Sunday Sermon
Acts 9v32-43.
The context is we have just been given a summary of the church, it was a united and growing church that walked in the power of the Spirit and the fear of the Lord, v31.
This next section gives us a picture of what that summary statement was like in practice.
- · The main theme is doing good works for Gods glory.
1) three key people:
Aeneas v32-35.
Here was a man whom we are told had had it very tough for 8 years.
He had some kind of paralysis that mean he could not get out of his bed.
- · Peter comes and commands his healing and he gets up!
Consequently many turn to the Lord because of what had happened.
Tabitha v36-42.
Next we see Tabitha. She had had a different life to Aeneas. She had been able to be a real blessing to the people round about her with all her good works.
But then she died. However, Peter is called on and he comes to the rescue.
- · This time he prays for her and her life is given back.
To the rejoicing of the church and the salvation of those who hear about it.
Peter 32-43.
In all of the above Peter is instrumental.
He decided to go on this visiting tour of the area.
He meets Aeneas and heals him, then is lead to Dorcas and brings her back to life.
2) Where are the lessons for us in all of this for today?
Growth and the keys to growth:
1st Note the growth at the time! V35,42. (growth without preaching).
What is interesting in this section is that there is no mention of preaching!
Yet there is growth.
Of course we can take it for granted that Peter would have been preaching, but it’s not mentioned.
- · The encouraging point for us is that growth will happen as we seek to do good for the Lord!
Peter is pictured as someone going about doing good and there is growth.
Tabitha was someone who did good, and there was growth.
Yes preaching has a fundamental role to play, but God will use us in good works too!
In fact we are called to do good works!
App:
Work is good. When God made Man, he made man to work! Work came in before the fall.
Salvation starts with forgiveness of sin, saved by grace without works (Eph2v9).
But then we are given work to do! Good work, good deeds.
Through good works we are witnesses, Mat 5v16 – being salt and light through good works!
Not saved by our works / good deeds, but saved for good deeds: Eph2v10.
But what is the key in doing our good works?
- · Be people focused and Christ Centred.
3) Peter is our example.
a) Peter has become a People Person.
1. After his years of training in the presence of the Lord, he has learned the lesson of what is means to be a Great Christian: and that is service! (Mk 10v43f).
He goes off “visiting” v32. He wants to see how the church is doing. He wants to help!
2. Interesting that he seems to just “find a man”!
Not an important man, a celebrity of some sort, but a man in trouble!
3. Then Peter goes at once to help Tabitha!
Again the point is he is concerned about the people.
4. Finally we see him with Simon the tanner.
The point about him being a tanner is easy to overlook, but that meant that Simon would have been considered unclean all the time! Because he worked with dead animals.
Yet Peter goes and stays with him! He’s a People Person.
App
The first key to doing good works then means that we have to be people focused.
Simply keep an eye open for who may need your help.
b) Peter is Christ Centred.
The first healing is in the name of Christ Jesus.
He took no glory for himself. Did not even say, I Peter heal you in Christ’s name! Simply
“Jesus Christ heals you” v34.
Then with Tabitha he prays, again showing that he was God focused.
App:
Ultimately our vision has to be Jesus.
We will only become people focused as we look to Jesus.
Our good works are done in Christ name, in practice that means they are done prayerfully.
We pray for His help, and we pray for His glory.
Good works come from being concerned about people – people of all types.
Col 1v17-18
Last week we started to see who this Son of God’s love is, and how He is able to save us so fully. Qualify us for inheritance, rescue from darkness, redeem!
Because HE is the Image of God, the Firstborn over creation, the One through whom and for whom the whole of creation came into being!
This week we will see more of his greatness and glory.
1) He is before all! V17.
Obviously here as in all areas of faith we are dealing with special divine revelation.
This is knowledge that has been given to the church.
It is not something that we can think up on our own!
But that is the whole Christian experience. Our knowledge is revealed knowledge.
It is metaphysical knowledge. That is it is beyond the physical.
This is Metaphysical Revelation: “He is before all”.
This revelation ranks alongside all the other great words of scripture: “in the beginning God” “in the beginning was the Word”, “I am who I am”! etc.
App:
We are dependant creatures when it comes to knowledge for worship.
Worship relies on this special revelation.
Who is this Person we worship! That is who he is: the One who is before All!
He is the Reason, the Cause, the Origin, He stands outside of time and history: He is, before all!
We know all this because God has told us and given us the grace to believe.
2) All in Him consist! V17.
Further, not only is he “before all”, “all” that now is “consists” “in him”.
That is everything that we see round about us, and all that we do not see, have their place / hold together / consist, because of Him.
They do not even just have their place because of him, they exist in him!
They are because He is.
- · To sum up what we have seen already we can say that God made the world through Christ and for Christ, and now the world remains / exists in Christ!
Thus the fact that the world exists and lives now, is because it is “in Christ”!
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Not only does our worship rely upon special revelation: our very existence is also dependent. We exist because He is!
This makes the whole thing very personal, you live and exist now, because you are “in Christ”. He is holding you together! You are a dependant being.
Your consistency, you place, your life is because of Him, because He Is.
Thus our knowledge is dependant knowledge as is our very existence.
3) “He is the Head of the body, the church”. V18.
In this next verse Paul moves from Christ’s relationship to the world in general, to the church in particular.
The head is that part of the body from which everything else has its life.
And that is the whole point of this illustration. The church has its life from Christ.
Without him, we are no church, there is no life, no direction, no movement, vision or energy.
He is the Head: the life source, the operational centre, the mind, the brain, the thought!
We can live without other parts of the body, but not without the Head!
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So again we are dependant people! Our knowledge depends upon special revelation, our existence as part of the creation is dependent upon Him and now we see that as the Church we are also dependant people.
As the church our part is to remain in Him. To stay connected to the head: that means keep worshiping him! Looking to him for all our life.
4) “he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy”.
Next Paul points to his incarnational relationship to the church.
And here to we meet again the word “firstborn”.
This time the word has both the literal and the symbolic meanings.
He literally was the first to rise to eternal resurrection life, thus he is in everything therefore the supreme One. The First and the Supreme.
- · Ultimately the point is, there is not one area, in creation, in the church, in all things to which Christ is not the Supreme One.
Even at the physical level, as Man He is the supreme Man: sinless, perfect.
And as Resurrection Man, he is also the supreme one. The first to rise, and the founder of a new humanity! Old creation belongs to him: New creation belongs to Him, He is first in every way.
App:
Our whole existence, at whatever level you look at it is a dependant one.
In the field of knowledge we depend on revelation.
As part of creation we depend on the one who “Is” for our existence.
As members of the church we depend on the Head.
Even when the day comes for our resurrection from the dead, we will depend on Him!
In fact we are already raised in Him! (col3v1-4)
- · All that is left for us to do is work with it, and not against it!
We are dependant creatures: this is not part of our fallen nature, it is our created God ordained nature.
Ultimately that means live worshipping God. We were made dependant creatures, thus made to worship.
That means rely upon Him, trust Him, seek His help and strength and grace.
Worship Him who in everything has the Supremacy.