“Boy Falls Asleep During Church And Dies” Do you know how long I’ve wanted to preach on this text about Eutychus? With an opening like that you’re expecting this sermon to be about the dangers of sleeping during church, aren’t you? Of course you could counter that the real point of the text is long sermons are dangerous and no congregation should be subjected to them. Neither point is what the Holy Spirit wants us to take away from this text. Instead he wants us believers to be assured that death is not the end. The boy in our text who died when he fell out of a third-story window was fortunate. The Apostle Paul, with God’s power, raised him back to life. But every one of you who continues to have faith in Jesus is also fortunate, for your death will not be the end of you. We’re reminded of that truth every time we confess in the Apostles’ Creed: “I believe in the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.” As we wrap up our work of guarding the good deposit of Christian teaching as outlined in the Creed, we’ll see how confessing faith in the resurrection is to boldly declare: “My death is not my end.” Let’s find out why we can make such a bold declaration.
Is it hard to imagine how someone could fall to his death while listening to a sermon? Not really. Not when you consider the circumstances of our text. Because it was his last night in the city of Troas, the Apostle Paul wanted to share all he could with the Christians there. His sermon, therefore, went a lot longer than twenty minutes. Paul preached on and on into the late hours of the night. The room in which Paul was preaching was crowded and lit by many oil lamps. It must have been hot and stuffy in there. But instead of leaving because it wasn’t comfortable, Eutychus persevered and found a place on the window sill where he thought he could catch some fresh air while continuing to listen to Paul. But the boy’s body won the fight. Eutychus nodded off and fell into a deep sleep. That’s when he lost his balance and fell out of the window, crashing into the street three stories below. Eutychus died on impact.
Falling out of a window three stories above the street does not seem like a fortunate way to die. But consider what Eutychus had been up to before his death. He had been listening to God’s Word! Can there be a better way to die than while listening to God’s Word so that your faith in Jesus was being strengthened?
Does this mean that Eutychus’ death would not have been fortunate had he, say, fallen out of a window at a nightclub? If we answer that question with a yes, would we be suggesting that it’s spiritually dangerous to go to nightclubs? It can be. If I lose my self-control when I go to such a place because I’m trying to throw back as many drinks as I can, or because I can’t stop looking at others there as if they’re toys I’d like to have my way with, then yes, a nightclub, a bar, even a friend’s party are not safe places for me. The Apostle Paul put it bluntly when he said: “The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and… drunkenness… and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God” (Galatians 5:19, 21).
However choosing to spend time at church or at a youth group event instead of at a nightclub doesn’t mean that I’m automatically in the clear. If I go to church because it’s expected of me or because I want to make a good impression but don’t take to heart anything that is taught from God’s Word there, then I’m guilty of the sin of hypocrisy. That sin is as offensive to God as is the sin of shamelessly indulging the sinful nature.
And even if I spend time at church because I really want to be here and learn God’s Word, that still doesn’t make me “better” than those who spend their time elsewhere. For example if I were to keel over from a heart attack right now while I was preaching, would I have earned the right to brag: “Lord, you must be really proud of me. I died preaching in the pulpit!” The truth is God would know how I struggled to deliver his message every Sunday without the sin of pride or the sin of “going through the motions.” A nail might be outwardly shiny, but it will still be tossed in the rubbish heap if it’s twisted and bent at the center. No matter how shiny your exterior may seem you too are twisted and bent in on yourself, as I am.
Does this mean that we’re all bound for the eternal rubbish heap called hell when we die? Will our deaths be the end of any kind of happiness? It ought to be, but Jesus changed that. The hammer blow of God’s justice that should have fallen on us because of our sins fell on Jesus instead at the cross. Or to use another picture, like the homerun king who ignores the curveball that dips out of the strike zone but unleashes all of his power against the pitch that is straight and true and comes zipping over the middle of the plate, God the Father ignored us screwballs and swatted his perfect and sinless Son out of the ballpark that we may remain in his loving presence.
But Jesus’ death on the cross wasn’t the end of him – like a homerun ball that no one will ever see again. Three days after his death Jesus came back to life. He not only conquered death but made it his servant. Death is now the crowbar Jesus uses to pry us bent nails free from this life and its endless cycle of sin and pain. Those who die in faith, believing that Jesus is the Son of God who has taken away their sins, will wake up to an eternal life of happiness and joy. That’s what we confess in the Apostles’ Creed.
Although our text doesn’t quite illustrate that point, it does show how God has the power over death. Eutychus was quite dead after he fell from the window, yet Paul rushed downstairs, put his arms around the boy and then turned to say to those gathered in shock: “Don’t be alarmed. He’s alive!” (Acts 20:10) “Don’t be alarmed.” Those are the words spoken at every Christian funeral. “Don’t be alarmed. You’ll see your loved one again. You will get to put your arms around her. You’ll get to slap him on the back again. His voice which you loved, her eyes which mesmerized - these you will see and hear again, for we believe, as Jesus has promised, that believers, their body, bones and all, will be raised to an eternal life of happiness!”
Some times that life of eternal happiness seems so far away though doesn’t it? When Eutychus fell from the window don’t you suppose the congregation wondered why God hadn’t sent his angels to catch him? As they pounded down the stairs to see if they could revive the boy, don’t you suppose some of them were angry with God? How could he let this happen to someone so young, and to someone who spent his late nights at church instead of at the bar? Where was the justice in all of that? What these details remind us of, brothers and sisters, is that one’s youth and one’s church attendance does not protect from death. But we also learn that death is never “accidental.” It’s carefully calculated into God’s plan and timing for each one of us. God used Eutychus’ fall and subsequent revival, for example, to demonstrate his power over death so that the congregation was comforted and encouraged in a way that no Bible class or sermon on the subject could have encouraged.
Eutychus died while listening to a sermon. What should happen if I die while yelling at the driver in the lane next to me, or while entertaining spiteful thoughts about a family member? Will I still wake up in heaven or in that other place? While sin always threatens to pull us away from God so that we should never take it lightly, we don’t need to live in mortal fear that whether we go to heaven or not is dependent on what we are doing or thinking at the time of death. That would base salvation on our works, not God’s grace. Paul himself admitted that he couldn’t stop sinning and yet he was confident of salvation. That’s because Jesus’ grace continues to whisk away our sins the way the little fan on your computer continues to draw away heat so that it doesn’t damage the chip and other vital internal parts of the computer. But if you never bother to clean that fan, if you let dust continue to build up, the fan will slow and perhaps even stop working and the computer with it. That’s the same with sin. As a believer I won’t want to knowingly let sin build up in my life by shrugging it aside or excusing it. Otherwise it will eventually gum up my faith so that I start to treat as cheap the forgiveness Jesus won for me. That’s the same as rejecting Jesus. And without Jesus there is no forgiveness, there is no salvation, but there will be a resurrection – a resurrection to an eternal life of shame and pain in hell. This is why it’s good to make our way to church often and to be eager to hear the Word as was Eutychus so that we can be constantly reminded of our sin and its danger, while being assured that Jesus has taken away all of our sins so that we don’t have to fear death.
I could keep preaching about this topic, but more than one of you would probably fall asleep and we now know how dangerous that can be! So let’s bring this sermon and this sermon series on the Apostles’ Creed to a close. I hope you agree that it’s been a blessing to review the basics of Christianity in this way. We learned that God the Father created us and cares for us; that God the Son gave his life to save us and now rules over us; and that the Holy Spirit brought us to faith and keeps renewing that faith whenever we hear God’s Word. Only in this way can we be confident that death will not be the end of us! And if death has no power over us, there is nothing left to fear. Like Eutychus we are most fortunate. Amen.
SERMON NOTES
The Apostle Paul delivered a long sermon in a hot and stuffy room. What do you like about the way Eutychus handled it? What encouragement does that give for your own worship habits?
Agree or disagree? (Explain your answer.) Since Eutychus died while listening to God’s Word, he had a greater chance of going to heaven then if he would have died while hanging out at a nightclub.
In what way are we all like shiny nails bent at the center?
The sermon compared Jesus to a perfect pitch in the middle of the strike zone, which God the Father hit out of the park. What was the point of that illustration? How does it bring you comfort?
Jesus not only conquered death when he came back to life, he made death his servant. How is death like Jesus’ crowbar?
Agree or disagree? (Explain your answer.) We won’t go to heaven if we die while we’re in the act of sinning.
