Luke switches from Saul to Peter in order to tell us what Peter has been doing.
"As Peter traveled about the country, he went to visit the Lord's people who lived in Lydda." (Acts 9:32) Lydda was a city along the Mediterranean coast, and we aren't sure how the gospel came to that area, but there is already a growing church there during Peter's lifetime. I think it's likely that one or more of the Christians who fled Jerusalem after the death of Stephen took the gospel to the region. Peter decides he should go meet them and encourage them and minister to them however he can.
In obedience to what I believe is the guidance of the Holy Spirit, Peter goes to Lydda because he has divine appointments with people who need his help. "There he found a man named Aeneas, who was paralyzed and had been bedridden for eight years." (Acts 9:33) This man, either due to an accident or illness, is unable to get out of bed by himself. He is not afflicted with a temporary paralysis, for Luke makes it clear his condition has not improved in eight years. None of the medical skill of the times has been able to do anything for him. Nothing but the power of Jesus Christ will be able to heal him.
"'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 9:34-35) Miracles performed by Peter are always done with very few words. He doesn't make a show of standing over the person, waving his arms dramatically, and delivering a fiery speech with eloquent words. No, the miracles are simple because the gospel of Jesus Christ is simple. The miracles are simple because they point all the glory to Jesus Christ and not to the one who speaks the words. Peter is very clear, "It is Jesus Christ who heals you. In His name, arise and walk. In His power you are made whole." The people are astonished and convinced. They've heard the gospel and now they've seen the power of the Lord in action. They believe Jesus Christ is exactly who He, and all the Christians, say He is. If He were not, no one could be healed in His name anymore than they could be healed in the name of an idol, a king, a priest, or in the name of anything else under the sun.
Next Peter performs an even greater miracle at the seaport town of Joppa. "In Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha (in Greek her name is Dorcas); she 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." (Acts 9:36-37) Here we meet a female disciple. She is as much of a disciple as any other devout follower of Jesus. God is not a chauvinist. He considers the work women do for the kingdom of Christ just as important as the work men do for the kingdom of Christ. In Peter's day it would have been difficult, dangerous, and unseemly for a woman to travel about the region delivering the gospel, but this didn't hinder her ministry. She was a missionary in her own hometown, doing good works and helping the poor. You and I may never have the opportunity to travel the world teaching the gospel. The Lord may not call us to missionary work or we may not have the specific gifts needed to accomplish such work. But we can all be missionaries right where we are, just like Tabitha. We can share the gospel in both word and deed in our neighborhoods, on our jobs, and in our communities.
At about the time Peter is making his journeys, this good woman falls ill and dies. "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!'" (Acts 9:38) Tabitha is so loved and respected in her hometown that the believers there send for one of the chief leaders of the church.
"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 Dorcas had made while she was still with them." (Acts 9:39) Luke, because he writes in Greek, uses her Greek name. Both "Tabitha" and "Dorcas" mean "Little Gazelle". When Peter enters the room he is surrounded by the weeping widows, friends of Tabitha who herself may have been a widow. They show him the beautiful garments she made. She may have been a seamstress by trade or she may have just made these garments to give as gifts. Either way I think she used her talents for the Lord. In her interactions with others as she either sold or gave away the garments she made, I think she showed others the love of Christ and shared the gospel with them.
Luke has taken care to help us understand that Tabitha has not merely fainted. She's not in a coma either. She's dead. She's been dead long enough for her widow friends to have washed and anointed her body, redressed her, and placed her for viewing on a bed in an upper room. If she had been breathing they would have known. If she'd had a pulse, they would have felt it. Instead, as they tearfully took care of her earthly remains, these women felt her body growing colder. They've washed and anointed dead bodies before and they know what it looks like when the life has gone from a body. After placing her on the bed their grief is so strong that when they hear Peter is in Lydda they send for him and wait for him to arrive. There is no doubt whatsoever that Tabitha has been dead at least for several hours, if not the whole day.
Peter clears the room just as Jesus did when he raised the little girl from the dead. (Mark 5, Luke 8) "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 for the believers, especially the widows, and presented her to them alive." (Acts 9:40-41) Peter gives special attention to the widows whose grief has been so unbearable. It's possible they are the first to see Tabitha after she is raised from the dead. It would seem that everyone in the community loved Tabitha, but the widows loved her the most, and out of kindness to them Peter especially wants them to see her alive and well.
"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." (Acts 9:42-43) Not everyone in the New Testament who dies is raised miraculously from the dead. Could Peter have raised the martyred Stephen from the dead? Perhaps, but then the gospel would not have spread outside Jerusalem at that time. I think it's more likely that neither Peter nor any other apostle could have raised Stephen from the dead because it was not God's will that he be raised from the dead. If persecution had not come, and if the martyred dead had not remained dead, then the believers would ever have had any fears. They would have said to themselves, "No one at Jerusalem has any power over us! If one of us is killed, another believer will raise us back to life. Then we will go right back to the synagogues and keep on teaching." They would never have fulfilled the commission given to them by Jesus Christ, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation." (Mark 16:15)
You and I might never have heard the gospel if no one had ever given their life for the faith. If the persecution, which Jesus predicted, had never come and had never been allowed to be successful at times, we who are of Gentile ancestry might still be serving false gods. I don't know who my ancestors were in the days of the apostles, but I know they weren't serving the one true God, and I myself might be bowing before a pagan altar right now if the gospel had never spread throughout the world. Or I might serve no god at all, not believing that anyone created me, not feeling I owe an explanation for my life to anyone. We owe a great debt to the believers who gave it all for the sake of the gospel.
Today let's go out and be like Tabitha who knew how to bloom where she was planted. We will interact with others in some form today, whether in person or on the phone or over the internet. Let's be Christlike in all our interactions. If others don't see the love of Christ in us, they aren't going to be impressed when we share the gospel message. But when they see that we sincerely love and care about them, they will be far more willing to hear what we have to say about the Lord Jesus.
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