Peter raises Tabitha from the dead in Acts 9. The sermon argues that belief must come before the burial, that God schedules miracles to meet suffering, and that your testimony of hardship turning to breakthrough can lead others to faith.
Chapters
There is an exegetical invitation I want to extend to you, and I pray that you accept. You've been invited to fellowship, fellowship with me this morning. The New Testament book of Acts, the history book of the church. Acts chapter number 9.
Do my best. Y'all whispering about Acts chapter number 9. My name on that sign out there.
Acts chapter number 9, and we want to go down to verse number 40.
I'mma do my best.
Acts chapter 9, verse number 40, word of God reads, Peter sent them all out of the room. He knelt down, prayed, and turning towards the body, said, Tabitha, get up. She opened her eyes, saw Peter, sat up. You may be seated. For a few moments on this third Sunday, I really Want to have a conversation this morning with you surrounding the topic of belief before the burial. Belief before the burial. 1950s, President Dwight D. Eisenhower had a vision for what we know today as the interstate highway system. You've driven on interstates before, on I-20 pretty much every day, going down south perhaps this afternoon, and likely I'm going to end up on I-49. Dwight Eisenhower developed this system and this vision for the interstate highway system, a highway system with the plan of connecting people to major cities in a, in a fast and efficient manner. He observed this when he did time in the war, how in Germany they were able to transport people and artillery to major cities swiftly. However, I mentioned that Eisenhower, who was the president in '40s and '50s, developed this during a time when there was not much traffic.
There is not much traffic, Eisenhower. Why do you need something to help combat traffic?
Eisenhower talks to me this morning.
He says, ham, I got this vision in the '50s, and I want you to preach this in 2025 and let the people know that what is being prepared does not match the present. In other words, What you are preparing and anticipating does not look like what you're currently going through. Therefore, don't wait on things to look different before you prepare for it.
I dare y'all to come sneak with me this morning to Acts chapter 9.
We are at this pericope where the scene is this woman by the name of Tabitha.
That's her Aramaic name. Her Greek name is Dorcas. Yeah, Dorcas, Tabitha, whatever you want to call them, was what Luke calls her as a disciple. She's the first woman to be known as a disciple in the text, and she's known for her good deeds that she did for people. Tabitha falls ill. She falls ill and then dies. She dies, but the text says that they washed her body. Sat her in a room. They heard that Peter was nearby. They went and got Peter. Peter came from Lydda over to Joppa, came to where the body was, prayed to God, and then said, Tabitha, get up! Tabitha who was dead heard that, got up, saw Peter. Peter took her by the hand and she got up. Can I take two steps back and sit there for a second? She's dead. They're supposed to be preparing her for burial. They are supposed to make funeral arrangements. Because when someone dies, you're supposed to prepare to bury someone who dies. But two men in the room said, I know that she's dead now, but before we bury her, let us give it one more chance. Before we bury her, let's seek God.
Before we give up, let's see what God has to say about it. Before we throw in the white towel, let's see if God is in the blessing business.
And what I came to tell you today, that before you give up on yourself, go find Jesus. Before you give up in the situation, See what God has to say about it, because your misery may be a setup for a miracle.
So before you get to burying stuff, you might want to reach out to God and see if God wants to do something through your situation that's going to change your life. And I came on assignment this morning because I see somebody— you preparing to bury something. You're preparing to give up on something. You're preparing to give up on your future. You see what's going on around you and you think that's the end of your story. But what if I told you today that what you think is the end is the setup for the divine beginning, where new life can come from a dead situation, where new things can come from dead problems, where a new you can come from dead situations. Is there anybody here this morning on this Father's Day who believe that God still performs miracles, that God still turns things around, that God still does resurrect things, that God still can take life, that God still can create? That God can still make new, that God can change your mind, that God can change your heart, that God can give increase. And no matter what it looks like right now, don't you prepare for what you see, but prepare for what eyes have not seen and ears have not heard. And prepare for the miracles of God that he wants to do in your life.
Hams, why did you come to preach this morning? Let me tell you why I came to preach. I came to preach to simply tell you this: I want to challenge you to prepare for the best even at the worst, because miracles happen at the intersection of gruesome pain and God's presence.
One more time, one more time, one more time.
I want to make sure you got it. I want to tell you to prepare for the best even at the worst, because miracles happen at the intersection of gruesome pain and God's presence.
Can I translate that for you? No matter what it looks like, prepare your praise, because when God show up to your bad, something good gonna come out of it. I wish I had somebody who felt like helping me preach this morning that can look back over their life when you were at your worst and God did his best work at your worst, and now you got a good praise because God turned that thing around. Has anybody ever been there when everything around you looked bad, when everything you could see looked bad, but God's presence showed up in your gruesome pain, and now you can testify Preacher, I'm a miracle. I'm not just blessed, but I am a living, walking, breathing miracle. And when I come to the house of God, I'm gonna let the devil in hell know that you tried to take me out, but God blocked it. You tried to end my life, but by God's block, you try to put me in depression, you tried to ruin my confidence, you try to make me give up on God, but look at me today. I can say Jehovah Jireh, my provider. Jehovah Nissi, he reigns in victory. Jehovah Shalom, because he's my Prince of Peace. And now I still worship him because of who he is. Through financial loss, I still worship. Through sickness, I still worship. Through pain, I still worship, because God showed up in my work.
Guess what, y'all? Guess what? Guess what? Guess what? I'm really done preaching because that's what I came to preach this morning.
I came to let somebody know that even at your worst, you better prepare for your best because God can show up in your worst. I don't care what they doing on that job. You got a good job who can control some people. They may be a bad job right now, but that good God can show up and turn that whole thing around.
Well, there are some hermeneutical highlights that's going to help me expose the tension between texts.
I'm gonna do my best to explain it a little bit. And I'm up 167 before I get on one of Eisenhower's interstates.
This text— big word alert— shows us I'm right on time. The benefit of a productive dichotomy. A productive dichotomy.
Dichotomy is just simply a war or battle between two forces. It's a force, it's a fight that's productive.
If you go read Acts 9, start around verse 36, talks about there's this woman named Tabitha who was a disciple named Dorcas in the Greek. She did good works. Luke then says she got sick and died. Don't that just irritate you? Verse 36 and verse 37. Is extreme tension in the text. And many of us have the same problem today. We look at us in verse 36 and we really can confess that, God, I'm not that bad. God, I'm serving you. I'm doing some good things for you. But yet and still, my good works in verse 36 do not exempt me from dealing with life in verse 37. Child of God, I wish I could promise you that once you say that everything in your life is gonna go perfect People who are showing up in churches all across the country and nation and world today, once they leave these four walls, gotta go back and face verse 37.
How many of us here today with your servant self done got sick before?
Verse 36 does not stop verse 37. Verse 36 does not stop them bills from coming to your house on the first. Lord knows I wish it did. I'll be preaching something another day if all I had to do was serve God and all my problems would go away.
I can preach right here today and still deal with some booger bears once I walk— I'm sorry, once I get down to this pulpit in the house.
But here is the shot: even though verse 37 came after verse 36, thanks be to God there also came— verse 40. Were y'all paying attention when I read verse 40?
In verse 40, the same woman who served God in 36 and got sick and died in verse 37, her shout this morning is, yes, I've been through, but what I went through was not my end. And even though, child of God, you may go through some things in life, you may have to face— verse 37— you may go through sickness and pain, you must also admit that I've been through some things, but God always finds me and always seems to give me his grace and gives me a verse 40. And this morning, my mind ain't on verse 37. My mind is on how God brought me out in verse 40. I'm not gonna let people talking about me in verse 37 make me shut up about what God did in verse 40. I don't care what they said about me in verse 37, but what I do know is that in verse 40, God brought me through it. In verse 37, the weapon formed against me, but in verse 40, the weapon did not prosper. In verse 37, I didn't think I can do it, but in verse 40, I can say, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Anybody this morning, you do remember your verse 37, but even more than that, you remember verse 40, and you are a living, breathing testimony that God may take me through it, but God can bring me out of it. Yea, though I walk through The valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me. He never left me, he never forsook me, and I can lift my hands up now knowing that verse 40 is on the way.
Come on now, come on! It's a, it's a productive Paul Dorcas, Paul Tabitha, she's on mission. Second Sunday she had her white on and she had the white thing on her head. God, that's not fair that she had to go through verse 37.
God said it may not be fair, but it's also ain't fair how others didn't make it to see verse 40, but she was able to make it.
I'm taking too long. Verse 40 showed that she had faith, but the text doesn't stop in verse 40. Can I show you where Tabitha had the chance to show and return the favor of God, which is going to explain why verse 37 was actually necessary. Anybody this morning who has to go through, or you perhaps you may be in verse 37 right now, things may not be going the way you want it to go. Let me help you and prove to you that verse 37 is going to end up being productive. Watch this, verse 40, she got up. However, keep reading, sneak around and take 5 more steps to verse 42, because Luke tells us something, that he says that when the people heard about it they turn to the Lord. All right, come on.
With your selfish self, you just worry about your breakthrough in verse 40, but God used what happened in verse 37. And not only did he bless you in verse 40, but he used what the devil meant for bad and turned that thing around for good. And now not only are you blessed, but somebody saw what God did in your life and they turned to the Lord. And child of God, there is nothing that God is going to allow you to go through that he won't use for his glory. So if you are in it right now, prepare for the good, because God gonna take that thing, work it together for your good, and for his glory.
Somebody today can testify that you believe today, not because of your miracle, but you believe today, but based upon what God did in somebody else's life.
And when God did that in somebody else's life, you said that if God can do it for I am. They ain't no better than me, they ain't no worse than me. They just human just like I am. But we serve a God who can give grace to anybody. So God, here I am.
What I'm trying to tell you, don't believe that problems are going to be the end. Thank you. Don't believe destruction is going to be the end. Always expect what new God can bring from destruction. Uh-uh. I see y'all look pretty today.
You look handsome and not better than me. And I got this glow, I got this new moisturizer that I'm using.
But let me tell you what I'm existing on behind my new face moisturizer, uh, in my bones. My bones are standing because I have calcium in my bones. I'm able to talk and breathe because I have oxygen in my lungs. I, I am who I am. My cells are operating because I have carbon in my cells and in my DNA. I am able to have blood going through my body because I have iron in my blood, and I have iron in my blood. I'm about to shout! I got oxygen in my lungs. I got carbon in my cells. I got calcium in my bones. Where did I get the calcium, carbon, oxygen, and iron? Y'all think it came from the earth. Calcium, carbon, oxygen, and iron. They are elements that we benefit from. There are elements that help us live. I'm born and I'm able to live because of carbon, calcium, iron, oxygen. Guess where it originated from? Well, they tell me that all of these elements originate from what's called a supernova. All right, that's right, Gavin.
You gotta tell them what a supernova is.
All right, let me tell them. A supernova is something that does not happen on Earth, it happens above Earth. Please ask me what a supernova is. A supernova happens when a star dies.
A supernova happens when a star is destroyed. But when a star is destroyed, somehow, some way, what was in the star don't go away, but it comes down here and gives me life. Who am I talking to today? You've been through some supernovas, you've been through some destruction, you've been through some pain, but what came out of that gave you brand new life.
Oh, you breathing right now, but the only reason you breathe because of Stardust.
You standing now, but the only reason you're standing is because of Stardust. I'm tempted to say that for my clothes. They put that in the refrigerator and save that for next time and tell you about a star dying and giving the game new life.
I ain't gonna take that path right now, but if I had time, I'll tell you what.
Friday on the hill called Calvary, I know you ain't gonna close yet. A star died, and since that star died, I got justification. Since that star died, I got salvation. Since that star died, I got sanctification.
It ain't time to close yet. It ain't time to close. It's a productive dichotomy. But, but I gotta leave you. Can I also show you a providential designation? Design. God's providence is design.
Uh-uh, you hadn't read the whole 9 yet. And many of us, when we read chapter 9, we stop with Saul, uh, getting knocked off his high horse on the road to Damascus. But you got to read the whole account of verse 9.
Tabitha gets sick and dies. This happens, they say, that two men went and got Peter. Where was Peter at?
Take 2.67 steps back, a few verses. Peter, in earlier verse, there was this paralyzed man by the name of Aeneas.
This happened in a place called Lidda, and Lidda is in close proximity to Joppa, which is where Tabitha is. If Tabitha would have gotten sick earlier and died earlier, the report of what God did for Aeneas wouldn't have spread to the point to make those two men go find Peter. But since she got sick at the right time, they were inspired to go seek God. Can I tell y'all something? I worked hard on it, and when I work hard on something, you got to see two hands. God does not always cause problems, but God does schedule problems. In other words, God ain't make it happen, but God can schedule what happens to a point where it happens at the right time for your benefit. Now, God could prevent it. But God said, if I prevent everything, y'all won't know that I also can schedule it. Which means that he scheduled the time in which Tabitha got sick. That way it wasn't too early and it wasn't too late.
Because if it was too early, the niggas wouldn't have got the blessing, and they would not have known what God can do through Peter. But since it happened after Aeneas—
Lord have mercy—
somebody saw what happened to Aeneas and said, if you did it for Aeneas, you can do it for me. Anybody else seen somebody else go through your sickness and God brought them out and let you know, God, if you couldn't heal diabetes, I'm gonna give you my sugar, I'm gonna give you my blood pressure, I'm gonna give you my cancer, I'm gonna give you my problem, because I just seen what you just did.
Hold up, hold up, hold up, hold up, hold up. Y'all know this?
Tell you something you ain't know.
Peter ain't from little, which means that Peter at some point, likely—
you want to come help me preach again—
likely was getting ready to leave litter. And if Tabitha would have gotten sick earlier, they would have known. But if Tabitha would have gotten sick and died too late, Peter would have already been gone. Can I tell you today that you upset because God didn't prevent it? But God met you at the right time and puts you at the right time with the problem at the right time.
That if it would have happened too early, it would have been too early.
And if it would have happened a little bit later, it would have been too late.
And if it would have happened later, the doctor that you needed would have already been going to a new hospital. If it would have happened earlier, that doctor wouldn't have been there. If it would have happened earlier, the medicine that you needed wouldn't have been created yet. But if it would happen later, something else could happen. God is in every detail. He's in every particular. He's in every bit of your story, and he's timing everything right.
All right, go ahead. Don't you think that because you in it don't mean God said it's already over? Because by the time— Lord have mercy, I gotta hurry up. Can I tell y'all something? God, stop.
You might stop talking to me. I'm preach all day.
By the time Tabitha died, Tabitha was already healed because the healing was already on schedule.
And since her healing was on schedule, it wasn't nobody could do to stop her from being healed. Can I preach to somebody today and let you know that your breakthrough is on schedule?
Schedule.
Just keep on waiting on the Lord and be of good courage, and he will strengthen your heart. Because the steps of a good man, the steps of a good woman, are honored by the Lord.
Don't you let what you see— I gotta get out of here— don't you let what you see make you believe that the battle ain't already over. Can I take you back in history? I'm gonna take you back in history one more time, and we're gonna go eat in the back.
I'm gonna get me a good plate too.
The year is 1918. It's November 11th, 1918.
Ham, why is that important?
That's the day that World War I officially ended.
Man, I read this and it blew my mind.
They signed the treaty at 5 in the morning to conclude the war, but when they signed the treaty, they said that the war would officially end at 11 AM, which means that people were still fighting at 6 AM, not knowing that the deal had been signed to end the war at 11 AM. Translated, just because they were still fighting didn't mean that the battle had already been won.
And somebody today, you at 6 AM and you don't know if you just keep on and hold on, 11 AM is gonna happen. And what has already been agreed upon, you're gonna walk right into it. Walk into Monday knowing that your breakthrough is scheduled. Walk into Tuesday knowing it has already been delivered. If you can just hold on, God already done one for you.
I gotta get out of here.
I'm done, I'm done, I'm done. Y'all make sure y'all treat the fathers well today.
Do everything they want.
But before y'all go do that, can I show you the gospel message in this passage? Uh, uh, uh, y'all see the resurrection, right? That's obvious. That's resurrection.
Died, got back up. But, but something just kept tickling me on the right side of my head, and it wouldn't leave me alone. So now I can't wait. To preach it to you. So you see, this woman, name is Tabitha, or Dorcas, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, she did good works, but she still died. She died, and when she died, she couldn't go to the blessing. She couldn't go to the resurrection. She couldn't go to the healing. So since she couldn't go to it, all right, it came to her. All right, what are you saying, Gavin?
Let me do it like my daddy used to do since his father's day. What are you saying, Gavin?
You're rambling. Uh-uh, she did. All right. Good works. But her good works didn't stop her from dying. But just because her good works didn't stop her from dying, her death didn't stop God from showing up. Please, please, please. Her name is Tabitha in the Greek, Dorcas. That actually translates to Gesale, or Gesale, which translates to graceful. All right, all right, all right.
So if I go back and unpack this thing right, it was not her works that made God show up.
But when God came, he came for grace.
Y'all done missed the whole thing. It was not her works that brought her back, but it was because she was grace. And grace makes God show up in places that he don't have to show up. Good night, may the Lord God bless you real good.. But on my way home this evening, I want to let somebody know that keep on doing your good works, keep on serving people. But if you got grace on your life, God will show up because of God's grace. Is there anybody in Pilgrim Rest today who can say, God showed up in my life? I know I didn't deserve it, I know I didn't earn it, but it was the grace of God that has brought me this far. It was the grace of God that gave me a new life. It was the grace of God that healed me when the doctors could not do it. And I'm here today to testify that it's never too late for God to show up, because I am a recipient of God's grace.
And I don't care who in here today feels as if you don't earn it, feels as if you don't deserve it. You got grace on you, and the grace that's on your life will cause God to show up. Because you can't get to him, but God knows— he know how to get to you.
He will go to some uncomfortable places, he will go to some ugly places, he will go to some dead places.
Right where you are.
You're right in location, you're right at the right proximity at the right time for God to show up, for grace to be distributed in your life. We offer Jesus to you this morning. He's still showing up this morning because of grace. He's still showing up this morning. Yo, your work's good. Yeah, yeah, it's good. Uh, Tabitha did all this for the orphans and for the widows and stuff, and, and she did all that for people, but she still had to die, which means your works ain't gonna save you.
You can work too.
You can work because you're saved, but you only can be lifted up by God's grace. And when you lift it up, then you get back to working. Don't you dare tell somebody that you better get it right so God can bless you.
Don't tell nobody that.
It's doctrinally incorrect. You get it right because God has blessed you. Oh, I just— I just— somebody's arrogance just stuck. Somebody's spiritual arrogance just dropped because you've been working for the Lord, but you still gonna have to face verse 37. But when God gets you up, you get right back to work. Amen. Let's give God praise this morning.
