Acts 20King James Version
Paul preaches in Troas all night. A young man named Eutychus falls asleep in a window and falls down three stories. He is taken up dead. Paul falls on him: trouble not yourselves; for his life is in him. Paul gives his farewell to the Ephesian elders at Miletus. They weep on his neck. He says, I am pure from the blood of all men. Watch over the flock. Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.
Paul travels through Macedonia and Greece, then back to Troas. On his last night there, he preaches until midnight; Eutychus falls asleep and falls from a third-floor window and is taken up dead. Paul raises him and continues until dawn. In Miletus, Paul calls the Ephesian elders and gives his farewell speech: he reviews his ministry, warns of false teachers coming after him, commits them to God, and says he will never see them again. They weep and hold him and walk him to the ship.
Paul's farewell to the Ephesian elders is the only speech in Acts addressed to Christians rather than unbelievers, and it is a theology of pastoral faithfulness under the certainty of suffering ahead.
28: "Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood." The pastoral charge: watch yourself first, then the flock, because what is at stake is what God bought with blood.
Miletus was a port city about thirty miles south of Ephesus. Paul bypassed Ephesus to avoid losing time but sent ahead to call the elders south to meet him. The Ephesian community had been Paul's deepest and longest-planted church in Acts. The speech uses phrases that will reappear in the Pastoral Epistles and 1 Corinthians, suggesting Luke captured something of Paul's actual vocabulary. The ship was waiting.
Paul, making a final circuit; Eutychus, fallen and raised in Troas; the Ephesian elders, called to Miletus for a farewell; Luke, present and using the first-person we.
The Miletus speech is Paul's only recorded speech to church leaders, and it carries the weight of a last will. The warnings about wolves and distorters coming from within the community proved historically accurate. The emotional texture here is unusually specific: grown men weeping, embracing, walking Paul to the shore and watching the ship leave. Luke, who is present in the we sections, records this as someone who was standing there.
For when you have to say goodbye to a community you have given years to, and both parties know this is the last time. Paul wept too. The text does not say it, but you can read it.
1And after the uproar was ceased, Paul called unto him the disciples, and embraced them, and departed for to go into Macedonia.
2And when he had gone over those parts, and had given them much exhortation, he came into Greece,
3And there abode three months. And when the Jews laid wait for him, as he was about to sail into Syria, he purposed to return through Macedonia.
4And there accompanied him into Asia Sopater of Berea; and of the Thessalonians, Aristarchus and Secundus; and Gaius of Derbe, and Timotheus; and of Asia, Tychicus and Trophimus.
5These going before tarried for us at Troas.
6And we sailed away from Philippi after the days of unleavened bread, and came unto them to Troas in five days; where we abode seven days.
7And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow; and continued his speech until midnight.
8And there were many lights in the upper chamber, where they were gathered together.
9And there sat in a window a certain young man named Eutychus, being fallen into a deep sleep: and as Paul was long preaching, he sunk down with sleep, and fell down from the third loft, and was taken up dead.
10And Paul went down, and fell on him, and embracing him said, Trouble not yourselves; for his life is in him.
11When he therefore was come up again, and had broken bread, and eaten, and talked a long while, even till break of day, so he departed.
12And they brought the young man alive, and were not a little comforted.
13And we went before to ship, and sailed unto Assos, there intending to take in Paul: for so had he appointed, minding himself to go afoot.
14And when he met with us at Assos, we took him in, and came to Mitylene.
15And we sailed thence, and came the next day over against Chios; and the next day we arrived at Samos, and tarried at Trogyllium; and the next day we came to Miletus.
16For Paul had determined to sail by Ephesus, because he would not spend the time in Asia: for he hasted, if it were possible for him, to be at Jerusalem the day of Pentecost.
17And from Miletus he sent to Ephesus, and called the elders of the church.
18And when they were come to him, he said unto them, Ye know, from the first day that I came into Asia, after what manner I have been with you at all seasons,
19Serving the Lord with all humility of mind, and with many tears, and temptations, which befell me by the lying in wait of the Jews:
20And how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have shewed you, and have taught you publickly, and from house to house,
21Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
22And now, behold, I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there:
23Save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me.
24But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.
25And now, behold, I know that ye all, among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God, shall see my face no more.
26Wherefore I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men.
27For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.
28Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.
29For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock.
30Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.
31Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears.
32And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified.
33I have coveted no man's silver, or gold, or apparel.
34Yea, ye yourselves know, that these hands have ministered unto my necessities, and to them that were with me.
35I have shewed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.
36And when he had thus spoken, he kneeled down, and prayed with them all.
37And they all wept sore, and fell on Paul's neck, and kissed him,
38Sorrowing most of all for the words which he spake, that they should see his face no more. And they accompanied him unto the ship.