The Book of Acts Chapter 20: (pt 1 of 15)

“As soon as the uproar ended, Paul gathered the disciples together, encouraged them once more, said farewell, and left on foot. He decided to pass through Macedonia, encouraging believers wherever he found them, and cam to Greece. He spent three months there, and then planned to set sail oce again for Syria. But he learned that a group of Jewish opponents was plotting to kill him, so he decided to travel through Macedonia.

“There was a large group of us traveling with Paul at this time, and we decided it was best, in light of the plot, to split up and then reunite in the city of Troas. This group included Paul, a Berean named Sopater (son of Pyrruhs), two Thessalonians named Aristarchus and Secundus, a Derbean named Gaius, two Asians named Tychicus and Trophimus, and Timothy. So some of us waited until the Days of Unleavened Bread were over; then we went to Philipi where we boarded a ship for Troas. The other group left immediately on foot, passing through Macedonia. When my group landed in Troas five days later, Paul’s group had already arrived. We stayed in Troas another week” —Acts 20:2-6.

I don’t know about you, but there are all kinds of things in the ministry of Paul I would like to know more about. Many other things happened to him which Luke never recorded here in Acts. For example, he visited the region which is now known as Albania and Yugoslavia. In Paul’s time it was called Illyricum. Paul refers to it briefly in the book of Romans but we have no idea what happened there. Most of what we do know—that’s not told in Acts, we discovered from his letters and from Church traditions. One day it will be exciting to hear from his own lips about these forgotten parts of his ministry.

What we do see here is essentially these verses explaining how Paul came to Troas where he met with the church. I do find it interesting that Paul’s team walked, where Luke’s team took a ship, and Paul’s team arrived first. However, Paul’s arrival at Troas didn’t come about as he had planned. After he left Ephesus, Paul traveled on to Macedonia. It would seem that Paul visited various churches there (such as the church at Philippi), collecting their offerings for the poor in Judea and encouraging the saints with his teaching. Then Paul then made his way to Greece, where he seems to have stayed in Corinth for three months. Eager to reach Jerusalem, Paul planned to sail directly from Corinth to Syria.

Paul had a number of men accompanying him (and, I assume, he had the gifts from their home churches to the needy in Judea), but they had gone on ahead to Troas. Paul learned about a conspiracy against him by the Jews, who intended to kill him. It’s believed that Paul’s ship may have been crowded with Jews who were making a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. They probably heard stories about Paul, so they may have conspired to throw him overboard, to perish almost unnoticed. For whatever reason, Paul felt his chances were better on land, so he arranged to travel back to Macedonia and then sail from there (Philippi) to Troas, where he would meet up with his associates. It’s possible that Paul sailed from Corinth to Macedonia, but we know that at least once he traveled by land when the others sailed (for example, you will see this in Acts 20:13-14).

But we will read all about this as our study continues . . .

If interested, you can download the entire study of The Story of Acts

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