Peter to Lydda & Joffa
Acts 9:32-43 · Vern Peterman · Aug 20, 2017
Acts (2017-18), No. 31
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/49266518878

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Good morning. We're going to be stepping our way through this passage, Courtney Redforce, Acts of the Apostles, 9.32 through 43. And one of the things to present here is while every week we give you the scripture reference, right? One of the things that's important to recognize is our chapters and verses were not a part of the original text.

In none of the Bible were there originally, as they wrote them, chapters and verses. There were about 40 authors of scripture. They wrote over about a 1,500 year span of time. They didn't write as they wrote. However, with any of the chapter or verse breaks in any of the books, those have all been added. Others tried putting in verse breaks over time.

One of them, for example, that was tried was to divide every book up into seven parts, because seven is, after all, the perfect number, right? And so they divided the books up into seven parts, and so they tried that, and some people thought, well, that makes some books, like Jude, really short breaks, and other books that's nowhere near short enough when you divide them into seven. Books like Genesis and Isaiah.

So, this guy named Stephen Langton put in the chapter breaks that we use now, just the chapter breaks. He did it in the Latin Vulgate and that got carried over into the way we do it. Then, the start of putting in verse breaks didn't happen until about five and a half, not even five and a half centuries ago. and about 1550, and it was done first in the Greek text and then carried over into the New Testament and then into the Old Testament. So bottom line is that putting the chapter in verse breaks is helpful for us for finding things. We should not use it as a way of limiting our study or drawing conclusions.

Acts chapter 9, we just went through as an example of that. Verses 9-31 is about the conversion of the Jew named Saul, later to become the apostle Paul. The rest of the verses just read for us in today's passage is about Peter. It fits better with the content of the next chapter, right? The other thing then is in the middle of, you may have noticed last week, we split up the readings. Acts 19a fits best with the material that's before it, and 19b, the second half of the verse, fits best with the material that is written after it. So, go ahead and use the chapter and verse references we do here as a convenient way to find where you are. But in terms of drawing grand conclusions from it and making applications from it, that's another matter.

So, just to kind of bring us up to speed, in chapter 9 earlier we find the Apostle Paul, as he was called Saul at the time, is confronted by Jesus on the road to Damascus. It appears from the account that he was just outside Damascus at the time. And he asks Saul, I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. Why are you persecuting me? And so then he is directed to go into Damascus and his fellow soldiers and others who are accompanying him take him in. And Ananias is told to find him on Straight Street, which as we said before is anything but straight. It's more like a corkscrew. And that's why Luke said the street called Straight, right?

And then from there, after that time in Damascus, one of the things that we find out, and the reason we have the Galatians 1.17 in there, is Saul, later to become the Apostle Paul, spends quite a bit of time with the Lord Jesus Christ personally, having things revealed to him. And as we get into returning to what's going on with Saul, later to become Paul, we'll take a further look at that.

Now we're into our passage 9, Acts 9, 32 and 33. Now as Peter was traveling through all those regions, he came down also to the saints who lived at Lydda, and there he found a man named Anas, Aeneas and who had been bedridden eight years for he was paralyzed. And this Peter, we also find him in scripture called Simon or Cephas, his actual name in Aramaic would be Kephas, right? And then all those regions, what we missed here is just in the verses right before, it had listed Judea and Galilee and Samaria, basically the various regions of Israel were included there.

And then he came down, it says. Now, Jerusalem is kind of the high point for much of Israel, and so a lot of descriptions will have people coming down from Jerusalem, and our sense of, you know, north is up and south is south and all that was not what they used, but rather elevation-wise, A great many points within the land of Israel were at a lower elevation, and so this is the case here.

This is toward the coast, and so the landscape is dropping there towards Lydda. There he found a man. Now as we look at this pattern of a man versus the other words, a disciple, a saint, you know, brethren, that sort of thing, this may imply that He is not a believer yet. They are in the city of Lydda.

That is modern Lod, which includes the Tel Aviv International Airport. And so we'll take a look at that here shortly. So one of the things to point out here is, as we'll see in this passage, it comes out that they're called saints. And so this introduces a term in the book of Acts. We have the disciples, and we have the brethren, we have the church, and now with this passage, the saints.

So the term disciples was used way back in Acts 6.1 to refer to the believers in Christ, and the specific reference there is they were disciples of Christ. and to refer to the believers in Christ then.

The next one, the term brethren, first used in Acts 6.3, so in the same passage there, to refer to the believers in Christ. So you have that the disciples means that we are learning directly from Christ, we are His disciples. The brethren means that we are Christ's brothers. And then thirdly, the church is the assembly of those called out, who are part of what is later called the body of Christ. And now saints, as we covered here in our elective, are those set apart for God's holy and righteous purpose.

So the term church was first used in Acts 5.11 to refer to the believers in the body of Christ. And each term has its own nuance, but they're synonyms in the Book of Acts. So starting with Acts chapter 9, saints is used as a synonym for disciples, but as we'll see only a few times, or otherwise brethren and the church.

You have on the bottom of page 1 here a map that shows Excuse me, this map here shows the southern part of Israel, including Samaria and then Judea. And those parts in this map here, in order to give some detail, we don't have the Sea of Galilee shown to the north.

What you find is Jerusalem and then Lydda, which is about 25 miles away from Jerusalem toward the coast. And then we have Joppa is along the coast. Later on in the account here, we'll get to Caesarea, which is north of Joppa on the coast of Israel there. So here's Aeneas. We know about him. He's in Lydda. He's about 25 miles from Jerusalem. We know he's a man.

He's possibly not a Christian believer yet because of the pattern in which the pattern in which the word Amen is used throughout the Book of Acts. He was bedridden for eight years because he was a paralytic. Turns out wheelchairs had not been developed for some centuries later. And so even though they had wheels, nobody thought of doing that. So it was a matter of having a bed. If you wanted to be moved, somebody else had to move you.

Here's Acts 9, 34 and 35. And Peter said to him, Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you, get up and make your bed. And immediately he got up and all who lived in Lydda and Sharon saw him and they turned to the Lord. First of all, this is Jesus Christ heals you versus, as he said previously, in the name of Jesus be healed, right? So specifically Jesus Christ heals you is what he spells out here. We'll talk about that shortly. Another thing to point out here in verse 35, we see again a word that is used by Dr. Luke as he writes, and this is a word that means long-term residence. And that has particular meaning, as we'll see shortly here.

And this is Lydda the city, which is about 25 miles from Jerusalem and 12 miles from Joppa. Now, here's something interesting. This is Lydda and Sharon. Now, Sharon is not a city along the coast of Israel. It's actually the name of a coastal plain. So it's that area. And that extends to the south of Joppa. And then it extends along to the north all the way up to Caesarea. And so what's interesting is this is in the surrounding plain. It's actually the plain of Sharon. And what's hidden from you is that that's a redundancy because Sharon means plain. So it's the plain of plain.

Right. So anyway, and then we have finally, there's a special word here. It looks simple. It's the turn to the Lord. It's a special word within the book of Acts. It means to turn from and to turn towards ending in faith or belief. It is a word that specifically means not just people change their behavior, but that people came to believe and therefore turned to the Lord.

Now when he said, Jesus Christ heals you, that's a more literal statement of what he had said previously when he spoke to the lame, Peter spoke to the lame man in Acts 3.6 and we saw that. This is the only time that these words, Jesus Christ heals you, is actually used. But you think of Peter, why would he say this as opposed to what he encountered in Samaria?

I'm not doing an incantation. I'm not doing some special ritual. I'm not relying on magic. Just so you know, it is Jesus Christ who is doing the healing here today, right? And so that would be very clear from his words there. It may also have been important to convey that it was rather Jesus who did it, that Peter was not taking the credit. He was not saying, I'm doing this, although I'm here present with you, but it is Jesus Christ who is doing the healing, not me. Now here is an aerial view of the southern part of this Plain of Sharon, which as I say is redundant, the Plain of Plain. And so here is Lod, ancient Lydda, there on the southern and eastern part of this air photo.

And then here is the Tel Aviv airport. I'm sure they didn't think of it in those terms in those days, but that's where it is located now. And then here is Tel Aviv, the modern city, and right nearby here would be Joppa, as it's called Yafo now, Hebrew for beautiful, right? And so you have just kind of these orientations of things looking at the air photo presently.

One of the things you'll notice is there's lots of development in a good portion of this region, so a lot of the archaeology is hard to get to. So this word where it says all who lived, this is a word we introduced previously. And earlier in this chapter, this is a word that Luke uses repeatedly for those who lived or dwelt, sometimes it's translated in the book of Acts and elsewhere. The form of the word means long-term residence as opposed to someone who is visiting, just passing through or has only lived a short period of time.

The same word or related words are used in Ephesians 2.22, in whom you're also being built together into a dwelling, that is long-term resident, right, of God in the Spirit. This is referring to the church at Ephesus.

And Ephesians 3.17, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. So these are ways in which the Apostle Paul, a friend of Dr. Luke, would write later. So this word here is a very special word used throughout the Book of Acts.

It's translated turn or turned or turning or sometimes return and it includes the word faith built within the word. So it's not simply a turning but it is turning and placing faith. One of the reasons for it's critical for us to recognize is that faith is essential to being saved. They didn't just turn to the Lord in some sort of an orientational way or a behavioral way. But in fact, that turning to the Lord, as we'll see later in the passage, ends with belief. So this word does not mean that these people committed to doing all the right Christian things to do.

This is key. It means they turned from where they placed their faith before and the lifestyle that went with it, and that they had faith in the gospel and the lifestyle that fits with that. A critical point. Here's Acts 9, 36 and 37. Now in Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha, that translated in Greek is Dorcas, and that's, by the way, what's written in the text. That's not my added note. So this woman was abounding with deeds of kindness and charity, which she continually did. It happened at that time that she fell sick and died. When they had washed her body, they laid it in an upper room.

So this is Joppa the city, the coastal city right along the eastern part of the Mediterranean. So there was a disciple, and by the way this is unique, this is the only female form of disciple in the whole New Testament. It's written in the Greek in the female form, and this is the one place there. But it also says specifically that women are equally qualified to be disciples as men. So that was specific here. Then this Aramaic word Tabitha, that's the Aramaic name. It means gazelle. Translated in Greek, which has no surprise, means gazelle as well, right? So that's the Greek equivalent. My guess is their nickname was not dork, right?

Alright, so this woman was abounding with deeds of kindness and charity. And that word abounding was literally full of. And one of the things we pointed out in the book of Acts as we go through it is Dr. Luke likes to use full of as an expression for being, for example, full of the Holy Spirit. In this case, abounding is carried out with the words full of. deeds and good kindness. So this is a favorite expression, a favorite way for Dr. Luke to carry things across. This kindness and charity means good and merciful giving to the poor. So it's specifically looking at that. And we're going to see even a hint as to what part of the poor she specifically expresses that mercy there.

It said she continually did. And then they washed her body because she had died. That was tradition. So the Jewish tradition would be to wash the body and then to put spices around the body and then wrap it in what's called aloes. Now it's not the aloes that you typically would buy these days, but it's rather a ground up specific kind of tree that was used. But they would wrap the body, but so what's interesting is they didn't follow through with the rest of the steps that were typical of a Jewish burial. So they washed her body and laid it in the upper room and as far as the reading goes, it says they stopped there.

It's like they're anticipating something else. This upper room term, by the way, which is something that Luke is predominant in using that term, but it was similar to where the Last Supper was. So based on the structure of the house and sometimes the structure of the landscape that the house is placed in, they would have a room that's situated up above the regular floor, and that was apparently the case here.

So here's an aerial of Joppa. and it gives you an idea. Now this is of course the way it looks now. It is this area here which is old Joppa and the old port, so things have been built outside of that. So in ancient times that was more the location, what you see is sort of central and north in this aerial photo. So excavations, archaeological excavations have been done out in the water in some degree, and then in this area that looks like a park that's up on land here. So that's where it's been investigated more. Much of the rest of it is covered over by things that have been built since that time. So here would be the harbor, and actually the ancient harbor would be a bit off to the right of what you see in this picture.

So here's Joppa, it's mentioned a few times in the Old Testament, starting with the book of Joshua. And yes, it is the place where Jonah went to, to try to get away from the Lord, when he discovered that no, you're not doing that, right? When he was headed to Tarshish.

It is the port through which the timbers for both the first and second temples, that is the temple that was built under Solomon, all the timbers were brought up through Joppa, that one port. Once the temple was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonians, then the rebuilding of the temple that was present even in the times of Jesus, that temple had its timbers brought through this same harbor, so that was the place. What's very interesting, based on Carbot 14 tests of this rebuilding of the mosque that was built there at the south end of the Temple Mount, those timbers date from the first and second temple period and may be from the original temple.

So Acts 9.36 here in this passage and then on into chapter 11, the city of Joppa will continue to be very pivotal in Dr. Luke's account.

So we're going to keep track of that as you keep mentioning it. Acts is the only book that actually brings up the city of Joppa, but it does so repeatedly from this passage here on into chapter 11. And so we're going to keep tabs on that. This word, disciples, comes up here again. And one of the key things to understand, John 15, He who abides in Me and I in Him, He bears much fruit.

And then John 15.8, My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be My disciples. So, Jesus made that clear. And then the next thing also during the Last Supper, he said in John 13, 35, By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love one for another. So these are the indicators that he left at the Last Supper as to what a disciple would be like. So we are Christ's disciples. That's the message here. That looks like abiding in Christ. and that looks like are having an intimate dependence upon him and are loving one another in the body of Christ.

Here's Acts 9.38, 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.

So here was Lydda. Again, about 12 miles away. And so, just to kind of give some kind of a perspective, about 20 miles would be considered a typical one day's travel. So this was less than a day's travel, and if they were wanting to be sure that Peter got there quickly, it might have gone a little faster, and had Peter go faster, and so shorten up the travel time.

His disciples were then Christian believers. And then, it's interesting, he sent two men to them. This is the verb form of the word for apostle, which means a special messenger. They sent as special messengers, these two men. And they were imploring him, his word otherwise used for urge or even comfort, but here it's, do not delay, we want you to come quickly. Here's Acts 9, 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. And one of the things we'll notice is earlier he gave the name Tabitha and then said the translation was Dorcas.

Here, the Greek translation is used. One of the things we'll notice shortly is they switched back to Tabitha. So it apparently gives you an idea that people were probably bilingual. That's one of the patterns we'll see here. So this upper room, and in this case it says the upper room, so it's specifically the one where Tabitha and also known as Dorcas had been laid. and all the widows.

So that may reveal the focus of the ministry. So previously it said that she did good things and she gave to the poor. Here the widows are the ones coming and showing the things that she had done for them. So it may indicate a particular focus of her ministry. Actually helping to take care of the widows was something she very likely focused on here. And the terms tunics and garments, essentially it conveys a variety of different garments. So she'd make, you know, different things, and this includes that variety. So this Dorcas, of course, being her Greek name.

Here's Acts 9.40, 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." So this knelt down is literally bowed the knee. That's the literal statement there.

And then prayed. So this is something to think about. Remember when Peter and John saw the a man who was lame, many chapters back there, who was in by the temple. They didn't bow and pray or do anything. They just said, in the name of Jesus Christ, stand up and walk. Here, it's very interesting. Peter didn't just walk up and say, Tabitha, arise.

Instead, he knelt down and prayed first. I'd almost like to be able to ask him, What did you pray? It would perhaps provide some insight. But nonetheless, it spells that out rather than immediately raising the body. And it's interesting, after sending people to him, and, you know, Peter, come quickly, don't delay, and all that, what's the first thing Peter does when he gets there? He sends them all out, gets everybody out of the room, and I'm going to pray first. You know, pray first. He's going to bring his focus on the Lord. He's not in such a hurry that he's going to put that aside.

And the putting everybody out was something, in fact, that the Lord Himself had done at one time with the daughter of Jairus, where the Lord had sent everybody else out of the room and kept in Peter and James and John. So here we find Peter taking the time to pray and to even kneel down to do so. And then he said, turning to the body, Tabitha, arise. So this is her Aramaic name now switching back to Aramaic name. And then says she opened her eyes and Peter saw when she saw Peter, she sat up.

Here's Acts 9.41, and he gave her his hand and raised her up, and calling the saints and widows, he presented her alive. So this was apparently done because it said she sat up. He gave her his hand and raised her up. That was apparently in parallel with her having seen Peter and her getting up. So these went along together.

And then calling the Saints here again, and it's now the second time, but the Saints is only three times in the entire book of Acts. We're going to get on to by about chapter 26 before we're going to see it again. So the Saints is a fairly rare term for those who believe. So he called out all the Saints and particularly the widows, those who had said Oh, but she did this and made that garment and this sort of thing and included them.

So one of the things to take a look at is Peter had now, so far as we have any record, performed the first resurrection during the time of the church. And who did he credit it to? He credited Jesus, right? Jesus is the one. So he gave credit to Christ. In the first case, when he healed the lame man, right? Aeneas, when he healed him, he just said, you know, Jesus Christ heals you. Here, he puts everybody out and talks to the Lord directly. That's really rather amazing. He doesn't use just a cookie cutter pattern. Oh, we always do it this way, right?

Nine individuals in scripture are clearly represented in the Bible as being raised from the dead. Three of those are in the Old Testament. We have here pictured Elijah raised as the son of the widow of Zarephath, the account there in 1 Kings 17. And so there are a couple of others. At least three individuals were raised from the dead by Jesus. And if you look at the daughter of Jairus, you're looking at the son of the woman, the widow of Nain, and then Lazarus, so at least three. And then both Peter, as we see in this instance, and later on we'll see Paul, who's up until now called Saul, raised a person from the dead. The most important of all, however, was Jesus himself was resurrected. So of the nine resurrections, this was the most critical one, Christ's resurrection. Here's Acts 9, 42 and 43.

It became known all over Joppa and many believed in the Lord. And Peter stayed many days in Joppa with a tanner named Simon. So compare that and it says here, many believed in the Lord. Remember what happened there in Lydda is many turned to the Lord. in that passage. So these are equivalent statements. To turn to the Lord also meant to belief. And so it's one of the things that tells us that word turned is not just the person turning and changing and doing one thing instead of another, but is also involving belief.

Now, there's a lot to say about he stayed many days in Joppa with a tanner named Simon. So, we'll go to that. One question we could ask is, how long is many days? Well, it turns out that only Dr. Luke used this term. He used it once in the Gospel of Luke, and the other nine times he uses it here in the Book of Acts. So this is a Luke-specific term.

Many days or not many days. Not many days in Acts 1-5 and Acts 2-4 is May 14th and May 24th, 33 AD, so 10 days. So not many days is 10 days. Many days in Acts 13.31 is 40 days. So we get an idea that not many days is a week and a half. And 40 days, we're talking about something on the order of a month. So just to get an idea. So how long is many days? Maybe several weeks.

It's probably a good estimate, is what he has in mind here. Now, he stayed at the home of a tanner named Simon. Now, first we look at him, we say, well, that's cool. This guy turns animal skins into leather. Not so fast. Tanners were, under a Jewish tradition, a debatable trade. Why? Because the skins came from dead animals, right? And so you're kind of debatable if you're a tanner, are you really within the law, right? And so the rabbis argued about whether a tanner was a good thing to be, and many of them were not so sure. Peter and John had already gone to the Samaritans who were unsavable, so who cares what the rabbis think, right?

So the location of the house of Simon the Tanner is not absolutely certain, but it is most likely the spot noted as the location here. So Peter stayed at Simon's house for many days, and this is likely the place. Right there. So this is the house of Simon the Tanner, and it happens to be the Zakarian family's home there in Joppa. And so that most likely appears to be the place. Now it turns out that a lot of Joppa has gotten destroyed, so this may be newer construction up top here and rebuilt, but the floor space would be the location.

So, some of the things to think about from this passage. It's easy for us to look at it and say, here's Peter, he's an apostle, he's got special training and authorization and giftedness from the Lord. So that's cool, but what am I going to do with that? And one of the things to think about it is Peter was entrusted with this stewardship of being an apostle.

That had qualifications. Remember back when they were choosing a replacement for Judas, what did they say? An apostle had to have been someone who spent time with the Lord. Saul was going to be qualified for that only after he spent time with the Lord.

This is what we showed earlier in the Galatians 1.17 passage.

So there was, and there were other definitions of being an apostle. So it was clear, yes, Peter had a special stewardship. The truth is, while we don't have that stewardship, none of us have an apostolic stewardship, we do have a number, actually, of stewardships entrusted to us. And we kind of stepped through it.

Just think about this. If you are husband or a wife, you have a stewardship in your marriage. If you are a parent, you have a stewardship. Nancy and I, the Lord has graced us with 11 grandkids. And so those grandkids are stewardships. The Lord has entrusted us with a stewardship with them. But think also here in the body of Christ. Do we not have a stewardship with one another? Has God not entrusted us with a stewardship with each other? And if you think through it various times and places, the Lord may change those stewardships, doesn't He?

He changed those stewardship. Nancy and I first got married 15,976 days ago, right? And so when He did that, Nancy and I had that stewardship. When children entered into our marriage, we had a new stewardship. And when they left, that was a different stewardship, right? So you have stewardships at different ages and stages as well. We have had stewardships related to our parents, right? Taking care of them. And Nancy's folks are now both home with the Lord. My folks are still around. Those stewardships are still there.

So likely all of us have been entrusted with multiple stewardships. And so we see what Peter here is not to be set aside while he's an apostle. That was one of his stewardships. And we have many most likely. Tabitha, or Dorcas as she was also called, saw her stewardship as clothing for widows, at least at that stage. It's pretty apparent that she saw that. My stewardship is to provide clothing for widows and perhaps others." So all these stewardships are grace-entrusted. Grace-entrusted stewardships.

Let's think also about, was raising Tabitha the only purpose for Peter to be in Joppa? Was that the only reason that he was there? No. As a matter of fact, he stayed when? How long? Many days. some number of weeks, most likely, he was there in Joppa. And why? It's because he wasn't just there for a vacation.

The Lord had other things for him to do, including getting him ready for a transition that would introduce the gospel to the house of Cornelius and Caesarea. The same can be true of us. Peter is going to receive some pivotal insights along the way as to what further purpose is. The Lord may call us into a particular situation, a new stewardship, and also bring other things along with it. So it's important for us to be looking at what stewardships is the Lord entrusting me in the situations in which I am now.

Finally, one of the things that comes out in here, I've been putting a focus on specific words. We have a supplement that we put out here on this word turned, one page. You know, I started writing a glossary of Acts words, but I kept coming across too much stuff on it and it never stopped. And I'll do one word at a time. So that's where I'm taking a look at it.

But this is a very important word, this word turned. We see Peter told the Jews on the day of Pentecost, repent, there's another important word, and turn. That's the same word that he used here. It means to turn around, ending in belief. Stephen gazed intently at Christ.

And by the way, Dr. Luke keeps using that word again and again and again. And so these words are something for us to look at. In some cases, it's words that only Luke used. And so we'll be looking at that as we go through the Book of Acts. We believers, as we see here in the Book of Acts, are called saints. As we saw in the elective right before this, set apart ones. The church, the assembly of those who are called out, The disciples, those who are learners directly from Christ. Brethren, we are Christ's brothers. So each one of those has doctrinal and life significance for each of us. And one other thing that begins to be very clear as you start studying these words is getting the gospel straight. Let me just lay it out. The gospel is believing. that Christ died for your sins, was buried, and rose again.

That's it. It doesn't count that people make a commitment to Christ. It doesn't count that people invite Jesus into their heart. Why would he want to go into that dirty old thing? Right? What counts is that people believe that Christ died for your sins, was buried, and rose again, and that's what we present. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for, as you've laid out here in your Word, thank you for the truths in this passage. As we've seen the amazing things that you've laid out for Peter to do in his stewardship, we just ask that you would bring home to our hearts the things that you want us to learn from this passage and as we move forward in the book of Acts. Thank you Lord for these things that you revealed because you love us and care for us and you Desire that we grow in these truths and we pray in Jesus name. Amen