18 Jan

April 29, 2018     Acts 9:32-43     “Jesus Is Always, Always There!”

A couple of weeks ago we talked a little about how life isn’t fair.  I think we all know this and that is just the way it is so we better get used to it.  You will have peaks and valleys all through your life.  Last week I talked about the conversion of Paul and you can go to YouTube if you want a refresher.  Anyway, I sure that Paul didn’t think it was that fair that Jesus had made him blind.  At the time he didn’t really know what to do except what Jesus told him.  We all have peaks and valleys in life.  It’s pretty easy to live if you are on a peak but some of those valleys can get to be really rough.  I’m pretty sure you all know exactly what I’m talking about.  Today we are going to talk about a couple of people who really went into the deep valley and hit the wall.  I have had several people over the years tell me that I don’t know what I’m talking about and that I should try to keep up with the real world.  Of course they were trying to get me to acknowledge their atheistic ideas which I will never do.  Today we are going to look at what really happens and what really happens is that Jesus Christ is the Savior of this world and we need to accept this.  Hopefully you will be able to grab ahold of Jesus to help you out of whatever valley you find yourself.

Keith Miller tells of a grown woman named Alice who was talking in a group.  She told of how when she was little she was placed in an orphanage.  She was not a pretty child and no one wanted her.  She would try and try but everything that she did seemed to come out wrong.  She could not please people but only drive them away.  This is sad but we have to remember that some people are so hurting already that it doesn’t take much from us to make it worse.

Anyway one day the head of the orphanage told her that a family was coming to take her home.  She was so excited that she jumped up and down and cried.  The matron had to remind her that this was only a trial and it might not be permanent.  But Alice knew that it would be permanent.

Everything went great for the first couple of months in her new home.  She was extremely happy and life was just beginning for her.  Then one day she came home from school and no one was home.  In the front room she saw her ragged old suitcase with her old coat thrown over the top of it.  It finally sunk in.  They did not want her and she hadn’t even suspected.

Alice had quit talking to the group but the group hadn’t noticed.  They still had the picture of the suitcase in the front room locked in their minds.  Then Alice cleared her throat to get their attention and said matter-of-factly, “That happened to me seven times before I was 13 years old.

There was a man sitting across from this tall grey haired woman that had begun to weep.  He had just met Alice and he found himself loving her and feeling great compassion for her.  Alice looked up and was surprised at how the group had reacted to her story.  She held up her hand and shook her head slightly.  “Don’t feel sorry for me,” she said with a genuine smile.  “I needed my past.  You see, it brought me to Jesus.”

Isn’t it amazing how some of us, including myself, need to go through such hard times to get to know Jesus?  In this case Alice was not responsible for the hard times but in my case, I was.  I’m sure some of you listening today are responsible for your own hard times.  In this morning’s scripture we find a couple people in hard times as we take a look at three miracles.

In the first scene we see Aeneas who had been a bed ridden cripple for the last 8 years.  He was in a hopeless state as he was a burden to everyone around him.  Aeneas had fallen upon hard times.  But notice that he doesn’t go looking for Peter but Peter comes to him.  And it is through Jesus Christ that Aeneas is healed.  Jesus is the focal point of this story, not Peter.  I want you to also notice that the healing is instantaneous.  This makes it no doubt that this is a miracle from God.  I have heard many times how people go to this doctor or clinic and they will really help or cure you.  But don’t be misled when you hear this.  Jesus Christ does all the healing and He may even use doctors and clinics.

I think that we can look into the world and see many bed ridden people only they are not actually in bed.  I am talking about people who have just stopped.  They may go about the motions of life but they are getting nowhere because they have no direction.  I like to think of coming to Christ as like a line across the room.  Over here are the people who don’t know Jesus and the other side is those who do.  Right about here is the dividing line.  The line is the place where you accept Jesus as your Savior.  Some people stop somewhere before they come to Christ.  Others come to Christ then stop.  I think that I can go back to the same bars I used to frequent once in a while 35 years ago and I would find some of the same people in the same places they were 35 years ago.  They have not changed.  They have stopped!

And this doesn’t just happen to people.  It happens to churches.  We have to be very careful in our churches today because we have many people who pretend to be holy.  Their stoppage helps churches stop in their tracks.  This is one of the reasons why we have so many churches that are on the decline.  We have the greatest message that the world has ever seen and we seem to like to hide it for ourselves.  Wherever you go, I ask that you find a way to show the love of Jesus in whatever you do.

But don’t worry.  Through Peter, Jesus Christ healed Aeneas.  And Jesus will also heal anyone who is stuck on this line that goes across the room.  He will heal my friend who has been sitting on a barstool for 35 years and He will heal our churches.  We only have to come to Him.  Don’t be too alarmed and afraid to call on Jesus when Satan attacks.  We have to remember this as churches also.  Before I begin a service I like to cast Satan out.  He doesn’t belong here.  One of the ways for you to help out your church is to start prayer groups.  I know of a small church over in Minnesota where they have a prayer breakfast open to the community every week.  There are many ways in which you can reach your community with the love of Jesus.

Before we move on and talk of the hardships of Dorcas, let us remember that just about all of the Christians were Jewish up to this point.  And that will change very shortly as Peter is not in Jerusalem anymore.  The disciples would have been content to stay in Jerusalem but God had other ideas.  They were being persecuted by the Jews and the Romans.  No one liked them and they persecuted them into leaving Jerusalem.  The Gospel is starting to spread and it will not be long before Paul takes over getting the word to the Gentiles.

As we continue we come across a woman named Tabitha, which means Dorcas in Greek.  Both of these names mean gazelle and this refers to her gracefulness and gentleness of spirit.  Dorcas is one of the believers, a disciple who was not in Jerusalem.  The Scripture tells us in verse 36 that she was always doing good and helping the poor.  Then she becomes sick and dies.  Now that is what I call a deep valley!

Anyway these are hard passages for us to understand.  Maybe you understand them better than me, but I have a hard time.  It’s always hard for me to understand why God would bring someone back to this world when they are already in our perfect heaven.  I think about this every time I read about these people who were raised from the dead.  But God’s way is always the right way and not mine and we should really praise the Lord for that!

Anyway the other disciples send for Peter who is in nearby Lydda, where he had just healed Aeneas.  Peter comes at once and is led to a room upstairs.  Here the widows are gathered around, crying and lamenting.  Tabitha is definitely dead.  They show Peter the robes and other clothes that she had made while she was still alive.  This had been part of her ministry to the poor.  She made things for the widows and needy people.

And I think that this was a way of life for her.  Otherwise, the widows, who had fewer rights than a woman, would not be so upset.  Here was a woman who would look at a piece of cloth and see some sort of garment for a needy person.  Here was a person who ministered to others, not because she had to or because she was in some sort of group, but because she loved to do it.  She was a disciple and she was carrying on the work of Jesus.  Jesus would always try to help the needy when they were near and so would Tabitha.

People will often say that we are not a Christian nation or that we were not founded on the teachings of Christ, but I beg to differ.  We have always been a nation of great compassion.  And the proof is everywhere especially after a disaster.  In the time of this writing, charitable acts were not very common.  If you were sick, you would probably die.  If you were blind, you were in trouble unless you had family.  They dealt with birth defects by killing the child.  It was a common practice.  So just on the point of caring for others, this nation today is genuinely Christian although we might have gone a little overboard in certain other areas.  And I also think, after reading some history books from a Christian perspective, that Christianity was the absolute basic building block of this nation and I don’t care what the so called free thinkers and atheists say.  This country was built on Jesus.  Unfortunately, we seem to have strayed from Him.

And I think that maybe our churches have strayed from this also.  I have said this before.  Jesus ministered with a balance of truth and grace.  He would always let you know what you did wrong and then He would extend His grace.  I think that often times today our churches only want to extend the grace without the truth.  Now most of you know that I am a rather evangelical preacher.  In order to do that I have to tell you the truth.  And that truth is that you are a sinner.  In Romans 3:23 we read that we are all sinners and fall short of the glory of God.

That is the truth and we cannot change it or wish it away.  The only way we can change our fate is through the grace extended by Jesus Christ.  There is no other way.  Similarly, if God extends us only grace without the truth, what do we need it for because then we would not be sinners?  We wouldn’t need grace.  I hope that you can see that there has to be balance.  So remember that you are a sinner.  And if you have not asked Jesus into your life yet, then do so today.  You need to do this in order to have an eternal life with Him.

Anyway, as we get back to Tabitha, God heals her through Peter.  Peter clears the room and gets down on his knees and prays.  I hope that you can see some of the similarities in what Peter did here and what Paul did in the following chapters and what Jesus did.  But most importantly, we need to see why Peter was able to be God’s healing instrument.  He was totally submissive to Jesus.  Then in verse 42, we read, “This became known all over Joppa, and many people believed in the Lord.”

God heals so that He may be glorified.  He does not heal just so a person will be made better.  He heals so He may be glorified.  He heals so that the Word of God will be spread.  And this is just as important today as it was back then.  God heals today.  All you have to do is pick up the right magazines, like Guideposts and Angel Magazine, and you can read about healings.  Many of these are spiritual but many are also physical.  And they all glorify God.  Now I don’t know how or why God sets the criteria for healing.  And it is none of my business.  But He does it His way.  He does not promise to heal us every time something goes wrong.  He only promises to be with us during all hard times.  Plus His promise to us is that He will be with us in eternity if we accept Him.  But He does heal us once in a while when it serves His purpose.  So don’t give up on praying and asking.  We never know how He will work.

The third miracle here is hard for us to see.  Peter spends some time with a tanner named Simon.  Peter is a Jew and therefore cannot be in contact with dead animals.  This is the livelihood of a tanner, to be in contact with dead animals.  Peter is willing to be unclean and with a tanner.  God is in the process of softening up Peter’s heart so that he too will minister to the Gentiles.  This is before Peter has his vision about clean and unclean food.  Therefore this has to be one of the first steps leading up to treating Gentiles as equals in the eyes of the disciples.  So in this passage we have Jesus working two miracles through Peter and one miracle in Peter.

So many times we get to ministering to others and we forget ourselves.  Many times I have seen Jesus work miracles in others as they serve those around them.  There is just something about being in service that makes us better people.  This is part of the plan that Jesus has for us.  This is the part that is so great about being a Christian.  You don’t have to do it all.  We are all gifted differently and we all contribute to the body as a whole.

This morning we have seen Aeneas and Tabitha in hard times.  In our opening story we heard about the hard times of Alice.  We will have hard times.  They are a part of life.  But keep your eyes focused on Jesus through all of these times.  Keep your eyes focused on Jesus at all other times.  This is a message that comes through loud and clear this morning.  This is part of the message I try to relate to people every Sunday.  Jesus loves you so much that He will be there in hard times.  He will be there in easy times.  He will be there all the time.  Look to Him and praise the Lord.  And thank you Jesus for first loving us.  Let’s pray.