Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Welcome to the Chroma Church podcast.
[00:00:07] Okay, we've been going through Acts and we. We're now in trois. The map should come up, up. And just before we read this story, I. I want you, as we read, I want you to ask a question.
[00:00:26] What on earth is this story doing in the Bible?
[00:00:30] Okay, that's the question I want you to ask. And where we are, you see, tries just up there. Paul has been in Corinth and Ephesus. He's up in Troas and he's heading back to. Well, he's heading down to Greece. Actually, we'll be in Greece next week. And before we read this story, there are only two resurrections of the dead outside of Jesus that are recorded in the New Testament.
[00:01:03] And the story we're going to read is one of them. And this is, this is Eutychus, and his name means fortunate. Okay, so here we go. There's your little introduction. And you're going to ask, what on earth is this story doing in the Bible? Okay, here we go. So find Acts, chapter 20. And we're going to start from verse seven. Why don't you stand as we read?
[00:01:31] Now? On the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul, ready to depart the next day, spoke to them and continued his message until midnight. There were many lamps in the upper room where they had gathered together, and in a window sat a certain young man named Eutychus. He was sinking into a deep sleep. He was overcome by sleep. And as Paul continued speaking, he fell down from the third story and was taken up dead. But Paul went down, fell on him, and embracing him, said, do not trouble yourselves, for his life is in him now. When he had come up, he had broken bread and eaten and talked a long while, even till daybreak he departed. And they brought the young man in alive, and they were not a little comforted. Amen. Take a seat. There you go.
[00:02:35] Now, as we read this story with our English Western eyes, we could easily make a mistake.
[00:02:47] We could think, oh, poor old Eutychus.
[00:02:53] Paul was just preaching too long, and he's just a young man. He's obviously been working really hard. He's trying to make faith work in, you know, what's obviously a really difficult situation. What he really needs is me time.
[00:03:09] It's almost abusive to make this poor young man sit in a hot, stuffy room, having to listen to a preacher who's going on and on and on. And what's really needed here is a better work life balance to take the Pressure off him so he can rest and enjoy life.
[00:03:33] No, no, no, that is not what this story is about. In fact, if you've read the Bible and if you've read Luke, who writes both the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts, you'll know that's not what this story is about. There is another message here for us. You see, raising the dead is the greatest miracle.
[00:04:02] It's reserved for the greatest of the Lord's servants in the Bible. Elijah, Elisha, Jesus, Peter and Paul. And let me tell you something about all of those men. None of them had a good work, life balance, not one of them. They were totally sold out for Jesus Christ.
[00:04:26] And I believe that Luke is not feeling sorry for a young man, but actually giving a warning to the church. You see, whenever people fall asleep, it is a warning to wake up, don't fall asleep, wake up.
[00:04:41] And Eutychus is a counter example. Just as we're tempted to read the story of the early Christians in Acts too triumphantly we encounter a horrible mistake. Just as we begin wondering whether the early Christians were immune from, from spiritual slumber, we see Eutychus drift away and experience tragic consequences. And then, just as we begin to contemplate whether a person in an upper room can ever fail as badly as Judas, we see foolish Eutychus making a life threatening mistake. I'm quoting a commentator there. So I want to, I, I want to talk about being awake and not falling asleep. And the first thing that you read in this story is the first day of the week they were gathering together.
[00:05:41] This was the model of the early church. On the first day of the week they gathered to worship. There was probably an evening service.
[00:05:51] Paul is preaching. So they would have known it was going to be a long one. And if you have the possible preaching, you'd want it to be a long one. And Hebrews says this one, do not neglect to meet together, even if it's boring, even if you're not getting anything out of it. Hebrews doesn't actually say that. Hebrews just says, don't neglect to meet together. But even if it's boring, even if there's nothing in it for you, why? Because it's for him you meet. We gather for him, not us. It has been the practice of Christians for 2000 years. And Luke can tell this story because he says he was there. He was there in person and he saw what happened.
[00:06:36] You know, I'm an expert on social media and on my feed this came up. McDonald's can mess your order up 101 times and you still keep going back. One thing goes wrong at church and you quit. People just aren't hungry enough.
[00:06:57] It's true.
[00:06:59] You know, years ago, years ago, we used to teach that going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than going to McDonald's makes you a hamburger. Do you remember that?
[00:07:13] The trouble is, now we've got empty churches and a lot of hamburgers.
[00:07:20] You see, you can't be a Christian outside of God's people. Because when you come together, iron sharpens iron. You get offended, you get overlooked. You can't find a parking space, but you're hungry for his presence.
[00:07:37] Nothing will stop you coming to worship him because you are hungry.
[00:07:43] I said a few weeks ago, the biggest problem facing the church is not sin, it's unbelief. And what goes hand in hand with unbelief is often a slumber and a lack of hunger. You see, when you wake up, you're hungry. You want to eat something. So firstly, meat together. I'm going to move really quick. The second thing he talks about, the upper room.
[00:08:06] This is where Jesus. When Luke writes about the upper room. It's where Jesus celebrates the Passover with the disciples. It's where the Holy Spirit comes at Pentecost. And it's where Peter raises Tabitha or Dorcas. The upper room is where the presence of God is. We go up into his presence. We don't find rest in me time, we find rest in his time.
[00:08:31] That's the difference. The upper room is where you eat with Jesus. The upper room is where the Holy Spirit Spirit falls with fire. The upper room is where the dead are raised. It's where you choose Jesus. It's. It's where the call of God comes upon your life. It's where you're equipped for the life ministry of Jesus Christ. But Eutychus proves that you can be in the presence of God and asleep. You see, you can take it for granted. One of you know, we.
[00:09:04] We used to be in a hurry here, and we would hurry things along. And, you know, if God was moving, if he could just move a bit faster, it would really be much more convenient because we've got to finish on a certain time. And really the worry was that people would get bored, but somehow people would get bored in the presence of God. And all I can say is, if you get bored in the presence of God, you're going to hate heaven because that's where he lives.
[00:09:30] That's what we're going to walk into. And here is just a Glimpse of what heaven is going to be like. And number three, midnight.
[00:09:40] For Luke, the midnight. Do you remember? Jesus tells the story and Luke recounts it in his gospel about a man who has friends arrive and it's midnight and he hasn't got any bread. So he goes to his neighbor and he bangs on his door. But his neighbor goes, I'm in bed, I'm asleep. Go away. Look, leave me alone. But he says he keeps on banging until he gets up and he brings the bread for the guest that has arrived. You see, it's at midnight. We want to be asleep and we don't want to engage. And what Jesus is saying, it's at midnight, we're banging on the door. This is what Luke is trying to say. It's Matthew that says, at midnight the bridegroom is coming, but the ten virgins are all asleep and they need to wake up because the messenger is going out. The bridegroom is coming. Jesus is coming. What? What is Luke trying to warn us? You see, he's saying, you can be in the most amazing move of God, but if you fall asleep at midnight, if you take it for granted, if you lose your hunger, you will miss the coming of the Lord and the marriage feast. That's. This is the message for the early church. Because midnight, just when you think all hope is lost, the bridegroom arrives.
[00:11:00] This is a story. It's a midnight when the miracles happen. And some of you have promises, some of you have dreams, and you're just about to give up on them. And the Lord is saying, I come at midnight. It's when all hope is lost that God, I don't know why he can't do it at 9:00 in the morning. He did Pentecost at 9:00 in the morning.
[00:11:23] But there is something about that. The Lord loves when we trust him and we put our faith in him and we believe what he says.
[00:11:35] Do you know. Does anyone know here who Pete Best is?
[00:11:40] One or two go. Nah. How many of you know who Pete Best is? One or two of you.
[00:11:45] Okay. How many of you know who Paul McCartney is?
[00:11:50] Ah, a few more. Pete Best was the fifth Beatle and he was the drummer in the Beatles before they were famous. But he wasn't a very good drummer. Okay. And so they were going to get rid of him, but they had a few more, a few more gigs and he just didn't show up. Okay. Probably because of the relationship strain. And they just knew he just wasn't a good enough drummer for the, for the Beatles. And literally weeks after they become famous, all of us know who Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, John Lennon, George Harrison. But who was Pete Best? Because at midnight he quit.
[00:12:33] He quit and now no one knows who he is.
[00:12:38] Eutychus name means fortunate. But he's not fortunate that he fell asleep.
[00:12:46] He's not fortunate that he fell from a window and died.
[00:12:50] What makes him fortunate? I think two things. One, the apostle Paul was preaching. And two, God is good.
[00:12:58] And this story is a warning for us all. For me, don't go to sleep, don't give up, stay alert, hold on to the promises of God.
[00:13:11] And finally, because raising the dead is the greatest miracle, Elijah raises the widow's son, Elisha raises the Shunammite's son.
[00:13:23] There's a great story where there's a couple of guys and they've got a body and an army's coming, it's in 2 Kings 13. And, and so they're panicked, so they get this body and they throw it in a, in a cave.
[00:13:37] But it turns out it's Elisha's grave. So as they throw the dead body in the cave, he gets resurrected and walks out alive. That's one of the crazy stories in the Bible. The theologians here, that should really give you a problem.
[00:13:54] Jesus raises the widow of Nain's son Jairus daughter Lazarus. And when he's on the cross and he says it is finished, the tombs open up and the dead are raised. And then Peter raises Tabitha in the upper room.
[00:14:14] And now Paul raises dear old Eutychus. He falls from a three story window because he, he fell asleep during a sermon. But Paul goes down and he falls on him.
[00:14:30] And Luke will be remembering the story of when Elijah and Elisha raised the dead, because what they do is they would lie. They lay on the dead bodies until they came to life. I think it's Elisha actually who lies on the Shunammite sun until warmth comes back in the body.
[00:14:56] Eutychus is a young man right at the start of his life. But he makes a youthful mistake which has tragic consequences.
[00:15:08] But Paul falls upon him and the language is literally he belly flops on him. Paul doesn't just lie on him, he throws himself on this dead body that's lying on the ground. And he embraces his him and his life returns. This is the command of Jesus. The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons freely you have received, freely give.
[00:15:39] I've prayed for three resurrections that I haven't seen them come back I have a theology that says if you don't pray that the dead will be raised, you'll never see a dead person raised. So you have, somebody has to do this. Someone has to try. The first one was a stillborn baby right at the beginning, this church couple, and we were in the hospital, the baby was born stillborn. And we prayed and we held it in our arms and we asked the Lord to bring it back. It didn't happen.
[00:16:14] Second one was the husband of one of the ladies here who suddenly died. And we prayed and we called out to the Lord and we called out to the Lord and it didn't happen. And then the last one was a young student who died a few years ago called Leroy, who was part of our media team. And he just died suddenly. And one of the doctors and I, they wouldn't let us in the morgue. So we just knelt in the hospital outside of the locked morgue and just called to him and called to him. And he wasn't raised. But the command of Jesus is to raise the dead, just as he commanded us to heal the sick and to preach the gospel. And, and, and every time we've done what he said, often there's been this breakthrough time, you know, with the salvation when no one was getting saved. Now people get saved. Most weeks of healing, no one was getting healed. Now people are healed most weeks. You just saw. And it's the same with raising the dead.
[00:17:15] If we don't command the dead to be raised, you will never see a dead person rise.
[00:17:24] I believe God.
[00:17:26] I believe his word. From a young man, I've had a terrible work life balance. I want you to know my family have a terrible work life balance. We have given ourselves to Jesus and His kingdom. And I don't have a single regret.
[00:17:45] I want to encourage you. It's not a work life balance you need. You need to give yourself to Jesus and His kingdom. Keep hungry. Keep hungry for Him. There have been times when I felt tired and wanted to give up. There have been plenty of times of frustration and disappointment. But I'm hungry for Him. I've even fallen to sleep. And in his mercy, he's woken me up. That was part of our story seven years ago.
[00:18:11] In all the hard work, I have never burnt out. I'm just burning up.
[00:18:18] He must increase, I must decrease.
[00:18:23] It's the call of the gospel. Why is this story so important? Even in a time of revival, even when there's so much favor, we must never stop meeting together. Top of your list.
[00:18:36] Stay in the upper room. Where the presence of the Holy Spirit is at midnight, even if he tarries, Stay alert. Stay awake. Stay hungry. Because when the bridegroom arrives, we see the greatest miracles. If there are promises in your life, if there are prophetic words, and you think, why does he tarry? Why doesn't it happen? Stay alert. Trust in him. Do not give up. Because at the midnight hour the Lord moves. And if you should slumber, if you should fall to sleep, pray that there will be someone like Paul that would fall upon you and waken you up, that your hunger would return and that the life of the Holy Spirit would live in you. Then you will be called fortunate. And I think that's what the story of Eutychus is all about.
[00:19:29] Thanks for listening to the Cromer Church Podcast. If you enjoyed this message, you can like and subscribe. You can also join us in person or online every Sunday at Cromer Church. For more information about us, including our ministries, events, worship and how to donate, visit our website at Cromer Church.
