Paul’s public service for the Lord Jesus is given in two parts. From chapters 9 through 15 we have his association with Barnabas, “a good man full of the Holy Spirit and of faith” (Acts 11:24). He befriended Saul of Tarsus at the beginning and worked with him for some years, gladly allowing him the leading part.
Paul had the great advantage of being converted away from the old order. lt was outside the Syrian capital that the Lord of glory spoke to him from heaven. Henceforward he walked and testified in separation more completely than many others.
After his break with Barnabas, Paul’s fellow-laborer was Silas, who came down from Jerusalem to Antioch after the controversy concerning putting Gentile believers under the Mosaic law. He was a man after Paul’s own heart, and their years of fellowship together in service formed the peak of Paul’s labors.
In chapters 16-20, we find the apostle at the height of his spiritual career, free from religious prejudices–but bitterly persecuted by Jews and Gentiles everywhere, who judged that such a worker outside the world-system was unfit to live (1 Cor. 4:9-10). Acts 20 should be carefully considered in detail. It begins with Paul’s departure from Ephesus after the great riot which he afterwards considered the most perilous incident of his life (2 Cor. 1). “He departed to go into Macedonia, and when he had gone over those parts, and had given them much exhortation, he came into Greece, and there abode three months” (Acts 20:1-3). The Spirit’s reticence here as to what happened in those important provinces, the cities visited, and the results accomplished is remarkable, especially in view of what is told us of a single evening in the seaport of Troas. This fact suggests to us that the meeting held there has permanent importance from which Christians until the end may learn something of the mind of the Lord.
It should be remarked that Paul and Silas were rejoined there by several brethren whom they sent on in advance. The two apostles set sail from Philippi accompanied by Luke (“we”) but the journey across the Aegean Sea took five days as compared with three days when they went westward with the gospel message (16:11-12). The vision of a man of Macedonia appealing to Paul to “come over and help us” led the apostle to cross into Europe, believing that the time had come for the gospel of Christ to be carried beyond the limits of Asia Minor. God graciously granted then a quick passage, and thus the work began which has long since reached us.
But the same urgency did not exist when they returned to Troas, and the vessel did not arrive there until what we call Monday morning, Paul and his friends having missed what they regarded as a very important meeting, they waited in Troas a whole week. Doubtless the servants of Christ were active daily, but what is noted is: “On the first day of the week when we were assembled to break bread.”
It is noteworthy that the Sabbath has no place here. It belongs to the old order, not to the new. Israel’s holy day is only once mentioned in the Christian epistles, and there with a warning (Col. 2:16). The first day of the week became the rallying day for Christians, that day marking God’s triumph over death in the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. It is called “the Lord’s Day” (Rev. 1:10).
The place of meeting to which Paul and his friends went in Troas was an upper room, a serious breakaway from the stately Jerusalem Temple. The Lord Jesus told the woman at the well of Sychar that a change in the place of worship was coming. Her inquiry as to Gerizim or Jerusalem led Him to say, “Woman, believe Me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.” The reference here is to the impending destruction of both the Jewish and Samaritan sanctuaries by the Roman armies, God not intervening to avert either catastrophe. Then He added, “The hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship Him.” In verse 23, the Lord goes beyond verse 21. The hour had not yet come for the destruction of the buildings which men loved but the hour had already come for worship of a purely spiritual character for which neither altars nor priests were required, nor could be divinely accepted. God in the person of His Son had come out to men as Father in wondrous grace. All barriers were now removed, immediate access was now to be the privilege of all, with liberty such as had never previously been known.
But only men born of the Spirit could enter into the joy of this, and Christendom has largely missed it. “Woman believe Me,” should be trumpeted forth for people are far more ready to follow the dictates of men than to heed the sweet words of the Son of the Father’s love. Yet He alone can lead us into the secrets of the divine heart. “God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth” (Jn. 4:21-24).
See Paul then, once an enthusiast for Judaism in its strictest Pharisaical forms, wending his way in Troas to worship in an upper chamber where no priests with an altar would be found, and no other suggestion of ecclesiastical formalities. But he found there a number of humble believers in the Lord Jesus whom grace had constituted “a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ” (1 Pet. 2:5).
Far more delightful to God than the incense of an altar is the praise that flows from hearts rejoicing in His grace and conscious of full salvation. The liberty in His presence is also His delight, every man free to express himself audibly in worship, the women free to worship sincerely from the heart (1 Cor. 14:34).
The saints were assembled in Troas to break bread. This was “the Lord’s Supper” of 1 Corinthians 11. These phrases give us two aspects of this simple service: “the Lord’s Supper” showing the divine side–it was something that the Lord enjoined; and the “breaking of bread” showing the human side–it was something the saints did among themselves in obedience to the Lord’s desire. The meeting was convened that evening for the usual purpose of breaking bread. Paul was a distinguished visitor, and unlikely to come again, but it was not primarily to hear him that the saints assembled, although they did hear him, but after they had attained their purpose. There is no divine rule as to this, but it is surely permissible for the Word to be ministered after the bread and wine has been reverently partaken of.
This answers a question that is sometimes raised as to verse 11. There we read that when Paul came back into the upper room after the Eutychus incident, he had broken bread, and eaten. Is the Lord’s Supper intended here? Or was it Paul’s own breakfast? Obviously the latter, or the pronoun “he” would be out of place, and moreover it would be implied that Paul’s long speaking so deferred the breaking of bread that it did not take place on the first day of the week at all, but on the morning of the day following. This would be absurd. The true explanation is that Paul had come to Troas “in the fullness of the blessing of Christ” (Rom. 15:29). Like a heavily laden vessel, he had abundance of good things to discharge, and he would give the saints the benefit of his gift, whether the hour be early or late.
The inspired historian has placed the Troas meeting between the tumultuous gatherings in Ephesus, and in Jerusalem. In chapter 19, the idolaters of Ephesus lashed themselves into a fury against Paul because his preaching drew away worshippers from Diana, and they roared themselves hoarse with cries of, “Great is Diana of the Ephesians.” In chapter 21, a great riot arose among God’s ancient people against Paul because they judged him disrespectful of their holy place. The Ephesians contended for a dead thing–they believed that their image fell down from Jupiter; the Jews contended for an empty thing, for the Lord Jesus had said of their temple, “Your house is left unto you desolate” (Mt. 23:38).
Between these scenes we have the story of the simple meeting in Troas, with Paul pouring forth abundantly the richest ministry possible, and there we read of a young man falling asleep! Here is a warning for us. “Knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed” (Rom. 13:11).