Tag: encouragement

  • Talking for hours with the prophet Paul

    Talking for hours with the prophet Paul

    .. when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them..

    Acts 20:7b ESV

    Talk of Jesus into the late night hours

    Acts 20:

    Acts pf the Apostles 20:7 KJV
    google earth map of third missionary journey of Paul - TalkofJESUS.com

    A.D. 52-57

    The following 2-part post from just six verses in Acts 20 and Paul's third missionary journey focuses on two topics:
    
    1. An extra long sermon (not so unusual for ANY pastor so it would seem) AND 
    2. an extraordinary sign suggesting that Paul is also a Prophet of Almighty God.

    a Sunday service before their Monday departure

    Luke records in Acts 20 that the Apostle Paul is already on his way home.

    And we sailed from Philippi after the days of Unleavened Bread, and came to them at Troas within five days; and there we stayed seven days. – Acts of the Apostles 20:6

    a weekly Sunday worship

    Let's not miss the context and content of this day which was likely sometime in the year of our Lord 56. 

    Call it what you like: worship, a service, gathering or mass. These Christians of Troas welcomed Paul and his missionary companions into their weekly time together as a community in Christ.

    Holy Communion

    About this same time [A.D. 55 or 56] in his first letter back to the church in Corinth Paul will also instruct worshipers to obediently partake in the remembrance of the Lord Jesus.

    communion cup of wine

    The Sermon of a Church Father
    Note that Paul is NOT the local day-to-day Pastor and Shepherd of this church. The Apostle speaks to a large group gathered in Troas for worship. 
    
    A crowded Christian gathering in an upper room anticipates Paul's Spirit-led exhortation [encouragement, both positive and cautionary].
    
    AND Paul's 'talk' was not simply a one-man sermon to the flock without response but included extended additional dialogue.

    διαλέγομαι – in the Greek – discuss (in argument or exhortation):—dispute, preach (unto), reason (with), speak.

    Source: Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words – Strong’s G1256 – dialegomai

    Paul kept talking until midnight. He prolonged his speech or message.

    Luke uses the root word describing this dialogue (dialegomai) of Paul’s message lasting until midnight for these believers.

    • of speech
      • a word, uttered by a living voice, embodies a conception or idea
      • what someone has said
      • discourse
      • doctrine, teaching
    Luke opens ACTS using this same word referring to his Gospel as his 'first account' [prōtos logos].

    (for dialogue between the men of the church)


    Luke does not mention the time of their regular Sunday worship.

    It could have been nine or eleven in the morning. Perhaps it was an evening service planned for after the saints typically ate their evening meal at home with their families.

    SEE Paul's mention of this in 1 Corinthians 11:17-22 THE LORD'S SUPPER

    Acts of the Apostles 20:8 LSB
    flickering candle on stand

    Now there were many lamps in the upper room where we were gathered together. And there was a young man named Eutychus sitting on the windowsill, sinking into a deep sleep.

    Eutychus after he falls to his death from an upper room window in Troas while Paul and the men dialogue until midnight - Acts of the Apostles 20:7-9

    This young man, a boy likely brought by his father to the upper room of their evening service precariously perched himself in an open window where air circulated into the crowded place of worship.

    BUT he just couldn’t last through all the long talk of JESUS by the Apostle Paul and others.

    (Perhaps by midnight what little breeze had revived the boy had subsided into stillness.)

    He FELL to his death!

    Eutychus, being fallen into a deep sleep: and as Paul was long preaching, he sunk down with sleep, and fell down from the third loft, and was taken up dead.

    ACTS of the Apostles 20:9 KJV

    This sudden incident brought the church meeting and Paul’s talk to an abrupt end.

    The boy’s father and worshipers listening to Paul’s talk must have been stunned as the young man suddenly fell to his death.

    So these men rushed downstairs and then outside to witness the apparent tragedy of the young man Eutychus for themselves.


    What Luke records NEXT in his account is both significant and perhaps largely ignored in 21st century C.E. preaching about the early history of the Church.
    
    THEREFORE, we will leave the outcome of this evening for NEXT time and by way of comparison also look at Scripture concerning other Prophets (as I have suggested of the Apostle Paul).
    

    ACTS of the Apostles – To Be Continued… in A.D. 1st c. Troas, God-willing


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  • Saul: Encouragement in Christ from Cypress

    Saul: Encouragement in Christ from Cypress

    Now Joseph, a Levite of Cyprian birth, who was also called Barnabas by the apostles (which translated means Son of Encouragement) owned a tract of land. So he sold it, and brought the money and laid it at the apostles’ feet.

    ACTS of the disciples of the Apostles 4:36-37 NASB20

    Encouragement of Christ’s Apostles by Joseph of Cypress

    “Just a moment,” you are likely thinking. “I remember this from That’s Not Fair! Possessions and Community, but I thought that now Luke is talking about Saul of Tarsus in Acts 9?”

    Last time, Luke’s account included not only Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus, CALLED BY THE RISEN CHRIST JESUS, but also a two disciples of The Way: Ananias, to whom the Lord spoke in a vision, and Judas of Damascus (in the house on Straight Street where BOTH encouraged the blinded and FEARED Saul of Tarsus.)

    παράκλησιςmore than just Encouragement

    click here for more encouragement

    Of course if the Lord had appeared to you directly, as was the case with both Ananias and Saul, YOU too would obey. But just as Jesus had called James and John a descriptive nickname, “the Sons of Thunder,” and called “Simon son of John, Peter or ‘the Rock,’ so have Peter and the Apostles had named Joseph, Barnabas, or Son of Encouragement.

    • paraklēsis Outline of Biblical Usage
      • a calling near, summons, (esp. for help)
      • importation, supplication, entreaty
      • exhortation, admonition, encouragement
      • consolation (14x), comfort, solace; that which affords comfort or refreshment
    • thus of the Messianic salvation (so the Rabbis call the Messiah (or Christ, in Greek) the consoler, the comforter)
      • persuasive discourse, stirring address
        • (the speech of Stephen to the sanhedrin?)
      • instructive, admonitory, conciliatory, powerful hortatory discourse
    • (much of the preaching of Paul we are about to hear on his missionary journeys in Acts of the Apostles and his letters to the Churches.)

    נַחֲמ֥וּ נַחֲמ֖וּ עַמִּ֑י יֹאמַ֖ר אֱלֹהֵיכֶֽם׃

    2 דַּבְּר֞וּ עַל־לֵ֤ב יְרֽוּשָׁלִַ֙ם֙ וְקִרְא֣וּ אֵלֶ֔יהָ כִּ֤י מָֽלְאָה֙ צְבָאָ֔הּ כִּ֥י נִרְצָ֖ה עֲוֺנָ֑הּ כִּ֤י לָקְחָה֙ מִיַּ֣ד יְהוָ֔ה כִּפְלַ֖יִם בְּכָל־חַטֹּאתֶֽיהָ׃ ס

    3 ק֣וֹל קוֹרֵ֔א בַּמִּדְבָּ֕ר פַּנּ֖וּ דֶּ֣רֶךְ יְהוָ֑ה יַשְּׁרוּ֙ בָּעֲרָבָ֔ה מְסִלָּ֖ה לֵאלֹהֵֽינוּ׃

    Isaiah 40:1-3 Comfort, comfort my people,” says your God.

    Encouragement & Comfort

    Encouragement and comfort become the Gospel Good NEWS to a God-pursued people. And let’s not forget the context of persecution of both Jews and Christians not only in Acts of the Apostles, but throughout the history of the world.

    Skipping ahead just a bit in Luke’s account before we proceed with Saul of Tarsus:

    ACTS 9:31

    So the church throughout Judea, Galilee, and Samaria enjoyed peace, as it was being built up; and as it continued in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort G3874 of the Holy Spirit, it kept increasing.

    And later in ACTS 11:19 Luke gives us the present context of Saul in Jerusalem in Acts 9:

    So then those who were scattered because of the persecution that occurred in connection with Stephen made their way to Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except to Jews alone.

    Acts 11:19 NASB20
    google earth map of the eastern mediterranean including Cypress, Tarsus & some cities in Syria, Israel, Greece, etc. under the influence of Rome and the world beyond
    Tarsus of Saul, Cypress of Joseph, Damascus of Ananias, Phoenicia (Lebanon) Antioch is in Syria – God into all the world…

    Escape from Damascus

    Previously..
    
    I went away to Arabia, and returned once more to Damascus.

    ACTS 9: of Saul in Damascus

    Syria Cilicia Phoenice with Damascus as a road of witness into all the Roman world of the AD first century, including Cypress home to Barnabas son of encouragement to Paul

    Saul was with the disciples in Damascus for some time.

    20 Immediately he began proclaiming Jesus in the synagogues: “He is the Son of God.”

    21 All who heard him were astounded and said, “Isn’t this the man in Jerusalem who was causing havoc for those who called on this name and came here for the purpose of taking them as prisoners to the chief priests?”

    22 But Saul grew stronger and kept confounding the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus is the Messiah.

    Saul leaves Damascus, spends three years in the wilderness of Arabia, THEN returns.
    

    23 After many days had passed, the Jews conspired to kill him, but Saul learned of their plot. So they were watching the gates day and night intending to kill him, but his disciples..

    [NOTE Luke’s description, that these are now disciples of the Apostle Saul of Tarsus!]

    ..took him by night and lowered him in a large basket through an opening in the wall.

    ACTS of SAUL OF TARSUS to be continued in Jerusalem...
    
  • I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills – Psalm 121

    I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills – Psalm 121

    Psalm 121

    I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills,

    from whence cometh my help.

    I don’t know about you, but I have had a rough week. Perhaps you have had a tough month or maybe this past year didn’t go how you had hoped. So we come to a Sabbath rest, a time of stillness and contemplation and ask, ‘What to do now?’


    On a night of exhaustion from one such time a song came to mind, a song of ascents.

    I lift up my eyes to the hills.
    From where does my help come?

    From familiar scripture read in my youth, sung in church, taught in a classroom and contemplated in the weak and lonely hours, the question echos in the darkness of despair as an echo in seemingly empty mountains. Where does my help come from?

    Ever feel helpless? Has a moment of sense humbled you in your selfish thoughts that you control your every day, each move toward success and joy and riches? Has a brief moment with your own soul brought you to a place where you must look up to something, lest you look down in despair forever?

    My help cometh from the Lord,

    which made heaven and earth.

    Psalm 10:4 challenges the self of one who does not believe the God who made all things can help:

    ‘In the pride of his face the wicked does not seek him; all his thoughts are, “There is no God.”’


    Yet another Psalm [19:1] sings out even to the unbeliever:

    The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.’

    How could the God who watches over universes, solar systems, innumerable planets, incomprehensible sub-atomic systems and intricately engineered cell structures be so powerless as to not watch over your soul?

    He will not suffer thy foot to be moved:

    he that keepeth thee will not slumber.

    Even the most powerful of mankind and the richest of rulers will bow down to the One Almighty God, Creator and LORD over all things!

    Can the Judge of all souls not keep you? Will the LORD not help those who bow down to His will and not our own selfish ways?

    Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.

    Do not be thrown that the LORD is worshiped as the God of Israel. This  Psalm of David is humble acknowledgement by a powerful King who united twelve tribes of Israel. The Lord was glorified though David, King of a chosen people.

    Christ Jesus, crucified on a cross as ‘King of the Jews’ for redemption of our sins brought the very humility of God to the promises of the generations. A thousand years after King David and two thousand years ago, the LORD God, Father of all creation, chose not only the chosen of Abraham but the chosen of the nations, those in generations to come.

    Christ was lifted up on a cross as perfect sacrifice for our sins. He IS raised up in righteousness as redemption before Almighty God. Jesus Incarnate, the Messiah Jesus, is keeper of our souls.

    You who have bowed down to the LORD, God the Father, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, have a help higher than the hills. We have Christ Jesus and the Holy Spirit of the LORD God as our help from above, a guide to our soul.

    The Lord is thy keeper: שָׁמַר

    the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand. צֵל

    The sun shall not smite thee by day, נָכָה

    nor the moon by night.

    The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil:

    he shall preserve thy soul.

    The Lord seeks humble followers, even powerful kings and lowly peasants. The Lord is keeper of His own sheep. He watches over the souls of His beloved. Christ keeps the lives of true believers.

    Is it not evil that torments us – evil of our own and evil of our enemies, the unrelenting hand of wickedness of the enemies of the Lord of love?

    Shalom

    Pray for your enemies, that they may see the Lord in your love. Is it not peace the Lord would have for His own?

    The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in

    from this time forth, and even for evermore.

    Amen

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