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Sunday 28 October 2018

Acts 20:7-12 - A long and boring sermon?

20:7
The “first day of the week”. This indicates that our Sunday had become the primary day of worship, rather than the Jewish Sabbath. This is because the resurrection was seen as the pivotal event in history. The breaking of bread would include communion as well. Paul gave them a rather long oration, speaking until midnight!

20:8-12

We probably think that we would have found Paul’s speaking a little on the long side, well at least some of the folk in those days did as well. A young man called Eutychus was seated near a window was falling into a deep sleep. NIV’s “talked on and on” probably captures the situation better than ESV’s “still longer”. The young man fell asleep, and then fell out of the window, which was on the third storey. He was picked up from the ground dead.It is not absolutely clear from the text whether he actually was dead. Either Paul’s throwing himself on the man brought him back to life, or Paul discovered that he wasn’t actually dead but had been unconscious. If the former, then this is the second instance in Acts of someone being brought back from death (Acts 9:40). Paul then went back upstairs , they broke bread and Paul continued speaking until daylight! He certainly had a lot to say! The young man was taken home alive, much to everyone's relief. V12 perhaps favours the interpretation that he had actually died.

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