An overview for Sunday school teachers and Bible study leader of Lifeway’s “Explore the Bible” lesson for August 8, 2024, Acts 9:32-43, with the title, “Healing.” A video version of this overview is available on YouTube at:

INTRO:   J. Edwin Orr was an Irish Baptist minister who traveled the world sharing the gospel, and authored books on revival. He wrote: “Occasionally the believer’s faith is strengthened by some such providence as healing, but the skeptic nullifies the evidence by saying that the healing was psychosomatic! But it is rather odd to claim that X rays offered by an expert showing that a bone had lengthened seven millimeters after prayer confirms the notion that the healing was accomplished only in the mind.” Orr explains in a footnote: “My wife’s doctor, Viola Fryman, a surgeon, showed X rays on TV of the growth—after prayer—of a femur by more than two inches.”

(J. Edwin Orr, The Faith That Persuades, pp. 89, footnote p. 142)

??? Have you or someone you know ever experienced a miraculous healing???

In today’s lesson from Acts 9, we see how the Lord used two particular miraculous healings to bring people to Himself. 

CONTEXT

We’ve been studying through the Book of Acts, as the new church, full of the Holy Spirit, has been overcoming every obstacle to spreading the faith — both external obstacles of persecution, and internal obstacles of hypocrisy and grumbling.

Last time we saw how one of the primary persecutors of the church, Saul of Tarsus, was actually himself converted on the road to Damascus, and began proclaiming Christ. 9:31 says, “So the church throughout Judea and Galilee and Samaria enjoyed peace, being built up; and going on in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it continued to increase. (See, growing through all the obstacles!) This brings us to the last part of Chapter 9:32-43, which is our text for this week. 

OUTLINE

Our text this week basically shares the stories of two healing episodes involving the Apostle Peter: the healing of Aeneas, who was paralyzed — and the miraculous healing (really resurrection) of Dorcas or Tabitha, so I would probably just use a very simple outline:

I. Aeneas is healed to the glory of God (:33-35)

II. Dorcas is healed to the glory of God (:36-43)

I might entitle this lesson: “For the Glory of God,” for that’s really what it is all about: how people were led to the Lord and glorified God, through these two episodes of healing. 

TEXT

I’d include a little BACKGROUND information from :32:

:32 “Now as Peter was traveling through all these regions, he came down also to the saints who lived at Lydda.”

So verse 31 had just talked about how the Gospel was spreading through Judea and Galilee and Samaria — so now it says here in the next verse that Peter was traveling in “all these regions.” So he was going all around these places in the Holy Land, and it says especially that he came down to the saints who lived at Lydda. 

(SHOW MAP so they can see where Judea, Galilee, and Samaria are, as well as the town of Lydda (“Lod”) and also Joppa, where Peter will go shortly.) 

I.  Aeneas is healed to the glory of God (:33-35)

So Peter had come to Lydda :32 says.

:33 “There he found a man named Aeneas, who had been bedridden eight years, for he was paralyzed.”

:34 “Peter said to him, ‘Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you; get up and make your bed.’ Immediately he got up.”

:35 “And all who lived at Lydda and Sharon saw him, and they turned to the Lord.”

To me there are three main points in this story: the problem, the solution, and the response of the people to what they saw.

A. There was the PROBLEM: this man Aeneas was paralyzed.

And it was a BIG problem. There’s two or three things here in this verse that emphasize the DEPTH of Aeneas’ problem:

— “bedridden” — an illness is bad if you’re bedridden. It’s one thing to have some kind of problem where you “don’t feel well,” or you have a limp, or something like that. But the problem Aeneas had was so bad that he was “bedridden” with it. That’s #1.

— then it says he had been bedridden “EIGHT YEARS”! So this is no new, “temporary” thing that had come upon him. He had had it for EIGHT YEARS! After eight years, I’m sure he and his family or loved ones were past hope. If you’ve been bedridden for eight years, you’re just pretty sure you’re stuck that way; things are not going to get any better.

— And lastly it says he was “paralyzed.” The word comes from “luo,” which means to “loose” or “destroy.” His ability to walk or move had been destroyed.

So this is no “oh, he had a little cold” type situation. It was one of those “hopeless’ situations, where everybody has given up; no one thought anything could possibly help him now. 

Do we have situations like this today? 

??? What are some examples of some hopeless situations today???

(the same kind of physical problems this man had/cancer, etc.

kids and grandkids with problems: lost, caught in LGBT lifestyles, drugs/alcohol; all kinds of things. Especially THE biggest problem: our separation from God which is the root of all of our problems. 

What can we do about it?

B. Jesus was the ANSWER to the problem.

So what does Peter do? He was very direct, wasn’t he? He just said, “Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you.” 

??? WHO was the answer to Aeneas’ problem here???

(And who WASN’T the answer?!)

(JESUS was the answer. Peter was very clear about that.

— he didn’t say “I heal you.”

— he didn’t say “the church heals you”

— he didn’t say “this medication or treatment heals you”

— he didn’t say “the government heals you”

— he didn’t say, “your faith is going to heal you”!

No, he just very directly said, “Jesus Christ heals you.” This episode was all about Jesus. Peter pointed Aeneas (and everyone else who may have seen and heard) to Jesus. In the Gospels Peter had denied that he even knew Jesus, but now, indwelt and filled with the Holy Spirit, he just proclaimed Jesus. He continually pointed people to Jesus. 

This is a good model for us. We need to make sure in our ministries that we don’t somehow point people to ourselves, or to “the church,” or to “modern American” technology or riches; or to the government — we need to make sure we point people to JESUS. JESUS is the answer. All these other things are not.
Yet too often we point people everywhere except to the One they really need. So this is a good reminder to us: POINT PEOPLE TO JESUS!  That’s what Peter did, and that’s what we need to do too.

You may or may not want to use a political illustration — I’ll let you decide if you want to use this. But there is a video on YouTube of Former President Donald Trump speaking to a crowd, and he refers to how someone had introduced him and had at least implied that he was the “Savior” of our country. The video shows Donald Trump looking over at the speaker and saying: “Our country needs a Savior right now, and our country HAS a Savior, and … that’s not ME! That’s somebody much higher up than me. Much higher up.”

(https://x.com/3sidedstory/status/1472901736402542595?s=42&t=5Tkhi59rzdrj06QSSiejIg)

Whatever you think about Donald Trump politically, and whether you plan to vote for him or not, he was right in that: HE is not the ultimate “Savior” of our country — and neither is any other politician or anyone else. We have ONE Savior, and that is Savior is JESUS. And we need to make it our main business to point people to HIM!  Don’t point people to “the church,” or “this book,” or this person — point them to Jesus. Jesus is the answer!

C. Then finally we see the RESPONSE of the people to Jesus’ work in Aeneas’ life:

:35 says “And all who lived at Lydda and Sharon saw him, and they turned to the Lord.” 

So evidently this miracle in Aeneas’ life brought what we would call a “revival” to those two towns — such that Luke would say “all” who lived there, turned to the Lord! 

??? WHY do you think so many people turned to the Lord in those two towns???

(It just makes sense, doesn’t it? When God did something “big” like that, rescuing someone who had been so helpless, it just made a big impression on everyone, that there must be something to this Jesus whom Peter was preaching.

And this is the key here: this isn’t really all about just the healing itself; everything that happens here is for the glory of God, to point people to Jesus. And that’s what we see happen: “All who lived at Lydda and Sharon saw him, and they turned to the Lord.”

We need to understand that ultimately this is God’s purpose for everything He does. He wants to use everything to point people to Jesus. We need this reminder: often we get “sidetracked” in a sense, and we focus more on the healing or whatever, than God’s true ultimate purpose, which is to point people to Himself through Jesus. 

Everything is for God’s glory: remember I Corinthians 10:31, “Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” Everything about us is to glorify God. The old Westminster Shorter Catechism asks the question: “What is the chief end of man?” And the answer is: “The chief end of man is to GLORIFY GOD and to enjoy Him forever.” We were made to glorify God. Everything about us is to glorify God.

And this is true even for the problems we face, like this man’s physical condition. God has some purpose for it which will glorify Him and lead people to Him.

I think of John 9, where Jesus and His disciples see the man born blind. His disciples ask, “Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he should be born blind?” Jesus answered in :3, “NEITHER … but that the works of God might be displayed in him.”

Why was this man born blind? What was God’s purpose in it? It was so that He would be glorified through his condition, and that people would come to Him — and they did. Why was Aeneas paralyzed for so long? So that God would be glorified through him in the end!

An illustration you could use here would be the testimony of a young medical missionary from our church in Louisiana who served in Kenya. She said she was stumped by a particular woman’s daughter’s medical condition. She didn’t know what to do about it, or how she could help. So she just admitted that she couldn’t do anything about it, and they prayed to God — and GOD healed her!  She said, The woman told me: “GOD healed her despite you!” And the woman ended up giving her life to Jesus as her Savior! 

So just like here in Acts 9, the answer was not the person; the answer was not “modern American medicine” — the answer was just Jesus! AND notice that the end purpose of it is the same too: that lady came to Jesus through it. THAT is the real purpose for the miraculous things God does; it is to bring people to Jesus, and glorify Him. 

So encourage your group: let’s point people to Jesus, lead them to Him, and glorify Him. And realize that according to Jesus, many of the things that happen to us, happen so that God’s works might be displayed in us, and that people may come to Him, just like with the blind man in John 9, and just like with Aeneas here in Acts 9. 

So part of our application with this text should be: in the difficult things that we encounter in life, let’s call out to God for help — and then glorify Him when He answers us. And like Peter here, let’s always point people to Jesus, and be sure that you give glory to the Lord for what He does for you. That’s undoubtedly His purpose for that situation in the first place!

II. Dorcas is healed to the glory of God. (:36)

Verse 36 begins “Now in Joppa …” So you might refer to the map again, and show how Joppa was not far from where Peter met Aeneas in Lydda. Joppa was a seaside city, and Lydda was just a bit more inland, but they were close (about 12 miles from today’s Joppa to Lod (Biblical Lydda).

So in this relatively nearby town of Joppa, a seaport, we are introduced to the second person in these episodes.

??? What all does this text tell us about this person???

(Give them the opportunity and experience to “dig” out these facts)

— it says she was a “disciple,” so she was a Christian.

— Her name was Tabitha (which translated in Greek is called Dorcas) so again she was in one of those areas where Greeks and Jews were mixed. And “Dorcas” means “gazelle” (a really pretty name I think!)

— and then it adds: “This woman was abounding with deeds of kindness and charity which she continually did.” 

So we see a lot about her, really: a Christian woman, Dorcas/Tabitha/Gazelle, in a Jewish/Greek area, who was a kind, charitable person. 

??? I think one good point of application here might be to talk to your group about this description of Dorcas. Her life was described as this life of “deeds of kindness and charity which she continually did.” Nine words — and yet they say so much, right?

(We see a little more about the impact of Dorcas’ life a few verses later, when :39 says that Peter came into the upper room, where Dorcas’ body was, “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.” Again, remember the times in which they lived; no Social Security or Medicare; widows had a difficult time surviving — that’s why the deacon ministry was so essential, to feed them. And clothing was also a worry for many, as Jesus indicated in Matthew 6. But Dorcas met that need for so many widows. She really had an amazing, impactful life. 

In light of that, you might challenge your group: We saw how Dorcas’ life was summarized in those 9 brief, but impactful words. Then ask: HOW MIGHT MY LIFE BE SUMMARIZED IN UNDER TEN WORDS? What might be said about ME? 

You may/may not be led to do this, but you could spend some significant time here …

One point here is that it is no only through “miracles” that we can glorify God, but in our everyday lives — doing good works like Dorcas did — we can glorify God by reaching, teaching, and caring for people. Dorcas did glorify God in her life — as well as in her death, as we see next:

Then :37 “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.”

What might be significant about the fact that “they washed her body”, etc? 

(That she was really dead! It wasn’t like she just “passed out” and then “resuscitated” later when Peter came. No, she was really dead. They’d even prepared her body for burial by washing it. So this is a significant detail.  

:38 “Since Lydda was near Joppa (about 10-12 miles, as we saw)

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.

Again, this is not like 5 minutes later; Joppa was “relatively” close but it was still about a day’s journey each way, so Dorcas had been dead for some time when Peter arrived, all prepared for burial.

:39 tells how Peter came to the upper room where she was, where the widows all showed him what she had made.

Then interestingly :40 says “But Peter sent them all out and knelt down and prayed …”

??? Why do you think Peter sent them all out???

(Your group can share their thoughts: some might say it was to get scoffers or doubters or distractions out of the room, or so he could concentrate and pray, etc.)

THEN READ/HAVE SOMEONE READ: Matthew 9:25, when Jesus came to the synagogue official’s house, where their daughter had just died:

“When Jesus came into the official’s house, and saw the flute-players and the crowd in noisy disorder, (:24) He said, ‘Leave; for the girl has not died, but is asleep.’ And they began to laugh at him. (:25) “But when the crowd had been sent out, He entered and took her by the hand, and the girl got up.”

Then ask:  “Does this sound familiar?” Peter did the SAME thing here in Acts 9, that JESUS did there in Matthew 9!

(So why did Peter do it? Maybe it was indeed to get scoffers, or doubters, or distractions out, etc. — OR maybe it was enough that this was how he had seen Jesus do it, and so that was what he did!

Just doing what Jesus did is not a bad rule, right?  It’s like the old WWJD, “What Would Jesus Do?” When all else fails, just imitate Jesus!  God’s ultimate purpose for our lives is for us to become like Jesus (Rom. 8:29) so it’s surely good for us to imitate what He did in any area. Peter did here.

Then it says he “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.”

So again, God worked an amazing miracle here: NOT just of healing like Aeneas — which is fantastic enough — but of actually raising a person who had been dead for some time, washed and prepared for burial! — from the dead! It’s not one of the miracles we most often think of from scripture, but it should rank as one of the greatest!

And what was the impact here? :42 says “It became known all over Joppa, and many believed in the Lord.”

OF COURSE this became known all over! A dead person was just raised from the dead! But the spiritual impact was great; it says “and many believed in the Lord.” 

THIS is the real purpose here. Again, the ultimate thing here is not just the “miracle;” it’s God’s purpose, of leading people to come to know and glorify Him, just like we saw with Aeneas.

We need to realize that God can usse whatever is going on in our lives to glorify God and bring other people to Himself. 

I mentioned some weeks ago that in a selfless act of love, a former minister of missions that I served with in Louisiana was getting a kidney transplant from a young lady. Jack is now out of that procedure and doing well, and he recently sent out a note thanking some of us who have been praying for him. Among other things he said: 

“My original purpose was to ask you for your prayer support for not only the journey of a second kidney transplant, but that we would  glorify God through the whole process and make His goodness known. It was an amazing journey—(his wife) Teni and I had the opportunity to pray for people who were facing desperate times and hard decisions.  We had opportunities to declare the “goodness of the Lord in the land of the living” (Psalm 27:13). It was such a joy for us represent our Lord Jesus Christ and give the glory to God for the great things He has done.

There are so many stories.  God was faithful to His promises that He gave me before this journey started.  He did affirm to me through Psalm 138 that He will fulfill His purpose for me.”

So in a very difficult, life-threatening situation, my friend Jack looked for how he could be a witness and glorify God in His situation. But then he added: “I know everyone has life purposes you are seeking to fulfill for the glory of God.  If there is anything I can pray for you about, please feel free to text or call and let me join you in the things God is doing in your life.” 

That’s a good word too: “EVERYONE has life purposes you are seeking to fulfill the glory of God.”  It’s not only Aeneas that God wants to use for His glory; it’s not only Dorcas; it is not only my friend Jack; he wants to use ALL of us, in OUR situations, too! 

So challenge your group Sunday: YOU may going through something right now that is difficult, but God is allowing it, for the specific purpose of using you to witness and minister to someone in some way. Make sure you keep yourself available to the Lord, to be used by Him in that way. He will use you! 

Then finally :43 closes Acts 9 saying: “And Peter stayed many days in Joppa with a tanner named Simon.”

That verse is not just “Bible Trivia;” it’s showing us how Peter came to Joppa, because that is where he is going to be when the next “big episode” of the Book of Acts takes place — and it IS a big episode — for it’s going to show us how one of THE biggest obstacles to the spread of the Gospel was overcome: as the Gospel would come to the Gentiles! It’s a vital lesson — and we’ll look forward to sharing all about it next week!  

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