Day 31: Acts 20:1-16

Paul continued to go back through regions in Greece and Macedonia where he had been before, strengthening the disciples. He did this with gangs of misguided Jews on his tail persecuting him. Luke mentions the names of several more people that were accompanying him at this time. Some were forerunners going ahead to prepare for his arrival. These are emerging leaders in each locale that Paul had gone to: Berea, Thessalonica, Debre, Asia, etc.
Finally, they came to Troas, or some know it as Troy, on the northwestern coast of Turkey. Here they stayed for a week. On the first day of the week when everyone was gathered to break bread, Paul began talking to them intending to leave the next day. However, his sermon lasted until midnight.
The people were hungry for God’s word, I suppose most were eager for a long sermon. A teenager just could not stay awake during an all day and all night sermon. Eutychus was sitting on a third-floor windowsill and even though there were lamps all around lighting the place, he fell asleep and fell out of the window. Everyone thought he was dead (and he probably was), but Paul stopped his sermon and went outside to cover the boy with his body and exclaim “Don't worry, the boy's not dead, but alive.”
Then Paul went back up, broke bread with them and continued to talk until daybreak. It was an all-night all-day prayer meeting! The people were comforted that the boy had not died.
This seems like an odd little story in the middle of Acts, but the Lord meant it to be in here to teach us something. While God wants us to be awake and watchful, (Jesus even rebukes his apostles for falling asleep at his most critical hour of prayer) God is merciful and understands.
There is no mention of Paul rebuking the kid for falling asleep during his sermon. I am sure Paul was riveting, but I doubt teenagers had an attention span to tolerate a marathon sermon even back then. Sometimes I have fallen asleep while praying. If we fall asleep, it is better to fall asleep in the arms of Jesus as He comforts us. Jesus even was able to sleep through a storm on a boat. The lesson here is even though Paul was a very driven preacher, he did not have the attitude, “well some get it some don’t so what if the kid fell asleep and fell and died.” He stopped what he was doing and went out to minister to the young man and raise him up. He cared more about the person than the interruption to his task at hand. Of course, it did not deter Paul from finishing the service. I would imagine the boy had no lasting effects from the event other than he was grateful, the speaker cared enough about him to come to his aid. The boy probably stayed with them and finished out the service.
The Marines have a policy of no man left behind. In the Kingdom Jesus describes a shepherd leaving the 99 to rescue the one. As God's people, we are all in this together. Some of us may “fall asleep” at times, but our response should be to comfort everyone and not let anyone fall behind. Care for all of the sheep.