Eutychus

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.

Acts 20:7-16

 At Troas, Paul and those with him stayed for seven days. Luke writes, “On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread…” This phrase tells us that they were in a worship service because Christians, from the beginning, worshipped on the day of the week that Jesus rose from the tomb and, often, these services, in the early church, lasted most of the day with fellowship and food being part of the service. In this service, Paul became “long winded” and he spoke into the night. Luke focuses on a young man in attendance, Eutychus, who had become tired and fell asleep in a window of the place where they were. Luke tells us the young man fell, through the window, hitting the ground three stories below. Eutychus appeared to be dead. But, Paul, led by the Holy Spirit, went down to Eutychus and told everyone, “Do not be alarmed, for his life is in him.” Paul, then, resumed his preaching until daybreak when they departed, with Eutychus alive, and great comfort was upon the people for what God had done that night among them. Now, probably, none of us have ever attended a church service as long as this one Paul led. Truth is, most of us would leave such a lengthy service long before it was over. But, let us remember that to have an Apostle of Christ who had established your church and, then, visit and preach/teach, you would want to hear every word that came from his lips! And, that is what was going on here in Troas. Many Christians, today, seem to want preaching and teaching to be in short “snippets” because they cannot maintain an attention span much longer than a few minutes. This is a byproduct of our society’s evolution and is not a good sign of things to come. If Christians are to be effective, a working knowledge of Holy Scripture, the creeds of the church one belongs to and, a basic theological understanding of things Godly is needed by each person who claims to be a Christian. In these “last days,” it would appear that the “Great Falling Away,” Paul writes of, is happening. Pray that the Holy Spirit would work in you to make you an effective worker for the Kingdom of God.

Source: S C Ball July 28, 2023