Acts 20

the acts of the apostles

Luke · c. 62 AD

Chapter the Twentieth

And after the uproar was ceased, Paul called unto him the disciples, and embraced them, and departed for to go into Macedonia.

And when he had gone over those parts, and had given them much exhortation, he came into Greece,

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.

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.

These going before tarried 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 abode seven days.

And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow; and continued his speech until midnight.

And there were many lights in the upper chamber, where they were gathered together.

And there sat in a window a certain young man named Eutychus, being fallen into a deep sleep: and as Paul was long preaching, he sunk down with sleep, and fell down from the third loft, and was taken up dead.

And Paul went down, and fell on him, and embracing him said, Trouble not yourselves; for his life is in him.

When he therefore was come up again, and had broken bread, and eaten, and talked a long while, even till break of day, so he departed.

And they brought the young man alive, and were not a little comforted.

And we went before to ship, and sailed unto Assos, there intending to take in Paul: for so had he appointed, minding himself to go afoot.

And when he met with us at Assos, we took him in, and came to Mitylene.

And we sailed thence, and came the next day over against Chios; and the next day we arrived at Samos, and tarried at Trogyllium; and the next day we came to Miletus.

For Paul had determined to sail by Ephesus, because he would not spend the time in Asia: for he hasted, if it were possible for him, to be at Jerusalem the day of Pentecost.

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.

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 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.

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.

And now, brethren, 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 them which are sanctified.

I have coveted no man’s 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 shewed 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.

And when he had thus spoken, he kneeled down, and prayed with them all.

And they all wept sore, and fell on Paul’s 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.

Questions answered from Acts 20

Short answers from Always Ready that cite this chapter

What does agorazo ("bought") mean in 2 Peter 2:1?
Cites Acts 20:28

Chuck Smith on Acts 20

Verse by verse, the C2000 series. Permission granted by The Word For Today.

Verses 1-38

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 ( Acts 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 ( Acts 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 ( Acts 20:4 ),

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 ( Acts 20:4-5 ).

So these fellows went ahead across to Asia and waited there at Troas for Paul.

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 ( Acts 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 ( Acts 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 ( Acts 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 ( Acts 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 ( Acts 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 ( Acts 20:9-10 ).