As he set out for Jerusalem, Paul asked the Ephesian church elders to meet him in a nearby port city. He reviewed the essential principles of his time with them, and urged them to keep on serving Christ as faithfully as he always tried to. It was an emotional meeting. Paul had a strong
sense that his enemies were likely to be stronger in Jerusalem than in any of the other cities where he had preached. The Ephesians wept as he told them, “I know that none of you will see me again.”

• Paul wrote to the Corinthians (again, probably from Ephesus) about a crisis in Asia in which he was afraid he might not survive (cf. 2 Corinthians 1:8-10). Luke didn’t describe that crisis in Acts, but he quoted Paul as saying in this farewell speech, “I served the Lord with great humility and with tears in the midst of trials that came upon me because of the Jews’ schemes” (verse 19). Then Paul added, “I’m going to Jerusalem. I don’t know what will happen to me there. What I do know is that the Holy Spirit testifies to me from city to city that prisons and troubles await me” (verses 22, 23). Remember, people who change the world don’t quit. Where is God calling you to exercise perseverance and hope in the face of difficulty right now?