Real Hope: Acts (A Study of Acts 18 -23)Sample

Acts 20

READ ACTS 20

When I read the Bible, my mind goes about creating the scene in my head. I try to imagine the real-life interactions, real people, real cities, real miracles, real reactions. Chapters like Acts 20 make this really difficult because so much happens in such a small passage. In thirty-seven verses, multiple months and multiple destinations are skimmed across as Paul continues to spread the Gospel. There’s an urgency in his work. He doesn’t waste a single moment. In the midst of the chapter, Paul is working so hard to share as much as he can that he speaks until daylight, barely stopping for Eutychus who fell to his death from a third story window after falling into a deep sleep. Paul breaks to throw himself on him, declares he’s alive, heads back upstairs, and continues speaking.

There’s a desperation in Paul to get back to Jerusalem, even though he knows it’s unlikely to be safe for him. He wants to see the leaders from Ephesus, but knows that if he stops there he’ll end up spending time there that he doesn’t have to spend, so instead he sends for the leaders with whom he spent months living and sharing.

Paul experiences something that I’ve felt only a couple of times in my life. He senses in himself that this is the last time he’ll see the leaders from Ephesus. It’s like a deep knowing that these are their last moments. And with this knowing, he ensures they are left strengthened, encouraged, prayed for. There’s weeping and embracing. It’s a good goodbye. I’m encouraged to be ever mindful of those moments where God places a knowing in us, to make the most of that opportunity to encourage, strengthen and pray for those we love.

Written by SUSIE HOLT