Healing of Aeneas and Dorcas (Acts 9:32–43)

Prepared and preached by Pastor Steve Rhodes for and at Bethel Friends Church in Poland, OH on Sunday, September 8, 2024

I have never been one to say that God does not heal people today. I have never wanted to limit God and believe that God has stopped certain miracles. A few years ago, I met with a pastor I knew, and he shared many experiences he had personally experienced of healing. He shared:

His wife was raised in India with sicknesses and little medical care.

Her father would pray in faith, and they would be healed. The Lord intervened when no one else could.

His wife would challenge him when their children were sick to pray for them. He would pray for the specific disease to be healed.

One time, his 4th born son was 2.5 years old. They were having a birthday party for his older son. All these boys were at the house, and the water went out. He saw a water truck up the street and thought he would ask them what was happening. He went to his garage and looked behind his van to ensure no toys were behind it. He got in and started to back up and then heard a noise. He backed up and pinned his 2.5-year-old. His son was hardly breathing. EMTs arrived, and they were shocked. They couldn’t get a pulse. The ER doctor said he was in a life-threatening condition- broken fibula, tibia, hip… collapsed lung, chest was likely collapsed. They called the care flight and took him to University Rainbow Hospital, the children’s hospital in the midst of it. As they were driving, they were sending calls for healing. They were crying out for God to heal his son. There were probably 800 women in a meeting in St. Lewis, and they all stopped the meeting and prayed.

They got to the hospital, and they saw an African American man holding his son. At first, he thought, “That can’t be my son.” Then the man sat him down, and he ran to his dad. The man said, “The Lord healed your son.” The doctor said they had X-rays, but they didn’t match him. They kept him overnight and then sent him home. Scratches and outside injuries were still there, but the bone breaks were gone. He is now 20 years old and perfectly fine. The hip bone was broken, and the leg was sideways, but that was fine when they got to the hospital.

That was the most personal and miraculous testimony I have heard of healing. (Meeting with Pastor Myron Daum, Pastor or North Mar C&MA Church. Meeting date- February 2, 2017)

We are going to continue teaching and preaching through the book of Acts. Today, I want to look at Acts 9:32-43. We are going to look at a passage in which Peter heals two people. This is the power of God at work. This is the power of the Holy Spirit at work. As we look at this passage, notice Peter was willing to be involved, Peter exalted Christ, and Peter let the Gospel produce fruit. Let’s read the passage:

Acts 9:32–43 (ESV)

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.

1. The first exhortation is to be willing to get involved.
   1. Notice that Peter was willing to get involved. Verse 32 says that he was traveling through the regions. He was busy, yet something was about to happen, and he was not too busy to be used by God.
   2. In verse 33, he finds this man named Aeneas. This man has been bedridden for 8 years. The text could actually say, “Since he was 8 years old,” either way, Jesus, through Peter, heals him. We’ll come back to that in a minute.
   3. Again, then in verse 36, this woman named Tabitha is dying and dead. Peter is busy. Peter is traveling. If there is anyone busy it has got to be Peter, right? Yet, he jumped at the chance to go and raise her back to life in verses 38-39.
   4. How do you and I do with interruptions? How are we with interruptions?
   5. I must look at the Bible, I must look at this passage like a mirror. I tend to plan out my day, and I am on my way somewhere, and then a family member calls, right? Maybe that interruption is ministry. Is it possible?
   6. I know of opportunities when I stop to help someone or even go out of my way to help someone, and I am glad I did. So, the exhortation here is to be willing to get involved. Peter was.
2. The second exhortation is to be Christ-exalting.
   1. Peter was about exalting Christ in this passage and in his life.
   2. A thought that I have is as follows: I cannot impress people with myself and I must stop trying to do so. I must only impress people with Jesus Christ.
   3. In the next chapter, Acts 10:25, Cornelius will try to worship Peter, and Peter will stand him up and only exalt Christ.
   4. Notice in verse 34 that Peter said, “Jesus Christ heals you…” We do not want to draw people to ourselves because we cannot do anything for them. We need to draw people to Jesus.

Swindoll shares:

My mother loved the woman who lived across the street from our home who had married late in life. She really had found her security in her husband. He was a wonderful man, and one day, he had a sudden heart attack and died within seconds. After his funeral, she began to visit the gravesite. My mother became very concerned over her friend Thelma.

She said to me one hot summer afternoon, “Charles, I want you to pray. I’m gonna take these cookies and this lemonade across the street and I’m gonna try to encourage Thelma. Just pray that her heart will be open to what I have to say. I’m gonna talk to her about Jesus.”

And so I did. My mother, wonderfully, very graciously, led her to Christ. She said to Thelma, “You know, Thelma, there’s something I need to mention to you. You really don’t need to keep going back to the cemetery.” “Oh,” she said, “Lovell, I just have to do that.” So my mother said, “Well, let me suggest you do it for another reason.” She said, “Why don’t you go back, not to try to make a ‘connection’ with your husband, but to minister to other people who are trying to do that.”

Thelma took my mother’s advice. As a matter of fact, she’s the only cemetery evangelist I ever knew. There at the memorial park in Houston she has led a number of people to Jesus Christ.[1]

[1] Charles R. Swindoll, The Tale of the Tardy Oxcart and 1501 Other Stories (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2016), 184–185.

• The third exhortation is to be Fruitful.

1. 1. Watch Jesus bear fruit as He did in this passage.
   2. In each of these miracles, it is about the Gospel.
   3. In verse 35, it says all heard about the miracle and turned to the Lord, and then again in 42, the same thing: all heard and believed in the Lord.

Swindoll shares:

The Pastor, dressed in a comfortable pair of old blue jeans, boarded a plane to return home. He settled into the last unoccupied seat next to a well-dressed businessman with a Wall Street Journal tucked under his arm. The minister, a little embarrassed over his casual attire, decided he’d look straight ahead and, for sure, stay out of any in-depth conversation. But the plan didn’t work. The man greeted him, so, to be polite, the pastor asked about the man’s work. Here’s what happened:

“I’m in the figure salon business. We can change a woman’s self-concept by changing her body. It’s really a very profound, powerful thing.”

His pride spoke between the lines.

“You look my age,” I said. “Have you been at this long?”

“I just graduated from the University of Michigan’s School of Business Administration. They’ve given me so much responsibility already, and I feel very honored. In fact, I hope to eventually manage the western part of the operation.”

“So you’re a national organization?” I asked, becoming impressed despite myself.

“Oh, yes. We are the fastest growing company of our kind in the nation. It’s really good to be a part of an organization like that, don’t you think?”

I nodded approvingly and thought, “Impressive. Proud of his work and accomplishments. Why can’t Christians be proud like that? Why are we so often apologetic about our faith and our church?”

Looking at my clothing, he asked the inevitable question, “And what do you do?”

“It’s interesting that we have similar business interests,” I said. “You are in the body-changing business; I’m in the personality-changing business. We apply ‘basic theocratic principles to accomplish indigenous personality modification.’ ”

He was hooked, but I knew he would never admit it. (Pride is powerful.)

“You know, I’ve heard about that,” he replied, hesitantly. “But do you have an office here in the city?”

“Oh, we have many offices. We have offices up and down the state. In fact, we’re national: we have at least one office in every state of the union, including Alaska and Hawaii.”

He had this puzzled look on his face. He was searching his mind to identify this huge company he must have read or heard about, perhaps in his Wall Street Journal.

“As a matter of fact, we’ve gone international. And Management has a plan to put at least one office in every country of the world by the end of this business era.”

I paused.

“Do you have that in your business?” I asked.

“Well, no. Not yet,” he answered. “But you mentioned management. How do they make it work?”

“It’s a family concern. There’s a Father and a Son, and they run everything.”

“It must take a lot of capital,” he asked, skeptically.

“You mean money?” I asked. “Yes, I suppose so. No one knows just how much it takes, but we never worry because there’s never a shortage. The Boss always seems to have enough. He’s a very creative guy. And the money is, well, just there. In fact those of us in the Organization have a saying about our Boss, ‘He owns the cattle on a thousand hills.’ ”

“Oh, he’s into ranching too?” asked my captive friend.

“No, it’s just a saying we use to indicate his wealth.”

My friend sat back in his seat, musing over our conversation. “What about with you?” he asked.

“The employees? They’re something to see,” I said. “They have a ‘Spirit’ that pervades the organization. It works like this: the Father and Son love each other so much that their love filters down through the organization so that we all find ourselves loving one another too. I know this sounds old-fashioned in a world like ours, but I know people in the organization who are willing to die for me. Do you have that in your business?” I was almost shouting now. People were starting to shift noticeably in their seats.

“Not yet,” he said. Quickly changing strategies, he asked, “But do you have good benefits?”

“They’re substantial,” I countered, with a gleam. “I have complete life insurance, fire insurance—all the basics. You might not believe this, but it’s true: I have holdings in a mansion that’s being built for me right now for my retirement. Do you have that in your business?”

“Not yet,” he answered, wistfully. The light was dawning.

“You know, one thing bothers me about all you’re saying. I’ve read the journals, and if your business is all you say it is, why haven’t I heard about it before now?”

“That’s a good question,” I said. “After all, we have a 2,000-year-old tradition.”

“Wait a minute!” he said.

“You’re right,” I interrupted. “I’m talking about the church.”

“I knew it. You know, I’m Jewish.”

“Want to sign up?” I asked.[1]

[1] Charles R. Swindoll, The Tale of the Tardy Oxcart and 1501 Other Stories (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2016), 616–618.

Let’s pray

[1] https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2515637/Does-prayer-help-resist-temptation-Talking-God-boosts-self-control-emotional-stability-claims-study.html

[2] https://www.all-creatures.org/stories/thetablecloth.html

[3] https://www.jacksonville.com/story/news/reason/2016/12/24/fact-check-could-inspirational-story-be-true/15736747007/

[4] https://insight.org/resources/daily-devotional/individual/the-hope-you-need1

[5] Ibid.