The God of Lost Causes

And our ongoing ministry, ladies and gentlemen, is miraculous.

Make no mistake. But it revolves, it focuses on the miracle of a changed heart and life. If all we are, and we are becoming this way, if all we are is preoccupied with our aches and our pains, our ills, which are given to us as reminders that we are not home, if all we are is preoccupied with somebody to heal us, get us better, get us past it, then the gospel is nothing better than surgery or bare aspirin. We forget our mission is spiritual.

We are to win the world at Jesus Christ and to make disciples. Welcome to Wisdom for the Heart. This is the Bible teaching ministry of pastor and author Stephen Davey. In order to demonstrate the power of the gospel during the time of the early church, God gave some of the apostles the gift of healing. We're going to look at that in today's lesson.

But we'll see that what God is accomplishing in us is just as miraculous. We've come to the conclusion of our series through the early chapters of Acts, a series from our vintage wisdom archives called The Harvest Begins. Today's lesson is called The God of Lost Causes. We are returned to the book of action this morning and we find ourselves in chapter nine.

But I want you to turn instead of turning there to the book of Matthew, chapter 10. Before we dive into the text, you'll notice when we get back to Acts that if your Bibles have little outlines that help you through, you'll see the name of Peter again at the top of that paragraph that we're going to look at where we left off last time we studied. It was just great to see Peter's name again.

He's been absent for about three chapters. And I guess if anybody could be considered a lost cause, Peter would be. And it's interesting to me as he now resurfaces and deals with two lost causes how God will use him again. I think that's why I was particularly delighted as I began studying again that here is a man that you'd never think would live down his foolishness and his failure and yet he's going to be used in ministry as we observe the God of lost causes, putting him back. Now, before we can appreciate Acts chapter 9 and understand it correctly and most importantly apply it, and there's a lot of misapplication today as we've gone through the book of Acts and we've talked about that, we need to deal specifically with the nature of healing today.

You have your notes. I think they'll be helpful because I want to give you five principles or observations that continue to confirm the transitional nature of the book of Acts. If you don't see Acts as a bridge from the old covenant to the new covenant, if you see Acts as something the church ought to be applying in every instance, then you're in for great confusion. Also, if you don't see the nature of the apostolic gifts as temporary, you will also be driven to frustration as you follow men today who claim to have those apostolic gifts.

I want to start by giving you the principle and then we'll look at the first passage. Here it is, number one, healing people and raising people from the dead. Now, the reason I attach that is because both will happen in Acts chapter 9. Those who claim to have the apostolic gifts of healing ought to claim also the apostolic gift of healing from the dead. Jesus Christ did it, Peter did it, Paul did it.

Healing people and raising people from the dead was a specific delegated apostolic gift. Now look at Matthew chapter 10 verse 5. These 12 Jesus sent out after instructing them saying, do not go into the way of the Gentiles, do not enter into the city of the Samaritans, but rather go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel and as you go preach saying, the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Now stop, imagine how radical that message would be. This is new, this is a shift from Judaism, from the old covenant to messages about this new salvation, this new kingdom. Prove it that there's a kingdom of heaven at hand. Well, he gave them the ability as you go preaching this, verse 8, heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons, freely you receive, now freely give. Notice just the last or the first phrase of verse 9.

Let's apply that today. As you go healing and raising the dead and cleansing the lepers and casting out demons, do not acquire gold or silver or copper for your money belts. We had a crusade not too long ago in Wake County and at the time of healing, this individual supposedly faith healer said the first 10 people who come down with a $1,000 check each will be guaranteed a blessing from God, phony. Obviously here, the Lord would not have commanded them to do these incredible miraculous things without giving them the power to do them. Why was it so important that their ministry be accompanied by the miraculous?

Let me give you the second principle and then we'll look at another passage. Number two, prior to the scriptures being written, you could add the word completed. Prior to the scriptures being completed, these supernatural gifts were used to prove the apostles were indeed commissioned by God to reveal his new message of salvation. Turn to Hebrews chapter two and look at verse three.

How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation after it was at the first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed past tense. Notice that it was confirmed to us by those who heard who are those who heard the apostles, those who heard the Lord teach personally. Verse four, God also bearing witness with them both by signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to his own will. And by the way, we just read a list of them, exercising demons, raising the dead, healing the lepers.

All of those would be instances where no one could possibly intervene, but God could. So this past tense confirmation of this new gospel was through certain implied past tense, miracles, signs and wonders that were performed by those who heard the apostles. Number three, after the church had the completed scriptures, the litmus test for authenticity was an adherence to biblical doctrine, not miraculous events. Turn back to Galatians chapter one and look at verse six. Now here's an interesting passage because Paul explicitly relates these certain gifts with the office of apostle. We don't have any apostles today, even though some might think it's a nice title to have, we don't have any. The scriptures and this is a different study and we've looked at it briefly in the past and a true apostle had to see visually the resurrected Christ and had to have been personally taught by him. Well, of course, Paul has problems with this because people said, no, wait a second, you're after the fact.

You came to faith in Christ after Jesus was already ascended to heaven. And so Paul would remind them, oh no, I saw him on the road to Damascus and that I was also personally taught by him and that university of Arabia that we studied about last time we were in the book of Acts. Now notice chapter one verse six.

He is again defending himself. He says, I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting him who called you by the grace of Christ for different gospel, which is really not another only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. This is the body of truth that the apostles delivered to this new era, even though he says we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to that which we have preached to you, let him be accursed.

And as we said before, so I say again, now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to that which you received, let him be accursed. I think this is fascinating because in the culture we live in today, all somebody has to do is somehow make a relationship between some truth or some belief and the fact that they received it from some paranormal source, some mystical source, whether it's a vision or a trip to heaven and back or a channeled message or whatever. And if somehow that relationship can be established, the truth that's taught and the fact that it came from some paranormal source that somehow the truth ought to be believed. It's authentic.

It has to be. It came from, you know, somewhere out there. Well, Paul uses that very same illustration and he says, listen, if an angel came from heaven and you saw him and you heard him and he preaches a body of truth differently than what the apostles delivered to you, let him be accursed.

Strong words. The litmus test is not miracles. It is the body of truth that you hold in your lap. It is the finished word of God.

Swindoll writes in his notes on Acts an interesting paragraph. He says, today God does not work miracles through us like he did through Moses, the prophets, Jesus Christ or the apostles. You need to understand as a Bible student that those are specific eras.

Those are miraculous periods of time. However, we have something previously unavailable to help us discern whether God's presence validates a ministry. We have the finished word of God. What's the litmus test today? Trying to discern whether that miracle was genuine or not?

Absolutely not. We have the word, the finished teaching of the apostles in inscripturated form. Principle number four. While healing the sick and raising the dead was God's supernatural gifting. It wasn't God's will for the apostles to heal nor raise everyone from the dead. This is an interesting thought to consider because even at the inception of this miraculous era in Acts chapter seven, Stephen is stoned to death.

You remember studying that? If there was anyone that the church needed, it would have been this faithful deacon, evangelist, teacher, man of faith and wisdom. If there had been anyone that the apostles could have gathered around as he lay their dead on the pavement and had him resurrected from the dead, it would be him.

But the text tells us they instead buried him with loud lamentation. It's interesting that there are four illustrations, by the way, beyond the book of Acts that talk about sick believers, believers who are ill. There are only four illustrations after Acts and only one of them is restored to health. Epaphroditus was healed. We don't know how, but he was restored to health.

Timothy is the second. He was offered medical advice, primitive though it was, by the apostle Paul, not a prayer of faith. Trophimus was not healed, but left sick behind as Paul left to continue his journey. And Paul himself was not healed, even though he prayed fervently that God would heal him.

Principle number five. The miracle healing ministry of Christ and his apostles was never an end in itself, but a validating sign of God's approval. You might remind yourself, by the way, the fact that everyone who was healed by the apostles got sick again and died somehow, some way. It wasn't permanent.

Sickness and death eventually returned and every healed person eventually died. So why bother? Why bother healing if that's all there was to it? You're just prolonging the inevitable.

Why? Well, Acts chapter two, if you go there, tells us explicitly why Jesus Christ healed. Maybe you've never seen this verse before. Acts chapter two, look at verse 22.

Men of Israel, listen to these words. Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested, attested could be rendered proven or validated to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through him in your midst just as you yourself. No, not only was Jesus proven by God that he was the Messiah by his miracles, the apostles were also proven by that. Have you ever thought about the fact that if Jesus Christ healed anybody just because they were sick, if that was the end in and of itself, if the apostles healed people simply because they were sick, and that's all we hear about basically today is you get healed because you're sick. If this was the end in and of itself, then Jesus Christ and the apostles were incredibly cruel men.

Why? Because they didn't heal everybody. They were surrounded by impoverished sick people. Why didn't they erect a tent and call all of them to come? Why didn't they walk through the sick wards of their day and empty them? Why didn't they cleanse entire leper colonies?

Why didn't they go to the cemetery and empty it? But you need to remember theologically, ladies and gentlemen, that humanity has sickness and death as a result of the fall. It will not be wiped out until the future kingdom. But sickness and death are perpetual reminders that we're not home. There is another kingdom, the kingdom of heaven.

There is another body, a glorified one. And in the meantime, sickness and death are wonderful tools in the hand of God to provide and teach spiritual truth. So Jesus only healed one man at the pool of Siloam. He only healed a handful of lepers. He only raised three people from the dead, and not all of them.

There was a purpose behind it. Now, I kind of got ahead of myself. Turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 12. Here is Paul defending his claim to be considered a bona fide apostle. Look at the middle part of verse 11. Now, we've understood from Acts 2 22 that Jesus Christ is proven by his miraculous ability. Now, I want you to see a verse where Paul explicitly relates this proving miraculous gift with the office of apostle. Look at verse 11, the middle part. Actually, he says, I should have been commended by you, for in no respect was I inferior to the most eminent apostles, even though I am a nobody.

I love his humility and his balance. He says, I am among the eminent apostles, but still remember, I consider myself a nobody, other than by the grace of God. How do you prove, Paul, that you are among the eminent apostles, that you've seen him, that you've been personally taught by him? Verse 12, the signs of a true apostle were performed, I performed among you with all perseverance by signs and wonders and miracles. You see, there was a purpose behind each individual selected for healing, each individual that was resurrected from the dead.

And it's interesting that Peter did it and Paul, as validating proves that they were indeed the leading teachers of this new era. Now, am I suggesting that God doesn't miraculously heal today? I'm not suggesting that God does perform miracles today. He miraculously heals today. The medical community calls it spontaneous remission.

Isn't that great? We don't know what happened to that cancer or, it's, it's gone. It's spontaneous remission. We say, no, it's a miracle. God may have answered someone's prayer. So am I suggesting that we're not to pray for healing? Oh no, Paul is the example who prayed fervently, but he prayed.

So we pray for others. What I want to try to do is distinguish in your minds, ladies and gentlemen, the difference between divine healing and divine healers. Did you know that the apostles were authentic divine healers? And if you study the passages, there are several of them, and I can assure you, I'll link them all up, I want to give you four characteristics of divine healers. These apostles who were indeed divine healers, if you just study the passages, and there aren't very many of them, but you can come up with four things. Number one, they didn't require faith or prayers on the part of the person being healed. That is a vast difference from what is being claimed today as divine healing, faith healing, faith healers. They didn't go up to somebody and say, how much faith do you have?

Do you have enough faith? In fact, most of the illustrations can reveal that people who were healed in acts and further were people who were not even saved. It wasn't their faith. Otherwise it wouldn't be a sign of the apostles' power. It'd be a sign of their faith. So they never had anything to do with the faith of the individual being healed. Secondly, they personally may or may not have prayed before healing the individual. That means calling on the name of Christ.

Might have just said, get up and walk. That's divine healing. Third, they were successful 100% of the time. There were no, oops, involved. There wasn't, well, I guess you didn't have enough faith.

Or maybe you ought to go to a doctor or try another healer. These were like the prophets of old who claimed to be God's messengers by prophesying something that would come about. And the Israelites tested the man who said he was a prophet by asking him to prophesy of something near. And once that was prophesied and came true, they placed their trust in him for something far away. If, by the way, that near thing prophesied didn't come to pass, you know what they did to them? They took him outside the city and stoned him to death as false teachers.

Now, I'm not suggesting that, you know, we do that. Fourth, they chose to heal external observable physical maladies, leprosy, blindness, lameness. What could be more observable than raising somebody from the dead?

Why did it need to be observable? Because it was a sign to the people that they were the messengers from God. And I'd like to raise the standard for divine healers today, this standard. Let's test them by this. Those who claim to be conduits of divine healing, I'd like you to meet me at the School for the Blind in Raleigh or meet me at the funeral home this afternoon and stop claiming the apostolic gift by healing high blood pressure or bursitis or a hip out of joint or let's have a real apostolic gift. Let's have a manifestation like here.

Let's empty a coffin or two, shall we? You say, why is it so important for you? Evidently, it's important to you to understand the temporary gift these apostles had. I want you to know it's important because it addresses the nature and purpose of who we are today, who the church is today. And our ongoing ministry, ladies and gentlemen, is miraculous, make no mistake, but it revolves, it focuses on the miracle of a changed heart and life, the miracle of redemption and regeneration, the healing of a soul. If all we are and we are becoming this way, if all we are is preoccupied with our aches and our pains, our ills, which are given to us as reminders that we are not home, if all we are is preoccupied with somebody to heal us, get us better, get us past it, then the gospel is nothing other than something better than surgery or bare aspirin. We forget our mission is spiritual. We're to win the world that Jesus Christ and to make disciples of all peoples and millions of dollars is being poured into a movement today to simply help us get over our bursitis and we are missing the nature of who we are today. Well, that's exactly what's happening in Acts chapter 9.

I have five minutes left, isn't that great? Let's go to Acts chapter 9. Two cases of lost causes. Human intervention is hopeless here.

Nothing can be done for them unless God intervenes. The first case is a paragraph here that's verse 32 beginning there. The most tragic of all human disabilities, perhaps, a man is paralyzed. We're not told here in the passage how it happened.

We're only told how long it's lasted. Look at verse 32. Now it came about that as Peter was traveling through all these parts, he came down also to the saints who lived at Lida. There he found a certain man named Aeneas who had been bedridden eight years for he was paralyzed. This man has been paralyzed. We don't know if he was a paraplegic or a quadriplegic. Evidently there was some kind of accident because he wasn't born with this malady. Something had happened so that for the previous eight years he was in bed. That's a long time to be in bed.

Eight years, day in and day out, week in and week out, month in and month out. Everybody in the village knew this man was hopeless. Every physician that he probably could have afforded until he ran out of money came and eventually gave him the same verdict. Sir, there's nothing we can do for you. There's no cure.

You add to that, undoubtedly, the feelings of uselessness by this man and the nagging weight of having to be a burden on people and maybe the question, why me? My wife and I met in the lobby of a hotel a couple of years ago. John Erickson taught a woman that probably you've read or heard of who's paralyzed from the neck down, but travels, speaking and writing, painting with her teeth. Amazing woman.

In her book called A Step Further, she writes these interesting words. On a rainy afternoon in the early summer of 1972, about 15 people gathered together in a tiny oak church not far from my home. The group consisted of close friends, family and church leaders whom I'd called together to pray for my healing. By the time our brief service was over, the rain had stopped.

Exiting through the front doors of the church, we were greeted by a beautiful rainbow in the misty distance. It gave me just one more reassurance that God had heard our prayers. God had indeed heard, but he did not heal. If you've ever met her or heard her speak, you have been struck by the peace of Jesus Christ that seems to emanate from her face and her message.

Now for this man named Nainias, the story is going to be radically different. Verse 34 says that Peter said to him, Nainias, Jesus Christ heals you. He didn't ask him how big his faith was.

He didn't say, Lord, would you please if it be your will. He said, Jesus Christ heals you. Arise and make your bed and immediately he arose.

Can you imagine? Immediately he arose. Eight years he hadn't walked. Now coordination returns immediately. Circulation restored immediately. Atrophied muscles restored immediately.

Muscled memory erased and rewritten immediately. An incredible miracle. And all who lived, verse 35 at Lyta and Sharon, saw him and marveled at Peter's gift. They turned to the Lord.

Lost cause number two, verse 36. 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 the time that she felt sick and died and when they'd washed her body, they laid it in an upper room. Since Lyta was near Joppa, the disciples, having heard that Peter was there, sent two men to him and treating him.

Two not too late had come to us. Peter arose and went with him 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 him. Can you imagine this scene? The room is filled with widows weeping showing Peter their garments. She made this for me.

She sewed this together for me. Through tears they're telling him of Dorcas' ministry and love for them. The church at Joppa was at an incredible loss.

Why? Did an elder die? No. A deacon? Gifted teacher?

No. A woman who owned a needle and made clothes for widows. There are three things that I learned from just sort of pulling up inside this funeral service here. Let me give you three quickly.

Number one, if you want your influence to last, put Jesus Christ first, people second, yourself last. That's not profound. You've heard that a thousand times before. But let's just refresh our memory through the illustration of this woman who could have sewn garments and sold them and made money. In fact, the text implies by its silence that she is a widow also.

And yet she was wealthy enough, evidently, to buy fabric and make these dresses. And now these women are standing there wearing the tangible evidence of her lasting influence. Second, people will remember you later, or excuse me, people will not remember you later for something you are not now. Do you want to be remembered as gracious? Are you gracious now? Do you want to be remembered as a loving, forgiving person?

Not perfect, but progressing, developing. If I should outlive you and preach your funeral, would you like me to remember you to the body of believers that come as a person committed to his church and involved? Are you that now? Do you want your family to remember you as enjoyable, faithful?

Are you that now? How would you be remembered? Third, live so that when death comes, the mourners outnumber the cheers. Verse 40, 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, she was probably startled, didn't know the man. He gave her his hand, raised her up, and calling the saints, among them the widows, he presented her alive. And it became known all over Joppa, many believed in the Lord.

Three things. You can trust him with your health. He, the great physician, has had thousands of years of experience with people.

He may choose for you sickness or health. I have a friend who walked off the edge of a cliff as a college student. In the dark, he was hiking with some friends, and he didn't know he was in danger.

He walked right off the edge and broke his back, and he's paralyzed from the waist down now. He's pastoring a church in Atlanta, Georgia. A testimony? In fact, we've had him come and speak in our church. He's still pastoring, by the way. Who trusted the Lord with his faith?

Whatever that meant. Second of all, you can trust him with your trials. He, the great comforter, often reveals his greatest treasures only after darkness comes. Have you discovered that?

Third, you can trust him with your life. He, the great shepherd, never loses his footing, whether he's leading you over a mountaintop of joy or through a deep valley of sorrow. Isn't it wonderful that God delights to work in and through people that would be considered lost causes? Is he still working miraculously today? Well, absolutely, ladies and gentlemen, restoring emotional health to people paralyzed with fear and mending broken hearts who've experienced the death of dreams, the miracle of regeneration as people come alive in him. He is the God of lost causes, like Simon Peter, like John Mark, like Rahab, like King David, like you and me.

As we yield to him our lives and we allow him to make the decisions and we submit to him, may it be. With that, we conclude not only this lesson, but this series. We spent the last several weeks working through the early chapters of the Book of Acts in a series Stephen Davey calls The Harvest Begins. It comes from our Vintage Wisdom Archives and was first taught back in 1996. If you missed any of the lessons along the way, all of them are available on our website. They're free and on demand. You'll find us online at wisdomonline.org. They're also on the Wisdom International smartphone app, which you can install from the iTunes or the Google Play stores. When we come back next time, we begin a series looking at some of the kings of the Old Testament. Join us for that here on Wisdom for the Heart.