Acts 20 On the Way
I. Life is a Journey
1. Ever gone on a trip for the purpose of seeing what you see along the way?
2. We toured Washington, Oregon, northern California, Idaho, Montana, and North and South Dakota.
3. “Life is a journey, not a destination.” That doesn’t make sense. Every journey has a destination.
4. Someone else said, “Life is a journey and journeys are all about direction.”
5. “Life is a journey, not a race.” But it has a course and you better know how to stay on it.
7. The course of Acts (1:8), “You will receive power and be My witnesses to the end of the earth.”
8. Paul determines, like Jesus before, to go to Jerusalem. Paul’s traveling missionary days are over.
II. On the Journey We Need Companionship (20:1-6)
1. “Parting is such sweet sorrow,” (Shakespeare). “Pathetic,” making us full of pathos, feeling.
2. This chapter is dominated by Paul giving his last words to the churches he’s seeing for the last time.
4. There are nine companions listed in verses four to six, including Luke, indicated by “we.”
5. You need a “we.” That’s what churches are supposed to be: traveling companions on your journey.
III. On the Journey We Need Signs (20:7-12)
1. When people are giving their last words, they are going to try to make them count.
2. At Troas, as they are gathered together in a third floor room to eat, Paul talked on and on.
3. A young man, Eutychus, was sitting on the window cill, fell asleep and fell to the ground.
4. Paul scooped him up, “his life is in him.” When it was all over, they took him away alive and well.
5. It was a sign of the Lord’s blessing on Paul’s mission, on this farewell tour. It was a time for life.
6. They were “not a little comforted” by the raising of Eutychus. We’re also comforted by signs.
IV. On the Journey We Need Purpose (20:13-16)
1. Paul has a purpose. He no longer appears to be wandering. He’s focused and intent.
3. Paul was in a hurry because he has a purpose, to be at Jerusalem by Pentecost.
4. Do you know what your purpose is? Does it drive you, urge you on, sometimes make you in a hurry?
V. On the Journey We Need a Destination (20:17-38)
A. Paul’s Example (20:18-19)
1. “You yourselves know,” (20:18), “how I lived among you . . .”. His life was an example to them.
2. He was serving the Lord with humility. He was caring, weeping with those who weep.
3. This wasn’t a cool professional relationship. Their trials kept him up at night. They made him cry.
4. He was an example of suffering. We may have to go through suffering on our way.
B. Paul’s Message (20:20-21)
1. He “did not shrink from declaring . . . anything that was profitable.” He gave them everything.
2. “I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole council of God.” Everything God has revealed.
3. We want to get the whole counsel of God because it’s all profitable. So we study all of the Bible.
4. He testified to all kinds of people “of repentance toward God” and “of faith in our Lord Jesus.”
C. Paul’s Present (22-27)
1. Now he’s concerned for the present. He’s constrained as if he were bound with ropes, by the Spirit.
3. Why does he knowingly go toward a destination that will result in prison and suffering?
4. Because, “I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself.” (20:24)
5. You are so drawn to the destination, you don’t count as precious what you have to give up to get it.
6. “I do not count my life as precious to myself . . . if only I can finish my course.”
7. In his present then and ours now, the vision of our future destination drives us to stay on course.
8. He’s innocent of their blood (judgement) because he declared the whole counsel of God.
9. If we hold something back when they are judged then we will be held partly responsible.
D. Their Future (20:28-31)
1. “Pay careful attention . . . to all the flock,” the church. They are elders, overseers and shepherds.
2. They are to care for the church because God purchased it with “His own blood” (20:28).
3. After he leaves, “fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock” (20:29).
4. Now, he has to go on his way. We have to be ready to go on our way without our past companions.
E. Paul’s Parting Instruction (20:32-35)
1. “Now I commend you to God and the Word of His grace” (20:32).
2. The Word of God is what God will use to protect His flock. Stay attentive to the Word of God.
3. It is able to “give you the inheritance” the Father has for you, your sanctification and glorification.
5. Our inheritance, the destination, comes through the Word of God. I commend it to you.
7. Jesus said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”
VI. Invitation: Our journeys might look different but in the end all those who are sanctified are going to the same great destination. Let’s have such a vision of the destination that we don’t count temporary losses along the way as too much to deter us; that we stay on course; we stay with the Word of His grace and we stay on the way.
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