_Scripture, Acts 18:23-21:17_ ANALYSIS +Third Missionary Journey+--Method. The Chief City. Time and Extent. Epistles Written. +Itinerary+--Through Galatia and Phygia. Ephesus. Through Macedonia and Greece. The Return Voyage. [Illustration: Outline map illustrating the third missionary journey of Paul and the voyage to Italy.] II. PAUL'S JOURNEYS _Acts 13:1-38:31_ STUDY V THIRD MISSIONARY JOURNEY _Scripture, Acts 18:23-21:17_ +Method.+--A study of the three missionary journeys shows the method of evangelization of the ancient world. The first journey was comparatively near home. The second was a review of the work done in the first and a pushing on to new work in Asia Minor and the larger conquests in Europe. In the third we have a review visit to the churches of Asia Minor, a long stop at Ephesus, and a review visit to the churches of Macedonia and Achaia, which were organized upon the second missionary journey. There was always a method in what Paul did. He was not only a missionary preaching and testifying to Jesus Christ, but he was an organizer and leader of men. The churches formed were visited again and again; messengers were sent to them to instruct, to chide, and to encourage them; circular and special letters from Paul's own hand were dispatched to them, when occasion required. Wherever Paul preached, whatever might be the tumults raised, he always won some adherents for Jesus Christ, who were brought together and organized into a church. On this third journey he was already planning to go to Rome (Acts 19:21) and wrote an epistle to the Romans announcing his coming (Rom. 1:7, 15). +The Chief City+, in which Paul spent most of his time (Acts 19:1, 8, 10), between two and three years upon this journey, was Ephesus in Asia Minor. This city situated midway between the extreme points of his former missionary journeys was a place where he could have an intelligent oversight over all the work which he had previously accomplished. Ephesus has been thus described: "It had been one of the early Greek colonies, later the capital of Ionia, and in Paul's day it was by far the largest and busiest of all the cities of proconsular Asia. All the roads in Asia Minor centered in Ephesus and from its position it was almost as much a meeting place of eastern and western thought as Alexandria. Its religion was oriental. Its goddess called Artemis or Diana, had a Greek name but was the representative of an old Phrygian nature worship. The goddess was an inartistic, many-breasted figure, the body carved with strange figures of animals, flowers, and fruits. The temple built by Alexander the Great was the most magnificent religious edifice in the world. It was kept by a corporation of priests and priestesses, who were supported by the rents of vast estates. For centuries Ephesus was a great center of pilgrimage, and pilgrims came from all parts of Asia to visit the famous shrine."