Acts 9:36-43
Introduction
Do you know what it takes to be chosen as the most beautiful woman in the world?
The current miss world The Peruvian, MARIA JULIA MANTILLA, says that to be elected miss world, she had to undergo a series of drastic disciplines that made her change her lifestyle. (Five days a week, two hours of exercises in a gym, one hour of swimming, one hour of sauna) (1 day a week visit of the stylist) (A strict food diet eliminating fat)
When we talk about beauty, the world has its parameters to measure beauty, very different from God’s.
Probably on more than one occasion you have felt the pressure of the world, you have felt bad because you do not have certain characteristics that society and television demand. I want to tell you this afternoon that although the world has a way of measuring the beauty of a woman, God looks for beautiful women in another way.
The Bible tells us in several passages that God is not pleased with the external, but rather he is pleased with the beauty of the heart.
1 Samuel 16:7
But the LORD answered Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I reject him; because Jehovah does not look at what man looks at, because man looks at what is before his eyes, but Jehovah looks at the heart.
Transition: There is a story in the book of Acts that teaches us who is a beautiful person to God. Let’s look up Acts 9:36-43
Reading: Acts 9:36-43
Context
This story is a very interesting story. Lucas the writer of the book of acts writes it so that we can learn who is a beautiful person. The story takes place in Jerusalem when Jesus was no longer on earth. He had founded his church. The central character of this story lived in a time when the world also valued physical beauty tremendously. Historians say that women spent money to obtain fragrances, oils, silk dresses, and gold ornaments to look beautiful.
App:
Time has not changed, today in the same way most people seek to appear beautiful in the eyes of others. (Never before has there been so much worship of the body, television ads, shopping malls bombard us telling us that to be a beautiful person we must put on such a mark). Do you know that it is the case that believers get into debt and get into financial trouble for buying beauty clothes and accessories. And dear friend, this is probably a word that God wants to give you, that without realizing it you have begun to walk as the world walks, you have begun to conform to what the world dictates. Remember what the apostle Paul said to those people: Do not be conformed to this age….
The time of history is a time similar to now, a time when we must remember what is the beauty that God seeks.
The central character of the story is a woman named Tabitha, what a strange name, isn’t it? Do you know someone named TABITA? Probably not. that was her Aramaic name, but her Greek name is Dorcas. That name meant “Gazelle” The being of beautiful appearance. The gazelle was admired in those times for its beauty. How interesting the name of this woman announced that she was a beautiful person. We will see that indeed this woman was a woman of beautiful appearance. It is not said how old this woman was, she was probably her age, fifty, forty, thirty. It is not known, but the truth is that this woman fell ill one day and died. The story says that the woman, after she had been washed and prepared to wake her up, they put her in a room and they went to look for the apostle Peter who performed a miracle and resurrected her.
Transition: This Story gives us three ingredients to be a beautiful person in the eyes of God… first of all…
I. TO BE A BEAUTIFUL PERSON I MUST BE A DISCIPLE
Verse 36 says that there was a disciple in Joppa, that it is interesting how Lucas identifies this woman, he does not say there was a seamstress, there was a merchant, there was a doctor, there was a graduate, there was a lawyer, it says: There was a disciple.
God expects to see women who are beautiful not because of what they have, not what they do, not what they wear. But for what they are. Disciples.
Sisters, how difficult it is today in our times to find disciples of Christ. We can find churchgoers, but not female disciples. We can find good women in the churches, but not disciples. We can find teachers in the churches, but not disciples.
Do you know why? Because now importance has been given to knowing, having, and doing before being. That is why we find many people with titles in the church, but who forgot at some point that before they were made they were disciples. They have been declared disciples but that declaration does not give them the authority to sit on the sidewalk and be spectators of the Christian life.
Who is a female disciple according to the Bible?
• A disciple is a faithful follower and doer of God’s will.
• It is someone who reads the word daily, not once in a while.
• Is someone who talks to their teacher daily, not once in a while.
• He is someone who follows his teacher no matter what comes.
• He is someone who allows another to shape his life.
The problem is that it is now difficult to find believers who will allow another to point out the changes and adjustments to be made.
The scripture says that on a certain occasion the disciples when Jesus was pointing out the things that they had to change in their lives, many left and no longer followed him, and Jesus approached the twelve and said to them: Do you want to go too? A disciple is one who is willing to change her bad character, to change her way of speaking, to change her way of acting with her husband, with her children, with her brothers.
There are some women who are faithful to come to church, faithful to serve a ministry, faithful to give, faithful to enter the service, but who do not obey Christ, when Christ points out a change that they must make.
Illustration:
I knew a woman who was an excellent teacher in a church, but time after time God had indicated to her by the word and by her pastors that she had to change the way she respected her husband, but she never did. I am sure that God is not pleased with such a woman, she may be beautiful on the outside, but inside she fails the test, because she is not a disciple of Christ.
App:
Sister, are you a disciple of Christ? If you are a disciple of Christ, you follow your teacher despite what comes; if you are a disciple of Christ, you spend time with your teacher on a daily basis; If you are a disciple of Christ, you obey him when he tells you to change your attitude or behavior. If you are a disciple, then you are a beautiful woman for God.
Transition: The second ingredient to being a beautiful person in the eyes of God is…
II. TO BE A BEAUTIFUL PERSON I MUST MAKE DISCIPLES
Verse 39 says that when Peter arrived he found a group of women surrounding him.
There are two interesting words in the verse. The first is the word “crying.” The first thing these women show is their tears. They weren’t women hired to cry, they were crying because a part of their lives had been taken away. They were followers of the deceased, they were people who had been formed by the spiritual way of living of this woman. In other words those people were disciples of Dorcas. How well this woman had understood the mandate of our Lord Jesus Christ: Go and make disciples of Christ. It is natural for someone who is a disciple of Christ to be reproducing in another.
App:
It is inconceivable that we spend our lives watching others bring the unsaved to Christ and disciple them. Somebody has thought that discipling others is only for a group of the church, or it is only for those people who have passed the four courses and the advanced level of discipleship. Who said that discipleship is a series of courses, where did such an idea come from that discipleship is not for all believers.
Also now we have believed that to disciple another person is to give him a class, where the teacher gives the lesson and the student listens to the lesson. But the class is over and there is no longer any interest from the teacher. Thank God for the teachers who have informed us, but glory to God for the teachers who have trained us, for those who left their desks and who affected intimate life, with questions, with prayers, with ministry, with their lives. .
Illustration:
I think there is a shortage of disciples because we have reduced discipleship to a book, to a series of questions that have to be answered, forgetting the most important thing, the time for the transfer of life, the time to minister to the needs of the disciples.
Illustration:
I want to tell you about the case of “Silvia”…..
Brethren, We need to rediscover the way Jesus taught.
Dorcas had understood that it is natural for one believer to reproduce in another, and she had also understood that discipleship is a transfer of life.
Transition: The third ingredient to being a beautiful person is…
III. TO BE A BEAUTIFUL PERSON I MUST ADORN MYSELF WITH GOOD DEEDS
The second interesting word in verse 39 is “showing.” It says that what they were showing were the robes and dresses that Dorcas made when she was with them. In other words they were wearing what they had been given.
There is no doubt that the women disciples of Dorcas had a tremendous physical need, they were widows.
What Dorcas did was make her faith alive. She gave what she had to those in need. Remember what James wrote.
James 2:14-16
My brethren, of what benefit will it be if someone says that he has faith and has no works? Can faith save him? And if a brother or a sister is naked and needs daily maintenance, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warm and be satisfied,” but you do not give them the things that are necessary for the body, how? what advantage? So also faith, if it has no works, is completely dead.
How often now we are focused on our own needs and do not see the needy with our hearts. How much we need to remember that a beautiful person is one who adorns himself with good deeds and not so much with what he has. Remember that passage in John 6, in the miracle of the feeding of loaves and fishes, which says that Jesus raising his eyes saw the crowd and had compassion. We often do not raise our eyes, we do not see the need of the other, we are focused on our needs.
We are a lot like the selfish giant in Oscar Wilde’s story. Jesus’ disciples learned to part with what they had to meet the needs of others.
How are you? You adorn yourself with good deeds, they know you as a person who notices and fills the needs of the other or they know you as a person who speaks beautifully, who sings beautifully, but who closes his compassion towards the needy.
Conclusion:
My brother, remember for the world it may be that…