November 2 Daily Devotional

Acts 20

Shortly after the riot at Ephesus, Paul took leave of his disciples there. He had been in this city for about three years. He sailed across the Aegean sea and came to Macedonia. There he exhorted the churches at Philippi, Thessalonica and Berea, then went southward into Greece and visited the church at Corinth. While Paul was visiting these churches, he spoke to them about the believers in Jerusalem and in Judea, informing them that many were poor and needed support. In his letters to the Corinthians he wrote, “For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich … Your abundance may be a supply for their want, that their abundance also may be a supply for your want: that there may be equality … But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully. Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity; for God loveth a cheerful giver.”

Each of the churches chose men to go with Paul to Jerusalem to take care of the gifts. These men went on before Paul and came to Troas. There they waited for Paul and Luke, who had joined him at Philippi. At Troas they stayed for a week. And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached to them. The next day Paul and his company were to start on their journey to Jerusalem. A meeting was held in a large upper room in the third story of the house, where many believers had gathered to hear Paul before his departure. There he continued his speech until midnight. “And there sat in a window a certain young man named Eutychus, being fallen into a deep sleep; and as Paul was long preaching, he sank down with sleep, and fell down from the third loft, and was taken up dead. And Paul went down, and fell on him, and embracing him said, Trouble not yourselves; for his life is in him. When 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. And they brought the young man alive, and were not a little comforted.”

And so Paul and his companions departed from Troas. Paul traveled afoot, while the rest went by ship. At Troas Paul joined them again, and from thence they sailed by way of Chios, Samos, and Trogyllium and came to Miletus, where Paul called for the elders of Ephesus because his time was short. “For 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.”