Wake Up Sleeper

Acts 20:7-12

English Standard Version (ESV)

⁷ On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them, intending to depart on the next day, and he prolonged his speech until midnight. ⁸ There were many lamps in the upper room where we were gathered. ⁹ And a young man named Eutychus, sitting at the window, sank into a deep sleep as Paul talked still longer. And being overcome by sleep, he fell down from the third story and was taken up dead. ¹⁰ But Paul went down and bent over him, and taking him in his arms, said, “Do not be alarmed, for his life is in him.” ¹¹ And when Paul had gone up and had broken bread and eaten, he conversed with them a long while, until daybreak, and so departed. ¹² And they took the youth away alive, and were not a little comforted.

(http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%2020:%207%20-%2012&version=ESV)

I have thought that I have made it through a number of dry boring, and d long sermons before but nothing tops this one.  After this happened you would have thought that Paul would have gotten the message and would have headed home.  Instead Paul performs a miracle through Jesus Christ and goes back and finishes what he had to say.   It wasn’t a brief summary either, he spoke through the night.   Needless to say, Paul most likely had their full attention at this point, why waste it?

Why did he do this?  Because he had a message to share and he was getting ready to leave them.  He had to speak to them when he could and had to do so in a manner as to cram as much information into them a possible.

This reminds me of how the churches in persecuted countries have to operate.  They come together not for a short 20 minute sermon but come to hear the Word in big bunches because they don’t know when they will get to meet again.  They absorb all that they can in the short but long time they have together.

We in America complain when the service goes past noon yet these people were willing to stay up all night to hear the Word of God. 

On Good Friday people across America will be able to listen to a simulcast entitled “Secret Church”.  David Platt, the pastor leading the simulcast”, states that you won’t be drinking from a water fountain but  from a fire hydrant”.  This is so true and such a blessing.  People who decide not to participate because it is so long will be missing out on hearing straight from God’s word the wonderful message that He has for us.

I find it interesting in this scripture that Paul, although concerned for the young man, knew where his focus needed to be.  He didn’t cut his sermon short but rather continued on in the Word after the commotion.  He didn’t let others dictate how long he should or should not preach.  He had a message to preach and nothing would stop him from doing so.

As you seek Him today, whether it is a message you are to give or a one that you are to listen to and apply to your lives, I trust you will do as God has called you to do. 

 

 

Ephesians 5:13-14

English Standard Version (ESV)

¹³ But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, ¹⁴ for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says,

“Awake, O sleeper,
    and arise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you.”

Seeking Him with all my heart,

Sheila