The Third Missionary Journey – Paul's Care for the Churches

If you would take your Bible, turn to Acts chapter 20. We'll be in verses one to 12, Acts chapter 20. I will mention quite a few other verses that do have a big bearing on these verses and you may want to write them down. Maybe this will prompt you to do some study on your own in the book of Romans and Corinthians, first and second Corinthians. Now at this time in Luke's account of these events, we see a shift. We are still in the third missionary journey, but we are kind of getting on the backside of the third missionary journey. And we know that Paul is about to leave Ephesus for Jerusalem. I like this, it resonated with me.

Jim Boyce calls this section going home because starting in Acts 20 and on into Acts 21, Luke shows us that Paul is on his way to Jerusalem. He's going home. He's going home. But we will see more of the shift that I have mentioned before. Up to this time in Ephesus, Paul was mostly consumed with pioneer evangelism and missions work. Most of his time and efforts were spent evangelizing the lost and planting churches, sometimes in small little towns, maybe we would call them villages and sometimes in larger cities. Athens was a large city, Ephesus was a large city.

But after he left Ephesus, Paul was more and more concerned with the existing churches. We see that he went back and he went back to those churches that he founded. He went back to encourage them. He went back to teach them, obviously to correct them if needed, to lead them. And tonight we will see that he is beginning to write to these churches. We're gonna see where the Corinthian letters come from and the letter to the Romans. Now here in verses, now here in verse one in Acts 20, Paul is still in Ephesus, but he has decided to leave Ephesus and to return to the churches in Macedonia and Achaia, again, on his way to Jerusalem.

But there is something about this first part of chapter 20 that we need to see. Luke is very, very brief here. Luke's report of Paul's visit in Macedonia and Achaia is the shortest and least detailed account of an extended ministry in all of the book of Acts, even more summarized of his ministry in Ephesus that's seen in Acts chapter 19, verses eight to 12. Luke just really summarizes, glosses over a lot. Now, why is this important? What's my point? Why do I bring that up? If we stick with what Luke gives us here in chapter 20, the verses we're gonna cover tonight, we really miss a lot. We really do.

Matter of fact, some scholars kind of skip over it. But if we look at what Paul tells us in certain books that he wrote, we get a much fuller picture of what took place in Macedonia and Achaia. I will explain some. If you do some study, you'll see what commentators say. They fill in the blanks here. But while in Macedonia, he waited for Titus to give him a report about things in Corinth. We know that because we see it in 2 Corinthians 2.13, 2 Corinthians 7.6 and 7.13. And again, he sent Titus to Corinth. We know that because 2 Corinthians 8.6 and 16 to 17 tell us. And this is when he wrote his second letter to the Corinthians.

So the point I'm making here is this. These Corinthian passages shine a lot of light on what we have here in Acts 20. He then went to Corinth. He spent three months there. We're gonna talk about that tonight. We know that because we see it in Acts 20 verse three. Some believe these were winter months because of a reference in 1 Corinthians 16.6. They really didn't travel a lot in the winter. While in Corinth, he wrote the letter to the Romans, took up monetary gifts for those suffering in poverty in Jerusalem. We see this in Romans 15.26, 1 Corinthians 16, 2 to 3, 2 Corinthians 8, 2 to 4. Then he went back to Macedonia or through Macedonia.

And after Passover, he sailed from Philippi to Troas. We see that in Acts 20 verse six. We'll cover that tonight. And he wanted to be in Jerusalem before Pentecost, according to Acts 20 verse 16. Now, what is my point? That's a lot. It probably sounds pretty jumbled up. Obviously, we can see Paul was very busy. Again, if we look at what Luke gives us, it's very, very brief. And it doesn't seem like they did much, but there was lots of ministry going on. We can see he was doing a lot of encouraging and a lot of writing and a lot of sending of people. But one observation, one observation I think is very important. I've mentioned this before.

We are seeing this more and more at first Paul's missions ministry consisted of just two or three or a handful of helpers. Now we see many involved in the ministry. We see many individuals, lots of helpers, lots of ministers, churches, lots of churches involved in gospel in church ministry. Whereas before, Paul and his ministry was like a rifle shot. One shot going from place to place, mostly Paul. Now this ministry, and I'm not saying Paul, because there's lots of other people, it's like buckshot. I mean, it's going many different directions, many different directions. And what were they doing? They're doing the same old thing.

They're evangelizing the lost. They're taking those converts, planting churches. They're working to help those new converts, to teach those believers, to encourage them and to further establish the churches. So this is the growth of the church, the spread of the church, the development of the church and the gospel, church and gospel work. I think you can see it. Now let's turn our attention to these verses. But before we dive in, I wanna point to, I wanna point out what we see here. It's really basic, but powerful. In verses one to 12, really we can say verses one to 17. We do not see any specific instructions.

We do not see anything theological or doctrinal. We do not see anything too specific either. What we have here is this, a very brief basic narrative of Paul's ministry in Macedonia, Greece or Achaia, back to Macedonia in Asia Minor, which is a province of Asia, the Roman province of Asia. And of course he had his eye on getting back to Jerusalem. If you look at your maps, it may help you. It's been a while since I mentioned that. Now, before we get into the verses, I wanna point out what this is all about. To me, this is all about Paul's love for the churches, Paul's care for the churches.

As a matter of fact, John MacArthur titles this section, verses one to 17, for the love of the church. Well, that's accurate and true. But for me, I like to call this Paul's care for the churches. So the title of the message is this, the third missionary journey, Paul's care, Paul's care for the churches. Let's read verses one to 12, verses one to 12. After the uproar ceased, we know that to be the great riot that took place in Ephesus, Paul sent for the disciples or the believers. And after encouraging them, he said farewell and departed from Macedonia. Now we know Macedonia is a region, an area. And we had gone through those regions.

He had given them much encouragement and he came to Greece. There he spent three months. And when a plot was made against him by the Jews, he set sail. He was about to set sail for Syria. He decided to return through Macedonia. Let me pause here. This plot to kill him interrupted his plans to get to Jerusalem. He got there, but he was a little later. Now notice verse four, Sopater, the Berean son of Prius, accompanied him and of the Thessalonians, Aristotarchus and Succidas and Gaius of Derbe and Timothy and the Asians, Tychicus and Trophimus. These went on ahead and they were waiting for us. Now notice us, Luke's involved here now.

He was at Philippi. Now he's back waiting for us at Troas. But we sailed away from Philippi after the days of the unleavened bread. And in five days, we came to them at Troas where he stayed for seven days. On the first day of the week, when we gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with him intending to depart on the next day. And he prolonged his speech until midnight. There were many lamps in the upper room where we had gathered and a young man named Eutychus sitting at the window sank into a deep sleep as Paul talked still longer. And being overcome by sleep, he fell down from the third story and was taken up dead.

But when Paul went down and bent over him and taking him in his arms said, do not be alarmed for.

His life is in him. And when Paul had gone up and had broken bread and even eaten, he conversed with him a long while until daybreak and so departed. And they took the youth away alive, that would be Eutychus and were not a little comforted. Now, let me share with you how we'll look at these verses. First, we will look at Paul's ministry in Ephesus, how it comes to an end, verse one. Second, we'll look at Paul's ministry in the regions. And I say regions plural because he is in several places. As a matter of fact, in verses two to three, Luke covers a lot of ground, a lot of geography. Third, we'll look at Paul's ministry team.

In verses three to six, those strange names represent some interesting people. Then fourth, this worship service in Troas, verses seven to 12, verses seven to 12. So number one, Paul's ministry in Ephesus comes to an end. Now we saw the great riot that took place in Ephesus. And I think it's safe to say that Paul was lucky that he did not get attacked and killed in the riot. He got out unscathed. Of course, we know that Paul was not lucky. Nothing is up to chance. God is in control of all things, and he is especially in control of his work and his people.

But after the town clerk quieted down or brought the riot to an end, the crowd dispersed and went back to work, went back to their homes, went back to their normal lives. But Paul must've realized that his time in Ephesus was up. No doubt he knew that he was unsafe if he stayed. I'm sure he thought that he would have brought danger to the believers in the church if he stayed. So Luke tells us he did three things. First, he met with the church. Now, all the translations say that he sent for the disciples. This would have been the believers, the church.

And since we saw that Paul met with the church in the Hall of Tyrannus, we can assume that he had a similar meeting. They met in the Hall of Tyrannus because that was a suitable meeting place for such a large crowd. Second, he encouraged them. Now, the English standard says he encouraged them. The legacy standard says he exhorted them. The King James says he embraced them. This means to call to one side, to speak to, to admonish, to strengthen, to encourage. So he met with the church, he encouraged the church. And then third, he set out for Macedonia.

Simply, after he had met with the church and the believers to encourage them in the Lord, in the word, to encourage them to continue in the work of the church, he left for Macedonia. So this is very basic. And his ministry and emphasis was coming to an end. He gathered these believers together, obviously to encourage them, to commit them to the Lord, and then to move on. Now, there's a lesson here. The church always needs encouraging. Be on guard against something here, church. Be on guard against always looking for something theological. Be on guard against always looking for something maybe deep.

Be on guard against looking for something that kind of makes you feel good or something you're interested in. Sometimes we just need basic meat and potatoes, encouragement, encouragement. And don't discount this. Don't discount this. Next, number two, Paul's ministry in the regions, verses two and three. I say regions plural. Again, if we look at our maps and look at these regions, we can see that briefly, Luke covers a lot of miles, a lot of geography. Luke tells us that Paul went to the region of Macedonia, into Greece or Achaia and Syria. Then he comes back to Macedonia. And I wanna point out a few things that Luke tells us here.

First, he went through the regions plural. I've already said it, but he went through the regions. Now, we know he first went to Macedonia, but Luke does not tell us where he went and for how long in Macedonia. Now, think about it. We know there are quite a few churches in Macedonia at this time. The church at Philippi, the church at Thessalonica, and the church at Berea. And there may have been other churches. We know that these churches and these Christians were very prolific. And in 2 Corinthians 8, one to five, Paul refers to the churches plural of Macedonia.

One thing that's interesting here, some scholars speculate that Paul traveled to the north, east and evangelized in the area that used to be what we know Yugoslavia or what's called the Balkans today. Now that's based off Romans 15, 19. Of course, we don't know for sure. Luke is just brief here. He's broad in his description, but Paul covered a lot of ground. He visited a lot of churches in Macedonia. Second, he encouraged the believers. Whereas we do not know the specific churches and believers he ministered to, Luke does tell us that he ministered to them by encouraging him. Now look at a pattern, look at a habit.

He encouraged the believers in Ephesus. Now we see that he encouraged the believers in the churches in Macedonia. Again, don't overlook this. Paul loved these people. He cared for these churches and we should desire to have just basic encouragement, basic encouragement. Maybe we need that more than we know. I like what one commentator said here and this will give us a better picture of Paul. He points out that Paul was the spiritual father of these Gentile believers. He had evangelized them. So he was their spiritual father and at times he addressed them as his children.

And we see this in 1 Corinthians 4, 14, Galatians 4, 19 and 1 Thessalonians 2, 7 and 2, 11. So think about that. He was their spiritual father. They were his spiritual children and that sheds a little light in this encouragement. He knew them, he loved them. I think MacArthur is right when he emphasizes his love for them in this encouragement. Third, he went to Greece. Now, two things here. Some point out that this part of the verse can read, he finally came into Greece, which indicates that Paul spent a good bit of time in Macedonia, I don't doubt it. And Luke tells us he spent three months in Greece.

But before we see Paul going back to Macedonia, we have to remember one thing he was doing in Macedonia in Greece. Remember, he was collecting money for the poor believers in Jerusalem. So he wasn't just encouraging, he was taking up a love offering. According to Romans 15, 25 to 23, 25 to 32, 2 Corinthians 16, one to four, 2 Corinthians eight and nine, he instructed the churches in Galatia, Asia, Macedonia and Achaia about the offering. So he's doing lots of encouragement. And scholars say that he took up a pretty substantial offering. Then fourth, upon the threat of the Jews, he went back into Macedonia.

After spending some time in Macedonia, Paul made it back to Corinth where he stayed for three months. And while in Corinth, before his trip to Jerusalem, according to Romans 15, this is where he wrote the letter to the Roman church. The Roman church, he was real busy. So this is a lot of ground. I've covered a lot of time and a lot of ministry in a short, short portion of the message. But from verses two to three, lots of ministry in more than one area and in more than one church. And in this ministry, we see Paul's fatherly love for the churches, how he traveled and spent time with those believers.

He was encouraging to them and he was gathering up money for the suffering believers in Jerusalem. And look church, this is brief, but this tells us a lot. This is everyday ministry. This is basic ministry. This is what these churches needed. They needed a loving fatherly figure in Paul. This was nothing fancy. This was nothing grand. At this point in time, there are no miracles, no healings, no riots, just basic everyday ministry for believers and churches. Again, sometimes we can look for the exciting. Sometimes we can look for that that just makes us feel like we're on a spiritual high.

Life isn't always like that, especially our spiritual life. But then third, notice Paul's ministry team. Verses four to six. Now here we have a list of seven men and different men from different places. And we will see that Luke lists these men for two reasons. For a spiritual reason.

and a practical reason. First, the spiritual. These men were representatives. We know that Paul was on his way to Jerusalem from so many churches, Gentile churches now. The Jerusalem church was a Jewish church with a love offering for the poor in Jerusalem. But because of the threats against his life from the Jews, Paul was later getting to Jerusalem. He changed his plans. But notice that he had these seven men with him, and we see where they were from, and we see the reason, the spiritual reason they were going. Sopater was from Berea, the Hebraean church. Aristotarchus was from Thessalonica. Gaius was from Derbe.

Tychicus and Trifomas was from Asia. Now notice what this tells us. Paul was not striving for some multicultural, politically correct ministry team, but these men were representatives from the churches. Remember, they were taking money from the churches to Jerusalem. So these men were representing the churches that gave. And you know, as I meditated on this yesterday and today, I just thought about it. When Paul brought that love offering to the Jerusalem church, maybe those men stood with him. And maybe they said, yes, this came from my church, and this came from my church. This came from these Gentile believers.

This came from these Gentile believers. Maybe they heard reports in Jerusalem about what was happening in Berea, and Thessalonica, and Derbe, and these other places. I don't know about you, but that sounds a little bit like the true church conference where we hear all kinds of reports about what's going on in churches. Now notice what this speaks to. Unity among the churches, love for the brethren, love and unity between churches, between brothers. And these were Jews and Gentiles. Remember that unity among the Jews and Gentiles was very, very important. But then second, the practical reason why they went. These men were protection.

And this might surprise some of you. But after three months in Corinth, he was about to sail for Syria, and it seemed that he was headed for Jerusalem. But when he heard of the plot of the Jews, well, he changed his plan. And as one commentator said it, with Paul carrying such a substantial amount of money collected from all of the Gentile churches, he undoubtedly wanted to get to Jerusalem as quickly and as safely as possible. So these men and their numbers, they had to have been protection for Paul as he was taking a very dangerous, dangerous journey and the money added to the danger. So notice what we have here.

Church unity, church diversity, men ministering with Paul, traveling with Paul to take this offering to Jerusalem. This was a good ministry team with a good purpose in mind. Again, Luke is brief. He covers a lot, but it's very good to see what we see here. Just good basic ministry. Churches caring for one another, Paul and other believers caring for the work. Then last, number four, the worship service at Troas. The worship service at Troas. Now it's obvious Luke makes a shift from his description of Paul's ministry in the regions to Paul's ministry in one town, one event, Troas and a day of worship.

Now let's go back and read the verses, verse seven to 12. Now on the first day of the week, when we, Luke is with him, were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with him intending to depart on the next day. And he prolonged his speech until midnight. There were many lamps in the upper room where we gathered and a young man named Eutychus sitting at the window, sank or fell into a deep sleep as Paul talks till longer and being overcome by sleep, he fell down from the third story and was taken up dead. But Paul went down and he bent over him and taking him in his arms said, do not be alarmed for his life is in him.

And when Paul had gone up and had broken bread and eaten, he conversed with them a long while until daybreak and so departed. And so they took the youth, that's Eutychus, away alive and were not a little comforted, not a little comforted. Now, if we have a good memory, we remember that Paul had been in Troas before back on his second missionary journey. We see that in Acts 16, he visited Troas and there he received the vision of the Macedonian man begging him to come and minister to them. We see that in Acts 16, 9 and 10. Now, when he was in Troas the first time, he didn't find a church. But here on his third trip, he did.

And we see this in 2 Corinthians 2, 12. But notice what Luke tells us. He tells us all about this day of worship. A few details here. First notice when they worship. Right there in the beginning of verse 7. Now, you may not realize it, but this part of verse 7 is extremely important. The first day of the week is Sunday. And this is the very first reference in the New Testament of the church meeting for worship on Sunday, the first day of the week. Now, we see references like this in other places, but this is very important. The church did not meet on the old Jewish Sabbath, which was Saturday.

They met on the first day of the week, which wasn't his resurrection day or the Lord's day, Sunday. And this is the point. The church worshiped on the first day of the week, not the Jewish Sabbath. And Sunday ended up becoming the Lord's day. And we see that reference in Revelation 1, 10. So, notice they worshiped. Notice when they worshiped. Second, notice what took place. Here we see what they did when they worshiped. The text says they broke bread, and Paul spoke to them. But this actually tells us they did three things. They ate a fellowship meal, and they participated in the Lord's Supper, and Paul taught or preached.

And we know that they ate and celebrated the Supper because this phrase, gather together to break bread, in the New Testament it represented two things, the Lord's Supper and a meal. That's why the Amplified says, and I'm reading it. Now, on the first day of the week, Sunday, when we gathered together to break bread, share communion. Now, I have taught extensively about why we worship on Lord's day, Sunday, how we should view Sunday as the Lord's day, and how we should view what's called the Christian Sabbath.

As a matter of fact, in John MacArthur's commentary on the book of Acts, he gives 10 reasons why we don't worship on the Old Testament Sabbath, or keep Sunday as what's called the Christian Sabbath. As a matter of fact, I will make that available to you next week. I just didn't have it within my notes tonight because of time. But I have taught extensively on why we worship on Sunday. You can go to the church website. You can search that out. You can get my sermon notes. And as a matter of fact, I need to come back to that soon. But one more thing, we can't leave out that Paul was preaching during the worship service.

As one writer put it, and I'm quoting, the worship service began with the preaching of the Word, and Luke relates that Paul preached until midnight. And then I'll add to that and say, well, he goes on to preach until daybreak. Now, a couple of more comments before we tackle what we see in verses 8-12. From what we see here in verse 7 and 8, it appears that the church met at night. They had lamps in the room. And scholars and historians will tell you that they had lamps, and multiple lamps because it was dark. And several that I read said that they would have met after the day's work was done. We get Sunday off culturally. They did not.

So it seems that they had a night worship service where Paul preached. They had a fellowship meal, and they celebrated the Lord's Supper. Now, what does this tell us? This kind of looks like something we do. We're meeting at night. We meet sometimes for worship services on Sunday nights. We meet traditionally to have small group Bible study on Sunday nights. We meet on Sunday nights.

and we meet at night sometimes. But notice in Ephesus Paul met with the church in a large rented hall to accommodate the crowds. Here in Troas Paul met with the church at night to accommodate the people's schedule. Now let me show you something. God gives the leaders of the church the latitude and the wisdom to structure those things according to the need of the people and the time. You see we could be in a cultural situation where we couldn't meet on a Sunday morning and we had to meet solely on Sunday night. I know there are some churches that do not meet on Wednesday nights.

I have heard of churches in other parts of the world they meet maybe on Monday night or Tuesday night. I have a friend that is a missionary in Peru and he said Monday nights are very busy culturally in their church. So what I'm trying to show you is this. Paul accommodated the people but they worshiped on the Lord's day. Now I want to continue with this worship service in Troas but notice that things take a turn. Paul preached pretty long, Eutychus fell asleep, he fell out of a third story window and he died. But Paul brought him back to life. That's easy to see in the verses. Now this is what I want to do here.

I want to make two observations about what we see here. This came out of some material that I ran across and I thought it was a good way to get a couple lessons out of these events. First we see resurrection. Eutychus was dead and he was brought back to life, correct? So this is simple, a miracle. God performed a miracle. When Eutychus fell and died God through Paul brought him back to life. This took place in the Old Testament with Elijah in 1st Kings 1721 also with Elisha in 2nd Kings 3, 34-35. This happened in the New Testament with Peter when he raised Dorcas from the dead in Acts 9. Now what is my point?

By and through the miracle God validated Paul, God validated the message, God validated his ministry. And then one more step, God proved to the people that he approved of their meeting and he was working in and among them. You see it was all validation. But remember how we handle validation. We leave that up to God. Second we see joy. We see resurrection in these events which leads to validation. Now we see joy. Now Paul wraps up these events by telling us that the believers were greatly encouraged at the resurrection of Eutychus. The Amplified says, they took the boy Eutychus home alive and were greatly comforted and encouraged.

But one commentator I came across pointed out that in the original Luke is understating things to make a point. He was and is saying these believers were not moderately comforted. Now this is the point. Luke was purposefully understating it at the end to state that they were overjoyed. So notice what we see here. This death, this resurrection, God validating Paul, the work, and the people. Then we see great joy, comfort, and encouragement and celebration as the people saw God working. Now notice what we have here.

Luke moves from this brief description of Paul's ministry in the region to Paul in this worship service at Troas and he describes what took place on the Lord's day. They had a regular worship service. Paul's preaching, they celebrated the supper, they had a fellowship meal. But it's interrupted and they had a supernatural worship service. Eutychus fell out of a third story window and died. But like Elijah, and Elisha, and Peter, and his Lord God used Paul to bring him back from the dead. And again we let God validate us.

If God chooses to do supernatural things among us, and we should be praying for that, we should be praying for God to supernaturally save the lost and work among us. And if God chooses to validate us in the community then so be it. That is His business. Now in closing I'll be real quick here. Notice what we have here. Again this is Paul's third missionary journey. He is getting closer to Jerusalem. We are past the midway point of the third missionary journey. We see Paul's care for the churches. That's the sermon title. But notice the care for the churches, his love for the churches, and his sacrifice for the churches.

I think Paul was all about the local church. I think he was. And if we are like Paul we will be too.