Acts 20:1-21:17 Completion of Paul's Third Missionary Journey | Dr. Doug Bookman

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Well, I don't know how you transition to Dr. Bookman from that, so I'm gonna ease the transition and tell you a little story, okay? So in our verses today that we studied, Acts 20, verses 28 to 30, it says, Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to shepherd the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood. I know that after my departure, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock, and from among your own selves, men will arise, speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after them. My son put this on our family group chat recently, just last week. Not those exact verses, but this he said. This is my oldest son. He said, incredibly simple but powerful example from a book I'm reading, quoting 1 Peter 5:8, where it says, Be alert and of sober mind your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion. I was nervous when she was walking. Are you the roaring lion? No, I'm just gonna like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. When he quoted that verse, he said this about it. He said, The devil is described as a prowling lion, and it's easy to think of that in an unserious way because we hear it so often but cannot see spiritual activity. He said, But imagine it this way. Imagine if your HOA sent out a message to all of the people in your neighborhood that there was an actual lion that escaped the zoo and was walking around your neighborhood, how much more alert would you constantly be? What kind of eye would you have on your children at that point? What kind of doors would you have closed to not allow anything to happen? Doesn't it give you a very specific picture? Now, ironic ironically, as we know with these adult children. I don't know about y'all, but my kids have gotten to the point where they just have fun teasing us and our parenting for when they're children. Is this normal? Please tell me somebody else. They're like, remember when you made us, blah, blah, blah. Remember, so that particular son put on group chat. Anybody remember the time when I got in big trouble because I was searching online for cars when I was 10? Right? And he was like, weren't you guys just ridiculous parents that you thought that was so bad? I'm like, no. There are lions prowling. And I like to keep that door closed in my house. I thought it was so interesting that the same son did that. But now that he, that same son, is a parent, I know he sees it very similarly, and his doors are locked and he recognizes the value. I love that the Lord has brought him that far. And with that, here is Dr. Bookman.

SPEAKER_00 2:49

Top of the morning to you. I know it St. Pat's Day was yesterday, but is it still okay to just a little bit of Irish? Oh, is that you can't blame you. No, you know, the Irish are good at at blessings. Blessings, shamrocks and limericks, I think, when I think of the Irish. But uh, I wrote one out. This is familiar. May the road rise up to meet you. May the wind be always at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face, the rains fall soft upon your fields, and until we meet again, may God hold you in the palm of his hand. That's nice. May the road rise up to meet you. How do you understand that? Sounds to me like may you fall flat in your face. You know what I'm saying? I don't know. But here, I just found this one. This is more fun. May those who love us love us, and those who don't love us, may God turn their hearts. And if he can't turn their hearts, may he turn their ankles so we'll know them by their limping. That's something to be said to that. All right, listen. Uh our assignment this morning is uh basically to get Paul home from the third missionary journey. You remember on that third missionary journey? On the second journey, he had spent 18 months in Corinth, and then on his way home, you remember this, he had as he took a ship, it happened to stop at Ephesus, and he ministered there for a few weeks, and then uh he's uh got to get back for Passover, but then on the third journey, he beat a uh a hasty uh uh path to Ephesus, and he's gonna spend three years there. And remember that during the those three years at Ephesus, he is going to have ready contact with Corinth. That becomes important. He's and so he he um just very quickly, as a matter of fact, here I can uh I think I can let me make one more adjustment here. I want everything in the same. So here's a map of the third journey. I trust you're pretty well uh familiar with it now. But as I say, Paul had made his way um to Ephesus, spent three years in Ephesus because of the uh lay of the land there. Just a minute, girls. I'm gonna have it together here in a minute, but I also want my yeah, I might as well use it up. No, um the um because of the the islands between Corinth and between Corinth here and Ephesus here, there was just very, very ready contact between the two. And so I don't want to spend any time with this. On the third journey, he has a lot of contact with Corinth, and as part of that, he writes the first epistle. And then, of course, uh he sends that epistle off, and he goes overland and sends Timothy to Corinth with the epistle, and then he meets Timothy somewhere up here in Macedonia uh and and receives the report of how they have received that first Corinth now, had to receive that first epistle, and so he writes 2 Corinthians, and uh and uh but I actually I've gotten ahead of the game just a little bit because uh that is is part of the narrative before us. All right, so uh and and in in chapter 19 you have this the end of his three-year uh ministry in Ephesus, and it ends poorly. Now it was violent throughout, but it ended very poorly. And I want to spend a couple minutes with that because uh there is this riot over the sale of the uh idols of Diana and so on, and and and and you know, uh Luke tells the story rather uh well it he doesn't he doesn't you don't pick up all of the terror and violence that's involved. I want to spend time on that because our chapter, our passage begins with after the uproar had ceased. And Paul makes a number of references to the uproar. And by the way, it was it was although it had to do with the idols of Diana, the the the unbelieving Jewish leadership was very much involved in it. Now I have some passage lists, and I'm hoping I can make this work easily, but uh uh now here are some uh all right, let me let me go back. I'm gonna do this step at a time. But as this narrative unfolds, it says that Paul decides uh to depart, and when he does, some Jews plotted against him. They were gonna murder him on the boat. They evidently had a plan to murder him on the boat that he was gonna take, and so he decided not to take it. But that dynamic of Paul resisting the Jews, and last time I was here, I can remember this so well, probably not you, but uh uh honest to goodness, I I talked to you a little bit about about the this remarkable dynamic that's going on in the New Testament, where the gospel is going to uh to Gentiles as Gentiles, and the great dilemma, the great uh uh uh conflict which Paul and others, I think, it face is making the believing Jewish world comfortable with the idea of accepting believing Gentiles, but then just as dramatically facing the anger of the uh unbelieving Jewish world. I mean, it's one thing for the believing Jews to say, all right, if this is what God has, you know, and I gotta sit next to that guy chewing on a ham sandwich, I'm gonna learn to do it. But think about from the outside. You know, to this day, there is this ongoing contention on the part of unbelieving Jews that if a Jew becomes a Christian, he's no longer a Jew. Are you familiar with that? It's manifested perhaps most dramatically in the fact that Israel is doing everything they can and campaigning and smoothing the way to get Jewish people from all over the world to move to Israel. What's that called? You remember? Aliyah, make aliyah, A-L-I-Y-A-H, which is the Hebrew word for up. And when you go to Jerusalem, you always go up uh because of the topography. And so whenever somebody uh leaves his home and his business and so on, much of his family, wherever he lives in the world, comes to Israel. It's called Mike Aliyah. And they are so campaigning for that do that. And and they open the door, and I mean they make it so easy, unless you're an evangelical, then they won't let you in. And and I've got good friends who have hired lawyers and spent months trying to get the government to let them in. So I'm saying that this spirit that if you become Christian, you're no longer Jewish, which is, and of course, on the other hand, the believing Jew is more excited about and committed to and feels more loyal to his Judaism because he's building on everything the Old Testament says. So you have that. So I'm going back, go back to the first century, the apostolic age. And on the one hand, internally in the church, you've got this real difficult tension going on as believing Jews get used to rubbing and becoming one new man, as Paul says. But think about it from the outside. You're corrupting everything there is about Judaism. If there's anything we know about Jews, it's that we don't hang out with Gentiles. And here you are in the same. So, for whatever set of reasons, I don't think that's the only, it wasn't just cultural and and and and you know, having to do with their traditions. It had to do with the claim that Jesus was the Messiah, that he was the only way to be right with God and so on. All of that is fundamentally offensive to the unsaved man and so on. But my point is that that more than perhaps we we get just by reading the record. Well, here's where I want to take you. Paul makes reference to this a number of times. And uh see if I can find it here. Uh oh, I had it. So, so now these are just I I just pull these references out and and uh logos lets me put them in a list. And so Acts 9, 23, uh after this is this is Paul in Damascus. You know, uh not Paul in Damascus, it's Saul in Damascus, right? And uh he's just begun to preach, and and and the Jews plotted to kill him. And then in Acts 23, on his way back, this is a little later, uh, some of the Jews band together and bound themselves under an oath, remember, that they they wouldn't eat or drink until they killed Paul. And uh in 25, same thing. Uh the the uh this is after Paul had been taken to Caesarea Meritima, and he was there for a couple years, and the procurator wanted to take him back up and uh and and have a trial in Jerusalem, and he refused because he knew that they were laying an ambush, ambush, or right, ambush uh along the road to kill him. So, so now let me let me just take it. Uh on the other hand, and uh, this was this was kind of instructive to me, and I'm gonna read some of these to you. All right, this is what I thought the reason I'm doing this, I thought it would, it was to me, and I thought it might be profitable for us, just take a minute and really ponder what Paul experienced in terms of suffering at the hands of the gospel's enemies. And specifically, and and these are all taken from 2 Corinthians. Now, this is important because remember that 2 Corinthians was written right after he left Ephesus. So when it says there in verse uh one of chapter 20, after the uproar had ceased, and then Paul sets off to go to Macedonia, uh uh well, all right, let's say uh on the way to Macedonia, he's going to write 2 Corinthians. Or in Macedonia. When he gets to Macedonia. So within weeks after what is described here as the uproar, Paul writes these verses. And and they're they're pretty, they're pretty uh uh I'm in 2 Corinthians 1. Well, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we will comfort those who are in tr in any trouble with the comfort which we were. Uh, for as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation abounds through Christ. Now, I'm not here, I'm not supposed to be teaching 2 Corinthians. That's such an important principle. One of the most important reasons, I mean, benefits of suffering is that we can minister to others. Now, if we are afflicted, it is for your consolation, which is effective for enduring the same suffering. We can encourage you in your suffering because of ours. Uh, and our hope for you is steadfast. Uh, well, look at verse 8. We don't want you to be ignorant, brethren, of our trouble which came to us in Asia. That's Ephesus. And we were burdened beyond measure, above strength, so that we despaired even of life. And his life was at risk. Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead, who delivered us from so great a death, and does deliver us in whom we trust that he will deliver us. Now, now he is saying that in that what what Luke rather, I don't know, you know, rather simply the uproar had ceased. Paul was invading there was a there was a very, very uh real threat on his life. And interestingly, let me take you to another verse here, see if I've got it. In uh Romans 16. Yeah, Romans 16. Now, there's a lot of New Testament background going on here, and I'll probably have to explain it. But Romans, all right, now let's make sure we're all on the same page. He's in Ephesus. I'll do it your way. He's in Ephesus, here in Asia. There's a huge uproar. He leaves Ephesus and he's on his way to Corinth. When he gets to Macedonia, he writes 2 Corinthians. So all of these references I'm gonna read to you. The issue in Ephesus is still really fresh in his mind. You got that? Then he goes down to Corinth and he's gonna be there for three months, our passage, 20 verse 3, and during those three months he writes Romans. Now, Romans is curious. You've been here before, but it's curious because he is writing to a city he to a church he never visited. He never he was never there, right? Where it came from, that's another question, but but it's his church, it's his converts. But he had never been there. All right, real quickly. I'm convinced that the Roman church was uh called into existence when probably at least scores and maybe even hundreds of people from various parts of the Roman Empire who had been led to the Lord and trained by Paul moved to Rome. We know that at this point in history, I'm really confused you talking about all these epistles. We know that at this point in history there was just a lot of immigrant, you know, people moving to Rome. It was kind of a magnet. And interestingly, historians tell us that there were four cities that provided more of those immigrants than the others, and they were Alexandria, we don't care, Antioch, Corinth, and Ephesus. Well, those are the three cities where Paul spent. He spent a whole year at Antioch, he spent 18 months in Corinth, and he spent uh he spent three years at Ephesus. So you can imagine all these people who had been led to the Lord, now they come to Rome and they form a church and they count themselves as Paul's converts. By the way, I I at this point in the gospel, at the end of the third journey, you gotta think that. Well, we're I don't want to discount what the other apostles were doing, but as far as we can tell in the Mediterranean world, was there anybody who didn't count Paul at least their perhaps spiritual grandfather? If he didn't leave me the Lord, he'll some you know, so but anyway, so now these people move to Rome and and they form a church, and it's very it's fascinating. But now Paul writes to that church, and having never been there, he he he is very clever, and so the whole sixteenth chapter is very personal greetings. So you're saying to yourself, Oh, wait a minute, you've never been there. And yet he's greeting all these people. As a matter of fact, forgive me, there is the claim in the you know, mildly deranged critical world that Romans 16 should really be Ephesians 7. There are there are people who publish it that way in their Bibles, in their in their commentaries. And their and their reasoning is this he spent three years in Ephesus, and yet it's the most impersonal of all his epistles. He never greets anybody. He never went to Rome, and he got a whole chapter. Well, Paul's the reason he doesn't greet people in Ephesus is because he intends that to be shared to a bunch of churches. But he's he's building bridges. Now, all right, with that background, it's really fascinating, some of these uh greetings, but the one you want you to see is is is verse three, where it says, Greet Priscilla and Aquila. Now you'll perhaps remember that when Paul came to Corinth, he stayed with Priscilla and Aquila, they had been run out of Rome and he was they were tent makers. But now they're evidently in Rome. So when Paul writes Rome's Rome, it's just a few weeks or months, yeah, a few months after he had left Ephesus at the end of the third journey, he uh by that time Priscilla, Aquilum Priscilla had had had uh evidently relocated to Rome. Now at this point we're conjecturing just a little bit, but why? And I think very possibly because they too were put in danger by that eruption of violence to which Paul which Paul described which is described in Acts 19 and which is summarized in in chapter 20, verse 1 as the uproar. And look at the next verse uh greet my fellow workers in Christ who risked their own necks for my life. Evidently, when that riot happened at uh at the risk of their own lives, Aquila and Priscilla had actually stepped in and saved Paul's life. So again, there's a dynamic there that uh uh uh like I say, it's it it's it's rather easy to overlook. Now, let me go back to those verses because, all right, I think that's when when he says uh uh he delivered us from so great a death. Now, let me go. Here is 2 Corinthians 4. Uh it talks about the earthen vessels, that the excellent power be of God and not us. We are hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed. We are perplexed, but not in despair, persecuted, not forsaken, struck down, but not destroyed, always carrying about in the body the dying of our Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested. For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus' sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So, uh, well, and he says in verse 15, all things are for your sakes, the grace having spread through the many may cause thanksgiving to abound. In other words, all that's going on in my life, therefore we don't lose heart, and so on. Listen, a couple other verses. Um, you know that as part of the narrative we have before us, we have this everywhere Paul goes, they're they're telling him, Don't go to Jerusalem. You're gonna suffer many things. And this is the kind of experiential backdrop he brings to that discussion. You know what I'm saying? He he knows something about this. Uh uh 2 Corinthians 6, and all things we commend ourselves as minors of God, and so on, in in tribulations, needs, distresses, stripes, imprisonments, tumults, labors, sleeplessness, fasting. By purity and knowledge and long suffering by the Holy Spirit, by sincere love. This is how his life has been marked by the word of truth, the power of God, and so on. But verse 8, by honor and dishonor, by evil report and good report, deceivers and yet true. So many, many cast an aspersion on him, unknown and yet well known as dying, and behold, we live. You know, you would it I think it would be a healthy thing for any one of us. We'd have to, it'd be a pretty significant gut check. But are we willing to confess that that's really our spirit? We're dying, but we live. We're happy to die. We're that we want to give our lives away, but we live. That's an admirable thing, but we're not talking metaphor in Paul's life. That's that's the thing. We're talking genuine day-by-day experience. Uh uh Behold, we live chastened and yet not killed, sorrowful but always rejoicing, poor yet making many rich. Think about that. Having nothing and yet possessing all things. Now, here's the big one in chapter 11. I'm quit this. But he says, uh he's talking about those who are who attack him, and are they the ministers of Christ? I speak as a fool. And why does he say I speak as a fool? Paul does not like talking about himself. And what's going on in 2 Corinthians? This is 2 Corinthians, and that we're reading from, and that epistle is all about Paul defending himself. And he's been accused of being a shyster and a liar. And his question is, am I going to endure all this? If I'm a shyster, I don't have anything. And so he's I want to talk about this. I speak as a fool, but he says, in labors more abundant, stripes above measures, prison more frequently, deaths often at the very verge of death. From the Jews, five times I received 40 stripes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked. A night and a day I've been in the deep. And this is before Malta, by the way. Uh, in journeys, often in perils of waters, and robbers and perils of my own countrymen, that is, the Jews and of the Gentiles, perils of the city, in the wilderness, perils in the sea, and among false brethren, in weakness, toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger, thirst, fastings often, cold and nakedness. Besides the other things, what comes upon me daily, my deep concern for all the church, how are you gonna kick out of that? All of this, oh, then besides that, uh, churches, for heaven's sakes, you know, that's um, which is which is every bit as heavy. Uh, who is weak, who is weak and I'm not, who is made to stumble and I do not burn with indignation, if uh, and the idea seems to be that uh the the the it's it's it's it's emotionally hard on him to be attacked the way he is. So at any rate, uh yeah, and then of course the famous one uh in the face of the God said, My grace is sufficient for you, my strength is made perfect in weakness, therefore, most gladly I'll boast in these infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. I take pleasure in infirmities, reproaches, needs, persecutions, distresses for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong. I could not I I I maybe no, I think I could. I think I could get that, give that testimony. I take pleasure in infirmities in retrospect. If they're well behind me, taken care of. Going through them, I don't know. All right. Well, all that to say. This is hey, here's a question. This is a silly question. And if anybody's got any help, tell me. What do you think Paul looked like? Have you ever thought about that? Have you talked about that?

SPEAKER_01 25:49

No, no.

SPEAKER_00 25:50

Anybody got any thoughts? How do you have a picture? It's probably not important. There is a a description, I think it's from the third century, from the 200s. It says he's very short, not easy to look at, because his eyes were diseased. Was that? Yeah, he probably had scars in the eyes and so on. A very large nose, bald head, stoop, short, and um one eyebrow all the way across. I don't know. Kind of Mr. Potato Head all the way. No, that that doesn't go anywhere. I'm just saying, though, I only say that for fun, but to say voice, this is a real person. This is a real person, and he had all the longings and desires, and of course, his life started so well, and he was, you know, but this is what he endured. So I didn't mean to spend quite that much time, but let's go back, see what we can get done here. So uh we got 10 minutes, and I've used the first the first phrase. All right. All right, let me just tell you a story and pick up a couple of things. You've read the story, you've studied it. I don't think, but but again, now when he had gone over that region and encouraged them with many words, he came to Greece. This is Corinth, as he and stayed three months. And it's universally acknowledged that during those three months he did, in fact, write Romans. He's at the end of his third journey, but he's planning his fourth journey. Now, it's not going to happen the way he intended, but uh that's the plan. But anyway, he decided to return through Macedonia, uh, that is uh when the Jews plotted it against him. So let me take you back to this map, and and and quite simply, he's come to uh uh he's at Corinth and he's going to leave Corinth and he was going to take a ship to Troas. But rather than that, because there was a plot in his life, he decided to walk. That's somewhere around 450 to 500 miles, okay? So, oh nuts, I'll just walk. You know, I mean uh that's that's a significant thing. Uh all right, all right. So, and what happened is just real quickly, you've read this, but but number one, there are a number of men with him. And I actually have uh another passage list referring to this famine of relief visit, but I'm just gonna say it very quickly. It's it it really is is important. Matter of fact, I'll take you to one verse. And um uh on the third journey, because of a uh famine in Jerusalem. Now, this is kind of interesting to me, and I'm gonna, you may not I'll see what you think of this. This may be a little radical, but it's interesting that on two distinct occasions in the New Testament narrative, in the narrative of Acts, there's a famine in Jerusalem. Now, Jerusalem, Israel was never able to supply its own grain. They just they they weren't given the fields. And so they were always dependent upon almost entirely Egypt. Matter of fact, the Mediterranean world. Egypt was the breadbass of the world of the Nile. And what would happen on occasion is that there would be a shortage of grain in Egypt. And it was not because of a shortage of water, it was too much water. When the Nile flooded and then didn't recede sufficiently to provide the fresh fields, and so there'd be a shortage, the the cost, the the cost of grain would go up and so on, and it would be felt in Jerusalem before anywhere else. All right, now I think this may have to do with their very noble, admirable, selfless, maybe foolish policy of selling everything and having everything in common. Remember that in Acts 4? They sold everything to Barnabas. That's why we get to know Barnabas. You gotta commend him for it. And I think that was done not only out of a heart of genuine compassion and concern, amen and amen. But I think it was also done out of the persuasion that Jesus is coming soon, so we don't have to worry much about this. But for whatever reason, it happens in Jerusalem. And both in Acts 12, Paul and Barnabas go down with the famine relief. And now, here we are, Paul, as he goes on his third journey, uh, as he goes from place to place, and he makes reference to this again and again on his third journey, especially in 2 Corinthians. He is collecting this is 2 Corinthians 8 9, a whole two passage, two chapters all about this famine relief visit. And and uh, but interestingly, he would not accept, number one, he was very fussy about the churches from which he would receive money. Well, all right. I I I kind of jumped categories there with regard to money in support of himself, but I think he was less less fastidious about the churches from which he would receive money. He he was careful about he didn't want money from churches where there were people who were going to use it against him and say he was just in it for the money. Does that make sense to you? On the other hand, you want to give money to take to Jerusalem, I'll take your money, I think. But he always expected, demanded a person from that church to company, accompany them. Because, and this is what I love what he says, there's a principle. Second Corinthians eight, he says, um uh am I in 20. Well, I can't find the verse. He says, I thought it was eight, nine, but for you know you know that's not it. Well, what he says is that he is doing this to provide all things honest before God and man. Can you find that verse for me? Uh and and and the and the point is, and uh it well, let's just say it this way there is a tremendous temptation, and it makes the news quite often. Can you say Julie Royce? Do you want to say Julie Royce? But but the point is that um uh you know, this or that preacher, and he might be a small-time preacher, might be a big-time preacher, but somehow he uses the ministry to aggrandize and and enrich himself, and oftentimes criminally, it's happened so often. There's a and and so Paul built into his ministry this this absolute assurance because there were people who came along to make sure the money got where it was supposed to where it was supposed to go. All right, so that's what he's doing, and uh so what happened is and this is kind of interesting, and uh it in in uh you got these men, and they're traveling with him, and they go on to Troaz, and Paul makes his way overland to Philippi. And then it says, when he got to Philippi, uh uh they waited for us at Troaz, and then he says, and this is this is remember the we statements? Yeah, the last we sentence was in Acts 16 when Luke stayed at Philippi. Now Paul comes back to Philippi and it says, We sailed away from Philippi after the days of unleavened bread. So Luke is back part of the part of the story. All right, now listen, real quickly. Uh, you know the Udicus story, and I don't have to read it to you, it's here at Troas. Uh you know, I always say, you know, you if you'd have if you'd had to stay up all that listen to that sermon all day, you'd have cussed too, you know, but no, probably not. But so the point is, I'm being silly there. But you know what's really curious to me, and and it is curious, uh yeah, I it's perpetually curious, is especially in this portion of Luke, what Luke chooses to record. This is a curious story. There are hours, the days and miles of Pauline ministry here. There must have been a lot of things that happen, but under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, to be sure, uh, but Luke chooses to tell us about Eutychus and this, and he tells it in rather muted fashion because I I love it where it says they were not a little comforted. Well, you know, you brought them back for the dead. I think they'd be a whole heap a lot comforted. But at any rate, uh, you know that story, and and uh uh it is simply uh I think it to be sure, it's not hard to see that it is an important demonstration of uh Paul's apostolic office and character and so on. But then it's simply we have the the the trip from uh Troas to Milanetis here. So he's at Troaz in Asia now, and he's gonna make his way. And and and another thing that's very curious about Luke is the degree to which he he he is very specific about details of shipping and travel and wind and current and and and and and course and so on. And so he brings it all the way down to Miletus. Now, Miletus is about 24 miles from Ephesus. Luke is explicit that Paul didn't want to go to Ephesus. He knew he'd be there too long, and he was trying to get to Jerusalem for Pentecost. By the way, he left Philippi after the days of unleavened bread. That's Passover. So Passover is in the late spring, but he wants to get to Jerusalem for the next feast, Pentecost, how much later? 50 days. That's right. That's what the Pentecost means. 50 days after Passover, after the Sabbath of Passover. So he's hurrying to get there. So he goes to Miletus and and uh calls. Now, this is, I'm not gonna spend time, but I'm sure it's where you focus most carefully. I I want to talk about one other thing. Uh but let me say that on the on the one hand, this is one of the most uh we are so blessed to have this heartfelt, spontaneous outpouring of Paul's apostolic and personal spirit. Yeah, it's just stunning. And and and uh praise the Lord for it. Uh just a couple of things. He mentions, I've I've highlighted it here, that uh with many tears and trials which happen to be by the plotting of the Jews, he's saying, When I was with you at Ephesus, Mount remember, he hadn't been gone very long. Ephesus, and then over to Macedonia and writes 2 Corinthians, Corinth writes Romans, goes up to Phil. Now he comes back to Ephesus. Oh, it's maybe a half year since he was there. So it but he says, You remember what happened to me. It's again, we read some of this, and but uh, but uh but he says, now I go bound in the spirit. The Holy Spirit testifies in every city, and we're gonna see this with Agabus and so on, uh, that uh that uh uh chains and tribulations await me. Now, let's just talk. Matter of fact, I'm gonna real quickly go down because you have that blessed uh well, the thing I want to mention too is he says one of the things that breaks his heart the most is that he's gonna see them uh no more. He'll never see them again. And and it says here, when he had said these things, he knelt down and prayed with them all, and they wept freely and fell on Paul's neck, sorrowing most of all for the words which he spoke that they would see his face no more. Now, real quickly, uh this is kind of uh interesting. Uh he comes to Patara, which is right uh here. And now again, you've talked about this before, right? Sea travel is a little different. You just go down to the dock and find hopscotch along the way and get as close as you can, and then next find them. They found a boat going across the ocean, so they don't have to go hopscoping all around the shore. So they're able to go straight to uh uh Ptolemaeus, and then they they they come up to Jerusalem and chorus, uh they first of all to Caesarea. And while they're at Caesarea, Agabas comes and he says, uh he binds his hands and says, So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man who owns this belt. And and Paul gets a little short with it. He says, Paul, what do you mean by weeping and breaking my heart? I'm ready not only to be bound, but also to die at Jerusalem. And they couldn't be so so he set out. And of course, in verse 17, just to say that I got to the end of our passage, he gets to Jerusalem. So there. But now think about this, gals. Think about this. What actually happens? Well, he gets back to Jerusalem. This is his third mission, his third mission missionary journey never ends because he gets back to Jerusalem, and James, the brother of Jesus, says, I think it would be good if you go participate in a temple in a Levitical service. He does. And of course, there's a rumor spread that he's brought an uncircumcised Gentile and he sees and he's about to be put to death, but Roman soldiers rescue him. I'd love to talk to you about this in the Temple Mountain, Fortress Antonio, and all but but he's rescued and he's put in hold, but he's a Roman citizen. He's treated very, very well. As a matter of fact, when these 40 men determine to put him to death, the the procurator there in Jerusalem, because he's very sensitive to the fact that he's gonna be in deep trouble if a Roman citizen gets murdered under his watch. So he puts together 470 soldiers just to get Paul down to Caesarea Maritima. And when he gets down to Caesarea Maritima, he is going to be kept for two years, but he's kept probably in his own apartment. He's a citizen, so he's gonna be very, very well protected. And ultimately, of course, because they it's a mistrial, he appeals to Rome and he's taken to Rome. And I like to say, back there in Romans, written from Corinth, he had said, I have asked God if by any means, this is a blank check, if by any means I might get to Rome. Well, don't you know he got to wrong of all of this? And uh and he praises God for it when he writes uh you know the prison epistles. But the point is that he didn't die, and frankly, he was treated a lot better than he was anywhere on his missionary journeys. And and he was released from that imprisonment, and he went on a fourth missionary journey, and he left Timothy on that journey where? At Ephesus. So they were weeping, saying, We'll never see him again. Well, they did see him again. Now, I don't know what to make of this, gals, other than that uh uh Paul says, I am bound in the spirit to go to Jerusalem. I'm sure that this is what God wants me to do. You're gonna suffer awfully. Give me a break. Have I been there for heaven's sakes? So he goes off, and in point of fact, it's in most of its parts, it's a pretty pleasant experience, including the imprisonment. He was, he was a he was under house arrest at uh he was under protective custody, both in Caesarea and Rome. So uh Paul knew better than they. All right. Well, thank you very much. Let me just have a word of prayer with you. There's one other thing I want to talk about. Have me back again, I'll talk about the other thing, but we haven't got time now. Father, we love you. We thank you so much for this opportunity. Thank you for this church, thank you for this body of godly women who are sufficiently committed to growing in their understanding of your word and thus of you, that they give themselves to this effort. Uh bless, bless them each one. Thank you so much for the celebration of Trudy's birthday this morning. And it's just that sort of selfless quiet behind the scenes effort that makes everything about the work of the ministry w happen. So thank you for it and uh continue to bless. Thank you in Christ's name. Amen. All right, I think we're done. Thank you. Thank you, Terry. Oops, I think I'm still wired.