Acts 20:23 - Printer Friendly

ESV: except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me.

NIV: I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me.

NASB: except that the Holy Spirit solemnly testifies to me in every city, saying that chains and afflictions await me.

CSB: except that in every town the Holy Spirit warns me that chains and afflictions are waiting for me.

NLT: except that the Holy Spirit tells me in city after city that jail and suffering lie ahead.

KJV: Save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me.

NKJV: except that the Holy Spirit testifies in every city, saying that chains and tribulations await me.

The Holy Spirit does not often give us specific, minutely detailed instructions. He gave us the Bible to train us in godly living (2 Timothy 3:16), but He doesn't usually mandate what car we drive, what job we take, or where we travel.

On a couple of different occasions, however, He does tell Paul where to go. During Paul's second missionary journey, as he traveled west through modern-day Turkey, he planned to go to the province of Asia in the southwest, but the Holy Spirit forbade him. Next, he thought he would go north to Mysia and Bythinia. Instead, the Holy Spirit sent Paul a vision of a man inviting him across the Aegean Sea to Macedonia (Acts 16:6–10). It would be years before Paul would minister in Asia for any significant time.

When he did get to Asia, he settled in the city of Ephesus for three years (Acts 20:31). Afterward, he tours the churches he had planted along the Aegean Sea before sailing to Miletus and asking the elders of the Ephesian church to meet him. He tells them the Holy Spirit has again given him orders: to Jerusalem (Acts 20:22) where he will experience more of the sufferings God promised him when he came to faith in Jesus (Acts 9:16).

Paul does not always walk into danger. When he heard of a plot to kill him in Damascus, he escaped out of a window (Acts 9:23–25). He fled angry Jews from Thessalonica in both Thessalonica and Berea (Acts 17:10, 13–14). After he is arrested by the Romans in Jerusalem and the Jewish leaders commission an assassination, he will arrange his own prison transfer (Acts 23:12–22).

This time, however, the Holy Spirit isn't giving him a choice. He will be arrested and imprisoned for two years (Acts 24:27). He will be shipwrecked on his way to Rome where he will be imprisoned for another two years (Acts 27:39–44; 28:30–31). He goes willingly because his weakness gives opportunity for Jesus to display His strength so that others may have life (2 Corinthians 4:7–12).

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.