Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - The Case for Being Together | New Testament | Acts 20

Episode Date: July 18, 2023

Have you been making excuses for not going to church? Technology and COVID have made it easier to stay apart, but what is the cost of being alone? In today's episode, Tanya looks to Acts 20 as an example of the importance of togetherness. Find out why you should step outside of your comfort zone. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Join the TMBT community in reading the entire New Testament in one year. Get your FREE reading plan here. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter@TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Acts 20

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work. I'm Tanya Wilmuth. One of the things I've noticed in the last few years is a shift in the way we spend our time together. We used to learn together in a classroom, watch TV together in a living room, and worship together in an auditorium. But changes in technology and, of course, the pandemic, changed these things. We spend more time listening to lectures, podcasts, and sermons online than we do in person. We stream TV on our laptops and iPads instead of watching with our family. Even Sunday worship has changed where we can now watch the best online services from the comfort of our homes.

A Washington Post article published in May of 2023 highlighted some of the ways the combo of technology plus a pandemic has changed our lives. Some surprising, some not. Going back to the gym is apparently in and numbers are increasing there while declining for online workouts. Sorry, Peloton. The number of people reporting mental health problems, especially teen girls, will, that continues to climb. But so does the number of people seeking online care for the same problems. Telehealth overall continues to increase, with one in four Americans saying they saw a doctor online this past year. What about work? Well, there's Tuesday through Thursday in person as the work week now.

And introverts reportedly prefer Mondays and Fridays where the offices are less crowded. We eat more takeout. We're conflicted about dating. And the post says we report spending less time than ever at in-person social events. What about when we are together? How often have you noticed you didn't hear what someone was saying to you in the checkout line, or maybe even in a conversation because you got distracted by your phone? There are a lot of good things that come from the changes to. More people can get high school and college degrees online. It's easier to start your own business. It's easier to work for yourself from home. So how do we think about all of this? How do we handle ourselves as the world shifts?

How do we stand out as believers? Well, as Luke wraps up his historical and theological accounts of the early church in Acts, we see that things had shifted for the early Christians following the resurrection of Jesus. One thing that changed was the day of the week they met for worship. The Jewish community historically celebrated the Sabbath on Saturday, but now they were gathering for worship on the first day, or the Lord's Day, as they called it. The best explanation for this was that Sunday was the day Jesus was raised from the dead. The reality of this event changed the way they spent a day that had been in place for

generations. But the purpose of the day didn't change. It was still the time for a meeting together to give praise and worship to God. As we look at this chapter in the way the first Christians follow Jesus, we can think about how to navigate our changing world while understanding that our purpose to live for and to glorify God have not changed. So how do we do this well? From Acts, there's something that stands out, no matter where Paul and his team go or what the people are like in that place. They meet together for worship. Even when their communities were divided, Jew and Gentile, rich and poor, even when the Christians were scattered for their safety, meeting together remained at the core. We can still practice this today to stand out for Jesus and to make him known in a world that's

divided and scattered. We should also practice this today for the same reason, and we need to practice this for ourselves, for the comfort that it provides as we follow Jesus in a world that is divided and scattered. When we meet together for worship, we are spiritually encouraged by the breaking of bread with one another. Luke takes a moment in Acts 20 to share the story of a man named Eutychus. I'm going to tell you what happened to him in a minute, and it's both funny and really encouraging. It's an honest depiction of what worship together looks like. It's not always perfect and seamless. We get bored and tired and distracted, and we could use that as an excuse to stay home and stream from our couches. but if we do that, we miss out.

Listen in to the story from Acts 20. On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them, intending to depart the next day, and he prolonged his speech until midnight. There were many lamps in the upper room where we were gathered,

and a young man named Eutychus, sitting at the window, sank into a deep sleep as Paul talked still longer. And being overcome by sleep, he fell down from the third story and was taken up dead. But Paul went down and bent over him, and taking him in his arms, said, Do not be alarmed, for his life is in him. And when Paul had gone up and broken bread and eaten, he conversed with them a long while until daybreak and then departed. And they took the youth away alive,

and were not a little comforted. We get impatient when the worship leader has us standing too long, or when we have to sit, stand, sit, or when the preacher goes too long and the sun is shining or the football game is coming on, or when the communion line is long, or when we have to turn around and greet our neighbor. I can keep going, right? And we can avoid every single one of those things and orchestrate a perfect day of coffee in Jesus and watching church at home. Thank goodness, there are times and people and places where that is so incredibly needed and helpful. But when do we take advantage of that opportunity and forfeit the comfort we receive from doing all the things and being with other believers? The slight discomforts we feel about getting up and dressed and seeing people face to face,

well, I think that Luke is telling us here that those things are dwarfed in comparison to the comfort we receive from one another when we come together to worship. Have you been making excuses for not going to church? Have you missed out on the relationships and the conversations you could be having by physically going to church? If you have, I want to tell you something. There are people who are missing out by not having you there. You're an important part of the body of believers too. Going to church to worship isn't about perfectionism and legalism.

It's about having your heart and soul encouraged by God's word, God's spirit, and God's people. It's about being part of that encouragement for someone else who is feeling weak. You might find healing for yourself, even if you don't know you need it. Or you might find yourself being able to heal someone else. you might find friendship that your heart is craving. As this chapter in Acts 20 wraps up, Paul is saying farewell to churches he's planted and nurtured. And when you hear the sorrow in his voice to say goodbye, you see how deep and real the relationships were. Luke describes the tearful goodbyes in verse 36.

It says, and when he, Paul, had said these things, he knelt down and prayed with them all. And there was much weeping on the part of all. They embraced Paul and kissed him, being sorrowful most of all, because of the word he had spoken, that they would not see his face again, and they accompanying him to his ship. I can feel the anguish as they told him goodbye. Sure, we can avoid that kind of heartbreak if we never have friends like that. We can avoid the awkwardness of standing and sitting and talking to strangers and never have a tearful farewell. But is that what you want? It's not what I want in the long term, even though I crave it in the moment sometimes. Let's be people that step out of our

momentary awkwardness to be present with people and for people. There are lots of ways to do that, but nothing will grow and seal those relationships more than breaking bread together, literally and figuratively at our church. Before you forget, sign up for the brand new TMBT newsletter. Hit the link in the show notes and you'll get an email every Wednesday that will help you beat the midweek slump and go deeper in your walk with Jesus. Thanks for listening.