Pastor: Our text this morning comes from the book of Acts, as we are making our way through the book of Acts, and this morning we come to the end of Acts Chapter 9. We're going to begin in verse 32 and read to the end of the chapter. There to verse 43 acts chapter nine, beginning in verse 32 reading to the end of the chapter. Before we read it, let's go to the Lord in prayer, remembering that unless the holy spirit indeed opens up our eyes and hearts and ears, we are wasting our time.
Pastor: We are here in vain. We need Christ to give us life in order to receive His Word. So let's go to the Lord in prayer, Father, we thank You that You are God and that there is no other And Lord, we do pray at this time that you would unstop our deaf ears, that we might hear of Jesus, Christ crucified for sinners like us, open up our blind eyes that we might behold Jesus, who is now high and lifted up, seated at the Father's right hand, and we anticipate that he will one day, even very soon, come again to judge the living and the dead.
Pastor: Lord, I pray that you will soften and humble our heart and hearts, that we might receive by faith our Lord Jesus Christ, and rest on Him fully this day.
Pastor: Lord, be merciful to your people. For Christ's sake, and it's in his name we pray, amen.
Pastor: People of God, hear God's word for us this morning from Acts chapter nine, beginning in verse 32 now, as Peter went here and there among them all, he came down also to the saints who lived in Lydda. There he found a a man named Aeneas, bedridden for eight years, who was paralyzed. And Peter said to Him, Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you and make your rise and make your bed. And immediately he rose, and all the residents of Lydda and Sharon saw him, and they turned to the Lord. Now there was in Joppa a disciple named Tabitha, which translated means Dorcas. She was full of good works and acts of charity.
Pastor: In those days, she became ill and died, and when she had washed her, they laid her in an upper room. Since Lydda was near Joppa, the disciples, hearing that Peter was there, sent two men to him, urging him, please come to us without delay. So Peter rose and went with them, and when he arrived, they took him to the upper room. All the windows stood widows stood beside him, weeping and showing tunics and other garments that Dorcas made while she was with them. But Peter put them all out and knelt down and prayed. And turned to the body, he said, Tabitha, arise. And she opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter, she sat up, and he gave her his hand and raised her up, then calling the saints and widows, he presented her alive.
Pastor: And it became known throughout all Joppa and many believed in the Lord, and he stayed in Joppa for many days with one Simon a tanner, He who has ears, let him hear the Word of God. Please be seated.
Pastor: There is nothing more we can do.
Pastor: And perhaps you've heard those words, there's nothing more we can do. They are sobering words.
Pastor: They are dreadful words that maybe you have heard from a doctor when you have been bedside with a beloved, and when you hear those words, there is nothing more we can do, you feel that gut punch of finality, of inevitability that we can't overcome death. It's too powerful for us. There comes a point when fighting against it has no more point to it. It becomes folly, and there is simply nothing more we can do.
Pastor: We will eventually all breathe our last breath and die. Death seems to always have the last terrible word, doesn't it? But this morning, I want to confront you with another reality that is more certain and even more powerful than death, and I want to tell you that. Us again about Jesus. This text, again, is a reminder to us that Jesus Christ is risen and reigning, and that Jesus Christ is Lord over all things. And I want to remind us this morning that Jesus has power over death itself, and even now, Jesus Christ is raising sinners to eternal life.
Pastor: As we come to this portion in acts at the end of chapter nine, we find these two miracles, and they might seem a little bit out of place if you are reading through this book, or if you've been with us the last few weeks, but there is a particular theme that ties our text together, and it's in these words rise up.
Pastor: Both of those words are said and both of the miracles that occur rise up. And if you are in the Lord Jesus Christ by faith, this is the reminder to you that death will not have the last word that Jesus will declare to you, rise up and you will live, not only now, but for all of eternity. Death is too powerful for us, and we cannot overcome it. There is nothing that we can do, but Jesus Christ will say, rise up and we will live, because He is all powerful, even over death. And only Jesus can do it, nothing else, nothing else under the sun, nothing else. In all of creation, there is only one name under heaven by which men will be saved, and that is Jesus. So as we turn to this text, just a reminder, we have been looking mostly at Saul of Tarsus. The last few weeks, Saul has been converted, and just recently, he was accepted into the church. And we step away here from Saul, and we left him in Tarsus, and he'll be there in Tarsus about seven to eight years before Barnabas goes to bring him back to Antioch.
Pastor: And then they begin their missionary journeys to the churches that we are familiar with in the New Testament. But the attention here now turns to Peter, who, if you remember, was in Jerusalem with the other apostles after Stephen was stoned, Jerusalem falls under much persecution, and much of the church is scattered around.
Pastor: But Peter and the other apostles do not abandon the church in Jerusalem. They have stayed to make sure that the gospel is still being preached and presented, and they're going to stay for the stay there with the saints in Jerusalem. But as I mentioned, the church has been scattered also in that scattering, a reminder to us that Christ is even in control of that scattering and of that persecution, that he is making sure the Great Commission is occurring that he will make sure the Gospel goes out into all the world, and Christ often persuades us and moves us through persecution and suffering to wake us up from our slumber of comforts and securities, to remind us of eternal realities, to remind us of the gospel, to go out and share it. And Peter is about to have a critical event occur in chapter 10 that we look at next week, a very significant vision from the Lord and an interaction with a name and a man named Cornelius, that will spur even greater the mission to the Gentiles, which all of us can be thankful for, for which we are here. But the events and miracles in our text are setting up what leads to that event, and they're also confirming the apostolic authority here of Peter in verse 32 we are told that Peter traveled to the saints who lived in Lyda and who was he visiting? It says the saints. And who are the saints that he's visiting? Here are these, those who have halos around their head and those who are just known for exemplary service. No, these are just ordinary Christians, ordinary followers of Christ, just like you and me. And if you are in Christ, you too are a saint that is set apart from God for God for His purposes, holy, washed, sanctified, being identified and now being in union and communion with the Lord Jesus Christ. If you are in Christ, you are a saint set apart for Him. And lydo is about 20 miles north.
Pastor: West of Jerusalem, and so Peter sees himself having some responsibility for the churches here, to help them in their time of need, to encourage them, to maybe instruct them and light up. Peter finds a man named Aeneas. He has been bedridden for eight years. We're told he's paralyzed. There's nothing more you can do for Aeneas. Surgery isn't going to help him.
Pastor: Physical Therapy isn't going to help either. There's nothing that's going to make this man walk anymore. And no doubt, if you have been paralyzed for the last eight years, you can just imagine Aeneas situation and the kind of discouragement and weariness and even hopelessness that might bring upon you. And Peter gets right to the point, doesn't he? There's not much of an introduction. He gets right to it, and he says, Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals. You rise and make your bed. And we're told at once he rose, and it's a miracle. What was impossible with man is possible with God.
Pastor: We see the power of Christ occurring once again. Because where does this power come from?
Pastor: It's not from Peter. It's not from the power of positive thinking. It's not even from Aeneas himself. He doesn't even request this. It is the power of the Lord Jesus Christ that makes this man stand and walk. Now, why does He say, make your bed?
Pastor: Is that the true miracle?
Pastor: Because I ask my kids all the time, and they doesn't happen.
Pastor: So of course, that's But why?
Pastor: Why is it there? Now, if you get up in the middle of the night and use a restroom or get a midnight snack, do you make your bed and then go back to it? You don't why? Because you know you're immediately going to go right back to it. So him telling him to make his bed is giving him the idea that there's a finality to it. You're done getting back into the bed.
Pastor: You're finished with it. Make your bed. You're done with it.
Pastor: You're not getting back into it.
Pastor: Rise and stand up. You're done with it. And this healing, like other miracles of the Gospels or even that we see in Acts, all point to a deeper truth, don't they? And you know this, if you've been here at this church for some time, blind Bartimaeus is pointing to our spiritual blindedness, that apart from the Holy Spirit working in our lives. We cannot see, we cannot understand the things of God, until God opens up our eyes to see and he cries out, Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me. Or even when Jesus feeds the 5000 it's not just he's filling stomachs. He's pointing people to Himself, the spiritual reality is how much that we need food. We need more the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the bread of life, and the same is the happening here in our text. And Jesus didn't wasn't crucified because he just did wonderful miracles. He was crucified because man naturally hates God.
Pastor: Psalm two reminds us, let us.
Pastor: They say, let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us. It reminds us that, apart from Christ, opening up our hearts and our eyes, we are against God. Paul will write to the church in Corinth, the natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit, for they are folly to him. And the point here in this miracle is that it's reminding us that all of us are really like Aeneas, spiritually paralyzed, unable to rise to heaven. Sin has left us again powerless. We can't free ourselves from guilt and sin. We can't forgive ourselves, we can't lift ourselves up into the fellowship and into the presence of God, and that's really what the Bible is all about. The whole story of the Scripture once Adam and Eve are kicked out of the garden is, how do we get back? How do we rise up and get to the garden? We we find ourselves stumbling. We cannot make it, and the only way back is for Jesus Christ to come, for him to be fixed or paralyzed and transfixed, to the cross, taking all of our sins upon himself, and that we might be washed in his blood, that we then, by faith in Christ and Christ alone might rise up into our union and communion. In with our Lord, only Christ can do it. Only Christ can raise us up. This miracle is actually a miracle that is very similar to a miracle that Jesus performed in Capernaum, if you remember in the gospels, some friends bringing a paralyzed friend of theirs, and they make a hole in the roof. Remember that story, and they lower this man down.
Pastor: And Jesus says, Son, your sins are forgiven. And they get upset because they say, Well, who can forgive sins but God alone? And then Jesus says, which is easier to say to the paralytic, Your sins are forgiven. Or to say, rise, take up your bed and walk.
Pastor: But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins, He said to the paralytic, I say to you, rise, pick up your bed and go home. And he arose and immediately picked up his bed and went out before them all, so that they were all amazed and glorified God saying we never saw anything like this. The miracle here in our text is again a parallel of Jesus's work to remind us that Jesus is still at work through the power of his Spirit, raising sinners to life and forgiving sins. And some of you might say, Well, I believe in Jesus, but I still have sickness or weakness and brokenness. And as we look through Acts, and even in the gospels, not everyone is healed.
Pastor: A miracle is quite rare that that occurs, Paul, we even tell others, you know, take a little bit of wine for your infirmity.
Pastor: But these are just small, little gospel pictures that we find in these miracles. It's giving us a taste of what Jesus has come to do, that is to restore a broken and cursed creation. Romans eight reminds us that this is what creation is longing for, being made whole. This is pointing us to our heaven, reality, this world is not our home, and it would have been the worst thing for this man to simply have just been able to walk but his sins not been forgiven. In fact, it would be judgment, because what does it profit a man to gain the entire world but yet lose his soul? Who cares if you're able to walk?
Pastor: Who cares if you're able to see if your sins are not forgiven, and that is the question. Who can forgive your sins except Christ alone. It's a gospel picture pointing us to our heavenly home. What we are groaning for, and we are groaning, aren't we, in many ways, and Paul even would ask for a thorn in his flesh to be taken away three times, praying.
Pastor: You remember how God responded?
Pastor: He said, My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. And then Paul would go on to say, well, I will boast all the more gladly of my weakness so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then I am content with weakness, insults, hardships, persecutions and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. And notice their fruit there. In verse 35 it says all the residents of Lydia and Sharon saw him, and they turned to the Lord. The healing, of course, is not an end in itself. It's all pointing us to Jesus. That's what they're here for. And then next we turn to Joppa, which is a little bit further away from Jerusalem.
Pastor: Lyda was about halfway between Joppa and Jerusalem and Peter's already in Lyda. So Joppa, some of you might recall, is a profitable port city on the Mediterranean coast. And maybe you've heard of Joppa before, because it wasn't too long ago that we were in Jonah. And where did Jonah go to when he was trying to flee from the Lord because he didn't want to go the Ninevites, those evil Gentiles, he went to Joplin and caught a boat. And what will Peter kind of do next in our text, he won't want to minister to the Gentiles. So there's a little bit of a parallel between running to Joppa here in verse 36 we're told now there was in Joppa a disciple named Tabitha, which translated means Dorcas.
Pastor: Tabitha, that's the Aramaic way to say her name, and Dorcas is how it would be translated in Greek. And if I'm Tabitha, I'd say, please call me Tabitha.
Pastor: This woman, we're told, was full of good works and acts of charity. Isn't that a wonderful description? Don't you long for that to be how you are described? She is loved by the church, and we're told she became ill and died, right?
Pastor: There's nothing more we can do.
Pastor: I mean, she's dead at this point, right? Certainly, there's nothing we can do, even modern medicine. Clearly, there's nothing you can do at this point, it's over. But since Lyda was near, Joppa, the disciples, hearing that Peter was there, sent two men to him, urging him please come to us without delay.
Pastor: Now, why do they send for Peter?
Pastor: And I'll be honest, I'm not entirely sure. Do they want the comfort that Peter would offer and the gospel hope that Peter would bring? I think that's possible. We're not told exactly why they're asking for Peter.
Pastor: Are they expecting something else from Peter? I don't know, but the amazing impact this woman has had to so many it kind of reminds me of the that movie.
Pastor: It's a Wonderful Life and George Bailey, and he thinks, you know, my life doesn't make any difference, but and then he sees all the ways his life has impacted and touched people. And the same is true for Tabitha.
Pastor: Once she passes away, there's all these people just show up here, showing what she did. It also reminds me of this lady that at the first church I served that her name was Betty rushing. And anytime a baby was born in our church, she made a blanket for that baby, just a small little thing was so impactful that she's thinking of it. She's taking the time. We have a little blanket made from Betty rushing. And when he arrived, Peter, we see all the widows are stood beside him weeping, and they're showing their tunics and other garments that she had made when she was with them. You can hear almost their voices. Look what she made for me. Look how she served us.
Pastor: Look how she helped us. But death has taken her away. Death is a thief, isn't it? It's an intruder in God's good creation.
Pastor: And you know that you feel that when someone you love passes away, it robs us of what is good. Death cuts down what is lovely. It steals away those we love. Peter, put them all outside, and he kneels down and he prays. And why does he pray?
Pastor: Because he can't do anything.
Pastor: Can he? Peter is powerless.
Pastor: There's nothing more Peter can do. But he throws himself on the mercy of his savior, Jesus, and he turns to this dead body.
Pastor: Think about it. Just picture it.
Pastor: He is turning now to a dead body, someone who is no longer there. And he speaks to this body, and he says, Tabitha, arise. It seems quite foolish, doesn't it? And if you were there, you probably would have laughed at Peter, him speaking to a dead body. And why do I say that, that you would laugh?
Pastor: Because Peter did exactly that.
Pastor: In fact, he did that to Jesus when Jesus was with Jairus daughter, who had passed away, and Jesus says she's not dead, but sleeping, and Jesus is not giving a different medical opinion, she indeed was dead.
Pastor: And Peter and John and her parents, they all laughed at Jesus. And there's an echo here again, of another miracle of Jesus, and it's very similar in that text with Jairus daughter, Jesus says Talitha Kum, where in our text he actually says Tabitha Kum. There's just a one letter difference, and the world laughs when they hear Christians talk about God becoming man, taking all of our sin and uncleanliness upon Himself on the cross, and people laughed at Jesus, then they laughed at him on the cross, and people, even today, continue to laugh at Jesus. But Psalm two reminds us, He who sits in the heavens laughs, because on the last day Jesus will appear, on all of his glory, resurrecting and calling all of his children to himself.
Pastor: And we're told even casting out all of those who do not know God and the gospel of the Lord Jesus, Christ, apart from Christ, Paul tells us in Ephesians, chapter two that we just read during the service, we are dead in our trespasses and sins. You and I are like Tabitha, dead in our sins, not weak, not sick. Dead. You heard Nathan say, What can a dead person do to save themselves?
Pastor: Nothing. Our only hope is that Christ, through the power of His Holy Spirit, enlivens our dead hearts and opens up our eyes and. Stops our deaf ears that we might have life. And in verse 40, she opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter, she sat up, and he gave her hand, and he gave her his hand and raised her up, then calling the saints and widows, he presented her alive.
Pastor: Now, Luke tells us, it became known throughout all Joppa and many believed in the Lord, and that's the point. Again, these miracles are not just random acts of kindness or awesome examples of power. They were testimonies, again, that Jesus now is alive and reigning and has power. And it's true today that the greatest miracle is not physical healings, but that Christ would transform your heart and give you life and wash away your sins. And Jesus is still doing that very miracle this day, rising the spiritually dead and giving faith, allowing us to trust in the Lord of life, and that is the ongoing resurrection power of Jesus.
Pastor: Through the ordinary preaching of the gospel and sharing the Gospel throughout the world, we begin by thinking about helpless and hopeless situations. And if you do not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. If you do not put your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, there is indeed nothing more we can do. That's it. Your death and eternal death are inevitable, and that's it. But if you will confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved, and one day, we will be witnesses to a funeral we have all waited for. There's one funeral that we have all longed to be a part of and that funeral is the funeral of death, the funeral of sin and misery.
Pastor: As John Owens said, it'll be the death of death and the death of Christ. And you who are in Christ, we will all be witnesses of it. So when you face those moments that seem hopeless in your life, remember Jesus has the last word when you stand bedside at a hospital or a grave site, remember Jesus will have the last word as You prepare even one day to breathe your last breath. Remember, Jesus will have the last word, and he will say, rise to you who are in the Lord Jesus Christ, and your eyes, like Tabitha, will be opened, and you will sit up in heaven, and you will behold him who was seated on the throne.
Pastor: You will see Jesus, who is raised up and who has all authority in heaven and on earth, and who has defeated death itself, as Paul reminds us, For this perishable body must put on imperishable and this mortal body must put on immortality When the perishable puts on the imperishable and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass. The saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death. Where is your victory? O death? Where is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law, but thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord, Jesus Christ, therefore my beloved brothers, Be steadfast, immovable, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. Death does not have the last word Jesus does. We can be encouraged. We can have hope in Christ. This day I call you, put your faith in Him. There is hope. Let's pray, Father. We, thank you for giving us your word. We, thank you for the reminder of that the Lord Jesus Christ is is risen and reigning.
Pastor: Lord, I pray that you would change our hearts, and that you would enliven our hearts this morning to give life now and calls those who are dead to rise Lord. We, thank you that death does not have the last word, that you sit on your throne and nothing will move you. We, thank you for giving us a Savior, and it's in Jesus's name we pray, Amen.