Be on guard. Be on the alert. And now I commend you to God and to the word of His grace

Acts 20:6-38 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

⁶ 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.⁷ On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul began talking to them, intending to leave the next day, and he prolonged his message until midnight. ⁸ There were many lamps in the upper room where we were gathered together. ⁹ And there was a young man named Eutychus sitting on the window sill, sinking into a deep sleep; and as Paul kept on talking, he was overcome by sleep and fell down from the third floor and was picked up dead. ¹⁰ But Paul went down and fell upon him, and after embracing him, he said, “Do not be troubled, for his life is in him.” ¹¹ When he had gone back up and had broken the bread and eaten, he talked with them a long while until daybreak, and then left. ¹² They took away the boy alive, and were greatly comforted.....

¹⁷ From Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called to him the elders of the church. ¹⁸ And when they had come to him, he said to them,  “You yourselves know, from the first day that I set foot in Asia, how I was with you the whole time, ¹⁹ serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials which came upon me through the plots of the Jews; ²⁰ how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you publicly and from house to house, ²¹ solemnly testifying to both Jews and Greeks of repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. ²² And now, behold, bound by the Spirit, I am on my way to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there, ²³ except that the Holy Spirit solemnly testifies to me in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions await me. ²⁴ But I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself, so that I may finish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify solemnly of the gospel of the grace of God.

²⁵ “And now, behold, I know that all of you, among whom I went about preaching the kingdom, will no longer see my face. ²⁶ Therefore, I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men. ²⁷ For I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God. ²⁸ Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood. ²⁹ I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; ³⁰ and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them. ³¹ Therefore be on the alert, remembering that night and day for a period of three years I did not cease to admonish each one with tears. ³² And now I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified. ³³ I have coveted no one’s silver or gold or clothes. ³⁴ You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my own needs and to the men who were with me. ³⁵ In everything I showed you that by working hard in this manner you must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He Himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’” ³⁶ When he had said these things, he knelt down and prayed with them all. ³⁷ And they began to weep aloud and embraced Paul, and repeatedly kissed him, ³⁸ grieving especially over the word which he had spoken, that they would not see his face again. And they were accompanying him to the ship.

There are a couple of things we see in the first portion of today's text that I don't think we would often see today. The text says:  Paul began talking to them, intending to leave the next day, and he prolonged his message until midnight.  The thought these days is that most peoples attention span is somewhere between 10-20 minutes, so if we want to give an effective message to an attentive audience we need to keep it under 20 minutes. We are a fast paced society accustomed to getting our information in sound bites. I personally have found that if I use the words: as we get ready to close about two thirds of the way through I can regain attention and buy some time before actually closing a bit later. Still I don't know of many places where they would bear with a speaker until midnight. Perhaps it was because of Pauls tendency to speak for long times that led him to be an evangelist rather than a pastor. It seems even in our churches we will give a little more grace to the guest speaker than to our own pastor if he goes over the "allotted" time.

There is though in this text the other side of that same situation. It says:      And there was a young man named Eutychus sitting on the window sill, sinking into a deep sleep; and as Paul kept on talking, he was overcome by sleep and fell down from the third floor and was picked up dead. ¹⁰ But Paul went down and fell upon him, and after embracing him, he said, “Do not be troubled, for his life is in him.” ¹¹ When he had gone back up and had broken the bread and eaten, he talked with them a long while until daybreak, and then left. ¹² They took away the boy alive, and were greatly comforted.....  There was no criticism or condemnation that came from Paul toward the young man. He simply went down, raised him back to life and continued with the meeting for another few hours.  That's resurrection preaching.  We have a choice when we look at the condition of the church today. Our choice is much like what we read in Ezekiel 37:1-10

The hand of the Lord was upon me, and He brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of the valley; and it was full of bones. ² He caused me to pass among them round about, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley; and lo, they were very dry. ³ He said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord God, You know.” ⁴ Again He said to me, “Prophesy over these bones and say to them, ‘O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.’ ⁵ Thus says the Lord God to these bones, ‘Behold, I will cause breath to enter you that you may come to life. ⁶ I will put sinews on you, make flesh grow back on you, cover you with skin and put breath in you that you may come alive; and you will know that I am the Lord.’” ⁷ So I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold, a rattling; and the bones came together, bone to its bone. ⁸ And I looked, and behold, sinews were on them, and flesh grew and skin covered them; but there was no breath in them. ⁹ Then He said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they come to life.”’” ¹⁰ So I prophesied as He commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they came to life and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army.

When we look at the condition of our churches and even more so of our country, our society and culture, we can say they are lifeless   and lo, they (are) were very dry. Or we can see as the Lord God sees and we can speak as He calls us to and prophesy life and breath into the dry bones of our nation and churches. Far too often the word prophesy is connected with telling the future, or with discipline and correction. In 1 Corinthians 14:3-4 Paul writes of another  important use of prophesy for the church today.

But one who prophesies speaks to men for edification and exhortation and consolation. 4One who speaks in a tongue edifies himself; but one who prophesies edifies the church.… 

Prophesy is for edification, consolation, to build up the church. When we look at the condition of the world around us it is easy to be critical, to judge things as we see them and confirm the natural condition we see. In Matthew 5:14-16 Jesus says:  “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; ¹⁵ nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. ¹⁶ Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven. 

Rather than declaring the darkness of the world to the world let us, let our light shine before men. Let us do and declare good works and words. Let us glorify our Father that some will see and choose light rather than darkness. 

If we will both walk in and declare the power of the cross and the resurrection, preaching as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 21-5  :     when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. ² For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. ³ I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, ⁴ and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, ⁵ so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.

We can have intellectual debates with people about the things that are happening in our society. We can continue to declare the dark condition of this dark world. Or we can speak words of light and life. Our message and our "preaching" can be not in persuasive words of wisdom,   but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,  so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.

Paul closes today's text with a final warning, exhortation and instruction to the church. May it be  an encouragement to us as it is also my prayer for you.

 Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.  I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock;  and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them.  Therefore be on the alert, remembering that night and day for a period of three years I did not cease to admonish each one with tears.  And now I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified.       Amen