A Good Night’s Sleep...in Church Acts 20:7-12 Sermon 07 August 15th, 2010     A pastor of a small church was greatly annoyed by one of his elderly members who fell asleep during his sermons every Sunday. After the service one day, the pastor said to the old man’s grandson who always sat with his grandfather, “If you can keep the old man awake, I’ll pay you a dollar a week.” Well, this worked for a couple of weeks; the aged man was very alert and listened to the sermons attentively. On the third Sunday, however, there he was, up to his old tricks again, sound asleep in the pew.   After the service the pastor called the boy over and said, “I’m disappointed in you. Didn’t I promise you a dollar a week to keep your grandfather awake?”   “Yes,” replied the boy, “but Grandpa gives me five dollars not to disturb him.”   Sleeping in Church goes all the way back to the birth of the Church. If you have your Bible this morning, turn to Acts 20:7-12 “On the first day of the week we came together to break bread. Paul spoke to the people and, because he intended to leave the next day, kept on talking until midnight. There were many lamps in the upstairs room where we were meeting.   Seated in a window was a young man named Eutychus, who was sinking into a deep sleep as Paul talked on and on. When he was sound asleep, he fell to the ground from the third story and was picked up dead. Paul went down, threw himself on the young man and put his arms around him. “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “He’s alive!” Then he went upstairs again and broke bread and ate. After talking until daylight, he left. The people took the young man home alive and were greatly comforted.”   I really feel sorry for Eutychus. It was bad enough for this boy to fall asleep in church while Paul was preaching; he even fell out the window to his death three stories below! But then, of all things, Dr. Luke included the incident for all of the world to read down through the centuries. Think of that! The only time Eutychus got his name in Scripture was when he died while sleeping in church.  Makes you glad the Bible is complete, doesn't it?   If the same thing happened to sleepers today, every church would have to build a morgue in the basement. There isn't an experienced preacher who hasn't faced the most incredible (sometimes hilarious) slumbering saints in the pew. I've seen them nearly bump their heads on the back of the chair in front of them, snore out loud, stay seated when everyone else stood up, drool, and even drop their Bible and then jump when it hit the floor.   Obviously, we’re not surprised when children fall asleep. But I've watched couples nod off together. College students and 3rd shifters are notorious for falling asleep in church. Every now and then you’ll get a snorer or wheezer. So on Sunday morning, if you find yourself getting a bit sleepy, watch out! Eutychus, "being dead, yet speaketh."   But there’s more here than just a sleeping in church story. Paul is coming to the end of his ministry. In fact the next story in this chapter is of his saying good-bye to the leaders of the church at Ephesus. The setting for our text is in Troas. It’s a region in modern day Turkey. The Good Night’s Sleep in Church Story: First of all we see an urgency to worship and share the Word of God. The Apostle Paul was leaving the next day and knew that he would never see these believers in Troas again. There was a real urgency to share his heart with them. This church met on Sunday after sunset. It’s noteworthy that they met on the first day of the week. Remember that the Church began in Jewish culture. The day of worship was the Sabbath or Saturday. But New Testament Christians worship on Sunday or what’s known as “the Lord’s Day” because on it the Lord Jesus arose from the dead. Then, the Church was born on the first day of the week when the Spirit came at Pentecost. What difference does it make what day of the week the church meets on? It makes a difference because the switch from Saturday to Sunday worship took place because of the resurrection of Jesus from the tomb on Sunday morning. Why else would Jews, who largely made up the early Christian congregations and who had a God-given command and a centuries-long tradition of seventh-day worship, change to worshiping on the first day of the week? The only reasonable explanation is that the Lord Jesus, whom they worshiped, arose from the dead on that day. Thus, the Sunday worship of the church is an evidence of and a testimony to the resurrection of Jesus. Does this mean that Sunday is now the Christian Sabbath, and that Christians must follow the Jewish law regarding Sabbath observance? There are differing views on this question. Personally, I believe that though we are not under the Old Testament law regarding the Sabbath, I do believe that we should set aside the first day of every week, “the Lord’s Day,” to gather with God’s people for worship and instruction. The church back then often met in the evening because Sunday was not part of the weekend or a day off. Many of the believers during the 1st century were slaves and unable to come to the worship service until their work day was complete. This church met in an upper room because they didn’t have church buildings in which to gather. This room may have been in the private home of one of the believers. This church would have been multicultural from various social circles but their social and national distinctions made no difference because they were “all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:28). And Paul let loose. How would you like to hear someone preach for about 6-8 hours? But these people didn’t care. They were hungry for God’s word. They couldn’t get enough of the words Paul was speaking. Sadly, too many churches today are more focused on entertainment than they are on the Word of God. In the early church God’s Word was always taught in Christian assemblies and that included the public reading of the Old Testament Scriptures. How tragic to see how God’s Word is so often neglected in church services today? The early church was passionate about God’s Word.  Are we passionate about God’s Word? Do we study it? We should be so passionate about God’s Word that not only should we read it everyday but we should want to be at the place where it’s being preached. When there’s a Bible Study being offered we should want to be there. When there’s church service we should want to be there. We should want to consume ourselves with the Word of God rather than the things of this world. Instead of watching TV, playing on the computer, surfing the Net, playing video games or messing with stuff around the house, why don’t we take some of that time and read God’s Word? We have to make it a priority because other things will always crowd it out. Perhaps you’re thinking, “Why do I need to study the Bible?” How about so you can withstand temptation? Read Matthew 4:1-11 and see how Jesus withstood the temptations of Satan. How about so you can know the will of God for your life? Psalms 119:105 says, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.” The Word of God is our spiritual food. So why does Luke note in vs. 8 that “there were many lamps”? Probably for two reasons. One was because you’re in this big room, you’ve just eaten, you have a bunch of people and with the candles burning and the warmth coming from the body heat and the candles you start getting tired, which gives us some insight on why this young man Euthychus fell asleep. But the main reason why it was so important for you and I to know that there were many lamps was to show that they were not ashamed of what they were doing. They were not ashamed of what they were meeting for. They were meeting to worship and learn about God and they were not ashamed to let the towns people know. In those days Christian groups sometimes met in a dark room to worship. The main reason for this was persecution. Christians were often hated then, as now. Those who opposed Christianity often accused the Christians of meeting in dark rooms to plan evil to try to make plans to take over. So this was Paul’s and the other people’s way of saying “HEY! WE’RE UP HERE WORSHIPPING OUR SAVIOR, JESUS CHRIST!” They weren’t ashamed about it, they wanted people to know. Friend, are you ashamed to let other people know that you’re a Christian? Are you ashamed to invite people to church? Are you ashamed to share Jesus with someone? Are you ashamed to stand up for what’s right and stand against what’s wrong? I want to be able to say what Paul said in Romans 1:16 “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes.” Why should we not be ashamed? Why should we be unwilling to take a stand for God? I believe it’s the least we can do for the One who allowed himself to be brutally beaten, made to carry His own cross and then nailed to it. The One who took my and your place so that we could enter into the gates of heaven to spend eternity with Him. That alone is reason enough to not be ashamed of the Savior. That’s reason enough to take a stand for Jesus. That’s reason enough to share Christ with others. Everybody knows that everybody’s name means something. Some of you may have taken the time to find out what your name means. Let me share something interesting about Eutychus’ name, his name means “fortunate” or “lucky.” The Latin form of Eutychus is Fortunatus. We’d have to all agree that Eutychus was very fortunate that Paul was there that night. So Eutychus falls asleep. In the original text we’re told that he was fighting sleep, but eventually it overpowered him. He fell asleep and fell out of the third story window and died! Some say that he was picked up “as dead,” implying that he was only unconscious. But if you look at the original language the young boy was definitely dead. By the way this passage of scripture is written we know that he was dead. First of all we’re told he fell from the third story window. The emphasis placed upon the height of the fall leads us to believe that he could not have survived, especially while asleep. He could not have prepared for how he landed. But also Luke, who is the author of Acts, was a physician. If he said that Eutychus was dead, we can trust his professional opinion. It’s important for this story to make clear the fact that Eutychus was dead in order to emphasize a great display of faith that’s about to follow. So this boy is dead after his fall. Paul goes down and grabs the boy, and said that he was alive! Was Paul crazy? The boy fell from a third story window and was found dead. How could Paul have gone down and said that he was alive? It’s because Paul realized that if we have faith in Jesus, miracles can happen. The boy was dead, but Paul believed that Jesus could do anything. He believed that Jesus could bring him back to life. Because Paul knew that Jesus came back to life, so why couldn’t he bring Eutychus back to life? And Paul was right Jesus was going to restore this young man’s life. God’s Word was preached that night and God’s power was displayed! That should be the norm in every worship and church service. After the miracle Paul goes back to preaching…all the way to sunrise. This last week I had someone tell me that I preached too long. They, then admitted that their background is mainline churches, where if you get a sermon longer than 10 or 15 minutes, that’s really long. Do you know what a 10 minute sermon is? That’s a drive thru window sermon…and it’s about as nutritious for your soul, McDonald’s. The word for pastor is poimein. It’s the Greek word for shepherd. A primary task of a shepherd is to feed the flock (Ezek. 34:2). The trend in our day of “user-friendly” churches is to shorten the sermon to 15-minute sound bytes since we’ve been reared on TV and can’t handle a longer discourses. But as J. Vernon McGee used to say, “Sermonettes produce Christianettes.” The church needs solid food from the Word to be healthy. Conclusion: What really keeps you awake? Believers who slumber during a one hour church service manage to stay awake during early morning fishing trips, lengthy ball games and concerts, or late night TV specials. It’s a matter of priorities. If something is vital, if something is important to us – we’re alert for it. We need to prepare our heart, bodies and minds for worship to make sure that we get everything out of it that we can. As Spurgeon wisely said, “Remember, if we go to sleep during the sermon and die, there are no apostles to restore us!” It’s noteworthy that two words describe the manner in which Eutychus and the people left that service…the same words ought to describe how we leave, too. Acts 20:12 tells us, “The people took the young man home alive and were greatly comforted.” We ought to go home alive and comforted, too. "Alive" because we’ve celebrated the resurrection of Jesus from the dead and we’ve reverently gathered with His people to praise Him. We’ve been fed from His Word and been strengthened. "Comforted" because we have our values in their proper order once again, and our priorities in perspective. God is still on the throne and regardless of what problems we may face today or next week, God has promised, "I will never leave you or forsake you" (Joshua 1:5).