THE HEALING OF AENEAS
Acts 9:32-35
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR
1. We've all heard about Napa Auto Parts, but did you know there is a restaurant called Napa 29?
2. The maître d' answered the phone and said, "How can I help you?... I'm sorry, Sir, this is a restaurant, not an auto parts store... No, Sir, this is not Napa Auto Parts... No, Sir... Sir, this is a restaurant. I don't know how much a carburetor costs... Sir, I really don't know... $300.89... Yes, Sir. Have a nice evening."
B. TEXT
32 As Peter traveled about the country, he went to visit the saints in Lydda. 33 There he found a man named Aeneas, a paralytic who had been bedridden for eight years. 34 “Aeneas,” Peter said to him, “Jesus Christ heals you. Get up and take care of your mat.” Immediately Aeneas got up. 35 All those who lived in Lydda and Sharon saw him and turned to the Lord” Acts 9:32-35.
C. THESIS
1. Peter came to Lydda and found a man with a famous name: Aeneas. Touched with a sight of the man’s feebleness, Peter felt the impulse of the Spirit to declare healing for this man.
2. We’ll see as we study this story, The Mistake of Nature, The Ease of Healing, the Directive, and the Point of Contact of Aeneas.
I. A MISTAKE OF NATURE
A. A HANDSOME GOD OF ROMAN MYTHOLOGY
1. Aeneas (Greek: Aineas, derived from Greek Aine meaning "to praise"), was in Greco-Roman mythology, a Trojan hero, the son of the prince Anchises, the second cousin of King Priam of Troy and the goddess Aphrodite.
2. In Virgil's Aeneid, Aeneas is described as strong and handsome. The Daretis Phrygii de excidio Trojae historia of Dares Phrygius describes Aeneas as ‘‘auburn-haired, stocky, eloquent, courteous, prudent, pious, and charming.
3. In the Iliad, Aeneas fought in the Trojan War. He was favored by the gods and was one of the few Trojans who were not killed in
battle or enslaved when Troy fell. When Troy was sacked by the Greeks, Aeneas, after being commanded by the gods to flee, gathered a group,
collectively known as the Aeneads, who then traveled to Italy and became progenitors of the Romans.
4. According to Virgil in the Aeneid, Romulus and Remus were both descendants of Aeneas. The Julian family of Rome, most notably Julius Cæsar and Augustus, traced their lineage to Aeneas, thus to the goddess Aphrodite.
5. After Aeneas' death, Aphrodite had Jupiter make her son immortal. Aeneas was recognized as the god Jupiter Indiges.
B. PITIFUL STATE OF THIS AENEAS
1. Contrary to his name, there wasn’t much to “praise” the Lord about.
2. His illness was so bad he was paralyzed; so extreme, he was bed-ridden. His friends and family must have despaired of his situation, for it had now been eight long years that Aeneas had been confined to his bed, continuously.
3. Undoubtedly they thought he would be paralyzed until he was put into his grave. His was reduced to the point where he no longer had any strength left.
4. Our Lord Jesus frequently chooses the most helpless cases to demonstrate the extent of His mighty power.
5. In this man, his disease was incurable, his situation was desperate. When we were yet without strength, He sent His Word and healed them, and delivered them from all destruction.
6. Are some of you in this kind of helpless state in an area of your life? Are you this way in a spiritual sense? Apart from Jesus we are all hopeless and bankrupt spiritually. But don’t despair, Jesus Christ has determined to save you! God wants to make your infirmity a platform for Him to display His power!
II. EASE OF THE HEALING
A. LENGTH OF TIME SICK ISN’T A PROBLEM
1. This man had been paralyzed eight years. The length of its endurance is a terrible element in a disease. It doesn’t matter if you’ve been in bondage 8 years or 88 years!
2. Well, praise God, the number of years in which we have lived in sin or sickness doesn’t hinder the mercy of God at all!
B. SEVERITY OF THE PROBLEM MAKES IT NO MORE DIFFICULT
1. The severity of sickness isn’t a factor either. If you have a $1 million debt or a $25,000 debt, it’s just as easy for the creditor to write, “paid,” at the bottom of the one debt as the other.
2. Since Jesus Christ has made full Atonement, it’s as easy for God to pardon the sins of a great offender as an erring saint.
3. Don’t despair, Jesus Christ can make you whole, even though your heart and your understanding have been long paralyzed with sin. The man’s disease was considered to be entirely incurable.
4. Who can restore a paralyzed man? Aeneas couldn’t restore himself and no merely human physician had the skill to do anything for him. Is your heart sick? Is your understanding darkened? Do you feel your whole nature has become paralyzed with sin and there is no physician?
C. THE ANSWER FOR OUR PROBLEMS?
1. Peter next directs Aeneas to LOOK AT JESUS!
2. “From whence cometh me help? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth!” It’s true – you’re only help comes from Calvary!
3. I wonder if there is someone like Aeneas present here tonight? God offers you a remedy – free grace through Jesus Christ!
III. THE DIRECTIVE TO BE HEALED
Aeneas must have heard about Jesus, or else, when Peter said, “Jesus Christ makes you whole,” Aeneas might have asked what he meant. He must have heard of Jesus’ life, death & resurrection.
A. AENEAS MUST HAVE HEARD:
1. HOW JESUS HEALED THEM ALL!
a. “…healing every disease and sickness among the people” Mt. 4:23.
b. “…healing every disease and sickness” Matt. 9:35.
c. “He healed all who were sick” Matt. 12:15.
d. “He…healed [all] their sick” Matt. 14:14.
e. “People brought all their sick to him…and all who touched it [cloak] were healed” Matt. 14:34-36.
f. “…power was coming from Him and healing them all,” Luke 6:17-19.
2. HOW JESUS SUFFERED SO WE COULD BE HEALED.
“Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; Yet we
esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities;
the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed” Isa. 53:4-5.
3. KNOWN OTHER SCRIPTURES:
Exodus 15:26, "I am the Lord that heals you.”
Exodus 23:25, "And he shall serve the Lord your God, and He shall bless your bread and your water; and I will take sickness away from the
midst of you."
Deuteronomy 7:15, "And the Lord will take away from you all
sickness, and put none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which you heard about upon you, but will lay them upon all them that hate you."
Psalm 41:3, "The Lord will sustain him on his sick bed and restore him from his bed of illness."
Psalm 103:3, "Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases."
Psalm 107: 20, "He sent His Word and healed them, and delivered them from all their destructions."
Proverbs 4:20, 22, "My son, attend to my words; incline your ear to my sayings... For they are life to those that find them, and health to all their flesh."
Isaiah 53:4-5, "Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows... But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him and with His stripes, we are healed."
Matthew 8:17-18.
Mark 16:17-18, "And these signs shall follow them that believe... they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover."
Luke 5:17, "... and the power of the Lord was present to healed the sick."
Acts 10:38, "How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with Him."
James 5:15-16
1 Peter 2:24, "... by whose stripes ye were healed."
3 John 2, "Beloved I wish above all things that you may prosper and be in health, even as your soul prospers."
B. CONTEMPORARY EXAMPLES OF HEALING
1. Many of our fellow Christians in this church have been divinely healed. Radelle Whitt was healed of a pulverized shoulder ball; her doctor cancelled her surgery. Lucille Heck was healed of a damaged colon, unable to eat almost anything for 8 years. Rita Dixon was healed of cancer 30 years ago and it has never returned. My knees were healed and I’ve never had to have surgery, though I couldn’t climb stairs because of the swelling.
2. The point is, God is still in the healing business. He’s never stopped working miracles. Some claim God only caused miracles to penetrate a culture. Not so; God kept working miracles for Israel throughout the O.T. era. It had nothing to do with penetrating their culture. Instead, miracles were given to meet real human needs. That’s the common denominator. There are still real human needs today – and God is still healing!
C. PETER DIRECTS HIM FOR AN IMMEDIATE CURE
1. Peter didn’t say, “Aeneas, Jesus will make you whole,” but “He does make you whole.”
2. Peter doesn’t say, “Jesus make you better,” but “Jesus makes you whole.” Peter didn’t push for an intermediate result, but for the one that God intends.
3. That it’s Christ’s will for us to be healed is evident; "And there came a leper to Him, begging him, and kneeling down to Him, and saying unto Him, "If you will, you can make me clean." And Jesus, moved with compassion, put forth his hand and touched him and said to him, "I will; be clean." Immediately the leprosy departed from him and he was cleansed." Mark 1:40-45.
D. ILLUSTRATION
1. There was a woman whose child had a fever and needed citrus/ grapes. There was a plantation owner who lived nearby, whose hothouse had some of the best grapes ever grown.
2. She scraped together the little money she could and went to the land owner to buy some of the needed fruit. Of course, he refused her, saying they were not to be sold. Did she think he ran a grocery store? So he sent her away.
3. She came again, several times, reminding him that she was his neighbor, that they were some how distant relatives, etc, for her need was desperate. But he wouldn’t listen.
4. At last his wife heard about it and sent for the woman. “My husband doesn’t sell his grapes, but…”, she said, snipping off a bunch of grapes and dropping them into the lady’s bag, “He is always ready to GIVE THEM AWAY, if people approach him for a gift.”
5. That’s the way God is with His precious gifts; you can’t buy them for any price and no amount of badgering on the basis of your worthiness will persuade Him, but if you come humbly and seek His forgiveness and grace, He is more than happy to give you all you want, if you ask in the Name of Jesus!
IV. THE POINT OF CONTACT FOR FAITH
Peter said, “Jesus Christ heals you. Get up and take care of your mat.”
A. A MIRACLE MUST HAVE A MOMENT OF BEGINNING
1. Faith must be combined with action in order to result in the release of the miraculous. This is when God's hand is added to what you're doing
and what normally would not be possible, in the natural, suddenly becomes possible.
2. A “point of contact” is a something you do to release your faith to God. Whatever the action may be, the point of contact enables you to release the faith you already possess and claim the promises of God by allowing you to focus your attention on God, set the time and the place for your miracle to begin, make your believing a definite act of faith, and hold on in faith while expecting a miracle.
3. BIBLICAL "FOCAL POINTS" of faith
a. For the woman with the issue of blood, she believed the miracle would occur when she touched the hem of Jesus’ robe.
b. For the Centurion with the sick servant, it was the spoken word of Jesus.
c. For New Testament believers, it was when hands were laid upon the sick. This would be the "point of contact" -- the point when they believed the miracle would occur.
4. JOKE 2 Guys went fishing. One kept throwing back all the big fish. Why? Because he had a small frying pan. That’s like Christians who throw away the big plans, dreams, miracles, opportunities – when what they ought to do is get a bigger frying pan!
B. PETER PERCEIVED THE MOMENT HAD ARRIVED
1. Peter had been talking with the saints at Lydda, and while talking to this man, realized "This man is ready to be healed!"
2. The MANNER OF CONTACT. The Greek actually says; "Rise up and gird yourself" – presumably, put your clothes on; prepare for action.
3. God would do the healing, Aeneas must take some sort of action. We must do something with our faith. We must step out.
4. You must put the miracle you desire into the realm of time, nail it down, and believe your moment of fulfillment has arrived.
5. Peter said in the present tense, “Jesus Christ heals you!”
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION: THE SKYDIVE
1. Michael T. Smith described his first airplane jumping experience from a height of 3000 feet.
2. "As we climbed higher, sweat began flowing from every pore of my body. It ran down my neck, my back, and my face.
3. "Relax," said the jump master. "You're going to love this." Easy for him to say! I looked out the window and almost cried.
4. "How high are we?" "1000 feet." We were going three times this height! My sweat continued to flow.
5. At last the jump master unlatched the door. It blasted upward. I knelt on the edge of a 3000 foot drop. The wind blew in at 85 mph. Hurricane force winds pounded my body... there was no turning back.
6. Above the roar the jump master cried, "Go!" For 3 seconds I spun out of control, not knowing which way was up. I was at the mercy of the wind and gravity. Everything I learned about jumping was gone. My mind froze with terror.
7. Suddenly a force lifted me by the shoulders. When I looked up, I saw the beautiful rainbow colors of my parachute. I floated like a bird; I was a soaring eagle -- alive and in control. I glided to the ground and landed on both feet a short distance from the landing target.
8. That night, safely at home, I reflected on my job. I’d shoved my worries aside and put complete faith in a thin layer of cloth. If the chute had failed, I would not be writing this story today.
9. There's a time in everyone's life, when we realize we can't do it all on our own -- we have to put our faith in God. He is your parachute. Your life may seem to spin out of control, but he'll catch you up in His arms."
B. THE CALL
1. We are going to sing. You come Now to claim your miracle. What kind do you need?
a. A miracle of New Life?
b. A miracle of healing?
c. A miracle of provision?
d. A miracle in your family?
e. A miracle of inner healing?
2. Believe for it now! Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you” Matt. 17:20.
3. Hooked on drugs? An alcoholic? In bondage? Bad temper? Gambling addiction? Pornography? Cussing? – Jesus Christ is here tonight to set you free!
