WWUTT 2686 Encouraging, Evangelizing, and Eating (Acts 20:1-7)

The Apostle Paul moved to and fro a lot in his ministry. Sometimes it was to get away from danger. Sometimes it was to encourage Christians. Sometimes it was to share the gospel with somebody else. Where might the Lord take you today when we understand the text?

This is when we understand the text, a daily Bible study in the word of Christ. For he is before all things and in him, all things hold together. Tell your friends about our ministry at www .wutt .com.

Hey, once again, it's Pastor Gabe.

Paul's Travels and the Account of Eutychus

Thank you, Becky. In our study of the book of Acts, we come this week to chapter 20, where we read a story, as we're gonna be looking at today, about a preacher who preached too long and someone died as a result.

Let me begin reading here in verse one and we'll go through verse 12. Hear the word of the Lord. Now, after the uproar had ceased, Paul, having summoned and exhorted the disciples, said farewell and left to go to Macedonia.

And when he had gone through those districts and had given them much exhortation, he came to Greece and there he spent three months. And when a plot was formed against him by the Jews, as he was about to set sail for Syria, he decided to return through Macedonia.

And he was accompanied by Sopater of Berea, the son of Pyrrhus, and by Aristarchus and Secundus of the Thessalonians, and Gaius of Derbe, and Timothy and Tychicus and Trophimus of Asia. But these had gone on ahead and were waiting for us at Troas.

And we sailed from Philippi after the days of unleavened bread and came to them at Troas within five days. And there we stayed seven days. And on the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul began speaking to them, intending to leave the next day.

And he prolonged his message until midnight. Now there were many lamps in the upper room where we were gathered together. And there was a young man named Eutychus sitting on the windowsill, sinking into a deep sleep.

And as Paul kept on talking, he sunk into that sleep and fell down from the third floor and was picked up dead. But Paul went down and fell upon him. And after embracing him, he said, Do not be troubled, for his life is in him.

And when he had gone back up and had broken the bread and eaten, he talked with them a long while until daybreak and then left. And they took away the boy alive and were not a little comforted. Now, as I said, I love this account because it's about a preacher who preaches way too long and it actually kills a young man who falls asleep in the middle of his sermon.

That's not permission for me to preach too long, though, because I don't have the ability to raise somebody from the dead. We'll get to that account in a little bit. Let's go back up to verse one, where it says after the uproar had ceased.

This is right after the riot in Ephesus. Paul wanted to go into the theater and try to calm the crowd down. But the people around Paul would not let him do it because they knew if he went in there, he was going to die.

Even though it would be unjust and there would be lots of people that would get in trouble and they would probably call in the Roman Guard who would declare martial law and take control of the city. That would not have stopped what would have happened to Paul in that moment if he had gone into the theater.

So he was kept outside. The crowd was calmed down and they were dispersed. But now Paul is public enemy number one in Ephesus. So he's got to decide what to do next. And he decides to leave. And go to Macedonia.

Now we've seen this happen before where Paul's life is under threat and he leaves and goes somewhere else. That doesn't leave the church in a lurch. That doesn't leave them unattended. There's still Christians there.

And as Paul would later find, those Christians would even thrive. Like you take Thessalonica, for example, where he was there for a short while. And though he had to leave them in haste because they wanted to put Paul to death.

We read in 1 Thessalonians that he sent Timothy back to them. And what Paul finds is that the gospel is thriving there. And the Christians are doing well even though they are being heavily persecuted.

They are holding firm to the faith. And he rejoices to hear this. So though he would have to leave quickly, that doesn't mean that Paul is a coward. That doesn't mean that he is not taking a firm stand on the gospel.

There are times when it is wise to get away from the danger. Jesus Christ did this too, as a matter of fact. When people were picking up stones to throw at him, he knew it was not yet his time. He was going to die at Passover.

So he would remove himself from the people because it wasn't yet his time to be put to death. Or the way that he was going to be put to death, for that matter, in fulfillment of what had been said in the scriptures.

So it's okay to protect ourselves from persecution when it comes. That we would remove ourselves from the situation, not stand there and just make ourselves martyrs. In fact, if you know something of church history, you'll know that in those first few centuries of the church, there were people who were intentionally being martyred.

And by intentionally, I mean, they were putting themselves in situations to be put to death. Because they believed that was like the highest sacrifice for a Christian. And if I get put to death, then I am going to have a high rank in heaven.

But the teachers in the church had to write to the people and say, stop doing this. Stop provoking Rome to put you to death. Stop putting yourself into a situation in which you're going to be martyred.

We should want to live for Christ. And so if you can't avoid being killed, that's okay. It doesn't mean that you're a coward. It doesn't mean you're ashamed of the gospel. It means you can go on and share the gospel with more people.

So we saw the apostle Paul do that. We see him do it here in Ephesus. It's time for him to leave. And even when he calls the elders of Ephesus, which is going to happen later on here in chapter 20, he has them come and meet him in Miletus.

So he doesn't go to Ephesus to address the elders again. He knows that would stir people up. And it could be a danger to the Christians there in Ephesus, in the church in Ephesus. And he doesn't want to bring that danger upon them.

So he acts shrewdly. He acts very wisely. Later on, though, we're going to see, as we continue on in this section of the book of Acts, that Paul knows he's going to face great persecution when he comes to Jerusalem.

And though his friends try to talk him out of going, it is yet upon him to endure this thing. This is what the spirit has said that he must endure when he goes there to Jerusalem. And so he's prepared for it and he walks right into it.

At times, it's good for him to get away. He may go on and share the gospel somewhere else. But here the spirit is saying to him, this is what you must face in going to Jerusalem. And indeed he does. So we continue on here in this section.

Paul Encourages Churches in Macedonia and Greece

He continues through Macedonia. Remember that Macedonia was where, like the Thessalonians were, for example, the church in Philippi. This was north of Achaia, north of the Greek peninsula there, even though Thessalonica was a very Greek city.

The Greek influence was more to the south, Corinth, Athens. What was the neighboring city with Corinth? Sincreia. He goes through Macedonia, encouraging the churches there. And then he goes to Greece, which I believe we should understand as being Achaia.

So down there around Corinth and Sincreia and Athens. And there he spent three months, most likely in Corinth. And when a plot was formed against him by the Jews as he was about to set sail for Syria, he decided to return through Macedonia.

So now he's going back up through Macedonia again. Now we know that Paul made several visits to the Corinthians. He talks about this in his letters to the Corinthians, especially in 2 Corinthians. So that time of spending three months there, that may have been one of those visits.

Paul's Companions and the Eyewitnesses to the Gospel

Verse four, he was accompanied by Sopater of Berea, the son of Pyrrhus. So remember that Paul was in Berea. The Bereans were very noble. They searched the scriptures to test what Paul was preaching, seeing that it was truly of God, that it was the gospel that pointed to Jesus Christ, our Savior, who died for us, who rose again from the dead.

And by faith in him, we have eternal life. They came to know that because they examined the scriptures to test what Paul was preaching about Christ. So many of them became Christians. Sopater is one of those guys mentioned.

He is Sopater of Berea, the son of Pyrrhus. Very descriptive as to what Sopater we're talking about. And by Aristarchus and Secundus of the Thessalonians and Gaius of Derbe and Timothy and Tygicus and Trophimus of Asia.

We've got some very particular names that are mentioned here. Luke loves to mention these names because remember from the very beginning of the gospel of Luke and the book of Acts, he is wanting to put together an orderly account of the things that have happened so that you would know the truth of the gospel the people who were connected with the sharing of that gospel and the events that happened in the gospel of Luke.

And he's talking here about the spread of the gospel to the world and the people that were connected with that. So anybody reading this, which was written in the time of the eyewitnesses, anybody could go and talk to these guys.

Sopater, you saw the stuff that Paul did, Gaius, Tygicus, and even as Luke is mentioning these names, when we read about this miracle that is coming up, anybody could have talked to any of these guys and asked about Eutychus who had been raised from the dead.

They could also go to Eutychus and ask him, did you really fall out of that window and die? And the apostle Paul raised you from the dead. And all of this again is to authenticate the message that Paul preached, that it came from God, that it was not his own, but that you would know that whom he proclaimed, Christ is the savior.

And by faith in Jesus who rose from the dead, just as Paul was even granted authority to raise Eutychus from the dead, but Paul doesn't point to himself, he points to Christ. As you know, Christ rose from the dead.

So you also in Christ Jesus will rise from the dead as well. That's where Paul is directing everybody's attention to when he goes and preaches, when he shares the gospel, that you would flee from the judgment that is to come.

And the only way to be saved from the judgment of God is by faith in Jesus. We have a mention of these miracles to authenticate that message. We have a mention of different people that you could go and talk to and affirm.

This is what miracles Paul performed. This is the gospel that he preached so that more people may know Christ. All of this, again, pointing back to Christ. Verse five, but these had gone ahead and were waiting for us at Troas.

And we sailed from Philippi after the days of unleavened bread and came to them at Troas within five days. And there we stayed seven days. So they split for a little bit, but then end up coming back together.

And in Philippi, being another one of those places that they visited, that was where Paul had brought Lydia into faith in Jesus Christ. This is where the church was planted. Silas and Paul were persecuted there at Philippi, put in prison.

They converted the Philippian jailer. There were many that came to faith in Jesus Christ there at Philippi in the work that was done. So they were well-known to the Philippians, good place for them to stop, be able to be rejuvenated, encourage the church.

The Church's Gathering on the First Day of the Week

And then they continued on to meet at Troas. So here we are at Troas. And on the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul began speaking to them, intending to leave the next day.

And he prolonged his message until midnight. So they're there for seven days. And on the first day of the week, which after this is going to be the day that he's going to depart from them. So he's been with them for about a week now up to this point, I guess if we're following the timeline of what Luke is detailing here.

So on the first day of the week, we were gathered together to break bread. Now the Christians at this time, well, they didn't even call themselves Christians. Remember that the word Christian only comes up three times in the New Testament, comes up twice in Acts and once in 1 Peter.

And Christian was a derogatory term. Remember it was first used at Antioch to describe these people who were followers of this Jewish carpenter whose name is Jesus Christ. So we're going to call them Christians because they follow this Christ meaning Messiah.

So the Greeks use that or the Gentiles rather use that as a derogatory term. It wasn't a compliment to call somebody a Christian. But when Peter says, if you're going to be persecuted for being a Christian, that's what he talks about in his letter.

That's what they're going to call you. That doesn't necessarily mean that Peter was using the word to describe people who were followers of Jesus. Today, we use that word to say, I am a Christian. I follow Christ.

I worship Him by faith in Him. I am forgiven my sins and I have everlasting life. It is good to call yourself that. We shouldn't be ashamed to call ourselves Christians. But the reason why I draw this out is because at this time, they were not calling themselves that.

The saints would call themselves the saints. They would call the faith that they believed in the way. Remember, we've seen that several times in the book of Acts. Christianity is called the way in the book of Acts more often than it's called Christianity.

So these are labels that we've become used to in this day. This is not the way they were referring to themselves in the first century, in this time that the gospel is spreading about the Roman empire.

Nor was it said that when they gathered for church, that it was called church. They did not call this church. The church was the people. The people were the church. They were the ecclesia. They were the ones that were called out from the world to be followers of Christ.

So it was the people that was the church. It wasn't the building. And it wasn't a place that you went to. It wasn't a thing that you did. It was the identifying word for the people who were followers of Christ, for Christians, for followers of the way.

They were the church. It was a descriptor of people. We use that word differently today. And again, I'm saying, it's not wrong that we use that word to say, let's go to church. You should go to church.

I think we get into these really ridiculous semantic arguments when we start saying, well, church is not a building, it's people. You know what you're saying when somebody, you know what's being said when someone has to say, let's go to church.

You know what that means. And even when we say kitschy phrases like, don't go to church, be the church. Well, going to church is being the church. The church is inherently a gathering. It is a group of people.

So we must be together in order to truly be the church. But again, at this time, they weren't using that as an expression. It wasn't let's go to church or pointing at a building and saying that's the church.

They didn't have church buildings. They were meeting in people's homes. So how did they describe going to church if they didn't use the expression going to church? Well, we have the description right here in verse seven.

On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, it was the gathering of the church. For what purpose? The breaking of bread, meaning what? The Lord's table. This, by the way, is one of the arguments that I've used for weekly communion, that you would do communion every Sunday and not just once a month or not just once a quarter or in some churches, even it's just once a year.

But I think the biblical argument for the regularity of communion would put it on every Sunday, not on very select Sundays. I've known people that would only do communion, only do the Lord's table at Easter.

And that's just silly. There is no biblical instruction for that. But what the way they justify that is Jesus and his disciples were eating the Passover meal. And so the closest thing for us to Passover would be Easter Sunday.

And so the proper practice of the Lord's table would be that particular Sunday. Well, props to you for trying to be biblical. But again, the pattern that we see in the New Testament, if you're really going to be biblical, is for a weekly observance of the Lord's table.

The Lord's Table, Preaching, and Communion

So this descriptor here in verse 7, this tells us that when the church gathered, they were gathering on the first day of the week. And when they gathered, it was for the breaking of bread. So the Lord's table becomes a central aspect of the worship that they are doing.

And Paul preaches for a long time. And after he preaches, it says in verse 11, he went back up and had broken the bread and eaten and then talked with him a long while. So the preaching comes and then the partaking of the Lord's table comes.

And for us as a church, my church here in Casa Grande, Arizona, Providence Reformed Baptist Church, that's the order that we do it in our services. I preach first and then we do the Lord's table. And we have a biblical justification for that order because we might come here to Acts chapter 20 to say, this is the order in which those things would be done in.

Doesn't mean you have to do it that way. But if we're setting all things out according to what scripture says, then that's the order that we prefer to do it in. So they're gathering together for the purpose of breaking bread.

And Paul is preaching and he preaches all the way until midnight. It's going to be his last day with him. He's going to be leaving the next day. So he decides to go extra long on his sermon. And that's what he does.

Encouraging Christians and Sharing the Gospel

But what happens because he preached so long? Well, that's the part that we will get to tomorrow. But in the meantime, we see again the way that the Lord is working through these men, that the gospel would go out into the world.

And it may be that they had set in their hearts to go in a certain direction, but by the providence of God, he sets them in a different way. They encourage the Christians. They are planting new churches and sharing the gospel with more people.

And the gospel of Christ is going out into the world and bringing many, many more people into the kingdom. And so we need to be doing that today. God has set you in a particular place at a particular time that you would share this message with a particular person and look for who the Lord may set in your path today, that you may either encourage them as Paul was doing with the churches, strengthening the Christians that were there and for building them up in love or sharing the gospel with a group of people that have never even heard it before.

In what way might the Lord use you in this today? Let us be receptive to the spirits prompting, encouraging one another or evangelizing somebody else. Heavenly father, we thank you for what we've read here.

And I pray that we would be attentive to these very things. It doesn't mean that we have to be a big evangelist with a soapbox ministry being out there on the street or even handing out tracks to somebody.

Although if that's the way that somebody wants to do evangelism, that is very good, but it could just be a personal acquaintance that we know that we're sharing the gospel with. And likewise, we don't have to have a church or a pulpit in order to encourage saints.

We can just do that by picking up the phone, sending a text message, getting together for a personal chat. And this could be an encouragement or building somebody up in the body of Christ. Help us to all grow each other into the head who is Christ Jesus, even following the examples that we read here in the New Testament.

Looking forward to that day that we will be with Christ forever in glory.

And it's in his name we pray. Amen. Thank you for listening to When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. If you'd like to support this ministry, visit our website, www .wutt .com and click on the gift tab in the top right corner of the page.

Join us again tomorrow as we continue our Bible study when we understand the text.