Year 1, Day 253: Acts 20

Sadness

Acts 20 is a very sad chapter for me to read.  Paul knows his ministry is ending.  He even tells the good folks in Ephesus that they will never see him again.  Acts 20 reads as though Paul is revisiting all the churches that conveniently fall upon his route back to Jerusalem just so he can encourage them one last time.

Not that this is a bad thing, mind you.  I don’t think that it is bad that Paul heads to Jerusalem and gets arrested.  But it is a sad thing.  It is sad to see the reality that occasionally people must sacrifice their own lives for the sake of others who likely don’t even appreciate the sacrifice.

I am reminded of the story of a missionary couple who went into Indonesia.  They went among the villagers and began to gain their trust.  They even taught about Christ – although this particular tribe was worshippers of nature at the time.  The tribe allowed them to exist among them, but never truly bought into Christianity.  In fact, when some things started going wrong in nature – bad crop season, sicknesses, etc – the tribe killed the missionaries while assuming the gods were displeased with their presence.  Then they ate them.  Oh, did I forget to mention that these native people were cannibals? 

Well, several years later another group of missionaries came back to the village.  The native villagers weren’t Christians, but their hearts had been prepared by the missionary couple.  Through the death of the missionaries, the eyes of the villagers were opened to what Christ really calls us to do.  This new group of missionaries found a village that was waiting with eagerness to hear the message of Christ anew!  I hate to say it, but sometimes a good person must die for the message of the cross to make any sense to non-believers.

Paul knows this too.  He is willing to forfeit his life if necessary.  He will follow the Holy Spirit wherever it takes him, even death.  The person who believes in eternal life will make that same decision.  After all, why hold on to anything in this world when we can follow the Holy Spirit into life eternal knowing that we do the will of God?

Worship in Troas

But let’s talk about something other than Paul’s farewell tour and the reasons behind it.  Let’s talk a little about this worship service that happens in Troas.  First, notice that the Bible is clear that it happens on the first day of the week instead of on the Sabbath.  This is an indication that by this time the Gentile Christian churches had moved away from worshipping on the Sabbath.  You might wonder why this would be the case.  Well, in doing my research for this question I came across a great answer.  And it is a very Trinitarian answer:

·      If God finished the work of creation on the Sabbath, then what day did He begin the work of creation?  Sunday!  Sunday symbolically represents the day that God the Father chose for the beginning of new things.  Sunday is symbolically the day for God’s work to originate.  What better purpose to gather in worship than remembering that God desires to create a new thing?

·      What day did Jesus rise from the tomb?  Sunday!  If Sunday symbolically represents the beginning of God’s making a new thing, isn’t the Son’s resurrection also the beginning of a new thing?  Does not the resurrection of the Son demonstrate our hope in eternal life?  God the Father brought proof of eternal life to us for the first time on a Sunday.

·      Third, If Pentecost was 50 days after the Sabbath, what day of the week did Pentecost happen?  Sunday!  And what is Pentecost but the coming of the Holy Spirit upon all those who believe in Christ?  Is this not also a new thing?

You see, Sunday is a great day to worship.  Our tradition says that new things happen on Sunday.  What better day is there to come and worship the Lord than on a day which should remind us that God desires to do a new thing in us? 

Now don’t get me wrong.  I’m not saying one must worship on Sunday.  I’m not saying that we should lift up a new human tradition to enslave us.  I don’t think that there is anything wrong with worshipping on any other day of the week – night or day for that matter!  But unless life offers a need to pick a different day, there are great reasons for choosing Sunday!

Community

I confess that there is much I left untouched, but I want to offer up a single final point:  there is a spirit of community in this passage.  When the people gather in Troas, they had just gathered for a simple worship service.  But things were going so well that the Bible says Paul “prolonged his message until midnight.”  The people were so interested in his message that he carried it on!  And then, after the Eutychus incident we actually hear that Paul conversed with them until daybreak.  The people craved the presence of spirituality so much that they actually listen all through the night!

But this is not only happening in Troas!  When Paul goes among the Ephesians they gather for prayer and weep for one another.  They sense the Holy Spirit and God’s truth.  There is a communal bond of the Spirit among them.  So it is among true believers in the faith.

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