Acts 20: The Book of Acts

In one paragraph

Pastor Mark worked through Acts 20 as a whole, tracing Paul's final journey toward Jerusalem and his farewell to the Ephesian elders on the beach at Miletus. The passage moves from travelogue detail to a resurrection miracle to a deeply personal goodbye, and the thread running through all of it is that Paul is walking toward suffering with his eyes open. After the near-riot in Ephesus settled...

Read together

1. Ephesians 2:8-10 quoted to show salvation by grace through faith as a gift, not of ourselves, so no one can boast, and that we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works
2. Luke 9:51 cited as the parallel to Paul setting his face toward Jerusalem, described as Jesus setting his face like flint for Jerusalem
3. Ezekiel 34 referenced as a warning against bad shepherds, with the phrase woe to you bad shepherds, don't mistreat the sheep

Talk about it

1. Paul traveled with a group that included people from very different social backgrounds, like Aristarchus and Secundus. What does it mean to you that Christ calls people out of every station of life into the same family, and where do you see that playing out in this congregation?
2. The resurrection of Eutychus is described as pointing forward to the bigger reality of resurrection that Paul kept preaching. When you have faced something really horrible or heinous, as the sermon put it, how has the hope of resurrection actually functioned as comfort rather than just a theological idea?
3. Paul told the Ephesian elders he could say he was innocent of the blood of all the people because he had not shrunk back from declaring anything that was beneficial. How do you personally reckon with that kind of accountability for the people around you?
4. Paul warned the elders to be on guard for themselves and for the flock, saying that some who would lead people astray would come from among their own number. What does that kind of watchfulness look like in a healthy way, without becoming suspicious or controlling?
5. At the end of his speech Paul entrusted the elders to God and to the word of his grace, and then knelt on the beach and wept with them knowing he would not see their faces again. What do you think it costs a person to invest that deeply in others while also being willing to leave them and move on?