You're listening to the teaching ministry of Harvest Fellowship Church in Boyertown, Pennsylvania. You can find out more about us on the web at www.harvestfellowshipchurch.org. We pray that through our teaching, we may present everyone mature in Christ. Father in heaven, we bow before you on this Wednesday night. Oh, Lord, what a joy it is to gather with the saints and to primarily be around your word. As much as we delight to be around each other, Lord, we have this unchanging truth that we hold in our hands, that we read, that we hear. We pray, Lord, even as we look at a passage that I would confess often overlooked, that you would take these words of Luke and use them very fruitfully in our lives. We pray these things tonight in the name of Jesus. Amen. All right. Can I do a recap of last week? I kind of liked what I did last week. I decided I'm not giving the recap because you know what I've noticed is 75% of people will shut their brains off for the five minutes that I give the recap. And if you think that you're probably not in that 75 percent, you probably are. So what I did was I wrote down some questions that I would like for you to answer. From and you can cheat, you know, you can open your Bible to Acts chapter 19. We did verses 21 through 41 last week, which, by the way, Bob puts us at 69.81 percent. having completed chapter 19. But what places, question one, what places did Paul purpose in the spirit to travel to? Jerusalem's one. Macedonia and Achaia. What man led the major disturbance against the way in Ephesus? Demetrius. What arguments, this is a little bit longer of an answer, maybe you can just call out one, what arguments did Demetrius use to stir up the craftsmen or the tradesmen? Okay, gods made without hands aren't gods. like deposed of her glory, come to nothing. Yes, this is how we get, men, you know this is how we get our money. Was he successful? Yes, very successful. What was the enraged chant of the mob? And I'll just give you a clue. It wasn't two plus two equals four. Great is Artemis of the Ephesians." Now, who did the Jews put forward to try to speak to this assembly that was in the theater? There we go, Alexander. And when he did try to speak, how long did the Ephesians chant in favor of their goddess, Artemis? Two hours, about two hours. And who was the person who eventually quelled this uproar? Yes, Mr. Town Clerk. And what rationale did he use to soothe, to calm, and then to disperse the crowd? Well, and especially a city that had its own autonomy, like Ephesus did. Yes, or even to have a lawful assembly. And he also named Demetrius, and he probably shut his mouth pretty quickly after that. I'm sure if he was a rabble rouser, it was not his first interaction with him. Correct. He said that they were not temple robbers. He said they had not personally defamed Artemis. That's right. Undeniable truth. He said, we all believe this. Only a few of them shook their heads no. But we talked about if they had been charged with rioting, a lot of bad things could have happened. But what was evident through all this was that Paul was preserved by God throughout this ordeal. Because God still has plans for Paul and whatever satanic Things are going on to try to disrupt God's plans. God is using and overruling. And so this brings us now to chapter 20. Chapter 20, and tonight we're going to cover verses 1 through 16. So let's read those verses, and then you're going to have more participation. Hear now the word of the Lord. 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 of the Thessalonians Aristarchus and Secundus, and Gaius of Derbe, and Timothy, and the Asians Tychicus 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 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, 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. But going ahead to the ship, we set sail for Assas, intending to take Paul aboard there, for so he had arranged, intending himself to go by land. And when he met us at Assas, 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. And may the Lord write the eternal truths of his word to our hearts on this Wednesday night. There's a lot of details, there's a lot of names, there's a lot of numbers, but what we're beginning here In this 47th Teaching and Acts, I've called this Paul's Farewell Tour, Ministry of Encouragement. So he's on his farewell tour, so to speak, and it's happy and troublesome all at the same time. I think I have about... 12 to 14 questions written down, but I will allow and defer to my esteemed audience, and you can give me any questions that you may have come up with. Yes, Mr. Parsons. Is Luke back with them at some point and start saying we again? Oh, okay. I actually didn't write that down, but good question. Is Luke back with the boys? OK, so you want to know more about the comfort. So why did Luke mention that there were many lamps? Yes, Grace. Oh. Now we're adding on to questions. Does anybody want to add on to that? Okay. Was Paul boring? I have that. Well, I didn't have that as a question, but that's in the notes. Okay. Is it common for Paul to speak that many hours? How many hours did he speak? Yes. Okay. That's one of my questions. Did Eutychus really die? Commentators are divided. Okay. I don't know that we're really going to get to that since it's one of the last, it's the last word. We just know that that's what he wants to do. But we are going to talk a little bit more about this Feast of Unleavened Bread. And that's one of the questions. Why or how would Paul have celebrated the Feast of Unleavened Bread? And I'll give you a few other. What kind of plot was made against Paul? What's the significance of these travel companions, where Luke gives us their names? This is my favorite question, by the way. Since Luke mentions a secundus, was there a firstest that we didn't know about? That's in my notes. That's question number three. You've lost the floor now. What kind of meal was the breaking of bread What does it mean that Paul prolonged his speech? Is there significance in the many lamps? Why did Luke include this story about Eutychus? Have you ever thought about that? Why did Paul travel alone at that one juncture while his travel companions all traveled together? And why did Paul plan to sail past Ephesus? This seems like a place he loves. sailing past it. And then what's the main theme of this passage, or you could say even chapter, and I'm going to give that to you right now because it's in the title. Paul's ministry of encouragement is the main theme of this whole chapter, and it's going to be continued in his address to the Ephesian elders, which we're going to cover next week and the following week over two parts. Do you still have a question, Bob? Yes. Is there something that Paul did when he takes this young man in his arms? Maybe he did one of his magic incantations. Now, we will get to that, yes. All right, so after three years now in Ephesus, Paul's eyes are finally focused on his goal, which is his eyes are fixed upon Jerusalem. And this is not going to be an identical comparison, but I want to draw this comparison even though it's not exact. And that's that Luke here in his writing, and remember he's writing to Theophilus, he's drawing somewhat of a parallel here between Jesus' final journey to Jerusalem, which he wrote all about in his first treatise called The Gospel According to Luke, And he's comparing that to Paul's journey to Jerusalem, which is described here in the second treatise, Acts. Now, of course, what the God-man does in his mission is unique. Paul's not going to do something anywhere near as marvelous. I'm not trying to say that. His mission was unique, but both Jesus and Paul, let me give you some of the comparisons here. They both traveled to Jerusalem with a group of disciples. They both are opposed by Jews plotting to take their lives. They both make claims at their readiness to lay down their life. They both teach people along the way. They both are determined to complete their ministry. And they both have their face set steadfastly toward Jerusalem. And we don't really get into it into the text here, but they both have some dramatic confrontations within the temple. And we'll see that with Paul very shortly. Now, as we get into the verses here, as we talk about these travels of Paul, and this is semi-speculative, but his travels here may have included a venture into a place called Illyricum. But he begins in Ephesus, and of course, he's going to end up in Miletus, which is pretty close to Ephesus. It's kind of interesting. But again, his ultimate goal of Jerusalem is in view. Now, if you say, what or where is Illyricum, where did you get that from? Well, that comes from the words of Paul himself in Romans 15. In Romans 15, 18, he says, For I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience by word and deed by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God, so that from Jerusalem and all the way around to Illyricum, I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ. Now, you might ask the question, where is Illyricum? Because you're not going to see it on the map that I gave you. But if you just look at where Macedonia is on the map, it's northwest of Macedonia. If you remember when Paul talks about Titus going to Dalmatia, Dalmatia is part of Illyricum. And there's another territory called Pannonia. At least that's what the map showed when I looked at it earlier today. Let's go to verse 1. I was just thinking about this today, actually. It's amazing how much information we glean from all the epistles that Paul writes, and how all these things intersect, where he is when he's writing one, who's carrying them, because Luke doesn't give us all this information. Luke is a very brief writer for things that we probably wished he would have been more expansive on, but we do have a lot of other information that comes from a lot of Paul's writings himself. But here, Luke describes, he says, after the uproar ceased, and what he's conveying there is basically saying when this crazy noise died down. The word here denotes noise. The noise ceased when Ephesus finally returns to orderly quiet, Paul summons for the disciples of Ephesus. And I hadn't thought about this before, but maybe Paul's in hiding. when he, you know, maybe he wasn't just prevented from entering into the theater, but maybe they said, no, you need to go into a very safe place. We don't know that, but he summons for them. He doesn't go to them. He calls them to him and they come to him. And here we see right away what the theme is. And we're going to see it continually. He encourages them. He encourages these disciples. He gives them departing words of exhortation. We might even call this a departing blessing. Now, what did he say? We don't know, but we could have some ideas. Maybe he urged them to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which they had been called with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace. Where does that come from? Ephesians. This is the letter that he's going to write to them, Ephesians 4. So he encourages these believers and then he leaves. He says farewell, just as he had resolved in chapter 19 verse 21 to go to Macedonia and Achaia and to reconnect with Timothy and Erastus. Remember in chapter 19 verse 22, he sends them on ahead. But here's something to consider, which is not in the text of Acts. But as Paul leaves here, does he go straight to Macedonia or did he possibly go first to Troas? The reason that I ask that is when you get to 2 Corinthians 2, verse 12, this again, this is where we're trying to connect all of the books together. He says, when I came to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ, even though a door was opened for me in the Lord, my spirit was not at rest because I did not find my brother Titus there. So I took leave of them and went on to Macedonia. So we can't say this for sure, but this seems like there's a pretty good probability that he first goes to Troas and then on to his destination of Macedonia. Verse 2, 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 here he goes through these regions or districts of Macedonia, and this probably would have included communities like Philippi, like Thessalonica, and even Berea, perhaps others. And we're pretty confident that while he's here in Macedonia, that this is when he writes that letter, 2 Corinthians. So this is when he writes 2 Corinthians. Of course, We know from 2 Corinthians chapter 7 that it's in Macedonia that he is reunited with Titus. Remember I just read to you that he was upset because he couldn't find Titus? Well, in chapter 7 of 2 Corinthians he says, we found him. And not only did we find him, but he brought us a great report of God's work in Corinth. Titus had a very difficult job. He carried Paul's letters to Corinth and had to rebuke those people and see that they carried them out. And so he sees Titus, he hears about God's grace upon the Corinthians. He's also, while he's here in these regions, he is through people who help him. He's collecting money for what I call the Jerusalem Relief Fund. And you see him talk about that in Romans 15, 1 Corinthians 16, and also 2 Corinthians 8 and 9. But it wasn't just from one region, but this is also going on. And so while he's there, Luke records that he gave these saints in these Macedonian communities much encouragement, many words, long speeches of things that were going to help them. And there's something to be said, or to remember, I guess you could say, is how often do the saints of God need encouragement? How often do we need encouragement? And the answer is, a lot. A lot. But we should also note that Paul's mission, and we've seen this time and time again, it's not to just go plant churches and say, good luck, guys. He doesn't leave them to their own devices. He knows that persecution is going to come upon them. He knows that the powers of darkness are going to rise up against them. And so, he comes back for encouragement. And what's the best way to encourage people? The Word of God. And that's what he's primarily. It's not the only thing he's doing, but the Word of God is what will primarily encourage people. And so, he comes then to what Luke calls Greece. some debate over this because really this word could also just be translated Achaia and probably primarily Corinth. And there in this area of Greece, or Achaia, he spends three months. And he had in Corinth, he now had an open door for ministry again because of the effectual work of Titus. And while he's in Corinth, while he's in Achaia, what book is he writing? Romans. He's writing Romans. So he's writing Romans while he's here, and it's very probable that he's waiting these three months because it's wintertime, so they're waiting for favorable spring weather. So he's holed up here, and while he's holed up, he's doing a lot of good things. He's not just wasting his time. And when a plot of evil, this is a plot to cause harm to Paul was made against him by the Jews, this would have likely been the Jewish leaders and probably the same Jews who took him in front of Galileo and were outraged when Galileo wouldn't punish him. But they come up with this plot to kill him. Now, was this plot to kill him as he was on his way to the ship? Was this plot to kill him on the ship? There's a highly plausible idea that some of these Jews were going to pretend to be pilgrims going back to Jerusalem, kill them at sea, throw them overboard. That's the end of Paul. And perhaps if they can drown Paul, maybe they can effectually drown this movement of the way with him. And maybe also steal the money that he's been collecting. But he wanted to go to, it says here, to Syria. And that's a reference to Antioch, and we've called it Antioch in Syria before, Syrian Antioch. And we saw that he stopped there in chapter 14, verse 26, and also chapter 18, verse 18. But he becomes aware of this plot. I've lost count of how many plots that he's become aware of. against him. It started right away in Damascus, if you remember. But he now decides to go a different way. He's going to return through Macedonia instead of just taking this direct sea voyage. And so Paul's plans change yet again, but this is God's providential care for Paul. And as one very old commentator from 500 years ago wrote, he said, Paul doesn't tempt God. He slips away from present danger. He knows there's a plot. He doesn't say, I'm Paul. Nothing can happen to me. I'm getting on this ship anyway. He's aware of the danger, and he avoids it. But consider this, as we just talked about him writing Romans, in the face of such hatred, what is Paul's disposition towards his countrymen? He said in Romans 10.1, which providentially I just read this morning. It's amazing how God works that. But he said, brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them, and this is his countrymen, is that they may be saved. That was his objective. And I wonder if we'd be able to say that if we knew that there was people who literally wanted to murder us. Verse four. Sopater, the Berean son of Paris, accompanied him, and of the Thessalonians, Aristarchus and Secundus, and Gaius of Derbe and Timothy, and the Asians, Tychicus and Trophimus, these went on ahead and were waiting for us at Troas. So you have all these names listed. You've got this Berean travel companion of Paul, Sopater. Is this, and you can make the determination, is this the Sosipater in Romans 16.21 that Paul calls one of his kinsmen, meaning a relative? But then we have Aristarchus and Secundus here, two companions from Thessalonica. Again, I'll leave this for your judgment. Is this the same Aristarchus who was just dragged into the theater or was it a different one? But Aristarchus will be mentioned again in chapter 27 verse 2. He's also mentioned by Paul in Colossians 4.10 and Philemon verse 24. Was this Gaius the same Gaius dragged into the theater in the last chapter? We don't have to wonder who Timothy was. We talked about him on Sunday. This is Paul's beloved son in the faith. And then we have these two other men, Tychicus and Trophimus. Tychicus was a man who is very well thought of by Paul. We see how favorably he talks about him in Ephesians 6, verse 21, in Colossians 4, verse 7, 2 Timothy 4, 12. and our new favorite book, Titus 3.12. Trophimus, who's going to actually cause some problems, and it's not because he was trying to, because we're going to see him mentioned in chapter 21, verse 29 here of Acts, is a resident of Ephesus. So he is an Ephesian man, and he's also mentioned again in 2 Timothy 4, verse 20. But these men here, These men are traveling with Paul to Jerusalem, and what's the point? Are they just friends? Are they just ministers, partners in ministry? I think it's a little bit more than that. I think they're coming along as representatives, or you could say delegates, of the churches in Macedonia and Achaia that had contributed money to the Jerusalem church. They're coming along as representatives of those communities. So, not only did they give money, but they're here on a mission trip of sorts to provide help to Jerusalem. Now, there's one other person who probably was part of this group, but we don't see him mentioned, and that was Titus. So Titus was probably in this group. And so we would have to ask ourself the question, why would Luke not have mentioned Titus? And there are some historians who have suggested, which I really hadn't encountered this before, but there are some who have suggested that Titus was Luke's brother. And notice Luke never mentions his own name that much either. But perhaps if it was his brother, he's modestly avoiding personal family references, you know, the same way that John writes about himself in the gospel according to John. You know, he calls himself the disciple that outran Peter. He's the guy who got there first. The disciple whom Jesus loved, but he never calls himself John. But at any rate, this group here, they also represent something else, and they are representative of the completeness of Paul's Gentile mission. Paul had successfully gone everywhere that God wanted him to go, and so their representation here shows that this mission has been complete. There's seven named men, And they are the fruit of God's mission. So these seven named men who are the fruit of God's mission, what do they go on to do? They go on to become agents in His mission. So they weren't just content to just be converted and to do nothing. They became agents in God's mission. And we could ask ourselves, what about us? Are we agents in the mission of God? In verse five, we have a bit of a confusing phrase here. He says, these went on ahead and were waiting for us at Troas. Who are these? Was it all seven guys? Was it just Tychicus and Trophimus? Did he mean these seven or these two? But as Luke pointed out, it says waiting for us. Oh, us. Luke is back. Luke's back. And so, if you remember, though, here where he mentions Troas, what significant event happened in Troas? I'll help you. The significant event that happened in Troas was where Paul sees the Macedonian vision. They're in Troas. They don't know where they're going. They've been forbidden to go here, forbidden to go there. He receives that vision. And so they go into Macedonia. That's back in chapter six, the beginning of chapter 16. In verse six, Luke records, but we sailed away from Philippi. And, you know, remember, where did we leave Luke? in Philippi. That was where we left him. Remember after the jail house conversion, Paul goes on, but Luke stays there. At least we believe he stays there in Philippi, but here they're leaving Philippi and it says, after the days, or we could say the festival of unleavened bread. Is this where the group separated? Is the we here referring to just Paul and Luke? And again, we can't fully answer those questions. But what about this mention of the festival or Feast of Unleavened Bread? What do we know from Scripture about the Feast of Unleavened Bread? What was it in one word? Right, it was the Passover. So it was the Passover. We see that in Luke 21, the Feast of Unleavened Bread drew near, which is called the Passover. We go to verse 7, then came the day of unleavened bread on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. And then in this book, in chapter 12, you remember when Herod killed James, and then he goes on to arrest Peter, and Peter's kept in prison to be executed after the days of unleavened bread. And so I asked myself, what kind of Passover would Paul be celebrating? Now, if you were to go over to 1 Corinthians chapter 5, I think this helps give us an answer in verses 6 through 8, where he's writing to the Corinthian church and he says, Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. So you think Paul is just going to go about celebrating Passover the way that the unbelieving Jews do? No. So he can celebrate it in a whole new way, understanding that Christ, the true Passover lamb, has been sacrificed once for all time. He says, So that's my answer. That's how I think he was able to celebrate it, and in that way. So, 1 Corinthians 5, verses 6-8, and of course that comes after him talking about the man caught in a very bad moral condition. It says, after the days of unleavened bread. So they wait for that. And in five days, or really, you could say within five days, and this was when they were going the other way earlier in the book, it took them two days. And so if it takes five days here, that means they're hitting unfavorable headwinds here. But they get to Troas. And they stay here for a solid week. And so everybody now is regrouped back together. Paul and all of his traveling companions are here. together in Troas. And I don't know if this has jumped out to you in this passage or maybe some of the other passages as well, but Paul's not a lone ranger. Paul does not work alone. There was a couple periods of time when he was alone, like when he first gets to Corinth and he didn't want to be alone. He calls for other men to come to him. Paul was a team player. Paul was a team developer. He was constantly investing into the lives of other people. people who would share in the work of ministry and who would also continue it after he's gone. We're seeing that in this letter that he's writing to Titus. Titus is going to outlive Paul. Shouldn't we be doing the same thing today? Can any one man, can any one woman do any work of ministry alone? No. Verse seven, now we're getting to the 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, said Luke. Now this is really, and this is even why I pray that I've often overlooked this, but this is a really significant passage that shows us the development of the church over time. And so Luke tells us this is the first day of the week. What's the first day of the week? Sunday. Or as John will say in Revelation, he calls it the Lord's day. And they are gathered here, we know, evening, which if you go to John chapter 20, when Jesus appears to his disciples on the first day of the week, they're actually gathered at night. He gathers with them at night. Now, Luke doesn't tell us, is he following Jewish calculations? Because when does Sunday begin for the Jews? 6 p.m. on a Saturday night is already Sunday for them. And, of course, the Romans, where our 12 a.m. starts the day, from 12 a.m. to 12 a.m., but the Jews calculate it from sunset to sunset. But this is the first day of the week. This is the day of creation, and also, of course, very importantly, the day of resurrection. And so when he says that we gathered, the word that Luke uses there isn't just saying like a few friends decided to hang out. The word means to be called together in assembly. This is the assembling of the church. And so it's a clear reference then to us from Luke that this was the practice of the early Christians by now, that they had begun to meet on the first day of the week in order to worship God. And as part of their worshiping them, we see that phrase to break bread. Now, when I gave an overview of sorts of the Lord's Supper on Sunday, we went to First Corinthians and we talked about how they had what was called a love feast. And so they would gather and they would eat together a regular meal and then they would celebrate the Lord's Supper after that. And for the regular meal, the richer people would bring food and so that the poor people wouldn't go unfed. And he had to rebuke them because it got really bad. What was really great got really, really bad and it affected the Lord's Supper. So here, I think they're doing the same thing. I think they're doing a fellowship meal or a charity meal, including the Lord's Supper. Of course in Acts 2.42 we see that this was one of the things they devoted themselves to, to the breaking of bread. But Paul here talks with them. Now, I don't think that here he's initially that he's just dialoguing. I think he is preaching to them. He's instructing them. This is his last chance to pour as much wisdom. And maybe he's even giving them, hey, I just wrote this book, this letter called Romans. How would you guys like to hear it all in one night? So he breaks down Romans for these. That's just my idea there. But he's also doing this because he knows I'm determined to leave tomorrow. I've got to leave tomorrow. And so he prolongs, or we could say he extended or he continued his message. And I was thinking earlier today, I think there's, with what we see in the narrative here, there's pretty good probability that by extending the message, he extends or pushes out the meal and the Lord's Supper. And maybe that has some sort of effect on this young man. I don't know. But think about this as well. Just because it was the Lord's Day and the first day of the week, did the Greeks or the Romans care? No. They didn't care about that. They said day of rest. You get no days of rest. And so they didn't believe in this at all. And so a lot of the people who had been coming here, they would have had to work all day. So they're working all day, whether they're slaves, whether they're artisans, they're working. And then they're going to come and they're going to gather when they're available. And so they're here at night. And just possibly, this is again speculative, this is possibly where the idea of Sunday night services came from, from people who they had to. They wanted to worship on the Lord's day, so they met when they could. And this was obviously a unique opportunity for them. We get to meet with Paul. But Luke says there were a good many of lamps or torches here in this upper room. where they're at, this is going to, these torches that'll allow them to meet in this room long after the sun goes down. We see an upper room mentioned all the way back in chapter one, if you remember that, when they were meeting to pray over the replacement to Judas. So this was a typical – you had apartments that were on the top two floors, and on the first floor, the ground floor, there would have been shops. That was very common. So instead of a house church, maybe we could call this an apartment church. Where did these lamps come from? Well, it's very likely that the people brought them. You're coming, and you're probably going home in the dark, and guess what they don't have? They don't have street lamps. So you can walk home in complete darkness, or you could carry a little lamp with you. So it serves more than one purpose. John Gill said, perhaps also to remove all grounds of suspicion by having the place well lit, or occasion of reproach as if it was a midnight society met for wicked practices. They didn't want to have people think that, so it was well lit. But just as a bit of an aside here, As we think of the lamps burning, the light of this place, it may cause our minds to think a little bit of that tabernacle or that temple theme. Remember, according to Exodus 27 and Leviticus 24, what did Aaron and his sons do or what were they commanded to do? It was to keep the lamps burning all night. From evening to morning. Remember, it wasn't from morning to evening, it was from evening to morning, which means they were burning those lamps overnight. And when they come along to the temple, 2 Chronicles 13, 11, they're doing the same thing. They're doing the same thing. What did that light represent? Was it just in case the priest got afraid of the dark? Maybe it was a fringe benefit, but this was a representation of the continual presence of God, the light of God's presence continually among his people. It's light dispelling darkness. And what did the tabernacle and the temples have? They had a table for bread, the bread of the presence, and the bread of the presence is placed regularly before the Lord. And so the bread would have been placed in an elevated place of light, an elevated place of light. Your temple was an elevated place. And here, in a very small, mini way, it's elevated. They're on the third floor. Verse nine, 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 and taking him up in his arms said, do not be alarmed for his life is in him. So how young is Eutychus? Well, from the first word that's used here, you could be thinking that he could be, you know, 20s, early 30s. But the word then that Luke uses in verse 12 seems to give the indication that he probably would have been no older than 8 to 14 years old. His name meant either fortunate, good fortune, or lucky. which one commentator wrote, which was sheer coincidence. And I was like, there's no sheer coincidence anywhere in scripture. And I was going to try to figure lucky into the title, and I decided not to. But he's sitting here at the window. And of course, this is a precarious place for him to be sitting. But what does the window provide? Fresh air, fresh air. And so he sinks into a deep or profound sleep as Paul continues to talk. And notice as you look at this narrative, Luke doesn't condemn Paul for speaking long, but he also doesn't condemn the young man for falling asleep. This is a no judgment zone by Luke, you could say. And it seems the way that he words this about being overcome by sleep is that he's struggling to stay awake. He's trying to stay awake. He really would like to stay awake, but he nods off. Did you ever think about the fact that maybe he wasn't the only one who nodded off? He's just the one that happens to be sitting in the danger seat. Maybe other people are as well. But what's causing this? Well, maybe the heat of the room. Maybe the smell of the room. Maybe the room's super crowded. Of course, the time. Maybe he actually worked that day. And Paul just keeps talking. Exhaustion. You can name all the factors here that he's struggling with. But consider this. While we're not saying anything negative about him, how does the Bible often portray sleep? It's often portrayed as an abject failure. What happens to Samson when he's sleeping on Delilah's lap? How is Jonah able to sleep in the boat as he's outright disobeying God? The disciples fall asleep at Mount Transfiguration. How is it even possible? And of course, as Jesus also rebukes them in the Garden of Gethsemane, could you not pray with me for one hour? And in Nahum 3.18, it's even used as a rebuke of the failed leadership of one of the countries. Your shepherds are asleep. In Luke chapter 12, verse 37, we see the words, blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes. And there's a sense that Christians must be spiritually awake, praying that they enter not into temptation. Paul's going to say, when Ron teaches next week, or maybe it'll be me, I don't know, verse 31, I can't remember where the breakdown is, but he says, therefore be alert. But this boy here, he falls out of the building, down the three stories, and even though we don't blame him, there is this vivid reminder to the reader, and even to the people of Troas, that God's people must maintain alertness. And that's what Paul's going to tell those Ephesian elders. Wolves are going to come in, you've got to be awake. But Luke records here that they picked him up dead. This is the sense of carrying a corpse. He's dead. There's some commentators who don't believe it, but this boy is dead. And guess what? They have a doctor there to pronounce him dead. Luke is a physician. He records him as dead. But as I just gave you that temple tabernacle motif, there's this picture then of Eutychus falling from light or from life into death or darkness. There's this picture that's there. They immediately have to suspend the sermon. He can't talk any longer, Paul. I'm sure he stopped it himself. Does he take his time? Did he run? I feel pretty confident that he raced down the steps to this young boy. And I really don't love this translation here, which says, bent over him, because this is the sense of throwing himself on top of this boy. Now, where have we seen that in Scripture before? We see it with Elijah in 1st King 17 with the widow of Zarephath's son. And not to be outdone, Elisha said, I can do that, too, with the Shunammite woman's dead son. But they both did the same thing. They threw themselves upon the young boy. And of course, Peter wasn't going to do that with, who was it, Dorcas? It had been quite inappropriate. He kneels by her bedside. But here, Paul, he takes this boy and perhaps even calls out to the Lord as Elijah did. In 1st Kings 17, 21, Elijah calls out, Oh Lord, my God, let this boy's life return to him. And so he embraces this dead boy in his arms. Of course, this is a demonstration of his compassion, his care for him. And this is what we do. when we proclaim the gospel. What do we do? We descend down to people who are in spiritual darkness. We embrace them. We point them to the light. We point them to eternal life through Jesus. There's a picture of that and what Paul's doing. And while he's doing that, he's telling everybody else, stop being alarmed. Stop being distressed. Make ye know ado. Four, here's the reason, his life is in him. And essentially he's saying he was dead, but now he's alive. This has been a resurrection miracle through the power of Jesus. And so his resurrection of Eutychus, it's symbolic of how God had used Paul in this same way, that Paul had been used by Jesus as his chief ambassador, not to just take the light, but really to reflect the light of the world to this dark Gentile world. All these men who are here representing this huge geographic region, and Paul has reflected the light to this darkness that had been all over the Gentile world. It also, this event confirms Paul as an authentic prophet in the same vein as Elijah and Elisha, as an authentic prophet, apostle, spokesman for the Lord. Verse 11, 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. Paul goes back up. He goes back to this elevated, lit place of worship, and he eats. They finally partake. I don't think they partook of this meal until now, the Lord's Supper, and perhaps what we would call a farewell meal. And so in this narrative, you've got the breaking of bread mentioned by Luke at the beginning. You've got breaking of bread mentioned at the end. You could say that it sandwiches the resurrection story. You've got two jokes and one night. But if that's the only thing you remember next week, when Ron asks for what you remembered, that won't be good. And so he conversed, Paul converses with these people for a long while, all the way until the sun starts to come up and then he leaves. Was this one of Paul's many sleepless nights in ministry? Remember, he talks about all the things that happened to him. Maybe it wasn't just in fear of something, but it was, hey, you know what? I'd rather be sleeping right now. But ministering to these people that I'm probably never going to see again is more important than my sleep. A sleepless night. And so these people here, and Luke doesn't say, is it just the believers? Is it his relatives? Is it people who were his relatives who are also believers? But they take him away alive. I was reflecting today about You know, there's this sense of not only was he brought back to life, but whatever injuries he had were probably also healed. What good would it have been if he had been brought back to life but was now a quadriplegic from this fall? So they take him away. He walks away. And this is one of Luke's litotes, this understated expression to mean a very big thing. This was a major consolation to them that the young man was alive. And so this theme of comfort and encouragement continues. Not only does Paul do it through words, but also through his actions. Now, as we examine a story like this, we don't need to try to look at this and say, we need to be exactly like the people of Troas. We're going to meet on Sunday nights. We're going to go to a third story room and all those things. But we should recognize what the early church was doing. And those are the things we should be doing. And what are those? The word. So you've got the audible preached word. Sacrament, which we've talked many times, is the visible word that we hold in front of us through the elements. And when? On the Lord's day, the day of the word, capital W word. And so Paul, what's he going to do? He's going to leave. Paul's not going to be there to celebrate with them every Sunday. Paul will leave. But those concrete elements of worship, the word and sacrament and the Lord himself would be with these believers in Troas. This would be their ultimate encouragement. And now Paul is in a hurry. Verse 13, But going ahead to the ship, we set sail for Assas, intending to take Paul aboard there, for so he had arranged, intending himself to go by land. And when he met us at Assas, we took him on board and went to Mytilene. Or really, it's Mytilene. So they go on this ship. Luke and Paul's other travel companions, they get on this large seafaring ship. They go out to sea. Assas is 20 miles southwest of Troas. This is a coastal city in Mycenae. And they wanted to, or they intended, that's where we're going to meet up with Paul again, because this is what Paul's plans were, which means Paul wasn't going with them on this ship because he was going to take an overland route. He was going to walk to get there. Now, why did Paul want to do that? We don't know. I'll give you a few possible ideas. Maybe he wanted to spend more time with the believers. Maybe he thought, I really need to make sure that this kid, Eutychus, is OK, so I'm going to stick around for a little bit longer. Maybe he wanted some alone time, just as Jesus did. In Matthew 14, we see that Jesus dismissed the crowds and he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone. Was this the individual time that Paul needed to set his face towards Jerusalem? But he does meet up with them. He gets on the ship. They travel to Mytilene. which is the chief city on the island of Lesbos. This is 44 miles south of Assas, and we get to the final two verses. 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. So they go past these two other places, Chios and Samos. Samos was a strategic maritime hub in ancient times. But Paul had already planned ahead of time, I'm not sailing to Ephesus. Now, was this a strategic decision? Did he think about what that town clerk had said? Oh, maybe Demetrius is going to take me to the courts and I'm going to get stuck there for two weeks and I will not get to Jerusalem on time. Maybe he had to choose between two different ships. Hey, my ship stops in Ephesus and my ship stops in Miletus. And he says, well, the one in Ephesus, I'll never get to Jerusalem. So maybe it's more of a navigational decision or for any other reasons. But he needs to get to Jerusalem, so he is not going to stop at Ephesus. And his desire is to be in Jerusalem, if possible, to celebrate the Feast of Pentecost. And of course, he also has financial aid with him that he wants to bring to the Jerusalem believers. More importantly, his eyes are set on the place that ended Jesus' life and will also terminate or end his ministry as a free man. From this point on, Paul is not going to be a free man once he gets to Jerusalem. And it's in the midst of giving life, we saw he gave life even in that miracle that he's headed towards his enslavement, towards his imprisonment. But by way of closing, let me point out a few things here. As he journeyed to Jerusalem, how did Paul encourage believers all along the way? And not just in Troas, but all along the way, all these places, Macedonia, Achaia, et cetera. Well, one, he encouraged them through his presence, through his personal presence. He was there with these believers. He was identifying with them in their afflictions, in their trials. Paul's not the only person going through trials. They are too. And he's there with them. And they see, how does he live? How does he work? How does he speak? How does Paul endure persecution right in front of us? How does he treat us as friends? And even how does Paul feel emotions? Paul was not a brick wall. We see that in his writing. 2 Corinthians is an incredibly emotional book. So they were encouraged through his presence. Secondly, they were encouraged through his words. As I've already said, proclamation of the word is a vital component of spiritual encouragement. You can say all the nice things you want to someone, but telling them the word of God will have ten times that effect. And so their faith was nurtured through the many hours. They didn't care if Paul was going to preach for four hours. And thirdly, and finally, it was through his actions. He interacted with these people in personal ways. He ate with them. He fellowshiped with them. He worked alongside them. He cared for them. He healed some of them. And he served God's people. As I ask you tonight, Do we desire to encourage the believers that are around us? And if so, if we say that is our desire, are we willing to commit in these ways that Paul did? Are we willing to do that? And we can see what an enduring impact Paul had on these people. We're seeing that enduring impact that Paul had on a man like Titus. But we serve and are indwelt by the same God that Paul was. And we're not specially called apostles, but what kind of impact might we have for Christ's kingdom if we also give ourselves to the people of God so selflessly as Paul did? That's my admonition to you. That's my admonition to me. And so as you think of that story where Eutychus falls to his death and then is raised to life, let that be a reminder to be an encourager. Paul wasn't just a bold person, just loudly proclaiming the gospel. He was that kind of man, but he was also a man of encouragement. And as I said at the beginning, the saints of God need a lot of encouragement. Who can you encourage tonight? I pray for each person in this room tonight. And I think, Lord, of the many opportunities that you give to us to encourage one another. And I pray that you will provoke our hearts to do that. And as we consider this passage as a whole, Lord, let this affect us deeply, both in our sense of being an encouragement to the body of Christ, but also to descend to those who are groping about in blindness, in spiritual blindness, and to put our arms around them spiritually and to share the love of Jesus Christ with them. Help us in these ways. We pray tonight. Oh, Lord, in the name of Jesus. Amen.