A Sermon To Die For Series

Someone once noted that falling asleep has often had unforeseen consequences. Adam fell asleep and woke up married and missing a rib! Samson fell asleep and woke up bald and beaten! Jonah fell asleep in the boat and woke up wet! Eutychus fell asleep and he woke up dead!

Like Eutychus, people have been falling asleep in church for centuries. In the early 1600s, American churches had an official they called the “tithingman”. Their job was to maintain religious order in a community and they made sure that people attended church… and behaved themselves while there. One of their most visible roles for tithingmen was keeping people awake in church. They would walk around carrying the wand of their office, which was a long rod with foxtails/feather tied to one end and a knob on the other end. They tickled the faces of sleepy women and girls, and (with the knob) rapped on the heads of dozing men and boys. (PAUSE)

So, lots of people have fallen asleep in church. It’s just that when Eutychus fell asleep… he woke up dead.

Paul had arrived at Troas 6 days before. He was kind of on his way to somewhere else, but while he was at Troas, he wanted to worship with the church there. Now it’s Sunday night and the church was meeting in a third story room of a building. Acts 20:7 tells us they had met for Communion on Sunday “On the first day of the week (Sunday), when we were gathered together to break bread (communion), Paul talked with them, intending to depart on the next day, and he prolonged his speech until midnight.”

Now, there’s a few things to notice here. 1st – this church at Troas was meeting on Sunday NIGHT, not Sunday MORNING like normal people would. Like you and I would. Because, you see back then Sunday NIGHT worship was normal. In that culture, Christians did NOT get Sundays off. Sunday was not part of a “weekend” - it was the first day of the week. Just like we work on Mondays (because it’s the first day of our workweek) they worked on Sundays – the first day of their workweek. So Sunday night worship was normal! Sunday night was the only time that they could get together to worship.

Now, meeting at night might have been inconvenient. But for them it wasn’t a matter of convenience - it was a matter of honoring and loving Jesus. So they met at night.

Secondly – they met on SUNDAY nights to take Communion. That was the primary reason they got together. As Acts 20:7 tells us “On the first day of the week (Sunday),... we were gathered together to break bread (communion)”

So why meet on Sundays to take communion? Why not meet on Tuesdays or Thursdays or Fridays? Well, because Sunday was the day Jesus rose from the dead. Christians gathered on Sundays to celebrate a risen savior, and main focus of their worship …was communion.

ILLUS: There was an early church father named Justin Martyr. They called him Justin Martyr because he was martyred (killed for his faith) in 165 A.D. And he wrote THIS about Sunday church services in his day:

"On the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the memories of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read... (and) when our prayer is ended, bread and wine and water are brought... (they mixed the wine with the water before drinking it) and there is a distribution to each... and they who are well to do, and willing, give what each thinks fit... and in a word takes care of all who are in need. But Sunday is the day on which we all hold our common assembly, because... Jesus Christ, our Saviour the same day rose from the dead" (First Apology, chapter 67).

So this church at Troas met on Sunday night to take of communion, just like dozens of other churches across the region. And they did that to worship and honor Jesus. Now, ordinarily they probably had a local leader teach them about Jesus. But tonight they had a special guest. Paul was there… and so they let him preach. And he preached… and preached… and preached til midnight.

Off to one side - sitting on a windowsill - is a young man named Eutychus. He’s been working all day and he’s getting drowsy. He falls asleep, and falls out the window, and he falls 3 stories to the pavement below… and he dies!

But the guest preacher - being Paul – goes down and he raises Eutychus from the dead. Then everybody go back upstairs, and Paul preaches till sunrise. And that’s the story.