Acts 9:32-43
June 9, 2002
Changed by God’s Grace
For millenia upon millenia change was slow, controlled, and assessable; now it convulses at warp speed. Change is the name of the game for all of us. In 1978 the average grocery store had 11,767 items to choose from, today that number is 24,531. A single edition of the NY Times carries more information than the average 17th century British citizen would encounter in a lifetime. The changes that have taken place in the past 20 years are phenomenal.
Each year Beloit College here in Wisconsin puts together a list to try to give the faculty a sense of the mindset their students. This year’s college graduates, those now entering the work force, born in 1980, have a different perspective on life than those of us born in the generation before.
They have no meaningful recollection of the Reagan Era and probably did not know he had ever been shot. They were still kids when the Soviet Union broke apart and do not remember the Cold War nor ever feared a nuclear war. They’re too young to remember the space shuttle blowing up. The expression you sound like a broken record means nothing to them, having never owned a record player. The Compact Disc was introduced when they were 1 year old. They have always had an answering machine. Most have never seen a TV set with only 13 channels, nor have they seen a black-and-white TV. They have always had cable. There has always been VCRs, but they have no idea what BETA is. They cannot fathom not having a remote control. Jay Leno has always been on the Tonight Show. Popcorn has always been cooked in the microwave. They never took a swim and thought about Jaws. The Vietnam War is as ancient history to them as WWII. They don't know who Mork was or where he was from. They never heard: Where's the beef?, or de plane, de plane. They do not care who shot J. R. and have no idea who J.R. is.
We live in a world of flux. The only constant is change. Yet with the phenomenal societal change in the past 20 years, personal change is as slow as a glacier, if at all. While our PC’s are outmoded the moment we unpack them and our cars depreciate as we drive off the dealer’s lot, you and I seem incapable of transforming our lives to be what we know we should be. We welcome with open arms societal change, but personal change is frightening. Leo Tolstoy said it best: “Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.” The fact of the matter is that the only people who truly welcome change are wet babies.
Our passage this morning is about change, change which occurs through the power of the gospel.
If you have ever looked at your life and saw something you wished you could change, but have been unsuccessful, this passage gives hope. If you have ever wondered whether the gospel is relevant, not just for eternity, but for today, this passage offers a promise that change, personal change, can take place. Yet that promise of change is one which is often far different than we often imagine. READ Acts 9:32-43.
These two brief accounts of healings illustrate the radical transforming power of the gospel. They are not a teaser that God in the past used to heal people, but not today, nor that he will today, but others and not you. Sandwiched in between the powerful transformation in the life of Saul and Peter’s cultural comfort zone being stretched we have these two incidences of healing.
As the initial wave of persecution has died down, the Apostle Peter moves beyond the borders of Judea into the outlying countryside of Palestine. As an itinerant minister, Peter confronts: disease and death, Gentile alienation and inclusion, political tyranny. But what happens when Peter confronts disease and death powerfully illustrates for us today how the gospel will transform will change us.
Aeneas
The first encounter we could easily breeze over as if it was nothing more than an isolated miracle, but to do so would be to ignore the valuable illustration it is of God’s power to change us. Peter makes his way northwest of Jerusalem to the city of Lydda.
In 1 Chronicles 8:12 this town is called Lod which was inhabited by the Benjaminites, located near the Plain of Sharon, mentioned in v35. Lydda was at a crossroads of the caravan routes from Egypt to Babylon and the road from Joppa to Jerusalem, being only about 30 miles from the capital. Peter’s visit does not so much to establish a church, but to visit those believers in that town. During the war with Rome 30 years later, Lydda was burned to the ground. After it was rebuilt, Christianity became a strong influence in Lydda by the 2nd century.
If you ever travel to Israel ... when it’s safe, I can guarantee that you will spend some time where Aeneas eventually walked, as the ancient town of Lydda now lies underneath the Tel Aviv airport.
Upon Peter’s arrival he came across Aeneas. We know little about him other than he was bedridden for eight years, or the Greek may read since the age of eight. Either way, this man was in a desperate way.
While paralysis today would be a deplorable condition, God graciously has guided our culture to provide for such people. But in that day, without ADA, motorized wheel chairs, physical therapists and good medical care, he would be confined to bed in home until the day he died.
We are not told what was the interaction between Peter and Aeneas other than that Peter speaks.
I can only imagine, because it's not stated in the Scripture, that Aeneas felt his best days were behind him. You have to recognize that Aeneas didn't ask Peter to be healed. He didn't say, "Peter, if you will pray for me, anoint me with oil, and lay your hands on me - then I will be healed." Luke tells us that Peter found Aeneas. Peter was the aggressor, not Aeneas.
Peter speaks, without focusing on himself or even Aeneas, but on Christ. He declares what is to be, with a note of command the work of Christ is immediate and complete.
Without wavering and in complete certainty that change will come the words are spoken.
Jesus Christ heals you...not will heal you, not “if the Lord wills” as an escape clause.
What is more, that healing is to be followed by obedience, evidence that healing has occurred, that real change has come: “Rise and make your bed!”
Many of us have been saying “Arise and make your bed,” to our teenagers with little result, so we know that was indeed a great miracle. This simple act shows his recovery is complete, he is cured. The change affects not only Aeneas, but the entire region as well as they turn to the Lord.
Tabitha
On the heels of this healing another miracle occurs, greater than the first. In v36 we are introduced to Tabitha in the town of Joppa. Joppa is today called Jaffa, a port city then as today. It was from this city that Jonah fled God’s command to go to Nivevah and is about 10 miles northwest of Lydda.
Luke gives his reader, Theophilus an insight to Tabitha when he translates her Syrian name into Greek. Unfortunately, we need a translation of the translation. Dorcas means gazelle and was a common name to describe a woman’s gracious beauty. This graciousness is further described in v36 as full of good works and charity. In v39 we are told what the acts of charity were: she made clothes for widows.
In Dorcas, Luke gives us a model of Christian charity to the marginalized in society. Then orphans and widows were the most economically vulnerable. No government safety net was there to catch them. So it should come as no surprise that there is indeed a sense of utter sadness in Joppa when she dies. The loss is tremendous. But while there is sadness, the church is not hopeless.
In v37 they prepare her for burial, washing her, which in the ancient world was not just a nicety so at least you decay clean. Rather, the vigorous washing was understood to be the last ditch effort to revive the person if perchance they weren’t dead yet. What is more, they laid her in an upper room. Rather than the common immediate burial they send for Peter. The three hour jaunt from Joppa to Lydda and back would take the better part of a day, but they had hope that death would not be the last word in Tabitha’s life. They believed God can change most desperate situation.
Peter arrives and what Luke describes may be familiar. Peter’s actions imitate Jesus’ raising of Jarius’ daughter in Mark 5 (read 5:35-42). From the weeping women to the clearing of the room, we see Peter reflecting the power of Christ. If Peter spoke Aramaic on this occasion, only a single letter would have been different, for Jesus had said Talitha cumi where as Peter would have said “Tabitha cumi!”
As with Aeneas, the healing restores the person, but the effect exceeds their own benefit. Because of this many believed in the Lord (v42). What is more, God used this miracle to providentially move Peter into Simon the tanner’s home in Joppa for what would happen next.
What are we to learn from this? Why does Luke insert these stories?
There are three applications I would like to make that will encourage us today.
Applications
That may not sound like cheery news in a sermon on change, but we have to hear the bad news before we hear the good news. But if we believe the bad new, that we are unable to change, then the good news will be even “gooder.”
Aeneas and Tabitha are powerful pictures of our own inability. You and I suffer from paralysis, unable to move from square one. Unfortunately, we have too often believed the lie that we can change. As Paul writes in Ephesians 2, apart from Christ we were dead in our trespasses and sins.
These unfortunate people compliment the doctrine of total depravity. Total depravity refers to the truth that sin permeates ever aspect of our being making even our good works unacceptable with regard to our standing before God. Total depravity does not mean we are as bad as can possibly be and that being relatively good to others does not matter. Depravity describes how sin permeates every part of who we are. There is no section that we can say is untouched.
Earlier in the week I bought a pineapple for a fruit salad. By Friday Janet noticed it was making a hissing sound and leaking juice on the counter. When I cut it open it was obvious that it had spoiled. Being the cheapskate that I am, I tried to salvage just a part, but every bit was putrid. It was a totally depraved pineapple, decay permeated the fruit.
Total inability says more. Because of depravity we are unable to do anything that will change our corruption. We can’t undo the effect of the fall in our life. A computer with a virus can not correct itself until someone fixes the problem. You and I are damaged goods; the effect of sin in our lives makes it so that we are unable to change to be what God demands of us – that is, to be perfect. We are paralyzed, we are stone cold dead. The changes we can make may be incremental and beneficial as far as others are concerned, but before God, we are unable to change. There can be no change until you realize that you can’t change yourself
The elementary truth we learned in high school physics applies to spiritual things as well. Newton’s First Law of Motion tells us that everything continues in a state of rest unless it is compelled to change by forces impressed upon it. So it is with us. Unless God intervenes we will not change.
Unfortunately, if we ignore this truth, that we are like Aeneas and Tabitha, that we are unable to change ourselves and try, we will do nothing more than engage in window dressing. We will change some of our actions, perhaps even some of our thinking, but our hearts will remained unchanged
You and I are nothing more than prunes. How? you ask...I’ll tell you.
Last year, after years of declining sales, the California Prune Board engaged in a $10 million makeover, changing the name of that dark wrinkly processed fruit known for its laxative properties and re-marketed it as a vitamin-rich snack for busy people on the go. It is now to be called a dried plum. It’s not the first time a fruit remained the same while the name was changed to protect the public perception. What was once the obscure Chinese gooseberry is now the wonderful kiwi. (Reuters, 9/13/00). We try the same thing when we try to change ourselves and think God will sit up and take notice, smiling politely on our self efforts. So if your spouse is in Primary Praise today and asks, “What did you learn today?” and you say: “I’m a prune” you’ll have some explaining to do. That is the bad news, here is the good news we so often forget...
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God takes pleasure to change us
Acts 9 illustrates what 2 Corinthians 5 declares. Last week Rev. Baker described the change that comes about by being in Christ. Here we see a picture of what it looks like. The old passing away, the new coming and that all this is from God.
We see that truth in how the events unfold. Peter speaks and Aeneas is healed. Tabitha dies but next time she opens her eyes she sees Peter and is back to the needle and thread, helping the poor. God takes the initiative because he is pleased to change us.
We have a glimpse of God’s pleasure to make us what we are not to be what he demands we should be in verses 32 and 41 – “saints”. This term for Christians is unusual in Acts, although common in Paul, referring not to some special category of elevated Christians who have through self effort achieved a higher status. Rather this is simply another term for the imputed righteousness of Christ, that is, that God declares us to be holy not on the basis of what we have done but because of Christ and Christ alone. The root word for "saint" means "different,” they are set apart for a special use. This is not something we can achieve, but the change in status comes from God and is by his grace.
A few years ago, an angry man rushed through the Rijks Museum in Amsterdam until he reached Rembrandt's famous painting "Nightwatch." Then he took out a knife and slashed it repeatedly before he could be stopped. A short time later, a distraught, hostile man slipped into St. Peter's Cathedral in Rome with a hammer and began to smash Michelangelo's beautiful sculpture The Pieta. Two cherished works of art were severely damaged. But what did officials do? Throw them out and forget about them? Absolutely not! Using the best experts, who worked with the utmost care and precision, they made every effort to restore the treasures. (Swindoll, The Quest For Character, 49)
By His sovereign grace, God can bring good out of our failures, and even out of our sins. The change God demands God supplies. He changes the most disfiguring and hideous sin in our lives and makes us a trophy of his grace. What in your life do you wish to see changed? What is the sin that seems to drag you down? Do you have a hard time controlling your anger? Does your mind wander in lustful thoughts? Do you find yourself being degraded by self condemnation and overwhelmed by guilt? Does fear paralyze, your past overwhelm you? If so, here is a simple but profound truth: “Jesus Christ heals you! Arise.”
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God’s change results in action
When God changes us, he does not change just our thinking, but he changes our very lives. He changes us so that we, by his grace, will obey. When God’s grace gets a hold of you, there is a radical new you. That newness is found in the simple command given in this passage: “Arise!” This command is given to both Aeneas and Tabitha.
This command to arise is the same root word for resurrection. What these two healings picture is what we celebrate each and every Sunday, the resurrection of Christ. But what we often forget is that his resurrection is the guarantee that you and I are now raised to new life, today.
This is the great truth of Romans 6:1-11. Those struggles we face each day with the remnants of the old man have their victory on that first Easter. If you believe that Christ is raised from the dead, you too, today, are raised to new life. The constant defeat we face from day to day is very real, but so is the promise that God is at work changing us to reflect his power.
This resurrection results in actions.
Aeneas makes his own bed.
When you cease to imagine that change comes from within yourself but that as God declares his love toward you he will also change you to be what he desires you to be – then you will do what he commands. There is no passive Christian life here. There is no “let go and let God” as though obedience and change doesn’t matter. God grants the power to heal us and the power to obey, and obey we must. Yet this obedience comes by the same faith in Christ that is necessary to claim eternal life in him.
Tabitha is presented to the saints and widows.
Although it is not clearly stated, I believe it is inferred that her coming back from the dead was for the purpose of further service. The dual designation of saints and widows points us back to the acts of charity she did before her untimely death.
God changes us not so that we can just be better people, not so that our life will be free from the plague of undesirable thoughts or activities. When God changes you he does so that you might serve others.
This powerful change of these two lives was not for the personal enrichment of Aeneas and Tabitha, nor for the promotion of Peter. Rather in vv35, 42 the benefit is that people would believe in the Lord. Luke records these two miracles as illustrations of God’s power to change.
The gospel now was spreading from Lydda throughout Sharon. Sharon is the coastal plain which stretches north from Lydda several miles to Caesarea. Isaiah predicted a blessing on Sharon in Isaiah 35:1-3 (read). That blessing was fulfilled as God changed two lives.
What impact will your changed life have in metro-Milwaukee or just in your neighborhood or family? While all around us our world changes at a feverish pitch, our lives need not be bogged down in the same sinful patterns. Jesus Christ heals you, so arise and go in the grace and power of God to live as he has commanded you to live.
