This morning we come in our study of the book of Acts to a section of scripture that I had decided to skip.  It hardily seemed worthy of an entire sermon.  I was going to briefly mention the end of Acts chapter 9 and then get on to the good stuff.  These 12 verses in comparison to what is going on around them, did not seem worthy of our detailed attention.  

The first parts of Acts 9 are big.  We have the startling story of the conversion of the enemy.  Saul, the church hater and destroyer, himself, becomes a Christian.  The Lord reaches down from the throne of heaven and slaps Saul down and makes him an offer he can’t refuse. Saul was going to be God’s instrument to the Gentiles. 

Then last week we found this newly converted Saul doing spectacular things.  He moves dramatically from conversion to discipleship!  He begins to preach and to prove that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.  He spends time learning from Jesus himself. He gets let out of town in a basket.  He preaches in Jerusalem.  This is all big stuff.  We have the beginnings of the great Apostle Paul, who, as we will see over the next few months, does turn out to be that instrument in the hand of God.

Then in chapter 10 we have a story which has been building up since last year in our study of the Gospel of Luke.  The word of the Lord going to the gentile, Cornelius, is as big of a story as there is in the whole book of Acts!  It is such a big story, it is told three times.  You can look forward to next week and one of the biggest witness stories you are going to hear all year.

Well, wedged between these two big stories; Saul and Cornelius, are the stories of three little people, which I probably should skip.  After all it is middle of May and I’m still in Acts 9.  If you do the math, at this rate I am going to have a hard time finishing Acts before the summer of ‘09.  So, I had decided to hit and run these three stories and get on to Cornelius. But I just couldn’t.  I guess I am just getting soft in my old age, but these three little stories are just too good to let go.  So, let’s look at them and see why. Join me as I use my imagination, just a bit, as we explore these three little stories.

The gospel is going everywhere.  The persecution of the church has splashed the word to every nook and cranny of Judea, Galilee and Samaria.  So, Peter decides he had better take a tour to see how all these brand new churches are doing.  He decides to head west out of Jerusalem.  After a days hike he comes to the village of Lydda; not much of a place, just a few houses on the road to Joppa.  There he finds the faithful Christians who have a request for him.  They want Peter to meet a special man.  A man they love.  A man who needs Peter’s touch or at least his shadow.  They take Peter off Main Street and down to a little kind of run down shack and bring him into a darkened room to meet… Aeneas. 

As Peter enters the room he notices the smell, of someone who hasn’t been out of bed in a while.  He sees Aeneas, small, shriveled, gaunt, helpless, but whose eyes are bright with expectation.  Eight years Aeneas has lain in this bed.  Eight years since the accident.  Eight years of suffering, but not despair. 

Everyone in the village remembered the day he had fallen off the roof while building the very house they were in and broke his back.  The people of the surrounding area had kind of adopted him that day.  They finished his house. They brought him food and sort of looked after him; for eight years.  Most remember how vibrant he was before the accident.  The only clue now of the vibrancy is in his eyes.

Peter was touched with his story.  Peter now knew why the Spirit had brought west to Lydda.  There was vibrancy in Peter’s eyes as well.

Acts 9:34  "Aeneas," Peter said to him, "Jesus Christ heals you. Get up and take care of your (smelly) mat."

There had to be a moment of silence as all the eyes in the place were wide open and every breath held as they saw the life flow back into his broken body.  The muscles which haven’t flexed in 8 years began to twitch and with a whoop of joy Aeneas pops up from the bed and jumps into the air!  Whoo Who!  There were hugs and tears and high fives and running around in circles.  Then everyone spread like ants from a disturbed hill all over the area to tell the good news!

Acts 9:35   All those who lived in Lydda and Sharon saw him and turned to the Lord.

Now aren’t you glad I didn’t skip that story?  Well, the next one is better.

While Peter was still baptizing everyone in the villages of Lydda and Sharon, two guys show up and make an odd request.  They want him to come on to Joppa which is 10 miles on down the road to the coast.  They want him to come and help a woman named Gazelle.  That is the English translation of the Arabic; Tabitha or the Greek; Dorcas.  We will call her; Miss Gazelle. 

What is interesting is the word used to describe Miss Gazelle is only used once in the entire Bible. You don’t notice the difference in the NIV.

Acts 9:36   In Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha.

Now what you don’t see is the word disciple is feminine. We would say disciplette, or in Spanish disciplita. All the other times the word, disciple, is used, and it is a bunch of times, it is masculine.  But here Miss Gazelle is discipleette!  The commentaries speculate, because of this word, that Miss Gazelle was an amazing Christian leader in Joppa. 

I suspect Peter had heard about Miss Gazelle before.  I have a sneaking suspicion that was why it was easy to convince Peter to go from Jerusalem toward Joppa.  She was wealthy.  She was amazingly generous to the poor.  She was known all over the country for her good works.  She was a seamstress, whose creations were treasured by all who owned them.  She was quite the Christian woman.

Anyway the odd request the two guys from Joppa made was come raise Miss Gazelle back to life.  She had died.  And no one could understand why.  Why would God allow this precious woman to die?  She was the heart of their church. She was the one everyone looked up to for leadership and kindness and example, and now she was dead!  Why?  So, the disciples in Joppa had decided to be bold and ask for the audacious. 

I’m sure Peter was surprised.  Other disciples had died.  Stephen had even been a martyr and God didn’t bring him back.  But Peter, I’m sure, felt that nudging to go on with the two guys to Joppa. So, he did.  When he arrived he noted that her house was mega times better than Aeneas’s.  This was like opposite thing. He was brought upstairs and there she was all cleaned and washed and placed reverently on her bed.  All around her were widows.  It seemed Miss Gazelle had her own Git R Done club. Instead of retired guys she had a club of widows and they were all showing Peter clothes she had made and telling him how special she was. They were expecting him to do something.

The odd thing Peter noticed about Miss Gazelle’s Git R Done club was they had not prepared her for burial.  They had not wrapped her up in a mummy suit like they did Jesus.   Normally, the women would bring spices and smelly stuff to prepare here body for burial. In the brutal climate of Israel you needed to bury people pretty fast.  Instead, they were ready for her to come back to life.  They were expecting him to do something.

Peter sent them all out of the room; then he got down on his knees and prayed.  This was serious praying for Peter.  He didn’t need to get on his knees for Aeneas.  Paralysis; piece of cake.  This was bringing the dead back to life. It was knee praying time.  Then Peter had to have remembered Luke 8 and very similar circumstance.

Luke 8:51-55  When he (Jesus) arrived at the house of Jairus, he did not let anyone go in with him except Peter, John and James, and the child's father and mother.  Meanwhile, all the people were wailing and mourning for her. "Stop wailing," Jesus said. "She is not dead but asleep."  They laughed at him, knowing that she was dead.  But he took her by the hand and said, "My child, get up!"  Her spirit returned, and at once she stood up.

Turning toward the dead woman, Peter said mostly the same words, "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. And guess what, this became known all over Joppa, and Peter was baptizing even more people for days! 

I just couldn’t skip that story either.  Wouldn’t it have been a shame to have skipped Miss Gazelle?  But, there is one more story, sort of, that I couldn’t blow past without mentioning.  Actually, it is just a single verse of scripture but I can use my imagination to make it a story.  Here is the verse:

Acts 9:43   Peter stayed in Joppa for some time with a tanner named Simon.

Instead of returning to Jerusalem, the other apostles could handle that for a while, he was lead to stay there in Joppa for a while.  Now here is where it gets interesting.  Why would Peter stay with the tanner named Simon?  Surely, he could have stayed in the house of Miss Gazelle, it was a nice house and she owed him everything. She would have made his life nice, Instead, he stayed with a tanner.

There were two problems with living with a tanner.  One, they were considered continually unclean by the Jews.  Their job was to handle dead animal bodies constantly.  Their very jobs made them outsiders to the community.  Everyone liked the leather jackets but nobody liked the leather jacket makers.  Two, the place stunk.  This was long before the days of refrigeration.  Dead animals would be bad.  That is why his house was on the sea.  To keep it away from others and the breezes would blow away the smell.  This is really fascinating in light of what is going to happen next week to Peter.  This has to be a God thing.  Let’s sneak a peak ahead.  

Acts 10:6,9-15  He is staying with Simon the tanner, whose house is by the sea.  About noon the following day as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray.  He became hungry and wanted something to eat, and while the meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance.  He saw heaven opened and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners.  It contained all kinds of four-footed animals, as well as reptiles of the earth and birds of the air.  Then a voice told him, "Get up, Peter. Kill and eat."  "Surely not, Lord!" Peter replied. "I have never eaten anything impure or unclean." The voice spoke to him a second time, "Do not call anything impure that God has made clean."

Peter is living with an impure man.  Peter is living amongst all these unclean dead animals and the message comes across loud and clear; no one is unclean.  And that is why Luke puts these three stories in, right before the big Cornelius story. And that is why I could not skip them. 

These three little stories remind us of the very nature of the new kingdom.  They tell us again of the mission of witnessing to the whole world.  The Gospel turns everything upside down! The Gospel destroys stereotypes. The Gospel turns all the pigeons loose from their pigeon holes.   
-A common fisherman, named Peter, makes the lame to walk and raises the dead, by the power of a convicted insurrectionist named…Jesus!
-A paralyzed old man named Aeneas jumps up for joy and walks about telling of Jesus. 
-Miss Gazelle THE disciplette comes back to life and keeps on Gitting R Done!
-Smelly, unclean tanners host the Apostle Peter.

God uses the lowly, the disenfranchised, the rejected, the little people, to be his witnesses!  And that is why I could not skip these stories.  They are us! Their story is our story.  We are nobodies who are called to be his witnesses! We are Aeneas.  We are Miss Gazelle.  We are Simon the tanner. And we are called to be witnesses! Do you think I should have skipped these three little stories? 

Luke tells us their names; Aeneas, Tabitha and Simon. That got me to thinking. When they write the history of the 21st century, how many of us are going to be in the history books?  Anyone?  I doubt it. When they record the story of New Mexico will any of us be in it?  Unlikely. Even if someone compiles the history of Los Alamos, will any Tim Stidham be even a foot note?  I doubt it. 

But when God writes the Book of Life will we have entries?  God says, “Here, look, there is Tim Stidham’s name and there beside his name are all the people he witnessed too.” God chuckles, “He was a nobody.  He was just an insignificant guy but I used him to be my witness! And I wrote him right here in the Book of Life and all those who he told about me are right there.  Isn’t that amazing?”

When all is said and done, “That is the only book I am interested being in!