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Acts 20:1-12  A TRAGIC DEATH AT TROAS

Introduction:

	In our previous text there was almost a tragic death in the city of 
Ephesus.  An angry mob sought to find the Apostle Paul so that they could kill 
him.  They came very close to killing two of Paul’s companions.  In our text 
today a tragic death does take place in the city of Troas.  A lad in the church 
at Troas meets with a tragic death.  

I.  Paul’s travels after leaving Ephesus and before he arrived at Troas

	V. 1, “And after the uproar was ceased, Paul called unto [him] the 
disciples, and embraced [them], and departed for to go into Macedonia.  After 
the riot at Ephesus was over Paul did not linger long  He called for the members 
of the church there to gather together, he said his farewells and left.  Yet in 
spite of that hasty exit, it should be noted that he did not leave out of fear.  
When the riot was at its peak he sought to do into the amphi-theater where they 
clamored for his life.  In fact, he would have gone in there to try to rescue 
Gaius and Aristarchus, his fellow Christians, if he had not been restrained by 
other fellow Christians.  
	He left because it was already in his plans to leave.  He planned to leave 
and go into Macedonia and Achaia to receive the offerings which the churches 
there had taken up for the people in the church at Jerusalem who were stricken 
by drought.  Timothy and Erastus had already gone before him to do the fund 
raising and have everything ready to go upon Paul’s arrival.  So as soon as the 
riot in Ephesus was over and his two brethren there were safe he left and headed 
for Macedonia to visit with the churches at Philippi and Thessalonica.  
	V. 2, “And when he had gone over those parts, and had given them much 
exhortation, he came into Greece.”  That is, he went down into Achaia to the 
cities of Corinth and Cenchrea to receive offerings from those churches for the 
Jerusalem Christians. 
	V. 3, “And [there] abode three months...”  It seems that Timothy and 
Aristarchus had not already arrived before them to have the offering collected 
as they had done at Macedonia because Paul spent three months there.  He needed 
those three months there to collect the funds and to strengthen the churches 
there.  
	Paul already had the offerings from Thessalonica and Philippi in Macedonia 
and did not intend to Macedonia before going on toward Jerusalem, but he had to 
change his mind.  (V. 3), “...And when the Jews laid wait for him, as he was 
about to sail into Syria, he purposed to return through Macedonia.”   In order 
to avoid an ambush by some Jews of Corinth and Cenchrea Paul changed his plans 
and headed back through Macedonia.  It was a long way out of his way, but he 
thought it better to go the extra miles than to be ambushed.  He not only might 
lose his life, but he would lose the offerings for the Jerusalem Christians 
which the churches had contributed.  
	After going back through Macedonia he would go by boat back to the 
mainland of Asia Minor and travel by land on toward Jerusalem.  When he left 
Macedonia he was accompanied by a group of seven men who would provide a measure 
of protection for both Paul and the sizable offerings which the churches were 
sending to the Jerusalem brethren.  Highway robbers were always a threat for 
travelers and Paul would be carrying a considerable amount of money and other 
valuables which were intended for the Jerusalem Christians.  In verse four Luke 
names seven men who would go with them all the way to Jerusalem, with the 
exception of one who would get sick and not be able to go all the way.  V. 4, 
“And there accompanied him into Asia Sopater of Berea; and of the Thessalonians, 
Aristarchus and Secundus; and Gaius of Derbe, and Timotheus; and of Asia, 
Tychicus and Trophimus.”
	V. 5, “These going before tarried for us at Troas.”   There is a 
difficulty in verses four and five.  In verse 4 Luke says that these men 
accompanied Paul.  In verse 5 he says that they went before Paul and waited for 
him at the city of  Troas.  I take it to mean that the seven men herein names 
went all went to Troas before Paul, but that from that point onward they would 
accompany Paul as he traveled from city to city toward Jerusalem.  

II.  Paul at Troas

	V. 6, “And we sailed away from Philippi after the days of unleavened 
bread, and came unto them to Troas in five days; where we abode seven days.”  
You will note that Luke, the writer, used the pronoun “we” twice in this verse.  
This apparently means that Luke had rejoined Paul at some place and was now with 
Paul as he traveled from Philippi to Troas.  He made the short overland journey 
from Philippi to the seacoast and road by boat with Paul on to Troas.  Luke had 
earlier said that an earlier boat trip across these same waters took only three 
days, but he now says that this trip took five days.  We can gather by this that 
they either did not have much wind or else they had stormy waters.  Either way 
it took them two days longer.  
	Upon arriving at Troas they would stay another seven days.  This would 
allow them time to gather an offering form the church which Paul had earlier 
organized there.  It would also give them time to gather the necessary 
provisions of food and other necessities for the onward journey.  
	V. 7, “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.”  If Paul attempted to attend a Jewish 
synagogue on the previous day Luke says nothing about it.  Neither is there any 
indication that any of the others attended services at the Jewish synagogue.  
The Christians had apparently long been meeting for worship  on the first day of 
the week instead of the seventh day of the week.  Many Jewish Christians met for 
worship on both the seventh day, which was the Jewish sabbath day, and also on 
the next day, which was the first day of the week.  But the Gentile Christians 
never formed the practice of meeting for worship on the Jewish sabbath day.  
They just met on the first day of the week (Sunday) in commemoration of the 
resurrection of the Lord on that day.  
	At any rate, Paul took advantage of the opportunity to preach to the one 
more time at the church at Troas because he planned to leave the next morning to 
go on toward Jerusalem.  Paul had a lot of things on his heart and on his mind 
that he wanted to say before leaving and at the hour of midnight Paul was still 
preaching.  He might have preached all night if the services had not been 
interrupted in an unusual way.  
	
	V. 8-9, “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 
Eutychus, 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.”  
A young man who was sitting in an open on the third floor of the building went 
to sleep and fell out the window and the fall killed him.  What a tragic thing 
to happen in a church service!  What a disruption of the church service!  
	Now at the hour of midnight there might have been several other people 
asleep or nearly asleep, but when that boy fell out of the window to his death 
that woke everybody up.  It also stopped Paul’s sermon.  Paul, like the others 
rushed down stairs to see about the boy.  
	Luke says that the boy was dead.  But when Paul got to the boy Paul 
stretched his body out on the body of the boy and Paul said that he was not 
dead.  Just who was right --- Luke or Paul?  They were both right.  When the 
people got to the boy he was dead.  Even when Paul got to him he was dead.  But 
after Paul stretched his body on the body of the boy and apparently silently 
called on the Lord for a miracle, the boy was not dead.  He was alive again.  
The mighty power of God had brought this boy back to life again.  V. 10, “And 
Paul went down, and fell on him, and embracing [him] said, Trouble not 
yourselves; for his life is in him.”
	By this time everybody was wide awake and Paul spent the rest of the night 
in joyous conversation with the brethren of the church.  Then the next morning 
he left to go on to Jerusalem to carry the offering which they so desperately 
needed.  V. 11-12, “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.”

III.  Some lessons for us today

	Let me say that I do not think that there is any danger that anybody is 
going to sleep in one of our church services and falling out a third story 
window.  There might be the danger that somebody will go to sleep, but there is 
no danger that anybody will fall out a window.  
	I would not say that it would be impossible, but I think there is little 
danger that somebody will fall over dead in one of our services.  However, it is 
not altogether unheard of even in our day.  I had a good friend who fell dead 
before the congregation in a church service not very long ago.  I have even 
heard of a the preacher falling over dead before the congregation.  So this 
should be a warning to every unsaved person in this house not to not to take 
chances with your soul.  You could die before this service is over.  Even I 
could die before this service is over.  But I have trusted Jesus to save my soul 
and I have this assurance.  Whenever I will die, my soul will go up into the 
Paradise of God to be with my Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.  If you have not 
been saved, then you need to call on Jesus right now and get ready to meet God.  
	Let me also point out to everyone who is saved that even though your 
earthly body will one day lie down in death, yet it will rise to life again.  
The best part of the story is that whenever it does arise from the grave it will 
not be like it is right now.  Our bodies are sinful bodies right now, but when 
the body of a saved person comes forth from the grave it will be sinless and 
will never commit sin again.  Isn’t that great?  Isn’t that wonderful?  
Furthermore it will never get sick again.  It will never die again.  It will 
live in glory with God forever.  
	Let me point further point out to you that while we live, there are things 
that we need to do to help carry on the worship and the work of God in this 
world.  There are fellow Christians who need some help.  There are lost souls 
who need the gospel message so that they may be saved.  There are Christians who 
need to gather together and study the word of God and hear it preached.  We may 
not need to preach until midnight, but there is one thing for certain --- we all 
need a lot more worship services in which to learn more about the word of God 
and in which we can draw closer to God in our lives.  
	There is one more thing that I would like to point out to you.  This 
Scripture points out to us just how important it is for our loved ones to be 
saved.  I do not know if that boy who fell out the window was saved or lost.  
Luke does not tell us.  I do not know whether or not his family members had ever 
talked to him about his soul or not.  But I am very sure about one thing.  If 
they had never talked to him about his soul prior to this, I believe they did 
after he was brought back to life.  And I’m sure of another thing.  If they had 
any other children who were unsaved, they talked to them about repenting of 
their sin and trusting Jesus Christ and getting saved.  We ought to take a 
lesson from that.  Christians of our day should not wait until their children 
are killed in a car wreck to think about their eternal soul and their need of 
getting saved.  Mothers and dads, grandmothers and granddads should make certain 
that they children understand their need of salvation and that they understand 
what they must do to get saved.  And you cannot afford to keep putting this most 
important matter off until some other time.  I could very well be too late at 
just any time.