Paul’s Companions in Travel – Acts 19:29

Don’t you think that Luke makes an interesting comment in verse 29?

Gaius and Aristarchus were called “Paul’s companions in travel.”

So many things might have been said to describe these two:

To use Paul’s own language, they were perhaps fellow-soldiers.

In Romans he called Priscilla and Aquila his “helpers in Christ Jesus.”

Tychicus was a beloved brother, faithful minister and a fellow servant, as I’m sure these two were.

Marcus, Artistarchus, Demas, and Lucas were called fellow-laborers in the Book of Philemon.

And even later Aristarchus was an helper and “fellow-prisoner.”

But here he was a “fellow-traveler” along with Gaius.

“Paul’s companions in travel” – Interesting choice of words.

Of course, it was an historical fact that these two had been traveling with Paul.

John Gill thinks that they had met up with Paul in Corinth, after having come to know the Lord through his ministry in Macedonia some time earlier.

When Paul left Achaia, these two and others left with him.

Some of that troop, which could have been as many as a dozen people, stayed and waited for Paul in Ephesus.

But Bro. Gill thinks that Gaius and Aristarchus traveled with Paul to Jerusalem to personally present the funds that the Macedonian churches had gathered for the relief of the Judean saints.

They may also have even returned with him to Jerusalem at the end of the Third Missionary Journey.

As we shall see next week, they will be with Paul as he went back through Macedonia and Achaia.

We don’t know how many miles they had already traveled with Paul, but it would have been pointless to call them “companions in travel” if they hadn’t actually traveled together.

So undoubtedly, it was a fact that these two were Paul’s companions in travel.

But it is a favorite theme of poets and allegorists to talk of travel as a metaphor for life.

And that is what I would like us to think about this evening – or perhaps somewhere in between.

I’d like us to use our imaginations to picture Paul, Aristarchus, Gaius and others journeying around the eastern Mediterranean.

And then I’d like to make some observations about travel – and about life – in general.

Gaius and Aristarchus were Paul’s companions in travel.

And travel means … TRAVEL.

Travel is going from one place to another place, to another and another.

People can’t stay at home and call themselves “travelers.”

Is that a stupid statement; too simple?

I know someone who believes, or used to believe, in soul-travel.

This person believed that she could leave her body in one place but send her soul to visit other places.

Whether she actually did this, I have no proof, but I never did see any of the pictures that she took on the voyages of her soul.

Travel means physically moving from place to place.

And LIFE means going from place to place as well.

It might not mean living in Oklahoma one week and in Washington another.

But for nearly all of us, life means living in the comfort of our mothers arms for a few years, and then only under our father’s roof, then to an apartment, and then to a house that we share with our spouse, then to a condo, and eventually who knows where.

And life means at first living in ignorance, but eventually moving on to knowing a few things and eventually and hopefully – wisdom.

For the Christian, life means living in self and in sin, but moving on to living in grace and eventually Glory.

Life means travel and travel is an illustration of life.

Where are you headed this evening?

And travel means LEAVING HOME.

Almost everything that I’m saying this evening are so obvious that I wonder if it needs to be said at all.

For example:“travel means leaving home” – of course it does.

Aristarchus was from Thessalonica, Macedonia.

In Acts 27:2 we read: “And entering into a ship of Adramyttium, we launched, meaning to sail by the coasts of Asia; one Aristarchus, a Macedonian of Thessalonica, being with us.”

Most scholars believe that this was the same Aristarchus.

Gaius, however, is more of a conundrum, because there are several men with this name in the Bible.

As we shall see in the next chapter there is a Gaius who came from Derbe in Galatia.

The Book of Romans, which was written from Corinth, mentions Gaius who was Paul’s host.

Crispus and Gaius were among the first people Paul baptized in Corinth,

so it is unlikely that he was the Gaius from Macedonia.

But, as I’ve said before, he might have been visiting Corinth when the Lord saved him.

But our text here in Acts 19:29 says that Gaius and Aristarchus were from Macedonia.

And since they were in Ephesus when they were grabbed by this angry mob, it’s obvious that they weren’t at home.

And my thought is this:

These two men were being a blessing to Paul in the gospel ministry.

But they could not have been that blessing if they were still at home.

Every person’s life is different, but some people cannot be the servant of God they were meant to be until they leave home.

A spouse cannot be the spouse that he or she is supposed to be until he leaves his father and mother.

A missionary can’t be a missionary without leaving his home and perhaps his country.

But that doesn’t mean that he can’t be a different kind of servant of God there at home.

The question is: what kind of servant does the Lord want YOU to be?

Travel means leaving home.

Travel can also mean HARD WORK.

Brother Bill is in Bellingham this weekend, visiting his Dad – about 350 miles from here.

For us to travel 350 miles is almost nothing – less than 6 hours on the freeway.

Friday I looked up what it would take to fly to S.C., and I was told that it would take less than 6 hours.

Molly & her cousins drove back from Oklahoma this week, a trip of what was supposed to be 2,000 miles.

They managed to make it much longer than that,

but still that is a very long way,

which would have taken Paul and his companions in travel months and months to complete.

Much of the time spent traveling by the three men in our scripture was spent on their feet.

They walked up hills and down; they journeyed on some days in the rain and perhaps snow.

There were days when the temperatures were in the low hundreds, but they had places to go.

Sometimes, they drained their canteens before they found more fresh water to drink.

At times they were on board ships in the midst of storms.

Perhaps Gaius and Aristarchus had even been ship-wrecked with Paul a time or two.

Every once in a while one of them would slip on a wet stone or trip over a rock & scrape a knee or elbow.

And sometimes their feet got sore and bled from the hardships of their travels.

Probably they ran into insect problems from time to time, which made their lives miserable, like the Lewis and Clark and the Corp of Discovery.

Sometimes, as Bunyon describes, those pilgrims found that their road ran along lush meadows, but they knew that they had better stick to the path.

Travel, or maybe I should say “progress,” means hard work.

As long as we live and breathe, we are going to be carried along somewhere.

We are in the middle of a current, which for the most part is sweeping us all toward a stagnant swamp.

Sure when we associate with the people of God in a church of the Lord Jesus Christ, hopefully we’ll make spiritual progress.

But the fact is, if we are not deliberately traveling toward a specific objective, we are probably going to be headed toward a more hellish place, if not Hell itself.

And to swim against the current is no easier today than it was in Paul’s day.

Progress requires hard work.

Travel is a means to LEARNING NEW THINGS.

There are aspects of “home” which are designed to inform and educate us.

For example, I hope that as you apply yourself to what I am trying to apply to myself that you learn new things about the Lord and His word every week.

This church should be a real part of your life and a major part of your growth and education.

And then as the various members of the family return to the supper table every day,

they should be able to bring with them one or two new things to share with the rest of the family.

The family meal should be an opportunity for learning.

And in a limited way, through our reading or listening, there are other things that we can learn.

But there is nothing like travel to learn things as yet unlearned.

As a city kid, I like those signs along I-90 as we approach the Columbia.

I’m talking about the signs with the names of the crops which are growing in the fields behind them.

That is an education to me.

And perhaps they aren’t as common as they once were,

but our highways in both Canada and the United States used to be dotted with historical markers describing various events and geological features.

For a few years British Columbia published all their points of interest signs in a little booklet,

so that even before you came to that stop,

you knew that a significant event took place just around the bend ahead.

How can a book, TV show or travelog reveal what an hour driving through Glacier National Park can reveal?

Recently Bro. Bill spent a few days in Washington DC,

and he came back with knowledge that couldn’t be easily grasped in any other way.

And then there were things which he already knew intellectually, which came alive when seen in their proper perspective.

So imagine what it must have been like for Gaius and Aristarchus to walk into Jerusalem.

They where kids from modern Macedonia,

and with just a trip of a few hundred miles,

they were transported back in time and forward into a culture that was entirely different from anything that they had known.

Imagine too, how their ability to preach the glorious gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ changed with the education that their travels provided them.

The had seen the exterior of the temple where Christ sat with the rabbis and quarreled with the priests.

They had visited the site of the cross and had seen Joseph’s tomb.

With images of Jerusalem in their minds, their preaching probably took on a zeal that not even Paul could match.

Travel means learning new things.

But make sure that what you are learning is pure, good and helpful.

There is a lot that the child of God SHOULD NOT learn.

And travel also means the opportunity to be a blessing to others.

In the case of Gaius and Aristarchus they were not only companions in travel, they were gospel-bearers.

They had the potential of being a huge blessing everywhere they went.

They had the potential of being instruments of positive change in a dark and deadly world.

You might think that was a privilege that only Paul could enjoy, but that’s not the case.

Even the more common servants of Christ, even the servants of the servants of Christ, can be vessels fit for the Master’s use and filled with the Water of Life.

When Luke described these two men as companions with Paul, it was not just that they accompanied him.

I believe that they helped to shoulder the work and the responsibility.

When they traveled, they not only carried their baggage, but they took upon themselves to carry some of the extra baggage that a missionary team might have to take with them.

When they went to Jerusalem with that offering,

they weren’t carrying a check symbolizing the gifts of the people of Thessalonica and Philippi,

and they didn’t carry wallets full of paper money;

they had bags filled with gold and silver.

Don’t you suppose that they each also carried a dagger and other weapons?

Paul, despite his faith in the protective hand of the Lord, was probably relieved to have such men as these as he journeyed along highways filled with robbers.

Again, in II Corinthians 11 Paul testified:

“Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one.

Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep;

In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren;

In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.

Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches.”

Gaius and Aristarchus, Paul’s companions in travel, were a great blessing to him during some of these things.

Nine times out of ten, when people come a long way to visit with Judy and me, we are blessed by that visit.

And I hope that when we travel and visit others we are a blessing to them.

This is perhaps something that we need to study to become.

Have you ever met someone who “darkened the corner where they were?”

Do you know people who have the tendency to bring people down wherever they go?

Are YOU that kind of person?

Or do you by your smile, your attitude, and your conversation tend to lift and uplift people?

That is a choice that you have the privilege to make.

Don’t blame your dower demeanor on your natural sanguine temperament – give it to the Lord to correct.

Travel takes us into the presence of people to whom we can be a blessing.

Travel also puts us into the PLACE OF DANGER.

Here were these two young men at risk of being killed and buried miles from their homes.

Sometimes our travels put us into dangerous situations which are no fault of our own.

Sometimes we are taller than everyone else around us, red haired, and speaking with an accent which draws the attention and the ire of the natives.

Perhaps in those situations we ought to move on or come home.

And then sometimes we come with something which puts us in danger:

Like an American flag on our suitcase.

I have heard of Americans putting Canadian decals on their luggage, in order to more easily travel around Europe.

But what are you going to do with Christ when He dwells in your heart?

These two men were Christians, and they refused to hide that fact from the people of Ephesus.

But how many people know that you are child of the King?

Maybe a better way to phrase the question is:

How many of your acquaintances DON’T KNOW that you a child of the King?

As you travel through life, you are going to be put into dangerous situations.

But isn’t it wonderful to know that nothing can harm you which the Lord doesn’t permit for some reason?

All things, even the bad things, “work together for good to them that love God and who are the called according to the Lord’s purpose.”

The best kind of travel provides us with AGREEABLE TRAVELING COMPANIONS.

Can you imagine what it was like to walk or ride side-by-side with the Apostle Paul for hundreds of miles?

Do you think that perhaps he ever spoke to them about his near-death experience?

How much theology did they discuss as they walked along.

How many questions did these young man ask, receiving clarification on confusing things that remained confusing to those who only had the privilege to hear Paul’s sermons?

And how close they became as they traveled together.

Can two walk together except they be agreed?

You young people, don’t rush into marrying someone.

You need to realize that marriage is supposed to be a life-long commitment and you two will be walking down the road of life for possibly many years before the Lord returns.

And when you first meet someone, it will be possible for them to leave an image and impression that is not exactly the real person.

Give yourself a lot of time to really determine who you are and who that other person is.

Give yourself time to determine if you really are agreed before you start that long walk.

And remember too that no matter who you are walking with in this life: Paul, a mate, or a good friend like Gaius,

For the child of God, one of our Companions, our Constant Companion is the Lord.

Take care of nurturing that companionship.

Grieve not the spirit Who indwells your heart.

Strive to learn more and more about the Lord, who travels with you.

And make sure that you’re going the direction that He selects for you.