"Persistence" (Acts 20:3-6)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/2/2018 7:53 AM

My Worship Time                                                                                          Focus:  “Persistence”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                         Reference:  Acts 20:3-6

            Message of the verses:  “3 And there he spent three months, and when a plot was formed against him by the Jews as he was about to set sail for Syria, he decided to return through Macedonia. 4 And he was accompanied by Sopater of Berea, the son of Pyrrhus, and by Aristarchus and Secundus of the Thessalonians, and Gaius of Derbe, and Timothy, and Tychicus and Trophimus of Asia. 5 But these had gone on ahead and were waiting for us at Troas. 6 We sailed from Philippi after the days of Unleavened Bread, and came to them at Troas within five days; and there we stayed seven days.”

            We have been talking about how Paul wanted to get to Jerusalem for the Passover celebration and so his intention was to board a ship at the harbor in Corinth where he had been for three months and go directly to Syria and then down to Jerusalem.  However as we read he became aware of a plot by the Jews to kill him, and this would probably been very easy to do on a small boat crowed with Jewish people headed to Jerusalem for Passover.  Once he learned of this plot he had to change his travel plans.  Luke does not go into the details of this plot, only to mention it.

            The plot delayed Paul’s plans to get to Jerusalem for the Passover; however he was determined to return to Palestine and would do this by going through Macedonia.  John MacArthur writes that “He would retrace his steps through Achaia north into Macedonia.  From there he would cross the Aegean Sea to find another ship in Asia Minor headed toward Israel.  That delay and detour cost Paul his opportunity to be in Jerusalem for Passover; all he could hope for now was to arrive in time for Pentecost, fifty days after Passover (20:16).”

            Verse four tells us who Paul was traveling with, and there is quite a list of people from different places that Paul had traveled to give out the gospel.  When you look back on how Paul began his first missionary trip and then the second we can see that in some of the places where he began churches, those churches had grown and matured so much that they were able to send missionaries with Paul to help in the cause of Christ by continuing to tell others about how a person can go from darkness into the light of the gospel, turn from their sins and accept Christ as their Savior and Lord. 

            I want to point out that Luke was also involved in this journey as we see by the pronouns “us” and “we.”  I would like to have been a fly on the wall when Paul and Luke were in conversation with each other. 

            We conclude this rather short SD by again quoting from John MacArthur’s commentary:

“Paul’s persistence is another mark of his love for the church.  In this passage, he modeled the persistence of love he wrote about in 1 Corinthians 13, where he described it as patient (v. 4), enduring all things (v. 7), and never failing (v. 8).  Love relentlessly, persistently pursues the good of others.”

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I have to say that it is hard at times to live out the love that Paul wrote about in 1 Corinthians, and one of the reasons is that there are too many times when I think and do things for myself and not do and think of things to do for others.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Pray that the Spirit of God continues to help me in the battle for my mind.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Jerusalem” (Ecclesiastes 1:12).

Today’s Bible question:  “Who had a dream about the sun, moon and stars?”

Answer in our next SD.

7/2/2018 8:21 AM