God Prepares Peter to Go to the Gentiles. Acts 9:32-43
The last part of Acts chapter
nine is a transition from Saul and his salvation to Peter in preparation for
the salvation of the Gentiles and the inclusion of the Gentiles within the body
of Christ. This is the focal point of the next two chapters where Peter will
take the gospel to Cornelius, a Roman centurion. And this is the official
inclusion of the Gentiles within the body of Christ. At the end of chapter
eleven there is a focus on Paul and Barnabas and then there is a shift back in
chapter twelve to Peter. In chapter thirteen there is a shift back to Paul.
As we go through the basic
message of Acts it is that God through the Holy Spirit is expanding the church
from Jerusalem to Judea and Samaria, and to the uttermost part of the earth. He is not
doing it apart from human involvement. The sovereignty of God never works apart
from human volition and human responsibility; God the one who is bringing about
the growth. God is the one who is empowering the apostles and disciples, just
as He does today. It is not up to us to make the gospel effective to people; we
can only go as far as our understanding of the truth is. But we can be honest,
we can present the gospel as the apostle does many times, we can relate our own
personal testimony of how we came to understand truth and the gospel; but
ultimately it is up to God the Holy Spirit. Because the issue is not intellect,
about how well we can argue the gospel. These things should be there because
Scripture says we should do the best we can do, but ultimately we have to
realise it is not up to us. The issue isn’t a logical issue or an evidential
issue, the issue is a spiritual issue.
People exercise negative volition
and reject the gospel, suppress the truth in unrighteousness, but even the most
hardened person hostile to the gospel may in their heart of hearts at the core
of their soul be positive to the gospel, like the apostle Paul. It may be you
or I or some other person who is the one God uses in explaining the gospel to
create that event that is similar to the Damascus road experience of the apostle Paul and that it is at
that instant that God the Holy Spirit enlightens the mind of that individual to
the truth of the gospel. We never know, we can’t prejudge or predetermine or
guess about a person’s spiritual condition just because they are negative
today. It doesn’t mean that they are truly negative and will be negative
always.
In Acts chapters one through
seven the focal point was in Jerusalem. That ended with the death of Stephen. Chapter eight
focuses on the expansion, taking the gospel to Judea
and Samaria. Chapter nine shifts gears to focus on the salvation
of Saul of Tarsus which lays the ground work for the last stage that will come,
starting in chapter thirteen, the gospel expanding to the uttermost part of the
earth.
Now in 9:32 there is a shift back to Peter. Peter is the primary
focal point among the apostles from chapters one through six. Chapter seven
focuses on Stephen, chapter eight focuses on Philip, chapter nine on Paul in the first part, and now we are back
to Peter in 9:32-43. Then in chapters ten and eleven in a couple of
places we see a brief mention of what is going on with Paul, and then there is
almost a complete shift in chapter thirteen to Paul, and we don’t hear about
Peter anymore except briefly in chapter fifteen. Then it is Paul through the
rest of the book. This shows how there is a transition from a Jewish focus
gospel ministry at the beginning to a Gentile focused ministry at the end. From
Peter to Paul there is a transition. Paul does not invent Christianity, though
that is something that liberal professors teach in history classes and
comparative religion classes. This is a typical attack and assault from
liberals. They look at everything in the Bible from a naturalistic viewpoint,
so they basically discount whatever is said in the Bible. To them it is really
a propaganda document, it is not historical. So you don’t believe that, you
just believe tradition and Paul was the one who really organised Christianity
and so he invented it, forget about Jesus and everybody else. But that is just
totally absurd. There is no evidence for that; it is just another way they seek
to suppress the truth in unrighteousness.
As we get into the last part of chapter
nine the focus is on three cities: Lydda, 25 miles
to the north of Jerusalem,
Joppa which is 10-11 miles to the
north-west of Lydda, and then as we go into chapter ten the focus will shift up
towards Caesarea
which is where Cornelius the Gentile centurion is living. Caesarea is primarily a
Gentile city though there are some Jews there. There is not much said in the
Old Testament about Lydda or Lod. It is mentioned in Joshua and one or two
other places but nothing of significance. It really doesn’t take on any sort of
significance until after the Babylonian exile. Then it becomes a centre of
rebellion during the Hasmonean period against the Antiochan empire (Antiochus Epiphanes),
and then it begins to take on more and more significance. By the time of the
New Testament Lydda is a major commercial centre.
There are two major events at the end of
chapter nine. The first, vv. 32-25, is the healing of Aeneas. This is the only
time he is mentioned and is all we know about him. Then Peter is asked to come
to Joppa on the coast where he heals a woman who is identified as a disciple by
the name of Tabitha (translated Dorcas). She is a strong believer involved in a
lot of works, charitable deeds. She dies, Peter will come and she will be
restored to life—a resuscitation. As a result of that and probably because of
what happened at Lydda which is not too far away we see that there are numerous
people who are saved. Acts 9:35 NASB “And all who lived
at Lydda and Sharon saw him, and they turned to the Lord.” This
would not refer to the Gentiles, it would only refer to the Jewish communities.
When Tabitha is raised from the dead [42] “It became known all over Joppa, and
many believed in the Lord.” So there is this tremendous expansion
of the church among the Jewish community in Lydda and at Joppa.
The question we should ask: Why does the
Holy Spirit include this material? 2 Corinthians 12:12 NASN “The signs of a
true apostle were performed among you with all perseverance, by signs and
wonders and miracles.” There Paul is saying that there were specific signs that
were the credentials of an apostles. They are the calling card for an apostle
so that you could identify who an apostle was. The phrase “signs and wonders”
refers to the miraculous. The Old Testament presented a picture of what the
Messiah would look like. He would be born of a virgin in Bethlehem, be
crucified, be raised from the dead on the third day, would perform many miracles—give
sight top the blind, restore the lame. If we take all of those different
prophecies and bundle them together it painted a picture of what the Messiah
would look like so that when He showed up people could identify Him and there
would not be a mistake. There were always those who were coming along claiming
to be the Messiah, even at the time of Jesus, and there were those who came
later. So these miracles were credentials; they identified the Messiah. And now
when we come to these miracles it is very clear, for example in v. 34, Peter
says to Aeneas, “Jesus Christ [Messiah] heals you; get up and make your bed.”
And as a result, “Immediately he got up.” Peter doesn’t take credit for it.
This has a purpose and a function in the ministry of Peter.
Acts 9:32
NASB “Now as Peter was traveling through all {those regions,}
he came down also to the saints who lived at Lydda.” Peter is
travelling in an evangelistic journey where he is visiting from one town to
another and is proclaiming the gospel. He came to Lydda. The term “saints” is a
term that refers to every believer, not just those who have reached a certain
level of spiritual maturity or positional power within the institutional
church. It simply means the sanctified ones. We are all sanctified at the
instant of salvation; we are set apart to the service of God. So Peter comes to
the Christians who lived in Lydda. At this time there is a large number of
Jewish believers in Jesus as Messiah in Lydda.
Acts 9:33 NASB “There he found a
man named Aeneas, who had been bedridden eight years, for he was paralyzed.”
Aeneas would have been a popular name at the time. [34]
“Peter said to him, ‘Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you; get up and make your
bed.’” Notice it doesn’t say anything about Aeneas’s faith. Aeneas isn’t
looking to be healed; he is not expecting to be healed; he is not anticipating
any kind of healing, he is simply living his day-to-day existence in his bed
and Peter shows up. We cam assume that Peter comes at the prompting of God the
Holy Spirit in order to perform this particular miracle. And we should ask the
question: Why the miracle? It is to establish his credentials but it is also
more than that because at this stage it would also call attention to him and to
his message. The same thing took place during the ministry of Jesus Christ.
“Immediately he got up.” God had instantly healed him and restored all of his
muscular ability. He didn’t have to learn to walk again.
The result: Acts 9:35 NASB “And all who lived
at Lydda and Sharon saw him, and they turned to the Lord.” The
word “turned” is the verb epistrepho
[e)pistrefw]
which is a synonym for repent, but it simply focuses on the fact that they are
turning to the Lord. They are looking to the Lord Jesus Christ as the source of
their salvation. This is not an unusual type of event. There are four passages
that parallel this event in Luke.
Luke 5:17 NASB “One day He was
teaching; and there were {some} Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting
{there,} who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and {from}
Jerusalem; and the power of the Lord was {present} for Him to perform healing.
[18] And {some} men {were} carrying on a bed a man who was
paralyzed; and they were trying to bring him in and to set him down in front of
Him. [19] But not finding any {way} to bring him in because of the crowd, they
went up on the roof and let him down through the tiles with his stretcher, into
the middle {of the crowd,} in front of Jesus.” Jesus was inside,
so they couldn’t get to Him because the house was filled with people. When
Jesus looks up He can see their faith. They haven’t said a thing but it is
obvious that they believe Jesus can heal the man and they are going to do what
ever it takes to get the paralysed man in front of Jesus so He can heal him.
Luke 5:20 NASB “Seeing their
faith, He said, ‘Friend, your sins are forgiven you.’” They
haven’t said anything about forgiveness; they haven’t come to seek forgiveness;
they haven’t said anything about sin. They just have this paralysed man and they
want him to be healed. But Jesus is going to use this to teach that if He can
do something unprecedented in the physical realm then this will demonstrate
that He can do what He claims to do in the spiritual realm.
This immediately angered and aggravated
the Pharisees and the scribes, and now they are challenging Him because only
God can forgive anyone of sins. Again we see that this is evidence of the deity
of Christ, that Jesus believed He was God, because He believed that He had the
ability to forgive sins. Luke 5:21 NASB “The scribes and
the Pharisees began to reason, saying, ‘Who is this {man} who speaks
blasphemies? Who can forgive sins, but God alone?’”
Luke 5:22 NASB “But Jesus, aware
of their reasonings, answered and said to them, ‘Why are you reasoning in your
hearts? [23] Which is easier, to say, ‘Your
sins have been forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’?”
Anybody can say, “Your sins are forgiven,” because you don’t see whether they
are or not. But to say, “Get up and walk,” and have somebody actually get up
and walk; only God can do that. His reasoning is going to be: “If I can do what
only God can do by healing this paralysed man so he can walk, then the
conclusion is that I must also be able to do what only God can do and forgive
sins.” [24] “But, so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on
earth to forgive sins,”—He said to the paralytic— ‘I say to you, get up, and
pick up your stretcher and go home.’” He uses a significant title
here emphasising His humanity, but this is a title that comes from Daniel
chapter seven. In Daniel seven the Son of Man is the one who is the Messiah,
the one who is sent from God who will deliver Israel
and defeat all of Israel’s
enemies. So He is making specific claims to be the Messiah and is indicating
this by His credentials to heal the paralysed man and to declare his
forgiveness. [25] “Immediately he got up before them, and picked up what he had
been lying on, and went home glorifying God.” There is an immediate response.
What Peter is doing in the miracle with
Aeneas is a reflection of what Jesus did in healing the paralysed man. The
purpose is that in relating this miracle the Holy Spirit is showing that Peter
is an apostle and it a representative of Jesus Christ with the authority of
Jesus Christ.
In Luke chapter seven we see two more
instances of healing. First the healing of a centurion’s servant in the first
ten verses and then the raising of the son of the widow of Nain from the dead.
In the Scripture the term “resurrection”—anatasis
[a)natasis]—is
only used of Jesus’ resurrection. The term used in all of the other passages is
the term “raising from the dead.” Raising somebody from the dead indicates
clearly that the person was dead. Whereas other terms that have been used, like
resuscitation, where you can resuscitate somebody who has drowned, doesn’t mean
that they have actually and totally died. But the point in Scripture is that
they are dead and nobody is going to give them mouth-to-mouth and they start
breathing again. So the term resuscitation is a little ambiguous. Here the
Scripture is very clear: “raised from the dead.”
Luke 7:11 NASB “Soon afterwards
He went to a city called Nain; and His disciples were going along with Him,
accompanied by a large crowd. [12] Now as
He approached the gate of the city, a dead man was being carried out, the only
son of his mother, and she was a widow; and a sizeable crowd from the city was
with her. [13] When the Lord saw her, He felt
compassion for her, and said to her, ‘Do not weep.’” This reminds
us of what happened when Lazarus died. Four days after Lazarus died Jesus
showed up and his first conversation was with Martha. John 11:21 NASB
“Martha then said to Jesus, ‘Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have
died’ … [25] Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life; he who
believes in Me will live even if he dies, [26] and everyone who
lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?’” He doesn’t use
any of these nebulous and ambiguous non-biblical terms that are popular in
evangelicalism. He uses the terminology that is used throughout Scripture: “Do
you believe this?” That was the issue. She believed Jesus.
Then Jesus looked on the mourners, and in
that passage it says, “Jesus wept.” He weeps not because He feels sorry for
Lazarus or because He is personally grieving over the death of Lazarus, because
Jesus knows that in about five minutes He is going to say, “Lazarus, come on
out of there.” And Lazarus is going to come out. He is weeping because He sees
the impact of grief on the people, their sorrow, the fact that they are hurting
and are going through all of this emotional trauma associated with grief and
the loss of a loved one. And this is not normal, this is not what God intended;
this is the result of sin. Jesus has compassion. God has compassion. That means
he cares, He is concerned, and He takes notice of our limitations and emotional
distress at the time of death.
Luke 7:14 NASB “And He came up
and touched the coffin; and the bearers came to a halt. And He said, ‘Young
man, I say to you, arise!’ [15] The dead man sat up and began
to speak. And {Jesus} gave him back to his mother.”
The next miracle that Peter performs in
Acts chapter nine is to raise Tabitha or Dorcas from the dead. So in both on
these miracles in Acts 9 we see Peter reflecting the kind of miracles performed
by Jesus. So the response from the people: Luke 7:16 NASB “Fear
gripped them all, and they {began} glorifying God, saying, ‘A great prophet has
arisen among us!’ and, ‘God has visited His people!’ [17] This report
concerning Him went out all over Judea
and in all the surrounding district.” The word spread rapidly.
What was their response? They didn’t say
Messiah. They said: “This is a great prophet!” Because someone who performed
these kinds of miracles did something that had been done previously and it was
a sign of a great prophet. Parallel examples from the Old Testament: 1 Kings
17, the healing of the widow’s son. 1 Kings 17:17 NASB “Now it came
about after these things that the son of the woman, the mistress of the house,
became sick; and his sickness was so severe that there was no breath left in
him. [18] So she said to Elijah, ‘What do
I have to do with you, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my iniquity
to remembrance and to put my son to death!’ [19] He
said to her, ‘Give me your son.’ Then he took him from her bosom and carried
him up to the upper room where he was living, and laid him on his own bed.
[20] “He called to the LORD and said, ‘O LORD
my God, have You also brought calamity to the widow with whom I am staying, by
causing her son to die?’ [21] Then he stretched himself upon
the child three times, and called to the LORD and said, ‘O LORD
my God, I pray You, let this child’s life return to him.’ [22]
The LORD
heard the voice of Elijah, and the life of the child returned to him and he
revived.”
Then in 2 Kings chapter four we see a
similar event with the next great prophet which is Elisha. 2 Kings 4:17 NASB
“The woman conceived and bore a son at that season the next year, as Elisha had
said to her. [18] When the child was grown, the
day came that he went out to his father to the reapers. [19]
He said to his father, ‘My head, my head.’ And he said to his servant, ‘Carry
him to his mother.’ [20] When he had taken him and
brought him to his mother, he sat on her lap until noon, and {then} died… [30] The mother
of the lad said, ‘As the LORD lives and as you yourself live, I will
not leave you.’ And he arose and followed her.” She won’t let go
until Elisha brings her son back.
2 Kings 4:31 NASB “Then Gehazi
passed on before them and laid the staff on the lad’s face, but there was no
sound or response. So he returned to meet him and told him, ‘The lad has not
awakened.’ [32] When Elisha came into the house,
behold the lad was dead and laid on his bed. [33]
So he entered and shut the door behind them both and prayed to the LORD.
[34] And he went up and lay on the child, and put his mouth on his
mouth and his eyes on his eyes and his hands on his hands, and he stretched
himself on him; and the flesh of the child became warm. [35]
Then he returned and walked in the house once back and forth, and went up and
stretched himself on him; and the lad sneezed seven times and the lad opened
his eyes.”
So these are the signs of a prophet. When
Jesus shows up and is performing these miracles and the people say this must be
a great prophet they are operating on that frame of reference from the Old
Testament. And then when Peter shows up and starts performing these kinds of
miracles he makes it very clear that he is not doing it in his own power, that
it is Jesus who is doing it through him, this puts him in the tradition of the
prophets in the Old Testament—with Elijah and Elisha. It establishes his credentials
and his credibility.
Peter is called from there to Joppa. Acts
9:36
NASB “Now in Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha (which
translated {in Greek} is called Dorcas); this woman was abounding with deeds of
kindness and charity which she continually did.” “Tabitha” means a
deer or a gazelle. A little more is said about her. Aeneas is just one of the
saints, a believer, but Dorcas has a significant ministry among the believers. She
is identified by the feminine form of mathetes
[maqhthj]
which means that she is a disciple, a word that indicates that she is really
pursuing her spiritual growth. She is ministering to the people in the area. She
is helping those who are in need and people are depending upon her.
Acts 9:37 NASB “And it happened
at that time that she fell sick and died; and when they had washed her body,
they laid it in an upper room.” This was standard procedure under
Jewish custom and law. [38] “Since Lydda was near Joppa, the disciples, having
heard that Peter was there, sent two men to him, imploring him, ‘Do not delay in
coming to us.’ [39] So Peter arose and went with them.
When he arrived, they brought him into the upper room; and all the widows stood
beside him, weeping and showing all the tunics and garments that Dorcas used to
make while she was with them. [40] But Peter
sent them all out 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; and calling the
saints and widows, he presented her alive. [42]
It became known all over Joppa, and many believed in the Lord.
[43] And Peter stayed many days in Joppa with a tanner {named}
Simon.”
Notice how brilliantly the Holy Spirit
reveals this. These are very quick episodes but they are significant in
developing this transition to what is going to happen in the coming chapter. It
moves Peter to Joppa. We see the credentials that God has established for Peter
so that what happens in the next episode is consistent because Peter has now
developed this tremendous reputation as being an apostle and performing the
same kind of miracles as the Lord. And he shows up in Joppa and stays with a
man named Simon a tanner.
In the next chapter Peter is going to have
a vision. Cornelius, a Roman centurion, is going to have a vision and the two
are counterparts of one another. Acts 10:10 NASB “But he became
hungry and was desiring to eat; but while they were making preparations, he
fell into a trance; [11] and he saw
the sky opened up, and an object like a great sheet coming down, lowered by
four corners to the ground, [12] and there
were in it all {kinds of} four-footed animals and crawling creatures of the
earth and birds of the air. [13] A voice came
to him, ‘Get up, Peter, kill and eat!’” There are a couple of
important points of application. 1. God authorises the killing of animals for
food. 2. There is not to be a spiritual or theological basis for vegetarianism,
i.e. it is not to be for a spiritual or theological reason. [14]
“But Peter said, ‘By no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything unholy and
unclean.’” He understood the point, that is didn’t have anything to do with
killing. It had to do with consuming that which had been forbidden under the
Mosaic Law. [15] “Again a voice {came} to him a second time, ‘What God has
cleansed, no {longer} consider unholy.’” The point here is that
God now declares all these food groups that had previously been designated unclean
as being clean. This didn’t have anything to do with health, it had to do with
a spiritual teaching point in the Mosaic Law, and that has ended because of the
end of the Mosaic Law.
Peter gets the point here. In preparation
for this Peter is gradually learning that what is declared unclean by the
Mosaic Law … Gentiles; no orthodox Jew at this time would ever go into the
house of a Gentile. But there is something else going on here. They would not
go into an unclean house, but what else rendered something unclean? Death does.
And what is the problem with Simon? Simon the tanner is dealing with dead
animals all the time. Simon is unclean. So there is foreshadowing here and
there is the gradual recognition by Peter that unclean isn’t an issue anymore. It
begins with the fact that he is living in an unclean house with Simon the
tanner.
When we think of Joppa we ought to think
of God’s grace to the Gentiles. Two key events happen at Joppa. The first
happened with Jonah. God told Jonah to take the gospel to the Ninevites. Jonah
said: “They are our enemy, Lord; I’m going to Spain.”
He got on a ship at Joppa to head west to Spain,
and God sent a fish. The purpose of Jonah’s ministry was to take the gospel to
the Gentiles—the Ninevites. That whole story in the Old Testament is a story of
God’s grace to the Gentiles. In the New Testament it is when Peter is staying
here at the home of Simon the tanner in Joppa. There at Joppa he is going to
receive these messengers from Cornelius and God is going to tell him to follow
them and to take the gospel to the Gentiles.
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