Kind Women (and Men) Still Need Jesus

This sermon can be watched or listened to at www.templebaptistchurch.ca!

The kindest person on earth – my mom Lelia Stairs!

Who is the kindest person you know? Now many of you are kind here today, but I have to say that the kindest person I have ever met is my mom. Take for example, last week I brought our Staff down to a conference in Florida to advance our understanding of disciple-making and church-planting. We were able to go because of your investment to train us so that we can train you, as well as the fact that my parents were generous with their Florida home so that we could stay there for free. In fact, my mom didn’t go to the conference so that she could cook and clean for the rest of us. Her kindness is displayed all the time in the way she lovingly serves people with joy. Like most mothers, her kindness is evident in how she puts others before herself. She even is going to go our to our house after the first service to watch our sick son so that my wife can come to the second service. My mom doesn’t have an unkind bone in her body. That does not mean that she is a pushover. She knows how to lovingly influence strong people like my dad, but she does it in the most kind way. Her grandson Josiah says with apple pie! Lest you think that this is just a son buttering up his mom on Mother’s day, if you were to take a secret poll in our church, most would put Lelia Stairs at the top of the list of the most kind persons they know. My mom has shaped me to be a better man and pastor because of her kindness. Thank you mom!

However, as kind as my mom is, she still needs Jesus. Here is the hard-hitting truth: being a kind person will not keep you from hell. How could I say that on Mother’s Day – that my kind mom needs Jesus to keep her from hell? You probably want to boo me off the stage this morning. However, I believe I am saying the kindest thing I could ever say when I say that kind people still need Jesus because it could save their lives. It could also save your life! And I am not just talking about being saved from hell. Being kind is a great characteristic, but it isn’t good enough to live the life that God wants you to live. There is good news though today. God promises to reach out to the kind. In Psalm 18:25, we read, “With the kind You show Yourself kind.” And so because mothers are the kindest people on earth, God wants to show Himself kind to them today. He wants the kind to have a whole new kind of life!

We see this in the story of Dorcas in Acts 9:32-43. Now, that is a funny name. Today’s kids at school would have had a hay day with a name like Dorcas! You can hear them saying something like “Dorky Dorcas.” But the Dorcas in the Bible was highly respected. Let’s read her story in Acts 9:32-43! It is a story of how Jesus and His Church’s mission continues by overcoming kindness. Read Acts 9:32-43!

Now let’s define kindness. It is more than being nice! Kindness is action-oriented. Kindness shows itself in helping others in need, especially helping to enter into the messes of life. For example, while I was away my wife a week ago had to take our kids to numerous appointments. We are in the taxi driving stage of parenting. On the way to one appointment, one of our children informed their mother that some of their younger siblings picked up a bag of dog excrement on the way home from school. (As an aside, why do some dog owners do the hard and disgusting work of cleaning up their dog’s waste in a bag, but don’t put it in the garbage? Finish the job man!) Back to the story! As the boys were twirling the dog poop bag around, guess what happened. It hit their backpack, the bag ripped open and everything went flying like a blender without a lid on it. The boys were covered in dog waste. You can picture what Lori had to do. Kindness motivates us to cleanup the messes in life. However, we may be kind enough to clean up the mess, but do it an in unkind way, which is we need more than kindness.

Why do the kind need a new kind of life? Here are three reasons the kind need a new kind of life: 1) The kind may be sick and tired! (v. 34, 36-37) 2) The kind person’s friends and family can’t rescue them. (v. 39); and 3) The kind person’s resurrection will be the kindest act to others (v. 40). Here is one of the reasons why we like kindness in others, but don’t aspire to have kindness in our own lives. Kind people often get sick and tired because their kindness kills them. Or should I say that people tend to take advantage of them. Moms are easy pickings to be presumed upon because from the moment we were conceived we have counted on mom being there to sustain us. However, this can be wearing on a mom. I think we dads need to be protective of the moms out there that they are not presumed upon as our family’s personal slaves. Instead, they should be praised as our most important member of the family.

But the sad truth is that those who should be praised are often paralyzed. We see this in the background to our story of Dorcas. The Apostle Peter was travelling through Judea, Galilee and Samaria. That is what it says in Acts 9:32, “Now as Peter was traveling through all those regions,” which refers back to verse 31. So Peter is travelling and came also to the saints who lived at Lydda, which is “25 miles from Jerusalem.”[1] This shows that we need to do both evangelism and edification. “Peter’s purpose was not only to preach the gospel, but also to visit the saints, in order to teach and encourage them.”[2] In this process of evangelizing and edifying people, he encounters a guy by the name of Aeneas. Aeneas’ name means “praised.” But not too many people were praising him because he was paralyzed. We don’t know how he became paralyzed, but we do know he had been paralyzed for 8 years. Maybe he had an accident or fall? Maybe he was kindly helping somebody out when he became paralyzed? The text doesn’t imply that Aeneas was an evil person or the paralysis was caused by his own foolish wrongdoing. Peter just says, “Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you!” Remember Psalm 18:25, “With the kind you show yourself kind!” God was kind to Aeneas, but not because he deserved it. Aeneas, the man who everybody literally called “praised” was supposed to deflect that praise to Jesus Christ. We know this because verse 35 records, “And all who lived at Lydda and Sharon saw him, and they turned to the Lord.” Moms, you deserve a lot of praise today, but maybe you are feeling paralyzed. You feel stuck at home like Aeneas. Maybe you are having to be cared for like Aeneas and it is driving you crazy? Maybe you are a single mom and you are frustrated being dependent upon others? Today, Jesus wants to heal you, especially emotionally. And He wants the praise you receive to be redirected to Him! It shows that the kind person still needs Jesus.

I also like what Peter said to Aeneas, the praised one: “Arise and make your bed!” Moms, you can use that phrase when you are trying to wake up your kids for school. Making your bed is commanded in Scripture! Biblical scholar F.F. Bruce thinks that it also implies “get something to eat.”[3] So getting up, making your bed and getting something to eat are all Biblical imperatives in the Bible. This will help you on school mornings.

However, the principle behind these instructions by Peter is that when the kind find out they still need Jesus, Jesus gives them a new kind of life, which often releases them from what could be considered their former prison. The man’s bed was his prison, now he is to make the bed and leave it behind. Jesus calls us often to leave what has been holding us down and instead go to others who will see the change in us.

We need a new life because even the kind-hearted get sick and tired. This is evident when Peter arrives in Joppa. Joppa was “10 miles from Lydda.”[4] It was famous because “Jonah went to Joppa to avoid going to the Gentiles (Jonah 1:1-3), but Jesus redeems infamous places, especially places of escape. It is in Joppa that later on Peter would receive his call to go to the Gentiles.”[5] It is hinted at in verse 43 where Peter stays with Simon the tanner, a man doing unclean work.

Joppa was the place where Dorcas had lived. She was a disciple or follower of Jesus and did an inexhaustible amount of work for other people. Verse 36 declares, “this woman was abounding with deeds of kindness and charity which she continually did.” Her name Tabitha meant “gazelle.”[6] You can picture this woman, running here and there serving everybody, just like our moms do. She didn’t stop! That is until she ran out of gas. She wore herself down! Verse 37 records, “And it happened at that time that she fell sick and died.” The sad truth is that even the kind-hearted get sick and tired!

And it is so devastating. Maybe you are here today and you have lost your mother? She worked tirelessly for your family and now she is gone. It is so hard. Because the kind person’s friends and family cannot rescue them. You need somebody else to help you. In Dorcas’ case, we discover in verse 39 that God used Peter to comfort those who were deeply hurting because they couldn’t rescue their dear sister Dorcas. You see, Dorcas cared for the widows. What an important ministry and even mandated in Scripture! James 1:27 declares, “Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.” I recently watched a movie entitled “The Veil of Tears” which told how women are reaching women in India with the Gospel. Many of these women are widows, who became widows in their late teens and early twenties. They would get illegally married at 14 or 15 and their husbands would be killed due to risky behavior and then the widows are considered tainted goods for the rest of their lives. No one will remarry them because they are considered bad luck. And so they go and live in places like “The Widows Island” in West Bengal. But there are modern-day Dorcas’ who care for them. Who share the Gospel with them! I know modern-day Dorcas’ in our church. Some of you are like a mother to widows. Nedra Kristensen and Mardelle Wilhelm have played a tremendous role in our church through caring for widows. Before that, Ruth Holbrook cared for the widows because she was one for so long. We should be reminded that you don’t need to be a mother or even a woman to care for widows and orphans, you just need to practice kindness. In our story, we are told: “all the widows stood beside him (Peter), weeping and showing all the tunics and garments that Dorcas used to make while she was with them.” Dorcas clothed the needy; she was the equivalent of the Self-help Food Bank and the government assistance program rolled into one, but her kindness couldn’t save her!

The kind still need Jesus to give them a different kind of life! You need a new kind of life because you are sick and tired and your friends and family can’t rescue you, but also because your resurrection will be the kindest act to others! Dorcas’ resurrection was the kindest thing that happened in Joppa. The story continues with Peter going up to the upper room where Dorcas’ body essentially was lying in state. Peter then sends out all the grieving widows. They had lost their husbands and now they lost Dorcas, their friend and benefactor. Peter kneels down and prays. Prayer is such an important aspect in rescuing the kind and unkind! Think about how you are here today because your mom prayer for you. In our story, Peter prays! Peter then says to the body, “Tabitha, arise!” Scholars have remarked how similar in wording this was to what Jesus said to a dead little girl in Mark 5:41, “Talitha kum!” (which in Aramaic means ‘Little girl, I say to you, get up!’” John Stott remarks, “Tabitha koum was only a single letter different from Talitha koum!”[7] We don’t know if Peter said these words in Aramaic, Hebrew or Greek, but regardless, they follow the pattern of Jesus’ resurrection power! As one of the only three disciples present when Jesus healed the little girl from the dead, you wonder if Peter recalls the little girl and sees Dorcas as the next example of Christ’s resurrection power! And I love what happens next! The end of verse 40 says, “She opened her eyes and when she saw Peter, she sat up. And he gave her his hand and raised her up and calling the saints and widows, he presented her alive. It became known all over Joppa and many people believed in the Lord.” That is the key phrase! Many people believed. Dorcas’ resurrection became the kindest act to others and it was all because of Jesus.

The kind and unkind need Jesus. Why? Because only Jesus was perfectly kind! In fact, only Jesus was perfect! And only the kind Jesus could die for our sins and rise from the grave and give us a new kind of life! On a day we celebrate the kindest people on earth, it is a time to point back to the kindest person in heaven – Jesus Christ! We need Him! Today, maybe you are sick and tired and you know your friends and family can’t rescue you. Jesus wants to give you a new kind of life where everyone will be attracted not just to you, but Him.

[1] Ajith Fernando, The NIV Application Commentary on Acts (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1998), 310.

[2] John R. W. Stott, The Message of Acts (Downer’s Grove: Inter-Varsity Press, 1990), 182.

[3] F.F. Bruce, The Book of Acts (NICNT) (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1974), 211.

[4] Fernando, 311.

[5] Warren Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary (Wheaton: Victor Books, 1989), 443.

[6] Wiersbe, 443.

[7] Stott, 183.

---