ACTS CHAPTER 9:20-43, “Paul’s
Early Years/Peter’s Healing Ministry”
by
1.
INTRO:
1.1.
In our study today we will see
a variety of gifts of the Holy Spirit being used by men, and we will look both
at the early years of the apostle Paul’s walk with Christ as well as Peter’s
powerful healing ministry which he began amongst the Samaritans and which was
used to win many to faith in Christ
1.1.1.
Concerning Saul
1.1.1.1.We saw last week that after his conversion Saul immediately went off to
the deserts of
1.1.1.2.Today we will see him just after completing this undetermined period of
time in
1.1.1.2.1.His brief ministry in the city of
1.1.1.2.2.His ministry in
1.1.1.2.3.His ministry in his home town of
1.1.2.
Concerning Peter
1.1.2.1.We will see the Lord use Peter to heal Aeneas the paralytic.
1.1.2.2.We will see the Lord use Peter to raise the woman Dorcas from the dead.
2.
VS 9:20-21 - “
20 and immediately he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He
is the Son of God.” 21 And all those hearing him continued to be amazed, and
were saying, “Is this not he who in
2.1.
We saw last week that as we try to fit into a timeframe the apostle
Paul’s comments in Gal. 1:15-17 about his having gone immediately to the deserts of
Arabia after being saved, we know that this time in the deserts of Arabia had
to occur in Acts chapter 9 between verse 19 and verse 20, “15 But
when He who had set me apart, even from my mother’s womb, and called me through
His grace, was pleased 16 to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him
among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with flesh and blood, 17 nor
did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me; but I went away
to Arabia, and returned once more to Damascus.”
2.1.1.
So, when it says here that Saul immediately began to proclaim Jesus in
the synagogues of Damascus, it must be that he did this immediately upon his
return from the deserts of Arabia where he had
sought the Lord and been taught by Him the gospel.
2.1.2.
That time in
2.1.3.
I think that it is always very healthy for a newly born-again Christian
to immediately begin to share his faith in Christ with friends and acquaintances,
however it is also wise for those who come to Christ to have a period of time
as did Paul in Arabia where they can grow in the Lord before they begin to have
a significant ministry. Paul wrote about
this when he exhorted the church not to lay hands quickly on any man in 1 Tim. 5:22, “22 Do
not lay hands upon anyone too hastily and thus share responsibility for the
sins of others; keep yourself free from sin.”
2.1.3.1.This time in
2.2.
As we saw with Philip’s preaching
to the Ethiopian Eunuch Saul now began to proclaim ‘Jesus’ to the Jews in the
synagogues. This is the only message
that saves about the only Savior who is capable of saving men who are lost in
their sins. Jesus is the ‘only’ way to
God and the way to reach people for Jesus is to preach the gospel of Jesus.
2.2.1.
As I mentioned when Philip began to preach the gospel in
2.2.2.
I have been stunned to note that in the supposed revivals that have
occurred in the last several years, revivals which were supposed ‘waves of the
Spirit’, that there has often been little to no preaching of the gospel. This is so foreign to the purpose of the
church and the experience of the early church from Acts, which should be the
model of the church for all ages.
2.2.2.1.In these revivals there has
often not even been any scripture quoted, taught, or preached.
2.2.2.2.For these reasons I believe
that most of these modern-day revivals of the past few years have really been
‘counterfeit revivals’, as Hank Hanegraaff has labeled them.
2.3.
Luke records that the people were ‘amazed’ because they could not account
for what had happened in the life of this man who was the chief persecutor of
Christians among the Jews and who now was proclaiming the very Savior Jesus in
the same way he used to persecute Christians for doing.
2.3.1.
As happened here with Saul, the world does not know what to do with the
genuine Christian testimony of a person who has now become a child of God,
especially when they can relate closely to the prior upbringing and culture of
the new Christian.
2.4.
We can see the effect of Paul’s time in
3.
VS 9:22 - “22 But
Saul kept increasing in strength and confounding the Jews who lived at
3.1.
I love to see this here that as Saul applied himself to using the gifts
that God had given him in preaching the gospel to all who would listen, and as
he also surely let God’s word fill his heart and mind, the result was growth in
the grace of God, for He ‘kept increasing in strength’.
3.1.1.
This is the result when we put Christ first in our life, ‘exercise’ our
faith in the Lord, and then step out and let God lead and use us as He wills.
3.2.
We can already see the effect of Saul’s prior knowledge of the scripture
combined with the teaching that he gained directly from Jesus in Arabia, as
well as his brilliant mind, for he was ‘proving’ to the Jews in Damascus that
‘Jesus is the Christ’.
3.3.
These early years of Saul’s ministry were very important years for he was
learning how to effectively share his faith and he was beginning to move under
the leading and inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
4.
VS 9:23-25 - “23
And when many days had elapsed, the Jews plotted together to do away with
him, 24 but their plot became known to Saul. And they were also watching the
gates day and night so that they might put him to death; 25 but his disciples
took him by night, and let him down through an opening in the wall, lowering
him in a large basket.” - Saul’s
life is saved by the disciples in
4.1.
Here in these verses we see that the very disciples whom Saul had come to
4.2.
This must have been a humbling experience for Saul to have to be let down
the wall in a basket in the dark of night, however this humbling was good for
Saul and surely this experience had a lasting effect upon him.
5.
VS 9:26 - “26 And
when he had come to
5.1.
Many have tried to figure out why out of fear the disciples in
5.1.1.
Some have said that this occurred because the distance was far enough
away that word hadn’t gotten to them yet about Saul’s conversion.
5.1.2.
There have been many other ideas put forth to explain this however I feel
that the main reason for this occurring was because after Saul’s conversion he
had disappeared for a few years, having gone off to the deserts of Arabia, and
thus the disciples were not really sure if he had truly come to faith in Christ
or not.
5.2.
This must have been a frustrating experience for Saul here in
6.
VS 9:27-28 - “27
But Barnabas took hold of him and brought him to the apostles and described
to them how he had seen the Lord on the road, and that He had talked to him,
and how at Damascus he had spoken out boldly in the name of Jesus. 28 And he
was with them moving about freely in
6.1.
Saul was blessed to have a friend such as Barnabas who was willing to
stand up for him before the apostles and vouch for what Christ had been doing
in his life.
6.1.1.
Barnabas tells the apostles that Saul ‘saw Jesus’, something that was a
prerequisite for being an apostle of Jesus.
6.1.2.
Barnabas told the apostles of how impressed he was with the boldness of
Saul’s preaching in the synagogues in
6.1.3.
Some have speculated that Barnabas and Saul might have studied together
as young men under Gamaliel the Jewish teacher.
6.2.
Notice that Luke records here that Saul was ‘with them’, that is now that
Saul had been accepted by the church he was always living and being ‘with
them’, for Saul had now realized that his true family was ‘the church’ of
Jesus.
6.2.1.
How key it is to a new Christian’s life to now realize that he is part of
a new family in Christ’s church.
6.3.
Now persecution had subsided in
6.4.
As he had done in
7.
VS 9:29-30 - “29
And he was talking and arguing with the Hellenistic Jews; but they were attempting to put him to death.
30 But when the brethren learned of it, they brought him down to Caesarea and
sent him away to
7.1.
Last week I mentioned that the confrontation and stoning of Stephen was
carried out not by the Pharisees of Jerusalem but by the ‘Hellenistic Jews’
there, and when Saul was agreeing to the stoning of Stephen, Saul being a
member of the Sanhedrin, he was going against his conscience, for the Hellenist
Jews did not have fundamentalist orthodox Jewish beliefs, but rather they were
materialists who did not believe in the supernatural or the after-life. Then, after that time Saul’s conscience was
always bothering him because of his condoning of the stoning of Stephen. Now, we see that Saul has come back to
7.1.1.
It is also interesting to note that Stephen was stoned by the Sanhedrin
because before them he had a vision and saw Jesus at the right hand of God, and
now we see in the book of Acts that the next person who has that same vision is
none other than Saul. You see, it is as
if Saul began the work that Stephen had begun;
now Saul begins Stephen’s argument and preaching to the Helenist Jews.
7.2.
Yet again we see that some disciples save the life of Saul, for these
disciples hear that the Hellenist Jews are seeking an opportunity to put Saul
to death and in response they bring him down to Caesarea and then send him away
to the city which was his first home,
7.2.1.
I believe that it is best for most Christians to begin their ministry at
home and in the very neighborhood in which they grew up, for in that place they
will have a huge effect upon the people who knew them before they came to
Christ. Thus, I believe that Saul was
doing the right thing moving to
8.
VS 9:31 - “31 So
the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria enjoyed peace, being
built up; and, going on in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy
Spirit, it continued to increase.” -
The church ‘throughout’ enjoyed peace and was ‘built up’
8.1.
There is a lot that is communicated in this verse.
8.1.1.
We see here really for the first time in the book of Acts a sense of the
church consisting of all of those everywhere who are believers in Christ, for
it says the ‘church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria’.
8.1.1.1.There were small fellowships
in the various cities which mostly just met in homes, and yet there was a
growing sense of understanding that all who belong to Christ are members of one
body and therefore brethren.
8.1.1.2.There was a growing sense
that we Christians are all one in Christ regardless of nationality or even
gender, as Gal. 3:28 says.
8.1.2.
The church ‘enjoyed peace’, and though persecution had caused a
purification of the church to occur and a weeding out those who were spurious
believers, in order for their to be real Christian growth in the power of the
Holy Spirit there also needed to be rest and peace. It was this ‘peace’ or ‘rest’ which enabled
the church to be ‘built up’ in the faith.
8.1.3.
Luke writes here that the church was ‘going on in the fear of the Lord’,
but this is not the kind of fear that petrifies people such as might happen if
someone waved a gun openly in public, this fear was a deep ‘reverence’ for the
Lord.
8.1.3.1.Unfortunately, in the church
today I often see that many have lost this sense of a deep reverence for God.
8.1.4.
The church went on in the ‘comfort’ of the Holy Spirit, and this word for
‘comfort’ is the Greek word ‘paraklesis’ which Jesus used to describe the work
that the Holy Spirit would perform in the life of the disciples when the Holy
Spirit had come.
8.1.4.1.This Greek word is
alternately translated in other contexts and verses in the New Testament to
mean, ‘exhortation’, ‘consolation’, ‘comfort’, and ‘entreaty’.
8.1.4.2.Every facet of the Holy
Spirit involving Him being the ‘paraklesis’ was occurring in the church which
was dispersed throughout these areas.
8.1.5.
The church just ‘continued to increase’.
8.1.5.1.There was a growth
numerically which is implied in this.
8.1.5.2.There was a growth in the
grace of God, growth in the Holy Spirit, which was also occurring in the
church, and really this is such a blessed and important thing to occur in a
church.
9.
VS 9:32 - “32 Now
it came about that as Peter was traveling through all those parts, he came down
also to the saints who lived at Lydda.” -
Peter was traveling about preaching the gospel and ministering as he
went
9.1.
Here in this verse we see that Peter finally seems to have gotten the
point that the Lord had called the apostles to go out and to preach the gospel
to all creation, for he was now traveling around doing ministry.
9.2.
The New Bible Dictionary has the following entry for this city named 'Lydda’: “LYDDA. A town some 18 km SE of the coast at
9.3.
As we observe Peter from this point on through chapter 12 of the book
where he is replaced by the apostle Paul as the central figure, we notice that
with each story Peter’s prejudices and pre-conceptions are being increasingly
challenged and transformed by the Lord.
9.3.1.
Here Peter is just wandering around
9.3.2.
We will see that little by little we are seeing the fulfillment of the
things that the apostle Paul wrote about the body of Christ in Gal. 3:28 where he says that all men
and women are one in Christ, “28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is
neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all
one in Christ Jesus.”
10.
VS 9:33-34 - “33
And there he found a certain man named Aeneas, who had been bedridden eight
years, for he was paralyzed. 34 And Peter said to him, “Aeneas, Jesus Christ
heals you; arise, and make your bed.” And immediately he arose.” - Peter is used by the Lord to heal Aeneas who
has been paralyzed for eight years
10.1.
To show that this was a genuine miracle that had occurred upon this man
Aeneas, Luke includes here that the man had ‘been bedridden eight years’.
10.2.
In this instance, just as with the man before the beautiful gate of the
temple in
10.2.1.Peter doesn’t require that
the man have faith in order to be healed, he just commands him to ‘arise’ and
then to make his bed.
10.3.
Maybe for some of you here today it would truly be a miracle of God if
some member of your family were to arise and then ‘make his bed’. You would be shocked if that occurred!
10.3.1.It’s actually a little bit
odd to me that Peter told the man to ‘make’ his bed instead of telling him to
‘take up’ his bed as Jesus had told a man He met and healed, because now the
man wouldn’t need his bed since he was no longer a paralytic.
10.4.
Peter does not claim that he has the power to heal here, he tells Aeneas
that it was ‘Christ’ who was healing him this day.
10.5.
A genuine miracle had occurred in this man’s life, for he ‘immediately’
rises up and does as Peter told him to do.
11.
VS 9:35 - “35 And
all who lived at Lydda and
11.1.
The people in these two cities recognized the man Aeneas and since they
had known him these eight years as being the bedridden paralytic, the
incredible effect of this miracle is that ‘they turned to the Lord’.
11.1.1.This must have been a
tremendous revival that began then in these cities, and surely some churches
were spawned or prospered because of this revival and miraculous ministry of
Peter.
12.
VS 9:36-38 - “36
Now in Joppa there was a certain disciple named Tabitha (which translated in
Greek is called Dorcas); this woman was abounding with deeds of kindness and
charity, which she continually did. 37 And it came about at that time that she
fell sick and died; and when they had washed her body, they laid it in an upper
room. 38 And since Lydda was near Joppa, the disciples, having heard that Peter
was there, sent two men to him, entreating him, “Do not delay to come to us.””
- In the city of
12.1.
This woman’s Hebrew name was ‘Tabitha’, translated as ‘Dorcas’ in the
Greek, and her name means, ‘Gazelle’.
12.2.
Verse 36 says that Dorcas was ‘abounding’ with deeds of kindness and
charity which indicates that she was constantly doing these kinds of things for
people.
12.2.1.We believe that she had the
spiritual gift of the Holy Spirit called ‘helps’ (1 Cor. 12:28) which motivated her to
help out those who were unfortunate by doing good things for them such as
making them warm coats, etc., and many times in the mainstream church there is
a tendency not to recognize or value certain spiritual gifts as much as some
others, however every gift is equally important in the body of Christ, and in
order for the body of Christ to grow properly as it should each person must be
exercising the spiritual gifts they have been give.
12.2.1.1.My father-in-law has the
gift of ‘helps’, and continually in the 21 years that I have known him I have
seen him helping out the unfortunate around him. Every Christmas since I can recall he has
baked dozens of turkeys and given them to the various rescue missions as well
as some friends and family. When Jill
and I lived in Phoenix he was always volunteering to tow my car somewhere or
work on it, or fix something in our house, and then after we moved away every
time that my in-laws came to visit they were always doing things for us the
whole time they were with us. Early on
in our marriage I felt kind of awkward because of all of the nice things he
would do for us, but then I realized that this is how he expresses his
Christianity to the world. Just last
week he told me that after giving dozens of gallons of milk to a local halfway
house for prisoners just released from prison that the director of the half-way
house actually for the first time in its existence decided it was OK for the
men to have a Bible study at the house and asked Gene to lead it, and so now
his gift of helps has opened up for him a prison ministry that he is real excited
about.
12.2.1.2.I would just mention here
that many of us think charitable thoughts about those who are unfortunate,
dream about doing charitable deeds, and many think that the performing of
charitable deeds for the unfortunate are good, however this woman actually
performed these deeds, and she performed them continually.
12.2.1.3.Before I go any further, I
want to make the point that when a person comes to Christ they come to a place
where they die to self, and they in turn have begun to make a big turn in their
lives towards thinking about others and their needs, instead of thinking just
about themselves. The person whose
thoughts are constantly wrapped up in himself and his desires, needs, etc.
should doubt that he has ever accepted Christ.
12.2.1.3.1.In James
2:14-17,
James writes that a person demonstrates whether he real faith if he does not
send a person away who has real needs for things like food and clothing,
without attempting to help him, “14 What use is it, my brethren, if a man says he
has faith, but he has no works? Can that faith save him? 15 If a brother or
sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, 16 and one of you says to
them, “Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,” and yet you do not give them what
is necessary for their body, what use is that? 17 Even so faith, if it has no
works, is dead, being by itself.”
12.2.1.3.2.The reaching out to those
who are unfortunate actually began with Jesus and His disciples, for prior to
the church reaching out and helping people there is no record of any ‘relief’
type of efforts ever having been carried out.
H.A. Ironside writes, “We have no record in any history (and I have been
an omnivorous reader for over fifty years) of any hospital for the treatment of
the sick being established in the world before Christ came. We have no record of an asylum for the
mentally sick people before Jesus came.
Before He came the mentally deficient or insane were driven from their
homes and left in tombs or in desert places.
The were looked upon as demoniacs…There was no such thing as a leprosarium
in the world until after Jesus came…There was no such thing as an orphanage
until after Jesus came. The Greeks,
Romans, Egyptians and Assyrians, with all their boasted civilization, never
thought of opening an orphanage.
Instead, orphan children, unless adopted by some of their relatives,
were exposed to the elements and left to die, or else were sold into
slavery; and many little boys and girls
were given over to a fate worse than death-before Jesus came. It was a Christian who started the first orphanage,
and it is Christian people who have been interested in these things ever
since. There was no such thing in all
the world as international relief-until Jesus came. You can search all the records and you will
never read, for instance, that during the famine in Egypt the people of Rome
took up an offering for them; nor during
a pestilence in Syria that the people in Greece raise a fund to assist those in
distress in Syria. It was not very long
after Jesus came that the Christians in Achaia and other parts of the Grecian
world were sending to those in need in Judea.
The Red Cross would never have come into existence were it not for
Jesus; for after all, what is the Red Cross? It is the blood-red cross of Christ. We need to remember that all these agencies
had their birth in the gospel of the grace of God.”
12.2.1.4.In Eph. 4:7-16, the apostle Paul wrote
about the fact that each of us have received at least one spiritual gift and
that we must all use that which we have been given, “7 But to each one of us grace was
given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. 8 Therefore it says, “When He
ascended on high, He led captive a host of captives, And He gave gifts to
men.” 9 (Now this expression, “He
ascended,” what does it mean except that He also had descended into the lower
parts of the earth? 10 He who descended is Himself also He who ascended far
above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.) 11 And He gave some as
apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors
and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to
the building up of the body of Christ; 13 until we all attain to the unity of
the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the
measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. 14 As a result,
we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves, and carried
about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in
deceitful scheming; 15 but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all
aspects into Him, who is the head, even Christ, 16 from whom the whole body,
being fitted and held together by that which every joint supplies, according to
the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for
the building up of itself in love.”
12.2.2.Our ‘charismania friends’ of
the more Pentecostal persuasion of Christianity have sometimes criticized
churches because they didn’t see the gifts of the Spirit in operation, however
in reality they are really just talking about one or two of those gifts, such
as the gift of tongues and prophesy (that is the ‘foretelling of the future
version of that gift’), however in the fundamental oriented churches across the
world there are always many gifts of the Spirit that are in operation all of
the time.
12.2.3.As I mentioned early in this
study of the book of Acts, we in the Calvary Chapels believe that the gifts of
the Spirit are still for the church as they were in the book of Acts, however
we also believe that the gifts need to be exercised according to the explicit
exhortations of the New Testament as particularly found in the book of 1
Corinthians, chapters 12-14, and thus we don’t allow in our general services
for everyone to speak in tongues at once (see 1 Cor. 14:11-19).
12.3.
The church there in Joppa had
tried to revive Dorcas, however they knew that she was ‘dead’, and therefore
they washed her body for burial and placed it in an upper room. Then, they called for Peter whom they knew
was nearby those parts and asked him to come to them right away. What we don’t know is whether or not they
thought that he might be used of God to raise the woman from the dead or
whether they just wanted him to come and console the church because of her
death.
13.
VS 9:39 - “39 And
Peter arose and went with them. And when he had come, they brought him into the
upper room; and all the widows stood beside him weeping, and showing all the
tunics and garments that Dorcas used to make while she was with them.”
- Peter came to the upper room where
Dorcas’ body laid and all of the widows were weeping and grieving over the
death of this dear and valuable saint
13.1.
This woman Dorcas had been used of the Lord through her spiritual gifts
to make ‘tunics and garments’, and there in that upper room the women were
showing Peter all of the wonderful things that she had done.
13.2.
I’ve often wondered if the saint that had gone to be with the Lord would
be disappointed if the Lord should choose to raise him from the dead since
there with the Lord he was finally free from all suffering, pain, etc.
13.2.1.So, I wondered how Dorcas
felt about being brought back from the dead?
13.2.2.Having the gift that she had
though I’d guess that she thought that it was a blessing to be back since now
she could be used to help even more unfortunate people by making more garments,
etc.
14.
VS 9:40-41 - “40
But Peter sent them all out 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; and calling
the saints and widows, he presented her alive.” - Peter prays for the woman and then tells her
to ‘arise’ and she is raised from the dead
14.1.
Just as Peter had witnessed Jesus do when He raised Jairus’ daughter,
Peter made everyone leave the room before he would pray that the Lord use him
in this way.
14.2.
Peter did something different than Jesus did when raising Jairus’
daughter, he prayed first. Jesus just
told the little girl to rise. There is a
vast difference between the Lord and us, for He was God and everything that He
prayed for came to pass and every miracle was a complete miracle, however we
mere disciples must pray that the Lord would work, “according to His own will”,
when we pray for healing for others. We
aren’t guaranteed that the Lord will heal in every single instance, thus we
must leave every prayer in His hands to do according to His perfect will. Jesus spoke the word, we must pray and trust
in God’s perfect will being done in each situation. Many times He chooses to heal just as He did
on this day with the apostle Peter.
15.
VS 9:42 - “42 And
it became known all over Joppa, and many believed in the Lord. - We see the tremendous effect the raising of
Dorcas had upon this community of Joppa
15.1.
News spread far and wide concerning the miracle of the raising of Dorcas
from the dead at the hands of the apostle Peter.
15.2.
There occurred here also a mighty revival as there had happened with the
healing of Aeneas so that ‘many believed in the Lord’, as Luke records.
16.
VS 9:43 - “43 And
it came about that he stayed many days in Joppa with a certain tanner, Simon.”
- The apostle stayed many days in Joppa
with a tanner named Simon
16.1.
This verse is really a lead in to chapter 10 where Peter is led by the
Lord to preach for the first time to the gentiles, through a vision of a man
named Cornelius, for here in this verse we see Peter staying at the home of a
man who was a tanner.
16.1.1.In the Jewish culture
‘tanners’ were looked down upon greatly and they weren’t even allowed to live
near a city.
16.1.2.We see Peter’s Jewish
prejudices beginning to fall as he is being prepared to go into uncharted
waters in the preaching of the gospel to gentiles since to this point in time
all of the preaching of the gospel had been to Jews, and the apostles hadn’t
seemed to realize yet that the gospel was even intended for the gentiles, at
least those who hadn’t first become Jewish proselytes.
17.
CONCLUSION:
17.1.
What is your spiritual gift?
17.1.1.Are you allowing the Lord to use you
with your gifts right where you live and amongst your friends, family, and in
your home church?
17.1.2.God wants you to fan to flame the gifts
that He has given to you and to step out in faith as He leads you and be used.
17.1.3.You may not have the public type of
gifts that the apostle Paul had to preach and plant churches, nor the gift to
be able to pray for people and they get healed in such a tremendous way as
occurred through Peter, but, maybe your gift is perhaps such as the gift of
helps, which this woman Dorcas had and was so wonderfully used by the
Lord. If so your’s is an awesome gift as
is each of the gifts, therefore faithfully use that gift for Christ and don’t
hold back.