October 11, 2026 - The Way: Acts 9:32-42

Welcome to the Fort St.

John Alliance Church Sermon Podcast.

I'm Aaron Peters, the Executive Ministry Director.

We're so glad you've joined us today.

Our desire is to become a community of people who practice the way of Jesus together and through the empowering of the Holy Spirit, live on mission to meet the social and spiritual needs of the world around us.

Each week we gather as a community to worship, learn from God's Word, and be encouraged in our walk with Christ.

In this podcast, you'll hear the latest message from our Sunday service.

Whether you're listening from right here in Fort St.

John or from afar, our prayer is that God will speak to your heart and strengthen your faith.

Let's lean in together as we hear today's sermon.

Good morning.

How are we?

Good.

My name's Red.

I'm going to be reading Acts 9, verses 32 to 42.

Acts 9:32–42

As Peter traveled about the country, he went to visit the Lord's people who lived in Lydda.

There he found a man named Aeneas.

He was paralyzed and had been bedridden for eight years.

Aeneas, Peter said to him, Jesus Christ heals you.

Get up and roll up your mat.

Immediately Aeneas got up.

All those who lived in Lydda and Sharon saw him and turned to the Lord.

In Droppa, there was a disciple named Tabitha.

In Greek, her name is Dorcas.

She was always doing good and helping the poor.

About that time, she became sick and died.

And her body was washed and placed in an upstairs room.

Lydda was near Joppa.

So when the disciples heard that Peter was in Lydda, they sent two men to him and urged him, please come at once.

Peter went with them.

And when he arrived, he was taken upstairs to the room.

All the widows stood around him, crying and showing him the robes and other clothing that Dorcas had made while she was still with them.

Peter sent them all out of the room, and he got down on his hands and knees and prayed.

Turning toward the dead woman, he said, Tabitha, get up.

He took her by the hand, sorry, she opened her eyes, and seeing Peter, she sat up.

He took her by the hand and helped her to her feet.

Then he called for the believers, especially the widows, and presented her to them alive.

This became known all over Droppa, and many people believed in the Lord.

You guys can grab a seat.

Thank you, Red, for doing the reading this morning.

Well, good morning again to everybody.

It feels like there's a lot of people here this morning.

So I love photography.

If you don't know me, I love doing photography, whether it's you know just for fun.

I've done it for the church a couple times, I've done it for a couple people, but I love getting out into nature and capturing the beauty of our world.

There's so much to learn about photography, though.

There's so much that can be learned to actually help you take a good picture, right?

Everybody can pick up a camera, take some shots, but there's a lot of learning into getting like the perfect shot.

You can watch videos about composition, learning what aperture does if you don't know what that means, understanding what shutter speed does, how that changes what the picture looks like, changing the ISO of a camera so that it gets just the right lighting, and even learning what all the different lenses are for.

Because I don't know if you've gone into a store that has anything to do with photography, but there's hundreds of lenses that you can pick from.

Learning what each lens does.

There's a ton of information to pay attention to.

There's so many things with photography.

But eventually, as you learn things, you can pick up a camera and go for it.

You can actually try things out.

And when you do that, you discover where everything that you're learning comes into play.

Right?

You start figuring out all this is what all these different things mean, this is what it practically looks like.

For instance, I've been trying so hard to get good shots of the Northern Lights.

And if you've never tried to get a picture of the Northern Lights, it's incredibly difficult.

So I have done a ton of research.

I've tried to figure out, okay, what are all the different settings that I need to do, what kind of gear do I need to have, what kind what kind of tripod is even the best?

How do I make sure that like I don't press the button and it immediately makes the whole thing blurry?

I've done so much research.

And I've I've also done research into what are the best locations, because there's different places that are better than others, both around Fort St.

John and Grand Prairie.

I have researched like everything that I possibly could for this.

And eventually it came time that I actually needed to try it out.

The first time that I went out to do photography of northern lights, it did not go well.

The pictures were super blurry because I didn't realize that I needed to set a timer before the shutter started to go.

And they were super grainy.

I was like, you can kind of tell that those are northern lights, but also it could just be like a streak of something across the sky or like lights from the city.

It did not turn out well.

So I learned, as I as I went, I learned more.

And I began to figure out how to tweak the settings.

And as I began doing it more and more, I learned and I figured out how to do it better.

And as I've done more, it's starting to get easier.

So I'm by no means am I a professional photographer, but it's gotten easier.

As I've gone out to do photography, and as I've gone out specifically to do Northern Lights, it's been easier to be like, okay, this is the little setting that I need to change, this is what I need to tweak.

I've been learning how to put things into practice that I have been figuring out and learning, researching online.

I've gone from knowing how things are supposed to work to actually being able to do the things that are supposed to work.

And I wonder if sometimes something similar happens when we follow Jesus.

Because following Jesus isn't simply about learning what Jesus said.

It's not simply about doing research into the Bible, research about all these things, reading all of the different books that you can get, because there's thousands of books about the Bible.

It's not just simply learning about it.

It's about spending time with Jesus, learning his way, and becoming like him, and eventually beginning to actually live like he did.

So last week, Dan walked us through a couple of verses that were before what we're talking about this morning, and we watched this incredible transformation happen with Saul.

He encountered Jesus, and his life gets reordered around Jesus.

And almost immediately he begins telling people about Jesus.

And Dan challenged us with this idea that we haven't simply received good news, we've actually been entrusted with good news.

Following Jesus means participating in a mission.

We're called to be witnesses to live among the people God has placed us around who have been transformed by Jesus.

So this morning we're gonna dive into the next section of Acts 9.

And Luke doesn't leave that idea behind of being transformed and living on mission.

So if you have a Bible with you, I'd invite you to turn to Acts 9.

We're gonna be starting in verse 32.

But before I read, here Luke changes character.

So last week we were talking about Saul, and we're now on to a totally different person.

Saul leaves the scene, and suddenly Peter steps into the story.

And instead of Luke simply telling us what it means to practice the way of Jesus, I think he gives us a beautiful picture through Peter, because Peter goes, Peter encounters people who are hurting.

He depends on Jesus, and he responds in a way that looks remarkably like Jesus, like the Jesus he spent years following.

Peter spent years learning the way of Jesus, and now we get to watch him practice his way.

So let's dive into this together.

So we're gonna start uh with verse 32 there.

It says Peter went, oh, that's the wrong verse, as Peter traveled about the country he went.

I wanna stop there quick.

It would be really easy to rush past this verse, right?

Like even as like we do our own individual reading, we'd probably read that and just keep on going, right?

We wouldn't like stop and ponder on that, but I want to quickly stop here.

We want to know what Peter does.

I don't want to press past this this morning.

This entire section, this entire section of verses begins with movement.

Peter is going from place to place, visiting believers.

And eventually, his travels lead him to Litta.

And because he goes there, Peter encounters Aeneas, and we'll get to that more specifically soon.

But while he's in Lida, disciples from Jopa are asking him to come with him.

And again, Peter is on the move.

He goes again.

Here's what I want us to notice with this.

Peter is active.

He's moving and participating in what God is doing.

He's not waiting for the ministry to come to him, which he could totally do because he's well known, people would come to him.

He's not just waiting for people to come to him, he's moving among people.

He's available and he's responsive.

Peter isn't just sitting in one place expecting ministry opportunities to fall on his lap, but he's living out the calling that God has placed on his life.

And as a result of that, he's having opportunities for ministry come up around him.

So last week, Dan pointed out Saul saw opportunities around him to speak about God.

That he had been placed strategically for the mission of God.

And now we're seeing the exact same thing happen with Paul.

He's available to God where he is.

See, Peter is a busy guy.

He's always got something to do, he's always got more.

And just like us, Peter has a lot going on in his life that we don't know about.

We don't know every single detail about his life, we don't know every instance he got sick.

He probably has a lot going on in his lives just like us.

He's a human, and we all know that life happens, and he probably got tired from time to time.

But Peter seems interruptible.

He's traveling, he encounters Aeneas.

People come and are asking him to go somewhere else, and he goes.

No questions asked.

He just goes.

So Peter is active.

He's going about his travels and his work, and he finds Aeneas, which we see in verse 33.

There he found a man named Aeneas who was paralyzed and been bedridden for eight years.

So Luke approaches this man, Aeneas.

He's bedridden for eight years and is paralyzed.

And we don't really actually know much more about him.

We don't know how he became paralyzed.

We don't know how old he is.

We don't know his life circumstances.

We don't even know where his faith is.

All we know is that there's this man laying on a mat who has been paralyzed for eight years and hasn't been able to get up.

And Peter encounters him.

And listen carefully to what Peter says in verse 34.

Aeneas, Peter said to him, Jesus Christ heals you.

I want us to notice the way Peter says it, though.

So immediately Aeneas gets up.

But notice how Peter approached that.

Because Peter could have simply said, Aeneas, get up.

Right?

He knows that, Peter knows that he has the power of Christ with him, he knows that he has the Holy Spirit with him, and he knows that Jesus is going to heal.

So he could have gone and said, Aeneas, get up.

And it probably would have happened.

But he doesn't say that.

He says, Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you.

Peter is the one standing in the room.

He's the one speaking.

He's the one telling Aeneas to stand up.

But Peter makes it absolutely clear who is responsible for what's happening.

Jesus Christ heals you.

And I think that's significant.

Because by this point, Peter has experienced incredible things.

Peter preached at Pentecost and thousands of people responded.

He's been one of the central leaders of this rapidly growing church.

God has already worked miraculous things through him.

Peter's seen things most of us could probably hardly imagine actually happening.

And yet Peter hasn't reached a point where he thinks, I've got this.

Peter hasn't reached that point.

He doesn't walk into a room believing that he is powerful enough to do what's happening there.

He points directly to Jesus.

Jesus Christ heals you.

And there is something remarkable happening here.

Jesus isn't physically standing and living.

Remember where we are in the story.

Jesus has died, he's risen, he's ascended to heaven.

Jesus is no longer physically walking amongst the people.

And yet Peter says, Jesus Christ heals you.

Jesus has ascended, but Jesus hasn't stopped working.

The Jesus we watched at work in the Gospel of Luke is still the one who is at work in Acts.

Only now he's working through his people.

And Peter participates in what Jesus is doing.

But Peter knows that the work ultimately belongs to Jesus, not to him.

Peter goes, but Jesus is the one at work.

Then we see verse 35.

All those who lived in Lida and Sharon saw him and turned to the Lord.

People see what's happening.

They see this man who had been paralyzed for eight years.

They had likely walked past him a ton and known who this guy was.

They probably knew his story.

They probably knew what happened that made him paralyzed.

These people knew this man.

And now they see him up and walking around.

They heard what Peter had said.

They heard Jesus Christ heals you.

And then they turned to the Lord.

Because Peter was willing to say it was Jesus Christ that heals you, people turned to the Lord.

And then Luke immediately after this brings us somewhere else.

About 16 kilometers away from Lita was another town called Jopa.

And in Jopa, Luke introduces us to somebody else.

It says in verse 36 In Jopa there was a disciple named Tabitha.

In Greek, her name Dorcas.

She was always doing good and helping the poor.

And before we get back to Peter, I don't want to miss out on what Luke says about Tabitha.

Luke calls her a disciple.

And we get a glimpse of what her life looked like.

She was doing good and she was helping the poor.

And later when Peter arrives, widows are going to stand around him crying and grieving and showing him the clothes that Tabitha made for them.

In other words, Tabitha's discipleship was visible.

Her faith in Jesus had taken tangible form in the way that she cared for people.

She's making clothes, serving people, and caring for the people who are vulnerable.

And Luke calls her a disciple.

She's a picture of someone whose life has been shaped by the way of Jesus.

And then she becomes sick and she dies.

Her body washed and is placed in the room upstairs.

And with Lydda being nearby, disciples hear that Peter is close.

So they send men to him and urge him to come.

And Peter does.

He doesn't wait around.

He gets up and goes with them.

And when he arrives, they take him upstairs, and suddenly Peter is standing in a room that is filled with people who are grieving and crying.

Imagine how overwhelming that would be.

To step into a room, you don't really know what's going on fully, probably.

You don't really know this person, maybe.

And suddenly you're in a room with people grieving and crying, and they're coming up to you.

He's being, and they're they're not just grieving and crying and talking to him, letting him know what's happening, but they're also coming up to him and being like, This is what Tabitha made me.

This is what her life looked like, this is who she was.

They're showing Peter evidence of the work she has done and the way that this woman had left him.

This would have been an overwhelming situation for Peter to walk into.

And so we see in verse 40, Peter sent them all out of the room.

Now this might sound familiar to some of us, right?

Peter has been in this in a situation that's pretty similar to this before.

Back in Luke 8, we see this similar situation play out.

A man named Jairus came to Jesus because his daughter was sick.

And while Jesus was on his way to the house, word came that it was too late and the girl had died.

But Jesus kept going.

He was like, I don't, so what if she's died?

We're gonna keep going.

So he kept going.

And when Jesus arrived at the house, he allowed only certain people in the room.

He only allowed some of the family in and a couple of the disciples.

And Peter was one of these people.

Peter was present.

And he watched Jesus walk into this room that was marked by death.

That death had seen, had the final word, and a room that was filled with grief over this little girl.

And Peter watched as Jesus cleared the room.

He watched as Jesus took the little girl by the hand and told her to get up.

And she got up.

Peter saw that happen.

He was physically present for the raising of a dead.

And now, years later, Peter finds himself standing in another room in a similar situation where there has been another death and there were people grieving.

And Peter sent everyone out of the room.

Do you see what's happening here?

Peter has seen this before.

He's not a stranger to this situation.

He spent years watching the way of Jesus, walking alongside him.

And now he's practicing the way of Jesus.

The way Peter responds to the situation has been shaped by the person he spent years following.

Can only help imagine that if he hadn't spent years with Jesus and learning that way, his response would have been very different in that situation.

But there's an important difference here between this situation and the situation that Peter had before.

See, after Peter sent everyone out of the room, it was him.

He didn't have Jesus with him.

It was Peter.

So he got down on his knees and he prayed.

I love this detail, and I think it's so important.

Peter doesn't immediately turn to Tabitha, take her hand, and tell her to get up.

He gets down on his knees and he prays.

And this is where both of these healings come together, both of Aeneas and of Tabitha.

When Peter heals Aeneas, he says, Jesus Christ heals you.

And when he comes to Tabitha, he kneels and he prays.

Peter has learned the way of Jesus.

He studied it, he knows it.

He's followed the examples that Jesus has given to him.

And Peter never confused himself with Jesus.

Peter knows where the power comes from.

And he knows that he can follow Jesus' example, that he can.

Obey.

He can practice and learn the way of Jesus, but ultimately he can't heal the sick or raise the dead.

So Peter gets down on his knees and prays.

And then he turns to Tabitha, and we see in verse 40 the results of that.

Peter sent them.

Oh, sorry.

Getting back behind myself.

He turning towards the dead woman, he said, Tabitha, get up.

She opened her eyes and seeing Peter, she sat up.

She opened her eyes and sat up.

Peter takes her by the hand, helps her up, then he calls everybody back into the room, presenting Tabitha to them alive.

Peter is practicing the way of Jesus.

But he's doing it depending on the power of Jesus, not his own.

Jumping down to verse 42, it says, This became known all over Jopa, and many people believed the Lord.

Doesn't that sound familiar?

Didn't we just hear about that?

People turned to Jesus.

Go back a few verses.

After Aeneas was healed, the people of Lida and Sharon turned to the Lord.

And now after Tabitha is raised from the dead, people all over Jopa are turning to the Lord.

We see two stories here.

Two different towns, two different situations, but both stories are very remarkably similar.

Peter goes and he actively steps into what is happening around him.

And then he depends on the power of Jesus, speaking to Aeneas that Jesus had healed him, getting down on his knees and praying before Tabitha gets up.

Peter practices the way of Jesus.

The way Peter saw Jesus live is now becoming the way that Peter lives.

He's learned it, he's studied it, he's watched it.

And now it's becoming the way that he is living.

And because of that, both stories end in very similar ways, with people turning towards Jesus.

Again, that's an important piece.

These stories didn't end with Peter.

It didn't say Peter did these things, Peter did these things, and now people believe it that Peter is a disciple.

It ended with Jesus.

Peter had spent years following Jesus.

He had spent years learning the way of Jesus.

And now as Peter goes out and actually practices what he had learned, depending on the power of Jesus, people end up encountering the real Jesus.

So what does all of this matter to us?

Why do these stories actually matter to us, aside from it just being cool stories of people being healed?

Because let's be real, most of us aren't going to find ourselves in similar situations as Peter just did.

You're probably not going to walk into a room where somebody who has been paralyzed for eight years and tell them to get up and roll up their mat.

You're probably not going to run into that situation.

I mean, you might.

I don't know where God's going to lead you, but chances are you're not going to.

This passage isn't just talking about a miraculous healing of people.

It's also an incredible picture of what it means to follow Jesus.

Because underneath these extraordinary circumstances, it's actually a very ordinary picture of a disciple.

Peter spent time with Jesus.

He learned the way of Jesus.

And then he actually began to live out what he had learned.

And I think that for many of us, that's where the rubber meets the road of this passage.

Because it can be really easy for us to know a lot about Jesus without actually practicing the way of Jesus.

We can come to church, we can listen to sermons, we can read the Bible, we can go to small groups, we can pray.

We can know what Jesus is taught, and we can know what his life looks like, forwards and backwards, inside and out.

How he talked, how he served, how he prayed, and how he loved.

But eventually we need to pick up the camera and go outside.

Eventually, we have to go from learning and studying to practicing.

Eventually, what we've learned from Jesus needs to make it to Monday morning, into our workplace, our schools, our homes, into the conversations that we are already having and the relationships that we already have.

Invite the worship team up.

So here's what I want to challenge us to do.

Start by making yourself available to Jesus.

Before you get into everything you do that day, take a minute and pray something simple.

Jesus, help me see where you are at work today.

Help me be willing to join you.

And then go about your day.

Go to work, go to school, take your kids where they need to go.

Go get groceries, have coffee with someone.

Do whatever your Tuesday and Wednesday normal look like.

But as you go, pay attention.

Because I think one thing we can learn from Peter is that practicing the way of Jesus often begins by noticing what's already in front of us.

Who has Jesus put in front of you?

What's happening in their life?

Is there somebody who needs encouragement?

Is there somebody who's hurting?

Is there someone you've been meaning to check in on?

Is there a conversation that you've been avoiding?

Is there somebody who needs practical help?

Is there someone you've been praying for who doesn't know Jesus?

And suddenly there's an opportunity to talk about what you believe.

Pay attention.

And when you notice something, don't immediately talk yourself out of it.

Take a step.

Maybe that step is sending a text.

Maybe it's sitting with somebody having a difficult day.

Maybe it's offering to pray for somebody and actually praying for them right then and there instead of saying that I'll pray for you later.

Maybe it's inviting somebody over for dinner.

And maybe it's helping with a practical need.

Maybe it's having the courage to say, can I tell you what Jesus has done in my life?

It doesn't have to be dramatic.

It doesn't have to look like Acts 9.

It just has to be faithful.

And then, as you step into those moments, depend on Jesus.

Don't wait until you feel completely prepared.

Don't wait until you have the perfect words, because that'll never happen.

Don't wait until, don't assume you need to know exactly how everything is going to turn out.

Pray.

Even if it's silent in your own head.

Like Jesus, I need you here.

Or Jesus, help me love this person well.

Or Jesus, give me courage.

Or Jesus, give me the words.

Or Jesus, what can I do?

Or Jesus, do what I can't do.

And then trust him.

Because practicing the way isn't about becoming so capable that we don't need Jesus anymore.

That's not the way.

It's learning to walk through ordinary life with Jesus, paying attention to the people that he puts around us, responding with what we've learned from him, and then depending on him as we do.

Let's pray.

Jesus, we just thank you for who you are.

Lord, we thank you for this beautiful picture of following who you are and practicing your way from Peter.

And Lord, for each of us, even though we might not end up in situations like that, Lord, I just pray that you would help us to have eyes for where you have placed us.

That we would have eyes for the people that are around us, so that we can put into practice what we have all been learning.

So that we can then speak your name, speak truth, and then to have lives changed and transformed because of your power.

So Jesus, we love you.

We thank you and pray this in your name.

Amen.