Does Talk About God Make You Sleepy?

Sermon by Mark Johnson of Steiger Minneapolis

On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul began talking to them, intending to leave the next day, and he prolonged his message until midnight.  There were many lamps in the upper room where we were gathered together.  And there was a young man named Eutychus sitting on the window sill, sinking into a deep sleep; and as Paul kept on talking, he was overcome by sleep and fell down from the third floor and was picked up dead.  But Paul went down and fell upon him, and after embracing him, he said, “Do not be troubled, for his life is in him.”  When he had gone back up and had broken the bread and eaten, he talked with them a long while until daybreak, and then left.  They took the boy alive, and were greatly comforted.
-Acts 20:7-12

In the years leading up to this event, Paul has been traveling around what is now Eastern Europe collecting money from the Gentile churches to give to the Jewish church back in Jerusalem.  Here, he is finally on his way home, and he stops in Troas, where he meets with the church.  (Interesting side note: We find out here that they church is gathering on Sunday, which was a workday in that culture.) 

Now, I’ve got to ask, Why is this story in the Bible?  I mean, you’ve got to admit, it is a weird story.  A guy falls asleep, and he makes it into the Bible.  That’s weird!  And another thing:  Eutychus.  His name means “Lucky.”  In Greek, “Eutychus” means “luck” or “good fortune.”  So I think that his name was probably something else—like Bill or Dave—before this happened, and then it got changed.  I mean, he falls out a window and most likely breaks his neck, but then Paul throws himself on top of him (which Elijah did to raise a kid from the dead, by the way), and brings him back to life.  So I think from then on, everybody was like, “Hey, Lucky!”

So this is a weird story.  And there are some different ways of looking at why it’s in the Bible.  Some commentators say that the most important thing about this passage is that it shows us that the church was meeting on Sunday.  But let’s think about this: In this passage, Paul raises somebody from the dead and acts like it’s normal.  He just goes back and keeps on talking.  It was like he said, “You’re dead, and you need to be alive again.  Okay, now where was I?”  Do you realize that there is more mandate for Christians raising the dead than there is for meeting on Sunday?  When Jesus sent the disciples out on a missions trip in Matthew 10:8, he told them to raise the dead.  But I think it’s safer to talk about meeting on Sunday, because if I talk about raising people from the dead, I have to believe that it’s not just a Bible story—it’s a reality.

Okay, so Paul is talking to these people in Troas, and he just keeps talking.  He talks until the middle of the night.  And Eutychus is sitting in the window listening, and he’s starting to get sleepy.  By the way, we don’t really know how old Eutychus was.  The word for “young man” here can also mean “slave.”  But either way, he’s listening to Paul, and he’s getting bored!  Think about that for a minute.  This is the great apostle Paul.  He wrote the Bible!  He raised the dead!  People wanted to come listen to what he had to say.  And he has just gotten back from an amazing missions trip, so he is probably telling some exciting stories.  But Eutychus falls asleep.  Maybe he’s just sleepy.  Maybe he’s just a kid.  Maybe he’s tired from working all day.  Or maybe there’s more to it.

I started thinking about this, and I was wondering what other things cause us to get sleepy when we hear the things of God.  I think there are a few reasons this can happen.

Maybe his parents brought Eutychus to this meeting.  Maybe they’re following Jesus, and he isn’t.  And when you’re not following Jesus, you get bored hearing about him.  You’re not interested, so it’s not very interesting.

Or maybe he’s a follower of Jesus but is living defiantly toward God.  When you’re living in willful sin and someone is talking about God, one way to deal with it is to fall asleep.  It is possible to be defiantly sleepy—to say, “I’m not going to listen to this.”

You can also be comfortably sleepy.  Maybe you’re following Jesus and you get to a point where things are going okay.  But this person is talking about total surrender, and listening to him is going to mean you have to let go of some stuff.  So we can be sleepy because we’d rather be comfortable.

It’s also possible to be bored-sleepy.  Maybe at one time, the things of God were exciting, and you were going for it, but life gets tough or busy, and time goes by, and things change.  Then you look back remembering how things used to be.  But you’ve wandered away, and God has become boring, because you’ve turned away from your first love.

I think we can also be depressed-sleepy.  You know, you were excited, you were doing stuff, but then you got disappointed because you didn’t see the changes you wanted to see.  So now you hear about God, and you get cynical, and it’s easier just to go to sleep.

But the great thing about Eutychus is that he got another chance!  He probably didn’t fall asleep the next time someone was talking about God.  He knew the power of God was real.  I bet he lived with a sense of purpose after that day, because he was living on borrowed time—because he had a second chance, and every minute was like a bonus. 

You know, our life is a gift, too.  Even if we haven’t been brought back from the dead, every moment we have in life is like a bonus.  We should get everything out of it that we can.  And if you’re bored with God, you’re not seeing the amazing things he can do.

If you’re living defiantly, you need to repent, because you’re missing out on the life God has for you.

If you’re disillusioned, don’t give up.  Maybe you don’t know why things are like they are, but don’t give up.  You have a second chance.

If you’re sleeping because of sin, deal with it.  Don’t stay asleep and miss out on life.

And if you feel like you’ve already fallen and are lying there dead, you need to know that God is a God of second chances.

You know, Paul had scars all over his body, because he lived totally for God; he completely poured his life out for him.  Contrast that with Eutychus, who falls asleep in the presence of God.  Paul believes in a God who is strong enough to raise the dead, and Eutychus is sitting there sleeping.

It’s possible that there are people who are dead today who God didn’t want dead, because some Christian didn’t have the faith to speak it out loud.  If Paul hadn’t had the faith to believe in that kind of God, Eutychus would still be dead and would still be called Frank or Harry.  If I’m ever around a dead person, I want to have the faith to believe in a God powerful enough to raise the dead.  I want to believe in that physically and spiritually.  We all know people who are walking around dead, and I want to believe that God can bring them alive; I want to cry out to him, not just sit around sleeping and miss the fact that God is doing amazing things in the world.  And you know, a set of facts won’t lead us to go to a dead person and say, “Get up,” but a real relationship with God might give me to courage to do that.  I want that kind of faith.

There’s a good ending to this story.  Eutychus got a second chance.  And this is a precious time for all of us.  Don’t waste it.