Acts chapter 20

vs 11

Satisfied that he had done all he could, Paul went, broke bread, spoke even more (lucky there weren't any more casualties!) and left at daylight.

vs 12

Bad enough losing disciples to riots, persecution and sin. Losing them to sermons would be too much to bear!

vs 13

I'm not sure what the relevance of the 'on foot' thing is. Does it indicate that Paul did all of his travelling on foot (when not sailing of course)? Does it indicate that this is a trip he was doing on foot, as opposed to most his other trips? Or does it just indicate that he is taking this route because he would be walking, whereas someone who was riding would take another?

vs 14

Ahh, so now he's meeting up with the 'us' group at Assos.

vs 15

Luke feels free to be a little more detailed in the travel now, because he was there perhaps. I can't imagine that they accomplished anything super fantastic in day trips to these places, so really these verses exist mainly to corroborate the travel record I am guessing.

vs 16

Sounds like Ephesus was a side route to where he really wanted to go - Jerusalem. But of course, Paul has a lot of interest in Ephesus. So what's he going to do?

vs 17

He gets them to come to him! That might seem a little extravagant, but Paul's on a time frame, and they aren't, so he asks them to give a little of their time for his sake.

vs 18

This sounds almost like a letter of his.

vs 19

No, really, it does.

Obviously Paul didn't write them a letter and read it out to them. And Luke obviously didn't sit there dictating either. So this is the written version of what Paul said to them. which is why it sounds so much like his letters.

Paul's focus is on the suffering he undertook to bring the gospel to Ephesus for their sake.

vs 20

That's an interesting statement to make. The idea that someone could hesitate in preaching something that is helpful. I mean, we wouldn't think twice for the most part. We have such an established traditional body of teaching that if we were to preach on something, it's most likely the same message the last couple of generations have heard, and they're more likely to be apathetic to it than anything else. Back then, it is entirely possible that, in getting up and saying something new, Paul could have offended quite a few people. But he still said things that were helpful - he preached them publicly and he went from house to house and espoused them too.

It's even possible that verse 21 refers to one of these contentious issues.