08-23-26 Study of Acts Chapter 20:1-7 For The Love of The Church Part 2

➡ This Bible study focuses on the book of Acts, particularly chapter 20, and its connection to the teachings in Ephesians. It emphasizes the importance of personal growth in faith and the collective growth of the church. The study uses Paul’s life as an example of how to live in relationship with Jesus Christ, highlighting his love for the church and his dedication to serving it. It encourages self-assessment and growth in spiritual maturity, urging believers to align their will with God’s will, live their lives for Christ, and love the church as Paul did.
➡ Paul’s teachings emphasize the importance of loving and supporting the church community. He encourages planning and setting goals to help others grow in their faith. Paul’s love for the church is shown through his willingness to suffer and sacrifice for it. He believes that everyone has a role in teaching and helping others, using their unique spiritual gifts to serve the church and glorify God.
➡ Paul, during his third discipleship tour, traveled extensively, planting churches and spreading the gospel. He spent a significant time in Ephesus, but as his stay was coming to an end, he felt a sense of finality and began saying his goodbyes. Despite the possibility of returning briefly, he believed this was his last time in the Eastern Mediterranean. His journey was marked by love, affection, giving, teaching, persistence, availability, and concern, all of which were evident in his interactions with the people he met.
➡ The text discusses the importance of physical affection and connection in society, using the biblical figure Paul as an example. It emphasizes that showing love and affection, such as through a hug or a kiss, can break down barriers and create stronger relationships. The text also warns about the dangers of a society where people are too busy to connect with each other, especially in the context of parent-child relationships. It concludes by stating that demonstrating love physically is not just a custom, but a teaching that can positively impact future generations.
➡ The text discusses the concept of love as defined by sacrifice, using the example of Paul from the Bible. It emphasizes that true love is not just about words, but about actions, such as helping others in need. The text also highlights the importance of teaching as a form of love, as it helps others grow and develop. Lastly, it suggests that our value or ‘currency’ is determined by the love and energy we give to others.
➡ The text emphasizes the importance of teaching and preaching in the church, stating that it’s a sign of love and care. It criticizes churches that focus more on entertainment than on teaching the truth of the scriptures. The author believes that the decline in preaching is due to a loss of belief in the authority of the scriptures and the invasion of media materials in the church. He advocates for a return to teaching and preaching the word of God as the main focus of the church.
➡ The text emphasizes the importance of teaching and ministering to one another, which is referred to as the fellowship of worship. It criticizes churches that focus on entertainment and celebrity testimonies instead of teaching the truth. The text also highlights the persistence and dedication of Paul, who despite facing persecution and hardship, continued to teach and minister to people. His love for the church is evident in his tireless efforts to preach and serve, even when he was physically and mentally exhausted.
➡ The sermon discusses the importance of the Lord’s Day (Sunday) in Christian tradition, highlighting how early Christians chose this day for worship. It refutes the idea that observing the Sabbath (Saturday) is necessary, stating that such practices are part of the old covenant replaced by Christ’s teachings. The speaker emphasizes the need for continuous worship and fellowship, regardless of the day, and encourages sacrificial giving of oneself to the church. The sermon ends with a prayer for understanding, peace, and gratitude for Christ’s sacrifice.

Oh, welcome. This is our Sunday morning Bible study. We are in to the book of Acts, we’re into chapter 20. We’re studying this in conjunction with our study in Revelation that we jumped out of and went to Ephesians and Ephesians and Acts go hand in hand in hand together because Ephesians focuses on your personal life and the applications that Paul lays out in Ephesians 4, 5 and 6 in your individual walk with Jesus Christ, your relationship and Acts takes it to the collective whole being the church. You’re one in the same. So, so chapter 20, Paul’s apostles epistles always is written by the first half of his epistle is doctrine or theology and the last half is application.

So when you read any of the 20 or so epistles from Paul, that’s how they’re structured. But we come to this chapter in Acts that has no theolog theology, no doctrine, really hasn’t any application either. So in order to maintain our verse by verse study, as you recall from last week, I, I said that we were going to look at this in various ways. This is our second of, of the many series of three and we’re actually looking at Paul’s life as a representation of how you need to view your life in the relationship with Jesus Christ.

Now that’s important because Paul is the example laid out by Scripture of how one should conform and walk as the church that’s here. So this is, this is in direct relationship to, to looking at your own life. And as we walk through this this morning, again pay attention to your self assessment, see where you, you might need to alter some of the ongoings in your life, maybe upgrade a little bit about your knowledge base for, for obtaining wisdom that changes your belief system. There’s a process here. You can’t change your belief system just by knowledge. You have to believe in what you understand in order to create your belief system.

And as God puts it in Scripture, that’s knowledge to wisdom to believe. So we’re going to continue in this 20th chapter of the book of Acts and looking at the Epistle Paul and again this is, this period of passages we’re looking at is from verse 1 to 17. We looked at a couple of them last week and we’ll look at a few more this week and we’ll finish it up next week. And we’ve titled this for the love of the Church. It’s, it’s really not directly stated but implied in this passage of Scripture the tremendous love that Paul had for the church.

And what, what do we, what do we mean by that again, this is not a brick building. This is not an organization, this is not an institution. It is about you, the people. That’s the church. And when, when we talk about the church or when you read about the church, what it’s telling you is how do you live your life as a follower of Jesus Christ? Now you’ve already applied all your stuff in Ephesians 4, 5 and 6, that’s sanctification. Acts is the walk. So, so it, it really makes a difference in the life of Paul because he loved the church.

And that example is what we need to do as well. So Paul said in Ephesians 5, Jesus loved the church and gave himself for it. But that could have, that could have equally been Paul’s testimony as well. For he also loved the church and gave himself for it as well. Jesus gave himself to redeem the church. Paul gave himself to serve the church. In redeeming the church, Christ died. In serving the church, Paul died. And so there’s, there’s a parallel here. If not in exact purpose, but certainly the level of Paul’s commitment was a level of absolute and total self sacrifice, self assessment, guys.

So Paul had a tremendous desire to see the church be what it ought to be. Think about mentorship. Your job is to disciple others. You need to ensure that whatever you’re doing in, in ministering to your family or to your friends or to your neighbor or whoever you’re ministering to, your all out outlook about that ought to be to see them grow, to be what they need to need to be and whatever that might be. And I think the basic reason for all of that was because Paul was so intensive, intensively in love with the Lord Jesus Christ, that whatever the will of the Lord was, became the will Paul.

That’s the relationship. That’s exactly what Paul said in Ephesians 4, 5 and 6, you become Christ. So it is when we fall in love with Jesus in the truest sense that we begin to want passionately what he wants. We’re supposed to love what he wants and hate what he hates. He looked a little bit into this. I mean, I’m sorry, we looked a little bit into this last time and we saw in 1st John 5 the statement of John that if you love the one who begets you, love the ones begotten of him. In other words, it’s not hard to love Christians or it shouldn’t be.

If you love the Lord who begot them and you’re following Jesus Christ, you’re going to love Christians that’s the nature. Because what. We’re all one unity of the church. We’re one body of Christ. And the apostle Paul was so in love with Jesus Christ that, that his whole life was fulfilled and came in the fulfillment of the will of Christ for the church. In other, in other words, we think, we, we, we talk about a lot of ways of being, you know, lost in love. Okay, well, Paul was lost in love with Jesus Christ. He had no separate wheel.

Oh, by the way, guys, when you reach that level, that’s the maturity of a Christian. Your will and God’s will are one. It’s not a spiritual maturity to submit my will to Christ. It is a spiritual maturity to, to will with Christ for that which he wills. Oh, the intent. It’s not your will, it’s his will. When you adapt his will to you now, now, now you are, are spiritually mature because you understand it and you applied it. Most of us are still learning about this. We’re, we’re learning how to submit our wills. That’s sanctification. Okay, Ephesians 4, 5 and 6, half of Romans, half of Galatians, half of Philippians, on and on.

And on the application side of whatever you identify with from Paul’s letter to specific churches, that’s, that’s what Paul is talking about. We haven’t grown to the level of maturity where we, where we, where we will what he wills yet. But that, but Paul is already there. That was Paul. He loved the church and gave himself for the church because he so loved Jesus Christ that there was no other reason for living than to fulfill the will of Jesus Christ in behalf of his church. Self assessment. Are you living for you? Are you living because Christ gave you this life? And if he gave you this life, why aren’t you living this life for him instead of you? In Ephesians 3:20, remember I said this is where you have all 8 cylinders roaring or guard 12.

12 cylinders in a Mercedes. He saw in a great dimension. We live in dimensions, guys. And you’re getting that in the truth Creation series in the substack. And he said now unto him that is able to do exceedingly, abundantly, above all that we could ask or think according to the power that works in us. What he was saying was it was to the Ephesians and all Christians, you ought to really be moving out powerful, dramatically, dynamically. You ought to be fulfilling your potential. Not a couch potato, not somebody that is inward thinking of only themselves. But you should be outwardly, dynamically, boldly going and living your Life as the life of Christ.

And the the reason is this, that unto him be glory in the Church. In other words, he saw God glorified when the church was maximized in terms of its potential. Self assessment. Okay, the more obedient you are, the more blessings you receive, the more sanctified you become, which is going to make you more obedient. The faster the manifestation of blessings become. This is the process. So this was his passion and he loved it and he lived it, he suffered for it, he died for it. And he did it all because of how he loved the people called the Church.

We need more like Paul. God only knows what could happen if men loved the church this way. If men who were responsible to the church and to the Lord and if they loved the church in that way, well look. Look at what one man who so loved the Lord and so loved the church had to say. He said, oh, there’s a price to pay. And Paul was willing to pay it. In Colossians 1:24 he said, who now rejoice in my sufferings for you. He was willing to pay the price. If the price of the maturity of the saints, if the price of the unity of the Church, if the price of the full grown stature of the Church was paying, he was willing to pay the price.

Self assessment. What’s your threshold? Where’s your limits? What have I always said? Strategically you need to plan for persecution in your life because that stretches your limits. It ensures growth, it ensures you being obedient. It says, I fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the Church. In other words, Paul was saying this. I suffer in place of Christ. I take the blows the world would mean for him willingly for the sake of his Church. Guys, you need to look at this several ways. One is you need to stand up for the brethren of Christ.

As long as they’re in the truth means you got to have their backs. You also need to support the brethren of the Church as the Bible talks about in whatever needs that they have. Doesn’t matter. Paul loved the church even in jail. If you recall when he wrote to the Philippians, he said that which has happened to me, my being in prison has fallen out to the advance of the Gospel. And some people in the church are becoming more bold because of my imprisonment and because of that I’m happy. Paul paid the price. He loved the church and his love was defined as self sacrifice.

Paul also knew what it was to be a passionate man. Now, I’m not talking one that, you know, looks for the next, you know, nightly stand. I’m talking about being passionate, in love with the church in all the facets of the church. He knew what it was to pursue a goal. Planning. Paul planned. Nehemiah plan. Some of you don’t even. You just run off from the hip and think, oh, my gosh, you know, why didn’t this go well? Well, that’s not what Bible tells you to do. You got to plan. You got to set your goals.

And his goal was simply the perfecting of the saints, to bring them to full maturity that they might totally honor God and that God might be glorified. And therefore Jesus is satisfied. And therefore Paul satisfied. That’s your life, guys. If you do what you’re supposed to do in obedience to him, you’re sanctified. You’re living the will of God in your life. Well, you’re glorified. You glorify God and you’re satisfying Jesus Christ. And therefore you become satisfied. And, oh, what happens? You get filled with peace and joy. Why is it some of you continue as, why can I be at peace? Why can’t I feel joy? Well, look at your life.

Go. I said go look in a mirror. You’re your worst enemy. And if you really go down at the bottom of every motivation in ministry, that may be the heart of it all, to love the church. Well, what did he say? The first greatest commandment is? Love your brother as yourself. Right? Well, we got a problem with that. Well, We got to understand what the body of Christ is. Paul loved the church, and that’s really where the ministry. That’s the heart of the ministry. Loving the church. Well, you might say. Does that include me? Well, sure.

All of us have a ministry. In Ephesians, it tells us we’re at least all teachers. We, not. We might not be called to be evangelists or pastors or an apostle or whatever, but we’re all teachers. Why? Because we’re to teach our children. We’re to teach, mentor our. The people in our network that we have brought into salvation. You might say, I wasn’t called to preach, or I wasn’t called to do this or that. Oh, but that’s okay. But you were given spiritual gifts, weren’t you? The measure of your effectiveness and the intensity of your life through your spiritual gifts will be determined by whether or not you love the believers.

See, if you really love the believers, then you’ll know they need you to minister to them. And if you really love them, you’ll minister to them because you love them and you want them to be grown up in full stature. Right? You want to them to achieve all which they can do. Oh, you might say, well I have real time with people that are older than I am. Oh guys, that is something that you need to understand. Yeah, they might have age on you, but in some cases knowledge immaturity is not it compared to their age.

When I went for, when I went into the corporate life out of college, I was, let’s see, 2022. My first job out of college after my mentorship program through E Systems here in Greenville, I went to sales corporation. 500 million dollar corporation. I managed 12 people, not one was younger than I was. Guys, it’s a matter of perspective and it’s a matter of how you treat people. But it’s all about ministry. Do you realize your, your, your job because God gave you that job as a ministry. Do you even think about that way self assessment? Guys, do you understand everything you do in your life when you, when you do it in the will of Jesus Christ is a ministry to whatever it is that you that comes in your life.

What you’re to show the light. That’s a ministry. You’re to teach the gospel, that’s a ministry. You’re to supply the needs of the brothers. That’s a ministry. Everything you do in life, oh by the way, in the Bible, because I wrote a letter this week about this. The government is to minister to the people, not to govern and control and all that stuff. They’re to minister. And if you really love them, you’ll minister to them because you love them and you want them to grow to do be everything they can be. See the spiritual gifts given to you.

This is, this is like gonna sound a little weird. They’re not yours. You know why? Number one, they’re a gift from the Holy Spirit. But they’re for others. If you set on your gifts and don’t do anything with them, then those that were that God knows that you’re going to come in contact with and he wants you to minister to them. You’ve just squalled them away. See, my gifts aren’t for me, they’re for you. It doesn’t do me any good to sit on my gifts. I had that conversation 15 years ago with my, the people that I’m deal that I, I’m under when they asked to educate, I, I, if you recall that conversation that I shared with you, I asked them why and what was I supposed to educate and how and the individual led me back to spiritual gifts.

They’re not yours, they’re theirs. Just go do it. See, I could study and really, you know, teaching is something that you need. That’s why you’re coming here. I can study the same thing and go and hide in the closet. It’s my gift in terms of the effectiveness when it’s given to you. And see, one of my great motives is that I care about you. I tell you every time we meet that we love you. That’s not just a site. That’s not just a. A point. We’re legitimately concerned and love everybody here. See, I want to know that we’re all growing up.

I want to know that I present from the Holy Spirit a truth package every time we get together, regardless of whether it’s our Tuesday night discussions or our Thursday night Bible study now in Revelation or on Sunday morning. I want to give you a true study. Why? Because I am in charge of, to some degree, your maturity. And I care that Jesus is honored in your life. I. I talk about obedience all the time. Why? Because that’s honoring Christ. That’s glorifying him. And when you do that, you get the blessings. But see, that’s. That’s so difficult a concept for many of you to.

To swallow. You have to come to that same view. My gift is gifts for you in helping you move things along in various areas where other talents and gifts were given. And you might say, well, what my gifts is? What? Well, well, my gift is the gift of helps. Well, that’s. I mean, Misty’s gifts is service. I guarantee you. I’ve come to, you know, I. I love the lady, but I’ve come to understand what her gifts are, which is important because I know when I can let go. I know when support, you know, to help me.

The whole thing about creation. I know when I can let go. And I know. I know where our heart is, See? So you ought to know that for the love of the church, and you ought to spend yourself to help others, whatever it is. That’s the basic of any ministry, and that’s basic of life. And Paul loved the church enough to spend his energy on it, and he loved the church enough to die for the sake of the preaching of the gospel and the nurturing of the saints. Now, in this passage, verses 1:17, as we started last week, we see Paul’s love for the church implied.

It isn’t here directly. It doesn’t state it. It’s indirectly. By looking at this and seeing the condition of Paul interacting with the church. And you got, as I said last time, we got to read between the lines just a little bit and we got to have a feeling of the passage without adulterating its meaning because we don’t, we don’t want to take it out of context and create another context that is not the true context of what the biblical scriptures are trying to tell us. Say I put myself when I looked at this, as I indicated last time, I put my.

Try to put myself in Paul’s shoes and say I hear and I hear and I see. And as I, as I move along with Paul, which is what I’m asking you to do and visualize and try to see the realistic point of what’s happening in verse 17 that were these 17 verses. I just see love oozing out of the white spaces. White spaces is a term we get from a corporation because we don’t let any. Another thing is you don’t want to drop anything in the cracks. You make sure you have a consideration, a complete view of the situation and your.

Whatever your solution is, your solution set. There’s no way to lose something in, in the process. And that’s what I kept going over and over as I indicated last week when I began to study this and see how we’re going to approach this chapter 20. There’s one dominant thing that I kept in my mind as I continued to read this passage and that was it was on his third we putting it in perspective. It was Paul was on his third discipleship tour and this time he is the same. He’s in the same area generally that he had been previously the.

The area of Eastern Mediterranean. And if you remember he had covered a lot of ground. He went to Syria, Celestia, moving west to Galatia and then to the area of Fugaia and pamphlet and all the that coming further west to the Asian mine area, to Macedonian, to Acacia. When. Which is where Corinth. Corinth was the church at Corinth. And he covered all of that area and planted churches all over the place. And the gospel was growing well here. In his third tour through this time he was. He had companions with him as he had before and he’s ministering and moving about and this time he stayed for a longer time on this tour in Ephesus and in actuality is about a three year period, but it’s coming to a close.

He’s fixing to leave Ephesus. A riot broke out. If you recall, we studied that and in verse one begins after the uproar Was ceased. Remember the. The clerk of the city controlled the uproar, disbanded the uproar and Paul left the city. And Paul is, is in this last little swing and he’s going back to Jerusalem. Remember he. This is. They went this time together up funds. Why? To give to the needy in Jerusalem. And then from Jerusalem he wants to go to Rome and from Rome to Spain. So in his mind he feels that this is the last time he’ll ever be in Eastern Mediterranean.

There’s some tremendous roots there. We’ve learned all of that. Some beloved people and sons of the faith. And he knows in his own mind that the feeling is not over, but it feels like physically this is it, this is my last time, this needs to be my farewell, this is my swan song and so forth and so on, however you want to look at it. And so there’s a feeling through the passage of finality, self assessment. You don’t pay it, we don’t pay attention a lot of the conditions around us to understand a season, you hear what I’m saying? We think totally that there’s an infinite process of life, that there’s really no finality that exists anytime.

And we have been taught that whatever it is, it is instead of understanding that this might be the last time that you see someone and are you doing everything that you need to do in that regard. And so there’s a feeling through this passage of finality. And it’s interesting that probably he did get back there, if for a very brief time. And that’s due to the fact that he made the statement that he left TRA trus ill at Mellitus. Okay? So since all of that didn’t happen here, it must have happened at a later time. And so we can conclude that perhaps his Roman imprisonment was separated into two different sections.

All right. When you study scripture in detail in the context and you look at the other parts of the scripture and put it in that timeline, you find that. That what one part of Scripture might tell you is a continuity line, that there’s actually a break and you need to just understand that. But for the most part of this, this is his wrap up. And you get a sense of farewells. Now I suppose we all know when that when farewells come along, that’s kind of a love kind of rises to the top, you know. And when you’re saying goodbye for the last time to the people that you really care about, all the little things sort of fade and just kind of love sorts sort of rules.

And maybe there’s in A sense what happened here. Although, you know, I, I think it probably ruled in all of the life of Paul from the time of his conversion, because Paul felt I got to give everything to everybody every time I see them, because I don’t know when Christ is going to return. If you call apostles. And so we see a series of goodbyes and a series of farewells all through chapter 20 as Paul goes back towards Jerusalem. Now, as you look at these 17 verses, and I said this last time, I thought we could do them all at one time because it’s a narrative.

There’s no doctrine, there’s no theology, there’s no application. It’s the narrative. It’s just the time that you look at, like reading a history book and. But it ended up, we’re going to, we’re going to do this in three sessions because last time we didn’t even get past verse seven. But we see here six areas and just words that don’t really mean that the text is divided by God this way. But, and you know, when I, when I looked at it for today, I says, man, you know, Jim, you could probably do a better outline for yourself than what you’ve done, but we’re going to go through it anyway.

And I’m just going to give you some things that you can hang your thoughts on as you look at Paul’s life in comparison to yours. But there’s six different things that I, I wrote down to discuss. Paul’s love, his affection, his giving, his teaching, his persistence, his availability and his concern. And, and, and Paul’s love is revealed in just a little simple ways implied in the text. Verse 1. Paul’s love is revealed in his affection. Verse 1. After the uproar was ceased, the riot in Ephesus, Paul called into his disciples and embraced them. I want to make a big point out of this because we did talk about it last time as well, but because it’s not really a big point, it’s a very minor one.

He just embraced them. Literally. He drew them to himself. It’s like a hug. That’s all it means. But you got to look at culture and see what an embrace at that time really consisted of. And particularly in that part of the world, if you’re going to understand the Scriptures, you need to understand where, where the Scriptures were written, who the Scriptures were written to, what’s the context of the, of the Scripture and the cultural conditions at that time. So you can have all of the, all of the framework to understand what he’s saying. So we have to look at the customary thing at that point in time of an embrace.

Well, we talked last time. That was a hug and a kiss. Kiss on the cheek. That was customary. Matter of fact, it’s customary in certain countries today. Here’s the possible. And they must have been, they must have had his farewell, where he’s going, what he’s going through. And it was always customary to hug people. Well, that’s a tradition that we, that Misty and I put in, in our family. Whoever we see, we give them a hug. It’s just, that’s just our nature. We want them to feel there’s a genuine love and concern for them. Remember, I told you that’s why Jesus told people that he sent out not to stop and greet everybody, because that would really get a very long process if you had to go through the whole crowd and hug everybody and give them a little friendly thing.

So he just says, keep moving. We, this is the tradition. But we don’t have the time to do this because if we did this, we wouldn’t be meant. We wouldn’t be telling them what we need to tell them. And he says, don’t get hung up on it. And today in our world, especially in here, we just pretty much say hello and it’s over. That’s about it. But in those days, there was a time for people to talk to people, and there was fellowship. At the heart of meeting anybody was fellowship. We’re in our tradition today. Does that happen? Done.

You don’t have time for anything. Why? Because you’re an instantaneous society. You don’t have time to sit down and listen. We’re always in a big hurry and we can’t relate to that type of process. But anyway, here was a time when he went through and the whole gang at Ephesus and I began to think that this. Something about the man Paul, something about his personal touch, his ability to, to tenderize a greeting, make it wholesome, make it one of fellowship. But I, I, I just felt something about it. And you might say, well, it was only a custom.

Everybody did it. But over in chapter 20, verse 37, we were given a little bit more information. When he left Ephesus, Ephesus at a later time. And we’ll see about this when we get to chapter more in chapter 20, in a couple weeks, it says they all wept much, fell on their. Fell on his neck and kissed him. And so we talked about this last time. And here it uses a term in the Greek which has to do with a fervent, affectionate Vehement repeated kissing. Now listen, guys, you’ve got to be a certain kind of person for people to want to do that.

And remember, remember this. There is a law that says you must give that which you want to receive. If you want affectionate friendship, you have to give it first. Let’s face it, some of us, no matter what we do, no matter what, or they left or we leave in the condition of talking with people. I don’t think anybody would do that. There’s something about the man that endured him. And the people fell and they could affectionately touch him, embrace him, hug him, kiss him. Why? Because he did it to them. He openly received that which he gave.

You know, there’s something really good about that. Here was a man who was just the greatest man alive in the world at that time. And if we can measure greatness by effect on history, fact on history, He was an as dominating a figure as he was. He was a strong man. He was an as a critical man. He was to God’s plan. He was a man among other men and other men knew it. He was a man’s man. He wasn’t feminine. He was sort of crap. He was sort of cross. You know, just he was, he.

He had to learn how to deal with people. That’s really what where Paul came. He. And there was something so human about Paul that people could love him, even in a physical way. That was not the condition of Saul. That was the condition of Paul. God deliver us from cast systems. Oh, that’s interesting. Go search the word cast out today. You’ll find it is the element of the matrix that is the evil control point from spiritual hierarchies where we have certain people who are untouchable. This will be such an affectionate feeling toward every man of God.

That’s self assessment for you. So there must have been something so warm about Paul that they felt comfortable in loving him in this manner. I think it’s important for us to recognize that love should be able, if it’s legitimate, it’s not fake, to be reduced to the physical. Now, I’m not saying do things inappropriate. I’m think I’m saying if you love people, you can be affectionate. But for our world today, that’s such a foreign thing. Some parts of the world, it’s still that way. I’ve talked, we’ve talked about that. Mexico, France, just to name a couple.

I don’t want to make a big deal out of this, but it’s interesting that in today’s psychology there is such an Emphasis on touching. Now, If you read this corporate culture today, if you go through DEI and you go through all of those sensitivity training things, it talks about touching. It talks about how you meet people at their knee. Now in certain areas there they have groups where you just go and you just touch. Children. How do adults settle kids down, typically get their emotional level to. On a state where the adult can successfully talk to them? It’s typically a touch.

It’s whatever. Look at you as parenting. Psychology is proliferated with touching groups, feeling groups. Say, there’s. I read this. I’m not, I, I would never participate in this. But there’s ministers today where they go and take all of their clothes off and sit in a warm pool and just touch each other. Weird. But that it’s happening and they claim it’s so successful they’re going to have another one. I don’t need to set in a warm pool. That’s ridiculous. Nor do I want. Need to take all my clothes off and just sit there with other men with their clothes off and have a chat.

All right, I think it’s ridiculous. But here’s the thing. There’s an amazing attempt on the part of people to make love somewhat physically demonstrated. And that’s good. That’s good. See, I think in your home, it ought to be that way with your children. I think men that your kids ought to see you grab your wife and passionately kiss her, a hug, whatever it is, your kids learn from what you do, and they ought to see it as often as it can happen. And I, you know what? I, I think the affectionate touch and a hug and a kiss your children, I think that’s important too.

You see, kids who grow up in homes where parents are gone, they’re working, they’re so busy, they don’t have a relationship with their kids. They put them in daycare and when they get out of daycare, they go to a secondary daycare. And when they get out of secondary daycare, there’s. They go home and they probably just eat, take a bath, do whatever left of their homework and go to bed. Where is the interaction with children? The child never knows the meaning of physical infection. And we think that, you know, we’re building a society where the nucleus of the home is important.

We’re not even teaching our children how do that works. How in the world are they going to be able to do that? And they grow up with a warped personality. See, that’s part of life. The physical need is there for the touch. And you respond to it or you don’t. But whatever decisions you make affects generationally what your kids will replicate. Well, you might ask, is it that really big of a deal for a Christian to be able to demonstrate his love? Well, what does Scripture say? If the love is there, there ought to be that kind of ability to demonstrate it even physically.

Romans 16:16. Greet one another. Don’t greet one another with a holy kiss is what it says. That’s philema, a kiss of friendship, an embrace. In those days, that’s Romans 16:16. Well, if you go to First Corinthians 16:20, greet one another with a holy kiss. Second Corinthians 13:12, greet one another with a holy kiss. I think there’s a message here for us. First Thessalonians 5, 26, greet all the brethren with a holy kiss. Now, maybe the Thessalonians were a little selective. So Paul says all of them. In first Peter 5, 14, Paul had a, Paul had a hang up.

Peter says, greet one another with a kiss of love. You got to realize that five times in the New Testament, the church is commended to demonstrate its affectionate affection physically. Well, once might be just a message, twice might be something you want to look at. But five times you might want to understand it’s very important. And that should be a very interesting point to us, especially in our own self assessment. We are not to be distant and aloof, but tender and affectionate, even to the touch. Now, I’ve seen women go up and touch men and in an inappropriate way.

All right? I’ve seen men do the same thing, whether or not consciously they’re aware of it. And a lot of it was whatever. If they’re consciously unaware of it, it still doesn’t matter. What you need to do is be consciously concerned about the affection to everybody. But you need to have affection. And I think it’s so important because Scripture tells us that to demonstrate love that way. See, that breaks down a lot of barriers, right? That’s what we were talking about with your, with children, breaks down the barriers. It, it relaxes their anxiety. It, it soothes their soul a bit to know that somebody cares enough to touch them.

And you got to understand that’s not just custom. That’s teaching. That’s teaching, teaching your children or teaching those around you what is okay and what is not okay and how to do it and so forth and so on. That’s very important in life. And secondly, I, I think Paul’s love was demonstrated not only in the area of, of physical affection. I think people just felt Close to them. They feel. They felt the warmth of his love. It was just there. It was this demeanor. It was his character. What? Okay, so now let’s get into Christianity. You’re supposed to 180 degrees turn away from evil and go to good.

Well, what’s that? That you get regenerated, right? You get regenerated in what? In Christ? Well, it did. Christ loved the people. Well, why aren’t we loving the people? Why don’t we care enough about the brethren to do what’s necessary to meet their need? We talked about this last time. He was all over the place, running around collecting offering. Verse 1. He departed to go to Macedonia, and when he had gone over those parts, he went to Macedonia for a reason, if you remember. First Corinthians 16 tells us he just wrote First Corinthians from Ephesus. And then he went to Macedonia and he says, I’m going to take a collection to the poor saints at Jerusalem.

It took him one year or close to it to get all that done. That man chased all over that part of the world, collect, just collecting money for somebody else’s names. Paul is a giving man, and that says he loved him. And I can tell a man’s love by a sacrifice. See, that’s what scripture says too, man. You’re to love your love your wife, as Christ loved the church. And oh, by the way, we’re to also sacrifice ourselves in order to support our brethren’s needs. Your love is measured by how much you sacrifice. And see, Paul spent most of his ministry earning his own living.

You might say, how did he do it? He made tents, worked with leather. Most of his whole ministry spent earning his own thing. And he didn’t ask for anything at all. Well, he often said, I didn’t come asking for a thing. I would not be chargeable unto you. And then when somebody would give him a love offering, it’d say, but I want you to know how much I appreciate it. He never asked for one thing for himself and never sought one thing for himself. He was busy seeking to meet the needs of others. It’s my belief that if you.

If you give to others, in meeting their needs, whatever it is, ministering to them, God takes care of everything else. You have to worry about a thing. I know people that live just that way. I wished I could do that all the time. Hopefully one of these days, maybe I can. He was a selfless person. He was a giving person. And that is love. And we saw last time how he chased everywhere to give, even said in First Corinthians 13, when he wrote, he said, love seeks not its own. And then he went out to seek the needs of others.

Now there’s a very interesting verse in Ezekiel 33, 31, it says this. With their mouth they show much love, but their heart goes after covetousness. See, we like to talk about love, But the intent of the heart is what matters. We like to covet what we don’t have. Love gifts. Covetousness is the opposite of love. It takes. Now, this principle is illustrated and worth some attention of First John 3, 16. It illustrates the biblical principle of giving in terms of its relationship to love. It says this by this perceive we the love of God. How? How do we know God loves us? Because he said so? No, because he laid down his love for us.

So love then is defined by scripture in terms of supreme sacrifice. Guys, in high school, first love. Oh my gosh. Can you remember? Just think that. Or ladies, your first boyfriend who told you all the sweet things, right? I’m going to give you something that might have been said, okay? I love you so much. I’d climb the highest mountain. I’d cross the burning sand. I’d swim the ocean to be near your side. Eat. If it doesn’t rain, I’ll be over tonight. In a sense, that’s the kind of love that all of us have. It’s that verbal stuff that doesn’t quite cut it.

See, love is measured truly by sacrifice. That’s how good love is measured. Oh, and that’s God’s standard, by the way. Now you know it. Now you’re going to be held to a higher level of accountability. God has standardized love. And if ours is defined as love, it’ll be measured by the standard which he has set. So God loves, loves us and proves it by laying down his life self sacrifice. Now watch this. We ought notice here. There’s an obligation we ought to. Oh, by the way, there’s a moral obligation here as well. We ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.

The supreme measure of our sacrifice of love is to be willing to give our lives. Oh my gosh, I’ve said that. You’re the currency. You’re the currency of which energy flows. That is measured by your currency, the flow of your energy. And I’ve indicated to you, you can either be a very wealthy individual or you put yourself on the clearance rack. It’s this energy, this love that you as energy is measured and your currency is determined. And when you have determined your currency, that is how you Act. And the blessings flow from that determination. Now, some Christians aren’t even willing to give their time, let alone their life or maybe their money.

Some aren’t willing to minister their spiritual gift empowered by the Holy Spirit. Some Christians aren’t even willing to give their attention. Oh, what does Scripture say? We ought to lay down our lives? Self assessment, guys. Maybe not all of us are going to be called to do that, but that’s the rule. We ought to lay down our lives. But I want you to notice that he really particularizes that the Brethren is very general. It’s easy to say, oh, I love the Brethren. I. I love you. It’s easy to say that. It’s a cliche type of moment.

That’s like saying, I love humanity. You know, many people are very concerned about humanity. Oh, but they don’t like people as individuals. How can you do that? Well, C.S. lewis said it’s easy to be enthusiastic about humanity with a capital H. It’s a lot easier than loving individual men and women. Loving everybody in general is an excuse for loving nobody in particular. Paul here particularizes it in verse 17. If you’re willing to lay down your life for the brethren. Now here it comes down to the personal. Whosoever hath this world’s good and seeth his brother. Now, we reduced the brethren as a generality to his brother.

Anybody that has a need and shuts up his compassion from him, how dwells the love of God in him? Don’t say you love the brethren unless you meet the need of the one guy that crosses your path. That’s our obligation to that one brother. Statements of love are not enough. God doesn’t want sentiment. He wants sacrifice. Verse 18. My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in what deed and truth? So giving is inseparably tied to loving. You can’t say you love God unless you’re willing to make a sacrifice. Notice this.

Whosoever hath this world’s goods sees his brothers have deed, shuts up his compassion from him, how dwells the love of God in him? Oh my gosh, guys, this is talking about just PLO financial need. Can you really say you love the brothers unless you’re willing to make a financial sacrifice? Well, there’s a great statement that sets the standard, and boy, does it set the standard up there. Second Corinthians 8, chapter 7. It says, look at this. It says, for you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that through he was rich. That though he was rich.

I’m sorry. Yet for your sakes he became poor that you through his poverty might be rich. Now he says in the verse before that. Prove your love in sincere. Make it like Christ who is rich bec become poor that you might be rich. Now you want to measure your love. Well, here it is. If you really loved totally, you would make yourself poor to make somebody else rich. Now grab that a moment. Some of us part with every dime, you know, like that. It’s very difficult. Foreign. Of love is to make myself poor just to make somebody else rich.

It’s the measure of my love. God help us to give. Paul gave here. He runs all over collecting for the Church. The third point is we see the love in Acts 20 thirdly in his teaching. And I want to spend a minute on this because it’s important. It says in verse two and when he had gone over to those parts and given them much exhortation, he came into Greece. Another thing I know is that proof positive that he loved the church was the tremendous effort he spent in teaching. But part of one of my hopes is the greatest thing that I can do for you to prove my love to you is to teach you.

I think that’s true. I think that’s the greatest thing here. I think you have a progression here. It’s wonderful that Paul showed physical affection, was more wonderful that he took care of financial needs. It was super wonderful that he gave them spiritual truth because that’s the core of the other two. See, that makes them grow up to be all that Jesus wants them to be. Paul loved them much exhortation, much teaching, much preaching, much encouragement. That’s a simple principle, guys. Self assessment. If you really love your children, think about this. If you really love your children, you’re going to teach them.

Whatever I see whenever I see an unruly child. By the way, we’ve seen a couple last two weeks. Untaught, undisciplined, rebellious. I assume the parents did not love the child. They may say they love the child, but they do not love the child in the truest sense of love. For if they loved the child, they would have given the child the principles that would have made his life fulfilling. Even a 2 year old should understand this. You know the same thing here. If you really love the church, you’ll teach the church. You’ll make the church have the resources to grow up in Christ.

If you love the church. Now here, here’s what I think is the mark of a loving ministry. He teaches the flock. He teaches tirelessly, selfishly, driven not by his own desires or his own ideas or his own opinions, but by the need for spiritual food, the truth of scripture. Now there’s a ministry and that’s to feed the flock. That is the ministry. Now we’re going to. There’s a. There’s a theme here that’s strategically important, I think, And we’ve talked about this in various ways. I worry sometimes about today’s corporate church. And I do pray to God that there will be preachers raised up in this generation.

And we see. We’re seeing it come to bear somewhat. But I see so many people, we’ve talked about this in so many seminaries and so many people in dem. Denominations where preaching is just minimized. They don’t. It’s an entertainment center. And you know, many of you are here to. In this family because why you wanted teaching. You wanted to know the truth. You wanted some type of teaching with content. In the early church, preaching was central. Preaching was the key to everything. The center of it all was the proclamation of God’s truth. And you got to believe because Scripture tells us that’s still a priority today.

In First Timothy, when Paul wrote to Timothy, who was a preacher, he said this verse 13, chapter 4, First Timothy, till I come, you give attendance to reading, exhortation and doctrine. Three things. Read the text, apply the text and teach the text. That’s what we’re doing. First by verse, participle by participle. We’re going through the Bible to understand the truth. And you know, Dex, expository preaching. And he tells him, keep doing that. Don’t regret it, don’t mediate upon it. Give yourself holy to it. Take heed to the doctrine unto thyself and continue in them. And later on in second Timothy, you wrote back to him, just in case if you forgot, he said, timothy preached the word in.

In season, out of season, reprove, reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all long suffering. And he goes on and he says, remember the day is going to come when they’re not, when they will not endure that kind of thing. That’s today. There’s the time Church of Laodicea, the Apostate Church. And we’re living in that world today. We’re learning that in our study in Revelation. I think the church has gotten so watered down and so far away from the apostles teaching of the cross and the power teaching of God’s truth, that the church has turned into all kinds of other stuff than what it.

What it was to be, which is the center of teaching and proclamation to instruct to feed that they may go out to win others and be all they can be. Our children don’t even know their potential because the church has failed to teach them what that even basic principle is. There’s reasons for this. I think there are reasons that preaching is minimized today. And it is, believe me. And if you look to about three or four seminaries, to the whole of the United States, if you want to find preachers coming out, it just isn’t happening. It’s a cemetery.

I already told you that. It’s a, it’s a false indoctrination of men to go out to try to find jobs in the church. When you don’t get jobs in the church, you’re called to do what you need to do. A dynamic pulpit today in the corporate church is pretty much a dead issue. I think one of the main reasons is a loss of belief in the authority of the scripture, an indoctrination process instead of truth. You can apply that to your children in school, you can apply that to children coming out of a home. Same thing.

I think the parents have a lust the ability to not only understand, apply wisdom and believe in the authority of the scripture. You see, if you don’t believe in the authority of the word of God number one, you can’t even proclaim it. All you can do is have a discussion. Oh, you might get a lecture on certain inherent God’s truth, but you can’t get the type of teaching because you haven’t got any conviction. You don’t know what you’re dealing with. All you have is opinions. What have I always said? You want to talk about something, talk about the truth.

Opinions are just your take, not the truth. Second thing I think has to do with another extreme little political side. That’s the liberal thing. I think in many cases we, we have fundamentalists have contributed to the demise of the church. I might ask in what way? If you study the history of fundamentalism or the history of evangel, event evangelism in the last 50 to 100 years, you’ll find that there are many men who dominated the pulpit and have used it as a big club to hammer the heads of the people. They used it like a throne from which they dictated.

Oh, we talked about religion, we talked about churches kicking people out or not participating them to participate in the church because they don’t want to follow that church’s doctrine, which is man’s doctrine, not God’s. And consequently academia oriented type people, perceptive people, maybe even logical people or reasonable people, saw what was going on and reacted nev negatively and threw the baby out with a dirty bath water. Well, that’s what preachers do. So what? Let’s get rid of preaching. We become now professional showman who handle and miss manhandle people and played on their emotions and had them going up aisles and doing all kinds of things.

Well, in many cases that’s still in the minds of the people. You’re going to get that again tomorrow night in the second part of the new age movement. Oh, tomorrow night we’re going to open it up to go all the way back to creation itself. Oh, but it’s new. Yeah. See, there’s a whole lot of blasting going on with no content. You know, this, you know, sound and furious signifying nothing. There’s a lot of that. There’s a lot of hot air, just unending rambling. And I think part of the measure of the reason why the church isn’t the church today is because of that kind of preaching has done just as about as much to destroy the authority of the scripture as truth.

Another point, I think that the church is being invaded by media materials, music and testimonies. And I think this has been a big problem. You might ask, what do you mean by that? Well, you know, it used to be that the church came together to hear the word of God, but somebody had a thought. Oh, that’s interesting. Everything begins with a thought, right? Somebody had a thought. Well, we wouldn’t. Wouldn’t it be good if we had this and that? All kinds of wonderful things, movies and musicals and all kinds of new materials and new media things and just tremendous amount of things materialism.

And some of it’s very, very excellent. Yeah, it’s somewhat good. But I gotta tell you something. It cannot take over the place in the local church of teaching the word of God. Just can’t. I believe all with. With all my heart that God has placed us here together. And I believe he has placed our focus on teaching because he wanted us to teach this part of his church. Everybody teaches, not just me. Look at the session last Tuesday. There were more people talking to me. Everybody’s teaching. But I’m not going to relinquish that responsibility that he’s given me to any outside sources here.

And I’m not going to bring in all of the ex distractions of movies and musicals or whatever. We’re going to talk about them. But we’re not going to plug this church, this church family into entertainment. We’re going to stick with the word of God as Truth. I think the church has to relate to the people. Preaching has been pushed back to the corner in many churches today. A lot of men have found that you have to work hard to preach well, you have to study hard and you have to be diligent. And it’s a lot easier to come in with some kind of a thing that doesn’t take quite so much commitment or so forth and get a lot of time off for other things that are good things, but not priorities.

Our priorities is to teach one another. Our priorities is to minister to one another. You might say what does, does it, what does all that mean? You know, I said self sacrifice, be of service. What is all, what is all that? Well, let’s just call it fellowship of worship. Your small groups that you have individually with your neighborhood know, maybe call it a family B, Bible hour, whatever. It’s a fellowship. It’s a time of, of ministering to people. Well, so what is worship? Well, Martin Lord Jones said as preaching has waned there has been an increase in formal element of the service.

The manner of receiving the people’s offerings has even been elaborated. That fills time in some places. The minister and the choir now entering the building is a professional processional event. In some churches there’s music and all kinds of things happening while they walk around. He said still more on the increase is the element of entertainment and public worship. The use of films, more and more singing on top of this, the giving of testimonies wherein this is the teaching of the truth. Say if you find somebody famous, an admiral or a general or a famous baseball player, an actor, an actress that has Christianity in life to get to come to your church to have testimony, you’re going to draw a crowd not related on the testimony but of the individual.

Your sense of purpose is in the wrong direction. That’s a real problem. It’s really spiritual malnutrition. Many churches are doling out sugar coated happy pills while everybody’s being eaten up by the spiritual incessants. That’s like injecting morphine into people. You have a ruptured appendix or something. It doesn’t help a bit. God says in scripture, teach the truth. I think some of the things have contributed to preaching kind of going on the Wayne I pray to God that God’s going to raise up some great men in the pulpit. We talked about that in great men of the word, the truth, truth tellers.

Now the fourth thing in this outline is Paul. We see Paul’s affection, Dennis teaching in his relentless teaching. But also say it in his persistence, he’s persistent. Oh, by the way, love is persistent. Love pursues its objective and it’s not deterred. And you got to love this about Paul as an example for our lives. In verse three, it says he abode three months. Notice in verse two, he was in Greece, which is really Achaia, or the city of Corinth. He abode in court three months. And you remember what he did there. He wrote the book of Romans.

He was busy. He was teaching. And when the Jews laid wait for him as he was about to sell into Syria, he was going to catch a pilgrim ship that was on its way to the Passover in Jerusalem. And at each passover season, a pilgrim ship would stop at the ports and pick up the Jewish people who want to go to Passover. So he grabs one. There’s a little port near Corinth called Center. And he was going to catch the boat, the pilgrim ship, but the Jews probably plotted to shove him overboard. This is Paul, and he’s always being persecuted.

He found out about the plot and said, what do you think we’re going to do? Well, he knew they were after his life, and he knew the whole world was after his life. At least the world he was into. In fact, in verse 23, he admitted it. The Holy Spirit had witnessed to him in every city that nothing but bonds and affliction awaited him. He knew it all the way along this journey to Jerusalem. He got warned and warned and warned. Remember, we talked about that. Everybody says, don’t go to Jerusalem. Don’t go to Jerusalem. Think about yourself.

Says, paying attention to what you hear. They’re after you. They’re going to get you. And he got there. And what happened? They got him. But you know something? This man, Paul, was a persistent dude. It didn’t matter to him. And so when Paul heard about this, all he did was change his route. He didn’t change where he was going, he just changed his route. He proposed then to go through Macedonia, and he says, all right, if they want to shove me overboard, I’m just going to go to Macedonia and catch the. Catch a different ship. Persistent.

There was no cowardice in this man. Oh, self assessment. Where’s your boldness, guys? And when he went to Macedonia, he wouldn’t have had gone all the way back through the cities that had chased him out. He was going to get that money to Jerusalem. Saints, if it cost him his life, it was the last thing he ever did. He was going to do that. And while he was sitting in Corinth, he wrote the Book of Romans and even said this to the romans in chapter 1530. I beseech you brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ’s sake, but for the love of the Spirit that you strive together with me in your prayers to God for me that I may be delivered from them that do not believe in Judea.

In other words, he says, I know I’m going to be a problem and I’m going to get there, to get it all the way to Jerusalem and especially in Judeo. There’s going to be antagonism. Pray for me. He was persistent and love is persistent. If you really love the Lord Jesus Christ and you love the church, against all odds, you’ll pursue your ministry to people against all odds, against all discouragement, against direct persecution, against all kinds of confrontation. Now, if you love the church, you’re called to pursue the ministry to the people. There’s nothing that should deter you from if you love the church.

Paul was persistent. He proposed to return through Macedonia. All the way back up there he went again. It was a long journey, but he got to Jerusalem. Well, Paul took people with him. Why? Because he wanted the churches to be represented to the people in Jerusalem. He wanted all the churches to be represented by the Gentiles. And so he’s going to take this offering to the Jews. And he says, you know, I know that the Jews need this, but secondly, I know they need to see the unity of the church. Self assessment where in unity is on your process of life.

So Paul takes these Gentiles with all the sacrificial money and it. Well, the church together as one June Gento. So it collects guys from every area, all across. And he goes to Jerusalem. Well, it says in verse six, as we sailed away from Philippi after the days of unleavened bread. That would be after the Passover. He originally wanted to be in Jerusalem for Passover, but when the plot came up, he couldn’t make it. So so now he had to put his plans off a bit and hope to get there by Pentecost. They don’t have cars, they don’t have planes.

They were walking, which was about 50 days after Passover. The days of unleed bread was of course the feast which lasted seven days immediately after Passover. So Paul had Passover there then seven days of unleavened bread in Philippi. And they came across to trust. It took them five days to do that. It only took them two days. The first time they came the other way. So it must have been very difficult trip. And they stayed seven days. Now this is his persistence. He gets these guys together. He says, guys, it’s going to be a long journey across five days instead of the normal two.

And you got to hang around a bit for seven more days because we got to catch the right ship. So he, he’s missed Passover, though he did celebrate it and it, and it makes a note of that because it tells us again that Paul was still very Jewish in his heart and his attitude. That’s his persistence. He loved the church. The last thing we’re going to cover is he loved the church. And that’s visible by his availability. Paul is a very tired man. Remember, everywhere he went he was physically in pain, mentally agitated, he felt alone, he felt a high degree of anxiety.

He was a weary man and he arrives in trois and look what happens. The first day of the week when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached into them, ready to depart on the next day. He had to leave the next day on a church on a. A tedious journey of six or seven weeks. But he stopped long enough to preach to them, continued his speech till midnight, knowing that he would leave the next day. Well, you can say man, that was a long sermon. I could tell you you hadn’t seen anything yet. Given time to the brethren.

Do you understand what I’m. We’re getting here? Paul gave him total self s self sacrificing his entire life to the church. Now they did take a little break in the middle. He came back and it says at the end of verse 11 he preached until the break of day. He went there tired, weary, and he preached all night long. And it wasn’t just a sermon. He answered all of their questions, he met all of their needs. In terms of information from God, he was available. Oh, some women called us to be present. Man, you understand you’re here, but you’re not here.

Now that’s just the beginning hint of his availability. There’s another little beautiful statement in verse 13 and we’re going to see that next week. We went into the ship, sailed to Ossos, there attending to take Paul. So had he appointed binding himself to go afoot? Well, the guys went on the ship and went 30 miles to a source 30 miles by sea. Paul walked to the source. And there was a very specific reason for him doing that. He was in tros and he gave himself all night. Well, an interesting thing happened that night. A guy fell asleep in the middle of his sermon and he fell backwards out of the window and was killed.

And we’re Going to talk about that next week. Now, let me give you one last thought. We’re going to close verse seven upon the first day of the week. Now, there were. There is the first direct statement of the time when the church met. What is the first day of the week? Sunday. Now, the Sunday came from the Sun God. You get. You realize that, right? If you go look at all of the days of the week, they’re all tied to some type of deity. Sunday came from the Sun God. So we ought to either spell it Sunday or call it what it’s called.

In Scripture. It’s called the Lord’s day. In Revelation 1:10, John said, I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day. So apparently by that time, the Christians had known Sunday as the Lord’s Day. And that’s the way we ought to know it today. First Corinthians 16:2, Paul says, Lay by him and store every one of you on the first day of the week. It became the pattern for the early church to meet on the first day of the week. Well, do you know the first meeting the church ever had after the resurrection was on the first day of the week.

They were all together in the room and Jesus came through the wall, right? And so that became the. The commemorative day, the first day of the week. I’m going to give you an interesting statement. Elaine G. White, who is responsible for starting the seventh day, advantage Adventism, wrote this. I quote, to us as to Israel, the Sabbath day is given for perpetual covenant to those who receive his holy day. The Sabbath is a sign that God recognized them as his chosen people. What she’s saying there is that the people who meet on the Sabbath are the chosen people.

The others are not. The sign or seal of God is revealed in the observance of the seventh day Sabbath. The mark of the beast is the observance of the first day of the week. End quote. Yeah, that’s not scriptural, guys. In Galatians, not only from the life of the church, they met on the Lord’s Day. They probably met every other day as well. But the Lord’s Day was a special day. In Galatians 4:10, Paul says to the Corinthian Christians in Galatia, you observe days and months and times and years. In other words, you’re still hung up on Jewish Sabbaths.

The law. The law had been replaced, right? Christ came to fulfill the law. You’re to worship always, every day, every moment of your life. That’s the new covenant. It says, I’m afraid. Least I bestow upon you who labor is in vain if you really were saved. This is Paul talking. You ought to be over that. That’s part of the old covenant. It’s gone. Religion today, guys. Religion, religion, religion. And in case that isn’t convincing enough to show you that Sabbath is not any more to the observed, listen to this one in Corinthians 2:16. Let no man therefore judge you in food or in drink, or in respect of a feast day, or of the new moon, or of a Sabbath day, which are a shadow of things to come.

Don’t let anybody condemn you for what you eat, what you drink, what you feast may or may not keep of a new moon or a Sabbath. Those things are shadows of history. When the reality came, the shadow is gone. There’s no justification for Sabbath anymore. The early church met on the Lord’s Day, and that’s why we do as well on our Sunday today. There’s nothing wrong with meeting every other day too. Well, that word of worship continuously, whether we meet or not. You’re supposed to fellowship, minister the people. So small groups, meetings, doesn’t matter. You’re still in worship.

They met together, they broke bread, they took the Lord’s table, which is so important now. Paul loved the church. He loved the church. It’s seen in his affix, affection, it’s seen in his giving, it’s seen in his teaching, it’s seen in his persistence. It’s seen in his availability to teach when he was totally at the end of his rope, Still available all night to give himself. It’s my hope that we at some point in our life that that may be true of us, that whatever our gifts are, we so love the saints that we measure that love by sacrificially giving of ourselves.

Another lesson of self awareness, of seeing where you’re at on the spectrum of the standard of a follower of Christ. Points, questions? Comments? Nope. Okay. All right, let’s pray. Father, thank you again for day of worship. Thank you again for allowing us to open your word and the Holy Spirit providing us the truth. Father, we can only ask that we continue to understand the meaning of life, the purpose of life, and the giving of life. Life is only given to the Holy Spirit through us. For the unity of the church. We ask that you continue to comfort those that are in sick, those that are trying to get through the healing process.

We ask that your healing hand be placed upon them. We want to thank you for the many blessings that we have already seen come their way. We want to give you all the praise and glory for that. Father, be with us in our continuing knowledge base of understanding through sanctification, our application of that knowledge through wisdom and revelation of you and that may we ever have a changing belief system that becomes more closer to you every day. Give us joy and peace of what’s going on in this world. Be with world leaders. Be with our leaders.

Be with the military. Be with their families to give them the strength and encouragement that everything will be okay. Loved ones will be coming home. Father, grant us the peace of heart. Give us what we seek. Thank you for your son. Thank you for his death. Thank you for his resurrection and ascension to give us the ability to go home and be redeemed. We ask all these things and vice.
[tr:tra].