Sermon: "The Power of Service"

Fifth in the "Beyond These Walls" series.
Delivered May 21, 2006 by Rev. John Schmidt.
Other sermons in this series - 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7

Theme: Service is a vital part of our witness because it reflects to the world who God is.

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I want you to join me for a moment thinking about Israel 2,000 years ago. Think a little bit about the dynamics in the early church. On one day, on the day of Pentecost, thousands of people came into the life of the church. These were people that were all over Israel and all over the Roman Empire. They had come together for a religious feast and had heard the news about Jesus Christ. People believed and then they went back to their hometowns and so there were these little pockets of believers in town after town all through Israel, all throughout the nearby areas within the Roman Empire. And so the apostles would go around to these different pockets of Jewish believers and encourage them in their faith in Jesus Christ.

In Chapter 9 in the Book of Acts, there is a section of four chapters that begins, that focuses in specifically on the ministry of Peter, the most prominent apostle at that time in the life of the church. And so, Peter is moving around encouraging these believers and in the start of this section, which happens towards the end of Chapter 9 in the Book of Acts, this section begins with two miracles that Peter is the channel of; Peter doesn't do them, God does them through Peter. Two miracles that are close geographically to one another and close chronologically to one another. Amazing things happen in a very short period of time. These pockets of believers, even though they had trusted in Jesus Christ, things were going on in their lives that you associate with life as usual. Sometimes we see so many miracles happening in this early part of the church that we think that everything was miracles, but the fact that the writer Luke focuses in on these specific miracles reminds us that even at this time in the church, to have God do something so powerful and so miraculous was still a surprise, still unusual enough to comment on.

These believers had been gathering together, but in the middle of this group that is meeting in a town called Lydda there is a guy named Aeneas, who even though he believes in Jesus Christ he's paralyzed and part of that community. His belief in Christ did not change that particular part of his struggle and that's often true. But there are things that we struggle with and even after we come to Christ, even after power has been shown spiritually in our lives there are still other things, physical things, financial things, interpersonal things, family things that remain the same. Well God doesn't let, in this one case in Aeneas' life and then later we are going to look at something that happens in Joppa. God doesn't let things remain there. Let's take a look now at Acts, Chapter 9, Verse 32 to 43 and see an amazing section of scripture.

"As Peter traveled around the country, he went to visit the saints in Lydda. There he found a man named Aeneas, a paralytic who had been bedridden for eight years. "Aeneas," Peter said to him, "Jesus Christ heals you. Get up and take care of your mat." Immediately Aeneas got up. All those who lived in Lydda and Sharon saw him and turned to the Lord. In Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha (which translated, is Dorcas), who 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; then he got down on his knees and prayed. Turning toward the dead woman, he said, "Tabitha, get up." 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 the believers and the widows and presented her to them alive. This became known all over Joppa, and many people believed in the Lord. Peter stayed in Joppa for some time with a tanner named Simon."

Let's pray: God we thank you for this section of scripture and for your word. Help us to understand and respond whatever way we need to through the power of your Holy Spirit working within us, for we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.

It's an amazing section of scripture because two amazing miracles happened. In the first case, Peter sees someone who is paralyzed and he says, "Jesus Christ heals you." It's one of the things that we need to remember. Luke remembered it as he was writing this. The church needs to remember it now. It was not the apostles that were doing these miracles. It was not the church. It's Jesus Christ that does these works of power. And God used this transformation in Aeneas, this physical transformation to form the bases of other people being shaken out of their complacency, to come to faith in Jesus Christ and sometimes God still does that. He does an amazing, miraculous transformation in someone in order that other people might come to the more fundamental transformation, which is spiritual.

Now some disciples in the next town hear about it and call Peter to come to them and Peter then raises a woman from the dead; an amazing display of power. This is not healing. This is death and life. He tells her, "Tabitha, get up." She opens her eyes. She sits up. People see her alive and people come to faith because of this display of power. Luke wants us to understand this because as he is talking about Peter and the ministry of Peter and how people affected the early church, he reminds us very early that Peter was a very special channel of God's power; power that God used to bring glory to Jesus Christ and to draw people to faith in him, because that's why God does these works of power. It's out of compassion for the people, but also to display the power of Jesus' name and to draw people to faith in him. That's why this section is so incredible.

But there is much more here that amazes me. It's not the main point of this text. The main point of this text is what Peter does, but there are some other things here that I think we need to see to understand just how amazing this whole series of events really is. The first thing in addition to Peter's power; the power of Jesus Christ flowing through him, the first thing beyond that that amazes me here is faith. Take a look at what happens here. Look at Verse 37 those of you who have Bibles before you. It talks about Tabitha, at that time she became sick and died and her body was washed and placed in an upstairs room. In Jewish society at that time the responsibility of the community was to bury the person on that very day that they died. That's what they tried to do. When someone died you quickly washed the body, you quickly prepared the body for burial and you put the body into a tomb. To not do so was considered a very horrific, unusual thing and here is a community of people that wash and prepare Tabitha's body, put her in the upstairs room and then send two people to go and look for Peter. Now Peter is about 12 to 15 miles away. They are on foot remember. It's going to take them a whole day just to go there and come back and that's if they find Peter and that's if Peter is able to leave immediately. So this community is making a decision to not bury this woman immediately in the hope that God is going to do something amazing. They are not asking God to heal her, she's dead. They had been praying for her already I'm sure. People don't come to faith like this immediately. They had been praying regularly for her and she has died anyway.

But they still take this step of faith to go and look for Peter and hold the body until Peter comes in the hope of what God might do. There are only two times in scripture, I said earlier only one time, there are two times in scripture where there is someone actually holding on to the hope for resurrection, for people coming back from life; one is from the Old Testament with Elijah with the Sidonite woman who has a son and he dies and she goes and holds on to the prophet in hope for her son to come back to life; and here in this community, in all of the other cases that I am aware of someone is sick. For example, Lazarus is sick. His family sends for Jesus. Time goes by. The person Lazarus dies and then Jesus raises him from the dead. The same is true for the Centurion. He sends for Jesus to come and heal. But here they are actually looking for this kind of miracle. That's an amazing thing. Faith of that size. But it's not the only additional amazing thing here. There is one more thing that strikes me.

What I find amazing in this passage is who they are mourning for. They are going through all of this effort, they are giving heroic effort there, they are changing all of the things that would normally do in hopes that God would do something and for what kind of person are they doing this? Is it because this is a great teacher in their life, the life of their body? No. Is it because this is a rich person whose a benefactor and has money and property to provide for the needs of community, is that why they are doing it? No. Is it because this is a powerful, political official that can make life easy on the church if things get complicated? No. Is it because this person is a miracle worker themselves and a healer and they don't want that critical role to not happen in their body; is that why they are seeking Peter's help? No. They are going through all of this effort, they are wailing and mourning and seeking God for a miracle of untold magnitude for a seamstress, a woman, which at that time is surprising in and of itself because of attitudes then. A seamstress who made underwear for needy people. Verse 39, the New International translates it this way: "The widows stood around Peter crying and showing him the robes and other clothing that Dorcas had made while she was still with them." Those two words; the first word has to do with the short undergarments and the second word has to do with the outer garments. It's talking about the fact that she had made underwear and dresses for these people.

Do you realize the power of service in this community? What they desperately did not want to see disappear was compassion, was service, the kind of service that we wouldn't even notice and yet when its done in Jesus' name, this sort of compassionate service is a major part of the impact that we have on the world around us and on other believers. We cannot make light of service. Now we are getting ready for the Franklin Graham Festival. We have been talking about evangelism and evangelism is vital. We have to learn how to share our faith to be able to articulate the truth about Jesus Christ. We have seen through the Christian Life and Witness Course all kinds of wonderful things happen as people learn more and maybe we will have a testimony next week about some of the impact of that. And we want to know that people hear the gospel, but what we have been focusing on last week and this week is that there has to be a change of light that happens in the community that we are calling people to. We have words, but we have to have a physical reality about what it means to live a new life in Jesus Christ. So last week we focused on that and this week we are focusing in on it and this critical part is compassion and service. Dorcas had this impact by sewing garments and it was part of the witness of the whole community to the world around them. The world will never get tired of service. It might get tired of preachers, certainly get tired of politicians, we get tired of the business world at times, we get tired of just about everything, but we will never get tired of people who sacrificially serve the people around them.

In the 1990s when we were in Japan, Mother Teresa was one of the most famous people in the world to Japanese people. And it wasn't because they had such a great interest in Christianity, it's because they recognized that she had compassion on poor people and did practical things to meet those needs and that made her famous. That is true all over the world. We have an impact through this. One of the most exciting things about being here at Central is I get to serve among a church full of people who have made the decision to step out and serve Jesus Christ and to serve needy people as a way of serving Jesus Christ. I can't possibly give all of the examples. I am just going to give you a few right now. There are people in our congregation who have been serving to provide housing for over a decade through Habitat for Humanity. We are on our 12th house now. There is Sarah's Hope, a day resource center for persons experiencing homelessness. There is ACTC, Assistance Center of Towson Churches that provides food for approximately 600 people a month. There is the Shepherd's Clinic, a nonprofit inner city health clinic that provides primary health care for the working poor that don't have insurance. There is Woodberry Crossing, over 100 acres of woods and fields that gives urban children an experience of the natural world. Helping Up Mission provides hope to the poor and homeless, meeting physical, psychological, social and spiritual needs. World Relief is working with local evangelical churches to bring relief to suffering people all over the world. Opportunity International giving the poor a working chance through the extension of small loans. Angel Tree reaching out to families of those in prison. Evangelizing Youth Ministry that is concerned with evangelism but also with the eduction of inner city youth at risk. The list can go on.

There are so many ways we are trying to touch the world around us in service. People who are in classrooms, people who are on boards, who are in kitchens, at schools, face to face with people who need jobs. This is important stuff. There are people in our congregation who serve in these ways. There are people in our congregation who lead these ministries locally. There are people here who lead in these ministries on a worldwide level. It's a great privilege to serve together with them. Make no mistake, every hour of service, every time we extend ourselves to those who have need, brings glory to Jesus Christ, because Jesus Christ came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. And so, we extend ourselves and through that bring glory to Jesus Christ.

But it's also important because in extending ourselves in compassion and service, we do one of the few things that is going to break through the cynicism of the world around us. Think about the kind of society that we live in. Everybody is trying to sell us something. Everybody is trying to manipulate things. We are looking, we are desperately looking for those places where someone is kind and compassionate and serves openly and freely for the sake of the person who needs it and not for agendas that manipulate people's lives. Service is important. It goes together with our verbal witness about the reality of who Jesus Christ is.

Now remember our focus for the year; early in the year we had a Bible verse from Matthew 22:36-40,

"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law? Jesus replied, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind." This is the first and greatest commandment. The second is like it, "Love your neighbor as yourself." All the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments."

This year our focus has been on our vertical response to God, to love God with all of who we are. So we have talked about worship. We have talked about experiencing God. We also had been talking at other times during the year about our horizontal responsibility and this issue of evangelism is part of caring for our neighbor. Later in the year we are going to focus in on service even more, but even now as part of our witness, we can think about our call to service.

There are a number of ways we can do that. The first is on a personal level; to take a look at our gifts, to take a look at our interests and to say "God how can you take me as I am and use me to reach out, to step out of my comfort zone a little bit and reach out to someone else in need?" There are needs everywhere. You can go to the website. There are 80 organizations+ that we have relationships with and many of those organizations have opportunities where we could step in and serve together with them. You can take a spiritual gifts inventory. You can be part of a spiritual gifts class later in the year. These are the sorts of things that can happen to help you discover how to serve.

But we can think about it on a small group level as well. There are opportunities for us together to serve other people. Angel Tree is one of those opportunities. Some small groups around Christmas serve together in presenting presents to the families of people who are in prison. But there are other opportunities that small groups can do together. It's not just the church. It's not just individuals, but the other units in our church.

There is another thing we can do and that is, we can honor those who serve and I would like to do that now to close this service, this sermon. Once I am finished here, I would like to pray right now together for those who have made the decision already to serve the needs around us. But before I do that, I just want to remind you, I hope you have a list of heroes from the Bible. I hope you have some of the people of faith like David and Mary, Peter and Paul, but I want you if she is not there already, I want you to add Dorcas (Tabitha), because she is a hero of faith. She is someone that God used mightily, because she was a seamstress in the image of Christ. Those of you who are serving right now, I am not asking you to stand up, but hold up your hand for a moment, just so you all can see the people that we are going to be praying for right now. If you are serving some way in the community, put your hands up. I know who you are, so raise your hands. Just for a moment. Okay. Put your hands down and let's start to pray.

God, we thank you for these people who serve. We thank you for the way you have worked in their lives to give them a desire to serve and that you have given different gifts. Some use administrative gifts and leadership gifts, other use physical dexterity and wisdom to help. Others work face to face with people caring and supporting. Thank you for the variety of gifts. Thank you for the variety of opportunities to serve. We pray now for their protection. Protect them from the evil one who would like to discourage them, who would like to side-track them. Protect them physically as they serve. Lord, strengthen them to endure in their service. Give them wisdom that the way they serve might have maximum impact for the kingdom of Jesus Christ and we pray that all they do will be acceptable in your sight, will be an offering that's fragrant, that brings you pleasure even as it reveals your character to the world around us. We give you thanks for them and pray that you might call us to take a step of service as well. And so Lord for those of us who are living lives that are just a little closed in around our own needs we pray for grace now, to take seriously the opportunity to serve a needy world around us. Open our eyes to what could happen, open our eyes to how we can contribute and then give us the strength to make the decision to step out, to become more selfless for the sake of the world and for the sake of Jesus Christ in whose name we pray. Amen.

© 2006, Rev. John Schmidt
Central Presbyterian Church, Baltimore, MD 21204 410/823-6145
www.centralpc.org