Introduction
Video Ill.: Paul’s Third Missionary Journey - Graphe
This morning, we are continuing our summer road trip, going along with Paul on his journeys as recorded in Acts.
We started by joining Paul and Barnabas on their first journey as they traveled throughout the province of Asia, teaching about Jesus. We saw that the gospel will always spark some kind of reaction from hearers. Sometimes its good; sometimes it isn’t.
We saw how Satan, through this world, tries to disrupt the spreading of the Gospel, but we also know that in the end, he will not win.
Last week, we joined Paul, and his new traveling companion Silas, on his second journey. We saw how we need to be attune to the leading of the Holy Spirit. Sometimes God has something different in mind for us than what we may want to do. We need to listen and obey what the Spirit directs us to do.
We also saw that even in our darkest times, we can find joy because of our salvation in Jesus. It is in Him that we can find true hope and joy, not in the things going on around us in our world.
This morning, we are going with Paul and his traveling companions on his third journey. This journey was recorded for us by Luke in Acts 18:23 - 21:17.
No matter what Paul was doing, he was always concerned about the churches.
Paul no more gets home from his second journey than he sets out again for the third time, with the goal of building up and supporting what he had already planted.
Luke records it for us this way:
23 After spending some time in Antioch, Paul went back through Galatia and Phrygia, visiting and strengthening all the believers. (Acts 18, NLT)
It is on this support mission that we find a few stories I would like to highlight this morning and see what lessons we can learn from these stories for our Christian walks today.
The first story happens in Troas, and we learn that we should not be asleep in the church.
It’s a familiar story we have heard many times before.
From Acts 20, we read:
7 On the first day of the week, we gathered with the local believers to share in the Lord’s Supper. Paul was preaching to them, and since he was leaving the next day, he kept talking until midnight. 8 The upstairs room where we met was lighted with many flickering lamps. 9 As Paul spoke on and on, a young man named Eutychus, sitting on the windowsill, became very drowsy. Finally, he fell sound asleep and dropped three stories to his death below. 10 Paul || went down, bent over him, and took him into his arms. “Don’t worry,” he said, “he’s alive!” 11 Then they all went back upstairs, shared in the Lord’s Supper, and ate together. Paul continued talking to them until dawn, and then he left. 12 Meanwhile, the young man was taken home alive and well, and everyone was greatly relieved. (Acts 20, NLT)
Now, in Eutychus’ defense, this church meeting happened late in the evening, and was going on until midnight.
Many of the Christians were working folks, even slaves. This church service was happening when they could attend, after the end of the work day.
Many that were there had put in a full day’s worth of work, but were excited about hearing Paul speak — excited to learn about Jesus — excited to grow in their relationship with God. So they came to this upper room to worship and hear Paul teach.
Luke makes mention that there were lamps burning. Combine the fumes from the lamps with the stuffiness of an upstairs room, with physical exhaustion from working, and you have the perfect recipe for sleep.
We ought not think that Paul was just droning on and on; rather, scholars suggest that this would have been more of a conversation — an interaction between students and teacher.
Despite the conversation and learning that was going on, poor Eutychus was overtaken by the environment, fell asleep, and fell out the window, falling three stories to his death.
None of us, I do not think, will ever fall out of a church window today because we fell asleep during church.
But how many of us really are asleep in the church?
How many of us just go through the motions? We are simply worn out — exhausted by the things of life — so much so that church just becomes something else we have to do.
Are we engaged in our spiritual walks?
During church, are we engaged?
Author Asks If 'We' Are Present during the Lord's Supper
Source: Gordon Mikoski, "Bringing the Body to the Table," Theology Today (October, 2010), pp. 24-25
https://www.preachingtoday.com/illustrations/2012/february/4022012.html
Copied from Preaching Today
For example, there are many in the religious world that debate whether Jesus is physically present in the communion bread and communion juice when we partake of the Lord’s Supper. Some denominations contend that the bread actually becomes His physical body, and the juice becomes His physical blood when we partake.
Gordon Mikoski, in an article for Theology Today, though, writes, “In the [distracted] digital age, it may be the case that the classical debates about the presence of Jesus Christ in the [Lord's Supper] have been inverted. The question with which we may have to wrestle is not ‘In what way is the Lord present in the Supper?’ Instead, the question is ‘In what way are we present?’”
Does attending worship, being in church, mean anything to us?
Or are we just playing church, sitting on the back pew, or in the open window, just waiting for it to be over?
Our world these days struggles with the idea of church altogether anyway.
Survey Asks, "What Do You Think about Church?"
Source: Jon Tyson, Sacred Roots (Zondervan, 2013), pp. 14-24
https://www.preachingtoday.com/illustrations/2014/january/8010614.html
Copied from Preaching Today
A survey by Barna Group asked over 1,000 American adults the following question: "What do you think about going to church?" About 30 percent of Americans say attending church is very important, about 40 percent are ambivalent about attending church, and 30 percent say attending church is not important at all. Those who are ambivalent about attending church gave two top reasons for their ambivalence: "I find God elsewhere" (40 percent) and it's not "personally relevant" (35 percent).
Millennials who are opting out of church cite the following three factors with equal weight in their decision: the moral failures of church leaders, hypocrisy, and the church's irrelevance. 20 percent of Millennials say that "God is missing" from church and 10 percent sense that doubt is prohibited. Also, when asked to list "What made your faith grow?" the church didn't even make the top ten.
When we are just going through the motions, others in the congregation can sense that.
In our Christian lives, if we are just going through the motions, those around us will pick up on that.
And it ruins our witness. We lose the power to change their lives if our lives haven’t first been changed.
It takes a change of focus for us — a change from focusing on all that we have to do, all the places we have to go, all the work that has to be accomplished — and focus on Jesus, who is the giver and sustainer of life.
Then, and only then, will we find ourselves engaged with God, engaged in church, and fully living the abundant Christian life that Jesus gives to us.
2. The second event I would like to highlight today was actually a goodbye — Paul’s farewell to the Ephesian elders — wherein we see Paul encourages the church.
Luke records Paul’s farewell to the Ephesian elders for us in Acts 20. Let’s listen to this heartfelt address:
15 …The following day we crossed to the island of Samos, and a day later we arrived at Miletus.
16 Paul had decided to sail on past Ephesus, for he didn’t want to spend any more time in the province of Asia. He was hurrying to get to Jerusalem, if possible, in time for the Festival of Pentecost. 17 But when we landed at Miletus, he sent a message to the elders of the church at Ephesus, asking them to come and meet him.
|| 18 When they arrived he declared, “You know that from the day I set foot in the province of Asia until now 19 I have done the Lord’s work humbly and with many tears. I have endured the trials that came to me from the plots of the Jews. 20 I never shrank back from telling you what you needed to hear, either publicly or in your homes. 21 I have had one message for Jews and Greeks alike—the necessity of || repenting from sin and turning to God, and of having faith in our Lord Jesus.
22 “And now I am bound by the Spirit to go to Jerusalem. I don’t know what awaits me, 23 except that the Holy Spirit tells me in city after city that jail and suffering lie ahead. 24 But my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus—the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God.
|| 25 “And now I know that none of you to whom I have preached the Kingdom will ever see me again. 26 I declare today that I have been faithful. If anyone suffers eternal death, it’s not my fault, 27 for I didn’t shrink from declaring all that God wants you to know.
28 “So guard yourselves and God’s people. Feed and shepherd God’s flock—his church, purchased with his own blood—over which the Holy Spirit has || appointed you as leaders. 29 I know that false teachers, like vicious wolves, will come in among you after I leave, not sparing the flock. 30 Even some men from your own group will rise up and distort the truth in order to draw a following. 31 Watch out! Remember the three years I was with you—my constant watch and care over you night and day, and my many tears for you.
|| 32 “And now I entrust you to God and the message of his grace that is able to build you up and give you an inheritance with all those he has set apart for himself.
33 “I have never coveted anyone’s silver or gold or fine clothes. 34 You know that these hands of mine have worked to supply my own needs and even the needs of those who were with me. 35 And I have been a constant example of how you can help those in need || by working hard. You should remember the words of the Lord Jesus: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”
36 When he had finished speaking, he knelt and prayed with them. 37 They all cried as they embraced and kissed him good-bye. 38 They were sad most of all because he had said that they would never see him again. Then they escorted him down to the ship. (Acts 20, NLT)
There are a few things to point out from this emotional and heartfelt message that Paul shared with the elders of the church in Ephesus. Truthfully, we could probably do a whole series of studies on what Paul said, but I’ll keep it brief this morning.
Paul instructed the elders to keep watch over the flock.
As Jesus is the Good Shepherd, elders in the church are also shepherds of the flock, representing the work of Jesus in the church. That work is all about protecting the flock — the body of Christ.
Keeping watch means knowing when one has gone astray. And like the Jesus’ parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost boy that Luke records for us in his gospel, the elders — the spiritual leaders of the church — have a Spirit given duty and responsibility overseeing the flock under their care and seeking those who have gone astray.
It’s a duty not to be taken lightly or casually, for spiritual lives are at stake!
He warns them about savage or vicious wolves of false teaching. Be sure that the leadership knows what is being taught, what is being shared, and how people are being led. There is a responsibility to ensure that God’s word and nothing else is taught. As our Restoration Movement fore-fathers Alexander and Thomas Campbell and Barton Stone said:
“We have no creed but Christ, no book but the Bible, no law but love, no name but the Divine.”
“Where the scriptures speak, we speak. Where the scriptures are silent, we are silent.” (Thomas Campbell)
“In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity.”
As a church, we must seek God’s word and His grace.
Yes, we are going to make mistakes.
Yes, we are not going to always have the right attitude.
Yes, sometimes we are going to be asleep in church.
Yes, we will sin and fall short of God’s perfect standard.
Yes, we have been given an abundance of His grace, and we must share that grace with all around us, as His word instructs.
In the end, Paul says, it’s about doing God’s work — looking out for those who do not have as much, those who are hurting, those who are suffering — the weak.
The elders in Ephesus, and us today, need to look to Paul’s example of working hard at meeting the needs of those around us.
Help the weak. For as Jesus said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” Now, while you will not find this in the gospels, you can guarantee that it would have been something that Jesus said to his disciples that would have been passed down to Paul as he was taught about Jesus. And what a standard for living our lives today.
3. Finally, as we are serving, we must be ready for whatever comes our way as we serve God.
Paul had listened to the prompting and leading of the Holy Spirit again on this journey.
Remember last time that the Holy Spirit prevented Paul from going further up into Asia, and instead he was directed to go into Macedonia.
This time, the Spirit is driving Paul to go to Jerusalem.
While speaking to the Ephesian elders, he said this:
22 “And now I am bound by the Spirit to go to Jerusalem. I don’t know what awaits me, 23 except that the Holy Spirit tells me in city after city that jail and suffering lie ahead. 24 But my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus—the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God. (Acts 20, NLT)
Why was Paul being sent to Jerusalem?
To continue the work of spreading the good news of God’s grace and His love.
From Paul’s letters to the churches, we also know that he was taking up a collection for the church in Jerusalem, which was very poor.
Barclay, William. The Acts of the Apostles (The New Daily Study Bible) (p. 170). Presbyterian Publishing Corporation. Kindle Edition.
William Barclay says:
Paul pressed on with this [plan] for two reasons. First, he wished in the most practical way to emphasize the unity of the Church. He wanted to demonstrate that they belonged to the body of Christ and that when one part of the body suffered all must help. In other words, he wanted to take them away from a merely congregational outlook and to give them a vision of the one universal Church of which they were part. Second, he wanted to teach them practical Christian charity. Doubtless when they heard of the poverty and need of the Christians in Jerusalem they felt sorry. He wanted to teach them that sympathy must be translated into action. These two lessons are as valid today as ever they were.
So on to Jerusalem Paul goes.
When they leave Miletus, they sail east, heading in a Jerusalem direction.
On their way, they stop in Caesarea, which was not far from Jerusalem.
It is there that Paul and his traveling companions encounter a Jewish prophet from Judea.
Luke records for us this story in Acts 21:
7 The next stop after leaving Tyre was Ptolemais, where we greeted the brothers and sisters and stayed for one day. 8 The next day we went on to Caesarea and stayed at the home of Philip the Evangelist, one of the seven men who had been chosen to distribute food. 9 He had four unmarried daughters who had the gift of prophecy.
10 Several days later a man named Agabus, who || also had the gift of prophecy, arrived from Judea. 11 He came over, took Paul’s belt, and bound his own feet and hands with it. Then he said, “The Holy Spirit declares, ‘So shall the owner of this belt be bound by the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem and turned over to the Gentiles.’” 12 When we heard this, we and the local believers all begged Paul not to go on to Jerusalem.
13 But he said, “Why all this weeping? You are breaking my heart! I am ready not only to be jailed at || Jerusalem but even to die for the sake of the Lord Jesus.” 14 When it was clear that we couldn’t persuade him, we gave up and said, “The Lord’s will be done.” (Acts 21, NLT)
Paul did not deter from his mission of spreading the gospel and bringing a sense of unity to the church, despite being begged not to go.
He was given a task to do by Jesus, and no matter what, he was going to see it through to the end.
We too have been given a task to do by Jesus.
Jesus Isn't Just Savior, He is Lord
Source: Jeremy McKeen, “Because He Lives” Truth Point Church Blog (3-11-16)
https://www.preachingtoday.com/illustrations/2019/august/jesus-isnt-just-savior-he-is-lord.html
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Matthew’s Gospel ends with Jesus saying to his followers:
18 …“All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 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, 20 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. (Matthew 28, NKJV)
Jesus isn’t just a Savior; he’s the Lord. In other words, he’s the one who calls the shots. But remember that obedience stems from worship. The worship and love of Jesus always precedes faithful obedience to Jesus.
It’s like in the beginning of the film The Princess Bride. When Princess Buttercup would ask Wesley to do something, all Wesley would say was, “As you wish.” And soon Buttercup realized that what Wesley was really saying was, “I love you.” His joyful obedience to her commands flowed out of his great love for her.
It’s the same way with Jesus. The more you love him, the more you want to obey him. The more we will say, “As you wish.”
Paul indeed did get arrested in Jerusalem, as the prophet and his traveling companions warned.
But through his arrest, he was able to share the story of his conversion, of the grace that Jesus showed him, of the love that God has for us.
This morning, are we willing to stand up and share the gospel, share God’s love, share God’s grace, regardless of what opposition we may face?
Are we strong enough to spread the gospel?
We have been given the instruction to go.
Are we willing to be like Paul, and follow God’s instructions, no matter what may happen?
Conclusion
Paul’s third journey was not an easy one.
Along the way, there were others who opposed Paul, who tried to hurt Paul, who even tried to have him killed. You can read about a plot to kill him at the beginning of Acts 20.
While his journey was not easy by any stretch of the imagination, Paul was committed to his Savior and Lord — committed to spreading the gospel — to sharing the good news of God’s grace.
After all, Paul himself was probably one of the greatest recipients of grace that one could ever find. After persecuting the church, he became the biggest champion for Jesus, telling everyone he could in any place he could about the change that Jesus had made in his life.
Today, our lives are certainly not under any of the threats that Paul experienced.
We have it pretty easy.
No one is going to arrest us if we tell someone about Jesus.
No one is going to try to kill us if we share God’s love with our neighbor.
We may offend some folks.
We may lose some friends here or there because we stand up for what is right, what is true, what is pure and noble.
We may not get the promotion at work because we do not go out socializing after work at happy hours, drinking the night away.
But life really isn’t that hard for us in our community, in our country.
There’s no real reason that should keep us from sharing God’s love and grace just like Paul, except that we have not personally truly and completely experienced that love and grace.
If we haven’t experienced it for ourselves, we don’t have a story to tell.
So I would challenge us this morning to really look at our lives. Are we living it all in for Jesus, like Paul? Or are we just coasting along, falling asleep in church, because we just have not experienced the true change that Jesus brings when we surrender our lives to Him?
It’s a question we have to answer for ourselves.
It’s a question I challenge you to answer today.
