Easter Sunrise 2024

Our family has a long tradition of celebrating Easter with a little Sunrise Gathering.  Years ago, we attended one hosted by the Methodist Church in Bridgeville.  Eventually we started going down to the beach and attended an ecumenical service in Rehoboth.  That morphed into a gathering of our own, which has taken various forms over the years.  This year, our gathering was small, and just family.

 

It usually falls on me to share something that morning... this is what I shared with my family.

 

I usually take into consideration the group I am speaking to.  In this particular case, as I prepared this, the audience in my head was actually a larger group. 

 

By "larger group", I mean a group even larger than you may imagine.  I actually had in mind a group that would include folks who don't embrace the Bible as Christians do... folks who view it as just another religious book.

 

How does that even work, given the fact I'm talking about resurrection here? It's as simple as this:  I believe you can get something out of this passage in the Bible even if you view it simply as a story.

 

 Easter Sunrise 2024 

Acts 9:36-43

Back in February, we went over to some friends' to have a little Bible Study. Steve was preparing to speak at a men’s conference, and part of his message was out of the book of Acts.  We discussed the passage, and afterwards, it occurred to me that the passage would work perfectly as part of our gathering on Easter Morning.

The passage we read takes place after the typical Easter Story.  This is after the crucifixion, after the resurrection, after the day when the disciples gathered in the Upper Room and the Holy Spirit visited them, and after the disciples began to spread out of Jerusalem because of persecution.  At the point in this passage, Peter has started going out among the people, and is carrying on the work that Jesus started.

Let’s read the passage. Acts 9:36-42. 

36 Now in Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha (which translated in Greek is called Dorcas); this woman was abounding with deeds of kindness and charity which she continually did.

37 And it happened at that time that she fell sick and died; and when they had washed her body, they laid it in an upper room.

38 Since (LID-uh) Lydda was near Joppa, the disciples, having heard that Peter was there, sent two men to him, imploring him, “Do not delay in coming to us.”

39 So Peter arose and went with them. When he arrived, they brought him into the upper room; and all the widows stood beside him, weeping and showing all the tunics and garments that Dorcas used to make while she was with them.

40 But Peter sent them all out and knelt down and prayed, and turning to the body, he said, “Tabitha, arise.” And she opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter, she sat up.

41 And he gave her his hand and raised her up; and calling the saints and widows, he presented her alive.

42 It became known all over Joppa, and many believed in the Lord.

43 And Peter stayed many days in Joppa with a tanner named Simon.

As we discussed this passage that morning, we raised several questions:

·         How did Peter decide that when the two men showed up, he should leave and go the Joppa?
·         When he arrived, did he have a plan in mind? 
·         How did he know this woman was to be raised up?
·         Why did they even summon him anyway?  What did they expect from Peter?
·         Was there anything about this particular woman that God decided she should be healed?

And then we had questions about how we are to apply this scripture today:

·         Does God still raise people up from death? As far as I know, that doesn’t happen any more.
·         So if that isn’t it, what can we learn from this story… for TODAY?

What I’d like to do is to take this story, look at the details, and find ways that make if useful right now.

BACKGROUND:

To get there, we need to look back at what has happened already up to this point.  If we can understand THAT, then maybe we can understand better what’s going on.

This story happens after the Easter Story.  You all know that story.  Briefly, Jesus came, He was rejected, He was crucified, He was buried, and then He rose from His grave.  It wasn’t a series of events that God wasn’t anticipating.  It was the plan all along.  We gather on this Sunday morning to acknowledge that.

Then, something happened AFTER all that.  God essentially says to the followers of Christ “We’re just getting started.. now YOU go out and continue that work.”  That was what Peter was doing in Acts 9.  I’d like to suggest that’s also us now.

If we knew what that work looked like, it would help.  So let’s just consider a few questions: what was Peter doing, what did it look like, and how did he get there?  Then let’s assume the same applies to us.

Does it mean we are to go out and raise people from death?  Frankly, I certainly hope not, because if that’s the case, best I can tell, we are all failing miserably.

So what DOES it mean?  What is this passage trying to illustrate?

GENERAL PRINCIPLE:

Consider this.  In very general terms, Peter came into a situation where there was death.  When he left, there was life. 

This was what Jesus had done… Essentially, He brought people into a relationship with God based on the work He did with His own life. This is what Peter was drawing attention to.  I think that idea is basically what this passage may be about.  The followers of Christ continue in His work.  They usher in a New Life.

Well, guess what?  WE are followers of Christ, so that has become OUR work as well. How do we do that?  How do we know what that looks like, or when that is supposed to happen?  How do we know what to do?

WHAT IT LOOKED LIKE IN PETER:

Let’s look at Peter.  Does he struggle with these questions?  NO! 

• Peter didn’t labor over what to do.  It didn’t seem to be a great struggle for him.
• He was summoned to Joppa by others. So he went there.
• It doesn’t appear Peter knew what was about to take place. So he asks God for help.
• And then he apparently knows to speak some words, and it brings life.
• And then he stays with Simon.  An interesting note about Simon – he was a tanner.  Best I can tell, tanners weren’t the most popular guys in town.  They may have even been off limits a little, because they worked with dead animals.  And they possibly stunk. This didn’t seem to bother Peter.  Peter just was just being an ordinary everyday guy… not even close to being what some may call “religious”. Yet he’s doing extraordinary things.

But HOW did Peter end up in this place?  How did this even happen?  Well, this is AFTER everything that’s happened so far.  This is AFTER he had spent 3 years in the presence of Jesus. During that time, Peter was radically changed. He is simply carrying on the work.

But was Peter doing it?  Did Peter have the power to bring life?  NO!  When I say Peter was carrying on the Work of Christ, I mean just that -it was The work of Christ.  It was Jesus doing the work, but through the hands and feet of Peter.

WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE IN US:

It’s the same process we go through.  We hang out with Jesus, and then we carry on the work. We just know what we are supposed to be doing.  We don’t stress over it. He’s doing it through us.

CLARIFYING DEATH FROM LIFE – EXPLANATION OF THE PRINCIPLE:

Once I got to this point in trying to figure out this passage, I wasn’t satisfied at all. I was missing something.  This idea of bringing life where there is death  - what does that even mean?!  Then I considered that this story is not just about Peter.  It’s about Tabitha.

I’d call Tabitha a “type”.  By that, I mean she’s an illustration who teaches us something about ourselves.  She had a list of things she did right as a disciple.  It all looked good.  But imagine her life AFTER this incident.  What do you think she talked about THEN?  What did others say about her?

Would they have said “Look at all these things she made… look how well she served others” as they did in v. 39?

NO!

It would have been something like – “She was once dead, and then she was alive!” She was given new life!

They wouldn’t have talked about what she DID.  They would have talked about who she WAS.  They would have talked about the CHANGE they saw in her.

Most importantly, they would have said it was by an act of God.  She didn’t do this on her own… Peter didn’t do it.  It was following the death and resurrection of Jesus.  It was by this same power. GOD did it. Peter would have made all that clear.  The evidence is the response to the incident (v. 42 - It became known all over Joppa, and many believed in the Lord.)

I think THAT is the message of this story.  That is what WE need – new life… life that has its source in the Work of Christ. That work is carried on by the disciples of Christ, then, and NOW.

APPLICATION FOR US:

To put all this in other terms, here’s just one example of what this may look like:  We go along, doing our thing.  Everything looks good…. But there is something lacking.

Then something happens.  Someone like Peter comes along, and they gently give us their hand and pull us up.  We rise up in a new life that wasn’t there before.

 

Then maybe we just continue along, but something about us is different, and that difference is obvious. We might share it out loud, or we might not.  It doesn’t really matter, because if it is authentic, others will see it.  Then, it’s affecting THEM, not just us.

Sometimes we are at the receiving end of that hand that reaches out and pulls us up.  Sometimes we are at the giving end.  This isn’t a one time event.  It happens over and over.

SUMMARY:

That is basically Resurrection Life.

Does it mean that once we start living there everything works out perfectly?  No, I don’t think so.  The reason is – it’s the process of being raised up that has an impact.  It’s the process of God doing something to change us that strengthens our faith, and other’s faith, in Him.  It’s that process of God doing something that we can’t do ourselves that makes clear who He is, and what He wants to do. God uses that process to show us Himself.  He is a God who loves us, who goes to extraordinary lengths to demonstrate that. 

THAT is why we are standing out here… to be reminded of that. This thing we call Easter… for us, it isn’t just a story we talk about in the context of history.  If that’s all it is, then it’s just that… history.  It has little relevance to today.  But I’d like to believe it was just the beginning.