Every preacher worries about his or her weekly sermon. How will it be received? Is it the right word for the right time? Does it have less of me and more of God? And, yes, many of us also worry about preaching too long. But the Apostle Paul? He set the gold standard.
In Acts 20, Paul is visiting believers in Troas. It’s his last evening with them, so he gathers the church upstairs in a room lit with oil lamps. Luke (who was there) tells us:
“We met on Sunday to worship and celebrate the Lord’s Supper. Paul addressed the congregation. Our plan was to leave first thing in the morning, but Paul talked on, way past midnight. We were meeting in a well-lighted upper room. A young man named Eutychus was sitting in an open window. As Paul went on and on, Eutychus fell sound asleep and toppled out the third-story window. When they picked him up, he was dead.” (Acts 20:7-9).
I wonder sometimes what Luke meant when he said in v. 9: “Paul talked on and on…” Was it just a long sermon, or was Paul rambling? There are times when sermons run longer because of the depth of what needs to be said, but there are other times we just can’t seem to “land the plane.” With Paul, I suspect he genuinely had a lot to say, especially since he was leaving them and likely never returning, but we don’t know for sure.
Either way, Luke’s words aren’t exactly a glowing review! Whatever the reason, Paul preached past midnight, and one poor young man named Eutychus, sitting in the window, couldn’t take it anymore. He dozed off and fell out of an open window three stories up … and they picked him up dead.
A tragic ending to a long sermon! But the story doesn’t end there. Paul ran down, embraced him, prayed—and Eutychus was revived.
But here’s the kicker. You might think they ended the church service after that. Let’s sing our closing hymn, hear the benediction, and go home! But no, Paul went right back upstairs and kept preaching until dawn … and no one fell asleep after that!
There’s humor in the way Luke tells the story, but I don’t think humor was his point. Why does Luke emphasize the length of Paul’s sermon? Paul’s sermon went long by our standards more often than not. What was so urgent, so compelling, that Paul couldn’t stop preaching? He knew he might never see these believers again. He wanted to give them every ounce of encouragement, every reminder of the gospel, every word of hope.
Paul’s “long sermon” shows us something important: the gospel is worth lingering over. We live in a world of sound bites, commercial breaks, scrolling, and short attention spans. But faith takes time. Some truths are too big to rush. Sometimes we need to sit in God’s presence longer than is comfortable. Sometimes God’s Word deserves more than a quick skim or a sleepy nod.
Maybe the lesson in Acts 20 is that even when we doze off, God’s Spirit is still at work. Even in our weakness, God’s Word doesn’t fail.
So next time your mind wanders during a sermon, or your prayers trail off into dreams, remember Eutychus. He fell asleep … but was raised to hear the rest of the sermon. We sometimes doze off or get distracted, but God will wait for us to wake up. God’s Word will still rise up to give us life.
Prayer: Lord, thank you for a gospel so rich it can’t be rushed. Give me patience to linger with you, and grace when I grow weary. Help me to stay awake—literally and spiritually—to the life you are always offering. Amen.
