if you will. Turn your Bibles to Acts chapter 20, and tonight we'll be looking at verses 1 through 12. Acts 20, beginning in verse 1. Hear now the Word of God. After the uproar, that is the riot that took place in Ephesus, 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, he 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. Sopater, the Berean, son of Pyrrhus, accompanied him, and other Thessalonians, Aristarchus and Secundus. and Gaius of Derby, and Timothy, and the Asians, Tychicus and Trophimus. These went on ahead and were waiting at Troas, but we sailed away from Philippi after the days of unleavened bread, and in five days we came to them at Troas. We were stayed 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 gathered, and a young man named Eutychus, sitting at the window, sank into a deep sleep as Paul talks 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 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 they took the youth away alive and were not a little comforted. Let's pray together. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for the privilege we have to gather tonight. And in a very real sense, sit around Christ and his word and we pray that he would be our teacher that your Holy Spirit would instruct us through the words of Christ and that we would be built up in the faith would be strengthened for this week to come. We pray in Jesus name, Amen. Well, it was almost like clockwork at First Baptist Church in Union, South Carolina. After the liturgy leading up to the preaching of the word, the pastor would read the scriptures, have a prayer of illumination, and then right on cue, Monk Gregory, who sat behind the pastor in the choir loft, would fall fast asleep. This happened almost every Sunday. It was right out of the Andy Griffith Show, if you will. Well, tonight we have an instance of another young man falling asleep in a sermon, but this one did not have such a humorous ending. He tragically fell from the third story to his death. Now, before we get to that, there are three things woven throughout the passage we read tonight that I would like us to consider. Three things that we need in the body of Christ today. We need the ministry of encouragement. We need the resurrection power of Christ in our lives in the midst of the church, and we need the rich blessings of the Lord's Day. First, the ministry of encouragement is much needed among Christians. Luke tells us that after the ride in Ephesus, the discouragement that took place there, Paul gathered the disciples around him in verse one, and after encouraging them, he said farewell and departed for Macedonia. So verse two tells us, what did he do then in Macedonia? While he was with them, he gave them much encouragement, and then he came to Greece. The ministry of encouragement was a normal pattern that we see in the life and ministry of the Apostle Paul. Earlier in chapter 14 we read that Paul was strengthening the souls of the disciples and encouraging them to continue in the faith. And then he said, why? He went on in the next verse, in verse 22 of chapter 14, that through many tribulations, we would enter the kingdom of God. Paul was saying that being a Christian, you're living upstream in a downstream world, that you're gonna be caught in, as we saw last week, the conflicts of the kingdom. And then just living in a fallen world, there is much difficulty in this life. And so we need encouragement. It's a word that Luke uses 10 times in the book of Acts to describe a very important ministry among Christians. The word is para kaleo. You can almost hear the meaning in the word. Para means to come alongside or beside. We have the word parallel or parallel and kaleo means to call. And so this encouragement is to be called to come alongside fellow believers with the purpose of encouraging, comforting, strengthening them in the faith. We all need that encouragement because we live in a fallen world and because we are going to find conflict in the kingdom of God. He says that there's gonna be much conflict before you ever enter the kingdom. It's that same word, interestingly enough, that Jesus used to describe one whom he would send after his ascension. He said in John 14, afterwards I will send you the Holy Spirit, the helper, the comforter, the counselor, the one who is called to come alongside, the para kaleo, the encourager of the believers. And so one of the primary means that the Holy Spirit, who is the comforter, the encourager, one of the primary means he uses in addition to the means of grace of the Word of God and prayer and the sacraments, is people. people whom he calls to come alongside one another and to encourage one another. Paul knows this. That's why he calls the disciples to him and he encourages them. That's why in verse two he goes to Macedonia and he gives them much encouragement. That's why it is a pattern to Paul's life. That's why he spent much time in these places. That is why when he learned of yet another plot to take his life in verse three, What's the first thing he does? He forms a band of brothers, both Jew and Gentiles, around him of like-minded disciples to accompany him and to encourage him. So you notice in verse 4 we read some of the list of those believers and those band of brothers. He calls together Sopater, the Berean. Notice where they're from, all over the place. Why? He spent time in these places doing what? Teaching and encouraging them in the faith. So we have Sopater, the Berean, son of Pyrus, accompanied him, and the Thessalonians, Aristarchus and Secundus, and Gaius of Derby, and Timothy, and the Asians, Tychicus and Trophimus. And then we read in verse five, these went on ahead and were waiting for us at Troas, but we, here's another we passage in Luke. So who is now with Paul? It's Luke himself. And so Paul calls together this band of brothers. Why? We need encouragement. We need fellowship in this fallen world and the difficulties we will face in the kingdom of God. Paul knew personally. the value of fellowship, of koinonia, of encouraging one another in the faith. As one writer put it, encouragement is the oxygen to the soul. Let me encourage you, just as we read this brief historical section, how might God use you as an encourager in the lives of others? Let me be more specific, who? Who might God be calling you to come alongside for the purpose of encouragement, for comfort, for consolation, for spurring them on in the faith? in the things of Christ? What phone calls might you make? What texts or emails might you send? What words might God use to build up others in their faith who are discouraged at this time? What visits can you make? What meals can you prepare? What prayers can you pray with and for others? Not this, I'll pray for you, see you later. But actually praying with and for them in those moments. In what ways? practical, tangible ways, can we be of encouragement to one another in this difficult life in this fallen world? And if you are one of those who are in need of encouragement, don't do what is our natural tendency, and that is to withdraw. Remember the words of the writer to the Hebrews, let us consider how we may spur one another on towards loving good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another and all the more as we see the day approaching. Christians then and Christians now, need the ministry of encouragement. I remember seeing in the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, the UK Olympian Derek Redmond, as he tore his hamstring in the 400 meter semifinals. And you could see the physical pain and the emotional pain of years of preparation, anticipation, wanting the gold medal. You could see this pain written all over his face as he continued the race with the torn hamstring. As he came to the last leg of that last lap, someone from the stands came out and took Redmond's arm, put it over their shoulders, wrapped his arm around his waist, and carried him across the finish line. It was his father. It was a wonderful moment in the Olympics, and it's a beautiful picture of encouragement. of parakaleo, of coming along beside one another, taking their arm and wrapping your arm around them, and encouraging them to continue on in the faith, continuing on in the things of Christ. Oh, that God would provide more Mr. Redmonds, or as we were introduced earlier in Acts chapter 4, to Barnabas, whose very name meant what? Son of encouragement. May God use us in the lives of others. We need the ministry of encouragement. Secondly, by way of painful illustration, we see that the resurrection power of Christ is much needed in the body of Christ as well. As Paul was preaching, the scene is set for what takes place next, a memorable time in the book of Acts. It was a Sunday evening, it was late, and in the first century Roman world and Greek world, slaves would not have the Lord's day off. It was a working day, and so by necessity they often met in their early days for worship in the evening. They had worked all day, they were tired, they gathered together, and only as Dr. Luke, the historian and physician, might have noted in verse 8, there were many lanterns in the room. So verse 7 says Paul had a very brief TED talk, just a very brief, it was prolonged. That's a very nice way of saying he kept on going. It was a long sermon. And verse 8 says there were lanterns in the room. What are we talking about in this upper room? Well, it's a place where heat rises. It was a room filled with people, a room filled with these lanterns that not only gave off a dim, flickering, mesmerizing light after a long day of work, but it depleted the oxygen. And there sat poor Eutychus in the window, fighting the nods. He can barely keep his eyes open and he falls out of the window. By the way, Eutychus' name means fortunate. He wasn't all that lucky that night. Reminds me not only of Monk Gregory, but of a scene in one of the Andy Griffith shows where Barney gets the nods in church. We've all found it and had that at times where you just can't keep your eyes open. So a dear friend of ours, in fact I saw her this afternoon at a drop-in for a friend that's moving to Kansas, said the way she learned who this young man was, was a preacher years ago said, you'd have cussed too if you had fallen out the window. So here he is, he falls out the window and in Elijah, Elisha fashion, Paul runs down and he takes this young man in his arms. And there you hear almost the echoes of the voice of Jesus. Jesus' voice there at the scene of Jairus' daughter, at Lazarus' tomb, the widow's son in the village of Nain. And Paul declares, don't be alarmed. His life is in him. And then we read in verse 12, and they took the youth away alive and were not a little comforted. I love the way Luke does this. We've seen several of these. It's called litotes. It's stating something negatively that really is taken positively for emphasis. I don't know if you've noticed, but he's done this several times throughout the book of Acts. Consider, for example, chapter 12, verse 18. Now when they came there, there was no little disturbance among the soldiers over what had become of Peter. 1428, and they remained no little time with the disciples. That meant they stayed a long time. In our previous chapter about that time, there arose no little disturbance. That meant there was a real riot concerning the way for a man named Demetrius, a silversmith who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought no little business to the craftsman. That meant he brought a lot of business. And then here in chapter 12, verse 12, Luke says, the people were not a little comforted, they were greatly comforted. At this young man they thought they had lost and he's miraculously raised from the dead. In fact, that word in verse 12, not a little comforted is the same word for they were encouraged. There's a ministry of encouragement again. What do we learn though from this miracle? It is a reminder, is it not, of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, of the resurrection power of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's why in the Gospels, in the book of Acts, you will not see many, but you will see miracles of actual raising from the dead. What is that a statement? It's that Jesus Christ is the Lord of life. He is the Lord and giver of life. And it not only gives us hope in this life now, but you think of that future resurrection one day, when all the dead in Christ will be raised by the power of Christ. However, that resurrection life isn't just for the future. Paul, as he's praying, For the church in Ephesus in chapter 1 says, I plead and I pray for the working of God's great might in you that he worked in Christ when? When he raised him from the dead. And it is that kind of resurrection power for which we not only hope in the future, and that hope is not wishful thinking, it is certainty, but it is a resurrection power that we need today in our lives and in the life of the church. It is this resurrection power through which the Holy Spirit enables us to put to death the misdeeds of the flesh. Paul says that we are to mortify the flesh by the Spirit and that resurrection power of Christ. It is that resurrection power that enables us to bear the fruit of the Spirit, to be conformed more to the image and likeness of Christ. It is that resurrected power that enlivens our hearts and minds to the wisdom of the Word and gives us power for worship and for witness. Without that resurrection power, we, no matter how orthodox we may be, will succumb to dead orthodoxy. We desperately need the resurrection power of the Lord Jesus Christ in our own hearts and lives for our own sanctification. We need the resurrection power in the life of our church that there will be significant worship and significant witness. This is what Paul is speaking of when he says in Galatians 2.20, I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but what? But Christ lives in me. The resurrected Christ lives in me. And the life I now live, I live not in the flesh, but I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Raising Eutychus from the dead was not just a wow moment for the early church. It was a reminder that Jesus Christ is the Lord and giver of life. And not just the life to come, but life now. Resurrection power in our hearts and lives. And that, my friends, is what we need. We desperately need the ministry of encouragement. We desperately need the resurrection power of the indwelling Christ in our hearts and lives as we've repented of our sins and come to faith in Jesus Christ by faith. We are united to him. He takes up residence in our hearts and lives by his spirit. And we begin to experience something of that resurrection life of which Paul prayed for the first century church in Ephesus, we begin to experience in the 21st century church today. We need encouragement. We need resurrection power. And finally, the Lord's day is much needed among Christians as well. You notice in verse 7 when this scene was set for Eutychus falling from the window and the resurrection power of Christ being displayed, when was it? It was on the first day of the week. Now again, what is significant about the first day of the week? Well, this is when the believers began to meet for public worship. James Boyce says that what we have described here is basically Acts 242 that we studied several months back. The believers are devoted to the apostles' teaching, to the breaking of bread, to the fellowship, and to the prayers. We have Acts 242 in a miniature version right here of what's taking place in this dimly lit upper room. There was careful Bible exposition, there was the Lord's Supper, there was a fellowship meal, and there was informal conversation concerning that message that followed. By the way, many pastors want to look at this passage of Scripture and argue for long sermons. It was a long sermon. In fact, when he finished at midnight, in fact he didn't finish, he was interrupted because Eudicius fell out of the window, what happens as soon as he picks him up? Paul goes right back at it. You have congregational people say, yeah, but it might have been a long sermon, but look what happened to Eutychus. The passage isn't really about how short or long sermons should be. It should not be how to stay awake in church at night, and I've read sermons on both of those things. But what you do see is the centrality of the word of God again. What was taking place in the worship on this Lord's Day was an extended Christ-centered exposition of the Word of God, and God still calls forth for that today. But think about the day itself. Why the first day of the week? Why did believers begin to gather together on the first day of the week? There are several reasons. You've heard many of these over the years. But why the change from Saturday to Sunday? Well, first, in celebration of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. When did that occur? First day of the week on Sunday, Matthew 28, 1. Second, Jesus appeared to his disciples and to Mary and to the two disciples that were heading on the road to Emmaus. When? On the first day of the week. A week later, he appears again to his disciples and to Doubting Thomas. When? On the first day of the week. You're finding this pattern here now. Fourth, The resurrected Christ poured out His Spirit on Pentecost, 50 days after that Sabbath. 49 would have been Saturday, 50 would have been on the first day of the week. It's a celebration of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon His church. Fifth, the apostolic example of gathering God's people together for worship on the first day of the week. We see an example here. Six, the collecting of offerings in the context of worship. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 16, it was on the, guess what? First day of the week. And seventh, in Revelation 1 verse 10, the aged apostle John, as he stranded on the island of Patmos, says he was caught up in the Spirit on the what? The Lord's day. Now, he does not in that text designate what day of the week that was, but let me ask you a question. What specific day of the week, and by the way, he has a specific day in mind because he calls it the Lord's Day. We know every day belongs to him, but there's a specific day in mind. What specific day of the week exalts the glory and honor and work of Christ more than any other specific day on the week? It's the day in which he was what? Raised again from the dead and testified by the Father through that resurrection that he is indeed the Lord and giver of life. It was on the first day of the week. And so the Christian Sabbath today is the first day of the week for all these reasons. It is the Lord's day that he had in mind as Jesus is vindicated by the Father. What that does for us, it's not just pointing out a specific day, it gives us a whole new way to view life. You think of the Old Testament saints and how they viewed their work week. What was it like for them? They began the week working, longing for that end of the week, which is the day of rest. They were enslaved in Egypt, longing for, working their fingers to the bone, rest. And so it was always out in front of them. But what has happened in the resurrection of Christ and this paradigm shift, we don't begin the week by our work looking forward to the rest. What do we do as Christians? we begin the week resting in the accomplished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. One of my favorite professors in seminary was O. Palmer Robertson, and he said this in his book, Christ of the Covenants, considering the whole shift and view of work and of life with regards to the Lord's Day. He said, so by the end of the lifetime of the apostles, Christians knew about the one day of the week that was called the Lord's Day, and on that day they celebrated the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. That day became the time of their assembly as they rejoiced in the resurrection of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit. So Sunday, the first day of the week, has become the Christian Sabbath, also known as the Lord's Day. Robertson went on to say and give reasons for this, the New Covenant radically alters the Sabbath perspective. The current believer does not first labor six days looking hopefully forward to rest. Instead, he or she begins the week by rejoicing in the rest already accomplished by the cosmic event of Christ's resurrection. Then he or she joyfully enters into that six days of labor, confident of a success through the victory that Christ has already won. As Christians, you know what that means? I remember in the 70s there was a song, Rainy Days and Sundays Always Get Me Down. Rainy Days and Mondays Always Get Me Down. It was actually sung by a group and the female singer later in life committed suicide, struggled with anorexia all her life and I just thought, how sad. For the Christian, it's not rainy days and Mondays always get me down. Why? Monday is a day in which you come out of the chutes having been refreshed, having been encouraged, having been built up in the things of Christ, having celebrated the resurrection of Christ. And so we begin the week with the hope and power of the gospel of Jesus Christ working out in our lives. So it's not rainy days and Mondays always get me down, rather Mondays are the day in which we come out of the chutes having been rejuvenated by the grace of God and the gospel of Christ. And because the Christian Sabbath is referred to as the Lord's Day, and because worship here in Acts 20 took place in the evening for necessary reasons, I do wanna say something about the importance that our session is committed to in terms of Sunday evening worship. You might think, well, where do you get that? You can't just point to Acts chapter 20 and say, well, they worshiped in the evening. They had to at that time by necessity. But there is a pattern in scripture, is there not? of morning and evening sacrifices, day after day, week after week, year after year. century after century. There is a biblical precedent for morning and evening worship. In Exodus 29, 38 and following, in 2 Corinthians 13, the people and the priests were required to offer sacrifices to the Lord every morning and evening. Years later, the psalmist reminds us of the continued pattern of not just morning, but evening worship. Listen to the psalmist. O Lord, I call upon you, hasten to me, give ear to my voice when I call to you, let my prayer be counted as incense before you, and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice." This pattern of worship observed in early church history, this pattern of morning and evening, morning and evening, it continued all the way through the Reformation. And so when you read the worship liturgy of the churches of the Reformation, this practice continued. Dutch reformed, Scottish Presbyterian, English Puritans, Lutherans, Anglican churches continued the practice of morning and evening worship. The ceasing of this is relatively new in history. I think it's not just because we're a tired people. I think it's a Lord's Day problem. We view it in practice, we might call it the Lord's Day, but in practice it's the Lord's what? Morning. But the scripture says it's the Lord's Day. What a beautiful way to cap, to begin the day and to end the day, to cap it with corporate worship together. Physical fatigue is often an excuse, I just can't come back out. By the way, I know I'm preaching to the choir tonight. But yeah, I'm just too tired to come back out. If that had been the attitude of the early century, first century believers, there would have been no worship service. This was a late night worship service after a long day, not of watching NFL football on your sofa, but a long day of work. And yet they came out. Why? There was a hunger, there was a thirst to hear the word of God. There was a passion to worship the triune God with God's people, to gather together with his people in his presence. And so for them, morning and evening was a beautiful way to celebrate. the glories of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. By the way, just on a brief side note, I may have shared this before, but you realize the first great awakening in the United States actually was sparked at an evening worship service. As the guest pastor by the name of Jonathan Edwards preached his great sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, on a Sunday evening, 500 unbelievers who had gathered together with the people of God were converted that evening. I've had the privilege over the years of seeing individuals come to faith in Christ during the preaching of the gospel on Sunday evenings. It's a wonderful day of celebration, a day in which we anticipate the eternal rest that we will have in Christ, a day in which we celebrate now that rest and we're strengthened and rejuvenated through the means of grace. I want you to turn in conclusion to Isaiah chapter 58. Isaiah chapter 58 is, Isaiah reminds us that the Lord's day is not a burden but it is a delight and there is great benefit in gathering together in the morning and again in the evening and spending the day in personal worship, in family worship, and in corporate worship, spending the day in ministry to others, ministries of mercy and compassion, spending the day with food and fellowship around the table in your homes. a day in which we anticipate the work of Christ, even in the future. Listen to Isaiah chapter 58, beginning in verse 13. If you turn your back, if you turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath not a drudgery, but a delight, and the holy day of the Lord honorable, And if you honor it, not going your own ways or seeking your own pleasures or talking idly, then, here is a promise, the end means of the means of grace, then you shall take delight in the Lord. And I will make you ride on the heights of the earth. I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob, your father, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. Oh, my friends, we need the ministry of encouragement. We do need the ministry of the power of the resurrected Christ in our lives. And we desperately need to recapture the beauty, the wonder, the ministry, the blessing of the Lord's day. God himself says, when you honor my day, then you will find a deeper, more profound delight in me than you could have ever experienced, a greater strength and a greater encouragement to live for Him in this fallen world in the midst of kingdom conflicts. May God bless us with these three ministries that we see reflected in this portion of scripture, and may we be strengthened by God's grace through each of these ministries. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for the pattern that we see in the Apostle Paul in this ministry of encouragement. Would you, O God, raise up more Barnabases in our midst Would you give us more specifically ways in which we can encourage one another in the things of Christ? And Father, would you continue through the ministry of your Holy Spirit, strengthen us by the resurrected power of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, to live the life to which you've called us? And Father, may we find more and more our rest in you. And may that rest and that joy and delight be reflected in the way in which we honor your day. And Lord, we ask that then. We would discover a deeper delight in you, a greater strength and encouragement. For the life to which you've called us, we pray in Jesus name, Amen.