On Time For Pentecost – Acts 20:13-16

I am one of those compulsive people who think that on time means 30 minutes early.

I have found that when I plan on arriving somewhere one minute before the dead line, inevitably there is something which makes me five or ten minutes late.

Why endure that embarrassment and aggravation, when I can always take a book to read if necessary and get there a few minutes early?.

As for church, I try to be an hour early for the morning service and half an hour early for the rest, because I always have things to do to get ready.

The preacher should never be late for church.

I remember, while on deputation, preaching in Dallas, Texas one morning with an appointment to be in Fort Worth that night.

The arrangements for the evening service had been made for me by the pastor of that church.

But I was not familiar with Dallas / Fort Worth and it took me 30 minutes longer than it would have taken him to make the same trip.

I walked in to the auditorium, opened my Bible, had a word of prayer and began to preach.

I was told that the church had an extra long song service that night.

If I remember correctly, that church didn’t ever support our mission work.

I think that even in the Bible, we can see some of the problems revolving around this sort of thing.

I think that Paul intended to be in Troas on the first Sunday after the Passover.

But he made his schedule so tight that when bad weather made his crossing of the Aegean three days longer than it should have been, it made him late for church.

The preacher should never be late for church.

And for some reason, most pastors think that YOU shouldn’t be late for church either.

Of course, Paul had a larger plan than just to visit Troas.

He intended to skip along the coast of Asia and then to head to Jerusalem.

It was his intention to be in Jerusalem for Pentecost.

We will come back to the possible reasons for this appointment,

but for the moment let’s consider the time-table itself.

Pentecost means “the fiftieth day.”

Actually it was the day after seven weeks after the Passover.

In the Old Testament it had several names, one of which was the “Feast of Weeks” – seven weeks.

Verse 6 tells us that Paul and his company were in Philippi during the Passover week that year.

“And we sailed away from Philippi after the days of unleavened bread,

and came unto them to Troas in five days; where we abode seven days.”

Paul undoubted already had plans to be in Jerusalem by Pentecost, so he probably had a loosely arranged itinerary and schedule in his mind.

But it took five days to get to Troas, and then to compensate for being late, he spent seven days there so that he could be in the church service on the Lord’s Day.

Already the fifty days between the Passover and Pentecost had dwindled to 38 or even less.

Do you remember the March Hare?

“I’m late; I’m late, for a very important date.

No time to say “hello,” good-bye, I’m late, I’m late, I’m late.”

Paul was that March Hare, although it may have actually been April.

Let’s briefly think about the trip to MILETUS.

“And we went before to ship, and sailed unto Assos, there intending to take in Paul: for so had he appointed, minding himself to go afoot.”

Assos is due south of Troas about 20 miles.

But it’s about 40 miles by ship,

because to sail there, first it had to sail west and then around Cape Lecture, and then almost due east.

Depending on how stubborn the winds were, that 40 miles could have taken a day.

And since the ship had to sail both east and west, it would seem that at some point the wind would have been contrary.

For some unexplained reason, Paul sent his shipmates with their financial offerings onto the ship, while he chose to walk.

Most people without thinking, would say that 20 miles sounds like a long way; but it really isn’t.

I walk about a mile every day and it takes me less than twenty minutes.

For those people whose primary means of travel was walking, that 20 mile trip would take less than a day.

But I suppose we need to wonder WHY Paul chose to walk, when everyone else enjoyed a sea cruise.

From the language of the text, it seems that the missionary chose to make this trip ENTIRELY ALONE.

History says that the road was paved, and I’m told that Spring in that part of the world is beautiful.

So I would guess that Paul just wanted to be by himself.

He wanted to spend some time alone with the Lord, without the interruptions and chatter of his friends.

This was personal time; this was devotional time; the Lord walked with Paul for twenty miles.

This could have been the most personally pleasant part of the entire journey.

And then again, as the Lord Jesus “must needs go through Samaria” to talk to the Samaritan woman,

perhaps there was someone with whom Paul was to providentially walk and share the gospel.

Just because we aren’t told about it, doesn’t mean something really wonderful didn’t occur.

Throughout these four verses we hear details expressed by an eye-witness.

But that eye-witness was not tagging along on this 20 mile stretch,

and Paul either didn’t experience anything outstanding during this walk,

or if he did, he didn’t want to share it with anyone.

“And when he met with us at Assos, we took him in, and came to Mitylene.

And we sailed thence, and came the next day over against Chios;

and the next day we arrived at Samos, and tarried at Trogyllium;

and the next day we came to Miletus.”

Judy was wondering about the weather for yesterday, since she had to spend the day outside, so I turned the TV on to the weather channel.

For a few minutes I caught the report for half a dozen cities in Europe.

Moscow was to be rainy and in the mid 60’s; London was about the same temperature but dry.

Lisbon was supposed to be in the low 90s yesterday, and Athens was sunny and the mid 90’s.

In other words, the Aegean is pretty warm and dry right at this time of the year.

Have you ever seen a travelogue on sailing around the Aegean Sea?

There are some beautiful alabaster islands set in azure waters in the Aegean.

I can’t tell you specifically that the island of Lesbos, where Mitylene was found was beautiful, but it might have been.

It appears that the ship stopped in Mitylene,

but whether it was just to pick up passengers and cargo,

or if it spent the night there, I couldn’t tell you.

Then it sailed past Chios, another relatively large island, and down to the island of Samos.

They apparently then spent a night at Trogyllium, on Samos.

That could very easily have been a very pleasant voyage down between the islands of Greece and what is now Turkey.

On that last leg of the trip, they could probably have seen Ephesus.

Why didn’t Paul stop in Ephesus?

There could be a dozen explanations, but they are all guesses on our part.

Some scholars think that Paul had chartered this ship, and controlled where it went and didn’t go.

Others think that he was at the mercy of its captain.

If that was the case then it could be that it was not scheduled to stop at Ephesus.

But clearly, Paul DIDN’T WANT to stop there either.

First, he knew that if he did, it would take at least another week or more.

That might jeopardize his plans to be in Jerusalem for Pentecost.

Then again, things had nearly got out of hand in Ephesus about twelve months earlier.

It could very well have been a very dangerous thing to do to stop again in Ephesus.

And then another explanation could be that he felt that it could be detrimental to the church there.

I believe very strongly that the Bible teaches indigenous missions.

I think that it is a very destructive thing to make a church improperly dependent upon the missionary.

Perhaps Paul was thinking that those good people didn’t need to get emotionally attached once again.

Yes, he sent word to the elders of the church to meet him for a quick seminar & preacher’s fellowship,

but maybe it would have not been spiritually beneficial for Paul to minister directly to the church at this time.

I don’t know for sure, these are only guesses as to why he didn’t stop at Ephesus.

After a few pleasant days of sailing, the little ship arrived at Miletus, about 28 miles south of Ephesus.

Next week we’ll spend some time thinking about Paul’s meeting with the pastors of the church in Ephesus.

But now let’s spend a moment thinking about Paul’s journey toward PENTECOST.

As we said earlier, Pentecost took place fifty days after the Passover – the “Feast of Unleavened Bread.”

Pentecost is sometimes called the “Feast of Weeks,” & sometimes it is called the “Feast of Firstfruits.”

It was basically an harvest festival; obviously, it was for the Spring harvest.

Leviticus 23 and other places describes how it was to be kept:

“And ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the sabbath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven sabbaths shall be complete:

Even unto the morrow after the seventh sabbath shall ye number fifty days; and ye shall offer a new meat offering unto the LORD.

Ye shall bring out of your habitations two wave loaves of two tenth deals: they shall be of fine flour; they shall be baken with leaven; they are the firstfruits unto the LORD.

And ye shall offer with the bread seven lambs without blemish of the first year, and one young bullock, and two rams: they shall be for a burnt offering unto the LORD, with their meat offering, and their drink offerings, even an offering made by fire, of sweet savour unto the LORD.

Then ye shall sacrifice one kid of the goats for a sin offering, and two lambs of the first year for a sacrifice of peace offerings.”

By the days of the New Testament, the Feast of Weeks had evolved into Pentecost.

As holidays do, it was celebrated a little differently, but it was still a festive and happy time.

And it was one of the feast days, when the men of Israel were supposed to present themselves before the Lord; they were supposed to come to Jerusalem – Exodus 34:22.

Paul doesn’t tell us why he was so anxious to be in Jerusalem for Pentecost, so let’s use our imagination and powers of deduction.

The primary theme of Pentecost was the harvest.

It was a celebration of the Lord’s preservation through the winter and the ripening of some of the spring crops such as barley, figs and winter wheat.

The most famous Pentecost in history was the one of which we read in Acts 2.

Among other things it was a time of fabulous SPIRITUAL reaping, an harvest of SOULS.

How fitting that Pentecost should fall on Pentecost.

Perhaps Paul wanted to be in Jerusalem to somehow remember that “Feast of Firstfruits.”

And then again, the way Pentecost was supposed to be celebrated by Israel was with the presentation of their thank offerings.

Paul had collected a bounty of financial fruit from all over Asia, Macedonia and Achaiah, which he wanted to present to the Lord through the church in Jerusalem.

What more appropriate time could there be, especially in the minds of those Jewish Christians than during Pentecost – the “Feast of First Fruits?“

And then perhaps there was another reason:

For the same reason that there were thousands of visitors available to hear the gospel in Acts 2, there would be thousands of visitors in Jerusalem once again in Acts 20.

It could be that Paul was hoping that he could use that opportunity to preach to the extremely large crowds which will have come from all over the world.

He was a missionary with a mission-minded heart, and being in Jerusalem at Pentecost, would permit him to reach out and touch Roman provinces which to this point he had only dreamed about visiting.

Being in Jerusalem at Pentecost would have been a preparatory visit to Rome itself.

It would have introduced him to thousands of people and hundreds of new places.

So it could be that he was hurrying towards Jerusalem for another spiritual harvest.

Once again, these verses are just an historical bridge between the spectacular events in Troas and the important lessons in Miletus, but I think that there are some blessing even in walking across the bridge.