"Lord of the Body" Sermon: Acts 9:37-43

“Lord of the Body”
[Acts 9:37-43]
January 31, 2010 Second Reformed Church

Diabetes, osteoporosis, hypertension, various types of cancer, sarcoidosis, illnesses of the eyes, illnesses of the ears, illnesses of the skin – these are some of the diseases and illnesses that we – in this congregation – have suffered. And we have prayed and continue to pray for each other – for healing, for deliverance, for strength to persevere. And sometimes we find ourselves asking if it isn’t all so futile: Don’t we see suffering from illness more than healing? Don’t we experience the surgeon’s knife more than spontaneous healing? Aren’t we tempted, as we hear Scriptures like the one that was read this morning, to ask where God is now? Why doesn’t God do that for me now?

Last week we saw Saul led by the brothers to the port of Caesarea to escape from the Jews that were seeking to kill him and to go back to his hometown of Tarsus in Turkey. Luke now tells us about what Peter has been doing, and we find him preaching the Gospel in Lydda, which is also along the Mediterranean coast.

Peter found a man there named Aeneas who had been paralyzed for eight years. And Peter said, “Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you; rise and make your bed.” Notice, Peter did not claim to have any power or ability in himself to heal. He was informed by the Holy Spirit that Jesus would heal Aeneas, so Peter commanded Aeneas in the Name of Jesus Christ – the Lord of the Body – to be healed – to get out of his bed. And immediately he was healed. He was no longer paralyzed. He stood up – and all of the residents of Lydda and Sharon saw him, and they believe in Jesus savingly and repented of their sins.

Peter then went to the nearby town of Joppa where a disciple – a Christian – named Tabitha (in Aramaic) or Dorcas (in Greek) – in Joppa both languages were spoken. She was a good woman, full of good works and charity. She was the kind of woman who was always willing to volunteer – always doing all that she could to help out her brothers and sisters. She was especially skilled at sewing and creating garments, which she gave to any who had need. But she got ill and died. So, they prepared her body and lay her out in an upstairs room.

Some of the disciples who were there remembered that Elijah had raised the dead, and Jesus had raised the dead, and they prayed that Peter would also be able, as a servant of Jesus, to raise Dorcas. So they sent two men to Lydda to get him and bring him to her before she ended up being buried. They understood that death is not a natural occurrence – death is a result of sin – it is the last enemy that Jesus will one day banish to Hell. So, they went in the hopes that this evil could be reversed – for now.

Peter arrived and found the funeral service underway – the widows had been hired and were weeping and wailing in the upstairs room. Those who knew Dorcas were showing each other the clothes that she had made for them. But Peter asked them all to leave the room. And he prayed to know if it was the Will of God that she be raised at this time, and God told him, “yes.”

So Peter looked at her body and commanded her, “Tabitha, arise.” And her eyes opened, and she saw Peter, and he gave her his hand and raised her up. And he presented her to the saints and the widows. Her resurrection became known through all of Joppa, and many believed savingly in Jesus, repenting of their sins.

And again, we do well to notice that Peter did not simply march in and heal her – as though it was something he could do in his own power. No, he prayed and sought God’s guidance about whether or not this was the Will of God – something that God intended to do – before he proclaimed, in the Name of God, that she was to rise from the dead.

It should not surprise us to see that Jesus is Lord of the Body and can heal anyone of anything, if He so wills. For Paul wrote, “[Jesus] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities – all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together” (Colossians 1:15-17, ESV). Jesus, God the Son, is Lord of the Body, because He created our bodies and they function as He allows them to function.

But, still, that doesn’t answer the question, does it? Why did Jesus heal some people and not others? Why did God allow the disciples and apostles to heal some people and not others? Why does God hear our prayers today and heal some but not others? And let us understand that God is behind all healing, whether it is spontaneous like in this morning’s reading or through medical intervention – no one could be healed if God did not want the healing to occur. So, why some and not others?

The biggest part of the problem can be answered in understanding that we have been asking the wrong question. The question is not “Why does God heal some and not others?” The question is “Why does God heal any?” In our sin and selfishness we say that God is Good and God is All-Powerful (which are true), therefore, He must heal me – or my loved one – when I pray. Not so.

It’s understandable given our entitlement society that we should think that way – our youth and even some of our adults believe that if we exist, we are entitled to receive a whole slew of benefits from God and man for doing absolutely nothing. This horrific way of thinking is even in the Church – there are more and more teaching that worship is about receiving whatever makes you feel good – we come to worship and expected to be stroked and patted on the head and told how good we are.

Brothers and sisters, while it is true that we benefit from worship, the worship of God is about declaring the Worth of God. We come to worship to declare and learn about how great God is – how worthy – how majestic – how holy – how glorious. Worship is about Him – not you or me. I am not hear to please you and me; I have been called to stand and announce the Word and the Will of God, and then we are all to respond accordingly.

What does the Scripture tell us about our condition? What do we deserve from God?

God told Adam and Eve, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die” (Genesis 2:16b-17, ESV). So, what did our first parents do? They ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And what did God do? Did Adam and Eve die that day? Partially – God showed them mercy, and though they died spiritually that day, God postponed their physical death for some eight or nine hundred years.

The Law has not changed, “For the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23a, ESV). Have any of you sinned? If we have sinned, we ought to die. That is the Law. But God shows us mercy, too. We are born dead spiritually, but God postpones our physical death – which, after Noah, God said would average one hundred and twenty years. Yet, God has given us more than mercy – He has given us His Grace: “the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23b, ESV). Through Jesus Christ, we who believe are given eternal life – we are made spiritually alive, and we will never spiritually die again. But our body still suffers in this lifetime.

So, asking the biblical question, “Why does God heal any – when we are all sinners, deserving of immediate and eternal death?” God heals some – instantly or through medical intervention – because it pleases God to do so. That is the only explanation we are given in the Scripture. God, in His Mercy, chooses to heal some through various means, because it pleases Him.

Although we may anguish and mourn physical suffering on earth, we have no cause of action against God because He does not heal all – or heal in our time or as we desire Him to heal. What we do encounter is that God heals some – though none deserve it – and that ought to amaze us and cause us to praise and worship Him for His Incomprehensible Mercy.

So, what ought we do – we who are suffering – we who have loved ones who are suffering?

Hear what James wrote, “Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven” (James 5:13-15, ESV).

What is James telling us? James is telling us that is someone is sick or suffering, it is right for us to pray to God that he or she be healed. We are also told that we are to call for the elders to anoint the sick and pray over them. Why? Is oil a magic cure-all? Of course not. We anoint with oil on Ash Wednesday, but it is not magic. Anointing symbolizes being set apart. It reminds us and those that we pray for that we are set apart for God Who alone can heal us if He is willing, which is the third thing James tells us: if we pray “the prayer of faith,” that is, if our prayer is according to the Will of God, God will do it. As we have seen before, prayer is not magic, it is about aligning ourselves more and more with the Will and the Mind of God. God will already do whatever God has planned, but He calls us to pray that we might become more like Him and understand that He Alone is Sovereign.

Another lesson we need to take with us into suffering and illness – before it occurs, if possible, is, as Paul wrote, “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Romans 8:18, ESV). We have considered the myriad of ways in which Paul suffered, and he says that compared with the glory that God will bring us into when His Kingdom has fully come – this is nothing.

Understand, Paul is not saying that we should experience the death of a loved one and just shrug it off and say, “Oh, well, what’s coming is even greater.” No, we are to pray and struggle and mourn, but we are not to despair, because this is not the end; there is a day of resurrection when we shall all be raised to be received into the Kingdom or to be cast into the lake of fire.

Paul wrote, “For we know that if the tent [our body], which is our earthly home, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened – not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee” (II Corinthians 5:1-5, ESV).

In other words, we are born with a body – a body that falls apart. And the day will come when our body dies and our soul will be given a new, eternal body. We will not remain a naked soul, but we will have a perfect body, just like Jesus’ after the Resurrection.

Again, Paul wrote, “So it is with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. Thus is it written, ‘The first man Adam became a living being’; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven” (I Corinthians 15:42-49, ESV).

In other words, just like our father, Adam, died in his body, we will die in our bodies. Yet, all we who believe in Jesus Alone will be raised from the dead, just like Jesus was raised from the dead and given a body just like His Body. And what kind of body will that be? It will be a perfect body that cannot decay or become ill; it is a physical body that can be touched and eat – just like Jesus’ Body.

What will our body look like? Will we be recognizable? Job said, “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, who I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me ” (Job 19:25-27, ESV).

We know from the Gospels that Jesus was not instantly recognizable in His Resurrected Body. But Job tells us that it is this body – the very body that we have lived this life on earth as – this body is the body that will be resurrected and perfected. It will be changed – perfected, glorified, made holy – so there will be differences, but it will be this same body. You will be you and I will be me.

Does God intercede and heal people without medical intervention today? Yes. We all know of people that have been healed and the doctors have no explanation for it. So what shall we do?

We ought to pray for those who are suffering and ill, anointing them, if they are willing and we are able. We are to ask God to help us to receive whatever answer He gives to our prayers, whether He heals or says, “wait,” or “no.” And we are to remember and look forward with great hope and expectancy for the day when Jesus returns and raises the dead and gives all those who have believed in Him holy and eternal bodies just like His.

We ought to be in prayer every day and as often as God brings people to our minds, remembering that God can heal if God wills, because He is Lord of the Body. But we do not know the depths of the Mind of God, so let us always have before us His Promise of a new body when He brings the new heavens and the new earth.

Let us pray:
Almighty God, Creator and Sustainer of the Body, our Great Physician, help us not to be discouraged in our prayers for the sick and the suffering, but let us pray fervently and in faith, submitting ourselves to Your Holy Will. And raise up in us the fires of hope that sees the truth of the day coming when our bodies are made whole and holy. For it is in Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen.