Acts 20:7 - Meaning and Application

Here we have an account of what happened at Troas on the last of the seven days Paul stayed there.

A solemn gathering of the Christians was held there, according to their regular practice and the custom of all the churches. The disciples came together (Acts 20:7). They read, thought, prayed, and sang psalms on their own, and that kept up their fellowship with God. But that was not enough. They also needed to come together to worship God as one body, to strengthen one another, and to show their shared fellowship with all true Christians. There should be set times for Christ’s disciples to meet together. If they cannot all meet in one place, still as many as can should come together.

They came together on the first day of the week, which they called the Lord’s Day (Revelation 1:10), the Christian Sabbath. This day is kept in honor of Christ and the Holy Spirit, remembering Christ’s resurrection and the Spirit’s coming, both on the first day of the week. The text says this was the day the disciples came together, meaning this was their settled practice in all the churches. The first day of the week should be kept holy by all Christ’s disciples. It is a sign between Christ and them, showing that they belong to him.

They were gathered in an upper room (Acts 20:8). They had no temple or synagogue to meet in, and no large, stately chapel. They met in a private house, in an attic room. They were few, so they did not need a large place, and they were poor, so they could not build one. Still, they came together in that plain and inconvenient place. No one can excuse staying away from worship because the meeting place is not as fine or comfortable as he would like.

They came together to break bread, meaning to celebrate the Lord’s Supper, with the broken bread standing for the whole ordinance. “The bread that we break” is the sharing in the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 10:16). In breaking the bread, they remembered not only Christ’s body broken for us as a sacrifice for sin, but also Christ giving himself to us as food for our souls. In the early church, many congregations received the Lord’s Supper every Lord’s Day, joining the memory of Christ’s death with the memory of his resurrection in one solemn meeting.

In this assembly Paul preached to them, and it was a long farewell sermon (Acts 20:7). Even though they were already believers, they still needed the word of God preached to them, so they could grow in knowledge and grace. The preaching of the gospel should go together with the sacraments, the outward signs of God’s covenant. Moses read the book of the covenant to the people first, and then sprinkled the blood of the covenant, which the Lord had made with them concerning those words (Exodus 24:7-8). What does a seal mean if there is no writing?

It was also a farewell sermon, because Paul was ready to leave the next day. After he was gone, they could hear the same gospel from others, but not from him in the same way. So they needed to make the most of the time they had with him. Farewell sermons are usually deeply moving, both for the preacher and for the hearers.

It was a very long sermon. He kept speaking until midnight, because he had much to say and did not know whether he would ever have another chance to preach to them. After they had taken the Lord’s Supper, he taught them the duties they had taken on and the comforts they had received, and he spoke fully and carefully. Ministers may have to preach not only at the right time, but also at inconvenient times. Some would have criticized Paul for preaching so long, saying he tired his hearers. But they were willing to listen, and he saw that, so he kept speaking.

He continued until midnight. They may have met in the evening for privacy, or to follow the example of the disciples who met on the first Christian Sabbath in the evening. It is likely he had also preached to them in the morning, and yet he extended this evening sermon until midnight. We would like to know the main points of this long sermon, but it was likely much like the substance of his letters. Since the meeting went on so long, many lamps were lit (Acts 20:8), so the people could turn to the scriptures Paul quoted and check whether these things were true. The lights also answered the charge of enemies who said Christians met at night for evil deeds.

A young man in the congregation fell asleep during the sermon, fell out of the window, and was killed, but then brought back to life. His name means “fortunate,” Eutychus, and he lived up to that name. He likely came with his parents, though he was only a boy, because they wanted him taught well in God’s truth by such a preacher as Paul. Parents should bring their children to hear sermons as soon as they can understand them, even the little ones (Nehemiah 8:2; Deuteronomy 29:11).

This youth was to blame in two ways. First, he placed himself carelessly in the window, which may have been open and unglazed, and so he exposed himself to danger. If he had been content to sit on the floor, he would have been safe. Boys who love to climb or put themselves in danger, to the grief of their parents, should remember that they also offend God. Second, he slept, and fell into a deep sleep while Paul was preaching, which showed that he was not giving proper attention to such serious words. The special notice of his sleep gives us hope that the others did not sleep, though it was already sleep time and after supper. Still, he was overcome by sleep and could not fight it off any longer.

The result was a great calamity. He fell from the third floor and was taken up dead. Some think Satan had a hand in it, by God’s permission, and meant it as a disturbance to the meeting and a shame to Paul and to the church.

Some think God allowed this event as a warning to everyone who hears the word preached, and we should certainly take it that way. We must treat sleepiness in worship as a serious matter, because it shows a low view of God’s word and greatly harms our profit from it. We should be on guard against it, do what we can to stay awake, and not settle ourselves into sleep. Instead, we should let our hearts be stirred by the word we hear so strongly that sleep is pushed away.

Let us watch and pray so that we do not fall into this temptation, and then into something worse. Let Eutychus’s fall make us reverent and show us how jealous God is about worship. “Do not be fooled, God is not mocked.” We see how sharply God dealt with a sin that seemed small, and with a young person at that, and we should ask, “Who can stand before this holy Lord God?” This story reminds us of the lament in (Jer 9:20, Jer 9:21): “Hear the word of the Lord, for death has come through our windows, to cut off the children from outside and the young men from the streets.”

The miraculous mercy shown in Eutychus’s recovery to life again is the next thing to notice, in (Act 20:10). It brought a sudden disturbance to the meeting and interrupted Paul’s preaching, but it also became a strong confirmation of his message and helped drive it home. Paul went down and threw himself on the dead body, embracing it. In this way he showed deep compassion for the young man, and he was far from saying, “He got what he deserved for paying so little attention to what I said.”

People with Paul’s kind of tender heart are deeply moved by such sad events, and they do not rush to judge those who suffer them. He would not think as some did about the people on whom the tower in Siloam fell, as though they were worse sinners than everyone else in Jerusalem. “I tell you, no.” But Paul’s action was more than compassion. Like Elijah (Kg1 17:21) and Elisha (Kg2 4:34), he lay on the body in order to help raise him to life, not because the act itself could do that, but because it was a sign of the divine power coming upon the dead body to restore life. At the same time, Paul was praying earnestly and in faith for that miracle.

Then Paul calmed everyone by telling them that the young man had returned to life and that they would see it plainly. We may imagine that the accident had stirred up many thoughts and questions in the congregation, but Paul stopped all that by saying, “Do not be troubled, and do not panic over this. His life is in him. He is not dead, but asleep. Leave him for a little while, and he will recover, because he is alive now.” In this way, when Christ raised Lazarus, he said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me.”

After this interruption, Paul went right back to the meeting (Act 20:11). They came together again and broke bread in a love feast, a meal that usually went with the Lord’s Supper and showed their fellowship and friendship. Then they talked for a long while, even until daybreak. Paul did not continue with a long sermon as before. Instead, he and his friends had a free and helpful conversation, no doubt about good things that built them up. Christian conversation is a fine means of growing in holiness, comfort, and love.

Since they did not know when they would see Paul again, they made the most of his company while they had it, and they counted one night’s sleep well spent for that purpose. Before they parted, they brought the young man alive into the meeting, and everyone congratulated him on being restored from death. They were greatly comforted (Act 20:12). This was a great joy, not only for the young man’s family, but for the whole church. It kept shame from being cast on them and added much to the honor of the gospel.