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Bentley Baptist Church Sermons
Healing, Faith, and Expectation
Acts 9.32-43 | Ps Alex Huggett | 23.2.2025
Part of a series on the book of Acts
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Well, for those who remember that far ago, john Wimber had a healing ministry, in the 70s and 80s particularly. And when he was a new believer he started reading the Bible. He was sort of saved out of hippie culture and started reading these amazing stories of what Jesus did, all the healings and miracles and so on. And he asked someone when do we get to do the stuff? And this guy was a bit confused at first. Then he realised what John Wimber was talking about. He said, oh, we don't do the stuff anymore. Does God still do the stuff today? Well, I think actually probably most Christians would say yeah, god does do the stuff sometimes. At least. Even many Christians who don't believe in spiritual gifts believe that God still works miracles. And so can we show that video, angelina, just like this one. This is a local testimony, pretty amazing. Eh, I'm going to read from Acts, chapter 9. It'll be up on the slide. Acts, chapter 9, verse 32. As Peter was traveling from place to place, he also came down to the saints who lived in litter. There he found a man named Aeneas who was paralyzed and had been bedridden for eight years. Peter said to him Aeneas, jesus Christ heals you, get up and make your bed. And immediately he got up and so all who lived in litter and Sharon saw him and turned to the Lord. In Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha, which is translated Dorcas. She was always doing good works and acts of charity. About that time she became sick and died and after washing her they placed her in a room upstairs. Since Lydda was near Joppa, the disciples heard that Peter was there and sent two men to him and who urged him don't delay in coming with us. Peter got up and went with them. When he arrived, they led him to the upstairs room and all the widows approached him, weeping and showing him their robes and clothes that Dorcas had made. While she was with them. Peter sent them all out of the room. He knelt down and prayed and, turning toward the body, said and prayed and turning toward the body, said Tabitha, get up. She opened her eyes, saw Peter and sat up. He gave her his hand and helped her stand up. He called the saints and widows and presented her alive and this became known throughout Joppa and many believed in the Lord. And Peter stayed for some time in Joppa with Simon a leather tanner. Simon a leather tanner Well, I've personally never seen a miracle of these magnitudes or someone raised from the dead like Sean George.
Speaker 1:Nevertheless, I believe that God supernaturally heals and works miracles. Today I've seen and read too many stories to doubt that, but it does raise the question why haven't I seen one? If you're like me and you haven't seen one, why not? If they're so common, why don't we see them all the time, or at least why don't we see them sometimes? Why don't we get to do the stuff? Well, as we unpack this this morning, we first need to ask ourselves what are healings and miracles for?
Speaker 1:In the New Testament, healings and miracles are a sign of the presence of God's kingdom. To give just one example among many, jesus said when you enter any town this was to his disciples when you enter any town and they welcome, you, eat the things set before you, heal the sick who are there and tell them the kingdom of God has come near you. So healing is a sign of God's kingdom. So why is that? Well, where the kingdom of God goes, wholeness comes. So you know, we talk about Jesus dying for our sins. Jesus didn't just die so we can be forgiven and go to heaven. Sin is at the root of evil in the world of sickness, of death, and so when Jesus died for our sins, and so when Jesus died for our sins, he died to set us free from those sins. Now, of course, there are other signs besides healing and miracles, which I hope are more common and, I certainly think, part of our experience Things like radically changed lives, things like the love between Jesus' followers. And just because healings don't happen doesn't mean the kingdom of God's not present, but healing is a sign that the kingdom of God is present, in power. It's a testimony to that and that's perhaps why healings seem to be the stories we hear particularly prominent among evangelistic ministries, because evangelists are heralds of the kingdom of God. But we do also find healings in churches, because churches are communities of the kingdom of God.
Speaker 1:Now, as Peter went around encouraging the churches in Judea, it's noteworthy. As you unpack the narrative, there's some subtle things in there that reflect Jesus' healing. So, for example, jesus healed a lame man and told him to take up his mat and walk. Peter declared to Aeneas Jesus heals you, get up. As a result, many people turned to Jesus. Get up. As a result, many people turned to Jesus. Peter told Tabitha to get up, just like Jesus told a little girl who had died to get up, and the Aramaic word for little girl is Talitha, talitha, tabitha. It's like Luke is putting these echoes of Jesus in our ears. Luke is putting these echoes of Jesus in our ears and many people believed in Jesus.
Speaker 1:The immediate motives in the moment for Jesus' healing and the disciples' healing can be varied. On one occasion the Bible says Jesus was moved to compassion and healed someone. God loves us and he wants us to be healed. On another it said he healed someone. God loves us and he wants us to be healed. On another, it said he healed someone, someone had been sick, so Jesus could heal him. To display God's glory when we're healed, or when miracles are worked or when lives are changed because there are miraculous stories of life change God's glory is displayed. But all were because the kingdom of God had come. The king was present. So again, if healings are a sign of the kingdom and we are a people of the kingdom which we explored in January why don't we see more healings? Why is it that we pray, pray, but nothing seems to happen? Well, no doubt there's many reasons, but I want to just explore three this morning. In the first one.
Speaker 1:One of the principles we read in the Bible is that although the kingdom of God has come, the kingdom is present. The kingdom of God is present among us this morning. It's not fully here yet. This is sometimes dubbed the now but not yet, of the kingdom. In the new creation there will be no sorrow, sickness or death. But we're not living in the new creation. Sickness or death, but we're not living in the new creation. We still live in a fallen, sinful world that's in rebellion against God. And we know that the whole creation has been groaning together with labour pains until now. And not only that, but we ourselves, who have the spirit as the first fruits, we also groan within ourselves, eagerly awaiting for adoption the redemption of our bodies. So the believer's soul is secure in Christ, but our bodies are yet to be fully redeemed. I hate to break it to you, but you're going to die Unless Jesus comes back first. You're going to die. Our bodies wear out, diseases run rampant, but the sting of death has been removed because we know that although our body perishes, our soul, our spirit, is kept with God. So God does heal today, but the world is still broken, I think.
Speaker 1:Another reason we often don't see healing, sometimes at least, is because of unconfessed sin, particularly among the church. James says the prayer of faith will save the sick person and the Lord will raise him up. If he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful in its effect. I could preach a whole sermon on this one, but I just want to hone in on this Confess your sins to one another and then pray for one another. In the context of confession and repentance, I want to ask you a question when did you last do that? When did you last confess your sins to someone? When did you last confess your sins to someone Spouse, trusted friend, your home group? Been a long time for me, so I'm not judging anyone here.
Speaker 1:Look, if we expect the fruit of the kingdom to be evident among us, then we need to live according to the values, the principles, the priorities and the purity of the kingdom of God, not the values and principles and priorities of the world, not of rationalism, not of making grace an excuse for sin and yes, there is grace, but sin is a life stealer and we need to turn away from it. If we want the life of God's kingdom, then we must pursue a kingdom lifestyle, and that includes holiness. Now we also need to pursue a lifestyle of grace, because we can only be open about our sins to one another. There's enough shame in sin, isn't there, without people then adding shame onto that. So we need to be in a place of trust where we know that I can confess my sin to you and you are going to love and accept me and not judge me for that, because we're all in the same boat. So I need to know I'm going to be loved and accepted in spite of my sin, and so we need to see the church like this. We need to see the church as a rehab centre where we come to be set free. We need to see the church as a training centre where we come to learn, and particularly a training centre for life, where we come to learn how to live. What we don't need to see is the church as a courthouse where we come to be condemned, but we do need to deal with our sin.
Speaker 1:I want to be very careful about this next reason, because it's often abused, but I think that sometimes perhaps often we don't receive healing because we simply lack faith. James says Now, if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, without doubting, for the doubter is like the surging sea, driven and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord, being double-minded and unstable in all his ways. Now, the application of this verse here is asking for wisdom, obviously, but the principle is receiving by faith, and we see this in many other places in Scripture. Now, I know some people use this as a cudgel. They'll say if you truly believed, you'd be healed.
Speaker 1:I had this 40 years ago in a church I was in. It wasn't even a charismatic church, but there were people that we had. One of our ladies was dying of cancer and some people came along and basically accused the family she wasn't being healed because of your lack of faith, friends. That is abusive and it's not necessarily true anyway. I mean, there are plenty of people who have believed, have faith. Many of the faith healers in the 70s and 80s who were seeing healing happen, died of sicknesses. Cancer seemed to be prevalent. So we can't use this to manipulate or condemn people.
Speaker 1:I don't think that's a problem in our church and many Baptist churches. If anything, I think isn't the opposite. Perhaps true that we don't believe enough, perhaps it's because of disappointment, or we've been burned, or we just don't have a theology of that, or we just accept the way things are. We accept that, yes, the kingdom of God is here, but we live in a sinful, fallen world, and the sinful, fallen world is just the way it is. Where's the power of the kingdom of God? In our faith and our expectation? Because here it is. Having said that, it can be abused. Here's an uncomfortable truth, at least for me.
Speaker 1:In my observation, people with a strong faith and expectation do seem to see more miracles than those who don't. Now, I think sometimes I can overstate it, and I see people call something a miracle God healed me. I have seen this. It's like, oh, god healed me of the flu. We prayed for you a week ago and now you're well, great. I think that's called bodily, natural healing and we see that in all kinds of ways. So, nevertheless, we tend to see miracles where there is faith for a miracle, and I think that for many of us and again, I have to folks.
Speaker 1:You know when I preach this stuff, when I preach this stuff, I'm usually preaching to myself we simply don't persist in faith and prayer as Jesus taught us to and consequently, we don't see the breakthrough. Because, you know, again, we live in a sinful, fallen world. There is a spiritual warfare dimension to this. You know the natural forces of the world, but the spiritual forces of the world are coming against us. What happens in a war is you just have to persist and persist and persist until you get the breakthrough. And that's the same in prayer and with faith. And sometimes we just say I pray for your healing In Jesus' name. Amen. Oh, they weren't healed. See, jesus doesn't heal today. No, if we're not praying for a breakthrough in a way that's going to get a breakthrough, then there won't be a breakthrough. Now, again, there is this mystery of it doesn't always happen, but I want to talk a little bit more into that, because I think that healings happen not just where someone is believing, but in an environment, and faith rises up in an environment of faith. There's a culture that churches adopt. So over the past few weeks we've been exploring what it means to carry the presence of God into our communities, and part of that we talked about building an altar.
Speaker 1:Now, what's an altar? Well, an altar is a table that you make sacrifices on. In a sense, this little table here is an altar, not because we make a sacrifice on it, but because we represent the sacrifice that has been made in Jesus. In the old days, these were usually animal sacrifices. You know, one of the things in ancient Israel was this battle over the altars, because people would often, at various times and more frequently than not, actually in ancient Israel, they'd be making sacrifices on the altar to false gods, and in extreme cases, they'd be sacrificing their children false gods, and in extreme cases, they'd be sacrificing their children.
Speaker 1:What does it mean, then, for us to build an altar? Now, though, of course, we don't mean this table or physical altars. Well, people still build altars to all sorts of things in their hearts. Many people build altars to money or success. What do they sacrifice on that sort of altar? Well, they sacrifice family relationships, sometimes even their health.
Speaker 1:But you know, we as Christians can build false altars. They're a bit more subtle. We're not building them necessarily to foreign gods or something, but sometimes we build altars to, rather than sacrificing family on it. We build an altar to our family and to our children and we sacrifice church on it, and the things of God Can't come to church. My kids have sport. I've heard that one before. That's a little thing for you young parents who have that ahead of you. What are you going to teach your children to build an altar on? We can still build an altar to work. As Christians, we want to be diligent in our work and we want to be successful, and does our commitment to work hold us back from building an altar to the Lord? Can't get involved in church, can't even really don't really even have time for a proper quiet time. Now, I know some of you work really important jobs that have shifts and keep you away from church. I'm not actually talking about that, okay, so you know what I think I mean, though. Sometimes we can build an altar to sports and hobbies. Sometimes we do build an altar to God, but yeah, we sort of do it reluctantly or casually.
Speaker 1:She'll be right and then we wonder why we don't see miracles or signs and wonders or the move of God just generally in our midst, because God's like is that all you've got? You know, in the Old Testament, god said to the Israelites bring your best. Don't pick the lame lambs, the blind, the ones you don't want in your flock, because they might you know, you don't want to breed those, so we'll just. They're good enough for God. God understands. I said bring your best. Do we bring our best?
Speaker 1:You might say well, isn't God gracious? What about grace? Doesn't God gracious? What about grace? Doesn't God accept me as I am? Yes, god does accept you as you are. This is the wonder of the cross, isn't it? I don't have to be good enough to come to God and in fact, in some ways, the cross says that the worse I am, the better qualified I am to come to God. But here's the thing we come as we are, the better qualified I am to come to God. But here's the thing we come as we are, but God doesn't leave us as we are. This is what the cross is about setting us free. One of the things God wants to do is to form us into his image, the image of Jesus, who was gracious and compassionate, but also holy and majestic.
Speaker 1:So what does the kind of altar that God can bless look like? Or does it maybe look like an altar built on prayer and blessing and praise and worship. Does it look like expecting God to move and then turning up to see what he does? Does it mean saying yes to faith, doing things like gathering together in Jesus' name, saying no to the things that get in the way of us, chasing God both individually and corporately, saying yes to the things of God's kingdom and no to the things of the world? And so you know one of the things again I've noticed in churches where God seems to move particularly with these I want to say miracles and signs and wonders.
Speaker 1:But it goes beyond that. Just as an atmosphere you walk in and it's just like God is here, they build an altar. It's a culture, if you like. It's an environment of faith and expectation. You know, have you ever walked to one of those churches? Sometimes, walking to those churches it's actually really annoying. They're so enthusiastic, but God loves that. So look, building that kind of culture, that kind of altar, takes time, attention and sacrifice.
Speaker 1:But when we do, when we build that altar, here's what happens Sin starts to get pushed out. God starts to come in, the natural order starts to get overwhelmed by the supernatural presence of God's kingdom. Faith and expectation, start to chase after God, overwhelmed by the supernatural presence of God's kingdom, faith and expectation start to chase after God. And you know what God does. He's like, yeah, turns around I'm going to take some of that and embraces us. And again, while not everyone is healed, a heck of a lot more people are going to be, and again, not just bodies but hearts and minds.
Speaker 1:So what does this mean for us at Bentley Baptist? I really genuinely love this church and I'm really genuinely excited. I don't know if you can see that I guess, as pastor, I have a bit more of a global view, but real sense of God moving here. So be encouraged. But what would it look like to go deeper and see God moving more profoundly and perhaps more obviously? What would it mean for us to chase after God's presence, his kingdom, in a deeper way?
Speaker 1:What would it take to build the kind of culture where the sick are healed and captives are released and we just expect it to happen? What would it mean for us to build the kind of altar that God blesses, an environment in which we're so in tune to God's spirit that, like Peter, we can confidently walk in and you just have a sense of God wants to do something here. Aeneas see, jesus just said this is a fact. Aeneas, jesus heals you. Boom, get up. And Aeneas gets up because we know what God's doing. It's a culture where we don't have to ask why aren't we seeing the stuff? Is God still doing the stuff? Because God is doing the stuff among us. Let's pray and then we're going to move into a time of communion.