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“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” (Acts 20:9).
Please read this whole story in a few verses in Acts 20:8-12. The Apostle Paul evidently was preaching late in the evening, and although “there were many lights in the upper chamber” (v. 8), poor Eutychus went to sleep. Eventually he fell down and seemed to be dead. He is a picture of a true Christian who has some desire to please the Lord, but who also wants to look out on the world. The lights in the upper chamber (speaking of God’s presence) did not have their proper effect on him, and when he fell asleep, he fell down. But he did not fall into the room; he fell out of the window. A fall for a worldly Christian is always in the wrong direction.
However, there is always a way of recovery, even if we have fallen down to the level of the world. The Apostle Paul said, “His life is in him” (v. 10), and the young man was able to come back to the upper room with the other believers. I doubt if he ever sat in the window again!
This story shows us how necessary it is to appreciate the light of God’s presence, and the ministry of the Word of God. If Eutychus had not been sitting in a window, he would not have fallen asleep and fallen down!
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