Acts 20:19 - Printer Friendly

ESV: serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials that happened to me through the plots of the Jews;

NIV: I served the Lord with great humility and with tears and in the midst of severe testing by the plots of my Jewish opponents.

NASB: serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and trials which came upon me through the plots of the Jews;

CSB: serving the Lord with all humility, with tears, and during the trials that came to me through the plots of the Jews.

NLT: I have done the Lord’s work humbly and with many tears. I have endured the trials that came to me from the plots of the Jews.

KJV: Serving the Lord with all humility of mind, and with many tears, and temptations, which befell me by the lying in wait of the Jews:

NKJV: serving the Lord with all humility, with many tears and trials which happened to me by the plotting of the Jews;

Miletus is on the west coast of modern-day Turkey. There, Paul is speaking with the elders of Ephesus. He left Ephesus a few months before after spending three years planting the church and building up the new believers in a city filled with witchcraft and demons.

Paul's time in Ephesus is recorded in Acts 19, but Luke doesn't mention especially harsh treatment from the Jews. Paul preached in the synagogue for three months until "some became stubborn and continued in unbelief, speaking evil of the Way before the congregation" (Acts 19:9). The account merely says that Paul left the synagogue and started the church in the hall of Tyrannus (Acts 19:10). It was a Gentile silversmith who started a riot because of Paul's work (19:23–41).

So, we don't know what the Jews in Ephesus did to Paul, but we know just their rejection of his message would break his heart. While he lived in Ephesus, he wrote to the Romans, saying he would rather forfeit his own salvation than watch his kinsmen reject their Messiah (Romans 9:1–5).

Paul will have significant trouble with Jews from around Ephesus when he is in Jerusalem. They will see him in town with the Ephesian Trophimus and assume he takes the Gentile into the temple. The crowd will drag Paul from the temple and threaten to kill him—only being arrested by the Romans will save him (Acts 21:27–36). Paul will spend the next five years imprisoned.

In Acts 20:17–27, Paul begins his farewell to the elders of Ephesus. He and his team leave Troas and sail to Miletus, south of Ephesus, where Paul requests the Ephesian elders meet him. He reminds them how he served with dedication and self-sacrifice, and he also relays disturbing news. When he gets to Jerusalem, he will be imprisoned, and they will never see him again. Next, he will challenge them to protect their church from false teachers and to emulate his humble leadership (Acts 20:28–35).

Acts 20 finishes Paul's third missionary journey. He leaves Ephesus after three years and travels to Macedonia and Corinth. Threats from the Corinthian Jews send him and his team back to Macedonia and Troas. In Troas, Paul gives a very long sermon and raises Eutychus from the dead after he falls—both asleep and out a window. In Miletus, Paul meets with the Ephesian elders. He reminds them to beware of false teachers and tells them he is going to be imprisoned and will not see them again. After a tearful farewell, he boards a ship for Judea.

Acts 20 records the last stages of Paul's third missionary journey. He started by visiting the churches he and Barnabas had planted in central modern-day Turkey (Acts 18:23). From there, he traveled southwest to the province of Asia, where he established a church in Ephesus (Acts 19). In Acts 20, he visits the churches in Macedonia and Greece before returning to Judea. When he lands, he meets briefly with Philip the Evangelist in Caesarea Maritima before going to Jerusalem and getting arrested. He will stay in house arrest for the next two years before embarking on a dangerous sea voyage to Rome (Acts 21—28).

The summary of the book of Acts is provided in Jesus' words in Acts 1:8: ''But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.'' In Acts 2:1–13, the Christ-followers receive the Holy Spirit. Acts 2:14—7:60 describes the rapid growth of the church in Jerusalem. Chapters 8—12 find Jewish persecution inadvertently spreading the gospel throughout Judea and Samaria. And in chapters 13—28, Paul and his companions spread the good news throughout the Roman Empire.