Tuesday, March 22, 2022

The Long Sermon

 

Tuesday, March 22, 2022

On the first day of the week, we gathered with the local believers to share in the Lord’s Supper.  Paul was preaching to them, and since he was leaving the next day, he kept talking until midnight.  The upstairs room where we met was lighted with many flickering lamps.  As Paul spoke on and on, a young man named Eutychus, sitting on the windowsill, became very drowsy.  Finally, he fell sound asleep and dropped three stories to his death below.  Paul went down, bent over him, and took him into his arms.  “Don’t worry,” he said, “he’s alive!”  Then they all went back upstairs, shared in the Lord’s Supper, and ate together.  Paul continued talking to them until dawn, and then he left.  Meanwhile, the young man was taken home alive and well, and everyone was greatly relieved.  Acts 20:7-12

Paul’s sermon may have begun in the afternoon, but it continued past midnight.  Poor Eutychus had probably worked a double-shift the previous day, and just couldn’t stay awake.  He fell through the window in which he was sitting, and dropped three stories.  A long sermon can have serious consequences.

One of the turns that seems to always be part of any discussion on sermons is the length, and whether or not people were bored to death.  I took the time this past Sunday to come near that discussion before my sermon began.  I told them to note that it was 11:30 AM, and that Spring had arrived 6 minutes prior at 11:24.  Therefore, I didn’t want anyone thinking they would spread the word that it was the preacher who began in Winter, but didn’t stop talking until Spring.

Preachers all have their internal clock about length of sermon.  Unfortunately many of us do our best to ignore that clock, and it can lead to drowsy congregations.  The famed Baptist preacher, Charles Haddon Spurgeon was known for the lengthy approach to Sunday’s sermon.  He ministered many miles from where his mother lived, so she had never heard him preach.  When she visited him and came to church that Sunday, after the service Spurgeon asked his mother what she thought of the sermon.  Her answer:  I believe you missed several opportunities to stop.

Now, before this devotion misses the opportunity to reach a conclusion, I suppose it would be best to point out that Paul’s sermon did not kill Eutychus, it was the fall he took, caused by sitting still too long.  In Paul’s defense we should also remember that it was he who rushed to Euty’s rescue, and witnessed (or caused) his revival.

For You Today

If you are one who puts the cares of life on hold during the worship hour, and digs-in deeply to worship, listen, learn, and be strengthend by God’s Word, and God’s Holy Spirit speaking to your heart through song, prayer, giving, and preaching, you’re on the right track. 

If any preacher got a wakeup call about long sermons, it was Paul.  He probably vowed to God on his way out of town the next day, that he would watch out for being too wordy, or repetitive.  But, still, there’s something to be said for a congregation that worships whole-heartedly, and awake!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!  

[1] Title image: Wikimedia Commons   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©    

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