Something Great - Acts 9.32-42

As I prepare for my sermons, I lay out the texts about a month in advance. We have been looking at the Book of Acts, looking at spreading the Kingdom while building a community. All the messages I have tried to keep with this theme. As such, I have skipped portions and even chapters, such as Acts 7. Here in Acts 9, this is the 5^th message, whereas Acts 10, a longer chapter, will have only 2 messages.

Originally, I thought that I would not have as many. I thought last week I would be finished with Acts 9, but as I laid out the messages, I couldn’t get past this one. It didn’t seem to fit a flow. But still there is a message here that we need to consider this morning. I brought it up Wednesday night at our prayer meeting. Jim and I had a great discussion about it. It made me wonder about the event. Let’s read this morning’s text:

What was it about this passage that I couldn’t pass? I went back to verse 31, and the church was encouraged by the Holy Spirit. Here we have Peter, being encouraged by the Holy Spirit, leaving Jerusalem and the comfort of safety that he and the others felt by staying behind as the rest of the church scattered. He now no longer had to fear the Sanhedrin arresting him. It seems losing their key zealot took the wind out of their sails.

Now as Peter was about, proclaiming Christ, he started ministering to people. I do not know if this man, Aeneas, was the only one in Lydda to be healed, but he was a person of interest. Peter did what he could for him, what God set him about to do. Peter was able to heal the man. He was sound and whole. No longer did he need to beg for handouts and scraps. He could now provide for himself.

Yet while there, Peter became aware of another person needing help. Her friends came for Peter because she herself had died. I am not sure how long she was dead. It could have been a day or two, maybe longer. Her body was washed and laid out for people to come and view. So he goes to see what help he could be.

While there, after seeing all the clothes she had made for others, for she loved making clothes for those who needed, Peter then puts the mourners, the community, and the family outside the room. He needed privacy, he needed quiet, he needed to talk to the Father, and so he did. In partnership, he raised Tabitha back to life.

From these two healings, many people were saved in three communities. Peter used what he was given for ministering to others. Ministering to people allowed him to see others who needed ministering, and he knew that this was a partnership. That is this morning’s outline.

We need to be open; we need to be looking for opportunity to minister to others. Tabitha did by being the closet for the poor. Peter did that through the healings. How do we do that in our lives today? Are we looking for ways in which we can be ministering to others? There are needs out there that go unmet. And if we desire to share the gospel with others, we need to meet what needs the person has so that the person will be open to hearing the Gospel. Consider James asking us what good is our faith if we see someone hungry or cold and do nothing to meet his needs? Too often that is what the church does now. That is what we do now.

I am not saying that we should go out and heal people. I am not sure that people are called to be miraculous healers of late. Seems the power of healing, as well as other gifts, were passed on by the laying of hands of the Apostles, which according to Acts 1, is someone who witnessed Christ from His baptism to his ascension. No one is that old today. But as the church globally, we feed over 100 million starving people every day. How many hungry people are you feeding in your neighborhood? Do you know of any who are? There are national and state and even city drives for coats and shoes for kids. Do we help facilitate that? The sheer number by which the church ministers to daily is greater than that of Jesus and his days of walking this earth. Are we seeking opportunities to minister?

When we start ministering to other people, then that tends to create a cycle of ministering to other people. Because Peter was in the Almyra and DeWitt area, someone from Stuttgart was able to send for him. (That is the equivalency of distance these towns were.) Say your skill is repairing bicycles. You enjoy doing it. As you help one in need, the word gets around that if someone needs help with his bicycle, he can come to you. You find yourself doing more, serving more.

Mr. Jett was a scout leader when I was a boy. He was known for helping kids. After school, being that he was retired, he opened his garage up for any and all who wanted to learn a neat art, wood carving. Now because this was after school, he had girls in his garage right alongside the boys. He would minister to them in ways that I didn’t realize at the time, and only more recently did I learn that a church had underwritten his expenses so that he could provide a supervision in a time before there were daycares so that kids wouldn’t need their latchkey while parents were away at work.

I suspect that was the nature of Tabitha’s ministry. As she helped one family with clothes, they told another family and soon she found herself helping others. Now mind you, this is not Tabitha, Mr. Jett or the bicycle repairman being taken advantage. These examples of ministry come from a partnership with the Holy Spirit. Because their service came from the Love of God so overfilling their hearts, they were able to serve others.

And sure, there may be times that we are taken advantage. I suspect that of those I help with bills, not a few were because of mismanagement, because they felt like they are due the help because the help is there. But that’s ok. We don’t worry motive if someone comes in need. I pay what I can, share the love and message of Jesus with them. I do so because I am not alone.

Just as Peter was not alone with Tabitha, (remember that he took time to talk to the Father,) so we are not alone. Because we have been clothed in Christ, so too are we sealed with the Holy Spirit. We are never alone. And because we are never alone, it is not by our strength alone that mission is accomplished. And also, let us remember that our Father has given us another resource so that we are not alone, tangibly. He gave each of us each of us. He gave me, you. He gave you, me.

We are at a point in our history, speaking now of Central Christian, where we need to realize that now is the time that, like Peter did something great, we too, can do something great. We have all that we need to minister. We have the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and we have one another. Let’s come together to spur one another one. If you are not part of the Family, will you join us?