Essentials Of The Faith / Sunday Morning Sermon Series / Acts: Enlarging Our Vision
By caring for those who hurt 12/07/08
Sermon Series: Acts: Enlarging our Vision
Title: ‘By caring for those who hurt’ Text: Acts 9:32-43
Introduction: Patients charts in the hospital. They contain vital information concerning the patients heal and care. Here are some actual examples of what you might find written there:
1. Patient has chest pain
if she lies on her left side for over a year.
2. Patient has two teenage children, but no other abnormalities.
3. (after knee surgery) On the second day the knee was better, and on the
third day it disappeared.
4. She is numb from her toes down.
5. Patient suffers from occasional, constant infrequent headaches.
6. The patient was to have a bowel resection. However, he took a job as a
stock broker instead.
7. Discharge status: Alive but without my permission.
(Jeff Strite)
These humorous mistakes just go to show that even those in the medical profession are human.
If you’ve read our text, you might think it’s about miraculous healing through the Apostle Peter. But you’d be mistaken.
Yes, the miracles happened, but they’re not the point of the text. Sometimes, we need to look beyond the obvious, to see what God would have us glean from His Word.
Background: In our text this morning are three individuals who were hurting in different ways and Peter, by God’s grace, meets their needs.
Going through hard times, living with hurt that never seems to heal for many is as constant as the sunrise. You can watch the news on any given day and see the hard times of those all around us. Just last week I heard:
· AT&T will be cutting 12,000 jobs
· DuPont will be laying off 2,500 people
· Nationally we lost over 500,000 jobs in the month of November. The single highest monthly loss in over 30yrs.
But hard times and hurt are not excluded from those in the church.
· We have 2 dear folks suffering the devastation of Alzheimer’s
· We have at least 5 people who are survivors of various and multiple cancers
· We have perhaps 8 people who are in recovery from various addictions
· We have 4 people who are unemployed and others who are underemployed
· We have more than a few families who are struggling with the hurt of serious family troubles
I could go on but I think you get the point. There are people who are hurting right in our midst.
The Apostle Peter, in our text this morning, lovingly cares for three specific people who are hurting. The key to our text is not the miracles, but the impact Peter and these three people had on those around them…for the kingdom of God.
Transition: Open your Bibles to Acts 9:32 (pg. 839 in the Bibles under the chair in front of you) For it’s there we’ll discover we enlarge our vision of God by caring for those who hurt.
I. Acts 9:32-35 Aeneas, the paralytic
Read: Acts 9:32-35
With Saul gone, things lightened up for the early Christians and they begin to go out and share the Good News of the Kingdom of God in the surrounding towns and villages. Peter was one of those who traveled and proclaimed Jesus to all who would hear.
Traveling through Lydda, Peter went there to visit the ‘saints’, fellow Christians who lived there. Peter met a man named Aeneas who had been paralyzed for 8 years.
Aeneas was hurting. I can only imagine because the text does not tell us, but perhaps he thought his best years were behind him, his future was bleak and he would have to settle for being an unproductive follower of Jesus. After all, he couldn’t ‘Go, Stand and Tell the full message of his new life in Christ.’ Like other Christians could.
Notice that Aeneas didn’t ask Peter to heal him. Luke tells us it was Peter who took the initiative, who sought Aeneas out and who met his need without having to be asked.
· There’s a message here. Christians looking for and meeting needs in the lives of the people in the church, without having to be asked to do it.
Back to the text, by the power of Jesus’ name, Aeneas was healed… immediately and completely. But I am not convinced that this is the main point to the story because of what verse 35 says.
Read: Acts 9:35
I think that ‘all those’ are the ones Luke wants us to notice. God used the healing of Aeneas to bring ‘all those’ to faith in Jesus as their Savior. Please understand, it’s not that God did not care about Aeneas, He healed him….be loved him.
But God saw the big picture…the ‘all those’ who were wandering around aimlessly without a shepherd, without hope, destined for an eternity in hell. And they came to faith, were granted forgiveness and eternal life in heaven. And they were forever impacted by Peter’s selfless act of compassion.
I’m convinced that we sometimes miss the Good News of Jesus Christ in the midst of our hard times, in the midst of our hurt, because we’re looking for the wrong answers. We’re looking for relief from our troubles, our hurt rather than looking for the hand of God to move in the midst of our difficulties.
To do that means doing what Peter did…removing self and only seeing Jesus.
Read: Acts 9:34
Peter didn’t say ‘Aeneas, I heal you.’ He said ‘Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you.’ Peter was completely removed from the equation and God worked in a powerful way.
I believe that
· if we remove self from our service to God,
· if we remove self from our prayers
· there would be no limit to what God could do through this community of saints.
· And ‘all those’ out there, whom God calls, would come to faith in Jesus as their Savior and Lord.
· All to the Glory of God.
· Amen?
Transition: We enlarge our vision of God by caring for those who hurt.
II. Acts 9:36-42 Tabitha, the corpse
Read: Acts 9:36-42
Here’s another story of Good News for hard times, of caring for those hurting. 12 miles from Lydda was the town of Joppa where Tabitha lived. Tabitha was also called Dorcas by her Greek friends.
· By the way, Dorcas doesn’t mean she was a dork. It actually means ‘graceful gazelle.’
Anyway, Tabitha was a follower of Jesus whose service to her Lord was caring for the widows in her town. The text tells us she was always helping the poor…until she died, that is. Her death was not only hard for Tabitha’s family, but for the widows and poor she helped.
There were a lot of people hurting in Tabitha’s home that day. Someone heard that Peter was in the area and sent for him to come. Perhaps to encourage them.
Peter comes to the house and finds all the widows and poor women displaying the clothes Tabitha had made for them. What a beautiful testimony to her life of faithful service to her Lord.
Notice again, no one asked for Peter to raise Tabitha from the dead. Peter asks everyone to leave the room. He prays and told Tabitha to get up…and she did! He called everyone back and showed them Tabitha was alive.
Once again, I am not sure raising Tabitha from the dead was the central focus of the text. The focus was the impression Peter and his care for Tabitha made on those in town.
Read: Acts 9:42
Again, it was through the touch of a caring follower of Jesus Christ that God acted in a powerful way and many came to faith in Jesus.
Folks, there is Good News in difficult times. God has not abandoned us to our troubles. God will show up. Often in the life of a committed Christian willing to care for those who hurt.
And for those who are hurting, here’s something to learn from our text this morning…God will often use your difficulties, how you handle them, and His intervention, to draw others to himself.
I believe that
· if we remove self from our service to God,
· if we remove self from our prayers
· there would be no limit to what God could do through this community of saints.
· And ‘many people’, would come to faith in Jesus as their Savior and Lord.
· All to the Glory of God.
· Amen?
Transition: We’re almost done. There’s one more man who’s hurting, although it might not be as obvious.
III. Acts 9:43 Simon, the tanner
Read: Acts 9:43
· One verse
· 2 people
· 12 words
Peter stayed a while with fellow Christian Simon, who was a tanner. So what? You might be saying. What’s the big deal? Well, I’ll tell you.
Simon was a tanner. A tanner is someone who takes the hides of dead animals and dyes them with different colors and then sells them. So people can have black or red leather clothes or boots to wear. It was also used for armor, harnesses for animals, boats and sandals.
Being a tanner was a ‘smelly’ job because it dealt with cleaning, curing and drying the dirty skins of dead animals.
· One thing they would do is soak the hides for days in uncovered vats, in a mixture of pigeon dung and human urine. Get the smelly part?
Well, it forced those who made a living as a tanner, to move to the outskirts of town.
Do you remember the dead animals part. Jewish ceremonial law considered tanners ‘unclean’ (Lev. 11:35-40) And here’s an obscure Biblical fact for you.
· If a woman was engaged to a man and she found out he was a tanner, she could legally break the engagement.
Peter was a Jew…he shouldn’t have stayed with Simon. But, I bet Simon didn’t have many friends…especially many Jewish friends…even if they were Christians. Peter saw Simon’s need for fellowship and acceptance and cared for this man who was hurting for fellowship.
God was working in Peter, to move him past his prejudices and into the love for one another that Jesus taught and lived. By caring for Simon’s need for fellowship, Peter was himself, growing in the Lord.
I believe that
· if we remove self from our service to God,
· if we remove self from our prayers
· there would be no limit to what God could do through us and this community of saints.
· And we would grow in our faith in Jesus Christ.
· All to the Glory of God.
· Amen?
Conclusion
One of the most devastating feelings we can experience is fatalism. The feeling that
· this is the way it is and it’s never going to change.
· This is the way I am, this is the way my spouse is, this is the way my child is, this is the way work is and nothing is ever going to make it any better.
Our text this morning tells us to shout a resounding …NO! to fatalism!
· Jesus is not dead!
· Jesus is not distant!
· Jesus is not silent!
· Jesus is not weak!
· Jesus is not disengaged from my life.
Jesus is alive and the good work he has begun in me he will continue to do until he comes again! Amen?
People are hurting…today, right here in our midst and all around us in our homes, neighborhoods, schools and work places.
God has placed you, right where you are, to be an instrument of his love and power.
As you interact with people both here at CBC and in your daily lives,
· Are you looking for those, like Aeneas, Tabitha and Simon, who are hurting, and need the compassionate touch of a follower of Jesus Christ to meet their needs?
· Are you willing to make your service, your help, not about you but about Jesus?
· Are you open to see the great and wonderful things God can do?
OK…here is something personal and practical.
Beth Crawford has been taken off hospice care. That means Lloyd will no longer have a visiting nurse and a daily aide to help him with Beth. Lloyd needs help. Will you help meet his need with him asking?
If you do, you will be like Peter and find that we enlarge our vision of God by caring for those who hurt.