About the Word "Midnight"

11/1987

I’m sitting out in the middle of a field right now and feel compelled to interject a couple thoughts before we go on with the message as it was delivered. I’d like to say something about the word “midnight” in that Acts 20 passage. Some people have said that that’s surely referring to a Jewish midnight rather than a Greek midnight and therefore it still was Sunday rather than Monday when they had the Lord’s supper. I’d like to at least address that, and it can be food for thought, and you can do what you’d like to with it.

First of all, the guy who wrote the book of Acts obviously was Luke who was a Greek. He was a Gentile not a Jew. He wasn’t prone to think in Jewish terms, so I would say at least the first evidence is that the man who wrote it would have written midnight as the Greek and Roman world knew midnight, not the way the Jewish world knew midnight.

Secondly they were in an area of the world that wasn’t a Jewish area. That particular area in Troas was also not prone to Jewish thought, but to Greek thought.

Thirdly I’d say that if the first day of the week was when they came together and it was after midnight, even if it was Jewish time and it was after midnight Jewish time, that made it the second day of the week, Jewish time. So regardless of whether it is Jewish or Greek time we’re talking about with the word midnight, it would be after midnight, therefore the second day of the week, no matter how we look at that.

I guess you could say if that is Jewish time they’re speaking of, then we should be very careful about whether we take the Lord’s Supper, if you think in those terms, any time after the Jewish midnight. Even though it’s still our first day of the week, it’s the Jewish second day of the week. I really don’t think God intended to tease us that way by confusing us with different times. That’s not a Father’s way—to legally close us in like that.

The next thing I’d say about that is it probably was a Greek midnight, a Roman midnight, rather than a Jewish one because it says in verse 7 that he kept on talking after midnight. There were many lamps in the upstairs room where they were meeting. So therefore, it was dark. Eutycus fell out the window after falling into a deep sleep. That would indicate that it truly was a Greek or a Roman midnight, since it was very late at night and he fell out of the third story window. And it says that he spoke until dawn, which would indicate that it was again, after midnight. Dawn isn’t a Jewish or a Greek term. It just happens to be when the sun comes up.

So I would say that the evidence is that that was Greek or Roman time rather than Jewish time, therefore it was after midnight when they broke bread. That’s the first reference to them breaking bread. It has been conjectured that they broke bread twice, once for the Lord’s Supper and secondly for a common meal. I don’t think there’s anything in the text that would indicate that’s what happened. It seems they came to break bread and they finally did that after midnight.

Now, I want to also hasten to say that I really don’t think that it’s a bad thing to have an incredible day of fellowship and sharing life together on Sunday. And though I spoke of the Sabbath being a shadow of the Reality that’s in Christ—and that is a truism—it’s also true that God worked six days and rested on the seventh day. And that’s not a legal thing.

Now we are in Christ who is our Sabbath rest. He’s our Soma, the Body, the Reality of the Sabbaths and the festivals, as it says in Colossians 2. Jesus is that for us. We’re seated with Christ in heavenly realms and that’s a seven-day-a-week, 24-hour thing, according to Ephesians 2.

But I still think it’s also true that if we have a day where we can be away from our work and be at rest—if God took that day of rest, then I think the shadow certainly has some application, even though it’s not a legal thing. It does have some truth in it. I think it’s a wonderful thing for brothers and sisters to enjoy a day like the Sabbath day or the first day of the week, regardless. A day where we can be apart from our work and rest and just enjoy one another.

I’m not against that, but I would say that if we’re departmentalizing our religion, which is the point that I was making, then we have a serious problem on our hands. There’s no such thing as a “worship service” or a “worship day” in the New Testament. People didn’t live that way, and it was a fallen Christianity, an apostate Church that institutionalized that in Constantine’s time. It’s not necessary, and when we really enjoy Christ as our Sabbath rest, then days kind of blend together.

We have several women that are part of the Church here that don’t have an outside job. They’re homemakers, as many women in America are. A vanishing breed for sure, but that is the situation. The women here have commented, since becoming Christians, or since becoming part of the Church here—whether moving here to be part of the Church or whatever—that it’s funny how they really can’t distinguish between days of the week.

There was a time where they could easily distinguish because they had their Sunday morning “go to meeting”, the big hassle of getting the kids dressed and fussing all the way to Church and sitting through the sermon and then commenting on and judging the sermon at the restaurant afterwards. It was a big hoopla, and they had to make the big “spiritual” decision of whether to go Sunday night now that they’ve gone on Sunday morning and all of those things.

So Sunday became a very clear day of the week, a very clear reminder that Monday was coming but it’s been kind of fun and interesting that a number of the women have commented independently how fun it is that every day is a celebration of life in Christ. The Body of Christ isn’t a Body just one day a week any more than His physical body was His body one day of the week and then He laid in a coma the rest of the week.

So the Body of Christ is an organism that functions. It’s not departmentalized. It functions. It’s organic, not organizational. Therefore it makes sense that the days would kind of blend together, unless something else like a work week established it in your mind that Monday was coming up.

But to a woman that isn’t occupied outside of the home it should be so, that all of her days are so filled with Christ and fruitfulness for Jesus and worship and relationship with the body of Christ and gatherings through the week continually, daily and in public and from house to house. Those things can express an organism rather than an organization. The days should blend together and it should be hard to keep track of which day is which.

That’s not to say that Sunday isn’t a wonderful, glorious celebration of Christ, but it is to say that it ought not to be the only one or just one of two. It ought to be a life. “In Him we live and move and have our being,” said Paul. That’s a normal Christian. That’s a normal description of life in Christ. To live and move and have your being.

You wouldn’t think of breathing just twice a week any more than you’d think of celebrating life as the Body of Christ, 7 days a week, 24 hours a day, confessing sins one to another, serving one another, encouraging one another, bearing one another’s burdens, bearing with one another. That’s just a normal life of those that are “joined and knit together by every ligament and sinew” as it says in Colossians and Ephesians and in 1 Corinthians 12.

So enough for the small parenthetical statement. I’ll get you back to the original message as it was delivered, but I just wanted to add a few thoughts in hopes that it would be helpful to you.