Acts 9:36-43, Psalm 23:1-6, Revelation 7:9-17, John 10:22-30.
A). GRACE FOR THE GRACEFUL.
Acts 9:36-43.
I am sometimes at pains to emphasise how God’s grace abounds for sinners (cf. Romans 5:20), but in the instance before us we see how God’s grace also continues to abound for a woman who is already a “disciple”. Doctor Luke, the author of Acts, is at pains to make sure that his Hebrew and Greek readers all understand the meaning of the patient’s name: “Tabitha, which is translated Dorcas” - which we in our turn may translate as “Gazelle”: a graceful kind of antelope. This name fits, because the fruit of God’s grace was seen in her “good works and charitable deeds which she did” (Acts 9:36; cf. Ephesians 2:10).
Now this woman lived - and died - at Joppa, the only truly Jewish seaport in the Roman province of Judaea. Joppa was where Jonah had fled from his mission, with a view to catching a ship to Tarshish (cf. Jonah 1:3). Joppa was about 11 miles north-west of Lydda, where the Apostle Peter was to be found: the same ‘Simon surnamed Peter’ (Acts 10:5) whom Jesus once addressed as ‘Simon son of Jonah’ (Matthew 16:17).
Tabitha’s case history is briefly summarised: “she became sick and died” (Acts 9:37). Nothing unusual about that: but evidently the disciples in that place expected something else. They washed her and laid her in an upper room (a prayer room, perhaps?); then they sent two men to fetch Peter (Acts 9:38).
Now this particular ‘son of Jonah’ was not about to miss out on his commission. The scene that met him must have been somewhat reminiscent of the scene at the house after the death of Jairus’ daughter (Mark 5:38): except that there it was probably professional mourners, whereas here it was more likely to be genuinely grieving beneficiaries of Tabitha’s good works who were doing all the wailing (Acts 9:39). One can almost visualise the widows showing off the clothes which their benefactor provided for them, perhaps even wearing them for Peter to see: ‘Look, she made me this!’
As Jesus had done on that occasion, so did Peter on this: he put them all outside (Mark 5:40; Acts 9:40). The obvious difference is that Jesus had brought Peter, James and John, and the girl’s parents with him; whereas in this instance Peter was alone with the deceased - perhaps a bit more like Elijah (1 Kings 17:19-22) and Elisha (2 Kings 4:32-33) in this detail. However, in all these instances, Jesus was never more than a prayer away!
There is a similarity, too in the Aramaic expression used by Jesus, ‘Talitha koum’ which is translated ‘Little girl, I say unto you, arise’ (Mark 5:41); and what Peter reportedly said to Dorcas, “Tabitha, arise” (Acts 9:40) which if spoken in Aramaic would have been ‘Tabitha koum’. The result was the same: she opened her eyes and sat up. Peter took Dorcas by the hand, just as he had seen Jesus do with Jairus’ daughter - and just as Elijah and Elisha had done, he presented the hitherto dead person alive (Acts 9:41).
When Peter and John had spoken to the crippled man at the gate beautiful, they had loudly invoked the name of Jesus: ‘in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk’ (Acts 3:6)! The Apostles twice had their authority challenged by the Sanhedrin following this miracle (Acts 4:7; Acts 5:28) - but Peter, as their spokesman, twice had a ready response (Acts 4:19; Acts 5:29). We ought to obey God rather than any mere man!
Peter’s authority derives from his commissioning by Jesus (Matthew 16:19). Jesus had given the twelve power and authority over the forces of evil (Luke 9:1), and the seventy-two likewise (Luke 10:19). That Jesus is the source of this authority is restated in the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18).
In the instance of the raising of Tabitha (Acts 9:40), there is no record of Peter invoking the name of Jesus, loudly or otherwise: but death still fled at his word. Peter had nothing to prove to those who were believers long before he had arrived on the scene, and he seems to have demonstrated a calm authority and an almost uncharacteristic composure. We see from Peter’s conduct in that upper room that there is also a place for quiet private prayer in our armoury.
Not that these things were done in a corner, as the Apostle Paul would later remind King Agrippa (cf. Acts 26:26). The fame of this miracle was broadcast abroad, and many believed in the Lord (Acts 9:42). Meantime Peter remained in Joppa (Acts 9:43), until such time as he would be summoned on another unexpected mission (Acts 10:5-6).
B). THE SHEPHERD PSALM.
Psalm 23:1-6.
1. The LORD is my Shepherd.
Psalm 23:1-3.
When King David was a boy, he used to look after his father’s sheep - so he knew what he was talking about when he spoke of the LORD as his shepherd. As we all know, a “shepherd” looks after sheep. David led the sheep, but the LORD led David.
Yet one day the LORD called David away from that life of looking after sheep, and after many adventures David became king of Israel (Psalm 78:70-71). Instead of leading sheep, he was to lead God’s people. Now, more than ever, King David needed to follow the leading of the LORD God.
King David could look back on his life as a shepherd boy, and remember the times when God had helped him. One time a lion tried to steal a lamb. Another time a bear tried to steal a lamb. Both times the LORD helped King David rescue the lamb (1 Samuel 17:34-35).
Psalm 23:1. “The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not lack anything.”
Another Psalm tells us that there is ‘no good thing that the LORD will withhold’ from the people who walk in His righteous way (Psalm 84:11).
Jesus said that when we seek God’s kingdom, and His righteousness, He will provide for us all that we need (Matthew 6:33).
Psalm 23:2. “He makes me lie down in green pastures.” For a sheep, this means delicious green grass.
“He leads me beside still waters” – rather than scary noisy fast-running water in which the sheep might drown.
Sheep sometimes do silly things. I can remember seeing a sheep that had wandered onto the shore because it saw a nice piece of grass in the shallow water. When the tide started to come in, that silly sheep nearly got drowned.
God does not give us permission to go into silly places.
Psalm 23:3. “He restores my soul.” The shepherd rescues the sheep from dangerous and forbidden places. The LORD restores the life of His people.
“He leads me in the paths of righteousness” – the shepherd knows where the right paths are, and leads the sheep there. The LORD has given us His Word, the Bible, to guide us and to teach us in His ways.
“For His name’s sake.” The shepherd looks after his sheep properly so that people do not think that the shepherd is silly. When we disobey God, we dishonour His name.
Jesus is the good shepherd, who gives His life for the sheep (John 10:11). The shepherd calls His own sheep by name, and He leads them out. Those who hear the voice of Jesus will follow Him, and He leads us beside the still waters, and into the paths of righteousness (Psalm 23:2-3).
Jesus is the Shepherd of Israel (Psalm 80:1): but His flock (His people) includes those out of every nation, throughout all of time, who follow Him.
2. A Sheep's Response to the Good Shepherd.
Psalm 23:4-6.
‘All we like sheep have gone astray’ (Isaiah 53:6). Yet when we know Jesus as our Good Shepherd (John 10:14), we have full bragging rights (Psalm 23:1-3). One of the distinguishing marks of the Good Shepherd is His compassion towards an otherwise leaderless people (Mark 6:34).
Having told the other sheep about the Good Shepherd, the sheep now addresses Him in person. “You” are with me; “your” rod, and “your” staff comfort me (Psalm 23:4). “You” prepare a table before me; “you” anoint my head with oil (Psalm 23:5).
Finally, just in case the sheep still has fears in the dark valley (Psalm 23:4), the Psalm ends with the reassurance of a personal reflection (Psalm 23:6). The Lord is our Shepherd (Psalm 23:1), we might say, and His compassions they fail not (Lamentations 3:22-24). ‘Thus far the LORD has helped us’ (1 Samuel 7:12).
In the valley, death is only a shadow (Psalm 23:4). Since I am walking in the paths in which the Good Shepherd is leading me (Psalm 23:2-3), I need not yield to fear, for He is with me; His rod, and His staff they comfort me (Psalm 23:4). Countless times in the Bible we hear the LORD, His angel, and Jesus saying ‘Fear not’ (e.g. Isaiah 41:10; Luke 2:10; John 16:33).
The “comfort” of the rod and staff is that they ward off enemies, but also keep me on the right path (Psalm 23:4). We have the ‘comfort’ of the Holy Ghost (John 14:26). This includes both direction and discipline.
The “table” is a place of feasting (Psalm 23:5). For the sheep, this is a plateau, previously prepared by the good shepherd. Cleared of noxious weeds, it is lush with the best grass.
There are both literal and spiritual applications of this concept for the believer. Just as the LORD provided manna in the wilderness (Exodus 16:31), so He provides our daily bread (Matthew 6:11). Yet in the Bible He also feeds us with His words, and they are a delight to us (Psalm 119:103); ‘the words that I speak,’ says Jesus, ‘they are spirit and they are life’ (John 6:63).
Enemies (spiritual predators) can only look on when I am in the care of the Good Shepherd (Psalm 23:5). Our adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, is pacing up and down, seeking whom he may devour (1 Peter 5:8). Yet he can come no nearer than the Lord allows (Job 1:12; Job 2:6).
“Anointing” (Psalm 23:5) is salve for healing, and the application of oil to deter parasites. It is also grease for the rams’ horns, to stop them from battering each other to death! The Lord tends to our spiritual injuries, and daily applies the ministry of the Holy Ghost to our individual situations.
The “overflowing cup” (Psalm 23:5) speaks of the kind of medicine that the shepherd might administer to the sheep in times of chill. It is a metaphor for the abundance that the sheep finds when it rests under the good shepherd’s care. The concept of blessings ‘running over’ appears also in the New Testament, as a response to our obedience to Jesus (Luke 6:38).
The cup of Christ’s suffering, which he drank to the full (Mark 10:38; Mark 14:36), fills our cup with an abundant overflowing of spiritual blessings (Ephesians 1:3). Whatever we are suffering, He has been there already: rest in Him!
In the final verse, the sheep reassures itself that the mercy and love of the good shepherd have ‘got my back.’ David is saying, on our behalf, “my dwelling will always be with Him” (Psalm 23:6). This is a response of faith to all that has occurred so far, a response of confidence in the present, and a response of assured hope concerning all that is yet to come.
C). CHORAL SYMPHONY No. 2.
Revelation 7:9-17.
As in Revelation 5:11-14, the Lamb is the focus of the praises of the redeemed here in Revelation 7:9-10. We are presented with an innumerable number of worshippers, drawn from “every nation, tribes, peoples, and tongues” (Revelation 7:9). This numberless number - literally: “arithmetically impossible for anyone to number” waved their palms in adulation.
This is a great celebration - but these people had more to celebrate than a Roman triumph, or a modern sporting victory. It was like Palm Sunday all over again (John 12:13) - but better, because there was no more Cross on the future horizon, either for our Lord, or for His followers. It was like the greeting of an Emperor - only better, because the One being worshipped is truly, and not feignedly, the source of our salvation (Revelation 7:10).
“Salvation belongs to Him who sits on the throne of our God, and to the Lamb,” sings the multi-ethnic crowd (Revelation 7:10). The responsorial returns to the angels and the elders and the four living creatures, who each one “fell on their face before the throne, and worshipped God” (Revelation 7:11). “Amen,” they cried, and repeated much of the wording of their earlier worship - but with the exception that ‘wealth’ (Revelation 5:12) is replaced by “thanksgiving” = ‘Eucharist’ (Revelation 7:12).
One of the elders asked John a question, which he himself intended to answer: “Who are these, who are clothed with white robes, and where did they come from” (Revelation 7:13). The tour-guide identifies the believers who “have washed” (past tense) their robes as those who “are emerging” (present tense) from “the great tribulation” (Revelation 7:14). Their robes are “made white in the blood of the Lamb” - see Genesis 49:10-11, and Isaiah 1:18.
1. Tribulation has been with us from the beginning (Acts 14:22).
2. On the night that He was betrayed, Jesus - already assured of victory - said: “In the world you have (present tense) tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).
3. John identified himself as “a fellow-partaker in the tribulation and in the kingdom and endurance of Jesus Christ” (Revelation 1:9).
4.Salvation is promised to those who endure (Matthew 24:13).
5. Eternal life is promised to those who overcome (Revelation 2:7; Revelation 2:11; Revelation 3:5 etc).
6. Martyrdom awaits some, as indicated at the opening of the fifth seal (Revelation 6:9).
7.Tribulation has its fiercest manifestation as the assured victory draws near (Mark 13:19).
This huge crowd before the throne of God “serve Him day and night in His Temple” (Revelation 7:15). As a result, the Lord literally “pitches His tent” amongst them. There are echoes here of John 1:14, without which there would be no heaven for any of us!
Revelation 7:16-17 echo Isaiah 49:10, which pictures the exiles returning from Babylon with much the same words, except that ‘He who has compassion’ is now identified as “the Lamb” (Revelation 7:17). Psalm 23:1-2 is brought into play in Revelation 7:17, except that it is the “Lamb at the centre of the throne” who is now the shepherd who “will lead them to living fountains of waters” (Revelation 7:17). These are the water-courses after which we have been panting (Psalm 42:1-3) - but now, at last, the tears are wiped away from our eyes (Isaiah 25:8).
D). A PLACE OF SECURITY FOR THE PEOPLE OF GOD.
John 10:22-30.
Place is perhaps as important as time in this text.
It was winter, and Jesus was walking under the shelter of Solomon’s Colonnade in the Temple (John 10:22-23). This was evidently a part of the original Temple which had remained standing, even after the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem. It would become a place where the church would meet after Jesus’ resurrection (Acts 3:11). According to later Roman historians, it was also the place where the Jews would make their stand against the Romans in their defense of the Temple some forty years after this conversation.
It was a place where Jesus spoke of the total security of His flock: and that security is found in Him (John 10:27-30).
The occasion was the feast of the dedication: Hanukkah (John 10:22). This was a celebration of the re-opening of the Temple after its desecration by the Seleucids, and its re-dedication in the days of the Jewish folk-hero Judas Maccabaeus. It was not a compulsory pilgrimage feast, but could be celebrated in the home, as it is today.
It is interesting to notice, in passing, that Jesus did attend the Temple at this time. The inference may be, that Jesus did not disapprove of this festival. This would be one last chance for “the Jews” (John 10:24), in the person of their leaders, to figure out just who Jesus is.
“It was winter” (John 10:22) may carry the same force as ‘it was night’ elsewhere (John 9:4; John 13:30). The clouds were already gathering (John 10:31).
Jesus was walking in Solomon’s Colonnade (John 10:23), when suddenly a small crowd surrounded Him, demanding to know if He is the Messiah (John 10:24). The tone of their question seems to go beyond mere enquiry to impertinence, although they were admittedly at odds amongst themselves (John 10:19-21).
Jesus was perhaps recognising some of them from an earlier encounter when He replied, “I told you before” (John 10:25).
The problem with their timing was that Jesus knew that if He, on such a feast as this (with all its nationalistic overtones) were to “without equivocation” (cf. John 10:24) announce that He is the Messiah, then they would have ‘taken Jesus by force and made Him a king’ (John 6:15) after their own liking.
Jesus spoke of His Messiahship as of a different order than their limited expectations, calling in also the witness of His works (John 10:25).
Any ‘leaders of the Jews’ or ‘students of the law’ who saw Jesus’ works, should have surely seen that He is the One spoken of in so many of the Bible’s types and prophecies, ceremonies and sacrifices. As He had told them earlier, if they were of God they would have heard God’s words: but ‘they did not hear God’s words because they were not of God’ (John 8:47). So Jesus now explained to them that their inability to believe was because they were “not of my sheep” (John 10:26).
This recalls the conversation at the beginning of the chapter (John 10:3-4): the sheep hear, He calls them by name, they know His voice, and therefore they follow. Jesus here elaborates with the intimation of a new relationship with His followers, and a change of lifestyle on their part: “My sheep hear My voice, I know them, and they follow Me” (John 10:27) – shifting the emphasis from our knowing Him, to His prior knowledge of us (cf. John 15:16).
Jesus, the good shepherd, “gives” (present tense) eternal life to His sheep (John 10:28). This is an ongoing work of the risen Lord Jesus, and provides a dynamic assurance not only for the Easter season, but forever. Eternity touches time, and time cannot overcome it.
With it comes the threefold assurance that we shall never perish, and nothing is able to pluck us out of Jesus’ hand, because nothing is able to pluck us out of the Father’s hand (John 10:28-29; cf. Romans 8:38-39). “My Father is greater than all” (John 10:29) forms the basis for the assertion that nothing can snatch us out of His hand.
Jesus goes on to say, “I and my Father are one” (John 10:30). This is a far-reaching claim, recalling the theme of the unity of the Father and the Son in John’s prologue (John 1:1-14). It was certainly understood by His hearers to be a claim to equality with God (John 10:33)!
Jesus told His questioners that their unbelief was evidence that they were not His people (John 10:26). On the other hand, our acceptance of Jesus’ words upon the earth, and our subsequent obedience of them, are evidence that we have already been accepted by Him (John 10:27).
Our security rests entirely in Him.
