Paul's 3rd Missionary Journey — Acts 20

0:00 Good morning, everyone. Good morning. Good morning. Turn in your Bibles with me to Acts chapter 20 and while you're on the your way there, I appreciated what you had to share with us, the musicians and trying a new song. I think it can be kind of difficult, awkward sometimes because you don't know the words.

0:28 But I was reminded recently, I was reading another assembly's statement of faith and they were talking about music and how it's important that we sing a new song to the Lord. Each and every generation has the opportunity to make new music and while it I think is not necessarily the doctrine has not changed. We're going to talk about a little bit about that today. The idea of singing a song in your generation with your peers, I think is just a wonderful thing. So they also mentioned just the appreciation of the old music from prior generations, even from generations that are not represented in this room, but also in some of the new music we're singing.

1:19 So appreciate that. Little update into our lives. Sometimes you think about what happens before you go up to preach. Had the privilege this past weekend, this hasn't happened to me a lot, but Enoch woke up on, I think it was Friday into Saturday, so it wasn't last night. Wasn't feeling too well and I got to spend an extra hour with him.

1:46 And just in terms our understanding who God is, His care for us, it kind of spoke to my heart in the fact that and I don't remember the times, maybe my dad or mom did the same thing with me, but just those times in our life where we may not see it at that time, but the Lord is in control and he's offered comfort to us and he's our father and we can go to him and be comforted by him. So I got up at two two in the morning and got to go and hug him and sit in the rocking chair with him and while the side of me in my flesh that says, I want to go back to bed, all I want to do is finish my hours of sleep, the other side of me that is not from me really enjoyed that time. So you know those of you that are not parents yet, I just encourage you when you do have those times to take those opportunities and those of you that do have kids now take those times and those of you that have kids that are older, you can even really relish those times of you had those same opportunities.

3:15 We thank you that you can teach to us new songs as we sing them together and yet it's still about the same truth that we remembered together this morning of your life, your death, and your resurrection, Lord. We can continue to know you in a greater way as we come together as a body. Pray Lord for the blessing of your word this morning in this chapter of Acts. I just pray Lord that what is spoken would be of your spirit and that anything from myself would be quickly forgotten. Lord, we just commit this time to you in Jesus name.

3:49 Amen. I thought that we could do a little review. Tim, if you could put up, I think it's map 13, just to do a little bit of review. I brought my laser pointer with me here this morning. So as you can see, this is Paul's first and second missionary journey and some I want to both touch on the map itself.

4:18 By the way, if you have this in your bible and if we're going through Acts, it's a really good idea even consecutively later on when the preacher's up here talking, try to reference your map. It's really helpful. But I wanna also touch on some of the the different doctrines that we've been going over. So so Paul gets sent out with Barnabas on his first missionary journey. That's here in the the dotted lines.

5:22 And so what happens is Paul goes on his first missionary journey and he comes back to Antioch and during that time, there this question about the Gentiles. Are they included? Do they have to do circumcision? Do we all have to do circumcision? How are Gentiles and Jews mixed together in the church?

5:44 And so after his first missionary journey, he goes down into Jerusalem. We heard from Ben Davies did a great job, I think, of talking about there are certain times when we just gotta get together and kinda hash it out. Talk about what we believe, what's actually the truth. And they talked about how we have the same faith. Any gentile and Jew believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation and it's faith in Christ alone that saves.

6:13 Nothing extra. There's no work that we have to do. So just a quite a major doctrine there that they had to settle there at the Jerusalem Council. And I think, you know, the different... Get different views on different scholars that talk about when was Galatians written.

6:29 I kind of think that Galatians was written shortly after the Jerusalem Council. And it makes sense to me just reading the different letters of Paul, reading Acts, thinking about who Paul is is that he was already up in Galatia visiting these different cities and he had and he came down and and he had some of the same issues there. Talking about faith in Christ. Is it just faith or do we have to do other works of the law? And and he wanted to update them.

7:00 And he said, look, I wanna share with you all about, you know, some of the things that we talked about at the Jerusalem Council and I'm gonna write a letter to you. And so we have the book of Galatians that talks about being justified by faith in Christ. And so there you have it. And then another, he goes on to his second missionary journey. It's also believed that the letter to Thessalonica is written in between there.

7:30 You can do some little bit more research in there but remember that Thessalonians, the different letters of Thessalonians were written to encourage believers because they were getting persecuted and and many of them were dying and so it was written to encourage them about second coming of Christ and about the resurrection of the believers, about the rapture and and things of that nature. So it was written, Paul wanted to to write to them and encourage them. And then you have his, second missionary journey. You might remember, I believe it was John. He talked about, wrong wrong light.

8:11 He talked about how, the spirit of the Lord, had directed Paul when he was going up through Asia, Bithynia, and he wasn't able to go to the cities of Asia at that time. And so the Lord directed Paul through Troas and then we got to see, he he ended up in Philippi and we heard from my dad and he talked about another, I think, major thing to consider when it comes to salvation and that's man's responsibility. What's our responsibility as humans, as ones that are created by God that need to be redeemed? What's our response? And that's to believe.

8:51 To believe on the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved. We we saw that with the Philippian jailer. And then we come into Berea and he makes his way all the way down to Athens and into Corinth. By the way, if you're reading your bible and it says Greece, it's not mentioned... There's several maps that I found and it's not mentioned here but Greece is down here and even today, that's where Greece is today.

9:19 So we're gonna read today that he came down to Greece. This is right where we're talking about Athens and Corinth. And so Paul got to go to Athens and Corinth and preach and and found churches there. And we're gonna see, today in some of the scripture that we're reading, some more letters that he's writing. So there's just some some highlights of what we've been talking about recently.

10:11 Second is discipleship. The third is another major doctrine mentioned and then we're gonna talk about a dead raising or eudicus being raised from the dead. So let's jump into it and talk in the first section verses one and two. We're going to talk about something dateless and I'm going get into a few more details and then explain what the something dateless is. So Acts chapter 20 and in verse one.

11:27 Oh, it's Tim sitting right there. I just realized that. Great is the goddess Diana of the Ephesians. So for several years, Paul had already been in Ephesus and so he's saying, I'm gonna leave and I'm gonna go up to Macedonia. During this time in Ephesus, it's believed that he wrote...

11:47 Or excuse me, during his time in Macedonia, it's believed that he wrote second Corinthians. And I just thought it was kind of interesting to me to think about Abe talking about idolatry and how what was the what was kind of his end goal at the end of the message talking about that. That all of the things that we have in our life aren't necessarily bad. They're good things to do but we don't want them to be the most important. And he mentioned a verse in second Corinthians five.

12:22 In fact, let's go ahead and turn there So I think reading it will do it a little bit more justice. Second Corinthians chapter five, so this is after Paul has already talked about idolatry in the city and all of what's going on in Ephesus and Abe mentioned this verse in 14 of second Corinthians five, the love of Christ compels us because we judge thus that if one died for all, then all died. And here's the key verse he said, and he died for all that those who live should no longer lives for themselves, but for him who died for them and rose again. And so just the idea that we would live for Christ, that he would be our focus and and that we would love Christ more than the things that we have in this world and and that Christ would ultimately be our focus. Even in the things that that we practice on a daily basis, the things that can be good like I had just mentioned spending time with your kids.

13:59 Did he... We don't have any record there. It just says that he encouraged them with many words. I kinda like to use my imagination here and kinda suppose what he might have said and that is that he probably said a lot of the things that we read in the New Testament. So he, maybe he had just been in Ephesus and he wanted to talk about what happened in Ephesus and he talked and he did the same thing that he did in Ephesus.

14:28 He preached Christ to them and he also could have talked about the Jerusalem Council. So just use your imagination when you come to a verse like that. He encouraged them with many words and he came to Greece. So after writing second Corinthians, again this is a quick passage of time. So it doesn't happen overnight but Paul comes up through Troas.

14:55 He sails over. He gets to spend some more time in Macedonia, in places like Philippi, in Berea, in Thessalonica and he gets to see people that he's already seen and then he writes from there. He writes second Corinthians and then he gets to go and spend time in Corinth. And if you read second Corinthians, he even mentions the fact that he's in Macedonia and it's believed that when he's in Macedonia visiting those different churches, Titus comes back and he comes back with good news about how the church at Corinth had received the letter that he had sent them and they had been putting into practice those things that he instructed them in in Corinthians and so he was encouraged by that and so he decided to send them another letter and then he he got to go and visit Corinth himself. Why do I say all this?

15:54 Why does this fascinate me? All these different details of when things are written. Well every scripture, it has a context to it. But how can we be here today talking about something that happened two thousand years ago without talking about the fact that it's still applicable today as it was back then? A helpful comment that I heard from a guy that's a little bit more famous now, but doing work for the Lord by Wes Huff.

16:28 He said that the bible was not written to you, but it was written for you. So when we read the scriptures, we know that it wasn't necessarily written to us, but it was written for us. And so when we read Acts and when we read all these letters, I've been really finding it fascinating, reading the context of where is Paul when he writes these letters. So when he's in Ephesus for three years and and that whole riot thing happens, he's writing first Corinthians. So think about that when you go and read first Corinthians.

17:04 Think about like maybe some of the perspective that he might have had while he's in Ephesus writing to those people. Think about, the different people that he's visiting when he's in Macedonia, writing to the Corinthians again. But also just the context that the book of Galatians sits in. And and think about that and then apply it to us today. That's the something dateless.

17:31 God's word is dateless. We can read it today in its proper context, in how it was meant to be read. Acts is a historical book and it has historical narrative and so we read it as those events that took place. And then we have other books that we read correctly and interpret correctly that have a context themselves. The letters, they were each written to a different church and so even though they were written back then, we can understand them today, understand those contexts and apply it to our lives.

18:04 Just like to read one verse in second Timothy three sixteen and seventeen. All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. So it's just been encouraging to me as we go through this book of Acts to learn about these different figures, learn about how they lived, when they lived, and learn about how the early church developed and how some of the issues they had to go through together, some of the doctrines that they discussed and how it can apply to us today. And that as second Peter says, he's given us all things that pertain to life and godliness. So even throughout, we we see here Paul's missionary journey, he's writing letters.

19:02 We see God's hand at work. That he would preserve the testimony of those people back then for us today and He would have these letters written down so that we can read them today and continue to apply them to our lives today. Next in in verses three through six, let's talk about discipleship. Verse three, and he stayed there three months and when the Jews plotted against him as he was about to sail to Syria, he decided to return through Macedonia. Now if you look at your map there, he would have been in Corinth and he was there for three months visiting, be encouraged by the believers there and it says that he was gonna sail back to Syria.

20:43 And Sopeter of Berea accompanied him to Asia. Also Aristarchus and Secundus of the Thessalonians and Gaius of Derbe and Timothy, Antichicus and Trophimus of Asia. These men going ahead waited for us at Troas. 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. There you have that marker there when Luke writes the book of Acts, he he uses that pronoun we and us.

21:22 And so Luke was there with him. He got to to be there and and travel with Paul. He wasn't, I think, necessarily in when he was in Macedonia and Corinth and even in Ephesus. So maybe that's why we don't get some of the details of of what went on there. But he was with him later on as he he came to Troas.

22:22 He had a history with them. So so when it talks about the the people that were from Derby, Timothy was from Lystra. So they had a great history together. They got to spend time together and so that was a method of discipleship that Paul liked to do. He had these traveling companions.

22:40 I'm sure, you know, Silas was still with him and so he was discipling them along the way. They were doing life together. They were were sleeping probably next to each other. I can still remember today when I got to spend a night sleeping on the floor with Edgati, a good friend from Mexico in in Cheli's village. We got to sleep on bare mattresses together and there's just something about during that time of mission work, sleeping next to somebody and sharing life with them.

23:10 And the kind of camaraderie that you feel, the encouragement that you experience together as being disciples. Just that mutual encouragement that you can experience in the friendships that you have. And so that's just one example of what Paul used as a method to disciple people is to do life with them, to travel with them. I appreciated when he wrote Romans because when he gets to Corinth, he gets to write the book of Romans. He hadn't actually got to go to Rome yet but he decided to write a letter there.

23:49 And this is what he says in Romans. In Romans one and verse eleven and twelve, it says, I long to see you that I may impart to you some spiritual gift so that you may be established. That is they... I may be encouraged together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me. So Paul wanted to go to Rome.

24:14 He wanted to be there with the Romans. He wanted to talk to them face to face. He wanted to preach to them publicly but he didn't get to do that yet. But he wanted to. He wanted to be there with them and and and disciple them and he wanted to receive the discipleship with them as well to him and talk about the things that Christ has done, talk about the different things happening in his life.

24:40 But here's another way in which Paul did discipleship. He did some letter writing. So he wrote letters of exhortation. We can do that today. Maybe you have the opportunity to write a text to somebody encouraging them.

24:57 Hey, I enjoyed seeing you. This is what I got out of the message. I I hope to see you again soon, maybe on Wednesday. Things of that nature. Paul definitely did that.

25:09 He also just so powerful in expounding the word of God to people. And so that was just another another way that Paul wanted to do discipleship with people. Another way was a home bible study. So I I I get the sense in Acts chapter 20 when we read about Uticus is they were in a home. It was kind of a low key atmosphere and he was just teaching the word of god to them and it was towards the end of the day.

25:37 It was all the way in the midnight but he just decided to take this opportunity. You know, they maybe just sat around in in a circle of chairs and he just preached the word of God to them and he talked to them about what Christ had done for them. And then the last thing I'll mention is kind of a conference or what I call a teaching team meeting. So we have these often every month and we get to pray with the different believers. But in the second half of Acts chapter 20, Paul gets together and he calls the Ephesians elders down to him and he wants to speak to them.

26:22 And so there there's like a group of people there from Ephesus, a place that he had spent a lot of time at and he he calls him down to Miletus and he wants to talk to them and have just this huge conference with him and talk to them one on one. It's a time when the leaders can get together and and say some important things and and and he wanted to speak into their lives and and give him some important details. And so all those things, each and every one of those styles of discipleship in our lives as we live life together with one another, as we see each other in our daily lives throughout the week and even as we come on Sundays. They're so important when we come together. And I say this with also with a disclaimer.

27:09 When we're together, something that encourages me is the fact that we linger. In between the meetings, we talk with one another after meetings. And I hope that when we linger and maybe when we go home after that, we could say to ourselves, wow, that was really nice. I felt like I spent some time with the Lord while I was with my brethren. Not even just during the baking of bread, but also even as we're in our conversations with one another.

27:38 When we disciple each other, when we talk to each other about what's going on in our lives. It's just a great opportunity that when we spend time with one another and our brothers in Christ, Christ is there with us and we can experience the companionship and the mutual encouragement of being together with like minded believers. It's like marriage. When you get married, you wanna spend time with that person. You wanna do experiences with that person.

28:14 You wanna probably have kids with that person. You wanna do the everyday tasks with them. It's not just about those everyday little tasks but it's about those moments together where you're talking and experiencing life together. And so discipleship, I think, is the is the same way. That when you experience life with someone, you get to talk to them and they get to talk with you and you have these different experiences about what Christ is doing in your life.

28:47 Reminded me of an earlier verse in Acts. Acts four thirteen. These are outside people, people that are not believers and they said this, now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled and they realized they had been with Jesus. So I hope that's an encouragement as we have our our friendships and our daily life that we have those interactions and we could say that, wow, I went and I talked to that person and they're my friend and it's like they were with Jesus too. And we were with Jesus together as we had that fellowship and that time of discipleship together.

30:15 All the different gospels, they record. It says the first day of the week on resurrection Sunday. They came together and they came together to break bread. What is, what's the breaking of bread? It's a spirit led meeting where we worship the Lord through symbolism in the bread and the cup as a unified body of believers.

30:40 I honestly think that the breaking of bread, the reason that we put such importance on it also is that it's one of the most unifying things that we can do together as Christians. To break bread and remember Christ together. Remember his death, his burial, and his resurrection and what he has done for us. It's it's a great unifying aspect because like, I don't know if you've had that experience in your life, but if you're not getting along with someone, it's really hard to break bread with them. In fact, there's other passages where it talks about, hey, if if you've got a problem with someone, before you go to break bread, before you go to a meeting together, get with them and work it out and try to be unified because the Lord desires that unity as we come together to worship him.

31:33 It's inevitable as we remember the Lord in the bread and in the cup that we would worship him. And it's a spirit led meeting. The bible doesn't say that they met every week but I think it is a good practice that we can meet every week. As brother Todd was just saying, we're forgetful people and I think it's just a great thing to do every week is to remember the Lord Jesus. One of the earliest letters in first Corinthians has just a great layout of the breaking of bread.

32:10 The order in which is done and which our brother shared this morning. And just the importance of to do it. Have your meals with your family at home but when you come together, we're gonna break bread and it's got some symbolism to it. It's got, this meeting matters and it's a meeting that we come together to remember the Lord with reverence, to be directed by Him. And so I just think it's such an important thing that we can come together to do.

32:45 It's a worship meeting. It's a it's a it's a way to disciple each other on how to worship the Lord together. To talk about who Christ is. How do you describe worship? Some people use the word worth ship.

33:00 So oftentimes in the breaking of bread, we're just so impressed by who the Lord is that we're gonna talk to each other and describe about who the Lord Jesus is and what he's worth to us. And we're gonna sing songs to him about that. And just as we had been talking this morning about how when we come to get break bread, we're in the presence of God and he's in our presence. And there's just so something so intimate and great about being able to come together as a body to do that. Just like to read again Luke 2four 35.

33:42 These are the guys on the road to Emmaus and this is what they said. And they told about the things that had happened on the road and how he was known to them in the breaking of bread. Just a great time that we can remember the Lord. It's a really, it's the best breaking of bread every Sunday as Roger was just putting. It's the best time.

34:04 Like there's nothing better than to come even if I've come not with the best attitude. I think that the Lord uses that meeting to really focus us on himself and focus on what truly matters and that's Jesus Christ and and to talk about him and to talk about what he has done for us. Finally, a dead raising. We have one large section here. Verse eight, or verse second half of verse seven.

34:33 Paul ready to depart the next day spoke to them and continued his message until midnight. There were many lamps in the upper room where they were gathering together and in the 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. But Paul went down, fell on him and embracing him said, do not trouble yourselves for his life is in him. Now when he had come up, broken bread and eaten, and had and talked a long while, even till daybreak, departed.

35:17 And they brought the young men in alive and they were not a little comforted. That means all of them were really comforted. When they went ahead to the ship and sailed to Assos where there in intending to take Paul on board for so he had given orders intending himself to go on foot and what he had met at Assos, we took him on board and came to Miledon. We sailed from there and next day came opposite Chios. The following day we arrived at Samos and stayed at Trogilium.

35:52 The next day we came to Miletus. 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. What do we learn from this little passage here with Eutychus? For me, it reminded me of how important the resurrection is.

36:24 This man would not have been raised from the dead if it weren't for Christ raising him from the dead through Paul. If Christ hadn't risen from the dead, then Eutychus wouldn't have been risen from the dead. And Eutychus ended up dying but we have the tremendous privilege of having a risen savior. And one of the things that I think encourages me about the resurrection. Okay, so you have all the apologetics.

36:56 You have all these witnesses. But for me personally, the thing I've been thinking about recently is that if Christ has risen from the dead, it means that he's still alive. And I'm not just following another creed, another teaching. The teaching of Christ and and the teachings of Christ and being a disciple of Christ sets itself apart from any other religion in the world because Christ is risen from the dead. Because today he's alive and I can commune with him.

37:31 I can... He can talk to me and I can pray in the spirit to God the father through Jesus Christ and have communion with the creator through Jesus Christ. And and to me it's just so comforting because sometimes I can get in the habits of doing the Christian things, reading my bible, going to church, but the fact that Christ rose from the dead means he's still alive and that I can still speak to him and then he can still speak to me. And then I can still read his word and it can still be afresh to my heart and I can learn something new and just have a closer walk with him and just be reminded of that. Matthew twenty eight nineteen and twenty.

38:21 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son, and of the holy spirit. This is Christ after he rose again and he says this to his disciples. Teaching them to observe all the things that I have commanded you and lo, I am with you always even to the end of the age. I challenge you to talk to anyone and talk to them about the resurrection because no one to this day can disprove it. There's a guy by the name of Lee Strobel, really encouraged reading his books.

39:00 The case for Christ, he tried to disprove the resurrection and by trying to disprove it, he found out that it was true. And then he actually met Christ. And he experienced this fact that Christ is with us. He's not just there with the original apostles but he's with us today. We can experience the same thing today.

39:25 So I hope that encourages you this morning. We just pray that the Lord would apply that to our hearts. Dear Lord, we just thank you for this time that we have in the scriptures. Thank you that it's true. We thank you that the resurrection is true, that it happened.

39:42 We have these great accounts of those that were there to see it and he's alive today. He's speaking to us and through your servants, especially through your word, Lord. We just pray, Lord, that you'd help us to be more close disciples to you. We pray that you would help us in our reverence and in our zeal as we come together in those moments as a body to be a disciple together, Lord. We just pray that you'd help us to be more devoted to you.

40:13 We just commit this time to you in Jesus name, amen.