Acts 20:1-6
~17 min read
TRANSCRIPT
Our text for tonight's message is taken from Acts 20:1-6.
So far, we have learned from the book of Acts that wherever Paul went, God used him to preach the Gospel most powerfully and establish churches in every city. Almost everywhere he went, he faced violent persecution.
If you remember in our previous message, we learned there was a riot at Ephesus. Demetrius, the silversmith, was angry with Paul for preaching the Gospel and turning the people away from worshiping idols. As a result, his business was affected. He was in the business of selling shrines for the Temple of Diana. So, he instigated the people at Ephesus that if the vast majority stop being idol worshipers, that will affect the Temple of Diana, which was the main attraction of Ephesus. If no one visits the Temple of Diana, then ultimately the entire economy of Ephesus will be affected. So, that was how the riot started.
But God had used a pagan town's clerk to speak some sense to the people at Ephesus. Somehow, he was able to appease the crowd. However, it was a narrow escape for Paul.
When someone has just experienced a narrow escape, that person will be afraid. That person will probably have second thoughts or maybe will not persist anymore or even totally stop what he is doing, like stop preaching. But not the Apostle Paul.
My friends, likewise, we will face discouragement and oppositions in the ministry. But will that cause us to give up and stop serving the Lord? Or will that cause us to continue to press on and persevere until we see the Lord face to face?
When we say someone is faithful in serving God, how do we know? There are certain things we will see, certain things that will be manifested out of the person's life to reveal that that person is faithful, right? And this is what we want to learn from the life of the Apostle Paul.
There are certain characteristics we will see from his life that we hope we will also apply, if you and I are faithful to serve the Lord. The title of our message is: "The Characteristics of a Faithful Servant."
I. The Concern
Our first point is the concern. Let us begin with verse 1. Acts 20:1, "And after the uproar was ceased, Paul called unto him the disciples, and embraced them, and departed for to go into Macedonia."
The uproar was a reference to the riot at Ephesus. Which means, after the riot at Ephesus had stopped, we would expect Paul to leave the city immediately after such a life-threatening experience, right? But Paul was more concerned about the spiritual welfare of the disciples than anything else. He would not leave Ephesus until he had met up with all the disciples. At this point in time, he believed that he might never come back to see them again. Facing the possibility of never seeing them again, Paul embraced all the disciples.
If you remember in the preceding chapter, in verse 29, when the rioters rushed into the theater to arrest Gaius and Aristarchus, Paul immediately rushed into the theater as well to rescue his friends. That was the attitude of Paul who did not count his own life dear to himself. He was willing to do everything he could to rescue his fellow co-laborers. He loved them, he would do everything he can. It was only when the disciples stopped him because they knew that it would endanger his life.
Again, here in verse 1, we see even if he had to leave the city immediately, he would not do so unless he had met up with all the disciples. Take a moment and consider this: If Paul were to leave the city without meeting all the disciples, what would happen? Would the disciples not be discouraged? There was just a riot. Would they not be confused? The shepherd is leaving the sheep without even telling them where he will be going or what he will be doing. Most certainly they will be disillusioned. Therefore, Paul will not leave the city without first seeing the disciples, so that he could embrace them, encourage them not to give up but to press on and persevere, to reassure them that God was in control of all things.
People who are called to serve the Lord, if they are faithful, they will set aside their own concerns, they will set aside their own preferences, conveniences, and comfort and focus on God. It does not mean that they live their life carelessly or they do not value their own lives. No, their main concern is about the Gospel, about God and His people.
If you remember, those of you who attended our Family Camp, in the Q&A, someone asked Reverend Koshi about vaccination. I remember Reverend Koshi said he was not a doctor and he did not understand many things. But one of the reasons why he chose to be vaccinated was because it would enable him to travel, and he wanted to travel. Why? Because he wanted to visit the mission churches, he wanted to visit his elderly parents to minister to them. It is always about the Gospel, about God and His people.
My friends, we will have to make decisions in life, many decisions. All decisions will be challenged by the consequences. If we make this decision and we decide to go, we may have to face adversities, we may have to face inconveniences, we may even possibly die. If we decide not to go, we may not be able to serve the Lord, we may not be able to be effective in preaching the Gospel. There will always be consequences.
Somehow, every day of our lives, we may have to make decisions as believers, as servants of God, as pastors, elders, deacons, Sunday school teachers, parents. Our decisions must always be guided by our love and concern for the Gospel, for God and His people. When we make decisions, we need to ask ourselves, what is the concern behind this decision? Is this decision going to glorify God, or is this decision going to dishonor Him?
Every day of our lives, we need to ask ourselves, and I pray that all of us will always be focused and concerned about the Gospel, God, and His people.
II. The Giving
Our second point is the giving. Look at the second part of verse 1: "he departed to go into Macedonia."
Remember, Paul wanted to go to Jerusalem, but he decided to go to Macedonia before that because the church at Jerusalem was very poor and in need of financial support. You see, when the Jews believed in the Gospel and were converted, they faced persecutions from the other Jews who considered them as betrayers of Judaism. They were rejected by society, they lost their jobs, many were even ostracised by their own families because of that. Acts 2:44 says, "And all that believed were together, and had all things common; And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need."
Initially, the other wealthy believers in the Jerusalem Church were selling their properties, selling their goods to provide for the poor believers. But soon, that resource was exhausted. Therefore, in order to meet that need, Paul decided to go to the Gentile churches which he had founded in Macedonia, Achaia, which were relatively large churches, so that he could take a collection, known as love offering, to bring to the Jerusalem Church.
So, when you read First and Second Corinthians, you can read about the heart of Paul. Paul described for us there how he went to those churches to collect the love offerings. But there was another purpose. If the Gentile churches were to support the Jerusalem Church, which was primarily Jewish, he would certainly build up the unity and bond between the Jews and Gentiles. If you remember, the Jews and Gentiles were hostile toward one another at that time. Such was the wisdom of the Apostle Paul.
My friends, let's say you have a son or a daughter who goes overseas to study or to work. Though you may be thousands of miles apart, but that distance will not make any difference to your affection for your child. In fact, it will only cause you to be more concerned. That was how Paul felt for the Jerusalem Church. Even though he was so far away, he traveled from place to place, but his heart was always for the Jerusalem Church. "I have to depart and go to Macedonia to do a collection from all the Gentile churches, and then I will go back to Jerusalem so that this money could provide for all the poor believers." That was the heart of the Apostle Paul.
When I was a young Christian, once I attended a prayer meeting and the church was sending the African missionary and his young family to go back to Africa to do the Gospel work. It was a new work, obviously there would be many challenges. The mother church was very small and they could only support with whatever money they had. I remember the pastor when he prayed for the missionary with tears in his eyes, he said, "The road ahead will be extremely difficult. There will be times when you would be lacking. But remember this, when your children are hungry, our children are hungry." In other words, your children are also our children. That should be our attitude. That is the kind of affection we should have for one another, for the brothers and sisters in Christ.
No matter how far apart we may be, even though everything may be all right, our family is all good, our work is secured, our children are doing well in school, but we are still struggling. Why? Because our brethren are struggling. Our brothers and sisters in Christ are facing challenges. Our Myanmar mission is struggling. That should be the kind of affection we should have for one another. When your child is hungry, my child is hungry too.
III. The Exaltation
Our third point is the exaltation. Verse 2: "And when he had gone over those parts [the different cities throughout Macedonia], and had given them much exhortation, he came into Greece,"
Here we can see that doing the collection from the Gentile churches was not his only purpose. Paul wanted to exhort them with the Word of God. My friends, the importance of preaching and teaching God's word cannot be overstated. Allow me to refer to another passage in Ephesians 4:11-14. If you have your Bibles, maybe you can turn with me to Ephesians 4:11.
Ephesians 4:11, "And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;" The word "he" is a reference to Christ because the preceding verses tell us so. The word "apostles" means messengers, depending on context. Oftentimes, it refers to the twelve apostles. The word "prophets" are people who declare God's word, people who prophesied or preached God's word. God had inspired the prophets of old and the apostles in the New Testament to give us the Word of God.
Once the Bible was completed, there were no more such apostles and prophets. Today, if we were to use the words apostles and prophets, it can only mean one thing, and that is, in a general sense, messengers or preachers. But what we have today in our churches are evangelists, pastors, and teachers.
Most theologians believe that this phrase "pastors and teachers" refers to one office because it was said "pastors and teachers" to refer to teaching elders, which is different from ruling elders. There are two kinds of elders in the church. You can learn that in the BBK class: teaching elders and ruling elders. Out of all the ruling elders, God will call some to be teaching elders or pastors. A pastor is a teaching elder.
But why did Christ give to the church evangelists and pastors? Basically, evangelists are people who go from city to city preaching the Gospel. Once souls are saved, they'll be ushered into the local church, and then it is the responsibility of the pastor to teach and disciple them.
Notice, they all have a common denominator: the Word of God. They have this responsibility to preach and teach God's word. That is the reason why when they preach and teach God's word.
Verse 12-14 says, "For the perfecting of the saints”, the Word of God is able to equip the saints to make them spiritually complete; “for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:”, to build up the church; “Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ:"
In other words, the believers will be united as one; they will grow in their knowledge of Christ and the Bible; they will become more and more Christlike. "That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;"
Take a moment and consider this: Christ gave to the church evangelists and pastors. What happens if the pastors and the preachers do not fulfil the responsibility of faithfully preaching and teaching God's word? What will happen?
Well, that will mean the believers will not be equipped. That will mean they cannot do the work of the ministry. As a result, the consequences: the church, the body of Christ, will not be built up, and there will be so much trouble in the church. The people will be divided, they will not be united in the faith, they will lack in their knowledge of the Scriptures. There will be spiritually immature believers all over the church, including in the leadership. And then you have all the members like children, tossed to and fro, easily deceived by false teaching, easily deceived by false teachers.
That will happen to our church if we do not esteem the Word of God, if we do not see the importance of preaching and teaching God's word. If God's word is not faithfully taught and preached in the church, in one word, the church will die. And if the church will die, our family will die too, spiritually.
My friends, this has happened to many churches. They still have the physical body or physical building. They still have the believers coming to church. But once the Word of God is not faithfully preached and taught, the church is dead. The family is dead too. That is why we said preaching and teaching God's word is important cannot be overstated.
IV. The Danger
Our final fourth point is the danger. Look at verse 3, "And there abode three months.” So Paul traveled to Greece, and most likely he spent three months at Corinth in Achaia. When it was time for him to leave for Jerusalem, “the Jews laid wait for him, as he was about to set sail into Syria, he purposed to return to Macedonia.” Paul became aware of a plot against his life.
The Bible does not tell us what this plot is. Perhaps the Jews planned to kill him as he set sail from the port at Corinth to go to Syria, from there to Jerusalem. So he had to change his plans and return to Macedonia. Because of that there was a detour, there was a delay. He would not be able to reach Jerusalem for the Passover. His intention was to go to Jerusalem for the Passover.
So if you read verse 6, it tells us that he had to spend the Passover at Philippi. And then, if you look down to verse 16, it says, "if it were possible for him, to be at Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost." In other words, he could only arrive at Jerusalem 50 days later because Pentecost is 50 days after the Passover. So his entire plan had to change, all because there was a plot against his life.
My friends, when we serve the Lord, there may be hindrances and even danger. We may not face the same danger as the early disciples in those days or some Christians in certain countries, but we would face hostilities, persecution from time to time. We will face challenges of all sorts when we serve the Lord.
Sister Rachel will be going to Batam, Indonesia, God willing, next year to serve the Lord. We all know that it is a Muslim country. Surely, she would face certain dangers which are unfamiliar to us in this part of the world. Our challenges may be different, but we must be prepared. There will be hindrances, there will be distractions. The question is, are we willing to face the dangers, hindrances, inconveniences, when we serve the Lord?
Some people say, "I want to serve the Lord, I want to serve in this ministry, I want to serve in that ministry." The moment they face troubles, they give up and walk away. Why? Because they are not willing to face the difficulties. They want to serve the Lord, but only on their own terms. They do not count the cost. They think that serving the Lord will always be smooth sailing. They have some fanciful ideas about serving God. I dare say that they would be shocked when they face troubles in the ministry.
If we want to be faithful servants, we must be prepared, we must count the cost, we must anticipate the troubles. Instead of running away, we pray for wisdom, we pray for strength that God will give us to weather through those troubles. As I said, we may not face the same kind of dangers the early disciples faced in those days, so much so that there are people who plot to take our lives. We pray that no one will plot to take Rachel's life in Indonesia, but we never know.
That may not be the case for us, but there may be people who try to create trouble, try to divide the church, criticise the teaching and preaching. Whether you are a Sunday school teacher or you are a preacher, they will try to frustrate your work. All of us, we must anticipate there will be troubles. So don't run away, don't give up. If we are faithful to God, God is 100% faithful to preserve us. He will give us the strength to persevere, to press on.
Well, Paul was not the only faithful servant. There were many other faithful brethren traveling along with him. Look at verse 4. Verse 4 tells us, "And there accompanied him into Asia Sopater of Berea; and of the Thessalonians, Aristarchus and Secundus; and Gaius of Derbe, and Timotheus; and of Asia, Tychicus and Trophimus." “These going before tarried for us at Troas. And we sailed away from Philippi after the days of unleavened bread,” which is a reference to the Passover. So, he celebrated Passover at Philippi. “and came unto them to Troas in five days; where we abode seven days.” (Acts 20:5-6)
Whenever the writer of Acts uses the first personal pronouns "us" and "we," it means that Luke was there. Luke was the writer. He was previously left at Philippi. He managed to join Paul now and then traveled with the rest of the group. They went to Troas in five days, stayed there for seven days. Previously, they only needed two days in that distance, but now they needed five days. Most likely the winds were against them. So it is not just persecutions and people, enemies of the Gospel, against those servants of God, even the climate sometimes can be against them. But they were willing, they went.
Do you notice that Paul, his companions, were all represented by their own cities? So it's not just the name, but the name with the particular cities. Why? Some theologians believe that these were the official representatives of their own churches. Remember, there was a collection done as Paul went around the Gentile churches, and once the collection was done, they sent official representatives to take the collection all the way to the church in Jerusalem.
So the Bible tells us Sopater was a representative of the Berean church, so the Berean church participated. Aristarchus and Secundus were from the Thessalonian church. Gaius was from Derby. Timothy was from Lystra. Tychicus and Trophimus were from the Ephesian church, Asia. Luke was a representative of the Philippian church. Paul had preached at Corinth, so he would be representing the Corinthian church.
You see, all these churches participating in supporting the poor believers in Jerusalem. Can you see how wonderful it is to have all these churches coming together in support of the Gospel work? No wonder the Psalmist says, "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!" (Psalm 133:1). Instead of division, instead of troubles, instead of the church being fragmented, you see all these churches coming together to support the Lord's work. How wonderful!
So, my friends, are you a faithful servant of Christ? What are the characteristics of a servant of Christ? A servant of Christ who is faithful is someone who is able to set aside his own preferences, his own comfort, and his love and concern is always for the Gospel, for God and His people. He is someone who is always thinking about the believers, no matter how far apart they may be. Just like Paul, even in his missionary journeys, he's still thinking about the Jerusalem church. That was the reason why he went all the way to Macedonia.
A faithful servant of God is also someone who understands the importance of exhortation, the importance of preaching and teaching God's word, without which the church will die and the family will die too. He is also someone who understands, serving the Lord, there will be hindrances, serving the Lord, there'll be dangers, even possibly death. He will not run away. Instead, he will look to God for wisdom and strength.
And God knows who are the faithful servants. I pray that all of us, whether we are pastors, preachers, Sunday school teachers, youth leaders, parents, individual Christians, that we will all be faithful servants of God. We'll stop here and then we will continue next week. Let us look to the Lord in prayer.
Father in heaven, we thank Thee for the opportunity to consider Acts 20:1-6. Though it is a narration of the missionary journeys of Paul, yet we are able to draw valuable lessons from Thy precious, infallible, and inerrant Word. We pray that Thou wilt always teach us, help us not just to read Thy word and have Thy word for head knowledge sake, but Thy word will always sink into our hearts and be applied into our lives.
We pray that we will all desire to be faithful servants of Thee, true disciples of Christ, true believers, people who are able to set aside their own concerns and be concerned for Thy gospel, for Thee, and Thy people. People who are always thinking about others, the believers, no matter how far apart we may be. We care for the Myanmar missions, we care for the Philippine missions, O Lord, because of the love that Thou hast shed abroad in our hearts.
We want to be people who understand the importance of Thy word, especially the preaching and teaching of Thy truth, without which we know the church will be dead and our families will be dead too. O Lord, be gracious, be merciful, that we will continue to preach Thy truth for as long as we are alive.
We want to be people who also understand that to serve Thee, there will be troubles, there will be hindrances, and even dangers. O Lord, we will not run away, but we want to trust in Thee that if it is Thy will, Thou wilt give us the strength to press on and persevere until the day we see Thee face to face. And Thou wilt call unto us, "Come, thou good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of the Lord." This is what we desire to hear from our loving Savior and Lord Jesus Christ. In His name, we pray. Amen.
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