Acts 9:32-43 Two Testimonies, Three Miracles
Good morning! Turn with me in your Bibles to Acts chapter nine, verses 32-43, page 918 in the pew Bibles.
This morning we are going to pick up where we left off in the Book of Acts but as we do so we are going to leave Paul for a little while and take up with Peter.
And though we might be concerned with a different character in the story, we are going to pick up on the same theme we looked at last week and that is, “a proper testimony.” We are going to look at two testimonies in this account of two lives touched by Jesus but in those two testimonies we are actually going to see three miracles.
Let’s look at our text and dive in.
32 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.
Let’s pray.
It’s often the challenge of preachers to find the one big point in any given text, and sometimes that’s easy and it’s right on the surface, sometimes it’s more difficult and you really have to dig for it, sometimes it just isn’t there so you really have to stretch for it. This probably isn’t for the best. In this text, there are a lot of little things to learn, and the little things, if we allow them, can shape the way we look at things.
The first little thing is that Peter was traveling around visiting the saints.
He wasn’t holed up hiding in Jerusalem, he wasn’t pastoring the church at Jerusalem, nor was he ruling from his throne as the Pope, he wasn’t a Pope. You won’t find the idea of popes in Scripture at all.
Peter was an Apostle, sent by Jesus to preach the gospel and teach people to obey everything that He had commanded. That was the work that he was doing.
Did you notice last week that when Saul arrived in Jerusalem and found the believers that he only found Peter and James the brother of Jesus? It’s because the rest of the Apostles were out doing what Jesus commissioned them to do.
So Peter was traveling around and visiting the saints in Israel and made his way to the village of Lydda. Lydda was on the road from Jerusalem to the seaport. In modern times it is a city known as Lod.
Peter was visiting the saints, who are they? Saints are believers in Jesus. They weren’t dead, nobody performed miracles in their names, no statues were carved of them, and certainly nobody was praying to them. That is what the Catholic Church teaches that sants are but it isn’t what the Bible says that a saint is. A saint is a believer in Jesus, a sinner who repents, devoted to Christ as His servant. If you are a repentant believer in Jesus, you are a saint. Not perfect, just forgiven.
So Peter was traveling around visiting the believers, the saints, when he came to the town of Lydda.
32 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.
Here is the first miracle. Aeneas, who was paralyzed and bedridden for eight years is healed.
This is a great miracle! This man, Aeneas, presumably was injured eight years previously and had been paralyzed was confined to his bed. He wasn’t born that way because he wouldn’t be referred to as a man if he were only eight years old. We have no indication from the text that he was a believer. Some scholars say that from the original language it is more likely inferred tat this man was actually a stranger to the faith than one of the saints in Lydda.
Either way, the Lord Jesus healed this man through Peter. A great miracle!
Next, the disciples in the nearby city of Joppa heard that Peter was in Lydda sent for him after a well known and loved saint had died.
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.
Both Tabitha and Dorcas mean, gazelle. The scholars say that the image of the gazelle was the image of female loveliness and grace. She was a Christian both talented and generous, devoted to good works, well loved, and already missed by those around her. A Proverbs 31 woman. One who would not see a person poorly clothed and lacking in daily food and simply wish them, “be warm and well fed.” She would feed them and clothe them as was evidenced by the number of widows who had no form of state aid to rely on but showed off the clothes that Dorcas had made for them.
This was the kind of lady everybody wants in their church family, and an example worth following for all of us.
But now she had died and left a great hole in the church in Joppa.
I don’t know if the church believed that Peter had the power to raise the dead or not or if they just wanted the comfort of his presence and prayers but either way the Lord used Peter to raise Tabitha back to life. First, a crippled man healed which was a great miracle, and now a dead woman raised to life, an even greater miracle!
What an awesome testimony these two saints had of the healing power of Jesus. It wasn’t their own faith that made them well, one of them we are unsure of his faith and the other was dead. It was the Word of the Lord spoken to them that made them well and restored them.
“Look up in faith to the Lord from whom alone salvation and help can come; arise in His strength and walk in newness of life!”
Jesus said in John 5:25, “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.”
It was happening just as Jesus had said!
These two hearts were penetrated by the Word of the Lord, their souls were awakened and restored, they were helped by the hands of God’s servants, and they lived to glorify the Lord Jesus and instruct others by their example.
This is exactly the picture of the gospel, this is exactly how it works. And that is the third miracle.
After Aeneas was healed and got up out of that bed verse 35 says,
And all the residents of Lydda and Sharon saw him, and they turned to the Lord.
When Tabitha was raised form the dead verse 41 says,
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.
Healing a paralyzed man was a great miracle, healing a dead woman was a greater miracle, but when people’s hearts are penetrated by the Word of the Lord through His servants, when their souls are awakened and restored, and they live to glorify the Lord Jesus and instruct others by their example, that is the greatest miracle of all!
And that’s the Good News that we proclaim: that Jesus Christ died to save sinners, that we might be freely saved by God’s g
race through faith in Him alone.
Amen.
