Day 271: Acts 20:1–12

A young man named Eutychus was sitting on a window sill and sank into a deep sleep as Paul kept on speaking. . . . Overcome by sleep he fell down from the third story (v. 9).

I am so amused by this text. God used my desire to be like Paul to motivate me to write an entire book about him. So far, I’ve noticed that most of the characteristics I share with him are those of his human rather than his spiritual nature. A common colloquialism states, “If the shoe fits, wear it.” I don’t know what size shoe you wear, but I can tell you in advance: this lesson is a size 7 medium. Just my size. Read on. It just may come in your size too.

In two verses Luke tells us that after leaving Ephesus, Paul then traveled through Macedonia and into Greece where he stayed three months. The Jews again plotted against him as he prepared to sail for Syria, so he took the land route back through Macedonia once more. Counting Luke, eight people accompanied Paul back through Macedonia.

The group spent a week in Troas, culminating in the event I find so humorous and convicting. Paul taught, and because they were going to leave the next day, he talked until midnight. Luke tells us that the upstairs room where they were meeting contained many lamps. A young man named Eutychus fell asleep, fell out the window, “and was picked up dead” (Acts 20:9).

You know you aren’t having a good day when you fall asleep in church and are picked up dead. Unlike most of us, however, Eutychus stayed dead for only a short while.

Luke wrote meticulously without inclusion of unnecessary details. What bearing do you suppose the lamps had on the account of the midnight meeting? And while we are supposing, can you think of any reasons why God made certain Luke joined Paul in time for this strange set of circumstances?

We want to grasp as accurately as possible the kind of man Paul was. The love of Christ so compelled him that his energy seemed to have no bounds. We will do his memory no harm, however, by pointing out that sometimes his energy exceeded that of his audience. Like many other preachers and teachers, Paul preached longer than his audience was prepared to listen!

Figuratively speaking, at this point I am pulling the shoe out of the box and putting it on my guilty foot. A woman once said to me after one of my lectures, “I’m going home and taking a nap. You’ve worn me out.” Sometimes those of us in teaching, preaching, and speaking positions talk too long. Mind you, we can have the best of intentions. I can entirely relate to the apostle for being so long-winded; this was his last chance, and he was determined to say everything he could before he departed. He didn’t want to leave a single thing unsaid.

In Paul’s defense, I must explain one of the pitfalls accompanying the gift of teaching. Teachers often feel that whatever they learn, they must teach—every last word of it! I have forty-five minutes on Sunday mornings during which I often try to teach everything I learned in hours of preparation. Sometimes I’ve tried to teach all I knew—plus a lot of things I didn’t! Paul obviously didn’t always know when to wrap up a message either. Don’t you get a kick out of Luke’s words: “Paul talked on and on”? (v. 9).

I believe God purposely gave us the opportunity to giggle over a fairly typical event: a preacher or teacher outlasting the audience. However, God provided a very effective eye-opener by doing something quite atypical. He gave Paul a chance to raise the dead!

Picture the scene with me a moment. A large group of people were gathered in one room, and the lamps provided just enough heat to make the atmosphere cozy and warm. Most of the listeners had awakened with the rising sun, and the time was now approaching midnight. Eutychus was sitting in the windowsill, trying to stay attentive. The young man’s eyelids would drop; then he would force them open. He finally fell into a deep sleep, probably had a dream that caused him to jump, and out the window he flew. This story would not be humorous without the happy ending. Since you know God raised Eutychus from the dead, wouldn’t you have loved to see Paul’s face when the boy fell out of the window? He ran downstairs as fast as his legs could carry him. “Paul . . . threw himself on the young man and put his arms around him. ‘Don’t be alarmed,’ he said, ‘He’s alive!’” (v. 10). What a relief! A wonderfully rare phenomenon took place that day.

I find myself amused once again as the scene ends. Paul went back to business as usual. He climbed three flights of stairs, broke bread with them, and talked until daylight. All in a day’s work. I have a feeling no one fell asleep this time. In fact, they may have been wide awake for days! Here is my moral to the story: may God bring back to life whom man hath put to sleep.

So make me one promise as we conclude: never sit close to a window when working on one of my lessons, listening to one of my teaching series, or reading one of my books. Meanwhile, I’ll see if I can get this size 7 shoe off my foot and back in the box where it belongs.