Through The Bible - Acts 20 - Part 1

Brett Meador: Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, I suffered shipwreck, in the cold Mediterranean Sea. Pastor Brett Meador remarks how Paul recognized his afflictions were truly working a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. Paul was at a maturity level knowing that when he suffers, God is glorified, that all of these things are going to work toward the furthering of the kingdom, the sharing of the gospel, more and more people being saved, and so he had an eternal perspective.
Kurt: Acts chapter 20 in today’s Word tracks Paul completing his third missionary journey, encouraging believers and instructing the elders on things concerning the church. As we follow along, Pastor Brett Meador highlights Paul’s example of faithfulness amid trials, his impact on those he encountered, and his fervent desire for the church to remain grounded in God’s Word.
Brett Meador: Acts 20. Great chapter we have in front of us here, especially if you’re one who’s in the ministry. How many of you are in the ministry? Raise your hand. If you’re a Christian and you believe in Jesus, you’re all in the ministry. Congratulations, I might add. We’re all here to understand that we’re in the ministry. But it’s true that Paul was a minister’s minister. He’s going to minister to the elders at the church at Ephesus here in Acts chapter 20 and it’s going to be profound and powerful and let’s just pick it up. Acts chapter 20. We see kind of a bit of a farewell. This is Paul’s missionary journeys we’ve been studying and this is the third one. And this is largely a farewell journey. In fact, I want to show you how this is broken up a little bit here in Acts chapter 20. We start off with verses 1 through 5 is really a farewell journey, and you’re going to sense that in chapter 20 where he’s kind of signing off, saying goodbye to all these people he’s poured into. He’s poured time, energy, effort into them and there’s kind of this sad farewell journey. So that’s verses 1 through 5. Let’s take a look in verse 1. And after the uproar was ceased, Paul called unto him the disciples and embraced them and departed for to go into Macedonia. Now, verse 1, many scholars argue this was an unfortunate chapter break. They should have put the chapter break so that chapter 19 would end with verse 1 of chapter 20. The reason is because that really connects the end of the big riot in Ephesus. Remember Demetrius the silversmith called for a big riot because nobody was buying their gods and goddesses anymore and so they were mad at Paul the apostle. And so there was a huge riot. But Paul now is getting out of dodge, so it was, there in Ephesus because they were wanting to kill him. So he departs there and goes into Macedonia. Verse 2. And when he had gone over those parts and had given them much exhortation, he came into Greece. So basically this is kind of the beginning of his travels, his journeys. And this is the last part of his third missionary journey that we’re about to see unfold here. He says much exhortation there. Interesting the word exhortation, if you mark that in your Bible, it’s the word logos. Logos is full of meaning. He’s speaking the truth of God. The word exhortation, I think a couple of newer translations say something like encouragement? He encouraged them. Yes, but the word is logos and if you’re really wanting to be a Bible student, it would do you well to study the word logos and all of its various meanings in the Greek text here. Logos is an important word and it’s more than just speaking or even encouragement or even exhorting. It’s all of those things but it’s a lot more. But it’s really centered upon the Word of God is what Paul was sharing with them to encourage them, to exhort them, to instruct them. We’ll see more of that. Then in verse 3 it says, and there abode three months and when the Jews laid wait for him, as he was about to sail into Syria, he purposed to return through Macedonia. So somewhere along the lines the Jews were laying in wait for him. They were hiding saying, "Oh, Paul’s going to get on this ship so let’s try to get him." The Jews were after him and Paul has to sort of sneak around. He’s a little bit of an outlaw you might say in the story now because the Jews are so furious with him they want to see him dead. And so this is where Paul has to kind of be a little more stealthy and a little more careful. Paul has been run out of town how many times now? By the way, D.L. Moody was given to evangelism, great, amazing American evangelist, lived from 1837 to 1899. But during his first trip to England, he got so seasick. He was pea-green his face and he was throwing up over the rails all the way over the Atlantic into England. And he preached in England when he got on land and said, "I will never be here again. I love you all but I will never, never come back. Don’t expect me to come to this country ever again," he said in his sermons. Although what’s kind of cool about that, Moody visited England five more times after that which is kind of interesting. He was driven to share the gospel of Jesus and Paul the apostle was driven to share the gospel as well: preaching, teaching, exhorting, giving them the logos, which is kind of the word there. In 2 Corinthians, this is by the way written before Acts chapter 20, Luke was later in writing Acts. But when Paul wrote the Corinthians, this is actually before that but let me read to you what Paul says about his journeys and he gives us a little more detail that Luke doesn’t give us in Acts. It’s 2 Corinthians 11:23 where he says, "Are they ministers of Christ?" He’s talking about people that mock him and are against him. "I speak as a fool, I am more. This is foolish for me to have to brag, but I’m more of a minister than they are. I am more; in labors more abundant, in stripes or whippings above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft." What does that mean, he was in deaths oft? Well, we believe he was left for dead and maybe even died outside of the city of Lystra if you recall and God revived him and he went back in. How many preachers of that day can say, "I died and was whipped and all this stuff?" Verse 24. "Of the Jews five times received I 40 stripes save one." Remember the Jews had to hold them to 39 stripes. So this wasn’t even counting the whipping that he got in Philippi because they were not Jews, they were Romans who whipped him there. So he was whipped five times thrice. Verse 25, "was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, in the night and the day I’ve been in the deep." He floated in the ocean for a day and a night in the cold Mediterranean Sea. Verse 26. "In journeyings often, in perils of water, in perils of robbers." He’d been robbed in his journeys. "In perils by mine own countrymen, the Jews, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren," people that claim to be believers but were not. Verse 27, "in weariness, in painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, care of all the churches. Who is weak, am I not weak? Who is offended, and I burn not? If I must needs glory, I will glory in the things which concern mine infirmities." It says, "The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is blessed for evermore, knoweth that I lie not." Paul’s saying God knows I’m not lying about all these sufferings that I’ve been through: shipwrecked and beaten and all these hardships. Remember Paul said in Romans 5 verses 3 through 4, he said, "And not only so, but we glory in tribulations: for tribulation builds, worketh patience; and patience experience; and experience hope." That’s what Paul said. Who of us rejoice in our tribulation? Paul was at a maturity level knowing that when he suffers, God is glorified, and he’s glad about that. I rejoice in those things. And he knows that all of these things are going to work toward the furthering of the kingdom, the sharing of the gospel, more and more people being saved, and Paul knew that heaven was coming, so he had an eternal perspective. So this is kind of important to see what Paul’s doing here. But I wanted you to kind of get a sense of that because all this happened probably before what we’re reading in this story. So we’re picking up where Paul’s been through all that stuff already. And now as he’s kind of getting older, his last missionary journey, he’s still going strong and you’ve got to love that. So we pick it up there again in Acts 20 back to verse 4. He said he returned through Macedonia and there accompanied him into Asia Sopater of Berea, and of the Thessalonians, Aristarchus and Secundus, and Gaius and of Derbe, and Timotheus, and of Asia, Tychicus and Trophimus. These going before tarried for us at Troas. Now this seems like just business. Why is Paul talking about who’s traveling with him and all that? But there’s a lot if you want you can study who these guys are and their mentions in the Bible. There’s some interesting things about these guys that are noteworthy. Here we see, you have to understand, Paul’s been traveling for months and months and months. It’s funny because the book of Acts, one thing you’ll hear people that criticize the Bible is they say the book of Acts doesn’t include all the journeys of Paul and all the towns where he visited. The book of Acts never claims to be exhaustive in all of Paul’s journeys. We know from the book of Romans we’re going to learn of other towns that he visited as well. Luke’s just giving a high-level view of where Paul generally went. There was a lot more that Paul did. But here we realize, wow, he’s traveling for months covering a lot of ground. There isn’t much detail about every place that he traveled but he is traveling a lot. But then you realize why is he traveling with this group of guys? One of the things we know is Paul was carrying money for the church in Jerusalem. See, the church in Jerusalem was under great persecution during Paul’s missionary journeys because the Jews were persecuting the new Christian faith in Jerusalem. So they were the suffering saints in Jerusalem. So when Paul would go around, the people from Ephesus and Philippi who were loaded rich people, they would give Paul money and say give this to the church. So why does Paul travel with this larger posse here toward the end with all these guys with tricky to pronounce names? There’s theories. One, remember when I read to you in 2 Corinthians that Paul had robberies, that people robbed him? Well, here he is carrying all this money for the church in Jerusalem. Some say that he brought that posse for protection from robbers. And that’s a legitimate theory. The others would say no, this was from the various churches even as these guys are named: Sopater was from Berea and Aristarchus was from Thessalonica and Tychicus and Trophimus from Asia Minor. These people were from the churches in Asia Minor and they’re going with Paul. So some people believe they were ambassadors going with Paul to say we love the church in Jerusalem. We’re there for you and here’s some money. It’s not just that Paul was going to give the money, these guys wanted to sort of represent. If you go a little deeper, who are these guys? Well, there’s just like for example some fun things about the names. Aristarchus and Secundus here on our list both came from Thessalonica. Aristarchus is an interesting name. His name was connected with a word that you’ll recognize, aristocrat or aristocracy. It was a ruling class and that’s where that word came from. And the fact that he’s named Aristarchus, it’s likely that he came from a wealthy, powerful family and thus he was given a name given to him of Aristarchus. Secundus is the opposite and it means second. And it was a common name for—anybody want to take a guess at this one? Secundus. Does anybody know what they called their slaves? They called them numbers. Does anybody know what they called the slave that was in charge of the slaves? Primus. And then the second slave would be Secundus which is kind of interesting. So I think this is an interesting thing. You’ve got traveling with Paul, Mr. Aristocracy and Mr. Slave. That’s what scholars believe is going on here. Slaves were often not called by their true names but by ranking. First ranking slave would be Primus, second ranking slave would be Secundus. So most scholars believe he was a slave. What I love about this is it’s kind of nice to think of Christians from both high and low stations in life serving the Lord together. I think that Christianity is the great equalizer. It needs to be. Whether you’re wealthy or poor, the church should come together. We should love on and care for the poor, but we should also be willing to leave our aristocracy if you would and serve the kingdom and become servants ourselves. Christianity is the great equalizer in that way. So just to kind of get us up to speed on this third missionary journey. If you recall it started there in Jerusalem and then went up to Antioch. And he really kind of starts this third missionary journey from Antioch and then he does some of the typical travels and we’ve gone through all of this thus far in our study. And now Paul leaves Ephesus with this group that we’re reading about and he’s going to travel through up to Macedonia and then down to Greece, visiting each of those places again. You know this is where he travels to Troas, Neapolis, Philippi, Amphipolis, Apollonia, Thessalonica, Berea, Athens, Corinth. He covers a lot of ground in this little loop. Now on his way back he goes to Berea, Thessalonica, Apollonia, Amphipolis, Philippi, Troas. When he gets to Troas, that’s where we pick it up in the story here. Paul with a group of guys leaving from various churches, they go with Paul on this journey. Now in just a few minutes we’ll see where he travels down below Ephesus to Miletus, we’ll get that in a second. But basically you see he’s already coming back of his third missionary journey if you’re with us where he knows where he’s going. So we have number one, a farewell journey. That’s how we kind of started, verses 1 through 5. And that brings us to Troas, end of verse 5. But now we have a farewell dinner in verses 6 through 12. It says there in verse 6, and we sailed away from Philippi after the days of unleavened bread and came unto them to Troas in five days where we abode seven days. And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them ready to depart on the morrow and continued his speech until midnight. And there were many lights in the upper chamber where they were gathered together. So we have a farewell journey and then a farewell dinner, number two. What’s this dinner? Well, Paul’s teaching after dinner and he goes till midnight. But Paul why is he teaching so long? Probably because it’s the last time he’s going to see these guys and they’re more than willing to hang out with Paul and hear his last sermons and teachings. So trick question. Does anybody know what day of the week they’re meeting? You Bible students would say, "Well, it’s Sunday because it’s the first day of the week." Well, do you remember, this is a little tricky because when do the days start? At sundown. So this probably is Saturday evening but it’s going to go into Sunday morning when it turns midnight. This is kind of interesting. I want you to note that they’re doing it on the first day of the week which is also called the Lord’s Day. So we have the Lord’s Day here but we also have the Lord’s Supper. Did you see that in verse 7? It says when the disciples came together to break bread. Possibly to eat a meal for sure but most likely for sure to take communion together, the Lord’s table. Jesus said do this often in remembrance of me. So you’ve got the Lord’s Day, you’ve got the Lord’s Supper and by the way, remember this is what they did in the early church. In Acts 2:42 they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine, that’s teaching; fellowship one with another, koinonia; the breaking of bread and in prayers. That’s what the church did steadfastly. And we’re seeing that sort of here before we even think about Acts 2:42. But the church in large can continue in so many other things in these four things that are listed and actually get off course. If the greater church gets too into things that are not really part of the basic four and they miss the basic four—the apostles’ doctrine, teaching; koinonia or fellowship; breaking of bread and prayers—those are the big four. A church needs to make sure those are a part of their church life. So you have the Lord’s Day, you have the Lord’s Supper but notice we also have the Lord’s people there in verse 7. And upon the first day of the week, he broke bread and preached unto them, the people, ready to depart on the morrow and he continued all through that night. Now it says there in verse 8, in the room there that they were in, the upper chamber upstairs, they were gathered together. It’s kind of interesting because it mentions the lighting situation. Does God care about lighting? A lot of people say churches are so into their lighting and stuff and you do have a biblical case for lighting right here. It says verse 8, "And there were many lights in the upper chamber where they were gathered together." So why did they say that it was so many lamps in there? Maybe just to tell us the mood but probably to tell us why the next verse happened. Have you ever been into a really well-lit room with candles? All the lights off but lots of candles. It sucks the oxygen out of the room. That’s the problem. I wonder if that’s part of why this happens. Maybe this is why that’s explained here in verse 8 because verse 9 says, and there sat in a window a certain young man named Eutychus, being fallen into a deep sleep. His name by the way means fortunate of all things. Being fallen into a deep sleep and as Paul was long preaching, he sunk down with a sleep and fell down from the third loft and was taken up dead. That’s a tough sermon right there. I mean I’ve never killed anybody in a sermon but Paul here he goes. Spurgeon actually when he was preaching, there was this one of his elderly saints in the sanctuary there and she was sitting in the sanctuary and just her face beaming with a smile and she was just watching. But he was preaching and he was always so appreciative of this older woman’s glow and her face smiling just listening to him preach. But he preached and then he dismissed the congregation and she just sat there smiling and they realized during his sermon she passed and she just sat there with a smile on her face as she passed. That’s got to be a good way to go if you ask me, in church just enjoying the Lord. That’s a true story. Well, this didn’t happen so nicely. The guy’s snoring in the window and falls down three levels to hit the ground and he dies. It says in verse 10 and Paul went down to the ground level and fell on him and embracing him said, "Trouble not yourselves for his life is in him." Now some people say, "Well, he wasn’t completely dead, he just got the wind knocked out of him or something like that." No, the Bible says he was dead and then Paul comes and talks kind of like Jesus. Remember Jesus would say, "Lazarus is sleeping." Well, he was dead and Jesus would raise him from the dead. And there’s something that happens in the Bible in the raising of the dead that is kind of interesting and it might be kind of a weird thing if you think about it. Have you noticed how many times in the Bible when somebody dies, the person that God uses to bring them back to life, they do this weird contact kind of thing? Do you guys know what I’m talking about? Remember Elijah in 1 Kings 17:21, he sort of lays on the body of the dead person. Elisha, remember the Shunammite woman’s son there in 2 Kings 4:34. Elijah did it in 1 Kings 17:21 but the Shunammite woman’s story is in 2 Kings 4:34. And Elisha lays on the son, mouth to mouth, hand to hand, foot to foot, like it’s a weird—you kind of go, what’s with that whole thing? Even Jesus does this kind of thing in Mark 5:39 and Luke 8:52. What’s with the point of contact? Why is that in the Bible? Especially those of us that are not real touchy-feely kind of people. We’re like, "Be healed from a distance." Because Jesus could have done that too, right? What’s this thing about the dead person sort of being such a contact, like here’s Paul just falling on this guy and hugging his body? But it is kind of a biblical thing. The people that are dead are I believe, I believe there’s a picture here for us, something for us to learn. And it’s a picture of those who are dead in sin, dead within their life spiritually and they need to be born again. Remember Jesus said you are born in death and he told Nicodemus, "You must be born again." We’re born in death. But the idea is there was an embracing, not a shying away of the dead body. There was this embracing of the dead body. By the way, Jews were very terrified of embracing a dead body. That was not a Jewish thing. You touch a dead body you’re suddenly unclean and Jews were horrified of that. And yet here it is: Elijah, Elisha, Jesus and now Paul doing kind of the same thing, touching the dead body. And I believe that’s kind of what you and I need to be willing to do. Some of you might be a little cynophobe which you say, "I don’t want to touch any dead thing." But the Word’s saying I want you to reach out and touch those that are lost in sin and get your hands dirty and touch those that you might say are spiritually unclean like they would do. Don’t be distant from those that are spiritually dead. There’s a time to reach out and embrace them and show them the love of Christ. I think sometimes the church lacks that kind of love where there’s people that are dead in sins and we’re not willing to reach out and touch them and love on them.
Kurt: Pastor Brett Meador observing how Paul again receiving the gift of faith from God, sensed that God would raise a follower from the dead and remarkably, God did. And we hope you can be along for the continuation of this verse-by-verse study of Acts chapter 20 from Today’s Word next time. And I invite you to stay right there as Pastor Brett will join me to share some comforting words from our Savior. But first, our teacher Brett Meador is the senior pastor of Athey Creek Church just outside of Portland, Oregon. Each day, Pastor Brett will bring you an in-depth study of God’s Word. If you missed any portion of our time today, you’ll find all of his messages online at todayswordradio.com. That’s todayswordradio.com. All right, Pastor Brett has joined me. You know, for a person listening right now who’s going through a difficult time in life, be it a health issue, financial, or even a hard time with someone close to them, I know Jesus gave some encouraging words to us in scripture. Brett, can you share some of those with us?
Brett Meador: I would love to, Kurt. Jesus said so many things. I think some of my favorites personally are John 14:1, "Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in me." I think that Jesus mentioned that to the disciples in a very dark and troubled time for them. And so if you’re going through those times, you can hear the word of Jesus there. Don’t let your heart be troubled, believe in Jesus that he’s there, that he’s going to take care of things. And also Matthew chapter 11 there’s that great reminder, Jesus, I think these words are greatly comforting, "Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." I love that Jesus doesn’t say, "Figure it out first. Good luck." But he invites us, "Come unto me." There’s so much that I find there to just be real. You just go to Christ and he’ll bear that burden, whatever it is that you’re trying to bear. I love that the Lord never leaves us or forsakes us. That Jesus is with you. Your trial is real, your difficulties are real, but Jesus is even more real and powerful than we could ever imagine. And I think those words that Jesus is able to speak to us, he calms the storm. I love during the storm when Jesus said the disciples were toiling and thinking they were going to drown, but Jesus said, "Be of good cheer, it is I, be not afraid." And I think those are the words that I would think of if I’m in troubled times.
Kurt: Oh, that is very encouraging. Thank you, Pastor Brett. And if you’d like more information about Today’s Word Radio or Pastor Brett Meador, just go to todayswordradio.com. That’s todayswordradio.com. Well, that’s all the time we have. Next time, Pastor Brett will expand on what caused the Apostle Paul to move on from Ephesus and set sail for Macedonia. Today’s Word with Pastor Brett Meador is an outreach of Athey Creek Church in West Linn, Oregon.