A Fortunate Faller (Acts 20:7-12)

Intro

Sunday Service (vs.7 - first day of the week)

Sunday Sermon (vs.7 - Paul Preached until midnight)

Shining in the Sanctuary (vs.8 - many lights)

Goes against contemporary churches (dark sanctuaries)(rather be in darkness, but the child of God loves light!)

Sitting Sleeper (vs.9)

Eutychus = “fortunate”

Eutychus was very fortunate in falling from this window. He could’ve died and Paul revived him, or could’ve been near death and was barely alive (this is my stance/or the Bible would’ve said that Paul revived him) . Ir-regardless, Eutychus came out alive. He was a fortunate faller.

This is a picture of those who do not care about their spiritual condition. You can fall when you least expect it, or even fall because of carelessness and unconcern. Thank God someone cared about him and rejuvenated him!

The Conduct of Eutychus (vs.9)

His POSTURE (he sat)

Not taking part in service (church or outside church)

not bringing a Bible, not singing, not listening, not praising. JUST SITTING.

When the lame man at the gate called Beautiful got healed, he leaped and praised God.

When the maniac of Gadera got the demons cast out of him, he started publishing in Decapolis how great things Jesus done for him!

When Paul got saved on the Damascus road, he asked Jesus, “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?”

A soldier doesn’t sit.

A fighter doesn’t flee.

A wrestler doesn’t whine.

A boxer doesn’t bow.

A contender isn’t content.

Jude 3 “Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.”

contend = to use earnest efforts to obtain, to defend, or to preserve.

His PLACEMENT (in a window)

He sat in a place where we was close to be in and close to being out. He was right in the middle.

Matthew 6:24 “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”

Galatians 5:16–17 “This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. 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.”

The moving of the Holy Spirit is typified by wind.

If you sit in the window, you’re blocking the wind.

1 Thessalonians 5:19 “Quench not the Spirit.”

Quench = to extinguish, to suppress, to go out

Because of Jonah’s disobedience, a storm come on others.

Because of Achan (book of Joshua) taking of the accursed thing, he didn’t just get in trouble for it.

Joshua 7:24–25 “And Joshua, and all Israel with him, took Achan the son of Zerah, and the silver, and the garment, and the wedge of gold, and his sons, and his daughters, and his oxen, and his asses, and his sheep, and his tent, and all that he had: and they brought them unto the valley of Achor. And Joshua said, Why hast thou troubled us? the Lord shall trouble thee this day. And all Israel stoned him with stones, and burned them with fire, after they had stoned them with stones.”

Joshua 22:20 “Did not Achan the son of Zerah commit a trespass in the accursed thing, and wrath fell on all the congregation of Israel? and that man perished not alone in his iniquity.”

His PEACEFULNESS (deep sleep)

This man had gotten unconcerned about what was happening in the service.

Maybe he had gotten used to the mannerisms and methods of the preacher. (If you’re getting bored because of me, you never came to church for the right reasons anyways)

Maybe he just didn’t care about anything. Maybe he was over it.

2 Peter 1:12–13 “Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth. Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance;”

The truth should always stir us up! (Stir up in the Greek literally means “WAKE UP”)

Ephesians 5:14–17 “Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, Redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.”

Romans 13:11–14 “And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.”

Maybe he did care, but just didn’t want to work or worship. (being idle)

Idle = shunning the labor which one ought to perform.

Proverbs 19:15 “Slothfulness casteth into a deep sleep; And an idle soul shall suffer hunger.”

Ecclesiastes 10:18 “By much slothfulness the building decayeth; and through idleness of the hands the house droppeth through.”

Ezekiel 16:49 “Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.”

The Consequence of His Etiquette (vs.9-10)

His FALLING (vs.9)(fell down from the third loft)

1 Corinthians 10:12 “Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.”

If you think you’re OK in where you’re at, you better be looking at seeing how you can grow or get a burden cause you could fall at any second.

Galatians 6:3 “For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself.”

His FLATTENING (vs.9)(taken up dead)

There is a sin unto death, him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin.

You don’t have to be committing fornication, cussing, lying, murdering, drinking, or gossiping to be sinning. We’re command to work. If you ain’t working, you’re being idle, and it can kill you.

His FALLACY (vs.10)(His life was in him)

He is alive physically, but because of his physical conduct and the consequences, people though he was dead. You can by alive physically, but be dead spiritually (lost/not bearing fruit). WE SHOULD BE DEAD TO THE FLESH, BUT AlIVE SPIRITUALLY.

Romans 6:12–14 “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.”

Romans 8:12–13 “Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.”

Colossians 3:5 “Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:”

The Care of Eutychus (vs.10)

Paul’s Concern (went down)

1 Thessalonians 5:14 “Now we exhort you, brethren, warn them that are unruly, comfort the feebleminded, support the weak, be patient toward all men.”

Paul’s Coming (fell on him)

Galatians 6:1 “Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.”

Paul’s Compassion (embraced him)

1 Thessalonians 4:9 “But as touching brotherly love ye need not that I write unto you: for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another.”

1 John 3:14–18 “We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death. Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.”

The Coming Again of Eutychus (vs.11)

2 Peter 1:3–11 KJV 1900

According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Virtue = excellence of character

Temperance = self control

Blind = sleep/darkness