This past Monday evening,
my community group and I studied the passage in Acts about Eutychus – a boy in ancient Troas who for the
past two thousand years has been immortalized in Scripture (Acts 20:7-12).
For those unfamiliar with
him, he was sitting in a window sill late one evening while the Apostle Paul
taught the church till midnight. Luke, the author, tells us that as Paul went
on and on because he was leaving the next day, Eutychus became drowsy, fell
from the three-story ledge and died. Paul casually called a time-out, went down
to the dead boy, threw himself on the corpse, assured everyone that Eutychus
was okay, then went back upstairs and continued teaching. Talk about a wild
church service! (I have a similar story from years ago while I preached that I’ll
write about someday).
As we looked for practical
applications in these six verses our minds raced. In our imagination, we saw an
elderly Eutychus telling his awed grandchildren about the night the infamous
apostle visited his church. We made observations about the importance of proximity
when it comes to our relationships with God, and, the call to ‘stay awake’
during perilous times as Christ’s return looms closer. Lastly, in a very
practical way, we saw together the importance of having faith-filled friends
when an unanticipated crisis strikes. Eutychus was simply a kid falling asleep
in church, a phenomena I witness weekly; but, without warning, tragedy struck! Crazy
how tragedy does that.
In the New Testament we
read about four faith-filled friends who creatively and selflessly took their
lame friend to Jesus – literally vandalizing a house to do it!
When everything suddenly goes
wrong in your life – who you gonna call? When tragedy cruelly strikes, the
Ghostbusters are useless.
Do you have a friend or
two, maybe a team, that will call out and trust the God of the impossible on
your behalf when you’re in crisis? Those who will carry you to Jesus? Those in
your life who will throw themselves on top of whatever you’re facing – no matter
how ugly? Those who won’t freak-out, but will respond in sincere and authentic
faith?
Eutychus had Paul.
Who do you have?
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