We're looking this morning in
Acts chapter 9 at the raising of Dorcas and we're looking at
the healing of Ananias from his paralysis. But I thought we'd
open our service this morning in John chapter 11. The miracles in the Scriptures
are pictures of salvation. They're pictures that reveal
to us the glory of God. They reveal to us the sovereignty
of the Lord Jesus Christ. They reveal to us the particular
love He has for His people. And to you young people, while
you can still concentrate, four, five, five S's that describe
our saviour. And where the five S's aren't
declared, then the saviour is not declared in his glory. And
of course, the first one is he's sovereign. Our God rules over
all things. He's absolutely sovereign over
all events. And as we read John 11, we'll
see that he's sovereign. Our saviour is a successful saviour. He knows the end from the beginning.
He achieves all of His purposes, and He achieves them effortlessly.
He is, of course, the Saviour. You call His name Jesus, for
He will save His people from their sins. He is the substitute. He perfectly represents His people.
flesh of His flesh, bone of His bones. They were united to Him
in eternity. They're united to Him in their
lives in this world. They're united to Him around
the throne of grace in heaven right now and they're united
to Him and one with Him in the new creation. And the other word
that is so important about our Saviour that begins with S is
that He's a satisfied Saviour. He's satisfied. For the joy that
was set before Him, the Saviour went to the cross. So anything
that hints that our Saviour is not successful, sovereign, a
perfect and complete and successful substitute and He's now satisfied
is a denial. Denial of Him according to the
Scriptures. Let's just turn in our Bibles.
We can't read all of John 11 because I want you to come and
sit by the fire and enjoy Jenny's soup in a little while. Let's
read some of John chapter 11 and just mark the remarkable,
this remarkable event. And as I said earlier, the resurrection
of people from the dead, the resuscitation it is of Lazarus
because he then had to go on and die. But they are markers,
they're pictures of the way the Lord saves his people. They're
pictures of our resurrection from the dead. They're pictures
of the way the Lord works in the lives of his people in this
world now. So let's begin in John 11. Now
a certain man was sick, named Lazarus of Bethany, in the town
of Mary and her sister Martha. And this Mary is the one that
anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair,
whose brother Lazarus was sick. Therefore his sister sent unto
him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick. When
Jesus heard that, He said, This sickness is not unto death, but
for the glory of God, that the Son of Man might be glorified
thereby. So our Sovereign Saviour brings
these things into the lives of His people, that He would be
glorified by them. Now Jesus loved Martha and her
sister and Lazarus. And then this remarkable statement
in John 6. He loved them. He heard that they were in desperate
need. And when he heard, therefore, that he was sick, he stayed. He abode two days still in the
same place where he was. And eventually he does go. He
says in verse 14, Lazarus is dead. And then he says something
remarkable. I am glad for your sakes that
I was not there. to the intent that you may believe. Nevertheless, let us go unto
him. So he loved these people and
he stayed away until Lazarus had been dead four days, until
those two sisters, and no doubt the friends who loved them and
cared for them and were there with them, were despairing of
the love of the Lord Jesus Christ and his activity. And he comes
to them. The Lord Jesus came and he found
him who had lain in the grave for four days, verse 17. And Martha, Martha, verse 20,
and Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and
met him, but Mary sat still in the house. Then said Mary unto
Jesus, Lord, if thou hast been here, my brother had not died. But I know even now, whatever
you will ask of God, God will give it thee. And Jesus said
unto her, Thy brother shall rise again. And Martha said unto him,
I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last
day. Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me, though
he were dead, yet shall he live. And then this most remarkable
statement. Whosoever liveth and believeth
in me shall never die. whoever lives in Him and believes
in Him shall never die. And then she makes this statement,
this confession of faith, isn't it? So many people, when they
talk about their confession of faith, they're talking about
activities that they have done, decisions they've made. But what's
the confession in the scriptures, the consistent confession in
the scriptures? She said unto him, yes, Lord, verse 27, I believe
that thou art the Christ. the Son of God which should come
into the world." That's the Christian's confession.
That's the saving confession. I believe, I believe, not about
myself, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God. It's
the same confession that the Ethiopian eunuch made. Mary was
come, let's go down to verse 32, and Mary came to him. She
saw him, and she fell down at his feet, saying unto him, Lord,
if thou hast been here, my brother had not died. When Jesus therefore
saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping, which came with
her, he groaned in the spirit, and was troubled, and said, Where
have you laid him? Then they said unto him, Lord,
come and see. Jesus wept. Then said the Jews,
Behold how he loved him. And some of them said, Could
not this man which opened the eyes of the blind have caused
that even this man should not have died? Jesus therefore again
groaning in himself. When the Lord's people go through
trials and troubles, the Lord Jesus is intimately aware of
the trials that we're going through. He came to the grave, it was
a cave and a stone lay upon it. And Jesus said, take away the
stone. Martha, the sister of him that
was dead, said unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh, for
he has been dead four days. Jesus said unto her, said not
I unto thee, that if you would believe, You would see the glory
of God. If you would believe, you will
see the glory of God. Then they took away the stone
from the place where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up
his eyes and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me,
and I knew that thou hearest me always. But because of the
people which stand by, I said it. that they may believe that
thou hast sent me. And when he had thus spoken,
he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And he that was dead
came forth and bound hand and foot with grave clothes, and
his face was bound about with a napkin. And Jesus said unto
them, Loose him and let him go. That's the great declaration,
isn't it, of salvation. Loose him and let him go. Let
him have the freedom to come and worship me. But it's about
belief, isn't it? It's all about simply believing. I believe I believe that thou
art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world.
So don't forget, my friends, He's a sovereign God. All of
this was in His divine, sovereign purposes. He's a successful God
and a successful Saviour. He knows all the end from the
beginning. He is a Saviour. He saves His
people from sin, the death, the devil, the world, and He saves
us from ourselves. And he does it because he's a
successful substitute. And he's satisfied. He's satisfied
with all this. Okay, let's turn in our scriptures
to Acts chapter 9. and these remarkable stories. And you often wonder, I can understand
why the healing of Dorcas is laid out there before us because
it's a man raised from the dead and a remarkable fulfilment of
the promise of the Lord Jesus Christ that he said, greater
works than these will you disciples do because he goes to the Father. But I've often wondered why we
have this other story of the healing of Anais by Peter. So I'd like us to read these
two accounts and trust the Lord might guide and direct our thoughts. I've studied them and the more
I've studied them, the more delightful they have been. They are pictures
of the church. enjoying the rest that it had
in verse 31. There was a time of peace, just
a short time of peace, and in that time of peace, we now have
a picture of and story of Peter's journey, and it culminates, of
course, in the remarkable conversion of Cornelius in the next chapter,
and then subsequent to that, the persecution of the Jews and
the challenge of the Jews and the great debates about salvation. And so Peter's journey down to
these parts on the coast of the Mediterranean are significant
pointers. Let's just read verse 32. And
it came to pass, as Peter passed throughout all quarters, he came
down to the saints which dwelt at Lydda. And there he found
a certain man named Ananias, which had kept his bed eight
years and was sick of the palsy. He was paralysed. And Peter said
unto him, Anais, Jesus Christ maketh thee whole, arise and
make thy bed. And he rose immediately, and
all that dwelt at Lydda and Sarum saw him, and turned to the Lord. Let's ask the Lord's blessing
on His Word. Heavenly Father, we thank You
that You have promised to be the teacher of Your people. You
promised to reveal Your Son in Your Word to the hearts of Your
people in a way that causes us to simply find ourselves at rest
and being persuaded, as we just sang, that He, the Lord Jesus
Christ, is able to keep that which we have committed unto
Him. Call us, Heavenly Father, to commit our eternal souls and
all of the events of our lives between now and when we meet
Him in glory, to commit all of that into His hands, just trusting. a sovereign, successful Saviour
who loved His people and loved them to the end. We pray, Heavenly
Father, that He would be glorified in our time this morning and
You would speak to the hearts of Your people in ways which
are beyond the understanding and beyond the ability of men. We pray in Jesus' name. One thing
we need to always take note of when it comes to the miracle
stories in the Scriptures, the miracles Throughout the scriptures
if you actually take a broad view of redemptive history from
the time of Adam through until this day, you would find that
throughout the scriptures there are just seasons of miraculous
activity. There are just seasons of them.
We are inclined often to think, because of the claims of all
sorts of people these days, that unless something miraculous and
stupendous is happening, then the law does not at work. But
in redemptive history, miracles came in seasons. There are almost
no miracles recorded until Moses came and those great judgments
came upon the nation Israel and those great witnesses of the
glory of the Lord Jesus Christ as He brought those people out
and travelled with them for those 40 years and they lived in the
midst of a standing miracle for 40 years, those Jews. And the
Scriptures say that having had all of that witness and all of
those miracles, they died in unbelief. Their carcasses fell
in the desert. And then if you actually look,
think about the next chapters of the the scriptures, the next
unfolding of history, there are very, very few miraculous events. There are visitations of God
and there is His sovereign hand upon the armies of Egypt and
His sovereign hand upon individual people to do remarkable things. But the miracles are ceased until
we have the time of Elijah and Elisha. Those times there is
some more miracles and Elijah is the first man in recorded
history that we know to have raised someone from the dead
by the power of God and Elisha performed remarkable miracles. But then if you think about the
rest of redemptive history from that time for the next 700 years,
there are none. John the Baptist performed no
miracles. The miracles come at special
times and in special seasons. They come at the deliverance
of nation Israel and the creation of that nation and the bringing
of that nation into the promised land. They come at special times
to validate the Word of God, to say to people that these are
God's servants. They come to confirm the Word
of God. And in the scriptures we just
have a few miracles recorded. There were so many that the world
wouldn't contain all the books if they needed to be written
out fully. But there are just a few. My point is that the time
of miracles not that we want to limit the power of God to
do beyond what we can imagine, but the time of biblical miracles
essentially finished when the apostles wrote the last word. Hebrews chapter 2 talks about
this word that was, these miracles were given These were signs and
wonders, God, Hebrews 2.4, God also bearing them witness, both
with signs and wonders and with diverse miracles and gifts of
the Holy Spirit according to His own will. The miracles of
the apostles like the miracles of the Lord Jesus Christ and
the miracles of Elijah and Elisha are there to validate the Word
of God. They are there to validate what
these men said about the Lord Jesus Christ. They are there
to validate the activities of the Lord Jesus Christ. And Peter
could stand up in the day of Pentecost and say that the miracles
of the Lord Jesus Christ did were evident to all of you. They
bore witness to His glory. They bore witness in such a way
that they confirmed the Word of God, they confirmed the character
of God, and they caused believers to look to Him. If you look for
signs and miracles and wonders, you will be deceived. We look
to the Lord Jesus Christ. He does the most remarkable things
in this world. Beyond what we can possibly imagine,
His acts of providence and His acts of grace cause us to see
Him and see Him in His Word. He wants His people again and
again to be directed to what He says about Himself in His
Word and not to look at the things that we see through the eyes
of flesh. We are encouraged to look beyond
the miracle, even these miracles, look beyond them and look to
the Lord Jesus Christ. These are the Acts of the Lord
Jesus Christ. So let's go on Peter's journey.
What a remarkable journey it was. It came to pass as Peter,
verse 32, Acts chapter 9, passed throughout all quarters, he came
down also to the saints which dwelt at Lydda. It's a great
description of the Lord's children, isn't it? They are saints. It
means that they are holy ones. They are sanctified ones. They
are set-apart ones. This notion that somehow there
are special saints and they are special saints today is an absolute
nonsense according to the scriptures. We are looking, you are looking
at St. Angus and there is St. Simon
and St. Graham. And we ought to see,
that's what Peter was saying, he went down to the saints. The
saints are the sanctified ones, they are set apart ones, aren't
they? They are set apart by God. Jude 1 says that they are sanctified
by God the Father in electing grace before the world began. He set apart, He sanctified,
He set apart a people for Himself from all mankind. He set them
apart for His own holy purposes and uses. And then Hebrews 10
says that we are sanctified by God the Son. We are sanctified
in redemption by His sacrifice. At Calvary, the Son of God made
all of God's elect children holy. They were, at that point, perfectly
fit to enter Heaven's glory. And God the Father looks upon
these people that the Lord Jesus Christ has sanctified in redemption,
and He declares them to be holy. He that makes them holy and they
that are holy are all of one. That's what it is to be justified,
isn't it? To be justified is to be declared to be holy. to
be declared to be holy is to be declared to have absolutely
no sin before God. And then God, the Holy Spirit,
sanctifies the people, His people, these saints, in regeneration. He gives us a holy nature. It's Christ in us, the hope of
glory. And it's the great work of God,
the Holy Spirit, to come to the hearts of people and to reveal
Christ to them, but to reveal Christ in them. and it's all
a work of God. And Peter came, verse 33, the
saints, he came to these saints. Peter had one mission in life,
didn't he? He had a mission sent from Jerusalem. He had a mission to go and find
the saints, to go and find the sheep of God. And he comes. in this divine act of sovereignty,
he comes to a certain man. Amongst these believers, he came
to this certain man. He came down. He came down to
this coast, the saints that dwell at Midrah, and he found a certain
man. The grace of God always comes
to certain men. It's always purposeful. It's
always particular. It always has God's glory in
mind. Blessed, says Psalm 65 verse
4, blessed is the one that you chooses and cause to come to
you. God had caused these men like
Ananias and Dorcas to come to him. Ananias is typical. He pictures salvation,
doesn't he? Anais was helpless. He had eight years, eight years
of being paralyzed, eight years of being unable to walk for himself,
unable to do anything for himself, unable, didn't have the aids
that we have today. He spent eight years of helplessness. He had, like all men, been created
upright. But he's a picture of a fallen
man, isn't he? A man who is dead in trespasses
and sins. And he pictures redemption, he
pictures salvation because of what happens to him. There he
was, unable to do anything to help himself. God comes to those
who have no ability of themselves, no way of fending for themselves,
no way of doing anything. They're helpless. And the next
story about Dorcas shows someone who is particularly helpless.
This man is helpless. And what happens in salvation
to someone who is helpless? God comes. God comes. See, where God sends his servants,
the word of God comes. He comes with a word. Peter,
a word from God comes with power through Peter. And God speaks
to men's hearts and raises them from the bed of languishes and
raises them from the dead through the preaching of the gospel.
power of God unto salvation, the simple preaching of the Gospel,
it seems and is declared to be foolishness by this world and
by the people of this world. But God says it's the power of
God. You cannot be saved unless a word of God comes, unless the
Gospel is preached. by man. And when men hear these
words, hear the words of the Lord Jesus Christ, it's as if
they hear the words of God himself. You must have God come and speak
personally to you for you to be saved. Listen to how the Lord
Jesus described this in John 6.44. He says, And they shall all be taught
of God. I think that for me that is one
of the most comforting phrases in all of scripture. God has
promised to be the teacher of his people. They shall all be
taught of God. And what happens when they're
taught of God? When God teaches them, if you read on in John
6.45, every man therefore that has heard and has learned of
the Father, what do they do? If they hear the voice of the
shepherd, as John 10 describes him, that voice that is distinct
from all the other voices in the world, if they hear that
voice and they have learned of the Father, they come to Him. They come to Him. And Peter,
met with this man, this man who's a cripple, this man who'd been
eight years lying there. And Peter said unto him, Anaeus,
Anaeus. Jesus Christ maketh thee whole. That's what happens when the
Word of God comes with power to people, isn't it? When Jesus
Christ speaks to someone and Jesus Christ comes in the power
of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God becomes spirit and life
to people, you are made whole, made whole, made complete, healed,
healed. Jesus Christ makes you whole. Jesus Christ doesn't set you
on a path so that you can make yourself whole. Jesus Christ
doesn't offer you wholeness. Jesus Christ makes you whole. He makes his people complete
and perfect. And Ananias, and he gives faith,
doesn't he? Ananias believed, and he arose. Peter says, arise. See, Peter, people say, well,
God won't ask you to do something that's impossible for you to
do. Throughout the Scriptures, God is asking, the Lord Jesus
Christ is asking people to do what is impossible for them to
do. Stretch out your hand, he says to the man with the withered
hand. Take up your bed and walk, he says to another. We've just
read that he spoke to Lazarus and said, Lazarus, come forth.
A dead man, when the Lord Jesus Christ speaks, he speaks with
the power of a sovereign God, and he creates faith. Anais believes
the word of God, and he arose immediately. He arose immediately,
and Peter says to him, and make your bed. Make your bed. Do now what others are being
do. Spread your bed out for yourself,
he says to him. You make your own bed. Your bed's
been made by these other people for these eight years. Now you've
been made whole. You make your own bed. And he
arose immediately. He arose immediately. These pictures
of miracles, the pictures of salvation, I love what someone
wrote, it is impossible, it is impossible for a sinner to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and not be saved by him. It's impossible for a sinner
to hear the word of God as the word of God, as spirit and life,
and not have spirit and life. And what happens as a result
of this? The Word of God was spread and all that dwelt in
verse 35, all that dwelt in Lyra and Saron saw him and turned
to the Lord. They heard Peter and they saw
Ananias, and they followed the Lord Jesus Christ. I love what
John the Baptist, the testimony at the end of John the Baptist's
life, isn't it? His disciples, they heard John and they followed
Jesus. They heard John and they followed
Jesus. Let's go on. in our verses to
these next words. Dorcas, raised from the dead.
Now there was a Joppa, don't forget they were called saints,
but Ananias was a certain man, and Joppa was a certain disciple
named Tabitha, which by interpretation is called Dorcas. The name means
doe. It's a description of the Shulamite
in the Song of Solomon. It's also a description of Solomon
in the Song of Solomon. It's a description of both the
Lord and of his bride. This woman was full of good works. and arms did which she did. And
it came to pass in those days that she was sick and died, whom
when they had washed, they laid her in an upper chamber. For
as much as Lydda was nigh to Joppa, and the disciples had
heard that Peter was there, they sent unto him two men, desiring
him that he would not delay to come to them. We're not sure
that they were expecting Peter to perform some miracle. They
maybe just wanted Peter to be there in the midst of the distress
that this woman who was so esteemed amongst them had just died and
that Peter was called to be a comfort to the disciples. Verse 39, Then
Peter arose and went with them, and when he was come, They brought
him into the upper chamber, and all the widows stood by him weeping
and showed the coats and the garments which Dorcas made while
she was with them. She was a disciple. A disciple
means to be a learner. God's disciples are zealous for
good works. God's disciples are longing for
the Lord to use them in His service, not as some way of earning their
way to salvation. but they are as willing servants. They've had their ear bored through
on the doorpost. They love their master, they
love their wife, they love their children, and they love to be
used in his service. And the Holy Spirit, brothers
and sisters, records her deeds. He records the deeds He says
in 1 Corinthians 15 that our labour in the Lord is not in
vain. There is nothing empty about the labour in the Lord.
Our deeds, our lives are recorded. Dorcas died in faith. And Peter, verse 39, arose and
went with them. And when he was come, they brought
him into the upper chamber, and all the widows stood by him,
weeping, and showing the coats and garments which Dorcas made
while she was with them. It must have been a heart-wrenching
scene for this lady to have been taken from them when she had
been so much loved and so much one who loved others, and she
was removed from them. And a bit like the Lord Jesus
Christ and those people at the tomb of Lazarus, there is a serious
heartfelt weeping for the children of God when one's taken from
us. We don't despair like the rest
of men who have no hope, but there's a reality to the sadness
of people being taken from us. She died in faith, and here we
have this remarkable miracle. Peter put them all forth. He put them all out. Peter wasn't
going to be involved in some exhibitionist activity. Also,
it's a picture of salvation, isn't it? That raising dead sinners
to life is a personal, private matter. It's a personal, private
matter between you and God. I can't see your hearts, but
God sees your hearts right now. He who sees the hearts of people
knows how to speak to their hearts. It becomes, it always begins
as personal. It's just purely a matter, purely
a matter between you personally and God personally. Which is
why we keep saying, listen to the gospel and go and talk to
him. Go and talk to Him. He is the only one who can speak
peace to the hearts of people. It is not my job, it's not my
task, nor is it within my ability to speak peace to people. But
when He speaks peace to your heart, that's the peace that
passes understanding. And that's a peace that He will
reinforce again and again and again through His Word. So it
begins as a private matter. It does become public as God's
people confess in Believer's Baptism. The Peter put them all
out. Then he kneeled down. He was
humbled, wasn't he? Peter didn't have any power within
himself and he knew that if anything was going to happen, if anything
spiritual good is going to happen, God must be the author of it.
God must be the enabler of it. God must be the one who gets
all the glory for it. He prayed. Peter had no power
in himself and he prayed. And then he speaks. And he does
something which is quite remarkable. He speaks to a dead person. He
speaks to her that was dead. He spoke to a body. He spoke
to a body. He spoke to something that was
completely dead. You might remember Ezekiel in
Ezekiel 37, the prophet is told, you go and speak. There's this
valley of dry bones and the bones were very, very dry. dried and
bleached and you go and speak to those bones. You go and do
something which is impossible and looks foolish in the eyes
of men. You speak and that great army,
that great mighty army, the bones came one to another and you speak
again and the Spirit came into them and they had life. It's
a picture of God's salvation of his people. You speak to dead
sinners. Sinners are born spiritually
dead. They are all born dead in trespasses
and sins. There is no way that you can
convince them into the Kingdom of Heaven. They must be just
spoken to by the Gospel. God must speak to them. He spoke
to a body, but also there is a speaking which is specific,
isn't it? He spoke to a body and said, Tabitha, arise. Just as the Lord Jesus said,
Lazarus, come forth. If the Lord Jesus just said,
come forth, all the bodies in all the graves in all of the
world would have come forth, which is exactly what's gonna
happen at this last day. When the Lord Jesus Christ comes
back, there will just be a word from heaven and all of the bodies
in all of the graves throughout all of time will rise again. He spoke to a body. He spoke
to that which was dead, and he spoke specifically to her. Tabitha, arise. See, with the word of God, when
God sends a word, which is what he does when he sends his appointed
apostles and prophets and preachers, when the word of God comes, it
comes with the power to perform. He says, arise. And she opened
her eyes, and when she saw Peter, she sat up. Tabitha, arise. To the dead there is now life. You arise. I love thinking of
those stories of the blind people that the Lord Jesus Christ healed.
It's a specific miracle that was reserved for the Messiah,
that he would open the eyes of the blind. And those men that
had been blind for all of those years, what a remarkable thing,
when they had a word and a touch from the Lord Jesus Christ, the
first thing they see is Him. When God gives sight to the blind
and raises the dead, the first thing they see is Him. He captivates all of their vision. And Peter gave her... Very agricultural this morning.
And Peter gave her his hand. It's a picture of fellowship,
isn't it? Of oneness with her. And he lifted
her up. He lifted her up. And when he
had called the saints and widows, he presented her alive. What
a great picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. He comes to the dead. He speaks personally to them.
He says, arise. He takes them by the hand. He
joins them with the other saints, and he presents them alive. That's
his work now, brothers and sisters, isn't it? He's still doing the
same. He doesn't change at all. And it was known throughout all
Joppa, and many believed in the Lord. The purpose of the miracles
in the scriptures is that people would have faith. They would
see that He who promised is faithful, and He will do it. And many believed
in the Lord. And the end result of it is that
Simon stayed many days with them. That fellowship, that sweet fellowship,
was many days. And he stayed with one Simon
the Tanner. And Simon the Tanner will become
famous. Famous again in these next chapters
that we look at. I wanted to finish by just looking
briefly, and I trust that the Lord might cause you to go away
and look in great detail. I want to look briefly at a couple
of the raising from the dead stories in the Old Testament.
The very first one is one that we mentioned earlier, the widow
of Zarathustra. And this is a story that the
Lord Jesus Christ preached about in Nazareth. He said there were
many widows in those days, in the days of Elijah. But the word
of the Lord came to this particular woman. He was talking about the
particularity of sovereign grace and the successfulness of sovereign
grace. The Lord will have those that he loves. He'll have them
to himself and he'll have them restored to fellowship. He'll
bring them to life. and He'll bring them to Himself.
And then He went on to talk about the story of Naaman the Syrian.
There were stacks of lepers in Israel in those days. But God,
the Word of God and the healing of God came to one particular
one. The result of proclaiming this
story to the people that He had lived with for 30 years in Nazareth
was that they wanted to take Him outside and stone Him to
death. So it's a powerful story. We'll
just look at it in brief. But this widow, Elijah was sent.
This is in the middle of this drought. It's probably by the
reckoning of people who have done the mathematics on it. It
was probably 18 months into a three and a half year drought. So Elijah's
little stream had dried up and the food that the crows were
supplying him had dried up and he was sent to this widow and
the widow was there at the point of death. and she was out getting
some sticks, just to make one last, in 1 Kings chapter 17. She was out there, verse 10,
she was gathering sticks. And Elijah comes to her and he
says, fetch me, I pray thee, a little water in a vessel that
I may drink. And as she was going to fetch it, he called her and
said, bring me, I pray, a morsel of bread in thine hand. And she
said, as the Lord thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but a handful
of meal in a barrel and a little oil in a cruz. And behold, I
am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for
me and my son, that we may eat it and die. The word of God comes
to sinners when they're in desperate need and about to die. and Elijah said unto her, Fear
not, and go and do as thou hast said, but make me thereof a little
cake first, and bring it unto me, and make for thee and for
thy son. For thus saith the Lord God of
Israel, The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the
crews of oil fail, until the day the Lord sends rain on the
earth. And she went and did according
to the saying of Elijah. And she and he and her house
did eat many days. And it seems as if for the next
two years Elijah lived with them. And she had a son, verse 17. And it came to pass after these
things that the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, fell
sick. And his sickness was so sore
that there was no breath left in him. He was dead like Tabitha. And she said to Elijah, What
have I to do with thee, O thou man of God? Art thou come unto
me to call my sin to remembrance and slay my son?" And this is
his first resuscitation from the dead. And he said to her,
give me your son. He takes the son to be one with
himself and he took him out of her bosom and he carried him
into the loft. and where he abode, and he laid
him on his own bed, and he cried unto the Lord, and said, O Lord
my God, hast thou also brought evil upon the woman with whom
I sojourned by slaying her son? This is remarkable. It happens
to Elisha in 2 Kings 4. And he stretched himself upon
the child three times and cried unto the Lord and said, O Lord,
my God, I pray Thee, let this child's soul come into him again. And the Lord heard the voice
of Elijah, and the soul of the child came into him again, and
he revived. And Elijah took the child and
brought him down out of the chamber into the house, and delivered
him unto his mother. And Elijah said, See, thy son
liveth. And the woman said, this is the
result of the miracle, isn't it? This is the effect and the
reason for these miracles. The woman said to Elijah, now
by this I know that thou art a man of God and that the word
of the Lord in thy mouth is true. Is truth. Is truth. God cannot
lie. It's a glorious picture isn't
it? It's a glorious picture and I'd like you to turn just briefly
in 2nd Kings and we'll finish there in 2nd Kings chapter 4.
One of the things I wanted you to see in these resuscitation
miracles as with the man who was paralysed, as with Tabitha,
is that not only are we raised from the dead to newness of life
in conversion, but God works in the hearts of His people to
raise us from our crippled state, from our dead state, to restore
us to fellowship with Him and restore us to fellowship with
His people. In 2 Kings 4 we have the story
of the Shunammite. You see that she showed great
kindness, in verse 8 it begins, she showed great kindness to
Elisha and provided a room for him, a little chamber. Elisha
was still at this time with his servant Gehazi. And then he says, and he calls her to himself,
he says, verse 14, he says, what then is to be done for her? She's
been very kind to us, what shall we do for her? And he called
her, verse 15. Call her, and when he called
her, she stood in the door and he said, about this season, according
to the time of life, thou shalt embrace the son. And she said,
no, my lord, thou man of God, do not lie unto thine handmaiden. These women in distress in the
scriptures, wherever we find them, Pictures of the Church
of God. What a great statement from the
Church of God to God's pictures. Don't lie to me. Just tell me
the truth. No matter what it is, don't tell
me a lie. And the woman conceived and bare
a son at the season that Elisha had said unto her, according
to the time of life. And when the child was grown,
it fell on a day, and he went out with his father to the reapers.
And he said unto his father, My head, my head. And he said
to the lad, Carry him to his mother. And when he had taken
him, he brought him to his mother, and he sat on her knees till
noon, and then died. And she went up and laid him
on the bed of the man of God and shut the door upon him and
went out. And the rest of that story is
her running to Elisha, running to him. She leaves her dead child
to go to the prophet. She leaves her dead child to
go to the word of God. And she clings, verse 30, and
she clings. And the mother of the child said,
As the Lord liveth and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave
thee. So he arose and he followed her. And then we have this remarkable
miracle in verse 32. was come into the house, behold,
the child was dead and laid upon his bed. And he went in therefore
and shut the door upon the two of them, just like Peter did,
and prayed unto the Lord, just as Peter did with Tabitha. And
he went up and he lay upon the child. This is a beautiful picture
of the Lord Jesus Christ and his union with his people. He
lay upon the child, and put his mouth upon his mouth, and his
eyes upon his eyes, and his hands upon his hands, and he stretched
himself upon the child, and the flesh of the child waxed warm. And he returned and walked into
the house to and fro, and he went up and stretched himself
upon him. Just as Elijah did, he stretched
himself upon him. And the child sneezed seven times
and the child's eyes were opened. And he called Gahazi and called
the Shunammite and he called her and she was come in unto
him and he said, take up thy son. Then she went in and fell
at his feet and bowed herself to the ground and took up her
son and went out. There are pictures of life from
the dead, aren't they? There are pictures of life from
the dead that are pictures of the Lord Jesus Christ. It says
that He is bone of our bones and flesh of our flesh. So united
to us is the Lord Jesus Christ. that He puts His mouth upon our
mouth and gives us the words, words from God that we might
speak words of God. Eyes to eyes, He causes us to
have our eyes open to see Him in His glory, to open the blind
eyes. And He causes His hands to be
at one with our hands, His body at one with our body. and he
warms the flesh and he revitalises and creates life where there
was death. They're glorious pictures, and
I trust the Lord will cause you to go home and study them in
more detail and ask to see him, but they are pictures of salvation,
aren't they? That he comes, he comes to certain
people and he brings life where there was death. He creates hope
where there was no hope. But also, if we go back to Acts
chapter 31, there are, they are pictures, Acts 9 verse They are pictures, I believe, of the
fact that the Lord's people walk through this world and so often
we feel dead. We are dead to the things of
God. And one of the great things about
true faith is that we can be honest with ourselves and honest
with God about the fact that life So often, like the paralyzed
man, we spend seemingly years unable to walk and do anything
for ourselves. And so often, like Tabitha, we
are dead. We are dead to the things of
God. We are dead to the things that
should cause us to be so thrilled. What a remarkable passage of
scripture he read in John 11. What ridiculous promises. What
extraordinary promises. They cannot be believed but by
the eyes of faith that the Lord Jesus Christ is going to come
and that great trumpet will sound and the dead will rise and all
of the Lord's people will be caught up together with Him in
the air and we will live with the Lord forever and this creation
will be gone and will not be remembered and a new creation
will be here which will be the home of the righteous. In fact,
in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, if those things are not true,
the apostle is saying, let's all go down to the beach or the
pub, let's eat, drink, and be merry. These things aren't true. We are the most foolish people
in all the world. These things are written in the
Word of God. We cannot lie. They are true. The Lord Jesus
Christ comes. He comes in that resurrection
power into the lives of his people. They have the life of God in
their souls. He takes up residence in his
people and our hope, the glorious hope of God's people is that
what he has begun is the work that he will continue. But in
this life, so often we find ourselves like that man paralyzed. We find ourselves like Peter,
don't we? We have a promise from God. You
can hop out of the boat and come to me on the water. And we look
to the Lord Jesus Christ and we walk across the waves. And
then the trials of life and the vagaries of our flesh cause us
to look at the waves and not look at the Lord Jesus and we
sink. And we cry out again and again,
Lord save me, Lord save me. It's a cry of God's people. We
know that God's people were saved in eternity, saved at the cross.
But we cry out again, Lord come and save me. Lord come and create
life where there is no life. God's children in this world
walk through trials. You read the story of the saints
and there are trials and trials. Peter will have his falls and
Peter will have his restorations. Paul will have his falls and
Paul will have his restorations. And God will come and he restores
his people as he restored Ananias, as he restored Dorcas, as he
restored those two young men. He comes with a word from God. and he creates life again. Lord save me. The Lord's children
in this world are going through trials. Job said that when I've
been tested, I'll come forth as gold. We'll have our trials,
and the Lord will come through the preaching of the gospel.
He'll come to revive those dead bones, that languishing faith. And he will create only what
he can create. The Lord make you whole, he said
to Anais. The Lord make you holy. The Lord
revive you. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father,
we do thank you for the wonders of redeeming love and we thank
you for the pictures of salvation in the miracles that are recorded
for us in the Scriptures, Heavenly Father. Miracles that show us
yet again the depth of the Lord's love for his people, the depths
of the power and the wonder of the Word of God that comes to
your people comes to their hearts in times of their needs, in times
when they're not even aware of their needs and it comes with
power and conviction and reminds us yet again that our God reigns
and that all of the Lord's people are held in His arms and carried
by Him close to His heart and they're carried by Him through
the trials of this life. And you leave in the midst of
your people and afflicted people, Heavenly Father, your people
suffer all the vagaries and the troubles that other people in
this world suffer. And we suffer spiritually, Heavenly
Father, feeling the depth of our sin, the depth of our lethargy,
the patheticness of our love for Him who has loved us so much.
And we long, Heavenly Father, for you to come as you promised
your people, and to revive them, and to restore them, and to bring
them into fellowship, and to do it in such a way, Heavenly
Father, that your people are caused to walk in faith and not
in sight. We praise you, Heavenly Father,
for the glorious gospel of your dear and precious Son, who shed
his life's blood for us because he was united to us in eternity,
and we were one with him. and we were put to death with
him on Calvary's tree and we've been buried with him and raised
with him to newness of life. And Heavenly Father, we pray
that as we take these elements that remind us of that shed blood,
that precious blood of that lamb without spot and blemish, and
that broken body, that we might be reminded yet again, Heavenly
Father, that our Saviour reigns. Our Saviour restores. Our Saviour began a work in eternity,
and it must be finished in time. Heavenly Father, give us the
grace to simply walk by faith and encourage each other with
the words of our dear and precious Saviour. We pray in his name.
Amen.