For the Love of the Church, Part 3
Acts 20:7-17
The love of the Christian for the lost. That's certainly one of the areas of responsibility for the Christian's love. The other one has been the study that we've been involved in for three messages, in the 20th chapter of Acts, and that is the Christian's love for the Church. We're called on to love the lost, to love those without the Lord Jesus Christ, to be concerned about them, to care for them, and so we are to love the Church as well.
And in the 20th chapter of Acts, verses 1-17, we have been learning about this from the character of the life of the Apostle Paul. I asked myself the question as I was thinking through this passage for the third time, "What really makes a great minister of Jesus Christ?" And by the word great, I mean effective. What really is it that makes some men stand above the rest? And as the history of the Church goes on, certain names are forgotten and other names are remembered.
What is it about certain people that makes them sort of leave an indelible impress upon society in terms of Christian society, upon the Church? Some would say it's men of great intelligence who have an impact. Some would say men of great knowledge or of great leadership ability, or of great boldness, or of great speaking ability, or of writing ability. And maybe all of those things are a part of it, and individually or in combination find their way into the lives of every effective man. But I really think that behind all of these things, and the one great under-girding fact that makes men stand out in the history of the Church is their love for the Church, and that's based on their love for the Lord Jesus Christ, isn't it?
The real difference, the real key to the effectiveness of people in the Church, is how much they love the Church. And why I suppose one of the most interesting studies is to study great men of the past and to study biographies and autobiographies of great preachers, and you find almost always the common denominator of a tremendous compassion for the saints. A deep, deep love for the Lord Jesus Christ, which radiated itself in a tremendous love for the Church. This is always there.
And the Apostle Paul was such a man who loved the Church. It consumed him. You can remember - you can relate to this maybe in a simple illustration. You can remember when you first fell in love with that girl that's now your wife, if you can still remember that, or you can imagine the tremendous love that you have for your wife right now. You can - if you have to imagine it. Or you can just relate to the tremendous love you have for your wife, or you can relate to the tremendous love you have toward that one that's just sort of captured your fancy. And you can think through all of the tremendous feelings that you feel within the framework of that love, and you get an idea of how Paul felt about the Church when you magnify that about a thousand times. He loved the Church. With every deep down sense of emotion that you ever feel when you love, he loved the Church. It was his life. It was everything.
Paul wrote some beautiful words that expressed the love that he had for the Church. You know, when we talk about love, we talk about the heart. I love you with all my heart, or my heart is yours. You know, all that kind of stuff we used to say, long ago and far away. But in Philippians 1, the Apostle Paul talks like that, only he doesn't talk like that to a girl. He talks like that to some saints. "I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always, in every prayer of mine for you all making requests with joy, for your fellowship in the Gospel from the first day until now." He says, "I just pray for you with such joy because of our fellowship, being confident of this very thing that he who hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ, then listen. Even as it is write for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart." Isn't that a beautiful statement? Paul had them in his heart.
What does that mean? That means they dominated his emotions. He was in love with the Philippians. Lest you think it was only the Philippians, listen to what he said to the Corinthians. He said, in 2 Corinthians 3:2, "You are our epistle written in our hearts." And in 7:3, he said, "You are in our hearts to die and live." In other words, living for him was loving the saints.
To the Thessalonian Church, Paul wrote this. "But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother cherishing her babies." You can't imagine anything more gentle than that, can you? And he went on. Listen to these words. "We love you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the Gospel of God, but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us." 1 Thessalonians, 2:7-8. We loved you so much that we didn't just preach at you, we gave you our lives.
Jesus put it this way. John 15:13: "Greater love hath no man than this, than that a man," what? "Lay down his life for his friends." Paul did that. Paul gave his life for the love of the Church.
Throughout the history of Christianity, I think that the men who have stood head and shoulders above others, and not just preachers, but anybody, men, women, anybody, have been those who had the deepest, most compassionate love for the saints. And beloved, that's generated by a devout love to the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Those are the ones who really made the effect on the Church, and I believe they're still the ones that make the effect on the Church and on the world. Paul loved the Church. That's why he was the man he was.
Now as we look at our passage here in Acts 20:1-17, we have been studying just a simple narrative. And I say just a simple narrative not because it's insignificant, but because it's in contrast to a passage which deals with theology or practical application. It's just simple narrative, is all it is.
But in this narrative, we see the action of Paul that betrays the attitude of Paul. You know, love just isn't something that's spoken. It's something that's demonstrated, isn't it? You can say very little and demonstrate love. You can say a whole lot and demonstrate none of it.
And so here, we don't find a whole lot of verses, "Paul loved the Church, Paul loved the Church, Paul loved the Church." It doesn't say that all. It doesn't even mention the word love in the whole passage. But I'll tell you, this is one of the greatest love chapters I've ever seen. You think 1 Corinthians 13's got a lot of love in it, you ought to see this. And it never says the word love. It just demonstrates it. The first half of the chapter, Paul loves the Church. The second half, the Church loves him back. It's one of the great love chapters.
Now we've seen Paul's love for the Church in several things. He's on his third missionary journey. It's his final little tour around the eastern Mediterranean. He's stopped at every little spot where he's had an effective ministry, and he's met with the saints there and said his farewells and so forth. And now he's back to Jerusalem. This is the end of his third journey, and he feels in his heart it'll be the last time. And so it's a time of goodbyes. And at this time, his love is demonstrated. And we saw it demonstrated in several ways.
First of all, and I'll review just quickly, we saw it demonstrated in his affection, didn't we, in verse 1? It says that, "After the uproar was ceased" - in Ephesus they had a big riot, you remember, over the falling off of the sale of idols when Paul had such an affect on the town that the idols worship fell off. "After the riot was over, Paul called on them the disciples and embraced them, and departed to go to Macedonia." And we said that using the word embraced is kind of a jumping off point. We're looking into the area of showing your love in terms of visible, demonstrated affection. And we saw how affectionate a man the Apostle Paul was. How that he was unencumbered by any sense of dignity or a holier than thou or supreme guru in the Church or whatever. He just was one of the people. He was there, and he was available.
And over in verse 37 of chapter 20, we see how the people fell all over him and kissed him on the neck, and he was just the kind of man who was affectionate, and they felt really at ease in doing that. He wasn't anybody high and lofty and set apart. He was somebody that they could touch and love and show their affection to. And over and over we saw how the New Testament says to greet one another with a holy kiss and be demonstrating your affection.
Then we saw secondly that his love was visible by his giving. Not only his affection, but his giving. Verse 1 at the end says he went to Macedonia and went all through it, verse 2 says. And you remember why. He was gathering a collection of money for the poor saints in Jerusalem, wasn't he? And we looked into that whole thing and saw the passages in Corinthians that are comparative to this. And we saw that here was a man who absolutely was selfless. His total preoccupation was to minister to the needs of others. He was busy collecting money for others.
You know, it's an old story, but most evangelists who come to town are interested in collecting money for themselves. That's not true of all, but that's true of many. Here was a man who came to town and didn't want to be chargeable to anybody, so immediately when he came to town, he worked and earned his own pay, and collected money for other people. Selfless, giving person.
And you know, this is part of spiritual quality, isn't it? John said, "Don't love in word. Don't love in tongue." 1 John 3:18. "Love in deed and truth." "If you see your brother has need and you shut up your compassion to him, how dwells the love of God in you?"
God demonstrated His love to us when He gave His Son to die on the cross. We ought to be willing to lay down our lives for the brothers, right? 1 John 3:16. And so Paul demonstrated that kind of love. There was a need, and he wanted to meet it. And he scurried all over eastern Mediterranean. He did it. It took him a couple of years to get the thing going, just to collect money for some needy people.
The third thing that demonstrates his love I think is his teaching. Verse 2. "As weary as he was, as spent as he was, as harried as he was, and hassled by the Jews who wanted to kill him," it says in verse 2, "he had given them much exhortation." He traveled all over Macedonia teaching and teaching and teaching. And then when he got to Greece, he wrote the book of Romans, doing more teaching. And I'm sure he taught the saints in Corinth, in Achea. Here was a man committed to teaching. He didn't just give a little exhortation. He gave what? Much exhortation. Much instruction. Much encouragement. And this I believe shows his love.
And I've said it before, and I think it's true. The mark of the loving ministry is selfless, tireless teaching of the flock. The good shepherd cares for his sheep, and you care for the sheep by feeding and protecting.
In 1 Peter 5:1, we get insights into Peter's view of this, so that you think - lest you think that Paul was the only one. Peter wrote this: "Feed the flock of God which is among you." And he's talking to pastors, elders. "Taking the oversight of it." You feed it and you protect it. You care for it. "Not by constraint, not because you're forced to, not because the job requires it or somebody pushes you, but willingly, and not for money, but of a ready mind." Not for money, but for eagerness, desire.
"And don't be lords over God's heritage. No, no. The way to rule the sheep, the way to lead the sheep, is not to be the lord, not to dominate them, not to browbeat them, not to crush them, but - " I love this. "But be examples to the flock. The way to lead is by example, not threat."
But the key to the whole ministry is to feed and protect. Now this expresses I think the loving heart of the Apostle Paul, weary, worn, spent, persecuted. And yet he stops everywhere he goes and teaches and teaches and teaches. You know, "Why does he do this?" Because the consuming desire in his heart was to bring the saints to maturity, wasn't it? And he had to do it. It compelled him.
The fourth way that we saw his love was his persistence. Verse 3. "He abode three months in Greece -" And I told you he wrote Romans there. "And when the Jews laid wait for him as he was about to sail to Syria, he purposely returned through Macedonia." Now this is a persistent man, folks. He was going to go to Syria to go to the Passover in Jerusalem, to catch the boat, but he found out about a plot, and they were probably going to shove him overboard. And that didn't stop him. That just detoured him.
And so he said, "Well, if that's the way it is, I'll go back through Macedonia." I mean, that is an awfully long way to go. But he was never bothered, and it doesn't give you any idea that he was terribly oppressed and browbeaten. He just took off in the other direction. And if you read further in the chapter, over in 20:19, you find that he even admits, "I've been serving the Lord with all humility and many tears and trials which befell me by the lying in wait of the Jews." And in 20:22-24, "Behold, I go bound in the Spirit to Jerusalem, not knowing the thing that there shall befall me, except that the Holy Spirit keeps telling me in every city that bonds and afflictions await me. But none of these things move me, neither count I my life here unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus to testify the Gospel of the Grace of God."
Nothing stopped him. He was absolutely persistent. And you know, when he wrote about love, he wrote about love in those terms. You remember 1 Corinthians 13, remember these phrases? He said this: "Love bears all things." Right? "Love hopes all things. Love endures all things." For the love of the Church, he could bear anything, and in the middle of it, he could hope, and in the middle of it, he could endure. That's the character of persistent love. Love persists. Love is relentless. And we saw his love in his persistence.
And verse 4 tells us some fellows accompanied him along, and they met him there in Troas, verse 5 says. And these were representatives of the Churches that had taken the offerings, so that when he came to Jerusalem, he would give them money, but it would actually be presented to them by representatives of all the Gentile churches. What a beautiful picture of unity that would be for the Jewish Christians, to see the loves of the Gentiles and to see the Gentiles in person coming all that way to give them, the needy, the money that they so desperately needed.
We see then, fifthly, and this is where we spend our time this morning. His love is visible in his availability. In his availability. Not only his persistence and his teaching and his giving and his affection, but his availability. And I think this true of love. Don't you? I think whom you really love, you're available to. You know, that's easy for you to illustrate to yourself. If three or four people demand your time, invariably, if it comes to a decision, you'll usually give the time to the one you love. Hopefully, you will, if you really love them, because you're drawn that way.
Paul loved the Church; thus he was available. It's a simple truth. Now as we look at verses 7-14, we're going to see a lot of different things and a lot of little insights, but overall, just notice the availability of Paul.
Verse 6: "We sailed away from Philippi after the days of unleavened bread, after Passover and the feast that followed, and came with them -" or "came to them," I should say. That is to the men who were waiting in there. The men listed in verse 4, and some others, incidentally. "Came to them, to Troas, in five days, and stayed there seven days."
So they came across the little sea there and they were in Troas, back on the coast of Asia Minor. And they stayed there for seven days. And of course, the reason they were staying seven days was to await the ship that would take them back to Jerusalem.
Now verse 7: "Upon the first day of the week when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the next day, and continued the speech until midnight." Now let's stop right there, because here we have one of the first accounts of a Christian meeting. This is one of the first. And we can gain some little insights into what the Christians did when they came together, and why they came together, and when they came together, by just looking at that one verse.
First of all, when did they come together? The first day of the week. Now that became the meeting time for the Church. You say, "Didn't they meet every day?" Sure they did. They met, from Acts 2, "Daily, from house to house." And listen. Christianity is not a one day a week thing, is it? It's an everyday thing. And that little church, wherever it was, in whatever little town, those Christians were together usually during the week. There were Bible studies in home. They were breaking bread in homes. They were sharing the Lord's table, perhaps, in home. So it was not uncommon for the Church to meet on a daily basis in its early years.
But together, the church came on the first day of the week. And you say, "Why did they do that?" Well, you go back to John 20, just to refresh your memory. Verse 19. This was immediately after the Resurrection, "The same day, at evening, being the first day of the week." Do you know when the first day of the week started in the Jewish calendar? Saturday night, right? After the sun went down, the Sabbath ended. The days were counted from sunset to sunset. And so it was on Saturday night, literally, but it was the first day of the week. So then it was Sunday.
We don't prefer to call it Sunday. It's all right if you want to call it Sunday, but that represents the sun god. But that's okay, because there is no sun god anyway, so you can call it Sunday without feeling bad. But I prefer to call it the Lord's Day. That's Revelation 1:10. John says, "I was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day." That's why in your bulletin you'll find that we call it the Lord's Day.
Now they met together here in John 20:19 on the first day of the week, and who appeared to them? Jesus did. Eight days later, verse 26 says, "The next time the first day of the week came, they were meeting together, and the Lord appeared." Well, you see what happened? They were together on the first day. That was Resurrection, commemoration day. The Lord appeared both times, so he had risen on the first day, appeared on the first day, appeared again on the first day, and they just took the first day and ran with it. That became Resurrection Day, the Lord's Day.
And so the early Church celebrated its fellowship and its worship and its teaching together on Sunday. And let me hasten to add that I think such meeting together of the Church is strictly important. In Hebrews 10:25 it says, "Forsake not the assembling of yourselves together as the manner of some is, and much the more as you see the day approaching." That means you ought to come together with the believers and not forsake that.
Now notice that it is not the Sabbath Day anymore. Sunday is not the Sabbath. You hear people talk about going to church on the Sabbath. This is not the Sabbath. The Sabbath was yesterday. And the Sabbath is a dead issue, friends.
You know, I was on the radio in Honolulu. They have a talk station, like KABC. It's the number two rated station in Hawaii. And they give three hours Sunday afternoon to a Christian kind of dialogue. And