Acts 20 Round Two: A Tearful Goodbye

A tearful goodbye can either hollow us out or forge us into something truer. Today we walk the shoreline of Acts 20 with Paul as he heads toward Jerusalem, pauses near Ephesus, and calls the elders to him for one last, unflinching conversation. What unfolds is a masterclass in spiritual leadership that blends humility, courage, and pastoral care, framed by honest grief and enduring hope.

We start with movement—cities, companions, and the quiet ministry of presence. There’s the unforgettable late-night gathering where a drowsy Eutychus falls from a window and is restored, reminding us that the gospel both revives and sustains. From there, Paul names his path with striking clarity: suffering lies ahead, yet the mission stands above comfort. He refuses both avoidance and self-protection, choosing to speak plainly about repentance, faith in Jesus, and the whole counsel of God.

The heart of this conversation is a charge to leaders: guard yourselves and the flock God purchased with his own blood, expect wolves, beware distortion from within, and keep working with open hands. Paul anchors authority in service, integrity, and generosity, echoing Jesus’ words that it is more blessed to give than to receive. He models a leader who labors, weeps, warns, and blesses, then entrusts the church to God’s grace. The closing scene—prayer, tears, and a walk to the ship—captures a legacy worth seeking: not fame, but faithfulness; not applause, but obedience.

If you’re navigating hard conversations, leading through complexity, or simply longing for a sturdier vision of calling, this story will meet you where you are. Listen, reflect, and then tell us: where is faithfulness asking more of you today? Subscribe, share with a friend who needs courage, and leave a review to help others find the show.

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The More We Dig. The More We Find.

Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation (NLT).
Copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation.
Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Chapters

• 0:00 Setting The Scene In Acts 20
• 0:47 Community Updates And Listener Prompt
• 1:18 How Acts Shifts From Peter To Paul
• 2:24 Travel, Companions, And Tychicus’ Backstory
• 4:59 Eutychus Falls And Lives
• 6:40 Sailing Past Ephesus Toward Jerusalem
• 7:12 Paul’s Farewell To Ephesian Elders
• 9:05 Warnings About Wolves And Work
• 10:50 Faithfulness Over Fame
• 12:06 Prayer, Charge, And Closing Blessing

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Welcome to the Bible Breakdown Podcast. Every day, we take one chapter of the Bible, dig deeper, and discover that the more we dig, the more we find. You can find out more at the BibleBreakdown.com. Now let's grow in God's Word together. Well, hello. Welcome back to the Bible Breakdown Podcast with your host, Pastor Brandon. Today, Acts chapter 20. And man, today's a sad one. I'm just going to tell you, if I were to give this a title, it would be a tearful goodbye. And it is. It is a tearful goodbye. Paul is still on his third missionary journey, and he now knows what he's got to do. And it's going to get worse before it gets better. And he's got to say goodbye to some people he loves dearly. And maybe in the process of him saying this, the Holy Spirit may teach us something about tearful goodbyes as well. But of course, before we get to that, if you like what we're doing, make sure you like, share, and subscribe, YouTube videos. Make sure you're subscribing to the channel. It really does help us a lot. Listen to us on the podcast. You're my favorites. Make sure you are leaving us a five-star review. It really does help us. And then also make sure you're going to the Facebook page or group, Bible Breakdown Discussion. And I want to know from you what is a tearful goodbye you've had to say. Like when you moved away from a city or you said goodbye to a friend. Just tell us a story about tearful goodbyes in your life. Because that's what we're going to experience today. What we've been saying is to kind of catch you up, is the book of Acts was written by the doctor-turned investigative journalist named Luke. And one of the things we've learned about this is the first half of the gospel or the book of Acts is all about the early church in Jerusalem and really Peter. But then about halfway through, it shifts over to these missionary journeys that Paul is having. Because Paul is going through the Roman world and he is just sharing the gospel, planting churches, raising up leaders, going and doing it again. And one of the things we see over and over again is this, and that is that if you were voted most likely to succeed by your graduating class, if you always get the job and everything always seems to go your way, I have great news for you. God can still use you. But most often he uses the least likely to succeed, the ordinary, the normal, those who don't stand out from the crowd. The first half we see that God is using fishermen and people like that to change the world. Now in the second half, we see a has been Pharisee being raised up to shake the known world with the gospel. The power is not in us, the power is in the gospel. And all along the way, we experience different things. One of the things we're going to experience today is Paul knows that his journey is continually moving him onward. He knows he's got to get to Jerusalem and he knows he's got to get to Rome. Both of those places are not going to be good news for him, but he knows he's got to go. And so in the process of this, he's got to say goodbye to the amazing people at Ephesus. And so we're just going to read this together, stop along the way. The more we dig, the more we find, and just experience this together with the Apostle Paul. So if you have your NLT Bibles open with me to Acts chapter 20, let's read God's word together. It says this when the uproar was over, by the way, remember, there was this massive, chaotic riot yesterday, right? When that uproar was over, Paul sent for the believers and encouraged them. Then he said goodbye and left for Macedonia. While there, he encouraged the believers in all the towns he passed through. And he traveled down to Greece, where he stayed for three months. He was preparing to sail back to Syria when he discovered a plot by some of the Jews against his life. Of course, because this is Paul, right? So he decided to return through Macedonia. Several men were traveling with him. There was Sophater, the son of Paphras from Berea, Astacristus and Secodius from Thessalonica, Gaius from Derby, Timothy and Tychicus, and Trophimus from the province of Asia. They went ahead of him and waited for us at Troash. Now notice again, we're saying us, so Luke is traveling with him as well. And if you notice, everywhere Paul goes, he seems to get beat up, so he needs a physician with him. But also I want you to look and see a name right there called Tychicus. T Y C H I C U S. Ticicus is important because eventually, when Paul goes to Rome, Tychicus is going to go see him. What happened in this particular man's life is he had gotten saved in Ephesus. But he wasn't from Ephesus. He was from a place called Colossae. He gives his life to Jesus in Ephesus, and he goes back to his hometown in Colossae and starts a church. And he starts this church, and God starts to grow this church, and eventually there are some things that he needs answers for. And so he goes to see Paul in Rome. And when he comes back, one of the things he has with him is the letter to the church of Colossae that we now have called the Book of Colossians. So that's another place where we get to see the epistles connected through the book of Acts. Verse 7. On the first day of the week, we gathered with local believers to share the Lord's supper. Paul preached to them, and since he was leaving the next day, he kept talking all night. Now, listen, this is this is hilarious. The upstairs room where they met was lighted with many flickering lamps. And as Paul spoke, spoke on and on, a young man named Eutychus was sitting on the windowsill and he became very drowsy. Finally, he fell asleep, sound asleep, and dropped three stories to his death below. That's not the funny part. The funny part is right here, Paul went down, bent over him, took him by the arms, and said, Ah, don't worry, he's alive. Then they all went back upstairs, shared the Lord's Supper, and ate together. Now, I'm gonna read between the lines and say they helped Eutychus back up and took him back upstairs too. Okay. That's kind of like, um, hey, he's alive. I'm hoping they didn't go, he's fine, and went on back up again. But no, no. They the Lord rose him back up, healed him, and they all went back up and did and shared the Lord's Supper together, ate together, and then this. Then Paul went back to preaching. And he continued to talk to them until dawn, and then he left. Meanwhile, the young man was taken home alive and well, and everyone was greatly relieved. It's just, hey man, young guy falls up. Eutychus, I think he's in the dead. Let's go pray for him. Raise him back up. Okay, now, as I was saying, Paul don't mess around, man. I'm just gonna tell you, he don't mess around. Now, but here's here's the sad part. Verse 13. Paul went by land to Esos, where he arranged for us to join him. While we traveled by ship, he joined us there, and we sailed together to Metalene. The next day we sailed past the island of Chios. The following day we crossed to the island of Samos, and the day later we arrived at Meletos. Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus, for he didn't want to spend any more time in the province of Asia. He was hurrying to get to Jerusalem if possible before the festival of Pentecost. But when we landed in Meletus, he sent a message for the elders of the church of Ephesus, asking them to come and meet him. When they arrived, he declared, You know that from the day I set foot in the province of Asia until now, I have done the Lord's work humbly with many tears. I have endured the trials that came to me from the plots of the Jews, and I never shrank back from telling you what you needed to hear, either publicly or in your homes. I have had one message for the Jews and the Greeks alike, the necessity of repenting from sin and turning to God, and of having faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. I am now bound by the Spirit to go to Jerusalem. I don't know what waits for me, except that the Holy Spirit tells me that in city after city, that jail and suffering lie ahead. But my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus. The work of telling others the good news about the wonderful grace of God. And here it is. And I know this that none of you who I have preached to the kingdom of God will ever see me again. I declare today that I have been faithful. And if anyone suffers eternal death, it's not my fault. For I didn't shrink back from declaring to you what God wants you to know. So guard yourselves and God's people. Feed and shepherd God's flock, his church, purchased by his own blood, over which the Holy Spirit has appointed you as leaders. I know that false teachers like vicious wolves will come in among you after I leave, not sparing the flock. Even some men of your own group will rise up and distort the truth and turn to draw a following. Watch out. Remember the three years I was with you, my constant watch and care over you night and day, and my many tears for you. I now entrust you to God and the message of his grace that is able to build you up and give you an inheritance with all those he has set apart for himself. I have never coveted anyone's silver or gold or fine clothing. You know that these hands of mine have worked to supply my own needs and even the needs of those who are with me. And I have been a constant example of how you can help those in need by working hard. You remember the words of the Lord Jesus. It is more blessed to give than to receive. When he had finished speaking, he knelt and prayed with them, and they all cried as they embraced and kissed him goodbye. They were sad most of all because he said that he would never see them again, and they escorted him down to the ship. So there's so many things we could take away from this. First of all, is you notice how he really wanted to get to Jerusalem, but he didn't pass by the opportunity to talk to them. We could talk for a long time about in our current culture there is this thing called ghosting one another. When it's not convenient or there's something hard you want to say, many times instead of having the hard conversation, we just ignore people. We just disappear. You know how disrespectful that can be. Remember, imagine how sad this would have been for the people of Ephesus if they never had an opportunity to talk to their their pastor, their hero, and really just get a chance to hear from him one more time. So one of the lessons for us is even when it's hard, don't shy away from the hard conversations. Let other people see your love or feel the problem that's going on, but never shrink back from telling them the truth. And never shrink back from conversations. The next thing he said is he says, Go ahead and continue the work that I started. Watch over the flock, be careful of the wolves, do the good things. And he encourages these people to continue the good work that he started. I think we could take that today. To never stop, but to always care for those around us. Continue the work that he started. And I love this when he says this. I love that he says, I declare today that I have been faithful. Notice that's what he was aiming at. He wasn't aiming at at growing something massive or making a name for himself. As a matter of fact, he says, I did not covet all those great things. You know what my goal was? My goal was to be faithful. What a great lesson for all of us today. Is number one, be willing to have the hard conversations. Number two, make it our goal today to be faithful so that we get to the end of our life or the end of our relationship with somebody. We say, Hey, you know what? Man, I didn't do everything right, but my goal was to never do it all right. My goal was to be faithful. What a wonderful legacy that would be for all of us. Let's pray together this this morning. This morning when I'm doing this right now. Here we go. God, thank you so much for today. Thank you for your goodness and your mercy. I pray, God, that you will help us to be faithful in all things. Help us to lean into sometimes difficult conversations. Because whereas this might have been difficult for Paul, I'm sure it brought great healing, though sadness, to these people to have one more conversation with someone that they loved. I pray you will help us to remember that. But also I pray that we will make it our goal every single day to strive for faithfulness in all things. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Remember what Jesus said in Acts 1.9, say it with me. You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses to the ends of the earth. My prayer to you today is that you will experience the power of the Holy Spirit and it will empower you to be his witnesses everywhere you go. I love you. I'll see you tomorrow for Acts chapter 21.