Did Paul Raise Eutychus From The Dead?

UNDERSTANDING THE SCRIPTURES

We resume our excursion through the Book of Acts.Here again are Dave and Tom:This is our Understanding the Scriptures segment, we’re in the Book of Acts Chapter 20, and we are going to pick up with verse 9:“And there sat in a window 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.”Now Dave, we mentioned this last week, the very fact that Paul could preach for that long and keep everybody’s interests, I think it tells you more about the times, it was certainly the content absolutely, but the times.Well, today what’s a sermon go?If it’s over 30 minutes people start complaining.On the other hand, back when they had the Lincoln/Douglas debates these guys went on for 12 hours.Lincoln would talk for an hour, then Douglas would talk for an hour, and the people could handle it.Nobody could handle that today.

Dave:

Well, why is that?Because we have TV, we’ve got too many other things to do.But I tell you, if a basketball game goes into overtime, or an NFL game goes into overtime, that’s more, get more for your money, that’s exciting.

Tom:

Well, it’s amusement, Dave.See, a-muse, amuse means to think, a-muse, you don’t think, so that’s the deal here.

Dave:

It showsyou where our hearts are.But Tom, it just reminds me, you get as old as I am you begin to reminisce.Probably one of the most embarrassing experiences for me, at least when I was—I must have been—I think I was at least 10, I fell asleep at a conference. I can remember where it was, in fact it was the gospel hall where Ironside used to be in San Francisco, and I was on the isle and they could go on rather long these brethren. I fell asleep and fell out of my chair to the isle, made quite a noise and quite a disturbance.Oh boy, that was a terrible experience.But anyway, this guy was worse than that, he killed himself.And Paul, I guess, feels some responsibility becausehe rushes down there and—well, that’s verse 10, go ahead, Tom.

Tom:

“And Paul went down, and fell on him and embracing him said, Trouble not yourselves; for his life is in him.When he therefore was come up again and had broken bread, and eaten, and talked a long while, even till break of day, so he departed.And they brought the young man alive, and were not a little comforted.”

Dave:

Now Tom, let me make a contrast here.I don’t want to offend anyone out there but well, people are usually offended.We were in South Africa, I probably mentioned this before, and Benny Hinn had a series of meetings, of course thousands in his audience, and as he was speaking a man on the isle, again, he fell out of his chair, but he wasn’t asleep, he collapsed.They carried him out and got him into an ambulance, and Benny Hinn says to the audience:Don’t be concerned, God has revealed to me he is going to be okay.Well, he died in the ambulance on the way to the hospital!Now, a little bit of a contrast here, when Paul said the man is alive, he is going to live, he lived.I would call Benny Hinn a false prophet on that basis.But anyway, Tom, it’s another miracle in the ministry of the apostles.

Tom:

Dave, there isn’t any doubt that miracles followed Paul as he preached the truth, to confirm the truth and so on.Now some would say, Well, we don’t know that this guy was dead, you know, he falls out and Paul, you know, maybe Paul resuscitated him some way, or he just got the wind knocked out ofhim.But it does say in verse 9, “was taken up dead.”

Dave:

That’s right.

Tom:

And then Paul places his body over this young man’s and his life came back to him, miraculously, there’s no doubt about it.

Dave:

See, if you read Verse 10—let’s read it again:“And Paul went down, and fell on him, and embracing him said, Trouble not yourselves; for his life is in him.”Well, it doesn’t specifically say he raised him from the dead, but see, this is kind of a language of a man of God.He’s not going to say, I just raisedhim from the dead.As Jesus said about the young woman, She’s not dead but asleep, and they laughed Him to scorn.Well, she was dead, but she was asleep, her body was asleep..Those who sleep in Jesus, God will bring with Him, getting back to the Rapture, so they are dead.So Paul is just saying, maybe Paul was silently praying as he is embracing this young man, and then Paul says, His life is in him, he’s going to be okay, but we know he was dead.So it was a resurrection, but Paul didn’t make a show of it, and they didn’t advertise it in the papers after that.

Tom:

Dave, I was just talking, interesting, last week with a man who did mission work in Africa, and part of their team that was over there, they were in a village, and they were preaching, trying to preach to these village people there, and all of a sudden they bring out this boy who must be dead because he’s stiff as a board, and they say, Well, if the God that you are talking about, if he’s really true, can he do anything for this young boy.Man, they were put on the spot, what should we do?It was as though the Lord gave them a peace about it and said, Well, the best we can do is pray for him and see if this is the Lord’s will.And this child began vomiting things that the shamans had put in his throat, all kinds of things.So, whether he was resuscitated, whether he was brought back to life, the Word of God was really reinforced, was supported by, I think, an intervention of God.

Dave:

Amen.Praise the Lord.

Tom:

Verse 13:“And we went before to ship, and sailed unto Assos, there intending to take in Paul: for so had he appointed, minding himself to go afoot.And when hemet with us at Assos, we took him in, and came to Mitylene.”Well, Dave, this is interesting, Paul decided to hoof it, I guess, go on foot rather than sail.

Dave:

Right.Well, because he was going to see a lot of people and he can visit those that he has led to the Lord, preached to in the past, and see how things are going along.But I’m sure he didn’t have a big backpack carrying all of his belongings, so they probably had that on the ship.

Tom:

Verse 15:“And we sailed thence, and came the next day over against Chios; and the next day we arrived at Samos, and tarried at Trogyllium; and the next day we came to Miletus.For Paul had determined to sail by Ephesus, because he would not spend the time in Asia: for he hasted, if it were possible forhim, to be at Jerusalem the day of Pentecost.”

Dave:

Tom, I love it when the Bible gives us details.You read Genesis and you’ve got all kinds of details of ancient people, and so forth, and here’s a lot of places where the ship went, and I’m sure they don’t have the same names today.You would have to do a lot of historical reckoning and research to come up with it, and every time you do you find the Bible is 100% accurate.

Tom:

Dave, the thing I like about it is, as you said, this is history, this is documentation. These are not things you can spiritualize away, this is for a purpose, this is historic record.

Dave:

Amen, you can’t make it up.The reason I mentioned that, Tom,is as you know is there are those people who say, Well, the New Testament, that wasn’t written until centuries later.So, you’ve got all kinds of people pretending to be Paul, pretending to be Peter, whose writes says he’s not myths and so forth.No, we’ve got so many details in here, you cannot escape it, this was written at the time!

Dave and Tom will resume their discussion on the topic of salvation next week, we hope you can tune in.This is Search the Scriptures Daily, a radio ministry of The Berean Call.And now to tell you more about our ministry, here is TBC Executive Director Tom McMahon:Thename, The Berean Call, is taken from the Book of Acts chapter 17, verses 10 and 11, where we find the apostle Paul entering the synagogue in the Greek city of Berea after he had just come from Thessalonica.To these Bereans he preached that Jesus was the long awaited Messiah sent from God.They were commended for being noble, or fair minded, not only for their willingness to hear what Paul had to say about the matter, but more specifically because they searched the scriptures daily to find out whether or not what the apostle was saying was found in God’s Word.That’s what we hope to encourage through this ministry.Our mission is to encourage believers in Christ to unbiblical teachings and practices impacting the church.We want to exhort believers to give greater heed to biblical discernment and truth regarding what they are accepting as spiritual.We hope to supply those who profess to be biblical Christians with information and materials that will encourage the love of God’s truth.Hopefully, we can help mobilize believers in Christ to action in obedience to the scriptural command to earnestly contend for the faith found in Jude 3.And finally, our prayer is that we can be used of God to stimulate Christians to look to the Bible alone as their rule of faith, authority and practice in living lives pleasing to our Lord and Savior.

Gary:

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Next week we will continue our series of programs based on Dave and Tom’s book, Psychology and the Church, and, What’s wrong with inner healing?In Religion in the News, Church for Men, Just Do It.We’ll take a look at that story, and address the question:What is the subconscious mind?We hope you can join us.If you have questions or comments about this program we urge you to contact our offices.Search the Scriptures Daily Radio Ministry is made possible by God’s grace, your prayers and your financial support.I’m Gary Carmichael, and for Dave, Tom and everyone here at The Berean Call, I would like to thank you for tuning in and invite you to join us again next week.In the meantime, if you desire to know God’s truth, search the scriptures daily.You’ve been listening to Search the Scriptures Daily, a radio ministry of The Berean Call.For more information about The Berean Call, write to us at PO Box 7019, Bend, Oregon97708, call us toll free at our order number 877-882-4253, that’s 877-88Bible, or visit our website at www.thebereancall.org.Join us again next week for Search the Scriptures Daily, featuring Dave Hunt and T. A. McMahon.