Sermon Tone Analysis

By Pastor Glenn Pease

The Cherynoble nuclear accident in Russia was one of the most headline grabbing events of the 20th century.

But what we do not realize is that many accidents are not spectacular explosions, fiery crashes, or powerful events of violence.

There are also very silent accidents which are equally deadly.

For example, back in 1983 two employees at a hospital were clearing out a warehouse where a worn out cancer therapy machine had been collecting dust for 6 years.

They had no idea that in the case of this machine were 6,000 pellets of radioactive cobalt.

They sold it for scrap metal for $10.00.

Some of these pellets fell out into the truck they used to carry it to the junk yard.

At the junk yard the pellets were scattered all over the place as the magic picked it up and dumped it in a pile.

These 6,000 pellets were mixed with metal that was sent out to a company that made legs for tables in fast food restaurants.

Others found their way into metal rods to reinforce concrete.

Nobody was even aware that a dangerous accident was in progress, for there was no noise or explosion.

Many people, however, were being exposed to high levels of radioactivity.

It was not until a truck carrying a load of this radioactive material pulled into a government project that anybody became aware.

Radioactive detectors set off alarms, and the Nuclear Safety Commission immediately went into action to trace these rods back to that junk yard.

Then they had to trace where all the scrap had gone.

They closed down the leg making factory, and they found the truck that delivered the machine in the first place.

It was very hot, and it was hauled away, but research learned that up to 200 people could have touched it or been near enough to be exposed.

2,500 table bases had to be returned from 40 states.

People eating at these tables were getting the equivalent of a one hour lung x-ray.

The hottest legs of all were found in a downtown Chicago hotel.

The point is, there was no big exposition by which to identify this accident, or series of accidents.

It was quiet and not dramatic, and so there was no way to trace how many people were affected by it.

Nobody was doing anything evil to cause this accident.

The two men who started it all were acting in ignorance with no intent to harm anyone.

Yet they may have done harm to thousands of people.

In this message we are looking at two other men who were involved in an ancient accident that only temporarily left one of them dead, but we can see that though the scale is smaller the same principles are at work.

A study of them will help us better understand the causes and cures for suffering in the world.

There is only one permanent cure for the suffering of any person, and that is to get a body that is no longer subject to pain and death.

The only way to get such a body is by faith in the risen Christ who died and rose again that all who trust Him might have just such bodies that will live with Him forever.

But until that day of total victory over all suffering there are millions of pains we are to strive to prevent in time.

The only way we can be effective in preventing suffering is to keep learning more and more about the causes.

That is what the study of all branches of medicine is about.

If you find the cause for suffering, you have a good start toward conquering it or preventing it.

Let's look at this accidental death of a New Testament teenager and see what we can learn about the cause and cure of suffering.

Keep in mind that this account is being written by Dr. Luke who is an eye witness of the event.

Dr. Luke is not being super spiritual here at all by writing such things like: It must have been the will of God, or demons made it happen.

He takes the very scientific approach that says there were perfectly logical and natural causes for this accident.

If it was planned by God or Satan it would not have been an accident, but there is no hint that this event was intended by anyone.

All accidents have causes, however, and Dr. Luke gives us an excellent diagnosis of the causes of this particular accident.

We want to look at it through the doctor's eyes, and see his account of the cause, and by inference, his prescription for the cure.

First look at-

I. THE DESCRIPTION OF THE CAUSE.

Dr. Luke describes two basic causes for this accident which fits the majority of accidents in life.

The two are circumstances and choices.

For example, look at the circumstances.

It was a pressure situation because of time.

Verse 7 says that because Paul had to leave the next day he went on talking till midnight.

When you have a lot to get done, and very little time to do it, you are in a high risk environment.

It is a perfect setting for miscalculation and poor judgment.

I reflect on times I have cut myself, and most, if not all, were due to being in a hurry.

Speed kills and injures millions.

In our case study here Paul was not doing anything too fast, but because of the time factor he was trying to do too much in his limited time.

The result was that he did not know he was literally boring part of his audience to death.

It is a speaker's job to talk, and the audience's job to listen, but sometimes the audience finishes their job before the speaker.

I do not know if any of us have had to listen to a speaker until midnight, but most of us can sympathize with Eutychus.

I have had to endure the suffering inflicted by a speaker who could not find the terminal.

I have not only struggled with sleepiness, but with whether or not I should just leave.

Eutychus did both.

He went to sleep, and he left by way of the window.

The going to sleep was not serious, but the unconscious exit from a third story window was a radical remedy to his dilemma.

But the point is, it never would have happened had Paul ended his message at 11:30.

Dr. Luke makes this clear in verse 9 where he says that Eutychus sank into a deep sleep as Paul talked on and on.

Dr. Luke is describing a scene of endurance.

He implies that Paul was being excessive in his speech.

He hints that he too may have been eager to hear Paul's amen.

Eutychus had gotten himself into a situation where he was a captive of somebody else's agenda.

But let's notice that the circumstances alone did not cause this accidental death.

There were also choices that were made by the people involved, and they were the primary causes of this suffering.

Paul made the choice to push his audience to the limit of their endurance.

Eutychus made the choice of setting in an open window to listen.

Here is the crucial choice, and the primary cause of the accident.

Others may have been sleeping too, but they were safely snoozing away on the floor or some piece of furniture.

A little girl once told the preacher that she went to sleep during his sermon and had the most wonderful dream.

She meant it as a complement.

Sleeping in church is not always dangerous.

Ben Kenchlow of the 700 club tells of his church sleeping in his book Plain Bread.

He went to a Catholic school as a boy, and every morning at chapel he noticed one of the sisters kneeling with her elbow on the pew in front, and her head down in her arms.

He decided to copy her.

He writes, "I soon realized her very worshipful posture was conducive to dozing, and one morning shortly after that I heard sister snoring softly.

She wasn't praying, she was sleeping!

I had fought like crazy against dropping off to sleep in those early, dark mornings.

I had assumed God was watching, and He'd see me there sleeping, and hit me with one of those bolts of lightning people talked about.

But then I said, "If she can sleep though mass....I can, too."

From then on, I slept through most of the masses I attended the rest of my 4 years at St. Peter Claver's Academy.

A pastor was once showing a teenager the brass scroll on the back of the church with names inscribed.

The pastor said, "This is the list of our church members who have died in the service."

The teen responded, "Was it the morning or the evening service?"

Not too many people die by falling asleep in church, but there is a history of this kind of experience, and so Eutychus will have a lot of people to talk to in heaven about their church naps.

Benjamin Franklin in his autobiography tells of his first visit to Philadelphia.

He saw a group of well dressed people, and he writes, "I joined them, and thereby was lead into the great meeting house of the Quakers near the market.

I sat down among them, and, after looking round awhile and hearing nothing said, being very drowsy thro' labor and want of rest the preceding night, I fell fast asleep, and continu'd so till the meeting broke up, when one was kind enough to rouse me.

This was, therefore, the first house I was in, or slept in, in Philadelphia."

One of the greatest missionaries of modern times was C. T. Studd.

His fiancée became quite ill in China, and he had to nurse her back to health.

When the day of their wedding came he was so tired from the strain of caring for her that he fell asleep during his own wedding address.

It was before the day of tape recording too, and so he never did hear what the pastor had to say, but he woke up and had a great marriage.

The Puritans were prepared for people going to sleep in church.

They had an office just for this very common event.

Their sermons lasted for 3 hours, and so I suspect that even the most devout would at sometime feel the temptation to drift off to dreamland.