Unshaken: Chapter a Day

Acts 20 Discussion

• Pastor Plek

Share episode

Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.

0:00 | 17:52

Send a text

A late-night gathering in Troas turns from tragedy to wonder when a young listener falls from a window, is pronounced dead, and is raised as the church looks on in stunned relief. That moment bookends a vivid portrait of early Christian worship—shared meal, communion, and teaching that runs deep into the night—and sets the stage for Paul’s most tender and bracing farewell.

We walk through Acts 20 with open Bibles and clear questions: What does it mean to guard the flock when wolves come from outside and within? How do elders hold together doctrine, character, and care when the church has been purchased by God with his own blood? Paul’s charge to the Ephesian elders cuts to the core of leadership: pay attention to yourselves, teach the whole counsel of God, help the weak, and refuse the lure of coveting. Along the way, we revisit the oft-quoted line preserved by Paul—“It is more blessed to give than to receive”—and explore why generosity is the posture that protects a community from corrosion.

We also challenge modern assumptions about comfort and time. The Spirit does not steer Paul around hardship; the Spirit leads him toward Jerusalem knowing chains await. That tension reframes spiritual resilience: true comfort comes from purpose, not ease. As we connect the dots between Troas and Miletus, between communion and courage, between tears and resolve, a clear pattern emerges for churches today—gather with intention, guard with conviction, and give with open hands.

If this conversation helped you think more clearly about worship, leadership, and discernment, follow the show, share it with a friend who serves in the church, and leave a quick review to help others find these deep dives. What stood out most to you from Acts 20?

Text us at 737-231-0605 with any questions.

Pastor Plek:

And welcome back to a chapter a day. Keeps the devil away. I'm Pastor Pleck. That's Pastor Holland. We're talking Acts chapter 20. We're going to outline it. We're going to uh find, make some observations, make some interpretations, lay in the plane with some applications that you can take along with you along your way as you prepare your day to live in Jesus' way. So Acts 20 and verses 1 through 6, you find Paul journeying through Macedonia and Greece. Macedonian being northern Greece specifically, Achaia, Southern Greece. Then you got uh Acts uh 27 through 12. We've got Eutychus raised from the dead in Troaz. One Sunday sermon went into the night, past midnight. We have a kid fall asleep in a window. He falls three floors, dies. Paul raises him up, brings him back to life. Then in verses 13 through 38, you have Paul's farewell to the Ephesian elders. Uh then he sets sail toward Jerusalem, uh, where he is going to ultimately uh be arrested. And he knows that, and there's a lot of people that are really freaked out by it, but he uh commits that he's gonna go and do what God has called him to do. All right, let's get into the observation about this text.

Pastor Holland:

All right, you get the first um example or instance of Sunday worship in Acts right here, when it says uh verse 7, first day of the week. We were gathered together to break bread, and Paul talked with them. And it sounds like just like a passing detail, just mentioning, you know, hey, here's the day, here's what happened. But the first day of the week is Sunday. Breaking bread, um, you know, I think is representative of communion. Paul's speaking to them. I think he's preaching and teaching the word of God. Thing this is a uh Sunday worship service here in X. Right.

Pastor Plek:

So um a lot of people might say, Whoa, whoa, whoa, you're going there with the breaking of bread. That don't people break bread as a way of saying they're gonna eat together? Yeah.

Pastor Holland:

It can have a general meaning of just eating together or a special meaning of it seems like he's preaching, he's talking a long time. Yeah, so long that uh a young man falls asleep and dies.

Pastor Plek:

Like when you could say to someone, your sermon is killing me and not lie. Correct. Um, that that was kind of like wild to me. All right, so yeah, he Paul preaches a long, long, long time.

Pastor Holland:

Okay, so one more thing on that. This is from um Thomas Watson and his work, A Body of Divinity. Yeah. On Acts 20, verse 7 says, The keeping of the first day, which is the Lord's day, was the practice of the apostles. Here was both preaching and breaking of bread on this day. Um, Austin and Innocentius and Isidore, you know, other um theologians or commentators uh making reference to them, says, make the keeping of our gospel Sabbath to be an apostolical sanction and affirm that by virtue of the apostles' practice, this Lord's Day is to be sequestered and set apart for divine worship. What the apostles did, they did it by divine authority, for they were inspired by the Holy Ghost. He's taken this verse as an example that Sunday worship is the Christian way.

Pastor Plek:

So I've uh so Tommy Constable, one of my professors from Dallas Seminary, he said it was a love feast for the breaking of bread. And at the end of it, you would do the sacrament, you would um go through the Eucharist or the communion. And so it was kind of like a, it was like they broke bread like a normal meal, but at the end of it, there was a hey, this is a ritual like remembering what Jesus did for us on the cross, you know, breaking the bread and the cup for his blood. And then from there, they went into a sermon where he talked for a long, long time. And so it definitely was an act of worship, but it it had like this sense of fellowship sort of incorporated into it. So anyway, different take. There you go. Not fake. All right. So, what else do you see for an observation?

Pastor Holland:

Um, a lot of tears from Paul and the Ephesian elders in like the latter half of the chapter. Um, Paul saying that he ministered to them um daily with tears. And uh then when he says goodbye, it says uh there was much weeping on the part of all, and they embraced Paul and kissed him. And you go, these are some manly dudes. Paul, you know, was like beaten, jailed, stoned, left for dead, all this stuff. And um, you know, very strong, brave, bold, courageous, masculine. And yet also you can see the tender heart that he has in ministering to others and in the close bonds he had with these other elders.

Pastor Plek:

Yeah, and and this sort of reminds me, I don't know if this is quite the same thing, but remember Jesus had a last supper where they actually had an actual supper experience, but they also did the first um Lord's Supper. Yeah. And here Paul is like a farewell love feast where he he ends it with a um communion and then he preaches the sermon. Uh, I think that it's kind of a, you know, because he's I don't want to say he's the same as Jesus, but he's emulating what Jesus did on his last night. Absolutely. Okay, uh what else do you see? I what I love about this is Paul is surrounded by some good dudes. Like and they're all by name. You've got, and they're all from different cities, which I thought was interesting. You've got uh Sopater from Berea, you've got Pyrus, um, and I think those two guys are from Berea, and then you've got the Thessalonians, Aristarchus and Sagundis, the Gaius of Derby, and then Timothy, and the Asians, Tychicus and Trophimus. So I love the spread of all these different uh people are following Paul and a part of his ministry uh at the very beginning. And at the end of this, he ends up you know sailing for Jerusalem, right, to go back, but he and he's never gonna see these guys again because he will be arrested and everyone's sort of upset about it.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah. It's kind of wild though. Yeah, it's awesome. How quickly he can make such uh so many friends and from different kinds of people and you know develop these strong.

Pastor Plek:

Leave them, which I that's part of it, right? I mean, that's like and I guess one of the things really cool, like when you have intense experiences with people, like you almost die, like that. I don't know if it's called trauma bonding or whatever, but like you have this intense moment where you're connected to these people and they they mean so much to you, which is why you are like, I'm never gonna see you again. We just survived this great thing. This kind of feels like an end of a movie uh where I'm never gonna see you again, and then you off goes uh Paul into the sea. Yep.

Pastor Holland:

Um, all right. What about uh I also love just like the solemn warning he gives them that, like, hey, some some people are going to uh he says, you know, we'll come in among you um and from among your own selves. Verse 30 will arise men speaking twisted things, be alert. And you know, he says, I preach the whole counsel of God to you. He he's encouraging them in just like the seriousness of their task after he goes, they've got to guard sound doctrine, they've got to watch out for false teachers. And, you know, one of the primary ways they're gonna do that is by teaching the whole council of God.

Pastor Plek:

So, yeah, I think that's what happens with a lot of us is um we've sort of not so much now, but 20 years ago, the the whole thing of like just let's not just get so concerned about different doctrinal distinctives. Let's let's just kind of invite everybody in, and then all what happens is it corrupts the church from within because you're not guarding sound doctrine. And so it's interesting that he is like, you have to make sure that you're doing this. Uh and then you because at verse 28, pay careful attention to yourselves and all the flock. Yeah, which I appreciate that verse 28, where it's like watch your character, watch the character of your flock, and then part of that is watching the doctrine that comes in.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah.

Pastor Plek:

Um, what else you got?

Pastor Holland:

Hmm. I love uh that you get this quote from Jesus that you never see Jesus say in the Gospels, but Paul quotes it. Um, the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said it is more blessed to give than to receive.

Pastor Plek:

Yeah, I thought that's wild. It's not in the gospels anywhere, but that we all know that to be words of Jesus from Paul.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah. And it's a great quote. Um, I mean, such a memorable line and you know, really gets to the heart of Christian living.

Pastor Plek:

So after that. Um yeah, I like what you said earlier about the kissing going on here. It's like, and there was much weeping on the part of all. They embraced Paul, so they're hugging and kissing. Like, and typically in you know, the the East, kissing people on the cheek was more normal. Uh, I mean, I when I was in Iraq, I you know, I'd do a full and you know, all the it was quite the ritual with every person, especially when I was wearing a helmet, I'd headbutt guys, and it'd be really terrible for them. I really felt bad about it. But like that's just a standard practice, and it wasn't weird, although it took a while for it not to be weird for me. Uh, but that's just what you did.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah. And David and Jonathan, same thing when David had to leave, and you know, that was like real tough and um emotional. And I'm like, it I don't know. I think it's good just to realize like these were masculine, godly dudes, and yet they also like had this very close bond.

Pastor Plek:

Yeah, they probably didn't have like a seat in between them at the movie theater whenever they went to watch a movie. All right. Uh let's get into some of the things we know about the nature of man from all this.

Pastor Holland:

How about it's hard to say goodbye.

Pastor Plek:

It is hard to say goodbye. Yeah. Uh there's some tears that come with that.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah. That uh, you know, and sometimes saying goodbye is what you gotta do. Like God calls you to somewhere for a while and then he calls you somewhere else. Some people, you know, you're gonna stay in one place their whole life. Yep. Other people, God calls them, you know, here for a season and then, you know, move somewhere else for a season. And when God calls you to do that, you gotta obey God, but you know, it's it's really hard to um to say goodbye, but sometimes it's what you gotta do.

Pastor Plek:

How about people need encouragement and teaching? Yeah, Paul repeatedly speaks words of encouragement and then teaches publicly. I love it, house to house. Yep, and then publicly. Like he, it's like there's this public aspect, house to house aspect. He's kind of like all in on all that. And that's indicated that he pe people just need ongoing support in their faith. And I think sometimes we can kind of feel like I'm good, I don't need any of that, I don't need preaching. Uh, and that's why the whole council of God is so important. It prevents people from just falling, uh falling off the cliff.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah. Speaking of falling off a cliff, um, you have this kid who dies, uh, Eutychus, and uh, you know, he falls asleep during Paul's sermon, which it says he he prolonged his speech until midnight. Um, and then and so the kid dies. And then Paul brings him back to life, and then he continued to talk until daybreak. And I'm just like, man, uh we like we think if the sermon goes, you know, five or ten minutes over, like we can't handle it, and we get frustrated, you know, at church. And I'm like, this was like an all day, all night kind of deal. Um, yeah. We we need to, you know, increase our um what's the word I'm looking for? Increase our like spiritual hunger? Yeah, spiritual hunger, our capacity for listening, our and maybe we have it.

Pastor Plek:

Can I I'm gonna get a defense for the culture here? Okay. Here's how I know this. There were people who will spend hours on YouTube, uh-huh like rabbit holing, like I just recently had a guy come to faith and he said he went on YouTube to discover like all the evidence for Jesus and watch hour after hour after hour after hour. And so I think we have the capacity if you make it interesting enough.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah, yeah. Maybe interesting enough, or you don't think there's some element it's like uh discipline? Discipline or like I don't know, our responsibility to find it interesting. Yeah, maybe. You know what I mean?

Pastor Plek:

Like, I mean, Paul, I bet his his sermons were awesome. Now, granted, the guy did fall asleep, but he was going up for, but I bet you people are there like hooked on it and they're excited about it. And he'd tell really cool stories about getting trapped in Damascus and being let down through a you know a window. And I mean, when you throw those stories in there, I'm I'm in. Like, yeah, and then you kind of slip in some theological truth just like that one time I was getting stoned to death. I mean, like, you gotta imagine his sermon illustrations were a little bit more intense than most. Yeah, fair enough. It's just like that one time I was raised from the dead. Let me tell you. And you're like, nice. All right, what about uh anything else about the nature of man?

Pastor Holland:

Um I think of the people rising up to teach twisted things and just how it's in our sinful nature to use religion to take advantage of people.

Pastor Plek:

Yeah. Um how about uh let's go on to character God? Uh God guides through the Holy Spirit. I love how the Holy Spirit is driving Paul to go through hardships. Yep. Like it's and I know the Holy Spirit's the comforter. However, in this case, it comforted him to go do something really hard and impossible. Yeah. And I think sometimes, again, in our in our love of comfort in our culture, we see hard things as bad or hard things as not for me. And here Paul's like, Oh, it's hard, therefore it is for me, and I'm gonna go do it and stop breaking my heart. And I appreciate that you're crying for me, but I have got to go do what God has called me to do.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah. And the Holy Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan after his baptism. And uh the Holy Spirit is leading Paul um through these trials. The Holy Spirit is also um verse 28, it says, The Holy Spirit has made you overseers to care for the church of God. The Holy Spirit is, you know, over the appointment of elders in the local church. Um, I think that's pretty powerful.

Pastor Plek:

Yeah, I love that that the Holy Spirit is the one that has brought this whole thing. Like, like he wants you to care for the church. Like this is something that's so valuable to him, it cost him his own blood there in verse 28. He obtained it with his own blood, and now you are caring for it. So if someone said, Hey, um, I need you care for my property, I need you to care for this person um that you know I I sent my son to die for. His blood is all like he bought this with the blood of his son. That's what you would be like, wow, it's kind of a big deal. I need to have a right attitude toward this. And clearly, yeah, uh Paul wanted them to be reminded that the threat would come and it'd be up to them uh to put down threats. Yeah.

Pastor Holland:

I also love when it says um verse 32, I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up. And just go that God is a God of grace and a God who builds up his people.

Pastor Plek:

Okay. Let's move to some application. What do you got for uh a sin to avoid or confess, a promise to claim, an example to follow, command to obey, or knowledge to believe? Anything stick out to you?

Pastor Holland:

Example to follow, gather on the first day of the week to break bread, take communion, and listen to talkers. Long sermons.

Pastor Plek:

That's great. Uh, how about sin to avoid? Avoid distorting the church or the truth, well, just the church, but uh avoid distorting the truth. Um, and don't be a savage wolf and draw away disciples. Well, yep.

Pastor Holland:

Um uh verse 33. I coveted no one's silver or gold or apparel. Example to follow. Don't covet what other people have, be content with what God has given you.

Pastor Plek:

Yeah, how about command obey, verse 28? Elders keep watch, keep watch over yourselves and the flock, acting as shepherds of the church that God has entrusted to you. So be vigilant, uh, lead with care and and have this heart to um care for the church that Jesus' blood paid for.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah. I love the example to follow, verse 35, too. Um, 34 and 35, Paul says, These hands ministered to my necessities and to those who were with me. He took care of other people as well. No, and all these, in all things I've shown that by working hard in this way, we must help the weak. Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, it's more blessed to give than to receive. I think that's a beautiful example to follow of being hardworking and generous.

Pastor Plek:

Oh, I love that. Um, how about verse 32? God is a promise claim. God is able to build you up. Yeah. I love you. And to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified. Like I think sometimes uh we have this idea that God can save or help other people, but somehow we are outside of that, meaning I I'm stuck in this sin issue. I won't be able to be set, I can't be set free from it. You don't understand all the stuff. And it and I want you to believe that God can and will, if you are his, he will free you from that darkness.

Pastor Holland:

Amen. All right. Send to a void, don't fall asleep in church. Don't fall asleep in church. I know it might be hard to listen to the sermon sometimes. How about this? Send to avoid, don't preach boring sermons. Oh, there you go. On the flip side. You saying Paul, you saying Paul uh was preaching a boring sermon, though? I'm not saying he was.

Pastor Plek:

I'm just saying the send to a void would be don't preach a boring sermon. Hey, thanks so much for watching. We'll see you next time on a chapter a day.

Podcasts we love

Check out these other fine podcasts recommended by us, not an algorithm.