Acts 20:1-6 ESV
After the uproar ceased, Paul sent for the disciples, and after encouraging them, he said farewell and departed for Macedonia. 2 When he had gone through those regions and had given them much encouragement, he came to Greece. 3 There he spent three months, and when a plot was made against him by the Jews as he was about to set sail for Syria, he decided to return through Macedonia. 4 Sopater the Berean, son of Pyrrhus, accompanied him; and of the Thessalonians, Aristarchus and Secundus; and Gaius of Derbe, and Timothy; and the Asians, Tychicus and Trophimus. 5 These went on ahead and were waiting for us at Troas, 6 but we sailed away from Philippi after the days of Unleavened Bread, and in five days we came to them at Troas, where we stayed for seven days.

BE AN ENCOURAGEMENT

Paul's third missionary journey was about to end. He spent three years in Ephesus then went north to Troas, across to Philippi, and south to Thessalonica, Berea, and Corinth (Acts 20:1–2, 31). His primary reason for revisiting the churches he planted is to encourage them but also to collect donations for believers in Jerusalem (Rom 15:26).

Difficulties and persecutions don’t define Paul. It was his deep love for God and the gospel that drove him. Nothing could stop him going to the churches and encouraging the believers. As he encouraged the elders at Ephesus later, he said, “But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.”[Acts 20:24]

Paul takes the long way from Corinth to Jerusalem. The Jewish leaders in Corinth plotted against him so he can't sail straight to Caesarea Maritima. Instead, he returns up the coast to Macedonia, across the Aegean to Troas, and back down the coast of modern-day Turkey to Miletus before he can take a ship to Judea. In other words, God could protect us but we need also to use our common sense unless the Lord prompts us to do something else.

Paul was encouraged by the wonderful and godly men with him. They came from all over the place. They were together because of the gospel. Sopater, was a Berean, and most likely a careful, considerate scholar (Acts 17:10–12). Aristarchus is apparently the same man who was caught in the riot in Ephesus (Acts 19:29]. We know nothing of Secundus. Gaius was from Galatia, in central modern-day Turkey now (Acts 19:29). Timothy, the young man Paul met in Lystra at the beginning of his second missionary journey and he mentored (Acts 16:1) Tychicus and Trophimus were from the province of Asia in southwest Turkey. And, Tychicus became Paul's faithful messenger (Eph 6:21; Col 4:7; 2 Tim 4:12; Titus 3:12).

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