Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Acts 20:1
And after the uproar was ceased, Paul called unto [him] the disciples, and embraced [them,] and departed for to go into Macedonia.
Act 20:1-6. Paul journeys through Macedonia and Greece, and returns as far as Troas
1. And after the uproar was ceased ] Some little time may have elapsed and public feeling have become calm enough for a meeting of the Christian congregation.
Paul called unto him the disciples, and embraced them ] The oldest authorities read “ Paul having sent for the disciples,” and then add “ and exhorted them ” (adopted by R. V.). The word rendered “embraced” signifies as it is rendered in Act 21:6, “to take leave of,” “to make parting greetings.” He did not probably feel that it would be wise to leave till he saw the Church in quiet once more.
and departed for to go into Macedonia ] In fulfilment of the purpose mentioned in Act 19:21. We see from 2Co 2:13 that he went first to Troas expecting to meet Titus there. He did not find him till he reached Macedonia, from which country he wrote the second letter to Corinth.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The uproar – The tumult excited, by Demetrius and the workmen. After it had been quieted by the town-clerk, Act 19:40-41.
Embraced them – Saluted them; gave them parting expressions of kindness. Compare the Luk 7:45 note; Rom 16:16 note; 1Co 16:20 note; 2Co 13:12 note; 1Th 5:26 note; 1Pe 5:14 note. The Syriac translates this, Paul caned the disciples, and consoled them, and kissed them.
To go into Macedonia – On his way to Jerusalem, agreeably to his purpose, as recorded in Act 19:21.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Act 20:1-12
And after the uproar was ceased, Paul called unto him the disciples, and embraced them, and departed for Macedonia.
Reading between the lines
There does not seem to be much in this section of the apostolic history. We must not, however, judge by appearances. Paul is still here, and wherever you find the great man you find the great worker. Paul does nothing like any other man. Look at–
I. The variety of personal movement.
1. Paul embraces the disciples–a word which hides in it the pathos of a farewell. Paul will often now say Farewell. He is not quite the man he was. Sometimes he straightens himself up into the old dignity and force, and we say, Surely he will last many a long year yet; but, nevertheless, we see age creeping upon his face, and taking the youth out of his figure and mien.
2. Then he departed to go into Macedonia. We like to go back to old places, to see that the old flag is still flying–yes, and to the green grave to see if it is still there. Paul will go back to Thessalonica, Berea, and Philippi. Who can tell what happened in those visits? At first, when we go to a place, there is nothing but that which is common to other places; but having worked there, when we return we talk over old themes, quote old sayings, and ask for old friends with a doubtful tone lest we should rip up old wounds and tear open the deepest graves of the heart. These are the things that make life sacred and precious.
3. Next Paul came into Greece, and it is just possible looked in upon Athens once more. Certainly he went to Corinth, but Corinth was changed. The decree which made many exiles had been annulled, and Aquila and Priscilla were no longer there. The friends are the town; and if they are not there, we are mocked by masonry. There is a Friend that sticketh closer than a brother; Aquila and Priscilla will leave the city, but Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever, always at home.
4. Paul abode in Greece three months. The word abode misleads us. Paul cannot merely abide. But what is he doing? That we cannot always tell. Have confidence in faithful men. If you have only confidence in your friend so long as you can see every action, you have no confidence in him at all. What, then, has history shown that Paul was doing amidst all this commonplace movement? Within this period Paul wrote his second letter to the Corinthians, and probably his great letter to the Galatians. There is a written ministry. It is beautiful to read what Luke has to say about Paul, but how infinitely better to read Pauls own words. We do not always want to hear about a man, we long to hear the man himself; one sight of him, and we understand much that can never be explained; one utterance of his voice, and we are able to fill up gaps that vexed us. What we would give for the writing of some men!
II. A period of waiting. Paul had written a letter to the Corinthians and wished to know its effect, and Titus was charged to hasten back to Troas with a report. Paul is now waiting at Troas. How did he wait? Read 2Co 2:12-13. That is the same spirit we found at Athens; he soon fell into restlessness. Read 2Co 1:8. I thank God for those words and for that trouble. It brings Paul down amongst us. Read 2Co 12:7. See how Paul was being educated. Conclusion: Where is the commonplace now? The narrative is full of gaps, but when they are filled up by Pauls own records, we find that within a framework of sentences that merely indicate locomotion we have experiences of the most intensely spiritual nature. We cannot tell all we are doing. There is a public life that the neighbours can see and read and comment upon; but there is a within life, that fills up all the open lines and broken places, and only God sees that interior and solemn existence. You go amongst men as worldly; there may be those who do not know how you spend half your time. They have no right to know. You will one day hand in your own account to the only Judge who has a right to overlook your life. Fill up your days well; do not ask human criticism to approve you; live ever in the great Taskmasters eye. (J. Parker, D. D.)
From Ephesus to Troas
Note here, the apostle–
I. Helping in the way (verse 2; Act 2:40; Col 1:28; 1Th 2:3; 1Th 4:1).
II. Threatened in the way (verse 3; Act 9:23; Act 23:11; 2Co 11:26; Act 16:19).
III. Accompanied in the way (verse 4; Act 19:29; Act 16:1; Eph 6:21; Act 21:29).
IV. Prospered in the way (verse 6; Act 16:8; 2Ti 4:13). Lessons:
1. Paul found time, in the course of his travels, for much exhortation to Christian service and encouragement to Christian work.
2. Paul was a great traveller, but he never planned his tours with the idea of amusing himself, or of improving his health, or of seeing the greatest possible number of interesting ruins.
3. Paul was a traveller, but the only one of his journeys that he talked a great deal about was of his coming to the Lord Jesus Christ.
4. Paul was a great preacher, and a proof of the fact is the fierce opposition he so frequently met from Jews and Gentiles. That fierceness is a measure of the work he was doing.
5. Paul was wise enough to change his plans, when persistence in them would have brought disaster. The wise Christian will always go by land through Macedonia if it would be incurring needless danger for him to go by sea to Syria. (S. S. Times.)
From Ephesus to Troas
These verses bring under notice–
I. The fragmentary character of gospel history. These few sentences extend over a period of nearly twelve months, during which what wonderful things have occurred, what privations endured, perils braved, discussions conducted, souls converted! We almost wish there had been journalists in those days to have chronicled all the items in Pauls wonderful life.
II. The mystery of difficulties in connection with duty. Antecendently one might have thought that the Divine Father would have provided that a man like Paul should have no thorns in his path, no clouds in his sky. Herein is mystery, and we must patiently await the great explaining day.
III. The unconquerableness of a Christ-like love. Mark it–
1. In Pauls remaining at Ephesus until the uproar ceased. He did not abandon the vessel in the storm, but, like a brave captain, remained until it was secure in the haven.
2. In the spirit with which he withdrew–not with the fire of indignation. He calls the disciples together and embraced them. No amount of trial could cause Paul to relinquish his blessed mission. The love of Christ constraineth him. (D. Thomas, D. D.)
From Ephesus to Troas
Among the many things to be learned from Pauls journeys, not the least are the intimations respecting the methods and usages of the apostolic Church. Look at the more prominent of these which appear in this narrative.
I. Evangelistic work was prosecuted by a number, who were associated for the service (verse 4). After Churches were organised, regular pastors were placed over them; but the preparatory work called for special effort, and in this a number were wisely enjoyed. Thus early was recognised the distinction between evangelists and pastors; and no doubt the Churches which became centres of Christian influence in Asia were the result of Gods blessing, not alone on Pauls preaching, but also on the labours of the believers who with Paul carried the gospel unto the regions beyond.
II. The Christian Sabbath.
1. Was the first day of the week (verse 7). This mention of the day is significant because it is casual, and the inference is that they habitually assembled then; and the instance becomes authority when the great apostle gave his sanction to this transfer of holy time from the Sabbath to the Lords Day. It is sometimes said that had God purposed such a change He would have distinctly commanded it. Yet an oft-repeated statement that the Church did observe the first in place of the seventh day may be taken as evidence that they were instructed so to do; and the sanction of the change by the inspired apostles, who had been in personal conference with the Lord, confirms and continues the usage. The argument is the same as that which establishes the unity of the Church, the substitution of baptism for circumcision, the membership of women in the Church, or any other accepted feature of the Christian dispensation which had become so universal and so undisputed that no doubt was suggested concerning it.
2. Was observed chiefly as a day of worship. A number of hours were spent in devotional exercises. There was no complaint because the meeting was protracted, nor did any present consult their watches to learn how much more than half an hour Paul was preaching. Notice of this has special value to us because of the disposition manifested to devote it largely to work rather than to worship. Other days may give opportunity for this, but the Lords Day is appointed especially for that renewal of strength which is gained by those who wait on the Lord. Experience makes known the wisdom of the early Christians in this particular, and it is possible that the most constant work may make us feeble, that the most ardent zeal may become religious dissipation.
III. The purpose of the Eucharist. In the first place, the occasion was one–
1. Of high spiritual enjoyment. The visit of Paul must have awakened delight, and excited gratitude.
2. Of special Christian communion.
3. Of special stimulus and cheer. In these circumstances we find them celebrating the Eucharist; and for us it should be a time of spiritual joy, not of depression; of inspiring, whole-souled communion; of cheer and confidence which will make us certain of success.
IV. The manner of conducting public worship. The assembly does not seem to have been governed by any special habits beyond those which would secure comfort and decorum. The room was probably in some private house. The preaching of Paul was not according to any prescribed standard, but was probably simple and expository and adapted to the audience. The necessity that he should care for Eutychus did not so much disturb the apostles sense of propriety that he was unable to go on with his discourse, and it is likely that the incident added to the interest and practical character of his remarks. An upper room, an all-night service, the simplest observance of the Lords Supper, the possible disturbances which would drive away all sanctity from some modern, more aesthetic Christian assemblies–all these were features of worship led by the most prominent of the apostles.
V. The predominance of the missionary spirit in all the Churches (verse 4). Here we have the secret of the success of the gospel in those days. Those who accepted it considered themselves as trustees of the blessed treasure for those who had it not. As soon as a Church was established, it assumed obligation respecting the outlying region, and thus other centres of evangelising power were formed. And so it should be today. (J. E. Ells, D. D.)
From Ephesus to Troas
Diligent service of Christ–
I. Exerts wide and varied influences. Not all noble lives become famous, but any determined man, fully possessed by great truths, may move the world. No purpose was ever so sublimely conceived or more nobly realised than the one which Paul was carrying out by this journey. In accomplishing his task Paul–
1. Shrunk from no physical exertion. The Divine enthusiasm possessed his body as well as his soul.
2. Delivered his message constantly and confidently (verse 2). He could not help it. Once, at least, he talked all night. To speak interestingly men must be filled with great themes. The most trying talkers about religion are those whose thoughts cling mainly about their own experiences.
3. Studied as faithfully as he preached, Men who make progress in teaching must grow in knowledge. No books give evidence of more close and masterful mental toil than the letters written during this tour (2 Corinthians, Romans, Galatians). It is a common mistake to suppose that scholarship is confined to the seclusion of the study. Preaching and teaching and a wide acquaintance with men are as essential as the study of books in attaining the scholarship which leads to a clear and profound comprehension of Divine truths.
II. Develops special gifts and graces of character in the Churches. Among those cultivated by Paul we notice–
1. Systematic giving. It is comparatively easy now to raise money to carry the gospel to the heathen. But we find Paul exciting the practical interest of the new Churches on missionary ground in the needs of the Christians in the home field. He sent forth the choicest men, such as Titus and Timothy, to be collecting agents; and, so far from regarding them as beggars, he called them the glory of Christ. He sought by this to bring about unity between bodies of Christians separated by distance, race, language, and prejudice.
2. Christian love (verse 7). Through the love of one man, begetting love in all the rest, the Churches of Achaia, Thessaly and Judaea joined as one Church in acts of mutual affection in efforts to spread the gospel through the world.
III. Establishes permanent institutions. Wherever Paul journeyed he established Churches. Then he revisited and strengthened them. He also encouraged the institutions which would give the Churches permanence. He observed the Lords Supper, and taught by example the observance of the first day of the week as the Christian Sabbath.
IV. Forms and confirms its own character in likeness to Christ. Paul was ripening himself as he was building up the Churches. (A. E. Dunning.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
CHAPTER XX.
Paul retires to Macedonia, 1.
He goes into Greece, where he tarries three months and,
purposing to sail to Syria, he returns through Macedonia, 2, 3.
Several persons accompany him into Asia, and then go before and
tarry for him at Troas, 4, 5.
Paul and Luke sail from Philippi, and in five days reach Troas,
where they meet their brethren from Asia, and abide there seven
days, 6.
On the first day of the week, the disciples coming together to
break bread, Paul preaching to them, and continuing his speech
till midnight, a young man of the name of Eutychus, being in a
deep sleep, fell from the third loft and was killed, 7-9.
Paul restores him to life, resumes his discourse, and
continuing it till daybreak, then departs, 10-12.
Luke and his companions come to Assos, whither Paul comes by
land, 13.
He embarks with them at Assos, comes to Mitylene, 14.
Sails thence, and passes by Chios, arrives at Samos, tarries
at Trogyllium, and comes to Miletus, 15.
Purposing to get as soon as possible to Jerusalem, he sends
from Miletus, and calls the elders of the Church of Ephesus,
to whom he preaches a most directing sermon, gives them the
most solemn exhortations, kneels down and prays with them,
takes a very affecting leave of them, and sets sail for
Caesarea, in order to go to Jerusalem, 16-38.
NOTES ON CHAP. XX.
Verse 1. After the uproar was ceased] The tumult excited by Demetrius apparently induced Paul to leave Ephesus sooner than he had intended. He had written to the Corinthians that he should leave that place after pentecost, 1Co 16:8; but it is very probable that he left it sooner.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Embraced them; took his farewell of them, and, as the manner of those countries was in meeting and parting with friends, he kissed them: as Luk 7:45, and far more anciently, Gen 31:55. And this was the true ground of that kiss of peace, or the holy kiss, recommended Rom 16:16; 1Co 16:20; 2Co 13:12, and elsewhere, which was only a civility then in use.
Departed for to go into Macedonia; yielding to the present fury of Demetrius; not so much for his own safety, as for the good of the church, that it might not be further persecuted for his sake; and that elsewhere it might by his ministry be enlarged and built up.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
1, 2. departedafter Pentecost(1Co 16:8).
to go into Macedoniainpursuance of the first part of his plan (Ac19:21). From his Epistles we learn; (1) That, as might have beenexpected from its position on the coast, he revisited Troas (2Co2:12; see on Ac 16:8). (2)That while on his former visit he appears to have done no missionarywork there, he now went expressly “to preach Christ’s Gospel,”and found “a door opened unto him of the Lord” there, whichhe entered so effectually as to lay the foundation of a church there(Act 20:6; Act 20:7).(3) That he would have remained longer there but for his uneasinessat the non-arrival of Titus, whom he had despatched to Corinth tofinish the collection for the poor saints at Jerusalem (1Co 16:1;1Co 16:2; 2Co 8:6),but still more, that he might bring him word what effect his firstEpistle to that church had produced. (He had probably arranged thatthey should meet at Troas). (4) That in this state of mind, afraid ofsomething wrong, he “took leave” of the brethren at Troas,and went from thence into Macedonia.
It was, no doubt, the city ofPHILIPPI that he came to(landing at Nicopolis, its seaport, see on Ac16:11, 12), as appears by comparing 2Co11:9, where “Macedonia” is named, with Php4:15, where it appears that Philippi is meant. Here he found thebrethren, whom he had left on his former visit in circumstances ofsuch deep interest, a consolidated and thriving church, generous andwarmly attached to their father in Christ; under the superintendence,probably, of our historian, “the beloved physician” (see onAc 16:40). All that is said byour historian of this Macedonian visit is that “he went overthose parts and gave them much exhortation.” (5) Titus nothaving reached Philippi as soon as the apostle, “his flesh hadno rest, but he was troubled on every side: without were fightings,within were fears” (2Co 7:5).(6) At length Titus arrived, to the joy of the apostle, the bearer ofbetter tidings from Corinth than he had dared to expect (2Co 7:6;2Co 7:7; 2Co 7:13),but checkered by painful intelligence of the efforts of a hostileparty to undermine his apostolic reputation there (2Co10:1-18). (7) Under the mixed feelings which this produced, hewrotefrom Macedonia, and probably Philippihis SECONDEPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS(see Introduction to SecondCorinthians); despatching Titus with it, and along with him two otherunnamed deputies, expressly chosen to take up and bring theircollection for the poor saints at Jerusalem, and to whom he bears thebeautiful testimony, that they were “the glory of Christ”(2Co 8:22; 2Co 8:23).(8) It must have been at this time that he penetrated as far as tothe confines of “Illyricum,” lying along the shores of theAdriatic (Ro 15:19). He wouldnaturally wish that his second Letter to the Corinthians should havesome time to produce its proper effect ere he revisited them, andthis would appear a convenient opportunity for a northwesterncircuit, which would enable him to pay a passing visit to thechurches at Thessalonica and Berea, though of this we have no record.On his way southward to Greece, he would preach the Gospel in theintermediate regions of Epirus, Thessaly, and Boeotia (see Ro15:19), though of this we have no record.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And after the uproar was ceased,…. Which Demetrius, and the craftsmen, had raised at Ephesus, and which was put an end to by the speech of the town clerk, or register keeper of the theatre:
Paul called unto him the disciples; the members of the church at Ephesus, whom he convened, either at his own lodgings, or at their usual place of meeting:
and embraced them; or “saluted them”; that is, with a kiss, which was sometimes done at parting, as well as at meeting; see Ac 20:37 and so the Syriac version renders it, and “kissed” them, and so took his leave of them, and bid them farewell; the Alexandrian copy, and some other copies, and the Syriac and Vulgate Latin versions before this clause insert, “and exhorted, or comforted” them; that is, exhorted them to continue steadfast in the faith, and hold fast the profession of it without wavering, and comforted them under all their tribulations, and in a view of what afflictions and persecutions they must expect to endure for the sake of Christ, with the exceeding great and precious promises of the Gospel:
and departed to go into Macedonia; to visit the churches at Philippi, Thessalonica, and Berea, and to establish them in the faith of the Gospel: he did not choose to leave Ephesus till the tumult was over, partly on his own account, that he might not bring upon himself an imputation of fear and cowardice; and partly on the account of the church at Ephesus, that he might not leave them in distress, and add to it; but now it was over, he judged it proper to take his leave of them, and visit other churches, the care of which equally lay upon him.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
| Paul’s Departure from Ephesus; Paul’s Removal to Troas. |
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1 And after the uproar was ceased, Paul called unto him the disciples, and embraced them, and departed for to go into Macedonia. 2 And when he had gone over those parts, and had given them much exhortation, he came into Greece, 3 And there abode three months. And when the Jews laid wait for him, as he was about to sail into Syria, he purposed to return through Macedonia. 4 And there accompanied him into Asia Sopater of Berea; and of the Thessalonians, Aristarchus and Secundus; and Gaius of Derbe, and Timotheus; and of Asia, Tychicus and Trophimus. 5 These going before tarried for us at Troas. 6 And we sailed away from Philippi after the days of unleavened bread, and came unto them to Troas in five days; where we abode seven days.
These travels of Paul which are thus briefly related, if all in them had been recorded that was memorable and worthy to be written in letters of gold, the world would not contain the books that would have been written; and therefore we have only some general hints of occurrences, which therefore ought to be the more precious. Here is,
I. Paul’s departure from Ephesus. He had tarried there longer than he had done at any one place since he had been ordained to the apostleship of the Gentiles; and now it was time to think of removing, for he must preach in other cities also; but after this, to the end of the scripture-history of his life (which is all we can depend upon), we never find him breaking up fresh ground again, nor preaching the gospel where Christ had not been named, as hitherto he had done (Rom. xv. 20), for in the close of the next chapter we find him made a prisoner, and so continued, and so left, at the end of this book. 1. Paul left Ephesus soon after the uproar had ceased, looking upon the disturbance he met with there to be an indication of Providence to him not to stay there any longer, v. 1. His removal might somewhat appease the rage of his adversaries, and gain better quarter for the Christians there. Currenti cede furori–It is good to lie by in a storm. Yet some think that before he now left Ephesus he wrote the first epistle to the Corinthians, and that his fighting with beasts at Ephesus, which he mentions in that epistle, was a figurative description of this uproar; but I rather take that literally. 2. He did not leave them abruptly and in a fright, but took leave of them solemnly: He called unto him the disciples, the principal persons of the congregation, and embraced them, took leave of them (saith the Syriac) with the kiss of love, according to the usage of the primitive church. Loving friends know not how well they love one another till they come to part, and then it appears how near they lay to one another’s hearts.
II. His visitation of the Greek churches, which he had planted, and more than once watered, and which appear to have laid very near his heart. 1. He went first to Macedonia (v. 1), according to his purpose before the uproar (ch. xix. 21); there he visited the churches of Philippi and Thessalonica, and gave them much exhortation, v. 2. Paul’s visits to his friends were preaching visits, and his preaching was large and copious: He gave them much exhortation; he had a great deal to say to them, and did not stint himself in time; he exhorted them to many duties, in many cases, and (as some read it) with many reasonings. He enforced his exhortation with a great variety of motives and arguments. 2. He staid three months in Greece (Act 20:2; Act 20:3), that is, in Achaia, as some think, for thither also he purposed to go, to Corinth, and thereabouts (ch. xix. 21), and, no doubt, there also he gave the disciples much exhortation, to direct and confirm them, and engage them to cleave to the Lord.
III. The altering of his measures; for we cannot always stand to our purposes. Accidents unforeseen put us upon new counsels, which oblige us to purpose with a proviso. 1. Paul was about to sail into Syria, to Antioch, whence he was first sent out into the service of the Gentiles, and which therefore in his journeys he generally contrived to take in his way; but he changed his mind, and resolved to return to Macedonia, the same way he came. 2. The reason was because the Jews, expecting he would steer that course as usual, had way-laid him, designing to be the death of him; since they could not get him out of the way by stirring up both mobs and magistrates against him, which they had often attempted, they contrived to assassinate him. Some think they laid wait for him, to rob him of the money that he was carrying to Jerusalem for the relief of the poor saints there; but, considering how very spiteful the Jews were against him, I suppose they thirsted for his blood more than for his money.
IV. His companions in his travels when he went into Asia; they are here named, v. 4. Some of them were ministers, whether they were all so or no is not certain. Sopater of Berea, it is likely, is the same with Sosipater, who is mentioned Rom. xvi. 21. Timothy is reckoned among them, for though Paul, when he departed from Ephesus (v. 1), left Timothy there, and afterwards wrote his first epistle to him thither, to direct him as an evangelist how to settle the church there, and in what hands to leave it (see 1Ti 1:3; 1Ti 3:14; 1Ti 3:15), which epistle was intended for direction to Timothy what to do, not only at Ephesus where he now was, but also at other places where he should be in like manner left, or whither he should be sent to reside as an evangelist (and not to him only, but to the other evangelists that attended Paul, and were in like manner employed); yet he soon followed him, and accompanied him, with others here named. Now, one would think, this was no good husbandry, to have all these worthy men accompanying Paul, for there was more need of them where Paul was not than where he was; but so it was ordered, 1. That they might assist him in instructing such as by his preaching were awakened and startled; wherever Paul came, the waters were stirred, and then there was need of many hands to help the cripples in. It was time to strike when the iron was hot. 2. That they might be trained up by him, and fitted for future service, might fully know his doctrine and manner of life, 2 Tim. iii. 10. Paul’s bodily presence was weak and despicable, and therefore these friends of his accompanied him, to put a reputation upon him, to keep him in countenance, and to intimate to strangers, who would be apt to judge by the sight of the eye, that he had a great deal in him truly valuable, which was not discovered upon the outward appearance.
V. His coming to Troas, where he had appointed a general rendezvous of his friends. 1. They went before, and staid for him at Troas (v. 5), designing to go along with him to Jerusalem, as Trophimus particularly did, ch. xxi. 29. We should not think it hard to stay awhile for good company in a journey. 2. Paul made the best of his way thither; and, it should seem, Luke was now in company with him; for he says We sailed from Philippi (v. 6), and the first time we find him in his company was here at Troas, ch. xvi. 11. The days of unleavened bread are mentioned only to describe the time, not to intimate that Paul kept the passover after the manner of the Jews; for just about this time he had written in his first epistle to the church at Corinth, and taught, that Christs is our Passover, and a Christian life our feast of unleavened bread (1Co 5:7; 1Co 5:8), and when the substance was come the shadow was done away. He came to them to Troas, by sea, in five days, and when he was there staid but seven days. There is no remedy, but a great deal of time will unavoidably be lost in travelling to and fro, by those who go about doing good, yet it shall not be put upon the score of lost time. Paul thought it worth while to bestow five days in going to Troas, though it was but for an opportunity of seven days’ stay there; but he knew, and so should we, how to redeem even journeying time, and make it turn to some good account.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
After the uproar was ceased ( ). Literally, after the ceasing (accusative of articular aorist middle infinitive of , to make cease) as to the uproar (accusative of general reference). Noise and riot, already in Matt 26:5; Matt 27:24; Mark 5:38; Mark 14:2; and see in Acts 21:34; Acts 24:18. Pictures the whole incident as bustle and confusion.
Took leave (). First aorist middle participle of , old verb from intensive and , to draw, to draw to oneself in embrace either in greeting or farewell. Here it is in farewell as in 21:6. Salutation in Acts 21:7; Acts 21:19.
Departed for to go into Macedonia ( ). Both verbs, single act and then process. Luke here condenses what was probably a whole year of Paul’s life and work as we gather from II Corinthians, one of Paul’s “weighty and powerful” letters as his enemies called them (2Co 10:10). “This epistle more than any other is a revelation of S. Paul’s own heart: it is his spiritual autobiography and apologia pro vita sua.”
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Embraced [] . Better, as Rev., took leave. The word is used for a salutation either at meeting or parting. See ch. Act 21:6, 7.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
PAUL’S LAST JOURNEY FROM ASIA, HIS MISSION TO JERUSALEM V. 1-5
1) “And after the uproar was ceased,” (meta de to pausasthai ton thoroubon) “Then after the uproar had been caused to cease,” when all was quieted down in Ephesus again.
2) “Paul called unto him the disciples (metapempsamenos ho Paulos tous mathetas) “Paul summoned the disciples,” of the church at Ephesus, and perhaps some from other local churches in Asia Minor.
3) “And embraced them,” (kai parakalesas) “And exhorting, embracing or motivating them,” to go on in the common faith, 1Co 15:58; Gal 6:9; Jud 1:3; By this joined emotional parting the disciples confirmed their love and commitment to one another, to Paul, and to the continued spread of the gospel thru the church, Joh 13:34-35; Eph 3:21.
4) “And departed for to go into Macedonia,” (aspasamenos ekselthen poreuesthai eis Makedonian) “Saluting (them) he went out from them to travel into Macedonia,” a country north and northeast of Greece, a Roman proconsular province from B.C. 142 till the time of Tiberius, then from the time of Claudius Caesar 41 A.D. it, with Achaia, became the whole of Greece, 1Co 16:5; 2Co 2:12-13; Rom 15:26; 2Co 9:2; 1Th 1:8.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
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1. Luke declareth in this chapter how Paul, loosing from Asia, did again cross the seas to go to Jerusalem. And though whatsoever is written in this narration be worthy of most diligent meditation and marking, yet doth it need no long exposition. It appeareth that the Church was preserved in safety by the wonderful power of God amidst those troublesome tumults. The church of Ephesus was as yet slender and weak: the faithful having had experience of a sudden motion [commotion] once, might for just causes fear, lest like storms should ever now and then arise. We need not doubt that Paul did with much ado depart from them; yet because greater necessity doth draw him unto another place, he is enforced to leave his sons who were lately begotten, and had as yet scarce escaped shipwreck in the midst of the raging sea. As for them, though they be very loath to forego Paul, yet, lest they do injury to other churches, they do not keep him back nor stay him. So that we see that they were not wedded to themselves, but that they were careful for the kingdom of Christ, that they might provide as well for their brethren as for themselves. We must diligently note these examples, that one of us may study to help another in this miserable dispersing; but if it so fall out at any time that we be bereft of profitable helps, let us not doubt nor waver, knowing that God doth hold the helm of our ship. And we must also note this, that Paul doth not depart until he have saluted the brethren, but doth rather strengthen them at his departure. As Luke saith straightway of the Macedonians, that Paul exhorted them with many words, that is, not overfields, − (402) as if it were sufficient to put them only in mind of their duty; but as he commandeth elsewhere that others should do, he urged importunately, and beat in [inculcated] thoroughly things which were needful to be known, that they might never be forgotten ( 2Ti 4:2). −
(402) −
“
Defunctorie,” perfunctorily.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
A PROPHETIC JOURNEY
Act 20:1-38.
AND after the uproar was ceased. The reference is to the effect of the town-clerks speech. He had silenced the mob and sent them about their business. In nature, storms are commonly succeeded by calms. It is so in life! There are preachers who prefer a storm and create as many as possible that they may feel the thrill of the excitement. They prefer an uproar to a calm. Paul did not belong to that company. He appreciated peace if it could be had without paying too great a price for it, and was apparently glad when this storm subsided.
He called unto him the disciples, and embraced them, and departed for to go into Macedonia. It seems clear that for a period his ministry was quietly received, for the text reads, When he had gone over those parts, and had given them much exhortation, he came into Greece. And there abode three months.
But permanent peace was not for this Apostle. His Gospel was too revolutionary; his spirit was too courageous; his convictions were too uncompromising, and shortly there was brewing about him a far more dangerous rebellion than had voiced itself at Ephesus.
The storm that is to be most feared is not the one that is attended with loudest thunder, but the one that is preceded by an awful silence. The Jews were not talking now; they were lying in wait for him.
The hidden foe is more dangerous than the furious one. Doubtless Sopater of Berea, and Aristarchus and Secundus of Thessalonia, and Gaius of Derbe, and Timotheus, his faithful disciple, and Tychicus and Trophimus of Asia, were the outstanding young men who had been attracted to this mighty Apostle of a new faith. But they were more than his pupils and followers. They were doubtless playing the part of a body-guard as well. Every great teacher does two things: He attracts students to him and he creates self-defenders.
This chapter falls naturally under three heads: The Work at Troas, The Witness at Ephesus, and The Final Warning.
THE WORK AT TROAS
Pauls pupils and fellow laborers preceded him to Troas and awaited him at that city. These going before tarried for us at Troas etc. (Act 20:5-16).
He drew men most magnetically. Aristarchus, Secundus, Gaius, Timotheus, Tychicus and Trophimusthese are choice spirits; these are men whose influence will be felt; these are pupils who will catch the spirit of their great teacher and of whom the church will hear. The great difference between teachers is not always mental; it is often magnetic. There are men in the teaching office who are filled with information, but they cant so impart it as to excite any enthusiasm, and there are other men who can take the same information, or even less, and make it to live and glow in other lives. Paul belonged to the latter company. He was more than a load-stone attracting to himself; he was a magnetizer imparting power to others. Thats the superb element in the ministry. It was that quality that made Peter, Paul, John and James. They live in history, not alone because they wrote Epistles, but because they so imparted themselves to their fellows that those fellows became living epistles, known and read of many men. They were not necessarily the best of the Apostles so far as moral character was concerned, though each of them justly enjoys an enviable reputation. But they did not make it by belonging to the goody-goody crowd. Peter slipped once and went back to his old custom of profanity, and the faithful record indicates that he did a hot job of it. He slipped another time and smote off the ear of a high priests servanta very unchristian deed. Paul seemed at times disrespectful of the very dignitaries of whom he wrote to others that they should be subservient. John, considering his conscious weaknesses, wrote, If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and James has no personal record of which to particularly boast above his brothers, but they were men who moved their fellows mightily, whose lives were not negative merely. How often have you seen two brothers and noted the marked difference between them? One of them was quiet, dignified, peace-loving, smooth-speaking; the other vociferous on occasions, capable of righteous indignation, of eloquent condemnation of wrong; in fact, of a row when he felt that it was justified. And how often have you heard men say of the latter, Well, he is more successful, but he is nothing like as good a man as his brother. That all depends upon what you mean by goodness. If you mean polity, smooth speaking, lacking in conviction, careful in speech, he is a better man than his brother. But if you speak of the robust virtues, everything is in his brothers favor; and you will find it a well-nigh universal law that his brother is the effective man. He will call many of his fellows about him; he will shape their thinking; he will inspire their actions; he will provide them a motive for conduct; he will multiply himself in them. This was Paul!
He combined ceremony and speech. Upon the first day of the meek, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them. Paul, then, was not one of the men who will have nothing to do with ceremony. The breaking of bread was to him a sermon. It meant the broken Body of his Lord. The taking of the cup was to him the repetition of truth. It spoke of the shed blood. There are ceremonies that may seem to be administered in silence, and the Lords Supper is one of them; but silence is sometimes more eloquent than speech. Who could preach as the Lords Supper preaches? What man could ever tell the story of the broken Body as the broken bread tells it? What man could ever give significance to the shed blood as the cup passed in remembrance of Him and attended by the thought of Scripture? As often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lords death till He come.
And yet, the ceremony should be followed by speech, and Paul preached unto them. The bread requires expression that it may bear its best testimony. The cup must get its Scripture setting if men are to see in it the shed blood and be reminded of the price with which they were purchased. Ceremonies are significant, but the significance must be pointed out in speech, and sometimes it requires extensive speech that all may understand.
Paul was not a brief preacher. He was not given to sermonettes. They did not put a clock before his face and tell him he had to quit in twenty minutes. If they did he forgot the clock and the people forgot the request, for at midnight he was still speaking. Eutychus had doubtless been out with his girl the night before, or else had attended the theatre and stayed for the second show, or possibly had come in from a days hard work on the farm, and fell asleep and dropped from the third gallery and was taken up dead.
There are preachers who commonly put their audiences to sleep, but Paul was not among them. His sermons were usually lengthy, and this is the only instance of sleep recorded against him, and even in this instance the preacher that put the man to sleep wakened him up again; in fact, he brought him back to life. After all, that is the preachers businessto make men live. Apparently this incident did not even end the service, but did give occasion for rest and refreshment, for when he had broken bread and eaten, he talked a long while, even till break of day.
The age to which we belong is too superficial to make such sermonizing possible. Once in a while its representative will remain for the second show, but not often. We are people of change and we prefer it of the lightning sortshort sermons, snappy music, service soon overthese are our slogans. That is why it is possible for people to change from an orthodox pastor to a heterodox one and not know it. Their studies are not consecutive; their interests are not deep; their information is not adequate.
He controlled the movements of the company. The company sailed unto Assos, there intending to take in Paul: for so had he appointed, minding himself to go afoot.
He determined the place of meeting; he fixed the time. Others attended upon his wishes. When on board he said, To Mitylene, to Chios, and the next day to Samos. Doubtless their stop at Trogyllium for a short stay was Pauls wish, and his word was sufficient for the trip to Miletus. How significant the phrase, For Paul had determined to sail by Ephesus. Paul determined everything! Even the skipper of the ship took orders from him. He was a master among men. Society has always known such masters. Their fellows circulate around them as the earth and the moon circulate around the sun. But it is the drawing power of the central one that holds them and determines their circuit. You will find such a man in the center of every great business, at the head of every great bank, the ruler in every railroad corporation, the chief of every school and church.
THE WITNESS AT EPHESUS
He reviewed his former ministry and its meaning.
And from Miletus he sent to Ephesus, and called the elders of the church.
And when they were come to him, he said unto them, Ye know, from the first day that I came into Asia, after what manner I have been with you at all seasons,
Serving the Lord with all humility of mind, and with many tears, and temptations, which befell me by the lying in wait of the Jews:
And how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have shewed you, and have taught you publickly, and from house to house,
Testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ (Act 20:17-21).
If you go back to his Ephesian ministry as recorded in Acts and turn over to the Epistle written to this company, you will find confirmations of this claim. Old men are given to reminiscence, and often it is a meaningless prattle about what they did in earlier days. But Paul is not in his dotage and this is no vain boast. It is a just review and is intended to bring the elders of the church into an adequate conception of their office and obligation. The plain meaning was: I expect you to continue that which I began, both to do and to teach and I expect you to resist as I resisted; to teach both privately and publicly as I did in the streets and from house to house, to testify likewise to Jews and to Greeks repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ, for these are the fundamentals!
He anticipated approaching trials and interpreted them.
And now, behold, I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there:
Save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me.
But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the Gospel of the grace of God.
And now, behold, I know that ye all, among whom I have gone preaching the Kingdom of God, shall see my face no more.
Wherefore I take you to record tins day, that I am pure from the blood of all men.
For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God (Act 20:22-27).
Paul was not a man free from fear, neither was he one controlled by it and cowed in consequence of it. He did not go to Jerusalem ignorant of his fate and he did not turn back in order to escape it. The voice of the Spirit in him was to go, but the same Holy Ghost witnessed that bonds and afflictions awaited him. However, he could truthfully say,
None of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the Gospel of the grace of God (Act 20:24).
It is little wonder that Paul is so famed an Apostle. Such courage is not with weak men, and such convictions are not with the shallow. They suggest alike greatness and depth of character, and if Christianity is anything it is character, and when Christianity does not control conduct and determine character it is a mere profession, it is a counterfeit.
He defended both his course and counsel.
And now, behold, I know that ye all, among whom I have gone preaching the Kingdom of God, shall see my face no more.
Wherefore I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men.
For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God (Act 20:25-27).
It is a great testimony! It was born under the circumstances of sadness! He knew he should see them no more, but he could say, I am pure from the blood of all men. Doubtless, he was thinking in Old Testament terms.
If the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchmans hand.
So thou, O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the House of Israel; therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and warn them from me.
Nevertheless, if thou warn the wicked of his way to turn from it; if he do not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul (Eze 33:6-7; Eze 33:9).
There is more or less of a feeling that the day of this strenuous responsibility is past, but who shall say it? May there not be a frightful reckoning for those ministers who have preached another gospel which is no gospel; who have stripped the Gospel of its every word of warning; who have adopted the smooth speech of hypocrisy; who have themselves drunk from the stupifying potion of modernism, and as drowsiness creeps upon them, pass the bottle down the line that their audiences may drink from the same, and know the sensuous pleasure of pleasant dreams, of no conviction of sin, no judgment to come, no hell in the hereafter?
The twentieth century sleeps, but it is the minister who must answer for that fact before God.
O thou son of man, speak unto the House of Israel; Thus ye speak, saying, If our transgressions and our sins he upon us, and we pine away in them, how should we then live? (Eze 33:10).
But, the chapter continues in
THE FINAL WARNING
Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the Church of God, which He hath purchased with His own Blood (Act 20:28).
This verse is so important that we shall not attempt its full treatment at this time. We shall return and give to it a chapter. Mark, however, that in the remaining Scripture he warns against the greed of gold, and his warning moves them to weep.
He warned them against grievous wolves.
Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the Church of God, which He hath purchased with His own Blood,
For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock,
Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them,
Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears (Act 20:28-31).
A careful study of these verses will reveal three thoughts. First, that ministers are intended to oversee and feed the Church of God which He has purchased with His own Blood. Second, that sometimes the overseer becomes a consumer, and instead of feeding the Church of God, he feeds upon the Church, consuming the flock; and, forgetting the price with which they have been purchased the Blood of Christhe considers but himself. It is a pathetic picture! It leads logically to the second suggestion, that the man, animated by only a selfish interest, will seldom or never stand by the sacred truths of revelation. Sooner or later he will deny the Blood with which he was bought, and speaking perverse things, will draw away disciples after himself. How significant the Apostles warning to the people, to watch and remember his former word to them, how he uttered it with strong crying and tears, commending his loved ones to God and the Word of His grace, which is alone able to build up and to give an inheritance to all them that are sanctified.
He warned against the greed of gold.
I have coveted no mans silver, or gold, or apparel.
Yea, ye yourselves know, that these hands have ministered unto my necessities, and to them that were with me,
I have skewed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said, It is more blessed to give than to receive (Act 20:33-35).
The greatest single menace of the successful minister of the twentieth century is suggested here. I have coveted no mans silver, or gold, or apparel. The Church of God suffers from penuriousness on the part of the small minister and the average layman, and from greed of gold on the part of the most successful minister. The moment a man reaches the point as a preacher where his services are in demand above and beyond the time that he can well spare from his pulpit, he is tempted to capitalize his preaching. It is a profound pity that ministers and churches will call for busy men, asking them across the continent, requesting them to leave far more important fields and far bigger and better tasks to come and help them with their little problems, and then when, out of the generosity of his heart the preacher of power responds, proffer him a check for his services that will sometimes scarcely pay his traveling expense, and that commonly represents no sort of sacrifice on the part of the laity, no planning or anxiety on the part of the inviting preacher.
There are literally thousands of men conducting small churches because they have such small ideas, and such men uniformly imagine that if they pay your travel expense they have proven themselves extremely just, and from their company come the most cruel critics of their more successful brethren in the ministry. The average American church has little more sense of justicenot to speak of generositythan does the average English church. What more could be said?
But, let us look at the converse of this picture. Paul was in universal demand. Churches everywhere wanted him. The cities everywhere crowded to hear him. The fact that a member of the Sanhedrin had cast in his lot with the humble church, was enough to pack the biggest place when he appeared. Yet, Paul never reached the point where he said, I have to have an income of $50,000 per annum in order to live as I would like to live. It is a pity that any preacher ever made such a remark. Or, I will come to you if you will pay me $100 a night and expenses. That phrase taken from a letter would not look well set down beside Act 20:33; nor would it sound well in the light of Act 20:34 or Act 20:35.
Finally,
His warnings were met by their weeping.
And when he had thus spoken, he kneeled down, and prayed with them all.
And they all wept sore, and fell on Pauls neck, and kissed him.
Sorrowing most of all for the words which he spake, that they should see his face no more. And they accompanied him unto the ship (Act 20:36-38).
It is doubtful if there is any affection exceeding that which exists between spiritual fathers and spiritual children. The same Apostle writing in Heb 12:9 says, We have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence, but the man who begat us through the Gospel and in the Spirit has a claim upon life which we not only recognize, but the meaning of which we deeply feel.
It is a sad day when the family doctor dies. Oftentimes we say he is the one who brought us into the world. But it is even sadder when we part company forever from the one who brought us into light and into life. To look on his face for the last time is to feel the sting of sorrow indeed. There is no relation that exceeds in sanctity and in sweetness the relation of the spiritual father to spiritual children.
Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley
CRITICAL REMARKS
Act. 20:1. After the uproar was ceased.Soon after, but not necessarily because of the uproar. The best authorities insert and exhorted, , before and embraced or took leave of themi.e., the disciples; the word referring to the farewell blessing and the farewell kiss (compare Act. 21:6). Departed for to go into Macedonia, vi Troas (see 2Co. 2:12-13), where be awaited for some time the coming of Titus, whom, however, he did not meet till be reached Macedonia (2Co. 7:6).
Act. 20:2. The word for Greece, , stands for Achaia as distinguished from Macedonia (Act. 18:12, Act. 19:21).
Act. 20:3. And there abode three months.Lit., having acted or worked thereviz. in Corinth (1Co. 16:6), three months, a plot having been laid against him by the Jews, etc. , an anakolouthon, instead of . During this stay in Corinth the Epistle to the Romans was written (see Rom. 16:22-23). He purposed to return through Macedonia.Lit., there was to him an opinion, or intentioni.e., it was not by accident, but in accordance with deliberate counsel and determination that he, when on the eve of embarking for Syria, changed his route and proceeded northwards through Macedonia.
Act. 20:4. As far as Asia is omitted by many ancient authorities, possibly because Trophimus, in spite of 2Ti. 4:20, appears in Pauls company in Jerusalem (Act. 21:29), and Aristarchus sails with Paul from Csarea (Act. 27:2). The retention of the clause, however, does not necessarily imply that the persons here named proceeded with the Apostle no farther than to Asia The best MSS. also add to Sopater of Bera the words the son of Pyrrhus, probably to distinguish him from Sosipater, Pauls kinsman (Rom. 16:21).
Act. 20:5. These (the seven) going before.Rather, having gone before, most likely by ship from Corinth (Lewin), though some suppose by land through Macedonia and ship from Philippi (Alford, Hackett), tarried for us at Troas (see Act. 16:8). Why Paul stayed behind at Corinth or at Philippi is not recorded. Either he had work to do in Philippi or Corinth (Alford), or he may have wished to keep the days of unleavened bread (Meyer). The use of us (Act. 20:5) and we (Act. 20:6) shows that Luke rejoined the Apostles company at Philippi. Holtzmann thinks that Paul, accompanied by the seven, may have reached Troas by the land route, crossing over the Hellespont, and that Luke with some others followed after by sea from Philippi.
Act. 20:6. The days of unleavened bread meant the Passover week (compare Act. 12:3, Act. 27:9). The voyage from Philippi to Troas was accomplished in five days instead of three (Act. 16:11-12). The sojourn in the city extended over seven days, as afterwards at Tyre (Act. 21:4).HOMILETICAL ANALYSIS.Act. 20:1-6
A Second Visit to Europe; or, Across the Archipelago and Back
I. The point of departure.Ephesus (see Act. 19:1).
1. When he left it. After the uproar had ceased. Not necessarily immediately, but soon after the disturbance recorded in the preceding chapter. If he stayed till Pentecost (1Co. 16:8), then he probably left the city in the spring or summer of A.D. 57 or 58,
2. Why he left it. Not because of the just-mentioned disturbance, at least not wholly on its account, but in pursuance of a plan, already formed, to visit Macedonia (Act. 19:21).
3. How he left it. Neither hastily nor secretly, as he had formerly left Bera (Act. 17:14) and Damascus (Act. 9:25), but deliberately and openly, after having convened, exhorted, and embraced, or saluted (with a farewell kiss) the disciples. At the same time he was greatly dispirited by the strong opposition which had driven him prematurely from the city (2Co. 1:8 ff.) (Ramsay).
II. The place of destination.Macedonia (see Act. 19:21, Act. 16:9-10).
1. How he reached it. By way of Troas (2Co. 12:13), where he expected to meet Titus, whom he had sent to Corinth with or soon after his First Epistle to the Corinthians, where he stayed some considerable timelong enough to lay the foundations of a Christian Church (2Co. 2:12)and from which he broke up only because of the non-arrival of Titus 2. Who accompanied him. Luke omits to mention the companions of his voyage, but these most probably were Tychicus and Trophimus (Act. 20:4), since these again returned with him from Macedonia to Asia.
3. What he did there. He went through those parts, visited the Churches which had been established in themthe Churches of Philippi, Thessalonica, and Bera, with perhaps othersand gave them much exhortation. Here also he wrote his Second Epistle to the Corinthians (2Co. 9:2; 2Co. 9:4), and sent it by the hands of Titus (2Co. 8:18).
III. The course of travel.This led him into Greecei.e., into Achaia (see Act. 19:21), and more particularly to Corinth (1Co. 16:6).
1. The route by which Corinth was approached. Most likely round about by Illyricum (Rom. 15:19). At least this appears the only place in Lukes narrative where Pauls evangelising tour in those parts can be inserted. On his first visit to Macedonia he moved along the eastern side of the peninsula, and was kept at a distance from Illyricum. When he passed through Macedonia next (Act. 20:3) he had already written the Epistle to the Romans (Hackett).
2. The time spent in Corinth. Three months, which probably carried him through the winter of A.D. 57 or 58 (see 1Co. 16:6).
3. The work done in Corinth.
(1) The gospel was preached as before, and probably, as before, in the house of Justus, if by this time another place of meeting had not been obtained.
(2) The disorders of the Corinthian Church were composed. He was returning to converts who had cast off the morality of the gospel, to friends who had forgotten his love, to enemies who disputed his Divine commission (Conybeare and Howson), and with all these he doubtless had special dealings (see 2Co. 10:2; 2Co. 10:4; 2Co. 10:6; 2Co. 10:8; 2Co. 13:2).
(3) The Epistle to the Galatians was written in consequence of bad news having come from Galatia, and the Epistle to the Romans to pave the way for his contemplated visit.
4. The date of leaving Corinth. When his Jewish adversaries had formed another plot against him. There is no reason to suppose that Pauls departure was hastened by the discovery of this conspiracy, yet the machinations of the Jews were apparently the cause of his changing his route, and instead of sailing direct for Syria, journeying northwards through Macedonia, and embarking at Neapolis. The style of this plot, says Ramsay, (St. Paul, etc., p. 287) can be easily imagined. Pauls intention must have been to take a pilgrim ship carrying Achaian and Asian Jews to the Passover. With a ship load of hostile Jews it would be easy to find opportunity to murder Paul. He therefore abandoned the proposed voyage and sailed for Macedonia,rather as already suggested travelling to Macedonia by land.
IV. The journey towards home.
1. The companions of the Apostle. Seven in number.
(1) Sopater of Bera, the son of Pyrrhusperhaps characterised so to distinguish him from Sosipater (Rom. 16:21), and named first because Paul, in travelling vi Macedonia, would pick him up first at Bera.
(2) Aristarchus of Thessalonica, who was with Paul in Ephesus (see Act. 19:29), afterwards accompanied him to Rome (Act. 27:2), and shared his imprisonment in that city (Col. 4:10; Phm. 1:24).
(3) Secundus, also of Thessalonica, but otherwise unknown.
(4) Gaius of Derbe, not the Gaius who attended Paul in Ephesus (Act. 19:29), but probably the individual of this name to whom John wrote his Third Epistle (3Jn. 1:1).
(5) Timothy, whose birthplace, Lystra (Act. 16:1), is passed over, presumably as well known.
(6) Tychicus of Asia, one of Pauls most trusted associates (Eph. 6:21; Col. 4:7; Tit. 3:12) and the bearer of Pauls Epistle to the Asiatic Churches (2Ti. 4:12; Tit. 3:12).
(7) Trophimus, a native of Ephesus (Act. 21:29), whom Paul left behind at Miletus sick (2Ti. 4:20), but who subsequently followed the apostle to Jerusalem, where his presence in the temple led to the apostles apprehension. That they were seven in number has (but without reason) suggested the idea that they were intended to represent at Jerusalem the converted Gentile world (Baumgarten), or the seven deacons of chapter 6 (Plumptre).
2. The course they pursued. Leaving Corinth they travelled northwards through Macedonia to Bera, Thessalonica, and Philippi, at the last of which towns they picked up Luke, the beloved physician (Act. 20:6). From Philippi the seven above named proceeded in advance to Troas, where they announced the coming and awaited the arrival of Paul and Luke, who did not leave Philippi till after the days of unleavened breadi.e., the passover of A.D. 58 or 59and, after a stormy passage of five daysi.e., two days longer than the voyage westward (Act. 16:11-12)anchored in Troas, where they tarried seven days, obviously waiting for another vessel in which to prosecute their voyage, or, if the same vessel proceeded southwards, passing the time while it discharged and took in cargo.
Learn.
1. That Christs servants should never flee from the post of duty simply on account of danger.
2. That faithful pastors should bestow much care on the edification and consolidation of the Church. 3. That so long as earnest ministers preach the gospel, they may lay their accounts with plots to hinder their work, if not to injure their persons.
4. That those who are engaged in the Lords service should keep themselves in life as long as they Song of Solomon 5. That six or seven pious people with a Paul to lead them are a formidable enemy to the devil (Lindhammer, quoted by Besser).
HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS
Act. 20:2. How often did Paul visit Corinth? Twice, or thrice?
I. Twice.In favour of this view is commonly urged:
1. That the Acts speak of only two visits (Act. 18:1; Act. 20:2-3).
2. That between Pauls first visit and his first imprisonment at Rome his time is sufficiently accounted for.
3. That 2Co. 13:1 does not necessarily imply that he had already been twice in Corinth, while 2Co. 13:2 seems to say that his then contemplated visit would be his second.
4. That in 1Co. 1:15 he distinctly speaks of his then contemplated visit as his second.
5. That 2Co. 12:14 proves the sense of 2Co. 13:1 to be that then was the third time Paul had been in readiness to visit them.
6. That the Alexandrian MS. in 2Co. 13:1 reads, This is the third time I am ready to come to you (see Paley, Hor Paulin, iv. 12).
II. Thrice.This view is based on the following considerations:
1. That 2Co. 13:1, according to the best texts, refers, not to a third intention, but to a third visit.
2. That 2Co. 1:15-16 speaks, not of the benefit of a second visit, but of the advantage of being visited twice on the same tour.
3. That as Paul had been three times shipwrecked when he wrote the Second Epistle to the Corinthians (Act. 11:25), and as the only recorded voyages on which he could have been wrecked were those from Csarea to Tarsus (Act. 9:30) and from Ephesus to Macedonia (Act. 20:1), of both of which absolutely no account is given, in order to make the number three he must have undertaken another voyage, which most probably was from Ephesus to Corinth.
4. There were urgent reasons why he should have visited the Corinthian Church while residing at Ephesus.
5. Communication between the two cities was easy to obtain at any time.
6. Its omission by Luke is susceptible of explanation by remembering that occasionally long journeys are dismissed in a few words (see Act. 15:41; Act. 16:6; Act. 18:23; Act. 19:1; Act. 20:2-3), while several important events, such as the founding of the Syrian and Cilician Churches (Gal. 1:21), and the journey to Arabia (Gal. 1:17), are not mentioned at all, and by supposing that nothing remarkable occurred during this second visit to the commercial capital of Achaia.
Act. 20:1-6. The routine of a missionarys life, as exemplified in that of Paul.
I. Bidding farewell to friends (Act. 20:1).Earthly ties and gracious bonds have often to be broken by those who would follow the cross.
II. Exhorting the people of God (Act. 20:2).Almost as hard a task as that of winning men to, is that of keeping men in the faith.
III. Evading the plots of enemies (Act. 20:3).They that will live godly, and much more they that will propagate the cause of Christ, must lay their account with persecution.
IV. Enjoying the society of fellow-Christians (Act. 20:4).Communion of kindred souls with each other forms one of the Christians sweetest solaces.
V. Unfurling the banner of the cross (Act. 20:6).This the favourite occupation of a true minister or missionary.
Act. 20:4. Pauls friends; or, the Sacred Circle of Seven.
I. Trophies of Pauls gospel.
II. Companions on Pauls Journey.
III. Helpers in Pauls work.
IV. Sharers in Pauls renown. Having found with him a place in the Inspired Record.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
5.
IN MACEDONIA. Act. 20:1-2.
1
And after the uproar ceased, Paul having sent for the disciples and exhorted them, took leave of them, and departed to go into Macedonia.
2
And when he had gone through those parts, and had given them much exhortation, he came into Greece.
Act. 20:1-2 From the first verse of this 20th chapter it would seem that Paul decided that the riot would be the formal cause of his leaving the city of Ephesus. How long he stayed in the city after the riot we do not know but I am personally disposed to believe that he left very soon afterward. At any rate, after coming to Troas in such a depressed condition he continued on into Macedonia, hoping all the while that he would meet Titus on the way. And he did. You know from previous study that the cities of Macedonia were Philippi, Thessalonica and Berea.
As near as we can read chronologically from Pauls epistles he met Titus at Philippi. Titus brought the wonderful news that the church in Corinth had received the epistle of Paul with a humble spirit and that most all who were in sin had repented. So it was that Paul wrote the second letter to Corinth from Philippi, and possibly sent it on head of himself by the hand of Titus. In this epistle he expresses his thoughts upon meeting Titus (2Co. 7:5-10). To each of these churches he gave much exhortation. This was encouragement and instruction and must have taken several months. After a progressive visit from Philippi to Berea he left Macedonia and came into Greece, most specifically into the province of Achaia in Greece and the city of Corinth in Achaia.
773.
What prompted Paul to leave Ephesus?
774.
Which were the cities that Paul visited in Macedonia?
775.
Did Paul meet Titus?
776.
Why was Paul depressed?
777.
Where did Paul meet Titus? What news did he bring?
778.
From where was the book of II Corinthians written? What is its message?
779.
To what churches did Paul give much exhortation?
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
XX.
(1) Paul called unto him the disciples, and embraced them . . .The latter verb implies a farewell salutation.
Departed for to go into Macedonia.We are able from the Epistles to the Corinthians to fill up the gap left in the narrative of the Acts. Having sent Timotheus and Erastus to see after the discipline of the Church of Corinth (Act. 19:17), the Apostle was cheered by the coming of Stephanas and his two companions (1Co. 16:17), and apparently wrote by them what is now the First Epistle to the Corinthians. A previous Epistle had been sent, probably by Timothy, to which he refers in 1Co. 4:17. When he wrote that Epistle he intended to press on quickly and complete in person the work which it was to begin (1Co. 4:18-19). He was led, however, to change his purpose, and to take the land journey through Macedonia instead of going by sea to Corinth (2Co. 1:16-17), and so from Corinth to Macedonia, as he had at first intended. He was anxious to know the effect of his letter before he took any further action, and Titus, who probably accompanied the bearers of that letter, was charged to hasten back to Troas with his report. On coming to Troas, however, he did not find him, and after waiting for some time in vain (2Co. 2:12), the anxiety told upon his health. He despaired of life and felt as if the sentence of death was passed on him (2Co. 1:8; 2Co. 4:10-11). The mysterious thorn in the flesh buffeted him with more severity than ever (2Co. 12:7). He pressed on, however, to Macedonia (2Co. 2:13), probably to Philippi, as being the first of the churches he had planted, where he would find loving friends and the beloved physician, whose services he now needed more than ever. There, or elsewhere in Macedonia, Titus joined him, and brought tidings that partly cheered him, partly roused his indignation. There had been repentance and reformation where he most wished to see them, on the one hand (2Co. 6:6-12); on the other, his enemies said bitter things of him, sneered at his bodily infirmities (2Co. 10:10), and compared, to his disparagement, the credentials which Apollos had presented (2Co. 3:1) with his lack of them. The result was that Titus was sent back with the Second Epistle to the Corinthians, accompanied by some other disciple (probably St. Luke, but see Notes on 2Co. 8:18-19), the Apostle resolving to wait till they had brought matters into better order and had collected what had been laid up in store for the Church of Jerusalem, so that it might be ready for him on his arrival (2Co. 9:5). At or about this time also, to judge from the numerous parallelisms of thought and language between it and the Epistles to the Corinthians on the one hand, and that to the Romans on the other, we must place the date of the Epistle to the Galatians. (See Introduction to that Epistle.) Probably after Titus and Luke had left, and before Timotheus had returnedwhen he was alone, with no one to share the labour of writing, or to give help and counseltidings came that the Judaising teachers had been there also, and had been only too successful. How the tidings reached him we do not know, but if the purple-seller of Thyatira was still at Philippi, she might naturally be in receipt of communications from that city, and it was near enough to Galatia to know what was passing there.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Chapter 20
SETTING OUT FOR JERUSALEM ( Act 20:1-6 ) 20:1-6 After the disturbance had ceased, Paul sent for the disciples. He spoke words of encouragement to them and bade them farewell and departed to go to Macedonia. When he had gone through those parts and when he had spoken many a word of encouragement to them, he went into Greece. When he had spent three months there, and when he was about to set sail for Syria, a plot was made against him by the Jews. So he made up his mind to make the return journey through Macedonia. As far as Asia there accompanied him Sopatros, the son of Pyrrhus, who belonged to Beroea; and, of the Thessalonians, Aristarchus and Secundus; and Gaius from Derbe and Timothy; and the men from Asia, Tychichus and Trophimus. They went on ahead and waited for us at Troas. After the days of unleavened bread we sailed away from Philippi; and in five days time we came to them at Troas; and there we spent seven days.
We have already seen how Paul had set his heart on making a collection from all his churches for the church of Jerusalem. It was to receive contributions to that fund that he went into Macedonia. Here again we have an instance of how much we do not know and will never know about the story of Paul. Act 20:2 says that when he had gone through those parts he came to Greece. It must have been on this occasion that he visited Illyricum ( Rom 15:19). These few words summarize what must have been about a whole year of journey and adventure.
Act 20:3 tells us that when Paul was about to set sail from Greece to Syria a Jewish plot was unmasked and he changed his route to an overland way. Very likely what happened was this. Often from foreign ports Jewish pilgrim ships left for Syria to take pilgrims to the Passover and Paul must have intended to sail on one. On such a ship it would have been the easiest thing in the world for the fanatical Jews to arrange that Paul should disappear overboard and never be heard of again. Paul was a man who always walked with his life in his hands.
In Act 20:4 we have a list of Paul’s companions on his voyage. These men must have been delegated from the various churches charged with the duty of taking their contributions to Jerusalem. They were demonstrating thus early that the Church was a unity and the need of one part was the opportunity of the rest.
In Act 20:5 the narrative turns from the third to the first person again. This is the sign that once again Luke is there and that we are getting an eye-witness account. Luke tells us that they left Philippi after the days of unleavened bread. The days of unleavened bread began with the day of the Passover and lasted for one week, during which the Jews ate unleavened bread in memory of their deliverance from Egypt. The time of the Passover was the middle of April.
A YOUNG MAN FALLS ASLEEP ( Act 20:7-12 ) 20:7-12 On the first day of the week, when we had gathered together to break bread, Paul, who was about to leave on the next day, spoke to them, and he prolonged his talk until midnight. There were many lamps in the upper room where we were assembled. A young man called Eutychus was sitting by the window. He began to be overcome by a deep sleep. While Paul was talking he was still more overcome by sleep and he fell right down from the third floor and was taken up dead. Paul went down and threw himself on him. He put his arms round him and said, “Stop making a fuss, for his life is still in him.” So he went back upstairs and broke bread and ate; and he talked with them a long time until dawn came and so he departed. And they brought in the boy alive and were greatly comforted.
This vivid story is clearly an eye-witness account; and it is one of the first accounts we have of what a Christian service was like.
It talks twice about breaking of bread. In the early Church there were two closely related things. One was what was called the Love Feast. To it all contributed and it was a real meal, often the only proper meal that poor slaves got all week. Here Christians ate in loving fellowship with each other. The other was the Lord’s Supper which was observed during or immediately after the Love Feast. It may well be that we have lost something of great value in the happy togetherness of the common meal. It marked as nothing else could the family spirit of the Church.
All this happened at night. That is probably because it was only at night, when the day’s work was done, that slaves could come to the Christian fellowship. That also explains the case of Eutychus. It was dark. In the low upper room it was hot. The many lamps made the air oppressive. Eutychus, no doubt, had done a hard day’s work before ever he came and his body was tired. He was sitting by a window to get the cool night air. The windows were not made of glass. They were either lattice or solid wood and opened like doors, coming right down almost to the floor and projecting over the courtyard below. The tired Eutychus, overpowered by the stuffy atmosphere, succumbed to sleep and fell to the courtyard below. We must not take it that Paul spoke on and on; there would be talk and discussion. When the crowd poured down the outside stair and found the lad lying senseless below, they began to scream in an uncontrolled eastern way; but Paul told them to stop the fuss, for the life was still in the lad. From the next verses we learn that Paul did not go with the main company; no doubt he stayed behind to make sure that Eutychus was completely recovered from his fall.
There’s something very lovely about this simple picture. The impression is that of a family meeting together rather than of a modern church service. Is it possible that we have gained in dignity in our Church services at the expense of family atmosphere?
STAGES ON THE WAY ( Act 20:13-16 ) 20:13-16 But we went to the ship and set sail for Assos, for there we intended to take Paul on board for he had arranged things in this way, since he himself intended to do that stage on foot. When we met him at Assos we took him on board and went to Mitylene. On the next day we sailed away from there and arrived opposite Chios. On the second day we crossed over to Samos and on the next day we came to Miletus.. for Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus so as not to have to spend time in Asia. For he was in a hurry to be, if it were possible for him, in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost.
Because Luke was with Paul we can follow the journey almost day by day and stage by stage. From Troas, Assos was 20 miles by road whereas it was 30 miles by sea; and the sea journey involved the rounding of Cape Lectum against the strong prevailing north-easterly winds. Paul had ample time to make the journey on foot and be picked up at Assos. It may be that he wanted the time alone in order to nerve his spirit for the days ahead. Mitylene was on the island of Lesbos, Chios was on Samos and Miletus was 28 miles south of Ephesus at the mouth of the Maeander River.
We have seen how Paul would have liked to have been in Jerusalem for the Passover and how the plot of the Jews hindered that. Pentecost came seven weeks later and he was eager to be there for that great feast. Although Paul had broken away from the Jews, the ancestral feasts were still dear to him. He was the apostle to the Gentiles and his own people might hate him; but in his heart there was nothing but love for them.
A SAD FAREWELL ( Act 20:17-38 )
20:17-38 From Miletus, Paul sent to Ephesus and summoned the elders of the church. When they were with him he said to them, “You yourselves know how, from the first day I came into Asia, I spent all the time, during which I was with you, serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and amidst the trials that happened to me because of the machinations of the Jews. You know how I kept back nothing that was to your profit, how I did not fail to announce my tidings to you and to teach you both publicly and from house to house, testifying to both Jews and Greeks repentance towards God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. And now, look you, I go bound in the Spirit to Jerusalem, although I do not know what will happen to me there, except that from city to city the Holy Spirit testifies to me that bonds and afflictions await me. But I reckon my life worth nothing and I do not count it precious to myself, so be it that I may finish my course and complete the task I received from the Lord Jesus–the task of bearing witness of the good news of God. And now, look you, I know that all of you, amongst whom I went about preaching the Kingdom, will see my face no more. Therefore I affirm to you this day that I am clean from the blood of all men; for I kept back nothing in my proclaiming to you of the whole will of God. Take heed for yourselves and take heed for all the flock in which the Spirit of God has appointed you overseers, so that you may be shepherds to the Church of God which he has rescued through the blood of his own One. I know that after I have gone away fierce wolves will enter in to you and will not spare the flock; and from your own number there will arise men who will speak perverse things to draw the disciples away after them. Therefore be watchful and remember that for three years, day and night, I never stopped instructing each one of you with tears. And now I hand you over to God and to the word of His grace which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance amongst all those who have been sanctified. I coveted no man’s silver or gold or raiment. You yourselves know that these very hands served my own needs and the needs of those who were with me. Always I showed you that working like this a man must help those who are in trouble and that you must remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that it was he who said, ‘It is happier rather to give than to get.'”
When he had said this he knelt down and prayed with them all. And there was great lamentation among them all. They fell upon Paul’s neck and kissed him repeatedly, for they were grieved most of all at the word that he had said, that they would see his face no more. And they escorted him to the ship.
It is not possible to make a neat analysis of a farewell speech so charged with emotion as this. But certain notes sound out.
First of all Paul makes certain claims for himself. (i) He had spoken fearlessly. He had told them all God’s will and pandered neither to the fear nor the favour of men (ii) He had lived independently. His own hands had supplied his needs; and his work had been not only for his own sake but for the sake of others who were less fortunate than himself. (iii) He had faced the future gallantly. He was the captive of the Holy Spirit; and in that confidence he was able to brave everything the future might hold.
Paul also urges certain claims upon his friends. (i) He reminded them of their duty. They were overseers of the flock of God. That was not a duty they had chosen but a duty for which they had been chosen. The servants of the Good Shepherd must also be shepherds of the sheep. (ii) He reminded them of their danger. The infection of the world is never far away. Where truth is, falsehood ever attacks. There was a constant warfare ahead to keep the faith intact and the Church pure.
Through all this scene runs the dominant feeling of an affection as deep as the heart itself. That feeling should be in every church; for when love dies in any church the work of Christ cannot do other than wither.
-Barclay’s Daily Study Bible (NT)
Fuente: Barclay Daily Study Bible
3. Paul’s Departure for Southern Greece, and Return through Macedonia and Troas , Act 20:1-12 .
1. Uproar was ceased With the close of this tumult closed Paul’s memorable ministry of three years (with perhaps some full vacations) in Ephesus. He had made preparations for departure before the disturbance, (Act 19:22,) and he had fixed (1Co 16:8) the Pentecost of A.D. 57 as the limit of his stay. Assuming that this was the point of his departure, as he returned to Jerusalem to the Pentecost of 58, this his third missionary circuit, measured from Ephesus, filled a precise year.
Departed As his route of departure is over old travelled ground, Luke dismisses it with few words; but the return route from Corinth is so pregnant with interest as to occupy a chapter and a half.
Into Macedonia As he promised to the Corinthians, (1Co 16:5.) After writing his first epistle to the Corinthians he was so anxious as to its effect upon that Church that he sent Titus to Corinth to ascertain and report. Titus and his report he expected to receive at Troas, on his way to Macedonia. No Titus appeared, and in deep distress the apostle crossed over the Hellespont, and visited the Philippian Church. There he would meet Luke, whom he had left in Philippi six years before. And there too, to his joy, Titus came with a joyful report (2Co 7:6-7) from the Corinthian Church. That Church had expelled the immoral, and returned to its allegiance to Paul. Yet the Judaizers were at work, headed by a bold and talented, and yet to us unknown, leader, and this, in addition to the business of the collections for the poor saints at Jerusalem, called out
Paul’s Fourth Letter THE SECOND EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS, from Macedonia, autumn, A.D. 57.
This epistle was sent by Titus, and a “brother” mentioned but not named in 2Co 8:18. whom we identify with Luke. For, 1. Luke was at this time at Philippi; 2. The words “whose praise in the Gospel is in all the Churches,” well describes one whose Gospel (probably published during his long residence in Antioch) was already in circulation among the Pauline Churches; 3. A few months afterward Paul, at Corinth, writing his epistle to Rome, named Luke (Lucius) as being at Corinth; 4. In this agree the ancient superscription at the end of the epistle, Origen, Jerome, Wetstein, Whitby, Wordsworth; and other high authorities. (See note on Act 16:10.)
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
PART THIRD.
CHRISTIANITY AMONG THE GENTILES. From Chapter Act 13:1, to End of Acts.
Through the remainder of his work Luke’s subject is the evangelization of the Gentiles, and his hero is Paul. His field is western Asia and Europe; his terminal point is Rome, and the work is the laying the foundation of modern Christendom. At every point, even at Rome, Luke is careful to note the Gospel offer to the Jews, and how the main share reject, and a remnant only is saved. And thus it appears that Luke’s steadily maintained object is to describe the transfer of the kingdom of God from one people to all peoples.
I. PAUL’S FIRST MISSION From Antioch, through Cyprus, into Asia, as far as Lystra and Derbe, thence back to Antioch, Act 13:1 Act 14:28.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘And after the uproar ceased, Paul having sent for the disciples and exhorted them, took leave of them, and departed to go into Macedonia.’
Once the uproar had ceased and everything had quietened down Paul sent for the disciples in Ephesus and exhorted them, encouraging them in the faith. Then he took leave of them and departed in order to go to Macedonia. We know from Act 20:21 that this had already been his intention. And he had already sent Timothy and Erastus ahead of him. Thus while he was wisely leaving, he was not to be seen as driven out. The authorities in Ephesus had nothing against him.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Paul’s Visits To Macedonia and Greece And Seven Days in Troas (20:1-6).
It is indicative of Luke’s concentration on the new direction in which events have turned, and his purpose in writing what follows, that he ignores many things of which we would wish to have been apprised. We are reminded again that Acts is not ‘a life of Paul’. His main concern is now to demonstrate that God will so work events that having been faced with false royal rule at Ephesus the Kingly Rule of God will triumph in Rome.
However, in passing we may note that while at Ephesus Paul has been engaging in the Corinthian controversy and has written letters to the Corinthians, of which we have 1 Corinthians, and that now, on these visits so cursorily dealt with, he will be finally reconciled with the Corinthians, writing 2 Corinthians from Macedonia once Titus has arrived, and following it with a visit to Corinth. He will also receive from those involved the Collection for the people of God in Judaea, the collection taken up by the Macedonian and Greek churches of which the Corinthian letters indirectly tell us a good deal. But Luke is interested in none of these things. He wants us to see Paul’s visit to Jerusalem as God-impelled and with a deeper motive behind it. His concern is with the continual spread of the Good News and how Apostolic ministry will reach Rome. Thus these times are rapidly passed over.
From 2Co 2:12; 2Co 7:5-7 we learn that in fact on leaving Ephesus Paul had stopped at Troas where he had found an open door for ministry, but that he was so constrained by his love and fear over the Corinthians that he had cut it short and sailed for Macedonia where he waited in agonies until Titus arrived with the good news that all was well at Corinth. This need not mean that he did no preaching at Troas. He would have taken any opportunity that came his way while he was there, however he felt. The point is that when this was beginning to be fruitful he left the work to others because of his concern to see Titus with news of the Corinthian situation.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Paul Purposes To Go To Jerusalem and Then To Rome. Satan Counterattacks at Ephesus (19:21-20:1).
Paul’s purpose to go to Jerusalem in spite of warnings raises an interesting question. If the Spirit was giving him warnings, why did he proceed? In answering this question we need to recognise that part of Luke’s purpose here may well be in order to give encouragement to those facing persecution by stressing Paul’s steadfastness of purpose in the face of known adversity.
The section commences in Act 19:21 where we are told that ‘Paul purposed in the Spirit — to go to Jerusalem’ and that ‘ it was necessary for him to see Rome’, and we will soon learn that he was determined if at all possible to reach Jerusalem in time for Pentecost (Act 20:16). On the way there he tells the Ephesians that he is going up to Jerusalem ‘bound in the Spirit’ so that bonds await him in Jerusalem (Act 20:23) and that he does not know what future awaits him, but that he is ready for martyrdom, twice telling them that they will see his face no more (Act 20:25; Act 20:38). This latter makes it clear that he is already aware of what his future will be and is convinced that it is of the Holy Spirit. In the light of what follows we have thus to assume that God has in some way spoken to him, and indicated that his going there is of His will. This then gives positive meaning to the statement, ‘The will of the Lord be done’ (Act 21:14).
At Tyre he is again warned by some who receive a message through the Spirit and say that ‘he should not set foot in Jerusalem’ (Act 21:4). Reaching Caesarea the prophet Agabus comes from Jerusalem and indicates that he will be bound in Jerusalem and handed over to the Gentiles, so that all plead with him not to go to Jerusalem (Act 21:10-12), at which he declares that he is ready to die for Christ.
Unless we are to see Paul as totally disobedient we must see the purpose of these revelations as in order to demonstrate Paul’s faithfulness in the face of coming martyrdom, rather than as an indication that the Spirit was actually seeking to dissuade him from going. This may be seen as confirmed by the fact that once he is in chains the Lord appears to him and tells him to be of good cheer, because as he has testified in Jerusalem, so he will in Rome (Act 23:11). There is no rebuke and thus the Lord is clearly content with the situation. This would serve to confirm that ‘purposed in spirit’ in Act 19:21 should be translated ‘purposed in the Spirit.’ Paul, Luke informs us, is following a course determined by the Lord.
We will consider these verses in more detail later in their context.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
PAUL’S JOURNEY TO JERUSALEM AND THEN TO ROME (19:21-28:31).
Here we begin a new section of Acts. It commences with Paul’s purposing to go to Jerusalem, followed by an incident, which, while it brings to the conclusion his ministry in Ephesus, very much introduces the new section. From this point on all changes. Paul’s ‘journey to Jerusalem’ and then to Rome has begun, with Paul driven along by the Holy Spirit.
The ending of the previous section as suggested by the closing summary in Act 19:20 (see introduction), together with a clear reference in Act 19:21 to the new direction in which Paul’s thinking is taking him, both emphasise that this is a new section leading up to his arrival in Rome. Just as Jesus had previously ‘changed direction’ in Luke when He set His face to go to Jerusalem (Luk 9:51), so it was to be with Paul now as he too sets his face towards Jerusalem. It is possibly not without significance that Jesus’ ‘journey’ also began after a major confrontation with evil spirits, which included an example of one who used the name of Jesus while not being a recognised disciple (compare Act 19:12-19 with Luk 9:37-50).
From this point on Paul’s purposing in the Spirit to go to Jerusalem on his way to Rome takes possession of the narrative (Act 19:21; Act 20:16; Act 20:22-23; Act 21:10-13; Act 21:17), and it will be followed by the Journey to Rome itself. And this whole journey is deliberately seen by Luke as commencing from Ephesus, a major centre of idolatry and the of Imperial cult, where there is uproar and Paul is restricted from preaching, and as, in contrast, deliberately ending with the triumph of a pure, unadulterated Apostolic ministry in Rome where all is quiet and he can preach without restriction. We can contrast with this how initially in Section 1 the commission commenced in a pure and unadulterated fashion in Jerusalem (Act 1:3-9) and ended in idolatry in Caesarea (Act 12:20-23). This is now the reverse the same thing in reverse.
Looked at from this point of view we could briefly summarise Acts in three major sections as follows:
The Great Commission is given in Jerusalem in the purity and triumph of Jesus’ resurrection and enthronement as King. The word powerfully goes out to Jerusalem and to its surrounding area, and then in an initial outreach to the Gentiles. Jerusalem reject their Messiah and opt for an earthly ruler whose acceptance of divine honours results in judgment (Act 19:1-12).
The word goes out triumphantly to the Dispersion and the Gentiles and it is confirmed that they will not be required to be circumcised or conform to the detailed Jewish traditions contained in what is described as ‘the Law of Moses’ (Act 13:1 to Act 19:20).
Paul’s journey to Rome commences amidst rampant idolatry and glorying in the royal rule of Artemis and Rome, and comes to completion with Paul, the Apostle, triumphantly proclaiming Jesus Christ and the Kingly Rule of God from his own house in Rome (Act 19:21 to Act 28:31).
It will be seen by this that with this final section the great commission has in Luke’s eyes been virtually carried out. Apostolic witness has been established in the centre of the Roman world itself and will now reach out to every part of that world, and the command ‘You shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea and Samaria, and to the uttermost part of the earth’ is on the point of fulfilment.
This final section, in which Paul will make his testimony to the resurrection before kings and rulers, may be analysed as follows.
a Satan counterattacks against Paul’s too successful Ministry in Ephesus and throughout Asia Minor and causes uproar resulting in his ministry being unsuccessfully attacked by the worshippers of ‘Artemis (Diana) of the Ephesians’. This city, with its three ‘temple-keepers’ for the Temple of Artemis and the two Imperial Cult Temples, is symbolic of the political and religious alliance between idolatry and Rome which has nothing to offer but greed and verbosity. It expresses the essence of the kingly rule of Rome. And here God’s triumph in Asia over those Temples has been pictured in terms of wholesale desertion of the Temple of Artemis (mention of the emperor cult would have been foolish) by those who have become Christians and will in the parallel below be contrasted and compared with Paul freely proclaiming the Kingly Rule of God in Rome (Act 19:21-41).
b Paul’s progress towards Jerusalem is diverted because of further threats and he meets with disciples for seven days at Troas (Act 20:1-6).
c The final voyage commences and a great sign is given of God’s presence with Paul. Eutychus is raised from the dead (Act 20:7-12).
d Paul speaks to the elders from the church at Ephesus who meet him at Miletus and he gives warning of the dangers of spiritual catastrophe ahead and turns them to the word of His grace. If they obey Him all will be saved (Act 20:13-38).
e A series of maritime stages, and of prophecy (Act 19:4; Act 19:11), which reveals that God is with Paul (Act 21:1-16).
f Paul proves his true dedication in Jerusalem and his conformity with the Law and does nothing that is worthy of death but the doors of the Temple are closed against him (Act 21:17-30).
g Paul is arrested and gives his testimony of his commissioning by the risen Jesus (Act 21:31 to Act 22:29).
h Paul appears before the Sanhedrin and points to the hope of the resurrection (Act 22:30 to Act 23:9).
i He is rescued by the chief captain and is informed by the Lord that as he has testified in Jerusalem so he will testify in Rome (Act 23:11).
j The Jews plan an ambush, which is thwarted by Paul’s nephew (Act 23:12-25).
k Paul is sent to Felix, to Caesarea (Act 23:26-35).
l Paul makes his defence before Felix stressing the hope of the resurrection (Act 24:1-22).
k Paul is kept at Felix’ pleasure for two years (with opportunities in Caesarea) (Act 24:23-27).
j The Jews plan to ambush Paul again, an attempt which is thwarted by Festus (Act 25:1-5).
i Paul appears before Festus and appeals to Caesar. To Rome he will go (Act 25:6-12).
h Paul is brought before Agrippa and gives his testimony stressing his hope in the resurrection (Act 25:23 to Act 26:8).
g Paul gives his testimony concerning his commissioning by the risen Jesus (Act 26:9-23).
f Paul is declared to have done nothing worthy of death and thus to have conformed to the Law, but King Herod Agrippa II closes his heart against his message (Act 26:28-32).
e A series of maritime stages and of prophecy (Act 19:10; Act 19:21-26) which confirms that God is with Paul (27.l-26).
d Paul speaks to those at sea, warning of the dangers of physical catastrophe ahead unless they obey God’s words. If they obey Him all will be delivered (Act 27:27-44).
c Paul is delivered from death through snakebite and Publius’ father and others are healed, which are the signs of God’s presence with him, and the voyage comes to an end after these great signs have been given (Act 28:1-13).
b Paul meets with disciples for seven days at Puteoli and then at the Appii Forum (Act 28:14-15).
a Paul commences his ministry in Rome where, living in quietness, he has clear course to proclaim the Kingly Rule of God (Act 28:16-31).
Thus in ‘a’ the section commences at the very centre of idolatry which symbolises with its three temples (depicted in terms of the Temple of Artemis) the political and religious power of Rome, the kingly rule of Rome, which is being undermined by the Good News which has ‘almost spread throughout all Asia’ involving ‘much people’. It begins with uproar and an attempt to prevent the spread of the Good News and reveals the ultimate emptiness of that religion. All they can do is shout slogans including the name of Artemis, but though they shout it long and loud that name has no power and results in a rebuke from their ruler. In the parallel the section ends with quiet effectiveness and the Good News of the Kingly Rule of God being given free rein. This is in reverse to section 1 which commenced with the call to proclaim the Good News of the Kingly Rule of God (Act 1:3) and ended with the collapse of the kingly rule of Israel through pride and idolatry (Act 12:20-23).
In ‘b’ Paul meets with God’s people for ‘seven days, the divinely perfect period, at the commencement of his journey, and then in the parallel he again meets with the people of God for ‘seven days’ at the end of his journey. Wherever he goes, there are the people of God.
In ‘c’ God reveals that His presence is with Paul by the raising of the dead, and in the parallel His presence by protection from the Snake and the healing of Publius.
In ‘d’ we have a significant parallel between Paul’s warning of the need for the church at Ephesus to avoid spiritual catastrophe through ‘the word of His grace’ and in the parallel ‘d’ the experience of being saved from a great storm through His gracious word, but only if they are obedient to it, which results in deliverance for all.
In ‘e’ and its parallel we have Paul’s voyages, each accompanied by prophecy indicating God’s continuing concern for Paul.
In ‘f’ Paul proves his dedication and that he is free from all charges that he is not faithful to the Law of Moses, and in the parallel Agrippa II confirms him to be free of all guilt.
In ‘g’ Paul give his testimony concerning receiving his commission from the risen Jesus, and in the parallel this testimony is repeated and the commission expanded.
In ‘h’ Paul proclaims the hope of the resurrection before the Sanhedrin, and in the parallel he proclaims the hope of the resurrection before Felix, Agrippa and the gathered Gentiles.
In ‘i’ the Lord tells him that he will testify at Rome, while in the parallel the procurator Festus declares that he will testify at Rome. God’s will is carried out by the Roman power.
In ‘ j’ a determined plan by the Jews to ambush Paul and kill him is thwarted, and in the parallel a further ambush two years later is thwarted. God is continually watching over Paul.
In ‘k’ Paul is sent to Felix, to Caesarea, the chief city of Palestine, and in the parallel spends two years there with access given to the ‘his friends’ so that he can freely minister.
In ‘l’ we have the central point around which all revolves. Paul declares to Felix and the elders of Jerusalem the hope of the resurrection of both the just and the unjust in accordance with the Scriptures.
It will be noted that the central part of this chiasmus is built around the hope of the resurrection which is mentioned three times, first in ‘h’, then centrally in ‘l’ and then again in ‘h’, and these are sandwiched between two descriptions of Paul’s commissioning by the risen Jesus (in ‘g’ and in the parallel ‘g’). The defeat of idolatry and the proclamation of the Kingly Rule of God have as their central cause the hope of the resurrection and the revelation of the risen Jesus.
We must now look at the section in more detail.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Paul’s Journey to Macedonia and Greece Act 20:1-6 gives us a brief account of Paul’s journey into Macedonia and Greece.
Act 20:3 Comments Many conservative Bible scholars believe that this three-month stay in Greece was the winter season (Dec-Jan-Feb) when much shipping in the Mediterranean comes to a halt because of the hazards on the sea. When the winter had passed, he determined to make his way to Jerusalem with the contribution of the saints. However, because of threats upon his life, Paul did not sail from the port of Cenchrea a short distance from the city of Corinth. Rather, he chose the unlikely route of returning through Macedonia in order to minister to the saints in Philippi, Troas and Ephesus.
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
The Church’s Organization (Perseverance): The Witness of the Church Growth to the Ends of the Earth Act 13:1 to Act 28:29 begins another major division of the book of Acts in that it serves as the testimony of the expansion of the early Church to the ends of the earth through the ministry of Paul the apostle, which was in fulfillment of Jesus’ command to the apostles at His ascension, “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” (Act 1:8) However, to reach this goal, it required a life of perseverance in the midst of persecutions and hardship, as well as the establishment of an organized church and its offices.
Outline – Here is a proposed outline:
1. Witness of Paul’s First Missionary Journey (A.D. 45-47) Act 13:1 to Act 14:28
2. Witness to Church at Jerusalem of Gospel to Gentiles (A.D. 50) Act 15:1-35
3. Witness of Paul’s Second Missionary Journey (A.D. 51-54) Act 15:36 to Act 18:22
4. Witness of Paul’s Third Missionary Journey (A.D. 54-58) Act 18:23 to Act 20:38
5. Witness of Paul’s Arrest and Trials (A.D. 58-60) Act 21:1 to Act 26:32
6. Witness of Paul’s Journey to Rome (A.D. 60) Act 27:1 to Act 28:29
A Description of Paul’s Ministry – Paul’s missionary journeys recorded Acts 13-28 can be chacterized in two verses from 2Ti 2:8-9, in which Paul describes his ministry to the Gentiles as having suffered as an evil doer, but glorying in the fact that the Word of God is not bound.
2Ti 2:8-9, “Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according to my gospel: Wherein I suffer trouble, as an evil doer, even unto bonds; but the word of God is not bound.”
Paul followed the same principle of church growth mentioned in Act 1:8, “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” He first placed churches in key cities in Asia Minor. We later read in Act 19:10 where he and his ministry team preaches “so that all they which dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks”.
Act 19:10, “And this continued by the space of two years; so that all they which dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks.”
In Rom 15:20-28 Paul said that he strived to preach where no other man had preached, and having no place left in Macedonia and Asia Minor, he looked towards Rome, and later towards Spain.
Rom 15:20, “Yea, so have I strived to preach the gospel, not where Christ was named, lest I should build upon another man’s foundation:”
Rom 15:23-24, “But now having no more place in these parts, and having a great desire these many years to come unto you; Whensoever I take my journey into Spain, I will come to you: for I trust to see you in my journey, and to be brought on my way thitherward by you, if first I be somewhat filled with your company.”
Rom 15:28, “When therefore I have performed this, and have sealed to them this fruit, I will come by you into Spain.”
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
The Witness of Paul’s Third Missionary Journey (A.D. 54-58) Act 18:23 to Act 20:38 gives us the testimony of Paul’s third missionary journey.
Oultine Here is a proposed outline:
1. Apollo’s Ministry in Ephesus Act 18:23-28
2. Paul in Ephesus Act 19:1-41
3. Paul’s Journey to Macedonia and Greece Act 20:1-6
4. Paul at Troas Act 20:7-12
5. Paul Journeys from Troas to Miletus Act 20:13-16
6. Paul Exhorts the Elders at Ephesus Act 20:17-38
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
The Journey to Macedonia and Back to Miletus.
The second visit to Macedonia and Greece:
v. 1. And after the uproar was ceased, Paul called unto him the disciples, and embraced them, and departed for to go into Macedonia.
v. 2. And when he had gone over those parts, and had given them much exhortation, he came into Greece,
v. 3. and there abode three months. And when the Jews laid wait for him, as he was about to sail into Syria, he purposed to return through Macedonia.
v. 4. And there accompanied him into Asia Sopater of Berea; and of the Thessalonians, Aristarchus and Secundus; and Gaius of Derbe, and Timotheus; and of Asia, Tychicus and Trophimus.
v. 5. These going before tarried for us at Troas. Paul had intended to make a trip to Macedonia and Achaia, chap, 19:21. That the riot in the city materially hastened his departure, or that the work of the Lord in Ephesus had come to a standstill or even received a severe setback, is not included in the text, 1Co 16:8-9. Not one of the disciples had been harmed in the tumult, and the speech of the secretary of the city must certainly be considered favorable, although in a negative way, rather than anything else. After the uproar had ceased, after the last excitement attending the riot had died down, which may have taken days and even weeks, Paul decided that the time for departure had come. So he called a special meeting of all the disciples of Ephesus, for there must have been other house congregations besides that of Aquila and Priscilla, 1Co 16:19. At this last service he gave them a farewell address of admonition and encouragement; he then took leave of them with the usual form of salutation and started on his trip to Macedonia. Sailing up the Aegean Sea, he landed at Troas, where he had expected to meet Titus, 2Co 2:12-13. But since he did not find him, he lost no time in pushing on to Macedonia. Here he made his missionary journeys in the accustomed way, visiting all the districts where congregations had been established, Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea. in all these cities his words of encouragement and admonition, of which he was not sparing, tended to establish the brethren in the faith and in sound Christianity. He even extended his journey over into the borders of Illyricum, west of Macedonia, Rom 15:19. But then he turned southward into Greece, or Achaia, where his principal errand was to the congregation at Corinth, some trouble there requiring his attention. He made a stay of fully three months here, intending after that to make the voyage directly to Syria. It was most likely at this time that he wrote the letter to the Galatians and also that to the Romans. But his plans were crossed by the enmity of the Jews, who plotted against his life, either by waiting for him at Cenchreae or by hiring assassins to murder him aboard the vessel. Paul therefore quickly changed his mind and his plans and traveled overland through Macedonia, in order to embark in one of those harbors. He was not alone on this trip, but had a number of companions, six of whom, with Luke as the seventh in Philippi, traveled with him all the way, while two went ahead to await his coming in Troas. There was Sopater, or Sopater Pyrrus, of Berea, there were Aristarchus and Secundus of Thessalonica, there were Gaius of Derbe and Timothy of Lystra, there was Luke of Philippi; and finally, there were Tychicas and Trophimus, both of them probably from Ephesus. As one commentator explains, the discovery of the Jewish plot altered Paul’s plan, and that at the last moment, when delegates from the various congregations had already assembled. The European delegates had intended to sail from Corinth, with Paul, and the Asian from Ephesus, but the latter, having received word of the change of plans, went as far as Troas to meet the others, and accompanied them the rest of the way. Note: In all these accounts the loving intimacy between Paul and the Christian congregations is evident, a splendid example in these days of indifference and selfishness.
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
Act 20:1
Having sent for and exhorted for called unto him, A.V. and T.R.; took leave of them, and departed for and embraced them, and departed, A.V. Departed for to go into Macedonia. This was St. Paul’s purpose, as he had written to the Corinthians (1Co 16:5) from Ephesus. He judged it wise, not only with a view to his own safety and that of his companions, but also for the rest and quiet of the Ephesian Church, to take advantage of the lull in the popular storm, and withdraw into quiet waters before any fresh outbreak occurred. Aquila and Priscilla seem to have left Ephesus about the same time, or soon after, since the Epistle to the Romans found them again at Rome (Rom 16:3, Rom 16:4); and, if the view mentioned in the note to Act 19:40 is truethat in the riot they had saved St. Paul’s life at the risk of their ownthere were probably the same prudential motives for their leaving Ephesus as there were in the case of the apostle.
Act 20:2
Through for over, A.V. When he had gone through (); see above, Act 8:4, Act 8:40; Act 10:38; Act 13:6; Act 18:23, note, etc.; Luk 9:6. Those parts; , a word especially used of geographical districts: : (Mat 2:22; Mat 15:21; see too Act 2:10; Act 19:1). Greece (, not , as Act 19:21; Act 18:12, and elsewhere). Macedonia and Achaia are always coupled together (see Tacit., ‘Ann..’ 1.76). as in Rom 15:26; 1Th 1:7, 1Th 1:8. In the Second Epistle to the Corinthians, written from Macedonia, it is always Achaia (2Co 1:1, etc.). In fact, is found nowhere else in the New Testament, Achaia being the name of the Roman province. Bengel and others understand Hellas here of the country between Macedonia and the Peloponnesus, especially Attica; which would make it probable that St. Paul revisited Athens. But Meyer, Kuinoel, Alford, ‘Speaker’s Commentary,’ etc., think it is synonymous with Achaia. There must, however, be some reason for this unusual use of Hellas instead of Achaia. None seems so likely as that it was meant to cover wider ground than Achaia would naturally indicate, namely Attica.
Act 20:3
When he had spent there for there abode, A.V.; a plot was laid against him by the Jews for when the Jews laid wait for him, A.V.; for for into, A.V.; determined for purposed, A.V. ( , R.T.). When he had spent three months. For this use of , see Act 15:33; Act 18:1-28 :33. See also 2Co 11:25, where the R.V. varies the rendering, and seems to take as a verb neuter, as the A.V. does here, the accusative ( ) being taken as that of time how long. And a plot, etc. There is no “and” in the Greek. It is better to take the T.R., and to consider as a nominative pendens as is in Act 19:34, according to the reading of Meyer, Alford, etc. A plot was laid against him by the Jews. It appears from this that Apollos had not succeeded in subduing the bigoted hatred of the Corinthian Jews. But probably the desperate measure of a plot against his life (, as in Act 9:23, Act 9:24; Act 9:19 of this chapter, and Act 23:1-35. 30) is an indication that many of their number had joined the Church; and that the unbelieving remnant, being foiled in argument, had recourse to violence. He determined; literally, according to the R.T., he was of opinion. But the T.R. has , “his opinion was,” the construction of the sentence being changed. The three months were probably chiefly spent at Corinth, according to the intention expressed in 1Co 16:6, though it would seem that he had stayed a longer time in Macedonia than he anticipated. It was during his sojourn at Corinth that the Epistle to the Romans was written.
Act 20:4
As far as for into, A.V.; Beraea for Berea, A.V.; the son of Pyrrhus is added in the R.T. and R.V.; Timothy for Timotheus, A.V. Accompanied; , peculiar to Luke in the New Testament, but common in medical writers. As far as Asia. If it were merely said, “there accompanied him,” it might have been thought, with regard to the Macedonians Sopater, Aristarchus, and Secundus, that they had merely gone as far as their respective cities, Beraea and Thessalonica; it is therefore added (in most manuscripts, though not in B or the Codex Sinaiticus), “as far as Asia.” It does not necessarily follow that they all went as fax as Jerusalem, though we know Trophimus and Aristarchus did. Sopater may probably be the same as Sosipater (Rom 16:21), whom St. Paul calls “his kinsman,” though some think “the son of Pyrrhus” was added to distinguish him from him. The Thessalonian Aristarchus is doubtless the same as the person named in Act 19:29; Act 27:2; and so one would have thought Gaius must be the same as is named with Aristarchus in Act 19:29, were it not that this Gaius is described as of Derbe, whereas the Gaius of Act 19:29 was a man of Macedonia. Gaius of Derbe is here coupled with Timothy, who was of the neighboring city of Lystra (Act 16:1), but was too well known to make it needful to specify his nationality. Secundus is not mentioned elsewhere. Compare Tertius and Quartus (Rom 16:22, Rom 16:23), and the common Roman names, Quinctus, Sextus, Septimus, Octavius, Decimus. Tychicus, of Asia, is mentioned in Eph 6:21; Col 4:7; 2Ti 4:12; Tit 3:12; by which we learn that he continued to be in constant attendance on St. Paul, and have abundant confirmation of his being “of Asia.” Trophimus is called “an Ephesian” (Act 21:29), and is named again as a companion of St. Paul, and presumably “of Asia” (2Ti 4:20). It is not improbable that some at least of there followers were chosen by the Churches to carry their alms to Jerusalem (see 2Co 8:19-23; 2Co 9:12, 2Co 9:13; 1Co 16:3, 1Co 16:4; Rom 15:25-28).
Act 20:5
But these had gone for these going, A.V. and T.R.; and were waiting for tarried, A.V. The narrative is so concise that the exact details are matters of conjecture. There is consequently much difference of opinion about them. Howson, with whom Farrar (vol. 2:274) apparently agrees, thinks that the whole party traveled together by land through Bercea and Thessalonica, to Philippi; that the party consisting of Sopater, Aristarchus and Secundus, Gains, Timothy, Tychicus, and Trophimus, went on at once from Philippi via Neapolis, to Troas, leaving St. Paul, who was now joined by St. Luke, at Philippi, to pass eight or nine days there during the Feast of the Passover. And this seems quite consistent with St. Luke’s narrative. But Lewin thinks that only St. Paul (accompanied, as he supposes, by Luke, Titus, and Jason) went to Macedonia, and that the others sailed direct from Cenchreae to Troas. Renan, on the other hand, thinks they all sailed together from Cenchreae to Neapolis, whence Paul’s party went to Philippi, and the others to Troas. There is no clue to the reason why the party thus separated.
Act 20:6
Tarried for abode, A.V. We; distinctly marking that Luke, the author of the narrative, whom we left at Philippi (Act 16:13, Act 16:14), joined him again at the same place. Renan well remarks, “At Philippi Paul once more met the disciple who had guided him for the first time to Macedonia. He attached him to his company again, and thus secured as his companion in the voyage the historian who was to write an account of it, with such infinite charm of manner and such perfect truth.” It may be noted that this passage is quite conclusive against the notion entertained by some, that Timothy was the writer of the Acts. From Philippi; i.e. from Neapolis, the port of Philippi. After the days of unleavened bread, which lasted eight days, including the day of eating the Passover. In five days. An unusually long voyage, owing, doubtless, to unfavorable winds. On the former occasion when he sailed from Troas to Neapolis he was only two days (Act 16:11). Where we tarried seven days. As the last of these seven days was Sunday” the first day of the week”he must have arrived on the preceding Monday, and left Neapolis on the preceding Thursday. Some, however, reckon the days differently. It must be remembered that the apostle’s movements were dependent upon the arrival and departure of the merchant ships by which he traveled.
Act 20:7
We were gathered for the disciples came, A.V. and T.R.; discoursed with for preached unto, A.V.; intending for ready, A.V.; prolonged for continued, A.V. The first day of the week. This is an important evidence of the keeping of the Lord’s day by the Church as a day for their Church assemblies (see Luk 24:1, Luk 24:30, Luk 24:35; Joh 20:19, Joh 20:26; 1Co 16:2). To break bread. This is also an important example of weekly communion as the practice of the first Christians. Comparing the phrase, “to break bread,” with St. Luke’s account of the institution of the Holy Eucharist (Luk 22:19) and the passages just quoted in Luk 24:1-53., and St. Paul’s language (1Co 10:16; 1Co 11:24), it is impossible not to conclude that the breaking of bread in the celebration of the Lord’s Supper is an essential part of the holy sacrament, which man may not for any specious reasons omit. Further, this passage seems to indicate that evening Communion, after the example of the first Lord’s Supper, was at this time the practice of the Church. It was preceded (see Luk 24:11) by the preaching of the Word. The following description, given by Justin Martyr, in his second Apology to Antoninus Plus, of the Church assemblies in his day, not a hundred years after this time, is in exact agreement with it:”On the day which is called Sunday, all (Christians) who dwell either in town or country come together to one place. The memoirs of the apostles and the writings of the prophets are read for a certain time, and then the president of the meeting, when the reader has stopped, makes a discourse, in which he instructs and exhorts the people to the imitation of the good deeds of which they have just heard. We then all rise up together, and address prayers (to God); and, when our prayers are ended, bread and wine and water are brought, and the president, to the best of his ability, offers up both prayers and thanksgivings, and the people assent, saving ‘Amen.’ And then the distribution of the bread and wine, over which the thanksgivings have been offered, is made to all present, and all partake of it.” He adds that the elements are carried to the absent by the deacons, and that collections are made for poor widows, and orphans, and sick, and prisoners. Discoursed (); Act 17:17, note. Prolonged (). The word is found only here in the New Testament, but is of frequent use in medical writers.
Act 20:8
We for they, A.V. and T.R. It is not obvious why St. Luke mentions the many lights. Some say to mark the solemnity of the first day of the week (Kuinoel); some, to remove all possible occasion of scandal as regards such midnight meetings (Bengel); some, to explain how the young man’s fall was immediately perceived (Meyer); others, to account for the young man’s drowsiness, which would be increased by the many lights, possibly making the room hot (Alford); for ornament (Olshausen). But possibly it is the mere mention by an eye-witness of a fact which struck him. It is obvious that the room must have been lit for a night meetingonly perhaps there were more lights than usual.
Act 20:9
The for a, A.V.; borne down with for being fallen into a, A.V.; discoursed yet longer for was long preaching, A.V.; being borne down by his sleep he for he sunk down with sleep, and, A.V.; story for loft, A.V. In the window; or, on the window-seat. The window was merely the opening in the wall, without any glass or shutter. Borne down; , the proper word in connection with sleep, either, as here, when sleep is the agent, or, followed by , falling into sleep. Yet longer; rather, as in the A.V., long; i.e. longer than usual, somewhat or very long.
Act 20:10
Make ye no ado for trouble not yourselves, A.V. Fell on him, and embracing him said; imitating the action of Elijah and Elisha (1Ki 17:17-21; 2Ki 4:34). Make ye no ado ( ). and are words especially used of the lamentations made for the dead. Thus when Jesus came to the house of Jairus, he found the multitude outside the house, , “making a tumult.” This is still more clearly brought out in Mar 5:38, Mar 5:39, “He beholdeth a tumult (), and many weeping and wailing greatly. And he saith unto them, Why make yea tumult (), and weep? The child is not dead, but sleepeth.” In exactly the same way St. Paul here calms the rising sobs and wailings of the people standing round the body of Eutychus, by saying, ,“ Do not wail over him as dead, for his life is in him.”
Act 20:11
And when he was gone up for when he therefore was come up again, A.V.; the bread for bread, A.V. and T.R.; had talked with them for talked, A.V. Had broken the bread; i.e. the bread already prepared, and spoken of in Act 20:7 (where see note), but which had not yet been broken in consequence of Paul’s long discourse. And eaten. does not seem to mean “having eaten of the bread broken,” for the word is never used of the sacramental eating of bread. That word is always (1Co 11:20, 1Co 11:24) or (1Co 11:26, 1Co 11:27, 1Co 11:28, 1Co 11:29). But seems rather to be taken absolutely, as in Act 10:10, “having eaten,” meant “having partaken” of the meal, the agape, which followed the Eucharist. Talked with them (). Of familiar converse (Luk 24:14, Luk 24:15; Act 24:26). Compare the use of in 1Co 15:33; from whence, of course, comes the word” homily.”
Act 20:12
Lad for young man, A.V.
Act 20:13
But for and, A.V.; going for went, A.V.; the ship for ship, A.V.; set sail for and sailed, A.V.; for for unto, A.V.; intending for minding, A.V.; by land for afoot, A.V. Assos. A seaport on the coast of Troas, twenty-four Roman miles from Troas. The town was built on a high and precipitous cliff. Luke does not tell us why on this occasion he was separated from Paul. Had he appointed. The passive is here used in an active sense, as in Died. Sic. (quoted by Kuinoel) and other Greek writers (see Steph., ‘Thesaur.’). But some consider it as the middle voice (Meyer).
Act 20:14
Met for met with, A.V. Mitylene. The capital of the island of Lesbos, called by Horace “pulchra Mitylene” (‘Epist.,’ 1. 11.17). The harbor on the north-eastern coast is described by Strabo as “spacious and deep, and sheltered by a breakwater” (13. 2).
Act 20:15
Sailing from for we sailed, A.V.; we came for and came, A.V.; following for next, A.V.; touched for arrived, A.V.; and the day after for and tarried at Trogyllium; and the next day, A.V. and T.R. Over against Chios. Their course would lie through the narrow strait between Chios on the west and the mainland on the east. Samos. The large island opposite Ephesus. There they touched, or put in (). If the clause in the T.R. is genuine, they did not pass the night at Samos, but “made a short run from thence in the evening to Trogyllium (Alford), “the rocky extremity of the ridge of Mycale, on the Ionian coast, between which and the southern extremity of Samos the channel is barely a mile wide” (‘Speaker’s Commentary’). We came to Miletus. Anciently the chief city of Ionia, and a most powerful maritime and commercial place, about twenty-eight miles south of Ephesus; though in the time of Homer it was a Carian city. In St. Paul’s time it was situated on the south-west coast of the Latmian gulf, just opposite the mouth of the Meander on the east. But since his time the whole gulf of Latmos has been filled up with soil brought down by the river, so that Miletus is no longer on the seacoast, and the new mouth of the Meander is to the west instead of to the east of Miletus, which lies about eight miles inland. Miletus was the scat of a bishopric in after times. As regards this visit to Miletus, some identify it with that mentioned in 2Ti 4:20. And it is certainly remarkable that so many of the same persons in connection with the same places are mentioned in both passages and in the pastoral Epistles generally. The identical persons are Paul, Timothy, Luke, Trophimus, Tychicus, and Apollos (Act 20:4, Act 20:5, compared with 2Ti 4:11, 2Ti 4:12, 2Ti 4:20); and the identical places are Corinth, Thessalonica, Troas, Ephesus, Miletus, and Crete. But the other circumstances do not agree well with the events of this journey, but seem to belong to a later period of St. Paul’s life (see below, verse 25, note).
Act 20:16
Past for by, A.V.; that he might not have to for because he would not, A.V.; time for the time, A.V.; was hastening for hasted, A.V. To spend time; , found only here in the New Testament, but used by Aristotle and others. It has rather the sense of wasting time, spending it needlessly. The day of Pentecost. The time of year is rims very distinctly marked. Paul was at Philippi at the time of the Passover, and hoped to reach Jerusalem by Pentecost.
Act 20:17
Called to him for called, A.V. The R.V. gives the force of the middle voice . The elders of the Church; viz. of Ephesus. These are manifestly the same as are called in Act 20:28, “overseers,” or bishops. The distinctive names and functions of Church officers were not yet fixed; and the apostles themselves, aided by degrees by such as Timothy and Titus, were what we now call bishops, exercising oversight over the elders themselves as well as over the whole flock (see 1Ti 3:1). The diocesan episcopate came in gradually as the apostles died off, and the necessity for a regular episcopate arose (see Act 6:1-6; Act 14:23, etc.).
Act 20:18
Ye yourselves for ye, A.V.; set foot in for came into, A.V.; was for have been, A.V.; all the time for at all seasons, A.V.
Act 20:19
Lowliness for humility, A.V.; tears for many tears, A.V. and T.R.; with trials for temptations, A.V.; plots for lying in wait, A.V. Plots (); comp. Act 20:3, and note. There is no special account of Jewish plots in St. Luke’s narrative of St. Paul’s sojourn at Ephesus. But from Act 19:9, Act 19:13, and probably 33, we may gather how hostile the unbelieving Jews were to him.
Act 20:20
How that I shrank not from declaring unto you anything for and how I kept back nothing, A.V.; profitable for profitable unto you, A.V; and teaching for but have showed you and have taught, A.V. I shrank not from declaring, etc. The R.V. seems to construe the phrase as if it were , which is a very labored construction, of which the only advantage is that it gives exactly the same sense to as it has in Act 20:27. But it is much simpler to take here as governed by , and to take the verb in its very common sense of “keeping back,” or “dissembling” (see the very similar passages quoted by Kuinoel from Demosthenes, Plato, Socrates, etc., , …), and to take the as expressing what would have been the effect of such “keeping back,” or “dissembling,” the extending to both infinitives (Meyer), “so as not to declare and teach,” etc. In Act 20:27 the verb must be taken in the equally common sense of “holding back,” or “shrinking,” under the influence of fear, or indolence, or what not. The difference of rendering is required by the fact that here you have , whereas in Act 20:27 you have In several of the classical passages quoted above, and others in Schleusner, is opposed to , or, (comp. therefore for the sentiment, Act 2:29; Act 4:13, Act 4:29, Act 4:31; Act 9:27; Act 13:46; Act 14:3; Act 28:31, etc.; Eph 6:19, Eph 6:20).
Act 20:21
To Jews and to Greeks for both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, A.V. (see Act 19:10, Act 19:17). Repentance, etc. The two cardinal points of gospel teaching, as they are the two necessary qualities for every Christian man. “Repentance whereby we forsake sin, and faith whereby we steadfastly believe the promises of God.” There is no ground for the remarks of Kuinoel and others, that repentance is to be referred chiefly to the Gentiles, and faith to the Jews.
Act 20:22
Bound in the spirit. , may either mean “in my spirit” or “by the Spirit,” i.e. the Holy Ghost. If the former, which is the most probable sense (as follows in the next verse), is taken, the sense will be that St. Paul felt himself constrained to go to Jerusalem. A sense of absolute necessity was upon him, and he did not feel himself a free agent to go anywhere else. If the latter sense be taken, the meaning will be that the Holy Ghost was constraining him to go to Jerusalem.
Act 20:23
Testifieth unto me for witnesseth, A.V. and T.R. The Holy Ghost, speaking by the prophets in the different Church assemblies, as the apostle journeyed from city to city. We have one instance of such prophesying recorded in Act 21:10, Act 21:11. The instances to which St. Paul here alluded were not mentioned in Luke’s brief narrative.
Act 20:24
I hold not my life of any account, as dear for none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear, A.V. and T.R.; may accomplish my course for might finish my course with joy, A.V. and T.R.; received for have received, A.V.; from for of, A.V. I hold not my life, etc. It is inconceivable that St. Paul should have uttered, or St. Luke have reported, such an unintelligible sentence as that of the R.T., when it was perfectly easy to express the meaning clearly. Neither does the mention of his life, in the first instance, tally with that of “bonds and afflictions.” The T.R., which has considerable support, seems to be far preferable. The first clause, , means quite naturally,” I take no account of anything;” I value nothing, neither liberty, nor ease, nor comfort. I am ready to suffer the loss of all things, and I do count them as dung (Php 3:7-9); and then he adds yet further, “Neither do I count my own life as precious, so as to accomplish my course,” etc. This metaphor of running a race is a favorite one with St. Paul (1Co 9:24; Gal 5:7; Php 3:13, Php 3:14; 2Ti 4:7). To testify the gospel of the grace of God. An invaluable epitome of the Christian ministry. The essential feature of the gospel is its declaration of God’s free grace to a guilty world, forgiving sins, and imputing righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ. The distinctive work of the ministry is to declare that grace. So St. Paul describes his own ministry, and the record of his ministry in the Acts and in his Epistles exactly agrees with this description.
Act 20:25
Went about for have gone, A.V.; kingdom for kingdom of God, A.V. and T.R. I know that ye all, etc. It is a very perplexing question whether St. Paul in this statement spake with prophetic, and therefore infallible, foreknowledge, or whether he merely expressed the strong present conviction of his own mind, that he should never return to Asia again. The question is an important one, as the authenticity of the pastoral Epistles is in a great measure bound up with it. For, in the apparent failure of all hypotheses to bring the writing of them within the time of St. Luke’s narrative, prior to St. Paul’s journey to Rome, we are driven to the theory which places the writing of them, and the circumstances to which they allude, to a time subsequent to St. Paul’s imprisonment at Rome. But this involves the supposition that St. Paul returned to Ephesus after his release from his Roman imprisonment (1Ti 1:3; 1Ti 4:14; 2Ti 1:15,2Ti 1:18; 2Ti 4:9-14,2Ti 4:19; Tit 1:5), and consequently that St. Paul’s anticipation, that he was in Asia for the last lime, was not realized. The question is well discussed by Alford, in the ‘Prolegomena to the Pastoral Epistles,’ and in Paley’s ‘Horae Paulinae,’ Act 11:1-30. But it can hardly be said to be definitively settled (see above, note to Act 11:15). Bengel thinks the explanation may be that most of those present were dead or dispersed when Paul returned some years later.
Act 20:26
Testify unto you for take you to record, A.V. The solemnity of this address is dependent upon the speaker’s conviction that he was speaking to his hearers for the last time. Hence the force of the words, “this day” ( ); “my last opportunity.” I am pure, etc. (comp. Eze 3:17-21; Eze 33:2, Eze 33:9; Heb 13:17). Note the peril of hiding or watering God’s truth.
Act 20:27
Shrank not from declaring for have not shunned to declare, A.V. (see Act 20:20, note); the whole for all the, A.V. Counsel of God. His revealed will and purpose concerning man’s salvation (Act 2:23; Act 4:28; Eph 1:11).
Act 20:28
Take heed for take heed therefore, A.V. and T.R.; in for over, A.V.; bishops for overseers, A.V.; purchased for hath purchased, A.V. Take heed, etc.; , peculiar to Luke (Act 5:1-42 :53; Luk 12:1; Luk 17:3; Luk 21:34). Now follows the weighty charge of this great bishop to the clergy assembled at his visitation. With the true feeling of a chief pastor, he thinks of the whole flock, but deals with them chiefly through the under-shepherds. If he can awaken in these individually a deep concern for the souls committed to their charge, he will have done the best that can be done for the fleck at large. The first step to such concern for the flock is that each be thoroughly alive to the worth and the wants of his own soul. “Take heed unto yourselves.” He that is careless about his own salvation will never lie careful about the souls of others. In the which the Holy Ghost, etc. , no doubt, does not strictly contain the idea of “over which;” but the idea of authoritative oversight is contained in the word , and therefore the rendering of the A.V., and of Alford’s A.V. revised, is substantially correct. Perhaps the exact force of the is “among which,” like (Act 2:29, and elsewhere). The call and appointment to the ministry is the special function of the Holy Ghost (Joh 20:22, Joh 20:23; Act 12:2; Ordination Service). To feed; , the proper word for “tending” in relation to , the flock, as , the pastor, or shepherd, is for him who so feeds the flock of Christ (see Joh 10:11, Joh 10:16; Joh 21:17; Heb 13:20; 1Pe 5:2, 1Pe 5:3). St. Peter applies the titles of “Shepherd and Bishop of souls” to the Lord Jesus (1Pe 2:25). St. Paul does not use the metaphor elsewhere, except indirectly, and in a different aspect (1Co 9:7). The Church of God; margin, Church of the Lord. There is, perhaps, no single passage in Scripture which has caused more controversy and evoked more difference of opinion than this. The T.R. has , but most uncials have . Kuinoel asserts that the reading rests on the authority, besides that of the oldest manuscripts, of the old versions, and of many el’ the most ancient Fathers, and says that it is undoubtedly the true reading. Meyer, too, thinks that the external evidence for is decisive, and that the internal evidence from the fact that Occurs nowhere else in St. Paul’s writings, is decisive also. But on the other hand, both the Codex Vaticanus (B) and the Codex Sinaitieus (), the two oldest manuscripts, have (). The Vulgate, too, and the Syriac have it; and such early Fathers as Ignatius (in his Epistle to the Ephesians) and Tertullian use the phrase, “the blood of God,” which seems to have been derived from this passage. And Alford reasons powerfully in favor of , dwelling upon the fact that the phrase occurs ten times in St. Paul’s writings, that of not once. The chief authorities on each side of the question are:
(1) in favor of , Lachmann, Tischendorf, Bornemann, Lunge, Olshausen, Davidson, Meyer, Hackett, as also Grotius, Griesbaeh (doubtfully), Wetstein, Le Clerc, and others;
(2) in favor of , Bengel, Mill, Whitby, Wolf, Scholz, Knapp, Alford, Wordsworth, etc., and the R.T. It should be added that the evidence for has been much strengthened by the publication by Tischendorf, in 1563, of rite Codex Sinaiticus, and in 1867 of the Codex Vaticanus, from his own collation. The result is that seems to be the true reading (see the first of the two collects for the Ember weeks in the Book of Common Prayer. With regard to the difficulty that this reading seems to imply the unscriptural phrase, “the blood of God,” and to savor of the Monophysite heresy, it is obvious to reply that there is a wide difference between the phrase as it stands and such a one as the direct “blood of God,“ which Athanasius and others objected to. The mental insertion of “the Lord” or “Christ,” as the subject of the verb “purchased,“ is very easy, the transition from God the Father to God incarnate being one that might be made almost imperceptibly. Others (including the R.T.) take the reading of several good manuscripts, , and understand to be an ellipse for , the phrase used in Rom 8:32; and so render it “which he purchased by the blood of his own Son.” , his own, is used without a substantive in Joh 1:11. This clause is added to enhance the preciousness of the flock, and the responsibility of those who have the oversight of it.
Act 20:29
I know for, for I know this, A.V. and T.R.; grievous wolves shall for shall grievous wolves, A.V. After my departure (, not , as 2Ti 4:6). The word, which is only found here in the New Testament, usually means “arrival” in classical Greek, but it also means, as here, “departure.” It is not to be taken in the sense of “departure from this life,” but refers to that separation, which he thought was forever, which was about to take place. Grievous wolves; still keeping up the metaphor of the flock. The wolves denote the false teachers, principally Judaizers. See 2Ti 3:1-12, and 2Ti 3:13, “But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.” These came from Judaea.
Act 20:30
And from among for also of, A.V.; the disciples for disciples, A.V. From among your own selves; as opposed to the strangers from Judaea in the preceding verse. So 2Ti 4:3, “The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears” (see, as instances, 2Ti 2:17, 2Ti 2:18; 2Ti 4:14). Speaking perverse things. So 2Ti 4:4, “They shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.” To draw away the disciples, etc.; i.e. to induce Christians to leave the communion and doctrine of the Church, and join their heresy. The A.V., “to draw away disciples,” is manifestly wrong; are Christ’s disciples. For the general statement, see 2Ti 3:6, “They which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women;” and comp. Rom 16:17, Rom 16:18, which, according to Renan, was addressed to the Ephesians. For the rise of false teachers in Asia, see 1Ti 1:3, 1Ti 1:20; 1Ti 4:1-7; 1Ti 6:20, 1Ti 6:21; 2Ti 1:15; 2Ti 3:1-17.; 4.; 1Jn 2:26; 1Jn 4:1, 1Jn 4:3, 1Jn 4:5; and through the whole Epistle; Rev 2:1-7.
Act 20:31
Wherefore watch ye for therefore watch, A.V.; remembering for and remember, A.V.; admonish for warn, A.V. By the space of three years (). The word is only found here in the New Testament; but it is used in the LXX. of Isa 15:5 and 2Ch 31:16, and in classical Greek. We have here one of the few chronological data in the Acts. Three years includes the whole of his sojourn at Ephesus as his headquarters. There were first the three months during which he preached in the synagogue; then the two years which he spent in preaching in the school of Tyrannus, and which terminated with the incident of burning the books of magic (Act 19:8, Act 19:10, Act 19:19). Then there was an indefinite time described in Act 19:22 as “for a while” ( ), during which he was busy making plans, probably writing letters, sending off Timothy and Erastus to Macedonia, and perhaps making missionary expeditions in the neighborhood. This may have occupied three or four months longer, and made up a term of two years and six, seven, or eight months, which would quite justify the term . Every one. Each one separately, not merely the whole flock together. A weighty lesson for every one who has the cure of souls (comp. Joh 10:3). Night and day. The night is mentioned first, in accordance with Hebrew usage (Gen 1:5, Gen 1:8, Gen 1:13, etc.; comp. the word in 2Co 11:25) St. Paul enforces the word “Watch,” so appropriate to shepherds who watch over their flocks by night (Luk 2:8), by his own example of admonishing by night as well as day.
Act 20:32
Now for now brethren, A.V. and T.R.; the inheritance for an inheritance, A.V. and T.R.; that for which, A.V. I commend you to God ( ). A most beautiful and significant phrase! The apostle is leaving for ever the flock which he had fed with such devoted care and loved with such a fervent love. He was leaving them with a strong impression of the dangers to which they would be exposed. To whom could he entrust them? to what loving hands could he consign them? He gives them to God, to take watchful custody of them. He brings them to him in the prayer of faith. He commits to him the precious deposit (), to be preserved safe unto the day of Christ. So the Savior of the world, when dying on the cross, said, “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit “(Luk 23:1-56. 46), and then trustingly gave up the ghost (see too Act 14:23). No less beautiful are the words which follow: And to the word of his grace. He was thinking of the grievous wolves, and of their pernicious doctrine; of the deceivers that should arise, and their soul-destroying heresies; and so he turns to the one source of safety “the Word of God’s grace in Jesus Christ.” If they are kept in that Word of truth, if they nourish their souls with that sincere milk, they will be safe. The gospel which he had preached would be their safety unto the end. It would build them up on the one Foundation which never can be moved; it would preserve them holy to take possession of the inheritance of the saints in light. The inheritance ( ); comp. Eph 1:14, Eph 1:18; Eph 5:5; and Eph 1:11, . In Act 26:18 it is (as in Col 1:12), and the are further defined by the addition of , , “by the faith which is in me” (for the use of , comp. Heb 10:10, Heb 10:14; 1Co 1:2; 1Co 6:11, etc.).
Act 20:33
Coveted for have coveted, A V. Apparel. One of the items of an Oriental’s treasure for the purpose of gifts (2Ki 5:5, 2Ki 5:22, 2Ki 5:23, 2Ki 5:26; Gen 45:22; Mat 6:19, Mat 6:2(1). St. Paul contrasts his own example in not seeking such gifts with the conduct of the false apostles who draw away disciples after them for gain.
Act 20:34
Ye for yea ye, A.V. and T.R.; ministered for have ministered, A.V. These hands (see 1Co 4:12, written from Ephesus a few months before).
Act 20:35
In all things I gave you an example for I have showed you all things, A.V.; help for support, A.V.; he himself for he, A.V. In all things (, for , 1.q. ); altogether, in all respects. Gave you an example. The common use of is, as rendered in the A.V., “to show,” “to teach,” as in Act 9:16; Luk 6:47; and repeatedly in the LXX. But perhaps its force here is equivalent to the phrase in Joh 13:15, , “I have given you an example that ye should do as I have done to you,” as the R.V. takes it. So laboring; viz. as ye have seen me do. To help the weak. Meyer, following Bengel and others, understands this to mean the weak in faith,” like in 1Co 9:22. They say that St. Paul’s self-denial in refusing the help he had a right to claim as an apostle, and supporting himself by his labor, was a great argument to convince the weak in faith of his disinterestedness and of the truth of his gospel, and so he recommends the elders of the Church to follow his example. But the word here is , and and rather suggest the idea of bodily weakness (Mat 25:36; Mat 10:8, etc.; Luk 5:15, etc.), and the words of the Lord Jesus which follow suggest almsgiving to the needy. So that it is better to understand the word of the weakly and poor, those unable to work for themselves. Doubtless St. Paul, out of his scanty earnings, found something to give to the sick and needy. The sentiment in our text is thus exactly analogous to the precept in Eph 4:28. The very word there used, , recalls the of verse 34. To remember the words of the Lord Jesus. This is a solitary instance era saying of our Lord’s, not recorded in the Gospels, being referred to in Scripture. There are many alleged sayings of Christ recorded in apocryphal Gospels or in the writings of Fathers as Papias and others (Routh, ‘Reliq. Sac.,’ 1.9, 10, 12), some of which may be authentic; but this alone is warranted by Scripture. How it came to St Paul’s knowledge, and that of the Ephesian elders to whom he seems to have taken for granted that it was familiar, it is impossible to say. But it seems likely that, in those very early days, some of the Lord’s unwritten words may have floated in the memory of men, and been preserved by word of mouth. Clement (1 Corinthians it.) seems to refer to the saying when he writes in praise of the former character of the Corinthians, that they were then . But he probably had it from the Acts of the Apostles, as had the author of the ‘Apostol. Constitut.’ (4. 3, 1). Similar apophthegms are quoted from heathen writers, as those cited by Kuinoel: (Artemidor., ‘Onirocr.,’ 4, 3); (Arist., ‘Nieom.,’ 4, 1), “It is more becoming to a free man to give to whom he ought to give, than to receive from whom he ought to receive.”
Act 20:38
The word which he had spoken for the words which he spake, A.V.; behold for see, A.V.; brought him on his way for accompanied him, A.V. Brought him on his way; , as Act 15:3; Act 21:5. So too 1Co 16:6, 1Co 16:11; 2Co 1:16; Tit 3:13; 3Jn 1:6. But the rendering accompanied gives the meaning of the two last passages in the Acts better than that of the R.V. It is impossible to part with this most touching narrative, of such exquisite simplicity and beauty, without a parting word of admiration and thankfulness to God for having preserved to his Church this record of apostolic wisdom and faithfulness on the one hand, and of loving devotion of the clergy to their great chief on the other. As long as the stones of the Church are bound together by such strong mortar, it can defy the attacks of its enemies from without.
HOMILETICS
Act 20:1-12
“In labors more abundant.”
The rapid succession and the unbroken continuance of St. Paul’s labors is truly marvelous. Rest or recreation seem to be things unknown to him. The tension of spirit caused by imminent and pressing danger seems not to have produced in him, as it does in most men, the need of breathing-time to recover their usual tone. His one idea of the use of life, and of the various faculties of mind and body with which his life was equipped, was apparently to preach Jesus Christ to those who knew him not, and to confirm and establish those who knew him in the faith of the gospel. His energy never flagged and his courage never quailed. Most men’s nerves would have been shaken by the terrible riot at Ephesus, when he had been “pressed out of measure, above strength,” and had despaired of life. But no sooner was the uproar ceased than St. Paul started upon a new course of labor and danger. He went back to Philippi, where he had been before shamefully entreated, stripped, scourged, cast into a dungeon, and made fast in the stocks; to the other cities of Macedonia, from whence he had been forced to escape by night for fear of the violence of the Jews; to Corinth, where he had been dragged before the judgment-seat of Gallio, and where the bigotry of the Jews was ready to commence fresh plots against his life. And wherever he went, heart and mind, tongue and pen, were kept at full stretch in preaching and teaching the things concerning Jesus Christ. Such activity of mind and body is indeed wonderful. We see the same untiring spirit, the same inexhaustible love for souls, in the midnight preaching at Troas. Other men, on the eve of a long journey, would have sought repose. Not so St. Paul. The comfort and stability of the Church at Troas, the growth in grace and knowledge of the disciples there, were his one consideration, Here was an opportunity of preaching Christ to them, of advancing their spiritual life, of imparting to them more of the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christan opportunity that might never recur, anti so he would make the most of it. Hence the whole night given to prayer and preaching and breaking of bread, to communion with God and fellowship with his saints. Such an example ought to be studied by every minister of the Word of God, with a view to following the apostle as he followed Christ. Indolence, self-indulgence, and indifference to the growth of the Church of God, must surely be put to shame in the presence of such abundance of labor. And every man’s faith must be strengthened, and his love for Christ and for souls kindled into a flame, as he catches the warmth of the glowing love of this mighty worker in the kingdom of God.
Act 20:13-38
The charge.
The previous section brought before us St. Paul’s labors as a missionary and an evangelist. The present section sets him before us as the Christian bishop, delivering his solemn charge to the presbyters of the Church. The qualities brought out in the charge are a transparent integrity of character; a noble ingenuousness, which enables him to speak of himself without a particle of vanity; and a resoluteness of purpose to do what is right, which no persuasion could weaken and no dangers turn aside. And then, besides, there is the most tender care for the Church of God. We see a mind full of anxious thought for the future of the Church which he loved, and loved doubly because he knew that Christ loved it and had died for it. We see a prescience and a wisdom which looked at things as they really were, and not as he wished them to be; which took a true measure of cause and effect; and did all that could be done to provide an antidote to the coming evils which he foresaw. Foreseeing the rise of heresies and false teachers, and the rapid growth of false doctrine, which would make havoc among the flock, he threw the whole vigor of his intellect, and the whole warmth of his affection, into the address by which he hoped to raise up in the clergy before him an effectual barrier against the destruction which he feared. And certainly, if words have any effect; if the eloquent speech of one whose life is still more eloquent than his tongue, can move the hearts and stir the spirits of other men, albeit they be men of inferior mould, to virtue and energy of holy action; if prayer and blessing, bursting forth from the full heart of a chosen vessel of God’s grace, have any influence and bear any fruit;it must be that this eloquent charge, so simple, so forcible, so pathetic, so plainly stamped with the image of Paul’s inner man, wrought powerfully upon the minds of the Ephesian presbyters. His words must have brought back the memory of his self-denying and superhuman labors; and many a resolution must have sprung up in their hearts to live for Christ, and to be steadfast unto death in defense of his precious truth. And when they rose up from that parting prayer, with streaming eyes and sobbing voice, surely they must have gone back to the oversight of their flocks with a devotion such as they had never felt before. So great is the influence of burning words, glowing with love and enforced by example, when they proceed from one whose office and whose character alike command reverence and respect. God grant that his Church may ever be “ordered and guided by faithful and true pastors, through Jesus Christ our Lord!”
HOMILIES BY W. CLARKSON
Act 20:1-12
Human life: lights and shadows.
In these verses we are reminded of
I. THE SCANTY RECORD OF HUMAN LIFE. We have six verses of this valuable chronicle given to the unimportant incident of the accident which befell Eutychus (Act 20:7-12), and only three to Paul’s visit to Macedonia and Greece. We do not understand why Luke should thus apportion his space, but the fact that he did so reminds us how often most interesting and instructive scenes, or even precious and influential periods, of our life are left unreported. We should have liked to read a full description, in copious detail, of the apostle’s visit to the Churches of Macedonia, and especially of his interview with the Church at Corinth. But we are not gratified. Doubtless some of the most heroic deeds have been wrought in secret, and no tongue has told the story; doubtless some of the most saintly sufferings have been endured unseen by mortal eye, and no pen has described the scene.
“If singing breath or echoing chord
To every hidden pang were given,
What endless melodies were poured,
As sad as earth, as sweet as heaven!”
Let it be enough that one eye sees and one heart enters into our struggles and our sorrows, and that “our record is on high.”
II. THE PRICELESSNESS OF CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP. “After the uproar was ceased, Paul called unto him the disciples, and embraced them” (verse 1). After the storm was over, it was an intense relief to pour out their agitated hearts in mutual sympathy, congratulation, devotion. We know (2Co 2:13) that Paul found no rest in his spirit because he found not Titus his brother at Tress, and accordingly went on to Macedonia to seek him, and that he was greatly comforted by finding him there (2Co 7:6, 2Co 7:7). We read of the friends who “accompanied him into Asia” (verse 4), and throughout we feel how precious beyond all reckoning was the sympathy and succor which came to the wearied and buffeted apostle from true human hearts. Loyal Christian fellowship is one of those beneficent gifts from God which we should count among our chief treasures, for which we should render heartiest thanksgiving; it is also one of those ways in which we can render invaluable service to faithful men, and thus an appreciated service to Christ, the Lord.
III. THE PENALTY OF UNFLINCHING FAITHFULNESS. When Paul was about to return to Syria, he found the enmity of his countrymen ready to waylay him. “The Jews laid wait for him” (verse 3). He could not but speak as Christ, by his Spirit, taught him; and his preaching became more clear and distinct as to the non-necessity of the Law of Moses; his doctrine became less exclusive, more liberal, i.e. increasingly repugnant to the narrow-minded Jews; and the fierceness of their hostility found vent in plots against his life. Whoso will follow Christ in “bearing witness to the truth” must be ready to “take up his cross and follow him” along the path of the persecuted. To be quite true to our convictions, to be fearlessly faithful to the Lord who reveals to us his will, is to bear the penalty of the dislike, the hatred, the intrigues of men.
IV. THE OVERRULING PROVIDENCE OF GOD. His enemies schemed, but God thwarted their schemes; he “turned aside,” and their murderous designs were defeated. Christ had more work for him to do, and the uplifted hand of the enemy must be arrested.
“Though destruction walk around us,
Though the arrows past us fly,
Angel-guards from thee surround us,
We are safe, if thou art nigh.”
V. THE OVERFLOW OF SACRED ZEAL. Paul desired to use his opportunity at Troas, and “on the first day of the week” he preached, “ready to depart on the morrow” (verse 7). In the” multitude of his thoughts within him,“ or conscious that he was soon to leave and feeling that he might never return to them, disregarding the lateness of the hour and the condition of the chamber, he still preached on. He “continued his speech until midnight.” That which would be unwise as a rule is allowable as an exception. If “anger hath a privilege,” much more so has zeal. We admire the man whose fullness of soul makes him oblivious of all attendant circumstances. It is well to have a capacity for devotedness which will sometimes lift us far above the level of ordinary moods, and make us forget everything but our subject and our cause, or rather everything but the truth of God and the cause and kingdom of Jesus Christ.C.
Act 20:17, Act 20:20, Act 20:27, Act 20:31, Act 20:33-35
Paul at Miletus: the review which gratifies.
It has been truly said that our whole life is divisible into the past and the future. The present is a mere point which separates the two. And there is a certain time which must come, if it have not already arrived, when, instead of finding our satisfaction in looking forward to the earthly good which we are to partake of, we shall seek our comfort and our joy in looking back on the path we have trodden and the results we have achieved. Ill indeed will it be for those who will then have no future for which to hope, and no past which they can survey with grateful pleasure. It was well with Paul, for when he had to turn his eye backward on a ministry which had been fulfilled, he could regard it with pure and devout gratification. That we may stand in that enviable position in which he now stood, we must be able to remember
I. LOWLY–MENDED CONSECRATION TO THE SERVICE OF GOD. “From the first day that I came in into Asia I have been with you at all seasons, serving the Lord with all humility of mind” (Act 20:18, Act 20:19). The man who spends his days in spiritual pride, or godless unconcern, or arrogant infidelity, will, if not in the later years of this life, from the other side of the grave, look back on his earthly course with bitterest shame, with fearful pangs of remorse. He who in old age can survey an entire life yielded, with a deep sense of dependence and obligation, to the living God and the loving Savior will have a cheering ray to light up his shaded path. Well may youthful lips take up the strain-
“‘Twill please us to look back to see
That our whole lives were thine.”
II. FIDELITY IN OUR SPECIAL SPHERE. Paul could feel that, as a minister of Jesus Christ, he had done his work thoroughly, conscientiously, faithfully, as in the eye of Christ himself. “I kept back nothing, I have taught you publicly, and from house to house” (Act 20:20); “I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God” (Act 20:27); “I ceased not to warn every one with tears” (Act 20:31). He had thrown the utmost energy of his soul into his work; he had wrought good “with both hands earnestly.” Whatever our vocation may be, it will be a sorry thing to have to recall to our memory duties hardly and punctiliously discharged, just gone through decently and creditably; still worse to have to remember duty left undone or miserably mismanaged. Pleasant and gratifying, on the other hand, to feel that we went to our work with agile step and eager spirit, went through it with conscientious care, and threw into it our utmost strength. Heartiness and zest today mean a harvest of refreshing memories for to-morrow.
III. ENDURANCE OF TRIAL. Paul reflected that he had served the Lord “with many tears and temptations [trials]” (Act 20:19). These trials unto tears were hard to bear patiently at the hour of endurance, but it was a comfort and satisfaction to his spirit afterwards to think that they had never withdrawn him from his confidence in Christ or from his post of active service. The secure and strong position of manhood is all the more satisfactory for the yoke that was borne in youth; the quietude of age is the more acceptable and enjoyable for the struggle or burden of middle life; the rest and rejoicing of the future will be the sweeter and the keener for the toils and. the troubles of this present time. The evils that have been left behind, when taken meekly and acquiesced in nobly, materially enhance the blessedness of the hour of freedom and felicity.
IV. THE DILIGENCE THAT MEANS HONESTY AND THAT INCLUDES BENEFICENCE. (Act 20:33-35.) It is not only that
(1) we should pay the debts which we have formally and deliberately incurred; but that
(2) in a world where we are daily receiving the benefit of the toils and sufferings of past ages and of our contemporaries, we are bound, in all honesty, to do something in returnsomething by which our fellows and, if possible, the future shall be enriched;
(3) where self-support is not positively demanded, it may be wisely rendered, in order (as with Paul) that there may be no reason for injurious suspicion; and
(4) we should strive to gain enough that we may spare something for the strengthless and dependentso laboring that we “may support the weak,” and know the greater blessedness of giving, according to the Word of our Lord (Act 20:35; see Eph 4:28; Heb 13:16).C.
Act 20:21
Paul at Miletus; the substance of Christian doctrine.
Surely we have here an excellent summary of distinctive Christian doctrine. These two things are the essentials of Christian truth. Without repentance there can be no living faith; without faith there can be no real spiritual life; with both of these, a man is a recognized citizen of the kingdom of God, an inheritor of eternal life. There must be
I. THE TURNING OF THE HEART AND LIFE UNTO GOD. This is what constitutes repentance. Repentance may include, but is not constituted by:
1. Strong feelings of sorrow and shame in view of past sin. It is possible and even common to produce very pungent and powerful feelings by means of energetic oratory; but these, if they are not real, profound convictions, will be temporary, if not even momentary; they are not the essential thing. Repentance will, at some time, include strong feeling of abhorrence of sin, but it may net commence with vivid and convulsive emotions, and is not to be identified with these.
2. Change of outward behavior. It is indeed true that, when really penitent, the idolater will abandon his idolatry, the thief his dishonesty, the drunkard his intemperance, the liar his falsehoods, the truculent man his violence, etc.; but it must be remembered that men sometimes change their habits for other reasons than those of religious conviction. Amendment in outward behavior, valuable and desirable as it is, does not constitute “repentance unto God;” it has also to be considered that there may be, and often is, the truest repentance where there is no alteration of conduct observable by man. The essence of repentance is the turning of the heart to God, and therefore of the life; it is that “change of mind” which consists in the soul turning from forgetfulness of God to thoughtfulness about him, from indifference to his claims to earnest consideration of them, from unwillingness to own his sway to a perfect readiness to yield everything to him, from the guilty retention of our powers for ourselves to a cheerful surrender of ourselves and our days to the living God, our Father and our Redeemer. Thence will follow all the compunction for sin and all the change of conduct which the past career of the soul will demand. Of this “Greek and Jew” alike have need: the Greek (the Gentile) has need to change his thought of God, and the Jew his also; whether from superstition, or from indifference, or from formality, all have to come into a different relation to Godthat of humble subjection to his will and surrender to his service.
II. THE ACCEPTANCE OF JESUS CHRIST AS LORD AND SAVIOR. “And faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.” The faith of which Paul testified to Greek and Jew was, we are sure, a living power. It was not a mere passive assent to a form of sound words. It was more than an intellectual acceptance of certain propositions. It was the cordial, hearty acceptance by the soul of a Divine Savior and Lord; it was the soul in all its need welcoming a Redeemer in all his strength to save and bless. It meant that acceptance of Jesus Christ in which the soul, conscious of sin and condemnation, flees to him as to the Rock in which it can hide; in which the heart, recognizing its rightful Lord, goes to him in glad self-surrender, and yields itself to him that he may
(1) guide it in his own paths,
(2) use it for his own glory, and
(3) conduct it to his own kingdom.C.
Act 20:22-32
Paul at Miletus: the forecast which exalts.
Paul had received intimations “in every city” (Act 20:23) that “bonds and afflictions” were in store for him; he looked forward with absolute certainty to personal suffering of some kind; but this assurance was so far from daunting or depressing him that his spirit rose on strong and eager wing to the full height of such apostolic opportunity (Mat 5:10-12). The anticipated future, with its bonds and its sufferings and possibly death itself, raised the soul of the man, exalted him; and he stands before us in the noblest stature to which even he ever attained. Loftier words never came from human lips than these (Act 20:22-24). His spiritual exaltation included
I. CHEERFUL ANTICIPATION OF PERSONAL SUFFERING. “I go bound in the spirit,” etc. He felt as one who already wore the bonds and was happy in the bondage. He was already “the prisoner of the Lord,” and was proud thus to esteem himself. So far from casting about to see whether there was any open door of escape, he gladly went forth to meet the trials that were in front.
II. SUBLIME INDIFFERENCE TO BODILY ESTATE. “None of these things move me” (Act 20:24). He was not affected by considerations which are everything to most men; they did not make him wince; he could be poor or rich, hungry or full, confined or at liberty,it mattered not to him so long as he was following and serving Christ. And here is the explanation of his nobility; it sprang from
III. ABSORPTION IN THE SAVIOR‘S WORK. “Neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish,” etc. (Act 20:24). “To testify the gospel of the grace of God “this was the commanding, all-controlling, all-consuming passion of his soul. It impressed everything else into the service; it burnt up everything that stood in the way. It was the dominating force under which every other power ranged itself obediently,
IV. CONFIDING PRAYER. “I commend you to God,” etc. (Act 20:32). Leaving these converts and, as he surely believed (Act 20:25), to see their face no more, he left them in the hands of God; he trustfully committed them to almighty love, to Divine wisdom, to the “faithful Creator” A blessed thing it is for the departing minister, for the dying parent, to leave his people or his family to the tender care of him who wilt make good the kindest and fullest of his promises.
V. EXALTED HOPE. “An inheritance among all them which are sanctified” (Act 20:32). Paul continually looked forward to the time when he and his converts should meet in the heavenly kingdom; this helped to sustain him under persecution and disappointment. He turned from the shame which was put upon him by man to the glory which waited to be revealed, and his heart was more than satisfied. This should be the result of our contemplation of the future; it should lead to inward exaltation. It should lead to
(1) such devotedness to the work we are doing for our Master that we shall rise above the fear of man, and even welcome the losses we endure for Christ’s sake;
(2) the devout committing of ourselves and of our charge to the love and faithfulness of him who is unfailingly gracious and true;
(3) a sustaining, animating hope, in whose blessed radiance all earthly experiences are lighted up. But in order to this there is presupposed in us what there was in Paul
(4) an entire surrender of ourselves to the Lord Jesus Christ himself.C.
Act 20:28-31
Paul at Miletus: the prospect which pains.
Paul, pursuing his path of self-sacrificing devotion, going on to he knew not what dangers ahead, looking a violent death in the face, was calm, tranquil, even joyful. But the apostle, looking forward to a distracted and injured Church, torn by false doctrine, laid waste by sinful men, was grieved at heart, and he uses the language of solemn adjuration and entreaty.
I. HUMAN APPREHENSION. We often go forward with painful apprehension that some ill is about to befall us; therefore with hesitating step, with trembling heart.
1. It has been that men had an intimation from God that evil was in store for them. This was not uncommon in Old Testament times, when the purpose of God was frequently revealed. It was the case with Paul now; it was revealed to him that dark days were ahead in the experience of the Church at Ephesus.
2. It may be the action of individual insight. By the use of a keen and penetrating judgment, a man can often perceive that events are leading up to a disaster.
3. It may be a simple and sound conclusion from the common heritage of man. It is certain that dark shadows must be across the path we tread, and that we shall be entering them before long.
II. THE SPECIAL ANXIETY OF THE CHRISTIAN PASTOR. Paul apprehended:
1. Attack from without: “Grievous wolves entering in not sparing the flock” (Act 20:29).
2. Mischief from within: “Of your own selves shall men arise, etc. (Act 20:30). This is what the Church of Christ has now to fear: the attacks of infidelity, the invitation to immorality, from without; and the subtler and more perilous dangers of spiritual decline, of the decay of faith, of injurious doctrines, of the breath of worldliness, within.
III. THE ATTITUDE OF THE RESPONSIBLE. (Act 20:28-31.) Paul solemnly charged these elders, as those to whose care was committed the Church of Godthat sacred body which the Lord had redeemed by his own bloodto do these three things.
1. To keep diligently their own hearts: “Take heed to yourselves” (see Pro 4:23).
2. To watch carefully the spirit and course of their people: “And to all the flock.”
3. To sustain the life of the members by providing spiritual nourishment: “Feed the Church of God.” If we would do what the Divine Head of the Church demands of us, and if we would follow in the footsteps of the most devoted of his servants (see Act 20:31), we must
(1) cultivate a deep sense of our responsibility;
(2) exercise unremitting vigilance over ourselves and our charge;
(3) supply that kind and measure of sacred truth which is fitted to strengthen and to purify those whom we undertake to teach.C.
Act 20:35
Paul at Miletus: the greater blessedness.
We may well be thankful that this one word of the Lord Jesus, unrecorded in the “fourfold biography,” has been preserved to us. It may be said to be Divine indeed. It gives the heavenly aspect of human life. It is the exact and perfect contravention of that which is low, worldly, evil. It breathes the air of the upper kingdom. It puts into language the very spirit of Jesus Christ. It is the life of the Savior in a sentence. To receive is quite on a low level. Any one and anything can do that; and the further we go down in the scale, the more we find recipiency common and supreme. The selfish man, the spoiled child, the ravenous animal,these are remarkable for receiving. And although it may be said that there are truths which only the educated and inspired mind can receive, that there are inducements which only noble souls can receive, yet the act of receiving is one which is common to lower natures, and is one which ordinarily requires only the humbler, if not indeed the baser, faculties. To give is on the higher level; for
I. IT IS ESSENTIALLY DIVINE. God lives to bless his universe. His Name is Love; in other words, that which is his distinguishing characteristic, underlying, interpenetrating, crowning all others, is his disposition to bless, his Divine habit of giving. He then most truly expresses his own nature, reveals his essential spirit, when he is giving light, love, truth, joy, life, unto his children. When we give forth of ourselves to others, we are living the life which is intrinsically Divine.
II. IT IS CHRIST–LIKE. He “went about doing good.” He lived to enlighten, to comfort, to bestow, to redeem. It was little indeed that he received; it was simply everything that he gave to mankind.
III. IT IS ANGELIC. “Are they not all ministering spirits?”
IV. IT IS HEROIC. By living to expend ourselves for others, we take our stand with the best and noblest of our race. As the world grows wiser it has a diminishing regard for those “great” men who signalized their career by splendid surroundings, or by brilliant exploits, or by displays of muscular or intellectual strength; it is learning to reserve its admiration and its honor for those who generously spent their faculties and their possessions on behalf of others. These are our heroes and our heroines now; and they will be so more and more. If we would take our placethough it be a humble onewith the best and worthiest of our kind, we must be giving rather than receiving.
V. IT IS HUMAN, in the higher sense of the word. It may be human, as sin has unmade man, to be coveting, grasping, enjoying. But it is human, as God first wade man, and as Jesus Christ is renewing him, to think of others, to care for others, to strive and suffer for others, to give freely and self-denyingly to those who are in need.
VI. IT IS ELEVATING. To be constantly receiving is to be in danger of becoming selfish, of making our own poor self the central object of regard, of depending on continually fresh supplies for satisfaction; in a word, of moral and spiritual degeneracy. But to be givingto be spending time, thought, sympathy, strength, money, on behalf of others,is to be sowing in the soil of our souls the seeds of all that is sweetest and noblest; is to be building up in ourselves a character which our Divine Lord will delight to look upon. To receive is to be superficially and momentarily happy; to give is to be inwardly and abidingly blessed. It is far more blessed to give than to receive.
VII. ITS RECOMPENSE IS IN THE ETERNAL FUTURE. (See Mat 25:31-46.)C.
HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON
Act 20:1-16
Scenes by the way.
I. FUGITIVE SERVICE. “When they persecute you in one city, flee into another,” had said the Lord. But not as a hireling who sees the wolf coming; rather as a brave warrior who retreats fighting. The brave retreat may reflect more honor than the hopeless prolongation of warfare. We must know when to give way. There is a “wise passiveness” and a “masterly inactivity.” If we can but gain our Christian point, we should suffer no scruple of vanity to stand in our way. And how much good may be done in this furtive way! The runner drops the seed as he goes. The greatest works have been done for God and the world by sufferers and in the midst of suffering. In the world the faithful apostle has tribulation, but peace in his heart; and it distils from his lips upon his brethren as he goes. Perfect ease is not to be coveted by the true servant of Christ. The pulpit is not an easy-chair. Men are goaded to their best by pain. They are perfected for teaching in the school of suffering. Sympathy and love are deepened by common experiences. Courage is truly learned; they that kill the body are not feared, but only they that injure the soul.
II. LOVING FELLOWSHIP OF THE SAINTS. (Act 20:7-16.)
1. Exhibited in the feast of love and the common hearing of the Word. The one prepares for the other; together they explain each other and enrich each other. Here is the first trace of the Sunday observance in the history of the Church. Christian associations are engrafted upon old customs.
2. As disturbed by grief, and restored. Eutychus sleeps during the preaching, and falls down. He was taken up dead, or “for dead,” as some expositors would interpret. Paul falls upon him, like Elisha in the case of the Shunammite’s son (2Ki 4:34), and Elijah with the widow’s son at Sarepta (1Ki 17:21); so that by vital warmth he may restore him to life. This striking coincidence of death in the midst of life, of life in the midst of death, must have powerfully reminded the disciples of him who is the Resurrection and the Life, of his promise; and so must have strengthened faith, and drawn the bonds of love closer together. “He that brought him back is here.” Not small was the consolation of the brethren as the young man was restored.
III. AN IMPRESSIVE SCENE.
1. The apostle. He is on his last mission journey. He “works while it is day;” preaching the Word with power; sealing his testimony with miracle, pursuing with constancy the end set before him.
2. The sleeper. A warning against weakness and idleness. “I say unto all, Watch!” “The spirit is willing, the flesh is weak.”
3. The unsleeping Divine watchfulness and providence. “We have a God who helps, and the Lord God who saves from death.”
4. The energy of the apostolic personality. He goes down in compassionate pity, falls upon Eutychus with earnest prayer, embraces him with urgent love.
5. The hush of the Divine presence. “Make no noise!” A lesson here for the chamber of the dead. God is here; his “finger touched him and he slept.” Bow before his power and decree; collect the heart from distraction, in recollection of its consolations. “They are not dead, but sleep,” may be said of our Christian friends. Amidst such humble and resigned silence angels pass through the house, with errands of ministry.J.
Act 20:17-38
Paul’s farewell to the elders of Ephesus.
I. THE MAIN FEATURES OF THE EVANGELICAL PREACHING. (Act 20:17-21.)
1. The spirit and conduct of the preacher himself; for this is inseparable from the preaching (Act 20:18-20). He had lived with his flock. His life had been devoted to their service. He had entered the sphere of their life as the loving sharer in their joys and sorrows. He had presented to them a pattern of humility. He had borne them on his heart. He had been like a sower going forth weeping, to bear the precious seed. The life of the true pastor is a life of many tearstears of self-doubt and weakness; tears of compassion and sorrow over others, like those of Jeremiah over Jerusalem’s fall, of Jesus over her deeper fall. Bat this sowing of tears prepares for a harvest of joy. Suggestive was the word of Monica, Augustine’s mother, “The child of so many tears cannot be lost.” Good is verbal preaching; better the preaching of the life; and, perhaps, most impressive of all, the preaching of suffering and self-sacrifice for the truth.
2. The matter of his preaching. Repentance: a universal necessity. It includes knowledge of sin; remorse; desire for salvation. Repentance has been described as a ladder of sorrow by which we descend into the depths of the heart. Faith: this, on the other hand, the celestial ladder, by which we rise to God and to eternity. It includes the knowledge of a Savior; joy in the reception of him; and firm confidence in his reconciling, sanctifying, and blessing grace.
3. The self-devotion of the preacher. (Verses 22-35.) He should be cast in the heroic mouldthat of the hero of the cross. The voice of the Almighty, “Upward and onward!” sounds in his ears evermore. He must be ready at any moment to say “Good-bye” to dearest friends, and uproot himself from fondest associations. Past battles have only trained his faith and courage for greater struggles. This heroic word
“Theirs not to make reply; Theirs but to do or die”
was essentially the motto of the apostle. He must fulfill himselfcannot rest till he has striven to the end in the “noble contest,” finished the race, attained the goal. In the heat of coming storm and darkness kindles the core of light; the Divine love has given all for him, and for it he will give all in return. Extremes meet in this suffering but triumphant man; bound by the irresistible command of his Lord, yet free in the joyous obedience of love.
II. EXHORTATION AND CONFIRMATION.
1. Exhortation to faithfulness. They are solemnly adjured to this by the recollection of his own faithfulness to them. He is clear from responsibility in their regard; for he has not shunned to declare to them “the whole counsel of God.” His ministry has been, not merely general, but particular, individualto each man’s heart and conscience. He has discharged himself of his burden; they must bear their own. To whom much has been given, of them much will be required. The duty of the faithful shepherd comprises two thingsthe feeding and tendance of the sheep, and the defense of the flock against its foes. The great word is “Watch “over self, the spirit, teaching, and conversation; over the flock,its Divine constitution does not exempt it from human weakness; and against the wolves, who would glide in, under false clothing, to ravage and devour.
2. Solemn commendatory prayer. “I commend you to God”the best conclusion of every sermon, of every period of Christian labor. Prayer is the expression of evangelical love; it throws the arms of care and affection around the flock when one’s own time of personal labor is past. It is the expression of lowliness: after all we have done, the issue must be left to God. He alone can turn the feeble service into a means of power, he alone give the increase to human sowing and watering. It is the expression of faith: there need be no fear on the part of the under-shepherd in leaving the flock in the hands of the almighty Shepherd himself. “God and the Word of his grace:” in these lies endless power. God and truth: in times of persecution or of unsettled belief, these forces go on upbuilding, reclaiming, converting, finishing, and fitting souls for eternal glory. We need not be anxious about the “reconstruction of theology;” God is ever reconstructing the new out of the old; and fulfilling himself in many ways. Our constructions break; but in him is the unbroken continuity of life itself.
3. Farewell reminder. Of his own example, and of all the lessons condensed into it. He had not been a seeker of personal gain; not of “theirs, but of them” (2Co 12:14). A mirror for all pastors. Happy for them if they can practically prove their disinterestedness by supporting themselves independently of the “altar“ (1Co 9:13). But this may not always be desirable. At least they can show that they do not “preach to live” so much as “live to preach.” To give is more blessed than to receive. God is the eternal Giver, forth-pouring himself in natural and spiritual bounty evermore. And the nearer we come to him, the happier we are. The more we take from God, the more we have to give; and again, the more we give, the more we have. To impart is to obtain release from self, from self-seeking, from the burden of superfluity. It is to reap love and. thanks, provided always that in imparting anything we truly impart ourselves.
4. The parting scene. It is of mingled joy and sorrow. There is the bitterness of orphanage and desolation of Joh 16:16; but the brightness of the hoped-for reunion. Reproaches of conscience at missed opportunities, but yet the sense that “now is the accepted time and the day of salvation.” The pain of disruption; but the consciousness of abiding in Christ, and of the final recovery of all we have loved and lostin him.J.
HOMILIES BY R.A. REDFORD
Act 20:1-6
Apostolic supervision of Church life.
From Ephesus through Macedonia, to Greece, returning through Macedonia by way of Philippi to Troas.
I. The cautious vigilance of Paul in superintending THE RISING SPIRITUAL LIFE of the infant Churches; a lesson in faithfulness and devotion to the interests of fellow-Christians, as well as in allegiance to Christ. It was not enough that the Churches had the truth. It was endangered by many difficulties and surrounding obstructive influences, both from Jews and heathen.
II. THE SELF–SACRIFICE involved in such journeys, not only in the great toil, but in danger to life.
III. THE INCREASING INFLUENCE of the apostle seen in his gathering so many round him as his fellow-travelers and fellow-laborers, a testimony to the hold which his teaching had upon the Churches, showing that the view of Christianity given in the Pauline Epistles, written about this time, was a fair representation of the current belief of the early Gentile Church. Nor could it have been widely different from that taught by the Jewish leaders; otherwise Paul could not have declared that he taught “the whole counsel of God.”R.
Act 20:7-12
A legacy of Divine testimony.
The position of Troas such that any startling event would spread its influence East and Westto Asia and Europe. Paul leaving the scenes of his labors, never more to be seen in them. Some news of contentions in Corinth might disturb the Churches. Asiatic believers would especially need every support. The occasion very solemn. Eucharistic service. Paul’s long discourse, interspersed probably with questions and answers. Many last words to be said. Enemies doubted the nature of Christian meetings. Many lights and open windows disproved the calumnies. Upper chamber, three stories from the ground; not large, and betokening the lowly character of the assembly. “Not many mighty, noble, and rich.” Possibly even in Troas some popular opposition made such a place necessary.
I. A great SIGN OF DIVINE POWER accompanying Paul’s preaching. Had he not been approved of God, he could not have wrought such a miracle. It spoke:
1. To the world, testifying to the nearness of the kingdom of God; to the merciful and restoring grace of the gospel, which came not to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.
2. To the Church; stamping Pauline teaching with authority; lifting up the courage and hope of disciples. The same Divine power ever with the Church always to the end.
II. A SOLEMN ASSOCIATION with a great and important occasion. Eutyehus could scarcely be without blame. The people would never forget that it was the Lord’s Supper, and that those who partake in such a service should watch against human infirmities. The wonderful recovery of the lad seemed to shed a new light on the whole service. What glorious power was set forth in that little society! They were comforted for Eutychus and for themselves and for the whole Church. Jesus is life from the dead.R.
Act 20:13-16
Troas to Miletus.
A glimpse into the activity of Paul’s life.
I. His extraordinary ENERGY. Walking probably some twenty miles to Assos to meet the vessel. His independence of character. Although a man of strong affections, he loved to be alone sometimes. His purposes were maturely formed and resolutely carried out.
II. His spiritual life was sustained by FELLOWSHIP WITH BRETHREN. The long voyages made in those days in sailing-vessels of only moderate speed would afford time for conversation with Luke and others, for a narrative of the past labor to be at least laid up in Luke’s memory. Possibly prepared under the apostle’s direction.
III. The movements of the messenger of Christ were not capricious and arbitrary, but under the SPECIAL GUIDANCE OF THE SPIRIT. He passed by Ephesus because the Spirit urged him on towards Jerusalem. He was lifted above all thought of self and offered as a sacrifice in spirit. An example of Christ-like devotion.R.
Act 20:17-38
Last words.
The scene at Miletus representative.
I. Of the relations between the apostolic leaders and the Churches.
1. Affectionate.
2. Founded on a common faith in the gospel of the grace of God.
3. Absolutely free from all sordid and worldly entanglements.
4. While recognizing the eminence o! the leaders, still not dependent on individual men. Sorrowing separation was not overwhelming despair.
II. Of the character of primitive Christianity as exemplified in the words of the apostle and in the elders of Ephesus.
1. Simplicity of the faith.
2. Confidence in the final victory of the truth as it is in Jesus, notwithstanding the inroads of error.
3. Dependence on the Holy Spirit.
4. Brotherhood; helping the weak and ministering to the needy. The love felt towards the apostle an example of the kind of feeling prevailing at Ephesus and in the early Church, so different from the formal and conventional Church life now seen, which is content with a very superficial recognition of brotherly sympathy. The heroism of Paul a fruit of the Spirit.R.
Act 20:21
The ambassador’s message.
“Testifying both to the Jews,” etc.
I. THE UNIVERSAL REQUIREMENT,
1. The temptations of Jews and Greeks, by which they were hindered from repenting and believingformalism; self-righteousness; ritualism; ignorance. Both in the synagogue and in the heathen temple need of such a proclamation.
2. The blessedness of the change which such a message would effect, The Jewish and Gentile characters, though very different, both requiring an entire renovation. Helplessness apart from the gospel. The message worked wonders in families. Contrast of the new life of the Christian Church with the old life of Judaism and paganism. The same message the substance of all Christian teaching, both in our own populations and in heathen lands.
II. THE FIRM FOUNDATION OF MINISTERIAL SUCCESS. The testimony was clear and undoubted; public and private. Repentance and faith.
1. Apostolic preaching aimed at personal conversion. It was not merely intellectual, or sentimental, or doubtful in doctrine, or perfunctory and cold.
2. The foundation on which the truth was placed was the firm one of the gospel facts. Repentance looked towards God who had spoken in the Old Testament, and faith looked towards Christ whose life, death, resurrection, and ascension Paul testified. Mere change of life is not all, but spiritual renovation through Christ.
3. A clear announcement from the pulpit must be accompanied by a faithful testimony from house to house. The private ministry is as important as the public.
4. Such a testimony of repentance and faith involves all who listen to it in immeasurable responsibility. Let each ere add to his seal by personal repentance and personal faith.R.
Act 20:24
The missionary spirit.
“But none of these things move me,” etc.
I. A DIVINE CREATION. “Received of the Lord Jesus.”
1. After the pattern of Christ‘s own mission.
2. By the inspiration of the Divine Spirit. Not by education or any lower means. Not influenced by worldly motives.
3. In the spirit of a witness, simply declaring the gospel; recognizing that “the gospel of the grace of God” is “the power of God” to men’s salvation.
II. AN EXAMPLE OF SPIRITUAL HEROISM.
1. Victory over fear and selfish calculation.
2. Endurance in toil. The work of the ministry never finished while there are souls to be saved.
3. Superiority to the influence of lower types of character in the Church of Christ. A true man will not be swayed by opinion. The spiritual hero must reckon with the world’s spirit of compromise and the Church’s lack of sympathy; he must be sometimes misunderstood and maligned.
4. Lively expectation of the future. Paul constantly animated by the prospect of the whole world the kingdom of Christ. The true missionary must lay hold of the future by faith. The missionary spirit in the Church is very different from mere visionary optimism, or speculative scheming for mankind. It is not like the socialistic spirit which easily becomes revolutionary, or the spirit of religious fanaticism which easily becomes cruel and self-destructive; it is based on distinct promises, and it lifts up the whole nature into the light of God. It is the true enthusiasm of humanity (see Isaac Taylor’s ‘Lectures on Spiritual Christianity’).R.
Act 20:24
“The gospel of the grace of God.”
The world requires a gospel. Not theories about religion, not theological dogmas, not philosophical speculation, not dreamy sentimentality, but the glad tidings of a Divine work actually achieved on our behalf.
I. THE GRACE OF GOD IS THE SUBSTANCE OF THE MESSAGE, Not a new law, seeing that the old Law cannot be fulfilled, but a proclamation of Divine forgiveness and life in One set forth as a Propitiation, whose righteousness is unto all and upon all them that believe.
II. THE WORLD‘S NECESSITIES ARE SUPPLIED BY THE GOSPEL.
1. Individually. The glad tidings of reconciliation. The creation of a new principle of life in the soul.
2. Socially. The kingdom of grace. Tidings for the home; for the state; for the community of nations; for all sorts and conditions of men. All other gospels set up in vain as rivals to this. Preach it in Paul’s spirit, and let all who have themselves heard it become evangelists, “pure from the blood of all men.”R.
Act 20:28
The true Church.
“The Church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood.” Significance of this passage in view of Church history and present controversies.
I. THE SPIRITUALITY OF THE CHURCH. “Purchased with his own blood.” Therefore neither an external organism nor a mere idea, but composed of living souls, whose salvation is secured by the merit of his blood. Not a mixed multitude, united by a formal rite, but, professedly at least, these who are partakers of Christ, The admixture of the evil with the good is the work of the “enemy” who sows the tares, not of the original formation of the Church.
II. INFLUENCE OF THE SPIRITUAL VIEW or CHURCH LIFE.
1. On those who “feed the Church,” helping them to take heed to themselves and their flocks.
2. On the individual members of the Church, in the assurance of Divine grace, in the maintenance of vigilance.
3. On the world, both in “warning” away these who would defile the Church, and in inviting those who would enter in at the open gate into eternal life. The apostle’s words regarded as prophetic. The greatest dangers of the Church have always arisen from lowering the conception of what the Church is. In our proneness to error, let us turn “to the Law and to the testimony.”R.
Act 20:35
The Divine secret of a blessed life.
“Remember the words of the Lord Jesus,” etc. Interest of the saying as not found in ore’ Gospels. The life of Jesus said it. Possibly preserved traditionally. Summary of many recorded sayings. Christ his own interpreter.
I. AN INSIGHT INTO THE NATURE OF TRUE BLESSEDNESS. Not in external things, not in a passive state, either intellectually or morally. As we give out from ourselves, we grow in knowledge and enjoyment. Especially true of the active efforts of Christians for the world. To teach is to be taught. To comfort is to be comforted. To sacrifice self is to be rewarded with inward peace and strength.
II. A HELP TO THE CULTIVATION OF PRACTICAL CHRISTIAN LIFE.
1. Remember Christ’s care of the poor. The Church an organization for the help of mankind. The poor should see that Christianity is on their side.
2. Remember Christ’s zeal for the house of God. The passive state unworthy of God’s children. Scanty giving a great discouragement to zealous workers; a great hindrance to the progress of the gospel.
3. Remember the claims of the world. The example of the Lord Jesus in laying down life, not to be remembered only by missionaries, hut to teach all his disciples to “count all things but loss for his sake.”R.
HOMILIES BY P.C. BARKER
Act 20:6-12
The seven days’ halt at the gateway between Europe and Asia.
This seven days’ stay at Troas may be safely presumed to have had points of special interest about it. The seven (Act 20:4) who accompanied Paul into Asia were here found awaiting him and Silas and the historian. These ten, beside any others possibly with them, must have been the welcomed visitors of the disciples at Troas. Memory dwelt upon Troas, for it was the place where, in the vision of the night (Act 16:9), Paul had received his call into Europe by the man of Macedonia. And after this visit how many fresh memories would cluster around the place and the people and that seven days’ halt! We may, amid the exceeding brevity of record here, be nevertheless reminded
I. HOW TO THE HARDEST LIFE THE MASTER DOES NOT FORGET TO GIVE SOME NEEDFUL INTERVAL OF REPOSE AND REFRESHMENT. No life is more wearing than that which men live who think for nothing, care for nothing, but making wealth. This life often kills the best of the heart, the best of the mind, and the best of even the bodily constitution. In this sense, men work themselves harder and more mercilessly than ever God works them. God never works us mercilessly. But in the hardest work he gives, he mingles much mercy. Yet his work in a healthy sense is hard, will match any for hardness, nor probably did the hardest-worked slave of self or Satan ever work harder than Paul did. But now, so far as we can see, the seven days at Troas, undisturbed by persecution from without or dissuasion from within, must have been days of happy converse and of peaceful rest. How much this party of ten would have to say to one another, to hear of the people at Troas and to tell to them!
II. HOW THE HOLIEST SERVICE ON EARTH MAY BE EXPOSED TO THE INTERRUPTION OF APPARENT ACCIDENT, ANYWAY TO INTERRUPTION WELCOME TO NO ONE. The cause of the interruption on this occasion probably infers a very minimum of blame to Eutychus. Some one has spoken to this effectthat hours of sleep are rarely broken by devotion, often enough for light causes. But it may be added that hours of sleep are rarely forfeited, indeed, for hours of devotion, but hours of professed devotion are often broken by sleep, or by what in the long run is even more disastrousby sleepiness. But as we are told more than once that Eutychus was “overpowered“ by sleepiness, and that there were even physical reasons separate from his individual self to increase the tendency, it is not necessary to fix any blame on him. Nor on Paul. Who did not wish him to prolong last words? What a spirit moved him! What a message he had, and how much for years to come, for the souls of not a few, and for the collected disciples there, might depend on his not omitting to say, and to say at leisure, and to say touchingly, the word given him! Yes; we would think nothing of the small hours being reached, and the many lights in the upper chamber fading before the return of the sun, were it the converse of merely human affection that detained usmen and women anti families together. The people at Troas had learnt the superior power and “o’er mastering attraction” of Divine affection and Divine discourse.
III. HOW WITH SOVEREIGN EASE CHRIST TRANSMUTES THE MOST INOPPORTUNE CALAMITY INTO MERCY‘S CHOICE MEMORIALS. The calamity no doubt seemed inopportune. The disciples had already learned, of their own grateful will, to come together for religious exercises on “the first day of the week,” and to “break bread” together. Paul and probably some of his companions, if not all of them (Act 20:13), had desired to stay with the believers for the service of praise and prayer, of exhortation and of the communion, and perhaps had strained a point to stay over that “first day of the week.” And hearts were full that evening. There was not any general weariness. And Paul was speaking that same hour what the Spirit gave him to speak. Had he spoken less, it would have been “the Spirit’s course” that he was restraining, not his own vanity, not his own inconsiderateness. The confusion in that natural but solemn assembly, the disturbance to thought, and the pain of mind especially to some,these were quite enough to unhinge the occasion. The peaceful stream of holy thought and of deep-flowing joy was checked. Yes; but not long. The Master is again present, and “by the hands” of Paul works, all things considered, a “special miracle.” And the service goes on. Thought sinks deeper, faith triumphs more proudly, and in many a glowing heart great was the joy. The meeting gathers impulse from its pause, and, a bright morning dawning upon it, offered a dim type of the morning, brightest of the bright, when the calamity of the present life and the broken service of the lower Church, and even the deepest, fullest, purest joy of the now redeemed heart shall give way to a safety which no foe can surprise, a service that shall ask no rest, and a joy that shall be supreme.B.
Act 20:17-36
Mingled fidelity and tenderness: an example for Christian ministers.
Perhaps there is no other place in which we have so much of the nature of personal detail respecting Paul from his own lips. For the most part in his Epistles, there is a singular abstinence on his part from personal references. They seem to abound here. Without doubting their bare justification, we desiderate some other and higher account of them. May not this be found in a twofold consideration?
(1) that Paul has designedly and probably also of Divine design treated Ephesus as the center from which the light and truth of Christ and the typical order of his Church were to spread throughout a very wide district; and
(2) that Paul is divinely directed here to leave a forcible and a touching example to later generations. He examples the extent to which the fidelity and love of apostles, and of all spiritual successors of apostles, ought to be on the look out, and the limits within which also they ought to be restrained, in respect of those portions of the Church over which men may have had the leading oversight. The modern Church surely cries out for admonition, in these very senses supplied by this long passagewhether on the part of its members or of its ministers. The most sacred, most responsible love on earth is too often regarded as a relationship that may be lightly entered upon, and is treated as one that may be, not only lightly broken, but when broken perfunctorily forgotten. The study of this passage must help to inspire very different views. From this farewell address of Paul to those whom he had specially invited to meet him, lest it should be the last time, the chief impressions left on us are these.
I. PAUL‘S UNMOVED CONFIDENCE IN HIS MISSION. All that is spoken personal to himself, and all that is spoken personal to the Ephesian elders, is spoken for the honor and glory and prospects of the gospel off Christ. The “ministry of testifying the gospel of the grace of God” is his steadfast supreme thought. It appears in and through all.
II. PAUL‘S UNMOVED CONFIDENCE AS TO WHEREIN CONSISTS ITS EXACT OPERATION UPON MEN. If it is his last exposition of the saving message of his “ministry,” it shall be thus summarized and thus repeated: “Repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.” These two articles constitute the Christian magna charta. They clear the past, they give the key for the future and for all its hope and unfolding promise. “Repentance toward God” clears the very sky of human life, and with a glorious sky indeed over vaults the heart itself. While “faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ” will secure all else that can be wanted till the time comes for faith to turn to sight.
III. PAUL‘S ANXIOUS OUTLOOKTHE OUTLOOK OF SPIRITUAL LOVE. He is not the man to feel he has done his work, and may leave all the rest. He feels he can‘t leave all the rest. Care and anxiety for the morrow, not of earthly good and personal gain, possess him, but for the morrow of the spiritual career and the very souls of those he had called and testified to and led by his example at Ephesus. That a people see this and feel this genuinely present in their spiritual teacher and pastor, is an influence of great effect upon them. And there is another way in which it acts to great advantage. As time flows on, and the hour of trial and temptation and darkness may come, men are wonderfully helped when they can recall the voice and look and earnestness of one who “told them of these things before they came to pass.”
IV. PAUL‘S FAITH IN EXAMPLE AND HIS RESPECTFUL REGARD FOR THE “WITNESS” OF THOSE AMONG WHOM HE HAD LABORED. Pride and priestly superciliousness never give expression to this side of the question. That the priest’s eye is on the people is their haughty doctrine, and the so genuinely true other side of the matter, that the people’s eyes are on the priest, to which Paul gives here such humble and kindly expression, is pushed into coldest shade by them. Without doubt, we are justified in thus regarding all that Paul here says of himself that might seem to be said in a self-commendatory style; there is in very truth nothing of this in his spirit. He does but speak facts, and can say “ye know” (Act 20:18, Act 20:34) about them. If the elders of Ephesus do not know them, or know them to be not as Paul says, he has courted contradiction, not hidden himself away from it. Of what incalculable consequence example ever is! Of what thrilling consequence it is in the career of the Christian minister and pastor! What quiet rebuke it is, free from bitterness of tongue! What choicest stimulus and suggestion it is, full of life and movement as it is! The leading items of conduct and example, in which the Ephesian elders had been able to take witness of Paul, are interesting to follow.
1. They had witnessed a long stretch of time and variety of state and temper.
2. They had witnessed an humility of mind that bended itself to circumstances, and endured aright what caused tears not idle and jeopardy of life many a time.
3. They had witnessed frankness of relations, plainness of speech, constancy of ministry, in public and in private.
4. They had witnessed a three years’ continued impartial “warning of every one night and day with tears.”
5. They had not witnessed any self-seeking, any desire of “silver, or gold, or apparel.”
6. They had, on the contrary, witnessed their chief pastor at manual labor, to supply his own temporal needs and to help his companions. And in reminding the Ephesian elders of these things, Paul has enshrined for all generations one of the sweetest words of Jesus, unrecorded elsewhere. Yes; and whatever might come to be, there was no doubt that Paul had, by all these uncontradicted methods, become unspeakably endeared to those whom he now addresses.
V. PAUL‘S USE OF APPEAL. Direct practical appeal is evidently one of the recognized gospel forces. The preacher is not to forget it (Act 20:28, Act 20:31).
VI. PAUL‘S FINAL RESORT TO PRAYER. The particularity with which even this testimony of Paul to prayer is recorded is worthy of remark, “And when he had thus spoken, he kneeled down, and prayed with them all.” Prayer is the renunciation of self-confidence. Prayer is the authorized summons for higher help. Prayer is the sure signal of the approach of strength to weakness, continuance to uncertainty, and power to prevail in place of the temptation by which men should fall.
VII. LASTLY, PAUL‘S MOVING TENDERNESS OF SPIRIT IN ALL. This tenderness and highly moved state of soul is betokened at every turn. If Paul speak of the relations that had subsisted between the Ephesians and himself (verses 18-20); if he speak of his own future (verses 22-25) or allude to his own past (verses 31-35); if he introduce the names of the Lord Jesus (verses 24, 35), of the Holy Ghost, and the Church (verse 28), of God (verse 32);the touch is of the tenderest, the tone is of the warmest, and softest, the suggestion is sure to be of the most solemn and pathetic in equal proportions. And in every one of these respects it must be maintained that Paul is an example for all Christian teachers and pastors, for all time. Whatever can be obtained by human instrumentality out of the mysterious mass of humanity will be best obtained thus. No force, no authority, no policy, will obtain souls. Nor will care, and love, and tenderness, and foresight, and faithful “warning” keep all that they shall seem to obtain. The “grievous wolves will enter in;” “men out of” that very number who listened and wept, and were both wept and prayed over, “will arise, speaking perverse things,” and, drawn away themselves, “they will draw away others after them.” “Offences will come!” But it is to be said that when Paul and the successors of Paul have done and said what Paul now did and said, and something in the same manner, the solemn damning “woe,” wherever it fall, will not fall on one of them. They have saved their souls, and they are “pure from the blood of all men.”B.
Act 20:37, Act 20:38
Sure springs of affection.
The great regard of the Ephesian elders to Paul was genuinely spoken in their great regret as now manifested. Farewells have a pathos all their own, and share it with nothing else. They legitimately exhibit what has been long years, perhaps, as legitimately concealed. They are often acts of pardon, and ought always to be such. They bring out better qualities than have been seen before or even suspected of existing. And sometimes they are the inauguration of a far higher love than all that had been, when love of the personal presence is superseded by the love of souls. The farewells of an average human life, could their added effect be calculated, would in many instances be found to have constituted some of its most potent and its highest influences. Notice some of the leading causes of the deep affection recorded in this place.
I. THE ACQUAINTANCE OF THE EPHESIANS WITH PAUL HAD BEEN ONE IN WHICH THEY HAD RECEIVED THE NEW AND PRICELESS BLESSING OF HOLY TEACHING.
II. THE ACQUAINTANCE HAD BEEN ONE IN THE SURE BACKGROUND OF WHICH HAD BEEN ALWAYS A HOLY LIVING EXAMPLE.
III. THE ACQUAINTANCE HAD BEEN ONE FAR REMOVED FROM ALL NARROWNESS OR LIMITEDNESS OF AIM: IT HAD BEEN STAMPED WITH USEFULNESS. The behavior of the sabbath and even of the Lord’s day is far more easily taught than the behavior of all life’s “common days,” and to teach this it is abundantly plain Paul did not disdain.
IV. THE ACQUAINTANCE WAS ONE ALL THE MEMORIES OF WHICH WERE MEMORIES OF UNAFFECTED KINDLINESS AND CONDESCENSION. (1Th 2:7, 1Th 2:8.)B.
HOMILIES BY R. TUCK
Act 20:7
The Lord’s day sabbath.
This is the first allusion to distinctively Christian meetings as held on the first day of the week, the day which commemorates the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. The grounds on which it pleased God to separate a regular, and a frequently recurring, portion of time from common worldly labor may be pointed out. Two things especially require notice.
1. Such a recurring period of rest is practically proved to be necessary for man’s physical well-being. It is more and more clearly shown, that the recovering and restoring power of nightly sleep is not sufficient, and that the weekly prolonged rest is essential to the continued maintenance of the bodily powers.
2. A man is not chiefly a body. He is a composite being; but he is, in the truest conception of him, a soul, having a body for his use. And it is of the first importance that the soul should have its due and adequate opportunities of culture. For the securing of such opportunities, the tension of bodily claims must be at times relieved. The change of the day kept as the sabbath, from the seventh to the first of the week, does not seem to have taken place by any revelation or any distinct apostolic arrangement. It came about in the natural course of events. Probably at first the Jewish Christian disciples kept the Jewish sabbath in the usual way, and also had some special meeting of their own, in remembrance of the Lord’s resurrection, on the evening of the first day of the week. As the gospel won its way among the Gentiles, the distinctively Christian meetings would grow in importance; and when St. Paul separated the disciples from the synagogue, Jewish customs and rules ceased to have authority over them. As Judaism faded away, the Christian day of rest took the place of the older sabbath; and the Christian forms of worship superseded the temple and the synagogue ordinances. We dwell on two points.
I. THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH WAS A RETENTION, IN SPIRIT, OF THE OLDER JEWISH SABBATH. What was essential in the original institution was the devotement to God of one day in seven. No importance attached to its being the first, or fourth, or seventh, as men may arbitrarily reckon the days of the week. The division of time into weeks is not a natural division, dependent on movements of earth or of moon. It is an arrangement made entirely in view of man’s physical and spiritual interests. And the change of the precise day teaches us the important lesson that God cares for the essence of obedience, for the spirit of service; and while this finds its proper expression in minute and careful observance of his requirements, God is not limited by the mere formality of his commands, but graciously leaves the times, seasons, and modes of our obedience to our good will and judgment. Wherever there is the spirit of obedience, there need be little fear as to the finding of right modes. All that is essential in the Jewish sabbath holy souls jealously preserve in the Christian Sunday.
II. THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH IS A PRECISE SANCTIFYING OF ONE DAY IN SEVEN TO THE REMEMBRANCE OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. We are to “keep the sabbath day holy;” that is, we are to fill it fully up with thoughts of God and work for God. But to us God has been “manifest in the flesh;” “he was made flesh and dwelt among us.” As with us here in our humanity, Jesus was the “Brightness of the Father’s glory, and the express Image of his person.” And so the keeping the Christian Sunday holy is filling it fully up with thoughts of Christ and work for him. And that they might be helped to such remembrances, the early disciples, every Sunday evening, broke bread together, this being the appointed means for recalling to their minds their Lord’s broken body and shed blood. For our soul’s life, the Sunday is a day for communion with Christ. For the world’s salvation, Sunday is a day for witnessing of Christ and working for him. We may learn, then, in what lies the very essence of the rightly kept Christian sabbath. It must have two things always in it.
1. Conscious communion with Christ.
2. Active co-operation with him in his sublime purpose to redeem and save the world.R.T.
Act 20:9, Act 20:10
Sleepy Eutychus.
Explain precisely what happened. The window was a lattice opening, and, for the sake of air to the crowded room, the lattices were put aside. How crowded the house was is intimated by the presence of some people in this third story. There they would be sure to feel oppressed by the heat of the house. Eutychus may have fallen into the street, but it is more likely that he fell into the hard paved courtyard. For a similar fall, see the account of the death of Ahaziah, King of Israel (2Ki 1:2, 2Ki 1:17). The word that is translated “young man” implies that Eutychus was quite a youth, and not likely to be very directly interested in St. Paul’s address. He very probably was a child of the house where the meeting was held. While the narrative does not positively say that Eutychus was killed by the fall, and indeed leaves it possible for us to assume that he was only badly stunned, the simplest reading of itwithout prejudice in relation to the miraculouscertainly leaves the impression of a real death and restoration. We bend attention to the conduct of St. Paul in relation to the matter, and inquire why he took the trouble thus to recover the fallen and dead youth. Dismissing, with a brief mention, the interest he would feel in such a calamity affecting the people of the house, and seeking for explanations having a more general application, we notice
I. ST. PAUL FELT THAW EUTYCHUS WAS NOT TO BLAME. If any one was to blame, it was the apostle himself, who had been led on to talk so long and keep the meeting to unreasonable hours for young folk. Long services make too great a demand on the physical strength of young people. They are trying even to the elder Christians, but their awakened spiritual interest will enable them to bear such fatigue of body. It was not wrong for Eutychus to sleep. He was simply overborne by the heat of the place and the lateness of the hour. And still we need to distinguish between failings, which come out of human frailties, and sins that come out of human willfulness. Too often the young are punished for what is merely due to the influence of surrounding circumstances and the undeveloped bodily conditions. The relation of public services to the young needs careful and judicious treatment.
1. Services for them are advisable and necessary.
2. Their share in the general service of the Church is important.
3. Such services may exert a gracious influence apart from the actual mental comprehension of what is said and done.
4. Such services need not be unduly limited or too easily altered in character for the sake of the young.
5. Such services should take into due account, and deal considerately with, the physical infirmities of the young. It is possible, by securing variety in forms of worship, changing attitudes, and efficient illustration in preaching, to successfully resist the infirmities of the children. If we find our public services uninteresting, we may question whether we are not, like the apostle, ourselves to blame.
II. ST. PAUL FELT THAT THE DEATH OF EUTYCHUS WOULD BE MISUNDERSTOOD. Too easily the company would take up the notion that this was a judgment on inattention, and such an idea must be at once and fully corrected. In such a case as that of Ananias and Sapphira, no apostle would feel impelled to put forth miraculous power; the judgment of God on sin must stand. But the case of Eutychus belonged to what may fairly be called “accidents.“ A conjunction of circumstances brought it aboutheat, sleepiness, the position in which Eutychus sat, the open window, etc.; and this St. Paul may deal with in a way of miracle, just as Elijah and Elisha had done in cases of sudden death from disease (see 1Ki 17:21; 2Ki 4:34). It is quite true that Christianity makes great demands on self-control and self-denial. It expects the spirit to master the body; but it makes its demands of the full-grown “man in Christ;” and, only in appropriate measures and degrees, on those who are young in years and young in the faith. The restoration of Eutychus may be regarded as a prominent and interesting illustration of the “sweet reasonableness” of Christianity.R.T.
Act 20:9-11
Earnestness in preaching and hearing.
The subject is suggested by the conversation, or the address, being lengthened out by the mutual affection of St. Paul and his audience. They were unwilling for him to cease; he was unwilling to keep back anything that might be a help and a blessing to them. That night there were just the conditions that made “long preaching” advisable, and prevented its being thought a weariness. The impulse of the preacher is such an audience; the joy of the audience is such a preacher. Tell of the associations of St. Paul with Troas, and give illustrative instances of his singular power to draw out towards himself the affection of those whom he served for Christ’s sake. A feeling of oppression and anxiety at this time rested on the apostlehe felt that his missionary labors were almost done, and this gave a peculiar urgency and tenderness and pathos to his preachings. They had the characteristics of “last utterances” and “farewells.“
I. THE IMPORTANCE OF OUR HAVING PERSONAL CONFIDENCE IN, AND GLOWING AFFECTION FOE, OUR TEACHERS. So far as mere truth is concerned, a stranger with competent knowledge can instruct us; but truth, in its personal relations with us, can only be taught by those who know us; and our ability to receive such influence depends largely on our love for those who give it. Press the importance of settled ministries, of regular attendance at the same worship, and of coming into such relations with our “pastors and teachers” as may bring on us the power of their personal characters. Apply the principle, “Faithful are the wounds of a friend;“ and our pastors should be felt such friends that we can receive both reproof and comfort and instruction from them.
II. THE DEMANDS WHICH TRUST AND AFFECTION MAKE UPON OUR TEACHERS. These people would not let St. Paul go; they kept him talking all night. He was compelled to respond to such love, and to pour forth his best treasures of knowledge and experience for their help. Trust and love still make the highest demands on our teachers, demands sometimes so great that ministers feel overwhelmed with the tremendous responsibility. Nothing draws out the best in a man like trusting him and loving him. Money can never buy a man’s best; duty can never compel a man’s best; love can always win a man’s best, just as a pure love makes a man noble, and a babe’s love calls a mother to sublime self-denials. The one condition of receiving the best spiritual blessings from a Christian teacher is that you must trust and love him as his disciples did St. Paul. His relations with his disciples are models, and happy are they who can give a like joy to their teacher and can win like blessings from him. In conclusion, deal practically with those things which constitute fitting preparation of hearers for receiving the best spiritual blessings through their teachers. Such preparations are:
1. General bearing upon good worshipping habits; right relations with Church life; and personal knowledge of, and affection for, the teacher.
2. Special to each particular occasion of intercourse or of worshipping; the value of all services depending directly upon a man’s mood of soul, as won by home culture. The profit of a hearer depends first and chiefly upon himself.R.T.
Act 20:21, Act 20:24
Paul’s testimony.
“Testifying repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.” “To testify the gospel of the grace of God.” The main lines of the apostle’s work are nowhere given more simply or more clearly than in these sentences. Dean Plumptre suggestively says, “These,” viz. repentance and faith, “under all varieties of form, formed the substance of the apostle’s teaching. It is obvious, however, that out of these might be developed a whole system of theology; why repentance was needed, and what it was, and how it should show itself; what was involved in the statement that Jesus was the Christ, and why men should believe in him, and what works were the proper fruit of faith. All these were questions which had to be answered before even the most elementary truths could be rightly apprehended.” St. Paul’s ministry consisted in this, bearing witness, “especially as a living example of its power (1Ti 1:12-16), of the good tidings that God was not a harsh Judge, but a gracious Father, willing all men to be saved (1Ti 2:4), that was the truth to the proclamation of which his life was to be devoted.” As the subjects are familiar, only an outline of treatment is necessary. We take the latter expression first, as being the more general one.
I. GOD‘S GRACE UNTO FORGIVENESS. The gospel is precisely a message concerning God. It is:
1. A corrective message. God is not as men have thought.
2. A revealing message, bringing to light the fact that, by a sublime act of self-sacrifice, he has declared himself to be love, and has shown his grace.
3. A practical message, bearing directly on our sins, and giving assurance of forgiveness.
II. GOD‘S CONDITIONS FOR THE MANIFESTATION OF HIS GRACE UNTO FORGIVENESS. Without conditions we should set no value on the grace, the gift, or the forgiveness. The conditions are reasonable and necessary. They are:
1. Repentance. If we are not troubled about out’ sin, we shall not care about forgiveness.
2. Faith. If we do not open our hearts to God, he cannot work his good work in us. These are gospel foundations; but how much we have to build thereon!R.T.
Act 20:22-24
The cheerful acceptance of a hard lot.
Give illustrations showing how severe, trying, and anxious St. Paul’s missionary life had been and was likely to be to the end, taking as a basis his own account given in 2Co 11:23-28. Additional “hardness” came out of St. Paul’s peculiarly nervous and sensitive temperament. He felt both joys and sorrows so keenly. With the apostle’s life compare that of our Lord Jesus Christ. Both were divided into two parts:
(1) a working part, in which God was served by active labors;
(2) a suffering part, in which God was served by bearing and enduring afflictions, persecutions, and troubles. By both doing and bearing God may still be served; and in both ways God tests the faithfulness of his people in our times. St. Paul was taught “how great things he must suffer for Christ’s Name’s sake;” and in the passage before us we see him learning this lesson, and giving some expression to his feeling in regard to it. The Spirit said in St. Paul that the time was now near when a special testimony for Christ amid scenes of suffering would be required of him; and the apostle received the revelation, not only calmly, but cheerfully, like the older apostles, counting it all joy that he was thought worthy to suffer for his Master’s sake.
I. EXACTLY WHAT HIS LOT WAS TO BE HE DID NOT KNOW. The Spirit was only pleased to give general indications. Complete knowledge of what is about to happen can never be good for man, because
(1) it takes away the simplicity and naturalness of his conduct;
(2) it prevents the proper exercise of his will upon due consideration of circumstances that arise;
(3) it stops the process of moral and spiritual culture; and
(4) it takes from him the call to a living, daily trust in God. The feeling that all is settled and known tends to prevent faith from keeping up a daily dependence. We cannot too thankfully rejoice that our future is wholly unknown to us, and that we are cast entirely upon the promise of” grace for the day,” and upon the assurance that the “Lord will provide.” “I’d rather walk in the dark with God than go alone in the light.” We know nothing. Nay, we know everything if we know our ever-present Guide.
II. ST. PAUL WAS AS TRULY MOVED TO GO FORWARD TO SUFFERING AS HE HAD BEEN TO GO FORWARD TO WORK. Recall the previous scene at (Act 16:1-40.), when the man of Macedonia called the apostle to begin missionary labors’ in Europe. He had no doubt then that he was following the Divine lead; and he had no more doubt now that he was called to Jerusalem to suffer. We might think that God gave him notice of coming troubles only to warn him and guard him against them; but we must understand that God may in this way test faithfulness. A plain path of duty may be before us, but we may come to know that suffering lies that way; then we are tested whether we will do the duty or shrink back on account of the suffering. The apostle clearly knew his duty, so matters of personal suffering could be no serious concern to him.
III. HIS LOYALTY AND LOVE TO CHRIST MADE HIM WILLING TO SERVE HIM IN WHATSOEVER WAY HE WILLED. Service to Christ, under the inspiration of his love, was St. Paul’s simple and sublime idea. “To him to live was Christ.” The place, or time, or way of service it was for his Master to settle; and what had to be borne in rendering the service he was willing to let his Master wholly arrange. He set before himself this aim, that he “might finish his course with joy.” “It is required of stewards that they be found faithful.” Apply to some of the suffering lots now given to God’s people. They are spheres of service for Christ, and they lose all their “hardness” when they can be thus regarded.
IV. HIS CHEERFUL OBEDIENCE MADE TRIUMPH OVER HIS AFFLICTIONS AN EASY THING. So much depends on the spirit in which our lot in life is taken up. The apostle is a beautiful example of cheerfulness and hopefulness. He will not let circumstances crush him, or opposition and adversity overwhelm him. He will not lose heart or hope. He sings in his own soul the song with which he has cheered thousands of the saints through the long Christian ages. “All things work together for good to them that love God. So the trials cannot hurt him. He is more than conqueror. He even finds how to look upon a “hard lot” as an opportunity for rendering fuller and heartier witness for the Lord whom he serves.R.T.
Act 20:27
God’s whole counsel.
St. Paul is stating a fact which
(1) was to the honor of the Ephesian elders, for they must have been receptive and willing hearers if the apostle found that he might even teach them the mysteries of the gospel; and which
(2) was to the honor of St. Paul as a teacher, who was so skilful in dividing the Word of truth that he could make the very mysteries plain. Compare his language in Eph 3:4, where he speaks of their ‘being’ “able to understand his knowledge, in the mystery of Christ.” It is right to declare the whole counsel of God; but it is wise only to declare it to those who are prepared to receive it. Compare St. Peter’s counsel and reference to St. Paul in 2Pe 3:15, 2Pe 3:16. The “whole counsel of God” may be regarded as including
I. THE COMPLETE CIRCLE OF REVEALED TRUTH. This embraces
(1) the Divine revelations made in different ages;
(2) in different forms;
(3) to different individuals.
While the complete circle may be regarded as contained in the Old and New Testament Scriptures, we may not absolutely limit Divine revelation to the written Word. The Spirit of God has full and free access to the minds and hearts of men, and can reveal his will directly to them if it shall please him so to do. To this circle there is a center, but the repetition of this cannot be the Divine idea of “preaching the gospel.” Every truth within the circle must be held by, and filled with the spirit of, the central truth. Everything within the circle is the gospel. Ministers may not, and they need not, shun to declare to men the very “mysteries” of revelation, since by the consideration of such the higher culture of the soul is gained. Infants take the milk of first principles; strong men need to feed upon strong meat of difficult and advanced truth.
II. THE TRUTH IN ITS ANTAGONISTIC PHASES. This side of the truth may not be left untouched by any teacher, but its treatment calls for much care and wisdom. There are times when we are required to show how truth opposes error; but usually it is far better to preach the positive truth, and let it by its own force gradually root out and destroy error. Three points may here be illustrated.
1. Christ’s truth seemed opposed to Judaism. It was not really opposed to the system as given by God to Moses. It was the natural and necessary outgrowth and completion of it. It was opposed to the corrupt Judaism of the rabbisa formal and ceremonial system out of which all spiritual life had gone.
2. Christ’s truth was opposed to paganism, both in its theories, principles, and practices.
3. Christ’s truth is made to appear opposed to science, but only by the undue assumptions and prejudiced bias of some who really misrepresent science.
4. Christ’s truth is always opposed to worldly maxims, because it demands the whole soul for God, while the world wants the whole soul for self.
III. THE TRUTH IN ITS PRACTICAL PHASES. Illustrate from the Epistles how directly it bears:
1. On individual habits; teaching us how to possess the vessels of our bodies in sanctification and honor.
2. On family relations; culturing good fatherhood and motherhood, and requiring honorable obedience from children, and service from dependents.
3. On social fellowships; binding man to man in a gracious brotherhood of common helpfulness.
IV. THE TRUTH WITH THE PERSONAL STAMP ON IT. When uttered with the force of a man’s own experience, persuasion, and conviction, the truth gains a new power; but we must also recognize that it comes under limitations by getting apprehension and expression only through limited mindslimited by capacity and limited by education. Individuality is on one side power, but on the other side weakness. Conclude by fully unfolding what now may be thought of as included in the “whole counsel of God,” especially pointing out that, while the field of revelation is the same that St Paul had, the field of speculation has marvelously grown and enlarged. But still, what men have to preach to their fellow-men is not their speculation, but God‘s revelation.R.T.
Act 20:28
Blood purchased.
This figure of speech is directly connected with a reference to the Church as a flock; to the officers as overseers, or shepherds; and to their duty as feeding the flock. It is important to inquire how far the shepherd and sheep figure will explain the scriptural allusions to redemption, or salvation by blood. The figure as used by our Lord in Joh 10:1-42. should be compared with the expression in our text, “which he hath purchased with his own blood.” The question which we have to consider isHow does a shepherd purchase his sheep with his blood? The answer takes two possible forms.
I. THE SHEPHERD PUTS HIS LIFE IN PERIL IN DEFENDING HIS SHEEP. This is the characteristic feature of the good shepherd as opposed to the hireling. The good shepherd purchases their safety every day by his willingness to shed his blood in their defense. So a mother may be said to purchase the health of a sick child by her willingness to give her life for his, imperiling her own life by her anxious watching and care.
II. THE SHEPHERD MAY ACTUALLY GIVE HIS LIFE IN FIGHTING AND KILLING THE WOLVES. If he kills the wolves he saves the sheep, though he may himself die of his wounds; and then he plainly purchases the safety of the flock with his blood. These figures may be applied to the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. He imperiled his life for our defense. He met our great foe in conflict. He overcame sin and death, and plucked death’s sting away. He died indeed in the struggle, but he set us free; and so he has purchased us by his own blood. He has won, by his great act of self-sacrifice, our love and life forever. Compare the figure as employed by St. Peter (1Pe 1:18, 1Pe 1:19).R.T.
Act 20:35
The blessedness of giving.
We have no other record of these words as uttered by Christ. They must have been treasured in the memory of the apostles, and have been often mentioned by them, but never written down. There must be a great deal of Christ’s teaching not preserved for us; but we may be assured that the unrecorded was like the recorded, and we may gratefully receive what the Divine Spirit has been pleased to preserve for us. The truth of this statement that it is “more blessed to give than to receive,” is affirmed and illustrated by:
1. St. Paul’s own life.
2. Christ’s teaching.
3. Christ’s own life of giving.
4. All human experience.
One of the best things said by the late George Peabody is this, spoken at a reunion at his native town: “It is sometimes hard for one who has devoted the best part of his life to the accumulation of money to spend it for others; but practice it, and keep on practicing it, and I assure you it comes to be a pleasure.” It was a saying of Julius Caesar that no music was so charming in his ears as the requests of his friends, and the supplications of those in want of his assistance. Our Lord did not say that there was no blessedness in receiving, only that it is more blessed to give. We may feel how true are his words in relation to
I. GIVING PRESENTS. These not only win and keep our friends, but they greatly increase our love for them by finding it expression.
II. GIVING SYMPATHY. This so greatly blesses us, because we have to fetch up the very best in us if we are to sympathize with sufferers and sinners. We want our holiest power.
III. GIVING KNOWLEDGE. We cannot clear and complete our own knowledge better than by making the effort to impart it to others.
IV. GIVING LOVE. It is very precious to be loved, but it is surely more precious to love, to give our love to another; it is so ennobling and inspiring that we give our love to Christ.
V. GIVING PRAYERS. Intercessory prayers are the holiest kind, and the most directly and abundantly fruitful in blessings to ourselves. Let us bear in mind that the blessedness of giving we all can win. All of us can give, and we all can give in the various possible ways of giving above referred to. Those even that seem to have nothing yet can give, if a comprehensive view of giving be taken. A poor widow who had only two mites could give. Our Lord himself, though he had nothing, could give. Peter and John could say, “Silver and gold have we none, but such as we have we give thee.” There are better things to give away than money; and it is in such things that we find the best blessedness of giving.R.T.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
Act 20:1-3 . . . .] is simply a statement of time , not, as Michaelis, Eichhorn, Bertholdt, and Hug hold, the motive of departure, for which there is no hint in the text (see on the contrary, Act 19:21 ), and against which the resultless character of the tumult testifies.
] here of the farewell salutation (combined with kissing and embracing), vale dicere , as Xen. Anab . vii. 1. 8, 40; Hell . iv. 1. 3; Cyrop . ii. 1. 1.
] the Macedonian Christians.
] i.e. , Act 19:21 . Luke alternates in his use of the appellations well known as synonymous, which, after Act 19:21 , could occasion no misunderstanding. This against Schrader, who understands . here of the districts lying between the Peloponnesus and Thessaly and Epirus, especially of Attica, and would have the journey to Corinth only inferred from Act 19:31 .
] certainly for the most part in Corinth. The anakoluthic nominative, as in Act 19:34 . That Luke, moreover, gives us no information of the foundation of the church at Corinth, and of the apostle’s labours there, is just one of the many points of incompleteness in his book.
.] namely, to Asia (Act 20:4 ), from which he had come. The genitive depends directly on , as in Act 14:9 , Act 27:20 . Comp. 1Co 9:5 .
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
B.SECOND PART (OF THE THIRD JOURNEY); SUMMARY REPORT OF THE JOURNEY THROUGH MACEDONIA AND GREECE, AND THENCE BACK TO MILETUS
Act 20:1-16
1And [But] after the uproar was [had] ceased, Paul called unto him the disciples1 , and embraced them [saluted them on parting], and departed for to go into [went out of the city () in order to travel to] Macedonia. 2And when he had gone over [through] those parts [regions], and had given them much exhortation [exhorted them with many words], he came into Greece, 3And there abode three months. And when [And after he had abode there three months, and] the Jews laid wait for him, as [when] he was about to sail into Syria, he purposed [resolved] to return through Macedonia. 4And there accompanied him into [as far as, ,] Asia Sopater [the son of Pyrrhus2 ], of Berea; and of the Thessalonians, Aristarchus and Secundus; and Gaius of Derbe, and Timotheus; and [but] of Asia, Tychicus and Trophimus. 5These going before [went before and] tarried for us at Troas. 6And [But] we sailed away from Philippi after the days of unleavened bread, and came unto them to Troas in five days [by the fifth day]; where we abode seven days. 7And [But] upon the first day of the week, when the disciples [when we3] came together to break bread, Paul preached unto [discoursed with] them, ready [intending] to depart on the morrow [following day]; and continued his speech [prolonged the discourse, ] until midnight. 8And [] there were many lights [lamps] in the upper chamber, where they [we4 ] were gathered together. 9And [But] there sat in a window a certain young man [a youth] named Eutychus, being fallen into a deep sleep: and as Paul was long preaching [long continued to speak], he sunk down with [was overcome by] sleep, and fell down from the third loft [story], and was taken [lifted] up dead. 10And [But] Paul went down, and fell on him, and embracing him said, Trouble not yourselves [Be not distressed]; for his life [soul, ] is in him. 11When he therefore was come up again [Then ( ) he went up], and had broken [broke the5] bread, and eaten [ate something], and talked a long while [talked much with them], even till break of day, so he [and thus () he] departed. 12And [But] they brought the young man [lad, ] alive, and were not a little comforted. 13And [But] we went before to ship [in advance to the () vessel], and sailed unto Assos, there [thence] intending to take in [up] Paul; for so had he appointed, minding [intending] himself to go afoot [by land]. 14And [But] when he met with us at Assos, we took him in [up], and came to Mitylene. 15And we sailed thence, and came the next day over against [opposite to] Chios; and the next day we arrived at [approached] Samos, and tarried at Trogyllium6 ; and the next day [on the following day] we came to Miletus. 16For Paul had determined [resolved]7 to sail by [past] Ephesus, because he would not spend the time [in order that it might not be necessary for him to delay] in Asia; for he hasted, if it were possible for him, to be at [come to] Jerusalem [by] the day of Pentecost.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Act 20:1. And after the uproar was ceased.The departure of the apostle was not, (as Hug, Ewald and others suppose), occasioned or hastened by the tumult which had occurred, as if he fled because his life was still endangered. On the contrary, the first words of this chapter specify only the time, but not the motive, of his departure; they simply inform us that he waited until quiet was restored, and then commenced the journey which he had previously (Act 19:21-22) resolved to make. [Notices of this journey may be found 2Co 2:12-13; 2Co 7:5-6. (Alf.).Tr.]
Act 20:2-3. And when he had gone over those parts. refers to the Christians in Macedonia, as the words and . show. is not to be understood of Greece, exclusive of Achaia, and particularly of the Peloponnesus (Bengel); it here denotes the whole of Greece, to which Luke elsewhere applies the official name of Achaia, but which he now designates by the older and the popular name of Hellas. The participle is anacoluthic [comp. , note 5 appended to text of Act 19:21-41.Tr.]; the very construction of the sentence exhibits the haste with which Luke, on this occasion, passes over the labors of the apostle in Europe. The insidious attempt of the Jews on the life of Paul was doubtless made at Corinth, from which point he had intended to proceed by water to Syria; it induced him to proceed thither by land. This route conducted him through Macedonia, but occupied so much more time than the other, that he was ultimately compelled to proceed with very great haste (Act 20:16), if he desired to reach Jerusalem at the appointed time.
Act 20:4-5. And there accompanied him.Luke now refers to the attendants of the apostle, of whom he names not less than seven, while he himself, according to Act 20:5 ff; Acts 13 ff., also belonged to the company. Three were natives of Macedonia, the other four, of Asia Minor. Sopater of Berea, who is otherwise unknown, is first named, as the apostle on his return passed through Berea, which lay further to the south, before he reached Thessalonica, to which city the two friends belonged, who are next mentioned. Of the latter, Secundus is not introduced elsewhere, whereas Aristarchus had already been in the company of the apostle at Ephesus, (Act 19:29), at a later period attended him during his voyage to Rome (Act 27:2), and also shared his imprisonment in that city (Col 4:10; Phm 1:24). As Gaius was of Derbe, he was a different person from the Macedonian Gaius mentioned in Act 19:29. The name of Timotheus occurs without any additional remark, as previous statements (Act 16:1, etc.), had already made him sufficiently known. Tychicus was also with Paul in Rome at a later period. (Col 4:7-8; Eph 6:21), and carried letters of the apostle to congregations in Asia Minor; comp. 2Ti 4:12; Tit 3:12. Trophimus, as we are specially informed in the next chapter (Act 21:29), was an Ephesian by birth. As a Gentile-Christian, he was the innocent cause of the tumult which occurred in Jerusalem, and of the arrest of the apostle. The words . . specify Asia proconsularis as the destination of the company, without, however, denying that any of the number, e. g., Aristarchus and Timotheus [Act 21:29; Act 27:2] remained with the apostle until he reached Jerusalem. All proceeded with the latter as far as Asia, but not further. The conjecture of Baumgarten that all the men accompanied Paul to Jerusalem, in order to be there presented not only to the believers, but also to all Israel as the seven representatives of the converted Gentile world, is not satisfactorily sustained by the considerations which have been advanced in its favor.
Act 20:6. a. And we sailed away.After the seven attendants had departed from Philippi, they were followed by Paul and Luke; for the latter again refers to himself in the word , Act 20:5. The distinction between , Act 20:5, (which also includes Timotheus, Act 20:4) and , Act 20:6, forbids us to assume [with several recent German authors.Tr.] that Timotheus was the writer of those passages in which the pronoun we occurs. Luke had remained at Philippi, during Pauls second missionary journey, Act 16:14 [see Exeg. note on Act 16:35-40. b. ult.Tr.]; he now rejoins the apostle in the same city, Act 20:6, on the return of the latter from his third missionary journey. At this point, accordingly, precise specifications of the time begin, as if a journal had been kept, in which the incidents of the journey were recorded.
b. After the days of unleavened bread, and of the Passover, Paul sailed with Luke from Philippi; the vessel did not, however, arrive at Troas, until the fifth day, whereas, according to Act 16:11-12, the voyage from Troas to Philippi, on that occasion, required scarcely three days.
Act 20:7-8. a. And upon the first day of the week.Luke here relates, Act 20:7-12, an event which occurred in Troasthe restoration to life of a youth, whose death had been occasioned by a fall, at the time when Paul was conducting religious services on the eve of his departure, namely, upon the first day of the week. According to the Hebraistic usus loquendi, peculiar both to the Gospels and the Acts [see Winer: Gram. 37. 1.Tr.], and also to the epistles of Paul (1Co 16:2), is used for . Now, the first day of the week was our Sunday; and we here observe the first trace of the observance of Sunday, which the history of the church exhibits. It cannot be denied, it is true, that this assembly of the Christians for the purpose of breaking bread, i.e., for partaking of the bread in connection with the holy religious servicesthe Lords Supper,and for hearing the word of God, might have accidentally occurred on the first day of the week, since Pauls departure was to take place on the following day (Meyer). But this interpretation, at the same time, fails to explain Lukes motive for mentioning this day in such express terms. His language plainly indicates that this day was precisely one that was kept holy and one on which assemblies for religious services were customarily held. With this view the circumstance most happily agrees, that the first mention of the observance of Sunday is made in connection with a Gentile-Christian congregation, since, according to the nature of the case, this custom was introduced at an earlier period and with more ease in Gentile-Christian, than in Judo-Christian congregations. [See Conyb. and H., Life, etc., of St. Paul. Ch. 20. Vol. II. 212.Tr.]
b. When they [we] were gathered together.[For , Act 20:8, instead of , see above, note 3, appended to the text, as well as for , Act 20:7, instead of . Tr.]. The historian indicates by , that he himself was present at this assembly; he appends, immediately afterwards, the words , as the discourse of the apostle was essentially a farewell sermon ( ), addressed to those from whom he was parting, and not to his travelling companions, among whom was the historian. This circumstance was overlooked by many persons, particularly by transcribers, who, consequently, supposed that they ought to write , instead of . The lamps were many in number, on account of the solemnity of the occasion (not torches (Luther), but hand-lamps.). [Lights, literally, lamps, but in a wider sense than that which we attach to it, including torches, candles, lanterns, etc., and therefore, both in etymology and usage, corresponding very nearly to the word used in the English version. (Alex.).Tr.]
Act 20:9. There sat in a window a certain young man.Eutychus was sitting on the window, i.e., on the ledge or bench of the opening, which, according to the ancient custom, was not furnished with glass, nor even, in this particular case, with a screen or with shutters; it was, literally, an open window. From this place, which was in the third story of the house, he fell down in his sleep. The construction with the four participles is the following: a young man sitting on the window, and falling into a deep sleep, while Paul long continued to speak, fell down, being overcome by sleep, etc. The article is prefixed when occurs the second time, as the latter had already been mentioned. simply means: he was dead when lifted up, i.e., not carried into the house, but found to be dead when the people attempted to raise him up. Neither this expression, nor the context in general, furnishes any reason for taking in the sense of (as de Wette, Olshausen and others do), as if the young man had been only apparently dead, or had fainted, etc.
Act 20:10-12. And Paul fell on him, etc.The procedure of the apostle, who laid himself on the dead body, resembled that of Elisha in the case of the deceased son of the Shunammite (2Ki 4:34), and that of Elijah in the case of the son of the widow of Zarephath [Sarepta, Luk 4:26] (1Ki 17:21); it was his object to reanimate the lifeless body through the medium of bodily contact and vital warmth. After this act had been performed, Paul said to those who surrounded him, that they should not be disquieted nor distressed (, in the middle voice, consternor, not merely: to cry aloud, as Luther and de Wette interpret the word, as this sense seems less suited to the context, than the other.). [Do not lament, which, according to the Oriental habit and the import of the word, they were doing with loud and passionate outcry; comp. Mat 9:23; Mar 5:39. (Hackett).Tr.]. His soul is in him, said Paul, not: is again in him, but as little: is yet in him. Paul could not say the latter, for the young man had been actually killed by the fall, and the former he would not say, as he did not desire to make an ostentatious display of himself and his miraculous power. Still, the whole statement is of such a nature as to show conclusively that the restoration of the deceased was effected by the miraculous operation of the apostle. Indeed, the words , Act 20:12, as contradistinguished from , Act 20:9, plainly exhibit the meaning which Luke intended to convey. The statement that, after this incident, Paul broke the bread and ate (that is, performed the act which he had originally in view, according to Act 20:11 compared with Act 20:7), that he resumed his discourse, and that he continued even till break of day, implies that the design and the continuance of the meeting had not been seriously affected by an occurrence, the consequences of which might have been very painful. , Act 20:11, cannot be otherwise understood than as in Act 20:7, although Grotius and Kuinoel allege that the expression refers in Act 20:7 to a religious meal, but in Act 20:11 merely to an early meal, of which the traveller partook when he departed. before , implies that Paul commenced his journey without having found any repose during that whole night.
Act 20:13-15. And sailed unto Assos.Luke furnishes in these verses a detailed account of the journey from Troas to Miletus. The companions of Paul at first sailed without him, and proceeded along the coast from Troas to Assos in Mysia, opposite to the northern angle of Lesbos, while Paul went by land to the same point, the distance being nine [German] miles [twenty English miles, or, according to Sir C. Fellows, thirty miles (Conyb. and H. Vol. II. 213, 214).Tr.]. Luke does not explain the motive of Paul for making this arrangement ( , middle voice), and the various conjectures of commentators are alike unsupported by known facts, e. g., a regard for his health (Calvin); caution, in view of hostile movements on the part of the Jews (Michaelis); official labors in the intermediate region (Meyer); the desire to be alone (Baumgarten; Ewald).From Assos, where the apostle embarked, the company proceeded in a southerly direction, so near to the coast, that they sailed between the islands of Lesbos (on the east side of which Mitylene was beautifully situated), Chios, Samos, and the western coast of Asia Minor. here may mean to touch at, rather than to pass over to, which the word undoubtedly also means.They sailed, however, from Samos to the opposite coast of Ionia, and landed at the promontory and city of Trogyllium, at the foot of mount Mycale; the distance from Samos was forty stadia. They had already passed Ephesus before they touched at Samos. Luke informs us in Act 20:16, of Pauls motive for not landing at Ephesus. He apprehended, that if he visited the city, he would be unavoidably detained there; on the other hand, the time admitted of no delay, if he wished to reach Jerusalem at or before the festival of Pentecost. Hence he did not land until he reached Miletus, which was situated about nine [German] miles to the south [about 30 miles (fifty, Alf.) distant from Ephesus.Tr.]; here he arrived on Saturday. [See Conyb. and H. Life, etc., of St. Paul, II. 220.Tr.].
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. The observance of Sunday is, according to scriptural history and doctrine, not legal, but evangelical, in its character. It is here mentioned in a very unpretending manner; it might even seem to be accidental that the religious services of the assembly at Troas occurred precisely on a Sunday. The apostolical sanctification of the Sunday was a custom, not a precept, and corresponded to the Spirit of Jesus, as well as to the character of the apostle Paul. The Augsburg Confession accordingly testifies that Sunday is an ordinance which shall be observed for the sake of peace and love, but that it is not absolutely necessary to salvation [Augs. Conf. art. XVIII.].
2. In the procedure of the Christians at Troas, religious services are combined in an intimate and holy manner with the requisitions of Christian social life. The apostle Paul takes leave of those brethren; but his farewell discourse is, at the same time, founded on the word of God, and, conversely, his instructions concerning divine things also assume the form of an easy and social conversation (, ). All had assembled for the purpose of breaking the bread; it was, on the one hand, a holy and sacramental Supper of the Lord, but also, on the other, a meal of brotherly fellowship. The Spirit, of Christ sanctifies the natural elements, and imparts to the bond which unites man to man, all its real strength, its lofty meaning, and its genuine and affectionate character. And the grace of God in Christ, the God-Man, is communicated to believers in visible signs and corporeal pledges. Thus the Human and the Divine, the Corporeal and the Spiritual, nature and grace, join hand to hand in Christianity.
3. The restoration of the young man to life was effected by means of the contact and embrace of the apostle. Paul placed his vital warmth in direct communication with the corpse which had scarcely become cold. The power to impart life to the dead, unquestionably did not depend on that personal contact; such an act can be performed solely by the almighty power of God. But when that power is exercised through the medium of a man filled with faith and the Spirit, it operates through corporeal and natural means. Such was usually the case with the miracles which Jesus wrought, or when the sick were healed by the imposition of hands, and here, too, when an individual was restored to life, whose death had been occasioned by a fall. But the unostentatious manner in which the apostle speaks of the act, is an evidence that, in a higher order of things, even the Supernatural becomes natural, and hence does not claim a striking or unusual character.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Act 20:1. And after the uproar was ceased, Paul embraced them.Paul does not flee like a hireling who seeth the wolf coming [Joh 10:12], but takes leave after the battle is fought and peace is restored. (Rieger).Even though the servants of God depart, they leave a blessing behind themnot only the blessing of the seed which they scattered, but also the blessing of their prayers, the blessing of their tears which God has seen, and the blessing of the promises which the Saviour has given them. It is truly a rich blessing which the servants of God bequeath. (Ap. Past.).
Act 20:2. And when he had gone over, etc.As a prudent householder is not only diligent in seeking large gains, but also careful in securing them, so, too, should the pastor not only seek to gain souls for Christ, but also diligently labor to retain them in His service. (Starke).Paul always exhibits the same characteristic features. In prisons, in tumults, among the disciples, in the world, in journeysin short, under all circumstances, he remained a servant of God, and never forgot, even when he walked in paths that were painful, to exhort, to comfort and to strengthen believers, wherever they could be found. How his example puts all those to shame, who lay aside their ecclesiastical character with the official robe, leaving it behind them at the church door, and who are least of all disposed to consecrate their journeys to the service of Jesus! (Ap. Past.).
Act 20:3. And when the Jews laid wait for him he purposed to return, etc.Paul well knew that he could not much longer escape the snares of his enemies; still, he did not wish to avoid them until the hour of the Lord had come, Joh 7:30. (Williger).He who said: Fear not them which kill the body, [Mat 10:28], also said: Beware of men [Mat 10:17]. (Rieger).
Act 20:4. And there accompanied him, etc.From what different points of view men behold the Christian! Some of them seek after his life; others, who love him, are willing to sacrifice their lives for him. (Rieger).Our faithful God beheld, as it seems, with special favor the fellowship of these believers with the sufferings of Paul, for He has caused the names of all those who accompanied the apostle in his exile, to be carefully recorded. He thus declares that the trial of their faith and love deserves to be perpetually remembered. (Ap. Past.).Six or seven devout persons, who are united together, are an army which Satan dreads, especially if a Paul is their leader. O Lord! Send thou such missionaries to the heathen! (Quesnel).
Act 20:6. After the days of unleavened bread.Paul paused in his labors during the holy Easter-week. Journeys, which admit of delay, should not be performed on festivals. (Lindheim).
Act 20:7. And upon the first day of the week came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them.There is a happy correspondence between the bread of the divine word and the Lords Supper. The former is intended to prepare men for the latterthe latter creates an increased hunger for the former. (Starke).And continued his speech until midnight.The remark made in Act 20:2, that Paul gave much exhortation, and the fact that he here prolonged his discourse till midnight, beautifully illustrate the fulness of grace and the ardor of spirit which distinguished him, even at the period when the end of his life was near at hand. Still, the example of Paul affords no excuse for sermons which are of immoderate length. Not every preacher is a Paul, whose word overflows with the Spirit, and whose heart overflows with grace. Neither is every sermon a farewell sermon, as in the present case, when Paul intended to depart on the next day. (Ap. Past.).
Act 20:8. And there were many lights in the upper chamber.The Gospel has consecrated all the hours of the day, and also those of the night, to its service. The evening hours, which devout assemblies of believers sanctify, are precisely those which exercise the greatest influence on the soul, as they so strikingly exhibit the Lords victory over all the powers of darkness. It is, at the same time, true, that the Adversary has already attempted, and not always without success, to introduce insidiously his own darkness into the evening assemblies of the children of light. (Williger).The circumstance that there were many lights in the upper chamber, shows that believers were, at that time, very careful to avoid giving offence. (Rieger).
Act 20:9. And there sat in a window a certain young man.If this sleep at midnight exposed the young man to such danger, how can those be excused who sleep during the sermon in the day-time? And if bodily sleep exposes to danger, what is the situation of him whose soul is asleep in spiritual security? (Starke).And how can those be excused, who never sleep in church, because they never enter it, but who, yielding to the deep sleep of security, do not indeed fall down from the third loft, but fall from God and heaven, into the abyss of sin and hell, and are entirely dead? (Gossner).An accident which occurs during the performance of a lawful and holy act, is no evidence of divine displeasure. (Starke).
Act 20:10. And Paul went down, and fell on him.The act of extending the body over a corpse was performed, it is true, by Elijah and Elisha, but never by our blessed Saviour, and least of all by Peter, when he restored Tabitha to life [Act 9:36 ff.]. There is a certain propriety which should characterize every act (Rieger).Trouble not yourselves.Loud demonstrations should always be avoided, when tokens of the presence of God are observed; this principle specially applies to cases in which a death occurs. We should, at such times, direct the attention of those who are present to the invisible world and to the ministry of the angels, as far as the Scriptures enable us to form conjectures on such subjects. (Rieger).
Act 20:11. When he was come up again, and had broken bread.No other interruption occurreda beautiful illustration of the calm and thoughtful spirit which pervaded the assembly. (Williger).
Act 20:12. They brought the young man alive, and were not a little comforted.God can speak to us through the dead, as well as through those who live. (Starke).The apostle restored him to the disciples alive, as a precious farewell gift. (Besser).
Act 20:13. Minding himself to go afoot.Without doubt Paul journeyed by land, and withdrew from the society of his beloved brethren, for the purpose of seeking a close and perfect communion with God. This witness, who was rapidly approaching the scene of his sufferings, probably felt the necessity more deeply than ever, of approaching the very presence of God by prayer, and of consecrating himself as a willing sacrifice to the holy and righteous will of God. Like Jesus, who withdrew even from his chosen disciples in Gethsemane, we separate, at such times, from all our brethren, in order to be alone with God. (Ap. Past.).
Act 20:16. For he hasted, etc.A teacher must have the same mind which was in his Lord and Master. Even as He voluntarily went forward and encountered sufferings and death, so Paul here hastens to be at Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost, although he knew that bonds and afflictions awaited him there, Act 20:23. (Starke).
ON THE WHOLE SECTION, Act 20:1-16.
Act 20:1.The Lord bless you! We pray, I. That God may watch over your bodies and souls; II. That he may grant you grace, by the remission of sins, and adoption as his children; III. That he may give you peacein the church and the state, in every family and every heart. (Lisco).
Act 20:1-6. When they persecute you in one city, flee ye into another [Mat 10:28]: I. Pauls manner of following this counsel; II. The lessons which we thence learn, (id.).Trials and persecutions, viewed as blessings to the servants of God: I. They are more perfectly fitted by these for performing their work; II. They are more closely united to one another in love. (id.).
Act 20:7-17. The communion of saints in love: I. Manifested, by the feast of love and by the word which is willingly preached, and willingly heard; II. Tried by an alarming event, which, by the help of God, terminated in holy joy; III. Abounding in fruitsin united action, and patient endurance of common sufferings. (From Lisco).Preaching, and the Lords Supper (Act 20:7): I. Their nature; II. The relation in which they stand to each other; III. The blessings which they diffuse. (From Lisco).Pauls last missionary labors, or, I must work while it is day, before the night cometh, wherein no man can work. [Joh 9:4]. The evening of the apostles day is approaching; the end of his pilgrimage is at hand. But he unweariedly continues his labors: I. Blessing the brethren in love, Act 20:1; II. Enduring persecution in humility, Act 20:3; III. Preaching the Gospel in power, Act 20:7; IV. Working miracles in faith, Act 20:9-12; V. Pressing toward the mark [Php 3:14] in steadfast obedience.The memorable evening service at Troas: I. An admonitory example of Christian zeal for the word of God; neither is the apostle weary of preaching, nor the congregation of listening, even until midnight, Act 20:7. II. A warning example of human weakness and sloth; the sleep and fall of Eutychus, Act 20:9. Watch and pray, etc. [Mat 26:41]. III. A consolatory example of divine grace and faithfulness; the restoration of the young man, and the comfort of the disciples, Act 20:10-12. He that is our God, etc. [Psa 68:20].Trouble not yourselves!an affectionate admonition, addressed to every house of mourning, (Act 20:10): I. Profane not the silent chamber of death, (a) by wild complaints against God; (b) by utter despair; (c) by an ostentatious funeral; (d) by unbrotherly contentions respecting the inheritance. II. Humbly submit to the Lord; (a) yield to his will with a patient spirit; (b) gratefully accept the consolations of his word; (c) confide with childlike faith in his gracious presence; (d) perform the offices of love with tenderness.Paul alone, on the road to Assos, or, The value of the hours of solitude which a diligent servant of God finds; Act 20:13-14. They are devoted, I. To self-examination; II. To holy communion with the Lord;. III. To happy repose, amid the tumult of the world; IV. To careful preparation for new conflicts.[Act 20:9; Pro 27:1. On sudden deaths: I. The causes: (a) immediate, b) remote; II. Divine purpose in permitting them: (a) partially hidden; (b) partially revealed; III. Effect which they produce: (a) often a deep and permanent impression; (b) often speedily forgotten; IV. Lessons which they teach: (a) respecting mans true condition on earth; (b) respecting his duties to his own soul.Tr.]
Footnotes:
[1]Act 20:1. Lachmann inserts the words after , in accordance with some manuscripts [viz., A. B. D. E.]; this reading, [omitted in text. rec. and by G. H.], like some others which are connected with it, seems to be spurious, and is cancelled by Tischendorf. [Alford, like Lach., inserts the two words with a comma after them. They are found also in Cod. Sin. Meyer supposes that they were a marginal gloss on . borrowed from Act 20:2, since no plausible reason can be assigned for the omission, if they are genuine; de Wette concurs with him.Tr.]
[2]Act 20:4. II, after . is omitted in text. rec., but is sustained by four uncial manuscripts [A. B. D. E., and also by Cod. Sin.], by thirty minuscules, and by several ancient versions; it is omitted only in the two latest uncial manuscripts [G. H., also Syr. The printed text of the Vulg. omits the name, but Pyri occurs in Cod. Amiatinus; the Sixtine edition exhibited Sosipater.Tr.]. The name was perhaps dropped on account of the similarity of sound, as it resembles B [II-, B] which immediately follows. Lach. and Tisch. [also Alf. and later editors generally] have with great propriety, inserted this name.
[3]Act 20:7. The text. rec., which is followed by Griesbach and Scholz, exhibits [after , instead of ], in accordance with G. H.; but this reading is undoubtedly a later alteration [by copyists], in order to suit . [See below, Exeg. note on Act 20:7-8. b.Tr.]. The manuscripts A. B. D. E. [also Cod. Sin.], twenty minuscules, and most of the versions [Vulg.], read .Further, in Act 20:8, only a few minuscules exhibit [with text. rec., before (, instead of which all the uncial manuscripts [A. B. D. E. G. H. also Cod. Sin., many minuscules, Vulg. etc.] sustain [Recent editors generally, depart here from the text. rec. before . (Act 20:7), of text. rec. from D., is omitted by recent editors in accordance with A. B. E. G. H. Cod. Sin.Tr.]
[4]Act 20:8. [See the foregoing note for .Tr.]
[5]Act 20:11. before [omitted in text. rec.], is found in A. B. C. D (original), but is omitted in D (corrected). E. G. H. It was inconsiderately dropped [by copyists] to suit [without the article] in Act 20:7. [Inserted by Lach., Tisch., Born., and Alf. is found in Cod. Sin. (original), but Tisch. remarks concerning a later hand: C improbavit.Tr.]
[6]Act 20:15. Lachmann cancels the words T. [and inserts before ., all in accordance with A. B. C. E. and Cod. Sin., some minuscules, and Vulg.]. He then continues: . But those words are found in D. G. H., and most of the minuscules, several versions, and fathers. They were probably omitted [by copyists] only because the context was not understood, which seemed [at first sight (Alf.)] to imply that Trogyllium was in Samos, whereas it was well known that this town was situated elsewhere [namely, on the Ionian coast. Meyer regards the clause as genuine, since nothing could have suggested the insertion of it at a later period.Tr.]
[7]Act 20:16. The text. rec. [followed by Scholz] has ; but this reading is found only in the two latest uncial manuscripts [G. H.], and some fathers. K, however, is far more strongly attested [viz., by A. B. C (orig.). D. E. Cod. Sin. Vulg.], was recommended by Griesbach, and has been adopted by Lach. and Tisch., [also by Born. and Alf. As an ecclesiastical portion or reading lesson began at Act 20:16, the pluperfect was altered into the independent historic aorist. (Meyer; de Wette; Alf.).Tr.]
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
CONTENTS
Paul goeth to Macedonia. He preacheth at Troas, and celebrates the Lord’s Supper. A Youth falls front – a Window while Paul was long preaching, and is taken up as dead. Paul restores him to Life. He gives a Charge to the Elders at Miletus, and enters into a Ship.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
And after the uproar was ceased, Paul called unto him the disciples, and embraced them, and departed for to go into Macedonia. (2) And when he had gone over those parts, and had given them much exhortation, he came into Greece, (3) And there abode three months. And when the Jews laid wait for him, as he was about to sail into Syria, he purposed to return through Macedonia. (4) And there accompanied him into Asia Sopater of Berea; and of the Thessalonians, Aristarchus and Secundus; and Gaius of Derbe, and Timothy; and of Asia, Tychicus and Trophimus. (5) These going before tarried for us at Troas. (6) And we sailed away from Philippi after the days of unleavened bread, and came unto them to Troas in five days; where we abode seven days.
It appears from the preceding Chapter; that Paul had determined upon a visit to Macedon (Act 19:21-22 ). Probably however, this uproar prompted him the rather to hasten his departure. However he went not away before that he had called together the people to take an affectionate farewell of them. And it should seem that this was always the Apostle’s custom. For wherever he went, it was as with his life in his hand. And when at any time he took leave of the brethren, he knew not whether he should ever see them again. It is very interesting the parting interview of a faithful minister and a beloved congregation. How truly lovely is that of Moses, which is called the blessing wherewith Moses, the man of God, blessed the children of Israel before his death, Deu 33 . Such Joshua also, Jos 23 and Jos 24 . And, in short, all the servants of Jesus. But, Reader! what a farewell was that of Jesus himself? Joh 13 and Joh 14:1-31 etc.
The exercise of Paul’s ministry through this circuit, we are told, was with much exhortation. And , if we may form a judgment from the specimen given in the close of this Chapter, when addressing the Elders at Miletus; what a lovely part of the Apostle’s labors must this have been? They who have been curious to trace the journeys of the Apostle, have formed to view no small tract of land, the Apostle went over during this circuit. But, I can only refer the Reader to the Scriptural statement of it; together with the same account of his companions. See 2Co 9:1-52Co 9:1-5 ; Rom 16:21 ; 1Co 16:3-4
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
The Sunday Sleeper
Act 20:9
In considering Eutychus, I purpose looking first at the things which may be said in excuse of his famous sleep, and then pass on to look at what was blameworthy in it.
I. And first of all, in excuse of this poor young man, I must remark (1) that he was listening to a very long sermon. It is said that on one occasion a child in the Sunday-school was asked by her teacher, ‘What does the story of Eutychus teach?’ and she promptly replied, ‘That ministers should not preach too long sermons!’ Well, that was an unexpected lesson to learn from the Bible; but there can be no doubt that it had something to do with Eutychus’s famous sleep on this occasion, for we are expressly told that Paul ‘continued his speech until midnight’. No doubt he had a good excuse for so doing. He was only spending one Lord’s day at Troas. That city, you remember, was famous as the scene of his wonderful vision of ‘the man of Macedonia’. Paul therefore had a peculiar affection for the city; and now that a Church of Christ was established there, we can well fancy him expatiating on his wonderful mission to Corinth, and Philippi, and Thessalonica. He could not stop, and if he suggested doing so, most of them would cry as we do to a favourite politician, ‘Don’t stop. Go on!’ But it was too much for our young man. He fell asleep with fatal results. The sermon was too long. ‘Paul continued his speech until midnight.’
Now the lesson we learn from that is one rather for preachers than hearers, but even so I am not afraid to give it. It is this, that no preacher should continue his discourse much beyond half an hour.
(2) Another thing that must be said in excuse of this young man’s delinquency was the probably illventilated character of the building. Luke puts his finger on that too when he says, ‘There were many lights burning in the upper chamber.’ They had not the grand churches of these days. It was still the Christianity of the upper room. But they had warm, loving hearts. They were eager to hear the Gospel, and so the place was full to the door. Every seat was occupied. The air, we may imagine, would be stifling; and its character would not be improved when, as the twilight deepened into night, they would light the lamps one by one, and the already limited oxygen would be still more exhausted. ‘There were many lights burning in the upper chamber.’
I am not going to dwell on this, but I do think it is a Christian duty for deacons and managers of churches and halls to do what they can to keep the air as sweet and fresh as possible. Much of the torpor with which men listen to the message of God, much of the listlessness of children in a Sunday-school may be traced to the lack of ventilation. It is not always a want of grace. It may be simply a want of oxygen. ‘There were many lights burning in the upper chamber.’
II. So much in extenuation of this young man; but when we have said that, there remains not a little cause for blame. (1) For, to begin with, note the fact that this sleeper under the Gospel was a young man. If he had been an old man or old woman we could have understood it better, and excused it more easily; but surely it is not a little strange that the one who falls asleep in that company is a young fellow in the flush of youth.
(2) He was listening to a very good preacher. He was listening to the Apostle Paul.
How little Eutychus must have realised that he was listening that night to one of the noblest spirits then in the world, that he whom he was sleeping under was one whose words would be treasured up to the end of time, whose life would never be forgotten! Had he done so, he would have been more wakeful. Had the emperor Nero been speaking that night, we may be sure Eutychus would have been all attention; but because it was only Paul, he slept on. And behind that preacher to whom you listen with such dull ears there may be Christ Himself, saying, ‘O sleeper, why sleepest thou? “Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.”‘
III. The danger and loss which the Sunday sleeper may incur.
Am I exaggerating when I say that the attitude of many to things spiritual, to all the higher questions of the soul, is one of practical sleep? They may not deny them, but they are quite indifferent to them. Their lives are passed in sin and self-indulgence. They do not walk as children of light. They are asleep, as the children of the night. The preacher tries to waken them, but they sleep on. Providences come to them bereavement, sickness, impending death but they sleep on. What can waken them? It would seem, nothing. They are sunk in fatal lethargy.
A distinguished professor of psychology once told his class of a striking case of somnambulism. It was that of a man who awoke one night, or seemed to awake, and went downstairs to the door of the house in which he dwelt, and yet he was asleep all the time. He opened the door and stepped out into the village street, and so strong was the somnambulistic trance that still he slept He passed along the street and out into the open country, and still he slept. Not till his naked feet touched a little stream that crossed his path did he awaken to the darkness of the night and the strange unfamiliar scene. There are souls like that! They never waken till they touch the cold waters of death, and feel the night winds of mortality arouse them to the darkness of their night and the strange unfamiliar scenes of eternity and judgment.
W. Mackintosh Mackay, Bible Types of Modern Men, p. 254.
References. XX. 9-12. J. Owen, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lvii. p. 395. XX. 15. Expositor (7th Series), vol. v. p. 275. XX. 16. Ibid. (4th Series), vol. viii. p. 323.
St. Paul’s Charge
Act 20:17
I wish to speak to you on the happenings recorded in Act 20 , which mainly deal with St. Paul’s charge to the Church at Ephesus.
I. St. Paul had a clear Conscience. He had faithfully discharged his duty (verses 19 and 31). True humility can always be connected with intense earnestness. Are we humble of mind? If so, are we earnest in spirit? Surely the faith that we profess should intensify our earnestness. This earnest man of God was undoubtedly used because of his earnestness, and I appeal to you as well as to myself, living in an ungodly world and living in an age when indifference marks everything surely there is the call to us to be whole-hearted in the spirit of serving the Lord. If the intellectual Apostle could speak with tears, if he could say to the Ephesian elders, ‘Night and day I was serving with tears,’ well may we ask ourselves how far are we actuated by an earnestness of faith in the life we now live? God’s spirit alone can give us this earnestness; and again let us remember that if He gave it to the Apostle, He will give it to us. We may not have the intellectual qualifications that Christ gave to this great man, but we can all be in earnest, and our words and our deeds, and our looks and our lives as a whole should testify to the reality of our faith in the Saviour Whom we profess to serve.
II. The Apostle emphasises the Fundamental Principle of His Faith.
(a) To those Ephesian elders he said, ‘Testifying to the Jews as well as to the Greeks repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ’. The liturgy of the English Church, at the opening of morning and evening prayer, requires, before anything else, repentance and faith. Surely we should ask ourselves, Am I more repentant today than I was yesterday? Repentance is truth because it is taught by God. Are we able to say of sin, ‘I renounce sin, I turn from it; I have faith in Christ, and I cling to Him’? If these two great subjects are never lost sight of they must necessarily help us a great deal in our Christian life and in being what we want to be, living witnesses of a living Saviour.
(b) The Gospel of the grace of God. Here again is a fundamental truth. We know the subject was always upon the Apostle’s mind; yet it is one of the points which even Christian people lose sight of.
(c) The coming kingdom. In verse 25 he says: ‘I have gone preaching the kingdom of God’. Here, then, is another point which is interesting in view of the future grandeur of the coming of our King. In his letters St. Paul referred to the second advent of our Lord. Christ is coming, and His kingdom is to be set up here on earth; so let us, as Christian workers, never forget that kingdom and preach and proclaim it privately and publicly.
III. The Apostle utters Words of Solemn Warning. ‘Take heed’ (verse 28). The exhortation there is very interesting. It was used by Moses again and again, which will be noticed if you turn to Deu 4 . It was also used by our Lord several times. See now He used it in connection with the parable of the sower. We may even apply it to this very service, and, as far as that goes, to every service we attend. ‘Take heed.’ Are not these messages necessary today?
(a) Take heed what ye hear. Bring every book and every periodical that you may read to the test of Christianity, and if it will not bear the test of God’s Holy Word banish it from your reading, have nothing to do with it Do not let the novel of the day absorb your attention except that novel will bear the scrutiny of the Word of God. We cannot take poison in our food without impairing our health and our bodies; we cannot poison our minds without seriously endangering the spiritual life.
(b) Take heed how ye hear. When we pray together and listen to the Word of the Scriptures, may we take heed that we hear the Word, and that it is not caught away by the enemies of the soul; that the tares of this life do not choke the Word; that when we receive the Word it will not fall on stony ground, but that we may receive it with joy.
(c) Watch and pray (verse 31). What does this imply? It implies confidence in the Lord Jesus Christ. You cannot watch unless you have confidence in Him. And watching and praying means more than this. It implies certainty certainty in the Lord Jesus Christ.
References. XX. 17. Expositor (6th Series), vol. ii. p. 378. XX. 18. Ibid. vol. xi. p. 65. XX. 19. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. vii. No. 365. Expositor (4th Series), vol. ii. p. 148. XX. 19, 20. W. H. Hutchings, Sermon-Sketches (2nd Series), p. 63. XX. 20-29. Expositor (4th Series), vol. iii. p. 422. XX. 20-59. Ibid. vol. ii. p. 28 XX. 21. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxv. No. 2073.
Measuring a Ministry
Act 20:24
To be a minister is the master-purpose of Paul’s life; to be a faithful minister his supreme ambition. We, too, have a ministry; we, too, call others our ministers: then let us examine our ideals, and see what it is we mean.
I. Now, behind this Christian conception of ministry, there are two other conceptions, those of the priest and the prophet (1) We may dislike the word priest, because it has become associated with evil meanings, but do not let us forget that the priestly man has always been a fact in human life. There is a sweetness of disposition about them, a delicacy of fibre, a moral sensitiveness, a spiritual susceptibility, which marks them out amid a multitude as the anointed of the Lord. (2) Again, there is the conception of the minister as the prophetic man. The priest moves in the world; the prophet stands aloof from it. The priest is the reconciler between God and man; the prophet has no element of reconciliation in his nature. The priest allures, constrains, charms; the prophet terrifies, alarms, overwhelms us. It was because the prophet and the priest were joined in Paul’s ideal of ministry, because he conceived that to serve the world in the fullest sense, it was necessary not only to comfort the weary, but to attack with unsparing purpose the shams, the pretensions, the deadly hypocrisies of daily, customary, permitted and respectable life, but men rejected his ideal and slew him.
II. And now go one step farther, and you reach the vision of the ideal ministry which Paul exemplifies. He is a servant and a witness. (1) And what is a servant? We have advanced a long way, no doubt, since the day when the servant was a serf, whose very life was in the hand of his master; but far as we may advance in brotherhood and compassion, the essential restrictions of service still remain. (2) The ministry meant for Paul one other thing, and the chief of all it was a testimony. He was a witness to two things: that once he was a sinner, that now he was a sinner saved. And that is the crowning element in the Christian ministry. We base everything upon the experience of the individual.
III. From this whole conception of the ministry is not another thing clear: that he who lives in closest touch with his fellow-men is the truest minister of Christ? We want two things today; the secularisation of the ministry, and the socialisation of the churches. The minister must throw off his professionalism or parish; and the church must throw off her ideals of respectability.
IV. Now let us mark Paul’s final estimate of his lifework. Life is to be measured by its end, its spirit, its achievement; and life for Paul has had so supreme an aim that to attain that aim death itself is a price worth paying.
W. J. Dawson, The Comrade Christ, p. 297.
References. XX. 24. T. F. Crosse, Sermons (2nd Series), p. 234. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxix. No. 1734. A. G. Brown, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lxxviii. p. 402. J. G. Greenhough, The Mind of Christ in St. Paul, p. 268. Expositor (5th Series), vol. v. p. 33. XX. 25. Ibid. (4th Series), vol. ix. p. 3. XX. 26. A. G. Mortimer, The Church’s Lessons for the Christian Year, pt. iii. p. 139. XX. 26, 27. C. G. Finney, Penny Pulpit, No. 1685, p. 519. W. P. Balfern, Lessons from Jesus, p. 303. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. vi. No. 289.
The Sacrifice of God the Father
Act 20:28
Let us consider the sacrifice of God the Father in the redemption of the Church of God. I discern three elements in it which we shall take in order.
I. The first element in the sacrifice of God the Father was the impoverishment of the Godhead. One of the strange and repeated statements of Scripture is that the Lamb was slain from before the foundation of the world. That statement is clear enough in its meaning, but it shades off into dark and inscrutable mysteries. The mysteries are those involved with the creation of a world which should require the slaying of the Lamb. But the plain meaning is that the purpose of redemption lay as a burden and a sorrow and a sacrifice on the heart of God long before the morning stars sang together or the sons of God shouted for joy. But the hour came when the purpose which had lain as a burden on the heart of God was manifested in time. As Milton sings so choiringly in his noble hymn:
The Shepherds on the lawn,
Or ere the point of dawn,
Sat simply chatting in a rustic row,
When such music sweet
Their hearts and ears did greet
As never was by mortal fingers struck.
For Christ was born in Bethlehem. But was there no minor strain in the music in the heart of God the Father? What did it mean to the Godhead to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost when the Son passed out and left the Father and Spirit behind? It meant the impoverishment of the Godhead. The sacrifice of the Incarnation was not only the pain and loss of Christ, but the pain and loss of God the Father also. ‘Behold I show you a mystery.’ And yet we can dimly realise the impoverishment of the Godhead when the Son emptied Himself of His glory and left the throne. The relationship and the intimacy of God the Father and God the Son can never be fully figured by earthly things. For it was not simply as the loss of the dearest child or of a beloved wife. It was the sending forth of a part of Himself, whereby the Godhead was impoverished. Therefore Paul in the rapture of his inspiration said, ‘The church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood’.
II. The second element in the sacrifice of God the Father lay in His infinite sympathy with the sufferings of Christ. There is a sympathy which may be intense, heartbreaking, reaching to torture. Given a strong imagination which can discern another’s pain, and a tender and unselfish heart to feel it, the suffering of sympathy may be as poignant and as hard to bear as the actual stroke. John Howard seldom entered one of the dismal dungeons of Europe without tears. He often stood among prisoners, whose state was one of abject wretchedness, the most miserable man of them all. Macaulay tells us that his father when Governor of Sierra Leone could not see a company of female slaves pass him by, and realise, with his vivid sympathy, the lives of shame and torture to which they were doomed, without being dazed and stunned for hours. The biographer of Mrs. Booth asserts that she could not see a neglected sore or witness a ruthless wrong without a pain which sometimes became physical nausea. It may be questioned if the pang of sympathy be not greater at times than the actual suffering itself.
III. The third element in the sacrifice of God the Father is His share in the agony of the Cross.
There are two truths which stream from this rich vein of doctrine. (1) The first is the simplest yet deepest truth of the Gospel. It is this the proof given of the almost incredible and quite inexhaustible love of God.
(2) The second truth is God’s infinite pain at sin.
W. M. Clow, The Gross in Christian Experience, p. 14.
References. XX. 28. H. Woodcock, Sermon Outlines (1st Series), p. 51. Bishop Welldon, The Gospel in a Great City, p. 220. Expositor (4th Series), vol. v. p. 184; ibid. (6th Series), vol. iii. p. 277; ibid. vol. x. p. 280. XX. 28-32. J. Parker, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlvii. p. 391. XX. 29. Expositor (6th Series), vol. vii. p. 287; ibid. vol. ix. p. 221. XX. 30. Expositor (4th Series), vol. vi. p. 194. XX. 31. J. Thew, Christian World Pulpit, vol. 1. p. 246. XX. 32. Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlviii. p. 30. O. J. Jones, Christian World Pulpit, vol. 1. p. 238. Expositor (4th Series), vol. vi. p. 67. XX. 34. Ibid. (6th Series), vol. ii. p. 259. XX. 35. J. Stalker, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lviii. p. 282. H. R. Heywood, Sermons and Addresses, p. 202. F. D. Maurice, The Acts of the Apostles, p. 314. J. Keble, Miscellaneous Sermons, p. 298. H. Alford, Quebec Chapel Sermons, vol. ii. p. 1. Expositor (4th Series), vol. iii. pp. 352, 421; ibid. vol. ix. p. 101; ibid. (5th Series), vol. ii. p. 375; ibid. vol. vi. p. 267; ibid. (6th Series), vol. xi. p. 45. XX. 37. W. P. Balfern, Lessons from Jesus, p. 149. XX. 38. Dinsdale T. Young, The Gospel of the Left Hand, p. 237. XXI. XXIII. Expositor (5th Series), vol. ii. p. 152. XXI. 5. Ibid. (6th Series), vol. ix. p. 21. XXI. 7, 8. A. P. Stanley, Canterbury Sermons, p. 134. XXI. 8, 9. R. W. Hiley, A Year’s Sermons, vol. iii. p. 275.
Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson
Chapter 74
Prayer
Almighty God, thy house is full of light. There is morning in the tabernacles of the Most High cloudless morning dewy morning. Here our souls listen to music from above, and here our hearts are quieted with a holy peace. There is no house like thine; it is the soul’s great home; there is enough to feed us in our hunger and to quench our hearts’ burning thirst. Here we have all things. We have all things here in Christ. This is the place of unveiling, so that we see almost the Invisible. Our souls are touched with high amazement as they look out into the shining beyond. We see across the river. We behold pinnacles glittering in the light of a higher sun. In the wind we catch tones of other voices, known, yet unknown, the old voices with new power, the old friends risen into nobler stature. We see heaven opened; we see the connecting ladder; we see the descending and climbing angels, and we know of a truth that thy creation is large yea, to our imagining, infinite. The heaven, and the heaven of heavens, cannot contain thee; but thou wilt rest in the broken heart. Thou dost affright us sometimes, but only to comfort us with tenderer consolations. When thy judgments are abroad, men look towards the heavens who never looked in that direction in the time of bountiful harvest and quiet winds. When thou dost shake the rod of thy lightning over the heads of the people, they are quiet, they are dumb. Thou dost now and again show us our littleness and our helplessness; thou dost drive us before the furious storm, and we cry for rest. We bless thee for such chastening; it brings us to our knees; it lays us low in the lowest dust, and makes us hope for a protection we have so often disbelieved. Then thou dost comfort us in Christ thy Son with tender mercy, thou dost draw us near to thy heart. Thy love is the greater because of the tempest; the sky is bluer because of the infinite gloom which made it frown. Thou dost lift us up, gather us to thyself, fold us within the almightiness of thy love, and then send us forth again to do our work in Christ our Saviour, with renewed power, and with rekindled love. We bless thee that the storm has left us alive. But a handful of hours ago, and there was no spirit in us; but thy sanctuary was at hand; we saw its gates ajar; we yearned for their full opening that we might enter in and feel the sweet security of home. Thou wast a sanctuary in the tempest and a pavilion in the wilderness of desolation. Thou canst find honey among the rocks, and thou knowest where the wine and the oil and the milk abound, when in our hearts there is no hope. We will love thee more, thou Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. We will always come to thee by the only way. We will not fret ourselves into vexation, and sting ourselves with cruel disappointment by seeking to climb the heavens by a way of our own. We will come to the cross; we will follow the path made red by blood; we will look up through the wounded Son of God and find the reconciled Father. Thus will we come, and as we come the way widens, the road brightens, the whole pathway is crowded with joyous companionships, and great and abundant is the entrance which thou dost grant to those who come by the appointed way. Our sins, which are many, thou canst with a word forgive; our disease, which is vital, thou canst with a smile heal for ever more; our helplessness, which is complete, thou canst turn into enduring strength by the blessing of thy right hand. Thou knowest us wholly. Blessed be God, thine eye searches into all things. Thou knowest our frame, thou rememberest that we are dust; thou art pitiful to us; thou dost apportion the burden according to the strength. Make our houses glad with new lights every day. Surprise us by new brightnesses of the old sun. Show us some new writing amid the flowers with which we are most familiar; and as for the odours which we love, send amongst them the fragrance of the better land. Rock the cradle, and the little one will sleep well. Make our bed, and we shall forget our affliction in slumber. Fasten our door, and we shall be left without anxiety. Spread our table. Find for us a staff. Comfort us in the dreary time, and bring us, life’s journey through, pilgrims glad to be at home, welcomed by old comrades and by angels now unknown. Then may our education begin in the higher light, and in the wider spaces. May our worship be then profounder, truer, tenderer; and remembering the little earth and its temporary tents, its transient joys and symbolic pleasures, may we thank God for all the little happinesses of the road, and find them in their infinite fruition in the heavens of thy light and peace. We say our prayer upon our knees; we put out our hands and clasp the sacred Cross; we know that we have not a moment to wait, for whilst we are yet speaking thine answer is in our hearts. Amen.
Act 20:1-6
1. And after the uproar had ceased, Paul having sent for the disciples and exhorted them, took leave of them, and departed [according to his previous determination Act 19:21 ] for to go into Macedonia.
2. And when he had gone through those parts, and had given them much exhortation, he came into Greece [Act 19:21 , “Achaia,” i.e., Corinth.
3. And when he had spent three months there, and a plot was laid against him by the Jews, as he was about to set sail for Syria [see Act 19:21 ], he determined to return [to Asia] through Macedonia.
4. And there accompanied him as far as Asia Sopater [perhaps the Sosipater of Rom 16:21 ] of Berea, the son of Pyrrhus; and of the Thessalonians, Aristarchus, and Secundus; and Gaius of Derbe, and Timothy; and of Asia, Tychicus [see Eph 6:21 ; Col 4:7 ; 2Ti 4:12 ; Tit 3:12 ], and Trophimus [ Act 21:29 ; 2Ti 4:20 ].
5. But these had gone before, and were waiting for us at Troas.
6. And we sailed away from Philippi [Act 16:40 , Luke was left behind here] after the days of unleavened bread, and came unto them to Troas in five days; where we tarried seven days.
Reading Between the Lines
There does not seem to be much in this section of the Apostolic history. It is one of the sections which any lecturer would gladly omit with a view of finding something more exciting and pathetic in richer pastures. We must not, however, judge by appearances. Paul is still here, and wherever Paul is there is much of thought and action. The personality is the guarantee. Wherever you find the great man you find the great worker. Even amongst this commonplace there seems to be something unusual. Paul does nothing like any other man. Look at the variety of personal movement: Paul “embraces” the disciples a word which hides in it the pathos of a farewell salutation. It was not a mere good-bye; there was in it no hint of meeting again on the morrow. Whatever might happen in the way of reunion would happen as a surprise, and would not come up as the fulfilment of a pledge. Paul will often now say “Farewell.” He is not quite the man he was when we first made his acquaintance. Sometimes he straightens himself up into the old dignity and force, and we say, “Surely he will last many a long year yet”; but in this narrative he crouches a good deal; he sits down more than has been his wont; he is tortured with a dumb discontent. I see age creeping upon his face, and taking out of his figure and mien the youth which we once recognized.
Having “embraced” the disciples, he “departed to go into Macedonia.” We like to go back to old places. We cannot account for this longing just to see old battlefields, the marks of old footprints. We like to see that the old flag is still flying yea, we, strange as it may appear, like to steal away to the green grave to see if it is still there. Paul will go back to Thessalonica, to Berea the city of readers to Philippi, where he was lacerated and thrust into the innermost prison. Who can tell what happened in those repeated visits? At first, when we go to a place, there is nothing to speak about but that which is common to all other places; but having worked there, having made our signature there, when we return we talk over old themes as if we were discoursing upon ancient history, and we quote old sayings and ask for old friends with a tender familiarity, with a questioning that has a doubtful tone in it, lest we may be treading upon sacred ground, and lest we may be asking for the living who have been long numbered with the dead. Before asking such questions we look as if we would read the answer before we put the inquiry. We listen, if haply we may hear some word that will guide us as to the manner of our interrogation, lest by one inquiry we should rip up old wounds and tear open the deepest graves of the heart. These are the things that make life sacred and precious; these are the influences that quiet us with religious dignity, and that make life no longer a little fussy game, but a sad, pathetic, yet noble, mystery.
When Paul had gone over the old parts “he came into Greece, and there abode three months.” Some say that perhaps he did look into Athens a second time. It is not a matter of certain history, but, being in Greece, it is just possible that the Apostle looked in upon Athens once more. It was the city in which he had met with the most stubborn indifference that had ever hindered his mission. Certainly he went to Corinth, but Corinth was changed. The decree which made many exiles had been annulled, and Aquila and Priscilla, the tent-makers, the old companions, the teachers of Apollos, were no longer there. The friends are the town; the firesides are the city; the old walls are there; the old churches, the old towers; but, if the old friends are not there, we are mocked by mouldering masonry. Humanity lives in itself; man looks for man not any man, but the friend-man, the companion-heart, the other self that completes the identity. This feeling, properly interpreted and enlarged religiously, becomes a species of prayer. When we return to the familiar city, and go in quest of a friend, what is it but a kind of praying? If the seeking were upward instead of lateral, it would be prayer; but may we not from human instances gather hints of Divine meaning? There is a Friend that sticketh closer than a brother; there is a Friend immortal; Aquila and Priscilla will leave the city, will return to the native locality, but Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and for ever, always at home, always accessible, always with us, until the end of the world. He alone makes a right use of human mutations and social histories who finds in them incitements towards the companionship that is immortal, and the history that goes for ever forward in an ascending line. From empty places turn to the ever-abiding heavens; from the empty Corinths let the soul go up to the metropolis of the universe, and find bread enough and to spare in the Father’s house.
Paul “abode” in Greece three months. The word “abode” misleads us; a man blind and deaf and dumb might abide in a city or in a country three months. The word which should have been there in place of “abode” throbs like a pulse, quivers and palpitates with tremendous life. Paul cannot merely abide to be is to fight, to be is to suffer, where the personality of a man like Paul is concerned. The reading ought not to be of a negative kind. The word “abode” carries with it energy, service, work, activity, according to the measure and quality of the actor. We sometimes say of one another, “What is he doing now?” We might say that of Paul within the four corners of this narrative. He is moving about a good deal; he is staying in Greece three months; he was in Troas five days; he went over old ground. But what is he doing? That we cannot always tell. Have confidence in faithful men; it is not needful that we should know all that they are doing. If you have only confidence in your friend so long as you can see every action, you deceive yourself in supposing that you have any confidence in him at all. The confidence comes in where the sight fails. It is when we do not know what men are doing, and yet are sure that they are doing much, that we show our confidence in them. What, then, has history shown that Paul was doing amidst all this commonplace movement? Within this period Paul wrote his first letter to the Corinthians. How easy to say this! how impossible to measure it! Paul did more within the period of this narrative he wrote his second letter to the Corinthians, and he probably wrote his great letter to the Galatians. There is a written ministry. It is beautiful to read what Luke has to say about Paul, but how infinitely better to read Paul’s own words, written by his own hand or spoken by his own tongue! We do not always want to hear about a man, we long to hear the man himself; one sight of him, and we understand much that can never be explained; one utterance of his voice, and we are able to fill up gaps that vexed us by their mocking emptiness. What we would give for the writing of some men! It was better that Christ should write nothing: there he stands out as always, the one exception to the common rule. To have written something would have belittled Christ; he is the Word the Living Word, the spoken Word, the mystery of Being. He wrote in the dust, and the common footprint obliterated the marvellous hieroglyphics; but he spoke, and spoke to every heart, so that every heart knows just what he said much better than if it had been put down in so many measurable lines and words. We know the words of Christ. Quote something that is not Christ’s, that is opposed to the Spirit of Christ, and the heart casts it out. Sometimes the apostles quote something that is not in the Gospels, and yet we instantly feel that it ought to have been in the Gospels, that it belongs to the Gospels, that it is a marble worthy of the temple. Take an instance: “Ye remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.” The words are not found amongst the recorded sayings of Jesus, but in truth he never said anything else; that was the one thing he did say; that was the one thing he did do; he never did anything else. The quotation falls into the harmony of the massive music of his life, and belongs to it, and is at home in that alliance. The Acts of the Apostles would have been much impoverished but for the Pauline and other epistles which fill up and illustrate their highest and broadest meanings.
Not only is there great variety of personal movement, but there is in this narrative a period of waiting. Let us see once more how Paul “waits.” We saw how he waited at Athens; whilst he waited “his spirit was stirred within him.” Paul had written a letter to the Corinthians which is now lost; he wished to know the effect of that letter upon the Corinthian Christians, and Titus was charged to hasten back to Troas with a report. Paul is now waiting at Troas. How did he wait? Read 2Co 2:12-13 : “Furthermore, when I came to Troas to preach Christ’s gospel, and a door was opened unto me of the Lord, I had no rest in my spirit, because I found not Titus my brother.” That is the same spirit we found at Athens; he soon fell into restlessness. Read 2Co 1:8 : “For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life.” I thank God for those words and for that trouble. It brings Paul down amongst us; it shows that Paul was bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. Read 2Co 12:7 : “And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.” These are the experiences that occurred within the limits of a narrative which at first we supposed to be but a commonplace diary. See how Paul was being educated educated by a thorn, a goad thrust into the flesh by impatient waiting, by longing for answers that seemed never to come, by pressure of the spirit, by disappointment with time, by discontent that made the soul ill at ease. Where is the commonplace now? The narrative itself is full of gaps, but when they are filled up by Paul’s own records, we find that within a framework of sentences that merely indicate locomotion we have experiences of the most intensely spiritual nature. So, men of business, among all your movements, anxieties, restlessnesses, and disappointments, who can tell what processes of education are going on? If we could read the letters you are now writing, we might find that after many a busy day’s work you write messages of comfort to the bereaved and the desolate. Perhaps you may snatch a moment from the very pressure of commercial engagements to write a brief line of healing and of hope to some broken heart. We cannot tell all we are doing. There is a public life, there is a life that the neighbours can see and read and comment upon; but there is a within life, an interstitial life, that fills up all the open lines and broken places, and only God sees that interior and solemn existence. You go amongst men as worldly, avaricious, devoted only to meanest pursuits and to commonest altars. You may have an answer to such calumny, but may not think it worth while to give it to such low-minded critics. There may be those who “cannot make you out,” and “do not know how you spend half your time.” They have no right to know; they were not appointed to investigate your life. What you have to do is to hold your life in trust; you are trustee, and steward, and servant, and will one day hand in your own account to the only Judge who has a right to overlook your life. Fill up your days well; do not ask human criticism to approve you; be up with the sun; work far into the darkness; seem as if you did not want to sleep; and live ever in the great Taskmaster’s eye; and at the last it may be found, that whilst others could not make out your busy life, and put its days together so as to make a continuous sum total of them, you have been amongst those servants so loyal as never to waste a moment, so industrious as to have deserved the rest which follows labour. Part of the life is seen, part is unseen; part is spoken, part is written. I have nothing to do with the way in which you spend your life when I cannot follow you into all the secret investigation of your career. We have one Master; to him we stand; he is Judge. At the last it will be seen who the sluggards were, and who were the industrious and faithful men that turned every moment into an opportunity, and found in every day a new field for action or a new altar for sacrifice.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
XXVI
PAUL’S THIRD MISSIONARY TOUR PAUL AT EPHESUS
Act 18:23-21:16
The scriptures, so far as Acts is concerned, devoted to this tour, are from chapters Act 18:23-21:16 . The special theme is “Paul at Ephesus” (Act 19 ). The time of the whole tour is from A.D. 54 to A.D. 58 four years. The time at Ephesus, three years. At this time Nero was emperor at Rome, and under him Paul was to suffer martyrdom.
Let us trace on the map the whole tour from Antioch to Jerusalem. Commencing at his usual starting point, Antioch, he came near Tarsus, and went up into upper Galatia Galatia proper confirming the churches at Tavium, Ancyra, and Pessius. Then he went down to Ephesus. He was at Ephesus three years. In that time he made many other runs into the country, so as to reach all Asia. Leaving Ephesus, he went again into Macedonia, stopping at Troas, as before, where Titus met him, or was to have met him, came on into Macedonia, and went to these same churches where he had labored on his second missionary tour, then coming on down to Corinth, where he remained quite a while, three months anyhow, and in that time he wrote the letter to the Galatians and the letter to the Romans; while at Ephesus he wrote the first letter to the church at Corinth; while up in Macedonia he wrote the second letter to the church at Corinth. Then he came on back and took a sea voyage to Tyre and to Caesarea, then he went to Jerusalem, and there he was arrested and remained a prisoner all through the rest of the book of Acts.
A large part of this tour is devoted to confirming churches previously established. Until he goes to Ephesus all that part of the first tour is devoted to confirming churches previously established, and after he leaves Ephesus, all that part of the tour through Macedonia and Achaia is devoted to confirming churches. The advanced work is the work that he did at Ephesus. The letters written during this tour, as stated above, are as follows: While he was at Ephesus he wrote the first letter to the Corinthians, and after he got over into Macedonia he wrote the second letter to the Corinthians, when he got to Corinth he wrote the letter to the Galatians, and also the one to the Romans, and this last letter, the one to the Romans, was to prepare the way for his coming to Rome.
The closing part of Act 18 tells us that Apollos came to Ephesus; that he was a Jew from Alexandria; that he was a very learned and a very eloquent Jew; that he had heard of John’s preaching over in Judea that Jesus had come, John pointing to Jesus as “The Lamb of God that was to take away the sin of the world.” Further than that he did not know. It was a gospel of a Messiah, but what that Messiah he did not know. He is one of the most remarkable characters in the Bible, and his contact with Paul is very special. Just about the time that Paul goes to Ephesus, before he gets there, Apollos has expressed a desire, after being instructed in the way of the Lord by Aquila and Priscilla, to go over to Corinth. They write letters of commendation, and he goes to Corinth, being now fully instructed in the gospel of Jesus, and becomes a tremendous help to Paul in Corinth, but is made the occasion of a division, though himself not intending evil.
Perhaps there was no man living who could, in a more popular way, present the Old Testament scriptures, and their bearing upon Jesus as the Messiah. He did not have an equal in his day as a popular speaker. In his graces of person all the matters preached were lost. At Corinth some brethren were so attached to him that they preferred him to Paul and Peter, or anybody else, and in that way, without his intending it, he was made a part of the occasion of creating a division in the church at Corinth. To show that he had no part in it, Paul, after Apollos came back to Ephesus, wanted to send him back to Corinth, but in view of the troubles that had arisen, he declined to go. He did not want to go there and let a crowd of schismatics rally around him. The scriptures which refer to this man are not a great many, but they are very pointed, showing his real value as a genuine preacher, and Paul was very much attached to him.
A mighty financial enterprise was engineered on this third tour, an enterprise of mammoth proportions to help the poor saints in Jerusalem. We have to gather the history of this work, which was a big enough piece of work for any one man to do, from the various letters. The most notable scriptures bearing upon it are 1Co 16:1-3 ; 1Co 2 Corinthians 8-9, though there are references elsewhere. When he got there into Galatia that he had previously evangelized, he gave orders to these churches to lay by in store on the first day of every week, and take up a systematic collection. When he got over into Macedonia, he repeated these orders, and the finest response of any of them was made by these poor people living at Philippi. When he came down into Achaia, he repeated the same instructions to the churches there, and in his two letters, particularly the two to the church at Corinth, he tried to stir them up to redeem the pledges they had made the year before. All through this period of four years, that systematic collection was going on. He sent Titus to help out the Corinthians in engineering their collections, and as the funds were raised, they were placed in the hands of representatives of the church raising the money, and some representative of each section went back with him when he went to Jerusalem to carry it. So when he got to Jerusalem, the end of this tour, he put down before the leaders of the church funds that had, during the four years, been gathered in the Gentile churches of Asia and in Europe. What a pity that, coming before that Jerusalem church with these funds, the brethren did not give him a more cordial welcome!
What is written about this financial enterprise is of inestimable value to the churches today. To show how much value could be drawn, I got my first idea from what is a prepared collection from studying these financial enterprises as stated everywhere in these letters. Every preacher should group the references to this enterprise and the different expediences adopted, and learn once for all how a collection is to be taken, how a great contribution is to be engineered. I practiced it in my pastoral life in Waco. When a collection was to be taken for home, state, or foreign missions, or the Orphans’ Home, I spent weeks preceding, preparing for that collection, and when the day came, before a word was said, Is would know within a few dollars what that collection was going to amount to. I had first canvassed the Ladies’ Society, B. Y. P. U., and the Sunday school, and knew what they were going to pledge. I had previously approached the leading contributors as to how much they would give as a start, when the collection was to be taken. As soon as the day came and I had announced the purpose of the collection, Is simply called out, “Ladies’ Society No. I, No. 2,” etc., and their amounts would be called out and the money sent up in an envelope; then the Sunday school, then the Young People’s Union, then expressions from leading individuals, BO that by the time this was over, which would be done in Just a few minutes, we would generally have about a thousand dollars. Then would commence the appeal to others that could not do so much, and in fifteen minutes our collection would be over. If any man imagines that that was an offhand business, then it shows that he has not studied the situation; that he did not know what I had been doing for weeks.
PAUL AT EPHESUS
Ephesus, for a long period, had been a famous city. It is near the coast line and they had at this time a magnificent seaport. It was a Greek city. The Ionians had colonized Ephesus, and the day of the Greek glory had passed, and it was now the capital of the Roman province of Asia. While it had its own municipal government, the Greek ecclesia, the very word that is used to refer to a church, and exactly such an ecclesia as that ruled Athens, ruled in other Greek cities unless the power had been taken away from them, but we will have special occasion in this connection to learn what a Greek ecclesia does.
The celebrities at Ephesus constitute a part of the wonders of the world. This very celebrity was the marvelous temple of Diana. This temple had been burned down the night that Alexander the Great was born, and all Asia Minor and Greece proper contributed funds to rebuild it. When Alexander came to be a man, they still had not completed it, and be offered to furnish all the funds if they would just let his name be written on it. They declined. There were 127 pillars of the most magnificent sculpture that has ever been seen in any structure on earth. A prince was proud to be allowed to put up just one of those pillars if he was able. The stairway work into the upper part of it was just one vine, brought from Cyprus, that naturally curved to make the stairway. That temple is listed among the seven wonders of the ancient world.
In the temple were the finest pieces of sculpture in the world. The greatest of the sculptors at Athens prided themselves on putting their masterpieces in this temple. The greatest painters had hanging on these walls their masterpieces. Votive offerings, priceless in value, were to be seen. The shrine part of the temple, that part which held the goddess, was a small dark place somewhat like the most holy place in the Jerusalem Temple, and back of that shrine was a bank, as we now call it. It was the safe place for all the people of that end of the world to put their money.
The Diana of this temple must not be confounded with the Diana of the Greek or Roman religion. That one was beautiful, but this Diana here, so far as the statue shows, was a beastly, Oriental, ugly image that looked like a mummy, wrapped about on the lower part and covered with breasts, the whole idea being to show the productiveness of nature. And it was claimed that that statue dropped down from heaven. I don’t blame anybody in heaven for dropping it, if it was up there. The worship of it was just as bad as the worship of Venus on the Island of Cyprus, or in the city of Corinth.
The time of the great festival was our May Day in May. All Asia poured into Ephesus in May, and this is just the time that this persecution against Paul takes place just this time of the year. Their May Day festival consisted largely of parades, something like a carnival in New Orleans, but in the city of Rome men put on grotesque masks, some representing Jupiter,, some Mercury, some Venus, some one thing, and some another, and the beating of ten million tin pans, or the scraping of iron, or the grinding of steel, or the letting off of forty steam engines at one time could not equal the kind of noise they made. They thought it great, and that it needed a great noise.
Another celebrity there was its famous amphitheatre. The remnants of it can be seen until this day, in which some of the events in this chapter took place. It would seat thirty thousand people, being somewhat larger than most theatresin this country. These were the notable celebrities the Temple of Diana, one of the wonders of the world, their famous May Festival, and this magnificent theatre.
I have already given some account of the character of their religion. Just as at the fairs in this country, there are thousands of people who made their living by carving little shrines and temples, either representing the temple itself, or representing the image of the goddess, with magical letters written on it. These visitors would come in and want to carry back a portable temple, portable goddess or portable memento of the time they had had at the May Festival. There were a great many Jews there.
There were three co-existent ecclesias present in this one city, which had a bearing on the essential character of a New Testament church. First, there was the Greek ecclesia that organized assembly which performed no functions except as an assembly. Then the Jewish ecclesia, and finally that ecclesia of which Jesus said, “I will build my ecclesia” Every one of them was an organized assembly, each one of them had no power to transact business except in session at the regular assembly. I know that some men, just a handful, yet have an idea that the church is not an ecclesia, and they deny the ecclesia idea altogether. Theological professors who take that position have to repudiate 136 references to the Jerusalem ecclesia, and they have to repudiate every reference to Christ’s ecclesia.
One text summarizes the whole situation at Ephesus. Paul, in writing his first letter to the Corinthians, says, “I will tarry at Ephesus until Pentecost; for a great door and effectual is opened unto me, and there are many adversaries.” When I was a young preacher I took that as my text and took Act 19 to expound the meaning of the text. We find that passage in 1Co 16 . That text summarizes the whole situation.
The rest of this chapter will be devoted to expounding that text, “There are many adversaries.” Ten special adversaries are mentioned. Act 19:1-7 tells us that when Paul got over there he found a certain adversary in the form of an incomplete gospel, and it was hurtful to the complete gospel to have the ground overcast by an incomplete gospel. Let us state fully the case of the twelve disciples found at Ephesus, and bring out clearly the following points of controversy: (1) Was John’s baptism and gospel, Christian baptism and gospel? (2) Who baptized the twelve disciples? (3) Were they rebaptized by Paul? (4) If so, what the elements of invalidity in their first immersion? (5) What the bearing of the whole case on valid baptism?
The record states that when Paul got over there and found these men, he said, “Did ye receive the Holy Spirit when ye believed?” You know that in Act 2:38 there was a promise that whosoever would believe in Jesus Christ would receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. That gift had come down that day with the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Now Paul, wishing to find out the status of these men, says, “Did ye receive the gift of the Holy Spirit?” And they said, “We did not so much as hear whether the Holy Spirit was given.” That is, they had no knowledge at all of Pentecost. “Well,” he said, “into what then were ye baptized?” They said, “Into John’s baptism.” Paul then explains that John truly preached “repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus,” and baptized people, but it was in a Christ to come, John had foretold this thing that had occurred on Pentecost, saying, “When the Messiah comes he will baptize you in the Holy Spirit.”
John had been dead twenty years. These men evidently had not seen baptism by John. If they had ever heard John, they would have known that John taught that the Messiah would send this gift of the Holy Spirit, and would baptize his people in the Holy Spirit. He saw that there was a deficiency in their baptism, and that their faith did not go far enough, since it did not take in a Messiah as already come. It was a general belief in a Messiah, but not in Jesus as a particular Messiah. John was the harbinger to Christ. He had no successor; no man had a right to perpetuate John’s baptism; so when people elsewhere, as did Alexander, took it upon themselves to baptize with reference to John’s baptism, it was without any authority. So that a capital deficiency in their baptism was that it was not by an authorized administrator, and so Paul, having explained the matter to them that the Holy Spirit in the baptism of the saints had come down, and that Jesus had come, counting as nothing the unauthorized baptism to which they had been subjected, rebaptized them, and then laid his hands on them and they received the gift of the Holy Spirit and began to speak in tongues. They were thus lined up, and that is the way that trouble was disposed of.
This is a real adversary you find as you go out to work. As a rule you will find people lodged about half way. They believe some things, but they don’t get far enough. Perhaps they are satisfied with the sprinkling they received in childhood; perhaps they have had a baptism like these people, but not by a qualified administrator, and the thing tends to confusion, but if you are ever going to have people drawn into cooperation, you will have to meet those things.
The second adversary is presented in Act 19:8-10 : “And he entered into the synagogue, and spake boldly for the space of three months, reasoning and persuading as to the things concerning the kingdom of God. But when some were hardened and disobedient, speaking evil of the Way before the multitude, he departed from them and separated the disciples, reasoning daily In the school of Tyrannus. And this continued for the space of two years; so that all they that dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.” That adversary was the Jewish ecclesia the synagogue refusing to accept Jesus as the Messiah, blaspheming his name, bitterly obstructing the work, as we have seen in other places. Paul saw that in that city of the gods a line of cleavage must be drawn so he did just what he had done at Corinth. He moved his meeting to the schoolhouse. He had nothing more to do with the Jews; they could not walk together; they could not agree. The Jews were fighting him and fighting the gospel, so that he disposed of that adversary by a separation of the church and the Jews. He drew a line. He did not want a row every time they came to the meeting. He followed this plan for two years, and held the day.
The third adversary is presented in Act 19:11-12 : “And God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul; insomuch that unto the sick were carried away from his body handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out.” That adversary was the demons, the devil’s spiritual agency, and if there ever was a place on earth where demonology prevailed in its worst extent, and the demons were multitudinous and disastrous, it was right here at Ephesus. As Satan’s sub-agents, his demons had been controlling that city, and its business, and prompting its spirit, it became necessary that some extraordinary power of God should be brought to bear to counteract the influence of those demons. So here we come to a case of special miracles. Here I commend to the reader my sermon on “Special Miracles.” The Spirit’s power was displayed in an unusual way. We had a case of that remarkable miracle where the very shadow of Peter healed people near him. An apron that Paul wore while he was at work at his trade, carried and touched by a sick man a man under demoniacal possession caused the devil to go out of him, and a handkerchief that Paul used to wipe his face when the sweat would pour down under his labor, had the same effect. These were unusual miracles, like the miracle of Elisha’s bones that brought a man to life when he touched them. God shows extraordinary power in order to meet extraordinary exigencies, and so the demons were wiped out.
The fourth adversary is given in Act 19:13-18 : “But certain also of the strolling Jews, exorcists, took upon them to name over them that had the evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, I adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth. And there were seven sons of one Sceva, a Jew, a chief priest, who did this. And the evil spirit answered and said unto them, Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye? And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, and mastered both of them and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. And this became known to all, both Jews and Greeks, that dwelt at Ephesus; and fear fell upon them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified. Many also of them that had believed, came, confessing and declaring their deeds.”
So we find this adversary to be impostors who assumed to cast out’ demons under the name of Jesus, while having no respect for Jesus, and hating Paul impostors that borrowed Paul’s reputation there and the idea of the power of Jesus in casting out demons, and these impostors came from the Jews. I once heard a preacher say, shaking his head, “Those were smart demons, saying, ‘Jesus I recognize, Paul I know, but who are you? You liar, you impostor, you can’t come to meeting shaking the name of Jesus over me. I can whip you.’ ” And so that is the way that adversary was overcome.
The fifth adversary we find in Act 19:19-20 : “And not a few of them that practiced magical arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all; and they counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver. So mightily grew the word of the Lord and prevailed.” What was that adversary? Evil literature, called “Ephesian Letters.” Certain letters were written on little slips to carry in the vest pocket, pinned on the lapel of the coat; certain magical incantations were written out. You find abundant reference to it in ancient literature, plays about a certain athlete who never could be killed until he had lost the magical letters on his person. Like a Negro with a horseshoe above his door, or with a rabbit’s foot to keep good luck. It is asserted that that literature obtained a hold over a great many of their minds, and it obtains it yet over many minds. A great many people now will turn back if a rabbit goes across the path ahead of them. They go back and start over if they happen to take a ring off the finger. They will not start on a journey on Friday. In our time there is a vicious literature, vile and corrupt, and that is one of the greatest enemies of Christianity. Good literature has to fight evil literature, and the gospel triumphs when the evil literature goes down. When those books were brought together and piled in that street, and a bonfire made of them, and the smoke of that fire hailed the stars, it stood a lurid monument of the mighty power of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
The sixth adversary is found by examining several scriptures, viz.: Act 19:21-22 ; 1Co 1:11 ; 1Co 4:17 ; 1Co 5:1 ; 1Co 7:1 ; 1Co 16:8-9 ; 1Co 16:17 . What was that adversary? The devil was very anxious to get Paul away from Ephesus, and so he starts a row at Corinth, the church that Paul had established, and appeals to him to come to Cloe’s household, and so the church at Corinth writes him a letter in which are all sorts of questions about the contention, for him to settle, and an appeal made to him to come and help them. Paul says, “I will tarry at Ephesus.” The devil led them astray that far, and had already weakened his force, since he had to take Timothy and Erastus and send them over to stay that tide until he could get there.
QUESTIONS 1. What is the general theme of this chapter, and what the scriptures?
2. Trace on the map the whole tour from Antioch to Jerusalem.
3. What part of this tour is devoted to confirming churches previously established, what the churches, and what part to advance the work?
4. What letters were written during this tour, what the order of writing, what the place and time of each, and which was to prepare for new work?
5. Give a connected account of Apollos.
6. What mighty financial enterprise was engineered on this third tour?
7. Give an account of Ephesus, its celebrities, its prevalent religion, and the Jews there.
8. What three co-existent ecclesias were present in this one city, and what the bearing of the fact on the essential character of a New Testament church?
9. What one text summarizes the whole situation at Ephesus?
10. What is the first adversary, and how overcome?
11. State fully the case of the twelve disciples found at Ephesus answering the five questions in the body of the text?
12. What is the second adversary, and how overcome?
13. What is the third adversary, and how overcome?
14. What is the fourth adversary, and how overcome?
15. What is the fifth adversary, and how overcome?
16. What is the sixth adversary, and how overcome?
XXVII
PAUL AT EPHESUS PAUL’S THIRD MISSIONARY TOUR (Continued)
We continue in this chapter the discussion of Paul’s adversaries at Ephesus. The seventh adversary was the craftsmen’s ring, organized by Demetrius, the silversmith. In making the silver shrines or other souvenirs of the temple, whether of wood, stone, or metal, or the portable images of the goddess, or the amulets, charms and talismans inscribed in the “Ephesian letters,” or the costumes for the May festivals, a multitude of craftsmen were employed designers, molders, coppersmiths, sculptors, costumers, painters, engravers, jewelers. Perhaps one image or shrine would pass through the hands of several craftsmen before it received the delicate finishing work of the silversmith. The enormous crowds assembled in the annual May festivals, the steady influx of strangers from a world commerce, the devotees of the displays in the theatre, all inspired by curiosity, superstition, lewdness, or the greedy spirit of traffic, would create a demand for such wares surpassing the value of a gold mine. But the preaching of Paul, so far as accepted, undermined the whole business, dried up the springs of demand, and tended to leave all these craftsmen without an occupation.
Demetrius, anticipating the genius of modern times, organized the several guilds to make a life and death fight against a common enemy threatening all alike. His own inspiration was the love of money. His business was as profitable as the slave trade, the whiskey traffic, or the panderers who supplied the victims of lust. But formidable as a craftsmen’s union may be when used as a unit to promote evil, Demetrius was too shrewd a politician to rely on only one means of war. While perhaps religion was nothing to him, he caring only for gain, yet he recognized the value of alliance with that mighty factor, religious fanaticism, the eighth adversary, and so stirred it up in these crafty words: “For a certain man named Demetrius, a silversmith, who made silver shrines of Diana, brought no little business unto the craftsmen; whom he gathered together, with the workmen of like occupation, and said, Sirs, ye know that by this business we have our wealth. And ye see and hear, that not alone at Ephesus, but almost throughout all Asia, this Paul hath persuaded and turned away much people, saying that they are no gods that are made with hands: and not only is there danger that this our trade come into disrepute, but also that the temple of the great goddess Diana be made of no account, and that she should even be deposed from her magnificence whom all Asia and the world worshipeth.”
The devil never inspired a craftier speech. From his viewpoint the facts justified his fears. We learn from the letter of Pliny, fifty years later, that the gospel had put all the gods of Mount Olympus out of business, and left all their temples desolate. Combining gain, superstition, and civic pride he necessarily stirred up the ninth adversary, namely a howling, murderous, senseless mob. A tiger aroused in the jungle is not swifter in his leap, nor a pack of ravenous wolves more cruel, nor a flood of molten lava, vomited from the hot throat of a volcano, more insensible to argument. If the mob spirit lasted it would be hell. Its own violence exhausts it, or who could escape? A conflagration in heat and roar could not surpass in swiftness and terror the gathering of that Ephesian mob.
“Great is Diana of the Ephesians!” rolled in surges of repetition and reverberation through the streets of the city, and every palace, tenement and house of traffic poured its occupants into the streets to swell the volume of the frenzied throng, saying, “Great is Diana of the Ephesians!” “Where is this Paul? What house dares to harbor him?” They rush to this place of abode. Aquila and Priscilla interpose and “lay down their own necks” to save their guest. Paul cannot be found. The mob seizes two of his co-laborers, the Macedonians, Gaius and Aristarchus. Had they found Paul he would have been torn asunder, limb by limb, but not finding him against whom their hate burns, they think to invoke another ally, the tenth adversary, the Greek ecclesia, or municipal authority, and so pour themselves, 30,000 strong, into the great theatre, its place of gathering, and keep on howling.
Here occurs a sideshow, or injected episode, unwise, impotent, ludicrous, shameful. The Jewish ecclesia, the unbelieving synagogue, becomes alarmed. They know they are a stench in the Gentile nostril. They know that such a stormcloud charged with electricity will strike somewhere, and in the absence of the particular victim sought, their pitiable experience has taught them that it will strike the Jew. So they put in Alexander, one of their officials, as a lightning rod to assure the dear Ephesians that they did not do it that they hate Paul as much as the mob does. Poor Alexander never got a hearing. Being recognized as a Jew, his appearance was like waving a red rag in the face of a mad bull. The howling was renewed, “Great is Diana of the Ephesians!” and did not stop for two hours.
In the meantime Paul, informed that his friends were held in jeopardy, with characteristic and magnanimous courage, sought to push his way into the theatre to say, “Here I am; if ye seek me, let these men go.” But prudent friends interposed to restrain him. Even certain of the Asiarchs, officials selected from the province to be managers of the May festivals and masters of ceremonies, who were attached to Paul, besought him not to venture himself into that theatre where he could get no hearing, and would only needlessly sacrifice his life.
The mob, having shouted itself hoarse and exhausted its cyclone fury, the opportunity brought forth a matchless political orator, the town clerk, or recorder of the Greek ecclesia. Using a faultless address as a broom, he coolly swept that exhausted mob out of the theatre a limp, ashamed, inert mass of trash. Truly, he was a master of assemblies. He filled Virgil’s description of Neptune assuaging the storm which inconsiderate Aeolus had let loose against the frail Trojan fleet, or was like Dr. Broadus at the Fort Worth session of the Southern Baptist Convention, in 1890, quieting in a moment the controversy on Sunday school publications.
Young preachers aspire to be masters of assemblies. They ought to study this town clerk’s speech. Note its excellencies. He awaited his opportunity. He would not have been heard earlier. He quietly showed them that their proceedings were undignified, unlawful, unnecessary, and dangerous. Is paraphrase what he said: “Everybody knows that Ephesus is the sacristan, or custodian of the temple of Diana, and of the image of the goddess which fell down from Jupiter. Nobody has questioned the city’s jurisdiction. These men whom you have unlawfully arrested and brought here, are not charged with the sacrilege of robbing the temple or blaspheming the goddess. A mob has no authority to arrest men, and cannot be a court. An ecclesia has no authority unless lawfully summoned. If Demetrius has a grievance against Paul for an offense coming under Roman jurisdiction, let him carry his case before the proconsul. If the grievance touches matters over which the Greek ecclesia has jurisdiction, let him bring this case before the regular session of that court. These courts, both Roman and Greek, being accessible, why raise a tumult so obnoxious to our Roman masters? Indeed, we are liable already to answer to the Romans for this disturbance, this being only a mass meeting and a violent one at that. Rise, be dismissed, go home, keep quiet, do nothing rash.”
We will now analyze the “great door and effectual” opened to Paul (1Co 16:9 ) : (1) Hearts are locked against the gospel so men will not give attention; God opens the heart to attend, as in Lydia’s case (Act 16:14 ). (2) The door of faith is closed against the gospel; God opens it so men will believe (Act 14:27 ). (3) Jesus is the door to the sheepfold, but man cannot see except that the Spirit directs his eyes (Joh 10:7 ; 1Co 12:3 ). (4) Utterance, liberty, or afflatus, does not come to the preacher at his will, but the Spirit can open the door of utterance so that he can speak with a tongue of fire (Col 4:3 ). (5) The door of access to the Father can be opened only by him who has the key of David. He can open and none can shut and none can open. He has the keys of death and hell (Rev 1:18 ; Rev 3:7-8 ). So at Ephesus, God opened to Paul a door of utterance, and to the people the door of attention, faith and salvation. It was great and effectual. Neither the synagogue nor the Greek ecclesia, nor the proconsul, nor Satan and all his demons, could shut it.
The expressions in the chapter that mark the progress of the work are: (1) The baptism of the twelve disciples in the Holy Spirit (Act 19:6 ) so that Paul at one stroke gained twelve mighty helpers; (2) all Asia heard the word (Act 19:10 ); (3) special miracles conquer demons (Act 19:11-12 ); (4) fear fell upon all, and the name of Jesus was magnified (Act 19:17 ); (5) confessions were made (Act 19:18 ) ; (6) the burning of the books (Act 19:19 ) ; (7) so mightily grew the word of the Lord and prevailed (Act 19:20 ); (8) demons were made to refuse recognition of impostors.
Act 20:17 ; Act 20:28 ; Act 20:35 , proves that under Spirit-guidance elders were ordained and instructed. The great converts of this meeting were Tychicus and Trophimus (20:4) Epaphras (Col 1:7 ), and the family of Philemon (Phm 1:2 ). The following scriptures show that no other preacher in the history of the world labored under such hard conditions, suffered as much, or carried such a burden. He was in the shadow of death, and exposed to the daily malice of earth and hell for three years: Act 20:18-21 ; Act 20:26-27 ; Act 20:31-35 ; 1Co 4:11-13 ; 1Co 15:19 ; 1Co 15:32 ; 2Co 1:8-10 ; 2Co 4:5-15 ; 2Co 6:4-10 ; 2Co 11:23-28 . It is evident that in this three years occurred many of the horrible privations, perils, imprisonments, scourgings, hunger, cold, sickness, and daily death, and the burdens enumerated in 2Co 11:23-28 . The fighting with wild beasts at Ephesus (1Co 15:32 ) has no reference to the Demetrius mob, for that had not yet occurred.
It must be understood literally, that he had been thrown to the wild beasts in the arena of the theatre, and died under their claws and fangs) but, as at Lystra, where he was stoned to death, was restored by the miraculous power of God (2Co 1:8-10 ). He expressly says of this occasion: “We are made a spectacle unto the world, both angels and men” (1Co 4:9 ). The Greek is theatron , to which he again refers in Heb 10:33 . It was at this time he wrote: “If we have only hoped in Christ in this life, we of all men are most pitiable” (1Co 15:19 ). It was of this period he wrote: “I bear branded on my body the marks [Greek: stigmata] of Jesus” (Gal 6:17 ). From head to foot he was crowned with ineffaceable scars. It was of this time he wrote: “Even unto this present hour we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwelling place; and we toil, working with our own hands; being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we endure; being defamed, we entreat: we are made as the filth of the world, the offscouring of all things, even till now” (1Co 4:11-13 ).
He never knew where he could stay at night. Consumed with hunger and thirst, he preached in rags. We would not do it. See the spruce, dapper messengers gather in our assemblies, shining in spotless collars and cuffs, and think of Paul in rags. See him burdened with the care of all the churches. See him going from house to house by day and night for three years, pleading with tears. See him the victim of foul aspersion and misrepresentation. Scorn gibes him. Mockery crowns him with thorns. Envy, jealousy, and malice, raging furies, seek to tear him limb from limb. Defeated greed, slanderer, and exposed uncleanness, like harpies, pick and hawk him with beak and talons. Tyranny binds him with chains to cold rocks that vultures may gnaw his vitals. Every day he dies, every day he is crucified, every day persecution drives cruel spikes and nails through his hands and feet. In the gloom of every night demons come like vampires, or hooting owls, or howling wolves, or hideous nightmares, or croaking ravens, to break his spirit. Hell’s cartoonists sketch his future in a background of evil omens and apprehensions. It was of these trials he wrote:
“But in everything commending ourselves, as ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in watchings, in fastings; in pureness, in knowledge, in longsuffering, in kindness, in the Holy Spirit, in love unfeigned, in the word of truth, in the power of God; by the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, by glory and dishonor, by evil report and good report; as deceivers, and yet true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as chastened, and not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things” (2Co 6:4-10 ).
There are several items that need to be noted in particular: He was supported there by the work of his hands. Perhaps once Corinth sent him a contribution, or at least some kind words, which he counted as food (1Co 16:17-18 ). The designation given to the gospel here and the preceding and subsequent references thereto is “The Way,” i.e., the way of life (vv. 9, 23). The name originated with our Lord: “I am the Way” (Joh 14:6 ), and it was twice used in Acts before the double use of this chapter (Act 9:2 ; Act 18:25 ) and three times subsequently Acts (22:4; 24:14, 22). It became common in the early centuries.
Note the great special service rendered to Paul by Aquila and Priscilla at Ephesus. When the mob sought him at their house they offered to “lay down their own necks” that their guest might escape (Rom 16:3 ).
This tour, in its preaching, and particularly in the four great letters, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, and Romans, settled forever the systematic theology of salvation by grace through faith, and furnished all subsequent ages with the storehouse of arguments for justification by faith, and vicarious expiation. Out of these letters came both the inspiration and power of the reformation. No man questions their authority. They constitute Paul’s Gospel. A summary of the events condensed in Act 20:1-6 is as follows: While yet at Ephesus, Paul, on varied information, had written I Corinthians, in which he had promised to visit them. But Timothy’s report made him hesitate. He then sent Titus, intending to go to Corinth first, after leaving Ephesus, if Titus brought back a good report in time. But as Titus had not returned up to the time he left Ephesus, he went to Troas expecting there to meet Titus with such a report as would justify going to Corinth from that point. While waiting there he preached effectually and established a church, but though God opened him a door of success, he was consumed with anxiety about matters in Corinth, and as Titus did not come with news, he closed his meeting and passed over into Macedonia to visit the churches at Philippi, Thessalonica, and Berea. In Macedonia, Titus joined him with good news in the main from Corinth, and so from Macedonia he wrote the second letter to the Corinthians, again promising to be with them speedily (2Co 1:1-2:13 ). Passing through Macedonia, confirming the churches, he came to Corinth at last (Act 20:1-3 ), and spent the winter there. It was during this winter’s sojourn at Corinth that he wrote the letters, Galatians and Romans. From Corinth he had expected to sail direct for Syria. Finding out a plot of the Jews to entrap and slay him at the seaport Cenchrea, he returned by land to Macedonia. And from Philippi he sent ahead to Troas, the brethren named in Act 20:4 , and then after the Passover he, with Luke and maybe others, followed them to Troas. The time in Europe was nearly a year.
AT TROAS
The incidents at Troas are these: After a space of five days, he arrived at Troas and stayed a week, and on the first day of the week they all came together to partake of the Lord’s Supper. The Lord’s Supper was administered probably by the church at Troas, and all the context shows that these visiting brethren from sister churches participated in all particulars of that supper. Luke says they assembled to break bread. Dr. J. R. Graves took the position that only the members of a local church, celebrating the supper, should participate in its observance. He once asked me what I thought of his position. I told him that as a matter of right, only the church could administer the supper, and only the members of that church could claim as a right to participate, but inasmuch as visiting brethren and sisters are of like faith and order, that on invitation they might participate. Then we had it on this case at Troas, and on the uniform Baptist custom. Notice that whenever they go to observe the Lord’s Supper the preacher says, “Any brethren or sisters of sister churches of like faith and order, knowing themselves to be in good order [not disorder], are invited to participate with us.” That is what is called inter-church communion, but not a very good name for it. I always invite the visiting brethren and sisters, but I specify very particularly who is invited.
Another incident occurred that interrupted the preaching a little. Paul, knowing that he had to leave the next day, preached a sermon that night. He was in the third story preaching. It was hot in that country over there, so they had all the windows open for air, and a boy, Eutychus, bad the best place in the house, right in the back window, and as Paul went on preaching until midnight (he did not deliver fifteen-minute essays he preached a sermon) Eutychus’ eyes got heavy, and he went to sleep. Something perhaps disturbed him, maybe a fly lighted on him, anyhow he fell out of the window fell from the third story and was killed instantly. Therefore don’t get sleepy in church. Paul went down and brought him back to life by the exercise of miraculous power, and went right back and resumed his sermon. When he got through they celebrated the Lord’s Supper. Some Campbellite brothers and sisters say it should be administered only on the first day of the week, and every first day of the week, and cite this case here at Troas when they came together on the first day of the week to celebrate the Lord’s Supper. It was a splendid day of the week to celebrate the Lord’s Supper, but Paul’s sermon was so long that it was next day before he even got through that sermon. They did not partake of the Supper until Monday.
When we get a three years’ sample of a man’s preaching we can have some idea, especially if he is preaching every day and every night in that three years, as to the matter, the scope, and the manner of his preaching. Of course, if he hasn’t got much to preach, he could not preach three years right straight along he would run out of material but Paul was brimful, and the scope of his preaching is expressed in two ways: (1) That he had withheld nothing that was profitable. (2) That he had not shunned to teach the whole counsel of God. That would have been a fine seminary course if we could have been there three years; could have taken that three years in the Bible by the greatest expounder since the Master went to heaven. He preached at every town, and particularly in preaching to the unconverted, he says, “Is testified both to the Jews and to the Greeks) repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.” Some preachers go around and leave out repentance. He ought to preach the gospel, and he should preach repentance as he preaches faith, and he needs to preach it in the order repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. As to the manner of his preaching, notice the address itself, how he describes it. He says, “Why, brethren, you know that I was with you in humility. By the space of three years, publicly and privately, from house to house, day and night, with tears, I ministered unto you.”
If we should put together all we have suffered, it would not be as much as that man suffered in that three years. We have not made half as many sacrifices as he did. We have never come as near laying a whole burnt offering upon the altar of God. In analyzing this address, observe that there are three prophecies in it: (1) He says, “After I am gone, wolves are going to come and ruin the flock.” (2) “After I am gone many of your own selves, right on the inside of the church, will rise up and mar the work that has been done. (3) And he says, “Brethren, you will never see me again.” This is his farewell discourse. Those are the three prophecies. The events of this tour testify to the first day of the week as the Christian sabbath. We have the record of this assembly on the first day of the week, and in a letter on this tour he says, “On the first day of the week [and this applies to the churches generally] lay by in store, that there may be no collections when I come.” In other words, he says, “Every week, just according to your ability, give what you give liberally, cheerfully, and lay it by in store, so when I come you will have the collection ready.”
QUESTIONS 1. What the seventh adversary?
2. How did this one stir up the eighth adversary?
3. How was the ninth adversary stirred up?
4. How was the tenth adversary stirred up?
5. What was the outcome of it all?
6. What are the excellencies of the town clerk’s speech?
7. Analyze the “great door and effectual,” opened to Paul.
8. What the expressions in the chapter which show the marvelous development of the work?
9. Who were the great converts of this meeting?
10. What the character and hard condition of Paul’8 ministry in Ephesus?
11. How was Paul supported there?
12. What designation was given to the gospel there, and what the preceding and subsequent references thereto?
13. What great special service rendered to Paul by Aquila and Priscilla at Ephesus?
14. What is the full significance of this missionary tour?
15. Give a summary of the events condensed in Act 20:1-6 , and the time covered by them.
16. What the incidents and lessons of the stay at Troas, and what the bearing of the observance of the Lord’s Supper there on interchurch communion?
17. Who was a great advocate of the non-interchurch communion, and what his main argument?
18. Analyze the address to the Ephesian elders, showing particularly the matter, scope, and manner of Paul’s ministry.
19. What is the testimony of the events of this tour to the first day of the week as the Christian sabbath?
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
1 And after the uproar was ceased, Paul called unto him the disciples, and embraced them , and departed for to go into Macedonia.
Ver. 1. Into Macedonia ] Great Alexander’s country, called at this day Albany, and is subject to the Turk.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
1. ] has probably been omitted on account of the two participles coming together: or perhaps on account of the same word occurring again in Act 20:2 .
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Act 20:1 to Act 21:16 .] JOURNEY OF PAUL TO MACEDONIA AND GREECE, AND THENCE TO JERUSALEM.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Act 20:1 . .: the words may indicate not only the fact of the cessation of the tumult, but that Paul felt that the time for departure had come. ., cf. Mat 26:5 ; Mat 27:24 , Mar 14:2 ; three times in Act 21:34 ; Act 24:18 , and several times in LXX. In Act 21:34 it is used more as in classics of the confused noise of an assembly ( cf. Mar 5:38 ), but in the text it seems to cover the whole riot, and may be translated “riot”. : “non solum salutabant osculo advenientes verum etiam discessuri,” Wetstein, and references; so in classical Greek, cf. also Act 21:6-7 ; Act 21:19 .
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Acts Chapter 20
It would appear from the Epistle to the Corinthians, that the tumultuous meeting in the theatre was but one incident of a dangerous crisis at Ephesus (1Co 15:32 ). Certainly the apostle did not quit the city till there was a lull.
‘And after the uproar had ceased, Paul having called [or, sent1] for the disciples, and exhorted and saluted [them], departed to go into Macedonia. And, having gone through those parts and exhorted them with much discourse, he came into Greece. And having spent three months, and a plot being laid against him by the Jews, as he was about to sail for Syria he determined to return through Macedonia.2 And there accompanied him (as far as Asia3); Sopater, a Berean, [son] of Pyrrhus3; and of Thessalonians Aristarchus and Secundus, and Gaius of Derbe, and Timothy; and of Asia Tychicus and Trophimus. These going before waited for us at Troas; and we sailed away from Philippi after the days of unleavened [bread], and came unto them to Troas in five days, where we tarried seven days’ (vers. 1-6).
1 Most support the former, the best the latter.
2 In verse 3 structural varieties appear in the copies.
3 A few very ancient witnesses do not contain these words, which are sustained in the great mass; but ‘[son] of Pyrrhus’ is genuine.
In this passage, as in many others of scripture, we have a living testimony to the joints and bands which operated so efficaciously in apostolic times to preserve the saints in unity, fellowship, and love. There was no lack of missionary zeal; but, besides, the Spirit of God wrought much in the exhortation and encouragement of the saints. Thus was the body of Christ built up. It is in this care that we see the most manifest contrast of modern times with the primitive. If the converts are guarded from turning aside, it is in general the most that is now attempted. Zeal habitually goes out towards the conversion of sinners, and those devoted to that work are regarded as eminently faithful and enlightened if they do not yield to superstition on the one hand or to philosophy on the other. Growth in the truth is rare and practically unknown even among the teachers, not to speak of the converts. The consequences are deplorable: teachers and taught in these circumstances are ever liable to the many misleading influences around.
In these early days we see on the contrary the utmost care and zeal in visiting afresh those who had been already brought to God, and gathered to the name of Jesus. Nor was it only by oral instruction. That new and characteristic form of Christian instruction which expressed itself in the apostolic Epistles was now fully in operation. No composition admits of greater candour and intimacy; none gives such scope to the affections of the heart. It was from Ephesus that the apostle wrote the First Epistle to the Corinthians, as grand a development of Christian and church truth as was the Epistle to the Romans, written not long after as we shall see, on the great foundations of grace in justifying the ungodly, and on the reconciling of the indiscriminate gospel with the peculiar promises to Israel, as well as on the practical walk of the believer in view of all this.
There is no fresh inspiration going on now; but these two modes of seeking the edification of souls ought surely both to proceed. Preaching and teaching have a most unquestionable importance in reaching sours more simply and directly than any other; but there is an exactness as well as a fullness of treatment, which are best conveyed in a written (and, we may add, a printed) form. There is another object also of great value attained in the latter way – that souls can be reached thereby all over the world, most of whom neither could nor would listen to oral instruction of distinctive weight.
In those early days then we see not only the principle of both oral and written teaching, but the highest form of either ever reached on the earth. The apostles and prophets were the foundation on which the church was built. By the gracious power of the Holy Ghost they had immunity from error. It was not men doing their best, but God conveying His mind perfectly through chosen instruments.
Their writings alone constitute the Christian standard. Others at the present day may be raised up to recover what is forgotten, and to propagate this and all truth, the Spirit may work energetically by them, and give reliable accuracy to their thoughts and words in unfolding revealed truth; but they are in no wise a standard. Their writings are not God-inspired and, as they are not entitled to issue their convictions under the authority of ‘Thus saith the Lord’, for every or any word of theirs, so the saints are responsible to judge all they say or write, and still more what they do, by unerring scripture.
Here then, after the uproar had ceased, Paul sent for and exhorted the disciples, and, after bidding them farewell, departed to go into Macedonia the scene of his former labours. There too we find him passing through those quarters, and, after exhorting the saints with much discourse, he came into Greece. It was during the three months spent there that he wrote the Epistle to the Romans. He had long desired to visit Rome in person, but was hindered hitherto. Urgent duties detained him elsewhere; and God had it in His purpose that His servant should enter Rome only as a prisoner. It was not so that even the apostle would have ordered matters, still less the saints themselves. It is good, however, to learn and accept God’s profound wisdom in all these dealings of His.
In weakness, and fear, and much trembling, Paul at first testified at Corinth (1Co 2:3 ). After much danger and persecution he had left Ephesus. An ill-understood man, his deep spirituality and zeal ran athwart much prejudice at Jerusalem. He could at length only go to Rome with a chain. Such were the ways of God in the unequalled path and service of the blessed apostle.
Nevertheless thorough sobriety pervades the action of Paul. When there was a plot on the part of the Jews against him, as about to sail into Syria, he avoids it by adopting the resolution of returning, not from Achaia direct, but through Macedonia. The Jews had enormous influence in that great commercial entrep?t, Corinth; and injury or death could easily have been, humanly speaking, inflicted upon him as a passenger in one of the numerous ships of that day. He therefore changed his plan and returned through the northern province. And there accompanied him Sopater, Pyrrhus’ son, a Berean, and of Thessalonians Aristarchus and Secundus, and Gaius of Derbe and Timothy, and of Asia Tychicus and Trophimus.
It was not therefore that merely the apostle laboured in all directions. Here we find not less than seven companions in service, who were in no way restrained to one fixed local sphere. The presbyters or elders laboured and took the lead locally. There were many others besides the apostles who moved about with perfect liberty, seeking the blessing of the faithful and the spread of the gospel. Of these labourers we may discern at least two classes. Some few attached themselves as much as possible to the companionship of Paul. Of these we have a sample before us. But there were others like Apollos who laboured in a more independent way and enjoyed less of his society, though they had his entire love and confidence.
In verse 5 we learn of another deeply attached personal companion Luke, the inspired writer of this very Book. ‘And these having gone before awaited us at Troas.’ Thus quietly does this honoured man intimate that he too was with the apostle at this time and at Philippi. It will be remembered that it was in these regions that Luke had first become the companion of Paul (Act 16:10-12 ).
‘And we sailed away from Philippi after the days of unleavened [bread], and came unto them to Troas in five days, where we tarried seven days’ (ver. 6). Why the party did not move together, why the others went before, and Paul and Luke waited till after the feast, we can only conjecture. But we see the special association of Luke with the apostle and utterly reject the vain key to it which Wieseler suggests, that Luke travelled with him as his physician. If men cannot trace below the surface of the word with spiritual insight, how sad that they should exercise their wits in such degrading ingenuity! And will even saints learn how deeply the church is fallen when such thoughts are repeated instead of provoking indignation?
The delay of seven days furnished the ever-desired privilege of partaking the Lord’s Supper together. That the stay of the brethren for that time had a special and spiritual aim appears from what follows.
‘And on the first [day] of the week, when we1 were gathered together to break bread, Paul discoursed to them, about to depart on the morrow, and prolonged the word till midnight. And there were many lights in the upper room where we were gathered together. And a certain youth, by name Eutychus, as he was sitting2 in the window, being overpowered with deep sleep, as Paul was discoursing yet longer, fell overpowered by the sleep down from the third storey, and was taken up dead. But Paul went down and fell upon him, and clasping him round said, Be not troubled, for his life [soul] is in him. And when he went up and broke the3 bread and had eaten, and conversed with them a long while till daybreak, so he departed. And they brought the boy alive and were not a little comforted’ (vers. 7-12).
1 ABDE, some twenty cursives, and all the Ancient Versions, as against the Text. Rec., HLP, and most cursives, probably to square with . So in verse following with the scantiest support.
2 seems better than .
3 pm. ABCD–, which Text. Rec. omits with most.
There is no real difficulty or doubt as to the day intended. It was not the Sabbath or seventh, but the first, day of the week marked out to every Christian by the resurrection of our Lord. So we find the disciples meeting on that day, the first of the week – the very day that Jesus came and took His stand in their midst risen from the dead. So it was eight days after, when Thomas was with them and was delivered from his unbelief (Joh 20:19-29 ). It was the day of new (not old) creation, of grace and not law. There was no transfer from the seventh day to the first, nor is the first ever called Sabbath-day; but as the apostles and others who had been Jews availed themselves of the Sabbath and of liberty to speak in the synagogue, so the first day was unequivocally the special and honoured day for the Christian assembly. When they were all together from Pentecost and onwards in Jerusalem we can understand their being day by day in close attendance with one consent in the temple and breaking bread at home. Here we find among the Gentiles, when time had passed over, that the first day called the Christians together as such. This is made the more marked in the passage before us because it is said that Paul discoursed ‘to them’. Twice over it is said that ‘we’ gathered together (vers. 5, 6). The constant duty for all the family of God as distinct from the Jews was to assemble on that day to break bread; the special object of Paul’s discourse then was found in the saints who lived at Troas: ‘Paul discoursed to them’.
This is entirely confirmed by 1Co 16:2 : ‘Every first day of a week let each of you set by himself a store according as he may thrive that there may be no collections then when I shall come.’ ‘The first day’ of the week was clearly a settled institution for the Christian body.
Not the first day but the Sabbath was the memorial of creation rest, which the law imposed in due time as a most holy commandment peculiarly bound up with God’s authority and honour. The resurrection of Christ has brought in a new creation, after having by Himself purged our sins on the cross. Hence the first day is the day of manifest and triumphant life in Christ, our life, when our hearts go forth in worship, communion and service. A bodily rest which one shared with the ox and the ass certainly does not rise up to the blessed associations of Christ risen from the dead. Nor does the canon of the New Testament close without stamping this day as ‘the Lord’s day’ (Rev 1:10 ). Efforts have not been wanting on the one hand to make this a prophetic day with which it really has not one idea in common. For ‘the day of the Lord’ will be one of ever-increasing and solemn judgments from God on the earth, whereas ‘the Lord’s day’ is one of heavenly grace, bringing us already into the victory of His resurrection from the dead, the pledge of our own resurrection or change at His coming. On the other hand it is to lower the character and authority of the first day of the week beyond calculation, to treat it merely as the day appointed by the church.
Thus neither creation nor law nor human arrangement had to do with it. The first of the week is a day marked out by the Lord’s repeated appearing, by the inspired sanction of the Holy Ghost, and by the final sanction of it as devoted to the Lord in the one great prophetic Book of the New Testament; just as the Lord’s Supper (1Co 11:20 ) alone shares, as distinct from all other suppers, the same striking and distinctive designation.
Again, some have sought to lower the breaking of bread at Troas, here spoken of, to the love-feast; but there is no ground whatever for such a notion. From the first, the breaking of bread was appropriated to the Lord’s Supper: so we see it from the beginning of Christianity (Act 2:46 ). It is there clearly distinguished from partaking of food with rejoicing and singleness of heart. Earlier in the chapter, verse 42, the breaking of bread or the loaf refers solely to the Lord’s Supper. This is shown by its surroundings – the teaching of the apostles and the fellowship, the breaking of bread and the prayers. These constituted the united holy walk of the saints, and no doubt they had the most powerful influence on the ordinary habits and necessary wants of believers every day; but it is plain that the verse distinctly speaks of that which was most sacred.
Nor is it denied that ‘breaking of bread’ might be said of an ordinary meal, when the context so demands. So we find on a most impressive occasion where the Lord Himself taking the loaf blessed and, having broken, gave it to His disciples (Luk 24:30-35 ). It remains true however, that where the context speaks of the communion in the breaking of bread, the Lord’s Supper alone is meant. So it is here; and, in this most interesting way, the Lord’s Supper and the Lord’s day were thus bound up together. It was no doubt a time when the assembly enjoyed the exercise of gifts, as here Paul discoursed to them, not ‘preached’ as the Authorized Version says, which might convey the thought of the gospel proclaimed to unconverted souls. ‘Discourse’ is clearly a word of more general bearing, and quite as applicable to those within as to any without.
But the circumstances of this moment were peculiar. Paul was about to set out on the morrow, and extended his discourse till midnight. This gave occasion to the painful incident which befell Eutychus. It was not done in a corner; for ‘there were many lights in the upper room where we were’. The youth so named was sitting on the window-seat; and being borne down with deep sleep, as Paul was discoursing at great length, he fell, overborne by the sleep, from the third storey to the bottom, and was taken up dead. It must be acknowledged that the inspired physician who wrote the account was a most competent witness. It is not merely that he appeared dead, or that he was taken up for dead, as some have said. He was really dead, but Paul went down, fee upon him, as the prophet of old notoriously did, and clasping him said, ‘Trouble not yourselves, for his life (soul) is in him.’ Assuredly the apostle in these words had no desire to make Light of the power of God which had wrought in this miracle.
It may be well to compare with this Luk 8:49-56 , where ‘the spirit’ of the Jewish maiden had departed. But the Lord’s words were enough; and ‘her spirit returned’. Here it was not so: ‘his soul is in him’, said the apostle, though divine power alone could retain it or hinder the proximate break-up.
Some have supposed that when Paul had gone up and broken the loaf and eaten, it was the interrupted celebration of the Lord’s Supper. This appears to me opposed to the intimations of the context. Scripture describes it, not as fellowship, but solely as the personal act of the apostle. No doubt it was ‘the loaf’ of the Lord’s Supper, but it was that loaf now partaken of by the apostle for his own refreshment, after so long speaking and circumstances so trying, about to go forth on his journey. This seems borne out by the word, , rightly translated ‘eaten., or literally ‘tasted’. We can readily understand therefore why the Lord avoids such a word in calling on His disciples to ‘take, eat’, in the institution of His supper. The word could be, and is, used in the most general way, but it is here . Again, the apostle’s ‘conversing’ with them a long while, tilt daybreak, much better suits a meal than the assembly. So, we are told, he departed; as they brought the boy alive and were not a little comforted. The joy much exceeded the sorrow.
Such was the close of the visit to Troas. At this time the apostle appears to have been deeply impressed that his ministry, in the east at any rate, was soon to close. So he had intimated to the saints in Rome a little before, for he lets them know that as he had been hindered these many times from coming to them, so now that he had no more any place in ‘these regions’ he hoped to see them (Rom 15:22 , Rom 15:23 ).
Paul was bent on his ministration of the contribution from Macedonia and Achaia for the poor among the saints in Jerusalem. This done, his purpose was to go on by Rome into Spain, assured of coming to the saints in the capital with the fullness of the blessing of Christ. This deep feeling appears to have affected his ministry wherever he went. It was no doubt in the earnestness to which it gave rise that he had discoursed so long the last night of his stay in Troas.
But now the journey must be entered on. ‘But we, having gone before on board the ship, set sail for Assos, there intending to take up Paul, for so he had arranged, intending himself to go on foot’ (ver. 13). Here was another effect of the same solemn feeling. There is a time for social intercourse, there is a time also for isolation; and the apostle who enjoyed fellowship of heart with his brethren as no saint ever perhaps equalled, realized that it was now a season to be alone. One can hardly doubt that this was by no means an infrequent thing for one so actively engaged in public work as Paul. His habitual piety would dispose him now and then to seek such an opportunity of unburdening his spirit, and of renewing, in a marked and full way, his sense of dependence on the grace of Christ. These secret dealings with the Lord were so much the more needful because the exigencies of the work called for energy and prominence before men.
At this juncture, beyond any question, we see that Paul had appointed to be apart from his beloved companions, who went on board ship, even though it involved his own more laborious progress by land. It is left for us to judge its motive and meaning,1 and we cannot but think that what is here suggested is a better key than the mere notion of a visit to one and another by the way. The general context rather adds to the conclusion that Paul was avoiding all but indispensable visits just then, and that having but a short time for his journey, he gave what time he could spare to the most important objects before his heart. Unnamed visits would scarcely have furthered this aim.
1 Calvin thinks it was for his health, and that his courtesy spared his companions, others for paying visits by the way.
‘And when he met with us at Assos, we took him up, and came unto Mitylene, and having sailed thence on the morrow we arrived over against Chios, and on the next day we touched at Samos, and [having remained at Trogyllium] the day after we came unto Miletus. For Paul had determined to sail past2 Ephesus, so that he might not have to spend time in Asia; for he was hastening, if it were possible for him, to be at Jerusalem the day of Pentecost’ (vers. 14-16).
2 ‘By’ (A.V.) is equivocal as it might mean by that way. ‘Past’ means without stopping there.
There is no spiritual reason to dwell upon the associations which Assos or Mitylene, Chios or Samos, Trogyllium or Miletus might suggest. They are here brought before us simply as the varying points of the apostolic journey, from which it would divert us if we occupied our minds with historical questions interesting enough as to each of them.
Suffice it to say that, although Paul had his heart filled with that which was of the deepest importance for the saints in Ephesus, Miletus was the point of approach, rather than the capital of Asia. Here too the motive seems plain. Had he gone to Ephesus itself, with a strong affection and the many ties he had with the numerous saints there, he could not have left them without a considerable delay. He therefore preferred to sail past Ephesus, that he might not frustrate the object of his journey to Palestine. If one so known and loved and loving as he was had visited Ephesus, he could not have avoided a stay of some length among them. He therefore made Miletus his place of passing sojourn, in order that nothing should hinder the fulfilment of his desire to be at Jerusalem for the day of Pentecost.
On the other hand, it was of the utmost moment that the saints at Ephesus should receive words of wise and gracious counsel at this moment. The apostle therefore adopts a method by no means usual. ‘And from Miletus he sent unto Ephesus and called to him the elders of the church’ (ver. 17). These presbyters were the fitting medium. They had the regular and responsible ecclesiastical charge in that city. We can hardly doubt from the general impression of the rest of the chapter, that they were not a few in number. As this does not fall in with the usual habits and thoughts (not to say, selfishness) of men, the notion slipped in even from ancient times that the elders of all the churches round about are meant. But such a tampering with the word of God is not to be allowed for a moment. The apostle sent to Ephesus and called to himself the elders of the church there, not of the churches around. There may have been many meeting-places in Ephesus, but, as is well known, scripture never speaks of the assemblies, always of the assembly or church, in a city. Hence, however numerous, they are here styled the elders of the church, and they no doubt cared for the affairs of all. Whilst local responsibility was also preserved in its place, unity was not therefore forgotten. Common action would be the natural and proper result. So it was in Jerusalem, as we know from the revealed notices of that assembly, which consisted of many thousands of saints; and so we see it here in Ephesus, though no details of numbers are given. The grand principles of the church prevailed and were the same everywhere, though at first there were Jewish elements at work in Jerusalem if some of them indeed did not linger still. But such unity was of and for heaven, not of Judaism, being pre-eminently of the Holy Spirit. ‘There is one body and one Spirit’ (Eph 4:4 ).
Another matter may claim brief notice here, though it may seem somewhat of an anticipation. The elders of the church are designated ‘overseers’ or ‘bishops’ by the apostle (ver. 28): ‘Take heed unto yourselves and to all the flock in which the Holy Ghost made [set] you bishops, to feed [tend] the church of God, which He purchased with His own blood.’ This identification falls in with every scriptural notice we possess. Such is the genuine inference from 1Ti 3:1-7 as well as from 1Ti 5:17-19 and still more plainly from Tit 1:5 , Tit 1:6 , compared with verses 7, 9, as well as from Act 11:14 , Act 11:15 , Act 11:16 , and 21, and from 1Pe 5 and Jas 5 , no less than Phi 1:1 . The great distinction which soon reigned in Christendom between bishops and presbyters is wholly unknown to the word of God.
Not one, but more were appointed in each assembly or city, where charges were conferred at all. There was regularly a plurality of elders and bishops. They might be men of gift, teachers, or evangelists; but the indispensable work was to ‘rule’ or ‘preside’. This was the object of their appointment, for appointed they certainly were by apostolic authority direct, or indirect when an apostle could not be there (as for instance by Titus commissioned for the purpose by the apostle Paul (Tit 1:5 ). The gifts, on the other hand, were given by Christ without any such intervention. A pastor, teacher, or evangelist, as such, was never nominated by an apostle or an apostolic delegate.
The distinction from elders or deacons, it is well to bear in mind. ‘The seven’ at Jerusalem, who rendered diaconal service, were chosen by the multitude of the believers before they were appointed by the apostles (Act 6:1-6 ). That this election by the church does not apply to elders is plain from every scripture that treats of their appointment, which lay exclusively with the apostles or their expressly authorized deputies. Still less was there by men an election of those so called gifts: in their case Christ chose. As Christ gave them, they preached or taught on their direct responsibility to Him. Where Christians gave of their means, they were allowed to choose dispensers in whom they had confidence. Such is the uniform teaching of the New Testament, and the only legitimate inference from it. The painful departure of Christendom, nationalists and dissenters, Catholics and Protestants, is so glaring that one only wonders how godly men can overlook the facts in the word which make the will of God manifest, or, how, if they apprehend them, there can be indifference to the truth and to the inalienable duties involved by it.
It is the more important to notice the fact that the elders were of ‘the church in Ephesus’, because the old error of Irenaeus re-appears, among other moderns, in Dr. Hackett’s Commentary on this Book. ‘Luke speaks only of the Ephesian elders as summoned to meet the apostle at Miletus; but as the report of his arrival must have spread rapidly, it could not have failed to draw together others also, not only from Ephesus, but from the neighbouring towns where churches had been established’ (pp. 334, 335). The truth is that ancient and modern arrangements are alike inconsistent with Scripture. Irenaeus was embarrassed by the prejudice of episcopacy, as were the authorized translators, but the plurality of elders or bishops from the church in Ephesus is not a whit more compatible with the ‘minister’ of the dissenting bodies. It is certain that neighbouring towns or churches are in this instance wholly ignored, and that the presbyters of Ephesus only were summoned, and are alone addressed. Verse 25 is quite consistent with this. But it will be noticed that the apostle summoned the elders with authority, and that they responded to his call without question. To lower the apostle to the place of an ordinary minister is wholly unscriptural.
‘And when they were come to him, he said to them, Ye know from the first day that I came to Asia how I was with you all the time serving the Lord with all lowliness of mind, and1 tears, and temptations, which befell me by the plots of the Jews; how I kept back nothing of what is profitable, so as not to announce to you and to teach you publicly, and from house to house, testifying both to Jews and to Greeks repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ’ (vers. 18-21).
1 Text. Rec. adds ‘many’, supported by CHLP, et al., but ABDE et al., omit.
Here the apostle does not refrain from reminding them of his own service in their midst. This was a habit of his, as we see very particularly in the First Epistle to the Thessalonians and elsewhere; burning zeal and a good conscience before God alone account for it. Nothing could be farther from his character than liking to speak of himself. He calls it his folly in reminding the Corinthians of his labours and his sufferings; never would he have said one word of either, had it not been of the utmost moment for the saints. They knew very scantily what the glory of Christ demands what the walk and service and devotedness of the Christian should be. They had been conversant only with the gross darkness of heathenism, or with the hollow and pretentious hardness of the Jews. They needed not precept only, but, what is so much more powerful along with it, a living example to form and fashion the ways of Christ.
Unswerving fidelity characterized the apostle’s course habitually, as he says, ‘Serving the Lord with all lowliness of mind, and tears, and temptations which befell me by the plots of the Jews.’ Such an one could well appeal to others who knew him, as he does now with peculiar solemnity to the Ephesian elders. It is not learning or success in ministry which he puts before them, but serving the Lord with all lowliness of mind. How often that service puffs up the novice! What dangers surround even the most experienced! Lowliness of mind is of all moment in it, and the Lord helps by the very difficulties and griefs which accompany it. Paul was not ashamed to speak of his tears any more than of the temptations which befell him through the plots of the Jews, the constant adversaries of the gospel, animated with special bitterness against Paul.
Further, he could say that they knew how he kept back nothing of what is profitable. This needs faith without which fidelity will fail; for the apostle was altogether above the fear of man, and withheld in nothing what was for their good, but announced to them and taught them publicly, and at their houses, testifying both to Jews and Greeks repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
Naturally the subject-matter points to his work from the beginning of his arrival at Ephesus, but also to that which every soul needs as the first testimony of the gospel. Hence we hear of testifying to Jews and Greeks. It is what every man wants that he may come to God. Repentance and faith are inseparable where there is reality, and the language is as precise as we are entitled to expect from one who not only had the mind of God but expressed it like the apostle. As there is no genuine repentance without faith, so there is no faith of God’s elect without repentance. Repentance toward God is the soul judging itself, and confessing its ways as in His sight. Faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ is the soul receiving the good news God sends concerning His Son. ‘Repent’, said Peter on the day of Pentecost to the Jews already pricked in heart, who accepted the word and set to their seal that God is true. ‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, thou and thy house,’ said Paul and Silas to the Philippian jailer and to all that were in his house. How unfounded it would be to imagine that in the one case there was repentance without faith, or, in the other, faith on the Lord Jesus Christ without repentance toward God! In a divine work both are given and found.
The Holy Spirit, Who works all that is good in the soul, takes care that repentance and faith shall co-exist. There may be difference in the outward development. Some souls may manifest more deeply the sorrow of repentance; others may be abounding in the peace and joy of faith, but wherever it is a true operation of God, there cannot but be both. We must allow for the different manifestations in different persons. No two conversions present exactly the same outward effect, some being more simple, others going through the dealings of God more thoroughly. It is well when the repentance toward God is as deep as the faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ is unhesitating. All then goes happily forward with the soul. But this is far from a common case. In most so far as we can see faith may be somewhat feeble, and consequently the soul is not a little tried with the sense of its sinfulness before God. In such circumstances self-occupation is apt to cloud the heart.
The spiritual eye is to be set on Christ as the object of faith, but with scrutiny of self subjectively before God, and hence comes a real judgment of sins and sin. There may not be peace, and there is not when this self-judgment with sorrow of heart begins; but faith in a God revealed to the conscience is surely there, though not yet rest by faith in the accepted and appropriated work of redemption. When Christ’s work and God’s grace are better and more fully known, the self-judgment of repentance is so much the more profound. In this case the judgment-seat of Christ, however solemn, is no longer an object of dread. All is out already in conscience, and the flesh is judged as a hateful thing, and so evil really that nothing but the cross of Christ could be an adequate dealing with it, but there it is now known that our old man was crucified with Him that the body of sin might be done away (not merely our sins be forgiven), so that we should no longer serve sin; for he that died has been justified from sin. As surely as death has no more dominion (sin never had) over Christ Who, having died to sin once for all, lives unto God, even so we also may land should, reckon ourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus (Rom 6:6-11 ). We died with Him.
Repentance toward God then is not the gospel of His grace, nor is it remission of sins, but is that inward work in the conscience by the Holy Spirit’s use of the word, without which the privileges of the gospel are vain and only hurry on the soul the more rashly to destruction. The low views which make repentance a human work as a preface to faith are no less objectionable than the so-called high views which merge all in faith making repentance no more than a change of mind. Neither legalism nor antinomianism are of God, but the grace and truth which came by Jesus Christ. Truth does not spare the flesh or its works, faith and repentance bow in self-loathing to Christ, and grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Repentance then is not mere regret or remorse (which is expressly ); is that afterthought, or judgment on reflection, formed by God’s working through His word to which conscience bows, self and its past ways being judged before God. It is never apart from a divine testimony and hence it is from faith, God’s goodness, not His judgment only, leads to it; and godly sorrow works repentance unto salvation not to be regretted, as the sorrow of the world works death (2Co 7:10 ). ‘I have sinned against heaven and in Thy sight’, ‘God be merciful to me the sinner’: such is its confession and cry in a broken and contrite spirit. The gospel, the good news of grace, is God’s answer.
Next, the apostle turns from his ministry at Ephesus to the prospect before him. He was well aware that the severest trials awaited him (compare Rom 15:30 , Rom 15:31 ), and it would appear, he had no slight presentiment that Jerusalem would prove the source of much that was imminently hanging over him. ‘And now, behold, I go bound in the [or, my] spirit1 unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there: save that the Holy Spirit testifieth to me in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me’ (vers. 22, 23).
l Canon Humphry attaches more importance than is due to the old expositors as Chrysostom, Ammonius, Didymus, who will have the phrase to mean that Paul went ‘led captive by the Spirit’. Usage, as well as the distinction in the following verses, point to his spirit, on which Meyer at last fell back after first taking up the notion of the Greek Fathers. Paul was not free in his spirit for any other direction than Jerusalem, cost what this might.
Though he was not aware of the precise shape, he thus lets it be known that he went with eyes open to that coming pressure of troubles, which was only interrupted for a little while before all terminated in a martyr’s death. He knew further that, whatever might be the close, bonds and afflictions intervened, and what could be more serious for the testimony of the Lord and saints generally to the heart of one who loved the church? Nevertheless God was in it all, for during these very bonds Paul wrote the Epistles which furnish, as we happily know, the fullest and brightest light of Christ and on heavenly things that was ever vouchsafed for the permanent instruction and comfort of the saints of God. We shall see that loving remonstrances did not fail on every side, which must have added so much the more to his grief in resisting all such appeals.
Indeed the apostle here gives the pith of his answer to every entreaty and dissuasive: ‘But I hold not my life of any account as dear to myself, so that I may accomplish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus to testify the gospel of the grace of God’1 (ver. 24). Nothing could frustrate such a resolve. It was to him no question of success, as men speak, nor of present effects, however promising. His eye was on the glory of Christ, his ear only for the will of God. Suffering or death as a sequence he would not allow to deter him for an instant. His Master had shown him, in the highest degree and for the deepest ends, how in a world of sin and misery suffering glorifies God.
l There are minor differences in the readings of the text, but nothing of weight enough to detain us here.
Undoubtedly there was that in the cross of Christ which belongs to none but Himself. The expiation of sin falls exclusively to Him, the infinite Sacrifice, but sacrifice, though the deepest, is far from being the only element in Christ’s death. There were other sufferings which the saints are permitted to share with Him – to be despised, to be rejected, to suffer for love and truth, as well as for righteousness. These sufferings are not confined to Christ, as it was to suffer for sin; and Paul perhaps more than any other was one who could rejoice in his sufferings for the saints, as well as fill up that which was behind of the tribulations of Christ in his flesh, for His body which is the church. The sufferings of the gospel also were for him to glory in; and no mere man before or since ever won so good a title or those honourable scars (Col 1:24 , Gal 6:17 ).
Most truthfully, therefore, could the apostle say that he made no account of his life as dear to himself: nor is it merely before the Ephesian elders that he felt transport, or on any transient occasions of like kind. He had it before his heart to finish his course with joy, and the service which he had received of the Lord Jesus to testify the glad tidings (or gospel) of the grace of God. The large-heartedness of the apostle is as refreshing as instructive. Who had such a crowd of daily pressure on him? Who like him bore the burden of all the assemblies? If he had to do with weak consciences, who could be weak like Paul? Who went out in heart toward one who stumbled as he did? Nevertheless the gospel was as near to his spirit as to the most earnest evangelist. There was no one-sidedness in this blessed servant of the Lord. He was here simply to carry out all the objects of His love, to promote His glory wherever His name penetrated, and Christ is not more the Head of the church than the sum and substance of the gospel.
It will be noticed that the gospel is here designated ‘the glad tidings of the grace of God.’ This appears to be the most comprehensive title given to it in Scripture. Elsewhere the apostle speaks of it as ‘the gospel of the glory of Christ’, where its heavenly side is meant to be made prominent. Again, he speaks of it as ‘the gospel of God’, when its source in divine love is pointed out. Furthermore, we hear of ‘the gospel of Christ’, where He is in view through Whom alone the glad tidings become possible from God to man. In the Gospels we read of ‘the gospel of the kingdom’, looking on to Messiah in power and glory: in the Revelation, of the ‘everlasting gospel’, the revelation of the bruised Seed bruising the serpent’s head. Each has its main or distinctive meaning; but as none can be, apart from Christ, so none of them appears to be so full as ‘the gospel of the grace of God’. Nor is any other designation of it more than this last in keeping with the Acts of the Apostles, as well as with that apostle’s heart who was now addressing the Ephesian elders. The person and the work of the Lord Jesus are fully supposed although not expressed by it; for in whom or through whom, can God’s grace shine out, save in Him or by Him?
‘And now, behold, I know that ye all, among whom I went about preaching the kingdom 1 [of God], shall see my face no more’ (ver. 25). It is his farewell. His work, as to presence in their midst, was ended.
1 The best and oldest MSS. and Versions, save the Vulg., etc., read simply ‘the kingdom.’ Others add ‘of God’, which is meant if not expressed, others of Jesus’, and ‘of the Lord Jesus’.
Here we have another and distinct topic, and one that is apt to be overlooked in modern preaching, viz., ‘The kingdom’. He who examines the Acts of the Apostles will find how large a place it occupies in the preaching not of Peter only but of Paul, and, we may be assured, of all the other servants of the Lord in those early days. It is a grave blank where the kingdom is left out as it is now. Nor is it only that the future according to God is habitually lost to the faith of saints through the unfaithfulness of modern preachers, but thereby the gospel of God’s grace also suffers. For in that case there is sure to be confusion, which, mingling both characters never enjoys the simple and full truth of either 2: for the kingdom will be the triumph of righteousness by power when Christ appears in His glory. A truth it was, most familiar, to those who were bred in the constant and glorious vision of Old Testament prophecy. Christianity, though it open to us heavenly things, was never intended to enfeeble this prospect; rather should it enable the believer to taste its blessing more, as well by imparting a deeper intelligence of its principles as by bringing in the heavenly glory. We can enjoy it in an incomparably larger and more distinct way, and we have its principles explained by a deeper and fuller view of its basis in the reconciling work of the Lord Jesus on the cross.
2 Thus Calvin (Opera vi. 185): ‘Regnum Dei iterum vocatur evangelii doctrina, quae regnum Dei in hoc mundo inchoat, homines renovando in imaginem Dei, donec tandem in ultima resurrectione compleatur.’ (The doctrine of the gospel is again called God’s kingdom, which begins God’s kingdom in this world by renewing men into God’s image, till at length it be complete in the last resurrection.) Calvin was a pious and able man; but the value of his commentary on scripture has been extravagantly overrated. Of course, not a little turns on the spiritual intelligence of him who speaks.
‘Wherefore I testify to you this day that I am pure from the blood of all. For I shrank not from announcing to you all the counsel of God’ (vers: 26, 27). The apostle could thus solemnly attest his fidelity to the trust the Lord had confided to him. (Compare Eze 3:18-20 ). Twice at least (vers. 20, 27) he disclaims expressly that reserve which some bearing the Christian name have not been ashamed to avow as a merit learnt from Him Whose death rent the veil, and Who puts all true followers of His in the light of life, the light which makes everything manifest. Walking in darkness now that the True Light shines is a walk in the flesh without God. With such doctrine no wonder that ‘the hungry sheep look up and are not fed.’
It is a mistake that ‘all the counsel of God’ means no more than the plan of God for saving men unfolded in the gospel. ‘The gospel’ is indeed the preaching of salvation in a dead and risen Saviour; ‘the kingdom’, whether morally or in its fully manifested form, has its own distinct force in God’s reign, as we have seen; ‘all the counsel of God’ rises still higher and embraces His purpose in its utmost extent (e.g., Eph 1:9-12 ).
Having thus solemnly set before them his own ministry, he now turns to the elders and their work. ‘Take heed1 to yourselves and to all the flock in which the Holy Ghost set you overseers to tend the assembly of God which He purchased with His own blood’ [or, the blood of His own One] (ver. 28).
1 The copula ‘therefore’ seems an early addition, but the best copies have it not.
The first of all duties is to take heed to our own selves, whatever may be our position, and this an overseer is more particularly to weigh. For what can be more dangerous than activity about others when there is carelessness as to ourselves? It is not from the word abstractedly, but from its shining on the path of our own experience that most is learnt practically. Undoubtedly we may learn from others, and through others; but how can there be reality, unless we take heed ‘unto ourselves’?
Still the object in appointing elders was to oversee the flock and all the flock. There might be, and in general were, several overseers; but the duty of the overseer is to take heed ‘to all the flock’ where he lives. This is the more important, as it humbles the spirit while it enlarges the heart, for who is sufficient for these things? It tends to neutralize the self-importance of ‘my people’, as well as the rivalry when one thinks of another and ‘his people’. The ‘one body’ was a new thing then; it is absolutely unheard of in modem Christianity. The saints had to learn that God had but one flock here below. There was unity whether in each place or all over the world. Yet the elders had to do with all the flock where they resided, not elsewhere. Eldership was a local charge.
In this the elders are wholly distinct from ‘the gifts’ (Eph 4:8-11 ) which are in the unity of the body of Christ. They themselves of course were members like others, and as such consequently belonged not to ‘a body’, but to ‘the body’. But the office of eldership was within definite limits; the charge did not run beyond the particular assembly or city wherein they were appointed. It is admitted, nay pressed, that no one could claim to be an elder unless he were duly appointed; and it is plain from scripture that none could appoint save the apostles, or one positively commissioned by an apostle for the purpose. In other words the bishops, or elders (for they are identical in God’s word), depended for their due installation on an apostle, directly or indirectly; but when thus appointed, it could be said, as here, that the Holy Ghost set them as bishops or overseers: His sanction accompanied apostolic nomination.
The Authorized Version has gone a little beyond what the inspired word really says, ‘Over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers.’ It is rightly rendered in the Revised Version, ”in the which’. They were thus made to feel that they were in and of the flock of God like every other saint. Nevertheless no one ought to deny that the responsibility of every elder was to rule. For, as the apostle says to Timothy (1Ti 5:17 ), ‘Let the elders that rule well be accounted worthy of double honour, especially those who labour in the word and in teaching.’ They might not all labour in teaching: but they were all set to ‘rule’, or preside, and they were responsible to rule ‘well’. They were expressly appointed to the lead, as that which pertained to their office. They were in the flock, but in the Lord they were over their brethren, though they were by no means the only persons who were.
This in no way interfered with the gifts in the body. Some may be pastors and teachers, others evangelists; but both were on a quite different footing from the elders. The business of the gifted men was the ministry of the word, whether to those within or to those without, and they were accordingly to labour entirely apart from a designated charge over any circumscribed or particular spot. Eph 4 is decisive for this principle and fact. It is not only that apostles and prophets had an unrestricted field of work; the lesser gifts, who were the fruit of Christ’s grace to the church, had a similar title, though in a humbler way. Thus all gifts as such are in the unity of Christ’s body; none of them is merely a local official (as we have seen the elder to be); though he might also be appointed to a charge, his gift otherwise goes beyond it.
The overseers then are exhorted by the apostle to tend or shepherd the assembly of God. Here again we see how strong is the contrast of scriptural truth with the system, which reigns today, of this congregation for one ‘minister’ and that for another. For of old the elders were all as overseers to tend the assembly, and here the whole of it in Ephesus. No doubt their duty was to carry on oversight where they resided; but it was to shepherd the church of God there, and not each one a part of it only.1 The largeness of the scriptural truth is as evident as the contractedness of men’s arrangements ever since apostolic days. Men, in their wisdom, may have judged it necessary to allot a portion to this one and another to that one in the same city; but earthly prudence, however respectable and useful for present interests, is ever to be distrusted in divine things. When in fact the break-up of the flock of God came to pass, the clerical order which had crept in could not but pave the way for not schisms only, but sects, each with their governing functionaries.
1 We may see the same scriptural fact in Phi 1:1 , where King James’s translators left in ‘bishops’, instead of adopting ‘overseers’ as in Act 20:28 . The cases are exactly parallel, as indeed a similar constitution prevailed wherever the apostles visited and supplied full order. The modern ‘minister’ of dissent is as unknown as the traditional ‘diocesan’.
So completely are the children of God fallen from His mind that the various denominations of Christendom are now supposed even by saints to be a providential arrangement, which only enthusiasts could wish to disturb. But as this is not according to the word of the Lord, so it is far from the path of faith. Human reason can never overthrow the plain, sure, and abiding revelation of God’s will as we have it in scripture, the especial safeguard in the difficult times of the last days as the apostle tells us (2Ti 3 ). Difficulties may be enormous, dangers may increase, the trials be immense; but obedience is of all things the most lowly for man and the most acceptable to God. Let every believer weigh these matters as in His sight: His will should be dear to all the children of God.
The apostle then gives the more seriousness to the task which the overseers had before them, by the consideration not only that the assembly was God’s rather than theirs, which it is never said to be (however common may be the word in man’s mouth), but ‘which He purchased or acquired to Himself’.
‘With His own blood’ is beyond controversy a difficult expression, and especially in the best representation of the text, which deserves careful examination. It is not meant that there is the least cloud over the truth that He Who shed His blood for us was God. If the Saviour here was not God, His purchase would have only a creature’s value, and must be wholly insufficient to acquire on God’s part the assembly as it was, yea, as it is. Being a divine person, His gaining it to Himself by blood has an infinite and eternal efficacy.
But the expression, as it stands in the Authorized and Revised Versions is unexampled in scripture; and what is more, as already remarked, it is peculiarly embarrassing for the Christian scholar, because the form of it, now most approved on the best grounds, is extremely emphatic instead of being general. Indeed it would be easier to understand the sense as commonly understood, if the form had been, as in the vulgar reading, . The critical reading, though at first sight it may add to the difficulty, seems however the right one, . But it is suggested that we should take in government rather than in concord. The meaning that results from this would be ‘the blood of His Own One’, i.e., of Christ, His Son, rather than ‘His own blood’. This meaning, if certain, would make all plain.
It was in all probability the perplexity here felt which led some copyists in early days to substitute the church ‘of the Lord’, for that ‘of God’. But this reading, though externally well supported (ACpm DE, et al.), is at issue with New Testament usage, and is thus on the whole inferior to that of the common text, though as far as ‘God’ goes no one need be surprised that Wetstein and Griesbach adopted it; but it is not so intelligible why Lachmann, Tischendorf, and Tregelles are not here found rather with Mill, Wolf, Bengel, Scholz, Alford (in all his editions since the first two), Wordsworth, Westcott and Hort, who hold to .. It is Alford’s mistake that Matthai prefers the same, for in both his editions he follows his Moscow copies, and has the same conflate reading as the Complutensian, (C3HLP, some 110 or more cursives). Other varieties there are, scarce worth noticing on any ground, as, (3,95**), (47). Some ancient versions represent , one old Latin ‘Jesu Christi’, and the Georgian – .
Dr. Scrivener therefore fairly enough says that our choice evidently lies between and , though Patristic testimony may slightly incline to the latter, as he does himself. But why he should consider that the usus loquendi of the apostle, though incontrovertibly sustaining against, , ‘appears little relevant to the case of either’, is to my mind unintelligible. For the utmost that can be said for the immense weight on one side is that it may not have been impossible to have said the other in this sole instance. Scripture beyond doubt is larger than man’s mind; but assuredly he is rather bold or careless who could slight an expression invariably found for one never found elsewhere, and here easily understood to be a change in order to escape a sentiment extremely harsh and unexampled if taken as it commonly is.
It may not be without profit to conceive how the discovery of the Sinai MS., and a clearer knowledge, not only of the Vatican copy, but of other weighty authorities, must have modified, if not revolutionized, the judgment of Griesbach. ‘Ex his omnibus luculenter apparet, pro lectione qeou’ ne unicum quidem militare codicem, qui sive vetustate sive interna bonitate sue testis idonei et incorrupti laude ornari queat. Non reperitur, nisi in libris recentioribus iisdemque vel penitus contemnendis, vel misere, multis saltem in locis, interpolatis. Sed nec versionum auctoritate tueri se potest. Nulla enim translatio habet qeou’ praeter Vulgatum recentiorem, (quam redarguunt antiquiores libri latini,) et Philoxenianam syriacam, . . . Tandem neque apud Patres certa lectionis istius vestigia deprehenduntur ante Epiphanium, . . . Quomodo igitur salvis critcae artis legibus lectio , utpote omni auctoritate justa destituta, defendi queat, equidem haud intelligo.’ (N. T. Gr. ed. sec. ii. 115, Halae Sax. et Lond. 1806). It is now certified, not by Birch only, who might have been more heeded, notwithstanding the silence of the collation for Bentley, but by the personal and expressly minute examination of Tregelles, who rather looked for an erasure, but found no sign of it in B, but as also in . Now no sober and intelligent mind can doubt that the weight of and B is at least equal to ACDE.
Among the cursives, as usual, some may be of slight account, but others are really valuable and undeserving of so sweeping a censure. As to Versions, none can be produced of greater value than the Vulgate and the most ancient and excellent copies, such as the Amiatine, Fuldensian, Demidovianus, Toletanus, et al., as well as the Clementine edition, have ‘Dei’. It is rather audacious to begin with Epiphanius among the Fathers in face of the well-known allusion of Ignatius ( i.) which this verse alone can account for. Greek and Latin Fathers cite the common text, or refer freely to it (as Tertullian Ad Uxorem ii. 3, Clement Alex. ii. 3, 44), though no doubt there is a vacillation which answers to the various readings.
Griesbach also argues on the improbability that Athanasius could have read the text as it stands and deny as he does against Apollinarius that occurs, ascribing such an expression to the Arians; indeed many besides Athanasius objected to such language. And it would have been truly impossible if had been the true reading. But it is not. The majority of later copies may support it, as they do the unquestionably wrong but all late critics agree to follow ABCDE, et al.
It would appear then that the great champion of orthodoxy must have understood to be expressive of Christ, as God’s ‘own’ One. Otherwise the emphasis, if we take in concord, renders the phrase so intolerable that nothing but necessity could justify it. Is there any such need? In other words, if the true text were , we must translate it as in the Authorized Version and all others which were based on that reading now recognized as incorrect; and we could then understand the phrase only as predicated of Him Who is God by what theologians call . And Meyer considers that the true reading was changed to the common but indirect one because , as it ought to be, might be referred to Christ. Daederlein, Michaelis, and other moderns, when they so refer , may have had low thoughts of Christ, but certainly not such was Athanasius, who, it seems, must have so understood the passage. Can it be questioned that the emphatic contrastic force, if we take it as God’s own blood, brings the phrase under what he calls the ?
It is easy to ask for justification by Greek usage. This is exactly what from the nature of the case could hardly be; for in all the New Testament, as there is no other instance of a noun followed by , there is no distinct matter for comparison. But it is to be noticed that, where Christ goes before, what follows is (Heb 9:12 ; Heb 13:12 ). It is reasonable therefore to infer that, as the emphatic contrast would be dogmatically extravagant, the rendering most entitled to our acceptance is ‘through the blood of His own One’. Dr. Hort indeed suggests ‘through the blood that was His own, i.e., as being His Son’s’ (The N.T. in Greek, ii. 99). It may be doubted whether this will commend itself more than Mr. Darby’s.
The general truth is untouched. The question is how best to solve the very real difficulty. The suggested version seems much less objectionable than Dr. Hort’s conjecture at the close of his note, that may have dropped out of the at some very early transcription affecting all existing documents. Conjectural emendation1 in N.T. scripture has never approached a proof of its need or value in a solitary example. He Who gave us His word has watched over it; and we need not distrust Him here.
1 G. C. Knapp, (N.T. Gr. ii. 647, 8, ed. 4th, London, 1824) hazards another guess. ‘Primitively perhaps it was thus written – the church, which He purchased with the blood of His own [namely, Son], Rom 8:3 , Rom 8:32 . Luke elsewhere always speaks simply of the church. Those who referred “purchased” to Christ substituted, from Heb 13:12 , ‘. But leaving out his conjecture, he leans to this version, which he preferred to the usual one
The reasoning of Bp. Middleton (Greek Article, Rose’s Ed., 291-5) is founded on the erroneous vulgar text, and directed mainly against Mr. G. Wakefield, whose version and notes are here, as ever, devoted to the confirmation of his heterodox views. But Michaelis was not so ignorant as to translate the common text as the Bp. says he did, nor ought a writer on the Greek article to have overlooked an emphasis in the repeated article, as compared with the ordinary form, which would be hard indeed to predicate of God as such, when the unemphatic only is applied to Christ’s own blood. It is to be doubted therefore whether Bp. Middleton, or those who cite him in this connection did really comprehend or see the true conditions of the question. For on the one hand the common deduction involves us in thoughts and expressions wholly foreign to scripture, on the other hand, if the Greek can honestly mean by the blood of His own One the balance of truth is at once restored, and the utmost that can be alleged against the construction is that its seeming ambiguity might be supposed improbable for the apostle’s mouth. That it is sound Greek to express this meaning will scarcely be disputed save by prejudiced persons who do not sufficiently bear in mind the graver objections to the other version.2
2 See also J.N.D.’s footnote to the passage in his New Translation (1884).
Returning then from the consideration of the passage, one may conclude that the Text. Rec. is right in reading church or assembly ‘of God’ but wrong in following that form of expression at the close of the verse which would compel us to translate, contrary to all the phraseology of scripture elsewhere, ‘through His own blood’. The reading of all critics with adequate information and judgment might, and ordinarily would, bear the same meaning with the force of a contrasting emphasis, which is never used even of our Lord; if said of God, it is wholly unaccountable. It seems that this moral improbability made Athanasius deny the phrase (found in Ignatius, Clement of Alexandria, and Tertullian) to be in scripture; which nevertheless has it, and has it in the most pointed form, if we are bound to render as scholars usually do, without speaking of the Oriental Versions, which cut the knot by giving ‘the Lord’, ‘the Lord and God’, and ‘Christ’. But it seems only prejudice to deny that tou’ ijdivou may be as legitimately in regimen as in concord: if in regimen, the sense would be ‘of His own One’, and the difficulty of the right text is at an end. In this case the apostle employs unusually touching terms to enforce on the elders to shepherd the assembly of God. which He acquired to Himself through the blood of His own One, special personality being merged in a purchase so beyond measure dear and precious. That the Saviour is the Son of the Father from everlasting to everlasting is certain to the believer, but the Book of the Acts habitually presents the truth from a broader point of view with which the apostolic charge would here coalesce.
Taking heed to themselves as well as to all the flock of God was the more necessary because of the sure and dark prospect which the apostle now puts before them: ‘I know that after my departure grievous wolves shall enter in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves shall men arise speaking things perverted to draw away the disciples after them’ (vers. 29, 30).
On earth it has been always thus. So Moses warned Israel, when he was about to depart (Deu 32:15-33 ). Those under grace, we now learn from the apostle, would behave themselves in the house of God no better than the people under law. And so it came to pass, as the Old Testament shows us: Israel utterly ruined, everywhere dispersed, despised outcasts, nowhere more than in their own land; and so the New Testament everywhere warns of a like result in Christendom.
The Lord Himself, in the great parabolic series of Mat 13 , sets forth its corruption from the beginning. The tares once sown were never to be rooted up until the harvest, and the time of the harvest will be the judgment of the quick on earth. So, in His great prophecy on the Mount of Olives (Matt. 24 – 25), the Lord does not hide the sad future. The evil servant would say in his heart, ‘My lord delayeth His coming’, and would begin to beat his fellow-servants, as well as to eat and drink with the drunken. There cannot be, there is not, either recovery, or a general progress for good. Christ’s appearing in judgment will deal with the evil effectually. It is not shown otherwise in the beautiful picture of the ten virgins, five wise and five foolish. Was not failure apparent and complete, when all slumbered and slept, while the bridegroom tarried? Grace assuredly awakes the wise, who had oil in their vessels, to trim their lamps, and go in with the Bridegroom to the marriage. As for the foolish, who had no oil and are therefore busied here and there in procuring it – in vain, the door was shut. So with the servants that traded with the talents given: nothing but judgment will rectify the wrong done to the Master. Not only is there to be no such thing as universal prevalence of the gospel, but within its own limited range of profession misrepresentation of Christ and opposition to His will are to characterize it to the last. No one denies that there will be, till He comes, as there ever has been, a witness of Christ and truth in life and suffering for His name; but there is also the sad and ever swelling succession of the evil done to that name, not merely by persecution from without, but still more painfully and shamelessly by every spiritual pravity within.
The Epistles entirely confirm and fill up the dark outline presented by our Lord. Of this declension we have spoken perhaps sufficiently elsewhere, but surely 2Th 2 is the adequate testimony, and from an early day: l Tim. 4, and 2Ti 3 fall in with this preparatively. Peter in his Second Epistle (2Pe 2 ), and Jude both announce the same in yet more sombre colours; and none goes more to the root of the matter than John, not only in his Epistles, but prophetically in the Revelation.
Here, however, we have the inroad of the declension stated by Paul as a marked starting-point: ‘I know that after my departure grievous wolves shall enter in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves shall men arise speaking things perverted to draw away the disciples after them.’ There is much unbelief as to this, even among Christians otherwise well disposed. They fail to see that the power of Christianity lies in the ungrieved guidance of the Spirit of God according to His word; and His Spirit can freely work only in Christ’s name to God’s glory. When men act on human principles, where the spirit of the world prevails, ruin is the necessary result. As long as the apostle was here, the spiritual power and influence to restrain was immense. There was then the most vigilant and the most decided resistance to evil of every kind. He knew that after his departure spiritual energy would decay more and more, and that the glory of the Lord would thus be swamped. So easy, so deadly, among the saints of God is compromise, to which amiability, prudence, desire of peace love of numbers, and similar expedients, would expose them.
The commentators tell us that grievous wolves are not persecutors, but rather false friends. Real foes should enter in among those who bear the name of the Lord and spare not the flock. But the commentators are surely wrong in identifying the grievous wolves with those described in verse 30 ‘From among your own selves shall men arise speaking things perverted.’ Surely these are manifestly different classes of evil men, the first more violent, the second more subtle, the first seeking their own gratification and advantage, and the second doing the deadlier work of speaking things perverted to draw away the disciples after them. To take advantage of the flock for selfish means is wicked; to set up self and error in the place of Christ is yet worse, if more seemly in appearance.
Here it may be noticed that the Authorized Version fails to represent the full malignity of the evil. Every party leader seeks to draw away disciples. Here it is the more aggravated effort to draw away ‘the’ disciples after them. It was to mislead them all, to subject all saints to themselves. Hence the apostle’s solemn appeal: ‘Wherefore watch, remembering that by the space of three years I ceased not admonishing each one night and day with tears. And now I commend you to God and to the word of His grace which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all that are sanctified’ (vers. 31, 32).
The ministry of Paul in Ephesus at this latter day was just an answer to what it had been among the Thessalonians earlier, first as nurse, then as father (1Th 2:7 , 1Th 2:11 ). It was for the elders now to watch and not to forget that loving example of love; but love will never abide, never bear the strain, without real faith in God for that work; and therefore the force of his ‘commending them’ to God and to the word of His ‘grace’. It is not commendation to one only, but to both. Without God before the heart the word becomes dry and sapless, and we grow discouraged and impatient, without the word to direct the life, we are in danger from the will and the wisdom, or from the folly, of man. The word of His grace becomes the grand test and resource, while looking to God for every step and in every question. So we find the apostle laying it down by the Holy Ghost in 2Ti 3:15 , which passage also, by the way, helps to decide the true reference of what has been questioned: in Act 20:32 , should it be, ‘which’ is able, or ‘Who’ is able, to build you up? The comparison strengthens the former rendering.
The apostle had thus set before the elders a prospect most grievous, which lapse of time has fully confirmed. Indeed, before his departure the signs of coming evils were already apparent everywhere, so that when his later Epistles more especially prophesied not merely of decay, but of utter ruin, even then he had to speak of the seeds of these coming evils as already sown. No greater error was there than that which ere long began to prevail, and most extensively in modern times, the dream of progress. It is directly opposed to these apostolic testimonies, and no less to the plainest possible facts in Christendom.
Even on the loose estimate of bare profession, how far is the Christian faith from having title to that triumph of which men fondly speak? Indeed, if these vain hopes were realized, would they not present a glaring contrast to all that the Bible teaches us of that which is committed to human responsibility? From Adam downwards the history of man is the history of failure. Not that grace has not wrought, and wrought wonders, in the narrow path of Christ here below; but as the rule, everywhere and always ruin has followed every fresh trial of man, and every fresh testimony of God because of man. Look at him in Eden or out of Eden, before the deluge or since it: have truth and righteousness prevailed for the mass? That God has wrought by individuals, that He has blessed families, that He has owned righteousness in a people, as well as faith wherever His own grace made it good in the elect, is clear. As the race as well as its head broke down, none the less did Israel, notwithstanding the singular favour which God showed; and as the people, so the priests, and so the kings, till there was no remedy, and God swept them from His land, not only by the Assyrian and by the Babylonian powers, but still more by the Roman.
That Christendom is no exception we have already seen, and this not from experience only, but from the distinct, and repeated, and complete testimony of the inspired men who laid its foundation; and yet men venture to hope – ‘to hope’! Is it their hope that the apostolic words will prove untrue? Is it that men; so utterly fallen as they are now in Christendom, will do better than those in whom the Spirit of God first wrought with a power as much beyond consequent as precedent? But alas! poverty in its lowest state is apt to be the proudest. God will surely be true, and every man who opposes Him a liar. This decline from truth then was briefly and profoundly set forth by the apostle about to depart from Ephesus.
Let me notice again how the ordinary translation of verse 30 weakens the force of the last words. It is not merely to draw away ‘disciples’ after them: every heretic seeks to do and does this; but the object of the enemy through these perverse men is to draw away ‘the disciples, the body of those that confessed the Lord on the earth. Not less than the desertion of the whole flock was the blow aimed at the glory of Christ. He only is entitled to the loyalty of all the disciples, and if it is a serious thing for any one disciple to be drawn away from Him, from His will about His own below, how much more to seek the misleading of all! But self-will is blind to all but its own will and soon learns to confound itself with the will of the Master. But think of the dishonour which is thus cast upon His name!
‘Wherefore watch ye,’ says the apostle to the elders, ‘remembering that for three years I ceased not admonishing each one night and day with tears.’ This little glimpse, which necessity wrung out from the apostle’s heart, lets us see his entire devotedness. It was not business, nor the spread of truth even, still less the prevalence of his own opinions for good. It was one who loved Christ, and pressed this devotion to Him and to His own above all on those who took the lead. Untiring, tender watchful care filled his heart, with the deepest feeling habitually and at all cost. Such he would have us feel, as well as those he addressed that day. Who is sufficient for these things? The sufficiency is in and from God.
So Paul continues, ‘And now I commend you to God and to the word of His grace which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all that are sanctified.’ Whatever be the days of danger, difficulty, and ruin, God abides faithful, the Saviour unchangeable, Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and for ever. If all the apostles, since they and the prophets laid the foundation, have passed away, the word of His grace remains as does the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. He only had divine power even when apostles were there. There is no excuse therefore for unbelief. Faith shines the more in a dark day, and devotedness is called out by the sense of His dishonour Who is dearest to the heart.
Nor is there anything in comparison with the word of His grace in ability to build us up. Boldness of thought and beauty of language are all vain if there be not the truth, and the truth is never so sure, and strong and holy, as in His own word, which is truth. This searches the conscience this strengthens the heart, this nourishes faith and makes the blessed hope abounding and mighty in the love which is the strength of all that is good. For love is of God, and God is good, and as His word builds us up now so it gives us the inheritance among all that are sanctified. The word of God truly received delivers from the love of this present age, from the world and the things of the world.
Hence adds the apostle, ‘I coveted no man’s silver, or gold, or apparel; yea, yourselves know that these hands ministered to my necessities and to those that were with me’ (vers. 33, 34). Life in Christ is infinitely blessed and it is the portion of the believer by the grace of God; a life wholly and absolutely different from that old Adam life, which meets its doom not in death only, but in judgment without end. For the Christian our old man is crucified with Christ, that the body of sin might be annulled that we might no longer serve sin, so that each can say, ‘I am crucified with Christ, and no longer live I but Christ liveth in me, but in that I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself for me’ (Gal 2:20 ).
It is ruin no doubt to set aside the grace of God, as the reintroduction of the law must do. But how terrible to give a false unworthy testimony to the grace of God by allowing the desires of that life which should be buried in the grave of Christ! The old man covets silver, and gold, and apparel. All these minister to the lusts of the body as well as of the mind. Love serves others, love with faith alone glorifies God; and it is well when those who teach these things are living ensamples of all they urge on others. How few can say truthfully and throughout with the apostle, ‘I coveted no man’s silver, or gold, or apparel, yea, yourselves know that these hands ministered to my necessities, and to those that were with me. In all things I gave you an example, how that so labouring ye ought to help [support] the weak, and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He Himself said, It is more blessed to give than to receive’ (vers. 33-35).
Then let no one who seems or claims to be a leader now forget them; yea, let us all remember these ways of the apostle and these words of the Lord Jesus. This is certainly not after the manner of men, not yet of Israel, nay, nor of Christendom. They are the words of Christ, and His life here below is the most blessed comment upon them. It certainly is not enjoyment, or present honour, but His love in tending and feeding the sheep of His pasture, looking for the day of reckoning when the Chief Shepherd shall be manifested, and faithful shepherds shall receive the crown of glory that fadeth not away.
Yet the account is not complete without the parting scene which proves that faith in the unseen hinders not, but imparts, the love which is of God in this world of sorrow and selfishness. ‘And having thus spoken, he kneeled down, and prayed with them all. And they all wept sore, and falling on Paul’s neck, fondly kissed him, sorrowing most of all for the word which he had spoken, that they should behold his face no more. And they brought him forward unto the ship’ (vers. 36-38). Such was the bearing of the greatest of apostles. Oh, how fallen from its reality are those who vaunt themselves his successors! How far short are any of us who abhor such pretensions! As truth and love receded, hierarchy in every shape made for itself a throne, as far from the mind of Christ as earth is from heaven. But let us beware lest our love grow cold in presence of abounding iniquity.
Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Act 20:1-6
1After the uproar had ceased, Paul sent for the disciples, and when he had exhorted them and taken his leave of them, he left to go to Macedonia. 2When he had gone through those districts and had given them much exhortation, he came to Greece. 3And 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. 4And he was accompanied by Sopater of Berea, the son of Pyrrhus, and by Aristarchus and Secundus of the Thessalonians, and Gaius of Derbe, and Timothy, and Tychicus and Trophimus of Asia. 5But these had gone on ahead and were waiting for us at Troas. 6We sailed from Philippi after the days of Unleavened Bread, and came to them at Troas within five days; and there we stayed seven days.
Act 20:1 “After the uproar had ceased” This phrase is ambiguous. It does not mean to imply that Paul left Ephesus immediately because of the riot started by Demetrius. Paul did not leave because of the riot, but because his evangelistic work was finished, as Demetrius’ own statements made obvious (cf. Act 19:26).
“Paul sent for the disciples and when he had exhorted them” Paul was concerned with both evangelism and discipleship (cf. Act 20:2; Mat 28:18-20). The gospel, although received individually, becomes a family to which service is due (cf. 1Co 12:7). The goal of local believers was a church!
Act 20:2 “he had gone through those districts” This possibly refers (1) to Illyricum (cf. Rom 15:19) or (2) to the Macedonian cities of Philippi, Thessalonica, and Berea.
“he came to Greece” Greece (Hellas) means the Roman Province of Achaia (cf. Act 19:21). This refers mainly to the city of Corinth. Paul had an extended ministry in this area. During this time he wrote Romans. He was worried about the church in Corinth, as 1Co 16:5-9 and 2Co 2:12-13 clearly show.
Act 20:3 This verse relates to Paul’s travel plans. He often had to change them because of circumstances. In this instance Paul thought it unwise (i.e., a plot by Jews) to board a pilgrim ship heading toward Jerusalem, so he traveled by land.
“a plot was formed against him by the Jews as he was about to set sail” He was possibly planning to sail on a Pilgrim ship that stopped at all ports on the way taking Jewish pilgrims to the festivals in Jerusalem.
“Sopater, Aristarchus, Secundus, Gaius, Timothy, Tychicus, Trophimus” These are probably men from various churches sent to accompany Paul’s special monetary gift to the church in Jerusalem (cf. 1Co 16:1-3; 2 Corinthians 8-9).
1. Sopater is possibly the Sosipater of Rom 16:21.
2. Aristarchus is mentioned in Act 19:29; Act 27:2 and Col 4:10.
3. Tychicus is mentioned in Eph 6:21-22; Col 4:7-8; 2Ti 4:12 and Tit 3:12.
4. Gaius is mentioned in Act 19:29.
5. Trophimus is mentioned in Act 21:29 and 2Ti 4:20.
The following is taken from my commentary on 1 Corinthians (see www.freebiblecommentary.org ).
“the collection” Logia is a term which has been found in the Greek papyri in Egypt as a gift of money for a religious purpose, but not related to a regular tax (cf. Moulton, Milligan, The Vocabulary of the Greek Testament, p. 377). It is uncertain whether in this context it refers to a regular gift or extra gift to the church. Paul began this concern for the poor in Judea from a conversation with James, Peter, John, and Barnabas in Gal 2:10; Gal 6:10. This specific offering was begun by the church at Antioch where Paul and Barnabas served, Act 11:27-30. This offering is mentioned in several NT books (cf. Rom 15:26; 2 Corinthians 8-9; 1Co 16:1). It was an attempt to seal the relationship between the Hebrew mother church and the Gentile churches.
Paul calls this one-time contribution by several names.
1. almsgiving, Act 24:17
2. fellowship, Rom 15:26-27; 2Co 8:4; 2Co 9:13
3. an indebtedness, Rom 15:27
4. service, Rom 15:27; 2Co 9:12″
From 2Co 8:6; 2Co 8:16 it seems that Titus may have also been a church representative. It is so strange that Luke never mentions Titus in Acts. The theory has been that Titus was Luke’s brother and that modesty caused him to omit his name. This may also explain the unnamed brother in 2Co 8:18, who many think was Luke (Origen recorded in Eusebius’ His. Eccl. 6.25.6; A. T. Robertson’s, Word Pictures in the New Testament, p. 245).
F. F. Bruce, Paul: Apostle of the Heart Set Free, comments on Titus and Luke being brothers.
“One explanation of Luke’s silence about one who was such a trusted lieutenant of Paul’s is that Titus was Luke’s brother; cf. W. M. Ramsay, St. Paul the Traveler and the Roman Citizen (London, 1895), p. 390; Luke the Physician and Other Studies (London, 1908), pp. 17 f.; A. Souter, ‘A Suggested Relationship between Titus and Luke’, Expository Times 18 (1906-7), p. 285, and “The Relationship between Titus and Luke’, ibid., pp. 335 f. But if this relationship is maintained, then the possibility that Luke is the ‘brother’ of 2Co 8:18 f. (see. p. 320) is ruled out: Paul’s purpose in sending this ‘brother’ along with Titus was that he should be an independent guarantor of the probity of the administration of the relief fund, and this purpose would have been frustrated if critics had been given an opportunity to draw attention to a blood-relationship between the two. Nothing could have been better calculated to foster already existing suspicions” (p. 339 footnote #5).
Act 20:5 “us” Luke begins again his eyewitness account, which was discontinued in Philippi (cf. Acts 16). The “we” sections are identified as Act 16:10-17; Act 20:5-15; Act 21:1-18; and Act 27:1 to Act 28:1 b.
Act 20:6 “the days of Unleavened Bread” This seven-day feast in mid-April was combined with the one-day Passover feast (cf. Exodus 13). Paul’s Jewish background influenced the way he viewed the calendar. We know nothing of Jews or a synagogue at Philippi, so Paul did not keep this feast for witnessing purposes (cf. 1Co 9:19-23). Perhaps it is just mentioned because he was planning his travel to be in Jerusalem by Pentecost (cf. Act 20:16).
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
And = Now.
uproar = din. Greek. thorubos. Here, Act 21:34; Act 24:18. Mat 26:5; Mat 27:24. Mar 5:38; Mar 14:2. Compare Act 17:5.
called unto. The texts and Syriac read comforted, or exhorted. App-134.
embraced. Greek. aspazomai. Generally translated “salute”, or “greet”. Compare 2Co 13:12.
for. Omit.
Macedonia. Compare verses: Act 20:21, Act 20:22.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Act 20:1 to Act 21:16.] JOURNEY OF PAUL TO MACEDONIA AND GREECE, AND THENCE TO JERUSALEM.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Last week we left Paul in Ephesus, in the midst of a near riot in town, as Demetrius the silversmith got together his companions in trade and pointed out how the preaching of Paul was about to put them out of business. Because these men made little likenesses of their goddess Diana, and Paul was going around telling everyone they weren’t true gods. And so these silversmiths stirred up the city and they were gathered together in the arena crying, “Great is Diana of the Ephesians.” Half the people didn’t know what was going on. But it was quite an uproar, until finally the town clerk stood up and appeased the crowd telling Demetrius that there are courts of law, if he has any real case against Paul and all to bring it before the courts and let it be settled in a lawful matter. The Roman government was in danger; they were in danger of being called by the Roman government to answer for that uproar of which they really had no good answer. So he had then dismissed that crowd of people that had gathered in that town square.
So chapter 20.
And after the uproar ceased, Paul called unto him the disciples, and embraced them, and departed to Macedonia ( Act 20:1 ).
Macedonia, of course, was the northern area of Greece. Greece was divided after the death of Alexander the Great into four divisions. You have Greece, Macedonia, and then the Syria and Egypt. So then Paul, rather then causing any further, he’d been in Ephesus for three years, and his heart now is sort of stirring to go back to Jerusalem. But when he goes back to Jerusalem, he desires to take to the church in Jerusalem an offering from the Gentile churches. For the church in Jerusalem had become very poor. And so Paul was seeking to show the brotherhood of Christianity, and really the support of the . . . really he was trying to show the oneness of the body of Christ, where there is neither Jew nor Greek, one member suffers, they all suffer. So in Paul’s Corinthian epistle he told them when they gathered together on the first day of the week that each man was to bring an offering as he purposed in his own heart. They should give willingly and not by pressure, for God loved a cheerful giver. So Paul wanted now to go through Macedonia and Greece and collect these offerings that he had asked them to take up for the poor saints in Jerusalem. In order as Paul returned to Jerusalem he could take the offerings for the poor brethren there from the Gentiles.
So he embraced those from Ephesus, and he sailed across again to Macedonia, where, of course, was the church of Philippi and Thessalonica and Berea.
And when he had gone over those parts, and had given them much exhortation, he came into Greece. And he stayed there about three months. And when [he found out that] the Jews were lying wait for him, as he was about to sail into Syria, he purposed to return through Macedonia ( Act 20:2-3 ).
Now at that time it was the feast of the Passover and Paul was probably wanting to get back to Jerusalem for the feast of the Passover. But thousands of Jews would come for the feast of the Passover from all over. And there would be many chartered type ships coming from Greece, from Athens, from . . . to go to Jerusalem, they would be filled with Jews coming for the feast. And Paul, no doubt, got wind of a plot to throw him overboard from one of these ships filled with Jewish pilgrims that were coming back for their holy days. And so rather than getting on a ship and being thrown overboard in the middle of the night, Paul took the wise course and rather than coming by ship back to Syria to go to Jerusalem, he went up then again through Macedonia and he went by land on up again to Macedonia. And evidently, the churches there realized that there were real threats being made upon Paul’s life, and so there were several brethren from the different churches that accompanied Paul, in order, no doubt, to afford him a certain amount of protection.
So there accompanied him to Asia Sopater of Berea; and of the Thessalonians, Aristarchus and Secundus; and Gaius of Derbe ( Act 20:4 ),
Now that’s a different Gaius than the one of Corinth.
and Timotheus of Derbe [and that is the Timothy that we know]; and of Asia, there was Tychicus and Trophimus [whom Paul mentions in some of his epistles as his companions]. And these going before waited for them at Troas ( Act 20:4-5 ).
So these fellows went ahead across to Asia and waited there at Troas for Paul.
And so we ( Act 20:6 )
The plural personal pronoun again showing that Luke is a companion of Paul once more.
We sailed away from Philippi after the days of unleavened bread ( Act 20:6 ),
And so that was the feast of the Passover was now over because that was the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
and we came to them in Troas in five days; where we abode with them for seven days ( Act 20:6 ).
Now the trip from Troas to Macedonia when Paul received his vision; saw the man of Macedonia saying come over and help us, and immediately they got a ship and sailed from Troas to Macedonia, that took them only two days. And so here a trip that had only taken Paul two days in the past, took them five days this time, evidently sailing against the wind and probably under adverse circumstances. And it could be some very rough seas and all. And so they came to Troas where they stayed for seven days.
Now upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the next day; and he continued his speech until midnight ( Act 20:7 ).
Now I’ve been accused of being longwinded, but you haven’t had to put up with anything like that.
It is interesting for me to note that it records that they had gathered together on the first day of the week to break bread. So often you will hear the Seventh Day Adventist or others such as Herbert W. Armstrong who believe in Sabbath day worship. You will hear them declare that worshipping on Sunday did not begin until Constantine and he was the one who introduced Sunday worship to the church. Not so. There seems to be indications that the Gentile church worshipped on Sunday, almost from the beginning. Here we find the Gentile church gathering together on Sunday, the first day of the week, to break bread. One of the early church fathers, Tertullian, said that in as much as Jesus rose on the first day of the week, they felt that was the only day really in which the church should break bread. I don’t go along with Tertullian, but it seems that as early as the time of Tertullian, which was before Constantine, that the first day of the week was already a common practice in the gathering of the church.
Now it could be that there was a dispute over which day of the week you should worship the Lord in the early church because in two of Paul’s epistles he makes mention of the fact that it really doesn’t matter which day you worship the Lord. As he was writing to the Romans he said, “One man esteems one day, another man esteems another day. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.” In other words, it really doesn’t matter. Some people esteem one day above another, some esteem another day above another, you know. Whatever, you know, pleases you.
When the church in Jerusalem sent to the Gentile believers concerning their relationship to the law, they mentioned nothing about the observance of the Sabbath day. In Exodus when God gave the Sabbath day law, God said it was a special covenant between Him and Israel. Even as was the right of circumcision a special covenant between God and Israel, but not something that was required of the Gentiles. When Paul was writing to the Colossian church, he said, “Don’t let any man judge you in respect to the eating of meat or of Sabbath days, or new moons or holy days, which were all just a shadow of things to come.” The real substance is Jesus. Therefore, Paul is saying that the Sabbath day was just a shadow. The Sabbath day was what? It was a day of rest where the people were to rest from there labor. As a shadow of the things to come, the substance being Christ, what is he saying? He is saying what Paul, or what the author of Hebrews said in chapter 4, that Jesus is our rest. So the Sabbath day was only a shadow of Jesus who was coming, who has become the rest for His people. And our rest is in Jesus Christ, and in His finished work. So Paul said one man esteems one day above another, another man esteems every day alike. Well that’s me; I esteem every day the Lord’s day. And every day to me is, I live unto the Lord no matter if it be a Saturday, a Sunday, Friday or whatever. I live every day unto the Lord, and so I esteem every day alike. Now my wife doesn’t appreciate that. Because it goes for birthdays and anniversaries too. She says I do that on hers, but I really want special perks on mine. But uh, that’s not so. We went to her favorite place to eat on my birthday.
So they gathered on the first day of the week to break bread. That is to have communion. And communion, it seems, was a very common practice in the early church. That reminder of the broken body of Jesus Christ and of His blood which was shed for our sins. And it was a very common practice in the early church. They did it, it would seem, once a week at least. They did not only though in church, but from house to house. It was a beautiful thing. Christians gathered together, “Let’s break bread together, you know.” It was just a beautiful thing. Now they also had on a weekly basis what they called the “love feasts” in which they also took communion at the end. The love feast is what we would call today a potluck dinner. Where the church would gather together one day a week for these love feasts and everybody would bring something to add to the common table and they would all eat together and then would conclude it with the communion. This love feast was especially significant for the slaves because it was probably the only good meal they had all week long. But in the church there was neither bond nor free, you know, they were all one in Christ. And so, they had weekly these love feasts and that beautiful fellowship.
Now there is a real value, I think, in eating together. There’s just a closeness of communion. I love potlucks. And I love the eating together. You notice how when we go on tour to Israel together, how much closer we seem to get to one another. And I think it’s because we eat together all the time. And there is something that just creates a closeness, a bond, eating together.
And so the early church here gathered in Troas, on the first day of the week Paul preached until midnight.
And there were many lights in the upper chamber, where they were gathered together. And there sat in the window a certain young man named Eutychus, being fallen into a deep sleep ( Act 20:8-9 ):
Now it could be that he had carbon monoxide poisoning. If he was sitting there in the window and there were all of these lights there which, of course, were candles burning; and you know the carbon monoxide going from the burnt candles and probably going out the window and sitting there in the window with all that smoke curling out, it could be that he just got deprived of the oxygen level. And he fell into a sleep,
sunk down with sleep, and he fell down from the third loft ( Act 20:9 ),
Probably, now the windows there, of course, weren’t glass windows, they were just openings, open windows; sitting there in the window he fell out the window into the patio below, three stories.
and he was taken up dead. And so Paul went down, and fell on him, and embracing him said, Trouble not yourselves; for his life is in him ( Act 20:9-10 ).
So, again, a real miracle as God restored life to Eutychus.
It’s interesting Paul fell on him embracing him. There’s an interesting story in the Old Testament of the prophet Elisha and the Shunammite woman whose son died. And Elisha actually did a pulmonary resuscitation kind of a thing. He breathed into him and all, and doing it three times, the young boy revived. Now that doesn’t take away from the fact that there was a definite miracle of God. And God brought life, because you can, you know, if you take a person who’s been dead as long as that kid had been dead, there’s no way any resuscitation is gonna bring him back. But the fact that he did that is interesting to me, in as much as we have discovered today, you know, this resuscitation and cardiac arrest and things of that nature. I’m not suggesting that that’s what Elisha did to the young man, because this young man had been dead for hours. And God brought him back to life.
Here was Paul falling on him, embracing him, much as Elisha did to the Shunammite woman’s son.
So when he was therefore come up again, and had broken bread, and eaten, he continued to talk until the break of day ( Act 20:11 ),
So a slight distraction, and yet, Paul went on talking to them ’til daybreak.
And they brought the young man alive, and they were not a little comforted ( Act 20:12 ).
Now I am certain that the Lord has allowed at times the miracles of bringing back a person to life. We know that this happened in the ministry of Jesus. We know that it happened with the ministry of Peter when he went and brought back to life through prayer Dorcas. But I am also certain that the miracle of restoring life was never for the person but for the people around who were grieving because they were gone. Here it says, “And they were much comforted.” It didn’t say that Eutychus was. But the people that were there were comforted by the fact that he was brought back to life. And that miracle that God works in bringing a person back to life is really never for that person’s benefit. But for the benefit of those that would be sorrowing. And I say that because if ever the Lord should see fit to take me and I am there reveling in His presence, and suddenly I feel my spirit returning to my body, and when my eyes flicker, and when I open them up and I see you with hands laid upon me praying, “Oh God, restore life to him,” the first thing I’m gonna do is bust you in the mouth. We may pray that the Lord restore a person’s life for our benefit, but it surely doesn’t benefit them. “For to be absent from this body is to be present with the Lord.” And so for the sake of the people, God performed this miracle on Eutychus.
“And they were not a little comforted.” I mean, they were really comforted. Actually in the Orient, at death they start shrieking. And the women have a particularly shrill shriek at the time of death. And so when Eutychus fell out the window and they rushed down there and saw that he was dead, these Oriental women probably started their shrieking. And that’s why Paul went down and said, “Oh hush, hush, hush, he’s alright, his life is still in him,” and as God restored life to Eutychus.
And so we went before to ship, and we sailed to Assos, and there we intended to take in Paul: because he had decided to go by foot ( Act 20:13 ).
Now from Troas to Assos is twenty miles by land and thirty miles by sea. You have to go around the cape there. And Paul wanted to walk. You know, I think that walking is one of the greatest ways to meditate. I think it’s a tremendous way to sort of collect your thoughts. When you have a decision to make, it’s amazing how that in walking you can sort of sift things out. And I think Paul just had a lot of things to sift out in his mind. And so he said, “You guys just go ahead and go in the boat and I’ll meet you over at Assos, I’ll just walk.” And so he walked that twenty miles as they went around by ship and met him then at Assos.
And he met us at Assos ( Act 20:14 ),
Luke evidently went in the ship,
we took him in, and we came to Mitylene. And we sailed from there, and came the next day over against Chios; and in the next day we arrived at Samos, and we tarried at Trogyllium; and the next day we came to Miletus ( Act 20:14-15 ).
Which is about thirty miles from Ephesus. And from there they sent messengers up to Ephesus to tell the elders at the church of Ephesus to come down and meet Paul at Miletus because he was in a hurry. He didn’t want to go all the way up to Ephesus and back because he desired to get to Jerusalem in time to participate in the feast of Pentecost.
So from Miletus they sent to Ephesus, called the elders of the church. And when they were come to him, he said unto them, You know, that from the first day that I came to Asia, what manner of life I have lived among you at all seasons, serving the Lord with all humility of mind, with many tears, and trials, which befell me by the lying in wait of the Jews ( Act 20:17-19 ):
Paul said, “You know that how from the very first day when I came into Asia, the way I lived among you. For I have been serving the Lord with all humility of mind.” Paul always saw himself as the servant of the Lord. And I think that that is an important mental attitude for everyone who is in the ministry to maintain. I am a servant of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, everything that I do, I must do to the glory of God. I should not be doing anything for the glory of man. For whatever I do, word or deed, do all to the glory of God. Not seeking to be a man pleaser, but seeking to please the Lord, knowing that of the Lord I am going to receive my rewards. And so Paul said, “You know that my attitude the whole while I’ve been with you is one of a servant of the Lord, serving Him in all humility of mind.”
The man who has received a true vision of the Lord is a man who has humility of mind. That man who is proud has not had a true encounter with God. No man can have a true encounter with God and still maintain a prideful position. In seeing God, in really seeing God, I see myself. And I realize how nothing I am. Isaiah said, “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord high and lifted up, sitting on the throne. And His glory filled the temple. Then said I, woe is me” ( Isa 6:1 , Isa 6:5 ). Hey, that’s always what a man says when he really sees God, “Woe is me!” Peter, when he saw the Lord, said, “Depart from me, Lord! I’m an unclean man” ( Luk 5:8 ). Daniel, as he talked about his vision and all, he said “Then my beauty was turned into corruption” ( Dan 10:8 ). Seeing God is an important thing. Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” ( Mat 5:3 ). But that poverty of spirit always comes to the man who has had a true encounter with a living eternal God. You cannot stand in the consciousness of the true and the living God and still maintain that prideful state. And so, “I’ve been serving you,” Paul said, “with all humility of mind, and with many tears. And in real trials, tribulations, because the Jews were always lying in wait to ambush me.”
Paul said,
And how I’ve kept back nothing that was profitable unto you ( Act 20:20 ),
Paul gave himself for the people because he was serving the Lord. You see, as a minister of Jesus Christ, He requires that I be the servant of the body. Jesus said that if any of you would be chief, then let him become the servant of all. He’s talking about the ministry, talking to His disciples. So my serving the Lord involves my serving you. And Paul talks about his service to the men and the people there in Ephesus.
How I held back nothing that could [benefit you or be of] profit to you, but I have showed you, and taught you publicly, and from house to house ( Act 20:20 ),
So both in the public gatherings there in the . . . where was it we studied it . . . that place in Ephesus where Paul was teaching . . . come on, someone help me . . . Tyrannus, yes, very good. You get an A. The school of Tyrannus publicly, but then also from house to house. Now notice Paul said, “I was showing you and teaching you.” Sometimes the best lessons are object lessons. If our lives don’t show it, the teaching becomes meaningless. As a minister, I have to not just proclaim, I must live by it. Showing you, demonstrating by my life, the lifestyle that I lived among you, as well as teaching you. And so that faithful minister.
Testifying both to the Jews, also to the Greeks, repentance towards God, faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ ( Act 20:21 ).
So Paul was teaching their repentance, the necessity of repentance toward God and faith towards Jesus.
And now, behold, I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that are going to befall me there: except that the Holy Spirit is witnessing in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions are waiting for me ( Act 20:22-23 ).
“I really don’t know what’s going to happen to me when I get to Jerusalem. All I know is that I am to be bound and I am to be imprisoned. The spirit is warning me this everywhere I go.”
But none of these things disturb me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy ( Act 20:24 ),
“My chief desire is to finish my course with joy. It doesn’t bother me that I have to be imprisoned. It doesn’t move me that I’m going to be bound. My chief desire is to just to finish my course.” So Paul’s great drive to finish that course that God had set before him. He finally wrote to Timothy and he said, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished the course.” That was his last epistle just before being beheaded by Nero. “I fought a good fight, I finished the course. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, our righteousness judge, shall give. Not only to me, but to all those who do love His appearing” ( 2Ti 4:7-8 ).
It’s just a shame that Paul didn’t know the power of positive thinking, and positive confession. He could have escaped an awful lot of things. But, poor fellow, he was beheaded suffering for Jesus’ sake. Because he didn’t know that it was God’s will that no one should suffer. That it’s a lack of faith or commitment that anybody would suffer. Poor Paul. I trust you know that my tongue is in my cheek.
I love this. I love commitment. Give me some men who are stouthearted men who will fight for the right they adore. Start me with ten who are stouthearted men and I’ll soon give you ten thousand more. I love Paul; he was a stouthearted man. I mean, he was committed to a cause, a cause of Jesus Christ. And hey, nothing was going to detour him or deter him from finishing that course with joy.
So, “Well, it’s probably the last time I’ll see you, but it doesn’t bother me. I know I’m going to be thrown in jail. Beyond that I don’t know. But I’m not worried by this. For I do not count my life dear unto myself. What I really desire is just to finish my course with joy,”
and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus ( Act 20:24 ),
What is the ministry, Paul, you have received of the Lord Jesus?
to testify of the gospel of the grace of God ( Act 20:24 ).
Testimony of the gospel of the grace of God. What is the gospel of the grace of God? God loves you, no matter how badly you failed. No matter how deeply you have sunk into sin, God loves you. But God hates sin because He loves you. And God knows what a destructive force sin is. And because God loves you so much, He doesn’t like to see you being destroyed. And so He hates that which is destroying you. God loves the sinner. God hates the sin. Because He loves the sinner. And He sees what sin is doing. The blighting, damning influences of sin on a person’s life. And so God hates the sin, because He loves the sinner. And so God has made provision to free a person from that power of sin, by sending Jesus Christ, His son, who took our sins and died in our place. That by our believing in Him we can be forgiven from whatever sins we may have ever committed. And through faith in Him can receive power over that bondage to corruption. And one day, as we are translated by the spirit into His presence, we will be freed from even the presence of sin. So that is the gospel of the grace of God. Not because I deserve it, not because I merit it, but just because God loves me.
It was necessary that Paul should testify of the gospel of the grace of God, because nature, though it reveals God to man, does not reveal the grace of God to man. There is no gospel of grace in nature. Nature testifies to the God of law; to the God of power; to the God of wisdom; to the God who loves beauty; to the God of orderliness. But there’s no testimony in nature to the gospel of the grace of God, and that is why God has called men to bear testimony of the gospel of the grace of God. And this testimony began with Jesus Christ. For the law came by Moses, but grace and truth by Jesus Christ. And so Paul testifying the gospel of grace.
And now, behold, I know that ye all, among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God, shall see my face no more ( Act 20:25 ).
Now this is what Paul felt. He’s talking out of his heart. There are indications from some of the secular historians or early church historians that Paul did get to see those in Ephesus once again. The book of Acts leaves Paul sort of imprisoned in Rome awaiting his trial before Nero. But according to church history, the early church historians, Paul’s first appearance before Nero ended in an acquittal by Nero. And that Paul was released for a time, and just what happened during that period we don’t know for sure. There are stories that he came back to the church of Ephesus for a time. And also stories that he went to Spain with the Gospel.
Secular history gives us something quite interesting. You remember Jesus told His disciples that, you know, that, “They’re going to bring you before the judges and before magistrates and before the kings. And don’t take any forethought what you’re going to say in the hour that you’re there the Holy Spirit will give you the words to say. And it will give you an opportunity to witness.” Now Paul took this literally. Every time he was brought before a judge, a magistrate, or a king, Paul took the opportunity to witness. And the higher up the guy was, the heavier Paul laid on the witness. Because Paul, I think, always felt, “Man, if I can convert this guy, wow,” you know. And so when he finally got before King Agrippa, I mean, he was really pushing, pushing hard. “Agrippa, do you believe the scriptures? I know you believe the scriptures,” you know. And he said, “Wait a minute, wait a minute, back off, Paul. Wait a minute,” you know. “Are you trying to convert me?” Paul said, “Oh, how I wish I could.” Because I’m sure that Paul, and we’ll get to that in a few chapters now, Paul’s defenses were fabulous. I mean, Paul really was pressing. Because he, no doubt, thought, “Wow, if Agrippa would just accept Jesus Christ, what an influence this could have.” Well, imagine when he got to Nero. I imagine that Paul really pressed the claims of Jesus Christ on Nero like nothing we have ever heard. I’m certain that Paul thought, “Wow, if I could just win Nero to Jesus Christ.”
Now, as you follow secular history, you will find that Nero wasn’t such a bad guy in his early reign of the Roman Empire. He did some good things. But there came a time in Nero’s life where he had almost a total personality change. Where he became a beast. In fact, that’s what they called him in those days, “the beast.” It was as though he had a total change of personality, like a man who was almost demon possessed. And if you will study the secular history, you will find that this dramatic change came in Nero just about the time that Paul witnessed to him. I believe what happened is that Paul did lay on such a heavy witness to Nero, that it was a now-or-never situation for Nero’s salvation. And in turning his back upon the Gospel, I believe he became possessed by an evil spirit. And that is why he became such a beast.
He released Paul on the first trial, but soon called Paul back from Ephesus and beheaded him, as he turned into that beast. So Paul is saying, “I don’t think I’m going to see you again.” It seems that maybe he did get to see them again.
Wherefore I call you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men. For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God ( Act 20:26-27 ).
Paul felt it very important that he be up front with people as far as the Gospel is concerned. To declare the truth, the whole counsel of God to man so that he would not be accountable for them. “I’m free from the blood of all men because I haven’t shunned to tell you everything, the whole counsel of God.”
Now take heed therefore unto yourselves, and unto the flock, over which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, that you feed the church of God, which he has purchased with his own blood ( Act 20:28 ).
And this is the charge and the responsibility that God has placed upon the ministers: to feed the flock of God. But it is so difficult to find pastors today who will really feed the flock of God. We get letters by the hundreds. The other night when I was in Indianapolis, scores of people afterwards said to me, “Would you please start a work here in Indianapolis? We’ve been praying for five years that God would establish a Calvary Chapel here in Indianapolis. We want a place where we can just go and be fed the Word of God.” People are hungry to be fed the Word of God. And so Paul said to these overseers of the church of Ephesus, “Feed the flock of God.” Peter in writing his epistle said, “Feed the flock of God which is among you.” Jesus said to Peter, “Feed My sheep.” I don’t know why pastors don’t realize that this is the most important function of a pastor is to feed the flock of God. We have those who are seeking to entertain the flock of God. And then God help us, unfortunately we have those who are seeking to fleece the flock of God. But how few are really feeding the flock of God.
Also of your own selves.
For I know this ( Act 20:29 ),
The reason why to feed them is in that they might become strong. Because wolves are going to come in.
after I depart grievous wolves are going to enter in among you, not sparing the flock ( Act 20:29 ).
Paul stocked them that would come in. Weird concept and ideas. Men who would try to draw groups after themselves. There’s always that. God establishes a work, and then there are always those who try and come in. Even out of your own midst, there will come those who will try to break off a group, to bring them as after themselves. Sad and tragic. Paul when he was writing to the Ephesians said that God has placed in the church, apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastor-teachers, for the perfecting of the saints for the work of the ministry. That’s what we’re here for. That you might be fed the Word of God, that you might be perfected for the work of the ministry. The building up of the body of Christ. Until we all come into the unity of the faith of the knowledge of the Son of God. Into that complete person. Unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of the image of Christ. That you be no more as babes who are tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine and slight cunning of men who lie in wait to deceive. The greatest burden on the heart of Paul, the greatest grief and sorrow were those men who would come in to prey upon the flock of God. To draw men after themselves. And so Paul said to these Ephesians, “I know that after I depart there are going to be grievous wolves that are going to enter in, not sparing the flock.”
Also out of your own midst shall men arise, who will be speaking perverse things [not really teaching the word of God, teaching the concepts of man], who try to draw disciples after them. Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one of you night and day with tears ( Act 20:30-31 ).
It doesn’t make any difference. There are always those foolish little sheep that will go traipsing after any bell. And though Paul warned them three years night and day with tears that, “Hey, get sound in the Word, get founded in the Word.” Yet I know that, you know, they’re going to, you know, that they’re going to rip some of you off.
And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and give you an inheritance among all them that are set apart by God ( Act 20:32 ).
I commend you to God and the Word of His grace. Oh, it’s that which is able to build you up and bring us into that glorious inheritance.
I have coveted no man’s silver, or gold, or apparel ( Act 20:33 ).
Oh, God, give us more Pauls.
Yea, ye yourselves know, that these hands have ministered unto my necessities, and to them that were with me ( Act 20:34 ).
“Hey, fellows, you’ve seen the calluses; I’ve worked with my own hands. I’ve took care of myself and those that were with me. I, you know, I earned my living. I didn’t covet your silver or gold or apparel. I wasn’t here to rip you off or to fleece you. I was here to minister and to feed you.” Now he was telling them that because those false prophets are always seeking to fleece the sheep. Always some new gimmick to take a second offering or a third offering. Always the emphasis upon your giving to God rather than what God has given to you. Watch that one who is constantly emphasizing what you ought to be giving to God. The New Testament emphasizes what God has given to you.
I have showed you all things, how that so laboring you ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of our Lord Jesus, who said, It’s more blessed to give than to receive ( Act 20:35 ).
We just completed a conference with the worldwide distributors of Maranatha music. They’ve come in from all over the world: Africa, Singapore, Philippines, Hong Kong, Europe, distributors of Maranatha music. We had a farewell luncheon with them Friday in which these distributors got up and just sort of expressed themselves concerning the conference that they just had. And they said, “You know, been to a lot of conferences but never one like this. It seems that all the conferences we go to their always trying to get something from us, but when we came here, you’ve been ministering to us. It’s like you’re giving and trying to give to us rather than taking from us.” And I said, “You have just stumbled on to the philosophy of Calvary Chapel. We exist to minister to people, not to be ministered to by people. That’s our basic philosophy. We’re here to give, not to receive. And that is why there is never an emphasis upon your giving. The emphasis is always upon what God has given to us. And we are here to give to you in the name of Jesus Christ.”
And it is so blessed to be able to go onto the radio all over the United States, not to be ministered to by the people, “Now, friends, please send in your offerings this week. Because if we don’t hear from you this week, we’re so far behind in our bills and all, we’ve got to hear from you this week.” Never, never, never. We are just there to minister God’s Word to the people all over the country; to give. And thus, we send out the literature, we give away thousands upon thousands of tapes every year. Get the word out. We give away music albums. Get the music out, get the word out. People write and say, “Can we duplicate your tapes?” and we say, “Yes!”
I read in Christianity Today, someone wrote a letter into Christianity Today and they told how that they had problems their church was wanting to sing choruses. And so how they found out that they couldn’t copy choruses on a little chorus sheet without infringing on the copyrights of those choruses. And so they wanted to print up these chorus sheets for their church and they sent to all of the publishers asking for permission and they all demanded a royalty. Just for these little, you know, mimeograph chorus sheets for the church. He said there was only one publisher who told us just go ahead, use it freely. He said it was Maranatha Music. And I said, “Praise God.” “To give,” Paul said, you know, “Our Lord told us it’s more blessed to give than to receive.”
Now, if we take that philosophy, God takes care of us. God takes care of the church. He more than supplies for our needs. But we never have to emphasize that side. God takes care of that side. Jesus said if you seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, all these other things will be added to you. But these poor unfortunate pastors who are striving to attain find themselves trapped. Because if you strive to attain, then you have to strive to maintain what you have attained. And you get in that position of constant pressure, constant striving. “Now what new gimmick can we include in our letter this week, you know to get the people to send more bucks to us, you know.” You get in that trap and it seems there’s no way out. If we would only learn, Jesus has established the principle, “It’s more blessed to give than to receive.” And if we give freely, even as we have received freely, God will take care of our needs. As He has proved, I believe that He has chosen to use Calvary Chapel more or less as a example of what God can and will do if we just follow His principles. And all over people look to us and say, “Well, Calvary Chapel is different.” Sure it is, a whole different philosophy. We are here to minister rather than to be ministered to. We’re here to give rather than to receive. And God takes care of the needs. More than takes care of the needs. He so blesses that we’re able to sponsor “The Word for Today” all over the world. He is so good. Ah, when will people learn?
And when he had thus spoken, he kneeled down, and prayed with them all ( Act 20:36 ).
I can picture on the beach Paul the apostle; the ship is waiting off shore. There’s a little dinghy there. And here are the elders of the church of Ephesus and Paul sitting on the beach there with them and he’s talking and saying, “Hey, now feed the flock of God. Just take care of them. Because wolves are going to come in, and you know I’ve warned you with tears.” I’m sure that Paul was crying now. And he said, “Watch over them. It’s more blessed to give than to receive.” And then I can see the circle of men kneeling as they join hands in prayer, not knowing what the future holds.
And they all of them began to weep, and they fell on Paul’s neck, and they kissed him. Sorrowing most of all for the words which he spake, that they would probably not see his face again. And they accompanied him unto the ship ( Act 20:37-38 ).
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Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
Act 20:1. ) Demetrius did not succeed in his attempt. Paul remained until all was quiet.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Act 20:1-6
PAUL REVISITS MACEDONIA
Act 20:1-6
1 And after the uproar ceased,-There is no evidence that the uproar of the mob caused Paul to leave Ephesus; it might have hastened his departure. He had determined before that event to leave the city. (Act 19:21-22.) Luke, the writer, is very brief here and passes over without a word an important period in Pauls life. We are able to fill up the gap in the narrative from scattered references in Pauls writings, especially from Second Corinthians. It seems that Paul left Ephesus by land and went by land to Troas; he waited there anxiously for Titus (2Co 2:13), whom he had sent to Corinth on a mission connected with the collection then being made by the Gentile churches for the relief of the poor saints in Jerusalem. For some cause Titus was delayed, and Paul sailed from Troas to Macedonia, where Titus met him with news from Corinth. (2Co 7:6.) Some think that Paul met Titus at Philippi, where he wrote the second Corinthian letter.
2 And when he had gone through those parts,-We do not know why Luke did not tell of Pauls sojourn in Troas (2Co 2:12 f), nor of the meeting with Titus in Macedonia (2Co 2:13 to 2Co 7:16), nor of Pauls visit to Illyricum (Rom 15:19 f.), to give time for the second letter to Corinth to do its work. Paul finally came into Greece or Achaia and came to Corinth, whither he had at last come again after repeated attempts, delays, and pauses. Paul followed his usual custom of visiting and conferring with the churches already established. (Act 15:41 Act 18:23.) We may know that Paul preached the gospel on his way to Corinth (2Co 10:16), and made excursions into the surrounding parts of Achaia, with Corinth as his headquarters.
3 And when he had spent three months there,-The historian Luke here briefly refers to Pauls second residence in Corinth. Some think that this was his third visit to Corinth. (2Co 13:1.) He may have made a short trip to Corinth during his three years stay at Ephesus. He had been away from Corinth three years, and in that period many changes had taken place in the church. There were the disputes about the Lords Supper, the divisions into different partisan groups, the immoral lives of some of the members, and many other evils that needed to be corrected. During the three months of his stay at Corinth, Paul wrote the great epistle to the Romans. (Rom 15:25 Rom 16:1.) The Galatian letter was possibly written at this time also. A plot was laid against Paul by the Jews while he was there, as he was about to set sail for Syria. Paul, having heard of this plot, changed his course and, instead of sailing for Syria, he returned through Macedonia. We do not know what this plot was, but we do know that it caused Paul to make a circuitous route through Macedonia.
4 And there accompanied him as far as Asia,-Seven brethren accompanied Paul: Sopater of Berea, Aristarchus and Secundus of Thessalonica, Gaius of Derbe, Timothy and Tychicus and Trophimus of Asia. We know nothing further of Sopater; Aristarchus has been mentioned before (Act 19:29) ; he was on the ship with Paul on the way to Rome (Act 27:2); and he is mentioned in Col 4:10 as Pauls fellow prisoner. We know nothing further of Secundus; Gaius was probably a friend of Timothy, who was from Lystra, a neighboring city to Derbe. Tychicus is mentioned four times in Pauls writings during his imprisonment at Rome. (Eph 6:21; Col 4:7; 2Ti 4:12; Tit 3:12.) Trophimus was with Paul in Jerusalem (Act 21:29), and is mentioned in 2Ti 4:20. Paul was carrying a contribution contributed by the Gentile churches; hence, these brethren could assist him and serve as a bodyguard to him.
5 But these had gone before,-It is probable that only the last two went before and were waiting for the company at Troas. Here the language of the narrative suddenly changes from the third person to the first; Luke has now joined Pauls company. Paul and Luke were together from the time of the arrival of Paul at Troas (Act 16:8); they crossed over together into Europe, but when Paul left Philippi (Act 16:40), Luke was left behind, and, it has been supposed, made Philippi the center of his work for several years. Now again, after the lapse of five or six years, they meet. The remainder of the Acts is told by an eyewitness of the various events recorded; we conclude that from this time till Paul was entrusted to the charge of the soldiers at Rome Luke was continually with him. Many think that the seven brethren went before and waited for Paul and Luke to come to Troas.
6 And we sailed away from Philippi-Philippi was about ten or twelve miles from the seaport, Neapolis. They had come to Philippi by land. They remained there during the days of unleavened bread. This was the Passover. The Passover proper lasted only one day, the fourteenth day of the first month, but there followed the Passover seven days, known as the Feast of Unleavened Bread; hence the two feasts were united and one name included tba Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, or the Feast of Unleavened Bread included the Passover. Paul was a Jew and Luke was a Gentile. The passover was to be eaten in Jerusalem ; it may be that Paul remained here during this time to preach the gospel to Jews that might assemble. Again, the Feast of Unleavened Bread is mentioned as a chronological note of time; Paul did not tarry at Philippi to observe the Passover, but remained there that Luke might arrange and prepare for the journey. They set sail for Troas and arrived in five days; six years before this Paul had made the voyage in the opposite direction in two days. (Act 16:11.) It may be that adverse winds delayed their sailing. They remained in Troas seven days.
PAUL AT TROAS
Act 20:7-12
7 And upon the first day of the week,-This is the first time that we have mentioned services upon the first day of the week. Paul had written First Corinthians before this; in that letter he had designated that collections or contributions should be taken on the first day of the week. (1Co 16:2.) He tells us that he had given the same order to the churches of Galatia. (1Co 16:1.) This shows that it had become a well-established custom for the early Christians to meet on the first day of the week; this custom is now a command, or rather, there is a command for this collection to be taken on the first day of the week. They had met at Troas or gathered together to break bread on the first day of the week. To break bread is from the Greek klasai arton, which is the same as in Act 2:42. This is used for the Lords Supper; hence, we have here the purpose of their gathering together on the first day of the week. Paul was present and discoursed with them, purposing to leave Troas on the following day. However, he prolonged his speech until midnight. Pauls preaching was incidental, though instructive. Paul reasoned with them, and the conversation was used to solve doubts and clear away difficulties which might be in the way of some young Christians.
8 And there were many lights in the upper chamber-They were gathered in an upper chamber for the services. The upper room was used for devotional purposes; it was so located as to be retired and free from disturbance. It was located on the third story. The lights are mentioned by Luke to portray the scene, and it would at once be noticed if anyone absented himself from the audience.
9 And there sat in the window a certain young man named Eutychus,-Perhaps this young man sat on the window sill where the seats extended out over the street; the window was not of glass; hence, one could fall out the window very easily. This certain young man is called a lad in verse 12. Pauls discourse continued until midnight and the young man was borne down with deep sleep, and while asleep, he fell down from the third story, and was taken up dead. Eutychus was not merely taken up for dead, but was taken up dead. This is recorded by Luke, the physician, who was present and knew all the particulars.
10 And Paul went down, and fell on him,-Paul went down the stairway, which was usually outside and led down to the street. Paul fell on him similar to what Elijah (1Ki 17:21) and Elisha (2Ki 4:34) did; Paul very likely placed his body upon the body of Eutychus as did Elijah and Elisha, and accompanied his action with prayer. Paul told the anxious ones who stood around that they should not make such ado, for the young mans life was in him. This is similar to what Christ said at the house of Jairus. (Luk 8:52-53.) Paul did not say that Eutychus had not been dead, but that after his efforts life was there. Some had attempted to prove that Eutychus was not dead, but the language clearly implies that he was dead, but now is alive.
11 And when he was gone up, and had broken the bread,- Commentators are not agreed as to whether the Lords Supper was meant by had broken the bread or a common meal. If this was the Lords Supper, and if they counted the day from midnight to midnight as we count it, then they ate the Lords Supper on Monday ; if they ate the Lords Supper on Monday, they did not do what they met to do on the first day of the week; again, if this was the Lords Supper, and if they began counting time from sunset to sunset, then they ate the Lords Supper on the first day of the week. If this does not refer to the Lords Supper, it refers to a common meal; this would mean that they had already eaten the Lords Supper, and now, since there had been an interruption in Pauls discourse by the falling of Eutychus out of the window, Paul took nourishment and continued his speech. It seems better to conclude that this was not the Lords Supper, but that it was a common meal which Paul ate in preparation for his expected departure. It is mentioned with particular reference to Paul, not to the worshiping company; hence, we conclude that the Lords Supper had been observed at an earlier period of the meeting, and therefore, on the first day of the week, as they had met for that purpose on that day.
12 And they brought the lad alive,-The young man was brought into the assembly room in a normal condition; the word brought, not carried, shows that he was in a normal condition. The disciples were encouraged by Pauls speech and comforted by the fact that the young man was alive and in a normal condition. Paul and his company departed as they had intended, and left the brethren further instructed and hopeful as the Lords people.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Restful and mastered by Christ, Paul was yet restless and resistless in devotion to the enterprise of his Lord. These facts are evident throughout this chapter. We follow him in rapid movements, always calm and confident. After tarrying in Greece for three months, he found that a plot was laid against his life and quickly passed overland. Detained in Troas, he ministered to the saints and strengthened their hearts.
It was while here that Eutychus, overcome with sleep, fell to death, from which Paul raised him.
In taking farewell of the elders of Ephesus the apostle delivered an address characterized by great clarity and beauty. Reviewing his own work, he made no apology. His care for the flock was tenderly expressed. As for himself he was going to Jerusalem bound in spirit, and was certain that suffering awaited him. Yet there was no shrinking. Life itself was not dear to him, his only passion being the fulfilment of his ministry for Christ.
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
a Messenger of Truth and Life
Act 20:1-12
The Second Epistle to the Corinthians should be read with the introductory verses of this chapter, as it reveals the Apostles inner mind at this time. He seems to have been less impressed with the imminent peril from which he had been rescued, and more solicitous as to the condition of the church at Corinth, to which he had addressed his first Epistle during the early days of his Ephesian ministry.
Into how small a compass, Act 20:3, the evangelist crowds the three months ministry in Greece, where he visited the scenes of his memorable first journey. In a few lines he enumerates the companions of his return journey, and before we are well aware we are back again in Troas and on our way to Jerusalem.
Notice that reference to the breaking of bread on the first day of the week, Act 20:7. This proves that the primitive Church was adopting the first day of the week for its characteristic meal; and as the Gentile element became predominant, it is easy to see how gradually and inevitably Sunday superseded Saturday as the rest day. See also Col 2:16. It is possible that Eutychus was not already dead, although believed to be so. In that case, Pauls loving embrace and prayer restored him from the swoon that might easily have become death. Can we not imagine the theme of that talk which lasted till dawn!
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
As we read of the continuation of Pauls journey we note the use of the pronoun us indicating that Luke remained with Paul. He was the author of this record and the apostles intimate companion. Pauls other traveling companions appear to have waited for him at Troas, the city almost on the site of ancient Troy, celebrated by Homer.
Breaking of Bread at Troas (Act 20:1-12)
In verse 7 Luke proceeded to record something to which the Holy Spirit evidently desires to draw our attention in a special way. We read that he and Paul arrived in Troas and remained there seven days until the first day of the week rolled around. And what is the first day of the week? The day that we call Sunday. On this day, not on the Jewish Sabbath, but on the first day of the week, apparently it had already become customary for the disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ to gather together for a specific purpose. That purpose was to break bread.
This refers, of course, to that simple yet beautiful feast that our Lord Jesus instituted before He left this world. When He gathered His disciples about Him in the upper room and after they had observed the Jewish feast of the Passover, He took bread (one of the Passover flat cakes) and broke it and gave it to His disciples saying, This is my body which is given for you; this do in remembrance of me (Luk 22:19). He also took the cup after supper. There was a cup on the Passover table of which ordinarily no one partook. It was called the cup of blessing, and if the members of a household asked, Why is this cup on the table? the Jewish father would answer, It is the cup of blessing for Messiah when He comes. Jesus, celebrating the Passover with His disciples, took the cup of blessing for He was the Messiah, and He said, Drink ye all of it; For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins (Mat 26:27-28). Thus He instituted the Lords supper.
Now we find that after some twenty years had elapsed it seems to have become a customary thing for the disciples to meet together frequently to observe this feast of love. On this occasion in Acts 20 we read that they gathered on the first day of the week. It may not always have been so, but I am sure that where love is warm, people delight to observe this as often as they can.
They cam together on the first day of the week, not to hear a preacher, though the greatest of preachers was there, the apostle Paul; not to hear a teacher, though the greatest of teachers was there, for there has never been another teacher as great as the apostle Paul; they did not come together just to sing hymns, though we know they did sing, as we are told in 1Co 14:26. They did not come for any of these purposes, and they certainly did not come to be entertained or amused; but they came together to break bread. They gathered together to remember the Lord Jesus Christ. Whether there was a preacher or not made little difference, or whether there was a teacher or not did not matter; whether there was beautiful singing or not, they were not concerned about that; but they were concernd about remembering the Lord Jesus in the breaking of bread.
And so Paul and his companions took advantage of this opportunity to meet with the disciples. Notice that it was in the evening. Most of the disciples were slaves. They had to work all day, but when evening came they were able to slip away and gather together in some quiet place and show the Lords death in view of His coming again. Paul, led by the Spirit of God, preached to them, and he continued his speech until midnight. You see, they did not have many opportunities to listen to the expounding of the Word, and even fewer opportunities to hear the apostle Paul. Although the meeting went on and on, hour after hour, we do not read that there was any complaint. But we do read of one poor man who was completely overcome.
There were many lights in the upper chamber (they were in an upper room somewhere), and there sat in a window a certain young man named Eutychus, being fallen into a deep sleep. This dear fellow wasnt the last man to be overpowered by drowsiness in a meeting! But Eutychus was seated in a rather dangerous place-in the window. And as Paul was long preaching, he sunk down with sleep, and fell down from the third loft, and was taken up dead. But Paul went down, and fell on him, and embracing him said, Trouble not yourselves; for his life is in him; that is, he was apparently in a state of coma. So Paul was used of God for his restoration. Every preacher does not have that power. It is too bad perhaps that we do not; so if you endanger yourselves by going to sleep under our sermons, you will yourselves have to endure whatever results. But in this episode Paul was able to overcome the bad consequences.
We can just imagine what a wonderful occasion it was to that little group at Troas. Brought out, some from paganism and some from Judaism, and now together as representing one body, they had come to remember the Lord in the breaking of bread. I think I see them wending their way from their different places to the third story of that building, and when they got there, what a delightful surprise! Who are these visitors? Why, the apostle Paul and Dr. Luke and their friends! And they are all there to break bread with them and to have happy Christian fellowship together. But now they say, We must not lose this opportunity. Paul is here; we are ready to give attention to any word he has for us from God. So, for some hours Paul went on opening up the precious Word of God, and even after the serious accident to Eutychus and his restoration they continued to listen to Paul. They were still conferring together about the things of the Lord when the morning sun began to rise.
What a delightful picture of the genuine Christian fellowship that existed among believers in those early days. And is it not a standing miracle that although centuries have passed since then-almost two millennia-still all over the world, wherever the gospel has been carried, you will find people coming together for the breaking of bread in tender, loving memory of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Someone may ask, Of what value is the communion service? Does it save the soul? We say, No. The communion is for those whose souls are saved. Well, of what real worth is it? Do we have to do this thing? Oh, no. If we had to do it, it would lose its precious-ness, but our Lord Jesus has requested us to do it. He has said: This do in remembrance of me. And its value is this: That as we obey that word, it brings Christ Himself more preciously before our hearts; we meditate on His love, we think of His passion, we consider His cross. His bitter sorrows. We say in our hearts, The Son of God loved me and gave Himself for me, and we express on our part our love for Him who has thus redeemed us to Himself.
Pauls Farewell Testimony to the Ephesian Elders (Act 20:13-27)
After preaching the Word at Troas Paul prepared to go on toward Jerusalem with the intention of stopping by Ephesus on the way. His companions, including Luke, left him at Troas and went by ship, sailing along the coast to a place called Assos. There they intended to take Paul in, for he had walked from Troas to Assos. After meeting him, they sailed on to Mitylene, and then, as Luke said, We sailed thence, and came the next day over against Chios; and the next day we arrived at Samos [an island in the Aegean sea], and tarried at Trogyllium; and the next day we came to Miletus. Miletus was the port for the city of Ephesus, a few miles inland.
Paul had determined to sail by Ephesus. He was anxious to be at Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost if possible. You remember the marvelous events that had happened on Pentecost nearly thirty years before! From all parts of the Roman world the Jewish people gathered together annually for the feast, and Paul undoubtedly realized this would be a good opportunity to meet and present Christ to many of them. So, stopping near Ephesus, he asked the elders of the church to come to him. As they gathered together, Paul gave them his final testimony.
He said, Ye know, from the first day that I came into Asia, after what manner I have been with you at all seasons, Serving the Lord with all humility of mind, and with many tears, and temptations [trials], which befell me. His tribulations were chiefly because of the hatred of some of his own nation who did not understand. They thought he had turned away from the faith of their fathers to teach something that was utterly false. Yet Paul went on earnestly, devotedly ministering Christ.
He described what should characterize every true minister of Christ: Serving the Lord with all humility [lowliness] of mind. If there is any position, any calling where pride should have no place, it is in connection with the ministry of the Word of God. To begin with, the minister of Christ is one who was just a poor, lost, needy sinner, but who has been saved by grace and entrusted with a message to the world and to the people of God. He does not receive this because of any merit of his own. It is all because of the goodness of the Lord. Certainly therefore he has nothing to be proud of.
When people used to crowd around George Whitefield and praise him because of his marvelous preaching, he would stop them like this: The devil told me that just before I came down from the pulpit. Then he would add, There are many who can preach the gospel better than I can, but none can preach a better gospel. It is the message that counts. The servant is really nothing, and the more we realize this and are willing to take the place of nothingness, the more God delights to come in and work through His servants.
We see in Paul the ideal minister of Christ, characterized by lowliness of mind and tenderness of heart. That comes out in this testimony. He had served the Lord with all humility of mind, and he was not ashamed to weep with them that weep. We who try to minister Christ may well pray for tender, compassionate hearts. Men and women on every hand are in grief and sorrow. We can well understand the instruction given to a group of ministerial students: Young gentlemen, always preach to broken hearts, and you will never lack for an audience.
Oh, the sorrowing people in the world today, the broken hearts all about us! How men need that tender message of comfort that the gospel brings! But unless it comes from a heart that is really softened by divine grace, it is powerless to help and bless others. And so Paul said, I served the Lord with many tears. They were not sham tears: they were not crocodile tears.
I heard of a clergyman who had all kinds of instructions written in the margins of his typewritten sermons. When some of his hearers found one of these sermons that had been left on the pulpit, they were surprised to read the following instructions: Smile here; Raise the voice here; Lower the voice here; Weep here, and so on! It was all made-to-order emotion. That does not glorify God. But one who is in touch with the tender, sympathetic heart of the Lord Jesus, who really feels for those to whom he ministers, will be able to bring a message of consolation to those who are troubled. Such an one was the apostle Paul. His own trials also never turned him aside. He pressed forward in spite of them.
And then he was so true to his commission. He said, I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have showed you, and have taught you publicly, and from house to house. He was not simply a man of the pulpit. As he stood on the platform he was faithful in giving out the Word of God; he sought to be just as faithful when he visited the people in their homes.
It is pitiable, I think, that to a great extent the good old fashioned custom of pastoral visitation has almost died out. A strange thing occurred to me once. While speaking in a certain city, I learned of a dear soul who was very ill and longed to come to our meetings but was greatly disappointed because she could not come. So I thought, / will look her up. I found her address and went to see her. I had a most delightful visit, and then I asked, Shall we read a little from Gods Word? Oh, she replied, how I wish you would! So I read a portion of Scripture, then bowed with her in prayer. And our hearts were moved. But this was the strange part: when I was leaving, she said, This is the first time in twenty years that I have ever had a minister read Gods Word or pray with me when he visited me. Well, I said, perhaps you havent been visited often. Oh, yes, she answered; our minister comes about once a month, and he usually tells me the latest good story and tries to cheer me up a bit. Isnt it pitiable? I do not know any more precious ministry than that of going into the homes of Gods dear people and opening up the Word and then lifting up the heart to God in prayer. This is true apostolic service.
What was the burden of Pauls ministry? Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. Notice the two classes-the Jews that God had set apart for Himself, who had been instructed by prophets and teachers throughout the centuries; and the Greeks. Here, Greeks is an all-inclusive term for the different Gentile peoples. Greek was the language spoken almost universally in the Roman world at that time. Pauls testimony was the same in character whether it was to the Jew or to the Greek.
What was the character of that message? Repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. I am afraid the preaching of repentance is largely missing in many places today. I believe there are many who profess to be fundamental preachers who seldom call men to repentance. And yet if you will go through the book of Acts and on into the Epistles you will see what a large place repentance had in apostolic ministry. The apostle Peter went from place to place calling men to repentance. Paul himself insisted on it wherever he went, and he could say to these Ephesian elders, During all the time I was with you, and wherever else I have gone, I have called men to repentance. In a preceding chapter we saw that God commanded all men every where to repent: Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained (Act 17:30-31).
I suppose the reason some of my dear brethren are so afraid of the word repentance is that they imagine people will think of it as a meritorious act. Repentance is just the sick mans acknowledgment of his illness. It is simply the sinner recognizing his guilt and confessing his need of deliverance. Do not confuse repentance with penitence. Penitence is sorrow for sin, and godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of. Do not confuse repentance with remorse. Remorse generally consists in grieving because you are found out. How many a man in prison is filled with remorse, because he got caught! Remorse is not real repentance. Judas was deeply remorseful when he saw how things were going with Jesus, and he brought the thirty pieces of silver and threw them down in the office of the high priest, but he was not truly repentant before God. The words translated, Judas repented, more properly should be Judas was remorseful, and he went out and hanged himself. That is the sorrow of the world that results in death, but godly sorrow leads to repentance.
Repentance is not penance. It is not trying in some way or other to make up for the wrong things of the past. Repentance is far more than that. It is judging oneself in the presence of God; turning rightabout-face, turning to God with a sincere, earnest desire to be completely delivered from sin. And when a man takes that attitude toward God and puts his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, he finds salvation. Faith will never be real apart from repentance. The two things go together-repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
May I ask you who read this: Have you ever faced your sins in the presence of God? Go back into the Old Testament and you find that God has given us an entire book to show us the importance of repentance. That book is Job. It is the record of the best man that God could find in the ancient world, and he demonstrated even to Satan himself that his outward life was absolutely flawless. Yet before God finished with that good man, he cried out from the depths of a broken heart: I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes (Job 42:5-6).
My friend, if a good man like Job needed to make a confession like that, surely you and I need it. We may well come before God and take the place of lowliness and repentance. If you are grieving over the sins of the past, recognizing your guilt and longing for deliverance, then I would point you to the Lord Jesus Christ. In infinite grace He bore your sins on the cross in order that you might be forever delivered from the judgment due to sin. Paul linked up faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ with repentance toward God. Put your trust in Him. Look to Him. He has said, Look unto me, and be ye saved…for I am God, and there is none else. When you look up in faith to Him, then He takes you up in grace, puts away all sins of the past, gives you a new life and a new standing before Him.
Paul continued his farewell by looking forward into the future. He said, Now, behold, I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there. He felt that he must go. There are certain things that we read later on in Acts that might make us wonder if he was right in that decision. Even the best of men err in judgment, and it may be that Paul was wrong in going up to Jerusalem.
We are told in Acts 21 that certain disciples said to him through the Spirit that he should not go to Jerusalem. But he did not recognize this as the voice of God. He felt that he must go. One reason that he wanted to go was because of his intense love for his Jewish brethren. He was a Christian, but a Hebrew Christian, and he could say, My hearts desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge (Rom 10:1-2). He desired to help them; and he felt that to go to Jerusalem at Pentecost and meet them and witness to them might mean the salvation of many. Yet he said, Wherever I go, I am told that bonds and afflictions await me. Doubtless the Spirit of God spoke through various brethren who said, Paul, we are afraid you are making a tremendous mistake. Your mission is specially to the Gentiles, not to Israel.
But somehow he could not recognize that as the voice of the Lord to turn him aside. He took it rather as the voice of the tempter seeking to dissuade him. But, he added, none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God. In other words, he is saying, After all, my life is of no account except as it is used for the glory of God, except as I have the privilege of ministering Christ to others. I am not afraid of bonds and imprisonment, but I am afraid of dishonoring my Lord, and so my great concern is to finish my course with joy.
It is very interesting to notice in connection with this, the apostles last Epistle-Second Timothy. There we find him writing from a dungeon death cell, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. That which he longed for actually came true. Notice the great assignment he had received from the Lord Jesus was to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. And there can be no higher calling than to be a preacher of the gospel.
I sometimes feel that some of us who minister the Word are inclined to undervalue the work of the evangelist and to think that teaching believers is a more important work. But there is no greater ministry than that of going to poor, lost, needy sinners with the gospel of the grace of God.
I have been told of Duncan Matheson who, on one occasion, was asked to address a meeting. Over a thousand Christians had gathered to hear the Word. He read a portion of Scripture that had a wonderful message for Christians, then expounded upon it for their edification. But as he thought of poor, needy sinners he turned to them instead and went on to fill the whole hour with a gospel message. At the close of the meeting one of the conveners came up to him and said, Brother Matheson, it was really too bad. Here were a thousand Christians who came for some spiritual food, and you spent the entire hour preaching the gospel. Oh, said he, were no unsaved ones there? There might have been a half-dozen or so. With a twinkle in his eye, the old man replied in his Scottish way, Oh well, ye ken, Christians, if they are Christians, will manage to wiggle awa to Heaven some way, if they never learn any more truth, but poor sinners have got to be saved or be in Hell! We never want to forget that, and that is why the most important message God ever gave to man was the message of the gospel of the grace of God.
A friend of mine inquired of an older minister about a young preacher he had known. The other replied, I am afraid he is not doing very well. He has fallen from being a gospel preacher to becoming a prophetic lecturer. Some people would think that was going up, but it might really be going down. Of course it is perfectly right and proper to minister on prophesy if the Lord so leads, but not to the neglect of the gospel of the grace of God.
Paul continued his farewell message by saying, And now, behold, I know that ye all, among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God, shall see my face no more. Wherefore I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men. I know that his heart was sad when he said this. What did he mean by it? In effect Paul was saying, I have delivered my soul. I have not ceased to warn you day and night. I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. He was thinking doubtless of that passage in Ezekiel 33 where God speaks of the watchmans responsibility for the safety of the city.
Pauls Charge to the Ephesian Elders (Act 20:28-38)
An elder, according to the Word of God, is a man approved in life and doctrine; one who, because of mature years and consistent Christian living, is selected by the Holy Spirit to have oversight of the spiritual affairs of the church of God. It is a very serious thing to be called to assume such responsibility. It is not something that any man should ever seek as a matter of personal advancement. It is not an honor that the church should bestow on a man simply in recognition of his spiritual gifts or his fine personality, or because he happens to have a standing in society that would make him an outstanding representative of the church. Nothing like that. But it is a divine calling to serve the people of God. The elder is to be known by his earnestness, his devotedness, his tender compassion for others, his faithfulness in living and proclaiming the truth. God holds him responsible to a very great extent for the spiritual welfare of the believers who recognize him as called by God to this office. Understand, when I am speaking of an elder, I am not simply speaking of a pastor or a teacher, but of an overseer in the church of God. Scripture says that elders are to give an account as those that watch for the souls of believers committed to their charge; so they have a very, very responsible place indeed (Heb 13:17).
We who are members of the church of God should ever be ready to recognize our elders and to give to them the honor that belongs to them. Scripture says the elders that rule well should be accounted worthy of double reverence (1Ti 5:17). I sometimes think that the church of God is about the only place left today where age really counts. You cannot jump over twenty years of Christian experience.
So often dear young Christians are impatient of restraint and impatient of the kind and fatherly care of God-appointed elders. On the contrary, they should recognize the fact that these men of God have been over the path ahead of them, and have experienced the struggles, temptations, and the trials that the young are now facing. There was a time when they too had to combat the world as young people do now, but through grace they were enabled to overcome. Now with the experience they have attained they are able to guide and direct younger men. In the world outside the church when a man reaches even middle age he is often thrown to one side as one no longer fit to take a responsible position. In the church no man is ready for a responsible position until he has become a mature servant of God.
Paul sent for the Ephesian elders and told them first of his ministry and then he gave them a very definite charge. Take heed, he said, therefore unto yourselves and to all the flock. Notice the order. Yourselves first, then the flock. It is possible that even an elder who has known the Lord for many years may be tripped up by some snare of the enemy. Therefore the elder needs to be careful of his own walk, of his own spiritual fellowship with God, and then he is to have care for the flock of God.
You will notice that twice in this passage (verses 28 and 29) the apostle used that term, the flock. It is a very lovely expression. It suggests, as our Lord Jesus has told us in John 10, that the people of God are His sheep. You remember He said that He came as the Good Shepherd to call His own sheep out of the fold of Judaism. Then He added, Other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, referring to the Gentiles, and there shall be one [flock] and one shepherd. Judaism was a fold without a center. Christianity is a flock; there is a center without a circumference. There is no fold built around the Hock of God. Its safety is in keeping close to the Shepherd. There are various similes used for Gods people. This is one of the most beautiful. As members of the flock of God, how careful we should be to keep close to our Shepherd, to walk in His steps!
Paul said to these Ephesian elders, The Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God. The word translated overseers is our word bishops. Some of us have come to think of a bishop as a man set over a great many churches, but here the apostle speaks of a number of bishops in one local church, for a bishop is an overseer. They have the spiritual oversight in the church of God, and he commands them, to feed the church of God. The same company he spoke of as a flock he now speaks of as a church, a called-out company, which is the literal meaning of the Greek word ecclesia.
What a wonderful thing it is to belong to that company! Paul once persecuted that company! God forgave him, but he could never forgive himself (see 1Co 15:9). I imagine many a night he lay awake thinking of the affliction that he had brought on Gods dear children in years gone by. But, he said, I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief (1Ti 1:13). Notice the company that he persecuted is the same company to which he joined himself after he was converted. The church at Ephesus was the church of God. The church of God was the object of his persecution.
Purchased with his own blood. Purchased with the blood of His own, would be a better rendering of this. Fundamentally, you could not speak of the blood of God, because God is a Spirit without physical form, and therefore to speak of the blood of God would be incongruous. If you turn the phrase around, you get the exact meaning of what Paul said to these men: Feed the church of God, which He hath purchased with the blood of His own, that is, the blood of His own dear Son. The Lord Jesus Christ was God; but in order that He might shed His blood for our redemption, He became man. He who was God and man in one person went to the cross and poured out His precious blood to make propitiation for our sins. Now we who believe in Him constitute the church of God and the flock of God, and as such we need food.
It is the business of the elders to feed the flock of God. How do they do this? By ministering the truth to them-the truth about Christ. As the Word of God is opened up and brought home in power to the flock, they feed on Christ Himself. That is one reason why we are warned against forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is (Heb 10:25).
Many Christians today shrug their shoulders and say, Oh, I am not interested in going to church. I dont need to go; I can worship God just as well at home. But in so acting they deliberately rob their own souls of the food that they need for their spiritual upbuilding. We need the Word of God, and He has appointed that as His people gather together, the truth should be presented that the saints may be nourished on the words of sound doctrine.
Then the apostle brought in a warning to the elders. He looked with prophetic eye down through the centuries and there he saw what has now become history. As the centuries progressed, unconverted men came into the outer circle of the church. Professing to be Christians, many of them pushed forward into places of leadership, and the history of the professing church is a very sad history indeed. Many unrighteous, unconverted men seek to hold positions of authority over Gods people. They are like grievous wolves entering in from the outside, not sparing the flock! But then, not only did they come in from the outside, for the apostle added, Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.
One of Satans favorite methods of disrupting the peace among the saints is to raise up in their midst men who in large measure are self-seeking, although perhaps truly converted. These men endeavor to pressure the saints of God to accept certain teachings in order to create division in Gods house. Then they gather a group around themselves with the object of attaining personal recognition and support. Just as though he were living today and could see what is going on in so many places, the apostle predicted this very thing!
What is the Christians confidence? What is his safety in view of such circumstances as these? Paul said, Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years (the three years in which he had labored at Ephesus) I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears. The apostle was not ashamed of tears. To him eternal things were so real that when he saw people turning coldly away from them it almost broke his heart, and he wept over them. And then as he entered into the homes of Gods saints and saw the sorrows that many of them had to endure-bereavement, sickness, poverty, and persecution-he was no unsympathetic onlooker. He could weep with those who wept and rejoice with those who rejoiced. This expresses the heart of the true pastor. I serve with tears, and I cease not to warn you with tears.
Paul next said, I commend you to God and to the Word of his grace, which is able to build you up. In other words, But now I am going away from you. I am never going to see you on earth again, but here is your resource in the day of difficulty. What is this resource? God and His blessed, infallible, and inspired book, the Bible. This shall abide when His servants pass on.
Why is it that many Christians today make such slow progress in the Christian life and are so weak when they ought to be strong? It is because they give so little time to the reading of the Word of God. I would like to ask you, dear friends, How much time do you really give to the Bible day by day? Do you study the Word? Do you take time to meditate on the Word?
I was in Glasgow, Scotland when a missionary from India, returned home on furlough, took part in the meeting. He read us a letter that he had received from an Indian elder in the church which the missionary had left behind. This is what he read: Dear brother, we have missed you greatly while you have been gone, but we are trying to carry on. We are all studying the Word more faithfully than ever, and God has already been at work and we are having a great rebible. He meant revival. And you know, that dear missionary reading the letter said, Brethren, I do not think there was any mistake in that letter because whenever there is a re-Bible movement, there will be a revival.
And that is what we need-to get back to the Bible, to give more attention to the Bible. There are professing Christians who rarely open their Bibles from one Sunday to the next unless perhaps to read the Sunday school lesson. There are many Christian homes that no longer have a family altar, where husband and wife and children never sit down to read the Word together and lift up their hearts to God in prayer. Is it any wonder that the church of God is so weak? Is it any wonder that worldliness is coming in like a flood? Is it any wonder that false doctrines are so readily accepted when Gods own beloved people are not acquainted with His holy Word?
Our resources in the day of evil are God and the Word of His grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified. What is it to be sanctified? It is to be set apart to God, and every believer is set apart through Gods grace. As we study the Word our sanctification goes on practically, resulting in lives and hearts that are separated to the Lord alone.
Paul continued his charge to the Ephesian elders by referring to his own attitude as he ministered among them. He who would seek to help and bless others need not expect to lift them any higher than he is himself. Water does not rise above its own level. The minister of the gospel must be very careful to walk with God in his private life as well as publicly, and so Paul said, I have coveted no mans silver, or gold or apparel. In other words, I have not been among you for what I could get from you. Yea, ye yourselves know, that these hands have ministered unto my necessities, and to them that were with me.
Whenever his funds ran out, you never saw Paul trying to stir up the people to give him anything. I was rather shocked to read in the newspaper of a minister who was suing the church for not having been given all his salary. Paul never did anything like that. He never appealed for anything for himself. He was not afraid to solicit for others, however, such as when he asked funds for the poor saints at Jerusalem. When his own money ran out, he went around and got a job. He was not afraid of degrading the cloth or of getting his hands dirty. He found a job at tentmaking, and he not only supported himself, but he supported those who were with him. I have showed you all things, how that so laboring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.
When did Jesus say this? Where is it recorded? You search the four Gospels and you will never find these words, It is more blessed to give than to receive. And yet Paul, speaking to these Ephesian elders, Gentiles far away from Palestine where Jesus had lived and preached, records them. It is evident that these words fell frequently from the lips of the Lord Jesus. They are not actually recorded elsewhere, but the saints spoke of them as they moved from place to place. Different ones remembered they had often heard Jesus say them. He was probably in the habit of saying, It is more blessed to give than to receive.
It makes one so happy to be at the giving end rather than the receiving end. Folks who are always going around with an open hand, hoping you will give them something, are not happy people. The happy ones are those who give to others. I do admire Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch. No matter how many came in to dinner, she said Its all right, we can just add another ladle of water to the soup. She found it was more blessed to give than to receive; and so it is with the consistent Christian who is living in fellowship with his Lord.
Well, Pauls address is concluded. Lukes words help us to visualize this little company: When he had thus spoken, he kneeled down, and prayed with them all. We see Paul on the seashore, and the Ephesian elders are all kneeling around him. What a hallowed little prayer meeting that must have been!
They were sad because the one who had led them to Christ was going away, and they feared some dreadful thing was about to happen to him. They did not understand it all, but they bowed reverently before God while Paul prayed with them. Wouldnt you like to know what he said? If only there had been a record made of his prayer so that we could hear it today! How I would love to enter into that prayer! Oh, I know that he must have poured out his heart for these elders that they might be given all needed grace and wisdom to guide the saints aright. It affected them very deeply, for we read: And they all wept sore, and fell on Pauls neck, and kissed him. Strong men they were, and yet they were not ashamed in this way to express their deep love for the man of God who had won them for Christ when they were strangers to grace.
But they sorrowed most of all for the words which he spake, that they should see his face no more. And they never did. It was Pauls farewell. He went on to Jerusalem, was arrested, incarcerated at Caesarea, and taken on to Rome. Although after two years of imprisonment in Rome he was set free for a little time, evidently he never reached Ephesus again. His work with them was done, but oh, done so well! Surely he had no regrets as he looked back. He had served faithfully. God grant that when you and I finish our work we may be able to rejoice in what God has done and not have our consciences troubling us because of unfaithful service.
Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets
Act 20:24
I. Look, first, at the fact that a man was able to say of all the afflictions of life, “None of these things move me.” There are three thoughts that stand out conspicuously in these words. (1) Calmness. Self-possession is a great secret of life; and I know no road to real self-possession but true religion. (2) Elevation. He looks down on “these things,” and says “None of them move me.” They are little things; they are down beneath me. Elevation-getting nearer to the grandnesses of eternity-makes the things of this little world seem what they really are. (3) Independence. The man who wishes to be independent of external circumstances must be dependent upon God. Depend somewhere this leaning heart of man must; and if you wish not to depend upon the creature, you must depend upon the Creator.
II. “Neither count I my life dear unto myself.” To the natural man the external joys and sorrows of life are all, for he knows no other. But when, by union with the Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit enters into a man’s breast, and he begins another life, that life of Jesus within him becomes to his perception so predominant-it becomes so all-important to him-that the other gradually sinks away and away into a distant insignificance. He stands, as it were, on the margin of a river, and he rejoices to see it flowing out; he rejoices that that which separates him from the land beyond shall cease to be, because he looks for the time when he shall take his wing and fly away and be at rest; and when he contemplates all the affections and fellowships-the rest, the services, the pure, unsullied joys of that life-that which was once to him exceeding precious becomes a thing of little worth, and he can say, “None of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself.”
J. Vaughan, Sermons, 1865, p. 1.
References: Act 20:24.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxix., No. 1734; J. S. Pearsall, Christian World Pulpit, vol. i., p. 251; Ibid., vol. v., p. 254; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. vi., p. 14; G. Brooks, Five Hundred Outlines, p. 3; Homilist, 2nd series, vol. ii., p. 29. Act 20:27.-W. Gresley, Practical Sermons, p. 1. Act 20:26, Act 20:27.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. vi., No. 289.
Act 20:28
I. The flock is the true Church, the spiritual living family of God, and the charge given us concerning them is, “Feed that flock over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers.” Then there is food provided? Most undoubtedly-abundant food, provision to meet all your requirements, all your possible wants and desires. The provision is absolutely and exclusively in the word of God. All the blessings that faith appropriates wherever the soul is sustained and fed are to be found in the word of God. It is all apprehended by faith, and there is no legitimate object on which faith is fixed but those that are presented to us by the teaching of the Spirit of God on the pages of God’s holy word. It is exactly in proportion as the precious things of the word of the living God are brought forth and dealt out in all their richness and profusion in the ministrations of God’s ambassadors that souls are fed and nourished and sustained and built up in faith.
II. Consider, next, wherein the qualification of ministers consists for feeding the flock. The qualification is a knowledge of the counsel of God. That was Paul’s qualification, and by virtue of his teaching, and the communication by his instrumentality of such qualifications to the elders of the church at Ephesus, they were competent. What is wanted is plain, downright, dogmatical teaching of the word of God-the great and glorious doctrines put forth distinctly and positively, no attempting to reconcile what God does not reconcile, but the grand fundamental truths beginning with God’s everlasting purpose and man’s responsibility in connection therewith; a free, full, finished, present, and everlasting salvation proposed to every child of man willing to receive it; the certainty that God will keep His own and bring them to the haven where they would be; that there is food for every spiritual necessity and requirement,-these are things that are wanted in the pulpit. Then will our people be edified and built up, and become trees of God’s own planting, bearing abundant fruit to His glory.
III. Look at the motive here assigned for feeding the flock. God hath bought the Church with His own blood. This shows us the value of the Church. It is one of the strongest conceivable motives why the elders of the Church and ministers should devote themselves to the work of the Lord.
C. Molyneux, Penny Pulpit, No. 390.
References: Act 20:28.-Christian World Pulpit, vol. viii., p. 95 Preacher’s Monthly, vol. ii., pp. 100, 140, 243, 244. Act 20:31.-J. H. Hitchens, Christian World Pulpit, vol. v., p. 20; B. Gregory, Ibid., vol. xviii., p. 81; J. Edmunds, Fifteen Sermons, p. 343. Act 20:32.-A. Barry. Cheltenham College Sermons, p. 216; J. J. S. Perowne, Sermons, p. 120.
Act 20:35
I. These words are often interpreted in a very narrow spirit. They are supposed generally to be merely a reference to the giving of alms; so it is said that as an apostle Paul ministered unto his own necessities and to those that were with him-showed them all things-how he had to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” I think the Apostle himself is using this as a great general principle, and not a special application of it. I am not quite sure that it is always more blessed to give than to receive, if it is only a question of giving charitable dole. Sometimes giving blesses neither him that gives nor him that receives. But the point of the text is that the Christian man is to remember that what he does is not for himself, but for others. From him ever is to flow out a holy stream of influence, whereby he, denying himself and sacrificing himself, becomes good and does good to those who are around. The Church will only be strong as you exhibit this spirit. You will find it more blessed to give than to receive, for it will take you out of yourselves. Every member should remember that he is not for himself, but for the Church.
II. This principle is the grand bond of social union too. If everybody in the Church would be looking out for himself, I should very soon hear of a root of bitterness springing up to trouble him. God is ever giving, giving to all, giving without much gratitude. How many of us are guided constantly in our thoughts of giving by what we are to receive in return! We are always seeding, expecting the harvest. God is always seeding, and leaving the harvest for those who wish to gather it. You remember that old legend, which is told in some ancient rabbinical story, very touching and very beautiful, concerning Abraham. He was sitting at the door of his tent one day waiting to receive strangers; and there came up to him an old man a hundred years old, bowed with age and travel, who asked for refreshment and hospitality; and Abraham arose and welcomed the stranger to his tent, and set meat and bread before him, and waited upon the aged man; but he was surprised when he observed that the aged man began to eat without first giving God thanks. Abraham said, “Sir, you have taken your food without blessing God first: why is this?” And the man answered, “I do not believe in God. I worship the host of heaven.” Whereupon, saith the story, Abraham grew zealously angry, and drove the man out, and would not receive him into his tent. Then God called Abraham and said, “I have borne with that man these hundred years or more, and he never regarded Me, and canst thou not bear with him a few minutes when he gives thee no trouble?” Whereupon Abraham rose, went out and fetched the stranger in, washed his feet, gave him food once more and good counsel. Abraham’s God is our God, and the spirit of the Eternal One only receives fullest, completest illustration when we learn fully this blessed principle, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”
L. D. Bevan, Penny Pulpit, No. 905.
Act 20:35
I. In the one word “blessed” the whole force of this sentence lies, What does “more blessed” mean? Is there any reference in it to enjoyment. Because if there is, all enjoyment being a reception of pleasure, the blessing will thus seem to mean, that he who gives shall receive more pleasure than he who merely receives, and so we shall have set before us the unworthy motive-giving for receiving’s sake. Does our Lord mean this? Undoubtedly He does mean this; undoubtedly He does set before us as a motive, to give, for receiving’s sake. There can be no blessing, in order to receive in this world. But when a man ardently desires to receive more of the joys of the future state he necessarily desires also to grow in grace and in the knowledge and obedience of Christ, to become free from sin in every form, and from every unworthy and degrading motive and act. An ardent longing for the joys of the next world is not greediness, is not selfishness, but leads a man in fact to the mortification of these very vices by their being incompatible with the object of his earnest endeavours. And this kind of happiness is evidently that contemplated by our Saviour in the text.
II. Why is it more blessed to give than to receive? (1) First, because the act itself is more salutary. The act and habit of giving reminds us ever why we were sent into the world; disperses our regard from self on others; keeps up a tender spirit, a wakeful conscience, an onward look of hope for more opportunity of good, an earnest endeavour to better society, to promoted happiness, to become a blessing to the world in the largest sense. (2) To give is more blessed than to receive, because it is more Christian-more the calling of the follower and imitator of Christ. (3) To give is more blessed, as being more in accordance with the teaching of the Holy Spirit. He is the Spirit of Love. (4) Again, it is more blessed as being more like the Father Himself, who giveth us all things freely to enjoy; who gave us His own Son, and through Him His unspeakable gift of the Holy Spirit. It is likeness to Him, partaking of the Divine nature by being lifted into the likeness of all His glorious attributes, that is the utmost perfection of created being.
H. Alford, Quebec Chapel Sermons, vol. ii., p. 1.
References: Act 20:35.-C. Girdlestone, Twenty Parochial Sermons, p. 103; L. Campbell, Some Aspects of the Christian Ideal, p. 40; J. Keble, Sermons on Various Occasions, p. 298. Act 20:36-38.-Church of England Pulpit, vol. xx., p. 25. Act 20:38.-J. Ker, Three Hundred Outlines on the New Testament, p. 118. Act 21:3.-Homiletic Quarterly, vol. ii., p. 204. Act 21:6.-J. Edmunds, Fifteen Sermons, p. 46. Act 21:12-14.-Preacher’s Monthly, vol. viii., p. 54. Act 21:13.-Homiletic Quarterly, vol. ii., p. 265; G. Brooks, Five Hundred Outlines, p. 355.
Fuente: The Sermon Bible
CHAPTER 20
1. Paul in Macedonia (Act 20:1-2).
2. His abode in Greece, the visit to Troas and what transpired there (Act 20:3-12).
3. The journey from Troas to Miletus (Act 20:13-16).
4. The farewell to the Ephesian Elders (Act 20:17-38).
The record before us is very brief. Some have thought the reason is the fact that the Apostle had turned aside from His given ministry, and therefore the Holy Spirit had nothing to report. We believe that this is correct. The object of the Spirit of God is now to lead us rapidly forward to the last visit of the Apostle to Jerusalem, therefore much is passed over in the untiring service and labors of the great Man of God. After the uproar was over in Ephesus Paul embraced the disciples and departed to go into Macedonia. It is the first farewell scene on this memorable journey. He must have visited Philippi, Thessalonica, Beroea and perhaps other cities. Besides giving them much exhortation. he received their fellowship for the poor saints in Jerusalem.
Then there is the record of the blessed scene on the first day of the week in Troas. They remembered the Lord in the breaking of bread (1Co 11:23-26).
The company then took ship to sail to Assos, but Paul made the journey of over twenty miles on foot. He wanted to be alone like Elijah as well as others. What thoughts must have passed through his mind! What burdens must have been upon his heart! what anxieties in connection with that coming visit to Jerusalem!
From Miletus Paul sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the church. The remaining part of this chapter contains his great farewell address to the Ephesian elders and through them to the church located there. Two great speeches by the Apostle have so far been reported in this book. The first was addressed to the Jews in Antioch of Pisidia (Act 13:16-41). The second was addressed to the Gentiles in Athens (chapter 17). The address here in our chapter is to the church. It is of very great and unusual interest and importance. He speaks of himself, his own integrity and recalls to them his ministry. He declares his own coming sufferings and his determination not to count his life dear, but to finish his course with joy. He warns the church concerning the future apostasy and the appearance in their midst of false teachers.
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
58. HURRYING TO JERUSALEM WITH THE GOSPEL
Act 20:1-16
In the previous chapter we read about the uproar at Ephesus. The angry mob stood for more than two hours crying, “Great is Diana of the Ephesians.” Finally, “the town clerk appeased the people” and “dismissed the assembly.” We pick up the story in the opening verses of chapter twenty.
DETERMINED TO GO TO JERUSALEM (Act 20:1-16) – Here we have another of Luke’s rapid descriptions of Paul’s ministry. He is leading up to the Apostle’s farewell message to the Ephesian elders at Miletus. But in these verses Luke very quickly tells us that after the uproar at Ephesus, Paul went right on doing what God had called him to do. He spent the next several months travelling, by land and by sea, through Asia, Macedonia, and Greece, visiting the churches which had been established during his earlier ministry. Everywhere he went he did the same thing. In the synagogues, in the streets, in the churches, and in the market places, Paul preached Christ to the people. But all the while he was hurrying to Jerusalem (Act 20:16).
Why did Paul have this preoccupation with Jerusalem? God distinctly appointed him to be the apostle to the Gentiles. Yet, in reading through the Book of Acts, we see him repeatedly determined to return to Jerusalem on the feast days. Was this, as some have suggested, because he had a hard time breaking with the past and shaking off the grave clothes of dead Judaism? Not hardly! The apostle Paul was forthright and constant in his declaration of the believer’s freedom from legal, ceremonial, carnal ordinances (Rom 6:14-15; Rom 7:1; Rom 10:4; Gal 5:2; Gal 5:4; Col 2:8-23). Paul was determined, if at all possible, to be in Jerusalem on the feast days, not to observe those feasts, but because he knew that on those days he would be able to preach the gospel to more of his kinsman than at any other time. And he was determined to do everything in his power to see them saved by the grace of God (Rom 9:1-3; Rom 10:1-4).
THE MESSAGE OF THE BIBLE – Wherever he went, the message Paul preached was Jesus Christ and him crucified (1Co 2:2). Sometimes he preached to Jews, sometimes to Gentiles. Sometimes he preached to large crowds of lost people, sometimes to small bands of believers. Sometimes he preached to learned philosophers, sometimes to simple women. But his message was always the same. He preached Christ, the whole of Christ, and only Christ to all people. Sometimes he was a little long winded, preaching until midnight. Sometimes people got tired while he was preaching and fell asleep (Act 20:9). Often he was persecuted for his message. But Paul never changed his message. His message was Jesus Christ and him crucified.
THE BIBLE, THE WORD OF GOD, IS IN ITS ENTIRETY A BOOK ABOUT THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. It is not a book about science, history, politics, morality, or even religious dogma. It is a book about Christ (Luk 24:27; Luk 24:44-47). Christ is the living Word of whom the written Word speaks. It is the business and responsibility of every gospel preacher to preach and teach nothing else but Jesus Christ and him crucified. To do so is to faithfully preach and teach “all the counsel of God” (Act 20:27; 1Co 2:2). All the prophecies of the Old Testament are predictions of Christ. All the sacrifices and ceremonies of the law were pictures of Christ. All the temporal deliverances of individual believers and the nation of Israel were illustrations of the redemption of God’s elect by Christ. The law was given by Moses to show man his need of Christ. The four Gospels record the history of Christ and his teachings. And the Epistles explain the meaning of our Lord’s teachings. Be sure you understand this. Every book of the Bible, every chapter, every verse, every line, every word in Holy Scripture is designed by God the Holy Spirit to reveal Christ to his people. Stop studying the Bible to find out facts and buttress doctrine. Study the Word of God with the desire to know him of whom the Scriptures speak (Joh 5:39). If you find any text in the Book of God that does not immediately cause your heart to look to Christ, you do not yet understand that text. The doctrine of the Bible is Christ. The law of the Bible is Christ. The gospel of the Bible is Christ. Do you see that? Any doctrine divorced from Christ is heresy, a mere show of intellectualism. Any precept divorced from Christ is self-righteousness. Paul went everywhere preaching Christ. And any sermon that does not point men to Christ ought never to have been preached. Any doctrine that does not have Christ for its essence must not be believed. Any precept that is not motivated by love for and faith in Christ must not be obeyed. From Gen 1:1 through Rev 22:21, “Christ is all, and in all!”
A PLOT DISCOVERED (Act 20:1-6) – Wherever Paul went preaching the gospel of Christ he met with opposition. Proud flesh cannot tolerate the message of salvation by grace alone through the merits of Christ alone. Paul again discovered a plot against his life. While in Greece the enemies of the cross “laid wait for him” (Act 20:2-3). “Over the centuries of the Christian church the lives of God’s servants often have been in danger. Many have been martyred for their faith in Jesus Christ. Others have suffered intensely. God has never promised a bed of roses. Remember what Paul himself wrote to the Philippians: `For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake’ (Php 1:29)…As a matter of fact, the church has always been at its purest when it has had to face suffering and martyrdom for Jesus Christ” (Donald Grey Barnhouse).
Paul left Greece after three months. As he prepared to sail to Syria, he learned about the plot against him. So he took Sopater and Luke, his travelling companions, and went by land through Macedonia to Philippi, and sailed from Philippi to Troas. There they met up with their other co-workers, and stayed for seven days.
A COMMUNION SERVICE ON THE LORD’S DAY (Act 20:7-12) – Notice that the disciples came together for worship on “the first day of the week” rather than the seventh. Like many things in this transitional period, sabbath observance was terminated gradually. The new day of worship, the Lord’s day (Rev 1:10), was established by the resurrection of our Lord (Mat 28:1). Sunday is not the “christian sabbath”. We are expressly forbidden to observe a legalistic sabbath day (Col 2:16) in this day of grace. Christ is our Sabbath. We cease from our own works and rest in him by faith (Heb 4:9-10). Yet, it is clear that the established day of worship in the New Testament was Sunday (Act 20:7; 1Co 16:2). On this day the church gathered to observe the Lord’s Supper and listen to the preaching of the gospel. The communion service was a very simple part of public worship, not an elaborate ceremony. When the saints of God met for worship on the Lord’s day, they passed around a loaf of unleavened bread and a cup of wine and every believer took a portion for himself.
There was no restricted or closed communion in the New Testament! In this passage disciples from many different places observed the Lord’s Table together because in Christ all true believers are truly one. They did not examine one another to see who was worthy to participate in the ordinance, but each believer examined himself before the Lord (1Co 11:28).
Paul was evidently a long winded preacher. He preached until midnight. Eutychus dozed off and fell out of a third floor window. Everyone presumed he was dead. Perhaps he was and Paul raised him from the dead. However, verse ten seems to imply that he was not killed by the fall. Either way, God intervened. After that, Paul continued preaching until daybreak!
Then (Act 20:13-16), after just a short stay at Troas, Paul and his friends departed for Assos, because Paul was determined to stop by Ephesus on his way to Jerusalem.
Fuente: Discovering Christ In Selected Books of the Bible
after: Act 19:23-41
embraced: Act 20:10, Act 20:37, Act 21:5, Act 21:6, Gen 48:10, 1Sa 20:41, 1Sa 20:42, Rom 16:16, 1Co 16:20, 2Co 13:12, 1Th 5:26
to go: Act 19:21, 1Co 16:5, 2Co 7:5, 1Ti 1:3
Reciprocal: Mat 10:23 – when Luk 4:31 – taught Act 14:20 – came Act 19:22 – Macedonia Act 19:40 – uproar Rom 15:19 – Illyricum 2Co 2:12 – when 2Co 2:13 – I went 2Co 11:26 – journeyings
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
IN ACTS WE are simply told that Paul gave much exhortation to the saints in Macedonia, that he visited Greece, and that to avoid the persecuting Jews he returned through Macedonia on his way back to Asia. Verse Act 20:4 gives us the names of his travelling companions on this return journey, though they went ahead across the sea and waited for him at Troas. In verse Act 20:5 Luke again uses the pronoun us, which shows that at this point he again made one of the party. Paul, Luke and others had a voyage of five days, which brought them again to Troas, where not long before a door was opened… of the Lord. The following verses of our chapter show that a great interest in the things of God still was found in that place.
Paul only spent a week in Troas, yet during that time there occurred the memorable meeting recorded in verses Act 20:7-12, and we are furnished with a very delightful picture of the simplicity and zeal which characterized those days. It had become the custom of the disciples there to meet for the breaking of bread-the Lords supper-on the first day of the week. Not the sabbath, but the following day, when the Lord rose from the dead, was selected for this, though it was not a day of leisure, such as the day before would have been for those who were Jews. Hence the Christians met in the evening when the work of the day was done. An upper chamber was their meeting place, church buildings being unknown. Paul, with so few days at his disposal, seized the opportunity to discourse to them; and they were so full of interest that they remained all night listening to his words.
It is easy to picture the scene. The crowded chamber; the youth perched in the window opening; the many lights adding to the hot oppression of the drowsy air floating out of the window; the sudden interruption as Eutychus collapses and falls. However the power of God was so manifested through Paul that instead of this episode breaking up the meeting and distracting everyone from Pauls message, their hearts were comforted and confirmed, to settle down and listen till daybreak. The Apostle was now starting his final journey to Jerusalem, the rightness of which may be open to question, but there can be no doubt that the Spirit of God was working through him just as of old. No more remarkable miracle than this was wrought through Paul. The story is marked by the absence of what is ceremonial and official, but it pulsates with power. In popular Christianity today the ceremonial holds the field and the power is absent. Alas, that so it should be!
The day having come, Paul left Troas afoot; Luke and his other companions putting to sea and picking him up at Assos. Arrived at Miletus, he called to him the elders of the church at Ephesus that he might deliver a charge to them, under the conviction that he would not see them again. His touching address seems to fall naturally into three parts.
In the first part he reviews his own ministry among them; this extends over verses Act 20:18-27. His first words were, Ye know, from the first… after what manner I have been with you at all seasons. Then, after speaking of the manner of his work, he proceeds to the matter that characterized it. In both manner and matter we may take him as a model for ourselves.
In the first place his work was service. He was not a great ecclesiastical dignitary fording it over the flock of God, but a servant; serving the saints indeed, yet primarily serving the Lord in serving them, and doing it always from the earliest days to the last. Serving moreover with ad humility of mind, as has been so evident in earlier chapters. He was not a man who expected everyone to give way to him or serve him: he was the helper of others, working with his own hands in order to do so. Again it was with tears, and in the midst of many temptations which came from the Jews. Tears speak of deep feeling and exercise of heart; whilst the temptations show that he was continually confronted by difficulties and opposition.
He was also marked by faithfulness in the declaration of the truth and in its application to the saints. He did not court that cheap popularity which comes from withholding things which may not be palatable, but always aimed at their profit. And further, he did not confine himself to public preaching, which often means a good bit of notice and approbation, but gave himself to that house to house work, which is much less noticed but often far more effectual. All this shows what manner he had been amongst them. But there is also that of which he speaks in verse Act 20:24; his utter devotion to the ministry committed to him, and to the One from whom he received it. He had delivered up his life for this purpose, and so no anticipation of trouble or even death itself was going to move him. When a servant of God adds to his faithfulness a devotion that does not flinch at death, there is bound to be power in his ministry.
Then as to the matter that characterized his ministry, he mentions three themes. First the Gospel, which had been entrusted to him, and which involved his testifying everywhere and to all, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. The Gospel announces the grace of God, which has been made known in Christ, in His death for our sins, His resurrection for our justification; it leads on our side to repentance and faith. That had been consistently the theme of his preaching.
He had also preached the kingdom of God, but this had been among, not all, but ye all. That is, he had everywhere preached the kingdom amongst the disciples. This evidently has a present bearing. No doubt he spoke of the kingdom which is to be publicly established, when he spoke of the things to come; but he also kept before them that they had been already brought under the authority of God in receiving Christ as Lord, and he showed them what it meant practically to be subject to Gods holy will. It is noticeable for instance that in his epistles Paul is never content with setting forth truth in the abstract; he always proceeded to enforce the conduct which the truth indicated as being the will of God for them.
Then, thirdly, he declared to them all the counsel of God. He brought them into the light of all that God has counselled for Christ and the church and the world to come. This gave them the knowledge of what hitherto had been kept secret, and showed them that God had higher thoughts than His previously revealed purposes in regard to Israel. This third theme of his ministry was the one that stirred up such furious opposition on the part of many of his Jewish hearers and finally led to his imprisonment. Hence his saying, I have not shunned to declare. If only he had shunned this part of his ministry, he might have had a far more peaceful time in his service and avoided many troubles; for Gods counsel involved the bringing in of the Gentiles, according to the truth of the church. He knew this, yet he did not flinch.
An all-round ministry of the Word of God today must include these three themes-the Gospel of God, the kingdom of God, the counsel of God.
In verses Act 20:28-31, we find the second part of his address, in which he exhorts and warns them. The Holy Ghost had made them overseers amongst the flock which is the church of God. That flock was not theirs but Gods by right of purchase, and they were to feed or shepherd it. But first they were to take heed to themselves, for if a man does not first take heed to himself how can he care for the flock? Moreover they were to watch and be on their guard against the adversaries, remembering how Paul himself had warned them with deep feeling for three years. Is it not a fact that this ministry of warning has almost lapsed through disuse?
Here Paul warns the elders of two main sources of mischief: first, the grievous wolves entering from without; second, the rising up of perverting men within. By wolves he meant without a doubt men who were real agents of the devil; the sort that Peter speaks of as bringing in damnable heresies. How this prediction has been fulfilled church history bears witness; as it also witnesses to the mischief wrought by men who have risen up from the midst of the elders themselves, speaking perverse or perverted things. These are men who very possibly are true believers but they give a twist to their teachings which perverts the truth. Thus they make themselves leaders of parties and centres of attraction to those whom they mislead. They attract to themselves instead of leading to Christ. In these words Paul sketched the future of what we know as Christendom.
It is for this reason perhaps that we do not find in the Scripture any instruction as to the perpetuating of the elderhood in an official way beyond the lifetime of the Apostle. If out of the elders are to come these workers of mischief it is as well that we are left to thankfully recognize and accept those whom God may raise up, without their having an official appointment. In the case of men speaking perverted things, their official appointment would only be used to sanction what is wrong.
In the third part of his address Paul indicated the resources that would remain in spite of all that would happen. His words were brief and comprised in one verse, but his matter of the utmost weight and importance. Our great resource is in God and not in man. He did not commend them to the other apostles: he certainly could not to the elderhood, for he was addressing elders, and out of their midst workers of mischief were to come. God, and God alone, is the resource of His people. But then He has given His Word, which reveals Himself. Formerly He spoke through Moses, as recorded in the Old Testament: that was the Word of His demand upon men. Now He has spoken in Christ, as recorded in the New Testament; and that is the Word of His grace. To this Word we are specially commended, for it is able to build us up in the faith, and to give us in spiritual power and enjoyment that inheritance along with all the sanctified, which is ours. The inheritance is ours by faith in Christ (see Act 26:18), but it is ministered to us in present power by the Word of His grace.
The importance of this thirty-second verse for us today can hardly be exaggerated. God and His Word remain for us, whatever may betide. No power of evil can touch God. He remains, and we may keep in touch with Him in prayer, in communion, in thanksgiving and worship. His Word remains, for He has watched over it in His providence and preserved it to us. Yet, of course, it is the object of ceaseless attacks by the enemy. All too soon it was nearly smothered by the traditions of the Fathers; then it was buried in an unknown tongue and withdrawn from the people; now that it is freely available it is violently criticised, and every attempt is made to destroy its authority. Following in the steps of Judas, great men greet it with a kiss, saying, Hail, master of beautiful language! but only to betray it to those who would tear from it every vestige of Divine authority. And, in spite of all, it remains as the resource of the believing and obedient heart.
Paul closed his address by again referring to the uprightness and sincerity that had marked him. Far from desiring to acquire, he had been a giver to others. He put on record a word of the Lord Jesus which is not recorded in the Gospels, and that word he had exemplified. He had earlier spoken of having shewed them as well as having taught them (verse Act 20:20), and he repeats that he had shewed them all things. He practised before them what he preached to them. And it is the strewing that tells so effectively.
Paul was called to be a pattern to us both as saint and servant, hence we are given this inspired record of his review of his service, and measuring ourselves against it we are deeply humbled. His words to men over, he went to his knees in prayer with them all, amidst their tears. It must have been an affecting scene. The word used for kissed is one which means to kiss ardently, the word which is used for the kisses bestowed by the father on the prodigal in Luk 15:1-32. Yet perhaps we detect an element of weakness in the fact that they sorrowed most of all that they could not hope to see him again. Might they not have sorrowed even more that Gods fair church was to be ravaged by wolves and damaged by perverting men?
Fuente: F. B. Hole’s Old and New Testaments Commentary
1
Act 20:1. The uproar refers to the disturbances recorded in the preceding chapter. After some parting words, Paul left for Macedonia which was his previous purpose according to chapter 19:21.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Pauls Journey through MacedoniaHe remains at Corinth (probably) three months, and then returns by way of Philippi to Asia, 1-6.
Act 20:1. And after the uproar was ceased, Paul called unto him the disciples, and embraced them, and departed for to go into Macedonia. There is no evidence to show that the apostles departure was caused, though it might have been hastened by the tumult which had taken place on account of the supposed slight shown by St. Paul and his friends to Artemis (Diana) of the Ephesians. He had already (see Act 20:21-22 of preceding chapter) determined to leave Ephesus, and the words of the writer of the Acts here simply tell us that he waited until quiet was restored in the city, and then set out on the journey which he had previously resolved to make. For some reason to us unknown, the compiler of this history is very brief here, and passes over without a word a very important period in St. Pauls life. We are able, however, without difficulty to fill up the gap left in the narrative of the Acts from scattered notices in the epistles, especially from the second letter to the Corinthians.
From Ephesus, St. Paul seems to have gone by land direct to Alexandria Troas; there he waited anxiously (2Co 2:12) for the arrival of Titus, whom he had sent to Corinth on a mission, partly connected with the great collection then being made by the Gentile churches for the relief of their suffering Hebrew brethren in the mother Church of Jerusalem, partly on account of the grave disorders which were then existing in the turbulent and powerful Corinthian brotherhood. But Titus coming was delayed, and the anxious apostle sailed to Europe in the hope of meeting him, and passed over from Troas to Macedonia. At Philippi, the old scene of his labours, then a flourishing and devoted Christian community, it is most probable (see Conybeare and Howson, St. Paul, chap. 17) he met at length his trusted disciple, and received much comfort from the news which Titus brought him from Corinth and its church.
The Second Epistle to the Corinthians was written evidently from Philippi. Charged with this letter, Titus was sent back again to Corinth. Freed from his pressing anxiety about the state of his loved Corinthian Church, St. Paul at once resumed his missionary labours, and besides visiting the cities on the western side of Macedonia on the shores of the gean, journeyed far in the East, on the Adriatic coast, and as we read in the Roman epistle, fully preached the gospel of Christ round about unto Illyricum (Rom 15:19).
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
The foregoing chapter acquaints us with a very great and imminent danger which the apostle escaped at Ephesus, where he had like to have been torn in pieces by those heathenish idolaters; which gave him occasion to say, That after the manner of men he had fought with beasts at Ephesus. 1Co 15:32
In this chapter we find, that the apostle, yielding to the fury of his persecutors, prudently withdraws from Ephesus into Macedonia: yet not so much for his own safety, (for he was willing to die Christ’s sacrifice, if he might live no longer Christ’s servant,) as for the church’s future advantage, that the disciples in Ephesus might be no farther persecuted upon his account.
Hence learn, That the ministers of the gospel may depart from a place and people, where their ministry has been very successful, when driven from thence by the fury of persecution. Thus St. Paul here obeyed the command of Christ elsewhere: When they persecute you in one city, flee to another, Mat 10:23.
Observe, 2. Though St. Paul withdrew from Ephesus, to allay the fury of persecution there; yet he left Timothy behind, to confirm and comfort the disciples as his substitute, and to strengthen them in the faith of the gospel, I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus, when I went into Macedonia, &c. 1Ti 1:3
Observe, 3. The apostle no sooner escapes the fury of the Heathens at Ephesus, but he is in danger of his life at Macedonia, by his own countrymen the Jews, ver.3. The Jesus laid wait for him.
Well might the apostle say, he was in deaths often, in perils of robbers, in perils in the city, in perils by my own countrymen, in perils among false brethern, 2Co 11:26.
The wicked Jews, when they could not prevail against St. Paul by open force, contrive his ruin by secret treachery; but God gave him knowledge of their designs, and he avoided them, by turning another way.
Thence learn, That it is high presumption, and a bold tempting of God, to run headlong upon evident and imminent dangers; and not to improve all lawful means we can to prevent and decline them. To trust to means, is to neglect God; but to neglect the means for our own preservation, is to tempt God. St. Paul would not tempt God by running into dangers, though his cause was never so good.
Observe, 4. The persons are mentioned by name who accompanied the apostle, and administered unto him; to wit, Sopater, Arisarchus and Secundus, Gaius and Timotheus, Tychicus and Trophimus; these accompanied the apostle, not out of state, but for necessary service: to which may be added St. Luke; but, being the penman of this book, he declines mentioning of himself by name, though his praise will for ever be in the gospel, and ecclesiastical story.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Travelling from Ephesus to Troas
After encouraging the Ephesian brethren, Paul went on to Macedonia. He also built up the churches there before he went on to Greece. His work there continued for some three months. Then, he planned to sail to Syria, until the Jews plotted to kill him. When the apostle learned of the plot against his life, he headed north back into Macedonia instead. As Paul was carrying a large contribution to Jerusalem to help the needy saints, he took along several men, likely to serve as witnesses to the proper handling of the money.
Coffman said, “One may observe that Macedonian congregations were represented by Sopater, Aristarchus and Secundus; the Galatian congregations were represented by Gaius of Derbe and Timothy of Lystra; the ones in Asia were represented by Tychicus and Trophimus; and it may be inferred from 2Co 8:6 ff. that the Corinthians contribution was entrusted to Titus and two other brethren sent by Paul to Corinth to receive it.” It may be that they went around collecting the funds with the goal of meeting at a predetermined location, which would have been Troas. Luke rejoined Paul at Philippi and they sailed for Troas after the Passover ( Act 20:1-6 ).
Fuente: Gary Hampton Commentary on Selected Books
Act 20:1. After the uproar, Paul called unto him the disciples To comfort and encourage them; and departed From Ephesus, after the long abode he had made there; to go into Macedonia To visit the churches at Philippi, Thessalonica, and Berea. This, however, does not necessarily imply his immediate departure: he may have remained in Ephesus and its neighbourhood some months after the riot, to comfort the disciples, and establish the churches of Asia, whose salutation he sent in the conclusion of his first letter to the Corinthians. Besides, from Pauls own account, it appears that he remained in the neighbourhood of Ephesus, waiting for the coming of Titus from Corinth. But Titus not arriving within the time appointed him, the apostle became impatient, and went forward to Troas, in the hope of meeting with him there. But being disappointed in that expectation also, he passed over into Macedonia, where at length Titus came to him.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
XX: 1. (1) After the tumult had ceased, Paul called to him the disciples, and bade them farewell, and departed to go into Macedonia. Thus ended the long-continued labors of the apostle in Ephesus. The great and effectual door, which he saw open before him but a few weeks previous, had now been suddenly closed; and the many adversaries, for the noble purpose of resisting whom he had resolved to remain in Ephesus till Pentecost, had prevailed against him. He had accomplished much in the city and province, but there seemed now a terrible reaction among the people in favor of their time-honored idolatry, threatening to crush out the results of his long and arduous labors. When the disciples, whom he had taught and warned with tears, both publicly and from house to house, for the space of three years, were gathered around him for the last time, and he was about to leave them in a great furnace of affliction, no tongue can tell the bitterness of the final farewell. All was dark behind him, and all forbidding before him; for he turns his face toward the shore across the gean, where he had been welcomed before with stripes and imprisonment. No attempt is made, either by Luke or himself, to describe his feelings, until he reached Troas, where he was to embark for Macedonia, and where he expected to meet Titus returning from Corinth. At this point, a remark of his own gives us a clear insight to the pent-up sorrows of his heart. He writes to the Corinthians: When I came to Troas for the gospel of Christ, and a door was opened to me by the Lord, I had no rest in my spirit, because I found not my brother Titus; but took leave of them, and came away into Macedonia. We have followed this suffering apostle through many disheartening scenes, and will yet follow him through many more; but only on this occasion do we find his heart so sink within him that he can not preach the gospel, though the door is opened to him by the Lord. He had hoped that the weight of sorrow which was pressing him down above his strength to bear, would be relieved by the sympathy of the beloved Titus, and the good news that he might bring from Corinth; but the pang of disappointment added the last ounce to the weight which crushed his spirit, and he rushed on, blinded with tears, in the course by which Titus was coming. A heart so strong to endure, when once crushed, can not readily resume its wonted buoyancy. Even after the sea was between him and Ephesus, and he was once more among the disciples of Macedonia, he is still constrained to confess, When we had come into Macedonia, our flesh had no rest, but we were afflicted on every side; without were fightings; within were fears. Finally, however, the long-expected Titus arrived with good news from Corinth, and thus the Lord, who never forgets his servants in affliction, brought comfort to the overburdened heart of Paul, and enabled him to change the tone of the second letter to the Corinthians, and express himself in these words: Nevertheless, God, who is the comforter of those who are lowly, comforted us by the coming of Titus, and not by his coming only, but by the consolation with which he was comforted in you, telling us your earnest desire, your mourning, your fervent mind toward me, so that I rejoiced the more.
But the news brought by Titus was not all of a cheering kind. He told of the good effects of the former epistle; that the majority of the Church had repented of their evil practices; that they had excluded the incestuous man; and that they were forward in their preparation for a large contribution to the poor saints in Judea. But he also brought word that Paul had some bitter personal enemies in the Church, who were endeavoring to injure his reputation, and subvert his apostolic authority. For the purpose of counteracting the influence of these ministers of Satan, encouraging the faithful brethren in their renewed zeal, and presenting to them many solemn and touching reflections suggested by his own afflictions, he addressed them the epistle known as the Second to the Corinthians, and dispatched it by the hand of Titus and two other brethren, whose names are not mentioned.
That we are right in assuming this as the date of this epistle, is easily established. For First, He refers, in the epistle, to having recently come from Asia into Macedonia, which he had now done according to the history. Second, He wrote from Macedonia, when about to start from that province to Corinth. But he was never in Macedonia previous to this, except when there was as yet no Church in Corinth, and he was never here afterward on his way from Asia to Corinth.
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
Acts Chapter 20
But let us return to the history of Paul.
After the uproar has ceased he sends for the disciples, embraces them, and departs for Macedonia; he visits that whole country, and comes into Greece. The beginning of the Second Epistle to the Corinthians gives the details of this part of his history. In Greece he remains three months; and when the Jews lay wait for him, he goes round by Macedonia, instead of sailing straight to Syria. At Troas (where a door had been opened to him on his way into Greece, but where his affection for the Corinthians had not allowed him to remain) he spends his Sunday, and even the whole week, in order to see the brethren. We perceive the usual object of their assembly: they came together to break bread; and the ordinary occasion of holding it-the first day of the week. Paul avails himself of this to speak to them all night; but it was an extraordinary occasion. The presence and the exhortations of an apostle failed in keeping them all awake. It was not however an assembly held in secret or in the dark. There were many lamps to light the upper chamber in which they met. By the place in which they came together we see that the assemblies were not composed of very many persons. The upper room in Jerusalem received, perhaps, one hundred and twenty. It appears by different salutations, that they met in private houses-probably in several, if the number of believers required it; but there was only one assembly.
Eutychus pays the penalty of his inattention; but God bears testimony to His own goodness, and to the power with which He had endued the apostle, by raising him from a state of death. Paul says that his soul was yet in him: he had only to renew the connection between it and his physical organism. In other cases the soul had been recalled.
Paul chose to go alone from Troas to Assos. We see all through the history, that he arranged, by the power that the Spirit gave him over them, the willing services of his companions-not, doubtless, as their master, yet more absolutely than if he had been so. He is (under Christ) the centre of the system in which he labours, the centre of energy. Christ alone can be by right the centre of salvation and of faith. It was only as filled with the Spirit of God that Paul was the centre even of that energy; and it was, as we have seen, by not grieving Him, and by exercising himself to have a conscience void of offence both towards God and towards men.
Paul does not stop at Ephesus, because in so central a place he must have stayed some time. It is necessary to avoid that which has a certain moral claim upon us, if we would not and ought not to be detained by the obligation it imposes upon us.
It was no want of affection for the beloved Ephesians, nor any thought of neglecting them. He sends for the elders, and addresses a discourse to them, which we must examine a little, as setting before us the position of the assembly at that time, and the work of the gospel among the nations.
The assemblies were consolidated over a pretty large extent of country, and in divers places at least had taken the form of a regularly ordered institution. Elders were established and recognised. The apostle could send for them to come to him. His authority also was acknowledged on their part. He speaks of his ministry as a past thing-solemn thought! but he takes them to witness not only that he had preached the truth to them, but a truth that spoke to their conscience; setting them before God on the one hand, and on the other presenting to them Him in whom God made Himself known, and in whom He communicated all the fulness of grace on their behalf-Jesus, the object of their faith, the Saviour of their souls. He had done this through trouble and through difficulty, in face of the unprincipled opposition of the Jews who had rejected the Anointed One, but in accordance with the grace that rose above all this evil and declared salvation to the Jews, and going beyond these limits (because it was grace) addressed itself to the Gentiles, to all men, as sinners and responsible to God. Paul had done this, not with the pride of a teacher, but with the humility and the perseverance of love. He desired also to finish his ministry, and to fail in nothing that Jesus had committed to him. And now he was going to Jerusalem, feeling bound in spirit to do so, not knowing what would befall him, but warned by the Holy Ghost that bonds and afflictions awaited him. With regard to themselves, he knew his ministry was ended, and that he should see their face no more. Henceforth responsibility would specially rest upon them.
Thus what the Holy Ghost here sets before us is, that now, when the detail of his work among the Gentiles to plant the gospel is related as one entire scene among Jews and Gentiles, he bids adieu to the work; in order to leave those whom he had gathered together in a new position, and in a certain sense to themselves. [32] It is a discourse which marks the cessation of one phase of the assembly-that of apostolic labours-and the entrance into another-its responsibility to stand fast now that those labours had ceased, the service of the elders whom the Holy Ghost had made overseers, and at the same time the dangers and difficulties that would attend the cessation of apostolic labour, and complicate the work of the elders on whom the responsibility would now more especially devolve.
The first remark that flows from the consideration of this discourse is, that apostolic succession is entirely denied by it. Owing to the absence of the apostle various difficulties would arise, and there would be no one in his place to meet or to prevent these difficulties. Successor therefore he had none. In the second place the fact appears that, this energy which bridled the spirit of evil, once away, devouring wolves from without, and teachers of perverse things from within, would lift up their heads and attack the simplicity and the happiness of the assembly, which would be harassed by the efforts of Satan without possessing apostolic energy to withstand them.
This testimony of Pauls is of the highest importance with regard to the whole ecclesiastical system. The attention of the elders who are left in charge is directed elsewhere than to present apostolical care (as having no longer this resource, or anything that officially replaced it), in order that the assembly might be kept in peace and sheltered from evil. It was their part to care for the assembly in these circumstances. In the next place, that which was principally to be done for the hindrance of evil was to shepherd the flock, and to watch, whether over themselves or over the flock, for that purpose. He reminds them how he had himself exhorted them night and day with tears. Let them therefore watch. He then commends them, neither to Timothy, nor to a bishop, but-in a way that sets aside all official resource-to God, and to the word of His grace which was able to build them up and assure them of the inheritance. This was where he left the assembly; that which it did afterwards is not my subject here. If John came later to work in these parts, it was a great favour from God, but it changed nothing in the position officially. His labours (with the exception of the warnings to the seven assemblies in the Apocalypse, where judgment is in question) regarded the individual life, its character, and that which sustained it.
With deep and touching affection Paul parts from the assembly at Ephesus. Who filled the gap? At the same time he appealed to their consciences for the uprightness of his walk. The free labours of the apostle of the Gentiles were ended. Solemn and affecting thought! He had been the instrument chosen of God to communicate to the world His counsels respecting the assembly, and to establish in the midst of the world this precious object of His affections united to Christ at His right hand. What would become of it down here?
Footnotes for Acts Chapter 20
32: If Paul was ever set free and returned to these parts (not necessarily to Ephesus) as Philippians and Philemon and perhaps 2 Timothy would lead us to suppose, we have no scriptural account of it.
Fuente: John Darby’s Synopsis of the New Testament
PAUL GOES TO EUROPE THE SECOND TIME
1. We learn (1Co 1:8) that Paul remained in Ephesus at this time, A. D. 57, till after Pentecost, which was early in June, fifty days after April 14, having written the first Corinthian letter and sent it on to them by Stephanas, Fortunatus and Achaicus. After this memorable uproar, calling together the disciples, exhorting and bidding them a loving adieu, he sails away to Macedonia.
Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament
Act 20:4. There accompanied him Sopater of Berea, the son of Pyrrhus, according to the Vulgate. He is called by Paul, Sosipater. Rom 16:21. Aristarchus, who accompanied him to Rome, and Secundus, both of Thessalonica: Act 27:2. Gaius of Derbe, Timotheus of Lystra, of Asia Tychicus and Trophimus; all great and able ministers, and acquainted, in some sort, with Grecian literature. Like Clement and others they came into the church loaded with Egyptian gold, for the Greeks allow that they received letters from Phnicia first, and then from Egypt. Thus the great Shepherd raised up faithful pastors to feed the flock.
Act 20:7. On the first day of the week; the sabbath being so appointed by the Son of man, who is Lord also of the sabbath; and it is thought to be the original sabbath in which God rested from all his works, as stated in Eze 20:12-20.
They came to break bread. The Syriac reads, eucharist, or sacrament. The lovefeast was often celebrated at the same time, when the brethren prophesied one by one.
Paul continued his speech until midnight. He had eloquence ever flowing from inexhaustible treasures of wisdom and knowledge. GAUSSEN, being once asked, what was the best way of excelling in the eloquence of the pulpit, replied, To love Christ with supreme affection: then a preacher is carried beyond himself, and can scarcely close his subject. De arte concionandi: pp. 149-156.
Act 20:10. His life is in him. The Lord healed and restored this young man, lest it should add one loss to another, and occasion reproach among the wicked. Thus the calamity was turned to joy.
Act 20:13. Assos, a city near Troas.
Act 20:14. Mityln, capital of the island of Lesbos, a fine city and port, ravaged by the Athenians, and destroyed by the Romans, but rebuilt by Pompey. Prior to the turkish tyranny, it flourished as a seat of letters.
Act 20:15. Chios, an island between Samos and Lesbos. Miletus, a celebrated port of Ionia.
Act 20:17. The elders of the church. The Greek is presbyters; but in Act 20:28, they are called bishops. These bishops were not collected from the neighbouring cities, for the apostle had no time. Hence Jerome makes a just remark, that presbyter and bishop were originally the same, the one being a title of age, the other of dignity. This agrees with St. Peters calling himself a presbyter, and calling the bishops, elders or presbyters. 1Pe 5:1-2. It also agrees with St. Pauls salutation of the bishops and deacons of the church of Philippi, making no mention of presbyters. Php 1:1. It likewise corresponds with his injunction to Titus to ordain elders, presbyters, or bishops in every new and little church, as St. Paul did in every such church. The truth is, that christianity was at first like a humble plant, or grain of mustard seed, rising out of the earth. Holiness was the great qualification for office, and the first converts who could read and pray, and teach, were ordained bishops or presbyters. But gradually, the oldest and most approved man was called the bishop, and every town had its bishop. Why then write so many volumes on the divine right of episcopasy? The office of a primitive bishop was holy and harmless; and when presbyters are many, they sometimes need the rod as well as the flock. Both these offices are derived from the synagogue. See note on Mat 4:23.
Act 20:21. Testifying, witnessing, both to jews and greeks. Our preaching consists of reciting; theirs of testifying. They could say, like Isaiah, I saw the Lord on a throne, high and lifted up. Oh what superior power and confidence must those have had, who had seen the Lord and Saviour given back from the dead!
Act 20:32. I commend you to God, the Father who loves you. We go away, but he stays; we die, but he lives, the God alsufficient. And to the word of his grace, the fountain of felicity, which ever pours forth the living streams of life, and light, and love. The word of truth will edify and build you up to a living temple in the Lord, and afore prepare you for an inheritance among the sanctified. Those who sit under an edifying ministry know its value, and exclaim after storms and conflicts, Thou shalt guide me by thy counsel, and afterwards receive me to glory.
Act 20:33. I have coveted no mans silver or gold. The first preachers subsisted by freewill-offerings, which Paul calls a sweet savour to God. Moses, when Korah and his company rebelled, could look to heaven and say, I have not taken one ass from them. Num 16:15. Samuel also could appeal to the elders when they asked a king, and say, Whose ox, or whose ass have I taken? 1Sa 12:5. What can be more ruinous to a minister than to have it whispered about that he is hoarding up money, is deficient in charity, and greedy of filthy lucre? Our best support is a firm belief in the coming and kingdom of the Lord; and when we are in straits with the wants of a family, we shall not be forsaken.
REFLECTIONS.
We here find the apostle moving on in a sphere of glory, in labours more abundant, and aiming at the conversion of the gentile world. In seven years he left Greece, loaded with laurels; and who can count the children born of God in so short a time. The churches were numerous as the cities. The shepherds were encreased in proportion to the flocks. What hath God wrought?
The charge to the elders of Ephesus is argumentative and impressive beyond example. It is a father speaking to his own children, who succeeded in the care of the flock. It is a noble appeal of Paul to his life and doctrine for the regulation of their future conduct and diligence. Whatever bishop or father in the church wants materials for a pastoral charge, here he may find an abundant supply.
St. Paul makes humility and piety the grand qualification for the ministry, and the first object of remark: he served the Lord at all seasons with humility of mind. He remembered that his Master took upon him the form of a servant, and scorned the sacerdotal pomp of manners and dress. He remembered the great trust which God reposed in his hands, and aimed at being a workman rather than a gentleman.
He wept often, but never flinched under his temptations and persecutions. The jews sought to hurt him in his person, in his reputation, and in his liberty; but his rising family being great, for three years in Ephesus and the province he persevered, and forsook them not till the children could walk alone.
In his ministry he was plenary and faithful. He kept back nothing that was profitable, and shunned not to declare the whole counsel of God. To the wicked jew and to the profligate gentile he preached repentance with the same impartiality; nor had he spared the judges, and the learned societies in the Areopagus of Athens; for what are mortals when they dare to insult the eternal laws of heaven. He was clear of every mans blood; for none who had sat under him could plead ignorance. He taught from house to house; and great were the advantages of his domestic visits to the flock. Here he learned the effect of his ministry. Here he learned the state of the people, and gave them that particular advice which their various states required. Here he prayed with them, as we may gather from his doing it now on the beach; and gained their affections inconceivably; and he was comforted together with them by their mutual faith. Ministers should daily take a walk among the sick, and speak for God in every house.
St. Paul next charged the elders to follow his example, in feeding the flock or church of God which he had purchased with his own blood. No doubt he used some such words as in the charge to Timothy; and no language can possibly be more pertinent and sublime. Then, if we are to feed the flock, we should always consider what food the various classes of our hearers require, and never amuse them with trifles. When an audience is grasping at heaven, to obtrude insipid remarks is to betray our ignorance, and insult devotion. While the people are waiting upon God we should display his perfections, and the glory of Christ.
This apostle performed the double task of feeding and watching. Take heed therefore, he says, unto yourselves, and to your doctrine. We must be well grounded in piety and truth, to resist the approaches of heretical and wicked teachers. Some men have a tongue that can tell us the finest tales. They dazzle us at once by a display of pomp, and by a vast show of superior knowledge: whereas genuine worth has its consciousness in the sight of God; it goes on in his work, and its excellencies steal on the notice of men with blushes of celestial modesty. Let us therefore be wary in our attachment to teachers. Let us not be allured by the powers of speech, and a show of words. Let us mark whether they be pious men; whether they pay court to the rich, and shun the doors of the poor; whether they have a command of their own passions, and whether their eye be most fixed on worldly wealth, or on immortal souls. When we have once found a minister of Pauls temper, let us value him as the best gift of God to his church, and let us stand by him in all his difficulties.
He closed his charge with prayer. They all kneeled down on the sea-shore, and wept while this precious servant of God opened heaven by his prayers; and at parting they fell on his neck and kissed him with final adieus. This is the love of primitive christianity. This is the fair flower of piety as it first bloomed, and before its tints were tarnished by an approximation to the world. Oh happy moment; oh sanctifying pledge of meeting in paradise! This was union not affected by distance of place, and lapse of ages. They loved the apostle in the Lord, and waited to be his crown of rejoicing in the day of the Lord Jesus.
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Act 20:1-6. To Greece; Return to Troas.The journey sketched in Act 19:21, 1Co 16:5-9, is entered on; for what happened at Troas and in Macedonia on the way cf. 2Co 2:12 f., 2Co 7:5; but of all that intense experience there is little echo in Acts. The sketches of the journey did not fix what route was to be followed from Greece to Jerusalem; here (3) we find that the intention was to go by sea. The plan is changed on account of a Jewish plot. Accordingly Paul sets out to Macedonia with a part only of his companions, the others remaining behind in Greece and overtaking the party by sea. Light is shed on this journey by the epistles; cf. Rom 15:22-33, 1Co 16:1-4, and especially 2 Corinthians 8 f., where Paul explains the arrangements for carrying to Jerusalem the money collected in Macedonia and Greece for the poor of Juda, and introduces the envoys chosen by the Macedonian churches who are to go with him. The land party accompanying Paul embraces Sopater of Bera, son of Pyrrhus, Aristarchus and Secundus of Thessalonica (cf. 2Co 8:18 and 2Co 8:22; these would see their friends on the way), and Gaius and three men from Asia Minor. In Act 19:29 Gaius is named with Aristarchus as a Macedonian. The insertion of a colon after Gaius in the Gr. would give and Timothy of Derbe. For Tychicus, cf. Col 4:7; for Trophimus, Act 21:29, 2Ti 4:20. The date of the sailing of the others (Act 20:6) is given by the Jewish calendar; they reach Troas in less than five days (Act 16:11*), and the united party spend a week there.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
Finally Paul follows Timothy and Erastus to Macedonia, leaving a field of labor that had been most fruitful. How long he spent in Philippi, Thessalonica and Berea we are not told, but he gave them much exhortation. This of course took place well after his second letter to the Thessalonians. Following this, Luke says “he came into Greece.” Luke was evidently there, and joined Paul’s party when he left (vs.5-6). What places he may have visited in Greece (or Achaia) we are not told: we know only of an assembly at Corinth. This visit was also following his second epistle to the Corinthians. But nothing is mentioned as to how he may have met conditions existing there, concerning which he had been seriously apprehensive (2Co 12:20-21). But he remained three months in Greece before beginning a trip toward Syria by way of Macedonia again.
Seven names of those accompanying him are listed in this case, from four different areas. This is a lovely testimony to the unity promoted by the Gospel of Christ among those of differing backgrounds and cultures. These seven and Paul left Philippi before Luke and whoever was with him. No doubt Luke, who had previously spent some time at Philippi (after Act 16:40), was desirous of having a longer visit there, which included “the days of unleavened bread,” that is, the week following the Passover. Of course Luke, being a Gentile, would himself attach little importance to this, but his consideration of the consciences of his Jewish brethren is beautifully evident (See Rom 14:1-6).
Luke’s journey to Troas took five days, a slow trip compared to that from Troas to Philippi some time earlier (Act 16:11-12), There they remained a full week with the assembly, ending with the Lord’s Day, when the disciples came together to break bread. Though in Jerusalem at the beginning the breaking of bread was observed perhaps every day (Act 2:42-46), yet evidently it became normal to observe this every first day of the week.
Paul however used the occasion to preach to the gathered saints, continuing until midnight. There was evidently a great deal on his heart at the time. Many lights are spoken of in the upper room where they were gathered. Doubtless the upper room reminds us of heaven, the true home of the Church, with its abundance of light for the instruction of saints. At least it was not lack of light that induced sleep on the part of Eutychus.
In this young man (whose name means “prosperous”)we are no doubt intended to see a picture of the Church when it would reach a prosperous state and become weary of Paul’s ministry. For when circumstances are hard and rigorous we are usually more awake to the truth, while earthly prosperity tends to make us self-satisfied and insensitive to our need of the full truth of the Word of God, particularly truth of heavenly character such as Paul ministers. Then we easily fall from our high position and suffer drastic results.
Though the Church has been asleep to Paul’s ministry, falling and becoming virtually “dead”, yet the remedy for such a condition is to be found in Paul’s ministry. Paul embraced Eutychus, saying, “His life is in him.” Evidently his life was restored through Paul’s embrace, a miraculous intervention of God, for he had been actually dead. Thus, in the writings of Paul today there is power as well as grace to accomplish some true recovery from a practically dead condition in the Church. After his revival the breaking of bread took place as well as eating, then continued ministry until the break of day. In these last days God has given some reviving of the truth of the assembly and provides for our present comfort the breaking of bread and fellowship, as well as sufficient ministry until the break of day (the coming of the Lord). This is concluded by the thankful expression, “they were not a little comforted.” What reason indeed we have for such encouragement in our day!
Leaving Troas the company sailed to Assos, about 25 miles down the coast, but Paul decided to walk that distance, arranging to meet the others there. It seems that his reason for this is explained in his address to the Ephesian elders soon after, when they had arrived at Miletus and sent for the elders to come to meet him. It was a long distance for them (36 miles) but Paul was manifestly deeply concerned in heart in all that he had to speak to them. His own long walk alone gave time for meditative consideration of these things. He did not himself go to Ephesus, for he was anxious to get to Jerusalem by the time of the feast of Pentecost, when many would be present. He evidently felt that he could make some profitable impression on the Jews, though he had no assurance from God of such results. His love for his own nation evidently influenced him greatly, rather than the leading of God.
Ephesus was of special concern to him, however, and this assembly is particularly a representative assembly (Cf.Revelation 2:1), its name meaning “one desire.” He speaks most earnestly to the elders, reminding them of his character and conduct among them from the first day of his coming to Asia. How few indeed would be able to speak as he did of such service to the Lord carried on in all humility of mind, with many tears and trials occasioned by the persecuting efforts of the enemy. He first speaks of himself as being a servant of the Lord. This involves genuine subjection and lowliness of heart.
His faithfulness as a teacher is seen in verses 20 and 21. He kept back nothing that was profitable to them, as some men do in order not to offend, or risk their popularity. No doubt he sought to speak what they were able to bear (Cf.Mark 14:33; Joh 16:12), for this is godly wisdom, but would not hold back anything just because it might hurt. His teaching was both public and in the homes of the people. His basic message for both Jews and Gentiles was “repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.” In the proclamation of the Gospel this is a message that does not change.
When he speaks of going “bound in the spirit” to Jerusalem, it is his own spirit he is speaking of, not the Spirit of God. So deep was his genuine love for Israel that this urged him forward in spite of warnings given by the Holy Spirit “in every city” that his going there would issue in imprisonment and suffering. Notice that he fully believes that it was the Holy Spirit who was giving these warnings.
But none of these things could move him from his purpose. His devotedness itself is precious, though we may question if it was rightly directed on this occasion. Bonds and afflictions would not diminish his joy, though his course might soon be finished. Also the ministry he received from the Lord Jesus was of such vital, valuable character that it had a compelling influence in his soul to lead him in fervent desire to testify the Gospel of the grace of God. He was not only a servant and a teacher, but a minister and evangelist, and as verse 25 tells us, a preacher. Notice that though he particularly emphasized the Gospel of the grace of God, yet he preached the kingdom of God. There is a fine distinction here: he does not say he preached “the Gospel of the kingdom” (Cf.Matthew 25:14). The kingdom emphasizes the authority of the King, which will be the Gospel preached in the Tribulation period; while Paul’s ministry emphasized the grace of God, the special message of the present dispensation.
Though Paul emphasized the Gospel of the grace of God, yet he no less insisted on the authority of the Lord Jesus which is involved in the kingdom of God, for that kingdom has an important present aspect that we cannot ignore. Now he tells the Ephesian elders that he knows they will not see his face again, a fact that gives more solemn weight to his message for them. They themselves could bear witness that he was pure from the blood of all men. None could accuse him of neglect in warning them and presenting to them the truth that would deliver them. He had been a faithful watchman (Cf.Ezekiel 3:17-21), not avoiding the declaration of the entire counsel of God.
The plain, foundational facts he has told them form a solid basis for his earnest exhortations, which begin with his urging them to pay close attention to their own spiritual condition, then to that also of all the flock, for it was the Spirit of God who had given them the responsibility of overseership. They are told to “shepherd” the church of God, which involves both providing food, care and guidance. The sheep had been “purchased with the blood of His own,” that is, God’s own Shepherd (Cf.Zech.13:7), and therefore of priceless value to Him. This fact should move our hearts in diligent, tenderest care for all the flock of God. We have seen Paul in many characters in this address, and added to these is that of pastor in this verse.
Then he speaks as a prophet, with absolute knowledge that, after his departure from this life, grievous wolves (heartless unbelievers) would infiltrate among the flock, to cause great damage. Nor only this, but men from among themselves (even believers) would take a prominent place, speaking perverted things with the object of drawing disciples to follow them. They would no doubt use the scriptures, but give the Word such a twist that its plain, simple truth would be lost. How sadly both of these things have taken place in the Church, and on how wide a scale in our day!
He therefore presses two things on their consciences, — “watch and remember.” We must be alert to recognize danger when it raises its head, so that it may be properly dealt with. We must also not forget the truth we have learned in the past, by which to meet such things. In this case Paul had spent three years in his instructing and warning the saints. Today we have no less help in his writings, which are as urgent as were his tears.
Now he commends them, not to the Church, nor to specially appointed leaders, but to God Himself and to the Word of His grace. How vital it is that every believer should learn to depend personally and utterly upon God and upon His Word. This is our only real protection, but also it is the vital means of building up the saints, as well as giving an inheritance among all those who are sanctified, that is, set apart to God from all that is contrary to His Word and will. We must not overlook the living power in the Word of God itself. It is our one tangible means of protection and strength in an adverse world.
Now he can honestly appeal to the fact of his own character and conduct among them. He had not coveted the property of anyone, a marked contrast to many popular religious leaders today. They all knew that he had worked to support himself and others who were with him in spite of his having a right to refrain from secular employment (1Co 9:11-14).
He had not only told them, but had shown them by diligent example that they ought to engage in labor for the support of the weak, not merely for their own support, and in this case to remember the words of the Lord Jesus in saying it is better to give than to receive. This exact expression is not recorded in the Gospels, but the truth of it is evident in many of the recorded words of the Lord, as for example Luk 6:30-38.
When time for parting had come, Paul kneeled down and prayed with them all, a fitting conclusion to his stirring message. They were deeply affected to the point of tears, embracing and kissing the apostle. Their deepest sorrow, however, was not because of the impending danger that threatened the flock of God, but because he had told them they would not see his face again on earth. Too frequently we think more of the Lord’s servant than we do of his message. Then they went with him to see him embark on the ship.
Fuente: Grant’s Commentary on the Bible
20:1 And {1} after the uproar was ceased, Paul called unto [him] the disciples, and embraced [them], and departed for to go into Macedonia.
(1) Paul departs from Ephesus by the consent of the church, not to be idle or at rest, but to take pains in another place.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Paul’s visit to Macedonia and Achaia 20:1-6
"This report of Paul’s return visit to Macedonia and Achaia is the briefest account of an extended ministry in all of Acts-even more so than the summary of the ministry at Ephesus (cf. Act 19:8-12). Nevertheless, it can be filled out to some extent by certain personal references and historical allusions in 2 Corinthians and Romans, which were written during this time." [Note: Longenecker, p. 506.]
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Evidently soon after the riot Paul left Ephesus to pursue his plan to return to Jerusalem through Macedonia and Achaia (Act 19:21). He travelled up to Troas where he could have ministered for some time because "a door was opened" for him there (2Co 2:12). Nevertheless he was uneasy about the trouble in the Corinthian church. He had sent Titus to Corinth, evidently from Ephesus, with a severe letter to the church. He was eager to hear what the reaction to it had been (2Co 2:3-4; 2Co 7:8-12; 2Co 12:18). So rather than staying in Troas, Paul moved west into Macedonia where he met Titus who was returning from Corinth (2Co 7:5-8). After receiving Titus’ favorable report of affairs in Corinth, Paul wrote 2 Corinthians from somewhere in Macedonia, probably in the fall of A.D. 56 (cf. 2Co 12:14; 2Co 13:1-2).
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Chapter 16
ST. PAUL AND THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY.
Act 20:1; Act 20:7; Act 20:17-19; Act 20:28
THE period of St. Pauls career at which we have now arrived was full of life, vigour, activity. He was in the very height of his powers, was surrounded with responsibilities, was pressed with cares and anxieties; and yet the character of the sacred narrative is very peculiar. From the passover of the year 57, soon after which the Apostle had to leave Ephesus, till the passover of the next year, we learn but very little of St. Pauls work from the narrative of St. Luke. The five verses with which the twentieth chapter begins tell us all that St. Luke apparently knew about the Apostles actions during that time. He gives us the story of a mere outsider, who knew next to nothing of the work St. Paul was doing. The Apostle left Ephesus and went into Macedonia, whence he departed into Greece. Three months were occupied in teaching at Corinth, and then, intending to sail from Cenchreae to Ephesus, he suddenly changed his mind upon the discovery of a Jewish plot, altered his route, disappointed his foes, and paid a second visit to Macedonia. In this narrative, which is all St. Luke gives, we have the account, brief and concise, of one who was acquainted merely with the bare outlines of the Apostles work, and knew nothing of his inner life and trials. St. Luke, in fact, was so much taken up with his own duties at Philippi, where he had been labouring for the previous five years, that he had no time to think of what was going on elsewhere. At any rate his friend and pupil Theophilus had simply asked him for a narrative so far as he knew it of the progress of the gospel. He had no idea that he was writing anything more than a story for the private use of Theophilus, and he therefore put down what he knew and had experienced, without troubling himself concerning other matters. I have read criticisms of the Acts-proceeding principally, I must confess, from German sources-which seem to proceed on the supposition that St. Luke was consciously writing an ecclesiastical history of the whole early Church which he knew and felt was destined to serve for ages. But this was evidently not the case. St. Luke was consciously writing a story merely for a friends study, and dreamt not of the wider fame and use destined for his. book. This accounts in a simple and natural way, not only for what St. Luke inserts, but also for what he leaves out, and he manifestly left out a great deal. We may take this passage at which we have now arrived as an illustration of his methods of writing sacred history. This period of ten months, from the time St. Paul left Ephesus till he returned to Philippi at the following Easter season, was filled with most important labours which have borne fruit unto all ages of the Church, yet St. Luke dismisses them in a few words. Just let us realise what happened in these eventful months. St. Paul wrote First Corinthians in April A.D. 57. In May he passed to Troas, where, as we learn from Second Corinthians, he laboured for a short time with much success. He then passed into Macedonia, urged on by his restless anxiety concerning the Corinthian Church. In Macedonia. he laboured during the following five or six months. How intense and absorbing must have been his work during that time! It was then that he preached the gospel with signs and wonders round about even unto Illyricum, as he notes in Rom 16:19, an epistle written this very year from Corinth. The last time that he had been in Macedonia he was a hunted fugitive fleeing from place to place. Now he seems to have lived in comparative peace, so far at least as the Jewish synagogues were concerned. He penetrated, therefore, into the mountainous districts west of Beroea, bearing the gospel tidings into cities and villages which had as yet heard nothing of them. But preaching was not his only work in Macedonia. He had written his first Epistle to Corinth from Ephesus a few months before. In Macedonia he received from Titus, his messenger, an account of the manner in which that epistle had been received, and so from Macedonia he despatched his second Corinthian Epistle, which must be carefully studied if we desire to get an adequate idea of the labours and anxieties amid which the Apostle was then immersed. {see 2Co 2:13, and 2Co 7:5-6} And then he passed into Greece, where he spent three months at Corinth, settling the affairs of that very celebrated but very disorderly Christian community. The three months spent there must have been a period of overwhelming business. Let us recount the subjects which must have taken up every moment of St. Pauls time. First there were the affairs of the Corinthian Church itself. He had to reprove, comfort, direct, set in order. The whole moral, spiritual, social, intellectual conceptions of Corinth had gone wrong. There was not a question, from the most elementary topic of morals and the social considerations connected with female dress and activities, to the most solemn points of doctrine and worship, the Resurrection and the Holy Communion, concerning which difficulties, disorders, and dissensions had not been raised. All these had to be investigated and decided by the Apostle. Then, again, the Jewish controversy, anti the oppositions to himself personally which the Judaising party had excited, demanded his careful attention. This controversy was a troublesome one in Corinth just then, but it was a still more troublesome one in Galatia, and was fast raising its head in Rome. The affairs of both these great and important churches, the one in the East, the other in the West, were pressing upon St. Paul at this very time. While he was immersed in all the local troubles of Corinth, he had to find time at Corinth to write the Epistle to the Galatians and the Epistle to the Romans. How hard it must have been for the Apostle to concentrate his attention on the affairs of Corinth when his heart and brain were torn with anxieties about the schisms, divisions, and false doctrines which were flourishing among his Galatian converts, or threatening to invade the Church at Rome, where as yet he had not been able to set forth his own conception of gospel truth, and thus fortify the disciples against the attacks of those subtle foes of Christ who were doing their best to turn the Catholic Church into a mere narrow Jewish sect, devoid of all spiritual power and life.
But this was not all, or nearly all. St. Paul was at the same time engaged in organising a great collection throughout all the churches where he had ministered on behalf of the poor Christians at Jerusalem, and he was compelled to walk most warily and carefully in this matter. Every step he took was watched by foes ready to interpret it unfavourably; every appointment he made, every arrangement, no matter how wise or prudent, was the subject of keenest scrutiny and criticism. With all these various matters accumulating upon him it is no wonder that St. Paul should have written of himself at this very period in words which vividly describe his distractions: “Beside those things that are without, there is that which presseth upon me daily, the care of all the churches.” And yet St. Paul gives us a glimpse of the greatness of his soul as we read the epistles which were the outcome of this period of intense but fruitful labour. He carried a mighty load, but yet he carried it lightly. His present anxieties were numerous, but they did not shut out all thoughts upon other topics. The busiest man then was just the same as the busiest man still. He was the man who had the most time and leisure to bestow thought upon the future. The anxieties and worries of the present were numerous and exacting, but St. Paul did not allow his mind to be so swallowed up in them as to shut out all care about other questions equally important. While he was engaged in the manifold cares which present controversies brought, he was all the while meditating a mission to Rome, and contemplating a journey still farther to Spain and Gaul and the bounds of the Western ocean. And then, finally, there was the care of St. Pauls own soul, the sustenance and development of his spirit by prayer and meditation and worship and reading, which he never neglected under any circumstances. All these things combined must have rendered this period of close upon twelve months one of the Apostles busiest and in-tensest times, and yet St. Luke disposes of it in a few brief verses of this twentieth chapter.
After St. Pauls stay at Corinth, he determined to proceed to Jerusalem according to his predetermined plan, bringing with him the proceeds of the collection which he had made. He wished to go by sea, as he had done some three years before, sailing from Cenchreae direct to Syria. The Jews of Corinth, however, were as hostile as ever, and so they hatched a plot to murder him before his embarkation. St. Paul, however, having learned their designs, suddenly changed his route, and took his journey by land through Macedonia, visiting once more his former converts and tarrying to keep the passover at Philippi with the little company of Christian Jews who there resided. This circumstance throws light upon verses 4 and 5 of this twentieth chapter, which run thus: “There accompanied him as far as Asia Sopater of Beroea, the son of Pyrrhus; and of the Thessalonians, Aristarchus and Secundus; and Gaius of Derbe, and Timothy; and of Asia, Tychicus and Trophimus. But these had gone before, and were waiting for us at Troas.” St. Paul came to Philippi, found St. Luke there, celebrated the passover, and then sailed away with St. Luke to join the company who had gone before. And they had gone before for a very good reason. They were all, except Timothy, Gentile Christians, persons therefore who, unlike St. Paul, had nothing to do with the national rites and customs of born Jews, and who might be much more profitably exercised in working among the Gentile converts at Troas, free from any danger of either giving or taking offence in connection with the passover, a lively instance of which danger Trophimus, one of their number, subsequently afforded in Jerusalem, when his presence alone in St. Pauls company caused the spread of a rumour which raised the riot so fatal to St. Pauls liberty: “For they had seen with him in the city. Trophimus the Ephesian, whom they supposed that Paul had brought into the temple.” {Act 21:29} This incident, together with St. Pauls conduct at Jerusalem, as told in the twenty-sixth verse of the twenty-first chapter, illustrates vividly St. Pauls view of the Jewish law and Jewish rites and ceremonies. They were for Jews national ceremonies. They had a meaning for them. They commemorated certain national deliverances, and as such might be lawfully used. St. Paul himself could eat the passover and cherish the feelings of a Jew, heartily thankful to God for the deliverance from Egypt wrought out through Moses centuries ago for his ancestors, and his mind could then go on and rejoice over a greater deliverance still wrought out at this same paschal season by a greater than Moses. St. Paul openly proclaimed the, lawfulness of the Jewish rites for Jews, but opposed their imposition upon the Gentiles. He regarded them as tolerabiles ineptiae, and therefore observed them to please his weaker brethren; but sent his Gentile converts on before, lest perhaps the sight of his own example might weaken their faith and lead them to a compliance with that Judaising party who were ever ready to avail themselves of any opportunity to weaken St. Pauls teaching and authority. St. Paul always strove to unite wisdom and prudence with faithfulness to principle lest by any means his labour should be in vain.
St. Luke now joined St. Paul at Philippi, and henceforth gives his own account of what happened on this eventful journey. From Philippi they crossed to Troas. It was the spring-time, and the weather was more boisterous than later in the year, and so the voyage took five days to accomplish, while two days had sufficed on a previous occasion. They came to Troas, and there remained for a week, owing doubtless to the exigencies of the ship and its cargo. On the first day of the week St. Paul assembled the Church for worship. The meeting was held on what we should call Saturday evening; but we must remember that the Jewish first day began from sundown on Saturday or the Sabbath. This is the first notice in the Acts of the observance of the Lords Day as the time of special Christian worship. We have, however, earlier notices of the-first day in connection with Christian observances. The apostles, for instance, met together on the first day, as we are told in Joh 20:19, and again eight days after, as the twenty-sixth verse of the same chapter tells. St. Pauls first Epistle to Corinth was written twelve months earlier than this visit to Troas, and it expressly mentions {1Co 16:2} the first day of the week as the time ordered by St. Paul for the setting apart of the Galatian contribution to the collection for the poor saints at Jerusalem; and so here again at Troas we see that the Asiastic Christians observed the same solemn time for worship and the celebration of the Eucharist. Such glimpses-chance notices, we might call them, were there not a higher Providence watching over the unconscious writer-show us how little we can conclude from mere silence about the ritual, worship, and government of the Apostolic Church, and illustrate the vast importance of studying carefully the extant records of the Christian Church in the second century if we wish to gain fresh light upon the history and customs of the apostolic age. If three or four brief texts were blotted out of the New Testament, it would be quite possible to argue from Silence merely that the apostles and their immediate followers did not observe the Lords Day in any way whatsoever, and that the custom of stated worship and solemn eucharistic celebrations on that day were a corruption introduced in post-apostolic times. The best interpreters of the New Testament are, as John Wesley long ago well pointed out in his preface to his celebrated but now almost unknown Christian Library, the apostolic fathers and the writers of the age next following the apostles. We may take it for a certain rule of interpretation that, whenever we find a widely established practice or custom mentioned in the writings of a Christian author of the second century, it originated in apostolic times. It was only natural that this should have been the case. We are all inclined to venerate the past, and to cry it up as the golden age. Now this tendency must have been intensified tenfold in the case of the Christians of the second century. The first century was the time of our Lord and the age of the apostles. Sacred memories clustered thick round it, and every ceremony and rite which came from that time must have been profoundly reverenced, while every new ceremony or custom must have been rudely challenged, and its author keenly scrutinised as one who presumptuously thought he could improve upon the wisdom of men respired by the Holy Ghost and miraculously gifted by God. It is for this reason we regard the second-century doctors and apologists as the best commentary upon the sacred writers, because in them we see the Church of the apostolic age living, acting, displaying itself amid the circumstances and scenes of actual life.
Just let us take as an illustration the case of this observance of the first day of the week. The Acts of the Apostles tells us but very little about it, simply because there is but little occasion to mention what must have seemed to St. Luke one of the commonest and best-known facts. But Justin Martyr some eighty years later was describing Christianity for the Roman Emperor. He was defending it against the outrageous and immoral charges brought against it, and depicting the purity, the innocency, and simplicity of its sacred rites. Among other subjects dealt with, he touches upon the time when Christians offered up formal and stated worship. It was absolutely necessary therefore for him to treat of the subject of the Lords Day. In the sixty-seventh chapter of Justins First “Apology,” we find him describing the Christian weekly festival in words which throw back an interesting light upon the language of St. Luke touching the Lords Day which St. Paul passed at Troas. Justin writes thus on this topic: “Upon the day called Sunday all who live in cities or in the country gather together unto one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits; then, when the reader has ceased, the president verbally instructs, and exhorts to the imitation of these good things. Then we all rise together and pray, and as we before said, when our prayer is ended, bread and wine and water are brought, and the president in like manner offers prayers and thanksgivings according to his ability, and the people assent, saying Amen; and there is a distribution to each, and a participation of that over which thanks have been given, and to those who are absent a portion is sent by the deacons. And those who are well to do and willing, give what each thinks fit; and what is collected is deposited with the president, who succours the orphans and widows, and those who through sickness or any other cause are in want, and those who are in bonds, and the strangers sojourning among us, and in a word takes care of all who are in need. But Sunday is the day on which we all hold our common assembly, because it is the first day on which God, having wrought a change in the darkness and matter, made the world; and Jesus Christ our Saviour on the same day rose from the dead.” This passage gives us a full account of Christian customs in the first half of the second century, when thousands must have been still alive who remembered the times of the apostles, enabling us to realise what must have been the character of the assembly and of the worship in which St. Paul played a leading part at Troas.
There was, however, a difference between the celebration at Troas and the celebrations of which Justin Martyr speaks, though we learn not of this difference from Justin himself, but from Plinys letter to Trajan, concerning which we have often spoken. St. Paul met the Christians of Troas in the evening, and celebrated the Holy Communion with them about midnight. It was the first day of the week according to Jewish computation, though it was what we should call Saturday evening. The ship in which the apostolic company was travelling was about to sail on the morrow, and so St. Paul gladly joined the local church in its weekly breaking of bread. It was exactly the same here at Troas as reported by St. Luke, as it was at Corinth, where the evening celebrations were turned into occasions of gluttony and ostentation, as St. Paul tells us in the eleventh of First Corinthians. The Christians evidently met at this time in the evening to celebrate the Lords Supper. It has been often thought that St. Paul, having referred just twelve months before in the First Corinthian Epistle to the gross abuses connected with the evening celebrations at Corinth, and having promised to set the abuses of Corinth in order when he visited that church, did actually change the time of the celebration of Holy Communion from the evening to the morning, when he spent the three months there of which this chapter speaks. Perhaps he did make the change, but we have no information on the point; and if he did make the change for Corinth, it is evident that he did not intend to impose it as a rule upon the whole Christian Church, when a few weeks after leaving Corinth he celebrated the Lords Supper at Troas in the evening. By the second century, however, the change had been made. Justin Martyr indeed does not give a hint as to the time when Holy Communion was administered in the passages to which we have referred. He tells us that none but baptised persons were-admitted to partake of it, but gives us no minor details. Pliny, however, writing of the state of affairs in Bithynia, -and it bordered upon the province where Troas was situated, -tells us from the confession extracted out of apostate Christians that “the whole of their fault lay in this, that they were wont to meet together on a stated day, before it was light, and sing among themselves alternately a hymn to Christ as God, and to bind themselves by a sacrament (or oath) not to the commission of any wickedness, but not to be guilty of theft or robbery or adultery.” After this early service they then separated, and assembled again in the evening to partake of a common meal. The Agape or Love-Feast was united with the Holy Communion in St. Pauls day. Experience, however, showed that Such a union must lead to grave abuses, and so in that final consolidation which the Church received during the last quarter of the first century, when the Lords Second Coming was seen to be not so immediate as some at first expected, the two institutions were divided; the Holy Communion being appointed as the early morning service of the Lords Day, while the Agape was left in its original position as an evening meal. And so have matters continued ever since. The Agape indeed has almost died out. A trace of it perhaps remains in the blessed bread distributed in Roman Catholic Churches on the Continent; while again the love feasts instituted by John Wesley and continued among his followers were an avowed imitation of this primitive institution. The Agape continued indeed in vigorous existence for centuries, but it was almost always found associated with grave abuses. It might have been innocent and useful so long as Christian love continued to burn with the fervour of apostolic days, though even then, as Corinth showed, there were lurking dangers in it; but when we reach the fourth and fifth centuries we find council after council denouncing the evils of the Agape, and restricting its celebration with such effect that during the Middle Ages it ceased to exist as a distinctive Christian ordinance. The change of the Holy Communion to the earlier portion of the day took almost Universal effect, and that from the earliest times. Tertullian (“De Corona,” 3.) testifies that in his time the Eucharist was received before daybreak, though Christ had instituted it at a mealtime. Cyprian witnesses to the same usage in his sixty-third Epistle, where he speaks of Christ as instituting the Sacrament in the evening, that “the very hour of the sacrifice might intimate the evening of the world,” but then describes himself as “celebrating the resurrection of the Lord in the morning.” St. Augustine, as quoted above, writing about 400, speaks of fasting communion as the general rule; so general, indeed, that he regards it as having come down from apostolic appointment. At the same time St. Augustine recognises the time of its original institution, and mentions the custom of the African Church which once a year had an evening communion on Thursday before Easter in remembrance of the Last Supper and of our Lords action in connection with it. My own feeling on the matter is, that early fasting communion, when there are health and strength, is far the most edifying. There is an element of self-denial about it, and the more real self-denial there is about our worship the more blessed will that worship be. A worship that costs nothing in mind, body, or estate is but a very poor thing to offer unto the Lord of the universe. But there is no ground either in Holy Scripture or the history of the primitive Church justifying an attempt to put a yoke on the neck of the disciples which they cannot bear and to teach that fasting communion is binding upon all Christians. St. Augustine speaks most strongly in a passage we have already referred to (Epist. 118., “Ad Januar.”) about the benefit of fasting communion; but he admits the lawfulness of non-fasting participation, as does also that great Greek divine St. Chrysostom, who quotes the examples of St. Paul and of our Lord Himself in justification of such a course.
The celebration of the Eucharist was not the only subject which engaged St. Pauls attention at Troas. He preached unto the people as well; and following his example we find from Justin Martyrs narrative that preaching was an essential part of the communion office in the days immediately following the apostles age; and then, descending to lower times still, we know that preaching is an equally essential portion of the eucharistic service in the Western Church, the only formal provision for a sermon according to the English liturgy being the rubric in the service for the Holy Communion, which lays down that after the Nicene Creed, “Then shall follow the sermon or one of the Homilies already set forth, or hereafter to be set forth, by authority.” St. Pauls discourse was no mere mechanical homily, however. He was not what man regarded as a powerful, but he was a ready speaker, and one who carried his hearers away by the rapt, intense earnestness of his manner. His whole soul was full of his subject. He was convinced that this was his last visit to the churches of Asia. He foresaw, too, a thousand dangers to which they would be exposed after his departure, and he therefore prolonged his sermon far into the night, so far indeed that human nature asserted its claims upon a young man named Eutychus, who sat in a window of a room Where they were assembled. Human nature indeed was never for a moment absent from these primitive Church assemblies. If it was absent in one shape, it was present in another, just as really as in our modern congregations, and so Eutychus fell fast asleep under the heart-searching exhortations of an inspired apostle, even as men fall asleep. under less powerful sermons of smaller men; and as the natural result, sitting in a window left open for the sake of ventilation, he fell down into the courtyard, and was taken up apparently lifeless. St. Paul was not put out, however. He took interruptions in his work as the Master took them. He was not upset by them, but he seized them, utilised them, and then, having extracted the sweetness and blessedness which they brought with them, he returned from them back to his interrupted work. St. Paul descended to Eutychus, found him in a lifeless state, and then restored him. Men have disputed whether the Apostle worked a miracle on this occasion, or merely perceived that the young man was in a temporary faint. I do not see that it makes any matter which opinion we form. St. Pauls supernatural and miraculous powers stand on quite an independent ground, no matter what way we decide this particular case. It seems to me indeed from the language of St. Paul-“Make ye no ado; for his life is in him”-that the young man had merely fainted, and that St. Paul recognised this fact as soon as he touched him. But if any one has strong opinions on the opposite side I should be sorry to spend time disputing a question which has absolutely no evidential bearing. The great point is, that Eutychus was restored, that St. Pauls long sermon was attended by no fatal consequences, and that the Apostle has left us a striking example showing how that, with pastors and people alike, intense enthusiasm, high-strung interest in the affairs of the spiritual world, can enable human nature to rise superior to all human wants, and prove itself master even of the conquering powers of sleep: “And when he was gone up, and had broken the bread, and eaten, and had talked with them a tong while, even till break of day, so he departed.”
We know nothing of what the particular topics were which engaged St. Pauls attention at Troas, but we may guess them from the subject-matter of the address to the elders of Ephesus, which takes up the latter half of this twentieth chapter. Troas and Ephesus, in fact, were so near and so similarly circumstanced that the dangers and trials of both must have been much alike. He next passed from Troas to Miletus. This is a considerable journey along the western shore of Asia Minor. St. Paul was eagerly striving to get to Jerusalem by Pentecost, or by Whitsuntide, as we should say. He had left Philippi after Easter, and now there had elapsed more than a fortnight of the seven weeks which remained available for the journey to Jerusalem. How often St. Paul must have chafed against the manifold delays of the trading vessel in which he sailed; how frequently he must have counted the days to see if sufficient time remained to execute his purpose! St. Paul, however, was a rigid economist of time. He saved every fragment of it as carefully as possible. It was thus with him at Troas. The ship in which he was travelling left Troas early in the morning. It had to round a promontory in its way to the port of Assos, which could be reached direct by St. Paul in half the time. The Apostle therefore took the shorter route, while St. Luke and his companions embarked on board the vessel. St. Paul evidently chose the land route because it gave him a time of solitary communion with God and with himself. He felt, in fact, that the perpetual strain upon his spiritual nature demanded special spiritual support and refreshment, which could only be obtained in the case of one who led such a busy life by seizing upon every such occasion as then offered for meditation and prayer. St. Paul left Troas some time on Sunday morning. He joined the ship at Assos, and after three days coasting voyage landed at Miletus on Wednesday, whence he despatched a messenger summoning the elders of the Church of Ephesus to meet him. The ship was evidently to make a delay of several days at Miletus. We conclude this from the following reason. Miletus is a town separated by a distance of thirty miles from Ephesus. A space therefore of at least two days would be required in order to secure the presence of the Ephesian elders. If a messenger-St. Luke, for instance-started immediately on St. Pauls arrival at Miletus, no matter how quickly he travelled, he could not arrive at Miletus sooner than Thursday at midday. The work of collecting the elders and making known to them the apostolic summons would take up the afternoon at least, and then the journey to Ephesus, either by land or water, must have occupied the whole of Friday. It is very possible that the sermon recorded in this twentieth of Acts was delivered, on the Sabbath, which, as we have noted above, was as yet kept sacred by Christians as well as by Jews, or else upon the Lords Day, when, as upon that day week at Troas, the elders of Ephesus had assembled with the Christians of Miletus in order to commemorate the Lords resurrection.
We have already pointed out that we know not the subject of St. Pauls sermon at Troas, but we do know the topics upon which he enlarged at Miletus, and we may conclude that, considering the circumstances of the time, they must have been much the same as those upon which he dwelt at Troas. Some critics have found fault with St. Pauls sermon as being quite too much taken up with himself and his own vindication. But they forget the peculiar position in which St. Paul was placed, and the manner in which the truth of the gospel was then associated in the closest manner with St. Pauls own personal character and teaching. The Apostle was just then assailed all over the Christian world wherever he had laboured, and even sometimes where he was only known by name, with the most frightful charges; ambition, pride, covetousness, deceit, lying, all these things and much more were imputed to him by his opponents, who wished to seduce the Gentiles from that simplicity and liberty in Christ into which he had led them. Corinth had been desolated by such teachers; Galatia had succumbed to them; Asia was in great peril. St. Paul therefore, foreseeing future dangers, warned the shepherds of the flock at Ephesus against the machinations of his enemies, who always began their preliminary operations by making attacks upon St. Pauls character. This sufficiently explains the apologetic tone of St. Pauls address, of which we have doubtless merely a brief and condensed abstract indicating the subjects of a prolonged conversation with the elders of Ephesus, Miletus, and such neighbouring churches as could be gathered together. We conclude that St. Pauls conference on this occasion must have been a long one for this reason. If St. Paul could find matter sufficient to engage his attention for a whole night, from sundown till sunrise, in a place like Troas, where he had laboured but a very short time, how much more must he have found to say to the presbyters of the numerous congregations which must have been flourishing at Ephesus, where he had laboured for years with such success as to make Christianity a prominent feature in the social and religious life of that idolatrous city!
Let us now notice some of the topics of this address. It may be divided into four portions. The first part is retrospective, and autobiographical; the second is prospective, and sets forth his conception of his future course; the third is hortatory, expounding the dangers threatening the Ephesian Church; and the fourth is valedictory.
I We have the biographical portion. He begins his discourse by recalling to the minds of his hearers his own manner of life, -“Ye yourselves know, from the first day that I set foot in Asia, after what manner I was with you all the time, serving the Lord with all lowliness of mind, and with tears, and with trials which befell me by the plots of the Jews”; words which show us that from the earliest portion of his ministry at Ephesus, and as soon as they realised the meaning of his message, the Jews had become as hostile to the Apostle at Ephesus as they had repeatedly shown themselves at Corinth, again and again making attempts upon his life. The foundations indeed of the Ephesian Church were laid in the synagogue during the first three months of his work, as we are expressly told in Act 19:8; but the Ephesian Church must have been predominantly Gentile in its composition, or else the language of Demetrius must have been exaggerated and the riot raised by him meaningless. How could Demetrius have said, “Ye see that at Ephesus this Paul hath persuaded and turned away much people, saying that they be no gods which are made with hands,” unless the vast majority of his converts were drawn from the ranks of those pagans who worshipped Diana? These words also show us that during his extended ministry at Ephesus he was left at peace by the heathen. St. Paul here makes no mention of trials experienced from pagan plots. He speaks of the Jews alone as making assaults upon his work or his person, incidentally confirming the statement of Act 19:23, that it was only when he was purposing to retire from Ephesus, and during the celebration of the Artemisian games which marked his last days there, that the opposition of the pagans developed itself in a violent shape.
St. Paul begins his address by fixing upon Jewish opposition outside the Church as his great trial at Ephesus, just as the same kind of opposition inside the Church had been his great trial at Corinth, and was yet destined to be a source of trial to him in the Ephesian Church itself, as we can see from the Pastoral Epistles. He then proceeds to speak of the doctrines he had taught and how he had taught them; reminding them “how that I shrank not from declaring unto you anything that was profitable, and teaching you publicly, and from house to house, testifying both to Jews and Greeks repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.” St. Paul sets forth his manner of teaching. He taught publicly, and public teaching was most effective in his case, because he came armed with a double power, the powers of spiritual and of intellectual preparation. St. Paul was not a man who thought that prayer and spiritual life could dispense with thought and mental culture. Or again, he would be the last to tolerate the idea that diligent visitation from house to house would make up for the neglect of that public teaching which he so constantly and so profitably practised. Public preaching and teaching, pastoral visitation and work, are two distinct branches of labour, which at various periods of the Churchs history have been regarded in very different lights. St. Paul evidently viewed them as equally important; the tendency in the present age is, however, to decry and neglect preaching and to exalt pastoral work-including under that head Church services-out of its due position. This is, indeed, a great and lamentable mistake. The “teaching publicly” to which St. Paul refers is the only opportunity which the majority of men possess of hearing the authorised ministers of religion, and if the latter neglect the office of public preaching, and think the fag end of a week devoted to external and secular labours and devoid of any mental study and preparation stirring the soul and refreshing the spirit, to be quite sufficient for pulpit preparation, they cannot be surprised if men come to despise the religion that is presented in such a miserable light and by such inefficient ambassadors.
St. Paul insists in this passage on the publicity and boldness of his teaching. There was no secrecy about him, no hypocrisy; he did not come pretending one view or one line of doctrine, and then, having stolen in secretly, teaching a distinct system. In this passage, which may seem laudatory of his own methods, St. Paul is, in fact, warning against the underhand and hypocritical methods adopted by the Judaising party, whether at Antioch, Galatia, or Corinth. In this division of his sermon St. Paul then sets forth the doctrines which were the sum and substance of the teaching which he had given both publicly and from house to house. They were repentance towards God, and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ, and that not only in the case of the Jews, but also of the Greeks. Now here we shall miss the implied reference of St. Paul unless we emphasise the words “I shrank not from declaring unto you anything that was profitable.” His Judaising opponents thought there were many other things profitable for men besides these two points round which St. Pauls teaching turned. They regarded circumcision and Jewish festivals, washings and sacrifices, as very necessary and very profitable for the Gentiles; while, as far as the Jews were concerned, they thought that the doctrines on which St. Paul insisted might possibly be profitable, but were not at all necessary. St. Paul impresses by his words the great characteristic differences between the Ebionite view of Christ and of Christianity and that catholic view which has regenerated society and become a source of life and light to the human race.
II. We have, then, the prospective portion of his discourse. St. Paul announces his journey to Jerusalem, and professes his ignorance of his fate there. He was warned merely by the testimony of the Holy Spirit that bonds and afflictions were his portion in every city. He was prepared for them, however, and for death itself, so that he might accomplish the ministry with which the Lord Jesus Christ had put him in trust. He concluded this part of his address by expressing his belief that he would never see them again. His work among them was done, and he called them to witness that he was pure from the blood of all men, seeing that he had declared unto them the whole counsel of God. This passage has given rise to much debate, because of St. Pauls statement that he knew that he should never see them again, while the Epistles to Timothy and that to Titus prove that after St. Pauls first imprisonment, with the notice of which this book of the Acts ends, he laboured for several years in the neighbourhood of Asia Minor, and paid lengthened visits to Ephesus.
We cannot now bestow space in proving this point, which will be found fully discussed in the various Lives of St. Paul which we have so often quoted: as, for instance, in Lewin, vol. 2; Pg 94, and in Conybeare and Howson, vol. 2. P. 547. We shall now merely indicate the line of proof for this. In the Epistle to Phm 1:22, written during his first Roman imprisonment, and therefore years subsequent to this address, he indicates his expectation of a speedy deliverance from his bonds, and his determination to travel eastward to Colossae, where Philemon lived. {cf. Php 1:25; Php 2:24} He then visited Ephesus, where he left Timothy, who had been his companion in the latter portion of his Roman imprisonment, {cf. Phm 1:1 and 1Ti 1:3} expecting soon to return to him in the same city; {1Ti 3:14} while again in 2Ti 1:18 he speaks of Onesiphorus having ministered to himself in Ephesus, and then in the same Epistle, {Eph 4:26} written during his second Roman imprisonment, he speaks of having just left Trophimus at Miletus sick. This brief outline, which can be followed up in the volumes to which we have referred, and especially in Appendix II in Conybeare and Howson on the date of the Pastoral Epistles, must suffice to prove that St. Paul was expressing a mere human expectation when he told the Ephesian elders that he should see their faces no more. St. Luke, in fact, thus shows us that St. Paul was not omniscient in his knowledge, and that the inspiration which he possessed did not remove him, as some persons think, out of the category of ordinary men or free him from their infirmities. The Apostle was, in fact, supernaturally inspired upon occasions. The Holy Ghost now and again illuminated the darkness of the future when such illumination was necessary for the Churchs guidance; but on other occasions St; Paul and his brother apostles were left to the guidance of their own understandings and to the conclusions and expectations of common sense, else why did not St. Peter and St. John read the character of Ananias and Sapphira or of Simon Magus before their sins were committed? why did St. Peter know nothing of his deliverance from Herods prison-house before the angel appeared, when his undissembled surprise is sufficient evidence that he had no expectation of any such rescue? These instances, which might be multiplied abundantly out of St. Pauls career and writings, show us that St. Pauls confident statement in this passage was a mere human anticipation which was disappointed by the course of events. The supernatural knowledge of the apostles ran on precisely the same lines as their supernatural power. God bestowed them both for use according as He saw fit and beneficial, but not for common ordinary everyday purposes, else why did St. Paul leave Trophimus at Miletus sick, or endure the tortures of his own ophthalmia, or exhort Timothy to take a little wine on account of his bodily weakness, if he could have healed them all by his miraculous power? Before we leave this point we may notice that here we have an incidental proof of the early date of the composition of the Acts. St. Luke, as we have often maintained, wrote this book about the close of St. Pauls first imprisonment. Assuredly if he had written it at a later period, and above all, if he wrote it twenty years later, he would have either modified the words of his synopsis of St. Pauls speech, or else given us a hint that subsequent events had shown that the Apostle was mistaken in his expectations, a thing which he could easily have done, because he cherished none of these extreme notions about St. Pauls office and dignity which have led some to assume that it was impossible for him ever to make a mistake about the smallest matters.
III. This discourse, again, is hortatory, and its exhortations contain very important doctrinal statements. St. Paul begins this third division with an exhortation like that which our Lord gave to His Apostles under the same circumstances, “Take heed unto yourselves.” The Apostle never forgot that an effective ministry of souls must be based on deep personal knowledge of the things of God. He knew, too, from his own experience that it is very easy to be so completely taken up with the care of other mens souls and the external work of the Church, as to forget that inner life which can only be kept alive by close communion with God. Then, having based his exhortations on their own spiritual life, he exhorts the elders to diligence in the pastoral office: “Take heed unto yourselves, and to all the flock, in which the Holy Ghost hath made you bishops, to feed the Church of God, which He purchased with His own blood.” St. Paul in these words shows us his estimate of the ministerial office. The elders of Ephesus had been all ordained by St. Paul himself with the imposition of hands, a rite that has ever been esteemed essential to ordination. It was derived from the Jewish Church, and was perpetuated into the Christian Church by that same spirit of conservatism, that law of continuity which in every department of life enacts that everything shall continue as it was unless there be some circumstance to cause an alteration. Now there was no cause for alteration in this case; nay, rather, there was every reason to bring about a continuance of this custom, because imposition of hands indicates for the people the persons ordained, and assures the ordained themselves that they have been individually chosen and set apart. But St.. Paul by these words teaches us a higher and nobler view of the ministry. He teaches us that he was himself but the instrument of a higher power, and that the imposition of hands was the sign and symbol to the ordained that the Holy Ghost had chosen them and appointed them to feed the flock of God. St. Paul here shows that in ordination, as in the sacraments, we should by faith look away beyond and behind the human instrument, and view the actions of the Church of Christ as the very operations and manifestations in the world of time and sense of the Holy Ghost Himself, the Lord and Giver of life. He teaches the Ephesian elders, in fact, exactly what he taught the Corinthian Church some few months earlier, “We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the exceeding greatness of the power may be of God, and not from ourselves”; {2Co 4:7} the treasure and the power were everything, the only things, in fact, worth naming, the earthen vessels which contained them for a little time were nothing at all. How awful, solemn, heart-searching a view of the ministerial office this was! How sustaining a view when its holders are called upon to discharge functions for which they feel themselves all inadequate in their natural strength! Is it any wonder that the Church, taking the same view as St. Paul did, has ever held and taught that the ministerial office thus conferred by supernatural power is no mere human function to be taken up or laid down at mans pleasure, but is a life-long office to be discharged at the holders peril, -a savour of life unto life for the worthy recipient, a savour of death unto death for the unworthy and the careless.
In connection with this statement made by St. Paul concerning the source of the ministry we find a title given to the Ephesian presbyters round which much controversy has centred. St. Paul says, “Take heed unto the flock, over which the Holy Ghost has made you Bishops.” I do not, however, propose to spend much time over this topic, as all parties are now agreed that in the New Testament the term presbyter and bishop are interchangeable and applied to the same persons. The question to be decided is not about a name, but an office, whether, in fact, any persons succeeded in apostolic times to the office of rule and government exercised by St. Paul and the rest of the apostles, as Well as by Timothy, Titus, and the other delegates of the Apostle, and whether the term bishop, as used in the second century, was applied to such successors of the apostles. This, however, is not a question which comes directly within the purview of an expositor of the Acts of the Apostles, as the appointment of Timothy and Titus to manage the affairs of the Church in Ephesus and in Crete lies beyond the period covered by the text of the Acts, and properly belongs to the commentary on the Pastoral Epistles. St. Pauls words in this connection have, however, an important bearing on fundamental doctrinal questions connected with the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. St. Paul speaks of the presbyters as called “to feed the Church of God, which He hath purchased with His own blood.” These words are very strong, so strong indeed that various readings have been put forward to mitigate their force. Some have read “Lord” instead of “God,” others have substituted Christ for it; but the Revised Version, following the text of Westcott and Hort, have accepted the strongest form of the verse on purely critical ground, and translates it as “the Church of God, which He hath purchased with His own blood.” This passage, then, is decisive as to the Christological views of St. Luke and the Pauline circle generally. They believed so strongly in the deity of Jesus Christ and His essential unity with the Father that they hesitated not to speak of His sacrifice on Calvary as a shedding of the blood of God, an expression which some fifty years afterwards we find in the Epistle of Ignatius to the Ephesians, where St. Ignatius speaks of them as “kindled into living fire by the blood of God,” and a hundred years later still, in Tertullian, “Ad Uxor.,” 2:3. This passage has been used in scientific theology as the basis of a principle or theory called the “Communicatio Idiomatum,” a theory which finds an illustration in two other notable passages of Scripture, Joh 3:13 and 1Co 2:8. In the former passage our Lord says of Himself, “No man hath ascended into heaven, but He that descended out of heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven,” where the Son of man is spoken of as in heaven as well as upon earth at the same time, though the Son of man, according to His humanity, could only be in one place at a time. In the second passage St. Paul says, “Which none of the rulers of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory,” where crucifixion is attributed to the Lord of Glory, a title derived from His Divine nature. Now the term “Communicatio Idiomature,” or “transference of peculiar properties,” is given to this usage because in all these texts the properties of the nature pertaining either to God or to man are spoken of as if they belonged to the other; or, to put it far better in the stately language of Hooker, 5, 53., where he speaks of “those cross and circulatory speeches wherein there are attributed to God such things as belong to manhood, and to man such as properly concern the deity of Jesus Christ, the cause whereof is the association of natures in one subject. A kind of mutual commutation there is, whereby those concrete names, God and man, when we speak of Christ, do take interchangeably one anothers room, so that for truth of speech it skilleth not whether we say that the Son of God hath created the world and the Son of man by His death hath saved it, or else that the Son of man did create and the Son of God did die to save the world.” This is a subject of profound speculative and doctrinal interest, not only in connection with the apostolic view of our Lords Person, but also in reference to the whole round of methodised and scientific theology. We cannot, however, afford further space for this subject. We must be content to have pointed it out as an interesting topic of inquiry, and, merely referring the reader to Hooker and to Liddons Bampton Lectures (Lect. 5.) for more information, must hurry on to a conclusion. St. Paul terminates this part of his discourse with expressing his belief in the rapid development of false doctrines and false guides as soon as his repressive influence shall have been removed; a belief which the devout student of the New Testament will find to have been realised when 1Ti 1:20, in 2Ti 1:15, and 2Ti 2:17-18 he finds the Apostle warning the youthful Bishop of Ephesus against Phygelus and Hermogenes, who had turned all Asia away from St. Paul, and against Hymenaeus, Philetus, and Alexander, who had imbibed the Gnostic error concerning matter, which had already led the Corinthians to deny the future character of the Resurrection. St. Paul then terminates his discourse with a solemn commendation of the Ephesian elders to that Divine grace which is as necessary for an apostle as for the humblest Christian. He exhorts them to self-sacrifice and self-denial, reminding them of his own example, having supported himself and his companions by his labour as a tentmaker at Ephesus, and above all of the words of the Lord Jesus, which they apparently knew from some source which has not come down to us, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”
When the Apostle had thus terminated his address, which doubtless was a very lengthened one, he knelt down, probably on the shore, as we shall find him kneeling in the next chapter {Act 21:5-6} on the shore at Tyre. He then commended them in solemn prayer to God, and they all parted in deep sorrow on account of the final separation which St. Pauls words indicated as imminent; for though the primitive Christians believed in the reality of the next life with an intensity of faith of which we have no conception, and longed for its peace and rest, yet they gave free scope to those natural affections which bind men one to another according to the flesh and were sanctified by the Master Himself when He wept by the grave of Lazarus. Christianity is not a religion of stoical apathy, but of sanctified human affections.