Acts 18:23-21:19
Sometime after he finished his second missionary journey, Paul and Silas left Antioch and began a third missionary journey. As with their previous journey, they revisited the churches in Galatia and Phrygia and encouraged them. Then Paul fulfilled his promise to return to Ephesus, where he ministered for many months, preaching first in the synagogues but then lecturing daily in the hall of Tyrannus. Paul sent his coworkers Timothy and Erastus ahead of him to Macedonia while he continued to minister in Ephesus. Eventually a riot broke out in Ephesus, where the temple of Artemis was located, because the local silversmiths feared that Paul’s evangelistic work there would harm their business of making shrines of Artemis. So Paul left for Macedonia and southern Greece, most likely visiting the churches in Philippi, Thessalonica, and Corinth. Before Paul set sail to return to Antioch, a plot on his life was discovered, so he traveled back through Macedonia, probably by land. Paul eventually arrived at Troas, and then traveled on to Miletus, where he sent for the elders of the Ephesian church about 30 miles away to come and meet him. After speaking with the Ephesian elders and exchanging farewells, Paul set sail for Jerusalem. Paul’s ship stopped briefly at Tyre and then at Ptolemais before finally arriving at Caesarea on the coast of Palestine. Despite various warnings not to travel to Jerusalem, Paul pressed on until he reached Jerusalem, where he was greetedly warmly by the elders of the church there.
