Acts 20:1-12 - Encouragement

A Northland church, so glad to be with you this morning. We are here in my office at the seminary. very unconventional for what we normally have on Sunday morning, but we're rolling with it. Right? And so in the midst of the storm, I hope that you're warm and and doing well and we're just going to roll with it here this morning from acts chapter 20 versus one through 12. So if you would open up your Bible, turn to acts chapter 20, we'll be looking at verses one through 12. And as you do, as you turn there, I want to ask you a question. Have you ever read a book synopsis and you thought, well, that doesn't sound like a very interesting story or maybe you read the back cover of a book and you think, well, that's not really going to make a very interesting movie adaptation. because if you read this passage and I hope that you have are ready, Acts 20 verses one through 12 these 12 verses at first glance, it reads like a boring travel log followed by a pastoral disaster. It's like Paul goes here, Paul goes there, Paul goes almost everywhere. now he talks, then he talks and he talks and talks and talks, and a kid gets so bored in the back, he nods off, falls out of a window, hits his head and dies, and the title of the sermon is called Paul literally bores a kid to death. Let's pray. right? Like sounds like the ingredients of a great sermon, right? Not so much, but but upon closer inspection, a thread runs through this passage that touches a deep need, I think in in every one of us. So three times in the original language, the same word shows up. Now, if you read this passage before, maybe you read it earlier this morning, the word was translated the same way twice, and then a different way the third time. but all three times they're the same word in the Greek in the original language. It's something that I think all of us are hungry for, and it's something that all of us can offer to one another, and that word is encouragement. That word is used 108 times in our New testament, and it's a very elastic word. It covers a broad range of related ideas. It's the where it's the word p paraculeo paraculeo. And and just a few of the many meanings it has is to place courage into someone to inspire, to spur them on, to to comfort them, to help them, or to just give them hope to give them courage. and I think we can all agree that every one of us needs encouragement. That's our main idea this morning. Every one you know needs encouragement, so let's pray and then we'll jump into this text together. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for another day in Christ. We thank you that you pursued us, you came and entered into this world. You lived the perfect life that we could not you died the death that we deserved at that cross. You took on all of our sins, you buried them in the grave, and then you rose victoriously, conquering sin, Satan and death. so that if we but put our faith in you, surrender to you, submit to you, God, then we receive your forgiveness. We receive a renewed relationship, a right relationship with Christ. We are brought from death into marvelous light. And so Lord, I pray that that would be our story this morning for those that are watching that know you I pray that that they would come to know you even more, and for those that don't know you, God, I pray that this morning that they would be encouraged that you speak encouragement into our lives and you bring us from death to life by your word by your son alone. And if you would just take a moment where you're sitting this morning or maybe you're standing in your living room or wherever you're at take a moment and pray that God would speak to you this morning. And the next if you would pray for someone with you in your home uh that some maybe they're sitting next to you, uh maybe they're still in bed. Pray for them. uh Maybe they're uh on the road right now helping with cleaning up the city and and plowing the snow. pray for them. and pray that God would speak to you this morning through this time together. and the lastly would you pray for me that God would speak through me and that it would be clear and accurate, bold and u and ultimately honoring to the Lord? Oh Father, we love you and we trust you. We ask that you would use this time for your glory and for our good we pray that in Jesus name. Amen. So you know, as as kids, our parents taught us this little adage. It goes like this sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me. Which when do you say that? You say that when someone said something hurtful to you, right? And if it really didn't bother you, you'd just say something like what did you say? Oh well I never mind. I don't really care. but you're like wellixon's stones won't break my. Well, why are you even spending that much time on it because it did bother you clearly, right? If you're going to be honest, the phrase should be it sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will burn my little heart to the ground. and you know some one may hit you with a stick and you'll heal, but some one may have said a hurtful word to you when you were 10 and some of us are still carrying around those words to this day. So I want us to look at this text in acts 20 one through 12, because although it has a lot of names and places and details, I think we will see the heart of God to encourage the people in the story and to encourage us as well. So let's jump in. So at the end of 27 months of ministry in Ephesus, Paul makes plans to move on from Ephesus, and his timetable is kind of hurried up by a near riot and acts 19. And if you want to hear more about the uproar that verse one refers to, you can read the second half of acts 19, just one page over for in your Bible, or listen to uh Pastor Rustin sermon from last week, but let's pick up in Acts 20 verse 1. It says, after the uproar ceased, Paul sent for the disciples, and after encouraging them, he said farewell and departed for Macedonia. So before leaving Ephesus, even though the tension is hanging thick in the air from acts 19, Paul stays long enough to do one more thing. He calls the disciples together to do what? he encourages them. Now we don't know exactly what he says or or how he says it, but maybe it was something like he did with the other Christians in acts 14 acts 14, 21 through 22 says, when they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra into Iconium and to Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God. So that's very encouraging, or maybe he said something like what we have in 1 Thessalonians to verse 12. He says we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory. So we don't know exactly what he said before departing in verse one, but we do know that he risked his neck to stay long enough to encourage his Christian brothers and sisters, and considering how hostile the townspeople were, I think I would have just like gotten out of there. I would have made a beeeline to the coast and bought the first ticket out of there, but but not Paul, he believed his words of encouragement were more important than even his safe and speedy departure. so verse two it says when he had gone through these those regions and had given them much encouragement, he came to Greece. So in this single verse, Luke, who is writing this letter, the book of acts, he compresses about a year's worth of ministry into this single verse. and what's the phrase that Luke uses to describe Paul's work in verse two? He says that Paul had given them much encouragement. Now why doesn't Luke say it like this when when he had gone through those regions and had shared the gospel, he came to Greece? Well, I'm I'm sure Paul shared the gospel everywhere he went. We certainly know that from so many other scriptures, but the emphasis here isn't on sharing the gospel. It's on strengthening the faith of the believers. He wanted people to have faith and perspective and hope, and so he encouraged them. But what we don't see here is that between verse one and verse two in that entire year of ministry, Paul is actually battling discouragement. so let me fill in some of the missing pieces that Luke doesn't get into here, but we have them in other passages and just just stick with me for a little bit. So so Paul had heard about the church in Corinth, which he helped to plant, and and back in Corinth, they hadn't disciplined one of their own members for living in sin, uh big situation, very serious. And so the apostle Paul wrote the scathing letter that we know as first Corinthians, and he sent that letter with with Titus to Coth, not my Titus, biblical Titus, right? And he sent the the letter with Titus over to Corinth to straighten out the mess that's going on. But Paul didn't hear back from Titus. Remember, they don't they don't have smartphones. They don't have text messages. They don't have emails. The only way to communicate over long distances is to send that letter and to send it with someone who would be traveling to where you wanted the letter to go. And so he sent it with Titus, and there was no response. He didn't hear anything back from Corinth, and so Paul ended up in Troaz, where he found this open door for ministry, but he didn't have the heart to take advantage of it because he was so discouraged. So then in his second letter to the church in Corinth, we call that second Corinthians, right? Paul wrote this. He says in second Corinthians 2 verses 12 13, when I came to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ, even though a door was opened for me in the Lord, my spirit was not at rest because I didn't find my brother Titus there, which means there's no letter, so I took leave of them and went on to Macedonia. So Paul was was preoccupied. He was troubled. It says that his spirit didn't have rest because Titus wasn't there. no response from the Corinthian church had reached Paul. So then later on in that second letter, some time passes in second Corinthians, Paul writes this. He says, for even when we came into Macedonia our bodies had no rest, but we were afflicted at every turn, fighting without and fear within, but God who comforts the downcasts comforted us by the coming of who Titus, and not only by his coming, but also by the comfort with which he was comforted by you. look who shows up Titus shows up, right and that word for comfort is the same word for encouragement paraac Callo and that's what Paul receives from Titus encouragement, and that's what we need. Even the apostle Paul was susceptible to discouragement. He needed other people to give him perspective, comfort, and hope, which leads us to our first point this morning. We never outgrow our need for encouragement, never outgrow our need for encouragement. You won't ever get to a place in your spiritual life when you no longer need anybody to comfort you or exhort you, or give you hope or give you perspective to pull you out of the muck and the mire. There's not a person watching this morning that is immune to discouragement. There's not a person watching who couldn't be strengthened by the encouraging words of another person and you know how important encouragement is? Well, for some of us, I think it might be the very thing we need to take our next step of faithfulness with Christ. so as the days of summer turn to fall, Paul found himself in Greece, where he stayed for three months, which that's what the text says, which then leads us back to Acts 20 verse 3 and when a plot was made against him by the Jews as he was about to set sail for Syria, he decided to return through Macedonia. So during those three months Paul poured himself out on behalf of the young and fragile church in Corinth, he encouraged them towards purity, encouraged their attempts at obedience, he encouraged them to live lives worthy of the gospel, and he in the midst of all that also just corrected so much wrong thinking. And after those three months by the springtime now, he prepared to take a ship to Jerusalem, but before he could do that, he discovered a plot by the Jews to assassinate him, but somehow he learns about the plot and he changes his plans, thank the Lord, and he decided to retrace his steps back north and to take a ship out of Tras except from this point on, he's not traveling alone as he goes back to Philippi, notice who's with him in verse 4. Paul is accompanied by a whole crew of people. He goes back to Philippi and look at what it says. Sopiter, the Barian, son of Pyus, accompanied him, and of the Thessalonians, Aristarchus and Secundus and Gus of Derby, and Timothy and the Asians,ichicus and Trophimus. So if you count them, that's seven guys. Why the entourage? Why such a big team? Well, I think one reason is that he was carrying quite a bit of of currency. The money that Paul had collected was from various Gentile churches for Jewish Jewish Christians that were hit really hard by a famine in Israel. And you can read just briefly about this in Romans 15 verses 24 26. But I think another reason could be that Paul probably wanted to be um above reproach. He wanted to make sure he's handling uh no one's going to accuse him of mishandling the money um more eyes on the money means that they can make sure that it's in the right place in the right hands. But I think he's also interested in training other ministers. He wants them alongside of him for his uh journey so that they can see what he does and how he talks. And so he askeds that other people would travel with him. But think about this. He's got seven guys going with him. I mean, wouldn't like a couple of guys do it, right? Well, I think the intention was that Paul wanted these Gentile Christians to deliver the money in person because it would be such an amazing encouragement to those who received it because you've got Jews and Gentiles who did not get along, and you've got Gentile Christians who came to the Jewish community who were suffering from famine and and and they gave them these generous gifts in person, and the trip with Paul was going to cost them, no doubt about it. They were sacrificing a lot simply to travel with Paul and and be there in person to present all this money to those these suffering Jewish brothers and sisters. And here's our here's our second point encouragement can require some sacrifice. Sometimes we think that encouragement requires no sacrifice that it's so easy there's no sacrifice to it, but notice how important it is for these men, these seven to encourage others. It's important enough to take the time off from work, even to be away from their family for for a few months to dig into their own pockets, sometimes just being with another person showing up and staying there, not even particularly doing anything can be the most encouraging thing you and I can do and maybe it doesn't require a whole lot of words, but it requires your time and your effort, your emotions, your spirit, other things on the to do list that are set aside sometimes encouragement can require some sacrifice. so let's let's keep moving on to Troaz verses five and six tell us these went on ahead, these seven and were waiting for us at Troas, but we sailed away from Philippi after the days of eleven bread, and in five days we came to them at Troaz, where we stayed seven days. I know we read this, and it sounded kind of like a math problem. There's all these days and all these times, but they would have read that, and they would have understood exactly what's going on, just like if I had said the Fourth of July after the Fourth of July, we did this or that. You know exactly what's happening. So the rendezvous point for those who went ahead by sea was troaz, and Paul stayed behind in Philippi to celebrate the Passover and the feast of unloven bread. You might wonder why is Paul celebrating the Passover and this feast? I thought Paul was a Christian, not a Jew. excuse me. Well, he's still a Jew, but the annual occasion associated with the death and resurrection of Jesus that we know as Easter it's right here at this time of the year the time that the passover in this feast of inleven bread is happening. So Paul probably wants to worship and be with his with the church during that time. But then he uh he departs for Troas with his faithful traveling companions, uh and and uh, well, not the seven, but uh with his traveling companion, Dr. Luke, the author of the Book of Acts, who, as we know, has been writing all of this, right? And so they board a ship on a Wednesday and going against the head winds they cover the 150 miles in about five days, and they arrive in Troaz some time the following Monday. and so that means that he doesn't get to meet with the church, so in order to meet with the church he decides to stay for seven days until they meet again on the first day of the week Sunday and you might say, okay now wait, why did they have to wait? I thought he was really needing to get to Jerusalem as soon as he could write and so yeah, that's true, but encouragement is just that important to Paul that he' even willing to change his schedule. And I hope you're beginning now to sense how high a priority God sees encouragement here in our text. It's subtle, but it's there. but just how important uh is it just as important as it is it comes into sharp focus that next Sunday in Troz because this Sunday with the church there's going to be a disaster and a miracle and the chain of events starts with a very long sermon, so look at verse 7 on the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them, intending to depart on the next day, and he prolonged his speech until midnight. I mean, look at that it says on the first day of the week the normal day for gathering together for them was the same day that we it is the same day that we gather together. They would have a meal, they would have some teaching from scripture and they'd have the Lord's supper, and Paul apparently spoke for a very long time. the word used here to describe what he did and how he did it implies the sort of um dialogue he talked with them. Then it says that he prolonged his speech, so it implies not only just teaching like our what we might expect on a Sunday morning, but this idea of maybe like questions and answers and discussions and and explanations, and Paul went on and on and on, and you'd think that if he were planning on leaving early the next day, he'd cut it off a bit shorter. not Paul instead he keeps going, knowing that he probably would not get another chance with these believers, so he had probably been speaking for the best estimates are three to four hours. I mean, think about that. Have you ever had to speak that long three or four hours nonstop? Apparently it's no big deal for Paul. It's something he's probably used to. Now notice where all this is happening as well. verse eight says there were many lamps in the upper room where we were gathered. Now that's not a meaningless detail. The largest rooms in larger homes were on the top stories, and there were often served as uh meeting rooms meeting places. So they're in one of these meeting rooms and it's just packed with people, right? They're probably all in close quarters, probably shoulder to shoulder. There might be rows of people. And as it gets darker, they lit these oil lamps. And so just picture that light is just dancing on the walls. It's dark at night. The flames are consuming the oxygen in the room that's already packed with people. and the warmth of the spring air now, it's probably early spring and the crowded conditions in the room. I mean, that's just like a a recipe for drowsiness if you don't have one, right? Any of you, uh have fallen asleep in church before, right? Like any of you ever fall asleep in a big semi dark room listening to someone talk for a while? I know you have because sometimes I see you, right? uh, your eyes start to cross, your head nods a little bit, maybe forward or back. There's a little bit of drool that comes from your lip down to your Bible. One of you right now is like, oh no, he saw me do that, right? Now, zero uh zero in on this on this tired teenager in the back row of this little church service that's happening. Verse nine. It says, and a young man named Uus, who, by the way, uh that name Uicus means lucky, so his name is lucky. so this young man named Utus is sitting at the window, and he sank into a deep sleep as Paul talked a still longer from the word Luke uses to describe him. This means he's in probably his early to mid teens and he's sitting on the sill of an open window. There's no glass there, right? There's these these aren't modern windows. These are ancient windows first century. There's probably just open shutters, if anything, to get some circulation in the room on that third floor, and as Paul drones on and on, lucky just couldn't stay awake, and so at some point he's moved over to that window, maybe to get some oxygen, some air, but the second part of verse nine continues, and it says, and being overcome by sleep, he fell down from the third story and was taken up dead. So he lost his balance. He pitched backward and out of that window and he dropped three stories. Can you imagine in the middle of somebody's sermon or Q and A like don't sit too close to the window now. A shriek just pierces the still of the evening, the still of the night A and then a thud I mean that'll get your adrenaline flowing, won't it? like that's some serious cause for concern, and so they probably all raced downstairs. Paul's probably leading the way they found this young man still as death and verse 10 says, but Paul went down and bent over him and taking him in his arms, said, do not be alarmed, for his life is in him. so Paul scoops up this boy in his arms, and it doesn't say that he prayed, but I bet he did, and suddenly Lucky wakes up. Now some scholars speculate whether a miracle really took place or if Lucky was just out cold and Paul sees that he's not dead and so he just kind of reassures everybody. I think it's got to be a miracle one way or the other. either the fall killed him and he was miraculously returned to life or uh he fell and miraculously it didn't kill him. either way it's a miracle. I go with the traditional reading, I think that he actually does because Luke is writing this. Luke is a physician. He's a doctor and he's there. so if anyone would know whether someone's actually dead, Luke would would know. But I want you to notice in verse nine that Dr. Luke does not say the kid was taken up as dead, but taken up dead. So I really think uh internally here that this is a miracle of resurrection. It's quick. There's not a lot of time that passes, but he goes from death to life. Now I imagine Paul could have said, well, serves that kid right, right sleeping in church sleep in that's what you get for snoozing through my sermon kid sermon to you to death abhorred you to death for some reason, but that's not what he does verse 11 says, and when Paul had gone up and had broken bread and eaten, he conversed with them a long while until daybreak and so departed. I think it I think at this point I would have just like called it a night and gone home, but once lucky proved more than just lucky they just kept going. They went back upstairs to the upper room where they broke bread, meaning they took the Lord's supper together, and then Paul kept teaching and talking until when until dawn until daybreak they just couldn't get enough. no one leaves. Utica isn't like I'm heading home, guys that was an eventful night. They all go back upstairs. They have the Lord's supper, and they continue to be encouraged. Now how does all this end before any of us fall asleep? verse 12 says, and they took the youth away alive and were not a little comforted paro another way to say that last bit there, not that's kind of a weird grammatical way to say it we're not a little comforted, is to say they were greatly comforted. They were greatly encouraged. It's the same word paro. Okay, so as we close, what's the point of all this? If you have power to do what Paul did, then can you talk as long as he did? Well, no. Paul spoke so long, not because he loved to hear himself, not because he couldn't compress it into a shorter amount of time. It was because he wanted to encourage them. That's what he was there trying to do, and he was willing to pour out words of encouragement so the people could be greatly comforted, which leads us to our third point. encouragement comes from God's word. Some of us hear that and we're like um what it does? because we can sometimes think that people will just be encouraged. Like maybe all you need is just some kind words and that certainly can work, but encouragement can also come. I think most ah of of greatest effect to us is from hearing God's word. Now there is no suggestion in the text that this death Lucky's death was a rebuke from God for Paul's long sermon not like bad on you, Paul you preach too long. nor is there any suggestion that Paul that that that people were fidgeting and wanting to leave. They're like checking their watches, like how long is this going to take? The chiefs are on later. They're not yawning incessantly hoping that he's going to just wrap it up. No, as far as we can tell, they were eager to learn and to be encouraged by Paul, like if anything what prolonged the meeting was likely their spiritual hunger and their desire to be encouraged by hearing God's word. so why did Luke include this story? What's God's intent here like why did God raise Utus? Well, it doesn't appear to be a sign for unbelievers because there doesn't appear to be any unbelievers there. It's just the believers that are present, nor was it that God felt responsible for Paul's droning on and Lucky's unlucky choice of seats, right? God raised Etus through Paul for I think a simple reason to encourage them. I mean, can you imagine how discouraging it would have been for the church if the meaning had ended with a dead kid? They had come to say goodbye to Paul and they would have ended up saying goodbye to Eutyacus but I think the Lord graciously acted simply to encourage his people that were gathered together in a small upper room to break bread to celebrate the Lord together, and the Lord acted graciously to encourage them. believers gathered, the word was preached a young man was resurrected back to life, and they celebrated the lord Suer, and it had the effect of great encouragement as they left. Okay, so let's wrap this up before any of us start to fall asleep too. Let me just talk to us about us, North Lynch Church. Let me speak just as a pastor uh to your heart. How important is encouragement. I think it can sometimes be similar to life and death. I think it's worth going out of our way to do change your schedule to make room for it, sacrifice your time, your energy, your money to ensure it happens. Sometimes the work of encouragement costs us next to nothing. It's a few wisely placed words at the right time. other times it could cost you a lot. It could cost setting aside a work day. It could cost a drive across town. It could cost paying for a meal for someone you love, but it can make a huge difference between somebody continuing instead of giving up, someone growing in their faith rather than withering, someone rejecting a lie that they've believed for a long time. and who knows maybe this week ah you'll share a few words of encouragement from God's word that will take some one from death to life. cause that's what his word does that's what his son came to do to take us from death to life, that he is the word of God. Christ came to live the perfect life that we could not to die the death that we each deserve to be raised like Utus to new life, except he conquered sin, Satan, and death, and that if you would just but surrendered him, trust in him, put your faith in him well, then he does the same to you. He takes you from death to life. He speaks encouragement into your heart, and he's with you all of your days. He puts his spirit within you to walk with you to be faithful, to be obedient, to serve others, to be ministers of reconciliation so that we would be an encouragement to those around us. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for this time together. We thank you how much of an encouragement your word can be, and even though this text doesn't have the name of Jesus, doesn't have an explicit gospel presentation, we know that it's there. we see Utus go from death to life, we see how your word can be a source of encouragement. We see how Paul can travel all over the world and go from discouraged to encourage, and that he can be a minister of encouragement to others. because grace received becomes grace extended, an encouragement received becomes encouragement extended. And so, lord, I pray that you would use us this week, wherever you take us that we would be ministers who encourage others, that we would be encouraged by your word, and that we would take the time, the effort, the money, the energy to encourage others, and wherever we are at this morning, lord, I pray that you encourage us. There are so many of us that are hurting and in pain, so I pray that you would bring people along that Northland church would be an encouragement to one another and would pray all these things in Christ's name Amen