Acts 9:32-43

June 16, 2019
Pastor Alan Smith

Sermon Notes

Happy Father’s Day! I thought I would tell you one of those really terrible dad jokes real quick to get you started. You’re going to have lunch in a few minutes, hopefully, with some family. So Dad, if you haven’t gotten ready for that dad joke yet, here’s your dad joke. Are you ready?

Why did the Scarecrow receive an award? — because he was out standing in his field. That’s a dad joke. I saw on the internet. I hope it was okay. Maybe it’ll work; I don’t know.

We’re in Acts chapter nine today. I have a friend of mine. His name is Matt Hearn. Matt Hearn taught here, I want to say, 10 or 12 years ago. He taught Bible around here at the school for a while, and he’s a good friend of mine. He’s in his mid-forties, married; he’s got two kids. He pastors a church in Pooler, Georgia, which is just on the outskirts of Savannah.

He’s been there for eight years or ten years or so. He’s been there for a while. Last June, he was sitting around the house, and he began to complain about having some pain in his lower back that kind of shot around to his front. He took some Advil and said, “I’ll be okay.” A couple of days later, it had gotten to the point where Advil wasn’t working, and he kind of was like, “Okay, I guess I’ll go to the doctor.”

So, he finds himself at the emergency room, and the doctors began to do some tests. They began to do the little scan or whatever they do, and the doctor came in and said, “Um, Sir…This does not look good. As a matter of fact, if this is what I think it is, you may have only three years left to live.” He was like,“Thanks for that news. Thanks for that, Doc.”

They go through a process. They go through and have the whole body scan thing and do all the tests, and sure enough, he’s got a tumor about the size of a football growing on his kidney, pushing his kidney almost flat. His kidney function has started slowing down. His organs have been kind of pushed off to the side and pushed against his abdomen wall, and the doctor was like, “We need to do surgery immediately, but this does not look good.”

So, they did surgery to take this tumor out, and then they did all the things that you do, you know. They tested it, figured out what kind of thing this was, and said, “You happen to have a type of sarcoma that is one in 3 million. -super rare. And this particular type of sarcoma has about a 90% mortality rate, which means, Matt, you’re probably going to be dead in three years.”

He’s 44 years old. He’s got two kids. Matt begins to go through that process of, “Oh, my goodness! What happens?” He begins to write letters to his daughter for when she graduates and to her when she gets married. I mean, he begins to go through the process of, “What in the world do I do with a death notice? -with this suffering?”

How do we deal with and look at and respond to suffering? A better question is, why do we suffer? Why? I mean, I could go through life and not suffer, and I think I would feel okay with that. I mean, that would be okay with me. And yet for some reason, we all know, if you’re not suffering yet, just wait; it’s coming. It’s going to get there. If you’re in the middle of suffering, rejoice. If you’ve just been suffering, Hallelujah! Another one’s coming. Why? Why do we suffer? Why is that a thing?

For the believer, I think that an even more pertinent question for us as believers is, how do we deal with suffering? How do we deal with the cancer diagnosis that you’ve got three years to live, and your 12, 14, or 15 year old kids are not going to… How do we as believers process through that?

This is rhetorical. Don’t answer this question out loud. Here’s a question for you: Is suffering a good thing? Is it good for us as followers of Jesus Christ? Is it good for us to suffer? Suffering has an interesting effect on us. Suffering removes the facade of self-reliance. “I can do this.” Oh yeah?! Let’s put you on your back and see if you can do this. Suffering, it removes the concept in our mind of self-reliance, and what it does is, it helps us when we think all we need is us, to remember and to know how great of a need we have for God.

Suffering has the ability to pull the paint off the wall. It has the ability to pull the facade that we put out in front of everybody and reveal who we are as men and women of character and men and women of God. Here’s the thing: If I’m going to summarize our service today, this is where we’re going. This is the sermon in one sentence. If you only hear one thing today, here’s the thing I want you to listen to. Here’s what I want you to hear:

Suffering is a tool for the Gospel.

I’m going to say it again. Read it again. Suffering is a tool for the Gospel. It’s a tool. It is an instrument. It is a thing by which the Gospel is made known, and it is a thing by which the Gospel is proclaimed. It is a thing, by the way, in which the Gospel is lived out in our lives. Suffering.

1. Jesus is Sovereign Over Suffering

So, the first thing I want to draw our attention to today before we get in our text is that Jesus is sovereign over suffering. Jesus is sovereign over suffering. Our text today is Acts chapter nine, beginning in verse 32. Here’s what it says:

Acts 9:32-35
32 As Peter was traveling from place to place, he also came down to the saints who lived in Lydda. 33 There he found a man named Aeneas, who was paralyzed and had been bedridden for eight years. 34 Peter said to him, “Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you. Get up and make your bed,” and immediately he got up. 35 So all who lived in Lydda and Sharon saw him and turned to the Lord.

This is a wonderful story. What Peter is doing reminds me of a story that we see Jesus doing. Do you remember the story? The buddies bring their lame friend, and they can’t get to Jesus, so they tear a hole in the ceiling. They drop him down through the roof, and Jesus is like, “Hey, all right.” He tells the man, “Your faith has healed you. Get your mat up and walk.”

This is sort of the same kind of thing, right? We see Peter coming into this place and encountering the saints while he’s there. Now, we talked about it last week when we ended that verse 31 tells us there was peace in the land. What’s interesting is that because of verse 31, we have Peter and the disciples able to move around. Persecution has stopped. Saul is no longer trying to find them, round them up, throw them in jail and kill them. That kind of thing has stopped. The persecution of the people of the Way seems to have stopped. Now people are kind of moving around. Peter’s going from place to place. The disciples are moving around without the fear of being arrested. And so, things are a little bit better for the Church as a whole.

Another thing I find interesting in this text is that this is the second time in Acts where Luke refers to the people who are followers of Christ as saints. Now, the words “saint”, it’s not like this sort of sacred thing. The word saint simply means devoted to your God. So, a lot of people who are pagans, who served various idols, would be considered saints because they were devoted to their god. This wasn’t a new word. This was a common word in the Greek culture. They were saints. They were devoted.

Luke is pointing out to us that these people who are living in Lydda, were saints. They were men and women who were living their lives devoted to their God, to the point that people began to recognize them as people who were devoted to this God, Jesus. -this person they followed, to the point that they were being referred to as saints. They’re so in tune with God and focused on who he is and what Christ is doing. They’re living out the Great Commission. They’re living out the Great Commandment. They’re living out their faith, and we find this man Aeneas, who is a saint, devoted to God, who’s paralyzed.

Now, we don’t know why. We’re not told why. That piece of information is not provided, but we do know that he’s paralyzed. Now, he could have had some kind of genetic problem, and as he got older, it manifested itself, and he couldn’t walk very well. Then it finally it got to a point where he was actually paralyzed, and he couldn’t walk at all. He could have, you know, been an adventure seeker and went jumping or I don’t know, did something and kind of damaged…

We don’t know why. We don’t know how. We don’t know what causes Aeneas to be paralyzed. But we do know that he’s been in this condition for eight years. For eight years, Aeneas has been basically living on a mat. Someone has to help him get where he’s going. If he needs to go from place to place, he’s got to have people that helped him get from place to place. Aeneas’ life for this eight-year time period has been a life of suffering.We don’t know why it’s this way, but it just is that way.

And notice Peter’s authority when he shows up to talk to Aneas. He doesn’t say, “Hey Aeneas, I’m sorry that you’re feeling this bad. Come on, and I want to heal you. Let me just get you up here, and let’s go.” His response to Aeneas is, “Jesus heals you. Now, get up.” The authority of this miracle did not rest in Peter, and it did not rest in his words. It rested in the work of Jesus Christ, and Peter recognized that, acknowledged that.

And he says, “Look, this is Jesus. Our suffering submits to the authority of Jesus Christ.” The suffering responded immediately. Immediately, he got up and strengthened his legs, grabbed his map, and he’s ready to go. Why was he paralyzed? Why? Not physically like, “Well, he jumped off this thing and broke his back,” or, “He was born like that…” But why? Was their sin somewhere? It was common to understand, because the disciples had this comment with Jesus, right? When Jesus walked and they saw this guy who was lame, the disciple go, “Now, is he lame because he has sinned or because his parents have sinned?”

That was really a common expectation in the culture of the day. “The reason you’re sick is because you’ve sinned. If you stopped sinning, you wouldn’t be sick anymore. You wouldn’t have suffering.” This was a common belief, and Jesus told them, “No, that’s not why this person is lame. The person is lame for my glory. -to bring glory to God. That’s why.” Many believed that suffering was a result of sin. And it is true that we may suffer because of sin, but that is not its purpose.

Suffering happens in our life. It’s inevitable. Now, sometimes it’s physical, like all of a sudden I could walk, and now I can’t walk. I was healthy, and all of a sudden now I’m not healthy. I was a vibrant, happy person, and all of a sudden I’ve got terminal cancer. Suffering happens to us physically. We all have physical suffering occasionally, and we can see it; we can respond. But suffering also happens emotionally. There are a lot of people who suffer with depression or anxiety. That’s suffering. There is a thing that is happening in our hearts and our lives spiritually. We experience a variety of ways in which we suffer, and we often just stop and ask, why why why? “Why can’t I get over this? Why does God…? God could stop this, right? I mean, if God is good and if God is great, God could…” And yet, he doesn’t. Do we trust God? Do we trust Jesus to be all that I need?

Suffering removes the facade of self-reliance, and it demonstrates just how dependent on God I am, because I can’t do it. It reminds me of the prophet Habakkuk. Habakkuk is in that little section of your Bible that you probably flip past a little bit. It’s a couple of chapters. You may have to pull the pages apart to get to Habakkuk. In Habakkuk chapter one, speaking to God, Habakkuk says this. And as I say this, just internally, ask yourself, have you ever thought this or said this? This is Habakkuk: “How long, Lord, must I call for help and you not listen? Or cry out about violence and you don’t save? Why do you force me to look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrongdoing? Oppression and violence are right in front of me. Strife is ongoing. Conflict is escalating.”

“Why, God? Why?” That’s a fair question. Habakkuk is being honest. He’s assessing the things that are happening in his world, and he is asking a simple question. “God, I know you are big and capable and strong. Why?” And God answers him. God responds in verse five. He says, “Look among the nations and see. Wonder and be astounded. For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if I told you.”

Now, can I put this in some Alan language for a moment? “I’m suffering, God, and you can stop it. Where are you? Why haven’t you done this yet?” This is Alan, right? God says, “If I told you, you wouldn’t believe me.” Why? God is sovereign over our suffering. Can we trust him?

2. Bear the Burden of Suffering

The second thing I want to highlight for us this morning is that we should bear the burden of suffering. We should bear the burden of suffering. Continuing our text, in verse 36 it says:

Acts 9:36-43
36 In Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha (which is translated Dorcas). She was always doing good works and acts of charity. 37 About that time she became sick and died. After washing her, they placed her in a room upstairs. 38 Since Lydda was near Joppa, the disciples heard that Peter was there and sent two men to him who urged him, “Don’t delay in coming with us.” 39 Peter got up and went with them. When he arrived, they led him to the room upstairs. And all the widows approached him, weeping and showing him the robes and clothes that Dorcas had made while she was with them. 40 Peter sent them all out of the room. He knelt down, prayed, and turning toward the body said, “Tabitha, get up.” She opened her eyes, saw Peter, and sat up. 41 He gave her his hand and helped her stand up. He called the saints and widows and presented her alive. 42 This became known throughout Joppa, and many believed in the Lord. 43 Peter stayed for some time in Joppa with Simon, a leather tanner. 

This is another one of those wonderful miraculous moments. I don’t know about you, but personally, in my life, I have never suffered to the point where I was dead. I’ve never experienced that kind of suffering. But Tabitha was a woman who has devoted her life to living out the Great Commandment. She was helping one another. “Love your neighbor as yourself.” If you needed some clothes, Dorcas would make you some clothes. Dorcus would take care of it.

Tabitha was taking care of the people in her community. She was living in community. We talked about it last week. -why it’s important to live in community with one another. And she was doing that. She was loving her neighbor as herself. She was making clothes. She was providing for people who had needs. She was doing the things that God commanded us to do, the Great Commission, right? “Go, teach them to observe all that I’ve commanded you.” And she is living it out.

Here’s a note to remember: Even the saints experience suffering; the righteous experience suffering. This isn’t just something that the heathens do or something that those who are living in sin experience. The righteous, those who are doing everything right, will suffer. Paul describes it. He says, “I rejoice in my suffering. Why? Because in my suffering, I prove that I am weak, and he is strong.” Her friends, her fellow disciples, her fellow saints, bore the burden of her sickness.

Now, I’m going to make an inference. I’m going to make some inferences here because the Bible doesn’t give us this information. I’m going to infer that based on her  friends’ response after she died, I am inferring that while she was alive and sick, they were helping her. That’s an inference I’m making. I hope that’s not a far jump. While she was sick, I imagine that these people were coming to her house, taking care of the things that needed to get taken care of, making sure she had something to eat. If she was sick, making sure that her sickness was dealt with. They came alongside and bore the weight of that burden of suffering with her. I don’t think she had to do it alone.

I don’t think Tabitha was looking up in her house, was sick, she dies, and all of a sudden everybody shows up. I think that she is living in community with people in such a way that when she gets sick, people come alongside to say, “Let me hold the weight. Let me bear the burden. Let me shoulder some of this for you, Tabitha.” And they take care of her. Then when she dies, they don’t just stop. The traditional view, the tradition in Jewish culture at the time was, when someone died, they would have a ceremonial cleansing. They would bathe the body ceremonially, and then they would put the body in some kind of a linen garment. Then they would put the body in the ground the day you died.

That’s why they were coming to Jesus when he was on the cross and saying, “Hey, the sun is going down. Can we get him off the cross?” This was a common practice. Up to three days, a person could stay out of the grave. If you’ve got to push it or stretch, maybe two, but at three days, that’s sort of the ceremonial cut off.

Well, there was a two-day trip to get Peter and a two-day trip back. We’re four days into this thing. And what do they do? “We’re just going to get her ready. We’re going to put her upstairs real quick. We’ll be all right.” They’re leaning into this thing; they’re bearing this weight. They’re holding on to this burden.

You know, the resurrection is a real thing. Those of us who are in Christ, when we die, we will be resurrected. But the interesting thing about the resurrection is that it could happen today. The Bible clearly says that those of us who are lost, who are not believers, who are not followers of Christ, are dead in our sins. We’re dead in our trespasses. We’re deceased. We do not live. And Christ has offered us, because of his death on the cross, His resurrection. He has offered us a gift of life, and we have the opportunity today. If you are not one who knows Christ and you’re not a follower of Christ, today you could have the same testimony that Tabitha had. “I was dead, and now I’m alive.” That could happen today. The question is, are you willing to place your physical life, your flesh, this life, in the grave so that the spirit man, the one that is dead, can become alive?

We have the ability. Those of us who are believers have the same testimony that Tabitha had. “I was once dead, but I’m alive. Let me tell you what happened to me. I was dead in my trespasses and sins, and because of the work of God in my life, I am alive. I was dead, and I’m alive.” This is the testimony of Tabitha. She was dead, but God brought her back to life.” The Gospel brings dead people to life, and we see what happened to Tabitha. We can hold on to that. We can look at the men and women who are around her to bear that responsibility in that way.

Here’s something I want us to think about: Be aware that there are people in our world, there are people in your circle who are suffering. They are suffering. For some of them, it’s easy to see their suffering because they’ve got some physical thing you can see. -like I can see that you can’t get around. I could see it, right? Because we can see it, we kind of come alongside. The question I have for you is, are you coming alongside? Are you leaning into that thing? Are you removing some of the burden? Are you absorbing it? Are you bearing the weight of that burden? Are you co-laboring together?

There are people in your world, in your circle of influence, who are suffering emotionally. That’s hard to see. It’s hard to look at and see. It’s hard to see people who are suffering emotionally or mentally. They’re suffering. And every now and then, they’ll tell you just enough to kind of let you know. And the question for us is, do we bear the weight of the suffering of others? Tabitha’s friends did. Tabitha leaned into that.

How are we? This is part of what we talked about last week. -the idea of living in community together, because when we live in community together, we have the ability to bear the weight together. We’re going to suffer; that is a promise. The question is, as believers, do we understand that God is sovereign, and do we have others to bear the weight with us?

3. Suffer for the Sake of the Gospel

Here’s the last thing I want to look at this morning: Suffer for the sake of the Gospel. Now, as we looked at these verses, they were two verses that I kind of  jumped over, because I wanted to put them together and talk about them right here. Suffer for the sake of the Gospel. Look at verse 35. This is with Aeneas.

Acts 9:35 
So all who lived in Lydda and Sharon saw [Aeneas] and turned to the Lord.

So all who lived in Lydda and Sharon (which is a town adjacent to it) saw Aeneas, this guy who was paralyzed, couldn’t walk; now he is able to walk. And they turned to the Lord. They saw what God had done, and they turned to Lord. Verse 42:

Acts 9:42 
[Tabitha’s resurrection] became known throughout Joppa, and many believed in the Lord.

Miracles have divine purpose, right? They’re not these random things. They mean something. Our suffering means something. It is God’s providential hand in our life. The healing of Aeneas, although Aeneas was really excited about it, I’m sure, the reason he was healed was not for Aeneas. The reason Aeneas was healed was not so that Aeneas could now walk. That was a byproduct. The reason Aeneas was healed was so that people would come to know the Lord.

The miracle that Tabitha received of being raised from the dead, the reason she was raised from there was not so that she could have life again. I mean, she was in glory for all we know. One of the reasons she was resurrected was not so that she could be resurrected. That was a byproduct. The reason she was resurrected was so that people would come to know the Lord. -because that’s what happened.

Our suffering, the suffering of Aeneas, the suffering of Tabitha, your suffering, your physical suffering, your emotional, your mental, your psychological suffering, is for your good and for God’s glory.

A couple weeks ago, my wife and I were having a conversation. We were talking about something completely unrelated to this. In the course of conversation, what we want to try to do, is get to where we understand the truth of Scripture, and we begin to live in that truth before the thing happens, so that when it happens, we’re not going, “Where you God? What do we do?” We kind of have already processed that, right? When you think of Psalm 23 (The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want… Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death…), the reason I’m able to walk through the valley of the shadow of death well, is because his rod and staff comfort me. I’ve already experienced what it’s like to be in the plains, so that I know who God is and what God will do.

So, when I walk through the valley, I will fear no evil. “Because I know what you’re like in this time period of my life, I’m confident that you’re going to be just like that in that time period of my life.” And if we can wrap our head, wrap our life around the goodness of who God is, suffering will remove the facade of, “I’m all I need,” and it will kick us to help us understand, you need God.  

Suffering. How do we deal with suffering? My friend Matt, who was diagnosed with this cancer, the doctors told him, “You need to go through chemotherapy.” And then, at the same time, they said, “This chemotherapy is not going to work. This particular type of cancer, it does not respond to chemotherapy. As a matter of fact, the only reason you’re going through chemotherapy is so that later, we can get you into this trial thing that might work on this cancer. But you’ve got to go through chemo, because that’s just part of the thing.”

And they said, “But, it’s not going to work. So just know that this is just a thing you’ve got to do in order to be able to do that thing. He said, “All right.” So he’s doing the chemo. After about four weeks of chemo, they go back to the doctor, do the assessment, do the scans, and the doctor comes in, and he’s like, “Um, okay. So, the tumor, the thing, the piece that’s left, has kind of shrunk, and all indicators are that it’s dead.”

And he was like, “Um, that’s not supposed to happen. Like, that doesn’t…That’s not a thing.” And Matt said, “Oh, I can explain why. Let me tell you of my God. Let me tell you about Jesus.” The cancer is gone. The last scan he had with this cancer, the cancer that he was dealing with was gone.

Suffering. How do we deal with suffering? What is God’s plan in our life for suffering? Can we rest confidently in knowing that he loves us and that if he were to tell you his plans, we couldn’t even imagine it? And suffering is included. Maybe we can adopt the philosophy and the ideas that Paul had, as he began to help us understand that it is through suffering that I can rejoice, because it is in my suffering that my weakness is made known, and his glory and his goodness are made known. Suffering through his goodness.

Next Steps

1. Today, I realize that I am not a disciple and want to commit my life to Jesus.
2. Pray that I rejoice in the middle of my suffering and that it is used for the Gospel.
3. There are people in my life who are suffering. I will bear their burden for the sake of the Gospel.

Discussion Questions

1. How does suffering come into play with God’s plan?
2. Is suffering always a negative experience?
3. In what ways may one suffer for the sake of the Gospel?
4. What is/are our source(s) of strength when suffering happens?
5. How can we bear one another’s burdens for the sake of the Gospel?
6. How does suffering relate to hope in terms of the Gospel?
7. Pray for strength and the ability to share in one another’s burdens for the sake of the Gospel.