Title: Raising Eutychus/Acts 20:7-12
The beginning of today's text, “on the first day of the week,” has a very important meaning in the history of the Church. Why?
“The first day of the week,” specifically what day of the week?
Sunday, Sunday.
Up to now, most of them have gathered on the Sabbath. We met on Saturday.
If you look at Paul's evangelism record, there are a lot of sayings, "I went into the synagogue on the Sabbath and taught," and "I went into the synagogue and taught every Sabbath."
This statement is not very clearly grounds for saying, 'From now on, the church began to worship on Sunday instead of the Sabbath.
Here “on the first day of the week” this is not a weekday, but Saturday, referring to Monday, which has several interpretations.
It is also possible that Paul was to leave Troas the next day, so it was possible that only in this case was a special meeting held on a Sunday.
Despite this controversy, whether official or unofficial, these words are the beginning of the Sunday worship service.
The reason that the early church began to gather on Sunday instead of the Sabbath, and we are now worshiping on Sunday, is because Jesus was resurrected on Sunday.
Everyone, every Sunday is Easter Day and a little Easter.
From this point on, worship began to be held on Sunday instead of the Sabbath and on Sunday instead of Saturday, and it was settled in the 4th century AD.
After Emperor Constantine recognized Christianity, he took several measures to commemorate the official recognition, one of which was, 'Christians worship on Sunday, so on Sundays, let slaves rest, and do not do military training.
Since the Sabbath is Saturday, there are still denominations who insist that worship should be held on Saturday. It is an Adventist church. Adventism was the first heresy issue raised in Korea because of Adventism.
The Bible verses they bring out are from Exodus 20:8-11,
Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you will work hard to do all your work. But the seventh day is a sabbath for the LORD your God, so that you, your son, your daughter, your male or your female servant, your livestock, or your foreigner who stays within your gates, do nothing. for in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore I the LORD blessed the sabbath day and made it holy.
It is the fourth commandment of the Ten Commandments.
Against this, we can defend ourselves today by listening to the words of Acts 20:7. But what I'd like to recommend is don't fight the old fashioned way. What we keep is much more meaningful, and it has already taken root as a ordinance since the New Testament era, and we do not need to attack and defend with it.
A long time ago, while I was in another church, I was visiting young people from a retreat in Chuncheon, and I was reading a religious book in the car as I returned by train. People sitting across from me looked at the book and asked if I went to church, and when I said yes, they brought up the Sabbath issue. It says this in the Bible, but the church raises questions about why they worship on another day, so I said, ‘Oh, is that so?
It is a very symbolic day that Eutychus, who fell from the third floor and died and came back to life, at the first meeting to commemorate the resurrection.
Every Sunday we need to experience that our spirits are strengthened and resurrected.
Hearing this, many people in the church say, 'When you sleep, you become like Eutychus'. For short, it is sometimes referred to as 'If you sleep, you will leave'. It means you can't sleep.
What is more problematic than this physical drowsiness is spiritual drowsiness.
If you doze off spiritually, you will suffer spiritual death. It becomes the devil's food.
In fact, at this time, Eutychus was in a good state to sleep. The night is getting deeper, a lot of people have gathered, a lot of lanterns are lit, but soot is produced and carbon dioxide is generated a lot,
Biblical scholars say, 'Eutychus was probably a slave. At this time, there must have been many slaves among the people who attended this meeting. They must have held the meeting in the evening because they could not come to the meeting due to work during the day. ' he says.
Therefore, more time is allotted to the order in which the members directly participate, such as praise and vocal prayer, in the late-night prayer meeting.
When Paul raised Eutychus to life, he fell on his face and embraced him.
A similar attitude was taken when Elijah raised the son of the widow of Zarephath, or when Elisha raised the dead son of a Shunammite woman.
This means throwing your whole.
In the book I read last week, there was a verse that said, “Be a preacher who throws your whole body into a sermon, and you must have ears to hear what your body is preaching.”
Where did this happen?
This is droa.
Where is Troas?
It is a port city, where Paul had a vision of a Macedonian. I wanted to evangelize in Asia, but the Holy Spirit didn't allow me, so I'm feeling conflicted in words these days. Here, a Macedonian man saw a vision, "Come over to Macedonia and help us," and tried to leave for Macedonia.
So, Troas is a place that obeyed the vision the Lord showed us.
And that's where I was once frustrated.
Also, in 2 Corinthians 2:12, it is recorded that Paul went to Troas to evangelize, but he did not find Titus whom he was supposed to meet.
This is 2 Corinthians 2:12 and 13.
When I came to Troas for the gospel of Christ, the door was opened in the Lord to the next life, but my spirit was not at ease because I had not found Titus my brother, so I said goodbye to them and went to Macedonia.
It is such a Troas, and we do not know how it became so, but if you look at today's text, you can see that there are many believers in Troas. They gather together and listen intently to the Word.
‘Ah, if you obey the will of the Lord, the Lord will do it!’
‘Ah, even if you are frustrated and disappointed at times, the Lord will do it!
realize that you do.
Organize your words.
I hope you will meet the resurrected Lord every Sunday and have a renewed experience.
Please don't fall asleep.
Please obey the vision the Lord shows you.