Acts 20:13-16

And we went before to ship and sailed unto Assos.

Analysis of service

1. These arrangements were under Paul’s own hand. He himself would Lake the twenty miles’ walk and make a religious exercise of the journey. He wanted no human companion; Jesus Himself would draw near. There are times when human companionship becomes a burden, when we must be left alone; and walking is an appointed means and help of intellectual and spiritual study. Locomotion helps the processes of thought. Do we walk alone and “meditate in the field at the eventide”--the tired day taking its rest, the battle halting awhile?

2. Paul joined the ship, passed on with his companions to Miletus, and saw the white palaces of Ephesus, which, perhaps, tempted him to go back to the old battlefield. Therein he knew his weakness. It was never safe to show Paul the marks of an old controversy, unless he had ample time to return and complete the purpose of the sacred fray. A trait of his character reveals itself in this comparatively trivial incident (Acts 20:16). He had a vow to discharge, or some hidden purpose to carry out, and therefore he felt safest on board ship. Yet he could not pass by wholly; so here the mastermind comes out again (Acts 20:17). He must have a few words with them, not new, but old, words spoken in new tones. We can never hope to preach a new gospel, but we can always preach the old gospel in a new accent. Every man has his own tone, has his own tears and emphasis. So the gospel is the same and not the same--unchangeable yet changing with all the varying phases of daily pilgrimage, and taking upon itself the newness of the present necessity.

3. Paul is about to make his greatest speech. Intellectually he may have stood higher, but he is not going to be intellectual now; his heart is going to speak. Some people have failed to find a heart in Paul, and have found nothing but heart in John. Did John, or any other man, ever deliver such a speech as this? If any man wishes to know what Paul was, he can find the whole man in these pathetic sentences.

4. Listen to the now veteran speaker (verse 18). Paul lived a public life, and was able to appeal to the life he had led. Paul was a great preacher, because he was a great man. He calls attention not to particularly prepared utterances, by which he said he was now ready to abide, but he says, “Look at the whole life; I am willing to be judged by that.” Will it not be so at the last? We judge a man a day at a time. But life is not a question of single days; you must judge the supreme purpose of a man, and so judged, some of us will be better than we have ever been accounted to be, and some may be much worse. We must take in the “all seasons,” and leave to God the complete judgment, because He knows what we have done, what we have resisted, what we would have done if we could. He will connect our prayers with our service, our aspirations with our attempts, and within the continual tumult of contradictions He will find the real man, and crown him, or sentence him to a great distance from the light.

5. Paul says he has served “the Lord with all humility of mind,” etc. Some people would call this egotism; but there are two egotisms--the little egotism that thinks about itself, and the unconscious and heroic egotism which never thinks about itself, even whilst apparently speaking only in its own name. “With all humility of mind”--that is the root of spiritual genius. “The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him; and He will show them His covenant.” “The meek will He guide in judgment,” “but the proud He knoweth afar off.” Where there is humbleness of soul there is great expository power. If we were better men, we would be better students; if we were humbler, we would be more learned; if we were less, we would be more.

6. “With many tears.” Tears are good readers. They may stumble over the letter, but they have great skill in seeing the spirit. We see most when our eyes are shut, so our hearts see most when they have no eyes but tears. A ministry baptized with tears must help us. It comes down amongst the people, and speaks to their immediate life, and shows the worst how he may be better, and the best how he may improve. Let us have ministers who can sympathise. We shall then find that the highest argument is clothed with the supremest tenderness, and that the man who stands upon rocky heights speaking great words of might can also come down to pray by the cradle’s side, and plant the flowers of intercession around the edge of the open tomb.

7. “And many temptations.” This is quite an outline of ministerial education! An untempted minister will never do us any good; an untried man will talk over our heads. My great preacher must be a man who can say, “I have fought a severer fight than you are fighting; I know the devil better than you know him; and now, my brother--crushed, bruised, nearly gone--you and I must, in God’s strength, fight out this whole thing, and in the grace of the Cross get back again the manhood we have lost.” To speak so is to be sure of a good hearing, for the poor, self-distressing heart knows the voice of experience. (J. Parker, D. D.)

For Paul had determined to sail by Ephesus.

Christian service

1. It is sometimes necessary for the Christian worker to sail right by the Asia that seems so much to need his presence in the pursuance of his duty doing elsewhere.

2. He is a wise Christian who is ready to modify his plans when their efficiency will be increased by such modification. He is a wise enthusiast in the cause of foreign missions who also turns his attentions sometimes to the needs of the home missionary field.

4. It is a wise procedure sometimes to hasten home from effort in the needy field s of Asia and Greece to cheer by one’s presence the workers in one’s own Jerusalem. (S. S. Times.)

For he hasted, if it were possible for him to be at Jerusalem the day of Pentecost.--

Resolution and submission

It is right to make our plans for the future, and to do the best we can to carry out those plans, even though we are ready to give them all up at any moment at the call of God. Resignation is not shiftlessness. Submission of the will implies having a will which can be submitted. The Christian who is readiest to stop work, and to lay down his life, when God would have him quit working and living, is the Christian who is most zealous and determined in his life work, while he is at it. A locomotive can run over a downgrade faster than a gravel car can; and it can come to a dead stop half-way down, as the other cannot. The very steam which enables the locomotive to stop, is the force which gives it its added propelling power. Look ahead to your Jerusalem, and plan to be there in time, even while you are stopping, or running, by the way, as Providence indicates to be your duty. (H. C. Trumbull, D. D.)