Monday,
March 27, 2023
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
There’s an old story about faith that many preachers (this one included)
have used in a sermon to illustrate the dangers of an incomplete commitment, a
faith that falls short of full surrender to Christ. It was at a regular Sunday morning worship
that the pastor’s sermon was interrupted by a commotion coming from the back
pew. It seems brother Anse had fallen
out of the pew, and landed on his posterior with a thud that shook the entire
building. The Pastor rushed to the back
of the church and helped old Anse back onto his seat. Are you alright, brother? asked
the preacher. Yep…I guess so, answered
the old Deacon. The preacher asked: Well how’d it happen that you fell out
th’ pew? Old Anse thought just a
moment then replied: Well, I’m a-guessin’
I jus’ never got all the way in that seat in the first place.
I’ve heard it preached that was Eutychus’ problem too. Some (including most preachers and
congregations) might blame it on Paul’s long sermon…the drone factor. Scripture says there were a lot of candles
burning in the upper room where Paul preached; lots of heat. The young man got close enough to get warm,
but not close enough to get uncomfortably hot!
Fire will burn and motivate you; not getting close enough for the
burning experience will make you sleepy.
Add sitting in an open third-story window, and you’ve got a perfect
storm for disaster.
So what’s the point? Well, I do
believe Paul remembered Eutychus, and included his sleeping-in-church faux pas when
he wrote to the believers at Rome:
And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.
Romans 12:1-2
For You Today
Giving yourself to God as a holy sacrifice is a matter of willingly
climbing up on the altar for whatever God wants. It doesn’t mean being willing to be
comfortably near the fire; it means submitting to
the fire for the glory of God.
You cannot expect transformation if you’re only close enough to let the
warmth put you to sleep. You’ll wind up
like Brother Anse...on the faith floor!
There are about 2,500 devotional
posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions
library. To dig deeper explore
some of these: Eutychus and The Long Sermon
Title Image: Rijksmuseum, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons Images without
citation are in public domain.
Unless noted, Scripture quoted
from The New Living Translation©
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