Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

As a Christian, what are the most important or most impactful ways you can be a witness for Christ?

What are the most effective ways you can affect the health and growth of your church?

It’s common for American Evangelicals to think of church and Christian evangelism in much the same way as we think about sales marketing or community organizing or political campaigning… “This Sunday, don’t miss the spectacular performance… the critical message that will change your spouse or your kids…” or “You’ll never guess what pastor so and so has to say…” or “For the sake of our nation, join such and such church…”

But, friends, the Lord Jesus Christ, the King of the church and the Lord of Christianity, He has left us ordinary means in and through which He works to accomplish His extraordinary ends or purposes.

In our passage today, we’re going to read about a lot of ordinary stuff and some extraordinary stuff.

We’re picking up with the Apostle Paul’s return journey to Jerusalem and then to Rome.

This is now his third missionary trip, and he’s decided or resolved to go to Jerusalem.

But on the way, Paul was stopping by various churches which he planted or helped to plant over the last few years.

His aim was not only to see sinners converted, he wanted to see the kingdom of Christ expand and last long after he was gone.

May God help us to gain much from our time in this text today.

Scripture Reading

Acts 20:1–16 (ESV)

1 After the uproar ceased, Paul sent for the disciples, and after encouraging them, he said farewell and departed for Macedonia.

2 When he had gone through those regions and had given them much encouragement, he came to Greece. 3 There he spent three months, and when a plot was made against him by the Jews as he was about to set sail for Syria, he decided to return through Macedonia.

4 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.

5 These went on ahead and were waiting for us at Troas, 6 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.

7 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.

8 There were many lamps in the upper room where we were gathered.

9 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.

10 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.”

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.

12 And they took the youth away alive, and were not a little comforted.

13 But going ahead to the ship, we set sail for Assos, intending to take Paul aboard there, for so he had arranged, intending himself to go by land.

14 And when he met us at Assos, we took him on board and went to Mitylene.

15 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.

16 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.

Main Idea:

The Christian life and mission are counterintuitive; God uses ordinary means to accomplish extraordinary ends.

Sermon

1.

An Exemplary Encourager (v1-6)

This whole passage is dripping with encouragement!

It reads almost like a travel log, and then there’s that strange (almost funny) miracle with Eutychus, but for the most part Luke is naming places and days and people… which are all pretty unfamiliar to us.

But if you’ll look at it carefully, I’m sure you’ll see all the encouragement that I’ve seen as I’ve studied it this week.

The first mention of encouragement is in v1.

Luke says, “After the uproar ceased [that is, the uproar caused in Ephesus by the idol-makers who were losing money], Paul sent for the disciples, and after encouraging them, he said farewell and departed for Macedonia.”

It was a couple of Sundays ago when we were last in the book of Acts, and last time we read through that longest narrative portion of the whole book.

Luke told us about the idolatry in Ephesus and about the reality that Christians will often be met with hostility in our fallen world, because the gospel of Christ calls sinners to live transformed lives under Christ as Lord.

Friends, the gospel is good news for sinners precisely because it’s a message of salvation by God’s grace through simple faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

But the sinner who hears that good news – that Christ died under God’s wrath in my place – must believe the message is true in order to benefit from it.

And, friend, if you believe that Christ died for you, that He conquered death for you, and that He is the risen King of kings and Lord of lords, then such belief is going to change the way you live.

Sinners don’t become Christians by obeying Christ’s commands… but Christians strive to obey Christ’s commands because they believe the gospel is true.

If you want to talk with someone about what it means to believe the gospel or what it means to live as a biblical Christian, then please come talk to me or some other Christian in the room after the service today.

Back to v1… and the theme of encouragement… Before Paul left Ephesus, Luke tells us that he made a point to “encourage” the “disciples” he was leaving behind (v1).

The second mention of encouragement is right there in v2.

Luke says, “When he [i.e., Paul] had gone through those regions and had given them much encouragement, he came to Greece.”

So, after encouraging the disciples in Ephesus, Paul traveled through Macedonia to encourage the disciples there as well.

This would have likely included the churches in Berea, Thessalonica, and Philippi.

And after his time in “those regions” of Macedonia, I wonder what Paul did in “Greece” for “three months” (v2-3)… Remember Greece is where Corinth was located, and Corinth is the town where Paul had set up shop with Priscilla and Aquila for 18 months just a short time ago (Acts 18:1-11).

Paul had seen many people “believe” the gospel and “baptized” into the church of Corinth (Acts 18:8).

I think it’s safe to say that Paul was in Corinth encouraging the disciples there, and I think it’s also safe to say that Paul encouraged the disciples in Macedonia when he “returned” there in v3.

If you count these implicit encouragements (as I do), then that’s four distinct occasions in three verses that Paul is showing us what it looks like for someone to be devoted to encouraging local churches – first in Ephesus (v1), then in Macedonia (v2), then in Greece or Corinth (v2b-3), and again in Macedonia (v3).

If all that weren’t enough, Luke tells us in v5 that Paul and his entourage finally met up in the port city of Troas, where they “stayed for seven days,” at the end of which the disciples in Troas “were not a little comforted [or “encouraged,” same word]” (v12).

So, the middle chunk of our passage today is specifically about how Paul “comforted” or “encouraged” the disciples in Troas (v12)!

I told you this whole passage is dripping with encouragement!

But I need to clarify something in order to deal more instructively with this point.

If you have some other translation besides the ESV, then you’ve already noticed some variation in the word I’ve been citing – “encourage.”

In verses 1, 2, and 12 it’s the same Greek verb (παρακαλεω), but it’s translated differently in various English translations.

In fact, the word itself is translated inconsistently even within the same English translation, because the underlying Greek word has a fairly wide range of meaning.

In Luke’s writings alone, the word can mean to “exhort” (Lk.

3:18; Acts 2:40, 11:23), to “plead” (Lk.

7:4), to “beg” (Lk.

8:31; Acts 13:42), to “implore” (Lk.

8:41), to “entreat” (Lk.

15:28), to “comfort” (Lk.

16:25, 20:12), to “invite” (Acts 8:31), to “urge” (Acts 9:38, 16:9, 16:15, 19:31), and, of course, to “encourage” (Acts 14:22, 15:32, 16:40, 20:1-2).

It's also interesting to note that the verb here shares the same root as the noun παρακλητος or Paraclete, which is the way Jesus refers to the Holy Spirit.

He is the “Comforter,” the “Counselor,” the “Encourager,” and the “Helper.”

All of this is to labor the point that “encouragement” and “comfort” are likely to strike us as having more to do with the effect of Paul’s activity and not so much about what Paul actually did or said.

“Paul made the disciples feel comforted or encouraged.”

But what did he door say in order to produce such an effect?

I think the best word in our common vocabulary might be “edify” or “edification.”

Paul, here, exemplifies encouragement or edification…sometimes by “exhorting” (prodding, insisting), sometimes by “entreating” (asking, pleading), and sometimes by “comforting” (encouraging, uplifting)… but always by teaching and modeling genuine Christianity for the benefit of those saints under his care.

Whether in Ephesus, or Philippi, or Thessalonica, or Corinth, or Troas, Paul was spending himself to do spiritual good for others… that is, to edify the saints.

Brothers and sisters, this is the goal of every Christian, and it is especially the task of local church pastors.

To the church in Corinth, Paul wrote, “comfort” (encourage, exhort, plead with, edify) “one another” (2 Cor.

13:11).

To the church of Colossae, Paul wrote that his prayer for them as well as the church of Laodicea was that “their hearts may be encouraged” [i.e., comforted, edified] (Col.

2:2).

And to the church in Thessalonica, Paul wrote, “encourage” (urge, implore, edify) “one another and build one another up, just as you are doing” (1 Thess.

5:11).

And to Timothy, as a local church pastor while he was in Ephesus, Paul told him to “teach and urge” (exhort, implore, edify) church members according to sound doctrine (1 Tim.

6:2).

And again, to Timothy, Paul later listed “exhortation” (encouragement, urging, edification) among those tasks essential to the pastoral commission.

He wrote, “preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort [i.e., urge, entreat, edify] with complete patience and teaching” (2 Tim.

4:2).

And, most interesting to me, Paul uses this same word in his list of qualifications for elders/pastors in Titus 1 – “He [i.e., a pastor or elder] must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction [i.e., to edify] in sound doctrine…” (Titus 1:9).

Brothers and sisters, what must Christians do or say?

Has Christ given us a job?

Yes!

We – all of us – are to encourage or edify one another!

We are to do one another spiritual good… and Paul is a stellar example of devotion to such a task.

2.

An Incidental Miracle (v7-12)

I’m calling this miracle “incidental” because of the way Luke seems to insert it almost in passing.

The raising of Eutychus back to life was definitely a major feature of the “comfort” or “encouragement” Paul gave to the saints in Troas (v12), but the way Luke tells this story is strange and (I think) even a little funny.

With these six verses, Luke seems primarily interested in showing how the gathering of the saints on the Lord’s Day in Troas was a sort of display of what was typical of Paul’s ministry and of churches in various places across the map of the ancient world.

There are extraordinary features of this episode, no doubt… but the context and the means or methods on display here are quite ordinary.

First, let’s look at the extraordinary features, and then (in point 3) I’d like to point out the ordinary context and practices we might see here.

The extraordinary features are (1) the all-night teaching session and (2) the miraculous resurrection of Eutychus.

Luke tells us that Paul “prolonged his speech until midnight” (v7), and even after Eutychus died and was raised back to life, Paul “conversed with them” longer, “until daybreak” (v11).

The whole point in telling us about this prolonged conversation, it seems, is that it was unusual.

Luke tells the reader that Paul “intended to depart on the next day” (v7), so he was spending every moment he could in fellowship and conversation with the saints in Troas.

Remember, Paul had resolved to go to Jerusalem and then to Rome (Acts 19:21), so he was stopping by various churches along the way in order to encourage or edify them as he went.

It is unclear from immediate the text, at this point, whether or not Paul knew he was likely never to see those Christians again.