Acts 20:2-16 - Fall Asleep In Church And Perish

Podcast Transcript (Auto-Transcribed by Apple Podcasts)

Hello, and welcome back to Tabernacle Talk. Today, we are in Acts 20 and in verse number 2, Acts 20 and verse number 2. We've been with Paul.

Paul has been on his third missionary journey. And we saw journey number 1, he took with him and Barnabas. Journey number 2, he took with him and Silas.

Journey number 3, he kind of went out on his own, ended up meeting back up with some people. And so he is on journey number 3 right now. And Acts 20 and verse 2, he just came from Ephesus.

He spent two years there, a good amount of time. And then now he is leaving. We can see that in Acts 20 and verse 1.

Paul sent for the disciples, encouraged them, and after saying farewell, departed to go to Macedonia. So now he is heading back into kind of Greece. I think that country might still be called Macedonia, whatever it is to the north of Greece now.

And they are traveling through. And he says this in verse number 4. He was accompanied by Sopater, son of Peres from Berea, Aristarchus and Secundus from Thessalonica, Gaius from Derbe, Timothy and Tychicus and Trophimus from the province of Asia.

So there's a lot of people on this trip. He's going through. And if you'll recall, this was not a on, they weren't driving a 15 passenger van as they were going along.

They weren't in a nice big bus. They wouldn't have had a chariot to be able to ride in. This would have been a lot of walking.

And how cool would it have been to walk with the Apostle Paul to be able to talk through some of the things as he thinks about all of his knowledge of the Old Testament, what he knows about Jesus, what he's heard from the Apostles, what we would see

in other places in Scripture, the fact that Jesus himself communicated some with Paul and the insights that he must have had as he thought about the Scriptures and about Jesus and about how it related to the church to be able to talk with him. How

incredible would it have been to be one of these men. Verse number five, these men went on ahead and waited for us in Troas. So they're us, Luke is back with Paul again.

Verse number six, but we sailed away from Philippi after the Festival of Unleavened Bread. In five days, we reached them at Troas where we spent seven days. So they go back to Philippi again, Paul meets back up with the church.

He stays until after the Festival of Unleavened Bread. So this is one of the Jewish feast days that Paul still enjoyed being able to remember what God had done for the Jewish people. And it's not something that you necessarily have to shy away from.

You definitely don't have to observe the Old Testament feast days or festival days. But if you want to remember, hey, I know what I've read in scripture where God did this for these people.

And so I'm going to do this thing to remember that or to recall God's goodness and God's works. It's a wonderful thing to be able to do. So they meet up with the others in Troas.

Verse number seven, on the first day of the week, we assembled to break bread. Paul spoke to them. And since he was about to depart the next day, he kept on talking until midnight.

So here it's Sunday, they assemble. It says here to break bread. So they're taking communion.

Paul is preaching the word to them. Verse number eight, there were many lamps in the room upstairs where we were assembled. And a young man named Eutychus was sitting on a windowsill and sank into a deep sleep as Paul kept on talking.

And I know for myself, there have been times where I fell asleep during a sermon, I worked a ton.

I can think many times in college where I was working long hours, where I was studying for long hours, where I was, you know, having fun with friends and stuff, there was just a lot going on.

And so there were times where in our every weekday, we had chapel services where either one of the men that worked at the Bible College, where they would preach. Occasionally, there'd be someone that would come in from out of town to preach.

I can think, especially Sunday nights after a very long day of serving, worshiping, being involved in ministry, that at the end of the day, as I was sitting in that service, those services could go an hour and a half, two hours long as it was going

on. And that was the second sermon that I'd heard that day, not to mention a lesson or something like that, where I was like Eutychus and I sank into a deep sleep as the preacher kept on talking.

It says, when he was overcome by sleep, he fell down from the third story and was picked up dead. Man, what a shock this would have been to this poor assembly of believers. It's not every day that someone dies in church.

That's not something that you want to happen, but it happened to this young man, Eutychus. And they go down, they pick him up. He has passed away.

Verse number 10, but Paul went down, bent over him, embraced him and said, don't be alarmed because he's alive. After going upstairs, breaking the bread and eating, Paul talked a long time until dawn. Then he left.

They brought the boy home alive and were greatly comforted. I think it's so funny where Luke puts that particular sentence. I would have put it.

If I was writing, you know, he's picked up dead, Paul went down, bent over him, embraced him and said, don't be alarmed because he's alive. They brought him home alive and they were greatly comforted.

But Luke here emphasizes, hey, Paul knew, OK, sure, things happen in life, but I'm going to keep on preaching the word. He's OK. He's alive.

He's probably not going to be falling asleep anytime soon. No one else is going to be falling asleep anytime soon. You got that adrenaline rush and it's going.

So they're wired. I'm sure Paul, when it had occurred that there was some fear that there was a gay God. What is happening?

And there you can see it says he went down, bent over him, embraced him. So here you can think of many times, not many times, but a few times that this happened in the Old Testament.

You can think with Elisha and Elijah, as they interacted with widows who had, I think it was Elijah with a widow and Elisha with a couple that they had a son and Elijah with a widow that had a son.

In both of those instances, the son died and those two prophets at various times did something very similar where they laid over the top of the boy that had passed and God in those moments miraculously raised them to life.

This isn't something that you can just automatically pick up and take into your everyday life of, okay, if I just hug a dead person, then they will not be dead anymore.

We've gone through much of the Book of Acts already and we have seen all of the dead people that were not raised to life. This is not a guarantee. This was something that God worked in this particular way, in this particular circumstance.

I do think it's funny that earlier in verse number seven, it says that Paul, since he was about to depart the next day, kept on talking until midnight. Then Eudicus dies. Then verse number 11, Paul talked a long time until dawn.

Then he left. Paul went all the way until midnight and then another five, six, seven hours, then left. They brought the boy home alive and were greatly comforted.

I'm very glad that God comforts our hearts that he can do miracles.

And nowadays, it's not normally the raising of the physically dead, but I'm very grateful for when God raises those that are spiritually dead, maybe igniting their hearts for the very first time to see Jesus and his righteousness as the only means of

salvation, not religious works, not good deeds, but Jesus' righteousness alone and submitting to him, proclaiming him as Lord and Master and not their own selves anymore. And God raising the spiritually dead is almost more of a miracle than the

physically dead, because if you have a spiritual resurrection, you will never ever die. However, from scripture, everyone that was ever physically raised from the dead one day had to die once more.

If you go to Israel right now, you won't find Lazarus, the brother of Mary and Martha. You won't find the widow's son. You won't find Eudicus if you go to Troas in, I believe it's Greece.

You won't find these people. These people eventually did have to actually die and stay dead. But those that are spiritually alive, spiritually raised from the dead, will live forever.

And that's the promise of John 3, 16, God loved the world in this way, that he gave his one and only son, the unique son, one of a kind, so that whoever believes in him will not perish, but have everlasting life, eternal life.

And maybe you have loved ones that you wish they could have been raised from the dead, but if your loved one knew Christ, if they obeyed God's voice, if they listened to him, if they turned to Jesus alone, then you can know that your loved one is

just as alive as Eudicus was in this story, that they are in the presence of God. As Paul would say in 1 Corinthians, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.

When we die, when our spirit's gone, we are with the Lord, and what a comfort that that is. A couple more verses and then we'll be done for the day.

Verse 13, we went on ahead to the ship and sailed for Assos, where we were going to take Paul on board because these were his instructions since he himself was going by land. He goes, you guys take the ship, I'm going to walk.

When he met us at Assos, we took him on board and went on to Mytilene. Sailing from there, the next day, we arrived off Chios.

The following day, we crossed over to Samos and the day after we came to Miletus for Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus to avoid spending time in the province of Asia because he was hurrying to be in Jerusalem, if possible, for the Day of

Pentecost. So we started off today with Paul kind of observing that Festival of Unleavened Bread in Philippi, and now he's trying to hurry back to Jerusalem for the Day of Pentecost.

And as we see all of these travel days that are in there, I think I've remarked before about the genuine walk with God and the joy that we can have in the mundane and the boring because God is in those moments, He is overseeing it, He's taking notice

of it just as much as He is in times of raising the dead. And I want to encourage you in your mundane, in your boring, rely on God.

Know that God is in your dish doing, know that God is with you as you travel to work, as you drive, as you have to take a sick day, as you are spending time with your kids. Don't view it as inconsequential. God is with you.

If you are saved, the Holy Spirit lives inside of you. What a comfort, what a privilege that you are traveling with God. That makes any action that you do unique and incredible, because God is doing that action with you.

This is what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 5 and 6, where he says that we are the temple of the Holy Spirit, that what we do, the Holy Spirit does with us.

And I think as I ponder through my actions throughout the day, that when I'm driving, I don't just want my driving to be, oh yeah, I listen to sports or I thought about political things. When I'm driving, am I praying for people?

Am I considering others? Am I, you know, maybe depending on the legality in your state, am I maybe calling up a friend and letting them know that I'm praying for them, or asking what I can pray for them for? Am I praying for my church?

Am I thinking of ways in which I can be a blessing to other people as I'm, you know, maybe in an office?

Am I using my mental energy to go, okay, if the Holy Spirit is doing this task, then am I going to have it be like a shoddy job that the Holy Spirit is doing as I'm in the office? Or would the Holy Spirit do it to the fullest?

And allowing that mindset to direct how I go through there was, okay, we went from this city to this city and this city to this city and this port to this port. As they're going through, like, God's taking notice of it. God's paying attention.

So I don't have to feel alone or isolated just because I'm going through the mundane. The Holy Spirit's with me. And if He's with me, am I going through my day with intentionality, with saying, all right, God, we're in this together.

You you are working through my mind, my words, my actions, my attitude, my body. And so I'm going to do everything that I can to the best of my ability. That's First Corinthians 10.

Whether, therefore, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Hope today, whether you are raising the dead or traveling from place to place, that you would realize that it's God in you and that he wants to talk with you.

He wants you to pray to him. He wants you to care about others and love others and think about how you can best show Jesus to the world around you. Hope that be an encouragement to you today.

And tomorrow we are in one. I know I've said this several times. This is one of my favorite passages in the Book of Acts, where Paul talks to the pastors, the elders, the overseers of the church at Ephesus.

And this is kind of my marching orders as a pastor. And so, I'm excited to dive into that with you all tomorrow. Thank you