would have been able to see Samos from there.
It was a very narrow strip of water in between but Ephesus was to the northeast. Paul is attempting to avoid Ephesus. It's not that hard to avoid Ephesus on this journey. So they've gone from Lesbos down to Chios, which is on an island this is another island that is to the west of the mainland and Then in between the mainland and Chios he comes down to Samos.
Ephesus would have been further to the east so Luke explains That Paul was trying to avoid going through Asia. Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus so that he would not have to spend time in Asia for he was hurrying to be in Jerusalem now.
There could be a couple of reasons for this. One could be that Paul was very highly regarded in Ephesus and in that area because of how much time he had spent there. Because of you know people wanting to see him.
Talk with them there were there may have even been opponents of Paul that would have wanted to see him not to cause him harm. But just like hey, I want to debate you. Let's have a debate. There could have been that as well.
He did not want to have he did not want to spend any more time there than he already had. Because he didn't want to be delayed getting to Jerusalem in time for Passover so the first reason why he avoids Ephesus is because he just can't spend the time with the people and he knows he would want To be with them and they would want him to stay.
So he avoids Ephesus for that reason. A second reason could be because his life was in danger there. It wasn't that long before that he had been there and there was a big riot there. He could still be a wanted man.
His arrival could still cause that kind of commotion and he just didn't have time for that. He didn't necessarily think his life was in danger that he would have been killed if he had come back there.
Although that could have been a legitimate concern, but just that is being there would have caused a commotion. Maybe he would end up getting caught up in the courts and all this other kind of stuff ain't nobody got time for that.
So he is attempting to avoid Ephesus still wanting to see the elders there still with great Affection for that church and those Saints and those elders. So instead he comes to Miletus and he has somebody send word to the elders in Ephesus.
That they would journey down and join him there. However long this would have taken. So that the elders would come there and he could give them a final address and he even says in that final address. This is the last time that we are going to see each other on this side of heaven.
At the time that Paul comes to Miletus. It's a city of about 50 to 60 thousand people which is pretty large pretty influential. For these coast cities at this particular time now. Let me pick up here in verse 17 and I'll get to the speech that Paul gives to the elders now from Miletus.
He sent to Ephesus. So Paul is there at Miletus. He is sharing the gospel at Miletus and he calls to him the elders of the church at Ephesus. And when they had come to him, he said to them. So this is like a pastor's conference that they're having there at Miletus.
And here is the sermon that Paul delivered to those elders. You yourselves know from the first day that I set foot in Asia how I was with you the whole time serving the Lord with all humility and With tears and with trials which came upon me through the plots of the Jews.
How I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable and teaching you publicly and from house-to-house solemnly testifying to both Jews and Greeks about repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and now behold Bound by the Spirit.
I am on my way to Jerusalem Not knowing what will happen to me there Except that the Holy Spirit solemnly testifies to me in every city saying that chains and afflictions await me. But I do not make my life of any account nor dear to myself So that I may finish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus to testify solemnly of the gospel of the grace of God and now behold, I Know that all of you among whom I went about preaching the kingdom will no longer see my face.
Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all. For I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God. Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers To shepherd the church of God which he purchased with his own blood.
I Know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you not sparing the flock and From among your own selves men will arise Speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore be watchful Remembering that night and day for a period of three years I did not cease to admonish each one with tears and Now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace Which is able to build you up and give you the inheritance among all those who have been sanctified.
I Have coveted no one's silver or gold or clothes. You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my own needs and to those who were with me in Everything I showed you that by laboring in this manner You must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus that he himself said it is more blessed to give than to receive and When he had said these things he knelt down and prayed with them all and they began to weep aloud and Falling on Paul's neck.
They were kissing him being in agony especially over the word which he had spoken that they would not see his face again and they were accompanying him to the ship and And that will conclude Paul's time in Asia when we pick up the text again in chapter 21.
It'll be about Paul's final stops before arriving in Jerusalem. But that's not where we're gonna pick up next week on Monday. We're gonna come back to this speech in chapter 20 and we will be looking at the specifics of the things that Paul says To these elders the first pastors conference that we have recorded for us in Scripture.
And what was it that Paul said to these ministers? That become relevant to ministers today and even to all of us as We desire to grow in the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ. Heavenly Father we thank you for the goodness of God that you have shown us Through Christ who died on the cross for us who rose again from the dead.
So that all who believe in him will not perish but have everlasting life. We have come to believe in this gospel Grow us in these truths also that we may grow into the head who is Christ looking forward to that day.
That we join you in our heavenly eternal kingdom. It is in the name of Jesus that we pray. Amen.
You've been listening to when we understand the text with pastor Gabe Hughes. Monday Tuesday and Wednesday Gabe will be going through a New Testament study. Then on Thursday, we look at an Old Testament book on Friday.
We take questions from the listeners and viewers tomorrow. We'll pick up on an Old Testament study when we understand the text.