Acts 20:1, After the uproar had ceased, Paul called the disciples
to himself, embraced them, and departed to go to Macedonia.
After the dust settled
from the silversmith inspired uproar, Paul said his goodbyes to the disciples
at Ephesus.
Not because of the
uproar, he’d planned his departure before that happened. He’d already invested
over 2 years there and it was time to go.
2 Now when he had gone over that region and encouraged them with
many words, he came to Greece 3and stayed three months.
Paul revisited the Churches, because soul winning is just the beginning, disciple
making is never ending.
3...And when
the Jews plotted against him as he was about to sail to
Syria, he decided to return through Macedonia.
The Jews, refers to the religious
folks. Paul was Jewish too.
Evidently the plot
against Paul had something to do with sailing, so he returned by land rather than
by sea.
4 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.
Of these seven men,
notice Aristarchus and Secundus. We’re not told specifically, but their names imply
their status.
Aristarchus, from
which we get our word, aristocrat. Perhaps inferring he’s from nobility.
Secundus, on the
other hand, means, second. In that time, many slaves were called by numbers,
rather than their given names. Perhaps inferring he was on the opposite end of
the social status from Aristarchus.
Their names placed
side by side paints a beautiful picture of purest Christianity.
The slave and the
nobleman sitting side by side studying Scripture; standing shoulder to shoulder
worshipping the Lord.
Family. Good family. God’s
family. Not necessarily blood, but Love. Perhaps noisy and messy and mistake making
but loving and kind and joyfully serving God and each other side by side. No
partiality, no hypocrisy.
I recently had a dear
saint tell me, “I’m so stressed trying to make it on my own.”
That stress is a sign
that it’s not supposed to be that way. We’re not supposed to make it on our own.
We’re part of one body. One family. Helping one another, praying for one another
and bearing one another’s burdens. James 5:16. Gal. 6:2.
In His powerful prayer
of John 17, Jesus prayed, five times, that we’d be one.
In Galatians 3:28
Paul says it like this: There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male
nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Do you
feel alone? Disconnected? It's not supposed to be that way. In the beginning He
created them, male and female, and the two became one, family.
Jesus created out of
thin air a family, a Church family, right here, just for you, so you don’t have
to go it alone. You don’t have to make it on your own.
5 These men, going ahead,
waited for us at Troas. 6But we sailed away from
Philippi after the Days of Unleavened Bread, and in five days joined
them at Troas, where we stayed seven days.
Speaking of family. Notice the words “us”
and “we”. Luke (the writer of Acts) joins them once again in Philippi.
The Feast of Unleavened
Bread spans seven days immediately following Passover.
Not that they
celebrated Passover in the manner of the Jews. About this time Paul wrote a
letter to the Corinthians explaining that Christ is our Passover,
and the Christian life is our unleavened, (sin removed)
lifestyle. 1 Corinthians 5:7.
7 Now on the first day of the week, when the disciples
came together to break bread...
As a memorial to the Lord
being resurrected on the 1st day of the week, Sunday, Christians chose that
day to gather.
Not the Sabbath, not Saturday.
They called it the Lord’s Day. So, perhaps instead of Sunday, we ought to call it, Sonday.
It wasn’t a demand;
it was a desire.
Mark 2:27, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man
for the Sabbath.
Romans 14:6, One person
esteems one day above another; another esteems every day alike. Let
each be fully convinced in his own mind.
In Christ, every day
is Holy.
They broke bread,
they remembered the Lord’s supper, as we do the first Sunday of each month.
7...Paul,
ready to depart the next day, spoke to them and continued his message until
midnight.
Whoa. Marathon
Message on a workday?
The first day,
Sunday, was like our Monday, a workday.
Folks came to Church
after work.
Paul was leaving the
next day. So, since it was a workday, and Paul was leaving the next day, you’d
think, they would have an early night, right?
Nope.
Paul preached until
Midnight.
8 There were many lamps in the upper room where they were
gathered together.
It was dark, so they needed lamps. It was early
spring, (March or April), so it may have been a beautiful cool evening.
9 And in a
window sat a certain young man named Eutychus, who was sinking into a deep
sleep. He was overcome by sleep...
Perhaps he sat in the cool air of the window, away
from the heat of the oil lamps to try and stay awake.
The original grammar implies he slowly nodded off until
finally being overcome by a deep sleep.
I know some folks know exactly what that’s like. I’ve
watched them nod off while I’m preaching.
It’s okay. Regarding sleeping in Church, Charles Spurgeon
said he’d rather you get half a meal, than no meal at all.
However, John Wesley took a totally different
approach. He stopped preaching to stare at the man who’d fallen asleep. Then,
with a loud voice he began to shout, “Fire! Fire! Fire!” The man woke with a
start asking, “Where’s the fire?” Wesley said, “Fire in hell for those who
sleep during the preaching of God’s Word.”
Sleeping in Church isn’t such a great idea, however, there’s
a much worse kind of sleep.
Asleep in the Light.
In Spurgeon’s sermon:
Awake! Awake, he paints three pictures. Patients, passengers and a prisoner.
Patients stricken with the plague, folks everywhere sick
and dying. All the while there’s a doctor with the antidote, the cure, but he’s
asleep in his office.
You, are
that doctor. Awake oh sleeper!
Passengers on a ship in a storm, ready to crash on the
rocks. All the while the captain is asleep, in his quarters.
You are
that captain. Awake oh sleeper, rise
from the dead!
Prisoner being led to execution. All the while the warden
with a pardon in his pocket, is asleep in his chamber.
You are
that warden. Awake oh sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ shall give you
Life. Ephesians 5:14.
1 Thessalonians 5:6-7
Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and
be sober. 7 For those who sleep, sleep at
night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night.
Isaiah 60:1
Arise, shine; For your light has come! And the glory of the LORD is risen upon
you.
Romans 13:11-14
And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep;
for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. 12 The night is
far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness,
and let us put on the armor of light. 13 Let us walk properly, as in the
day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife
and envy. 14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the
flesh, to fulfill its lusts.
It’s not good to
sleep in Church, but better in Church, than in life.
9... and as Paul continued speaking, he fell down from the third
story and was taken up dead.
That’ll wake up the rest of the congregation.
10 But Paul went down, fell on him, and embracing him
said, “Do not trouble yourselves, for his life is in him.”
Now, before you say, “that’s just too weird, why would
he fall on the poor dead boy and embrace him?” Consider that he was simply
following prior powerful examples.
Elijah, 1 Kings 17:8-24,
the widow’s son.
Elisha, 2 Kings 4:18-37,
the Shunammite Woman’s son.
11 Now when he had come up, had broken bread and eaten, and
talked a long while, even till daybreak, he departed. 12 And they brought the
young man in alive, and they were not a little comforted.
Nobody else dared fall asleep the rest of the night.
Notice the focus. Paul didn’t allow the interruption to
derail communicating the Word of God.
The spotlight must remain on the Word of
God.
As we delivered this message we had an interruption, a
Divine object lesson.
J.J, a young man from our village stopped by with his baby,
Maverick.
No matter how good a preacher or how powerful the
message, a newborn baby can steal the spotlight. He did. J.J. held his beautiful
son, and thanked us for praying, and thanked God for saving his son from a near
fatal infection.
We said a prayer and thanked the Lord for Maverick and
family; and then followed the example of our text and continued with the Word.
However, we didn’t stay until midnight, or the break
of day. We followed the old saying that the mind can only absorb what the
backside can endure. 😊
So, we closed by listening to the song by Keith Green,
Asleep in the Light.
Let’s pray.
Lord Jesus, thank You for the wakeup call,
shouting from Your Word, “Fire! Fire! Fire!” Awake oh sleeper!
We see the devil’s counterfeit all around
us “Woke! Woke! Woke!
We pray for Your discernment to know the
difference and not be deceived. Lord, please help us to stay focused on You and Your
Word and give us Your wisdom to apply it, every step, every breath, making a
difference as salt and light, so, that of all those You’ve given us, none will
be lost.
Thank You.
We love You, forever.
Amen.
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Facebook: Asleep
in the Light, Acts 20:1-12
This was feed for you to read. Now it’s Seed for you
to sow.
Thank you for sharing.
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