Acts 20:1-12

Through Macedonia and Greece
1 When the uproar had ended, Paul sent for the disciples and, after encouraging them, said goodbye and set out for Macedonia. 2 He traveled through that area, speaking many words of encouragement to the people, and finally arrived in Greece, 3 where he stayed three months. Because some Jews had plotted against him just as he was about to sail for Syria, he decided to go back through Macedonia. 4 He was accompanied by Sopater son of Pyrrhus from Berea, Aristarchus and Secundus from Thessalonica, Gaius from Derbe, Timothy also, and Tychicus and Trophimus from the province of Asia. 5 These men went on ahead and waited for us at Troas. 6 But we sailed from Philippi after the Festival of Unleavened Bread, and five days later joined the others at Troas, where we stayed seven days.

Eutychus Raised From the Dead at Troas
7 On the first day of the week we came together to break bread. Paul spoke to the people and, because he intended to leave the next day, kept on talking until midnight. 8 There were many lamps in the upstairs room where we were meeting. 9 Seated in a window was a young man named Eutychus, who was sinking into a deep sleep as Paul talked on and on. When he was sound asleep, he fell to the ground from the third story and was picked up dead. 10 Paul went down, threw himself on the young man and put his arms around him. “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “He’s alive!” 11 Then he went upstairs again and broke bread and ate. After talking until daylight, he left. 12 The people took the young man home alive and were greatly comforted.


Dig Deeper
Some years ago I had an opportunity to take my eldest son to hear a man speak on the topic of the creation of God. He had become a somewhat famous debater and speaker on the topic. The man spoke in over 300 cities per year which meant that he was speaking on the topic of creation in a different city nearly every day of the year. Add to that the fact that he occasionally spoke several times in one day and you realize that this speaker actually spoke to around 500 different crowds a year. Some of those groups were small but the vast majority of them were quite large, numbering in the many hundreds and even thousands. One can only imagine the number of people that he met at each speaking engagement, let alone each year. And the fact remains that despite some serious lack of judgment in the form of tax evasion that has since been revealed and resulted in a prison sentence, he was extremely skilled at speaking and debating (although his level of “expertise” is debatable) and drew large crowds wherever he went. He was also very skilled at keeping his eye on the big picture of spreading his message throughout the world through his personal appearances but also through television and videos.

Yet, as popular as this man got and as many places as he spoke at, he had an amazing ability to focus in on the personal element, which may help explain a lot of his popularity. Allow me to explain. Many entertainers or even traveling speakers and preachers become so focused on the larger mission and the big crowds or the “show” that they are largely uninterested or rather awkward when it comes to interacting with people on an individual basis. This particular man, however, had no such deficiency. He could talk to a crowd of thousands and then come and meet one individual and speak with them as though he knew them and sincerely cared about them. In fact, my son had an opportunity to talk to him before his presentation on the night that we attended. The conversation didn’t last for more than a minute but this man had connected with my some on such a personal level that when it came time for us to leave before the lecture was finished, my then eight year old (or so) son thought that we should find a way to tell him that we were leaving early because he was sure that this speaker would be concerned that my son had left. Here he was speaking to hundreds of people but had connected on such a personal level that this eight year old felt they were close friends.

In a way, Luke has this same skill as he tells the story of the advancement of the gospel in the early days of the church. At times the pace of Acts can leave us breathless as Luke scans the massive history of the early church and describes the highlight moments of the formation of the family of God. He can cover months and years in a few words and takes us through a period of decades from a bird’s eye view in a very skilled way. Yet, just when we think that we are racing through a survey of only the monumentally important events and will focus on just the “big players” in the Christian movement, Luke suddenly slows down and gives us a glimpse at encounters that are so simple, so real, and so authentic that it can catch us off-guard. Yet, without these personal moments, like a sleepy young man tumbling out of a window, we can’t help but think that we would be missing an important element of the story of the gospel. It is the narrative of God’s incredible work in spreading the good news of the Messiah to the ends of the earth but it is also a movement that happens one person and one story at a time. The gospel story is a grand epic and a personal memoir all at once. This is precisely what Luke has given us in the book of Acts.

Epic works like Luke’s travel narrative of the gospel of Jesus were not unknown in his day. Travel narratives like the Odyssey and Aeneas were, of course, quite popular in Luke’s day and although there is certainly a travel motif in both Luke (Jesus’ travel journey as he sets his face towards Jerusalem) and Acts, his heroes are very different than those of the typical Greek and Roman epics. Luke’s observant readers might have heard echoes of those stories in Luke’s work but would have, no doubt, been more struck by the stark differences in Luke’s epic account.

One big difference is that Luke is focusing on the spread of the gospel in his narrative and not on one person such as Paul. Luke is actually a bit sparse on many of the details of Paul’s travels during this time. We know from Paul’s letters that one of his primary focuses in his travels that Luke describes here was to collect money from the Gentile churches for support for the poor in the church in Jerusalem (2 Corinthians 8:16-24) but Luke makes no mention of that here. We do know that Paul wrote his second letter to the Corinthians while in Macedonia. On arriving in Macedonia his urgent concerns over the reaction of the Corinthian church to his “painful letter” were quelled by the arrival of Titus with good news prompting his letter. During his three months in Greece is the most likely time that Paul penned his masterpiece letter to the church in Rome.

Yet, as Luke races through the details of the grand story of the spreading of the gospel he tells us of none of these details, though he did find it important to detail the men that accompanied Paul on the rest of his journey, a group that included a representative from each of the major regions where churches had bee planted by Paul. The reason for the large group of companions and the reason that Luke felt recording all of the traveler’s names was important was probably two-fold. The larger group served as a means of safety for Paul and a verification that all of the money collected reached its destination. It also served as a personal testament to the church in Jerusalem that the Holy Spirit really was building one family of all nations throughout the world.

But just as quickly as Luke rushes through important events with sweeping broad strokes, he abruptly puts the brakes on and gives us a personal story that, while touching, seemingly pales in comparison as far as importance when it comes to some of the details that Luke has chosen not to include. While this specific story of the church meeting together in Troas may not seem important that is precisely why it is. The gospel is not just some grand sweeping narrative where only the end product matters. It is a large tapestry, indeed, but it is woven together by these touching moments of family, concern for one another, and the spread of the word of God from one person to another.

Luke seems to indicate that the Christians were already coming together to break bread (a term that most prevalently referred to the taking of the Lord’s Supper) on the first day of the week. Depending on whether Luke was using the Jewish or Roman method of keeping time, this gathering would have either been on Saturday night (which was the start of Sunday in the Jewish system) or Sunday night. The Christian community had no such luxury of having Sunday as a day off work so they had to meet either early in the morning or later at night. This was one of those late night meetings and people would surely have been tired after a full day of work and activity.

We don’t know what time the gathering started but Luke tells us that Paul spoke for what was at least several hours, something which would not have been that unusual, especially with an opportunity to hear an apostle as he passed through their town. Luke has given us a picture of a family of believers that were truly committed to the apostles teaching and greatly valued the preaching of the gospel, even at what we would consider the great expense of a lack of sleep on a night where they would have had to work and go about business as usual the next day.

The combination of the warmth generated by many lamps and the lateness of the hour was too much for Eutychus. The name “Eutychus” meant “fortunate” and was a common slave name and based on the word used by Luke, it is most probable that he was somewhere in the pre-teen to young teen age range. Despite sitting in the window and having at least some access to fresh air, it was all a bit too much for the young man and he, as some are apt to do, drifted asleep during Paul’s lesson. As a result, he tumbled out of the open air window to the ground below from the third story causing his death.

Some have tried to argue that perhaps the young man only appeared to be dead, but the doctor Luke clearly intended to convey that he was indeed dead. When Paul went downstairs and scooped the boy up in his arms a miracle happened that enabled Paul to immediately declare that he was not dead any longer. There are certainly parallels here with miraculous raising of the dead by Elijah and Elisha (1 Kings 17:17-24; 2 Kings 4:32-37) but Luke probably most clearly wanted to depict Paul as being like Peter (Acts 9:39-42).

The young man had been stunningly raised from the dead, something that surely would have been a memorable moment for the young Christians in Troas. After seeing such a miracle, what better time to go upstairs and celebrate the meal that commemorated for them the death and resurrection of their Messiah? With this miracle fresh in their minds, the Christians returned upstairs to break bread together, though we have to wonder if any of them, especially Eutychus, ever looked at a window the same again.

Following the communion meal, Paul had more to teach and say to the Christian family and continued to speak with them until daybreak; something that should be kept in mind the next time you are tempted to complain that the preacher has gone a little too long. At the end of the night, buoyed by the teaching, the fellowship, and the miracle the disciples took the young man home encouraged and bonded further as the people of God. One more amazing thread had been woven into the tapestry of the Messiah’s people.


Devotional Thought
The kingdom life is certainly about the grand story of God becoming the King of his people and his creation but it is also a very personal story of individuals. Sometimes it can be easy to forget that. Is there anyone that you haven’t given personal attention to in awhile that might benefit spiritually from a few moments of your undivided time? Who can you encourage today on a personal level?