Acts 20:7-12 

⁷ On the first day of the week we came together to break bread. Paul spoke to the people and, because he intended to leave the next day, kept on talking until midnight. ⁸ There were many lamps in the upstairs room where we were meeting. ⁹ Seated in a window was a young man named Eutychus, who was sinking into a deep sleep as Paul talked on and on. When he was sound asleep, he fell to the ground from the third story and was picked up dead. ¹⁰ Paul went down, threw himself on the young man and put his arms around him. “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “He’s alive!” ¹¹ Then he went upstairs again and broke bread and ate. After talking until daylight, he left. ¹² The people took the young man home alive and were greatly comforted.

Diet

Dietary foods are very marketable these days, why? There are many obese or overweight people. Obese or overweight is not healthy but could be deadly. Dietary foods are supposed to be helpful to have a healthy body.

It is very advisable to ask your physician before venturing to dietary regimen. It’s no secret that it is risky to go for a diet process that is not prescribed by health experts and authorities.

Spiritually speaking, do you know of Christians who are spiritually obese? They might have gained spiritual fats for lack of spiritual exercises. Many Christians these days are risking their spiritual health with sermon diets. With at least 20-minute dinner of spiritual food each week, a Christian’s spiritual growth is in peril, not very healthy. Would 20-minute-sermon diet every Sunday help Christians spiritually healthy or spiritually malnourished?

Have you been to churches comprised of older people and few children attendees? There’s no youth, and no young adults. Could it be a result of spiritual dietary regimen? Older Baptist churches are dying or have plateaued. Is it because of lack of spiritual nourishment?

Have you observed it? Do you feel spiritually weak if you did not hear God’s word? Can coming to prayer meeting supplement our spiritual deficiency?

How did the 1^st century believers respond to preaching? Did they require time limit of sermons? How long did Paul preach? He was unstoppable.

1.  Unstoppable

⁷ On the first day of the week we came together to break bread. Paul spoke to the people and, because he intended to leave the next day, kept on talking until midnight.  

It was Sunday, 1^st day of the week when the believers in Troas and Paul’s missionary team gathered together. The believers were so eager to listen to what Paul had to say. They knew that Paul and his team were to depart the next day. They took advantage of that opportunity to listen to him.

Theologians jokingly say that Paul was a boring preacher. They support their claim when Eutychus fell asleep and died while Paul was preaching. Eutychus was the only person who fell asleep. Would it generalize Paul’s preaching as boring? Or was it an incident which simply explains that young people fall asleep listening to spiritual things? Eutychus was a young man. Not just young people but also older ones are doing trivial things or fall asleep during sermon. God might have allowed those who cannot pay attention during sermon because they have enough spiritual feeding for the day. Just think of children play their food or older people who cannot finish their food.

¹¹ Then he went upstairs again and broke bread and ate. After talking until daylight, he left.  

Paul may not be very eloquent speaker like Apollos but I can guess that Paul was a very interesting speaker. Just imagine those who listened to him until midnight, then someone fall down not just into sleep but down from the 3^rd floor to the ground. After the incident Paul continued to preach until daylight. The people were awake and kept listening to him until daylight. Were they spiritually hungry?

Those who spent longer time listening to the word of God find more spiritual nourishment and encouragement. In the Old Testament, the exiles who returned to Jerusalem found encouragement in God’s word read to them by Ezra the priest.

Ezra the Priest

In Nehemiah 8:2-3, 12, ² So on the first day of the seventh month Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly, which was made up of men and women and all who were able to understand. ³ He read it aloud from daybreak till noon as he faced the square before the Water Gate in the presence of the men, women and others who could understand. And all the people listened attentively to the Book of the Law.

In Nehemiah 8: 12, ¹² Then all the people went away to eat and drink, to send portions of food and to celebrate with great joy, because they now understood the words that had been made known to them.

Great joy is found in the word of God by those who were able to understand. Joy comes from God. The more we grow in our relationship with God, the more we realize and experience that God’s word is truly amazing, wonderful, and true.

In Revelation 19:11-13, ¹¹ I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and wages war.  ¹² His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself. ¹³ He is    dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. 

Health conscious people love healthy food. Spiritually healthy believers love God’s word. Jesus Christ, the Word of God inspires believers to love His Words.

Paul was unstoppable and believers in Troas were eager to listen. God allowed Eutychus to fall, died, and alive. It’s unthinkable! Did God allow Eutychus circumstances as object lesson? Unless you wish to be God’s object lesson it’s a warning for Christians not ignore God’s word.

2.  Unthinkable

⁸ There were many lamps in the upstairs room where we were meeting.  ⁹ Seated in a window was a young man named Eutychus, who was sinking into a deep sleep as Paul talked on and on. When he was sound asleep, he fell to the ground from the third story and was picked up dead.  ¹⁰ Paul went down, threw himself on the young man and put his arms around him. “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “He’s alive!”   ¹² The people took the young man home alive and were greatly comforted.

That incident, when Eutychus fall down, served as break time. They had midnight meal. Don’t forget to eat if you intend to stay awake all night. You need to eat your midnight meal. Or is it properly called midnight lunch?

After midnight meal, Paul continued to preach until daylight. There was no more incident of falling asleep during Paul’s speech. Why did God allow someone to die while Paul was speaking? Did God use that incident as practical and credible exhibit of His grace and power at work in the life of Paul?

Joy of the Lord

Nehemiah had been credited for his leadership in completing the wall of Jerusalem. In Nehemiah 6:14-16, ¹⁴ Remember Tobiah and Sanballat, my God, because of what they have done; remember also the prophet Noadiah and how she and the rest of the prophets have been trying to intimidate me.

¹⁵ So the wall was completed on the twenty-fifth of Elul, in fifty-two days.

¹⁶ When all our enemies heard about this, all the surrounding nations were afraid and lost their self-confidence, because they realized that this work had been done with the help of our God.

Nehemiah overcame their enemies because he trusted in the Lord. God allows difficulties to happen for us to experience more of His grace and deliverance. God wants us to know more about Him for us to grow in our trust in Him. The more we know what God would do, the more we rely upon Him. Where God is at work, there’s opposition. When God calls us to serve Him, He will certainly sustain us.

Does somebody make your life difficult? Praise God for that. He is about to give you deliverance. Remember: Nehemiah overcame adversaries with the help of God. Don’t sleep during sermon unless you wish to be God’s object lesson.

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