Acts 9:31-43

Discussion Questions

• How do we describe the church? How is God continuing to actively build and grow it today for His glory and our highest good?
• What are the indicators of spiritual health and vitality? Do our lives radiate the evidence of the grace given to us that can then be poured out to those around us? If we find ourselves in a state of spiritual decline, what needs to happen to bring us back to health?
• What does spiritual maturity look like? Are we actively growing up and growing in grace? Are we bearing the fruit of a life set not on self, but set radically free? Do we yearn for true transformation – a recovery and restoration of the heart?
• Why is being part of a church community so important both spiritually and practically? What happens when we walk together in a Gospel cadence? Are we committed to a lifetime pursuit of giving up our own kingdoms and instead choosing together to seek His kingdom on earth as it is in heaven?

Transcript

We do study through books of the Bible here at The Village Chapel. If you’d like a paper copy, would you just lift up your hand, and someone will bring one to you. And by the way, if you don’t have a Bible at home and you need one, this is our gift to you. Feel free to take it home. Or if there’s somebody in your life who might need a Bible, feel free to take it and give it to them as well. And also, we want to welcome all those who are worshiping with us online. Welcome everybody wherever you might be from. May the Spirit of the Lord move among you as He is here today. Well, this week, one of the technology giants in our country here in the U.S. announced a new wearable device that will track an incredible number of metrics about your health: steps and heart rate and oxygen. And it joins a whole segment of smart watches and wristbands and smart scales that sell this idea that measuring all these different systems in your body will lead to you becoming stronger and healthier. Wired Magazine, a few years ago, actually coined a term, you may have heard it, “the quantified self,” to describe this fascination with tracking every aspect of your life. And of course, taken too far, that can turn us all into computers or turn us into cars that just simply come into a repair shop rather than a human being.

I probably don’t need a smartwatch to tell me not to eat the donut, but I ate it anyway, even though I know I shouldn’t. Yet there is some value, isn’t there, in understanding what a trajectory of physical health looks like? Am I going the right direction or am I not? What does health even look like? I think those are good questions. We are indeed whole persons, though: body, mind, and spirit, and there’s no technology that will diagnose what’s going on at the heart level, although they’re going to try, aren’t they? When we open the pages of Scripture, we are actually given instruction and examples, right and wrong, about what spiritual health for whole disciples of Jesus can and should look like. It’s like a mirror to show us where we should grow and mature and help us long for that. That’s true for us corporately as disciples walking together as a church. It’s true for us individually as those being shaped by the work of the Holy Spirit into the likeness of Jesus. It’s good for us to practice what the Puritans would call “the discipline of watchfulness,” asking questions occasionally, diagnostic questions about our own heart. Do I long to know Christ more deeply? Am I setting my hope on Jesus like we just sang about? Am I hungering for the Word of God? Am I participating in the life of the church, being strengthened by others, sharpened by others? Is prayer a vital part of my ordinary day-to-day life?

If those markers of spiritual health are really dim in your life, you’ve come in here today, those things are dim, where do you turn? What resources are available to you? How do I grow is the question. See, growth and maturity are signs of health and vitality in the life of a believer. It’s good for us to remind ourselves of those simple truths. Now, over the past few months, we’ve been looking at the vital life of the early church in the book of Acts. And when we come to the book of Acts, we’re really talking about the roots of our family tree, aren’t we? It’s the roots of our family tree. Last week we gave our attention to the conversion of Saul. Pastor Tom walked us through that. A life transformed by an encounter with the risen Jesus on the road to Damascus. Saul then goes away into Arabia for three years, presumably for a time of preparation, before the Lord then sends him out as an apostle to the Gentiles. And we’ll study that in the next few weeks. This morning I invite you to turn to Chapter 9 of Acts, verse 31. Chapter 9, verse 31. And we’re going to assume that Luke is holding closely to this chronological timeline. So, we’ll be reintroduced today to the ministry of Peter after about three years. Saul is actually going to fade into the background for just a little bit as Luke zooms in on the ministry of Peter.

Now, the last time we saw Peter, he was in Samaria, and he was praying that the Holy Spirit would fall upon the Samaritans, opening up a new chapter in salvation history. Now, three years or so later, the church has continued to grow, continued to mature, as we’ll see here. As we open up the Scriptures this morning and peer into the life of this church, even into the life of the heart of Peter, pay attention to the ways of the Spirit of Christ is shaping and molding and building his church. And as you’re asking, as you’re paying attention to that, ask those same questions. How is the Spirit shaping and molding me? And perhaps questions that we can carry with us throughout the rest of this week. Keep those in the background. Where might I long for more growth and maturity in the way of Jesus, as a disciple of Jesus, which literally means an apprentice of Jesus in His ways? So, we’re going to look for that in Acts, Chapter 9, verse 31. Let me pray for us and then we’ll get going. Would you join me? Heavenly Father, we come to You with our Bibles open, and indeed we set our hope on You. And in setting our hope on You, we pray that Your Word would be opened to us, and that our heart would be open to Your Word. Spirit, do the work of conviction and comfort. Point us to Your Son, Jesus, in whom is our only hope in life and in death. In His precious name we all said, Amen.

Chapter 9, starting with verse 31, and this is kind of a summary statement, an interpretive lens for the rest of this chapter. “So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied.” Now there’s a lot here, an interpretive lens for the rest of the text here. Let’s go back to the top 31, “…the church throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria…” so it’s growing, had peace, relative peace, the persecution of Saul had ended somewhere. So, there’s some relative peace that’s going on. And the church was being built up. There’s something active there. It’s really interesting in Matthew, Chapter 16, Jesus says that He will build His church, and the gates of hell won’t prevail against it. It’s the same word that’s used here. In the church, I think we’re seeing divine activity. Jesus, through His spirit, is building His church numerically and also deeper, breadth and depth, and you can see it there in this little summary statement. “And they were walking…” so it’s active here, in two ways, in the fear of God, fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit. The fear of the Lord, one step on the left. The comfort of the Holy Spirit, one step on the right, a gospel cadence, I might call it. And isn’t that the Christian life in summary there? Fear of the Lord. A reverence, a proper awe of who He is, a tenderness to wanting to please my heavenly Father. And then the comfort of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit’s job is to point us to Jesus, giving us assurance of who He is and who we are in Him.

The fear of the Lord. And the comfort of the Holy Spirit. A summary of the Christian life, a maturing Christian life. And the fruit, of course, is it multiplied. The church was growing, verse 32, now the camera’s going to zoom in on Peter. So “…Peter went here and there among them all, and he came down also to the saints who lived at Lida. There he found a man named Aeneas, bedridden for eight years, who was paralyzed. And Peter said to him, ‘Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you.’” Another way of translating that, Jesus Christ right now is making you whole. “’Rise and make your bed.’ And immediately he rose.” You parents of teenagers, wish you could see this happen in your life. Make your bed. [35] “And all the residents of Lidda and Sharon saw him and they turned to the Lord.” Lidda is the town there. If you’ve ever been to Israel, I know many of here have, if you go to Ben Gurion Airport, which is likely where he flew into, that is the spot of Lidda in the Old Testament, Lod. And then it says there in Sharon. Sharon would be the region, the plain of Sharon. Kind of like if you were to say in Nashville and in Middle Tennessee. That’s what’s going on here geographically.

There’s something really beautiful. Look at what Peter says. So, Peter’s going to this growing church in verse 34, and he said to Aeneas, this bedridden man, “Jesus Christ heals you,” not Peter. He doesn’t say, I heal you. He doesn’t say, “Aeneas, something, someone in you, something in you can heal you. Rise and get up.” No, no, no. He points to the power that is building the church, that is making this man whole. “Jesus Christ heals you.” Underline that. I think that’s a key to this whole section here. Jesus Christ makes you whole. Verse 36, the camera’s going to zoom now to Joppa. “There was in Joppa a disciple named Tabitha.” And to my account, this is the first time a woman is called a disciple. And Luke continually pulls out the marginal at this time and elevates it. In Joppa, there’s a disciple named Tabitha, “…which translated means Dorcas. She was full of good works and acts of charity.” Tabitha being the Aramaic name, Dorcas being the Greek name. If I had the choice, I’m going with the Aramaic name. I don’t know about you. “She was full of good works and acts of charity. [37] In those days she became ill and she died. And when they had washed her, they laid her in an upper room.” Typically, would have happened the same day, washing the body. [38]

“Since Lydda was near Joppa, [It’s about 10 miles away.] the disciples, hearing that Peter was there, sent two men to him, urging him, ‘Please come to us without delay.’” Now let me throw up a map here on the screen just to give us a little geographic so we can situate ourselves here. Last time we saw Peter, remember he was in Samaria up there in the right-hand corner. About three years later, likely in Jerusalem, and then he goes, you can see the red line there, he goes to Lida. It’s about 25 miles. And then the camera goes to Joppa and Tabitha passes away, which is another 10 miles, and it’s showing how the Gospel is spreading all the way to the west coast here. Joppa, by the way, is where Tel Aviv currently is today. And so, from Joppa, they hear that Peter is in Lida and they send for Peter. And we don’t know the exact reasons why, the motivations. Perhaps they had heard about this miracle with Aeneas, and they thought, maybe there’s some hope here of a miracle with Tabitha. Or perhaps this grieving community knew they needed some outside help. Perhaps this grieving community knew they needed someone who had gone down the road a little bit further. They needed a pastor here. They needed Peter, they needed the comfort of another believer. And so, they called Peter.

Verse 39. “So Peter rose and he went with them. So, this would have been two or three days, because it’s a day journey to Lydda, a day journey back to Joppa. So, think about the body there of Tabitha. 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. But Peter put them all outside and knelt down and prayed.” Peter knew the source of power was not within himself. He prayed, “…and turning to the body, he said, ‘Tabitha, arise.’ And she opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter, she sat up. And he gave her his hand and raised her up.” You can see that live body detail, that tenderness of Peter there. “He gave her his hand and raised her up. Then calling the saints and the widows, he presented her alive. And it became known throughout all Joppa.” And of course it did! This woman who had been dead for two or three days was now alive, and it’s spreading throughout all this region. “And he [verse 43, Peter] stayed in Joppa for many days with one Simon, a tanner.”

And even in that sentence, we have so much packed there. A tanner, somebody who worked with dead bodies of animals, an unclean, ceremonially unclean man. Peter chooses to stay with this man. You know, a follower of the Torah, Peter would have been, stays with this man who is ceremonially unclean. There’s so much going on here. And by the way, you see the word “saints” there twice. This is the first time in the book of Acts that we see the believers there called saints. They’re not yet called Christians. We’ll see that in a few chapters later, but they’re called saints. And there’s something beautiful going on. This is the word of the Lord for us today. Thanks be to God. Well, Luke the physician so carefully wrote this account for us, and he gives us this detail about the medical condition of both Aeneas and Tabitha. Eight years, Aeneas had been paralyzed. A condition and a context we can’t fully appreciate. Likely unable to take care of even his own basic needs without the help of others. Social isolation. There were no hospital systems like we have today. There was no medical system like we had today, no safety net provided by the government. He was completely reliant on alms, on the generosity of other people, and presumably he was being taken care of by these believers here in Lidda. And then we see the tragic sickness and the death of Tabitha. And did you notice it seemed to be a shock to this community? So much so that they called for Peter to come. She was an anchor. And you know many of those folks who are anchors in your own community, in this community here at The Village Chapel.

And they see that Peter, or Jesus through Peter, brought the dead back from the dead by the power of the Spirit of Christ through Peter and his prayers. And woven together throughout all this physical healing, Luke, I think, is revealing something underneath about the spiritual health of the church and the individuals in it, including a work in the heart of Peter himself. Let’s look again at verse 31 again, the interpretive frame of this text. “So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up.” It’s active. And they were walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied. And so then, as we read the rest of the story, where is the Lord building up His church? How are they walking in the fear of the Lord? How are they walking in the comfort of the Holy Spirit? And I think we see that here. I’ll put it up on the screen. Just a few ways. The church was spreading, literally, Christ was building His church by spreading to Judea and Galilee and Samaria. It was at peace, some relative peace, after Saul and his persecution and all those who were with them had ceased. The church was being built up. Built up, we know from context, through the reading of God’s word, the preaching of God’s word, and the obedience of it.

They were walking in the fear of the Lord, proper reverence, a heart sensitive to pleasing the Lord, the comfort of the Holy Spirit. And the word there is “paraclesis,” a helper. The same word that Jesus used in the Gospel of John when He said, I am going to send a helper, the Holy Spirit.” And the Spirit is doing His work here. And the fruit was, it was growing. When you and I come to the Scriptures, and this applies on Sunday morning, this applies when you’re doing your Treasuring God’s Word reading plan in the morning or whatever you do in the mornings when you come to the Word. When we come to the Bible, it serves as a mirror, a spiritual thermometer, if you will, showing us what might really be going on in our own hearts. And sometimes it’s through examples like what we see in our text here of what spiritual vitality can look like, walking in the fear of the Lord and the comfort of the Holy Spirit. And we learn from examples like this, not simply to mimic behavior, although there are many good examples here to pattern our lives after, but these are real stories of faithful lives that show us how to pray, show us how to be more watchful of our own hearts, over the trajectory of our own hearts, even the condition of our own community here at The Village Chapel. To help us more fully set our hope on the resurrected Jesus, as we sang about. To pay attention to the areas of our heart that might be drifting, or more positively, to pay attention to the areas of our heart that the Lord might be changing, like it was in Peter when he stayed with this ceremonially unclean man, Simon the Tanner.

The Spirit was changing the heart of Peter. Have you ever been there? A change in your heart that can only be explained by the power of the Spirit of God. I’d love for us to give our attention to two moves of the Spirit in our text here today. One, I think, we see the church being built up, the mission of Christ is continuing, the mission of Christ is advancing. And I think we see the disciples growing up, maturing in Christ. Number one, the church is being built up. He frames the entire account by saying the church is being built up. Strengthened would be another word that you can use there. Growing. During His earthly ministry, I mentioned from Matthew, Jesus told His disciples that He would build His church and the gates of hell would not prevail against it. In other words, the mission of Jesus to rescue rebels like me and you would advance through His people, the church, that He would establish and that He would empower by His own spirit. We studied it last week, but I think it’s worth noting again. As Saul is traveling to Damascus and He encounters Jesus, Jesus asks the question, “Saul, why are you persecuting me?” Saul had been persecuting individual disciples, taking men and women from their homes and putting them into prison. Yet Jesus asked the question to Saul, “Why are you persecuting me?”

In that question, Paul, and us as well, were learning what it means to be the Church, the body of Christ. Jesus was linking the individual disciples with Himself, the Church, the body of Christ living on the Earth, spreading His kingdom. The Church, big C, is not simply an institution. The local church is not simply an organization, and we should be careful not to flatten or diminish it in that way. It’s not less than an institution. It certainly is that, but it’s far more. The Lord Jesus is still moving right now. He’s moving supernaturally. He’s moving personally by His Spirit, building His Church, calling those from every tribe and tongue and nation to turn to Him to find life in His name, to find forgiveness in His name, freedom to live in the way of His kingdom. And here in our text, Luke shows us that the church was being built up, active, just as Jesus said it was. In Acts 1, Jesus told us and his followers that the Church would spread from Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria, and to the ends of the Earth. We’re watching it happen. And if you look there at verse 31, almost as an aside, Luke tells us the Gospel had gone north, all the way to Galilee. It’s the first time we see the impact of the Gospel mentioned in Galilee. Just as an aside, we’re seeing the church expand.

Despite deadly persecution, the Gospel of grace was going into a world that was hungry. Hungry for grace. The church would move and the gates of hell would not prevail against it. In a few weeks, as we continue to study Acts in Acts 17, by the time we get there, the people were so threatened, many people were threatened by the Gospel that they say something truer than I think they even realize. So frightened by the wildfire-like spread of the Gospel, they shout out that the disciples were turning the world upside down. And of course, they meant it as an alarm bell. They didn’t know they were naming the deepest longing of every human heart to turn things right side up. That’s part of what’s going on with these miracles. They were a foretaste of what’s to come in the new creation. It was a glimpse of what’s to come, to taste the day when every tear will be wiped away and death will be swallowed up forever. Certainly, hell had been trying to prevail through the persecution of Saul and other religious leaders. Nevertheless, the church was being built up, growing, deepening, strengthening bonds of unity in Christ. And who doesn’t want more of that?

The Gospel of grace is still advancing today in places that you and I wouldn’t even expect. We’ve mentioned it here before, but the nation of Iran has seen an explosion of growth of Christianity in the last several years, despite the fact that it’s illegal to leave Islam. In the law, it’s an act against national security to leave Islam. It’s illegal to own or print or distribute Bibles, yet it’s growing. Christopher Watkin, in his book, Biblical Critical Theory, says, “Christianity was born in the Middle East, captured the mind and heart of Europe, spread to the Americas, is now on decline in the West but rapidly growing in the Far East, in Latin America, China, and much of Africa.” Listen to this: “There are now six times more Anglicans in Nigeria alone than there are in all of the United States. There are more Presbyterians in Ghana than in the United States and Scotland combined. [South] Korea has gone from 1% to 40% Christian in a hundred years, and experts believe the same thing is going to happen in China.” Church, we should say, praise God to that.

The Lord Jesus was building His church in the early days, and He’s continually building His church today. It’s not simply an institution, but it’s a living body of Christ, and you and I are a part of it. We have the opportunity, the privilege, of working to see its continued growth for His glory and for the good of all those who are hungering and thirsting for hope and freedom and forgiveness in life. And in our text today, twice, we see the power of Jesus working through Peter and healing Aeneas and bringing Tabitha back from the dead. Look at verse 34 with me. Peter says to Aeneas, “Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you; rise and make your bed.” Literally, get up, take care of your things, and get back to work. That’s what’s going on here. Peter knew the source of power was not in him. It wasn’t Aeneas either. The healing power came from the risen Jesus. Peter wants it to be unmistakably clear where the power is coming from. Paul would say the same thing: “We have this treasure in jars of clay.” That’s us. “To show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.” It’s all of grace. And the fruit, the result, is an outpouring of the power of Jesus. It turned many to faith. Christ was building His church.

Now it’s also worth noting that Peter was following in the pattern of Jesus Himself. Do you remember the story when the friends bring their paralyzed friend and they lower him in through the roof because the crowd was so thick, so that he could see Jesus and be healed? And the words that Peter uses in our text today are nearly identical to the words that Jesus used on that day. “Rise, pick up your mat, and go.” Peter had an example in Jesus, and he was following the pattern of his Lord. Even in the story of Tabitha, the raising of Tabitha, when Jesus was called, if you remember this story, to come see Jairus’ daughter who had died, his only daughter; Jesus makes His way and she died along the path. And Jesus walks through the funeral possession, all those seas of mourners, and He finds this little girl. He asks everyone to leave the room, just as Peter did. And Jesus prays for healing, and He looks at the girl and He says, “Talitha kumi. Rise, little girl.” One word difference. Tabitha rise. Peter was following in the same pattern, telling the crowd to leave, getting on his knees in prayer, and then he says, “Tabitha, kumi, Tabbitha, arise.” He was following in the pattern of the Lord.

Peter would have no other way than to follow the way of Jesus. It wasn’t a magic trick. He was following the pattern of his Lord, and he must have remembered those tender moments with Jesus. He must have. Let’s consider for a moment what these miracles meant in this particular moment in the early church. Whenever we read about the miracles of Jesus or the miracles of Jesus through the apostles, we know that they demonstrate the authority of Jesus. We know they affirm the identity of Jesus. They reveal the compassion of Jesus. They anticipate the kingdom of Jesus. In other words, it’s a foretaste of what’s to come when Jesus finally sets things right. It inspires faith in Jesus. And we see that in both places here in Joppa and Lita. Both miracles from our text result in a community turning to Christ, a revival, a mini revival happening there in Lydda and Joppa. The church was being built up by Jesus Himself through the faithful ministry of Peter. And He’s doing the same thing through faithful saints here in Nashville and around the world.

Not only was the authority and power of Jesus seen, but Peter himself was being authenticated as a genuine apostle of Jesus, which will be so important at the early stage of the life of this church. Miracles are extraordinary by definition. God still works in miraculous ways today but it’s important to keep them in proper perspective. There were presumably many people who could have been healed on that day in Lydda but were not. Aeneas and Tabitha would go on to die, awaiting, as we do, the hope of the return of Jesus. God builds His church through encounters with Christ, and it’s not always in miracles and the spectacular. Sometimes it’s through quiet work. Sometimes, actually, signs and wonders harden hearts. If you remember the story of Pharaoh in Exodus, sometimes signs and wonders become an idol or entertainment. We see that all throughout the Gospels. Jesus constantly says, You’re just looking for signs and wonders. You’re looking for the stuff of the kingdom, but not the king. So, it’s not always about miracles. Sometimes encounters with Jesus happen in the kindness of a welcome. Sometimes with acts of mercy like Tabitha. Christ moves powerfully through His Word, preached, spoken, sung. Encounters with Jesus sometimes come from a simple invitation to meet Christ. Do you remember when Peter first encountered Jesus? It was through his brother Andrew. His brother Andrew said, “Hey, come, we found the Messiah!” That’s how Peter encountered Jesus, not through a miracle, not through the spectacular.

Leslie Newbiggin, a missionary, said: “The church – a healthy church – is the hermeneutic of the gospel. This is a fancy word to say the interpretation of the good news. It’s the way that the gospel comes to life. It’s the way that people can taste and smell the gospel.” Christ is building His church in ways and in places we may never see this side of Heaven, often in quiet and slow ways. And as He builds his church, at one and the same time He is forming the disciples within His church, that’s you and me, more and more into His likeness. That’s why I think we see the disciples growing up. We see maturity in Christ here in our text. Paul would call this being transformed from one degree of glory to another, to another to another, the process of what we would call sanctification, growth, maturity. Walking in the gospel cadence of the fear of the Lord and the comfort of the Holy Spirit. Treasuring the Lord, reverencing Him and His Word, being assured of who we are in Christ, one step and the other. Our desire to please God grows. Our assurance of God’s grace multiplies in that gospel cadence.

And the fruit of it is a life that’s less dependent on self. Set free to a life of radical generosity, like we see here in Tabitha’s example, set free to trust Jesus for all that we need, like Peter, set free to lean on the good gifts of others, like this church that Christ is building in our text today. Look together at verse 38: “Since Lydda was near Joppa, [again about 10 miles] the disciples there in Joppa, hearing that Peter was there, sent two men to him, urging him, ‘Please come to us without delay.’” This was a group of disciples who were mourning. They were grieving the loss of Tabitha. We don’t know the names of these disciples except for Tabitha. We don’t know the names of the two that went to go fetch Peter, but what we do know is that their instinct was, we need help. We need another brother. We cannot walk through this alone. Whether it was because they had hoped for a miracle, that’s a possibility, or they were looking for comfort and encouragement from another believer in the Lord. What we do know is we learn from this group an essential truth of the Christian life, it is never done alone. The Christian life is never done alone. The Spirit had been teaching these disciples, perhaps through the crucible of persecution, the life-giving power of the Holy Spirit through the lives of other believers, in this case, Peter.

Isolation is foreign to the Christian faith. And where we see isolation in the New Testament, it’s often shown as unusual and a problem to be remedied. The apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians says this, “…but God who comforts the downcast comforted us.” Very personal here, by how? The coming of Titus, another believer, who not only by his coming, but also “…by the comfort with which he was comforted by you, [church at Corinth] as he told us of your longing, your mourning, your zeal for me, so that I rejoiced still more.” Do you see what’s going on there? Peter, in this personal plea, says, I was comforted by Titus. Titus was comforted by you. The Holy Spirit was working through this chain. The Holy Spirit works through His people together. I was reading the other day about redwood forests. If you’ve ever been out there in California and other places. Redwood forests are unique in a lot of ways. There’s a remarkable ecosystem in those forests that we can’t even see. Each individual tree, of course, looks very independent, looks very strong, but underneath each tree has root systems that not only go down into the ground several feet, but actually spread out hundreds of feet, intermingling with all the other trees. A disciple doesn’t grow alone any more than a redwood does. The soil of growth is gospel community, nourished by God’s Word, and we root down together so we can grow up together.

Maturity happens together, bearing burdens together, distributing grace and peace to one another like Titus did in the church at Corinth. Isolation and loneliness should have no place in the life of the church, should have no place here at The Village Chapel. If we see isolation, it’s an emergency. We walk together in the fear of the Lord, the comfort of the Holy Spirit. Consider Tabitha for a moment. A few years into the birth of the church, she’s already established a thriving ministry of mercy to the most vulnerable in her community, the widows. And that kind of ministry would have been costly; it would have been sacrificial. There was no fast fashion in those days. Our text shows us the depth of impact that she had on this local church. In Tabitha, we see a heart not only demonstrating the power of the Spirit, but a heart whose values have been shaped and empowered by the Spirit. And as Peter arrives on the scene, this town is mourning, grieving. And the widows, think about that scene. It’s just so beautiful. The widows are holding up these garments. And the garments, they aren’t relics, they’re evidence of grace in thread and needle.

As Peter walks through that room, the hallway, whatever it might be, to the upper room. Can you imagine that scene? Perhaps one of the tenderest scenes in the book of Acts. Tabitha would have heard the Gospel preached at some point during the spread of the Gospel of those three years. And the gift of grace that was extended to her in Christ was poured out on all those she was called to serve. James, the brother of Jesus, would say their religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to serve orphans and widows. And here Tabitha is demonstrating that. J.I. Packer would say, “The task of the church is to make the invisible kingdom visible.” Peter himself demonstrates a heart being changed from one degree of glory to another. Just a few years prior, he had turned away from Jesus, his friend, his rabbi, his savior, denied him three times, and full of fear, if you remember that, in the courtyard before Jesus is crucified, he was peppered with questions. Aren’t you from Galilee? Weren’t you with that man Jesus? And he says, No, no, no. He betrays Jesus and he weeps for it. And that same man, full of fear, is the same man that we see here ministering to these folks in Lydda and Joppa. After seeing the resurrected Jesus, after being recommissioned by Him, he leads the church courageously in preaching the good news, the gospel of grace.

The whole first half of the book of Acts could actually be a case study in the process of sanctification in the life of Peter. He could actually write a whole book on that. He was maturing in Christ. And today we see him at the heart of his pastoral ministry, outside the walls of Jerusalem, bringing the comfort of the Holy Spirit to these saints in Lydda and Joppa. Christian maturity doesn’t always look impressive. Sometimes it’s simple acts of faith and obedience. We see that in verse 43 there. And it’s kind of like an aside. We could just brush over it. But he stays with this man, Simon, a tanner, for many days. Luke rarely tells us the vocation of a host in the book of Acts, but I think Luke had a purpose here in mind. Tanners, like I said, worked with dead animals. If you like leather goods in here, at one point a tanner was working on that leather and it stunk. Making usable leather goods. Because of that work, they were ceremonially unclean under Jewish law. Their shop was supposed to be at the edge of town simply because it smelled; it is typically near water, like we see here in Joppa. Yet Peter lodges with this man, Simon the Tanner, for many days. Why? Well, I think it’s because somewhere along the way, Peter stopped being more concerned with what was clean and more concerned with what the Lord had called him to.

The Spirit was reordering his value system. He was maturing. He wasn’t there yet, and we’re actually going to learn next week in our study that he still had the vestiges of religious traditionalism on him, and he needed to be freed of that, but the Lord is working it right here, working on his heart. And isn’t that the way of the Holy Spirit? In slow ways, in small ways, working with you wherever you might be. Do you long for that kind of heart transformation? Do you long for that kind of change? Not just behavior change. Behavioral change is kind of like mowing weeds. The weeds come right back up, especially after rain like this. The weeds come right back up. No, the gospel of grace actually changes the roots, gets rid of the roots of the weeds. Now, let’s not miss this. Peter is following the pattern of the Lord again. Jesus was a friend of tax collectors and sinners of all kinds. Jesus touched the leper. He ate in the home of Zacchaeus. Jesus stayed with Peter, who would deny him three times. Peter can enter into the life of Simon the Tanner because Jesus first entered into Peter’s life. Christ’s likeness, what we’re talking about here, one degree of glory to another, is really a recovery of life. Jerem Barr says it this way: “Sanctification, becoming holy, [maturing is another way of saying that] is a recovery of life. It is a recovery of the image of God that we are made in. To be conformed more into the likeness of Christ is a restoration of our humanity.”

The Lord was and is building His church, and He’s building those in His church, growing us up, maturing us from one degree of glory to another, and it is all of grace. It’s all grace. “He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus.” That’s what Paul says in Philippians. And this gospel cadence is all of grace. We are invited and called to participate in this growth, in this maturity, just as these churches were walking in gospel cadence. It’s all of grace, but we’re called to do the walk. Fear of the Lord, comfort of the Holy Spirit. It’s gospel because it’s all grace. Even the longing to grow and mature is from Him. It’s a cadence because we’re called to walk in that grace. This is what a Christian life being built up and maturing looks like. Sometimes it’s one step forward, two steps back – I’d say most of the time in my life. The fear of the Lord is a lifetime pursuit of giving up your own kingdom so that you might fully live in the kingdom of God, a conscience that is more sensitive to pleasing our Heavenly Father. The comfort of the Holy Spirit is the Spirit doing His spotlight ministry, pointing us to Jesus, to what He’s done for us, who we are in Him.

It’s good for us to practice that discipline I talked about at the beginning of watchfulness, asking these questions. And think about these questions again. Do I long to know Christ more deeply? Is that capacity actually growing? Am I hungering for more of the Word of God? Am I participating in the life of the church, being sharpened and encouraged, giving generously of my treasure and time? Is prayer, like with Peter here, a vital part of my ordinary day-to-day life? Is it instinctual? I can’t do anything unless I come to the Lord first. I challenge you this week, a pastoral challenge for all of us, to seek the Lord in prayer this week and ask Him to show you what the next step of growth might be in your life. “Search me, O God, and know my heart,” the psalmist says. “Try me and know my thoughts, see if there be in any grievous way in me.” And then he says, “Lead me in the way of everlasting life.” This is for life, for wholeness. We need not approach this kind of thing though, like a smart watch, looking to track our every spiritual step. No, no, no. We are coming to the Heavenly Father who loves us. We said it earlier in our confession of faith. The Heavenly Father, that’s the lens you want to look at this through, who’s building us up, who’s growing us up, is whole disciples of Jesus called to walk in the cadence of the gospel.

I love Russ Masterton. He said: “The gospel is when the firefighter who pulls you out of the fire is also the doctor who saves your life, the plastic surgeon who repairs your scars, the insurance agent who sends the money to rebuild, and the carpenter who builds your new home from the ground up. [There it is, maturity, wholeness.] The gospel is one-way love without end.” That is the hope of Jesus. That is the hope that we have this morning. Would you pray with me? Heavenly Father, we thank You for the gift of Your Son. We thank You for Jesus and His Spirit who brings life. Wherever our hearts have gone cold or stale, drifted from Your Word, Your people, Your mission in this world, Holy Spirit, restore unto us the joy of our salvation. Joy in your gospel of grace. Lord, continue to move among us, reshape our hearts, rekindle our affections for You and for one another. Knit back together, Lord, those areas of our hearts that are fractured, that are turned away from You and then lead us into the way everlasting. Lead us into more wonder, into more fear of You, proper reverence of You. And Lord, lead us to more of the comfort of the Spirit, knowing to whom we belong. In the precious name of Your Son Jesus, we all said, Church, Amen.

Songs, Readings & Prayer

Songs

“Leaning On The Everlasting Arms“ by Elisha Albright Hoffman, Anthony J. Showalter, and Anthony Johnson Showalter
“My Jesus I Love Thee“ by William R. Featherston and Adoniram Judson Gordon
“I Set My Hope“ (Hymn for a Deconstructing Friend) Words and Music by Matt Boswell, Matt Papa and Keith Getty
“The Lord Almighty Reigns“ by Keith Getty, Kristyn Getty, Matt Boswell, and Matt Papa
“Doxology” by Thomas Ken and Louis Bourgeois
All songs are used with permission. CCLI License no. 2003690

Looking for our Hymns of the Week or resources to worship anytime? We’ve curated a playlist of hymns TVC Worship has led on our YouTube Channel!

Call To Worship: Now and Forevermore

Men: The love of God has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
Women: We dwell in Him and He in us.
Men: Give thanks to the Lord and call upon His name! Make known His deeds among the peoples.
Women: We will sing to Him, sing praises to Him, and speak of all His marvelous works.
All: All praise to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; to whom all honor and glory be now and forevermore. Amen!

Classic Prayer: Johann Arndt

Ah, Lord, to Whom all hearts are open, You can pilot the ship of my soul far better than I can. Do not let me be carried hither and thither by wandering thoughts, but, forgetting all else, let me see and hear You alone. Renew my spirit; kindle in me Your light, that it may shine within me, and my heart may burn in love and adoration for You. Let Your Holy Spirit dwell in me continually, and make me Your temple and sanctuary. Fill me with Your love and light and life, with devout and heavenly thoughts, with comfort and strength, with joy and peace.

Confession of Faith: Treasuring God’s Word

“Commit your way to the LORD, trust also in Him, and He will do it.”
Psalm 37:5

Leader: What does the Psalmist mean when he says, “Commit your way to the Lord?”
People: We are invited to give our whole selves to a kind and loving Father. Our desires and plans, our hopes and fears, all may rest in His sovereign wisdom and steadfast love.

Leader: What does the Psalmist mean when he says, “Trust also in Him, and He will do it”?
People: We are invited to give our whole selves to a kind and loving Father. He is worthy of our trust. Because He is faithful and true, we can walk in active obedience to His Word and wait with eager anticipation and confident hope for Him to act in His perfect timing with wisdom, power, righteousness, and love.

TVC Prayer Ministry

TVC Ministry: Servant Leadership Council
Vocation: Music
TVC Mission Highlight: Agape International Mission
Praying for the Persecuted Church: Rwanda

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