Demonstrations of Love

Welcome to Built on God's Word, the preaching and teaching ministry of Highland Park Baptist Church in Bartlesville, Oklahoma.! Pastor Mike Scrivani teaches on Acts 20 verses 1-16.

After the uproar ceased, Paul sent for the disciples, and after encouraging them, he said farewell and departed for Macedonia. When he had gone through those regions and had given them much encouragement, he came to Greece.

There he spent three months, and when a plot was made against him by the Jews as he was about to set sail for Syria, he decided to return through Macedonia. So Peter the Berean, son of Pyrrhus, accompanied him, and of the Thessalonians, Aristarchus and Secundus and Gaius of Derbe and Timothy, and the Asians, Tychius and Trophimus.

These went on ahead and were waiting for us at Troas. But we sailed away from Philippi after the days of unleavened bread, and in five days we came to them at Troas, where we stayed for seven days.

On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them, intending to depart on the next day, and he prolonged his speech until midnight. There were many lamps in the upper room where we were 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 Paul went down and bent over him, 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 they took the youth away alive, and were not a little comforted.

But going ahead to the ship, we set sail for Assos, intending to take Paul aboard there, for he had arranged, intending himself to go by land. And when we met at Assos, we took him on board and went to Mytilene.

And sailing from there, we came the following day opposite Chios. The next day, we touched at Samos, and the day after that, we went to Miletus. For Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus so that he might not have to spend time in Asia, for he was hastening to be at Jerusalem, if possible, on the day of Pentecost.

Okay. A lot of hard-to-pronounce words in there, but we got through it. If someone was to ask the question, What are the most important qualities of a minister of Jesus Christ?

What would some of those skills and qualities that you think some people would mention? You can think about that for a minute. I think, you know, we would say that they should have skill in preaching and teaching and boldness as they do that.

Godliness are among, again, the foundational qualities that hopefully would be mentioned. And obviously, they must fulfill the qualifications of an elder in 1 Timothy 3.17 and Titus 1.5-9.

Shepherding ability, wise oversight, and the ability to work with people are crucial things for an elder in the church. Sometimes, though, churches put too much of an emphasis on an elder's personality.

And that's the skill they're looking for. Is he charismatic? Is he energetic? Does he have a dynamic personality? Is he a visionary? They want someone also who will run their church kind of like a CEO runs a company.

They want a pastor whose preaching is therapeutic and motivational. They want a life coach, really, who just tells them, Hey, you can do it, and your sin is not your fault.

There's nothing wrong with you. Just, you can do it, kind of messages. Behind the good and biblical qualities of an elder pastor must be love.

And I say elder and pastor and use those words interchangeably because they mean the same thing. Love for the Lord, love for the church, and love for the truth. Not love just like primarily for the organizational of people.

Not motivated to draw as large of a crowd as they possibly can. A minister of the gospel, an elder must love the Lord. He must love his word, and he must love his church, the Lord's church.

And we have examples of this from church history of men who loved the Lord, who loved his word, and loved his church. Men like Martin Luther, John Calvin, Charles Spurgeon, John MacArthur, and many other men whose names aren't as well known, but whom you know.

Men whose names were never really well known throughout the world or in the church, but men who just faithfully served in their local church and were obedient to what God commanded them to do.

You know them, you know their names, and you saw the love they possessed for Christ, for truth, and for the church. A prime example, though, of a man of God, an elder, a minister of the gospel, who loved the Lord, loved his word, and loved the church is the Apostle Paul.

In reading Paul's letters, we see him repeatedly express his love for believers, for his love for the church. Philippians 1, 3-7, Paul says, Because I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine, for you all making my prayer with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.

And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. It is right for me to feel this way about you all because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel.

We see Paul's expression of his love for believers in Thessalonians, 1 Thessalonians 2, 7-8, the believers who were there. But we were gentle among you like a nursing mother taking care of her own children, so being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God, but also our own selves because you had become very dear to us.

Paul didn't just express his love in words, he demonstrated it in his life, through his actions, and what he endured for preaching the gospel.

2 Corinthians 11, 23-28, he says to the believers there, Are they servants of Christ? I am a better one. Am I talking like a madman with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death?

Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes, less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. A night and a day I was adrift at sea.

On frequent journeys in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers, and toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night in hunger and thirst, often without food and cold and exposure.

And apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches. Paul expressed his love for the Lord, the truth, and the church by confronting sin and error in the church.

Galatians 3, 1-5, he says to the believers in Galatia, O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified.

Let me ask you only this, did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish, having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Did you suffer so many things in vain, if indeed it was in vain?

Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and work miracles among you do so by works of the law or by hearing with faith? So Acts chapter 20, verses 1-16, our passage tonight, is not a passage that maybe we would typically consider when discussing the subject of love.

However, in the narrative, we see Paul's love for the church in action. Paul's actions recorded in this text demonstrate, again, his love for the Lord, as he encourages believers, instructing them in the truth, living amongst them as he fulfills the Lord's calling for his life.

Paul showed love for the Lord, his word, and his church by faithfully serving them, serving their needs, and remaining faithful to them.

And so the main idea for tonight's study is that elders should demonstrate their love for God's people by sacrificing their time, serving their needs, and remaining faithful to them.

Again, that's elders should demonstrate their love for God's people by sacrificing their time, serving their needs, and remaining faithful to them.

So pastors, elders must love God's people. But so should all believers. If you are in Christ, and you're a new creation, and the Lord has saved you, and you're part of the body, you're part of the church, then the people in the church are your brothers and sisters in Christ, and you are commanded to love them.

John 13-35, Jesus said, By this all people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another. 1 John 3, 11-17, For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.

We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother's righteous. Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you.

We know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.

By this we know, love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world's good and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him?

So again, you may not be called to serve in the church as a pastor, as an elder, but if you are a Christian, you are commanded to love the Lord, to love his word, and to love his church.

And so in our text tonight, we see three ways that Paul showed his love for the church, and the ways he loved the church should be the ways that we love the church too.

So first, the way that Paul showed his love for the church was that he was present. So here we see in verses 1 through 6, Paul's presence. He made time to be with believers and to strengthen them.

So if you remember, it's been a little while. After the uproar in Ephesus in Acts chapter 19, after that had ceased, and if you remember, it was Demetrius, the silversmith who was crafting idols of Artemis, and the gospel was putting them out of business, people were coming to faith in Christ, they weren't buying these idols anymore, and so threatened with the loss of his income, he created this uproar, this riot, which was eventually put down, and the mob was disbanded.

And then in Acts 20, 1 through 2, then we see the uproar again. We read about this here. After the uproar ceased, and that's referring to what happened in Ephesus, Paul sent for the disciples, and after encouraging them, he said farewell, and departed for Macedonia.

When he had gone through those regions and had given them much encouragement, he came to Greece. So Paul called for the believers in Ephesus to come to him so that he could give them much encouragement.

Paul needed to go on, but he didn't go on without first encouraging the believers in Ephesus, as we'll see in Acts 20, verses 19 through 21.

Paul was well aware of the dangers that false teachers would present there eventually, and surely he knew, though the uproar in Ephesus had ceased, it was only a matter of time before threats and persecution were used by the enemies of the church to discourage them and their faith in Christ, their proclamation of the gospel.

And so he took time here to encourage them. And how did he encourage them? With his presence, as he no doubt encouraged them also by teaching them God's word and instructing them to persevere in their faith in Christ.

After Paul had done this, he left to begin his planned trip to Jerusalem via Macedonia and Achaia. In Acts 19.21, we read about that planned trip.

The main reason why Paul departed for Macedonia was to collect an offering from the churches, from other believers, for the poor believers in Jerusalem, as we'll eventually see.

However, he did not pass up the opportunity to spend time in the presence of those believers to give them much encouragement. This encouragement is reflected in the exhortation we find in Colossians 1.28-29.

This is the way Paul encouraged believers. Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom that we may present everyone mature in Christ.

For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me. And then we're reminded of Paul's charge to Timothy as well, a young elder, to teach believers.

In 1 Timothy 4.13, Until I come, he tells Timothy, Devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. Paul's commitment to be present with believers, to encourage them, was by declaring to them, teaching them, instructing them in God's Word.

However, in many denominations and churches, this task, the task of preaching and teaching, has been diminished.

And I hate to say it, but even in Oklahoma, at Oklahoma Baptist University, who has a Master's of Divinity, which Pastor Tyler is taking, he told me that preaching is not a mandatory class to get that degree.

And I thought, no way, that can't be the case. And so, I know some people who know some people, and I asked one of those people, hey, did you know that the MDiv at OBU, that there is not a requirement to get that degree, that you take a preaching class?

And his jaw, I mean, hit the floor. He's like, that can't be right. That's what Tyler says. And so he looked it up, and sure enough, that's the case. Which he couldn't believe either.

But it just goes to show the importance of preaching and teaching God's Word, even amongst conservative Christian institutions, in this case, one in our very own state, wouldn't make that a mandatory, like, what do you expect this guy to do?

You know, he's going to be preaching and teaching. You should equip him to do that, because if he's not doing that very good, there's going to be a lot of problems. I don't care how great of an administrator he is or how much theology he knows.

If he can't rightly handle the Word of God, then that's going to create a whole lot of issues. That's that. You can be praying for them. Hopefully something will change there.

But I think there's other reasons, maybe not in this case, and I love OBU, and Marsha, I see your shirt. And, you know, you write a letter as an alumnus and say, hey, I've heard this, and I can't believe it.

You know. We need a lot of influence on it. Yes, yes. You just drive over to Shawnee and march into the president's office and say, what's going on? I don't think this is the case for OBU and for other schools that prepare pastors for ministry, but John MacArthur said something about why we see it in so many other, just the diminishing of the importance of preaching and teaching in other denominations and in other churches.

He said, Nothing currently contributes more to the decline of biblical preaching than the rise of a market-driven philosophy of ministry. Attempting to be user-friendly, churches have jettisoned preaching in favor of movies, drama, concerts, the testimonies of Christian superstars, and other forms of entertainment.

And no wonder, since preaching the biblical truths of sin, judgment, and God's sovereignty and salvation is decidedly not user-friendly. The problem with churches isn't poor attendance, but poor spiritual health and what people need most is not to be entertained, but to be taught the truths of God's word.

Amen. And I think we've seen that, unfortunately, too. You've seen, you know, some churches will do, like, at the movies, they'll, I don't know exactly, they're basically playing, like, movie clips, and then they're using the movie clip to teach some kind of a message, and we'll see this in God's word somehow, and it's just, like, what are we doing?

Or what are you doing, I should say. And then, you know, I think we also see this with notable, famous, maybe it was an athlete, and they played football at OU or something like that, and, oh, you know, this guy from OU is going to come talk with us at this men's event, and great, you know, we're glad for his salvation, but he doesn't really know how to preach or to proclaim God's word or to say the things that need to be said because a lot of churches are more interested in drawing a crowd than they are communicating God's truth.

Anyhow, Paul loved the Lord, he loved his word, he loved the church, and so he sought to encourage them with his presence, not just to be seen, but to be heard, encouraging them by teaching them the word of God.

Paul's love motivated him to be present with God's people, though this put his life in danger. Acts 20, verse 3, there he spent three months, and when a plot was made against him by the Jews as he was about to set sail for Syria, he decided to return through Macedonia.

Paul spent most of those three months in Corinth. The Jews in Corinth hadn't forgotten the conversion of Crispus, the leader of their synagogue, and we read about that in Acts 18, 8.

And soon after the conversion of Crispus was the conversion of Sosthenes. He was supposed to represent the Jews in attacking Paul, and then that didn't work, so he got beat, and then he got saved afterwards.

And so the Jews in Corinth were not happy with Paul, and they were out to get him. We don't know the details of their plot.

It appears that they were aware of Paul's departure for Syria. Somehow, I think they probably got that news, and they hoped to either capture him on his way to the boat, or maybe even get him while he was on the boat at some point in time.

They were after Paul, and they wanted to kill him. Again, whatever their case, the plot forced Paul to alter his plans, along with his companions listed in verses 4 through 5.

And there we see in verse 5 to 6 the change in the pronouns, where Luke goes from talking about us to talking about we, which reveals that Luke, again at this point, becomes one of Paul's traveling companions as they sailed for Philippi, then to Troas after celebrating Passover.

Okay, so now we come to the second way that Paul showed his love for the Lord, his word in the church, which was his passion, Paul's passion. He preached and taught for as long as needed.

Now we come to the story that this chapter is probably most well-known for, Paul's long teaching, which put Eutychus to sleep, and he fell out of a window and died.

Before we get to that moment in verses 7 and 8, we have one of the earliest descriptions of Christian worship. Let's look at those verses again. In verse 7 and 8, On the first day of the week, when we gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them, intending to depart on the next day, and he prolonged his speech until midnight.

There were many lamps in the upper room where we were gathered. These believers did not gather on Saturday, the Sabbath, to worship. They met on the first day of the week, which is Sunday.

A lot of times we think Monday is the first day of the week, but it's not. The first day of the week is Sunday. Despite the claims of Seventh-day Adventist, Christians are not commanded to observe the Sabbath or worship on Saturday.

The tradition of the church has been, since the resurrection of our Lord, to gather for worship on Sunday. And again, because Sunday is the day of Jesus' resurrection.

And we are under a new covenant. And if you've been with us on Sunday mornings, we've talked about the differences between the old covenant and the new covenant, which Jesus inaugurated with his blood.

Christ has fulfilled the law. We worship on Sunday. And we're going to pray. Justin Martyr was an early Christian teacher and thinker who was ultimately martyred for his faith in Christ.

He lived between 100 and 165 A.D., so that's not very long after the events recorded here in the book of Acts, 100 to 165 A.D.

And he described Christian worship like this. On the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read as long as time permits.

Sunday is the day on which we all hold our common assembly because Jesus Christ our Savior on the same day rose from the dead. So going back to the early 100s, this was the pattern for worship amongst Christians as they gathered on Sunday.

This is why, again, Christians gather for worship on Sunday. And for a couple hundred years, these Christians back then, they would meet in homes when they worshiped.

As verse 8 says, these believers met in the upper room of what would have been a house. It isn't weird for Christians to gather in homes for worship and discipleship.

This is biblical. This is how it was at the very early stages, very early history of the church. However, it's also not sinful for the church to own a building.

It's not wrong for us to have a building where we gather to worship the Lord. The church building back then, if they had one, wouldn't have been left standing for very long because of the amount of persecution that Christians are facing.

And we see that today, a lot of churches meet in homes because of the persecution that there is against Christianity. China, some places in India, anywhere Christians would meet in the Middle East, they need to meet in homes, they need to meet in secret because of the amount of persecution that they are facing.

So when they gathered to worship, and we're back in Acts, talking about Acts chapter 20 here, they broke bread. They ate together to celebrate the love feast Paul talks about in 1 Corinthians 11, 20 through 22.

Then after that, Paul talked with them. The Greek word is dialogomai, from which we get our English word, dialogue.

Paul preached. This is probably how it went. Paul preached, and then there was some kind of discussion, some kind of a dialogue that took place after he preached where people would probably ask him questions, and he would provide answers, either about what he preached, or other scriptures, or just things about the Christian life.

And so they would have this kind of dialogue. Sometimes those questions required a long explanation, as probably must have been the case in Acts chapter 20.

I've never been a part of a worship service or small group discussion that lasted until midnight. When's the last time, if ever, when we've gathered for worship as a church on Sunday morning at 1030, did we just go all the way throughout the rest of the day into midnight?

Have we ever done that before? Maybe we should try it. Let's try it this Sunday. Are you guys in? Will you stay? Will you stay till midnight, Oscar? Well, you can't sleep, and you're going to find out why, because bad things could happen.

But it's pretty amazing to think about they start worshiping, and they're having this dialogue. They're talking about the things of God, and it goes until midnight.

So again, anyone who complains about not getting out of our church services until sometime after 12 noon needs to read this chapter.

Okay? So next time anybody says to you, man, we didn't get out of church until afternoon, sometime afternoon, you're like, well, let's go read Acts chapter 20. We could be here until 12 midnight.

Maybe we should be. Anyhow, the reason why their time together lasted so long was due to Paul's prolonged speech because he was getting ready to leave them and depart the next day.

Instead of calling it a night or ending early to prepare himself for the journey he was about to take, Paul stayed with them longer. He taught even longer.

He wasn't sure if maybe this would be the last time he would see these people. And so we see his passion for the church. Paul wanted to teach them, to encourage them, and to equip him to use every available minute that he had to pour himself out, to pour into these believers and to be used by the Lord to bless them.

Now Luke mentions there were many lamps in the room. Obviously they did not have electricity. So lamps were needed for light and lamps would have put off a lot of smoke and it would have increased the temperature in that room which would have made a window a great place to sit and get some fresh air and cool off a little bit.

And so verse 9 again says 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.

I thought about making the main idea for this study tonight. Don't fall asleep in church or you might die. That's obviously not the main idea of this section of Acts but it's a good reminder isn't it to stay awake during the sermon not so that you won't die but so that you'll hear the message and know what God's word says and how you should apply that truth to your life.

We have coffee and we have donuts so we have a lot of caffeine and a lot of sugar that we provide for our church members before Sunday school even starts so fuel up take the time get your coffee eat your donuts fuel up so that you stay awake.

Paul was passionate about teaching God's word to God's people but not so passionate that he ignored Eutychus falling from the window to his death. You know Paul wasn't so focused in and Eutychus and he falls out and he's like well forget about that he shouldn't have fallen asleep in church I have important things to say we'll pick up his body later and we'll take care no he didn't do that in verse 10 it says Paul went down bent over him and taking him in his arms said do not be alarmed for his life is in him.

Luke is the human author inspired by the Holy Spirit to write Acts you know Luke's position his job was that he was a physician he was a doctor and so Eutychus wasn't mostly dead Luke would have known by his trade that this boy falling out of the window was dead however miraculously Eutychus' life was restored this is amazing and what is inspiring to me is what Paul and these Christians decided to do after this tragic event that turned into an amazing miracle you know I think we might have said you know what that's good isn't it like let's call it a night we avoided this tragedy praise God for bringing Eutychus back to life let's all go home and get some rest no they went back upstairs they continued discussing God's word meeting and worshiping verses 11 and 12 saying when Paul had gone up and had broken bread and eaten he conversed with them a long while until daybreak until the dawn and so he departed and they took the youth away alive and were not a little comforted this is also I think pretty amazing too that Eutychus was with them they didn't say you know Eutychus maybe let's go home and get you some rest no they brought

Eutychus back up and he continued to be a part of their time together Paul's love for the Lord the truth and his church is seen here in his passion his desire to spend all day and night into the morning teaching and encouraging them until it was time for him to make his 20 mile walk across Assos now we come to the third way that we see Paul's love for the Lord his word and his church which should be a love that is shared amongst elders in the church or in elders in the church and also all believers I would say too it's his perseverance Paul's perseverance he remained committed to his mission despite knowing difficulties were ahead verse 13 but going ahead to the ship he set sail for Assos intending to take Paul aboard there for so he had arranged intending himself to go by land and when we met at Assos we took him on board and went to Mytilene and sailing from there we came the following day opposite Chios and the next day we touched at Samos and the day after that we went to Miletus for Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus so that he might not have to spend time in Asia for he was hastening to be at Jerusalem if possible on the day of Pentecost so Paul was in a hurry to get to Jerusalem to make it in time for Pentecost perhaps he wanted to present the offering from the Gentiles during the Feast of Weeks which Jewish tradition also associated with Gentiles hearing God's word at Sinai alongside Israel in Exodus 19 1, 34, 22

Deuteronomy 16, 9-12 seven weeks separated Passover from Pentecost so Paul couldn't risk a long delay in Ephesus either fruitful ministry or continued opposition would keep him there for a while and so he sails a little further past Ephesus to Miletus where he would send for the elders of the church in Ephesus to come and meet him however despite his urgency Paul demonstrated his love for the church by taking time to encourage the Ephesian elders as we'll see next week Paul knew the troubles they would soon face and he wanted to encourage them to face those troubles and to persevere for Christ just as he had done and would continue to do let's look at Acts chapter 20 verses 22-24 and what he says to the Ephesian elders may may may

So again, Paul doesn't sail past Ephesus to avoid trouble.

He knew that he was actually sailing into trouble. The Holy Spirit had testified to him that imprisonment and afflictions awaited him. And while our study of this passage reveals Paul's love for God's people as an elder, again, all Christians are called to love one another in these same ways.

And unfortunately, what we see a lot is people quit. But they quit, they easily quit the church for silly and foolish reasons instead of persevering, instead of sticking it out, instead of being obedient to the place where God has called them to be a part of a local body of believers.

God hasn't called us to quit. He's commanded us to persevere, to suffer with each other, which sometimes means that we endure suffering from each other.

But if we truly love the Lord, we will love his word, which commands us to love his people. And it's demonstrated by our willingness to sacrifice our time, to serve each other's needs, and to remain faithful to the Lord by being faithful to love one another in his church as he has commanded us.

All right, let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for this time that we've had together tonight. Lord, we thank you for the example of Paul that we've got to see in your word.

Father, we pray that for the elders of our church, Lord, that the ways that they love you, the ways that they love your word, and love the people of our congregation would be seen and would be emulated by the people in our church.

That, Father, we would love each other more and more. And seek to find more ways to be used by you to encourage one another and to persevere with one another and serve one another in ways that please you, in ways that testify to the transformation that we've experienced through salvation in your Son, Jesus.

Lord, we pray for just churches in this world. Lord, for elders, for those who have been called by you. Father, we pray that you would strengthen them.

Lord, that they would be encouraged by you, that they would persevere in the place where you have them, whether it's persecution from the government or it's just difficulties in trying to be faithful.

Whatever the case, Lord, your churches, our churches here, especially in our nation, need men who will not back down and who will be bold in proclaiming your word.

And so, Lord, we pray that you would raise up a generation of men who meet the qualifications and who answer the call and who would be faithful. And that as a result of that, Lord, we pray that we would see the strengthening of churches and that our proclamation of the gospel would be even more impactful in a nation in desperate need of Christians who proclaim it and who are practicing what they preach.

Father, we love you. And again, we're just thankful for you and all the ways that you are good and gracious to us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. To learn more, visit us in person or see the website at highlandparkbaptist.net.