Acts 20:1-16 | Paul's Ministry Example

This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.

Do all of you know that I have never been in a church that can work so well in the themes brought together in a children's dedication with a sermon so well.

We have an excellent musical team.

John Webb, thank you for planning our service this morning.

All of our musicians, thank you for all of the time you put in.

We appreciate you so much.

You can clap.

That's okay.

An even bigger thing to celebrate, and she didn't know this when she told me this this morning, was I don't know that I have ever met very many people who can remember the day of their baptism 68 years later.

This is Shirley's 68th anniversary of her baptism.

So praise the Lord for your faithfulness, Shirley.

We thank you.

Thank you for your rest of us hope.

Praise the Lord.

One more little thing before we open our Bibles again to Acts.

Some of you have already heard that our ministry associate Carl Krauss has accepted a new position as the CEF director in the Minot region.

And so they will, the Krausses will be leaving us uh soon to move to the Minot area to serve the Lord there.

But that also means then that we will be in need here at Faith of a part-time children's ministry director in the very near future.

So, Lord willing, in the next week, that's my aim anyway, we'll have the position all detailed on our church website.

So if you or anyone you know of might be interested in that position, please come and talk to me.

Let me know.

Check it out on the website this week, and uh we'll be able to continue serving our kids as obviously we keep having more and more.

So we need that help.

Please take your Bible again to Acts chapter 20 as we consider for a few moments this short section that we read a while ago.

Acts 20 · chapter mention

The whole chapter, Acts chapter 20, is a single unit.

Acts 20 · chapter mention

So we need to think about it that way, but we only have time this morning to consider the first half.

And within that first half of Acts chapter 20, Paul's long-winded preaching is most often what is remembered.

Acts 20 · chapter mention

I mean, Paul might be the only person to be able to honestly, truthfully say that his preaching killed someone.

Thankfully, I haven't arrived there yet.

But I want to suggest that Paul's long-windedness is not the point Luke desires to leave us with.

Nor is Eudicus's death the point we must remember.

Instead, Luke's record of this stage in the early church is to remind us of the core components of apostolic ministry in the local church.

We're not talking here about the Apostle Paul's evangelism, which is obviously something he continually did.

The apostle is ending the, nearing the end of his third missionary journey.

And at this point, many assemblies of believers are gathering together in communities all across Asia and into Europe now.

So this section of Acts describes Paul's ministry to those small gatherings of believers, and it reveals some core commitments that ought to be core commitments of every church's ministry.

Luke reveals that the ministry of the early church was grounded in Paul's example of continuing to proclaim the life and ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ.

We see this reality in four components of Paul's church ministry.

We don't have time to really jump into these in depth, so we're just going to survey them briefly.

The first core component is encouragement.

We see this in the first few verses of chapter 20, where the word encourage, in fact, is repeated twice.

Verse 1, Paul sent for the disciples, and after encouraging them in Ephesus, he said farewell and went to Macedonia.

When he had gone through those regions and had given them much encouragement, he went on to Greece.

That encouragement is given to the assemblies of believers all around the region of the Aegean Sea.

So chapter 19 has Paul in the city of Ephesus in Asia Minor.

If you're familiar with modern geography, it's generally considered to be the modern Turkish city of Izmir.

Right, right, near the coast.

That's where he is in chapter 19.

And at the end of chapter 20, he's going to return there.

So next Sunday, we will return and look at him being back in the same place.

But between the end of chapter 19 and the end of chapter 20, there is a whole bunch of traveling.

Try to illustrate this for you.

On the right hand of this map, on the very bottom is the city of Ephesus.

Paul goes north on that orange line, all the way up to Troaz, crosses the Aegean Sea over to Philippi, comes down through Macedonia, all the way down on the edge of the coastline to Greece, and then he decides, oh, I need to go back.

But I'm not going to go back by sea, I'm going to go back by land.

And so he goes north again through Greece, Macedonia, all the way back up to Philippi.

All of this traveling is either by boat or by foot.

Two primary ways of traveling.

Then it continues on.

He goes from Philippi down again towards the south, across the Aegean Sea, back to Troaz.

He's now back in the area of Asia Minor.

And then, the end of our text here, he goes from Troas, which is now at the top of this image, all the way down to Miletus.

And you can see a little black dot that is in between the very bottom city and the big word Lydia.

That is Ephesus, where we start.

All of that traveling is in this chapter.

It isn't easy to know how long this travel period lasted.

We're told in verse 3 that he spent three months just in Greece.

We see some other places where he spent a few days here and a few days there.

But given that travel was most likely by foot, and travel by boat was not necessarily fast and not safe, it's possible that these six, these first six verses may cover four months, maybe five months.

The whole chapter may cover as many as six to twelve months.

All condensed into a short travel narrative.

But that's not the point.

The travel's not the point.

The point is more represented by looking at this picture.

Because all along this upside down U-shape are scattered gatherings of baby Christians all over in communities, from place to place.

So in our way of thinking today, all of these places that Paul stops to encourage are still in church plant mode.

There are small groups of people gathering in a home, maybe in a couple of homes.

Church buildings didn't exist yet.

And the number of Christians was small enough to fit in a house or two.

There's always a safety element.

Christians weren't always welcome.

In fact, in verse 3 of chapter 20, Paul gets chased out.

He discovers there's a target on his back.

So he has to quickly leave town.

There's a plot against him.

So picture this apostle as a loving, concerned parent of a college student.

Let that sit for a minute because I know it doesn't compute very easily.

Stick with me.

Picture the apostle Paul as the parent of a loving parent, a concerned parent of a college student.

He knows that he can't be with his children all of the time anymore.

They have to learn to survive in the world independently of his leadership, of his direction, of his protection.

All the while knowing that this is a world that is suspicious at best of his children.

At worst, they might want his children dead.

And these children are young in the faith.

They had decades of maturing ahead of them.

Along with spiritual dangers all along the way.

They have to learn where the pitfalls in life are and to avoid those.

So Paul is like that loving parent who takes whatever time he has to visit his children, to encourage them to stand firm in their faith.

He provides a little instruction, a little direction, and he points them to Jesus.

Now, while our circumstances are vastly different, churches today still need encouragement.

The question is, how do we do that?

We could probably take a poll this morning and come up with a dozen or more different ways that we might think churches need encouragement.

But instead of thinking about opinions, let's think about what Scripture says about encouragement.

How are churches to be encouraged?

Well, one way is found in Romans chapter 1 and verse 12, and that is through our faith.

Romans 1 · chapter mention

Paul says he prays that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith.

This is why we appreciate fellowship time at our church.

It's an opportunity to be encouraged by our faith.

This is why we encourage you to participate in fellowship groups during our school year.

Because that is a way that God has ordained for us to be encouraged as a church.

Another way is found also in Romans, Romans chapter 15, verse 4, and that is through the scriptures.

Romans 15:4

Again, the same apostle says that it's that what was written in former days in the scriptures was written for our instruction to help us learn, so that through endurance, keeping on going, and through the encouragement of the scriptures, we might have hope.

In other words, it's looking back and saying, look what all of those old saints endured.

We can be encouraged in our life of faith in the same way.

Philippians chapter 2 illustrates another way to be encouraged, and that is by remembering Jesus.

Philippians 2 · chapter mention

That chapter of Philippians 2 starts with, so if there is, it's a way of writing in Paul's Greek that indicates that it's, he's assuming it's true, that there is going to be encouragement.

If there is any encouragement in Christ, because there is encouragement in Christ, and comfort and love goes on to talk about several items there, but his focus is on Jesus.

He's saying, listen, as you gather together, you know there is encouragement to be found in remembering Jesus.

There's also encouragement to be found by being in it, in the life of faith together.

There's a reason why gathering together is so critical for a Christian.

Paul prays that the Colossians' hearts may be encouraged.

How?

By being knit together in love.

Any knitters in here?

You take yarn and you make knots, you weave it in and out, and you put it all together so it's knit together, right?

Hearts are encouraged by being knit together in love.

That's by spending time together.

Oh, there's one more.

There's lots more, actually.

But Hebrews chapter 10, verse 25.

Hebrews 10:25

It's by meeting together.

The writer of the Hebrews tells his readers to not neglect meeting together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another by meeting together, and all the more as you see the day drawing nearer.

So here are some ways that Scripture says churches today can be encouraged.

This is what Paul was doing.

As he's going from place to place to place, he's not spending a ton of time at each place, but like a parent, a loving parent of a college student, he's spending whatever time he has to encourage them.

And these are some of the ways he may have done it.

But there's a second core component, and that is development and training.

We see this in verses 4, 5, and 6.

Did you pick up when we were reading through this the first time that Paul's ministry team expanded?

If you've been with us through this whole series, you might have picked up on that.

Because we've watched as Paul traveled first with Barnabas, and then for a little short time, Paul and Barnabas and John Mark.

And then it was Paul and Silas, and then Timothy joined.

Here, in verse 5, we see this little pronoun us, which tells us that Luke is with them here.

But look at who else is included.

Sopater.

That's not the point.

The point is he's from Berea.

A place where Paul stopped to preach the gospel and a church started.

There's Sopater, the Berean.

There's Aristarchus and Secundus, who are from Thessalonica, another place where Paul stopped to proclaim the gospel, and through hardship and persecution, a church grew up.

There's Gaius, along with Timothy, from the city of Derby in Asia Minor.

There's Tychicus and Trophimus, who are also from somewhere in Asia Minor.

Paul's ministry team has grown to almost ten men.

And these ten men come from areas where Paul has preached Christ and God has raised up a church.

So these eight plus Timothy men are like Timothy.

They become apprentices, disciples, who will at one point preach Christ, minister to his church on their own.

We are not far from Paul's imprisonment and death.

What happens then?

Oh, we lose Paul.

But the church continues because there's Luke, there's Timothy, there's Sopater, there's Aristarchus, there's Secundus, there's Gaius, there's Timothy, there's Tychicus, there's Trophimus, and a host of other people.

Many of these faithful men are mentioned in other places in the New Testament.

So Paul is training other faithful men who can diligently carry on the work of the ministry.

This is vital.

Because as we will see in continuing chapters, this is Paul's last journey in freedom.

He will soon be arrested and sent to Rome in chains and there be martyred.

Faithfulness in ministry has always, from the very beginning, had development and training of faithful people as a core component.

This is how the Lord designed his church to continue.

I'm so thankful that faith is that kind of place.

Only eternity will show the value and the reward of such a focus.

Because more development and more training means more encouragement.

It means more effective ministry and greater church longevity.

But there's a third component, and that is shepherding care.

We've seen this in verse 2, and then in the main narrative element of this story of Eudicus.

Now, what comes to mind when you think of shepherding care?

Just process that for a moment.

Shepherding care, what does that mean?

Now you might think in general terms like compassion, comfort, encouragement.

You might think in specific terms like, hey, somebody gives me a phone call to check in to see how I'm doing, or someone will visit me while I'm in the hospital, or any other number of either general or specific elements.

So what is it?

These kinds of concepts are all related to shepherding care, but they more accurately describe how shepherding care is given and the results of that care in an individual.

So, for example, compassion, comfort, encouragement, those kinds of things.

They don't tell us what shepherding care is, they show us how shepherding care feels and the result of it.

So, what is shepherding care?

Again, I think it's good for us to find our definitions from scripture.

A good place to start might be many of your favorite psalm.

The Lord is my shepherd.

What do we find in Psalm 23 about shepherding care?

I could go on for probably four sermons on that, and I'm not going to.

So let me just summarize them.

I think we find there that shepherding care is attentive.

It pays attention to what the flock and the sheep in the flock need.

Right?

The shepherd leads me beside still waters.

He knows that I need to drink.

He knows that sheep need to drink from still water because they're afraid of fast-flowing white water.

He knows that they need green grass.

A place where they can lie down and feed in stillness.

It's attentive.

It's directive.

The shepherd makes the sheep do certain things for their good.

We don't see this real clearly in our English translation, but in the Hebrew of that text, God is behind the scene causing these things.

He makes me lie down.

The shepherd knows what's good for us, and so he's directive in his care.

Shepherding care provides necessary nourishment.

It's restorative.

He restores my soul.

Shepherding care leads for the sake of Christ.

It's all pointed towards the good shepherd.

Those are just a few details of God's shepherding care for his sheep.

But that shepherding care is to be mirrored.

Within Christ's church.

And we see some of those characteristics in the Apostle Paul's ministry.

So first we see extensive preaching and teaching.

When Paul knew this was the last time that he would see these people, he spent more time preaching and teaching.

You can look forward to that day when I know I'm going to die.

I'm going to preach more.

Now I mentioned that encouragement is mentioned twice in the first two verses.

Luke uses the same word, encouragement, that Jesus used for the Holy Spirit in John 14, 26.

Jesus said, I will send you another helper, another comforter.

It's the same word.

It means to come alongside another as an encourager, as a strengthener, as a supporter.

And that's the word that we find here in Acts 20, verse 2.

Acts 20:2

When he had gone through those regions and had given them much helping, supporting, encouraging stuff.

Acts 20, verse 2, however, adds some descriptive words that reveal exactly how Paul encouraged these churches.

Acts 20:2

Unfortunately, the English Standard Version that we use here doesn't translate these words specifically, but many other translations do.

So for example, the New King James is very similar to the NIV when it says, Now when he had gone over that region and encouraged them how?

With many words.

He talked a lot.

That's how he encouraged.

The apostolic means of encouragement was lots of preaching.

We find that beginning in verse 7 with the believers gathered at Troas.

They're gathered together in a third floor room.

And they ate together, perhaps including the Lord's table.

And Paul talked.

And talked.

And talked until midnight.

There's some fascinating background information here.

Because in that culture, nighttime gatherings were viewed with suspicion.

They were often what we might call today immoral parties because there wasn't much light.

And when you don't have much light, sin thrives in the darkness.

And Luke takes very special care here to note that this talking goes on into the night.

But this gathering is not just out where everybody can see it, it's upstairs.

And not just upstairs, it's on the third floor.

Which makes it kind of suspicious.

So Luke takes very special care to say there's a window, there's lots of light, and what went on?

Talking.

Lots of talking.

All the way till midnight.

So much so that a young man falls asleep because he's sitting in a windowsill, he flips over backwards, falls down three stories, splat, and dies.

Paul is talking the whole time.

And if that's not enough, Paul goes down, raises him from the dead, goes back upstairs, has a bite to eat, and keeps on talking till morning.

That's what he does.

This is a display, my friends, of apostolic shepherding.

Paul gives them the words of life.

He gives them the bread of life.

He preaches and teaches and encourages with the words of life.

So notice then that Luke isn't speaking poorly of Paul by recording how long-winded he is.

This isn't to knock on long sermons.

It's the opposite.

Luke is displaying the apostles' shepherding care.

Knowing that this is his last opportunity to shepherd them well, he preached and taught longer, pouring out a smorgasbord of provisions for his flock.

But that's not the only kind of provision that Paul was concerned about.

Don't get this idea that Paul's just a long-winded preacher, even if it is a positive thing.

Paul's concerned about the whole aspect of our well-being.

Because we know he also cared about the poor.

What?

I didn't see anything about the poor here.

No, you don't.

We don't know why Luke didn't include it.

But we know from Romans 15, verse 28, and 1 Corinthians 16, verse 1, that Paul on his return journey is taking up a collection, an offering.

Romans 15:28 1 Corinthians 16:1

At every place that he stops, he's gathering funds because there's been a lack of food in Jerusalem and in Judea.

And he wants to be able to go back to Jerusalem and hand the elders of the church in Jerusalem a bunch of money to be able to take care of poor believers who are struggling to find enough food to eat.

That's happening all in the background of this travel text.

So part of the reason that we see all of these stops is because Paul's saying, I want all of you to have an opportunity to meet the physical needs of other believers you have never and may never meet until heaven.

Because you have enough to eat, and you have some money beyond that, so you can help them eat.

That's in the background of all of this.

Apostolic ministry then has shepherding care as a core component, as should our churches today.

And we ought to care for the poor among our gatherings, the believers among us.

And we should care mightily about the spiritual food provided.

Any church that does not care for its own through spiritual and physical provision is falling short.

Any church that does not prioritize the word of God, its teaching and practice is falling short.

And the shorter the time, the more necessary it is to speak the word of God.

Now let me give you the most vital component of Paul's ministry.

That is conveying the resurrection life of Jesus.

You don't have to spend very many Easters in a church before hearing something about 1 Corinthians 15.

There the Apostle Paul wrote to the church of Corinth and southern Greece, reminding them, he says, For I delivered to you what was of first primary importance.

And he said, What I delivered to you is something that I also received.

It's what I learned, what I was taught.

That Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that being dead, he was buried in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was raised on the third day, in accordance with the scriptures.

There's the gospel, my friends.

And if you have not come to believe in that message that Christ died for you, he was buried and raised again in demonstration of his deity.

My friend, you're lost.

Find your hope by believing in Jesus.

Place your faith and trust in him alone.

Because it's there that we find life.

Jesus said, I have come that they might have life and have it abundantly.

The Lord's resurrection is a critical theme in the book of Acts, one of the core components of the gospel message.

The book of Acts exists because Jesus rose from the dead.

And this reality was so impactful that it became a compulsive motivator to spread the resurrection life of Jesus as far as people could take it.

It was of utmost importance to the Apostle Paul.

Moreover, that message was given the utmost credibility when Paul nonchalantly raises a guy from the dead.

Some have said that Eudicus didn't die.

Maybe he was just knocked unconscious.

Because Paul goes down and wraps his arms around him and says, His life is in him.

However, Luke plainly says that the man was taken up dead.

You see that?

Verse 9.

He fell down from the third story and was taken up dead.

Paul comes downstairs to him, and then they took the youth up alive.

Dead alive.

We either accept and believe the plain reading of the text, or we make it say something that Luke doesn't say.

I prefer the plain reading.

He was dead.

Paul goes down and raises him from the dead.

So Luke paints a picture of the apostle as though he's the New Testament version of Elijah, of Elisha, who's carrying on the resurrection life of the Lord Jesus Christ.

This is proof that the resurrection life of Jesus is present and active among his people.

Christ is active from his place in heaven, fulfilling his word and expanding his kingdom because Christ is alive.

Paul's actions are almost normal.

In a strange way.

Luke proves to us in this that Jesus is not only alive, but Jesus is working.

We may not see it all the time, or to the extent that we do hear, but Jesus is working.

And the Lord's churches must proclaim that resurrection life.

We must proclaim that the God who raised his only begotten Son, the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead, meant for you and for me to believe in him for our salvation.

We must know Christ and the power of his resurrection so that we might live and suffer for him in a sin-cursed world with hope and strength, becoming like him even in his death, Philippians 3.10.

We must know and speak about the living hope that comes through the resurrection of Christ from the dead, 1 Peter 1.3.

We must live with the boldness and the strength that comes from knowing that the second death of eternal judgment will never touch the one who believes in Jesus, Romans 6.9.

We must live out the resurrection life of Jesus because the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in us and gives life to our mortal bodies through the Spirit to live for Him.

Romans 8.11, 2 Corinthians 5.15.

My friends, this is not a simple travel narrative.

Oh yeah, he travels a lot.

But Acts 20 begins with a straightforward statement of Paul going from place to place, summarizing the last visits of an apostle to his church plants.

It does that.

But it's so much more.

It guides us to see what the Apostle Paul considered to be essential components of ministry in those early church years, which are still essential today.

It must be our prayer here at faith that we would rise to follow in Paul's steps of encouraging one another, of developing and training others to serve Christ, of shepherding well through the word of God and conveying the resurrection life of Christ.

May he be pleased to do that through us.

Would you pray with me?

Lord Jesus, hear our prayer.

Hear our prayer that you would fill us by your Spirit to accomplish your purpose in us.

Thank you for the challenge of Paul.

Forgive us of our shortcomings.

But thank you that you've given us your spirit and through your spirit the empowerment to be obedient so that you might work through us.

Display your power in and through us, that resurrection power so that others might know the life of Christ in them, so that we might turn and give praise and honor and glory to you as your church.

Amen.

That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.

Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.

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