“After this Paul
stayed many days longer and then took leave of the brothers and set sail for
Syria, and with him Priscilla and Aquila.
At Cenchreae he had cut his hair, for he was under a vow. And they came to Ephesus, and he left them
there, but he himself went into the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews. When they asked him to stay for a longer
period, he declined. But on taking leave
of them he said, ‘I will return to you if God wills,’ and he set sail from
Ephesus. When he had landed at Caesarea,
he went up and greeted the church, and then went down to Antioch.” –Acts 18:18-22 (ESV).
Paul ended his second missionary journey
at Antioch in Syria, his sponsoring church, the one that had laid hands on him
and Silas and sent them out. What Luke
recorded of it is from Acts 15:36 through 18:22. When I think of any of Paul’s missionary
journeys, I am reminded of a good teacher friend of mine, Rachel Higdon, now
enjoying her reward in heaven. Being a
teacher of history and French, as well as an excellent student of and teacher
of the Bible, she always wanted a map to point out the places mentioned in the
Bible. With Acts, she had a “map-happy”
time with her teaching, because she had such knowledge from ancient history she
shared as she taught the Word. “We are
talking about real people here,” she
would emphasize, “and real places!” She
would invite us always to imagine the dangers Paul faced on land and on sea as
he traveled, and remind us of the compelling force of the Holy Spirit that
propelled him on from place to place to complete his divinely-appointed
mission. In today’s passage, Paul stayed
“many days longer” at Corinth—longer, perhaps, than the 1 and ½ years
previously stated. When he decided to
set sail for Antioch of Syria, his friends and co-tentmakers, Aquila and
Priscilla accomaanied with him. Their
first stop was at Cenchreae, about 6 ½ miles eastward from Corinth, the city of
Corinth’s main port to the Aegean Sea. At that town, Paul got a haircut, but it
had to do with his Nazarite vow (see Numbers 6:1-21 for laws concerning this
rite). We are not told what the vow involved but it could have been one of
gratitude or in fulfillment of his dedication to God. They sailed to Ephesus in Asia Minor and
there Priscilla and Aquila stayed to strengthen the ministry there. The Christians at Ephesus begged Paul to
stay, but he declined, saying he would return if God willed. This invitation was the basis of Paul’s third
missionary journey, as we will see later.
One sentence summarized the last very long lap of finishing up his
second missionary journey. From Ephesus
the ship took the coastal route south eastward, weaving though islands, including
Rhodes, the largest one, to the west of the ship’s route. Then a long Mediterranean Sea journey
southeastward to Caesarea in Palestine.
By orverland road to “the church”—which everyone understood to be at
Jerusalem—and then northward overland through Damascus and Syria up to
Antioch. Paul had been gone for well
over two years and had traveled thousands of miles, preached many sermons,
taught many lessons, had personal advisement sessions, worked to make his own
way, written his first epistles, been imprisoned, beaten, accused, reviled, had
to sneak away at nighttime to avoid more persecution. And here he was, safely back at his home
church! Can you imagine the joy of
greetings and the crowds that gathered each time he gave his “missionary report”? They might have asked, “Paul, will you stay
here awhile?” And this anointed,
itinerant preacher would no doubt have answered: “I can’t quit yet (can’t retire yet)! God has more work for me to do!” And soon he would launch upon his third
missionary journey. The gospel came to
us on its way to someone else, just as it had to Paul on the road to
Damascus. Faithfulness marked Paul’s
Christian call. Where does the Lord want
you to faithfully witness, diligently labor in His “harvest field”? “For the fields are white already to harvest”…(John
4:35). There’s an urgency now about
getting the harvest of souls in: “For
the night cometh when no man can work” (John 9:4).
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