Doing Life and Ministry Together
Acts 20:1-12
As believers, we are not isolated individuals but part of a larger family—the family of God. Read on to get the key points from my teaching and listen to the entire teaching to see the intimate connection we get to have not only with our Heavenly Father but with each other as we do life and ministry together.
At the beginning of this chapter, we find Paul not alone but surrounded by other believers who love Jesus just as much as he did.
Pray for Your Pastors & Leaders
Pastors and their families face unique challenges. Did you know that 80% of pastors report that their work negatively impacts their families, and 55% have considered leaving the ministry recently? These figures underscore the importance of supporting our church leaders. Now here at Calvary Church, our Pastors have not fallen into these typical numbers and I praise God for that. But that doesn’t mean our pastors don’t face pressures or have difficult seasons. We can serve and love them well by regularly implementing the following:
1. Pray for Your Pastors: Regularly pray for your pastors and their families, asking God to give them strength and wisdom.
2. Offer Encouragement: Simple acts of kindness, like sending a note of appreciation or offering to help with tasks, can make a significant difference.
3. Respect Their Boundaries: Understand that pastors need time for their families and personal rest. Avoid imposing unrealistic expectations on them or their children.
Ministry is a Team Effort
Truly, spiritual service is for everyone who lives for Jesus! I like to say, that “WE” is the language of ministry. It takes the entire church body to accomplish what God has set before us. I am so thankful for those who work behind the scenes, and all of you who serve faithfully without recognition. As we serve together, we have fellowship with one another and develop friendships. But most importantly, as we serve, God looks upon our hearts and begins a work in us, making us more like him. It’s been said that God does not ALWAYS call the qualified into His service. But God ALWAYS qualifies those whom He calls!
The Significance of Fellowship
In Acts 20, starting in verse 7, we see Paul teaching late into the night during a gathering in his final days in Troas. Notice that the teaching of God’s Word is important and should take pre-eminence over all else. This can be easy to forget in today’s world when we have many other things distracting us and crowding into our time of worship with the Lord. Let’s continue to follow the early church’s example to gather together to worship, hear God’s Word and communion with one another.
I also shared the dramatic true story of Eutychus, who fell asleep during Paul’s teaching and fell out of a window, seemingly dead. This incident reminds us of God’s miraculous power and the importance of staying engaged in our church communities, even when it’s challenging. The sense of fellowship and breaking bread together is foundational to a thriving church family.
It’s crucial to serve within your local church.
Just as Paul gathered with believers in Troas, creating a strong sense of fellowship, we too are called to actively participate in our church communities. Serving not only strengthens the church body but also fosters personal growth and a deeper connection with God. Whether it’s through children’s ministry, hospitality, behind-the-scenes work, or even setting up chairs, every act of service contributes to the church’s mission. Your involvement is vital to the health and vibrancy of our spiritual family.
FULL TRANSCRIPTION
Welcome to the Study of God’s Word with pastor and author Ed Taylor, recorded live at Calvary Church in Aurora, Colorado. To learn more about the many resources available through Abounding Grace Media, or to tune in to our live stream services, visit us online at calvaryco.church, or download our free Calvary Church app. Now here’s Pastor Ed to take us into our study.
Amen. Take your Bibles. Open them to Acts chapter 20. I’ve entitled our Bible Study today, “Doing Life and Ministry Together.” We need to remember that we get to do things together. That you and you and I were born again, we were born again and adopted into the family of God. We’ve been part of a family. There’s even this new relationship you can have with God where you can refer to Him now as “Abba.” That’s the Hebrew word for Daddy. You’re a part of a new family that even if you didn’t have the best example of a dad on the earth, you have the best example of a Father in Heaven, and you can look to Him. He’s your strength.
And He’s put us in a family; in a new family. A community is the more popular word that’s being used today to describe the church: a community of friends, a community of other believers – the family of God. It’s such a blessing for me to be a part of this fellowship family. This is God’s will for my life, to be a part of what He’s doing in this church. This is the church where my kids grew up. This is the church where we grew up together, and where I’ve been discipled and grown for the last 25 years by the Lord and by interacting with you. I have…this is the place where I get to serve. The place where I get to exercise my gifts just like you. But as a pastor, I want you to know I love you guys and I love serving you. And I love serving Jesus. There’s so much that God is doing in and through us. It’s almost like we’re in a season right now of reset, where we’re in a season where God is doing things. He’s undoing things so that He might redo things; a lot of spiritual warfare happening on our team right now; a lot of things happening in the church; a lot of confusion. It has all the marks of the Enemy, all the marks of the Enemy wanting to stop the progress. Even though we’ve been here, and we’ll celebrate 25 years, like, God has so much more to do through us in this city, until He returns and we get to be a part of it.
But it is hard work. We need to remember. The work of the ministry is often used by God to humble us. If we allow it, we can always respond with pride and arrogance and put up a fight. But God wants us to remain humble, to walk with humility to Him. You’ll recall in 1 Timothy 3, the Bible says, “This is a faithful saying, if a man desires the position of a bishop.” And that word can also be translated overseer. We might refer to that as a spiritual leader, spiritual servant, pastor; anyone that wants a place of leadership and commitment, responsibility in the church. It says, “He desires a good work.” And the word work is exactly what you think. It’s work. It’s labor. There’s physical work. There’s mental work. There’s spiritual work.
And with spiritual work always comes spiritual warfare and challenges. And for the pastor, for the servant, for every spiritual leader, when he or she tries to do everything themselves, it’s a danger. There’s a great danger for every pastor and spiritual leader and servant to try to do things by themselves. Because as the church grows and as your ministry grows, so do the needs and the amount of work that is required. Remember this church from the lips of Jesus, their reward for faithfulness in the work that you have, the reward for faithfulness and the work that you have is always more work. It’s not work, like, to drive us into the ground, or to exhaust us, or to do more than what God had wants us to do. But remember, if you’re faithful, God’s going to entrust you with more. It’s to the unfaithful, they get less.
And you say, well, “Why are you sharing this?” Well, listen, it’s very important you listen to me this morning and grasp this. Even though I think, in some respects, I have to talk about the significance of pastor; but it might even sound a little self-serving. So forgive me if it sounds self-serving. I can assure you that it’s not. But I do want to talk to you about the pastors and their families of our church. Because you may not realize or understand the value of your pastoral team – the men that God has called to serve the church here and their wives that they’re married to, and their children if they’re parents, their families. God has blessed us as a church with many men and women, boys and girls that have completely sold out their lives to serve us in this church. Now you have to understand their primary service is not to us that if they if you and I, if I like, as I look at you in my own life, I can speak for myself as a pastor, my primary responsibility is not to serve you. You are not first on my list. And you go, “What do you mean, what kind of church? Honey, I think we’re out of here, man. I don’t know if we want to stay here.” No, no. Hear me out.
My primary responsibility is to please the Lord. Number one, no doubt, my eyes need to be firmly fixed. I serve Jesus, He’s my leader. That’s my primary responsibility. Secondly, I need to take care of my family. I need to lead my family. I need to take care of them in the Lord. Raise them, serve them, be there. And then, finally, I have the privilege of serving you. And it’s all-encompassing. With the priority of serving Jesus. He’ll lead me, He’ll guide me. But my primary responsibility, like yours, is to seek the Lord. But we do it together. We do it together.
I was thinking of sports, you know. I was thinking of the superstars in sports. And we know they have names. Superstars. I mean, when you’re thinking of superstars in sports, how can you not think of the Dodgers? Just filled with superstars! I did not ask for anybody to, “boo,” here. Boo you. But I think of, you know, they just signed a superstar. Ohtani. He is the best of the best in baseball. I was watching a game a couple of days ago and he struck out three times. I’m talking to the TV, “What’s your problem, man? What’s your problem?” But he struck out three times. But he did get a key hit in that game. I’ll take you back into the Bible from the Dodger game, but if you ever want to watch a good game, watch a Dodger game. But I was thinking about Ohtani. He would never be a superstar without a team. He couldn’t do that by himself. There’s no way in the world that he…whether you’re playing basketball, you know, you’re the three-point shooter in the WNBA, or you’re playing baseball, or you’re in the NFL. Any superstar is never a superstar by themselves. It’s always a team.
And I would say some of the most valuable parts of a team are often the ones that get no attention, but faithfully serve behind the scenes in the role that God had given them – on a team. For sports; at work; but also on a team in the church. And I want to talk to you a moment about pastors, especially the pastors that serve on staff here, but not exclusively. We also have pastors and key leaders and key servants and, really, I would say all servants that work a full-time job like Paul. Tent making – remember, he would make tents and serve after he was done with work – that serve full time in the church to some capacity, serve full time in the world. I want you to remember how important they are and how blessed we are to have them. Some are single; some are married; some are young; some are not so young. Choosing my words very carefully. Some have families, the young families. Some are praying about family. Some have raised their kids. But collectively, they serve us. But pastors are under a lot of pressure.
And they do surveys, asking pastors and, you know, discerning what’s going on in their lives. Let me share a few numbers with you as I have before, but it’s worth reviewing today. 80% of pastors they survey said that, “pastoral work negatively impacted their family in some way or another.” Very difficult. Many pastors’ kids in that same survey don’t go to church now because of how the congregation treated their parents, or even worse, how they treated them. You know, the phrase, “pastors’ kids,” and I, for years have said, don’t treat the kids here, the pastor’s kids, as pastor’s kids. You want to know why? They’re just kids. They’re just as rotten as your kids. They’re just kids. They go around and they live like kids. They act like kids. But please, church, this might be the first time you’re hearing it, but, please do not lay some heavy trip on them just because their parents are in the ministry. They’re just kids, and there is no greater expectation on them than any other kids.
And I think, over the years, there’s been great grace in this church. But there’s also been times where pastors’ kids, even including mine, from time to time, were treated differently because of the family that they were born into. And it really jacks with kids heads, you know that. Don’t do it! Encourage them; bless them; help them. And, you know, you can’t go around disciplining kids either. Sometimes people in the church think they can discipline the pastor’s kids. You can’t discipline anybody’s kids but your own. Did you know that? And so the best thing to do when you encounter some difficulty that might need help with a pastor’s kids, or anyone else’s kids, is find their parents and have a private conversation with their parents. Maybe their parents don’t know. Maybe they don’t understand. Like, stay away from assumptions, and such. But you know, pastors are struggling because their kids, I mean, their kids don’t want anything to do with the church anymore, partially because of how they were treated or how their parents were treated.
How about this one? 40% of pastors they surveyed reported, “serious conflict with a parishioner at least once a month.” Wow. Sometimes around here, it’s once a day! It’s difficulty with technology. Now you get it every day. You get it on Twitter; you get it on Instagram; you get it on Facebook; you get it on email; you get it on nasty voicemails. I mean, if I saved the things that end up on my phone, you wouldn’t believe, like some of you’re like, “I don’t believe…it’s not hard,” and you should read my email. Sometimes people are cruel. People that say they follow Christ say some of the meanest, hurtful things and I don’t understand why. So I understand this.
Another number I have here is 55% of pastors have considered leaving the ministry in the last few months! I can understand that one as well. I’ve had serious episodes in the last 25 years myself thinking, you know, “I don’t want to do this anymore; I had a life in the corporate world way before I was a pastor; I can just go back,” and then the Enemy lies to me. He’s like, you know, “it was easier,” but, you know, “if you just go away, it’ll be much easier.” But then, I remember, it was rough. It’s going to be rough anywhere. But for pastors, it’s a very special, unique calling upon their lives that bring very unique, special difficulties. And within the body of Christ, we need to take care of one another. We’re a family. We’re a team, church, and we need to take care of the men and women that God has given to us; that serve us. I mentioned that I did a couple of Bible studies not too long ago on this very topic, “How to Treat Your Pastors.” The Bible has a lot to say on how to treat your pastors, but let me just summarize those studies very simply for you. The best thing you can do to bless and encourage your pastors is to live a life that pleases the Lord. That’s the best thing you can do. Just abide in Christ, enjoy Him, obey Him, and in the body of Christ together we’ll all be moving forward together.
And so, you know, one of the other things in that, in one of the surveys I found, is that the profession of pastor, “is near the bottom,” of a survey of the least respected professions. And, no offense to any car salesman, but they’re one notch above car salesmen! That’s just what the survey is. And so now pastors are no longer valued or respected in our culture today. And we certainly see. That’s why, when you’re driving around town and you pass a legitimate church that preaches a legitimate gospel, you need to pray for them. You need to pray for the pastor. Pray for the leadership there. That church is a part of the broader, bigger body of Christ, and we want them to thrive, and we want them to succeed, and we want them to reach the people that God has called them to reach. But it’s hard. It’s hard.
I know some of you would say, well, you know, “my life’s hard too.” And in no way am I minimizing your hard life. That’s not the point I’m trying to make here. Like, all of a sudden, “we have a harder life than….” Don’t get into that mode, because then you won’t receive what God has for you. I recognize life is hard in general, and I recognize as we weave in and out of your lives all week, every day, the difficulties you face. You know, I was thinking of the first responders, you know, officers, paramedics, doctors, nurses, those that are on the frontline, those that run to crisis instead of run away from crisis. You know, they deal with people on their worst day. And I think pastors should also be brought into that to that same category as first responders, but in a different way: spiritually. Because, often, the difficulties that we face are meeting people on their worst day; that’s what caused them to ask for help. That’s why they walked in the door. That’s why they called us. Because it was their worst day. And so we need to be praying for those that God has given to us, to serve us, to love us, to teach us.
And, I think here at Calvary, you know, over the years, we are unique. We don’t really fit and haven’t fit, in these numbers, although along the way we’ve seen some of this stuff in the last 25 years. But God has been very gracious to us. He’s been very gracious to help our team just get through the difficult times; to humble themselves under the mighty hand of God; to remember their calling; to remember why God called them in the first place; to remember why God called them to serve here; to remember that what matters the most is that God is honored and people are loved (1 Peter 5:6). That we shepherd the flock of God that’s among us (1 Peter 5:2). And then behind the scenes, behind closed doors in the offices, we do all the hard work, we work all the difficulties out. Why? So that you can be blessed in your worship of God in your fellowship family.
So, none of us do it alone. And you say, well, “why the big introduction in chapter 20?” And I’ll tell you. In chapter 20, we get the insight of Pastor Paul. Pastor Paul, because we often think of Paul as the apostle. And he was. And we think of Paul as the author, and he was. And we think of Paul as the missionary. And he was. But by this time in Acts chapter 20, we see Paul stayed in a few places for a very extended amount of time, which gave him the opportunity to exercise his pastoral calling. Thus, he’s ministering in Corinth, and he’s ministering in Ephesus. And he’s still an apostle; and he’s still a missionary; he’s still an author; but he also is a pastor. And God is using him in great ways on this third missionary journey. So, notice with me, Acts 20:1, it says, “After the uproar had ceased, Paul called the disciples to himself, embraced them, and departed to go to Macedonia.”
If you’d like to write in your Bibles, you can just circle Macedonia, this would be Northern Greece, the area of Greece. And then, in verse two, “When he had gone over that region and encouraged them.” So he went from house church to house church, he, “encouraged them with many words, He came to Greece.” Again, if you like to write in your Bible, so…you’ll probably forget it…but you can write it right next to Greece, you can say Corinth, because that’s where he landed. Corinth is in that area of Greece. And he landed in Corinth, and it says, “He stayed there three months.” Verse three, “And when the Jews plotted against him as he was about to sail to Syria, he decided to return through Macedonia.” Remember, where is Paul headed? He’s headed to Jerusalem. He wants to make it there for the feast. And it says in verse one, “that after the uproar ceased.”
Now when you’re reading through the Bible and you want to do a little bit of study, you ask the text questions. One of the questions you can ask here is, well, “what uproar?” What’s he talking about? If you just dropped into the Bible in chapter 20, you go, “what uproar is he talking about?” Well, when you ask that question, then you just go back to what’s before. Because it reads in order, and we know what uproar it was – the uproar that happened in Ephesus. Remember when Paul came to Ephesus and preached the gospel? There was a great outpouring of revival. It was an amazing revival! So much so that those that were involved in witchcraft and magic – in the dark arts – they go, “We don’t want anything to do with that anymore; we’re going to embrace Jesus Christ.” And remember, they brought their books together and they burned them. It was a great demonstration. It was an amazing demonstration of the fruits of repentance. And it was just amazing – wonderful – what happened in the city.
But then there was Demetrius. Demetrius was making money off everyone that was into idolatry and witchcraft and magic. And remember this, we learned this in our last study, the people that make money off of sin do not like the church. You can even say it this way: people that make money off of sinful behavior do not like believers, because believers bring the gospel. And when the gospel changes a life, sinful behavior stops. You bring your books and you burn them. You’re not going to be a part of the evil witchcraft and darkness anymore. There’s going to be a demonstrative change in your life.
So, Demetrius, he stirs up the city. He can’t believe it. He gets all his fellow idol makers together. “Hey, you guys, we’re not going to make any money anymore; let’s take this guy out.” And then Paul’s life was saved by an anonymous city clerk. That…God didn’t send in the forces and the angels; it was a city clerk that said, “Oh, hold on, slow down here. You don’t want Rome coming to town. If they have a real, legitimate issue, take it to the courts. But calm down here.”
Remember, Paul was so excited that he was going to run back into the riot. “I’ll take care of this.” But then they said, “no, no, no, no, you’re more valuable alive, Paul, than you are in that riot,” and he moved on. This is what chapter 20 is: the uproar in Ephesus ceased; Paul calls the disciples, verse one, “to himself;” gave them a big hug; and he took off.
He’s on his way to Jerusalem, and at this time the Jerusalem church is suffering financially. It is quite stunning at this stage in the early church that the Gentile churches were far more healthy and strong and financially stable than their mother church in Jerusalem. The Jerusalem church, where it all started the day of Pentecost; outpouring of the Holy Spirit; baptism of the Holy Spirit; believers are together, thousands are getting saved and baptized; and then they just stayed there. They didn’t move. They didn’t obey the rest of what Jesus promised. But because of persecution, they took off. And when they took off, a new hub was created, and we studied all of this in Acts, in Antioch. And Antioch became the church that started the whole missionary movement of the church. And now all these little churches and home groups, Paul is taking a collection from them so he can deliver it to the church in Jerusalem.
And by the way, this is something that you as a church are involved in. Countless, and I would put it well into the hundreds, multiple hundreds of churches, have been blessed by your faithful tithes and offerings here in this church. Bills being paid; helping them with rent; taking care of pastors when they have a need; taking care of widows; whatever it may be. God has used this church, just your faithful…we don’t announce it every week. We don’t put out a list, because we want God to get all the glory. We want you to know that as we pray, in the usefulness of your resources, other churches are blessed because God has blessed this church. And we believe that it’s our responsibility.
Like, you think of a few little things: When we put on a conference, the church underwrites a big part of it. When we have a gathering for pastors, the church pays for that completely. So we can bring pastors together, we can feed them, we can create an environment, bring a teacher for them like you do a lot of that on top of, you know, helping churches in Ukraine. And we have sent hundreds of thousands of dollars to help churches in Ukraine. We’ve sent hundreds of thousands of dollars to help churches in Israel, and on, and on, and on the list goes. Through your faithfulness. You sometimes you think, you know, I don’t have much to give or I don’t really give much, I wonder what difference it makes? You know, the thing is, is that when you’re faithful in what God has called you to do, it always comes together. And together, we’re a lot stronger. That’s what we’re learning with Paul. You’re not going to be able to do it alone.
You’ve got to be surrounded by men and women that will help you on this journey following Christ. If there’s one thing we learned, it’s that Paul was not a “Lone Ranger.” So there he is, he ends up landing in Greece in verse two, taking this collection. He’s there for three months. He’s in Corinth. And again, you Bible students, this is where people that study these things place the writing of the book of Romans – during this three months in Corinth – which I can see of all the evidence, one of the pieces of evidence of him writing the book of Romans in Corinth is chapter one of Romans. If you remember, chapter one of Romans is heavy. It’s a sin after sin after sin after sin. And it makes sense because he’s in the capital of sin in Corinth, and he’s watching and he’s seeing and he’s talking about the depravity of man and the lostness of man because he’s living it out in Corinth. I love this, too, because when Paul is facing all these difficulties, one after another after another, he doesn’t quit. He gets up, give somebody a hug, and then he takes off. They go, okay, maybe God doesn’t want to use me in Ephesus anymore. I’ll move on. I’ll move on. I’ll move forward.
And it’s important church that you realize it’s always too soon to quit. Even though it is hard. And even though it is challenging, and even though, “I don’t know if I want to do this,” and “I don’t really like.” I know, but it’s always too soon to quit. How careful we need to be not to react in our emotion, but learn to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit because our emotions will go all up and down. But the leading of the Spirit is so often just steady and straight; just steady and straight. Just…difficulty, but we’re moving forward. And Paul, he gets up and he keeps going. He’s going to help the church. And, “they don’t want me in Ephesus anymore, I’m going to help the church in Corinth.” But then when he’s in Corinth and on his way to Jerusalem, it says that there are other people there in verse three, that that “now the Jews,” those who are anti-Gospel, “plotted against him.”
So he takes off to Syria, which is where he would have caught a ship, a pilgrim ship, to head to Jerusalem. And “he decided to return instead to Macedonia,” which would have been by land. Verse four, “and so Peter of Berea accompanied him to Asia – also Aristarchus and Secundus of the Thessalonians, and Gaius of Derby, and Timothy, and Tychicus and Trophimus of Asia. These men, going ahead, waited for us at Troas.”
Now, this is really interesting. He’s got a lot of people supporting him. He’s not alone. Yes, he had Timothy. Yes, he had Luke. And at the end of verse five it says, “waited for us.” And you have to pay attention to these words because waited for us. Well, then who’s us? Well, who’s writing the book of Acts? Luke. So now Luke is saying, okay, “I’m a part of this too.” And he’s surrounded by all these people. And you think, well, so where did Peter come from? Verse four. Well, it says he’s from Berea. So where did he come from? From the ministry to Berea.
We know Berea. This is where we learned about the Bereans. And what was it about those that were in Berea that they heard what Paul taught, but they tested it by the scriptures (Acts 17:11)? Well, there was a brother that said, “Hey, Paul, I want to come with you.” And Paul said, “Come on.” Or it could have been the opposite. Paul said, “You come with me.” And he said, “Sure, I’ll come with you.” And then, notice, he’s surrounded by these guys, Aristarchus and Secundus. Who are these guys? Well, we don’t quite know who they are, but we do know this: they’re from Thessalonica. And we know that Paul was in Thessalonica. So he picked up a couple guys there. Then Gaius of Derby, and Timothy. We know about Tychicus and Trophimus of Asia.
You see, Paul, he always, or often, looked at someone and brought them along to disciple them, to pour himself into, to reproduce himself. He following the model of Jesus. When you are focused only on yourself, you don’t really think of others. And part of what was taken care of here, part of what was changed in Paul’s life was, that these trials got him outward thinking. And the more he thought outwardly, the more that he drew people with him. And I want you to see this in these very simple…I mean, basically it’s like a travelogue and you think, what can what could I learn out of a travelogue? We’ll learn this: Paul did not do anything alone. He didn’t do anything alone. He truly understood the value of others.
Now, with that in mind, we have another episode here in the chapter that I want to cover. Verse six, “We sailed away from Philippi after the days of Unleavened Bread, and in five days joined them at Troas, where we stayed seven days.” Now, “On the first day of the week,” let’s pause there. Say out loud with me, what is the first day of the week? Sunday! We’re on “Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!” Sunday, that’s where we are. Verse seven, “On Sunday [“the first day of the week”], when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul, ready to depart the next day, spoke to them and continued his message,” or his teaching, “until midnight.” The early church gathered for worship on the first day of the week, and church the first day of the week is…? Sunday! Would you please not let anybody come and tell you that, “you can’t worship on Sunday?”
The early church worshiped on Sunday. Why would they choose to worship on Sunday? What’s so important about the first day of the week? The resurrection of Jesus Christ! To gather together on the first day of the week is to gather together in memory of the new life that you and I have in Jesus, the resurrection. Now there are those that would go, “I still don’t believe that, pastor, and I think we only should worship on Saturday, and I will not go to church, and I’ll never go to your church, unless there’s a Saturday night service.”
Really? We just happen to have a Saturday service just for you. We don’t need to argue out of it. Although I’ve done very thorough Bible studies on this, not just a quick statement on a verse, although that should be enough. But I’ve done very thorough Bible studies on the legalism surrounding this, “Sabbath only,” worship and what’s been twisted [“Must Christians Worship On The Sabbath,” Romans 14:5-8, December 14, 2008]. But nonetheless, we have Saturday night service. The Bible says that we can worship on any day of the week. We can worship on any day of the week. The Bible actually instructs us that we should worship on every day of the week. And so whether you want to join us on Saturday, you want to join us on Sunday…we even have a Wednesday night Bible study midweek where we sing together, we pray together, we have communion together. And we also have a Bible study. And so when you start walking down the road of legalism, it takes you away from the simplicity of Christ, where you can just worship Him and enjoy Him.
The early church was worshiping already here in Acts 20. We’re not even done with the book of Acts, yet, and they’re already gathering on the first day of the week. And you see, “they came together to break bread.” This can mean one of two things. I think it means both, but it can mean one of two things. Number one, remember at the church at this time were more smaller gatherings, house churches, think “life groups.” Think of a life group where you have 10-20 people in a home where you’re worshipping together. The church was not large as it was around the Gentile…as large as it could be, and they would get…they didn’t have large buildings at this time. They just met house to house, and they broke bread. It can mean one of two things. Number one, it can mean the breaking of bread in communion, where you would break bread and remember the body and the blood of Jesus Christ, “breaking bread.”
Secondly, it could also mean that they shared a meal together. The early church would gather together and share a meal together as a part of their worship service. Sometimes we might refer to that today as a potluck – where you bring a meal and we all share food together. Even some churches have changed because they don’t like the word, “luck,” so they called it, “pot blessing.” I don’t understand all that stuff. But you bring your food and we all eat each other’s food together, because there’s something to be said about having food and sharing a meal together. There’s a oneness in the Hebrew mind. You’re literally sharing one another. You’re communing. You’re “fellowshipping.” You’re having what the New Testament would call, koinonia. I believe it’s both.
I think they’re sharing a meal, which we know they were doing that in Corinth because Paul addresses it. He called it the agape feast, or the, “love feast.” It was just a meal they shared together, and they had communion together, and they taught the Bible. Paul was teaching them a message. And notice at verse seven it says he, “continued his message until midnight.” I don’t want you guys upset with me anymore for going over on time. He continued ‘til midnight. Why? Because the early Church then, and this church right now – I can speak for our church and our church alone – we place a significantly high value on the teaching of God’s Word.
That is the kind of church you want. We will teach you the Bible. This is important for you to understand because there are different backgrounds that you may have come from. Perhaps you came from a church where they use the Bible, or they had it on the pulpit right here, but never really gave you the meat of the Bible. So they might take a verse and launch off into something and talk about something. But here we not only have a Bible, but we’re going to use it andteach it to you, verse by verse and sometimes word by word through the Bible. Maybe you came from a church that was very entertainment-driven, so there was a lot of “pomp and circumstance,” and a lot of activity; very little Bible. That’s not going to happen here. We are committed.
Maybe you came from a church that had a strong preaching presence, but not a strong teaching presence. Now let me say there is a difference between the two. Preaching is the proclamation of the gospel. If you came from a church that preached a lot, then you felt guilty a lot. It was a very guilt-driven thing. And so, you’re just wanting to re-dedicate all the time. And “I’m so horrible,” and, “I’m so bad,” because you keep hearing the gospel preached to you. And of course, by the end you can always find something to repent from. And that’s kind of how preaching is necessary. But preaching is primarily for the lost. What believers need is teaching. And so if you came from a church that preached a lot, then it will be different here, because we’re committed to teach you the Bible and we’ll go through it. And, with the gifting of pastor-teacher, we not only want to give you the sense of what it says, but we want to teach you how to do the Bible. We want you to how to live it in your life, how your life can be transformed.
However, the gathering is not just “to be fed,” and that’s a phrase that’s been used around Calvary Chapel. A lot in other churches, too, but especially Calvary Chapel. “I just come to church to be fed, pastor,” or somebody might leave and go, “I’m not being fed there anymore.” Listen, our time at church is not just to be fed the Word, although we will, but it’s also to befriend other believers. It’s to interact with one another. It’s to connect with one another. It is to serve with one another. It is to serve one another, not just with each other, but to truly give of yourself to others. So not just to be fed. We need to be together, not just in large gatherings, but also in smaller ones. So we can encourage one another, pray for one another, strengthen one another, help one another, share with one another. And as we look at a fellowship like ours, it’s a cooperative effort. It’s collaborative. The phrase that I like to use around our church is that “we is the language of ministry.” It’s not just, “I.” Nobody does anything on their own. We do it together. We celebrate the victories together. And we also deal with the difficulties together. It’s we. That’s the place of maturity.
So here he is teaching to midnight. And it says in verse eight, “There were many lamps in the upper room where they were gathered together. And in a window sat a certain young man named Eutychus, who was sinking into a deep sleep.” Very interesting – teaching the Bible and people falling asleep. Happened in the first century. Does it happen today? Oh, yes it does! I can see every single person in this room. And that’s why I move around. Because I know you try to hide behind people and I get the right angle. I see it all. I see it all. And people fall asleep during teaching.
I remember when I first started teaching, as I took on the responsibility of regularly teaching at our singles ministry under the leadership of my pastor and teaching there, and it was Thursday night. So, tail end of the week, we started at seven. Teaching, you know, after all the fellowship and everything, I probably started teaching at eight. And as I’m teaching a couple hundred people we started with, and they’re out there and people were falling asleep. And, man, I was taking it personal. I’m like, “What’s your problem, man? Wake up. I got a good Bible study. Do you know how much time I spent on this?” And that was my inside voice. My inside voice. My outside voice says, “Oh, brother, are you all right? Are you okay?” And I learned something. I was teaching me, and that is, “if you’re tired, go to sleep.” I’m glad you’re here. I’d rather have you fall asleep here than in front of a television. Because when you’re asleep, we can mess with you. *Laughter*
No, I mean, you’re wanting, like, Thursday nights especially, man, they wanted to be there. It’s not that they came and said, “My, perfect for you to take a nap.” They wanted to be there. They wanted to worship. They wanted to have a Thursday night gathering. They wanted to be in fellowship. But they were tired. It was a hard week, or a hard day. And certainly, you know, they weren’t falling asleep every week. And, I mean, if you fall asleep here and there in our Bible studies, that’s great. I mean, if you’re falling asleep every service, we probably need to talk to you. But like, you’re tired. It happens. And even while you’re sleeping, I can get to you subliminally. You know, however you say that, I can get right through to you, man. It can be, like, you’re in the atmosphere where the Holy Spirit works and the Holy Spirit can work even while you’re asleep. And so it’s better to go toward the Lord than to go away from the Lord. And, you know, maybe you need to go to bed a little bit earlier or whatever it might be. But here, you know, there’s a Bible study, there’s a long Bible study, and they’re sleeping. So let’s just leave it at that, okay? It happens.
He says, in the end of half of verse nine, “He was overcome by sleep.” So that must mean deep sleep. And as Paul continued teaching he fell out the window, “and was taken up dead.” Just a warning. I don’t know, it’s just it’s a warning for you sleepers. You know, when we built this building in the sanctuary, we made sure that no windows open. I just want you to know. And if you even fell out one of those windows, you’re only falling about a foot to the ground. So don’t worry about it. You’ll be fine. But it reminded me before, if you weren’t here long ago before this side of the building was built, this whole wall had windows here all along this wall. Stunning. The problem with these windows was not falling asleep. It was the exact opposite. The view of the Rocky Mountains on a good day through these windows was stunning. From this hilltop up here it was stunning. So I was competing, not with sleeping, but everybody was being distracted by the view out the window and you’re just like, “Hey, come on guys, come on, the Bible is better than the Rocky Mountains, you know,” kind of thing. And whether you’re sleeping, whether you’re distracted, just…look, God, He wants the Word of God to be deposited in your life. Because it is only the Word of God that has the power to transform your life, the power to build your faith, the power to change your mind, to power to change the trajectory of your life.
This is an interesting, unusual situation, you know, there in upper room. It’s probably pretty warm there; they’ve got a lot of candles burning. So you got all the chemicals and everything going. The brother falls asleep. He falls out the window. He’s taken up for dead. And it says in verse ten, “Paul went down, fell on him, and embracing him said, “Do not trouble yourselves, for his life is in him.” Now there is debate on whether he really died, and this was a healing, or he was “sort of dead,” and it wasn’t a healing. I kind of follow that he did die and that Paul did heal him because it then solidified, “through signs and wonders,” once again, the calling of God upon Paul (Romans 15:19). And he went down, he laid on him, kind of like in Second Kings chapter four with Elisha, when he took his staff and just laid it on him, and God did a healing. Notice, verse 11, “When he had come up, had broken bread and eaten, and talked a long while.” And now, you know, Paul continued teaching until daybreak, you want to talk about a long Bible study. “He departed, and they brought the young man in alive, and they were not a little comforted.”
You know, I love Luke here. He always writes from the diminutive like, oh, they’re “not a little comforted.” Can you imagine how they were, like, talking about the dude the rest of his life? You just…Eutychus is known as, “Hey, you’re the dude that fell out the window.” “Hahaha, you shouldn’t have fall asleep.” “Do you ever fall?” You know, as I call it, he’s, “the guy that has the reputation,” man. And you know, it’s…again, you can choose whatever way you want to go, right? You can call him, “the guy that fell out the window.” Or you can say you’re, “the dude that God healed and brought back to life.” It’s like, man, “tell me the story.” “What did you see?” “What did you experience? “And I can almost think Eutychus is going, “Nah, you know what? What I saw is too much. I can’t repeat it, man. It was just too glorious.” That’s what Paul does later, “So, I got taken up into Heaven, but I can’t even tell you what I saw. It was too amazing, too glorious” (2 Cor 12:1-4).
So here we are in this section, we just see that people, even Eutychus, had friends. The church had friends. And I don’t mean friends necessarily in the world concept of friendships. Like, you know, sometimes people will come to church and go, you know, “I’m just coming to church to have friends.” You’re going to be disappointed. Your motive has to be to please the Lord. And the Bible even talks to us a different perspective of friendship than the world, where friendship in the church is a spiritual connection. And if you’re to have friends, the Bible says you must first show yourself to be friendly (Prov. 18:24). Friendly. And one of the excuses that’s in the room today is like, “Well, you know, I’m not going to serve; I’m not going to be friends, because, you don’t understand, pastor, I’m an introvert.” And all the introverts just bowed their heads. But I’m asking you to stop using that as an excuse. And I’m asking you to come with your introvert personality and serve the Lord. I’m asking you to come with your introvert personality and just take a step of faith and stop using that as an excuse.
You have to interact with other people in the world. You do just fine. You have to go to work. You got to go to the market. You interact with other people. How much more does the church need you? And really, I’m not advocating like a recruitment for the church, and “Oh, we need all these servants.” If we don’t have the servants, we just won’t do it. We’re not going to beg anybody to serve. I’m going to beg you to seek the Lord. He’ll tell you to serve. But I mean, think about it as we leave here. Why would setting up chairs be that important? That was the first thing on our list today.
“Why would…I don’t want to be setting up chairs. That’s beneath me, setting up chairs, what kind of service is that? I am not called to set up chairs.” All right, bro, I guess you got a better calling than the rest of us. Like all of us, setting up chairs is not that big a deal. But what’s the big deal about chairs? Is it chairs? No, actually, the big deal is not about chairs at all. It’s who sits on them. That’s the big deal. Not only that, why would you step in and answer one of these calls for service? I want you to remember this word: proximity.
Proximity. “Proximity to who, Ed, or to what?” Well, I’m glad you asked. When you choose to serve in the church, you are closer to people. And that’s ministry. When you come here, you’re a lot closer to people here than you are in your couch at home. Can I get an amen on that? Okay. Just want to make sure you’re with me. Because I feel that some are unconvinced. But I want to convince you that it’s worth stepping into the life of your church. It’s worth making yourself available. It’s worth praying over and going, “I think I would want to join that team, and I want to be close to the leader, Kenny, and I want to serve, and I want to learn. I want to be like….”
I’ll just follow Paul, even if he never talks to me, even if, you know, I’ll just want to be close to him because I got a lot to learn. If I watch him, I got a lot to learn. If he. If I’m available. And I can make his ministry so much more if I serve him. And so I can be like, Sopater, or I can be like Aristarchus, or I can be like Gaius, where it is a togetherness in the church. And as I shared, the title of our message today is, “Doing Life and Ministry Together.” And that’s how you impact a city, that’s how you impact a state. And that’s how the Gospel goes from a little church on the corner of Hampden and Biscay…how the Gospel goes through from this little church, literally around the world. It’s unbelievable what God has done through what used to be just a mound of dirt. That’s where we are right now, just a mound of dirt and tumbleweeds. God had a plan and purpose. And how much more does God have a plan and purpose for you as clay in His hands?
So, Lord, thank You for your Word and being…encourage your church, God, as we know that we can’t do this alone, that we are in a family. We are a part of a church team. I thank You for our pastors and their wives and their children. I pray right now even for the children. We talked about pastor’s kids, but also I pray for the kids of pastors that they would rise to the occasion of the calling that You have upon their lives. They would see the value of supporting their parents and serving in the church and yielding themselves to You and having a real walk with You, Lord. I pray that over their lives right now, even as I pray that the church would treat them as the kids or the young people they are, not just because they’re pastor’s kids. And so we have a lot to learn. Lord, we want to learn it. We want to grow in Your grace. So God teach us and lead us and guide us today, in Jesus name, Amen.
