In New Testament times, the church didn’t mind how long a sermon lasted.
Verses 7-12 are a description of the New Testament church at worship, and help to fill a gap in our knowledge of what went on when the early believers met in congregational assembly. Significant aspects:
The day is “the first day of the week”—ie our Sunday (if, as is likely, Luke is using the Roman, not Jewish, calculation of the days of the week; cf. NEB). This day became known as the Lord’s day (Revelation 1:10) in commemoration of his resurrection (Luke 24:1; John 20:19,26) and in contrast to the Jewish Sabbath. Another feature of the Christians’ holy day is given in 1 Corinthians 16:2.
The time of this gathering at Troas is evidently evening—“he prolonged his speech until midnight” (20:7).
The purpose is set out in the technical expression “to break bread” (20:7)—ie to share a common meal which was held in order to observe a solemn remembrance of the Lord’s death. The sense of this expression is given clearly in 20:11 and 1 Corinthians 10:16 and at this early stage of development, Christians observed a common meal (the agape or love-feast) in the framework of which there was a communion service (the Eucharist). This pattern seems clear from 1 Corinthians 11:17-34, and other Christian writings.
In the context of this assembly Paul gave a “sermon” which was interrupted by Eutychus’ unfortunate accident. An inland trip to Ephesus was not made because Paul had his eye on the calendar (20:16).
Notes 20:7: “the morrow” refers to a new day, begun at “day-break” (20:11). Luke is therefore using the Roman system of reckoning, whose day was from midnight to midnight; not the Jewish, from sunset to sunset. 20:8: “lights” were torches which gave off heavy fumes. It is not surprising then that one young man nodded off (20:9) and fell down. 20:10: Paul acts like Elijah (1 Kings 17:17ff.) and Elisha (2 Kings 4:34f.). 20:10: his “soul” (in Old Testament sense of life’s vital principle, nephesh) was still alive, although he was unconscious and concussed.
