Talking Someone to Death or to Life
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.
Acts 20:7–12 Read More
There is a lot more here than just a warning about falling asleep in church 😀 We know that this is the last time that Paul would see most of these people, but we’re not sure Paul knew. Either way, they stayed up late talking.
The Gospel is something worth talking about. Either sharing stories of what God has shown through His word, or a great conversation you had with an unexpected person, etc. If you develop a culture around you where it is fun and exciting to talk about the Lord, you will, and others will too.
The rest of the crew in Paul’s entourage had already been at Troas for five days. They went ahead while Paul and a few others stayed back to celebrate Passover. The people of Troas had heard the gospel from Sopater, Timothy and the Asians, and the rest, but there were surely a few “that’s a good question, let’s ask Paul that when he gets here,” kind of moments. When it says Paul “prolonged his speech” it’s not necessarily that he talked for a long time, but that he remained there answering their questions and wasn’t in a hurry to wrap things up and leave.
I heard recently that doing yard work sends a signal to your neighbors that you are available and interruptible. Just by being around out in your front yard, you become available for people to come and chat with you. It’s the same for sitting at a coffee shop without anything in front of you like a phone or a book.
Whatever cause God had for this amazing event is not mentioned anywhere. Some of the people were certainly interested in keeping the discussion going, but one young man couldn’t stay awake. It would have been awful if Paul had preached someone to death. If for no other reason God might have worked this miracle to prevent that awfulness.
It is easy to read this and doubt that Eutychus was really dead. The circumstances are kind of weird, and it was only a 3 story window! Don’t forget, though, that the guy that wrote this was a doctor, and elsewhere he uses words for ‘nearly dead’ or ‘almost dead’ and he doesn’t use any of those words here. Also, as we’ve seen throughout the book of Acts, sometimes God works huge miracles and sometimes there are small ones. Bringing a boy back to life after a stupid cause of death would be a big one.
The end result of the whole event says a lot about what Paul’s message did when people believed it: they were comforted. Of course, there is a difference between ‘prolonging your speech’ by talking too much and being available to all, but availability works for God’s glory. Being available to those that are interested gives us a chance to share the good news of Jesus Christ and to bring comfort to those that want it.
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