There’s Life After a Fall
October 21, 2026
Paul preached until midnight. He had only seven days in Troas, and this was his last night with those disciples. He didn’t know if he would ever see them again, so he had a lot to say. The meeting likely started around suppertime, and by the time midnight came, Paul had been preaching for three or four hours. What happened next is one of the clearest pictures in Scripture of life after a fall.
Up in the third loft of that building, a young man named Eutychus sat in the window. In a hot climate, the seat by the window is the best seat in the house. But a big supper, a warm room full of lamps, and a long sermon make a dangerous combination. Eutychus fought his eyelids. He lost. He sank into a deep sleep and fell three stories to the ground. Everyone who reached him said the same thing: he’s dead.
But Paul went down, wrapped his arms around that young man, and said, “Trouble not yourselves; for his life is in him.” No matter how far you have fallen, there’s life after a fall.
Look at the order of events. First, Eutychus fell asleep. Then he slumped; the Bible says he “sunk down with sleep.” Then he fell out of the window. That’s how a fall usually works. It rarely begins with a dramatic leap. It starts when a person dozes off spiritually, and the drift does the rest. That’s why Paul urged the Romans that “it is high time to awake out of sleep” (Romans 13:11).
I’m not saying Eutychus backslid. But his fall paints a picture of what happens to so many people. They fall from the place they once had in Christ. They slip back into the very things God brought them out of. Like the prodigal son, they leave the Father’s house for a far country and end up in a pig pen, doing things they never imagined they would do.
Not every fall is three stories. Some falls end a marriage or a ministry. Others drop a person one or two stories. Maybe you didn’t lose everything, but you lost your fire, your prayer life, or your first love.
A fall is a fall, whether it’s one story or three.
What makes a fall so devastating is the potential it seems to erase. We’ve all heard people say it: “If only he hadn’t fallen. She could have done great things for God.” Eutychus had that kind of potential. His name means “fortunate.” His parents surely believed he would do great things. Now he lay broken on the rocks below.
Picture the scene. Paul stops mid-sentence. Gasps and cries erupt from the back of the room. Someone shouts, “Eutychus fell out the window!” The saints rush to the window, then race down the stairs. The first one there feels for a pulse and listens for a breath. He turns to the crowd and shakes his head. The women weep. The men stand frozen.
Luke records that he “was taken up dead.” As far as anyone in that crowd could tell, it was over. His potential was gone. His future was gone. Nobody gets up from a fall like that.
Do you recognize that voice? The devil uses it on everyone who falls. You’ve failed. You’ve messed everything up. There’s no hope for you. You’ll never put the pieces back together again. Too often, people say the same thing, even church people. “He’ll never come back from that. She’s done.” They’re ready to plan the funeral.
Then Paul came down. The church folk stepped back, and the apostle knelt beside that lifeless young man. Luke says Paul “fell on him.” He laid his head on the young man’s chest, took his limp hand, and wrapped him in his arms. Then he turned to the crowd and said, “Trouble not yourselves; for his life is in him.”
In other words: I know he fell. I know he fell out of the window. But this isn’t over. His future isn’t destroyed. He’s going to be back on his feet.
I don’t know what kind of fall you’ve had. I don’t know your mistakes or your failures. Maybe it was three stories and devastating. Maybe it was a one-story slip. But whatever the devil or anyone else has told you, I want you to know there’s life after a fall.
“But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” (Ephesians 2:4-6)
Our God is a God of second chances. He is a God of restoration. He cares more about your future than your fall. When everyone else has given up, Jesus hasn’t. When everyone else thinks the only thing left is a burial, He says there’s still life, still hope, and still a future. In 1920, G. T. Haywood put it this way:
When gloom and sadness whisper, “You’ve sinned, no use to pray,”
I look away to Jesus, and He tells me to say:
I see a crimson stream of blood, it flows from Calvary,
Its waves which reach the throne of God are sweeping over me.
God’s plan is greater than your failure. His redemption is stronger than your fall. The blood of Jesus is more powerful than your sin. The same God in whom we live, and move, and have our being isn’t finished writing your story.
Proverbs 24:16 says, “For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again.” At first glance, that sounds like a contradiction. Isn’t a righteous man someone who doesn’t fall? Yet Scripture plainly describes a righteous man falling. Being righteous does not mean living without mistakes.
Falling down doesn’t remove you from the ranks of the righteous. What you do after you fall decides that.
Job said, “For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again” (Job 14:7). That’s what a fall does. It cuts you down. It cuts down your plans and dreams, your peace and joy, your confidence, until it feels like all that’s left is a stump. But a stump still has roots. You will sprout again. You will grow again and bear fruit again.
Micah declared, “Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise” (Micah 7:8). This Book is full of people just like you and me who rose up out of mistakes and failures by the power of God. If they could rise up, so can you. You may be down, but you’re not out.
Death and hell said it was over for Jesus. They sealed Him in a tomb. But three simple words describe the resurrection that changed everything: He got up. The same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead dwells in you (Romans 8:11). The power that got Him up can get you up.
Maybe you made a foolish decision or let someone down. You might have let yourself down, or lost your fire, your passion, your first love. I know it can be hard to believe you’ll ever climb out of the mess you’re in. The people in Troas truly believed it was over for Eutychus. They were wrong, and it isn’t over for you either. Say it out loud: I may have fallen, but I can get up.
Look again at what Paul did. He went down to where Eutychus was, and he fell on him. Doesn’t that sound familiar? When the prodigal son came home, “his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him” (Luke 15:20). The son fell, and then the father fell on him.
That’s exactly what Jesus wants to do for you right now. He wants to come down to the place where you landed, take you up in His arms, and speak the same words Paul spoke in Troas.
You’re not dead. This isn’t the end of you.
There’s life after a fall.
Pastor Matthew Ball serves as lead pastor of Faith Apostolic Church in Carmel, Indiana. This post is adapted from his message “There’s Life After a Fall,” preached during ministry overseas.
