While traveling to Macedonia, Paul encouraged all the believers in the towns along the way. I can only imagine all those towns had heard of the goings on in Ephesus and may have been very discouraged. They must have been shocked or even confused by these new attacks after having seen the rapid growth of the Way.
Paul then traveled to Greece and stayed there for three months. He planned to sail back to Syria but found out about a plan made by some Jews to kill him so he headed back through Macedonia.
Several men were traveling with Paul, Sopater, Aristartcus, Secundus, Gaius, Timothy and Tychicus. Apparently Luke would join them as verses 5-6 indicate, "They went on ahead and waited for us at Troas. After the Passover ended, we boarded a ship at Phillipi in Macedonia and five days later joined them in Troas, where we stayed a week." All the way back in chapter 16 we remember that Luke had been left in Phillipi until this time.
Once settled in Troas, they met and shared the Lord's Supper on what is believed to be Sunday night. Most people worked days and the verse states they met the first day of the week. Luke who wrote this counted the days by the Roman method not the Jewish of sundown to sundown method.
Paul was leaving the following day, knowing he may never return, so he preached to them in a room lit with a lot of flickering lamps until midnight. While he was speaking, a young man named Eutychus fell asleep on the window sill and fell three stories to his death.
(Remember, Luke was a physician and confirmed he was dead by this writing) Paul embraced Eutychus and told the people he was alive. It was by Paul's embrace the young man came back to life. Following that, they all went back upstairs and shared the Lord's Supper and Paul continued speaking to them until dawn when he left them. The young man was taken home unhurt to the joy of the people.
Paul went by land to Assos where he had arranged for Luke and the others to join him. While Paul walked the others got there by ship. When they met up, they all sailed to Mitylene, past the island of Kios. They then crossed to the island of Samos and eventually landed at Miletus. Paul did not want to do any more work in Asia and decided to sail past Ephesus. He was also in a hurry to get to Jerusalem for the celebration of Pentecost.
When they arrived at Miletus, Paul sent a message to the elders at the church of Ephesus to come there to meet him. And they did. When they arrived Paul spoke to them all explaining how, from the time he first set foot in Asia until that very moment, he had done the Lord's work humbly and with the shedding of many tears. He spoke of the trials he endured along with all the plots of the Jews to destroy him. He said he never shrank from telling them all what they needed to hear both in public and in their homes. He spoke of the fact that he delivered the same message to the Jews as well as the Greeks. He defined that message as the need for them all to repent of sin and to turn to God and to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
He spoke further explaining he was bound by the Holy Spirit to go to Jerusalem even thought he didn't know what awaited him. He told them how the Holy Spirit told him in city after city that jail and suffering lay ahead of him. He accepted that and said his life was worth nothing to him unless he used it for finishing the work Jesus had given him to do, which was to tell others the Good News about the grace of God.
He continued on telling them that, none of them who he had preached the Kingdom to, would ever see him again. He was basically describing an end to his mission there and spoke of how he had been faithful to do what he was sent to do. He also told them if any of them would suffer eternal death instead of eternal life, it was their own fault, not his because he did what he was sent to do and had taught them all God wanted them to know.
Paul then instructed them (those the Holy Spirit had appointed as elders) to guard themselves and God's people. He told them to feed and shepherd God's flock-the church which was the people God had purchased with the blood of His own Son-Jesus Christ. Paul warned them that once he was gone, false teachers would try to make their way into their midst and like wolves would try to destroy the flock. He also warned that even some among them would rise up and distort the truth so that some would follow them. He exhorted them to follow the example he gave them by his three years of constantly watching over them night and day and the tears he shed for them.
Paul added he never coveted anyone's silver or gold or fine things. He reminded them how he worked with his hands to provide for himself and those who traveled with him. He spoke of the example he had been to them of how they too could help those in need by working hard. With that in mind, they were to remember the words of Jesus, "It is more blessed to give than receive."
When Paul finished speaking, he knelt and prayed with them. They all cried, embraced and said their good-byes for they knew this would be the last time they would ever see Paul. They then walked ho to the ship to see him on his way.