Does God Raise the Dead?

Can God raise the dead?

Is it really possible for God to give life to a person that has passed away?

According to the Bible this very thing happened on seven occasions:

Elijah and Elisha were Old Testament prophets who each raised a young boy from the dead.

Jesus raised three people from the dead: Lazarus his friend and two young people (a boy and girl).

Then Peter raised from the dead a young woman whose name was Dorcas.

…these are six examples where God raised someone from the dead.

In today’s bible reading - we read about the seventh time that God raised someone from the dead:

Paul was preaching in Troas in a very stuffy room.

It was packed with many Christian believers.

Also, they had come with their oil lamps which were making the room very warm and consuming the oxygen.

…when a room lacks oxygen you will notice yourself getting very sleepy that’s why you should open a window to let fresh air in and increase the oxygen in the room so you do not fall asleep.

…then to make matters worse it was midnight and Paul was still preaching.

Many people had come to hear Paul teach the Word of God…but they probably were surprised that it was getting very late and he was still preaching.

The Bible tells us that somewhere around midnight this hapenned:

Hechos de los Apóstoles 20:9–12 NIV

9 Seated in a window was a young man named Eutychus, who was sinking into a deep sleep as Paul talked on and on. When he was sound asleep, he fell to the ground from the third story and was picked up dead. 10 Paul went down, threw himself on the young man and put his arms around him. “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “He’s alive!” 11 Then he went upstairs again and broke bread and ate. After talking until daylight, he left. 12 The people took the young man home alive and were greatly comforted.

The young man had fallen asleep and fell down from the third story.

They picked him up and he was dead.

The force of the fall likely caused his death.

But Paul did not fear…he simply did what the Old Testament prophets Elijah and Elishah had done - he put his arms around the boy and raised him from the dead by the power of God.

So, if we are to ask the question “Does God Raise the Dead”…

…our answer should be yes! Goes is able to raise the dead and bring them back to life.

However, it is not God’s normal way of doing things - in fact, in the entire Bible (and the Bible is a very large book) there are only seven cases where God raised someone from the dead.

There are many more miracles in the Bible but only seven cases where God raised someone from the dead.

So then, we conclude that although God can raise the dead…it is very uncommon / very rare.

However, there is another miracle that is very similar to raising someone from the dead - and this miracle we see that God does much more frequently.

Efesios 2:1 NIV

1 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins,

Efesios 2:4–5 NIV

4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.

So…before becoming a christian believer - the Bible describes us as being dead in our sins. We have no spiritual life in us. We enjoy sin and have no desire to serve God.

However, God through his Spirit shows mercy to us by raising us from the dead…bringing us from spiritual death to spiritual life.

This is what it means to be saved.

God gives us a new life, a desire to serve him, a desire to obey his commandments, a desire to love and worship him - this is entirely God’s work.

…and every time the Word of God is preached there is the opportunity for God to do this miracle of salvation in the lives of those that do not know him.

Conclusion

It is possible that you have a family member that does not serve God or does not have any desire to be here with you on Sunday - they are spiritually dead.

…but you can pray to God tonight to grant them spiritual life, to raise them from spiritual death so that they may know God, love God, and be saved through his mercy and grace.