BEAUTIFUL ACTS (PART 1)

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

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, who 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.

Acts 9:32-35

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

When we go back to the accounts of Jesus’ ministry, we read of this event in the Gospel of John:

“There is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.

When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, He asked him, “Do you want to get well?”

“Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”

Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.”

At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked. John 5:2-9

It was an amazing display of the miraculous healing power Jesus possessed, a power that the multitude of beautiful actions He took for the good of others who turned to Him in faith.

Well, after Jesus completed His earthly ministry, ascending into the heavens to sit at His Father’s right hand, we saw where the Holy Spirit came upon His apostles who in turn continued to carry out work in His name. This is why we find this book bearing the name “Acts”, because it’s full of beautiful things done by Christ followers through the power imparted by their Lord. As we finish up the ninth chapter of Acts, we see two such beautiful acts take place.  The first occurs in the town of Lydda which was in Judea a little over twenty miles from Jerusalem.

Now we know the Gospel had spread from Jerusalem into Judea and Samaria after widespread persecution broke out following the death of Stephen. As our passage from today opens, we find Peter traveling about spreading the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ to others and during his journey he visits “the Lord’s people who lived in Lydda”. While there, we read where he encounters “a man named Aeneas” who had been “paralyzed” and “bedridden for eight years”.  

I’m sure Peter remembered well how Jesus had healed the man near the pools of Bethesda and now, with the power of the Holy Spirit fully activated within him, Peter could now do the same. And so we hear Peter call Aeneas by name before telling him to get up, not in the name of Peter but rather in the name of Jesus Christ, the One by which he was being healed.

I can’t help but think Peter had this exchange with His Master and Savior fresh in his mind. You’ll remember that it was after Jesus had been resurrected and just prior to His ascension.

Jesus said, “Simon son of John, do you love Me?”

He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love You.”

Jesus said, “Take care of My sheep.” John 21:16

Peter honored and glorified Jesus by staying true to his word and taking care of Aeneas, a sheep in Jesus’ flock. For eight years, this sheep laid bedridden and paralyzed, unable to do what a normal “sheep” could do. Oh how Aeneas must have prayed many times over, asking the Lord for healing, and the day he encountered Peter, his prayers were answered through the power, mercy, and grace of Jesus.

And so Aeneas gets up and walks. His life was changed forever because of Jesus and all of the people in Lydda and Sharon, the plain where Lydda was located, were witness to it.

How did they respond?

The scriptures tell us that they all “turned to the Lord”.

Did I mention that this was a beautiful act?

You see, there was definitely a lot going on in this short account and it was all orchestrated by Jesus through the Holy Spirit. It was not by chance that Peter happened to stop into Lydda for a visit. Nor was it by chance that he would encounter the bedridden Aeneas. Neither was it coincidental that all the people of Lydda and Sharon turned to the Lord after seeing the miraculous healing that took place. All of these events were connected and set in motion by the Author of every good and perfect thing that happens in heaven and on earth.

As we look at our lives today and how they unfold, let us never lose sight that the Jesus that coordinated beautiful acts in the book which bears that name is the same Jesus who is setting things in motion now. He’s doing it through different people, empowering them with the Holy Spirit so they might carry out the acts He calls them to do, and in the end He is still using those beautiful acts to turn people to Him and the salvation He brings.

Beautiful acts brought about by a beautiful Savior.

Tomorrow, we’ll look at yet another.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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