Arise!

Introduction

We’re back in Acts, one of the things that I’ve sought to do from the start of this series is to emphasise that the book of Acts is not the a record of what the apostles did, but that it is a record of what the Lord, through the Spirit, continued to teach and do after his ressurection and ascension (Acts 1:1).

This book records the activities and teachings of Jesus, with the goal of establishing his Church in the New Testament age, through his apostles and disciples, it is in fact the fulfilling of the promise

“and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Mat 28:20)

The two episodes that we are looking at today, the healing of Aeneas and the ressurection of Dorcas intend to convey and illustrate for us the power of the gospel of Christ as it makes it’s way to ends of the earth. These miracles point to the fulfilment of prophecies that anticipated the coming of Abraham’s blessing upon the gentiles.

Sandwiched between the miraculous conversion of Paul, the apostle to the gentiles and Acts 10, where the Spirit descends upon the house of Cornelius, a gentile. These miraculous events of Aeneas and Dorcas serve as a transition and a backdrop to the Gospel breaking the jewish fold into the gentile world. These events anticipate the healing and ressurection of the soul.

The healing of Aeneas, paralytic, possibly a believer and the ressurection of Dorcas, a disciple of Jesus in Joppa illustrate the Grace and Power of Christ. These two miracles are distinct and peculiar in some way, one is a man the other a woman, one is a healing the other a ressurection. But they present for some relevant and important parallels and similarities

They were realised by Jesus

They point to the regenerating work of the Spirit and anticipate the the final restoration of the created order

They brought Glory to God

“Jesus, the Christ, heals you”

As I said the cure of Aeneas and the ressurection of Dorcas were not the works of Peter, they were in fact works of Christ. Yes these miracles attest the apostolic authority of Peter, but only as an instrument used of Christ to recover Aeneas and bring back to life the deceased body of Dorcas. Both miracles were the Lord of Life’s doing.

The parallels of these miracles with our Lord’s ministry on earth should be noted:

Jesus healed a paralitic (Lk 5:17-26) and ressurected Jairus’ daugther (Lk 8:41-46).

Jesus is the same in heavenly glory as he was here on earth.

At Aeneas healing Peter declared explicitly

The New King James Version Chapter 9

Aeneas, Jesus the Christ heals you

In Dorcas ressurection, Luke tells us that Peter knelt and prayed before turning to the body and said “Tabitha arise!”

Evidently it was in the power of the risen Christ that she was raised herself and was presented to the community that she so much loved and served

Both these miracles are of Christ.

Miracles are always divine acts. They are supernatural interventions of God in creation, they defy any scientific explanation.

Modern and post-modern materialism rejects the idea that miracles exist, precisely because they defy the natural law. Nonetheless the Christian Faith is not founded on human experience but on two miraculous events. The incarnation and the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Our own faith is a miraculous event because it owes it’s inception not to natural causes but to the sovereign grace of the Father, the atoning work of the Son, and to the efficacious operation of the Spirit in our hearts.

The one who was given all authority on heavens and on earth ordains all things, directly or indirectly for the good of his people, the promotion of his kingdom and the glory of his name, he intervenes in a supernatural and miraculous fashion in creation, healing the sick and raising the dead (whether physically or spiritually)

“ARISE”

Therefore the cure of Aeneas and the ressurection of Dorcas are here to point us to the regenerating work of the Spirit.

The word for arise that we find in verse 34 and 40, is translated from the greek verb anistemi that is also translated as “to ressurect”, or “to raise from the dead”. It’s from this verb that the noun ressurection comes from.

I believe that Luke, under the inspiration of the Spirit, repeats the use of the word here to point us to the regenerating work that the Spirit does in the elect. He restores us from our soul’s paralisis and he revives our spiritually dead spirits

By declaring: “Arise!” in Jesus’ name, Peter reinforces that it is God who does this work. And the same Christ who raised the dead and healed the paralytic by his Spirit through the apostle is the same Christ who even now raises the spiritually dead by his Spirit through the proclamation of the Gospel.

He who received all authority on heaven and on earth, he that promissed to be with his church until the end of the age still operates the greatest miracle of all, the regeneration of the spiritually dead in their trespasses and sins.

Both miracles point us to this heart reassuring reality, that Christ is the ressurection and the life (John 11:25; 5:21).

Jesus came into this world he was obedient unto death, he rose from the dead on the third day according to Scripture, to save his people from their sins, to regenerate them by the Spirit through the Word preached. These miracles illustrate this for us

Furthermore these miracles anticipate the future restoration of creation that “groans and labours with birth pangs” (Rom 8:22) because of sin and the fall. These miracles anticipate that great and glorious day

One day the grave could conceal Him no longer One day the stone rolled away from the door Then He arose, over death He had conquered Now is ascended, my Lord evermore Death could not hold Him, the grave could not keep Him From rising again

One day the trumpet will sound for His coming One day the skies with His glories will shine Wonderful day, my Beloved One bringing My Savior Jesus is mine

Oh glorious day

These miracles anticipate the final Resurrection and the restoration of all things (Acts 3:21)

There will be no more pain, there will be no more tears, there will be no more disease of physical or psychological nature. What a glorious day!

“and many believed on the Lord.”

The third similarity between these miracles is that both resulted in the Glory of the Lord.

In both of these miracles, Luke is careful to emphasise that they were followed by honor and glory being brought to Christ by them believing in the Lord.

verse 35

Acts 9:35 NKJV

So all who dwelt at Lydda and Sharon saw him and turned to the Lord.

Obviously, “all”, here, does not need to have an all-encompassing meaning. It can and is frequently used of many or of a great number. What it indicates for us is that many recognised that the healing of Aeneas pressuposed divine power, that Christ was the true author of this event, and that they entrusted themselves to him

But let me say this, we should not think that they were converted because of the miracle or of these signs that Peter did. People are saved upon hearing and believing the gospel of Christ. The miracles only serve the purpose of calling attention to and attesting the validity and genuiness of the message. It is indispensable for salvation the belief in the truths of the Gospel, and ordinarily this is by the preaching of the Gospel

Romans 10:14 NKJV

How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?

Romans 10:17 NKJV

So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

Don’t think of Peter as a faith healer, think of him primarily as a preacher of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, as a witness of his redemptive work.

The cure of Aeneas peaked the interest of the crowds in Lydda and Sharon, and afforded opportunities to Peter and other disciples in the region to proclaim the Gospel to them. They explained that the man was healed by the risen Christ, the Son of God, the promissed Messiah. The one who himself was killed for our sins, and raised from the dead by God, Peter himself witnessed this and he testified of it.

The inhabitants of these cities were converted becoming themselves a witnesses and receivers of a much greater miracle than that of Aeneas. Their souls were restored the spiritual apathy and paralysis was taken away!

The same thing is true of the ressurection of Dorcas,

Acts 9:42 NKJV

And it became known throughout all Joppa, and many believed on the Lord.

The ressurection of this faithful believer again drew the interest of the crowds and as a consequence many believed. Certainly Peter took the opportunity to preach the Gospel to those who started gathering, and certainly as he had previously done, he declared the miracle was done by Christ, the one who rose from the dead who ascended to the heavens and who now sits at the right hand of the Father, having received all authority on heavens and on earth

The result was that many experienced an even greater miracle, they received saving knowledge of Christ, they had their rocky cold dead in its sins and trespasses heart regenerated. They were raised from the dead spiritually for the glory of Christ!

Conclusion

The gift of healing (the term is in the plural in 1 Corinthians 12:9, 30) was associated with apostles, as in this instance with Peter and Tabitha (cf. Acts 3:6–8; 5:16; 8:6–7; 14:9; 28:9). Therefore, the gift ceased along with the apostles. If this were not the case, why is it that claims to raise the dead are not being made today? It is sobering to think that in the thirty years of recorded history in Acts, only ten miracles were recorded in detail, though “clusters” of miracles are recorded that assume far greater numbers.4 If Peter’s “gift” to raise the dead was other than “unusual,” we might have seen him deploy this extraordinary ability more often than he did. The fact of the matter is that only five people (other than Jesus himself) were raised from the dead in the New Testament, of which only one was by Peter! Apart from Tabitha, the New Testament records three raised by Jesus—Jairus’s daughter (Matt. 9:18–26; Mark 5:22–43), Lazarus (John 11:1–46), and the widow of Nain’s son (Luke 7:11–15)—and one raised by Paul, Eutychus (Acts 20:9–12). These facts alone should make us cautious. Even in what we might call “lesser” healing miracles, there is evidence that these “gifts” were not employed without some restraint. Paul, for example, did not heal Timothy, but urged him “to take his medicine,” in this case, a little wine for his stomach ailment (1 Tim. 5:23). When Paul left Trophimus “sick” in Miletus (2 Tim. 4:20), it was not because he did not have sufficient faith or had failed to pray the “prayer of faith.” James makes it very clear that it is the Lord who heals, even when faithful prayer is offered on behalf of the sick (James 5:14–16).

There are three lessons for us.

First, it is important for us to underline that we live in a supernatural world. Miracles defy a natural explanation. They are not supposed to happen. To borrow a sentence from Charles Dickens, “This must not be.”5 Naturalist explanations rule out the possibility of miracles. The Scottish philosopher David Hume argued that a uniformity of experience argues that miracles do not occur. In fact, Hume went on to say that only a miracle would make him believe in miracles! C. S. Lewis responded to his resolute scepticism:

Now of course we must agree with Hume that, if there is absolutely “uniform experience” against miracles, if, in other words, they have never happened, why then they never have. Unfortunately, we know the experience against them to be uniform only if we know that all the reports of them are false. And we can know all the reports of them to be false only if we know already that miracles have never occurred. In fact, we are arguing in a circle.

No one who believes in Jesus can adopt such a point of view. The very existence of Jesus in the world is itself a miracle. The Christian faith is founded on the incarnation and resurrection of Jesus—both miraculous events. Our faith is a miracle in that it owes its origin to something other than a natural explanation! God intervenes in this world of space and time. At the very least, miraculous events like the one found in Acts 9 say to us that the circumstances in which we now find ourselves can be changed—by God and in answer to prayer.

This is not to say that there are any guarantees. Everything falls out according to the plan and purpose of God. His will is the ultimate authority, even for Jesus: “Not my will, but yours be done” (Luke 22:42).

This is so encouraging! The world we live in is not like the one governed by the worldview of the scientists and philosophers who deny the very concept of miracles. That view is deterministic and ultimately pessimistic. It assumes the blind and mechanistic “control” of genes and laws of nature. The book of Acts, on the other hand, presents a worldview in which God steps in and changes things. Just when you think things are bad and getting worse, he converts the key player in the opposition—Saul! He restores to health Aeneas at Lydda and raises a much-loved woman in the church at Joppa. God does this. Jesus is directing the course of this world, and his eye is fixed on the church. He is determined to bring his bride to glory, and once in a while he does things we never expect or foresee. Into the gloom and tears of Joppa, he brought joy and gladness. As a result, faith swept through the city. Joppa was not a large city, and news that a woman had been raised from the dead must have traveled quickly: “And many believed in the Lord” (Acts 9:42).

Second, there was a lesson here for Peter especially. There was a reason why God enabled him to raise a dead person to life here and nowhere else. Something was about to occur that would require Peter to be “on board” when otherwise his natural prejudices might cause him to balk. The next incident in Acts is the conversion of Cornelius—a Gentile Roman soldier! Peter was asked to minister to this man, and in the process was shown something of immense theological importance: the distinction between clean and unclean foods was now abolished. One of the sacred boundary markers of the Jews was about to be thrown down. Despite being told three times that he was no longer to consider any food ceremonially unclean, for a man who had never eaten bacon in his life, he was still “pondering the vision” as though he could scarcely believe what he was being told (Acts 10:19).

It may be difficult for us to imagine how large an issue this was for him. What would the Jews in Jerusalem (even Jewish Christians in Jerusalem) make of this? Even if the Diaspora Jews might be a little more lenient (which is doubtful), Peter’s authority outside of Jerusalem was not that certain.

We know that Peter later struggled with this issue in Antioch because he suddenly refrained from eating with the Gentiles in the face of a visit from “influential” folk from Jerusalem. This hesitation was to have catastrophic consequences, and Paul publicly faced Peter down over the matter (Gal. 2:11–21). Peter says that he was a very loyal Jew and, consequently, devoted to the ceremonial regulations. Perhaps this is why he was given the ability to raise Tabitha.

The miracle would have corroborated his authority as an apostle, vindicating what would otherwise have been seen as an act of betrayal to have given to Cornelius—a Roman soldier of some standing and a Gentile, no less—such prominence in the future direction of the church. In Cornelius’s home, Peter and his Jewish friends would eat food prepared in a way that violated Jewish scruples. But more importantly, when Peter made a return visit to Jerusalem, the “circumcision party”—those who insisted on circumcision for Gentile converts—were, at best, deeply suspicious of Peter’s actions and, at worst, violently critical of them (Acts 11:1ff.).

Third, Luke mentions the wonderful work of the mercy ministry that Tabitha engaged in. She was “full of good works and acts of charity” (Acts 9:36). Dorcas is described as mathētria, a female disciple. There is no need to suggest ordination or office here, since that is not in view. She is an example of what women have done through the centuries and continue to do, showing acts of practical kindness and mercy to those who are in need in the congregation. She was known for being “full of good works” and alms-giving; Luke makes special mention of her sewing (Acts 9:39). She is therefore an example of what every Christian—men as well as women—should be doing in the church. The need for practical acts of kindness had been the reason for the election of the seven men in Acts 6 to organise the aid in the relief of the widows in Jerusalem. In all likelihood, Dorcas had been converted through the ministry of one of these men, perhaps Philip. Out of this division of labour grew the office of deacon, a ministry of mercy in the church.

Before her illness, Dorcas had engaged in a ministry to the needy within her own church. Now, having been raised from the dead, she could return to it. She gave her life to helping those in need. She didn’t sit around complaining, “I didn’t get anything out of the sermon this morning.” She was too busy putting something into the church. She lived for others. She did what she could for others, and she was greatly loved for it. What Dorcas did was an example of what the church ought to do—be a community where believers care for one another in the most practical of ways. It may be in providing food for the families of those who are sick. I currently serve in a church where, when there is a bereavement, an entire battery of women almost take over the home, showing kindnesses and efficiency that, frankly, no “organization” could ever achieve.

What we see in this passage is a glimpse of a church where practical acts of kindness are seemingly the norm. Is this true of our church? Is this true of you? Are there things that you could be doing in order to help in the communal life of the body of Christ? Dorcas’s presence in the church was a continual reminder to them of the grace and power of God. God continues to heal in answer to prayer and, as James 5:14–18 makes clear, through the prayers and anointing of the elders of the church. Prayer should not undermine the role of medical and psychological intervention; rather, it should supplement it. When God heals through human instrumentality, it is still his doing. We should be fervent in our praying for those who are sick until God makes it clear to us that his will is otherwise.