Last week we read in Matthew 16 Jesus’ words that he would build his church. We looked at two stories of Jesus in action, building his church. Peter and Paul were two people that Jesus called to be part of his building program.
Peter, the disconnected leader, was publically re-instated by Jesus. Three times Jesus asked, “Do you love me?” Three times, Peter said, “Yes.” Three times Jesus said, “Feed my sheep!” Jesus builds his church through people. One of the tasks he wants accomplished is the feeding of his sheep.
The other task, represented in Jesus’ confrontation of Saul, was to ‘go’ tell others about him.
Today, we see the church of Jesus in action. Jesus is no longer physically present. Peter, the man Jesus commissioned to feed his sheep, is on the move.
Peter has left headquarters and is travelling about the country. (Acts 9:32) What is he doing? Feeding the sheep! How? Peter visits believers who had scattered throughout the region after the persecution in Jerusalem. During his visits, he encountered needs to which he responded through the power of Jesus in his life. Read Acts 9: 33-35: “There in the town of Lydda, he found a man named Aeneas, a paralytic who had been bedridden for eight years. Aeneas," Peter said to him, "Jesus Christ heals you. Get up and tidy up your mat." Immediately Aeneas got up. All those who lived in Lydda and Sharon saw him and turned to the Lord.
While Peter was in Lydda with the saints he received word from Joppa that the people there needed help.”
I love this story! But I would not have wanted to be Peter. Put yourself in Peter’s situation for a moment. You are visiting with a group of people. The visit is interrupted by two men from another town. They are hot, sweaty, tired and thirsty. They have an urgent message for Peter. They have walked/run 9 miles to plead, “Peter you have to come with us to Joppa. You have got to come right now!”
They tell Peter the problem. Dorcas is dead. Everyone is upset and looking to Peter for help.
I think Peter may have said, “Let me make sure I understand. Dorcas is dead. She died how many hours ago? You have walked 9 miles. You want me to return with you. That will take another two to three hours at best. And you want me to do something? What is it that you want me to do?”
I would not have blamed Peter if he had pulled out his day timer, looked and replied, “Sorry, I would like to help but I am booked.”
We don’t know what was going on in Peter’s mind but we do know he headed off to Joppa and left the people in Lydda behind.
Maybe Peter had already heard of Tabitha. If Peter had not, the two men gave Peter the scoop. Tabitha was quite a person. She is described as “always doing good and helping the poor.” She was a heroine. As much as any of the apostles, Tabitha, as a follower of Jesus, represented the church in action.
Finally Peter and the two other men arrive in Joppa. Think about the setting for a moment. I am conscious of this because I have been called into any number of uncomfortable situations. Peter is taken upstairs. Tabitha is laid out, washed and prepared for burial. In the Mideast, burial happens within 24 hours of death.
Around her body is a group of widows who are crying, probably quite loudly and energetically. When Peter comes into the room, they begin to show Peter the robes and other pieces of clothing that Tabitha had made for them. “Peter ... Peter... over here... look at this! My old dress was finished. I didn’t know what I was going to do. Tabitha heard about my plight and made me this beautiful dress. Look at the high-quality the material . . . look how carefully she stitched the seams.” Then with lots of tears she says, “Peter, what we are going to do without Tabitha? Peter, you have to do something! (Notice the ‘you!’) We need your help.”
What help could Peter give? One thing he knew was that he needed some quiet time. There was too much confusion and noise. For once, the impulsive, enthusiastic leader did not jump into action. Verse 40 tells us: “ Peter sent everyone out of the room; then he got down on his knees and prayed.”
In a situation like that, prayer is a good place to start. The expectations of the people far outweighed Peter’s ability to perform. Have you ever been in a situation like that?
Can you hear Peter saying, “Father, I need your help... I am not sure what is going on here... These people are looking for a miracle. They want Tabitha’s death reversed. They want to see her alive again.” We are not told how long Peter prayed. Maybe it was a short time or maybe it was a long time. But at some point he heard from God. And when he heard from God he turned toward the body of Tabitha and said simply, “Tabitha, get up.”
A miracle takes place. Tabitha opens her eyes and sits up. Peter takes her by the hand and helps her to her feet. He calls in the believers and the widows and presents Tabitha to them alive.
As a congregation we got excited when we raised $500,000 for our building project. Can you imagine the excitement if we prayed for a person who was dead and they came back to life again? No wonder, verse 42 reads, “This became known all over Joppa, and many people believed in the Lord.” Another translation puts it this way, “And the news raced through the whole town...”
The end of the story? Peter stayed in Joppa for some time with a tanner named Simon. Maybe Tabitha made Peter a new outer garment while he waited.
Peter the Apostle who had denied Jesus three times even using expletives to get his point across; Peter who Jesus had restored to “Feed his sheep”, this is the Peter God used to raise a dead disciple to life again. The restored Peter took Jesus’ words seriously. What a spectacular example of “feeding the sheep.”
So what does this story of the church in action mean for us? First let’s make sure we are seeing ‘the church’ in action.
The first picture is Peter meeting with the saints in Lydda. He comes for a short visit. What do they do when he is not with them? Continue to meet together. If we look at the first stories of Christians in Acts, they eat together, worship together, learn together and, in the case of the Christians in Lydda, they stay in touch with the leaders in Jerusalem. Feeding and caring for one another did not just take place through the apostles. If it had, the early church would never have expanded the way it did. The church that Jesus is building is joined together yet decentralized in the fulfilment of its calling. It is composed of groups of people who care for and feed one another.
The second picture of the church in action is seen in the life of Tabitha and illustrates the decentralized ministry approach. She was a disciple of Jesus who was devoted to good and helping the poor. Tabitha the seamstress influenced her community because she used her abilities for Jesus.
The third picture of the church of Jesus in action is the supernatural intervention of God in the healing of the man in Lydda and the raising of Tabitha from the dead.
When it comes to positions on the miraculous, there are two extremes. The one pole declares that miracles no longer happen. Those who take that position sometimes say that we have the Bible so we don’t need miracles any more. Miracles were for the purpose of authenticating Jesus as the son of God and the apostles as Jesus’ immediate followers. Miracles are no longer necessary to authenticate the truth of Christianity since we now have God’s word revealed to us in the scriptures. On the other end of the scale, is the extreme that expects miracles every time a person prays. If there is no miracle then something must be wrong. Usually the person who is being prayed for is blamed for not having enough faith.
A middle ground, and what I believe is biblical, is the realization that we are called to pray for one another. Miracles do happen but they do not happen nearly as often as we would like. If miracles happened as often as I would like, I know a few people who would still be alive today. I know others who would not continue to struggle with illness. We know from the New Testament is that Jesus did not heal everyone. Nor did the disciples raise a lot of people from the dead. Jesus raised three. Peter raised Tabitha. Paul raised the young man who fell asleep while Paul was speaking. As a result, he had fallen out of the window and died.
If the disciples were able to raise people from the dead anytime they wanted, I wonder about Stephen the first Christian martyr. His story is told in chapters 6-8. He would have been a great candidate to bring back from the dead. But it didn’t happen. Instead we read in Acts8: 2: “Godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him.” The men who buried Stephen were described as godly men. Yet God did not choose to intervene to bring Stephen back to life. From the story of the New Testament, we see that seldom does God intervene to raise a person back to life.
These three pictures of the early church point to three important truths:
Jesus calls people to build his church so that people will be fed both spiritually and physically. He is looking for people who will devote themselves to doing good and helping the needy. He wants people who will pray.
He is calling each of us. He wants to make a difference through our lives! Ask him what changes he wants to make in your life so he can build his church through YOU!