Acts 20. We are rejoining the Apostle Paul on his missionary journeys in the book of Acts. In the previous chapter, Acts 19, Paul wrapped up three years of teaching at Ephesus and set off on his third and final journey of visiting churches and encouraging Christians.

I always have a laugh at the story of Eutychus (20:7-12). Have you ever been in a meeting, a conference session, or some kind of event where the speaker just went on and on and on and it was all you could do to try and stay awake? Paul was very long-winded one night – probably saying really important things and trying to get all his last thoughts in. He prolonged his speech until midnight… he conversed with them a long while until daybreak. Paul is teaching and sharing in a crowded room from midnight to 6 AM and poor Eutychus, he just could not stay awake. He 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 for dead. Not only does Eutychus fall asleep, he falls out the third-floor window onto the cobblestones below and dies. Lord have mercy.

I may have mentioned before that my son is a cadet at West Point, the United States Military Academy. Cadets are a group of young people who never get enough sleep and struggle with staying awake in the classroom sometimes. It’s forbidden to fall asleep in class or to skip class, so the academy solution to feeling sleepy is for the cadet to go stand in the back of the classroom. There are often cadets standing in the back of the room… No sleeping and falling out the window!  

For Eutychus, we see the power of God at work through Paul. Paul went down and bent over him, and taking him in his arms said, “Do not be alarmed, for his life is in him.”… And they took the youth away alive. Paul brings him back from the dead, then carries on with his meeting. It’s amazing! What a faith-building experience for everyone in the room that night.

This chapter concludes with Paul’s words of encouragement to the leaders of the church at Ephesus (20:17-38). It’s a heart-wrenching scene as they become aware that they will not see his face again. There is prayer, weeping, embracing, and sorrow. Paul has meant so much to them and the time for goodbyes has come. Paul himself is upset as he shares his parting advice with them, knowing that in every city imprisonment and afflictions await me.

I would have protested, I think, and pleaded with Paul to remain, to not go, to stay and be of use in the communities that welcomed him. Yet this was not God’s plan for Paul. Paul did not know what would happen to him, but he knew he had to go, and he was not afraid. His single-minded commitment is convicting:

I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish the course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God (20:24). We will follow his journey through to the end of the book of Acts.

Have you ever had such a hunger for God, to learn, to be in a deeper relationship with him – that you would stay up all night with other believers to make it happen? Do you have the same hunger for God as the people in the room with Eutychus? Are you challenged by Paul’s commitment and his value system? Is a relationship with God more important to you than anything else?