Acts 9:32-43: Two Miraculous Healings

Acts 9:32-43: Two Miraculous Healings

We’ve been working our way passage by passage through the book of Acts, and today the next passage we come to is Acts 9:32-43 as the passage upon which today’s message will be based. It says,

32 Now as Peter went here and there among them all, he came down also to the saints who lived at Lydda. 33 There he found a man named Aeneas, bedridden for eight years, who was paralyzed. 34 And Peter said to him, “Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you; rise and make your bed.” And immediately he rose. 35 And all the residents of Lydda and Sharon saw him, and they turned to the Lord. 36 Now there was in Joppa a disciple named Tabitha, which, translated, means Dorcas. She was full of good works and acts of charity. 37 In those days she became ill and died, and when they had washed her, they laid her in an upper room. 38 Since Lydda was near Joppa, the disciples, hearing that Peter was there, sent two men to him, urging him, “Please come to us without delay.” 39 So 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. 40 But Peter put them all outside, and knelt down and prayed; and turning to the body he said, “Tabitha, arise.” And she opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter she sat up. 41 And he gave her his hand and raised her up. Then, calling the saints and widows, he presented her alive. 42 And it became known throughout all Joppa, and many believed in the Lord. 43 And he stayed in Joppa for many days with one Simon, a tanner. 

When you think of people performing miracles, what’s the first thing that comes to your mind? I think, for many of us, it’s probably somebody like Benny Hinn, for example. Specifically, I get the mental image of that YouTube video some of you may have seen that shows Benny Hinn sticking out his hand at people and them falling down. It’s very appropriately set to the song “Let the Bodies Hit the Floor.” And he’s not just limited to one person either—some of the clips are of him doing it to groups of people, sometimes even dozens. He’ll stick out his hand and dozens of people will supposedly faint and fall to the ground. Then, of course, there are the clips of him using his white suit jacket, right? He’s swinging that thing around like a light saber, knocking people to the ground and supposedly healing them. That’s the image that comes to my mind when I think of modern-day miracle workers. 

Now, hopefully all of us here understand that those antics are absolutely ridiculous and that Benny Hinn’s a fraud. However, thinking about his purported miracles raises several legitimate questions. First of all, do genuine miracles still happen today? Or, perhaps a more challenging question, do genuine miracle-workers still exist? And if so, what’s their purpose? How do they fit in with what the Bible says God’s doing in this world? 

And as we look at our main passage in Acts 9, these questions become perhaps even more relevant and intriguing—because we see here in Acts 9 that miraculous healings were an important part of the Apostle Peter’s evangelistic ministry. That’s the main idea of this passage. Miraculous healings were an important part of Peter’s evangelistic ministry. And that’s a fact that deserves exploration. 

So look with me first at verses 32-35: 32 Now as Peter went here and there among them all, he came down also to the saints who lived at Lydda. 33 There he found a man named Aeneas, bedridden for eight years, who was paralyzed. 34 And Peter said to him, “Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you; rise and make your bed.” And immediately he rose. 35 And all the residents of Lydda and Sharon saw him, and they turned to the Lord. 

So we learn here that Peter isn’t staying in Jerusalem but is instead travelling to many of the towns around Jerusalem in order to engage in ministry. And one of the towns he comes to is Lydda, which, as you can see on the map here, is about 20 miles west of Jerusalem. And it says that this man Peter encounters named Aeneas has been paralyzed and confined to his bed for eight years. In other words, his condition is pretty much hopeless. But Peter says to him, “Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you; rise and make your bed.” So we see here that Peter’s not the source of the healing but is instead merely the instrument of the healing. Who’s the source? Jesus. He’s the one who’s ultimately accomplishing this miracle. 

Then after Peter declares to Aeneas, “Jesus Christ heals you,” he says something that every parent has been waiting to discover in the Bible. He tells him, “rise and make your bed.” Apparently, Aeneas had a messy bed. I mean, what do you expect? He’d been laying in it for eight years! So now, all you parents who have been frustrated with your kids for always leaving their bed a mess finally have biblical grounds for telling your children to make their beds, right? Boom—Acts 9:34. However—before you have your kids memorize this verse—I have to break the news to you that Peter’s reason for saying this actually had nothing to do with cleanliness—sadly enough—but was instead intended as a demonstration of the legitimacy and extent of this miracle. Kind of like when Jesus heals a paralyzed man in John 5 and tells him to “pick up your mat and walk.” Jesus did that so everyone could see that the healing was both complete and instantaneous. And it’s probably the same with Peter here in Acts 9. 

And it must have been a pretty powerful display because verse 35 records that “all the residents of Lydda and [the surrounding region of] Sharon saw him, and they turned to the Lord.” So that was the result of this miracle. People “turned to the Lord.” They became Christians. 

The story then continues in verses 36-43: 36 Now there was in Joppa a disciple named Tabitha, which, translated, means Dorcas. She was full of good works and acts of charity. 37 In those days she became ill and died, and when they had washed her, they laid her in an upper room. 38 Since Lydda was near Joppa, the disciples, hearing that Peter was there, sent two men to him, urging him, “Please come to us without delay.” 39 So 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. 40 But Peter put them all outside, and knelt down and prayed; and turning to the body he said, “Tabitha, arise.” And she opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter she sat up. 41 And he gave her his hand and raised her up. Then, calling the saints and widows, he presented her alive. 42 And it became known throughout all Joppa, and many believed in the Lord. 43 And he stayed in Joppa for many days with one Simon, a tanner. 

So Peter’s next stop is a town named Joppa. Looking at the map again, Joppa was slightly over 10 miles away from Lydda even farther to the West. And we’re told in these verses that a woman named Tabitha—or Dorcas when translated—had tragically become ill and died. Her death was especially tragic because, as verse 36 states, “She was full of good works and acts of charity.” One example of that, recorded in verse 39, was the articles of clothing that Tabitha made for the widows of the town. And keep in mind that this wasn’t just a thoughtful gesture. I remember when our first child, Caleb, was born, one of the older ladies of the church we were a part of gave us a small green blanket that she had knitted for Caleb. And that was a very thoughtful gesture. Yet what Tabitha was doing was even more significant because she was actually providing articles of clothing for people that were desperately needed. She was providing for the material needs of the poor and vulnerable. 

So Peter arrives on the scene and finds a crowd of all of these widows who had been blessed by Tabitha in the room where Tabitha’s body lay. And they’re apparently quite a handful to have around, so Peter’s first step is to kick them all out. It says that “Peter put them all outside.” I guess, sometimes, you just need everything quiet so you can concentrate. I can certainly identify with that. Then it records how Peter knelt down, prayed, and said to the body, “Tabitha, arise.” And that’s exactly what she did. Incredibly, Tabitha became alive again. We then read in verse 42 this “became known throughout all Joppa, and many believed in the Lord.” Again, the result of this miracle was people embracing Jesus. 

And that leads us to an important topic I’d like to address—looking not only here in Acts 9 but also at the entire New Testament. What was the purpose of miracles? Why do we see miracles happening here specifically and also in the New Testament in general? Miracles functioned in four main ways. 

First, they functioned as expressions of God’s love and compassion. When Jesus performs miraculous healings, we often see evidence or even direct statements of the compassion behind his actions. For example, in Luke 7:13, when Jesus sees a widow who had just lost her only son and likely her only source of financial and material support, it says that “he had compassion on her.” The next few verses them describe him raising her son from the dead. So one reason for Jesus’s miracles and presumably for those of the apostles as well was, simply, because they cared about people. They were demonstrating God’s love and compassion for those who were afflicted in various ways. 

Second, miracles in the New Testament are intended as signs confirming the truth of the gospel. Jesus challenges his skeptical opponents in John 10:37-38 by saying to them, 37 If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me; 38 but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.”  Jesus expected people to conclude, on the basis of his miracles, that what he taught was true. Miracles confirm the truth of the gospel. 

Then, third, miracles in the New Testament serve as illustrations of the blessings of the gospel. The blind being enabled to see illustrates us having our spiritual eyes opened to spiritual truth and reality. The sick being healed illustrates God healing us of our spiritual sickness—the sickness of sin. The deliverance of people from demonic oppression illustrates us being freed from everything that oppresses and enslaves us—most notably, the sinful desires of our own hearts. And of course the dead being raised to life illustrates God raising the spiritually dead to spiritual life. All of these physical ailments are employed as metaphors in the Bible to speak of our spiritual ailments prior to embracing the gospel. And so, people being delivered from physical ailments through miraculous healing is intended to illustrate the way we can all be delivered from our spiritual ailments through the gospel. 

Then, finally, not only do miracles in the New Testament serve as expressions of God’s love and compassion and as signs confirming the truth of the gospel and as illustrations of the blessings of the gospel, they also serve as foretastes of the fullness of the Kingdom. That is, they give us a foretaste of what things will be like when the Kingdom of God comes in its fullness. The Kingdom of God, by the way, refers to God’s sovereign rule over his people and the realm of blessing that exists under that rule. And in some ways, the Kingdom arrived when Jesus was born in Bethlehem. But in other ways, the Kingdom won’t come in its fullness until Jesus returns and starts ruling over this world in very visible and direct way. So theologians often refer to this paradox as the “already, but not yet” nature of the Kingdom. In some respects, Kingdom is “already,” but in others it’s “not yet.” Kind of like the first hint of light in the morning. You know, there’s a certain period of time in the morning, before the sun rises, when the sky begins to get slightly brighter. All of a sudden, it’s not totally dark anymore. You can’t yet see the sun directly, but you do notice the sky getting brighter. It’s like the rays of the rising sun go out ahead of the sun and give you a glimpse and a foretaste of what things will be like when the sun actually rises. That’s similar to the way it is now with the Kingdom. 

And this message of the Kingdom was something Jesus emphasized throughout his ministry. We might even say it was the central theme of his teaching. For example, we read in Matthew 9:35, “And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction.” So notice first how Jesus’ message is summarized. It says he went around “proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom.” That was his central theme. And not only that, but notice what that’s linked to: the miracles he did. He went around “proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction.” What’s the connection? Well, Jesus was performing those miracles in order to give people a foretaste of what the Kingdom will be like when it comes in its fullness. When the Kingdom comes in its fullness, there won’t be any more blindness or demonic oppression or inability to walk or disease of any kind. Even death will be a thing of the past. God will make everything new—and perfect. And even now, we can see glimpses of that. Just like the sun rising in the morning, God’s future Kingdom is breaking into the here and now. And one of the ways we see that is in miraculous healings. They offer us a foretaste of the fullness of the Kingdom. 

Now, returning to Acts 9 and as we think about these miracles, the question that’s probably been on the minds of many in this room since the beginning of this message is the question of what to think of purported miracles and miracle-workers today. Thinking specifically of Acts 9, should we expect miracles to be part of the ministries of churches today like they were a part of Peter’s ministry? And how should we evaluate leaders and churches that do claim to have miracle-working ministries? 

Well, different people obviously believe different things about that. So let me introduce you to four categories of people for you to be aware of. To make things easier, each of these categories starts with the letter “c.”

First, you have charlatans. Charlatans are people who claim to be miracle-workers but are actually being intentionally deceptive—usually in order to get money and fame. They’re frauds who prey on people’s emotions and desires and vulnerabilities and take advantage of people in various ways in order to get what they want. So how can you tell if someone’s a charlatan? Well, let me first put it this way: if they’re talking about prayer cloths, it’s a dead giveaway. If they solicit financial donations by talking about “planting a seed,” it’s a dead giveaway. And if they’re on TBN, it’s almost a dead giveaway. 

But even better than being on the lookout for those stereotypical things is being aware of two more biblical signs of being a charlatan. Biblically speaking, there are two things you want to look for: false teaching and ungodly character. Thinking first of false teaching, one of the things we see in our main passage of Acts 9 is that miracles served to confirm the gospel message that Peter preached. God was authenticating what Peter was preaching. So if there’s a preacher who isn’t preaching an authentic gospel message, I can’t think of any reason why God would empower that person to perform miracles. God’s not going to authenticate something that’s not authentic. Now, Satan might enable that person to perform miracles—there are certainly examples in the Bible of that happening—but God’s not the one behind it. So if someone’s not preaching the gospel—and, by “preaching the gospel,” I don’t just mean mentioning the name of Jesus a lot or quoting a few Bible verses. I mean actually preaching the biblical gospel in its richness and fullness. If someone’s not doing that, then we should assume any supposed miracles they perform are false and that the preacher is a charlatan. 

Secondly, we can tell if someone’s a charlatan by observing their character. Ungodly character is another huge sign of a charlatan. Jesus states in Matthew 7:15-16, “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits.” Did you hear that? “You will recognize them by their fruits”—that is, by their character. Now, if someone’s very famous, it may be difficult to evaluate their fruits since you don’t really know the person. So you often don’t know if they’re hiding some sort of scandalous sin or not. But one example of a character issue you can look for from a distance is greed. Do they seem to exhibit an unhealthy interest in earthly wealth and prosperity? Are they living a life of excessive luxury? That’s a sign of a charlatan. 

So that’s one category to be aware of when it comes to miraculous healings—charlatans. Then, secondly, in addition to charlatans, you have Charismatics. This is a term commonly employed to refer to people who believe that all of the spiritual gifts mentioned in the New Testament are still in operation today and place great emphasis on practicing them—especially the so-called “miraculous” gifts such as speaking in tongues, prophesying, and of course miraculous healings. Unfortunately, though, Charismatics often practice the gifts in a very careless and disorderly way—ignoring biblical instructions for how the gifts should be practiced—and they also tend to have an unfortunate lack of interest in theological discernment. Charismatic churches will often tolerate a wide array of false teachings, sometimes even teachings that are downright heretical. 

Then a third category to be aware of is continuationists. As the label implies, continuationists believe that the miraculous gifts are intended to continue beyond the era of the New Testament and that they won’t cease until Jesus returns. However, unlike Charismatics, continuationists are much more concerned about being orderly in their exercise of the gifts and very careful to submit to Scripture. For that reason, I’ve heard them referred to at times as “Charismatics with a seat belt.” 

Their belief in the gifts is also much more nuanced. For example, with the gift of healing, most continuationists would say that the gift of healing is simply a believer praying for someone to be healed and God answering that prayer. And maybe this believer sees a lot of their prayers like that answered by God. So when you think about the gift of healing as a continuationist would see it, don’t think about famous miracle workers ministering to crowds of thousands but rather ordinary believers in churches praying for people that they know to be healed and God often answering those prayers. Also, continuationists tend to have a much deeper appreciation for the importance of sound theology and are much more theologically thoughtful and discerning than Charismatics. For example, continuationists include respected theologians such as John Piper, Wayne Grudem, Sam Storms, and D. A. Carson. Also, full disclosure, as you maybe able to tell by now, I also am a continuationist. 

Then, finally, there are cessationists, who get their name from the fact that they believe the miraculous gifts described in the New Testament have ceased. Cessationists would say that these records of miracles we see in the book of Acts are descriptive rather than prescriptive. That is, they’re descriptive of what did happen rather than prescriptive of what should happen. Now, an important clarification: cessationists still believe miracles happen today and would have no problem praying for someone to be healed. They just wouldn’t believe that God answering that prayer is an example of the spiritual gift of healing mentioned in the New Testament, nor would they believe that there are certain people who are gifted in that way. 

So, in practice, a cessationist would approach a sick person in a way quite similar to how a continuationist would approach the person. They’d both simply pray for healing. The main difference is that the continuationist would believe an answered prayer might be indicative of the spiritual gift of healing, whereas the cessationist would simply view it as nothing more than an answered prayer. And, by the way, I do believe that both the cessationist and continuationist views are biblically responsible views. And both views are certainly welcome at our church and exist among our current members. So that’s an overview that I hope is helpful for you as you study the Bible and seek to come to your own conclusions about whether we should be seeking today the kinds of miracles that we see in the book of Acts. 

However, the main thing I want to make sure we all understand today is where our focus should be. Regardless of our view of the miraculous gifts, our focus shouldn’t be on miracles, it should be on Jesus. In Acts 9, Peter’s ministry revolved not around performing miracles but around telling people about Jesus. He tells Aeneas in verse 34, “Jesus Christ heals you.” And then, both in verse 35 and in verse 42, we’re told that the result of the miracles Peter performed was that people “turned to the Lord” (verse 35) and “believed in the Lord” (verse 42). That was the whole point. That was Peter’s mission. He travelled to these cities not merely to minister to people’s physical ailments but primarily to minister to their spiritual ailments by telling them about Jesus. I’m also reminded of the way the Apostle Paul summarizes his ministry in 1 Corinthians 2:2. He states, “For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” Not miraculous healings, but “Jesus Christ and him crucified.” Friends, it’s all about Jesus. The whole point of miraculous healings is to turn people’s attention to Jesus. 

Kind of like the Kennywood sign. Imagine me taking my family to Kennywood and spending the whole time simply standing out in the parking lot admiring the sign. We might admire the beautiful colors of the sign and its impressive height and simply the general way it’s designed. Yet, if we did that, we’d obviously be missing what’s undoubtedly the most prominent feature of the sign. The sign’s a huge arrow pointing us to the park! That tells me that the people who put up that sign did it not so people would admire the sign but so the sign would lead people to visit the park and ride the rides and enjoy the attractions inside the park. And that’s the purpose of miraculous healings as well. As we can see very clearly here in Acts 9 and in many other places throughout Acts and the rest of the New Testament, miracles are like huge, bright, arrow-shaped signs pointing people to Jesus. 

Regardless of whether it’s Jesus directly performing the miracles like we see in the gospels or whether it’s Jesus indirectly performing the miracles through the Apostles in Acts, we see Jesus in all of the miracles. We see the power of Jesus in doing what would under normal circumstances be impossible. We see the compassion of Jesus toward the needy and the hurting. We see the grace of Jesus toward those who haven’t done anything to deserve it. We see the supremacy of Jesus over nature and disease and demons and everything else. Miracles are intended to show us the glory of Jesus and turn our gaze toward him. 

Because our greatest need isn’t deliverance from physical ailments but rather deliverance from our sin. Our sins have cut us off from a holy God and made us deserving of God’s wrath. But Jesus endured that wrath in our place when he died on the cross. He suffered it so that we wouldn’t have to.  And then, he accomplished the greatest miracle of all when he rose from the dead—defeating sin, defeating death, and proving his legitimacy beyond a shadow of a doubt. And he invites us all to share in his victory and be rescued from our sin but putting our trust in him as our all-sufficient Savior. 

And guys, it’s our common interest in Jesus that brings this church together. Some might be cessationists, others might be continuationists, but if Jesus the centerpiece of our lives and foremost in our affections, surely we can experience deep, meaningful fellowship with each other regardless of our views of the gifts. As A. W. Tozer once observed, pianos tuned to the same fork will be in tune with each other. It doesn’t matter if there’s a hundred of them or if they come in all different shapes and styles. They’ll all be in tune with each other if they’re tuned to the same fork. And that’s my prayer for our church as well—that we would all be so in love with Jesus and so captivated by him that these kinds of theological differences just wouldn’t be a big deal to us. 

Also, as I think about what we see happening in Acts 9 and the way God was so obviously at work through Peter, I don’t think we can leave this text without asking ourselves whether we have a burden to see God at work in our day and in our midst. Should we not have a burden and should our hearts not ache to see God at work? And I’m not just talking about miraculous healings; I’m talking about everything we should desire. Let me ask you this:  What would it look like to see God at work in your family? What would it look like to see God at work in your workplace or in your neighborhood? What would it look like to see God at work in your Community Group? What would it look like to see God at work in this church? And does your heart ache to see God at work in all of these ways?  

Even better, how fervently are you praying for God to be at work? Just like Peter knelt down and prayed in verse 40, the only way we have any right to expect God to be at work in our day is through our prayers. God help us if, now that our church has a building and is entering a period of greater stability, we allow ourselves to get comfortable and lose that sense of desperation to see God at work. I’ll tell you what, guys, it doesn’t matter what we own or what resources we have. If we don’t have God’s blessing, we don’t have anything. And if God isn’t at work in our midst, this ship is sunk. Are you praying for God to be a work?

Many years ago, a group of five college students traveled to London to hear Charles Spurgeon preach. They arrived at the church building early on Sunday morning and discovered that the doors were still locked. But as they waited on the steps of the church for the doors to be opened, a man they didn’t recognize approached them and asked if they’d like to see the heating apparatus of the church. Of course, that wasn’t what they had come for, but they figured they didn’t have much else to do, so they might as well go see this heating apparatus and perhaps get a tour of the building. So the man guided them into the building, down a long flight of stairs, and through a hallway on the lower level. At the end of the hallway, the man opened a door and revealed a large room filled with seven hundred people on their knees praying. The guide—who was none other than Spurgeon himself—then turned and said to the five visitors, “That is the heating apparatus of this church.” May it be so with us as well—thinking both of our organized prayer meeting on Wednesdays and of our private prayers throughout the week.