FROM DEATH TO LIFE

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

When the uproar had ended, Paul sent for the disciples and, after encouraging them, said goodbye and set out for Macedonia. He traveled through that area, speaking many words of encouragement to the people, and finally arrived in Greece, where he stayed three months. Because some Jews had plotted against him just as he was about to sail for Syria, he decided to go back through Macedonia. He was accompanied by Sopater, son of Pyrrhus from Berea, Aristarchus and Secundus from Thessalonica, Gaius from Derbe, Timothy also, and Tychicus and Trophimus from the province of Asia. These men went on ahead and waited for us at Troas. But we sailed from Philippi after the Festival of Unleavened Bread, and five days later joined the others at Troas, where we stayed seven days.

On the first day of the week we came together to break bread. Paul spoke to the people and, because he intended to leave the next day, kept on talking until midnight. There were many lamps in the upstairs room where we were meeting.

Seated in a window was a young man named Eutychus, who was sinking into a deep sleep as Paul talked on and on. When he was sound asleep, he fell to the ground from the third story and was picked up dead. Paul went down, threw himself on the young man and put his arms around him.

“Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “He’s alive!”

Then he went upstairs again and broke bread and ate. After talking until daylight, he left. The people took the young man home alive and were greatly comforted.

Acts 20:1-12

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

The matter of resurrection is central to the New Testament and the Gospel it represents.

We first see it in Jesus as He ministered to others in the three years before His death was cut short by an injustice manifested by the Jewish religious authorities in Jerusalem. In Luke’s Gospel, we read about the first two of the three resurrections performed by Jesus. He first brought the only son of a widow named Nain back to life (Luke 7:11-17) and later resurrected the daughter of a synagogue leader named Jairus back to life (Luke 8:40-56). Then in John’s Gospel, we find Jesus bring his good friend Lazarus back to life in Bethany.

All this was followed by the greatest resurrection act of all in the Bible when Jesus, who had been crucified and buried in a tomb, was brought from death to life by the almighty power of His Almighty Father God before ascending into the heavens where He was placed in full authority over everything.

And then in the study of the Book of Acts, you will find a couple more resurrection moments.

First, we find Peter resurrect a woman named Dorcas while visiting the coastal city of Joppa (Acts 9:46-53). And then there is the miraculous work of the Apostle Paul found in the opening verses of chapter 20. Look again at those words here:

When the uproar had ended, Paul sent for the disciples and, after encouraging them, said goodbye and set out for Macedonia. He traveled through that area, speaking many words of encouragement to the people, and finally arrived in Greece, where he stayed three months. Because some Jews had plotted against him just as he was about to sail for Syria, he decided to go back through Macedonia. He was accompanied by Sopater, son of Pyrrhus from Berea, Aristarchus and Secundus from Thessalonica, Gaius from Derbe, Timothy also, and Tychicus and Trophimus from the province of Asia. These men went on ahead and waited for us at Troas. But we sailed from Philippi after the Festival of Unleavened Bread, and five days later joined the others at Troas, where we stayed seven days.

On the first day of the week we came together to break bread. Paul spoke to the people and, because he intended to leave the next day, kept on talking until midnight. There were many lamps in the upstairs room where we were meeting.

Seated in a window was a young man named Eutychus, who was sinking into a deep sleep as Paul talked on and on. When he was sound asleep, he fell to the ground from the third story and was picked up dead. Paul went down, threw himself on the young man and put his arms around him.

“Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “He’s alive!”

Then he went upstairs again and broke bread and ate. After talking until daylight, he left. The people took the young man home alive and were greatly comforted. Acts 20:1-12

As the chapter opens, we find Paul departing Ephesus after a near riot broke. You’ll recall from yesterday’s message that Gaius and Aristarchus, two of Paul’s companions, were hauled into the city’s main theater by craftsmen who had invested in and profited from the goddess Artemis. The men were upset because Paul was winning over many converts for Christianity and therefore, the number of people interested in Artemis inclined as did income generated by her name.

After saying goodbye to the disciples in Ephesus, the scriptures tell us that Paul went on quite a road trip. He first went to Macedonia and spent time “speaking many words of encouragement to the people” as he traveled through the area on his way to Greece “where he stayed three months”. Then as he was about to leave Greece to sail for Syria, Paul received a tip that “some Jews had plotted against him” and so he returned to Macedonia and joined up with “Sopater, son of Pyrrhus from Berea, Aristarchus and Secundus from Thessalonica, Gaius from Derbe, Timothy also, and Tychicus and Trophimus from the province of Asia”. These men “went on ahead” and waited for Paul at Troas.

What was Paul doing during that time?

We read where he “sailed from Philippi after the Festival of Unleavened Bread” and then joined the others in Troas five days later. The entourage would remain in Troas for a week.

While there “on the first day of the week”, the group had joined together “to break bread” in an upstairs room. While there, the scriptures tell us that Paul “spoke to the people” and “kept on talking until midnight” because “he intended to leave the next day”.  

We read of one person who was in the upstairs room, “a young man named Eutychus” who was sitting in a window, a precarious place to be as he sank “into a deep sleep as Paul talked on and on”. As he drifted off, he fell out the window from the third story of the building and died. It was a scene steeped in terrible tragedy and no doubt caused everyone’s spirits to drop into deep shock and immediate grief.

But the young man’s story hadn’t ended just yet. For the scriptures tell us that Paul quickly descended from the third floor and raced to where the young man was. Throwing himself upon Eutychus’s body, Paul wrapped his arms around him and calmed the crowd proclaiming:

“Don’t be alarmed! He’s alive!”

And with that, Eutychus moved from death to life, heading back upstairs where he “broke bread and ate” while Paul continued “talking until daylight”. He then departed while the “people took the young man home alive and were greatly comforted.”

Comfort and resurrection. They went together on that day in Troas and they continue to go together today.

For God so loved the world and everyone in it, that He made the way so that no one would have to perish. Rather, they could rise again from death to life through believing in His Son Jesus as Savior.

This changed everything. For instead of a death leading to finality and the deep sorrow of loss, it is overridden by the great joy that comes in celebrating life, the life that was and the new resurrected life that has just begun.

Thanks be to God for this gift of eternal life through Jesus and the peace it brings, not just to the Christian believer but those who love and care for them.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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