SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Sermons from the Way Church KC, a community of listening saints in Kansas City, following the way of Jesus and pushing back darkness together.
SPEAKER_01: Good morning.
SPEAKER_01: If you could stand for the reading of the word, if you're able.
SPEAKER_01: We are in Acts 20, 1 through 16.
SPEAKER_01: After the uproar ceased, Paul sent for the disciples, and after encouraging them, he said farewell and departed for Macedonia.
SPEAKER_01: When he had gone through those regions and had given them much encouragement, he came to Greece.
SPEAKER_01: There he spent three months, and when a plot was made against him by the Jews, as he was about to set sail for Syria, he decided to return through Macedonia.
SPEAKER_01: Sopater the Berean, son of Pyrrhus, accompanied him.
SPEAKER_01: And of the Thessalonians, Aristarchus and Secondus, and Gaius of Derby and Timothy, and the agents Tychicus and Trophimus.
SPEAKER_01: These went on ahead and were waiting for us at Troas.
SPEAKER_01: But we sailed away from Philippi after the days of unleavened bread, and in five days we came to them at Troas, where we stayed for seven days.
SPEAKER_01: On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them, intending to depart on the next day, and he prolonged his speech until midnight.
SPEAKER_01: There were many lamps in the upper room where we were gathered, and a young man named Eutychus, sitting at the window, sank into a deep sleep, as Paul talked still longer, and being overcome by sleep, he fell down from the third story and was taken up dead.
SPEAKER_01: But Paul went down and bent over him, and taking him in his arms, said, Do not be alarmed, for his life is in him.
SPEAKER_01: And when Paul had gone up and had broken bread and eaten, he conversed with them a long while, until daybreak, and so departed.
SPEAKER_01: And they took the youth away alive, and were not a little comforted.
SPEAKER_01: But going ahead to the ship, we set sail for Asos, intending to take Paul aboard there, for so he had arranged, intending himself to go by land.
SPEAKER_01: And when he met us at Asos, we took him on board and went to Middlene.
SPEAKER_01: And sailing from there we came the following day opposite Chios.
SPEAKER_01: The next day we touched at Samos, and the day after that we went to Miletus.
SPEAKER_01: For Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus, so that he might not have to spend time in Asia, for he was hastening to be at Jerusalem, if possible, on the day of Pentecost.
SPEAKER_01: This is the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: You may be seated.
SPEAKER_02: Thank you, Joshua.
SPEAKER_02: He had some uh first time being a scripture reader.
SPEAKER_02: He had some tough words, didn't he?
SPEAKER_02: Tough names and city names.
SPEAKER_02: Good job, brother.
SPEAKER_02: Well, welcome everyone to the Way Church KC.
SPEAKER_02: If we haven't gotten the chance to meet yet, my name is Zach.
SPEAKER_02: I have the privilege of being the lead pastor here at the Way KC.
SPEAKER_02: And if this is your first time joining us, we're glad you're here.
SPEAKER_02: If you're looking for a perfect church, I hate to break it to you, but you will not find that here.
SPEAKER_02: The second people showed up, the second we all showed up, this became an imperfect place.
SPEAKER_02: Every one of us has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
SPEAKER_02: But what I want you to hear is that here is what you will find at the Way KC.
SPEAKER_02: You will find a family of misfits and saints.
SPEAKER_02: You will find people with messy stories who have a faithful Savior.
SPEAKER_02: You'll find people who do not pretend to have it all together, because the gospel is not for people who have it all together.
SPEAKER_02: It is for people who know that they need Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: And our mission here at the Way KC is simple: to follow the way of Jesus and push back darkness together.
SPEAKER_02: That's the mission that the Lord has had us on for the past two and a half years as we planted this church in KCK.
SPEAKER_02: And the Lord has been faithful and will continue to be faithful.
SPEAKER_02: So whether you're here for the first time, whether you're returning after being away, or you've been here since we launched, we are glad you're here.
SPEAKER_02: My hope for this morning is that we open our hearts, that we open our Bibles, and let's hear the word of God and what he has to say to us.
SPEAKER_02: So we'll be in Acts chapter 20.
SPEAKER_02: Oh my goodness.
SPEAKER_02: Sorry, I got thrown off.
SPEAKER_02: Chelsea, my wife Chelsea, just walked in here without our daughter.
SPEAKER_02: So that means she's in kids, men, and that's a big step.
SPEAKER_02: So let's give it up for Chelsea.
SPEAKER_02: Oh my, oh my.
SPEAKER_02: So we'll be in Acts chapter 20, verses 1 through 16.
SPEAKER_02: We've been in a series walking through Acts verse by verse, and we've been looking at how we can live by the Spirit and follow the way just as the early church did.
SPEAKER_02: So let's begin with a question.
SPEAKER_02: Does anybody remember a time when they've had to stay up late and all you wanted to do was sleep?
SPEAKER_02: Anyone been there?
SPEAKER_02: Most of us?
SPEAKER_02: I think that most of us know what it's like to fight sleep.
SPEAKER_02: Maybe you've nodded off in an important meeting.
SPEAKER_02: Maybe it was in a college class where it's like, hey, I need to stay awake and pay attention, but this professor is droning on and on, and I'm gonna fall asleep unintentionally.
SPEAKER_02: Maybe a long drive.
SPEAKER_02: I've Chelsea and I dated long distance, and so I spent many a late night driving from Wichita to Oklahoma City, and it's like, oh, I'm so tired.
SPEAKER_02: I never fell asleep at the wheel, but I was tired.
SPEAKER_02: And I think if we're we're honest, or or if we're Jeremy, maybe it's even been in church.
SPEAKER_02: No, he will not.
SPEAKER_02: It's my best friend, though.
SPEAKER_02: So well, what we see in today's text, we're we're introduced to Eudicus.
SPEAKER_02: And he has become famous for being the guy who fell asleep during Paul's sermon.
SPEAKER_02: And I love that the Bible doesn't clean up stories like this.
SPEAKER_02: Right?
SPEAKER_02: It's boom, it's right there in the text.
SPEAKER_02: There were lots of lamps, it was warm, people were packed into an upstairs room, and a young man, Eudychus, is sitting in the window trying his best to pay attention to what Paul is sharing and not to fall asleep.
SPEAKER_02: He's trying his best until he isn't.
SPEAKER_02: He falls asleep, he falls three stories, and he dies.
SPEAKER_02: And if this were a movie, we'd likely laugh for a moment until the laughter stops because someone says, Eutychus is dead.
SPEAKER_02: And just like that, this seemingly humorous story becomes a resurrection story.
SPEAKER_02: But here, as I was preparing this message, here's what struck me this week.
SPEAKER_02: Luke did not, the author Luke did not accidentally place this story in between like a travel itinerary.
SPEAKER_02: We see uh this section of text bookended by a travel narrative.
SPEAKER_02: Um, and right smack dab in the middle is the story of Eutychus.
SPEAKER_02: Acts 20 begins with miles traveled and it ends with miles traveled.
SPEAKER_02: And right there, smackdab in the center, God raises the dead.
SPEAKER_02: So I think that what the author Luke is showing us is what Paul's ministry actually is.
SPEAKER_02: Everywhere that the apostle Paul goes, he brings encouragement, he brings life, and he reminds discouraged churches that Jesus is alive.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: And that is exactly what the church still exists to do today.
SPEAKER_02: Now, you guys know what the EKG is, like at a hospital.
SPEAKER_02: Rachel, tell me if I'm not explaining it right, but it's like as the heartbeat goes, it goes up and down the lines showing that there is life.
SPEAKER_02: I was a part of a nonprofit ministry, and within their logo, they had the EKG line showing it's like, hey, from death to life.
SPEAKER_02: And if you've been in a hospital room, there's there's often no sound more terrifying than a flat line.
SPEAKER_02: The long, flat tone that means that the heart has stopped.
SPEAKER_02: But there's no sound more beautiful than the when the blip comes right after.
SPEAKER_02: The one that says, wait, there is life in here.
SPEAKER_02: And so this morning what we're looking at is a church, a room, and a boy that seemingly looked like a flat line.
SPEAKER_02: And what we're gonna see is we're gonna watch the risen Christ send the signal back to this young man Eutychus.
SPEAKER_02: Because the signs of life are still there.
SPEAKER_02: The EKG is still moving.
unknown: Boom.
SPEAKER_02: Boom.
SPEAKER_02: Up and down.
SPEAKER_02: So here's our big idea this morning, and then we will dig in.
SPEAKER_02: Our big idea is this the risen Christ builds his church through ordinary faithfulness.
SPEAKER_02: That is, his people showing up, his word going out, and his resurrection life breaking in.
SPEAKER_02: His people showing up, his word going out, and his resurrection life breaking in.
SPEAKER_02: I'll pray and then let's dig into the text.
SPEAKER_02: Heavenly Father, we love you, we praise you, we thank you for being here in the room among us today.
SPEAKER_02: We thank you for the work that you are doing in this house.
SPEAKER_02: We thank you that you are showing us your word, that you are moving me out of the way and letting your words be made clear.
SPEAKER_02: Lord, I pray that today, as we look at the story of Eudychus, that we too would live in resurrection life.
SPEAKER_02: Lord, I also lift up our youth that are going to summer camp this this uh next week.
SPEAKER_02: I pray that you would do a mighty work in their lives.
SPEAKER_02: Lord, I pray that we would honor them later on in service today, and we would lift your name high.
SPEAKER_02: We love you, we praise you.
SPEAKER_02: It's in the mighty name of Jesus I pray.
SPEAKER_02: And all God's people said.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: So point number one this morning is that resurrection life shows up together.
SPEAKER_02: Resurrection life shows up together.
SPEAKER_02: Acts chapter 20, verses one through six read.
SPEAKER_02: After the uproar has ceased, Paul sent for the disciples, and after encouraging them, he said farewell and departed from Macedonia.
SPEAKER_02: When he had gone through those regions and had given them much encouragement, he came to Greece.
SPEAKER_02: There he spent three months, and when a plot was made against him by the Jews as he was about to set sail for Syria, he decided to return through Macedonia.
SPEAKER_02: Sopater the Berean, son of Pyrrhus, accompanied him, and of the Thessalonians, Aristarchus and Secondus, and Gaius of Derby and Timothy, and the Asians, Tychicus and Trophimus, these went on ahead and were waiting for us at Troas.
SPEAKER_02: But we sailed away from Philippi after the days of unleavened bread, and in five days we came to Troas, where we stayed for seven days.
SPEAKER_02: So if you remember back to last week, we saw that there was a riot that erupted.
SPEAKER_02: And so let's take notice of what Paul does after one of the biggest riots of his ministry.
SPEAKER_02: He's not retreating, he's not hiding out, he doesn't go and start a podcast about surviving ministry, the rise and fall of Paul's ministry.
SPEAKER_02: No, he doesn't do that.
SPEAKER_02: He doesn't complain on social media.
SPEAKER_02: Luke says that he sent for the disciples and encouraged them.
SPEAKER_02: The Greek word here is pericleo, and it means to come alongside, to strengthen, to comfort, to exhort.
SPEAKER_02: And interestingly, it's the same root word used for the Holy Spirit, the paraclete.
SPEAKER_02: So, in other words, what Paul is doing, Paul is ministering the encouragement of the Holy Spirit to discourage believers.
SPEAKER_02: And then Luke says something remarkable.
SPEAKER_02: Says that he traveled through Macedonia, giving them many words of encouragement.
SPEAKER_02: So this, what it was, was an encouragement tour.
SPEAKER_02: It wasn't a big speaking tour where he's got millions, thousands coming to this conference he's speaking at.
SPEAKER_02: He is going around and encouraging churches, encouraging individuals.
SPEAKER_02: And I just think that's such a beautiful thing.
SPEAKER_02: And that should change how we read this passage, and that should change how we look at the ministry of Paul.
SPEAKER_02: He's not going and checking churches off a list.
SPEAKER_02: He is strengthening exhausted believers and weary churches.
SPEAKER_02: Because the reality is that believers get tired, churches get tired, Christians can get discouraged, people drift, people suffer, people wondering if following Jesus is worth it.
SPEAKER_02: And just this past week I had a conversation that was so encouraging to me, and I had no idea.
SPEAKER_02: You know, there's so many of us that are walking in here with so much stuff, but this young lady came up to me and she says, Hey, I just wanted to thank you.
SPEAKER_02: I hadn't been in church in two years, and I found a home here at the Way KC.
SPEAKER_02: And that's just the most beautiful thing because I had no idea that she hadn't been to church in two years before she came to this house.
SPEAKER_02: Christians can get tired, can be discouraged, can suffer.
SPEAKER_02: And Paul, he knows this.
SPEAKER_02: He knows that churches don't merely need evangelism.
SPEAKER_02: Churches need strengthening.
SPEAKER_02: Believers need strengthening.
SPEAKER_02: And that still has not changed today.
SPEAKER_02: And then what we see, we see Luke give us like what seems like a random list of names almost.
SPEAKER_02: So Pater, Aristarchus, Secundus, Gaius, Timothy, Tychicus, Trophimus.
SPEAKER_02: And sometimes, if we're being honest, in our quiet times, we can skip lists like this.
SPEAKER_02: But what but I want to share with you that this list is doing something huge.
SPEAKER_02: What these men are is they are a delegation.
SPEAKER_02: They are carrying an offering, money that's been collected from churches all over the Gentile world to relieve the poor back in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_02: And that's why what we're seeing here, they're coming from everywhere.
SPEAKER_02: Berea, Thessalonica, Derby, Asia.
SPEAKER_02: What the gospel had done in the first 19 chapters of Acts is created a family.
SPEAKER_02: A family of believers.
SPEAKER_02: One family out of many people.
SPEAKER_02: And that family of believers was putting its money where its mouth was.
SPEAKER_02: Churches that had never met each other were sacrificing for churches that they'd never seen.
SPEAKER_02: So encouragement here in this context was not just words, it was generosity across every single dividing line.
SPEAKER_02: Can I just tell you this morning that that is the church that Jesus Christ builds?
SPEAKER_02: Jesus builds a church that breaks dividing walls, that breaks down walls of hostility.
SPEAKER_02: Because the mission of Jesus is never a solo mission.
SPEAKER_02: The mission of Jesus is never a solo mission.
SPEAKER_02: Paul always traveled with people.
SPEAKER_02: What we say here a lot is what, Rage?
SPEAKER_02: Lone Ranger is a dead ranger.
SPEAKER_02: A Lone Ranger is a dead ranger.
SPEAKER_02: We need each other.
SPEAKER_02: We cannot do this alone.
SPEAKER_02: Patrick Shriner, he puts it this way: He says that they looked and sounded and smelled like the places that Paul had preached.
SPEAKER_02: The gospel had created a new family across cities, across cultures, and across ethnicities.
SPEAKER_02: And I think one of the biggest problems that we have in the Western evangelical world and the Western church world is that you have celebrity Christians.
SPEAKER_02: But that is not what we see in the book of Acts.
SPEAKER_02: No, that the church is built on ordinary people faithfully carrying the mission of the Lord together.
unknown: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: We're in this together.
SPEAKER_02: We are in this together.
SPEAKER_02: Whether we just met a week ago, or you've been coming here for two and a half years, or you're a believer from Wichita, Kansas, we are in this together.
SPEAKER_02: Because what I believe and the text shows us is that healing happens in community.
SPEAKER_02: That's how the church works.
SPEAKER_02: So some questions for you to ponder this morning is firstly, who is strengthening you?
SPEAKER_02: Who is strengthening you?
SPEAKER_02: Who is speaking into your life?
SPEAKER_02: Secondly, who are you strengthening?
SPEAKER_02: Whose life are you speaking into?
SPEAKER_02: Or think about it with the local church, whether it's our church or a different local church that you are a part of.
SPEAKER_02: Are you simply standing by and watching the mission?
SPEAKER_02: Or are you carrying a part of it?
SPEAKER_02: Are you carrying a part of it?
SPEAKER_02: Are you joining Christ in his mission to build his church?
SPEAKER_02: Before we transition to point number two, I just want to draw your attention to one small word in verse five.
SPEAKER_02: These went on ahead and we're waiting for us.
SPEAKER_02: Us.
SPEAKER_02: That is a critical word for us to see.
SPEAKER_02: So that us is showing that the author, Luke, who is a doctor, a physician, is stepping back into the story.
SPEAKER_02: It's showing that he is present there, and that is significant for us to see.
SPEAKER_02: Luke had been left behind in Philippi chapters ago, and now he's back in the room.
SPEAKER_02: Which means what happens next, the story we're about to look at, is not second hand.
SPEAKER_02: It is Luke speaking as a firsthand eyewitness to what happens here in this next section.
SPEAKER_02: The doctor, he's back.
SPEAKER_02: He saw what happens next with his own two eyes.
SPEAKER_02: And that's why this next scene is going to read like a medical chart of sorts.
SPEAKER_02: Which brings us to point number two.
SPEAKER_02: Resurrection life happens around the word and the table.
SPEAKER_02: Verses 7 through 12, the text reads, On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them, intending to depart on the next day.
SPEAKER_02: And he prolonged his speech until midnight.
SPEAKER_02: There were many lamps in the upper room where we were gathered.
SPEAKER_02: And a young man named Eudychus, sitting at the window, sank into a deep sleep, as Paul talked still longer.
SPEAKER_02: And being overcome by sleep, he fell down from the third story and was taken up dead.
SPEAKER_02: But Paul went down and bent over him, and taking him in his arms, said, Do not be alarmed, for his life is in him.
SPEAKER_02: And when Paul had gone up and had broken bread and eaten, he conversed with them a long while until daybreak, and so departed.
SPEAKER_02: And they took the youth away alive, and were not a little comforted.
SPEAKER_02: So here Luke slows the story way, way down.
SPEAKER_02: It's the first day of the week.
SPEAKER_02: It's Sunday, it's resurrection day.
SPEAKER_02: And this is actually one of the earliest snapshots we have of Christians gathering on a Sunday instead of the traditional Jewish Sabbath.
SPEAKER_02: So you might ask why the switch?
SPEAKER_02: Well, it's one reason.
SPEAKER_02: The tomb was empty on the first day of the week, on Sunday.
SPEAKER_02: So the church started meeting on resurrection day to celebrate a resurrection, to celebrate resurrection life.
SPEAKER_02: And they gather to break bread, to hear God's word.
SPEAKER_02: And these things, these two things, belong together.
SPEAKER_02: They are deeply tied.
SPEAKER_02: The word and the table.
SPEAKER_02: The risen Christ meeting with his people.
SPEAKER_02: And the the table, it shows us two things.
SPEAKER_02: One, the table of communion, of honoring Christ, remembering Christ, participating with Christ in communion, the body and the blood of Christ.
SPEAKER_02: But secondly, there's this idea of community, of gathering around a table and eating a meal together and fellowshipping together.
SPEAKER_02: So Luke, he hasn't mentioned breaking bread since Acts chapter 2.
SPEAKER_02: Schreiner notes that this intentionality echoes Luke 24, where the disciples recognize the risen Christ in the breaking of bread.
SPEAKER_02: And then Paul keeps preaching and preaching and preaching and goes on and on.
SPEAKER_02: Midnight comes, the lamps are still burning, the room is hot.
SPEAKER_02: Luke tells us that there were many lamps burning in that upper room.
SPEAKER_02: And let's I want us all to picture this.
SPEAKER_02: You have a room significantly probably smaller than this, a crowd packed in, oil lamps eating up and heating up the air, heat rising, smoke thickening, and it's past midnight.
SPEAKER_02: I don't know about you guys, but my bedtime is before midnight, usually.
SPEAKER_02: Significantly before midnight for Chelsea.
SPEAKER_02: And Eutychus, he falls asleep.
SPEAKER_02: This Eudychus is not a bad Christian.
SPEAKER_02: That's not what the text is showing us.
SPEAKER_02: He is a tired human being in a warm room.
SPEAKER_02: He wasn't fighting God.
SPEAKER_02: He was fighting sleep.
SPEAKER_02: And sleep won.
SPEAKER_02: So Luke, the physician, he's careful with the words that he chooses here.
SPEAKER_02: He doesn't say that they thought he died or he appeared to have been dead.
SPEAKER_02: He says they picked him up dead.
SPEAKER_02: Eutychus falls asleep in the window, falls three stories, and is dead.
SPEAKER_02: Flat line.
SPEAKER_02: No pulse.
SPEAKER_02: They picked him up dead.
SPEAKER_02: He's dead.
SPEAKER_02: D-E-A-D dead.
SPEAKER_02: Then Paul does something that's fascinating.
SPEAKER_02: He goes down, he embraces him, and he says, Do not be alarmed, his life is in him.
SPEAKER_02: And immediately every Jewish reader would remember Elijah and Elisha.
SPEAKER_02: Both prophets stretched themselves over dead boys.
SPEAKER_02: But notice the difference.
SPEAKER_02: They cried out to God, they pleaded, they agonized.
SPEAKER_02: But Paul bends down and almost calmly says, his life is in him.
SPEAKER_02: There's no special technique, there's no special phrase that he recited, there's no show, there's no fog machine.
SPEAKER_02: Because what this is not about, it's not about Paul's power.
SPEAKER_02: It's not about how great of an apostle Paul was, it's about how present the risen Christ is when his people gather.
SPEAKER_02: And this right here is where this text should become intensely personal.
SPEAKER_02: Because the fact of the matter is that we have all been dead in our trespasses and sins.
SPEAKER_02: Y'all know my story.
SPEAKER_02: There was a version of me that everyone could have assumed was finished.
SPEAKER_02: Spiritually dead, spiritually bankrupt, lost in the wilderness.
SPEAKER_02: And I think the same can be said for you.
SPEAKER_02: There was a version of you that everyone assumed was finished.
SPEAKER_02: Dead in lust, dead in addiction, dead in the pursuit of money, dead in the ways of this world, dead in sin, dead in every meaningful way that mattered.
unknown: Wow.
SPEAKER_02: Maybe not physically, but spiritually, morally, emotionally, relationally.
SPEAKER_02: And some of you know exactly what I'm talking about and what I'm referring to.
SPEAKER_02: You remember what it was like when everyone had given up.
SPEAKER_02: Maybe even you had given up.
SPEAKER_02: That was me.
SPEAKER_02: I thought I was hopeless.
SPEAKER_02: I thought that there was no purpose for my life before Christ encountered me.
SPEAKER_02: And it was in that place.
SPEAKER_02: It was within the muck in the mire when Jesus came down and plucked me out of the muck and the mire and set my feet on solid ground.
SPEAKER_02: He did not shout from heaven at me.
SPEAKER_02: No, he came down.
SPEAKER_02: He stepped into my darkness.
SPEAKER_02: He stepped into our death.
SPEAKER_02: He stepped into our hopelessness.
SPEAKER_02: And he spoke resurrection life.
SPEAKER_02: And that, friends and family, is the gospel.
SPEAKER_02: Tim Keller puts it this way: The gospel is not advice for the living.
SPEAKER_02: The gospel is good news for the dead.
SPEAKER_02: It is good news for the dead.
SPEAKER_02: You don't coach corpses, you raise them.
SPEAKER_02: And that's exactly what Jesus does.
SPEAKER_02: And notice something beautiful here.
SPEAKER_02: After the miracle, they go back upstairs, they break bread, and they keep talking until dawn.
SPEAKER_02: That's some fellowship right there.
SPEAKER_02: It's almost like Luke is saying, Well, death lost again.
SPEAKER_02: Let's keep worshiping.
SPEAKER_02: And then right there in verse 12, Luke ends with one of his famous understatements.
SPEAKER_02: He says, They were not a little comforted.
SPEAKER_02: They were not a little comforted.
SPEAKER_02: In other words, they were overwhelmed with joy.
SPEAKER_02: The encouragement tour, it reaches, its climactic moment.
SPEAKER_02: Life, resurrection, life has broken into death.
SPEAKER_02: And the risen Christ has shown himself victorious once again.
SPEAKER_02: So, with that, I just want to ask you: do you come to church on Sundays expecting God to meet you?
SPEAKER_02: Expecting the risen Christ to meet you where you are?
SPEAKER_02: Or has church simply become another event for you?
SPEAKER_02: Another thing that you check off the to-do list?
SPEAKER_02: Or something you go to to be entertained?
SPEAKER_02: Are you coming to consume?
SPEAKER_02: Or are you coming to encounter the risen Christ?
SPEAKER_02: This, the church, our church, churches across the world, is the place where dead people can hear life, where discouraged people can find hope.
SPEAKER_02: And where Christ still speaks through his word.
unknown: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: So resurrection life happens around the word and the table.
SPEAKER_02: Point number three, our final point, is that resurrection life keeps pressing forward.
SPEAKER_02: Resurrection life keeps pressing forward.
SPEAKER_02: Verse 13 through 16.
SPEAKER_02: But going ahead to the ship, we set sail for Aesos, intending to take Paul aboard there, for so he had arranged, intending himself to go by land.
SPEAKER_02: And when he met us at Aesos, we took him on board and went to Middlene.
SPEAKER_02: And sailing from there we came the following day opposite Chios.
SPEAKER_02: The next day we touched at Samos, and the day after that we went to Miletus.
SPEAKER_02: For Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus, so that he might not have to spend time in Asia, for he was hastening to be at Jerusalem, if possible, on the day of Pentecost.
SPEAKER_02: And right after the miracle, the author Luke goes right back to travel details.
SPEAKER_02: Again, Aesos, Middlene, Shios, Samos, Miletus.
SPEAKER_02: It sounds almost ordinary because it is.
SPEAKER_02: There's one quiet detail here, though.
SPEAKER_02: Paul, he sends everyone else ahead by ship, and he walks the twenty miles to ASO alone, on foot, by himself.
SPEAKER_02: And if you look ahead, what we'll cover in the coming weeks is the suffering that Paul would soon endure as he got to Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_02: And I can't help but think and wonder that maybe Paul knew the suffering that awaited him in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_02: So he took the long road.
SPEAKER_02: Maybe to pray, maybe to breathe, maybe to get ready for the suffering that he would soon endure.
SPEAKER_02: And I think that there's something we can take from that because I think that sometimes the most resurrection life thing you can do all week is take a long walk alone with God.
SPEAKER_02: Spend a long time in the prayer closet.
SPEAKER_02: Spend a long time just sitting at the feet of our Lord.
SPEAKER_02: Most of following the way of Jesus is ordinary.
SPEAKER_02: It's spent in the ordinary.
SPEAKER_02: Most ministry does not happen on mountaintops.
SPEAKER_02: The sweetest ways I've encountered the Lord is in the valley.
SPEAKER_02: In the toughest of times when the Lord encountered me there, when I saw no hope.
SPEAKER_02: But brothers and sisters interceded on my behalf, stepped into the valley with me.
SPEAKER_02: That's ministry.
SPEAKER_02: And in the ordinary, maybe it's the carpool line at school.
SPEAKER_02: Maybe it's as you're you're rushing out the door to get your kiddos to school or to camp or whatever it may be.
SPEAKER_02: And slowing down to take a breath, saying this is all worth it.
SPEAKER_02: Maybe it's the meeting with that coworker who's an unbeliever but is asking all the right questions.
SPEAKER_02: Maybe it's the grind of the work day as you are living as an ambassador for Christ in the workplace.
SPEAKER_02: Maybe it's the hospital rooms for the doctors and nurses that we have here.
SPEAKER_02: Maybe it's the quiet prayers that you just with everything in your power lift up to God.
SPEAKER_02: Maybe it's the ordinary Wednesday nights, midweeks, where we gather together and sit in circles and discuss what the word of the Lord says.
SPEAKER_02: Whatever it is, the risen Christ encounters us in the ordinary.
SPEAKER_02: And I think that that's how Paul was encountering him as well.
SPEAKER_02: And yet Paul keeps moving.
SPEAKER_02: He keeps moving forward, he keeps pressing on.
SPEAKER_02: Why?
SPEAKER_02: Because Jerusalem is ahead.
SPEAKER_02: Jerusalem is ahead.
SPEAKER_02: There's suffering ahead for Paul.
SPEAKER_02: And do not miss where he is rushing to.
SPEAKER_02: The text says that he is hastening to be at Jerusalem, if possible, on the day of Pentecost.
SPEAKER_02: If you remember back to Acts 2, the day of Pentecost, is when Christ left the Holy Spirit with the church.
SPEAKER_02: It's the feast of the Spirit, the day that the Spirit fell.
SPEAKER_02: And Paul, the man who had just carried resurrection life into a dark room, is now racing toward the city and the feast where the spirit first came.
SPEAKER_02: And that's our whole series in one verse.
SPEAKER_02: Resurrection life, it doesn't sit still.
SPEAKER_02: Whereas Keith says, it doesn't sit and soak.
SPEAKER_02: We don't want to be believers that just sit and soak.
SPEAKER_02: No, we want to join God in where he is already at work.
SPEAKER_02: Resurrection life, it moves toward the mission.
SPEAKER_02: And it moves in step with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: Not faster than the Spirit and not slower than the Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: In step with the Spirit at the pace of grace.
SPEAKER_02: Paul, he even skips Ephesus.
SPEAKER_02: Not because he stopped loving them, but because mission required sacrifice.
SPEAKER_02: And Shriner, Patrick Shriner, he observes something powerful here.
SPEAKER_02: Paul is moving toward the very city where Jesus suffered.
SPEAKER_02: As Paul brings life to others, he's walking toward his own suffering in the very place that Christ suffered.
SPEAKER_02: Life through death.
SPEAKER_02: Exactly the pattern of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: And that's the same pattern that we as believers walk.
SPEAKER_02: We're dying to the old life and we are living new in Christ.
SPEAKER_02: That is resurrection living.
SPEAKER_02: Not avoiding suffering, but walking faithfully through it.
SPEAKER_02: Because what we know is that death never gets the final word.
SPEAKER_02: In my quiet time, one of the books I've been reading is Revelation.
SPEAKER_02: That's just how my calendar, my Bible reading plan in a year has landed.
SPEAKER_02: Can I just tell you what the end of the story says?
SPEAKER_02: Christ wins.
SPEAKER_02: The church is victorious.
SPEAKER_02: Death doesn't get the final word.
SPEAKER_02: What we say here often is that we don't fight for victory, we fight from victory.
SPEAKER_02: It is positional.
SPEAKER_02: Christ has secured the victory on the cross at Calvary, and one day he will return and make all things new.
SPEAKER_02: New heavens, new earth.
SPEAKER_02: No more tears, no more pain.
SPEAKER_02: That's the reality that we live in.
SPEAKER_02: That's the truth that we stand in and we hope for.
SPEAKER_02: And man, I was I was talking to a dear brother a week before last.
SPEAKER_02: I was sitting at his kitchen table.
SPEAKER_02: And he has a daughter that is disabled, that is nonverbal, just a really tough situation.
SPEAKER_02: Single father.
SPEAKER_02: And he's tears are pouring down his face.
SPEAKER_02: And he's telling me, like, hey, I just I don't understand.
SPEAKER_02: I don't get it.
SPEAKER_02: I don't, I wish I could communicate with her.
SPEAKER_02: Like, I just know that she wants to communicate with me.
SPEAKER_02: Like, why would God do that?
SPEAKER_02: Why is that so?
SPEAKER_02: And not my words, I feel from the power of the Holy Spirit, this is what the Lord led me to share with him.
SPEAKER_02: Pointing him to the hope that we look towards.
SPEAKER_02: To the hope of the future, to the hope of the new heavens, new earth.
SPEAKER_02: Where that man's daughter will not have pain, will not have suffering, will not be nonverbal, but will be able to communicate with him.
SPEAKER_02: As the Lord makes all things new.
SPEAKER_02: And that's the same for all of us, whatever it is we're walking through.
SPEAKER_02: That is what we look towards.
SPEAKER_02: The new heavens and new earth.
SPEAKER_02: So we're gonna close a little bit differently today.
SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna land the plane without Ashton closing us in the song, and then we're gonna spend some time praying for our youths that are heading to super summer.
SPEAKER_02: But before that, here's what I want you to hear.
SPEAKER_02: Every single one of us, every single one of us in this house was Eudicus.
SPEAKER_02: Every single one of us.
SPEAKER_02: Maybe not falling out a three-story window and dying of physical death, but we've all been spiritually asleep at times.
SPEAKER_02: We've been spiritually bankrupt.
SPEAKER_02: We have been spiritually fallen.
SPEAKER_02: We have been spiritually dead.
SPEAKER_02: The difference, though, is that for Eutychus, Paul climbed down three flights of stairs.
SPEAKER_02: But for each of you and myself, Jesus climbed down from heaven to pull you out of that spiritual death.
unknown: Yes, he does.
SPEAKER_02: Paul, he embraced one dead boy.
SPEAKER_02: But Jesus embraced an entire fallen world.
SPEAKER_02: Paul, he restored one life in this story.
SPEAKER_02: But Jesus, he gives eternal life to all who call upon his name.
SPEAKER_02: Paul said, his life, Eutychus' life, is in him.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus says, I am the resurrection and the life.
SPEAKER_02: And Jesus himself was picked up dead.
SPEAKER_02: He was arrested.
SPEAKER_02: He went willingly to a Roman cross where he was beaten and bruised and battered beforehand.
SPEAKER_02: And he died on a Roman cross for the forgiveness of our sins.
SPEAKER_02: And for three days, they likely thought that death had won.
SPEAKER_02: Oh, death, where is your sting?
SPEAKER_02: But three days later, the tomb was empty.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus was alive.
SPEAKER_02: And on the first day of the week, that day he walked out alive.
SPEAKER_02: And now that same resurrection life is available to everyone who trusts in him.
SPEAKER_02: Galatians 2.20 reads, I have been crucified with Christ.
SPEAKER_02: It is no longer I who lives, but Christ who lives in me.
SPEAKER_02: And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.
SPEAKER_02: And that verse encapsulates the Christian life, the resurrection life that we live in.
SPEAKER_02: So if you feel like you are the person that everyone has given up on, can I just tell you that you're exactly the kind of person whom Jesus raises?
unknown: Yes.
SPEAKER_02: If you've drifted from gathering with other believers, come back to the place where the living Christ meets his people.
SPEAKER_02: Yes, you can be a Christian and not attend church, but it's pretty dang hard, in my opinion.
SPEAKER_02: You need other believers.
SPEAKER_02: And in fact, the Bible commands us to gather together with the saints.
SPEAKER_02: Or maybe you're sitting here this morning and you've been trying to live by your own strength.
SPEAKER_02: You've been trying to white knuckle this thing called life.
SPEAKER_02: That's also very hard.
SPEAKER_02: And the invitation is always there.
SPEAKER_02: Come to the one who conquered death itself.
SPEAKER_02: Because the signs of life are still there, beating within your very being.
SPEAKER_02: The EKG is still moving, showing that there is life.
SPEAKER_02: And there's still life in and of the church.
SPEAKER_02: At times we can look at social media or look out at the world and think that the enemy is winning, but the church is still alive.
SPEAKER_02: Christ says that he will build his church.
SPEAKER_02: And that is a reason to celebrate.
SPEAKER_02: And with that, I'll pray.
SPEAKER_02: And then I'll invite some people up here.
SPEAKER_02: Lord, we love you.
SPEAKER_02: We praise you.
SPEAKER_02: We thank you for resurrection life.
SPEAKER_02: We thank you that your son Jesus came to this world to offer resurrection life, that your son Jesus resurrected so that we could find and have new life in him.
SPEAKER_02: Lord, I pray that if there's anyone here who does not yet know your son Jesus as Lord and Savior, that they would seek you, that they would ask you to reveal your son Jesus to them.
SPEAKER_02: Lord, that you would impress upon their hearts conviction, reveal their need of a savior, and that you would do deep heart-level work, piercing their hearts, changing them.
SPEAKER_02: The old made new, Lord.
SPEAKER_02: And if that is anyone in this house, I'm happy to talk with you after service.
SPEAKER_02: Lord Jesus, we love you, we praise you.
SPEAKER_02: In the mighty name of Jesus, I pray, and all God's people said.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: So we're gonna continue.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening.
SPEAKER_00: Join us Sundays at 10 30 a.m.
SPEAKER_00: in the Rosedale neighborhood of Kansas City.
SPEAKER_00: Or find us anytime at the wakeac.church.