God Unlimited

Acts 20:7-16

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.

Sermon Transcript:

Good morning everybody. Good morning. Good morning. Nice and humid out. Uh, I wanna start off this morning by hopefully helping us get into a space that the characters in the text we’re gonna look at today may have been. Uh, so you ever been ghosted anybody? Some people are like, what does that mean?

Um, You ever like send an email and the kids are like, what’s that email? Uh, maybe a text, uh, instant direct messages, whatever the kids do these days. And like somebody just didn’t get back to you or didn’t get back to you in a timely manner. Like, what’s that? Do I know what that does to me, it’s like there’s some, some neglect just like, Hey, does this person even even care?

They know I’m alive. Yeah, but then it doesn’t take me too long to think about the other side where I’ve been the one that hasn’t gotten back to somebody in a timely manner. I don’t have to think too long or hard about a time, many times that I just haven’t gotten back to people in a timely manner. And it’s like, well, yeah, I’m, I’m preoccupied.

There’s life going on. There’s things that are happening li like, life just gets in the way and I just haven’t been able to give somebody the attention they deserve or, or that they need. Or maybe think about another time where that preoccupation or that neglect leads to like a missed opportunity. You think back in your life and you’re like, man, this could have been so good or so great, but it was just this person, you know, neglected me or I, I was preoccupied.

I wasn’t in the right space, wrong place, wrong time, that type of space, and it’s a missed opportunity. There’s a, there’s a loss there. There’s a maybe a sadness. Or, or think about many of you here, I’m sure all of you have experienced some type of deep loss, death of a loved one. Somebody that’s gone out of your life no longer there.

There’s a void, there’s a, there’s a sadness in our heart. There’s a lingering loss. What we’re talking about with this, we can go to the first slide. What we’re talking about really with all of these preoccupation, neglect, loss, death missed opportunities, these are all talking about human limitations.

We’re, we’re limited beings. It’s like preoccupation. I can only focus on so many things at one time. Like I, I’m not unlimited. I’m, I’m limited. It’s, it’s a limitation missed opportunity. It’s like, I, I can’t go back in time. Like I, I’m, I don’t know about you, but I only move forward in time. Right? I can’t go back in time and undo that mistake or, or redo something and, and try to, try to change things that, that they could be better.

It’s like, it’s just a, a missed opportunity. That’s the next point in the slide. Um, next one, neglect. Like, I can’t make people pay attention to me the way I think I need them to, or, or I want. Like I, I’m, I’m limited there. And then ultimately, with loss or death, like ultimately this is outta my control.

There’s things bigger than me. There’s things that I, I can’t control. So what do we do when we’re faced with our own limitations? The characters in our text this morning dealt with each of these limitations. And let’s see how Luke, we’re gonna look at a passage in acts. Let’s see how Luke presents this to us, and we’ll find out how did these characters deal with these limitations, and we’ll ask God to speak to us about how we deal with these limitations in our own lives.

First, let’s open up in prayer.

Father, you’re a good God. You’re a good father to us. Lord, thank you for how you speak, how you work. Thank you for your son. Thank you for your spirit. I pray that you would steal our hearts right now. Whatever preoccupations or or things that are taking up our minds, our hearts, Lord, help our, help us to have ears to hear.

Help us to have open hearts and soft hearts to understand what you want to say to us. Lord, help us receive your word this morning, Lord. We love you in Jesus’ name. Amen. Passage this morning is Acts 20 verses seven to 16. It’s on the screen behind me. I’ll go ahead and read this. You can read along on the first day of the week when we, now, who’s this?

We? This is Luke, who’s writing is first person. So this is Luke. Paul, as well as his multi-ethnic group of traveling companions from all over these churches in Greece and Asia. Pastor Mark preached a couple weeks ago and he’s got this crew traveling with him, different, uh, ethnicities, different socioeconomic classes, like it’s a, it’s a pretty diverse group that’s traveling along with Paul.

So it’s Luke Paul and this crew, and they find themselves now in Troas. Uh, on the first day of the week when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them, who’s the them is the believers, the church intro, as intending to depart on the next day, and he prolonged his speech until midnight.

There were many lamps in the upper room. Dun, dun, dun. Doing that on purpose. It’s not just like a, a nervous tick. We’ll, we’ll come back to it later. There are many lamps in the upper room where we were gathered. A young man named Utica sitting at the window sank into a deep sleep. As Paul talked still longer and being overcome by sleep or uh, being overcome by sleep, he fell down from the third story was taken up dead.

He died. But Paul went down, bent over him, taking him up in his arms. He said, don’t be alarmed for his life is in him. And when Paul had gone up and broken bread and eaten, he conversed with them for a long while until daybreak. Then he departed. They took the youth away alive and they were not a little comforted, meaning they were greatly comforted.

Not just a little bit, but going ahead to the ship. We set sail for Osos, intending to take Paul aboard there for, so he had a range. Intending himself to go by land. When he met us at asos, we took him on board and went to midline sailing. From there, we came the following day opposite Chios, and the next day we touched at Samos, and the next day we went to myelitis For Paul had decided to sail past deficits so that he might not have to spend time in Asia for, he was hasting to be at Jerusalem, if at all possible.

On the day of Pentecost. This passage shows that Luke, Paul, their traveling crew, the believers at Troas, they all discovered that God is beyond human limitations. We talked about these human limitations. These believers all discovered that God’s beyond those human limitations. The main idea for this morning with our next slide, the, the big idea for this whole S sermon is that you and I can understand that God is beyond our limitations.

God’s beyond your limitations. So let’s take a look at this. First point here is a preoccupied Paul. Preoccupied Paul, you might think, well, we just talked about like Paul’s preaching all the way till midnight. Somebody falls out of a window, a kid, and this kid dies. Paul brings him, restores his life, preaches again till mourning is like he’s on the move.

Seems like he’s pretty dialed in, right? Well, We’re gonna talk about preoccupied, Paul, because there’s a lot going on that’s a backstory to this. And we’re gonna hang out here for a little while and just build this up so we understand where is Paul, where are the believers in Trez? What’s going on? So Paul’s at Trez, what brought him to Trez a couple weeks ago.

Pastor Mark talked about that. Paul, what Paul’s doing, Paul, uh, he’s visiting all these churches throughout Greece. Uh, Macedonia Akay with this crew of traveling companions, and he’s on a mission. He’s not just traveling around like building up frequent flyer miles and hotel points. Like he’s got something going on.

He’s doing something. And in your first three scripture references here, first Corinthians, uh, 16, second Corinthians seven, Romans 15. Paul’s telling his readers what he’s doing. You can check out those passages. He’s, he’s on a fundraising mission. He’s collecting all these funds to bring back to the tr the church in Jerusalem, and this is meaningful for Paul.

He’s got this multi-ethnic crew with him, different socioeconomic classes, and he’s getting money from all these different churches with diverse crowds, diverse congregants, and taking this back to the church in Jerusalem, this is a unique mission. It’s the first of its kind across national borders, different ethnicities going back to this church in Jerusalem, and they’re not just doing this to like build up the building in Jerusalem.

Jerusalem is the first church. And it has experienced more persecution now for decades at this point than any other church. And there’s famine as well there. Paul was one of the people that persecuted the church early on, so their experience from Jewish leadership, from the Roman government, from natural famines, droughts, like all of this is hitting the church in Jerusalem.

So Paul’s raising these funds to literally help them survive. And that’s meaningful for Paul. And Paul’s preoccupied with this. He’s constantly writing about it in his letters, so he’s preoccupied there with this mission, but that’s not all. Next point on the slide asks, uh, we can go to a couple there.

Next one. Oh, might have missed one. Give me, go back. Go back one. Uh, alright. Uh, so fundraising and then, uh, the, uh, next thing on, uh, that we need to talk about is what’s going on in Corinth. And we might look at this and we think, what does Corinth have to do with this church intro as, so Corinth is in Greece, Chaz is in Asia.

Chaz is a key port city, uh, connecting Greece and Asia. And Paul had been here a couple times before. Earlier he came, he passed through on his second missionary journey. This is about five years ago, and he ends up in Chaz. I’ll read Acts 16, six to 10, and we’ll come back to this passage one more time at the end here, but just pay attention to this passage.

They went through. This is Paul and his crew. They went through the region of frig and Galatia having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. And when they had come up to Meia, they attempted to go into Bethia, but the spirit of Jesus did not allow them. So passing by Meia, they went down Toz.

Okay, we’re not being told we can’t go here. So finally we’re, we’re in Troas. Okay, I guess we’ll set up camp here and, uh, minister to the believers in Troas. And a vision appeared to Paul in the night. A man of Macedonia was standing there urging him and saying, come over to Macedonia, which is Northern Greece and help us.

When Paul had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. So this leads to Paul traveling away from Chaz. Now he’s been there, uh, maybe, we’ll, we will minister here. Believers likely excited, and then. He’s gone and he heads over to Northern Greece to minister there, and this leads to him planting the churches in Philippi, in Thessalonica.

Uh, he goes down to Southern Greece and uh, goes to Athens, plants the church there, and then he plants this church in Corinth. And it’s Atz that Paul just is there and then gone. It was also Atz if you paid attention there. Luke switches from the third person. He said they, they came to Troas and then we left.

So this is where Luke joins the party in Troas, but Paul doesn’t really spend hardly any time there. Paul then comes back Toz on this, his third missionary journey. And at that time, he had been here like three months before now, and now he’s on his way back to Jerusalem, taking these funds back to Jerusalem.

So he’s coming back through Trez and when he came here the first time, he had every intention of preaching the gospel to the believers in Trez and helping to build the church there. But in the past five years, there’s been some. Wild things that have gone on. And Pastor Mike talked last week about stuff that was going on in Corinth.

There’s some serious stuff going on. I’m just gonna run through a quick, uh, rundown here. So, initially after planning the church in Corinth five years ago, Paul spends a year and a half there, ministering to that point. It was the longest time he had been with a body of believers. So he, he’s ministering to this church in Corinth.

And then he ends up back in, in Jerusalem and then in Antioch, and then he sets out on his third missionary journey. He ministers an Ephesus for three years, but while he’s in Ephesus, that’s when things get really dicey with the Corinthian church. There’s all this stuff that’s going on in Paul. Paul initially writes them a letter that’s lost to history and the Corinthians, they’re like, Hey, you know that that didn’t take, they write ’em back.

And so then Paul writes what we call First Corinthians in response to them to say, no, no, no, I didn’t mean this. You know, like I, I need to explain this. Like, here’s what I’m meaning. And First Corinthians is written in response there. Then Paul pays them a visit, and we don’t know much about this visit except that it went bad like it was.

Bad. He went to Corinth and for whatever reason, he’s like kicked out. He’s rejected. They, they don’t want anything to do with him, and that’s incredibly painful to Paul. He, he writes of this in Second Corinthians and there’s depression and like, man, it’s like he’s, he’s affected by this, so he writes them another letter.

So I, I decided not to meet with you again in person. And again, this other letter is lost to history, but Paul calls it a severe, a harsh letter. It’s a letter of tears where he’s pleading with them to stop their sinful ways and repent. And like he’s, he’s, he’s pulling for ’em, pleading for them. So he gives that letter to Titus with a mission to deliver it to their church in Corin.

And then visit the churches back in Macedonia, meet back up with us in Troas. So this is on Paul’s mind now. He comes to Troas three months ago. He’s come to Rez and he’s like, all right, I’m gonna meet up with Titus, see what’s going on. There’s just one problem, Titus, isn’t there? It’s like, how did the church in Corinth receive Titus?

How did they think of my letter? This, this harsh letter. What’s going on? Two Corinthians two, 12 to 13. Just listen to how this is impacting Paul when I came to TRO as to preach the Gospel of Christ. So he’s intending to stay in Troas and and preach even though a door was open for me in the Lord opportunity here, my spirit was not at rest because I did not find my brother Titus there.

So I took leave of them and went on to Macedonia, and he’s going to Macedonia to look for Titus. I just wanna pause here. Have you ever been in a space like this where it’s like, man, I, I have this opportunity, but man, there’s this other stuff going on and I’m preoccupied with that and it’s like eating me up.

I can’t think about anything else. I can’t even be present with the people that are in front of me because of what’s going on out here. Maybe there’s something you feel like you’ve botched because of this. It’s like, uh, you know, there’s a, there was an opportunity here and it’s like a missed opportunity.

This all leads to these feelings of regret, these feelings of loss, this feelings of missing out something could have been so good, but sin or failure or preoccupation or neglect. It just led to these missed opportunities. But what we discover here is God is not limited by those missed opportunities.

Paul, the church is in Corinth and Troas. They all show that God’s not limited by missed opportunities. Like who? Who are we talking about here? Believers in Chaz. Paul didn’t plant this church. Paul had very little to do. With these believers in Trez, spent barely any time there yet. The spirit’s at work with this church in Chaz.

They were here five years ago before Paul got there. They’re here now. When Paul’s here again, they were here after, because of the spirits work. This spirit is doing bigger things, and it doesn’t depend. He doesn’t depend on Paul just nailing every single opportunity he’s given. There’s missed opportunities, but the spirit is at work.

The spirit is also working in Paul and the believers in Corinth. We just talked about Paul’s movement. He’s like in person and I can’t work with them that way, so I’ll do letters and, and he’s pleading with them, asking them, begging them, and he’s working through this patch in their relationship. Just read two Corinthians seven to see how the spirit moved in.

These believers in Corinth, they read his letter and they are grieved by it, but they’re not just grieved. They’re grieved to repentance and they welcome Titus with open arms and Titus when he goes back and meets up with Paul in Macedonia. Paul, I just imagined this reunion and Paul’s like, how did it go?

And Titus is like Paul, I was blown away. They. They welcomed me with open arms. They repented, they’re, they’ve humbled themselves. They’re listening and, and living in the spirit. They encouraged me, like there was movement in the spirit in Paul and in these believers in Corinth. So just listen to, listen to that and understand that.

Like whatever’s in your past, whatever missed opportunities there might be because of these preoccupations, these neglect, these human experiences, the same spirit of God that moved in Paul and in the Corinthians, and the believers in Trez is alive and working today and is moving today, and you can live and breathe and move in.

That same spirit of God working today. That spirit is not limited by any missed opportunity. We’ll go to the next slide now. So now we finally get to our text and I hope nobody fell asleep because that would be bad, um, with our, uh, text today. But, uh, we’ll talk about Paul in the upper room.

Let’s pay attention to how Luke sets this scene. So Paul is breaking bread with the believers in triage. They’re gathered together in a house in an upper room with many lamps like fires. You think of another passage in Acts, which talks about believers gathered in an upper room where there’s fires above their heads.

Yeah, Pentecost. So, Paul’s going on and on and on, and this likely isn’t just a monologue. Like, like not like he’s up here and just going on until midnight. No, like they’re up in this room. It’s, it’s more of an intimate gathering and. They’re likely just peppering him with questions and like Paul’s going through and like finally they’re getting to spend a bit of time with Paul, they’re asking, how’s the fundraising going?

Hey, what’s going on in Corinth? What’s, what’s up? Uh, you know, and asking him different theological questions. How do we understand this? Like, they’re finally going through, and this is going on and on, and this, this young lad the Bible tells us is somebody like in the prime of life and their youth, probably between 10 and 20.

A young man named Utica starts drowsing, you know, his upper room is stuffy, it’s hot. So he starts, drowsing, maybe moves to the window, gets some fresh air, starts drowsing again, and then all a sudden he’s up three stories, you know, higher, you know, probably top of the gym here. And then all of a sudden Paul’s in the middle of his sentence and there’s this scream of rubs, and it’s like, what?

What’s going on? Like there’s, there’s a lot of. You know, people have noticed the comedy in this passage, but if you were there, you wouldn’t have been laughing, right? Like, we, we read this now and it’s kind of comical. Like, oh, somebody fell asleep. But no, it’s, there’s shock, there’s tragedy, there’s real loss here.

Somebody who had so much life ahead of them is dead tragically. And remember who’s writing here? This is Luke. He’s an eyewitness. He’s a physician. He knows a dead body when he sees one. And the, the church did too. Like they, they were much closer to death in their culture than we are. Like they, it was just much closer, more common experience for them to to be around death.

So they know a dead body. He actually died, but then Paul rushes down, embraces him, and his life is restored. What’s Luke doing here? Is he just like telling us a cool story? Why is he paint all this detail? Couldn’t he have just said, you know this, this kid Utica fell out, a window died and Paul brought him back?

No, he’s doing something different. He’s doing something more here and it’s this use of upper room that gives us a clue. Luke talks about the spirit more than any other gospel author. In his first volume of Luke in the second volume, he’s talking about the spirit all over the place. And just imagine like when we hear upper room, this, this Greek word that’s translated upper room is only used four times.

And it’s used all in Acts. Luke uses them all. So when we hear this, it should do something to us. It’s like, it’s like Mufasa, you know? Like, ooh, what’s, what’s gonna happen? It’s not a word I usually hear. Mufasa, right? Upper room does the same thing. Hey, I, I know what’s gonna happen, right? Acts one 13 upper room spirits coming at Pentecost.

Acts 9 37 39. Peter is taken to an upper room where he raises Tabitha or Dorcus. And then here, I know what’s gonna happen. The spirit’s gonna do something upper room like that. That’s where the spirit works. And Paul raises Utica. But Luke didn’t invent this word though. He, he’s the only New Testament author that uses it, but it’s actually, and we can go to the next couple.

Do you have the next points on this slide? Uh, yeah. It looks like we don’t, but, um, Luke is actually going to, Uh, a different translation of the Hebrew scriptures, which is called the Septuagint. And the Septuagint is the Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures. It uses this same Greek word for upper room.

Here’s a couple times where it’s used first Kings 1719. Elijah raises the widow son. He’s taken to an upper room and he raises the widow son. Second Kings four 11. Elijah raises a Shunammite son. So Elisha is connected to Elijah’s work. Just the spirit, continuing to work upper room, like that’s what’s going on.

And Luke is doing the same thing. He’s calling back in Acts, he’s calling back to the Old Testament prophetic ministry, the spirit working through that. In Luke, he talks about the spirit working through John the Baptist. Then through Jesus ministry then enacts these upper room moments. He’s specifically connecting.

All these passages together and saying it’s the same spirit at work across history. It’s the same spirit of God. You might hear this and say, that’s, that’s cool. That’s great. Cool stats. Cool, cool trivia, but I know there’s, there’s people here. I know there’s people in Collingswood watching online. Yeah.

Where it’s like, you know, I, I’ve experienced loss or death or trauma or tragedy, and it’s like Elisha, Elijah, Paul, Peter, I don’t care, who, like, they weren’t there to stop it or to bring that person back. So what did we do with that? You know, all I can say is God has brought me to a place. Where I firmly believe there is more life than what we can perceive here on Earth.

Like right now, what, what, what we can perceive with our senses, there’s more life. And he’s brought me to an understanding that death doesn’t have the final say he does. So there’s, there’s ancient evil. And darkness and death in this world. Yeah, ancient, but there’s more ancient good. There’s more ancient light, there’s more ancient life.

And God, he didn’t eliminate darkness. And Genesis one, he contained it and he didn’t eliminate death, but he contains it. It doesn’t have the final say. Death isn’t what’s limitless. The Spirit God. Is not limited. He sets the limits of death. And while we might not be able to perceive who is truly alive, God knows and God has the final say.

The author of Life has the final say. Death does not.

There’s heroes in Greece and in, uh, in Troy Troas where we’re talking about here, there was actually a monument to Achilles. And, uh, we think about these people that bring death and we often admire people who bring death or people who are, you know, unconquerable or people who are conquerors. Like we, we admire these warriors of, of the past.

People who force other people to yield to their own will, but Luke confronts us with a different type of hero here, right? Paul is not somebody who’s forcing his will on other people. Paul is yielding to the spirit. It’s not about me. It’s not about you forcing our way on other people. It’s about us yielding to the spirit and letting the spirit work in and through us and in and through each other.

So God is not limited even by loss or death. He’s beyond it, not limited by it. Last slide here, Paul, on the move. So after this incredible experience. Paul continues on to Jerusalem. He travels, uh, out to Jerusalem, taking this, these, uh, funds with him and they sail. They sail away. And there’s just two things to focus on here.

We get this little travel itinerary of Paul going back to Jerusalem. I just wanna bring up, uh, a couple points again. Remember this collection for the Saints in Jerusalem. Paul’s on the move. Now taking this back, he’s being drawn back to Jerusalem because th this is, this has meaning for Paul. It is the first collection of its kind across different borders, different nationalities, different races, ethnicities, all to help this socioeconomic classes all to help this, these body of believers in Jerusalem that has meaning for Paul.

The other is that, Paul started several churches. Yes, but he didn’t start the church in Troas, just to remind us of that. They were there. The spirit was at work. And, uh, we read, we read a passage earlier. I just, this will help me make my last point here. Acts 16, six to seven, um, says this, they went through the region of frig and Galatia having been forbidden.

By the Holy Spirit to speak the word. In Asia, when they had come up to Messiah, they attempted to go into Bethia, but the spirit of Jesus did not allow them. So passing by Missa, they went down to Trez. That’s, that’s the first time they went to Trez. And to be transparent, this is all always bothered me.

Like this reading that bothers me. It’s like, why? Why would the spirit forbid Paul from speaking the word in Asia, like, isn’t that a good thing? Yeah. Why, why not allow him to go to Bethia? Didn’t God want the gospel to spread there? Like, what, what’s, what’s God doing here? I just wanna read first Peter, uh, first couple of verses of First Peter says this.

Just listen. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who are elect exiles of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bethea. Paul Paul, wasn’t it Paul? God was working a different way in Asia and Bethea. It wasn’t through Paul, it was through other people that God is working at. We, we don’t have all of those stories.

We don’t necessarily know exactly how the gospel came to Asia or Bethia, but we know it did cuz Paul Peter is greeting churches there. And this is just the last point. God is not limited by you. God is not limited by me. The spirit is working in ways that we don’t always know. He’s working in us in ways that we can’t even always perceive until different times when God makes us aware.

He’s working in people that we haven’t even met yet. So it’s a good thing that God is not limited by you or by me.

So just in closing, how does this have bearing on our lives today? What do we do with all of this? What do we do when we’re faced with our own limitations? I’d simply say we need to be in relationship and conversation with the same God, the same spirit, the same Jesus. Who brought reconciliation between Paul and the believers in Corinth, the same spirit who raised Utica is the same spirit that is in believers today.

How are we engaging with the spirit? Do we have an upper room where we go, or a place where we go, where we get away and engage with the spirit and ask God to speak to us? If you don’t just build that into your, build that into your life. God wants to work in you. God wants to speak to you. God wants you to listen.

In closing, let’s remember who is the author of life. Let’s remember who contains death. Let’s remember that death doesn’t have the final say. Paul writes this to Titus, um, as the band, uh, band can come back up. Paul says this in his letter to Titus. It’s about 10 years after our text towards the end of Paul’s, uh, life on earth for now, for we ourselves, were once foolish, disobedient, led astray slaves to various passions and pleasure passing our days and malice and envy, hated by others, hating one another.

But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our savior appeared, he saved us. Not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

The Author of Life has the final say, death does none. Do you believe that? It’s close in prayer.

Emily, father, thank you for being the, the more ancient good in this world. There are difficult things that we have in our lives. Difficult things in our experiences is difficult spaces and relationships, difficult loss. Lord, I pray that you would teach us to rely on you, that you would teach us that you are not limited by these missed opportunities or neglect or even loss, and you’re not even limited by death.

God, you work. You work beyond. Help us to lean into you. Jesus name. Amen.