If you would join me in Acts chapter 20.

We were here last week as well in Acts 20, but there's more to discuss from this chapter

because here in Acts 20, Paul is circling back through the various towns and cities that

he evangelized during his third missionary journey.

What was typical for Paul is that when he would go on a

missionary journey through what in those days was called Asia Minor, if you look at a map today,

it's mostly Greece and Turkey. He had a habit of visiting these various towns and then

backtracking and revisiting these towns when he would conclude one of his three missionary journeys that the

Book of Acts records. But in this particular case, at the end of his third missionary journey,

he was in a hurry to get to Jerusalem because the Feast of Pentecost was approaching. And so he

didn't have time to revisit all the towns and cities

like he normally did. And one city he did not revisit was Ephesus. So he sends word to the elders

of the church in Ephesus, to the spiritual leaders of the church in Ephesus. And he says,

listen, I'm on my way to Jerusalem, kind of in a hurry.

Could you meet me in the city of Miletus?

Miletus is about 30 miles south, southwest of Ephesus.

Again, if you look at a map today, it would be modern Turkey.

And he says to them, can you meet me in Miletus? And so they oblige.

And so he has this encounter there,

this opportunity to share in the dialogue with these Ephesian elders, these spiritual leaders of the church in Ephesus. And he realizes that what he's about to say to them will probably be

the last time that he ever sees them.

Persecution against Christians is heavy, first century.

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