What is wrong with the Church? ?

Acts 20:7-12

What is wrong with the Church?

Acts 20:7-12, Now on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul, ready to depart the next day, spoke to them and continued his message until midnight. 8 There were many lamps in the upper room where they were gathered together. 9 And in a window sat a certain young man named Eutychus, who was sinking into a deep sleep. He was overcome by sleep; and as Paul continued speaking, he fell down from the third story and was taken up dead. 10 But Paul went down, fell on him, and embracing him said, “Do not trouble yourselves, for his life is in him.” 11 Now when he had come up, had broken bread and eaten, and talked a long while, even till daybreak, he departed. 12 And they brought the young man in alive, and they were not a little comforted. Luke has been writing about the church history. Luke was reporting how the church was born in Acts 2. How the church was persecuted. How the church spread its wings into Judea and Samaria.

Then how Peter was used mightily among the Gentiles. Luke reporting the dramatic incident of what had happened on the Damascus Road with Paul. Paul takes on the missionary journey. Here onwards Luke becomes the travel companion of Apostle Paul.

How the Gospel preached through Paul has changed the entire Asia minor. How the churches were born in Philippi, Thessaloniki, Brea, Corinth etc., How Paul was not kept quiet alone while he was waiting for Them to join back, he was stirred up and preached the Gospel at Athens.

On his prison journey how, God used Paul mightily in the island of Malta. How Paul was beaten with rods, naked, hunger, persecuted everywhere. What a sacrifice Paul had done for the sake of Christ and the Gospel. In the midst of everything how come Luke writing this episode of one young boy fallen asleep during the worship service?

Have you ever wondered?

Why would the Holy Spirit let Luke to record this incident in the pages of the Gospel of God?

This was on Paul’s third missionary journey. He was on his way to Jerusalem. He was gathering a collection of money for the poor saints in Jerusalem. His total preoccupation was to minister to the needs of others. He was busy collecting money for others.

He stops over there in Troas.

Acts 20:6, But we sailed away from Philippi after the Days of Unleavened Bread, and in five days joined them at Troas, where we stayed seven days.

The people in Troas knew about what kind of a person Apostle Paul. So, they also knew that he is going to go they had organised a meeting to hear from him. Final sermon from Apostle Paul to Troas! Last words from the great Apostle Paul to them.

They met on the first day of the week. V 7, Now on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul, ready to depart the next day, spoke to them and continued his message until midnight. We have one of the first accounts of a Christian meeting.

When did they come together? The first day of the week. Now, that became the meeting time for the Church.

Didn’t they meet every day? Sure! They did in Acts 2. Christianity is not a one-day-a-week thing! It is every day!

This little church Christians were together usually during the week. There were Bible studies in homes. They were breaking bread in homes. So, it was not uncommon for the Church to meet on a daily basis in its early years.

Church came on the first day of the week.

John 20:19, Then, the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst, and said to them, “Peace be with you.” Resurrection Commemoration Day. Jesus had risen on the first day, appeared on the first day, appeared again on the first day, and they just took the first day and ran with it. That became Resurrection Day, the Lord’s Day.

It is not the Sabbath day anymore. Sunday is not the Sabbath.

Colossians 2:16-17, So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, 17 which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.

1 Corinthians 16:2, On the first day of the week let each one of you lay something aside, storing up as he may prosper, that there be no collections when I come.

We celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ whenever we come together. Here they were meeting on the evening since they did not have the flexibility to come during the morning since there were some slaves. Some Christians think that God only moves only on Sunday morning 9 am.

We have been instructed to be holy every day of the week. So don’t be holy on Sunday and wicked on other days! God wants a relationship with you. They broke bred. Love feast! Sharing and caring the needs of every believer.

Eating together is not a problem but gathering to eating is a problem.

Paul, ready to depart the next day, spoke to them and continued his message until midnight. Paul starts preaching.

Acts 6:4, but we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word.”

Acts 6:7, Then the word of God spread, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith.

Acts 12:24, But the word of God grew and multiplied.

Acts 19:20, So the word of the Lord grew mightily and prevailed. V 8-9, There were many lamps in the upper room where they were gathered together. 9 And in a window sat a certain young man named Eutychus, who was sinking into a deep sleep. He was overcome by sleep; and as Paul continued speaking, he fell down from the third story and was taken up dead.

This must have a wealthy man home. There was a window. Love feast must have been heavy.

The young slave boy was fall asleep. There are many churches put people to sleep. The pastors don’t spend their time to prepare their message. There pastors have been busy entertaining people. The candle was kind of becoming dim. So, he fell asleep.

Young man moved closer to window. The wind was blowing! Deep sound sleep. Tumbled down from the third storey building. At least he was in the house of the Lord and sleeping. Some time churches put them to sleep!

• Dead,
• Dry,
• Irrelevant,
• Auto pilot mode,
• Traditions,
• Reading,
• Hollow etc.,

Boredom can be contagious. Church can put the society to sleep. People who hear the message you can’t be sleeping.

How to maximise the worship service. 1. Prepare. Prepare to go to school, work, business etc. Both the pastor and the congregation. For Sunday morning service the preparation done on Saturday not on Sunday.

Are you prepared?

Do you cook extra expecting someone? Are you getting up early so that you can pick up someone on your way? Are you ready to drop someone on your way back? Not just prepare your external but your internal as well! Are you coming to the worship service expecting God to speak with you?

If you prepare for the entire week, then when you enter the worship service you are prepared to meet with God.

Amos 4:12, “Therefore thus will I do to you, O Israel; Because I will do this to you, Prepare to meet your God, O Israel!”

• a) Go to a Church where Truth Is Honoured.

You should prepare to meet God in worship by going to a church where truth is honoured as a very high premium. The Israelites were a religious people. They came to Bethel and came gladly. But they had lost touch with the God of truth, and they were not worshiping in truth.

There were some left over forms like tithing and thank- offerings and sacrifices. But the very centre and heart of worship was missing—the true God. If I were looking for a place to worship God, my top priority would be, where is a people and leadership that loves God's truth, and that means loves the Bible evident in the way it is woven through the life of the church.

I would look for a church that loves clear, straightforward, biblically based doctrines about God and his work, and about his will for all of life. The first preparation for worship is to find a body of believers where truth about God is top priority.

• b) Renounce all Sin in your Lives.

We must renounce all known sin in our lives before coming to worship God. The wealthy people of Israel tried to make love with their true husband while keeping a mistress on the side. They tried to worship God while concealing sin in their lives. They oppressed the poor, and crushed the needy, while living in wealth and luxury.

Worship will inevitably become a weak, empty form and ritual if we try to keep on with it while our hearts are running after other gods. God will gladly take the dirtiest sinner into his arms on Sunday morning who comes with a broken and contrite heart intent on forsaking all known sin and trusting in Jesus for cleansing.

But God will not be mocked by those who make like they love him and wilfully break his law during the week. As an act of preparation is to confess and renounce all known sin and come to worship cleansed by the blood of Jesus and resting in his forgiveness and hope.

• c) What God Is Doing in Our Lives

Take note of how God has been trying to get our attention. Five times in Amos 4 God says that he had done specific things in the lives of his people to turn them back to himself. 5 times it says, "Yet you did not return to me."

Each of these things God had done to get their attention could be explained as natural events with no divine cause. But God holds Israel accountable to listen and respond. That's the meaning of "Yet you did not return to me."

In not hearing the voice of God, or seeing the hand of God, Israel failed to prepare to meet Him. That is what we must not do. We must wake up and stop looking at our lives like secular, scientific, western naturalists. God is doing things in your life which are gracious providential messages to return to him and trust Him.

Take note of what he has been saying to us in our lives to draw us to himself.

• d) Draw to God with your Hearts.

Prepare for worship by drawing near to God in your hearts. When God said 5 times, "You did not return to me,"God did not mean that they should have come more often to the place of worship. The returning was not a physical movement.

Returning to God was a movement of the heart, not a movement of the body. There is a heart preparation to be done in order to meet God.

Matthew 15:8, These people [c]draw near to Me with their mouth, And honour Me with their lips, But their heart is far from Me.

When this is the case, the preparation needed is a movement of the heart from far to near, and yet it is a movement that is not measured in inches or miles.  If you are not even be thinking of God Saturday night or Sunday morning. So, your heart is far from him measured by attention.

 You may have some attention on God, but it is broken up by other things and there is no focused attention that gets God clearly in view and makes him the primary object of attention.  You may feel little desire for God but be very much caught up in a greater desire for sports or finances or a holiday, while the desire and the longing for God is weak by comparison.

Every one of us is far from where we want to be on one of every week. 2. Participate. You need to be actively participate in the worship service. You don’t come here to see what the Lord can do for you but rather look at how you can worship the Lord.

Let me chare this with you. God comes to worship service to see what you are going to do? Don’t be spectator! Your primary purpose is to come and bless God rather than getting blessings from God.

The worship is not about you! The worship is all about God.

Psalms 34:1-3, I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth. 2 My soul shall make its boast in the Lord; The humble shall hear of it and be glad. 3 Oh, magnify the Lord with me, And let us exalt His name together. Like Psalmist says it is the choice you must make to bless the Lord.

It is not your feeling. Start worship then your feeling will disappear. Everything that has breath praise the Lord.

Psalms 150:6, Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord! You cannot praise God by proxy! Many go back the same way they came in because they do not participate. If you are coming into a restaurant hungry and fold your hands look at everything and then go back, you will still feel hungry!

Do you know how the pet dogs satisfy their hunger?

Psalms 22:3, But You are holy, Enthroned in the praises of Israel. Eutychus was sleeping.

When you sleep you don’t know what is happening around you. There are people sleeping in the church not knowing what is happening around them. You can be saved yet sleeping! Everyone was busy doing their things but not worried about the young people.

Why no one warned the young man Eutychus?

Why no one cared for Eutychus? There are so many young people lying down the road dead. The church still buys teaching them kumbaya! The church busy packaging the dance and entertainment. There are people criticise the environment not changing them.

They did not create that environment.

The people watched it on the window, but Paul and the rest of the church went through the door to reach out to him. People would say he is dead. There was no hope. Paul did not listen to their voice. V 10-11, But Paul went down, fell on him, and embracing him said, “Do not trouble yourselves, for his life is in him.” 11 Now when he had come up, had broken bread and eaten, and talked a long while, even till daybreak, he departed.

Paul breathed on him. You have he Holy Spirit of God, speak the word it will brin life to the dead.

What are you going to do? Paul raised him to new life. Continued to preach! Until daybreak!!

Conclusion

Story of redemption. We were dead. Jesus sent down. Emptied the grave. Set us free!