Please take out your Bibles and turn to Acts chapter 20; 929 in the pew Bibles. And we come tonight to the story of Eutychus. Eutychus, of course, the perfect setup for a punchline about long winded preachers and falling asleep in church! I have a friend who, when he was in seminary, he was preaching on the circuit one Sunday morning in a small rural church that was barely hanging on and one person showed up for church that day. But he went ahead with the worship service as usual, he preached the sermon that he had prepared, and about halfway through the sermon that one person in the congregation fell asleep! It’s not exactly a big confidence booster for a seminary student, not to mention – what do you do? Seminary doesn’t prepare you for things like that! But it happens, and it happened with Eutychus in Acts chapter 20.
It was late, the room was warm, Paul talked on and on, and then finally Eutychus slumped over into a deep sleep, fell out of a third story window to his apparent death. And it was a shocking thing to happen but it wasn’t the end of the story for Eutychus, much to the relief of everyone there, not the least of which to the one who was speaking there that night. Not much could stop the apostle Paul and we’ve seen him opposed by hostile crowds and evil spirits, we’ve seen him beaten up, locked up, stoned and left for dead. He’s been put on trial and chased for the run. He didn’t stop, but eventually he would. And these verses in Acts chapter 20 show us, tell us something about the fruit of Paul’s ministry but also about the future of Paul’s ministry. And we see it in seven names. We’re actually not going to talk a lot about Eutychus from this passage but focus more on seven names that we find in these verses – Sopater, Aristarchus, Secundus, Gaius, Timothy, Tychicus and Trophimus. These names represent the geography of the Gospel and the way it had spread and the way it penetrated hearts and had been embraced by all different kinds of people.
And so there are two things that I want us to see from these verses that we read tonight. First, the fruit of Paul’s ministry or the fruit of Paul’s labors, and secondly, the future of Paul’s ministry, the future of Paul’s labors. We’ll spend more time on the first of those than on the second, but before we read God’s Word, let’s pray and ask His help and blessing on our time tonight.
Father, we thank You for Your Word and we thank You for these stories that we find in the book of Acts that sometimes shock us, that leave us not knowing exactly what to do with them, and yet they are encouraging reminders of the way Your Word works – in unlikely places, maybe in sleepy hearts and minds, but Your Word penetrates and brings life. So we pray that You would do that tonight. Would You bring life and would You grow and nurture fruit in all of our hearts as we read and study Your Word. We pray that You would help us to see Jesus and that You would work by the power of the Holy Spirit tonight. And we pray this in Jesus’ name, amen.
Acts chapter 20, starting in verse 2:
“When he,” Paul, “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. 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 where we were 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 Assos, intending to take Paul aboard there, for so he had arranged, intending himself to go by land. And when he met us at Assos, we took him on board and went to Mitylene. 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.”
The grass withers and the flowers fall but the Word of our God endures forever.
Really in many ways this is the beginning of the end for the apostle Paul. Up until this point, for the most part he has had freedom of movement, he has covered a tremendous amount of ground during his ministry, and really it is mind boggling to think about. On foot, over difficult terrain and an arid climate and by boat, across the sea in unpredictable conditions. Someone has estimated that just in this section of his travels Paul covered 1,297 miles by foot over 84 days of travel and 1,762 miles by ship over possibly up to 52 days on the water. That’s exhausting just on its own. And yet in the midst of that, Paul was busy teaching. We read about him in Ephesus how he preached daily, reasoning in the hall of Tyrannus for two years. And here we find him in Troas. He’s continuing to speak until midnight. And then after that, he continued the conversation with them after breaking bread, and that went on until daybreak the next day. I don’t know when Paul slept, but he got a lot done.
And one of Paul’s biographers talks about the different aspects of his character – the warmth of his personality, his intellectual stature, his dynamism and how he devoted himself single mindedly to fulfilling the commission that had been given to him on the road to Damascus and how he labored more abundantly than all of his fellow apostles. And here we see in these verses the fruit of those labors. I think we see the fruit from Paul’s labors in at least four ways, four features of Paul’s ministry here.
And the first one is just an encouragement. If you look back to verse 1, we didn’t read it, but if you include verse 1 in this section we find that encouragement is mentioned three times in this section. It says that when Paul left Ephesus he sent for the disciples “and encouraged them,” verse 1 says. And then he went through the regions of Macedonia, verse 2, “and gave them much encouragement.” And then we go down to find him in Troas after he had talked to them for a long time, verse 12 says that “they were not a little comforted.” That’s the same word – “encouragement” and “comfort” – it’s the same Greek word, “parakaleo,” and it can be translated as “encouragement, exhortation or comfort.” And that’s what Paul did. Paul was busy doing that wherever he went from place to place, encouraging the brothers and sisters that gathered together.
One of the best preaching lessons that I’ve ever received was from an essay that was written about the man on the moon, that fictional and imaginary character. And the writer said that the man on the moon very rarely goes to church. And he says that, he said that he wanted to make that clear as an encouragement and a warning to himself and to his fellow ministers of the Gospel. He says that the problem is that preachers sometimes seem to prepare their sermons thinking that the man on the moon is going to be the only one there listening. And here’s what he said, he said, “The questions we discuss are not human questions. The problems with which we deal are not human problems. The language we speak is no human language. It may be lunar, I am not sure, but however that may be, it is all addressed to the man on the moon.” And he gives as an example Thomas Chalmers in Kilmany in Scotland. And he said that for years Chalmers preached to the man on the moon and the man on the moon made no response, but a change happened in Chalmers’ life that when he began to preach to the men and women of Kilmany, Kilmany became a changed village.
And you see what we find in Paul’s preaching and all throughout his ministry is that he preach to the hearts and the needs and the affections of the people that were there in front of him and he encouraged them. His teaching wasn’t for those out there, it wasn’t for the people out in the world; it was for the people who were right there with him, for the audience that he was intended to minister to. And perhaps the best example of that is what we’ll find next time in the book of Acts when we find him preaching or teaching. He’s speaking to the elders from Ephesus and he’s encouraging them, he’s exhorting them, he’s comforting them. It says that when they parted ways, “there was much weeping on the part of all. They embraced Paul and they kissed him because this was a time of mutual encouragement.” It’s a moving scene as Paul meets with the elders from Ephesus. And so we see encouragement as a major part of Paul’s ministry.
But do you know what else was? Friendship, relationships. We see in those names, “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.” Now those may not be names that mean much to you at first glance, but put them on a map. I’m sure if you want to you can look at the map in the bulletin; if not, don’t worry about it! But think about these names on a map. These men are with Paul in Achaia, probably in Corinth on the far west of this region. And Sopater, Aristarchus and Secundus are from Berea and Thessalonica which is north of Achaia in Macedonia. And then you have Tychicus and Trophimus there from Asia, at least one of them is from Ephesus. And then you have Gaius moving to the east; Gaius and Timothy are from Derbe and Lystra and Galatia. And then there’s Paul of course, and where’s Paul from? Paul is from Tarsus and Silica. And then if we include the “we” and the “us” references in these verses, then it seems to mean that this is talking about Luke being with them as well, and most people think that Luke was from Antioch, even further east in Syria.
Now we don’t know exactly where Luke is from, but just think about this group of men. And from Antioch to Achaia, Paul has not just covered a lot of ground, but he has bridged a lot of divides. I pulled up a timeline recently of ancient Greek history and some of the major events in ancient Greek history are things like the battle of Thermopylae and the Peloponnesian Wars and the Roman sack of Athens. The major figures in the history of this region are men like Darius and Xerxes and Philip of Macedon and Alexander the Great and Caesar Augustus. And then, on that timeline you read these words – “Paul the apostle goes on missionary journeys across Asia Minor, Greece and Rome.” And there’s a big difference, isn’t there, because this was a volatile and a violent region. This was war. Just make a sports analogy from this area of the country. This is the land of the Spartans and the Trojans and the Titans and Nike. This is about war. That’s what this region is used to.
And then here comes Paul and he establishes peace between all these people from all these places. He reconciles enemies and he makes them his friends, not the least of which he reconciles the enmity between Gentiles and Jews. Because here is this list of Gentile names and they are on mission together with this Jewish man, Paul, in the service of Jesus. It’s remarkable. Paul had been commissioned to go to the Gentiles. And you know what? They had happened. There’s that meme, “Tell me without telling me” – have you seen that? “Tell me you’re from the south without telling me you’re southern.” So things like, “Bless your heart.” “Can I get that monogrammed?” “Piggly Wiggly.” Those tell you you’re from the south without saying you’re from the south.Well, “Tell me that Paul reached the Gentiles without telling me that he reached the Gentiles.” Okay, “Sopater, Aristarchus, Secundus, Gaius, Timothy, Tychicus and Trophimus.” The wall of hostility had broken down, and Paul was busy cultivating and nurturing friendships across these dividing lines because it was important to him and his ministry.
So there’s encouragement, there’s friendship and reconciliation; do you know what else Paul was doing? He was writing. We don’t see this, it’s not explicitly spelled out for us in these passages, you have to read between the lines a little bit, you have to piece together details that we find other places in the New Testament that are sometimes overlooked, but a major part of the story here in this passage in Acts is about Paul’s epistles. Think about his itinerary during this time. There’s Ephesus, Macedonia, Achaia, Jerusalem and then Rome. Now listen to what he writes to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians chapter 16. He says, “I will stay in Ephesus and the churches in Asia send you greetings and I will visit you after passing through Macedonia.” You get that? It’s Ephesus, then through Macedonia, on the way to Corinth and Achaia. Now what about 2 Corinthians? He says that he had already visited Troas. Where is he in this passage? He is in Troas. And that he had come to Macedonia – so he had gone from Troas to Macedonia. And that he was planning to visit Corinth again. And then he did. And we’re told that he was in Greece in verse 2 – “He came to Greece.” Verse 3 said, “there he spent three months.” Do you know what he did during those three months in Greece or in Corinth? Well he tells the Romans in Romans 15, “I’ve been to Macedonia and Achaia, I’m going to Jerusalem, and after that I hope to come to you on my way to Spain.”
Maybe all of that is hard to follow, but here’s the gist of it. In Ephesus, Paul wrote 1 Corinthians. In Macedonia, he wrote 2 Corinthians. And in Achaia or Corinth, he wrote the letter to the Romans before going to Jerusalem and eventually to Rome. That’s what he’s doing in this section of the book of Acts. During this time, Paul wrote his three longest letters in the New Testament. These are the mature fruit of his training, his study, his teaching, his organizing, his thoughts about the Gospel and the message about Jesus Christ. Just take Romans on its own and think about the impact of Romans; maybe think about the impact of Romans on your own lives. F. F. Bruce, in his commentary on the letter to the Romans, he talks about the impact that just that letter has made throughout church history. He talks about Augustine and how Augustine, when reading in the book of Romans that for the first time he says, “A clear light flooded my heart and all the darkness of doubt vanished away.” What about Martin Luther when he realized the impact of Romans 1:16 and 17 and justification by faith. Martin Luther said, “I felt myself reborn and to have gone through open doors into paradise.” And John Wesley was very much the same. It was hearing a lesson and reading through Martin Luther’s preface to the book of Romans that he says, “I felt my heart strangely warmed.”
And F. F. Bruce talks about those men and the impact that the letter to the Romans had on them. He says, “There is no saying what may happen when people begin to study the letter to the Romans. What happened to Augustine, Luther, Wesley launched great spiritual movements which have left their mark in world history. But similar things have happened much more frequently to very ordinary men and women as the words of this letter come home to them with power.” And he says, “Reader, be warned as you take up this letter.” And I’m sure many of you can say the similar impact that the book of Romans has had on your life. The point is, Paul’s letters changed lives from the inside out. And everything from how we live as church members to citizens of our nation, to how we live as spouses and singles, parents and children, sufferers and stewards of the resources that God has given to us, it is powerful.
Which brings us to the fourth focus of Paul’s ministry during this time, and that is his collection. Verse 16 says that “Paul was hastening to be at Jerusalem if possible on the day of Pentecost.” Now do you know why Paul was hastening to be at Jerusalem? It’s because he was eager to deliver a gift from the churches in the Gentile regions to the church and to the saints who were in Jerusalem. In 1 Corinthians chapter 16, he talks about this collection for the saints. He says that “On the first day of the week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up as he may prosper, and when I arrive, I will send those whom you credit by letter to carry your gift to Jerusalem. If it seems advisable that I should go also, they will accompany me.” Now think about that. And do you see how all these names from all of these places, traveling from town to town and island to island, they are on their way to Jerusalem and how it fits in with Paul’s plan to present this gift to the church there? This was a tangible way to show the church in Jerusalem how far Paul’s ministry had spread, how deep it had penetrated into people’s hearts and how much it had united Gentile and Jew together in Christ. And this part of Paul’s ministry had come to fruition. He had done it, and now he is headed on the way to Jerusalem to present that gift to the church there.
A few months ago I gave a staff devotion one morning at our staff meeting. And I tried to find the most mundane passage that I could find from one of Paul’s letters if I can put it that way. And I settled on one that talked about very ordinary topics – things like travel plans and taking up money – because my goal was to show how when Paul talked about those very ordinary, day to day matters, he always did it as an opportunity to both teach and to apply the grace of God. And here is Paul, he’s traveling to Jerusalem in Acts chapter 20 with this collection from the Gentile Christians. This is not peripheral. This is not an afterthought to his ministry. No, this is the core of what he is all about. This is a major part of what Paul is all about because what he is all about is the grace of God. This is about the Gospel, which is really what we need to see more than what we need to see about Paul. Sure, Paul strengthened the churches, he established close friendships, he wrote letters of instruction, he collected gifts for Jerusalem, but it wasn’t about him and it wasn’t his doing; it wasn’t his strength. It was the grace of God through him. It was the power of the Holy Spirit working through him so that we can say from these verses, “Look at the fruit of the Gospel through Paul’s labors. The Gospel encourages. The Gospel reconciles. The Gospel leads to godly living. The Gospel produces generosity in people’s lives.”
What is the Gospel? “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” “God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” That “He who was rich beyond all measure, yet for our sakes became poor so that we through His poverty might become rich.” “He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” That’s the Gospel, and it’s the Gospel that brings to fruition by the power of the Holy Spirit everything that we see happening in this passage. And I like the saying that we oftentimes overestimate what we can accomplish in one year, but we underestimate what we can accomplish in five years. And we do that with the Gospel too. We want to see the fruit in our lives, we want to see the fruit in other people’s lives right now, right away, immediately. But that’s not how it worked. That’s not how it works. And it didn’t work that way for the apostle Paul and his ministry. This happened over decades – through trial and setback and conflict and disappointments and changes of plans, but it happened by taking the long view.
So I ask you tonight, “Do you need encouragement? Do your hearts need to be encouraged? Are there relationships in your lives that need reconciling? Is there still room in your life to grow in godly character and sanctification? Are there ways in which you are being called to be more generous with your time and your resources?” The lesson is – Don’t neglect the Gospel. Don’t go away from its message. Don’t stop believing it and trusting it. Preach the Gospel to yourselves every day and don’t stop gathering together on the first day of the week and hearing its message and breaking bread together. Don’t overestimate how much God will do in one year, but also don’t underestimate what God may do in your lives and in the lives of others in five years, in ten years, maybe much more. Take the long view. Take the long view.
Which leads to the last thing – second point and it’s brief – that’s the future of Paul’s ministry; the future of his ministry. You know, Trophimus got Paul in trouble. Really I think we could say all these men probably got Paul in trouble in some ways because they went with him to Jerusalem. And it says that when they got to Jerusalem, some of the people thought that Paul had taken Trophimus into the temple and he got arrested. He wouldn’t be able to go where he wanted to go anymore. His ministry would not be the same. But you know what? The Gospel kept going. And we don’t have time to go through all the details and look at all the different verses, but if we were to look at Paul’s letters that were written while he was a prisoner – letters like Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians 2 Timothy, Philemon – do you know what we would find? We would find that Paul mentions several people by name, people that either he was sending to the churches while he was in prison in order to encourage them and minister to them, or people who were with him while he was in prison and encouraging him. You know who those names are? Tychicus, Timothy, Aristarchus, Trophimus and Luke.
You see, these names that we find in Acts chapter 20, they don’t just represent Paul’s travel companions; they represent the future of Gospel ministry in the New Testament and beyond. And Paul had cultivated these relationships, he had prepared the next generation to carry on the work once he could not do it anymore. And that happened a lot sooner than he expected. It always does. It always does. The next generation comes up a lot quicker than we realize. And just as an example, I’m teaching Sunday School this quarter with a co-teacher, a fellow laborer, a peer. He was nine years old when I started seminary. And I remember reading from J. C. Ryle and his biography that he said that he didn’t really figure out how to preach until he was fifty years old. And so here I am still trying to figure it all out and it’s already time to start thinking about the next generation. That may be true for you as well.
Who is there in your lives – whether it’s in the church, at work, in your community – someone that you can bring along in the Christian life and nurture them for service in God’s kingdom, to be intentional, to look for opportunities to engage them and to encourage them with the long view in mind? Who is there in your lives that you can do that? And on the flip side, for the youth and the young adults that are among us, what are ways that you can be looking for and being ready for new ways to serve and to take opportunities for leadership when you may not think you are ready for it but the door opens up for you? Paul took the long view, and we see that both in the fruit and the future of his ministry in these verses. Correct that – we see it in both the fruit and the future of the Gospel ministry in these verses.
Let’s pray.
Father, we thank You for Your Word that You have revealed to us tonight – this Scripture, inspired, given through chosen men. And we pray that You would help us to apply Your Gospel to each of our lives and that You would make us useful. Bring about fruit for Your glory and that You would continue to spread the Gospel in the days and weeks and years ahead. We pray all of this in Jesus’ name, amen.