When’s the last time you heard a good sermon on Eutychus? Okay Bible Trivia fans, do you even know Eutychus? He’s the guy in Acts chapter 20 that falls from a third story window after falling asleep while Paul is speaking. Now you know.
I have heard preachers use this before, but its been a while. I was a kid. I don’t remember if that was the sermon text, or just something used to make a point. I listened to a small-town Baptist preacher make a 25 minute sermon out of it yesterday. He told us the previous evening that he had never heard a Eutychus sermon before, possibly because there’s just not that much there to preach. He decided it was time to find a way, and he really didn’t do a bad job. I can’t say I found any fault in it.
In Acts 20, Paul is nearing the end of his ministry. He is speaking to a group of followers for what could be the last time, and he literally talked all night. I mean he spoke until sunrise. How many of us would hang in there like that for our favorite guy? Very late in the evening, Eutychus was sitting in the window and fell into a deep sleep. He was taken up dead after dropping 3 stories to the ground. Paul knelt over him, and pronounced that life was still in him. Recall Jesus saying that a particular girl was not dead, but sleeping. The crowd mocked, but he took her by the hand and she arose. Eutychus was dead, and Paul restored his life. In the morning when Paul finished speaking, the young man regained consciousness. The particular pastor went on to list several offenses one commits when falling asleep during a sermon. He didn’t do a bad job; he simply used this story as an object lesson of why you shouldn’t fall asleep in church.
The Eutychus story is not the gospel. But it wouldn’t take much in order to tell this story and share the gospel. When he drops from the window and dies, Paul could have simply looked down from the window and told the crowd he got what he deserved. But when you and I were dead in our sins, God didn’t simply look down from heaven and say “He got what he deserved.” He sent his son to restore us to life. That’s the good news; that’s the gospel. We are invited to become joint heirs with Jesus Christ to all the rewards of heaven, when what we deserve is to burn in hell. Eutachus was alive and well after Paul restored him to life, just as each of us have received peace and pardon when we deserve damnation. That message brings hope to a lost and dying world more so than “You insult the preacher by dozing off.”
The Master's Table 
I wonder what the preacher’s response would be if he found out that the ‘sleeper’ that he had reviled in his sermon had spent the entire night witnessing to lost people or taking care of a sick friend or relative.
I wonder which kingdom this preacher is building – his or God’s?
“The Preacher” in my story is no doubt building God’s kingdom. I didn’t mean to suggest otherwise. He moved his family of four to the eastern KY wasteland of Appalachia. He ministers to a congregation of about 50 or 60, pastoring a group of conservative egangelicals who will never make him wealthy or famous. The Euytachus sermon was delivered in our school chapel; no one there had been up all night caring for the sick or otherwise; our dorm’s bedcheck is 10 p.m.
(I live in eastern KY. Please don’t eat me alive for calling it a “wasteland.” I’m trying to paint a picture of an honest man living on humble means.)
Well, I guess we had all better take what ever you have to say to heart. That’s the way the Lord lived and that’s the attitude that we should all have regardless of our income.
The reason I took the stance I did with your story was that many preachers in America are trying to build their own kingdoms and the Kingdom of God (aka the rule and reign of God) is something they don’t consider very often. It’s obvious by your reply that this “preacher” is living and ministering on ‘faith’.
What a blessing it is to know the stories of men like this. They are the faithful.
Blessings,
–Jerald
Also a good lesson in this for preachers. If people are falling asleep during your sermons, it may be as much a reflection on you as on them.
It should be remembered that we live in a culture where most people have very short attention spans. After you’ve been speaking for about 25 minutes their minds are on something else. 25 minutes may be a bit of generous estimate.
So a good rule for preachers is to follow these 3 steps:
1. Stand Up
2. Speak Up
3. Shut Up
If you read Acts 20, Eutychus didn’t fall asleep until around midnight. Paul continued speaking until the sun came up. I don’t think a single one of us could get away with that today.
If the attention span of an individual on a sermon is less than 25 minutes to something/someone who is offering them Kingdom Life….then shame on them. It is interesting that we can go to work for 8 + hours per day but if we stay in worship more than an hour, there is a problem. We stay connected/interested in what we desire…and if individuals fall asleep in worship…it’s because they came with nothing, so nothing from nothing leaves nothing! Ask the 5 virgins that slept their opportunity away, and came with very little in their lamps….ask the disciples that were charged to stay awake while Christ went up further to pray and they slept away. I pray that folk will stop looking at the preacher as an “entertainer” and simply the messenger of God! Here are three good steps for the congregation “lonelypilgram:”
1. WAKE UP
2. LISTEN UP
3. SHAPE UP
very good article. i enjoy a lot.
thank you.
I totally agree. Our limits are often shortened to cover our slothfulness and unwillingness to go past “easy”. Eutychus needed to rely on others but the message that he was hearing was life and that is what actually saved him.