Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] All right, let's get our Bible and turn to the 20th chapter of acts.
[00:00:05] 20th chapter of acts.
[00:00:11] We will start reading in verse number one of acts, chapter 20.
[00:00:26] You.
[00:00:28] The Bible says this. Verse number one, acts 20. And after the uproar that is in Ephesus was ceased, Paul called unto him the disciples and embraced them and departed for to go into Macedonia. Just a note. Macedonia is where Berea and Thessalonica are.
[00:00:48] And when he had gone over those parts and had given them much exhortation, he came into Greece, and there abode three months. And when the Jews laid wait for him as he was about to sail into Syria, he purposed to return through Macedonia, and there accompanied him into Asia's sopitur. Of Berea and of the Thessalonians, Aristarchus and Secundus, and Gaius of Derby and Timotheus, and of Asia, Tychicus and Trophimus. These going before tarried for us at Troas. And we sailed away from Philippi after the days of unleavened bread, and came unto them into troas in five days, where we abode seven days. Notice how the language changes from they to we. Luke is now present with them. Verse seven. And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow, and continued his speech until midnight. And there were many lights in the upper chamber where they were gathered together.
[00:01:57] And there sat in a window a certain young man named Eudicus being fallen into a deep sleep. And as Paul was long preaching, he sunk down with sleep and fell down from the third loft, and was taken up dead. And Paul went down and fell on him and embracing him, said, trouble not yourselves, for his life is in him.
[00:02:23] When he therefore was come up again and had broken bread and eaten and talked a long while, even till break of day, so he departed, and they brought the young man alive and were not a little comforted. Let's pray, Lord, as we come together to look at this passage of scripture, and as we have met together, Lord, in the name of Christ, Lord, we've met for your glory, for your honor, Lord, that we might be encouraged in the things of God, that we might be uplifted by singing praises to you, remembering the truths of scripture in song. But also, Lord, focusing our heart and attention upon your word and what it says, Lord, that we might grow, Lord, for your word is the meat and drink that we need to grow. So, Lord, as we look at these things, help us, Lord, to grow as a church. Help us to grow as individual children of God and bless our time in your word. Give me, I pray, the things to say that you might speak through me to your people to supply the needs they have. By your grace. In Jesus name, amen.
[00:03:31] So I want to in particular look at verses seven through verse number twelve about uticus and the event that happened with uticus, because this is kind of a sidelight in the scripture. This is not the main story. Paul is just on his way somewhere else, traveling around. And what's interesting is that we don't really know why this is given. Obviously, the obvious answer is that the Lord wanted us to know about uticus and what happened, but it doesn't follow the narrative.
[00:04:09] It's not really relevant to the main line of history in Paul's work, which is what this part of acts deals with. This is an event. Verses seven through twelve is an event of a single night, a single sermon, a single young man, a single church service.
[00:04:31] And it really, I mean, by reading it, maybe it affected in ways we're not aware of, but really it doesn't affect the course of Paul's ministry. It doesn't have really any effect. Like, say, for instance, the meeting with Peter and Cornelius had major effects later on in the book of Acts, right? But this doesn't seem to have any effect like that. So the question is, how many sermons did Paul preach that aren't covered? I mean, thousands and thousands and thousands of sermons he preached, no doubt, but this one is covered.
[00:05:09] But why is this one included?
[00:05:12] Seeing how it doesn't advance the plot of the Book of Acts, why is it included? Now, we could say that this is included because maybe Luke wanted to cover this specific instance, because maybe he wanted to demonstrate that Paul had the same ability as Peter to heal people and raise people from the dead. I actually don't know that Eudicus was actually completely dead. It says he was taken up dead, but Paul said his life was still in him. So, I mean, I don't know. I think you could look at it either way.
[00:05:45] Maybe that was the reason. Maybe it was because Luke wanted to show Paul's tenderness with this man, Euticus. Ultimately, though, it was because that God wanted us to know. And that's really what I wanted to talk about. That's really what I wanted to show you.
[00:06:04] Because this man, uticus, this young man, as he's called, he falls asleep while Paul is preaching. Now, I'm going to say a number of things about sleep this morning, but I don't want you to get the impression that I'm chiding you for falling asleep. Sister Judy. I'm doing that. She knows, but I'm looking at her because Sister Judy takes medication for her pain, and sometimes it makes her sleepy. And I'm not chiding anyone for falling asleep. Of course, if you stayed up to three in the morning, doing whatever, watching TV or whatever, and you deserve a little bit of rebuke, but assuming that's not the case, I've sat where you sat, obviously, I used to sit right there where the Cambodia flag is. Before that, before we went to the mission field, we sat, I think, on the third row there with our family. And I remember many a day I would stay up too late and I was sleepy. So I'm not trying to chide anybody about that. So don't get the wrong impression. I want to look at the idea of sleep and what happens here in the context of spiritual sleep, because this is a biblical principle, spiritual sleep. It is possible. It is absolutely possible to, as a believer, as a child of God, to go to sleep on God.
[00:07:28] It is absolutely possible. It is a scriptural truth, as we will see here.
[00:07:35] And there is a real danger in falling asleep on the Lord. And so that's what I'll look at. In other words, I think one of the reasons, this is just my personal opinion, you're welcome to disagree, but I think one of the reasons the Lord included this is the lesson that it taught, because these things, just like the Old Testament scriptures, these events, real events that happen, they happen to those people at that time, but they're preserved and recorded for us for the admonition and the example that they provide to us. And just like in the Old Testament, there are many stories. I'll give you an example. The serpent in the wilderness. Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, and that really happened to the Israelites at that time, but they serve as a spiritual example to us of Christ being lifted up on the cross. This is John, chapter three, right. This is the way I want to look at the story of Uticus. So let's look at verse number one.
[00:08:30] I'm sorry, verse seven. And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, notice that. Now what you don't see is the disciples meeting together on the Sabbath. That would be the 7th day of the week, but on the first day of the week, and you can see a little bit of what they do. Assuming, if we assume that the breaking of bread is a reference to the Lord's, supper, which it may or may not. But assuming that you can see that the disciples came together, in other words, they had church on Sunday. This is Sunday night.
[00:09:05] And so Sunday night service is biblical. Right there. You got it. Right.
[00:09:11] And so they had the Lord's supper on Sunday. And then there was preaching. And, of course, with the Lord's supper comes singing of hymns. Because that was the example the Lord gave. So you can see all the essential elements we have for church. And I'm just throwing that out there just again, as a sidelight. Because this, based upon these verses, is why we do what we do. We're following this example.
[00:09:34] And so we get down to verse number. We see Paul's preaching late into the night until midnight. And verse eight says, and there were many lights in the upper chamber where they were gathered together. And there sat in a window a certain young man named Eudicus being fallen into a deep sleep. Now, we don't want to blame Euticus too much.
[00:09:58] If there's any way that you can avoid it, you and I ought not fall asleep in church. Okay, but let's not blame uticus. Let's not stomp on Eudicus with both feet.
[00:10:09] Who knows? Euticus might have been someone who had to work all day. And here it is, Sunday night. Because Sunday was a work day. The first day of the week was a work day. And it could be that he had been working all the day before. And hard labor, no doubt. And he was sleepy. It could have been he was sick. Who knows? So let's not jump on Uticus with both feet. Let's give. Like we were talking about Sunday school. Let's have grace. Right? Have grace with people that sometimes people are having a hard time, and sometimes people are in pain. And sometimes. Brother, I hope brother Lester doesn't mind, but I mentioned my wife having a migraine.
[00:10:46] But brother Lester comes in here, and you'll see him wearing his sunglasses. Do you know why? Because he's light sensitive. He gets migraines a lot. But you know what? He sits here and he listens, and he endures it.
[00:10:59] Sometimes he can't, so he has to leave. But he does that.
[00:11:04] We should have a huge measure of grace with people. Can I get an amen? Amen. That should be our policy with people, is having grace. I think also. I'm ranting now. I'm just talking kids.
[00:11:18] I think of kids. Let's have a large measure of grace with kids in the service. I'm glad they're here.
[00:11:25] They ought not just be rushed out because they're making a peep. Usually it's the preacher that gets the most disturbed about that. I don't mind the kids making. I mean, there is a limit. All right, let's not push the limit. But generally speaking, I'm glad kids are here, aren't you? I'm glad they're so, you know, again, just have a large measure of grace. This is what you see with is, and I'll show you that at the end. This is what you see with Paul.
[00:11:51] You can't blame Eudicus too much because he was there.
[00:11:56] He might have been sleepy, but he was there. He could have just laid at home and went to sleep, but he didn't. He came to church. He came to listen. He came to hear. Now he was up where the lights were, and it's hot up there. And so he kind of maybe you to come sit down with the mean. You might be a little cooler and maybe stay awake a little bit longer. But we're not going to blame him.
[00:12:20] He was hearing the word of God preached by Paul, and that's good. And. That's right. And Paul was a good preacher, no doubt a Bible preacher. And as I said a minute ago, sleepiness in church is no uncommon thing. And every single one of us has been that way. And I haven't seen all of you, but I've seen a number of you times or another, doze off. And I've done it, too. So I understand that every one of us has experienced. I'll tell you a story. When we were in Cambodia, actually, the Lord called us to go to Cambodia in April of 2002. And in April of 2003, we went on our survey trip. Joshua was just. See? January. Yeah, he was like a little over a year old, right? 1415 months old. And Allison was expecting Anna.
[00:13:12] And we went to Cambodia. We landed after a long flight. This is Greenville to Detroit to Tokyo to Bangkok to Penang, Penn. And so it was a long flight before I knew how to buy plane tickets that were shorter. And so we arrived there. It was early afternoon, I think about 02:00 it was raining. And some cambodian people in the church of the missionary who we were visiting, they had met us, and they drove us back to where we were staying. And he said, listen, I go to the village whatever day it was every afternoon on this day. And so I know you're tired, but you're welcome to go with me. So Allison, she wasn't up to it, so she stayed with Joshua at the room we were in. And I went ahead and went out to the village, and it was four or 05:00. It was going to get dark. So I sat on the front row. First time I'd been in southeast Asia.
[00:14:13] This house was a traditional cambodian house. The underside was open. It was on, like, stilts. And the underside was open. And the upper was more like a house. It was like a stilt house, sort of. And the church was meeting underneath the house. And it was hot, man, it was hot. July is hot in Cambodia. Not the hottest, but it's hot. So I sat on the front row, and there was a single tube fluorescent light. One of those two foot fluorescent lights. Not the four foot, but the two foot fluorescent lights. One tube. And that was all the light.
[00:14:49] And it was dark. And you had all the frogs. It was surrounded by rice fields, and you had all the frogs croaking.
[00:14:56] And I sat on the front row with jet lag.
[00:15:01] Do you think I stayed awake? And not only that, I had no idea what he was saying.
[00:15:09] I had no idea what he was saying.
[00:15:13] That's about the most difficult time to stay awake ever.
[00:15:16] I just remember him saying the word chewy. Chewy, chewy, chewy. I was like, chewy. I asked him afterwards, say, what is this chewy? What are you talking about? Chewy. It's the word for help. And so every time he prayed, he would say, chewy, chewy, chewy. And, Lord, help this person. Help that person anyway. But I remember dozing off, and I was on the front row, and my head was doing this.
[00:15:37] And the reason it stood out to me is I remember the mosquitoes, because they're everywhere around those rice fields. And they were flying into my ears. And so I could hear that flying around in my.
[00:15:49] So that's my first night in Cambodia with jet lag. Just could not stay awake.
[00:15:57] And so everybody has experienced this.
[00:16:02] And sleepiness is a natural tendency of the flesh. The flesh gets weary. It's not wrong to be tired. The flesh gets weary. And so it's a natural tendency. You think of the disciples in the garden of Gethsemane. Remember, that was a time when Jesus said, the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. So you see that natural tendency of the flesh to sleep.
[00:16:27] And that was a time, though, in which the spiritual part should have been awake and should have overcome the physical weakness. But, of course, we know it didn't. But the lesson is still there for us, preserved.
[00:16:44] But spiritually speaking, spiritual sleepiness is also our natural tendency.
[00:16:51] We will fall asleep on the Lord if we do not take care.
[00:16:58] We will do it. And that is far worse than sleeping in church. Far worse.
[00:17:04] So look at Uticus, verse nine. There sat in a window a certain young man. Notice his age is given. He's a young man. Nobody knows how old. But when I read the young man, I thought about how many.
[00:17:22] One of the reasons before I say that one of the reasons that people go to sleep on the Lord. Again, I'm not talking about falling asleep in church. Don't misunderstand me. But one of the reasons that so many people go to sleep on the Lord is that there's a subset of people that it seems to be more common with, and it's often younger people.
[00:17:43] Let me extend that a little bit further. Younger people who have been raised by christian parents have been raised in church. You know why? Because unlike me in Cambodia, when I didn't know anything that they were saying and I was therefore bored and sleepy and all those things. Sometimes young people that come up in christian families, they get bored with things they've heard so many times. Let me tell you something about the truth, assuming that maybe you're in that category. You came up in church and listen, the pinnacle of where our kids need to be is not in church. That's important. But being in church, listen, euticus was in church, asleep. You can be in church and asleep on God, right? So we should want more for our kids than that. They are just in church, although that's important. Of course we know that's important and that's indicative of maybe heading in the right direction. But that's not the sum total of it.
[00:18:52] But young people that come up in a family where they're christian family, and that is the ideal, right? Coming up in a christian family, godly family, where the word of God is taught and followed and exemplified by mom and dad, that's the ideal.
[00:19:09] But when you hear that so much, you come up and you become an adult, sometimes you fall asleep. You've heard the truth so much that they don't interest you. But be not deceived. Those truths that we have heard if you came up in a christian family are just as sharp and just as pointed and just as powerful as they were when Paul spoke them in the first century, they're still the same truth that some young person who's in a christian family has heard and has put them to sleep is the same truth that awakens others.
[00:19:50] So I just want to say, if you're of that group, maybe you might not be young, you might be a little bit older, you're in that group where you were raised in a christian family, and you start to yawn at the truths of scripture you've heard for so long, it's time to check up. It's time to check up. Just because you've heard them does not mean they should not be exciting and interesting to you.
[00:20:20] That doesn't have to be so. Eudicus was a young man, and I'm reading between the lines, I admit. But maybe he was brought up in church. Who knows?
[00:20:32] But definitely as an application. This is true.
[00:20:36] We also see that in verse number nine that he says, the bible says this young man named Euticus being fallen into a deep sleep. Now, Euticus was not just. He had not just begun to know. Paul preached a long time, and he had not just dozed off. It wasn't like this. And then somebody nudged him, which it sounds like he was probably up there by himself in the loft, but it wasn't just he dozed off. By the time we get to verse number nine, Uticus is out.
[00:21:06] He's snoring. Okay, Eudicus is out.
[00:21:10] So he had been in the condition of nodding off for a while because the Bible says he's in a deep sleep.
[00:21:19] He should have become aware of his problem when he started to nod off, when his eyes started to close, and he should have taken steps to wake himself up. Look at Isaiah really quick in chapter 29.
[00:21:35] I want to show you this verse because I want to show you some things in the scripture that relate to this idea of sleepiness. Isaiah, chapter 29, verse number ten.
[00:21:55] Isaiah, chapter 29, verse ten. And we'll go right back to acts, for the Lord hath poured out upon you, speaking to Israel, the spirit of deep sleep. Notice that same term.
[00:22:11] And hath closed your eyes, and the prophets and your rulers, the seers hath he covered the idea, know somebody's laying in bed, covered, know they're out. Deep sleep. Notice the eyes are closed. See uticus when he started to nod off. Because we know when you're listening to preaching, right, and you start to get sleepy, the first thing that happens is the nodding. And then once you no longer had someone nudging you or you get past that point, you're out, and you're just like that. That's deep sleep. But the thing is, listen, on the subject of spiritual sleep, we should be able to recognize if we're falling asleep on the Lord earlier, before we're out, before we're gone, when we're starting to nod at the truths of God and starting to nod off and lose interest and get bored with the service to God and living for God and the things of God that the Lord puts in the scripture to awaken us and enliven us and quicken us. Those things are no longer having the effect because we're already nodding off. See, there's early signs of falling asleep on the Lord. The eyes are starting to close. They're fluttering a little bit. The head's nodding.
[00:23:34] I'm losing you. I'm losing you. The truth. It's not me. It's the truth is losing you.
[00:23:41] You see that? That's a terrible place to be. It's a warning sign in advance.
[00:23:46] You're falling asleep. Wake up. And it's at that point. It's at that point. Sometimes I'll see different people in our church. Maybe because they have pain in their body and maybe because they're sleepy. They'll stand up and they'll stand in the back. You can't see them, but I see them. And you know what they're doing? Maybe they're nodding off, and they see that they're losing it and they want to listen, and that's good. And so they stand up, and they wake themselves up. And this is what the Lord wants us to do spiritually when we start to see the Nod, the warning, the danger at the beginning before it gets to a deep sleep.
[00:24:19] But by this time, he's already in a deep sleep.
[00:24:24] Now, notice uticus in going back to acts, chapter 20, verse number, verse number.
[00:24:30] I'm in 21. No wonder.
[00:24:33] Acts 20, verse number nine, being fallen into a deep sleep. And as Paul was long preaching, he sunk down with sleep. Notice Paul is preaching. So you have eudicus sitting in the loft, and he's dozing off. And by this time, he's out. But the whole time that he was getting sleepier and sleepier, he was nodding. You can picture this. What was he hearing? What was he hearing?
[00:25:03] He was hearing the preaching.
[00:25:06] He was hearing it.
[00:25:09] Was it profiting him?
[00:25:11] Now, this preacher is exceptional, right?
[00:25:15] This preacher here, this. Y'all thought I was doing this. I meant this.
[00:25:22] I got to clarify. This preacher. Oh, man, y'all are brutal. I just got done talking about having grace with people, man.
[00:25:34] Yeah. You didn't say anything. You're right. You didn't.
[00:25:39] Yes, sir. I appreciate it. I need humility. I need humility. But indeed, this preacher, in the text, Paul, is exceptional, right? He's a Bible preacher. You can't look at this and say, well, the preaching was boring or the preaching wasn't biblical. No, you can't say this about Paul. Just like when our Lord was speaking. You can't say that now. Paul was not the Lord, obviously, but you can't say this. Know, Eudicus was bored and falling asleep because the preaching was bad.
[00:26:06] No, he was hearing the word. Paul was preaching, and the word was going into his ear. The biblical message, the word of God.
[00:26:17] But if you're sleeping, you can't hear the word of God.
[00:26:20] And so while Eudicus is up there nodding off, and then finally in a deep sleep, the word, the preaching of the word, which is designed to encourage, to warn, to exhort, was no longer being heard by him, although he was present to hear it. He had ears to hear, but he wasn't hearing because he's asleep.
[00:26:45] You see that his ears are there. The sound is going into his ears, but it's not helping him. And that is what it looks like when you're asleep to the Lord.
[00:26:55] That's what it looks like. The preacher, a good preacher, he preaches at you. He preaches to you. He preaches for you.
[00:27:06] He tries to tell you the truth, and he tries to remind you of the truth, and he tries to urge you to obey the truth. He tries to get you to walk with God and to love God and to care about the things of God and to dedicate yourself to those things and to serve God. And I could go on and on. That's what the preacher's job is to do. The Bible says, reprove, rebuke, exhort. Those are all the things. That's correction, and that's encouragement. That's the negative, the positive. That's all of it put together. And the preacher's doing that, trying to do that with the word, trying to awaken you and aliven you. This is what Paul is doing. He's preaching. But here's the thing. If spiritually, you and I are asleep, one of the key, the hallmarks of that condition, is that the preaching is no longer having any effect.
[00:28:00] We're hearing it, but it's not affecting us. We're not moved. I'm sure Euticus was not moved. Paul might have been waxing eloquent, perhaps, and people might in the congregation are saying amen, or whatever. You know what Euticus isn't? He's asleep. The word is no blessing to him. It's not a reproof to him, it's not a correction to him. It's not instructing him in righteousness. It's not helping him at all. You know why? Because he's asleep. So the problem in that case is not the preaching, but the sleepiness. You see? I mean, you and I could be in a wonderful church with an apostle Paul like preacher. But if our spiritual condition is that we're asleep and we're therefore deadened spiritually, the preaching's not gonna help us, and we're gonna be like, yeah, I'm not getting fed there.
[00:28:59] That's a common. You've heard that kind of excuse. I've not heard anybody say it up to this point to me. But you know what? If someone does say that, and it is a given that the preacher is preaching the word of God like Paul is doing, it says more about the person that says it than it does anything else, because that can come directly from the condition of the hearer rather than the preacher is, you know, if the preacher's not preaching the word, get a new preacher, right? That's his job. But assuming he's doing that, our spiritual. Here's the principle. Our spiritual condition absolutely affects how we receive and respond to God's word. And if we're asleep, it will not have the effect.
[00:29:47] I get you to challenge yourself.
[00:29:50] Am I moved by God's word?
[00:29:54] Am I moved by God's word?
[00:29:57] Am I hearing it?
[00:30:00] That's for you to answer. Amen. Only God knows your heart.
[00:30:05] Only God knows your heart. When I pray and I try to prepare messages for you all, you know what I'm thinking. Lord, please give me what they need. Amen. That's my prayer.
[00:30:17] But ultimately, I have no idea if that's what happens, but I hope it does.
[00:30:23] But ultimately, it's not about me. It's about you and the Lord and your spiritual condition with him. That's the most important thing.
[00:30:33] So it's no wonder he couldn't hear the word. It's no wonder it wasn't helping him. He was hearing it, but it was no profit. Why? Sleepiness. Notice verse nine.
[00:30:46] He sunk down as Paul was long preaching. He sunk down with sleep. So here's what you got. Not only so, he nodded off.
[00:30:55] That's the beginning. He went into a deep sleep. He's out, and now he's starting to sink. That is, his body is sliding down. You know what this speaks of?
[00:31:08] This speaks of the spiritual degradation, and sometimes moral degradation, decline that happens as a result of being asleep on the Lord. When our spiritual state is such that we are drowsy, it absolutely will affect the way we live every day.
[00:31:31] And those things that we used to believe were wrong will start to do little by little, there'll be a sinking down, a downward trend. Those things that we used to hold that were right will cease to do those things. And one of the primary things that will start to slip first will be our personal walk with God, our prayer in private in the closet, and our reading of God's word and attention to it in private. It'll affect our relationships. It'll affect the way we talk. It'll affect the things we think about, what we're looking at on the Internet, what we watch on TV. All of that will be affected because this is a downgrade, a decline spiritually. How'd it start? Sleepiness. So, Eudicus's body is sliding down. Now. I want to ask you a question. Where is this all going? Where is it going? See, the sad thing is, we know where it's going.
[00:32:31] He's sinking down, and you know what the end is going to be. You know what it's going to be?
[00:32:36] It's going to be a fall.
[00:32:38] Look at Matthew 26 real quick.
[00:32:44] Verse 40.
[00:32:53] Matthew 26, verse 40.
[00:32:57] This is in the garden of Gethsemane that I mentioned earlier.
[00:33:01] Verse 40 says this, and he cometh unto the disciples and findeth them asleep, and saith unto Peter, what, could ye not watch with me 1 hour?
[00:33:15] Notice what he says. Watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. The flesh is not an excuse to fall asleep on the Lord. It wasn't an excuse to the Lord, but notice what it says. Because in verse 41, because they fell asleep, they were subject to temptation that they would not be subject to otherwise. It's a decline. You see this? It's a decline.
[00:33:45] This is sleepiness right here.
[00:33:51] But the solution to the Lord is watch and pray. You know what it means to watch? It just means to stay awake.
[00:34:01] So the solution to this decline is just stay awake. Don't go to sleep. In other words, you nip it in the bud when the nodding first starts. And therefore, you will not be as subject to the temptation which is happening with uticus, this slump, which is going to end up with a fall, and the fall is bad.
[00:34:20] That's what the Lord is telling us here. Watch and pray. Walk with God. Stay awake spiritually. Stay awake.
[00:34:29] If you see yourself nodding off spiritually, you got to take steps to wake up, because you'll be on a decline before you know it. And after a decline is a fall.
[00:34:41] Going back to acts 20, uticus in verse number nine, he sunk down with sleep and fell down from the third loft and was taken up dead.
[00:34:56] Uticus fell.
[00:34:59] He fell asleep, and then he fell from his place.
[00:35:04] His fall was catastrophic.
[00:35:07] His fall was catastrophic.
[00:35:11] See, when Nudicus fell, it brought great harm to him to such a degree that he was, or at least they thought he was dead. He was taken up dead.
[00:35:29] I don't really think he was actually dead.
[00:35:36] So here's the final outcome of falling asleep on the Lord is a catastrophic fall into sin.
[00:35:46] What was a decline gets to a cliff and you go over.
[00:35:52] Look, it's inevitable.
[00:35:55] That's why the Lord wants us to stay awake.
[00:35:58] You think, well, that can't happen to me. Oh, yes, it can. And it can happen to me, too, if we don't stay awake.
[00:36:10] You see, in uticus fell. Look at a couple of verses. Look at one Corinthians ten and revelation, chapter two. Real quick as we get close to the end here. One Corinthians ten and revelation, chapter two, one Corinthians ten and revelation, chapter two, one Corinthians ten, verse number eleven.
[00:36:43] Now, all these things happened unto them, talking about the Old Testament accounts and things.
[00:36:49] For in samples that they are, and they are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come.
[00:36:57] Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed, lest he fall.
[00:37:07] That's the warning.
[00:37:10] Sleepiness will lead to that. So the Lord says, take heed. Wake up.
[00:37:16] We are all subject to falling. We are all subject to falling into catastrophic, extremely harmful sin, not just upon us, but upon our families, our church, our lives. We are all subject to that.
[00:37:35] Revelation, chapter two, verse number four. To the church at Ephesus, the Lord says this.
[00:37:43] Verse four. Nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee because thou hast left thy first love. We look at that and we might think, well, leaving your first love, kind of getting cooled off in your love, right? That's not as big as a big sin as some gross immorality or whatever.
[00:38:00] But notice what the Lord says in the next verse. Remember, therefore, from whence thou art. What's the next word?
[00:38:07] Fallen.
[00:38:10] Not a stumble, a fall. So this tells us that even when our love to the Lord cools off and we left our first love, that's a fall, sleepiness.
[00:38:26] Two, Peter three mentions falling from one's own steadfastness, all because of sleepiness.
[00:38:34] Going back to acts. Chapter, chapter 20.
[00:38:37] As we wrap things up, notice how Paul responds in verse ten. And Paul went down and fell on him and embracing him, said, trouble not yourselves, for his life is in him. Paul was not angry that Uticus had been sleeping.
[00:39:00] He cared only about his welfare. You see that. Is Paul angry that Eudicus is nodding off? Maybe he saw it, maybe he didn't. But is he angry because he's not giving him the honor of listening to the preacher? No, it has nothing to do with the preacher.
[00:39:17] Has to do with Eudicus'welfare. And so when Eudicus finally does fall, and it's of catastrophic fall, and he is hurt to the degree that people think he's dead, he might have been dead, Paul rushes down there and grabs him up. You see the heart of Paul. He's not angry.
[00:39:37] He has a heart of compassion.
[00:39:41] When we see people sin and they fall as a result of that sin, and their life is catastrophically harmed by that, the response to that is not hardness. It's not. Well, they had it coming. Well, he shouldn't have fallen asleep. No, that is wicked.
[00:39:56] But the response is one of compassion.
[00:40:00] That's what you get for sleeping in church.
[00:40:05] I didn't say that.
[00:40:09] No, spiritually.
[00:40:11] On a much more serious note, listen, when you see or you see someone who's nodded off, gone into a deep sleep, sunk down, and finally fallen into sin, you saw it coming.
[00:40:27] If there's any joy in our heart because of that, that is wicked, we should have compassion.
[00:40:36] This is the heart of Paul for him. And this is the heart of Jesus, the chief shepherd for his people, even when they fall, because they've fallen asleep on him.
[00:40:47] The Lord has great compassion and has abundant.
[00:40:55] For he will forgive anything if we come to him with repentance and confession, he will forgive us. He will forgive us. He does not glory in our fall because he's teaching us a lesson.
[00:41:11] He will forgive us.
[00:41:14] That's what it's about.
[00:41:16] And the reality is that people do fall. Right? People do fall.
[00:41:21] In ephesians chapter five, the sleepiness is compared to death. Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, it says, and Christ shall give thee life. So the sleep. Of course, we know that Stephen fell asleep when he was martyred, right? He died. So it's a euphemism for death. And so Eudicus is here. He appears. He's dead. But Eudicus isn't dead. Eudicus is alive. You know why? Because Eudicus is a child of God, and he might have fallen asleep.
[00:41:54] He might have fallen asleep and slumped down and fell from the loft, and he might have almost been dead. But Uticus is very much alive. You know how we know? Because the Bible says that verse number twelve and they brought the young man alive. He was still alive. God was still in Uticus. And even if you fall asleep on God, and even if you fall as a result of that and you mess it up and you catastrophically fall into sin, listen, as a child of God, you have a God in you who will not forsake you under any circumstances, not sin or any other thing. And he will restore you.
[00:42:36] He will restore you.
[00:42:39] He will restore you.
[00:42:42] You are not dead, though you might look it.
[00:42:47] He will restore you.
[00:42:51] You see, uticus had fallen, but his life was still in him, though it seemed like death. And we see in verse 19 or verse twelve. I'm sorry, verse twelve.
[00:43:04] And they brought the young man alive and were not a little comforted. He was not only restored, he was fully restored. He was wide awake. His fall has not been his ruin.
[00:43:20] And you know who else was affected?
[00:43:23] The church.
[00:43:25] They took great comfort in knowing that one who had fallen asleep on the Lord and therefore had fallen into great sin was now back.
[00:43:34] Look at James. We'll close in this. James five.
[00:43:43] James five.
[00:43:57] Often we hear this verse in the context of giving the gospel to people who aren't saved. But in the context, that's not what it's talking about. James five, verse 19, says this, brethren, if any of you do heir, this is the brethren. Now, this isn't the loss. This is those who are saved. If any of you do heir from the truth. And one convert him, let him know that he which converteth the sinner, that's the sinning Christian now, the sinning believer. He that converteth, which converteth a sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death and shall hide a multitude of sins.
[00:44:39] You see, the church here is together restoring one who has fallen, the one who has fallen. And fell asleep in church. The church. And the preaching was no longer interesting. He was no longer hearing it. It was no longer helping him. It was no longer affecting him. And so he withdraws, and his decline starts. Actually, it already started before he ever left the church, but it's declined and it goes down, and he's doing things he shouldn't do. He knows better, and he's going down and going down, and finally gets to the cliff, and he falls off and commits catastrophic sin, and he's out.
[00:45:15] But because he has God in him, he has life in him. He comes back and the church restores him, and we say, he's back. The Lord has done a work in this man and saved him from total ruin. And we rejoice and because he is restored and he's converted. He's been saved from a life of sin. Amen. It's been hidden multitude of sin.
[00:45:44] I just want to ask you. I don't know how the Lord might speak to you on this, but are you nodding off on the Lord?
[00:45:53] Are we going to sleep on him? Maybe already dead asleep. Maybe nothing I've said has had any impact on you whatsoever. It's just bounced right off you. You have no feeling at all. Might be you're asleep.
[00:46:08] I encourage you to examine your heart. Brother is going to come and he's going to lead us in a song.
[00:46:14] If the Lord's spoken to your heart, if he's pricked your heart, maybe it's not you. Maybe you feel alive. You know you're alive. You're awake.
[00:46:25] Maybe you know somebody who's not, who's nodding off, who's sleeping, who's on that decline. Maybe you know somebody who's fallen. Come pray for them.
