22nd June 2025

New Testament Heroes 17 – 15/06/25 – Martin Mowat

Readings: Acts 2:40-47 and Acts 9:32-43

Because of Pentecost and Trinity Sunday it’s been 3 weeks since we were last in the book of Acts, learning from the example of the heroes of the early church.   Did they know, I wonder, that they were writing a blueprint for the church of the generations that would follow? 

What they did was all based on simple activities, the ones we have just been reminded about in our first reading from chapter 2, they were  teaching, fellowship, breaking bread, prayer, sharing their possessions, and growing, my theme today. 

Each of the 6 would make a sermon on its own, several in fact, but Lectio 365 did spend a day on each recently, and did a great job.

Talking of growth, then, did you know that in UK atheism is actually in decline, especially among the young.  According to YouGov, under 25 year-olds are now half as likely to be atheists as their parents are. In fact, in just the last six years, the number of 18–24 year olds attending church has increased fourfold. 

Once statistically the least likely to engage with church, young men are now five times more likely to attend than just a few years ago. 

Bible sales have skyrocketed – According to SPCK, between 2019 – 2024, Bible sales increased by 87%. 

Even in France, which for some time has had one of the lowest church attendances in the world, evangelicals who numbered only 50k at the end of WWII, now officially account for 1% of the population, 650K. It is said that a new church is now being planted every 10 days, but I think that these figures may be underestimated. The Roman Catholic church is also experiencing substantial growth.

China, India and Indonesia have some of the world's fastest-growing Christian populations. God is doing something in our days. 

The two main characters in Acts are Paul and Peter, and as we heard last time, Paul has gone into hiding.  Well, not hiding exactly, but after all the animosity he received from the Christians in Jerusalem, he was encouraged to go back to his home town, Tarsus, where he stayed for something like 8 to 10 years.  When you consider that all the activity we’ve witnessed so far, in the first 9 chapters of Acts took only 5 or 6 years, 8 to 10 years was quite a long time. 

But it was probably a good time for Paul, and it was certainly a good the church because we’re told that the church throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria enjoyed a time of peace and was strengthened. Living in the fear of the Lord and encouraged by the Holy Spirit, it increased in numbers. Growth!

So, Luke has temporarily dropped the subject of that most unlikely convert, and returned to the most famous veteran apostle, our hero Peter, who’s now on the Mediterranean coastal plain north-west of Jerusalem, encouraging local groups of believers and evangelising in the villages. 

One of those villages was Lydda which lies strategically at the intersection of the highway between Babylon and Egypt and the main road between Jerusalem and the sea-port of Joppa. After the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD, Lydda became known as a seat of rabbinical learning.  

Today, it is home to Ben Gurion International Airport, but in Peter's day, it was probably a sleepy town inhabited by a mixture of Jews, of Greeks and of other non-Jews. 

From his name we can assume that Aeneas came from a Greek background. We don't know whether he was a believer, but we do know that he was paralysed and had been bedridden for eight years, until one day, seemingly out of the blue, Peter said to him with a commanding voice "Jesus Christ heals you. Get up and roll up your mat, you won’t be needing it any more." (Acts 9:34)

This wasn’t the first time Peter had done such a thing.  Back in chapter 3, do you remember, Peter and John had been in the Temple, by the gate Beautiful, when they saw a lame beggar. ‘Look at us!’  Peter said to him, and when the man gave them his full attention he went on ‘Silver or gold I don’t have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.’  Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man’s feet and ankles became strong.  He jumped to his feet and … went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping, and praising God.”

There are three striking similarities in these stories.

-       Helpless people were given new, active lives

-       It was done “in the name of Jesus”

-       And most importantly, many people “filled with wonder and amazement” came to faith as a result. What’s more, in the case of Aeneas “ALL those who lived in Lydda and Sharon saw him and turned to the Lord." (Acts 9:35). 

-       Growth resulted!

The real miracle was not one man’s physical healing, it was hundreds of people’s spiritual healing. 

And then something even more mind-boggling took place. 

17 miles away, in the thriving Mediterranean coastal port of Joppa, there was a lovely compassionate Jewish lady, an active Christian, sadly a widow, but “always doing good”, according to Luke. She probably donated food and money to the needy and cared for the sick and chronically ill, - - - until, that is, she became ill herself, and died.  

“Her body was washed and placed in an upstairs room” Luke says, which is really strange because while washing a dead body was common, placing it in an upstairs room was not. Immediate burials were the rule, since there was no way to keep the body from decomposition for any length of time. 

Did the disciples in Joppa believe that God would raise Tabitha from the dead? Had they, perhaps, had a word from the Lord to that intent? They must have done because, apart from anything else, upstairs rooms would have been hotter than downstairs ones – far from ideal for storing dead bodies. 

So they sent for Peter, but that must have taken time. It could have been a day's journey for the messengers to reach Lydda from Joppa, and then another day for them to return with Peter in tow.

The situation now was very much like the one at the death of Jairus's 12-year-old daughter, whom Peter had seen Jesus raise from the dead (Mark 5:38-41). The crying and mourning would have been similar; and so was Peter's command to clear the room and his word to Tabitha to get up.

Can you imagine the power of the credible story of a well-known citizen being raised from the dead? The news would have spread far and wide, bringing about mass revival and the conversion of hundreds, perhaps thousands of people. Growth!

Then, while Peter awaited his next orders from the Master, amusingly he went to stay “with a tanner named Simon." (Acts 9:43)

He was probably Jewish, but being a tanner wasn’t a very sociable job. In fact, tanners were shunned because of the smell from tanning agents such as urine and animal dung that permeated their skin. 

Simon's house and his workshop were "by the seaside" (Acts 10:6, 32 because he would have used saltwater to wash the hides, and the prevailing westerly wind would hav e been ideal to blow away the terrible stench. By Jewish law, tanners were required to be separated from the residential areas of town.

But even smelly, Simon served the Lord by freely opening up his home for Peter's use and ministry. 

Staying with Simon the Tanner tells us something about Peter too. It speaks to us of his humility. Another reason for him to be one of our heroes. 

In conclusion, although the healings of Aeneas and Tabitha were amazing, and beautiful, especially for the friends and families of those concerned, and although they were among the most significant events during that period of the early church, it’s the growth that such miracles brought about that was even more important. It’s not about numbers, it’s about individual souls saved from eternal separation from God. 

We can be tempted to say to ourselves that miracles like these don’t happen anymore, but they do.

I talked earlier about the growth that is happening today. The great “I am” is on the move and WE need to be part of that, living right, speaking right, doing right, being right, and praying for growth. 

I recognise that many of us have given hugely to the kingdom over the years, and maybe think, like me, that our active ministries are over. Maybe we’re right, or maybe there’s more that we can do, but either way, one thing we can still do as a church is to support missions by our tithes and offerings. These are organisations that employ young, enthusiastic, trained men and women, filled with, equipped and empowered by God’s Holy Spirit, the New Testament heroes of today, to take the gospel to people and places it has not yet reached, growing the church worldwide.