How do we care for one another? audio (6MB)
Acts 20:1-12
If you were here last week you’ll remember that Ephesus has just been engulfed by a tremendous riot: with people shouting out their city slogan – “great is Artemis of the Ephesians”, protesting at this new religion that Paul had brought to their fair city. Of course their protest wasn’t really about religion it was about market economics. Paul was ruining the trade in silver statues of the god Artemis.
So what does Paul do? He calls the disciples together and says farewell. So was he just running away? Getting out before someone got to him directly? Perhaps he figured he deserved some well-earned R&R – a few months off in Greece to recover from the stress of the past few weeks?
The first verses of the chapter actually remind me a bit of my long service leave last year. A long string of cities visited with 3 or 4 days in each place until each city looks the same as the last.
But there’s actually a lot more to it than that. Look at the previous chapter, in v21: “21Now after these things had been accomplished, Paul resolved in the Spirit to go through Macedonia and Achaia, and then to go on to Jerusalem. He said, "After I have gone there, I must also see Rome." 22So he sent two of his helpers, Timothy and Erastus, to Macedonia, while he himself stayed for some time longer in Asia.” (Acts 19:21-22) So Paul has already planned to leave soon and the riot has just been the catalyst to get him going.
And notice what it is he’s planning: first a visit to Macedonia and Achaia, i.e. Greece, then a voyage to Jerusalem, then after that a trip to Rome.
So what’s going on? Well, we learn from a number of his letters that he has a project to raise money for the church in Jerusalem that’s under huge persecution. Perhaps he feels a degree of responsibility for the Church there since he was one of those who first began persecuting of them. In any case he knows how hard it is to live in a place where to be a Christian invites opposition. So he’s been going around all the churches where he’s preached the gospel encouraging them to give money to help the Christian brothers and sisters in Jerusalem.
We also learn that he’s realised that his work in Asia and Greece has finished. He’s established churches in all the main cities and now it’s time to move on to green fields, namely Rome and after that Spain.
But before he leaves altogether he wants to revisit these churches in Macedonia and Achaia where the Christians are also experiencing persecution. The collection for Jerusalem may be part of his concern but strengthening the church is the main thing.
We see this desire in the very first verse: “Paul sent for the disciples; and after encouraging them and saying farewell, he left for Macedonia.” He spends his last hours with the church encouraging them, presumably to remain strong in their faith. We’ll see next week that he’ll return for a brief visit after being in Greece, again to encourage and strengthen them. Then in the next verse we’re told he went through those regions and [gave] the believers much encouragement.
Imagine you’re one of those Christians in places like Philippi, or Thessalonica, or Berea where the opposition was so bad that Paul was only able to stay for a short time before being forced to leave. You’re trying to stay strong in your faith but it’s very difficult. But then Paul turns up to remind you of all that he taught you when he was there. Imagine how encouraged you’d be to know that he hadn’t abandoned you altogether; that he was willing to risk his life by coming back to encourage you in your faith.
We’re told he went through the region of Macedonia and eventually came to Greece, where he stayed for three months. We’re not told where but the general consensus is that he stayed in Corinth. And the main reason he stayed three months was probably that he was waiting for the winter to pass so it’d be safe to take a boat back to Jerusalem. But his time wasn’t wasted.
If you read his letters to the Corinthians you’ll see that he had a somewhat turbid relationship with the church there so he no doubt had much to talk to them about. We also think that it’s during this three month period that he wrote his letter to the Romans, with his final note indicating his wish to visit them on his way to Spain.
I wonder if you’ve ever had the experience of having everything neatly planned for the next venture in your Christian life and everything goes wrong. And you wonder why. Well that’s what happens to Paul here. He’s waited three months for the weather to clear, he’s just about to set sail for Syria, when he hears of a plot to kill him. So he changes his mind. He decides to return via Macedonia.
At this point Luke decides that he should tell us a bit about Paul’s travelling companions. Notice the long list of people who accompanied Paul. It’s interesting that although it’s Paul we hear of as the Apostle to the Gentiles, he rarely goes alone.
But the list here is interesting because it highlights the multicultural aspect of Paul’s ministry and it shows the value he places on all the churches that he’s ministered to. There’s Sopater from Berea, in Macedonia; Aristarchus and Secundus from Thessalonica; Gaius from Derbe; Timothy, Tychicus and Trophimus from the region of Asia, Luke from Philippi and of course Paul from Tarsus in the region of Syria. I include Luke because he suddenly starts using ‘we’ rather than ‘they’ in vs 5&6, indicating, presumably, that he’s joined them in Philippi.
Notice, too, that Paul travels, not just with a team, but with a team that expresses the power of the gospel. In this group we see the way the gospel has spread through every region between Jerusalem and Corinth. This is a truly multicultural group, united in Christ to help keep the church strong. You know, despite the common language they spoke and the small distances apart each of these regions would have been as locally patriotic as we are today, so for this group to be united by their faith in Christ says a lot, just as our multicultural churches show the uniting power of the gospel.
But this group also shows the effectiveness of Paul’s ministry. Each of these men would have been converted on one or other of Paul’s three missionary journeys. And thirdly, it shows the mission-minded attitude of the early churches. Each of these men would have been among the leadership of their local church and those churches have sent them out with Paul to join his gospel proclamation.
Their presence with Paul would also have been important for the collection for the saints in Jerusalem. They’d no doubt have been able to witness to the fact that their churches had also been involved in this fundraising effort, that it wasn’t just Paul’s idea.
Well, they come to Troas, Paul and Timothy having first stayed in Philippi for the Feast of Unleavened Bread. This is part of the Passover festival, but it’s more likely that they stayed in Philippi to celebrate Easter, which of course coincides with Passover. Again, what an encouragement for the Christians in Philippi!
They stay a week in Troas and at the end of the week Paul gives one final sermon. We’re told this was on the first day of the week, that is, Sunday, when they gathered together to break bread together. It’s interesting isn’t it, that even at this early stage it seems the church had begun to celebrate the Lord’s Supper on a Sunday, though probably on a Sunday night after everyone had finished work?
This isn’t a modern style of sermon, notice. The expression that’s used is “Paul was holding a discussion with them”. This is a dialogue sermon if you like: a question and answer style presentation, which may be why it goes on until midnight. It’s held in an upstairs room, presumably in someone’s house, and given that there were many lamps burning it may have been a wealthy person’s home. But while that may have given lots of light it also took oxygen out of the air. Maybe it’s Luke’s medical training that alerts him to the cause of the young man’s drowsiness. I might add that it wouldn’t have been helped by a large crowd being gathered together in the room.
Well, the young man’s drowsiness turns into sleep, except he’s sitting on a windowsill and falls three floors to his death, rudely interrupting the sermon. Paul races down with everyone else, picks him up and he comes back to life.
Now this isn’t the first time Paul has been responsible for a healing miracle. In the previous chapter we read that people would take home a handkerchief that Paul had touched and it would heal someone who was sick or cast out their demons. But here it’s even more extreme. It feels like Luke wants us to think about Elijah or Elisha, bringing those two sons of their hostesses back to life.
But in fact I think it’s more than even that. When Luke begins this account he says “1In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach.” (Acts 1:1) Then he goes on to describe the way Jesus’ work continues through the apostles: here even to the extent of repeating Jesus greatest healing miracles. In fact in John 14 Jesus says that they’ll do even greater works than he did because of the Holy Spirit that he’ll send to be with them.
Now we’ve run out of time since you don’t want to be here until the evening – by the way did you notice that after this Paul went back upstairs and kept speaking until dawn!
What do we see in this short passage about what mattered to Paul? Certainly he was concerned about the church in Jerusalem, but we find that explained more in his letters than in Luke’s account. No, what’s clear from this passage is that Paul was greatly concerned that his followers would remain true to the gospel. This is why he went back a number of times to these churches. This is why he wrote so many letters to the churches he’d been at: because he knew how hard it would be to remain faithful in the face of opposition.
Can I say that this is still our struggle? And this is still our mission. How are you at encouraging your fellow Christians here in Oakleigh to remain faithful to God’s word, to Jesus Christ? This is my job and Greg and Sharon’s job and Alasdair’s job, but it’s also your job. Jesus has put us in churches so we can stir one another up to love and good works. Do you think about that as you’re chatting over morning tea after the service or when you’re talking to your friends on the phone? This is your take away question to think about this week. How can you encourage your fellow parishioners to persevere in their faith? And for that matter how can you encourage your non-Christian friends to come and discover Jesus so they too can have faith in him? I’ll leave you to think about that.
