Have you ever been somewhere when a speaker is interrupted by an audience member? Sometimes it is done to heckle the speaker, sometimes it is a show of support, but almost always it just seems to disrupt the speaker. As a speaker, I have had this happen on occasion and it always throws a wrench in my gears as I struggle to recover. Jesus was once interrupted, but used to moment to teach a valuable lesson. In Luke 11:27-28 we read, "While Jesus was saying these things, one of the women in the crowd raised her voice and said to Him, "Blessed is the womb that bore You and the breasts at which You nursed.” But He said, "On the contrary, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it"." I imagine this outburst was a supportive gesture. The woman's claim was that His mother was rewarded by her son's greatness. Jesus turned this thinking on its head by saying that people will be rewarded not by who they know but what they do. Obedience to God will trump any background a person may have. It doesn’t matter who you are or where you are from, those that obey the word of God will be blessed.
In Acts 20, there is the tragicomic event surrounding a young man by the name of Eutychus. He did what a lot of folks before and after him did, he fell asleep during a sermon. Unfortunately, he was setting in in the third story window at the time. So instead of nodding off and hitting the pew in front of him, he fell to his death. The good news was the apostle Paul was delivering the sermon and had the ability to bring him back. I don’t know, however, if we can judge Eutychus too harshly. The sermon had gone on till midnight. Paul wouldn’t finish it up till daybreak. That’s a long lesson. I know some folks that might want to jump out of a window if I had a lesson that long, yet these Christians wanted to be there to hear Paul. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not pushing for all night sermons but I think we might need to adopt these folks' dedication. They knew that Paul was only in town for a limited time only and they were determined to ...
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