[MUSIC PLAYING] Welcome to Expound, our verse
by verse study of God's word. Our goal is to expand your
knowledge of the truth of God by explaining the word of God
in a way that is interactive, enjoyable, and congregational. You know, it's
always amazing to me to come to an end
of another year, because we all
say it every year, and you say it more
often the older you get, but boy did this year fly by. Right? It just goes so quickly. So in a few days you will
have spent all 365 days, five hours 49 minutes
and three seconds-- you will have spent it all
and another year will begin. Whenever another year begins or
you're looking, like this week and anticipating
what's going to happen, everyone has
questions, like, what's going to happen next year? What's on the horizon for
our country, for our world? Is this the year Jesus
is going to return? [APPLAUSE] I'm glad that three,
four, five, 10 of you are excited about that idea. Maybe you've just gotten weary
because you've waited so long and he hasn't come. But he could come at any moment. But we wonder
things like, what's going to happen
with our economy? It's getting better. Is it going to
continue to get better? Or what's going to happen
in the Middle East? There's problem after
problem after problem, news story breaking
of what might happen. What's the little
guy in North Korea going to be up to in the next
few months of the new year? You know, we just don't know. We wonder what a new
year is going to bring. And as we wonder, there
are certain things we never have to wonder about. And the thing we don't have to
wonder about is God's presence. He promised to be
with you always, even to the end of the age. So no matter what happens-- no matter what tomorrow holds,
you know who holds tomorrow. And so that's the
confidence we have as we enter into this new year. Well, for Saul of Tarsus,
every thing he had ever known was becoming new. The Bible says, if any man is
in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things have passed away
and everything becomes new. The chapter opens up
with Saul of Tarsus breathing threats and
slaughter against the disciples of the Lord. And he's on his 150-mile
journey from Jerusalem up north to Damascus to imprison
any Jewish believers in Jesus that he can possibly
round up to incarcerate. He has gotten special permission
from the Jewish Sanhedrin, the ruling council in
Jerusalem, that has jurisdiction over Judaism worldwide. So they have given him
permission to do this. We know the story well, though
we've read it last time we were together to get refreshed. But on his way up,
he gets interrupted. He sees a bright light
coming out of heaven. He's on his back. He hears the voice of Jesus
speaking to him, saying, Saul, it's hard for you to kick
against the goads, meaning, you are fighting the piercings
of your heart being convicted. You know you're fighting
a losing battle. You know your
heart is convicted. You've come to see these
followers of Jesus, and you're fighting what you're
seeing and what you're hearing, the life change you see in them. It's hard for you to do that. But I'm sure that when Saul
of Tarsus was on his back and he was seeing that light
and hearing that voice, he immediately thought, man,
this is going to be a bad day. But what seemed to
him like a bad day was going to turn
into a good year, because if you think about
it in terms of a new year, for Saul of Tarsus,
it was indeed a brand new year of his life. And that is, everything in the
past, all of that animosity, all of that antagonism,
all of that hatred, all of that vehemence
and tumult in his heart was a thing of the past. It was gone. And a new year, a new day,
a new era had come for him. And so he goes into
Damascus completely blind. He is unable to see. And a guy named
Ananias of Damascus, a believer in Jesus, a Jewish
believer who has heard things about Saul of
Tarsus is dispatched to speak to Saul of Tarsus to
sort of get him on his feet, orient him in the faith, share
those first primary things for this man as a
young new believer, and then he's off
to a running start. However, now that Saul of
Tarsus, AKA Paul the Apostle, has met the Lord,
is a new creation. He has to grow. So you're going to see, I hope,
I think I'm going to show you, Lord willing, that he
had to first go away for a period of time. Now let's begin in verse 20. We kind of ended
around verse 22, but let's go back to verse 20,
where it says, immediately, he, Saul, preached the
Christ, meaning, the Messiah, preach Jesus, in the synagogues
that he is the Son of God. Now that's a
marvelous statement. It's an amazing statement. This very man, who swore
Jesus was not the Son of God is the very one in the
synagogues of Damascus preaching that Jesus
is the Son of God. If you were in that
synagogue service, you'd be scratching your
eyebrows or your cheeks or your knees or whatever,
just trying to figure out, is this a fake? Is this guy trying to
ingratiate himself to us? Is this a trick? Because they heard of him. Then all who heard
were amazed and said, is this not he who
destroyed those who called on this
name in Jerusalem and has come here
for that purpose so that he might bring them
bound to the chief priests? There's something marvelous
about what we just read. Saul begins preaching
as soon as he's saved. It's as though, once
the realization came to him that all this stuff
about Jesus was true, was real, and it was now real
for him, it wasn't enough to just be real for him. If it's real for me,
the chief of sinners, as Paul called himself, it
must also be real for others, and others need to hear it. And so he felt an urgency
to immediately tell somebody about it. Now I don't know what
it was like for you, but I had that same
feeling of urgency. I couldn't wait
after I met the Lord in that little bedroom
in my brother's apartment in San Jose. I couldn't wait, as I traveled
back down south to Southern Cal to go see my
parents and friends. I couldn't wait to tell
my parents about Jesus. I couldn't wait to tell
my brothers about Jesus. Now they weren't so excited
as I was to hear about Jesus. I thought they would be. I thought they'd be much
more excited than they were. But they looked at me like,
they, back in Damascus looked at Saul of Tarsus. Is this the same Skip
that we knew before? Is this the same guy? And especially my
friends, they thought, what is up with Heitzig? Man, what weird stuff
has he gotten into? But you feel that urgency. If it's true for you, then
it's because it's true for all. And if it's true for all, then
all need to hear the truth. And so that urgency
compelled him. But as we noted
last time, we have followed the journey of Saul
of Tarsus just in this chapter. First he's on his
back repenting. Then he's on his knees praying. And now he's on
his feet preaching. Remember, he was in
Damascus and the Lord said, go find Saul of Tarsus,
the Lord said to Ananias, for behold he is praying. So on his back,
repenting, on his knees, praying, now he's on his feet
in the synagogue preaching. They were skeptical. But it says in
verse 22, "But Saul increased all the
more in strength and confounded the Jews who
dwelt in Damascus proving that this Jesus is the Christ." He was an astute learner. He knew the Old Testament text. And even though
he's a new believer, he had the ability to
be very persuasive, even as a young follower of Christ,
able to take Jewish people and prove to them,
demonstrate to them that Jesus was the Messiah. Then notice the next phrase. "Now after many
days were passed, the Jews plotted to kill him." I believe, and I
told you last time, and that was the cliffhanger
that we ended with, that between verses
22 and 23, I believe is a gap of three years. I think many days is sort of the
understated statement of Luke, the author of the book of Acts. After many days turns out to
be about three years, where Saul of Tarsus goes away to a
place called Nabataean, Arabia. That's not Arabia like you
know Saudi Arabia with Riyadh and Mecca, but
Nabataean, Arabia, which is east of Damascus in that
upper plateau of Jordan, all the way down to
the Sinai desert. That's Nabataean, Arabia. He went away for three
years, and then he returned back to Damascus. And after that, as we'll see,
he then went to Jerusalem. How do I know this? How do I figure this? Well turn with me to
Galatians chapter one and you will hear and
see Paul's own words. If you don't have to turn
there, if it's too challenging, I have it already marked,
so I'll just read it to you. Galatians chapter
one in verse 11, Paul said, "but I make
known to you, brethren, that the gospel which
was preached to me is not according to man, for I
neither received it from man, nor was I taught it. But it came true the
revelation of Jesus Christ." What's he referring to? His experience on
the road to Damascus when Jesus spoke to him. "For you have heard
of my former conduct in Judaism, how I persecuted
the Church of God beyond measure and I tried to destroy it." That's how chapter nine begins. "And I advanced in
Judaism, beyond many of my contemporaries
in my own nation, being more exceedingly
zealous for the traditions of my fathers. But, when it please God, who
separated me from my mother's womb and called me
through his grace to reveal his son in me
that I might preach him among the Gentiles,
I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood,
nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles
before me, but I went to Arabia and returned again to Damascus." Now he sums that up by saying,
"Then after three years, I went up to
Jerusalem to see Peter and remained with him 15 days." For three years, Saul of
Tarsus, after leaving Damascus, went to the wilderness,
to Nabataean, Arabia, to the desert. Why the desert? Well, perhaps if
he went down south he may have even lodged in the
shadow of Mount Sinai, which would be fitting for the man
who said about his former life, if you want to look
at righteousness which came through the law of
Moses, I was blameless. He was a man of the law, and the
law was given at Mount Sinai. And perhaps there, at
the foot of Mount Sinai, even camping out, he was
considering what the law really meant, what it pointed to,
going over familiar texts. He's had a revelation
of Jesus Christ. He now has a relationship
that's different with God. So he's going back through
all of his learning, back through his former training. And for three years, I
believe he's being prepared by God for what lies ahead. God's preparations
are very unique. Sometimes he can take
a person and give them a formal education. He did that with Saul of Tarsus,
though the formal education was in Judaism. There was no formal
Christian training as of yet. But rather the Lord took
him alone in the desert. And you might say that
he had a BSD degree, Back Side of the Desert Degree. Moses had the same degree. Sometimes God has to give
you the third degree out in the desert. That's really the
degree you graduate with that makes you a value. And so after three years,
he returned back again to Damascus, until,
as we'll see, he gets kicked out of
town quite quickly, and then he makes
his way to Jerusalem. But what he is
experiencing, what he is beginning to experience
in this new life of his is something that Ananias
predicted would mark his life, and that is suffering. You know, if you counseled a
new believer in our prayer room after a service, and
if you were to put your arm around that
new believer and say, let me just tell you,
welcome to the family of God. And, by the way,
your future life, now that you're a
Christian, is going to be marked by suffering,
persecution, opposition, oppression. God bless you. That'd be a rough gig. But now think of Ananias,
back in Acts chapter nine. Go back a little bit. We started later than
this, but go back to verse 15, where the Lord
tells Ananias of Damascus to go see Saul. The Lord said to him,
go, for he, Saul, is a chosen vessel of mine to
bear my name before Gentiles, kings, and the
children of Israel. For I will show
him how many things he must suffer for my sake." Now if you were
Ananias and you knew about Saul of Tarsus' reputation
to imprison or kill believers, you don't want to tell him that. You don't want to be the
guy to give him that news. Hey, by the way, Saul,
welcome to God's family. You're in for a
lot of suffering. But, those were God's orders. And Ananias told him and he
experienced that immediately. Why? Because immediately he
started preaching the gospel in the synagogue. And then he goes away for three
years, goes back to Damascus, now prepared after being
alone with the Lord for three years in Nabataean, Arabia. It says, "after many
days were passed." Now he's back in Damascus,
as he said in Galatians one. "The Jews plotted to kill him." So he's experiencing
the hardship. "But their plot
became known to Saul, and they watched the gates
day and night to kill him." It won't be the first time. Or it won't be the last time. "Then the disciples
took him by night and led him down through
though the wall." That is the perimeter
wall of the city. The cities were walled
cities in those days-- in a large basket. So evidently a private
residence with a window overlooking the
outside of the city from the wall in a large basket. They did have large
baskets, and many scholars will point to the idea
that large baskets able to accommodate
a human being, made out of straw or
wicker, were typically garbage baskets to let out the
refuse outside the city wall. You're dumping it. So just think of Saul of Tarsus. He has entered Damascus blind. He comes back after
three years and he's going to leave Damascus
as a common criminal in a wastebasket. They're letting him down
through the wall in a basket. And when Saul had come,
notice this, to Jerusalem, again like it said
in Galatians one. Now he's going to Jerusalem. He tried to join the disciples. Now hold on. If it says he tried
to join the disciples, it must mean it was difficult
to join the disciples. In fact, it was, because
the Greek tense literally would be translated, he kept on
trying to join the disciples. So he's not having
great luck, and here's why, we're told at the end. "He tried to join the disciples
but they were all afraid of him and did not believe
that he was a disciple." So he's in Damascus. He's saved. He goes to Arabia, comes back. He gets in trouble. He goes to Jerusalem. He's so excited to go to
Jerusalem and meet the apostles and hang out and
share with them. Nobody in that
church group believes that he's a converted man. They think, oh, no, we
know about this guy, what he did here with Stephen,
consenting unto his death, wreaking havoc in this
city and then going from here to Damascus. He's not coming back here. He's not coming to our church. I feel sorry for Saul
of Tarsus at this point. Why? Because he's sort of like
a man without a country. He's not welcome
in the synagogues. He's not welcome in
the temple courts. Anybody who sees him knows that
he's the traitor who walked out on Judaism. And now, even God's own
people, the early church, won't accept him. He's a man without a country. He has no place of familiarity,
no family to embrace him. Several years ago I had a
very interesting experience when I was in New York City. A friend of mine
has a church there and I was speaking
one evening for him. And I noticed in
the back of the room there was a man-- gray-haired
man, distinguished looking gentleman with a overcoat and
a scarf, and he had his Bible and he had a notepad
and a pencil. And he was taking notes. His head was down
most of the time. He had a little reader
glasses and he's taking notes, taking notes, taking notes. And afterwards I went up to my
friend the pastor and I said, hey, I noticed a guy in your
congregation in the back, this older gentleman,
distinguished gentleman taking notes like I've never
seen anybody take notes that much whenever I
have spoken anywhere. And Mike smiled and he
said, you know who that is? He goes, that's John DeLorean. He's the guy that
made the DeLorean car. Remember Back to the Future? And you may remember,
if you are this old to remember that
John DeLorean was busted for like 55
ounces of cocaine or some kind of a drug
deal that went bad and then later acquitted, then
got into other legal problems. Well he had been in jail,
supposedly had a conversion experience that I had heard
about, but everybody doubted. But he is in this church
and he is taking notes. And Mike said, he's
here every week. And this guy is
growing in his faith. But he said, you know,
he's sort of like a man without a country,
because most Christians don't want to believe
that he's really converted because of his fame. And the world has
largely rejected him. So Saul of Tarsus is sort
of in that in-between stage. He doesn't fit in the
synagogue, and at first, he keeps trying to join the
church, but he is unable. So he's having difficulty
in the earliest part of his Christian walk. It's not easy. He is discovering
difficulty after difficulty. Why do I bring this up? Because this is the man God
is going to use more mightily than perhaps-- well, than anybody
else in church history, save Jesus Christ himself. He's going to write 13 of
the 27 New Testament books. So he's going to be
used mightily by God. Alan Redpath said, "When God
wants to do an impossible task, he takes an impossible
man and crushes him." Witness with me here, the
crushing of Saul of Tarsus, one blow after another
blow after another blow. I hope that that
doesn't discourage you, but I hope it encourages you. Because if you're going
through difficulty, God's up to something. God never says, oops. He never makes a mistake. If something
happens in your life and you go, oh, this
is one of those, oops, this shouldn't happen, there's
no oops in God's vocabulary. All things are working
together for good to you who love the Lord. And so sometimes
you're feeling crushed. That's because God is going
to do something awesome. You just gotta wait for
it, but you'll see it. The salvation of a soul is
the miracle of a moment. The manufacture of a saint
is the task of a lifetime. It takes years, and it's
going to take years for Saul. You know, we read of Paul
the Apostle, and we think, man, that guy just got
saved and he starts writing New Testament books. No. Three years have passed. After three years,
he's still not trusted. Verse 27 gets good though. I'm glad that after
all this hardship we find a great hinge word
in verse seven, "but." "But Barnabas took him and
brought him to the apostles." You know Barnabas. I hope you remember him. We was introduced to
us in chapter four. His name, his birth
name was Joses, but the apostles gave him
the name Barnabas, which means the son of encouragement. And he was wealthy. He had land in Cyprus, the
island nation of Cyprus. He sold it later. Laid it at the apostles'
feet in that chapter. He encouraged the
church financially. His generosity multiplied
their capacity. And now he's here again. He's in Jerusalem, and
the son of encouragement is bringing Saul of Tarsus in. He brought him to the
apostles and declared to them how he had seen the
Lord on the road, and that he had
spoken to him, and how he had preached boldly at
Damascus in the name of Jesus. So he was with
them at Jerusalem, coming in and going up. Now he's welcome in church. And he spoke boldly in
the name of the Lord Jesus and disputed against
the Hellenists, but they attempted to kill him. So, from bad to worse. From bad to good, because
the church accepts him, he's now has a family, to,
now they want to kill him. So this is going to sort
of mark his whole life as we see it unfold. But I love Barnabas, don't you? Somebody once said,
a friend is one who comes in when the rest
of the world goes out. So when you feel like everybody
else sort of casts you out and nobody cares,
it's the friend who will come in and stay
with you and stick by you and be there to
nurture you and to keep your feet on solid ground. And let me just
say, we need people. Every church needs
people like Barnabas who will put their arm around
young, rough around the edges believers, people with a
different weird, sordid background, the kind of people
that many Christians just don't want to spend
the time of day with because they're
so messy, and they'll get their hands dirty. And they'll bring them in. They'll encourage them and vouch
for them and stand with them and disciple them in
the body of Christ. So Paul, Saul, was
with him in Jerusalem. Now, back to verse 29. "And he spoke boldly in
the name of the Lord Jesus and disputed against the," who? Hellenists. Why did he do that? Well, because he was
a Hellenistic Jew. That is, he was born
outside of Israel in Tarsus of Cilicia, a Roman
province in modern day Turkey. It was at one of these
synagogues called the Synagogue of
the Freed Men where Stephen had been preaching. Stephen was also a Hellenistic
Jew and went to the synagogue in Jerusalem called the
Synagogue of the Freed Men and gave this incredible
historical witness, and then preached
Jesus unto them. Saul was there that day. They stoned Stephen. Laid their clothes, the
people who killed Stephen at the feet of Saul. And Saul was consenting unto his
death at this very synagogue. So he goes back to the
Hellenistic synagogue, disputes with them. Now he's the guy that was
egging them on to kill Stephen. And so, true to form,
they try to kill him. "When the brother
and found out, they brought him down to Caesarea
and sent him out to Tarsus." Caesarea's on the coast. It is headquarters
for the Romans in that part of the world. It's where the procurator
had his headquarters. Pontius Pilate at one time had
his headquarters at Caesarea. And the procurator,
governor, like Pilot, was only in Jerusalem
for feast days. So Caesarea was sort of like-- I mean, when you go to
Israel and you see Caesarea, you go, oh, I get it. I mean, Jerusalem's
cool, but we're on the Mediterranean-- we're
on the beach right here. And so there was this beautiful
harbor built by the Romans in Caesarea. Saul will be back in
Caesarea later on, spending two years there in jail
before he gets sent to Rome. But now they just
take him to Caesarea, because that's
the quickest port. You either go to
Joppa or Caesarea. They took him to Caesarea,
put him on a boat, sent him back home to
Cilicia, back to Tarsus where he is from. Now, get this. He's been in Arabia
already for three years. He gets sort of out of
exile, comes to Jerusalem, gets in trouble again, gets
sent out of Jerusalem back home. And he doesn't show up
again for seven years-- seven years. Now when he shows up
again, he will not show up again in Jerusalem. He shows up again
in Antioch of Syria, because a church is
starting to grow there. And Barnabas will be
the guy to bring him from Tarsus in Cilicia down
to Antioch to help him. That's really where he's going
to get his ministry experience, is in this Gentile region
of Syria, Antioch of Syria. But why I'm bringing that up is
because three plus seven is 10. So it took a decade of
isolation and preparation before Saul of Tarsus was ready
for the operation of ministry. So don't get discouraged. Man, I've been waiting on
the Lord for six months and he hasn't used me yet. And I remember thinking that. I was driving down the 405
freeway and I remember, I was mad at the Lord. I said, Lord, I'm getting old. I'm 23-years-old. I thought I would have
started a church by now. Why are you using me, Lord? And the Lord used the 10-year
preparation of Saul of Tarsus to speak to my heart. Three plus seven. Now he's back up after
this at his hometown going through probably all-- spending all the time, no doubt,
going through the scriptures and getting really
ready, as we'll see when he comes
on the scene again. But notice verse 31. "Then the churches throughout
all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace and were edified and
walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort
of the Holy Spirit. They were multiplied." Now there is a little
bit of information that we don't get until
we get to Acts 22. So since it could be a while,
or the Lord could come back before we even get there, I'm
just going to look at Acts 22 for just a moment and
listen to Saul of Tarsus. Let me just set the story. In Acts 22 he's
back in Jerusalem. This time he's in the temple. The Jews see him in the
temple, throw a hissy fit, because they think that
he has brought Gentiles into the temple
courts of the Jews. He gets arrested. He is brought before a Roman
soldier, and Saul of Tarsus, now Paul the Apostle, speaks
to his Jewish brethren, who are in the courts of
the temple, and he's giving his own
background and testimony. And he says to them-- this Acts 22. I'm reading from verse 17. "Now it happened,
says, Paul the Apostle. Now it happened. When I returned to
Jerusalem," that's after three years in
Nabataean, Arabia, "and was praying in the temple
that I was in a trance." Now we don't get this
back in Acts chapter 9. "And I saw him,"
Jesus, "saying to me, make haste," which means, hurry
it up, "and get out of town." Get out of Dodge, get
out of Jerusalem quickly. "For they will not receive
your testimony concerning me. So I said, Lord, they know
that in every synagogue I imprisoned and beat
those who believe in you. And when the blood of your
martyr Stephen was shed, I also was standing by
consenting to his death and guarding the clothes of
those who were killing him. And then he said to me,
depart," or, I'm done talking. Just go. You know, he's trying
to argue with the Lord, but Lord, they know who I am. Surely they're going to
listen to me eventually. Jesus says, get out,
depart, "for I will send you far from here to the Gentiles." So he leaves. Seven years pass. We will not see him again
until we get to Antioch, chapter 13 of the book of Acts. For the next few chapters,
and you'll notice it now in the next verse, there's
a shift back to Peter. See we have seen the
flow of the gospel from Jerusalem,
Judea, and Samaria, and then we saw the
conversion of Saul of Tarsus. But we're still going to deal
now for the next three chapters with Peter and Peter's ministry. And then beginning in
chapter 13, Saul of Tarsus, becoming Paul the
Apostle, dominates the rest of the story. He's the guy that dominates
the rest of the book. So, verse 32, "It
came to pass, as Peter went through all the
parts of the country that he also came down to the
saints who dwell at Lydda. There he found a
certain man named Aeneas, who had been
bedridden for eight years and was paralyzed." Luke was an
interesting character. He tells us about
Aeneas, but he gives us no background information
except to say he was paralyzed. Now Luke was a
doctor, so he's just sort of giving us
the clinical rundown of the disease this man has. But doesn't tell us if
he's a Jew or a Gentile, how old he is, how long he lived
there, if he was a believer or not, just, he
had this disease. He's a doctor. He's given us the medical facts. Now it says he came to
Lydda in a verse 32. Let me just say, if
you've ever-- anybody here ever been to Israel? Raise your hand. OK, so you've been to Lydda. You go, I don't remember Lydda. Well, when your plane lands
at Ben Gurion Airport, you've touched down in Lydda. The airport is located on
the site called Lydda or Lod, L-O-D, and that is
the ancient place, or that's the modern place
of the ancient place of Lod or Lydda. Lod it was called in
the Old Testament. Lydda it was called
in the New Testament. Now the Lord's going to
speak to Peter and use Peter. Interesting that Peter
is not in Jerusalem. He's traveling. He's now become an itinerant
preacher, so to speak. He's kind of moving around
Judea, which he didn't have to do because back
in Acts chapter eight there was a persecution
that came on the church. And it says, the
Church in Jerusalem was scattered throughout the
regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. Peter is an apostle. Peter didn't have to go. He could have
stayed in Jerusalem, but he felt the need, the
desire, the call of God perhaps to go out and do
ministry in an itinerant way. So he's moving. And the Lord will use Peter
while he's on the move. My point being this, it's easier
to work with a moving object. It's easier to do ministry
when somebody is not just sitting back going, well,
Lord, you know where I live, and you know my phone number,
and you know my address. So if you ever want
to use me, just, I don't know, send a vision
from heaven or something. Get my attention. But people who are
on the move, it's easier to direct
a moving object. It's easier to control
a moving bicycle. It's easier to direct a moving
person, a person looking for opportunities. A busy person will
find many opportunities to serve the Lord when they're
looking for and engaging in and getting
involved in God's work. So he is on the move. So there's a certain
man, verse 33, who had been bedridden
for eight years. And he's paralyzed. And Peter said to him, "Aeneas,
Jesus, the Christ, the Messiah, heals you. Arise, make your bed." And when he said,
make your bed, it's not like what your mom used
to say to you when you were a kid, make your bed that way. Clean up your room
and make your bed, it's just, take your bed
roll and pick it up and go. Make your bed. Forget the bed
and start walking. "Then he arose
immediately, so all who dwelt at Lydda and Sharon"-- that's the Sharon Plain, the
[INAUDIBLE] it is called, topographically, --"saw him
and turned to the Lord." Aeneas is healed and
becomes a walking testimony. The result of the
walking testimony is the salvation of those
who knew him and saw him and came in contact with him. Now I suppose it would
be tempting to say, the greatest
miracle in the world is healing a sick body,
a paralyzed person. That's the greatest
miracle ever. I would argue it is not
the greatest miracle. And I'm not saying this
to sound super-spiritual, but the greatest
miracle in the world is the salvation of a soul,
not the healing of a body. In fact, the first miracle
enabled the second miracle. The miracle of healing this
man enabled and brought what you see in verse 35. "Those who dwelt
in Lydda and Sharon saw him and turned to the Lord." That was the purpose
of the healing, to bring a greater miracle. You say, well why is
that a greater miracle? Why is salvation
a greater miracle? It's easy. It costs more. It costs the blood of
Jesus Christ on the cross to save people from sin. It brought the
greatest results-- the salvation of a soul
for all of eternity. It brought the
greatest glory to God, as they'll be with him in
heaven and have the capacity to do the same with others. So it costs the greatest price,
it brought the greatest glory to God, and it brought
the greatest results. Now it says, at Joppa,
that's down by the seacoast, "There was a certain
disciple named Tabitha," which is translated Dorcas. Tabitha is the Hebrew
word and the Aramaic word that means, gazelle, like
the animal, the gazelle. The Greek word is Dorcas,
so, same meaning, just two different languages. One is Aramaic and Hebrew,
and the other is Greek. I'd rather be called by
the Aramaic or Hebrew, wouldn't you? I wouldn't like to-- hey, dork. So it's not a great name, but
it's a beautiful meaning name. So Tabitha, Dorcas,
she is called. One is an Aramaic term and
the other is her Greek term. "This woman was full of good
works and charitable deeds, which she did, but it
happened in those days that she became sick and died. And when they had washed her,
they laid her in an upper room. And since Lydda," or Lod,
about 10 miles away from Joppa, "was near Joppa, that the
disciples heard that Peter was there, they
sent two men to him imploring him to not to
delay in coming to them. Peter arose and went with them. And when he had come, they
brought him to the upper room, and all the windows stood--"
all the widows, excuse me. "All the widows stood
by him weeping, showing the tunics in the
garments which Dorcas had made while she was with him." Tabitha was a Proverbs 31 lady. She extends her
hands to the poor and she spreads out her arms to
the needy, it says in Proverbs. She was that kind of a person. She saw the need that people
had and she went to minister to that need. And so when you have a person
like that in a church who dies, who goes to be with the Lord. It's wonderful for that person,
but it's sad for that church. When you get somebody that
lovely and that needed to leave your midst, it
brings this kind of weeping. And they're not weeping
for her, they're weeping for themselves
and the fact that there is that
huge vacancy that is left now in that church. So, they did something. They did what was
customary to do. You take the dead body. You usually take it to a room. You wash the body and
you anoint the body, and then you quickly
bury the body. So they had already followed the
custom of washing the corpse, anointing the corpse with all
that was needed for burial. And they were about to bury her. But it was as if somebody says,
well, hold on just a minute. I know we've washed
the body and I know we've anointed the
corpse, but before we actually stick her in the ground, I
hear Peter's in the area. We've got nothing to lose. She's dead. So let's ask Peter to come in. Because they are already
making the burial preparations, but somebody had the presence
of thought to go, go get Peter. So Peter comes, goes
up to the upper room. And then verse 40-- "But Peter put them all out." Get out of the room, he said. And he knelt down and he prayed. "And turning to the body,
he said, 'Tabitha, arise.' And she opened her eyes. And when she saw
Peter, she sat up." I have a question. Peter put everybody out. Why? Well I don't know,
but I have a guess. My guess is, when he
saw her lying on that, he remembered something that
happened in Jesus' own ministry when he and James and
John were with Jesus on a special occasion in
Mark chapter five, when a little girl had died
and everybody was gathered in a room around the body, and
Jesus said, get 'em all out. She's only sleeping. And Jesus turned
to that little girl and said, "Talitha kumi," which
means, the little girl arrives. Now I think he said, I know
what to do, I've seen it done. Get everybody out. And the similarity
is remarkable. He didn't say, talitha
kumi, but he said, Tabitha kumi, in Aramaic. Very similar, but calling
her by name, gazelle. Tabitha kumi, arise. "And she opened her eyes. And when she saw
Peter, she sat up." So everybody leaves her room. Peter kneels before he says
to the dead woman, arise, and he gets down and he prays. Here's what I want
you to notice. There is going to be-- you
know the story because you've read it. She gets up from the dead. So there's an enormous-- there's a power
encounter that happens. But before the power
comes the prayer. If you want the power,
you start with prayer. Because once you pray,
you can expect power. But don't expect
power until you pray. So get everybody out and just
get down and start praying. And once you have
the prayer, now you can be open and
expect the power. But one will bring the other,
and you can't reverse that. One of my favorite stories about
the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London that Charles
Haddon Spurgeon pastored is that visitors
heard of him and they wanted to come and see it. They came to the tabernacle. The doors were locked. It was a weekday. They wanted to see the preacher. They wanted to see the
great tabernacle in London, that huge multi-thousand
seat auditorium where Spurgeon preached every week. They got there and
the place was shut up. They were sitting on the steps. A man came. Some stories even say
it was Charles Spurgeon, and he said to the
visitors, do you want to see the heating
apparatus of the tabernacle? And they thought, you know,
they're thinking, not really. I mean, I want to
see the tabernacle. I don't care about
the heating apparatus. That's a strange
thing to be asked. But they said, OK, sure. So they got in. They walked down a
flight of stairs, went down a long hallway. A door opened up where
there were hundreds of people praying in the room. And the man said, there
is the heating apparatus of this church. The reason this
church is so powerful is because these
people gather and they seek the Lord in
prayer, and the prayer is what produces the power. So Peter gets
everybody out, prays, speaks to the woman, Tabitha
kumi, and she gets up. Then he gave her his hand. So practical. What do you do to a dead person
who just gets alive again? Give him a hand. And he lifted her up. And when he had called
the saints and the widows, he presented her alive. And it became known
throughout all Joppa and many believed on the Lord. So again, one miracle leads
to the greater miracle, and that is the
salvation of many. So it was that he stayed
many days in Joppa with Simon, a tanner. Luke doesn't put
that in just because. He puts it in because
it's leading somewhere. Where it's leading
is chapter 10, and we'll have to wait
until we get to chapter 10, but let me just give
you a little teaser. A tanner was an unclean
profession among the Jews. Tanners were not regarded. They were looked
upon with distaste because they handled the
skins of dead animals. And so they became
ceremonially defiled all day long, all the time. Besides that, if you've
ever been around a tannery, it stinks to high heaven. So it's just like, unclean. Peter goes and hangs out. And why is this important? Because in the next
chapter he's going to get a vision from God
about unclean animals. And God's going to say,
whatever I've cleansed, don't you call unclean. So it's like the Lord is
giving him, one step at a time to loose the baggage of
religion and legalism so he can be open to the
salvation of anyone who would call upon the name of the Lord. So Saul of Tarsus had
a hard year behind him, breathing out anger and
threats against the disciples. He has a whole wonderful
year ahead of him, fraught with some challenges,
but a whole new life because he's in Christ. Peter sees miracles by his
hand, though he's going to experience persecution. So the year ahead of him looks
like a mixed bag, good and bad. And that's probably what
it's going to be like for us. As you look back over this
year, and if I were to ask you, how was your year? You'd say, some good, some bad. And that's probably what your
year is going to be like, some good, some bad. But the Lord will be
with you through it all. There won't be one time,
one day, one instance, one dark moment that
he won't be with you. So, it's been said that
an optimist stays up on New Year's Eve and
waits for midnight to welcome the new year in. A pessimist will stay
awake on New Year's Eve to make sure the
old year goes out. But let me just say, a
biblicists goes to sleep and rests because he or she
knows God is in control of it all. Amen. [APPLAUSE] So as Corrie TNE
Boom said, never be afraid to trust
an unknown future into the hands of a known God. You know your Lord, and
you're going to be just fine. We'll meet again
in another year. Well, before then, but
when we do you'll see. We'll see how
faithful the Lord was. As I pray, the communion
board is going to come forward and we're going to
distribute the elements. Father, we thank you for the
time we had in your word, being able to close
out the book of Acts, to look back briefly
over our own year and just consider in our
minds some of the things that have happened. But we realize, Lord, you
were faithful through it all. And we thank you for that. In Jesus' name, Amen. [MUSIC PLAYING] For more resources from Calvary
Albuquerque and Skip Heitzig, visit calvaryabq.org.
