Acts 20:7-16 on the First Day of the Week December 9, 2007
Acts 20:7-16“On the First Day of the Week”December 9, 2007
- On the First Day of the Week (20:7-8)
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.
There were many lamps in the upper room where we were gathered.
Luke appears to be making clear connections with his account from the gospels.
They are gathered in an upper room to break bread,
just after the days of Unleavened Bread.
Paul is like his master.
We have seen repeatedly throughout this series
that the book of Acts is all about how Jesus continues to do and speak
through his apostles.
They have received power from on high,
and they have been his witnesses in Jerusalem and in Judea and Samaria,
and now, in this third section, to the end of the earth.
And in this third section of the book of Acts we see most clearly how Paul is like his master.
Of course, it is very clear that Paul is not the Christ.
He is preaching the Christ,
but as Jesus himself had said, “a servant is not greater than his master.
If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.
If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.” (John 15:20)
We should expect servants of Christ to look like him.
And so as Paul comes to Troas, he gathers the disciples around him.
And shortly after Passover, he gathers together in an upper room to break bread
on the first day of the week.
This is an interesting juxtaposition of the Old Covenant and the New.
Luke is still telling time in terms of the old covenant –
he tells the story of Paul’s road to Jerusalem in terms of Passover and Pentecost.
And yet the focus of his narrative is the new day of the new covenant –
they are gathered on the first day of the week to break bread.
Luke makes a point of highlighting the first day of the week.
The disciples have gathered together to break bread.
Throughout Acts, this is the language of Christian worship.
They have come together to celebrate the Lord’s Supper.
There are a couple of things that this tells us:
First, Luke and the disciples thought of the Lord’s Supper in such a way
that they could describe worship in terms of “breaking bread.”
Second, it tells us that the covenant meal was being celebrated more often
in the new covenant than it was in the old.
The Feast of Unleavened Bread was over.
Passover was last week.
And yet they continue to come together to break bread on the first day of the week.
This also suggests that they were using regular leavened bread.
During Passover it is likely that they used unleavened bread
(since Jews would not have leaven in their homes
during the days of unleavened bread)
but there would be no reason to have unleavened bread at other times.
But it is also clear that the preaching of the Word was a regular part of their worship.
And so Paul preached until midnight.
I don’t think that this means that Paul preached for 12 hours.
After all, in the Roman world, the Jewish week was not recognized.
Jews were generally permitted to observe their Sabbaths,
but the seven-day week did not begin to take root in the Roman world
until the second or third century.
And certainly no one would have had the first day of the week off.
So if they wanted to have the whole congregation present
they would have met in the evening.
(and surely, when you read 1 Corinthians 11,
you can see that Paul would have trained them
to make sure that everyone could be there!)
This is something we will likely need to think about in the coming years.
As our culture becomes more and more secular,
it will probably be harder and harder to find work
that does not require you to work on Sunday.
It is wrong for employers to require you to work on Sunday,
and you should do everything in your power
to make sure that you can get Sundays off,
but it still may be the case that churches will one day
need to consider altering our worship times
in order to make sure that the whole congregation can come.
After all, that is why the fourth commandment is specially directed to superiors!
Have you ever noticed that?
The other nine commandments are directed to everyone.
“Thou shalt not have any gods before me”
is directed to everyone.
“Thou shalt not covet”
is directed to everyone.
But “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy …
you and your son and your daughter,
your manservant and your maidservant,
your ox and your donkey,
and the stranger who is within your gates.”
This is directed to those in authority.
You have very little control to prevent your son or your daughter from stealing.
You have very little ability to prevent your manservant from killing your maidservant.
But you do have the ability to prevent them from keeping the Sabbath holy.
And because the first century church lived in a world
where their masters and patrons had no regard for the Lord’s Day,
it appears that the church in Troas met in the evening on the first day of the week.
And while Paul’s sermon was probably not 12 hours long,
if it made it to midnight, then it would seem to have at least topped six hours!
Luke’s point here is not to encourage six hour sermons –
rather it is to demonstrate the devotion of these believers in Troas.
This was their last chance to hear the apostle Paul, and so they would listen long into the night.
And from Luke’s language it appears that this was not a monologue.
People were no doubt asking questions.
The language of “talked with them” implies some dialogue.
But the point is that they wanted to hear Paul’s teaching.
- The Raising of Eutychus (20:9-12)
Even Eutychus wanted to hear.
Eutychus is described as “a young man” in verse 9 and a “child” in verse 12.
This probably means that he was a youth – somewhere in his teens
But this lad was tired.
After a hard day’s work,
listening to a discussion of the word of God
can wear down even young men!
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.
The raising of Eutychus is strikingly different from the other raisings in the Bible.
Jesus raised a widow’s son, and Jairus’ daughter.
Elijah raised a widow’s son, and Elisha raised the son of the Shunamite.
And for that matter, Jesus had raised Lazarus, the brother of Mary and Martha.
Eutychus has no such family connection.
Eutychus’s only family (as far as we are told) is the church at Troas.
It is the church who at the end of verse 12 is “not a little comforted.”
What is more, Eutychus’s death is rather unusual.
He dies listening to the preaching of the Word.
But while there are many unique aspects to Eutychus’s story,
the central point follows from the narratives of Elijah and Elisha –
and of course from the narrative of Jesus and his apostles.
Paul is simply following his master.
As Jesus had raised the dead,
so now Paul raises Eutychus.
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.
This is reminiscent of Elijah and Elisha stretching themselves out over the dead sons in Kings.
It is also perhaps worth drawing attention to all the up and down language in the passage.
In one sense it is just a function of the story.
The boy fell down.
Paul went down.
Paul picked him up.
Paul went up.
But Luke’s language goes beyond that.
And in Greek it is even more clear than in English.
Eutychus sat down.
He fell down into sleep.
(And that word is repeated)
He fell down into sleep,
and then he fell from the third story.
Eutychus has four downward steps in verse 9 before going up –
but even his upward motion is only unto death.
Then in verses 10-11 Paul likewise goes down, and then goes up.
And through Paul’s going down and coming up,
Eutychus is brought back to life.
And when Paul had gone up and had broken bread and eaten,
he conversed with them a long while, until daybreak, and so departed.
And they took the youth away alive, and were not a little comforted.
God is building his new family around the person and work of the Jesus that Paul preaches.
And this new family was comforted by the restoration of this youth to life.
Maybe his parents were there.
Maybe not.
But Luke’s point is that he is part of a new family.
This is a point that you children need to take to heart –
and especially you teenages.
You are part of the family of God.
And you are called to take on a more and more active part
in the life of the church as you grow older.
The teenage years are a time where you are becoming an adult.
So we want to see you more and more a part of the adult life of the church.
(That also means that the rest of you need to be looking for ways
to encourage our teens to join in what you are doing!)
- The Road to Jerusalem (20:13-16)
But going ahead to the ship, we set sail for Assos, intending to take Paul aboard there,
for so he had arranged, intending himself to go by land.
And when he met us at Assos, we took him on board and went to Mitylene.
And sailing from there we came the following day opposite Chios;
the next day we touched as Samos;
and the day after that we went to Miletus.
For Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus,
so that he might not have to spend time in Asia,
for he was hastening to be at Jerusalem, if possible,
on the day of Pentecost.
Chapter 20, verse 6 said that Paul spent the days of Unleavened Bread in Philippi.
Now we hear that Paul’s goal is to come to Jerusalem in time for Pentecost.
Paul has 50 days to get from Philippi to Jerusalem.
He spends five days on the road to Troas and then seven days in Troas.
In verse 15 Paul spends three days on the ship to Miletus.
The gospels are oriented around Passover – the feast of Unleavened Bread.
But Acts is oriented more around Pentecost.
Pentecost was the day on which the Holy Spirit was poured out.
Pentecost is also the day when Paul will come to the temple in Jerusalem.
But that is quite fitting, because in the Jewish calendar,
Passover is the feast of redemption –
deliverance from bondage in Egypt;
while Pentecost is the completion of Passover –
the feast celebrating their entry into the land.
And even so, for Luke’s gospel, Passover is the feast
where Jesus delivers his people from bondage to sin and death.
while for the book of Acts, Pentecost is the feast
where Jesus pours out the Holy Spirit,
and brings his people into the firstfruits of the inheritance.
Paul is now hastening to Jerusalem for the day of Pentecost,
for he is called to be the one who will bring the book of Acts to its conclusion –
to bring the gospel to the end of the earth, namely, Rome.
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