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ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE WITH GOD ACTS 9:32-42
Tonight, we continue to study this wonderful book of Acts.
I am so glad that God has given us his word so that we can know his mighty works and deeds in history.
Aren’t you?
The Bible describes countless acts of God in history.
Beginning in Genesis, we read about the work of God in creation and how he sustains it.
In Exodus, we read of the ten plagues that freed the nation of Israel from bondage in Egypt and the parting of the Red Sea.
In Joshua, we read of God’s hand in bringing his children into the Promised Land through the destruction of Jericho and the sun standing still at one battle.
God not only worked in history, but he worked in the lives of his people.
For example, David as a teenager was able to slay a giant with a sling shot and some rocks, Elijah was able to raise a widow’s son and defeat the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel.
Elisha was able to help a widow’s oil not to run dry when that was all she had in her house, raises a Shunammite’s son, and instructed Naaman on what to do to be healed from leprosy.
In the New Testament, we have the mighty works of Christ from the healing of the sick, the blind seeing, the deaf hearing, and the mute speaking.
He fed five and four thousand respectively, he walked on water and turned water into wine.
In case you forget, the greatest work was his resurrection from the dead which is the guarantee for ours.
Now we come to the book of Acts and God’s hand is on his apostles performing miracles, signs and wonders.
There was a lame beggar healed in Acts 3 through the Apostle Peter.
The sick and those afflicted with unclean spirits were brought to them for healing.
Yet, one of the greatest miracles seen in this book is the conversion of a soul.
There were three thousand saved on the day of Pentecost and in another sermon two thousand were added to the faith.
This does not count for all the others who were added daily to the fellowship of Christ.
And last Sunday evening and this morning, we witnessed the dramatic conversion of Saul, who later became the Apostle Paul.
So God has been doing the impossible in history for a long time and I believe he is still doing the impossible.
Yet, as I stated this morning, our tendency is to think that things will never change but will remain the same forever.
We need to admit that we think like that from time to time.
In fact, we believe that many situations will go from bad to worst.
I quoted John Piper this morning, but I believe worth repeating tonight.
He said, “But one of the messages of the book of Acts is that this is emphatically not true.
Jesus Christ is not dead and he is not distant and he is not silent and he is not weak and he is not uninterested in the world and the progress of his mission and in your life.
He is alive and what he began to do in his earthly life he is continuing to do.
He is full of surprises for churches and for nations and for families, and for individual people.”
Folks, God is in the business of turning things and people around.
And the exciting thing about all of this is that he uses people to minister these great feats.
I was reminded this week by the weather man James Spann who spoke at our children’s home school group on Tuesday that God has left us here to help other people.
If you want to the biblical word for that it is called ministry.
So God didn’t leave us here for us to satisfy ourselves or pamper ourselves or indulge ourselves, but to help others.
So what are you doing for others?
Well, that is the message in our passage this evening: God doing the impossible through his people to help others.
So turn in your Bibles to the book of Acts the 9th chapter and the 32nd verse.
I see two miracles that Peter was involved in: the miracle of restoration and the miracle of resurrection.
First,
THE MIRACLE OF RESTORATION – 32-35
The scene shifts again from the life of Saul to the life of Peter.
If you recall the last time we saw Peter in action was back in Acts 8, when he and John went to Samaria to help Philip with the harvest that was being reaped as a result of Philip’s preaching.
In 8:25 we read, “Now when they had testified and spoken the word of the Lord, they returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel to many villages of the Samaritans.”
So Peter was involved in the ministry.
He didn’t sit idle by until it was his time to get in the limelight.
While Luke was telling us about Saul, Peter was still preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ.
And here Luke stated Peter went here and there among them all, he came down also to the saints who lived in Lydda.
John MacArthur stated that he noticed in over forty years of ministry an important principle that has emerged around this issue of involvement.
The people who are already involved in what God is doing are usually the ones that are given the more fruitful ministries.
God keeps His richest ministries for His busiest saints.
I am finding the same thing to be true in my ministry from the conferences I attend to my own personal experience.
There are some who are so involved in the ministry that you wonder when they rest and I noticed the more I am involved in God’s work the more opportunities arise to serve him.
“It's a lot easier to handle and steer and operate somebody that's going somewhere.
When God's got a job to do, He doesn't go up to the dusty shelf of the dilapidated, impotent, non-functioning Christians and say I think I'll dust off Joe and give him that job.
God uses people who are already in the mainstream flow of what He's doing.
And that's why some people have abundance of ministries while other people are sitting around saying I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing.
Everybody who's active seems to be able to find enough to do.
The little principle the rich get richer can apply in terms of spiritual richness.
Boy when you get into rich ministries you'll find that you'll...first of all, you'll bear fruit and then you'll bear more fruit and then before you know it, you'll bear much fruit.”
So find a ministry and plug into the service of God’s kingdom.
So peter comes down to the saints in Lydda, which was the Old Testament town of Lod.
It is about ten miles southeast of the seacoast city of Joppa, where Peter goes next.
In the NT era Jewish sources emphasize the importance of the city, at that time named Lydda.
It had a large market and was noted for the raising of cattle.
Textile, dyeing, and pottery industries flourished there.
And it was the seat of a Sanhedrin; famous Talmudic scholars taught there.
This, then, was the kind of bustling, flourishing community that existed when Peter visited the city and ministered to its Christians (Acts 9:32–35).Today it is the location of Israel’s international airport.
There is a man by the name of Aeneas, who had been bedridden for eight years and would probably remain in that condition the rest of his life.
In other words, he was beyond the help of the medical knowledge of that day.
More than likely this man was an unbeliever because in the next scene Luke describes Dorcas as a disciple and does not make that claim for Aeneas.
Either way, God had a purpose for his illness and healing.
Unlike the many preachers who perform healings today in large auditoriums among large crowds, Peter was will to go to this man and minister to his need.
In other words, peter was not in the gospel ministry for himself, but for the glory of the Lord.
Folks, that is the only reason for you and I to do real ministry.
We do it because of what God has done for us.
But I want you to notice what happens next, Peter said, “Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you, rise and make your bed.”
Peter performed the miracle in the name of Christ because it is only Christ that can actually heal.
Again, I say that he was not seeking his own fame or fortune, but the glory of the Lord.
William Barclay wrote, “We think too much of what we can do and too little of what Christ can do through us.”
Folks, this is a miracle.
A man who had the incapacity of getting up on his own accord.
Chuck Swindoll said, This was really power!
Some of us for years have been saying, ‘Arise and make your beds,’ to your teenagers with no result!”
So Aeneas was immediately healed by Christ.
As a result of this miracle like most of the miracles in Acts, it led to the conversion of souls to Christ.
Luke said, “And all the residents of Lydda and Sharon saw him, and they turned to the Lord.”
All seems a little far fetch at such a miracle, but God saved those in Lydda and the surrounding plain of Sharon.
They turned to the Lord, which means more than just a change of mind, but a change of direction.
In a number of languages it is not sufficient to simply translate ‘to change one’s manner of life,’ for this could either be neutral or even suggest a change for the worse.
Therefore, it may be necessary in a number of instances to translate ‘to change one’s way of living as God would want’ or ‘to change and live like God would want one to live.’
Conversion is an about face from one belief and behavior to a completely opposite commitment.
So first is the miracle of restoration.
Next,
THE MIRACLE OF RESURRECTION – 36-43
Again, we see that principle that I mentioned earlier that when you make yourself available for ministry God will provide you with more opportunities to serve him.
In verse 36, we are introduced to a lady by the name of Tabitha and in Greek is called Dorcas.
Her name means gazelle, which is a graceful creature.
Luke says that she was a gracious woman because she was full of good works and acts of charity.
In fact, the widows who were mourning her loss show Peter some of the things she had made.
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