Manuscript Acts 9.19_31 (3)
John Eubank
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Ministry of One
A. The Rapport of the Time
In my reading this week I came across the name Alexander Solvhenitsyn. Having no idea who he is I went about looking up his name and found out the great influence that he would have upon people like John Piper and C.S. Lewis. Piper said this about him “
, A nobel prize-wining author, lived to tell the world about the torture and death in Russian Gulags, prison camps in Siberia where the Communists exiled millions of people.
Family member or Russian Orthodox church
Lost his faith in Christianity and became an atheist and embraced Marxist-Leninism
Captain in the Red Army during World War II—math skills
He was awarded the 1970 Nobel Prize in Literature "for the ethical force with which he has pursued the indispensable traditions of Russian literature",[8] and The Gulag Archipelago was a highly influential work that "amounted to a head-on challenge to the Soviet state", and sold tens of millions of copies.[9]
B. The Review of the Text
We have seen an amazing witness of a person who was set on destruction now changed completely. One who was dead in their trespasses in sin now alive the things of God. One that was completely spiritual blind now able to see both physically after three days and also Spiritually after living a life for himself pursuing what he thought was best.
C. The Reading of the Text
D. The Relevance of the Text
How precious are the lives of man before the God who not only created them but holds them together? Even more amazing is a God that is in relationship with those he created to direct and guide us as we walk the life that himself has provided for us. The confidence that he gives us to know that we are not alone but can go about our business of day to day life knowing Christ is with me for HIS purpose. My desire this morning is that we would see that hand in the life of those in the text today and understand that God can and will do those same things with you and I.
T.S. We meet in Acts in vs. 32 with “A life Healed in the Lord’s Name”
I. A Life Healed in the Lord’s Name
I. A Life Healed in the Lord’s Name
Now as Peter went here and there among them all, he came down also to the saints who lived at Lydda. 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. And all the residents of Lydda and Sharon saw him, and they turned to the Lord.
I love how this portion of scripture starts with Peter went here and there. NIV says Peter traveled about the country. and NASB says traveling through all those regions. If you don’t know what is going on at the moment you might think that Peter is wondering around aimlessly looking to get into the next thing that he runs into. But we know what is happening to Peter don’t we! God is being led by God to share the Good News about the Son of God as he is going just like he has been told by Christ himself and this day he has made it to the town called Lydda.
He has come to be among the saints in Lydda and he finds among the saints a man names Aeneas. It is interesting that Aeneas is counted among the saints before his healing which is unusual for the healing that we experienced when Jesus walked the earth. The healings of Jesus seemed to be the beginning of faith for people not something that had been completed after their faith. But for Aeneas we learn quickly that he has been bedridden for some eight years because he was paralyzed. Luke draws great pictures in Acts around the works of God in peoples lives and this time is no exception.
The scene is a man who has come to Christ by faith sitting in his bed paralyzed unable to help himself who is about to be healed because on this day Peter comes to visit and be used by God. Vs. 34 says that Peter tells him..”Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you, rise and make your bed.”
There are debates about what happened in this moment on what it meant to make your bed or pick up your Mat as other versions describe the event. Beloved, I think just maybe we may be missing the point of a man just got healed who was paralyzed for 8 years! It did not take a week for the healing to take affect. The healing was immediate and complete! This is the way Jesus healed people when he walked among us.
And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I will; be clean.” And immediately the leprosy left him.
And he laid his hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and she glorified God.
And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him, glorifying God. And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God.
Jesus has ascended into the heavens to take his place as the name that is above all other names and no longer walks in this world but now uses his disciples to spread his fame in the early days of the church.
And all the residents of Lydda and Sharon saw him, and they turned to the Lord.
Turning to the Lord was the way it has been often said in the OT of the nation of Israel repentance before the Lord.
Turn to him from whom people have deeply revolted, O children of Israel.
I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud
and your sins like mist;
return to me, for I have redeemed you.
“Yet even now,” declares the Lord,
“return to me with all your heart,
with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;
and rend your hearts and not your garments.”
Return to the Lord your God,
for he is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love;
and he relents over disaster.
From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. But you say, ‘How shall we return?’
turning, repentance is what our hearts desperately need!
T.S. No only was a life healed but in the next verses a life is restored in the Lord’s name.
II. A Life Restored in the Lord’s Name
II. A Life Restored in the Lord’s Name
Now there was in Joppa a disciple named Tabitha, which, translated, means Dorcas. She was full of good works and acts of charity. In those days she became ill and died, and when they had washed her, they laid her in an upper room.
Before thinking this woman has an alias understand that Dorcas is her Greek name and Tabitha is her name in Aramaic. It was common during this time for people to go by either of these names. The information that we need is in that she was a disciple(only female use of word in NT) who get this “was full of good works and acts of charity.” Don’t rush over the statement “Full of Good works and acts of charity.” Dorcas is a disciple of the Lord who according to these verses was involved in the lives of the widows, caring for them and loving on them just like we had been told earlier by Luke had been a problem in the early Christian church.
Now in these days when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution.
vs. 37 informs us that she has died and they washed her for burial which is according to custom but then they laid her in the upper room, which is far from custom. Usually they would be trying to bury the body immediately. But the follower in Joppa have a plan and a great faith! What they do next is an expression of their belief that their Lord is very much still involved in their lives.
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 widows stood beside him weeping and showing tunics and other garments that Dorcas made while she was with them.
Lydda was about 10 miles from Joppa about a 3 hour walk. Hearing that Peter is close they have placed her in the upper room thinking that Peter can do something about it. Faith of these disciples that Peter can be used by THEIR LORD to works such an amazing Miracle! Peter upon hearing of the death of Dorcas heads to Joppa and is greeting by the widows. The widows are showing him garments that they have on that have been made by Dorcas and speak to her care for them as a disciple of the Lord’s.
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. And it became known throughout all Joppa, and many believed in the Lord.
Peter clears the room and then seeks the Lord. Make no mistake Peter had been a room just like this before but with his Master and he knew what he was capable of doing.
And he allowed no one to follow him except Peter and James and John the brother of James. They came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and Jesus saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly. And when he had entered, he said to them, “Why are you making a commotion and weeping? The child is not dead but sleeping.” And they laughed at him. But he put them all outside and took the child’s father and mother and those who were with him and went in where the child was. Taking her by the hand he said to her, “Talitha cumi,” which means, “Little girl, I say to you, arise.”
Dorcas is risen from the dead and Peter takes her to those with whom she has been serving and gives her back to them. The event that happen this day did absolutely serve the widows of the area to give them back Dorcas. But this was all part of the Plan of God because of vs. 42.
And it became known throughout all Joppa, and many believed in the Lord.
Many believed in the Lord.
T.S. A life Healed and a life restored, but I don’t want you to miss a life Utilized by the Lord.
III. A Life Utilized by the Lord
III. A Life Utilized by the Lord
And he stayed in Joppa for many days with one Simon, a tanner.
In passing at the end of this section we find that Peter stayed in Joppa for many day. I want you to think about our big footed, big mouth, leader of the disciples friend Peter. The one that our Jesus saw the potential in far before he would ever become the man we see in these verses.
Peter the one who:
He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
“The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!
Peter said to him, “Lord, I am ready to go with you both to prison and to death.” Jesus said, “I tell you, Peter, the rooster will not crow this day, until you deny three times that you know me.”
But Peter said, “Man, I do not know what you are talking about.” And immediately, while he was still speaking, the rooster crowed. And the Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the saying of the Lord, how he had said to him, “Before the rooster crows today, you will deny me three times.” And he went out and wept bitterly.
He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.
But Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and addressed them: “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and give ear to my words.
This is who our Lord chose to lead the disciples. This is the man that he is using this day to raise Dorcas from the dead. This is the man that our Lord saw fit to get him to Joppa to raise Dorcas so he would be ready for the next mission that is in Caesarea that Peter doesn’t even know about yet! This is a follower of the Lord’s that is being utilized for the Kingdom of God!!
Application:
Application:
I want finish by telling you about a man named Boris Kornfeld. Chuck Colson wrote about him in his book titled, “Loving God.” He was a Jewish doctor, Kornfeld met a devout Christian in the prison camp who shared with him how Jesus came for the Jews first and gave His life for all. Gradually, Kornfeld would grasp the Truth of the Gospel and became a Christian himself. The scarcity of doctors in these isolated camps meant the doctors lived in better conditions than most prisoners. His medical skills were needed for guards and prisoners.
Boris Kornfeld knew his life was in danger for not signing documents that meant almost certain death for prisoners, and for reporting the orderly, who was sentenced to three days in the punishment block. Kornfeld shared his newfound faith with a young prisoner - whom he operated on for cancer of the intestines - talking to him throughout the afternoon and into the night.
Kornfeld continued to pray the Lord’s Prayer as he went about his backbreaking, hopeless tasks as camp doctor. He tried to help the prisoners suffering from disease, cold, overwork, beatings and malnutrition. The doctor had been repeatedly asked to sign forms certifying prisoners were healthy enough for punishment. Eventually, he refused to sign the forms.
As Colson writes, the patient pondered the doctor’s impassioned words. As a result, he, too, became a Christian. The patient survived that prison camp and went on to tell the world what he had learned there.” The next morning Dr. Kornfeld died after suffering eight blows to his head.
His young patient was Alexander Solzhenitsyn. Imagine the conversation in heaven when Alexander Solzhenitsyn and Dr. Boris Kornfeld were reunited. Solzhenitsyn once said, “…no matter how formidably Communism bristles with tanks and rockets, no matter what successes it attains in seizing the planet, it is doomed never to vanquish Christianity.”
Think about the immeasurable impact of one life. There’s a Russian proverb Solzhenitsyn would quote, “One word of Truth outweighs the whole world.” We, too, need to tell others the Truth, so they will know and be “set free” (John 8:32).
Chuck Colson
“The Gospel isn’t a formula you apply to your life; its a story you’re meant to inhabit.”