The Third Missionary Journey

Nobody takes a picture of the second time.

The first time makes a story: the first day at a new school, the first time you were invited into the group, the first time it worked out. The second, the third, the fifteenth — nobody talks about those. And that is حکم—Wait, that is—let's write cleanly—And that is right where most good things die. Not when it is time to start. When it is time to go back.

In the last lesson we read Paul's travel notebook — Philippi, the cell, the earthquake, the jailer's house. Today he sets out again, and this third journey has a different look from the other two. On the first, Paul went to plant. On the second, he went to revisit. On this one, he goes to review everything: the doctrine, the churches, the people — and to leave each place with people prepared to carry on without him.

It is a journey of going back. And, at the end of it, a decision that almost no one would have the courage to make.

I — The route: the journey of going back

After the second journey, Paul spent some time in Antioch of Syria, the home church. Then he set out again, traveling one after another through the region of Galatia and Phrygia, confirming all the disciples (Acts 18:23). Notice the verb: confirming. It was not new ground. It was his ground, people he already knew, and he went there to establish what he had already taught.

Crossing Asia Minor — Pisidia, Galatia, Phrygia — he arrived in Ephesus (Acts 19:1), and that was where things caught fire. Paul spoke for three months in the synagogue. When a group hardened and began to speak evil of the Way in front of everyone, he did not pick a fight: he left, took the disciples with him, and rented a borrowed room, reasoning every day in the lecture hall of a man named Tyrannus (Acts 19:9).

What happened next is the Golden Text of this lesson: "This continued for two years, so that everyone who lived in the province of Asia, Jews and Greeks alike, heard the word of the Lord." (Acts 19:10)

Read it again slowly, because there is a trap in there. We read that all Asia heard and picture a stadium, a crowd, a historic moment. The text says something else: two years, every day, in a borrowed room. The whole province was reached by a routine that, seen up close, was unexciting.

🏛 In the traces of history. Ephesus was the most important city in the Roman province of Asia: a busy port, an administrative capital, and home to the temple of Diana, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Everything passed through there — goods, travelers, news. That is why the fact that everyone who lived in Asia heard the message does not require a logistical miracle: those who came to do business in Ephesus heard Paul and took the message back to their own cities. God placed His missionary right at the crossroads.

From Asia, Paul crossed over to Europe: Macedonia and Achaia (Acts 20:1, 2), spending three months in Greece. It was during this period that he wrote some of the most important letters of the New Testament — two to the church in Corinth, which was living in crisis, and the letter to the Romans, to brothers and sisters he did not even know in person yet.

And then came the unexpected. He was going to sail straight for Syria, but when the Jews laid a plot against him, he decided to return through Macedonia (Acts 20:3). In other words, they forced him to change his route. Paul did not freeze — he retraced his way by land, spent Passover in Philippi, and sailed along the coast of Asia Minor: Troas, Assos, Mitylene, Miletus, Rhodes, Patara. Then Tyre, Ptolemais, Caesarea, and, finally, Jerusalem.

He was in a hurry: he wanted to reach Jerusalem in time for Pentecost (Acts 20:16). And he carried a heavy responsibility in his luggage — the offering that the churches of Europe had gathered to help the poor brothers and sisters in Jerusalem (1 Corinthians 16:1-3). He delivered it all, and he arrived (Acts 21:17).

❤ For your life. You live at an age that is bombarded with premieres: the video of the guy who changed his life in 30 days, the classmate who "out of nowhere" got good at something, the testimony that skips straight to the good part. Nobody posts the two years in the borrowed room. Yet that is where things happen. Your faith is not going to be built on an excited Sunday — it is going to be built on an ordinary Tuesday, in the Bible open when no one is watching, in the three-minute prayer, in the chore done right. Consistency is the most underrated thing in your generation. And it is justamente what reached an entire province.

II — The people he left ready

If you pay attention to this journey, you will notice that Paul almost never appears alone. There is always someone by his side — and it is no accident. He was training people.

Timothy and Erastus walked with the apostle through Asia Minor and learned in practice what cannot be learned just by listening: planting churches, solving problems, preaching. Later they were sent out on their own: "He sent two of his helpers, Timothy and Erastus, to Macedonia, while he stayed for a time in the province of Asia." (Acts 19:22)

Timothy became his main co-worker. Paul sent him to Corinth on a delicate mission and introduced him like this: "That is why I have sent you Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord. He will remind you of my way of life in Christ Jesus, which is exactly what I teach everywhere in every church." (1 Corinthians 4:17) Beloved son. Faithful. Sent to remind others of what Paul taught. That is real trust.

Titus was the messenger Paul waited for with an anxious heart. When the meeting finally happened, Paul wrote: "But God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the arrival of Titus," (2 Corinthians 7:6) In other words: the arrival of a trusted brother was the comfort God sent.

Priscilla and Aquila, the couple Paul met in Corinth, became friends and fellow workers. And they did something beautiful: when Apollos — an eloquent preacher, mighty in the Scriptures — showed up with part of the message incomplete, they did not expose him in public. "And he began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately." (Acts 18:26) They took him home. They corrected him with respect. Whoever corrects like that builds someone up; whoever corrects in front of others only tears down.

And there is the heaviest scene of the journey. Passing through Miletus, Paul sent for the elders of the church in Ephesus (Acts 20:17). He spoke with them, taught them, encouraged them — and told them they would not see his face again. What happened next is written like this: "When Paul had said this, he knelt down with all of them and prayed. They all wept openly as they embraced Paul and kissed him." (Acts 20:36-37) Then they accompanied him to the ship (Acts 20:38).

Grown men crying at a port. That does not happen with someone who only gave lessons. It happens with someone who cared for people.

🏛 In the traces of history. Erastus, the co-worker who appears in Acts 19:22, is probably the same Erastus, the city's director of public works, who sends greetings in Romans 16:23 — the treasurer of Corinth. And archaeologists found, near the city's theater, a paving stone with a Latin inscription saying that an Erastus paid for that pavement out of his own pocket upon taking public office. A man with money, office, and a name in the city chose to walk as an assistant to a persecuted missionary. The Gospel reorders the priorities of those who believe.

And what does this have to do with you

Two things, and both of them hit home at your age.

The first: you are someone's continuation. Faith did not fall out of the sky onto your head. It reached you through people — a grandmother, a mother, a father, a Sunday School (EBD) teacher, a friend who invited you to church. Paul wrote the formula for this: "And the things that you have heard me say among many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be qualified to teach others as well." (2 Timothy 2:2) Those are four links in a single sentence — Paul, Timothy, faithful men, others. You are somewhere along that chain. It made it this far because nobody let go.

The second: at your age, when someone disappears, they disappear fast. A friendship cools off over something silly and nobody reaches back out. A classmate stops coming to church and the group talks about it, but nobody calls. A relative becomes "that person I don't talk to anymore." Paul crossed entire provinces to go back to people he had already seen. Sometimes you won't even cross a hallway.

III — The outcome: going up knowing

There comes a time on this journey when Paul understands that his work in that region is finished. It is written like this: "After these things had happened, Paul resolved in the Spirit to go to Jerusalem, passing through Macedonia and Achaia. “After I have been there,” he said, “I must see Rome as well.”" (Acts 19:21)

Except going to Jerusalem was no sightseeing trip. And he knew it. Listen to his own words:

"And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. I only know that in town after town the Holy Spirit warns me that chains and afflictions await me. But I consider my life of no value to me, if only I may finish my course and complete the ministry I have received from the Lord Jesus — the ministry of testifying to the good news of God’s grace." (Acts 20:22-24)

In every city, the same message: prison and suffering are waiting for you. And he kept going up.

In Tyre, the disciples told Paul through the Spirit not to go up to Jerusalem (Acts 21:4). In Caesarea, a prophet named Agabus did something nobody forgets: he took Paul's belt, tied his own feet and his own hands, and said that this was how the Jews would tie up the owner of that belt and hand him over to the Gentiles (Acts 21:10, 11).

Everyone's reaction was immediate and human: "When we heard this, we and the people there pleaded with Paul not to go up to Jerusalem." (Acts 21:12)

Paul's answer is one of the firmest sentences in the Bible: "Then Paul answered, “Why are you weeping and breaking my heart? I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.”" (Acts 21:13)

And the brothers, unable to talk him out of it, said only that the will of the Lord be done (Acts 21:14).

אב In the original — Greek. In Acts 20:22, the expression rendered as bound in the spirit translates δεδεμένος (dedeménos), from the verb δέω (déo), which means "to bind, to tie, to compel." It is the same word family used for a tied-up prisoner. Catch the irony? Before any Jewish rope touched him in Jerusalem, Paul already described himself as someone tied up — not by a chain, by commitment. He was not dragged there. He was bound by the will of God before he was bound by any man.

🕊 Our reading. Two wrong readings hang around this text, and it is worth closing the door on both. The first: "if God is in control, then it doesn't matter what I do." That is not what the Bible shows. God warned Paul repeatedly and Paul decided — he says that he is ready (Acts 21:13), and the brothers say that the will of the Lord be done (Acts 21:14). God gives grace; obedience remains a human choice, every day, including yours. The second: "if it hurt, it's because it was outside the will of God." Not that either. Paul was in the exact right place and was arrested anyway. Obeying is not life insurance against pain. Obeying is handing the helm over to the One who knows how to steer better than you — and He does, because the same Lord who steers the universe knows how to steer your week.

Christ in the Lesson

There is a scene that becomes clear when you put the two side by side.

A man knows what awaits him in Jerusalem. His friends cry and beg him not to go. He goes anyway, because what the Father wants is worth more than what he feels.

That is Paul's story in Acts 21. And it is Jesus' story, first, in Gethsemane: "Going a little farther, He fell facedown and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me. Yet not as I will, but as You will.”" (Matthew 26:39)

Yet notice the difference, because it is everything. Paul went up to Jerusalem to obey; Jesus went up to pay. Paul risked his life for the name of the Lord Jesus; Jesus gave His life so that name would exist. Paul's anguish had company — brothers crying around him. Jesus' anguish was alone, with His friends sleeping and the Father turning His face away on the cross.

And that is why Paul was able to say that he did not count his life as dear to himself (Acts 20:24). It was not a hero's bravery, and it was not contempt for life: it was knowing that the bill had already been paid by Someone and that his race only existed because Christ had finished His first. At the end of his life, Paul wrote: "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith." (2 Timothy 4:7)

The One who finished the race first was Jesus. Everyone who runs after, runs behind Him.

Practical Application

Go back to those who were left behind. This whole journey is about going back: confirming the disciples, checking on the churches, caring for those who already believed. There are people near you who disappeared without any scandal — the friend who drifted away after a silly fight, the classmate who stopped showing up at Sunday School, the grandfather or aunt you haven't reached out to in months. Reaching out again costs little and is worth a lot. Nobody needs a speech: they need someone who asked.

Bet on Tuesday, not on the premiere. Two years in a borrowed room reached a province. Your walk with God is not going to turn around on the excited day — it is going to turn around in consistency. Pick one small thing and do it every day this week.

Do not let go of the chain. Faith reached you through people who did not give up. You are a link, not the end of the line. Someone younger than you — a sibling, a cousin, a kid from the younger class — is watching what you do with God.

Correct like Priscilla and Aquila. When someone messes up in front of you, the way is not to expose them in the group chat or make fun of them in the circle. They pulled Apollos aside and explained with respect. Speaking in private fixes; speaking in public humiliates.

Obey without demanding a guarantee. You are going to face choices where doing the right thing costs something — a friendship, an image, a spot in the group. Paul went up knowing. And when something gets bigger than you can handle — a threat, fear, someone being hurt — do not try to solve it alone: tell a trusted adult that very same day. That is not cowardice; it is the right way. The adult handles it; you speak up.

Closing Prayer

Lord Jesus, thank You because You went all the way to the end when You could have turned back. Thank You for the people who did not let go of the chain of faith until it reached us — at home, at church, at school. Teach us to go back to those we left behind, to be faithful on ordinary days when no one is watching, and to correct others with respect, never with humiliation. When obeying costs dearly, give us Paul's courage and Your heart in Gethsemane, to truly say: Your will be done. In Your name, amen.

Soli Deo Gloria — Scripture governs; everything else, on its knees.

Teacher's Guide

Essence of the class

Paul did not chase after a new map: he went back to care for what he had already planted and prepared people to carry on without him — because the work belongs to Christ, not to the apostle.

Class map

Time	Stage
0–5 min	Opening — what nobody posts
5–13 min	Point 1 — The route: the journey of going back
13–22 min	Point 2 — The people he left ready
22–29 min	Class activity — the chain that didn't stop
29–37 min	Point 3 — Going up knowing
37–42 min	Christ in the Lesson + hard questions
42–45 min	Wrap-up + challenge + prayer

Start like this

Ask: "Who here has ever started something with a lot of excitement and quit before the end?" Let three or four answer — a course, an instrument, working out, reading the Bible in a year will come up. Do not correct anyone and do not make fun; laugh along with them. Then ask: "And why do we quit? What is missing?" Hold on to the answers ("it gets tiring," "it stops being fun," "nobody sees it"). Close like this: "Today we are going to see the greatest missionary in history taking the least exciting trip of all — the journey of going back. No new city, no premiere. And that was the one that reached an entire province." Open to Acts 18:23.

Point 1 — The route: the journey of going back

• In the quarterly: topic I ("The route of the third journey") and sub-item 1, "The missionary activities of the Apostle," together with the Starting Point.
• What to teach: Paul left Antioch of Syria and retraced his path through Galatia and Phrygia, confirming all the disciples (Acts 18:23), until he arrived in Ephesus. There, driven out of the synagogue, he rented a room and taught every day for two years — and that was how the whole province of Asia heard (Acts 19:9, 10). Then he crossed over to Macedonia and Greece, wrote the letters to Corinth and to the Romans, had his route changed because of a plot (Acts 20:3), and returned by land, carrying the churches' offering for the poor in Jerusalem. Press the contrast hard: nothing spectacular, all routine.
• Anchor verse: "This continued for two years, so that everyone who lived in the province of Asia, Jews and Greeks alike, heard the word of the Lord." (Acts 19:10)
• Key question: "What do you do today that will only show results two years from now?"
• Likely answers (+ going deeper): "nothing," "studying," "training," "learning an instrument." Some will say it is not worth waiting that long. Go deeper: "What if the very thing you want most only exists on the other side of those two years? Paul didn't have a single historic day in Ephesus — he had seven hundred ordinary days."
• If no one speaks: tell about something that took you a long time to achieve yourself (learning to drive, finishing a course, breaking a habit), without heroism, with the actual time it took. Then ask again.

Point 2 — The people he left ready

• In the quarterly: topic II ("The training of leaders") and the Teaching Aid on Erastus.
• What to teach: on this journey Paul trains people. Timothy and Erastus learn in practice and are later sent out on their own (Acts 19:22); Timothy becomes the trusted co-worker sent to Corinth (1 Corinthians 4:17); Titus is the messenger whose arrival was God's comfort to Paul (2 Corinthians 7:6); Priscilla and Aquila correct Apollos privately, with respect (Acts 18:26); and the elders of Ephesus say goodbye in tears at Miletus (Acts 20:36-38). Do not rush past the scene at Miletus — grown men crying at a port is proof that Paul cared for people, not just taught content.
• Anchor verse: "And the things that you have heard me say among many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be qualified to teach others as well." (2 Timothy 2:2)
• Key question: "Who was the person who brought the faith to you — and what would have happened if they had quit halfway through?"
• Likely answers (+ going deeper): grandmother, mother, father, an uncle, a Sunday School teacher, a friend who invited them. Some will say "nobody, I came because they brought me." Accept it: bringing someone is a link too. Go deeper: "And who is looking at you right now the same way you looked at that person?"
• If no one speaks: say the name of the person who taught you to pray and tell in two sentences how it happened. Concrete names unlock the class.

Point 3 — Going up knowing

• In the quarterly: topic III ("The outcome of the third missionary journey") and the Theological Aid on Acts 20:22.
• What to teach: Paul understands that his work in that region is finished and decides to go up to Jerusalem (Acts 19:21). From city to city the Spirit warns that prisons and tribulations await him (Acts 20:23); in Tyre and in Caesarea the brothers beg him not to go, and the prophet Agabus acts out the arrest with Paul's belt (Acts 21:4, 10-12). Paul answers that he is ready even to die for the name of the Lord Jesus (Acts 21:13), and the brothers quiet down, saying that the will of the Lord be done (Acts 21:14). Make it clear that God warned him of the price and Paul chose to pay it — he was neither dragged nor naive.
• Anchor verse: "But I consider my life of no value to me, if only I may finish my course and complete the ministry I have received from the Lord Jesus — the ministry of testifying to the good news of God’s grace." (Acts 20:24)
• Key question: "Has there ever been a time when doing the right thing was going to cost you something — and you did it anyway? And a time when you didn't?"
• Likely answers (+ going deeper): "I didn't cheat on the test and got a bad grade," "I didn't go somewhere and got left out of the group," "I didn't say anything because it would have come back on me." Go deeper: "What makes someone obey even knowing the price? Paul didn't obey because he was brave; he obeyed because he trusted the One who was giving the order."
• If no one speaks: read Acts 21:13 slowly and ask only this: "do you think he was afraid?" Then: "is it possible to be afraid and go anyway?"

Class activity

• Goal: to help the class see that faith reached them through a chain of people — and that the next link belongs to them.
• Materials: strips of paper (one sheet cut into four works fine), pens, tape or a stapler.
• Step by step: before class, write on a strip "JESUS → the apostles → Paul → Timothy" and tape it into the first loops of a chain. Hand one strip to each student and ask them to write the name (or just the relationship: "my grandma") of one person through whom faith reached them. Say out loud that no one has to read what they wrote — whoever wants to speak, speaks; whoever doesn't, just hands it in. Keep taping the strips together, lengthening the chain, while reading 2 Timothy 2:2. Leave the chain hanging until the end of class. At the end, hand a blank strip to each student to keep in their pocket or Bible.
• Wrap-up (back to the text): "This chain made it here because, in every generation, someone didn't let go. Paul entrusted what he learned to faithful men, who taught others (2 Timothy 2:2). The blank strip is yours: someone is going to depend on you not letting go. And the first step is not teaching anyone — it is going back to one person this week."

If they ask you this

• "If the Spirit told Paul not to go up to Jerusalem (Acts 21:4), did he disobey?" No. Compare with Acts 20:23: what the Spirit revealed from city to city was that prisons and tribulations awaited him — and that came true. The "don't go" was the conclusion of the brothers, who loved Paul and did not want to see him suffer (Acts 21:12). God warned of the price; his friends tried to avoid the price; Paul paid the price. And the group itself closes by saying that the will of the Lord be done (Acts 21:14) — if Paul had been in rebellion, Luke would not have closed it like that.
• "If God was in control, was He the one who wanted Paul to suffer?" God is not the author of human wickedness: people were the ones who laid the plot (Acts 20:3), and the bill is on those who laid it. What the Bible shows is that God warned, sustained, and used even the arrest to carry the Gospel forward. Allowing and using is one thing; wanting evil is something very different. Be careful not to let the class leave thinking God sends pain to "teach a lesson."
• "So does that mean if I obey, my life is going to get hard?" It means obeying is not a protection contract against pain — and the Bible never promised that. Paul was in the exact right place and was arrested. What God promises is His presence inside the hardship and an end that is worth it (2 Timothy 4:7). Do not sell ease to teenagers: they notice and stop believing the rest.
• "How do I find out the will of God for my life? Do I need to hear a voice?" Most of God's will is already written and does not depend on a sign: honesty, purity, honoring father and mother, forgiving. Start with what is already clear. For the rest, the way is prayer, the Word, and counsel from people who are mature in the faith. God speaks — but He never contradicts what He has already said in Scripture.
• "Can God use someone my age?" Timothy entered this story while still young and ended up sent alone to handle a crisis in a large church (1 Corinthians 4:17). And he still heard from Paul: "Let no one despise your youth, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity." (1 Timothy 4:12) It is not age that is lacking; it is starting with the size you can manage today.

Wrap-up + challenge of the week

• Wrap-up: "Look at what happened on this journey: no stadium, no premiere. A borrowed room for two years, a lot of people trained, and a tearful goodbye at a port. That was how an entire province heard about Jesus. And in the end, Paul went up to Jerusalem knowing he was going to be arrested — because, before him, Someone went up to Jerusalem knowing He was going to die, and said: not as I will, but as You will. The chain reached you because nobody let go. Now there are people waiting for you to come back."
• Challenge: choose one person who was left behind — a friend who drifted away, a classmate who stopped coming to Sunday School, a grandfather, an aunt, someone in the family you haven't reached out to in a while — and go back to them this week. Reach out on purpose, ask how they are really doing, and listen to the answer. It can be in person, by message, or by phone. One person, one conversation. Come back on Sunday with the story.
• Care when following up: on Sunday, ask whom they reached out to and what it was like to reach out — never the subject of the conversation. Nobody needs to expose someone else's life to the class. If a student shares that the person they reached out to opened up about something serious (violence, abuse, a crisis at home, someone talking about hurting themselves), thank them for their trust, do not ask for details in front of the class, and take it to the church leadership that very same day. Say this out loud before giving the challenge: the teenager speaks up, the adult handles it.

Teacher's kit

• Before: read Acts 18:23 to 21:17 in one sitting, out loud, with a map open beside you; read the three topics in the quarterly; and cut the paper strips for the class activity at home, so you do not waste time in class.
• Bring: a Bible, a map of the missionary journeys (the one in the quarterly works), strips of paper, pens, and tape. If there is time left at the end, use the "Vamos Praticar" section in the quarterly — putting the return cities in order works really well in pairs.
• Pray beforehand: ask God that no student leaves thinking that only those who do big, visible things serve God — and that each one remembers the name of one person to reach out to this week.

Homework

Your mission for the week

Choose one person who was left behind — a friend who drifted away, a classmate who stopped coming to Sunday School, a grandfather, an aunt, someone in the family you haven't reached out to in a while — and go back to them this week. Reach out on purpose, ask how they are really doing, and listen to the answer all the way to the end. It can be in person, by message, or by phone. One person, one conversation.

Why

Paul's third journey was the journey of going back: he crossed entire provinces to check on people he already knew, confirming all the disciples (Acts 18:23). Nobody applauds the second time — yet that is what holds people together. Whoever only starts, plants; whoever goes back, cares.

How to know you did it

You know the person's name and the day you reached out. If there is a name and a day, you did it.

On Sunday, come back with the story

The next class starts with who reached out. You do not need to tell what the person said — just share what it was like to take the initiative to go back.