 Let's begin reading here in Acts chapter 20 at verse 1. I'll give you as I normally do a little bit of a review so we can be up to speed with what we're watching here. Take place in chapter 20. So I'll begin in Acts chapter 20 at verse 1. I'll read the verse six and we'll get into our study. Luke writes, after the uproar had ceased, Paul called the disciples himself, embraced them and departed to go to Macedonia. Now, when he had gone over that region and encouraged them with many words, he came to Greece and stayed three months. And when the Jews plotted against him, as he was about to sail to Syria, he decided to return through Macedonia and so far of Berea accompanied him to Asia. Also Aristarchus and Secundus of the Thessalonians and Gaius of Derby and Timothy and Taichikus and Trafimus of Asia. These men going ahead waited for us at Troas. But we sailed away from Philippi after the days of unleavened bread and in five days joined them at Troas where we stayed seven days. Now, Paul has just gone through a life-threatening situation in this huge city of Ephesus. I mentioned to you that Ephesus, which is on the border on the coastline of modern Turkey, Ephesus was a huge city of a population of approximately 250,000 people. And so Paul was there ministering and all. And what happened was a silversmith by the name of Demetrius had incited a near riot in opposition to the gospel. He had accused Paul of blaspheming their goddess Diana and he gathered a great crowd and the whole city of Ephesus became outraged and the city itself was in an uproar. Now at first nothing would calm the people down. The anger continued to grow steadily. For two hours an angry mob shouted down anyone who tried to reason with them and the mob had gone into their theater. The theater itself seats 25,000 people. So you can see this is a huge crowd, a huge mob that was very upset and they were increasing steadily in numbers. They went into the theater, they were shouting and they were crying out in anger. They took two of Paul's companions, they dragged them into the theater. Well, when that happened, Paul wanted to go into the theater to protect them but because it was so life-threatening the believers would not allow him to do so. Now, Luke doesn't tell us what Paul was feeling at that time, but later Paul himself did. And I shared with you last time we were together had how Paul had written a letter to the Corinthians. Now the Corinthians was a church that had recently been birthed and Paul writes, we know for sure, two letters to that particular church and in his second letter, second Corinthians and I mentioned this last time, Paul expressed what he was going through. I wanted to remind you and share a little bit. And second Corinthians went eight through 10. He said, we do not want you to be ignorant, brethren of our trouble, which came to us in Asia. He's speaking of Ephesus, that we were burdened beyond measure, above strength so that we despaired even of life. Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead, who delivered us from so great a death and does deliver us in whom we trust that he will still deliver us. And so he said, we were burdened. We were burdened beyond measure. We were burdened beyond human strength. We went through an incredible stress and the intensity was so severe, he's saying, that we despaired even of life. That word despaired means that we saw no hope of escape. There was no exit from this oppression. Now the Corinthians were unaware of the stress that he had gone through. They knew he experienced trauma but they didn't understand that the trauma actually exacted a personal cost. So he's saying, you are aware of my affliction but you're ignorant of the cost that I have paid. Now obviously that's understandable. How could somebody know the details of somebody else's life? And so for this reason, Paul finds it necessary to let them know what he paid, the cost. You see, even though they will not understand, it's important to let them know. You see, unawareness or immaturity in spiritual life sometimes will blind people to the cost that are paid for others like the apostle Paul. They might ask, why is he complaining? Isn't that what ministers do? Isn't he going through the things that ministers are supposed to? But the point is, he's saying, I remained faithful in my ministry to Jesus and my committed love for other people. Yes, he said in Versailles, we have the sentence of death in ourselves so that we wouldn't trust in ourselves. When he said we have the sentence, that word sentence is a judicial sentence. It's an official verdict with no hope of a reprieve. He's saying we had no human hope. We were completely without strength to save ourselves. But at this point, God intervened and he delivered us. Now when he wrote to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 10, verse 13, he said, there's no temptation taking you but such as is common to man, but God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you're able but will with the temptation also make a way of escape that you may be able to bear it. And so he knows that God has an escape plan and all of that, but in the midst of this horrifying experience, in the midst of wondering whether or not he might even die, we despaired even unto life. He still had hope in God and knew God was with him and he knew that God was refining his faith, that God was teaching him a deeper lesson. And sometimes when we as believers are going through difficulty, we need to have that understanding that God is giving to us lessons that'll deepen us in him. He had said that God was refining him, teaching him, and he went on in verse nine to say that we should not trust in ourselves, but God who raises the dead. God, the one who raises the dead is able to rescue me from death's grip. The psalmist said it like this in Psalm 116, verses eight and nine, he said, for you, O Lord, have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling, that I may walk before the Lord in the land of the living. So God was teaching him, do not trust in your own abilities, but trust in mine. You see, the heart of the Christian faith is trusting in God. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not into thine own understanding and all your ways acknowledge him and he will direct your path. And so he wants us to know this is what was taking place. He had said in verse 10 of 2 Corinthians who delivered us, does deliver us, in whom he trusts, he will still deliver us. And I mentioned to you that he was simply saying God has delivered, God does deliver, God will deliver, past, present, future, God has been faithful, is now faithful, will always be faithful. That's what it says in Psalm 34, verse four, I sought the Lord, he answered me, he delivered me from all my fears. And so as he's going through all of this, the mob became more threatening and the city clerk got involved. He quieted down the mob, he directed them to use the proper channels if they're so offended. He said, if you think your concerns are serious, take them to the court. If you have a justifiable case, take it before the higher assembly. If you continue this uproar though, you can be charged with inciting a riot and I ask you the question, is it worth it? So after saying this, the people were dismissed, peace was restored and that's where we're picking up our study in verse one of chapter 20. Because Luke says after the uproar had ceased, Paul called the disciples to himself, embraced them and departed to go to Macedonia. Paul wasn't running away, by the way, he was simply keeping the plans that he had already made. In Acts 19, verse 21, Paul had purpose to go to Jerusalem and hope to move on to Rome. But before he does this, he calls the disciples to himself, notice that he embraced them, that word embraced is not simply putting his arms around, the word embraced means to encourage. He was calling them to himself so he might encourage them. He assembled them so he could give them a farewell blessing. And so Paul leaves. It says here, Paul called the disciples to himself in verse one, embrace them and departed to go to Macedonia. So earlier he had sent Timothy and Arastus a minister in that region to the Corinthians and it's now time for him to return to the area that he might continue his ministry. And so in verse two, now when he had gone over that region and encouraged them with many words, he came to Greece and stayed three months and when the Jews plotted against him as he was about to sail to Syria, he decided to return through Macedonia. So he had gone through the region, he's been planting churches. So he had planted churches as we've seen in Thessalonica and a place called Berea as well as the city of Philippi. And what he was doing is he's encouraging them and he's giving them special, not special, spiritual insights. He's teaching them the ways of the Lord. Now next time we get together in chapter 20, he will say at verse 32, brother and I commend you to God in the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified. I commend you to the word of his grace. He wasn't just there putting his arm around them and patting them on the shoulder telling them it's gonna be okay. What he did is he showed up and he began to teach he was giving them the word of God. He was commending them to the grace of God that is found in the word. And that's a pattern that he has established early in his ministry after he got saved. In Acts 14, 21 and 22, it says they preached the gospel in that city, won a large number of disciples. Then they returned to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch, strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith. We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God, they said. In Acts 15, 41, he went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches. In Acts 16, four and five, as they went through the cities, they delivered to them the decrees to keep which were determined by the apostles and elders at Jerusalem so the churches were strengthened in the faith and increased in number daily. Chapter 18, verse 22, when he had landed at Caesarea, gone up and greeted the church, he went down to Antioch. After he had spent some time there, he departed and went to the region of Galatia and Friglia in order strengthening the disciples. And that's what he's doing. How do you get strengthened? You get strengthened through the teaching of the word of God. That's what he was doing. He wasn't just coming, showing his face and leaving. He was coming and teaching them, giving them the word which gives you strength. You see, Paul was not only a missionary evangelist, he was also a pastor, he's also a shepherd. And as a shepherd, he desired to make sure that they were healthy in a spiritual sense. So he went to the churches and he went to the churches with the desire to teach and to encourage the people and the leadership. And that's a pattern that we as church leaders to this day continue to follow. I was sharing this morning, I normally don't do this. I normally won't do this because of concern that it may seem like I'm trying to build myself up in front of you for some reason. And I assure you that that's not happening, but I never share with you certain things. Let me say this very briefly. As a pattern for church leaders, they will go to, as Paul did, and he's an example, to churches to strengthen them through the studies of the word of God, that's what they do. So in May, I was given opportunity to go to the Hudson Valley in New York to do ministry there. And also in the same month a couple of weeks later to go and teach at a pastor's conference called the East Coast Pastors Conference in Philadelphia. And in June, I have been invited to speak at the National Mexican Pastors Conference that'll be there. I hope I can come back. I have a passport, I think I can't. It's not too hard to get back anyway. So that'll take place, that's true. So that takes place in June, going to Mexico to Acapulco. I've been invited in July to go and minister to pastors in New Mexico. I've been invited also to go, and this I'm not sure about, to go to Honolulu to minister at the Hawaiian Pastors Conference there. I've been given opportunity and will be taking it to go up into Bellingham, Washington in September to teach pastors. That's what we do, that's what church leaders do. And that's what Paul sets as an example. He had planted churches, but he went back to minister in those churches so that they might know the ways of the Lord in a better sense. And so he came to Greece as it says in verse three and he stayed for three months. So he ministered in the north, he traveled south, ministered in a place called Corinth. Now he would have been at the port of Corinth which is called Sancrea when his opponents were rising up. They were plotting against him. So he left, he went north for safety reasons. In verse four, we have the names of his companions, Sopater of Berea, and so we have Sopater, Aristarchus. We have a man called Secundus. We have Gaius, Timothy, Tychicus, and Trophimus. He's just giving mention of these men who were companions. Now verse five said these men going ahead waited for us at Troas. So Paul had sent the team west, rather had sent the team to Troas which is located in northern Turkey. The men were able to prepare the church and Troas for Paul's soon visit. In verse six he says we sailed away from Philippi after the days of unleavened bread and in five days joined them at Troas where we stayed for seven days. And so I want to look at this and develop some things with you in just a moment. So what happens is in verse six again, we sailed away from Philippi after the days of unleavened bread. Now this feast was celebrated the day after Passover. That gives to us an insight into his timeline because Paul had celebrated Easter with the Philippian church and then he left. It took him in verse six five days to travel to Troas and he stayed there for a week for seven days. So they arrived on a Monday and he ministered to the church for six days and that would have been like a church conference. But it also gave him opportunity to minister on Sunday in a church service. So in verse seven on the first day of the week when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul ready to depart the next day spoke to them and continued his message until midnight. So I hope you guys brought a sacrilege. So after ministering to the church for a week, they celebrate the Lord's day. Gathering together for a Sunday service became the regular practice of the church. I'm gonna develop something with you, take just a moment. In 1 Corinthians 16 verses one and two, Paul says now concerning the collection for the saints as I've given orders to the churches of Galatia, so you must do also on the first day of the week, let each one of you lay something aside storing up as he may prosper that there be no collections when I come on the first day of the week. Some wonder why the church has formal services on Sunday instead of Saturday. I remember a lady approaching me after a study that I had given when, before we had built this particular sanctuary, we were in the chapel. And a lady approached me after the service and she said, this is my first time here, I'm a visitor. And I said, well, you're more than welcome, I'm glad you came. She said, I have a word from the Lord for you. I have a tendency of being a little bit like, yeah, okay, I'm not real big on visitors giving me words from the Lord, but I said, okay, then what, what's this word? And she took a moment to compose herself, I think, because as a prophetess you have to, but she, I'm teasing, she took a moment though and prepared herself and she said, the Lord is saying that if you were to meet on Saturday instead of Sunday, he will do a greater work. And I said, the Lord's not saying that. You are, and that's not true because the Lord is not doing, I'll show you why I said that to her. You see, the early church met on Sunday. It would beat on the first day of the week. And the reason the early church did that was to commemorate the resurrection of Christ. Jesus arose the first day of the week and in John 20, verse one, it says, on the first day of the week, Mary Madeleine went to the tomb early while it was still dark and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. And so the church would meet on Sunday to celebrate the reality of the resurrection of Christ, the first day of the week. And a second reason would be that the church was birthed on a Sunday. Pentecost fell on Sunday. So we would congregate, the church would congregate on Sundays. When you read your New Testament, they have what is called the Decalogue. It's referred to as the Decalogue. It's also spoken of as the Ten Commands or the Ten Words. And so the Ten Commandments in the Old Testament are found in chapter 20 of the book of Exodus. And so when you look in the New Testament, nine of the Ten Commandments that are given to us in the Old Testament are repeated in the New, nine of them are. These Commandments make up what is called the Moral Law. They establish what is appropriate Christian behavior. Nine of the Ten are repeated in the letters that we read in Scripture in the New Testament. But one of those Scriptures, one of those commands is not repeated to the church in the New Testament. And the one that is not repeated to the church in the New Testament is to keep the Sabbath. It is not commanded of us to do that. Sabbath observance is an ordinance that was established for the nation of Israel and not the church. In Exodus 31.16, it says therefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath to observe the Sabbath throughout its generations as a perpetual covenant. So the Sabbath keep it holy is a command to the nation of Israel, but not to the church. The Ten Commandments are reiterated in the New Testament because they establish moral behavior and the believer follows the precepts of those by the power of the spirit. But keeping the Sabbath is not a command to the church. So we as a church historically have met on the first day of the week, which is Sunday. Now we consider every day the day to celebrate the Lord. That's why you celebrate them 24 seven every day, but you'll congregate perhaps for a midweek study and you'll congregate here on a Sunday because that's what the church is historically done. You see when the church was first birthed and we saw this in Acts in chapter two in verse 42, it said that they had continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine, fellowship, break into bread and in prayers. So that was the habit of the church and in verses 46 and 47 of the same chapter, chapter two, it said continuing daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house. They ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people and the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved. So we gather on a Sunday, though we will gather other days, but we gather on a Sunday to celebrate as a congregation but we can do that throughout the week also. Now, there are those who believe that those who worship on Sunday are pagans. They think they are sun worshipers. I was reading that, I'm not gonna give you a lot of quotations about it, but I was reading that as I went and prepared the study. They call those of us who meet on Sunday sun worshipers and we're pagans. But we're to have daily fellowship with the Lord. According to Romans 14, five and six, one person esteems one day above another, another esteems every day alike. Let each be fully convinced in his own mind. He who observes the day observes it to the Lord. He who does not observe the day to the Lord, he does not observe it. So for us, we meet, we do it because of the resurrection of Christ in the day of Pentecost when the church was birthed, but we celebrate Christ every day. But the habit of the early church is on the first day of the week. And that's what it says in verse seven, on the first day of the week when the disciples came together to break bread. So the church had gathered, they were celebrating communion, they received the teaching. Paul was gonna leave the next day, so he gave a very long message. See, in the early evening they gathered, they shared a meal. After supper, Paul continues teaching them long and to the night. And it's now midnight. And Paul is continuing to preach and to pour into them. He's about to leave them. His concern for them is very deep. He didn't know if he'd ever see them again so he continues teaching. Well, as this is taking place, verse eight, it says there were many lamps in the upper room where they were gathered. Now I'll give you something about that in a moment that is part of this, but the room is lit by torches. That makes the room warm and there in the top floor, heat rises. That means that it's very warm and it has smoke that is filling, if you will, that room. Now Luke makes it clear that there were many lamps that were providing light. Why was that? Well, part of the reason he'd say this is to save the church from false accusations. You see, unbelievers would party and commit sin under the cover of darkness. In John three, 19 through 21, Jesus said it like this. He said, this is the verdict. Light has come into the world but people love darkness instead of light because their deeds are evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God. So in the darkness, your deeds are hidden but when the light is shining, they're exposed. I've shared this with you before but my mom, when I was growing up, had one of these makeup mirrors. Some of you ladies are aware of those. And this one was, it was a circular mirror with lights around it and you could actually set the setting. You could have dusk, you could have full daylight. It had different settings. Now as long as I kept it on the lowest setting, I looked good. But when you turn the light up, you see your imperfections a lot clearer. So people like to hide their deeds in the dark. So during that time, it is necessary to say that they are having a lot of light. Why? To save the church from false accusations because the world would say, look at them. They've been going at it for so long. They're up in the room and it's all dark and these are a bunch of immoral people. They're engaging in sinful acts. So the abundance of light was to provide proof that they weren't doing things that were evil. It's like what it says in 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 5, you are all children of light, children of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. See, some Christians don't seem to care about what their testimony is like. But they were, they were concerned about their testimony before the unbelieving world. And that's not legalistic. It was a concern, a concern they had for the lost. And it was also out of concern for the honor of the Lord and his message. When Paul was writing the Ephesian church in chapter five verse three, he said, but among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality or of any kind of impurity or of greed because these are improper for God's holy people. So they made sure the lights were on so that no false accusations would be made about them. Well, as this is taking place, verse nine, in a window sat a certain young man named Eutychus who was sinking into a deep sleep. He was overcome by sleep. And as Paul continued speaking, he fell down from the third story and was taken up dead. They were up in the third floor. It's quieter there. They don't hear the sound of the city very well. Eutychus sat on a window ledge. The windows were not necessarily that large but they were large enough because they would let the air in and all the cool the room down. So there he is on a window ledge. After a long day, after eating a meal, he became sleepy and he dozed off. He fell asleep in church. When our church was young, I was teaching in a small church we were on Vine Street. And I heard a little bit of a noise. Now you have to understand, you could only see it 100 to 120 in this church. It wasn't much larger than a house. So I mean, everybody's, you're just, you know, that you're close. And I hear some laughter and it was muffled but it was there. It was off to my left. And they had their hands over their mouth and they're laughing. Well, what had happened is a friend of mine named Frankie had brought his bomb to church and she had dozed off as I was teaching and she fell and she fell on top of the people next to her. And so when she landed on him and she landed hard apparently, everybody around the room started busting up because they saw her go out. And so those things still happen to this day. I had a guy named Vinny in the church. Vinny was a young fella and we would have home Bible studies and Vinny would be no more than 10 feet away from me. He was that close. And I still remember, he would come to the Wednesday night study and fight sleep. I still remember looking at him. I get fascinated with things like that because you know when someone's about to fall asleep how their bodies begin to kind of move back and forth and it looked like he was dancing in his sleeves. And then his eyes crossed. He was that sleepy. Boom, he'd go to sleep all the time. When I was in Israel, our very first trip to Israel, we went with several people. A guy named Kent who was a friend of ours was there. We had traveled. We had had, we didn't have a direct flight. So we had traveled, had a three hour layover travel. It took us a long time to get to where we were at. We landed in Tel Aviv. Then you get on a bus and it takes you about an hour or so, a little bit more or so to get to our location that we were gonna be at. And Pastor Chuck Smith who was leading the tour wanted to teach. We're all totally out of it. And so I was sitting there with my wife Marie and I'm just kind of sitting there like this. But right in my sight line was Kent. And I'm watching him instead of listening to the pastor because Kent's sitting and his head is going forward like that. And you know how that is. And you try to look like you didn't do that. He did it several times. And then finally he fell out of the chair on the floor. And Pastor Chuck looks at him, guys picked him up and Chuck just kept teaching. That was Chuck Smith. He didn't interrupt his study for that. So people fall asleep in church to this day. This guy was in church and he was falling asleep and somebody walked up to him and said, why are you falling asleep in church? He says, well, because I always live to sleep at the feet of the master, which is garbage. That's just garbage. And so there he is and he faints. Now it says in verse nine, he was overcome by sleep but Paul continued speaking and he fell down. Verse 10 says, Paul went down, fell on him and heard him even worse. No, Paul fell down, went down, fell on him and embracing him said, do not trouble yourselves. His life is in him. He fell from the third story out of the window, three flights down, he hits the cobblestone and he dies, he dies. And so Paul embraces this young man when it says he fell down on him. He embraces young man and he stretches himself over him. Now that is something you see in scripture because it reminds me of the ministry of Elijah as well as Elijah, but pointing to Elijah. The prophet Elijah in the Old Testament was staying in the city called Sidon. He had ministered to a widow and her son but over time the son had died and the widow was overwhelmed with grief. So she came to Elijah carrying the boy and Elijah told her hand your son to me. He took the boy, he placed him on the bed, he stretched himself out to like what Paul's doing and it says in 1 Kings 17, 21 and 22 he stretched himself out on the child three times, cried out to the Lord and said, oh Lord my God I pray let this child's soul come back to him. The Lord heard the voice of Elijah, the soul of the child came back to him and he revived and so this is similar to what had taken place in the Old Testament but notice in verse 10 he says, do not trouble yourselves, his life is in him. They're so emotionally upset. Paul has to encourage them to compose themselves and he says his life is in him. He's been brought back to life. So Paul performs a miracle. Now a miracle is a sign of an apostle. Today there are people who refer to themselves as the apostle of the church and you can see it all you need to do is Google a church apostle and you'll see pages that open up for men who refer to themselves as an apostle. That's not something that's uncommon in our day. Well, the word apostle means it's from the Greek apostle it speaks of what has been empowered and sent out with authority and so sometimes they use that in lieu of using the name pastor or shepherd or whatever but there are no biblical apostles like in the early days of the church. There are no longer those. There are no longer those who are able to fulfill that particular role. You see that the genuine apostle was selected by Christ yet had seen Jesus, his death and resurrection and also according to 2 Corinthians chapter 12 verse 12 truly the signs of an apostle were brought among you in all patience, signs, wonders and mighty deeds. So Paul pointed to himself as an apostle and the miracles that were performed were validating that claim and so he was brought back to life. Verse 11, now when he had come up had broken bread and eaten and talked a long time even till daybreak he departed and they brought the young man in alive and they were not a little comforted. So the casualness of Paul's behavior is amazing. He performed a miracle but he went back to teaching. Miracles draw immediate interest and intensifies the importance of what is being said. So they're listening with more intensity and he's speaking and continues speaking the rest of the night and none of them was bored. No one else fell asleep. Now when they brought verse 12 the young man in alive they were comforted. Now in an earlier portion of Acts the apostles had started experiencing opposition. The religious authorities had commanded them not to preach in Jesus's name. That had led to a prayer meeting calling on God for protection. Remember in Acts 4, 29 and 30 they prayed now Lord look on their threats and grant to your servants that with all boldness they may speak your word by stretching out your hand to heal and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of your holy servant Jesus and God was confirming his word through this miracle. Now verse 13, then we went ahead to the ship and sailed for Asus. They're intending to take Paul on board so he had given orders intending himself to go on foot. And when he met us at Asus we took him on board and came to Medellin. We sailed from there and the next day came opposite Cheon. No, I mean Cheos, I'm sorry. Cheon's a slanger for crybaby. Anyway, the following day we arrived at Samus and stayed at Fragilium. The next day we came to Miletus for Paul had decided sail past Ephesus so that he would not have to spend time in Asia for he was hurrying to be at Jerusalem if possible on the day of Pentecost. Now I'm gonna take you through a few things as we do this. Paul is sailing down the southern coast of Turkey. He's moving towards the nation of Israel. And what we have here briefly is Luke giving a sailing itinerary that he had taken. What they would do is they would travel for a day and then they would harbor overnight. Asus is a port city that's 24 miles south of where Paul was, Troas. So Paul decided to travel by land. No reason is given as to why but after so much activity it may be he needed a bit of quiet time. So it says when he met us verse 14 in Asus we took him on board and came to Medellin. Medellin is the capital city of an island called Lesbos. It was 30 miles south of Asus. So Paul would have stayed overnight on board in the harbor of that island. Again, we sail verse 15 from there and came opposite Chios. The next day they came to the island of Samus they stayed in the town of Trudilium but he's ending up in the port city of Miletus which is 35 miles south of Ephesus. But I wanted to develop verse 16 with you. Notice what it says in verse 16. Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus so that he would not have to spend time in Asia for he was hurrying to be at Jerusalem if possible on the day of Pentecost. Paul wanted to be in Jerusalem for Pentecost. Why? As an evangelist, as a missionary he wanted to speak to the greatest numbers of people that he could. When you go through the book of Acts you're gonna see that Paul would stop in villages but he also would go to major cities. He was there in Ephesus, he was in Corinth, he was in Thessalonica. He would go to major cities, Philippi. He wanted to go to where there was a large population where there was a greater opportunity to preach to a great number of people. It wasn't that he avoided the country villages. He went through them but he would concentrate much of his attention on the larger cities. So it's time for Pentecost. He wants to go to Jerusalem because according to one writer though Jerusalem numerically was not this large during the festivals when it was mandatory for Jewish males to show up for the festival unless they were simply incapable of doing so the city that wasn't that large would swell to four million people. Now if you've ever been to the city of Jerusalem so many of you have then I asked you to remember for a moment it's really not that large a geographic area. So four million people would show up for the celebration of Pentecost. Paul wanted to minister to them. He was a tireless evangelist and he was a church planter. Paul loved people in general. God had given him a commission to preach the gospel to the Gentiles and he knew that was his ministry but he had a special love for the nation of Israel. In Romans he speaks of it in chapter nine verses one through five when he says I speak the truth in Christ I'm not lying my conscience confirms it through the Holy Spirit. I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart for I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my people those of my own race the people of Israel. There's is the adoption to sonship. There's the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. There's are the patriarchs and from them is traced the human ancestry of the Messiah who is God over all for ever praise they've in. He said I love the people in general I received a commission you find this in other portions of Acts to minister to the Gentiles but in his heart there was a tremendous longing for people according to his flesh to come to faith in Christ he had a special burden for the Jews. He would go to the synagogues first when he first arrived and he would any city and he would minister first to them and then when he was writing to the Romans he would say to the Jew first and also the Gentile. So he points out that these are God's people these are the people that had all of these advantages they had the word of God they had the promises for Messiah they had the Messiah himself they had the prophets the temple they had so many things but they didn't have Messiah and so he wanted them to know Christ he wanted them to know Jesus Christ and so he longed to be there especially when there'd be more people so he could reach more people the more people there were the greater the opportunity to speak to them and to see many come to faith in Christ and that's what he did he wanted to share the good news with his people he wanted them to know Messiah had come and eternal life could be theirs and because of this he wanted to share with the greatest number that he could he wanted to be in Jerusalem on the birthday of the church because he wanted to preach to them and that's what the heart of Christianity is let me share with you a couple things Paul said I would give up my own salvation if my brethren could be saved what a love for the Jewish people as I mentioned to you recently I heard one young lady giving a study and she said that Paul was an anti-Semitic man nothing further than the truth this is one who had said I would give up my own spot to somebody else so that they could know Christ I want them to know Messiah the heart of evangelism the heart of the evangelist is calling people to repentance and come to faith in Christ that was the heart of the Jesus movement it still is the movement of Jesus never ceased but in the time that I got saved that was the heart of the movement with one hand you take Jesus' hand the other one you take a friend we had that as our basic theology you go into the world preach the gospel let people know about Christ and that's what motivated us that's what motivated somebody like me to talk to my friends, my family and all and when I got saved as I've mentioned before the first person who ever came to faith in Christ through me was my sister Madeleine because I had come home, I had been saved I shared with her what God had done in my life she had gone to bed that night and she said whatever you did for my brother please do for me and she came to faith in Christ shortly after I had gotten saved I went into the military I spent my time in the service I came out and I moved back home when I got out of the army and I talked to my sister Madeleine who is a very special woman to me and I asked her, I said, Maddie I said you were in high school as a born again believer what did you do with your faith and she sat there, I'll never forget she sat across from me at the table at my parents' house and she said David she says I wanted to be popular so I didn't share Christ with anybody and when she said that to me I didn't say anything to her I just looked at her and she started to cry she said I have so many friends that I could have shared with that I'll never have an opportunity to share again I won't see it my opportunity passed and she was crying and she said I will not do that again when I get an opportunity to share Christ I will so about a year later my brother gets saved I live in Norwalk at that time my brother lives here in Ontario so I saw that he wasn't growing in his faith because he wasn't going to church and it concerns me as a brother so I asked for permission to teach a Bible study to him and he gave me permission so on Monday nights starting in September of 74 on Monday nights I would go to his house a little apartment really and I would give him a Bible study and my sister Madeline would come with me every Monday night my brother Frank, Madeline and me my brother began inviting people to come to his Bible study a little apartment it didn't hold many but I still remember this one person who came walking in the door I still remember I could hear my brother's voice in my memory as he said David I'd like you to meet Marie and so Marie comes in I give a Bible study I ask her after the study how long have you been a Christian? She says all my life so she's been a liar for all those years you aren't born, born again so I just kind of nodded two weeks later she came to the Bible study my sister Madeline who cried that she failed to share Christ who had said I'm not going to lose opportunities ever again I will take the opportunities when they give it to me my sister Madeline took my then friend Marie and led her to the Lord you never know what's going to happen when you open up your mouth and speak I would not have my wife if my sister had not shared the goodness of God with a young woman who was searching know that know that Paul's hunger for people to know Christ drove him to go to Jerusalem so that he might have an opportunity to share with all of those people it's not just the multitudes though it's also the individual see this church began not because I wanted to have a building and a lot of people visit or be part of it began because Marie's sister had come to faith in Christ through my ministry she was the first person who ever answered an open invitation that I gave and so my Patty who is a sister to me when I resigned my position from where I was assisting asked me where are you going to be on Sunday and I said I don't have a place yet when I find a church I'll let you know can you teach me until you find a place that's how this church began so God ministers to multitudes but he begins with the man with the person with the individual Paul could see multitudes but he also would see the individual like when Philip saw the Ethiopian eunuch as he was returning from Jerusalem he attached himself to the chariot and the Ethiopian was reading the book of Isaiah then he turns and says to Philip who does this man speak of himself or some other and from that point in Isaiah Philip began to preach the word of God it's not the multitudes you should be really concerned with it's also the individuals and Paul had a desire to reach not only multitudes but individuals because multitudes are made up of individuals and so you never know what God is going to do through you when you speak to that one person who hasn't heard the gospel yet you don't know what God can do with that person you don't know you know Billy Graham who was led to faith by a man named Mordecai Ham very few people remember Mordecai Ham but they remember Billy Graham there was a shoe salesman who led D. L. Moody to Christ simply because he was a Sunday school teacher I don't even know the name of the shoe salesman but I can tell you D. L. Moody one of the greatest evangelists the United States has ever seen or heard that's what happens it's the individuals that you want to reach Charles Spurgeon the prince of the expositors the prince of preachers is in a small chapel in England and the pastor couldn't show up so a lay person got up and gave a message and pointed his bony little finger at a man named Charles Haddon Spurgeon and he said you son are very miserable but if you do not give your heart to Christ you will be even more miserable in hell Charles Spurgeon receives Christ and becomes the prince of the preachers you never know open your mouth share with people God can do wonderful things and in the case of Paul that's what happened Paul would reach out plant churches minister to the people he was tireless in his efforts to do so and we ought to be too what is better than the promise of heaven what is better than forgiveness of sins what is better than the losing that guilt that we carry on our shoulders so often for so long Paul said I want to reach people for Christ whether it's a single individual or whether it's a multitude because when I see the multitude I see the man a multitude is simply made up of many individuals perhaps the Lord perhaps the Lord has put it on your heart to lead someone to Christ someone you love you may even think there's no chance they won't come to faith did you just never forget there are people who thought that about you too there's no chance that person will come to faith there's no chance you never know last thing I was at a concert I've shared this before I was at a concert in front of me was a motorcycle gangster he had the Levi jacket with no sleeves he had his biker patch he's a big man very big and I'm looking at him and I'm thinking I'm sitting right behind him and I'm thinking he can't get saved this guy's too far gone that's what I was thinking he can't get saved he's too far gone the invitation was given I'll never forget how he stood up made his way past people as he was crying I saw him wiping his eyes and then I see this huge band come and stand in front of the platform and the spirit of the Lord poured something into my heart that I've never forgotten he said I can save anyone I can save anyone preach the gospel have a heart for the lost Paul did that's why he wanted to go to Pentecost on the celebration of the birthday of the church he wanted to see God pour out even more to reach those people for the gospel of Jesus Christ may God work that into our hearts also