Moving Ahead for Our Master
Acts 20:1-12
Sermon by Rick Crandall
McClendon Baptist Church - Nov. 28, 2007
*This morning I sent out a letter to all of our church families about the great Christmas season we should have this year. It should be one of our best Christmases ever. Of course we will have wonderful music all month and our Candlelight Lord’s Supper, but we are doing two other things to help draw people to our church. One is the Christmas Card Lane that a lot of people are working on, and the other is a Live Nativity Scene. It should help more people in our community know about our church.
*Our greatest goal as a church must be to grow. That means spiritual growth in the life of believers, and it means reaching more people for the Kingdom of Christ. How can we move ahead for our Master? God’s Word gives us 6 great answers in these verses.
1. First we must embrace each other.
*Paul teaches us to embrace each other in vs. 1. Remember that in Acts 19 there was a near riot in Ephesus and then vs. 1 says, “After the uproar had ceased, Paul called the disciples to him, embraced them, and departed to go to Macedonia.” Paul embraced them. He wrapped his arms around them in genuine Christ-like affection.
*We must learn to embrace each other -- But of course I am not just talking about physical hugs. I am talking about getting close to each other, caring for each other, praying for each other, being there for each other. I am talking about the kind of genuine Godly concern I saw in an email Rita sent out the day after her friend’s husband passed away. Here’s part of what Rita said:
“Good morning everyone. Yesterday, a very sweet and dear friend of mine, Terry Johnson, lost her husband unexpectedly. A couple of weeks ago he had open heart surgery and within 2 weeks of surgery found himself back in the hospital with pneumonia and a staff infection. They had reopened him and he went into cardiac arrest and died on the operating table.
-I ask that you pray for her now as you read this email. She will need so many prayers. Pray that she will lean completely on God because He is the only One who can get her through this. Pray that she will not shut people out of her life.
-She is so sweet to give out hugs. It is now our turn to give them to her. Trust me, they help more than you know.
*Jeff, Terry’s husband, had a friend who had been witnessing to him when they went fishing. When he went into the hospital for the bypass surgery, he had Terry call him to come to the hospital. Jeff accepted Jesus as his Lord and Savior when his friend came.
-We all (and I am including myself) need to be witnessing to our friends because you may be the only one who is a witness to that person. Again, please pray for Terry -- Not just today, but many days to come.
-My love to all of you. Rita”
2. How can we move ahead for our Master? Embrace each other, and encourage each other.
*Paul went out of his way to be an encourager. Vs. 2 tells us that “when he had gone over (the Macedonian ) region and encouraged them with many words, he came to Greece”
*Paul was an encourager, and we should be too. It’s one of the most Godly things we can do. And one reason we know this is because the original word for “encourage” here is basically the same word Jesus used in John 14, when He called the Holy Spirit “the Comforter.” God wants us to be like Him. God wants us all to be encouragers, because we all need encouragement.
*One of the greatest pastors and Christian authors of our day is Chuck Swindoll. And one of Dr. Swindoll’s teachers and mentors at seminary was Howard Hendricks. Dr. Hendricks remembers Chuck as a real go-getter in school. Howard said, "I felt this guy was a winner from the moment I met him. He always sat in the front row. His questions were extraordinarily perceptive, and even after class the questions did not stop. It was abundantly clear that this man had a bright future ahead of him"
*However, Chuck says that he struggled with self-doubt for years and at times even thought of quitting the ministry. Can you imagine that? One factor that helped Chuck to hang in there was his relationship with Dr. Hendricks. As Chuck said, "Hendricks believed in me when I didn’t believe in myself." (1)
*Where would Chuck Swindoll have wound up without the encouragement of Howard Hendricks?
3. God wants us to encourage each other, and employ new strategies.
*In vs. 2-3, Paul had to change his plans and move off in a new direction:
“Now when he had gone over (the region of Macedonia) and encouraged them with many words, he came to Greece and stayed three months. And when the Jews plotted against him as he was about to sail to Syria, he decided to return through Macedonia.”
*John Phillips explains that “each year a pilgrim ship left the port city of Cenchrea for Palestine, to take Jewish people home for the annual festivals. Paul, it would seem, planned to sail on one of those pilgrim ships. Word of that leaked out, and the Jews decided among themselves that it would give them a golden opportunity to get rid of him. Paul, however, uncovered the plot, changed his plans, and headed back north to Macedonia. (2)
*Paul had to go in a new direction, and we have to be willing to do the same thing as the Lord leads us. Of course most of the time our lives are not hanging in the balance -- but something even more important can hang in the balance: The souls of people God wants us to reach for Jesus.
*I know that change is difficult. We are creatures of habit. I do the same exact thing when I get up every morning. I don’t wake up and ask, “How should I get ready today?” We are creatures of habit, and even good changes can be a struggle.
*This morning we were waiting for Ralph to go back for his surgery, and they started talking about anesthesia. There was an option: Do you want to be drowsy during the surgery or knocked out all the way? Earl said knocked out all the way! -- And everybody agreed. But what about surgery with no anesthesia at all? Patients were strapped down while scalpel and saw cut through tissue and bone, every slice and turn of the knife causing unimaginable pain.
*One Christian doctor decided to do something about it: A doctor in Scotland named James Simpson. He lived from 1811-1870. Dr. Simpson became Senior President of the Royal Medical Society of Edinburgh when only 24, and in time received virtually every possible honor and position. He dreamed of finding a way of putting patients to sleep during surgery. So on Monday evenings, Dr. Simpson periodically invited small groups of physicians to his home to experiment with chemicals, crystals, and powders, which were placed over a burning fire while the doctors inhaled the fumes.
*Nothing worked until Nov. 4, 1847. One of the men had purchased a crystal called chloroform in Paris. As the doctors sniffed the burning substance, they fell to the floor unconscious. Dr. Simpson had his answer, but he soon encountered another problem. He was attacked by fellow Christians who claimed that pain was a God-ordained part of life. They taught that freedom from pain comes only in heaven, and it was immoral to devise dangerous ways of escaping it on earth.
*Sir James went to the Scriptures, seeking answers. As soon as he opened his Bible, he came to Gen 2:21, where “the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place.” God used that Scripture to give Dr. Simpson the power to silence his critics. And a new day in medicine dawned. (3)
4. How can we move ahead for our Master? God wants us to employ new strategies, and enlist new helpers.
*We see Paul’s fellow workers in vs. 4-6:
-“And Sopater of Berea accompanied him to Asia also Aristarchus and Secundus of the Thessalonians, and Gaius of Derbe, and Timothy, and Tychicus and Trophimus of Asia. These men, going ahead, waited for us at Troas. But we sailed (Luke was there too) away from Philippi after the Days of Unleavened Bread, and in five days joined them at Troas, where we stayed seven days.”
*One important thing to notice here is that Paul worked with a variety of people. Sopater, Aristarchus and Secundus were from the Macedonian churches. Gaius and Timothy were Galatians. Tychicus and Trophimus represented the churches of Asia. In Rev 5:9, we see that God’s church is made up of the redeemed from “every tribe and tongue and people and nation.” So God wants us to work together with all kinds of people to the greatest extent possible.
*Paul also reminds us here that we must be careful in the ways we handle money that has been given to the church. This group was carrying a large sum of money for the needy believers at Jerusalem. They teach us to be transparent and beyond suspicion when it comes to money. (2)
*But the main thing I want you to see from these verses is this: We will never do all that God wants us to do without the help of more believers -- New believers growing strong enough in the Lord to serve the Lord in a fruitful way. We must pray for God to send them! As Jesus said in Matt 9:37-38, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”
*We must pray for more workers, and we must train them. As Jesus commanded us in the Great Commission: “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.’’ Amen. (Matt 28:18-20)
“Make disciples of all the nations. Teach them to observe all things that I have commanded you.”
5. God wants us to enlist new helpers -- And examine God’s Word.
*This is the way to grow into the disciples God wants us to be. Paul always placed a strong emphasis on God’s Word, and we see him doing the same thing here in vs. 7-8: “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. There were many lamps in the upper room where they were gathered together.”
*Vs. 11 tells us that they wound up talking about God’s Word all night long. They talked about Jesus. They talked about the cross. They talked about how God wants us to live in this world, and how we will live forever in the next world.
-God wants us to examine His Word regularly, extensively, devotedly, humbly -- knowing that it will give us the most important guidance we will ever need in life.
*One Christian compared it to SCUBA diving and said:
“I’m not a SCUBA diver, but SCUBA has always fascinated me. When you take up SCUBA, one of the things that they will teach you is that your bubbles are always right.
When you’re deep underwater, you’re surrounded by an aura of light and it is very difficult to tell which way is up. The water diffuses the light. And since you have a sense of weightlessness in the water it is easy to get disoriented and lose your sense of direction. You don’t know which is up. You may feel so strongly that your perception of up is correct that you will ignore your air bubbles and go the way that you think is up. And so, the SCUBA diver is taught to always trust and follow his bubbles. No matter what you think or feel, your bubbles are always correct. They always go up! So always follow your bubbles -- Always!
*If a diver takes it upon himself to ignore the bubbles, bec he knows which way to go, it can lead to his peril. Many people in world today are disoriented. They have lost their way because they have ignored the bubbles. They have ignored the only thing in life that is trust-worthy and true -- God’s Word, the Bible.
*Like the diver’s bubbles, the Bible is always right. It doesn’t matter how you feel. It doesn’t matter what you think. The Bible is always right! (4)
6. How can we move ahead for our Master? Examine God’s Word. -- And expect great things from God.
*We see our God do an amazing thing in vs. 9-12:
-“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. 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, had broken bread and eaten, and talked a long while, even till daybreak, he departed. And they brought the young man in alive, and they were not a little comforted.”
*Thanksgiving week 16 years ago Jimmy & Mildred Griffin’s little rat-terrier had a litter of 9 puppies. Only one of those puppies survived, so they decided to name him “Lucky.” The Griffins had promised to give us one of the puppies and they did -- even though they only had one left.
-But we had an argument over that dog, because I didn’t want to name him “Lucky.” I told Mary that there was no such thing as luck and I was not having a dog named Lucky!
*The following Wednesday night we came to Prayer Meeting, and Bro. Savoie was preaching on this very same passage of Scripture. During the message he told us that Eutychus’ name meant “Fortunate” or “Lucky.” Mary started elbowing me in the ribs. And as soon as the service was over, she told me that since Lucky was in the Bible we could name our dog Lucky.
*We had Lucky for over 15 years. But this Lucky in Acts 20 was a whole lot more than Lucky. He fell out of a 3-story window. He was dead. -- But he came back to life! Lucky was completely healed. But let me tell you something: Paul didn’t heal Eutychus -- God did! And the same God who healed Eutychus is here with us right now. We must learn to expect great things from Him.
*God surely wants our church to move ahead. He wants to do great things in us and through us. Let’s trust Him to do it. Let’s expect great things from God.
1. SermonCentral illustration contributed by Paul Wallace
2. “Exploring Acts” - John Phillips - p. 394
3. Robert J. Morgan, Nelson’s Complete Book of Stories, Illustrations & Quotes, (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers) 2000.
4. SermonCentral illustration contributed by Larry Brincefield
