Patterns of Practice in the Early Church

Not every practice we find in scripture is intended for our emulation. For example, in the passage before us, we find that the church meets on the first day of the week (Sunday), they apparently are planning to break bread together, they are meeting in someone's home, they are meeting on the top floor of the home and they have an abundance of oil lamps burning. Some of these practices are likely helpful patterns for the church to adopt, but some are simply a record of what happened in this particular church, not a prescription for what ought to happen in every church.

There is, however, a detail in Acts 20 that is often overlooked that leads us to understand a practice that regularly took place in all churches, we find it described by the Greek word 'paraklaeo'.

This sermon divides time between tracking the movements of Paul after he departed from Ephesus on the 3rd Missionary journey, and his final evening in Troas, preaching in the upper room.