Acts 9:32-43
“Life breaks free, it expands to new territories and crashes through barriers…Life, finds a way”.
(Dr. Ian Malcolm, Jurassic Park)
Today is Pentecost Sunday, the day the global church celebrates the sending of the Holy Spirit. Pentecost is about the person, presence and power of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of the Lord Jesus himself dwelling in us and working through us. In many ways it really is that simple, and yet believers have often muddled things. Over the years folks have gotten into arguments about what exactly the sending of the Spirit meant and what it was for. This Pentecost Sunday, we might begin by remembering that praying together, rather than arguing with one another, would be a far better choice of pastime. Regardless, let me spell out how some of those arguments go.
The Spirit, say some, is for our unity and to bring about holy character. The Holy Spirit’s work is all about developing Jesus’ character in us as his followers, the fruit of the Spirit. If there’s no holy character, there’s no Holy Spirit. So the Spirit’s purpose is really for our unity and our character.
Not so fast, argues another group. Let’s remember that the Spirit is about the Lord’s presence and power truly with us. Knowing and experiencing his presence, long before we worry about what’s produced must surely be the priority. We can’t skip past the power at work which we read about in the scriptures, the very life of God filling the believers, spilling out as water for the masses. The Holy Spirit is all about the presence of the Lord among us, and the stuff that follows, signs and wonders, inexplicable otherwise.
Well yes, of course, pipes up another group, but isn’t the Spirit for an even bigger purpose? Presence and power, certainly, but for why exactly? Surely Jesus instructed his followers to share his good news with everyone, promising them the ability do so by his Spirit. The Spirit was given so that we’d have power, but power for witness. How can you talk about the Holy Spirit and not emphasize the sharing of the gospel? Surely, the Spirit was given so that everyone might hear about Jesus!
The debates go on and on, turning up in churches like ours the world over. The unity and character people get nervous about the signs and wonders people. The signs and wonders people get frustrated that the unity and character people aren’t open to more. And the witness people get so sick of them both that they walk straight out the door to find someone they can tell about Jesus.
It’s Pentecost Sunday, so which is it? What is the priority of the Spirit? Is the Spirit given for unity and character formation, is the Spirit about the presence and power of God in our here and now, or is the Spirit purposed for witness?
Even though I’ve exaggerated some of these views, a sense of tunnel vision about the Spirit might not be alien to us. With tunnel vision comes with the temptation to settle into one camp or another based on our histories, personalities or interests. Or, on the other hand, you may feel simply unaware. The Holy Spirit seems important, but you’ve got a knowledge gap.
All this is why, when it comes to discussions about the Holy Spirit, especially on a day like Pentecost, we’re best to stay close to scripture. And our passage in Acts, as we just heard, is actually a wonderful picture of the expansive life of Spirit in some of the early believing communities. What do we hear about the priorities of the Spirit in this small slice in Acts 9?
On Acts
As we’ve been learning, Acts is the second volume from an ancient, historical writer named Luke. In his first volume, Luke wrote a biography of Jesus, and after putting Jesus’ life on paper, Luke continued to record the narrative. Acts begins with Luke telling us that his first volume was about “all that Jesus began to do and teach”. The word “began” is very important in that sentence, as Luke’s second volume records what Jesus’ continued to do, only now through his Holy Spirit in the lives of his first followers. After Jesus’ death, resurrection and ascension, it was important for the author to stress that Jesus was no less present in the world, but had flooded his first followers with his Spirit (was he now somewhat more than less present?). And so, where previously folks had expected a tent or temple to house God’s presence, Jesus’ followers (“the believers”, as they came to be known) were now themselves the temple, filled with God’s very own presence, that is, the Holy Spirit. And when that happened, the believers began to do and share the sorts of things Jesus did and shared, and the world began to change. To return to Doctor Ian Malcolm’s words, “Life breaks free, it expands to new territories and crashes through barriers… “. That’s not a bad summation of Acts, actually. Life breaking free.
In Acts 9 We’ve recently walked through Paul’s dramatic Damascus road experience, where he began to see Jesus for who he really was. The narrative then bounces back to Peter, whom we last saw with John in Samaria. In reading through Acts, we might notice just how many players are involved. Though Peter was a kind of team captain among Jesus’ twelve disciples, he is by no means the main character in Acts. Nor is John, Philip, Stephen, Paul or a great many others we’ve already met from Acts 1-9. What we’re hearing is that Jesus is working by his Spirit through all kinds of people, all of them rather unexpected characters riding various waves of the Spirit. As Rikk pointed out a couple of week ago, Jesus’ kingdom was never meant to be a cult of personality, or a hyper-structured hierarchy. Life is breaking free through all kinds of lives. I’d put it this way: no one owns the wind.
Acts 9
So as the author returns to Peter, you could be forgiven for forgetting just how prominent Peter was in the first couple of chapters in Acts, or indeed in the gospels. Here in Acts 9 Peter is traveling from place to place, visiting the believers in Lydda, some forty kilometers from Jerusalem. Folks have probably carried the gospel back from Jerusalem following Pentecost, or maybe some of the persecuted believers from Jerusalem have settled in the surrounding towns. However the gospel has expanded, Peter is making the rounds in Judea, checking in with this growing but scattered family. And it’s here in Acts 9 that the author gives us two snapshots of the Spirit at work in these early believing communities.
In Lydda Peter meets a man who has been paralyzed and bedridden for eight years. The episode feels somewhat familiar to the record of Jesus healing of a paralyzed man in Luke’s gospel in chapter 5. In that episode Jesus scandalizes his listeners by telling someone their sins are forgiven and then backing up that claim by physically healing them. It’s a key moment in the gospels, which demonstrates Jesus’ identity and vocation. Who does this Jesus guy think he is, going around forgiving people’s sins and healing their bodies? Jesus’ contemporaries have to wrestle with that tectonic question, as we do now.
Here in Acts, Luke shares a similar story about Peter and another paralyzed man. Here there is no explicit mention of the forgiveness of sins, but the man is healed in Jesus’ name, and so impactful was this event in Lydda and nearby Sharon that the entire population “turns to the Lord”. Whatever Jesus started, the freedom he ushered in, continued to spread everywhere his name was carried. Peter is doing the Jesus stuff, in the authority of Jesus’ name, under the steam of the Holy Spirit. Again, the question of Jesus’ whereabouts should be front of mind. Is Jesus less present in the book of Acts than in the gospel, or in a strange sense more so?
Next we read that the believers in nearby, larger Joppa hear that Peter is close, and send for him. They’ve recently lost a beloved sister, a woman named Tabitha, who apparently has a reputation in the town for mercy, helping the poor. She’d fallen ill, died, and the burial preparations had begun. Now let’s pause a moment and ask a question. Why have the believers in Joppa sent for Peter in a hurry? Do they hope he’ll join them in paying respects for a sister with a particularly merciful reputation? Remember Tabitha wasn’t sick, she had died. Or do these believers actually think Peter might be able to do something about their loss? These early believing community, having repeatedly witnessed the inexplicable power of the Spirit and the sheer authority of Jesus’ name, appear to actually expect Peter to have a solution, even if that means squaring off against death itself.
The author describes what happens next, it seems, in intentionally similar language as yet another episode in the gospels. In Luke 8 Jesus is called to help a sick girl who then dies while he is on his way to help. But upon arrival Jesus insists the girl is only sleeping, and people scoff at him. They are, of course, well aware of what death looks and feels like, and are right: this girl was not only sleeping, but is very clearly dead. And this is crucial. It seems that one of the points of the story is for the reader to see that for Jesus to raise this girl from the dead was, for him, as straightforward as telling a sleeping person to wake up – and he does.
Calmly, Jesus doesn’t invite spectacle, only allowing the parents of the child to join him, along with (guess who) Peter, James and John, and the girl is raised to life. So as we read Acts 9 we might remember that on more than one occasion in the gospels Peter has witnessed Jesus raise people from the dead. That would probably do a number on your worldview.
Here in Acts 9 Peter arrives, and they take him to the body where there’s so much grief, such an outpouring of love and the author notes the details. Widows were among the most economically and socially vulnerable folks in a community, and the widows in Joppa are showing Peter the evidence of Tabitha’s generosity, how much she had meant to them. It’s a rare and intimate portrait of a very early believing community, and you almost feel you could reach out a touch one of those items of clothing Tabitha had made.
Next, Peter, just like Jesus in Luke 8, shuts everyone out, seemingly alone with the body. We can only speculate as to why these raisings happen in secret, as they become public soon enough. Maybe it’s about avoiding unnecessary spectacle, as God’s power is not about overwhelming people with magic tricks. But there’s an odd detail in the original language we might otherwise miss. In Acts 9, Peter’s words “Tabitha, get up”, and Jesus’ words in Luke 8 “little girl, get up” would have sounded nearly identical in Aramaic. So the author is almost certainly drawing a connection between the two stories. Jesus, and even Jesus’ name, can bring life out of death. That’s how much stock the early believers put in Jesus’ name and the power of his presence.
What stands out to me in this story is both the power and the tenderness. Clearly the widows in Joppa were especially heartbroken at Tabitha’s passing, and Luke takes special care to record Peter presenting Tabitha back to them. The news then spreads all over Joppa, and again the author notes that “many people believed” in Jesus.
The Stories Together
Now remember the first story, about Peter healing the paralyzed man and the echoes of Jesus doing the same in Luke 5? Combine it with the second story about the raising of Tabitha. What are we hearing here in Acts 9? I wonder if the author is reiterating, for effect, just who Jesus was and what he had accomplished: In Jesus sin is forgiven, and in Jesus death has been overpowered. Only now it’s Peter and others are doing this stuff in Jesus’ name, because the Holy Spirit is working through them.
What else can we notice about these two episodes? First, there’s a unique and particular work in both places. As in all of Acts, there are no formulas applied. The Spirit is present in predictable power, but beyond that, little is uniform from person to person, or place to place. All through Acts God works locally, internationally, drawing all sorts of people, doing all sorts of things. Life is breaking free. We might even notice the difference between “all” turning to the Lord in Lydda and Sharon, and how “many believed” in Joppa. Each person, place and episode is unique. A takeaway for us might be to expect the presence and power of the Spirit, but to be wary of trying to engineer formulas, or aim for predicable repetition. The new things the Lord does, will be new each time, even if they carry a similar scent of life and hope.
Second, notice both the seemingly ordinary and rather extraordinary at work among the early believing communities. We have healings, even a resurrection(!), and we have, described with as much intimate detail, Tabitha’s mercy translating to material generosity. Notice what’s elevated among the believing communities and of note for the author: believers operating not with a scarcity mentality, but of abundance and generosity. Now I don’t think Tabitha gets raised because she’d been generous, but the coupling of her notable benevolence with the surprising abundance of Jesus’ life-giving power does not stand in contrast, but feels woven together into the very fabric of this episode.
Life breaks free
We started by noting that today is Pentecost Sunday, a celebration of the spending of the Holy Spirit. And we talked about the arguments folks can into, or the tunnel vision we can so easily fall into about the Spirit.
Some focus on the Spirit given for unity and character, perhaps the kind of character we glimpse in Tabitha and the love clearly shared within the believing community in Joppa. Others focus on presence and power of the Spirit, like the kind of power which physically heals or can raise someone from the dead, as if it’s as simple as being woken up from a nap. Others focus on the purpose of the Spirit given so that believers have the power for witness in order for more people turn to Jesus, maybe like all those who became believers in Lydda, Sharon and Joppa because of Peter’s visit.
So, have you figured out which one it is yet? What’s the priority when it comes to the Spirit? Unit and character, presence and power, or witness? In reflection of our passage today, may I suggest today that we don’t have to choose.
It’s the whole shebang. Abundantly, surprisingly, all of it. This is the gift Pentecost. When the Spirit was given, untameable life began to break free.
How should we celebrate Pentecost Sunday? We can start by letting go of trying to organize, categorize and even control the Spirit of the Lord among us.
Instead, let us simply enjoy the Lord’s presence. He really is among us. His presence fills us, shapes our character, makes us holy, as he is holy. Like Tabitha, may we be merciful as he is merciful, generous as he is generous, even as we hear with needs presented to us today.
Let us expect the Lord’s power. Like Peter, stepping out in trust, because, if we’re to believe the scriptures, the Spirit in you is actually same which raised Jesus from the dead.
And let us share the news about Jesus widely. After all, he promised that he would draw all people to himself. Do you know about his goodness? Have you got a story? Share it. You might be surprised that Jesus is already more present in the lives of those around you than you think.
So this Pentecost Sunday, and this following week, Lord save from fruitless discussions about the Spirit, endlessly debating categories, anxiously trying to keep things under control.
We no longer live within the limitations of our categories, or the despair of dry places. Life has broken free. The jungle of the kingdom overgrows the static and concrete structures of our imaginations.
“See, I am doing a new thing! Now it spring up; do you not see it?…I provide water in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland…” (Isaiah 43)
Luke Knight 