2019-03-17 – Acts 20:1-12 – Bored to Death
Bible Text: Acts 20:1-12 | Preacher: Pastor Jerry Higdon | Series: Acts |
2019-03-17 – Acts 20:1-12 – Bored to Death
Good morning everyone. It is so nice to be able to spend some time with you all in fellowship with the Lord. Thank you and God bless you for being with us today.
(This Tuesday Sunday-School & Small Group Training; Iron Shapens Iron)
Happy Saint Patrick’s Day! Question: “Who was Saint Patrick? And why do we celebrate St. Patrick’s Day?” Answer: St. Patrick was a real person that was born to a wealthy family way back in 387 AD in Kilpatrick, Scotland. His real name was Maewyn Succat, and he was a famous Irish Missionary. During the thirty-years he worked in Ireland, he supposedly converted over 135,000 people to Christianity and established some 300 churches. Maewyn or “Saint Patrick” died on March 17, and we now celebrate his birthday, Saint Patrick’s Day on March 17th of each year. His accomplishments are worthy to be celebrated indeed. I just love Corn-beef and Cabbage, and Mint-Chocolate-chip shakes. Anyone see the parade yesterday in Rock Island? What fun.. so in that regard thank you St. Patrick
As we are continuing in our study of the books of Acts, last week we learned that despite the challenges we will face in this life, God wants us to trust Him.
And when we align ourselves with the Lord and His marvelous Will and purpose, amazing and great things tend to just happen. And when we are blessed to witness or experience that, like Paul, we should give thanks and praise and glory to God. Put your trust in the Lord brothers and sisters. Proverbs 3:5 says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight”.
Please turn now to Acts 20, verse 1, page 987 in your pew Bibles, which is the Inspired, Infallible and Living Word of God. But first let us pray..
In our text this morning, the Apostle Paul is traveling from Ephesus where He encountered many angry Silversmith Idol makers, who were revolting because people were turning away from worshiping their Idols to worshiping Jesus. After that skirmish, Paul departed to Jerusalem, but on his way, we will see that he visits the churches that he was blessed to help start during his previous journeys.
1After the uproar was over, Paul sent for the disciples, encouraged them, and after saying farewell, departed to go to Macedonia. 2 And when he had passed through those areas and offered them many words of encouragement, he came to Greece 3 and stayed three months. The Jews plotted against him when he was about to set sail for Syria, and so he decided to go back through Macedonia.
4 He was accompanied by Sopater son of Pyrrhus from Berea, Aristarchus and Secundus from Thessalonica, Gaius from Derbe, Timothy, and Tychicus and Trophimus from the province of Asia. 5 These men went on ahead and waited for us in Troas, 6 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.
Paul had remained in Ephesus for about three years, and he was feeling it was time for him to go, and he wanted to deliver the offerings he had been collecting from the Gentile churches for the poor Christian folks in Jerusalem. This was also important for Paul as he saw it as a worthy opportunity to bring together or cement a sense of brotherhood between Jewish and Gentile Christians. So once the uproar against the Christians had died down in Ephesus, Paul departed for Jerusalem. However along the way, he stopped for three months on in Corinth Greece, which is where he wrote his letter to the Romans.
These men that are mentioned traveling with Paul here were the representatives from the various churches who were bringing their offerings for the poor believers in Jerusalem. The churches of Galatia, Macedonia, and Asia are named, and surely Corinth was represented as well. Paul wanted not just the gifts of money but the presence of these men too, so that the believers in Jerusalem could put faces to the Gentile mission churches and hear from the converts themselves about what Christ was doing across the Mediterranean world.
7 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. 8 There were many lamps in the room upstairs where we were assembled, 9 and a young man named Eutychus was sitting on a window sill and sank into a deep sleep as Paul kept on talking. When he was overcome by sleep, he fell down from the third story and was picked up dead. 10 But Paul went down, bent over him, embraced him, and said, “Don’t be alarmed, because he’s alive.”11 After going upstairs, breaking the bread, and eating, Paul talked a long time until dawn. Then he left. 12 They brought the boy home alive and were greatly comforted.
This is a great testimony we have here from Dr. Luke who wrote this book of Acts, or the Acts of the Apostles as some call it. This first verse here says “on the first day of the week” they met or assembled, well that would be Sunday, like today. However, the Jewish faith still calls their Sabbath day, or day of rest, to be on Saturday. As part of the Ten Commandments says, the fourth commandment says, “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy”. However that is the only commandment that Jesus didn’t Himself reiterate or command us to do in our new covenant or contract. Therefore, we as Christians now generally worship or rest instead on Sunday, being that it is the day that Jesus rose from the grave.
What we are seeing in this first verse, is that the Christians are now making that switch. They are now assembling and worshiping on Sunday.
Paul wrote about this in Colossians 2:16, he said, “Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.” Similarly, Romans 14:5 states, “One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind.”
These Scriptures make it clear that, for the Christian, Sabbath-keeping is a matter of spiritual freedom, and not any longer considered a command from God. Sabbath-keeping is an issue on which God’s Word instructs us not to judge each other. Sabbath-keeping is a matter about which each Christian needs to be fully convinced in his/her own mind. However, the church family is a precious gift from Jesus that we should never forsake. Amen?
In our last verses here, the believers and Paul knew that he was intending to depart their company in the next morning. So they decided to make an all-nighter of it, so as to take full advantage of Paul’s wisdom and experience, and to learn all they could in the brief time they had left with one another. I love how Dr. Luke first explains the environment for which they were participating in. He is so articulate and descriptive in that you can almost see the room and feel their circumstance. They were breaking-bread together, it was late at night, they were upstairs in the home, there were many torches lit, and the young man was sitting in the window sill listening to the Great Apostle Paul. I can almost smell the oil lamps burning up the oxygen in the room as they were trying to squeeze out any piece of wisdom that Paul offered that night. I wonder what messages he shared. Was it his many adventures, his own testimony, or was it more about Jesus and the life He led or the many parables He shared. Paul was a great orator and I am sure they were captivated. I thank God that we have his written accounts here.
However there was at least one that couldn’t make himself stay awake any longer. A young man named Eutychus was feeling tired and thus put himself on that window sill so maybe he could catch a little fresh air. You know what that’s like, when you get soo tired, but you try desperately to stretch out the night?
It’s almost torturous trying to stay awake when your body and mind doesn’t want to cooperate. It’s one thing when your like out in your car on the road, where you can roll down the window, turn the music up loud and sing with it to stay awake. Or you might pull over and get some coffee, or my favorite, sun-flower seeds to keep going.
But when you’re at church, you don’t have necessarily all those mechanisms at your disposal. You have to bear the burden of fighting off the dreaded sleep-bug as you listen to your preachers Wonderful long sermons, lol
I read about a young pastor made the mistake of apologizing for preaching so long. “Oh, it really wasn’t that long,” said a woman trying to be nice. “It only just seemed that way.”
I remember in college, I would always keep a few raw coffee beans in my pants pocket. So when I got to feeling tired, I would pop a couple of those in my mouth and just suck on them until they got soft, then chew on them a little at a time. The caffeine would generally do the trick, but the chewing helped as well.
Hey, what ever it takes, gotta do what you got to do.
This young man Eutychus chose to sit on the window sill, but unfortunately it wasn’t good enough to ward off the sleep bug, and he fell out that window to his temporary demise. Interesting that Eutychus in Greek means fortune or lucky. He wasn’t too lucky that night. Our verses here says he fell into a “deep sleep” before he fell out that window. You ever fall into a “deep sleep” at church before? It’s kind of embarrassing, your head might fall off and you suddenly jerk awake.. Or you find yourself in the middle of a big snore, and your slobbering all over yourself in the process. Talk about being embarrassed.
I remember the first time I went to church as a child. Somehow I ended up being in the first pew. I couldn’t tell you what the pastor was preaching about, but all I remember is waking up to him yelling a question. He said something like, So who do you say is the savior of the world, to which my skinny little self slowly raised my hand, and he called on me, and I answered in my frail little voice “Jesus?” The pastor, to his credit, didn’t make a deal about it, but said “give that boy a Bible”. I wish I knew his name, wouldn’t it be great if he could see me now.. lol
From my purview up here in the front, I get to see a lot of people in all sorts of uncomfortable positions as people are fighting off their sleeping-bugs as they listen to my sermons. Some folks think they are pretty cool about it, but I am here to tell ya it is pretty obvious. There are several types of sleepers in church.
There are the head-nodders; the introspective hand folders and devout prayers; and even some that just don’t care what people think, it is nappy time. When I see that happening, I might change some things up or fluctuate my voice a bit to maybe help them out a little. Many times they might wake up, repositions themselves and offer an Amen. But please know that I feel ya, I have been there many times myself.
Brother Eutychus or “Lucky” here fell down three stories hit the ground. And Doctor Luke pronounced him dead. Doctor Luke is a real Doctor, He knows when somebody is dead, and “Lucky” was dead. Then it says Paul embraced him, or some versions say Paul even lays upon him and then he was brought back to life.
This is another miracle by God, rendered through Paul. We read this account and it seems only but a passing minor happening that occurred that day, but this is a real miracle. Then it says they simply went back upstairs and continued speaking and had fellowship until dawn. I just find that just amazing. Can you imagine if this happened here, we would be so shocked and shaken up, I don’t think we could continue for minutes let alone hours. “Lucky” learned a lot that night. And I bet he nor anyone else had any problem staying awake after that.
Today’s message is called Bored to Death. I learned a long time ago that being bored is really a decision. Or as my Father-in-law would say, being bored is a choice. I have learned through experience now that when I get bored, I get involved. I know it is challenging to get involved in a pew, but there is really a lot you can do to stay alert. First, we all should prepare to be at church in the morning. If you love the Lord, and you want to learn and worship Him, then you should prepare for church. That means get to bed earlier on Saturday nights. That means, getting some breakfast so you don’t run out of energy.
We can also get involved in the service by taking notes, or reading the associated context verses to the passage being studied. Really learn what is being presented in the message and how it applies to your lives. You could also, dare I say it, sit up front, the dynamics up front here are much more engaging than the back of the church, and it doesn’t hurt a bit, I promise J
Last week we started into Daylight Savings Time. We all lost an hour Sunday morning. Even I wanted to take a nap during service, Lol. Getting tired is a part of life, but that doesn’t excuse us from adulting or preparing appropriately for success in this regard. I remember when I once was struggled in the pew, it was tough. So I decided to start creating a summary of the sermon on my own and I even posted it on Facebook every Sunday for others to maybe benefit from. It helped me stay engaged during church services, also in my learning to take full advantage of the Sunday messages and it honored the Pastor in the process.
A couple went to church one day and the wife nudged the husband and said, “Look over there so-in-so is sleeping.” The man replied, “You had to wake me for that?”. Sleep is good, Rest is good, Jesus said, “come to me and rest”
As we see in these verses today, we are not alone in our struggle, and just like Paul was merciful and caring, and Jesus is merciful and caring, we all too should be merciful and caring in this regard.
You will be happy to know that unlike Paul, I am not going to be preaching till sunrise. I hope you all have a wonderful Saint Patrick’s day. I will close with a little more history about our dear Saint Patrick.
At age sixteen, he was captured by Irish raiders and spent several years as a slave in Ireland. It was during this time that he learned the language, rituals, and customs. While serving as a slave, Patrick had a dream in which God spoke to him, saying, “Your ship is ready.” Patrick was then able to escape Ireland by ship. However shortly thereafter, he had another dream that he was to return to Ireland, but this time as a missionary to the people.
Today, St. Patrick’s Day is celebrated by wearing green, which symbolizes spring as well as Irish culture. The fact that around 1,600 years ago a man chose to dedicate his life to proclaiming the gospel, resulting in many thousands coming to faith in Christ, is most definitely worth celebrating indeed.
Luke 15:10 “I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
Would you please stand with me now, as we close with an invitation
Let us sing: Amazing Grace.. “A FRIENDLY CHURCH IN A FRIENDLY TOWN”