27th Mar 26 | 16:08
Studies by Book
03 Acts 09 32-43 THE MINISTRY OF PETER 21 Acts 09 42-43 The Good News
📖 Acts 09:32-43
21 – Tue18Jun2024 – *The Good News* - _Acts 09:32-43_ – THE MINISTRY OF PETER – Ephesians 02:01-07_
_Acts 9:42-43 And it became known throughout all Joppa, and many believed on the Lord. (43) So it was that he stayed many days in Joppa with Simon, a tanner._
Dorcas came back to life, and this brought great joy to the widows and the church at Joppa.
Our happiness is in the Lord. Why do miracles, such as these, happen on certain occasions and do not always happen?
The Lord’s ways are far higher than ours. _Isaiah 55:8-9 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways," says the LORD. (9) "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts._
We must learn to rejoice in the Lord always. _Philippians 4:4 Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!_ Our rejoicing is in the Lord, though the Lord also gives us those sweet experiences of deliverance and release.
Our sanctuary must be in Him and not in our needs being met. _Habakkuk 3:17-18 Though the fig tree may not blossom, Nor fruit be on the vines; Though the labor of the olive may fail, And the fields yield no food; Though the flock may be cut off from the fold, And there be no herd in the stalls— (18) *Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation.*_
At this moment, there was great joy amongst the believers and the widows of Joppa for Dorcas was alive. The Lord was causing a growth of the Gospel to take place through Dorcas being raised back to life. Many believed in the Lord.
The Lord’s heart is for the growth of the Gospel. People who are in death must come back to life. _Ephesians 2:1-7 And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, (2) in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, (3) among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. (4) But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, (5) *even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ* (by grace you have been saved), (6) and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, (7) that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus._
This victory over death that took place in the life of Dorcas, is not only for her, *but death, on the whole, has been defeated and we are raised back to life in Christ*. The wages of sin is death and all of us are in the state of death because we have sinned against God. The Lord has raised us all and brought us back from death to life.
We are dead because God is the source of life. _John 1:4_ In Him was life, and the life was the light of men._ Sin separated us from God. _Ephesians 4:18 having their understanding darkened, *being alienated from the life of God*, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart;_
This is our primary death. This death has led us to also be dead in several other ways.
We are dead because the law of sin and death has now become resident in our flesh. _Romans 7:23-24 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. (24) O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?_
We were dead in our relationships with one another because of sin, and through the cross, the Lord restored us to one another again. _Ephesians 2:16 and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. / _Galatians 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for *you are all one in Christ Jesus*._
We were also enemies of creation; another death came on us. _Romans 8:21 because the creation itself also will be delivered *from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God*._
The devil, who has the power of death had us in his bondage but Jesus has set us free from his death. _Hebrews 2:14-15 Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, (15) and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage._
We are also saved from the second death, the lake of fire, because of Jesus. _Revelation 20:14-15 Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. (15) And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire._
```All of us have been raised from death to life and this is the Gospel.```