The Power of the Risen Jesus September 14, 2014 Acts 9:32-43 Matt Rawlings

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1 1 The Power of the Risen Jesus September 14, 2014 Acts 9:32-43 Matt Rawlings Acts 9:32-43 Now as Peter went here and there among them all, he came down also to the saints who lived at Lydda. 33 There he found a man named Aeneas, bedridden for eight years, who was paralyzed. 34 And Peter said to him, "Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you; rise and make your bed." And immediately he rose. 35 And all the residents of Lydda and Sharon saw him, and they turned to the Lord. 36 Now there was in Joppa a disciple named Tabitha, which, translated, means Dorcas. She was full of good works and acts of charity. 37 In those days she became ill and died, and when they had washed her, they laid her in an upper room. 38 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." 39 So Peter rose and went with them. And when he arrived, they took him to the upper room. All the widows stood beside him weeping and showing tunics and other garments that Dorcas made while she was with them. 40 But Peter put them all outside, and knelt down and prayed; and turning to the body he said, "Tabitha, arise." And she opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter she sat up. 41 And he gave her his hand and raised her up. Then calling the saints and widows, he presented her alive. 42 And it became known throughout all Joppa, and many believed in the Lord. 43 And he stayed in Joppa for many days with one Simon, a tanner. It s easy to romanticize the experiences of the underground church in the Soviet Union: cool, courageous stories of smuggling Bibles; cat-and-mouse games with the KGB; and images of Soviet Christians worshipping in the forest, their pews fallen logs and their chapel walls silver birch with a cathedral ceiling that reached the sky. But it was no picnic, no James Bond movie. The Soviet Christians were brutally persecuted, and their pastors preparation for ministry usually took place in a prison rather than a seminary. But the underground church was not underground. Believers spoke of Christ and won many to him, even in prison. This was Galina s story. Galina Vilchinskaya was a twenty-three-year-old Sunday school teacher who spent five years in prison for her gospel work; but prison, hunger, and beatings could not silence her. She led many in her prison to the Lord, so she was transferred to another prison and after that, yet another. For her, these transfers were just new gospel opportunities. Finally, Galina was transported by prison train to the utter east of Siberia, along with scores of other prisoners the worst of the worst. As the condemned in their cages rumbled on through the Siberian vastness, the din of cursing and fighting was broken by a clear, sweet voice of singing. It was Galina singing of her Savior. A hush fell over the train car. Even the most hardened criminals turned their faces away to hide their tears and mile after mile, hymn after hymn, Galina sang the gospel. 1 It s really absurd, though, that the full force of the Soviet Union was bent on crushing a Sunday school teacher for the crime of being a Sunday School teacher. Such senseless hatred, when it erupts to the surface, is like opening a furnace door to hell. But the gates of hell were no match for Galina s God. One striking proof of that is that today Galina is a pastor s wife in Siberia, where once she was a prisoner of an empire that no longer exists. - Keesee, Tim ( ). Dispatches from the Front: Stories of Gospel Advance in the World's Difficult Places. Crossway. Kindle Edition. 1

2 2 Too easily, we can forget that Jesus is still powerfully at work in and through His disciples still. We can look back on Acts and look back on history as something far distant and un-relatable. But, when we read the book of Acts, we are meant to see and to anticipate the powerful working of Jesus Christ in and through His disciples still. In the book of Acts, we have seen the thread that runs through it all, the overarching theme, that God s Plan Continues Unhindered. The Risen Jesus expands His church through the Spirit s power, despite all opposition. The disciples of Jesus in the early church experienced all kinds of hardships and faced all kinds of opposition. In Jerusalem, they faced persecution, imprisonment and death from religious zealots, who were convinced that they were right. Saul, who would later become the Apostle Paul, was one of their chief prosecutors and was a vicious monster, who was breathing out threats and murder against the disciples. Stephen was stoned and many were beaten, thrown in jail and carried away to die. As we will see in later chapters in Acts, the Jews outside of Jerusalem regarded Christians with animosity. We will also see that in the Roman Empire outside of Jerusalem, things weren t much better. Those scattered faced ridicule, rejection, the confiscation of property and sometimes imprisonment or death. They had no protections from the law. The culture didn t accept them. They were strangers and aliens. They were seen as weird. At best in the culture around them, Christians were generally thought of as backwards and reviled, ridiculed, rejected and shunned. At worst, they forfeited their lives as the cost for following Jesus Christ. All of this came about because they actually believed and preached that Jesus Christ is the one and only Son of God, who came to take the punishment for our sins, to bear the wrath of God, so that we might be made righteous in Him. And the early church was undeterred by all manner of hardship and persecution and suffering, because they actually believed and trusted that the good news of Jesus Christ is the power of God for salvation for everyone who believes. They didn t just believe though, they staked their lives on their belief in Jesus. They really believed that Jesus Christ is the Risen Lord and that He was powerfully at work and He would be at work in and through them, to bring others to Himself. So, it says in Acts 8:4 that those who were scattered went about preaching the word. In today s account, we read of Peter, who is going about, teaching and preaching the Word and we see Jesus doing great miracles through Peter. Sometimes, when we read the book of Acts today, I think we read it like a dry history book. We can read it as if it is some distant and perhaps sometimes un-relatable account. We can read it but fail to be affected by it. But God s Word isn t some fairy tale and it isn t just some history about events that have long passed. It is meant to instruct us and inform us and transform us, as we see its truth. As Luke wrote this account about Peter, I think he wanted the reader to see, many years later, that Main Idea: The risen Jesus Christ is still powerful and is actively working in and through His disciples. But, not only are the readers meant to see that, The risen Jesus Christ is still powerful and is actively working in and through His disciples the intent was to bolster their faith and to increase their expectancy for Jesus to continue to be at work. For us, in our country, we are facing a culture that is increasingly hostile to Christianity. Several parts of our government has recently carried out training claiming that those who are Bible believing Christians are potentially 2

3 3 dangerous members of society. Around the world, the threat of radical Islam and the persecution and murder of thousands of Christians is very real. But we must not forget, we have a risen Savior. Jesus Christ is not dead He is alive and He is ruling and sovereignly reigning over all the earth and all of mankind. Today, perhaps as much as the first Christians reading the Acts of the Apostles, we need to understand and know and trust, that our Risen Savior is still the most powerful One. And He is still actively at work in and through His disciples. In this brief passage of Acts, we can see that Luke is demonstrating three truths for his readers. 1. Disciples of Jesus do great works by the power of Jesus. And we are going to spend the bulk of our time looking at this first truth, because it seems to be the main emphasis for Luke. Luke begins his account in verse 32, where he writes, Now as Peter went here and there among them all, he came down also to the saints who lived at Lydda. Peter did not remain in Jerusalem for the entirety of his ministry. He had stayed for a while in Jerusalem, presumably to care for and comfort the church while they were under persecution there. However, now Peter went out into Israel and it says he went here and there among them all. He was actively ministering among all those who believed, caring for the church. Now, he was about a 10 hour walk from Jerusalem in the area of Lydda, which is near the area of modern day Lod, west, and a little bit north of Jerusalem on the way to the coast. When it says that Peter came down to the saints who lived in Lydda, it seems that he specifically was seeking to go about teaching and encouraging those who believed in Jesus There he found a man named Aeneas, bedridden for eight years, who was paralyzed. And Peter said to him, Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you; rise and make your bed. And immediately he rose. (Acts 9:33-34) And as Peter went along, he didn t ignore those in need. Back in Acts 5, we know that Peter had made it a practice to minister to the sick and it says that so many people were healed that they carried the sick out into the streets and laid them on cots and mats so that as Peter came by at least his shadow might fall on them and they might be healed. But Peter didn t grow comfortable. He didn t stay there in Jerusalem only letting people come to him. He didn t become complacent either. He went here and there among them all and he found those who were sick he found Aenea. Peter was imitating the work of Christ, who went among the people of Israel, proclaiming good news and healing the sick. I am sure that Peter remembered the time Jesus had seen a man lying beside the pool of Bethesda, and he had been paralyzed for 38 years. He had waited for 38 years for someone to put him in the water when God stirred it, so that he might be healed but since he had no one to put him in the water, others would beat him to it. And Jesus just simply said to the man, Get up, take up your bed and walk. And he did. So, Peter is now in a similar situation and he steps out in faith in the healing power of Jesus, knowing that Jesus desires to heal. So, Peter comes to Aeneas and tells him, "Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you; rise and make your bed." Peter didn t say that he made him well. Peter didn t for a moment take any credit or believe that somehow he was making Aeneas well. He said Jesus Christ heals you; rise and make your bed. 3

4 4 Peter didn t seek to glorify himself by using the gift that God had given to him, he was glorifying Jesus Christ. He also wasn t pointing Aeneas to look to him or have faith in him, he was pointing Aeneas to have faith in Jesus Christ, to look to Jesus Christ to heal him. And Aeneas on his part, it seems didn t waiver or hesitate. We don t see any lack of faith at all, on the contrary, we see that it says immediately, he rose. Can you imagine being paralyzed and bedridden for 8 years? I would bet that you or I might be tempted to think, You know Peter, I m paralyzed or Peter, you know, I d like to get up, really, I would, but I can t It s been 8 years. My muscles don t work anymore. But we see instead is a response of immediate faith put into action. So, Aeneas gets up and he rose immediately. His paralysis was immediately healed. All of the necessary nerve connections and muscles and tendons and ligaments were in place miraculously. His legs were immediately strengthened. Jesus Christ had healed him instantaneously. And Jesus did this so that the people of Lydda and Sharon could see that He was still alive, still powerful and still at work in and through His people. Even though Jesus was not physically present, He still exercised dominion over sickness and He still healed. And the news about the healing must have spread because they heard about Peter being there in Joppa, about 12 miles away. Look at verse 36, it says, Now there was in Joppa a disciple named Tabitha, which, translated, means Dorcas. She was full of good works and acts of charity. Luke then tells us about a disciple there named Tabitha or Dorcas. Tabitha was a woman who did so many good deeds and gave to the poor and in need that it says she was full of good works and acts of charity. As a disciple of Jesus, she had a great reputation and she was obviously well-loved. Her name translates to gazelle, the same metaphor used for the beloved in the Song of Solomon. The name was fitting because she was full of good works and acts of charity and was indeed much beloved. Verses 37 and 38 say, In those days she became ill and died, and when they 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. " The beloved Tabitha had become ill and died and after they washed her body and prepared her according to the normal burial rights, they did something strange. They didn t bury her. This would have been odd, because the Jews in that day did not embalm and they also did not want to be defiled so it would have been customary and expected to quickly wash and then bury the body, so that they would not be defiled for long and so that the body would not begin to stink. But they didn t do that. The other disciples had heard that Peter was only a few hours away and so, instead of burial, they laid her in an upper room typically a room made on top of the house. Then, her fellow disciples sent two men to Peter and they strongly implored him to come to them without delay. It doesn t tell us if they explained why or what they said but from the language used here, they virtually begged him to come with them. Then, verse 39 tells us that, Peter rose and went with them. Peter didn t waste any time. He didn t wait around. He didn t say, Hey, you know I am so sorry to hear about your friend Tabitha, but since she was a disciple of Jesus and now she s dead, she is in a much better 4

5 5 place. He didn t say, I ll pray for you all. It says Peter rose and went with them. He got up and he went. I wonder what Peter was thinking. I wonder if he was expecting her to come back to life. Well, he went with them and Luke describes the scene and what happened next, telling us, And when he arrived, they took him to the upper room. All the widows stood beside him weeping and showing tunics and other garments that Dorcas made while she was with them. So, they take Peter right upstairs to the room where they had laid her body. And all of the widows were standing beside him and weeping and showing Peter all of the things that Dorcas had made while she was with them. It must have been both an incredibly sad and precious time. Here was this beloved woman who had died and they all clearly loved her and respected her and were grateful for the gift that she had been and now they were standing there weeping beside Peter. They were probably telling Peter all about her and saying things like, see this beautiful coat that she made for me? I couldn t afford it, I am a widow and I don t have anything, but Tabitha made me this beautiful tunic that I m wearing. Tabitha clearly was generous and she had blessed these widows who wouldn t have had much in the way of possessions, if anything, with tunics and other garments. I ve been in situations like this before. You feel privileged to hear about the person who has passed and you share in their grief and sense of loss. I can imagine that Peter sympathized with them. But Peter was full of faith and he was trusting in the power of God to make her alive again. So Luke tells us in verses 40-41, But Peter put them all outside, and knelt down and prayed; and turning 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. Peter followed the example of Jesus yet again. Peter would have remembered that Jesus can raise the dead to life. He remembered a similar situation when Jesus had raised the daughter of Jairus from the dead. Jesus had put out the people who were mourning. He put out the doubters and he told her Talitha Cumi, or little girl arise. Now, Peter puts out the mourners. He didn t want any who lacked faith or any who might doubt to be around. But he didn t immediately tell her to come back to life. The first thing that Peter did was rely on the power of God. He must have anticipated that they wanted him to pray and perhaps bring her back to life. He must have been thinking about what he would do when he got there. But even after all of the miracles he had performed in the name of Jesus, he knew that the power did not come from him and that he was reliant on Jesus granting power and life. So it says that he knelt down and prayed. He sought God for His power. He sought God for her life. And then, after he had prayed, he said virtually the same thing Jesus had said to the little girl. Peter says, Tabitha, arise. Then, this woman who had been ill and was dead, opened up her eyes and it says when she saw Peter, she sat up. I cannot imagine what she must have been thinking. She was dead and now she was alive. I don t know if she had been with Jesus and he told her, Tabitha, I know you like it here and I know you want to stay with me but I need you to go back and glorify my 5

6 6 name so that more people are saved because of you. It doesn t tell us and it doesn t tell us what she experienced and what things were like for her when she was dead. In fact, the Bible never draws attention to the experience of people who have died and come back to life. I think that is because we aren t meant to put our hope or faith in someone s experience as much as we are to hope and put our trust in God and His Word and what He has already revealed about heaven to us. The main emphasis is not Tabitha s experience of the afterlife nor even of what she did after she was brought back to life. But the main thing we are meant to see is the power of Jesus to make the dead alive. Luke is showing us that even though Jesus is no longer physically present with His disciples, He is actively present and demonstrably present and really present with them here on earth still. Jesus is not passive. He is not disengaged. He is not distant and dormant. Luke is showing us that Jesus is actively involved in the life of His disciples. Jesus is present with His disciples. He is doing ministry in and through His disciples. He is still alive and working. Jesus is engaged in the life and activity of His disciples and is near to His disciples. He still works powerfully on behalf of and in and through His disciples. This is what the early disciples experienced. And Tabitha s resuscitation is a testimony to the continuing power and presence of Jesus with His disciples. She was brought back to life for a time, so that she might be a demonstration of the power of Jesus and the testimony of the disciples. She was brought back to life to demonstrate that the new life that the disciples of Jesus spoke about is real. Ultimately, both Aeneas and Tabitha died physically. But they did not truly die. And because of the miracles that Jesus performed in that day, countless others were brought to new life. That is the point isn t it? You see, the second truth that Luke is demonstrating here for us is that 2. Jesus does great works through His disciples, to give people new life. The purpose of miracles is to demonstrate to people everywhere the very real and very great power that Jesus has. So, it tells us the reaction of the people all around in verse 35. It says, And all the residents of Lydda and Sharon saw him, and they turned to the Lord. The effects of Jesus demonstrating His power was that all of the residents of this town and the nearby town saw him. They probably knew Aeneas or had heard of him. Maybe he had been in a well-known accident or maybe he was laid at the local synagogue to beg because he couldn t provide for himself anymore. We don t know, but we do know that God used Aeneas to testify to Himself, His Word and His power. I can imagine Aeneas was excited. I am sure he was full of joy and probably couldn t stop talking about what had happened. I m sure he told everyone he saw about how he had been paralyzed for 8 years but then, Jesus Christ healed him through Peter. And when the people saw Aeneas, they turned to the Lord. So also, down in verse 42, Luke tells us what was the intended effect of the miraculous raising of Tabitha from the dead. Jesus raised her from the dead temporarily, so that He might permanently give many new life, eternal life in Him. It Verse 42 Luke writes, And it became known throughout all Joppa, and many believed in the Lord. All throughout this sea-side, port- 6

7 7 city of Joppa, it became known that Jesus had raised Tabitha from the dead through Peter. So, it tells us that many believed in the Lord. The miracles of healing a paralytic man and making a dead woman come alive again are meant to show that Jesus has power over sickness and disease still. He has power over illness and death. And He is able to make the dead to live again. Jesus is alive and the miracles that Peter performed are visible signs of the new life that Christ brings. I like the way John Stott puts it when he says, both miracles were signs of the salvation of Jesus recovery from paralysis and resuscitation from death were both visible signs of that new life into which, by the power of the resurrection, we sinners are raised. We have been given new life the resurrection life of Jesus Christ and now, He counts us as having already raised up with Him and seated with Him in heavenly places. We are secure in Him. We need not fear anything in this life. We have been given eternal life and we have an opportunity to share this life with others, so that many might believe in Him and be saved. Recently, I was reading a book called Dispatches from the Front: Stories of Gospel Advance in the World s Difficult Places and at the beginning of the book, author Tim Keesee writes of Jesus working through one of his disciples to bring people new life. On the gospel front as well one that also has its share of real bullets and bombs it s the foot soldiers that God uses to move the boundaries of his kingdom into more and more hearts. Not long ago I was on the Syrian border where Christians run a little clinic, providing medical services along with the gospel to Bedouin tribes. A British nurse named Claire told me that radical Muslims have threatened to kill them and burn the hospital down. She also told me they had not reported these threats because the government would close the clinic for the safety of the staff. She said matter-of-factly, Whether it s the bad man with the gun or the nice man with the tie, the result is the same the clinic will be closed. We have no reason to stop now. They have stolen our vehicles and threatened to kill us, but they have not harmed us yet and cannot unless God permits it and even then, it will be OK because we will be with the Lord. Even though she had faced armed robbers and lethal force, Claire s voice was as steady as her faith. Claire doesn t have a death wish; she has a living hope. She knows Christ is powerful to save her and to save all who come to him. - Keesee, Tim Jesus is still doing great works through His disciples. Jesus came that we might have new life in Him. A life that can never be taken away from us, even though we all will one day die. Christ is powerful to save and to save all who come to Him. He will not lose any who come to Him, whom the Father has given to Him. Jesus told us in John 10:28-30, I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one." Jesus does great works through His disciples to give people new life and once we have the new life, it can never be taken away from us. Finally, there is another brief truth that Luke demonstrates for us in verse 43. Luke demonstrates through Peter that 3. Jesus works His new life greatly in His disciples. 7

8 8 He wrote in verse 43, And he stayed in Joppa for many days with one Simon, a tanner. Peter stayed there for a long time, presumably preaching the gospel and instructing the believers there. Now, it isn t the main idea of the passage but I think there is something we should notice here. Simon the tanner and whomever housed Peter in Lydda were generously practicing hospitality. Peter didn t stay in the Jaffa Holiday Inn. He stayed in people s homes and the fact that people were always ready and willing to host Peter and Paul and others in the New Testament is a demonstration of the kind of hospitality that the early church willingly practiced. And notice a small detail. It says that he stayed with Simon, a tanner. Why does Luke tell us that Simon was a tanner? Why is that important? Well, although it is a small detail, it is important because it shows us that Peter was not living according to the traditions of men as a disciples of Jesus. You see, tanners were reviled by the Jewish religious crowd. They dealt with dead things constantly as part of their trade and they would have been considered defiled, because he was engaged in an unclean occupation. Most people didn t associate with tanner s and the law even provided for a woman to break off her engagement if she didn t know her fiancé was a tanner and then the truth came out. But we don t see Peter living by religious traditions and prejudice. He lived with Simon the tanner, most likely in the same house where Simon conducted business. But Peter wasn t made unclean by Simon and accepted him as a brother despite any religious notions of being an unclean person and his house being an unclean place. You see, Jesus Christ was powerfully at work in Peter to change him and get rid of prejudices and he was preparing him for one of the biggest changes as Peter was about to be used by Jesus to endorse the salvation of the Gentiles. As Peter went from place to place, Jesus was still working powerfully in Peter and working through Peter. Why is this important to see? Because we need to know and have faith and trust that Jesus is still working powerfully in us. He is still transforming us into the new person that He has called us to be. He is actively working to conform us into His image. Yes, He calls us to obey Him and yes, he calls us to faithfully work for Him, but it is ultimately His power at work in us to transform us and it is His power at work through us. So we can trust in Jesus to change us where we need to change as we follow Him and we can trust in Jesus to work through us, as we step out and preach His good news. In the midst of a hostile culture and with threats all around, Jesus still works powerfully to heal. He still has power over life and death and He still is at work in and through His disciples. Luke has shown us that Jesus sovereignly was working all of this to bring about the salvation of many because He is the giver of new life and we can trust Him with all of our life Redeeming Grace Church. This transcribed message has been lightly edited and formatted for the Website. No attempt has been made, however, to alter the basic extemporaneous delivery style, or to produce a grammatically accurate, publication-ready manuscript conforming to an established style template. 8