Acts 9:32-43 And it came to pass, as Peter passed throughout all quarters, he came down also to the saints which dwelled at Lydda.… I. HOW DID THERE HAPPEN TO BE ANY SAINTS AT LYDDA? That place does not appear before. There are saints in unexpected places. Yet not unexpected to the attentive reader. Lydda lay between Azotus and Caesarea (Acts 8:40), and Philip no doubt had founded a Church there. How summarily our work is occasionally mentioned: In many a hurried phrase there are service and suffering, trial and triumph, which only God can recognise. We hear it said of the minister, that he called and offered prayer. By the clock it was but a few minutes, but into those minutes he condensed the experience of a lifetime, and spared not the blood of his very heart. Suspect any epitome which counts but as small dust the details which make up the service and suffering of the Christian toiler. II. PETER FOUND HIS WAY TO THE SAINTS. How? Do we not all find out our otherselves in every city to which we go? When the surveyor would find out metallic strata, he takes the, magnet, and sees how it dips, and says, "Here you will find what you are in quest of." We pine for our own, and fall with second naturalness into the ways of the company of which we form a part. It would do some of us good if we could be shut up with savages for a few days. How we should then yearn for the most defective Christian we ever knew! III. THE SAINTS ARE NAMELESS. There is something better than a name. There is character. There you find no personal renown, but you find a solid quantity of spiritual being. It is towards that estate we should constantly be moving, to the great republic of common holiness. IV. PETER FOUND THE MAN WHO IS TO BE FOUND IN EVERY CITY. Locally called AEneas, but everywhere called the sick man. The genus remains unhealed — a continual appeal to the Petrine spirit. We are not all in the front rank of the ministry; because we cannot do the first and supreme class of work, it does not follow that we are to sit idle. You can bring to AEneas the Christian friend, and there is no grief but one that cannot be mitigated by Christian love. We hear nothing of Peter's doings here except this miracle; but as Philip had done much at Lydda without any record, so Peter may have done much beside this miracle. The miracle itself was a sermon. For "all that dwelt at Lydda and Saron saw him, and turned to the Lord." V. NOW WE COME TO JOPPA, where there dwelt a woman who "was full of good works and almsdeeds which she did." 1. She died! How is that? There are some people whom we almost wish would die, and die they will not; and others whom we want to live always wither and die. There seems to be such a waste of nobility and service in this mysterious Providence. But we may be wrong in that outlook as we are in others. Why should not the good ship land? Why should we shed tears when the noble life vessel touches the shore? It is so that God trains us, prunes us, and prepares us for the wider revelation and the higher service. 2. Peter was sent for. He came the nine miles to see what could be done. How natural was this. There are times when the strong man is sent for, and these are times of darkness, trouble, personal and social despair. But there is always a strong man to send for. In that sense we must have "all things common," and none must say that ought that he has belongs to himself alone. It is in this spirit of Christian communism that we must keep society from putrefaction and souls from despair. There is a hint of the One who "sticketh closer than a brother." When your house is very dark, send for Jesus. But you are not to wait for such crises. Send for Him today, when the table is laden with flowers and every corner of the dwelling is ablaze with His own sunlight. Beautiful was the scene in that house at Joppa (ver. 39). 3. How did these widows come to be thus associated? Who took any interest in their welfare? If you read again chap. Acts 6. you will find arrangements made for needy widows, and to the name of Philip. So this man lives in his works. At Lydda he founded a Christian society; at Joppa he organised help for widows. Philip does not appear before us in name; but he leaves behind him memorials of his wisdom and beneficence. 4. How is it that we like the garments better when the seamstress is dead than when she was making them? That is a fact everywhere. The little child's toy becomes infinitely precious when the tiny player can no longer handle it. And the two little shoes are the most precious property in the house when the little feet that wore them are set away in God's acre. Let us love one another whilst we live! Not a word do I say against the sentiment which enlarges the actions of the dead, but I would speak a word for those who are sitting next you and making your own house glad by their deft fingers and loving hearts. 5. Now we come to the first miracle of the kind to which apostolic strength was summoned. Up to this time the apostles had been healing divers diseases; but now the apostles grapple without the visible Christ with actual death. We may well pause here in the excitement of a great anxiety. "Peter put them all forth." That was what Christ did! Some battles may be fought in public, others have to be fought in solitude; so "Peter put them all forth." "Thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet," etc. Have you ever prayed in the death chamber with none there but the dead friend? How eloquent has been your dumbness! When you were weak, then were you strong. "And" — oh, conjunctive that makes one tremble! — "turning to the body," now is the critical moment, "said, Tabitha, arise." "And she opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter she sat up." Let your miracles come through your prayers. Let your prayers always end in the amen of a miracle. What is the use of your solitude and your prayer, if when you turn round you cannot work some miracle of love? (J. Parker, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: And it came to pass, as Peter passed throughout all quarters, he came down also to the saints which dwelt at Lydda. |
    |