Burning the Midnight Oil

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In about the year AD56 the Apostle Paul was 51 or 52 years old. He had been a Christian for around 20 years. I often wonder how Paul looked and if it was hard for him to get around. You see, by this time in Paul’s life he had suffered quite a lot of physical, mental, and social abuse. 

 

During the last 20 years Paul traveled and preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ across much of the Roman Empire. He had been publicly humiliated, lied about, dragged through city streets, beaten with rods, thrown in dungeons, placed in chains, fastened in stocks, driven out of towns, stoned, and left for dead on a trash pile. He had to have had some scars, a few aches and pains, and perhaps it wasn’t as easy for him to get around as it once was.

 

And I’m not sure what that thorn in his flesh was he kept praying the Lord would remove. Evidently it added some additional hardships to his life which he wished weren’t there. Bless his heart. He suffered so much on top of the rejection he experienced from those who were formerly his close friends … it’s a wonder he kept going … but he did.

 

Don’t you know he had a lot to say? Jesus had earlier appeared to Paul and personally taught him the doctrines of faith, grace, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. Jesus entrusted the Gospel to Paul and commissioned him to take it to the Gentiles and to live it, write it, and leave it for us to read today. No wonder Paul was long winded when it came to preaching. He was a man on a mission and the message was worth his life.

 

We are going to read a first-hand account written by a medical doctor named Luke who was a traveling companion of the Apostle Paul on some of his missionary journeys. For Paul, every minute counted,and he never wasted an opportunity to tell someone he thought he might not see again about Jesus. We find him burning the midnight oil in the city of Alexandria Troas on the upper western coast of Turkey. It’s close to the spot on the Aegean Sea where I baptized some of you during our last tour of the 7 Churches of Revelation. Let’s begin…

 

Acts 20 NLT

7 ¶  On the first day of the week, we gathered with the local believers to share in the Lord’s Supper. Paul was preaching to them, and since he was leaving the next day, he kept talking until midnight.

8  The upstairs room where we met was lighted with many flickering lamps.

9  As Paul spoke on and on, a young man named Eutychus, sitting on the windowsill, became very drowsy. Finally, he fell sound asleep and dropped three stories to his death below.

10  Paul went down, bent over him, and took him into his arms. “Don’t worry,” he said, “he’s alive!”

11  Then they all went back upstairs, shared in the Lord’s Supper, and ate together. Paul continued talking to them until dawn, and then he left.

12  Meanwhile, the young man was taken home unhurt, and everyone was greatly relieved.

 

This young man, Eutychus, had a chance to hear the Gospel from the best preacher in the world at that time. No one else knew more about the Gospel and the saving grace of Jesus Christ than the Apostle Paul in that day. Eutychus was probably in his twenties and just couldn’t stay awake.

 

We have no letters from Paul which were written to the Believers in the city of Troas. So I guess this single 12 hour sermon (6pm to 6am) must have covered theentire Gospel message and gave them everything they needed to know in one message. I hope to take a little less time than Paul took to tell you what I believe he would cover if he visited us here today.

 

Please, don’t anyone go to sleep and fall out of your chair this morning. I’ll do my best to finish before 12pm, not 12am like Paul did. We are going to read from a letter Paul wrote just a month or two before he arrived at Troas. This was Paul’s primary message everywhere he went. Paul said he was determined to not know anything but:

 

The Gospel of Jesus Christ

1. Everyone has sinned.

 

Romans 3:23  For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.

 

• Sin is both a condition and a choice.

• Every person is born in sin as a condition of life. Sin is first the human condition. Each human is born in this world.

• Every person is born subject to the laws of sin and death.

• To be born not a sinner, a human, having reached the age of accountability, must be born again to become a new creation in Christ.

• I firmly believe in an age and a stage of accountability and trust in a loving God who covers and allows children to come directly to Him.

• Everyone is born in sin, and each person chooses to sin during their lifetime.

 

2. The result of sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal life.

 

Romans 6:23  For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.

 

• Sin demands death. It’s the law under which heaven and earth exists. Once a person becomes accountable for their own lives and decisions before God, there are no other options.

• Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sin.

• Not just any blood will satisfy the requirement of the law. Only the pure blood of a sinless sacrifice of the same kind will suffice. 

• Under the law of the Old Testament, the blood of bulls and goats would procure a temporary reprieve from judgment for a brief period of time, only on earth and not for eternity.

• God so loved the world that He gave His only Son as a perfect sinless sacrifice on the cross of Calvary to cover the sin debt for those who enter into a blood covenant relationship with Jesus.

 

3. All who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

 

Romans 10:13  For “Everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved.”

 

• The condition of human sinfulness is overwritten by the blood of Jesus through the born-again experience. 

• We are saved by grace, not by works, so that nohuman can boast. It’s not about what we do, but about what He did!

• In order to escape eternal judgment which all humans will face, a person must be spiritually born again and thereby become a child of God. 

• Salvation is the gift God wants to give to every human being. 

• This blood covenant relationship with Jesus is available to anyone and it requires only two things:

o A person must believe God is telling the truth.

▪ God will not make a blood covenant with anyone who believes His Son is a liar.

o That person must accept Jesus by inviting Him to become Lord and Savior. 

 

Romans 10:9  If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

 

This is the greatest story ever told. Volumes have been written about it and there is no doubt Paul confirmed it over and over during that 12 hour sermon at Troas almost 2000 years ago. I bet Eutychus believed and so did those who saw the miracle working power of God. 

 

What do you believe? Do you believe those who wrote the Bible were telling us the truth? Do you believe in God? Do you believe in Jesus? Will you invite Him into your life today? Let’s confess Jesus as our Lord and Savior together right now. 

 

Then – as you go about your daily lives, wherever the day may lead you, take time to share the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ with others along the way. It doesn’t have to be a 12 hour talk every time. Just be ready to share Jesus on purpose.