In Acts 20 we have the only description of a New Testament church gathering. In this study we examine the time, location, purpose and activities of this meeting in order to see some very valuable principles that should guide us as we meet together in the name of our great Redeemer.
A Glimpse Into A First Century Church Meeting
Acts 20:1-16
Have you ever wondered what it was like to be part of a first century church meeting? Well, this morning we are going to find out. Here in Acts 20 we are privileged to have a rare glimpse into one of the gatherings of the early church. But before we get to the meat of this section (20:7-12), I want to examine vs.1-6, and then 13-16 with you. Having seen those things that led up to this church meeting, and then what Paul does when he leaves the church meeting in Troas, we will go back and spend the bulk of our time noticing what church was like in Paul’s day. I think the Lord has some juicy lessons for us in this great section of Scripture.
First of all, let’s look at Acts 20:1-6
20:1 – Remember Acts 19:21. The riot of Acts 19 has convinced Paul that it is no longer safe for him to remain in Ephesus. His glorious tenure of 3 years finally came to an end. God had done so much in those 3 years! People were delivered from demons, healed, thousands of occultists and idolaters were converted, and churches were planted in many smaller cities surrounding Ephesus. But it was time for Paul to move on. His plan is to collect an offering from the churches he had planted to take to the poor brothers in Jerusalem. So, just as at Philippi (16:40), Paul encouraged the believers to remain true to the Lord, and to continue to obey Jesus’ Great Commission by making disciples, and then said farewell.
Although it is not stated in Acts, between Acts 20:1 and 20:2, Paul must have gone to Troas. We know this by filling in the gaps from 2 Corinthians 2:12. Paul had been at Troas earlier, but he didn’t spend time preaching the gospel there because he received a vision about a man of Macedonia calling him to come over and help him. However, this time he did stay and preach the gospel. In fact he says that “a door was opened for me in the Lord” (2Cor.2:12). His ministry there must have been very effective, for a church was planted. We will see this church gathered later in this chapter. Paul had sent Titus to Corinth to finish collecting their offering for the poor saints in Jerusalem (2Cor.8:6). Paul would have remained in Troas longer, but Titus didn’t come, and so Paul’s spirit was not at rest. So, Paul left for Macedonia (Philippi).
20:2 – Paul found a thriving, generous, church in Philippi. Here he was reunited with Luke, whom he had left there to shepherd the new church. Eventually Titus arrived from Corinth with good news. However, Titus also brought a report that there was a group in Corinth who were hostile to Paul and were calling his authority into question. So Paul wrote 2 Corinthians and sent Titus back to Corinth with this letter. It must have been at this time that Paul penetrated into Illyricum (Rom.15:19). Paul probably also paid a visit to the churches of Thessalonica and Berea. All that is said is that he gave them much encouragement. This was Paul’s role in established churches. In a new region he would preach the gospel and call men to repentance and faith. In an established church he would strengthen, encourage and exhort the believers. So, Paul is seeking to bring these believers to maturity in Christ.
20:3 – Paul spent the 3 winter months at Corinth, where he wrote Romans. His initial plan was to sail from Cenchrea straight over to Antioch of Syria, and from there to proceed to Jerusalem. However, he caught wind of a plot of the Jews to kill him (probably throwing him overboard when they got out to sea), and so decided to go back the way he came, and so eventually get to Jerusalem. It seems that God was always watching out for Paul. In both Acts 9:23-24 and 23:12-22 the Lord enabled Paul to find out about plots on his life, so that he escaped.
20:4 – These men listed here were representatives from their cities, carrying a collection that had been raised in their own church to Jerusalem.
Sopater – from Berea
Aristarchus and Secundus – from Thessalonica. Aristarchus traveled to Jerusalem and to Rome with Paul and was his fellow-prisoner there.
Gaius – from Derbe
Timothy – from Lystra
Tychicus and Trophimus – from Ephesus. Tychicus traveled all the way to Rome and served Paul by carrying Ephesians and Colossians to those churches.
Luke – from Philippian
Paul – from Corinth.
So, Corinth, Berea, Thessalonica, Philippi, Lystra, Derbe, and Ephesus were all represented in this delegate, each carrying money from their home churches. All these delegates bear witness to the fruitfulness of Paul’s Ministry: Churches in Lystra and Derbe were planted on the 1st journey; churches in Philippi, Thessalonica, and Berea were planted on his 2nd journey; and the church in Ephesus was planted on his 3rd journey.
20:6 – Notice “we”. The last time in Acts there was a “we” section was in Philippi in 16:10,11,12,13,16. In Acts 16:40 “they” left Philippi. So Luke stayed behind to help care for the new converts. Well, here Paul comes to Philippi, picks up Luke who was probably acting as a delegate for the church of Philippi, and off they sail to Troas, and the “we” sections pick up again. They arrived on a Monday and stayed in Troas for 7 days, probably so that they could meet with the entire church on the Lord’s Day, which wouldn’t take place for another 6 days.
20:7-12 describe the meeting of the church at Troas, which we will return to in just a moment.
20:13-16 here Luke describes the journey after the team left Troas. Paul traveled by land, while the rest went by ship. Paul, probably wanted some time alone to think and pray. He knew sufferings awaited him in Jerusalem, and he no doubt wanted to have time alone to talk with the Lord about this. It would also give him valuable time to meditate on God’s truth as he walked. You’ll notice that the various destinations are given for each day, and they are all about 30 miles apart. That’s because the winds blew from early morning to late afternoon, and then stopped. So the ship would sail from early morning to late afternoon, and stay overnight, and then do that again and again and again.
They didn’t stop in Ephesus, but instead docked at Miletus. Paul knew that if they stopped in Ephesus, he would never get out of there. Remember, that a dramatic supernatural revival had taken place in Ephesus, with probably thousands being converted. Paul was a very famous individual in Ephesus. People would be clamoring for his time, and he would find it impossible to break away. However, Paul needed to be in Jerusalem by Pentecost. Pentecost is only 50 days from Passover, and at least 18 of those 50 days have already transpired. Even in the ancient world you had the pressure to make deadlines!
Now, having set the context for this section, let’s go back and take a good look at a first century church meeting in Troas. As we do so, we need to avoid making the mistake of thinking that every church meeting for all time should look exactly like this one. Luke’s account is Descriptive, not Prescriptive. Luke is just describing what took place – not telling us what all church meetings should be like. We should not be slavish in copying what took place (meeting on the 3rd floor of a house, meeting in the evening, using oil lamps, listening to a very long sermon) or in omitting what is not mentioned (prayers, psalms, hymns, and Scripture reading).
1. When Did The Church Gather?
On the first day of the week. Paul arrived in Troas on Monday. He then waited a full 7 days until he left again, eating up valuable time in his schedule since he needed to be in Jerusalem for Pentecost. Why did they wait so long? Evidently, it was so that they could be there on the first day of the week when the church gathered. The way the text reads, it seems it had be come the habit of the early Christians to meet on the first day of the week. No doubt they met often throughout the week, but there was an importance about the meeting that took place on the first day. God had commanded the Jews to cease from all their labor on the 7th day of the week – Saturday. So, are we seeing the early church transfer the Old Testament Jewish sabbath from the 7th day to the 1st day? No, not at all. Notice that nothing is written concerning these Christians resting on the 1st day. They simply gathered together on the 1st day. At this time in history, Sunday was a work day. No doubt, that’s why the meeting got started in the evening, not the morning – the believers had to work during the day. Thus, what we are seeing here is not the Christian Sabbath, but simply the day the Christians gathered.
In fact, from the evidence we have in the New Testament, the Sabbath is not brought over from the Old Testament into the New Testament as some kind of binding obligation. Colossians 2:16-17 says that we are not to let anyone pass judgment on us regarding the Sabbath, as it is just a shadow of Christ. Romans 14:5 says that some observe one day above another, while others observe every day alike. Each one is to be fully convinced in his own mind. Hebrews 4:9-10 says that thee remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, but it goes on to say that whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. In other words, the Sabbath was a picture for New Covenant believers of Christ. Christ is our Sabbath. As we come to Him, we find rest for our souls, because He has finished the work of redemption for us. All we do, is rest in His work through faith. There you have the entirety of the NT teaching on the Sabbath. So, when a 7th Day Adventist tries to lay a trip on you, saying that you must cease from work on Saturday, and attend church, and that working on Saturday is the mark of the beast, don’t listen to him. Listen to what God says in His Word.
So, if the 1st day of the week did not become a Christian Sabbath, why did the believers meet on that day? We are not told explicitly, but the implication is that the 1st day held special importance to them, because it was on this day that Jesus rose from the dead. And so, apparently, in honor of their Risen Lord, the early church met on the 1st day of the week. In fact, John says in Rev.1:10 “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day.” He was probably referring to the fact that it was a Sunday when he received this revelation. Since Jesus rose on the 1st day, that day became known as The Lord’s Day.
Now, do we have to meet on Sunday? Would it be sinful if we decided to meet on a Saturday, or Thursday? There is no command in the New Testament concerning meeting on a particular day, so I don’t believe we are bound to meet on a Sunday. However, it works out well, because many people have that day off of work, and Sunday has become known traditionally as the day the church meets. So for us, we are happy to continue in the tradition of the early church by meeting on Sundays.
2. Why Did The Church Gather?
To break bread. Isn’t that interesting?! Here we are given the reason the church met, and it’s not what we would have expected. It’s not to listen to preaching, to sing songs of worship, to pray, or to evangelize. It’s to break bread. To break bread became a catchphrase in the early church for celebrating the Lord’s Supper. Sometimes it could refer to just eating a meal, but at other times it referred to observing the Lord’s Supper. This shows us how tremendously important the Lord’s Supper is, and how precious it ought to be in the life of any church.
What takes place when we observe the Lord’s Supper? The Lord’s Supper provides a picture of 3 things: a Past, Present and Future reality. 1St, it pictures the death of Christ for us in the past. We are rehearsing the Gospel again until Jesus returns (1Cor.11:26). We are declaring that our salvation is wholly of Him, and nothing of ourselves. We are proclaiming that Jesus purchased our redemption through His broken body and shed blood. Thus the Lord’s Supper teaches over and over, that forgiveness, and heaven are not the result of our performance, obedience, or striving, but the result of His finished work on our behalf.
Additionally, the Lord’s Supper pictures the unity of the church. 1 Cor.10:17 says, “Because there is one loaf, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.” The single loaf of bread which we break symbolizes the 1 body of Christ. Each little piece we break off of that 1 loaf, represents each individual Christian. That’s why we don’t have a bunch of crackers all broken up for the Lord’s Supper. In that case, the symbolism would be lost. We have 1 loaf of bread which is broken into many smaller pieces to symbolize that Christ has made all of us one in Him, regardless of our race, age, or nationality.
Further, the Lord’s Supper is like a dress rehearsal for the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. If you got married, you probably had a dress rehearsal. Everyone puts on their wedding clothes, and you go through all the elements of the wedding in advance, so that on the big day you don’t make any major blunders. Well, Luke 22:16-18 says that the Lord’s Supper will be fulfilled in the kingdom of God. Now, what kinds of things are fulfilled? Prophecies. The Lord’s Supper is kind of like a prophecy that will be realized, or fulfilled when Christ comes back, and we enjoy the Marriage Supper of the Lamb with Him.
Notice, that the breaking of bread took place on the 1st day of the week. That seems to imply that it was the regular practice of the church to observe the Lord’s Supper weekly. That’s why we observe the Lord’s Supper every week at The Bridge.
Also, notice that the Lord’s Supper was eaten in conjunction with a full meal. Those folks at this church meeting were up all night long. You’re not going to tell me that church folks met for 12 hours and there was no food! Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper as part of the Passover meal. Later in 1 Corinthians 11 it is clear that the Lord’s Supper was eaten in conjunction with a meal. Later, because of abuses, the meal was eliminated, but it began the same way that Jesus instituted it. At The Bridge we like to observe the Lord’s Supper in our gatherings, and then as often as possible, we like to enjoy a meal with each other. It was easy to do this when we met at our home. Now that we are in a building, we want to do this at least twice a month. On the first Sunday of the month we are going to have a Pot Providence, and on the 3rd Sunday of the month we are going to have Pizza afterward.
3. Where Did The Church Gather?
In the upper room of the 3rd floor of a house. 20:8-9. It was a common practice in the first century to have a building for your business, and then to build on top of that building for the private living quarters of the family. This is apparently what we are seeing here. Homes were the primary meeting place for the church in the New Testament. Yes, the church temporarily met at the temple in Jerusalem in the first few years of the church. When Paul planted churches he never gave any instructions about building a special building. This would have been a poor use of resources. The gospel was growing so rapidly and so many were coming to faith, that for them to focus their time and resources on constructing buildings instead of reaching the lost with the gospel would have been a very unwise move. We see the early church meeting in Aquila and Priscilla’s home in Rome (16:3-5) and in Ephesus (1Cor.16:19), in Philemon’s home (Phil.2), in Nympha’s home (Col.4:15) and in Lydia’s home (Acts 16:40). In fact, the early Christians worshipped without constructing special buildings for about 250 years!
Now, does that mean that this is the only place the church met? I don’t think so. In Acts 19 Paul met with the disciples of Ephesus in the School of Tyrannus, probably because there were so many that they couldn’t fit in a home like they did in Corinth. In Acts 20:20 Paul says that he did not shrink from teaching them in public and from house to house. Where did Paul do his public teaching? In the lecture hall of Tyrannus probably. Further, in 1Cor.14:23 Paul speaks about the whole church coming together. There seem to be times when the whole church of the city would come together, no doubt being too many to meet in a private home. Where did the entire church of Corinth meet? We are not told. Perhaps at an outdoor location like a park or at the beach in Cenchrea, or someone’s yard. So, my conclusion is that Biblically, a church can meet anywhere it needs to in order to observe the Lord’s Supper, hear the preaching of the Word, worship, pray, and fellowship together. At The Bridge, we are going to rent space here, while at the same time meeting on Wednesdays at an apartment, and on Thursdays in a restaurant. The important thing is that we don’t get focused on where we meet, rather than Who we worship when we meet. It’s all about Jesus, not any building!
4. What Did The Church Do When It Gathered?
Teaching, Eating, Raising the Dead. We’ve already looked at eating. Let’s look at the other two.
Teaching: The Greek word for “talked” in 20:7 carries the idea of an interchange, a reasoning, a dialogue. Paul wasn’t doing all the talking, but was probably answering questions. Notice that he prolonged his message until midnight. If the church gathered around 7:00, after work, then his message was 4 or 5 hours long! And you guys think I teach a long time! Not only that, but after Eutychus falls out of the window and dies, and Paul raises him from the dead, he goes back up to the upper room and talks with them until daybreak – another 5 or 6 hours! Now, it must be admitted that this was an exceptional case. The apostle Paul was with the church, so for that reason alone the church would meet longer than usual in order to receiving teaching straight from an apostle. Additionally, Paul knows he will be leaving on the next day, and he probably will never be back again, so he wants to cram as much spiritual nourishment into this night as he possibly can. Everyone understands how important this night is, so they are all willing to give up their sleep.
So, what do we learn from this? That the teaching of the Word of God is extremely important; so important that Paul would fill an entire night with it when he knows he will leave these precious people and probably never see them again. This is why at The Bridge we structure our gatherings to give priority and focus to the teaching and preaching of the Word. Faith comes by hearing and hearing through the word of Christ. If we desire above all things to build faith in you, we need to give you the Word. Of course the Word must be properly interpreted before it can be applied. The two priorities we need to have when interpreting Scripture are context and authorial intent (what the original author intended when writing to his readers). That’s why we take pains to teach through books of the Bible, verse-by-verse. In this way, we get the context of the passage every week, and avoid pulling verses out of their context and misusing them. This is what we see Paul exhorting Timothy to in 1Tim.4:13-16. There is nothing more effective that we can do as a church to evangelize the lost and build up the saints than to preach and teach God’s Word.
Raising the Dead: Let’s look at the circumstances surrounding this. It is common to come down hard on Eutychus because he fell asleep as Paul preached, but I think we need to cut him some slack. In vs.9 he is called “a young man” and in vs.12 he is called a “youth.” Probably he was a teenager. How many teenagers do you know who can sit with rapt attention for a 5 hour sermon? How many adults for that matter? The many lamps in the room would make the room hot and stuffy. It appears that perhaps Eutychus was sitting in a window in order to get some fresh, cool air. Eventually, with the stuffy air, hot temperature, and the hypnotic flickering lamps and Paul’s message going on and on, he fell down from the 3rd story and died.
How does the church handle this? I’m sure there was chaos for a while, until Paul took charge. Paul knew his Old Testament very well, and he knew that both Elijah (1Kings17:21) and Elisha (2Kings4:32-35) had raised boys to life who had died. They had done it by stretching themselves upon the child. So, Paul follows their example, and the Lord raises the boy from the dead. I find it interesting that in all 3 cases, the man of God had to stretch themselves upon the child. Perhaps there is a lesson the Spirit has tucked away in these accounts, teaching us that there must be personal contact with the spiritually dead if we want to see them come alive to God. We can’t just preach at them from a distance, but must be like our Lord who ate and drank with tax collectors and prostitutes. In other words, we must be willing to come into contact with death if we want to see them made alive. This may be uncomfortable for us, but absolutely necessary. For far too long I had the fortress mentality. In order that I not fall into sin, I went into my castle away from the world, and drew up the drawbridge so that I couldn’t be polluted by the sin in the world. So, although I had few enemies endangering my castle, I also didn’t see any enemies coming into the castle to become friends. We need to be out and about amongst sinners, if we want them to find Christ.
Life Application:
So, what is the Holy Spirit saying to the church today?
1. He’s reminding us of the importance of the Lord’s Supper and the Teaching of the Word when we gather. He is pointing out the importance of our mutual fellowship around Christ, which naturally takes place when we eat together.
2. He’s reminding us of the opportunity to honor Jesus as our Resurrected Lord every Sunday. How often on a Sunday morning do you intentionally call to mind that this is the day that Jesus was raised from the dead, and that He’s alive today?
3. He’s reminding us that Where We gather is not nearly so important as What We Do when we gather. In other words, the Place where we worship is not the point; rather it is the Person whom we worship. Although we are excited to be in this new building, let’s not fixate on that. Let’s fixate on the Person and Work of Jesus Christ!
4. He’s reminding us that because Jesus is Alive, anything can happen when we gather in His name, including resurrections. Indeed, the greatest miracle of all is when a person who is dead in sin is made alive together with Jesus Christ, is born again, and receives a new heart.
May God make us the kind of church where Jesus is glorified in our midst. Do you see how everything in this church meeting reflects the glory of Christ?
They meet on the 1st day of the week in honor of the fact that Jesus rose on the 1st day of the week.
They meet to break bread to remember that Christ’s body was broken and his blood was shed for our redemption.
They taught for hours about Jesus and His gospel
When someone falls down and dies, Jesus raises him from the dead.
It’s all about Jesus. May that be true of us. It’s all about the Risen Son of God!
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