Being available for the Church
Published by Stanley Pouw in 2017 · 29 October 2017
The love of the Christian for the lost is certainly one of the responsibilities for the Christian. The other one has been the study in Acts 20 and that is the love for the Church. We are called to love the lost, to be concerned about them, to care for them, and we are to follow the example of love for the Church from Paul as well.
And in Acts 20:1-17, we have been learning about this from the character of the Apostle Paul. What really makes a man an effective minister of Jesus Christ? Some say it is men of great intelligence. Others say he has to have great knowledge or great leadership ability, or great boldness, or great speaking and writing ability. And really all of those things are a part of the life of every effective man of God.
But behind all of these things is the one great under-girding fact that makes men stand out in church history is their love for the Church, based on their love for Jesus Christ. A most interesting study is the biographies of great preachers. And the common denominator is a deep love for the Lord Jesus Christ, which shows itself in a tremendous love for the Church.
In Philippians 1:3-7, the Apostle Paul says, “I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, 4 always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy, 5 for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now, 6 being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ 7 just as it is right for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart.”
As we look at Acts 20:1-17, we have been studying just a simple narrative. But here we see the actions of Paul that show the attitude of Paul. Love isn't something that is just spoken. It is something that has to be demonstrated, right? You can say very little and yet demonstrate love. And you can say a lot and demonstrate none of it.
This is one of the greatest chapters where love is demonstrated. In the first half of Acts 20, Paul loves the church. In the second half, the church loves him back. Now Paul is on his third and final missionary journey. He has stopped at every place where he has had an effective ministry, and he has met with the saints there and said his farewells. And now back in Jerusalem this is the end of his third journey.
And we saw his love demonstrated in several ways. First, in verse 17 we saw it demonstrated in his embrace of them. We saw Paul’s love in terms of his visible, demonstrated affection. And in Acts 20:37 we see how the people fell all over him and kissed him on the neck. And we are reminded how the New Testament says to greet one another with a holy kiss and to demonstrate your affection.
Then we saw that his love was visible by his giving. Paul was gathering a collection of money for the poor saints in Jerusalem. And we looked into that whole thing and saw the passages in Corinthians that are comparative to this. And here we see a man who absolutely was selfless. His total preoccupation was to minister to the needs of others.
1 John 3:16 says, “God demonstrated His love to us when He gave His Son to die on the cross.” We ought to be willing to lay down our lives for the brothers, right? And so Paul demonstrated that kind of love. There was a need, and he wanted to meet it. And he went all over the eastern Mediterranean for a couple of years to collect money for the needy people in Jerusalem.
He also demonstrates his love is his teaching. Verse 2, “Now when he had gone over that region and encouraged them with many words, he came to Greece.” He traveled all over Macedonia teaching. And when he got to Greece, he wrote the book of Romans, doing more teaching. He gave much exhortation, instruction and encouragement.
The key to ministry is to feed and protect. Now this expresses the loving heart of the Apostle Paul who was weary, spent and persecuted. And yet he stops everywhere he goes and teaches and teaches. Why does he do this? Because the consuming desire in his heart was to bring the saints to maturity. And it compelled him.
And then we saw his love in his persistence. Verse 3. "He stayed three months in Greece. And when the Jews laid wait for him as he was about to sail to Syria, he purposely returned through Macedonia." He was going to go to Syria to go to the Passover in Jerusalem, to catch the boat. But he found out about a plot to kill him. But that didn't stop him, it just detoured him.
Paul wrote about love in those terms. Remember in 1 Corinthians 13:7, he said, "Love bears all things, love hopes all things, and love endures all things." For the love of the Church, he could bear anything, and in the middle of it, he would hope and endure. That's the character of persistent love.
And verse 4 tells us some fellows met him there in Troas. These were representatives of the Churches that had taken the offerings, so that when he came to Jerusalem, it would actually be presented to them by representatives of all these Gentile churches. What a beautiful picture of unity for the Jewish Christians, to see the Gentiles in person coming all that way to give them the money that they so desperately needed.
And his love is visible in his availability. To whom you really love, you are available too. Now as we look at verses 7-14, we're going to see a lot of different things and a lot of little insights, but overall, just notice the availability of Paul. Verse 6, “But we sailed away from Philippi after the Days of Unleavened Bread, and in five days joined them at Troas, where we stayed seven days.”
And the reason they were staying seven days was to await the ship that would take them back to Jerusalem. Verse 7, “Now on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul, ready to depart the next day, spoke to them and continued his message until midnight.” Here we have one of the first accounts of a Christian meeting.
So when did they come together? The first day of the week became the meeting time for the church. "Didn't they meet every day?" Sure they did. They met, from Acts 2:46, "Daily, from house to house." And Christianity is not a one day a week thing, right? Those Christians were together usually during the week. So it was common for the Church to meet on a daily basis in its early years.
But the church came together on the first day of the week, I prefer to call it the Lord's Day. In Revelation 1:10 John says, "I was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day." Now when they met together in John 20:19 on the first day of the week, Jesus appeared to them. Verse 26 says, “And after eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst.”
The only way you can allow for worship on Saturday is, one, to ignore the history of the Church; two, to assume that the Old Covenant is still in vogue where you are saved by works only; and three, to reject the teaching of the Apostle Paul. Colossians 2:16-17 says, “So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or Sabbaths, 17 which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.”
And once the real thing appears, you don't need the shadow anymore. The Lord's Day historically and biblically became the time when the Church met together. In fact, in 1 Corinthians 16:2, Paul just assumes it. He says, “On the first day of the week let each one of you lay something aside, storing up as he may prosper.”
Roman 14:5-6, "One man esteems one day above another." Some people still keep the Sabbath, he says. "Another esteems every day the same." Some of you have your liberty. "Let each be fully convinced in his own mind. 6 He who observes the day, observes it to the Lord; and he who does not observe the day, to the Lord he does not observe it. He who eats, eats to the Lord, for he gives God thanks; and he who does not eat, to the Lord he does not eat, and gives God thanks.”
In other words, as long as you are conscientious, don't worry about it. But don't do something that's going to make your brother feel offended. If he is still stumbling along, thinking the Sabbath is important, then don't offend him. And this was written for a Jew. God was very tolerant of when they worshipped, but they did worship on the Lord's Day, and that became the norm.
First, they met in the temple, and then after that they started meeting in synagogues. But eventually, that just didn't work, and so they began to pull out and establish their own Christian assemblies. And the natural place to meet, first of all, was in homes. And by the end of the second century, they began to build their own church buildings.
We need the fellowship, the unity in the body of the church. So they broke bread. Now what does that mean? Well, that is a reference to an old Palestinian custom. The meal was officially begun when the host broke bread, literally. And the breaking of bread came to refer to the Christians coming together, where they did two things. They had a love feast and communion, or the Lord's Table.
When the Catholic Church dominated the world, before the Reformation, communion stopped being an informal, sharing together in the memory of Christ. It became a priestly ceremony that is now known as the mass. Communion is something we should to more frequently than we do. The best place to teach your children communion is in your home. People say, "Only ordained ministers can do that." But that is not in the Bible. Jesus said, do this until I come, and I will do it with you in the kingdom.
Verse 8 says, “There were many lamps in the upper room where they were gathered together.” The pagans used to say that Christians got in their meeting places in the dark and then committed all sorts of abominations. So "there were many lights," in there, just so that nobody in town could criticize them for meeting in the dark. And those lights were oil-burning lamps, which with all their fumes would create a stuffy atmosphere.
Verse 9, “And in a window sat a certain young man named Eutychus, who was sinking into a deep sleep. He was overcome by sleep; and as Paul continued speaking, he fell down from the third story and was taken up dead.” Verse 10, “But Paul went down, fell on him, and embracing him said, “Do not trouble yourselves, for his life is in him.” One liberal commentator said, when Paul put himself around him, he could hear his heart ticking, and then said, "Oh, he's all right." No, doctor Luke stated he was dead. What happened was a resurrection miracle.
Paul wrapped himself around the boy. And then a miracle happened. All of the broken bones and injuries of his body that had caused the death reversed themselves and he came back to life. Why does God do that? Well, God always does miracles to increase faith. Maybe some people were saying, "Who is this guy? Can we believe everything he's telling?” And God’s work always confirms His teachers in the New Testament era!
Verse 12 says, “And they brought the young man in alive, and they were not a little comforted.” I love to see resurrections in the Bible. Because they just add another guarantee that my resurrection is going to happen too. Verse 11, “Now when he had come up, had broken bread and eaten, and talked a long while, even till daybreak, he departed.” That is a long sermon.
Verse 13, “Then we went ahead to the ship and sailed to Assos, there intending to take Paul on board; for so he had given orders, intending himself to go on foot.” Paul walks. Why? It was customary for those people whom he was leaving to accompany him in the beginning. Paul walked so he could have more time with them. He wasn't in a hurry, he was available.
Verse 14-15, “And when he met us at Assos, we took him on board and came to Mitylene. 15 We sailed from there, and the next day came opposite Chios. The following day we arrived at Samos and stayed at Trogyllium. The next day we came to Miletus.” The winds only blew from early morning to late afternoon, and so every thirty miles they stopped, to stay overnight. That's why it tells us about all those little stops.
Verse 16, “For Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus, so that he would not have to spend time in Asia; for he was hurrying to be at Jerusalem, if possible, on the Day of Pentecost.” The Miletus ship was going to get there sooner than the one that stopped at Ephesus. But notice verse 17, “From Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called for the elders of the church.”
Here he stops in Miletus, and he's got a few days before the boat takes off. What does he do? Rest? No. He calls for the elders of Ephesus to come over that he might teach them some more. Instruct them some more. Exhort them some more. The man is unbelievable in his commitment to the love of the Church. And when those elders got there, they gave him back all the love he had given them. They just poured it all over him.
How are we to love the Church sincerely? How are we to demonstrate it? How did Paul do it? Number one, by affection. Secondly, we said Paul loved the Church as illustrated in his giving. And we said Paul loved the Church in terms of his teaching. Then Paul showed his love by his persistence. We said also that Paul's love was seen in his availability. And lastly, Paul's love was seen in his concern. Let us all also follow his example! Let us pray.