Acts 20:1-12 (Week 34 - Life in the Spirit)

And today we're going to be in Acts chapter 20, so be turning there. Acts chapter 20, we'll be starting in verse one. We're only going to go through verse 12 today. I'll go ahead and tell you, I had planned on doing all of the chapter. I think there's 34 or 38 verses in there, and we were going to try to cover all of them, but as I began to make my way into studying deeper and deeper. I just couldn't get away from the sense that the spirit was leading me to kind of break it up into two different sections, and I think that you'll see why as we go on. As many of you know, and you've been here, as we've been going verse by verse through the book of Acts, we've been calling this life in the spirit, because we see Jesus meet with the disciples before his ascension back to heaven, after the resurrection, and he tells them to wait, to wait on the Holy Spirit to be sent. Then they would be emboldened and empowered by the Spirit, and then they would be his witnesses, not before, but after the Spirit came. And that's what we've been reading about throughout the book of Acts is how the spirit came, what life in the spirit now looks like, as they depended upon him to share the gospel in Jerusalem and Judea, Samaria, and all the way to the ends of the earth. And here lately in the book of Acts, we've been reading about how the Holy Spirit has been doing that in and through the Apostle Paul, he's on his third missionary journey, and he's been traveling to various churches, sharing the gospel and discipling the believers that were there. And if you were here last week, you know that Luke told us that Paul was in Ephesus, he's that church, the church in Ephesus, he wrote a letter to, called Ephesians in the New Testament of our Bibles, and during his time in Ephesus, Luke tells us about a guy whose name was Demetrius, who was upset at Paul and those who were sharing the gospel of Jesus, because it was causing all of the new Christians to turn their attention away from the idols that he was making and selling, and they were losing business, and as he began to complain, people became, you know, riled up, and there was a whole uproar, and there was a riot that took place, and it was just nasty. It was so nasty that the apostles, the disciples there, excuse me, would not let Paul address the mob, because they knew that he most likely would be killed if he faced the crowd during that time, and so this is a pretty traumatic event. It was a pretty traumatic time of persecution for Paul and those who were on his team. And now Luke, as we get into chapter 20, is picking up after that's happened and sharing with us more about what happened on the other side of that event. Here's the way Luke starts off. He says, when the uproar had ended, Paul sent for the disciples, and after encouraging them, he said goodbye and set out for Macedonia. He traveled through that area, speaking many words of encouragement to the people, and finally arrived in Greece, where he stayed for three months, and so basically, in general, we see that Luke is kind of updating us on where they were traveling on this missionary journey that that he left Ephesus, he went to Macedonia, and then he ended up in Greece at this point and stayed there about three months. Now, what Paul, excuse me, what Luke doesn't show us here is how long the apostle Paul stayed in Macedonia. When we read this, he tells us that he's there for three months, and he just kind of set out for Macedonia, and doesn't say much.

But what most commentators believe, because of several other things that were written, is that Paul was there for at least a year, maybe up to two years, and what we know is that during that one to two year time that Paul was in the area of Macedonia, that is when he wrote Second Corinthians, and that is also when he wrote Romans, two very significant letters that we have in the New Testament of our Bibles, and what is important about that is that Paul was in Macedonia during this time, writing the letter to the Corinthians, and since we have that letter, we have insight as to what Paul was feeling and thinking and experiencing about the events that we read about last week. So Luke tells us about the riot, but he doesn't say anything about what Paul was experiencing and how he was feeling, how it was impacting him in that moment, but when you go to Second Corinthians, which he was writing at this time, he tells us. Let me show you what I mean. In Second Corinthians, chapter one, verse eight and nine, he says, We think you ought to know, dear brothers and sisters, about the trouble we went through in the province of Asia. We were crushed and overwhelmed beyond our ability to endure, and we thought we would never live through it. In fact, we expected to die. I mean, look at this language that Paul uses to describe this riot and the things that were going on during this time. He says there was, there was trouble that we were. We're going through, he says, we were crushed. I mean, I was absolutely crushed by the things that we were experiencing. I was so overwhelmed, I didn't know if we would be able to endure. As a matter of fact, we didn't think we would live through it, and we completely expected to die. I mean, this was a traumatic experience that Paul and his team and the people were going through in this moment, and we wouldn't have really known how it was impacting him if we didn't have the letter that he wrote to describe how he was feeling. Now, why is this significant? Why am I bringing this up to make sure that we knew how it was impacting him. Well, let's go back to what the Apostle Paul tells us, and we just kind of skimmed through and read quickly. Luke says that when the uproar ended, okay, so when it ended, he's still in Ephesus. The uproar ended when he was feeling crushed, when he was feeling they were in trouble, like, so much so that they were going to die, and overwhelmed, we're told that Paul spent time encouraging the church. Does anyone else find that fascinating? I mean, when I'm reading that, and I'm going, okay, now that I know how Paul was really being impacted by this, if there's anyone that needed to be encouraged in this time, it was him. What is he doing, and how in the world is he the one that's actually encouraging them immediately in this moment? If that's what he was feeling, Luke even goes on and tells us that here he was encouraging the Macedonians, and we go, okay, we just found out that he spent probably one to maybe two years in this particular area, and we're told that he was speaking during those one to two years. What was his primary purpose? What was he doing with them? Speaking words of encouragement, he uses this word, this Greek word is para kaleo, and he uses it twice here, and we're going to see a little bit later at the end of verse 12, he uses it again, which is why it caused me to kind of stop in my tracks and go, it looks like he's really starting and book ending with this whole parakaleo thing, this encouragement thing, and we can't go past that, because the spirit has something to say to us today about that. This is a compound word in Greek.

The word para just means to the side or to come alongside, and then Kaleo means to call or to call out, and so when you put them together, it means to come alongside of someone, to call something out in them, or to them, to call out encouragement, to call out strength in them, to console them, to comfort them, to exhort, to urge, to inspire, to instruct all of these different things, and so whenever Luke says after the riot, this is what he was doing: he was comforting, he was consoling, he was exhorting them, urging them, he was trying to strengthen them, all of these things for one to two years, he was doing the same thing in Macedonia, and again I asked the question, How does that happen? If you're feeling crushed, you're feeling overwhelmed, I mean, you were experiencing this trauma from this event. How in the world is the Apostle Paul encouraging them in this moment. Well, that's what I want to show you. Before we move on, we've been calling this whole series, as I referenced earlier, Life in the Spirit. This is after the Holy Spirit came, and we become in union with the Holy Spirit, and it impacted their lives. It impacts our lives when we say yes to Jesus. And here, here is what you need to know about the Holy Spirit. Jesus, before the Spirit came, spent time with his disciples in his earthly ministry, teaching them about the Holy Spirit that was going to come one day, and we have record in John chapter 14 of Jesus teaching the disciples about this one time, and I want to show you exactly what He says that gives us some insight to what we're even seeing in talking about today. So, in John 1416 and 17, Jesus is standing before the disciples, and He says, 'And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another helper now. In parentheses, I've inserted the Greek word that he uses. There, does that look familiar to anyone? It should, because it looks kind of close to Parakaleo, the Greek word that we were just looking at, that Paul to describe how Paul was encouraging other. People, and so here we see that Jesus references the Holy Spirit, if nothing else, as an encourager. Paracletos means literally one who helps by mediating, or on behalf of consoling, or by consoling and encouraging. It's, it's a complex term, and there's a depth of meaning, but at the very least we see that Jesus is referencing the Holy Spirit as the God of encouragement. As a matter of fact, the Apostle Paul, writing the book of Romans, which was during this time that he was in Macedonia, that we just said he wrote Second Corinthians and Romans, so he's encouraging other people, and he's writing this letter at the same time, says in Romans 15 five and six to the church, there may the God of endurance and the God of encouragement, so even Paul, who was the one being described as parakeleo-ing other people, if you will, in this moment describes him as the god of encouragement, and so we have Jesus, who describes the Paracletos, and we have Paul describing him as the God of encouragement. Now, what I'm trying to get you to see is that Paul had said yes to Jesus. He had been indwelt by the Paracletos, right? The God of encouragement was now dwelling inside of him, and not just dwelling in him, but he was in a spiritual union with him, the God of encouragement, in this moment, and so you ask the question, How in the world could Paul encourage other people when he was feeling crushed, and he was feeling defeated and overwhelmed? And the answer to that question is, he was being encouraged, he was in union with the one who is encouragement, and so he was constantly receiving encouragement from the Holy Spirit, even in the midst of him feeling crushed and overwhelmed in all of those things, and now that he's able to get filled up in that encouragement from the Spirit, he's able to let it flow through him and allow the Spirit, the God of encouragement to encourage other people, even in that moment, and even for one to two years, while he was walking through that. Guys, this, this is life in the spirit.

When we say yes to Jesus, and we enter into that spiritual union, you realize you are getting, you are entering into a spiritual union with the God of encouragement, you are always receiving His encouragement, filled up in it, resting, soaking, marinating in it, overflowing in it. You have it in Him, so that now He can work in and through us to use us to be an encouragement in the same way as using Paul towards other people, and so when we go back to Acts, this is what we see happening. We skim over it really quickly and go, yeah, I went to Macedonia, and he went to Greece, or whatever, and he encouraged some people. Do you see how much more was really going on in the depth of the emotions and all the things we learn about the spirit, and how that even applies to us today. I hope that you do. If not, hey, the Lord's always speaking to me, you know, in and through my study time, and even right now. And so I'm going to get something out of it, but I hope He's doing something in your life as well. So, Acts 20 verse three, as he goes on, he's going to continue to show us, and again, not at first glance, some ways that the spirit continues some encouragement. So, let's see what he says here, because some Jews had plotted against him, just as he was about to sail for Syria, he decided to go back through Macedonia, he was accompanied by Sopater, son of Pyrrhus from Berea, Aristarchus and Secundus from Thessalonica, Gaius from Derbe, Timothy also, and Tychicus, and Trophimus from the province of Asia. And then he goes on and says, these men went on ahead and waited for us at Troas, but we sailed from Philippi after the festival of unleavened bread, and five days later we joined the others at Troas, where we stayed seven days. Now Luke, when he's been telling us about Paul and his missionary journeys, has mentioned a couple of times a few people, one or two people that are traveling with him, or he'll say Paul and his companions, or something, but here, I mean, we got a whole list of all of these guys and where they're from, and all that, like, like it seems like if Luke is careful to mention all of these guys by name who are traveling with him. That he really wants us to know these specific people were actually traveling with him, but why, like you and I are reading that, and we don't really see any meaning behind it today, but once again we have to go digging, we have to know that Paul was writing the letter to the second to the Corinthians, the second letter to Romans, and these other ones at the time, so we get insight to what was going on during this time, and can fill in the gaps here, and one of the things that Luke doesn't say here, he'll, he'll reference it later on, about four more chapters, 24 he'll reference it there, but we learn again from First and Second Corinthians, and from Romans, and other letters, that what Paul was doing this time, as he was visiting these other churches, was taking up an offering. He was taking up an offering for the poor in Jerusalem to meet their needs. They were in a desperate situation, in dire need. And so, what Paul would do was he was traveling around, and he was encouraging them, teaching them truth, but also making them aware that the church at Jerusalem was in real need, and if they felt compelled or prompted by the Holy Spirit to give, that He was taking up an offering to meet their needs, and that He would be taking it back to them. This list that we see right here are men who are from each one of those churches that gave to that offering to give to the church at Jerusalem to give to the poor. Now, why were they all traveling with him from these churches? Well, probably a number of reasons.

I mean, first and foremost, if you're traveling with money a long ways that they were to get to a certain place, you probably want to keep it secure, having a bunch of men around you would help make sure that you have some security, so that might be one of the reasons. The other one is probably accountability and in transparency. I mean, I don't think I had any real reason to doubt Paul in this, but, but what better way than Paul to just make sure and say, "You guys come along, help me, help me keep it safe, and, and, and also, you'll know that when we get there, you'll be able to go back to your home church and say it really got there, and we gave it to them, and we were able to talk about how it impacted them. Now, the other thing is, they would have the opportunity, as the representatives, as the ones who took the collection up to actually present it to the church at Jerusalem. Now think about that for a moment, and we've been talking about this whole thing about Parakaleo and Paul, the God of incur the Holy Spirit, the God of encouragement, working in and through Paul, and that's what he does in these situations. Have you ever been in a situation where you were just in a tough time financially, and the Lord used someone else to bless you financially to help meet that need? Sure, you have. We've probably all experienced that in some way. It has happened to me, and sometimes people have done it anonymously, and it's a huge blessing. I mean, I'm overjoyed, and, and thankful, and encouraged that someone would, would do that, and, and yet, there are still other times where I know the story, or I know that someone is able to come to me, and, you know, you know what, we took up a collection in our class, and it was, it was promised by someone else, or that was brought up by them, and here's why they felt the Holy Spirit leading us to do this, and so and so was able to give, and they didn't really have much, but they did too. And when I, when I start to hear the back story, and how God made them aware that I was even in a need in the first place, and the Holy Spirit prompted them, and it took this and this and that to make all of that kind of happen. Do you know what that does to me? Whenever I find those things out, man, I'm not just encouraged, like I'm super encouraged. I mean, I'm blown away by encouragement through the things, and so these guys, these representatives would have that opportunity to present the money, and they could share all the details. This is what was going on when the Holy Spirit brought it up, and how we were able to meet your needs, and why we felt compelled to do so. And do you know what all it took for us to even get it here on this boat, and these ships, and all these things that were happening? And how encouraging would that be to the church at Jerusalem? How encouraging would it be to the churches that gave whenever these representatives come back and go, they were so overwhelmed, they were so overjoyed that we would even think about them, and this is the way that they used the money and did this and that, and it just grows our faith even more, and so we may not see it at first glance, but what we see just from these men traveling is that this is the God of encouragement at work in and through this missionary journey to bring encouragement to people who are in need to meet those needs, and then to report back and give God the glory for what He's doing in and through them in this moment. So now we're in Troas, He makes us aware of that, and now He's going to pause here. Make sure that we're aware of what the Holy Spirit was doing here in Troas. So, on the first day of the week, we read, we came together to break bread. Paul spoke to people, and because he intended to leave the next day, Paul kept on talking until midnight. And you thought I preached long.

First thing I want you to see is the pronoun change. We've seen this before, where Luke was writing about certain events where he wasn't there, and where Paul was reporting things and writing about them. And now Luke's come back on the scene, and he is actually traveling with them, so he has first-hand knowledge of this. We see him reference the first day of the week. Why is that important? Well, you may remember that the Jewish people gathered together for worship on the Sabbath, which was the last day of the week, but what we see in the New Covenant of our New Testament, the New Covenant Church, the early church, when the Spirit came, is that they began to worship and gather together and meet on the first day of the week, on Sundays, primarily because this was the day that Jesus was resurrected from the dead, and so we're not going to talk long about that, but I just highlight those things as we come across them in scripture, because there will be some people sometimes who try to convince you that it's a really big deal that you're worshiping on the wrong day, that you should be worshiping on Saturday and not Sunday, and because you are, God is mad at you and doesn't like you, and you're not glorifying Him, and you go, well, I don't really think that's the case, because in my Bible I read that they gathered on the first date here, and there's probably something to that, so they came together, and we also see that they broke bread. Now that means that they participated in the Lord's Supper. It's not like we do it necessarily in worship, and maybe a real structured environment. That meant a meal. I mean, they really broke bread, and they shared a meal together. And then there was probably another phase where they took the elements of the bread and said, this represents Jesus' body given for us, and the wine represents his blood that was shed for the forgiveness of our sins, and it was a way of them worshiping together and remembering what Jesus did, but then the last thing I highlight here is we just see that Paul spoke, and again we made the joke that he spoke all the way until midnight, but what in the world was it that Paul was speaking about? We already know the answer to that, right? I mean, we already found that out in Acts chapter 20 verse two. He traveled throughout that area. This was a different era, but, but when he traveled through areas, he spoke what many words of encouragement. He stayed up till midnight speaking words of encouragement to them, because he knew that he was leaving the next day. And listen, when you, when you have the truth, and you know you have information that can impact and influence people's lives, and help them experience all that they have in Christ, and you know you're leaving the next day, and they're baby Christians, you got to get it all in. Like, if I can just sense Paul, going, "You guys got to hear this. You don't know how good you got it. You don't know what all you have access to in the power of the Holy Spirit, and so I got to share everything, and he just keeps going and keeps going, and apparently he went a little too long. We already read that verse eight. There were many lamps in the upstairs room where we were meeting. Seated in a window is a young man named Eutychus, who was sinking into a deep sleep, as Paul talked on and on, and when he was sound asleep, he fell to the ground from the third story and was picked up dead. There is a moral to this story, and that moral is you should never ever fall asleep during a sermon, something bad could happen. Just saying. Okay, it can say that if you've never read the story, you're kind of going, that's a little insensitive, you know? The guy died, right? Well, we can talk about that because of what happens next. We've witnessed a number of miracles that the Holy Spirit did in and through Paul, and he does another one in this moment.

Verse 10, Paul went down, threw himself on the young man, and put his arms around him, and he said, 'Don't be alarmed, he's alive. And then he went upstairs again and broke bread and ate, and after talking until daylight, he left, and we're told that the people took the young man home alive, and were greatly comforted. Now, there's so much that can be said about the way that Luke writes this and crams that in, but I mean, think, think about what was happening in that moment. This guy, Eutychus, was someone they knew, this was someone they had a relationship, they loved him, they watched the guy fall out of a window and literally die. I mean, the emotions that you experience when someone you love is dead is crazy. I mean, suddenly dies and wasn't expected to is crazy. There had to be shock. I mean, it was a traumatic experience, even though Paul raises him from the dead. I mean. It would be one of those things, where, like, I'm just saying, I mean, if it happens in here, I'm going, you guys have been through enough already, you know what, we're going to pray, and we're, we're going home, but in a very casual way, Luke just goes, yeah, he laid on the dude, the dude who was dead got up, and then Paul went upstairs and just kept eating and preaching like it was no big deal, it was a big deal, it was a huge deal, but I think one of the things that we may see here is that even though the miracle was a really big deal, and people want to point to the miracle that happens, Paul's going, "You guys don't understand these words of encouragement that I have to share to you before I leave. They're way more important than the miracle that you just saw happen. Like, we're not stopping right now. This was good news, and it was awesome that he did that, but you got to know how good you got it in the power of the spirit, and with Jesus dwelling in you now, and so I've got to keep speaking these words of encouragement to you. It's so important for us to be discipled in this way. The last thing I'll just reference is this word that's translated comforted here is the same word that we talked about earlier, parakaleo. It's parakaleo. You can be encouraged through being comforted, right? I mean, someone comforts you in different moments, you're being encouraged. Encouragement carries a variety of situations, and we can be encouraged in a number of ways. And so it starts with encouragement, it bookends with encouragement, and we see encouragement throughout the middle, I think God has something to say to us about encouragement today. What we see is that the moment we say yes to Jesus, we're indwelt by the God of encouragement, we're filled up and encouraged by Him. And then He uses us to encourage other people. As a matter of fact, Paul, the guy that we're seeing all this happen through, would write a letter to the church at Thessalonica later and actually tell them, encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you were doing, the Greek word there, parakaleo, Paul experienced the comfort, the encouragement of the God of encouragement, and then he allowed that encouragement to flow through him, and he goes, "Hey, I know this from personal experience, so you know what this should be your experience too, as the church. And so it's true of us as the church today, those of us who have said yes to Jesus, and then we look now for ways that this specifically then applies to us. If you've said yes to Jesus, and you receive encouragement from Him, then we look for ways that the Holy Spirit wants to use us to encourage other people. And when we look for application, we recognize that this could happen in a number of ways, right? I mean, this could happen first and foremost through short, brief interactions with other people. When you pass each other in the hallways, or just before the service, or just after the service, the Holy Spirit may use you to want to say a word of encouragement to other people in those particular moments.

Many of you know Stan Rutherford, who's sitting in the sound booth today, and Stan is one of our deacons, and lost his wife of almost 60 years about a week or a week and a half ago, and and many of you were at the funeral this week, and I watched the God of encouragement encourage him through you people standing in a line, the Holy Spirit would use this person to speak words of encouragement, and the next person to speak words of encouragement, and I know that it meant so much to Stan in those moments, but in typical Stan fashion, I noticed that Stan would also use that opportunity to encourage other people. The God of encouragement was dwelling in Stan. He was receiving encouragement from other people. He was being encouraged by the God of encouragement, even in a really difficult moment, so much so that he could take time to encourage other people. And Stan has a unique way of saying this when he encourages people, and at least he does it to me, and I'm sure if he does it to me, he, he probably does it to you a lot as well, but, but he would say things like, Pastor, I, I love you so much, and I praise the Lord for his blessing me through you, I. It, that's the gospel. I praise the Lord, the God of encouragement, for encouraging me through you. This is probably Stan's last Sunday. Here stands getting ready to move and be with his family, and I love you, Stan. You're such an encouragement. The Lord, I'll take that back. Praise the Lord for His blessing me through you, friend. And thank you for your faithful service. Thank Thank you, guys. The Holy Spirit can encourage us in short, brief interactions, but this text also shows us that he encourages us through long relationships and through community. We read that the Apostle Paul encouraged people for one to two years in Macedonia. Those weren't brief, short interactions; they were for two years, getting to know people in community and really deep relationships. When he stopped in Troas, even though it was one night, it was one night he went on and on and on speaking words of encouragement to them in a, in a, in a home around a table, and so it's in these kinds of environments where we're opening ourselves up and talking about real life and the things that we're struggling with, the questions that we have, and the God of encouragement dwelling in other people in those types of environments as we open up uses them to encourage us and to speak truth into those specific situations of our lives that we're going through, and so he does this not just through short little interactions, but in real, authentic, in-depth, ongoing community in environments that we put ourselves in. Do you have that kind of environment? Do you have those kind of people in your lives? This is another way that we look for application in this is for the Holy Spirit to lead us into those situations where He can use us to encourage other people, and He can use other people to be an encouragement to us. This, of course, has direct application to those of you who are married, your spouse probably hears enough about what they're doing wrong, all the ways that if they would do this better, then your life would be better. Maybe the God of encouragement wants to show you today that you have all the encouragement that you need in me, and I want to use you to speak words of life and encouragement into your spouse. Today, my wife writes the most encouraging notes. If you've ever received one of her notes of encouragement, you know she has a real gift for that. The Lord blesses me so much through her and the way that He uses her to speak life into me at times, and I hope that I just halfway am available to the spirit to speak those things back, and so if you're married, this certainly applies to you in that context. Your kids, while we certainly need to point out things that are incorrect and behaviors that aren't consistent with match what the Lord wants to produce in and through them, maybe that's all they hear. What's wrong with him? What they're always doing wrong?

Are we making room for the Holy Spirit to use us to encourage them to speak words of life to them? If we are apparent, same thing with all of our friendships, and to move us past surface level. Hey, it's raining outside. Weather looks like it's going to be hot. Great, maybe we are more available for the deep things that the Holy Spirit wants to use us to encourage other people in. I don't know how this applies to you specifically today, but if the God of encouragement dwells. Is in you, he wants to encourage you today, and he wants to encourage other people through you. Who are those people, and in what ways? These are good questions for us to ask