JOY IN THE MIDDLE OF THE
NIGHT
May 19, 2002 am
MFBlume
Act 20:6-12 And we sailed
away from Philippi after the days of unleavened bread, and came
unto them to Troas in five days; where we abode seven days.
(7) And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples
came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to
depart on the morrow; and continued his speech until
midnight. (8) And there were many lights in the upper
chamber, where they were gathered together. (9) And
there sat in a window a certain young man named Eutychus, being
fallen into a deep sleep: and as Paul was long preaching, he sunk
down with sleep, and fell down from the third loft, and was taken
up dead. (10) And Paul went down, and fell on him, and
embracing him said, Trouble not yourselves; for his life is in
him. (11) When he therefore was come up again, and had
broken bread, and eaten, and talked a long while, even till break
of day, so he departed. (12) And they brought the
young man alive, and were not a little comforted.
Paul arrived at Troas to be with the believers there on a
Monday.
- This city was about four miles from the site of ancient Troy,
and was a transit harbor for those who crossed from Asia to
Macedonia, or Greece.
- He must have arrived on a Monday because we read he stayed
there seven days, and the last day he was with them was on the
following first day of the week.
- And it is this last day he was with them that our story
begins.
- On the first day of the week he came with them for church
service.
- The early church seemed to break bread in communion every
Sunday.
- We read, "the first day of the week, when the disciples came
together to break bread"
Paul preached to them in the
evening.
- The Jewish day began at sundown and ended the following
sundown.
- So for him to preach on the first day of the week as night was
falling, meant that he preached Saturday night according to our
days.
- It was actually their first day of the week beginning at
sundown.
- And he was going to leave town in the morning.
- The morning was still the first day of the week.
We
read that he was going to leave them in the morning, and then we are
told that he preached to them until midnight.
- Why would he preach until midnight?
- Was it his custom?
- Unlikely.
- He was with them for seven days, and did not know when he
would see them again.
- So he simply was so concerned for them that he preached
unusually long in order to share with them much truth.
- God only knew when or if he would be back again.
He
preached until midnight.
- Something happened at midnight.
- He stopped for some reason at midnight.
- Luke, being just the sort of physician you would imagine would
notice such things, says there were many lights, or lamps in the
room.
- Such would cause much heat.
- Many were gathered together.
- The lamps would burn a smell into the air.
- And a young man named Eutychus sat on the window sill, telling
us the window was open due to the heat.
- And obviously due to the late hour, the heat from the many
lamps, and the crowd of people, the boy dozed off.
He
tried his best, but sleep got the best of him, and finally sunk down
in sleep.
- The room was three storeys up from the ground.
- And when Eutychus fell asleep, he also fell out the window.
- And sure enough -- he landed on the ground and was killed by
the fall.
At Midnight.
- It was midnight in more ways than just on the clock!
The service stopped.
- A lady probably screamed and an elderly man probably fainted.
- Paul stopped preaching and ran downstairs to the fallen body.
- He embraced the boy, and miraculously the boy resurrected from
the dead without, it seems, even a word from Paul commanding him
to rise again.
But at midnight when Eutychus lost his life
right there in the house of God, he was resurrected and we
read...
Act 20:12 And they brought
the young man alive, and were not a little
comforted.
"Not a little comforted" means
they were extremely happy!
Joy in the middle of the
night.
All had been well.
- Paul was ready to leave and the last night they had together
was around the Word of God in a church service.
- Midnight approached.
- The time when the light of the sun is the furthest away from
that spot in the world.
- People were getting all they could before Paul left, and he
gave them a lot to enjoy in this last night together.
- But right there in the church service, Eutychus began drifting
away in sleepiness.
- The boy tried his best, but the heat and the late hour became
too much for him.
- The words of the preacher soon grew distant and more distant.
- Finally he lost all consciousness of the sermon.
- The words lost all meaning as son as they lost his attention.
- He finally succumbed to his urge to fall asleep and when he
did, he fell from the window to his death.
- Death hit someone right there in a church service!
It
is possible for people to be in church every weekend, and yet begin
to drift away from the things of God and fall into a spiritual
sleep.
- The sermons don't mean as much after this kind of sleep
settles upon a believer.
- Right there in the church service, drifting away, having done
one's best to stay awake and vibrant, one will soon doze off.
- In the middle of the night and in this late hour so close to
Jesus' coming...
- In the heat of the night, the heat of the battle in this dark
hour where sin abounds so much more than it ever did in this world
before...
- Of all times!
- To fall asleep.
- And to do that, in the midst of attending church!
Such
a sleep can only lead to one thing.
Being in church and getting nothing
out of it, until you crash and burn and commit a sin that is
devastating.
Church loses its fire while the preaching is the
same revelation-filled ministry, and the Lord's presence is the
same, but our energies have failed us.
- You've drifted off.
- At this very service, Paul was soon ready to leave.
- At almost the last moment, of all times, crisis hit.
People, time is late and the heat is on.
- Darkness abounds, and people are slipping away in a time like
this.
But hear me!
- You may feel like you've drifted away, and lost your energy to
go another moment.
- But as long as you're in church, a miracle can happen!
- As long as you're in church, there's hope for a resurrection!
- As long as you're in church, where the Word of God is
preached, and truth is given forth, you can have your dead dry
Christianity revitalized and changed anew!
- Some wonder what point there is to it any more when their
hearts have drifted away, and they no longer have the excitement
they once had.
- You've grown tired and entered a sleep mode where you lost
interest in the things of God.
You think, "Why even be
here anymore?"
- You've slipped away so badly that you crashed down below and
sinned such a sin that has killed your Christianity as far as you
and God are concerned.
- Why bother to be here?
There can be joy in the middle
of your night!
Things can change!
Sleep in the Bible
is often associated with weariness and a cessation from serving God
as we should.
- Its losing your drive and dedication and fervency.
Mat 26:39-41 And he went a
little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my
Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless
not as I will, but as thou wilt. (40) And he cometh
unto the disciples, and findeth them asleep, and saith unto Peter,
What, could ye not watch with me one hour? (41) Watch
and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is
willing, but the flesh is weak.
Jesus was in
His most trying hour in the evening before He would be taken away
and nailed to a cross.
- He knew it was coming.
- He had to come to grips with it in His human state of being.
- And He had His disciples come with Him for this special time
of prayer.
- And of all things for His disciples to do, they fell asleep!
- And remarking about their sleeping condition, He said, "The
spirit indeed is willing, bu the flesh is weak."
His
prayer partners were sleeping on the job!
- But He knew that down deep inside their spirits, they were
completely willing to do God's will and pray with HIm.
- He knew their intentions were completely pure and right and
proper.
- But what they sincerely knew to be the right thing to do, was
hindered by another aspect of their lives.
- We sometimes wish we did not have to live with it, but our
flesh is so weak.
- He spoke about not entering into temptation.
- Not getting into a position in which we will be tempted to
quit and give up.
- But even when this very thing did happen to the disciples, He
understood their inner desires.
- Aren't you glad Jesus knows we didn't mean it?
- Aren't you glad that Jesus knows one part of us truly did want
to do what was right?
- But the sleeping came upon us due to the weakness, not of our
intentions and spirits, but of our flesh.
Your intentions
might be good and true, but beware, your flesh is weak when it comes
to doing what your spirit wills to do.
But if we do sleep,
and if we do crash and burn, and even sin and die....
- The soul that sinneth it shall die...
- As long as we're in church, a miracle can happen.
The
midnight hour arrived and Eutychus' drowsiness finally got the best
of him and he fell asleep and died.
- What a midnight it was!
- Had it been a sin and death outside of church it would have
been one thing.
- But to see it happen while attending church!
- Blowing it big-time while attending church!
But do not
ever forget, that one soul is as much loved by God as another.
- God loves the sinner who never comes to church, and the
sinning saint who does come to church.
- A soul who falls while in church is as much loved as one who
falls while away from church.
- And don't knock the one who attends the church.
- Contrary to popular opinion, the one who comes to church has a
better chance for a miracle than the one who doesn't.
Does
God want you to leave Church if you become unstable and weak in your
Christianity?
- Are you a hypocrite because you become sleepy in the spirit
and succumb to things that your spirit has strong convictions
against?
- No.
- The spirit can be willing to do whatever is right, but its the
flesh that is weak to see it done.
- A hypocrite's spirit and flesh are on equal terms and the same
level, desiring to do what is wrong despite God or anybody else.
- Its when your spirit no longer desires to do what is right,
and you do not mourn nor regret what wrong you've done...
- Its when you determine to concoct a false front to
intentionally make people believe you're one thing, when you're
absolutely not at all...
- That you're a hypocrite!
- And God can even get hold of a hypocrite.
- So long as you're in church, a miracle is possible!
After trying his best to do what was right and good, and
failing so miserably, the Apostle Paul wrote:
Romans 7:18 For I know that
in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will
is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find
not.
The spirit is willing, but the flesh is
weak.
- The flesh possesses no strength to perform what the spirit
wills to do.
- Paul could not find how to do good in his flesh.
Jesus
understands a real struggle exists between desiring to do well in a
very real way.
- He knows how we can be totally sincere, and no hypocrite at
all, and still fail miserably.
- Paul was able to see this distinction in himself.
- If you can see this distinction, too, you are on your way to
resurrection power!
Jesus knew His disciples' spirits were
willing!
They did not spitefully plot and plan to
forsake their need of prayer.
When Paul gave it his best
shot, as well, and fell to the weakness of the flesh in its
inability to come to that height of strength, he entered a midnight
hour as well.
- And in his midnight hour, Paul found joy in the middle of the
night!
- His intentions to live righteously were real.
- He wanted victory in his life.
- He came to a grand discovery that his failure was not due to
any bad intentions.
- On the contrary, his failure was despite his excellent and
most noble intentions.
- He knew he was sincere and trying his best.
- And Jesus knew it as well.
Paul learned, through it
all, that trying his fleshly best to live that righteous life was
the absolute error of errors.
When he crashed and
burned....
- Just like when Jonah was in the midnight hour in the stomach
of a whale!!!
- As the prodigal son came to himself in the pigpen with husks
of corn hanging from the corners of his mouth...
- ...Paul caught a revelation.
Romans 7:24-25 O wretched
man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this
death? (25) I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
...
Who is going to deliver Paul from this
wretched bondage of the flesh?
- God is going to do it.
- How?
- Through Jesus Christ.
- Just as God delivered us from sin through Jesus Christ on the
cross.
Let me explain.
- We could not save ourselves from sin and make ourselves new
creatures.
- God had to do that through Jesus Christ's work of the cross.
Well, if we could not make ourselves Christians...
- If God had to do that Himself through Jesus Christ...
- Then how do we expect to go further than that and cause
ourselves to LIVE a VICTORIOUS Christian life?
- If God had to make us Christians through the Jesus
Christ, then He is going to have to cause us to live strong
Christian lives through Jesus Christ!
Its good
that we see we cannot make ourselves live righteous lives.
- Its a midnight hour.
- Its a shocking destructive thought to realize we cannot make
ourselves live this life.
- But its a necessary one because we were never meant to make
ourselves live right.
- And what might be a midnight crisis can change.
- Change to joy in the middle of the night!
Eutychus
died.
- Paul ran down the stairway below to where Eutychus lay.
- Have I gotten down to where you lie in defeat?
- Paul embraced Eutychus.
- He took hold of the boy.
- Has the preacher got hold of you this morning?
- Or rather, has God got hold of you through the preacher?
God loves you as much as He ever did.
- He is embracing you this morning.
- He still loves us when we fall.
Without so much of a
"Eutychus, come forth," the boy came alive in Paul's arms.
- At midnight...
- It doesn't make sense, but its there...
- In this dark hour, God brought LIFE to the dead!
Act 20:10 And Paul went
down, and fell on him, and embracing him said, Trouble not
yourselves; for his life is in him.
Don't
worry, Church.
Act 20:11-12 When he
therefore was come up again, and had broken bread, and eaten, and
talked a long while, even till break of day, so he departed.
(12) And they brought the young man alive, and were not a
little comforted.
Paul returned to the third
level.
- The Bible speaks of a third heaven.
- We're in heavenly places in Christ!
- Why?
- We've died, risen and have been seated together with Him in
heavenly places.
- Paul broke the bread of communion supper.
- The symbol of Christ's slain body, killed on the cross for us
to die with Him that we might be made new people.
- The symbol of the work that alone makes anybody a new creature
in Christ, ready to meet the Lord.
- We just learned that if we could not make ourselves
Christians, and how God had to do that through Christ's work of
the cross, we cannot make ourselves live a strong and wide-awake
Christian life.
- Its all through Jesus.
- And here Paul shows us in symbol form the whole answer to it
all.
- You thought the cross was just to save you.
- But the cross also gave you all you will ever need to live a
strong life for Jesus.
- It gave you the power of God for you to live by.
- Why live by your own weak flesh?
You say the flesh may
be weak now, but soon you will be strong in the flesh to be able to
do what you should do.
Galatians 5:16-17 This I say
then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the
flesh. (17) For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit,
and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one
to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye
would.
You'll always need to rely upon His
strength.
And they brought the young man alive, and
were not a little comforted.
They were not a little
comforted.
- They were extremely happy.
- Joy in the middle of the night!
Sometimes He lets you
fall and die right there.
- Had he sent an angel to stop Eutychus from falling, perhaps
others would have slipped away in sleep as well.
- But by letting the boy fall and die, He had it all set for
Paul to run down to him and to use Paul to resurrect him.
- And that would excite everyone's spirit -- not just Eutychus'.
- Everyone saw the miracle!
God lets us go to extremes
sometimes, only to contrast the negative with the complete opposite
positive!
God led Israel to a place by the Red Sea where they
were wide open for Pharaoh's attack.
- Why not to the mountains where they could hide in caves and
nooks and crannies?
- Why the open arena?
- Because God wanted to perform such a victory against Pharaoh
that they could plainly see it and never forget it, and refer to
it when in need of encouragement.
The higher the enemy
appears to rise above us in our hard times, the greater and more
profound his fall when God brings him to his knees!
Feel its
midnight?
- At least...
- No... at best! you're in church, where a miracle can
occur!
Joy in the middle of the night!