GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
ACTS 20:8-12
8 There were many lamps in the upstairs room where we were gathered. 9 A boy named Eutychus was sitting in a window. He fell into a deep sleep as Paul kept talking on and on.
Luke describes the scene in such a way that we will understand the emotional impact more than anything else if we read carefully. The group was on the third floor in a room with a window. It was late at night. Even though there were many lamps lit, just as when any of us might have a large gathering in our home, nobody noticed young Eutychus (neanias, a youth between 8 and 14 years old), who was nodding off to sleep in the open window. Paul had a great deal to say; he was preaching a sermon that kept going for a long time. They had gathered after the workday was over (Sunday for them was like our Monday, a regular weekday), and they had celebrated communion, but even so, it was now approaching midnight and so Paul must have been preaching for at least three hours, and perhaps more than four hours. No wonder the boy got drowsy.
When he fell asleep, he fell to the ground from the third story. When they picked him up, he was dead. 10 Paul went down, fell on the young man and put his arms around him. “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “He lives!” 11 Then he went upstairs again, broke bread and ate. He kept speaking until daylight, and then he left. 12 The people took the young man home alive, and were greatly comforted.
Sound asleep, the boy fell out of the window and fell three stories. When Luke pronounces the boy to be dead in verse 9, we should accept his words as a physician and as an eyewitness. If there had been no miracle with this incident, why record it? The same is true of every miraculous event in Scripture. Would all four Gospels record the Feeding of the Five Thousand if Jesus had done nothing more than teach a lesson about sharing? And if that was the lesson, where are the words or the moral of the lesson? Why does he later rebuke the disciples saying, “How is it that you don’t understand that I was not talking to you about bread?” (Matthew 16:11)? So here, why mention a little tumble if a kid fell into a bush and got stunned? No, this was a miracle. Paul joins a very small group of those who were used by God to raise someone from the dead. In the Old Testament, Elijah and Elisha both raised people from the dead (1 Kings 17:22; 2 Kings 4:35 ). In the Gospels, Jesus raised a boy (Luke 7:14-15), a girl (Matthew 9:24) and a friend from the dead (John 11:44). In Acts, we have seen Peter do this as well, raising Tabitha (Acts 9:41). And of course, God raised Jesus from the dead as well (Galatians 1:1; 1 Thessalonians 1:10). Paul raced down to the ground floor, went outside, and “fell on the boy… taking him into his arms.” This was much like the way that Elijah stretched himself out on the son of the widow of Zarephath. We don’t need to speculate the he performed artificial respiration, which was not discovered until the fifteenth or sixteenth century AD.
Luke uses a different word for the kind of speaking Paul did after the miracle. Might it have been a continuation of his sermon? Perhaps. Or maybe he was answering questions the people had. Naturally, immediately after a miracle, there might be a great many questions. But Paul broke bread with them again and talked until daylight. This second meal might simply have been breakfast.
The reason that God permitted his preachers to perform miracles was (1) to make his majesty known or (2) to confirm his revelation, that is, he put his stamp of approval on a prophet’s or apostle’s teaching. Miracles fall doctrinally into the same category as scripture, and miracles are truly the work of God alone (“he alone does marvelous deeds,” Psalm 72:18; “You are the God who performs miracles,” Psalm 77:14).
The greatest miracle of all is the incarnation of the Son of God (Isaiah 9:6). All New Testament miracles refer to Christ and faith in Christ, and almost all Old Testament miracles in some way point ahead to the coming of Christ or reveal the true messengers who proclaim the coming of the Savior.
There are different ways to categorize miracles, but the most useful is probably just to differentiate between bodily miracles and spiritual miracles. Bodily miracles involve the physical world, people (Luke 4:30), animals (Daniel 6:22), nature (Matthew 8:26) or even demons (Mark 9:25-26). Such miracles, says Professor Hoenecke, “are for the foolish crowd, not for us Christians; they are ‘thrown to children like apples and pears’” (Evangelical Lutheran Dogmatics Vol. II p. 266, partially quoting Luther).
Spiritual miracles are the divine operation of faith and sanctification. These things are wonders, greater than the miraculous signs that change the external nature of things. Spiritual miracles, such as the creation of faith, changes the internal nature of the human soul and raises each one from spiritual death (which is unbelief) to life, which is faith. This is described simply by Paul: “Because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions– it is by grace you have been saved” (Ephesians 2:4-5). And the miracle of coming to faith is followed by the miraculous turning of the sinner’s attitude toward God’s will. The unbeliever, having become a believer by the grace of God, responds with thanks in the way that he or she lives. This is the life of sanctification, a life which is never perfect in this lifetime, but which is blessed and encouraged by God through his word.
Rejoice in the physical miracles of the Bible like the raising of Eutychus from the dead. But rejoice even more for the spiritual miracles in your own life, like the raising of you yourself from dead unbelief to living faith by a miracle of the Holy Spirit. This is God working in you, personally, because he loves you.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
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Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota
God’s Word for You – Acts 20:8-12 Miracles