There’s no getting around the fact that today’s text contains a part that strikes us as humorous, and the fact of the matter is that sometimes, we can do some funny things in church.
A preacher was completing a temperance sermon: with great expression he said, “If I had all the beer in the world, I’d take it and throw it into the river.” With even greater emphasis, he said, “And if I had all the wine in the world, I’d take it and throw it into the river.” And then, finally, he said, “And if I had all the whiskey in the world, I’d take it and throw it into the river.” He sat down.
The song leader then stood and announced, “For our closing song, let us sing Hymn #365: ‘Shall We Gather At the River.’”
And then, of course, there are those wonderful church bulletin bloopers typed by well-meaning church secretaries:
The pastor will preach his farewell message, after which the choir will sing, "Break Forth Into Joy."
During the absence of our pastor we enjoyed the rare privilege of hearing a good sermon when J.F. Scubbs supplied our pulpit.
Irving Benson and Jessie Carter were married on Oct. 24 in the church. So ends a friendship that began in school days.
Low Self-Esteem Support Group will meet Thursday at 7 to 8:30 p.m. Please use the back door.
Weight Watchers will meet at 7:00 pm at the First Presbyterian Church. Please use the large double door at the side entrance.
The eighth graders will be presenting Shakespeare’s Hamlet in the church basement on Friday at 7:00 p.m. The congregation is invited to attend this tragedy.
Remember in prayer the many who are sick of our church and community.
Let’s hope there aren’t many who are sick of our church and community…
When we left Paul, he was in the process of eluding some who would have taken his life had they the chance. He learned of a plot against him, hatched by the Jews, and took evasive action, heading to Troas instead of to his original destination. And thus Troas is where we find him, a place he’d been before, where several years earlier he’d experienced a vision of a man in Macedonia saying, “come over here and help us”. And help Paul did, opening up Greece—and Europe, an untouched continent—to the gospel of Jesus Christ. And thus after running his misdirection play, Paul arrives in Troas, a reunion of sorts with a group of men from different parts of the world, but whose bond in Jesus Christ transcended cultural differences; we read their names and hometowns in verse 4. A week of ministry together ensued, and the time then came for Paul to continue his trek to Jerusalem, and thus, the church gathered together before Paul’s departure.
I. The Church Comes In to Worship & Fellowship - :7a
7 On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread…
Now we might be tempted just to run right on by this, because it doesn’t strike us as unusual, but there are some things to note:
• “First day of the week”
FF Bruce says this is “the earliest unambiguous evidence we have for the Christian practice of gathering together for worship on that day”. Now there are some friends who want to judge the contemporary church on the basis that we are, in their minds, breaking God’s law by not worshipping on the Sabbath (Saturday). I hear from these folks from time to time, either on my blog or through other means. So let’s answer, very briefly, two questions:
Why Sunday worship?
Why not Sabbath worship?
As I’m sure I’ve said enough times that you’re tired of hearing it,
• Worship at all times!
Though we rightly set aside times to worship corporately, our lives ought to be lived as acts of worship.
• Worship whenever!
There is nothing inherently wrong with gathering to worship on Saturday, Sunday, or Tuesday at 3:30 in the afternoon, for that matter. Some folks get all worked up about the “rules”, but as I’ll suggest in a moment, there’s a point to the Sabbath—and it’s not the Sabbath itself! But if folks truly worship Jesus on Saturday morning, that’s fine, just as those who worship on Saturday evening are fine, just as…you get the picture. When Jesus was asked about worship logistics by the woman at the well, He steered her away from the ritual and the ceremonial, and instructed her as to the true meaning of worship (John 4).
• Worship celebrates Jesus!
It seems clear that the early church’s determination to worship on Sunday was based upon the resurrection being on a Sunday; i.e., Sunday is a day of celebration. If, then, I have not celebrated the fact that I serve a risen Savior, when I gather with God’s people, then I’ve missed the boat somehow. Ray Stedman quotes Justin Martyr, who writes from the 2nd century:
“But Sunday is the day on which we all hold our common assembly, because it is the first day on which God, when he changed the darkness and matter, made the world; and Jesus Christ, our Savior, on the same day, rose from the dead.”
Heard a sermon recently delivered by a man who, though new to preaching, had great oratorical skills, good platform presence, and good content; he preached from the Old Testament. My only thought, in leaving, was this: never preach a sermon a rabbi could preach. I’m sure that in the past, I’ve been guilty of that, particularly when preaching the Old Testament. But to do that misses the point of Sunday, indeed of our faith: apart from Jesus, we are nothing. And the early church knew this, and in desiring to focus on Jesus, and understanding the Sabbath to be God’s rules/regulations for Israel, they met on Sundays.
• The Sabbath is a “shadow”.
Colossians 2:16 “…let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. 17 These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.” Hebrews 4 speaks of the “Sabbath rest” for God’s people, when they cease from their own labors, and this is found in Christ: when I turn to Him in faith, I do not need to try to prove, by my own good works, that I am right with God. Rather, I rely on Jesus!
And so this idea that Christians today disobey God by meeting on Sunday rather than Saturday, the Sabbath, is to make a legalism out of God’s principle that it is not by following legalisms that we are right with Him! And so the church at Troas came together on a Sunday. This was almost certainly a Sunday night service, the congregation having gathered together after work. They met in a private home, on the third floor.
“Gathered together to break bread”
• Eating together?
• Communion?
• Actually, it was likely both, that in the context of a fellowship meal together, the believers took time to celebrate the Lord’s Table, something that was commonplace in the early church, and which one of these Sundays, we’ll observe as well.
Though Scripture doesn’t demand that we do this, it was the practice of the early church to observe the Lord’s Table at every meeting.
Table Talk
Discuss our recent “experiment” in observing the Lord’s Table weekly. Was it meaningful to do it weekly? Why? Did it become a bit “routine”? What would be the advantages—and disadvantages—of adopting this practice?
II. Paul Tries Out a New (Dubious) Strategy - :7b
OK, so nobody gripe when the sermon gets a little long at Red Oak, howzat? I had a man in a previous church who, when my message went longer than he deemed appropriate (which is to say, when church let out five minutes past his idea of when it should: noon), would greet me at the front door without a word, but only by looking down at his watch and shaking his head. Wonder what he’d have done with Paul’s message this evening? Perhaps I could get away with preaching for hours? But then someone would point out that Paul had the ability to raise the dead, and that until I have that, maybe I shouldn’t preach so long, right?
We’re not told for sure when he started this message, but suffice it to say that it went a bit long, you know? Paul’s new strategy didn’t really work out too well, because though he was full of information that he was determined to share, he forgot that old maxim: “the mind cannot absorb any more than the seat can endure”, a maxim I’ve no doubt failed to heed myself from time to time!
And a word about length: while none of us would likely recommend a dusk-til-dawn format, when it comes to the length of a service of worship, we can be concerned about getting out of the building, or about getting into the presence of God. I’ll take the latter!
III. Eutychus Nods Off, Falls Off, and Kicks Off - :8-9
Talk about embarrassing reasons to get your name in the Bible—we mentioned Euodia and Syntyche a few weeks back, forever immortalized in the Word of God because they fought like cats and dogs. Eutychus, whose name means “fortunate” (we’d call him “Lucky”!) fares little better, he the patron saint of the drowsy, Winkin’, Blinkin’, and Nod all wrapped up in one churchgoing young man. Whether Eutychus was the first to fall asleep in church or not, he had the misfortune of doing so when Dr. Luke, the writer of Acts, was on hand to witness the whole thing, and to record it all in the Bible!
If you say you can’t identify with Eutychus, you’re probably lying. We’ve all known folks who have fallen asleep in church, or nodded their heads a good bit—and some of us have been the guilty parties (and note I say “us”, and not “you”!). But note the deck that was stacked against poor Eutychus:
• Had they eaten already? Likely they had begun their time together with dinner.
• Lamps lighting the room gave off smoke, so there was a bit of a haze—and maybe it was warm, too.
Literally, these were “torches”, and we can imagine a stuffy, oppressive atmosphere. It wasn’t like there was some fresh wind blowing through the place; instead, the Mediterranean heat, the grimy sweat of the weary crowd, the lack of oxygen: all of these worked together to make the conditions less than ideal for sitting and listening.
• Eutychus, a young buck likely between eight and fourteen years of age, had chosen the window seat, three floors above the ground—not unusual, since there is something about youth that takes the daring over the safe, of course. Further, there he found at least some fresh air; it was, aside from the safety factor, one of the choice seats in the house!
• Paul “talked still longer”.
• All the elements were there for a problem to take place!
The tense of the Greek verb paints the familiar picture for us: despite his best efforts at remaining awake, Eutychus finally relaxed to the point of sleep—and a deadly plunge.
Undoubtedly, when the church at Troas looked back upon the event, they did so with laughter; Eutychus himself probably led the chorus. But this evening, it was no laughing matter; what we now regard with some humor was at the time it took place nothing short of tragedy, for a person to lose his life in church, of all places. And upon this realization, the people of the church ran down the stairs to find the young man dead; some likely began the shriek of a Middle-Eastern death wail.
IV. God Raises Up Eutychus From the Dead - :10-12
The passage does not record this miracle in any great detail, and there is little “fanfare”, if you will, causing some to question whether the young man Eutychus actually died, or whether Paul instead somehow discerned that he was still alive, that he only appeared dead, and that thus there was no reason to worry. But let’s shoot down that notion:
• The Scripture says he was “taken up dead”; it doesn’t say that “everyone feared he was dead”, or that “he appeared to be dead”.
• Luke, the author, was a doctor; it’s pretty difficult to believe that he didn’t know dead when he saw it!
• Even if he were not dead, a fall from three stories would be cause for alarm, for rushing to get medical attention for fear of him dying—and yet there is in Paul no cause for alarm whatever.
Both Elijah and Elisha, Old Testament prophets, had covered dead young men with their bodies for the purpose of bringing those young men back to life; here, Paul repeats the same thing! And when he does, he looks at the concerned and grieving onlookers with an assurance that God has worked a miracle through him; the young man is alive!
God is the star of this show. That’s how it must be in all good preaching: we must note the role of God in bringing life from death. It’s a resurrection job, and God specializes in this type of thing! Every time a person places saving faith in Christ, and Christ alone, God raises a dead person to new life.
Likely, the eating after the raising from the dead was their partaking of the Lord’s Table, and then the “service proper” came to a close, but knowing he’d never see these folks again, Paul stayed talking with them until daybreak, when they had to go to their places of work.
V. Paul Heads Away to Jerusalem
- :13-16
This is a fairly straightforward account of Paul’s determination to travel to Jerusalem, a topic we’ll take up later on, and so I’m not going to pull over and camp here
Points to Ponder
• The Content of Christian Worship
Fellowship
The Lord’s Table
Preaching the Word
These are the things that build up the Christian: the ordinances, the Word, and the fellowship. Now, there were undoubtedly other practices that joined with these: prayer, and likely a time of praise/Psalm-singing, and likely the public reading of the Scriptures as well. And whether we adopt the practice of weekly Communion or not, it’s critical that what the Lord’s Table symbolizes—the sacrifice of Christ on the cross to pay for our sins—be the center of what we’re about. But notice that they focused on God and fellowshipped with each other. When I’ve shared with others about our vision here at Red Oak, it thrills me to be able to say that we’re trying to do some of the very same things that the early church was doing!
• The Presence of God in Christian Worship
God showed up in a clear way in the healing of Eutychus. And the fact of the matter is that God is still in the business of showing up and doing resurrections.
• Preparing for Christian Worship
Eutychus wasn’t in the best position to really focus on worshipping God. We won’t be too hard on the lad; we’ve all been there from time to time. What concerns me is that there may be some of us who regularly place ourselves in poor position to worship God together on Sundays. And when it comes right down to it, it’s a matter of priorities, plain and simple, nothing more, nothing less.
Practical Pointers:
Remember Who you’re meeting
I always like to remember this convicting test of things: suppose you had an audience with the president. Yeah, I know, you’d tell him a thing or two, and so would I. But how would we approach such a meeting? Hold that thought while I remind you that it is God with Whom we are meeting on Sunday mornings, and the family of God as well. Would you mosey into a meeting with the president, unprepared and unconcerned? Or would you prepare yourself?
Let Sunday worship grow out of 24/7 worship
This means, in plain English, that Sunday AM ought not be weird for you, that you should be in the habit of praising God and listening to Him all week long…
Begin Sunday worship on Saturday evening
If you had been meeting with GWB this morning, would it have affected your bedtime last night? Too many folks act like Sunday morning catches them by surprise: “I’d have been in church but I stayed out too late Saturday night”. What, you weren’t expecting Sunday morning to follow Saturday night on the calendar?
Get up early enough to get prepared to worship
• Turn your thoughts to God prior to arriving at church
• Eat enough breakfast so that hunger isn’t a distraction
• Take at least a few moments to meditate on the Word
Take time, prior to coming, to confess sin to God
Yes, you can and should confess sin on Sunday in a worship service, but why wait? Why not talk to God before you get here? And while you’re at it,
Breathe a prayer of openness before coming
Cultivate a grateful heart
Psalm 100:4 – “I will enter His gates with thanksgiving in my heart; I will enter His courts with praise!” How’d you enter?
Eliminate Sunday morning distractions
• Don’t do drugs on Sunday morning—I refer to the plug-in drug (I turn on FoxNews to make sure no headlines need to be addressed in service)
• Turn off the radio, unless it’s something that will direct your mind toward God
• Let the newspaper wait
Leave early enough to be on time (10 minutes prior to the start of the service at minimum)
Remember that worship isn’t just about you and God—it’s about others too!
• Who needs encouragement?
• Are there guests who need welcoming?
• Is there some way you can help out?
Christian worship, as experienced in the early church at Troas, is a powerful and indispensable element of our relationships with God. We’d do well to approach it with the seriousness that it deserves, for when we worship, it is God with Whom we meet!
Table Talk
• Would most Christians think of the same three “Content” items we listed? What would they add? What would they leave out? Why?
• What have you found helpful that you’d add to the list of “practical pointers”?
