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My, what a joy to minister the Word to you this morning from Acts chapter 9…Acts chapter 9. And as we continue studying this book, verse by verse, we find ourselves this morning at verse 32, and we will look at verse 32 through verse 43. Let me read the text to you.

“Now it came about that as Peter was traveling through all those parts, he came down also to the saints who lived at Lydda.

“And there he found a certain man named Aeneas, who had been bedridden eight years, for he was paralyzed.

“And Peter said to him, ‘Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you; arise and make your bed. And immediately he arose.

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

“Now in Joppa there was a certain disciple named Tabitha, (which translated in Greek is called Dorcas); this woman was abounding with deeds of kindness and charity, which she continually did.

“And it came about at that time that she fell sick and died; and when they had washed her body, they laid it in an upper room.

“And since Lydda was near Joppa, the disciples, having heard that Peter was there, sent two men to him, entreating him, ‘Do not delay to come to us.’

“And Peter arose and went with them. And when he had come, they brought him into the upper room; 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.

“But Peter sent them all out 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.

“And he gave her his hand and raised her up; and calling the saints and widows, he presented her alive.

“And it became known all over Joppa, and many believed in the Lord.

“And it came about that he stayed many days in Joppa with a certain tanner, Simon.”

As we come to this text, we realize that we are seeing a shift in the historical narrative; a shift from the conversion of Saul, who will later become Paul and now back to Peter, and specifically to the ministry of Peter. And here we begin to see a very important progression even in Peter's theology. And I want you to see this before we unpack the text.

Like all of the apostles, Peter was Jewish, a Jewish Christian. And like all of us, he had baggage that he carried around with him, especially with respect to prejudice. You see, the Jews felt that they were superior to the Gentiles, even as Christians.

The Jewish converts who held this particular view were called Judaizers, and basically what they believed is that Christianity needed to be subordinate to Judaism, which basically meant if you became a Christian, you must also become a Jew. So if you're a Gentile and you become a Christian, you've got to also become a Jew and therefore submit to the right of circumcision and keep the law. Well, of course, this is a hideous error, and as we will see, it will surface throughout the early days of the church.

It is dealt with in Acts 15 in what is called the Council of Jerusalem, where that heresy is publicly renounced. But it will still continue to have a grip on many Jewish Christians for years to come. Sadly, Peter was sympathetic to this error.

And Peter, who in many ways reminds me of me, was hard-headed and he had to learn things the hard way. And God is now going to oblige him. In His grace and in His mercy, He is going to work with him.

And we've seen a bit of this happening already. Peter begins his ministry there in Jerusalem, and before long, he realizes that God is up to something with the Samaritans. And he goes to them, and we read about that in chapter 8. And now here in chapter 9, he's in Gentile country in the area of Lydda and Joppa.

And we're going to see in chapter 10 that Peter has a vision that God gives him that not only helps him understand that the Old Testament dietary restrictions - those things between what is clean and unclean; all of that's going to be abolished - but also a vision that demolishes this wall of separation that he and others have erected between Jews and Gentiles. And then we're going to see that the Lord is going to summon him to the house of a Gentile, a Roman centurion by the name of Cornelius.

He's going to preach to them. The Holy Spirit's going to fall on them. They're going to begin to speak in other languages the glory of God.

Peter and others are going to see this. And in Acts 10:45 it says that “All the circumcised believers who came with Peter were amazed because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also.” Can you believe this? And so this is what God is up to in Peter's life. God is shaping him. Peter is gradually going to lose his grip on all of this prejudice because God is going to frustrate his foolish pride and expose to him the truth. And I think, my, how often God does that in our lives.

So he's preparing Peter, as well as many other of the early Christians, for the Council of Jerusalem in Acts 15 and so on. Yet, we know, by the way, that even after the Council of Jerusalem, Peter lapsed back into the same prejudice requiring Paul to publicly confront him, remember, in Galatians 2? And friends, we must remember that the weeds of error have deep roots in all of our lives, whatever that error may be. And unless those roots are pulled up, unless they are absolutely killed, God's truth will be smothered at some level.

And so we want the truth of God to grow deep and the roots of heresy to be dug out. Now, might I also remind you that all of this legalism and ritualism of the Judaizers that they were trying to impose upon the Christians is nothing more than self-righteous hypocrisy. And wherever you find legalism, even today, wherever you find ritualism in any kind of a religious system, you're going to find self-righteous hypocrisy.

Beloved, salvation is totally of grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, as we have written around this sanctuary in Latin. Paul said, “Man is not justified by the works of the law, but through faith in Christ Jesus” in Galatians 2:16.

So, given this context in verses 32 through 43 of Acts 9, we see Peter now traveling around in this Gentile region, in the region of Lydda and Sharon. Sharon was a plain that extended about 50 miles along the Mediterranean Sea around Mount Carmel. It's a beautiful place. It's modern-day Haifa, by the way, in Israel. And notice in the text, in verse 32, it says, he was traveling around, traveling through all those parts.

He came down also to the saints who lived in Lydda. Now, Lydda was an important crossroads that travelers would use if you were traveling from Egypt up to Syria, or if you were traveling from the coastal city of Joppa over to Jerusalem, this is where all of that would converge.

Now, you also must remember, as we build the context, that they did not have established churches like we have today. There's no little Calvary Bible Church buildings here and there. But rather, the people met in homes. Pockets of saints would meet in orchards and around the sides of vineyards. They would meet, especially in this region, along the beaches on the beautiful Mediterranean Sea. And Peter is like an itinerant preacher, an itinerant shepherd of the church. And he's shepherding these saints as he travels around.

There's pockets of them here and there. And he's preaching and he's teaching and he's discipling and fellowshipping with them. Now imagine yourself for a minute. Think if you did not have your church, you did not have a pastor. You just had pockets of other people that you knew loved the Lord. And then suddenly you hear that the Apostle Peter is in the area.

Well, obviously you're going to get excited, and that's what happened here in this context. Now, you must also remember that along with the issue of God destroying Peter's prejudice, we also see God molding his heart as a shepherd. And thus, I have entitled my discourse to you, “The Heart of a Compassionate Shepherd.”

That's going to be the primary focus of what I would have you look at today. Because here we're going to see the intimate, private side of Peter's ministry. Whereas in the past we've seen him largely speaking to huge audiences, large crowds.

Now we're going to see the shepherding part of his ministry. Unfortunately, many young men that I've dealt with over the years who feel, quote, “called to preach,” are far more enamored with the idea of standing up in front of large crowds and speaking to them rather than the private, obscure, often thankless ministry of private, individual shepherding. In the past I have heard naive Christians say, “Oh, that young man is definitely anointed. I believe he's called to preach. You should hear him in the pulpit.” And what has typically happened is somebody has heard someone else speak.

I've had this happen even here in this church. And some man gets a quiver in his liver, and he walks down the aisle and he says, “Oh, I've finally surrendered to preach.” And in some churches, that night, that person will literally be preaching. And somehow that quiver in his liver mysteriously affects the quiver in his voice. And he stands up in front of a large group of people, and he spouts off in a very dramatic fashion strings of clichés and his voice quivers and you hear all of this emotion and people think, “My, isn't this wonderful?” A person typically full of zeal, without knowledge, now claiming to be a spokesman of the Most High God - a very dangerous thing.

And how many churches do you know that when they seek a new pastor, what do they do? They have him come and preach to them. And I'm not saying that's inappropriate, but they look primarily at the public ministry rather than the private ministry. And so many times they'll call a candidate to do what they would call a “trial sermon.”

Have you heard that? And I know what happens in many cases. For a lot of pastors, they've got basically 25 sermons that they preach. And they'll pick the one that they think they do the best and they'll come and they'll give that sermon and people will think, “Oh my, isn't this wonderful?” And I might hasten to add, because I know there are some that are listening that are dealing with some of these issues, several of you churches, I might add that it is crucial that a man be able to preach and to teach in the pulpit. And I would encourage people to randomly, without a pastor knowing it, listen to 30 or 40 of his sermons over a period of time. And then also listen to another 30 or 40 of that man's sermons with respect to certain doctrinal issues.

But dear friends, the real test of a shepherd is not solely who he is in the pulpit. The real test of a shepherd is who he is with his wife and with his family. Who he is in his circle of closest friends. Who he is in his community. Who he is in his closet of prayer. And hear this, who he is in the trenches of private evangelism and discipleship. And I confess, that is a very difficult place to work.

As a pastor, I experience this all the time. There are far more needs than there are hours in the week. There's far more needs than anyone has the energy to meet. And frankly, though it requires an enormous amount of time, the public ministry of preaching and teaching is far less stressful than the private ministry of the Word, as we see happening here now with Peter. In fact, it's for this reason, sadly, there are some pastors that will isolate themselves from their congregation by projecting an image of superiority or austerity or whatever. It's almost like they're too holy to be bothered with the people.

And others will insulate themselves with layers of associates. They're just simply unavailable. This especially happens in large churches. And I know there's some merit to that. You have to be reasonable with this. But the real danger is that in many cases, pastors never develop the skills of really shepherding the people privately.

And also, the people within the flock, if you want to use the imagery of the sheep, they never really get to know their shepherd because the shepherd's off somewhere away from the sheep. Someone has well said, “A pastor needs to smell like sheep.” Because that's who a shepherd should spend his time with.

And not only pastors, but I would also, this is a footnote, add, that as we look at Scripture, New Testament elders were intimately involved in the lives of their people. That's why we make it a priority here at Calvary Bible Church, if anybody aspires to be an elder, it is absolutely crucial that you meet the qualifications of an elder, which at some level means you're going to be here every time these doors open.

Not only you're going to be here, but your wife is going to be here. You're going to be intimately involved. How in the world can you possibly shepherd people that you don't spend any time around, you see? And how can you minister to people you don't really know? And as we're going to see, each person in the body of Christ, every person in a church has a unique gift - in some cases, it's more than one - and has a unique place of ministry within that body. And yet, very few people submit themselves to that truth.

But those of you who do will certainly agree that working in the obscure, often thankless realms of private counseling and discipleship and so on is far more difficult than teaching a Sunday school class or singing in the choir or serving on a committee or leading a children's church or whatever. And I'm not saying that anything is more important than another necessarily, but I want to have you ask yourself, how often, as we look at the life of Peter here, how often do I do as Peter did and kind of travel about within the sphere of my influence and seek out people with whom I can minister to? How often do I aggressively target and prayerfully seek people who are in need of some kind of private ministry? Yet, in 1 Thessalonians 5:14, Paul said, “And we urge you, brethren...” That means all of you, all of us, “I urge you, brethren,” here's what I want you to do, one, “admonish the unruly.” Two, “encourage the fainthearted.” Three, “help the weak.” And four, “be patient with all men.” You want some marching orders?

A lot of times I hear people say, “Oh, I just don't know what God's will for my life is.” Well, my goodness, there's all kinds of things in the Word of God that will tell you that. But here's four things right here.

You are to “admonish the unruly.” That means to literally, in the original language, I want you to instruct or warn and disciple those who are undisciplined, those who are idle, and those who are lazy. My goodness, there's a lot of opportunities, right?

And also, he says, I want you to “encourage the fainthearted.” The fainthearted are the timid, the discouraged.

And he says, “help the weak.” The weak refers to those who are spiritually and morally weak, those who lack discernment and are easily tempted.

And also, “be patient with all men.”

Ask yourself, does this describe my ministry? Does this describe my service to the Lord in the realm of my Christian life? Well, not so with Peter. Here we see him traveling through all of those parts. It's like a purposeful wandering here to minister to those who are in need, just like the Savior did. And he finds himself now with the saints in Lydda, which is now, by the way, the place of Israel's international airport. And in this text, we see the heart of a compassionate shepherd. And I want to invite you to journey with me this morning and watch how all of this unfolds and watch the exciting opportunities that he has for fellowship, for ministry, and watching the power of God being unleashed.

We're going to notice three things in this text. Number one, as we look at the heart of a compassionate shepherd, we're going to see, number one, that he has compassion for the forgotten. Notice in verses 32 and 33,

“Now it came about that Peter was traveling through all those parts and he came down also to the saints who lived at Lydda.

“And there he found a certain man named Aeneas who had been bedridden eight years for he was paralyzed.”

Now friends, if you have ever been around anyone who is paralyzed, languishing in a bed, you will understand why I use the term “forgotten.” Can you imagine that? Eight years in a bed, unable to move? What a hideous torture. You can't go anywhere. Your survival depends upon someone waiting on you. And how many people are going to be willing to do that for very long? Probably only just a handful in your family. Eight years in bed. Naturally, very few would come and spend time with this person.

This man is a forgotten man. We have to ask the question; how often do we take the initiative to seek out some forgotten paralytic? How often do we try to find someone who has been forgotten in some way and give them the hope of Christ? But in verse 33 it tells us that Peter found him there. Now to make it even worse, I mean it's bad enough to be paralyzed, but there's every indication that this man was not a believer.

He is designated as a certain “man,” unlike Dorcas later on in verse 36 who was called a certain “disciple.” In fact, it's interesting, there are no examples of a believer being miraculously healed in the New Testament. They are always non-believers.

So here you have a man languishing on a bed of affliction, paralyzed with no indwelling Spirit of God, therefore no word of God to comfort him, no assurance of sins forgiven, no hope for heaven, no longing for heaven. What a horrible, futile existence. And again, these are the people that most folks tend to abandon and try to forget.

Oh, but isn't it wonderful? The Lord is compassionate and full of what? He is full of mercy. And by His grace, He now steers His compassionate servant Peter to this man's bedside.

Verse 34, “And Peter said to him, ‘Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you. Arise and make your bed.’ And immediately he arose.” Isn't that wonderful? Unlike any of the so-called miraculous healings of false prophets today where a person is supposedly healed by giving a seed of healing that is going to eventually grow over time and ultimately turn into a full-blown healing, this man is healed completely, instantly.

And it says he “immediately arose.” And as a result, we see that he comes to repentant faith in Christ. Verse 35, it says, “And all who lived at Lydda,” not just this man, but others, all of them “at Lydda, and Sharon saw him, and they turned to the Lord.”

Obviously, this man became a living testimony of the transforming power of Christ, not just physically, but spiritually. He was transformed miraculously. Now imagine what you would do if you'd been on a bed paralyzed for eight years, and suddenly you could get up. I know what I would do. And I am not a very emotional person, per se. Some of these shows on television, Wheel of Fortune or whatever, where people are screaming and yelling, I almost have to turn it off. But I think I would become like that kind of a person if all of a sudden, I could walk. I would imagine this man was doing backflips. He's doing somersaults. He's picking up people and swirling them around. He's probably grabbing ahold of children and holding them up in the air.

And the news of this miracle would have spread like wildfire. People running to see what had happened. And then they would hear his testimony. “Yes, Peter, the Apostle Peter has come, and he told me about Christ, and by the power of Christ I have been healed.” And that's why we see that so many of them turned to the Lord. The Greek verb for “turn” is one that literally means to turn around and go in a completely different direction. In fact, it was used in 1 Thessalonians 1:9, for example, when Paul was describing the converts at Thessalonica. It says, “You turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God and to wait for His Son from heaven, who He raised from the dead, that that is Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.”

Oh dear child of God, think of this: watch how God is working here in the life of Peter. And think how we too, even though the same kinds of dramatic, miraculous displays of God's glory are not working in the same way they did in the days of the early church, nevertheless, just think how we can have purposeful wanderings in our own life and we can find opportunities to compassionately minister to those who are forgotten and those who are forsaken and those who are hopeless, and we can show them the transforming power of Jesus Christ.

So Peter, first of all, had compassion for the forgotten. Second, he had compassion for the lonely. Notice verse 36. “Now in Joppa, there was a certain disciple named Tabitha…” That was her Hebrew name, by the way, that means “gazelle.” And it goes on to say, “(which translated in Greek is called Dorcas),” and that also in Greek means gazelle. This woman, the text says, “was abounding with deeds of kindness and charity, which she continually did.”

Now, as a footnote, dear friends, here is a wonderful illustration of the kind of God-honoring ministries women can perform in the church. I praise the Lord for all of the Tabithas that we have here at Calvary Bible Church, and we have a lot of them.

I rejoice in that. And how sad to see how feminism has invaded the church and produced its own strain, sometimes called evangelical feminism, and how it has reared its ugly head, insisting that somehow the clear biblical prohibitions against women being in roles of leadership, against women teaching men, and so on, should be disregarded, should be considered chauvinistic. Not at all.

Dear friends, please hear this. I would take one Tabitha over a thousand women preachers. How sad to see the Word of God distorted and the church so weakened.

Now, notice again what God is up to with Peter. Keep the progression going on here. He first ministers to an unbelieving, forgotten Gentile paralytic, and now the Lord is going to summon him to this lowly Jewish woman. And remember now, women were not well respected among Jews, or Gentiles for that matter. And obviously this was a simple, ordinary, common woman. Probably a widow, even though we don't know for sure. There's no mention of a husband or family. We do know that she's ministering to other widows, but certainly not the kind of person that others would notice. Not the type of person, especially in that culture, that even other people would care to associate with. Certainly not a celebrity.

But God saw her. He cared. And so did her female sisters in Christ - isn't that precious to see that - who had been recipients of her kindness and love; and so did Peter obviously.

Notice verse 37, “And it came about at that time that she fell sick and died; and when they had washed her body, they laid it in an upper room.” Now let me pause here.

Normally what they would do is bury a person immediately. They would prepare the body and bury that person. But obviously they were praying for some kind of a miracle. They probably knew that Peter was in the area. We don't know for sure what all they were thinking. But the text goes on to say,

“And since Lydda was near Joppa, the disciples, having heard that Peter was there, sent two men to him and entreating him, “Do not delay to come to us.”

“And Peter arose and went with them. And when he had come, they brought him into the upper room; 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.”

Now friends, what happens here is truly remarkable for several reasons. First of all, you must understand, this is a corpse. And Jews, even a lot of these Jewish Christians now, they're not going to get anywhere near a corpse. Because somehow, they believe, again based upon some of the Old Testament restrictions that they think are still in place, that if you get near that corpse, that is unclean, you can be defiled. And you see, in their thinking, godliness is basically something that is external. So, I can't get near the corpse.

But what is God doing? He's bringing Peter right into the very realm of his own error. Obviously teaching him about the abolition of the Old Testament law, about externalism, and even about prejudice. Because again, men tend, even today, to perceive themselves to be superior to women. And it was certainly true in that day.

Verse 40, “But Peter sent them all out.” He comes into the room now. The widows are there. They're lamenting over their loss. They're talking about all that she had done in their lives and Peter sends them all out.

I find that interesting. What a contrast to modern faith healers. They don't send people out. They want to bring them in. Bring in the cameras. Let's get a stage, lights, etc. Let's get a huge audience.

But Peter simply wants to be alone with the Lord. So Peter sent them all out. And then it says, he

“…knelt down and prayed.” Then turning to the body, he said, ‘Tabitha, arise.’ And she opened her eyes. And when she saw Peter, she sat up.

“And he gave her his hand and raised her up; and calling the saints and widows, he presented her alive. And it became known all over Joppa, and many believed in the Lord.”

 What a marvelous demonstration of the Holy Spirit's power, of the love of God.

Beloved, again, you must remember, this was always the purpose of miracles during the days of the nascent church - the developing church. Miracles were to authenticate both the message and the messenger of the Gospel of Christ. And that's what happens here.

So by summoning Peter to this corpse that was considered to be ceremonially unclean by a Jew and thus defiling, once again, God is progressively showing Peter that cleanliness and defilement are matters of the heart, not something external. Moreover, God is shaping the heart of His faithful shepherd, giving him yet another opportunity to show the love of God in individuals regardless of who they might be.

Now I want to digress for a moment and address something that has come up. And I think that perhaps this is a good place to mention this. It's interesting, by the way, as a Bible expositor, I can pretty well tell you the next segments of Scripture that I'll be looking at -   because we go verse by verse and you never really know what all is going to happen in future days that might correspond with the text that God has laid out before you - but certainly, this fits in well with some emails and a phone call that I've received regarding a new book that has come out. It's called 90 Minutes in Heaven. Maybe some of you have heard about it. It's on the New York Times Bestseller list. It's written by a Baptist pastor by the name of Don Piper who claims that he went to heaven for 90 minutes. Evidently, he was in a terrible car accident and he died. And then he miraculously came back to life and now he's telling everybody about what he saw in heaven. And people are falling all over themselves to get this book. I understand that it's sold about half a million copies already and churches are bringing him in and so on.

But I want to draw your attention to something I find interesting in this text and a few others. Notice here, Tabitha is a believer and she dies. Now, biblically, what happens when we die? Absent from the body, present with the Lord, okay? You're in paradise. You're in this ineffable, indescribable glory. And yet, there's nothing in the text here that indicates that she talked to others about her experience in heaven. Now, you might say, well, that's just an argument from silence here. Well, maybe, but bear with me. The same is true with Lazarus in John 11. Comes back from the dead, no mention of anything about what he saw in heaven. The same is true with Eutychus in Acts 20. You remember him? He was the young man that fell asleep while Paul was preaching.

I find great comfort in that, by the way. He fell out of the window, and he died, you know, and Paul came and threw himself on him and raised him from the dead, brought him back to life. No indication that any of these people ever said anything about heaven.

There are three accounts in the Bible where believers died and went to heaven, were raised from the dead, and yet none of them describe their experience. As a footnote, by the way, nonbelievers were never raised from the dead and brought back from hell. We don't see that for many reasons.

But now it's interesting that we do have someone who supposedly did die in a car accident and goes to heaven for 90 minutes and then miraculously comes back. Now, does that strike you as odd? I hope it does.

Now think about it. We know that Stephen and two apostles, both Paul and John, were given a glimpse of heaven while they were alive. Remember, Stephen was given a glimpse of the glorified Christ right as he was being stoned. And then Paul, the same type of thing in his conversion.

Not only that, Paul was taken into the third heaven while he was alive, taken in and he saw all of the glories, but he was not even permitted to speak about it. And then John sees certain elements of heaven and his revelation in the Isle of Patmos and some of that is articulated there in the book of Revelation. And as I said, you have three other believers that die miraculously raised from the dead, no record of them saying anything about heaven.

Well, you might say, why is that? I want to give you a few reasons. Number one, dear friends, because God has told us all we need to know about heaven in His all-sufficient Word. The canon is closed. In fact, it is far beyond our ability to even fathom what heaven is really like. So it would be an exercise in futility to try to describe it. If you read Isaiah, and you read Ezekiel's description of the vision of the throne of God, you'll see that even in the inspired writings, it's virtually impossible for us to grasp what they were trying to tell us that they saw because heaven is another dimension. It is a creation that is completely unlike our created world. But evidently, this dear brother, a Baptist preacher, would have us to believe that he has been there and he wants us to know what he saw.

Now, while the majority of the book, frankly, is about the author and about the accident and so on, and very little of it is devoted to what he supposedly experienced in heaven, he does describe a place of reunion. And it's interesting that the people that he describes are the same age as they were when he last saw them, which I find interesting. He describes beautiful music, streets of gold, and a lot of pleasantries that we as human beings would enjoy being around. But frankly, what he describes in all of his descriptions are ultimately things that would be familiar to us as we read Scripture.

And he, in essence, is parroting much of what we could read in Scripture. But ultimately, his descriptions fall far short of the ineffable transcendence of heaven, the heaven of the Bible, of what Isaiah and Ezekiel and John saw. I mean, even a glimpse of any of this causes people to fall down as dead men.

In fact, I want you to hear this, what he describes is similar to what John described in the Apocalypse Jesu Christu - the revelation of Jesus Christ - where the inspired Apostle uses language of human approximation to describe the indescribable. But what I want you to understand is what John described doesn't exist yet. The realities that he describes are part of a new heaven and a new earth as we read in Revelation 21:1.

There he says, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth ; the first heaven and the first earth passed away…” “New,” by the way, in the original language – “kainos” -  it does not mean something new chronologically. It's not something new in terms of a new version of something that has existed formerly. This new heaven and this new earth is new in essence. It's new in quality. It is new meaning; it is something that we have never seen before. And it doesn't exist yet. It hasn't been created yet. This is a dimension that is inexplicable. It is a transcendent glory beyond anything that we could comprehend or imagine.

In fact, Isaiah prophesies of this in 65:17 where God says through the prophet, “Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former things will not be remembered or come to mind.” Again, that hasn't happened yet. And the description of this new heaven and new earth are the very things that John describes…and interestingly enough, the same thing that Don Piper describes.

Psalm 102, verse 25, we read earlier in our Scripture reading,

“Behold, you founded the earth and the heavens are the work of Your hands.

“Even they will perish, but you endure, and all of them will wear out like a garment, like clothing. You will change them and they will be changed.”

And Jesus also affirmed this in Luke 21:33 that “heaven and earth will pass away,” he says. And we know as we read in other passages at the end of the millennial kingdom, God will destroy His final enemies, and He will create a new heaven and a new earth. And of that, Peter describes it in 2 Peter 3:10 saying, “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.”

And it is this new heaven that the Apostle John saw in his vision and attempts to describe. Yet sadly, these are the very kinds of things that our brother describes; and I don't know what he saw, but he certainly could not have seen that which does not exist yet. Beloved, the biblical heaven where people go now is something that we do not even understand except to know that it will be in existence beyond any human point of reference.

And I believe that there are at least three reasons why none of the New Testament saints who died and came back ever spoke about heaven. One is because it's impossible to describe. Secondly, because it's impossible for human beings to comprehend. And thirdly, I would imagine, and this is just my humble opinion, that God probably instructed them not to because He certainly told Paul not to. And certainly, we do know that the centerpiece of heaven will be the glory of God - the glory of God Himself. And yet it's interesting that Piper never saw God, never saw the Lord. Never mentions that. And yet again, absent from the body, present with the Lord.

Beloved, I want to say just in passing here, I want nothing to do with a heaven that he describes if my Savior is not there. The unmistakable centerpiece of heaven will be God in His glory, not man in his happiness. It will be a place of transcendent holiness. Holiness means “completely other.” Beyond anything that we could even imagine. Completely separated from sin. A dimension beyond anything we could comprehend.

And Piper also claims that he wants to use his experience to prepare others. But dear friends, what he fails to understand is that only the Gospel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation. You see, unbelief is not due to a lack of information. It's not because people just need to understand more things and once they understand what heaven is really like, then they're going to flock to Jesus. Unbelief is not because of a lack of understanding, a lack of information. It is because someone is spiritually dead. And it is only the Gospel that can transform that person from a spiritual cadaver to a person who is spiritually alive. It is only the Gospel through the power of the Holy Spirit that can grasp a person and take them out of the clutches of Satan and the kingdom of darkness and put them into the kingdom of light.

And so I would want to say that there's no amount of evidence, no amount of miracles, no amount of sensational testimonies about going to heaven that will ever replace the sufficiency of the Word of God and the power of the Gospel. And this is precisely Jesus' point in His parable of the rich man and Lazarus. Remember in Luke 16 verse 29? Here's what He said,

“’But Abraham said, “They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.”

“’But he said, “No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, then they will repent!”

“’But he said to them, “If they did not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.”’”

Dear friends, this is the danger of special revelation – “God told me something outside of the Bible. God has uniquely spoken to me in a way that I know you can't really validate, but trust me, here's what He's told me. Here's what I've seen…” There's no way to validate these visions and prophecies and heavenly encounters, and there's been many others. I wrote one individual... I'll just read you an excerpt from the email.

I said, “People simply don't understand also that the canon is closed and we are to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered, handed down to the saints. God has already revealed to us all He wants us to know about Heaven and His Word. In fact, the Apostle Paul was caught up to the third heaven and was not permitted to speak about it because it would be perceived by the Corinthian believers to be boasting about something they could never verify and distract them from the far more important message of the Gospel.” That's 2 Corinthians 12:2-5.

I went on to say, “Moreover, to prevent Paul from exalting himself, God gave him a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment him. God was serious about this. It will be interesting to see how many of the people who read this book repent of their sins and brokenness and contrition and deny themselves and follow Christ. Of course, the first century reaction of calloused unbelief to the far superior and undeniable miracles of Christ and the Apostles answer that question. For these reasons and many more, I would not waste my time reading this book. The Word of God is not only infallible and thus perfectly reliable, but far more interesting.”

Now back to our text. Tabitha is miraculously raised from the dead. We have no idea how much longer she lives, but I would imagine that she continued to minister to the dear widows in that area with even greater excitement and zeal for the truth of the Gospel.

In verse 42, “It became known all over Joppa and many believed in the Lord.” Again, many Gentiles here. And Peter must be shaking his head. My, my, my, look what God is doing. It will be fun to meet Tabitha someday in heaven, won't it? I'll look forward to that.

I always think of this, and also some of the widows that are there. It will be fun to talk with them and many others who were converted because of this miracle.

Oh dear friends, what a testimony to the power of God. Not only to heal people and to raise them from the dead, but again, to breathe spiritual life into spiritual cadavers and to shape the heart of those who are willing to serve Him even as He is shaping Peter. Peter had compassion for the forgotten, for the lowly.

Finally, thirdly, he had compassion for the despised. Look at verse 43. “And it came about that he stayed many days in Joppa with a certain tanner Simon.” You say, what's the deal here? What do you mean despised? Well, you would have to understand that tanners were considered by the Jews to be unclean. If you got around a tanner, if you touched him, whatever, you could be defiled. Why? Because they spent their life dealing with dead animals in hides.

Now over the years, I've done a lot of hunting and many of you men have as well. And I used to have trap lines. And I know what it's like to be covered with blood from skinning and drawing animals and tanning hives and all of that. It is a stinky mess. And that's how these men were. They were kind of stinky, bloody characters. They were foul smelling. People didn't want to be around them. And therefore, they were despised. They were abhorrent to every self-righteous Jew. They were not even allowed to worship in the synagogue. They were completely shunned. Nobody wanted anything to do with them. So they lived as an outcast. By the way, if you've ever been around an animal rendering plant, you'll have some idea of another reason why these people are despised. The smell is terrible. However, everybody wanted their products. Isn't it interesting how the whole thing works? But by now, Peter doesn't care…”Yeah, so he's despised. You know, I have seen Samaritans come to Christ filled with the Holy Spirit. I've seen a Gentile paralytic and others healed.”

And now we know that God is preparing him to go visit Cornelius and eventually Cornelius and his family and other Gentiles are going to be welcomed. So again, God is systematically tearing down the walls of prejudice in his heart while at the same time blessing him with the joy of ministry as this shepherd compassionately ministers to the forgotten, to the lowly and the despised.

I'm going to challenge you with something as we close this morning. Ask yourself, how would God characterize my service to Him? How would God characterize my ministry? My faithfulness to use the gifts that He has given me to bring glory to Him? How would God characterize that? Do you have a ministry? Do you have an area in your life that is a real priority, an area where you have devoted it to God and said, you know, this is an area of service in my life and nothing is going to distract me from giving God glory in this particular way. I believe this is fulfilling His call upon my life, the gifts that He has given me and so on. Do you have that? And along with that, is it prejudiced? Is your ministry only one that will deal with a certain group of people? Is it compassionate? Is it one that seeks out the forgotten? Is it one that seeks out the lowly? Do you feel comfortable spending time around the despised? Don't you know that when Peter came into the house of the tanner, Simon, and the text says that he spent many days there with him, don't you know that Peter shared within the Gospel of Christ? I'm sure we're going to see Simon someday in heaven.

Does that describe your ministry? I hope it does. Can I ask you to do something? I'm going to ask you before we leave today to just target one person, one person in your life, one person within the sphere of your influence that you're going to minister to this week. And look for someone who perhaps is forgotten like the paralytic. Look for somebody who perhaps is the lowly. Someone that you would not normally spend time with. Someone like Tabitha perhaps.

Or perhaps someone who others would despise. Target that person in your mind and ask the Spirit of God to give you a heart of compassion to minister to that person. To write them a card. Send them an email. Give them a call. Go visit them. Do something to actively initiate ministry into their life like Peter did. And watch what God will do in you and in them.

Let's pray together.

Father, we thank You for this testimony of the heart of a compassionate shepherd. And Lord, may we all mirror His attitude, His love, His compassion which certainly reflects the love and the compassion, the mercy of Christ. Lord, I pray that all of us would get serious about using our gifts for Your glory, that we might experience the joy of seeing people come to Christ, the joy of fellowshipping with others, the joy of watching people grow in the grace and the knowledge of Christ and give God the glory. The joy of watching people become parents and raising their children in the discipline and the instruction of the Lord, and on and on it goes. Lord, I pray that You will bring conviction to each of our hearts; Those of us who know and love You and those who don't, Lord, how I pray that You will convict them of their sins and cause them to cry out to You for the mercy that You will give all those who seek You in repentant faith. I pray this in Jesus' name and for His glorious sake. Amen.