An Address to Young Christians: Acts 20:6-13
Table of Contents
An Address to Young Christians: Part 2
Acts 20:7-12
Part 2CT 20:7-12{
“And continued his speech until midnight.” The Church of God has passed through the midnight. Those of us who have read a little Church history, know there was a period of about a thousand years in which the Church of God was with rare exception in great darkness—great darkness came over it.
Whenever we let slip any of the truth of Scripture, the least bit of it, if we surrender, if we disregard it, give up, who knows where it is going to lead us. How bright the Church was at the start; how blessedly simple and precious were those meetings; what edification, what blessing of soul resulted! But when it began to let slip, when it settled down where Satan’s seat was, how far, far, far it drifted. One can scarcely imagine greater darkness than that in which the professing church was during the dark or middle ages.
I recently read a little book on the catacombs of Rome, and of the time when the Church of God was forced by persecution to meet down underneath the city of Rome in those caverns, that is, the Church that was at Rome, and there for three hundred years believers met in those subterranean caverns. It gave a list of inscriptions found there, most of them in connection with the burial of their dead. It is refreshing to the soul to see the thoughts that filled their hearts; to see the simplicity of their faith; indeed it is. There was much that sprang up afterward that was a denial of the truth, but down there beneath the surface, hidden away from the world, the Church kept the faith, and in blessed simplicity.
The Catacombs underneath Rome included nine hundred miles. You can search all those mottoes, those epitaphs, those monuments, there were thousands of them down there, and you will never find a mention of purgatory, the crucifix, the priesthood, or the Virgin Mary—not once. They were blessedly simple; why? Because they were accepting their place of rejection in this world. They were following a rejected Saviour.
When they came out from the bowels of the earth, and took their place in the sunlight of this world’s favor, what a different story! Great temples were turned over to them for places of assembling, and instead of being despised and rejected of the world, became supported by the world. The professing church became a political ruler of the world, and the greater it became in power in this world, the greater was the decay spiritually. But here, all is simplicity—they came together to break bread.
“And there were many lights in the upper chamber, where they were gathered together.” It was an “upper chamber”—the “third loft.” Way up in the third loft; that took place where the Church belongs. The Apostle Paul was caught up to the third heaven—the presence of God—to paradise. The Church belongs up there. The rallying place of the true Church is up there, not on earth. The vast majority are up there.
Here we find them meeting in the third loft. There were many lights where they were gathered together. Young folks, remember, God has established on this earth a sphere and place of blessing; a place where the truth is to be learned and learned in God’s way, and if you neglect or despise that place, and that provision, you do it at the peril of your soul; I don’t mean eternal peril, but I mean you are going to suffer for it—suffer in your soul—if you despise the rich provision God has made in grace in connection with His care of His own down here. There were many lights in that chamber.
I call your attention in passing, to the fact that the expression in that 8th verse “gathered together” is exactly the same in the original as Matthew 18:20 with this one exception, that in Matthew 18:20 it is the present tense and here it is in the past, but the compound verb used is exactly the same.
Here they were, gathered together on the ground of the Church of God, and there were many lights where they were gathered together—a blessed place to be! There is where the light is found—where you are going to get light for your soul, and thus are you going to be able to walk in the pathway of the truth as laid down in the Word of God.
“For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light: for the fruit of the light is in all goodness and righteousness and truth. Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord” (Eph. 5:8-10).
The only way we are going to prove what is acceptable to God, is as we walk in the light, and the ministration of the truth is connected in the Word of God, with those gifts that the ascended Lord has been pleased to give the Church, and He has placed those gifts in connection with the Assembly, and thus it is as in the Assembly, as gathered together, we find a place of safety where we are guarded and cared for; how we ought to value it!
In the parable in Luke about the man who fell among thieves, the Lord says, “A certain Samaritan” picked him up and brought him to an inn, and gave the inn-keeper two pence, and said, “Take care of him.” To me, that inn represents the Assembly, and the Lord has made provision that you should be cared for in your spiritual life in connection with the Assembly. The Lord said to that inn-keeper, I will give you these two pence, and when I come again I will repay you anything else you may spend.
The Lord has gone back to glory, but dear young Christians, He has provided down here for our blessing, and it will never be a path of independency. You cannot live your Christian life alone in this world; there is no such path marked out in the Word of God. If you are going to walk in the truth of the Scripture, you are going to walk in companionship and fellowship with other believers. You have a corporate place to fill, and you can never escape that responsibility; we know it is true that many real Christians fail to see that.
We find believers becoming rebellious and saying, I will walk alone before God, and I care not what anyone else may think! I will go my way alone, and let my brethren go alone. It may sound pious, but it isn’t the truth of God. No; we must go on together, and the Lord is faithful and He is going to provide a clean path for our feet until He comes again. He says that in the parable “When I come again” etc.
Dear young saint, there is going to be a place for you here to walk in the truth corporately until our Lord returns.
(To be continued)
An Address to Young Christians Acts 20:6-13: Part 1
Part 1CT 20:6-13{
“And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow; and continued his speech until midnight.”
“The first day of the week”—that is a characteristic day. In Judaism it was the Sabbath—Saturday—but not so with us. How unsuited it would be to us to select Saturday—the Sabbath—as the day of our rejoicing, triumph, worship. During the whole of Saturday—during the whole of those twenty-four hours—the Lord Jesus lay in the power of death—in the grave. What mockery it would be to use that as the day that is characteristic of our blessed position as Christians—those who belong to new creation. No; with us all starts from that memorable morning when the blessed Lord broke the bands of death and came out on the first day of the week—came forth victorious and gave that blessed message, “I ascend unto My Father, and your Father; and to My God and your God” (John 20:17).
It is a new position, a new relationship, the blessed Lord Himself in a new position as Head of the new creation. How fitting that we find in Scripture the first day of the week is the one sanctified by the Spirit of God, the day on which believers assembled and worshiped, thinking upon the sufferings of their blessed Lord.
So, it is the first day of the week. Here, the disciples came together for a specific purpose—to break bread. It so happened that they came together in the evening. I judge that is merely owing to the fact that that was the most convenient time of the day for them. We are accustomed to thinking of Christendom where we have Sunday given by the government, but we must not think that that is all it indicates. It isn’t so in heathen countries today. Many were in the position of servants, and would be occupied with various duties, and the evening gave the suitable time of freedom when they could come together.
They came together to break bread. If we can always think in the simplicity of Scripture, we will be saved from many an error. Dear young folks, I am supposed to be addressing those young in years and perhaps young in the faith, too; if we can keep before us the simplicity of Scripture, God will bless us accordingly, but if we become wise and turn aside to human inventions and our own thoughts of things, we can expect to become a prey of our own fancies, and none can tell how far we are going to go. Those that have risked departing from the simplicity of Scripture, have been led step by step, farther and farther away from the truth, until much of that which professes the name of Christ today, has become an abomination to Him.
How simple this is, “On the first day of the week...the disciples came together to break bread.” How many of us here are in the good of that? You are a child of God, aren’t you? Does this scripture have an attraction to your heart: “Upon the first day of the week...the disciples came together to break bread”?
As I go about among the different little gatherings, I find a certain class of professing Christians, and often among those who are younger, are those who say,
“Yes; I belong to the Lord; I am a Christian—I am saved.” And yet, I see them “sitting back” on Lord’s Day morning, week in and week out, month in and month out, and year in and year out, and yet they say they are Christians! Dear young Christian, how can you do that? Didn’t the Lord Jesus say, “This do in remembrance of Me?” Wasn’t it almost the last thing He said as it were to His own—at the very end of His life? It isn’t your brethren that ask you, but the blessed Lord Himself.
Dear young people, remember, all the service in the world that you can do for Christ, will not make up for that simple obedience of love, doing what He asks: “This do in remembrance of Me.” It would seem that we had accepted it among us, more or less as a matter of course, that there are two classes of Christians in Scripture—one class that is found breaking bread at the Lord’s Table, and those who are not breaking bread.
Dear young folks, we have been hearing this morning about testing everything by the Word of God. Have you ever tested that by the Word of God? Can you find anywhere in your New Testament, a class of believers, of those that confess the precious name of the Lord Jesus, that are not at the Lord’s Table—that are not breaking bread? I confess I know of no such class. If we are going to test things by Scripture, and we test that by the Word of God, and find out that it has no place in Scripture. Isn’t it a bold thing to do—for you to take the place of denying the Word, and saying you are a child of God, but when the first day of the week comes, and others can come together to break bread, and not you! Think of it! Look well to it! This is the precious Word of God.
We have been having brought before us the nearness of the Lord’s coming. Events around us in a special way remind us of the Lord’s coming. Our hearts should be made to tremble. He has asked us to remember Him; you are allowing time to slip by, and are not doing this. The Spirit of God would exercise us about these things.
They came together to break bread, and Paul discoursed to them. “Preaching” in Scripture is in connection with announcing the gospel, but here Paul is instructing believers. That is so needful. That is the reason we have come together in these meetings. I trust none have reached that point where they think they do not need instruction. Every one of us can learn from the rest of us. No one is ever going to reach the point where he knows it all, and all the rest can learn from him! Even the great apostle Paul, in writing to the Church at Rome, looked forward to the time when he would come there, and they could enjoy mutual profit together.
So he discourses to them, ready to depart on the morrow. I never read this that I don’t think of it as being characteristic of his ministry. It just leads us right on the verge of departing. If we are in the good of it, it keeps us always on tip-toe, expecting the coming of the Lord.
(To be continued)
An Address to Young Christians Acts 20:7-12: Part 3
Part 3CT 20:7-12{
There is a young man in this picture—Eutychus. Eutychus means fortunate. It is a strange thing for a young man to have the experience this one did; we would think he had better be called “unfortunate.” Sometimes things that seem like dire misfortune come to us in our lives, which may be the greatest contribution to our welfare.
Here was this young man, in the right place, but he went to sleep there. Just being in the right place isn’t going to keep you. Be sure it is the right place; don’t esteem it lightly, but never depend upon the right place to keep you. It takes watchfulness; you must give heed to these things. If you become indifferent and neglectful, you needn’t be surprised if you get a fall.
Here was Eutychus, “fortunate,” and he was a fortunate young man to be there; that was the most blessed place on the face of the earth, to be there gathered around the Lord Jesus, listening to such marvelous ministry, for it was in connection with the
Assembly that God was pleased to give this ministry, but dear Eutychus became heavy with sleep; he became indifferent to the ministry. What a fall he had!
Dear young folks, take heed! Take heed to this truth that you receive; receive it believingly in a good heart and exercised conscience, for we don’t come to these meetings just to hear something; we come here that our hearts might be fed upon the truth of God, and that we might be aroused, and that we might have fresh purpose of heart to walk in the truth that is ministered to us.
This poor young man went to sleep, and down he fell, clear down from the third loft right down to the ground floor—to the street level! O, it is sad. It is sad when believers, young or old, fall from their high calling, fall from that place where the truth puts them, fall down, as it were to the street level of this wretched world. Young folks, watch—watch and pray. See to it that your heart be not overcharged with the cares of this life, etc. Heed the warning, dear young people; keep close to Christ; value the fellowship of the saints of God; value the opportunity to listen to the truth, and listen with your hearts, and not with your heads.
Well, this young man, down he went. Paul was long preaching, and he sunk down with sleep, and fell down from the third loft, and was taken up (for) dead.
Sometimes Christians, young and old, get into such a backslidden condition, that there is no evidence of life at all.
Look how far he has fallen—the depths to which he has gone! It took divine perception to see that there was life, but the Apostle Paul went down and fell on him, and embracing him, said, “Trouble not yourselves; for his life is in him.” There was life there. A child of God may, through neglect and carelessness fall away, but thank God! his life is in him—life is still there.
Perhaps the Apostle here, coming and falling on him, and bringing about that animation to his body, is figurative of the power of the Word of God to restore one who has gotten away from the Lord, and then the next thing is, he is back upstairs, back where he was before. I guarantee you, that that young man didn’t go to sleep again that night! It was a humiliating experience, but he came back upstairs, and the next thing we hear about, is, the breaking of bread.
I have thought many times in reading this that there is a mystical allusion to how the Church fell down to the street level of this world, and how in the goodness and grace of God, the truth came along in the ministry of the apostle Paul, that line of things given in Ephesians, Colossians, etc., that precious, heavenly ministry that takes us up to the third heaven, and sets us in Christ—that Pauline ministry—that although seemingly dead—no life at all, under that gracious ministry, O, what a blessed reviving there was! We find the Church re-instated, back in the third heaven as it were. So the very next thing we hear about, when the Apostle goes back and this young man with him, is the breaking of bread.
They may have been a little negligent or careless, perhaps so taken up with the Apostle’s ministry, that they postponed the breaking of bread; be that as it may, in the 11th verse we read, “When he therefore was come up again, and had broken bread, and eaten, and talked a long while, even till break of day, so he departed. And they brought the young man alive, and were not a little comforted.”
When is the “break of day” coming for us? How soon is it coming? Some of us feel it is near—the break of day. What is around us today? Darkness on every hand. Young folks, remember, this darkness around is going to increase. I know there is talk about a world-wide revival. I would be thankful to see one; indeed I would, but when I read the Word of God, and see the picture that that Word gives before the end of this world, I see nowhere anything of a world-wide revival, but of a world-wide apostasy. That is where we are drifting. It behooves every one of us to be warned; to be on our guard. Paul’s ministry continued until the “break of day.” That precious, heavenly ministry, the truth of Christ, and the Church is going to remain until the “break of day.” Is it precious to us? or are we tempted to give it up—let it slip? Dear young Christian, it is worth holding on to.
One of these days we are going to hear that summons to see and be with the Lord who died for us, and I verily believe it is going to be a precious thing in His sight if you and I have by His grace, been enabled to “Hold that fast which we have.” It is worth suffering for; it is worth being misunderstood, that we might maintain that truth. God has a place of blessing for us; may we have the grace to value it, and hold fast that which He has given. It is in the atmosphere to let the thing slide—to let go—but it doesn’t come from above, from that blessed One in the glory. He says, “Hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown” (Rev. 3:11).
(Concluded)